Work Text:
“You mean to return. To the world where you are hailed as a hero.”
The Warrior of Light, a Miqo’te of short stature, turned their gaze from Meteon's guiding trail and the ephemeral surroundings to the man who approached them from behind. Zenos viator Galvus gazed at them with his usual impassiveness as the last electric-green vestiges of his Shinryu transformation faded. The Miqo’te’s singular visible green eye narrowed in response to the man’s words.
“I couldn’t care less about what they call me. I have things beyond fame that drive me.”
The former prince barely moved as he responded in that same monotonous tone he held in all times save for the heat of combat. “As if I do not? Yet you claim to be different.”
As the Warrior of Light opened their mouth to retort, their eyes widened as Zenos raised his hand.
“Hear me, then. Not as the hero they hail, but as you, and you alone.”
A civil desire to be heard from a man who had never cared to hear. It was almost comical.
The Miqo’te closed their mouth and waited. The Garlean man closed his eyes and began to speak.
“You are the most formidable foe I have ever faced. In our time together in Ala Mhigo, I brought my all to bear. I burned through the candle of my very life, and in doing so bore witness to the sole pleasure I have ever known.”
He opened his eyes, blue irises staring straight into the Miqote’s green.
“It is all that I have, and all that I can offer to the one and only who can receive it.”
Zenos reached towards his back, slowly withdrawing the revolver-scythe sheathed there. The Warrior of Light’s brow furrowed as they readied themselves to summon their own weapon, but Zenos only planted the massive scythe’s head on the ground next to him.
“But that is not the purpose you have found,” he continued. “You find pleasures in places unfamiliar to me. Unfathomable. You nurture your life’s candle, burning it only to light the dark for those who cannot.”
Zenos released his hand from his weapon, then began stepping closer to the Miqo’te whose brow only furrowed deeper at his approach. The man stopped only a few feet away.
“I will not leave this place, for there is nothing in that world I wish for,” Zenos admitted suddenly. “If I challenged you to a final duel under the pretense of your own desires, I have no doubt that you would simply walk away. And so, I shall make a request of you, adventurer that you are.”
“…What?”
“I ask that you burn your life’s candle to light my world aflame once more, and give me the battle I desire. As a favor, from the only friend I have ever known.”
The Miqo'te stared quietly at the man standing across from them. The man who ruined countless lives in a fruitless search to give his life meaning. A sociopath who was concerned only with himself and the fulfillment of his own desires.
A man who had nothing but himself and them to rely on in a world he had long since lost interest in. That he’d lost faith in.
The Warrior of Light nodded slowly.
“...Deal.”
“ Hagggghk -!”
Zenos viator Galvus let out a croak of pain as the Warrior of Light’s fist collided squarely with his jaw, sending the Reaper’s Voidsent-infused form tumbling to the ground of the dynamis space. The Miqo’te scarcely had time to acknowledge that they had won the battle before a deep aching engulfed their entire body, bringing them to the floor a few feet away from their enemy. The two lay still, the only sounds remaining being each combatant’s heavy wheezing.
“That I would… lose again…” Zenos mused through his unsteady breaths. “A shame. I should like to have… defeated you in the moment… before my end….”
The Warrior of Light attempted to retort, but was overcome by a wracking cough when they attempted to speak.
“You are accustomed to… receiving payment upon services rendered, are you not?” Zenos continued. “I have nothing to give. Perhaps the satisfaction of my life being ended may suffice.” His statement punctuated itself with a wheezing gasp as his lungs began to strain under the effort of breathing for a body that had long since pushed itself past its breaking point.
His words burned the Warrior of Light’s feline ears, jaw clenching as they slowly turned their head to see the man laid out near them.
“...You still don’t get it.” they said quietly. “I didn’t want this.”
Zenos once again closed his eyes, and the Warrior of Light was suddenly overcome with a certainty that they would not open again. “You claim to not desire my death, yet you granted my request and fought with your greatest strength to strike me down when you could have simply denied me.”
The Miqo'te clenched their jaw as tightly as they could in their exhausted state.
“Because you’re a monster, and I kill monsters. But I wish that you weren't. That the world hadn't made you this way. That we-”
The Warrior of Light stopped speaking as a rattling cough emitted from the former prince's mouth. They waited for him to recover, only for a chill to overtake them when he did not start breathing again.
The Miqo'te looked away from the man's corpse, overcome with a myriad of emotions. They tried to take solace in the knowledge that he'd never harm anyone again. In the honesty, the earnesty of the request that they had fulfilled. The satisfaction at a job well done was intertwined with an overwhelming melancholy. A sinking feeling that, in some way, they regretted this unalloyed good they had done.
" Damn it … " they whispered hoarsely. “Why was I… why was I glad to be your friend? Why do I…”
“...why do I wish you could've been mine, too?"