Work Text:
“Mary, Please! It doesn't need to be this way!”
“Oh, but it does, sister. This.. magic you wield, it comes from people like me. The sword your friend holds to my neck is forged from my blood. All your violence does is hurt us. So it will go. And you will go with it.”
“This isn’t right, Mary! We only do what we do because your people hurt and kill us, we had to defend ourselves.”
Mary laughs. A terrible cackling that makes Lucia waver.
“You just don’t get it, you hear me? Monster hunter? We are not your predators, we simply exist to survive because you left us in the dirt, and you kill us for that. But it can be fixed! Join me, sister. We could change the world.”
Lucia’s skin pales, devoid of blood and of soul. Her sturdy hands that wield the power of the stars shake with fear. What is there to lose? No.. No, there's too much at stake. She looks over Mary’s shoulder to Jin, who stares back; face painted with anguish and restraint. He could end this here and now if Lucia gave him the go ahead, and yet she does not. For a moment, her mind falters with guilt.. Mary was left behind by humanity, thrown to the wolves to fend for herself, but was that her fault, or was she a child? Is she really to blame, or is it her parents? Who raised a monster and a monster hunter. The squires on the battlefield who force the enemies to collide. But why can they not be in harmony? Be together..
Her steps are sure-footed, one after the other; fabric of her skirts dragging like a cloak through the brimstone. Gingerly, she releases Amber from her bag, planting a kiss to her forehead and passing her to Jin, who’s face drops in realisation.
“Lucia.. You can’t do this, I won't let you!” Jin says to her, voice low.
“I have to, Jin. Maybe I can give the beast some restraint, pacify it a bit. If it costs my life to save everyone else's, so be it.” Lucia answers, “Move the sword, Jin. and look after Amber for me, okay? It’s okay.”
“You are coming with me?” Mary queries, flashing a venomous grin full of dagger teeth.
“I am. But if I do, you cannot be violent with no good purpose. My consciousness will join yours, so there is always a pull for pacifism. Even if a monster’s blood runs through my veins.” she replies, holding a hand out towards her sister.
“Oh of course, we wouldn’t want bloodshed, would we?”
Mary takes Lucia’s hand, scales on skin, and she is gone.
Her porcelain skin hardened by battle shreds into a horrible display of red. Her eyes twist and warp into birdlike shapes, yellow and bright and pained. The leather bag she held falls limply to the floor in a heap as her body is no more, pulled into the amalgamation of the Moonbeast. Mary and Arterie’s heads pull away from each other, a new one sprouting between them. Lucia.
Her face, like the others, is not human any longer. Her expression of anguish and searing pain peeks through the feathers and beak of an owl-like head.
“Good. We always needed a lookout.”
With no resistance, the Moonbeast is airborne. Draconic and flesh wings protruding from its back flap with the strength to knock Jin and Pebble over if they had not been prepared. Growing with each wingbeat until it covers the sky in shadow, its heartbeat Everett’s heartbeat rings out over the island, the survivors of the attack washed in dread with what is to come.
And then there is darkness, accompanied by a terrible crunch.
All lights dim, all healers are forced to stop. “There is no magic!” They call.
There is no magic, and no moon, but there is no bloodshed, either. The Moonbeast eats its fill of the cosmos and is gone; resting in the sky as the moon’s replacement.