Chapter Text
Hunger ate at her soul, clouding every thought with fear and uncertainty. This couldn’t be how it ended, they weren’t meant to go like this. There were dozens, possibly hundreds of people in the arenas right now, each and every one of them were probably scared and hungry, tearing themselves apart at the seams. This isn’t how it's meant to be, she knew that.
She also knew there was only one possible way to fix it. She curled her fingers over her tear, feeling its icy cold energy pulse beneath her touch.
“Tabi, is that a tear?”
She turned to Evbo, who stood at her side, eyes locked on her fingers in fear. She frowned, before taking another step towards the dispenser.
“You know we already established this, it’s just a dispenser. There’s no door. It won’t lead anywhere.”
“We don’t know that for sure.” Her voice rising in volume, she swallowed her fear and hunger, pushing it away and replacing it with faltering confidence. She closed her eyes, remembering all the times she’d throw tears at similar dispensers, all the times she’d left Evbo before, all the times they’d found each other again. She pointed towards the sign, the only remaining system message in the entire Arena, aside from whatever was written in the book, which was floating where the pillars used to be. “The way forward requires no surrency, only choice.”
The subtle glow of her Tear began to grow stronger. Tears were everything, Tabi knew that best. Throughout her time in the Arenas, she’d torn nearly a dozen tears from the cold, lifeless bodies of people who were meant to be her peers. Tears were the life force of this place, everyone has one, their ‘tear of passage.’ If anyone dropped their tear, they would die, erasing any evidence that they once lived within these walls. But tears were also a resource, the only way to move up between levels, to escape the fighting in the first two and join the peaceful civilization in the third.
In the Arena’s, nothing in life was constant except for two things: strife and your tear. Everything else was completely random. There was no way to find resources, except for the Pillars in the center, and now that they were gone, they had nothing. Food was running low and people were starving. Fights were breaking out, even among the most peaceful people in this civilization.
The chill from her tear began to burn at her fingers as she opened her eyes, staring at Evbo. His eyes were wide, sweat was caked at his forehead, laminating his usually fluffy, blond hair against his head band.
“This tear is supposed to be everything to me. Losing it means losing my life. But maybe, it’s just the final test, to let go of the only thing the system has ever told anyone to value.”
Evbo’s eyes were still filled with the spark that she and nearly everyone else had lost a long time ago. His line of sight drifted from the tear in her hands to her face, studying her expression intently.
Worry filled his features as it finally clicked.
“Tabi, that’s… not your own tear is it? Who did you get that from?”
Silence filled the air between them, it answered his question without needing a single word.
“You’re not gonna do what I think you’re going to, are you?”
“That depends on what you think I’m going to do. Evbo, maybe-” She swallowed, her saliva felt dry in her own mouth, which didn’t ease her hunger much. “I think the choice this system is talking about is choosing to give up the one thing that’s supposed to matter.”
He placed a single hand on Tabi’s cheek, something that should have brought comfort to her, though her decision was already made. No amount of comfort could sway her now.
“Evbo, the system has always told us that the tears are our key to freedom, our key of passage to a better place. But, maybe freedom isn’t something we find or win, maybe it’s something we leave behind.”
He ran his thumb over her pursed lips, looking down at the floor, where the toes of their boots were pressed against each others.
“Tabi, you realize if you do this, you might not come back.”
“That’s a risk I'm willing to take. My hunger’s running out anyway, I’d rather go out following my gut than from crumbling away.”
The hand on her cheek didn’t move as she turned away from him, facing the dispenser.
“I can’t let you do this , Tabi. Not alone. Whatever you do, I will do. This is how it’s always been, remember?”
The worry on his face hadn’t faded, though he had managed to plaster a confident smile in place of the frown that had been there moments before. Tabi smiled back, the first traces of hope she’d felt in days. His hand was gentle on her face, she leaned into it, savouring these peaceful moments before whatever would come after she threw her tear.
“Evbo, you know, I can’t let you do that either. Not alone,” He looked down at the scar across Tabi’s lips, one of the first ones he’d watched her get. Her lips parted again as she continued to speak,
“Not with me. Not with anyone. Stay here with Jack. He’ll need you. And so will the people here. If I come back, I'll find you first. And if not, then at least you and Jack won’t be alone.”
Then, she lunged towards him, knocking the wind out of his lungs as he collided with the floor. His vision blurred, though through the haze, he could see Tabi, the one he started this all with, the one he trusted the most, tossing her tear on the ground, disappearing with no sign she’d ever even been there.
The dispenser and sign blipped out of existence, leaving no evidence of the conversation they had just had.