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“No no no!! Not right now!” Aura could feel it this time, or maybe star was becoming more cognizant of what it felt like. That slipping, sinking feeling as they lost control. As the controls were unwillingly handed over to a mind not their own.
Ba-Dub
A beat, as Aura tried to resist, tried to fight back, tried to do anything against it. It felt like grabbing at flowing shards of glass. Too loose to hold, too painful to claw through.
Ba-Dub
It was talking to them. It was wearing star's face, using star's voice. It was trying to mimic them this time. Surely they'd see through, surely they'd notice–
“Can you give me a letter, Aura?”
Ba-
Aura could feel it reach back, clawing at the wall between them. For them, it wasn't flowing; for them, it was solid, impenetrable, and daunting. It knew this was a trap- a trick- a test. A test it would fail.
“Any letter is fine,”
-Dub
It screamed and snarled and slammed on the barrier, and Aura couldn't help it. Star couldn't help but let out a bitter, cold laugh as the thing wearing star's face was caught so quickly in its lies. Maybe there was hope yet. Their friends were smart. Their friends could stop it.
Ba-
But they didn't. They didn't, and they let it talk. They let it ask questions, and part of the Rionear knew they were getting information in return, but it was hard to hear. Hard to hold on and listen and keep the thing back from doing more. Oh, how its fingers twitched for the bow still in star's reach. How it itched to phase through the floor and flee to the safety of its kind. But Aura wouldn't let it.
-Dub -Dub
“I wouldn't need to do this if you would just let me in, Aura,” a voice that sounded so confusing. Like it couldn't decide if it should sound like star or like Asrickus or someone it had long forgotten. Star never would, not if the mechanic could help it. They would never let that wall crumble down, not while it did so much to keep their friends safe.
B-Ba-
“You wouldn't need to if you stopped fighting me,” The Rionear spat back, “Give me back my body,”
Ba-
Pain laced through their chest. Both parasite and host choked on it. Aura thought it was coming from their scar- that maybe Mi-Go was right and it had started oozing and weeping black ichor. But it wasn’t.
“What is going on? Why is this infernal vessel so damaged??” The creature screeched, grabbing at the wall again, desperate for answers.
Answers Aura knew all too well.
-um
It wasn't their scar.
B-
It was so much worse.
-m
Their failing heart fell still, and the parasite within them screeched and screamed. In rage? In pain? Aura didn't know. They didn't know much now, as even the feeling of this not-world went fuzzy around the edges. Like static filling their thoughts until it all went dark.
-
-
-
A heavy, sudden pain sparked through their chest, lighting up their ribs and firing through every nerve. Agony for some. Familiar for star.
Ba-Dum
“-ura–??” Oh. They could hear again. Faintly, as if Tad was calling them through mud. At least now that thing wasn't in charge anymore, though they could still feel it writhing in their mind. Star held onto the positive though, letting that comfort them as star let their body fall. Giving in to the wave of exhaustion and pain in their chest.
Ba-Dum
Aura hit the floor. But at least it was Aura.