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30 minutes after the start of the Ritual - Hidden King’s temple
“What the fuck were you thinking?!”
A loud, obnoxious voice woke up the red skinned ixian currently laying on a bench. Apollo slowly opened an eye to see his teammate, Billy, standing over him, arms crossed, leaning against the wall.
“Of course the first thing I hear is your angry whini- gah!”
Apollo said, trying to sit up straight but a jolt of pain stopped him in his tracks.
“Yeah, flop around some more, I’m sure it’ll do wonders for your injuries.”
The goat man stated, moving to the opposite wall to stand in front of his injured teammate.
“What even happened?”
The ixian blurted out, finally managing to shuffle up right.
“You got fried, that’s what happened”
“How?”
Apollo asked as the goat man crouched down to his eye level.
“We were trying to fall back, Seven chucked a ball of lightning at the goth chick and your dumbass leapt in front of it! …Of course it fell onto me to carry your sizzling ass outta there!”
Despite being needlessly aggressive Billy had been a surprise. They didn’t hit off immediately, with the punk immediately picking on him and Graves before the start of the ritual. But when the hidden king put Billy and Apollo on the same lane they synergized very well and had to reluctantly see the other’s merits.
Apollo let out a small huff, he was very aware that his team would obviously try to save him but he still held appreciation for his teammate’s gesture.
Billy stood up from his crouch and started walking towards the exit of the base, picking up his baseball bat.
“Listen, I gotta get back and help our team with the rift.”
“Sure, give me a moment, I’ll try to help as I can”
Apollo tried to stand but was stopped by a yank on his horn plopping him back down onto the bench.
“Sit your ass down! We’re ahead! We can afford to be down 2 men.”
Apollo’s mind twisted in confusion, his tail absentmindedly curled around the bench leg, gripping it tightly.
“Two? What do you mean? Did someone die?”
His voice, although composed, was thick with worry, he put his team in a disadvantageous position forcing them to fight one man down. He couldn’t stop thinking about it, if something happened to any of his teammates he would never be able to sleep at night.
His mind twisted on its own, deviating his thoughts to one singular teammate, where was Darcy Graves in all this? He could only hope she was safe.
It wouldn’t take long for him to get his answer as Billy quickly filled him in on the situation.
“Yeah, two. Your girl is delivering the urn, we need her strong if we wanna rely on her ghouls sieging down the rest of their base.”
“She’s not my girl.”
Apollo corrected a bit too quickly, thankfully his naturally red skin hid the bit of fluster that he was experiencing but, unfortunately for him, no amount of disguise could cover his previous actions.
“Whatever lover-boy, I’m going to the rift, you go help her with the urn.”
Billy flipped him a horn sign and grabbed the zipline towards Greenwich.
Apollo finally stood up from the bench, taking a second to check his condition.
“A bit uncertain on my steps but I'll manage.”
He thought, putting his blazer and earpiece back on, Graves’s voice crackled on the other side.
“I’m past the mid pit, somebody come meet me half way and cover me, there might be someone still on York”.
Apollo immediately jumped up the yellow zipline towards her.
“Got it, I’m on my way”.
As he approached the meet up spot he thought back to what happened: he dove in front of a ball of lightning to save Graves…why? He could have easily deflected it off course, the magic in his ancestral blade would easily allow him to, so why? Why did he, the perfect, ever calculating heir of North Ixia acted impulsively instead of taking the optimal solution?
Before he could give himself the answer his mind wandered.
He thought of her.
Darcy Graves, she’s his lab partner, the second best scoring student at Blackmore academy (His equal in every class except gymnastics) and the only one of his peers to talk to him directly, no honeyed words, no desperate attempt to gain his attention. She’s the only one who has it without ever needing to ask for it. She’s also bad-mouthed, undisciplined in many ways, he wondered how they manage to work as efficiently when all they do is bicker…
…That’s not true, he knows they do more than just bicker.
It was just silent collaboration at first which then turned to acceptance after finding out they frequent the same secluded corner of the school grounds to escape the incessant mediocrity Blackmore has to offer. Acceptance turned to mutual concern after finding out they’d both be eventually fighting in the ritual. That concern died the moment they discovered they’d be on the same side and this whole string of events contributed to the developing of a genuine friendship between the two.
He was hit with enough clarity to realize he appreciated her company, but that still didn’t explain his impulsiveness before.
“No time for that.”
He thought as he hopped down from the zip line, seeing a familiar pair of green eyes look at him in worry for a second before returning to their usual unamused expression whenever he was subjected to their gaze.
Graves was climbing the stairs to finally set the urn down on a small altar.
“What are YOU doing here?”
She asked, green eyes locked on him.
“You asked for help didn’t you? I answered.”
He smirked, carrying his usual confidence.
“Ugh, I know. I heard you on comms! I’m asking why aren’t you still in base healing up?”
She reprimanded him, pointing her finger at some sparse burn marks still on his skin.
“I felt good enough to help, besides Billy told me you were going alone and as you pointed out I didn’t want no straggler jumping you alone, you’ve seen the feral man on the other team, think you could take him on alone!?”
He shouted, his voice carrying a blade of fear as he spoke the last words.
“You idiot! You are right but you are in no position to be worrying about others right now!” Graves replied, her voice shook for a bit, almost imperceptible, except he noticed, after all he prides himself of noticing everything.
She’s worried, why wouldn’t she be, her friend, her only living friend risked his life for her not once but twice technically. He can't help but feel his head pound at the thought, his mind slowly settling on the right answer to his previous question…
…he probably always knew this would be the outcome but right now??? They are in the middle of a death match for gods’ sake, couldn’t he figure it out later?
“C’mon, we can’t stay here, let’s get you back to base, then after you heal up we can join the final assault”
he was snapped out of his thoughts by her cold grip on his wrist, pulling him towards the zipline.
The moment they got back to the Hidden King’s temple, their entire team was already there.
Billy scoffed towards the 2 students.
“What, you graduated from denial to handholding?”
Graves immediately let go of Apollo’s wrist after realizing she was still holding onto him. She opened her mouth to retort but was cut off by her friend.
“Fuck you too Billy, why are you all here?”
Apollo said, sighing at the goatman’s comment.
“We wiped the floor with them at the rift while you two dipshits were busy planning for prom or whatever, we’re getting whatever last boon we can before finally destroying lady liberty’s shrines, the candle dudes are already bulldozing the way for us”.
The goat answered as he put on a pair of armored gauntlets, orange energy crackling from his hands into the spiked bat he held.
“Sick! Why didn’t I buy these earlier huh?”
Apollo sighed, it seemed their struggle was going to be over soon.
“Onwards then.”
————————————————————————————————————————
20 minutes after the end of the Ritual - a random back alley
“Man this sucks, we risked our necks for nothing!”
Billy lamented, sitting down on top of a dumpster.
“You heard father Quinn, it’s better this way.”
Apollo stated matter of factly.
“Yeah yeah, end of the world yadda, yadda…”
As Billy kept rambling, Apollo thought back to the end of the ritual.
It all happened way too fast, the Hidden King assumed human form and they quickly learned that their wishes would never be granted as intended. One of their teammates, the Venator, exploited the situation to rally them against the now mortal patron and lo and behold the number of denied elder gods for today rose from one to two.
“…why the hell are you still carrying that bag by the way?”
Apollo’s thoughts were interrupted by Billy, pointing towards a black burlap sack Apollo was holding in one hand.
“Oh, it’s for Graves…”
Billy snickered.
“What a romantic first date gift”
He stopped, grabbing a beer bottle from his jacket and downing it before continuing.
“A chopped up body of an ixian woman in a sack”
Apollo remembered the moment vividly, when Graves begged the Hidden King to “give her Mentor her body back” but what she got were only her desecrated remains.
“You know it’s not a random corpse, it’s her mentor. She might wanna try to put her back together or at least give her a proper burial.”
Apollo looked down as the number of empty bottles near his teammate had risen from 1 to 2.
“Yeah, yeah, I still don’t get why go through all that for a soul sucking lich.”
Apollo’s tail wound itself around his ankle, he had been in this situation before, except he was the one bashing the lich instead. He let out a chuckle at the absurd role switch.
“Look, it’s a long story, I didn’t get it at first either but after learning about her story and all the context I can say that her mentor is not inherently evil…”
Billy stood up, turning towards the alley’s end.
“Whatever, not like I care anyway. See you around posh prince”.
Apollo distanced himself from the wall he was leaning on and flipped a middle finger towards the punk goat.
“Yeah yeah, you too Billy.”
He began walking towards the graveyard near Blackmore, making a mental note of refraining from involving himself with more punks, just knowing 2 was enough to lower his manners it seems.
As Apollo finally reached the iron gate, snippets of a conversation confirmed the presence of his friend.
“I’m sorry I fucked up…”
He heard a sniffle, was she crying?
“I know you told me not to worry but still! It was your body! I left it there in a hurry, we could have tried doing something if I just took it!”
He heard a faint whisper he recognized as the lich, unfortunately he couldn’t hear her properly without Graves acting as a medium.
“Yeah I know but I froze up! Now that area is probably swarming with OSIC operatives…”
He thought a bit before deciding to finally introduce himself.
“Darcy…”
She didn’t turn, her shoulders rose slightly as they always do when she’s nervous.
“Now’s not the time, Golden boy…”
She sighed and dropped her head down between her hands, still not facing him.
“Sorry…I…what do you want Apollo?”
He stepped forward, trying to compose the right phrase.
“I uh… got something here…”
She snapped 180 degrees immediately, hoping to see him holding that damned bag, luckily for her she was met with exactly that.”
“Wha- why?”
He looked 90 degrees away, his tail picking up a low sweeping motion.
“I saw it laying there on the concrete and thought you might want it, guess I was right.”
She was absolutely dumbfounded, a wordless thanks began to leave her lips before her mind immediately picked up on the task ahead.
She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him towards their school.
“C’mon we have no time to waste!”
He let out a yelp at being yanked.
“Darcy wait! What do you think you’re doing?”
She gave him a determined smile, one he knew meant no one could slow her down now.
“We’re breaking into anatomy class and stitching her back together”.
His face went pale.
“Are you sure? What if we’re discovered? Isn’t the school’s warden around?”
She sighed at his scaredy cat antics.
“Of course they’re not, it’s the night of the maelstrom, curfew lasts till sunrise.”
He calmed a bit then looked down at the bag still in his hand.
“Ok, so we sew her back up, then what? We Frankenstein her back to life?”
She scoffed.
“You think me an amateur? I can reanimate a corpse without my mentor’s help.”
She hesitated a bit.
“But not today, we’ll probably cut it close with the sewing and we need to hide all traces before sunrise”.
They finally pushed open the doors to anatomy class. Graves rolled the surgical table in the middle of the room while Apollo took all the necessities and placed them on a metal table.
“Here, catch.”
Graves hurled a pair of gloves, an apron and a surgical mask at him.
“I could have taken them by myself, you know.”
He groaned, putting on the rubber gloves.
He looked back up, seeing Graves adjust her hair inside a surgical cap.
“Yeah, yeah, cry about it, now pass me the torso.”
He opened the sack and grimaced.
“Ugh…”
He freezed peering into the bag.
“What, it’s just a dead body! You’ve seen plenty during the ritual!”
She put down the needle after managing to thread it.
“Yeah! But not like this! Gods, I don’t know if I can do this…”
He closed his eyes, still hunched over the bag.
She noticed his discomfort and stepped closer to him, placing a hand over his shoulder and the other over his hand, squeezing it a bit.
“Apollo, please, I understand it may be uncomfortable but get it together, we need to finish this as soon as possible and I can’t do this quick enough alone”.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself, finally sticking both hands inside the bag, fishing out the upper part of the torso.
“Fine…you owe me so much for this by the way.”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed the head from the sack.
“Yeah whatever, I’ll do anything, just hurry up.”
They fell into the same rhythm that accompanied them during class, with Graves taking the first step and Apollo immediately doing the next one without needing to be told what to do: cut the skin, brace together fractured bones, close the incision back up and lastly sew the 2 parts together.
Methodically they laid piece after piece on the table, slowly reassembling the Mentor’s body.
2 hours later Graves was leaning against the table, head resting on the palm of her hand, looking on as Apollo finished sewing on the last foot.
“So. What do I owe you for this?”
He raised his eyes to meet hers.
“Do you have to ask now of all time?”
She smirked, clearly enjoying his frustration.
“Just wanna know what I’ve gotten myself into.”
He cut a loose thread with the shears and places them down.
“Graves.”
“That is my name.”
He rolled his eyes, gods, out of everyone he really had to catch feelings for her of all people? He removed the lattice gloves before taking off the paper mask. His tail began to sweep, forcing him to realise his indecisiveness.
“Would you like to go out someday? Together?”
She feigned obliviousness, trying to get a reaction out of him.
“Sure, sure, you can help me with reanimating her tomorrow, how about it?”
He groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose
“Fine, but you know that’s not what I meant…”
She smiled, a genuine smile, one with no hint of sarcasm or anything else behind it.
“I know, I know, I’ll go on a date with you, don’t worry.”
He flustered hard, turning a deeper shade of red.
“Don’t say it like that!”
She laughed, for calling himself perfect at everything he sure sucked at asking someone out.
“What, you don’t like the word date?”
He sighed in annoyance
“I’m leaving.”
She quickly dashed in front of him, barring him from leaving.
“Woah, wait wait wait. I’m sorry, look, didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable about it.”
He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face
“It’s fine, Darcy. I’ve just been sitting on this for a while. I think? I haven’t fully realized it either”.
They left it at that for the moment, prioritizing hiding their traces. They sanitized the whole station, packed their bags and left towards the graveyard, Apollo carrying both their bags and Graves holding her mentor in her arms. They hid the mentor’s body inside a mausoleum Graves knew was abandoned, locking the heavy iron gates behind them as they left.
She turned towards him, extending her arms expectantly. He understood, stepping inside and wrapping his around her frame.
“Thank you for your help, Golden boy, you’ve been a treasure this whole day.”
“Don’t mention it”.
She stepped back, fiddling a bit with the bracelet on her wrist.
“So, about before…what did you have in mind?”
He rubbed a hand on the back of his head
“I don’t know Darcy, spending time leisurely is a first for me. Better you take the lead.”
She thought about it for a moment, before finally deciding.
“Wanna go see a movie or something?”
He sighed at the proposal.
“I swear, if it’s another of those overtly violent ones with no story or logic behind…”
She chuckled.
“I promise it won’t”.
As the first rays of sunlight started to reveal themselves they walked together towards a nearby cafeteria, knowing it won’t be long before tomorrow officially started and the Cursed Apple woke up in full swing.