synflux | [OPEN] I fight the fever alone

[ It's not a very pretty scene. Gebura, looking much the same she does now, except covered in wounds, is standing with great effort. Her right eye has been gouged out, blood trickling down that side of her face, which is also scored with several gashes. One arm is also... gone, severed at the shoulder as her free hand clutches the hilt of her massive flesh sword.

She faces a woman dressed in black and gold who looks to be faring at least a little better, though not without injuries of her own.

And surrounding them? Lots and lots of bodies. Some human, torn apart, some more monstrous-looking. And you're filled with a sense of understanding: the people in the facility are likely all dead, from this attack, from the monsters that were unleashed. There may not be a point to any of this now.

The woman watches her, face impassive.

"I don’t know if it will ease your pain, but this happens quite often, more often than you may think. This is no less common than, say, a little seedling getting trampled to death."

She shrugs, lightly, gazing directly at her opponent. "I must admit that you're quite the tough sprout, however. You even managed to thwart my plans a little. I never expected you would kill two Claws, stop all the monsters... And finally come to face me and give me a fair fight."

Gebura (or Kali, more accurately), takes a step forward while the woman speaks.

"By the way, about those monsters." And she's still going, apparently. "I cannot deny that they're astonishing things. Even after plowing through a hallway of your friends, they never softened nor tired. ... It seems you aren't much different from them, now that I ponder on it. Alright then."

The nod this time, if nothing else, is respectful. "If you can still manage to hold a weapon and stand up on your own two feet, then come. Come at me."

And Kali does, with a fury that speaks of desperation. Because maybe there's no one left alive. Maybe there truly is no point to this. She should have run when the employee had mentioned it.

But maybe, just maybe, if she stops this woman here, she can save at least one life. She can keep her promise, to protect--

She doesn't quite succeed in killing her, but.

As she crumples to the ground, blood soaking into the earth, her blade lodges itself in the woman's chest, pinning her to the wall. ]

[ it's a familiar place.

which is why the bodies strewn about make it so unfamiliar -- not only because she'd stopped paying attention to who came in, who was around, so she could keep up with her work... but this place was never meant to be a tomb.

it was for two people already; how had it come to this?

gebura-- kali, and...

...

binah...? malkuth doesn't know who she was before, or how exactly they'd come to recruit her; she'd never thought to ask, really, simply accepted it since the upper layer didn't speak to the lower, and though it wasn't so rare anymore. but the woman resembles binah, speaks in the same cadence and aggravates kali the same way she does gebura.

what had happened after her own painful passing? of course the research team had fallen somehow -- they'd all gone through the same thing of becoming "AI" but what had happened? suddenly it feels as if there's a secret malkuth hasn't been privy to, that everyone knows but her, and she remains frozen as one dies, one remains barely alive.

a shaky exhale. death is no stranger to her now. but that might be the blue of (chesed) daniel, blond hair stained with blood belonging to (tiphereth) lisa. plenty of other faces she doesn't recognize. it's different like this, of course it is. ]

... Gebura?

[ a soft call. she doesn't know if she can wake her, or if she's even aware, or if (binah) the woman might answer instead, but she can't not do something. even if that something is speaking up. ]

[ She's aware. Unfortunately, she's very much aware, so while Malkuth doesn't immediately get kicked out of the dream, Kali's bloodied body moves. She remains missing an eye; none of her deep wounds close up, but she sits up and runs her one remaining and bloodied hand through her hair.

And, wearily-- ]

After this. Gebura was after this.

Technically, I guess I'm the reason we wound up in those bodies.

[ ...

how... did this, lead to all that...? the question is on her face, and as ever malkuth isn't bothered by the bodies as she approaches gebu-- kali, she reminds herself. sits beside her, sleeve coming up to wipe at the blood on her former, current, future coworker's face. ]

I don't get it. [ ... ] What are Claws doing here? Is she... Was Binah from the Head? How did they find us out here? What do you mean, you're the reason?

[ so many questions, as ever. ]

The Head found out about us--probably got tipped off. [ Somehow. Michelle's body is not among those present, of course. ]

Dispatched an Arbiter [ a nod towards Binah ] and two Claws... somehow the Abnormalities all got out and went through the facility killing everyone while the Claws took advantage of that.

By the time I heard about it, it was pretty much assumed there were no survivors, but...

[ Well, she'd never been the type to just sit back. Except now, allowing Malkuth to wipe blood off her face. More keeps coming, anyway. ]

I fought my way through the Abnormalities, killed the Claws, fought her. I guess because of that, Benjamin and Ayin both survived.

... The only two survivors.

[ michelle's body isn't here. but neither is gabriel's, nor giovanni's. what happened to them? questions she

wants? doesn't want? will get the answers to, sometime. their words or not. she doesn't ask. ]

You're amazing as ever, in every life you've ever lived. [ simple and plain fact. ] Even if... there's so many dead, I think you've done more than enough for all of us. You always have.

[ kali hadn't been scary, just hard to get to know. steadfast. a pair of watchful eyes from the wall, a hand pushing her around the corner so she doesn't trip against it. red hair unmistakable. ]

... Do you regret saving them? With how everything unfolded afterwards.

No.

[ That's simple, squeezed out as it is through a throat that should no longer be able to draw a decent breath. She's lost far too much blood to be able to hold a conversation at all, but such is the nature of dreams. And such is the nature of Gebura who was once Kali, who had never once considered herself amazing and doesn't really think so now. It's not self-deprecating, either. Just a fleeting thought.

An amazing person would have been able to protect so much more. ]

I won't say I don't have regrets about how things played out. But in the end, because I was able to save the two of them, I could keep my promise to Carmen. And even with what happened, everything everyone went through...

... Where we're at now was worth it.

[ always so hard on herself, if she knew. a small thing they have in common. not self-deprecating, but critical all the same. ]

... I think so too. I don't... know everything that happened to everyone, and... I didn't pay enough attention to others when I was still live, either, but...

[ she wasn't good at being a person, or so she'd told izou. a quiet explanation he couldn't have made sense of -- but maybe he does a little more now, their awkward similarities a little too close to home.

malkuth exhales, then reaches up and rests her hand on the other's head. what can be said in three will be said in thirty, but... that's how it is. long winded, but every word is chosen with care. ]

But I can't imagine my current life without you or anyone else in it. [ softer, voice cracking a little. ] I don't want to, either. And I definitely don't regret forsaking a comfy, safe job back in my home Nest with how happy doing just that made me in the end. You're so vivid, it makes my chest hurt.

[ There she goes again. Thirty for three. Gebura is well-used to it by now, Malkuth's bright and animated chatter to Yesod's more muted but just as lengthy observations and criticisms, Hod's careful choice of phrase and Netzach's lazy drawl.

It's not as familiar when compared to Chesed's almost sing-song way of speaking far more than he should and Tiphereth's tart quips--Tiphereth, who came from the Outskirts. Though her counterpart had also been surprisingly eloquent, detached but caring more than he should.

Malkuth has also changed, in subtle ways, even from her time in the Library. ]

I'm not a bright spot, or anything like that. But I can tell you what you already know; that there's no point in imagining things that won't happen. At this point, we can only move forward, since we weren't allowed to stop moving at all.

[ He knows this location, though many years have passed, but even the images that his mind produced back then didn't create a hellscape on such an overwhelming scale. Amidst the carnage, he sees Kali. Her opponent's attire shares Binah's colors. It reminds him of their clash with Angela, Binah siding with her, and everything in vain, nothing but destruction and death, much like this.

A lot of them died around the same time, in the end.

Kali was among them, he realizes, but before succumbing to her wounds, after witnessing death after death, she continued to fight to protect their dwindling team. If he searches the grounds, he's certain that he will find almost every familiar face, their mangled bodies.

There's no use lingering on it now. Gebura is right, but he supposes that his questions are no longer unanswered.

His steps take him to Kali's side first, where he kneels to check her pulse, pointlessly. To do something, not stand there and watch her die, even though he can't mend her injuries and she must have died here that day. Her blood stains his fingers and seeps into his clothing — there is no stemming its flow or easing the pain that comes with it, relived, physical or otherwise. ]

...Can you hear me?

[ And if she can, will it be as Kali or as Gebura? The former certainly wouldn't expect Gabriel to make an appearance now, alive, but Malkuth's nightmare of the past allowed him to interact with that memory at least for a while. ]

[ Even Kali would have had a hard time dealing with a Gabriel that had just suddenly appeared, after he'd already been lost to them. Following Elijah's path in a way no one would have expected from someone normally so taciturn and with his emotions tightly under wraps.

Or so they'd thought.

The body beneath Yesod's fingers remains that--a body. Lifeless, unresponsive.

But the voice comes from behind him, Gebura standing there with a gaze that's both present and distant. ]

You can let her go.

[ Rather, she's already gone. ]

[ Yesod straightens up, turning his head to look back over his shoulder, at Gebura. Yes, Kali is gone. She was already gone. His fingers curl into his palms; the corpse felt solid beneath his hands, still warm. Uselessly sentimental gestures crossed his mind, the wish to wipe the blood from Kali's face, to commit the truth of all of these deaths to memory.

The desperation and the despair of the past permeates the scenes that he has witnessed. ]

...Gebura.

[ He says nothing else just yet. What is there to say? There's no use lingering on it now, he reminds himself. ]

[ There's truly no use in it, and Gebura looks him over, before sighing and glancing at... well, anything else. Garion's barely-breathing body, pinned by her blade. The bodies of those who could not flee. The dormant forms of the Abnormalities.

This hadn't really ever been something she'd wanted to remember. ]

You shouldn't be here.

I realize that.

[ But he is here, an intruder stumbling upon Gebura's memories of Kali's final moments, the aftermath of the events that ended in this bloodshed. His gaze follows Gebura's. Gabriel was spared all of it — just as Yesod has no recollection of Giovanni volunteering as a test subject, nothing that he remembers of his past life includes the massacre that killed nearly everyone left.

The bodies and the Abnormalities are all too reminiscent of Lobotomy Corporation. ]

...How did it come to this?

[ A raid, in the Outskirts? ]

We were sold out. Someone leaked information to the Head and they decided to come down here and crush us where we stood.

[ Gebura breathes out, slowly. ]

One of the employees told me that the Abnormalities had all breached and were killing everyone in their path and that there was a strong likelihood of there being no survivors. Running into two Claws who had taken advantage of that wasn't all that surprising. And the Arbiter, too.

[ She looks over at Garion, shaking her head. ]

It was true, though. I only managed to save two people. Out of this many.

[ Gebura's answer pulls Yesod's attention back to her, sharply. He can't help but frown all the more, though it's meaningless to wonder who betrayed them and why, and whether the person in question was aware of the consequences of that decision. It changes nothing now, either.

Instead, setting the thought aside, he focuses on the rest of it. ]

...Then that employee was mistaken. There were two survivors, and that outcome was thanks to you.

[ Meanwhile, Kali lost her life in the process of fighting to the very end of it, for the sake of protecting the people here. All of her actions in this place were carried out for that purpose. ]

I'm glad I could keep my promise, at the very least, even if even now, I have regrets.

[ About not having made it in time to save more of them. She can still hear their screams. Even now. Maybe especially now. ]

Well, I can't say Kali didn't give it everything she had at the time. I know that much.

[ Regrets... He doesn't doubt that Gebura has them — that Kali's regrets had accumulated over time until she drew her last breath. After all, it must have been difficult not to dwell on the possibility that there were ways to prevent each tragedy that befell this laboratory.

Yesod looks at Gebura. ]

She always did. You watched over all of us.

That was the job, after all. Carmen asked me to protect everyone.

[ And that hadn't... quite happened, as planned. Gebura's gaze flickers, briefly. ]

Just because we are where we are now doesn't mean that's concluded.

[ Yesod is quiet. Despite Gebura's admission of lingering regrets and a promise to keep, she describes it as a job, work that Kali took seriously because Carmen had tasked her with it, but it's clear that it goes beyond that.

It continues, here and in their world, though he thinks of Malkuth's until they aren't, the hope that all of their lives won't cease to remain intertwined in the near future. ]

...Gabriel didn't want to be in need of it, but it is a relief that you're with us, Gebura.

[ Worry not, Yesod, Gebura knows How This Ends.

Which is fine, she's not going to say anything about it, even as she huffs out a sigh. ]

I don't think I could change what I do now, even if I wanted to.

[ it's become too deep, too much engrained. ]

[ Thank you, Gebura... He will have to bring this up sooner or later. For now, he only regards her thoughtfully. ]

Preferably, we're no longer the handful that some of us must have been back then.

[ Then again, her steadfast resolve to protect her colleagues aside, no matter where and when, they probably have kept her busy here as well, albeit in relatively harmless ways. ~~Looking at future Yesod and the ocean, too.~~ ]

For the most part.

[ Chesed still makes her want to throw him down several Floors. ]

... But I think it's time to move on for now.

[OPEN] I fight the fever alone

memory - death (cw: violence, blood, dismemberment, impaling) (closed to established cr)

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