Put an End to This False World

[warriorscribe]

Characters: Enoch and wide open
Setting: Graveyard, morning, slightly forward-dated to when the drops in question are processed.
Format: I'm starting in prose but it doesn't matter.
Summary: A small handful of names show up in the graveyard, and they prove there just might be a right way to break.
Warnings: Hostility will be met with violence right now.

Enoch didn't know how he'd let the graveyard's significance die. He didn't know how the names on the headstones had become a blur. He didn't know how he'd become numb to this job that was once so painful. He even missed Yu's headstone until the moment it came into abrupt clarity for no apparent reason. While he wondered how he could have missed it, wished him and his guardian strength, another nearby caught his eye. He could swear his heart stopped for a moment.

He walked swiftly through the row of tombstones, turning for another pass, in disbelief.

Tohko Amano.
Raphael.
Yotsuba Koiwai.

Tohko. She'd been getting on his nerves and Lucifel's both lately, but she only ever meant the best. He'd never finished writing her his story. At least, books did not crumble on the destroyed worlds. She may not need to eat but she could take comfort in her stories.

Raphael. The first person he recognized from home. Someone he'd been able to confide his suspicion in. Trapped on a dead world with a dead God.

Yotsuba. Such a bright light in such a hostile place. Like so many children before her she'd endeared herself to him immediately. It was always easy to talk to her, even with Eleven's screaming in his mind. Having earned a place in Lucifel's heart and spending time with the both of them, it had begun to feel like a family.

He had promised her he would restore the worlds. Now she herself would fall victim to Ruana if he failed too. Someone so young...someone who had begun to feel like family.

For a moment, it seemed to nearly echo a moment from his near future on Earth, where he would encounter Belial. His fists clenched and his shoulders tightened. Anyone who could see the flaming aura at the back of his neck would see it was flaring out. Eleven screamed shrill in his mind, the only sound he could hear.

Until he screamed back.

His voice rose to drown out the one in his mind, a roar that echoed in the solemn floor. He drew another breath, and screamed again, not in fear but in anger. The third scream found words involved.

"RUANA! I WON'T LET YOU HAVE THEM!" Every word he spoke, he shouted over Eleven, his eyes alight with something dangerous. His Arch found itself in his hands, open and raised. It buzzed as he slashed at the air in front of him.

"YOU WON'T TAKE THEM, DO YOU HEAR ME?"

Comments

[notagiraffe]

Enoch! [Taiki looked up from where he was sat near Haldir's grave and ran to the man, in a straight line, phasing through gravestones like they weren't even there.] Calm down...

[warriorscribe]

A little girl has been returned to her world, Taiki.

*His voice is grave, angry.*

And if we fail, her soul will be used to ensure Ruana has her precious playthings.

[notagiraffe]

[He flinches at the anger but bravely steps forward to put his arms round Enoch] We... we won't fail... [They can't fail there was far too much at stake.] We'll get her back, all of them... I mean. [There was a determination in his eyes, this was the kirin who had subdued the most powerful demon on his world] We won't let her succeed.

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch's guard seems to lower, with a child latched onto him like that. He shifts the Arch to the hand farther from Taiki so he can free the other to put on his head.*

I won't allow her to do so even if we fail to restore the tower or worlds.

*The anger is more restrained now, contained and channeled into determination.*

[notagiraffe]

[As he moved the Arch Taiki let out a sigh of relief, he did not like being that close to weapons] We won't fail...

[warriorscribe]

I know.

*He didn't want to say he was even considering the possibility anymore, not to someone so young. But he knew it was an outcome that couldn't be ignored. They had to at least prepare for the worst.*

[notagiraffe]

We can't be angry though... because anger just hurts everyone including us... [He holds him tighter at that, he knows he doesn't really have the right to tell anyone who isn't his king not to be violent, but he's worried about Enoch and there is enough bloodshed and anger in the tower already.

[warriorscribe]

*Enoch shakes his head.* It's not anger that hurts anyone. You're thinking of hatred. Anger is just an emotion. It can be used for good like any emotion.

*Though the thing that ultimately comes of this anger is hate, and thinking of this, he ruffles Taiki's hair. The first vestiges of a plan that had been forming in his mind were caught in their wild growth and wrested into logic.*

I swear I will remember this anger to bear my strength, so I don't lose sight of what matters.

[notagiraffe]

Sorry... [He looks down and shuffles his feet again at the correction and presses his lips together, nodding, looking frightened. Enoch sounded a bit scary, but he was a really nice man] Please... please use it for good then...

[warriorscribe]

I'll try...

*He didn't know how well he was holding up sometimes, but he wasn't going to saddle such doubts on a young boy So when he said it, he tried to sound as strong as he could. Like nothing was wrong. He'd done so so many times, acted like he didn't doubt.*

[notagiraffe]

I know... [Taiki looked at him with wide eyes, knowing it was hard for Enoch, even though it was difficult for him to understand, Kirin did not hold anger. He wished he could heal emotional pain like Aqua had shown him how to heal physical. He reached out to hold Enoch's hand]