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

[no_longer_a_king]

It is futile, yes, but it also gets their attention unless they are completely gone. In truth, Arturia had not expected him to stop. No, what she had expected was something similar to when Saber had been in a rage and him to come flying at her. After all, it was better if that rage were directed at her rather than someone who got caught in the crossfire.

So it's with a pleasant surprise that Enoch does stop. For a moment, Arturia stares at him in surprise, then schools her face to something resembling concern.

"What happened?" she asked as she approached him.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch still does not attack unless provoked. He looked down at the four graves lined up.

"Ruana has four more power sources if we fail."

It was the simplest way to say it while putting specifics into words failed him for a moment. After a pause, he added, "Yotsuba is among them."

[no_longer_a_king]

"....I see." Is all she can really say to that. As much as the prospect of Ruana using them as power sources frightens her, another part of her considers the fact that this means those four are safe from the Tower for now, safe from experiments and monsters. They are perfectly and utterly isolated, yes, but they are safe.

And Zo made a mistake again. No one is perfect, though Arturia knows Zo would like to try to be.

She approaches Enoch then and comes to stand beside him. There. Yu's name. Tohko. Yostuba. And another she is not sure she has met before. Three of them she knew and her heart squeezes painfully in her chest. When was the last time she had even talked to Yu? She cannot recall the exact time and that is enough to make her feel like a heel.

"We will not let it come to that. Do not worry."

[warriorscribe]

There's no way for them to know, and he doesn't know enough about the science behind their current project to know how good their chances are. With so little time left, he doesn't like it.

"There must be something else we can do."

[no_longer_a_king]

"Probably a thousand things, but we cannot do them until we know more." Until the research is done and they know what flows through their veins actually does. Until they find another way downstairs. Until a million other little questions and opportunities present themselves.

[warriorscribe]

"We cannot do what we know we must. But even when you think you know everything about a situation, what your options are...there may be a possibility you've overlooked."

There has to be something they can do now. He has to prevent Ruana from draining the souls of people on their worlds. It isn't even an end to their pain, if draining is at all like devouring.

[no_longer_a_king]

"What could we possibly do now? What possible way could we manage to stop her right now?"

Nothing. Not without organizing or more information. The only reason she, Ruler, and Zelda came up unscathed the last time they went downstairs was sheer luck in running into Aria.

"Unless you propose you and I go downstairs by ourselves to find something." She means it as a jest and nothing more. Going downstairs is suicide, even if a necessary one. People shouldn't go down there in small groups if they can help it.

[warriorscribe]

"It need not be downstairs, or right now. There are real things up here. Any tools we use must be real."

He's not as calm as he sounds or looks.

[no_longer_a_king]

"But what do we have up here that is real? Weapons will only go so far when their powers appear to be genuine and ours are not."

[warriorscribe]

"Monsters are real."

And thus, everything they carry.

[no_longer_a_king]

"I know. As I said, there's only so far the monsters' weapons will get us."

[warriorscribe]

"It need not be only weapons, and weapons are not only weapons."

How many times has he used a weapon as something else? A sword as a stake, a sling as an extra carrying pouch...

But the truth of the matter is, he isn't quite okay yet.

[no_longer_a_king]

She can tell. That's part of what's scaring her about Enoch and why she doesn't want to leave him alone just quite yet.

"Then what is it you are proposing?"

[warriorscribe]

"Nothing yet. Only that we need real tools. We need to gather all that's real that we can..."

There's reason to this, of course. It's much like any other suggestion he might make, except, of course, the way he's approaching it.