towerofanimus | Endgame: This Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdoms; Part Two

[Arturia had heard the voices as she approached the street the group appeared in. For a second she was certain she was hearing things. It had happened a few times before: She'd hear a noise and rush to it only to find a tree had given in to its decay and fallen or gravity did its work on something collapsing.

But she had never heard voices before. Not real honest to god voices.

She breaks into a run, for as much as she can run in this disembodied form, and turned the corner to find a tear in the world and several brightly lit and colorful figures before it. Her eyes widen for a moment, the heart that is not there stopping for an instant, before she begins to approach them.]

Hello?

[Has she finally snapped and started to hallucinate people who should not be there? Then again, given all that has happened to her throughout her life, she finds it hard to believe it could only be a hallucination. She has done the impossible before, the people she's met in the Tower make the impossible look like a mere inconvenience no matter how insurmountable it is. At the very least she has to give this the benefit of the doubt.]

[It was obvious this world was dead, so the next voice he heard after Asch's had been a genuine surprise. Waver turned to look over his shoulder and while the spectral appearance was something different it was genuinely a relief to see someone else he recognized.]

[Was this why the portal led them here? And if Zo had indeed created it, was this what they were meant to do with it?]

Saber-?

Arturia!

[Diarmuid cannot help but call out to her, relieved to see her. She is one of those who he had noticed was missing from the cells and he has been worried about her...

Or still is considering the fact she doesn't seem to have a real body at the moment.]

Are you all right?

[Stupid question all things considered, but he asks it anyway.]

[Any thoughts of puzzling out their situation very quickly get tossed out the window at the sound of that voice. One that was decidedly absent during those five hours in the cells. Zelda whips around, and the moment Waver and Diarmuid calling out Arturia's names confirms that she's not hallucinating, she's dashing towards her.]

Arturia!

[She flings her arms forward, intending to grab up her friend in an embrace... and ends up flying right through her, just barely stopping herself from completely faceplanting on the pavement behind her as gravity does its work.]

... What--?

[Give her a moment, she'll figure out what's going on in time.]

[Her voice cracks as she runs up to them and calls their names. Now that she's closer she can start to see them within the wireframes, but then Zelda shoots forward.]

Wait--Zelda, I'm not-- [And then Zelda falls right through her, the sensation making heat run uncomfortably up Arturia's spine like she's been suspended into a pit of lava before Zelda is on the ground. She turns and kneels next to the Princess, concerned.]

Are you all right? I apologize. I don't have a proper body here.

... I'm not even going to ask why. But you should come with us. We kind of need all the help we can get.

[They've got a psychopathic little girl to fight, after all.]

[...Yeah he's not going to question that, either. He's got a princess to help up. Need a hand, Zelda?]

If nothing else, there's no reason for you to stay here.

Believe me, I have no intention of staying here if I can help it, but please take a moment to explain to me what is going on? Did the countdown run out? Did you find a way to access other worlds?

[Because that's what it looks like to her. Did they finally manage to succeed?]

Are there others we need to find?

I have no fucking idea, Saber. I think we were split up somehow--we were stuck back in the Tower, then a portal opened up and here we are.

If I had to guess, I think Zo must have opened it so we could get here. And I'd bet anything we have to find whoever else got left outside the Tower.

[Diarmuid nods in agreement with Waver's words before adding a few of his own.]

There was a five hour countdown timer in the room where we were locked up. When it hit zero, all the power failed. If that was our actual timer hitting zero...

[He trails off with a shrug since who knows what will be waiting for them when they get back.]

If this is Zo's doing, I wonder why he waited so long unless the power had to fail in order to give him the chance to open the portals for us without Ruana interfering.

It might've had to fail to turn off the force fields for the cells.

Right, Counter Guardian...

[She speaks softly to herself as she accepts the help up, brushing herself off and trying to regain what dignity she can after that little show. Her thoughts are divided as the conversation progresses, caught up in thinking about Arturia's spirit form and what it could mean for their plans for her to come to Hyrule, but she does eventually speak up.]

Regardless of his potential reasons, I agree with Waver in thinking what we must do next is clear.

[Regroup as best as they are able.]

Edited 2014-07-16 05:14 (UTC)

[And yay, everyone is standing again.]

Keep moving, collect everyone who went missing, and somehow manage to get back.

[It sounds so simple when you put it that way.]

Maybe when we find everyone Zo will open a portal back to the tower so we can rescue him and Aria as well. [Romeo had followed Ken but had been stood mostly quietly still taking in what was happening but he spoke now.]

[Waver gave Zelda a strange look at that--naturally he knew what a Counter Guardian was, but he was pretty sure this was the first he'd heard of Arturia being one.]

I...wouldn't doubt that. So we'll have to be ready--eventually one of these portals is sure to bring us back. Until then, let's continue on like this.

[Of course it would be the first Waver would have heard about it. Arturia had never gone around advertising the fact, only mentioning it to Zelda simply because of how close the two had become with one another.]

All right then. Let us go find the others. Do we go through the same portal or do we need to find another one?

I am going to guess we need to find a different one.

[A glimmer catches the corner of his eye and Diarmuid turns to point toward it. A portal has opened off to their right.]

Look! Who's up to finding out what is behind portal number two?

I am! [Romeo grinned at Arturia, glad that she was safe and with them now and then skipped towards the next portal]

We shall need all the strength we can get.

[... And speaking of which, she feels... better, in an odd way. She had grown used to the ominous unstable feeling being outside of the Tower brought during that long march following Zo's little temper tantrum, but it feels... different now, somehow.

Hm. Either way, she lingers back with Arturia, spirit form or no. Not even going to allow for the possibility of her being left behind now that they've found each other again, nope.]

If there's more people stuck out here that we need to find, there's no point in going backwards.

[Portal-finder team let's get moving.]

Then let us be off. [She smiles at Zelda, keeping close to her as well. There's a warm feeling in her chest, like she has a place somewhere for the first time since the fall of her Kingdom. If she had a physical presence Arturia would hug Zelda as well.]

Thank you for coming for me--all of you--it means a great deal to me.

You are important to us. Of course, we would not leave you behind! After all you have done for the Tower, you have to be there in the end. It would not be an end otherwise.

[Diarmuid stops walking toward the portal and looks back at the group at the sound of Saber's voice. When he sees her smile, he cannot help but silently thank Zelda. The woman has done so much for the Tower herself, but in his eyes probably the greatest thing is the part she played in bringing that smile to his friend's face.]

Of course. You're our friend whether you like it or not--not to mention that frankly, without you we're probably all fucked when we need to take out Ruana.

[Unfortunately, Zelda might miss Diarmuid's gratitude, as she's a bit busy returning Arturia's smile.]

I would think you would understand by now that I am not about to leave you behind in any situation.

[That fateful day in the processing room seems so far off now, yet it's still relevant it seems. ~~The narration shall abstain from making a Lilo and Stitch reference.~~]

[~~This narration, however, will not. TEAM OHANAAAAAAAAAAAAA!~~

So very far off, back when Arturia was still in the thrall of her self destructive spiral. That had been the very first moment in so long when Arturia had felt like she actually belonged somewhere.]

And I you. All of you. Come! Let us see who else we can find and then put an end to this madness once and for all.

Endgame: This Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdoms; Part Two

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