Suna dreamt. Of primal entities, with insatiable appetites. They dwarfed her, their massive maws, no smaller than stacked mountains, sucking her in. They're gonna get me, I need to run!
Suna was startled awake, covered in a cold sweat.
"Oh, Suna, oh…" She was greeted by Angie's voice. It was tired, but now, as if seeing an oasis in the desert, was filled with a desperate hope, yet not quick to fully submit to it.
Suna felt, frankly, terrible. Her body wouldn't readily listen to her. Her mind felt sluggish, as if part of her was still living that terrible dream.
"Kuuuh…" Suna let out pained groans, even just the motion of slightly attempting to sit up sparking enough backlash that she was forced to lay back down. She was not used to this feeling of helplessness, she was growing restless.
"Suna, Suna, Suna…" She felt Angie's hands wrap around and grasp hers tightly. She repeated her name, as if she was praying to some goddess.
It was a struggle to get words to come out of her failing body, but she needed information. "Ah, ah… Angie…, Angie, what's going, on…?" She looked around, briefly, "Where are we?" Suna was trying to determine if she needed to be ready to fight in this condition. If so… she felt she was going to die.
"Oh, Suna… Suna…" Angie just kept repeating her name thoughtfully.
"Angie, blurgh…" Suna struggled against the urge to vomit, she was gagging. Angie simply kept repeating her name, as if not caring.
"Fuck, damn it, Angie, tell me! Cough, cough… fuck, what's happening…?"
"Suna… Suna…" She was getting tired of the same nonsense.
"Angie!! Arghghhh…" That yell was the loudest she could manage, her pain rising up and preventing her from even breathing.
"Suna… Suna? Suna!? Oh my God, Suna!! Oh, Oh my God…!" Suna, waking from her trance, pounced on Suna, wrapping her in a very, terribly painful embrace. "Suna, you're okay!!! You're okay, right?" She started to come to her senses, although she wasn't particularly quick about it.
"Angie, cough cough, where are we? Tell me."
Angie, seeing how much pain Suna was in, immediately relented from her planned physical assault, a guilty look on her face. She still seemed unsteady, struggling to look straight or even sit straight without wobbling, but at the very least it seemed she was able to communicate with her now, a slightly aware look appearing in Angie's eyes.
"We're, we're deep… We're deep in the mountain, Suna…" She lay down, resting her head on Suna's body, eliciting a wince from her victim. "In this room. In this room. In thi-"
Suna rustled, trying once again to get up, getting fed up with Angie, who seemed to be talking more to the ceiling rather than to her. When her vain efforts achieved no results, Suna, again, gave up, her body flattening up against the cold hard floor. Angie, at some point, had sprawled herself all over Suna, not helping Suna's attempts whatsoever.
"Ugh, Angie, can't you Aurgh, speak to me like, cough, a normal person?? What's wrong with you?"
"Huweh, what's wrong with me?" Angie flopped down, again, onto Suna's body, who tried her best to suppress a small scream. "Mmmmmmm what's wrong with you? Hehehehehe…"
Suna wasn't getting anywhere trying to question the barely lucid Angie, and neither was she getting anywhere in her attempts to move her body farther than a few inches. I… I guess I'll just rest. I can't do much else… Hopefully I feel better tomorrow… Suna gave in to the urge to just rest, and deal with it all the next day. At the very least, they seemed to be in an enclosed room.
–
"Suna. Suna please. I don't know how much more I can take. I don't… I don't know… sob… you… you promised… you promised me…"
The pathetic, miserable cries and pleas roused Suna from her peaceful slumber. She tossed and turned, as if fighting against the need to awake.
"Suna? Suna! Suna, please, open your eyes! Say something, please!!"
Angie's desperate cries reached her ears.
…Huh? What am I doing? Why am I sleeping like this, Angie needs my help…
Suna fought against the overwhelming urge to fall back asleep. To accept her fate, whatever outcome that occurred. I need… I need to get up!Now!
Warmth. Suna felt warmth. She followed that warmth. All the way out of her reverie.
"...H-...H-, Huh? Angiee?" Her eyelids were heavy, her arms heavy, her entire being was heavy, and she struggled to move any part of her. But eventually, even though she felt as if she was in a bath of molasses, she moved. The warmth she felt spread. From just her hands and forehead to her body, as well. She liked this feeling. So much so that she could sleep in it… No! I'm getting up, right now!
As if barely managing to lift an extremely heavy weight, she opened her eyelids. She saw Angie. Destitute. So thin and sallow that her immediate thought was 'corpse', or 'zombie'.
Angie… Her heart was torn apart. This… I let her get like this… I'm a failure…
Angie looked up from her desperate pleas, seeing Suna's open eyes.
"Oh, please, Suna, please, tell me I'm not dreaming, please, I'm tired… Just be awake, Suna…"
It was a monumental task that was thrust upon her. But Suna knew she had to succeed. This task was harder than her fight with the Commander. But she undertook it, with a serious resolve.
"Cough, cough, cough…" They were mere faint sounds of struggle, but they didn't escape Angie's ears. Angie peered at Suna's face, desperate to find any sign of consciousness.
"...gie…"
The faint sounds didn't escape Angie's perked, hopeful ears. She focused intently on Suna's rough breathing.
"...An…gie…"
"Oh my God, Suna? Suna!?" Angie quickly quieted down, trying once more to hear the voice of her dear friend.
"My… My pack… the red…"
Angie didn't delay. She too was tired, but not too tired to reach for the pack very close by, and look through it. She had already done so, so she had an educated guess for what Suna was asking for. She took out a small, red, oval-shaped object.
"...-ere… -ie… -outh…" Suna's breathing was rough and ragged, and it was hard to tell which sounds were her trying to breathe through her constricted mouth and airways, which were coughs that she didn't have the energy to exhale through, and which were actually words meant for her. But she had an idea of what she wanted her to do. She placed the small object between the gaps of Suna's lips. But, seeing just how dry her mouth was, she didn't know if Suna was actually capable of swallowing it. She was hesitant, for multiple reasons, but she felt she had no choice.
…! Suna felt the tablet go down her parched throat. She got my message! It went through! I did it! At this point, the hard, hard work was done, and Suna could rest easy. For soon, she felt a fierce burning.
Her heart rate immediately doubled. She felt her blood flow throughout her body. She felt that tiredness she had grown so, well, tired of, start to fade away. She… was starting to feel alive again.
Her breathing grew deeper, quicker. On the outside, it was hard to see any other changes than that. So Angie couldn't help but let out a yell as Suna shot up!
Her body moved and creaked like a puppet. She twisted her joints, all in weird, unnatural bursts of rotation. She opened her eyes, which moved every which way. She breathed in a sharp, terrifying amount of air all at once. Fwaaaaahhh… Angie could feel the room start to get warmer.
Suna's head jerked towards Angie, all at once.
"Angie. Information." The words were forced out, with barely any tone behind them. But Angie didn't hesitate to respond.
"We hit a dead end, there was a small crevice, too small for the others. They were hot on our tail, so they told us to stay there, that they'd lead the Geth away, that they'd…" Angie wiped away dry tears from her face, recomposing herself. "Sniffle, that they'd, meet us, at New Vall… That they'd treat us to, to seafood, that they, they knew a good restaurant…" Angie couldn't hold back her crying.
"Angie, why are you, so thin?" Suna stood up, or more accurately, shot up. She twisted her neck and joints all around, the motions were getting smoother, her voice was more steady and less inhuman.
Angie stammered. "I, I, um, I… I wanted to make sure you had enough food… for when you wake up…"
Suna turned to her. She moved erratically, but the way she knelt and crouched in front of her, how she brought her closer and embraced her, it was all so gentle…
"Angie, you silly girl, I need way less food than you." She shot up from the ground again. "Eat. We're getting out of this shitty mountain today."
Angie was stunned. Most of her had already given up. She wasn't ready for those words, for that declaration.
"Hurry. We have to hurry."
Food and water disappeared down Angie's throat. She had never been so starved before, she was not prepared for the sheer amount of concentrated pleasure that her mind was receiving.
"Not too fast. You'll choke and vomit back out all that food and water. Slow down…" She felt Suna's gentle caress, of her back, her hair, her hand. She slowed down.
"Suna… what did I feed you? What's happened to you?"
Suna sharply looked at Angie. "It's a stimulant. My body doesn't feel right, Angie. This was the only way I could move. I have a time limit. In 24 hours, I'll go back to being immobile, I'll suffer withdrawals." Suna was not looking forward to those. "That's why we have to hurry. Come on. Let's walk."
Angie, never happier to be pulled along up to this point in her life, wore a bright smile, one that couldn't be suppressed by her fatigue or pains.
The two exited the narrow crevice that separated the small opening from a familiarly shaped and sized tunnel. They walked. Suna's brain and body grew more and more accustomed to the stimulant. Angie started to feel better and better, renewed with energy from her small meal.
"Walk more quietly. Let your heel come into contact with the ground first, followed by the rest of your foot." The sound of their footsteps diminished greatly. "Good. Let's keep going."
The two walked in total silence, together.
"Angie, how long were we in that room?"
"I, uh, I'm not sure. It was hard to tell how much time passed, if a lot or a little. Sorry…"
"No, that's okay."
The two talked in extremely quiet whispers. Perhaps just reassuring their company through a means other than touch in the pitch-black darkness of the mines went a long way for them.
"Are you okay, Angie?"
"Um, uh, yeah, I feel a lot better."
"No, are you doing okay?"
Angie paused. "I… If you're with me…" She squeezed Suna's hand, something that she had started subconsciously doing periodically. Suna squeezed back. Her heart felt its pain and worries a bit assuaged.
"Sh."
The two stopped, both listening for noise. Echoes. Of footsteps. They were far away. They receded back into silence, where they had come from.
The soft, methodical footsteps of the girls resumed.
"Oh, I forgot to mention. I overheard the others talking as we were running, they mentioned 'Bolsur', I think that's a type of fruit…" Suna had no comment. "They're notoriously poisonous, you can immobilize even a Roppa with just a bit of it, or so I've heard…"
It made sense. If she had to take a guess… the arrows. The Geth seemed to like using basic human technology and tactics. Did they steal them all? Just copying humans?
"...James… he was limping near the end… Do you think… Do you think that…"
"Angie, let's just focus on getting out of here alive, for now, okay?"
"...Mm… okay."
The two made idle chatter, stopping when they thought they heard noises, and continuing when they went away. Their conversations were superfluous, but it was all they had to stave off the despair that seemed to stalk them, in the shadows.
At some point, the two girls, having gone through many tunnels, came across something different. It was a large room, one that looked like a sort of hub, with various tunnels leading from it. It had multiple stories, and they were on the bottom. The two subconsciously looked up, up, as if they were transfixed by the mere concept. Locating an ascending ramp that circled the large room, they made their way over to it.
"You think you can leave so easily?"
The twos' hearts dropped miles.
"Killing all those people. Not a shred of remorse. How cruel."
The voice emitted from a figure in the dead center of the tall, circular room. There was no way for them to have missed it. It was too fast, or it had teleported, somehow. Suna's mind was still sluggish, her body the only thing that was working somewhat normally at the moment. But her resolve did not lessen. Her flame was softer than it usually was, but it was stubborn, refusing to go out no matter the situation. That was how she operated, it was who she was.
"Ugggghhhh, these stupid quotas are just too damn high, lately. Can you believe it? They don't even pay me more for all this overworking. Unbelievable."
Suna recognized this tone of voice. She allowed herself to remember the armored figures she had encountered once, a while ago. This one… wasn't the same. The way the dark lustre of its armor seemed to meld with the dark room, only faintly lit by Angie's 'La Viera'. This enemy was definitely more imposing than the other armored figures she could recall.
Suna unsheathed her blade, putting some distance between herself and Angie.
"Avaarem.
Sanctus,
Phevienne tu Sachtal.
Engster."
Angie calmly cast her magic. It was all she could do.
"Hahaha, you guys are rude. Does this mean, that you'll play with me?"
Quick. Too quick. Almost too quick.
The force was terrifying, Suna somehow able to deflect a thrust that tore at her without warning. Clang, clang, Suna and the dark-clad armored figure exchanged blow for blow. Following their movements was tough – it was as if he lived in the darkness itself, as if she was fighting darkness itself. Attacks would come from unexpected angles, forcing her to keep herself on her toes. Deep down, her warrior's heart knew. They're playing with me. She felt pitiful. Weak. Just as she was starting to gain a bit of confidence, her last battle taught her a painful lesson for her risk-taking. But, at the very least, even if the outcome was not ideal, she put up a fight, and won. This, though… This was a terrible feeling. She was surviving, for now. For as long as this figure would allow her to.
"It's no fun if only one of you does the fighting, why don't I include our other friend?"
It made a motion, gliding towards Angie's direction. Angie steeled herself. Not on my watch.Clang! Another vicious exchange of blows, even faster and louder than before.
"Hey, not so loud, do you want to attract them? Heh, heh…"
Suna cursed in her breath, no spare amount of it available to curse out loud. She was already crumbling, already failing to think, to move like she was used to. When she sought to use adrenaline to push herself even faster, there was barely any reaction. The stimulant… When she sought to dip into her reserves of will power, she found her supply of it just lacking.
No matter how much she cared, no matter how much she was invested, no matter how hard she tried, none of it seemed to reflect in her speed.
"Hmph. Boring."
A kick, all too fast, to her torso. She was sent flying.
"Alright, no interruptions this time." The figure moved, once again, towards the defenseless girl. But she didn't cower. She wasn't afraid of death. She had already faced that fear.
"Auflicht einzer Puuchlricht, Floren!"
Roots emerged from the ground, their width surprising Suna. She did not let up on the opportunity Angie created.
"Ugh, annoying, dirty!" The figure writhed among the growing, twisting, smothering roots. Suna was close by, honing her killing intent. Like a flash, she swung her knife into the open vertical slits of the figure's helmet.
"AAAAAGHHH!!!" They writhed, and screamed, in agony. Suna pulled out her knife, the figure clutching their head, as they rocked back and forth, unable to comprehend what just happened.
"Aaaaagghhh… What, did you think I'd react like that?"
Angie was dealt a blow to her psyche and composure, her knees shaking from the futility of her efforts. Suna… she just wished for this farce to end. It was humiliating.
"Hmm, here, as a reward… I'll show you a little trick."
Darkness oozed, painting the walls and floor a dark, murky black. Angie's small ball of light looked like a firefly up against the dark, night sky, one not graced by any stars. Pure blackness. And then, the darkness writhed. It wriggled, and the figure disappeared.
Suna had no way of predicting where he might pop up next. Perhaps by some miracle, or because they let her, Clang! She parried an attack that came from her blindspot, from the darkness.
"Whoa, not bad! Hehe, alright, let's stop playing games. I don't think anyone would miss a couple of country bumpkins that got lost in some cave out in the middle of nowhere. Like, what are you guys even doing out here?"
Killing intent. Her life had mere seconds remaining, such was the inevitable outcome as soon as the dark figure decided to get even a little bit serious.
It was heavy. The weight of impending death. She thought about Angie, and the nice little moments they shared. How nice it felt to be hugged by them, to hug them.
She thought about the other party members. The way they stood up to their deaths, most likely until the bitter end.
She thought about her mom. Who gave her all that she had, until there was nothing left of her.
She thought about Yrma. How pitiful.
She thought about Ei. It was unfortunate. He was going to lose on his bet. She wished she could've done a better job.
Should she have done anything differently? No. She didn't really regret anything. She was proud of her accomplishments, of being the last human to survive an apocalypse, of her deftness in killing the Geth, of her tie with the Geth Commander, all the exhilarating moments of her battles.
She remembered all the times she brushed with death on Yrma. The times she fought with hunger and thirst, two truly worthy opponents. The way she learned skills rapidly, consuming knowledge like an endless abyss, crystallizing it and transforming it into her own. She was proud of all of it.
But it wasn't enough. It was clear. None of it was enough to get her through this encounter. She had met the end of her line, she got involved with the wrong group of people at the wrong time. It was just unlucky.
There was nothing else she could've done. There was nothing more she could do. If she was lucky, she'd die first, so she wouldn't have to watch Angie die. This thought made her sad, though.
Sigh. I guess… I guess that's my stop…
A part of her simply stopped there. Giving in to the situation, to external factors. A part of her gave up. She could feel it as it did so. She… was disappointed in it. Yes, there were excuses, but… She was still disappointed. Like she could have done better. She was dissatisfied.
The killing strike came. This is it, huh…
No.
Haha, who are you trying to deceive? This is it.
No.
What are you talking about? This is it, the end of our journey.
No.
Anger rose in her, from both sides.
Just give up, you're life has been pathetic, you never actually accomplished anything, you just got lucky. Give up.
No.
Do you hear yourself? How stupid you sound? How stupid it is to go around in circles like this? You're dumb. You're worthless, now's the perfect time, just go die already.
No.
Disdain. A look of superiority, looking down on something beneath her. That was how a part of her felt, looking down on the rest of her. That other part of her… was stubborn, to say the least. It was unthinking. It was an algorithm, that took in any variable and spit out the same conclusion. To keep trying. To never give up. There was no thought behind it, no reason. She was unable to simply choose between one of the two sides; whenever she gravitated toward one, the other would flare, keeping her stuck in the middle, stuck in what really felt like purgatory to her.
She was getting tired of this farce.
"Neither. I choose neither. I guess I'll… just stay in the middle I guess. It feels about right."
Clang.
"I… Some things are out of my control. All I can do is try my best, I guess?"
Clang. Clang.
"That is what I've been doing up until now… No, I can't think of it like that. If I'm serious about helping Ei, I need to get much, much stronger."
Clang, Clash, Clang!
"I can't just keep revelling around in my old mindsets and habits. They might've worked for me on Yrma, but even then, barely…"
Clang! The strikes paused.
"I was weak. I am weak. I need to get stronger."
"W-What…" The armored figure was baffled. How could a mere mortal, no, a mere girl swat aside her strikes? She wasn't entirely serious yet, but she wasn't joking around anymore. What happened to her flimsiness? To her fear of being slashed? Right now… it's as if the girl couldn't even register her presence.
"Insolent!"
The strikes grew faster, increasing in frequency, power, speed, but none of it mattered. They were all swat away, as if they were just passing air.
"Argh!" The strikes began to move, towards the girl who was collapsed on the ground, on her knees, mouth agape, watching a true spectacle.
"No you don't."
The figure seemed to be materializing out of thin air, but they were simply merging with the darkness, using it as cover, it was obvious to Suna.
"That's not how you use the darkness. Let me show you. Real darkness.
Avadakh Holferim."
Light disappeared. There was nothing. The figure was confused. Was she transported somehow to some different place? This was just too unusual – this wasn't darkness. It was nothing.
Then. She felt it. Fear.No… Impossible! Her thoughts rang out into emptiness. Then…
All truly went dark.