be like the love that discovered the sin

JACK

Jack walks them in silence away from the Aumakua, away from the smell of ash on the wind and the shape of a fire that still burns behind his eyes when he closes them. It feels like Longnight, still, with the world so quiet and dark like this, but for the moon dangling overhead and the spray of Safrin's stars to light up the sand beneath their feet. "You a'right?" he asks Flora. He says it out loud despite having full access to the quiet maelstrom of her thoughts, asks in case she needs to open those floodgates to let that roar of colour and emotion take shape in her words instead.

Pausing beside one of the smaller bonfires that has only recently gone out after the chaos of Longnight on the beaches, the captain shrugs out of the dark leather coat he'd donned - something that should be more than it is, were it not for his untimely death pushing it down his list of priorities - and lays it out across the sand for them to sit on. "Didn't think you'd wanna go back just yet," he clarifies, already grabbing some fresh kindling and adding it to the fire to build it back up, using his air magic to feed it and bring it to life.

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

How is she feeling? Flora doesn't know. Seren's death has unsettled her, but if she's being honest—and there's no other way for her to be around Jack—it feels more like the death of a distant relative rather than a sibling. That's probably no real surprise given that the pair weren't terribly close, but even so, the sadness that the Doubletake does feel is wrapped in layers of guilt and misguided anger leaving her mind bathed in shades of indigo that render her thoughts slow moving.

Sitting down on one side of Jack's coat, Flora drags her knees up to her chest in order to rest her chin atop them, watching as the captain coaxed the fire into life. Undoubtedly he'd feel the way something began to form in the depths of her mind, something sharp and raw that she pushed down if only so that she could properly prepare Jack for what she was about to say. Stretching out a hand for him the queen waits until he's seated at her side if only so that she could peer into his eyes.

"Jack—" Swallowing thickly, Flora's thoughts continue to ferment in the darkening corners of mind as she sighs. "I think I'm just about done..."

Done with her family and friends being killed and threatened. Done with tirelessly working to protect Torchline and finding that her efforts weren't enough. Done with letters arriving again and again telling her of fresh attacks.

Done with fighting a battle that didn't seem as though it could be won.

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

Spending a few further moments bringing warmth and light to their little patch of the beach, Jack steps away to drop down and sit with the Doubletake as she reaches for him, his face bathed in the flickering gold of the fire. His arm hooks around her shoulders to draw her against his side, an eyebrow raising as she parts the black curtain of her tumultous thoughts at last to speak. He lets her words linger in the air, feeling their echo in so much more than what her voice has brought to life.

"Okay," he says at last, nodding slowly and flicking his eyes back towards the fire. "...What does done look like?" Is this done where she's considering surrendering to The Family and the void? Is it done where she steps down from the responsibility of being Queen of Torchline? Or is it done with standing for any more of this, with letting things continue to roil forth unpunished?

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

Sliding comfortably against Jack's side, the urge to bury her face into the crook of his arm and pretend she hadn't said anything at all is so strong that she has to bite down on the urge to simply lean up and kiss him in an effort to sway the current trajectory of her thoughts. Instead she sighs softly, her thoughts a patchwork of knots and threadbare resolve.

"They've taken over region after region...They infected Sunjata and Hotaru, killed us, stole from Ronin.." Gods, that wasn't even mentioning Seren's death which she couldn't help but believe had something to do with them, or Deimos' many notes about what had been happening in Halo, not to mention everything that had been occurring that they were ignorant of. Her words felt like a betrayal, but a bitter pragmatism had her continuing. "Maybe it's time we considered some sort of...I don't want to call it a surrender, but if we go to Dahlia willingly, maybe we can negotiate—at least be able to barter for terms rather than watch everything we’ve fought for be taken by force..."

Because gods if that didn't seem like what was in store for them.

"I know it sounds like giving up, but if the demigods can't stop this—" If the ones who were meant to be on the side of good, who'd been given all the abilities needed to push back threats like this; if they couldn't do it, then what the hell was someone like Flora meant to do?

Straightening, Flora twists beneath Jack's arm, her aqua eyes peering into the captain's, made near black thanks to the dark. "When Remi and Sunjata ruled here, you found ways of working with them." They were both from other worlds, and while they weren't nearly as tyrannical as the Family, was it really so different? "If it's between dying to prove a point or living under them..."

Which would you choose?

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

Let it never be said that the captain is not a good listener, albeit one who hears much more than the mere words that spill from Flora's lips. The stars twinkle upon them overhead and he sits quietly to let her parse through her thoughts and feelings and give them a voice, though his brows to furrow towards a gentle frown as he realises what she's saying. "You're right, 'bout Remi and Sunjata," he says at last, glancing back at her. "I did work with 'em. But there's no working with the Family. I only got a peek into Dahlia's mind an' I know that much."

But it's more than that - it's personal, and Jack surprises nobody more than himself to feel prickly defiance rise in the back of his throat at the mere idea of surrender, no matter what fluff they wrap it in. "I don't throw out olive branches to hands that stick knives in me," he says, his voice a low rumble in the dark. He'd been killed by Pierce, slowly, toyed with until there was nothing left of him to bleed out onto the forest floor. And he'd killed Flora afterwards too, just for kicks.

Jack shakes his head. "What happens to Torchline... that's a conversation for Hadama more'n me." He might love Flora, but he's not the region's king, or governor, or whatever other flash title they've made up since. He isn't even on the council. "But they're gonna have to grind me under their heel before I give up. Not until I let 'em have a taste of what they did to us."

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

Flora shifts slightly against Jack's side as she listens. For a long moment, she feels the weight of all the losses, betrayals, and the raw, unyielding battles they've both endured, though her thoughts are bound up by surprise more than anything else. A realist more than anyone else she'd ever known, to hear the captain seemingly standing on principle has, for one blasphemous moment at least, Flora wondering if Dahlia or some other member of the Family had gotten to him the same way they had with Sunjata or Hotaru. (Or Ronin, for that matter).

Though anyone else might be frustrated by Flora's silence, Jack will be able to experience the kaleidoscope of her thoughts in real time even as she pulls her stare away from his to gaze out toward the midnight sea. Once when she was younger she'd have gone all in on a losing bet like this one just because it was the thing to do. Not necessarily the right thing to do, but because she'd just been the sort of girl to say fuck you to anyone trying to force her down a certain path. Then she'd become queen and her responsibilities and priorities shifted, as had her resolve and moral compass when she'd embroiled herself with Jack. So now to hear that the man who'd agreed to father children with a goddess just to secure his place in the future was now willing to throw it away because of his ego was not on her Flowerbirth bingo card.

"You know who you sound like?" The queen says at last, glancing over her shoulder and softly raising her brows. My Dads.

Whether he took that as a compliment or an insult was up to him.

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

Hissing something like a laugh through his teeth, Jack shakes his head. "I am bein' realistic. If I really thought there was nothin' else to be done, then that's one thing. But I ain't about to lay down an' show my belly after someone killed you unless I ain't got any other choice." It had been Flora's death that had spurred his admission of love, after all, a love that is no less deadly now than it had been in the small cottage in the Greatwood.

Staring hard into the flames of the fire until he's sure he's half blinded himself, he can only scoff under his breath at the flavour that Flora's thoughts take, and though she's understandably having a bit of a crisis of confidence, it doesn't feel good. "So glad you got faith in me, love," he drawls. "Not that I'd call it throwin' away my future. Ain't much of a future, bein' brainwashed into lettin' the void take over everythin' we know."

And if that makes him sound like her fathers, then maybe Flora has been more of an influence on him than she'd expected. "That insult aside," he continues with a snort, "I ain't askin' you to fight. I'm just askin' that you don't expect me to stop."

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

Blinking, the tides turning far faster than she was able to keep up with, the queen shook her head with equal parts disbelief and surprise. "Sorry, so what is the choice you think you have here?" The pair of them just weren't strong enough. Sure there was part of Flora who thought that given the right set of circumstances she and Jack could maybe get in a few good rounds with Pierce or Dahlia, but if the war couldn't be won, what was the point?

Quite how a conversation about what they were going to do about the Family turned into some building argument between she and Jack, the Doubletake wasn't entirely certain, but it was with her brows scrunched together that she shot the captain a disbelieving stare. "Faith in you? You, the man that when I said your magic was extra powerful against the Family said you didn't want to be a part of it? That all of three days ago when I said we should put gravity weapons on The Ark you said you didn't want her to be a target?"

Scraping her fingers through her curls to pull them away from her face, Flora bites down on the inside of her cheek as well as the swirling refrain of what the fuck. Gods, if she'd been tempted to think she didn't understand Jack before after the gown debacle, this was like suddenly sitting next to his fucking twin.

"If the shoe fits," Flora sasses back, glaring out toward the black horizonline that seemed to grow and swim the longer she stared at it. "Next you'll be telling me that you're going to be one of Safrin's demigods as well." Jack already had the immortality and the kids; really, he was about as embroiled with her as one could get. He might as well get the abilities that went along with it.

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

Raising his eyebrows - because Jack is more surprised than Flora to find himself apparently in an argument with her, and it's not bait that he's taking today - the captain shifts to look at her properly, leaning back on his hands in the sand. "You're just mad 'cause you wanna give up and I'm not makin' it easy for you by agreein'," he says with a slow tilt of his head. "Whatever I said about my magic and the Family was before they killed us in cold blood. An' I can keep fightin' just fine without stickin' a fuck-off target on my ship, too."

Just because he doesn't want a gravity cannon on The Ark doesn't mean it's not a good idea in general, after all.

"You're actin' like if we decide not to fight then all this just ends. And that ain't true, it just means you're gonna watch more people die and know you did nothin' about it. 'Cause other people - other friends an' family - they're gonna keep goin'."

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"Fuck you," Flora snarls, glaring at Jack hard enough to have lines appearing between her brows. "I don't want to give up, and if anything I'm mad that you've decided that not only is now a good time to start playing hero, but trying to play it off like I'm the idiot for questioning you about it."

Suddenly furious, Flora hiccups back the breath that wants to rush from between her lips. [says]"Oh right," barking out a humourless laugh, the queen returns her stare toward the sea. "Forgive me for forgetting that you can put your own life in danger, but help us all if anything happens to The Ark." It's a nothing accusation and she knows it, but gods if her anger doesn't need to go somewhere just now.

"No, I'm acting like it isn't my job to save the entire fucking world." Flora corrects with a huff. "Because if all it takes is me going up to Stormbreak and giving Dahlia what she wants in order to ensure Torchline stays golden in whatever's to come?" Last time she'd checked the demigods had done basically fuck all; she'd been the one to provide the flowers that had been planted and since then, they'd all fought battles they'd ultimately lost in the long run.

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

"Did you forget what I said to you that day in the Greatwood?" Jack asks gently, sitting himself back up. "When I said that what Pierce did to you was never happenin' to you again?" That the violence that had burned in his blood had been what had let him see his feelings for the Doubletake for what they were? "The time to question me about playin' hero, if that's what you wanna call it, was back then." There's no anger in his eyes, despite Flora spoiling for a fight.

And as for her part in all of this, he looks up towards the dark sky, to the blacker-than-black space overhead in the distance where Stormbreak hangs. "An' you really think that'll be the end of it?" he asks. "That you'll go up there, Dahlia will take you under her wing, and Torchline'll be safe forever? That she won't just use the fact that you're sweet on the Family to do whatever she likes while you bob your head in agreement?"

That's without even taking into consideration Torchline's other leader, or the opinions of the rest of her people.

"This isn't another region, Flora, or a business negotiation. It's a plague, an' it'll eat everythin' in its path until it's done."

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

The fact that Jack wasn't nearly as riled as she was probably should have soothed the Doubletake, but instead, it had her feeling adrift, wondering whether or not the soap box she'd climbed onto was going to keep her above the waves or drag her down beneath them. "So what? You're just going to take out the whole Family to keep me safe?" Though she was inclined to remind him that actually she'd been the one to bring him back, was the reason he found himself suddenly so much stronger and even so was more powerful than he was, she bit back the words. The thoughts, though, slashed and scraped at the edges of his magic as she scowled out at the sea.

"I mean..." The hostility suddenly tastes sour in Flora's mouth as her toes clench uncomfortably in her shoes. "-I think it has a better shot of working than picking a fight with them."

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky

JACK

"I," Jack says, quiet and dangerously calm by this point, "am gonna do whatever I have to, in order to keep you safe. An' if I thought that joinin' forces with Dahlia would do that, I would. But I don't. We're not part of the family, however they wanna phrase it, an' we never will be. We're either tools to be used until we're spent up, or we're in the way. So I plan to be right in the way." He shrugs his shoulders.

Relaxing unconsciously as the hostility seems to calm somewhat in Flora's mind, smoothing down its sharp edges even if he's by no means under the assumption that he's out of these proverbial woods, Jack heaves a sigh. "An' that's still your choice," he says - because two things can be true at once, annoyingly enough. "An' if it's what you wanna do, I won't stop you. I just don't expect you to stop me either."

when I look at something, I see it for what it could be
when I look at something, I see how it ends

Code stolen from Queen Sky

Flora

"Tools to be used," Flora repeats incredulously. It feels as though the colour has drained out of the world as much as it has drained out of her face, leaving the Doubletake feeling numb and suddenly quite cold in the absence of her fury. Every word out of his mouth sounded like a horrific blend between Ronin and Remi, with the Bastion's bullheaded desire to just place himself in danger combined with the Knight's need to protect and defend.

She was overreacting, clearly, but something about how this had gone had struck a nerve so deep down in her core that she couldn't even describe the resonance of it given the way it rippled through her every thought. "Oh, you wouldn't stop me, huh? You'd just let the only person you supposedly have ever been in love with go give up her soul to the enemy, even though you think it's the wrong thing to do, because you've suddenly got such a heart of gold?" Biting hard enough at the inside of her cheek to have splinters of pain prickling the back of her eyes, Flora rises sharply to her feet, unmindful of the way the sand shifted and sprayed beneath her.

"Good luck keeping me safe when Pierce carves you to pieces again." Tears spill down Flora's cheeks as her throat closes around the rest of what she wanted to say. Storming away back toward the city, the queen did her best to hold in her wracking sobs until she thought she was out of Jack's telepathic range.

It would only be later, curled up in her own bed rather than aboard the Ark, that she'd realize she hadn't been angry or furious with Jack at all.

She'd been terrified. Terrified that he'd get himself killed, again, all because of her.

~FIN

I don't like slow motion double vision in rose blush
I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush

Code stolen from Queen Sky