I swear I never dream that we're alone
Takes place directly after seconds, and first steps.
The sand was cold beneath his bare feet.
Ronin didn't remember getting to the beach - he didn't think to look behind him, or ahead. The feeling of a little hand gripping his own was still there, lingering like a ghost, and the storm continued to churn within.
Above him he knew the stars were shining. Laughing, he thought, if he stared up at them too hard. Closing his eyes didn't help; Safrin's smug smile waited for him there, interspersed with the trust on Seren's face and the small but oh so significant similarities to another little girl that Ronin had once cared for.
He had not, of course, abandoned his new daughter in Haulani. His projection stayed there with her, a silent guardian as she slept, while he...
While...
Breath hitching in his chest, Ronin suddenly found himself overcome with nausea, and his wavering footprints in the sand meandered to a nearby palm tree. Holding onto the rough bark as if it were a lifeline, there was very little in the Dark Star to throw up, but he was sick all the same, coughing and retching until the convulsions in his stomach calmed to something a little more manageable.
Something else came in its wake, however, and Ronin felt it just the same as he had back in the Temple, only this time it was between him and the beach. It built, a fire searing inside him begging for release. And when the supernova did rip from him in a blast of celestial light that briefly illuminated the beach, it was accompanied by a sound Ronin had never heard from himself. Tearing from his throat came a roar of something inhuman, of fury and confusion, of pain and betrayal.
And when it was gone and silent, he felt so, so small. So insignificant, this plaything of the gods, with a hole punched through his chest where his daughter used to be. And now he was expected to...
She just wanted him to...
Had threatened that...
Ronin made it a few steps further down the beach before he gave up, slumping in the sand with his eyes on the sea. Remi... He called for his counterpart on autopilot, his tone soft and sad, and he had no idea if the alchemist would even hear him.
The sand was cold beneath his bare feet.
Ronin didn't remember getting to the beach - he didn't think to look behind him, or ahead. The feeling of a little hand gripping his own was still there, lingering like a ghost, and the storm continued to churn within.
Above him he knew the stars were shining. Laughing, he thought, if he stared up at them too hard. Closing his eyes didn't help; Safrin's smug smile waited for him there, interspersed with the trust on Seren's face and the small but oh so significant similarities to another little girl that Ronin had once cared for.
He had not, of course, abandoned his new daughter in Haulani. His projection stayed there with her, a silent guardian as she slept, while he...
While...
Breath hitching in his chest, Ronin suddenly found himself overcome with nausea, and his wavering footprints in the sand meandered to a nearby palm tree. Holding onto the rough bark as if it were a lifeline, there was very little in the Dark Star to throw up, but he was sick all the same, coughing and retching until the convulsions in his stomach calmed to something a little more manageable.
Something else came in its wake, however, and Ronin felt it just the same as he had back in the Temple, only this time it was between him and the beach. It built, a fire searing inside him begging for release. And when the supernova did rip from him in a blast of celestial light that briefly illuminated the beach, it was accompanied by a sound Ronin had never heard from himself. Tearing from his throat came a roar of something inhuman, of fury and confusion, of pain and betrayal.
And when it was gone and silent, he felt so, so small. So insignificant, this plaything of the gods, with a hole punched through his chest where his daughter used to be. And now he was expected to...
She just wanted him to...
Had threatened that...
Ronin made it a few steps further down the beach before he gave up, slumping in the sand with his eyes on the sea. Remi... He called for his counterpart on autopilot, his tone soft and sad, and he had no idea if the alchemist would even hear him.
the dark star
