already legends

DANTE

Clemente wasn't here anymore and Dante couldn't bear to stay in the same room as his lifeless body as it laid out for others to see. Dante couldn't stay in the main sanctuary of the temple any longer when he could hardly bring himself to look at Clem when he had been first brought in. He'd done his crying over Clem and as others mourned over Rexanna, she would be missed, the young boy quietly slipped away back to the room he was sharing with Evie.

His entrance isn't subtle, nor quiet as the door slams behind him after he's entered from the hallway. He's unsure if it's the shock of seeing a dead body, the fact that it was Clem, or a twisted cocktail of both that had his stomach in knots. They should have been more careful. They should have stuck together like they always had and now Clementine was dead.

It carried such finality and he hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye. There was so much they had left to discuss and never could. They were supposed to grow old together, (well, he was,) and they weren't even given the chance.

His balled fist slams into the nearest table, causing the planted pots closest to the edge to wobble dangerously closer towards another untimely death. His creased brow ages him more than anything else as he slumps towards the floor, nails biting into the meat of his palm until blood wells in the creases. He couldn't even do anything for him; had no idea he was in trouble until it was too late.

"Fuck!" The cry comes from gritted teeth as he tries to push himself back up from the ground, feeling strength come to him without a struggle. The tears on his cheeks haven't yet dried before more have fallen as he turns to face Evie, angrily wiping tears with his sleeve, struggling to stay still as he paces the length of the table.

"He's dead. He's fucking dead and I couldn't--" Dante's voice breaks as he finally settles in a pile at her feet, leaving broken and dead plants in his wake. "I couldn't do anything, mom."

& the moon is the only light we'll see
no, i won't be afraid

EVIE

Evie doesn't move too close, doesn't crowd the boy that stands before Deimos with no sign of fear or intimidation. She hadn't known the other teenager beyond Dante's shared memories, had never done more than nod or smile in greeting. The boys had gravitated to different women, and Evie feels grief only at the loss of potential. Of life that every teenager should be assured. It makes her sick, sicker than she's ever felt, that Safrin would do this with her brother's fluid. That she would unashamedly murder an innocent boy, who had been brought already changed to this world, who had never uttered a word of consent and yet been thrust into the war between deities nevertheless.

War should never be fought with children. And here lies the pawn between two greater powers, no better than a lamb to slaughter.

And Dante...Dante is left in the wake of it. Just another mourning soul, left behind with nothing but memories and a lingering anger and grief that she cannot spare him from. Evie flinches at his outburst, so consumed in her own useless despair over this war that has defined her life from birth. The Abandoneds. The barrier. What part of the gods' bias has not tainted her life by now?

She is helpless to stand aside as he turns to her, wiping at his tears even as everything around him withers. Evie knows now what power he wields, has experienced it herself, and yet she goes to him fearlessly. Let him draw upon her if he needs. Let him rail against this unfair world that has stolen the only familiar thing he had. But let him do it while safely ensconced within her arms which come to cradle him close. To tuck him into her chest, and shield him with the curtain of her wildfire hair. Her own tears longer silently in the crest of her lashes, needing to be strong for this boy she loves so dearly. Kneeling there with him on the floor among the wreckage. "I'm so sorry, Dante." Her voice breaks. What can she say? There are no platitudes that will matter. Nothing that can take away this pain except time and the warmth of her arms, the assurance that she will never leave his side.

Don't look up, just let them think
There's no place else you'd rather be

DANTE

Dante's anger abates almost as quickly as it came when he feels Evie's arms embrace him. There was no denying that it continues to simmer there, just below the surface of his skin, and if he wasn't so exhausted and collapsed against her chest, he'd already be pacing again. Fidgeting, anything to take his mind off of the mess of anger and dread that had made itself home in his person without struggle.

If not for the sacrificial plants, he'd hardly have the energy to wrap his arms around her small frame in return. As it is, his grip is almost crushing. Clem was all he'd had from his past life. Sure, it hadn't been all shits and giggles, sunshine and roses. But they had been together and this was one path he couldn't follow him down. There wasn't a portal that went wherever Clem had gone.

"It isn't fair..." He sniffled against her neck, hiding his tear stained cheeks against the crook of her neck. He knew life didn't make these decisions to spite him, but there were gods in this land and they hadn't done anything. Not once had these gods influenced his time here in Caido, instead, only serving as a basis for the prejudice he'd witnessed. What kind of society was okay with this-- Powerful gods that couldn't do jack?

The ache in his chest was monumental now that'd he settled enough to feel. A halting sob slips from his lips as a new wave of tears tears from his throat. While anger and heartache swelled within him, shame wasn't showing it's head, completely at ease within his surrogate mother's arms. "It hurts, and I can't even do anything about it."

& the moon is the only light we'll see
no, i won't be afraid

EVIE

He burns out like a sputtering piece of coal, and the deadweight grief is almost worse than his flickering anger. She clings tight to him, wrapping around what she can even though he had outgrown her embrace long before she met him. Evie wishes that wasn't so, longs to have raised him herself, or to have found him earlier. Her love for him astounds her at times, and it makes it all the harder to see him suffering so deeply. His tears are damp and hot against her skin, and her own prick painfully along her lashes in empathetic response as she pulls him impossibly closer. "It's not. It's not fair, Dante, and I'm so sorry sweetheart." She can't say that Clem will be at peace with Mort, because his soul was not allowed to leave The Voice's grasp. She can't say that they will even be reunited, and Evie would rather cut her own heart out with a piece of the broken pottery that Dante had destroyed beneath them than tell him that. It's too raw, too soon, and the unfairness only seems to grow the more she considers it.

"All you can do is remember him. Honor him by continuing to live. Take it day by day, and know that he is watching over you always." She can't tell him to find purpose, not when he is still so newly deposited in this land. She can't tell him to move on, not when she knows how painful a loss such as this is. "I'm here. I'm here for you always, we'll get through this okay?" Somehow. Evie isn't sure how, but she'll figure out anything for the young boy in her arms.

Don't look up, just let them think
There's no place else you'd rather be

DANTE

Despite his previous anger, his current exhaustion gets the better of him as Evie continues to hold his lanky body close. When they first met perhaps he would've teased her for such an embrace, but as it stands now, he wouldn't trade her motherly affection for anything in the world. The tall boy makes himself as small as he possibly can with hunched shoulders and tucking his chin in, for once letting himself be the scared child that he hasn't outgrown just yet.

"Yeah... Yeah, I know. I..." Dante's voice cracks before he can continue, clearing his throat with a sniffle. "I really loved him, mom. What happens when the Ascended die? There's so many gods here, I'll see him again, right? Or... Maybe I could talk to him through them?" His confession of love hardly carries the weight it once might have had their relationship furthered past a teenage crush, past an inherent denial that still lingers and twists the romantic and familiar.

& the moon is the only light we'll see
no, i won't be afraid