It isn't the first time something like this happened, but Rose wasn't awake for it last time, so she is completely unprepared for how the sound of the gun firing pales against the feeling of air being torn from her lungs.
(She'd felt it afterward, that aching hollow in her chest, but not the moment when a soul was ripped straight out of her own-)
Rose remembers with a start that it's not actually her soul that's being mauled here and she spins, red and white robes flying around her as she turns towards Sorey, concern furrowing her brow. Like her, he's struggling to breathe, hand clenched in the fabric of that stupid-looking cape, just over the center of his chest. A moment ago, he wore green and white, but not anymore. He looks suddenly small, which is stupid because even if he is way younger than her he's also a head taller.
Before she can call out to him he grits his teeth, reorients, calls Edna's name, and Rose feels the familiar echoes of power wash along their shared connection. He blooms orange and white, startlingly bright in the gloom as scattered stones and chunks of rock rise from the ground, forming the protective fists on either side.
Rose doesn't realize her legs are still trembling at that uneven empty hole in her heart until she hears Lailah, her voice echoing within Rose's head even as Rose's own vocal cords thrum with the words unspoken.
"Whoopsie daisy," Lailah chirps, and Rose feels her body warm, the trembles beginning to subside. "Are you alright, Rose?"
"'Course," Rose growls, and before Lailah can ask more questions (soft and concerned and sweet) she ducks beneath one of the twin stone gauntlets, using it as cover before she twists her body through the air. Her massive sword comes down square on her target.
She'd never admit it because she once called it creepy, but she likes the way flames flicker across her knuckles, likes the way they don't feel like flames at all, rather like warm sunlight and hair brushing her cheek...
She banishes that thought before she can dwell on it, lands unevenly on the rubble and bends her knees to re-balance her weight. Unbidden, another thought comes to her; depending on how things go, this might be the last time she and Lailah fight together like this.
This time Lailah catches her train of thought before she can shove it away, and giggles.
Rose ducks beneath a clawed limb, rolls to a safe spot, and fires a fiery blast from the tip of her sword to the background music of that laugh before Lailah speaks.
"Don't you worry about me. As long as you can make it out, I'll find you."
Lailah's nervousness shines through beneath the thin veneer of cheer. For all of Lailah's age and experience, she's never pulled a stunt like this before.
Oddly enough, this makes Rose feel better. Their odds aren't good, but she's always managed to pull off risky gambles before. If her luck weren't insanely good this far, she wouldn't be here now.
Or insanely bad, she thinks, mostly to herself, but the corners of her lips quirk upwards when Lailah laughs again.
Her fireball strikes the beast at the same time that a great stone fist buries itself in the creature's side, and it reels back. Rose straightens up and her left leg twists and screams with pain beneath her. She must have pulled something during that last roll.
It's almost ironic. She's always pulling off crazy flips and leaps and it's this, a stupid simple roll that defeats her. Never mind that the terrain is crumbling around her; never mind that a monster the size of a goddamn house is doing it's best to squish her flat.
She almost laughs at how ridiculous it is, but Edna laughs for her instead, a derisive snort in the back of her brain as the floor beneath her lights up in ancient sigils. The afterimages dance before her eyes as she raises her gaze and readies her sword again, the pain ebbing from her muscles, not just her leg but injuries she hadn't even noticed yet.
"Rose!" Lailah's voice is her only warning before the creature lunges for her, and this time she jumps, clears the limb with room to spare. She lands on top and races up its arm- she can't believe she's getting away with this, Sorey and Edna must be giving it hell down there- before plunging that sacred blade deep into the juncture of the shoulder and neck.
It's only her tight grip on the hilt that keeps her from going flying as the beast thrashes and howls, and a few moments later when it shudders to a stop, she plants her heel on its flesh to wrench the blade from the wound.
By the time she hits the platform, rolling back to her feet, Sorey's drawn back, fumbling with the gun for a second time.
Edna gripes in her mind, "Hurry up alrea-" and then Rose's knees buckle again as a second piece of her heart is ripped out at the roots. (She knows it's not her heart, not really, but she feels it like a real wound deep in her chest. This squire business is no joke.)
After a moment of trying to stay on her feet she realizes the problem isn't her- or not all her at least. The platform is jumping and bucking, cracks spreading spider thin across the surface. Edna must have been holding it together with sheer willpower, but now that she's gone, there's nothing to stop it from crumbling away beneath them.
Two down, two to go, and the monster seems barely affected. Rose feels a sense of horror beginning to churn in her stomach; it's not working. It's not working, and they didn't figure it out until two of their friends were already gone. But if they turn back at this point, they really are as good as dead, so Rose darts forward again, a strangled yell rattling in her lungs. The only way now is forward.
Fighting a beast isn't much different from fighting a human, not really, and even if it had been Rose has had plenty of practice with killing things other than people these past few months.
Still, she's glad that in the end their foe appears to them as a monster instead of a man; if not for her own sake, then for Sorey's.
Something flies past her left shoulder and buries itself in the creature's hide. Rose feels cool mist spray her cheek as it whistles past, like morning rain, and her eyes find the arrow lodged in place just moments before it dissolved back to liquid and leaves a nasty wound behind.
Rose has only time for a quick glance behind her, a quick glimpse of Sorey in white and blue with his mouth set in a grim line, before she's moving again. Out of all the combinations they've tried, she's most used to this; used to holding the front line while he proves cover fire from the rear, so it's almost habit by now, how she puts herself between him and the monster, and then her sword between herself and the creature's claws and teeth. Lailah talks her through some of the more complicated spells, but her words aren't really needed. The flames racing through her veins are second nature by now.
Maybe it's that familiar ease or maybe the creature really is slowing down, but it's only a matter of minutes before it's crumpling to the ground again, and Rose pauses to catch her breath, shoulders heaving. She uses the sword to keep herself upright, jabbing the tip into the one of the spreading cracks. It's probably terrible to treat a precious relic so casually, but the ground won't hurt it any more than a little monster blood would. Either way, Rose just can't bring herself to care.
Even though she knows it's coming the gunshot still shakes her, and it hurts just like had it had for the others, Lailah's light now rattling all alone in a space meant for four. Rose refuses to think how it will feel when it's gone.
"Oh, dear," Lailah murmurs, and Rose realizes Sorey's down on one knee, clutching at his chest again, "That's my cue."
Rose's mouth is suddenly very dry as she scrambles to reply, but then the warm glow in her mind is gone, white robes dissolving into her jacket and tunic, and she feels a hand on her back between her shoulder blades in what she at first thinks is a reassuring pat- at least until the hand pushes her, knocking her off balance. Her stumble causes a hefty chunk of debris to miss her by a hair as it flies past her head.
She feels the echo of fire wash through her, faint and not nearly enough as Lailah reaches his side. Her knives are cold in her hands and seem terribly small, although they've always served her well before.
Rose has fought most of her life without the power of seraphim to aid her, but against an enemy like this she feels crushingly alone. Small and fragile and only human- but that kind of self pity gets her nowhere. She dashes forward yet again through the cold dead air, a grin splitting her face.
"As long as you can make it out," Lailah had promised, "I'll find you."
Rose intends to hold her to it.
. . .
Some quick notes about this fic:
I don't think Tales of Zestiria was designed with the second player in mind. When I played with my friend, she was player 1 and controlled Sorey, and I was player 2 and controlled whoever else we had (usually Alisha, Mikleo, and later Rose.) There were times when she'd armatize with my character without warning and I'd lose all control, and it was like HEY...
and then in the final battle, after 3/4 of the Seraphim are shot, player 2 is left with Just Rose. After a game of being able to armatize and harness the elements and rely on healing artes and spells and shit, you're Just Rose. And it's scary, and you can't just hang back because if you don't deal enough damage he'll do the attack thingy and kick your ass. And, yeah, it's a weird feeling, that i think was a nice unintended effect of Zestiria not really planning for its player 2.
Also, about the order here: If I'd been controlling the sequence, I probably would have done Zaveid-Edna-Lailah-Mikleo, but my friend wanted to Lailah last. It was really important to her! So that's how I ended up putting it in this fic. And it worked out, I think.
Anyway I haven't written anything in a long time so this probably sucks. Thanks for reading!