Kor and Raven

Prologue: the break

She had seen him be born. She had tried so hard to save Gamma, and he had eventually been saved, and they had returned home, and he had been born. Sprung full-formed like Minerva from Gamma's head, finding himself in a body for once, his own real true body, born of love for her. He had loved her, and so had taken the ultimate risk and been brought into the world. And she had loved him in return.

He had seen her die. He had seen her die and done nothing. She had dove into the chilly water and died and he did nothing and he had to bring her back up and she was okay. She was okay, but still it hurt him. He remembered when Gamma had given her the Curse of the Phoenix—it had passed from Ali to him, and from him to her, in the spaceship on the way home from rescuing him. Now they were all phoenixes, all cursed to a never-ending life and a weakness for cold—not bad, usually, but she hurt so much… and he had been unable to save her, and seen her come back fully formed.

He had gone off looking for food, and gotten lost, spending three days in the wilderness. He had returned and she had been gone. Ali told him a sob story of her kneeling in cold water and losing the use of her legs, of creating a magical sort of hovering chair for her, and of her suddenly leaving and not coming home that night. He worried for her, but what could he do? He had no idea where to look for her. But he knew why she had gone, and it scared him.

He had seen before that, seen her study all forms of magic before coming upon necromancy. He had seen her gather up some live rabbits and some grave dirt and go to the place where her dead fiancée lay, and seen her return with said fiancée- who apparently now had a tail. Indou, he called himself now, no longer Ronin but Indou. And had seen her sadness at having to choose between the two. He tried to keep the peace, but inside he was devastated. He had gone to such lengths for her, and all she wanted was this corpse of a man, who died and left her. Not the one who was around when she was sobbing over him, but the one who made her sob. And now she was gone, vanished.

They both were there when she returned, both witnessing the horror. Her ears… were gone. Just plain gone, a little circle of scar tissue at the base where each fluffy furry ear used to perch. Her legs were still useless, and her eyes were sad. By looking away, she could tune them out entirely. They spent a few days arguing before she agreed to use the Curse, but she worried overmuch about the psychological effects on them. Indou, to his credit, didn't move a muscle until it was time to pull her from the water, though he knew firsthand what the fox-man must be feeling. After all, he had seen her die.

He offered, in consolation, to let Indou hold the egg, and he did in deed hold it, as the energies swirled around, miko fighting demon for a chance to gain a wee bit more hold on the next form. Indou carried it towards a tree… and tripped, the egg flying from his hands.

With a startled cry, he lunged at the egg, catching it as it hit… but the impact caused a crack to split the vulnerable egg in two. He screamed as bright light engulfed the egg, grabbing for her to fix it as the light blinded him. When his eyes cleared he was holding an egg… and so was Indou. They both hatched into phoenixes, and he bit his lip, wondering what was going on.
"Kor?"

"…Beta?"

"…Indou?"