WARNING: Character death, may be spoiler-y, very disturbing. Inspired by the phrase,
"Blood flowed like the ink from a pen."
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It was Genis who awoke first, who found him kneeling there, rocking back and forth and staring from his gloves, to Zelos, and back again. "Red... such a pretty color, red. Where'd you get the red, Zelos?" His voice was high and reedy, his eyes wide, and his skin deadly pale, glistening with sweat.
"I'm not mad, Zelos. It doesn't show on my gloves, see? Get up, Zelos - I'm not mad, it's just ink!"
Genis trembled, averting his eyes as he pulled some gels from Raine's bag. As he set about healing the injuries the traitor chosen had inflicted on his friends, Lloyd's ceaseless chatter never ceased, providing an eerie backdrop to the already-terrible scene.
"Zelos, I'm not mad, you can get up, it's just pretty red ink... just ink..."
Having ministered to the last of the wounded - Regal, who merely had a large bump on his head - Genis tentatively approached his best friend, hands raised, doing his best to appear nonthreatening. "Lloyd?"
Lloyd turned, still on his knees, and Genis winced at the look on his face. "Professor? Zelos spilled ink on me!" Genis took a step forward, reaching slowly for his kendama as he did. "Lloyd... It's me, Genis, your friend. It's not Raine!"
Lloyd giggled, his voice cracking as he stared up from his position on the floor. "Don't be silly, professor! Genis is shorter than I am, you're taller! Now make Zelos get up; tell him I'm really not mad at him! It's just ink he spilled on me, just ink, Colette did it too just last week!" When Genis didn't reply, he seemed to forget he existed, returning to his rocking back and forth and crooning to the corpse. "Get up, Zelos... get up... you don't have to just lie there! It's only ink, I can wash it out!"
It was then that Genis realized what this scene reminded him of.
It had been when they were much younger; Colette had only just come to the school, and they were learning to write with quill and ink. Raine had not yet known just how clumsy the someday-Chosen was, and had seated her next to Lloyd during the exercise.
In the course of putting a closing flourish on her cursive A, she had upset the ink bottle all over her seatmate.
When she started apologizing, he had replied, grinning, "It's okay, Colette! It's just a little ink, don't look so down!"
He was snapped out of the memory by Lloyd's wails.
"Why are you taking him away! He only spilled ink on me! Don't hurt him, please!" The twin swordsman was sprawled on his stomach, wallowing heedlessly in Zelos' spilled blood as he clutched Raine's ankles, crying. Raine looked up from the burden she was sharing with Regal, the body of the dead chosen, and mouthed to her brother, "Get him off."
Lloyd didn't cease his wailing until Genis had clubbed him senseless with one of his own wooden training swords, and as he sank into merciful unconsciousness, he whimpered,
"Come back... Zelos... it's... only... ink..."
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Yep. The usual. Read, review, call me scary - you know the drill.