So… in the honor of my one-year anniversary of me writing fanfiction on here and the first chapter of Forgive and Forget, I offer you: Shards of Memories in Between. I suck at titles, sue me.
I will be taking requests!
**I DO NOT OWN THE LYRICS INSERTED INTO THIS STORY, THEY BELONG TO LINKIN PARK**
I have pulled out the chorus twice, until the very end, because of how the story flows. The full lyrics are just a Google search away if you want them.
*WARNING: There is some blood, gore and a reasonable amount of swearing in this chapter.
Rythian Pov *the AU of Blackrock's explosion*
I remembered black skies, the lightning all around me as I waited for Zoeya to leave the castle and come to Baby Jim, where she'd proudly announce the nuke disabled and tease me for doubting her. We would return to our home and release the animals, and Teep would go scout out things while Zoeya and I went down to block off the room where the science had been and go back to our lives as usual.
But that didn't happen. I now stood beneath a tree, waiting and watching in the pouring rain, not caring when I got soaked or how the water tingled against my skin, like an itch. I remembered each flash of lightning, until I saw a bright flash from the direction of the castle and a ground-shaking boom. My first thought was that lighting had hit the half-completed Mage Tower again, until a wave of shrapnel washed over me.
I panicked as time began to blur, and I only thought of finding Zoeya and hoping she was okay. She would always respawn, but injuries were only healed by respawning if they killed you or if they were fairly small and you were lucky.
A piece of basalt brick smashed into me, ripping through my mask and grazing over my secrets beneath. My Enderside cackled horribly in my mind. The bittersweet irony was like a startling sign that fate had finally found me…
The stress is turning me into a freaking poet now. What next, insanity?
Probably, to be honest.
You have had this coming for a very long time, you know. It's what you deserve for being who you are.
…and Your voice was all I heard, that I get what I deserve. I raced to Blackrock with my Swiftwolf's Rending Gale, my mind numb. Please, this can't be happening, please, not her, not her…
There was nothing in sight
A painting somehow mostly intact, from when she'd decorated the main hall. A little piece of chalk from our "Science-free" chalkboard. The book I had taught her the origins of alchemical magic from. A little red and white mushroom. A scorched piece of blue blanket from the bed we'd ended up sharing. …left abandoned.
There was nowhere to hide from the fact that Blackrock Stronghold, the home we built together, was destroyed and my apprentice- no, she was so much more than that, I love her- love (d) her- and I had no idea where she could be.
The ashes of books, paintings, tools, everything we'd made together, fell like snow as I tried to find her amongst rubble and flames. I screamed her name over and over- Zoeya, where are you, please be okay, Zoeya, please I need you, Zoeya can you hear me, please are you okay.- but finally Teep caught my attention by shooting an arrow close to me. I saw him by the remains of his tower, of which only a third of the first floor or so remained- and he motioned to me to follow him. And even though the ground caved in between where we were standing, collapsing into a pool of bubbling lava, I flew over and followed him.
I should have checked here first, the lake behind the mountain ridge- Zoeya's first respawn point, before we'd built Blackrock, because she couldn't respawn there if the place was destroyed – but I'd panicked and somehow thought that she could survive the explosion, because she was so beautiful and strong and brave- but no one would survive a nuke exploding from that close, probably not even the Queen of the End.
Oh, I wished I'd checked here first because the water was red and I couldn't see her, meaning she had sank. I paused for a split second to pull off my boots and cape because I was no good to her if I drowned too, and I wasn't a great swimmer, and plunged into the midst of the red staining the once-beautiful lake.
The water was too clouded to see anything at all but I dove to the bottom anyway, where the red was less prominent, and there she was, red against red, lying peacefully on the lake bottom. Bubbles escaped from her lips and nose.
I swam to her and went to grab her arms, but grabbed her waist instead for reasons I didn't yet know of. I swam up as fast as I could and Teep helped me to pull her ashore. I gulp in some cool air whilst Teep manages to get Zoeya to cough up the water she'd swallowed- which was luckily not much.
She was covered in blood and scraps of what used to be our home. A large lump was swelling on her head and her hair was dark red from blood, not the fiery sunset that it should be.
That's when I saw it- her right arm was missing from the elbow down. Blood pooled onto the grass and I glimpsed white bone underneath. I grabbed a bandage from my alchemical bag and wrapped it around as quickly and gently as I could. Pink tinted the bandage quickly and I took a deep breath and pushed down on the wound as hard as I dared. Zoeya's eyelid's flickered and a faint moan escaped her lips. I blinked back the tears starting to sting my eyes, blinking rapidly as I told myself that it was for the best and I had to save what remained of her arm before she lost it completely.
Teep nudged me and tugged at my alchemical bag. I let him take it, never taking my eyes off Zoeya. The mute dinosaur opened the bag and pulled out various medical supplies and some towels. He started carefully drying off Zoeya's legs, cleaning up her various cuts, scrapes and burns as I stopped the blood flow from her ruined arm. Teep cared for her arm as well before I trusted the wound to not take her away from me again. I took over cleaning her injured arm of blood and then her head, carefully washing out the blood to return her hair to the original red I loved. I put ice on the swelling lump on her forehead and helped Teep move her injured arm into a sling that put pressure on the end so it hopefully wouldn't start bleed again.
Teep tapped my shoulder to get my attention and pointed to a slight rip at the bottom of her crop top. A large scar, almost fully healed, matched the shape underneath. Smaller wounds all around it still had sharp pieces of basalt brick and glass imbedded in it.
"That's the wound that…" I trail off, suddenly much preferring the silence of earlier. Teep just gives me one of his normal nods to say that he understands.
We continue to be silent as Teep carefully removed the shrapnel and put ointment on the wounds, and then bandaged them. I held Zoeya's remaining hand and hoped she would survive this.
I didn't notice that I had started shivering until Teep dropped my cape and boots along with some more towels onto my shoulders. I dried off as best I could and put the cape and boots back on. The wind coming off the lake was bitterly cold as the sun set, and even if Teep had put blankets over Zoeya, I feared the cold could potentially harm her further- her immune system wouldn't be able to fight off sickness while she was injured like this.
"Teep, do you still have a bed and stuff in your cave?" I ask. He pauses, thinking for a moment, and then nods. He picks up Zoeya with his bow across his shoulders and carries her carefully over the small ridge before I can protest that maybe I should carry her.
I know Teep's strong and that he'll take good care of her for the few minutes it'll take to safely move her to the cave, but I still want to be the one caring for her. At the moment I feel like I'm doing a terrible job taking care of her.
I try to focus on going ahead to the cave and shaking out the pillow and sheets, and change the dusty blankets for fresher ones from my thankfully crap-filled bag.
Teep comes in and lays her down gently. I cover her with the red blankets and sit down on the edge. Teep busies himself with sorting through the chest and setting food to cook in the furnace, though he glances over often at Zoeya and me.
I watch her breathing for a while and I get a bit worried about how small and faint it is. I settle for untangling her hair-Zoeya hates having knots in her hair, I know- and trying not to fret about anything too much.
By the time that I've fixed her hair, Teep has enlarged the cavern some more and has made two more beds for us. He catches my attention and points at Zoeya questioningly.
"I'll keep an eye on her, don't worry." I say, though I myself fear the worst.
Teep nods, satisfied, and proceeds to move some more things from my bag to the chest before leaving the cave and closing the door behind him.
I find myself at a loss at what to do yet again, but I don't think I'll be able to pull away from Zoeya's injured form. I run my fingers through her hair, remove her boots so she'll be more comfortable, and finally end up just tracing the outline of her beautiful face, careful to avoid the tiny bandages over the scrapes and cuts all over it.
I end up accidentally rubbing off some of her purple war paint and start. I've never seen her without the paint- it's even waterproof and she's always up before I am in the morning, when she fixes it or whatever. It's never occurred to me that she could be hiding something under the purple markings.
But sure enough, under both stripes is a scar running along the side of her face. I wonder how she got them- but she's never been open about her past before Tekkit-Topia, just like me. I shake my head and move her hair to cover the scars. Maybe I'll ask her when she's better.
Teep comes in just then, softly closing the door behind him. I turn to see him pulling things out of the alchemical bag. I force myself to walk the few steps away from the girl I love and help out my friend.
It turns out Teep was picking up things from the crater- a condenser, some books, mushrooms, fences, the painting I'd seen earlier, a somewhat dented computer monitor, a gold block, and other random things. He'd found a lot more stuff than I thought that there was.
"Thanks, Teep." I say gratefully. He just shrugs. I suppose it's fair enough if he is at loss as to what he should do right now, just like I am.
"Hey, one of us needs to keep an eye on her. I'll wake you up just after midnight, okay?" I say, but I don't really mean it as a question.
Teep shrugs, like whatever suits you best, and picks a bed. I continue sorting out the scavenged items, checking on Zoeya every five minutes or so. Eventually I'd sorted out everything and she still hadn't stirred at all. I was praying now, hoping she would somehow wake up.
Eventually, the moon got high enough to pour liquid moonlight through the windows in the door, and I couldn't find in myself to continue praying and hoping like this. If something were to happen, it would have already. Instead I picked up one of the books Teep had rescued earlier- not the one on basics of alchemy, but one I'd just starting reading before we'd discovered the nuke. I continued to check on Zoeya every fifteen minutes or so, but sitting on the edge of her bed like I was made it so I needed to only glance over her damaged arm and sleeping, peaceful face to make sure she wasn't getting worse.
About a hundred and fifty or so pages in, I came across a spell that caught my attention. It just might work.
It's won't work, you fool. She's doomed, and it's because of you. This is the price you pay and this is what you deserve. It's your entire fault.
And Your voice was all I heard, that I get what I deserve…
In every loss, in every lie, in every truth that you'd deny, and each regret and each goodbye…it was a mistake too great to hide. My Enderside continued to taunt.
And your voice was all I heard, that I get what I deserve…
I tried to ignore my Enderside and instead followed the instructions for the spell, though it was somewhat difficult to figure out.
I was just about to give up and say that the spell wouldn't work when I found myself in a seemingly different place.
It was blisteringly hot, full of red haze that reminded me of the Nether. A castle wall, one that looked exactly like Blackrock had, was in front of me. I approached, hardly daring to believe that the spell had actually worked.
The second I got close to the wall, a lava moat appeared. I jumped backwards, but a bridge of soulsand and Nether brick fences grew from nowhere, leading to double doors of iron. No pressure plates sat in front, nor button or tripwire but when I got close to them, they opened. The bridge dissolved behind me.
Inside was a garden of refreshingly cooler air, filled with flowers and mushrooms of all colours and sizes. In the middle of the garden was a simple fountain. Zoeya lay in the middle of the fountain between water spouts from a miniature volcano that had water instead of lava. I was pretty sure it would be exactly like Baby Jim if it was bigger.
"…Fishton…"
I walked forward, feeling more relaxed. Zoeya wasn't hurt at all here, she was fine. She was just sleeping, but she was murmuring something. I walked closer, hoping to hear more.
"…Crikey. Rythian! ...miss you… Rythian, I need you right now, the … Rythian, I-"
Before I catch on, an explosion louder than I ever thought possible roars all around me. Hot air, even more blistering than the air outside the walls washes over me as I'm thrown backwards from the sheer force.
I struggle to stand up and realize that everything has been blown to dust around us. Somehow I haven't been torn to pieces by shrapnel- in fact, I'm untouched. Zoeya now looks even worse than she did when we pulled her out of the lake earlier- her arm's blown off again, blood everywhere. The water from the Baby Jim replica turns to lava, but moments before I reach Zoeya, it turns back to water, slowly starting to wash away the blood and turn the water red. The temperature suddenly drops to freezing cold. The water starts turning to ice. I rush forward and pull Zoeya out of it, moving her to the gardens. I see the bleeding stop everywhere and the blood fade away before my eyes, but her arm's still gone. It's healed over now, though.
Zoeya starts shivering violently. Her lips turn blue and purple. She's soaked through and through with freezing water. I wrap my arms around her cold body, trying to warm her up. It doesn't seem to help much. I move her so she's curled into a corner between a tree and a giant mushroom, curled into a tiny ball. I take off her dripping cape and replace it with my own dry one, tossing hers over a nearby branch so it will dry faster. I move my cape enough to pull her freezing boots and socks off her trembling feet and tuck them under again. I hug her again, rubbing her shoulders, hoping she'll stop freezing.
Eventually she does as the warmth returns to the air, though I lose track of how long it's been. She wakes up against me, her head on my shoulder. Part of me wishes we could stay like this forever, but this world isn't real.
"How are you?" I ask softly.
"Much better thanks to you. And Teep, too. Can't forget Teep."
"I'm sorry." I whisper to her.
"Why?"
"You needed me. I wasn't there for you."
"It's okay, Rythie. I can't blame you. I'm glad you weren't hurt too."
"I… I still blame myself though. We could have done something else. I could have encased the nuke, or scared Lalna into removing it from underneath our base. You didn't even have any armour on when it exploded."
"I'm fine, Rythian. You can stop worrying about me. I mean, I'm awesome and everything!"
"No, I won't."
"'No, I won't' what?"
"Stop worrying. Please stop being so selfless. You lost half an arm. You died and came back again. Do you know how much that hurts me to see that I can't protect you? You are not okay so don't act like you are. Please… just be honest with me."
"If you're okay with being completely honest with me as long as I am with you, then it's a deal."
"Deal."
"You should go wake up Teep." She says with a sad but somehow also smug smile.
"Wait, what?"
The scene fades and I find myself leaning on the bedpost, protectively half-curled around Zoeya. I roll off and straighten up. Sure enough, when I look outside, it's just past midnight.
I wake Teep up for his shift and go to bed immediately, too tired for even nightmares to plague me tonight.
**ThisisalinebreakofmyOTPs***InTheLittleDream*Zoethian*Xephmadia*Sjinty*NanoCoffee*FourTris*Tobyanna*Carah*Percabeth*Jasper*Frazel*Caleo*Willyna*Tratie*Louonnor*Gwakota*HEvanley*
I wake up in the morning to voices outside.
"What the bloody hell happened here?"
"Do you think everyone's okay?"
"I sure hope so…"
"Hey, it's Teep! Whoa, don't shoot me! I'm sorry!"
Rythian figured that he should probably get outside and see what on earth was happening. He first got a clean mask and put away the ripped one, then stepped out.
Outside, Sjin, Sips, Minty and Kim were talking-or, rather, attempting to communicate with Teep. Minty spotted me first.
"Rythian, what on earth happened now?"
"Lalna happened." My voice is bitterer than I thought anyone's could ever be.
"Lalna?"
"He put a nuke under Blackrock. Zoeya… tried to defuse it. Something happened."
Kim blinks rapidly, like she can't understand what exactly I'm trying to imply. Sjin frowns. Sips actually doesn't look surprised, but slightly worried. He'd likely hand over Sipsco before admitting it though.
"Is… is she okay?" Minty bursts out, but then freezes like she can't believe how insensitive she was possibly being.
"Depends on what you call 'okay.' But why are you all here?"
"Well, actually…" Sjin scuffles his feet nervously. "We had been talking, and, well, we decided… us four don't want to be fighting anyone anymore. We're going to join the neutral group." Sjin swallows nervously, like he's afraid I'll attack him out of nowhere.
"We could easily work something out. I don't have a problem with you four being neutral."
"Well, we can talk politics later, boys. Rythian, what in Notch's name happened, exactly?"
"I'm not really sure. But long story short, Lalna put a nuke under Blackrock Hold. He told us himself. Gloated, actually. Zoeya, Teep and I had been… not exactly in touch at that time, but we were all there when he said so. Zoeya and Teep came back here, even though it was already in disrepair from some mob attacks. Zoeya knew some science, said she'd disable it and everything would be fine. But it blew while she tried to defuse it. I don't know exactly what happened, if Lalna hit that button just then, or if she did something wrong, or if it was just a fluke…"
"When?" asks Kim. The poor girl, only about sixteen or seventeen, looks really shaken up.
"When did the nuke explode, you mean? Yesterday afternoon." I respond.
"Do you mind if I take a look at Zoeya? If not, that's fine, but-"Minty asks me.
"I'm not a healer, Minty. I know you're a lot better at this kind of stuff. If you want to, I have no problem with it." A bit of a white lie, but if it's for Zoeya's own good it shouldn't matter.
"She's in the cave too, I presume?" Minty confirmed.
"Yeah. I'm glad that Teep had his old hangout so close. But… just a warning, it's really bad. Especially her right arm."
"Exactly how bad?" Minty asked, giving me a stern look.
"I'm not sure if you want to know, but you'll all find out eventually."
"In that case, maybe we should know." Sips spoke up. He'd been very quiet, but I had a hunch he'd been dragged along on this trip. Kim nods nervously, and Sjin shrugs. Minty is still gazing sternly at me.
"It's… half gone. From the elbow down." I say, trying to remain emotionless. The mask helps, as always. But my stomach keeps churning in emotions I can't untangle.
Kim blanches. Minty's stern gaze turns to horror and she looks away. Sips' jaw is a lot closer to the ground than it was a minute ago. Sjin is the most composed, but he's still looking quite shaken.
"Gone?" Kim echoes, nearly tearful now. Minty pats her on the back and brings her to the cave as she leaves to check on Zoeya.
"I'll just be… over there." Sips wanders off, tinkering with some small science thing.
"We should work out that treaty, if that's fine…" Sjin says, taking a few steps closer to the edge of the crater.
I look at Sjin. "So give me a good reason, Sjin. A good reason to prove me wrong, and to wash this memory clean. A legitimate reason." I challenge. I need to hear him be honest about this not being a trick before I can agree.
He doesn't flinch. "You care for Zoeya, a lot. I know that. If her arm's gone, she'll need a prosthetic. Unless there's a magic one I've never heard of, a robotic one could work. If she wants it. She might know some science, but I've done most of the science for my farm, Sipsco and all of the old Tekkit-Topia things as well as helping out around Honeydew Inc. I can help, should you need it. If." He says quickly.
"Continue." I say coolly, though his words do a bit too well at striking home.
"We could always help you fix this place up, I mean, if you're planning on staying here…"
"I'm planning on staying here, unless her arm gets worse. Then I'll have to take her to Cabertown to get it looked after. I guess it's really just up to Zoeya, whatever she decides when she wakes up, and what Teep thinks."
"Well, whether you settle here again or somewhere else, I am a builder. Zoeya had a farm, too, didn't she? I can help you rebuild almost anything you'd need. Kim could probably help too, if she wants, though I'd suggest not having her build anything. Let the floods cross."
"'Let the floods cross'?" I repeat. Sjin flushes a bit in embarrassment.
"It's an old saying where I come from. It normally to alliance with someone for a project, typically artistic ones. Ever heard of the saying 'Floods of creativity'?"
"Yeah. Zoeya uses it a lot…" I trail off, distracted at the thought of the amazing redheaded girl again.
"The distance in your eyes when you talk about feel strongly about her, Rythian. You know it." Sjin says with a hint of a smirk.
"What do you mean?" I ask, grateful that my mask covers my blush.
"I know the difference between an apprentice and a girl you love, Rythian. I've got both. You've got both in one, but the latter overpowers apprenticeship."
"Whatever floats your boat, Melon suit man." I reply.
"Oi! Really, Rythian?"
"Yes, really."
"Fair enough." Sjin attempts to imitate my common phrase.
I shake my head to let him know that the jokes are over now.
"Let's get back on track. We should start this agreement simple. Give me reason, Sjin, to fill this hole, where our lives used to be, and to connect the space between my friends and yours. Why should I agree to peace with you and start to repair what happened here?"
"I really shouldn't be telling you all this, because it's your business…" Sjin replies after a long moment of contemplation. "But because you care about Zoeya, and she cares about Blackrock. Because I don't want to fight this out anymore. I want to settle down with Minty, teach Kim, and mess around with Sips. I'm more about building things and growing things, creating and making things, than burning and destroying them. I'm not always like that, but really, at first I felt it was just a joke, a prank. Then the old world blew up. Then I had two powerful enemies, and I was too far in to get back out. But now I think we can fix this, peacefully." He looks at me seriously. "Sound good to you?"
"Sounds fine to me. Let it be enough… hopefully it will be enough… to reach the truth that lies across this new divide. There is still a divide, Sjin, just a newer and smaller one."
"Across this new divide of ours. The small divide between us, and the growing divide between you and Lalna,and however it goes with anyone else." Sjin agrees readily. We shake on it, and I let a smile play under my mask even if the farmer couldn't see it.
Across this new divide… the crater echoes our words, bouncing them off the mountains and off into the forest, where they disparate like our hard feelings.
"Rythian!" Kim comes flying down the mountain, smiling a bit now. "Zoeya's up, and she said she'd like to talk to you. As soon as possible."
I jump a bit at the words Zoeya's up and Sjin notices. He chuckles. I roll my purple eyes and toss a small glare over my shoulder at his smug, grinning expression and take off up the mountainside, to make sure that Zoeya Proasheck, my fiery, mushroom-loving, beautiful, awesome, brave, redheaded, amazing apprentice –No, she's so much more, I miss her, need her, love her- is going to be okay.
"No, Rythian, I'm not okay. I'm awesome and Pro-as-heck! It's even in my last name! How could you forget that? The nuke? I eat nukes for breakfast!"
I'm proud of this. I really am. So welcome to Shards of Memory in Between! Shoutout to Featherflower for being my Beta, and for pointing out that Rythian sounded a bit too poetic at times, which I hopefully fixed.
I've put this out one the year anniversary of the first chapter of Forgive and Forget, and thus this whole AU, so I hope you enjoyed.
Including this one-shot, the two stories and the other one-shot, we have 9, 051 views; 82 reviews; 55, 217 words; 30 chapters; 30 follows; 25 favourites; and an all around awesome bunch of readers! This is all thanks to you!
Okay… so I currently have one request: Krystal-Glass asked for me to write Rythian proposing to Zoeya. I actually have a few ideas for a fluffy bit like that. ;)
Remember, I'm looking for suggestions in reviews or PMs- word prompts, songfics, a ship (Sorry but for stories' sake I might get picky with the ship.)
-Spirit