Spoilers for episode 21. Enjoy!
Absolute Zero
It was the first time in his life a piece of his heart had frozen and died.
It had happened too fast for him to realize it, but when he did, Tieria's first and most paralyzing thought was Why?
What on earth had possessed Lockon to… for him…
And that was when he'd realized that a piece of his heart had frozen, shriveled at the absolute-zero terror that had latched onto his heart, pulling it down, down, wriggling to get a better grasp on the slippery organ that tattooed frantically. It lost its grasp and dropped like solid mercury onto his stomach, then rolled off and lay twitching amidst his gut, the cold spreading cell by cell until he gave a shiver.
Lockon.
The shivering wouldn't stop, making his path back to Ptolemy unsteady, but he did not have the capability at that moment to suspect that it was Exia's guidance on the other side of Dynames that kept him from straying.
It only got worse as Tieria tried not to stumble or bump into anything as he made his way to Dynames. Allelujah was already there, trying to push away the mangled mass of molten metal surrounding the cockpit and making the opening mechanism worthless. The gloves were ripping on the sharp metal, beadlets of blood floating in the vacuum. Tieria wasn't sure all of them were his.
Lockon.
Setsuna bumped into him as he staggered forward, eyes too wide and hands clenched as he landed next to Allelujah. The pounding of his hands on the metal seemed to echo the thunder in Tieria's ears. There was more noise, screams maybe, but they bounced off and became static against his head. The hole in Dynames's cockpit seemed to loom closer and closer to him without his acknowledgement, until his knees bumped into the tangled, hardened opening, no bigger than his chest. It was dark inside.
The only word that seemed to come to mind, even as he tried to piece his inner voice back together, was Lockon.
Lockon.
He reached a trembling arm inside.
The movement stirred the not-air inside and bumped goblets of blood out, floating past his face, mingling with the blurs at his side that he thought were touching him and speaking to him, the frantic tones filtering to sync with the one of his own voice thrashing hoarsely inside him, but he couldn't feel much past the trembling, couldn't hear over the white noise.
Lockon.
He could see the outline of his body, could see a spidery glimmer of light that made the terror-monster in his belly crawl with pleasure as he realized it was a cracked helmet. There was blood, and though he could not smell it, the stench of burnt flesh slithered into his brain. Lockon was there, he was dying. He strained his arm, pressing himself against the edges of the hole to reach as far as he could, to get Lockon, to save him, pushing with all his might, as the trembling grew and his heart shuddered and the metal dug into his suit, against his chest, still warm, bruising, Lockon.
He could not reach.
Lockon
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