Duty is heavier than a mountain; death is lighter than a feather.
-Traditional Japanese proverb
After having no luck finding Johnny the night before, much to Sonya's already growing irritation, she and Raiden had taken one of the last buses back to Johnny's villa. The entire ride had been unbearably silent, with Sonya sitting next to an uncomfortably distant Raiden who had been preoccupied with looking out the window, avoiding eye contact with her. Even though she had been right next to him, the only other person on the bus, she had felt incredibly lonely.
When they had gotten off in front of the gate to the complex, Raiden didn't utter a word as Sonya punched in the code to open the front gate. He was silent the entire way back up to the house, when Sonya found the spare key behind Johnny's mailbox, and when they set the groceries on the counter, heading back to his room without a word. Feeling defeated, Sonya had grudgingly trekked upstairs, found some spare pajamas, and crashed on the couch, leaving the TV on while she slept on the off chance that Johnny would stumble in at some point.
Now it was morning, and there was still no sign of Johnny. Tired, even though she had fallen asleep fairly quickly, Sonya prepared a quick breakfast and left the appropriate condiments out. She decided she had no choice but to go out into the city herself and try to track Johnny down at this point. She feared what would occur if she was forced to go down to the police station and ask for help.
Rubbing some of the sleep from her eyes, Sonya made her way to Raiden's room and cracked the door open. Sunlight peeked familiarly out from behind the screens; at only seven in the morning, the day had only barely begun. Sonya saw Raiden still tucked in under his covers, facing away from her. She felt conflicted about waking him up, but she knew it would be worse if he woke up to an empty house. He would probably think she had abandoned him.
"Raiden?" she called out softly. She decided against walking over to the bed, preferring not to see his expression, if he had one at all right now. She received no response.
"Raiden?" she cooed again, a little bit more loudly. This time she solicited a tired groan.
"I'm going out to look for Johnny," she explained, holding on to the doorknob. "There's breakfast on the table."
No answer.
"Got that?"
Raiden muttered something unintelligible in response. Sonya assumed it was confirmation.
"All right, then," Sonya said weakly, rubbing her eyes again. "I'll see you in a few hours, then."
Again she was met with silence. Deciding not to pursue the conversation any further, she quietly closed the door and made her way to the entrance, playing with the spare key in her pocket.
Raiden lay still for a few more moments.
Then he got up.
Sonya opened the door and was met with a chilly gust of morning air. Shivering, she pondered for a moment whether or not she could tough out the weather. Besides, it would warm up in the middle of the day, wouldn't it?
Unfortunately, the argument lost by the logic that she had been through enough already and probably deserved at least a damn jacket at this point.
Sighing, Sonya shut the door and made her way back to Raiden's room to see if she could soundlessly slip in and steal the jacket he had worn the night before.
She didn't see the car pull up outside of the gate as she went back inside. A battered and hungover Johnny dragged himself out of the backseat of the cab, leaning on the door for support.
"Ay, 'mon," the taxi driver called out to him, leaning and looking out the window with concern. "Ya sure you're alright, der?"
"…Dandy," Johnny replied sarcastically with a forced smile. He silently thanked Sonya for being the one with the foresight about the sunglasses now; he probably looked like a wreck. He rummaged around in his pocket for some spare cash and handed the driver whatever he had managed to dig out.
"Keep the change," Johnny stated lethargically, making his way to the gate to punch in his house code.
"…Really?" the driver called out incredulously, for Johnny had stuffed two Benjamins (and a loose button, but that was easily forgiven) in his hand without bothering to look at it.
Johnny waved the satisfied driver away without looking back, having already stepped inside of his property.
Raiden set himself up on the floor facing the direction of the sunlight. He kneeled in seiza position on a white towel he had seized the night before from one of Johnny's bathrooms, and he himself was donned in the white garb the Elder Gods had been so gracious to don him in before tossing him back into Earthrealm like week-old trash.
One of the tachi swords lay perfectly aligned in front of him. Before picking it up, however, he took a minute to meditate.
He lamented silently on how futile his efforts had become; his misconstruing of one simple message had sent everything spiraling into disaster. His allies were gone, his powers were gone (to a certain degree; it wasn't like he could go running around sabotaging the city power supply for a fix), and even now his attempts to correct things had blown up in his face. He couldn't figure out what Fujin was trying to tell him, and he was stuck in a world that was painfully far from how he had envisioned it. He had no idea how his vision of things on Earthrealm had become so distorted over the years.
And now here he was; a failure at what he had believed to be his life's purpose, and a burden to those who had been his remaining shots at making things right.
Raiden took a deep breath to clear his mind. He picked up the sword soundlessly and held it perfectly horizontally for a moment. His heart fell a little more as he realized even this was a mark of his failure, being stuck with inappropriate materials for a moment like this. If the Elder Gods were watching right now, they had to be laughing at his expense.
This was his last chance to make things right.
He turned the sword around and held the tip to his stomach.
He hissed, ready to drive it into his abdomen, but the sound of the door opening right behind him stopped him in his tracks.
He couldn't turn around completely in time, but he heard Sonya's cry of "NO!" pierce the air sharply before feeling her lunge for the sword.
Luckily, when she tackled him, Raiden had accidentally moved the sword away from his stomach in shock. However, he maintained a strong hold on it, even when Sonya was hanging off of his back and grabbing for the hilt. He struggled to bring himself to his feet so he could fight her more effectively, but Sonya apparently had excellent military training for taking down opponents in this manner.
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" she shrieked, grunting as she swiped for the weapon again. Raiden barely managed to keep it out of reach this time.
"I thought you said you were heading out!" he shouted as he tried to shake her off, hoping he wouldn't have to resort to brute force with his friend.
"Oh, what?" Sonya snapped as she continued to reach for his weapon. "I didn't factor into your schedule?"
Raiden had fairly solid footing at this point and was prepared to throw her across the room, when suddenly Sonya landed a grab on the sword. Reacting instinctively, Raiden jabbed his elbow into her rib cage. But he didn't see the degree to which his sword had aligned before doing so; in the confusion, it had angled backwards, and when he heard Sonya cry out weakly, he instantly knew he had made a mistake.
He whirled around and looked in horror at what he had done; Sonya, still somehow miraculously on two feet, held the large gash that had been made below her ribcage. When she pulled her hand away weakly, an enormous amount of blood was gushing out of the wound.
Sonya gave Raiden a petrified look before her knees crumpled underneath her; shouting out in protest, Raiden threw the sword on the ground and rushed to catch her before she hit the ground.
He was too busy stuffing the towel over her wound to stem the bleeding to hear someone rushing towards his door, evidently having heard the scuffle and subsequent outburst. Johnny threw the door open and gaped in terror at the scene.
"What the hell did you do?" he shouted at Raiden, who only looked back in alarm.
"Quickly!" he cried, ignoring Johnny's accusation. "Help her!"
Johnny forgot about his anger for a second as he rushed to Sonya's side. He took Sonya up in his arms and gasped at the severity of her injury. Raiden continued to hold the blood-soaked towel to her abdomen, however little good it did.
"Here," Raiden said, turning around to look for anything else that could help them. "I can…"
"No," Johnny cut him off abruptly. "You can't. Don't do anything."
Even under the stress of the situation, Raiden stopped to look at his friend in confusion.
"You've done enough," Johnny stated, giving Raiden a menacing glare that only served to make the latter feel even worse than he did already, which may have been the point.
"I'm taking her to the hospital," Johnny explained, turning to take Sonya out the door. "We'll probably blow our cover now, but it isn't worth having her die on our watch."
Johnny was at the door now and turned to give a helpless-looking Raiden one last admonition.
"I'm locking the house," he said. "If I find out you try anything else here while I'm gone," he warned, "I promise I'll track you down through hell and kick the shit out of you myself if I have to."
With that, he closed the door behind him with his foot, leaving Raiden behind with nothing but his own despair.
Johnny angled Sonya into the passenger seat of his Porsche, trying hard not to cause her any more pain. She was already looking drained and pale from blood loss.
He was just about to push her legs in when she grabbed his wrist, catching his attention. She looked like she was struggling as she tried to form words.
"…Don't…" she muttered weakly. "…don't… leave Raiden… alone…"
"Don't worry about that now," Johnny tried to assure her. "We'll figure it out when you're okay."
He couldn't tell whether Sonya was satisfied with the answer or if she simply didn't have the energy to respond, but he finished positioning her and shut the door, quickly running around to the driver's side so he wouldn't waste any more time getting her to the hospital.