Hello hello! Time for another chapter! I will stop my monologuing so, I hope you enjoy it! (I kinda liked writing it actually...)
Chapter 20: Strength of the Heart
Sollux had it set in his mind that he was going to die today. The moment Aradia grabbed his limp, jolted body in her telekinetic ability, he had solemnly accepted that he could not fight back to save his own life. He thought he was ready to fight her after having time to contemplate the nightmare he had, but he was wrong. When she lifted him off the ground, many feet into the air, he realized it would not be a quick and painless death. Erebus wanted him to suffer for as long as possible, and he made sure that Aradia would take his plan into effect. The Gemini troll had little time to react when his body was slammed onto the ground full force, once, twice, three times in a row before he was released momentarily.
A part of him wished Aradia didn't stop her assault so he wouldn't have to feel every bit of pain for a short while before Erebus would have her continue again. His bones ached at the harsh landings, and his head pounded, leaving him to question if he felt something warm dripping through his hair. Then he was grabbed again, and he braced himself to his best ability before he was tossed into the air over Aradia, higher than his last lift, then harshly thrown onto the ground, breaking the surface and sending an array of cracks through the earth. Blood filled his mouth, and the warmth on the back of his head increased, slipping down his neck. Deep cuts marred his body, just from the four times being thrown onto the ground. He felt Aradia's hold on him release again, and he weakly groaned, feeling his throat gurgle from the rising blood.
"How does it feel, Sollux?" Erebus laughed at his pain, echoing through the clouds as a rumble of thunder. "How does it feel to be hurt by someone you care about? How does it feel to be unable to fight back? She is an incredibly useful puppet, I found her thanks to your nightmares. Fear and suffering empower me, it just added fuel to the fire! Oh, how I love watching you suffer like this, there's nothing more satisfying to me than watching my enemy die by the hands of an old friend."
Sollux wanted nothing more than to curse at Erebus, but he could barely manage to release a groan as he shakily pulled himself up into a limp sitting position. His blood was allowed to freely flow from his mouth, dripping down the corners of his lips as he coughed it up, spattering it on the ground. The jolt of the lightning strike had mostly numbed his senses now, but he could still feel every bit of pain inside and out. He lifted his head up weakly, pushing his glasses higher on his nose as they somehow managed to stay on, determined to never lose sight of Aradia. She was slowly walking closer to him, a dark aura swirling around her intimidatingly, her expression blank with no emotion.
"It is truly pathetic that you can't lift a finger against her." snorted Erebus. "But I guess it makes this scene that much more enjoyable. I'll make sure you feel every injury, every cut, every bruise before you die."
Aradia halted by Hecate, lifting a few bloodstained ninja stars in her psychic powers before continuing toward Sollux. He tried to stand, but ended up falling over halfway. Streaks of yellow tears slid down his cheeks out of frustration, torment and sorrow. Every part of him screamed to fight back, to protect himself, but his heart and mind triumphed with tearful memories of Aradia. He had killed her once, he couldn't do it again, even if she was already technically dead and under control. This must have been his punishment for letting her die by his hands, too weak to stop it with willpower.
"I-I'm sorry… Aradia." He gasped out at her walking husk, wishing she could hear his sincere apology.
But the Aries female showed no signs of hearing or understanding him, and sent a single star spinning at him. It tore purposely through his upper arm, not deep enough to reach the bone, but enough to greatly effect Sollux. He grasped his bleeding wound with a cry, before another ninja star ripped through his side just under his ribs and another lodged into his leg. Again Aradia grabbed him, this time throwing him to the side where he tumbled and crashed, ceasing near Kanaya's tattered home. He was pretty sure he felt his right shoulder pop out of place during that grating roll, and found his thoughts to be correct as he wearily assessed his new arduous pain. Using his sketchy psionics, Sollux pushed it back into place though it hurt like hell in doing so.
Another of his ninja stars zoomed in from nowhere and unluckily drove itself into the same shoulder just fixed. He could no longer find it in him to cry out in pain, merely letting out a strangled grunt with every new wound received. Pulling out the star in his leg, as it has been shoved in deeper during his roll around, Sollux pushed himself onto his knees, elbows digging into the ground in a hopeless attempt to get him up. The taste of his blood was almost a natural flavor anymore, continuing to seep out of his mouth, and even from his nose now. He was starting to become dizzy, the amount of blood loss reaching its limit before he would pass out or drop dead. His body was trembling as he tried to stand again, though by now it was near impossible. Erebus let out another bellowing laugh, and Sollux felt his blood boil.
"I must say, the best part about this, is when you finally die, no one can stand in my way." The evil troll purred. "I can do whatever I want to the rest of your friends, to Saruna as well. Now that will be fun… I wish you could watch what I plan to do, but I'm afraid you will find some ridiculous power and manage to prevent it."
Sollux gritted his teeth, unwilling to imagine what Erebus was talking about, but when the black clouds swirled down to the ground in a tornado motion and he was standing but a few feet away from Sollux, the maniacal grin he held confirmed what he most dared not to think up. His pitch black eyes almost had a sick gleam to them as if he had it all thought out. It was all Sollux had to see to know how brutally treated Saruna would be in his possession.
"You… won't be…" Sollux choked on his own words and blood, unable to finish his pathetic threat attempt. His eyes locked on Erebus' feet, watching him come closer before he felt his hand grabbed the back of his hair and jerk him up. It hurt terribly, the bust in his skull from being slammed on the ground an imminent wound now, but it enabled him to look Erebus in the eye. How badly he wanted to spit in his face, but even that was an impossible task.
"Look at you, how I always knew you would be: pathetic." Erebus threw him back onto the ground in disgust and moved away from him. "I guess I am pretty satisfied now. Aradia, you can kill him off now, my dear, unless you want to play with him a little more."
As if on cue, another ninja star sliced over his back and he could only cringe at the sting of a new cut. Aradia had no decision in this, Erebus had her continuing to torture him until he would be holding onto a thin string to live. Sollux just wanted to die though. There was nothing more he wanted than to die. If a higher being could be so kind as to strike him dead, he would have appreciated it. He stared at Aradia with lidded eyes, breathing sporadically and questioning how he was still alive. Anyone else would have been dead by now, anyone else would have died on the first few ground slams. It had to have been a cruel karma on him. Aradia likely suffered when he killed her, so now he had to suffer. Then there was something in him that was so happy to see her there before him. He had missed her. He had missed seeing her.
Aradia lifted him, and he prayed she would end this. Instead of fulfilling his wishes, she threw him dangerously close to the lake, and he was tempted to try dragging himself into the waters to drown himself out of his anguish. His eyes flickered with weak psionics, his glasses finally falling from his face due to a broken earpiece after the last throw. He watched as the lake was pulled away from him, his body tight in Aradia's psychic grip.
So, it would finally be over.
Just like in his nightmare he would be crushed from the Aries trolls' closing fist. He was forced to watch it happen bit by bit, but his vision was becoming nothing more than a blur. His body felt like it was slowly being crushed under a heavy weight, like a serpent wrapping itself around him and squeezing the life out of him. Every breath was weaker, every sound was becoming muffled. Sollux saw the raging fire behind Aradia, dancing like giant fireflies around her frame, her long black hair swaying in the swirling winds. Even though it was obviously Aradia before him, Sollux found himself thinking about Saruna, thinking of how far she, Karkat, and Terezi must have been now. Had they reached the safety of the island yet? Were they worried about him?
A light, but noticeable smile found its way onto his lips. Saruna probably was worried about him, she usually did have concern about him. He hoped she wouldn't forget about him as he realized he could no longer breathe, the constriction now too great for his lungs to expand. He prayed that Karkat and Terezi would take care of her, protect her. If only… he could have stopped Erebus himself. And if only… he could have been with Saruna longer. His eyes fluttered closed, his smile twisting as he felt his ribs pressing lightly on his lungs expelling any air left in them. Soon, it would be over. He would die, and join all of his friends.
That was, until he heard the fiercest yell ring out and his body dropped to the ground in a heap.
When he inhaled, his lungs painfully filled with air and he was brought into a fit of coughs and chokes. What had just happened? He peeled his eyes open, desperately trying to focus on the moving blur in front of him. The first blur, likely Aradia, threw something, or rather someone off of her, but they came back faster than she could react, tackling her to the ground. Sollux heard their screams, but he was so disoriented that he couldn't recognize it well enough. He opened his mouth, attempting to speak but he fell into another fit of violent coughs and hacks. His body ached and throbbed, almost begging to die itself, but now Sollux was intrigued by the scene before him trying his hardest figure out what was happening. A flash of lightning nearly blinded him, but he knew Erebus would be intervening for a reason. He saw another bolt of lightning strike down, and he clenched his teeth as he begged his body to work. Sight, hearing, something! He just needed to know what was happening!
The blur of two fighters seemed to be rolling around, trying to see who was the strongest in pinning the other down. He could make out a arm from whoever was on top lifting up and down as if punching the bottom person over and over. Aradia wasn't one to punch… so whoever it was, was currently beating her down. Sollux thought too soon as Aradia threw the mysterious fighter off of her slamming her onto the ground with her psychic powers. However, the mysterious hero was a resilient fighter, the single slam appearing to have unfazed them as they pounced back onto Aradia, melding into a large blur again.
The fire seemed closer, its warmth recognizable to Sollux in his state of bewildered senses. His thoughts were jumbled, undecipherable as he somehow made his arm stretch out towards the blurry bodies locked in a struggle on the ground. They rolled out of sight, into the massive flames. Sollux heard a deep yell, recognizing it faintly as Erebus in pure frustration. Thunder rolled above him and suddenly he felt like he was getting wet.
Rain?
How was it raining if the clouds were Erebus? In a way it felt soothing, but shortly after it mostly just hurt feeling the rain become harder, hitting his every wound. The rain grew heavier, lessening the fire quickly until it was nothing but a smoldering field of black ash and dead grass. A lone figure stood in the middle of the blackened field, slightly hunched over and holding their left arm. They looked like they were coming closer to him. If it was Aradia, she was simply finishing the job she started, but if it was the other figure he had seen… he would be able to find out who it was finally. The figure didn't stop coming closer, and he wondered how Erebus was so inactive again after sending two strikes of lightning down. He came to realize why when he saw a concentration of black fall to the ground a few feet away from the figure. His vision was starting to focus a little better, so he squinted to try seeing easier.
A weak, shuddering gasp escaped him as his sight enabled him to recognize things again and he could barely bring himself to believe that it was Saruna who had been in that fight against Aradia. Seeing that she was standing there meant she had won somehow, but now that Erebus was merely feet away from her, he feared for her life. She glared at her ex-matesprite with fierce eyes, and he eagerly returned the glare ten fold. They appeared to have been speaking, but Sollux couldn't hear them enough to understand.
Saruna bared her fangs at Erebus suddenly, throwing her arm out with what Sollux vaguely recognized as the ninja star he gave her. A swirl of red and blue wisps moved in sync around her body, and Erebus actually stepped back from her, but he smirked and shook his head. He knew he could kill her, she knew he could kill her, Sollux knew he could kill her, but for some reason no one would be able to understand, Erebus backed away from Saruna and turned his back on her. It looked as though he was telling her something, before he disappeared in a flurry of black clouds and demonic laughter. Could he have given them a second chance at life as a mockery? He could have ended it there and then, so why didn't he? All Sollux knew was that he was overjoyed to see that Saruna was spared, though he had to wonder if he could say the same for himself. The darkness covering the planet eased on Erebus' departure, but clouds remained, releasing rain over the destruction on Kanaya's home island.
Saruna faced Sollux again, and he saw a stab in her upper arm, likely received from her battle with Aradia. The ninja star dropped from her slender fingers and she ran toward him, dropping to the floor at his side and reaching out to him with a trembling hand. Scarlet tears ran down her face, mixing with the rain cascading over them, but Sollux had never felt happier to see them. He had never been happier to see her. Her fingertips brushed over his cheek gently, and she looked him over, her tears falling out quicker with every scan. Sollux tried to speak, but it came out as a gurgled weak groan that she hushed in a soft tone. She sobbed, covering her mouth with her other hand as she shook her head with a melancholy expression.
"I'm so sorry…" Her voice echoed to him like they were in a cave as his vision began to blur again. "Hang on, Sollux… Just stay alive… please…"
Saruna… Sollux heard her last words "just stay alive" a few times as a gentle echo in his mind. Saruna… don't leave me…
He saw her twist her head around to see behind her and saw two other figures come to a stop at her side before he was finally swallowed up into a void of darkness. But he remembered feeling Saruna's hand tenderly caress his cheek as he slipped away into unconsciousness. He had never felt more safe and at peace.