She felt the aether gently twist and turn around her, softly but insistently luring her eyes open. The warmth of someone's body under hers, their arms around her, but even more; their aether gently enveloping hers.
Soothing darkness mingling with her light, mixing and flowing together like the most natural thing in the world; like they were made to be so.
Pure white and pure black, joined as one, eating away at corrupting purple and smothering blue.
Memories jolted her into consciousness, recognition that she was not at the Crystarium anymore. An apartment, eerily similar to hers back at the source.
But not quite.
"Where are we?" She should know. She feels that she should know. But it keeps hiding, a fleeting notion at the edges of her mind.
"Home. Or rather, as best a recreation as I could make with limited time. Memories are a fickle thing, even for one such as me." Emet smiled sadly, gently pushing both of them off the bed, all but floating to their feet, yet never letting go of her.
"You mean, our first home? Before all this madness began?" She moved over to the nearby desk, running her fingers against the edge and taking in every detail. "Why does it look like my apartment?"
Emet paused. "What do you mean, love?"
"This is a memory, right? Your memory?" The Warrior of Light asked, double checking every corner.
"'Tis a mental recreation based on such, yes. A memory on its own is insubstantial, fleeti-" The Ascian's form stumbled when she grabbed their hands, a crude and sudden pull on their soul. Only to find themselves in what anyone would classify as a painstaking recreation of the place they'd made, with the limited means of the Source.
The same layout, the same colours. The closest approximations of appliances one could get. A sad but impressive attempt to create a place of belonging.
"Is this- where you live? Surely you jest." This would mean that she remembers. Maybe not everything, maybe she's not even aware of it. But her soul remembers. For the first time since-
-since the fall of Amaurot.
"I am afraid I am not yet able to 'jest' my own memories, Em-" She stopped, the words finally reaching a peak of wrongness in her being.
"Your name is not Emet-Selch. I do not like calling you so."
"Truly? Then pray tell, what is my name?" This was torture. For the first time in twelve thousand years, they had hope. Hope that this time, perhaps, they would find another way. That they could cease carrying the burden of an entire race on their shoulders alone.
Hope is terrifying.
"H-. It's H-oh godsdamnit. Why can't I remember the rest? It's right there! Why can't I grasp it in my mind? Your real name starts with an H, I know that. This is infuriating!" She pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead, as if she could force the words to form.
Even if she could, her chance was taken away by an embrace so desperate, an enveloping of her light in darkness so firm yet trembling that her breath was taken away. All she could see was the fur of their coat, all she could hear was a heartbeat and hitched breaths.
All she could feel was the indescribable pain of the soul clinging to hers, grasping and holding onto her being like a lifeline to a drowning child.
"Can I ask you for a promise?" Their voice was strangled, every bit of strength of a paragon behind it simply to hold back sobs from becoming wailing and keening. They still had an iota of pride.
That, and if they started it, they might not ever be able to stop.
"Yes." She could feel her hair becoming damp, but right now that didn't matter. Right now, she could see herself holding Haurchefant in despair as his life ebbed away.
"Don't let me go. Please. Not now." Not when they could see her being close. Not when they finally might have a light to guide them home. To give them a chance to walk away. To show them a path to her, to the real her.
"I won't." She wrapped her arms around them, and like such they stayed. For how long, she didn't know.
"Well. Seems like I'm late." Ardbert's soul quipped, staring at the- and there was no other way to say it; Ascian currently holding the Warrior of Light. On her bed.
Emet sighed, cracking one eye open as their consciousness came back to reality. "Joy of joys. This is why I have never bothered with your shards. No sense of privacy whatsoever, is that not right; ghost?"
Said Warrior of Light blinked a few times, readjusting to being corporeal again. "I swear to the twelve, do I need to put up wards? Or is even that not going to stop people randomly appearing in my chambers?"
"When I asked you to not make the same mistakes, I did not intend for you to turn entirely on your heels. You can't trust them! None of them! We did, and look at what happened! It cost us everything we held dear." His head dipped. "Don't do this."
Her expression soured in offense. "I did not turn on my heels. What, do you expect me to raze the city and bring about the calamity come daybreak? Swear allegiance to Zodiark and start burning babies for fun?"
She didn't see, but could feel Emet's grin beneath her. "It would be endlessly entertaining, I will say that much."
"I beg of you, at least be cautious. You know all they want is to bring about calamities, regardless of their other intentions. Please never forget that." He had to at least make some sort of point. She was the very last shred of hope for this world he tried so hard to save. He could do nothing more but try and guide her.
"I am s-" Emet stopped themselves in self-pedantry "-laying right here. And do not assume to know my true goals. Calamities are merely means, not an end." They rolled over, gently placing the Warrior of Light on her back before standing up, the dark tendrils of their soul radiating disdain at the spectre.
"The whole reason I stand here at this moment is to look for another way. To seek coexistence with her, and gods forbid, your kind. Because while the very notion of the latter disgusts me, she is worth it. Unlike the poor parody of her soul that you are." Their glare was withering, yet Ardbert did not back down.
"And I am to believe that an Ascian can have a change of heart? Because of love!? That suddenly the deaths and suffering of BILLIONS don't matter because, somehow, this time she's special!?" While he knew that interacting physically with the world was beyond him now, Ardbert was about to try interacting his axe with that infuriating face anyway.
"Enough!" A wall of aetherial fire separated the two, both looking towards its source: a rather annoyed blonde Elezen that pinned them both in place with a single, golden stare.
Taking a second to breathe and recompose herself, she continued. "Ardbert. I understand that this might seem unorthodox, but I know them. I've known them for a long time, even if I was not aware of that before. If they also seek a better way, is blind aggression not just a repeat of what led to the flood of light in the first place?"
He looked away. As much as it irked him, she had a point.
"And you." The Warrior of Light dissipated her spell, moving forwards and gently taking Emet's hands into hers. "Saving the world is tiresome enough on its own. I believe you, so could you perhaps not make me have to break up fights between you and every single one of my comrades?" She smiled tiredly.
They chuckled, pulling her closer. "'Tis like we're back in the Academia all over again. But very well, I promise to try. I will defend myself, however."
"All I can ask for. Well, that and some rest. Today has been exhausting in every sense of the word."
Incessant beeping slowly roused a sleepy mage, despite how much she wished it to not be so. She'd almost forgotten how the alarm set on her prototype tomestone even sounded, so often it was that it went unused, on account of her already being awake.
Once more she felt the warmth and softness of the body beneath hers, the soothing darkness under her light. For the first time in years, she even felt well rested.
"Good morning, Hero. You certainly took your time resting, not that I terribly mind in this particular case." They said with somehow a mix of a smirk and a genuine pleased smile, caressing the Warrior of Light's neck and cheek with a naked hand.
"'Morning, H-" The words died in her throat. "Oh hells, it's too early for me to be annoyed." A wide yawn with an accompanying stretching of her body only proved her point. It was then that she caught something on the corner of her eye.
The aetherial space where she kept her belongings, wide open atop the two. And of course, her new(once more)found lover browsing them like the window of a shop.
"Emet-Selch, are you spying on my things?" With a wave of her hand, the tear in reality metaphorically slammed shut, though their hand had managed to grasp a Gunblade from within.
"My apologies love, I just sought for a way to entertain myself that did not involve antagonizing your companions, as in keeping with my promise from last night. You must admit, my options here were rather limited if I wished to avoid waking you up." One of their finely shaped eyebrows quirked up. "I had thought you disliked calling me that."
"I do, which is why I've reserved it for occasions such as when you annoy me." Platinum blonde hair reflected the sunlight streaming through the window while she got up. Procrastinating was never her forte, and doubtlessly there would be much to do ere long. So refreshing herself it was.
"I shall endeavour to keep said moments to a minimum then." One more. One more to the seemingly ever growing pile of knives stabbing their heart at her being so close yet so far. 'Twas like watching a loved one delirious from disease.
Which, from a certain point of view, was not inaccurate. Yet it pained them to see all the same, because she was so close. They needed something to occupy their mind before melancholy overtook them. The weapon still on their hand was as good as anything else.
"Say, who created this design? 'Tis almost like a Bosjan and a Garlean gunblade made sweet, forbidden love to eachother." The irony tickled them. Forbidden love was indeed the notion of the day.
"You are talking to her. Neither of those fulfilled my needs, so I made my own." She brushed her hair. "I needed something with the ability to use aether but that could also strike at range. It uses a modified loading system that can divert power to an aetherochemical chamber for firing if required."
Emet smiled wistfully. How like their lover, to see designs and seek to improve them in ways completely ignoring any sort of cultural taboo. Once an innovator, always an innovator it seemed.
"I will admit, 'tis a surprise to see you dabbling in a more martial art. From everything I'd seen, one would assume you to focus entirely on spellcraft." Even if they'd been remiss for a time.
"I normally do not, but weaving incantations when you have a rabid crown prince finding the meaning of life or somesuch by swinging blades at you gets tiresome after a while." The frustration in her voice at simply remembering it was palpable. And, to them, hilarious.
"Surely you jest, Hero? Did my great grandson truly exasperate you to the degree where you have invented an entire new subtype of weapon for the sole purpose of striking him down?" It was all they could to not fall into hysterics.
She whipped around, fully into a rant. "He had the gall to call me a friend! Can you believe that? Not only that, but to claim that we are one and the same, that we fight simply for the pleasure of it. The daft sod! This is merely my job, not what I enjoy!" She stopped herself before the rant went on for a bell.
"Nay, my love, tell me how you truly feel." The Warrior of Light stared at that smug, amused, unfairly handsome face. Quite how the Ascian had managed to craft a visage more handsome than even the form she knew before, despite being a female one at that (which one would think to naturally lean towards beautiful rather than handsome), would forever be a mystery.
"Very funny." Despite herself, she couldn't help but smile. "Now come, I am sure they are waiting for us by now."
Shrugging, Emet followed the one soul who made existence still worth it for them.