Pain 2, Electric boogaloo at Echidna's tomb. Starring Betty and Subaru, unfortunately.
Haha! Hgfghksdfiedf. I have found a dialogue guide to garf's speech pattern. Thank all that is holy, but i'm still not fully committing to it. I've basically lost track of where everything is in the wn and don't feel like combing through a monster size arc for a few pieces of information
It was a ridiculous proposition, one that Subaru himself was surprised to have let slip. There were too many unknowns. How far could Beatrice go from the library? Was she allowed to go to Sanctuary? Could she even enter the tomb?
Even yet, he felt little urge to take back his offer of potentially reuniting the spirit with her supposed mother. He had little doubt that Roswaal might be up to something, and his reluctance to rely on telling Beatrice he was "that person" made giving this a shot actually sound feasible.
"Lies," she whispered shakily.
The flat, mildly annoyed expression that Beatrice often wore in Subaru's presence was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she seemed to flicker through a number of complicated emotions before contorting her face unpleasantly.
"They must be lies, I suppose. Mother would never neglect to tell me something of such high importance!" she snapped, voice growing more steady through anger.
Subaru rubbed the spot he'd once been smacked by her gospel. Such a deviance from her oh-so-beloved book, and one involving its very creator at that, would undoubtedly spark a fairly negative reaction. Having anticipated this, he attempted to compress everything he wanted to say into a few quick lines. "I can get into the tomb even though I'm not a mixed blood, and I ran into Echidna there."
"What th' hell?'' interrupted Garfiel. "Yer sayin' ya met th' witch? If ya think I'm lettin' that slide, you'd be crazy!"
"Don't ask me, I just got dropped into a tea party for a few moments. It's not as if I went looking for her," Subaru answered impatiently, and probably would've clicked his tongue if he was less wary of a certain loose canon's potential reaction.
Fortunately, despite Garfiel's forceful words, he actually didn't seem as hostile as he normally was. "Ha, I doubt she jus' shows up t'anyone who drops in. Then again, she's still a witch so I wouldn' know."
"How dare you refer to mother so insultingly, in fact!" Beatrice hissed.
"She's yer mom!?" Garfiel exclaimed, too off-kilter to sound annoyed.
They were getting off topic. Reluctantly, Subaru cut in with, "Beatrice, I'm not lying. Time's running out. I really will tell you if you make a deal with me."
Her lips were visibly quivering, whether it be from anger, hurt, or sadness, he didn't know. "Time? Time? My time's been running on for too long, in fact! If mother's soul is still alive, there's no way she would have let the gospel be silent all these years! Mother would have done something, I suppose!"
The bombshell dropped. Staring at her in a daze, he quietly asked, "You… your gospel… so you've been doing everything on your own this whole time?"
"I don't know why you suddenly look happy," muttered Beatrice, "but where is your proof that she's there, I suppose? Do you think I would believe the word of a fool so easily?"
Subaru sighed. "I guess you're right. Um, I don't really have any evidence, but-"
"He ain't lyin' 'bout that. I've met her once too," added Garfiel, surprisingly helpfully.
Both Beatrice and Subaru widened their eyes in surprise. "You have?" both said in unison, though she tacked in an "I suppose" at the end.
He gave a nod with his terse reply. "Was pretty short, though."
And with that, Subaru had some more substantial proof. Taking advantage of the situation, he once again turned to her and said, "If you help me, I'll try to help you. I promise."
She had clamped her mouth shut. Her hands were trembling. "I..I…"
"Please, Beatrice," he pleaded, head bowed. She made a pathetic noise.
Finally, something seemed to snap inside her. "Forgive me, mother," she whispered.
⁂
Betty could count on a single hand the number of times she had felt this conflicted in her four centuries of existence, and considering the amount of time she'd spend in the library with only her thoughts, she'd grudgingly admit that was an impressive feat. Sadly the one responsible was as pathetic as they came.
The affair was quite fast considering the buildup to this moment. They dropped by that sleeping maid's room ("I hid her behind the bed so that lady wouldn't find her," said Petra as a newly energized Subaru ruffled her hair), and teleported everyone to Sanctuary. Such an endeavor was simple for a yin spirit of her caliber, but it didn't stop the denizens of the place from jumping in shock when they appeared out of nowhere.
She didn't have time to deal with a cluster of clueless people at the moment, so she brought up her main concern. "Where from here? This place has changed marginally from the last time I've seen it, I suppose."
"Well, I feel like we should tell the others that we're back first. Considering how messed up I was, they might be worried that I'm dead, you know?" Subaru commented in a weirdly light tone.
Before Betty could click her tongue at him for dawdling, Petra raised her hand. "We gotta get Miss Frederica somewhere she can sleep, right? So after that I can tell everyone if you tell me where to go!"
"Just get the other boy to lead you, in fact," Betty said impatiently, jabbing a finger at Garfiel, who obliged with a disgruntled grunt.
Subaru stared in bewilderment. "Is he listening because you look like a little kid, or is it because you're a great spirit?"
It was a several minute's walk to the tomb. At this time, nobody was there. The structure had easily withstood the test of time despite the growing vegetation. She felt a flash of pride at mother's ingenuity, but now that they were there, a swelling tide of indecision threatened to overtake her. Would mother become angry with her for leaving the library for a while? There must have been a reason she never told Betty about all of this, and here she was, attempting to intrude on her rest.
However, she'd already come all this way and it would only be a further insult to her neglected duty if she gave up here. She stepped forward. And then she drew back at the last second before she could get repelled by an invisible force.
"Shit!" shouted Subaru in dismay. "I forgot about that!"
Honestly, Beatrice wanted to curse herself for forgetting the barrier due to her agitation. She tugged at his odd clothing. "You can pass through, correct? Then I know how I can get past it, I suppose."
Grabbing his hand, she clasped their fingers together. Subaru twitched in shock. Evidently, he seemed to know what was happening on a surface level and she needed to correct him. "Don't get your hopes up, I suppose. It's only a temporary binding between us instead of a full contract, though Betty still wishes it didn't have to come to this."
"No, that's not it, I was just surprised," he defended. "What for?"
"Contracts, or arrangements like ours, can connect us in a way your mind couldn't possibly comprehend, in fact. Currently, Betty can be somewhat described as an extension of you, as off-putting as that may be. We may continue as long as we maintain physical contact."
Subaru blinked a few times and nodded before they walked into the dim halls of the tomb. It radiated an oppressive atmosphere, almost as if her surroundings knew she was an unwelcome visitor and wanted her out, but was being held at bay by something. It was quite uncomfortable, but she must persevere until she could confirm mothers presence and, perhaps, talk to her.
...Echidna.
The woman was a distant but incredibly clear image in Betty's mind. Her creator, her teacher. At this point, Beatrice had lived far longer than her beloved mother ever did, which would've been a sobering thought if she hadn't already thought of that a hundred of times over. It made her chest ache that a shining person like her, one truly deserving of the immortality she coveted, died far younger than her own creation.
Squeezing her eyes shut for a second, she pulled herself out of her thoughts. They were in one of the rooms now.
"Echidna! Invite us!" Subaru called, standing there like he was expecting something to happen. Half a minute of silence passed.
She was growing more skeptical and worried in equal amounts. Nothin-
"Behold, an unthinkable past," echoed a familiar voice. Before everything went dark, she could see the Subaru toppling over alongside her.
⁂
"-atrice, are you with us?" A cut-off sentence interrupted her sleep. She rolled away from the noise.
"I didn't expect you to fall asleep with the sun so high," continued a soft-spoken voice. It was unfortunate that whoever was talking was a tad more insistent than expected, though.
Something soft tickled her face. Cracking an eye open, Beatrice saw a mass of pale pink looming overhead, framing a pair of deep cyan eyes. The girl standing over her reached out and slightly pinched her cheek.
'Mughya!" she cried, shooting into a sitting position and rubbing the sore spot.
A soft giggle. "I didn't squeeze that hard, did I? I'm sorry about that," replied a girl that didn't seem sorry at all. "Your reactions are always fun to watch, you know?"
Betty sniffed, a light flush coloring her cheeks. "Hmph! I'll just get you back later. Why did you wake me up?"
"I'm done with the usual preparation, so I'm free for the rest of today. Do you want to practice now?" Ryuzu prompted.
The leaf-dappled sunlight fluttered as the branches above swayed in the breeze. Ryuzu reached down to Betty. As aloof as Beatrice normally was, she accepted her hand and felt a firm but gentle grip as she let herself be pulled up. There was no particular need to move elsewhere, so they remained under the tree.
"Try observing it." Ryuzu snapped her fingers, and without so much as an incantation, a ball of water materialized over her palm. There was no need for physical gestures at all, but it seemed like an odd habit she'd picked up years ago and never stopped doing.
The water began moving peculiarly in complex swirls as the half-elf began her explanation. "While you do need the raw mana to heal, you also need to direct it."
"Betty knows already," she huffed, crossing her arms. "The sphere of light that healing creates looks simple, but there's more to it than some think. You've already taught me the basics."
"You're so impatient. Repetition is the key to learning that truly sinks in. Plus, I might as well hone my teaching skill on you since you'll point out all my errors," commented the half-elf. "But then again, you can be quite tetchy so it doesn't bother me at all."
Betty blinked when a newly snapped twig was placed in front of her. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Practice. It's not like I'll let a beginner do it on flesh and blood even if they are rather precocious," she stated as if it were obvious.
Oh. of course it was. Light began emanating from Beatrice's hands as she attempted to mend it. Already, the broken fibers took in the mana and began mending themselves, reconnecting where the two halves split.
When it was done, she raised her head and said, "As if mother created something that couldn't even handle this."
Ryuzu covered a small laugh with her hand. "Yes, I know. Echidna's quite the remarkable witch. I'm grateful to have been approached by her. Maybe I can play a part larger than myself now that she's ready to start the immortality experimentation."
"When it's over, then mother and Betty can stay together forever. It's a good thing spirits don't have a set lifespan. It was probably taken into account when deciding what to make Betty," she asserted.
"Mhm," Ryuzu agreed, though a strangely wistful expression sat on her face. "In fact, it's set to begin soon."
Surprised, she exclaimed, "After all this time? Wasn't it set to take place at least a month later. How has Betty not heard?"
"Echidna seems to be in a bit of a hurry. I don't know why, but there seems to be a reason behind her decisions," answered the half-elf, though she added, "It might be a bit selfish, but would you come with me?"
It would be strange not to attend such an event, seeing as though history was going to be made soon. "Betty would have gone even if you hadn't asked. Naturally, it would be something anyone would want to witness."
Ryuzu smiled. "I know that, but just felt like checking. For now, could you just hold my hand?"
"Eh? Why?" sputtered Beatrice.
"Just for a little while. Please?" she asked almost teasingly.
With that, the blond acquiesced and they wove their fingers together. Becoming highly aware of the contact, she turned her head away.
"Your ears are a little pink," Ryuzu noted verbally.
"No, they're not," Betty replied as they made their way down a winding path. A few demihumans waved at them as they passed by, having recognized them. While Beatrice turned her nose uncomfortably at the attention, Ryuzu quietly waved back.
It wasn't long before they saw a familiar blue speck shoot off into the sky, hovering in place for a second until it seemed to locate the direction it wanted to go, then vanished into the distance. That was quite strange of Roswaal to do. Normally he was practically glued to mother's side, reading, or experimenting with his magic.
Ryuzu tightened her grip on Beatrice's hand, perhaps unconsciously. Betty, confused, turned to her for clues.
"I-" she shook her head, pink hair swishing around slightly. "No, let's head to the lab. I need to see something."
The tension in her gaze was a bit worrying, only a little, as she swiftly took off. Betty stood still for a second, then followed.
The scent of ammonia flooded their noses when they came inside the building but neither had the desire to mention it. As expected, mother was there, shuffling through a stack of papers as she rapidly arranged a few instruments on her desk. She didn't even react to their presence until she set down a vial.
"I knew you'd show up soon. I wished I could poke around more, but unfortunately, I'll have to make do," Echidna sighed. "Ryuzu, you know what to do."
Said girl gave a small, affirming bow. Then, she turned to Betty. "Sorry about not telling you ahead of time, Beatrice. We have to say goodbye now," she murmured apologetically.
There was a tone of finality to her words. It wasn't the expression of someone intending on coming back, and somehow, it rocked Beatrice to the core.
"What? Where are you going?" she asked dumbly. "What do you mean by goodbye?"
"I have a purpose to fulfill now. It just so happens that it won't be one I can return from." Walking forward, Ryuzu answered, "Hector has finally come for us, and we'll be destroyed if I don't act. I'll form the core of the Sanctuary's shield in exchange for my life."
She was stopped in her tracks by a tug on her sleeve. "But... why you? Why you?" Beatrice demanded, voice rising. Before she could continue, however, she was struck mute by the steady light in the half-elf's eyes.
"I agreed to this all beforehand. I'm doing this because I volunteered to," she said.
It would be incorrect to think Beatrice had no words left; more accurately, it could be said her mouth couldn't form anything coherent.
Ryuzu closed her eyes. Gently, she turned around and grasped the hand on her sleeve. "This might not sound like much, but thank you. It was nice being with you for all this time, and don't forget to work on your water magic. I know you obsess over your yin magic studies, but I want something… a little more personal to be left behind too," the half-elf admitted.
Tears beaded up in Beatrice's eyes as a blue luminescence began slowly emitting from Ryuzu's body. "You're a spirit, so you'll hold onto it longer than I probably could. I'm not worth much more than I can give, and maybe you could help others with your skills. I know you can do it."
The radiating light was increasing in intensity, and she couldn't properly see Ryuzu's face anymore.
"Beatrice," she said once again. "Thank you."
Knees locked, the little spirit watched on as the lab returned to its usual dimness, though now with a new source of cold, blue light.
An enormous blue crystal remained where Ryuzu once stood, encasing a lithe, pink-haired girl.
It was in the midst of psychic tension that the illusion of this world suddenly fell away and she found herself lying on the ground with her memories returning, not that it eased her pain.
It was her first loss, the first out of so many where there was nothing she could do but go against mother's word so she didn't. But there must have been something she could've done. Was she inadequate? If mother created her she shouldn't have any flaws, so was this a fault stemming from Beatrice's own mind?
She failed over and over and couldn't stop anything for anyone. They all left her behind.
Shakily, she counted. Ryuzu, forever suspended in pyroxene. The first Roswaal, permanently maimed from the fight with Hector. Mother, long dead, having never completed her biggest wish before it was all cut short.
She couldn't even find "that person" for centuries, the last written command from her gospel. Centuries, and she still failed. She couldn't stop anything. Why was she even alive? Just so the contract wasn't violated? What a pathetic excuse of a spirit.
Miserable, Beatrice barely noticed when a hand larger than Ryuzu's clamped down on hers, jolting her out of haze.
Subaru's eyes flew open and he immediately attempted to get up. A reflexive action that led to him crashing back onto the ground.
"B-Beatrice? Oh, that's right, you're here," he mumbled after a garbled string of words. "Was that a trial? Wait, did...did you get dragged into one? I'm so sor-"
She watched in disgust and subconsciously, faint concern, as Subaru retched. However, he barely had a moment to catch his breath before he stiffened and fell over.
If he led her into this tomb knowing she'd also be dragged into whatever just happened, she could confidently say that she'd never want to see the fool again. However, that didn't seem to be the case. Subaru was a terrible liar and was too cowardly to hurt anyone in the mansion. It was a hundred times more likely that this was the product of sheer idiocy.
Subaru gasped after Beatrice sat for a while, collecting her thoughts. She opened her mouth to chide at him, but he began rolling around in a frenzy. It was difficult to hold on to him, considering how he acted as if she weren't even there.
"P-please, stop!" he whimpered in anguish at something Beatrice couldn't see. In desperation, he tried to stand, only to collapse once more.
Realization struck her; how had she been so witless? Subaru was likely reliving one of the worst moments in his life like she did, but over and over again.
All the irritation she'd built up at him sank into horror.
"Wake up, I suppose!" she shouted, frantically shaking his limp body in an attempt to wake him back up. While it worked, he was only coherent enough to uselessly flail around. There was no way he could leave like this. Thinking fast, she cast a murak and pulled him toward the exit before another realization occured. The door may have been open, but she could feel something blocking the way.
Spirits are typically more sensitive to their surroundings mana-wise, and a great spirit like her could tell something was wrong. While not trapped in an illusion, they no longer stood in reality. The malodorous stench of vomit was gone too.
Subaru seemed to have fallen unconscious yet again. This time, it took a little longer to jerk him into wakefulness, but to even poorer results. He didn't say anything properly this time. Only a mix of cries and incomprehensible rambling came out, and very soon, he was knocked out yet again.
He would pass out, she'd wake him up, and he'd pass out again. At some point, he just stopped moving or making any noise, and his dull eyes stared into nothing when he bothered to open them at all. It was as if he'd been wrung dry.
Beatrice almost felt like swearing at the dragon, not to it. Merely watching tore at her sanity, and she had no desire to feel whatever the boy was going through. Would he be tormented forever in this plane of existence? It was like kicking a dog, no, mercilessly beating one over and over with a club. Only a sadist of immeasurable proportion would've enjoyed this.
Just when it seemed like it would never end, Subaru's eyes opened, and finally, finally, they stayed open. She breathed a sigh of tense relief.
"You must be tired after all that, but right now, we cannot rest, I suppose." The pure mental exhaustion was evident on his face, but she didn't mince words. Who knows if or when they'd have to suffer this whole ordeal again if they didn't get out?
"...Tired? Am I tired? Do I even have the right to be tired when I haven't done anything yet?" he rambled. "If I hadn't been so useless, if I was actually decent at something, everyone wouldn't have to suffer so much."
The trauma-induced confession stunned her into silence. The contrast between him and the upbeat fool she'd been exposed to for a month was staggering.
"If the world doesn't get reset when I die, how many times did I leave them to suffer? How many people died because of me?" Clawing at his chest, every word sounded like he was barely squeezing them out of his throat. "I let you die. I let you die so many times," he claimed in a strained voice.
Was this delusion? "What is this about death and dying, in fact? Betty cannot say anything about the others, but can you not see that she is standing here despite her wishes, I suppose?" she responded to his enigmatic statement.
She might as well have never said that, considering his unstable mind seemed to filter out her admittedly lacklustre attempt at consolement. "I'm sorry," he whispered, tears rolling down his face. "I'm so, so sorry. I was stupid to think I could actually help, but I only made everything worse over and over. Why does everyone keep getting hurt so much? Did… did I deserve seeing that?"
Beatrice started panicking a little. "Betty doesn't know what you've done, but you couldn't have deserved whatever you just went through, I suppose. You're too much of a nebbish to hurt anyone on purpose." Surprisingly, that seemed to have an effect, but not a particularly strong one.
"Even if it was by accident or on purpose, I still killed every-" Subaru snapped his mouth shut and cut the sentence short. Cautiously, as if testing something, he slowly repeated, "I let you die."
"Like Betty said, I'm alive right now, in fact," the spirit said questioningly. Why did he keep saying that?
"I can return by death." His words were barely audible.
Beatrice narrowed her eyes "Such a morbid thing to say, I suppose, whatever that means." She was seriously starting to doubt his sanity but then, like a broken faucet, tears practically started pouring down Subaru's face.
"Ugh, this is the second time already, you'd think I'd have gotten less weepy," he muttered, rubbing his face dry with a free arm. "I must look like a mess right now, so feel free to judge me. What were you saying earlier?"
The eerily sudden calm brought time for Beatrice to control her welling anxiety. "We aren't truly in the tomb now, I suppose. We have to get out. Betty will try to figure out a way to escape this dreadful unreality, in fact."
"Oh dear, wouldn't that disregard the reason you two came in the first place?" said an achingly familiar voice.
She felt her heart stop in her chest.
The dark, barely lit room warped and vanished, leaving them on a serene grassy hill. Everything was unnaturally lurid.
"Thank you, Beatrice. Because of you, there was no need to send in Carmilla. I'd rather not be in someone's debt, you know?" mentioned a voice far too casual for the situation. A woman under a parasol tucked back a few strands of swaying white hair as the clink of porcelain echoed.
I just realized that i know beatrice's speech pattern even less than I thought I did
For some reason, I keep putting off class selection for next semester. maybe because i dread the future since i'm scared of locking myself into a job that i'll hate and can't get out of, which is nice because no matter how much i like something, i'll lose any interest whatsoever as soon as i start taking classes on it or treating it as a career move :)