A world of ice and wind. A forest of frost. Cold. Cold in body and mind.

"Emilia!"

With the now familiar call of a forgotten voice, the half-elf shot up out of bed in a cold sweat. It was a feeling she was used to; it was one which she had experienced many times over... for the past two years.

"You had another scary dream, huh?" an adrogynous voice asked, calm and comforting in his tone.

Her body tensed at the sound of it; Emilia did not notice the sadness that underlined his words. She cautiously lifted her sights and saw someone so dear to her who'd been gone for far too long. She couldn't believe her eyes.

"Puck...?" she muttered, more to herself than to the figure before her.

Emilia hesitantly reached her hand out to stroke his soft fur, scared that she's just seeing things. But touching him, feeling the warmth of his smaller than usual form, brought a sense of both relief and trepidation to her. She'd only had nightmares for the past two years so her immediate conclusion was that this was just the gentle start of another harsh delusion.

"I guess after so long, it's only natural you'd want to pet me one last time," he said, trying his best to maintain his usual upbeat mood. However, his tone was sunken, merely a depressing echo of what he once had. All he could convey was his melancholy that worsened with every second he spent in her presence.

Too shocked to notice, Emilia pinched her own cheek with her spare hand as she processed his words, " It's not a dream…?"

"Lia…"

Her eyes widened at the familiar call of her name and a heat gathered in them.

"It's not a dream…" she said, bringing the spirit close to her chest, a shaky smile on her face.

"It's not a dream… It's not a dream… you're…"

Fresh tears of joy poured from her eyes, cleansing her face of the sad ones born of her nightmares and washing away the emotions of sadness and anxiety that had stuck to her like a parasite since the day he left. For the first time in many, many lonesome nights, Emilia finally felt her heart unencumbered and free. It was as if she had been drowning for years, the sight of her beloved contracted spirit being the moment she had finally broken past the water's surface and taken a breath of the fresh, cold air.

"You're really here, Puck… you've been gone for so long… I was worried you'd-"

She felt him gently break free from their embrace, cutting her off. The warmth in her eyes grew cold as she finally noticed Puck's saddened expressio, the freedom her heart had longed for now slipping out of her grasp.

"Lia… I'm sorry but… I'm breaking our contact…"

.

.

.

Surprise. Betrayal. A hint of rage. Emilia felt each of these and so much more crash into her simultaneously, all serving to weigh down her heart once more, all serving to pull her back down to drown.

But she wasn't even given a proper chance to process the barrage of emotions she now found herself lost in. Puck's form started to dissipate as fast as it had reappeared.

"Puck! I don't understand... You said y-you'd stand by my side and protect me!" she pleaded, more desperate than she had ever been before. She tried grabbing hold of him once more, only for her hands to glide through Puck's nearly transparent body without resistance.

Tears. A waterfall of tears swept away her false hope and her stolen joy alike. Crying was all she could do now. She hated with all her being that this was no dream. Tears of elation melted into salty bitterness; her heart slowly broke under the weight of her despair as the being she trusted the most had quite literally quit on her.

"You… you said you'd… 'Be with me forever'" she repeated his words, desperate to keep him with her. But it was to no avail. The green crystal on her chest cracked and shattered along with her already beaten and bruised heart. Shards of emerald dropped into her pale shaking palms; she grasped the fragments of hopeful green in her hand with all her might, only to stain them stained in a cruel crimson.

"Lia…" he started once more, unsure as to what he could possibly say to sooth her now, what words could mend- no, even ease the pain of her broken spirit.

Emilia dropped her head into her knees, balling herself up on the bed. She grasped her own shaking shoulders, allowing the worthless green shards to fall away. Wanting nothing more than to push away everything, she clutched her own arms tight, hard enough to make her bleed, but her lesser spirits healed her before the crimson liquid could taint the white of her dress, having already mended the cuts on her palms.

But this did not make Emilia feel any better. In fact, she felt nothing but utter despair running through her veins, the pain of her wounds no longer serving as a distraction from her sadness. She simply wanted to hide from the cruel, cruel world and cry until everything went away.

And so, her mouth could only form the one word that held any weight to her anymore. A word she truly despised, yet a word that fit so perfectly and terribly.

"Liar…"

That single word hurt Puck; it hurt him in a way nothing else ever could or ever would. He'd always thought that seeing her die was the worst thing he could imagine. But no, seeing his Lia so sad and alone while he was powerless to help her was somehow worse. And it was no imagined nightmare, but rather a grim reality that he himself caused.

Pushing all his regrets and sadness down for Lia's sake, Puck floated close to her hidden head and moved to lightly pat it, saying, "The seal on your memories will be lifted with this. It'll be sad, sadder than ever but-"

She shot back up and moved away from his touch, unconcerned with his words, shouting, "LIAR! YOU'RE A LIAR, PUCK!"

Just as quickly as her rage flared up, it had dissipated back into her underlying sorrow. She returned to wallowing in despair, head sunk into her knees, unable to keep fighting and pushing against the bitter truth.

"I… I thought I could… could trust you…" she said between sobs. She was no longer able to compose herself, let alone look at the one who claimed the title of 'Father'.

"Lia…" he started, rare tears starting to form in his own eyes.

Her voice strengthened for just a moment; her tears held back for just three words, "I was wrong."

The spirit's heart ached terribly. If her previous words hurt, these mortally wounded him. Barely holding himself together, he left one last message to her before disappearing, "I love you, Emilia. And... I'm sorry. I hope… I know that the one who I leave you to will treat you better… love you better."

His body shone brightly for a moment before dissipating into nothing. She only had one word to say to the space Puck had been in just a moment ago: "Liar."

The room around her began to encase with frost as she continued to sob.

Truly, Emilia had never felt more alone.


Subaru fired his well seasoned strategist's mind up, setting it to work, having laid eyes upon the emerging crisis before him. In only a few seconds, he had processed the situation and developed a plan of attack; his thoughts ran at lightning speed.

"Ice won't stop for shit unless I talk to her. Gotta break through. But it'll spread. And Reinhard's a cunt, fuck that guy. Focus, Subaru, focus. I can punch through using momentum. Have Beako keep everything else away."

He released his grasp on his partner and spoke to her in a rushed yet calm tone, "Beako, hold the mana within a barrier around the room. Stop Reinhard's interference. Play support with Vita."

The instant he finished speaking, he ran forward as soon as he could, meeting the cold winds head-on.

Being left behind, all Beatrice could say was, "Understood, in fact."

He felt his run slow to a crawl, his footing weakening against the increasingly icy floor.

"Fuck, this isn't working. Tools: Beako - occupied, Reinhard - cunt, Emilia - problem. Think, Subaru, think."

Nearing the end of his rope, before he even considered relying on the Sword Saint, a crazed voice echoed through his mind: " ...Welcome you to our ranks, Pride."

His thinking face grew mad as he felt a creeping, slithering sensation within himself once again.

"Tool: Authority of Sloth - Cooler Name than Unseen Hand pending."

Black appendages overlapped with his legs and arms, strengthening them greatly. But it wasn't enough.

"Ice is still too damn slippery, need better leverage. Or different approach."

He redirected the appendages over his arms to grab a hold of the ground in front of him. He leaned back slightly, bending his knees and tensing his unseen limbs. A powerful tension built in the shadows.

"Bungee Gum has the properties of both rubber and gu- fucking intrusive thoughts again."

He kicked back against the ground with his Unseen Feet, hard, and used the built tension in the Unseen Tethers in front of him to propel himself forward. The powerful gale slowed him substantially, but he still managed to fling himself right towards the bed and the sealed block of ice that lay upon it.

The wind grew in strength as he approached, forcing him to redirect all his appendages to latching onto various parts of the bed. He grasped the shadow-black limbs, noting how they felt incredibly strange yet oddly familiar, and dragged his body up to his target.

"So the shadows are sometimes rigid and sometimes stretchy? What a weird fucking power."

He used his Authority to ground himself in front of the icy structure and pulled his arm back, ready for a punch.

"BEAKO!" he shouted, not even turning to look back across the room at his partner, trusting in her completely.

Subaru put all the power left that he could muster from his odd ability into reinforcing his arm. His fist a few centimeters away from the ice, a familiar voice rang out, "Ul Vita, I suppose."

His body, already strained from his spamming of the Authority of Sloth, felt like absolute shit once the spell was cast. His organs felt like lead and his body felt like it had been teleported straight into the Mariana Trench.

But his plan worked. The cocoon, which had been growing since he had entered the room, shattered like glass before his fist.

Barely maintaining his balance in the face of his arm's momentum, Subaru attempted to steady himself. His body, however, disagreed with this plan of action. Despite this, through sheer force of will, Subaru brought himself up to a standing albeit shaky position. He spat up some blood in his moment of triumph, thinking, "Fist King ain't got shit on me. Also, Note to self: Avoid using Authorities whenever possible - hurts like hell."

Beyond the dissipating shards of ice, Subaru saw before him a cowering woman, uncaring towards the world around her, muttering scarily familiar words to herself, "Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar…"

Without a second's hesitation, Subaru dispelled the appendages in his arm and felt the gravity magic subside. He yelled at the top of his lungs, the pain across his body spiking, "EMILIA-TAN!"

The wind and frost stopped but did not vanish. The particles of snow and ice remained suspended in the air, motionless. It was as if time itself had stopped.

The half-elf shifted her gaze up to meet the voice that called her name.

"Su-baru?"


"Do not bother Betty's contractor, I suppose. He will be beyond upset with you if you do, in fact."

Reinhard did not know what to make of this… odd situation. He was standing in the back of the room, hand still on his spare blade, desperately wanting to assist his friend. And yet, the great spirit that stood about a meter to his left insisted that he should not interfere.

"But why? Great Spirit-sama, did you not see him cough up blood just now?" he said, gesturing to the dramatic scene before them.

His attention had shifted towards the suffering his friend endured rather than lingering on whatever the hell happened prior to that. The Sword Saint could not make heads nor tails of why Subaru flew towards the bed all of a sudden, how he dragged himself towards Emilia while grabbing some invisible rope, and how he managed to break through the incredibly mana-dense ice before him. Even with all the strange powers of the great spirit he was contracted with, doing all of that should have been completely impossible for Subaru, or anyone really.

And so, Reinhard elected to file it under 'I don't deserve to know/could never understand' along with Subaru's strange guilt and sudden hatred towards the knight. They were all questions for later.

"Do not underestimate Betty's Subaru, I suppose. He will handle this situation excellently, in fact," Beatrice declared, seeming almost smug despite the concern plain on her face.

"So he doesn't need me anymore? I'm just a useless tool to him after all? Even in his most desperate moment, when he's most in need, he insists that he can do it all without me. Am I a burden? I am a burden aren't I. I'm so worthl-"

Sighing, Beatrice cut off the knight's obvious negative train of thought and said, "You need to stop thinking so hard, in fact. Just watch and see Betty's Subaru at work, I suppose. Perhaps you'll find some answers that way."

Heeding her advice, he turned off the analytical part of his brain and dedicated the whole of his mind to committing the following events to his memory as best as he could.

And since this is Reinhard we're talking about, he'd memorize it perfectly.


Within Emilia's mind, a powerful, raging storm even stronger than that she had conjured around her filled her every thought. Flashes of memories played over and over in her head - terrible scenes and fragments of a past she could not come to terms with - as her own identity veered on the brink of shattering.

"Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar…"

The words she repeated over and over were not only directed at the Father who'd abandoned her, but also to the world itself. The past flooding her head shouldn't be true, can't be true. She couldn't be responsible, can't be responsible.

The pain she had felt for the past two years at every recollection of a forbidden thought was nothing compared to the agony of the truth, to the anguish she found herself in now.

"It can't be true. I couldn't have frozen them. I couldn't have killed Mother Fortuna-"

She couldn't take it. She couldn't bear with the overwhelming guilt and confusion she was drowning in. And so, she clung to the last thing that she could. She clung to the hopeful fantasy that it was all a lie; that it was all a terrible, terrible nightmare.

"Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar-"

"EMILIA-TAN!"

The swirling storm in her mind paused, her confused and desperate thoughts did not vanish but stood in place. She looked up at the voice which had called her name with a greater passion and desperation than even she found in herself.

"Su-baru?"

His eyes, his mean yet gentle eyes that she adored so much. The eyes that brought nothing but comfort to her tortured soul. They were ablaze with madness, with unbearable pain, with concern, with confusion, and, most of all, with love.

He reached his shaking arms out and pulled her close, kneeling before her. She could feel his trembling and weakness through their hug. It was clear that he was on the verge of collapse as he spoke, "I love you, Emilia. I love you so, please, tell me what's wrong. Let me protect you when you feel scared or sad. When the world is against you, I'm here for you."

His words, designed to be comforting, instead brought forth a memory in her mind. They were reminiscent of her former contracted spirit's first words to her: "I'm a spirit meant just for you. When you're scared, when you're sad… I'll protect you."

"liar"

His grip on her lightened.

"Emilia-tan?"

There was fear in his voice.

"Liar. Liar! LIAR!"

The winds returned, the moment of time unfrozen. The man before her's words from earlier that day echoed through her mind, "The thing is… I'm not your Subaru."

She cast off his embrace and shoved him back, screaming, "LIAR! YOU COULDN'T EVER LOVE SOMEONE LIKE ME! YOU COULDN'T EVER LOVE SOMEONE AS TERRIBLE AS MYSELF! YOU'LL LEAVE ME LIKE PUCK! LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD!"

Her voice was shaking with a pained rage. All her frustrations with herself and her own inadequacies laid plain in her tone and words. Everyone in the world, including herself, was her enemy.


Buffeted by the wind once again, Subaru forced himself to think through the shock and pain, "Fuck, this is not good."

There was nothing he could do, even think to do. He was a madman, an insane murder, and a bringer of nothing but torment to those around him.

"Think, Subaru, think!"

So, again, he reached for his other self. His other self who is both so much better and so much worse. His other self who learned to take on their pain and who vowed to save them all.

"What would you do, Natsuki Subaru? How would you save her? How would you stand by her side?"

And then he realized it. He knelt there on the verge of freezing to death in silent, agonizing pain and realized his other self's mistake, Natsuki Subaru's greatest mistake.

He brought his weakened body up to stand, ignoring the fact he could no longer feel most of it, and called out to his beloved, "Emilia!"

His lungs were cold, his throat was cold, his every organ was freezing... and yet he continued, "Please... help me!"

The winds stopped again. She regarded him with confusion that quickly shifted to shock as she saw the state he was in.

"You always stood by her side but…"

Blood covered his lower mouth and jaw, he was trembling terribly, large swaths of his skin had gone bluish-purple, and he appeared to be on the verge of collapse if not death.

"She never stood by yours."

Despite his pain laid plain, he stood tall as he declared, "My name is Natsuki Subaru. And I'm a greedy, prideful bastard who wants even someone as incompetent and insufferable as you by my side."

She just couldn't understand. There was no reason she could think anyone would want to be with her now. The person who loved her most had abandoned her and returned to her just to hurt her more. And she deserved it. So...

"Why? When I've hurt you so much… When I've done nothing but make you suffer… When you've done so, so much for me and received nothing in return… Why?"

His every facade shattered and fell away. His every mask was tossed aside. Before Emilia, he showed his genuine, true self to another person for the first time since he was an infant.

"Because I love you… and…"

In that moment of genuine desperation, in that moment where all his raw emotions laid bare for her to see, Subaru's next words came directly from the deepest part of his Od. They slipped through the cracks of his Pride, his Determination, his years of Suffering. They were old, true words that lingered, hidden within him since he came to this timeline. Or rather, since he came to Lugunica to begin with. No, from even further back, from his sad, lonely, unfulfilled life back home in Japan.

And so he spoke, yelled, and screamed his truest desire from that place deep down within him:

"I WANT MY FUCKING HAPPY ENDING ALREADY!"

The suspended particles shone brightly and vanished into the air. The gale disappeared in an instant. Emilia had been left speechless.

"There's a goddamn storm in my head that's been raging ever since I got to this godforsaken place. And I don't know what to even do anymore," he said, clenching his shaking hands into fists.

"Emilia… There might be a storm in your head too... but you don't have to trek through it alone. If you're standing in a raging river of madness, at least let me hold your hand as you walk through it," he continued, his voice shaking but his words standing as strong as steel in the half-elf's mind.

"Believe me, Emilia, I've been stuck in that place before and, even now, I feel like I'm still there... You shouldn't have to do it alone. I-"

He instinctively paused to hesitate. On reflex, he stopped himself from continuing. But now was not the time for secret, forbidden desires. And so he finished his thought.

"I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO DO ALL THIS ALONE!"

His words echoed through the room, his eyes were filled with tears, and his whole body gave away his true identity: a deeply hurt boy, trying to do his best all alone in the world.

"So, please, can we just… can we stand by each other's sides? Can we support each other as we walk through the rapids of madness? Because…"

Tears flowed. His weakness was on full display. His human nature that was hidden away and suppressed for so long was viewed in its entirety by his beloved.

"I don't… I don't… I don't want to do it all alone anymore."

He fell to his knees. He could no longer control the shaking of his ravaged body nor the trembling of his broken voice.

"I suffered so damn much... I'm suffering so damn much for you."

He couldn't even bring his arms up to his head anymore. He just gazed down to the sheets and cried out, "And now, I just want to have my Satisfaction! My Reward! My… My Happy Ending!"

He brought his sights back up. His pleading, pained, brown eyes met her shocked, pained, amethyst ones.

"And it isn't a Happy Ending if you're not there, Emilia-tan. It… it isn't a happy ending if I still have to suffer and hide away from you. So…"

He used the last bit of his strength to raise an arm to hold her cheek. His hand was a deep purple and she could feel it was cool to the touch.

"Please help me... Emilia"

And so, before she could even respond, his eyes closed and he fell forward into her arms.


Author's Note: If you've read arc 6, you'd know that Subaru has canonically read/watched Hunter x Hunter (at least in the web novel).

Also, I am sorry for Unseen Feet but it just had to be said. I couldn't not call them that.