Bury the Light
Through Vacant Halls I won't Surrender
The Truth Revealed in Eyes of Ember
We fight through fire and ice forever
Two souls once lost, and now they remember
"They're only using you, you know? To get me out of their way." The disfigured carcass of who I would've once called friend practically sneers at me.
It's clear manipulation of course, that's all she ever does these days. However…she's the only one other one who knows what true loneliness is like. She's saying whatever she thinks will hurt me or stop this fight before it even begins, but that doesn't make her wrong.
"I know." The words slip out almost involuntarily, I curse myself for letting memories of my old friends become tainted so easily due to old insecurities.
She senses weakness and digs the knife in further. "None of them are really your friends."
"That could be so." The reply comes just as naturally as the first, my tone unchanging.
"You're just awkward, so they pity you."
"I KNOW!" This also came naturally, a sudden anger overtaking me and setting off a chain of violence I instantly wish I could take back. The poison I naturally give off launches right at Phosphophyllite without hesitation, and she's just as quick to launch a wave of gold at me.
A bright but awkward clash of colors gives me a moment to think, to contemplate what made me snap. The answer was obvious, Phos wasn't talking about the others there. She was talking about her, that's how she saw me, even when we first met. She just pitied me, she never truly tried to get to know me or help me. She just made some damn promise and left! We were never friends, I was her pet project!
Damn her, how much more is she going to take from me before this is over?
But despite all that…as I shove more poison in Phos' direction all I can think of is how this is the only way this could end, because it's all my fault. It was that promise that set her on this road, if only I wasn't here, maybe she could have been happy.
There's a calm in the battle, gold and silver raining down from their clash in the air. I take a second to look around, and find myself horrified by the sight of poison landing all over the shattered remains of the other gems. They could've been brought back, but not if the pieces are covered in that. Even when I'm fighting for them all I do is end up hurting them. The realization makes me feel like I'm breaking apart.
In my daze I don't even notice something heading my way until it's too late, it cuts through my right arm effortlessly. I trace the gold object back to where it came from and take a better look and see Phos, or what's left of her. I had ended up hitting her at some point during the exchange, and there's nothing left of her but the thin layers of gold that lined her body, Phos using all of her will to manipulate it into as much of a humanoid shape as she could, with the result ending up looking like a puppet on strings. The only other part of her body left was her eye, which isn't even technically hers to begin with. The deep blue is piercing.
We just stare at each other for a moment. If every single piece of her is gone and our memories are tied to our bodies, how much does she even remember, does she even know why she's fighting anymore?
I rush forward, just desperate to end this madness, end HER madness. I hate her, the destruction she brings everywhere she goes, her obsession with going to the moon, her new powers. And then it hits me, and my anger only grows.
She's just like me.
I throw everything I have left at her in a wave, while Phos takes to ripping off my other limbs, just like with my arm. A primal scream leaves my lips, maybe for the first time in my life, not out of pain, maybe not even out of anger, it feels like every emotion I've ever felt hits me at once, I see memories too, most of them empty and cold…but when I think about my life as a whole, it was worth it, if only for the last few years. Phos may be right, maybe some of it was fake, but it was real to me, and that's all that matters.
The dust settles again, and I can't even tell how much of my body is left, all I can hope is that Phos has less than me. My hope doesn't last long, as I see more gold out of the corner of my eye. It pierces through my skull and lifts me up, I quickly realize my head was all that's left, with Phos slowly reforming, using my own mercury to form a new body.
I take another look into that blue eye, contrasting mine in color but the same in intensity, and I can say the only thing I can think of.
"I know you didn't mean to, but in the end you kept your promise. Thank you." Not even I'm sure if it was one last attack or something I truly meant. And I take what little time I have left to think of Phos as she used to be.
***
I've done it, I've won. All the gems are dead, all that's left is to get to Kongo-Sensei, and then we can all live happily again. I take what's left of Cinnabar's mercury to finish repairing myself, shaken by her words but unable to remember why they even mattered to me.
I move slow, that fight having taken it's toll on me. I see it, out of the corner of my eye. A gem I don't recognize. Short green hair, a bounce in her step, and a seeming zest for life. I long to be like that someday, in some ways it feels like looking into an old mirror. The image fades as quickly as it appears. I mumble the only word that comes to mind.
"Adorable."
Bury the light deep within!
Cast aside, there's no coming home!
We're burning chaos in the wind!
Drifting in the ocean all alone!
