Although peeved that Haru had possessed him, Sieg had spread the word around town about the nature of the curse afflicting the Rave Master, and spent the rest of the day researching information on spirits in his private library.
He had a private library easily ten times the size of the public one on Garage Island (which, to be fair, had been small). The more Haru learned about Sieg's wealth, the more he wanted to punch the sorcerer. It was entirely unfair that he had a rich family member that was so generous with his funds. And that Sieg hardly seemed comfortable dipping into them meant nothing, given the exsesiveness of his own bedroom.
Sieg's bedroom was two floors. Both parts were the size of the whole first floor of Haru's house. The first had a couch and a TV and a glass door that lead out onto a patio overlooking an outdoor pool, because Sieg's uncle felt the need for an outdoor and indoor pool. A set of stair led up to a three walled room that overlooked the first floor, where Sieg's bed and wardrobe were. Every other piece of furniture in the room was some manner of clock, which, having spent the night in Sieg's room, was beginning to get to Haru and Lucia.
"I will break all of them when I get my body back," Lucia declared when they all started going off, grandfather clocks ringing, cuckoo clocks chirping, little antique clocks playing songs as tiny wooden villagers emerged from them and began to twirl around. "How does he put up with this every hour?" Not to mention the ones that went off every fifteen minutes.
"The ticking is a pain too," Haru said, not because he felt that way (although he did) so much as to try and possibly get along with Lucia, if only just a little. It wasn't like he had anyone else to talk to. The blond was refusing to act as a mouth piece again unless Haru let him stay in one of his friend's bodies for longer.
"If it bothers you, then piss off. You can leave," Lucia pointed out.
His injured ankle, which definitely looked worse than before, was growing increasingly painful. Even with Haru's support, Lucia could hardly stand and walk with it. Even crawling was painful enough that being stationary was better than escaping the clocks, since the movement aggravated the injury. After leaving Elie and discovering that contact with her had worsened the wound, he'd needed Haru to all but carry him away, and Haru had decided to take him to Sieg's room in the hopes that they'd hear about the spell faster that way.
It seemed plausible, since the room for the private library was beneath the second floor of Sieg's bedroom, but Lucia was still bitter about the decision to trap him in a room full of clocks. That possessing Elie was wrecking his ankle didn't make his mood any better. He'd been hoping to take over her again when Haru wasn't looking. It had been so unfair that he'd gotten to wear her skin, but hadn't had a chance to touch her at all.
Lucia seethed about it while he massaged the injury.
"You never did tell me how you got that."
"Will you not shut up if I don't tell you?"
Haru took a moment to process the double negative. "I won't."
Lucia swatted Haru, catching him in the nose and stunning the Rave Master momentarily. "Too bad I can hit you again."
Haru rolled off Sieg's couch and took a few steps back.
"Too bad you can't get up and chase me. You could have, if it weren't for that ankle. Are you going to tell me what you did to it now? Are you? Are you? Are you? Are—"
"Shut up!" Lucia snapped. "I fell, all right? I fell three floors."
Haru had fallen way further than that, but he'd fallen as a spirit. He imagined he wouldn't escape unharmed if he'd taken that great a tumble in his physical body either. Though how Lucia had managed to take such a fall was a mystery he didn't think Lucia would ever provide him with the answer for.
Lucia waited to see if Haru would ask anyway. When he didn't, the blond returned his attention to the wound.
"Does it hurt?"
"No."
"I can carry you to a room without clocks."
"I don't need your pity, Glory. I'm fine on my own."
"Not completely on your own. You need me to make my friends help."
"I could fake being you just fine."
"No you couldn't." Haru stepped forward and pressed his thumbs to the corners of Lucia's mouth, trying to pull them up. "That was an awful smile yesterday, and you looked too angry when I asked you to leave Elie. The only people I make that face at are people harming Elie."
Lucia grabbed Haru's arms and twisted them. Haru squirmed, but couldn't break out of his grip.
"Don't touch me," the blond ordered.
"I'll have to, if you want to leave this room."
Lucia growled, but let go of Haru to acknowledge the fact.
Rubbing sore wrists, Haru said, "You don't want my help getting out, and it doesn't sound like Sieg has found anything yet. We may as well practice having you be me again. Here." Haru beamed. "Try to make this face."
Lucia stared at it. It looked like a really happy expression. What was it that made him feel happy? He summoned fond memories and showed Haru a smile, since it would get the idiot off his back faster. And also he might have been a little bored.
"No. That's a smirk. A smile. Think happy thoughts. N-no! Now you look like you're bearing fangs… that's a smirk again. Smirk. Still a smirk." Lucia tried to force his mouth into the right shape without thinking of anything, and Haru shook his head. "You never smile, do you?"
No. Why should he? Lucia scowled at Haru. Scowling felt so much better.
"Try and think of a really good memory. Whenever I'm feeling down, I think about my sister."
"I'll make a note to kill her too," Lucia told Haru, but Haru seemed to recognize the statement as meant solely to anger him, and kept himself in check. Peeved at the failed attempt to start something, Lucia gave up and tried Haru's advice.
Good memories of taking over Demon Card, of getting rid of those bastards in Mega Unit, of knowing that with him on top of the food chain he was done being abused by others, hadn't produced smiles by Haru's standards. What was Haru's example? His sister? Lucia never had a sister, but he'd had parents once upon a time. A mother and father who doted on him before one was turned into Swiss cheese by the army and the other decided it was easier to adopt a new son than it would be to rescue the one he already had from prison.
Lucia shut his eyes and tried to recall what it had been like to have people love him.
What had that been like? Vague concepts like someone checking under his bed for monsters when they tucked him in, or of a hand holding his cheek when he tripped and cried came to mind, but Lucia didn't feel warmth from them. They were shameful. Memories of his weaker self. Of the person that the Empire had easily tormented for years in their quest to crush.
"Hey." Haru tapped Lucia's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Lucia's eyes snapped open. The present reformed around him, and he noticed he was tearing up. In front of Haru? At all? He almost wanted to die of embarrassment.
Well, fine then! He couldn't smile, but he could snarl just fine. Lucia grabbed Haru's arm and twisted it again as punishment for trying to make him smile in the first place. Haru yelped when spirit-bone cracked.
Spirit-bone mended seconds later.
Lucia stared at that, feeling sick. Haru healed? Haru fucking healed? How was it fair that the Rave Master recover in seconds while his ankle spited him by continually growing worse?
"If there's one thing that makes this situation bearable," Haru said, "It's that."
Was that another ability Haru got? Like his mind reading. Lucia hissed and looked away, massaging his ankle again in an attempt to lessen the pain.
"I wonder why it doesn't work for injuries you had ahead of time. I guess your spirit has to reflect your body."
Lucia didn't look up, so Haru didn't see the quickly masked look of horror when he thought for a second that he might have somehow transferred the injury to his body. But that was stupid. Haru was stupid, and Lucia needed to make sure the Rave Master's stupidity didn't rub off on him.
Sieg emerged from the private library then. He held a book tight in his hand, one finger marking a page, and walked briskly to the door. Haru got up and followed him, getting into the same spot as Sieg and stepping at the same pace to try and read the man's thoughts as he walked from the room.
Lucia waited. A clock that was running late went off to let him know that 3:00 had come a while back. Another chimed because it was 3:15.
According to most of the clocks, it was 3:17 when Haru came back into the room.
"He found it," Haru said. "Guess who caused this?"
"Some spiteful god who accidentally cursed you while trying to punish me?"
"No," Although it was an amusing guess. Haru wondered if Lucia usually got this sarcastic when robbed of the ability to dominate. "Actually, you did."
"Uh huh."
"It was a spell meant to protect that temple you broke apart after stabbing Hardner." Haru took a seat on the couch next to Lucia and began kicked his legs up over the arm rest. "I guess since we were the only ones to stick around after you decided to do away with the whole structure, we were the only ones the spell managed to catch."
"Hm." Lucia had been figuring the two of them had both been afflicted for a more meaningful reason. Like, destiny kept their lives intertwined and thus they suffered the same fate... or something. But Haru's explanation worked to.
"There's a problem, though."
"It's permanent?"
"No. Well… not for the first ten days. The spell gets stronger the longer it affects someone. Sieg thinks that after ten days it will be too strong for the whole town combined to stop, and there aren't many powerful sorcerers living in any other part of the world. Mildea recruits them."
"Hold on." Lucia turned to Haru. "Shakuma might not be back still, and I don't know if the Demon Lords could undo this. It would take me a day to get back to Demon Card anyway—and I have no idea how many days can pass before it's too much for Shakuma to undo by himself. It may be too late already. If you turn me loose in the body of some nobody from my army and send me back to the castle, I might still be caught by the time limit."
"Don't worry." Haru smiled. It was a nice, happy smile too. Lucia hated him for it. "We'll think of a way to convince my friends to save you as well. Maybe we can convince Sieg that restoring the temple will help, so we need your Dark Bring. You can take over somebody and grab your body while we're at it. Or if that doesn't work, we'll come up with another excuse. I won't leave you trapped as a spirit."
Lucia blinked, sputtered, and pushed himself further back on the couch to put distance between him and Haru. What was that about? Not leaving him? Why would Haru smile while he said that. They were enemies. Even if Haru went around spouting crazy bullshit like how the world was worth saving, or had the nerve to claim they could be friends while holding a sword over someone's neck, he knew they were enemies. He wouldn't just save his enemy.
Did he think them working together counted towards that end-of-war scenario that went through his stupid, fantasy filled head? If that was meant to be some friendly gesture then… well… then Lucia was torn between wanting to puke and considering that maybe, just maybe, he should feel touched.
"You'd just possess me if we didn't get your body back anyway, wouldn't you?" Haru added.
Oh. Never mind. It was Haru being smart for once. Lucia felt like an idiot for not realizing that but, in all fairness, it had been an unlikely possibility.
"Do you mind if I leave you?"
"I'd mind if you stayed."
Haru nodded. Now that Sieg was done holing up in his library, he needed to go wait where he promised he would in case the sorcerer came back with any other news.
-o-
The first magic user Sieg encountered to tell about the curse from the Altar of Birth being destroyed was Elie, who was more than happy to race around town repeating the message to everyone she saw while Sieg went to arrange for the town to be transported to the Mystic Realm.
The town was getting ready to ship out by that evening when Sieg came home to discover that one group Elie had forgot to notify was her own friends.
He still needed to finish making arrangements with the house staff, so he quickly relayed the information to Belnika so she could inform the others.
"We were all there when Lucia destroyed that temple," Belnika told him. "What if one of use falls to the same curse?"
"You already would have," Sieg assured her. "Haru spent longer in the ruins than anyone else, from my understanding. The only other person who might be in trouble… you should be fine."
"Okay. But what if—"
"Sorry. I need to find Haru."
Sieg hurried past Belnika towards the dining room where he'd spoken to Haru before, and where Haru had told him he'd be waiting. Haru was able to possess people as a spirit, and he and Musica had experienced the same symptoms of possession that Elie had. That Haru had been messing with them or attempting to make contact earlier was possible, but Musica had insisted not that he was Haru, but that he saw Haru. Someone else, in all likelihood, had taken over him. And the only other person who Sieg could think might have been hit with the same spell to strand spirits outside their bodies was Lucia.
He stepped into the dining room and said, "Haru, they're loading an airship in the center of town. Get on board. Someone is going to bring your body over from the hospital and we're going to bring you back to the ruins. Hurry. We need to leave before anyone stows away."
And with that he left, not knowing that Haru had been hoping to help a potential stow away.
Sieg returned to his room and threw his things together, while Haru followed and helped Lucia onto the ship. Although Lucia protested—loudly—Haru carried him bridal style. It was the easiest way to keep the blond's injury from getting in the way while he rushed to get on board the airship before they were left behind. If he got his nose broken for his efforts, well, his spirit healed fast anyway.
-o-
No one had been pleased by how fast Sieg had rushed them to take off, but given that they only had five days and an evening left, they could understand the need to get there fast. Lucia probably, hopefully, didn't know. And Sieg had checked everyone he could to make sure they weren't possessed so he didn't think the monster had made it onto the air ship. If the coast was clear, then there was no sense in worrying everyone with the knowledge that Lucia had been in town. Especially since Sieg wasn't entirely sure Lucia had been in town.
Not many people had thought of dinner in their haste to restore the Rave Master. The ship had provisions on it, but it wasn't prepared to feed so many people for more than a day. They'd need to stop some time tomorrow for supplies, but that was fine. Everyone was sure they could make it well within the time limit. The only cause for rush was in case Lucia could have snuck on board.
Sieg was feeling pretty confident about himself when he handed out meals to Haru's friends. They were just pieces of stiff bread and bowls of easy to heat canned soup, but it would have to serve as dinner for the evening. Going around confirming so many people weren't possessed had resulted in whispers about how oddly social Sieg suddenly was. While he didn't particularly care, it did make him feel uncomfortable about how he interacted with others, and he found a private corner to sit in while he ate.
It wasn't too surprising to him when Elie appeared. Sitting on the floor, however, he did notice her bad limp, which even leaning her weight against the wall didn't help with.
"Did you hurt yourself?"
She shook her head. "It's me again."
"Haru?"
Haru nodded.
"Is there anything else you need to tell us?"
"The Altar of Birth…" Haru shifted his feet, grimaced when he put pressure on the left, and straightened. "Is it possible it would be easier to undo this spell if the Altar of Birth were restored?"
"It would, although not too significantly. With the current schedule, we should be able to break the spell without it. If we were to get there on day ten it might bring restoration down from 'theoretically a slim chance' to 'definite and bearable', but it won't be an issue. Besides which, we have no way of fixing the Altar after the number Lucia did to it."
"What if you used Anatasia." Haru glanced to his right after he said it, then quickly back to Sieg.
"What?"
"Harden's Dark Bring? He was able to fix the Altar that way."
Sieg scowled. Why was Haru remembering details like that? The name of one of the Sinclair Stones? Sieg doubted Haru could even name the Dark Bring that Shuda was using. And to suggest they employ a Dark Bring at all… "He was… but we don't need to."
"What if your estimate of how fixable this me is turns out to be wrong? What if we get there thinking we have three days to spare, and it turns out that was our last day to try."
"Then we would waste three days going to Demon Card, robbing Lucia, who likely has it on his person at all times, and trying to get to the Mystic Realm with his army chasing us. Besides which…" Sieg lowered his voice, "I suspect that Lucia is also trapped as a spirit. It's possible he was in Mildea earlier."
"T-that…" Haru stopped, looked to his right, looked back to Sieg, and swallowed.
"You're not Haru, are you? Haru would never encourage we use a Sinclair." Sieg set his bowl of soup down and glared defiantly up at a man who had it in him to kill everyone, and who was inside a body that gave him the ability to do so on a whim. "Lucia, what did you do to Elie's leg."
"Elie's fine." Lucia retorted, scowling back down at Sieg.
"How did you know to get here? Where's Haru?"
Lucia snorted, which sounded odd in Elie's body, and gestured to his right. "Haru's right here."
"Prove it."
Lucia looked at the space to his right, waiting a moment, then told Sieg, "When you rescued him and his friends from the Oracion Six, they then discovered Tan…" He looked to the right again. "Tanchimo?" Back to Sieg. "Tanchimo had a trunk, which things could be stored in." He paused, then spun to face the right. "Whatever that is, there's no way it's a horse."
Convincing enough. "Is it safe to presume Haru is monitoring you because you took over Elie?"
"In a sense." Lucia crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. "Would you like me to keep relaying messages for Haru?"
"I wouldn't trust anything from your mouth."
"Pity. He can't take over anybody, so it's the only way you'll be hearing from him." A pause. "Oh, shove it. If he figured out who I was this time he could see through the act again."
Sieg shivered. He'd been talking to Lucia before too. No. Beyond that. Haru was telling Lucia how to get past any test of his identity. Haru was helping Lucia pose as himself. Considering that they now knew how to save Haru, that hadn't been a terrible thing at first, but…
"That's fine. If he knows what lines to feed you, he can hear me. All that needs to be communicated is for us to tell him when we're ready to undo the spell, and where he needs to go while we cast it. If he has the good sense to follow me," Sieg glanced in the same direction Lucia did, as it seemed to be where Haru was, "Then there's no need for you to speak for 'him' at all. Now. What did you do to Elie's foot."
"Nothing. Elie's perfectly fine."
"Your spirit and body both need to be at the Altar to be restored, and you have the same time limit as Haru," Sieg told Lucia, hoping that the reason Lucia had yet to slaughter him with Etherion was that he had no idea how to activate Elie's magic. "Unless you told Demon Card what was wrong with you first, then they likely think you're in a coma. Or brain dead. Your spirit is here. Your body is there. We have no obligation to fix that. Now if Elie is fine, then why are you limping?"
Arms still folded, Lucia squeezed his arms so tight that Sieg worried he'd leave them bruised. As it was, the scowl he'd made was already alarming given that it was on Elie's face. But after a moment of internal struggle, Lucia confessed. "It's my own ankle that's injured. Elie's body helps support it when I stand, but it doesn't keep it from hurting. That's why the limp."
"How well can you walk without a host body to support you?"
No response. Just a glare. Sieg guessed that Lucia couldn't get far on his own.
"How did you get the injury? Do wounds from your body carry over to your spirit? You sounded healthy during the Blue Guardian incident."
Another visible struggle, then Lucia said, "I broke it after becoming a spirit."
Broke? That it was something as significant as a broken ankle was almost more interesting than the fact that spirits could break ankles. But more important than that… "Is Haru's spirit wounded?"
While the wording of his question struck Sieg, Lucia snorted and said, "Anything of his I've broken has healed seconds later."
"Interesting…" Sieg placed his chin in his hand and considered the implications.
Lucia waited for Sieg to say anything else. When the sorcerer remained deep in thought, he lowered himself into a sitting position to spear his ankle his continued weight.
"It's possible…" Sieg said finally. "Although you're… determined… charismatic, I suppose is the nicest way to describe you, maybe you have a weaker spirit?"
"What?"
"A weaker spirit," Sieg repeated. "Haru has led a life surrounded by friends, loved ones, and great expectations. Even his most negative experience, the absence of his father, was mended when he met Gale. You, on the other hand, have led a life full of crushing experiences—though that can't be blamed on you. You've had little affection and few positive experiences, and most expectations placed on you are negative, or conditional. As a result, while you may be strong in other aspects, your spirit is weak. Haru's spirit is impossible to leave lasting damage on. He bounces back. But without your physical power to protect yourself, your spirit has been through so much pain already that it can't handle additional damage well. A positive experience, or maybe a good relationship, might help to heal you. Being returned to your body may heal the injury over time. If nothing else, it would prevent further damage."
"Okay. That's nice. Do you want Anastasia or not? I can spare you the trouble of picking who it might corrupt while using it, and it would help to have."
"While you being here also spares us the trouble of having to steal it from you, the rest of your army is still an issue," Sieg informed Lucia. "And more importantly, your injury spares us the trouble of restoring you. If you can't move around without a host body, then you're no threat in your current state. Leave Elie, or I will fetch a sorcerer who can forcibly remove you." It was a bluff, and Sieg hoped that Lucia wouldn't call it.
Lucia didn't. He grimaced, but the expression faded as Elie's body went stiff. She jumped to her feet, looking around and stepping away from the wall. There was nothing wrong with her foot.
"And Haru," Sieg called out, "Do stay nearby. It would be troublesome if we lost track of you."
"Haru again?" Elie asked.
"In a manner of speaking." Sieg picked his soup bowl up and stood. "I have more news. Lets find the others."
-o-
Lucia sat cross legged on the floor, shoulders square, eyes dull, staring at the wall in front of him.
"We'll find a way to make them save you," Haru said. "I'm going to find where Elie's sleeping. Want to come along?"
"I'm fine."
Haru shrugged. "I'll check in on you in the morning, okay? I still think you're a threat, and I owe you anyway."
Lucia didn't respond, so Haru left.
Alone, Lucia stared at the wall and wondered what he should do next. Anastasia was the best idea they'd come up with, and now that Sieg knew he was the one body surfing, he doubted any plan would work. They didn't want him recovering. They only cared about Haru. Keeping him out of his body was bonus. In fact, they'd probably find a way to dump his spirit in the middle of nowhere just to prevent him from taking over anyone else. He'd be all alone again…
They only cared about Haru?
…
Ah. Yes, that might work. But he'd need to do it right from the get go. If they could force him out of bodies, he didn't want to blow what was likely his last chance.
STA: Credit to the gangsta of love for thinking of that one, because in all honesty it never would have occurred to me to make use of Lucia's possession that way.
