Huh. Hadn't realized I hadn't posted this over here. Oh well. Posting now.

Broken Wings
N.W. 2
Friends and Farewells

Saying goodbye was hard. Not just for his friends—he could see in the slumps of their shoulders that no one wanted to leave Emil behind—but for Emil... Ratatosk... as well.

So as Lloyd stepped forward, knowing that Marta would want to be last, he took a deep breath, and forced a smile. Not a difficult task, not anymore. Not after Kratos.

"Emil?" The blonde turned slightly, blood-red eyes not really startling Lloyd anymore as he put a hand on the teen's shoulder.

The smile became a little less forced, and Lloyd watched some of the tension leave the boy's shoulders. "I want to believe that we'll see each other again someday. So I'm not gonna say goodbye."

He nodded, noting the slight smile on the boy's face, and Lloyd was able to take that and turn, walking away from Emil, out of Ratatosk's home.

He waited, though, for Marta to step out. Her tears told him enough.

Lloyd took a deep breath and put an arm around her shoulder. Her gasp and the way her head shot up told him he'd startled her, and he offered up a small, apologetic smile. She sniffed, took a deep breath, and then let the floodgates open. Even though it was clear that she was trying her hardest not to show him just how badly she was hurt, there was nothing any of them could do.

Lloyd sighed, never once letting his arm fall, keeping her close until she was ready to walk away on her own... whenever that would be.

They stopped partway to the exit of the Ginnungagap, though, and Lloyd frowned at the bodies that lay in the open space.

"Marta?" She seemed to be starting to get a grasp on herself...

She sniffed, seemed to notice the bodies, and a new wave of tears fell. Tears that she frantically tried to brush away. "We should... We should bury them. They de-hic! Deserve that much, at least."

Lloyd nodded. "We've got some time. I think the others went ahead to the Otherworldly Gate to wait for us."

Marta sniffed again. "Emil said we needed to leave, though..."

Lloyd couldn't help it. He chuckled. "He's going to physically seal himself and Richter into the deepest part of the Ginnungagap, that area where the doorway between Aselia and Niflheim is, so neither of them is tempted to leave. The problem is, Richter's still mortal. I'll probably have to come knocking at some point just to make sure Richter survives long enough for Ratatosk to complete his task."

Marta blinked up at him, then suddenly burst out laughing. Lloyd wasn't sure exactly what was so funny, but the fact that she was laughing, and it wasn't pure hysterics, counted as a win in his books.

But that still left...

Lloyd looked over at the still forms of Alice and Decus and sighed. Even with the two of them, and the shovels he had in his wing pack—he'd buried too many people in the last few months to not carry multiple shovels, which was a morbid enough thought in and of itself—it would take them hours. The others would notice.

Except, just as Lloyd made to pull the shovels out, movement drew his eye.

The source of the movement was a brown frog. When the light hit it correctly, its skin shimmered with gold flecking, and Lloyd blinked, because for whatever reason, it had no eyes. Well, no visible eyes, at least.

And it was hopping right over toward them, though it stopped a far enough distance away so as to not be in immediate fighting range.

"Aren't you two supposed to be leaving?"

Marta yelped and turned around, clearly not having noticed the frog joining them.

"You must be Solum," Lloyd mused. Talking animal, the right colors to be an earth-elemental, about the same size, roughly, as Tenebrae and Aqua...

The frog seemed amused. "I must be, eh?"

Its form blurred, and Lloyd fought the urge to attack the doppelganger of himself that now stood across from him, blinking at him in clear surprise. "...Ah. That would explain it."

"...Huh?"

Yeah, Lloyd was about as clueless as Marta was right now.

Solum outright laughed at their expressions. Lloyd couldn't blame him—it wasn't every day someone managed to leave him totally baffled anymore.

"I'm blind in my natural form. And while I can transform at will, I have to rely on the Knights and occasionally people like Decus to take a useful form. It doesn't help that since I can't see what I'm trying to turn into..."

"You can't match it well enough to actually pass," Lloyd finished, realizing why the Centurion had turned into him again. Decus had used his form so often over the last year that it must be familiar enough Solum could still pull it out easily, while also having had Decus' eye for details.

Solum nodded. "While I'm not exactly happy about what Decus used my shapeshifting ability to do, it's nice having eyes. Anyway, I figured since he and Alice were still here, I might as well come out and bury them properly."

"We were thinking the same thing," Marta said softly. "Though... I don't know how we were supposed to do that..."

Lloyd grimaced. "You don't want to know how many graves I've dug in the last year, Marta. I think the fact that I took to carrying a couple shovels in my wing pack is probably my clue that I've got a problem."

From the way Marta and Solum both winced, he was probably right, too.

"I can do the digging easy," Solum piped up. "Perks of being an earth-elemental." He stopped here and turned slightly, glancing back toward the deeper parts of the Ginnungagap. "I'll probably have to bury Richter, too..."

Which brought them back around to what Lloyd had mentioned earlier... "Does Ratatosk realize that Richter's going to need food and stuff?"

Solum gave Lloyd an amused look. "Honestly, I'm not sure. But given that I have it on good authority that Richter can't cook without something blowing up..."

"Oh boy. I may need to come knocking earlier than I'd planned..." Lloyd muttered.

Solum snickered. "Nah. Ratatosk might have overlooked it, but Aqua knows better. He'll be fine." A pause, and then a sigh. "Though... Visiting might be a good idea. Not immediately... but later. Keep them from killing each other."

Marta nodded. "I probably will, if Lloyd's right and the only reason Ratatosk's sealing them in is to keep them from leaving."

Lloyd nodded, then started looking around. They still needed to bury Alice and Decus, and much as he would have liked to stay down here chatting with Solum for a while... Colette and the others were waiting. "I'm thinking maybe a little further off the path."

Solum nodded, and walked over toward something that looked like a tree. "Over here, maybe?"

Marta nodded. "Yes. That should be a good place."

At least these two would get a proper burial, Lloyd mused as Solum shifted back into his frog form and promptly began digging a single, large hole. And they'd be together, which seemed to make Marta happier.

His eyes drifted back toward Ratatosk's lair, and he made himself a promise.

'I'll come visit in a year or so. Even if only to let you know how things are going.'