follow you into the dark ~ marina x eight, o/s nine x marina

Extra Notes: I seem to be unable to write Navrina that won't depress you all. Oh and look one-sided Nine/Marina is creeping in.

Eight had promised to stay with her, to keep her with him. He had asked her to trust him, follow him without precedent. Their link went far beyond the Loric charm holding them all together.

And when he dies (you weren't supposed to go, you weren't supposed to leave where I couldn't follow), she feels the shock in more than just the burning on her ankle

She feels it jar her very soul.

Death places a wedge between them that is like glass - clear as crystal, and cruelly so. It is like she can see him (in her dreams, in her sleep, she doesn't want it to end, but it always does), but she can never touch him. She pounds her fists on the glass, cries her voice hoarse, but Eight will always be on the other side of that barrier, no matter what she does.

She is not allowed to follow him, not allowed to be pulled by the thread that has linked them together since they met, and it hurts, because she can't move on. (I want to, she tells Nine as he hugs her to his chest, stroking her hair, and the rest of the sentence goes unsaid, because he knows that she can't).

Nine deserves quite a bit for his resilience with her - I'm not leaving you alone, Marina. Not while you're like this, or, Come on, Marina you need to eat - and he looks at her so intensely, she almost thinks that she should look at him the way he does her. But, no. Eight is still on the other side of that glass, still looming right in front of her even though she can never touch him. (Even when separated by death, their link deems that they can never be too far apart).

When it comes time for Five to pay his due, it is not Marina who does the deed. Nine is the one to slice his hand off when he tries to touch her, and then slit his throat when he falls to the floor, maimed and crying.

Marina can only watch for a second before her ankle lights up, and when the blinding pain leaves her, she thinks she ought to look down at the loric symbol for five and feel closure.

All she feels is a numbing sense of emptiness

She tries to do it, she really does. She even picks out a knife and stands in front of the wall, ready to push it deeper in. But, when she has the point to her chest, right above her heart, so she can go the way Eight did, she realizes that she just can't do it. Not with Setrakus Ra still running around with his head on his shoulders.

Marina drops the knife and flees it, scared that if she holds it any longer she'll actually commit the deed.

(Nine grunts when she crawls into his bed, but embraces her anyway. She can't help but feel how wrong it is, deep in the pit of her stomach)

Ella surprises everyone when she is the one to stab Setrakus Ra in the back. 'Heir', he called her, and she played the part that he wished, just to get the trojan horse in. She played it so well, that Marina and Nine had actually believed her, actually tried to feel contempt for her betrayal.

But now, as she holds the hilt of a sword that peeks out of Setrakus' chest, causing a spot of blood to travel outwards to soak his shirt the same way that Eight's did, Marina realizes they were all stupid to doubt her. She should have known that, at the most dire moment, when Setrakus had his sword to her throat, Ella would act.

Because they were a team. They had sworn on it even before Marina knew Ella was a Loric.

Ella lets go of the hilt, letting the Mogodorian leader collapse to the ground backwards, and races into Marina's embrace. Before she knows it, Nine, Adam, Six, John, Sarah and Sam have dived into the dogpile (it's over, it's all over, we can go back).

And still, even with Nine's hands on her back, she thinks of how Eight should be here. Setrakus Ra is dead, but even that falls short of the closure she needs.

It's a week after the defeat when Nine catches her searching under the sink of their temporary house for something. The government provided it, telling them that they could stay there until all the mogs had been chased off of planet Earth and their ship is ready. "Hi, Marina," he says, standing in front of the fridge.

Marina places the bottle on the counter and closes the cabinet. "Hi Nine," she replies, getting out a cup.

"Wanna have a drink with me? We're underage, but the government promised to let it pass as long as we don't go too crazy," he grins at her, waving a bottle of White Wine. Marina smiles back, half-hearted, and she considers saying no. But then, she decided against it. She doesn't want to seem suspicious.

"Uh, sure. Pass it here, I'll get the cups and pour. Just sit down," she motions to the dining table. Nine's smile widens, and he throws her the bottle. The glass is warm against her skin when she catches it. How long has Nine been holding it?

She reaches in the cabinet for another cup, a mug, because all the others look the same, and pours, covering her actions with her body.

"Ironic, huh? Ella killed Setrakus, of all the people," he chuckles. "I knew that little girl had some macho genes in her."

Marina smiles back, and walks up to sit next to him, handing him the plain cup (remember to get the mug, the mug is yours).

"I think she gets it from you, mr. Macho himself," she replies. Her smile widens (give him a good look at it, just enough for the road) and brings the mug to her lips, before throwing her head back. The drink burns as it goes down, this is her first time drinking it, but she swallows all of the contents in one go. She screws up her face and places the mug back down.

"First time?" He asks, ever mirthful since Setrakus's defeat. He wrinkles his nose. "They must have scrubbed this place down with chemicals before we came here. It smells in here." He doesn't see the way her throat bobs as she gulps.

She nods, not lying at all when she says "You have no idea," even though she took a gulp of White Wine in an inn, once. After Eight's death. Her voice is hoarse, her throat still burning.

He laughs and takes a gulp of his own. She's sure it doesn't burn going down, not half as much as it did for her. He places down the cup, and when he looks at her, in that intense way that he always does, she almost regrets it.

Before she can say anything, any sorry, or goodbye or anything (because it's beginning to eat at her), he grabs her face between his hands and kisses her. She's sure that it's just a Nine thing, this unexpected out-of-nowhere kiss, and she kisses him back because this is the way he'll remember her.

He tastes it on her lips almost immediately after his tongue goes to pass them, and he lurches back from the kiss, eyes wide.

"No," he says, and the regret that she feels surpasses anything else. His eyes flit to the counter, where the bottle of oven cleaner sits innocently next to the wine. Everything has suddenly fallen into place before he realized he was supposed to be solving it. "Marina, you didn't."

She tries to answer (I'm sorry, I'm sorry) but her throat is raw and her stomach is beginning to burn, as the poison spreads. She coughs, and tries to stand, but her legs die out from under her. Nine is screaming her name, grabbing her, shaking her, but it's too late, she knows it's too late. She wishes he knew it too. The lye is already beginning to spread. There's fire in her throat and stomach and it's traveling through her body faster than maybe it should.

Strangely enough, when everything goes dark and right before she loses consciousness, the closure she has so vehemently wishes for arrives. She has kept her promise, despite everything.

If there's no one beside you

When your soul embarks

Then I'll follow you into the dark