A/N: I have returned to regular updates on my shitpost fic. How lovely. How are you all doing my dears?
If you all would like a better version of this, much more realistic and stuff, check out Britannia Academy! I posted it a while back (with around 3 chapters up right now) and it's based on Ackley Bridge (a British TV drama about two secondary schools that were forced to merge). I really suggest giving it a read cause it fleshes out the characters a lot more, builds a super cool universe and isn't... a shitpost. Yeah. This fic is just a shitpost at this point - sorry huns. It's cause ITIKY was my first fic for this fandom so...
Anyway, I'll stop yammering. Expect regular updates (I want to finish this burning dumpster fire of a fic) and expect me to put effort into them! I'm not gonna let the quality drop cause of how I feel, promise :D
Till next time,
D.L.D
Gloxinia's P.O.V
Too much was going on behind the scenes. Both Drole and I knew that when it came to Clan Academy and its management. There were too many decisions being made without our knowledge, too many people interfering with things that never should have been messed with. Students weren't at the best interest within the Demon King's schools. Education was never his main agenda with all of the academies he owned, speckled around the country. No, it was always about power.
Back in the past, when I'd first met him, I had always thought of him as an evil man. Coming from a country ripped apart by war, conditioned to teach children to become killing machines, it was effortless to recognise a fellow monster. Those damaged by war tended to see past rose-tinted glass.
Although he did not present himself as one, the Demon King was a monster. So was the Supreme Deity. Both of them, so wrapped up in their quests for power and knowledge, were consumed by their own greed. In the process they sucked me and Drole in - two pillars for the fairy and giant races - just to further their goals.
And what did we have to show for it?
"You know, Elizabeth isn't wrong," Drole was the first to break the silence, his voice a sonorous tremor that carried well within the earth. Now that we were in the sanctuary of our accommodation he was more at ease. There were less watching eyes. Less skeptical students, hanging onto our every word. "Derieri does want her dead. You and I both know just how much hatred she holds toward Elizabeth, especially because- "
"I know," I responded, cutting Drole short. None of us wanted to relive that moment. None of wanted to think back to that time, that night, where I had lost my own sister and Derieri had also lost her own. War itself had robbed Gerheade from me; war again claimed the life of one of my comrades. War and power had taken a lot from all of us, drained and sucked and twisted us into limp, dry noodles of thin, cracking substance.
Only Elizabeth remained well from those distant days. Only she, unmarred from it all, continued to carry the hope of a brighter, better future. Even Meliodas, someone who had arguably lost the least, had fallen into the depths of darkness. He still had his family. He still had something to return to. But even he, having seen the reality of it all, had finally given up. Even he had seen how Elizabeth was continuing a hopeless cause, an empty shell that would never be full.
"We both know why we can't help her," I eventually said, fully remembering when I had learned the truth. This whole feud was not over anything other than power. This entire war was waged just to see who would win the most. "What she's fighting for doesn't exist, Drole."
"I know," Drole nodded. But instead of being calm, passive, he was moving, cracking his knuckles as he paced about. "But that doesn't mean that she is wrong to fight for it. We both know that it isn't impossible to gain peace. We just know that it is tough."
"But we are still placed in a tough position," I responded, trying to remind him of just how much we would lose. Just how much we have already lost. If we were to turn once more, to help the new generation to fight against these gods, we would be up for a much crueler punishment. Perhaps even a fate worse than death itself. "You and I both know that neither head will be forgiving. We would be outcast from society completely."
"But what more do we have to lose?" Drole countered, turning to me with a dangerous look within his eyes. Conflict, pure solid conflict, was swimming in his eyes. Still, he wanted to help Elizabeth. Still, he yearned for a future where his own people would not have to drag their heels to please another race.
Fairies and giants had always been below the other races. Sure, they possessed great power and innate natural abilities that some other races lacked, but they never had the initiative. Goddesses and demons controlled all they saw. After they left a void, the humans swiftly filled it up, making up for their weakness with a cunning deception that most fairies and giants saw no true use for. Always, we came up short. Always, we were below another group.
When we first joined the Demon King, he had promised that our people would no longer be beneath the other races. Equality had been offered - the chance for children to learn and advance in society in the exact same ways that others did. To me, it sounded like a great idea. At the time, so desperate to see our dreams flourish, we'd both believed the lies.
In the process we lost everything. Including the little foothold we had to make that dream come true.
"We have nothing," Sighing, I more or less melted into my desk chair, allowing it to roll back into the wooden desk. There was nothing left to lose. Nothing left to gamble but our own lives.
"Exactly," Drole nodded, satisfied with my answer. Crossing his arms, he shook his head as he took a seat on the abandoned beanbag, rattling the floorboards as he did so. "All we have left is ourselves. So I think that we should at least do something useful with the time we have left."
There was no further explanation needed. No, I could see it within his eyes - exactly what Drole had planned for the future. Over the years, we had developed this strange sort of telekinetic link, a way to communicate without sharing even a single word. Perhaps it was because we understood each other in a way that so many others could not. Maybe it was because we were exact mirrors of each other, failures to try and better our own race.
"You want to contact them," Sighing, I lifted my head upwards, stopping myself from hanging over the back of the chair. "Are you sure, Drole?"
"Certain," He hummed. This was the most certain I'd ever seen him, even when we got our Commandment tattoos - a pair of stupid teens, looking for radical change. How foolish we had been back then. How weak we had really been...
"Alright, we'll try it your way then," Giving up on trying to change his mind, I relented. There was no point in trying to convince him. All I could do was tag along and try to keep him safe. "But if it all goes wrong, I'm totally annoying you in the necropolis."
"Wouldn't want it any other way!" Drole grinned, chuckling.
Since we had nothing left to lose, dying wouldn't matter. Nothing would matter. At least, I'd like to hope, this stunt would give me a chance to see my sister again, to apologise for every single moment of pain I'd contributed towards. Maybe then, if this works, I will see something of my actions. Maybe then, in the distant future, all of our sacrifices will finally be paid off.
Meliodas' P.O.V
Recovering from purgatory was always a pain. Scabbed over knuckles and sore muscles were the least of your problems after navigating that literal hellhole - and this was if you made it out alive. Purgatory served as the ultimate punishment, the ultimate timeout corner for younger Meliodas whenever he stepped out of line. That place was what had conditioned me, filed me down to a perfect example of exactly what my father wanted out his legacy.
And I hated everything about it.
Frowning, I stared at my slowly healing hands, scabby skin turning into pinked flesh. Zeldris and Estarossa had really expected a cakewalk when I showed them that door. Both of those idiots really underestimated me; they believed that seeing the outside world had made me soft.
Maybe, in the long term, it had. After being around humans for so long, living a life that wasn't crafted around my father's schools and his expectations, I had seen something else in life other than furthering an agenda. Small moments, slow moments that passed by like clouds in the sky, were the sorts of things people should treasure. Instead, here, all anyone treasured was power and authority. Misery.
Misery was everywhere in this building - that hadn't changed. Miserable students, miserable staff and of course the miserable architecture. Nothing had really changed about Clan Academy in the time I'd been absent from it. Everything was stagnant, a distant echo of the not-so-distant past, reminding me of everything that I was risking with this gamble. Everything that hinged on this all going right, on me... actually not fucking up for once.
"I'm not giving up on you!": Before I'd stormed off, already frustrated at her penchant for finding trouble, Elizabeth had yelled that at me. Tears in her eyes, pink climbing up at the side of her neck, tipping her ears, she had yelled that at me.
So many thoughts and feelings had raced through my mind in that moment. So many unspoken words, needed explanations, had crossed my mind when I saw her like that, determined to fix something that just couldn't... fix itself. In that moment, she had needed some sign of normalcy, something to suggest that the person she knew, the person she cared about, still remained. Part of me had wanted to be that, to reach out and tell her that she didn't need to bother. I was going to fix this. I was going to save her.
But I couldn't say anything. Saying something would ruin the plan. Doing something would expose a weakness, rip out the solid wall of defenses I'd built around these people.
When I'd walked away, Elizabeth had began to cry. Instead of comforting her, walking back to her, I'd walked away. I'd turned my back on her and walked away.
"You are an idiot, Meliodas," Gloxinia stared at me, for once with a straight and plain-faced expression. Even though all severity was removed as he hung upside from a desk chair, long hair sweeping the bare floorboards.
"Why do you say that?" Raising a brow, I glanced up from my now healed hands. At times I forgot what it was like to be inhuman, having lived another life for so long.
"You think that doing this is the way to win her heart," Gloxinia tsked, shaking his head. Moving with his motion, his hair shimmered in the light like a bright strawberry. "But really, you're just fucking it up for yourself. Again."
This time wasn't like last time. Not like Danafor. Not like the past. Fucking everything up was left in the past. Destroying everything was well and truly left behind in the dust. I'd told myself that. When I left Liones, decided to betray everyone in order to save them, I'd promised myself that it wouldn't end up the same. So far, I was keeping that promise - even if it meant my progress was currently stagnated.
Rolling my eyes, I frowned at the annoying commentator currently rolling around my room, "And what would you do, Gloxinia?"
"I'd say the truth for one," Pausing in his rolling, holding tightly onto the arm rests of the desk chair, Gloxinia blinked. Again, he was plain-faced. Again there wasn't a single grin. Instead he was solemn, quiet, as the next few words slipped out, "And I would apologise. For everything."
Silence settled between us, filled with an understanding that neither of us had ever talked about before. None of us had ever had the chance to discuss it. We were always on opposing sides, always fighting a battle for different armies. There wasn't time for me to talk to Gloxinia about what happened to Gerheade; there wasn't time for him to talk to me, to delve into the events that led to me and Elizabeth getting kicked out.
Yet, in the silence, I could sense that he wanted to confide something in me. There was a reason why Gloxinia was here, annoying the shit out of me as he rolled about in that stupid chair. As pesky as he could be, that fairy was just as strategic. Something was playing on his mind. Something that involved me and possibly my father was pushed to the forefront of his train of thought.
"Why did you really come to bother me tonight?" Tired of the silence, I decided to break it. Time was something I didn't have much of right now - not with Elizabeth freely roaming about trying to find a way to save me. Time was working against me; time was always the enemy. Now was no different.
"Drole and I want to hand in our resignations," Gloxinia spoke, sitting up straight and dragging his head up. Turning toward me, he now grew a sly smile as his amber eyes sparkled with an unshared mischief. "We have other matters to attend to, sir."
"I doubt my father would like that," Immediately, the words left me. Dry. Robotic. Sardonic. That was what I was expected to say in a moment like this. My suspicions, playing on the theory that both Gloxnia and Drole would seek out to help Liones, were not to be voiced. If I wanted to keep this act going, I had to act as if I didn't know; that way I couldn't be blamed for this, pinned for being the traitor, if things went wrong.
"I never asked about that old fart," Gloxinia chuckled, shaking his head as he rolled to the other side of the room. As he did, his legs waved in the air, like a child on a swing. "Nor did Drole or I ever entirely care. The only asshole we even remotely care for is busy digging himself a deeper grave."
Touching. But not at all subtle Gloxinia.
"Very funny," I scoffed, shaking my head. There was no getting through to him. Not tonight.
Just as I was about to voice a such, there was a deafening boom. Shaking the building, triggering the fire alarm, it rattled the windows and shook plaster flakes free. Not a fake drill. Definitely not a prank done by some younger years looking for a good laugh. That sound was too loud; nothing should have rattled the windows or shook the building like that. Nothing within the school's grounds at least - especially now.
Frowning, I pulled open the window and poked my head outside. Immediately, I fixed onto it: bright white, overwhelming, shining like an ominous beacon across the green. Already, the smoke was hissing in the air, joined by thinly veiled screeches of agony from the students who were most likely caught in the blast. People were already piling outside, some panicked and others outraged, looking for the source of the noise. Right in the middle of it, staring in my direction as if he'd spotted me himself, was Ludociel - not even bothering to seek cover for himself.
Immediately, I felt something bubble in my system. Nothing good was going to come from this; those damned Archangels were here.
Elaine's P.O.V
I was awake. Slowly, surely, my body was waking up. Tingling, my fingers were beginning to twitch and so were my toes. Warm and fluid, blood was warming my icy fingertips, spreading through my veins and slowly but surely bringing me back to life. Even if my eyes weren't open, I could feel it all happening. Inflating lungs, the gentle rise and fall of my chest as I took in steady breaths. Electric impulses within the brain, bringing me thoughts and telling my body to move.
There had been little noise in my room. Quiet voices had occasionally filled the background, gentle whispers that had never wanted to disturb me. Most of the time they were replaced by tears, wept onto the carpet and soaked into the floorboards as my brother and too many others feared the worst. There had been so much sadness around me. So much... grief. All the while I was frozen, drifting in a pool of endless thoughts, that simply couldn't become action.
I want to see you, Harlequin.
My mind would conjure him, in the past, laughing with me as we raced through fields of growing Youth Trees. Towering and green, forever the protectors of a younger me and much more pleasant days. In those moments, he would be my brother again. Hugging me tightly under the warmth of the spring and summer suns; scolding me as he wrapped his own scarf around my pale neck, watching as I shivered in the winds and snow.
So much time had passed since we were that close. Two children, racing under the moon and stars, unaware to the chaos and troubles blooming within their own country.
When he wept in my room, unheard by everyone but me, my heart wished to see him again. All of me wished to go back to our childhood, to wrap him a giant hug, and thank him for everything. To let him know, no matter what, he had done a wonderful job. Harlequin - King - had been the best brother a girl could ever ask for; he was someone who sacrificed everything for me - even if I had never truly realised it.
"Elaine," Ban's voice. Cradling my warming hand, his thumb tracing the familiar patterns of my veins. He was the most frequent visitor, huddled against me in the night after Diane had attempted to chase him out. Even when she locked the door, yelling about chopping his hand off, he'd still scale up through the window. Every night he ended here, filling the air with his comforting presence and always there to keep to me close. To keep me safe.
I hated it most when he cried over me.
"We're gonna get Elizabeth back," Determined. I could sense his determination from his voice alone, the way he gripped my hand so certainly within his. "Then, somehow, we'll figure out how to wake you up. To get you back to us."
That had been his promise. In the quiet of my room, surrounded by the softness of my pillows and nothing else, that had been his promise. Ban would bring me back. Ban would try his best to bring me back when there was no real way to bring me back. Not now...
Tears couldn't be helped. Not when I felt him let go of my hand, promising that he would return. Going to that place was a suicide mission - we both knew that. Returning was not a possibility. Escaping was never a crime that went unpunished. I paid with my life; Ban paid with his mortality. Together we were examples of how trying to defy the demons, trying to overcome their hurdles, would simply result in tragedy.
Going there now, after everything we'd experienced, would mean not coming back at all. But, to save me, Ban will go. To bring me back, he will risk everything he had.
"Ban!" Springing up, filled with energy from the returning life within my system, I managed to throw myself at him. Tight, impossibly tight, I squeezed him close to me, willing myself to never let go. Ever. Like this, forever, we would remain, a gradually ageing statue of a fairy and her lover, overgrown by the world as they froze in time. No-one would sever us. No-one could ever cut the lasting ties between us, spanning centuries.
"Elaine," Quiet, almost tortured, his voice responded to mine. Gently, his hand gripped onto mine, warm against alabaster skin. "You can't be..."
"I am," I was. I was here. I was awake. I was... slipping!
Dizzying my senses, pounding at my skull, I could hear someone's voice calling to me. Melodic, smooth and charming: it reminded me of a lullaby, a song sang to me a long time ago on a rainy night. Come home. Come and defend your home. Slipped through the air, loosening my grip on Ban - one I had thought would last forever - it willed me to leave. To go. To find this home and carry out my purpose.
"Elaine?" Now Ban was holding on, a powerful grip on my tiny wrist.
"I have to go home, Ban," Tears fell from my eyes as I glanced at him, a mixture of hurt, joy and confusion. Fixing my trapped hand into a familiar position, one that called upon my powers, I turned my gaze away from him, "I'm sorry."
Powerful, overbearing, I knew that the blast hit him. Wet blood speckled onto my cheeks, but I ignored it. I needed to find my way toward whatever was calling me; I needed to find my way home.
Elizabeth's P.O.V
Homesickness was always the enemy of a good night's sleep. Whenever my thoughts even thought about home, things I associated with home, I knew that sleep would an impossibility. Everything within me would want to focus on capturing the past, reliving those moments that felt so distant in the present. Back then, back home, things had always felt so simple. Before the distant past caught up with the near past. Before the present became what it was now. Those moments were lovely.
Maybe that was why I found myself up, aimlessly wandering about the room. Sometimes I would pick up a random book, attempt to read the pages, before sighing and placing it back. Other times I was at the desk, writing down a million words that ended up in a scrunched up ball of paper. Nothing was satisfying. Nothing could satisfy me right now. My mind was too restless.
Releasing a sigh, I attempted to gain some solace in the moon and stars. Blocked by a clear glass pane, filtered by the melted sand, the silver light seemed somewhat artificial tonight. Odd. Part of me wanted to comment on it, to make some kind of remark about how the moon had never seemed so much like a mirror before. Those thoughts ended up being interrupted by a deafening boom, smoke curling before the once bright moon.
Opening the window - for the first time, I realised - I immediately try to scan the surrounding area for the source of the smoke. Instantly, I spot it: a bright source of white light, twinkling like a star on the green. Emerging from the obvious arc were four familiar figures: one tall and towering, another short and childlike, the third with three heads and the last feminine, much more rounded than the rest. Feathered wings identified them clearly to any watching eyes; they were goddesses.
Goddesses coming here only meant one thing. Goddesses attacking only meant one thing. I knew what that was. Meliodas knew what that was. Almost everyone on this entire campus knew what that was. Nothing was going to end well tonight - not if they had come to try and find me.
Swiftly closing my window back up, I drew the curtains and tried to make it look as inconspicuous as possible. Saving me now would simply delay my own plans. Saving me now would do much more damage than good, especially since I was trying to fix the mess that I'd created. Staying here was vital to helping Meliodas; staying away from Liones was vital to avoiding a repeat of the horrible, distant past.
No-one else seemed to think so, though. Familiar sounds, crashes and booms and yells of war cries, were all too prominent. Hurried footsteps filled the air, rattling the door and thundering down the stairs as students rushed out onto the green. Illuminations lit up the curtain, bright flashes of arcs and muted responses of darkness. This moment was a repeat of the past; nothing had ever changed, even if many would argue was much. Even I hadn't changed.
Stuck, locked in this room, I was still the damsel in distress. Using the window would be stupid - I would be caught within seconds. Breaking down the door was just as silly - I would be caught up in the ongoing fights. Just like in the past, my only choice was to stay put and to stay far away from danger. Doing anything could risk my plan; getting captured by either side would ruin the little progress I had just recently gained. I couldn't risk that.
"Elizabeth!" Nerobasta, face red and chest heaving with exertion, burst through my door. Clearly she had ran a long distance, perhaps even flown it, as she definitely had a much better capacity for stamina than myself. Nevertheless, as soon as she saw me, relief flooded her fatigued face. "Thank goodness I've found you!"
"Nerobasta?" Frowning, I remained rigid by the desk. She shouldn't be here. None of them should be here. Getting to me, finding my location, should not have been such an easy task. "What are you doing here?"
"We must go," Nerobasta ignored my question, her hand fixed around my wrist. Dragging me behind her, she wasted no time in abandoning the room and leading me toward the chaos outside. "There is no time to explain."
"But- "
"We have no time for this," Nerobasta repeated, a stern look filling her face as she continued to drag me behind her.
All I could do was follow. Tugged along by Nerobasta, speeding past a fight that seemed to grow with every passing second, I was reduced to a damsel in distress once more. Being coddled, wrapped up in cotton wool, had always been the norm. Watching as the world passed on by, protected by a gilded cage, had been the entirety of my life under my mother's care. Everything else was simply too dangerous to let in; integration with the world was simply too dangerous.
Maybe that was true. So much had happened once I had broken free: scraped knees, battle scars and so many tears. Being part of the world came with so much injury and pain. But I learned from those moments, those scraped knees and jagged cuts. Those moments taught me to see how different perspectives can combine into one. They taught me how true happiness relied on experiencing true anguish and pain. Nothing was worth anything unless you had a risk of losing it.
"Wait!" Tugging on Nerobasta this time, I paused just as she reached the homestretch of the green. There was so much I needed to say. There was so much I needed to do. But in that moment, placed in the middle and dragged from side to side, I couldn't help but focus on one thing: Elaine.
Elegant, almost ethereal, she floated above the chaos like a swan on a lake. Dark material replaced her usual pastel-palate clothing, red shoes popping out against the darkness of her dress. Gusts of wind danced between her fingertips, almost golden against the night sky as she stared into the battle scene, watching as students attempted to incapacitate Ludociel and his fellow arc angels. But, most stunning, was who was beside her.
Melascula. Triumphant, smirking, she glanced at me, catching my eyes, as her grin stretched from ear to ear. She knew exactly what I was thinking.
"Elizabeth!" Nerobasta caught me, wrapping her arms around my body as I instinctively went to spring for Elaine. This was wrong. So wrong. Elaine should not be here. Melascula should not be grinning like that, controlling every fine movement within Elaine's mind. Tight around me, Nerobasta's arms kept me in place, under her control, "Elizabeth, you must forget about her. We have to go."
"But- "
Again, I was cut off, literally carried toward the bright portal still connecting this place to Liones. All the way I continued to struggle, wiggling and thrashing and shouting that I had to go back, I had to help Elaine because Elaine was one of the most lovely people I had ever met. Elaine was one of my most dear friends. Yet it all fell on deaf ears. Relentless, unbudging, Nerobasta continued to carry me away, until we were before the portal, close to fading away into nothing.
"You're going first," Nerobasta stated, removing her tight hold. However, just as I was about to try and bolt away, she shoved me - hard - making me lose my balance and tumble into the portal.
(grabs Elizabeth and drags her out to battle. Sees Elaine, Meli and fight. About to get to portal and Nero pushes her through. Nero is captured while Ellie is free).
"Elizabeth!"
In those last moments, falling into a portal, I saw a single face. Meliodas. More familiar than he had ever been in the past while, almost desperate as he tried to reach out for me. But it was too late, I was gone, whisked away in a current that felt too much like a home I had never wished to return to.
