“I am… dislocated from Aldenard currently. Apologies, Nam…”
– “I’ll pull you aside when you get back. Be safe, Bella.”
I’m sorry I can’t be there…
I’m sorry I haven’t been there.
I should’ve been…
I’m so sorry.
|| Mentions and involvement stemmed by: @the-faceless-ffxiv , @enambris ||
Thunder rolls across ebony and star-crossed skies as distant lightning flashes across the horizon. A sickly warm breeze billows past untouched fields of grass before meeting a lone figure along the edge of a cliff. The figure was small, a hyur no less. Fingers tangling through their messy braid of hair, hand gripping tightly as the other gripped tight the loose strands of a broken bracelet. The wind gently dancing with thee frayed edges, lightly howling against the hollow charms. Small yet worn out letters and symbols were etched onto stone and shell beads.
The hyur’s head was held low, her chin pointing up towards the gloomy horizons as the setting sun began to shy away into fields of gray. The spikes of a bloodied mutation stuck out of her spine, twitching in the air behind her quietly. The distant rain and billowing wind painting ivory and ornate carvings with a graying wetness. One lone eye of foggied amethyst hues began to dim and dull as words repeated in her mind.
Bella’s mind crossed over her reaction, how she responded to the words. The whispers of salvation… Promises for the pain to stop. The memories of hearing such promises decades before called out to her aching bones and shuddering heart. Almost thirty years have passed since the end. An end that was brought about by someone listening to Whispers from the dark, whispers of the very same salvation… promises for the very same pain to stop. She despite the ages, could remember it clearly… So very clearly. The hand around the broken bracelet tightened a bit more as jaws clenched, flashing her teeth in anger.
“León.”
A name so hated, yet one so loved. One that she trusted with her heart… once… and forever. Bella’s mind drifts once more back to that day. Back to how she was told by him and him alone that the whispers of the dark were “true”. Back to how betrayed she felt, listening to the man she loved turn fanatical, turn into something she didn’t recognize. Back to how the Ranger Corps that day, fell and never stood back up. Back to how one lone being, so loved and so trusted accepted a promise of salvation… and back to how devastation lay in its wake.
The cruel warmth of salted tears brimmed over her only eye, trailing down her right cheek before falling, gently dampening the earth beneath her boots. A choked sob escaped her lips as the hand tangled in her hair race to clutch at her chest. Her knees begging to buckle as those whispers from beyond ate away at her, dredging back up all the grief, anger and pain she had ever endured.
“Look at you.” A voice growled from behind.
“Are you to tell me this is how weak you’ve become…?” The voice was low, gravely and deep. A suit of red armor stood behind Belladonna, the burning mongrel’s iron gaze cast down onto her. Their arms crossed as the wind howled against the bladed forearms and head. “Decades pass, you change and grew… yet somehow you’re still the same girl as you were then.”
“Now tell me, Bell. Before I kill you.”
“Why did you summon me here?” The man’s hands were stationed at his sides, beneath the fold of their arms as he waited. Despite the roughness of his words and his voice, he seemed to be content with waiting for the little hyur to respond.
While the world waited with bated breath, Bella began to clench both of her fists. She was steeling her nerves as she fought to speak the words that would come to mind, attempting to give reasoning to why she called forth her traitor.
“Do you… still think about back then…?” Her voice came out slowly, unsteady and pained. Her tone was choked as she fought to keep herself speaking.
The red armor shifted, letting out a low growl in response. “What do you mean?”
“Us.” She returned plainly. Her voice low and curt as she gripped the bracelet in her hand, letting some of it dangle in the air at her side. “I do.. Sometimes I think about how we used to be inseparable.. what you meant to me.. to each other.”
There was a low growl from mongrel’s helm, their jaw tightening in a slow broiling anger.
“And then now… I think about the times after. How things changed.. About… a-about how.. you gave in to the dark.. and brought everyone down with you..”
“And how… we never said goodbye.” Bella’s tone dropped, her voice breaking as she bit back her own struggling tears. The little hyur’s heart shuddering, trembling beneath the oncoming storm and weight of fate on her heart. She was quiet now, unable to find any other words to speak. Her hand lifting up the bracelet slowly to show it to the man at her back.
The Mongrel mused quietly a hand lifting to meet Bella’s. Iron-clad fingers running along a barren and bruised hand before moving to take part of the bracelet into his grasp. “This… this is the one I gave you, isn’t it?”
The little Ranger didn’t respond, her head turning to see the Mongrel’s helmet. Her expression softening, hurting in silence. She could only offer a small nod to the man before looking back to the horizon as flashes of lightning cascade along darkening storm clouds beyond the ocean’s horizon.
“So that’s why then…” He croaked, giving an audible nod as the armor shifted along his person. “To say goodbye.” León wore a small smile beneath the forever daunting tooth-filled grin his helmet carried. Despite how fate had set these once lovers astray, something drew them closer again, decades apart only to be together for seconds. Suited arms moved to wrap around the little hyur as an armored head rested atop her shoulder. The embrace lasted for what seemed like fleeting seconds. It was a cold one, the gentle fall of evening rain coating the already cool armor in a bitter chill against the uneasy warmth of the breeze.
Bella seemed to feel at ease, an odd feeling… a missed feeling. Something regardless of how many lovers she could ever have… it’d never be the first.. But yet it was something had so very, very long ago. It was time to move on… Despite all the pain it had brought, all the foulest of foul memories it gave, it was time… Lest the whispers she had been given be something she take.. and history repeats.
“This shall be the last then, my dear..”
It was quick, the piercing hiss of a blade being drawn. Before she could recognize the sound, the kiss of ringing steel plunges into her, drawing out a strained whine. In reaction, her body and spikes began to tremble as the Mongrel moved a hand, digging his blade in, driving it deeper into her. Despite not being able to feel the pain, the *notion* of having it run through her sent ill feelings through her mind. Bella grit her teeth as her grip on the bracelet loosened, allowing León to yank it out of her grasp.
“Despite everything you’ve done… Blue never suited you. You were never meant to be a Ranger. Just a hapless tragedy. But it’s over now.”
The world was silent, the shock of it all coursing through the air. León brought his hand to Bella’s shoulder, the other gripping his dagger tight before giving one last push inward only to rip it out of her back. The remnants of a grim-dark smile beneath the helm seemingly resonating as splatters of crimson stain the teeth of his traitorous mask. Even as thunder rolled across the sky, cascading like a hail of cannon fire, the audible choke of Bella’s voice could still be heard amidst that and the rustle of the fields beside the cliff.
With a gentle nudge, the Mongrel pushes Bella down. Letting her body collapse on its own as he stowed his bloodied knife away. His other hand moved to clip the bracelet onto the breastplate of his armor, wearing it like a pride-filled medal. León began to turn away, walking the same way he came in silence, as he left little Belladonna on the ground twitching.
“Goodbye, Belladonna.”
“You were always a disappointment.”
Belladonna let her eye flutter to a close as tears mixed with the falling rain. Clothes soaking crimson now washing it away. She could see herself collapse to the ground as León walked away. He didn’t even pause to look behind him as she lay on stained dirt. Yet even as the world grew cold and dull, the words of whispers echoed once more. Those painful memories threatening to surface again as her body and mind fought for a way out, causing the offer of those whispers to come to bear.
To let them show her reprieve, to let them be her savior…
The little Ranger’s body was numb, More so than the usual. Those thoughts repeating in her mind over and over as her hourglass began to trickle out of time. The offer of the whispers eating at her as the anger she felt towards them floated to the surface.
“N-no.” She spat to open air, her breathing at a pitiful quiver.
Her mind clearing from the haze of deathly repetition. She came here to say goodbye, to move on from her lingering darkness. Not to give in to it. This is not where she had set out to die..
Only to say goodbye.
As she lay on the stained grass, her vision skewed to the side. Her hand slowly dragged across the ground towards her right wrist. Fingers outstretched to shakily reach for her communicator. The world was growing darker as she neared her point, the more she fought to signal, the dimmer the light got as it faded away. Bell’s heart thundered with the beat of a drum, rivaling the rolling thunder overhead.
Tired fingers traced along the beaten surface of the device on he right wrist, sliding along its casing to find the one button she needed. The bump of outcropping for the button brushed along her fingertips before she pressed it down as much as she could. The gem atop the device pulsing a gentle red hue of light before her vision faded away to give into the inky nothingness that crept in…
It's Morphin' Time - XIV 