[It had been a few days after returning from his venture with the Rosfield brothers, and it was...quite the venture. Despite the difficulties with the noctaere and nostilium, at least they were successful in destroying it. And while there had been concerns about his own "infection" of the nightmare energy, after the treatment from Orkili he felt no different than other times when he was exposed to or used a large amount of nostilium.
Still, Tifa's concerns were legitimate and he was careful to monitor himself and take additional supplements made by the flowers thanks to 76. But fortunately, he felt nothing unusual. His dreams were normal, if he had any at all (which was also not unusual), and other than feeling a little in the first few days, after the third he felt more himself.
But there was one odd thing.
Every now and then he would feel a prick in the back of his neck, a cold tingle as if ice was suddenly dropped down the back of his shirt. It was more noticeable than before, and whenever Tifa noticed he would just shake his head in confusion as it would go as quickly as it came. A bug, he would suggest, or perhaps a pinched nerve. Reasonable, and he would often forget it happened because it was once every few days. And since he tends to read a lot, well, maybe it was a pinched nerve of sorts and he should fix his posture.
But then a week passes since the trip, and now...]
...Ugh...
[Late into the night, Eustace groans in his sleep, brows furrowing as his body curls into himself. Naturally he's holding Tifa, so she'll feel him shift and move, his arms tightening around her as his breathing becomes labored and heavy.
Most alarming of all, however, will be the growing coldness that seeps from beneath is body and spreads outward across the bed. Valo and Melody, who had jumped onto it to sleep at the end as always bark in surprise and fear, jumping down as soon as that ice creeps towards their paws. Eria, sleeping in her bed on Eustace's side rises and growls lowly.
By now Tifa will surely have awakened, but Eustace?
Still trapped asleep...
...
With chips of black ice slowly forming along his shoulder and near the back of his neck...]
[It doesn't take much to wake her, even when she is deep in her sleep. Not that she's been sleeping that well since Eustace has been back from the trip with Joshua. She's been worried sick, always on edge, her focus always more hyper aware of Eustace and his state than usual. She's always been a worrier, even after he tries to reassure her time and time again that he will be fine, and while she goes on about their days as normal, her instincts keep pricking at the back of her mind. So, the last week have been filled with nights of odd sleeps, Tifa waking up in the middle of the night just to make sure that he is still there and okay...
So when he starts to stir and groan, his breathing suddenly growing more laboured, and especially when she feels his arms slide unnaturally tighter around her, she snaps awake and Melody and Valo both start to bark.]
Sshhh.
[She hushes all three of them, including Eria, as her trembling hands press to Eustace's face, the sweat at odds with the way he feels so very cold, and the ice that's begun to creep over the bed. Her worst fear when he told her about this trip and what had happened after has come to pass, but she takes a deep breath anyway and tries to swallow down her panic and remain calm, resisting the urge to try and shake him awake. Her own anxiety and fear won't help to make things any better, and it would only serve to worry the dogs more and to feed into the nightmare that he is having. She already knows what it is she needs to do...]
You're so cold...
[She presses her warm lips to his forehead, shivering against the nostilium that she feels seeping into the room, the starflowers that usually shimmer faintly dimming. She turns to Eria first.]
Keep an eye on us, and them, please?
[A motion to Valo and Melody, and the wolf gives a sharp nod, her blue eyes focused sharply on Tifa, words that she needn't say passing between the two of them loud and clear through their silence.
Maybe it's the urgency of the situation, but it won't take long for Tifa to dive into his dreams, her arms tightening around him as she does... And whatever she finds in there, she is scared, yes, but ready...
[What greets her as she first enters the dream will be the sound of a loud explosion so fierce and powerful that her vision will be filled with blinding white light. So blinding and hot she'll feel a searing heat over her right eye, the ringing persisting in her ears even after she crashes to the cold, snowy ground. She'll feel smaller shorter, around the age of 9,and when she opens her eyes the right one will be too painful, her vision blinded. While she will retain her sense of self, her body is now that of her 9 yr-old past, and she will find herself in the middle of a snow covered forest.
Despite the frigid cold, panic and anxiety will flood through first, ones that are not her own, before she can control her emotions again.
And in the distance through the ringing, she will hear the shouts of a young boy coming towards the rising flames visible through the trees.]
[It happens so fast that she doesn't have time to block it. The explosion and the blinding light flood her senses, all of it painful in her eyes and ears that she can't help but scream—or try to, but she swears that the only thing that comes out of her is silence when she can't hear herself. It's only after it goes off that she slams her eyes shut and her hands snap up to cover her ears, her face burying into the snow to try and fight off the heat that rips through her right side when she opens her eyes again. A pain so great that she sobs, gritting her teeth as she tries to push through it.
What the—?
She was definitely not ready.
Nor has it dawned on her yet that she is not her usual self... Not until she tries to climb to her feet and stumbles again when her body feels smaller. Weaker. Even her voice—]
Eustace!
[—is equally small and panicked. A heat ripples in the air, but it does nothing to stem the cold fear that clings to her like the snowflakes cling to her hair.
Her hand goes to her right eye to cover it and she grits her teeth, calling out for him again.]
Eustace, where—!?
[She's heard that voice before—the one that echoes just barely through the trees, and she runs towards it as fast as she can, trudging through the snow and already growing tired as her tiny legs can only take her so quickly. She falls more than once, face flat into the snow where the tears she didn't know she'd started crying begin to freeze, but she makes it there. Eventually...
And as she stands in the middle of the flames, a vision of her own memories flickers over them, and she sees her home, the general store, the inn in Nibelheim all burning away before the boy's cries from somewhere inside them break her out of it.]
[There is no answer, just the sound of the boy shouting somewhere further into the now burning and destroyed village. Houses and buildings are burning if not blown away completely and she should take care where she steps...or she will find a grisly sight of mangled, disfigured corpses, many not even completely whole. Even the flames have become disfigured, one moment burning red and the next pitch black like the night. Eerie wails fill the air...but they are not from the people, for there is no one, absolutely no one left alive.
But she'll have to get through it to reach the source of the boy's cries.]
[She screams and stumbles back to the ground when something crunches under her foot—a bloodied, mangled hand that sticks out from the snow. Or is that ash? It's impossible to tell anymore, but she's already scrambling to her feet, eyes wide in horror at the sight before her. She tries to open her eye again, but it still burns, and so she has no choice but to press on with it shut...
Tifa already knows what this is, what is happening, where she is... but the fact that this is the nightmare that he'd been plagued with? She was expecting to find a noctaere or two and she would have at least been prepared for that, but this was different.
This was deeply personal.
She continues to push through the snow, her feet feeling more and more heavy as she tries to run but can't. It doesn't matter. She would walk through a thousand disfigured corpses, listen to the loudest eerie wails, push away the flames that threaten to burn her if it meant finding him...
[She'll be able to hear his shouting not too much farther, and it's around here she'll notice that where there should buildings, there is nothing but rubble and ash. Until she finally passes through and sees the young boy standing in front of a barren spot where a house should be...but it's gone. The only thing remaining are black ashen marks.]
Where...
[The boy continues to tremble before he runs past the spot towards the back where a barn stands burning.]
[She repeats again when she finally sees him standing there, but before she can catch him—]
Ah!
[She falls face-first into the snow and ash again, unable to break her fall in this small body of hers. It hurts, the cold biting against the heat that still sears through her face every time she tries to open her eye, and there is a sudden urge to cry that suddenly overtakes her.
No matter how hard she tries to run to him, no matter how loud she calls out to him, she comes so close but can never quite reach him...
And now he's running off again, and Tifa can't quite rush to her feet, but climb to them slowly...]
I'm...right here...
[She utters it, but he won't hear her as he runs off to a burning barn.]
Wait—!
[After a moment of trying to catch her breath, she runs after him, hoping that this time, she can finally catch up to him.]
[The only thing he hears is the sound of the fire, the ringing that remains in his ears from the earlier blast, his pounding heart, and his breathless gasps as he stumbles through the torn up earth and snow.]
Anyone...anyone please...!
[Staring at the burning barn, he only hesitates for a moment before he rushes towards it...
But there will be a loud bark as a white blur appears from the flames, pushing Eustace away just before the barn collapses on him. It takes him a moment as he lays on the ground stunned before he sees the small white body beneath the burning wood.]
Vitty, no!!
[Another heart rending cry as he staggers to his feet to try and pull off the wood to rescue the small wolf.]
[She's never felt so... helpless as she does right now. Never felt like there was nothing that she could do to stop him or save him. She sees that flash of white, and then the barn comes crashing down over top, and somehow, his cries and his screams sound so much louder in her head, even through the loud ringing and shattering of the wood.
She has to stop again to catch her breath, her lungs feeling heavy from all the smoke.]
Stop...!
[Again, Tifa tries to call for him, but she breaks out into a fit of coughs, her own fears manifesting in the air around her, the heat becoming so stifling that she feels like she's standing right in the middle of the flames. It takes her another moment to start moving again, trudging and stumbling through the deep snow that comes up to her knees somehow. Tears burn her cheeks as they fall from her eyes, and she swipes a hand against them, jaw setting as she continues on.
Stay calm. Just stay calm. It's just a dream... None of this is real...]
Eustace, stop... it's...
[Down she goes into the snow, her legs giving out just a few feet away from him, and she heaves with a sob as she lifts her face up...]
[He won't notice her at all. Instead he's lifting up the badly injured and burned wolf in his arms, crying into its fur as it whines.]
Vity...no...please... I can't lose you, too...
[He has to get...help. But where is he going to find that here? They're the only village on this small island, an island so small it's not even on most maps. Only merchants who knew of their village because they were former villagers themselves know how to get here. Is there one who will come soon?
But just as he tries to stand, he notices Vitty's once blazing hot body is now...so cold... And looking down he lets out a shriek as the once white wolf has turned completely black, its body slowly disintegrating in his arms like ash.]
Ah....AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
[It's a process that continues all around them, the flames and buildings dissolving as darkness creeping towards them and the wails grow louder, the snow turns black.]
[Tifa can't even watch as it happens. She sees the blackened body of the little wolf in his arms, sees how it begins to disintegrate like sand in the wind, and she slams her eyes shut, sobbing, swallowing down the sick feeling and the taste of bile in her throat.
It's just a dream, she reminds herself again. Just a dream. None of this is real. Just a nightmare that she can pull him out of and bring him home. She just needs to reach him first...
She just needs to stop crying and get up.
Even as the scenery shifts and turns to black, her eyes are fixed on him just a few feet away.]
Eustace, please listen to me...
[Seeing this opportunity, she doesn't wait to suddenly lunge at him, her small hand outstretched to try and grab him before he can run away and out of her reach again.]
[His frozen stiff, too horrified to really even move.
How...how....how...
His family...friends...Vitty... Everything just...gone...]
It's lie...a lie...this can't be...
[Why was he left? Why was he the only one? If he had listened to his sister, if he had stayed to help them, would he have been killed with them? Would he have died with them?
At least then he would have been with them...at least then he wouldn't have been left alone—
It's then that he feels something...someone grab him...?
It's shocking because he was certain he was the only one here.]
[And there it is again—that image of Nibelheim flickering through her mind, and for a split second, she swears she sees herself standing where he is, Sephiroth's sword clutched tight...]
Eustace, it's me...!
[All of that disappears the moment that her hand finally reaches him, but rather than grab onto him like she wanted to, she clumsily crashes into him instead and sends them both tumbling into the snow.]
[Down in the snow they go, but he's still so confused. Who is—]
Who...who are...
[A part of him feels like he should know...but there's a problem.
When he's finally able to make out anything with his damaged vision, he shrinks back. Because while the voice is familiar, the face...
...
There is no face.
It's there but it's shrouded, covered in darkness. While he feels a familiar warmth, he also feels a terrifying chill as...]
Bl...blood...
[The word ekes out of him as he tries to scramble back before he screams when his right arm suddenly erupts with black ice, the shards covering it like scales.]
[The word echoes quietly out of her, but she has no time to process it because he's already scrambling and screaming, and when that ice erupts over his arm and shimmers, her stomach drops. Dread overcomes her, fear grips her heart, and she can feel it starting to quicken along with her breaths when she sees the scales, and it's her turn to scramble back in fear.
Her breaths are quick and ragged, more like loud gasps than anything else, as memories pour forth. Old, locked up memories that she would rather not remember...]
You need to calm down—!
[She finally manages to shout at him with a shaky voice, but it could be said for both of them.]
[A voice is telling him to listen, but there's something else here. A presence that can be felt around them, but can't be seen. Dark, powerful, almost pressing down on them.
Gasping as his arm continues to change, Eustace scrambles back to his feet as he stares at Tifa still on the ground. He still can't see her and...as much as the sight of that blood pouring down her neck terrifies him, it makes his chest hurt and he wants to help her. But when he reaches out there's his disfigured hand—claw? And he has to hastily retreat.]
I don't...want to hurt you...it's my fault...everything is my...
[The words tumble out in nonsensical order, before he screams and clutches his head.]
Stop it stop it stop it!!!
[With his screams, everything around them seems to crack as if made of glass, the black snow pelting down on them as it becomes more like a blizzard.]
[She bites back the urge to cry and sob, the sight of that claw only feeding upon those fears rather than helping them. She can't be afraid... She can't. It's just a dream, and nothing can hurt her in here, right? They've been through this before, more than once, so who is to say that they can't again?
Except that she can feel it—that presence of something that's almost as if something is pressing down on her chest and suffocating her, making her gasp for air again... It feels like teeth sinking in, like a claw scraping over her skin, burning and so chilling at the same time, and tears streak down her cheeks.]
You're wrong.
[Just as everything cracks and the snow grows heavier, her hand reaches out for that claw, her own horrors be damned. She reaches out and wraps both her small hands around it and tries to pull him to her, to protect him from the wind and the snow that attacks them both.]
[He doesn't know what's going on anymore. He feels that ice grip clawing its way through him, and while he feels something else trying to fight against it, that pressure is so overwhelming he can barely breathe.
Because of this he is completely unaware of Tifa until she reaches out to grab his hand.
Instantly there is a strong scent of flowers and a warmth that surges up through his arm. A warmth that makes him look up and for a moment he can see her. Can clearly see her tear stained face and desperation to reach him.]
Ah...you...
[Her name is on the tip of his tongue, blurred in his mind.
Ti...
But then there's an ear piercing shriek, a dark shadow that passes over them that makes him shout and force his hand out of her grasp.]
N-No! Stay back! You'll..you'll get hurt, too! I-I'll—!
[In the next moment, a large burst of nostilium explodes outwardly from him, darkness completely enveloping them both.]
[She sees it... that flicker of familiarity, brief as it is, and there is that distant scent of flowers that pulses in the air, but it's gone as quickly as it had come, the hope that she had finally reached out to him snuffed out by the cold.
Even as he tries to force his hand out of her grasp, she hangs onto him as tight as she can, struggling. If she were not just a girl, she might have been able to hold on, but he manages to shake her off, both my virtue of his strength and the way that the icy claw stings her bare fingers. The shriek that echoes all around them startles her, and she falls back into the snow again, her hands coming up to clasp over her ears to block it out.]
Eustace, stop! I'm here to—
[But in the next moment, it feels as if her voice has been drained right out of her along with the air in her lungs, the nostilium that pours outward from him so thick and dark that she stops breathing, every inch of her body paralyzed in fear as she stares through the darkness to try and find him.
And somewhere in the dark, she sees a single starflower quivering, trying to bloom.]
[Her voice is breaking through the darkness, through the screams that rage through his head. Screams made of his voice and something else's that he both recognizes and doesn't at the same time. He tries to reach out to it, but there's something pushing...no pulling him back, as if dragging him deeper into the darkness. He tries to fight it off, struggles, but all he manages is a shout for help—]
Tifa!!
[The voice sounds so small, so strangled in this form, but at least a part of him is remembering something. Something inside him still trying to fight against his oppressive nightmare that's taken hold of him.
But Tifa needs to act fast.
She'll be able to see the black, shadowy tendrils that drag him back, tendrils that change and morph between different forms of a claws—one that looks familiar and stained with blood while the other is more metallic almost like a hand. Despite Eustace's attempts to break out on his own, he is slowly being consumed in the darkness, and behind him are a pair of unfamiliar eyes that glint and shine.]
[The sound of her name from his lips snaps everything back into focus, a sense of clarity rushing over her.]
Eustace—!
[She calls back to him, rushing forward to try and reach for him. Those same black tendrils and claws that drag him away lash at her, cutting away at her skin and making her bleed, her cheeks now stained with blood and not tears while she fights and wrestles through them. She can only move so fast right now—it feels like the darkness is weighing her down, dragging her back and away from him...
As she reaches out for him, she stares right into those shimmering eyes behind him, and they bear right down into her soul, but she stands against it...
Rather than take his hand, she lunges at him, dives right into the darkness that tries to draw him in, and she wraps her arms around Eustace and clings tight, her face buried into his chest.]
[He wants to shout at her to get away, that she's only hurting herself trying to reach him. To just leave him.
Yet at the same time he's desperately wanting her more than ever. Desperately wants her warmth, her love, her everything. Needs her. He can't do anything like this by himself, he's learned that now. Learned that he can only withstand so much on his own, can only harbor and endure the pain for so long before he breaks. That while all his life he thought he wanted to be alone, the truth is he didn't. He just wanted...someone, anyone who could fill that void, and he found so many. Many who eventually did until he found the one who could give him that peace, that sanctuary he searched for so long.]
Tifa...help...
[So there's just a small choking sob from the small boy, his body now half frozen from the black scale-like shards.
[He could shout and cry and scream at her all he likes. These claws can beat at her all they want. It would only make her hold onto him tighter. It would make her more afraid, yes, but it would harden her resolve, too. Not that it needed to be—she was going to get him out of this one way or another, no matter what form she took in this dream.]
I'm here...
[Her voice is just as small in his ears, a choked noise as she takes another lash of the claws that surround them. It hurts, but she holds him tightly and protectively. Can she pull him free from them? Or will they just get swallowed up in it all together?]
It's just a dream...
[The scales on his body burn like ice, stinging every part of her even through her clothes.]
Just... need to get you out of here...
[There's a whirr of dreamotion, a heat that flickers to life right where their chests meet.]
[There's just a quiet whimper as he struggles to even move an arm to try and hold onto her. But he so desperately wants more of her warmth that he yanks hard and frees his one good arm to clutch tightly around her back.]
I'm sorry... I'm sorry...
[Is it because he's a young boy right now that everything feels so much depressing and weak? So desperate? Perhaps that's why he's stuck this way, unable to pull on his usual strength that he had developed into adulthood. That this nightmare has instead pulled at the weakest, most vulnerable part of him that he had locked away deep deep down to protect himself.
Meanwhile, that darkness will roar above them as it exerts more force to try and pull them both back to whatever that depths of that darkness leads. It's bone chilling cold, the talons digging deep into both of them as it tries to extinguish the flames igniting within Tifa.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[ backdated start of june ]
Still, Tifa's concerns were legitimate and he was careful to monitor himself and take additional supplements made by the flowers thanks to 76. But fortunately, he felt nothing unusual. His dreams were normal, if he had any at all (which was also not unusual), and other than feeling a little in the first few days, after the third he felt more himself.
But there was one odd thing.
Every now and then he would feel a prick in the back of his neck, a cold tingle as if ice was suddenly dropped down the back of his shirt. It was more noticeable than before, and whenever Tifa noticed he would just shake his head in confusion as it would go as quickly as it came. A bug, he would suggest, or perhaps a pinched nerve. Reasonable, and he would often forget it happened because it was once every few days. And since he tends to read a lot, well, maybe it was a pinched nerve of sorts and he should fix his posture.
But then a week passes since the trip, and now...]
...Ugh...
[Late into the night, Eustace groans in his sleep, brows furrowing as his body curls into himself. Naturally he's holding Tifa, so she'll feel him shift and move, his arms tightening around her as his breathing becomes labored and heavy.
Most alarming of all, however, will be the growing coldness that seeps from beneath is body and spreads outward across the bed. Valo and Melody, who had jumped onto it to sleep at the end as always bark in surprise and fear, jumping down as soon as that ice creeps towards their paws. Eria, sleeping in her bed on Eustace's side rises and growls lowly.
By now Tifa will surely have awakened, but Eustace?
Still trapped asleep...
...
With chips of black ice slowly forming along his shoulder and near the back of his neck...]
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So when he starts to stir and groan, his breathing suddenly growing more laboured, and especially when she feels his arms slide unnaturally tighter around her, she snaps awake and Melody and Valo both start to bark.]
Sshhh.
[She hushes all three of them, including Eria, as her trembling hands press to Eustace's face, the sweat at odds with the way he feels so very cold, and the ice that's begun to creep over the bed. Her worst fear when he told her about this trip and what had happened after has come to pass, but she takes a deep breath anyway and tries to swallow down her panic and remain calm, resisting the urge to try and shake him awake. Her own anxiety and fear won't help to make things any better, and it would only serve to worry the dogs more and to feed into the nightmare that he is having. She already knows what it is she needs to do...]
You're so cold...
[She presses her warm lips to his forehead, shivering against the nostilium that she feels seeping into the room, the starflowers that usually shimmer faintly dimming. She turns to Eria first.]
Keep an eye on us, and them, please?
[A motion to Valo and Melody, and the wolf gives a sharp nod, her blue eyes focused sharply on Tifa, words that she needn't say passing between the two of them loud and clear through their silence.
Maybe it's the urgency of the situation, but it won't take long for Tifa to dive into his dreams, her arms tightening around him as she does... And whatever she finds in there, she is scared, yes, but ready...
She thinks.]
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Despite the frigid cold, panic and anxiety will flood through first, ones that are not her own, before she can control her emotions again.
And in the distance through the ringing, she will hear the shouts of a young boy coming towards the rising flames visible through the trees.]
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What the—?
She was definitely not ready.
Nor has it dawned on her yet that she is not her usual self... Not until she tries to climb to her feet and stumbles again when her body feels smaller. Weaker. Even her voice—]
Eustace!
[—is equally small and panicked. A heat ripples in the air, but it does nothing to stem the cold fear that clings to her like the snowflakes cling to her hair.
Her hand goes to her right eye to cover it and she grits her teeth, calling out for him again.]
Eustace, where—!?
[She's heard that voice before—the one that echoes just barely through the trees, and she runs towards it as fast as she can, trudging through the snow and already growing tired as her tiny legs can only take her so quickly. She falls more than once, face flat into the snow where the tears she didn't know she'd started crying begin to freeze, but she makes it there. Eventually...
And as she stands in the middle of the flames, a vision of her own memories flickers over them, and she sees her home, the general store, the inn in Nibelheim all burning away before the boy's cries from somewhere inside them break her out of it.]
I'm here!
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But she'll have to get through it to reach the source of the boy's cries.]
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Tifa already knows what this is, what is happening, where she is... but the fact that this is the nightmare that he'd been plagued with? She was expecting to find a noctaere or two and she would have at least been prepared for that, but this was different.
This was deeply personal.
She continues to push through the snow, her feet feeling more and more heavy as she tries to run but can't. It doesn't matter. She would walk through a thousand disfigured corpses, listen to the loudest eerie wails, push away the flames that threaten to burn her if it meant finding him...
Still, she calls out to him again.]
Can you hear me?
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...Mom? Dad? Where are you!?
[She'll be able to hear his shouting not too much farther, and it's around here she'll notice that where there should buildings, there is nothing but rubble and ash. Until she finally passes through and sees the young boy standing in front of a barren spot where a house should be...but it's gone. The only thing remaining are black ashen marks.]
Where...
[The boy continues to tremble before he runs past the spot towards the back where a barn stands burning.]
Anyone!!
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[She repeats again when she finally sees him standing there, but before she can catch him—]
Ah!
[She falls face-first into the snow and ash again, unable to break her fall in this small body of hers. It hurts, the cold biting against the heat that still sears through her face every time she tries to open her eye, and there is a sudden urge to cry that suddenly overtakes her.
No matter how hard she tries to run to him, no matter how loud she calls out to him, she comes so close but can never quite reach him...
And now he's running off again, and Tifa can't quite rush to her feet, but climb to them slowly...]
I'm...right here...
[She utters it, but he won't hear her as he runs off to a burning barn.]
Wait—!
[After a moment of trying to catch her breath, she runs after him, hoping that this time, she can finally catch up to him.]
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Anyone...anyone please...!
[Staring at the burning barn, he only hesitates for a moment before he rushes towards it...
But there will be a loud bark as a white blur appears from the flames, pushing Eustace away just before the barn collapses on him. It takes him a moment as he lays on the ground stunned before he sees the small white body beneath the burning wood.]
Vitty, no!!
[Another heart rending cry as he staggers to his feet to try and pull off the wood to rescue the small wolf.]
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She has to stop again to catch her breath, her lungs feeling heavy from all the smoke.]
Stop...!
[Again, Tifa tries to call for him, but she breaks out into a fit of coughs, her own fears manifesting in the air around her, the heat becoming so stifling that she feels like she's standing right in the middle of the flames. It takes her another moment to start moving again, trudging and stumbling through the deep snow that comes up to her knees somehow. Tears burn her cheeks as they fall from her eyes, and she swipes a hand against them, jaw setting as she continues on.
Stay calm. Just stay calm. It's just a dream... None of this is real...]
Eustace, stop... it's...
[Down she goes into the snow, her legs giving out just a few feet away from him, and she heaves with a sob as she lifts her face up...]
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Vity...no...please... I can't lose you, too...
[He has to get...help. But where is he going to find that here? They're the only village on this small island, an island so small it's not even on most maps. Only merchants who knew of their village because they were former villagers themselves know how to get here. Is there one who will come soon?
But just as he tries to stand, he notices Vitty's once blazing hot body is now...so cold... And looking down he lets out a shriek as the once white wolf has turned completely black, its body slowly disintegrating in his arms like ash.]
Ah....AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
[It's a process that continues all around them, the flames and buildings dissolving as darkness creeping towards them and the wails grow louder, the snow turns black.]
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It's just a dream, she reminds herself again. Just a dream. None of this is real. Just a nightmare that she can pull him out of and bring him home. She just needs to reach him first...
She just needs to stop crying and get up.
Even as the scenery shifts and turns to black, her eyes are fixed on him just a few feet away.]
Eustace, please listen to me...
[Seeing this opportunity, she doesn't wait to suddenly lunge at him, her small hand outstretched to try and grab him before he can run away and out of her reach again.]
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How...how....how...
His family...friends...Vitty... Everything just...gone...]
It's lie...a lie...this can't be...
[Why was he left? Why was he the only one? If he had listened to his sister, if he had stayed to help them, would he have been killed with them? Would he have died with them?
At least then he would have been with them...at least then he wouldn't have been left alone—
It's then that he feels something...someone grab him...?
It's shocking because he was certain he was the only one here.]
...Who...
[And so he slowly turns around...]
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Eustace, it's me...!
[All of that disappears the moment that her hand finally reaches him, but rather than grab onto him like she wanted to, she clumsily crashes into him instead and sends them both tumbling into the snow.]
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Who...who are...
[A part of him feels like he should know...but there's a problem.
When he's finally able to make out anything with his damaged vision, he shrinks back. Because while the voice is familiar, the face...
...
There is no face.
It's there but it's shrouded, covered in darkness. While he feels a familiar warmth, he also feels a terrifying chill as...]
Bl...blood...
[The word ekes out of him as he tries to scramble back before he screams when his right arm suddenly erupts with black ice, the shards covering it like scales.]
Wh-what's happening to me!?
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... Blood?
[The word echoes quietly out of her, but she has no time to process it because he's already scrambling and screaming, and when that ice erupts over his arm and shimmers, her stomach drops. Dread overcomes her, fear grips her heart, and she can feel it starting to quicken along with her breaths when she sees the scales, and it's her turn to scramble back in fear.
Her breaths are quick and ragged, more like loud gasps than anything else, as memories pour forth. Old, locked up memories that she would rather not remember...]
You need to calm down—!
[She finally manages to shout at him with a shaky voice, but it could be said for both of them.]
The more you panic, the worse it's going to get!
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Gasping as his arm continues to change, Eustace scrambles back to his feet as he stares at Tifa still on the ground. He still can't see her and...as much as the sight of that blood pouring down her neck terrifies him, it makes his chest hurt and he wants to help her. But when he reaches out there's his disfigured hand—claw? And he has to hastily retreat.]
I don't...want to hurt you...it's my fault...everything is my...
[The words tumble out in nonsensical order, before he screams and clutches his head.]
Stop it stop it stop it!!!
[With his screams, everything around them seems to crack as if made of glass, the black snow pelting down on them as it becomes more like a blizzard.]
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[She bites back the urge to cry and sob, the sight of that claw only feeding upon those fears rather than helping them. She can't be afraid... She can't. It's just a dream, and nothing can hurt her in here, right? They've been through this before, more than once, so who is to say that they can't again?
Except that she can feel it—that presence of something that's almost as if something is pressing down on her chest and suffocating her, making her gasp for air again... It feels like teeth sinking in, like a claw scraping over her skin, burning and so chilling at the same time, and tears streak down her cheeks.]
You're wrong.
[Just as everything cracks and the snow grows heavier, her hand reaches out for that claw, her own horrors be damned. She reaches out and wraps both her small hands around it and tries to pull him to her, to protect him from the wind and the snow that attacks them both.]
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Because of this he is completely unaware of Tifa until she reaches out to grab his hand.
Instantly there is a strong scent of flowers and a warmth that surges up through his arm. A warmth that makes him look up and for a moment he can see her. Can clearly see her tear stained face and desperation to reach him.]
Ah...you...
[Her name is on the tip of his tongue, blurred in his mind.
Ti...
But then there's an ear piercing shriek, a dark shadow that passes over them that makes him shout and force his hand out of her grasp.]
N-No! Stay back! You'll..you'll get hurt, too! I-I'll—!
[In the next moment, a large burst of nostilium explodes outwardly from him, darkness completely enveloping them both.]
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Even as he tries to force his hand out of her grasp, she hangs onto him as tight as she can, struggling. If she were not just a girl, she might have been able to hold on, but he manages to shake her off, both my virtue of his strength and the way that the icy claw stings her bare fingers. The shriek that echoes all around them startles her, and she falls back into the snow again, her hands coming up to clasp over her ears to block it out.]
Eustace, stop! I'm here to—
[But in the next moment, it feels as if her voice has been drained right out of her along with the air in her lungs, the nostilium that pours outward from him so thick and dark that she stops breathing, every inch of her body paralyzed in fear as she stares through the darkness to try and find him.
And somewhere in the dark, she sees a single starflower quivering, trying to bloom.]
Please, let's go home...!
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Tifa!!
[The voice sounds so small, so strangled in this form, but at least a part of him is remembering something. Something inside him still trying to fight against his oppressive nightmare that's taken hold of him.
But Tifa needs to act fast.
She'll be able to see the black, shadowy tendrils that drag him back, tendrils that change and morph between different forms of a claws—one that looks familiar and stained with blood while the other is more metallic almost like a hand. Despite Eustace's attempts to break out on his own, he is slowly being consumed in the darkness, and behind him are a pair of unfamiliar eyes that glint and shine.]
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Eustace—!
[She calls back to him, rushing forward to try and reach for him. Those same black tendrils and claws that drag him away lash at her, cutting away at her skin and making her bleed, her cheeks now stained with blood and not tears while she fights and wrestles through them. She can only move so fast right now—it feels like the darkness is weighing her down, dragging her back and away from him...
As she reaches out for him, she stares right into those shimmering eyes behind him, and they bear right down into her soul, but she stands against it...
Rather than take his hand, she lunges at him, dives right into the darkness that tries to draw him in, and she wraps her arms around Eustace and clings tight, her face buried into his chest.]
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Yet at the same time he's desperately wanting her more than ever. Desperately wants her warmth, her love, her everything. Needs her. He can't do anything like this by himself, he's learned that now. Learned that he can only withstand so much on his own, can only harbor and endure the pain for so long before he breaks. That while all his life he thought he wanted to be alone, the truth is he didn't. He just wanted...someone, anyone who could fill that void, and he found so many. Many who eventually did until he found the one who could give him that peace, that sanctuary he searched for so long.]
Tifa...help...
[So there's just a small choking sob from the small boy, his body now half frozen from the black scale-like shards.
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I'm here...
[Her voice is just as small in his ears, a choked noise as she takes another lash of the claws that surround them. It hurts, but she holds him tightly and protectively. Can she pull him free from them? Or will they just get swallowed up in it all together?]
It's just a dream...
[The scales on his body burn like ice, stinging every part of her even through her clothes.]
Just... need to get you out of here...
[There's a whirr of dreamotion, a heat that flickers to life right where their chests meet.]
Hold on to me tight, okay?
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I'm sorry... I'm sorry...
[Is it because he's a young boy right now that everything feels so much depressing and weak? So desperate? Perhaps that's why he's stuck this way, unable to pull on his usual strength that he had developed into adulthood. That this nightmare has instead pulled at the weakest, most vulnerable part of him that he had locked away deep deep down to protect himself.
Meanwhile, that darkness will roar above them as it exerts more force to try and pull them both back to whatever that depths of that darkness leads. It's bone chilling cold, the talons digging deep into both of them as it tries to extinguish the flames igniting within Tifa.]
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❤️💙 fin.