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They found the comatose body underneath all the rubble, where they left her. The bombs had descended and their friends were gone, but it was all for the best. Cellbit and Baghera were all that remained. And the body.
They pulled Jaiden from the piles of cobblestone and gravel, her body covered in blood, dried and fresh mingled together. She looked almost peaceful, gone to the world even with a nuclear bomb going off.
“I don’t want to go back”, Baghera sat with Jaiden’s head resting on her lap. Her fingernails were either torn off completely or nearly falling off. Hands caked in dirt and cuts from digging in the rubble, desperately trying to find Pomme.
“Yeah, me neither”, Cellbit stood behind her, gazing off into the distance where his husband went. He was better off here. And Roier was better off without him.
“If we go back, then everything goes back to normal. And this will have never happened. We forget that we killed our friends and that they killed us. We throw it all away for the sake of normalcy and manners, and I don’t think I can do that. I don’t think I can forgive Bad or-or pretend he didn’t do anything to us”, her ears were still ringing from the initial impact of the bomb. It was hard to tell if she was shouting or whispering. But she supposed that Cellbit was in the same boat as her.
“I don’t think I can do that either, I can’t let these two weeks go. It-it’s who I am now. He deserves better than that”
“Besides, I have nothing there for me. I need to take care of Jaiden, she doesn’t have anyone else either.”
“She has us, and we have each other”
“ How touching”
Earlier today that voice made her throat close up and her heart beat faster. But now, it didn’t bother her as much. The bomb went off, her friends were gone, they were still here. What more could he do?
“I doubt you're here to finish us off, so what do you want, Watcher?”, Cellbit put a hand on Baghera’s shoulder, she felt it shaking.
“ Congratulations on surviving, and your unconscious friend here was very lucky. I’m assuming that you’ve surmised already that you’re the only ones left ”
They both nodded. Everyone else had something, someone to go back to. At the very least, they just didn’t want to be here anymore. But for Baghera and Cellbit, they belonged here. Baghera was sure Jaiden would have chosen to stay as well if she was awake, maybe that was why she was still here. Some part of Jaiden must want to stay here with the two of them.
“ Imagine my surprise when I found you both, wanting to stay here on my island. You understand now don’t you? The sins you and your fellow islanders are seeped in ”
Baghera did get it, she understood what made them all sinners. The hypocrisy and hiding they all did. They hated the federation but did tasks for them, they condoned some things but objected to the same or similar actions depending on who did it and why.
The islanders created this mock tapestry of etiquette and rules, but were so flimsy on who they enforced it with and who they didn’t. They were all hypocrites and liars. Why not embrace it?
“I don’t care anymore, I don’t want to live on an island where I’m expected to behave a certain way”
Cellbit nodded in agreement, “If we went back and stayed upset with Bad, they would tell us to let it go and to move on from Purgatory. I don’t think either of us can do that yet”.
“ So you decide to stay. Excellent, I may just have some use for you yet ”
And the world went black.
Baghera felt an ache in her neck, she must’ve slept on it wrong. After two weeks of sleeping or collapsing onto sand and stone, she really should’ve adjusted by now. But no, she still couldn’t sleep on the floor. But where was this floor?
Opening her eyes and sitting up, it was another cave, nearly identical to all the other ones they’d been in. Moss and vines littered the walls and ceilings, glow berries helping illuminate the smallish cavern. But there were chests and ovens as well, and Bolas banners. This was a base for them. But there was no door. No way out. It was a jail.
“Cellbit? Jaiden? Are you here?”, struggling to push herself up, she started to look for her companions.
“I’m here”, she heard his voice on the other side of the cavern, it was small enough that she could easily spot him, “Do you know where we are?”.
“I think this is our new home. Is Jaiden with you?”, she met him in the middle as they looked around. The chests had food and water, and some more essentials to survive the disasters.
“There’s a dark corner over here, I think there’s a cot there”
They walked to the corner and Jaiden was under a blanket in the cot, the blood had been cleaned off her face but left the cuts and bruises. Baghera gently touched the cut on her brow, the black eye that was in full bloom, and the scar that was beginning to form on her jaw.
“Oh Jaiden, we’ll keep you safe. I promise”, Baghera said quietly under breath, as if it was a prayer.
“There’s a chest here with a book in it”, Cellbit was standing in the middle with the chest and empty armor stands.
Baghera left Jaiden to join him in the middle and peer over his shoulder, “What does it say?”.
Cellbit’s jaw was clenched, she could almost hear his teeth grinding together, “One word. Soon”.
A month of waiting. A month of pacing, sleeping, eating, surviving, and going madder than they even realized was possible. They were rabid dogs being held on a leash and finally, finally , they had been let go.
Cellbit went off to the isolation corner, probably to think about his husband and Richas. That was fine with Baghera, she needed to update Jaiden anyway.
The drug of madness and murder was starting to wear off on her and a sort of withdrawal was coursing through her. Her hands shook and the room was unfocused, her legs aches from running and jumping after the rats skittering about.
Settling down on the cot next to Jaiden, her friend was still unconscious and hadn’t shown any sign of waking. So every so often when Cellbit needed space, she would gently move Jaiden over and sit next to her on the cot to talk. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but she doubted that Jaiden minded.
“We were finally able to go today, see all the new people. Some old faces as well, Bad’s back of course. Etoile, Tubbo, Bagi, and Pac too. No Foolish, Slime, or dad. Though someone was wearing his face so I killed them”, her face screwed up in disgust just thinking about the imposter.
“We killed them, a lot of them. They were having too good a time. It was only the second day and they all had diamonds and bases. Do you remember us on our second day? I know we won, but it was because we were nothing and we had nothing to lose. They all don’t understand. They care too much and they haven’t gone through enough”
Baghera could imagine snippets of what her friend would say, pieces of her imagination put together Jaiden’s smile and opinions. But not enough to fill the hole she felt missing her.
“You would’ve had fun. All the killing and chasing, you would have liked quizzing them about birds and Bolas. I wish I could do more, I hope I get to do more”
She let out a heavy sigh, and lowered her voice to a whisper, so quiet that if Jaiden even was awake she might not have been able to hear her.
“Pomme is dead. I saw it and I stayed for her, and she’s dead. But I’m scared, because Bad said that she was alive. But we saw where she and Richas were staying here. It doesn’t add up, there are too many things that don’t make sense or feel weird. But I can’t let myself hope or doubt, because if I do I don’t know if I can keep myself together”
Baghera had removed her armor when they first got back, all she had left on were the black clothes she found in one of the chests earlier. They were covered in blood, guts, and bits of skin. The chainsaw was as messy as it was hungry. She knew she wasn’t all that together now, but she felt little to nothing. She couldn’t go back to feeling things again.
“I don’t think we were missed, or at least I wasn’t. No one asked about you either, I guess they just assume you’re missing or dead. Did they think we were dead? I don’t know. But I think we belong here”, she found Jaiden’s hand and gave it a light squeeze.
“I miss you though. I don’t care if they miss me or you, but I miss you. And I know Cellbit does too. You’re wanted Jaiden, and we’d do a lot better with you here”, she held onto Jaiden’s hand and used her other hand to card through Jaiden’s hair.
They sat in silence for just a few minutes, when Baghera could have sworn Jaiden’s eye twitched, “Jaiden? Jaiden, was that you?”
A finger twitched, “Jaiden! Okay um if you can hear me try and tap your finger”
Tap.
“Okay tap for yes, don’t tap for no. Do you remember what happened?”
Tap.
“Did you hear what I said when you were asleep?”
Tap.
Baghera said a bit more quietly, “Everything?”
A pause, but eventually a tap.
“You’re safe, it’s just me and Cellbit here. Take your time healing and resting, whenever you’re ready we’re here”, Baghera looked at Jaiden and smiled, Bolas was finally coming together, and they would finally reap the destruction Baghera so desperately wanted to sow.
“ And when you’re ready, we will be Bolas, we will kill them, throw ourselves into the fire, and we will show them that this is hell. I missed you Jaiden”
So quiet that Baghera almost missed it Jaiden muttered, “Missed you too. Let’s kill ‘em all”.