#Marji's feels a little stunted since I usually write here as more of a thinking character

[marjiandco]

Grimylt Dark

joining the fray of maintenance arts with a continuation of one of my old drabbles. This is set right at The WoL fighting Elidibus!Zenos, and the problems thereafter.

“So, we meet again oh Warrior of Light.”

Seeing him was disconcerting, but for the few moments she's been near the man, it was apparent he was not the same. His voice was deadened, mocking and resigned all at once. She bends low, book in hand and Egi not far behind her. Her anxiousness feeds into it, and ifrit glows red and dangerous behind her. She did not speak when she threw the first punch.

What she could remember of that battle was how much stronger she is against the thing. Zenos, though pains her to admit it, she's never bested. With this Ascian, he’s almost gangly. Like a boy going through puberty suddenly learning to walk with an extra fulm on him. All the power but none of the prowess of having control of his body. Awkward and heavy handed, she finds it easy to dodge him and shooting quick bursts of blinding pain to scorch his skin. When the final blow seemed at hand, she can’t help but to mock him.

“Took over one of the strongest people alive, and still you act as a child riding their first chocobo.” She chuckled to herself. “You are not Zenos. You are weak compared to him.”

He did not stop grinning at her. Anger surged through her. She moved to release a killing blow when that voice called to her.

“I beseech you.”

She stumbles forward, hand instinctively reaching for the pain cutting through her head. She drops her book and with it the tether to her summon. It dissipates around her, and this reality and the strange blue room reverberates like a tuning fork.

“No gods, not now.” She mumbles to herself, but her mind would not heed her words.

She struggles to hold consciousness in this realm. Her body weighs her down like a stone, and she fell to her knees, her arms useless at her side. She tries with all her might to her head up but it lols to the back of her neck. Eyelids flutter, seeing double as not Zenos marches towards her.

Noise has disappeared for everything but the voice in the blue room. The point of a sword enters her waning vision, and with was little strength she had she glances up to see the man smiling down at her, triumph etched into his face. He raises his weapon, and as it comes bearing down on her, her will against the voice is lost, and her spirit flees as so many of her fellow scions had.

**********************************************************************************

Feet fly across the field, barely holding Ooji aloft as he trips over broken bodies and magitek.

Where, where, where, where is she?

He whips his staff around like a bat, conjuring stones larger than his head to whip across those fool enough to step towards him. Thrice damn his sister, and these petulant scion's that throw her again and again into a fray she should have no part in. He slides over gravel, twisting his ears at each new noise. Bullets and shouts, the sound of fire reaching him after its heat. His dark, greyish blue skin burns, his throat choking from ash. He shouldn't even be here, he should be at home with his kit, keeping her safe.

“Too late, alas.”

Ooji'a twists around so fast he feels a pang of a cramp in his neck. That slippery voice. Orange eyes scan frantically before widening on a scene near 200 yalms away from him.

“Shit! Fuck!”

He magicks wind beneath his feet. His sister Marji was on her knees, a blank look on her face, arms dangling at her side as Zenos moves forward. Seeing him for the first time, Ooji thinks he looks like a spider. A creature who did not think to chase down its prey, for it is already woefully tangled in its web.

“Your weapon gods dammit.” He shouts, though she makes no move to obey.

He won't lose her, not this close, not like this again. As Zenos towers over her, he brings down his blade just as Ooji'a juts his staff forward and creates a blinding light.

He crashes painfully into the vacant Warrior of Light, his breath gone from his lungs as he hears a strange crunch and the twang of metal against rock. He gulps in air as he raises himself to his hands and knees above Marji before falling back down. He drops down on one side and yowls.

My wrist, Menphina's left tit I've broken my wrist.  

“Another enters the fray?”

Ooji'a turns to face Zenos, scooting before Marji, his broken left arm cradling against his body and his weapon crossing before them. He might be able to get a shield up long enough to pick her up, or drag her, but what about-

A blur of black armor slams into Zenos. Sword against lance, long white hair dirtied by stray flecks of blood.

“Who-” Ooji'a groans before a bark of a voice interrupts him.

“Get Marji out of here! This meat suit is mine.” The elezen growls.

He didn't have to tell the miqo'te twice. With a haphazard shift of his staff to the crook of his arm, Ooji'a manages to sidle under Marji's waist and lift her with his good shoulder. Adrenaline is the only thing keeping his legs moving, and in a blur he manages to find the Eorzean front and transfer his limp sister to safety before seeing to his own wounds.

***********************************************************************************

Marji kicks out and flips onto her stomach, scrambling to her feet. She raises her arms to get titan’s shield going, and as she pulls down, nothing happens. She yanks her arms twice, and feels nothing.

“You are safe here, Champion from beyond the rift.”

She whirls around, and as if her eyes were finally catching up to the rest of her, realizes she’s not in the Grimylt Dark. She’s not even close. A blue void, similar to Hydaelyn’s own, swirls around her. The floor is made of crystal, firm and glistening as aether baubles lift into the air, tinkling around her. A man stands before her, barely taller than her, his face covered. His staff is raised, and she points herself at him, calming her breath as she takes a step forward.

He raises his staff and other hand, quickly saying “Please! There’s no cause for alarm.”

“You.” She seethes.

She marches towards him and wraps her hands in his robes. He turns his head to the side, pulling down his hood. As if she cared who the man is. As if she might not have a physical body left at this point to return to, wherever she and her comrades have been taken.

“We weren’t supposed to meet in this place,” he starts and she shakes him.

“Gods take your plans. I might not have magic here but I certainly can find other ways to hurt you. You bring me back to my body now.”

“I will in due course,” he keeps his hands rigid in the air, making sure she see’s he won’t attack her. “But we have little time to speak, I have need of you, to take you away from the path you walk.”

“Where the fuck are my friends? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Raiku’s been captured because of you. I may be dead because of you. Alisae...you broke my promise with her. We were supposed to stand tall together, until your magic ripped her away from me.”

“Please, champion, this is of dire importance. I promise to send you back, to explain, but for now you must know the path you walk leads to oblivion.”

His voice is desperate, and for a moment, Marji hears a familiar breathlessness. She watches him, looking at the crystalline arm holding his staff, and at the room around her. It didn’t matter if she threatens him; he’s the only way she can escape from this place. Every word is empty until she can get back to her body and do something.

“Say it quick.”

“I’ve left you a gift, at the base of the Crystal Tower. A beacon of sorts. Find it, and I will take care of the rest. We-your friends and I-will meet again if you do this. Come to the first, please.”

He touches her arm, and her head was thrown back, darkness snapping shut around her.

Again she awakens, the rage and fear culminating in her calling forth Ifrit and lobbing a raging fireball at the wall in front of her, breaking apart the outer layer of stone. A squeak turns the summoner and summon’s attentions to the right, and Marji quickly dissipates Ifrit. A girl stares at her with wide eyes, trembling as she races out of the room.

She rubs her head, clicking her tongue. She was back home, somewhere in Ishgard by the look of the room. It was bare bones except for a table next to her beside, laden with tinctures and sutures. Her ears lower at the sight of the burnt wall. Tataru’s going to kill her for this expense.

Footsteps rush down the hallway, and the little girl comes into view, pointing at Marji and saying something to a familiar face

“Thank the heavens you’re awake.” Aymeric says as he walks inside.

“I’m a little lost in that respect. Er, sorry about the wall.”

Aymeric shakes his head “Pay it no mind. A trifle for your wellbeing Are you alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine, but, how am I fine? Last thing I remember is fighting Zenos, and then I get mind warped to this blue room, complete with the sorcerer who’s been doing this to us.”

Aymeric leans forward, taking a seat on a nearby stool, brows furrowed.

“You’ve seen them? What do they want?”

“Cryptically he gave no answers, only a solution of sorts. I need to speak with the Sci...with the others. What happened, when I fell?”

“When reports came that you were bested by Zenos, I feared the worst. But it seems luck, as ever, is on your side. Not one, but two adversaries came to your aid. They both distracted your foe long enough to sneak you away from the battlefield and into the hands of our Chirurgeons. One I’m sure will be happy to hear you speak, if he hasn’t already heard that.” Aymeric chuckles as he waves a hand towards the wall.

“Estinien, though, well he was never one for emotional farewells. I can fetch your brother, if you’re feeling up for it.”

“You don’t have to be so formal with me, Aymeric, we’re friends are we not?”

His ears tinge pink, a quality she finds massively endearing. He coughs into his hand.

“Yes well, sometimes it can be difficult to know the lines of work and pleasure in these times. I simply, I want you to understand how much you do have limits, as the rest of us. If either of those two had been a minute late, we would not be having this conversation now. You have entire nations at your back, ready to help whenever you need it.”

“It’s because of those nations that I had to go out there. If the Garleans were allowed to run unchecked-”

“And we are most assuredly grateful for your endeavors. But with a mysterious sorcerer after you, it would make me feel better to know you start taking proper care of yourself. Mayhaps come to dinner again after our return from the front.”

“So you can try to kiss me again?”

“You’ll never let me hear the end of it will you.” Aymeric grouses.

“Nope. not when a prince wants to get it on with a frog.”

Aymeric puffs out his chest, annoyance plain but chose to let the conversation go as Marji looks back at her lap, eyes darting as she thinks.

“I will try to hold myself back at our next meeting. But come, if you’re as well as you say you are, you have a few more worried eyes to soften. Estinien is already off to find Raiku’s body, lest you wonder.”

Marji gives a choked gasp, unable to articulate what she felt at the sentence. Aymeric holds her hand, squeezing it lightly.

“None of us have forgotten him, and you will see him brought home.”

She swings her legs over the side of her bed, slipping away from Aymeric’s grasp.

“Well if that’s the case, then I’m going to need to surprise him with his consciousness as a coming home present.”