#im incapable of leaving things without a semi-hopeful ending hello

[barry-j-blupjeans]

Hey, I have a painful request if you're up for it. #8 on the soulmates AU with taakitz while Taako is in Wonderland?

8. Sharing injuries - receiving the same injuries (to a lesser extent) that their soulmate suffers from

(Soulmate Prompts)

(Sentence Starters)

--

Something was wrong with Taako.

Kravitz knew that much for sure, but the question was what and how to make it stop. More pressingly, did he need help? Even more pressingly, did Kravitz himself need help? Because his day hadn't been going great before, but it definitely had sped past rock bottom now.

The Astral Plane was a mess like he had never seen before. It had started this morning when a sizable hole opened up over the Raven Queen's castle and started leaking black ooze all over it. By the midday, it was completely submerged and the sea of souls wasn't doing much better. The world was inky, and dark, and unhappy, and as much as Kravitz had tried to fight it off, it wouldn't stop coming.

And then Taako was hurt.

It wasn't- Kravitz wasn't used to it yet. He didn't think he had a soulmate until a couple years ago when he started getting these random pains. He had gone to the Raven Queen to make sure he wasn't, y'know, dying twice over. But she had simply smiled and reminded him that soulmates just had that effect on each other. They could feel each other's injuries.

Taako didn't know- something about Kravitz being dead made the soulmate magic fucky. He didn't feel anything. He didn't think he had a soulmate.

He definitely did. Kravitz could feel it, feel him, even now as he tried to keep his head above the black currents that had flooded the plane. There was a consistent ache all over, doubled by the amount of energy he was using to keep himself from sinking.

It felt wrong, though. Worse than usual. And Kravitz had to suffer dying eleven times over while Taako was in that time loop, but this was somehow worse because it just kept going. There was no way Taako could still be in this much pain and alive-

He had to stop himself there, kicking away an inky tendril, trying to push himself above water. If Taako was dead, he'd know. He'd just- he'd know. The time loop thing had proved that well enough, he'd know when Taako was dead.

And the worse part is, not even five minutes later, he had a sinking feeling in his gut that Taako had died. It took a moment to realize as he struggled towards the surface, but the phantom pains were gone. Now, they were replaced with what could only be described as incredible panic as he redoubled his efforts towards the surface. If he could get out, if he could use his scythe to get to wherever Taako was, he could help.

It was that thought that helped him break the surface of the water. The whole Astral Plane was dark, columns of darkness dripping into the sea of souls. He looked around desperately for an escape and saw the Eternal Stokeaid just before-

There was Taako.

There was a small rift open above him, by about 20 meters. Magnus was drifted backward towards him but there was Taako, reaching out desperately. Kravitz saw their hands connect, and watched as Taako momentarily struggled to pull Magnus back through. And Kravitz couldn't even be bothered to think about the fact that they were cheating death again because he met Taako's eye and-

He was pulled back under. Time dragged by as he desperately tried to get back to the surface, to see Taako's face again, to ask what was happening-

And the ache settled over his body again. It sent a pang of pain through him and the tendrils pulled him further under, but now he had an even more important reason to care:

Taako was alive again and Kravitz was certain he needed his help.