"WHAT?" Sunny smashed his fist against the concrete walls of the head office, his blood boiling and eyes wide and bloodshot, "WHAT HAPPENED TO SAINT TYRIS?"
Saint Tyris. The one who was stalking Winter Beast for months, had died? He didn't know her... But she was a nice person.
So what if she fell for Neph's lies?
He was the one who taught her!
"Saint Tyris can't fight Winter Beast anymore..." Master Jet replied calmly, but he could see through her somber tone.
Ofcourse she was somber, they were fucked.
Completely. Utterly. Fucked.
"We should be getting a report from the White Feather Clan... And Master Roan." She trailed... "Your friend."
Friend... That was an interesting term she used, after all, they merely got along.
He had no friends.
How could he?
He wanted to say... wanted to say Master Roan wasn't his friend but he knew damn well his flaw would say otherwise.
So what should he say?
"I hope she gets well soon..." Sunny spoke softly, his voice was soft, and the only voice echoing in the empty room.
All the Masters in the irregulars company were dead.
The cool Master Winter... The experienced Master Randal... Everyone.
He didn't know them... So why? Why did he feel sad for their death?
He let out another hoarse sigh filled with regrets.
Why was he here? Why did he care if the civilians died?
Why?
Suddenly a knocking sound echoed in the room, it was Master Roan on the door.
"She is... It's better to see yourself."
What happened?
What made him worried?
Why did his shoulder hang lower? Why did his eyes look red and swollen?
Surely it couldn't be that bad?
Those thoughts occupied his mind until they reached the clan compund occupied by the White Feather Clan...
And then the room Saint Tyris was lying in...
Inside, they saw an empty hall with some medical equipment and a lonely operating table standing in its center. The table, and the floor around it, were marred with blood. On it... Saint Tyris was laying, her eyes closed.
He let out a relived sigh, 'She is alive.' but she looked like a corpse... Only saving grace was her chest rising and falling which showed that she was alive.
Her whole body was covered in blood and blemished by severe frostbite. Tyris was unconscious, breathing shallowly. Her face was terribly pale, and her lips looked blue. And that... that was, without a doubt, only after the healers of the White Feather clan had tended to her. Sunny could not imagine how the fearsome Saint had looked before.
How horrible and broken she looked.
"W-what happened? How?" Sunny spoke, the words escaped his lips on their own. His voice shook, laced with fear. His head started to spin.
Suddenly... He cared about his chort. The people living here.
Even the countless kids and parents who gave him sandwiches...
Would they be alive?
Would Professor Obel, who was like a grand father, be alive?
What about Beth? Would she?
Would any of them?
He stared at them for a few moments, then turned back to Saint Tyris.
"Isn't it obvious? She lost. Actually, it's a miracle that she was able to hold back that monster for so long. It's also a miracle that she survived."
He remained silent for a while, then added evenly:
"You are asking the wrong question, though."
Master Jet's icy blue eyes widened slightly. She hesitated, then asked coldly:
"...What the hell is going to happen, then?"
Roan lowered his head. Then, he straightened his back, and looked at them once more.
"I think you know." His eyes were bleak, and tired. "The Winter Beast is coming, and there's no one to stop it. It's over. Maybe tomorrow, or the day after that, anyone who still remains in this city will die. I'm sorry, Soul Reaper... there's nothing else we clan can do."
Suddenly the shadows around them became colder, darker, and deeper.
"There is one thing..." Sunny's voice trailed, in a soft desperate voice. Sunny looked down, with a tinge of guilt...
"The Memories I gave. The one which lets you store humans..."
A small tear escaped his swollen eyes...
"We can't save all twenty million but we can save a few. The government did, after all, buy a lot more of them after the suggestion."
Another pause. He decided it was time to give away this one truth...
"I can make more of those, the higher the rank, more people can be transferred. There's a catch though..." His voice cracked, "My essence won't be enough to save all of them. No one's would be, nor would we have enough materials."
Master Jet looked at him, a slight bit of hope, and asked, "What do you need?"
"Soul Shards. And people who can help regenerate My essence quicker." Sunny turned to look at Master Jet, "All of us need to gather it. We both will keep all the mundanes who can't escape because of the late produced Memories."
That was right. Not BloodWave. Not Master Roan.
Both of them would be gone soon.
With Saint Tyris.
"Master Roan, can we ask for your Clan's help?" Master Jet asked.
"Ofcourse, but we will have to leave on the next ship." Master Roan replied, his eyes shined with hope, his movements were quicker as he turned around to face Sunny, "Thats a great plan! Twenty million more people could escape earlier!"
He reached towards Sunny, and grabbed his shoulder, "We can save more!"
"It won't be enough! It would be, at most, a million. And that's being generous!" Sunny replied, looking away with guilt.
Why? Why did he care?
Why was he sad?
His words made the atmosphere somber, "Then we'll have to last longer." Master Jet replied simply, but he could tell what she felt.
The sadness. The despair.
She was the one who told him to not care. She was the one who agreed with the injustice to the outskirts people.
'So... Even she cares, huh?' Sunny sighed to himself.
So... There was no hope.
He, Master Jet and The Guardian Angel Of Antarctica—or Saint—watched the ship with White Feather clan leave... He only managed to make a hundred or so more Memories, draining him of essence.
"Sunny... There's only one more ship for today." Master Jet suddenly spoke, with a serious voice, turning towards him.
"Yes..." Sunny replied simply, "I need to hurry, I know."
"That's not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean?" Sunny asked, suddenly not wishing to know from her sour look.
"Sunny... The news will spread now. The departure of Saint Tyris." She looked down, "People will die from all the panic, my position won't matter, so I want to ask you something."
"What?" Sunny shivered.
"Your and your cohort's worth is a lot..."
She paused.
"Sunny… you might survive the descent of the Winter Beast. Maybe —maybe—I can survive it, too. My cohort is gone, though, while yours is not. And your soldiers… they will definitely die. Ascended like us have no business facing a Corrupted Titan, as for Awakened? They don't stand a chance. So, if I were you, I would make sure that they get on a ship as fast as possible. Everything else comes later."
She turned around and started leaving, while Sunny smiled bitterly.
"So are you going to get on a ship yourself?" Sunny asked seeing her leave.
Soul Reaper paused. She remained silent for a few moments, then said without turning back:
"...I sort of hate ships, to be honest. It is really a pity."
"What a coincidence, so do I." Sunny laughed, looking at Jet leave.
He made his cohort leave... Well as many as he could because Belle, Dorn and Samara stayed back. With him.
They trusted him... and he—he hated it.
As of this moment, he was on top of an empty building, weaving when Master Jet approached him.
"How is it going?" She got close to him before sitting besides him.
"Its going well... Just that I won't be making more Memories after this. I just made 15, and I need essence myself."
He could, ofcourse, ask someone to help him regenerate his essence but that was only possible if any of them stayed there.
"How are you holding up?" She asked.
"Me? Im holding up both terribly, and well. How are you holding up?"
Suddenly Jet let out a melodic laughter, "I'm holding up great myself, remember the first time we met?"
He remembered it well, she was currently refering to his answer when she asked about his First Nightmare went, but he remembered the other details.
Like where he stared and how he thought about Shadow Bond there for a second.
He, too, joined in the laughter now.
"Yeah! I do, like it was yesterday."
He turned towards her, facing her, and saw her *smile*.
It was time for a stupid decision.
"I want to tell you my flaw." He spoke suddenly.
"What? Where did that come from?" Master Jet asked, taken back, and flinching.
Yes, where did it come from?
Why did he want to tell her his flaw?
Was it because of what they built during their time in Falcon Scott?
Her being the reason he lived?
What about... What about her being like an older sister?
"Ask me what my flaw is, and who The Guardian Angel is."
No going back now.
Master Jet took a deep breath and, "So what is your flaw and who is The Guardian Angel of Antarctica?"
Sunny, too, took a deep breath. "My flaw is that I can't lie, and I'm compelled to answer every question. Guardian Angel is my... Echo of sorts... Saint."
She laughed suddenly, "Wait your flaw is actually that you can't lie?" Her laughter was melodic, and between the laugh, "I mean I did suspect it... But seriously?"
"Yes."
"Well... My flaw is that I'm dead. My soul core is shattered." Master Jet told him, suddenly, causing him to flinch.
"Huh?"
"You knew, didn't you?" She asked, pinching his hands.
"Yeah... I mean the shattered soul core part." Sunny winced, his weave barely managed to stay intact.
"So..." She started, suddenly serious as her position shifted, her shoulders turned firm, and eyes sharper.
Sunny raised his eyebrows.
"What actually happened to you?" She asked.
"Nothing." He shrugged, in an uncertain tone.
"I mean..." She trailed, "between you and Changing Star."
What?
How did she know?
Should he kill her?
What if she reported it to the government and he died?
"She betrayed me." He replied in a simple tone, with a heavy voice and a distant face, as if looking at something not present here. He was reminiscing his past.
The days where it was simple: either he simply survived in the outskirts, with hope Rain was alright, or just killed Nightmare Creatures.
And sometimes... Sometimes even when it was just the three of them.
Him. Nephis. Cassie.
Why?
He hated them. So why?
He wished for their deaths...
So why?
His lips parted into an involuntary smile, before turning to a frown. He was disgusted at himself.
"I hate them, and I wish for their death... My sister... She died when the gate opened near the school... Am I wrong to wish for it?" He sighed, a singular tear rolled down his eye.
"I-I came here to die." He stuttered, and broke.
Why did he let himself break in front of her?
"Its fine to wish for this, especially if you go through the things you did..." She hugged him, and Sunny looked towards her with wide eyes, and tears flowing through him. "Sometimes it's fine to act on it..."
That was it. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Ofcourse... What did he think?
She wouldn't tell him everything.
"I came here to die... And kill Nephis for revenge. Even Cassie." He looked down, shifting a little, and replying in a cracking voice.
Why did those words leave his mouth? Why was he sharing this? To her?
Was it because he would die soon?
Was it because... He saw her as a sister?
Suddenly alarms flared, breaking the moment, and they both jerked up with alertness.
The Winter Beast arrived...
Quickly, he took as many people as possible in his Memories.
They had a plan, using flame throwers, they would move towards the Winter Beast and hope to kill it.
It was a good plan right?
Wrong.
Everything failed.
Everyone—everyone they died.
The flames went out first, then the mundanes started to die, before Awakened and then his cohort...
The members of his cohort were standing close to each other, bits of ice covering their hair. Their luminous Memories had grown dim and weak, and their lips were blue.
Their eyes, however… were much more calm than his own.
They... They accepted the death.
"NO I WON'T LET YOU DIE." He screamed, his eyes were wide with panic as he started summoning the Memory that let him carry people...
But alas, there was no space. When he decided to take someone out... His cohort stopped him.
Sunny studied their faces for a few moments, trying to come up with a solid thought.
Eventually, he simply whispered:
"...I'm sorry."
Belle smiled with the corner of his mouth, then slightly shook his head. That action alone seemed to take something out of him, and the swordsman swayed slightly.
Samara reached out to support him, and he placed a hand on her shoulder, gripping it tightly. Dorn struggled a little and turned to face them. He gave his fellow Awakened a warm nod, then kept looking at them without saying anything. Maybe he couldn't.
Sunny remained motionless, watching.
He watched them slowly grow still.
And then, he watched as the spark of life was gradually extinguished inside them. Samara was first, and then Dorn. Belle was the last to go.
Only when their shadows had turned lifeless and empty did Sunny allow himself to dissipate into the darkness, escaping the murderous cold.
…In the embrace of the shadows, the power of the Winter Beast was not nearly as overwhelming. It could still reach here, somehow, but in a weakened state.
Sunny was filled with rage, having bloodshot eyes, and feeling wrath...
He gave up.
He turned around and left.
He had to have revenge for his sister.
The Winter Beast came and left, probably feeling triumph.
It would pay... Just not now.
'It will certainly pay...'
He went to dig the grave of his fellow cohort.
"So... Still haven't realised it?" A figure, looking just like him but with a wide smile, spoke.
"You are Lost from Light. You fool. You will lose everyone and everything you cherish."
The Sin of Solace laughed... And the worst part? It wasn't summoned.
"SHUT UP"
Why?
It was the truth though... He was meant to lose everyone.
He felt his spite return.
"So what if they don't want me? I will defeat the Will of this world myself. MYSELF."
A wide grin found his lips, "I will break fate."
His Memory, [Re Route], was summoned.
A beautiful ring.
He was tempted to use it... Use it and reset everything right now.
But no. It had to wait.
Soul Reaper had been his mentor, comrade, and friend. For him, she was synonymous with competence and power. And perseverance. If a girl from the outskirts could rise so high, then why couldn't he?
She was like an older sister...
So why was he hesitating right now?
'It is so that I can have my selfish goal. I failed once again.'
Another laugh escaped his mouth, when he suddenly heard a sound.
He went towards it and saw... "Master Jet?"
His eyes gleamed with hope, holding his breath, and lips parting.
Ofcourse she was! Well... Not technically but yes.
He looked up, towards the sun, and laughed after exhaling.
Wait sun?
Master Jet looked towards where he was facing, and sighed with relief.
Soul Reaper tried to smile, but failed.
"The sun is rising. The night… it's over."
A/n: 10 more kudos, so 80 on ao3 and 15 votes for this chapter in Wattpad