Characters: OPEN TO: Hatchlings, greeters, guards.
Date/Time: After the fire.
Location: The Hall of Beginnings
Rating: PG-13 for nudity and swearing
Summary: A lot of people return! There are probably some people there to greet them.
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Like a phoenix rising in the sky // We will run into the morning light )
Ew. That was gross. But hey, it was dark. Comforting.
It was a very baaaaaaaad sign. Sky was going to KILL him.
...
Oh. Fuck. JUSTICE was going to kill him! Blood!
With a sudden surge of panic, Ghost immediately concentrated on phasing out of the cocoon, pushing his legs out first. Slowly he slipped through the solid walls, landing feet first in the cooooold evening air and leaving behind a intact cocoon his wake.
With a bit of a smug grin he wiped the cocoon gunk from his eyes...and then his jaw dropped open. The place looked like a mess. Like a warzone. There were parts of the hall clearly damaged by..something. Parts of his memory were starting to come back to him, but he was confused. He remembered ..fire and...pain. A lot of pain. His hand instinctively shot up to his face and he was relived to feel the skin on his face completely smooth.
He glanced around looking for a greeter, completely at a loss.
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In fact, she felt like she was floating in some nasty goo!
Wait... did she...?
Panic set in, her little body flailing as she fought to get out. She needed to find Big G, Stony, Blondie... everyone. She pushed as hard as she could, feeling the cocoon start to give way before she tumbled out onto the floor.
Naked.
On the cold floor.
Swiping at her eyes, she looked around. "That was gross! Where's my towel!"
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He stood, grabbing a towel from beside him, and as he tossed it for Ghost to catch, Blood came toppling out. "Bl--!" He stopped, emotion washing through him. Relief, sadness, guilt, but mostly relief. Then fear, cold fear seized his insides, and he resisted the urge to rush forward at once.
They may not remember. Blood may not remember.
He scooped a second towel up and took a step forward, visibly holding back. Welcome to Edensphere was a phrase he generally avoided, seeing as there really was no reason to be welcoming somebody to a place like this, but tongue numb in his mouth, it was all he could think of to say.
"I--er... welcome," he said. "To Edensphere."
Then, damning the consequences, he took another step forward and wrapped the towel around Blood snugly. It was more instinct than anything else, some parental part of him nudging him, reminding him that he could stand and gape all he wanted, but if she didn't get dry soon, she'd catch her death of cold.
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...That never came because BLOOD came tumbling out of the cocoon next to him.
"...what?" No. No it wasn't possible. No way Blood DIED, they'd never let that happen. Spike. Bastet. They wouldn't let her...No no no...
Ghost stared at Stoneface as he rushed over to her, cuddling her like she was his own child--and that's where he lost it.
"I know where we are! The hell?! Why did she die?! What the hell is going on?!"
The only thing stopping Ghost from ripping Blood out of Stoneface's arms is the traumatized look on the older man's face. God. He looked...he looked bad.
"...What happened," Ghost repeated numbly. Why didn't you save her?!
"Blood? You...you ok?"
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"Hiya Stony!" she chirped, a look of confusion crossing her face. "How'd we get here? Did you see that explosion?"
That's when it hit her, that she had been trying to save Ghost when... She started flailing again, swiveling her head around like a kitty following a laser pointer. "Where's Big G? Did I save him? The house..."
She could hear him now, he didn't sound so good. Then, she took a step back and took a really good look at Stoneface. Walking over to Ghost, she took his hand in her own and hugged his leg, nodding.
"I'm okee, Big G. Stony must have gotten us out before the big explosion... Wait..."
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"There was a fire," he said to Ghost, uncharacteristically quiet, voice hoarse from overuse. "A big one."
He stared at Blood for a moment, gaze steady even though he felt as if his insides were trembling. He licked his lips cracked with dust and blood and sweat and swore to keep his composure one second at a time. His jaw clenched. There had to be a reason he named himself Stoneface, after all.
What could he say?
"I'm sorry, Blood."
He wanted to do nothing more than to rush over to Blood and hold her, just to make sure she was real and not a figment of a mind burned to the bone, but the sight of the two of them together made it all too clear where she belonged.
He could say what he wanted about Ghost, but they loved each other. They really did.
"I didn't--I couldn't."
And for once in his life, Stoneface found himself to be speechless.
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He reached down to pat her leg...then belatedly realized he was kinda well...naked. Again.
"Ahhh, woah woah watch the--hold on." Ghost eased her grip on him as he tried to wrap a towel around his waist. "I'm glad you're ok." Once he had himself covered he knelt down to snuggle the top of her gooey head. "We're ok," he repeated firmly.
He looked over the top of her head as Stoneface struggled to speak. Ghost had never seen the man so dirty, covered with ash and...god was that blood?
"A fire," he repeated numbly. "..H--how big?" It felt like the floor was being repeatedly ripped from under him.
To see someone as solid as Stoneface looking like he was on the urge of a breakdown was like seeing the world upside down. Because for all his bravo, Ghost was still a young man, still in his teens technically. He often acted braver than he felt but there were just some things that shouldn't be broken. Asshole authority types like Stoneface--they weren't meant to break. EDENSPHERE wasn't meant to break. People broke...not the tree.
What ...what could break this man?
"Don't." Ghost stood up, one hand moving to touch Blood's head. "Don't I--" Don't lose it. "I believe you. Don't apologize if it was..." If it was really bad. They didn't need to scare Blood. Or him. "It's just...if you're here and you look like that, it's bad right?" He swallowed. "Really bad?"
He looked and felt very young right now.
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"You were wearing a funny suit, and I heard a noise, and there was lots of fire. I tried to protect Big G, and now we're all here in the Hatchery..." her eyes were wider than usual by this point.
"So's, we died? Did you die too Stony?" Her voice was just above a whisper as she looked around, finally seeing all the signs of destruction around them.
Stepping away from Ghost, she registered Stoneface's apology. Walking over to him, she smiled as she kindly patted his hand. "It's okee Stony, you don't gotta say sorry! I forgive you!" She glanced over at Ghost, hoping that whatever was making both him and Stoneface look so sad could be gotten over quickly. "Is Ingvar-kitty okee? I bet he's hungry! We gotta get clean, and I'm hungry too so's we'll get some food and feel better!"
She had decided that it would be so, no arguing.
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It occurred to him later that Ghost knew far more about him than anybody else did and wondered if that was as discomforting to Ghost as it was to him. His memory, at the verge of a breakdown, both times covered in blood.
"It was big. It's... different here, now. People are being reborn." He recalled the journal entries over the week. "Both Bridge and Spike are here and safe. They'll be happy to see you two."
The clothing he handed them wasn't sufficient by any means. They were tinged with ash and smelled of smoke but for the moment, they'd have to do. He handed them maps. What he didn't mention was exactly how many people died, hoping that Ghost would realize the gravity of the situation through use of omission alone.
"Open your maps, that should give you everything."
Stoneface crouched when Blood walked up to him, absently laying a hand on her head and combing his fingers through her hair, squeezing the viciously clinging liquid from off of it. "No, I didn't die, and I'm sure your cat's all right. Do you know Apple? He's got all the pets." He smiled thinly at her. It wasn't a genuine smile, not quite, but it was close enough. Blood forgave easily, and although he realized that she wasn't quite aware of all the difficult bits of the situation, he was glad for it. "Thanks, kid."
He straightened again. "Your house got destroyed, so you two'll be in Temporary Housing for the time being."
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But any chance of Ghost asking about that was derailed when he heard Blood explain her last moments. Knowing that Blood died was one thing. But hearing that she tried to save him--he didn't remember that! Oh could she--was it his fault she died? She'd tried to save him and Stoneface had been there--
Oh God. Stoneface had been there. He saw it. That must have been...been...Ghost's mind had no way to describe how bad it must have been. That's why Stoneface looked so worn. In some ways Ghost lucked out by dying because there was no way he could have lived with his sister's death. He wasn't that strong.
And suddenly Stoney looked a lot stronger and there was a whole lot of antagonism that just washed away at that moment. Why was the old man feeling guilty when it was obviously his fault his sister was in the stupid house when it had gone up. Maybe if he had been quicker, if he'd been stronger and able to pull himself to safety...
Or maybe it had been impossible from the start. He winced as he recalled the agonizing pain of the melting glass hitting his face, his eye, his neck, the way it had almost paralyzed him in one swift moment...in the same way that Stoneface couldn't have stopped Blood, even if he wanted to. Wasn't that why she was on the Guard in the first place? None of them could stop her when she put her mind to something. The fact that Stoneface was here, looking like a miserable wreak, spoke a lot to the type of man he was and even though they were like oil and water, there was no way Ghost could look him and not feel something. But what exactly that was....that was something to dwell on later. Much later.
Ghost managed to slowly pull on the dirty clothes on in the same way he tried to pull himself together. One leg and arm at a time. When that didn't seem to help, he pushed his morbid thoughts out of his head and tried to focus on the offered map.
"...Dude I remember everything. Why would I need to ...oh." The rest of his words were lost as he did so anyways and noticed that NOTHING was where it should be. "What happened to the islands?! Did the tree move or something?"
He looked up, with a horrified expression. "This wasn't a normal fire..." he breathed, his mind making the connections. "Big? This is HUGE."
Ghost groaned. "Oh and we don't have a house. Right. Of course. But then Blood's right." He glanced up at Stoneface. "We should eat."
There was a way he emphasized the word 'we' that made it an open invitation. An olive branch even.
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