Chapter Text
“Did you listen to what I just said?”
Verso looked at Sciel with a bewildered look and insisted. “If we go for the Axons we start with the one at the West, that’s the only way.”
At his side Lune scoffed loudly, “Stop making decisions for us Verso. You wouldn’t have even told us about the Axons if we hadn’t find the log,” she said, her tone taking on a cutting edge. “If I want to turn into a human supernova and launch myself against the Paintress it’s my prerogative.”
“That would be magnificent to watch!” Monoco knocking his fists.
“Not now Monoco…” Maelle muttered in a low voice.
Verso glared at his old friend as he turned towards Lune, “I’ve been on this continent for longer than you, I think I can be trusted on these things?”
“Just like you told us about Renoir in Old Lumière?” spatted Lune. “We are Expeditioners, we sacrificed a lot for a chance to get to the Paintress. Impossible or not, we have to try.”
“Sacrificed? Please! You spent all your life living comfortable in Lumière and then you, what? Use your last year to give it a try? And what for? Where is your Expedition now?”
Everyone recoiled at Verso’s burst, bringing an uncomfortable pressure to their hearts as a deep silence fell around them. Lune’s surprised face slowly turned into restrained anger. She took a step towards Verso before Maelle caught her arm.
“Lune…”
Stopping on her tracks she glared at Verso quietly before she shook Maelle’s arm off and walked away, her figure getting lost among the trees that surrounded their camp. The cold of the night slowly settled in their bodies, chilling them to their bones.
Holding the urn with Noco’s body, Monoco shook his head at Verso. He didn’t need a face to show his disappointment before he moved to sit down by the crackling fire. Scratching his beard Verso turnt towards Maelle.
“How bad?”
“I don’t think ‘pissed’ truly describes her right now.” the teenager answered him with pity in her eyes.
“Mérde. I wasn’t wrong though.”
“You weren’t right either,” Sciel stepped forward arms crossed, a grimace on her face as she leaned her body towards Verso. “Just because we spent some part of our lives in Lumière it doesn’t mean we didn’t sacrifice anything.” The light of the bonfire danced on her face as she spoke, “Gustave lost the love of his life, Maelle chose to forbid peaceful years in exchange of all this blood and madness just to lose his father figure to Renoir, and Lune literally sacrificed her whole life for this chance.”
Stepping towards the warm, Maelle squeezed his arm trying to convey some comfort into his tense figure. For a moment Sciel was tempted to go after Lune, but she knew it would be pointless, the pot was overheated and only time would temper it so she decided to head for bed.
“What about you Sciel?” Verso asked.
Without turning around, she waved a hand at the questioning man.
“There was nothing left for me to lose.”
You’re not the only one that suffered.
Sciel stumbled onto the ground, sharp rocks sinking into her back like millions of tiny nails. The grotesque look of her maimed leg added to the frustration she had been feeling since the beginning of the battle. Her incansable training had turned her into one of the best fighters of Expedition 33 and yet, none of her best attacks could hurt the nevron.
Even worse, her control over the dark element only seemed to strengthen it. Holding onto her scythe, she managed to lift herself up to check on her teammates who at first sight weren’t doing better; Maelle was holding onto her ribs, Verso seemed to have lost a hand and Monoco was laying on the ground face first, knocked out.
Well fuck.
Her head suddenly hit the concrete with a hard thud, her teeth clacking together, barely missing biting her tongue. Of all the ways she had picture of dying in the continent; mangled, bloodied and feeling utterly useless wasn’t in her list.
The gigantic nevron stood still for a short time, perusing the aftermath of his reappearance from the shadows. It didn’t show any kind of emotion but Sciel felt that it was making fun of them, taunting them.
A row of five masks appeared on the air again, each of them ready to launch a piercing attack that would lie to rest the full group. A card materialized in her hand and she promptly threw it, shattering one of the floating faces.
Grinding her teeth, Sciel closed her eyes. Her brain searched for any solution — any chance to at least save Maelle, the only one that could truly enjoy the rest of her life.
Suddenly, a pillar of aquamarine light burst from the ground, twirling around itself before it started spreading into multiple branches that resembled a living tree. It erupted in thousand of specks of light that floated onto their weary bodies.
The masks turned lacer like on its direction and shot.
A crack of energy bounced through Sciel’s body, her mangled leg gurgling as its flesh knitted back together, nerves on fire and ready to strike again. With her renewed strength, she jumped back on her feet and wilded her scythe again.
At her sides both Maelle and Verso looked confused but took on a fighting stance, ready to put the nevron to rest.
“Monoco! Try to keep him steady!” she yelled at the now conscious gestral. “Maelle! You and I are going to create enough weakpoints for Verso to finish this fucker! Lune, cover our backs!”
The Scavenger sweep an arm at them, which they easily sidestepped or jumped over. A blood curling roar marked the moment Monoco turned into a spear-branding Chalier. With ease, he jumped and stabbed one of the nevron’s hands onto the floor.
Maelle raised her sword into the sky and summoned a hive of floating swords imbued in flames of fire, then swirled her sword in the direction of their enemy the weapons following her command like angry bees protecting their queen, destroying all the remaining mask and thrusting themselves into its skin, chroma pouring out of its wounds.
While Monoco moved to deal with the Scavenger’s other arm, Sciel took advantage of the pinned one and vaulted onto it, creating sharp cards made of dark element that she would plunge into its dark meat.
Sensing an opening, Verso crouched and charged a strong light attack, creating a huge figure resembling a cross that shone so bright it made his eyes water. The moment he couldn’t hold it anymore he used his sword to create enough momentum to launch it against the Scavenger.
The attack passed through the nevron, seemingly not affecting it. But every crack Maelle and Sciel had put in him started filling with the bright light, slowly flowing until all of them met in a spot close to its face.
Both Verso and Maelle looked at each other and just like they had done with the Dualliste, charged and threw themselves with all the strength they could bolster up and plunged their weapons into the gleaming face. The nevron cried in pain, a wave of despair sending them back onto the ground. With a pitiful groan, it floated down as the familiar petals surrounded it. Maelle hastily took the Lumina Converter out and gathered all the dissolving chroma into it.
“Well, that was something,” Sciel said supporting her weight on her scythe, taking deep breaths and checking on her previously injured leg. “Are you ok Maelle?”
“Yeah…Never been better to be honest. It’s a weird sensation,” she answered looking at her hands.
A yell made them both turn around, it was Verso’s voice.
“Monoco!”
They both rushed towards the worried man. In his arm laid Lune, blood seeping out of her mouth and wounds. On her side a clean pierce that went front to back bled profusedly. Sciel dropped beside Verso and put pressure on it.
“Verso you- where’s your hand?”
“Later. It will be fine.”
Monoco appeared, dropping his feet collection onto the floor in search of one that could help with the situation. Some of them rolled to the sides, forgotten. Sciel knew things weren’t looking good when Monoco treated his cherished trophies without care. Finally, he raised a small one with a loud yell.
“I will do my best, mon amie. Now, hold her tight.”
Always the backbone of the group, it was unnerving to see Lune unconscious in Verso’s arms, awkwardly being held close to him as best as he could with an arm missing a hand. Thanks to Esquie’s guidance, they managed to find a secluded meadow with a small pond close to it to settle their camp.
“Is she going to be alright?” Maelle said, her voice low and full of worry, poking at a pile of wood with a flame born from the tip of her sword.
Carefully, Verso placed Lune on a bedroll. Most of her wounds except for the deeper ones had stopped bleeding but remained an angry red. He covered the unconscious woman with a light blanket, while Sciel sat close to her making sure she was comfortable.
“She should be out of danger, but she’ll need rest,” he answered, dropping his body onto the ground like a cannonball falling onto enemy lines, wiggling the fingers of his reattached hand. “I feel like I could sleep the rest of the week.”
The group nodded and grunted in unison. When Maelle took her usual spot by Esquie, he patted her head carefully.
“Lu-lu will be fine. She is strong,” he flexed his free arm “and she has all her magical stones with her.” He nodded to himself, his point made.
“It’s the adrenaline disappearing,” Sciel said addressing Verso. “Lune’s spell is wearing off.”
During the coldest days in Lumiere, Sciel’s father used to bury her under layers and layers of fluffy blankets, the weight and warm on her body a quiet comfort for the night. If she closed her eyes and ignored the dull pain of her arms and legs, she could imagine she was back at home, surrounded by the smell of her mom’s cooking and her father’s booming voice.
She missed them.
A snore coming from Monoco brought her back to reality. Verso and Maelle had already passed out and she knew she wouldn’t last long.
“Esquie mon amie, can I trust you to wake us up if there’s any danger?” she said, patting the ground beside her before she laid on her side, looking at Lune and checking on her pulse before closing her eyes.
Sleep took her over before she could even hear his answer.
A sudden gust of wind on her face woke her up, her hand flying to the dagger in her right boot. Lifting herself from the ground she looked around for any kind of trouble but only found Monoco staring at while holding Noco’s urn in his arms.
Lune’s bed was empty.
She wasn’t surprised, it was well known in the Expedition that both Verso and her had trouble sleeping for long times. But damn, she was supposed to be the smart one of the group, she should know she needed rest.
Stretching her sore limbs, she sighed and walked towards Monoco.
“Where did she go?”
The gestral pointed towards the small pond. “I would have stopped her, but…”
“Yeah, that’s Lune for you. Don’t worry I’ll go check on her.”
Taking the satchel that contained all their tonics and medicines, she walked towards the water. Among the shadows, she could see the shine of a small light circling in the air - one of Lune’s floating lights.
Sciel felt her before she saw her, the sensation of her healing magic permeating the air like the smell of fresh coffee in the morning. She made sure to be loud as she approached Lune; startling someone with her powers was never a good idea and she wasn’t interested in getting zapped in the middle of the night.
“You should be resting.”
A grunt followed by heavy breathing. Lune’s coat and vest laid beside her, carefully placed on the grass.
“I’m feeling better,” she said, the bright light from her healing disappearing, taking its comfort with it. A bead of sweat slid down her cheek down to her chin, “I managed to fully heal some of the wounds.”
Sciel walked towards Lune, putting the meds she had brought aside and kneeling in front of her. She checked on the wounds Lune had closed — the smaller ones disappeared, while the largest ones stayed an angry pink. Still, she brought her thumb and softly applied pressure onto Lune’s right side, making her instantly flinch.
“You need rest to heal properly Lune. You know that better than anyone,” Sciel brought a clean bandage up wiping the sweat from the tired woman’s face. “Come on, lemme see. I’ll clean that wound.”
Reluctantly, Lune stared at Sciel who silently stared back, eyebrows risen full of resolution.
“No need to be shy, nothing I haven’t seen before. Right?”
With an amused snort, Lune reached for the bottom of her shirt and removed it. It took all of Sciel’s strength to not make any silly jokes or point at her flustered skin.
Focusing on the task at hand, Sciel removed the bloodied dressing and threw it to the side. It didn’t look good but at least it was nearly closed, most of the remaining damage left being a clean puncture that didn’t reach too deep.
“Monoco did a good job with his healing but I’m afraid this one will leave a scar…” Lune said, turning her head to the other side.
Soaking another bandage in disinfectant, Sciel leaned forward and proceeded to clean the wound making sure of removing any dirt left that could cause trouble making Lune shiver with every soft stroke.
“Hey, I’ve been told scars look cool and sexy,” she answered winking at the now very-pointedly-looking-at-her woman.
For a while, they remained in silence with Sciel making good progress on cleaning and re-dressing the wound. Still, something in the back of her mind kept bothering her.
“Lune, what you did was incredibly reckless,” she said, grabbing Lune’s hand to remove some of the bite from her words.
All she got was a pointed look and a curt answer.
“It was a calculated risk.”
“A calculated risk? Bringing all its attention to you? You could have died!”
Lune turned her face from Sciel, her hair covering the side of her face. Sciel didn’t know if it was in shame or anger. Or something else.
“One dead instead of four. We need as many as—“
Sciel stood up arms crossed over her chest, shaking in silent anger.
“No, don’t pull that crap on me Lune. You are the only thing keeping this Expedition going, don’t you understand?” she pointed to the camp. “Everyone else? We gave up. Gustave gave up, I gave up and Maelle just…waited.”
Getting dressed, Lune watched as Sciel paced around her, frustrated. Frustrated at Lune for putting herself in danger but specially at herself and the Expedition.
She knew the only reason Lune had acted like that was because the rest of them were being reckless. Verso was immortal, so he barely cared about his well being most of the time. Maelle was grieving Gustave loss letting her anger and desperation take control of herself, clouding her mind in battle.
Monoco? Well. He was a gestral.
And Sciel…
She had joined the expedition because she couldn’t breath in Lumière anymore. To discover and travel through wonderful new places before her gommage knowing that at the end of her path death waited for her expectantly, that her family awaited for her.
She fought with abandon.
Hence, Lune had taken to stay behind, supporting their near suicidal tendencies in battle; healing them when they were low, stunning backstabbing enemies with a roar of lightning or deflecting attacks with her earth skills.
The only person that had a small chance of moving forward this Expedition had been willing to die for a bunch of reckless idiots and it pissed her to no end.
“Sciel?”
She turned around to find a fully dressed Lune with painted worry on her face, still looking pale and tired. Pushing her frustration back, she explained herself.
“Look, I know you’ve been watching over us, but if we truly want to beat the Paintress, we need the team at its best and its best its with you not having to babysit us.”
Lune looked like she wanted to say something but Sciel cut her short with a sharp hand movement.
“Don’t. I know we’ve been reckless and it needs to stop now. We need to learn to work like a team,” she said, her fingers traveling over Lune’s wounded side. “You’re not disposable, so stop acting as if you were. No more stupid shit from now on, got it?”
A tattooed hand held onto hers as Sciel kept speaking, lost in her thoughts, “There was so much blood and I — I can’t deal with more dead, I just can’t.”
A tight squeeze brought her back.
“…I’ll do my best.”
Sciel brought her free hand up, palming Lune’s forehead with the back of her hand and tucking dark hair behind her ear.
“At least you don’t have a fever, so no infection. You look pale still though, lets go back so you can rest more.”
“Mmm.”
Not letting Lune’s hand go, she guided her to the team’s camp. Monoco - now with his collection of feet in front of him - nodded at them as the wounded woman carefully settled in her bedroll, facing the warmth of the fire. Sciel stared at Lune’s back as she put the first kit satchel away before deciding to take her bedroll and lay facing up beside Lune.
A pause.
“Sciel…What are you doing?” Lune said, a tired sigh escaping her lips.
Monoco’s rhythmical scrubbing of his nevron’s leg suddenly stopped and the night held its breath.
“Making sure you don’t skip on your sleep, this way I’ll know if you get up!”
Another pause.
“How? You sleep like a log, waking you up it’s practically impossible.”
Marked by a barely hidden snort, the scrubbing noises resumed and the night finally exhaled again. Unabashedly, Sciel pulled at Lune’s blanket and covered her abdomen.
“Well, obviously Monoco will help.”
Hearing his name, the gestralt raised his head. “Wait what? Don’t get me involved in this!”
“It would be such a shame to find those brand new cleaned feet full of dirt…” Sciel hummed softly, “However, if I were to have help I could be convinced in making a balm that could make those feet shine like shooting stars.”
While gestralts didn’t have eyes, it was clear in Monoco’s mannerism that Sciel had fully caught his attention.
“Mmm, you bring a hard bargain. I guess I shall help you.” he said, smacking his fist against his chest for extra flavour. “Gotta make sure our mage and healer is safe afterall.”
Knowing that she was at disadvantage, Lune grunted as she softly pulled at the blanket.
“Fine. Just don’t hog the blanket.”
Smiling to herself, Sciel relished her win against one of the most stubborn people of Lumiere. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for her to hear Lune’s breathing deepen and realize the woman had fallen asleep.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had laid beside someone like this and while she had been honest in her intentions of making Lune rest, she couldn’t deny it felt good to have another body close to hers. Lune’s warmth was calling to her like a moth to a flame.
The morning light would find them with Sciel’s forehead on Lune’s back and a hand laying on her hip.