Chapter Text
“VAX GET YOUR ASS UP HERE!”
Scanlan’s voice sounds strange, distressed. Vax rolls his eyes, what could’ve gone wrong in the last 30 seconds?
“Leave you guys for less than a minute,” He mutters under his breath as he climbs up the rope with the help of Grog. He reaches the lip of the opening and Grog pulls him up. “I was gone for 30 seconds, what the hell happened?”
And that is his last moment of having light in this world.
At first he doesn’t understand what he’s seeing. The whole group on their knees surrounding someone. He can’t clearly see who it is, but then Percy shifts and the breath gets stolen from his lungs. His heart drops in his chest so far that he’s sure it’s left his body.
A blue feather in her hair. As she’s laying there on the ground. Motionless. Vex’ahalia. His sister his twin.
If he could breathe he would scream.
He runs, or stumbles, he’s not sure, to her side and he doesn’t know how it’s possible but his heart drops more.
Her eyes. Her eyes.
They’re blank.
Gone.
His breath returns in a wail as he picks her up and she feels so right in his arms, how many times before had they embraced each other, but she feels so wrong. Limp and heavy. Warm but getting cooler by the second.
He knows she’s gone. He tries to beg her to come back but there’s no air left in the world. His lungs jerk painfully with wracking sobs, tears streaming down his face and all he can get out is a stuttered, “Sister…”
“Pike, heal her!” A disembodied voice from somewhere above him begs.
Someone kneels beside them but Vax can’t bring himself to look up from his sister’s beautiful face, his own tears streaming down it in a torrent.
There’s a slight, warm glow and for a second he can almost bring himself to hope.
Then, the person sighs sadly, “There’s nothing to heal.”
At those words he feels the last flicker of hope in his chest curl up and die. His chest is caving in on itself, over and over again.
“SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!” He feels the words vibrate in his throat, but he doesn’t recognize his voice.
There’s frenzied, desperate chaos above him as people shoutout ideas, each one as improbable as the last.
Vax doesn’t pay attention to them. All he can see is his sister. He strokes her face, gently brushing off his tears. He runs his fingers along the braid that he did earlier today before they left.
Before they left.
Everything had been fine.
And now….now nothing was fine. Would never be fine again.
……
……….
..
…..
The rest of the world is lost in static. All that matters is his sister.
Him and his sister.
Together since their very first moment, before they knew anyone else they knew each other. Heard the other’s heart beat. Felt the other’s presence.
But now…what now?? How is Vax still breathing without her? He’s never had to do that before. His heart is still beating while her’s is painfully still. That’s never happened before either.
His heart clenches and for a second a glimmer of hope flickers that his heart going to stop too so that he doesn’t have to do this without her.
But it doesn’t.
So instead he wails.
************
Keyleth isn’t paying attention when Percy touches the armour.
She hears the whoosh and then a horrible thump. A sense of dread overwhelms her and she doesn’t want to turn around.
When she does she wishes that she could turn around and leave.
“Oh gods,” She breathes out, horrified.
She rushes to Vex’s side as Scalan and Grog work to get Vax.
Vax. How will he survive this?
She almost wants him to leave and never come back, to live in ignorant bliss of what just happened.
But it’s too late, Grog has pulled him up and over the clamouring of the team she hears him give a choked gasp.
He stumbles over, his face drained of all colour, his eyes wide in fear.
He shoves her out of the way, and Keyleth lets him.
There’s a moment where the entire team is silent as they watch Vax kneel by his twin’s side. They watch as his chest heaves in a massive breath as if he hasn’t breathed for years, and then he lets out a horrible wail.
Keyleth has heard mourning. She’s no stranger to death. She has seen parents cradle their child’s body, she’s watched people die horrific deaths.
This is worse than all of them.
Vax holds his twin gently, lovingly, as his body jerks with sobs. “Sister…”
His voice snaps Keyleth out of her trance.
“Pike!” Keyleth cries, “Heal her!”
Pike kneels beside the twins, hands glow briefly, but then they drop and she says sadly, “There’s nothing to heal.”
“SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!” Vax’s voice is ravaged with grief, unfamiliar and desperate.
That wakes everyone up.
“Surely there’s a potion we could try!?”
“What if we found another healer?? Two healers is better than one right??”
“It doesn’t work like that Grog!!”
Desperate ideas fly around, but everyone knows the answer.
There’s no saving Vex.
She’s gone.
Keyleth sobs.
One by one the others suggestions and voices peter out as one by one they come to the realization that Vex is gone. And there’s nothing they can do to bring her back.
The air in the tomb feels thick and choking. Echoes of everyones sobs bounce off of the stone walls, amplifying them, electrifying them.
Keyleth feels every single tear, every single hitched breath and every single cry to the heavens in the depths of her soul. They’re ripping into her, drawing blood and laying her bare.
She can’t focus. Thoughts repeat in her head as the world feels strange around her, her vision made blurry by tears.
Vex. Vex’ahlia. Like my sister. She’s gone.
The word sister electrifies Keyleth and she comes to herself in a jolt.
Around her, the great and mighty Vox Machina is in various states of despair.
Percy is on his hands and knees, retching but bringing up nothing but bile.
Grog is pounding at the stone walls with his bare fists, alternating between screaming in rage and sobbing.
Scanlan is sitting with his back to the sarcophagus that caused all of this, his eyes red and haunted.
Pike is sitting by Vax, her head in her hands and her back hitching in sync with her sobs. Trinket is curled up beside her, mournfully whimpering.
And Vax. Vax.
Vax is sitting in the same position, cradling his sister gently in his arms. His eyes are fixed at something in the distance, something that no one else can see. He doesn’t move, barely breathes.
We need to go.
“We need to go.” Keyleth’s voice is thick with tears, barely able to choke out the sentence.
She clears her throat and tries again, more forcefully this time, “We need to go!”
She gets to her feet, not knowing when she had sunk down to her knees, and stumbles over to Percy who has stopped retching and is now taking in heaving, stuttering breaths.
“Percy!” Keyleth’s hand on his back makes him flinch, “Percy, we need to go.”
She watches as he comes back to himself, realizes the situation that they’re in, and tries (and fails) to pull himself together.
“R-r-right.” He stutters, then looks into her eyes. She fights the urge to look away, the pain in his eyes matching what she feels in her chest.
“I…I’ll get the others.” He says, then looks away, “Could you get the…the twins?”
Keyleth’s lungs heave with the effort of holding in a sob. “Okay.”
Percy stumbles to his feet, not caring to avoid the puddles of sick on the floor around him.
He makes his way to Scanlan first as Keyleth steels herself.
I can’t do this I can’t do this I can’t do this.
But I have to.
She drags her feet over to where Vax is sitting. She rouses Pike first, placing a hand on her back.
“Can you…help me with him?” Keyleth asks pleadingly.
Pike wipes the tears from her cheeks and nods.
Then comes the part that Keyleth never wanted to do.
“Vax?” She calls softly, “Vax, can you look at me?”
He doesn’t respond, doesn’t even blink.
She brings a hand up to his cheek, feeling the crust of the dried tears.
He doesn’t flinch or turn into the touch. He keeps staring past her as if she’s not there at all.
A sob builds in her chest and she can’t bear to look at his face.
Someone touches her shoulder, “Let me try.” Pike says.
“Vax buddy,” Pike says lightly, “We need to get going, alright? It’s not safe here, okay?”
Vax gives no sign that he hears her.
Keyleth looks up and sees that everyone has gathered around, all with haunted and pained expressions.
Percy can barely even look in the twin’s direction.
“We need to go.” He states through gritted teeth, swallowing down emotion.
“Vax,” Pike tries again, “Vax we need to go.”
No response. It’s as if none of them exist.
“I think we need to take her from him.” Scanlan says, drawing immediate protests from Grog and Keyleth.
“We can’t do that!” Grog almost yells.
“Well we can’t stay here! And he….he’s obviously not okay. He can’t carry her,” Scanlan’s breath hitches, “So we have to take her from him. You can carry her.”
Silence falls upon the tomb. A heavy, weighted silence that makes Keyleth’s chest ache all the more.
“Okay.” Grog resigns sadly and kneels down in front of their rogue. “I’m gonna carry her, okay Vax? I’m gonna take good care of her.” He sniffles.
The moment Vex is taken out of Vax’s arm, the rouge lets out a wail that makes Keyleth want to curl up and sob for all of eternity. Her heart feels like it’s shattered into thousands of pieces that have pierced into her chest.
Vax doesn’t fight Grog as he pulls his sister from his arms. While the echoes of his cry bounce off the walls until they peter out, he keeps staring past them all.
Grog stands, cradling their Vex in his arms. “Someone needs to help Vax.” He says thickly through tears.
Scanlan and Pike can’t help Vax much, they’re half his height. And Percy won’t even look in Vax’s direction.
Which leaves Keyleth.
“I’ll do it.” She swallows past her despair and kneels in front of the catatonic Vax. “We need to leave, okay? I’m going to help you up.”
She pulls him up with the help of Pike and Vax is on his feet before he starts to sway.
“Woah,” She swings his arm over her shoulders, “I’ve got you, I’ve got you.” Her throat feels constricted, like she’s forcing the words out through a blockage.
And so, the broken and defeated Vox Machina begin to make their way out of the tomb of death and despair. Forever and impactfully changed, never to be the same again.