cancry | [limbo] // do you walk in the valley of kings

[limbo] // do you walk in the valley of kings

[To cast out the Usurper and usher in dawn's light will cost the life of the Chosen. The voice that had shaken him down to the very core of his existence still echoed in Phoenix's head, words utter nonsense to him now and yet...something about them hurt more than he could measure. Hurt like the gravest news about a dearest friend, hurt like something tearing at his heart and soul. Though the details were lost in a haze of a previous life's memories, he understood the bottom line. One life, the one dearest to the man Phoenix once was, would have to be sacrificed to protect all else-]

[Don't try to justify this! She didn't need to die!]

[Hurt like the agonized rage in that snarl, thundering fury to match the torrential rain around them. The fury of someone who had lost everything, someone--someone whose name he should have known, whose loss he understood and yet couldn't remember the source of. That woman--no, his sister, something terrible had become of her and nearly become of someone just as close to Phoenix's own heart. Everything came in flashes; a man in white and a sword flashing with lightning, faces he failed to recognize and one he knew already. The man in black that had posed briefly as another was a danger above all others, and somehow in the chaos of memory Phoenix understood his past self had known that. 'Oh, what good is a world that only ever lets you down', said the mocking tone, a knife toyed with idly above the unconscious form of...of someone. Someone that meant everything, someone that Phoenix would gladly die to protect.]

[...Maybe he would, the relic of untold power in his hand before he had fully consider what he was doing. It didn't matter. it didn't matter at all what happened to him, because he had sworn-]

[Whatever it takes...I will protect him-!]

[In a memory of rain-soaked stone, the world erupted in flames and agony before going dark forever.]

[In a kitchen in Limbo, there was a clattering of whatever Phoenix had been holding falling to the floor before he very swiftly followed it.]

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Yes.

I don't care about that. There was no way I could know what it would or wouldn't amount to, and whether the end result was what I wanted it to be or not, I did what I believed was necessary in order to protect him.

[That was all that mattered. Not his sight, not his life, but the assurance that person would be safe.]

The person I was would have made the same choice a thousand times over.

And the person you are now? Surely--you surely must still want me dead.

If I wanted to kill you, why would I go to the trouble of calling you back here? I would just kill you instead of wasting our time.

[He laughs--a surprised bark of a thing first, and then it pours out of him, between fingers, as though trying to stuff it back in.]

Maybe you managed it--perhaps you still managed it, in the end. Of course you can't kill me, the job's already done.

Perhaps I did, or perhaps you killed me first. Right now, there's no way of knowing.

Right now, I don't want to hurt you.

Then what do you want?!

...I want to understand who I'm speaking to. Because as frustrating as I do occasionally find your insistence to help me, I find no malice or ulterior motives within it. I have no reason to believe you as anything but genuine, and that to me indicates one not so evil as to be utterly lost down to their soul.

I can not reconcile 'Chiron' with the man or monster I gave everything attempting to defeat. Whether we remember who we were or not is secondary to who we are now, and I want to learn who you should decide to be before this ends.

So the past doesn't matter? Why even speak of it at all if who we were does not matter as much as who we are stumbling around pretending to be now?

[He cannot reconcile the two either. But some things are very, very clear to him. The man he was...whatever death he earned, it was fully deserved. It had to be.]

Did I say that it doesn't matter? Of course it does. I want to know who I would have died for, and I want to know why any of that transpired in the first place.

But is that what you think all this has been? Pretending? You've been pretending to care about any of us--Rei, Mona, all of them?

...I don't know. I hope not.

...I don't think you have been. And I think that if it worries you, that alone is enough of a sign that you don't have to be what you were.

I hardly know what I was. You were...a stepping stone, in a fashion. I didn't want you dead. You lived, after all, when you could easily have been crushed.

...Phoenix. [He hasn't moved back any further, and yet he sounds more away.] Who was she?

...I think...she was the reason we left the city. Some sort of...betrothal, between her and the prince in black. The man with the prosthetic--her brother, he called her the Oracle.

[Only once the darkness is dispelled is her calling truly fulfilled.]

Lady Lunafreya. The metal-armed man's sister. Oracle...? That...can't be, and yet...

[When the prophecy is fulfilled, all in thrall to darkness shall know peace.]

[Lunafreya, and just like that a name clicked into memory like a puzzle piece finding its space.]

...What is it, Chiron? What's wrong?

A relative. Sister? I don't remember a sister, but surely this Oracle is related to the one I remember. Family resemblance. Healing, Lunafreya could heal not unlike myself--she tried on me, even while dying, what was she doing, what did she...think to heal, and--for what reason could I...

..Chiron.

[Phoenix slowly stepped a little closer, hand reaching out to seek his fellow Executor's arm.]

Breathe. Calm yourself and tell me from the beginning what's bothering you.

[Not the same face, but similar. The white dress stained, her gentle nature--surely just a sister, a cousin, or else how out of time is he? And yet, how could there be more than one Oracle, and the sensation, and the powerful and dark emotions twisting inside him at the healing touch--

Phoenix touches him, a hand on his arm, and he reacts as though living it. Pulls away sharply and swings his hand through the air.]

-?!

[He should have known better than to approach when Chiron was stuck in his own memories, but the realization came a little bit too late. Lucky enough that a wild and sudden attack was easily telegraphed, Phoenix hearing it coming and ducking under the strike before it landed.]

Easy-- I already told you I don't want to fight. [He'd drawn his own hands back, held defensively as if anticipating needing to block another strike.]

[He's flooded with shame and guilt at the action--and so much anger. He pulls his hand back, close to his chest, as though burnt.] You don't know anything about me! [A desperate growl.] And neither do I!

...No, I don't. I know as much of who you were as I do of myself.

[Phoenix didn't flinch at the outburst, lowering his hands.]

But I know that you've insisted upon helping me and the others at every turn. I know a truly terrible person wouldn't agonize over whether or not he were terrible.

We know nothing of each other or ourselves. But I would like to find out, and that's better done knowing we aren't alone in it.

I used the very same blade. When I threatened your poorly prince, that blade was damp with his betrothed's blood.

[Somehow, that didn't shock him. It even made sense, at least it would have to the person Phoenix had been in that memory.]

And do you want me to hate you for that? Do you expect me to hold 'Chiron' accountable for things done in another life?

Is that not why we are here? To face our sins--to be held accountable for the things we have done? I killed Aera as easy as though she were a mere inconvenience, and you were so incensed about your prince that you gave all for naught.

[He doesn't seem to have noticed the wrong name he used.]

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