Chapter Text
The warrior of light was many things. The hero who conquered despair, the saviour of ishgard, the liberator, the imperialists bane. None of those had ever mattered to her. Wife, mother, friend, sister, soulmate. Those are the titles she carried in her heart, the ideologies she lived her life by and what got her through the hardest days.
Scáthán had hated her at first, hated her stubbornness and lack of self care. Hated that she let others treat her like dirt or command her like a dog. Eventually the hate ebbed, replacing itself with care, friendship, even love after enough time. They became two halves of a whole soul, unable to comfortably exist without the other. It would have been possible, but unbearable for the other.
“Why are we here again?”
Latrya was not an uncommon sight in Ul’dah, often stopping in to pick up materials from the goldsmith guild for whatever carpentry project she was working on, gold for inlaying into the wood or silver to decorate the figurine.
“You were the one whining about needing more metal. Don’t complain love”.
There was no verbal response but she could feel Scáthán’s soft smile from within. The lights from the street lights and store dim in the early morning darkness compared to how her invisible smile looked.
“Fine, are we getting anything else while we’re here?”
“I’m not really sure, Yugiri and Yotsuyu didn't mention needing anything. We could stop by Drusilla and say hello”.
“Sure, I could go for a quick sparring match” .
Rolling her eyes they continued their path towards the miners guild, unaware of the shadow lurking in the sky above them, mouth drooling at the feast below it. The closer they came to the guild the smaller the crowds became, people unwilling to listen to the constant clamour of pickaxes and sledge hammer colliding with one another, the constant yelling of the guild and its drunken idiots not helping. To Scáthán it was a second home, a place where she fit in and Latrya receded. Where normally they would trade places today there was no need. It was early enough that their order would be ready but the noise would be at a minimum. All the veteran miners out and collecting their quota for the day while the greenhorns slept.
“Ah Latrya! What brings you here?”
“Took her 10 seconds to see you that time, she's getting slow”.
“Hello Ada, we’re just here to pick up our order”.
“Oh is Scáth with you?”
The non-existent tail started wagging at the mention of her nickname.
“She is, she didn't want to be in her simulacrum today, we were split for nearly a week so we’re still needing contact.” There was the pout, tail still going.
“I see, well at least you two are back together now. Your delivery is right by the door, shouldn't be too heavy for you. Oh I made sure to add in a few extra shinies for your little one, should be some gold in there you can use too”.
“Thank you Ada, we’ll make the most of it.” A smile and not even a grunt and all the boxes were in her arms and leaving the room.
“What kind of gems do you think she got Lidella?” for as disinterested as she acted about anything else, Scáthán was always interested in matters regarding their daughter.
“Probably just some Topaz or ru-” a hand reached out from the shadows, shoving its massive fingers inside her mouth.
Panic seized the both of them, a second too long as the hand slid down her throat and inside her soul. Before either could react the rest of the body extracted itself from the shadows, horns scraping the ceiling and wings blocking them from view of the rest of the hallway.
“Thank you for the body, but the other one has to go….”
There was a scream as her jaw extended past its breaking point, somehow being held together as it accommodated the size of the voidsent in front of them.
“Latr-” the world went black for a moment and she opened her eyes. She was back in their room, in their bed. Her simulacrum, she was back inside it like she had just woken up from a dream.
“What the fuck was that…”
No answer came, the silence swallowed the words greedily and gave nothing in return.
“Whatever, I should go find her and then we can go home”.
Before she could even open the door she fell over in pain, a dagger made of pure boiling magma being driven into her core from the inside. Instinctively she coated herself in her armour as she fell, driven to one knee as the pain spread throughout her body. Any doubts about still dreaming were banished to the opposite side of the planet, this was real, reality was nothing but pain.
Just as quickly as it had come it left, it couldn’t have lasted more than a minute but she felt like she had aged a year within that timespan.
“What the fuck… Latrya!” panic filled her, welling up like waves at high tide.
Closing her eyes she searched for the bond between them. A thread that connected them across continents and allowed them to feel one another no matter what, a necessary reassurance when you share a soul. When she found the thread her heart dropped to her feet. It was there but it was frayed, she could tell where she was but nothing else. Tears came rushing to the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall and bring with it the wail of sorrow stuck in her throat. Before either could escape there was a scream from outside, something was causing a panic and she had a feeling she knew what it was. Attaching her claymore to her back and grabbing their belongings quickly, she ran to Momodi.
“Get these to Torrin at the stables, and tell him to go home, I have to go”. Dropping off their bags with a sack of gil.
Not letting the lalafell get a word out, she sprinted out of the inn and towards the commotion.
The middle of The Sapphire Avenue was deserted for all but one person. A Viera with black and white ears, standing above the rest of the crowd that stood between them and screaming in pain.
Her voice refused to work, she shoved people out of her way, desperate to get to her other half before things got worse. Just as she stepped through the grand gateway the screaming stopped, replaced by cold laughter. The noise grew, sounding from all around them and digging into her brain like needles through skin.
“A good attempt, little speck… But too little too late…” The voice coming from Latrya’s body was masculine, cold, wrong.
She drew her sword, but before she could take a step, wings sprouted from her partner's body and she took off into the sky, laughter still echoing behind it.
“No, no, no, no, fuck! Get out of my fucking way!” The people in front of her scattered like mice seeing a cat.
Scáthán sprinted down the rest of the avenue. Leg muscles straining and she flew down the hall towards the exit closest to where the body had been headed. Not even stopping she grabbed a chocobo from the porter at the door. Dropping another sack of gil on the ground and forcing the horse-bird to run at full speed.
She watched as the speck that was her partner flew lazily through the sky towards the desert of southern thanalan, following as fast as she could on her mount. She could tell they had gotten close when the heat got more intense. All of thanalan was a hellscape for anyone wearing armour, but even more so with how intense the heat berated the southern part of the territory. Thankfully her possession of the simulacrum allowed her to ignore or not be affected by certain sensations if she didn't want it.
Up above the speck stopped and rotated in a circle, before retracting its wings and dropping to the ground. Crashing into the sepulchure, the rocks, and finally coming to rest on the ground.
“Latrya!” she abandoned the exhausted bird, running would get her there faster.
As she approached the body stood up, where once it had been clad in leather and cloth, rings adoring the fingers and mementos from other loves in her hair and ears, now it was clad in a grey robe, jet black horns protruding from its head and spikes from its shoulders. Its hands were no longer the brown and calloused skin it once had, covered instead by dark scales and hide with claws protruding from its fingertips. All across its body were gashes and cuts from the fall, one arm folded completely backwards and broken. That fall had been a final effort from her love. One last attempt to avert another crisis, save others the heartbreak of trying and failing to kill her. One last attempt to save the soul they shared.
“Well. Not quite what I had been hoping for… But it will do for now…” The creature possessing her body spoke slow, almost haltingly as it got used to its new home. Proper pronunciation of every syllable and word. It was maddening .
“Give her back, now”
“Oh, it's you little speck… I’m quite surprised you kept up… But you see, if I leave the body now, she dies… It took too much of a beating in the fall, terrible really.”
“I don’t care, I won’t let something like you have her”.
“Ah, well in that case I must say you’re too late. She's gone and there isn't quite another body like this on my world or yours…. So I must, respectfully, decline”.
Her teeth ground together hard enough to snap bone in a second. How Dare it treat their body like nothing more than a prize. They deserved peace, happiness, for once , and it had been snatched from them again.
“I told you we should have left… ran away and given everything up, we could have been together forever and we would finally be fucking happy”.
“What was that speck? You're going to have to speak up if you intend to threaten me”.
“I wasn’t talking to you freak”.
“I see… Well, shall we get this over with?” The body started forward, fingers on its good hand flexing and dripping with what was obviously poison.
Scáthán said nothing but followed suit, drawing her claymore and watching as the elemental infusion ignited. They had fought before, everytime but one it had ended in a draw. This time would be different. This fight was to the death, it would be over in the first move, the first mistake leading to instant death. Though, if the outcome led to one death, they would both die anyways.
“Don’t worry my dear, I've dug two graves for us”. A final promise, love letter. A suicide note forged in love and sealed with a wish.
“How poetic”.
The clash ended as soon as it had started. She opened her chakra, flying towards the moving body faster than could be seen, sword arcing to the right from behind, crashing into the empty space. Followed just as quickly by flipping over the handle and connecting her leg to its shoulder, breaking the spikes with her armour.
Ripping the sword out of the ground she flipped through the air, releasing the handle as soon as she touched the ground and thrusting her fists into its chest before catching the sword and chasing the momentum.
The body looked around panic and its desperation to leave clear on its face. It wouldn’t, not this time, not ever again. Cleaving through aether that made up reality, shadow burbled to the surface and drove the body back and off balance. Not letting up she flashed forward again and thrust her claymore forward. No shadow spilt from the wound, only bright red blood against her sword.
A cough from up above and more blood splatter. This time landing on her hand.
“Well.. unexpected… but might as well… make the most of it.” the voidsent was struggling to keep its grip.
There was a sharp pain in her core for the second time that day. This time it was more tangible, physical pain followed by nothing but the creeping cold of despair. She looked down to see the bodies hand through her chest, liquid and aether spilling from the wound around the arm.
Looking up she saw Latrya staring at her, tears streaming from her different colored eyes and blood still dripping from her lips. Using the last of her strength Latrya surged forward, connecting their lips in a desperate kiss for just a moment.
“I’m.. s-sorry… I tr-ried… Than-thank you…Ple-please do-dont hate me….” another cough and more blood. They fell to the ground together.
“Like I ever could…”
Lying on the ground she wished she would die faster. She was already dead inside. She had killed her other half, her heart had been ripped out in more than one way today. There was no more warmth in her body, just cold numbness.
“Lidella, Yugiri, Yotsuyu. We loved you more than you knew. I’m sorry I couldn't bring us home” .
The colour of the world left, everything seemed dull and lifeless except for her armour, now covered in their mixing blood.
“Ironic, I've always been in love with the colour red. Now it’s the thing I never wanted to see”.
With the final thought, the simulacrums built in aether conductors and her own aether exhausted. The world went black.