Actions

Work Header

Those Left Behind

Summary:

Someone important kept you in the dark, and now they're gone.

A story in fifty sentences.

Notes:

If you're not familiar with it, 1sentence is a livejournal community where you'd pick a pairing (platonic or romantic), pick a table with fifty prompts, and write a sentence about that pairing for each prompt. This fic in particular used the Gamma table. I wrote this back in...2014, I think? The original post is gone and I only have the actual story itself, so it could have been written a year earlier or a year later.

If I tried to write this story in this format now, I would probably make some different choices (there would be more sentences from Mia's POV, for example, and less copy-pasting actualfax about Rome onto what's happening here), but there are enough moments that work for me that I thought I might as well post it to my current account here. So yeah.

(Please note: I fixed a mistake in one of the sentences and changed the beginning of another one, but the rest of it is the same as the fic I posted back in 2013/2014/2015. This takes place during and slightly after the first two games.)

Work Text:

#01 – Ring

From her possessions she gave him a ring with a blue stone and told him that, if she were ever unavailable, he could use this to heal himself until she was able to get to him.

 

#02 – Hero

To his shock, the warrior that had saved Babi's life seemed no more than a boy, standing awkwardly in the coliseum doorway and adjusting his scarf.

 

#03 – Memory

Back when things were simple and the lighthouse was still dark, she and Alex played in the snow every winter and in the cave behind the waterfall every summer.

                                                                                                                                                  

#04 – Box

When Iodem finally returned from Lalivero, he was relieved to see Babi still alive; however, his Lord could not get out of bed to inspect his own recently finished coffin and Iodem had to go in his stead.

 

#05 – Run

In the midst of the howling winds, there came another sound– a deep, deafening roar; they turned and saw a tornado towering over them, larger than any they had seen before.

 

#06 - Hurricane

Within the first hour of travelling together, he saw their power: against a group of trolls Ivan and Mia unleashed a storm of wind and water.

 

#07 – Wings

The Storm Lizard flared his frills and began to flap them, sending razor sharp gusts that barely missed Iodem’s face and grazed her own, drawing blood.

 

#08 – Cold

He was well-spoken, just like Alex, but his words did not chill her blood.

 

#09 – Red

The city was covered in red: red carpets on the floor, red tablecloths on the shop counters, and red tapestries on the walls, embroidered with gold thread.

 

#10 – Drink

Their lack of success in the desert weighed heavily on their minds, but they allowed themselves to take a moment and drink freely from a stream, without worrying about how to make their water last or where to find Sheba.

 

#11 – Midnight

He told her to go to bed; he couldn't sleep, so he decided that he would start his part of the night watch early and let her get some rest.

 

#12 – Temptation

It was clear now that Babi had given them those special seats during Colosso so that they might rig the game with their Psynergy; Isaac may have been the one on display, but they were all being watched.

 

#13 – View

Despite having been a part of the project since its beginnings, Iodem felt that he was only now truly seeing Babi Lighthouse for the first time.

 

#14 – Music

During Colosso, the noise of the festival - the chatter of the tourists, the music of the minstrels, the shouts of the shopkeepers hawking their wares - had been so loud that they could barely hear each other; now, on their first day in Tolbi after the festival's end, the four found the streets almost too quiet.

 

#15 – Silk

She had received a beautiful gown, left to her by either Babi or Iodem, that she supposed she was meant to wear to the post-Colosso celebrations; she left it on her bed and went to watch over Isaac instead.

 

#16 – Cover

It should have been clear to them already but Iodem told them that nothing was to be said to anyone regarding Babi's condition, and thus the purpose of the lighthouse.

 

#17 – Promise

Neither of them made their promises lightly, which was why the real possibility of failure was all the more disheartening.

 

#18 – Dream

The soldier slept while she tended his wounds and from his mumblings Mia could make out something about claws and teeth.

 

#19 – Candle

When she heard his words and saw the look in his eyes as he gazed upon Mercury’s beacon, Mia knew her hopes of seeing the old Alex again were snuffed out.

 

#20 – Talent

Both Babi and Iodem hoped that they could convince the Adepts to stay after they finished their quest; it would be a shame to see such talent slip through their fingers.

 

#21 – Silence

He talked a lot - mostly to Isaac, sometimes to her, and almost never to Ivan or Garet if he could help it - but after the soldier passed away before their eyes, Iodem was silent.

 

#22 - Journey

In their quest to protect the world, they found time and time again that there were places that they could not pass on their own.

 

#23 – Fire

Her serene demeanor might cause some to underestimate her passion about what was right and good, but he came to see there was no mistaking the spark inside her.

 

#24 – Strength

So many of his and Lalivero’s men had fallen at Venus Lighthouse and the ones that returned all said that they had been defeated by a man with long blue hair.

 

#25 – Mask

The moment the name "Alex" was said, Iodem noticed a change in Mia: her lips tightened, her brow furrowed, and the look in her eyes didn't suit her; it was the gaze of a completely different person than the girl he knew.

 

#26 – Ice

In an instant, a barrage of icicles tore into the beast towering above him with enough force to send it crashing to the ground on its back; it had been killed instantly, but Iodem was still shaking and didn't stop even when Mia approached him and asked "are you all right?" in her most concerned healer's voice.

 

#27 – Fall

For a brief moment it looked like young Isaac was going to come out of winning Colosso unscathed, but he suddenly began to sway...

 

#28 – Forgotten

He wasn't angry that Babi hadn't been saved as much as crushingly disappointed that their attempts to save him had proved fruitless, but he was angry that he had heard no word from Isaac and the others in months.

 

#29 – Dance

In their last years together, Mia could never tell what Alex was thinking anymore, and he would never tell her exactly what he wanted out of life.

 

#30 – Body

"You must remember," Iodem said to Garet as Mia held the wet cloth to his forehead, "that I am not as young as the rest of you."

 

#31 – Sacred

“I never used to see monsters in the Mercury Lighthouse either," she told him as she kneeled down to heal a wound Isaac had gotten from a Nightmare, "and I kept vigil there my entire life.”

 

#32 – Farewells

The message was clear - they must find Lemuria, regardless of their feelings - but there was no intimidation in their goodbye, just a reminder of the promise they had made to Babi, and Mia couldn't find herself objecting to that on principle.

 

#33 – World

He had gathered that this was the first time that most of them had been away from home; she, for example, had almost never left her snowy little village until her journey.

 

#34 - Formal

He was still squeezing Babi’s hand tight, but he managed to keep his voice steady and his tone professional when asked “what should we do now, my Lord?”

 

#35 – Fever

One of Garet’s djinn had actually been found in her hometown, buried in a pile of snow in the old cave beneath the waterfall.

 

#36 – Laugh

The furthest north that he had ever been, he told her by the campfire, was Bilibin, and the lord there had made a public presentation of a statue of his wife, which she had rejected because of a minute detail; Mia said that the boys had seen two statues while searching Bilibin.

 

#37 - Lies

It was only on the cold winter nights after Babi had died, when the wind howled outside and shook the shutters, that he allowed himself to fully wonder how much he didn’t know about the man.

 

#38 – Forever

He always knew, of course, that when he became Chief Minister there was a chance of him succeeding Babi as Tolbi's ruler, but, now knowing it was possible, he would do anything to help Babi rule forever.

 

#39 – Overwhelmed

If he really did know nothing about Babi’s secret, Mia thought, then he must be reeling harder from the revelation than they were.

 

#40 – Whisper

Mia thought she saw a whisper of Alex’s cloak from above, but she couldn’t waste time on what she thought she saw when she knew Garet needed help now.

 

#41 – Wait

With each day he rose there was the possibility that word would arrive from them regarding Lemuria, and with each night he retired, perhaps to be roused in the middle of the night with the news that they had returned.

 

#42 - Talk

Within minutes, all of Mia’s conceptions about the lighthouses and her duties had been turned on their head, just from listening to Felix and his friends.

 

#43 – Search

Every town seemed to be the same: no indication of how to get to Lemuria, no advice to cross into the Great Western Sea, and no recent sign of Jenna (they always seemed to be just a few days too late).

 

#44 – Hope

Isaac and his friends were a godsend; they were the best chance they had to save Babi.

 

#45 – Eclipse

In the end, the Lighthouses had to take priority over Babi's life.

 

#46 – Gravity

After the flash, when he was finally able to see again, he saw was the shape of someone with a small frame falling from the lighthouse and his heart felt like lead; he lowered the telescope but still continued to stare straight ahead, not daring to look at Faran beside him.

 

#47 – Highway

The roads they followed through Northern Gondowan were excellently maintained; Iodem said that was the work of the Tolbian army.

 

#48 – Unknown

Babi had ruled for nearly a century - no one alive knew a Tolbi without him.

 

#49 – Lock

The Wise One had told them everything: Alex had gone too far and Mia vowed that she would never open her heart to him again, nor to his memory.

 

#50 - Breathe

Mia took a steadying breath as the door opened and the guard told the party “Lord Iodem is waiting for you.”