Chapter Text
"Holy fuck." Berkut sighed as he slumped on to the wall closest to his bed, phone falling limply out of his weakened hand. Damn he was tired but what kind of shit was Shade getting herself into? "Child what the hell is wrong with you??? Who did this to you???" He questioned softly, not wanting to wake his next door neighbors, if they weren't awake from the chat or the livestream that somehow got leaked. Everything was starting to fall in place now. Something.. no someone did this to his summoner... And the scars possibly ran deeper than he could possibly even delve into. Especially now that she's dranken the ascension potion, that thankfully Raquesis was pumping her stomach for...
"Honestly at this point I feel like if anything were to come out of my mouth, even Berkut would leave me."
"People???? Actually caring for me????"
"Everyone else has. It's why I get so clingy and overly in my head. I've coped this way for so long..."
"They knew but they worked back to back overtime so I kept things generalized so they would think everything is fine, but it wasn't. Everyone made fun of me for my interests, the teachers were seemingly bribed into not noticing... So I just curled up into my own little world with roms, fanfiction and Gen Z coping: Hating Myself, Crying Externally Internally and Eternally along with a side of Memes and a good sense of humor. All a part of a nutritional breakfast. "
"Or kill myself with this. Either or works."
"I'm on 168 hours of sleep deprivation and you can't stop me."
"The gods have abandoned me and I wish to throw these hands at them. Preferably to the death. Bitches."
"Hey look nobody! There's someone actually concerned for me!"
"GOOD. NOW I CAN FINALLY THROW THESE HANDS AT THEM."
"Crippling Depression."
"Pain. And crippling depression."
"And I'm fuckin trash ur point?"
"I am ready for death"
"An abomination? Nah that's me."
"Hello Darkness my old friend."
"I'm bad at everything. Mood."
"I just need to get in a fight to feel alive."
"Mental Stability my old friend!"
All of those so called 'jokes' all made sense. It was a desperate plea for help. The speech from her one year anniversary suddenly had more context. "When I was summoned here, I wasn't a hero. I was what my school called "a weaboo" or "nerdy girl who won't shut up about her stupid fandoms." I was average at school, horrible at sports, but a warrior at heart. Roms on my school laptop and fanfictions hidden in my notes. An Emblemier I was, and still am. At first, I thought it was a sick joke for laughs that the school wanted to do in order to blackmail me, but it wasn't. Summoning gun in hand, I became something more..."
She had been in Askr for over 2 years now and now they finally fucking noticed her pleas for help. Everyone thought she was joking...
"I am still really fucking bad at math..."
"Kirby Absorbed you and got a power! What did he get? Crippling Depression."
He would think as someone with serious mental issues, he'd pick up on this shit faster!? But he couldn't... And for the first time since he came to the order, Berkut did the one thing he was molded to not do.
He sobbed his eyes out, not caring if he woke anyone up. He just wanted to know who had less of a heart than him to do that to such a nice girl.
Word quickly traveled the Order whether by mouth or stream. Lon'qu wanted nothing to do with it. He failed to protect a girl he loved once, he wasn't going to let that happen again. So he did the one thing he knew best: Stab people. Or rather training dummies. Sweat furred his brow, the same look of murder in his eyes as he has in combat. He wasn't going to let anyone die on his watch again. That he could promise. This time, he would succeed in protecting her.
Raquesis basically barricaded herself into the infirmary once Camilla dragged the screaming, sobbing mess of the summoner. She had to use a sleep spell to get her to calm down for 5 seconds, but accidentally did it for too long so it was at least 12 hours later. Thankfully that gave her enough time to put away everything that she could use or would use to hurt herself. It was like baby-gating the castle she supposed. Now that left her with a lot of time to nap and ponder "what the fuck just happened." The blonde was no stranger to self harm. That's how she got away with the Earth Sword. She could heal her own self inflicted wounds, and allow herself to give more of them and the cycle repeated. Finn had snapped her out of it rather quickly within finding out but she'd know this girl for most of her time in Askr, so how did she not notice someone hurting so deeply on the inside.
After Shade was released, she was going to go ham on the wine cellar and do some "ascending" herself.
They promised no one would leave her... But why would Shade do that???
And that leads Tiki to go sobbing into Marth's lap just like old times, with Caeda gently coaxing her as well.
"I.. I.. couldn't do anything!" The dragon wailed. "I couldn't save her from herself! I'm afraid of being alone again!"
"How would she be alone if she has everyone in the order?" Caeda whispered.
"Shade summoned everyone here... It's likely that Tiki assumes if she dies, then everyone gets sent back..." Marth replied, still holding the dragon close. "Let's just hope that theory isn't correct..."
Reinhardt couldn't close his eyes once after that stream ended. He was just so worried for her... She gave him a purpose, she found him the love of his life. His brother in arms... And every time he closed his eyes, all he saw was her dead body, mutilated in some way, so all night he'd been just staring at the desk in his room, candle flickering out hours ago, but it was mid day now and he had opened the blinds. And when he had taken a quick look at himself, he looked emptier than the void Grima crawled out of. And that's exactly how he felt. Not being able to help the one who helped him.
The world really hated him didn't it?
Everything bugged him still, but that didn't make him turn down Boey's invitation to have lunch in the garden. Rinea was the only other one there usually, so "Team Beta" as they called themselves, often had lunch when the weather was nice and duties permitted. But this lunch seemed emptier. Lucius had to pick up a couple of chores Raquesis had from before, and they already knew Lukas wouldn't be coming. They knew their dad needed to comfort his boyfriend. What they weren't expecting was a small and crying child.
"Oh sorry guys." The kid sniffled. "I thought I'd be alone so I came here to cry it out without anyone getting concerned."
"Anthony we're always concerned for everyone. We know your worried for Shade. We all are." Seliph said as he sat next to the brunet. "Wanna join us for lunch?"
"No thank you. I'm not well enough to eat right now." He sniffled. "But I appreciate the sentiment."
Meanwhile, Hector was getting drunk with most of the parents aside from Arvis and Dierdre. 1. They didn't want another Julius incident and 2. Someone had to save the wine for the baddest bitch of them all.
That's all you need to know about the parents