Chapter Text
Your search for your brother is almost frantic. You are happy no one you know is around to see your facial expression taken over by panic and uncertainty. What if you don’t find him on time? What if, when you arrive, he’s already dead? Yet again.
Trying to brush off those thoughts you jump from portal to portal, going to all the lands as fast as you can. You have to find him or else you’ll never forgive yourself. You can’t fail twice. Not to mention there’s this terrible feeling at the bottom of your stomach and you just can’t seem to make it go away. You hope that goes away when you finally find him.
When you reach the LOWAS, you fly around at max speed, your eyes scanning every nook and cranny, desperation getting the best of you. Just where the fuck is he anyway?
Then, the sound of metal hitting metal reaches your ears. That’s an all too familiar sound to you. The sound of swords hitting against each other is something that you’ll never really forget. And when you get closer to the source of the noise, you see Bro fighting Noir on some plateau, amidst flames.
You descend in a rush, pulling out your own sword, decided to help your brother kick that guy’s ass once and for all. He has caused enough trouble and you are pretty sure that if the both of you attack him at the same time, he won’t stand a chance. You trained almost non-stop for four months. It’s only fair that your fighting skills are enough to compliment your brother’s and that you can make Noir eat dust.
At least that’s what you are hoping for.
When you finally get into their line of sight, Noir is far from pleased about seeing you there. You glance at your brother quickly and he looks back at you, almost glaring, giving you a ‘what the hell are you doing here?’ kind of look. You completely disregard that and just get ready to fight. You are going to help him, like it or not.
The both of you start to attack Noir from all sides, scratching him here, bruising him there, but never really making any significant damage. Why did Bro even consider it being a good idea going against this guy all by himself, when the two of you going at him isn’t being all that effective? Sometimes, your brother’s way of thinking simply baffles you.
Long, tiring minutes pass as you fight, you slashing around with your sword and your brother doing the same, with the additional ‘help’ from Cal. After turning that doll into a sprite in your timeline, you grew a little bit resentful towards it, but in the end, you can’t really stay mad it. It is only a doll, right? And besides, just what were you expecting by prototyping a marionette into a sprite? You should have known that wasn’t the smartest choice.
After a while though, it seems like the both of you are finally tiring him, as he doesn’t seem to deflect your attacks as easily and his defenses start to lower. There’s this small hint of contentedness deep in your heart as you start realizing that your hits are actually causing damage, and that you and your Bro got this. You fucking got this and you are going to win. You are going to send this guy to hell and everything will be fine.
Only thing is, none of you were counting on something going terribly wrong.
One minute, you are fighting an above average guy, strength and speed wise, but nothing really impossible. The next minute though, he begins transforming and flashing bright green, the flames around you changing from red to almost lime green. You are quite sure this shouldn’t be happening, and that whatever is going on is bound to fuck up both you and your brother.
When Noir is done shape-shifting, you are pretty sure that you recognize that dog face he now has. But you don’t really have time to worry about that. You are far more concerned about the fact that all of his wounds were healed and just by looking at the guy you can tell he’s overflowing with power. This is so not good.
He suddenly lounges at you, or more exactly, he teleports right next to you. You can’t really do anything but stare in wide eyed surprise as he raises his sword, neither you nor your Bro being fast enough to do anything as he cuts of one your wings.
You let out a shriek and your floating is completely disrupted by the pain, causing you to fall back on the hard ground as clear-orange blood starts flowing from your injury. Clutching at the wound you watch as your brother jumps at Noir, anger quite visible on the way he advances forward, swinging his sword almost a little bit too strongly. It’s quite different from the always fluid and calculated movements he always seems to execute.
Doing your very best to disregard the pain that’s rippling all over your body, you get up and try to fly as fast as you can to try and land a hit on Noir, but he deflects it as if it’s nothing.
Taking turns trying to almost desperately hurt him – and yes, you are desperate, even though you know neither you nor your brother would ever admit that you are, in fact, starting to panic – turns out to be a failed plan, as he seems to read each and every one of your attacks, finding openings on your defenses far too often and slashing you both with his sword, but nothing as bad as what he did to your wing.
That is, until he starts to tire the both of you.
Your stamina can only go so far, and you’ve been running, fighting and blocking attacks for almost an hour now, and that whole ordeal is far more intense than any kind of strife you were ever involved in, even the ones between the both of you, where you usually go all out and beat the crap out of each other for the longest time. Well, where Bro beats the crap out of you, but that’s another story altogether.
He’s getting the both of you tired and that’s a fact that can’t be changed. And without one of your wings your movements are far from being perfect, and there’s a nagging voice in the back of your head that won’t shut up about you being useless and that you are there just to get in the way. And those thoughts make you lose your concentration considerably.
Your brief lack of focus gets your guard down for a second, but that’s more than enough for Noir to inflict a serious cut across your stomach. Letting out another shriek, you double over and stare at the ground, blood gushing from the fresh wound.
From a short distance you hear Bro call your name and you look up to see him plunging down at Noir with his sword, barely bruising, but getting him away from you.
“Get the fuck out of here!”
He shouts at you as he keeps fending off Noir and for a second you just stare, not sure what to do. You straighten up your posture, despite the pain, and you shout ‘no’ back at him, clutching to your sword firmly with both hands, trying to ignore the pain even if that really isn’t working.
“Just fuck off!”
“NO!”
You scream as you leap forward, your attacks towards Noir irregular and out of pace, until he deflects one of them in such a way that it sends you rolling on the ground, so strongly that your shades fall from your face and lands a few meters from you.
Gasping for air you try to get up again, turning your head to see just what’s happening between Bro and your foe. And you are pretty sure you decided to look at the most unfortunate time ever.
Everything seems to go in slow motion as you watch Bro fall back to the ground just as easily as you, his sword falling from his hand, and before you know it, Noir picks it up and sinks it into your brother’s chest, until it comes out through his back and digs through the hard ground, with blood flowing everywhere. The choked back scream that comes from Bro twists your heart in such a way that you can’t even move. All you can do is stare is disbelief.
As you hear your brother cough and wheeze, you watch Noir lean forward and snatch his shades, and in an act of impulse you get up in one go, lunging at him with your sword just to be sapped to the ground again. You quickly look up and he looks at you through your brother’s shades before flying away, just like that, not even bothering finishing you off. Almost as if you didn’t even pose a threat.
At the same time a side of you wants to chase after him, you know it’s a stupid move. You are just too injured to do anything. And when you hear Bro gasp you instantly forget about Noir and focus on him, moving to sit by his side, panic taking over your brain.
Impulsively, you grab his hand in yours and look down at his face. He looks so strained it almost feels unnatural. He’s still panting for air but he looks at you and even manages an awkward smile.
“Wow… that fucking sucked.”
The hold you have on his hand tightens as he gives you the biggest understatement of the century. You quickly loosen your grip though, your shoulder slumping forward. You are sore all over and you are still slowly bleeding for the cut in your stomach. It didn’t reach any vital organs, luckily, but it still hurts like a bitch.
"Bro... I'm sorry..." You bite your lower lip, trying to hold back any tears that might come up. You already cried enough today.
"For what?" His voice is weak as he moves his hand away from yours and touches your face with the tip of his fingers. "For that freak... going demi-God mode? It's... not your fault."
"If I was stronger we could have finished him off before he transformed into... into that thing." You stutter between your words, fists clenching. You feel absolutely useless and weak.
"You... you are really strong. I guess that guy... was just too much for u-" He heavily coughs again, gasping for air, but his fingertips never leave your face.
Clutching to his hand, you rub your cheek against it, looking away and trying really hard not to cry. When his breathing stabilizes again, he moves your head until you are looking at his face again.
"Heh... you looked really cute back there... in the bathtub." His tone of voice is between pained and joking, and you feel as your chest is being punctured by a lance or something equally big and painful. "I'm only sorry... that I won't be able... able to do the things I told I would."
"T-that's OK..." You try to smile at what he says, but it's such a sad smile that you feel that's even worse if you didn't do anything at all.
"I... I know I don't say this enough... but I love you Dave... and... I'm really proud of you... no matter..." You can see that his eyelids are getting heavy and his life is fading away ever so slowly, and the combination of that and what he just told you just makes it harder not to break down in tears.
"I... I love you too... I just... I wish I could have helped you..." Turning your face you brush your lips against the palm of his hand. You've never felt so terrible.
"Just... remember to tell the other Dave I said that... This goes... for the both of you..." He moves his fingers to scratch your cheek and you look at his face again, sadness eating you away.
"I'll let him know..." You once again try to smile. His speech is so weak and you just want him to stay so badly. You know there really isn't anything you can do for this to happen though.
Closing your eyes you just silently keep holding his hand, listening to his ragged breath, and you wonder just how much that hurts. You could ask him about it, but knowing him he's just going to say that's nothing.
You are so lost in sadness and disappointment you barely realize it when his breathing gets softer. And even if you did, you refuse to say 'good bye' to him, and you are pretty sure he feels the same.
And then... his breathing comes to a total stop.
It takes a long, almost painful minute for that to down on you, but when it does, you let go of his still warm hand and rest your face against on his bloodied chest, and you allow your tears to finally flow. Everything you didn't cry in your timeline, you are crying now. You refuse to hold back your emotions this time around.
Your crying goes on for God knows how long, but it finally comes to a point where you have no tears left to shed. With that, you simply move away from him, trying not to stare at his body too much, as you go retrieve your shades.
Putting them on again, you begin to slowly and weakly fly away. You are finally paying proper attention to your wounds and it hurts so much. Not as much as your chest though. Your chest is on fire and if you could you would rip off your heart in one go.
Still, you have to be strong. Your brother was proud of you, and you are sure to live up to that, even without him around. After all, he would never forgive you if you just gave up. And that would be worst than watching him die a thousand deaths.