hadriel_logs | Endgame Log: The Ice Planet

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Endgame Log: The Ice Planet

Who: The characters accompanying [Name] to the ice planet
What: The closed event log for the virus upload
Where: On the ice planet, at the Null communications array
When: June 15th
Warnings: None

It's time. There's a plan that needs to be put into motion, and you're the ones who volunteered to do it. You know going in that it's going to be dangerous - but there's no other choice. This is the end, and it's you or the Null.

Upon arrival, you have a little time to prepare. The Null don't know you're there at first, and once they do there's a delay of a few hours before they're in position to fight back. Now's the time to set up defenses or anything else that might help you stay alive. You have to know the fight will be hard, because they know their lives are on the line, too.

Then, the Null attack. With everything they have, they try to stop you, try to beat past your defenses to get to [Name] and stop it from uploading the killswitch. Fear helps out, and the sky goes dark, but it won't last forever. When Fear flees, that particular defense is gone... along with any chance of getting out of there. Here's where those without courage might break, because it certainly looks like it could be a last stand. It doesn't help that Hope can't reach you here either, that any deaths will not be resurrected during the battle.

But it does end. With very little warning, [Name] completes its task. It goes dark, and as it does, the other Null see their end coming. They cannot stop it, they cannot escape. They crumple to the ground, all consciousness and animation gone from them.

And then you're alone on the ice planet. Tend your wounds, mourn your dead, and hope that someone will come for you before the cold does.

► This log covers June 15th
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► As this log takes place away from Hope's influence, any deaths will not be resurrected until people and gods are able to travel to the ice planet again. Have fun!

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defending;

[This is like nothing Aqua has ever experienced before. She's fought, she's been one part of a greater battle, but she's never experienced war. And it all comes down to them; if they don't hold the line, all of them will lose the war.

So she calls her Keyblade and slings every kind of spell she knows, using glacier spells to block the Null with ice and lightning to fry them. But there are so, so many of them, and so many people she has to look out for—people she trusts to watch her back, as well.]

Don't let up! We can hold them back!

surviving;

[And then it's just quiet, and dark. They're alone.

With a gentle touch and what energy she has left, Aqua calls fire magic; the flames are small and meant to warm, not harm. They're nothing compared to the fires of rage she feels inside at being left behind, abandoned. She'd love to turn her Keyblade on Fear next. But he's gone, and they're alone—but still alive.]

All right. Who's injured? We need to hang on until help arrives.

[It will, won't it?]

[Law brushes past her on his way to look for who else is too injured to move, exhausted but otherwise hiding any of his own hurts]

...you can do that? The fire. Is there anything not metal here that will burn?

It's magic. It burns by its own power. Or...mine, I suppose.

[Which means it has its limits, like she does.]

We won't freeze as long as I can maintain it.

[Law looks incredibly concerned, if only because he knows exactly what it's like to tie your power to your own stamina. He's currently suffering as a victim of the same.]

And how long is that? Don't exhaust yourself unnecessarily, we'll scrounge up supplies to keep a fire going. [then, with a bit of a snarl under his breath] When the others find out Fear abandoned us, they'll be back.

As long as we need it to be.

[There's the slightest edge to her tone, but it's not really directed at Law. It's because she's thinking of Fear, and any dangers that might still exist here beyond the ice...and their whole situation. Everything.]

He's the only one with the power to come here, isn't it? Can they force him to return, if it comes to that?

[good to have more smart people around thinking of all the possibilities]

As far as I know. At this rate I feel like it's a question of when, not if. He'll be back for us, but will it be in an hour or in a day? We're limited to whatever resources we have here, in the meantime.

[She just hopes his general sense of timeframe is right. It could be longer.]

Did anyone bring food? Water?

Not that I know of. We didn't expect to be here more than a few hours.

[he looks around. What a place to get stranded, all Null all the time]

We can melt snow for water to keep everyone alive for a time but if Fear doesn't get his ass back here...well. Humans can survive a few weeks on water with no food, but I wouldn't recommend it.

[She's certainly regretting that lack of foresight now, but who can be blamed? Aqua hadn't planned differently herself. They'd all assumed they'd be fortunate if they survived this long at all.]

You're right. [She nods grimly.] I wish I knew what it was about being here that limits my abilities. If that weren't the case, we wouldn't need Fear at all.

[Maybe she just spent too long in the darkness to be able to open a way out of any world.

[what a terrible time to bring this up, but after his lengthy association with Caedra, he knows things. Unfortunate things.]

The gods are in the habit of taking away abilities if they feel like it. You didn't do anything to piss them off, did you?

Not that I know of.

[She doesn't see how she could have done anything, considering she's been unable to get anywhere since the first day she arrived. But they don't think quite like regular people do, so she won't rule it out, even if it's very unlikely.]

I've been to many worlds before Hadriel. But as soon as I arrived, I was unable to access the Lanes Between no matter how hard I tried.

Hmm. [so, not like Caedra, interesting] I suppose it would make it difficult for them to feed off your emotions if you could just get out.

[he tips his head to indicate everything around them - the base, the Null carcasses, the technology, their fellow fighters...]

It would never have come to this if someone could have just slipped out and taken everyone with them.

It shouldn't have come to this.

[There are many of things that shouldn't have happened. Still...]

But we knew that we might not make it back. I just...hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

[fair point, which he concedes with a tip of his head]

We had far fewer casualties than I expected. I'll do what I can to make sure we don't add any more to the pile before Fear can come back.

[as long as he does. There's not much food left in Sanji's cellar cache, Law personally cleared out most of it before the city moved. He can exhaust himself teleporting them there...but let's save that for the last-ditch survival plan and in the meantime, have hope.]

Me, too.

[Which isn't as much as she'd like. There's nothing left to fight—what can she do, but keep them warm?

Aqua will just have to keep faith that it will be enough.]

[It's too quiet, when all is said and done. The ice planet was always the place that scared her the most- being devoid of the gods, every resource she had, staying cramped up for weeks at a time out of necessity, feeling useless again and again and again. And now she feels herself there again- it's quiet. It's over. And all she did is barely survive and kill an entire race.

She was given this power to be a light in the darkness. But Alphys can't say she feels like a light right now.

She finds Aqua a bit later, when the fire is started, and approaches her quietly.]

Hey. Uhm, I... I w-won't take up too much time. I just, uh... wanted to say that. I'm sorry.

[Aqua has to believe that the others will come for them. That Fear will regain his strength and return. There's no other choice. And she's glad there isn't, because if she had to rely on her own faith...she's not sure she could. No one had come for her in the darkness, after all. Not on purpose.

She lifts her head at her friend's approach, surprised by her words.]

Sorry? What for, Alphys?

[Alphys hasn't even stopped to consider if they'll be rescued. She can't determine if she even deserves to be, after all of this. After the wrecked bodies all around them, after she had to clean up the pieces of Mettaton and [Name], after-- after--

She wipes away a tear on her cheek.]

I... I didn't save everyone. We still had to kill them all, a-and, people died, and... I didn't do what you wanted.

[Of course, it would play out like this. Of course, she finally gets her chance at being a magical girl and she's not good enough. Why would she ever think she's good enough?]

If you wanted to take it back. I'd understand, but...

[Her voice just trails off, stomping down her perceived selfishness.]

[Aqua hesitates for a moment, then quietly and carefully, she reaches out to take Alphys' hand.]

No. It belongs to you. I trust you to use it well.

[For however long she can. It's not as though she could even take it back if she wanted to, but that's not the important part.]

None of this is your fault. Sometimes, you can do everything you can, try with all your heart, and it still doesn't end well.

[For others, perhaps, the ones they saved; if it comes to that, she'll be grateful for what they were able to do. But it's a bittersweet victory regardless.]

[She is so sure she'll be reprimanded here it's a shock that the moment after the hesitation is just a gentle holding of her hand. Alphys was trying to stop crying before she came up here, but that was almost a lost cause, especially when this makes tears run fresh from her eyes.]

I'm sorry. I'm, I'm s-so sorry, I, I've failed so much and I didn't want to fail you too when you really believed in me--

[There's no motion to wipe her eyes this time, just holding on to Aqua like there's nothing else she can grasp.]

We did something, right? It... we saved someone. We had to.

We did.

[She squeezes Alphys' hand. Feels their connection, from her hand to her heart.]

We made a difference. To the people depending on us, it might be all the difference in the world.

[They'll live. Their light will continue. And that isn't nothing.]

[It's been a long time since Alphys' SOUL really reached out in this place. There was once, to Sans just before he left, sitting in an imaginary football field having drinks at sunset, the connection to a best friend. There was Lup, at the Gyftmas party, a happiness that bubbled in her to exploding out. And now... Aqua may be able to see it, if she looks. A thrum of a little white upside-down heart, centered in her chest, trembling as their hands touch.]

I thought I had failed. It still-- it's so hard to believe that everything's going to be okay when it d-didn't, turn out, you know? We did a lot but it's not that, that ending where everyone gets to live, and...

[She takes her free hand, wipes the sleeve across her face, sending her glasses askew over her snout.]

I don't feel right feeling good. Because other people had to get hurt for me to get here.

[For a moment, it's unnerving that Alphys can put what Aqua is feeling into words so easily, as if she's read her mind. And then it's comforting. Neither of them are alone.]

I know exactly how you feel. Exactly.

[She turns her head and blinks a little at the faint, unexpected shape—she's not sure what's prompted that. But she doesn't need to.]

But we keep trying. We keep believing in people. No matter how dark things seem, there will always be a door to the light.

[She isn't used to being able to reach out like this at all. For all the times Alphys has tried to connect to people, she feels like she falls short so often. To have this kind of connection and know she didn't mess it up- to have a bond stronger than ever because of it- makes her heart swell even as tears spring back to her eyes.]

Okay. I'll-- I'll believe that. I'll d-do everything I can to believe that. I want to, uhm... be the kind of person you believe I am.

[That's all she's ever wanted. To do some good, some measure of success that isn't locked to her own anxiety. But if Aqua is feeling the same... perhaps it wasn't just her all along.]

Thank you. For everything.

[Aqua won't cry. She won't, even if her emotions and her body are very much in agreement that now is the right time for tears. It would just be too close to giving up, even if that's not why they hide behind her eyes, and she won't allow that. Alphys' belief in herself is a flickering light in the darkness, but sometimes one light is all they need.

So instead, she'll sit here with her friend, believing and holding her hand and waiting for dawn.]

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Endgame Log: The Ice Planet

Aqua

surviving

sorry for the delay, work trip happened

s'all good!

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surviving

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