Arknights One Shots

War (Ch'en and Talulah)

A/N: Figured I would start this off with a short free verse for y'all. The real story is past it. Note that you can read the poem forwards and backwards. 😄 Also, I don't know what happens in chapter 8 (and I don't plan to spoil myself because when I wrote this it wasn't out on the English server) so keep that in mind please when reading this. Thanks!

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Title: Crumbling Vision

How strange it was.

To want what you could not have.

To love her, to care, to want to be close together forever.

Falling apart.

The saying "all good things come to an end" might just apply here.

The world crumbling around their feet was different.

Because Ch'en had been happiest back then, when the world seemed alright.

Before, Tallulah was there and they were children.

All too soon the blinders were taken off, revealing truths neither wanted to see.

While one rose to the light the other faded to the darkness.

Neither were same again.

******

She had watched several people die in the short span of her life. The tragic memories of lives lost just before they had begun were always the most painful. So much potential wasted. And for what? What purpose did their deaths serve but to spew more vengeance, rooting the deep hatred in the hearts and minds of all.

It wouldn't be entirely wrong to call her bitter.

But it wouldn't be the entire truth either.

Jaded seemed like the best word.

Hoshiguma might say lost.

Either way, the feeling she held inside as she stared at Tallulah was insurmountable in its intensity. Nothing and no one could overcome the pain rooted deep in her soul. After so many years, to be reunited in this way . . .

"Do you have anything to say for yourself?" She asked bleakly.

And those eyes, burning like the very flames the woman controlled, did not waver. They matched her gaze with every heartbeat. Their breathing was synced. It was a fragile tie they still held despite the separation of years between the two.

"It's good to see you again." The firmness, the certainty spoke of truth.

Her heart somehow managed to swell and break at the same time. A vision of two different possibilities, a smiling child who she had told all her secrets to, and then this . . . this person, whatever she was now.

Her body shuddered, but to her credit the sword she held did not go slack. "I wish I could say the same." But I can't. Not after what you've done. After all the people you've hurt. Her vision seemed to burn. And so she blinked first, forcing back tears. Weakness was not meant to be shown. Not to an enemy. Never to an enemy. She may have left Lungmen, but the traditions grounded deep inside were not so easily abandoned. No, like a stone in the midst of a raging river they would persist through the waves of time.

A bitter chuckle. "I see. So they've turned you against me." Tallulah sighed. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

She clenched her jaw, willing her stance to keep firm. "No one has made me do anything I didn't want to do." This was a fact. The decision to come here was entirely her own. To stare down the person she had left in the past . . . some would say it took a lot of courage.

But for her, it was finally deciding to not be a coward.

To stare her greatest regret right in the face.

"Then you have willingly betrayed me." Talulah had a darkened expression, and a flicker of . . . sadness? Was that sadness? Or was it just my imagination? Between one blink and the next it was gone.

She shook her head. Despair was an old friend, wrapping its cloak around her shoulders, a cold press along the small of her back. Ch'en remembered all those days spent together with her, those sweet memories holding her afloat when she had doubts. But all too quickly they had slipped past her notice. There was nothing standing in the way of the truth now. As horrible as it was, fate came regardless of will.

"I never betrayed you. Not the real Tal."

A tilt of the head. The magic was crackling, heat swamping the air. But Ch'en still felt the cold, and no amount of arts would change those unbidden tingling sensations. Her nerves were as rampant as her eyes as she mapped out every opportunity in the space they shared.

"Are you implying I'm not me. I'm not the real Talulah? Are my ideals really that different from your image of me?"

She took a step closer, smirk present on her lips.

Egged on, so did Ch'en, boots crunching in what she hoped was gravel and not the remains of some poor unfortunate soul. The smell of the atmosphere indicated more than a few dead bodies.

Rank decay, metallic death.

This was their game of chicken.

And there would be no retreating.

Ch'en nodded. "The real Tal had ideals, but she knew there were lines you don't cross. And believe me when I say you've crossed them all. She would not have done even half the things you have. So I'll ask again: what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I think if you ever knew me then you know I have nothing to say. If you're expecting to find a guilty conscience, a sliver of what you thought you knew, then you're wrong."

Her heart sank just a tad further into the abyss.

Why have a desperate hope if it was only going to get quashed?

"I know. Whatever I wanted . . . wasn't meant to be."

"Glad you see it my way."

She had never felt further apart from Talulah.

The dragon slaying blade seemed warm at her side, a deep rumble in the echoes of her brain.

It was done waiting.

And so was she.

"I do. And that's why."

She adjusted the strap on her shoulder, putting it into Tallulah's view.

Amber eyes widened marginally, before the smile turned wicked. The flames rose at her weathered fingertips. Their ethereal color was almost haunting, the scalding heat upping the ante as it continued to persist. "Yes. That is why."

Two sisters, who should've remained close, who could have had a better life, had no other options left to them.

And so they rushed at one another.

One poised with a sword.

The other with a blade, capable of killing the most monstrous of dragons.

And only one would come out of it alive.

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A/N: Decided to make this one short but sweet. Someone requested it, but for the life of me I can't remember who (feel free to say if it was you😊). I tried to keep it somewhat vague so you guys and girls could fill in the blanks at your leisure. The Lupos one shot will be out next! Don't forget to votes and comment! And I'll see y'all next time!