Lionhearts ||Skephalo||

74

The world shook violently, as though wracked by an earthquake, and George nervously navigates across the bed to find Isku again.

"It feels like the world is ending," he says in a soft voice, "This has been happening for minutes now..."

"They've been happening since they brought that boy in, but not this strong," Isku murmurs, allowing the nervous archer to nestle next to her as he seeks some form of safety; Mason curls up on her other side.

"Do you think something happened to Dream?" George asks softly, and Isku shrugs.

"I don't know," she replies, "I can only hope for the best. And the best is that this will end soon, that this is just a side effect of the demon being banished from our world."

George nods, but doesn't verbalize his agreement despite knowing she won't see him.

Mason babbles something nervously, and Isku grunts a reassurance; George can make out a word here or there. Piglin speech isn't as complicated as he'd thought before spending time in this infirmary.

A moment passes, and the earthquake is silent.
He opens his mouth, but then shuts it as a prickling sensation trickles up his legs, through his body, erasing aches and pains as it does, until...

Isku gasps, and George shakes his head, trying to rid the dizzying itch from his body.

"Little archer," she says, her voice shaking, "George, I...I can see."

George freezes, and slowly reaches up to his bandages, pulling them down, ever so carefully.

The world around him unfurls in splashes of color he's never seen before, and he feels tears begin to trickle down his face as he bites back a sob, and thanks every god he can think to name, even as the young piglin excitedly pulls a little ball of light into being between his hands and babbles happily to Isku; around them, others in the infirmary are finding their wounds healed, even those seemingly unable to be healed.

And for a moment, George thinks he can hear Skeppy's laughter echo through the infirmary.

***

Sapnap hurtles through the gateway, and lands on the planks below, gasping as his legs buckle under his rough descent. He turns, looking for the owner of the shop (who would've certainly have been drawn out by the rough landing) with wide eyes.

There he stands, apron stained with faint colors from paints and herbs, a bottle of some ointment held tightly in his hand as he stares Sapnap down.

"Nick?..."

A soft whisper that tells him without a doubt that he's found him; the boy he had been searching, the one he had thought dead. He stumbles over to him, beaming,

"Yeah, it—that's me, you're? I've—"

"Karl," he says, barely bothering to set the bottle aside before almost throwing himself into Sapnap's arms, embracing him with startling strength. "I...so you didn't die in the battle?"

"I could say the same for you," Sapnap laughs, returning the embrace as they share this reunion, unaware of the world outside or of Skeppy's strange presence.

The people of the city run for cover, crying warnings to their fellows as the sky fills with rippling bands of iridescent light.

And the ground shakes with a violent tremor as another rift opens to this world.

***

Skeppy's last memory is Dream's voice as the prince flung the final words of the spell outwards, and the scream of a being thwarted after millennia of planning as the demon is torn from Bad's body and slowly torn to pieces and scattered to the winds of the world, once more returned to the mana everyone came from; and then everything had gone dark.

But now, he can feel the world beginning to fade in again, his vision returning.

Time has passed, he's certain; but how much? Dream is looking down upon him, kneeling nearby nervously.

Skeppy fumbles his way up, brushing bandages on his face and hissing as his fingertips sting, as though raw or scalded.

He feels empty; he feels like the second heartbeat he'd never been aware of has been torn from him, as though he's lost all touch with the beautiful rivers he'd plunged into what felt like mere moments ago.
Around him, the world feels devastatingly greyed out, like everything has lost a dimension of existence to him, and he presses his aching palms to the ground, unable to stand on his unsteady legs that still ache.

He coughs, and spits onto the floor, not caring about his presentation right now.

And finally, he looks up and asks the question to Dream, staring into the prince's green eyes.

"Is it over?" Dream looks towards something behind them, and nods slowly.

"It's over," he confirms in a raw voice, elegant features smeared with dust, blood, and ash, his hair awry and clothes singed.

Skeppy grins weakly, and looks behind them to where Bad lays; and though his body is still inhuman, the peach of his skin has largely returned, he can see that much.

He crawls over to him, and observes the changes he'd wrought.
Bad's skin has returned to its human peach, except for his hands and feet, still clawed but now smaller and softer, and the scales that dot his cheekbones and the tips of his still-pointed ears.
The horns are smaller, nestled amidst his light brown hair, and the wings remained stubbornly attached to his back.

Skeppy watches with wonder as a soft green light flickers out from a spot on Bad's collar (he briefly sees a necklace appear, light snapping forth from beaten metal) and seep into his body.

And Bad's familiar green eyes open to meet Skeppy's own gaze.

No words pass between them, but Skeppy smiles, and fiddles with his armor until he can pull it off, and his sweater follows. He hands it to Bad, who gently takes it, still shellshocked and wordless. He can't fit it over the wings, but Skeppy willingly cuts slits the back, allowing his soulmate to pull it almost all the way down.

"It's over Darryl," Skeppy whispers softly, "You're safe now." Bad stares at him, tears beginning to drip down his face, as if he can't believe it. "We're going home."

And finally, he believes it. He laces his hand with Bad's clawed one, and slowly, the two stand up, glancing over to Dream, who nods and offers his support to Skeppy so the three can walk out; Skeppy vaguely identifies the person buried by rubble to be Mega. He feels a moment of grief, but moves on; the future is waiting.

His future, that he's fought for.
Bad's future; that he gave up his magic for, that he almost died for.

Their future is waiting.

-

A/N: A quick note on this: I wasn't originally GOING to give back George's vision! I wanted it to be impactful, I wanted it to LAST; but I lost steam for sticking to the tragedy and so he and everyone else gets back what they lost <3!