Trials of the Heart

Chapter 21

when scaramouche returned to the scene with maillardet in tow, the first thing he felt was sick. a gut-wrenching sickness.

it was the most scary thing he's ever seen, a scene straight out of a nightmare.

sure you've gone through a lot, and you've suffered a whole lot because of him but this was a new low, and he didn't like it one bit.

there you were, in a pool of your own blood as coppelius and coppelia seemed to be dancing over your body.

that's it.

he saw red, and in a fit of rage with tear-clouded eyes, dismantled both coppelia and coppelius within 40 seconds flat. maillardet powered them down, but he didn't care. he made sure that those damn robots were completely and utterly destroyed. it definitely helped that you managed to melt down and partially break them to begin with, but he wouldn't let them remain standing, let alone dancing. that was just disrespectful. gears flew, pieces of metal being tossed as both mekas lay in a mess of their own body parts.

just like they had left you.

"young man," maillardet called to him. "take Y/N to the fortress of meropide and ask for siegwinne! she's a melusine who can help her!"

scaramouche nodded and immediately flew off with you in his arms, rushing you to the fortress. as soon as he got there, the duke recognized you immediately, being on one of his strolls outside for once. 

wriothesley didn't know you personally, but he had heard enough about you from neuvillette and even attended your trial personally as he found your situation... rather humerous.

"holy fu- get her inside," he said urgently, instructing all the guards to rush you to the infirmary and alert siegwinne of your current situation.

as soon as scaramouche got you inside her infirmary, siegwinne got to work as he filled her in about what happened.

siegewinne immediately noticed something, cutting your clothes away with scissors to reveal a large piece of metal that was lodged inside your chest...

where your heart was.

after she cleaned away most of the blood, she surgically cut open your chest. she wasn't even phased by the amount of blood everywhere, seeing you cut open on the table didn't make him flinch. scaramouche saw gruesome things like this all the time... but he felt like metaphorically throwing up (even though he couldn't). he even winced a little, hoping that you couldn't feel it and praying that you didn't since you were unconscious.

borderline dead, more specifically.

siegewinne managed to remove the piece of metal that was in your heart gently, using her hydro to manipulate the currents to make a temporary artery since yours was cut.

"... there's not a lot i can do," she said after a few moments, growing disheartened after examining your current situation. "it seems like a part of either coppelia or coppelius damaged several arteries of her heart. it's a miracle she's not dead yet... i'm using my hydro to try and make sure she doesn't bleed out more and make an artificial artery, but i don't think it'll be enough."

scaramouche could feel his hope of seeing you alive drop, a chill running down his back. you were dying.

and there was nothing he could do this time. this wasn't like irminsul, where you managed to back up your memories.

scaramouche held your cold hand, feeling helpless. was this what she felt like when i was in a coma? helplessness? grief? i hate this.

maybe this was karma for all the lives he took, even though he repented for his sins that felt like they were weighing on his shoulders. he even tried to alter the past in hopes to change the future but... it didn't work.

suddenly, wriothesley ran inside urgently, clutching a... box? scaramouche recognized the box immediately. that was the box that held your secret project.

how the fuck would that help you?

could anything even help you at this point?

"siegewinne," the duke called urgently, placing the box on the table and opening it revealing what was inside. "i have something that could be of use to you."

then scaramouche let his unshed tears fall as he saw what was in the box.

it was a heart.