The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Fifty-One

There was something forbidding about the silence in the Vatalia hideout, Momo noticed as she walked through the halls after returning from the lab. The corridors were oddly void of their usual childish laughter, while some of the lanterns were left unlit, and Momo couldn't tell if it the chill in the air was real or a trick of the mind.

Finding the common area free of people served added to the ominousness, and she decided to check in on Derora to see if something might've happened. She didn't get the chance to redirect her path to Derora's room, however, as she was abruptly pulled into the kitchens as she stood contemplating in the hall.

Before her stood Derora, who was evidently exhausted by how worn her features appeared. She peered down at Six with heavy eyelids, her posture slightly hunched. "Where were you?" she asked, sounding defeated rather than frustrated like all other times Six returned after being gone for a while. 

"Uh—long story—"

"Runo's dead."

A dreadful silence filled the room with the abruptness of a slamming force, any potential words shushed before they even had the chance to formulate.

Momo went taut, a luridly familiar coldness starting to trickle throughout her that spread at a torturously slow pace.

"W—What?" she managed to eventually choke out.

"Found her in one of the bathrooms, shimmer leaking from her nose," Derora explained, her voice a straight line.

Momo's mouth went dry, her throat closing in on itself. She made no visibly noticeable reaction other than the stillness of her body.

"Zeri... she ran off before I could stop her. Hasn't come back yet."

Time ceased to exist. Not stopped. Not fast forwarded. Just not there. Momo's consciousness was sent spiraling through a dark, consuming void. She didn't register her limbs moving when she left the kitchens. It was like her mind had separated from her body. Her movements were robotic as she trudged her way to her bedroom, legs swayed by one singular goal—getting to her bedroom.

It was when her bedroom door closed behind her that she became acutely aware of the new layer of sweat dampening her skin.

She aggressively hauled Five's scarf from her neck and hurriedly shed her yellow jacket, Mylo's lockpick and the watch Ekko had gifted her dangling from her necklace and clinking together with her movements. The coat and scarf fell to the floor, where she left them, abandoned like her responsibilities as a leader.

This was all her fault. She had failed her people. Her friends. She hadn't put enough effort into exposing the traitor living amongst them, and it was Runo who had paid the price.

The first tear fell. Then the next, each one catching up to the last like the start of a rain shower; one that progressed into a storm, thunder forming in her lungs and lightning breaking apart her heart.

Derora entered as the first sob tore from her chest, having followed the leader but hadn't made it in time to stop the door from closing.

Momo fell to her knees, heaving in anguish. She couldn't feel Derora's hand as the older woman placed it on her shoulder, trying offer some form of comfort, even if it was minute.

"...T—This... is... a—all... my fault..." Momo cried.

Derora wrung her fingers into Six's shirt, the strain in her body causing them to tremble. "Not all of it."

She heard the stutter in Six's next inhale, though the young leader didn't come back with a response. "The traitor is the one who killed her, but you've been absent. We needed our leader, but you were never there, even though there's a traitor threatening our safety—"

"I didn't ask for this!" Momo exclaimed, leaning to the side and forcing slight proximity between them. "I didn't ask to have the wellbeing of a whole community as my responsibility, I—I didn't ask to be a leader—" Saliva went down the wrong passage, and she felt an overwhelming need to cough. But even as her eyes watered and her chest hiccuped, she refused, instead forcing herself to feel the pain of being unable to breathe.

Derora felt rage start to creep over her, igniting at her edges and burning its way to her center like a flame to paper. "No—No I was wrong. I should've been there for you more—should've told you how I—"

Momo coughed finally, her body spasming and her brain pulsing in her skull from lack of proper oxygen.

Derora inched closer to her, her hand returning to her shoulder. She waited until her coughs dissipated before speaking again. "I—I miss you, Six. We all do."

Momo felt another kind of despair invade her heart. She hadn't only neglected her duties as a leader, but as a friend. She couldn't remember the last time she and Derora spent time together, or any of the fighters. The grief reached insurmountable levels, causing her insides to feel like they were expanding and she was about to combust.

"I'm sorry—I'm sorry—Oh god I'm so sorry—"

Derora pulled Six close to her body, embracing her tightly for several moments. "We can fix this. Together." She pulled away, one arm remaining curled around Six and the other moving so she could caress her cheek. "You and me. We can fix everything." She swallowed hard, her throat remaining dry despite her efforts. "But... you need to choose me."

Momo's next tear fell in silence. It ran down her cheek and seeped between Derora's fingers, which remained on her cheek.

"I'm in love with you, Momo. I have for a while—way before that Firelight prick came and snatched you away. I should've told you sooner. I should've made you mine. If I had, we probably wouldn't be in the mess."

Momo's vision tunnelled, her head dipping as she looked at nothing.

"But—I'm telling you now. And... and if you choose me... we can rebuild the Vatalia. You and me."

It was too much for Momo to comprehend. Death. Self-loathing. Now a love confession from her best friend. She felt like her lungs were suddenly made of stone and refused to draw breath.

"Derora—"

The floor quaked violently, breaking apart underneath them. Yellow crystals sprouted from the stone rapidly, so quickly there wasn't any time to react.

Momo was thrown back with the force of that of an explosion, her elbows hitting the floor upon collision.

As more crystals sprung from the floor, they started to encase her, forming a triangled roof that made it so that she was almost unable to see Derora's body be squished against the ceiling.

Almost.

The woman was shoved so far into the ceiling that the only proof that she was there was her trickling blood and dangling insides.

"DERORA!"

Momo shot to her feet and vaulted underneath the tented crystals towards the one that had killed Derora. She came to a stop, then stood there, unphased when the ground started to rumble directly behind her, her hair whooshing upwards as it just barely missed her.

Derora's blood dripped onto her face, splatting against her skin like the collision of raindrops on cobblestone.

It was over.

The world must've ended.

The universe must've been imploding.

Six went numb, her thoughts distorted and incoherent, while her body had deadened.

In this state, she was unable to process being forcefully hauled to the side.

She didn't even register the impact on her head that sent her into darkness.