Bound to Science (A Yogscast Fan Fiction) - World Detonation

Chapter 6 - The Burdens; The Pain

Rythian

  So there I was. Kneeling before my lifeless apprentice. How did it end this way? What had she done to get this? My Mushroom Princess had done nothing. This was my fight, and she paid for it. It wasn’t fair, and I knew it. The problem was, I couldn’t bring her back, or swap positions.

  “Rythian?” Lalna asked from behind me. I ignored it, still letting my burden sink in. He appeared to respect that, because he made no further remarks.

  I closed my eyes and let a few tears slip out. There was a long pause of nothing before I just believed the truth. Zoey was gone, and I’d just have to live with that. I finally turned to face Duncan.

  “What?” I asked, letting my sadness out with it.

  “We may want to get going soon. Sjin could come back anytime.”

  “Yeah, we should.” I got up to my feet, running my tired hand through my hair. Once I did, I directly felt pain in my leg again. The scientist looked at my thigh, and then extended his arm to offer help. I unwillingly took it, knowing that he had been on Sjin’s side before this accident, but I glad that he offered it, because I couldn’t walk, otherwise.

  “What about Zoey?” The blonde asked, shifting his weight to support mine.

  “We have to take her. She has to be buried back at Blackrock.” I ordered. Teep slithered over to me and tilted his head, smiling.

  I took this as a, “Want my help?” kind of motion, so I nodded.

  My scaly friend bent down by our friend, lifted her in his arms, and turned back to me.

  I faked a small smile, and Tee knew it was fake. He leaned closer to me, and put his muzzle on my shoulder. I extended my free arm to him, keeping the one hung over Duncan’s shoulder, and patted the top of his head.

***

  We had begun walking, and had been walking for a while, in fact. Lalna agreed to go back to the crater of my castle for a ceremony to morn Zoey. We didn’t discuss it much, we mostly just talked about what we had been up to lately, but the conversation lasted only a few seconds, as we both said, “Nothing much” and “Oh, you know. Stuff.”

  Our trek went on slowly, with no more sound from anyone in our group; only the sound of me groaning every now and then over my leg. Surprisingly, Lalna hadn’t moved his hand from my shoulder, and I hadn’t, either. I felt like I was beginning to trust him, but that vague memory of the destruction of the world was still engrained in my brain. So was the nuke, and nothing would ever change that.

  The valleys around us became more and more familiar. I knew I had seen it all before. Finally, when I saw it; I knew I was home.

  That beacon; the one high on the hill, the one above Teep’s old cave. I almost wanted to run to it, but my injury didn’t permit that.

  “There it is.” I commented, pointing to the fiery beacon above.

  Lalna sighed. “So this is home?”

  “Was home.” I barked, letting my anger towards the scientist show.

  Duncan rolled his eyes and turned his head away from me, still supporting me with the rest of his body.

***

  When we arrived at the crater, I bent over by it, looking over the edge. A tear formed in my eye as I thought of the days in which there had been a menacing castle towing high above mine and Zoey’s heads, the days when the iron golems roamed the area, and the lonely era when Zoey was at the Rebel Base.

  The blonde stood his ground from me, just letting me deal with my pain. I could hear him walking around, most likely pacing.

  My eyes clenched closed, and a few tears fell leaked from them. I breathed in and out of my nose a few times, to keep myself from completely falling apart. I was kneeled down in the doorway, which still stood to this day, and just stared upon all of the wreckage. The remaining parts of Blackrock felt sad and lonely. Nothing was living; nothing was there. Only a gaping, catastrophic hole dug deep into the ground below me. I bit the inside of my lower lip. My entire body was about to fall apart as I thought of the panic she must have felt. The sound of the fuse of a nuke; the sound of the force field deactivating; the sound of catastrophe. I wished now; a wish that I could have done a better job. A wish that I had been more persistent. A wish that I had been there to pull her out of this mess. A wish that things had been different.

***

  As I patted the last handful of dirt onto the grave, I once again almost lost all control. My silent tears and pain were not silent to Teep. He bent down beside me, and put his scaly t-rex hand on my shoulder, looking me right in the eyes. I faked a lonely smile back at him, but he frowned, knowing it wasn’t true. My eyes, still locked into his, began to tear up. He wrapped his arms around me, and I just let it all out.

  I let all the pain out; all the shame. My mind ran flashbacks through my body of the times that I laughed, cried, and raised an eyebrow for my apprentice. The way I had cared for her, the way she helped me; all the things we had done to keep one another on our toes.

  Then, a different vision entered my mind. The time I was about a mile from this place, and I was with Teep. The second I turned back to the direction of the castle; when I heard an ear piercing BOOM. The moment in my life when I nearly screamed when I heard it. The last time I had ever ran as fast as I had that day.

  My mask was now damp all over from all of the tears. The dinosaur still embraced me, knowing I still needed it. I let out a last tear, and then breathed in slowly through my mouth, and then back out again.

  Teep’s arms went back to his sides, and I turned back to Zoey’s grave, the one she had made for herself a long time ago. I then glanced over to the grave that was made for me, by Zoey, in case something happened to me. I told her then that we would never have to use these tombs, but now, I realized that maybe she had known something would happen. I pondered the fact that maybe she had known a lot more than I did about life, and that she knew that living was a privilege, and you had to use your life to the fullest extent; which is what she did. She most likely thought that if her life were to be cut short, she wanted to spend it happily.

  And so she had. But now, I wished I had lived to the fullest extent by her side.

  Duncan bent down by the technomage’s grave, and then set a rose on top of the mound of dirt that I had placed only a few minutes ago. I could hear him swallow hard as he extended his legs to stand again.

  I turned to him, my eyes watering. He generated a blank stare back, and then he smiled. My eyes closed, and he put his hand under my chin, lifting it up so I may meet his gaze. I responded when my eyes opened, and he was still giving me that same sympathetic smile.

  “It’s gonna be alright. I promise.” Lalna’s voice spoke, as he still gently lifted my head up to look at him.

  “Thanks, but it won’t, I’m certain of that.” I spoke back, closing my eyes again.

  “You know, I know what this is like. I’ve lost someone before, and I’m still fighting for them. I’m not over it, but all is well for me. You just have to get past the first… pain.” The blonde comforted as he sat down by my side.

  “Really? Who did you lose?”

  The scientist hesitated a moment, shutting his eyes. He breathed in and out a few times, then answered me.

  “Leah. I lost Leah.”

Author's Note

Sorry this came out so late. I have one word for you; school. I haven't been able to work as much as I would like to because of that. I'll try to post a bit more often, but no promises.

~Ginger