Against the Tide - A New Elysium Story [Complete]

25. Promises

Lying on the bed in her cabin aboard the Blackstar, Amy Larsson opened her eyes and stared up at the skylight. Her heart was hammering in her chest, and a searing pain throbbed in her left arm, where the red lines had begun to ascend from her hand all the way up to her shoulder. It momentarily dulled the leaden feeling in her stomach, so that it took her a second too long to realize that it was about to turn. Tumbling out of the bed through tangled sheets, and stumbling clumsily toward the bath room, she ended up being too slow. She half vomited, half coughed dark blood all over the floor.

This is bad... Lars noted.

He had taken control of the body in an attempt to help Null move, but even he couldn't power through the kind of pain they were in right now. They were on the floor on their knees, supporting their weight with their right arm because the left was hurting too much, and panting heavily.

Further in the back of their mind, Null's presence seemed to be crouched into a corner, shivering. She was still in shock from the dreams. It had taken him too long to pull her out, he realized. And this time, she clearly remembered what they had seen.

Lars grit their teeth and forced the body to stand up. It felt strange to be in control alone, he hadn't taken over completely since they had escaped the Butcher's place. He leaned against their desk to take a moment to catch their breath and wait for their head to stop spinning.

His gaze fell on the shelf above. There, next to the box that held the eye augment that Higgs had given them, a huddled pile of silver was softly gleaming in the dark. She had taken the necklace and ring they had found on Riga's body, probably suspecting what it was after all they had seen. He had said nothing, thinking it might help her somehow to hold on to it, but now he wished they had left it behind and burned it with the rest of the place.

Null? Talk to me, he said, alarmed by her prolonged silence.

I'm okay, she said, but she clearly wasn't.

Null, you're not gonna like this, but we need help. We need to go back to New Elysium, Lars said. And quite frankly, if you keep refusing to go or insist on any more detours, I will remain in control from now on. I promised you once that I would take care of this body and I can't let this continue.

No... she whispered. You're right.

Their stomach turned again, but there was nothing left inside to come up. With a staggered gait, Lars directed the body back to the bed somehow, where they collapsed and curled up into a ball. And as they were lying there, every fiber of their body aching, he realized that it wasn't all just physical pain. It radiated outward from Null's corner of their mind like a toxic sun, poisoning them from inside just as much as the Widow's Kiss.

Null...

One thousand one hundred fifteen, she said, her voice wavering as much as her presence, and yet the one I can't help but feel bad about... the one I can't forget is-

Stop it, Null. Don't... don't punish yourself for something that isn't your fault.

He noticed a strange sensation on their face, and brought up a hand against their cheek. Even though Null wasn't even in control, the body was crying.

Inside their mind, Null's presence continued to shiver and waver in silence. He closed their eyes and tried to focus. He tried to think of something that would cheer her up, to bring up a memory that she might find comfort in, but nothing came to mind. To his frustration and dismay, he realized that he was completely powerless to help her right now. Despite being as close as two beings could possibly be, he was infinitely too far removed from being able to do anything of actual use. He wanted nothing more than to hold her close and comfort her, and he just couldn't.