Ruthless

Wake Up

"Well, that didn't work." King sighed.

"Nope." Was Diane's comment. "Not at all."

"How are we going to do this, hmm?" Merlin smirked.

"Try the word pulsatory." Ban yelled from the corner.

"That's not even relevant!" King answered, sighing once again. "We'll never get this!"

Estarossa frowned, deep in thought like everyone else. Then he suddenly jumped up and yelled "Try Purgatory!"

King thought for a minute then yelled "We did it!" He scribbled down the word furiouly and everyone cheered. "We did it! It's a miracle!"

"It was hard, but we did it." Diane squealed.

"You spent five and a half hours on a puzzle." Gelda facepalmed. "On a crossword puzzle."

"Well, I'd like to see you try it." Ban glared.

"I've done four in the time it took you to do one." Gelda gestured to her puzzle book.

Ban took one look at the book, paled and in three seconds: Grabbed the book, flung it into the fire, looked at Gelda and said "No you didn't."

Everyone started laughing, even Merlin and Escanor. Gelda scowled at first, but eventually joined in the laughter.

"Okay," Escanor walked into the room, carrying a tray full of tea and biscuits. "Who wants something?"

"I do!" Diane shrieked.

They all settled down to have some food and were chatting quietly until Merlin asked "Has anyone seen the princess lately?" The atmosphere became somber, almost oppressive.

"No, she's been with him all weekend." King replied.

Diane sighed sadly. "I feel so bad for her, I can't imagine having her fiancé in an-"

"Diane!" Estarossa snapped. "Don't you know that talking about bad things make them happen?!"

"Well it's true!" Diane suddenly burst out, her eyes watering. "Elizabeth's an emotional wreck. It's been a month since we rescued Meliodas and he's been in a coma the entire time!

"Diane..." Merlin warned in a low voice, casting a barely noticeable glance in Zeldris's direction.

"Well! It's true!" Diane yelled. "Let's face it. Elizabeth is mentally ill and probably won't last much longer like this. Meliodas is in a coma, gone, he's not going to wake up, he's probably already dead-"

Everyone's heads turned to Zeldris. His hand had crushed the arm of the chair and reduced it to splinters. He stood up, and muttered "Sorry about the chair. I'm leaving."

Zeldris stormed out the room and slammed the door so hard several things fell off the shelves.

"Well done, Diane." Estarossa said sarcastically. "Congratulations, you just upset Zeldris."

"So?"

"His job as a demon is an executioner..."

"Oh." Diane wiped away tears and stuck her chin out stubbornly. "Well, I'm not going to take back what I said. I think we should just except it."

"Diane, where did all the hope go?" King whispered.

She looked him dead in the eyes and said "when you listen to people cry themselves to sleep every night, and watch everyone get sad, depressed, upset and gain and lose hope so many times, you realise that reality is only hits you hard if you have hope."

No one could say anything else about that.

To break the silence, Escanor smiled and said "Anyone want to play Scrabble?"

***

Zeldris muttered and hissed to himself under his breath as he walked  along the streets. People noticed he was angry and as soon as they caught a glimpse of that tell-tale mark they scurried away.

He walked out of balance point and all the way past the field where Elizabeth and the others hung out. Zeldris walked all the way into the woods.

Zeldris kept muttering to himself and he stopped at a tree. On impulse, he punched it. It felt a sick, twisted type of good. So he punched it again, and again, and again. His punches got harder and harder, and soon he was bleeding very badly.

After an hour of punching the tree, his knuckles were very badly bruised, torn up, shredded and he was pretty sure he had broke one in his left hand.

He leant his head against the tree as tears threatened to fall. Zeldris turned onto his back and slid down the tree. He pulled his knees up to his chest and his head down. Zeldris thought the emotional side of him was a bother, it meant that everything was so complicated.

Meliodas was more than a brother to him. Meliodas was a best friend, a brother, his family, and more of a carer to Zeldris than anyone else. Meliodas would listen to Zeldris as he wanted and keep all his secrets, he trained Zeldris, looked after him when he got beaten, and just generally be there for Zeldris to rely on.

Now that he was- well, not there, - Zeldris felt scared. He felt sad, terrified and angry. In some ways, he was even more distraught than Elizabeth.

Zeldris pulled his knees up tighter, the tears started falling.

***

Elizabeth sat beside a white bed with silk black covers.

On the bed, was Meliodas.

Meliodas was all healed, and he had on a white shirt, black waistcoat with a red tie and trousers and boots. He looked like he was sleeping, and Elizabeth thought that was a nice way to think of it.

Unfortunately, Meliodas had been in that exact position for a month, the only indication of life being his stomach rising and if you got close enough, the sound of his hearts beating.

"Wake up," Elizabeth whispered. "For me, For Estarossa and Zeldris and Lia and everyone, please wake up."

No response.

Tears still rolling down her face, she sniffed. She was such a crybaby. She knew she should be strong. Lia couldn't grasp the situation, she was too young.

But Zeldris, he had taken the hit as hard as she had. She forgot he was still only young, for a demon, no older than the equivalent of a human 16 year old boy. Elizabeth wished she could help everyone, to comfort everyone and say it would be okay, but that would be a lie.

Sadly, she grabbed Meliodas's hand affectionately.

But to Elizabeth's surprise, when she squeezed it, she felt Meliodas squeeze her hand back.