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Spinning. Everything is spinning.
Was she underwater? Was she thrown beneath layer upon layer of blankets? Or was she in the void of space, drifting through the darkness? Leeseo couldn’t tell. As she slowly began to open her eyes, taking in the blur of colors that filled her vision, she was immediately conscious of that sickening nauseating feeling inside her chest and stomach.
Rolling onto her side, she puked a few mouthfuls, breathing growing ragged as she hacked and coughed up clear fluids and a few chunks of Potato Fries Sunday.
Groaning, the young girl shivered as she brought one hand up to her face, wiping the last few remnants of vomit from her lips and chin. Leeseo was trembling. She was trembling not from the cold, the confusion, or the fear, but from the pain she felt all throughout her body.
“Wh-what … happ … ened …?”
As her other senses began coming to life, she slowly managed to push off against the dusty smooth floor that seemed cold and uncaring to her touch, converting into a sit while propped up by her shaky palms. Leeseo glanced around her surroundings like a newly born foal trying to comprehend the world around it.
Smoke filled her nostrils. The sound of fires dancing and flickering across the rubble tickled her ears. Ash and dust spread across the skin on her arms and legs as the wind blew them off of nearby debris.
And then, she saw it.
The carriage—the transport vehicle she had stolen on an impulsive whim—now lay shattered against the floor. The first thing Leeseo noticed was how it was split down the middle. Each of the two halves were now separated by at least twenty meters in distance, askew across the room. The next thing that caught her eye was the emptiness of each half. What once was filled with all sorts of equipment, compartments, and devices was turned into nothing but scrap as the materials and tools they were meant to use—she was meant to use—were now scattered and wrecked all around her. But it was the third thing that caught her eye the most—laying motionlessly against a large chunk of concrete—immediately making her spring into action.
There, she saw it. She saw her.
Liz—splayed against the stone with her back arched, blood trickling from the sides of her mouth and her temples.
Dead.
“L-Liz?” she called out faintly to the older girl. She had seen her sleeping before. Maybe she had tried to play a prank on her once or twice with Rei in the past. Maybe she had caught her falling asleep over books and data modules. Maybe she had even seen her knocked out after a long battle. But this—this felt different. It felt different in many ways that neither she nor her gurgling stomach could explain. “Liz … Liz please … no … no no no …”
But Liz didn’t respond.
Grunting, pushing herself on her feet, Leeseo howled in pain as she fought against her tired and aching muscles, begging them to cooperate one more time. Flopping down onto her hands and knees, she crawled with tears in her eyes, wet streaks mixing with the soot and dust as she sobbed and stumbled towards the other girl.
Upon reaching her corpse, Leeseo placed a trembling hand against her pale wrist. Cold. Pulseless. Immobile.
Memories came rushing to her head.
“I am Jiwon. Kim Jiwon,” she calmly introduced herself, lifting a hand towards hers as she shook it. “It’s not safe here because of the Voidrangers, but I will get you out of here alive. I promise.”
Liz raised her spear up towards the sky. “I … I could not care any less. Whether it’s the ruler of this frigid and barren planet or a Stellaron puppeteering her, I will not go down without a fight. Neither should you.”
Dancing through the air with the grace of hundreds of lifetimes within her, Liz summoned a creation of water that coiled around body like a living celestial serpent. “Delve-cleansing moon … world-cleansing dragon!”
And as scenes from the past played in her head, all centered around her beloved companion, all Leeseo could think about was how far they had gotten together—how far Liz had gotten in her life—only to fall here. Only to end here.
All reduced to nothing. All because of Leeseo’s actions.
“Liz …?” she begged, squeezing her palm as if that would do anything. Leeseo lifted Liz’s light calloused hand towards her cheek as she cried into her digits. “Liz … th-th-this can’t be real … you can’t be …”
Taking in a deep breath to try and calm herself down, Leeseo let the moment pass for a second, a moment, and then, when she couldn’t continue lying to herself, bursted into tears all over the dead companion of hers.
“Liz … L-Liz …” she mourned, face buried into her cold chest, swaddling herself in the other’s garments. “You …. y-you followed me all the way here … just to … to …”
“I’m sorry … it’s all my fault …”
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a flash of pink.
Was she imagining it? Was her weary mind trying to make things up? Was she having visions of guilt over her actions? But as Leeseo continued to weep against Liz’s side, all she could see was a pink blob floating through her vision.
“Liz is … what happened to Liz? What … what happened to her?”
“N-No … you …”
“Leeseo …? What did you …? Did you …?”
“Oh god … oh no, I am so sorry … I am so … so … sorry, I-I was just—.”
“You killed her. You … killed Liz.”
“NO!”
Pushing Rei’s voice out of her head, she smudged the back of her hand against her eyes to dry them quickly as she converted into a kneel and got up. Wobbling forwards, she mustered all that she could to lift the dead girl off the debris and lay her as gently as possible against the floor.
Clenching her teeth, Leeseo muttered, “I’m sorry … but I have to do this …”
She quickly released Liz’s limbs from her outer garments, exposing just her top, which looked like enough space for her to breathe—if she still could. Holding her breath, she pinched Liz’s nose and kissed her, pushing air into her. As soon as she did, she quickly began pumping against her chest, simulating a pulse, trying to spread that oxygen all throughout her lifeless body.
She repeated this once, then twice, then thrice. She did this over and over again. She had followed every instruction that she had learned in the past from the Conductor. She never thought it would come in handy like this.
“Please …. ngh … please work, please work …”
Had it been seconds? Mere moments? Or had minutes gone by? Leeseo couldn’t tell. All she knew and all she cared about was trying and trying, putting in her best effort to try and resuscitate her companion. No matter how hard it took.
As she pressed her lips one last time against Liz’s dried up pair, she felt a tongue nick hers.
Immediately, the young girl pulled back, holding two fingers against her mouth. She could not have imagined that. There was no way Liz’s tongue would have made that motion. Unless …?
There, coughing up some blood to the side, groaning with the first signs of life that was restored to her, was the archivist and guard of the Astral Express.
“Lee … seo …”
Liz’s eyes were rolling into the back of her head, her consciousness barely there. But it seemed she was aware enough to register pain as she screamed.
“L-Liz …? Liz! Liz, are you ok? What’s wrong—what’s hurting you?”
Panting steadily as her body shivered like Leeseo’s, all she could muster was the twitch of her thumb that seemed to ever-so-lightly be pointing towards her stomach.
“O-Of course, your shirt must be constricting you. Here, let me—.”
But as Leeseo motioned towards her midsection to try and lift her turtleneck from her hips, she let out a shrill yell.
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