Work Text:
Red skies. Screams. A thunder of feet and clouds alike. These were the sounds of the final days as they drew upon the land.
Equivalent to the glare that the world seemed to have on life itself stood someone that stared back with a baleful resolve of their own. The world would not end because to have it be so would be to destroy that which he had worked for. What he longed for, what he loved, all of it was in danger in a measure too close to actuality.
"He's gone."
Halmarut's face did not shift nor did his gaze as he took in the words. Violent as another crack in the sky above, wings pressed themselves out from his spine. Large and foreboding, they were but a precursor to what they would be if changed in whole. They were as horrifying as they were magnificent, branching out two—nearly three—yalms in either direction in their span. Dark blue, they blended with the wild tangle of Halmarut's hair to form a wall of darkness.
"Orion—"
"I suppose I am… now," Orion said, blink sharp but he still did not turn his head. "My place… they managed it so quickly…"
Sacrifice was introduced as an answer to the convocation and he had denied it in whole as had Azem. Unlike her, they had taken to replacing him at once. A quick swap of bodies so that… what, he wasn't sure. If the world was ending, who cared what they looked like to the people? Broken or whole, they were all doomed, weren't they? Yet they had persuaded others that there was a chance if they sacrificed themselves for the greater good.
Who among them would not stand up for that?
"Orion…" Again, Erebus' voice fought the sound around them. His hand met Orion's shoulder and curled into it tightly. "Did you hear me?"
"I did. I simply… I do not…" Eyes dancing against the skyline, fire singed away another tree nearby and their breathing caught in their throat. "I… it is dying. It is all… dying."
Erebus shifted further, braver than others ever would dare in his place, to stand before them. Another hand connected with the opposite shoulder and he held tighter still. Look at me, his actions demanded and as so often the case, Orion listened. Looking down at the man, he felt himself freeze at the sight. There, his lone and remaining partner, begging him not to transform and lose himself further.
"He's gone," Orion said.
"He's gone," Erebus repeated, face made stone by requirement. "Hythlodaeus is gone, he has sacrificed himself. Let us not leave him in vain. Do not falter now. Do not chase that which stills your heart and makes out of it a monster. Listen to me. Listen."
Lowering slowly, wings furled against his spine but did not disappear. A lowering of a rifle that was still loaded given the chance to shoot. Shaking hands drew up to curl on either side of Erebus' face, nails taking purchase against the skin there as they could. As if somehow he could preserve the man if he dug into him hard enough.
"We will make it worth it. We will live and we will have one another… and we will get him back," Erebus commanded.
Odd, wasn't it, that he was the one now leading. So long was he happy in his place to follow, but that was a world in which ideal life was easily obtained. That was a life when their partner still lived in his full form with them. Jaw locked, Orion sighed from his nose and let the wings behind him stretch out in a quick flick before extending again. Erebus' mouth opened in protest but quickly closed as they circled around him and closed off that which surrounded them.
Darkness made not of the end, but of comfort.
"You must live, do you hear me?" Their hold tightened on Erebus' jaw and when he nodded, they did the same in return. "Let us away before it comes."
"A beast?" Erebus asked, blinking to stare up at Orion a little wider.
Orion leaned forward to press a kiss into Erebus' forehead and his wings curled tighter for a moment before falling back and away. His gaze went out over Erebus' head, fixed on a point that held nothing but red and death.
"No… her reckoning."