Chapter Text
It all happens in a flash, and that fact makes Percy even angrier. One second they are fighting Ripley and her conjured minions, taking what cover they can from her bullets, the next Vex is letting out a victorious yell as an arrow fired from Fenthras finds the side of the good doctor, ripping nearly clean through her flesh. Another shout, Ripley this time, and then a booming puff of smoke, and suddenly they are alone. They all look around, heads popping out from behind rocks or trees, finding each other’s confused gazes and nothing else. And then Ripley’s disembodied voice growls through the air, and Percy winces hard as it grates in his ears.
“You don’t play fair, Percival!” she hisses, “Hiding behind your friends like this. Let’s see how you fare on your own, shall we?”
There’s a faint pop somewhere to Percy’s left, and he turns just in time to see something come to form behind Vex where she’s crouched behind a boulder. Before he can call out to her to watch out, Ripley materializes, grabs her around the waist, and disappears, leaving behind a sinister cackle, but what lingers in the air is the echo of the last syllable of Percy’s name leaving Vex in a cry of surprise.
And then, silence. Deafening, pressing silence as those who are left stand frozen in shock, unsure of what just happened and what to do next.
“Vex!” Vax calls out desperately, and Percy finds himself falling to the ground on shaking knees, Bad News clattering as it slips out of his loosened grasp, “Vex’ahlia! VEX’AHLIA! ”
With a groan and growl of obvious worry, Trinket joins Vax’s panicked search, running around in circles, his low roars growing more desperate with each passing second that Vex doesn’t appear. Grog, still in a Rage, matches the bear’s heavy stomps as he too starts searching, while Scanlan finally finds some time to patch himself up as best he can. Keyleth is following - chasing - Vax around, but is trying with less and less success to calm him down.
Percy is rooted to the spot, eyes looking ahead without seeing, ears still ringing with Vex’s voice shouting for him. Already aching, wounded and barely able to stay on his feet, Percy feels even weaker now, his arms hanging limply at his sides, his shoulders drooping with the weight of his guilt as his brain tries to process what just happened.
“Where is she?” The heat of Vax’s anger colors his voice, but Percy barely registers any of it - not the hoarse rasp in Vax’s throat, not the quickly shortening gap between him and the half-elf. “Where the fuck is she?!”
“Vax, calm down,” Keyleth says softly, but her plea falls on deaf ears.
Vax’s fists grasp the collar of Percy’s coat tight, and then he gives Percy a violent shake, as if the answer would just fall out of Percy’s pockets. “Percival, where the fuck is my sister?!”
“I...I don’t know…” Percy replies, low and heavy.
“Yes, you fucking do, you arrogant prick,” Vax spits out, “You’re always fucking bragging about how you know fucking everything , so where the bloody hell is that bitch and what has she done with my sister?!”
Keyleth puts a hand on one of Vax’s arms. “Vax, he doesn’t know,” she tries to convince him.
“The hell he doesn’t!” Vax growls, and before anyone can say anything else, Vax rears back with his other arm. His closed fist catches Percy square in the face jaw, and Percy, caught unawares, goes down hard.
“Vax, stop it!” Keyleth yelps, trying to push and pull Vax away alternately, “Stop it, this isn’t helping! We’re not going to find them if we turn on each other. STOP IT!”
The punch hurts, truly hurts. As Percy gingerly sits himself up with one hand, the other rubs at the side of his face and under his chin. There’s definitely going to be a bruise, at the very least. And isn’t it so typical of Percival’s brain to still wonder about how much of a mark Vax’s punch will leave on him in the middle of such a panic-inducing crisis as this? Percy raises his knees, either elbow propped on them as he shakes his head.
“I’m sorry,” he sighs, “I’m so sorry.”
Keyleth is at his side in an instant, a hand rubbing gently across his shoulder, although he barely feels it. “It’s not your fault, Percy,” she tells him.
“Yes, it bloody is,” Vax interjects through gritted teeth.
“ No, it isn’t,” Keyleth argues firmly, and Vax clicks his tongue and turns his head away, a fist still clenched at his side, “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known what would happen. It happened too fast; even if you were right beside Vex, you may not have been able to stop it.”
“That’s true,” Percy replies, but it sounds weak even in his own ears, “That’s true…”
Keyleth continues rubbing at his shoulder. “Besides, we’re wasting time pointing fingers and blaming ourselves. And Vex wouldn’t want you to blame yourself for this anyway. You know she wouldn’t.”
Percy blinks at Keyleth, who only offers the tiniest of smiles in the corner of her mouth. Percy sighs. She knows. Of course Keyleth knows.
“You know what we can do?” Keyleth continues, looking up at Vax as well this time, “We can scry. I’ve used up some of my stronger spells, but I can use the Scrying Eye to find Ripley and Vex.”
“That’ll tell us where they are, not how to get to them,” Vax points out, “This island is vast as fuck, even if we have a venue or a location, we wouldn’t even know which direction to start walking in to get there.”
“But it’s a start,” Keyleth replies, “I’ll do what I can to get as much information as I can, but we have to start somewhere.”
Something in Keyleth’s words affects Vax, and Percy sees his expression soften, his shoulders sagging. “Right,” he says quietly, “You’re right. Sorry. I’m sorry.”
Keyleth straightens up and returns to Vax, taking his hands into hers. “We’ll find her, okay?” she tells him placatingly, “We’ll find Vex and we’ll get her back. We just gotta keep our heads and figure out a game plan. I know we’re not exactly the best at following through with plans we make, but we’ve gotta pull our shit together. For Vex, yeah?”
Percy watches in silence as Vax sighs heavily, but then nods. “For Vex,” Vax repeats, “For Vex. God, fuck. I’m sorry, Keykey.”
“It’s okay,” she tells him, pulling him into a comforting embrace, “It’s fine. Just get it together, okay? We’ll find her.” She turns to Percy. “We’ll find her.”
Percy lets out a heavy breath, then another, and another. He runs a hand through his hair, then nods at Keyleth. He tries to get to his feet, but as he does, a wound in his side protests, and he winces, letting out a grunt through gritted teeth.
“We need to rest,” Keyleth decides, pulling away from Vax, who keeps an arm around her waist even as they both turn their attention first to Percy, then to Scanlan.
“No,” Percy answers, “The sooner we leave to find Vex, the less time Ripley has to do anything to her.”
Keyleth tuts in such an uncanny, if unintentional, impression of Vex that were the circumstances different, Percy would have laughed. “You’re barely standing, Percy,” she points out, “And Scanlan is in shreds. We’re no good to Vex half-dead.”
Percy almost argues that he’s fine, but as he tries to stretch a kink out of his back, the ache in his side flares up again, and he gasps, nearly doubling over at the sudden sharp pain.”
“Exactly,” Keyleth snorts, “Scanlan, can you throw up the mansion?”
“Uh, yeah,” Percy hears Scanlan reply hoarsely from a short distance, “Just...just give me a second.”
Keyleth lets go of Vax and approaches Percy, placing a hand on his side. Immediately, a soothing warmth spreads from where her palm is touching him. He feels some of the pain start to dull and dissipate, but just as he begins to take comfort in the healing magic, he feels it begin to fade. “I’m sorry I can’t do this any stronger,” she tells him, “I need my stronger spells back first.”
“It’ll do,” Percy tells her honestly, “Thank you. What do you need to start scrying for Ripley?”
“I’ve got the Eye,” she answers, “Do you have anything else of hers that we can use?”
A quick recall makes Percy shake his head. “Vex had the last few pages of her journal that I had,” he says, “But I can give you Retort. It could work.”
“It could work,” Keyleth echoes, and Percy carefully places his weapon in her palm, pointing the barrel away from either of them, “Hang tight.”
She walks away, finding a good spot to settle in to start her scrying. Scanlan, with some difficulty, has begun conjuring up their magic mansion. Grog is trying to settle himself back down and out of his Rage, and Trinket sniffs and mewls at him, as if asking him where Vex might be. When that fails to produce any results, Trinket moves on to Vax, nudging at his hand and letting out sounds that Percy supposes are bear whimpers. He seems to be near tears, and the expression Trinket’s face wrings at Percy’s already heavy heart. His memory conjures up a dark tomb, a disturbed sarcophagus, an unexpected explosion. Percy chokes, coughs. Not again. Not this time. Please not this time.
“Sorry, buddy,” Vax whispers at Trinket, petting his head, “We’ll find your mum, don’t you worry.” Trinket lets out a sad sort of growl in response, bowing his head and plopping down onto his stomach, his snout resting on his front paws. Trinket’s eyes move to Percy, and then the great big bear heaves a great big sigh that Percy finds himself echoing as he walks over to Trinket and Vax.
“Vax,” Percy starts, low and hushed, “Vax, I know you blame me for this --”
“Stop,” interjects Vax, loud enough for only Percy to hear, not even turning to look at Percy, “Just...don’t talk right now. I am upset, I am worried, and I am angry. In general, yes, but also at you. I’m sure my anger at you is misplaced or what the fuck ever, but right now, I need something or someone to blame because it is helping me keep things under control. So yes, I fucking blame you, de Rolo. And I swear, if you don’t find a way to get my sister back, I will hurt you.”
Hurt, not kill. Vax wouldn’t do that, Vax wouldn’t kill Percy. Not because he couldn’t, but because he wouldn’t want Percy to get away with this.
“I would expect nothing less,” Percy replies.
Vax tsks, narrows his eyes, but still doesn’t turn to Percy. “Didn’t I just say don’t talk?”
“ SHIT! ”
Keyleth’s sharp cussing cuts through the air. Both Vax and Percy turn to find her pushing herself up off the floor in a huff, clearly upset. Vax is the first to get to her, and helps her to her feet.
“What is it?” Vax asks, desperate, “Keyleth, what did you see? Did you see Vex?”
“No!” Keyleth answers, aggressively patting at her clothes, “I saw fuck-all! I saw maybe two seconds, and then I got pushed the fuck out! Just like that time on the airship. I think it’s probably the damn cloak or something.” She kicks a small stone, and it bounces away. “Fuck!”
Percy lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. “Fuck,” he repeats.
“So are you saying we need to wait for fucking Ripley to take the cloak off?!” Vax asks, “What if she never takes it off?!”
Keyleth shrugs, rubbing at her forehead in frustration. “She might,” she breathes, “I mean, the first time I tried to scry on her on the airship, I got kicked out, but then I tried again and it worked, we saw her underwater. But this is all moot if it’s not even actually the cloak that’s stopping me from seeing her, it could be something else entirely, some other magic thing that she has or can do.” She turns to Percy in an unspoken question.
“There’s not a lot of magic she can do, from what I remember of her,” he confesses, “But it’s been a long time since she was on my radar; we’d nearly forgotten about her in all the ruckus of finding Vestiges and fighting dragons. She could have learned or acquired other things or skills between now and the last time we saw her.”
“That’s not hopeful, Percival,” Vax snorts.
“The truth rarely ever is,” Percy shoots back, “I don’t mean to be a downer, but we’ve proven time and again that we could assume ten things about something or someone and prepare for those, and still be completely wrong because of an unpredicted eleventh possibility that turns out to be the reality of the situation.”
Vax seems to have no counter other than a glare.
“I hate to say it, but Percy’s right,” Keyleth says, “We have to consider that there are a ton of things we don’t know about Ripley now that’s affecting how we’re fighting her. I’ll...I’ll figure something out, but I could use a rest so I can get some spells back. You both look like shit, so you need to rest too.”
“Fuck resting, that’s wasting time!” Vax protests, “Whatever time we spend not getting Vex back is time in which Ripley could be seriously hurting her.”
“I don’t disagree,” Keyleth says evenly, “But at the same time, if you go off wandering aimlessly without a clear destination, there’s a good possibility of you getting lost, and then that would be both of you that we’d have to try and get back. Plus, Percy’s not looking so hot right now, did you not hear when I said he’s no good to anyone like this?”
Vax opens his mouth to say something, but Keyleth shakes her head.
“I know you’re worried,” she tells Vax, “I am too. I’m so scared, because we don’t know what Ripley is capable of exactly. I just want Vex back. I want Vex back almost as bad as you do. But we have to be smart about this, Vax. We can’t just go tearing around the island and wasting energy and making a lot of noise just to find her, that could make things worse for her. I know it’s hard, but we’re used to making hard calls. Vex is a survivor, just like you. And she has faith in all of us. So let’s not let her down, okay?”
There are tears quietly streaming down her face, and now Vax is crying too. Percy blinks away the sting behind his own eyes, and turns away just as Vax circles his arms around Keyleth.
The hard calls ...Were they not just talking about this a day earlier? About how the hard choices never seemed to end up being the right choices, at least to Percy? About how everything they’ve had to choose between in recent months has been hard anyway, and it has all boiled down to which choice will have the least amount of consequences instead of the most number of rewards? Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last either, Percy hates that this is their lot in life. Hates it more now that the choice between one hard thing and another involves deciding Vex’s fate in the next few hours. Hates that if not for him, Ripley would never have known of Vex, would never have needed to harm Vex, would not now be making them all choose between their well-being and Vex’s life.
I’m sorry, Vex. I’m so sorry.
Percy thinks he says this out loud, but unlike yesterday, there is no Vex to hear him.
~ to be continued. ~