ORIGIN

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Livius tried their best to keep themselves under control as Reseda spoke, although their quills were already at full mast. Their skin tingled as though their blood was boiling. Their paws ached to dance, to break into a spinning, leaping blur of angry green fur. But no; through it all they fought to keep themselves still, to keep themselves composed.

And as Reseda spoke, their eyes hardened further. They could see it in their mind's eye, the thing she described, the thing that they hated so. They felt nausea rising in their belly at the thought, anger building until it spilled, and they felt as though they were fit to bursting. The weasel shut their eyes, folding their ears back, and taking in a deep breath.

It hurt. It hurt far too much to face.

The voices faded to a distant burble... When they opened their eyes, it was with a new sense of clarity. They felt everything numbing. All the emotions blurred into one; they were watching it go by like the carriages from a train platform. Their world couldn't crumble now. Their Kingdom meant everything to them.

They felt the world as though it had slowed down.

They opened their jaws to speak their answer, but then was cut off as Reseda began to choke. The awful noise brought them flooding back to their senses, feeling tingling pins and needles flowing back into their limbs, and their heart pounding as the large lizard vomited blood-- and Amazon-- onto the stony ground. The terrible sight stunned them from their stupor.

Feelings came flooding back, knocking them out of their stupor. A tangle of it. Too much of it. But Livius found themselves rising up.

And then... they laughed.

It was impossible to tell if the sound was relief, or a cackle at the komodo dragon's misfortunes. But to Livius, it was a terrible, terrible release, as though ripping hooks from their skin.

"The Kingdom are stronger than you think, Reseda. Even if I handed over my crown, they would never follow the likes of you. Better yet... Do you remember my request? An even simpler one, if I do say so myself."

They pattered down the wall, and onto the ground, trotting past Pride and sidling towards her. They placed themselves between Amazon and her. They took hold of Reseda, keeping her claws out of their back. Their magic couldn't fail now.

"Well, do you?"

They paused just long enough for her to formulate her answer before elaborating.

"...I said you'd grovel at my feet, or you'd die. I bet you never thought it'd end up being both, did you?"

And with that they forced Reseda's face into the dirt, with force that could have broken bones.

"Grovel to your King, Reseda."

They padded up to her, so that the two green beasts were nose to nose. They stood upright, and looking down upon her triumphantly.

After savouring the moment, King Livius finally glanced back at Pride.

"...And Pride? Put a spike through her head, if you please. Make it quick, and painless. Because I, Reseda, am a merciful King."

They couldn't hold this for much longer. Even now, they felt themselves draining. Their hold, slipping.

@Reseda

Rated M for...yeah.

She was still glaring at the two when Amazon began to move around in her mouth. She didn't think anything about it at first, arrogance said that the useless creature could do nothing to her. But then the tiny claws of the lizard touched the back of her throat and she gagged. At first, she didn't realize what was happening and merely shut her mouth again but then...pain. Horrible, horrible pain. It was indescribable, the inside of her throat ripped apart from within, choking her with her own blood. She lurched backwards, eyes widening with surprise. This was not possible. The lizard couldn't do this. She wasn't strong enough, she was weak! A pitiful excuse! A waste! She couldn't be the one to end it, not her, Reseda, the incarnation of Greed and the rightful ruler of the caves!

But she could not fight it. It was coming. Her stomach heaved and blood and bile and the lizard herself went spilling onto the cave floor. She stumbled forward, retching, red splattering and staining the rocks. She was shaking with rage. This wasn't right. This couldn't be happening! She opened her jaws to saw something, to spit out some last insult, but all that came out was a gurgle, followed by another spray of gore.

Her body was seizing now, the control taken away again. She wanted to trash and scream and eat the little wretch because she hated them so much. Why did she ever take them in, give them this place? If she hadn't, if she had refused to make them king...then none of this would have happened! She glared at the weasel, the words washing over her, but the pain was so great...the anger was so loud, pounding in her ears, that she heard so little of it. They were laughing. They were goading. She was going to kill them now. Destroy them.

And so her gem flashed, magic building rapidly. She was going to end them all for this. Her head was raised and smashed into the dirt, the loud cracking sound of her jaw opening the gate, exploding her rage and her magic out through the lashes on her eye. But just as the spell released, Pride's own attack hit the gem, instantly vaporizing the stone and releasing the radiation she'd built up inside.

It was terrible, but it was beautiful. The gem immediately exploded, flashing white-hot, glowing a bright green, as if an aurora had burst from her eye. The stones beneath her shivered and cracked and a wave of force rolled over them as Reseda screamed. Tthe pain, the horrible ungodly pain smashed through her and shattered her like the peridot eyelashes that were drifting through the air, burning into nothing. She was breaking apart, every cell rent away as radiation rolled through her, the force ripping all the way open the wound Amazon had started. It only lasted a second before the scream was cut and she fell to the ground, the entire right half of her face blown off and melted away, a steady stream of blood flowing from her cracked jaw.

Whatever they did to her now, she would not move. She would not react. Her gem was gone, obliterated, and every bit of consciousness had rushed out with her screams. She was dead.

Amazon was frozen. What had just happened? It had been like her muscles had moved on their own, her mind, her brutal, relentless thoughts tearing through Reseda's throat through her claws, unconsciously. Unwillingly. She said she'd do whatever it took to get back to Luster and to Livius but...this...there was blood everywhere. It was everywhere, hot on her scales, thick on her tongue. She could only see red and smell the tangy, metallic scent. She couldn't escape it.

They were talking, Livius...laughing and yelling, but she was shocked. Too shocked with herself, with what she'd just done, to react at all. She turned back at the sound of cracking bones and watched with wide eyes as Livius demanded the lizard to grovel before them. She didn't have time to be terrified by the demand when bright loud filled her vision and an explosively loud sound smashed against her ears. She cried and staggered back, squeezing her eyes shut and backing away, flinching as a fleck of hot, vaporized gemstone touched her scales and then instantly evaporated.

What was going on? What had happened?! She staggered around, eyes squeezed shut, the overwhelming scent of blood dulling her senses. She fumbled around, blind, senseless, confused, squeaking pitifully and shivering uncontrollably. What had she done?!

@Pride

Pride listened, and he watched Livius approach Reseda. He didn't realize, at first, that the weasel was magically controlling the reptile's body--how could he? He hadn't even known such magic existed. But Reseda's face smashing into the dirt, Livius' biting words--and fearless approach--brought with them a dawning realization.

Savage glee twinned with a smaller part of shocked surprise somewhere in some fading, moral part of his mind. He'd never seen Livius like this... he hadn't known they had it in them... and yet, he was glad for it. There was the backbone he'd been waiting to see. There was the spine.

He did not know that Reseda tried, and failed, to cast her own spell. He only half-closed his eyes, squinting at the burst of supernova plasma that melted her gemstone into plasma. And when he opened them again, her broken body--wings trailing, legs limp, face torn away and smoking--was lifeless.

For a moment, he was silent; the job was done, and his mind worked to take the next steps.

"Her body will decay," he said, after a moment, "fairly rapidly, I should think. I would suggest that we hang her bones over the Throne as a warning to anyone else who would defy us so. Prevent violence before it begins," he suggested smoothly. That feeling of dominance, of success, was so overwhelming--and Pride felt nothing of pity or remorse. That foul lizard had tormented him since his birth, clumsily trying to use him, always inferior to his own intellect even as a fawn. She had thought herself a master manipulator, but she was a blind fool fumbling in the dark, and she always had been. She had no redeeming features. There was nothing there to mourn.

"Impressive display, my king," he added, and there was sincerity and respect in his tone. Always before he'd felt as though he were picking up after Livius, supporting them where they were too weak to do things themselves, or too self-centered. This time, though--though perhaps it was still a selfish act on Livius' part--Pride had truly felt Livius to be the one in control. The one leading.

He did not resent this; in fact, he was glad of it. Proud of them, even. "Were you controlling her movements, somehow?"

There were other things that needed to be done, however. Pride paced over to Amazon, mewling and wretched. He had no idea how sick the lizard might be now, or how much time she had left. It'd been over a cycle since last they met, hadn't it..?

Pride lowered his nose to try and gently nudge her. "Come," he said quietly. "You can sit on my back if you like; are you cold? Are you ill? You are all right, now; she is gone." He didn't ask her to recount what had happened, or how she'd gotten captured. He knew, instinctively, that she might not be up to speaking of it.

As an afterthought, he called upon his magicka again, briefly--ignoring the stench of burning komodo flesh not far off as he tried to generate a small, sweet fruit for Amazon to eat. To distract her; perhaps even to strengthen her. It appeared upon the ground between them, and Pride crushed it carefully with one sharp hoof, so that the fragrant pulp squeezed out near Amazon.

@Livius

Livius folded their ears back at the sound of Reseda's magic giving out, backing up and away from the lizard as she burst into flames, and felt a back paw tread in something sticky. Twisting around, they found that they'd stepped in the pool of blood from amazon's assault. Their stomach turned over with momentary disgust, yet they turned back to watch Reseda's fall with a tightly controlled expression. Their heart hammered, yet they were determined to show not even a trace of fear.

The weasel was disappointed, as the komodo dragon had died without even a word of anger, leaving the feeling of victory to be quite hollow. They supposed that, in that sense, the lizard really had had the last laugh.

Pride's words resulted in little reaction other than a small twitch of their rounded ears. They looked towards him. Or rather, through him. "Yes. Yes, that could be... beneficial," they said drily. They tried, for a moment, not to think about what they had done, the broken remains lying in front of them. She had deserved it, wholly and truly. They'd done worse.

And... though they hated to admit it, this was getting easier. After this round, they were really just tired. The spell had exhausted them in a way that no magic had prior. And they supposed, with a hint of smugness, that taking control of someone's own body was no mean feat.

"Thank you, Pride," the weasel continued after a while. "And... Yes, I was. I took over her movements. Forced her to let Amazon go. Then to grovel."

Finally, Livius turned towards Amazon, hearing her whimpers, her sobs. They padded over to her, ignoring, for now, the blood staining their paws, gently pushing themselves upright onto their haunches. They sucked in their breath, although they felt their magic straining, And felt warm water seeping through their fur, soaking them head to toe.

They avoided her gaze, their quills lying flat against their back as, in a thoroughly unusual display for them, they used their paws as damp cloths to carefully clean her scales.

Their sticky pads drew up the fluid and their fur gradually darkened with gore, but it didn't matter. They were past caring, today.

Later, when Livius was alone, they could wash away their sins.

Mere moments had passed since Reseda's death. There was a whistling, then: high and jaunty, a bittersweet tune, somehow cheerful and melancholy both. Its notes were long, drawn out, its melody haunting. It drew nearer, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, a figure appeared.

Hooded, horned, crimson pinprick eyes glinting out from beneath a black hood. A dark fur ruff cloaked its shoulders. It approached Reseda's body, and looked down; and then the whistling faded to silence, and the figure--a smile in its voice--spoke.

"A well-deserved reward. I'll be repossessing that, now." The figure swept down into a smooth kneel, in a swish of black, rough cloth. Slender, clawed fingers emerged from the sleeves and closed over the golden collar that still lay snug against the komodo dragon's lifeless neck.

It seemed to slip off through her neck, rather than over her head--and vanish away, tucked into The Collector's sleeve. He stood, again, and bowed his head, tipping a nonexistent hat in a little salute; he then turned, and as he sauntered away, the whistling began again.

It was over, she knew it was - the dragon's breathing, the horrible breath, it was gone now. There was silence, save for the two voices left. But Amazon kept her eyes squeezed shut. She didn't want to look, she didn't want to look at it. She'd killed someone. Or, at least, helped kill someone. She didn't want to see the body sprawled before her, whatever damage had happened to it. And Pride's suggestion horrified her absolutely.

And even more so that Livius agreed.

"N-no," she gasped. "Please don't. I can't look. I don't want to look at it." She could feel something soft nudging at her and she looked away from where Reseda had been, where it was safe to open her eyes again, and was faced with snow-white fur. She hiccuped as she shook her head. "No...I'm fine. I'm just...just..." She tried to search around for the right word, but nothing was coming to mind. There was an extended pause before she gasped it out, almost involuntarily. "I killed someone."

Saying it out loud was worse. It made it real. She had never liked hurting things, she'd never condoned violence of any kind...and death...she'd been haunted by it. Onye's body, decayed , a pile of dark sludge where there had once been skin, fur, muscles, eyes...the body of the seagull that she'd seen from a distance, the vultures huddling around to eat before its remains met the same fate...he own body, from her dreams, nightmares, seizing up and gasping for breath, twitching and writhing on the ground before her heart gave up and she was gone. And her scales were melting from her bones and Luster was crying and Livius was shaking and Pride stood over her with that same cool, collected expression on his face...

She stood like that for some time, silent, eyes wide and staring into nothing as Livius methodically washed the blood from her scales. What had she done?!

@Pride

At the appearance of the Collector Pride stiffened, his head swinging up, one pace taken toward him protectively. He wasn't sure if this creature was here to fight on Reseda's behalf--or to avenge her--but his words suggested otherwise. The stag said nothing--what could he say? Ask why she had done it? He knew. Ask what the Collector had had to do with it? He doubted anything at all. So for once he was without words as the black-cloaked figure faded, mercifully taking away the strange golden collar. Pride wondered, for a moment, what the thing had been. But it was too late, now, to ask--and perhaps it being gone was for the best. It had not influenced Reseda, or if it had, it hadn't changed who she was; he'd known her, and her mind, before she'd ever worn that thing.

When he was gone, Pride turned his attention to Amazon.

"She would have killed you," Pride answered smoothly. "If we could bring her back to life right now, let her kill you, and turn the Kingdom and its children over to her, would that be a better plan?" His tone was not harsh--it was mild, if anything--but nor was it kind or condescending. He had a point to make--Amazon needed to be jarred from that guilt straightaway, in his mind. "I do not know how well you know her, Amazon, but she wandered the caves gathering impressionable children, trying to convince them to become her army. To take it all over; to be its king. That is why the Seven formed, and that is why we defied her and made it our own."

He nodded, a little, toward Livius. "She has killed others in her bid for power. Feel no remorse; I had seen into her mind, and there was no kindness in her, nothing at all worth your pity." Granted, he hadn't actually searched all of Reseda's emotions and memories--but whenever he had delved in, he'd felt no feeling at all. The lizard had been wholly cold. "She was nothing like you, Amazon. You are kind, and perhaps your remorse now speaks to that. But she would have felt absolutely nothing in crushing the life from you."

About the bones, he did not yet speak. They'd have to wait for a time, but he fully intended to put them on display. They were guardians, not simpering weaklings--but allowances would have to be made for Amazon's trauma, and time given for her to heal.

Pride turned then to Livius. Livius, who was showing a gentle side; Livius, calm and collected, grooming the blood from the would-be victim. He felt warmth; he felt renewed loyalty. "My king," he began, and this time because he felt it, rather than to be proper--he felt they were aligned in their methods and goals at last; "I would ask if you are able to teach me that magic. I can think of very little more useful. I would have been able to rip off her wings, or toss her to the ceiling, but not to physically--" He paused, glancing at Amazon. He'd been about to say "remove her claws from Amazon's scales" but given the circumstances, that might be harsh phrasing. He looked back to Livius. "-Stop her actions," he finished, instead.

@Livius

Livius' spines stiffened at the sound of the whistle, their bloodied paws paused in their feervent, yet gentle, cleaning of Amazon's scales. They shivered at the sound, the high-pitched shrillness grating right to their core. And as they looked up, towards the body of the komodo dragon, and saw the strange figure there, they froze outright, staring, blinking slowly.

”And just who the fuck are you?” they asked sharply, but not threateningly. They were unnerved, but unwilling to risk another fight.

A brief pang of jealousy tightened around their chest as the stranger slipped the strange golden chain from her neck- a chain that Livius had not noticed, but felt should rightly be theirs. They, after all, were the victor here.

But it wasn't worth another fight. So, when they were certain that the creeping stranger wasn't going to be threatening them, they wrenched their gaze away from them and towards Amazon, then Pride.

They listened to the brief exchange between the two Gembounds without much to add. Exhaustion was creeping into their limbs. Their heart felt strained, worn.

”I know,” they finally murmured after that, voice low so that the Collector wouldn't hear. It was unclear if the words were an effort to comfort her, or simply a fact. ”I have too... This one makes three. It... Gets easier.”

They let Pride handle the heavy lifting, even though his words felt crushing against their already worn out heart. ”She was a monster.”

After a long pause, they looked up when Pride spoke to them directly. His words, and the way he spoke them, brought a spark of warmth that they clung to.

His request, though, brought hesitation. The weasel's tailtip twitched, softly rasping against the cold stone beneath them.

They wanted, so badly, to get away from here. To go to somewhere quiet and be alone, to fold in on themselves and disassociate.

But now was not the time. Now was the time to be a king.

”Perhaps,” they answered hesitantly, looking up at him. Their expression was even, tired, and perhaps just a little bit grim. It was almost as though the thought of having this power sickened them, although that wasn't quite the case. It was... as Pride had said... 'useful'. ”But... not now.”

How were they not bothered about this? Amazon shook her head, having missed the sudden appearance and disappearance from her state of panic. She couldn't get those images out of her head, looping over and over. Had Livius felt this too, when they first killed? And Pride as well? No...not Pride, he couldn't have. He was always driven by that purpose, he was never kicked down from the place where he stood. "But...she was alive. And while you are alive there's always another chance! Always! Even if she didn't use her chances before...she still had time to get better, right? But now she can't. She can't do anything. Because she's gone and there's no bringing her back. Even her gem..." It was gone. Obliterated. No chance for a second life, no chance to get better.

That realization was enough to break her down. Tears began falling from her eyes and she sniffled, trying, and failing, to hold in her gentle sobs. "I don't want it to get easier! It doesn't matter...it doesn't matter what she did! It's not right! Who are we to judge who lives and dies? I shouldn't have done it, I shouldn't have. Why did I do that?" She shook her head, brain spinning a bit from everything that'd happened. She had thought that this would be more like a reunion, that'd she'd come home to her family and be happy, but this wasn't right. None of this was right.

@Pride

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