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Riven wasn’t sure which way was up. He tried to take a deep breath in, only to feel the thin and dusty air. He tasted blood in the back of his throat, his lungs ached with the gulf of stale air. Something wet dragged up his chest and he choked and coughed, blind white pain exploding behind his eyelids as the coughs made him move his torso and suddenly everything was burning .
He wheezed for air, spat blood down on the rubble and blinked the tears away, pressing his lips tightly together. The pain receded, not to a dull ache, still very much present, but taking an inch back. He forced his eyes open, the ones he didn’t remember closing and then for an awful second Riven thought he was blind.
His eyes were open, but he couldn’t see anything .
His heart hammered away and he sucked in the air, coughed again as it clung to the blood pooling in his mouth. Then his eyes started to adjust to the darkness and he realized he wasn’t blind, but the reality wasn’t that much better either. He was under several layers of rubble. He was half sitting up, crumpled to his side and Riven planted a hand on the cold damp ground, struggling to remember how he had ended up trapped.
He pushed himself sitting upright and then felt the pain surge back. He palmed his side blindly and something warm and liquid coated his fingers. Blood, still running. Riven leaned his head back against a slab of stone and took a steadying breath, gingerly touching around his side. He felt his ribs, aching and bruised, but not broken… Then something sharp and jagged. A stone, lodged on his left side. He didn’t dare touch it, didn’t dare remove it. Right now that piece of rock buried in him was probably the only thing keeping his blood inside .
“Great,” Riven wheezed, taking another deep breath and then moving his feet. The right foot was just fine, the left one hurt like a motherfucker, but he managed to move it, which now he was counting as a win. He needed help. The air tasted like dirt.
Next to him, somewhere to his left, he heard a gasp, then wheezing. Painful, panicked wheezing of someone trying to suck in enough air and realizing they were going to suffocate. Riven’s stomach churned, he didn’t want to hear anyone die. He leaned to his left, only to stop as he felt the stone dig deeper. He gagged, coughed up more blood and then reached in with his right hand, trying to figure his way around in the dark.
He only had a couple more inches to explore before his shaky fingers met rocks, sharp pieces poking out and grazing at his fingertips. Whoever it was, he couldn’t reach them.
Riven let his head hang, sucked in another breath and then called, “Sky?”
More coughing and wheezing, but it couldn’t be Sky. Whoever this was, they were smaller than his best friend. Much smaller.
“... Dane?” Riven tried, frowning and then, as if the name unlocked something in his mind, Riven remembered a little too clearly: Dane’s face in front of him, the freckles he had over the bridge of his nose, his large pouty lips twisting in a smile… “Shit, Dane? Dane, are you okay?”
Dane’s lips twisting in a smile.
Dane’s lips twisting in a smile.
Dane- They’re at the South Gate.
“Ri…Riven?” A girl breathed out.
He blinked, struggling to stay in the present. The darkness didn’t help, he had no sense of depth. The world was twirling lazily around him, dipping back and forth, like he was in a boat. He gulped down, fell back on his ass and rested his head against the slab of stone.
“...Stella?”
More coughing.
No, it couldn’t be Stella, because Stella wasn’t in Alfea, was she? She had left, with Terra and the new girl and-
“Riven,” her voice sounded weak, wet, “Riven, I- Are you hurt?”
“Musa,” he recognized. How didn’t he recognize it before, he had trained with her for the past three months. Not that he had paid her any mind, he had been far too enthralled in how it felt to be with Dane, how it felt to be open about what he wanted for once in his life. Dane’s lips twisting in a smile, “Musa, shit, are you okay?”
Of course she wasn’t okay, he thought sourly. More coughing.
“I’m trapped-” she sounded panicked, “my arm is trapped.”
Her arm?
Musa flashed before his eyes: Her, in the tunnels, back turned to him, facing Beatrix. Musa losing against Beatrix, whole body shaking as an electrical current ran through her- Musa panting, her knees buckling- Dane standing in front of him, Dane’s big cow eyes, all large and gentle.
Frantically whispering, “ Riven, we have to go. Now! Where are they? Where-”
He couldn’t focus on Dane. Musa, forcing herself up, the whole tunnel shaking as a wave of purple sent Beatrix flat on her back. Musa winning…
“Riven?” Musa, in the present, called him back and he swallowed in, trying to stop his heart from racing. It didn’t matter how much he breathed, it seemed like there wasn’t enough air. There probably wasn’t enough air. “Riven, can you move? Ca-can you help me…?” her voice ended all choked. More wet coughing followed, her sucking in and he heard her thrashing as she drowned in spit and blood. Panting, all desperate.
“I don’t know- I-” He turned back on his left, pushing further in, causing the wedge on his side to dig deeper. He planted his right hand flat against the stone wall separating them, pushed with all his force, which wasn’t much. Felt the rough texture scraping his palm until it dug blood, but nothing moved. There was no noise, nothing aside from his desperate panting and Riven held his breath, listening in. No Musa coughing, “Musa? Hey! MUSA!” he banged against the wall again and then, after another minute of horrible, heavy silence, he heard her wheezing.
Relief flooded him. Riven rested his forehead against the wall, listening to her breathing, or struggling to breathe.
The same relief he had felt when he saw Beatrix falling flat on her back, the same relief Dane - all gentle, all loving. Sweet lips that had been tattooed against his back every morning for the past three months - had interrupted by shaking him. Riven, we have to go! While she’s distracted!
Was he dead?
Beatrix sitting up, her dark eyes flaming neon blue and then Riven had felt the lightning in the air with his whole body, the hairs on the back of his nape rising up too. Musa was going to die, he realized, right in front of him- Dane grabbing his chin.
Riv?!
South Gate , he had answered. The one thing Sky had trusted him with, the only thing Sky had told him about the entire plan, in case Riven had changed his mind, a second chance, a please-come-with-us. The South Gate, Bloom and Sky would be escaping through the South Gate.
Dane’s lips twisting in a smile.
Beatrix rising up to her feet.
Sam Harvey stumbling through a wall, all doe eyed and falling to his knees right between Musa and Bea-
Beatrix’s surprised face, Musa shrieking “SAM!”, all of her focus ruined.
Dane’s lips twisting in a smile-
“Ri-Riven-” Musa was choking. Now. Not then, now, a couple meters away from him. So close, but he couldn’t touch her. He was listening to her die.
“Turn on your side! Musa- Musa, turn on your side!” He shouted, forcing the words so she could hear him, “Musa, c’mon!”
He heard her choking, not coughing, genuinely choking with blood and he squeezed his eyes shut. She was drowning, “FUCK, Musa! Turn on your side-”
Rustling around and then a bunch of wet coughs as she coughed up the blood that was attempting to suffocate her. He felt her relief, truly felt it, because of her magic.
The same relief he had felt when Musa’s eyes had paused on Sam, when Harvey had limped to her. The same relief that had flooded the tunnels then, hours before-
Musa had her back turned to him and Riven could only see Dane. Dane’s lips twisting in a smile. Dane leaning in, soft warm fingers that had been on his chin suddenly digging into an iron grip. Dane’s eyebrows meeting, his big brown eyes no longer all gentle, but cold and flat. No light.
“Ah Riven…” he had whispered and Riven saw, over Dane’s shoulders, as if he was watching a train rushing through the tunnel, crashing straight into him, straight into Musa, as Sam did the same to Musa. Cupped her face, “Sweet, desperate, needy, Riven.”
He couldn’t breathe.
He had told him about the South Gate.
Sam’s eyes flashing green.
Musa letting out a shriek of pain, falling to her knees.
“You didn’t think I loved you, did you?” Dane, voice all tender. Like he was baffled, the same way he had been baffled that Riven would dare leave Beatrix to die when the Burned Ones had broken into the school almost a year before. Dane, shocked Riven could be so stupid, tsking his tongue and then smiling, “You were nothing but a fuck, Riv. You’re never gonna be more than that,” leaning in, pressing his forehead to Riven’s and he wanted to be anywhere but there. He didn’t want to be Riven. He’d rather be Musa, a couple meters ahead of them, down on her knees in front of Sam and a pool of blood starting to collect around her. He’d rather be Musa, “Goodbye, Riv.”
Dane’s lips pressing against his temple, warm and venomous. Marking him like cattle.
“Musa?” Riven called, blinking to push away the invasive memory. Musa was still alive. They still had a chance .
“I-I…” she sounded like she was crying, not from the pain, but from sheer relief. He heard her breathing deeply, “You pulled down the switch.”
“I’m gonna get us out of here, okay? Okay?” Riven said, barely hearing her, “Keep talking with me…” no answer, so he banged against the rock wall separating them, “MUSA! Hey, eyes open. Keep talking!”
He heard a whistle, an awful whistle of a collapsed lung. He couldn’t save her, he wasn’t strong enough, he was too far away. He couldn’t save her, she had been down on her knees bleeding before Sam Harvey and Beatrix and Dane…
“MUSA!”
“You-” Even that single word was tiring, it dragged past her mouth like it was eating up all her energy. He dug his fingers in the crevices between the rocks, trying to pull one loose. This could be bad, he could cause the entire thing to collapse, but it was a small risk in comparison to the sound of Musa dying a couple meters away from him, “You flipped the switch.”
“Yeah, I did,” Riven agreed, tugged on a small piece of rock and panted as he felt more blood rush from his side, “Eyes open, Musa.”
“You…” she sighed, “Why?”
“I’d rather die than let them win,” Riven scoffed, because that was the truth. He could feel it now, the anger that he had felt then, taking up the place of the horror. The fury. The magical source under the stone circle could only be turned off by magic. That had been why Musa was down there, why Beatrix was too… Why he had been there, following Bea, already regretting it, Sky’s pleas churning in his mind.
A specialist couldn’t do it. Not without causing something awful to happen… Like the whole school collapsing on itself.
And now they were stuck, Musa dying a couple feet away from him. He hoped Beatrix and Sam and Dane were buried ahead of her, under all the rubble. Bodies so mangled and broken no one would be able to recognize.
“I think- I think you managed,” Musa whispered, “I think you broke the barrier.”
Which was good, right? Right? He clawed at the wall with more force, pulled another rock out of their way and then heard an awful noise. All of that heavyweight readjusting, settling in. Up top, somewhere Riven couldn’t reach, he felt a current of colder air. Musa’s air.
“If I did, then they know we’re down here,” Riven reassured, but he couldn’t be sure. He wasn’t magical, he might’ve just destroyed the school, the barrier could still be up. Stella and Aisha, with an army, could still be locked outside. Terra, still away, not knowing her brother was a lying piece of shit. He’d go to her and he’d do what he had done to Musa.
Musa wheezed, “Riven.”
“I’m almost there,” he lied through his teeth, felt one of his nails break all the way to the core as it tugged on the stones. He pushed past it, the pain didn’t register, “Almost there, Muse, keep your eyes open.”
“Riven,” she repeated, voice so small… So solid. Stable. Panic engulfed him. His heart was so loud in his ears that he almost didn’t hear the rest of Musa’s words, “Thank you.”
He pulled another heavy block, stumbled back, and then waited. Waited for her to say something else, anything.
“MUSA?! MUSA!”
She didn’t answer. More cold air spilled past the top of the wall.
Footsteps.
“MUSA! Hey, hey- Help is here. Musa! MUSA!”
Footsteps on her side of the wall. Riven used the stone still in his hand to bang against the wall. “HELP HER! HELP HER, PLEASE! WE’RE HERE-”
Then he heard a male gruff and a sigh, “Riven?”
“HEL-” the rest of the words died in his mouth, because this voice Riven knew. This voice he could recognize. Andreas. His stomach turned to ice as he heard a somber, strained chuckle. Andreas walking closer, stopping.
“Oh look… A broken bird.”
“STAY AWAY FROM HER!” He yelled, but there wasn’t much to do. He was dizzy from the blood loss now and the stone started to slip his grasp. Another hearty chuckle, it sounded just like Sky’s. He always sounded so much like Sky, a bloodied pantomime.
“Don’t worry Riven, we got her.”