Chapter Text
Rumi roughly pushed Zoey to the side as she walked back to the stage.
"I will set this right." Eyes empty of nothing but an eerie determination to do something, she'd donned her outfit again, combed back every hair, and redid her makeup and her composure; made herself the picture of perfection. It was as if nothing had happened at all, like her very reason to exist hadn't been shattered in front of the whole world to see.
"Rumi, we're not letting you do anything until you-HEY!" A careless swing from her sword in Mira's general direction. Not out of a want to hurt but an apathetic warning, like she'd lost all that she had ever had in her life and just couldn't bring herself to care anymore about who she hurt.
"Get away from me. I'm going to fix this." She marched mechanically, voice ringing with a tired warning.
"Rumi, please, just- I don't know why you have those patterns but-" Zoey reached out, tried to appeal to the Rumi they'd known, they'd thought they'd known (weren't they finally getting somewhere? Just yesterday, she'd finally agreed to go to the bathhouse. What happened? Why now, when they were so close?)
"I will fix this," as she dug herself into her own grave. As she stepped forward and sang the fated notes, she waved goodbye and set herself aflame in front of the crowd. As she fulfilled her duty.
Then, the climax. A shimmering moment where Rumi lied to the world and herself, singing her siren song of hope and belongingness that allured the honmoon to galvanise itself. Just a moment. Just a flash. It felt like eternity and nothing at all. Then, gold.
"W-what? What just happened right now?" Zoey's eyes darted to the sudden empty spot in the middle of the stage as the entire world flashed an auspicious gold to nobody but the fated hunters.
A glaring hole, an eyesore of a gap. Their leader, the one with the purpur hair that blossomed like a bruise. The one who brought them together for their duty, their destiny to save the world and banish all the hellish demons from here forever with their golden honmoon.
Rumi sealed herself.
Rumi sealed herself?
Rumi sealed herself and turned the honmoon gold.
…What?
"Rumi?" Mira's voice rumbled with a tremble. Something was deeply, terribly wrong. Their leader, their Rumi, was gone. But why? Why now, when they had finally fulfilled their duty?
Was it really true then?
"She really was a demon then, huh." Defeat. Despair. That indomitable spirit, that proud arrogance and loudness that once characterised the incarnadine-haired girl's presence was gone, replaced with an emptiness. A loud silence proclaimed that her spirit was finally crushed; she'd really given up now.
A hiccup, a sob, a pathetic attempt at composure. Zoey fell forward, caught by Mira before she hit the floor. She convulsed and collapsed into a heaping, wailing mess, clutching Mira like she was all that she had because it was true now. Rumi really did lie to them. And she really was gone now, she'd fulfilled her duty and given up her own soul (did she even have one? had she really fallen for a soulless demon?) to save everyone else. Mira was all that was left now, all that she could hold on to.
An iron-like grip held her tight, as Mira fell apart quietly, too. Stifled whimpers and thoughts of "It couldn't be. It couldn't be. It just couldn't fucking be. "
This isn't how this was supposed to go.
"We have to get her back." Mira pulled away slowly, still holding her hand.
"What?"
"We need to get her back. Now." Wiping away a hardly visible tear, she let go. Zoey was more reluctant, but for someone who was grieving one of the loves of her life, she pulled herself together quite quickly and looked ahead resolutely. They had to get Rumi back now.