theianlogs | The point of no return

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The point of no return

Who: Eiji and Ankh, Open portion HERE
When: October 7, night, continues for 46 hours
Where: Shopping district
What: The power of the music of the night
Warnings: Standard monster-fighting violence, addiction (thanks to the monster), some self-harm/semi-suicidal undertones to conversation

There is a phantom who's been singing late at night in the shopping district. And this angel of music has been drawing a lot of monsters. And Eiji being Eiji, he can't just leave this alone.

A flash of light from LaToraBatta doesn't do much to distract the monsters, and they begin aggressively beating Eiji now that he's closer to wherever the singing is coming from.

"Ankh, I think I'm going to need a combo for this one," he calls back, trying to block while at the same time slashing at another monster. "There's too many!"

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Eiji has to dodge quickly just to keep hold of the driver, but he presses it against himself so it'll attach. He's keeping his other fist clenched--there's definitely a set of Medals in his hand, and he's not going to lose them.

"I mean it, Ankh! Go home."

"Why don't you?!" He shoots back, trying to grab Eiji's arm with the Medals, now that it's not so easy to grab the driver. Really, if he could just get Eiji to stay put...

Then what? It's already been two days and the problem only kept getting worse. Even he's not sure there's any way of getting Eiji back to normal at this point, but if the idiot actually dies, then there's no chance at all.

Eiji twists out of the way, backing up enough that he knows he'll be able to insert the Medals without too much trouble.

"Last chance--leave me alone!"

He holds them just above the driver, ready to insert.

They're purple.

The words, predictably, do nothing, but the flash of a color he wasn't expecting when Eiji reveals the Medals, stops him in his tracks.

"Eiji, you-" He's not sure how he wants to finish that. How does he have those? How long has he had them?

Ankh stopped. But Eiji knows that's not the same as leaving. Sooner or later, he'll recover from the shock--that Eiji has them, that he's using them, that he kept them a secret from him--and he'll try to stop Eiji again.

He can't risk that.

He slides the Medals in as easily as he would any other ones, then slides the scanner over them.

As soon as he's finished transforming, he flies off.

Goddammit, Eiji. He doesn't know what to think about any of that, aside from the part where up until now none of this mess had actually been Eiji's fault, but that part definitely is. Now he's not sure whether he's more interested in keeping Eiji safe or beating him up himself. Either way, Ankh shifts to his full Greeed form, knowing that's the only way he'll keep up with PuToTyra, and flies off after him.

Eiji sees Ankh coming behind him and growls in aggravation, forming a tail and swiping at him.

"I told you to go!"

At this point, Ankh isn't even going to bother responding to that. He dodges out of the way of the tail lashing out, and replies with a burst of fire, hoping that's enough to knock Eiji off course at least. As soon as he throws the fireball, he comes in after it, trying to close the distance.

It does throw Eiji off, just for a bit, and he struggles to regain control, turning around to watch for Ankh. As soon as he sees him, he fires the spikes from his shoulders, aiming for Ankh's wings.

Ankh spirals out of the way, only barely avoiding his wings getting pierced, though he at least manages not to lose much ground. He knows if he can just get hold of Eiji and keep him fighting, then he won't be able to get to the phantom. He can't maintain that form, so Ankh just has to make sure he doesn't escape before that time runs out.

"Just stay away!" Eiji shouts, blasting ice as he tries to escape. He knows this form is too powerful for him to maintain for long, so he has to make it to the phantom before he passes out.

"Humans are supposed to just go after what they want, right? So stop trying to stop me!"

The ice hits him, and Ankh curses the fact that it throws him off the way the fire did with Eiji, but he recovers quickly enough and keeps on his tail.

"Humans are supposed to care whether they live!" He screams back, and maybe that will cut deeper than anything else he's said over this whole mess, because it's not just about Eiji being messed up by a monster.

It does hurt, bad enough that he screams back, "You mean care like when you killed yourself to save me?"

His voice might be breaking a little, and because of that, he doubles his efforts to get away, blasting more ice behind him while he flies.

That hurts, and there are any number of things Ankh could yell back, but none of them actually make it to the surface. He dodges the ice this time, throwing fire back in its place, and stronger than the first time. Eiji might be trying harder to get away, but Ankh isn't going to let him.

The fireball hits Eiji much harder this time, making it harder for him to control his flight, and he clips a rooftop as he tries to correct himself.

"All this talk about trying to get me to take care of myself, but then you go and do the same things you tell me not to!" he screams, furiously trying to catch him on the spikes.

"How am I supposed to care about myself if you're going to put yourself in danger for me? If you care at all, just let me go already!"

The disruption in Eiji's flight finally let's Ankh catch up and get close enough to actually touch him, and he immediately tries to send Eiji flying right back into that rooftop. The words yelled at him are spoken with all the logic of a suicidal maniac, but they manage to strike nerves anyway, not that Ankh has it in him to debate the finer points of exactly how that's not the same thing.

"I'm not letting you die!" is all he bothers saying, though that might have more emotion behind it than all the previous attempts at convincing Eiji that what his monster-addled mind was telling him to do was stupid.

Ankh's attack succeeds in sending Eiji crashing into the roof again, and he stumbles trying to get back to his feet. He's running out of energy. If he doesn't win this now, he'll never make it back. His only chance is to put everything he has left into a freezing attack and hope he has enough ability to walk over to the phantom again.

"I'm sorry, Ankh," he says as he unleashes a massive blast of ice toward him.

He lands on the roof as well, and is very nearly knocked off of it again by that blast. It's a huge burst of energy, and when he's done stepping back to keep from falling over, he's right at the edge of the roof. But that's as far as it goes. Anyone else, and it might have frozen them in place, but not Ankh.

For a second, he's concerned that maybe Eiji still has the energy to fly, and maybe he could have already escaped while Ankh was recovering, but he's still standing there in front of him. He steps forward again, though he's not planning to attack unless Eiji gives him reason to. As far as he can tell, the other is finally at his limit.

That's it. That's all Eiji has left, and Ankh is still standing.

The transformation breaks on its own, and Eiji collapses, all of the strength gone from his body.

Not that he's not still trying to move, but he barely has the energy to cry from the frustration of not even managing that.

Ankh moves over to where Eiji landed, relieved to see that he's too worn out to keep trying to leave, even as he wonders how Eiji still has enough energy that he didn't immediately pass out. He's not going to say or do anything for the moment, just stand beside him and stay ready to move to stop him again if Eiji does manage to do anything.

Eiji should, by all rights, be unconscious. But the desperate need to get back to the phantom is making him fight to keep his eyes open. He tries to pull himself forward, but all he can manage is to scrape his fingers across the roof.

His breathing is labored, but he forces himself to ask, "Why?"

It's really pathetic, watching him struggle like that. But it's still vastly preferable to him having any more energy to work with.

"Why what?"

"Why...try?"

It's almost impossible for Eiji to finish the question. It hurts too much to talk, and everything in him is telling him to just put his strength into getting up and getting out of there. But he knows he can't. He doesn't have any strength left.

"You died. For me."

And that's what's been at the heart of this for him. Because there's no way he's worth someone sacrificing that much--for Ankh to sacrifice the very life he'd wanted validated. Why let Eiji break his Medal? And why risk getting hurt or killed or even controlled himself just to stop Eiji from very likely dying to the phantom?

With those broken words, it's almost hard to put that together, except that he knows exactly what Eiji's saying. Why? Before, because his medal was broken anyway, and getting rid of Maki was as much satisfaction as the novel experience of people worrying over him dying. Now, because a certain idiot wouldn't give up on fixing that medal and he can say Eiji's the reason he's alive multiple times over.

Finally deciding Eiji's not going to go anywhere, he settles down next to him. And what he says is something he might not under other circumstances, but it's the answer Eiji needs to hear, and he hopes it gets through, because he's tired at this point of hearing otherwise.

"Because you're worth it, you idiot. Stop thinking you aren't."

This wasn't the answer he was expecting. And only because it came from Ankh, who never wastes his time on trying to make anyone feel better about themselves, does he listen and stare at him, too stunned to react.

But finally, his body gives out, and he finds himself starting to close his eyes.

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