Chapter Text
You summon the sword and rush in. You don’t remember using it, but it feels familiar in your hands, and you run up to the two beasts struggling in the tentacles. You swing the sword with all your strength, slicing the tentacles, and one of the beasts like butter. The cut tentacles limply fall to the ground and the beast on the left lets out an agonizing sound as it goes limp and perishes. The other beast manages to slip free and charges towards you, growling and taking a large bite into your side.
The thin t-shirt you're wearing doesn’t offer much protection, and it’s teeth sink into your torso and you let out a scream of pain. Blood leaks from your wounds, and you feel faint.
You blink and you're no longer in your body. Almost in slow motion you see yourself fall from the creature’s mouth, you watch Taako’s eyes widen and him let out a scream as he does something with that umbrella of his that gets rid of the last beast. You see Merle rush toward you, concern painted on his face.
You look down at your own spectral form and you see honest to god armor on your body, with a bright red robe draped over it.
Then Merle does- does something and you find yourself yanked back into your body with your wounds closed and blood coating your shirt.
“Magnus! Magnus are you with us?” Merle asks his hands gripping onto your shoulders tightly. Taako looks more disheveled than you've ever remembered seeing him. He joins Merle at your side, setting down his umbrella gingerly.
Your eyes focus again, and you look at Merle and he instantly seems relieved. You glance back to the portal, and notice that it appears to be vanishing, with blue smoke whisping from it as it dissipates.
“What just happened?” You ask Merle, as if he might have a notion as to what the fuck is happening. He snorts.
“Listen, you tell me kid.” And Merle who always seems so put together looks lost. Taako seems to have registered that you're alright, and is now staring at his umbrella like it's an atomic bomb. For all you know it might fall into the same category of ‘weapon of mass destruction’.
“I've updated the list of things I know for sure and people I trust to nothing and no one.” Taako declares. “We should get out of here.” He says.
“But Magnus is covered in blood!” Merle protests.
“Do either of you have a spare?” You ask, and Taako starts looking in his bag, and pulls out a jacket. It isn't exactly your size or style, but you pull it on, and it covers most of the blood, making you feel significantly less conspicuous. The sword gets put in Taako’s bag which hardly disguises it but luckily enough no one seems to be around.
The three of you head to Taako’s place, which is always an interesting combination on messy and organized. Random objects are haphazardly laying on almost every surface, but the floors are clean, and the kitchen is oddly always spotless.
You're sitting at Taako’s dining table, while Merle is lazily resting on Taako’s couch while Taako himself is in the kitchen grabbing some drinks for you and Merle. When he returns he places Merle’s drink on the coffee table and places yours on the table in front of you and takes his seat at the dining table near you. The sword lays a respectable distance from the three of you.
"I would just like to say that I had always assumed I was just crazy, not that it was real." Taako proclaimed. "I just pretended like I was sane, 'Oh Taako’s good out here!' So I wouldn't get locked in the fucking loony bin, but noooo" Taako dragged it out, sarcastically as he could, "It had to be real, which is by far the worse option."
Taako leaned back in his seat and took a long drink from his glass. You feel rather uncomfortable, as you had never voiced these thoughts, but hesitantly you ask,
"Do you ever look at the sky and feel like it's wrong?"
Merle pipes up for the first time in a while,
"All the damn time." He says.
"Or like you're being watched?" You ask again.
"Definitely, my dude." Taako agreed.
You sigh. "Then it seems we're all in this together."
Merle snorts quietly and mouths the words.
You feel that feeling in your stomach, heavy nervousness and apprehension, warning you to keep your mouth shut.
But when did you ever listen to warnings?
"When that thing, whatever it was, bit me, I kind of fell out of my body." You say, looking down into your drink, not wanting to look your two friends in the eye.
"Well it's not like that’s the craziest thing to have happened today." Merle says.
"I was able to look at my own body from above, and, I was wearing this bright red robe."
Saying the words out loud make it feel more real, and the static in your head appears again.
Taako shifts in his seat. "Have any of you ever like, let your mind wander and you feel like there are things you should know, but for some reason just can't?"
"How long have we known each other?" Asks Merle.
Static.
"When did we meet?"
Static.
"Where are we from?"
"Who is Julia?"
"What's wrong with the sky?"
"How did we end up like this?"
"What's happening to the world?"
The only answer any of you receive is static.