Chapter Text
Raphaella groaned as she drifted towards consciousness, becoming aware of the way her head felt as if her brain were trying to drill its way out of her skull. The way she was being jostled around absolutely did not help her headache. It took a moment for her to begin to wonder just why she was moving in such a way, as she definitely did not fall asleep anywhere that she should be moving. As a matter of fact, she clearly remembered being dragged away from whatever she was doing in the lab by Marius and Ivy, who were insisting she take a break. The fact that she felt bounds around her wrists only added to this probable cause; it wouldn’t have been the first time they’ve had to tie her up to keep her from her work.
This revelation was more than enough to have Raphaella begin to crack her eyes open, flinching away from the morning sunlight around her.
It was at this moment that a voice spoke up. She really wished the person would have stayed silent. Yet another thing that was absolutely not helping her headache.
“Hey, You. You’re finally awake,” She desperately wished she wasn’t.
“You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there.”
Raphaella didn’t remember any borders, nor Imperials for that matter. And a thief? She knew that most of the mechanisms were more than inclined to steal things they wanted, but she definitely did not recognize the voice speaking to her. It came from a blonde man with blue eyes, he looked rough. Definitely the type of guy who had been in a war or two. She made a mental note to not get into a physical fight with him anytime soon.
She looked around for a few moments, taking in the vast expanse of pine trees flanking the old-looking cobblestone path. If she weren’t both confused and wishing she were dead, it might have been more pretty. The slight chill breeze in the wind wrestled with her hair, pushing it into her face. This only increased her annoyance of this situation.
“Damn you Stormcloaks. Skyrim was fine until you came along.” A new voice spoke up, causing her to look over towards the speaker, a man with shorter brown hair. “Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn’t been looking for you, I could’ve stolen that horse and been half way to Hammerfell. You there. You and me — we should be here. It’s these Stormcloaks the Empire wants.” She silently agreed, she shouldn’t be here.
That must be the thief, then, Raphaella guessed. And with a second glance over to the person, she knew for certain she was not with any of the mechanisms. As a matter of fact, she was on the back of a horse-drawn carriage. And not in bed with either of the people she had laid down with only mere hours before. What the fuck happened.
On another note. She had no idea what a “Skyrim" was. Or any of those other things the thief had said. Where on earth was she?
It was at that moment that she realized she had zoned out of the conversation and had gotten lost in her own thoughts. She decided that if she was going to be thrown into a strange new place with her head pounding she might as well figure out what was going on.
She cued back in as the wagon began to slow, rolling to a stop in a town center, with what appeared to be homes rising around her. The architecture was completely foreign to her, but looked similar to that of older civilizations on planets she had visited before. A new voice called out from a ways away. “General Tullius, sir! The headsman is waiting!”
The what was waiting? What exactly was a “headsman”? She had no idea, but she supposed she would find out shortly, as the wagon was beginning to pull to a stop in the middle of a town.
Raphaella was slightly excited to see what a “headsman” actually was. It took a few moments for her to be guided off of the wagon and onto the ground, and she realized just how unsteady her legs felt underneath her. At this point, she had pretty much tuned out all the noise around her, as it did nothing but make her headache worse. It was a miracle she was on her feet with the way her vision wavered around her, spots dancing across her sight. Usually, it was around this time Marius would have insisted she come back to bed.
That was until the man in front of her made a break for it. Although he put forth a valiant effort, he didn’t get far before an arrow pierced his back, and he fell to the ground. Raphaella slightly cringed, being shot with an arrow was not a pleasant experience, especially for a mortal.
Only a moment later, she was being nudged by someone who was gazing at her as if waiting for her answer.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Her response gained her nothing but a roll of the eyes and a sigh from one of the people looking at her. A man and a woman, side by side, both in similar looking armor. Raphaella thought it was a bit over dramatic of them. She decided to not comment on that further; based on how annoyed and tired they both looked.
“Who are you?” the man repeated, and it took Raphaella a moment to figure out how to respond.
“Raphaella La Cognizi,” She hoped her voice didn’t betray just how unsteady she actually felt.
The man’s face morphed into confusion, as if she didn’t belong here. Which she definitely didn’t, nor did she want to be here.
A few more words were passed over her head, but she didn’t listen to any of them, wishing her damned head would give her a moments peace.
Time passed by in a blur, and she processed absolutely none of it. People were yelling, either in rage or joy, people were being shuffled, hands were on her, and it was just far, far too much for her. She longed for the gentle peace of her bed, maybe then her head would stop screaming.
It appeared that might be happening soon, as she was roughly shoved down onto a large bloodstained stone with a large axe wielding man beside her. She couldn’t wait to see the looks on the onlookers faces as she eventually came back as one whole person. It was always fun, watching as people watched you come back from the dead.
At that moment, an ear piercing roar cut through the now near silence of the town, and a large shadow crossed overhead, sending the townspeople and guards alike into a panic. Raphaella flinched at the noise, curling up into a ball. If it weren’t for her hands being tied up she would’ve been clutching at her head.
The ground rumbled as Raphaella slowly rose to her feet, desperately wishing they would have just killed her to get this over with. Everything was far too loud for her preferences, and she was debating locating a weapon to help the seemingly incompetent guards with their task. How this many people can fail at an execution is beyond her.
She instead decided she should be getting out of there, away from this god awful noise with these god awful people, and attempt to find anyone she knew. Raphaella didn’t know where or how to find any of the other Mechanisms, nor did she know if they were even where she was, but she had to hold onto hope. It was for her sanity, really.
Speaking of hope, she was quickly filled with more of it as a very familiar laugh cut through the air.
Spinning around, She surveyed the area, looking for the source of the laughter, and smiled a bit as her eyes settled on Jonny. Thank whatever gods existed that she truly wasn’t alone.
In true Jonny fashion, he was weaving through the crowd with nothing but a small dagger in hand, enjoying the chaos. He grinned as he did so, covered in blood that Raphaella couldn’t tell the origin of. She watched for a bit as bodies fell around him, it was then that she realized half the town was on fire. That was interesting.
Fighting back the urge to simply pass out on the misplaced and scorched cobble, Raphaella began to make her way over to him, wishing that whatever was casting the shadow would shut up and please stop screaming at her.
Jonny's head shot up as soon as she neared, and his gaze focused just behind her for a moment as his face filled with some emotion she couldn’t name. Rather rude of him to completely ignore her like that.
“Tell me that is not a fucking dragon”
She rather hoped it wasn’t a dragon, that would be annoying to deal with, but she was also entirely unwilling to turn around and find out for sure. She decided to focus on getting her crewmate and herself out of the entirely too loud environment.
Luckily, Jonny didn’t seem to be willing to take on an alleged dragon either. He seemed to finally realize she was in front of him and used his dagger to slice through the ropes binding her arms together before grabbing her newly freed hand and taking off.
Raphaella really didn’t feel good enough to run. She briefly wondered if she gave up if Jonny would drag her along behind him anyways. At this point she was genuinely considering it. However, the thought of him dragging her body recklessly through the streets was enough of a deterrent.
Raphaella did not process much after that, deciding to put all of her energy towards staying conscious and gripping onto Jonny like life support. She thinks maybe at one point that she had to hide behind some rubble? Maybe jump over a half-destroyed wall? It all passed by in a blur. She should really get her head checked out after this, or killed. Whichever was faster.
After far too much running in her opinion, Jonny finally, finally slowed to a halt. They were in a dense pine forest, with none of the cobblestone roads in sight, just soft green grass. Raphaella promptly took that as her chance to finally pass out, nearly taking Jonny down with her in the process.
When she next awoke, she was cold, damp, and extremely uncomfortable. She assumed she was too unlucky for the past few hours to have simply been an awful dream. At least she didn’t feel as if her skull were going to split in two this time. She counted that as a win.
“Raaaaphhhhhh”
She forgot she had run off with Jonny, his voice abruptly reminding her of this. Raphaella ignored him for a moment, hoping that if she ignored everything for long enough, she would be back in a comfortable bed rather than in a cold damp forest. Unfortunately, it appears everything fucking hated her.
“Raph it’s dark, I’m hungry, and if you don’t wake up, I am going to run off without you.” Jonny paused for a moment before starting again,“I have been sitting here with you for hours at this point and I don’t want to leave you, but I absolutely will.”
Sighing, she finally rolled over, wincing slightly as she twisted one of her wings in an uncomfortable way. Oh how she wished she was back home and not on a random forest floor.
“I’m up,” she nearly whimpered, slightly in pain and slightly out of rage at her situation. “Where are we, anyway?” She didn't want the answer to that question if the answer wasn’t in one of Brian’s fucked up gardens.
Jonny appeared thoughtful, however that did not mean necessarily that he was thinking about his answer at all, for a moment. “It seems as if it’s a cold and dark forest,” Sarcasm dripped from his voice, and Raphaella rolled her eyes, but didn’t see a point in arguing with him before they had found shelter or food. Then she can argue with him till her heart's content.
He began to speak aloud after only a few minutes, talking more so to entertain himself than to actually carry out a proper conversation with Raphaella, but she truly didn’t mind at all, as at least there was more to fill the silence than just the sounds of nature.
“So I woke up like a day or two ago, pounding headache by the way I immediately stabbed myself with the sharpest object I could find to get rid of it, and I’ve been running around seeing what shit there is to do around here. I heard of a mass execution in that town I saw you in and decided to go fuck some shit up. I didn’t expect the massive fucking dragon or you either really but I can’t say I’m complaining about one thing.”
Raphaella wasn’t entirely sure she heard Jonny pause to take a breath through some of the things he was saying. He kept talking without seeming out of breath though, so maybe she was wrong. She nodded along to what he was saying to at least prove she was halfway listening.
He continued to talk as they walked, and it eventually got to a point that Raphaella actually began to question if Jonny knew where he was going, so she asked him that aloud.
“Of course I do! It’s just a long walk, Raph” Jonny appeared indignant that she had even thought to question his sense of direction. She decided it was better to just not ask again.
Jonny kept talking as they walked, filling the silence with his voice, and Raphaella slowly began to zone out more and more as she walked hand-in-hand with Jonny, trusting him to lead her through the ever dense forest towards… something? She didn’t actually know where they were going.
It wasn’t too much longer, she thought at least, until they came across another civilization, not too dissimilar from the last, maybe with just less snow coating the place. Raphaella really had trouble placing the foreign architecture though. It could have been entirely different and she wasn’t sure she would have noticed.
Jonny lead her through the streets, still chattering absentmindedly on as he did so. He eventually came to a stop in front of a building, pausing to look at her before he even attempted to open the door. The sign out front read “Dead Man’s Drink”. She distantly felt intrigue at the odd choice of name.
It took a moment for her to realize that he was speaking, and more importantly, speaking to her. He was gazing at her with a look akin to concern, although he was poorly trying to mask it with annoyance. As if the crew hadn’t learned how to read his signs a millenia ago.
“Raph, are you completely sure you’re alright?” Jonny was now facing her fully, eyes boring into her “You’ve been completely zoned out nearly the entire walk”
She blinked at him. Raphaella honestly wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with her, but her mind felt foggier than ever and she didn't entirely know how she was still standing.
Jonny poked her, obviously still wanting an answer.
“I would like a like a lie down, please”
Jonny did not wait a moment’s longer after hearing those words.
She didn’t think she’d ever seen this much concern and worry on Jonny’s face, but at least he was listening to what she said, and he quickly ushered her into the building, which she quickly discovered was an inn, and drew her into a room. She didn’t have the thinking power to figure out how he had acquired the money to obtain a room but murder was probably high on the list.
That was her last thought before every thought she had faded to black as she drew closer to the bed.