Chapter Text
Alpha couldn't remember a time when there wasn't the copper orange glow of fire around him. He was born in it; he was made from it. The flickering power at the center of a flame was all the warmth he had ever known. Until a glittering blanket of stars tugged him towards their infinity.
The Fire Ghoul's eyes were used to the harsh magma, the golden flurry of sparks that seemed nearly constant down in his deep level of the Pit. But he suddenly found himself exposed and cold, lying on a stone slab that sapped all of his body heat.
"There was only supposed to be one… What did you do?" A cutting female voice, harsh and cruel reverberated above him. The wind seemed to prick at his skin and he curled tighter into himself.
"I performed it exactly as written." A male voice this time. It sounded closer, barely softer. Alpha shivered violently, wanting to crawl into the middle of a blazing fire. It felt like his bones were frozen. Then a weighty, physical presence pressed against him, a low, protective growl sliding from the creature's throat as if it would fight the world for him.
"Well, it doesn't matter now. It's not like we can afford to send it back with our current resources. You," the female voice barked. "Get them both inside, down in the catacombs. Lock them away until we can figure out what to do with them."
Alpha kept his eyes tightly shut as another warning growl split the frigid air above them. He trembled at the touch of a roughly woven blanket being wrapped around his shoulders. Hands that were warmer than his skin lifted him carefully to his feet and that's when he saw it: the light of every star reflected in those dark velvet eyes.
The two Ghouls were led inside the Ministry, but not without the other first gouging his claws into one of the leader's assistants. Another henchman took his place and they kept their distance from these strange hairless creatures as they descended circling stairways, as if there would be a door at the bottom that opened back up to the Pit.
Alpha was shoved through a dark doorway into a small, dank room, the iron lock bolted fast behind him. He heard the other Ghoul deposited in much the same way as another feral growl echoed off of the stone walls. There was only cold and unforgiving darkness. He couldn't hear anything. He could barely see anything. He hugged the ratty blanket tighter around his shoulders and sank to the frigid stones.
Memories of home churned through his mind: the surrounding warmth of ever-burning fires. The smoldering stones he had built his nest from. It all seemed like an impossible dream now. Why had he been torn from everything he knew and loved? Was it a punishment? Some test from an unforgiving god meant to break his spirit?
Rage soon replaced his homesickness and Alpha discarded the blanket to scratch the door and howl, straining his voice until the filthy heavens could surely hear his cries. His horns and claws grew hot, his tail tip smoldering as he lashed it, pacing and fuming in this rough-hewn cage. He screamed and thrashed, panting and reviling every unholy creature that had dredged him up to this festering wasteland of rot. Then he heard it, the little voice of reason inside his head.
You're too noisy.
"Well, why shouldn't I be? They locked me up. I'm cold and hungry. And angry."
They'll bring us food soon enough.
"How the fuck do you know?" Alpha had calmed down a little, tugging the blanket around himself and tucking the end of his tail between his cupped hands for a bit of warmth. The voice spoke in his head again. Its tone was soothing between his horns.
They wouldn't just pull us up from the Pit only to let us starve to death. They need us alive. We're… useful to them.
"Useful how?" Alpha inquired, resting his head against the door as if he could somehow catch a glimpse of the Ghoul on the other side of the wall from him.
I don't know yet.
— — —
Alpha had no sense of time in the cell. Food was brought at regular intervals. Meat, water, strange, overcooked plants; some he liked, some he didn't. Whenever he wasn't wiling away the time by sleeping, he was talking with the Ghoul in the cell beside him. Well, not 'talking'. Thinking. Their thoughts traveled like small precious birds, jewelled and gilded, flitting from one to the other and back again.
What's your name?
Omega.
Omega… He let the word roll through his mind. It was captivating. There was an unhurried perfection to such a word. It was a word that matched his own.
What's your name?
Alpha.
A rough, breathy chuckle reverberated in his skull. It felt like the laugh of Fate itself. Here they were, two monsters hauled up to the surface, away from everything they had ever known only to be tossed together for good or for ill. The Beginning and the End separated by a thin stone wall; half-ready to burn down the world.
Alpha's mind was now not only filled with hazy memories of his old nest, his old pack, but with the fleeting glimpse he had gotten of those star-dusted eyes; the eyes of his Abyssal savior. Alpha saw those eyes in his dreams. They captivated him, haunted him. He knew with that one look, his and Omega's lives had been irrevocably linked. And he could no longer keep his thoughts to himself.
You have eyes like the night sky. What little I've seen of both of them, he bravely thought one day, his back to the wall of their adjoining cells. If he focused, he could swear he felt the heat of Omega's back against his own through the unforgiving stones. That comforted him somewhat.
Thank you.
How did you get summoned? Didn't they say that there was only supposed to be one of us?
Sometimes the Dark Lord's will isn't what we expected. I imagine there was a reason I was cast upwards, like you. But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.
The two Ghouls who had barely gotten a glimpse of one another under the endless night sky were soon conversing as if they had known each other all their lives. Omega was a Quintessence Ghoul. Alpha had never met a Quintessence Ghoul. And it seemed he might never get to. He had lost track of how long they had been confined. But that may have been because of how captivating he found Omega's conversation.
Why did you fight for me that day? They could have killed you.
Because we were meant for more than this, Omega's voice, as pure as a stream, cascaded through his mind, soothing him. I know where I came from and there's nothing in this pitiful human world that can stand against such power. Nothing.
Except maybe one thing. Their doors were opened and piles of dark clothing tossed onto the grungy stones. "Get yourselves dressed," a voice ordered. "She wants to see you."