21
“Leo! Leo!”
They took turns shouting her name, desperation and panic clearly echoing.
Quark had no hope matching the magnitude of Pulse's voice, but he screamed her name until his throat burned nonetheless.
He heard her name come from the walls of brick walls and metal roof tops.
Sometimes, her name got lost in the bustle of trees that lined the streets of this small, no-name town.
There were no bright red and orange leaves, just dead brown and grays.
Clouds shielded most of the light from the singular star in the sky.
“We need to find her,” Quark repeated. He said it again, like it would somehow summon her. “Damn it, Leo! Where are you!”
Pulse’s hair was no longer slick and clean but tossed and windswept. They spun around, once, twice, trying to pick up some trail. What exactly? Footprints? A scent?
“We need a sign,” Pulse sounded breathless. “Quark, you looked through her files. Any idea what this memory would be?”
The lump came back into Quark's throat. Leo's memories had blended in his mind.
"Um... Uh—" He closed his eyes. Where are they—when are they?
How old would Leo be right now? He felt like he had a good idea about the beginning of her life—yes, this was that point in life.
But with Ruin thrown into the fray, it complicated things.
“A bridge. Do we see any water anywhere? Anything like that?"
"A bridge... I hear water running just west here."
“That way,” Quark took Pulse's hand, dragging them behind. “We need to look there first.”
He remembered skimming this part of her story. Even if it wasn't the most graphic, it was the catalyst. In the report, Quark noted this was when things started to change. How she saw herself, how she saw the world.
'And now he's trying to corrupt the memory further.'
Ghosts gathered in the streets. Small children ran between the star's feet, some asking for sweets, all of them dressed in strange costumes.
They shot Pulse and Quark disapproving daggers as they had to push the young humans aside, weaving through the crowd none-too-gently..
Pulse was beginning to become visibly more and more agitated.
They hissed curses at the older ghosts, disregarding any form of courtesy as they spat demands and insults.
Quark fixated his gaze forward, pushing through.
Over there, an iron gate. 'DANGER: DROWNING HAZARD' was posted, withered almost bare.
A roaring river cut through the canopy of pine trees.
The smell was sickeningly strong; a mixture of overflowing pine sap and rotting, wet leaves.
Rushing down the river was a book bag that tossed around violently, spilling out its contents; three books, two paperbacks and one expensive hardcover.
Quark scooped that hardcover book out as it passed.
“I know where she is,” he had to shout over the sound of the water for Pulse to hear him. “Follow me!”
Both ran against the flow of the river. Sprays of water hit Quark's face as it crashed into rocks, branches, and other debris. Their footsteps squelched into the dirt and leaves.
Leo's voice was faint and strained, but it was hers.
Pulse shouted for her, but something unseen took away their words. They choked, stopping dead in their tracks, slamming into a wall.
Quark only made it five feet before the pull forced him on his knees. His hands cut into wet pebbles.
Drenched, shivering, and pale, Leo stood at the near end of a bridge. She was screaming obscenities at what should have been a middle-aged man in flannel and blue jeans, but Ruin had replaced him, circling her, attempting to keep her boxed in on that bridge.
“Why won't you get the fucking hint already?” Leo shoved him. “It's over! It's been over for years now! Why can't you leave me alone?”
"I am not giving up! I'm not giving up on us!" Ruin attempted several times to hold her hands, to have Leo yank them away every time. "Why? What did I do wrong? Please tell me. I'll make it right."
"You can't! Don't you get it? You can't!"
She should have been 14 to 15. Her green eyes pierced through the washed colors, blazing like fire, twinged with blood-shot veins in the corners, yet the rest of her was worn and tired.
Her thick coat provided no warmth. Water dripped off the edges and hung heavy on her shoulders.
"Won't you let me try?" Ruin, again, tried to hold her hands, persistent and determined to establish some form of physical contact.
Maybe he thought that would put some sense into her, make her remember something–he was desperate for her touch, and that was the key factor.
He needed to touch her, needed to hold her, and she wasn’t having it.
"I will do anything. Didn't I promise if you were to tell me I'd give you all the stars in the galaxy?
I'd give you worlds, planets, everything in between.
You'd be the star you are meant to be. My star. Leo, why can't—”
"You only needed to keep one promise," Despite the fury of facial expression, her voice broke and quivered. "I only ever asked for one thing, one fucking thing, and you couldn't do it. The gull of you. After what you did to me, what you put me through—"
“Leo—”
"Enough! There is no us! There is no chance for us. What you did was unforgivable. And how stupid do you have to be, thinking that this bridge—god, this stupid bridge—seriously, what makes you think this memory was the place to try?
“I'm trying—”
"You didn't try when it mattered. You weren't there in a way I needed you. When I needed it most. You can't rewrite what happened and I cannot forget that horrible night—every night after. Just leave me the hell alone."
Leo shoved him to the side with surprising strength. Her face held stone-cold, faking a resolve that was beginning to crack as she turned on a heel.
For a moment, Ruin's eyes dimmed. The star he was before, calling out in one last attempt to appeal to her.
The black writhing vines pulsated around his arms. No matter the star he was, whoever he was that Leo fell in love with was no longer him. That star was long dead—corrupted.
The black hole shot out his vines, wrapping tightly around Leo's wrists, its thorns digging deep. Her fingers already started to turn colors from the restraint.
“Let me go!” Leo yanked, shouting in pain as the worms only constricted her arms.
"No, not again. Never again. Not anymore. I'm not letting you go. You are staying right here until you forgive me!"
Quark lurched. The chains of the pull held him on his knees. Pulse choked, trying to yell to her. Scream at Ruin. Call for help. The pull stuffed their mouth and throat so no sound could escape. At times, it was like no air could escape them either.
Quark's spine felt the pull the worst. The chains had wrapped around the bone, hooking him to the wet dirt, anchoring him to where he was beginning to drown in the mud.
As he tried to claw forward, it locked his hands into the stone.
River water rushed over his fingers, causing them to sting.
He was being crushed under the weight of the universe, helplessly watching, hopelessly restrained, only to watch Leo writhe.
No matter how hard she pulled, the Black Hole sucked her in. She planted her feet, digging her heels into the boards with no luck. She was being pulled closer to him–to ruin–crying out of pain and pleading for someone to hear her.. "You're hurting me!" She said, Her fingers were turning purple.
Neither Pulse nor Quark felt strong enough to break their bounds.
While Pulse tried to spit out the gag the universe put on them, Quark fought to lift himself.
While on his stomach, he felt the creaking of his body, all his bones groaning and pleading for him to give up—'give up, give up, please, you're hurting yourself!
It hurts, it hurts!’ There was no fighting the pull.
It demanded, commanded, and forced him to lay face down in the mud, to let the events play out and be the unwilling spectator.
The only heat he could feel now was from his eyes—white hot drops bubbling out and dripping down his cheeks. The tears found their way into the churning waters. He could see them get caught in the currants, thrashed about for a minute, and carried away out of sight.
'Leo... I'm sorry.'
His muscles trembled and ached; he felt his body was collapsing on itself. His physical being was imploding under the pressure. The pull crushed him, making him smaller and weaker. What hope did he have? He couldn’t thrash, could hardly breathe. Under the grip, he relaxed.
He was forced to watch, forced to listen to both Pulse’s choking, stuffed pleas and Leo’s screams.
Quark didn’t bother to yell. Clutching a handful of stones, he sought a reason, a loophole, anything, because Leo was begging for someone to save her.
She couldn’t do this alone. She was terrified, alone…
Quark couldn’t give up. He couldn’t give up on Leo.
Blood on Leo's wrists, dripping off her elbows… ‘she could die here.’ He dug his nails into the sand, pushing against the force. ‘Not like this. I won’t let it happen!’
He stood up.
'Leo, I'm coming.'
For a brief moment, a secular second, Quark forgot about the pain.
Everyone—the ghosts, the dream, the universe—could hear the snapping sound of titanium.
Chains shattered, wind rushed past his face.
He didn’t realize the world went silent.
There was only Leo. She only saw Quark for a second, could barely process that he had wrapped his arms around her when he whispered in her ear:
“I got you...”
The vines snapped from the force of Quark's pullIt caused both him and Leo to fall backward. Leo landed on top of Quark as he lost his footing. The roots already began to die, dangling off her wrists.
“Leo!” Quark sat upright, cupping her face—her eyes wide and mouth agape. “Leo, you okay?”
She wasn't blinking.
“Talk to me, okay? Talk to me. I'm here. I'm here now, Leo.”
“I-I'm okay...”
Quark kissed her cheeks. Clammy and wet, but she was okay! She was going to be okay. Though Quark was frigid himself, he embraced her fully.
"I got you, I got you." He didn't know what else to say. The words flew out of his mouth without them forming first in his head. "It's going to be okay. I promise it'll be okay now."
Why was she so still in his arms? She was shocked. Was it the shock of the cold, the pain—He looked into her eyes. The answer was written on her face: She was shocked that he was there.
“Let her go.”
It wasn't like a shadow cast over the two. Ruin had sucked the light away. He loomed over them like death. Quark held Leo close, using his body as a shield to protect her.
He was not aware that the look of malice was purely for him.
"Leave, Ruin." Quark failed to sound as intimidating as he wanted to. Ruin was a six-foot mass of hatred. No matter the cracks in Quark's voice, he swallowed and commanded him again. "Leave Leo alone."
“Let. Her. Go.”
“No. I won't let you hurt her.”
That flare in Ruin's eyes was blinding. At that moment, Quark could see the old star that was before.
A Red giant. A volatile, unstable, hulking celestial.
That was a long time ago. This was a different beast, warped and chapped by bitterness and jealousy.
Strangled by wrath, entrapped in a hopeless loop that he could ever return to what he could have been before.
Quark, however, looked to be a perfect outlet for that anger.
He lunged at Quark.
Quarks' first reaction was to block Leo. His eyes slammed closed, bracing for impact.
Ruin screamed in agony.
Pulse grabbed Ruin, hauling him out of the air and tossing him aside. They stood between him, and his companions.
The energy from Pulse was palpable. Quark could feel the static raising the hairs on his head, could taste it as he sucked in a gasp. It was tart, sharp, and robust.
Quark had forgotten, until now, what Pulse was.
Even then, it was unlike anything he knew of pulsars.
Ruin was a beast of pain and corruption, cursed to consume and destroy everything that came too close.
Pulse, however, seemed starkly opposite of that.
Their light was untouched. It was abundant, brilliant, and painful to look at.
For this moment, Pulse was something greater than a pulsar.
The snap of Ruins vines caused him to scream; Quark could hear the sound of viscous droplets hitting wood. Ruin struggled back onto his feet, snarling: “You absolute, meddling—”
Pulse decked Ruin across his face before he finished. The light in Ruin's eyes flickered off for a second.
Pulse stood a clear foot taller than Ruin; his presence was Quark sat in awe, while Leo was still dumbfounded, trying to grasp what was going on.
Ruin was forgetting how outmatched he was.
He would not relent no matter how many times Pulse struck him down..
He tried to restrain Pulse's arms, but Pulse wrapped those binds in his fists and jerked them straight from Ruin's body.
Through the battle, Pulse remained silent.
He used that unbridled energy to beat and tear into Ruin.
Black puddles splattered around them like little holes were being drilled into the fabric of reality.
Oozing off the sides of the bridge, swimming down the stream, a line of runoff ink.
Ruin must have been near the inch of his life—torn like paper, close to being part of nothing but an ink puddle.
Pulse backed up, motioning Quark to take Leo away.
There was no keeping Ruin down. Ruin’s reason to fight was greater than the pain Pulse inflicted.
His anger outweighed his anguish. Nothing more than a shred of shadow, yet still determined to draw blood.
At this point, the trio had to retreat. Ruin would not back down, and it wasn’t known if a Black Hole could be killed.
Quark scooped Leo into his arms, sprinting ahead as Pulse followed behind. She was deathly silent, shivering, her eyes on the dwarf star's face. The three rushed off to nowhere but far away.