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Khodes is on her sixth drink when they find her... maybe her seventh.
She really didn’t have counting on her mind when she came to the Last Stand.
“Khode, the servers and a few concerned patrons had someone come and get us from the Ragnarok.”
Looking up at her name, she finds Thancred and Urianger walking towards her.
“Aye, are thou feeling alright?”
Grinning, she leans herself further on the table, knocking a bottle to the floor, while she stammers her way through a greeting.
“Thann-creed. Than... Than. Uriiiangeer. Hi.”
“Drink wit-... With me.”
“I think you’ve had more than enough.” Thancred reasons while taking the latest bottle from her hands.
Pouting, Khode rummages through the discarded bottles, looking for any remaining drops.
“Enough!”
Thancred isn’t having it though. Grabbing her wandering hand he pulls her till she finally faces him.
“What’s wrong?”
Like a puppet with its strings cut, Khode collapses onto the table, head turned towards her companions with eyes clouded.
“What isn’t lately....”
Sitting on her other side, Urianger finally makes himself known.
“Tell us, my friend.”
Releasing a tired sigh, Khode explains her current predicament. From when the researchers first located her, to them showing her the crystal and hearing its message to her return to Elpis and finally meeting Themis before descending into the Padeamonium.
Both Urianger and Thancred listened avidly... until a familiar name angers the latter.
“Lahabrea! Of course, even in ancient times, he’s entangled in everything.”
“He didn’t hur-.”
Snapping at him, she yells. “NO!”
Deflating, she continues. "No, I haven't even met him... it's just the implications.”
Distantly she hears them both questioning the implications, though inside her troubled heart is still trying to find the words.
So quietly they nearly miss it, she whispers what’s haunting her.
“He had a son...”
Focusing on Thancred’s face, Khode finds it blanched in shock.
Letting a bitter smile grace her features, she explains further.
“Lahabrea had a son. He’s really nice, actually. Helping me and Themis. Cares a lot for his co-workers. Doesn’t care overly much for his dad, but I can’t help but think Themis is right and he just puts on a cold front.”
Urianger hums, thinking over what she said.
“I cannot understand why this distress thou.”
Khode releases a bitter laugh at that, trailing into choked sobs as she screams her pain.
“BECAUSE I’M FACE TO FACE WITH SOMEONE I MADE AN ORPHAN!”
“If he were alive, I’m the reason he lost his only remaining parent.”
Thancred moves to comfort her, only to be interrupted.
“But he’s not alive. Because of the things I let happen. And even then there are only three options that await him."
Sitting up far straighter than she should be capable of seven drinks in.
“One the least likely, Lahabrea doesn't protect his son when the Final Days arrive in Etheryis... The Final Days which will happen cause I couldn’t change the past.”
“Two, the one I loathe the most. I once again fail a friend and he won’t survive to leave Pandæmonium.”
“And three, the most likely new nail to ram into my heart. He survives, and either becomes one of the many sacrificed to summon Zodiark... or for real salt in the wounds. He survived to become sundered.”
“So all that pain Lahabrea's caused us was in some desperate need to save his son..."
Panting, she finishes her rant. Head down on the table, awaiting her companion's response.
...
....
Eventually, Thancred seems to find his voice. “None of that changes what he did.”
Khode snorts at that, stumbling to her feet.
“Fuck off, Thancred.”
Shooting him a disdained look, she snarls. “You don’t get to say that.”
“Never you.”
Cutting him off before he can start an enraged objection, Khode presses on.
“Or do you expect me to believe you wouldn’t have burnt the world to save Ryne?..”
She doesn’t wait to hear his response, doesn’t even look at his face. Stumbling towards her room at the Annex as soon as the name left her throat.
Maybe Thancred doesn’t even have an answer. Maybe he couldn’t lie to himself.
It doesn’t matter.
Tomorrow Khode needs to pull herself together. The luxury of a breakdown isn’t something she can afford. Pandæmonium threatens the very past of the star.
So, she needs to find her room, sleep off her bender and tomorrow walk out as the Warrior of Light...
She has no other choice.
I just want to rest...