Chapter Text
“Oomph!”
A heavy weight knocked the wind out of Twilight just as he landed on what felt like a pile of wood and rocks. The supernova that had consumed his vision was now gone, and instead, he found himself plopped on his back. Bits and pieces of loose brick and metal pipes dug into his skin, which were sure to leave some nasty bruises. A groan escaped him as he cautiously opened his eyes and was met with the sight of the same twilight sky as before. He blinked, thinking about that coincidence for a moment.
And then the rest of the situation bit him like a sack of bricks.
Taking Anya to safety. Fighting the Playground operatives. Yor getting shot.
Twilight sprung up, or at least he would have if he didn’t have someone laying on his ribs – the same someone who had gasped in pain when he moved so suddenly. A small, but sturdy frame attempted to pick themselves up only to collapse back down less than a second later.
Before he could say anything, Yor succeeded the struggle to her feet this time. “S-sorry Loid! Or…?”
“Loid is fine for now,” he confirmed gently. Twilight got up after her, a bit more steadily, and out of habit, he brushed himself off and tried to straighten his coat. He took stock of his injuries, noting the way his back and legs ached and the warm, sticky feeling he felt on one cheek. Once he was done with that, he looked over at Yor, who didn’t have a scratch on her besides the tattered state of her clothes and the patch of dark red above her hip. “More importantly, I saw the scientist shoot at you. Let me–.”
“I-It should be fine,” Yor interrupted swiftly, a subtle pink dusting her cheeks. “The bullet scraped my side, but it can wait. Let’s stay focused on meeting up with Anya and the others.”
Twilight let his outstretched hand curl back and he brought his arm up so he could look at his wristwatch instead. Before, it would have been simple for him to reach out and stand close to her. She would most likely begin to blush furiously in the endearing way she usually did, and he would try to keep his composure and try to ignore the way the tips of his ears burned. They were by no means used to or even comfortable with close contact with one another, but at least they had an excuse then. They were Mr. and Mrs. Forger; husband and wife.
But what were they now?
As they both stood more than three feet apart from one another, he caught the uncertainty in Yor’s eyes. At that point, could either of them consider the other to be anything more than a stranger?
Still, he couldn’t just push away his concern for Yor. Despite everything that had come to light, he had still cared for her for the past two years as a doting husband. Not only that, but Yor had played the part of a loving wife for just as long. She was the one that wrapped his knuckles when he came back from a mission-devolved fistfight and took care of him whenever Anya’s school progress (or demerits) caused him physical stress. He had been there when she tried to shrug off a cold, and when she somehow shattered her wrist bones.
The insane strength and deadly precision that he had always written off as some of her quirks had all made sense now.
“We should at least treat it temporarily before we leave,” Twilight reasoned. “It’s just past six, so it’ll take at least three hours to get there if we’re to go on foot.”
“Loid,” Yor gave him a small and tired smile, “I’ll be okay. I just… really want to see Anya right now. If it makes you feel better, I’ll let you know if I need to stop. I’m pretty tough, after all.”
That won’t stop the fatigue from blood loss, Twilight thought, but he bit his tongue. Instead, he gave her an exasperated sigh, “You can be quite stubborn when you want to be.”
Yor let out a breathy laugh, but then her eyes widened as her gaze darted around.
“Where…?”
Twilight briefly scolded himself for taking so long to do a sweep of the area, but when he finally did, he couldn’t help but be shocked at the sight.
What had once been a tall, brick hotel, was nothing but rubble and dirt. There was no sign of any of the enemies that had surrounded them before, and the boy and the scientist were nowhere to be seen. The giant pile of debris that they had both landed on was all that seemed to remain of the old building. In fact, that was all that seemed to be left of all of the buildings in the general vicinity. A few crumbling walls here, an abandoned parked car there — the whole area had been reduced to shambles.
But how could that have happened? Twilight frowned, unnerved with the disconnect in his information.
The last thing that he remembered was that burst of energy coming from the little boy and then he opened his eyes to the same location, but everything had been destroyed. No matter how he tried to piece it together, it just didn’t make sense. If he went along with the assumption that the blast of energy was the cause of the deteriorating buildings, then surely he and Yor would have been reduced to dust like the rest of the area. Not only that but there was still a bit of daylight left, and yet there wasn’t a soul in sight. Around this time, people would be shoulder to shoulder with one another, ready to go back to their homes. Now, there was no one. The hustle and bustle of city life was nonexistent and left nothing other than an eerie silence.
“What happened…?” Yor’s voice held a combination of awe and horror as she spun in a slow circle. Her eyes finally made their way back to him and her voice shook as she asked, “Did we cause this…? This… this is my fault. I hesitated and now–.”
“No, Yor,” Twilight stopped that line of thinking instantly. “We couldn’t have known what was going to happen. It’s no one’s fault besides those people who are behind those sick experiments. Besides, I would have been a bit worried if you were able to hurt a child so easily.”
“I couldn’t do it,” she shook her head quickly. “When I saw the fear in that little boy’s eyes, I couldn’t stop thinking of Yuri or Anya. No child should be subjected to that. It’s awful to think of all the things that man did…” Yor shuddered.
Twilight perked up at the chance to inquire about the man who seemed to be the leader of their attack. He asked, hungry for information, “Do you remember anything about him?”
Yor thought for a moment, her brows scrunched up in concentration, “He had round glasses and dark hair. It was swept to one side, I think? And his expression was so blank, too. He just felt… wrong. Everything happened so fast! I’m sorry I can’t remember more.”
“Don’t worry. Anything helps,” he reassured her. “Whoever these people are, they’ll pay, but we need backup. If they have control over children that can do this to entire streets, then we’re going against a force that’s a bit bigger than us.”
There was a short pause in the conversation and he could see Yor contemplating something. Finally, she asked quietly, “Is this backup… like you? Or Frankie, or Fiona? Are they actually your friends or just…”
Just part of the lie, Twilight thought. It made sense that Yor would think that way. Neither of them were who they said they were, and it was likely that there were a lot of things that needed to be discussed before they could even think about go back to being the Forgers. Any trust that had built up between them as Loid and Yor was hanging on by a thread that was ready to snap at any moment. Somehow, he knew that it would end up this way.
That didn’t make it hurt any less, though.
“Not here,” Twilight told her quietly. “I know you must have questions, but we should at least start making our way towards the safehouse.”
He saw Yor bite her lip, but after a second, she nodded. “Let’s go.”
Walking through what remained of Berlint was jarring to say the least. The air was heavy and thick with ash and dust. Places that he remembered vividly were either gone, partially standing, or completely changed. The park where they had their first family picnic was now barren and left to the elements. Frankie’s tobacco stand had been made into a phone booth corner, but the designs appeared nothing like Twilight had ever seen before. A short gasp came from Yor when they had passed the tailor shop where they had all met and found that it and the surrounding buildings were now part of a large, nondescript factory of some sort.
With each broken building, with each change – it was getting harder to rationalize Twilight’s original theory of what exactly the little boy’s had done to them.
It was well beyond nightfall at this point and Twilight and Yor made quick progress to cross the city. Luckily, his work in espionage and Yor’s Anya-proclaimed skills as an “ashasin” allowed them to move at a fast pace without being hindered. It had also helped that as they moved further West, the buildings became more whole and less dilapidated. Wherever he and Yor had been before appeared as though it had been hit by a tornado, but the streets that they wandered on now were more or less whole.
As it turned out, the citizens hadn’t up and disappeared like Twilight originally believed – they had just relocated. Berlint was still very much populated, but instead of the usual sight of people rushing towards the cable cars or customers dining out on restaurant patios, the streets stayed relatively empty. He could see a few people, and even an occasional car, making their way through the city. However, it was a mostly quiet affair. If it hadn’t been for their stealthy approach, he and Yor would have been the topic of the hushed whispers in the dark.
“Westalis is retreating.”
“The Ostanian government is crazy if they think they’re gonna get any more soldiers with how their last army was wiped out.”
“What is there left to even protect anymore?”
The murmurs that filled Twilight’s ears nearly stopped him in his tracks. He recognized the resignation and hopelessness in those voices. It was something that he had been surrounded by ever since he was a kid.
It was wartime talk.
Yor’s stumble snapped him out of his own stupor. She had been walking just a bit ahead of him for some time. Despite her high heeled boots, her footfalls were practically silent. It was only when she faltered to a sudden stop that he noticed anything was amiss. He watched her sway lightly on her feet before catching herself. Just when he was about to call out to her, he heard her speak.
“L-Loid…” The shakiness of Yor’s voice sent off alarm bells in his head and he hurried to catch up to where she was standing, searching for whatever was causing her distress. He didn’t have to look very far, because as soon as he turned, a whole wall covered in the same poster filled his vision. Several of the flyers were torn and ripped, but there were still some that had the whole message on them.
- JOIN THE OSTANIAN ARMY! BE PART OF THE FINAL FIGHT FOR JUSTICE AGAINST WESTALIS! -
Twilight was getting dizzy from the absurdity of it all. The last time that Westalis and Ostania had been actively at war was serveral years ago. Needless to say, that’s where he had come in and started to work for WISE just towards the end of the war and the beginning of the Cold War. To see this kind of propaganda out in the public again could only mean that there was a war going on. It would explain the sheer destruction that they had seen before, but what it didn’t tell them is how – or why?
It was the boy, he thought surely now. There’s no way that we’re still in Ostania in the year 1967. It’s like he sent us to an alternate reality or…
At that moment, Twilight stared again at the state of the city Loid Forger had once called home. He thought of the hospital that had been his cover job, he thought of the bakery that he got Anya’s favorite pastries from, and he thought of the home that the Forgers had occupied. All of it was part of Operation Strix.
And now it was all gone. The future where he no longer had to see children cry had never come to fruition.
Did I… fail?
“What’s going on…? Loid?” He heard Yor ask distantly.
Twilight pushed down the guilt – swallowed the failure – and it burned the back of his throat. “The Playground was trying to test the capabilities of human children, not just our normal senses, but the superhuman ones as well. I think… That flash of energy sent us to the future.”
Yor’s eyes widened and she brought her hands up to her mouth. “B-but… Anya…! What could have happened to Anya?”
Twilight’s heart ached a bit at Yor’s pure, genuine concern for their fake daughter. Perhaps that was why he felt more guilty over the lies between them. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about Anya – (after being one of the people that had tucked her in every night, how could he not?) – but there were too many strings involved to say his love was innocent and sincere. At the end of the day, no matter what the truth was, Yor loved Anya like a true mother would.
“I don’t know,” Twilight answered. Not having information or any control over the situation was incredibly frustrating. “The last place we know that Anya went was the safehouse, so that should still be our goal.”
“Let’s hurry,” Yor said, the worry setting a heavy tone.
Twilight wasted no time in leading them on, their speed picking up ever so slightly, but still remaining undetected for the most part. They wove through back alleys and underneath shady bridges, finally attracting some attention from groups of people that had no other place to call shelter. Despite it all, they were never stopped – but with the purpose that he was sure was present in their stride, no one should have wanted to.
The night dragged on for another hour before they started to see less infrastructure and more tall grass and bent trees. While the countryside hadn’t escaped the misfortunes that the city did, it was to a lesser degree. Pale light from a waning gibbous moon illuminated the rest of their journey and even the stars were able to twinkle against the constant smog that was emitted from Berlint. In the distance, there were a few houses – shacks, really – that stood slanted against the woods. Most of them were supposed to be empty and sealed shut, but Twilight knew that there was one that held cellar doors that would give them access to a whole underground cave system. He could only hope that time hadn’t compromised this secret, as well.
It didn’t take long for the pair to approach the houses. Wildflowers grew against their sides and it was the weather that had done the most damage to them, but even then, they stood. And the best part was, they also seemed to be undisturbed and abandoned. Although their purpose were to appear as such, it only made his heart sink a little deeper. He knew how low the chances were that they would find anyone, much less Anya, down in these tunnels. But after losing almost everything that was familiar to him, he allowed himself to hold on to a little hope.
“What is this place?” Yor asked quietly, breaking the steady silence that had formed between them. She explored the spaces between the houses in a daze.
“WISE set these homes up for agents if they desperately needed a place to hide out,” he explained.
Yor’s steps became less certain and she slowed her pace, “WISE? T-The Westalis intelligence group…? So, you’re a…”
“Spy,” he finished quietly. Twilight didn’t know if he should have felt intrigued or terrified that Yor knew exactly what WISE was given that she was apparently a very strong and very skilled assassin. After seeing the way she had wiped out a hundred people on her own, he could only pray that his organization had never crossed paths with her yet.
They were stopped in front of the rotted doors that would lead them to the access to the tunnels. It was then that the moonlight peeked out from behind the rolling clouds and lit up Yor’s face enough that he could see the uncertainty and wariness that she wore. He ignored the pang in his chest that he felt when he saw it.
Twilight said, his voice soft on the gentle breeze that sent waves through the grass they stood in, “Yor… I know it’s a lot to ask, but… Please trust me, even just for now.”
Yor stared at him for a moment, an obvious conflict warring across her features. It was far from the death glare that had been present when she had killed all those enemies on the rooftop. Twilight attributed it to the more common expressions that he often saw on Yor every day – soft and kind and more often than not – flustered. While it was something that would have normally brought comfort to him, now it only proved that he wasn’t the only one that had secrets to hide.
“I want to trust you, Loid,” Yor whispered, gaze fixed on anything and everything except for him.
Twilight tried, but the attempt sounded weak, even to him, “You can.”
Then he felt Yor’s eyes burn into him, “How can I…?! How can we go find Anya when we’re like this? ’m not free of guilt in this situation either; I’ve hidden things from you and Anya since the beginning. And at first, being Yor Forger was a means to an end, but then everything started to blur…!”
Twilight flinched at the burst of emotion, noticing that Yor sounded close to tears at this point. Something else that he caught was the way her words began to merge together. His eyes narrowed. He had only seen Yor lose control of herself when she was sick or had too much to drink. The nagging feeling that stayed with him once she had dismissed her injury so easily came running back. Yor could get emotional, yes, but it never reached this extent. Her sentences flowed out like a rapid stream and showed no sign of ending.
“I wanted t’be better for you both,” she cried. “A better mother, a better wife – I wanted that life! Even jus’ eating dinner or going out to the Opera was enough for me, ‘cause I wasn’t alone anymore.”
A strong wind blew around them and the tempest nearly knocked Yor off her feet, “Yor–!” He could see that she was reaching her limit, but she pushed a hand against his chest.
“I thought I was fine with my temporary place in the house – that was our agreement, after all. I guess I was foolish to think that I could possibly not feel anyt’ing for this family, for Anya, for –.” It was all too much. Yor’s hand that was on his chest clenched into his coat, using it as an anchor as her face flushed.
“Yor!” Twilight was by her side in an instant, holding one of her arms while the rest of her sagged into him. It was too dark to clearly see her injury, but how clammy her skin was and the short breaths she took were all indications that she wasn’t doing well. “You’ve lost too much blood. Once we get inside we–.”
The woman in his arms shook her head and swiped at the tears that had started to well at the corners of her eyes. There was a wild look in her eyes as words started to slur as she persisted, “N-no, I have t’ask now.”
It was a bit terrifying to feel Yor’s strength start to fade, to feel her usual steady presence begin to ween. “Yor, you’re becoming delirious. Please, we have to–.”
“D-Did you ever feel like it was real?”
The words hit him in the gut like one of Yor’s well-aimed kicks. And it might as well have been because the look of desperation and pure, fleeting hope shook him to his core. He was well aware that the lines between Loid Forger and Twilight became harder to distinguish as time went on. Maybe once or twice he enjoyed the small details of domestic life. Operation Strix was the longest-running mission that he had been a part of during his time as a spy – of course he found little pleasures in the life he was currently living.
But to say that a spy like him could ever accept or be accepted to live as the Forgers did – that he could ever have Loid Forger’s life – well, that would just be another lie.
“It… It wasn’t…” It wasn’t real, Twilight thought to himself.
But you wanted it to be, didn’t you? Some other part of him said.
At that, the fight completely left Yor and her eyes glazed over... and her knees buckled.
“Yor!” Twilight carefully maneuvered himself to where still support her weight, allowing her to lean against his chest. Even without looking at the wound, he could feel her blood seeping through his gloves. “Don’t try to move.”
“S’okay…” Yor mumbled, eyes going in and out of focus like she was trying to hold on to her coherency. “Got shot in tha butt once. S’not a big deal.”
He looked down at her incredulously, “Is that supposed to comfort me?”
“Mmhm.”
Red was all he could see when he tried to pull up one side of her coat. The whole right side of her scarlet sweater had been dyed a shade darker with blood, and just below her breast, he saw a hole where a bullet had pierced through her, still wet and oozing blood. "This is not a scrape!"
Twilight didn’t think he would ever forget the feeling of Yor’s gloved hand, covered in her own warm blood, pressing against his cheek – "S... Sorry." Yor blinked once, blearily and barely there. Then, her eyelids flickered shut, her hand slipped down from his face, and she went still.
“No, no, Yor!” Twilight lifted her into his arms, shaking her slightly. Fear crawled its way up his throat, causing his voice to crack as he cursed, “Dammit! Yor!”
His arms were trembling as he waited for a sign of something, anything that would indicate that he hadn’t just let Yor Briar slip through his fingers. Twilight went down on one knee so that he could let her upper body rest mainly on his legs. He quickly checked her pulse and was relieved to find that, while it was thready at best, it was still pulsing feebly against his fingers.
“Yor,” he softly tapped against Yor’s cheek, calling her name in a hushed tone. The only response he got was a low groan, but at that moment, it was the most beautiful sound that he had ever heard.
Perhaps later, he would analyze just why he was panicking so much. When he was younger, he had watched his home get blown to pieces, Twilight had been on the battlefield when he first saw the light leave someone’s eyes, and there had been half a dozen missions where his colleagues died right next to him. As sad as it was, he was used to death – danced with it, gave it a kiss a couple times, even. And yet, Yor dying in his arms was a catastrophe that he could have never prepared himself for.
Without thinking, he kicked down the wooden door and rushed towards the cellar, using one hand to fumble with the combination on the comically large padlock. He tried his best to ignore the way Yor’s blood smeared across the etched letters, nearly breaking some fingers with how hard he yanked the lock away from the handles.
After being without light for so long, his eyes adjusted quickly to the dark and he found something akin to a cot on one side of the room. Shuffling through some cardboard boxes, Twilight managed to place Yor on it without disturbing her too much, and went to shed his coat with the intention of using it as makeshift bandages. He had just pulled his second arm from the sleeve when he heard the beginnings of a quiet click from behind him.
Instincts took over and Twilight pulled his Walther from beneath his coat and whipped around, coming face to face with the barrel of another gun, the silencer of another gun, to be precise. He had been ready to fight, tooth and nail, with whoever it was that was keeping him from trying to save Yor’s life. His eyes, which had narrowed dangerously, daring whoever it was to face him – suddenly went blank.
The gun that he had been staring up at shakily lowered, ever so slightly.
“Papa…?”