Heyyy guys.... it's been quite some time hasn't it?

I've had a few people recently check in on me / this fic and ask if I plan on continuing it. The answer is yes! But... I'm still considering TLO as a whole as "on hiatus." I want to ensure that I am writing out of passion and motivation, not out of feeling a need to publish something... then post some dried out thing that feels lifeless... If that makes sense. 

And speaking of motivation, for some reason this entire chapter has been screaming to be written for awhile now. Part of me wonders if this chapter should have come at a later time, or even as a one-shot, but I decided to just post it now. 

I will warn that because it is told mostly from the perspective of the Void, it jumps around a bit. Time isn't exactly linear to her, hence why. This is also going to be quite lore heavy.

Also! I think this is the longest chapter I've ever posted for TLO, not counting The Tale of Suma one-shot. So... eat up! Because I sure didn't... (I wrote half of this today, instead of eating lunch. Whoops!... and after I wrote that, I realized I haven't had dinner either.... uh, y'all better make a feast of this.)

Alt title: No Matter the Cost, Family is Forever.

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The first time they met, Fledgling was far too young. Brother had always been far too cruel, too harsh on their subjects. But this? Fledgling was just that — so small, hardly even a child. Even some humans were older than him.

'H-hello?' He asked into his robes, his hands clutching them tightly. He wandered the darkness, his eyes trying to find something— anything.

Void moved itself through his hair, through his feathers, through his everything, like the wind. That was how it lived, how it interacted. A form — a vessel for her assembled itself in front of him. "Hello, little Fledgling." She greeted, kneeling down in front of him so they were close in height.

The toddler startled, his mouth opening wide in surprise. 'W-who...?' He began, pointing at her.

"I am the Void." She explained, a gentle smile appearing on her face. Then, as she considered the future and the past, all of it once, she frowned. "Are you scared?"

The little one hesitated before giving a shaky little nod. Void could feel how the pores on his skin threatened to glisten over in a nervous sweat, along with the liquid in his tear ducts.

Her whole heart ached at that. Not because he was afraid, but because he had a right to be. Because she was going to confirm his fears. How could she do this to her own Sibling's son? No — she had done and will do it to all of her brothers sons and daughters after the incident. But Fledgling? Dear Fledgling... she cared so deeply for him. How could she possibly hurt him?

"What are you scared of?" She asked, more to keep the conversation going. To try and steal time, as though it didn't surround her, bend to her, caging her within as it always did. Always would.

Was there a way she could avoid this? No, there simply wasn't. The deal she made had to be seen through — would be. Had been. That was sewn into time itself. 

Fledgling gave a little whimper as he trembled. 'I-I can't see...' His little fingers arranged themselves to say.

She moved closer, going to kneel beside him. She cupped his small face in her hand. The action hadn't changed her perception at all, she could already feel the smoothness of his skin before she touched him. What it did do was ease the tension from his shoulders as his heart rate and breathing slowed back to normal. "Now, you know that is a lie... you can see me, can you not? It is only dark. You know you must not lie, Miesall, or the Great Ones will be upset."

The little Fledgling startled ever so slightly, and the Void felt the way his shoulders raised ever so slightly, the way his feathers bristled. 'you know me?' he asked.

"Of course." She replied, feeling as warmth poured into her soul. The kind of warmth that felt good for a few moments before it began to boil and burn and hurt. She would not let that show on her face, however. "I observe all of the Watchers, and all of the people in the worlds. It is similar to how you watch."

Fledgling nodded ever so slightly, though he tilted his head in a way that kids often did when they didn't actually understand. 

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The Void frowned as it stared off into the endless darkness that was itself. It often found itself in this moment, whenever things became too much for it. She turned to meet his gaze. It was just a simple human, no one of significance, but to her, he meant everything. Even the mere thought of him made it bloom in warmth, like flowers sprouting in a new world. 

"What troubles you, dear?" Her Beloved asked, reaching out to rest his hand in hers. Even though she could always feel the groves of his skin, the calluses of his worn hands, when they touched it somehow felt different. If not physically, emotionally. She caved, drawing her body closer to his so that their sides touched. She rested her head in the crook of his neck, hiding her face. She wanted their everything to touch, she wanted no space in between them. 

"I-" it began, but she found herself biting her lip. A hundred thousands scenes played in her mind at once. "I-- need to do something unforgivable. It-- it has to happen, has already happened, is happening. There's nothing I can to do to change it... I really must be a monster."

"My love," He soothed, rubbing her back in circles. "You have so much weighing on your shoulders, don't you? Here, stay with me for awhile. Forget about your worries for awhile." He was always naive like that, but because he was Beloved, his words never ceased to make her smile. 

"What did I do to deserve you?" She hummed into his neck, feeling how the smile tugged on her lips. 

Her Beloved's hand curved to move her hair behind her ear and out of her face. "I could say the exact same to you, my Sweet." He teased, placing a kiss on the top of her head. He moved his other hand from the small of her back to her ever-expanding belly, staring down at the result of their love. 

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Blood littered everywhere. The Void's Beloved was completely unrecognizable from the way his remains had been brutally shred into pieces. Everything was in pieces, in fact. The world had deep cracks that had managed to go through bedrock. Blocks glitched in and out of existence. Everything was completely out of order. The only things that had survived the complete loss of the world were three children. No matter how much the Void had tried, gone back to that moment, she hadn't been able to save all four members of her family. 

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A newfound rage coursed through her veins as she removed her hand from Fledgling's cheek. She lifted it up, feeling how his eyes opened from underneath his mask, as she brought her palm down on him. The smack resounded throughout her realm, herself, as the child stumbled back and fell. He cried out, tears rolling down freely as he grasped his cheek. "You rebellious child... You will pay dearly for disobeying the Great Ones." She seethed, approaching faster than Fledgling could scuttle away from it. It grabbed his hand, squeezing it as tightly as it could to keep him in place. 

'Help!' he called out as he tried in vain to kick her away, but he was just a baby. He couldn't hold a candle to her.

"There's no one who can help you here, you brat. You were bad, and now you have to pay." She explained before she began to slap him, over and over. Sixty eight times to be exact, each attack and each scream turning on her heart and twisting it. She dug deeper, trying and failing to bury the pain in her rage, her grief from back (or to?) then. She had to, if only to keep a small shred of sanity.

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Why did it have to? To remind itself of that, she turned at last to the beginning of it all. Back when she was not the Void, when such a thing as time did not concern her. Back to the time in which all the Universe was just one small room with no windows or doors. 

Multicolored foam tiles made up the floor. Along the walls were shelves full of various toys: small instruments, towered rings, stuffed animals, blocks, books; everything vibrant with color with exception to what would later be named blue. Youngest Brother would grab a handful of things and splat it all on the floor. Indecisive, He would play with a toy for only a few minutes before tossing it aside in favor of another. Cycling through toys, he often would settle on the rainbow-patterned xylophone. 

Her other younger Brother, her Sister or Sibling -- they responded to all three-- was much more organized. They always went for the colored blocks with galactic letters and numbers imprinted on the sides. When they were younger, they would line them up in order. As they grew, they began spelling out words instead. Their lines were always straight, each block had its place. On this particular day, Sibling had just managed to make the word ᔑᒷ⊣╎ꖎ𝙹!¡ᓭ, having challenged themself to make the longest word they could think of in alphabetical order. 

"Oh, can I play too?" Brother came over, pulling a plush wolf on a leash behind him. Void, or rather Sister as she was known back then, looked up from the book she was reading in the corner. 

"No, of course not!" Sibling exclaimed as their wings puffed up in annoyance. They dived over their blocks and used their arms to shield them from Brother. 

"But why nottt?!" Brother pouted, stomping his feet on the ground. His cheeks puffed out as he looked over at Sister, pointing accusingly at Sibling. "Sibling is being mean to me!"

A sigh escaped her as she snapped the book shut and slid off her reading nook. Those two always fought, even back then. Some things never changed. She looked over to Sibling expectantly.

"Brother pretty much always messes up my blocks! He just throws things together in a way they aren't supposed to be. He doesn't get it at all!" Sibling accused, for about the millionth time. 

"Blocks don't have a right or wrong order. And even if they did, how he's supposed to experiment with them and find it out like you did if you won't share?" Sister scolded. Sibling let out an exaggerated sound of annoyance, their wings flapping wildly as they forced themself to stand. 

"Fine. But he can play alone; I'm gonna play with something else." They grumbled as they stomped back over to the shelf of toys, wings fluttering enough that they managed to fly just a little in their annoyance. They quickly grabbed one of the liquid motion toys instead, their second favorite kind of toy, and began to shake it in front of their silver pupils. 

Brother frowned as he watched Sibling leave, but he thankfully seemed to know better than go after them. He sat down in front of the blocks and began rearranging them. He hummed a silly, poor-sounding tune as he twisted the blocks in all sorts of different angles. He placed some on top of each other, and some on top of those blocks before pushing them over. He giggled as they spilled everywhere. 

Crisis seemingly averted, Sister began to retreat to her nook in the corner, book in hand when the entire room was bathed in a quick flash of light. They all spun around to the front of the room and exclaimed "Mother!" as they dropped what they were doing to race over. Sister was the slowest, as she had placed her book down rather than quite literally dropping her things. She joined her brothers, sitting on the end so they would sit in order of their birth -- Sister, Sibling and Brother.

"Hello, my children." The Universe greeted, kneeling down to tossle each of their hair, one by one. "I think it's about time you are set free from this place. You are all old enough to explore the world I have prepared for you." 

"No way!" Sibling pouted from between their spot between their own siblings. He pointed at Brother. "He's younger than I am, why doesn't he have to wait as long as me?!"

The Universe chuckled fondly, ruffling their white hair once again. "And you're younger than your sister." she reminded. She stood up straight, her smile fading. "But before you are let go, I must give each of you a gift. Your purpose, if you may." A chair appeared, which she sat down on. She instructed Brother to come over and he did, sitting on her lap. 

"Your name will be Rajesh, the first of many kings. You shall be the king of Chaos. Your spirit will live on, guiding those who come after you. For your gift..." The Universe ran her fingers along his long ears. "You and your people will be blessed with hearing unlike any others, with the power to hear that which cannot be heard. And you, as their leader, will inherit magic your people will not be able to recreate." The boy's golden eyes sparkled in glee as he giggled, jumping off to reclaim his spot on the floor.

Sibling stood from their spot before going to sit on the Universe's lap. "What about me, Mother?" they asked. 

"You, child, will be named Irathea, for you will see many things. You will be revered as the Great One, with magic that will bless you with a long life. Your domain will be over Order, the opposite of Chaos, for one cannot survive without the other." The child grinned, their wings flapping as they pounded their chest and nodded. They too chuckled as they went to reclaim their spot.

Sensing it was her turn, Sister stood from her spot. She walked over much slower than her brothers before sitting on Mother.

"And me?" she asked. 

"You, dear..." Her mother drawled, moving its long black hair behind her ear. "Your name is Void. Your siblings were gifted vision and hearing, while you will possess feeling. You will be the master of time, all of its secrets will be made plain to you. It will be a great burden, an eternal one, and you will stand between your brothers as you have always done." 

The newly named Void blinked. "Wait, what?" she asked, glancing at the others who seemed to preoccupied by their own excitement. "But Mother-- you've given them gifts! And this is what I'm given? Why?"

"I know, my dear..." The Universe soothed, petting her daughter. "But you are the only one who is able to carry such a burden. If it helps any, you should know that you will be the most like me."

It didn't. It does not. It never will. It wasn't even a consolation prize.

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Void's scream echoed throughout all of her, vibrating across the small collection of worlds that had existed in that age. She felt how the worlds quaked under her cry, how it echoed in the desert it stood in. 

She had stood by. Observed as her siblings grew into their power. It had come to be exactly as the Universe had told them. Rajesh declared himself king over his people, the Listeners. Irathea was worshipped as the Great One from their people, Watchers they called themselves. And Void, she had no people. Not yet in that age, and none that would ever be quite like herself.

Her brothers never got along, even as children. As soon as they were let loose in the world, they seperated, settling in opposite sides of the area to cultivate their people. The scarce few times they did meet, it was under circumstances much like these. Though, they were never quite as dire as this. 

Blood spattered the ground in a colorful array of purples and greens. Rajesh had fallen to the ground, clutching his side as he curled in on himself. He was muttering curses that Void only knew he was whispering by the way his lips moved. The blood was quickly staining his garment and his internal organs, and the way his chest was rapidly rising and falling did not bode well. Irathea, on the other hand, was covered head to toe in slashes, tired weeping wounds. They closed one by one, courtesy of the magic they were blessed with. But after so many attacks, even that power was getting to be rather sluggish. 

And now, Void had manifested its physical form directly in between the two. She spread out her arms as she shielded Rajesh. "Both of you, stop it!" She screamed. "You're -- you're going to kill each other! We're supposed to be a family! That'd -- that'd be fratricide!" 

In the wake of her plea, Irathea lowered their hand, glowing a brilliant purple from the steady use of magical attacks. The purple dimmed before it was gone entirely. "That monster could never be a part of my family." They hissed dangerously. "Did you witness what he allowed his people to do to my own?" 

Void began to open her mouth. He eyes caught glimpse of the two smaller figures off to the side. The bodies laid on top of one another, and Void could feel how they were no longer warm. A great-great-great granddaughter of Irathea and Rajesh's son eight generations after him. Even now, their bodies tattered to the point almost to the point of unrecognition, their fingers were interlaced. Even in death, they proclaimed their forbidden love.

"What they had was beautiful!" Rajesh exclaimed. He staggered to his feet, groaning at his injuries. "They should be able to love whomever they want to!"

Irathea growled as their eyes flashed purple. "Intermixing my people with yours? That is nothing short of madness! You wish to taint my people with your polyamory, adultery and thievery? Many of your people rot on the street without purpose. My own commit themselves to one -- only one, from one of our own esteemed people. The price of breaking that is death. She knew that and the fool did not obey."

"You're the one that's mad." Rajesh hissed. "What they do with their own personal life had nothing to do with either of us! They were happy."

"She was brainwashed, lured in by her shameful desires. This was nothing short of an attack -- nay, a declaration of war-- on my people, directly from yours. I never should have been so careless as to let my people even have a chance to stray away from their fate. The allure of lust is too strong. Nay, I never should have allowed it in any form." Irathea hissed. Their hands began to glow once more as they took a step towards Void and Rajesh.

Void kept her position in between the two of them, not moving. "Stop it! Haven't you done enough damage? They're -- they're already gone, so..." It begged them. 

"And that's precisely why they need to pay for what they've done." Rajesh explained, taking a few steps so that he no longer was behind Void, but instead by her side. He removed his hand from his bloodied side and set it on her shoulder. "This doesn't really involve you, Void. You wouldn't understand what it's like to have children. Or your children to have children, or for you to grow a lineage like we have."

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"Mom, mom! Look what I did!" The child exclaimed as they ran up. Their small hand grasped Void's as he began to pull her back the way he came. His eyes shined in wonder and excitement as he blabbered on so fast she couldn't keep up with what he was talking about. 

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"Oh no... I do." Void said in a low voice as she reached up to grab Rajesh's hand. The shock was enough for his grip to loosen. Void silently pulled the hand off of her before letting go. Void took a few more steps of her own to once again stand in between her brothers. At this point, her brothers were only standing a few feet apart, making herself sandwiched between the two of them.

 "That doesn't mean that--" Tears bubbled up as she glanced back at Brother. She took a steadying breath, reminding herself a thousand times in a single moment of what was to come had to come. "One of you cannot kill the other. Either both of you will die, or neither of you will. Opposite yet equal powers. Is that truly what you want? For both of you to die?" She asked them. 

How many times had she asked that? Hundreds of thousands of times, surely. As though if she asked it once more, it would be different. As though she may still have a chance to get through to them. But she hadn't all those other times she had returned to this moment, and of course, it wasn't any different this time either. 

Her words hung in the air for forty-seven long seconds. "If that's what it takes, then yes." Irathea decided. "Now Void, leave now so that we can finish this. You are in the way. Always have been... unless?"

"Unless?" Rajesh echoed.

Irathea began to smirk. "How about you join me? You said it yourself; we're going to kill each other. If you join me, you'll still have your dear Sibling yet, won't you?" They asked. 

"What?!" Rajesh spun. "Oh come on, leave Void out of this! It has nothing to do with her!" In a burst of newfound fury he ran around Void, a large magic sword appearing out of nowhere. Creating platforms, he ran up into the sky. Irathea shot a burst of their own magic at him, and while that almost made Rajesh fall, he quickly recovered. 

"Brothers, please!" Void screamed as Rajesh took one more leap. In that moment, her power engulfed the Listener and the Watcher, wrapping them in thick black coils that held them in place. She couldn't see anymore, eyes blurred with tears, but she could feel them, trying to resist her restraints. "You-- you can't--"

"Void, listen to me." Rajesh spoke, his voice booming with authority. Void quickly wiped her eyes as she looked up at the creature suspended in midair. "If you really can't keep yourself out, then you need to pick a side. This was always going to turn out this way, always. This is about far more than those two lovers. We've always tried to stay out of each other's way, but we knew we could not be passive to one another forever. He wishes to cage all of the people in the universe just like the way you are. Do you really want everyone to suffer like you do?" 

"You were always a liar, Rajesh, and an idiotic one at that." Irathea countered. "If he was let loose with no bounds, there would be no end to such wicked things as murder, stealing, violence, destruction and all kinds of other evils. He lets his people take part in them freely, without consequence. My people are free of such horrors." 

"But are they happy?" 

"Are yours happy?"

The silence that followed was not just nauseating, it was actually suffocating. Void had made her choice so many times, always the same, but still her head spun. She couldn't stop crying, she couldn't stop sobbing. She loved them. She hated them. They were her brothers, her siblings. How could she not? How could they not love each other the same way she loved them? Did they ever love each other? Did they ever love her?

"It's time for you to make your choice. Come with me and free the worlds from the Great One's tyranny." Rajesh made his final plea.

"Come with me, and protect the worlds from the king." Irathea countered. 

"If... I come with you, if I kill Brother, will you make a promise? To do one thing, whatever I ask when the time is right?" Void didn't say who she was talking to. Still, she looked over at the one of her brothers that never was too keen on lying, if they ever lied at all. 

"What exactly?" The Great One asked. 

"I won't reveal it until it is time. I'll do whatever you ask, no matter what it is, until it is time. That way, we can always be together, yeah?" Void tried her best to smile, if only to fool herself that this was for the best. 

"Anything, huh? Deal." Irathea grinned. "I will grant you one favor in exchange for your service."

"What? No! Void, I'd treat you way better! We'd be a family aga--" 

Void let go of her brothers. Rajesh fumbled for his sword as he plummeted. Desperate, he poured in all the magical energy he could muster, the sword growing exponentially in size. Irathea attempted to blast him, but it didn't work. His sword came down hard on the Great One. The blow was so great that it fully sliced through his opponent on the sagittal plane. Enough to kill virtually every living thing, but even being split in two would not fully kill the Great One, not at first. They screamed in horror as the pieces of them fell to the ground. Rajesh lifted their sword once more to deal one more blow.

"Nice trick, Void!" He called. He cackled, but just as he was about to plunge his sword, Void wrapped him in her essence once more. "Er-- Void?"

"I'm sorry, Brother. I truly, truly do love you, even with how much you've changed. I just wish things could be different. But this has to happen because.... I love them, too."

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"The Great Ones are just using you, you know." Beloved had told her once. He rubbed her back in slow circles in such a way that he knew it loved. 

"I know that." She hummed, moving to rest her head against his shoulder. "That's the kind of creature they are. They wield Order and know nothing but control. It's their birthright."

"But that doesn't mean that you have to continue to be their slave, does it?" Beloved asked. Their intentions were so innocent, so cute. He was but a human, he couldn't possibly understand. 

"I need to be. We are family, right? And family sticks together, for better or for worse. That's what the word means." She replied.

"They aren't your family, my love." Beloved countered. He moved to take her hand, so much paler than her own misty black one. "Me and the kids are your family." As Void stared into his eyes, she found nothing but genuine love and care in his gaze. Such emotion was one she never saw in the eyes of her brothers, not towards her, and certainly not towards each other. 

Void leaned in to give him a kiss on the lips before placing a hand on his cheek. "I know, Beloved. And you four mean more to me than all the worlds in the universe combined. There is not a single thing I wouldn't do for you." The flashbacks struck her once more, bringing her to a time in the future, where she no longer would have her Beloved. The pain and anguish swirled to life quickly and she had to fight to try and keep it down. Any other moment, any other time, she could mourn him. But no, not now. Not during this conversation. 

She took a deep breath before she continued. "My siblings both changed so much since then, and yet not at all. We were a family back then, or so say the legends. Brother, Sister, and Sibling. Those names were passed down, became the words to designate a family. And the legends say that if you are a family, you will forever be one. When I think of them, I inevitably go back to when we were still being raised. I grow up with them all over again. I grow attached, because back then, we were the entire world. I cannot stop myself from loving them. Since I am beyond the concept of time, I cannot be so easily changed by it."

"Void..." Beloved breathed. He blinked a few times as he tried to find a good counter argument. "I know it'd hurt, but you can seperate yourself from them. We can run away from the Great Ones. If we stay in your realm, they could never come after us." He tried to argue with a reassuring squeeze to her hand. 

"I cannot." Void asserted. "Because I never did, never have. No choice is truly my own, you must understand that. If I try to make a change, I'll wind up making the exact same choice because that's what I did -- do -- will do." She paused, letting out a languished sigh. How was she to explain this? "I stick with them, not because I love them. I am at least wise enough to know that my emotional attachment is nothing short of delusional. As much as I love them, I hate them. Hate them for killing Brother. Hate them for making me do it. Hate them for subjecting their children to torture, and forcing me to be crack the whip on them. They are nothing short of cruel, nothing short of lazy. Both of them. It boils my blood, as you humans say."

"Why then go through all the trouble?" Beloved asked.

"The universe is unstable, breaking away bit by bit. Or rather, it will be. I'm not sure if it's their nonsensical fighting, their narrow-mindedness and inexperience of time, or something else but... they put forth a lousy fight against it. One of us has to get serious about it. If I have to play the victim, the delusional madwoman of a sister that would do anything to stay together with her abusive sibling, so be it. All these millennia of pain and suffering will all be worth it for Brother's favor. After all, they aren't one to easily break their word."