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She crashes on the ground with a dull and wet sound. She knows that is the last time, she would get back up. She cannot take another hit like that.
Imogen raises her head from the ground and spits out the dirt and the blood that have been invading her mouth. "Imogen fight!" she hears her mother say in her head. Imogen scoffs. She won't get her the satisfaction of an answer and she refuses to let herself look at her. So instead, she looks at her friends. They're closing in on her. She can't tell if they're slower because they're fighting through the mind-control or if the adrenaline just makes it seem that way.
Fight. That's funny. It's not like she hasn't been thinking about it. Orym had been the quickest one to reach her and she almost blasted him off her but then she saw his eyes. Bloodshot eyes full of desperation and powerlessness. And she realized they were still in there... So no, she isn't about to hurt her friends. She just needs them to snap out of it.
Imogen tries to get back up but vines wrap around her and stop her from moving. Fearne. She turns her head toward her friend. "Please, Fearne, please, just stop!" It's pointless, she knows it's pointless. She knows she can't get away. If she runs, they'll just catch her. If she flies, an army of Exaltants is just waiting for her, she wouldn't get far. Besides, she wouldn't just leave her friends. She doesn't have anybody else, and being alone seems like a fate worst than death. She almost didn't survive loneliness the first time around.
Her thoughts pull her attention to Laudna. Dear Laudna. Her beautiful pale face full of tears and black goo rolling down her cheeks. Her hands start shining with a purple light. Imogen knows what it is. She knows she won't survive this. "Laudna!" She calls out. The hands shake and slow down, but they don't stop. They can't stop. "It's okay, sweetheart! I know it isn't you. When you come back, please, don't forget it wasn't you. And... I lo... I forgive you, okay?" Her voice catches in her throat. She cannot do this. She cannot do this to Laudna.
Imogen Misty Step in front of Chetney. His wild eyes are wilder than usual. She falls on her knees. It's funny, in his hybrid form, he's taller than her like that. "Don't let her kill me, Chetney. You do it. Don't let her have to live with it".
Her eyes catch Ashton behind him. "And you!" she calls out. "Don't let her be alone, okay?" She is fully crying now. "Take care of her for me". She goes to say something else but claws tear through her chest and she is suddenly face-first in the dirt again. She won't get up. It's okay. She doesn't mind, really. She just wishes her death didn't have to hurt her friends so much.
Imogen's mind goes back to when she was almost desperate to die. She almost misses it. The time where she didn't care about who she would have been leaving behind. The time where she didn't have anything to look forward to. Where she didn't have a whole life planned with Laudna. Where she didn't have friends who had her back and who made her laugh. Where she didn't know what it was like to love and feel loved. She is grateful for it all, she is grateful for those last two years. But she misses that time where dying would have been easier, would have been better.
She feels another set of slashes on her back. It doesn't hurt anymore. That is a relief. Probably not a good sign but a relief nonetheless. Something pushes Chetney aside, and she feels the cold of metal against her neck. It's big and blunt. Ashton. Oh, so Ashton will be the one then. She would have preferred Chetney. She would have preferred Laudna to have Ashton without having their friendship be polluted by the vision of them killing her. It's alright. It's not like she can do anything about it. She cannot move her body. It's alright. It won't matter in a few seconds anyway.
"Stop!" She hears from somewhere. Who is it? She knows that voice. It doesn't matter. None of this matters anymore.
But the crash of Ashton's hammer doesn't come. Nothing comes. Is she dead already? That's weird. She expected it to feel different. At the very least, she expected the taste of dirt and blood to stop.
Imogen feels herself be moved, gently. She feels herself be cradled. Is it Laudna? Did she snap back? Oh, how much Imogen wishes it could be Laudna. Dying in her arms doesn't seem so bad. It is out of sheer will that she manages to open her eyes again, and before she can even concentrate on the blurry face, she knows the colors don't match. There is too much lavender to be Laudna. Mother.
Imogen can now see clearly the face of the broken woman on top of her. "I will not let you die here, Imogen. Not after everything. I will not lose you." Liliana puts her other hand up and Imogen can feel the other members of the Bell Hells being thrown away from her. She hears them crash hard against the ground.
"N.. No" she manages to croak out.
"Shhh, Imogen, it's alright," Liliana says trying to soothe her. "The choice was you or them. But you don't have to be the one who kills them, I can do it for you, my darling".
The adrenaline comes back and everything hurts. "No!" she says more forcefully. She focuses and throws a psychic lance in her mother's direction.
Liliana. who hasn't been expecting it, is pushed back a bit and Imogen is dropped on the ground again.
She needs to stand. She needs to fight.
She cannot.
All of the sudden, she hears a wondrous crack, and right on the other side of where they are, an unremarkable tree splits in two. Out of the middle appears The Voice of The Tempest and a man Imogen has never seen before. That man is immense and gray and covered in tattoos. He lets out a loud yell. A terrifying yell. A joyous yell. They both look ferocious.
Imogen closes her eyes.
It feels like a second passes but also an eternity when she suddenly feels cradled again. "I.. Imogen?" She snaps back awake. She is immediately greeted by two black eyes, tears and goo rolling for them.
Before she can say anything, she hears "um, if I may..." She knows that voice too, that's Letters. And all of a sudden she feels better. She can breathe more easily and it is not so hard to focus on what is around her. Everything still hurts but she can move. And so she does. She throws herself on Laudna and holds her tightly, breathing her in.
"Please do not do this to me again" Imogen hears against her neck.
Imogen doesn't answer, she just holds her tighter.