((Here it is. Part 1 of the Jubileena/Deimos wrap-up post. Should be 3 parts. I'm gonna try posting the other 2 tonight a bit later. Whop whop.))
"JubiLeeNA."
That voice. That terrible voice had been scraping, snarling, and clawing its way across the landscape of Sugar Rush. People screamed; ran for cover. The heat that the demon virus brought with it was excruciating, and his anger, his fury, added to it.
His prize. Had been taken away from him. And he was not a virus to be trifled with.
He would raze this disgustingly sweet game to the ground. Melt it into a husk until he found his little Lovie again. His prize. HIS. SHEWASHIS.
And he was going to find her. And slaughter anything that tried to slow him.
--
"Jubileena? Sweetheart, just...I know it hurts...Shhh, baby..."
Latte's voice was soothing, and as calm as she could manage. The little girl, her little girl, was laid out flat on her bed, safe inside the cave Latte had begun to call home. Blood had already stained the blankets--but, thankfully, she wasn't bleeding anymore.
Red--magic? She wasn't sure--light covered the girl from head to toe, curling from the large, metal Medi-Gun the woman held close to her. Latte's brows were furrowed, her eyes deep in concentration, trying not to burst into tears every time the girl winced or whimpered.
Gashes that had once been oozing thick blood were closed. Several puncture wounds--she tried as hard as she could to not compare those marks to teeth--across her arms and throat were already gone. A broken arm was fixed. A broken leg, healed. Fingers, ribs, and her nose, mended.
It was done.
The woman swallowed and let out a breath, turning the red, healing spray of the Medi-Gun off, and the light stopped. There was nothing else she could do--anybody could do--when it came to trying to patch her up, now.
"Jub?"
Tic was there, right on the other side of the bloodstained bed, the front of his suit just as bloodied as the actual sheets, his hands pressed into the blankets beside her as he leaned over a bit. His gray skin was deathly pale, just like that of his brother who stood behind him silently.
"Jub, open your eyes," Tic said softly. "Can you hear me? Are you--"
Those big eyes cracked open slowly. Void of color. Void of sight. She was still blind.
Tic cursed, and ran a few fingers through her sticky hair gently, wincing when the girl flinched at his touch. "That was me--I'm sorry," he whispered.
Latte felt like screaming. Crying. Both at the same time. Her grip tightened on the Medi-Gun, her teeth gritting together--she didn't care about hiding her expression now. Jubi couldn't see it. Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks.
Her shoulders tensed, actually lifting the heavy metal contraption, her knuckles white as she all but braced herself to throw the thing across the room. Jubi's voice caught her, though, and she managed to relax.
"Nothing hurts anymore," she said softly. Her eyes had slipped closed again. "...Nothing hurts."
She flinched again when Morgan sat down on the bed near Tic, her hand resting gently on the girl's ankle. But she settled quickly enough after--Jubileena knew everyone in the room was family--they wouldn't hurt her. When Morgan began to hum, very very softly, the cherry racer began to relax even more.
"I'm not going to just...just sit around and wait for him to find her."
King Candy snarled, a raging mess at the mouth of the cave. "I'm not going to just sit around and let him take her away again."
"Nobody here would let that happen," Latte said softly.
"Nobody here is strong enough to keep it from happening," Tas squeaked, finally speaking up. "W-we can't--we can't fight him! He beat Morgan! And she's magic! Or-or something, I don't know!"
"It's true," Morgan said softly, stopping her soothing little tune mid-hum. "He is very...very powerful. I could not defeat him alone. I did not...even come close."
"Then we'll all go after him!" the ex-king roared. "We'll go after him and rip him LIMB FROM LIMB!" Candice hissed her agreement from outside, the sound carrying into the cave.
Jubileena rolled onto her side then, curling in on herself, covering her ears.
Voices rose, misplaced fury being tossed left and right. Teeth were bared and fists trembled. Threats were tossed back and forth, and people went from trying to calm the group down to joining in with the screaming.
"Turbo! Turbo /do/ something!" Tas had hurried over to the glaring yellow-eyed racer standing silently off to the side. "We need to do something and Jubi's crying and he's still out there and--"
"Shut up," Turbo growled, and huffed past the frazzled twin. "Everybody KNOCK IT OFF!"
He managed to hide his surprise when that actually worked. All eyes fell on him, and he glared right back at all of them. But he didn't waste time--if he didn't spit it out, they'd just start arguing again. Nothing would get done. Bunch of idiots.
"We go after him," he began flatly. "And we kill him. It's as damn. Simple. As that. From the sound of it, he isn't about to just give up and move on."
Turbo sneered. "And even if he did move on, I'd still want him dead anyway."
There was a beat of silence, and short glances were cast back and forth between the small--alarmingly small--group. "So let's get moving."
"So...we're--actually going to try and fight him?" Latte looked a little dazed. She didn't know the first thing about fighting! Her heart hammered in her chest, and panic might have overwhelmed her if it wasn't for the fact that...she /wanted/ to do something. She wanted to have a hand in this. Wanted to be there when the thing that had harmed her little Jubi so badly was destroyed.
"Al...right," she said.
"We're in," Tic said automatically, and Tas's shoulders hunched in horror behind him. But the gentler twin didn't say anything to object. "We--"
"No," Turbo cut in, glaring at them. "You two are staying here. You wouldn't do us any good."
"...What." Tic's eyes darkened. Like hell he was staying behind. Not with that bastard out there, searching for his sister. "I'm NOT--"
"It's true," Morgan interjected. "You would not be of much help, unless you would want to offer yourselves up as distractions," she said. "Out of all of us, you two are...the most human. The most fragile. Even Latte has this...device, which might very well be of great use in a fight like this."
"You'll just get yourselves killed," Turbo growled. "So stay back and look after the kid."
Tas was nearly shaking at that point. He'd already gotten hurt getting her away from that monster, and he didn't want to be left out of something this important. The things that thing did to Jubileena... Like Latte, he wanted to be there.
"No."
The little whispered voice caught everyone's attention, and Jubileena struggled to sit up. "No, no, no one go. You can't--" tilting her head up, her eyes were wide as she stared vacantly ahead. "You can't beat him, he'll hurt you. He'llhurtallofyou!"
"Jubi--" Latte began, but the girl shrieked out the same string of words, too high, too rough, and too hysterical to really understand, over and over again. Until her face began to redden and she closed her eyes tightly, shoulders hunching as she pressed her palms to her forehead.
"Jub, stop!"
"Shut her up!"
"Calm down, sweetheart, it's okay!"
"Morgan!"
The fairy was already reaching out for the little girl, and with a gentle touch to her forehead, her tense arms went limp, her blind eyes rolled back, and she fell into the bloodied blankets yet again, still, silent, and out cold.
Morgan drew her hand back, her brows furrowed. "She has been through too much," the fairy said finally.
There was a long, awfully silent beat, and then Tic shifted, and pointed towards the mouth of the cave.
"Go." He was glaring at the floor. "We'll watch after her. While you're gone."
He didn't say anything else.
Candy didn't hesitate to back out until he was outside again, growling a very short "Hurry it up" as he did towards the others still inside.
"Just...please come back," Tas began, and clung to Turbo's arm for a moment. "Please?"
"Yeah, we'll come back." Turbo glanced down at Tas's hand, before reaching out and patting the other racer on the head. "Just stay here."
Tas nodded, but couldn't help when his eyes welled up with tears as Turbo left him to leave--he didn't think Turbo would come back, to be honest. None of them. But he had to be strong--had to be positive. Or try to be, at the very least.
Latte dipped down and kissed the sleeping girl on the forehead, lingering for a few seconds before running a soft hand through her hair. "We'll be back soon, sweetheart," she whispered softly, and like Turbo and Candy, left the cave, Morgan at her side.
Tas and Tic stood at the mouth of the cave in silence for a long time, until their footsteps and the massive cybrid's agitated hissing had faded.
"D..." Tas swallowed a little thickly, crossing his arms nervously over his chest, eyes darting to the back of his brother's head and then back outside. "Do you think they really will come back?"
"They'd better," the other man growled under his breath. "They'd fucking better. Otherwise, Tas? ...We're going to have to hide. You know that right?"
"Y...yeah--yes of course!"
"Good. He's not getting his hands on her again," he muttered, and then, a little darkly, "I don't care how many games he tears down looking for her, he won't."
((SEE WHAT I MEAN BY BEING WORRIED ABOUT OOC-NESS?
HISSS.
Adorable family AU.
Where Jubi does this thing whenever she's really upset and hides under her bed and TOTALLY REFUSES TO COME OUT FOR ANYBODY. Except apparently her tapping buddy. Aw.
