AR Mark fic, but it's how he became a zombie in TWA!!
TW for gore and zombie decay stuff
Also!!! Highly recommend listening to this lil playlist, it's what i listened to while writing!
After his death in Alux Rising, Mark wakes up as a zombie in a new universe. Can he find his way back to Petro or will he fail to navigate t
In the Cozen throne room, a guard's corpse lays untouched. His blood splatters the floor, his missing arm not even returned to lay beside its body. The deep blue stone guard stands still, its blade left coated in the boy's blood. His eyes have lost all light in them, staring lifelessly at the outside world, beyond the castle. The sun still shines. The world moves on without his smile, without his laugh. One beating heart gone in a symphony of many, taken by a being of pure hate. No one will remember him. No one will bury the last person who trusted the Angel's vessel.
His curly blonde hair stains with blood. Beyond this room, there are many tasks at hand. Wars. Friendships. Mentors. Freedom and grief. But not here, not now. There is nothing left to do here, with this corpse of a naive boy, too trusting, so young... If he had a family, his body will not be seen by them. If he had friends, friends whose hearts didn't belong to this unfeeling castle, they didn't go looking for him. There is nothing here to see. Just a corpse on the floor. Flies start to gather as decay begins to set in.
The last eyes to set upon this scene have grown weary against the cacophony of the dark. No one else will know of his whereabouts, the boy that promised to not leave his side. There are better, more important, things to do. Wars to plan. Rules to implement upon the people. Stony bodies to cast upon enemies. An empty, cold room to return to. The boy whose heart belongs to the dark has no time for grief. And so, the corpse sits, unseen. To be forgotten. Unmourned for. He will not have a marked gravestone. He will not be important. There is nothing to see here, so you best get moving.
No, no, do not look back. Do not look at his eyes, for there is nothing behind them. There's nothing left, you see. Nothing but a puppet, a discarded toy. To be collected in a landfill and left to rot. There is nothing here. No reason to try. He's not there. There is nothing here. There wasn't anything to begin with. Quit looking. Quit looking, before you snag something on it. Put it back. Put it away, and move on. We have work to do. Come, let us-
No. No, what have you done?! That wasn't supposed to happen! Put it back! Put it back!! What have you done, foolish child? Why didn't you listen?
[The cold stones of the castle walls crack and crumble. The rocks tumble and fall, the fibers of the carpet rip away from one another. Just like the tendons and flesh of the boy, violent and hasty and messy. Still, no one comes. The wood and stone floors split and shatter, torches falling into emptiness below, smothered by nothing at all. It is silent, a deafening silence. The silence of forgetting. The silence of repression. The corpse lays unchanged, apathetic to the destruction around it. The cracks overwhelm the room, threatening the very stability of the universe. And then....]
Nothing.
There is no corpse.
There is no blood on the sword. Everything is fine. Nothing to see here.
The carpet is the same shade of red, fuzzy but matted, from years of use. A breeze blows from the balcony as clouds pass by.
No need for a grave anymore. No need for grief. Let it pass through, and march on forward. We have work to do, child.
...
[The forgotten corpse is forgotten no more. Tears are shed, each one giving another beat to his heart, another breath. His veins begin to flow again. There is more to do. He floats somewhere between anywhere and nowhere at all, a fitting place for such a soul. Get up, boy. Haunted soil reaches his fingertips. Mossy, overgrown stones, rotting wood and rusted metal. Dusty signs and muddy grass beneath his messy hair. Cold graves left unattended crowd around him. Fog lays over him like a cold blanket. Get up. Get up. You are not over yet. Get. UP! His heart races, a gasp of breath, and-]
...
[Voilà.]
[His body took a lot of wear in the process. He will need assistance to get in reasonable shape again. But he is back, he is alive. He is awake for a reason. He will find it one day, perhaps. Or perhaps it will find him. Only time will tell what his new story will be. Make it great, young one. Not all heroes get a second chance.]
...
......!
A painful gasp came from my stinging throat as I lurched forward, almost immediately hitting my head against soggy, packed mud in front of me. I blinked harshly, dried tears still staining my cheeks.
Hwha..? Wh...what...?
My hair was half in my eyes, soaked in something smelly. In fact, everything vaguely smelled and tasted uncomfortably metallic. I coughed painfully, holding the dirt wall to keep myself steady. I gasped for air a few more times as I blinked, trying to get a grasp on my surroundings. What wasn't blood smelled like a muddy ditch in the middle of the woods. Rotting wood and dust and grass clippings.
Where....am I...?
I blinked, looking up. It strained my neck, but I had to. I was in a ditch. ...No, it was...an empty grave. My breathing hitched. I tried to blink away the tears and the memories, but they all came flooding back as I stared back down, immediately regretting it. A huge slash across my chest, not healed but not exactly bleeding, stared back at me. Even worse, when I tried to brush my hair out of the way, I only reached up with my left hand. I pretty much instantly fell to the side, unable to keep myself up.
God, I felt so weak. I was shaking and everything ached in a way I didn't understand at all. I couldn't stand up. What little I could see aboveground didn't look right. It wasn't a graveyard like the castle would have. It...was nothing like Cozen. There were stone bricks, but it...all felt WRONG. The rusted iron bars on the wall and the dark oak lightposts looked strange and unfamiliar. This wasn't a place in Cozen...
P-Petro...!?
But as I struggled to think, I remembered I had much, much bigger problems at the moment. I hissed as I doubled over in pain, clutching my chest.
Augh, god-! That stings SO bad, man-!
I couldn't even look at the stump where my arm used to be without almost vomiting. In fact, my whole body looked all kinds of wrong. Something very, very BAD was happening. Or, I guess, had happened. I...was alive. But not.
C'mon, please...
I looked up again, expecting to see Petro's face peering over with a smirk and say it was all a crazy prank. He got rid of that woman (or whatever "she" is...) and got me all fixed up and I would be okay again. It'd be normal again. But nothing happened. The stars twinkled back at me through the fog. Teasing me. God, I'd do anything to be back at the castle, back by his side...
Despite the pain and overwhelming realization I had just DIED, I somehow managed to stand up. I clawed at the dirt with one hand, as I used my head to push off the wall behind me. I latched onto the wet grass above me, choking back tears I didn't have. My throat was scratchy as hell, still tasting of blood despite....however long it's been. I leaned against my one good arm, trying to catch my breath.
Where are you, where did you go...?
My hair caught on the muddy dirt around me, but I couldn't be bothered with fixing it. I was alone, in an open grave, and I was pretty sure i just cheated death. And God, it certainly felt that way. Trying to get out was impossible, I didn't have an ounce of strength to pull myself out with one hand. So I just stood there for forever, trying to process everything that had just happened. Dying had been...painful, for sure, but by the time I closed my eyes everything had slowed down and all the pain got swallowed up.
And now I was choking on it.
The fog made me shiver. Everything was so, so cold, and I wanted out. But I couldn't do anything about it, could I? The longer I stood there, the more my arm smushed the dirt, making it pile into the grave. Eventually it covered enough of my foot for me to finally notice.
O-oh...yeah...
I started digging, even though it was so cold and wet and I wanted to just lay back down again. It got all up my nails and all over my shirt, but that didn't matter. I needed to find my way out of this. God, what if he blames himself for all of this? What if losing me made him go off the deep end? I needed to get back there! My determination came to a halt when I finally climbed out, and realized this REALLY wasn't Cozen. The "streetlights" were big boxes on fenceposts, the graveyard was so TINY, and all the torches, the stone brick walls, it was so......different. Like I was looking at a life-size diorama. I....don't know. But it looked so wrong. And it was so obvious I was so, SO far away from home.
O-oh...no...
My lonely voice echoed over the empty graveyard. I stared up at the stars again. They gave no direction.
Where do I go...?
They gave no answer.
Hello...?
There was no one else here. No fellow wayward souls, nothing.
Tears started to well up in my eyes again, this time for real.
Wh-why...?
I turned back to the grave I was just in. Some sign that Petro could've brought me here, made this, anyone who was doing something to put me at peace, send me on my way-!
Nothing. The gravestone wasn't just worn, it was blank. Empty. It could've been anyone's. It probably wasn't even mine. I wasn't even supposed to BE here. I wasn't supposed to be part of this. I wasn't supposed to be alive. Why was I alive?! Why was I even here?? Was this purgatory or hell or-
PLEASE! I- I can't do this! Please!! Tell me what to do! How to find him! I- I can't be alone like this-! I- WE PROMISED EACH OTHER! WHERE IS HE??!
There was no reply to my sobbing-induced screams at the world.
WHERE IS HE??!
Nothing.
I started to trek up to the tiny building up a hill in the corner, still shouting at the universe to bring us back together. All the while crying, trying not to slip and somehow die again. I couldn't do that. I had a promise to keep! My head swam with anxiety and fear, and probably from blood loss too. My dirt-covered hand gripped lightpost to lightpost, as I reached the dusty, musty looking building. I shivered again as I looked back at the fog-covered landscape. I trudged inside.
There was another grave inside. It was covered with a stone slab. I just slid to the ground beside it, shaking. Did....nobody make me a grave....? Even bury me...? Did anyone even know I died besides him? Did..."she" force him to forget about me...?
My blood boiled at the thought of whoever had made him so, so scared and hopeless that he couldn't tell me. It....oh. oh GOD.
Is that why you never came back for me...?
The question echoed even more inside here, a stone tomb fit for grieving. It teased me again and again, as it rippled inside my mind. If I ever get my hands on "her," I swear to God, I'm going to rip "her" to shreds. If "she's" the one that......that did the killing....Then "she" wasn't successful. And "she" probably couldn't finish me off, now. That's gotta be it. I'm back to finish "her" off. Free him. I...I had to.
But where are you..?
I stared up at the stone bricks as it started to rain. I scooted away from the entrance, deeper into the dark room. It had so many spiderwebs. How am I supposed to find my way to Cozen?? Especially when I'm...like THIS? Even if I don't...need anything to survive, this is gonna be slow and incredibly painful on my own. I pulled my head back, tears dripping onto the slab. The movement somehow pushed it over a bit, surprising me. There was light inside....
Huh..?
Curiosity, of course, got the best of me. I somehow managed to push it over enough to see inside. I definitely wouldn't be able to put it back. Inside was a ladder. And that...led into a moss-covered hallway. I looked at the ladder suspiciously. I wasn't sure if I could climb back up alright with just one arm. I grabbed one side of it.
I...might...
I carefully pulled myself onto it. It was surprisingly steady. I looked down, and managed to climb down without falling off. Almost as soon as I turned around, I saw a human skull. I jumped in surprise.
GAH! Jeez, you'd think I'd expect to see that down here...
I looked around more. It was like a smaller version of the dungeon. Torches lined the walls deeper in. I wandered further in, until I came to a fork in the road. One way was pitch black, not a single torch in sight.
I....should probably just wait out the night and the rain....I can NOT be getting lost, haha...
So I came back to the ladder, and just sat by the skull. Not like, next to it, though. It was creepy. I stared at it from the other side, leaning against the wall. I sighed, wondering if I could even go back to being a guard like this...it's not like Cozen exactly has a clause on undead soldiers, yknow. But that's for later. Eventually I curled up, hugging myself as I listened to the rain.
Someone please, find me soon..I wanna go home...
At some point, maybe I fell asleep again, I got a blanket put over me. Not really a blanket, more like a worn out cloth full of holes and stains. But I got it somehow. Maybe it was the world's way of telling me everything would be okay. But either way, nothing came around. Just me and the rain and the impending sense of doom. I swear, though, something pat my head...
Zero and Guardian are like you're one of the only people I actually feel calm around /I know how scared you were for all of us,it means so much/ I'll never forgive Sabre for leaving you behind and the way he treated you /I want to believe the best in people but even if he wasn't good I know you are/ I hate every time I joked about you not doing anything,you tried so hard,you did so much /I feel like a hideous monster/ you're our angel /I don't want anything bad to happen to you, I want you to be safe/ you're everything,and I'm going to protect you,hold my hand,we'll get through this.
And then Zero and Azrial's relationship is like I don't even know why I got attached to you but I did and now you're precious to me /I wasn't aware we were being watched but it's nice in a way,knowing someone was looking out for us/ it stung when nobody went looking for you,I can't believe they just wrote you off /you do realize we're strangers,right? Why do you keep treating me so kindly like we know eachother?/ I hope you aren't too overwhelmed,I know this is a lot for you /this is all so much to take in,but...people like you are making it bearable/ you're actually nice to spend time with,you know that? /I'm so used to being underappreciated and ignored.../ The next time someone messes with you,I'm seriously going to bite their head off /I really don't know you, but you have made it obvious you just want to be friends so maybe I can allow that/ I just wanna be friends with you /we are friends,Zero/
And then her with Hypno is like- Oh my goodness,you're okay?! I was so worried- /You're an interesting one,aren't you? You searched for ME this long?/ I know your story by heart,you're the absolute coolest and I'm so so happy to see you again /I'm not exactly the biggest fan of Sabre anymore,but clearly you're not like him/ I understand if you don't want to trust me /No no,I already do./ Every time I think about how he left you in that lab I get furious, I'll never let that happen to you again /I don't have to read your mind to see how much you love us all/ I know you're good,I freaking love you,you did everything I wasn't capable of doing but I am now and I want to help you /Don't worry,I'm back,for real this time,we both are and we aren't going to lose eachother again/ I'm so curious about the pieces of your life we didn't get to see,I hope I'm not annoying you/ I'm flattered,really...It's rare to be so wanted, I'll reveal everything in time/ We're gonna get you back to Rainbow, promise /you know what? I think Rainbow would like you/
And then for Illusion it's like /All my life I was mistreated and humiliated,why would YOU be any different?/ I'll prove that I'm not like them,you're safe,really,you are /I just want to be left alone/ okay,I'll give you space,I'll do whatever I can to make you more comfortable /those two keep bothering me/ then I'll threaten to beat them up and we'll vote on ways to shut them up /are you out of your mind?/ Maybe,but at least I'm not hiding it! /You really do hate him too,don't you.../ More than you'd ever know,I hate him /You're actually tolerable sometimes. Just sometimes. /That's all I can hope for with you
And then we have Mark my beloved and it's- Your death was devastating and your return enough to make me lose my mind,I hope I didn't startle you with that fall /You all have been so cool and nice,even if it's all a little strange!/ It's okay,nobody blames you for what happened and I'll make sure they know the truth so they don't blame Petro either /I'm not even sure if I'm deserving of a second chance/ Mark,you deserve everything /it's kinda nice to know someone saw it. Like it wasn't meaningless/ I'll make sure you get that happiness back /just being around you all makes it easier/ you're wonderful,you really are /if there was someone watching us,I'm glad it was you guys/
And then. Ok this is kinda speculation cause I don't know c!IGC's thoughts on Everything but
It doesn't matter that I'm alone,I can't risk getting shut out again,I have to find them /I know who you're looking for,I want to help you/ you seem like such a nice person, I'd love to be friends with you /I'm going to make sure you accomplish those goals,I want you to be as happy as this world as I am/ you clearly know too much,but I trust you /I want this world to be a safe haven for you too/ you're really incredible,I've never met anyone like you /Here,I'll lead you to the people you mentioned,the ones you were worried about/ I love this world,you're my friend and I love you too
