Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

With a swift rotation of her body guiding it’s motion, Celia sent her shield twirling through the air, slamming into the belostoss and sending them reeling 2 or 3 paces back. The other 2 that had been fighting them had long since retreated far away from the battlefield, most reasonably out of fear that they’d perish if they stood there any longer. The termite they were escorting back home to the Capitol watched safely from afar, currently wide-eyed feeling about 26 different emotions at once.

“Levi, now!” Celia blurted out, nearly losing her balance and being sent to the ground as she braced her legs and caught the rebounding shield cleanly in her hands. Her heart was beating 6 marks higher than resting and some part of her body she couldn’t quite place down yet stung.

A swift, invisible nod of understanding was shared between the two of them, Celia now watching Levi rush with a burst of speed towards the staggered belostoss, swiping upwards with his weapon which made a crackling sound that only barely didn’t reverberate throughout the Forsaken Lands. The beast was sent reeling backwards, shrieking out in sudden pain. As quick as Levi’s swipe met it’s chin, it retreated into the fog; out of sight and out of mind, every further retreating stomp shaking the ground until the reverbations had finally ceased.

Celia took a deep breath in, another one out, and gleefully smiled. She quickly gave her body a look-over for any signs of damage. It had become standard fare for her to do this after encounters like these, as it took little time at all and was useful to know for when they returned to the Explorer’s Association.

Her arms and legs were halfway enveloped with fatigue; a universal given, considering the generally high amount of physical exertion that they had to use on most missions that involved any fighting at all. A small patch of chitin on her right knee had been scraped during an earlier encounter with some mothflies in their escort mission, which was no big deal as it was only a singular round of light cleaning, disinfecting, and rest away from being ready for the days of work that would come after. The chitin near her palm was slightly worn away from how tightly she had been gripping her shield the entire mission, which would be treated exactly the same as the scrape. In all honesty, Celia felt like she could fight on for an hour or two more, rolling out her shoulderblades just in case the situation called for it.

Celia turned her attention back to the world at hand, beginning to walk towards the frozen-in-fear termite. She could hear Levi’s light footsteps swiftly catching up from behind her.

“You okay?” Celia asked.

“Oh, y—yeah, no worries here.” The termite they were escorting let out a breath with a magnitude that Celia had never seen before. “Just wasn’t… expecting that, I guess!”

“We’re glad you’re safe, Tress!” Levi chimed in. 

Levi and Tress somehow managed to launch into small-talk right afterwards as they kept on walking towards the steadily nearing Termite Capitol, Celia unfortunately missing the caravan and taking a role of walking alongside the two and semi-observing the conversation with a smile and a nod whenever it seemed applicable. She used this opportunity to look at Levi and do the same look-over she had performed on herself prior.

Levi, as opposed to Celia, seemed relatively spotless in terms of damage. She could see some outward-facing scratches here and there, primarily on his hands which were currently in the process of gesturing in some way that had fully caught the attention of Tress. That seemed to be it, though. Even his wings, something that should be extremely prone to even the slightest amount of scuffing, almost shone undamaged in the foggy sun.

While she managed to keep herself from showing any outward-facing disappointment, Celia couldn’t help but feel the ever increasing twangs of frustration with her performance in the encounters they fought as a team. It felt strange, almost heretical to get up in arms over how injured her long-time partner was in comparison to her own status; who would want to see their teammate get more injured? Wasn’t it better that he was relatively fine, a sign that Levi was doing well?

She had thought about this exact dilemma roughly 3 months ago, a day after Celia had gotten saved from the brink of death by Levi on one of their missions. She remembered having looked up at Levi the first time she regained consciousness after the encounter, who seemed relatively injury-free in comparison to her bruised, broken body that would then be recovering for the next week near motionless. 

Head compressed under a bag of frigid ice, it gave her time to mull the situation over and over again; there wasn’t much else to think about in that state anyways. The problem wasn’t that Levi wasn’t hurt enough on these missions, it was that Celia was getting too hurt. 

She was weaker than Levi, a message that kept it’s longing presence as the Termite Capitol neared and the vague, blurry shape of guards were in view. It was only at least somewhat natural to assume so given their roles and subsequent weaponry. Celia was meant to play no more than a supporting role in the team’s composition: to be there on the frontlines, protecting others from the brunt of the damage while Levi had ample room to strike at will whenever possible. It was a perfectly fine dynamic, one that had worked wonders prior, but recently it had started feeling like Celia was just dragging Levi down. 

Some missions it was like Celia was nothing more than an audience member to the cunning display of mastery over his weapon that Levi had obtained over years of practice. Against 3 bandits, she’d perhaps block a single strike from a bandit, and then knock them over while Levi would weave between the other 2 bandits, thread through a loom, striking them down with the only visible damage being on his weapon. Maybe once every other mission, Celia would skillfully block two attacks that might have otherwise hit Levi, but it would quickly be exchanged with Levi deflecting 5 strikes directed at her with his swift footing and deft handiwork.

The three of them were finally close enough to the door, enough for the guards there to recognize them and begin opening the door to the Termite Capitol, revealing the active hustle and bustle of the city within. 

It didn’t make sense to be this hung up on her own strength, especially considering she was still, very clearly, a top-percentile explorer that could hold her own just fine. But the creeping thoughts of self-doubt had slowly begun taking up more and more of her daily headspace, eating away at Celia the more the two of them had taken on missions together. She felt like nothing more than a spectator in her own team, but it would be useless to try and drag down Levi to her level. She grasped her shield’s handle as hard as she could to relieve some of the pressure, coming back to the world at large to notice that Levi and the Termite had been lost in their own unrelated conversation the entire walk.

At the very least, they didn’t pay too much mind to her at the time. She’d hate to seem ungrateful, or even angry at what Levi provided to their team; there weren't any feelings of malice or sadness towards Levi himself. She was still heavily grateful for him being around! Levi was a good friend, and he was doing nothing more than playing the role he was given to an unprecedented level of mastery. Celia mostly just wished for a way to match that level of competency, a way to contribute something more than just what she was already doing, which wasn’t enough.

As the three of them walked through the door of the Termite Capitol and sunrays were immediately replaced with the harsh indoor shade, Celia and Levi noticed another termite swiftly approaching the group, lightly shoving through the small crowd all trying to get where they needed to be.

“OhmygoodnessTressi’m SO GLAD YOU’RE SAFE!” the termite yelled from afar, arms extended outward. Tress left their position in their formation to meet in the middle with the termite, crashing into each other at mach 5 before transitioning into a hug. It wasn’t in Levi and Celia’s responsibilities to join in on the festivities, really, so they began briskly walking through the foot-traffic that had just been redirected around the two termites still holding each other tightly.

At the very least, Celia found a bit of solace in the end results. Every mission taken on, despite the constant looping feelings of self doubt while they were out and about, always put a smile on her face. It was hard to stay too upset about whatever had happened when scenes like this were sometimes the reward. Of course, being paid was also important, and they hoped to get paid pretty well: the Forsaken Lands were no walk-in-the-park to traverse through, and they had essentially walked twice the distance of the thing to find Tress and escort them back.

It was nice to see them happy, at least.

The termite finally let go of Tress after what seemed like minutes on end, before they rapidly began exchanging words of thank-you-forevers to Celia and Levi.

“Thankyouthankyouthankyou so much!! I was worried sick about him, he was gone ALLLLL morning and I was super concerned he got lost or hurt or something and I had to givehimsomethingImadeand—”

“Hey, it’s no problem!” Levi cut off the termite right before their speech began going exponentially fast. “We do it for the good of Bugaria, first and foremost.”

And to get paid, Celia quietly thought. Rather than making this thought audible, though, she gave an approving smirk and a nod of approval to Levi’s principles.

“Waitwaitwait, I almost forgot your reward!” 

The termite swiftly whipped around a sack patterned in plaid and began shuffling around it, before pulling out another smaller sack that was bright yellow and tied up with blue string. She held it out towards the two of them.

“40 berries for your troubles! And you get to keep the bag, too! I made it myself! I hope this is enough for your services.”

“Thank you very much, ma’am! We hope you have a good day.” Levi said, taking the bag of berries from her outstretched hand.

“Yeah, same here! Have a good day.” Celia mirrored. The both of them gave a retreating wave to the termite as they grabbed Tress’s hand and quickly ran off into the Termite Capitol crowd again, perhaps to never be seen again. Team Celia began making their way back to the outside world again, eyes that had only now having adjusted to the inside light being once again blasted by the bright lights of the Forsaken Lands.

They took a small moment of refuge on an untaken spot on the wall to the left of the guards stood, Levi carefully opening the bag and counting out the share of berries Celia would take home: 20 berries or so were swiftly counted out and deposited into her awaiting hands, before being safely deposited in the small bag she kept near her waist. 

“Well,” Levi started, digging his heel into the stone beneath him. “you wanna do any other missions today? That one was, uh…” His voice trailed off, but Celia immediately caught what he was trying to say.

“I think I’m spent for today. Quite the character that fellow was.” Celia responded.

“Yyyeah.”

The two of them shared a laugh and stood in the brisk air for just a moment longer until they decided it was the right time to head back to the Explorers’ Association. Despite the generally raised mood on the long, dark walk back, the thought still reverberated in Celia’s mind.

She was weaker than Levi.

Celia knew better than to let this get her down. She had been through similar situations before in her past, recalling the times she had to dig deep and get to work in order to pass some of her childhood rivals. It didn’t matter how big the deficit currently seemed between her and Levi; like she had kept as a mantra since childhood, every hill can be summited with enough time and effort. This was just one more challenge of the many she had faced before and would face afterwards.

She was weaker than Levi, but it didn’t have to be that way forever. All she needed was a plan and subsequent execution, and in the midst of idle conversation with Levi down the long winding dirt walls of the Ant Tunnels, her mind began drifting off towards all the ways she could get ahead.

Chapter Text

The first thing Celia did when the pair returned to the Explorers’ Association was get some things to treat her “wounds” with. It felt a little strange to have to take time to rest after what was nothing more than a miniscule amount of damage to her chitin, weirdness also added onto by the soft apologetics Levi exchanged with her about said damage before the two went their separate ways for the rest of the day, but enough time as an explorer had taught her that it was always worth it to wait just that little bit longer, lest you damage yourself even more.

Taking a spot up against one of the support beams of the association, Celia dunked her hand into a bucket of water and swished it around to clean it of the dirt and dust accumulated from the Forsaken Lands, also using some of the wet residue to rub on the scrape. After rubbing it dry with a rag, she popped open a bottle of Isau’s disinfectant and applied some to her palm, a stinging sensation rippling throughout her exhausted arm. Celia had somewhat gotten used to the feeling by now, but that didn’t mean it never didn’t sting every time. The same sensation swiftly greeted the scrape on her knee, and Celia tightly wrapped a bit of bandage around her palm, wiggling her fingers around to still assure herself that she had enough range of motion to function.

After returning all the borrowed supplies to Eetl, the next thing Celia did was head to the Ant Palace’s library.

She was fairly lucky such an illustrious place was open to the general public most times before nightfall, as it had recently been slowly adding useful supplies for the people within its walls; most recently pencil and paper which Celia grabbed and subsequently placed at the spot she’d be camping out at for the next hour or two.

Celia’s walk through the tunnels had brought on a litany of scattered thoughts with the same goal in mind: to grow as strong, or even stronger than Levi. Many of them were erroneous and seemed to hold no value in the grand schemes: stray thoughts about potentially sabotaging Levi had come up briefly for less than the time it took for her to blink and re-open her eyes, yet were still lauded as equal to every other thought scattered upon her mind’s messy floor.

She began sorting through the pile and wrote down any of the ideas that seemed as if they had the legs to run forward. The idle, still ambience of the library gave a nice environment for Celia to write in, the only audible sounds being her own breath and the soft scratching emanating from her pencil. After an unknown amount of time, somewhere between a few minutes and an hour, she had narrowed it down to a total of three tangible “things” that might be useful to pursue improving. They were circled, underlined, and marked with any other forms of emphasis Celia knew in order to make them clearly visible among the sea of scribbly deluge on the once blank paper.

Work out more/better. Well, duh. Despite such a vague description with no further planning or thought behind it, Celia could generally visualize a couple of broad shapes in her head that looked enough like her, just slightly larger and stronger. Just the silhouette was enough to make her smile.

Get a better weapon. While the large shield of leaf and seed she carried around right now was more than enough for quite literally everything she had done prior, it seemed like something that might be easy enough to improve on without too much thought on her part. Celia didn’t know much about the intricacies of the materials themselves, but she had observed just how deadly materials like plastic and wood were in the hands of people like Maki and Levi.

Fight more. It concerned Celia that after such a long time spent thinking and scribbling, the 3 best ideas she had were the simplest ones, enough that any person off the street could reasonably come to the same conclusions given enough time to do so. It wasn’t wrong, per se: the best experience for getting better at combat was to get involved in said combat yourself. She just wished it sounded less like the mumblings of a pre-awakened bug’s mind.

At the very least, Celia now had a sense of direction on where to go next, in spite of how nebulous the instructions currently were. Celia returned her pencil to the front desk and folded the paper up, fiddling it between her fingers as she silently headed out.

It was tomorrow, sometime before the sun had fully risen on Bugaria, Celia looking out at the lonely autumn-tinted waterside near Snakemouth Den and shivering at the cold breeze rapidly flowing across her chitin. The sky was still purple; Celia was normally fast asleep at this time; at minimum she might have woken up due to restlessness or bad dreams but stayed in bed until the sun began to shine through their window, glancing over at Levi on occasion who’d still be fast asleep and tucked under the covers undeterred. This was the first time she was out and about at such early hours, and it was a strange, lonely feeling to not see even the slightest bit of other active life. The guard that usually sat here on various stumps, bored out of their mind was currently missing. Even the seedlings, who had tread ground in the Outskirts every single day when the sun was out since Celia was a kid, didn’t even bother to greet her on this frigid night.

She had brought essentially nothing on her either, the shield acting as her only real source of company. Celia was out here to train: she’d taken time yesterday after leaving the library to ask people who seemed to know what they were doing on what to do, and one of the big recommendations she had gotten was to run. The bug she primarily got this information from nerded out about it to a point where a lot of the finer information had grazed past her brain, but she got the general gist: run, run across a long time of period and you’ll eventually be able to fight more; simple enough for her to comprehend. She’d run from the Snakemouth Den gate to the Bugaria Pier, then all the way back home, hopefully before the sun rose and Levi had enough consciousness to question what she was out so early for.

Celia started moving into a jog and started making her way down the strip, heart rate quickly transitioning to match the speed at which she was moving.

It became quickly apparent to her how much she didn’t know about such a basic form of movement, not even a few minutes into the long run and already feeling like death was creeping up on her. It didn’t help that the distance she was running was filled to the brim with uneven terrain and constant drops and gaps in elevation that forced her out of comfort zone and into awkward leaps or halts in movement to avoid falling over and breaking her face on the dirt, or worse, falling into the water. Every step was followed with an equally powerful breath that alternated in and outward, legs powered by nothing else but oxygen and sheer force of will. Celia wouldn’t have even bothered getting tangled up in this stuff had there not been the looming presence of strength keeping her in motion.

At the very least, Bugaria was very pretty to look at during this time of day. Between her sessions of looking at the ground to make sure she didn’t snag a foot on a stray root or rock she had lots of time to look at her surroundings. The air was nice, cold but in a way that wasn’t harsh to breathe in. The grass in the horizon stood tall, hues shifting and shedding along with the rising sun. Her feet lightly stomped across the bridge that led to the Explorers’ Association and she appreciated the vast structure of the Ant Kingdom, how neatly everything was laid out and constructed despite how chaotic it seemed during the day. There was a zen that had come with being the only bug in Bugaria currently awake, details once lost in the bombarding sea of responsibility and hustle that had become apparent to Celia. The snail that usually lounged about near those merchants was resting peacefully in its shell, harsh shadows acting as curtains to their small home. Across the next bridge, she slowed down a bit to observe the blades of grass that acted as a gate toward the road leading to the pier, feeling the texture that had been awaiting her since infancy. It was a mixture of moist slickness from the condensation of last evening’s drizzle and something bumpy, and it pleased Celia to know she might be one of the only bugs in existence to even know, or rather care about such a menial topic.

She kept on running. After an initial bumpy start the road had become much smoother to traverse, only a couple of small gaps keeping Celia from fully turning her brain off. Celia had settled into a constant, steady rhythm that kept her from tiring out too fast. Of course, she was still absolutely exhausted: her left arm was particularly fatigued from having to lug around a fortress of a shield the entire distance of the run, and her body followed suit in its tiredness, many different parts of the body Celia didn’t have time to pin down feeling some form of cramp and fatigue. It sucked, but the burning sensation throughout her body at least gave a nice reprieve from the cold of early morning.

By the time Celia had reached the Bugaria Pier and taken a moment to rest, the sky had now started getting brighter, hues of purple now fighting a war against the oncoming daytime blues which illuminated the lake. She’d paced herself fast enough to beat the sun, taking a bit of solace in an otherwise lonely victory. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, it felt good to have something she could claim as fully her own doing, but it would be at least somewhat hard to try and put it on a resume.

“Celia!” a voice called out, startling her. She darted her eyes around looking for the source, realizing it came from the older bug who usually was the main cook at the roasted berries stand. How long had she been absorbed in her own head?

“O—oh! Hey there, I didn’t—uh, see you there!” She nervously laughed, free hand quickly moving to rub the back of her head. She walked over and pulled up a stool to the counter.

“Hey, it’s good to see ya! What has ya out and about so early?” they asked.

“Well, maybe I should ask you that same question. I think you’re the first bug I’ve seen all morning.”

“Well, I have to!” the bug said, heartily laughing right afterwards. “It gets mighty busy, and it’s almost a necessity to be prepared. To keep up. You’ve seen those lines on the weekends before, right?”

“Oh, yeah…” Celia’s voice trailed off as she thought back to last week, when she and Levi wanted to go to Metal Lake and had to subsequently fight through the crowd, before eventually giving up and just heading back home as they got past the first layer and saw an even bigger one. She remembered looking at the front of the stand through a window of heads and arms and seeing the two bugs who ran the stand working faster than she could perceive. “How do you even keep up with the demand?”

“Well, ya just work faster!” Another laugh reverberated from the stand, with Celia deciding to smile along as well. They reminded Celia of her grandpa, down to the rhythm they chortled after even the most minute sentences. “It also helps to prepare a few hours before opening, which is why I’m up so early! I’d otherwise be sleeping like a bedbug.”

“I see… does it ever get annoying?”

“When ya work with love in yer heart for what ya do? Never!”  

Celia admired the optimism, at the very least.

“Well,” the bug stretched out their back a little bit, audible cracks projecting outwards into the breeze. “I ought to ask what yer out here at this time of day then. It’s only fair, right?”

“It would be, yeah. Well, I’m out here to run. I ran from Snakemouth Den all the way over here, and I’ll be running back home afterwards.”

“Running from what?”

Celia froze. For a second it seemed as if the world’s peripheral ambience had been suddenly silenced like a lit candle being extinguished at the edge of night.

Suddenly, a noise broke through.

“BAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!”

The bug that had pierced daggers through her soul just a second before was now absolutely losing his mind laughing, cackling, chortling echoing throughout the still empty pier. Between sharp and loud breaths, the bug tried their absolute hardest to explain himself. “Oh m—my goodness! You should have—should have SEEN yer face! It—it went PALE! I was just yankin yer chain, Celia! There’s nothin’!”

Celia turned a shade of light red in embarrassment as the two of them waited to catch their breath, the world finally coming back to its normal senses. “Ohh, I’m sorry if I scared ya, Celia!” the bug said, tone now shifting to one of apology, which at least somewhat comforted her. “Ya—ya know what? It’s early enough, would you want some Berry Juice? On the house, my pleasure, for letting me yank yer chain like that. Venus, I haven’t had a chance to guffaw like that since I was a wee lad!”

“Oh, n—no thanks, but I appreciate the gesture. It’s a bit too early to get drunk right now.”

The bug stepped back, seemingly in some form of deep thought. “Well, if the alcohol’s yer issue, I could make some that doesn’t have any. My guarantee, too! Ya could drink this for your entire life and not get drunk, not once. Still on the house too, for yer information.”

Celia’s antennae perked up, the mood very quickly rising from how down it had been maybe less than a minute ago. “I think you’ve sold it pretty well, then. I’ll take one!”

With a grin signifying the acknowledgement of Celia’s request, the bug got to work. Celia inertly watched the bug do their work, clearly a master of their craft, swiftly moving between multiple stations at once with a lightning fast speed that was hard for Celia to perceive. Perhaps in a different life they would have become a valiant warrior like Maki and protected Bugaria with their unparalleled swiftness. Maybe it was for the better that such speed was used for cooking, as she feared what it would be like to be on the opposing end of such a foe.

She thought back to what the man had said. “Running from what?” It seemed like such an innocuous question at first, yet there had to be some sort of meaning within its chain-yanking exterior. Before it was even possible for Celia to take the first investigative step, though, a small container filled with Berry Juice was placed down in front of her with such force it was a genuine miracle the countertop didn’t shatter to splinters from the force.

Celia took a sip, and indeed, it tasted the same as the berry juice she’d get from the Golden Settlement, only lacking that slight alcoholic pang. It was arguably more smoothie than juice at this point, but it wasn’t something that she’d complain about. The run she’d just taken on did leave her mighty exhausted, and the cooling sensation of the berry juice in the light early morning breeze made it feel much easier to recover. She quickly slurped the entire thing up, mentally proclaiming it as the tastiest damn thing she’d drank today.

“Ya got places to be or something?” The bug stopped in their tracks for a little bit, eyes focusing on an unknown point. “Actually, I guess ya do!” They chortled once again, their infectious energy rubbing off on Celia and inciting a hearty laugh from her. She picked her shield up and got up from the stool, waving goodbye to the bug who ran the berry juice stand as she walked away, a walk that quickly transitioned to a run as she began running the last stretch of distance back home to the Ant Kingdom, heart pacing once more.

Her breath was heavy as the sun’s heat enveloped her body, arms pumping, legs flexing, heart skipping along at a steady tune. It was now mid-day and she was outside near the back of the Explorers’ Association, her bandaged palm now fully free to move as it pleased once again as she exerted herself inward and out and inward and out again, muscle stress ebbing and flowing, weights gripped firmly in hands.

The training regime she had decided to tackle was courtesy of a termite named Fit—she still wasn’t quite sure if that was her name or just a proclamation. But, she’d run into them in the Termite Kingdom a couple of times before, although the first handshake they ever exchanged was when their limbs tangled together as Fit crashed into her at mach-whatever in the middle of the street, Levi quickly trying to pull her out of the knot of appendages before a crowd formed. The two of them eventually became friends after a few minutes of daze, and Celia had already visited a few times in the past to bear witness to the steadily growing arsenal of machines camping out in her tiny apartment room, Termite architecture strong enough to somehow support everything in there.

Already feeling the burn, Celia finished the 2nd exercise on the agenda, dropping the weights onto the soft ground below. During the swift 1 minute break blessed upon her, she took time to review the list provided to her.

3 - 3x15 body weight squats

She was extremely lucky that a fitness-freak like Fit, with a maze of perhaps a thousand berries’ worth of equipment in her apartment, had near-encyclopedic knowledge of all the things you could do without it. Even despite her lofty goals of getting stronger and her drive to do so, she was fiscally responsible enough to realize that she was nowhere near affording even what seemed like the cheapest equipment from the Termite Kingdom. Her mind wandered as she began squatting and legs turned aflame; what could a bug like Fit possibly be doing day-to-day in order to get that much? Perhaps there was an underground market for the things, a secret cult of like-minded individuals that would move packages however large with only their legs and arms like they were carrying around a child.

Celia laughed a little bit inside her mind. It was a bit silly to assume such things of Bit, someone she’d known for a decent bit of time now, but it was more of a way to keep her mind distracted; her burning legs were already feeling like they’d fall off her body after she’d reached the middle of the 2nd set of squats.

It shouldn’t be this hard, Celia thought to herself while her heartbeat rose in emphasis with each strike of the drum, each squat reaching its nadir before swiftly rising back up. I’ve been exploring for however long now, and yet I’m still struggling through such menial exercises.

“These should be easy,” Celia said, recounting the conversation with Fit among a dredge of machinery. The workout plan Fit had made for her was held tightly in her palm, her eyes scanning each inch of the paper: there were about six exercises listed. Six wasn’t that big of a number.

“Hu-ha! That’s what everyone else says before they get started.” Fit said, legs still somehow moving around the room at the same steady pace that Celia saw when she first arrived. “This is the secret to success, darling. You can’t let the concept of doing it cloud your mind, you have to just do it.”

“I mean, whatever you say, Fit, but don’t you usually talk to bugs who’ve never moved a day in their life? I’ve been active for a good bit now!” Celia stifled a laugh from entering the open air, both out of courtesy and fear of what might happen if Fit felt an ounce of disrespect from her.

“Ha-hu! You may have fought more scoundrels than I will ever see, but have you ever trained with intention? You will see that it is much harder, even for the things you see as “easy”, because there is no such thing. There are only varying levels of hardness that we can either innately perform or learn to do so.”

Fit stopped in her tracks, and took a deep breath before suddenly taking position in front of Celia. This was one of the few times she had ever seen Fit’s legs not moving in at least some way, shape or form: even standing around, she was usually pacing about subtly, softly bobbing on her heels. There was no such motion this time around.

She placed a hand on Celia’s shoulder, an unnatural warmth forming at the connecting point.

“Try out this routine I gave you, Celia, and try to reach perhaps a couple of days where you only do one set all the way through. And when you are able to do one set consistently, move on to two. And when you can do two, come back and see me again. I shall provide you with more of my knowledge,” Fit smirked with a devilish intent. “of course, if you don’t give up before hand~”

“Oh, it’s on!” Celia had excitedly proclaimed yesterday with a smile on her face, in a shady apartment complex with air conditioning, during a time and place when she was a lot less exhausted and sweaty and tired than she was now. The squats were now done; she was at the halfway point of the routine, yet nearly every part of Celia’s burning body was telling her to throw in the towel right now. It’s not like Fit would know she was skimping out on the routine today, as she was, assumedly, still in the Termite Kingdom busy with whatever sport she had to play today. It was also too hot, and there wasn’t a nice breeze, and maybe Celia could just do these first 3 exercises until she was ready to move on.

She took some deep breaths as her eyes lazily darted to look at the next exercise.

4 - 3x7e bicep curls (choose weight)

Her arms shrieked at the thought of being worked any harder than they currently were. 20 seconds had passed into her minute break between exercises and Celia still didn’t feel any closer to feeling ready.

A thought had suddenly burst into her mind. If she gave up now, it wouldn’t be feasible for her to get any stronger. 

What strong bug had ever become so due to giving up and performing half measures instead?
What strong bug had ever become so due to doing less than what they expected of themselves?
What strong bug had ever become so due to a lack of inner drive to even get said strength?
What strong bug had ever become so due to not putting in the effort to do so?

She still cared; that wouldn’t change, ever. She cared about becoming stronger. Celia wanted to get stronger, because she was tired. She was tired of all the times she had felt like a confused playgoer while Levi did everything for the team on all of those combat missions. She wanted to be something in the team she created all that time ago, wanted to be something she could look back at one day and say “That was something that I was a part of.” without ample looks to a blank sideline that held no memories of the ordeal.

Celia took a swig of water from a flask that had been resting on a newly formed stump, currently surrounded by the assortment of weights she had borrowed from the Association. It felt as if a newfound energy surged and coursed powerfully throughout her body, blowing away large sections of fatigue and burn that had once been clogging up her system. She got to work, dispatching the first set of curls, breathing heavier and a full focus on her work. Fit’s mannerisms began carrying over into her breaks, as she paced in place counting down the 30 seconds between sets of exercise before she broke into the next set as if there had been no break at all. In this beautiful, ethereal moment Celia had become one with her body and mind and flowed through the curls with a strained ease.

5 - 3x7e northern kingdom lunges

It was nothing Celia couldn’t do. Her foot took root into the ground in front of her as she began her lunges, mind not even noticing the first part of the first set ending and only taking real note after the last one on her other leg had ended. Celia’s heart beat in rhythm with the world’s melody, break passing in a matter of blinks of the eye and the next set of lunges taking equally as long. There was harmony between everything: the temperatures that once were considered too hot were now the absolute perfect conditions for her to move in. The imperceptible breeze had finally taken note of Celia’s current status and provided a wind that felt like she had been dumped in magic ice after all the time in the sun. One more break, one more set of lunges. Every breath in filled her lungs with the world and every breath out felt like a vast gale escaping her lungs.

6 - 2x10 push-ups

Perhaps about five or six reps throughout the second set of push-ups Celia had subconsciously come back to the realization that she was still, indeed, just a bug and not the god of fitness that she thought she was 2 exercises ago. A sudden fatigue struck her arms that were currently keeping her afloat, the burn that had carried her to this point before now actively harming her. The middle of her torso ran aflame, the temperatures around her seeming to rise as the only solace came in her palms against the still somewhat cold dirt.

There was no other option, no other road to travel that Celia could transition into at this point in time. The cliffside of failure seemed everpresent as her body screamed at her to stop moving, stop trying, just drop down and accept it as is and accept the fact you’ve bitten off more than you could possibly chew and it’s okay to come back stronger later.

“if you don’t give up beforehand~”

Celia declined such a treacherous notion. She’d become stronger now. Everything in her body began to whistle as she dipped down for rep number 9. She was trembling now, everything below her arms having to flex harder than steel determined to stay upright. Each little inch of movement down felt like it took 20 years off her lifespan, equally so on the journey back upward. A mountain of rocks and failure took their place on Celia’s back.

Her stare pierced the uncaring ground below. Just one more rep. Just one more rep and she could stop for now and she could prove Fit wrong, prove herself wrong that she had to give up. The last push down to earth perhaps set fire to Celia’s entire body, but the heat made her angrier. The fact that she herself would try and stop her from reaching her ultimate goals made her furious. With one last fading, eroding burst of strength, as her nose almost touched the ground, she shot back upwards. For at least a single second, Celia held that position before her body said “no further” and fell down to the ground.

Everything stung. Everything hurt, and there was still a slowly fading part of her psyche bemoaning her for how stupid she was. This was supposed to be a lesson she had learned thousands of times before, how important it was to just know your limits so you didn’t permanently mess up your muscles or joints or whatever doing something. It was an unbelievable break of code and mantra for some like herself, someone who should know when such things were fine to break off.

But just this once, while Celia laid face down on the cool dirt, breath weighing tons, chitin enveloped in a layer of sweat and muscles coated in lethargy, she felt a rush. It was only describable by the feeling it gave her, one word present that was fitting for the state Celia was in right now: good.

Celia didn’t know how Fit would respond if she saw her lying motionless on the ground right now after clearly over-exerting herself, but she didn’t care. All that mattered right now was that she had done it.

And she’d have to do this again and again, every other day until she could do this without breaking a sweat; Fit had very clearly told her so back at her apartment.

She invited the challenge with metaphorical open arms, as her physical arms still lay motionless and would lie there until she could get up and drink some water. Celia’s breathing slowly but assuredly made its way back down as she took newfound comfort in the earth beneath her.

Over the course of the next month she had worked herself into a steady rhythm of exercise, missions, weapon training, and aptly named “other stuff” that didn’t fit neatly into a single named category. The first few days of trying to stick to this routine, it was an absolute struggle for Celia to stick to one specific program, mind constantly flooded with the drudgery of all the things she wanted to fit into a single day. Some days all she wanted to do was lie around, but other days were fraught with missions and the promises of quote unquote “big berry bounties”. But eventually she’d figured out a standardized schedule that worked for roughly 99% of cases.

Before the sun peeked past the horizon, she’d wake up, grab her shield and run the same route of Snakemouth Den to the Pier every day, have a little small talk with the berry stand bug whenever they were at their station, and then return home before Levi knew what was happening. There’d be the aforementioned “other stuff” for however long the two of them decided before they’d go do some missions, which would then vary in time depending on both the missions available and the length. After returning, the activities afterwards alternated between Fit’s exercise regiment and miscellaneous training with her shield to practice her form and technique. And then with the remaining time, she’d do whatever she pleased: she had earned it, after all. Occasionally she’d try and peruse the wares of the blacksmith in Defiant Root before realizing that everything in there was still just slightly outside of her price range.

It was a good schedule, not one that didn’t come with its downsides. The first week or so, Celia was constantly exhausted, the running and exercise that promised extra energy seemingly sapping it away from her and leaving her unable to do anything more strenuous than lifting a couple of slightly heavy boxes. In a more extreme case, the day after the first Fit workout, Celia woke up far after the sun had risen, unable to do anything more than lie motionless in bed with a body entirely too sore and lethargic to reasonably move more than a couple of inches.

Levi was, understandably, extremely concerned about her during this time period. Celia digressed from the topic, haphazardly chalking it up to perhaps a bad batch of berry juice, not wanting to reveal the fact that the true reason was that she had very stupidly exerted herself more than she ever could doing basic exercise. Not even 20 minutes later, Levi had returned with some supplies from Isau, water, and some miscellaneous treats from the Defiant Root as well, which she handily gobbled down before crashing back into her pillow and sleeping the rest of the day.

After that initial scare, and a very swift refactoring of her priorities when exercising, she could slowly feel herself beginning to do something that was usually impossible to gauge: improvement. Sure, the first few days were fraught with half-completed regimes and breathless stops on run that led to near-vomiting into the river and small missions that Celia was far too exhausted to perform well, much to the dismay of herself.

However, it all started to change the first time she was able to complete Fit’s fitness plan with energy to spare.

She could feel something coursing throughout her body after the final pushup was completed, and unlike the spite and anger that had fueled her first completion, clawing and cursing to the finish line, this one was fully anchored to something a bit healthier.

The desire to improve.

She could slowly start to feel her body adapt to the sudden changes in workload. The daily runs slowly but surely made her heart’s capacity to pump rise, smaller actions that once took even the most tiny portion energy to perform now being near effortless. The morning run that had first taken a couple of stops to finish eventually transformed into one that Celia could now perform unbroken; each stride forward was still intensive on the body, and she’d sometimes be winded for minutes at a time after she reached the pier on certain days, but it was an improvement.

The daily exercises slowly became easier and easier to perform with each passing day. She allowed herself to fail when necessary, finding joy in simply progressing as the ground floor for competency slowly rose while still asking for help from Fit whenever applicable. Celia had started to consistently reach the last set of exercises roughly 2 weeks in: the lunges that once required her entire being to push through and complete were now common practice to reach every day she worked out, and she could reach the last set of pushups on particularly good days after Fit graciously fixed her pushup form. Particularly good days soon became her standard, and Celia could begin counting the days she had at least done the routine once. The lofty goal of doing it twice in a row was still far away with Celia’s current skill level, but it wouldn’t be long before that time came; she knew it herself.

Something had demonstrably changed in some form, whether that be physical or mental. A month in, Celia looked in the new mirror she and Levi had bought a few days ago to hang up in the house and took a second to just gaze at the body she had cultivated. There was a heft now increasingly visible in her arms and her torso, which she had now learnt from Fit was called the core. Muscles in her legs were slightly more visible than she remembered them when she had started. She took a minute or so to spend just staring in awe at how suddenly things had seemed to change; flexing certain parts of her body to see how they shifted and grinning at the sight of each one. Admittedly, she felt like such admiration was somewhat wanton in nature, but it didn’t matter to her because this was something she had earned, earned through all those days spent aching painfully after training, a being striving for strength and improvement. Levi might say—

“Hey, Celia.” She quickly turned around and froze, startled by the sudden noise which sounded like Levi and was in fact Levi, currently holding a sack filled with some supplies he had gone out for this week’s round of missions. The two locked eyes as Levi’s expression shifted in a way Celia couldn’t pin down.

“...you look good!”

He briefly smiled and disappeared from view as fast as he had appeared, Celia at least somewhat stunned and a bit flustered, tinted the tiniest shade of red near her face.

Celia had somewhat forgotten over the month that she was supposed to be training to get ahead of Levi in terms of skill, or strength, whatever it was that she started this journey for. Yet, the missions she had been recently taking on with Levi had been tainted by no such feelings of doubt. She was weaker than Levi, at least, maybe that wasn’t true anymore. Celia had been so consumed in the constant cycle of training, exercise, missions and living life that she hadn’t had the time to really gauge such a thing like she did before.

She was unsure if she still thought such things mattered anymore.

“Hey Celia, where are you going?” Levi asked.

It was currently dawn, right before the sun had started coming out of its shell; same as always was when Celia had woken up for a month and some change, only this time she was not the only one awake. She held her shield in hand and was about to begin heading down to the same spot she had run from every single time before.

“Oh, hey Levi. Just going out for some early morning running, you know.” Celia smiled. “The works. What made you get up so early today?”

“You know…” Levi sounded a little more dejected than his usual gallant demeanor, the words flowing out of his mouth just a nudge more wearily. “...couldn’t sleep too much, heh. Maybe one too many sips of hustle tea yesterday.”

She somewhat recalled the night before, seeing Levi crouched over a desk with a small light source and barely visible cups of varying fullness. A closer inspection of Levi’s face emboldened the dark circles underneath his eyes.

“Venus, Levi! How long did you stay up last night?”

“Oh you know, enough…” Levi spoke, before letting out a soft, tired giggle. “Can I… come with you to whatever you’re doing this early? I don’t think I’ll be getting any more sleep.”

The smallest fraction of Celia’s mind protested the decision. She enjoyed the solitude that it gave her, the soothing atmosphere of the cool night sky slowly metamorphosing to daytime, the breeze.

On every other hand, it would be a sort of jerk move to say “no” right now.

“Oh, yeah, you can.” Celia responded. “Just get ready, it’s a bit of a long run.”

She waited the extra minute or so at the door for Levi to shuffle out of bed and get his bearings, Celia realizing she hadn’t ever seen Levi in such a state. Usually it was the other way around: Levi would be up-and-at-em most days while Celia was still trying to muster up the accumulated energy needed to get out of bed. It still seemed like Levi had some baseline level of energy that could never be depleted though, as he met Celia at the door and signaled he was ready to go.

The walk to the gate of Snakemouth Den had become pretty familiar to her at this point, all the same stars in the sky shining splendidly as they had been. It never stopped being pretty, but there was that initial reaction of pure awe that had slowly been lost on her the more she went outside to go run at these times. It was clear this was Levi’s first rodeo though, most of the walk spent staring straight up at the open night sky just like she had done so all those nights ago. Celia found it amusing.

The run itself wasn’t anything special, either. Despite the first few nights spent admiring menial environmental wonders her focus had primarily shifted to maintaining a steady pace of breath and mobility, entire body tensed and focused to run as best as she could without falling on her face. It was for a good reason, at least, because there had been exactly one incident in the past where, due to being slightly off course, she had nearly tripped into the river and lost her shield for good. The reason? She was looking at the sky and not the ground she was running from.

Celia did not want to repeat such an error again, and so primarily kept to herself while the sounds of her feet meeting the ground acted as the backing noise to the entire adventure with the breeze or call of some creature making an occasional  guest appearance.

On some straightaways though, Celia had more than enough running room to look around for a minute or two. She’d looked at the sky and horizon countless times, looked through the tallgrass for Seedlings and bore no fruit from the operation multiple times. She turned her head as far back as she could to get a look at Levi.

For a bug that had looked considerably worse for wear not less than 15 minutes ago, Levi was surprisingly keeping a steady pace just slightly behind her. There was an intrinsic finesse to the way he was running, already containing the form that had taken Celia the better part of 2 weeks to reach. If she looked a little more detailed, it already seemed like Levi was running better than her while tired when she had already shifted her entire schedule around to wake up as refreshed as possible for the run.

It didn’t matter, Celia thought.

She turned her head back around and kept on running, eventually reaching the pier. The two took a short break before continuing, taking a rest on the grass near the border. Her breathing was heavier and deeper than resting, like it had been every day before. While her time on break would usually be spent talking and on occasion getting a free non-alcoholic berry juice, the bug who was usually here every morning was strangely absent today. Instead, she took a brief moment to look over at Levi.

It was like he hadn’t even run at all. Levi sat statue-like, idly gazing at some point past the horizon of Metal Lake while Celia sat by just slightly forlorn. It felt so silly to get concerned with such things, but she had seen Levi when he had woken up. Circles under his eyes, moving with the exact opposite of moth-like grace. It was as if someone had flipped a switch on the back of his head that flowed the energy back into his body like a machine.

It didn’t matter, Celia thought. It just didn’t. Who cares about what Levi’s doing?

Why are you so caught up?

This question took up her headspace on the second stretch of the run back home. Levi was now running right by her side, gracefully gliding alongside her increasingly unsteady form. It became hard to think about much else, even her half-hearted attempts to observe the scenery being scattered with small notes of how exhausted Levi was or how her running form scaled up to his. When they reached back to their home in the Ant Kingdom again, Celia breathed out. Perhaps this was just a one time worry, and it was something she could quickly move past on and continue as normal. There was no reason to worry about Levi.

“Well, I had a great time!” Levi proudly exclaimed, brushing the smallest bit of sweat onto his forearm and onto the ground below. “I feel pretty good.”

“I’m glad you do,” Celia responded, holding back a dam’s worth of something from spewing out into the world.

“Would you mind if I started running with you every day, Celia? I think it’d be great for getting the heart pumping.”

No, no. NO. There was absolutely no way Levi could, or even SHOULD run with her these mornings. This was supposed to be a time dedicated to her own improvement, her own slowly scaling strength. This wasn’t something that could just become mutual willy-nilly—it didn’t, it COULDN’T work like that. This was a time for Celia to get stronger, a way to have a singular finger above Levi in terms of improvement and it was—

“Oh, yeah, sure! I think the company will be nice to have on these morning runs.” Celia obliged, a smile forming on her face which was mirrored by Levi.

She couldn’t refuse such a request. It’d be sort of a jerk move to act so brash against someone like Levi, who had essentially done nothing wrong the entire time. And so the next morning the two of them ran together from Snakemouth Den to Bugaria Pier.

It slowly became harder for Celia to get her mind off of Levi. What was once a small, unimportant pebble on her path of improvement now became the insurmountable wall she had in front of her that had to be summited on her climb to become stronger. The next 3 months kept the same rhythm as she had established previously: exercise, missions, weapon training, “other stuff”, but they felt odd and off-timed unlike how steady it was prior. It was hard to train without the constant reminder that Levi was also doing the same thing, either with or without her, and he was most likely doing it better. It was hard to relax knowing that she was

She was weaker than Levi.

She slowly pushed herself further during her exercises and training. What was originally a goal set for consistent 2 sets of Fit’s regime slowly morphed to three, sets in the regime slowly getting larger as it felt the wall kept on growing, its shadow getting larger. Her shield training became even more precise and focused, throwing technique becoming swifter and more vicious, her stances for blocking heavy blows becoming akin to an unbreakable fortress. And still, Levi grew at the same rate with his own weapon, his dexterity with stabs and slashes and footwork and mobility and everything outclassing Celia in one way or another.

She was weaker than Levi.

She kept on trying to reach the summit which now had soared past the clouds. She kept on putting in her hours, fighting against that imposing urge to let that violent desire for strength carry her forward in training. It was still supposed to be about improvement, about making herself as good as Levi, and it kept on seeming like it was never enough. Missions that the two of them took on, even combat related ones in the throes of Forsaken Lands slowly became easier until the two of them had become fiendishly potent in the art of combat.

It was hard for Celia to take notice of that fact.

There was exactly one particular moment where Celia was able to step out of the haze and into what should have been the sunlight, a clarity that came after the two of them closed up a friendly sparring session with Team Snakemouth. Celia was sitting at a table in the association’s building, recounting the fight. They lost, of course, but every other exploration team would have done so as well.

Team Snakemouth were a trio of prodigals that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere and quickly became the greatest exploration team in all of Bugaria period, surpassing even the longstanding Team Maki even after they added a sorcerer to their ranks, besting even the secret terrors that were Stratos and Delilah in fair combat. They had everything: range, strength, magic, and a temper that propelled them forward. And since the day they had bested the Wasp King, they had stood unchallenged atop the hundreds of exploration teams that had registered after the fact, all of varying sizes and walks of life and skill levels that had the same goal. To surpass Team Snakemouth. Only a few of them could even fathom holding the tiniest candle to them.

And yet, they had made it surprisingly competitive. The two of them had worked in perfect sync. Each action Levi and Celia took was planned out just milliseconds before and executed as if they had been practicing for the last year. Celia’s swift and dexterous movement with her shield helped defend against the constant onslaughts of ice and boomerang and beetlehorn coming their way every second of the fight as they closely inched forward, while Levi’s swift hand and footwork kept him from getting grazed by any stray attacks as he forced his way closer and closer to the duo. Her training had very clearly paid off as constant lobs of her shield from afar had very cleanly caught Leif and Vi off guard, giving Levi windows of opportunities to land a few clean strikes in. For three seconds, they seemed to have gotten the upper hand on a team of explorers that had bested the rest, not before they were caught off guard with a Snakemouth-original team attack of ice and boomerang and beetle that was far too strong for Celia to block and far too quick for Levi to react and avoid in time. The two of them had been sent straight to the floor far away from where they had started, and it was not long after where the two teams mutually called the session completed, shook hands with the other and made sure to express how good of a time they had and how strong the other team was out of a gesture of mutual goodwill.

It still stung to have essentially lost after a single big attack had caught them off guard. But on the other hand, they had gone toe-to-toe with Team Snakemouth.

On paper, her and Levi shouldn’t have even stood a chance in hell against the trio. They were outnumbered, outgeared, outclassed in every way.

They had a Leif, a sorcerer who could cast an entire kingdom’s worth of ice at them and make shields that would protect them from any damage.

They had Vi, a young wunderbug who could chuck all manner of projectiles at them wherever she pleased, as strong as she wanted, with painful needles for if they ever got close.

And they had Kabbu, a warrior who seemed so durable in body and mind that it seemed he was infallible when in tandem with his innate strength.

And here they had been, on a random shady afternoon in the outskirts of Bugaria, on the near cusp of potentially defeating them. Team Celia, a team that had formed essentially on a whim after she had been assigned to watch, evolving from a team essentially there to watch everyone else do the important things to one that could feasibly match a team like Snakemouth in combat. For this moment in time, Celia appreciated how far her and Levi had come since that first ever morning she spent running.

And still. She was weaker than Levi.

It shouldn’t matter. It should have stopped mattering a long time ago. Why? Why could she not be able to take even the slightest amount of joy from an accomplishment that other teams could only dream of? Why did she care about how strong she was in comparison to Levi?

Celia tried to replay the fight in her head again, in hopes of finding something that she could say she did better than Levi. Each replay her own flaws became more apparent. She was slightly too slow to raise her shield when Kabbu charged at her and Levi, what should have been an iron-strong stance instead causing her to stumble back just a little bit while Levi gracefully sidestepped. A shield toss just barely slow enough to prevent Leif from casting a wave of ice magic that Levi had perfectly struck away with his weapon. Footwork just slightly too slow to match that of Levi.

Weaker than Levi.

What would Levi do in a situation like hers? Did he ever care about how strong he was in comparison to her, or did it not matter because he subconsciously knew she’d always be weaker? Would Levi think so much—no, he wouldn’t. The thought made Celia only more frustrated with herself.

That first month had been absolute bliss, a time when Celia really thought she was making progress. At the time Celia thought she had been getting stronger than Levi, yet the moment he began actively doing the same she had been lapped twenty times over. Levi was better than her at everything. He spoke in soft tones while she was more brash and hot-tempered at times. His running form was one that could rival a Bugaria-class athlete like Fit while she was still trying to get her stride down. She tried thinking about Levi’s bravery. Why couldn’t she be as brave? Why couldn’t she contribute the same things Levi was bringing to Team Levi? Why was she just being dragged along for the ride while Levi did all the dirty work?

Celia rubbed a finger across the surface of her bicep. It felt as if the physical changes to her body was the only sign that she had done anything at all to anyone that even cared to notice. She drummed an empty rhythm on the table, looking off through the doorway outside and at the bright blue horizon.

There was a very real chance that she’d be stuck in Levi’s shadow until the day she died, frustratingly flailing for strength while the wall had grown past the stars and into infinity. She sighed deeply out and shut her eyes as far as they could go to relieve at least a small amount of pressure.

What could Celia even do?

Chapter Text

Celia kept on training each and every day, in hope of something happening one day that’d get her out of the rut she was in right now. She wanted to give up, and slightly more headspace was given to it the more time that would pass. It was something she’d grapple with every day when she and Levi would wake up to run under the slowly disappearing stars, when she trained in immense solitude and pushed her body bit by bit closer to the brink of collapse, when she dedicated her all into every single mission and movement within and came just short of a breakthrough again and again and again. There was the smallest bit of hope keeping her propellers moving forward, glimpses of the end of the darkest tunnel shining through the pitch black, and she walked blindly in hopes of getting enough glimpses that she’d know where to go.

She never told anyone this; not even Levi, not even the journal she had bought and promised herself to have written in. The thoughts jumbled and turned into a dredge staying around to stew for a thousand years in Celia’s head, her only imprint on the journal past the day she got it being 2 fingers marked in the dust in its lonely, cramped dresser drawer.

Outwardly, she was still the same old Celia, a little more built, seemingly a little happier as well. And she’d be wrong to say that it was all misery and missed opportunities. She still heavily appreciated having Levi around as a friend—maybe a little more than that descriptor could advise, although the two of them mutually would never admit so—and there were still memories being made that she could look back on fondly. She’d grown close with so many people over this time, living in a time period where she had been arguably the most sociable she’s ever been. She’d grown closer with Fit, talked hours worth of discussion with the berry stand bug (who she’d recently learnt was named Marion after MONTHS, she chalked up the lapse to it being early in the morning), trained tirelessly with teams like Snakemouth and Maki, and within it all had found a community to call home. Any other bug would—no, SHOULD have been satisfied with how life was currently panning out for her. Any other bug should be satisfied with this life of hers, and coast along while making the most of the limited time they had.

But still, it would never be enough for her. The desire was still there.

Through all the clear skies there lied a single stormcloud, everpresent, size ebbing depending on the day but still there nonetheless. On days where it enveloped the skies it rained reminders of the status quo, violent thunder crashing down for every mistake she made and thought of. She was weaker than Levi. She couldn’t be satisfied because it’d go against the very lessons taught to her as a child. If you see a hill, it can be summited. And yet, the hill kept on getting taller, green grass turning to slick mud in the monsoon as every fiber of her being was dedicated to reaching the ever-parting top. Celia had looked down at the ground one day, the atmosphere colder than usual, to observe the ground she had started on which now looked nothing more than an indistinguishable speck in the black starry void. For a minute she had paused, and for the minutes and hours and days and weeks afterwards she craned her neck back up to the infinite skies and kept on climbing.

“Hey Celia, we’ve got a letter!” Levi proudly proclaimed, strutting back into the house. Celia was currently lounging around on a rocking chair they had bought a month ago, and she had invested many hours of nothing into it: she hadn’t regretted a single one yet.

“From who?” Celia asked.

“Explorers’ Association! They must have sent one of the envelopes early, this shouldn’t have come for another few days or so.” This was the most likely answer: the association had always sent some mail near this time of the month, mostly just junk about how well they had done and how happy they were to have Team Levi in service. It was nothing they already knew: after all, they were actually out there experiencing those words that had been written themselves. Celia leaned back in her chair and stretched out her shoulders, a yawn escaping her as she kept a head turned to Levi; currently in the process of neatly opening the envelope.

She observed Levi’s reaction turn from one of joy to one of… concern, or maybe something else. It was hard to tell, but Levi’s eyes never lied about his current state.

“What’s the look for?”

Levi began to read the letter.

<^>

Team Celia,

Please come to the Explorers’ Association as soon as possible, preferably when you get this letter. From the queen herself, there has recently been an urgent matter that has made itself known to us, and it is of the utmost importance that it is dealt with immediately.

Eetl - Explorers’ Association

<v>

“...Huh. That’s a new one.” Celia said. “Any ideas on what it could be about?” There had been a few mutterings of “someone” being back in Bugaria; no specifics on who, which meant it could quite literally be any of the countless high-profile bounties the Explorers’ Association had fended off within perhaps the last half year or so.

“Nope. Sounds important, though. We should head out now, I’d imagine.” Levi responded, not even a quiver entering his voice. If there was any worry Levi had about the scenario, it wasn’t showing on his face anymore.

Another silent agreement was made and the two of them went off to get their things. Celia swiftly went over to her bedside where her cuirass and boots lay and threw them on. The armor had clearly seen better days—once lustrous material had now turned jagged and dull after quite a long history of usage, only accelerated by her rising insistence to take on more combat-focused missions, of which Levi thankfully accepted with open arms. It wasn’t pretty, but combat was never supposed to be. Besides, they still fit like a charm, and she took good enough care of it otherwise that it was still long from retiring.

By the time Celia had grabbed her shield and made it to the front door, Levi had already been there for 35 seconds or so, readily fitted with his shiny helmet and sharpened sword.

“Anything else you need to grab?” Levi asked, idly tapping his fingers on the hilt of his sword.

“Nope.” Celia responded.

“Alrighty then, let’s go!”

The two of them left their home and began walking to the Explorers’ Association. It was much busier than usual in the Ant Kingdom today, and by the time the two had reached the plaza Celia noticed the exact reason for it; emitting from the theater she heard the distinct sound of a few hundred fans mumbling about, and there were just as many on the ground outside. The same distinctive red accessories were present on a majority of the people there, on their antennae, wrists, ankles, anywhere they could reasonably put it. It must have grazed her mind that Mothiva was performing today, because any sort of announcement of her arrival would have usually generated enough hub-bub that even someone like herself would know. She tried to remember anything that would have hinted at such a big event over the past week, yet when she tried looking back all that was there was an amalgam of nondescript training sessions and missions and idle interaction that blotted out any other detail that might have been there.

“It’s a shame you don’t like her music all too much, because I think it would have been fun to go to that concert if we weren’t busy today!” Levi said. “And besides, I think she’d give us a discount or something on the tickets.”

“Oh, you know… not my kind of music.” Celia responded in a flat tone. “I think it’d be way too crowded in those venues anyways for me to even enjoy it, even if I did like it. Just… ugh. I don’t know how you do it on a regular basis.”

“Well, you don’t have to be in the middle of the crowd to enjoy the show! Sometimes I’ll find a spot near the edge of the crowd and that’s enough for me. Sometimes it’s hard to see her, but I can’t imagine that it would ever be a dealbreaker for me. There’s usually some other people with the same idea, and I even met one of my friends that way!”

“Who would have thought you’d turn out to be such a Mothiva superfan?” Celia lightly scoffed. “I feel like everyone else we know that’s also in the association is on some spectrum of loathing her except for Zasp, because, you know.”

“I can separate the art from the artist,” Levi interjected. “She might not be the kindest bug out there, but the music’s nice and it’s not like we’re on her bad side, unlike Team Snakemouth. Vi always seems to be in some form of quarrel with her every time the two of them meet.”

“Vi’s told me that Mothiva eats babies maybe three separate times now, and the last time she even showed me a painterly interpretation of the ‘process’, as she put it.”

“No she didn’t.” Levi quickly responded, a face of pure shock taking the place of his usual stoicism. “What’d it look like?”

“Can’t remember.” Celia said, chalking it up to bad memory and inching closely around the fact that the past week had seemingly been mixed up and turned into a mishmash of times and shapes that made up events; it was a miracle she even remembered Vi showing something to her. “I feel like Mothiva would have had it burnt to a crisp by now anyways.”

“Sometimes I think Vi is too harsh on her.” Levi admitted, quickly darting his eyes around the vicinity as to make sure Vi wasn’t there to hit him in the head with her boomerang (or ‘beemerang’, as she insisted) for saying such a scandalous sentence. “Mothiva’s a bit rude sometimes, but it feels a bit obsessive at this point! And besides, she’s gotten better lately!”

“Maybe you should tell her that yourself and see how that goes for you,” Celia retorted, breaking into a hearty laugh as she saw Levi’s face through the helmet lose the slightest pigment of color at the mere thought of even attempting to talk to Vi about Mothiva in any tone above pure spite for her existence. Before any more fear could be instilled into Levi, they had already reached the stairs of the Association and made their way in. For all of Levi’s honorable yet sometimes suffocating bravery, it gave Celia a bit of comfort that an angry Vi was one of the only things in Bugaria that could instill such fear into him.

The two waved to Eetl as they hopped up the steps. There was an air of silent importance in the building, for it was somehow quiet as the dead today. A nerve tingled funnily as Celia sat down with Levi to get the news.

“I’m glad you two came down so quickly.” Eetl said in a slightly panicked way. The nervous aura emanating from Eetl rubbed off on Celia and Levi and there was a small moment of awkward silence as anyone grasped for anything to say. Something was wrong.

“So, uh, Eetl,” Celia said, stumbling over her words as she tried to be the first of the two to initiate conversation. “What do you have us here for? Anything caught your eye?”

“We have reason to believe Monsieur Scarlet has returned to Bugaria under a new alias. Suha, I believe it was.” Eetl adjusted their posture more upright before continuing. “While their old name is still near the top of Ant Kingdom criminal listing, it seems they have managed to evade capture since their recent return. We have even better reason to believe that Scarlet has only gotten more dangerous and violent as well.”

Levi’s eyes widened as Celia leaned in just a small bit more.

“We have recently got reports of a three-bug exploration team that had taken on one of these requests by “Suha” being completely wiped out, bodies left drained in the open of the outskirts. I wouldn’t know if you two are familiar with Team Treble, as they’re not within your “league” so to speak, but I knew them at least somewhat well. And they weren’t your average slouches by any means, either. They were good. I might have seen them even reach your level someday had they…” Eetl’s voice trailed off a little bit, very clearly looking off to the side past a growingly anxious Levi and Celia. He cleared his throat and looked back at the duo. “...I don’t think I need to say much more to get the point across. It’s dangerous, to a point where the association doesn’t think anyone beneath your level of skill can even fathom taking it on. Queen Elizant put out a request for you two in particular to tackle such a task because you’re the only ones available right now that might be strong enough to handle it. Team Snakemouth and Team Maki are out on Royal Blade duties and won't be back for some time, and there’s no telling how many more casualties will result if they’re not dealt with as soon as possible.”

Outside of Celia’s head, the silence was thick and deafening. The memories of their first encounter with Scarlet turned fresh once again, how the two of them realistically had only survived because Team Snakemouth was there to save them, defeating Scarlet with barely any more effort than it had taken Leif to cast his ice magic a couple of times. Celia had been knocked out in 2 seconds flat when she tried to run in and save Levi and could only really remember the last few moments when Monsieur Scarlet was on the ground before disappearing from the entire ordeal.

“Of course,” Eetl admitted, “you don’t have to take on this mission if you don’t want to. The queen and I would understand and hold no ill will if you’d want to hold off on such a mission until Team Snakemouth and Maki returned home. Scarlet is a dangerous foe, and even with the support of the guards we’d send with you it would be no walk in the plaza. We would, obviously, reward you heavily and give you our eternal gratitude for taking on this mission, but it is up to you at the end of the day.”

The entire situation was, admittedly, frightening. Celia had heard whispers of Team Treble before, perhaps seen a passing glimpse of them once or twice, but couldn’t attach a single face or trait to them. The fact was that they were seemingly now lost to history; the lot of them nameless, faceless, and all of it had stemmed from a single encounter with a Scarlet said to be even more vicious than the last encounter all those months ago.

Another larger, more boisterous part of Celia’s mind took its spot on the podium.

This was her chance.

This was Celia’s chance to finally get that breakthrough she had been climbing in perpetuity for. She had obviously been through her fair share of tough missions, some that left her exhausted for days afterwards, any good explorer would have taken the same path. But there had been the lack of something that could push her through that barrier that had kept her from surpassing Levi for so long. Throughout it all, that was all she ever wanted: a singular moment in time where she could call herself strong, the pipe dream that got her up every morning through all the months of fatigue and doubt. This could be her chance to finally prove herself that it wasn’t all for nothing, that every morning spent half awake making her heartbeat soar and her breathing heavy and every afternoon spent tantalizingly refining her form in exercise and weapon and all the planning and thinking she had done outside had led to something, anything tangible. That was all she had wanted, and it had been just outside her grasp so many times before and this mission to fight Monsieur Scarlet was exactly what Celia needed.

She looked over at Levi, who had an unusual look of fear in his eyes.

“Levi? What’s up?” she questioned.

“I—I don’t know if we should take this on. You remember what happened the last time, do you?”

Celia tried to protest. “Clear as day, Levi. But—”

“And I just… I just don’t think we are ready to do this. I’m… scared to take this on, admittedly. We have only made it here today because of Team Snakemouth’s blessings” Levi said, eyes barely meeting her own.

The mere mention of ‘we’ felt heretical. Actually, it felt offensive to her sense of self as a person. WE aren’t ready? The WE in question that was spending every living moment getting stronger, and now this was the point where Levi tried to cut them off? She wouldn’t—no, COULDN’T accept this. This was her chance and she was not going to let it run past her and into the arms of teams who had already proven everything they needed to be. She was still looking for that chance, and this was it. Under her calm and understanding demeanor a pocket of rage bubbled just beneath the surface. This was her chance. And Levi was trying to take it away from her.

Celia deeply breathed in and out, hopefully calm enough that Levi wouldn’t notice the rage underneath it. She had to find a way to salvage this. Maybe speak—yeah, speak about how strong the two of them are. Yeah. That would work.

“Listen, Levi…” Celia started, putting on her most comforting tone and nudging Levi to look her in the eyes. “I understand your caution with this mission, and I appreciate that from you. You’ve always been one to look out for the both of us, and there’s been some times where I could only appreciate it after the fact. But, I have personally seen us both get stronger over this period of time since then. We’ve taken on much harder missions since then and done them with a level of mastery we never used to have before.” Celia briefly paused for a bit, blinked twice and took another breath to refill her air supply and calm herself down a little more. “Especially you in particular, Levi. I’ve really enjoyed seeing you somehow manage to get better despite all the times I thought you’d already reached your peak.”

Levi was paying full attention now, perked up just the slightest bit. This was good. She continued.

“And because of that, I have a good reason to believe that we are strong enough to take on Monsieur Scarlet after all this time. We were the same team who went toe-to-toe with both Snakemouth and Maki! We are both aware of what happened before, and we are both aware it’s dangerous, sure, but when has that ever stopped us from taking on a mission?” This last trick Celia had remembered just now through the fog, and despite how much it pained her to have to play such a card, it was nothing but necessary right now.

“It is our duty as an exploration team to help out the citizens of Bugaria in any way we can, and dealing with someone as threatening to Bugaria as Monsieur Scarlet is would be near to the top of what we could do.”

For a moment, she saw the gears begin to turn in Levi’s head through his helmet and through his eyes as a newfound confidence entered him.

“...you really think so?” Levi asked.

“I wouldn’t be saying all of this if I didn’t, would I?” Celia responded, mustering as much genuinity as she could in her expression, adding a smile as well to seal the deal. Levi’s face lit up; still heavily anxious, but more confident. That was all she needed.

“We’ll do it.” Levi said to Eetl, who breathed out a sigh of relief. He rustled around near his legs and grabbed a slip of paper that had been pulled from the mission board, sliding it over for Celia and Levi to review.

“I’ll get everything else set up for you two, and I hope you two succeed.” Eetl said, standing up and stretching his long dormant joints. “Stay safe, Team Celia.” was the last thing they heard from him before he ran out of the association.

Celia gazed at the mission listing on the table.

Explorers’ Assistance Requested~

By: Suha

Difficulty: *

Hello!~ I am in dire need of a tenacious and honorable exploration team to help an ailing bug like myself… while my troubles are far too complicated to write on a single request, I will be sure to make it worth your while~

Please visit me near the Golden Path, and I will fill you in on all the details then~ xoxo

~~~~~

“This is the place, huh?” Celia said, not too sure on why she asked in the first place. Of course it was here. Perhaps it was to assure the nerves of the 5 or so guards that had accompanied the two that they were in fact in the right spot, but she would have never forgotten; you couldn’t really forget such a big detail in a place like this. She put a single finger up to the wall and it phased through just like it had done so all those months ago. It was a bit surprising that this exact place wasn’t blocked off and guarded heavier than Rubber Prison, but maybe all the time between Monsieur Scarlet’s original appearance and now had made them at least somewhat forgetful of the finer details; perhaps they assumed Scarlet wouldn’t take refuge in the same place again, and that was why it didn’t matter.

The wood debris hidden behind some rocks suggested another idea, that perhaps Scarlet forcefully opened this area up themselves.

She looked over to Levi, still mostly stoic as he always was, but with a certain air of uncertainty within his movements and eyes. As for her; she was obviously a little anxious. You had to be to even consider taking on such a thing, it kept you wary and it kept you alive. But for the first time in a while, she felt fully confident in her abilities. She might have had to sweet talk Levi into even being here with her, but the words she said were at least partially true as much as she didn’t want to admit so. The two of them were a damn powerhouse, and despite all of Eetl’s warnings, Celia felt that they had it in them to do the job at hand.

“Do we have everything we need?” Levi asked, the slightest quiver breaking through his voice.

“Let me double check for you.” Celia said, grabbing their supply sack and peering into it just one last time before they entered Scarlet’s assumed domain.

Admittedly, they could have brought a little more. They had two flasks of spicy tea, a baked yam, and a singular Spicy Bomb that they made sure to mutually specify was for emergencies: such a weapon would most likely deal lots of damage to Scarlet, but if they missed the throw, it would mean nothing but bad news. The light packing they had done slightly concerned Levi while they were in the process of getting supplies, but Celia insisted that it was fine. Something something, the weight she’d be carrying while having to fight Scarlet or whatever, something something it was important for her to be mobile so she could block any attacks. It didn’t matter. What mattered right now was the task at hand.

“Okay.” Celia called for the attention of all the guards, who stood shoulder to shoulder in a tight formation. She made her voice a bit quieter than usual, just in case Scarlet was somehow listening. “We’ll be going in there to lure Scarlet, and when we yell out “Rogu!”, all of you need to flood in. Eetl said you guys are pretty skilled, and a seven-versus-one ambush should be more than enough to subdue Scarlet. Is that clear?”

A small choir of varying agreements came from the guards in a hushed tone, all holding their spears with elite firmness. Celia and Levi shared one last glance at each other.

“...you ready?” Levi asked, a hint of nerve leaking through his otherwise smooth voice.

“Never been better,” Celia said.

And with one last silent volley of “good luck” sent at the two, they walked through the invisible wall, a chill running down Celia’s body as they crossed the boundary.

She took some deep breaths like she always did in these scenarios. She gripped her shield a little tighter, she adjusted the bag of supplies a tad bit tighter than usual. Her heartbeat was steadily rising with each step towards the clearing she remembered collapsing in all those months ago. She kept on breathing, clutching her shield, adjusting the bag of supplies a little tighter. Her heart beat kept on climbing, little by little.

She shouldn’t be scared.

Her and Levi were strong. Stronger than most of the association. And yet the tiniest bit of doubt began entering her head. All the imagery they had stumbled across of the bodies of Team Treble between the meeting at the association and now. All the warnings that Eetl had said they could heed, the danger implied by how softly Eetl had spoken. Throughout the entire journey they had only learnt more about Scarlet that had built them up to be more horrifying than

She couldn’t be scared.

Celia felt that flame of desire flicker up in her heart again, the one that pushed her to become stronger in the first place. It was impossible to deny the benefits to Celia if she was able to best a foe that had once tossed them aside like they were nothing more than trash. Celia came in with something to prove to herself, that she could become stronger, that she hadn’t hit a plateau but merely lacked the observation skills necessary to see herself become stronger, that she could take on these challenges and not collapse at the first sign of hardship. It was the only way she could get stronger. There was no other option.

Celia and Levi arrived in the main chamber. At this point, they expected something similar to what had happened the first time around; Scarlet would appear from behind the pillar on the left, try and sweet talk them a little bit, and then jump into combat like before. This time, though, they knew of their tricks. They’d stay on guard, weapons drawn, and stay put until the right time came to strike.

Before this plan could be set into motion, though, they heard a loud thud from somewhere as they moved past the immediate entrance, followed by a sudden rumbling strong enough to shake the air around them. As quickly as they had turned around to see what the sound was, a barrage of large rocks began tumbling down to the entrance of the clearing, sending dust and dirt everywhere which sent Levi and Celia into an intense bout of blindness, the sounds of crashing and crumbling stone deafening any other sound possible.

By the time the dust had settled, they were fully trapped in; rubble sealing their tomb.

“Are—are you okay, Celia?” Levi quickly asked, eyes still squinting from the dust as he unsheathed his weapon.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. No scratches here,” Celia responded.

And then they heard it: the cacophonous sound of mad laughing reverberating from the other end of the clearing. The two of them turned around and locked eyes with the ant dressed in bloody hues.

They had found their target.

Chapter Text

“Well, well, well… if it isn’t you two!” Monsieur Scarlet loudly proclaimed, his cackly voice echoing throughout the entire clearing. “My favorite, most dashing explorers are finally giving poor old me a second chance! Who would have thought the day would come when I’d finally meet Celia and Levi again? Did you think I would forget you? My darlings?”

The two of them were frozen in a standstill, staring with beady eyes at a Scarlet now making their way ever closer towards the duo. Celia was able to get a better look at him now as he slowly approached: his dress and hat once considered namesake had been traded in for a carmine hydrangea in his left antenna; the antenna on the right seemed to be partially gone. He wore a rose-colored long coat stained with darker red splotches, and for a moment she thought about what those stains could be, and quickly came to the conclusion that she shouldn’t try prying any further because she very much knew the only thing it could be.

Scarlet spun around his umbrella with the speed of a hurricane as something monstrous entered his gaze. “What’s wrong, dears? Am I just too much of a sight for your sore eyes? Getting cold feet, perhaps? Why don’t you speak up already?”

Some amount of heroism tried to escape Celia’s throat. Something that would put fear into Scarlet, some amount of messaging letting him know that she wasn’t scared. She looked over to Levi again and saw his posture slumped just the slightest bit, nerves causing his weapon to slightly shake in place. Instead she stayed silent, stayed focused and ready. Cela’s grip tightened on her shield. She could hear small murmurs pierce through the barrier of rocks.

“Oh, daring today are we?” Scarlet put their thumb and index fingers up to their chin and observed the two of them, not a single iota of forwards or backwards movement coming from either of them. “Where’s your… little friends? Because I remember what you two pulled on me. An ambush? Really? And I thought you two were honorable!” He snickered softly before turning fully maniacal, spinning around and slamming his umbrella into a nearby pillar of rock which made a loud crashing sound and sent small shards of rock flying to the ground below it. “It’s nice to know that you’ve turned a new leaf. All by your lonely, lonely selves, just me and you. We can share this intimate moment together, darlings. In fact? I’ll even—I’ll even humor you two. Here.”

Celia and Levi watched as Scarlet gently crouched down and placed his umbrella on the ground to the side of him. Scarlet opened his arms wide open, his coat parting to the sides to reveal his bloodstained abdomen ripe with scars and bruises, wear and tear clearly evident. “I’ll even give you a SINGLE hit as a welcoming gift, Celia and Levi! Come on, any one of you, go ahead. Take a hit. Free of charge. My pleasure. It’s my gift to every explorer that comes my way. You simply need to come up to me, and take your best shot. This is my way of paying it forward. So feel free, you two. Many have done so before you.”

“We don’t need it.” Celia blurted out, immediately breaking what would have been a long and arduous silence. She saw Levi anxiously glance at her in her peripheral vision, silently mouthing “what the hell are you doing” as Scarlet stared into her soul. He began to laugh once again, Celia feeling a growing sense of anger grow within her, slowly replacing the fear that once held her still. She took 2 small steps forward and pulled her shield-bearing arm back slightly.

“Oh, why, darling?” Scarlet taunted, jeering at Celia while putting their hand on their waist. “Too good for—”

“SHUT UP!” Celia’s voice boomed. She took another step forward and flung her shield forwards at an off-guard Scarlet, the training from all those afternoons finally paying off as it zipped through the air faster than Scarlet could regain focus, striking him square in the chest as he nearly lost his balance and had to adjust his footing to not fall to the ground. Celia caught the rebound like she had a thousand times before against the straw dummy.

“Levi, GO!” Celia shouted, Levi quickly shedding all fear he once had as he began dashing forwards at Scarlet with his weapon drawn. She followed right behind him, matching the pace he had set as Scarlet stood defenseless and scrambled to try and reach his umbrella on the ground. Celia reached the umbrella first and punted it backwards with her heel as Scarlet reached out for it, her shield bash forwards then only barely missing the connection with his head as Scarlet quickly retreated backwards, Levi following his motion with precision.

This was the plan that Celia had concocted before they had arrived. Scarlet was dangerous, but even more so with their umbrella which acted both as their main weapon and method of draining life. Any hit from that massive umbrella would send them reeling while also slightly healing Scarlet’s wounds, meaning that any sort of long-term fight would leave Scarlet much better off than their opponent.

But…if they didn’t have access to their umbrella, they couldn’t drain any health from them, and their attacks would be much more manageable to deal with. Even the most skilled hand-to-hand combatant would be at a strict disadvantage against 2 with weapons, and it was unlikely Scarlet had much experience fighting without their umbrella.

Celia had planned this with Levi long before they had reached the clearing. It was only by chance that Scarlet’s ego had allowed them to take such quick advantage and skip over the most dangerous part of the plan; disarming him. As long as Levi kept the pressure on Scarlet, as long as Celia kept guard of the general area where the umbrella was at all times, they could whittle down Scarlet bit by bit and eventually come out on top. They had fought similar foes before: many bounties in the months since Scarlet’s return had been similarly equipped bugs that had a bone to pick, and Team Levi—no, Celia, had managed to come out on top with strategy and on point precision. This shouldn’t be any different.

They could do this. Celia could do this. Celia just needed to stick to the plan, let Levi do their thing, and they’d be fine. She had to play her role; box Scarlet in, maybe throw her shield when she had the chance and threaten bashing his shoulders in if they got too close. That was all she had to do. That was… all she could do right now.

The thoughts kept dancing around in her head as she watched Levi and Scarlet form an intricate, beautiful dance of sword and fist. The two of them had withstood equal-ish amounts of blows, yet it was clear Scarlet was reeling from not having their weapon on them. He was much more experienced than Celia had first assumed, yet it was clear from her own experiences that Scarlet was still far from having finesse or expertise without a weapon. Despite their agility helping them avoid moments of Levi’s onslaught they had no clean way of transferring that energy into something that could match Levi’s strength. Celia’s steady harassment from afar with constant threats of dashing in and shield tosses made it even harder for Scarlet to deal with the two, and despite his previous attempts to distract Celia with an occasional toss of some miscellaneous projectile aimed straight at her, she stayed steadfast, calm, and ready. She kept Scarlet from reaching the umbrella which still had laid motionless on the ground since she kicked it backwards, and it was working. Levi was able to keep up with Scarlet and box them in. The plan was working.

This battle would be her legacy. One that would demonstrate her penchant for strategy, a fight executed so cleanly by the two of them that it’d be one to look fondly upon later.

And she’d be no more a spectator than an actual combatant.

She had her role to play, and it was very much necessary but it felt far too passive. The entire point for taking on such a mission, not leaving it in the hands of an inarguably more capable Team Snakemouth or Maki was for her to prove that it hadn’t been a waste of her time, that there was a reason she stood here today and nobody else with a shield could replace her in that history. All the combat she had gone through was supposed to lead up to this, and yet here she was doing nothing more than standing around and moving her muscles a few inches whenever necessary. It frustrated her to no end that even when she made that plan, all her role amounted to was support while Levi did everything that mattered. Despite all the time that had passed, she was still the same Celia that she was in that mission in the Forsaken Lands. All the sparring, training in the world would lead to the same conclusion.

She wouldn’t stand for it. There had to be another way to reach the ending, a way to rewrite what already seemed to be spelled out in the stars. Maybe it was too late to start fighting like Levi was, but she still had time to make more of an impact, one that could prove she was actually here. Celia inched closer and closer, still making sure to keep her posture strong and maintain space that she could control and keep Scarlet from getting by. Undeniable energy coursed through her body.

The first shield toss barely missed, rebounding off the wall and around Levi as she caught it. It wasn’t enough, yet Scarlet seemed to take notice. Not a moment had passed before she turned her shoulders and waist back for another throw, this time whipping her joints faster and stronger, the shield zipping faster as it slightly grazed Scarlet’s back. It wasn’t enough. And as she was charging up the third one, she saw Scarlet suddenly retreat backwards and slow down into a standstill. A slightly tired Levi pointed the tip of his weapon at a much more exhausted Scarlet who was currently against the wall.

“Do you yield, Scarlet?” Levi said.

No.

“You know what? I—” Scarlet giggled a slight bit through deep breaths, clutching their sides the slightest bit in pain. “I surrender! You two have bested me in combat. I shall…” The words began fading out into sludge as Celia’s vision formed a vignette. Scarlet side-eyed Celia as they kept on speaking.

No. No, no, no. Nononononono. NO.

She had run out of time—no, she still had time. Scarlet was right there. Just standing there, motionless, weaponless, weakened. Celia’s fury grew as her shield began slightly shaking from the intensity of her grip. And—and he was a dangerous criminal, one who had killed, MURDERED Team Treble and others—and she was still trapped in here anyways until those rocks were gone, and Scarlet could at any point lunge and they’d be better knocked out or on the ground or dead. And this was supposed to be her chance, and she had lost it all right now, there and then, and it had been no different than any other mission or bounty that they had taken on where Levi had done everything. She had to do something. Scarlet was right there. Motionless, weaponless, weakened. Motionless, weaponless, weakened. Motionless, weaponless, weakened.

Celia cocked her shieldbearing arm back for what would be the last time in this encounter, making sure there was still masterful intention in her movement of her arm and torso yet fueled by the spite and fury of months and months of moments lost and gone by and the constant reminders that she’d forever be in the background of Team Levi, and her arm went back as far as it could without hurting herself, a murderous, red glint shining in her eyes, and—

As swift as the wind blew, Scarlet swept Levi’s legs and sent him falling to the ground, immediately sprinting with one last burst of energy straight at Celia who had now been caught off guard with her shield far from a guarding position. Awkwardly, she tried to shuffle back to the same form that had kept Scarlet out the entire fight as fast as she could. For all the training she had done, there had never been a reason to practice moving from a shield throwing stance to a defensive one—the shield would have been thrown right now had it not been for Scarlet’s trickery, and she was caught in the nightmare of the between. Despite putting in herculean effort in such a short amount of time, the amount of force she had put behind the stuffed throw was too much to revert and she was shoved away by Scarlet, plummeting to the ground. Levi and Celia could only stare in horror as Scarlet neatly picked up his umbrella, a sudden aura of energy bursting and spreading its tendrils through the entire clearing.

Scarlet began to giggle before it quickly transcended into a monstrous roar of elated joy. The fear that had once been so quickly dissipated had returned to Celia, not even a moment to process what she had done as she saw a bloodlust enter Scarlet’s eyes, quickly approaching—he was going to kill her. She was—

Scarlet jumped forwards and swung his umbrella up into the air, ready to send her 6 feet under.

Celia grabbed her shield and rolled just barely away from the impact zone of Scarlet’s umbrella, the force of which sent the small pebbles that had laid nearly dormant for so long flying into the air. She held her breath as she scrambled upwards and planted her feet firmly into the ground, shield drawn as Scarlet wildly swung the umbrella into her. Despite her firm defensive stance and shield placement the hit was strong enough to still force her to catch her balance 3 steps backwards.

The nightmare had taken shape. No longer was Scarlet fighting on the backfoot. She and Levi were already varying levels of tired, and all the worries of what Scarlet was capable of at this point of such a long fight flooded back into her head.

She tried a different maneuver. As Scarlet stared her down, Celia’s eyes darted behind him and she noticed Levi sneaking in for a slash. It was imperative that it would hit. She wanted to distract Scarlet while Levi got closer, so she advanced slightly forwards as Scarlet raised his umbrella to the side. Suddenly, Scarlet twirled the umbrella forward and around their head, changing targets from Celia to Levi with another downward slam aimed right into the path Levi was moving.

There wasn’t even time to call his name, yet by a needle’s length and a miracle or two Levi stepped out of the way at the very last moment. Celia stepped in to try and capitalize, aiming the edge of her shield to the middle of Scarlet’s back, but he had managed to turn around in time to avoid her strike. Her mistake was that she had committed slightly too much, arm pressing forward into nothing but air, and now she was completely defenseless as Scarlet stepped past her thrust and sent a piercing blow with the tip of his umbrella into Celia’s core.

“GH!” she yelled out in pain.

She was sent back a few steps reeling, a noticeable energy she once had now slightly sapped from her muscles, trying to catch her balance while also looking out for what Scarlet was doing next while also trying to figure out what Levi was doing while considering why she had done such a stupid goddamn interaction and the mental load began to feel like she was carrying an entire mountain and everything was going horribly, horribly wrong and it was her fault. Her movements slowed down as she tried to refocus, shield still in hand and she was able to avoid another slash downward from Scarlet before she was suddenly lifted from the ground by the neck.

“Impudent cur…!” Scarlet muttered, before vigorously throwing her body away and onto the ground some distance away. When she hit the ground Celia’s body spun around multiple times, roughing up her chitin on the rock floor, still somehow managing to hold onto her shield for dear life as her head spun and she came to a standstill. The thoughts kept repeating themselves endlessly as she tried to struggle upwards. This shouldn’t be something that dropped her for good, but the thoughts kept on repeating, repeating, repeating. She couldn’t get up. It was hard for her to focus. Celia could only stay on her knees and hands, everything sore and her heart and breath matching pace, an invisible force keeping her from moving upwards as she could only watch Scarlet adjust his focus onto Levi.

Levi tried his absolute best to make up the gap. Despite his mastery over his weapon, his skill comparable to Scarlet’s own, his own strength, it was impossible to avoid everything. A few errant strikes had hit Levi during their duel with Scarlet, each one rejuvenating him even more as Levi’s exhaustion grew faster with each block, each parry, each dodge slowly moving him further and further down the mountain. And eventually it slipped for just a singular moment; one bad move from Levi after so many good ones in a row put him directly into the path of Scarlet’s upward swing.

“LEVI, NO!”

Scarlet’s umbrella made shattering contact with helmet as Levi was sent flying backwards in the clearing, a thunderous CLANG! echoing throughout the place as Scarlet nearly lost balance from the force of the attack. It was certain, no chance of anything otherwise happening, Celia’s heart twang at the sight because she knew what the truth was and she was the cause of it and it was almost certain what would come next and after.

Levi: the nigh undefeatable master of his craft. The one who had inspired her to spend so many early mornings and late afternoons honing her own skills. The one who she had been looking up to the entire way up that muddy cliffside. The two of them at this moment had fallen back down from near the zenith all the way back down to the ground so far away, right where they had started all those months ago, a moment of rare vulnerability making itself horrifyingly known to Celia.

She could see Levi was still conscious through the dark haze of shame that had begun enveloping her vision, a remarkable force of will from him but it was. Her eyes began to water and leak out tears of fear and sadness and anger and doubt and time seemed to slow down tenfold as Scarlet mockingly made his way over to Levi, standing over him with his umbrella resting on his shoulder and a mocking, bloody stare projecting into Levi’s soul. Celia desperately wanted to help, but the weight stayed stagnant. She couldn’t move. Her muscles fought against the very idea of trying to do anything at all other than lying down and accepting her fate.

This battle would be her legacy. A legacy that was denoted by nothing more than failure after failure after failure. She had spent months of training that strength of hers, months worrying constantly about her own strength, months fueled by the desire that her strength might one day become greater, months fueled by the strength that just wasn’t enough, all for it to end here, all because of her ego and her selfishness and her jealousy and arrogance and she just couldn’t be satisfied with any of it at any point before now when the writing was already on the wall. Tears hit the dull floor below her in a steady pattern as Monsieur Scarlet began speaking, a voice that sounded like nothing but static right now.

She never wanted it to be like this. Celia wanted nothing more than to become stronger—no, that couldn’t have been it. She didn’t always want to become stronger. There was a time, one where the two were much less competent than they were now where she was simply content, Levi’s courage that had now surgically signaled her own shortcomings once acting as a beacon of comfort in rough times. Levi’s skill resembled something of beauty while she worked on her own. It all started that day in the—no, it started long before that. That day in the Forsaken Lands was just the breaking point. It had been stewing long before she even knew those feelings existed. There was a time before that desire had consumed her life and put blinders on her memory and left holes of darkness that enforced that desire to gain strength, wherebefore every other detail in every memory was still just as clear as the ones next to it no matter how different or mundane the experiences. She wanted to reach back to something, anything that might suggest how life had turned out this way. In a moment of kindness from some deity, it was as if Venus allowed everything else to slow down even further, a moment of much needed clarity finally allowing itself into Celia’s rapid headspace.

Why did she even need to become stronger?

She remembered the first time Levi had saved her life.

They had been on a mission for a bounty, sometime before Team Snakemouth had formed. The exact details were somewhat foggy, the beast or bug they were fighting accounting for nothing more than a couple of vague shapes and noises, but she could remember the feeling of pain that day. Everything had hurt like it’d been torn from the seams, legs bruised and cut all over, one antenna buzzing with receptors receiving nothing but hurt despite it only being half there, chitin rough and patchy in some spots where hemolymph slowly leaked from. She had faded in between passing out and staying conscious lying on the floor, remaining strength used to barely look up at the what remained of the scene

Levi was still fighting on. Through the blur that had become of that day she still remembered the mutual promise they had made to protect each other, how helpless she had felt in the face of something so monstrous and yet how brave Levi still seemed in spite of it. Without her help he was able to defeat the monster that had done so much damage to her, the last recollections of that place ending in his arms before she passed out.

She had somehow survived that ordeal, and through all the emotions of hurt felt that day; of sadness, of hurt, of disappointment in herself, she felt a grand sense of gratefulness. Levi didn’t ask any questions about what she was doing, or even seem mad at all that she had taken such a beating while his injuries were relatively minor. The first thing Celia remembered when she had woken up, covered in bandages and stinging pains was the sudden embrace from Levi, the tears both of them shared after the fact, a mutual happiness shared that they had made it out alive.

Celia was grateful that Levi had become her teammate. There wasn’t much she could have expected when the assignment had first been given to her—the first ones she felt were of slight annoyance, actually, as the rest of the soldiers in her troop were assigned more dangerous missions of the adventurous variety and she’d essentially be babysitting someone she had no prior information of. But as the two of them had grown to know each other, she began to appreciate his presence. It had been lonely in the troop despite how much they mingled with each other, and Levi was one of the few people that Celia could confidently call a friend through the many connections made at more than arms length. She would always appreciate Levi.

She remembered the second time Levi had saved her life.

It was the same story as before, the same blurriness present through the events but the same pillars taking their places. They’d been taking an unassuming mission in Defiant Root, something monstrous had suddenly attacked them, and before Celia knew it they were on their last legs; left arm completely shattered from a strong attack she was too slow to dodge, in absolutely no condition to keep on fighting. And just before she was about to get struck by another slam of the monster’s tail, Levi stepped in and saved her. Again. And Levi alone was able to do the rest, her only able to watch on, Levi soon helping her limp back to town across the vast desert sands.

And she remembered the third, fourth, and fifth times. And then she kept on remembering the countless more times after that, all near-death experiences of varying intensity from deflecting a strike that would have hit her to being the only reason she escaped from a fight alive. Within each one her gratitude for Levi had grown; the amount of times Levi had done so at the time was something she could never truly forget about. But something else, dark and pale in color began gnawing at the back of her mind. It was the feeling of shameful, concentrating inferiority.

Most of their relationship felt like Celia had done nothing more than just be there sometimes, and despite how she knew it wasn’t really true so many events kept on happening that had seemed to prove otherwise. Before that day in the Forsaken Lands she had still grappled with those feelings in the back of her head through every encounter, every fight that had felt like Levi had taken the reins and left her in the dust. It started small and slowly grew into something that took up most of her idle thoughts, the idea that she COULD be doing something better, and the fact Levi didn’t seem to even care felt unbelievable. He’d always be there, a smile on his face, an aura radiating bravery from his core. He had noticed her sadness, at the very least sometime before she had improved at hiding those feelings once she started training, and Levi had tried to console her before. She couldn’t remember the words: despite her appreciation of the gesture it was hard to feel like Levi was just treating her like a child having a tantrum.

The gracious feelings for Levi slowly turned to ones of self-loathing. Every life-saving moment changed contexts—she could have done better. No, she SHOULD have done better. It was hard to feel nice about the good things she ended up doing because they’d be on the backdrop of hundreds of bad ones, things in her control that had simply gone awry. It was hard to not feel jealous with Levi; despite her undying bond with him, it was seemingly as if Levi could never make a mistake.

It made Celia feel awful that she could never repay Levi for the things he had done for her. Since they had first met, Levi had saved her from near certain death more times than she could count, and throughout it all there seemingly was never a way for her to express that gratitude to him. She had thanked Levi and cried in his arms on hospice beds a million different times but something as serious felt like it required more. Words could never be enough, no matter how eloquently Celia would have attempted to phrase what she would say to Levi. The only way was through direct action, yet before she was too weak to do so, Levi would already have a handle on the situation, and each and every time another missed opportunity flew by it was hard for Celia to not feel awful. Levi had done everything for her, and all she had wanted was a way to express her gratitude for him. Strength had seemed like her only way forward; and while her training had led to far fewer situations where she was put out of commission, there had never been a chance for her to prove that it had been worth all the toil, all the pain.

Underneath the loathing, the constant annoyance of the struggle, the crushing feelings of gloom taking hold of her when Levi surpassed her, there was love. She loved Levi. She wanted nothing more than the best for him, and she wanted nothing more than to prove that she was worth something, anything at all. She wanted to prove that he hadn’t just been wasting his time on her, that what Levi had been teaching her all these months out of the kindness of his heart wasn’t lost on her, that she really did care about more than the vain pursuit and desire of glory and strength and she just never had the chance to really show it. It was never about getting stronger than Levi. It was never supposed to be, anyways. All Celia had wanted was a chance to show her gratitude, and she had pushed them all down until the meaning had been lost in the fog. And only now did her prime directive become clear to her: she had to save Levi. It was far too late to get out of the situation she had placed them in, and it was something that she’d forever have to hold above her head. There was no time to think about that right now, no time to spend brushing away the tears. There was just enough time given to Celia to do something.

Despite the weight that had crushed her for so long and the heavy hits she had taken from Scarlet, Celia’s body was still relatively intact compared to Levi, who had taken far more damage. Seemingly only a couple of seconds had passed; Scarlet stood over Levi’s body, still presumably talking some nonsense that she had tuned out, the ant completely lost in taunting thought and monologue. An exhaustion was present throughout every length of her muscles but she had something stored for that. Throughout all that combat, the small bag of supplies Celia had brought finally had its time to shine. Amazingly, the contents were still somehow intact: the yam was slightly flattened but the flasks and, by a miracle of Venus, the spicy bomb, had gotten through mostly unharmed. She scrambled inside to grab one of the flasks of spicy tea, popping open the top with her somehow still hands and guzzling the entire thing down. The taste was harsh, mouth and throat feeling aflame but the energy it gave her was irrefutable, exhaustion now held at bay for at least a moment. She swiftly placed the flask on the ground and pulled out the spicy bomb.

It was an emergency. There was no doubt about it, any concerns already burnt away by the spicy tea’s intensity. She didn’t even realize it, but she was now standing tall, far above the ground where she had started. An air of confidence unabated by doubt or regret or sadness or desire entered her lungs for what had been the first time in a while, the spicy bomb held firmly in her hand as her stance readied for a throw straight at Scarlet’s head, one she had practiced a thousand times before and one she would practice a thousand times again.

And as the bright red bomb soared through the air and made contact with Scarlet’s head, glowing brightly for just a brief moment before it exploded, Celia made sure she had solidified those mantras in her head. For at least this moment in time, she couldn’t let the same doubt and jealousy that had clouded her thinking for so long. Levi was counting on her.

Celia took a deep breath in and charged forwards, shield and supply bag held firmly.

Chapter Text

BOOM!

The spicy bomb exploded in a bright display of lights, the otherwise dim cavern illuminating for a mere fraction of a second during the explosion, a symphony of rocks clashing together and forming a massive dustcloud where Scarlet once stood. Celia’s first focus was to get these supplies to Levi—any chance of looking at the aftermath of the explosion would have to come by later. Those bombs were strong, but for a bug of Scarlet’s caliber, she would still need to put in some extra work to finish the job.

Celia reached to where Levi was laying down as she dropped her shield and took a knee to match his elevation. Her eyes began to constantly switch focus between the bag she was pulling supplies out of and at Levi, aware of the urgency of the situation but still wanting to know more of his condition. Despite his clear exhaustion from the fight, and the obscuration of his face from his helmet compounded with the darkened atmosphere, Celia could still make out the silhouette of his shocked expression, confirming so after she took his helmet and his face was fully visible. They looked at each other for a moment, breaths heavy as they gazed into each other's eyes. As much as Celia wanted to stay in that moment longer, there was no time to waste.

The exchange of supplies was mostly wordless, Celia swiftly handing the slightly smushed yam over to Levi and placing the flask of tea next to where he was laying down. With hands on his shoulder and chest, she sat him up more upright so as to get him into a more comfortable position to eat the yam. He needed to rest—there was no chance of him being able to fight right now.

Suddenly, she saw Levi’s pupils begin to dilate as they focused on a target behind her.

“C—Celia, behind you! Scarlet!” Levi shouted out with what strength he currently had in him, the first words they had shared in quite some time. Grabbing her shield from the floor, her body quickly stood up and she faced him once more.

The Spicy Bomb had done noticeable damage to Scarlet. The chitin around the area where the bomb connected with his head was heavily burnt, the scarring managing to only barely avoid their eyes. The hydrangea in their antennae had completely burnt away in the blast; in fact, the damaged right antenna that Celia had noticed at the start of the encounter was seemingly gone, their other antenna noticeably damaged from the blast. The coat had also been demolished in the explosion, the remains of it currently sitting near their feet, exposing the wounds that had now begun to reopen on their abdomen. Even their umbrella had seemingly taken damage beyond repair, the petals that once made up the canopy fallen onto the ground and slightly smoldering leaving only the shaft of the weapon.

Still, Celia could feel that same bloodlust radiating even stronger from Scarlet, his stare stabbing into her soul with an unyielding force of will as he clutched his injured body. Most bugs they had fought before that reached this same crossroads would begin to falter—under the threat of near certain death, they’d stand down and give into their primal urges to survive. Even the most dangerous bugs in Bugaria would want to keep on living, no matter how deranged they might have seemed at the start. And for every bounty before, it had been the same story. Scarlet was a different story. There was a refusal to simply give in that showed in their movements no matter how slight—even with their antennae heavily damaged, one completely gone, even as their abdomen began to leak hemolymph over the cave floor, they kept on moving. Any other bug with their level of damage sustained would most likely be dead, or at least collapsed on the cave floor at this moment.

And here Scarlet stood. They held what remained of their umbrella’s shaft in their hand, and within a split second crushed it within their grip, snapping it into two pieces and countless other shards which clattered on the floor, letting the hemolymph leak from their palm and onto the floor beneath it. He kept on staring at her.

“I’ll protect you, Levi. I promise. Just k—keep resting, okay?” Celia said, a small bit of uncertainty in her voice. She—no, she couldn’t. Levi was counting on her. And… she had doubted herself far too many times before. Levi believed in her. Celia believed in herself. She readied her shield, gripping it harder as Scarlet began walking toward her and in a split second Celia decided to meet them halfway.

There was one clear objective: keep Scarlet away from Levi, no matter the cost.

At the very least, Scarlet’s vivid, flowing anger was, at the moment, completely focused on Celia. Her first thrust forward with her shield was quickly dodged with unlikely smoothness, the direction of the fight now pointed in the opposite direction where Levi was currently positioned. She rotated her body just in time to yank her shield towards her in order to block Scarlet’s oncoming flurry of strikes coming from her left side, the force of which nearly knocked her over. During her training, the most important thing about defense was to keep the posture in which you stand strong. Balance would lead to all other roads, and it was the first stepping stone to mastery. She planted her feet in the ground and managed to stay upright, stepping backwards to gain more space.

This time, though, during the midst of her backstep, Scarlet lunged forward and aimed a kick directed straight at her legs, strongly connecting with the left and forcing Celia to buckle downwards. Her other leg flexed as hard as she could to keep her from tumbling over, and just barely she managed to catch herself, swinging her balance backwards and using her free hand to fully center herself. While not fast enough to immediately spring upwards, Celia saw Scarlet hesitate for the slightest moment while attempting to move into their next attack, giving her enough time to step backwards again.

This cycle repeated a couple more times, neither Celia nor Scarlet able to get any definitive strikes in. Despite Scarlet’s visible manic will to keep on fighting, they were methodical in how they directed their fury, only moving forward if given enough clearance to try and land a strike. Celia still had enough energy and skill present in them to block every chance given to Scarlet, the motions of her shield fluid as a river, but the problem remained that she wasn’t able to cleanly get in. She was too close to throw her shield, too far to cleanly to bash Scarlet without him being able to dodge. During the course of the fight she had occasionally peeked over to Levi, noticing that his general condition still hadn’t changed from how it was from the start—infact, he seemed to be lying down again, not close enough to tell if he had collapsed from exhaustion. Her burst of strength was slowly beginning to fade away, not enough to make an immediate difference but enough that she realized she had to make something happen. Scarlet could still outlast her, and she had to stop him before it reached that point.

The fight had now circled around to where Scarlet had been when the spicy bomb had launched them away from Levi. Celia was about to head into another loop of the same exact scenario—a slight standoff between the two before one of them eventually tried to go in, the other would dodge or block and go in for one of their own, they would reciprocate, and then they’d take a small moment to recover before it repeated again, usually in small increments of 2 or 3 seconds before.

Her eyes darted towards his smoldering coat which was still lying on the ground. While it was still definitively damaged, it was still in some part intact.

An idea suddenly popped into Celia’s mind. She was slightly too far away from the coat right now, but her movements began to inch slower and slower towards it as she guided Scarlet exactly where she wanted him to be. In spite of how the fight was going, Celia still had something important; control, and it was evident to her that Scarlet was fighting reactively to her own actions. If she was going on the defense, Scarlet would try to get it on her and vice versa. Her training had spoken of this exact concept as well—if you are unable to use your balance to defeat the opponent’s own, find a way to break it. Another cycle passed, this time around Celia using both hands to swing her shield into Scarlet’s assumed path as he backstepped and tried to swing forwards with their fists, Celia swiftly ducking and promptly shoving Scarlet away with her shield. And in this brief window of recovery, there it was, lying idly at her feet.

There was no time to consider if the plan would even work, only that it was one of the only options she could recognize right now. With her free hand she scooped up the coat, and while Scarlet was trying to approach once more she threw the burning coat directly in front of him, leaping right behind it.

The slight distraction forced Scarlet to freeze up for just a moment longer than usual. She had to guess what Scarlet might do in order to fully capitalize on this one-time trick—from the fight so far, though, she had recognized that Scarlet would almost always try and retreat backwards in times where they were uncertain of what Celia might do next. She had seen it in the cycle before and the one before that and nearly every single one before that. With an unbroken confidence she committed to a powerful lunge strike forward, hopping forwards further than she usually did and aiming the tip at her shield straight at Scarlet’s abdomen.

Celia overextended very slightly—but she had made the right guess, as Scarlet sloppily tried to move backwards in what little time they had been allocated. Activating her muscles with stunning fury, the tip of Celia’s shield pierced into Scarlet’s abdomen, hitting an open wound as she pushed as far forwards as possible. An audible gasp of pain left Scarlet as they reeled backwards, clutching the spot where Celia had struck. Hemolymph stuck to her shield, and despite the awkward spot they had put themselves into Celia adjusted as fast as possible, rushing forwards and pulling their shieldbearing arm back in order to ready themselves for another bash.

It seems as if the pain had finally begun to register with Scarlet as their attempt to move away was stuck in hesitation. With a heavy push, Celia slammed their shield into Scarlet, who only barely managed to avoid getting struck in the head with their arms rapidly rising up to block. Nevertheless, the power in which Celia had struck them with was enough to knock them completely off balance, Scarlet stumbling backwards and tripping over themselves multiple times before falling onto the ground.

Not before any time at all had passed, Scarlet was scrambling upwards. There wasn’t enough time to capitalize further. The effects of the spicy tea were wearing away fast, even more noticeable now than it was earlier. She took another look at Levi—seemingly still in the same motionless state despite the yam and the tea he had more than enough time now to consume. Celia’s heart sank.

Celia had to keep on fighting. Every muscle in her body was tensing up, a bitter exhaustion beginning to seep into every inch of her body. What adrenaline had fueled her from that spot on the floor was now wearing thin, and despite the desire to keep protecting Levi a small part of her was ready to give in. From the way Scarlet moved up from the ground it was clear they were still somehow in the headspace to continually brawl, only minor signs of debilitation showing through in spite of their heavy injuries. It didn’t matter if their antennae were so damaged that Celia could tell from a distance, that same violent stare met her as always.

There was no way for Celia to tell if she would be able to go on any further. But their objective was still true.

Keep Scarlet away from Levi, no matter the cost.

If she hesitated now, there would be no stopping Scarlet from hurting Levi further, no stopping both of their deaths.

Celia wouldn’t stand for it.

There was always a way up every hill Celia saw, the mantra she had instilled since adolescence, and this would be no different. Her arms and legs stung, her heartbeat working overtime to keep her standing, and the smallest inclinations of doubt once again tried to take over, implanting reminders of her failures in the past and up to this point, booming its presence around the walls of her head.

And still, her love was first and foremost. Levi needed her to break beyond what she had limited herself to doing. Levi needed her to be strong, just for a little while longer, just a little more time. There was no spot for Levi to come in and save her if something went wrong. There was no time to think about what might happen if she failed him, only about what was possible for her to do right now. If she had to fight to the very bitter end, covered in scratches and all options exhausted, she had to do so. It was her objective.

With whatever strength she had remaining in the tank, she went in once more for another round. For Levi.

This time around the scales were tipped much further in Scarlet’s direction. He had seemingly gotten another wind of life since he had gotten knocked down, Celia putting in every stop possible to keep up. Scarlet was attempting trickier motions which forced her into awkward blocking positions that she only barely escaped before he could land a stunning blow. Celia’s swings were getting sloppier, slower, her footwork starting to waver the more options Scarlet established, the more cycles completed with a net zero gain for either side. Scarlet wasn’t immune to it either, their usually breathless energy sometimes ceasing for a moment as they slightly doubled over in brief pain, but it was always just far enough away from Celia for her to be unable to make anything happen as a result of it.

Scarlet’s coat was far away from where they were currently fighting, and regardless of that fact she was aware that the same trick would have absolutely no chance of working again. He wouldn’t allow her the chance either, as what little rest had been afforded to them before was now completely filled in with more exertion and keep-up. Her eyes darted around for any sort of reprieve, any sort of item that might help them get another sneaky hit on Scarlet, but other than a couple of pebbles there was nothing of the sort like there was near Levi’s side of the clearing.

Celia was getting unbelievably desperate, arms screaming out in misery for a breather, the spicy tea no longer affecting her at all as sweat trickled down her forehead. In a moment of weakness, she tried the same strategy that worked before—only this time without the ruse of distraction. And while it may have worked before, the perfect storm of strategy and luck of the sudden stunning that afflicted Scarlet during that time, he was far too energized now, Celia far too exhausted to reach that far fast enough.

A rapid sidestep. And before she could even react to the dodge happening at all, a crushing blow hit her square in her upper abdomen.

“GH!” she yelped, all the air in Celia’s body escaping her at the same time.

Celia attempted to recover, pulling her shield sideways in a vain attempt to try and whack Scarlet but another strike to her head sent her back even further in the clearing, her grip loosening as her shield dropped to the ground. It was unbelievable just how strong he still was, each hit feeling like a boulder crashed straight into her body. Still somehow upright, dazed, the world slightly blurring, she saw the shape of him leap forwards with one last mighty attack, a powerful kick aimed at her lower abdomen.

Away she was sent soaring down into the ground, colliding with the stone floor, only barely able to keep her head from cracking open as the rest of her body sank. She could feel every part of her body on the floor, unable to do anything with the information coursing to her brain. Hemolymph began to leak onto the floor below from parts of her arms and legs—no open wounds that she could realistically, but every bloodied bruise and every scrape felt like it was poking sharp needles into her. She practically begged for her body to work, especially at a time like this, but all that she could see as her vision began to darken was Scarlet’s figure slowly approaching her, frenzied eyes giving her a glare cloaked in insanity.

Scarlet stood over her broken frame for a few seconds in utter disgust. Hemolymph dripped from their body; abdomen, palms, and yet they still held an energy to them. Through the fog, Celia noticed that Scarlet looked much more famished than when they had first started to fight, almost similar to a ghost, visible ridges near the top of their abdomen finally making themselves known underneath all the damage. Before there was any more thought to be had, though, Scarlet crouched down, and started choking Celia out with his bloody, bony hands.

She had failed.

There wasn’t much to particularly think about with what little mindspace was left unallocated that hadn’t been taken up by sheer pain from multiple sources. There wasn’t enough energy left to struggle, not enough energy to even realistically croak out some last words. She began thinking back to that day in the Forsaken Lands one last time, thinking back to that day Levi first saved her life. There was no reason for him to do that—they hadn’t even known each other for that long but Levi treated her like a lifelong friend. And here she was now; Levi out cold, about to suffer the same fate she was about to face. It felt tragic not being able to save his life after he had done the same for her countless times with seemingly little effort, only even managing to get this far due to strokes of dumb luck. And in the end it seemed like it was all in vain. She wished she could apologize to him one last time, apologize for the fact it was just her and her ego alone being the reason they weren’t sitting in the Ant Kingdom doing most likely nothing right now as they simply accepted not being the best. She just wanted to say sorry. And all that strength was gained for nothing, and all the love she had felt for Levi still burnt as brightly as possible as the flame began to flicker and die.

“CELIA!” a voice shouted out from afar.

Suddenly the grasp on her neck had swiftly loosened and the sound of footsteps echoed from multiple directions, a shout of pain echoing against the walls, her eyes re-opening suddenly, blurry sights slowly adjusting to the new information. It was still dark, but the silhouette now standing in front of her was undeniably Levi’s own, now also holding something—her shield.

He had saved her once again. Celia still stung all over, hemolymph dripping from a few places, a coughing fit starting after the grip on her neck had finally ceased, each one ringing out vibrations of pain across her entire body. She was hurt pretty badly, still exhausted and fatigued and every other word she knew that could describe that feeling right now.

But still, she was alive. Peeking over to the side, Scarlet was doubled over, stumbling backwards away from the two of them, a stab wound dripping hemolymph. Levi grabbed her by the hand and pulled her up, eventually fiddling into a position where she could somehow remain standing.

“I—I saved some of the tea you gave me earlier, Celia.” Levi spoke up, his voice rapid as one hand moved in some blurry fashion and brandished the flask of tea, the other one still holding her shield as his sword laid in its sheath. “For you. You need it more than I do. We can… we can do this, Celia! I believe in you, and I believe in us. I… I want to say more toyouabout whathappenedbutI…”

There wasn’t enough of Celia currently present to fully take in what Levi had said as his voice seemingly trailed off, Celia still drifting between consciousness, words blurring into each other, but she felt that flame begin to shine and ignite one last time, a blazing feeling emitting from her soul. One specific thing Levi had said stuck in her mind.

I believe in us.

For a moment, Celia ignored all the exhaustion she had taken the brunt of for most of the fight, as there was one last stockpile of energy still left in Celia—one she had never fully realized until now, but one that had always been there since the day Levi first saved her life. As she grabbed the flask of tea and swiftly downed the lukewarm liquid, the spice setting her throat aflame, she could feel it return back to her limbs, her hands, her fingertips. The strength she had been expending the whole fight flowed back into her for however long it might last, but it was a moment in which Celia looked at Levi and felt that desire again, a desire for strength not for her own gain, but for Levi’s. Venus had seemingly blessed her with one more chance to prove herself wrong, one of the many that had been given to her within the past 24 hours. This time it would be different. Scratched, bruised, bloodied, but she wouldn’t need to tackle it alone. Levi was here.

She smiled, took the shield from his hand, and the two of them turned to Scarlet, ready for one final round.

It was a moment of perfect clarity in body and mind, uncaring of perception, two bodies working together in perfect harmony. Never once was there a moment where both of them were still—if one of them took a small moment to recover, the other one was already there ready to continue the offense. What little Scarlet could do against the two of them didn’t even seem to function at all, as their fatigue began to heavily set in, moves becoming weaker, a high baseline level of agility the only thing even managing to keep him from totally falling apart. His body had become more akin to one of a ghoul, thinning by the second. It was the culmination of Levi and Celia’s training, the hours spent working together in practice and in missions and in sparring sessions against each other and others, all experiences choreographing a dance of sword and shield around the clearing, a display of mastery unlike anything before it.

One more thing had to be done. Levi sent a surge of slashes across Scarlet’s body as Celia gripped their shield and began to position themselves in a specific spot behind Scarlet, hand clenching their shield handle as they double and tripled checked, one more deep breath to calm her nerves. Not even a moment was allocated for the course of action if she missed; Celia was certain they would land this blow. She pulled her shieldbearing arm as far back as it could go without strain.

Around she began to spin clockwise, planting each foot in front of one another as the torque of their body began to rise. Scarlet was in the ideal spot for her strike, graciously provided by Levi’s assault on him guiding him ever so slightly back. Right foot, left foot, right again. Torso rotating with the arm which began pushing forward with all of her strength as she leaned into the strike, the very tip of her shield aimed directly at the center of Scarlet’s back. Levi’s assault ceased as he stepped to the side a split second before the hit.

A full, clean connection.

CRACK!

With one last definitive blow from Celia, Scarlet was sent tumbling onto the ground away from the two of them, flailing about one last time and screaming an obscenity before they eventually ceased movement and collapsed fully onto the floor.

It was hard to really believe what she was seeing, what she had done. Here they both stood, their breathing heavy as stones, covered in miscellaneous injuries major and minor. Team Celia—no, Team Levi—no, Team… something, whatever, the name didn’t matter. What mattered was that they had BEATEN Scarlet. Out completely cold, not a chance of them escaping like they did last time.

And over in the distance, the sounds of pickaxes striking boulders became more apparent. There hadn’t been any time to even think about the aftermath, what they’d do to even escape the trap Scarlet had tried to entomb them in, but one more blessing had been instilled upon them today as it was clear that they at least had ants coming to help rescue them.

For at least a few seconds, Celia could relish in victory, a demon seemingly vanquished and overcome, a sense of finality coming over her as she took some more deep breaths in, deep breaths out. Deep breaths in, deep breaths out. Deep breaths in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out.

She started hyperventilating. The pain she had been able to temporarily ignore for Levi’s sake, it started flooding into her body again, into every branch of every nerve. She suddenly collapsed to the ground once more, writhing in the fatigue and exhaustion and the doubt she had been holding back for so long. Her breathing and her heartbeat kept on ramping up in intensity, every muscle straining at the same time, Celia clenching her eyes in pain and pain and pain. Everything hurt. Spicy tea and a hefty supply of adrenaline and love could only take you so far, numb only so much exhaustion and pain before it all crashed back down.

The truths of the situation began to make themselves known to Celia once again now that her thoughts weren’t being held back by how life-or-death this entire encounter was. She was so unbelievably stupid for doing anything there. She almost gave up the plan they had oh-so carefully planned, almost died multiple times, only able to survive up to this point due to how stubborn they were. And they had almost gotten Levi—the person they were supposed to protect—killed multiple times, only able to live due to what might be a stroke of luck, one of the many she didn’t deserve at all. A temporary lie to get them through what should have just been saved for someone else more qualified. Maybe this was just another failure. And—these weren’t true. They couldn’t be true. Conflicting ideas of guilt and doubt and happiness and victory clashed and intensified the pain she was feeling in every part of her body. Why did she do that? Why did she have to do that? She could feel someone’s touch caress her shoulders, someone’s voice shouting out her name—only barely able to reach her through the static that had been forming and crescendoing in volume.

She couldn’t tell who it was. Celia didn’t care right now. The pain overwhelmed her senses as she fell into the dark for some amount of time impossible to gauge. And the thoughts of the void gazed at her endlessly, hounding her for an answer to a simple question of one word and no longer.

Why?