.

warnings: spoilers for the ending

a/n1: so, I know I'm super late for the game, but I just finished this game for the first time a few days ago. and the ending was so depressing, it was too much for me.

a/n2: okay no one needs long author rants, so there you go. I hope you like this fanfiction.

.

"Mom!" Rush barged in the room excitedly, forgetting to close the door after opening it wide. He jumped on his mother's lap, "Mom!" he called out once more.

Marina was roused from her thoughts by the call and turned to her son, pulling him up to sit on her lap. "Oh, yes, Rush? What's wrong?"

"I saw a Fenris on the mountain, and one of them was attacking another one of their own kind. Why are they attacking their friend?" he asked with a quizzical look.

"A Fenris, you say?" She put her hands up her chin as if she's trying to find a piece of information in her brain, "that's probably a Spiritbeast Rin, Rush. They are the only species in the Fenris family that had rather...peculiar rituals."

Rush tilted his head in question, "peculiar rituals?"

Brushing Rush's hair aside, Marina nodded. "A female Spiritbeast Rin will kill their mate right after the baby is born. The baby Spiritbeast Rin is so prone to attacks from other monsters, so the stench of dead Spiritbeast around them would protect them from the attacks. The female would keep the corpse there until the baby Spiritbeast could feed their own."

Rush frowned and tugged at Marina's sleeves, "I don't get it. So the female one killed the male one to protect their baby? So the mommy Spiritbeast doesn't love the daddy Spiritbeast?"

Marina laughed quietly at Rush's words of choice. "I believe that's their own way of showing love, Rush. They're different from us mitra after all. Even the traditions of each races differ, that would only makes sense if the traditions of the monsters are different from us."

Rush sulked and didn't look satisfied at all. He couldn't understand the way they are thinking, why couldn't both of them just work together to protect their baby from harm? That would be a lot better than killing your family.

The Beast's Story

The Last Remnant © Square Enix

This is a work of fanfiction, simply written for the purpose of enjoyment and entertainment. I gain no financial profit from writing this.

"Whoa, look at that! Isn't that a rare? I couldn't remember seeing that kind around here before." Rush stopped and stared at the beast, it was facing the other way so it still hadn't noticed them.

"Indeed, that one is a Spiritbeast Rin. They only live in places with cold temperature so they're usually found on snowy mountains." Pagus stepped forward and explained, "although, it has been a while since I last seen one."

"Wait, that's a Spiritbeast Rin?" Rush raised his eyebrow, he remembered that name from his childhood. Marina told him about them and he remembered it quite well due to their weird rituals. "It's that one where they kill their mate to protect the baby, right?"

"Yeah, that's the one, Rush," Blocter added, tapping roughly on Rush's shoulder. "Wanna have a try at them to test our strength?"

Rush shrugged, "sorry, but can we skip this one out?"

Blocter was startled at the answer. He thought Rush would definitely agree with him and they would get the first strike while the monster hasn't noticed them. Blocter nodded in consideration, he did want to try fighting the beast, but if one of them said no then he guessed it wouldn't be a good option to force his will. He hoped he'd still had the chance to meet it and fight them later day.

"Then, should we make a run for it while it hasn't noticed us?" David suggested.

They nodded in agreement and ran past the said monster.

It shouldn't be too far before they reached their destination, Nagapur, so they started their trip without wasting any more time.

As they were walking down the snowy trail, David approached Rush and said in his calm tone. "This is quite a rare sight seeing you escape from a monster, Rush."

"Heh," Rush grinned, "is that so?"

"If I may know, what's your story with the Spiritbeast Rin?" David peered at Rush, trying to get an answer from him. Even as a question, David's face clearly showed that he wished for an answer eagerly. There's probably nothing different from his usual expression, but after knowing David more than at least half a year, Rush had started noticing little changes in his face.

Rush chuckled and put his hand behind his head, "well, I knew about them when I was about eight...or nine. And at that time, I spent a lot of time thinking how I felt so sorry for the baby if the mommy was hunted down. They would be all alone." Rush flushed a little at his own words, recalling about his past probably made him used his vocabulary at the time too. He cleared his throat, "I guess I was just being reminded of how I felt at that time."

"Ah, I see," David responded. "The adult male did sacrifice himself, after all."

Rush stopped at his track, David noticed right away and peered over his shoulder to check on Rush. "Is something the matter, Rush?"

He kept silent, so David called him out once more.

Rush shook his head and grinned like he just thought of something interesting. "Nah, I was just thinking..."

The flowers are dancing with the wind's rhythm under the moon's lustrous light that night. Even with minimum lighting, walking down the garden wouldn't be an issue as the open roof would send the moonlight straight to the garden.

It was a quiet night; the sound of grass flowing together with the wind could be heard clearly. It's the calm night before setting out early tomorrow morning to Holy Plains. Some of the soldiers had had a nice dinner before heading off to rest. They knew this battle wasn't going to be easy. Many lives would be lost, they knew.

And as for the Marquis of Athlum himself, he couldn't sleep. He tried, but he couldn't keep his eyes closed for more than several minutes. The burden he had to bear, the lives of his soldier.

That's how you could explain why he's walking down the corridor this late at night. He was hoping maybe a bit of fresh air would calm him down.

"Dave?"

A voice startled him, he didn't expect anyone to call him at this hour.

Without even looking at the perpetrator, David already knew who called him. There was only one person he knew who would call him with that nickname. David glanced at the garden and saw Rush sitting on the low wall. His mother's garden was his destination, as it's his favourite place when he had something to contemplate. It seemed Rush had taken a liking to this garden, too, he assumed.

"Havin' nightmares?" Rush asked.

David decided to sit beside him. "No. It's just something has been bothering me and preventing me from sleeping."

"I see." Rush leant his back over and stared at the moon. "Worried about tomorrow, huh?"

David didn't answer the question, he just nodded and sighed. "The Conqueror must be stopped, no matter what. Or we will not even have a future to protect." Despite his words, the intonation he used was full of worry. He had this uneasiness every time the thought of fighting the Conqueror came up. But no―it's not a fear that he's experiencing. More like...a bad premonition.

A sudden slap on the shoulder woke him up from his thoughts. "Don't worry, Dave, I've got your back. Everything will be okay, yeah?"

"Yes, I believe everything will be okay," he curled his lips to a soft smile.

His eyes met Rush's dark brown ones when he glanced over him. There was a long silent between their stare, so he tilted his head and closed the distance between their faces. He could look at Rush's face line forever, it was pleasing. Rush put his hand on top of his, intertwining their fingers together, holding tight with soft brushes against his hand.

"May I?" Rush spoke softly, not breaking the gazes locked.

"By all means," David responded.

Their lips slowly pressed together, eyes closed. Their hands still held together while David put his other hand behind Rush's head, such silky hair, he thought. Rush raised his palms to David's neck and pulled them closer. Their breath mingled together as one, sharing the thin air between them.

The only sound they could hear was the wind whistling and their breath.

They slowly pulled away when they were almost out of breath. Still keeping the distance close, Rush took one more quick peck on David's lips and grinned, "this is ace! Kissing with you is always great." He leaned his back over the fence behind him. Even after pulling away, Rush wasn't taking his hand away from David, and so did the latter. In fact, he held rather tight, not planning to let go.

"Say, Rush, do you have any plan on what you're going to do after all this is done?" David started, "do you have any plan on going back to Eulam, or do you plan on staying here in Athlum?"

"After all this is done?" Rush shrugged. He looked down and was silent for a moment. David took it Rush was thinking. "I don't―I don't know."

Now that they had been together for quite some time, the thought of Rush living somewhere and not Athlum became odd for David now. He wouldn't mind if Rush had said he'd like to stay in Athlum permanently, because he thought Rush had grown comfortable living here. But perhaps he had been wrong all this time?

"Ah, sorry, Dave. It's not like I don't enjoy my stay here. I just..." Rush scratched his neck with his index finger, "I really had no idea."

"I understand. But please, do take this in mind; we would always welcome you and your family in Athlum." David reassured. "But of course, the decision is always yours to make." He was not trying to impose on Rush, but he would certainly be delighted if Rush would linger in Athlum.

Rush snickered, "yeah, thanks a lot, Dave."

David replied with a thin smile. "I'll be waiting in Athlum if you decided to return here."

"I know! It's suicide because...I'm a Remnant, too, right?"

At that moment, the only thing that came to David's mind was realisation.

Everything finally made sense to him; all those moments when Rush unconsciously evaded his eyes for a split second, his tendency of avoiding topic about after this. He also found it quite far-fetched that Rush was the first one who suggested the Conqueror was a Remnant.

Rush knew this was bound to happen; he had planned all this since who-know-when.

He should have taken in all the hints. He was too ignorant. And his insensitivity caused Rush to take this path. If he had confronted Rush with this topic before all this, perhaps there would be another way. David could taken any measure to destroy the Conqueror's plan without sacrificing Rush.

"Dave...sorry! I don't think you're gonna have any Remnants left after this... But, it'll be okay! People will figure how to live without us!"

It was hard getting out words from his mouth. Everything moved too fast, he still couldn't process the information going through his head. What should he say at this moment? Should he stop Rush? Or instead disburdens Rush?

He chose the latter.

"Right," he stuttered. "It'll be alright, Rush. I... We'll get by somehow."

A lie.

It was an outright lie. Who would be convinced by this pathetic lie of his? Tears streamed down his face, the tip of his fingers reddened by gripping too hard on Irina.

Rush turned over to them, his eyes that appeared pale green by the light emanating around him met David's for a moment. That light would be so dazzling if he had not known that light were almost the cause of Rush's action.

"Rush..." he whispered softly, only for himself to hear.

Rush smiled, it was the same one he always had. The usual smile, as if telling them that he would be okay and nothing will change from now on. David would usually reply Rush's smile with another smile, but not this time. He could not.

He could not feel anything from his face, was he crying even harder? What kind of expression did Rush see?

Before he could feel anything, Rush turned into pale green lights and finally disappeared into thin air.

"Rush!"

Was he regretting his action? Or rather, lack in action?

He could've stopped Rush before everything went out of hand, but he did not. If he had pulled Rush back and let Irina help him stopping whatever power the Conqueror still had left, Rush probably wouldn't die. But, he decided it was best to support Rush in what he had decided to do. If Rush said the world would be better without Remnants, David would listen to him. He would fulfil his last promise to Rush.

The world would definitely be in chaos after the Remnants disappeared, but he'd make sure everything return to normal.

Because that's what he promised Rush.

(As if he was that mountain beast who killed their mate to protect their baby, David was the one who caused Rush's death so that this world would be saved.)

Where...am I?

Darkness was all around him. He tried to open his eyes, move his arms, speak, but alas he could do none of them. His consciousness was the only thing alive, his physical form had been reduced to gleaming green light as far as he remembered.

With the way things are in here, he had lost sense of time. It could've been just now that he destroyed the Remnants, or it could've been days, weeks, months, or years, maybe?

He tried to recall all the things that had happened, he feared he would forget every precious memory of when he was on earth. He remembered his parents' faces, they brought him up even though they knew he was a Remnant. They treated him as a family member.

The moment he left Irina in the woods was so vivid, it was a turning point in his life; he decided to protect Irina from any harm since that day.

And he was glad he did well.

He tried to recall deeper, and he encountered another image of a person he definitely missed.

Dave...

This darkness couldn't take away his memories; he created vivid images of his story so not to lost himself in void. He met Emma, who lead him outside the cave, met David, searching clues for Irina, meeting lots of friends from all over the cities.

He reminisced through all those memories one by one, when one of them caught his attention. It's that day when David and he talked about the beast on the mountain.

"Is something the matter, Rush?"

"Nah, I was just thinking... Seeing it from another perspective sure changes thing, huh? I mean, thinking about how the Spiritbeast Rin would kill her mate to protect the baby is really frustrating. But, I guess this isn't about killing, it's about sacrificing, as you had just said."

"I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you mean, Rush."

"Heh, it was never about killing their mate, it's about helping their mate to do their purpose. After all, 'sacrificing' does have a better ring to it than 'killing', yeah?"

It was all the same. Even right now, he sacrificed himself to protect the world from destruction. It was his own will; no one forced him to do this. No one even knew about his plan right before he revealed it himself. It was a decision he made for himself.

"What will you do now?"

A voice suddenly resounded from nowhere. He could recognise that deep voice, he didn't even need to be able to see to know.

"What do you think?" A short silent, "I'm going back. They're waiting for me."

He's waiting for me. Dave said he'll be waiting for me in Athlum anytime I want to return.

But was there any way? Without any concrete form to do anything, having only his mind to work with. This eternal darkness was not something easy to deal with. The best bet was to wait for the Ark to create a real, concrete form for him to live as a Remnant again. And he'll start from there, searching for a way to return.

He did not know, though, how many years it would take.

How many decades it would take.

End.

.

a/n3: I'll leave the ending there and let you continue it with your own imagination, heh.

a/n4: I hope I didn't mess up their characters.

a/n5: last but not least, thank you for reading until the end!

.