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Of all the places for Veronyka to take her, Vamp hadn't expected the literal moon. Yet here she was, standing on a strange white ground, the endless expanse of space above and, all around, the surface of the very orb that brightened the night sky (outside of Heritage Found, anyway). There were large, strange bugs on the moon. And blue sabotenders that had her girlfriend's fur standing on end. And the expected stone-based creatures. There were also, Vamp had been told, bunnies. Not shetona or viera, Veronyka had been quick to explain, but another creature entirely, called loporrits. Vamp had yet to see them, but she would take her girlfriend's word for it.
Now, though, Veronyka suddenly looked away, ears twitching, gaze focused on a spot some distance away.
"What is it?" Vamp asked. "An elite mark?" For she had seen that before, her girlfriend staring into the distance and mouthing something before grabbing her tomephone and relaying information to the groups of hunters that she usually ran with.
"Can't you see it?" said Veronyka, looking back at her girlfriend. Vamp frowned, squinting at the spot that Veronyka had been looking at, and shook her head.
"No," said Vamp. She looked back at Veronyka, then to the pouch on her hip where the miqo'te kept all manner of things. "Your pouch is glowing, though."
"Huh?" Veronyka looked down, eyes wide, and pawed at the pouch until she pulled out a stone that glowed orange in her hand. "The key? But then wh-" Her words cut off, eyes going oddly blank, ears quivering at words heard only by her.
"Kitten? Veronyka?" Vamp prodded, grabbing Veronyka's hand in her concern. "What's wrong, what-"
But then Veronyka was walking with purpose, eyes still fixed on a spot in the distance. Vamp followed, still clinging to Veronyka's hand, confused as much as she was worried now. Was this one of those warrior of light things that Veronyka didn't talk much about? She was about to find out, she realised, as the space in front of them rippled and began to change. A sensation surrounded the pair, one akin to teleportation magic, and then, to Vamp's surprise, she found a different moon ground beneath her booted feet. Though this moon, curiously enough, was red.
"Wherever we are, I approve of the colour," said Vamp, dragging the toe of her boot through the sandy material underfoot. Veronyka blinked, looking at Vamp, and a look of relief washed over her face.
"Oh," said Veronyka. "You followed me here."
"I held your hand, yes," said Vamp. "What magic was that, exactly?"
"I have no idea," said Veronyka. Vamp huffed a laugh. Helpful.
"Aren't you the mage, though?" said Vamp.
"Was," Veronyka corrected her. "There's a reason I dropped it, and not just because I had too much levin in my aether."
"Well, do you at least know where we are?" said Vamp.
"Oh, that's easy," said Veronyka with a grin. "We're in the void, it used to be the Thirteenth. I haven't been here since I found out I was pregnant, but then I heard the sounds of battle and the key started glowing and I heard an Echo vision and something about Azem and then I saw an orange path reaching for a portal and I took it and now here we are."
"I saw none of that," said Vamp, frowning. "All I saw was the very fabric of reality rippling in front of us and then we were here. We can get back, can't we?"
"Yeah, the portal's just over there," said Veronyka, gesturing some space behind them. Vamp looked but, again, saw nothing. Nothing but an awful lot of what she now knew to be voidsent.
"I'll have to take your word for it," said Vamp. There were times when she dearly wished that her beloved kitten had the magic know-how of her echo from the ninth. This was one of those times.
Before Veronyka could say any more, a figure in white sprinted towards them, diving over the pair to send spectral blades clashing down on a particularly fearsome foe that had come just a little too close to them.
"Zero?" said Veronyka as the newcomer straightened up. The stranger, a feminine figure with short black hair streaked with deep blue and eyes as grey as stone, looked at Veronyka, confused, and then seemed to recognise her.
"The pregnant one," said Zero, to which Vamp's lip curved up in a smile.
"Well, not pregnant anymore," said Veronyka. "I've had my babies, they're being looked after by dad while I go adventuring. But you look... different."
"As do you," said Zero, looking at Veronyka's bared arms. "I don't recall your lightning scars being so... purple."
"Oh, yeah, I got blasted by lightning again," said Veronyka, as if it were no big deal. Zero arched an eyebrow at her words. "I'm fine now, though! Just hurt a bit for a while. But what about you? Where's your scythe?"
"I-" Zero began, but was cut off by a deep, gravely voice and a large greatsword scything through the air followed by a blast of dark energy.
"Can your reunion not wait until after this latest threat has been dealt with?" the voice boomed. Zero blinked, then nodded.
"Of course," said Zero, and, as she turned, dark energy enveloped her. "Though I may need a weapon better suited to taking on multiple foes at once." The dark energy soon dissipated, showing Zero clad now in the darker clothing that Veronyka clearly recognised, complete with hat which she pulled down over her eyes.
"Right behind you!" said Veronyka, drawing her bow from her back. Vamp, belatedly, did the same with the black mage staff that she was growing increasingly familiar with.
As wave after wave of enemies fell to sweeping greatsword and scythe and raining arrows and blasts of magic from both mages, Vamp began to wonder why she had never teamed up with another fighter before. Veronyka could put down or at least weaken foes while Vamp readied her spells, which was usually enough to finish them off.
"This takes me back," said Veronyka, smiling as the last voidsent fell. Vamp looked to her, a smile on her own face.
"How so?" Vamp asked, giving a brief glance to ensure that there were no more enemies coming.
"Lyse and I used to fight like this when we were adventuring," said Veronyka. "Only she was better at the up-close fighting. We still do that, just not as much as before."
"I imagine that not much adventuring can be done, when one has four small children," said Golbez, surprising Veronyka into flinching back.
"So, you're a good guy now?" said Veronyka. "Since when?"
"Since your friends showed me another way," said Golbez. "For the record, I would never have stolen your young. I do have some morals left."
"Good," said Veronyka. But then her ears twitched, a powerful mark sensed as a great figure with tentacles crossing their chest appeared where the voidsent had fallen. "Uh, we've got company."
"Indeed we do," said Golbez, readying his sword, facing in the direction of another wave of smaller voidsent. "If you would take care of the bigger threat, Zero and I shall ensure that none of the smaller foes make it through to your realm."
"Sure thing," said Veronyka, nodding. "Vamp, you coming?"
After the fell beast Enuo had been sealed within a glowing purple crystal that reminded Vamp an awful lot of electrope (in colour, if nothing else), the group walked to a peak upon which a winged voidsent was waiting.
"I should check in with the members of my domain," said Zero, dressed once more in her white paladin attire. "Ensure that all is well there, ask if there have been any other weakenings in the veil."
"Can I look around while you do that?" Veronyka asked, ears twitching, tail swishing behind her. "Since I never got to go here last time."
"Of course," said Zero with a nod. "Feel free to look around."
"As the denizens of Zero's domain may still see me as a threat, I shall wait outside," said Golbez. Zero gave him an attempt at a smile, just a slight upward twitch of her lips.
"That would be wise, I agree," said Zero. That said, the group mounted the winged creatures. Vamp clung tightly to her own, looking around at the destroyed realm that they had wandered into.
"Did any of the Arcadion fighters use voidsent feral souls?" Veronyka asked upon landing. Vamp frowned, thinking for a few moments.
"A few did, yes," said Vamp. "Though it was discouraged, as using voidsent feral souls could speed up retirement. Or, to speak plainly, the deterioration of one's soul."
"That doesn't surprise me," said Zero. "Voidsent consume each other, yet in doing so, they take on parts of the soul that was consumed. It can lead to mental instability." Golbez shifted uncomfortably, looking away, arms crossed over his chest.
"Wait, didn't your lover become a voidsent?" Veronyka asked Golbez.
"Yes," said Golbez. "As did I, in time. Yet, though I was sorely tempted, I could never bring myself to... consume him."
"But it's so romantic," said Veronyka, ears drooping. "Vamp, if I died, would you consume me? If we were both voidsent?"
"In a heartbeat," Vamp said simply. Veronyka turned back to Golbez.
"See?" said Veronyka. Golbez sighed deeply.
"Leave me," said Golbez. "Go explore Zero's domain. I shall stand guard here."
"He likes his space," said Zero, walking towards the large destroyed statue at the heart of her domain.
"I don't think it's healthy to mourn someone for that long," said Vamp once they were out of earshot of Golbez.
"From what I've heard, his grief over his lost companion led him to letting Igeyhorm turn the thirteenth into the void," said Veronyka. "He also donned his armour, took his name, essentially tried to become the hero that the thirteenth needed when his lover, the original hero, was lost. Then he turned villain for a bit and now he's good apparently."
"Zelda can be quite convincing, I suppose," said Vamp.
"She is quite the woman," Zero agreed, and this time, the smile reached her eyes. "Feel free to wander, but try not to defeat any of the voidsent that call this place home. They are my denizens, under my protection. While you are here, you will also share that protection."
"Noted," said Vamp. "Thank you, Zero. I'll make sure that she stays out of trouble."
"Hey, I'm not that bad," said Veronyka. Vamp only kissed her cheek, smiling.
The ruins that comprised Zero's domain reminded Vamp, just a little bit, of the destroyed ruins right on the edge of Heritage Found, where land met sea. She didn't have much experience with them, of course, not enjoying venturing far beyond the comfort of Solution Nine. But those ruins were nothing compared to a land lost to time itself, lost to a flood of darkness unleashed by the poor decisions of a grieving man.
"All this, because his companion died," Vamp mused.
"He was tricked," said Veronyka. "Or so I was told by my sister. Igeyhorm promised him that if he allowed her to do what she would with the thirteenth, he might see his lost lover again. And he accepted because he was desperate, even as his lover's corrupted soul lay within a crystal."
"I suppose," Vamp allowed. Veronyka looked at her, some deep emotion in her eyes that had Vamp stilling.
"When I lost Minfilia," said Veronyka, "I would have given anything to get her back. And if an Ascian had said the right words then, if they'd promised that I could get her back, I would have. In a heartbeat." She blinked tears from her eyes. "Of all the villains I've faced, Golbez is the one I most understand. And I didn't even fight him!"
"Oh, kitten," said Vamp, pulling her girlfriend into her arms. "Nyka." She stroked Veronyka's back, unmindful of the sniffles.
"While I was away from my group, because I split from them to grieve for a while, a primal that could go back in time appeared. Alexander. No relation to Alexandria as far as I know. But if I'd known about that... I would've used it to go back in time, to rewind time, to have her back," Veronyka continued. "The realm is just so, so lucky that I was busy helping the allied societies all over Eorzea at the time. But I had that to pour myself into."
"So Golbez is what you could have become, were things just a little different," said Vamp. Veronyka nodded, still in Vamp's arms. "Then may I say that I am glad that things turned out the way they did." Veronyka sniffled, smiled.
"Me too," said Veronyka. "We don't need a warrior of light becoming a villain, this place is proof of what happens when one does."