[ it starts with a scream.

PERCY!

that voice is keyleth - ringing through the darkness, in desperation - and you see her reach out for something and pull.

you're sitting with the others in the temple of sarenrae that's been built in whitestone. it's still under construction, but you sit with the others and watch, nervewracking, as pike does the rituals for a spell that you've seen done before.

for you, it's watching your sister that breaks your heart.

percy is your friend. losing him - to ripley, even after he came back, after they were all suffering - was a painful final blow, one that shook vox machina to pieces. you've all been broken apart since he was gone, and you've done your best to be strong for the others, but it wrings at your chest, too. you told percy that you were angry with him. that you didn't trust him. and you didn't, because he took something from you - even if he didn't mean to, it didn't matter, he took vex'ahlia and you couldn't stand that he let her get hurt. it feels so long ago, now, looking at percy's cold body on the altar, after you used the newly blessed powers of the raven queen and saw orthax's soul clinging to that gun and swallowing percy whole.

percy is your friend.

percy is your teammate.

you watch vex'ahlia take his residuum, and his raven skull - raven skulls, something thet wo of you have in common, you have so much in fucking common - and you watch her shake as she steps from you and goes to percy.

and she speaks, her voice shaking, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Percy, I don't know if you can hear me, but that day in Syngorn was one of the best moments of my life. And not because of what you think. It wasn't because of my father or the title. It was because of Whitestone. It was because of you. You allowed me to be a part of the thing that you hold dearest. And I was so proud.

But I don't want to be here if you're not.

Whitestone still needs you, darling. I still need you here." and you watch your beloved sister, who loves so deeply, who deserves the best of the world, lean down and kiss percy as he lays perfectly still, and sob, "I should have told you: it's yours.".

and you watch, and your heart swells in your chest, with grief and sorrow and love and you feel some of that fury you've had buried for percy start to crack apart.

vex'ahlia returns to you.

pike next. she uses the power of saraenrae - so warm that it brushes through the entire temple, and it brings a shiver up your spine. a goddess you used to follow, too. you watch like a hawk, like a raven, watching, watching, holding vex's hand in your left, keyleth's in your right.

the ritual glows.

keyleth is last. the two of you look at each other, and you want to say something, but you think - it won't be the same. you can't, you can't fumble around your relationship with percy and fuck this up, percy needs keyleth, and they need percy. and you, you need percy too.

keyleth takes a deep breath, and you join her, and you look down into the face of percival, and keyleth's voice washes over you, too.

"Percy, we had many conversations about life and death, and in many ways, you were my total opposite. But you are also my best friend. Even though I told you that day that I gave you this that we're all going to die and that you can still be saved from yourself, it was clear the journey was far from over, and it still isn't."

a soft, greenish light glows from keyleth's hands, and you look up, as a barrage of crows comes from almost nowhere, melding out of the shadows. they wrap around keyleth's form as she talks, and you love her so fucking much, and she loves percy so fucking much, because you are all a family.

"As much as you might think your journey is over, just because yours might be, ours isn't. And we need you. And I need you."

you look down at percy's face, surrounded by crows, by black feathers

percy is your friend.

percy is your family.

you kneel by his head, and you summon the magic so the wings of your own burst out of your back, and you think, crow that you are, and you drape them over percy's unconscious body like a cloak, and you close your eyes.

you and i have too much in common.

we are family.

you are my brother.

i need you.

we need you.

the crows leave the temple in a flurry of black feathers and golden light, and it's just pike, now. it's pike, her divine form, and divine energy slams into percy's body, and for a moment, no one in the room moves, or breathes, as the light fades and the temple is just a temple. for a brief moment, it feels like nothing will work. vex'ahlia grabs your hand.

and then color starts to flood percy's cheeks.

he doesn't move. he's unconscious - the group seems to breathe all at once, instead, in unison with percy, their percy, their stupid fucking teammate, your stupid fucking brother. your sister sobs pike's name, and pike collapses to the ground in relief, and you get your free hands on percival and push some healing magic into his veins to bring him back to consciousness, back to vox machina.

back to his whitestone. back home.

for the first time in days, you feel relieved. ]