WC: 3361
When taking down the final Ravager, Etho is faced with his own crossroads.
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Ironically--in more ways than one--the Ravager was still in the castle courtyard when they found it.
Tango, Impulse, and Etho had all decided that each minute they spent in the throne room discussing a plan was another minute the Ravager was loose. It was better to make a plan up once they tracked it down--that way, they could keep an eye on it while figuring out what to do next.
The amount of damage in the courtyard had increased by a sizable amount. The Ravager had moved on from the leaky fountain to raze the nearby benches and crush the tediously-pruned bushes underhoof.
If they ever got out of this, Etho felt bad for whoever had to repair the whole Keep after all this destruction. It wasn't going to be an easy job.
As he scanned the broken courtyard, Etho couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic--could you call bad memories nostalgic? This is where this whole mess had started for him, where he'd accepted that stupid dare the guard had given him. That had been a little over a month ago now...time flies.
It seemed so petty in hindsight...but had he really changed that much? He was complaining over the fact that, when this last Ravager was gone, no one would know about what really happened behind the scenes, anyway, for god's sake.
Petty as ever--though he didn't want to admit it. He might have changed Impulse and Tango's minds about their fight being long overdue back in the throne room, but he sure didn't change his own.
The trio was crouched behind one of the larger pieces of rubble, which provided a hiding spot close enough to the Ravager that they could watch it without it noticing them. So, while Tango and Impulse started conjuring up a plan to kill it, Etho sized up what they were actually up against.
It was as big as the Fortress Ravager, if not more. Its hide looked leathery and rough and was nicked and scratched from its recent breakout of the old dungeon. Half of its right horn was missing, like it had broken off--probably from ramming its head against the obsidian walls constantly.
Other than that, it looked like the rest of the Ravagers had--at least, physically it did. But its mannerisms seemed more...extreme. Every exhale was forced out in a breathy grunt, and it rammed its head into the wooden benches with such gusto that Etho really didn't want to see what it could do to a person.
Everything it did, it did with such unnecessary extra force. Etho could see why Tango had gotten it riled up so easily. It was like the other Ravagers in that sense--once it locked onto its target, it wouldn't stop until that target was gone.
But you didn't want this particular Ravager after you.
"You trapped the worst one out of the bunch, Tango," Etho muttered under his breath, ducking back down behind the rubble as the Ravager turned its head side to side.
"Three years ramming its head in the Dungeon didn't help, either," Tango agreed, though he looked preoccupied with coming up with a plan with Impulse.
Or, rather, arguing with Impulse over said plan.
Impulse was shaking his head vehemently, strongly disagreeing with whatever Tango was saying. "No. I'm not going to let you lead the chase here. I don't trust you to do the job properly."
"Can't you just trust me for once?" Tango whisper-yelled.
"Knowing you, you'd just screw everything up again," Impulse countered.
"That's not fair!" Tango's voice had escalated to an almost normal volume now. Etho nudged him pointedly to try and make him calm down, but that just made him turn to Etho and drag him into the fight.
"Well, what do you think, Etho?"
"We don't have time for this," Etho hissed, doing his best to keep his voice low. "You two need to stop fighting, I thought we went over this. We lead the Ravager over to the Crossroads and trick it into falling into the lava below. For fuck's sake, I'll lead the chase. I've done this before."
"What do I do?" Tango piped in.
"You are going to stay off to the side and not interfere," Impulse said.
Before Etho could stop either of them, Tango started protesting loudly while Impulse countered him with his own arguments. Etho rolled his eyes, trying to focus on the plan and tune out the quarreling as best as he could.
When the din died down a moment later, though, Etho glanced at the two again, letting out an irritated sigh. "Well, did you two come to an agreement? It's about time."
Impulse shook his head quickly, eyes wide, staring at something behind Etho. Etho glanced over his shoulder and was met with two red eyes glaring straight at him from less than a few meters away.
The Ravager had switched its attention from destroying the courtyard to them, attracted by the noise Tango and Impulse were making. Amidst the arguing, they'd all completely forgotten about it.
"Ah, shit."
Etho moved to the left slowly, keeping his eyes on the Ravager the whole time. It returned his gaze, not paying attention to Tango or Impulse. Without looking at them, Etho gestured for the other two to get out from behind the rubble.
The Ravager's breaths were coming out in faster huffs now, but it didn't make a move. Etho chose to interpret that as it standing down and not preparing for a charge attack, but he knew it was probably the second option.
"What are you doing?" Tango muttered under his breath.
"I'm trying to get us out of this mess," Etho hissed back. "Your arguing was the reason why the Ravager found us in the first place. If you had just stayed quiet like we'd planned, we wouldn't be here."
"But--"
At the sound of Tango's voice, the Ravager shifted its attention abruptly to him. It let out a loud snarl as it took in him and Impulse, and Etho remembered what he'd noticed about the Ravagers' behavior before:
Once it locked onto its target, it wouldn't stop until that target was gone.
And it looked like this one was still locked onto Tango, even after all these years. He had been the one who trapped it in the dungeon before, and it looked like the Ravager still remembered him.
Etho dashed for Impulse and Tango, grabbing each of them by the hand and yanking them as far away from the Ravager as possible. Not a moment too soon--as soon as they started running, the Ravager began to charge after them, roaring in outrage upon seeing Tango again.
As they ran, Etho tried to hurriedly explain what was happening. "That Ravager is still after you, Tango. From when you lured it the first time, when you trapped it in the old dungeon."
Tango tripped over smaller bits of the walkways that had broken off due to the Ravager, but he did his best to keep up with Etho. "Wait--it's still mad at me, even three years later?"
"It's hard to forgive you easily," Impulse muttered.
"You, shut up!"
"Ravagers lock onto specific targets," Etho explained, ignoring the arguments now. "They won't stop until that target is gone. And, to be fair, Tango, you did trap that Ravager in an obsidian room for a long time."
Tango was silent for a bit as he thought about it. "That works out in our favor, though."
Against his better judgment, Impulse was curious. "What d'you mean?"
"You said it's locked onto me, right? So it'll keep chasing us. It'll follow me wherever I go now that it's loose, so we can just lead it to the Crossroads easily."
Etho immediately switched gears and followed the road he knew led straight to the Crossroads. "Alright. Well, let's head to those bridges."
Tango couldn't resist shooting a smug smirk towards Impulse. "Looks like I'm leading the frontal charge now."
Impulse glared at him, but he didn't protest. Tango was making this chase easier for all of them.
As if on cue, a roar echoed across the houses, and the Ravager barrelled into the lane they were running down. Etho let go of Tango and Impulse's hands, putting on as much speed as he could as the four wound around corners, narrow streets, and destroyed sectors to reach the Crossroads.
It didn't take long to reach the Blackstone bridges again. They were able to cut through some of the sectors that had been hit pretty hard by the Ravager attack, stepping over rubble that used to make houses and shops before leaving the Keep and entering the Crossroads.
The Ravager behind them wasn't relenting, which was good. If this was going to work, it needed to stay mad at Tango--which, granted, wasn't that hard, anyway.
From above, the Crossroads looked somewhat like a maze of bridges. There were multiple intersections at random points, connecting bridges at multiple points. It reminded Etho of how the Fortress Ravager had chased him, Scar, and X around and around the towers.
Then, the Ravager charged onto the bridges, its hooves pounding against the Blackstone and making the chains holding the bridges rattle. Etho stumbled back and nearly backpedaled off the bridge, grabbing Impulse's arm to steady himself.
...Well, this just got a lot harder. Now they had to make sure they kept their balance while running from the Ravager, too.
Instead of immediately chasing after them, the Ravager paused at the Crossroads's entrance, blocking the way they'd come from. Etho could hear its breathing, even though he was a little ways away. It seemed to be preparing for another charge forward, which would make the bridges rattle even more than they would be when it was just running after them.
"It's fine," Tango muttered under his breath, as if sensing Etho's nervousness. "This works out in our favor, too. We can make it shake the bridges more, which will throw it off balance."
"But it'll also throw us off-balance," Etho noted.
"We're smaller targets." Tango tapped the Blackstone they were standing on with one foot. "The Ravager will have a hard time staying centered on the bridges, while we'll have more space to run around. Its heavy footfalls are going to cause more problems for itself than it will for us."
"Okay," Impulse said. "We still need to lead it to a spot on the Crossroads where it won't have time to stop itself before it runs right off the edge. Somewhere with a shorter bridge--which isn't ideal for us, but it'll do the job."
Etho noticed the slight catch in Impulse's voice when he said "us", and he managed a smile. They were cooperating and working as a team now--albeit only somewhat, but it was a start.
The conversation was interrupted by the Ravager roaring and charging forward, horns first. Its hooves struck the bridge and sent Tango, Impulse, and Etho wobbling unsteadily.
But, as he steadied himself, Etho noticed that the Ravager did a little stumble itself. And, when it stepped forward again, there was less force behind it.
Tango had been right, again--the trembling bridges were going to cause the Ravager more trouble than it would for them.
"Time to run," Etho muttered, sprinting forward. Tango followed him, grabbing a still-unsteady Impulse by the hand and helping him up. Etho felt another small smile seeing them work with each other--he hadn't realized how much he'd missed seeing it.
While they looked for a bridge they could use to lure the Ravager, the three stalled by running around the bridges, using the maze-like layout as a way to confuse the Ravager--like they had in the Fortress.
The Ravager may have had brute force, but it lacked brains--instead of trying to find a shortcut to cut them off, it just followed the same path they had run across. Since it didn't try to cut them off, the space between the trio and the Ravager lengthened, giving them more leeway.
All the while, they had to make sure they were running in the center of the bridges to not fall off the sides themselves. The chains were rattling wildly, sending the bridges swaying back and forth, but they were strong enough to hold their combined weights, even with one of the people on the bridge being a huge monster.
As they looped around a few bridges again, something caught Impulse's eyes. He pointed to a bridge near the Labyrinth, to a walkway that connected two longer bridges. It was like the middle section in an 8--the bridges on either side formed a rectangle before branching off into longer bridges again.
"There. That'll do."
Tango let go of Impulse's hand and started forward. "Okay. I'll go over there and lure this guy over the side, then--"
Impulse quickly stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder before he could take another step.
"Woah, woah. What do you mean, you're going to lure the Ravager off the edge?"
Tango shrugged Impulse's hand off. "Impulse, this beast is chasing me. Not you. Not Etho. It's only going to follow me. If either of you tries, it's still going to ignore you and follow me."
"Let Etho do it," Impulse insisted. Etho did a double-take as his name was mentioned. "He's the one who killed these last three Ravagers. He'll do it much better than you ever could."
"That's not fair!" Tango said, growing angry with Impulse again. "This is only going to work if I'm the one who's going to do it. You let the Ravager chase me all the way here, why stop me now?"
"That's different," Impulse snapped. "I don't trust you to do the job properly! How many times have you messed up in the past three years? We've had to clean up after your messes time after time, and now you want to step up when this is the worst time you could interfere!"
All the fight seemed to drain out of Tango as he fell silent, looking down.
Etho knew Impulse had gone too far, but that didn't matter right now. He glanced over his shoulder to see the Ravager nearing again. The space between them and it that was created earlier was closing quickly.
"Guys," he said, nudging Impulse. "It's coming. If we're going to do this, we have to do this soon."
"You do it, Etho," Impulse said. "Out of the three of us, you're the only one who can."
Etho expected to hear Tango protest loudly again, but all that followed was tense silence.
The Ravager was less than a dozen meters away, but time seemed to slow for Etho as he tried to figure out what to do. He could let Tango do it, which would work out, despite Impulse's complaints. The Ravager would chase Tango, it was a guarantee. Tango could easily trick it into running off the edge, no problem.
But, on the other hand...
This was Etho's chance to be seen for what he was doing. To finally get credit for everything he'd done in the last month. This Ravager had destroyed most of the Keep, and people knew about it. The secret was out. If they found out that Etho had been the one who killed it...
...Well, what would happen? What would he get out of people knowing? Thanks or appreciation? Satisfaction knowing that people, outside of the Wanderers and Tango, knew what he'd done? Was it worth it, just for that?
Etho remembered what he'd said to Impulse and Tango back in the throne room, when he was scolding them for pettily arguing when there were bigger things at stake.
Is a grudge between you guys that happened three years ago really worth all that?
Is wanting validation for your actions really worth more than the lives of hundreds, including your old friends?
Etho looked up at Impulse, who was staring at him expectantly, then at Tango, who'd finally lifted his head. "I--"
"Please, Etho," Impulse urged. "You can do it."
Etho shifted his gaze over to Tango. The king studied him quietly, and by the way he was looking at Etho, he knew what he was thinking. They'd known each other for years, and Tango knew how he acted.
"You can't always be the hero, Etho," he said. "It's my mess. Let me clean it up."
Etho looked between his two friends, torn.
Impulse wanted him to kill the Ravager himself, unconsciously fueling his want to be validated for all the other Ravagers he'd killed.
But...Tango.
He'd been alone in the Keep ever since Etho joined Impulse and the Wanderers--hell, he'd been alone ever since the group had split up. The only problem was, he had never reunited with someone else from the group, like Impulse and Etho had. He'd been alone and stayed alone.
Is it really worth more than all that?
He had to choose Impulse or Tango here, again. Just like he had back in that little secret room hidden away in the Forest, when Impulse had offered for him to join the Wanderers, a month ago. Go back with Tango, or continue forward with Impulse.
It was his own personal Crossroads.
And in the mere seconds he had left to make a decision, Etho turned to Tango and nodded. "Go. It's your fight."
Tango spared a quick grateful glance over his shoulder before running ahead to the bridge.
His predictions were right--the Ravager didn't even spare Impulse or Etho a second glance. It was so enraged with Tango luring and trapping it that it didn't notice it was falling right into another trap. It just followed Tango blindly.
Tango turned to face the Ravager as it barrelled towards him. It roared in triumph, seemingly having finally trapped the king.
And at the very last moment, Tango threw himself to the right, landing safely on the connected bridge next to him as the Ravager kept on charging.
Etho could see the realization in its eyes as it ran straight off the edge, but it was too late. It plummeted down, down, right into the searing hot lava far below the Crossroads.
The low hiss that it made on impact reached the three people safe on the Blackstone bridges above.
For a long moment, no one spoke. Etho didn't think the reality of what just happened had fully sunk in for any of them--they were all trying to process it.
The Ravagers, this time for real, were all gone now.
"So..." Tango's voice cut through the silence abruptly. "What happens now?"
Etho's feelings were such a jumble it was hard to think straight. He was ecstatic that all the Ravagers were gone, but...he was also disappointed that, in the end, he hadn't been the one to deal the final blow. It was Tango. And he felt guilty for still wanting credit after all this, which made him angry at himself.
What happens now? Tango had asked.
Did anyone fully know? When the Wanderers were celebrating, back after they'd killed the Fortress Ravager, they'd talked about what they would do after all this. But...Etho didn't have a clue. His old friend group was back together, but the tension between them hadn't eased. Tango and Impulse were still arguing, and Etho didn't think that would change any time soon.
Would things go back to normal? What was this new normal, now that a threat posed to the Dungeon for years was gone?
"...I don't know," Etho said out loud, his voice barely above a whisper.
Impulse hadn't spoken yet, but he walked over to Etho and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder--just like he had back in the Ruins, when Etho was talking to him while the rest of the Wanderers were celebrating.
Impulse gestured for Tango to come closer to them, and when the king obliged, Impulse placed his other hand on his shoulder. Tango let out a small breathy laugh, but he sidled closer to Impulse and draped his own arm over Impulse's.
"Well, whatever happens, we'll get through it together."
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WOOOOOO this one was hard to write. It's the climax of the story, so hopefully I didn't disappoint!! This is always one of the hardest parts to write for me as every moment in the story has led up to this part
We're almost done! It's hard to believe. One more chapter to write after this! I know I say this every time I post a new chapter, but thank you guys for sticking around. Seriously. All the comments I've gotten on this story mean so much, so thank you <3
Thanks for reading!