So this comes from an original story idea I had, that never happened. Also where the idea of rewrites for my Undertale Multiverse came from.
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Running. I have to save him. Keep him safe. They'll kill us both if they catch us. Please, God... Anyone, save Setchi. The scent of pine fills my nose, along with the scent of fear. I squeeze Setchi's hand tighter. I need to keep him safe from the humans, but I can't use my fire to attack. There's too much here that could burn, and that would weaken Setchi.
"Hurry! This way!" I pull Setchi towards a hidden path. "We can make it! Our friends are waiting for us in the Dark Kingdom; we just have to make it to a boat!" I look towards the split in the path. One takes us to the docks, but I can hear more hunters coming from that direction. Our only hope is the hill. I gulp before starting to run, still tightly holding onto Setchi. I won't let anything hurt him.
"Anshul! We can't make it to a boat!" I don't turn around. I don't want to see his expression. "They've blocked all the ways to the docks, and you can't touch the water!"
I turn my head to see Setchi. He looks so heartbroken. I know I'll die here, but that doesn't mean he has to as well. Magma tears burn my eyes as I keep running with him, and I try to give him a comforting smile. As long as he is safe, everything will be okay.
"Then you swim. Setchi, you have to leave me if you want to live." I don't dare turn to see his expression again. I hear his sharp gasp as he picks up his speed. I cut him off before he can argue, "Setchi, you'll be killed in the most dehumanized way. You know what they do to hybrids!" I glance back at the hill, we're almost to the top. The sound of gunshots and yelling reaches us, and I turn around to see hunters at the split in the trail.
"I don't care, Anshul! I'm not human, and I'm not leaving you behind!" I grit my teeth. I love Setchi, so much. I can't lose him. Please, he needs to just swim away when we get to the top. Setchi grips my hand tightly, "Anshul! We promised not to finish this life without each other!" He doesn't need to say it, but the fear is still there. The fear that this is our last reincarnation without the other. "We are going to make it to the Dark Kingdom, get married, and explore the Mainland for the rest of our lives!" His inky tears fall from his cerulean eyes. I don't want him to die, I don't want to either... But it's him or me.
And I chose him over me.
"You don't understand, Setchi! I'm dying, one way or another, but you have a chance to live. You'll find me in the next life, okay?" Lies. "I promise!" I can't promise this. "If I jump, I'll harden into obsidian and drown. If I get caught, they'll douse me. You have to live, for both of us."
I stop running to take off Setchi's cloak. Quickly stripping him of anything that would make swimming harder, he'll need all the strength he has left to swim the twenty-five miles to the island of the Dark Kingdom. I quickly kiss his forehead before scooping him up and sprinting up the rest of the hill. Once we make it up there, I set Setchi down before looking at the cliff. It's not too far where it would kill him, but I know that it's still deep. I turn to see Setchi writing one last entry in the journal. The hunters are drawing closer. All because hybrids and other races can't love each other. It disgusts me, the laws of the Human Kingdom. As well as the journal, so many maps. So many ways humans can hurt the other Kingdoms. I take a breath as a plan forms in my head.
"Okay," Setchi's head snaps up to me, "you said we won't finish this life without getting married, right?" He nods and I pull two simple wedding bands out of my pocket. I bought them from the jewelry vendor back in town. "Then let's make this quick. Do you take me to be your husband for the rest of this life?" A nod, "I do too." I give him my ring before sliding on his. He slides on mine and I give him a quick kiss. "I won't let go if that's what you wish. So let's jump together, okay?" He nods. I cup his face for the last time with a sad smile. I hope this isn't my last life with him. He leans into the touch.
"I'll always be at your side. I promise to never let go of you." I frown. I'm sorry, love. But I am determined to have you live. He moves to hold my hand after throwing the journal as far as he could. "I'm ready." The sound of guns clicking and crossbows being pulled back makes me turn around before pulling Setchi.
"Jump!"
He squeezes my hand as we jump into the water. It burns so much! I look down to see my body starting to turn to obsidian, and quickly try to shake Setchi's hand out of mine. I don't want him to drown! Not like this! It burns so badly, and I can't feel my legs. The water is so cold against my magma and it's making the process quicker. Setchi squeezes my hand even tighter, causing me to look at him. Please Love, just let go. He smiles sadly at me before hugging me tightly. I can barely move. It hurts so much. If we are drowning this way, then I won't let anything touch him. I hold him closer. I want to scream. To yell. To breathe. To say his name. My mouth won't open, and I can barely see out of my left eye. Then, it's quiet...
The old drawing, what's left of it anyway, makes me conscious of our lives we had. I gently trace the black inked lines that make up the drawing of Umi, or my first life. That was five lifetimes ago. I stare in confusion at the other people besides me and Mizu in the drawing. Were those friends? Family? I don't really remember. How interesting that I was once the daughter of a chief for a water tribe from the Mainland, yet in this lifetime I am a fire-human hybrid. I wonder if the white scar across my back is from her death. What about Kaze's, my second life, death? I flip through the pages to Kaze's page; he came from the Air Kingdom. I stare at what used to be my face. Mizu was Kagami from the Plant Kingdom. I think this was the lifetime that the human hunters actually got us. Maybe this was the life I got the arrow scar on my chest.
I know my next life well. He was the firstborn of the Fire Kingdom. Though he had left his family and his kingdom to be with him. Setchi. That was Mizu; he remembers that death well. The death was painful and agonizingly slow. It was smothering and freezing. I only wish that Mizu had let me go before I solidified around his hand. I sigh as I continue scanning in the journal. So many memories are there. This journal is the only way I know for sure that we've met before. I close the journal tenderly; so I don't split the pages. It has endured six lifetimes, and I'll never understand how it's found us all those times.
Suddenly, a voice rings out, "Kaen, are you in here?" I turn to the doorway.
"Mizu, is that you?" I only get a chuckle in return. "What are you doing up still?" I don't hear him come closer, but he appears from behind me.
"I was looking for my flame. Do you possibly know where I would find Kaen?" Mizu circles my chair with a mischievous smile. Oh boy, he's doing it again. "He's very handsome. Crimson red and orange flames usually frame his face as his hair. It always curls at the tail end, and smaller flames always seem to fly from them. Deep obsidian eyes and long lashes. Tanned skin with soft lips. A scar on his cheek, too. That's what he looks like." Mizu bends down to make eye contact with me and my cheeks flush. "Would you perhaps know where I can find him?"
I laugh quietly as I try to hide my face. "Mizu! Why must you do this?" He only laughs before sitting in my lap. I notice his gaze stuck to the journal. "Mizu... Do you remember our lives together?" He leans into my side, tracing the scar going from my hip to my shoulder. He lets out a soft hum, it's unclear to me what it means. "I remember some. You?"
"Some." He looks at nothing for a moment. "I remember... Leaving the palace. No one in my 'family' noticed. They didn't care, except the librarian. I remember making friends with different kingdoms and tribes all around the map. I remember-"
"I remember you saving me," he looks up at me. We stare at each other in comfortable silence. "I remember you didn't know how to use a pistol. So you hit the soldier upside the head to save me. I remember you making coffee for the first time. I remember meeting our friends, and I remember fishing with you."
He smiles at me before his expression changes to melancholy. I barely remember the emotions of watching a group of people die in front of me. I almost remember our deaths. I know there was an ambush, but after that, I don't remember anything else. Just because I was of the water race and Mizu was human. It was taboo or forbidden, I forget which, for two separate races to love each other. Well, the hybrids never minded, but the pure humans? They hated it. The next life...
"I remember you almost flew into me. That's how we met. Remember?" I nod. "I was searching the Plant kingdom for those rare plants I saw from the journal, and you nearly hit me."
"I hit a tree instead," I grumble sourly, and Mizu laughs.
"Yes, you did... That's all I remember from that life."
I don't need to look at his face to know that it wasn't true. Sometimes he speaks in his sleep, and it makes me want to ask. What has happened that makes you wake up screaming and crying? Why do you cry out about wings and nectar? What do you mean when you mumble about blood money? I want to ask, but I won't. Just looking at Mizu after a nightmare like that, I don't want to scare him more.
"I remember in the next life; I left the Fire Kingdom to follow you." Mizu chuckles at the memory. "I remember finally being challenged by a human-demon hybrid. I remember how you teased me and made me feel more like a person than a prince. I remember you liked me for who I was and not my title. I can remember how it surprised me that you didn't want power, wealth, or fame. You just wanted to complete the map of the mainland." Mizu laughs loudly.
"And I remember an idiot fire elemental following me everywhere I went. He was such an idiot at times." I let out an indignant squawk. An idiot?! I'm not the one who thought it was a good idea to try and squeeze into every hole in a cave to see if there was any ore to sell. I hold in my laughter as the memory comes back to me. "And I remember the cliff. Running. And that I swore to never let go of you."
Tears fill his eyes as he squeezes my hand, and silence fills the room. We both remember it. How could we not? It was one of the lasting memories we would never forget over the lifetimes. I bring a hand to the left corner of my mouth. Black scars like cracks branching off and up, stopping just under my eye. Mizu's blue lips from the freezing ocean water. We sit there, in our thoughts for a few minutes.
"Hey." I look at Mizu. "I never let go." I only hold him closer to my chest.
"No. No, you didn't, and I'm so thankful that you didn't. It was so scary, and I'm thankful that you were able to hold me until the end." He lets out a soft breath.
"Hey." I look down at him. "Promise that we won't leave the Dark Kingdom? It's safe here. No humans here to judge, hate, or hurt us." I smile softly.
"I promise."
Liar.