Shadow Slave - One Shots

1ˢᵗ time

Sunny looked down on the blade, protruding from his chest.

Yes.

He had died.

2ⁿᵈ time 

Sunny didn't think much of it. He had just arrived on the island and decided to the same place that he had just died.

'Huh?' Sunny stopped in his tracks, mounting Nightmare

He indifferently shrugged and pressed forward.

6ᵗʰ time

Something felt off. The sin of solace, usually cursing sunny and reminding him of his past, was awfully quiet.

"Cat got your tongue?" Sunny smirked, looking at himself.

He didn't respond.

Sunny didn't think much of it and decided to head to the same place where he's died multiple times.

'Huh? Sunny stopped, before even leaving the ship.

Why did it.. feel like.. 

— he's done this before?

Something was definitely wrong. This time, he took a different approach. 

14ᵗʰ time

He watched over the island on the chain breaker.

— Again.

This was his 6th time that he's recalled about his reoccurring loop

His expression had drastically changed.

His lips formed into a thin line.

The flickers of wariness have settled in, and his silence stretched longer.

He watches the others more than he speaks. 

43ʳᵈ time

He has heard Effie's joke about 35 times and couldn't bring himself to laugh at it.

He does not glance around with the same sharp attentiveness.

His eyes are heavier, as if weighed down by something unseen.

He doesn't know what's going on...

— or who's doing this.

78ᵗʰ time

Expressionless.

The weariness is etched deep into his face, but there is no outward sign of distress.

Only an eerie stillness. His onyx eyes are dull, empty like.

When someone speaks, he looks at them like he is staring through them, like he has already seen them many times over.

He just wanted to stop this endless loop.

— but he can't.

******

The first time Nephis saw Wind Flower, she thought she was dreaming.

It had started with a feeling.

Unnoticeable at first, a vague sense of uneasiness that prickled at the edges of her awareness.

But the longer she observed Sunny, the more that feeling turned into certainty.

Something was wrong.

It was in the way he carried himself.

It was too measured, too controlled, as if he knew what was going on.

The way his gaze lingered on things unseen, how his expression would flicker with something unfamiliar before moving on.

As if he were hiding things that no one else could see.

It was not his usual guarded personality, nor the sharp adaptability she had come to know so well.

This was something else.

And that frightened her.

She had never feared Sunny. Respected him, trusted him, even an unknown feeling she has yet to reckognize for him.

But never feared.

Not for her own sake. But now, for the first time, she was afraid of what she did not know.

Of what he wasn't saying.

So when the time came to press forward, Nephis hesitated. The others moved ahead, following the expected path through the ruins, to supposedly save effie and jet, but she lingered.

Just long enough to listen, to the whisper in her gut, the instinct that had kept her alive when all else had failed.

Then, without a word, she turned away from the group.

— and took another path.

The ruins of Aletheia's Tower loomed ahead, stark against the mist-laden sky. The air here felt heavier, thick with a silence that was almost tangible.

As she moved through the desolate landscape, her steps slowed.

It was different here.

Still, untouched, as if the passage of time itself hesitated to intrude.

She passed structures she had not known before, remnants of a place that had long since faded into history.

And then-

There, beneath the sheltering branches of an ancient tree, she found her.

Wind Flower.

The woman slept, her breath undisturbed, as though the world itself bent to her slumber.

Her robes were an archaic shade of azure, traced with white, her dark skin smooth and untouched by the ravages of time. A radiant presence wrapped in a fragile dream.

(shout out to chatgpt for that i can't explain characters too lazy)

Nephis did not move.

The stillness here felt off. She knew, somehow, that this woman was both the key and the lock to the everlasting answer she was looking for.

But before she could step forward, a voice - light as a sigh - broke the silence.

"You have rather poor manners, young lady."

Nephis tensed.

Wind Flower's eyes had not opened, but she was awake.

A long silence stretched between them.

Then, Wind Flower spoke again, her voice carrying the weight of centuries.

"I had expected him to be the first to find me."

Nephis did not need to ask who she meant.She knew who she was talking about.

Something cold curled in her stomach. She had been right. There was something wrong with Sunny. Something she did not yet understand.

Wind Flower tilted her head slightly, her expression unreadable.

"You came looking for an answer. But do you know the right question to ask?"

Nephis exhaled slowly.

"What is this place?"

A ghost of a smile.

"A grave. A sanctuary. A prison. Which one do you wish to hear about first?"

Nephis hesitated, then asked the only question that mattered.

"What's happening to us?"

Wind Flower was silent for a long moment. Then, softly, she said, "You have been here before."

A quiet, dreadful certainty took root in Nephis' mind.

She did not move, did not breathe.

"Again and again, you have come,"

Wind Flower murmured.

"You have fought, you have died, and the world has reset around you. And each time, you have forgotten."

The words did not make sense.

And yet, they did.

Nephis' hands curled into fists. The images flickered at the edge of her mind, unseen, unremembered, but there.

A ghostly weight pressed against her chest, something too vast to grasp.

The loops.

Sunny had known. Of course he had. He must have pieced it together long before any of them.

And yet, he had said nothing.

Why?

Wind Flower studied her, quiet and knowing.

"You have carried this burden before. I wonder... will you carry it again?"

Nephis did not answer. She did not trust her voice.

Because beneath the numb horror, beneath the raw, jagged edges of understanding, was something worse.

It was the knowledge that something so vile, so odious was waiting for them. That she had always been waiting. And that no matter how many times they tried, how many times they died, they had never won.

She swallowed, forcing herself to breathe.

She could not break. Not here. Not now.

Wind Flower smiled. It was not unkind.

"You should go. You are running out of time."

Nephis turned on her heel and left without a word, the weight of the truth pressing against her shoulders like chains.

She descended the ruins in silence, her steps controlled.

The world around her felt heavier now.

Each breath. Each movement. Burdened by the knowledge that should not have been hers to hold.

She had always known there was something wrong.

Now, she knew how wrong.

A loop. A cycle of death and return, stretching beyond memory, beyond reason. A plague was waiting, had always been waiting. And Sunny-

Her grip tightened around the hilt of her sword.

— How long had he known? How long had he carried this alone?

The thought sent a sharp, unfamiliar ache through her chest.

Sunny had never been reckless. He had never been the type to throw himself into impossible battles without a plan.

But she had seen the way he moved these past few days.

The flickers of something worn and broken beneath his usual composure.

The emptiness in his eyes.

He was tired.

Not just tired.

Exhausted, stretched thin, like a blade that had been sharpened so many times it was on the verge of snapping.

The thought of Sunny breaking... terrified her.

As if she didn't have enough bad memories, enslaving him, taking away his chance of freedom.

He had held the responsibility of everyone's life

Knowing this sent a pang of guilt through her.

She reached the base of the ruins and hesitated, the wind biting against her skin.

The Chain Breaker loomed in the distance, its dark hull cutting through the misty horizon.

The others were waiting.

Effie, pregnant and unaware.

Cassie, blind but sharp enough to sense the growing tension.

Jet, watching them all with quiet calculation. And Sunny-

Sunny, who had lied to them.

Or perhaps, he had simply chosen silence.

Nephis exhaled slowly.

She would not speak of this. Not yet.

She needed time to understand. To prepare.

She had carried burdens before. She would carry this one, too.

With one last glance at the ruins, at the place where Wind Flower still slumbered, she turned and walked back toward the ship.

********

She eventually reached the Chain Breaker just as the sun began to dip toward the horizon, covering the sky with rays of orange and violet.

The ship rocked gently against the waves, its silhouette dark and unwavering against the vast emptiness of the ocean.

As she stepped onto the deck, Cassie turned her head slightly in her direction. "You're late."

Effie was seated nearby, her hand resting absentmindedly on her stomach, her usually carefree demeanor subdued.

She had always been perceptive. Too perceptive. "You find anything?"

Nephis hesitated. "No."

The lie tasted strange in her mouth. It wasn't something she was used to, not with them.

But this was not the time.

She felt Sunny's gaze on her before she turned to face him. He was leaning against the railing, arms crossed, expression unreadable.

His onyx eyes met hers, like an abyss.

For the first time, she wondered how many times they had done this.

How many times they had stood on this very deck, in this very moment, looking at each other without truly seeing.

Her stomach twisted.

"You're quiet," Sunny said at last, his voice even.

Nephis didn't answer immediately. She stepped forward, studying his face. Looking for cracks, for something beyond the mask he wore so well.

She found nothing.

"I'm thinking," she said finally.

Sunny's mouth quirked, but there was no humor in it. "Dangerous habit."

A sharp gust of wind swept through the deck, carrying the salt of the sea with it.

The sky darkened, the last traces of sunlight slipping beneath the horizon.

Night was coming.

Nephis exhaled. She would not break. Not here. Not now.

But tomorrow…

Tomorrow, they would die.

And then it would all begin again.