Echoes

Things Left Unsaid

Vol watches the world change around them after Vida and Lucas's alliance solidifies, but is forced to balance their own life's changes while observing the new peace.

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This is meant to function as an epilogue to Vida and Lucas's stories as well as an epilogue to the world itself, all by seeing the aftermath of the previous two fics from Vol's perspective. Each scene flip flops on the timeline. It's nonlinear.
No real CW's like the last two stories, but there are references to the events in those fic and this one deals with an established relationship and any implications thereof.
Title, as with the other two, is a reference to a Pink Floyd song and belongs to them.

Originally posted on 2021-03-22, on AO3.

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It was rare to see much change in weather. Rain simply didn't happen, or at least didn't occur in a way at all enjoyable. There was nothing beautiful or relaxing about acid drops plinking against the dusty ground. There was no way at all to stand out amidst such rain and feel it on skin safely.

Vol missed it. They couldn't regret the move that had taken them from the northern coastal basin to the mainland, not when Vida had known it was the best they could do to survive. She'd been a new leader at that point but even then she could recognize that remaining hidden out there would end in all their deaths. Supplies were a necessity and the colds of the region were becoming entirely unlivable.

It had been a necessary exodus, if one of loss. They hadn't seen snow or true rain since crossing above the Vitio System to reach populated territory.

Life here was never hot nor cold. It was dusty. There were fires that burned themselves out with nothing around the dead dirt to fuel them.

Today, there was frost.

Real frost. The type that'd evaporate quickly in the morning. Real water moisture.

Vol could see it by the porchlight outside. The high-pressure sodium glinted off the frost with characteristic yellow rather than showing the particles as the sparkling white Vol knew they would be in sunlight. Or would, if the sun wasn't going to melt it all away after rising. But even as discolored as it was, they thought it made for a stunning view. A sleeping street frosted over; a mystic sight none were seeing but they alone as they sat backwards on a couch pushed against the porchside window, arms crossed over its padded back and feet hanging off behind them.

They could have slept and missed it as well, but it was hard to relax here. This wasn't their home (as though they had one). It had been, until recently, territory that made them miserable. But visits to what had once been Eyler's territory were often occurrences. Often enough that they and the rest were given the same empty home to sleep in before departing back for their own faction's borders. It was better than being housed in a hotel. Better than being lodged in one of the capital buildings.

Vol...wasn't as uneasy here as they used to be. They hadn't been since storming in to provide aid when the Axai had been causing problems for Bradley. Each visit since then left them a little less stressed, a little more easy. Not enough to feel at home, but enough to...appreciate the experience. Relax. Relax, while upstairs Parker was either sleeping (he'd better be) or analyzing blood samples on his own and Vida was snoring down the first floor hall.

Relax and watch something they couldn't get in their current hometown's weather.

To appreciate a chance to quietly rest in a home that wasn't their own without having to worry about where 'their own' was going to be in the next weeks.