In way too many fandoms

——

Zoey heard the screams.

She watched as the Honmoon cried out as if it had been cut apart by a thousand blades as the screams came from the room.

And she saw the Honmoon calm somewhat as the screaming suddenly cut off. It didn’t settle, not fully, instead trembling. It was almost as if it were… afraid.

She didn’t understand why until Celine stepped out of the room, a distant look in her eyes.

She understood as she entered the room.

Celine had stolen Rumi’s voice.

Zoey moved quickly to the trembling girl, quickly kneeling next to her. She tried to tamp down the feeling of anger towards her mentor, but it was like putting a bottle cap over an active volcano.

Zoey couldn’t understand the why. Why would Celine of the sunlight sisters refuse to see Rumi for what she was?

What she is?

She shook her head, trying to focus. Rumi is curled into a ball on the floor, bleeding, and…

Zoey felt a chill run down her spine as she caught a glimpse of Rumi’s face through her hair.

Her eye. Celine had cut out Rumi’s eye.

Zoey felt her nausea spike sharply, and she fought to choke back the bile. Help keep Rumi from bleeding out first, then go throw up.

Moving steadily, Zoey opened the medical bag she always brought with her, pulling out gauze, bandages, and anything else she thought she’d need. A quick glance at the cowering woman tells Zoey just how fragile her state currently is.

“Rumi? Rumi, can you hear me?” Zoey asked.

Rumi didn’t respond, and after a moment Zoey mentally berated herself. Of course Rumi didn’t respond.

“Rumi, I’m going to need to look at your eye, ok? Can you nod if that would be ok?” Zoey waits again, hoping for some kind of response.

The seconds drag by as she does, watching as Rumi slowly nods her head in answer.

At least she knows I want to help…

Carefully, Zoey cupped Rumi’s chin. Her heart twisted at the way Rumi flinched before leaning into the touch, silent tears flowing down her cheeks. As gently as she could manage, Zoey turned Rumi’s head to get a better look at her destroyed eye.

The bone looked fine, all things considered, if a little exposed at the moment. But her eye? Its completely gone. Just an empty socket now.

“You’ll be ok… it’ll all be ok…” Zoey was muttering to herself as she gently looked over the area. Rumi kept her remaining eye squeezed shut as gentle whimpers left her, almost silent tears still flowing down her face.

Zoey felt something in her chest crack as she took in Rumi’s full state. Bandages covered more of her then not, most of them slightly reddened.

Celine had taken to pressing on them when Rumi was more belligerent about her questions. The bile tried to climb Zoey’s throat again, but she managed to force it down.

Instead, she opted to gently wipe at the area around Rumi’s eye, her other had still gently holding onto Rumi’s face slowly rubbing circles with her thumb. Once she’s determined the area is clean enough, she gently took back the comforting hand to gather bandages. Rumi managed to barely crack her eye open when the hand left, and Zoey’s movements stuttered for just a moment.

The soft brown of Rumi’s eye was filled with a despair she had never seen before. It’s the kind of despair one would usually see in someone who knows they are about to die, and that they know there’s nothing they can do about it.

But death isn’t a luxury Rumi will receive.

With familiar movements Zoey wrapped the bandage around her eye socket, careful not to let it rub so it wouldn’t aggravate Rumi’s wound. After ensuring it was secure with a final knot, she gently cradled Rumi’s face with both hands this time.

“Rumi… I need to look at your throat. I need to bind it so it doesn’t get infected as well, ok?” Zoey asked.

Rumi didn’t open her eye again, instead opting to nod. It seemed that she somehow knew what had been stolen from her, what had been taken and would never be returned. Zoey allowed herself a brief moment of mourning as Rumi sat up, remembering the joy she’d seen as Rumi performed only a few days ago on stage.

The memory faded as reality settled again, and Zoey got to work cleaning the cut on Rumi’s throat. Rumi hissed in pain at the sensation, earning a quiet apology from Zoey. After a few moments she deemed it ready, and began to wrap the bandage around Rumi’s throat.

Each quiet whisper of the material seemed to draw something out of Rumi. Some kind of invisible strength she’d been desperately clutching too finally being cut off.

The tears never stopped as Zoey worked.

With a gentle, final, inevitable tug the bandages settled into place. Rumi collapsed as Zoey finished, falling forwards. Zoey barely managed to catch the taller girl, gathering her in a firm hug as the tears continued to flow.

And if some of them came from Zoey… no one else needed to know.

——

Zoey is a very empathetic person, even if she struggles to communicate with people sometimes.

As for Mira…

——

Eight days.

It has been eight days since they first brought in Rumi the demon.

Seven days since Celine began to hurt her every day to prove that she is in fact still a demon.

One day since she broke Zoey and Rumi.

When Zoey hadn’t come back to their room last night, Mira had gone to investigate. She’d found Zoey in the demons Rumi’s room cell, holding her as she gently hummed. Both girls had dried tears, and Rumi had somehow fallen asleep.

After that, Zoey had spent the next day with Rumi. Mira had sat outside the room as well, keeping watch. Celine had come by the room about 7 the following night, but when she’d spotted Mira had simply walked away.

The expression on the older woman… Mira would never tell this to Zoey or Rumi, but the woman looked wretched. Her eyes had deep shadows under them, her expression sullen, her posture slumped in a way Mira had never seen before from her mentor.

She was the picture of guilt.

Mira had slept outside the room anyways, and Zoey had slept inside with Rumi. Two silent sentinels, too late.

Mira got up early the next morning, waking Zoey to keep watch as she went to make breakfast. Movement always helped her feel better, and baking doubly so.

Her hands moved on auto-pilot, gathering the ingredients for an American breakfast Zoey’s fond of. The faint sound of a floorboard creeping in the kitchen catches her attention for a moment before returning it to the food.

There’s only one person who it could be.

“Good morning, Mira.” Celine said, her tone carefully neutral.

Mira only gave a non-committal grunt of acknowledgement, her focus on the batter she was stirring.

“Do you know when Zoey will be waking? We have a rather vigorous training schedule today.”

That caught her attention. Mira set the bowl down and turned, arms folded as she leaned partially against the counter.

“We aren’t training today, or probably for the next while.” Mira’s chin came up as she spoke, an obvious challenge.

Celine looked far more put together this time, her normal gray shirt and black pants helping with the image. The concealer hiding under her eyes… it tells a different story. The older woman draws herself up, eyebrows pinched in annoyance.

“Mira, it’s crucial the two of you keep up your training while we wait for your third hunter. It’s even moreso-“ Celine starts.

“You took her eye.” Mira cuts her off, her gaze unwavering. “You cut it out, and when she started to scream in pain you took her fucking voice. Zoey is trying her best to keep Rumi from straight up giving up on being alive because of what you did.”

Celine’s jaw tightened at Mira’s words, her hands slowly curling into fists as she responded. “It was hurting the Honmoon. I took punitive measures to ensure our safety.”

“Safety! Safety from what, Celine? A scared girl that you’ve been torturing for days on end just because she’s part demon? Which, by the way, we still don’t know what the other parts might be!” Mira stood taller, glaring at Celine as she spoke. “Which does beg the question in my mind; why hurt her at all? She clearly can feel pain every time you stabbed and cut at her!”

Celine blinked rapidly for a moment, her gaze darting away as she tried to answer. “Mira, a Honmoon weapon cannot hurt humans. I know you know this, as does Zoey, but I needed to ensure neither of you-“

“She has patterns, Celine! There is literally no way for it to be more obvious what she is!” Mira threw her hands into the air in exacerbation. “But she knows nothing of the honmoon, of demons, of Gwi-ma! If you’d just trusted me, we never would have gotten to this point!”

Mira turns back around, focusing on the food as her voice softens.

“I told you, back after we kidnapped her. I said ‘she’s not fully a demon’, do you remember that?” She doesn’t wait for a response. “I do. And I remember the way she looked the next day with fresh cuts and holes in her body because you had to prove some point to us.”

Silence permeates the kitchen, the only sound the flame of the stove and the sizzling of pancakes. After a few moments Mira glanced back at Celine, who was still standing frozen with her head bowed, her hair hiding her face.

“I’m going to bring Zoey and Rumi some food. You can decide whether you want to try and force us to leave her alone with you again while we eat.” Mira plates the food, shouldering past Celine as she leaves.

For a moment, just a moment, it looked like Celine might’ve been crying.

——

Hm. Time for everything to get worse.

——

Celine re-read the email for what feels like the hundredth time. Her eyes blur slightly, and she quickly wipes at them again. There has to be some kind of mistake, a mechanical error or some lab mixup.

But the words do not change, no matter how desperately Celine begs them too.

RESULTS: 60% UNKNOWN, 40% RYU MIYEONG DNA

PLEASE CONTACT US IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS!

Celine did not contact them. She didn’t want to know anything else. What else could there be to know?

Rumi is Ryu Rumi, the secret daughter of Ryu Miyeong.

And Celine cut out her eye and vocal cords.

The sense of guilt that had been fighting with Celine’s moral high ground crumbled away at that realization. Miyeongs daughter is half demon. Rumi is half human.

Rumi wasn’t pretending.

Rumi isn’t pretending.

She could feel every. Single. Stab.

Every cut.

Every insult.

All of it.

Celine didn’t know how she ended up on the ground, her chair toppled over to her left. She notes distantly that her breathing is erratic, frantic.

She’s heard of these before, Zoey used to have these. They’re called panic attacks, right?

Knowing why their called helps Celine less then she’d have originally assumed, but her thoughts are clouded at the moment. All she can hear is the scream Rumi had let out, the first true one from the girl she’d gotten, as she cut out her eye.

She’s not sure how long she stays like that, but eventually she becomes more aware of the wetness on her face, the chill of the floors, and the quiet humming of the fan above her bed. With a quiet groan Celine sat up wiping at her face with trembling hands.

After a moment, Celine fell back onto the floor, staring at the ceiling.

“….Fuck.”

——

Yeah, no one’s having a good time. Ultimately, Rumi wouldn’t be outed as the third hunter until long after she’s left the compound, since she was able to avoid lethal wounds while there.

Ironically enough, it’s not a demon that almost kills Rumi, but rather a drunken human mistaking her for a monster.

As for the eye and vocal cords? Rumi actually prefers an eyepatch. She hates the feeling of having the fake one sitting in her eyesocket, so instead simply keeps it covered.

Then she gets kidnapped after Celine stabbed Rumi the first time, activating her latent demonic ability to flee. Zoey, unused and not evolved to withstand teleportation, passes out. Rumi, thinking fast, uses her wilderness survival skills (shoutout Bobby, teaching his daughter to survive in any scenario) to tie up Zoey.

Zoey wakes up in a comfy bed, tied to the bedpost and (oddly enough) unable to summon her shin-Kal to throw at the demon that kidnapped her.

(She tries later and it works fine. The Honmoon is looking away from Zoey’s glare.)

Rumi tries to let Zoey go but the second her arm is free she hits Rumi in the face and starts trying to untie the other knot. Unfortunately for her Rumi ain’t no cheapskate and quadruple knotted that sucker, so after Rumi got back up she re-tied Zoey’s hands.

The conversation between the two takes place an hour after that, and Zoey slowly realizes “oh. This girl has absolutely no idea what, how, or why she’s able to teleport.

Huh.”

The next time she lets Zoey be untied she doesn’t sucker punch Rumi, and actually meets her dad.

(“Ooh and who’s this, Ru? WAIT!” Bobby grabbed Rumi, pulling her away from Zoey with a determined look.

Zoey raised her eyebrows in question as Bobby whispered to Rumi, who turned bright red and whispered something back. Bobby nodded with a knowing smile and walked back over to Zoey, the still blushing Rumi right behind him.

“So, you plan to marry my daughter, yes?”

“…yes.”)

Bobby is ecstatic, Rumi has always had issues making friends and now she has a fiancée? Incredible.

If your wondering why Zoey said yes she blue screened so hard she defaulted to what Celine usually wanted to hear about training or chores. So now Bobby’s helping plan a fake marriage, and Zoey gets a little too into it.

(Zoey does NOT have anyone’s phone numbers memorized yet. Rip, she doesn’t even know where she is.)

Anyways Mira’s having extreme panic and anxiety.

Yeah, so, apparently losing half your soul when your soulmate vanished with the demon? Not the best for your mental state. So she, Celine, and Poppy are tearing through hoards of demons screaming “WHERE IS SHE?!?” Confusing and terrifying every demon before they die.

The week it takes for them to find Zoey is the worst week of Mira’s life, the only upside being the knowledge that somewhere, somehow, Zoey is still alive.

Then Poppy sees Zoey on a Facebook page with a picture of the demon, kissing her cheek.

The group of hunters naturally assume Rumi has somehow mind controlled Zoey, and move to hunt the demon down to save her.

(If your wondering why during that week Zoey didn’t just go back to Jeju island with Bobby’s help, it’s cus she wa spending it teaching Rumi about the Honmoon, demons, and the hunters. She assumed things were probably fine, she’s sure Mira would’ve figured out that Rumi wasn’t a threat already.

…

Oh no-)

Rumi almost gets killed in a surprise attack by the hunters. It’s actually Mira who does it, piercing her right through the gut. By some divine miracle she missed her internal organs, but it still hurt like nothing else.

Zoey moved then, slamming into Mira and sending her stumbling back. Mira tries to get Zoey to snap out of the mind control, which Zoey understandably was confused and asked what mind control.

They go back and forth for a few moments before they feel it, finally, the third hunter.

It’s right behind Zoey.

The four hunters turn and watch as the Honmoon begins to help knit the hole shut in Rumi’s gut, a faint sound of chiming almost like a mother’s lullaby drifting through the air.

Ultimately, Mira would realize that Rumi really isn’t evil and is just a half demon who panic teleported. Zoey apologizes for not contacting them and admits she doesn’t know anyone’s numbers.

Poppy and Celine are hesitant, and the latter tries to suggest chaining her up again, but Zoey and Mira very quickly shut that idea down.

They all actually end up at Bobby’s house, where the man charms Poppy and Celine with biscuits and tea.

…

(There’s a new scar on Rumi from Mira. Her arm is still marred by the break, and now her gut. Mira feels immense guilt about it for a very long time.)