#jensa

IM SO SORRY FOR ANSWERING THIS LATE BUT HERE

The boy!! (zooms under cut)

A quick doodle of my Jensa fan kid

Another headache. Shit.

“Open your eyes and focus.”

“Why am I still alive?” I asked groggily, my vision swimming as I tried to scan the room. Another chair to be tied down to, but I didn’t recognize where this time. Jensa, and the healer and man from before.

“Because I’d like to help you. Renounce the Empire, and I’ll let you go.”

I snorted. “Fine, sure.”

The man laughed under his breath. They didn’t need a lie detector for that remark.

“You know why we’re fighting them right?”

“I couldn’t care less. You’re rebels, defectors. You’re my enemies.”

“You’re lucky for that. Had you been on my side and captured by the Empire, you’d be dead with that Magis.”

“People die in battle,” I snapped.

“And the Empire is a corrupt state that kills Magis at will. You have to know that, at least.”

I looked down. I had always tried to ignore it, the possibility that I only received the Magis that were easily captured. On that, she was right. But it didn’t matter. I was not the disloyal type.

“How can you trust them, even knowing that?”

“It’s my job,” I hissed, echoing her words from when she had first overpowered me in the prison.

“There’s no point in remaining loyal to them. They’ve given up on you. Karazo is in ruins. Even if you managed to get away, they’d probably kill you on sight thinking you’d turned on them.”

“Even so,” I mumbled absently, my head still throbbing. “I won’t betray Larimer.”

“They don’t give a shit about you!” Jensa roared, “And you know that! You just don’t care!”

“… No, I don’t.”

“Why?” Jensa demanded, “What makes them so goddamned important to you?!”

“He gave me my ability!” I snapped, “I was worthless without his help! He gave me purpose!”

“It’s your fucking Magis! No one gave it to you!”

I paused. That was true. I already had my Magis before meeting him. How had I forgotten? “… But… He made it better…!” I shook my head. “He taught me how to use it for the good of the Empire!”

“He used you!” Jensa roared, “You made it better. Other people can’t ‘make’ your Magis better.”

I paused once more. Of course, I knew that. A Magis could only be honed and made better by using it more often, by understanding it.

But Larimer did it for me.

He was who I was tied to.

I would not betray him.

“… I’m not going to betray him.”

“Him? I thought you were fighting for the Empire?” Jensa scoffed.

My headache was beginning to make my entire body hurt. I couldn’t betray him. Even if they tortured me, I wouldn’t betray him. “I’m not going to betray him,” I repeated, my voice stronger this time.

Jensa stopped half way through taking a breath to yell something else when the man stepped forward and interrupted her, “You can’t, or you won’t?”

My body hurt so much, too much to focus properly. “What do you mean?”

Jensa stopped for a moment, contemplating my words. “You can’t?”

“No,” I answered absently, my stomach swirling. “He’s…” I felt like I wanted to puke. “… not.”

“Is he blackmailing you? Does he have someone you care for?”

“He’s not…” I repeated more forcefully, letting my head drop so I could focus on their questions and not the pain. Something was wrong, I could tell.

“Is he using Magis on you?”

Something flashed in front of my closed eyes, making me flinch backwards. It was a person, so far as I could tell, standing in front of me with their fingers inches away from my eyes.

I helped you.

“Is it that?” Jensa’s voice sounded hopeful.

I made you.

The fingers in front of my eyes surged forward until they blocked out my entire vision and struck my pupils. I screamed, throwing my head back to get away from whoever was trying to gouge them out.

“What’s wrong?!” Jensa yelped, grabbing my shoulders as I desperately tried to get away. “What’s going on?”

If you betray me, you will be in pain. It hurts you to betray me. You don’t want to betray me.

I could feel fingernails digging into the flesh behind my eyes. “Stop!” I screeched, tears soaking my face and shirt. “Stop…! It hurts…! Stop… I don’t want to…! I promise I won’t…!”

I am your everything. Everything you are is thanks to me. You won’t forget that. You won’t betray me.

Everything outside the pain moved to the edge of my attention. Nothing had ever hurt like this before. I wasn’t expecting this. I couldn’t betray him. I couldn’t.