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The crunch of the dirt echoed in Zach’s ears as his shovel sank into it with the ease of a dagger slicing through flesh.
He was knee-deep in the earth already, his focus entirely on his task as he dug.
Not deep enough. Not yet. Keep going.
He ripped out another chunk of dirt and tossed it out of the hole, onto the growing mound beside him. A burial mound, almost. Zach shook his head, trying his best to ignore the mud that caked his hands like blood, and turned back to his work.
As he dug, his mind wandered.
There was no body to bury - there hadn’t been one when they had said their final goodbye to Lukas almost three weeks ago, only an empty casket and a small headstone with his name messily carved into it by inexperienced hands. This time would be no different.
Not deep enough. Keep going.
They had searched for him, of course. High and low, as close to the Pillager’s island as they dared to travel. And yet, they found nothing.
Apollo’s body was lost to the sea.
Despite this, Zach had continued to look for him - any trace of him, any scrap of clothing or broken blade - long after the rest of the group had given up hope.
Still nothing.
The water was cold and unyielding, merciless as it devoured any trace of the man who had been his brother in all but blood.
The hole was almost up to his chest now, the pile of soil beside him nearly towering over his head.
Not deep enough. Keep going.
Zach continued digging, furiously blinking back tears as he tried to steer his thoughts away from why he was doing this.
Apollo probably would have laughed if he knew Zach had shed tears over his death, despite knowing he would do the exact same had their roles been reversed. Neither of the two had ever been particularly sentimental, rarely exchanging gifts outside of necessary items - a result of their line of work, Zach supposed. Nowadays, however, he was beginning to regret that, as he had almost nothing to remember him by outside of his own memories and an old pocket knife Apollo had stolen for him years ago.
Not deep enough. Keep going.
He could feel some of the villagers they’d rescued staring at him in concern. He ignored them.
It wasn’t them who he’d been there to save.
It wasn’t them who he’d failed.
It wasn’t them who he’d seen floating lifeless in the water, screen shattered, as he sailed away.
It wasn’t them who he’d watched sink below the waves, never to be seen again.
It wasn’t them. Not them, not them, not them, not them not them not them NOT THEM NOT THEM-
“Hey. You good?” His head snapped up to see who was talking to him.
Sunny stared down at him from the edge of the half-dug grave, concern on her face. Behind her, the sun was setting, a beautiful cascade of reds and oranges and pinks. Zach squinted, confused; wasn’t it midday just a minute ago? He hadn’t been digging for that long, surely.
Sunny’s gaze travelled across his body, taking in the sheer amount of dust and soil covering every inch of him, and she frowned at him, scrunching up her nose. “You are in serious need of a bath, dude. It should not be physically possible to become this dirty as quickly as you have.”
He shook his head. “I need to finish this. I’m not even halfway yet.”
“Really?” She raised an eyebrow, clearly doubtful. “It seems pretty finished to me.”
Zach blinked up at her, suddenly realising that he was a lot deeper in the earth than he thought he was, as his eyes were level with the toes of her boots.
“…Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.” Her slightly judgemental expression melted into something more like concern as she crouched down to look him in the face. “You’ve been at this for hours, Zach. You missed dinner. Luckily for you…” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a single baked potato. “I managed to snag one for you before Crag ate them all.”
“…I’m not hungry.”
“Not hungry, you say.” She scowled, but he could tell there was no real anger behind it. “Zach, I did not steal this off Crag’s plate and risk him biting me only for you to say you’re not hungry after spending over five hours digging a hole with no breaks.”
Zach frowned as she gently but insistently tapped the potato against his forehead, urging him to take it.
Slowly, hesitantly, he reached out and allowed her to drop it into his palm, using her hands to forcibly close Zach’s fingers around the vegetable. He stared at it silently for a long moment, before his eyes flicked back towards her questioningly.
Sunny’s voice was soft as she spoke, worry creasing her brow. “I know you’re grieving, Zach. We all are. But he wouldn’t- Apollo wouldn’t want you working yourself to the bone like this. I know that. You know that.”
“…Yeah. Yeah, I know.” He mumbled, more to himself than to her as he returned to staring at the dirt on his knuckles. “I’ll be over at the house soon. Just… I need a second.”
She gave him a brief whisper of a smile, ruffling his hair in an attempt at reassurance as she stood up. “It’ll all be alright, Zach. We’re all here with you.”
He watched silently as she walked away, towards the light streaming from the crooked windows of the group’s rickety little shared house.
He took a shaky breath, closing his eyes as he tried to ground himself.
-
“It’ll be alright, Zach,” Apollo sighed, the metal rods of his antenna twitching with mild exasperation as his best friend paced back and forth in their shared cell. “I’m here with you, aren’t I? It can’t be that boring.”
“They took my shinies, Apollo!” Zach exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air with a dramatic pout on his face. “My shinies! And I only just got them, too!”
The cyborg snickered, his screen glitching with amusement. “You have enough shiny stuff back at base camp, you birdbrain.”
Zach felt his wings bristle indignantly beneath his shirt, the tiny limbs just barely managing to shift the thick layers of fabric covering them, receiving a laugh from Apollo. The movement would have been nearly imperceptible to most people - but Apollo, who had known Zach since they were nothing but a pair of young street urchins, the only constant presence in his life, was not most people.
“Chill out, dude,” A pair of metal fingers slipped beneath Apollo’s bandanna and dug around for a moment before Zach heard the quiet click of a button and the scrape of metal against metal from the side of his head. “We’ll be out of here before the hour is up.”
Zach knew from his tone that, had the cyborg possessed a typical mouth, he would have been smirking wider than those smug guards who had tossed them in here after the pair had been caught midway through their most recent jewellery heist.
Apollo held out a set of lockpicks he had been hiding in one of the many secret compartments scattered across his robotic body, practically vibrating with glee as a matching expression spread across Zach’s face.
“See?”
-
The memory came unbidden, crashing over him like a tidal wave as he fell to his knees, the potato Sunny had brought him tumbling out of his hand and onto the ground.
And suddenly, after weeks of stoic silence every time the topic was raised, weeks of Wisp, Crag and Sunny trying desperately to help him process what had happened, weeks of pushing everything down in a futile attempt to keep himself together-
Suddenly, everything bubbled to the surface, and Zach couldn’t bury it beneath the dirt in his mind any longer.
There, kneeling and covered in mud and grime in the forever-empty grave of his best friend - his brother - he buried his face in his dusty hands and began to sob.