Alix's boots clack on the wood of the Port of Filth. The sky starts turning orange as the end of the day crawls closer and most people finish their day. Alix, on the other hand, could tell hers was long from over. She looked down to the string coming from her chest and uses it as a guide.
That was the plan, at least, until Alix arrived at the edge of the dock with nowhere left to run. 'What? How is this possible? Where could she have-' Alix looked up from Mo's silver string and saw it fading into the direction of a lighthouse on a small island away from the edge of the city.
A lighthouse that Alix had always seen growing up and always wondered who operated it. That lighthouse was the place that Mo's heartstring was leading straight to.
"Alice did call her the Lighthouse Virtuoso, didn't she? How did I forget that?" Alix mocked her own lapse of memory as she started to look around for a boat or ship or something that may be able to get her to the lighthouse. Nearby she saw what she believed to be a shipyard based on the giant sign that read, "Phillip's Dusty Ole' Shi yard"
One of the letters had fallen off the sign so it looked misspelled but it was her best option. She ran over to the rickety, old building and found an old man hanging onto a broom for dear life.
"Hey, old man." Alix called out. The man continued to slowly scraped the straw against the old, rotten hardwood with absolute focus. Like a battle hardened veteran ensuring that all potential threats have been exterminated.
"Did you hear me? Or do you need me to knock the hair out of your ears?" The old man continued his desperate fight with not just gravity but dust bunnies. These bunnies were far greater than any challenge that the man had delt with but, he was determined to defeat them. As he was the Broom Warrior of Southern Pesin! And no dusty rodent would escape! HIS! WRA-
"HEY! I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS NONESENSE!!"
"Oh, dear! Where did you come from young lady?" The old man held his chest, startled by the sudden appearance of this yelling teenage girl. Alix opened her mouth to yell again but realized that it wasn't worth it anymore.
"Look, I need to borrow a ship to get to that island with the lighthouse."
"What?" The old man leaned forward to better hear her.
"I said I need a ship or a even a small boat will do! Come on, I need to get that island!"
"Where do you think you'll get a ship?" The man asked making Alix reasonably frustrated.
"Isn't this a shipyard?"
"Is it?" Alix's eyes widened in disbelief. She struggled to understand why this was happening right now of all times.
'Is this old bastard kidding? Is he wasting my time on purpose? I don't have time for-UGH!' Alix winced as a raging headache suddenly hit her. The pain seemed to increase whenever her heart beat making every second feel much worse. It was so painful that she fell to one knee while holding her head in her hands.
'L..exi...on't come...ere!" A voice echoed in the surging storm of pain within Alix's mind. Flashes of images start appearing. One of the familiar sewer, then the drug room where she didn't find Trouler but there was something different about the room.
A wall was gone. The wall in the back of the room was entirely gone and in its place was a large tunnel.
"W-Where d-did-Urgh!" Alix cried out again as the images started to fade and the voice became louder and clearer.
"Lexi, I know you want to save me but don't come here! I'm beggin' ya! You don't want to see what's going on over here!"
'Mo? Is that you? Are you okay?! Why don't you want me to-" Alix felt a sickening feeling arise in her stomach as this fowl odor hit her...nostrils? No, this was merely a vivid memory of a stench. One that she could have sworn that she smelled before but was unable to process the information currently. At that moment a second voice called out.
"Help me. I-I'm scared and it hurts! It hurts so much! So much that I don't know how much longer I can take it?!" The voice was unfamiliar to Alix but it was one of pain and fear. Images of being whipped and cut into flooded Alix's mind. The feeling of water pouring into her lungs and the pain of every breath in between. Then the sight of the firebird that had been haunting her mind for over a week now. Its flames were far dimmer than the last time she saw it and several of its feathers seemed to have been yanked off violently.
The monster was covered in its own ether, beaten, bloodied and bruised. Alix could no longer hold back the sickening feeling and vomited on the floor once again startling the old man. "Oh no! Young lady? Are ya okay?" Tears started to streak down Alix's face but Alix couldn't determine the reason.
Was it the pain of this headache? The desperate cries of the monster in agony? Or was it the fact that Mo was begging her to abandon him? Her mind was a blur. Her thoughts weren't hers and they were a mess. Echoing in her head were all of those words.
'Don't come!"
"Save me!"
"It's for your own good!"
"I need help!"
"Just forget about me!"
"Don't make me endure this any longer!" Alix screamed as panic rose in her chest. She was having another panic attack but there was no Mo to alleviate it this time. She was scared and confused and panicking. The words were contradicting and she didn't know who to listen to. The monster in pain or her first mate that only ever looked out for her. It's all just so-
"Allie..." Nuka's voice suddenly rippled through Alix's head like a clear drop of water into a muddy sea. "...help us!"
...
Alix felt her racing heart begin to slow. She felt a gentle, warm feeling touch her cheeks and she felt her headache slightly lessen.
Those few words.
Nuka's single cry for help was all it took for Alix to make up her mind. She stood up from the ground, her eyes were bloodshot and her face a mess from the tears and vomit.
"Miss, did the dust bunnies get to ya? I knew that those monsters would ravage any innocent person they could find!" Alix didn't respond to the old man. She just turned around with her hand still on her head and shambled away.
The pain was still there and she was still feeling her heartbeat in her head but she didn't care about any of that right now. She didn't care that Mo told her to stay away or that this weird monster bird somehow hijacked her telepathy. All that mattered was Nuka called for help.
And Alix refused to let her down again.
She dragged herself across the port back to the manhole cover that she and Kent had once entered. She clambered into the sewers and used her memory of the last time she was down here to lead her back to the drug room. The room was more humid than the last time she was down here which confirmed that something had changed at some point. Alix moved to the back of the room and stood before the wall.
She lifted her hand slammed it onto the air in front of her. Though it was difficult, Alix managed to pull her thoughts together enough to focus on activating the Null mana in the air and traced a spell onto it. Not just once, however...
Alix traced spell after spell after spell without stopping even once. Her body was screaming in pain and she was drenched in sweat, which was probably a bad thing seeing as she likely had a big battle up ahead.
That didn't matter to her, though. All that mattered was getting past the wall.
"Multi Omina: Faust Florie Brecan!" Alix shouted and punched the first spell to activate it. A big, opaque, ethereal fist took form from the spell and was sent it flying at the wall shaking the entire room as it crashed into it. Alix then punched the air again triggering the next spell creating the same outcome. She did this again and again, every fist hit the wall kicking up dust and causing rubble to fall from the walls and ceiling.
If anyone was down here with her, they'd assume that the sewers were coming down.
This did not cause Alix to waver as each fist slammed into the wall that dared attempt to stall her. After a few minutes dust filled the back of the room and Alix's attacks finally ceased. She stood breathing heavily but she was standing still.
She took a second to catch her breath before marching forward, through the dust and through the giant hole that was now in the wall.
'Nuka. Mo. I'm on my way!" Alix sent the message into her connection but didn't expect to receive a response. She was just letting them know that she was on her way and that saving them was not a mere hope...
It was a predetermined certainty!