Heroes Welcome

It is quiet.

Opening his eyes, the first thing Gideon noticed was how quiet the world was. His mind is foggy, the second that strikes him about his situation. It felt like he was experiencing this all for the first time, each passing thought and emotion as it comes, drifting in the fog of near-memories.

He was somewhere else before this place. He was doing something important, something that needed him to be strong, something that was vital but he can't quite remember it for the life of him. Shouldn't he remember why whatever was he was doing if it is so important? People might be dying because he failed again, he failed to protect them again.

Everyone is going to die because he couldn't follow through.

He lifts his hand, running his thick calloused fingers through his hair as he attempted to steady himself. He winces, pulling his arms back knowing he would only worsen the wounds to them. Except they were not damaged, they looked unmarred from his fall.

It comes back to him in flashes.

He was flying through the air with the Blackblade.
He was falling towards Nicol Bolas, blade poised to rend the fiend's soul from its wretched husk.
He felt the pain of being swatted away like a common house fly.
He heard the blade shatter and fall around him, the flesh of his arms ripped and bleeding. The only thing keeping him alive was his invulnerability.

He pats himself down, more of the horrid day flooding back. He was whole again, no wounds or pain to assault him here in this strange place. He wasn't on Ravnica anymore, he doesn't know how he knows but he understands in a deep level of himself that this is true. He closes his eyes and focuses on the memories.

He remembers hearing a voice, clipped and cold as the darkest nights but disguising a deep scathing wrath of someone crossed. This is a voice he knows well, heard it over tables and in battle firing sharp words and sharper wit. This was a woman who he may call a friend, if she herself knew how to handle such a relationship without feeling compelled to spoil the waters for a quick escape. This is the voice of someone reaching their breaking point and taking back the agency robbed.

This is the voice of a woman ready to die as long as she took her target down with her.

One clear moment flashes before his eyes, his breath catching in his throat as he relives the pain. There Liliana stood, her marks burning brighter than a star and looking for all the world like one in the final solar flares before collapse. He knows of her pacts, the small details she shared on quiet nights in Dominaria. They were her contract, he believed, or connected somehow and from what he could only guess she was burning the last bit of ink off her deal. She was poised to go out in a blaze of fury and power to take down her captor. She was trying so hard, she looked so tired and sad, she knew she wasn't going to survive to see the end of this. For all her power, all her experience, wasn't going to be enough to keep up the undead assault long. She very well could be the last hope they needed to seal the Elder Dragon's fate.

She could be the key. As long as she survived long enough to do it.

He smiles, a bittersweet note as he laughs softly to himself. He remembers what happened, what he did in that final moment and what this place is now.

Liliana needed to live long enough to turn the tide.

So he gave her all the time she needed.

He touched her arm as she was fading and gave the one gift he could to see her through the day. He gave up the one gift he had that let him survive to that very moment. He gave her his invulnerability and used the magic learned as a young lad to take the one thing she fought to be freed of.

He took the penalty of a contract broken.

He remembers smiling as he faded away, hearing voices calling him home at last. He can hear them again now, echoing around him in the space he stands. He looks behind him and choked back a sudden sob at the sight awaiting him, welcoming him home at last from his long journey.

He wipes a palm over his eyes as he takes the first steps toward the archway and falls into the arms of his oldest friends at last. He was home.