Having wandered here there and everywhere, Ig had only just managed to find himself a place he actually wanted to hang around in for a few days. The barren, well packed dirt with only sparse patches of dry grass, the many rusted remains of human objects, the wide expanse of near nothingness... Just like home.

It was weird how in under a season he could suddenly find himself homesick. Only it wasn't normal homesickness, because it was coupled with a sort of nostalgic longing. Ignatius longed for the time before everything was ruined. Ah, but he'd done enough moping lately. The least he could do was shove those feelings to the back of his mind for a while and enjoy himself today.

After spending the morning climbing over every large, remotely climbable object he could find - which was a fair number - and exploring every place he could find that might house something, anything at all of interest... he was bored. No sooner had he thought it than he heard the soft little beats that could only be raindrops on metal. Moments later a large drop smacked him in the eye, then several more on his head. He managed to find his way into the only car with a both a roof, and an open door just as it began to really pour. Shaking out his firey pelt, the man wondered where his sister might be. She'd probably like exploring here. Maybe. Sephi had initially been almost as bitter as him about their situation, so maybe she wouldn't enjoy the familiarity.

This place was filled to the brim with ghosts. Literally or otherwise, as Sephira made her way across the barren wasteland she couldn't help but feel haunted, both by her own memories and the mere presence of this place. So different while feeling so familiar. The ruins and remains surrounding her forced her back into a place she knew she never wanted to return to. Of course, it wasn't surprising at all that Ignatius had led them here.

She got it, though. Or at least she thought she might. His demons were probably even more insistent here than hers were and she was nothing if not stubborn. If Ig could stand it then she could too. So Sephi pressed on, even as heavy clouds crawled in overhead. Her curiosity was strong enough to make her pause here and there, investigating things that looked either familiar or just especially strange. She knew she ought to hurry if she wanted to find her wayward sibling before the skies opened, but it wasn't until the first drops began to fall that she realized she probably should have been a bit more focused.

By the time she made it to the car her brother was certainly taking shelter in, Sephi was positively soaked. With a toothy grin smeared across her face, she took a running start and leaped, scrambling through a broken window, mindful of the glass shards lingering at the edges. "Iggy! There you are!" she crowed, careening into the space, muddy paws slipping across the upholstery and vigorously shaking her sodden coat the moment she found her footing. She turned her feral smile towards him, eager to see if he really was enjoying this place just as much as she happened to be in that moment.

The patter of rain on the roof of the rusted out car was soothing. Few things were these days, so the man was happy to settle into the back seat, resting his head on his paws and just enjoy the moment. It was funny how this place both soothed and worsened the homesickness. It felt good to be somewhere familiar where he could relax, but every object brought back flashes of memories from before that where nearly overwhelming.

A breeze changed the rhythm of the rain for a moment while he shifted into as comfortable a position as the limited space allowed. One of the front seats was missing entirely, maybe he should curl up on the floor instead-

Just then the familiar, brilliantly marked face of his sister came sailing in through a window, startling Ig back to attention. So much for switching spots. The front was probably sopping wet like her now. A few drops flying off Sephira's fur pelted him in the face. "You're never going to stop calling me that, are you?" he griped, shaking his own fur out reflexively after she got him wet. Was there no escape from this persistent sister of his? Sighing and resting his chin back on his paws, Ig raised a brow and studied his muddy, wet sister.

"You've been having fun, haven't you?" It already smelled like wet wolf in here. Fun.

Her arrival had more or less the desired effect, and so Sephira was pleased. The inside of the contraption was splattered with water droplets and specks of mud, and she internally preened as her brother shook himself as well. He griped at her and she stuck her tongue out in turn, mindless of the fact that they weren't pups anymore, considering that had never stopped her in the past. "Nope! Probably not!" She sat proud and puffed out as Ig ran a critical eye over her, asking if she'd been having fun.

"Oh, loads of fun. The flashbacks going through here have been a real treat." She rolled her eyes and snorted, already beyond any semblance of dignity, especially where her brother was concerned. Sephi wouldn't deny that this particular wasteland had its attractive qualities, namely the plethora of strange items she had never seen, even in their homeland, but that didn't mean she had to show it. "I assume you came here to wallow, yes? Even got the right weather for it, I'm impressed." She sniffed, waiting to see what he had to say for himself.

At the point he wouldn't even waste a sigh on the exasperation he felt at her response. May as well just accept it. He couldn't very well threaten her into stopping, she'd just enjoy fighting him and never stop anyway. Siblings. Only his sister could manage to look so proud of irking him for the ten thousandth time. "Great." The second he figured out a nickname that ticked her off she could bet her ass he'd be using it daily.

"No one made you follow me here," he responded dryly. Really he could sympathize though. More than. Masochism might be the best way to explain why he was here. Wallowing a close second. "Yeah, you know that was the difficult part but entirely worth all those souls of the innocent."

Jokes aside, now that Seph was here, as much as he'd like to let her keep being her bright and spunky self... Things needed to be said. Glancing out the window while he fumbled for the words, eventually Ig just settled on, "I still need to tell you the rest of what happened. You need to know. I probably won't even lose my shit," the attempt at humor was lackluster at best, but delivering this news was going to be beyond painful so lightening the mood just didn't work.

She could tell her brother was in a mood, but wasn't he always? He remarked that no one had forced her to follow him, but that was only half true. "Oh, brother mine. You should know better than to trust me alone and unsupervised. I figured it'd be best to stick close." She sent him a wink and then shimmied her shoulders, casting off the last few drops of water from her speckled ruff. She could have sat there and bantered the day away, but Ig had to go and make things serious again. He mentioned finally getting into the details of his and her resulting exile, which was admittedly a conversation she had been lowkey trying to avoid. From what she'd picked up so far it had been a grievous betrayal, and she knew dredging the story back up would cause her brother pain, even if he half-heartedly joked to the contrary. Sephira sighed and settled in. "I'll listen if you want to tell it," she replied, uncharacteristically sober. She knew this was going to majorly suck, but denial only worked for so long.

Somehow he doubted that she kept close to avoid causing trouble alone. If anything his theory was she enjoyed starting shit as close to him as possible. "So considerate," he mused.

Where to begin though? Breaking the news wasn't any easier after waiting a while, despite his hopes that time might numb the pain and make it easier to spill the details. Heaving a heavy sigh, Ig tipped his head back to rest against the seat, closing his eyes and listening to the rain for a moment before he finally began. "I'm clearly not good at this shit, but here goes. I had no idea what was going on until it happened. The day before I'd spent with Avis, she wanted to go to the market and I wasn't busy for once. Everything was great then. I don't think I've seen her happier than when I said we could spend a whole day together-" his throat was already getting tight, so Ig cut off for a moment to regain composure before continuing.

"First thing the next morning I was drug out of bed and brought to Mars." The name felt like poison on his tongue. There had only been a handful of times where the man had been referred to as 'father' by Ignatius, and they were mostly in front of the man to appease him. But Mars wasn't here, so Ig could refer to him however he damn well pleased. "H-her body... was there." Fury and anguish swirled into a righteous anger as he recalled the moment he knew their sister was dead.

"Apparently they believed I was responsible. There was supposedly proof, but I haven't the faintest clue what aside from a few witnesses. No one was interested in my side, they wanted to blame someone and that someone was me." Of all the thing that could have gotten him cast out, this was by far the worst he could have managed to dream up. Deplorable, despicable, monstrous Kaius would pay dearly for this. Fuck the exile, Ig wanted nothing more than to avenge Avis. His eyes burned with the tears he'd fought back as he added, "Kaius did it. I don't know how, or what he did, but he made a point of gloating when we were away from Mars. He... said Kirsi helped..."

Seph waited as patiently as she was able while Ig appeared to sort out his thoughts. Whether it was premonition or merely logic, Sephira knew that something truly terrible had happened. It had never occurred to her to seek out answers of her own before leaving. Their elder brother had made a snarky remark about Ig being sent away, and anything beyond that reality had been lost to her anger and indignation. Besides, she'd learned at a young age that Kaius was not to be trusted.

Finally, Ig began. He spoke of their sister Avis, how they had spent a day together, and at that Sephira grinned. Avis was the youngest and smallest of them, sweet and naive in way Seph could hardly fathom for herself. Avis alone had seemed to need a buffer from the cruelty of the world in ways their other siblings never had. Seph loved her as she loved the rest of her littermates. And so, as Ig carried on, Seph felt her gut begin to twist. A body? Avis... was dead? She shook her head slowly. "No... No, Ig! How could you even say something like that?" She scrambled upwards, hackles rising as she stood in the cramped space. How could he joke about something like this?

"Kaius did it. I don't know how, or what he did, but he made a point of gloating when we were away from Mars. He... said Kirsi helped..." The truth of his words began to fall into place. Seph felt as if her mind was running so quickly that none of its thoughts made sense. She shook her head vigorously from side to side, wishing she could shake these terrible truths from her mind. "No! Avis cannot be dead," she said, beginning to sob, because she knew in the back of her mind that it really was true. It made sense. Nothing short of a murder would have forced Ig away from his duty. With a savage snarl she leaped back out into the storm, which was now roiling overhead and whipping at her fur. She bared her teeth at the sky. "If I ever see Kaius again, I'm going to skin him. I'm going to wear his pelt as a fucking cape. No. No!" She dug her claws into the sodden earth, and realized that her body felt numb despite the storm raging around her. She sank, defeated, head hung low. It can't be true... It can't.

He flinched, even with his eyes closed as she responded. Opening them to give her a serious look, Ig desperately wished he could tell her it wasn't really true. He wished he could go back in time, and kill his sinister older sibling before this could have happened. If he had been wiser, perhaps he could have seen more clearly that Kaius was plotting something, that Kirsi was corrupt... He failed. He failed Avis, and it hurt so bad he he could hardly stand it. Seph had to know, he knew that, but it was still unbelievably hard to relive this.

The anger, the denial, he'd already begun living it and seeing Seph roll through her emotions as she took in the news was horrific. He didn't need to reaffirm that it was true though, there was no need. Watching her leap out into the storm, Ig was hardly surprised by her reaction. He only felt a sharp stab in his chest as he watched her, puling himself to a standing position and following her, his brows knitted firmly into a pained scowl.

"He will more than pay for it," Ig choked out, swallowing the tears and the sobs that threatened to break loose again, pressing them firmly back down with the mountain of anger that had been building in him since the moment he laid eyes on his sweet sister's body. "We will find him eventually, and when we're ready, he will suffer for what he's done, and he will never know what it is to have the power he's killed to achieve." That would be the sweetest vengeance. To see it hit Kaius that he would never be king as he drew his last breaths. Nothing would make Ignatius happier than to deliver justice in that way.

Curling against Sephi's side, he pressed himself reassuringly against her as he continued to fight off the anguish that threatened to cripple him. Stoic as always, Ig was already contemplating how best to avenge their sibling, and how to accomplish it before Kaius could take the throne.

She knew it was true. Ignatius wouldn't lie about something like this, she knew, but that didn't mean she had to accept it. Not by a long shot. Something crystalized in that moment, and she knew that their elder brother's life was forfeit. She would give up her own to avenge their sister, if she had to. Otherwise how would baby Avis ever find rest? She bowed her head. "He will more than pay for it," Ig swore, voice stiff and broken. Sephira looked away. "I always knew he was some sort of twisted fuck, but this?" Air burst from her lungs in disbelief, but you could hardly call it a laugh. "He better hope he finds a way to get himself killed before I get my teeth into him." Sephira was... uncharacteristically somber. Her voice was deadened and quiet, as if coming from a far away place. She wished more than anything to be living in a dream, where she could wake up and Avis would still be alive. This bit of news... it changed everything. Her head whipped sideways as her brother came to lean against her. For a heartbeat she considered lashing out on instinct, but she knew it would be no use. It wasn't Ignatius she wanted to tear into, nevermind that she did want to wrap her jaws around something just then. But he was too far out of her reach for the time being. "He can't leave us alive," she murmured in quiet realization. Whether Ig had heard her or not she went on. "He can't. It's suicide. Either we go to him eventually, or he tracks us down and finishes the job. She looked to her fire-hued brother, eyes full of grief. "Ig we have to be ready. She wanted to make him promise her. Promise that they would be ready for whatever Kaius brought down upon them. But she didn't, realizing that she was desperately afraid it was a promise that couldn't be kept. They would... figure something out. Eventually. Just because this was that worst thing to ever happen to them didn't mean they couldn't tackle it, just like everything else. She leaned into the warmth Ig offered, grateful that whatever the world had thrown at them, she still had her favorite brother by her side. It would.. maybe be fine. One day. - SEPHIRA AGNIVO

This was why he'd allowed himself to put off telling her. Much as Ig wanted to conceal it, his heart was soft and it pained him to see the anguish on Sephira's face, mirroring his own when he'd first seen Avis that day. It only served to fuel his fury, that deep and slow burning hatred he was cultivating for Kauis so that on the day they saw each other again Ignatius could unleash every bit of pent up rage. Well, if Seph didn't get to him first and tear him limb from limb before Ig even arrived on the scene. Honestly, it was a real possibility, and one he probably would enjoy seeing played out.

If only he could be shocked that their older half-sibling was capable of this. Would it be better to have not seen it coming? At least then he wouldn't feel sort of guilty. Despite his best efforts, something kept nagging at him, telling him that even though he didn't do it he was still responsible for Avis' death. If he'd been prepared, if he'd kept a better eye on Kaius, if he'd had better instincts or been somehow stronger maybe he could've saved her. "I want to see the life leave his eyes," Ig murmured, expression dark. He wouldn't be satisfied until his fangs were buried in the man's throat, until he felt the hot blood on his tongue and watched the murderer draw his last rattling breath.

Sephira's realization pulled him from his vengeful thoughts, bringing him back to a practical state of mind despite his desire to continue daydreaming about how he could strangle the life out of Kaius. Oddly enough, she was right. Peace was a temporary illusion. There was no way they'd be left to live on in exile. It was too risky, especially knowing Ig and Seph... "I..." He couldn't say what he wanted to. Couldn't swear up and down that they'd be beyond ready, that they'd take their home by storm one day, make Kaius and his affiliates pay and live as they were meant to one day. With a shuddering breath, Ignatius glanced skyward, sighing and watching faint traces of his breath fog in the air, curling away and disappearing only a moment later as the rain pelted them both.

"I swear on my life we will do out best, Seph. Whatever it takes." That was the best he could do, but it hardly felt like enough.

Sephira found a strange, shameful sort of peace in seeing her own pain reflected in Ignatius' eyes. In part because she knew she wasn't alone in her grief, but also because it gave her hope. Her brother's anguish at their sister's passing seemed as strong as her own, and Ig had been carrying this burden for much longer. Good, Sephira thought with a modicum of relief. She prayed this fire would stay lit for them both until vengeance could be had. She did not want the hurt to dull. Seph knew that Avis' ghost would haunt them, as it should. She hung her head. Ig swore that they would try. A selfish voice in the back of her mind had wanted more, some sort of irrefutable proclamation that it was a certain thing. She wanted Ignatius to swear that he would deliver Kaius' pelt so that she could line her den with it. But she would make due, and was grateful that her brother took pains not to make a promise they might not be able to keep. "Whatever it takes," she agreed with a whisper. Sephira then stood, posture stooped and weakened in a way she would never dare show in front of anyone outside of their litter, and walked to Ig's side. She pressed her head against his shoulder and allowed herself to weep. Seph wanted to rant and rage, to scream and curse Kaius' every breath, but all she could do was cry. Poor, sweet little Avis. Avis who trusted everyone. Avis, maybe the only one of their siblings who had never seen Kaius for what he really was. Likely the best out of all of them, and killed so soon. It felt like someone was slicing a hole into her chest, and pulling out piece by piece everything that had ever made her happy. Seph was glad Ignatius had told her. She would figure out what to do with the mixture of range and anguish another day. For now, she just wanted to cry. - SEPHIRA AGNIVO

Life had not been kind to them. Not once since their birth had things been easy for any of the princes and princesses born to Mars and Eira. However, Ignatius had always held on to the hope created by what he could do, what little he could control. Sometimes he had to waste a whole day taking lessons he loathed, many of which seemed useless and unnecessary, and far too many would have him as the sole student. So, when his day was wasted and stolen from him, Ignatius would seize control and flee their quarters with Sephira, racing off to while away the nighttime hours as they pleased because it was the one thing they could do that was entirely their own decisions. Their lives had always been a power struggle it seemed, and often they weren't even the ones playing the game but rather ended up becoming casualties of the wars of others.

He was so done with being someone else's pawn. Done with getting others mixed up in things that hurt them. Resting his head protectively over Sephira's neck as she sobbed into his shoulder, Ignatius vowed to do better. He wouldn't let anyone he cared for be hurt this way again. There would be no more tears for the fallen so long as he could prevent it. Whatever shortcomings he had that had led to this would be found and dealt with. For Avis's memory, and for Sephira who still stood by his side.

For a while he simply held her close, standing there and letting his own tears mix with the rain that still poured down from the heavens. They were both likely soaked down to the bone. The sky was even darker than before by the time he'd managed to stop the flow of tears and look skyward briefly. Most likely it was only going to continue raining, and lightning suddenly seemed like a possibility so at last he'd gently nudge her shoulder with his nose and direct his sister back towards the rusty old car. "Come on, let's dry off." Drawing Seph along with him, Ig made his way back to the shelter of the ancient metal cave, shaking out his pelt before climbing in.

-exit-