Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was dead quiet. Nothing made a sound, not even the black abyss that stared deep into Toroko's soul. The mimiga shivered as a black wind blew through her, leaving all that once was in eternal darkness. 

Drums pounded throughout the void as the emptyness shifted into color, turning into a vast green field with a great blue sky.

But just as it came, the beautiful landscape devolved into a blurred red-orange mess of blood and death, screams of pain and pleads of sorrow, mothers begging that they be killed in the place of their children, fathers fighting and dying at the hands of soldiers and their officers, whose cruel laughter filled the world deeply with torture, pain, and hatred.

Toroko's eyes spilled tears as she tried and tried again to tear her sight away from the massacre, but as she finally willed herself to look away, a figure dressed in a brown hooded cloak with no visible face stood tall, towering over the teenage mimiga.

"What is this-!?" She choked out.

"What is this supposed to mean!?" Toroko cried out.

The hooded man simply chuckled ruefully and shook their head.
"It's simple, really. If you go to the scarred city and play your cards right then maybe, just maybe, you can prevent this-" They gestured to the bloodied land. "-From happening." Toroko gasped softly and looked up to the shrouded man.

"Wait- so this is in the future?" She asked, but before she could get an answer from the cloaked figure, they disappeared and everything faded to black around Toroko before she jolted awake, soft light flooding into her eyeballs.

For a moment she sat up and contemplated what just happened. She sighed and looked up to the ceiling, repeating the only words she had on her tongue: 

"The scarred city."

Chapter Text

"Hoi Toroko!" A voice rang out through the house, making Toroko jump. Jack leapt onto the stairs and cupped his paws around his mouth. "King told me to wake you up!" Jack yelled, his voice ringing up the stairs. The door then slammed open as King kicked it hard, lowered his footpaw, and bolted inside as Jack scrambled up the steps. "That was my job, Jack!" The pink-eyed mimiga barked. Jack simply grinned impishly. "Well I beat you to it, number one!" He shouted down the stairs as he shot up the steps and threw himself onto the door to Toroko's room, which flipped open, causing the hat wearing mimiga to fall into the room at Toroko's footpaws.

He pulled his body from the floor and dusted himself off before clearing his throat and looking at Toroko. The female mimiga in question tossed her cloak (a light green garment with gold embellishments at the corners and a bright yellow button fashioned at the bottom of the hood) on her body and looked towards Jack and blinked. "King wants me, I assume?" She questioned. Jack nodded. "He wanted to know if you were all packed and ready."

"And that was my job!" Yelled King as the purple robed mimiga barged inside the room and stood at the door, his arms in a wide stance that made Toroko snicker. Jack coughed into his hand as the cloaked mimiga dragged out the bag she had finished packing the night before. "And also yes, I am indeed packed." She said, gesturing to the bag on the floor, before remembering something: her sabre. She turned to King. "Is my sabre still at Raven's place?" She asked. The pink-eyed mimiga shrugged. "I believe so." He said. "Alright then!" Toroko crowed as she hop-skipped to the door of her room and went down the stairs. "Come back when you get the sword!" Jack called downstairs to her. "I will!" She shouted back as she opened the door, leaving her house and entering the village.

***

Toroko's short ears were immediately filled with sound as she stood still for a second, soaking up the light and the atmosphere of the village and then started to walk, looking at the various buildings for the last time in a while and started to reflect on everything. 'Four years...' She thought. 'Four years since I met Sue and her family... Four years since the Doctor attacked... Four years since Quote killed him and saved everyone...' She glanced at a statue that was made of him.

The mimiga stopped and stared at the stone image of the little robot, his kindness seeping through the carved rock as he held a mimiglet in his right arm and his Polar Star in his left hand, as a beaten and battered incarnation of the Demon Crown was trapped under his foot, never again to corrupt anyone into insanity.

'Four years... Since Arthur died...'

It didn't hurt as much as it did then, but it still hurt nonetheless. Toroko started slowly away from the statue, before picking up her pace, running up the stairs of the store tower and bolting across the path before skidding to a halt and looking at the town hall for a second and resumes her dash to the cemetery.

After some time, she managed to get to Arthur's grave. She looked at the foot of the gravestone and saw that the second key to her house had, in fact, been returned to her brother after all. Toroko took a deep breath in and opened her mouth.

"Hey Arthur, are you there? It's me, Toroko, your baby sister. Are you happy, wherever you are? It's been four years since the Doctor killed you, but it's great now! We have more lumps of critter cheese than the fingers of all four of your paws!" Tears were in her eyes, but she continued. "And we've packed some in our food bag too! And bat milk as well! And lots and lots of flowers and fish! Even the blue flowers! And at the top of the island, we have a ship that can take us to the surface so we can visit Sue and the others! Isn't that great? And... And... We have chocolate too...!

Toroko then crumpled to the floor and started to sob voicelessly. After a little while, she managed to stifle the flow of her tears and took a deep breath in and out.

"I'm sorry."

Don't be.

The cloaked mimiga got up and looked around, swearing up and down in her head that she had heard Arthur's voice.

"Well..." She turned away from her brother's grave.

"Goodbye, I guess."

See you later.

Toroko said nothing, yet smiled before hopping down the hills of the cemetery and getting to the entrance.

See you later, oh great warrior.

Chapter Text

After leaving the cemetery, Toroko composed herself, remembering that she needed to get her sabre, which was at Raven's forge. The teenage mimiga made her way throughout the village before coming across and unfortunate sight. Balrog was being cornered and harassed with sticks by the four colons, Semi, Apostrophe, Bracket, and Comma.

"What's going on here?" Toroko asked with a snicker. "We're hitting him with sticks!" Comma shouted with glee. "Save me..." Squeaked Balrog. Toroko nearly choked trying to stifle her laughter. "Okay! You kids have fun now!"

The teenage mimiga cheered and continued to assault the oversized winged golem with their branches as Toroko smirked and left the scene. "Now..." She said to herself. "Onto the forge!"

***

After some climbing and jumping, Toroko managed to reach the door of Raven's forge. She knocked on the door, only to find that it was already open.

"Hey Raven!" The cloaked mimiga yelled into the house. "Where's my fucking sabre?"

There was a rustling amongst a few of the boxes right before a black-furred paw burst out of the pile of wooden crates, along with the rest of the mimiga's body, which was coal black with a green tunic and a brown apron. Raven dug his paw into one of the crates, only to pull it out again. "Wait..." He said before grabbing a hammer and waving it around. "The one with the green and gold, right?" Toroko rolled her shoulders back. "I believe so." She answered.

"Crow!" Raven called out. Crow poked their head out of a doorway. "What?" The black-brown mimiga asked. "Where's the sabre with the green and gold handle?" Raven questioned. Crow's head perked up as they sped over to a table with various metal items on it and scanned it with their eyes, soon finding the blade in question, grabbing it by the handle and raising it in the air for all of the people in the room to see.

"This the one?" They questioned. "Yes!" Toroko said, nodding eagerly.
"Well, here you go!" Crow said as they handed Toroko her sabre. "Thanks!" The cloaked mimiga said as she tested the blade on the pad of her index finger. As she got up and started to walk out of the forge, Raven put his left paw on her shoulder. "Hey." He said. "Do you wanna... Test the blade on us?" The coal furred mimiga asked. Toroko blinked. "Like a duel?" Raven nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Exactly like a duel!" She turned her head towards the blacksmith. "So... You want me to fight you and Crow?" "Yes." He said. She put a finger to her face and lifted her sabre, letting it glimmer in the warm light of the smith duo's fireplace. She cracked a grin. "Sure, why not?" Toroko scoffed boldly.

"Alrighty then!" Raven chuckled loudly as Crow pulled out another metal hammer and slapped their right paw with it's handle. Raven grabbed his hammer and dashed towards Toroko with it, and tried to hit her on the head with it, but failed as the cloaked mimiga swung her blade and countered the hammer before lunging to the blacksmith and kicking him in the crotch, swinging him on to Crow, and jumping back to the edge of the table before hopping on it. "Holy shit." Crow muttered. "She's good." Raven simply coughed while trying not to throw up. "Does that mean she wins?" The writhing mimiga croaked. Crow shrugged, putting away their hammer. "I guess so." 

Toroko jumped off the table and on to the floor, dusting herself off before looking at Raven and wincing. "Ooh... Sorry about kicking you in the balls..." Raven shot back up on to his bottom paws, grimacing as he did so, and shook his head. "We asked for a fight, and god damn if you didn't give us one!" He chuckled. As Toroko turned to leave, Crow leapt in front of her, blocking her path. "You're leaving today, right?" He asked. The cloaked mimiga cocked her head. "For the surface? Yeah." Crow moved out of her way. "Well then, me and Raven wish you happy travels!" Toroko smiled. "Thank you, Raven and Crow!" She called out as she left the forge of Raven and Crow, the blacksmith duo, not to return for a very long time.