Lightbleed Fury

"Well, you're just as glib as a shiv, aren'tcha?"

As if this guy could possibly know anything about what Glimmer's been through in the past few weeks.

Watching a commander you respect die at the hands of a Kevesi off-seer the very day after he'd asked you to kill him, because it was more interesting than any other way for him to die, and he refused to make it to Homecoming, until you pleaded with him not to think that way, and that you'd both swear to make it to Homecoming together, because you were so snuffing close--

So impatient, that Shimmer. And yeah, Glimmer gets impatience. She's got exactly zero tolerance for the fish stories Shulk and Rex are trying to feed her, one generally more serious than the other but at least being consistent about it. She thinks Nikol's an idiot, even though realistically if she steps back a pace she can see that he's just a scared kid doing his best, same as her. She thinks Matthew's an even bigger idiot, halfway to turning into one of the big guys, but he brings A along, and A at least has a cool, respectable head.

Respectable. When Glimmer considers the way she's been treated now versus the way the Consuls had lorded and paraded around, apart from the whole disregarding-her-life's-dream and shoving-good-food-down-her-throat, she sees that fighting for Agnus, for the Queen, doesn't hold a candle to the gravity of the Liberators' crusade.

Real people. She's a real person. Her name, her thoughts, her memories and her transition, can all carry forward for fifty more terms, a dozen if she makes her mark well and the fight against Moebius ends in a victory. The Liberators' definition of victory, not just killing all the other guys. Closure. Legacy.

Shimmer's name, the one they'd chosen together, is something only she remembers. She'd speared that tall (though strangely hunched), superior Kevesi commander through, in her bereaved rage.

Joining the other liberated soldiers will be some small comfort, compared to the community Glimmer had had. Everyone clinging to their lives and to each other by their dirt-caked fingertips, getting more and more skilled with their Blades because they had to, there was no other sparking way.

Snuff, she just wants to see Shimmer again. His smile. His laugh. His song. Just wants to know that the constants she'd anchored herself by were real.

Instead, she's got to go on alone. This new fight...really, it's not good enough.

"I was somebody, before."

"You're somebody now, Glim," Rex says, gently as he can muster. "That's all we want you to know."

(His general conviction is that nobody's anybody, under the Flame Clocks, but he does sorta get what she's goin' for: having a reputation, having tight posse, it gave you some context. It's not that she wants to die. Think how shocking it'd have been if Jin had declared that he loved his lot in life, and wanted to keep it for all Bladekind, forever. But he was damn good at bein' a Blade, wasn't he?)

I need more time, Glimmer wants to say, but what's the point? Time will move whether she wants it to or not. She doesn't actually want more time. She wants what she had before, where she didn't even have to think about it.

Was Shimmer the last straw? Would she have been okay, taking on this paradigm shift with him by her side?

That one telltale piece of her constitution that had made it all fit. Worn to just the right size and shape, molded to Glimmer's rough edges. Like they were born to fight together.

"I guess you're right."

She'll have to live on for him. Have to prove that it's worth it.