(A consecuted AU, where the Mighty Nein + Essek become locked an eternal reincarnation as they face foes they weren't able to beat in their past life. Disclaimer: I don't know how consecution works so... time to improvise!! This one is short, I'm sorry.

Word Count: 4520)

The first time he came back, he came back as a human in a small town strewn on the back fields of the Dwendalian Empire. Armon was his name. An only son to two parents that were far more loving than his first mother had been. They raised him together for years, teaching him to trap rabbits in the woods and stitch his stockings by the fire. His mother always told him that he was perfect but the other children thought him strange.

He didn't like to run or chase the other children, he never enjoyed the sunshine and seemed to be more comfortable under the night sky, and he always felt like he was forgetting something. 

Always... forgetting...

They were trapped. That was an irrefutable fact; the air was stuffy and stale, clinging to his lungs like a heavy fog. Someone was crying softly, someone familiar. 

"It'll be alright, Jester," someone assured.

"But what about my Mama? What if I never see her again!?"

"Jester... we won't see her either way," a defeated voice murmured.

"... This is not... preferrable, but the beacon is here... and we still have unfinished business," echoed a familiar voice in Armon's head, a voice that felt strangely like his own. "The only way we can be certain that someone stops this... is if we stop it ourselves. In another life."

Armon woke up in a cold sweat, gripping the sheets of his bed. The crickets outside were playing their midnight tunes to the still night. His hands were clammy and his entire body felt like it had just spent a day out in the fields, sweating and straining. His lungs still felt heavy and he could smell the dusty air of the underground hanging on his breaths.

He spent the rest of that night with his windows open, staring up at the stars, smiling at that familiar feeling of peace that came with the night. His peculiar dream fell by the wayside.

When he was eight, he found a stray cat in the barn. A tabby cat with large eyes and soft orange fur that purred like rolling thunder.

"His name is Frumpkin," Armon told his parents proudly.

"Frumpkin?" his mother murmured. "Why Frumpkin, love?"

"That's what my friend's cat was named," Armon answered.

"Which friend?"

Armon froze and looked at the cat in his arms uncertainly. He couldn't... remember. Which friend? He didn't exactly have many... and he couldn't remember which one of them had cats.

"I... don't remember," he answered.

His mother only laughed and ruffled his hair. "So forgetful."

When he was nine, he did magic. It was so simple it was hard to believe he hadn't done it before. He couldn't believe everyone thought it was incredible. His father had gone on the roof to fix the shingles for the spring rains had brought the spring leaks, and his footing gave way. Armon's hands had moved on their own accord, gesturing as his lips spoke words he didn't recognize. His father tumbled from the roof but froze midair, levitating feet from the grass. 

The shock on both of their faces spoke to the awe that the situation brought. 

From that day on, Armon experimented with magic. He found himself staying up late at night rolling foreign words on his tongue while his fingers moved in ways familiar yet alien. 

"Dunamancy is one of the most peculiar schools of magic, yet one of the most fascinating, at least in my opinion."

"Ja, it is... incredible, certainly."

Armon's fingers froze from their strange movements as his eyes narrowed, his consciousness struggling to grasp that misty memory that smelled of old parchment and ink. It was so terribly familiar that Armon felt sick. Frumpkin padded over and curled up next to him, purring while Armon struggled with himself.

Why couldn't he remember who owned these voices?

Why did he remember those voices in the first place?

When he was ten, his father took him into a large town to sell furs. He helped his father set up the tent and display the rabbit pelts before his father set him free. He wandered the bizarre, ducking under tents and gazing at the wares. Shiny baubles and glimmering jewels glittered in the sun while the smells of baked goods tempted all of the many travelers.

One smell filled Armon's nose and he froze, struck by a strange familiarity. He wandered over to a warm tent with a simple layout of desserts. There was a portable clay furnace sitting behind the seller that tempted everyone with a sweet sugary scent of bread. Armon went on his tip toes to peek over the high towers of baked goods, peering into the fire.

"Anything I can get you?" the pudgy man over the counter asked warmly.

"What are those?" Armon asked as he pointed to the goods in the furnace.

The baker laughed, "These are just some bearclaws, a Nicodranian recipe."

Armon's eyed up the deserts, something in the back of his mind was prickling, begging him to remember.

"Do you want one? Only cost you a copper, special deal just for you," the baker offered.

"I... can't remember," Armon murmured as he furrowed his brow.

"What?"

"Can't... remember..."

"I'll take one," a new voice called startling both Armon and the baker. An older woman seemed to have silently appeared on the other side of the tent. A scar ran down the side of her face and all of her graying hair had been drawn to one side. Something about her was... unnerving.

"Two... actually, as long as their fresh out of the oven," she murmured.

"Oh! Of course!" the baker smiled as he pulled out the tray and began putting together the order.

The woman looked over to Armon who suddenly realized he'd been staring. She smiled at him.

"Can't... remember," Armon breathed.

The woman looked a bit confused by those words.

"Here you are - " the baker began before he unceremoniously tripped on his own feet and sent the order flying. Both Armon and the woman muttered strange words at once, the woman saving the food while Armon stopped the man from falling on his face as he had once done with his father.

The shock on both of their faces outshone the surprised yelp of the baker.

The woman dropped her money on the counter as she put the deserts into a hand basket before she came over and looked down to Armon.

"That was impressive magic for someone so young, do you study?" she asked.

"N - no, I... was... I... I taught myself," Armon answered, unsure of why the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end.

The woman hummed and studied Armon closely, "Do you live around here?"

Wordlessly, Armon nodded, pointing down the road that led to his parent's house.

The woman nodded and extended her hand, "My name is Astrid, and you are?"

"A-Armon, but I... can't... You... I know you?" Armon couldn't help but turn that statement into a question.

Astrid smiled. "Likely, I run the Solstryce Academy. Have you ever heard of that?"

Armon... hadn't? He didn't think so.

"It's a school, in Rexxingtrum," he recalled. How did he remember that?

"It is," Astrid nodded. 

"You're part of the Cerberus Assembly," Armon realized.

The world stopped to Armon as those familiar words left his lips sending his heart plummeting into his gut. Why? Why did those words make him feel like he should glance over his shoulder, look for dangers? His body began backing away taking small, uncertain steps away from this woman.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she smiled and while her words were soft, they struck something cold in Armon's heart, something foreign and knowing.

"I... I need to go," Armon murmured before turning to flee. He disappeared into the market, his heart racing, pounding in his head as it drowning out all else. The sun seemed unbearable bright now, burning his eyes as he tried to find his father's tent in all the madness. There were emotions, thoughts, memories that weren't his. Things begging to burst through the surface and destroy this fragile state of mind, it drove Armon mad as the piercing headache screamed for attention, demanded his complete compliance. He risked a glance back and was relieved to find the woman hadn't followed him, though he was still unsure as to why he was so scared.

The fear stuck around like a wound for the rest of the day, digging further and further into Armon's sanity as the boy tried to come to grips with his irrational terror. His parents noticed, doting and asking what was wrong, but he...

He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember!

He lay in bed that night, tossing and turning, clinging to Frumpkin and crying as his mind screamed that this was wrong...

There were flashes... colors... incomprehensible murmurs, shouts, and yells that slowly lulled him to sleep with soggy eyes and quiet whimpers.

The Cerberus Assembly

Those words... Those people... Why were they so familiar?

"We have no choice!" a woman yelled. "We either die here and let those bastards get away with it, or we come back with a vengeance!"

"Beau, it's their choice," a softer voice murmured. "But I am with you."

"Ja... me too."

"All in favor... gather round," that was his voice. Armon knew it was his voice... no... no it wasn't Armon's voice... it wasn't... "Consecution is possible with one drow, though I'm rather unskilled at the subject... this may take a while..."

"Take as much time as you need, Essek."

Essek.

Essek.

Essek.

𝙰̶𝚛̶𝚖̶𝚘̶𝚗̶ suddenly was able to connect all of the dots, draw all of the lines.

They were trapped, miles underground, held captive in an anti-magic prison, and left for dead by the damned Cerberus Assembly. There was no way to call for help, no way to teleport. Their weapons only did so much to the stone walls and their food was running low.

How long had they been down here? Months? Half a year? They'd survived on Caleb's surplus of bobas but even those were running low. Time was running out. And yet, it was the same debate as always.

Veth, Jester, and Caduceus arguing with Beau, Caleb, and himself. Fjord and Yasha were non-partial, both holding a firm belief that what they were about to do was a choice. The others weren't so certain.

Veth didn't want to leave her family, nor did Jester, both were still clinging to that sliver of hope of rescue, both were desperate. Caduceus wasn't so argumentative as he was empathetic to other's concerns. Reincarnation wasn't something the Wild Mother particularly condemned, but it wasn't completely natural and Caduceus wasn't one easily swayed from the natural cycle.

Beau and Caleb, on the other hand, were adamant. It was all or nothing. Consecution was a last resort but it was also their only option. There was a higher chance of at least one person reincarnating in time to stop the Cerberus Assembly from accomplishing their goal.

Essek believed this too... but his stance was more selfish.

"I... want to see you all again," he murmured as he looked down at the beacon they had stolen from the Cerberus Assembly, the reason for. It was stowed in Jester's bag and while Essek was certain that the moment they were dead, this beacon would be taken into the Assembly's hands, perhaps it could be their salvation. He looked up at his friends and felt tears building much like the lump of guilt in his throat.

"I want us to be together again..." he managed.

"That's not selfish," Caduceus assured him. "I think we all would like to wish for more time."

"But we can have it," Essek pleaded. "Magic may not work down here but the rights of consecutive is something beyond magic. There's no spell nor outside source needed... I can do it... This prison keeps all of our magic contained... but it cannot contain this... it cannot contain us if we do this."

The images flew by now, the entirety of life compiled into a collection of random flashes that encapsulated the consciousness. Snippets of words and instances, images of faces and places, even smells, all of it flew by in a tidal wave of memories, drowning the boy who held them.

"Essek! The point of the game is to CATCH the ball!"

"Such a bright mind for someone so young, you, boy, have potential."

"I have no time to waste with a disrespectful son such as you."

"THEN LEAVE, FATHER!"

"Thank you, Shadowhand."

"Essek, would you like to have dinner with us??? It would be fun~"

"Truly, this is fascinating magic. And you created some of these spells?"

"I have."

"Incredible."

"You have some explaining to do."

"Maybe you and I are both damned. But we can choose to do something and leave it better than it was before."

"Maybe you should try friends sometime."

Essek flew up from where he slept. Tears streamed down his face as he tore out of his room and out of the house, ignoring Armon's parents as they scrambled out of bed after him.

"CALEB!" Essek screamed as he ran into the night, the weight of the situation crashing on his shoulders. "JESTER!? YASHA! CADUCEUS!? Veth? Fjord? Beau?"

His voice died out as he collapsed to his knees, hugging himself and sobbing.

Light, they had died. They had died down in that prison. He had watched them all waste away until he too had slipped away, crying as he disappearing into the light of the Luxon. His skin crawled to remember how cold death had felt, how lonely he had been.

They all had died.

They all had been consecuted but were they back? Where they trapped in the Luxon? How would he find them!? How could he let this happen!?

"Armon!" his mother cried. "Armon what are you doing?"

Essek only continued to weep, collapsing on the earth and gripping the lush soil beneath him.

"I'll find you," he swore, his sobs catching in his throat. "I find all of you. I promise."

So Essek, not Armon, Essek, began scheming. He told no one - deceit was nothing new to him and... Essek couldn't help the desire to protect his parents from the truth. How could he explain the truth of it? That he was an enemy of the state reincarnated as their child? How could... how could they live with that? They wouldn't, Essek would make certain.

Besides, there was still his real family to find... his friends.

They would make their way to Rexxingtrum, one way or another, they would all find themselves trying to exact vengeance for their killers. Why? Because that's exactly what Essek wanted to do. He wanted to find those bastards and make them pay... make them beg for mercy after what they'd done.

So, when the Solstryce Academy recruited him at age thirteen, how could Essek resist an open invitation into enemy lines? This time, he didn't bat an eye when he faced Caleb's old friend; Astrid. She'd gotten older, significantly older, it made Essek wonder if all of the old men he wanted to strangle had been saved by timely age.

He knew the halls of that school was dangerous, he knew it was foolish to be so ambitious, especially when he had no idea where another beacon was... especially if this could be his last life. But... it was not to be, as it was in those halls that he found an old friend.

Essek had taken to be clever, trying to pick out mannerisms that the Mighty Nein would recognize. He made a reputation as a student who loved to hover everywhere. He was often scolded for pride but he couldn't care less what these foolishly young teachers thought of him. He was hundreds of years beyond them and he had friends to find. If they were in these halls, they would recognize his method he would find them.

One day, as he hovered, he glanced at a younger human boy who stared at him like a ghost. The boy clung to his school books and looked a bit more horrified than relieved. There was something about his light blue eyes that struck Essek as warmly familiar.

He had a feeling about who that could be and made it his mission to find out.

They shared no classes but Essek wasn't one to be so easily discouraged. He found the boy during lunch break and calmly sat down reading everything about this stranger, straining to make out familiar mannerisms.

The boy curled in around himself and glanced at Essek warily.

"Mind if I sit next to you?" Essek posed kindly.

"Uh... no," the boy murmured, scratching his arms nervously. Essek knew that nervous twitch... good to know bad habits literally couldn't die.

"I think you mean, Nein," Essek smiled making the boy look at him stunned.

"Who - "

"Caleb? Wasn't it?" Essek asked.

The boy's eyes widened and his face lit up.

"I had a feeling... Oh how I hoped it was you," he murmured.

Essek smirked, "So we meet again, Mr. Widoghast."

When the Solstryce Academy burned down five years later, Headmaster Astrid received a puzzling report. Two boys with wizarding skills beyond their years had carved a disturbing message in the rubble of the building.

 The Mighty Nein Live

Astrid couldn't help but smile as tears of joy flickered in her eyes. She had always thought it was peculiar that those two boys seemed to know her so well...

Bren lived...

And so... so did his friends.

Twenty-three years after the mercenary group known as the "Mighty Nein" mysteriously disappeared, they returned. They returned with a vicious vengeance and took down the Cerberus Assembly single-handedly. Not a day had passed it seemed for them and while many considered this unfathomable or insane, they underestimated the power of the luxon and a transformation spell created by two wizards and their cursed halfling friend.

The group stole a beacon from the crumbling Assembly and then disappeared into the lands, popping up now and again with familiar shenanigans as they took of monsters, lynches, and gods.

Two years later, they were killed by a group of Kryn Soldiers who stole the beacon back.

The second time Essek came back, he came back as a bugbear in the Kryn dynasty.

It only took him five years to remember why he hated certain things about this place. It only took another ten to find everyone else and a mere two months to collect all of the resources required to put them back in their familiar bodies. They exacted their vengeance as teenagers, rooting out their betrayers in the Kryn dynasty, appealing to the Queen (and possibly stealing another beacon - but who was counting?)

They became living legends. Unkillable, unstoppable. If you killed one of them, they would be back within a month. If you killed all of them, they'd return within decades. They held great power and high political standing. They killed gods, dethroned kings, watched empires rise and fall. Some even considered them gods after a few centuries. That was far from the truth.

Essek didn't feel so powerful or untouchable after his fifth reincarnation. He felt... tired. Tired yet... fulfilled. For the first time in his life, the Mighty Nein didn't have too many vast catastrophes to face. There were no fake gods to dethrone, no hellish abyssal creatures, no ethereal beasts just... the normal political turmoil and random monsters that could easily be dealt with by lesser adventurers coming into their own strength.

"You know... I've been thinking," Caduceus murmured one day. "I think we're all a little tired. What if... I think it's time I retired."

He was met with silence.

"I know it may be scary, but... I'd like to go home," Caduceus looked to them all, the picture of composure. "It's been so long since we've ever even thought about ending all this that it's... strange. But... I think we've done what we first wanted to do, right? The Cerberus Assembly is gone, peace has been reached between the Empire and the Dynasty, there's... there's nothing really left to fight unless we go out looking for it."

"But it's still there, there will always be some asshole in power that... that ruins everything," Beau began.

"But... that's not our place to stop Beau. We... we never signed up to be the judge or the jury. We aren't supposed to be... we shouldn't put everything on our shoulders. There will be others like us who can deal with those problems... we can't be expected to protect everyone forever. We shouldn't be expected to," Caduceus explained.

"So... we just... what? Retire?" Veth asked.

Caduceus smiled and looked to the North. "Yeah... I think... I think there's a place for us, at least there's a place for me that I would like to return to."

Essek allowed himself to think for a moment about what that would look like. A peaceful life... an actual death.

"I think... I think I'd like that," Jester smiled.

Essek looked over at his friends as they sat in Caleb's wizard tower and smiled. The group all then looked to the beacon they had sitting on a shelf, the beacon they always had with them.

"Yes... I think that... I think that would be very nice," Essek agreed.

Because he had been thinking about this cycle they were trapped in. It seemed that every so often, they would find respite in one life only for something new a terrible to emerge, forcing them back into the fray. Eternal life had quickly grown... boring, empty even. Essek couldn't fathom trying to live forever without these chaotic friends to give him something to live for. The thrill of learning and seeking knowledge was still tempting, calling him to every library or beckoning him to the many old ruins they'd stumbled upon, but the end goal seemed empty compared to warm nights full of laughs and jokes. Essek's fantasies no longer included recognition or the complete understanding of fate or the Luxon, they included warm nights on the beach under the Nicodranas stars or the cool afternoons in the shade of trees listening to the playful bantering that came with Caduceus's family garden.

He wanted to keep those feelings forever... keep that feeling in his heart like the flicker of a bright star in the sky.

"If you are done, Caduceus, I think... I think we're all done," Fjord spoke, looking to everyone for confirmation. "I mean... gosh I never thought about... I mean I did, this has to end eventually, doesn't it? We can't... We can't be expected to save the day every time, right?"

"We can't live forever," Caduceus nodded.

"We stick together, that's why we did this, right?" Yasha murmured. "If... if we are done with... all of this... we... we will still be together right?"

"Of COURSE, Yasha!" Jester nodded eagerly. "We can stick together all the time! We can go to Nicodranas and get a nice little house by the beach! Fjord can get a ship!"

"We could still have some adventure on the high seas," Fjord chuckled.

"Count me in," Beau concurred.

"A-and Veth, isn't your great grandkid still in Nicodranas?" Fjord asked as he gestured to the halfling.

"Unless she's gone adventuring too," Veth smiled warmly as she thought of her family who had so readily followed in her footsteps.

"Perhaps..." Caleb murmured, "We could open a school." He looked to Essek who felt a surprising smile grace his lips. He knew Caleb had longed to be a teacher, a good teacher. The man had a calling to better the world and he saw promise in the youth.

"You'd want me to teach?" Essek chuckled.

"I think you'd be wonderful at it," Caleb smiled.

"I'm not too qualified to teach beginners."

"You taught me."

Before Essek could argue, Jester piped up.

"And Caduceus! We can travel up to ShadyCreek every summer and take care of the garden! Then go back to Nicodranas! We'll have a summer home!!" She clapped her hands eagerly at the thought.

"Hold on, are we serious about this? We're serious about making retirement plans?" Beau demanded.

"I... think so," Caduceus smiled warmly, one of his large ears flicking to show his happiness at the conversation.

Beau looked a little unsure of the thought.

"Beau..." Yasha murmured. "We... uh... we would still stay close. I know I'm not too good at words but... but we don't need...there doesn't have to be a threat that keeps us together. We're... we're all family, we can't... we will stay together as we have - have all of these lives, just this time... this time we don't have to find each other when this life is over."

"We could... return the beacon to the Dynasty," Veth offered.

"I feel like that would tell them we're not coming back," Beau denied. "I say we just do it. May keep the peace for a few decades until they realize we're gone for good."

"Like all of the good legends. We just go 'POOF'," Jester smiled eagerly. "Never seen again!"

"I like it. I think going 'poof' is a great idea," Caduceus concurred.

They sat in silence for a few moments, their faces a mixture of smiles and dreams of the future.

"It was fun being heroes," Fjord spoke finally. 

"Fun... and painful," Beau snickered as she rotated her sore shoulder, memories of earlier lives and the injuries that came with it filling her mind.

A lot of them, when Caleb had given their bodies back, had kept scars from their earlier lives on their figure, to remember the many battles they had fought, some of them they had erased from their mind. Caleb's arms were soft now, the scars removed lives ago. The thick scar down Beau's front from Yasha's blade was gone too. All of the scars that went deeper than skin were cleared away but all of the superficial ones weren't painful to remember, but rather fond remembrances. Quite a few littered Essek's body by choice. Those that reminded him of close calls and happy tired faces who grinned after they realized everyone was okay.

They'd been heroes for so long... it felt right to finally stop. To sit back, caress old scars, reminisce, and then sleep soundly knowing that they had changed the world for the better.

They'd be remembered far beyond their time, but Essek didn't want to live that long. Let him be remembered as a man who lived his dream and chose his end.

Let them all be remembered as Heroes uncorrupted by eternity.

Let them live. Let them be.