Return of the one long gone

When the war ends, everything stills

The wedding was in a couple of hours and Lizzie was beginning to regret letting Scott walk out of their lives again. Not only because she would have loved to have him at the wedding, but also because he was skilled at calming people down, even though he seemed cold and heartless.

She knew he wasn't going to be there. He had made it clear he wouldn't be returning, the implication of forever laying between them, sat on his tongue, waiting to be true. And Lizzie knew it was for the best, she couldn't let the work he had put in, the sacrifices he had made for the safety of the remaining 11 rulers, go to waste.

- - - -

Jimmy wanted to be in Joel's place as he fiddled with the latter's tie. He wanted to be the one marrying the love of his life and stressing that everything wasn't perfect, or that he would get to the alter and his fiancé would reject him and run, never to be seen again. That was kind of Scott, although they weren't married yet and Jimmy woke up with nothing but a goodbye note and an empty bed.

"Jimmy the tie looks fine." Jimmy just met his eyes, sighed, and relented. Joel was old enough to fix it by himself, he just wanted a taste of what his own wedding could have looked like. "Also please stop staring into space, what's on your mind mate?" 

How did he exaplin to Joel he was currently engaged to a man they haven't seen in two years and could possibly be dead. "Just..thinking 'bout Scott. Lizzie wanted everyone here." Joel nodded, smiling at him before saying, "Yeah. I'm sure if he had known, he would have come."

- - - -

Joel despises lying to Jimmy, about Scott and having no clue, about how Jimmy is under the impression no one has seen Scott since he disappeared. He knew he had to, otherwise he would have the issue of keeping Jimmy from going to look for him, just because he wants Lizzie's wedding to be perfect, and to make sure he came home safe to his friends and alliances.

Because that's who Jimmy was, a crowd pleaser who hated seeing anyone upset unless he was blinded by his own emotions to catch anyone else's. Joel admired that about his soon-to-be brother-in-law. 

- - - -

They decided to have their wedding in the church of Aeor to have something of Scott's with them, or around them, as they got married. They put up a couple of the Mezalea and Ocean Kingdom banners, but left the majority of the Rivendell ones, in respect of their friend.

Lizzie hadn't realized how pretty it looked until she was walking down the aisle towards Joel.

- - - -

Xornoth hated weddings. They were happy days that bonded two people for life in the eyes of the law. Sometimes that bond was forever, and other times it broke apart. He saw them as pointless events of cake, dancing, dresses and overpriced decorations and planning.

He was quite happy to ruin it.

- - - - 

The doors to the church flew open just as Lizzie had gotten to the alter. The figure that stood there wasn't human. It was covered in black, with tall horns. It had red eyes that stared into Jimmy's eyes as he returned it. The figure smirked as well, stepping forwards before stopping, eyes constantly trained on him, then to Joel, Lizzie and back to him.

It made Jimmy uncomfortable. He didn't know if this was his imagination, some hallucination because he was so stressed and happy and upset and overwhelmed, yet looking at anyone, heads turned towards it, he knew it was reality.

"Mortals." He sounded scarily similar to Scott. The accent almost identical, if not for the rough way they spoke. The colors were almost opposites to Scott's - that was knowledge he learnt in an art class one time. It had so many likeness' to Scott, but at the same time it was easy to see the differences. It seemed cruel and cold hearted, condescending and evil. None of that was Scott, not in any universe Jimmy could conjure in his mind.