[color=E0D6C0] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/wFqApY1.png[/img][/center][color=E0D6C0][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/fXzi00H.gif[/img][h1][b][color=30A4D9]Bastion[/color][/b][/h1][/center][center][/center]
[center]
[color=30A4D9][b]Race:[/b][/color] Warforged  
[color=30A4D9][b]Class:[/b][/color] Warrior  
[color=30A4D9][b]Location:[/b][/color] Airship; What's left of the bar side women's bathroom. 
[color=30A4D9][b]Interactions/Mentions:[/b][/color] Phia [@princess], Meiyu [@Tae]
[color=30A4D9][b]Equipment:[/b][/color]  
[hider=equipment][color=F9D972]☼[/color] Tower Shield  
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Greatsword made of Glacium (A material as hard as steel, yet formed from eternally frozen ice.)
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Titan Chain – A reinforced tow chain housed in his left palm, functioning as a powerful grappling hook.  
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Aged Leather Satchel   
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Worn but cherished scarf
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Maintenance Kit .
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Heavy-duty rations (for companions, not himself).  
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] A delicate glass figurine of a bird—an old keepsake.  
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] A locked, timeworn journal—contents unknown.  [/hider]
[color=30A4D9][b]Attire:[/b][/color]  
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Etched and weathered plating with bronze accents.  
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Fitted harness for carrying supplies.  
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Worn scarf 
[color=30A4D9][b]Gold Balance:[/b][/color] 49 gold
[color=30A4D9][b]Injuries:[/b][/color]  
[color=F9D972]☼[/color] Left shoulder was injured in the battle and is still leaking fluid.  
 [/center]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/wFqApY1.png[/img][/center][/color]
[hr]

The light had faded now. What remained was silence, save for the low hum that still lingered in the air like the echo of the artifact’s shattering. The crystalline fragment had buried itself into his chest… becoming one with the sun painted there by an old friend.

Bastion stood still for a long moment, one hand resting lightly over the glowing mark where the fragment now lived, bonded with his plating. His optics adjusted slowly to the wreckage. Blood soaked the grout and the smell of smoke and scorched porcelain hung sharp and bitter in the air. 

He turned his gaze toward Meiyu.

She was still standing, thankfully composed. The crystal pulsed just beneath her chest like a second soul, gleaming faintly within the silk she had pulled aside.

Her words were calm, but they carried more than weight… They carried purpose. 

[color=7DBC89]“That girl's heart nearly shattered with her ribs. Mind how you carry what's left.”[/color]

Bastion bowed his head slightly in quiet acknowledgment, his voice as gentle as could be.

[color=30A4D9]“I will.”[/color]

Before he could tend to Phia, his tone shifted, and with it came the truth. Talis was dead. He looked to the girl’s body, who only minutes ago had stood before him, wide eyed and anxious as an organic being could be. He had told her to drink water and had tried to be kind, and now she was gone. There were no words for that kind of failure.

He stepped toward her slowly… Not to touch or disturb her final rest, but to see her one last time. Just to remember.

[color=30A4D9]“Was I too slow? Could I have stopped this?”[/color]

He asked it softly, almost to himself.

But then…He heard the smallest voice coming from the girl that thankfully still lived.

[color=F97FCA]“Hello…”[/color]

It was barely a whisper, and it pulled him like a tether.

Phia’s body was battered but she was alive, and now she was awake. She looked up at him through swollen, tear-soaked eyes, her smile faint but real. Something about it struck him in a place deeper than his arcane core.

He knelt beside her carefully, his metal fingers brushed the floor to steady himself, and then slowly, reverently, he slid one arm beneath her knees and the other behind her shoulders. She was so light in his arms, barely registering to his Warforged strength, and so fragile at that moment. He lifted the sweet, injured girl from the blood-soaked floor beneath her, the warmth of his core could be felt against her even through his armored, ivory plating.

[color=30A4D9]“Hello, brave one.”[/color] Bastion responded oh so gently. 

His voice, for all its mechanical origin, was so quiet it felt human. He held her close, adjusting gently so her wounded arm would not jostle. Every step he took would be careful. Every breath she took would be guarded there in his arms. And within him, a thought surfaced...one he had never spoken aloud, not even to himself before now.

[color=30A4D9][i]This is what I was made for. Not war. Not orders. [/i] [b]This.[/b][/color]

Bastion turned to Meiyu one last time.

[color=30A4D9]“I’ll get her somewhere safe. See to the others if you can. There are injured among them as well.”[/color]

Then, with Phia in his arms, he carried her from the broken place where the crystal chose them and back out into the light of whatever might come next. [/color]