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Vox Machina, now reunited with their long-lost bard, gather at the Sun Tree; the news of another black orb on a different continent concerning most of the party and delaying the leave of others. Emotions are still running high with every member, most are torn between feelings about Scanlan’s return. Pike throws a bag of cookies at him, and the group falls into a moment of still awkwardness before Keyleth turns around to face them.
“Are we ready to go to Ank’Harel?”, she says slightly louder than appropriate as she begins preparing her teleportation spell. Vex turns casts a brief glance around the group and quickly notices that a member of their party is missing.
“Wait, Grog isn’t here. Has anyone seen him this morning?” Murmurs surround the group as there is no affirmation of the Goliath’s presence.
“Hold on, I’ll go and find him, I’m going to check his room,” Vex quickly jogs back towards the castle, passing the guards who give her a nod as she enters. She finds her way up to Grog’s room and knocks on the door.
“Grog? Are you there? We’re leaving for Ank’Harel now, we need to go.” A few moments pass with no response from inside the room. She tries the door, finding it unlocked, and pushes the door open.
“Grog?” she asks warily. Once she steps into the room, Vex immediately gasps at the sight of torn bedding, broken pots and decorations, the bed visibly broken and thrown across the room. There are minute spots of blood pushed into various fabric laying on the ground, and as she looks around the room her eyes are drawn to the corner furthest from her.
There, in the corner of the sundered room, is the Goliath she has known looking smaller than he ever has before. He is sat with his back against the wall, knees up to his chest and arms around himself – almost like he is protecting himself – and his knuckles are battered and bloody. Vex has a moment where she thinks he looks like a distraught child, and the thought is confirmed when she notices dried tear tracks on his cheeks. Her heart pounds in her chest as she is physically taken aback at his current position – he has rarely cried in all the years they’ve known him.
She carefully walks in front of him and kneels on the ground, trying to avoid the broken pieces of his room surrounding him. Slowly, she reaches up and clasps one of his bloodied hands.
“Grog, what happened? Are you-” She tries to speak before he shakes his head and interrupts her.
“I’m not going. Not with him.” His voice is muffled as doesn’t lift his face from between his arms as he speaks, doesn’t look at Vex in front of him. She can feel her own tears starting to well in her eyes at the sight of him.
“We need you for this, this might be our last mission with Tary, we may finally know what the orb does. We can’t do it without you.” Vex tries to plead as gently as she can, still clutching his unmoving hand. Grog’s position doesn’t change, and a few moments pass.
“Grog-“
“Can I ask you a question, Vex?” He speaks suddenly, but quietly. His hand gently, without any strength, holds hers.
“Of course, dear, anything.”
“Y’know when Pike does her resurrection thing, and some of us try and get people back, right?” He pauses briefly, swallows, and continues, “with Scanlan’s, it was me, and Pike, and Kaylie. We all did our stuff to get him back. Before he left, he said he heard Pike and Kaylie.”
He finally lifts his head, and looks up at Vex. She can finally see that his eyes are bloodshot, and his brow is furrowed in a sadness she has never seen in him before.
“Why didn’t he hear me?”
Vex visibly shrinks into herself, and she feels a pain in her heart.
“Sometimes, darling,” she holds his hand tighter, “the offerings aren’t powerful enough, or not strong enough, to bring them back. Pike says that when their soul has been lost before, it’s harder to bring them back each time.” She gently smiles at him, as if to try and tell him that it’s okay, but it doesn’t seem to reach him.
“Not strong enough.” Grog repeats her, and lowers his head slightly, breaking eye contact. He lets his legs unfurl in front of him, careful not to knock her. He does it slowly, and Vex realises he has probably sat in this corner for many hours. His hand is still in hers.
A minute passes as Grog thinks to himself, and Vex is too nervous to break the silence in the room. She waits for him to think, trying to get his gaze to meet her eyes. She rubs his knuckles, attempting some sort of comfort to the large man in front of her.
“Lionel’s strong. Big. Got a great sword.” Grog pauses, still unable to look Vex in the eye. “I punched him.”
“I heard you had a bit of a fight in the tavern. Why did you punch him, dear?”
“Scanlan called him his best man.”
Her motions on his hand pause. Vex’s eyes go wide as she can almost physically feel her heart break; she realises why Grog has ruined his room in anger, and then seemingly cried in a corner for a whole night. She feels the tears start to slide down her cheeks.
“He replaced me. Got another Grog. Didn’t need me.”
Her tears flow faster and as he looks up at her, she can see the tears in his eyes.
“Wasn’t strong enough.”
She releases the grip on his hand and flings herself towards him, pulling him into the strongest hug she can muster. She cries into his neck, and she feels his arms come around her and pull her in as delicately as he can. She feels no strength behind his grip, and she cries harder. She holds him against her for a full minute, and feels him almost shake. His breathing is heavy against hers.
She pulls back, moving her hands to each side of his face. Vex feels his jaw clenching and teeth grinding beneath the skin. She tilts his head to look at her.
“You are, and always have been, strong enough. For all of us. You’ve saved us all a lot over the years, and you’ve always had our back in every moment. You’ve always been strong enough for us.” She moves one hand away from him to wipe her own tears from her face. His face is still furrowed in pure sadness. “We love you, Grog. I’m so sorry.”
Grog gives a small smile. It’s the best sight Vex has seen since she walked into the room. She rubs her thumb on his cheek.
In the next few seconds, Vex thinks rapidly of ways to fix this mess they are in. She was so happy to see Scanlan, but his presence seems to have unravelled the entire party. She wants to see him and talk to him again, catch up, try to get things right; but she can’t leave Grog here – not when he’s the most upset she’s ever seen him. Pike was at least talking to Scanlan, although not happily, but it was a slightly easier situation to fix. Grog didn’t even want to look at Scanlan right now. An idea pops into her head.
“We can’t leave you here darling, not right now. But I have something that might help?” She lets go of his face, and reaches behind her neck. She takes off her necklace, Raven’s Slumber, and holds it out in her hand.
“I-I can put you in here. You can come with us, and you won’t need to see him. And when there’s a problem, or when Scanlan’s gone, I’ll let you out. I can check up on you when we’re alone. Is that okay?” Her hand is visibly shaking as she holds it towards him.
Grog takes the necklace from her hand, simply holds it for a moment. He thinks to himself before nodding, and his weary smile returns. Vex smiles back. She pulls him in for another hug, clutching him and whispering a small incantation. The wounds on his hands heal, the splits between the knuckles sew back together. As she pulls back, she gives him a kiss on the cheek.
“We’ll fix this, I promise.”
Grog smiles, and stands up. He offers his hand to pull her off the ground and she takes it, holding it for a moment longer before letting go. She takes the necklace back and releases Trinket into the room. Vex looks back towards him, and with a weary smile she offers the necklace back towards him.
“Thank you, Vex.” His voice is quiet in the room. He reaches out and touches the necklace with one finger, before swirling arcane energy briefly encompasses him and Grog disappears within the jewellery. She puts the necklace back around her neck as Trinket nudges against her leg. She reaches and pets his head and behind his ears.
“You’re walking today, buddy. Grog needs this more than you right now.”
---
When Vex returns to the Sun Tree, without Grog but with Trinket by her side, the rest of Vox Machina stand there confused. She still has tear marks down her cheeks and is ruffling Trinket’s fur as she walks. Vax is the first to step towards her.
“Where’s Grog? Is he okay? Did you find him?” Vax streams questions at her quickly before she can say a word. He notices the tear marks on her cheeks, and gives her a frightened look.
“I’ve got him.” She holds the necklace close to her heart. She turns slightly away from the group, an attempt at hiding what she was about to say.
“He’s heartbroken, Vax. I don’t know how to fix it.”
Vex swears that, out of the corner of her eye, she sees Scanlan’s expression drop to one of grief, and the gnome looks down at his feet.