LU 117 - Tori 12

Silence echoes throughout the cavern corridors of Tori's home, ringing like unsung bells in the night, calling for sinners to gather. This defening silence isn't new to the winding ways of the condor's cave, the lack of sound seldom comforting compared to the constant bubbling lava and crackling fires of his home realm.
The sound of water trickling against cold stone, tapping at the walls of its undead occupant's tomb, travels from where Tori stands, staring at the mask next to him as water drips down his face.
The mask- or rather, a skull, sits on the condor's countertop, the bone now dry after countless lost years, decades, even centuries of grieving. It has weathered a great deal since it last served its intended purpose, now acting as a shield between a coward and a cruel world.
After washing his face of the blood and dirt that builds under the bird's last part of their late partner, Tori picks up the skull, holding it against his chest as he did years ago before leaving his home world and bowing his head.
"I will bring you back and give you the life you deserved, Love," the soft, spoken words shatter the sounding silence as Tori closes his eyes. "Or I will die trying."
The condor fits his partner's skull over his face, pausing to look at himself in the mirror. Dull teal eyes don't recognize the being staring back at him, a body decaying and scarred.
"I will not fail you again, Love."
Tori can't recall when his voice changed to its deep, desperate bark, like a hunted animal fending off predators, but it seems to change when he talks to his partner, praying that they hear him, wherever they are. It startles him how soft his voice gets at just the distance memories of someone he loved, how weak he still is under his armor.
Thinking about Love, his Love, makes his heart pound against his chest, frantic to escape the cavity it's in and return to the person who made it happy.
But that weakness, that moment of hesitation, killed his family. His weakness killed the people he loved. So Tori must crush it.
The gem on his forehead flickers, the colors momentarily fading from its gleaming surface, too fast for the condor to catch. 
And something inside Tori snaps.
"I will see you again, Love. No matter what it takes."