Chapter Text
There was no easy barrier between the desert realm and reality. No wall of fog to pass through, or a doorway they had to open. Just the landscape slowly, gradually changing, the sky shifting from purples to blues. Even then, they didn’t realise until the sun began to rise for the first time in at least a month.
But once they did, once someone kicked the door open to yell at all of them to get out of bed, the sun was there, and all of them fell over each other to get up on deck and run to the edge, staring directly into the sun slowly rising over the horizon, they knew they were nearly home, and now every passing second that they weren’t was excruciating.
“How far! How far!” The little purple yarn creature that they’d been fondly calling Football on account of em being far too willing to be tossed about whenever they were bored had taken up a spot on top of her head, since her current job was to stand at the very front of the ship, watching for any unexpected obstacles that might rise up from the ground beneath them.
“Soon, buddy. We’re almost there.”
The sailing was rockier than it had been before, with mountains and rock formations getting in the way and calling for some tight navigation. Of course, their captain wasn’t quite one for cautious driving, so they’d already had three instances of different people nearly falling overboard, and one actually falling overboard and having to be caught by one of their airborne teammates. No one suggested they slow down. The risk was worth it.
“There!” Football pointed in a random direction in front of them.
“That’s a big rock formation.”
“There!”
“That’s some sand.”
“There!”
“Another big rock.”
“There!”
“That’s a bunch of bones- wait.” She squinted, trying to make sure she saw it right, before spinning around to yell at the others. “I SEE BONES!”
It was perhaps the biggest cheer at the sight of bones made by anyone except for perhaps a bunch of archeologists.
The navigation only got more complicated from there, which in reality meant more reckless. Bones sharp enough to tear the boat apart started showing up more and more, they had to duck under and around massive teeth growing from the side of mountains, and eventually, they came across a massive, gaping maw in the ground, which radiated heat, smoke, and fire, surrounded by crowns of carved bones, dozens of shadowy creatures perched among them, watching them pass.
The Hellmouth. She knew what it was now, knew what it had done. How many people it had killed. How much of her hometown it had destroyed. She hadn’t really reckoned with it yet. It was too much to try to process, on top of everything else.
But god. She was thrilled to see it.
“Keep going around it! The town’s on the other side!” She called out, not stopping to think about how she knew that, how she could remember. She knew this land too well. Had made this journey on foot before.
It was still morning when they finally wedged the ship in the ruins of long-abandoned houses at the edge of town, the air not quite hot yet. They couldn’t get a gangplank down fast enough, some of them throwing a rope net over the side so they could climb down instead, others just jumping, confident in their ability to catch themselves or break the landing.
When she got down to the ground, about half the others had gotten down before her, taking in deep breaths, looking around.
“Woah-” She heard a voice, looked towards it to see something picking their way past rubble that had been overtaken by desert plants. “You’re back!”
“We’re back!” Someone shouted gleefully.
The person grinned, before looking over their shoulders and calling out. “It’s the Beams! Spread the word!” A few more distant voices called out in response, but the first person jogged up to them. “You guys have no idea what it’s been like since you’ve been gone! We were all so worried!”
It didn’t take long for more people to show up, one after another, calling their names. Names some of them hadn’t remembered yet. A few kids ran up to Miguel and tried to hug him all at once, another woman ran into Howell and began lovingly berating him for getting them to have to come all the way here out of worry for him.
“Think you’ll find what you’ve been looking for here?” Bickle nudged her in the ribs as half a dozen reunions went on, must’ve noticed the way she’d been scanning the crowd, searching. Bickle had been one of the ones who’d handled everything pretty well. They couldn’t remember their first name yet, but Bickle had always sounded correct enough anyway, so it hadn’t bothered them, and they’d mostly been enjoying the ride. Not like her.
“I’m not sure…” She was close, closer than she’d ever been in the desert realm. But still… still. Where was it?
“Nagomi!” A voice shouted from the crowd, and her head snapped towards it. That was her name. That was her. So that meant-
A few people were pushing their way through frantically, two of them already splitting off to go greet someone else, the third pausing for a moment. He was a man made of metal, a computer monitor for a head, with a massive grin on the screen and a shadow attached to his shoulders.
That was it.
“Passenger-” She whispered under her breath in the same moment that the shadow launched itself off the other man, leapfrogging off anyone else in the way to barrel into her, stretching around her upper body and curling up to the side of her head.
Instantly, she could feel it slip into her mind, filling the empty space like a glove, brimming with love and relief and joy. For a moment it was overwhelming, and she stumbled back a step, tears coming to her eyes, one hand going up to rip the eyepatch off.
I MISSED YOU SO MUCH
“Passenger-” Passenger, Passenger, I missed you-
You remember? Do you remember?
I remember you, I’m so sorry I forgot, I remember-
I was so scared I’m so sorry I left you alone I’m so sorry-
I tried to find you, I knew you were missing, I couldn’t remember you but I knew you were gone, god- I’m so glad you’re here.
I missed you so much. I love you. Do you remember everything else? Do you remember your name? I can help, I can tell you everything, I remember everything-
I remember my name. I remember you. I don’t need anything else right now just- just you.
Okay, okay.
Are you alright? Did- you were with someone else. Emmett. You were with Emmett.
I- I didn’t want to. I had to, I’m sorry, they all sucked, actually, you’re the best host I’ve ever had-
No, no, it’s okay, I’m not upset. Are you okay? We were gone for so long.
I was fine! I-I was okay. I was so worried… were you okay? Without… without me?
Nagomi breathed in deeply, rubbing tears from her cheeks. She was cool again, she could see normally again, she wasn’t alone in her head again.
I’m not the same without you. I’m not me without you. We’re a team. No matter what.
Yeah. Better together.