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No— it can’t be!
Junmyeon falls to his knees, rendered weak by more than just the negative energy weighing heavy in the air. Dark matter ripples and sparks around him, evidence of Beryl gathering the forces of the Negaverse to her for another attack. It’s not enough that she’s leveled the Crystal Palace; Junmyeon knows she won’t stop until she’s claimed the moon in the name of the Dark Kingdom.
“I can’t— I won’t let it end this way, my darlings.” He can barely get the words out, his voice breaking as the shards of his heart and soul lodge themselves into his throat.
They’d rallied around him, surrounded him with their energy, their loyalty, their faith. Fire and lightning had come down with the wind to raze the assaulting legions; the earth shook, and pockets of negative space opened up while forests uprooted themselves and swallowed whole throngs of their enemies, glaciers of ice burying another horde while the light of the stars rained down from the heavens and ignited any who dared come close.
But still it hadn’t been enough.
When he’d given up his power to command the oceans so he could command a kingdom instead, he’d felt it was fair trade. What use did he have for the seas to bend at his will when peace and prosperity ruled all the land? What purpose was there for the rivers and the rain to obey him when whole galaxies had sworn him their allegiance?
Oh, but now—after having seen them fall one by one, succumbing to their injuries and lying in motionless heaps around him—Junmyeon curses this twist of fate. What he’d give to add a tidal wave to their ranks, to conjure a whirlpool and engulf their armed foes. The same power that had allowed him to rule the Moon Kingdom with great harmony throughout the past millennia is the same one that cripples him now, making him useless in the face of Beryl’s attack.
He has no choice now, only one last thing he can do for the ones that he loves. Junmyeon closes his eyes and grits his teeth, reaches deep within himself for the hidden gem within his body.
Meow!
Distressed feline wails distract him for only a moment, twin tails, one black and the other white, twining frantically around his legs. Junmyeon lurches in place as the Imperium Silver Crystal materializes in front of him.
“It’s the only way, Luna. I must sacrifice our kingdom to regain our peace. I won’t let Beryl take away our future.”
The Crystal glows with a blinding white light as Junmyeon attaches it to the crescent moon scepter in his hands and raises it above his head.
Please, he begs silently, as he calls on the power of the moon, of the planets, of heaven and earth. Lend me your powers just one more time, my loves.
It all happens so quickly after that.
“You haven’t seen the last of me-” Beryl screams into the void. In what feels like an eternity trapped in one breath, she and her army from the Negaverse are sucked into the power of the Imperium Silver Crystal. Around him, the oppressive energy of dark matter drains away like a vacuum, the dead silence surrounding him suddenly deafening.
Junmyeon staggers onto a fallen pillar, breath coming in labored gasps. The Crystal is no longer glowing, it’s mighty sheen corrupted by the evil it holds inside. It’s the best he could do. He couldn’t destroy Beryl or her army, not if he wanted the others to live on. Now they’re all trapped inside the power of the Crystal together, with only one chance at a future.
With the Crystal tainted by darkness, Junmyeon can no longer use it to sustain their kingdom. He has only enough power to send them with all they need into the future—to Earth, perhaps, for a better life? A normal life? As long as they are living, Junmyeon doesn’t care. They’ll be reborn on earth without memories of their time on the moon.
Meow!
“Don’t worry, Artemis, me too.” Junmyeon reassures the white cat bumping its head against his splayed hands, too weak to pet it properly. “You’ll come find us, won’t you? If the Negaverse ever breaks free, you’ll know what to do, old friends.”
Farewell, Junmyeon thinks, as he lets the last dregs of his power consume him and pull him into the Crystal as well. It feels almost like he’s being welcomed by eight pairs of arms - warm, even as their home crumbles and dissolves.
On behalf of the moon, we will be free again.