Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Denial.
It had started so simple.
The two of them had met, unaware of the circumstances of their counterpart.
The girl of light, optimistic to a fault, and the girl of conflict, pessimistic to a fault.
She never wanted it to end like this.
At first, she'd hoped the two of them could be friends, and just maybe more than that.
But now, those hopes were shattered, and the proof was in the blood that stained the world around her. Blood that stained the crystalline sword, now fallen to the ground. Blood that stained her hands. 

Anger.
She had also had a glimpse of that fateful memory of this moment.
She'd hoped desperately that it wouldn't come to pass, but that hope faded with her awareness when she'd let her mind fade into the empty sky.
Ultimately, she was angry at this world around her for letting such tragedy play out, but deep down...
...She was also angry at herself.
For letting her mind's instincts take the wheel.
For falling into a lack of awareness in the first place.
For not even trying to fight against that urge to drown in positive memories.

Bargaining.
It wasn't for lack of trying.
At first, she'd tried to reach out, but that helping hand was met with betrayal.
Now, she realized- far too late -that her counterpart's lashing out was a result of the Arcaea shards she'd been surrounded by.
Painful ones of betrayal, envy, and negativity.

Depression.
It was too late now.
There's no more denying it, no more chances to bargain her way out of this.
The truth whispers in her ear, painful words like a sword through the heart.
"You could have avoided this. You could have been friends. But there's no turning back. She's dead, and her blood is on your hands, Hikari."

...Can you hear me?
Yes, you reading the words on the screen.
I'm deliberately breaking the fourth wall for this, you know.
You have a choice.
A choice much like you may have seen within canon, but you should know this:
This instance diverged from canon from the very start.
That being said, your choice will still influence the story.
So...
Make your choice, reader.

<Accept Arcaea> <Refuse Fate>

Chapter Text

<<ACCEPT ARCAEA>>

Acceptance.
Nothing more she can do.
Nothing more anyone can do.
Drowning her mind in those positive memories once more.

The world around her fades.
The world around her loses color.
The world around her loses meaning.
The world around her loses reason.

Nobody in that world has nightmares anymore.
Nobody dreams anymore.
Nobody does anything anymore.
Not a single soul does anything aside from exist without meaning, without self, without reason, without change.

All she believes now is to exist for the sake of existing.
But she becomes a hypocrite.
For with her loneliness, she loses all semblance of self, and "Hikari" ceases to exist.
Existing without mind, she closes her eyes
one
last
time
.

<ending: ETERNAL NOTHING>

Chapter Text

<<REFUSE FATE>>

Refusal.
She refuses to accept this.
If she's the goddess of this world...
Then maybe she can pull something back from the brink of nonexistence.

Reaching into the void of this empty world, seeking to figure out if there exists an after-afterlife, she finds something.
A small spark of a soul, a fragment of what it once was, tormented by painful memories.
Were it not for your intervention, reader, this spark would have faded completely into nonexistence.
But because of the hope of many of us, myself included...
Perhaps this spark can have a second chance, merged with a fragment of the soul of the one this spark was a copy of before it all.

The first and last thing the girl of light did as the goddess of this world of memories was to pull her counterpart back from the very brink of nonexistence.
Because now she finally understood.
There can be no light without shadow, no positive without negative, no self without other.
No "Hikari" without "Tairitsu".
Never one...
...without the other.

<ending: INFINITE MOMENT>