Chapter Text
Niko screwed the sun in, their guide confirmed their decision to save the world. Niko knew that returning home would be a selfish ask, but their heart ached at the idea of never seeing their mother again. But if a higher being told them to smash the sun. Who would Niko be to refuse? Alas the decision was made, and now there is the sun's luminosity that was increasing in Niko's hand.
Niko's eyes widened in awe of the brightening bulb, the beauty overwrote the biological reflex for the pupils to shrink. But that was just for a second.
"Ahhh" Niko exclaimed while falling back, their hands went to cover their eyes while their legs moved to get away from the blinding light.
Niko's eye's stung and their eyelids rapidly blinked to create tears to moisturise the eye. Every blink revealed a dark spot at the centre their vision.
The sun's light still filled the room so Niko turned their back to the sun to face the wall, but the wall reflected the light just as brightly as the sun.
Niko's eyes began to sting more. they faced the window, no light was reflected there. They stumbled towards the window while their eyes continued to show a black spot. Upon reaching the window Niko's eyes could begin to adjust itself.
The stinging began to lessen, but every blink still revealed a black spot. Niko whimpered to themself "Am... I going t...to see like this... forever?"
Niko continued to blink, hoping that they could see clearly again.
1 minute pasted, the stinging stop, but the spot stayed.
Another minute passed, the spot became slightly transparent.
Another minute passed, the Niko's full vision is returning.
One more minute passed, Niko can see again and just stared at the world below. All the buildings of the Refuge appeared to be the same hight, the Glen had a green hue over the land and the Barrens was barely distinguishable from the ocean.
Niko turned their head to look out of the other windows but the sun's light made their head instantly snap back to face the window. Traumatised by the idea of being blinded, Niko hugged the glass and side stepped along the room, making sure that to always face out of the window. They looked silly while doing it, but Niko wasn't thinking about that. (Who would have a telescope facing the tower while the sun is on?)
Slowly but surely, Niko made their way around the circumference of the room, they tried to identify any building or landmark they had gone past along their journey. But with no success. The hight made everything unrecognisable.
After giving up looking for landmarks, the reality set in. The view was great, but Niko had to leave the room, they need to live in this world... forever. Dread started to fill as Niko realised they were trapped in the room. They couldn't even look behind them without being blinded, how could they leave?
Niko asked, "Can you hear me? Are you here?" There was no response. They were alone.
An idea came; Niko hid their eyes under their arm and used their other hand to feel around the room. Niko continued to sidestep around the room feeling the walls to try to find the metal wall that previously blinded them. Then they could get to the elevator.
Niko touched a wall, it was slightly cold, it must be glass.
Niko took a step and touched the wall again, it was... cold, it must be glass.
Another step... cold
Another step... HOT, too hot. If it wasn't for the sleeve, Niko's hand would have burnt.
The sudden hostility of this world started to overwhelming Niko. They took a few sidesteps back towards glass walls, lowered their arm so that they could see out of the window, sat on the floor, and just begin to cry.
They were needed help, but no one could. Niko buried their head into their knees and silently wept.
After some time, Niko gained the courage to try again, they could try knocking the wall, the heat shouldn't be a problem then.
When Niko lifted their head form out of their knees, everything seemed darker, the sun's brightness was still there, but dimmer.
They weren't sure if it was their imagination. So, they tilted their head a bit towards elevator and thus the sun... Not blinded yet. They continued to look more on the side... they could see the elevator. That was enough.
Niko bolted towards the elevator and the doors opened, the moment Niko stepped into the elevator the doors closed behind them and the elevator started to go down.
Out of instinct, Niko adjusted their hand to secure what would be the sun for the elevator ride, "Oh." Niko said to themself. There was no sun to hold.
Niko could finally freely look around and noticed a symbol of the sun above the door with the word "Automatic" written next to it.
No buttons had been pressed, so they didn't know where the elevator was taking them.
Time passed but the elevator doors didn't open, the rumbling of machinery could be heard but the movement of the elevator couldn't be felt. It was a long ride down.
Niko trusted the machinery, the sound was enough validation that the elevator was working.
"Not now..." Niko muttered to themself. Nature was calling. BAD. And the elevator kept on going down.
2 more minutes would pass before the elevator could be felt to slow down. Then the doors opened to reveal that they would be outside the tower.
"There you are, dear." The head librarian was waiting at the bottom, "I saw you shuffling along the window of the tower."
Niko walked out of the elevator, "yeah.." Niko responded, "How did you see me? I was so high up."
"I found a telescope and looked up. I was curious about the tower now that I can the top." George replied.
Niko had the manners to not cut the conversation short, so they held their bladder and asked, "I was blinded up there, how could you look up?"
"Aww, it must have been so bright for you, I hope you are ok."
"yeah.. I am fine now." Niko was too distracted to take the sympathy and was starting to move on the spot.
"To answer your question, there are some filters that helped me, I could only really see your little silhouette." George noticed Niko's little dance, "Do you need the lavatory?"
"Mhm" Niko responded, they assumed lavatory meant toilet.
"Don't let me stop you, sweetie!"
"Thanks!" Niko ran off towards the elevator that led to the top of the refuge. They remembered a room full of toilets in the apartments.
The sun appeared to be off, Niko didn't seem to realise.
They reached the elevator.
Got to the apartments.
And got to the toilets.
Now that all the immediate tasks were finished, now one question remained. Now what?
Niko walked out of the apartments. They had no where to go.
they wandered to the Lings café, but was met with a closed sign. That is when Niko realised it was night. Everyone would be home.
Niko only knew one person's house that were comfortable staying with. Calamus and Alula.
The path to the Glen was blocked by the squares, but it appeared to be less chaotic. Without the sun in their hand Niko was more agile and manged to go around the squares. There were many close calls that Niko was ignorant to, but overall, they got past unscathed.
As Niko entered the Glen, they realised how different their life would be. Now that there were no distractions, they realised how alone they were.