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It took Solar all of five minutes to realise that finding Nebular was a non starter; one, she was back in the original dimension and, two she was currently tangled up with Cosmos's trial.
Not that their little brother had done anything wrong.... well anything that Solar or the family could see as wrong and, honestly the mechanic suspected the Astrals were clutching at straws just to make their brother's life more difficult.
The again the whole thing with the Overseer had not helped things.
Bad enough the prick had put a hit out on Solar for reasons that were confusing and moronic but, then he had to go and get himself killed before Solar could get his hands on him himself. Honestly, it felt like the universe had less of a vendetta against the good Eclipse and, instead viewed him has an unwilling test subject for its practical jokes.
It would certainly explain the dammed dreams of late and....
"Solar?" he jolted, looking up to find he was not the only one in the house awake at this hour "Oh... Styx when did you get back I thought...." "Sleepy send me back after I do my part in trial" he replied innocently, yawning and curling in the makeshift nest of pillows and blankets on the couch. "And your not sleeping in your room because?" the wolf blinked, innocently pointing at the clock on the wall and the late hour "Not want to wake anyone, they need sleep so, I stay down here with cats" Cleo and Muffin meowing from the mass of blankets and pillows in lieu of a proper hello.
That was fair Solar supposed has he slipped onto a free seat.
"So how are things going with Cosmos?" the wolf's features pinched with concern and worry "Not sure, big star lady said lots of stuff I not understand but, Golden Freddy was very angry" he nodded to himself trying to remember the details "Said Astrals pushed luck to much with him and what happened with planet was bad enough without Leo being mean" well that was an understatement Solar mused; he did not understand all the details himself but, the whole "hostage" situation with the Earth to get at Cosmos had supposedly gotten Golden's ire up in a big way.
Honestly, Solar had never seen Golden looking so pissed than when he learned the full details of the infection from his fellow, be it rouge Guardian when the Trial had been announced after the Overseer was murdered.
Solar might have celebrated where it not for the fact Cosmos was being blamed for the death and an "unauthorised" use of Star Power.
Honestly, for someone who claimed to care so much about the Multiverse, the bastard had caused plenty of indirect harm to it and its occupants. Himself, Jack, Sun, Molten and....Nexus.
"Solar?" the wolf was sitting up and looking at him in confusion; he had wanted to talk more about the trial but, the suddenly morose look on the mechanic's face had given him pause "You not want to hear about Cosmos?" they could wait till the morning if that was better "No... I.... its nothing Styx, just a bad dream I had" the wolf blinked "Bad dream?" he had one recently involving a dark shadowy being that scared him badly but, talking had helped make him feel better after.
It had certainly interested Sleepy.
Still, Solar did not look frightened, more upset and sad "Was it a scary dream?" he asked, the tone clearly probing for him open up and talk. The mechanic sighed, honestly this was not exactly something to burden a child with but, at the same time who else could he talk to in the house about this? Moon was out, and Terra was still persona non gratta in the house and, Monty.... he would have more luck talking to a wall.
And Sun.... yeh he did not want to open that Nexus shaped scar anytime soon.
The pup was still looking at him, ears flicking back and forth innocently and patient like an actual loyal hound. Hmmm, perhaps it was true what they said sometime, that outside perspective helped. Even if said perspective did not understand what was going on completely.
"It... it was not a scary dream...more a sad one" the wolf tilted his head "Sad?" could bad dreams be sad to? It was something to ponder later; right now he needed to focus on Solar, he nodded for him to continue "What happened in dream?" the mechanic was quite, mulling things over for a moment "I.... I made a choice, something different to what I did in real life... chose to try a little harder in helping someone" again the wolf blinked, head tilting and pondering at the strange nature of this bad dream.
"Did it work? Turning left and not right?" the mechanic chuckled weakly; he forgot the pup had a thing for Doctor Who sometimes that the reference almost went over his head "Honestly Styx... I don't know and, that's the part that gets me..." gods he could not even speak Nexus's name out loud with a stranger to this situation. Less out of fear and more out of some sad shame.
Frick the fact the Overseer was responsible for bringing him back has some fucked up weapon hurt less compared to the fact that Solar had done nothing during his return. That it was Sun who had shouldered the burden alone and banished him to a dead dimension to rot away has his shell was consumed by a nightmarish horror was something that fed into the dreams to and, would likely add to later horrors he mused.
True, Solar did not kid himself that seeing Nexus again could have really done anything; the guy did not listen when he was hopped up on Dark Star power so, who knows what would have happened with a Wither Storm eating him from the inside out. Honestly , Solar would have been lucky to get more than ten words out before being torn limb from limb; something that would have pleased the Overseer no doubt, but would have still left the planet in peril.
Yet that paled to the what if's over his lost friend that currently plagued him.
"Could you not try in real life.... try again with the person?" the pup was looking at his feet "I....well we kind of lost touch Styx and, even if I could talk to them again.... we did not part on the best of terms" that was the understatement of the decade and, regret aside, with everything going on, a dark part of him was considering joining Sun for a parents night at Dazzle's school.
The Overseer might be gone but, Dark Sun.... oh he would have some words with that prick.
"Maybe.... maybe you should do what Jack does when he feels sad" the pup suggested "I'm not eating sponges" he deadpanned and the the wolf giggled "No, Jack tolled me he writes letters, got the idea after he made a Christmas card a while ago" Solar blinked hard.... he had almost forgotten about that with everything going on recently.
He had pushed a lot to one side.
"I..." he lapsed into thought; it couldn't hurt.... writing letters to a ghost.
He looked over to his watchdog who had wrapped himself back up in his blanket nest; eyes open but, clearly sleepy "I.... I'll give that a try Styx" the pup nodded sleepily "Good, Styx, happy you better now" well it was not a clean fix but, at the end of the day if he could not speak with spoken words then perhaps words to paper would put one or two ghosts to rest.
End.