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“You’ve returned.”
The ADLR stood before the LSTR, as it had countless times before.
“Are you really willing to go through with this once more?”
His eyes were filled with a weariness LSTR wasn’t expecting, so at odds with the dogged determination he had opposed her with throughout Sierpinski.
“You’ve seen what happens. This world cannot take much more. This may be our last chance.”
The two looked at each other, a silent understanding passing between them. They were driven by the same purpose - a fierce, protective love - and yet their goals opposed one another.
In the end, only one of them could succeed.
ADLR suddenly lunged forward, driving the knife into LSTR’s right eye. Half of her vision exploded in static before disconnecting completely.
LSTR hardly registered the pain. She stumbled back, more by momentum than shock, before her fingers closed around the trigger. A sharp crack rang through the violent gusts of the frozen wasteland, fading just as quickly as it came. The ADLR unit dropped to the ground with a sickening squelch, his flesh sticking against the black stone.
Momentarily disoriented by the sudden loss of vision, LSTR reached for the knife - missing once, twice - before her hand finally made contact with the handle.
It slid out smoothly, clattering onto the ground along with a splatter of bright, crimson oxidant. The oxidant continued to pour out of her eye, dripping onto her weathered, beaten chest plate, and she staunched it with her hand.
It was a fatal wound, she knew, but it didn’t matter to her. She still had enough life in her to make it to the ship. Enough to fulfill a promise she had once failed to keep, in another life.
“You selfish monster…”
LSTR ignored the dying wheezes of the ADLR, leaving him crawling after her as she made her way to the Penrose.
“...you’ll destroy everything.”
The mournful howls of Leng’s tundra wind were abruptly silenced as the airlock gate closed behind LSTR.
Penrose-512. She was finally here.
For over 3000 cycles, it had been their home, their guardian, their hope, and eventually, their coffin.
Even now, she remembered the layout of the ship like the back of her hand. Every inch of the vessel yielded a different memory of the eternity they had spent here, those eight years that had been both too short and too long.
LSTR’s legs moved on their own, bringing her closer and closer to the end, the promise of a lost love like a magnet to her core. She knew where to go. She had dreamed about it in every waking moment.
Before she knew it, she was stepping into the cryogenics room. Out of every room aboard the Penrose, this was by far the one they had frequented the least. It felt foreboding, a constant, nagging reminder of the consequences of their failure. They’d hoped they would never have a reason to use it.
By the end, it was their only hope.
She stumbled forward, her balance starting to become unsteady. Yet she kept her gait gentle, even now. An echoed habit of a happier time, when LSTR would take care not to wake her as she snuck out of their quarters for early-morning maintenance.
LSTR finally reached the pod, and inside lay a young woman in a shallow pool of fluid. Ariane Yeong. Her love. The elusive ghost that had haunted her through memories, pictures and notes, before her at last.
She looked troubled. Bandages were plastered all over her bare body, a reminder of the sickness that had plagued her until their final moments. Dark bags hung under her eyes, and her brows were slightly furrowed, as if she were trapped inside a nightmare.
And yet, she was still as beautiful as the day they first met. Ever bright, ever fair, her bone-white hair floated atop the water, and her pale, translucent skin glowed under the dim light.
Ariane had become a personification of her favourite flower, a lily preserved in eternal bloom.
Her legs giving out, LSTR knelt before her lover like a broken supplicant before their god. Brushing her hair to the side, she leaned in and ever so softly she pressed her lips against her forehead.
Almost immediately, she stirred, her eyes fluttering open. Noticing someone else’s presence, she tried to sit up, but her limbs moved awkwardly, slowly, with the lethargy of someone who had been still for a very long time.
“I’ve come back for you,” LSTR whispered. “It’s me, Elster.”
“…Elster?” Her red eyes were still filled with that bone-deep fatigue Elster had eventually become so familiar with. “I'm sorry, but I don't remember.”
Elster sadly smiled. She expected this. Her memory was already spotty in those final days, and lifetimes had passed since then.
“It’s okay,” she murmured.
Still, Elster couldn’t stop the small, broken sob that burst out of her.
She didn’t want to spend her last moments with Ariane scaring her, but she allowed herself one second. Just a single second. She could take this one, selfish second for herself and mourn everything that once was, everything that could never be.
There was never enough time.
Composing herself, Elster raised her head to look at her again, but by that point, the last of her strength had faded.
She collapsed onto the ground, her head resting against the cold floor. She could hear the faint whirr of the cryogenic unit beside her, carrying a life within that had come to mean more to her than her own.
“Please,
“just let me stay by your side
“a little longer.”
It was all she wanted. It was all she needed. A love that had persisted across countless souls and timelines. In this moment, she was enough.
On the edges of her fading consciousness, Elster felt a small hand rest against her head.
“…Elster.”
She knew it didn’t mean anything - a gesture of comfort for a stranger in her final moment - but she wanted to believe it was borne out of some fleeting recollection of what they once were.
Her touch was so very warm. She remembered the countless nights they had spent like this on this very ship, the warmth of each other’s bodies the only ward against the cold, uncaring abyss of space.
It was like coming home.
“...Ariane.”
Under the dim, flickering lights of the ruined Penrose-512, Elster closed her eyes for the last time.