Chapter Text
“Moments remain. The choice is yours.” One remained completely calm.
“You wouldn't actually let this happen!” Gaty could feel fear behind her own words.
“Hey! I'm safe here! I can find other ways to get that power; with or without your friends.”
Gaty could tell One was having a blast mocking her. She knew Gaty was kind, too kind. She would never let them die. But One made a mistake. They told Gaty the one weakness to her plan. Gaty knew she entered the room through the swirled star placed carefully out of reach. All she had to do was provoke One into her own field of danger. Despite how reckless she was, they wouldn't let themself die with the others if it meant she couldn't get what she wanted. Gaty glanced to the portal.
“No.”
One's smile died instantly. “'No?' What do you mean, 'no?' Does this world mean nothing to you? You do realize that the opening of that Rift means the end of your world, right?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you still refuse?” There was a hint of anger behind One's calm demeanor, as if she secretly wanted Gaty to be a show-off hero.
Gaty wasn't stupid. She knew she was only a pawn to One's plan. She just needed to drag her into a checkmate. “Yes. Try all you like. No matter what, I won't let you hurt them. If you wanted to kill them all so badly, you would've done it the moment you came here. But you didn't. You didn't want to be alone. So you had to wait for somebody else to do your dirty work for you! If you killed them all like that, you would've had too much guilt to deal with!”
“Stop that, Gaty. We're here to be professional.”
“But you wouldn't have to deal with that guilt if you never did anything at all. That guilt would die with the people who did it, the failed debuters you tricked. We're all just your pawns, One. Your playthings you think you can toss around and do your bidding. How long did you think you could get away with this before somebody stood up to you? Go ahead, One! Destroy the world for all I care! But just know that I'm planning on going down with it!”
Gaty kicked over the table, making One yelp. Gaty shoved her body against the bookshelf, toppling it over onto the table, making a small ramp. Gaty tossed a few fallen books onto the pile before One snapped at her.
“What do you think you're doing?!”
“If my world is going to die, then I'm going to die with it!”
She shoved One's potted plant to the top of the pile. It was high enough now she should be able to reach the exit. She quickly scrambled up the pile, tossing down an extra book at One's face.
“Gaty! Stop that!”
Gaty jumped for the portal.
“NO!”
It wasn't as close as she thought. She began a decent towards the water below. Her fall was cut short when One tackled her, knocking them both carelessly through the exit. Gaty slid against the ground to a stop. One rolled past her, only stopping once they lost enough momentum.
“Ugh...” One shook off her headache.
Gaty realized she did not think her plan through past the escape. One would just capture her again and take her back to the room, or she'd go there on their own accord without worrying about Gaty. Gaty had to make sure she remained provoked. Gaty grabbed a broken stone and tossed it at One's face, between the eyes.
“Gah!” One kicked it back at Gaty, breaking a hole through her side. “Enough!” One grabbed Gaty's leg with her magic. “I'm tired of you! You're all so boring! Why don't you ever listen?!”
One froze suddenly. She released Gaty's leg. They looked up, a blank expression on her face. The Rift was overpoweringly large now, pieces of the sky itself falling to the ground like hail. Gaty kicked One off of her.
“Gotcha.”
“You played me.”
“And you fell for it.”
“Sh-”
Nothingness. Gaty never knew what it would look or feel like before. Despite the fact reality was upside down, Gaty thought for certain she would have died. She couldn't see anyone else nearby, even the traces of One were gone. Perhaps this was death. It wasn't light, or dark. It was as if there was simply nothing there at all. No color. No feeling. There was no ruins of the world, or the universe. Gaty wasn't even sure if she did exist. She looked and moved around, but couldn't find any proof of her existence. But she knew she did. The proof was in the pudding; she could think. That had to mean she was a living Object, right? Or at least the remaining essence of one? Had she existed before now, or were these her first thoughts? Things began to blur. What was reality, really? Was it just a construct of a collective thought? Was everything she gone through simply a game her mind played? Something her essence wished to feel? Joy, fear, sadness, anger. What were they, really? She wanted to feel calm. She thought about the calmest thing she could.
Grass. She wished she could feel it. If she thought hard enough, she wondered if she could recreate the feeling beneath her feet again. It was green, she knew that much. But what would that look like to someone who couldn't even remember the color? It was soft sometimes. But what did that feel like? She carefully lied herself down, gently resting onto the sprawling green field. She could see the grass around her, but she couldn't feel it. It was as if she never existed at all, and this construct simply faded through her. She closed her eyes. Opening them showed her a pastel blue dome above her. It was the sky.
Gaty. As she stared into the unending blue of the sky, she had begun to remember. She remembered things about herself. She chose to be a girl. She chose to be periwinkle. Her hinges were magnetic when shifted a certain way. The sound of her voice. The sensations she never realized she'd miss. The smell of the wind. The feeling of the grass against her back. The brightness of the sun. She could almost feel herself taking form again, each splinter of wood carved carefully into her shape. Her senses were heightened. She could feel each atom. The cold of the nails holding her hinges to her body. She could feel herself breathing, slowly. Her eyes stung from looking at the sun too long. Despite the supposed end, she was alive.
She couldn't be more grateful.