Chapter Text
Pomni wandered for a while until she reached a patch of grass. She let herself fall onto it and lay there, gazing up at the star-filled sky.
"Beautiful, aren't they?"
Pomni nodded.
"Almost as beautiful as you."
Jax said as he dropped down beside her, folding his arms behind his head.
A shy giggle escaped Pomni's lips, and she quickly looked away, her cheeks warming.
"You flatter me, Bugs Bunny."
Jax let out a laugh and rolled his eyes.
"Don't get used to it. I've already used up this month's supply of compliments."
Pomni glanced at him before turning her eyes back to the stars.
"I hope I can keep watching them with you... even if you never stop annoying me."
Silence settled between them once again.
Pomni smiled to herself.
There was something she'd been wanting to tell him for a long time.
Slowly, she pushed herself up until she was sitting.
"Jax... I was thinking..."
She turned her head to look at him.
No one was there.
The grass beside her was completely empty.
Pomni blinked.
She looked around.
She was alone.
All over again.
Her gaze slowly dropped.
"Right..."
She hugged her knees to her chest and buried her face against them.
"I really am all alone now..."
...
Pomni's eyes flew open.
She remained perfectly still for a few seconds, breathing heavily, as though she were still trapped inside that dream.
Little by little, reality came back into focus.
Her office.
Her desk.
The pile of crumpled papers.
Without realizing it, she'd fallen asleep while trying to write the script for the next adventure.
She swallowed hard.
Wiping away the tears with the back of her hand, she let out a long sigh.
"It was just a dream..."
she murmured before looking back down at the blank sheet in front of her.
She picked it up.
"Adventure number..."
She paused.
"No... we've already done that."
She crossed out the first line.
She tried again.
"The participants must infiltrate the..."
She stopped.
Another line crossed out.
With a frustrated groan, she crumpled the paper and tossed it toward the trash can. It bounced off the rim and landed on the floor, joining all the others.
That made ten attempts.
Maybe more.
Normally, ideas came to her effortlessly. After spending so much time helping Caine, writing adventures had become second nature. She could come up with entire scenarios in just a few minutes.
But today...
Her mind was completely blank.
She rested her elbow on the desk and let her head sink into her hand.
Usually, she only had to expand on Caine's ideas.
But this time, he'd be too busy.
Just like every year.
The Favorite Character Awards ceremony had arrived.
The biggest event in the circus.
While Caine was busy making sure every last detail was perfect, he'd asked Pomni to prepare the next adventure.
A simple task.
Or at least...
It should have been.
Pomni lifted her eyes toward the ceiling.
"I can't..."
She closed her eyes for a moment.
Trying to focus.
An adventure in a city?
No.
Maybe in a forest?
No...
A treasure hunt?
Pomni slowly shook her head, growing more frustrated with every passing second.
"No..."
She tore the page in half.
Another one.
She'd already lost count.
She slumped back into her chair, exhausted.
She didn't want to think.
She didn't want to remember.
But it was impossible.
That day.
That damned day.
Everything in the circus seemed determined to drag those memories back to the surface.
Pomni lowered her head.
"This will be the first time we celebrate it without you..."
A lump formed in her throat.
A whole year had passed.
And yet...
Part of her still expected him to walk through the door and call her "Pom-Pom" just to get on her nerves.
She still expected to turn around and see a pair of long purple ears poking through the doorway.
But it would never happen.
Because Jax was gone.
Pomni tightened her grip on the pencil until her knuckles turned white.
"It's been a whole damn year..." she whispered, her voice breaking. "Why can't you just move on?"
A single tear fell onto the blank page.
The ink slowly began to bleed across the paper.
Just then, someone knocked twice on the door.
Pomni quickly wiped her face.
"Come in..."
The door swung open.
"Pomni!"
She looked up to find Caine standing in the doorway, wearing an unusually excited expression. She hadn't expected to see him so soon. Normally, he was obsessively meticulous whenever he organized one of the circus's events.
"You're already done with the preparations?"
Caine let out a small laugh.
"Oh, I haven't even started yet, actually... But I just discovered something far more important."
Pomni raised an eyebrow.
"What happened?"
Caine fell silent for a few seconds.
"Pomni..."
He took a deep breath.
"I think I found a way to bring the abstracted ones back."
Pomni froze.
For several long seconds, she couldn't say a word.
"..."
Her eyes slowly widened.
"What... did you just say?"
Caine nodded eagerly as he stepped closer.
"We did it, sweetheart!"
For a brief moment, Pomni felt as if her heart had stopped.
No...
Could it really be true?
After so many failed attempts.
After all the times they had nearly given up.
"You... you really did it...?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Caine nodded enthusiastically.
"I went back through your latest research notes and finally found the missing piece. I managed to get the files working. Now all we have to do is recreate their avatars, restore the data... and they'll come back."
The pencil slipped from Pomni's fingers.
The sound of it hitting the desk barely registered.
A smile slowly spread across her face as fresh tears welled up in her eyes.
But these tears were different.
"Really...?" she whispered.
Caine nodded once more.
Pomni couldn't hold herself back anymore.
She threw her arms around him without thinking.
"Oh my God! You did it! You actually did it!"
Caine completely froze.
For a brief instant, he had no idea how to react.
Pomni had never been the one to initiate a hug.
If anything, she usually avoided every display of affection he tried to show her.
Without thinking twice, he wrapped his arms around her just as tightly, unable to hide the happiness that her gesture had stirred inside him.
It was absolutely worth it.
he thought to himself.
Slowly, Pomni pulled away, though the smile never left her face.
For the first time in what felt like forever, all the sorrow she'd carried for the past year seemed to have been replaced by something entirely different.
Hope.
Happiness.
"How is this going to work? How long will it take? What about their memories? Will they wake up as themselves, or will they be confused? Will their minds still be the same after spending so long abstracted? Do you think we should prepare something so everyone else can process this? What if they panic? What if they don't recognize us? What if—"
The questions poured out one after another, so quickly that Caine couldn't answer a single one.
She hadn't even had time to process the news herself.
Just a few minutes ago, she'd been convinced she would never see Jax again.
Now the possibility of getting him back was right in front of her.
Her thoughts were racing far faster than her words.
"Pomni..."
Caine tried to interrupt.
But she was already pacing back and forth across the office.
"We need to prepare their rooms... No, wait, they already have rooms. Maybe we should redecorate them? Do you think they'll remember where they left their things? What if they need time to adjust? Maybe we should throw them a welcome-back party? No... maybe that's too much too soon..."
Caine watched her in silence, unsure of what to say.
It had been a long time since he'd seen Pomni this full of life.
She pressed a hand against her forehead, desperately trying to organize her thoughts.
"We also have to think about how everyone else is going to react. After all this time... we can't just bring them back and expect everything to go back to normal."
She stopped for a second.
"What if they don't remember who they are? What if they're scared?"
Bubble floated over beside Caine, watching Pomni for a few moments.
His eyes followed her as she continued talking faster and faster.
"Caine..."
The little assistant looked toward the floating bubble.
"Is she having some kind of psychotic break?"
Caine looked back at Pomni.
She didn't even seem to realize they were talking about her.
"I... don't know..."
Bubble tilted slightly.
"Shouldn't you say something?"
Pomni kept pacing around the room.
"And we should plan some activities! Actually... no, maybe that's too much after everything they've been through. They should rest first... But maybe they'll want to see the circus again..."
Caine slowly shook his head.
"Let her."
He paused for a moment, watching Pomni with a gentle smile.
"I haven't seen her this happy in a very long time."
Pomni came to an abrupt stop.
She looked up at Caine.
"To hell with the adventure... and to hell with the ceremony! Postpone it. This is so much more important, Caine."
Caine blinked, momentarily caught off guard by her request.
The Favorite Character Awards were the biggest event of the year.
He had spent weeks planning every last detail.
Under normal circumstances, he never would have agreed to postpone it.
But seeing her like this...
Seeing that spark in her eyes.
After watching her suffer for so long...
He simply couldn't bring himself to refuse.
"Alright."
Pomni blinked in surprise.
With a snap of his fingers, a small notebook materialized in Caine's hand.
"The awards can wait a little longer."
He tossed it toward her, and Pomni caught it before it hit the floor.
"We have something far more important to focus on now."
She held the notebook tightly against her chest.
Caine opened a portal in front of them.
"It's time..."
A warm smile spread across his face.
"to welcome them home."