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The rumbling of the emerging Voracity husk protracted, growing louder yet higher every moment, as though something was stretching the sound itself out. Stelle's ears rang as the sound hit its peak, and the world flashed to white.
She was back in front of the campfire and the crashed heap of the Express. Her heart skipped a beat and dropped like a stone, and a voice cutting in from behind her kept her from collapsing to her knees only by spiking her with adrenaline.
"It seems someone made the right kind of wish."
When her masculine doppelganger stepped into view, she could swear she felt every single hair on her body stand on end. "What now?" she asked, her senses coiling like a spring.
"This time, nothing," he said. "You made another wish and created another 'moment' for yourself, but this time you were able to pull your companions in as well."
"I just wanted a break," she huffed.
"You've created one." Unflinching and ominous as ever, he continued. "In eight weeks, this 'moment' will end, and you will return to reality where you left off, with the husk of the Voracity emerging." He paused and grimaced. "No, six. Six weeks."
Stelle's face screwed up in a mix of confusion and indignation. "Okay, then why are you here?"
"The same reason I was here before."
"To be cryptic and obnoxious?"
"To tell you what you're looking at." It was the counterpart's time to huff. "Enjoy this moment while it lasts. Your friends are further back."
She didn't have the presence of mind to hold back the jab on her tongue. "No 'ending my journey personally?'"
"This isn't our actual next meeting, but an event to the side. As I said, it's a 'moment.' Consider it not part of your proper timeline."
"No take-backsies," Stelle grumbled, walking past him towards the beach path of the Fallen Star's Cradle.
* * *
Giggling, Stelle leaned on Dan Heng hard, pressing him against the wall of the pastiche of Himeko's childhood home. "I didn't forget how handsome you were in this form, but it's still nice to see it again." All he did was give a bemused smile as his ears turned pink. "Can I feed you and tell you how pretty you are? Please? It's about time I got to spoil you back!"
"Fine. But you'll have to let me go first."
"Alright, come with me." She backed away and beckoned to him with a grin. "Don't think this means I won't give you another good spoiling when we're back in reality, by the way."
"Of course not."
"Good boy," she teased, leaning in and up to give him a kiss before taking his hand and dragging him into a nearby room.
Following their tryst, Dan Heng woke up, cleaned up, and wandered off. When she finally did leave the room, her counterpart's voice stopped her in her tracks.
"Are you two going to do that on every stray surface of Himeko's memories?"
"What's it to you? Have you been peeping?" Stelle squinted at him, bristling. "Are you jealous?" When his lips pressed into a line, she remained on the attack. "You are! How sad is that?"
"I told you. I made a choice like yours, and lost everything because of it."
When she put 2 and 2 together, the realization wiped the smile off her face. "Is that what you meant by getting used to loss?" A beat passed, with no indication of a response. "I'd almost feel bad for you if not for all the spooky cryptic nonsense."
"Believe what you will. For now, that's neither your problem, nor mine."
"Then why bother calling me out?"
He shrugged. "The opportunity was there."
"You poor, sad, bored little man, or whatever you are," Stelle muttered.
"Enjoy it. Our real next meeting won't be like this."
* * *
"I can't believe they put Himeko in a place like this," Stelle said, shuddering as she stared at the monitors fixed in the memory of the sanitarium, scanning for brain and lung function, and the EKG that suddenly flatlined (disconnected, most likely, she told herself).
"This place looks awful. I would've broken her out myself," March muttered, peeking out the door at the equally dismal hallway.
"Keep in mind that this scene is just a collection of memories that were probably interfered with," Dan Heng added, cool-headed as ever. "If Asat Pramad imagenated this place looking to interrogate Himeko, he most likely brought the worst to light instead of the reality." His attention went to Stelle. "Plus, your 'wish' to bring us here may have added more to muddy the waters."
"I guess so, or we wouldn't have rooms here." The Trailblazer followed March's gaze out the door. "I think, if we keep going, we'll find the interplanar jump that'll take us back to the beach."
The trio walked through the halls, their footsteps the only sound cutting through the eerie silence. March began to pull her hands closer to her chest, a nervous gesture, and Stelle gently took her hand, only to nearly jump when Dan Heng took her free hand with a nod. When they reached the lobby, March got distracted by the posters on the walls. "What the heck is this? A poster about taking shots in the butt?" She wrinkled her nose as she spoke.
Stelle paused mid-stride, nearly jerking Dan Heng around with the momentum. She squinted at the poster, unable to make out anything but the cat-eared figure being made to bend over for the shot. "Yikes."
"It's for intramuscular injections," he piped in fron the side. "The gluteal muscles can hold more medicine-"
March's drawn out noise of discomfort and sympathetic pain cut off the rest of the explanation, dimly echoing as though it longed to fill the lobby space. Stelle opted to move everyone along to the next jump sequence. When they reached the beach, Stelle collapsed to her knees, then onto all fours, trembling. Both her companions turned around and rushed to her sides, March calling out first. "Stelle! What happened? Are you alright?"
"I'm sorry," she said through hitching breaths. "This is where I woke up when… oh, you wouldn't know what happened." She slumped to sitting, drawing her knees to her chest. "Would you believe me if I told you Himeko nearly died protecting me, and I woke up here when I found that out?"
"Huh?" March blinked, rendered vacant from both disbelief and inability to process the implications.
"Was it similar to how we got here?" Dan Heng asked, and when Stelle nodded, he reached forward to comfort her, only to stop when she had to fling herself back onto fours in a fit of dry heaving.
"But that didn't happen, right?" March reflexively pulled away from the sudden movement, even as she tried to keep herself steady for her friend's sake. "We were all there after we took down Asat Pramad."
"Slow down. Deep breaths." Dan Heng found himself taking his own deep breaths, both to demonstrate and to steady himself at the sight of his companion suffering yet again. "We were all there, including Himeko, before the ground started to shake. Then, we were brought here, and according to what you said, we'll be returned to that moment after a while. If that's true, then everyone made it."
The two of them waited for Stelle to settle down, guiding her through her breaths till she was able to sit back up again. "I know. I made it happen, so I know it happened." A beat passed, and she added, "I'm sorry."
"Why are you sorry?" March asked.
"Because I can't even hold myself up here. It's like I've been having one long breakdown ever since Amphoreus-"
"Well, of course! It's not like anything let up for you." She nearly put her arms around Stelle, only to pause with her arms awkwardly hovering. "Uh, sorry, do you want a hug?"
"From you? Always." Stelle released a breath, leaning into March's embrace.
"That's why you made this space, isn't it?" Dan Heng asked, completing the hug from his end. "You wanted a moment to breathe."
"Do you think Himeko's in her room, or one of the rooms, or still at the campfire?" Stelle asked.
Dan Heng brandished his phone. "We still have cell service here, at least between us."
"Wow, Stelle, your wishpower must be something else, giving us rooms and cell service and everything," March teased, giving Stelle a squeeze.
* * *
"At some point, you might not be able to keep using the Stellaron to cheat your way into these reprieves."
Stelle stopped midway across a sunlit room when she heard her doppelganger's voice. "Yeah? Well, until I can't, I might as well try." His lack of response pulled her attention to him, and she flashed him a concerning smile before lunging forward.
Whatever the other Trailblazer had seen in his multiples of eight clearly didn't include being pinned to the wall by his alternate self. "My turn to grab you and shake you," Stelle murmured, the resolution in her gaze hiding the satisfaction at catching him off guard.
A pause hung in the air as they locked eyes and she studied him. "Huh. You're kind of cute when you're not doing your whole Captain Ominous routine. Makes sense though, I can be pretty cute too." After another beat, she released him. "Since you're here and not actively being a menace, I'll do the same thing for you that I'd do for anyone who showed up in my space after going through the end of the world."
"Let me guess: keep me comfortable and feed me?" His sardonic tone cut off when he got his answer.
"Got it in one." She broke the ensuing dumbfounded silence by adding, "What? Did you not expect me to do that?"
"I expect nothing."
"At least I didn't expect you to knock it off with being a looming black cloud." Stelle grabbed him by the hand and yanked him along with her, not stopping to check if he was still there till they arrived in Himeko's old workshop. "Well, you didn't warp off or vaporize my hand, so I'm taking that as your agreement to this treatment."
His face was blank when she released him, and she skipped off towards the snack station with a devious grin. "Look at these little cake squares. How cute," she declared as she peeked into the nearby mini fridge.
"Don't have too much fun playing with this space," the other Trailblazer grumbled, shifting his weight.
"Why? Because it won't last? I know that, but it's here right now, so I'm gonna mess around." Stelle shoved some of the squares onto a paper plate before digging plastic forks out of a cabinet with a clatter, making sure to close everything before springing back to her counterpart. She speared one cake piece, holding it in front of his face. "Open wide… I dare you." The "good boy" that fell from her lips as he took it was mostly an accident.
How docile he seemed to become after accepting a treat was a peculiar transition, the excessively poised stiffness slipping out of his body. "Who are you calling 'good boy?'" he asked after he swallowed.
"You, nerd," Stelle teased. "What's with that look? Was some good food all it took to soften you up?"
His eyes went to the floor as heat spread through his face, a sensation almost foreign. "You're making this hard."
"Good." She offered him another piece, marveling at how obediently he took it, as if this was a practiced movement that he couldn't let go of. "How many eights has it been since you last got to eat your fill?"
"Eights?" He shook his head as he parsed what she was saying. "It's not worth counting." As he accepted the next bite, his eyes narrowed. "You do realize this isn't going to buy you any time or mercy during our next encounter, don't you?"
"Of course not, but that's not my problem right now, is it?" Just about beaming, she offered him one more piece. "Eat up- wait, where are you going?"
"Elsewhere." The other Trailblazer was already departing.
"What's the matter? Couldn't handle getting a little TLC?" When he stopped and shook his head, she sprinted over to his side to get a good look at him. "I knew it! You're blushing!"
"You are ridiculous," he grumbled, averting his glowing gaze. "But I should have expected this."
"I thought you expected nothing," Stelle retorted, swinging his own line back at him. "The weirder you get about it, the more I want to keep fussing over you." Her grin went too wide for mere concern. "Do you want to go get comfy in one of the rooms and let me rub your tummy?"
"Go play with Dan Heng if you're going to be this way."
"Oh, come on, the offer is for you," she grumbled, heaving an exaggerated exasperated sigh. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of him for you. Probably can't give him your regards, so-"
"Stop," he cut in, turning around to face her. "You're not going to change or fix me, or anything I've witnessed."
"Now when did I ever say I wanted to do anything like that?" She folded her arms, pouting. "I don't expect anything from my doppelganger who's made it clear he's going to try and kill me next time. You just happen to be here during the Stellaron-enforced rest stop, and every time I put something together about you it just makes you more sad than evil."
A long pause lingered, and Stelle glanced down, realizing she was still holding the plate and fork. "If you've seen all these failures and horrible bad ends… Do you remember Phainon?"
"Of course I do."
"Even if the magnitude of what you've seen is somehow infinitely more than what he went through, it sounds like a similar case. And I wouldn't deny Phainon just because part of him became the Flame Reaver and spent millions of cycles causing problems after breaking and failing."
"Stop trying to…" He grimaced as he dug up the phrase. "'Poor sad meow meow' me."
Stelle gave the ugliest snort laugh, nearly jostling crumbs off the plate. "Who taught you that phrase? If you're that determined to be a pain in the ass, I'll just keep giving you the 'poor sad meow meow' treatment because it makes you squirm."
"You wouldn't make Phainon uncomfortable-"
"Oh? Are you admitting I got to you because I was nice to you?" A short, sharp giggle escaped her. "I said 'similar,' not the same. You clearly ended up in a very different position. Besides, you can be the end of existence incarnate and still be a poor sad meow meow. Try that on for size."
"I'm leaving," the counterpart spat, striding off and fading away with a quickness, but not before adding in a quick, "Give the rest of that to Dan Heng."
Stelle was left staring at the empty space in front of her. "Oh, don't you worry, I will," she quipped, spitefully shoving one cake square into her mouth.