Stars of Avarice

I had known that this day was bound to come, but standing here now, I wasn't able to believe it. No matter how many times I had tried to fight back against this fate, I found myself facing this scene that haunted me at every turn. My body was numb, knees folded over as I watched the weight of the world- no- of all the worlds slowly descend upon my shoulders.

The once star-studded black night sky was a being invaded by strands of grey, anchoring to the edges of existence, stretching and choking out the color, the life out of everything that had once existed. The tendrils of grey were spreading apart in a vicious hold, and then that chilling voice boomed into my mind once again. It was like a stirring cacophony of a million sickly voices, merged with the sound of screech of rubbing steel, rattling every cell in my body.

Tell me. What good did it all do?

Why do you rebel? This was your fate all along.

I looked around the darkened bridge of my ship, the violated innards of the once-proud vessel now floating through the air in front of me in a painfully slow motion. The glass in front of me was shattered, the glinting remains joining this swirling mass of death and destruction. I should have been dead at right this moment. The ship was destroyed, and the depressurization should have killed me instantly, since I wasn't wearing my emergency EVA-Pak. Yet I was here, watching the end of everything itself, the universe being devoured at such as slow pace. I could only watch as my crew-members all just witness this failure unfold, their faces reacting just as slowly as the eventual end of the universe. I wanted to die here. Right now. But no, they weren't going to let me. After all I had done, this was going to be their way of ending me, drawing it out until my last breath, letting me know that I had utterly failed to do anything.

Now, if you will kindly return what is ours. It's no use for you keep it now, don't you think?

The air in front of me shifted and discolored for a moment, like a hologram just barely coming into focus. Small, jagged lines slightly appeared, stretching and contracting until forming the figure of a little pale girl, in a grey, smoky dress. Her face was covered by long, solid white hair, with a solitary eye poking through the strands. Her eye was a deep black, with ripples color, thin lines of blue, orange, green, and many others running through it. She raised a pale arm towards me and a deep burning sensation exploded through my chest. I heard myself screaming, a primal, almost unrecognizable sound of unimaginable pain clawing out of my mouth and burrowing into my ears. Even then, I did not die. I knew that it was over, yet I clung onto something so small. I didn't know what I was waiting for. I had made so many different plans, scenarios, and endgames. I knew there was no way out of this one. Yet, something told me to hold on. I wasn't giving up, even in this moment of true failure. The pale girl raised her arm once more, a wave of deep red quickly flashing through her murky black eye.

Why?! Why do you still resist? It is over!

Even as the girl, the collection of entities who held all the power in the universe right now stood before me, signifying the end, I wasn't giving up. Even as the planets, the stars, and the dark matter of space were being swallowed into utter nothingness, I didn't give up. I could feel my mind just screaming to let it end, to finally put it all to rest, but something wasn't letting me.

Finally, another voice found itself in my already strained mind. It was somewhat...soothing. For a moment, the pain subsided and the world dissolved into black. I now sat in a sea of darkness, and the new voice spoke again.

It's not over yet. You know, it don't you?

I somehow found myself nodding slightly.

Remember, Eiden. You can still win.

I didn't understand, yet I nodded again, as if in a trance.

Yes... now... Go back to the beginning. You will realize the strength to break you from these shackles.

Your fate. Your friends' fates. The worlds' fates. The universe's fate. Depend on you at this moment. You must awaken once more.

For just a split-second, I saw it. The link in the chain of fates that would set this right. But to understand it, you have to understand the journey that led to this moment. The journey that will inevitably decide that fate of this universe.