The End

Aria blinked.

She was standing in the middle of Militia. In a deep, suffocating silence.

The city stretched in all directions, but something was wrong. The streets were empty, stripped of their color, as if someone had painted the world in fading brushstrokes. Buildings flickered between solid and transparent, their edges fraying into light, vanishing before her eyes. The sky—if it could still be called that—was a swirling mass of shifting hues, shapes forming and dissolving in seconds.

She turned in a slow circle, her breath coming fast.

Why am I here?

She didn’t know.

Something was missing.

Something was wrong.

One second, she had been fighting. She knew that much. She had been fighting for something—someone. Her fingers curled at her sides, nails pressing into her palms as she struggled to hold onto the thought. It slipped away like mist. A name. There had been a name.

The world stuttered again. A chunk of the pavement in front of her crumbled into nothing, swallowed by the dissolving void. The edges of the buildings wavered, disassembling piece by piece. It was happening everywhere. It was as if reality itself had begun to _unravel_.

Her head pounded. Her thoughts felt sluggish, like she was reaching for something just beyond her grasp.

She closed her eyes.

She felt a subtle pull. A whisper curling at the edges of her mind, telling her she needed to go somewhere.

Her feet moved before she made the decision, weaving through the empty streets, past shadows of what once was. Somewhere between one step and the next, she realized she was forgetting something. No, someone.

She struggled to hold onto it, but it was slipping, slipping, slipping—

Who?

Who had i gone to see?

Her hands clenched tighter.

I shouldn’t forget.

She was here for a reason. But why? She gritted her teeth, pushing forward. The dissolving world screamed around her, yet she moved faster, drawn to the boundary she didn’t understand. That was where she needed to go.

But who was it?

The name was slipping. She tried to grasp it, but it broke apart like shattered glass in her hands. It was right there, just outside her reach, just beyond memory.

I shouldn’t forget. I shouldn’t forget.

A sob caught in her throat as she stumbled forward.

She needed to reach the Frontier.

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Neon ran.

The streets of Nyxia warped around him, buildings twisting into spires of light, breaking apart at the edges, collapsing inward like dying stars. The city was tearing itself apart, time and space unraveling like a thread cut loose.

But he didn’t care.

He had to find her.

His breath came ragged as he sprinted forward. The dissolving wave was coming for him, creeping at the edges of his mind, but he still remembered.

Aria.

He still remembered her name. The shape of it in his mouth. The way she looked at him when she was angry, when she was laughing, when she was quiet, staring out into the distance like she could see a world beyond this one.

He didn’t know why he was so sure, but he felt it deep in his bones—she was going to be there. At the boundary.

If he could just reach her.

He pushed forward, past shadows of people who had already forgotten, past streets that no longer held form. Everything was collapsing, but he didn’t stop.

Don’t forget. Don´t you dare forget.

That was the only thing that mattered now.

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The veil´s effect was breaking.

It flickered in and out of existence, shimmering like the thinnest fabric stretched between two dying worlds. A jagged line in space, pulsing, unstable.

Aria reached it first.

She stood there, staring at it, her mind a blank slate where memories used to be. She wasn’t sure why she had come here.

Her heart pounded, a hollow ache in her chest.

She had been looking for someone. She knew that much.

But when she reached into her mind for a name, for a face, all she found was emptiness.

The void crept closer, swallowing the city behind her.

She didn’t move.

She didn’t understand why, but she felt like she should be waiting.

Then, footsteps. Her heart jolted. She turned.

A boy ran toward her, breathless, desperate, his expression breaking apart with something she didn’t recognize. The moment their eyes met, the world around them slowed.

Neon stopped a few steps away, staring at her like he had just found something he had spent lifetimes searching for.

Her lips parted, but no words came out. She didn’t know him. She was sure of it.

But then why did she feel like she did?

He took a step forward, hesitant, like he was afraid she would disappear if he moved too fast. 

His throat worked, and when he spoke, his voice was raw, fragile.

“...Aria.”

Her chest tightened. Her name.

The way he said it—like it meant something. Like it wasn’t just a word. She didn’t know why, but she wanted to cry.

She swallowed, taking a slow step back. “Who—”

She couldn’t finish the question. The world was falling apart.

She had no memories of him. And yet—

She knew.

Somewhere deep in her, she *knew*.

Neon exhaled sharply, eyes searching hers. “You don’t remember, do you?”She shook her head.

His jaw tightened. He looked away for a second, his hands curling into fists before he took a slow breath and met her gaze again.

“It’s okay,” he whispered.

She frowned.

That was wrong. It wasn’t okay.

The void was swallowing the last remnants of the world behind them. The veil trembled, warping, seconds from collapse. Everything was ending.

The girl lifted her head, her dark eyes searching the space around her. They landed on him, unknowing, unfamiliar.

His fingers curled at his sides. His throat clenched.

He wanted to call her name, to close the space between them, to tell her everything before the world fell apart. But something inside him stopped him.

She doesn’t remember.

And maybe—maybe that was for the best.

His gaze wavered. He took a slow, measured breath, forcing his face into something neutral before turning away from her. His hands reached for the voice filter at his collar, activating it with a quiet click.

When he spoke, his voice came out different—detached, unrecognizable.

“We’ve never met.”

He didn’t turn back to look at her.

There was a pause. Then, soft footsteps as she took a step closer. Neon’s breath caught, but he kept his stance still, unreadable.

The girl tilted her head slightly, something uncertain in her posture. “I don’t… I don’t think that’s true.”

Neon closed his eyes. She was still the same.

Even without her memories, she still *knew*.

He swallowed. “We’re going our separate ways,” he said, quieter now. “That’s how it should be.”

Silence.

For a moment, he thought she was going to let him go.

But then—

“I know that you have given all your strength to survive this far. I´m sure...”

Neon stilled.

Her voice was steady, unwavering.

“I´m sure that not a single thing you’ve experienced so far has been a waste. You’ve arrived at this moment by doing everything in your power, at the risk of your own life.”

His hands shook.

“That’s something you should be more proud of, I think. That´s what I feel when I look at you.”

The weight of her words crushed him. The cracks inside him split wide open.

He turned.

And before he could stop himself, before he could think, before he could convince himself to walk away—

He ran back to her.

Aria barely had time to react before he was there, closing the space between them in an instant, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her in as tightly as he could.

The breath left her lungs. She froze, tense in his hold. His arms trembled against her, his heartbeat wild against her ear.

Something inside her unlocked.

A single flicker. A spark in the darkness. Her body shuddered.

Neon.

His name crashed into her mind like a wave, breaking through the empty space where her memories should have been.

Neon.

Her fingers clenched at the fabric of his jacket. She sucked in a sharp breath.

She remembered.

The walls of her mind, the blank slate, the lost fragments—it all shattered in an instant.

Aria gasped, her body melting against him, arms wrapping around him just as tightly as he was holding her. She buried her face in his shoulder, gripping him as though letting go would mean losing him all over again.

His breath came uneven.

She whispered against him, soft, fragile—

“…Neon.”

His grip on her tightened. His body shook.

She had said his name.

She knew.

Slowly, hesitantly, he pulled back just enough to look at her. Her eyes met his.

And in that moment, the rest of the world disappeared.

Nothing else existed—only the two of them, standing at the edge of everything, on the precipice of a dying universe.

Neon swallowed, his gaze dropping to her lips for a small moment, then back to her eyes.

A silent question.

Aria exhaled, her hands finding their way slowly to the sides of his face, fingers curling gently against his skin.

She didn’t need to answer. She just closed the last of the space between them at once.

Their lips met.

The moment they did, everything else fell away. The unraveling, the void, the collapsing reality—none of it mattered anymore.

There was only warmth.

Only the feeling of him against her, the weight of his hands at her back, the way he kissed her like he had been waiting for this moment forever.

And maybe—maybe he had.

Her hands slid to his shoulders, holding onto him tightly as though this was the only thing tethering them to existence.

And maybe it was.

The light of the dissolving world pulsed around them, enclosing them more and more.

But in that instant, in *their* moment—

Everything was whole.