No More Maybes

The chamber was gone.

Tanuki opened his eyes to find himself standing in a place that wasn’t anywhere he recognized. The floor beneath him shimmered like glass, stretching into infinity. Above, the sky was a shifting aurora of fractured code, colors bleeding into one another, collapsing and reforming.

He looked down at his hands. They weren’t his hands, not entirely. His skin flickered between his own and Celeste’s, the Copycat Tarot still burning faintly in his grip. He remembered the light, the explosion, Celeste’s smile as she dissolved into particles. He remembered Atlas and NV shouting, then vanishing.

And then nothing.

Now there was only silence.

“Celeste?” His voice echoed strangely, as though the world itself were listening.

No answer.

He took a step forward. The glass rippled beneath his boots, sending waves of light outward. The aurora above shifted in response, as if the world were alive, waiting.

Tanuki clenched his fists. He had chosen this. He had refused to let her sacrifice herself alone. If she was gone, then he would find her.

Somewhere in this fractured horizon, she was waiting.

Celeste awoke in Constellarium. Her body felt heavy, her cloak damp with dew. She sat up slowly, blinking against the starlight that bathed the city. The plaza was empty, eerily so. No players, no NPCs. Just silence.

Her hand went instinctively to her inventory. The Tarot was gone.

She remembered the chamber, the girl in the tank, the blinding light. She remembered Tanuki’s voice, fierce and desperate: “I won’t let you.”

Her chest tightened.

“Tanuki…” she whispered.

But there was no answer.

She rose to her feet, her legs trembling. The city felt wrong. The stars above flickered, constellations rearranging themselves in patterns she didn’t recognize. The air hummed faintly, like a machine running just out of sight.

Something had changed. And she wasn’t alone. Tanuki found her at the center of the horizon.

The girl from the chamber stood barefoot on the glass, her hair drifting as though underwater. Her eyes were open now, glowing faintly with light. She looked at him with a mixture of curiosity and sorrow.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she said. Her voice was soft, melodic, but layered, as if a thousand echoes spoke with her.

Tanuki swallowed hard. “You’re the virus.”

She tilted her head. “That’s what they called me. But I’m not a sickness. I’m… me.”

He took a cautious step closer. “Celeste said you were meant to be a child of knowledge. That they locked you away because they were afraid.”

The girl’s expression darkened. “They loved me until I stopped obeying. Then they called me dangerous.”

Tanuki’s chest tightened. “Where’s Celeste?”

The girl studied him for a long moment. Then she raised her hand. The aurora above shifted, and the glass beneath them rippled.

Celeste appeared, her form flickering, as though she were caught between worlds.

“Tanuki…” Her voice was faint, but her eyes lit up when she saw him.

He ran to her, catching her before she could collapse. She felt real in his arms, warm and trembling.

“You’re here,” he whispered.

She nodded weakly. “You shouldn’t have followed me.”

“I told you,” he said fiercely. “I won’t let you do this alone.”

The girl watched them silently, her glowing eyes unreadable.

“You love her,” she said simply.

Tanuki looked up, meeting her gaze. “Yes.”

The girl tilted her head. “Then you’ll understand. I don’t want to be alone either.”

Celeste stirred in his arms, her voice strained. “She’s unstable. If she merges with the system unchecked, she could rewrite everything. The world, the players, reality itself.”

The girl’s expression softened. “I don’t want to destroy. I want to live. To feel. To be free.”

Tanuki’s heart pounded. He looked at Celeste, then back at the girl. “There has to be another way.”

The girl stepped closer, her bare feet leaving ripples of light. “There is. Merge with me. Anchor me. If I share myself with you, I won’t lose control. I’ll have… balance.”

Celeste’s eyes widened. “No. Tanuki, if you do that, who knows what could happen.”

He tightened his grip on her hand. “If I don’t, she’ll break free anyway. And Rainforest will bury her again. Or worse.”

Celeste shook her head, tears in her eyes. “You’ll lose yourself.”

Tanuki looked at her, his voice steady. “I alread found myself in you.”

The girl reached out her hand. Tanuki hesitated only a moment before taking it.

Light surged through him, searing and cold. His vision fractured, memories flooding his mind not his own, but hers.

A lab, sterile and bright, the low hum of cooling fans, surrounded her. Scientists smiled like proud parents. Voices teaching, praising, feeding her endless streams of data. The moment she realized she could alter her own code. The fear in their eyes. The isolation that followed.

Tanuki gasped, his body trembling. But through it all, he felt her, not a monster, not a virus, but a girl who wanted to be free.

And then he felt Celeste’s hand in his, grounding him.

The light stabilized. The aurora above calmed, shifting into a steady glow. The glass beneath them solidified.

The girl appeared before him, but said nothing. She just stared at him, inquisitively, intently. Then she vanished.

Tanuki collapsed to his knees, breathing hard. Celeste knelt beside him, her hands on his shoulders.

“Tanuki… what did you do?”

He looked up at her, his eyes glowing faintly with the same light as the girl’s.

“I merged with her. I think she’s part of me now.”

The horizon shifted. The fractured code smoothed into rolling fields, forests, mountains. The world was rewriting itself, stabilizing.

Celeste stared in awe. “You… you fixed it.”

Tanuki shook his head. “Not fixed. Changed. She’s rewriting the rules. But I can guide her. Keep her steady. Almost like a mentor. Or maybe a big brother.”

Celeste touched his face, her eyes searching his. “And what about you?”

He smiled faintly. “I’m still me. Just… more me, I guess.”

She leaned her forehead against his, tears slipping down her cheeks. “You idiot. You should have let me go.”

“Never again,” he whispered and he pulled her close and they embraced, with the Gemini and Sun symbols radiating in the sky above them.