Forevermore <<WretchedFatesNowEtchedInStone>>

Laws of physics were ignoring themselves as the tethers of reality broke. Without the anchor of the Arcans, the Shards were hurling chaos and unfettered magic across the world. Every second brought a new color to the sky as it ripped itself apart in kaleidoscopic catastrophe. Buildings bent and ripped from their foundations. Rivers evaporated and re-appeared. Snow fell in sweltering heat.

Everything was collapsing.

Across the world, the shackles of mind control came undone just in time for the global populace to witness Armageddon’s arrival.

Through it all, a single blue car sped along forgotten roads on the outskirts of Sapporo. Within the car were two young parents and their newborn daughter. Neither breathed as they watched the sky rage in neon fire.

“Miu…” was all Taki could whisper as he drove closer and closer to the orphanage where he grew up.

What he didn’t know was that Miu had just fallen through a portal back at the facility, intent on stopping the unknown annihilation that was coming for everyone. Pain was still burning through her chest from the broken ribs she had yet to heal. Tears of grief and finality were streaking down her dirtied face as she collapsed onto the last occupied bed of the facility.

Yuki was still there. Still mutilated. Still alive. Still human.

“Yuki… Oh Yuki… Stay with me. Please stay with me for just a little longer…” Miu sobbed as she pushed herself up.

They had never wanted to kill everyone. Even in Miu’s most lost moments, she was always able to hold a space in her heart for the innocent. She would not let those who hurt her and Yuki get their final humiliation by succumbing to their cruelty.

Death was coming for both of them no matter what, but she would not die as a monster of their creation. There was at least one baby girl out there that she wanted to have a future.

Maybe that little girl could even have a good life. Something Miu and Yuki had never gotten to experience.

Mourning poured through Miu’s veins and mixed with her remaining adrenaline as she roared and planted her feet. In whatever way she understood it, she would give those that remained a chance for peace and happiness. Whatever came after that would be up to-

That was when the idea arrived. Yuki would have been proud. She would create a failsafe, just in case.

Only seconds remained. By now, the bombs’ explosions were at the edges of the portals. Lifetimes were reduced to a single instant, and Miu accepted this was the end.

A soft, small glyph appeared beneath her feet. It was barely wider than her stance. Gentle blue light spiralled upwards as small flecks of crystal dust drifted around her.

“Stay with me, please…” Miu asked one final time.

The beeps on his diagnostics were enough of an affirmation.

“At-At the e-end of time,” Miu tried to steady her voice.

Once they were children.

“W-When we all become zeroes…”

Once they had dared to dream that things would get better.

“The sky learns my-my-my name.”

But that better never came.

“I held futures in my hands.”

Life’s cruelty had robbed them again and again.

“Your forevermores.”

Broken down until they became unrecognizable.

“Nothing is erased.”

She would have given up all of this for a simple life with him.

“The End pauses, uncertain.”

All he had ever wanted was to be happy with her. To see her truly smile. But that was too much to ask.

“Light r-r-refused to leave.

None of this was supposed to happen.

“Let no one else know sorrow…”

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

“T-T-The way we knew it…”

But it was.

Sobs shook Miu’s chest as she struggled to maintain the spell. Within the obsidian of her body, a tiny pink glow appeared. The glyph responded in kind and began to spin as the light around Miu turned pink as well. Warmth pulled itself from Miu’s body, down into the glyph. She knew what was coming and braced for the pain.

A single pink and blue beam erupted from the glyph. As Miu screamed out, the beam rose into the open sky like a spotlight. Higher and higher it rose, until it bloomed and opened wide like a fountain. Rays of rose and sapphire shot in every direction towards the horizon, speeding faster than light itself.

Far away, Taki and Emi watched as the colorful beams streaked across the sky and stitched a new barrier that enveloped them and everyone else.

The barrier spread and spread as every ounce of Miu’s life force poured into its summoning. Ripley’s portals were struck and burned away, just as the bombs’ blasts reached the openings.

Across the world, billions of souls watched the sky remake itself as a gentle, pearlescent coating shielded them. When the beams had wrapped across the globe and found one another, lines of light stitched across the openings, creating a lattice of brightness full of Miu’s words and glyphs.

Then, from the facility, the pulses of softness erupted. Glowing waves of energy burst out and burned across the land, striking the Arcan Shards and turning them to Miu’s crystalline geodes.

Fury died. The sky calmed as the funnels of fire dissipated. Gravity returned, and the soil resealed itself as new spindles of pink sewed themselves into existence.

Taki and Emi braced as a wave of pink struck their van. As it hit them, both felt a kind, warm feeling drift over them, like a forgiving embrace from a long-lost friend. When the wave passed, both looked at the other to see small glowing lines of light streaking across their skin.

Trees changed. Floating chunks of rock turned to crystal that began to pour water that never reached the ground but also never ended. Undulations of blue energy drifted like visible breezes.

Then it stopped.

Taki’s mouthpiece was no longer glowing. He tried to speak, but his speech impediment had returned.

“E-EEmi? Ah yeeew ooohkay?” he slowly asked.

“I’m fine. And Sayane’s fine. But these lines?!” Emi asked as panic and relief battled for superiority in her mind.

All Taki could do was shake his head. They both knew who had caused this. But it did not feel destructive or cruel. It felt protective. Taki returned the vehicle’s transmission to engagement, and the three of them set off towards their destination. Though he tried to stop them, Taki could feel the sting of tears in his eyes as he accepted what awaited.

At the facility, Miu was crying in pain as her skin smoked. She could not die yet. There was still something she had to do. Teeth gritted as blood ran without end. Her crystal fist shattered the bed’s covering, triggering the alarms at Yuki’s bedside.

Hands slid under atrophied limbs as Miu and Yuki finally touched again for the first time in years.

Tubes were removed. Lines were unplugged. Then Yuki coughed.

Sobs seized in Miu’s lungs as she forced her eyes open to see that Yuki’s consciousness was fighting to find her.

His arm raised to try and find her face. It was severed above the elbow, without fingers or a palm to touch her cheek. Instead, the wrapped stump of his bone and bicep found her jaw, and he let out a whimper.

“mmmmm-mmmmm” he choked.

“Yuki. Yuki. It’s me. I’m here. You’re here. We’re here. We’re finally together again,” Miu wept.

His eyes tried to part but couldn’t.

“mmmmmm-mmmmm-Miiiii…..Miiiiiiiiiiiiuuuuuu….” he cried as his body shook.

Words escaped her, and all she could do was gag as her crystal hand held his.

“Weeeeeeeeeefoundfound found one a-an-another…” Yuki spat as bile ran from his mouth.

His eyes finally parted and met Miu’s.

Tears ran down pale skin as Miu nodded and held his gaze.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“D-don’t foooooorget me. I n-n-never forgot you. I’ll f-f-f-fiiiiiind you again, I s-swear,” Yuki cried.

He inhaled.

She leaned down as her hair fell like curtains to shield them from the world.

Cold, dry lips met and mixed with tears.

“I’ll never forget you, I promise.”

Life exhaled, and his body went limp.

“Yuki? Yuki?” Miu whimpered as shakes seized her entire body.

There were no more cries or screams left. Only a guttural, lost screech that faded into a murmur escaped Miu’s lips as she pulled Yuki’s body close. It was over. Beside them, the last portal appeared. Strength refused to cooperate, and Miu was forced to crawl through the opening while holding on to Yuki’s lifeless body. A last, final act of desperate hope remained, then Miu could die. Oblivion could finally have them both.