(Fair warning this did give me a little bit of an existential crisis while writing so... be careful? Also a warning:
MINOR CHARACTER DEATH AHEAD!
Also a little warning, I did a little more editing to this than I did "Snow Globes," but there may still be errors that I am unaware of.
Well, that's all the warnings I have for this one... I'm also going to consider this one as part of my drabble collection because it's kinda as short as I can go in stories. I hope you guys enjoy!)
Disclaimer: I do not own Ratchet and Clank or any of its characters. And in other news, my writing motivations/schedule is the personification of the quote, "And now for something completely different."
Eternity's End
Last moments, from what he had always assumed and had been told, were some of the most peaceful moments of a creature's life.
Of course, there were times when a creature was killed in a violent manner, but in the very last moments, the very last split seconds, Death would sweep over them. Death would cover them, hold them, and take their souls to a place Orvus knew not.
Darkness always comes first. Then, once the soul has drifted away from the body, Death comes to take the soul away to another place. During the entire time, the spirit is unaware, resting in Death's gentle hands, awaiting for the arrival of the place one goes to after dying.
Or at least, that was what Death told him.
His eyes drifted out over the dying stars surrounding his dying home. The Clock was blanketed in approaching darkness, and the once lovely purples and blues of space were now pitch black. Everything... galaxies, stars, planets, species... everything around the Clock was gone, Death already having collected their essences and taken them to the place where it dwelled.
Orvus raised a small hand, the once lively pink now a dirty pale. The pale color had come on about a short eon ago, and the Zoni could remember the utter emptiness he had felt when he had realized what it meant.
Time, the eternal medium in which Good and Evil could live within, was dying. Time was finally ending. Eternity was finally ending.
The Zoni wiped at his face once more, the tear stains still there. It was odd to be coming to such a realization as eternity ending.
As Orvus hovered closer to the window of the Clock, another tear, one he didn't know he still had left in him after the past few years, rolled down his cheek. His three fingers spread across the glass, and a little choking sound came from his throat as he remembered all the creatures he had met in his life.
All of them, of course, were gone. Death told him it had been especially gentle with them. XJ-0461 had gone quickly, eager to be with his old friend. Sigmund hadn't gone as quickly, eager to stay with his old friend.
The old Zoni blinked at the disappearing stars, and the hollowness in his chest grew.
A little tap sounded behind him.
Fear rushed through his body, and the Zoni quickly concealed the emotion.
"Everything is gone?"
The hooded and cloaked figure stayed mute, the hood dipping down before slowly lifting up.
A sort-of cough caught in Orvus' throat, and the Zoni shook as he looked at the hooded figure's reflection in the window. "They... they all went peacefully? All the little animals... and people... an-and... my people?"
The hood dipped again, and the two flowing sleeves of Death's arms curled close to the figure's chest. The arms formed a cradle position, and the little Zoni knew what it meant.
Orvus felt another tear run down his face, the bright, light blue drop glowing as it ran down his cheek.
"I am the last one... correct? The last one in this imploding universe?"
Instead of nodding, Death uncurled its arms. One hand, a skeletal hand that looked very similar to Orvus', softly gripped the scythe by its side, the other relaxed and disappeared under the long black sleeve as it fell back to Death's side.
The Zoni barely noticed how much he shook.
The dirty pale fingers, violently shaking as Orvus lifted them, traced a little constellation from the outside stars on the window.
The constellation disappeared as darkness replaced it.
"Wi-will it hurt?"
Death stayed mute.
Orvus could not think of anything to say. The words took shape on his lips, but no sound pushed through.
Suddenly, a star exploded.
It was triggered by something, something Orvus didn't know, and suddenly the stars around it were violently collapsing too. White bursts, almost like fireworks, illuminated the only parts left of space that weren't already dark.
He knew Death was trying to spare him. To make it easier.
In a split second, Orvus dug through his connection to Time and forced Time to slow.
The stars were still exploding outside the window, the powerful entities' destructive power still barreling towards the Clock, but now... it was as slow as Time could take it.
Pain spread throughout the Zoni's body, a dull ache spreading from his feet up. Orvus' hands couldn't stop shaking as he lowered them, and the Zoni lowered his head in utter shame.
"You'd think," he began, "that after living for an eternity... I'd want to pass on. To see the other side, and give myself to you as everything has done before me. But... I-I-I..."
His hand cupped over his mouth, and more blue tears poured out of his eyes. The pain grew until the Zoni ached all over.
As his arm lowered and wrapped around his stomach, his other arm lifted to wrap around him. Something, anything, to comfort him.
"You know, you can always say you never fear death. I-I've said it countless times before. Intruders and evildoers come into the Clock, and I fight them, knowing perfectly well that if they land a good hit, I could die. In those moments... I don't fear seeing you. I... I just do what I can to protect the Clock. But now... I-I..."
The other hand, free of the scythe, lifted. The little bones delicately touched Orvus' back, and the little Zoni gasped and hugged himself tighter as Death carefully hooked a comforting finger on Orvus' shoulder.
The explosions were getting closer. The energy Orvus was using to slow Time was draining, and now sharp, needle-like pain stabbed at his feet.
Orvus barely noticed it.
"It feels so shameful to be afraid of you. I have lived far longer than any other creature has, surely I wouldn't be afraid of my own time coming to an end... But... I feel I've lived so long I've forgotten what you mean. I never felt any pressure before. And now... this is it."
Pain lanced through his chest.
"What awaits me?"
Another bony finger hooked over Orvus' other shoulder.
~I cannot say.~
Choking sounds came from the Zoni as Death's voice filled his mind.
Death, throughout the eternity Orvus had known it, had never spoken a word to him before.
The pain spread to his fingers, and the Zoni could no longer feel his legs. The tips of the blasts touched the windows of the Great Clock, and spiderwebbed cracks began to form along the surface.
~Even you, my dear friend, cannot know what lies beyond me until you accept me.~
His sobs were forced down until they stopped completely.
The glass was almost broken.
"I'm so sorry... I'm stretching out my last moments as much as I can, and I know that this is something you have been waiting to see since you came into existence. No other creature has this power, and yet I abuse it selfishly out of fear."
~It is not always easy to see me. I signal something that is always hard to take, and I never blame any thing for how it reacts.~
The Zoni could no longer feel his chest, and the splintering pain now centered in his head.
Orvus turned to the figure and gazed into the black hole under the hood. Uncertainty filled him, and fear flooded him as he gazed into the vast unknown of Death.
"Will it hurt?"
Death gave a little pull on the hovering Zoni, and Orvus allowed Death to pull him closer.
~That depends. Time will end, and I will see The End of Eternity, as I have been waiting for. You could also see The End if you wished to, or, you may hide your eyes within me and never see The End. That is your final choice.~
The glass shattered and vaporized into nothing, and the blast slowly inched in through the empty spaces. As pure white, hot, explosive energy surged into the Clock, Orvus made his choice.
It would be one of the most wonderful things to see. To see The End of it all, to see the entire universe come to a close. To see Time disappear and have nothingness replace it. Beyond that, nothing knew. The End promised a show like no other, and with only Death watching, Orvus would be one of two entities that saw The End of Eternity.
The fabric of Death's cloak blanketed him as he hugged Death, and the Zoni felt one last tear roll into Death's cloak as it whispered praise into Orvus' consciousness.
In a fraction of a second, boiling rage flooded his body, only for an intense desire to give away anything to live again, for then a soul-crushing sadness to yank down his essence and choke him, and finally...
Acceptance reached him, and all the pain he had felt, all the fears that had plagued him left him, and peace touched his soul.
The End.
A bit of a trick at the end... for those that may not understand, those two words mean something different depending on how it's interpreted. On one hand, The End gave Orvus the peace to his soul. On the other... it's The End of the story and I did it solely for drama.
This one is extremely similar to "Snow Globes" and "Time's Up." For SG, this was written after I thought of the words "eternity" and "end," and was written in a pretty short amount of time with minimal editing. As for "Time's Up," I mean I took Orvus and killed him very slowly because ANGST (it's that time of year I guess)! Other than that... this is just a little drabble that I wrote between classes.
Hopefully this tugged at your heartstrings, and if you are confused on any part, I can always say why I wrote it the way I did or the reasoning behind it. I hope you guys enjoyed, and I hope you have a good rest of the day! :D
XD