Author's Note: I originally wrote this as a sappy comfort fic in honor of HSO, but after editing the story turned into this little monster. FYI, the M rating is due to language and adult themes of mortality, but if you've read Homestuck than this should be pretty tame in comparison.
Also, Jadesprite may or may not be OOC, depending on how you interpret her character. We didn't get to see that much of her before she disappeared, so I'm extrapolating some of Alpha Jade's personality to fill in the gaps.
Davesprite: Save the Girl
Yeah, you're about thirteen years too late for that. Or ten hours, depending on which perspective you take. Since you became a sprite, your constant panic about seconds and hours and branching timelines has been drowned out by other concerns, so you don't really care exactly when Jade's dream self died. All you care about is that she doesn't do it again before you get to her.
As you hover across the checkerboard rubble that was once Skaia, a bright orange light sears across the sky and pierces the horizon. Two seconds later a warm gust of air ruffles your feathers. The air temperature has gone up 0.6 degrees Celsius. The next meteor will achieve impact in three minutes and sixteen seconds.
Even though the world around you is burning alive, it's hard to take the meteors seriously when the sprite voice in your head keeps squawking commentary. The lights in the sky don't seem real anymore- you feel like as soon as you die, you'll wake up back in Texas with GAME OVER flashing on the television in front of you. But you try to take dying seriously, if not for your sake then for hers.
You find Jadesprite next to the hill of broken walls and towers that used to be the White King's Castle, until the Derse army shot it to pieces. When she spots you, her face goes through a roulette of emotions. As her expressions sets on angry, you stop about fifteen feet away and wait.
"Well?" she calls over to you. "I'm listening."
"Didn't realize I was supposed to prepare a speech," you call back. The Jade you remember would have laughed, but this one just backs away from you. Maybe choosing to spend your last hour with her was a bad idea.
She says something, but the screech of a meteor across the field drowns it out. You put a hand to your ear and shout for her to be louder. She yells, but you still can't make out the words. Jadesprite looks at you critically, then teleports next to you. "I said I'm sorry, whichever-Dave-you-are, but I'm not fighting Jack."
"Why would I ask you to do that?" She glares at you like you told a bad joke. You keep your poker face on and stare back. "Did one of the other Daves ask you?"
"Try six."
Oh. "Well, I'm not with them. I just wanted to talk."
She jerks away from you, her fur sparking with green energy. You hold up your hands in surrender. "Okay. You want to be alone. I can totally respect that." You can't escape into the time stream now that you're a sprite, so you back away as quickly as you can without spooking her.
Behind you, a hoarse voice yells out, "Jade, you need to come with me right now!" You turn around and find that one of your alternate time line selves is three feet behind you, using a broken Caledscratch to prop himself up. He's wearing a sticky mud-brown suit, but you can tell from the clean patches on his sleeves that it used to be green and dry. You have a feeling that most of the blood he's wearing belongs to him.
"Whoa, what the hell happened to you?"
He doesn't answer. He doesn't even look at you. Instead he limps towards Jadesprite, dragging Caledscratch behind him. "Jade, listen to me. Right now eight Daves and I are fighting for our lives to take down Jack Noir. We've got nine different timeline's worth of artillery and a battle strategy so complicated that Schrodinger's cat couldn't escape from it. Fuck, two of us are GodTier and we still can't take him down. We need your help."
Jadesprite teleports a few feet away. Little arcs of neon spark across her fur, and you realize that she's not controlling the energy, that it's reacting to her fear. "I already told you all, I can't!"
"Yes, you can. Hell, you're the only one who has a chance. You're prototyped with same First Guardian. His powers are your powers."
"But he's also got John's and Rose's and your powers. I can't fight that. He'll just tear me apart like everyone else."
"You can try. Please, I'm begging you." After a pause, he says, "I'll even do it for real, just for you. See?" He drops down on one knee and looks at Jadesprite over his glasses. "Please Jade. I'm asking as your friend."
"You're not my friend!" she shouts, her fur crackling with energy. "I don't know you. And real friends don't bully you into killing yourself!"
For a second the other Dave goes stone still. Then he says in a low, clipped voice, "I'm not bullying you. I'm trying to convince you to save yourself. If you don't fight Jack Noir, everything is going to disappear. That includes you."
Jadesprite lets out a bark of laughter and wipes her eyes. "If that's my only chance, then I'd rather wait for the meteors."
Dave shoves himself off the ground. "Damn it, don't you fucking get it? The whole universe is at stake! Everyone you ever cared about is going to stop existing, and you're not even going to try to protect them? That is the most selfish, cowardly-" He pauses, then draws the broken Caledscratch. "You know what? Screw this. You're coming with me or I kill you right here. How's that for incentive?"
Suddenly the tip of a sword is pointed right at his neck. It takes you a full second to realize it's yours. He looks at you like you popped out of nowhere. "What the hell?" he breathes.
"Stole my line. What happened in your timeline to make you willing to murder one of your best friends?"
"She's not my Jade. Besides, she's killing us by doing nothing. Now come on. You're my sprite, aren't you? Fucking help me."
You push your sword forward so that the tip presses into his throat but doesn't draw blood. "Didn't you get the memo? There's no point in fighting Jack anymore. The Alphas are scratching the game."
The other Dave smirks. "I heard. Resetting the universe sounds like a great plan. I'm sure nothing will go wrong."
"Like fighting Jack's any better. The Reckoning's already started."
"If he started it, then killing him will stop it."
"Okay, seeing as I'm technically a part of SBURB now, I can guarantee you that that is not how this game works."
You can barely see his eyes moving behind his glasses, shifting between Jadesprite, you, and the sword. "So you're going to kill me for trying?"
You don't answer. Your sword hand's been moving before your mind even processes Dave's words, so you honestly don't know if the next thing Dave says will provoke you into murder or convince you to surrender. You're surprised you haven't accidentally cut him already, considering how much you're shaking.
He says something else, but your sprite voice is screeching so loud that you can't understand the words. It's insisting that you go and rescue your player from certain death, even though this Dave isn't the alpha Dave and your sword is the one that's about to plunge through his neck. You're so focused on ignoring the voice that you don't even notice the other Dave slipping into the timestream until it's too late. One second he's kneeling in front of you, the next you're just pointing your sword at the air.
Jadesprite glides back to your side. "Thank you."
"Don't relax yet. He'll be back in a minute or two."
She stiffens, and the hackles on her neck rise up. Then without saying a word, she turns her back to yours and starts scanning the field. The two of you spin around slowly, trying to spot the telltale wavering in the air that shows a time portal's about to open. When the whole field is shimmering with heat, however, spotting a time portal's easier said than done.
After a minute of spinning, Jadesprite whispers, "Are you sure he doesn't go back in time to kill me?"
"That would just create a doomed timeline. There'd be no point."
"Oh right. Heheh. Sorry, I was never good at the whole time thing." You don't deny it. The poor girl could barely keep track of her Prospit visions; it's no wonder the mechanics of time travel are beyond her. Though you guess that's why you're the time player and she's space.
The two of you keep spinning. "Do you know if any of the others are planning to attack me?" she whispers.
"No. I told you already, I'm not with them."
"But you knew about the Dave just now."
"That was a coincidence."
She stops turning, and you run into her with your good wing. "Wait, seriously?" She looks at your sword, then back at you. "But…you're not here to make me fight Jack either."
"No, that's stupid. If nine of me can't beat him, then there's no way in hell you can." Jadesprite winces and flattens her ears against her hair. "Shit. Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just-"Another meteor streaks across the sky, and your sprite voice distracts you for a second with more statistics. "Look, let's chalk that one up to nerves, all right? I just nearly killed myself, so my cool-o-meter's running a bit low."
She turns all the way towards you and frowns. Now that you're close, you realize that her eyes aren't human anymore. Her pupils are huge and black like a dog's, and also a little bit empty. "Were you really?"
"Were I really what?"
"Going to kill him. To protect me." She tilts her head, and two reflections of your blood-smeared face slide into her pupils.
"I..." For a second the world seems to fade away, and all that's left are those two bloody faces staring back at you. Then she blinks, and bright green of her eyelids snaps you back to reality. You rip your gaze away to check the field for portals. "Fuck, I don't know. Is it even possible for a sprite to kill their kid?"
"I'm not sure. But if the other Dave left, that means he probably doesn't know either."
"Lucky us." The two of you watch as flaming meteor spear-heads the white mountain on the horizon. The top of the mountain glows orange for a minute, then fades to an ashy grey, like a volcano erupting in reverse.
Jadesprite inches into your line of vision and asks, "So why are you here?"
"To enjoy the view." She startles and blushes forest green. You want to clarify that you meant the sky, not her, but her shaky smile changes your mind. The two of you have about fifty minutes left until all of the universe is obliterated; if she wants to think you're flirting, let her.
"No seriously," she says, scooting a little bit closer, "why'd you come find me?"
You shrug. "I thought you would be the best person to spend my last moments with if the plan fails."
"Really? Out of everybody, you…chose me?"
You nod. Though technically, you didn't have many options. All of the alpha kids are busy resetting the game, and the trolls are stuck in the Furthest Ring. As for Nannasprite and Jaspersprite, well…you never knew Nanna in real life, and spending your dying moments with your sister's cat would be too pathetic to be ironic. Even though you haven't spoken with Jade's dream self since this shitty game started, at least you know her.
You feel something furry slip into your palm and look down to find Jadesprite holding your hand. Her cold claws are flush against your skin. You're trying to figure out whether this is a friendly hand-holding or something more when an icy, prickling sensation enters your knuckles. It races up your arm, then fans out into every bone in your body. When the feeling reaches the tip of your wing, the field around you explodes into a fractaled mess of greens you never knew existed. The universe is greener than Jadesprite, greener than the green sun, so green you can smell the mint and lime pickling in your eye sockets.
You float there for exactly 3.2 seconds, just breathing in the green.
And then suddenly the world is not green, it's grey, and you realize you're staring at a wall of dusty bricks. Your whole body feels perfectly still, like you're a statue that was carved on this very spot and hasn't realized it could move until now. Slowly, very slowly, you turn your head to look at Jadesprite. "What…the hell?"
She lets go of your hand. "Sorry. I probably should have warned you first before teleporting us. But if you're not going to fight him, and you don't mind staying, then I figured we should hide as soon as possible."
You're in a dark hallway of some sort, bare besides the wrinkled red carpet in the center. You can only see about thirty feet, so you don't know what lies down the hall. The only light comes from a yellow crack between a pair of doors behind Jadesprite. The doors look like they're made out of white marble, and have a bunch of loopy shapes carved into them. They look pretty harmless, but you check with Jadesprite first before touching them. She nods encouragingly, so you go ahead and pull open the doors.
You didn't realize there was this much gold on Skaia. The walls, the pillars, the floor, everything is slick and metallic, as if the whole room was carved out of one giant gold brick. The only way you can tell one surface from the other is from the occasional marble accent. You have a feeling that if this place were up and running, it would look pretty impressive, but right now the floor is coated in dust and pebbles.
High above you are four stained glass windows, with designs outlined in gold that look suspiciously like the four players. Rubble is piled up outside the glass like a dirty, apocalyptic snow bank. The window with Dave's design has been broken in, and wind whistles through his chest, carrying streams of dust inside. "Are we in the White King's castle?"
"Mm-hmm. It was the closest hiding spot. We're in the throne room, in case you couldn't tell." She points to a raised platform on your left, where a suit of white armor stands guard. There's a throne-shaped hole in the layer of dust behind them. "I think this place survived the battle because it was made of gold, so it could endure the cannons and such better than the stone could."
"But how'd you know this was here?"
Jadesprite shrugs. "I just sensed it."
"You 'sensed' that the wreckage was hollow?"
"Well, I am the space player." She flinches. "Sorry, was."
"You were right the first time." She cocks her head in confusion. "You're still in the game, aren't you? And your powers are space. That makes you a space player."
She shakes her head. "I'm just the sprite now. I don't count."
You decide to ignore that last line and make your way towards the raised platform. "So can you sense where the throne is?"
"No. I think whoever broke the window took it with them. My sprite voice says it's part of a side quest or something."
You touch the throne's silhouette with your tail. Mission: Dersite soldiers have stolen the White King's throne while he was gone from the castle. Return the throne to its rightful heir and receive 72 units of gold, 43 units of diamond, 18 units of-
You lift your tail, and your sprite voice goes back to murmuring about air temperatures and time tables. "What about the suit of armor? It have any missions?
Jadesprite pokes the suit with her tail. Its knees buckle and it clatters to the floor, the helmet ricocheting off the steps with a clang. A white, bug-eyed head pokes out of the armor. Blood trickles out of its open mouth.
Jadesprite yelps and jumps back from the corpse. "Oh god…"
The two of you stand there for a good minute, with you staring at Jadesprite, Jadesprite staring at the corpse, and the corpse staring at his helmet. "Well, that answers that question," you say softly.
She grabs the soldier's helmet and sets it carefully back on his shoulders. Then she kneels down and pats him gently on the head, sort of like you would a dog. "What do you think happened to him?"
"My guess is he got in the way of the Dersites. The outside of him looks fine, so they probably hit him with some sort of magic."
"Why didn't he leave? He had to have heard the battle outside. Didn't he realize he was outnumbered?"
"Yeah, but he was a knight. It's his duty to guard the throne no matter what."
"But the king wasn't even here! He was off on the field about eight miles south."
"Escorting the king wasn't this guy's job. He had to protect the throne, so he laid down his life to do that."
Jadesprite stretches out the soldier's legs and folds his hands over his chest. When he looks somewhat presentable, she mutters, "It was a waste, if you ask me."
A shot of adrenalin runs up your spine and fans out through your wing. "Seriously? You think a knight's job is a waste?" She gives you a confused look, which ticks you off even more. "Cause you sure as hell weren't objecting when I was protecting you."
"What? No, that's not what I- that's different."
"Course it is." You make your way towards the door. You're not sure if there's a way out of this pile of junk, but even the corridor outside's better than here.
"Dave, wait! You don't understand-"
"Yeah I do. He might have failed his job, but he tried his best. His death deserves a little fucking respect." You open the door to the corridor.
A bright green light flashes in the dark. Jadesprite appears in front of you, her hair wild and her eyes even wilder. "God damn it, Dave, that's my point!" She forces herself into the doorway, driving you back into the throne room. "You and the other Daves risked your lives to protect other people, and you did it of your own free will. This guy was ordered by a stupid king into sacrificing himself for a piece of furniture!"
She stays there in the doorway, breathing heavily and waiting for your reply. "It was part of an important quest," you argue.
"He died for a chair." She sniffs and wipes her eyes on the back of her paw. "He deserved better than that."
"No he didn't." Jadesprite cocks her head and gives you a questioning look. "He died the way he thought was best. Everybody deserves at least that much."
She sighs. "But do you seriously think he would have gone through all that if he'd known that the king would never hear about it? Or that none of the players would care enough to complete the quest for him?"
You think about it for a second. "Probably. Betrayal's not really in their nature."
The two of you look back at the soldier across the room. The next meteor will achieve impact in one minute forty seconds... Jadesprite says something, but you don't quite catch it. You ask her to say it again.
"I said he's just like us. He can't defend himself. He just has to follow whatever order he's been given, no matter how stupid or selfish it is."
You can't help but flinch a little when she insults the players. With their portraits glaring at you from the windows, it feels like cussing in a church. "The alpha kids aren't that bad."
Now Jadesprite's glaring at you. "The real Jade created me solely to fight Jack. She told me so herself." When she sees you don't get it, she adds, "She ripped me away from my friends in the dream bubbles, dragged me back to this doomed game, and asked me to kill myself. Not just commit suicide, but to go up against the most sadistic, dangerous, powerful enemy the game's ever known. You think his corpse looks bad, think what mine would have looked like."
You imagine it in spite of yourself. You've fought with Jack before; you know exactly how she would turn out. It wouldn't be pretty.
She continues. "She didn't even have a guarantee that my sacrifice would mean anything. She just wanted me to kamikaze myself on the off chance I could kill Jack, who, by the way, she helped create." She stiffens a little and looks at you. "N-not that you and the other Daves were wrong for fighting him. You're all really brave. I just-"
"I get what you mean. Dying means a whole different thing if somebody's forcing you to do it." She nods. The floor shudders, and some debris falls through the broken window. The next meteor will achieve impact in four minutes sixteen seconds… "You know, I never said I wouldn't fight the other Dave. If it comes down to it."
"I don't want you to. That would be horrible." She cranes her neck towards the ceiling. You follow her gaze and see her shadowy reflection staring back at you from the gold ceiling. "If he does manage to find us here, I'll teleport us somewhere else."
"Why don't you do that now? It would make the trail harder to find."
"Because I want to die here."
Your heart spasms against your ribs, and all your focus zeroes in on the real Jadesprite next to you. "What? Why?"
She doesn't return your stare, but instead keeps looking at her reflection with a nostalgic expression. "Because all the gold makes it look like home."
Oh. She meant die here, not…yeah. "You mean Prospit?"
"No, I meant my little island in the South Pacific." You look back up and see her reflection rolling its eyes at you. "Of course I meant Prospit. I lived there my whole life. Or did you forget that?"
"No, it's just- I don't really have a mental image for it. Place kind of got shut down before I could make a visit."
"Oh. That's right." She smiles sadly. "It's funny. I waited years and years for everyone to wake up so I could show them Prospit, but by the time you're all awake, there's nothing left to show."
"I don't know. I think the wreckage of a planet made entirely of gold would still make a pretty awesome tour."
She laughs. "Just wait until we're in the dream bubbles. Then I can show you what it was like when it was still in the sky."
"I guess that's an okay consolation prize." You see out of the corner of your eye that the light from the windows looks a bit redder. "If the reset doesn't work, I mean."
"What is this reset you keep mentioning, anyway?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. The alpha kids are going to scratch the game. Make it so none of this ever happened."
Jadesprite snaps her head back down at you. "Wait, what? They're just erasing everything?"
"Not erasing. Starting over. They reset their starting conditions, their titles, everything about the game."
She puts her hands over her mouth and starts pacing. "Oh my god. Oh my god."
"What's wrong?"
She whirls around and throws her paws up in the air. "What's wrong? Dave, we're part of the game. If they undo this session, what's going to happen to us?"
You hadn't thought that far. Honestly, for a long time you weren't even expecting to survive to the end of the game. "I'm not sure. My best guess is that we'll get reabsorbed into the alpha kids' psyches-"
"Oh my god, oh my god-"
"Look, it's the only way we can win."
"Forget winning, we're about to be erased from existence! Why are you so calm about this?"
You shrug. "Honestly? I'm kind of looking forward to being human again. Being the alpha is a plus too."
"But it won't be the same! You won't be you. You'll-you'll be him!" Tears start to form at the corner of her eyes. You should have known this would upset her.
"Jadesprite, it's okay. We're pretty much the same person-"
"No you're not! You're much braver and cooler and kinder than he'll ever be!"
Your heart spasms against your rib cage again, more painfully this time. "Actually, I'm not really that-"
"Yes you are!" She leans her face into yours, so close you can smell the ozone on her breath. "Do you see him coming back to defend me against his other selves? He doesn't care. He probably doesn't even remember I exist."
"He's not that bad."
"Well, he's not so good that he should be able to erase you, either!"
She breaks down and starts sobbing. You pull her into a loose hug. It feels awkward as hell, but after a few pats on the shoulder she calms down a little. "Hey, look, I could be wrong. Maybe you'll reset as Jade's dream self. Heck, maybe I'll be a dream self too. All we have to do is survive until the scratch. Then we can, I don't know, chill out on Prospit or something."
You hear the meteor hit this time, like a battalion of cannons going off all at once. The floor shakes so hard that you clutch Jadesprite tighter out of instinct, even though it's impossible for either of you to fall over. The next meteor will achieve impact in fourteen minutes and forty-nine seconds…
"I won't remember you," she mutters into your neck.
The air is so dry that it's hard to move your mouth. It takes you a few tries before you can speak properly. "It's better than dying."
Jadesprite pulls away from your shoulder and looks you in the eye. "We won't reset if we're dead?"
"It makes sense, doesn't it? Almost everybody in the dream bubbles is from a doomed timeline. If they all revived when there was a reset, you'd need to come up with a whole bunch of duplicate sessions just to find a place for everyone. It's a lot simpler just to let the dream bubbles be."
She lets go of you and looks out the window with Rose's design. There's no mistaking it now. The sky is definitely red. "Do…you know when the next meteor hits?"
"About fourteen minutes. Is your sprite voice not counting down?"
"It just gives me locations and sizes," she says hollowly. She cranes her neck back and squints at the ceiling, almost as if she can see through the gold. You wait for her to give you the statistics, but she just stands there.
"Well?"
She flinches and stares at you like she just woke from a dream. "What about the reset? When's that?"
"I don't know, but they only have twenty-eight minutes until there's nothing left of Skaia, so it should be any moment now.
She ducks her head and mutters, "Fourteen out of twenty-eight. So we have a one half chance of resetting and a one half chance of dying."
"Yeah, I'm not a fan of those odds either, but thankfully that's not really how probability works. You're assuming that the reset and the meteor killing us are both absolutely certain events that-" The last half of her sentence echoes in your head, and you pause. "Wait, just how big is this meteor?"
She stares at the gold ceiling again. A hot, lead weight settles where you're stomach used to be. "Jadesprite, seriously, don't leave me hanging. I mean, is it a run for our lives sort of thing? Or is it one of those meteors that's gonna burn up to the size of a yarn ball? Is it even gonna land here?"
She doesn't answer. She just stands there with her head lolling back, like a puppet that's had its strings cut. You almost wish she would start crying again- at least you know how to deal with that. "Fuck, it's a run for our lives thing, isn't it? Okay, first of all, don't panic. This situation we're in? Totally fixable. We just have to be patient, wait for the reset. And if that doesn't happen, we can just teleport out of here. Doesn't even matter if you have a limited range-we can just hop across Skaia 'till we're out of the impact zone. It'll be a motherfuckin' hopscotch game, jumpin' cross the field like a its shitty chalk drawing on an apocalyptic playground, only instead of pebbles the other kids are tossing giant flaming meteors, just giggling away, no big deal, just your average, ordinary game-"
Jadesprite holds out her paw without taking her eyes off the ceiling. "Shut up and grab my hand."
"What?"
"I'm taking us somewhere safe. Now grab on before I lose my nerve." She spares you a quick glance. "Please."
You normally don't take part in plans where you don't know the final destination, but considering that you only have twelve minutes until impact, you suppose you can wait for the explanation later. You grab her paw. The icy numbness ripples through your skeleton, and then the world flashes green. Just a flash, though-by the time you brace yourself for the mind scrambling kaleidoscope of color, you and Jadesprite have already finished teleporting.
For a second you feel the absolute stillness from before. Then gravity rips you downward, and the weight of you nearly tears Jadesprite's arm out of her socket. You look down and oh god why is Skaia so small? The giant black and white fields look like squares on a miniature checkerboard now. You can't even see the individual trees anymore- they're just patches of green in between the squares.
Jadesprite's still holding on to you, thank god, and she says, "Dave, don't just hang there, fly already!"
"Sure, I'll get right on that, just after I grow a new wing."
The two of you drop about a foot. You squawk and grab Jadesprite with your other hand. "You don't need wings to fly. Just hover like you do on the ground!"
Just how are you supposed to do that? Hovering has never been a conscious thing for you, it was just something your body did. You try swishing your tail, fluttering your wing, even just willing yourself to stay in the air, but nothing works. Your wrist slips a little in Jadesprite's grip.
She flinches. "This isn't going to work. Hold on." Her free hand starts to glow. You feel an energy gathering beneath you, pushing you away, kind of like a magnet drawing near. Then a chunk of earth pops into existence beneath the two of you. She lets go, and you sink to the ground, bobbing until you settle about a foot above the rock.
Your heart is beating so light and fast that it's almost vibrating in your chest. You hope you're not having a heart attack- you read somewhere that if birds get too much of a shock, their heart spasms and they die. Or was that rabbits? You close your eyes and remind yourself that you are not scared of heights, haven't been scared of them since you were a little kid, and will not panic yourself to death just because a stupid dead crow can't handle being eighteen thousand feet in the air.
"I'm sorry about that. I thought since you were a sprite, you'd be able to fly like me, but I guess that's more of a space thing."
You open your eyes and concentrate on looking only at Jadesprite. "Why are we up here?"
She points up to the sky. "To escape."
You look up and immediately wish you hadn't. The sky up there is midnight blue, almost like space, but instead of stars it's got a thousand red lights of death screaming towards you. You feel a weird sense of vertigo, like you're looking into a dark pool and are about to fall in. "Okay, I know you have some skills, but there's no way you can dodge all of those."
"I'm not running anymore. I'm going to face them head on." She spreads out her arms, and they begin to glow.
"Jadesprite, that's a horrible idea. The shittiest of ideas. It should win some kind of award for how awful it is." The rock beneath you shudders. "Fuck! Jadesprite, I'm all for the power of courage and shit, but there's just some things you can't goddamn do! You're just going to get yourself killed."
"That's the plan." There's a sickening lurch as the rock flies upwards.
"Self-sacrifice? Didn't we already have a conversation about why that plan sucked?" Her arms glow brighter, and the rock speeds up. "You don't have to do this. Just wait for the reset and-"
"No!" Her head snaps towards you, her eyes dark and wild. "I'm not going to let those idiots erase us from existence. We're going to the dream bubbles."
"You want to die?"
"No, but it's either that or get erased from reality."
"We're not getting erased!" You try to grab her shoulders to shake her back to sense, but some force shoves you tumbling backwards.
"It's still not an option!" She looks fiercely up at the sky. "I know you think its your duty or whatever to go along with the alphas' plan, but your surviving the reset isn't going to hurt anyone. You've done just as much for this session as they have, and you deserve to live."
"Kind of counterintuitive to throw me into a giant ball of fire, isn't it?" You reach out to her again, but she forces you back with a flick of her wrist.
"You know what I mean." She flashes you a painfully wide smile. "You'll like it in the dream bubbles. It's peaceful there. Nobody tries to kill you or sacrifice you. Everybody's happy."
The next meteor will achieve impact in eight- impact in four- impact in thirty fiztchk-impact- impact- impact. The voice splutters out. You don't care, though. Now that you're flying towards the meteors, the sprite voice's predictions are all but worthless. At least if you die, you'll do so with a quiet brain.
"Dying'll hurt like a bitch. Just FYI."
"I've died by meteor before, Dave. By the time we hit, we'll be going so fast that our nerves won't even be able to process it."
"No, no, no. You were hit by Prospit. That puppy didn't even have time to thaw before she hit you. These are the goddamn hellhounds of space, and they've been waiting a thousand years to burn a hole through Skaia. You ever touch something that's three thousand degrees Farenheit?"
"N-no, but-"
"Exactly. We'll be roasted alive before we get within eight miles of them. Did you watch cooking shows back on Prospit?"
Jadesprite covers her ears. "Shut up!"
"When you burn meat, the flesh doesn't just heat up. It fucking fries. The fat boils up through the skin, the muscles shrivel up, every single one of your nerves goes on overload-"
"Shutupshutupshutup." Her fur ripples with neon energy as she hunches over.
"Or what? You'll kill me?"
She whimpers, and a crack zigzags across the rock. You rush over to Jadeprite's side just as half of the rock breaks away. It tumbles off into space behind you. "I'm saving you. Saving both of us," she says with grit teeth. "It'll be quick. And then it'll be over, and we'll be safe and happy forever." She opens one eye and looks at you. "You deserve to be happy, Dave."
"I DESERVE TO LIVE!" You rip her paws away from her ears. She's too shocked to resist. "Even if I'm no longer myself, even if all I have to look forward to is this stupid fucking game, I don't want to die like this. I don't want to die period. Please, I'm begging you, teleport us out of here. I'll do anything, just- please…"
God damn it, can't the universe leave you with one scrap of dignity? You already lost the game, let everybody down, let Bro down, and now you're bawling like an idiot on the shoulder of the girl who's trying to fucking kill you. If there's anything like a god out there, please, please make the alphas reset the game now so you can have a chance to be somebody who isn't a colossal failure.
You feel Jadesprite's arms slip out of your hands and wrap around your neck. "I'm sorry," she whispers in your ear. "I didn't realize you had a good reason for not wanting to die."
The air's so hot that it hurts to breathe. The meteors are about the size of quarters now- you probably have less than a minute before you get within burning range. "I have a ton of reasons," you choke out. "Which one are you talking about?"
"You're scared."
Your feathers ruffle out. "I am not." She squeezes you tighter. There's no point in denying anything anymore. You're dignity's long gone. "Wait. So wanting to help the alphas in the reset game is a shitty reason for living, but being terrified of dying is a good one?"
"Of course."
You laugh. At this point you can't do anything else. "I don't get you at all."
"You don't really make a whole lot of sense yourself, mister." Jadesprite lets go and stands up. She spreads out her arms and smiles down at you. "But I'm going to miss you anyways."
She throws back her head and becomes a silhouette of green. She's so bright it hurts to look at her, but you don't dare blink, because this is how you want to remember Jadesprite: not cowering behind your back, or crying over a corpse, but shining, shining brighter than a goddamn sun.
And then you're on Skaia.
You're not sure how long you've been hovering here on the field, staring at the ground, but your body feels like it hasn't moved in days. A wave of adrenaline floods through your skin. Suddenly you're shivering and you can't stop. You can feel the exact location of everything on your body, from the joints in your wing to the hairs on your head. You've never felt so alive in your life.
You look up. The sky is blood red now, and the meteors are blazing white. Directly above you, though, is a green point of light that shines brighter than anything else in the sky. You watch as it slowly eclipses one of the larger meteors. The light blinks, and for a brief second everything in the sky flashes neon green. Then the sky fades back to red. The light is gone, and you're alone again.
Author's Note: Reviews, grammar checks, and random comments are all greatly appreciated. I have problems with pacing, so I'm particularly interested in what people think about the last few paragraphs.