Disclaimer: I don't own Jimmy Neutron or Destiny and all rights go to Nickelodeon and Bungie. So on with the show.
"Neutron, there's gotta be some other way." the blonde said incessantly. Cindy put four more shots into the eyes of the approaching Thralls. Their position was slowly becoming overrun but with Carl and Sheen on crowd control they were holding out.
"Vortex, this may be the only chance we have of destroying Oryx and the Dreadnought. This could save thousands of lives." The blue eyed boy tried to reason. Although, said eyes were not visible through his helmet. Instead, his Mask Of The Third Man helmet offered three blue eyes.
"Neutron, what good is saving thousands of lives if we end up losing you? I mean what good is our fireteam if we lose our leader!?" She yelled incredulously. She was furious that he was even rationalizing this. But of course he had, that's just how geniuses solve problems. But nevertheless, any alternative would be better than what he was proposing.
"I don't want to interrupt anything but it's getting kinda hairy over here!" Libby yelled. Her Suros Regime wasn't nearly as effective as she was hoping due to the low fire rate.
"And not the good kind!" Sheen also beckoned. He slammed down his Fist Of Havoc, blowing back enemies left and right, but killing many more. He switched to Felwinter's Lie and began defending his team's position as hard as he could.
"Vortex, this is my final order, the least you could do is follow it this time." He gave off a small smile, remembering their adventures. Their fireteam was praised for completing missions and assassinations in a extremly timely fashion while also never suffereing a single casualty. This fame was brought on by Jimmy though if Cindy could ever get the guts to admit it. His calculating and unbroken nature in times of stress made him an unbelievable excellent battle strategist. Jimmy could formulate a tactic within seconds to accomadate each formation each enemy threw at them.
"Jesus, Jim." Carl said. Jimmy talking about his own death so nonchalant almost made him vomit. Carl temporarily lost focus allowing three Thralls to pounce onto him. Jimmy and Cindy were caught up with arguing, where they begun to have a shouting match. Libby was too busy shooting a Nova Bomb. Killing 30 enemies. It wasn't her best but, it had to do. Sheen well, Sheen was too busy, erm- uh, he was too busy watching how graceful Libby's, ermm, 'features' looked while she was Nova Bombing. They had always watched out for each other. Jimmy had come up with hundreds of protocols to follow should someone ever be injured, captured, or worse.
"Jimmy don't you realize!? I can't lose you!" Cindy finally managed to scream after Jimmy had even questioned why she felt the need to find a different way when it simply didn't exist.
"Cindy, I," Jimmy began to her voice crack. She was starting to choke up and he knew tears and sobs would soon follow. He was going to say something romantic. Something comforting. But it didn't matter now. It didn't matter because he took one glance at what was happening to Carl throughout the ensuing chaos. "My God." Was all Jimmy muttered before his 1000-Yard Stare fired 3 precise shots onto Carl's position. Three shots. Three headshots. Three bodies droping to the floor. Except one was already there and wasn't getting up.
"Everyone fall back to the ship, NOW." Cindy ordered. She wasn't the leader by a long shot but she Jimmy did give her authorization to give commands should he be preoccupied or immobilized.
"Jesus Carl, can you move, or even speak?" Jimmy surveyed the damage. His Iron Companion Plate was cracked in half. Almost symmetrically. The gold and steel color was accented with crimson. Jimmy was providing the best emergency medical procedure he could perform. Carl's breathing was slowing and the life in his eyes was beginning to fade. JImmy knew what was happening and the only thing he could think to do was pick Carl up. "Sheen, here take Carl." Jimmy said puting him over Sheen's shoulder.
"Don't worry, Jimmy nothing happenin' to the big man on my watch.
"I'm counting on it. Cindy, Libby I need you guys to provide covering fire for Sheen. Diamond formation. No explosives, switch to something with a fast rate of fire and a long magazine." Jimmy ordered. hoping they follow his commands to the T.
"And what about you?" Cindy questioned, knowing what he was planning to do.
"Cindy. I will be right behind you all."
"Give me your sword." She demanded.
"Cindy, why?"
"We both know the name of it."
"Cindy..." He could say nothing more. He froze. He thought about how hurt she would be. How betrayed. But this had to be done. He offered no alternate solution. This was it. There was nothing more, nothing less. His helmet was damaged from a earlier engagement. Two of the three eyes were cracked. Jimmy threw his helmet to the ground and he handed Cindy the sword. He offered her a small smiled. Which she returned, but much to her ignorance, he couldn't see. Then Cindy noticed something about Jimmy's face. There was a small cut over his right eye, hindering his vision. "Now is the time to go. He said it with a finality that made Cindy wince. Almost as if that was his version of goodbye. But it couldn't be. He gave her the sword.
"Cind, are you okay? I know you care for Jimmy, and I'm sure he cares for you although he rarely shows it but you gotta pull it together." Libby said while they were running and gunning back to their Class B Athena ship, named Declaration of Sorrow. The reason behind it being, that whenever a creature of darkness laid eyes upon their ship, it meant sorrow was sure to be in their future.
"Me? I'm fine." Cindy said incredulously. "We've just gotta get back to the Declaration and we'll be fine." She said, not sure whether it be to convince Libby or herself.
"Yeah guys, I'm not sure this is the best time to be having girl talk. Things just got pretty serious. Not as serious as Ultralord Season 13 Episode 227, but still." Sheen said, naturally of course.
"Right. Let's just focus on helping Carl."
Jimmy was back in the Hive structure making the final preparations. He was ready. He knew the plan. Trigger an explosion on the moon Titan. Since Oryx's Dreadnought is lower to the moon due to the passing sunflare, this means that an implosion from Titan would most certainely reach the ship. With a 85% chance of it blowing it up entirely. A chance Jimmy and his fireteam were willing to take. Naturally Jimmy had kept them in the dark about the full extent of the plan. He knew the whole 'Sacrificing yourself for the greater good' thing wpuldn't go over well with them. Especially Cindy. But there was no other way. That's what he had to keep telling himself to even have the courage to betray her like this. It was justified.
Or was it?
Sheen had no problem loading Carl into the medical bay. He secured and fastened all straps and buckles while Cindy activated the medical computer and began to let it run a diagnosis and let the A.I perform surgery. "Oh God, I can't take this." Cindy muttered.
'What is it Cind?' Libby asked over comms. She was in the piloting seat starting the engines and using what little ammunition their ship's defense turrents had. The ammunition would only last half an hour at best.
"Libby...It's predicting he only has a 67% chance to live..." She choked out, her lungs on fire with grief and the thought of losing one of her closest friends.
"Oh, jeez. T-That's horrible."
"Well, I'll take those odds. If the big guy has over a 50% chance then he'll make it, withouta doubt." Sheen told them boldy, becoming serious for the first time throughout the entire mission. Granted, a life at stake is worth being serious. Especially the life of a brother.
Jimmy summoned his Ghost. It was all black with small yellow and red atom signs covering the shell. "I think it's time Goddard."
Jimmy rigged the bomb to only detonate once the Declaration was out of the explosion radius. He figured it shouldn't be too hard convincing them he was dead considering that, ten hordes of hundred Thralls were all rushing him under direct command from Oryx. Apparently, Oryx caught wind of his plan. Jimmy should've known this would happen. Even the Vanguard had said it, which is why they prohibited this specific mission. Cadyde-6 had said it was too risky, even for him. Ikora said it to be too foolhardy. Zavala, just downright said no. So, they left him no choice. Much like the current situation. He steeled his rifle for battle. He was gonna need a lot of headshots.
Cindy joined Libby in the cockpit of the ship and questioned her as to their situation. "How long until the turrents deplete?"
"Ten more minutes, Sis."
"Well, what're our options."
"We leave him. Now Cindy I know what you're gonna say but it's what he signed up for. That's why he kept us in the dark for so long, and honestly there's an army of Thralls swarming his location. Now they're dropping like flies but-"
"Stop." Cindy said, daring Libby to continue. Cindy wouldn't show weakness. Not in front of Libby or more importantly, herself.
One Bullet. Five down. Another Bullet. 10 down. Another. Fourteen down. Each seemed to exponentially raise the death count. Jimmy was slowly running low on ammo and he could only fallback while taking potshots taking out multiple enemies. Jimmy reverse vaulted over a piece of cover and contacted his companions. "Guys, you need to leave NOW."
Cindy's head shot up from the dashboard. "Jimmy?" She questioned, not sure if it was her own imagination playing tricks on her mental state. "Jimmy. please tell you have a plan to get out of there." She pleaded. Internally and external. Jimmy could offer no response. He could think of no way to offer her any comfort.
"Cindy, there are things unsaid that will unfortunately stay that way. But I will keep my word. But if any of this is gonna mean anything you gotta go."
"Cind, this is gonna be hard you should go in the back with Carl until it's all over."
"Nothing's gonna be over because he'll be fine." She protested indignantly.
"Sheen, please help me out here."
Sheen picked her up by her small frame, leading her to the recreation room. Much to her dismay. "C'mon blondie." She started to punch and kick wanting to just watch as the moon became smaller and smaller but Sheen wouldn't let her do that to herself. Libby was going to take off in thirty seconds. Letting all the engines go into the final prep for takeoff.
Jimmy's position was being hit with a battering ram. So he decided to bust out his dance moves. He used Arc Strider and demolished everthing in his way. He killed every sentient thing within his radius. He was like a graceful Swan. The moveset was trained to be an assortment of deadly kicks along with follow up strikes with his staff. He cleared the area and made it outside just in time to see Libby pulling off. It was too far of a run. He'd never make it. So, all he did was watch. "Goodbye, my friends. If Carl wakes up, tell him it was my choice."
Upon hearing Jimmy's voice again, Sheen's grip tightened areound Cindy. But his Titan strength couldn't hold a candle to Cindy's willpower. She broke free to the cockpit to see Jimmy standing there slowly becoming smaller and smaller. Much like the stars and galaxies above. "Dammit Jimmy, You promised!. You Bastard!"
"I will miss you all more than any of you will ever know. Libby...get them outta here, that's an order."
"Aye Aye, Cap. It was my pleasure." Even Libby couldn't help but let out tears.
Jimmy held his helmet in his hands and waited for the end. He could only stare at the stars above. The beautiful stars. He should consider himself lucky. Lucky that he got to watch something so beautiful right before he went. He wished he could have spent these final moments he'd dreamed about with Cindy. But, I guess you never know when each moment will be your last. He took a seat. Might as well die comfortably he thought. Or maybe not die at all, that'd be even better actually.
Cindy sat in her sleeping quarters. She stared at the moon of Titan, or what was left of it. He was right. He always was. The Dreadnought was caught explicitly in the explosion and completely obliterated. She felt empty. Like a void. Or rather a black hole. A thousand thoughts going through her head but not a single one clear or coherent. She heard a short knock, knowing it was one of her friends coming to console her. "Cind?"
"Yea Libby?" She said coldly.
"Do you need anything?"
"No."
"Cindy pleas-"
"Do you know the name of that Sword he gave me?"
"I can't say I do.
"Unspoken Promise. He promised me he'd come back. So as long as I have this, I believe he'll come back."
"Cindy, we saw him...He gave me this, to give to you." Cindy stared at the note. He pondered what it would do to her. Libby knew it would break Cindy but she figured it was Jimmy's last request so it was the least she could do. But Cindy thought long and hard as to whether this letter would kill her. But she figured not reading it, would do just the same. It took her a few days, but she finally opened it.
Dear Cindy,
I can only assume that by the time you're reading this, I'm gone. I hope you don't blame yourself. That you don't take out your anger on any of the team. They're only trying to help. It's kinda funny you know, you'd think that even being gone I'd be able to finally admit the things I should have so long ago. It kills me inside knowing I never got to tell you. I hope you keep them all safe for me. I hope you can forgive me for what I did. I wish he could have told each other those three words oh so long ago.
Oh Cindy, the worst things are the ones left Unspoken.