The ground was hard when they stepped onto it and the portal seemed reluctant to close, but it faded away after a minute. "Oh." Kim looked at Adam, wonderingly. "End of the road."
"You mean we're back?"
"Not quite. There's one thing left to do. Then we're home." he walked forwards, leading her through the valley. She threw a glance behind them and saw only stark gray mountains disappearing into the clouds high above. There seemed no way in, except the portal that brought them, and no way out except the path ahead. A few hundred yards, the path was marked with a sharp turn. Adam stepped straight out and then turned. Kim stepped around the corner. "Behold. The Pillars of Eternity." he said it in a sonorous voice. She turned to look at him.
"What are they?" they, were two massive stone columns like the mountains they rose straight up into the clouds, disappearing from view.
"The Pillars of Eternity." he shrugged. "The Gateposts of Heaven. The Portal to Hell. The Tavern of the End of the Adventure." he chuckled mirthlessly. "What's through them is different to everyone, but they are an ending. For us, we'll see... a defining moment. Something that's shaped us into who and what we are. It's different every time we pass."
"So we have to go through?"
"Yes." he took a deep breath. "There's no other way out. Portals won't work. The only thing that can get us out is passing through the pillars."
"Then let's go." she took two steps, and turned when he didn't follow. "What?"
"We have to go one at a time. I'll be along in just a moment." he waved her ahead. She walked forwards. As she approached she could see the pillars were not just one stone, but many. Granite, marble, shale, and others, all fused together as if they were always the same rock. The surface was rough and pitted, as if beaten by millennia of weather. She turned her head just as she reached the center point. The world flashed and faded.
"Yay! We'we going to see Gwampa!" Kim bounced in the backseat of the station wagon as her father drove. Kim hung in the air watching the trip. For several moments she didn't recall the trip, but then it came flooding back. She shook her head, and screamed, but there was no sound. She watched the scene, already knowing what was coming. She watched her visit with her grandfather, ailing with terminal cancer. She didn't understand it then, still had trouble understanding it now. He'd been happy to see her before, but always over a suppressed worry. But this time he was ecstatic to see her, throwing his arms up to pick her up and hold her. Her parents said nothing to interrupt, watching and smiling.
Now she could see the worry in their faces, but then they hadn't. Then the visit was over. The old man waved them gone. She screamed again, but it did nothing. Then the shot. Far below her younger self tore free of her parents and reached the door first. How she wished she'd never reached that door. The gun was still in his hand, the note in the other. She'd never seen it, her father had never let it leave his person, and she'd never asked. She saw her mother enter, and pull her from the room. Then there was another flash and it was done.
"Out back. I saw light. It's got to be them." Shego nearly broke down the back door getting into the yard. Kim was on the ground, sobbing, eyes red. Ron ran to her and put his arms around her. She threw hers around him. Shego looked around, and then a second flash of light erupted. Adam stumbled free, face ashen. He looked past her and stumbled to the bushes, where he emptied his stomach. Then he walked to her and put his arms around her.
"I'm sorry." he didn't say anything else and for several minutes she said nothing either. The four entered the house then, none of them speaking above a whisper. Two weeks later, the effects of the trip gone, Kim and Ron returned to an empty house. Everything not theirs was gone, except a note.
'We've gone home. I don't have anything to say, except that I enjoyed working with you guys. We won't be back, so don't expect us.' - Adam.
P.S. - Ron, look in your right pants pocket.
Ron's hand dug into his pocket for a bulge that hadn't been there just a moment before. He pulled it out and held up a small black box. He glanced at Kim and stepped back. Then he went down on one knee and opened the box. He couldn't speak, but he didn't need to.
"Yes."
