The Author's Final Epilogue - Chapter 7
Kip Silverpoint's Final Epilogue
George attempted to bring some excitement forward as she waved Silver forward into the vast ever changing labyrinth of the Sun's tower.
"I, uh." She squinted her die into the darkness before swinging back to Silver and the others, seemingly dazed before finding her voice "George is sure you'll love getting to meet Rem for yourself!"
Silver stared ahead with cold eyes and a blank face, "We met, in a way." she said with a hint of disdain as she passed the nervous librarian and began looking around the dark void of space inside the door.
George furrowed a brow and rushed ahead of Silver before spinning on her heel to stop her in her tracks, finger prepped and already waving to drill her point home.
"Now listen here! George told you Rem had changed for the better and we have enough tension floating around with this, this!" She tossed her arms in the air, exasperated, "Nonsense!"
Silver's eyes opened slightly wider than her nonchalance had allowed earlier as she recoiled back ever so slightly at the suddenly distraught woman before her.
George glared at Silver only a moment before stomping over to Kip, balling her fists against her hips as she leaned into Kip's face, glare persisting. Time seemed to slow in the face of the disappointment and rage George exuded as her dotted face pierced through Kip mercilessly.
Then all at once, time resumed it's pace as she faltered, a tear attempting to form as she closed her eye and began sharing her thoughts.
"George." George's voice faltered as she cleared her throat, "I have kept my mouth shut all evening as we made our way back here. I expected you to say something, ANYTHING, but you're just happy to see your experiment running smoothly, aren't you?"
"You dragged Rue and George out to meet with Silver, " she spun around and nodded her head to Silver before tossing a quick "-And it has been so lovely to meet you, Silver, dear!", before swinging back to Kip.
"-All because you wanted a chance to throw everything you have away and potentially sacrifice yourself to SCIENCE, it's always science with you! What about life? What about your friends? What about learning how to improve this world, or getting to know Rem? What about me? George thought we were the best of friends and you didn't so much as hint at the risk you wanted to undertake for the epilogue!"
George straightened herself out and sighed before looking Kip in her eyes, "And now we're all supposed to gloss over that nonsense for a new helping of sacrificing Silver, whom George just met, in your place?"
"George, it's-" Kip began, pleading as George's stare fell to the floor.
"It's what, Kip?" George's voice sounded hoarse before evening out. "Not a big deal?"
"I, yes, because-" Kip attempted to continue.
"George isn't so blind as to not know why you feel so comfortable with this. But why can't you see why I am not?" George sadly asked.
Kip worriedly glanced over to the others in a plea for support.
"I-, It's-"
"It's not the end even if you or Silver vanish because we still have Rem. I know." George interrupted.
"Yes, I mean, you heard them yourself! We're not our first incarnations, Rem has started and stopped and had to reset countless times since the world machine first began its process. If anything were to happen Rem could just-" Kip began to reason.
"That doesn't matter!" George yelled, causing the group to recoil slightly in the face of this uneasy situation.
Silver and Rue stepped closer to the friends and tried to calm the air.
"George, I'm going to be okay." Silver offered, attempting to sound genuine.
"Yeah, Auntie, you know what Rem's capable of, sure, but maybe you don't know what we're all capable of! Kip wouldn't allow this risk if she wasn't sure… Right, Kip?" Rue said, patting a paw on George's leg before staring hard at Kip beckoning a response.
"Yeah, George, I'm pretty sure this is going to work-" Rue's stare turned to a harsh glare, "I mean. It's nice to have the safety net Rem can offer, but everything I remember about the project, everything Rem's shown, it's certain to work." Kip offered.
George scowled and took one heavy footed step forward, "It's. Not. The. Same."
"What?" Kip said, shrinking back.
"You've known Rem for a handful of days and all of a sudden you're the expert on what they are capable of?" George's fists shook at her sides.
"Rem hasn't restarted us or remade anyone since Niko's departure, do you know why?"
"Uhm… Because no one has needed to be brought back or reset?" Kip hesitantly offered.
George squeezed her eye shut and vigorously rubbed her forehead.
"Do you remember what George told you when she showed you the truth about this world?"
"You said a lot…" Kip nearly whispered, awaiting what came next while trying not to say the wrong thing. It was clear that uncertainty was growing in the scientist as she struggled to piece together George's fear.
"George showed you the Author's notes showing different forms of myself. Perfectly captured pieces of my visage with a different, yet familiar, set of eyes. Six total, of which I am just one iteration." Kip nodded in recognition as she tried to follow along.
"That is what happens when Rem tries their hand at making this world again. Each time, tiny differences. Separate phases on the same clock, new attitudes or takes on the same thoughts. George has talked at length with Rem about all of this, and they have had nothing but regrets to share."
"Do you know how unnerving it is, even for someone of my confidence, to listen to someone share all the different people I've been in the past? How all that George can call herself now is perhaps just a single face of the many she once wore?
"Rem can reset things whenever they please, but they don't because it never comes out the exact same way." George cleared her throat to center herself, "George is sure she doesn't need to explain why that can be a problem. Rem told me this me is perhaps the closest to what they remember of me from the other side. But even then I feel more like a collection of lights from the prism rather than the prism itself."
Kip blunk, taking this all in as George resteadied her eye on her.
"It's not as safe as you think it is. You or Silver could come back from a failure, sure, but you might be a different light of yourself than the you George is talking to right now. What's worse is George might not even notice what's different, she'll just know something might be."
-George.-
Everyone turned towards the darkness as it slowly began to fade, the floor rearranging itself and layering to reveal the glowing phosphor pool once more.
As the room began to take on a new light, a new item descended from the ceiling where the elevator once stood on their last visit. A large screen descended on a simple mechanical arm as a pathway made itself clear.
The screen sparked, causing the room to flood with a dull purple light before it dimmed to a soft glow. A subtle shimmer of static snow began to fill the tinted screen until it began to overtake the screen itself and spill out onto the floor ahead.
To Silver's immediate disdain, squares began to form before breaking through the barriers of the screen and dissipating in the air around it as it fully illuminated.
"Is that?" Silver asked, her mechanical body growing tense as she stood against the perceived danger.
"Yes." George explained as she gestured towards the brightly lit centerpiece to their dark surroundings. "Rem used to be present at every end of the world, but now…"
-Now I'm at home here, excluding my single tendril of influence in George's office.-
-This is effectively me, all of me.-
Silver rubbed her upper arm as her eyes struggled to break from the falling squares and what memories they brought her.
-George, you know that Kip is determined and that she doesn't mean to hurt you with that decision. And you know that I would do anything to prevent another loss.-
George returned to her angry fist to hip pose as she yelled out toward Rem's screen, "George knows that!"
-Then you know that Kip is just as determined now as she was before you explained the risk.-
George hesitated, "Yes…" she turned to Kip, "But George doesn't want to lose anyone… If this doesn't work then we're stranded here, this is our world and we get to make the best of it. But…"
"But we can't make the best of it if we lose someone." Rue said, looking between them as the party looked to the small fox.
"I made my peace with our circumstances long ago, and it became a lot less painful after Niko's helping hand brought our world to this point."
Rue gave a sideways glance to Kip, "I'm still on edge thinking of what you'd risk to change this end state, but I suppose you didn't endure the same things I did or for nearly as long as I evaded the bulk of the world's resets."
Kip raised an eyebrow in interest.
Rue closed her eyes and nodded, affirming something to herself before continuing. "I understand why you're determined, why you're hopeful where I'd given up and accepted things this way."
Again, she cast a sideways eye Kip's way, "I still think you're being far too reckless, but I suppose most of us were just as reckless when we carried such hope. You see a way things can be better, and instead of lowering your head and working away at the smaller improvements you want to jump into a big one."
"I'm sorry for my outburst before. Regardless of all the work it took to get to this point, it's not my call to stop you from trying to go even further."
George stared harshly at Rue as she found herself alone in opposing the epilogue at this point, but slowly the wise fox's tone got to her as well.
George sadly nodded. "She's right. George knows you mean for the best to come of this."
Kip put a hand on George's shoulder as George looked down to her own hands,slowly losing her desire to find a way to stop this.
The room sat quietly until George took an all too loud breath of air and threw herself into a readied position, fists clenched as she looked ready to leap to the top of the Sun's Tower purely from her own energetic determination.
"Well then what are we waiting for!? We've got to hand over the yellow phosphor and send Silver on ahead of us, right?" George exclaimed, startling Kip who was ready to cheer her up all while causing Rue and Silver to shake their heads.
Silver looked back to the world machine's screen with her own unease before asking Rem, "So how do we go about doing this, machine?"
George glared and coughed out, "Rem." as she elbowed the metal woman, much to her own elbow's dismay.
"Rem." Silver echoed, eyes glued to the dropping squares.
-If you're all certain then I've figured out how to test this on a smaller scale.-
-But I get the feeling you won't be too pleased, Silver.-
Silver's stare tightened as Rem answered the unspoken question.
The static and digital squares momentarily stopped spilling from the screen as the light it produced intensified once more.
All at once it flashed the room in a bright purple shine before another digital anomaly appeared, slowly gliding from the screen and hovering to the ground below.
The anomaly seemed to hum in each of their ears when looked directly upon and the way it seemed to produce no actual light while seeming so bright with its unnatural purple glow left them uneasy.
The room fell silent as Silver's eyes locked upon the square with an unmistakable fear.
-So long as I have access to the yellow phosphor you claim to have brought along I can run a modified form of the epilogue with ease.-
"And this bad reminder?" Silver spat as she pointed to the anomaly.
-This will be how we find out if it works.-
Silver scowled.
-Running the process is as simple as flipping a switch, but it was never intended to send a message back this way when it's done.-
Kip nodded as she grasped her chin in thought, "And this will be that messenger?"
-Yes.-
George glared and crossed her arms, "And why can't we just send that and find out if it's safe without risking anyone?"
-George, please understand, if it were so simple I would have found the means to send it off on my own.-
-In truth, I have every reason to believe the epilogue works… mostly.-
-I am certain it will attempt to send whatever we latch onto it to Niko's world.-
"It's a matter of if we could survive the trip?" Rue quietly offered.
-Exactly.-
-It took every one of the brightest minds of the last world to convert so many lives to this world's format; to my format.-
-Kip's epilogue was intended to undo that process, but it was never tested.-
-No one was available, or no time was left, or perhaps just as the old Kip had decided to cease her work and live her last with her family, perhaps the risk was too much even in the face of certain death.-
"We all decided to leave the work finished but unused. We knew we could be converted into this world, and we decided that was enough for the time being." Kip added, a sense of remembrance in her tone.
George huffed, "And now you've changed your mind."
Kip frowned, "It's like you said, George. We've changed a lot over the resets. I guess I just feel like it's worth the risk in this iteration."
The librarian turned away and trembled slightly at the explanation, "Of course. Too bad this George isn't as convinced."
-This piece of myself will make sure we know if it's a success.-
The square pulsed slightly and hovered closer to the central pathway at chest level with Silver.
-I will send both Silver and this tendril. Once they arrive, I'll be able to tell if Silver survives unharmed.-
-And then…-
"Then we all go." Kip said with a clenched fist revealing her persistent confidence in the good this could do.
George sighed as she put a hand on Silver's shoulder causing her eyes to break from the lock they had on the square.
"Thank you for doing this, Silver. George is sorry that one of us has to take on the risk, but I'm thankful that you offered to do this."
Silver seemed to gasp as she collected herself from the anxiety the anomaly put her under, "It's okay, George. In truth, I feel a sense of relief in doing this."
George's head tilted with a lack of understanding.
"My entire life has been a pendulum swinging between exceeding expectations or being useless to those around me. The problem is I've only ever felt the latter."
"I'm tamed, and that was the expectation put upon me, but it didn't come peacefully or by my own actions. I tried to help Niko on their journey, but I just succeeded in falling under the destruction these-" she hissed, "squares caused."
"I've spent my life secluded in the barrens before and after its abandonment, worthless and unable to find motivation or hope for anything more than a quiet end."
George's grip on Silver's shoulder tightened which almost seemed to bring a smile to the robot's face.
"In truth, Kip coming back renewed some hope in me. And maybe I feel a new motivation to see what good we can do."
"Like when Niko needed help." George interrupted.
"Yeah. Like then." Silver's eyes returned to the purple square, "I will admit I'm not too pleased that this motivation has me interacting with any more of these things again."
-It won't be the same, Silver-
The bot scoffed, "Oh, I'm sure." she offered sarcastically.
Kip and Rue stood alongside their friends as they all looked between each other.
"So are we doing this?" Kip asked.
-Silver, if you would like to test out the epilogue then I will need you to present the yellow phosphor to my messenger.-
Silver eyes stared a hole through the darkness of the ceiling as she collected herself before she wordlessly held out her hand to Kip for the amber.
Kip locked eyes with her robotic double and nodded, suddenly finding it difficult to keep a tear back as she reached into her pocket and placed the amber medal into her hands.
Silver walked along the phosphor lit pathway and held the gift she received from the Author out along its string necklace.
The messenger's hum became more intense and the area around itself and Silver seemed to grow harder to perceive before all at once, they vanished.
Quiet.
George wiped her eye as words failed to come to her.
Kip realized she was holding her breath but struggled to begin again.
Rue looked away and tensed up awaiting Rem's news.
A moment passed before all three were finally able to look up to Rem's screen.
-Transmission: In progress.-
-Estimated travel time: 30 minutes 57 seconds-
The timer began counting down.
"Is that… good?" George asked with no response.
Kip stared intently at the screen. "I think so? But I also think it's taking a lot for Rem to keep this connection up. I think we're alone in here until it's done."
Rue let out a groan of dismay as she returned to her tense nerves.
-Transmission: In Progress-
-Estimated travel time: 5 minute 36 seconds-
"I'm not sure if we should be excited or nervous." Kip offered the room.
"Nervous." George groaned.
"Excited." Rue offered as she tried to turn her own nerves around.
Kip nodded at the expected response and sought out a different way to pass the time.
"I feel stupid for not asking about this before it happened. I didn't know Rem would go radio silent on us when it started." Kip muttered from her seated position against the wall.
After another moment of staring at the slowly counting screen, Kip broke from her trance and turned to George who sat with her head buried in her crossed arms nearby.
"Hey, George?" she called.
"Hmm?" George offered, not breaking from her stressed position.
"How would they know you in the other world?" Kip asked, distracting herself from the metaphorically ticking clock hanging over their heads.
George slowly pulled her head from her arms and blinked confusedly.
"You know. Earlier. You said that Rem told you about who you were before, how did they know you?" Kip continued.
George continued to blink before it set in and she found a more haughty side of herself break free.
"I was there too, you dolt." George huffed, temporarily distracted enough to be a little more lighthearted than a moment prior. "You really don't remember much of the other world at all, do you?"
Kip shook her head, intrigued.
"I mostly recall the work. It's actually really difficult for me to picture anything outside of the lab… and even then most of the lab feels blurred and obscured."
George playfully scowled.
"It's not that complicated if you would have put thought behind your team on the other side instead of just dwelling on the project… Though, George supposes she can't remember much either and had to rely on Rem's retelling." she shrugged.
"But even so, George would think herself worth remembering!"
Kip, amused, glared to play along as she found relief in the distraction. "Well out with it, what did Rem tell you? Who were you then?"
"George will have you know that she was herself, just as you were yourself, just because our jobs were a little different over there doesn't mean much more."
Kip glared with a bit more intent which thankfully sent the message as George laughed at the annoyance.
"Well, it wasn't just you working all those hours on the world machine project as you know. I'm sure Rem could tell us much more about the view of that world they were given, but at the very least they told me that the team consisted of the three of us."
"Three?" Kip interrupted.
"Yes. Three. You were the primary programmer for the world machine and the overarching project of course, but you weren't alone."
"Both the Author and George were also present, and integral George might add!"
Kip's eyes lit up to hear more.
"To put it simply, the Author's job was to write out countless entries of information to be placed inside the program. Immeasurable hours were spent defining every aspect of every facet of life, capturing life as thoroughly as he could before you'd do what you could to place it inside the machine."
"And you?" Kip beckoned.
George chuckled, "George supposes she's always been a sort of librarian organizing the Author's words. My job was to organize his haphazard mess of information. The way Rem put it, he'd messily catalogue the world, and I'd refine that raw information into database after database to make it usable." she laughed again. "To think even back then George would spend hours placing descriptions of animals next to each other in a proper order just as she spends her time organizing books by their title and subject here."
George turned back to Kip, "You were the leader of our little world building crew, you know. The Author and I made sure you had the data to put inside but without you we'd just be writing memoirs."
"But without you I'd be building an empty box." Kip responded.
"And without all of us and then some the project might have fallen apart soon after our world did." George quietly ended things.
Kip nodded and went back to awaiting the countdown's end.
-Transmission: Complete-
A sudden gasp of unnatural air escaped as the floor began to shift quickly revealing much more of the pool below and startling the small group residing inside the now changing room.
"Rem!" George called as the ground surrounding the central screen folded away and the standable ground began to shrink, pushing the trio toward the exit.
A momentary panic set in as Rue, George, and Kip rushed toward the exit before the grinding subsided and the room settled, now with a wide pool area taking up the bulk of the tower's ground floor with only a thin perimeter along the walls and a small area near the exit.
-I apologize, George. I need to prepare.-
Kip's eyes went wide as she called out, "Does that mean it worked?"
In response an audio began to play, distorted and quiet at first but undeniable.
It was Silver.
-It's worked. My messenger has confirmed that Silver has been transported from this world to Niko's, and she is unharmed.-
"Does it matter that she was a robot unlike some of us?" Rue nervously asked.
"The danger of transfer isn't that it'd harm flesh differently than metal." Kip began.
-The danger was in World Machine created material dissipating if placed in another world. Flesh or steel.-
George let out an audible wince.
-Since that has not happened, we can confirm that the Epilogue is safe to run. We can initiate the Epilogue, if the surviving members of the World Machine project would agree to begin.-
"This feels like it's moving quickly…" George whispered as she looked to Kip for guidance.
"It's up to you two," Rue said, "We did our part for this world, but in the end it's always been your project alongside the Author."
Kip locked eyes with George and nodded confidently, "Let's do this."
George closed her eye a moment before opening with a renewed fire, "Yes. Rem, it's about time we finish this project!"
The loud din of unnaturally moving architecture returned as the ceiling above them disappeared, sliding into the walls and impossibly folding away to reveal the floor above. And then the floor above that, and again, and again, until the room they were in encompassed the entire tower and revealed the Sun high above on its rotating pedestal.
-Initiating Kip's Epilogue.- Rem stated as it flashed upon the screen.
"We'll see you on the other side, Rem!" George called.
The room began to glow with the same unworldly purple glow as the messenger as the Sun began to dim.
The group huddled together as they watched the room become overtaken by the intensity of the purple light. They clutched their eyes shut as it encompassed the tower, and then the entirety of Refuge, followed shortly by the Glen beyond and the Barrens further still.
The moment hung on itself, stuck in the air as nothing seemed to happen and time froze without putting a stop to their thoughts.
"This is it!" Kip's voice broke through, much to her own surprise as she felt unable to move, let alone speak.
Across the world the residents looked on in confusion.
The light flashed brightly, nearly blinding.
A Guardbot near the Glen reaches down to shield the local kids who were just moments prior begging to hear their tale of flight once more.
Maize placed a hand to their heart as they embraced a new feeling of warmth in the world.
The siblings Alula and Calamus were interrupted in the middle of a walk as they spotted Cedric quickly landing his plane as he felt the entire world shake.
A nearby cafe owner took a puzzled look out their window only to see the Sun emanating something entirely unfamiliar as it shrank in size.
Trees shook.
Boats clashed in newfound waves.
Unsteady ruins began to crumble only to seize in midair and attempt to return to their precarious positions, slowly moving in reverse.
And as the world flittered between existing here and elsewhere, Proto nodded knowingly from a comfortable spot in the library.
The light overtook the world machine's entirety, blinding and bewildering, before suddenly everything fell to darkness.
To silence.
The world faded back into view revealing a sudden lack of the Sun's tower around the group.
"Are we?" Rue asked.
The others sat unable to answer as they tried to make sense of things.
Kip suddenly jolted as she found her senses and parsed together what had happened.
Instead of residing within the Sun's tower, they were sitting on the edge of the barrens facing a sea of wheat instead of the usual ocean of unending water.
George looked in awe at the new vista.
In the distance the Glen and beyond it Refuge were clearly visible complete with the tower they were in just moments ago. The only difference of note was a lack of any light pouring from the Sun's tower. That, and the new endless land apparently extending the Barrens as their world found its spot as an island of sorts in Niko's.
"Why are we here?" George whispered as Kip idly ran a hand along a nearby crop.
A short distance away the field shook as something disturbed it causing the trio to back up hesitantly.
"Took you long enough. I was starting to wonder if Rem had changed their mind." A voice broke through the field as heavy footsteps were heard approaching them.
A moment passed and the voice received a more clear name as Silver pushed the crops aside and waved to the others.
George teared up and rushed to Silver, latching on tightly.
"It worked! You're okay! Oh my goodness, George was so scared even after Rem told us things had worked out, it was unbearable waiting so long without seeing if you were fine!"
Silver recoiled at the unexpected familiarity but took it in stride as she continued, "I'm just surprised you all came so quickly. I thought the machine would wait a bit considering."
Kip blunk, "Considering what?"
Silver raised an eyebrow, "Considering what the messenger must have sent back after it up and disintegrated after running all it's scans and tests. That didn't seem to be a part of the plan so I figured the machine, er, Rem would go and postpone things for the rest of you."
"What do you mean?" George asked, tightening her vice grip on Silver.
"Eh, just what I said? After all the excitement died down and I was well and surely here, that bug of an anomalous box scanned me, scanned the surrounding, said its piece and did what most anomalies do, phased into the air. Poof."
"Wait, do you think that means-?" George asked, looking back fearfully to Kip.
Kip's own eyes betrayed the same understanding.
"The Epilogue was meant to transport everyone inside the machine, not the machine itself. I thought-"
George screamed as she stomped the ground below her and marched closer to Kip, "You THOUGHT!"
Kip raised her own voice, "Yes! I thought it'd work out since Rem had integrated themselves into the world just like us! I THOUGHT it'd work and I certainly thought they'd tell us! Rem said it worked!"
George stomped again, "So what if they said it worked! They!" George froze. "They." tears began to fall as she blunk rapidly. "They were right. Rem only cared if we would be safe..."
George fell to her knees at the edge of the golden sea, waves rippled through it as the wind kicked up and twilight began to fall.
Rue quietly spoke reassurances as she patted George's leg.
Silver and Kip locked eyes in this moment of understanding before looking away only to both spot the same upcoming light bouncing atop the wheat field.
"What is that?" They both whispered, bringing the attention of the others as they watched this bouncing light. A familiar light, phosphor to be sure.
As it grew closer they could see that it was bouncing atop a lamplighter pole and just below it were a familiar pair of hat'd ears.
George looked in bewilderment, "Niko? But they aren't that tall?"
Breaking through the obscurity of the field came an exhausted and confused man's face as they approached.
As he spotted the group he let out a sigh of relief before marching closer with the excited and waving Niko on his shoulders.
"You guys, too?" The Lamplighter gasped, clearly too tired to be ferrying the excited kid along. "Somedays what happens just might as well happen, you know? I was just at the cafe trying to relax and bam, bright light and I'm with the messiah again. At some point you just have to give up trying to understand what's going on." he groaned, a new ache forming in his neck.
All the while Niko was excitedly calling each of them and asking why they were here which led the Lamplighter to realize no one was really paying him any mind in this conversation.
He blunk as Niko leapt from his shoulders and shrugged as he took a tired long look towards Refuge and began to understand how long a trip he was in for to get back home.
Niko's eyes shined brightly and betrayed their excitement as they asked "How did you all get here! How did EVERYTHING get here!"
The weary group looked to each other and began the mostly joyful retelling of how they arrived, only interrupted by Niko leaping onto George's shoulders to wave down their mother halfway through their retelling.
Over that night a mostly mass journey of sorts began for many of the previous residents of the World Machine. Many were displaced by the Epilogue and looking to the strange sky quickly led many toward the new land alongside the Barrens, many walking opposite the Lamplighter as he marched his way home.
In time the message had spread far and wide, from the Barren's new edge, to the heart of Refuge. The world had moved, and grown considerably. Word of a familiar messiah sparked rumors on how or why this had happened, and the horizon became dotted with familiar travelers heading to hear the truth from those that made it happen.
As night fell, a campsite had appeared thanks to resources gathered from the Barrens and offered by Niko's household. A large Guardbot sat just outside the campsite, welcoming guests from all around the World Machine's old domain all while local kids from the Glen worked diligently on a new artwork on their hull that depicted the Guardbot flying through the sky.
Niko had fallen asleep hours prior in their mother's arms while their mother continued to pick at the incredible story George and Kip had to tell.
As darkness filled the sky, residents of both worlds felt their exhaustion become too much to withstand. Niko and their mother set out for home, Niko smiling broadly in their sleep at the return of their friends from the other world. Cedric and Rue gave George a short embrace before calling out their good night wishes to their Aunt, all while Proto attempted to sneak away back to the nook he'd grown to enjoy in the library, only for George to single him out and give him a farewell hug despite his protests.
The bulk of the sudden visitors had decided to gather rest in the campsite, but in part because of the adrenaline of doing this, George and Kip decided to make the long trek home rowboat and all. They'd missed out on the express lane of Cedric's plane, but some calm could do them some good.
The trip was quiet and complex. Neither could deny how happy they were to see the world living anew, complete with a new sky above. But neither were prepared for a loss of any kind as well, and hadn't been given the chance to really talk about Rem's sacrifice. Not that now felt like the right time, with sleep approaching as they staved it off for home.
A sudden jolt shook George and Kip back to their senses as the rowbot docked at the Glen.
Kip gave the bot a heartfelt thanks and looked to cheer on her friend as they climbed from the boat and made for the Refuge elevator.
Meanwhile, as the night sky began to fill with countless stars and Refuge lay more quiet than it had been in ages with most of its populace out talking or sleeping amidst the new world they lived in-
A simple computer terminal located in George's office flickered to life. A pale yellow light filtered through the disheveled books of her sanctum as the screen printed out a single message awaiting its response.
-We made it.-