"When the star dies,
Its eye closes; tired of watching,
It flies back to its first bright dream."
Dejan Stojanovic
I own nothing but my own ideas
There's a lot that has happened in the space of things that haven't.
Worlds have ended, universes of might have beens that are no more now. History has been written, and rewritten and blotted out.
And here you are again back in a clearing before. Before everything. The same spot, the same clearing, the same time, but a million different feelings. You feel like you have mentally hundreds of years, with what you know.
You know of a future that could be. You know time travel is within the realm of possibility. You know what Lord Luxon would do with a time machine. But most prominently, you know that Gideon is in this clearing, and you have so much to talk about.
You know that he is your brother. Your brother. In the face of that, whatever you were chasing him about feels like the least important thing in the world. It's been so long for you, that whatever it was, you have entirely forgotten about it.
You know you have to do something about Lord Luxon. And whatever you decide to do, you should strike while he believes that you are on his side. You are a bit at a loss for an exit plan, and maybe that's where Gideon comes in. You don't exactly have allies, and he is charismatic to have many.
You don't exactly have time travel to bail you out. Or do you? You are unsure if it would be safe to try, but it would be nice to have an exit plan, wouldn't it. Fading was an ace, an exit plan to dream of. It's not an easy thing to have wanted to lose, despite a part of you insisting it should stay a dream.
Still, you undid that future. But you remember. What if he doesn't? You after all managed to time travel unaided by the machine, he can't say the same. Is that why?
Maybe he's hiding from you in genuine fear right now. It would feel silly if he were, and rather unfair on behalf of the universe, but since when has life ever been fair to you?
You should think of something to say for both scenarios. And come prepared for a fight. After all, he is expecting you to possibly kill him. Or was it a kidnapping?
That's not the worst plan. It will buy you more time to think of what to say if he doesn't remember. And he was not your first sibling. Fake kidnapping is not the weirdest thing to happen between siblings. And it could be funny. That's reason enough to mess with him. Payback.
At least this time, you are unlikely to be interrupted by time travelers. The conversation that follows will be heavy enough without that.
Somewhere in the future, Peter Shock is talking to his father on a phone, unaware of futures that could have been, but happier than he was an hour ago.