Dave pinned Future John to the ground while Davesprite hovered over, "You're not going to kill him," he said, flapping his orange wings, "I'm not letting him die twice."
"It's too late for that," Future John struggled, "One of us is going to die. You can't change that." He wriggled one of his arms loose and swung it to punch Dave in the ear. The blow didn't hurt him much, but it shook him enough that he loosened his grip. Future John took the opportunity to escape. He shuffled away but was too tired to get up. He was mentally and emotionally exhausted. It didn't help that his head was still pounding from the impacts with the floor.
"You just don't get it. It's not fair. You get to live." He looked up at Davesprite with disgust. "Everything I've known for the past year, all my friends, all the things I love, and everything I've become... It's all going to be gone. It's not fair that you get to keep going." He slammed the bottom of his fist into the metal with loud clang. "It's just not FAIR."
"Fair?" Dave replied. "What about Jade? Was it fair that when you died there was no one to save her."
Future John looked down at his feet. Jade hadn't contacted him in the past year either. This whole time he had been bitter about it but if what they were saying was true... He shamefully bit his bottom lip, "What happened to her?"
Dave shook is head, "She died, dude. We lost all contact with her and..."
Future John's eyes shot up. "You lost contact with her? That's it?"
"Well there was a big fucking meteor..."
"You didn't contact ME but I never assumed you were dead!"
"This game is dangerous!"
"What game!" Future John threw his hands up in frustration. "None of this is real! This is all your bullshit that you've pulled me into! I finished this thing. I left and went back to the real world. Maybe that's what Jade did too! You don't actually know what's happened. The only reason that you're stopping me is for yourself. You're so stuck on this idea of being a hero who saves us all. You're not a hero! You're a selfish prick! You haven't made any sacrifices - not for me or for Jade. Even your future self gets a free pass from fading away!
"I'm the one who has to kill myself! Do you know how much that sucks? Do you know what it's like to wake up one day and be told that you have to murder the person that you used to be? I don't want to do this. When I look into my own eyes," he shot John a pitiful glance, "I see how scared I really am. I don't even know for certain if this will work, but I have to try. Because I can feel myself slipping away, and I know that my friends are fading too. I can't let that happen to them. And even if I have to die, if taking my own life will restore their world, it's what I have to do. Just let me do this, and you can go back to playing this save the world game without me."
He hung his head and muttered to the floor, "You already played a year without me just fine. Why does it bother you now?"
"What about Rose?" Davesprite interrupted.
"What about Rose? I haven't heard from her." He shut his eyes hard and gritted his teeth in an attempt to cover up his disappointment with anger. "Is she a happy future sprite too?"
"Future Rose has already faded away."
Future John turned to Davesprite. He was speechless.
"You can call me selfish if you want. And I know I can be a prick. But don't you DARE accuse Rose of not caring. I was there when she choose to fade away. She was scared. She didn't know if going to the past to get you back would work, but she did know that she would have to disappear. And she was willing to do it so that we could save you. Because more than saving the world, she kept fighting that year to get you back."
Davesprite looked down at his shadow hovering over the scuffs on the metal floor. "There were nights, after fighting waves of imps and monsters, the two of us would make camp and we'd be so exhausted but we couldn't sleep. Sometimes I could hear her crying into that stupid rabbit she knit you. But I knew I couldn't do anything to comfort her, she needed you. So I just had to let her cry and pretend I didn't hear."
Both Johns listened with their mouths agape. Future John was numb all over. He didn't even feel the tears welling in the corners of his eyes. The heat of the burning planet evaporated them as soon as they fell.
He looked down at his hands only to notice that they were turning transparent. He buried his head in them and cried. Even if he still wanted to, there was nothing he could do anymore. His friends were gone. Rose was gone. He was gone.