Chapter 26: Reverse resonance
I awoke later, wrapped in a blanket with my clothes drying over another bonfire. I could smell some of our rations cooking nearby but could feel the many deaths that I had witnessed still tear at my soul. "Hey, are you alright now?" Eric's voice said to me from near my foot. I turned to look at him and sat up wrapping the blanket around my furry body to keep warm. I tried to tell him that I was alright but my nose suddenly was being tickled by an unseen force, causing me to sneeze. "Well, serves you right for being reckless like that." Luna said from near the fire. She revealed herself to Erick's right side and sat down close to me. "So that was gummi berry juice, huh?" She asked recalling the fight. "Yah." Was all I could say back to her. Trying to cheer me up, she responded, "It kind of tastes sort of like blueberries with a little bit of blackberry to it." I snickered slightly and nodded back in agreement. She then fell solemn and stared at the ground for approximately three minutes of silence. "So, you're going to use the time stone to go back and fix all of this soon?" She asked me sadly. I looked at her with a kind of sorrow in my own eyes. I may not know much about the workings of time, but even I could figure out what going back would mean. "If you do, then none of this would happen. And I would never exist. All of this would never have existed." I could see the tears begin to form from within her eyes. She truly cared about the life that she lived and I, myself never wanted to take that away. But I also knew that if I stayed here, the gummi bears would eventually become extinct. Neither of us could live forever and there was no way that two female's could procreate together. Without another male gummi bear, our once great species would literally become just a memory.
I honestly never thought of the adverse consequences of going back and stopping Igthorn from acquiring the time stone. It certainly was a heavy subject and I now bore the weight of that burden. Tears began welling up in my own eyes from the overwhelming guilt from wanting to go back and change things. Eric also looked at me with his kind eyes, and even they held in them a kind of sadness from the thought of never meeting me or possibly never being born. "You suffered from the misuse of this damn stone." He said. "But because of the stone I found many good things. I found you, Luna, Rose your sister and even Selina. I've begun to see you all like a family and now, I am faced with the choice of destroying all of that. I can't. I just can't." I began sobbing, covering my face with both of my paws. Eric crawled over to my side and wrapped his arms around my head to comfort me. I wrapped my arms around his waist the best I could and bawled my eyes out on his rib cage. Luna sat by feeling slightly guilty for making me cry like that but at the same time, still scared of ceasing to exist. No matter what I did, someone was doomed and all of us could be doomed if I go back to the past and fail to stop Igthorn.
Suddenly, I felt something be slid under my paw while I was crying. At the same time, the rest of the group joined in with a big group hug with Rose blocking my view of what was placed under my paw. Suddenly a familiar light surrounded us and my mind began to panic. I wasn't ready to make a decision but it seemed that I was relieved of my choice. I thought for sure that I would never see Eric or the others again until the light died back down and faded away. The hug was then broken and I found myself in a fully functional water source for the glen. "What happened?" Eric asked clearly confused to see his surroundings not in disarray. An upbeat tune could be heard being whistled through the entrance tunnel echoing to our position, and suddenly the figure emerged from the tunnel within seconds. Gruffi Gummi stopped whistling the moment his eyes laid upon our little group. Clearly nervous about intruders he slowly spun around to try and make an exit until I shouted out in nostalgic joy, "Gruffi?" Recognizing my voice, he slowly turned back around to see if his mind was playing tricks on him. I slowly took steps forward as my eyes began to tear up once again only this time out of joy. "Wait, Sunni? But, I thought I left you back in the glen. How did you even get here before me if you followed?" All I could do was sob while hugging him tightly, I just couldn't stop myself and my tears just wouldn't stop. I was sure that he was now completely confused but I just couldn't stop crying.
"Sunny, what's wrong?" He asked slightly embarrassed from the hug. "Did they hurt you or something?" He then asked defensive and slightly angry. I had to force myself to calm down enough to speak and clear up the situation. I pulled away from Gruffi and choked, "No... no they didn't. They helped me. They're from the future." Then I thought about that statement, "And so am I." Gruffi looked at me like he thought I was crazy and then looked at our little motley crew, examining them like Gruffi always used to do in my memories. His distrust was probably slightly annoying to the rest of them, but I was just about to break down with joy once again. My heart swelled up with bursting emotions that I thought I'd never feel for my own kind again. I was happy, confused, embarrassed and sad all at the same time. I turned back toward my friends remembering that they didn't even belong here in the past and when we fixed everything, they would simply disappear and be forgotten, the same with my experiences and memories, and this me also would fade away into nothing.
I noticed Rose holding the time stone in her hands like she would hold an old video reel and decided to introduce them to him. "Gruffi," I said to him and gestured toward each person in turn, "This is Rose, Selina, Eric, his sister Ella and Luna." I then turned back to him and said in all seriousness, "And you might not believe me, but I most likely am outside at the castle with Calla right now." And that, he did by the clear look on his face he thought that I was losing my mind, but still accepted them and silently waved to say 'hi'.
While we were escorted back, after Gruffi performed and taught curious Eric maintenance to the water mill, Rose approached me and leaned to softly explain to me, "We don't know what will happen if you end up meeting your past self." I snidely turned back to her and responded, "That's nice to know now. It was your plan to slip the stone under my paw and group hug me." "I didn't think that it actually would bring all of us with you. I thought that it would work on only the one touching the stone." She retorted defensively. "Ooh, look at that. You were wrong for once." I lightly snapped back at her trying to enunciate the fact that I didn't like her tricking me like that. "Excuse me. I'm only human." She then snapped back and stood straight up to ignore me. The reality was that now she had gotten me thinking. What would happen if I met myself? Would I need to come up with another identity or should I try to explain my situation and hopefully keep it within their understanding when I barely understood it myself. We were soon going to find out.