End of the Universe Ch. 11 - The Last Man (Finale)

>There was one last thing you needed to do.
>You sailed through space in a lazy spiral.  You took the scenic route.  You wanted one last good look at the place and needed time to think of what to say.  There was plenty of quiet to collect your thoughts.  You hand would occasionally tap at a bag slung around your shoulder.
>Your body drifted past planets turning around their suns.  There were gas giants.  Tumultuous spheres that spewed endless magma.  Asteroid belts tumbled end over end.  You saw herds of comets migrating between galactic arms like birds flying to some impossibly far away nest.  Then there were the things that floated in the empty space between galaxies.  Black holes yawned.  Galactic clouds swirled in themselves, crashing and making their muffled dins that could be heard even from this distance.
>You stared unblinking at the pastels and blended creams of so much dust and matter.
>Stars glittered.
>But one star at the forefront of your mind.
>She was the biggest star that ever was or ever will be.  She was burning at the universal core.
>You saw her light long before you could touch her.
>As you approached her light seemed to glow brighter.  Her heated atmosphere dazzled your vision and threatened to burn out your corneas as her light ran all across the spectrum like she was covered in prisms.  Reds.  Blues.  Greens.  Yellows.  Airy seas of light and mist-like to the touch.
>Her surface grew near.  She was beyond expansive.  Her reach conquered any mental definition of infinite.  If the universe had a ceiling, this would be it.  Horizon to horizon, there was nothing but star.  Solar flares of tremendous height reached up from her surface to touch you.  It burned, but you didn't care.  She'd never hurt you.


>Titanic ringing filled your ears when you entered her atmosphere.  They rings and chimes sounded like they were coming from the biggest cathedral bells ever built.  The air was filled with the singing of invisible bells the size of mountains.  She was overjoyed to see you.
>You came as close to her ever-shifting surface as you could.  You hand reached out and felt the fires of her love.  It was so bright you could see your bones through the skin.
>“Hello, Celestia.”
>She sang her greetings.  Tears fell from your eyes only to puff into the surrounding vapor.  It was so good to hear her voice.
>”How's my girl doing?”
>The bells rang and rang.  You smiled, drifting a finger through the mists of her endless nuclear reactions.
>”I'm sure you know why I'm here.  I have to go, but I can't without saying goodbye.”  Her echoes shook your body.  You quietly reveled after feeling her touch once more.
>”I never liked leaving you alone out here.”  Your brows knit together.  “I was scared to see you.  I knew that if I came back I wouldn't leave.” You shrugged.  “I'd dive in there.  Try to find you, and no one would ever see me again.”
>Her voice rang around you.
>You breathed her aether in deep, holding it for as long as you could.  “Celestia.  You were with me in the dark for so long.  I still feel sad thinking about it -we were together longer than anyone else.  All we ever had was time, but that was enough for us to be happy.”  You shook your head.  “Still...there was so much we could never do together.  I wanted to marry you.  Kiss you in the sunlight and walk on the grass.  Tell our daughter bedtime stories when she couldn't sleep.”


>You shuddered.  “If only you could see her.  Astra grew up to be so beautiful.  And she's smart.  Stubborn as hell” you laughed to keep yourself from crying. “Just like you.  She tries her best even if it'll drive her crazy, but she has someone to help her.”
>You pulled a solar system replica out of the bag you carried.  “She made this.  All by herself.”  You pointed to a planet.  “This is where we live.  She put our portraits on here.  There she is.  That's me.  And this is Eris.”
>”Eris.  I wish you could meet her too.  You'd lover her.  I do.  We did well by your brother.  I can forgive him now.  I hope he's happy, if he's still out there somewhere.”  Your hands were a trembling mess as you turned the model over.  “She made it sturdy.  Designed it to last forever and never break.  Brilliant, isn't it?  Here.”  You raised the miniature solar system into the air and let it drift into the light.  “You hold onto it.  I can't take it with me.”
>Your voice shuttered but you fought for the words  “B-but I know you'll take good care of it.”  You reached into the bag and removed Eris's music box.
>”Eris.  Astra's sister.  I raised them as sisters.  Ah.  Eris made this.  The music is different every time it's played.  We'll both hear it soon.”
>”They're good girls.  They're wonderful.  They made some mistakes, but so did we.  All of us did.  But that's fine -soon everything is going to be fixed and...it's in good hands.  That's all that counts.”
>”I won't be able to see it, though, but I still know.”  You chuckle.  “I'm not afraid.  I don't...think...I'm going to die.  We're immortals.  We don't get off that easy, remember?”  Her song made you believe she did.


>“It's just more eternity, but I stopped being afraid of the eternal a long time ago.  Why would I be scared when I've held eternity in my arms and have it say 'I love you'?”
>Your eyes fluttered as rainbows fluttered over your face .  ”Thank you for loving me.  God, I loved you.  I still do.  For the longest time I wanted to die but you gave me a reason to live forever.
>Her love rang across the ever-shifting color scape.
>”All the same.  I was never meant to last this long.” You   My brain.  My skull felt fit to pop some days from everything crammed in there.  My bones are weary.  The strands in my muscles want to snap.  But I'm tired, Celestia.  There's this....very last thing for me to do and then I can rest.  I only wish I could rest with you.”
>She took on a soft hum.  It helped you focus on the music box until your hands stopped shaking.
>”I love you.  From now until the end of the universe, I love you.”
>Music flew from the box.  The tones were clean and simple, but they reached far and wide.  Celestia picked up its underlying rhythm and joined in full chorus.
>The song echoed and sped across a busy cosmos unfettered.  It message was received.
>You felt a needle-thin twitch in the air around you.  You turned away from Celestia and flew back out into the black backdrop that was awash with glowing fogs and lanterns.     There was a high, airy roar.  It was a cry of thunder.  A sound of a billion flowers blooming at once.  Fires being ignited and extinguished.  Imploding existence.


>Annihilation grew out in a tremendous spiral.  The edges of self-destructing creation was wide.  It sent contracting waves before it, expanding in all directions before the delicate cosmic fabric blossomed into light.  Everything joined in with the biggest chain of fireworks.
>The wave hit you.  Electricity passed through your body and for a moment you felt ill.  Your eyes rejected the sight of chaos-induced existential failure.  You closed your eyes until your head stopped spinning and the world around you turned quiet.
>You opened your eyes.
>What you saw was not a black, hopeless void, but the white expanse of a blank canvas, just waiting for its master to approach and work her will.  The expanse shimmered.  Blue lights would flash and glimmer, tracing a vein-like pattern so vast it's pointless to describe.
>You turned.
>Celestia was still there.  Her bare soul radiated before you even more immense than before.
>She was pure luminescent color.  Emerald flared and violet washes bubbled and swirled like the eye of a gas giant.
>There was a sound of thunder firing in the sky but never hitting the ground..  A chain of blue lightning pulled itself from the expanse.  It arced over you like an ocean.  The tip of the thing reached down over your head.  You offered a hand.  Tendrils of white light danced on your fingertips, each one strong enough to set off a big bang.
>The light vibrated.  A lattice pattern surged in the direction of the prismatic sphere.  You cupped the tendril's tip with both hands.
>”Yes.  That's her.  Go ahead.”  You felt a lightning storm over your face and the colossal electric ocean splashed into the star.   The flood dove underneath her, and surfaced, making wide arcs before diving again.  The colors mixed and separated.  The two sang to each other.



>A great heat flowered from behind.  An inferno of golds and crimsons engulfed you.  It flapped and twisted to your side.  A chain of explosions and condensations rippled in ringlets.  You held out an arm.  The fire curled around it before blowing through your hair and drifting off your shoulder.  It's world-shattering roar turned into a searing purr.
>The ocean pulled back from the star and flowed towards you like a cosmic tide.  More electrical tendrils danced on the edges of the fire, teasing the flames towards itself as if to say 'Come.  It's alright.'
>The two forces of nature dove in and around the star.  Bells rang.  Lightning flashed in slow, ponderous arcs through the differing layers of unfettered intelligence.  Sparks bloomed and fires whirled as an endless aurora.   The mass expanded and contracted slowly.  Vivid embers trailed and vanished.  A great breath was heard.
>Your body was numb, but you felt the tears down your face.  Everything that mattered to you reveled in their boundless, limitless energies and love.
>The veins of Creation pulsed brighter and brighter.  The sound of an oncoming rainstorm grew as the union of spirits reached a peak.  The fires floated and the tidal waves held steady.  In a place where time was destroyed a moment of bliss fell over all.  Their bells and voices attuned and harmony was felt.
>You swallowed.  “Take care, now.”
>The universe's heart beat.  There was a blaze.
>You fell.


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>There was no sound.  There was no warmth, no cold, nor pain.
>You opened your eyes and looked.  You felt no body of your own.  Just a phantom definition of form.   It was dark here.  Not pitch black, just dark.
>The imagined outline of your form was sluggish, like you were drifting down in a silent sea.
>There was a shimmering spread of illumination far above you.  It drifted away.
>Never again would you see it.
>To say there was no sadness would be a lie.  There was.  But there was comfort.  You would never forget their faces.  Their voices.  They were safe.  They can be happy now, forever and ever.
>The perpetuity of your soul glinted.
>Your lifetime was rewarded with peace and that was good enough.  You could close your eyes now.  It's alright.  You could dream.  You wanted to dream.
>Of a place where all was light.
>And all was warmth.

The End.