Universe's End

From darkness, there was nothing.

And then, there was light.

Or so that was how it felt for Rory. One moment, nothing; the next, his eyes were fluttering open.

“Ouch,” Rory groaned.

Looking around, it took him several moments to make sense of where he was. Brain rebooting, it clicked into place not long after.

Medic Bay of Camp Null?

How had he gotten here? Last he’d recalled-

Oh. Oh right.

The World Crucible.

Sinking into the cot, a cot he had made some time ago, Rory let himself breathe.

That… That had been something.

I was punching above my weight class.

A hundred years? Two hundred? A thousand? It had felt like he’d been tapping into possibilities and skills he was not yet ready for, guided by a hand that was himself and not.

Or, in layman’s terms, within the trance he’d entered inside the World Crucible, he’d gotten a massive boost.

Sighing, Rory could only shake his head. Even trying to dredge up the memories of what had happened felt fragmented, as if his mind refused to lift the veil of obscurity for his own good.

Well, it is what it is.

From what little he could pick apart, Rory was sure he’d begun to weave a pattern or insight that would still benefit him, probably benefit him a fuck ton. Still, it would take time to really digest.

For example, the memory of turning two separate items into one, the line between reality and idea removed, a nebulous state to be manipulated.

Now, how did that work at all? Fuck if Rory knew. Trying to comprehend the memory any further than that was like splitting his brain in half with a piece of glass.

Sort of like a certain Woodsman. No, wait, wrong, very wrong, bad, inside-head joke only… Sort of like a certain shard of the sky. Ah, screw it, I’m going to hell if I ever die.

Chalking the rather dark humor of how he’d murdered someone to the brain fog of waking up after the experience, Rory frowned after a moment.

So… where is everyone?

It was a question Rory found himself pondering for most of the evening until, at last, he heard a commotion.

Bursting through the door, Zoey appeared.

“Yo, Zoe- oh.”

The woman all but launched herself at him, strangling him in a bear hug.

“Ow,” Rory finally groaned. His body still felt weak, far weaker than he really had any right to.

“You’re awake,” Zoey said as she stepped away.

“Are… are those tears in your eyes?”

“No, asshole,” Zoey said, wiping at her eyes before sighing. “Yes, because fuck you.”

“Alright, consider me lost,” Rory said.

“You have no idea how long you’ve been gone, do you?”

“Uhh… A month?” Rory offered. Usually, after particularly traumatic crafting events, going blank for a month or two or so wasn’t-

“Two years.”

“Oh, fuck me,” Rory said, eyes blinking rapidly. “What?”

“Yeah, two fucking years,” Zoey said. “That fact you didn’t die was a miracle.”

“Right, so…. Run this by me again?”

“After you escaped the World Crucible,” Zoey began. “You collapsed. You didn’t even look… real. It was like you somehow were missing a dimension, two-dimensional in a three-dimensional body.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Shut up,” Zoey ordered. “We rushed you back here, where you’ve been ever since. The only reason we didn’t think you were dead was that you were recovering. Still, you were exhausted of everything, every resource so thoroughly depleted it’s like you had to be rebuilt from nearly the ground up.”

“That… doesn’t sound fun,” Rory muttered. “Well, I’m glad I wasn’t around to feel all that.”

“That’s it,” Zoey said, staring at him. “That’s all you’ve got to say on the matter? Two years of being in a coma and it’s just… ‘Oh, sure glad I didn’t have to feel it, hardy har har, look how nonchalant I am.’”

“Uhhh…. Sorry? Also, I definitely don’t talk like that.”

Zoey stared at him for several seconds before shaking her head.

“Why am I not surprised?”

“Oh wait, I do have one question,” Rory said. “The armor, did-”

“Couldn’t,” Zoey shook her head. “It’s inside your inventory, an inventory that very specifically is made with a level of spatial security that none of us could ever hope to brute-force, not even Eric.”

“Rightttt,” Rory nodded. The void diamond used for it had been Master grade after all. “So, none of you saw what was made.”

“We just assumed something went wrong and called it a lost cause. Alice has been using backup armors from the armory,” Zoey said, her eyes narrowing. “Wait… is that why you don’t seem stressed or bothered?”

“I mean, two years lost sucks,” Rory admitted. “But it was worth it.”

And he wasn’t lying.

Because he’d made the first-ever Aberrant-grade armor.

Withdrawing it from the inventory where it had been stashed away for the last two years, Zoey’s eyes went wide as she examined the armor.

Wanting to reflect on his own handiwork now that a rip in creation wasn’t dissolving him, Rory likewise examined the armor.