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Yellow, orange, red…and blue.
Four colors that had formed the tempo of their life as much as the number 22 had, for the last...it'd probably been a month, they weren't really keeping track of time when everything seemed to pass in 22 minute intervals. The sun loomed, angry and red in the sky of Timber Heart, probably not long now. They leaned back against the landing strut of their ship, they were just killing time at this point, trying to work up the nerve to make a decision, probably the last one they could actually make if they were being honest with them self.
The sun was growing larger, almost there. Despite what it meant, what it represented, they really thought the Blue at the end of everything was kind of…beautiful. Melancholic yes, but a beautiful way for it to end. The perfect backdrop for what was an amazing journey, They'd solved mysteries, uncovered secrets, crashed into the sun, a lot, and even made friends. Like the sun they were watching though, everything has to end eventually, and it seemed like that end was pretty close.
They could put it off, maybe check Giant's Deep again, they have all the time in the world after all. But no, they'd have to explain what they were doing to Gabbro if they just popped over there and they were sure that'd obliterate what little nerve they'd gathered like the ever reddening sun would do to everything else soon. Or they could go back to the Quantum moon, have another conversation with the cutest alien they'd ever met. Well they assumed Solanum was cute, they'd never actually seen them without a spacesuit on, but if the statues of Nomai were anything to go off of they were adorable.
That'd just be pushing the decision off more though. It was a scary thing though, it almost felt like giving up, not quite but almost. Except there really wasn't anything that could be done. All the time in the world wasn't really enough when it came down to it. They'd already said goodbye to everyone, though most of them hadn't really understood it.
As terrifying as it was though, what they were about to do, the capstone to their journey was going to be something, something no one else has ever done, ever seen even. The culmination of the life's work of three whole species, and all they had to do…was break their safety net.
They'd looked for other Warp Cores of course, but the only one that might actually work was the same one keeping the loop going. Without that well…22 minutes to perform some of the wildest flying in their life. They knew they could do that, there'd been a whole lot of no consequences flying performed in their journey. Well no permanent consequences anyways. They shivered at the thought of Angler teeth.
The sun began to pull in on itself, collapsing as it became that awful, wonderful, blue. This was it, they couldn't put it off much longer. Clocks ticking. There was really only one thing left to do, they kicked off the ship's strut. Their arms outstretched to embrace that beautiful shade of blue light as it swallowed everything whole.
There was one more sight to see after all.