makingthisupasigo | And the stars look very different today...

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And the stars look very different today...

It was a way out. But it wasn't home.

Truthfully, after Norfinbury, anything would be better than that place, but the cold truth was--there was no way to find his own universe out of the endless multiverse, even if Norfinbury's busted technology had worked properly. He was stuck, here, with a megalomaniac Flynn--granted, a Flynn that managed to open up a portal out of there. Maybe that's what it took to get out of Norfinbury.

Or, Peter thought sometimes on bad days, Norfinbury only released you once you became the twisted version of yourself it wanted you to be. A specially-designed virus inflicted on countless worlds.

Besides, he ought to know something about that.

He didn't stay long on earth, he couldn't. Maybe it had something to do with the mystery of how they were revived in Norfinbury, their bodies recreated or cloned or healed, or maybe it was something that was gonna happen to him anyway, but he could feel the Light burning inside him, inside his head almost as soon as he landed. A desperate need to take to the stars. He'd managed to create a ship and took off.

Time passes, and scientists notice something odd about several exoplanets they're monitoring, especially ones marked as 'earth-like' or other planets in zones that could make them potentially habitable. Bright bursts of light and changes in the composition of the atmosphere or surface, it was inexplicable. Possible evidence of intelligent life? If they didn't know any better, especially with the rocky planets that now somehow boasted extreme changes, it was like something was terraforming them.

There was cause for alarm when Mars suddenly turned blue and green a few months later.

Meanwhile, a small blue-and-orange ship that looked suspiciously like a slightly more organic-looking Milano was racing towards the earth.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Then bring it on, bro.

[Peter sounds utterly confident. You're on his turf. There's no way you can possibly win, Flynn.

Stone can sense that apprehension and fondness from Flynn, and he's probably giving that off in equal measures, too. But there's a slight quirk of his lips as he gives a half-wave, before turning to run in the opposite direction. Even though he has no plans to abandon Flynn, not after they'd just gotten him back, he'd rather avoid an argument. He's not sure if Flynn can sense that, but he doesn't care. He's not leaving either of them.

We're gonna win this. We're Librarians. And I'll see you on the other side.

[There's not much more he can do. He can't fight Peter and save Ezekiel - Flynn just has to trust Stone to do that.

And he does.

Alright then. Time to get started.]

Cal, come.

[And with the pettiness of a thousand suns, he drives the magic sword deep, deep into the ground.]

[That is pretty petty. And totally uncool.

The ground quakes again, tendrils of light suddenly erupting around the area, two--three--four of them, hovering in the air like snakes ready to strike, as the ground glows white around the sword--Peter attempts to turn the very soil itself into a dry quicksand, attempting to drag both Cal and Flynn into the earth.]

Oh, now I have your attention.

[Which is actually not that good, because he didn't expect the quicksand. Flynn quickly pulls Cal out of the crumbling ground again and tries to move back but one of his feet gets caught and stuck in the moving sand. With a lot of effort (and windmilling arms), he keeps upright for now and tries hitting the ground again, dispersing blue magical energy with Cal.

It feels weird, because he didn't know he could do that. Well, he does now, but they're not his memories, technically, but the other Flynn's.

But as weirdly satisfying as it is, he can't keep hitting the ground forever. If he can just draw him out...]

Really? You're not even gonna meet me face to face? That's not buddies.

[The blue magical energy meets the light, and the light crackles painfully around it, snapping back into the ground as if it were hurt. The ground seems to solidify as the light retreats.

Peter comes flying out of the sky, the light propelling him, and he lands--quite a good superhero landing, in his opinion--a couple yards away from Flynn. The four tendrils snap and crackle through the ground around him.]

Well, if you insist. Buddy.

[He sends a tendril of light towards Flynn.]

[Flynn jumps back and pulls his feet up before it can get trapped in the solidifying soil. At first he moves back, striking at the tendril as soon as it approaches, blue light crackling against bright white. The impact almost makes him drop Cal and he stumbles back, striking at the attacking light again and again.

It's clear he won't be able to keep this up for long. Peter is toying with him.]

You know, I've been thinking. You've been [strike] working so hard to [strike] get me.

[The tendril withdraws, pulling back like a snake ready to strike again. Flynn watches it for a moment, panting, then looks over at Peter.]

I think it's time you get your wish.

[When the tendril comes at him he doesn't evade it, allowing it to burrow right into his chest and suddenly everything is bright and searing agony.

He really hopes he can make this work.]

[Peter's ridiculously confident, he knows how much of a sheer advantage he has here. And this is the most fun he's had in ages--well, besides the video games. But this was Flynn, the old Flynn, and he was pissed at him. He grins happily as he fights him with the light, crossing his arms and standing still as the tendril works for him, but he's not really sure where Flynn is going with this when suddenly he doesn't evade and the tendril strikes true--

--suddenly Flynn's there, he's connected to everything, to the light and Peter's mind, buried deep down inside the planet's core.

His avatar is truly that--just an avatar, made both of the light itself and organic material, but that wasn't truly him--here he was, the light like a giant nervous system spread out through the entire planet. It's both magnificent and horrifying, incredibly alien and yet, it was still somehow human. Buried deep within the Celestial brain, were very human feelings, parts of himself he'd done his best to lock away. They're faint, diluted by the enormous energy of the light.]

Well, well, well. [Peter--the physical avatar version of himself--walks lazily up to where Flynn is, clapping his hands.]

I guess I won, didn't I?

[And there's something faint, some emotion like dismay, the barest hint of pain, flickering red in the enormity of all that blindingly white light inside the planet.]

[It hurts.

For a moment Flynn forgets why he came here, what he was supposed to do, who he is, overtaken by the blinding beauty and ferocity of the energy surrounding and flowing through him. It's breathtaking and he feels incomprehensibly small in the sum of it all. It's claiming him. He can feel his life force seeping into it and suddenly he wants to let it. Wants to be part of something so enormous, so great.

But then the emotion reaches him and Flynn remembers. Peter. He's here to stop him. To save him.

He tries to focus on that, that little speck of red, like a lighthouse and his mind sets out towards it.

His physical body twitches in the grip of the tendril, soft noises of pain escaping him as he looks down at Peter's avatar.]

I g-guess that w-was... kinda... s-stupid...

[The emotion gets stronger the closer one gets to it, the red flickering, then the light splits into a prism of colors. A bright blue of curiosity and sadness, a deep yellow of fear, threads of green suspicion, and the red at the center, beating like a heart. Here the colors swirl as if they're being torn asunder by the wind, but they reform into a protective sphere that contained something.

The environment around them suddenly shifts. Before there was light, now all is darkness. But it's not a true darkness, no--there's a plethora of stars, planets, nebulae, it's like being in a riot of creation, of the birthplaces of stars.

Flynn? It's a newer voice from inside the glowing sphere, floating amongst the brightly colored space clouds, and it sounds like Peter, but younger. Not a Celestial's voice. Like when they'd first met in Norfinbury.

Meanwhile, Peter in the physical world grins. He is so enjoying this.]

I literally cannot believe this was that easy. I thought you were supposed to be smart? Yeah, that was a pretty dumb move. But let's face it. You can't beat me, and you know it, too. You probably just gave up, didn't you?

That's okay. You can be part of my Expansion now! The new one, and this time, I'm going after earth first.

[Flynn stifles a scream, his face contorted with pain, but he struggles to hold Peter's gaze.]

Y-you're right. I can't... can't b-beat you.

[In their minds, he keeps moving forward, drawn in closer by the swirling emotions and he recognizes them, like a signature, something familiar and wonderful.

Yeah, it's me. I'm here to get you out.]

But he can.

[He reaches out to touch the sphere and when he does pours all his love into it.

--and he's all new to Norfinbury, confused but actually curious about the place because certainly it's just another adventure--

--and he never gets around to tell anyone but he's heartbroken about Simone and he's finally accepted that his is going to be a life of loneliness, of mystery but also misery--

--but then he talks to Peter about Aristotle and his mom and he remembers thinking that he seems nice, that he kind of likes this guy--

--and then Peter is being made to do terrible things by the town and Flynn doesn't usually do that, call people up, he doesn't even know the guy that well but he sends him a message anyway, are you okay?--

--and before he knows it he spends the lonely cold nights talking and bantering and arguing and joking and Peter is bright and bubbly and exasperating and frustrating and warm and open and a bit naive and Flynn loves him so much--

--and he'd do anything for him even die for him--

--and he's not lonely anymore--

Take my hand.]

[But he can. Peter frowns, he has no idea what Flynn's talking about. He looks around him, confused, and scoffs.]

...who?

[--and the sphere shakes, shuddering, as the one inside remembers--

--instant best friends, this new guy loved is mom as much as he did and he seems really great--

--and Flynn's helping him, and they're talking and talking and Flynn's a genius but he actually makes history interesting and he's learning a lot and they're sharing stories about what it was like growing up on earth and Flynn doesn't treat him like an idiot and he's so kind and funny and Peter would kill every last person in town if he even got so much as a scratch--

--and he's his best friend and everything is awesome, they may be stuck in a terrible murdertown but that's okay because Flynn is here, everything is okay because he's here--

--until he's not here because Peter's suddenly immortal and he watches him age and die over and over and over again and he can't stand it, he can't stand leaving him behind, can't stand seeing him die, can't stand the thought of one day he won't come back and he'll be lost forever, and he hates this town, and the hate consumes him, he buries his heart so far deep that no one can touch it because it's better to not care about mortals because this hurt too much--Flynn was a walking dead man--

--and he hated himself for thinking of Flynn that way because it was wrong, it was wrong and he was alienating his best friend, the one person that could save him, his friend he loved so much--

--and he buries his humanity deep in his core, like the center of his father's planet, buries it so far deep that when Flynn becomes immortal, he gets the idea to 'save' him by making him think like himself, and doing that created the retirement home--

--that humanity is screaming, begging, crying but he can't feel it, it's long buried in that sphere and it can't get out, he's a Celestial and above such mortal things--

--and sometimes his humanity escapes, there was a point he was so sorry when he met the old Flynn once again, after Flynn had lost himself--

--but then he gained his powers back when he came here, to this world, combined with the terrible influence of that Flynn, his humanity is lost to the cosmos as he tries to become the cosmos, and in doing so he's destroying the cosmos, so many dead, countless civilizations gone because of him--

--and Peter Quill is just a kid who's trying to cling to what he remembers of his childhood, when things were still good, he's not a god and he doesn't want to hurt anyone anymore, he fought some bullies to save a frog--

--and he misses his friends, he misses them so bad it hurts, he misses Flynn, the old Flynn, and it hurts so bad he can't bear it--

--but he's here. He's here.

Peter suddenly truly awakens in the sphere--the purest part of him, everything that made him good, everything that hated what his father had done--

--Flynn's here and he feels that love and he doesn't deserve it, he should just stay here where things don't hurt anymore, but no--he can't do that, not after everything he's done--his Celestial self has done.

The sphere cracks open and Peter punches through the shell, like a massive pearl or egg, trying desperately to reach for Flynn's hand.

Help me!]

[I got you!

Flynn reaches out in return and takes it all in, Peter's pain and fear and desperation and his goodness and the kid that wants to protect small animals and his hatred and the unimaginable hurt of a thousand years. Everything connects, everything is shared and for a moment it's hard to say where his thoughts start and end, which memory is Peter's, which feeling is his.

--and Peter is changing, slowly slipping away from him and he tries and tries so much and he feels so guilty that he can't save Peter from himself--

--and he misses his friend, why can't he save him, he fails him and he's so sorry--

--and then the Retirement Home happens and the betrayal runs so deep and it hurts so much--

--but Peter comes back, the real Peter and the hope is breathtaking--

--and the trap springs and rips him away from him and he falls into the snow and Flynn's heart shatters into a million pieces--

--as does his mind, broken, destroyed and murder will always be murder and when Peter comes back the next time Flynn's hands squeeze the life out of him and Flynn won't ever forgive himself for it--

--and he'll do anything to get him out of here, he doesn't care if the other Peter keeps him staked on the tendril for a thousand years--

--this time he's going to save him no matter what--

--this time he will save him--

In the real world he gives the avatar a pained smile.]

Peter... Quill. Guardian of t-the... Galaxy.

My best... friend.

[And with all his mental strength he pulls Peter free and then grabs him, drawing him into a fierce hug.

I got you.]

[--and then suddenly Flynn's connected, and he can sense everything, see everything, and he's just so sorry, please forgive him because he didn't want this--he never wanted any of it, he gave it up so long ago and the town robbed him of that--he can't pick apart the memories now, nor the emotions, he sees it from Flynn's point of view and his own point of view and the depth of his own betrayal runs so deep it breaks his heart, and he won't forgive himself for what he did, either--

--and the time he'd punched him and he died, he can't, he can't--

--but Flynn's still here, he never, ever gave up on him, even when he deserved it--

--and when he's freed, Peter clings to him like someone lost at sea, because he was lost--over the endless, unimaginably painful years, he's been lost with no hope of being found--

--and yet Flynn found him.

--and the sphere disappears, crumbling away.]

NO! [Peter the avatar can sense it--the protective walls he's built through the centuries, everything he's worked so hard to protect, it was all falling away. The planet's shaking, the light that holds up Flynn is flickering as the other Peter's trying to gain control.

I'm trying to protect us and you go and do something like this!?--

--and he's suddenly there amongst the stars and galactic clouds, Peter-the-Celestial, and tries to metaphysically punch his good, self in the face--]

[Flynn senses the other approaching and feels a rush of anger at the word protect.

Letting go of Peter he doesn't take the time to turn and face him. Instead, he jerks his elbow back and towards the approaching avatar's face.]

Leave him alone!

[The avatar gets socked in the jaw and goes flying backwards--

--enraged, he comes flying at Flynn again, this time with murder in his eyes--]

NO! [Peter can't let himself hurt Flynn any more, he's done with that, done with every bad thing that's ever happened to Flynn because of himself, all his anger and regret and rage and self-loathing and hatred is summoned against the avatar--he doesn't know if he can kill him any more than he can effectively delete parts of his own brain or personality, and even if that was possible it would probably make things worse--

--but he can contain him, like he'd been contained for so long. The egg-like sphere forms around the avatar--the old walls reversed into protecting Flynn, instead of himself--]

I don't need you to protect me anymore. I can face the music because I'm not alone. Not anymore!

[Flynn watches quietly, proudly, how Peter breaks free from the other's influence.

His hand comes to rest on Peter's shoulder as he watches as the sphere forms, locking away that terrible part and he knows somewhere deep, deep inside himself there's a door that leads to a similar darkness, one that he can never let escape into the world again.

But he knows that they won't. Because Peter is right; they're both not alone anymore.]

I told you.

[He watches as the avatar disappears and a part of him aches, a part that would have yearned to find a different solution, to truly reach every part of his friend. A part that will always be inseparably connected to the Celestial by torture and decades of co-dependency. But he can let go now, needs to let go for both their sake, for both of them to find peace.

He looks over at Peter – the real Peter – squeezing his shoulder in support, then back at him.]

You shouldn't have messed with my family.

[Peter comes back to himself in reality--well, his avatar self, after burying the sphere deep and away, somewhere in his brain, where hopefully it could never hurt him again. Even though he was afraid and ashamed--afraid at how he became that--hurt so many people--countless dead because of him, planets destroyed because of him--and what he'd done to Flynn, and now Ezekiel--

--the guilt is too much and every last tendril of light on the surface disappears, and he knows he's going to lose the connection between him and Flynn but he knows what it's like to he staked on that thing, and how horrible and painful it is, and the tendril attached to Flynn immediately disappears with a crackle of energy.

And then he reaches back to the real Flynn and tries to hug him, tears streaming down his face.]

Thank you.

[Flynn drops with a gasp, rushing back into himself, the brightness, the emotions, the connection suddenly gone.

But then there's Peter, the real Peter, the one he's been search for so long, that face that suddenly showed up on his tablet in the Retirement Home and gave him so much hope but that never reached him and for a moment Flynn can't even speak, mute as the tears spring to his eyes and he hugs Peter back, clinging to him like a drowning man.]

Hi. There you are.

[He's back, Flynn. He's actually here and he can't believe it himself, can't believe that this has even happened, that what he'd become had even been defeated, but it was--he was, and--]

You did it.

[He clings to him too, still silently crying, but not only out of sadness but happiness too--they're both back. Flynn's back.]

You saved me.

[You saved me.

At that, Flynn starts crying for real, because it's been so long and it's been so much (too much, it was all too much) and the joy is so overwhelming it's almost physically crushing him. He laughs, sobs, sniffles all at the same time, holding on tight and he can't believe this is really happening.]

And I d-did it all... without lifting weights.

[Look he may have just come back from an unimaginably horrific place but seriously bro, you should look into lifting weights?]

I...well, hey. Look at that.

[He can't help but laugh through the stupid tears, he tries to practically shake Flynn in the midst of the hug--]

You're really here--you're actually here!

[He too has his old memories, as much as he is a different person, untouched by that corruption, he's also not and it is a part of him, and he can feel the fading despair of more than a millennia of pain, slowly but surely beginning to heal with the laughter.]

[He's so happy, holding him close and patting his back. Really, the only thing left is for them to start jumping up and down.

... It is not to be ruled out yet.]

We're here. We're both here! I-- I missed you so much.

[He really might, bro.]

You have no idea how much I missed you.

[He's probably not going to let go until you let go first, bro.]

I...I didn't think this was possible? I mean...wow. Y'know? [What are words even.]

I'm just...really glad you're here.

Yeah, I know. Wow.

[You let go, he's not letting go. He's letting his head drop on Peter's shoulder, his voice growing quieter.]

... I'm sorry. I'm sorry it took so long, it-- I should have... done so many things differently, should have figured this out sooner, could have fixed this...

No, don't blame yourself, not even one little bit.

[He's not letting go either, so this is just life now he guesses.]

It was my fault. [His fault. No, he needs to take responsibility.] My fault. You tried so hard and I...I messed up. So bad.

And the stars look very different today...

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