Heroes of Silvatica City

The planet-sized spaceship fired another beam at Harbinger and began to pull him in. Half the universe was likely to want him dead or worse, but the collective was always looking for live experiments that no one would object to... Meanwhile, Knight was trembling slightly and her dark form was fading in and out of vision. She slipped her hand into the gauntlet and looked at them all with a grin. "I have no idea how this works," she admitted. "At least we got it," said Caoimhe, kneeling beside Knight and putting her hand on the gauntlet.

They were all just thinking of their loved ones coming back, which is what they wanted most but wasn't entirely what the universe needed. Knight knew they had to go further, and thought of everything else. Of Elli, of course, but also of the countless lives snuffed out further afield; of the cosmic beings who swayed the fabric of reality; of the microscopic beings that were the catalyst of all life. She clenched the fist of the gauntlet, it began to glow and then... They all woke up a few minutes later. "Ya~," Aditya whined, clutching her hand in pain. They all had burn marks on their hands where they'd been touching it.

Caoimhe closed her eyes and reached out into the void, and felt... Life. "I think so," she whispered, opening her eyes wide. "I think... They're back on Earth." "We did it, ya!" Aditya said excitably. She turned to Knight to give her a joyous hug, but then squealed in surprise. Knight wasn't like Knight. She was sitting on the floor completely naked - no cosmic cloak, no black sparkling skin, no universe in her palms. She was studying her hands, looking at how short and tanned her fingers were. Why was she tanned? Why was she so naked and human looking? Why was she crying slightly?! She had a look of utter bewilderment and, in fact, a little euphoria, as a black mist ascended from her body and disappeared into the ether.

Knight grunted and clung to Ire, her legs feeling weak - her whole body feeling weak. No more was her cosmic power, her infinite reach, her all-seeing all-powerfulness. She briefly saw her old self, on the world where she had been with Elli, and saw Elli being transported through the cosmos to Earth in the blink of an eye. One last favour to Knight, no doubt. She laughed nervously and wiped her teary eyes as the spaceship juddered back to Earth.

They couldn't quite remember where their loved ones had been standing when they had vanished so they all just milled around aimlessly, waiting for all the dust to settle. They had managed to get Tenpo to wake up, but she was in some kind of vegetative state and they had had to leave the muzzle on her because when they tried to take it off, she nearly deafened them with her moans of grief. The dust was beginning to solidify now, and the first ones that came back in full were Squishy and Ica. The pair were twined around one another, embracing and shaking like leaves. When they were whole again, Squishy took a deep breath and opened its eyes to look down at Ica.

Squishy felt like it had pins and needles everywhere, especially in its mind. Its vision came back all grainy and fuzzy, but the last thing it remembered seeing was also the first it could see again - Ica. Its beloved, its whole world, its everything. "Hi," it said, caressing her face. "I have no idea what just happened." Knight inhaled sharply, and let go of Ire to stagger over to Elli, with Ire's spare clothes only barely staying on. "Elli," she wheezed, tripping over herself and falling against Elli. Whoa, was Elli always this big and strong?

Squishy didn't know why she was crying and it disturbed it almost as much as the gap in its memory. It held Ica closed and kissed the top of her head comfortingly. Knight put her arms around Elli and sighed. "Yeah," was all she said, resting her head on Elli's chest. She was still coming to terms with so, so much, she didn't think she could comprehend it all right now so for now she just took comfort in Elli's scent. Kyun's body reformed and she stumbled forward slightly forwards, away from Corlock. She looked around in confusion, and then saw Corlock. "Hey," she said. "What's going on?"

Kyun had no idea what was going on, but Corlock never hugged her or said such things when other people were around so it must have been very serious. She turned her head to kiss his mask and then held him. "I'm here," she told him. "I'm sorry I left you, honey, but I'm here now." The form of Aaliyah was upright for a moment but then collapsed to the floor clutching her belly. She was reforming more slowly than the others. Aditya and Caoimhe were still waiting for theirs to return. What if something had gone wrong?!

"Uh! Corlock!" Kyun held Corlock up as best she could and let him slide slowly to the ground where he could rest. For now. "Ssh!" Aaliyah hissed at Daniel. That was... A weird thing to do. But when he got to beside her, he could see why she had wanted him to be quiet. In her arms was not a bump but... A baby. A tiny baby with the umbilical cord still attached and a full head of curly hair already growing on his head. Was this... Could this be... "Daniel Junior," Aaliyah whispered, looking up at Daniel with her eyes streaming. Caoimhe could sense all the life in the universe returning to its original levels, but most importantly she saw Will's coming back into being and ran over to where he was forming. Aditya could see two taller than usual columns of dust forming and ran over to them. Was this her beloved duo?! Meanwhile in the kitchen, away from everyone else, another cloud of dust was reforming right next to two mugs of untouched coffee with honey in.

Aaliyah kept a tight hold of her baby, unable to comprehend what was happening. One minute she was pregnant, the next she had her baby in her hands. Aaliyah was forced into bed because she still had other bits left inside her that needed to come out, and when they could eventually pry the baby out of her hands, they induced a small labour so she could push it out. It was deeply unpleasant and did nothing to help how confused she felt right now, but at least she got to see her beautiful baby in the arms of the man she loved. Unfortunately she passed out when she was done pushing so she couldn't ask for baby back. Corlock had been moved into a bed nearby, and when he came round, Kyun insisted she push him in a chair to go see the baby. Aditya was bawling her eyes out as she clung onto Pijbe and Viviix for dear life. Her whole existence had flipped into nothingness when these two had gone, but now they were back and she had her reason to be again. Honey blinked and looked around at Ire in surprise. "H-hi," she said. "Did I go somewhere?" she asked in confusion, picking up one of the coffees and sipping it. "Blugh! It's so cold! But I just made it..."

Aaliyah was starting to awaken from her slumber, and her arms crossed over her belly instinctively. She didn't find a bump, or a baby to hold, and she groaned in confusion as she opened her eyes and looked around. Her brief terror at having no baby was instantly dispelled when she saw Daniel holding their son in his arms. Oh god, it was the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen. Kyun had sat in Corlock's lap after checking he wasn't broken below the waist, and cuddled him as they watched the new parents meeting their first child. It looked wonderful. Hmm... Honey was feeling really confused right now, and then Ire was asking her to dinner again. She had been having inappropriate, confusing feelings towards her boss for a little while so her asking this was tearing at her self-control. "We... Shouldn't," she stammered. "I-it's unprofessional to show f-favouritism to one of your subordinates."

Daniel seemingly hadn't noticed Aaliyah waking up, so she just lay there watching them, utterly content. Of course she wanted to hold her own child, whom she could barely remember holding despite clinging to him only a few hours ago, but seeing father and son bonding so quietly was heartwarming beyond comparison. Honey was deeply put off by Ire completely ignoring her obvious feelings of discomfort, and was now frankly too scared to say no. So she silently went along with it and told herself that she would start looking for new jobs as soon as it was over with.
[For real? You wanna skip right now?]