yeah it's simple and it goes like this
a/n: it's the final part !!!! there'll probably be a short epilogue after this but this is the official end!!
i really did not anticipate this story to be so long and to go in any of the directions that it went in but you know, i'm pretty satisfied with it, all things considered~
thank you to anyone who made it this far and i hope you enjoy this final part as well 𐔌^. .^𐦯 ~
⋆.˚✰tl: @roguishcat @pjselee @jelxqa @twilightsmissingfur @applecrow613 @chyume @3xv5s @angelstien @miuangel @0ceans-over-skys @diaflower @aranarum @dooopiee @syrawrites @ineffabl-y @fruitymoonbeams-blog @dreamydaredevil @tangerynsbaby @whmnx @emowitchwithatwist @chickenrest @vanaaa @aranarum @hajimeowmeow @hanaohreally @napforalifetime @kingraspberry12-blog @neonwarchild @we-rice-boi @twismare @myynameisbuckyy
When the rift opened, Xavier stepped through it without a second thought. He dropped to the forest floor without fanfare, finding himself exactly where he was supposed to be. While he had never doubted Jeremiah’s skills, he wouldn’t let himself feel relief just yet, not until he saw your face.
Traceback ii was restored, practically anew in comparison to the hollow remains it had become. As he looked up at it he expected to feel a surge of emotion. Longing, regret, none of it pressed heavy against his heart the way he thought it would. Instead, the whole thing felt distant, like a past life or a sandcastle washed away by the tides.
There was something more important on his mind.
The wait had been the hardest part, but finally everything had lined up.
Just as he remembered it, but from the other side, his younger self had spotted him and was waiting at the entrance for Xavier to approach. He regarded Xavier coldly, tightening his grip on the lightblade that had manifested in his hand, looking seconds away from drawing it and challenging Xavier to a duel.
But he was never going to. After all, he'd been expecting Xavier to find you, that it was just the matter of when. And so, Xavier didn’t bother with introductions.
“Where is she?” he asked. “I’m here to take her home.”
After a moment of sizing him up, the knight sighed and replied begrudgingly. “She’s in a Slepen pod,” he said before turning and stalking down the corridor.
In a flash of light Xavier was at your bedside, walking was a waste of time. He sat on the edge, leaning over you and brushed the stray pieces of hair away from your face. In your sleep you made a soft sound and nuzzled your face closer to his hand. Gods. The sight of you was enough to make his soul sing. You’re always lovely in his mind, but so much lovelier in person when you’re only an arms width away. He had spent too many days without you close and he was tired of it. Never again, he thought, as he cupped your cheek softly, feeling its warmth.
“She said you were her friend.” It was strange to hear his own voice aloud like this, interrupting the quiet stillness of the room. “But the nature of your relationship… it seems there’s more to it.” The knight observed, leaning against the doorway. Xavier hadn’t even noticed his arrival.
“Yes.” he replied, and left it at that.
“If I had her heart, as you seem to do, I never would have left her alone.”
He’s right, Xavier thinks, any hostility is swallowed by guilt. The dread he’s been feeling slowly seeps back and sours the moment. She’s going to be furious, he thinks.
Then the sound of footsteps grows near. Xavier moved to shield you, his instincts overriding logic, but his younger self paid it no mind.
“Allow me a moment,” he said, crossing the room. It wasn’t a request. He lowered himself down on one knee by the other side of the bed.
Your fingers were peaking out from under your blanket which he grabbed hold of, pressing your hand against his chest.
With his eyes closed and voice low like a confession, he began to speak. Xavier could make the words out only because he remembered saying them.
“I feel lucky to have met you. Thank you for being here with me. I’ll press on and look forward to the day when we’re together again.” He brought your knuckles to his lips, sealing his vow.
Xavier still feels the same way. How lucky, how truly fortunate he was that the universe paid back his loneliness in the form of his very own star; one that he can hold in his arms.
After a moment of staring, taking in your features for the last time (in what they both knew would be a long time), he let go of your hand. Without another word he rose and walked back to the doorway, stationing himself there.
The click of a button is all it takes. A rift opens. Xaviers sees the reflection of its swirling edges in the wide eyes of his younger self. He’ll remember this, just like he did.
Xavier scooped you up and with a nod to his past self, fell through it. Hundreds of years passed in less than a second. He landed exactly where he had been, and laid back down onto the bed softly.
Something about the atmosphere felt different, you thought, pulling the covers closer. Was the heater malfunctioning? You sighed, turning over, resolving to bring it up with Xavier at breakfast.
You blinked, struggling to keep your eyes open more than halfway. The soft sound of your name being called roused you from the brink of sleep. Before your eyes fluttered closed again, they were met with the face you wanted to see the most.
“Xavier,” you whispered sleepily.
But Xavier never woke you up while you were still in bed. He’d never even stepped past the doorframe. You must be dreaming again.
His voice was swimming in your head now. You swore you could even feel the warmth of his breath.
“You’re not dreaming. I found you.”
Sure. You kept your eyes closed. You’d experienced this particular dream many times before. The one where Xavier actually remembers you exist, the one where he cares enough to find you. It’s a happy thought.
“I dream of you too, you know. Day and Night. I missed you so much.” Xavier's voice is so lovely you think, saying all the things you want to hear. That’s how you know it’s a dream. Your Xavier doesn’t miss you, he thinks you’re a liability. He’s probably happy you’re gone.
A part of you felt guilty about the whole thing. You’d been taking advantage of the fact that the Xavier you were staying with assumed you were friends and assumed he enjoyed your company. He didn’t know the truth: that he had distanced himself and sent you away. You’d overstayed your welcome; playing house instead of thinking of a plan to get yourself back to the right time.
Still, just for now, for a couple more minutes, you tried to cast those thoughts aside. You sunk lower and smushed your face into your pillow. Let’s enjoy the dream while it lasts.
It’s quiet for a while. You feel yourself slipping away until the sound of his voice filters through again.
“Five more minutes,” you mumbled.
He chuckled softly. You felt a warm hand stroking your hair.
You could hear the fondness in his voice when he asked, “Won’t you sit up and let me see you?”
You yawned, stretching your limbs out. Fingers met yours. You startled and sat up, eyes shooting open, but before you could pull your arm back, your hand was grasped tight. “If I let go of you now- will you leave me again, my star?”
Dread filled your chest like a sharp intake of air. Something was wrong. There was only one person who called you by that nickname and it wasn’t the person you’d been spending your days with.
As you scooted back against the headboard your breath caught in your throat for another reason. The room had completely transformed.
The lines of lights that ran along the walls and the ceiling were all switched off. The walls themselves were discoloured, rusted and it was as if a thin layer of dust was covering every surface. Vines had crept in as well, sprawling out from a duct in the ceiling and drooping to the floor. They swayed and you shivered, goosebumps rising all over. How could everything have changed so much while you slept?
Had you been here the whole time? Had Soren done something to you? Was this Slepen pod just containment for you in some induced coma? Did you imagine an entire scenario where you were found by Xavier, conjuring him in your mind for comfort, someone who could save you? And if it was real, if you had been sent back in time and had spent days with Xavier, then what was this?
The pressure on your hand brought you back. “Hey.” The haze that was clouding your vision lifted as your eyes snapped back.
It’s Xavier. Your Xavier. In flesh and blood. He was wearing his Hunter’s uniform, and the expression on his face… Full of desperate longing, made you want to believe it was him. But wasn’t it too easy? You’d waited for weeks, wasn’t it too convenient for him to be here now?
He moved a fraction closer. You ripped your hand from his grasp in a panic. No.
“We tracked where the rift sent you.” He was speaking but it wasn’t registering. It was hard to hear over the frantic hammering of your heart. “...found you… brought you back.”
You took a few deep breaths, despite the tightness in your chest. Think, you willed yourself, think. There had to be a way to know for sure.
Your eyes zeroed in on your Hunter’s watch. All it had done since you landed in the forest was glitch, surely if things were different now it would power on.
When you knocked the side of it, it started up, and you began to hope. The holo screen lit up and all the readings were steady, you got through each check without the watch glitching out. The right date, the right year, the metaflux levels were high, but it was consistent with where the watch located you: No Hunt Zone 42.
But there was still something else you had to check. “I’m sorry,” you said, pointing your wrist at him, “I just- I have to be sure.”
It registered him instantly: Xavier, Deepspace Hunter, Unicorns- Alpha Team, Light evol.
Oh? So this was real? And you were safe? It still felt too good to be true.
“If you want to go back. I’d understand.” Xavier’s voice is steady and calm. “If it’s what you want, I can send you back.”
You finally looked at him, properly looking for the first time since you’d woken up. A small, sad smile graced his face.
Crawling over to him, you reached out with a trembling hand and cupped his face. You traced his cheekbone with your thumb. The sting of longing overpowered any relief you felt.
“Xavier,” you choked, voice barely audible.
He turned and pressed a kiss to the center of your palm before placing his hand over yours and keeping it there, against the plush of his cheek.
“You are real, right? You came back?”
Xavier’s gaze grew intense. The corners of his mouth tipped slightly. “Of course,” he answered, seemingly devastated you’d doubted him enough to ask. “Of course I’d-
You couldn’t wait any longer. You were sick of waiting. You lunged forward, wrapping your arms around him. “-find you,” he finished, before gathering you closer. He was so solid and warm. And feeling the rise and fall of his chest, you were beginning to believe he truly was here with you.
It was a little alarming how quickly the tears lining your eyes had begun to spill. “You can’t- you can’t do this to me again.” You protested, words muffled by his blazer. You clutched at him desperately. “Why do I always have to leave you? I can't do that again, Xavier. Don't make me.”
A soothing hand rubbed the length of your back. “Never. Never again.” It pinched slightly when he said it. He cleared his throat as you pulled back a fraction, eyes were shining with unshed tears. “You’re never leaving my side,” he said, lowering his forehead to yours. “I’ll hold onto you tighter so you won’t slip away again.”
His thumbs brushed the tears from your cheeks, and the way he looked at you, like he adored you, was becoming a little too much. You averted your gaze, fiddling with his blazer. “I missed you, you know. You took so long I was starting to think…” That you weren’t coming for me. That you didn’t want me anymore. Was it even worth mentioning when you’ve just reunited? Xavier seemed to think so. He tilted your chin back up and waited. “I thought I’d never see you again,” you admitted quietly. “You just… took a little longer than I expected.”
“I am glad you came though,” you added, nervous about the silence that had set in.
“I missed you too,” he said gently. “And I’m sorry. I would have come sooner if I could but-”
“It’s okay. I’m sure it can’t have been easy.”
He shook his head. “It’s not that.”
Xavier tugged you into him and then you were falling onto the bed together. He wrapped himself around you, close enough that you could hear his heart beat. “Let me stay like this for a little longer,” he murmured. “Then I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I promise.”
“A few months after we landed here, at a set of incorrect coordinates, one by one my crew members left and I alone stayed by the ship. One evening, on a day much the same as the rest, a woman was wandering through the forest, heading right towards us.”
“Yes.” Xavier smiled. “Everything you experienced was real.”
“I didn’t know who she was, but she knew me, which seemed impossible. She made me feel so at ease, in a way I had rarely felt before. With her I didn’t have to be a prince, or a knight or a captain. I could just be Xavier. It made me look forward to the future for the first time in so long.”
“On the morning of the 21st we spent together, I was visited by a future version of myself. We exchanged a few words before he whisked you away with him in a rift.”
“Which is why, even though I wanted to bring you back immediately, I knew I had to wait. And I knew it would work out: it’s the second law of attraction.”
“Are you sure you’re not just making up these laws?” you mumbled under your breath, giving yourself some time to make sense of everything.
Every action had to be made at exactly the right moment to preserve what had happened before. Xavier had spent 20 days in the past with you, so he had to wait 20 days in the present to come find you. For the first time since meeting Xavier the two of you had finally synced up. Now you shared all the same memories that he had.
“Still,” you looked back out into the empty room, eyes landing on the doorway, as if you knew he was there, or would have been. “Hundreds of years…”
Xavier’s face softened, as did his voice. “Whether or not you had fallen out of the sky that evening, Traceback ii had already landed on Earth.”
He took your hands in his. “It’s all in the past now, so you don’t need to worry. I left the ship and travelled for some time. I read books, watched movies and played video games. I went fishing and tried different kinds of food. I fought wanderers. And, I waited eagerly to meet you again.” Xavier’s words and his smile lifted some of the weight from your heart.
“I think I’ve waited enough for a lifetime and I- I don’t want to lose you again.”
Well now that he’d mentioned it…
“So about Soren,” you started, “is he…?”
“Yes. He’s dead.” Xavier said. “You were supposed to be sent here with the remaining wanderers. By the time we pinned down the coordinates you could have been-” Xavier swallowed, he didn’t finish his sentence. “You’re a great hunter but-”
“I know. I would have been ripped to shreds by the time you found me.” His grip tightened when you said the words he could not. “But she didn't send me there,” you reminded him. “When your sword crashed by her head, her fingers slipped.”
He nodded. “When the rift opened up I recognised it. I knew where you’d end up.”
“But you know what could have prevented this from the beginning?” You didn’t wait for a reply. “If you had just told me! You know you could have told me that it was Soren you were looking for!”
“I saw him twice! If I had known I could have told you and stayed away from him. We could have figured something out-”
“And I told you that you should rely on people! That it’s protection because they know who they're supposed to look out for! And you called me a liability!”
There was an urgency in his eyes as he took your clasped hands and placed them against his chest. “I’m sorry. You were right. I just didn't want to worry you. I didn’t want you involved in my mess.”
You shot him a withering glare.
“I put you in danger,” he admitted, looking the definition of remorse.
“Yeah you did.” You had to have it out with him, had to get through it to him somehow. But it seemed he’d done his own reflecting.
“It’ll never happen again.”
“It better not,” you grumbled. “And you better not drive me away again.”
“I won’t. There’ll be no more secrets between us. I’ll answer any question you ask.”
You hummed in agreement. There was still more you needed to discuss, and your mind had already moved on, reflecting on the subjects mentioned that night.
“I figure Soren’s done some truly awful things, with EVER, I mean. But his plan… Do you think you’d be able to build another ship and go back.”
Xavier looked down at your clasped hands. He was silent for some time. When he lifted his gaze he was frowning. “Do you want me to leave?” he asked quietly, and you regretted even suggesting the idea.
“I just thought- even if Philos is dead, couldn’t you travel back to when it wasn’t?”
“There's no point returning to a dead planet, nor a dying one, without a way to actually save it.” It was a fair point, one that seemed so obvious now. You must have been so swept up in Soren’s anger that you hadn’t examined how faulty the logic was underneath it.
“Besides…” you blinked and Xavier was close now. He brushed the tip of his nose against yours. “I’ve had enough of living in the past.” He leant in and you had just enough in you to pull back.
Despite the evident hurt and confusion in his expression, Xavier did the same. “Are you still mad at me?” he asked.
“Then why are you running away again?”
You chuckled nervously. “Well…” As reality had set in, you were painfully aware of how you’d left things with him all those months ago. You couldn’t assume he still felt the same way about you and you couldn’t just pretend that nothing had happened either.
Xavier frowned when you explained as much to him. “Do you think a few months is enough for my feelings to change?”
“It’s not just that. There are a lot of things to consider.”
At that moment, you couldn’t think of a single reason not to give in.
“Can’t we make up now?” The tone of his voice, the way he was looking at you, it wasn’t fair.
The terms could be negotiated later. You’d waited long enough as well. So you agreed and laughed when Xavier instantly perked up. It was a little comical just how quickly a smile had bloomed on his face. He slotted his lips against yours with a sigh, and did so again and again, with dizzying relentless need, until all thoughts had abandoned you.
“Do you remember back then,” he began, once he’d finally pulled away for more than a few seconds, “when you said you didn't regret meeting me?”
“How do you remember that?” you asked breathlessly.
“How could I forget such an impassioned speech?” he smirked.
“Oh shut up,” you rolled your eyes, shoving at him gently.
“Do you still feel that way?” he asked. Your head spun from how quickly his energy had shifted from playful to earnest.
“Of course,” you huffed a laugh. “I'd never regret you. How could I?”
And while you were confessing, why not go all the way? Honestly was what you had asked of him so it was what you owed too.
When you looked back up at him, you didn’t feel afraid in the slightest. “I'm in love with you. You know that, right?” you asked, surprised at the sincerity in your voice, and how easy it felt to say. It's such a simple thing, and now that you've said it, you just need to say it again. So you laugh a little and you do. “I love you so much.”
You watched Xavier’s throat bob. His eyes were shining again. In their reflection you saw tiny flecks of light. Your eyes were drawn away, watching as the room gradually filled with stars.
A hand grabbed your chin, gently turning your face back.
“I know. And I love you. I'm so in love with you, and,” he said, “I’ve loved you for so long.” You felt it when he kissed you. You felt it when he pulled you into his embrace. Each intake and exhale of breath. Heartbeats and timelines completely in sync. Fates written and rewritten again and again.
The two of you, in the center of a galaxy of your own making.
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