I think it really matters that although we, the player, can say whatever about how we feel about Himeko's fate
Its ultimately not our voice that makes the final decision.
The writer of this script has already determined fate's path to be altered, and its protagonist to refuse a world where Himeko has to be sacrificed yet again. A world where this fate had actually gone through, only for things to continue to reach a far worse ending.
"Here again, I see. Once more at the crossroads of fate."
Golden eyes, gray hair. A mirror. She is Stelle. He is Caelus. THEY are each other. THEY are past and future.
"Will you make the same decision as me? Accept her choice and move forward?" THEY ask THEM.
THEY cannot see it, but THEY are certain that beneath the shirt of THEIR mirror, there are the golden, bleeding cracks of THEIR shattered chest, where the Stellaron once laid and detonated. When it happened and where it happened, whether it had been by Asat Pramad's hands at this very page of THEIR story, or if it had been far further in the future, THEY wouldn't know.
It was clear the choice THEY made would be one THEY will never accept.
THEY smile. A little sad, a little happy, a little nostalgic.
"I wish I had made your choice back then. But here you are, with all the opportunity to play tricks on fate, to do what I was never able to."
In one branch of time, maybe THEY would have let THEIR Star Navigator leave. It was her choice to save THEM. Her choice to give herself and the continued fulfillment of her dreams up in favor of protecting THEM.
It always hurt to see THEIR companions leave. Hurt to see them walk tall in the face of the end. THEY understood full well how Yaoshi felt.
But that branch wasn't this one. And THEY were given the chance. The choice to alter that fate that would have led into a greater domino effect.
"Do you miss them?" THEY ask THEIR reflection.
"Of course I do. But the ones you travel with aren't the ones I knew. They are more. Dan Heng never awoke their path as Long. As Yaoshi. March was never Mythus, simply a Pure Child. This wonderfully twisted fate, I cannot tell when it came to be altered the way it did," THEY scoffed. "Maybe it was my own transformation into what I am today. Or maybe its your far too early awakening. Too many variables, constantly altering the outcome of the future."
"But I still exist," THEY continue, as THEY toss a branch into the flames. "The potential of you becoming me, its still there. Even with this choice you make today, it doesn't erase that possibility."
"So you will continue to watch, till I finally reach you," THEY say as they sit opposite THEM.
"Will you end me? Or will I be your end?" THEY give a bitter smile.
THEY who are reflections, who are past and future, sit as the fire crackles. THEY ponder this thought, that THEY know will linger as THEY exit this space, wished into being. This memory of the first step into the future. This memory of a final encounter and a promised return.
And then Stelle stands up, and begins to walk forward towards a brand new future, leaving behind what could have been.
And then Caelus fades, golden gaze lingering on THEIR other self, waiting with baited breath, for a fate of Destruction to once again be averted.
THEY leave, once more departing from the same shores that THEIR temple was restarted from.
To journey starward once more.
