Before Talon could even react, he felt himself yanked forward again, pulled through the breach by invisible hands.
'I don't even have control over my own damn life anymore, dragged around by every person who gets their hands on me, hell I can't even follow whats going on!' Talon thought bitterly.
The coldness of space was held back at the edges of his bubble, the emblem kept him alive.
He could only watch as the chaos continued, more and more ships still pouring into the system, only to be torn apart by the World-Ender's ruthless onslaught.
He saw a group of three figures fly past the World-Ender, saluting him as they approached Talon and took hold of him.
They followed the S-ranked Super from a distance, as the powerful figure cleared a pathway through the chaos.
The figures that escorted him, B-ranked Supers by their aura Talon guessed, held him tightly as they sped toward a larger vessel in the distance, a dark silhouette hovering on the outskirts of the battle, untouched by the surrounding chaos.
Talon couldn't make out its insignia, but he knew it was where the World-Ender intended to take him.
He glanced back at the battlefield. The Solaris Concord was throwing every remaining ship into the fight, but it was hopeless.
The World-Ender cut down ships with effortless precision, leaving debris and shattered hulls in their wake. Talon's mind raced for a solution, a sense of dread creeping into his thoughts.
DIE.
The urge to die, that relentless feeling, grew stronger the closer he got to the enemy's vessel. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block it out, but it only intensified, like a drumbeat in the back of his skull.
DIE. DIE. JUST DIE.
He thought of Jason and Alice.
He was breaking, it was all too much.
He felt like giving in, but quickly pushed away that dark thought.
He looked down at Academus as he got dragged around, barely seeing the planet through the unreal amount of debris, ships, and attacks being thrown around almost everywhere, and his breath caught in his chest as he saw the craters, multiple of them now.
The once-thriving planet was now a scene of devastation. Massive cracks and chasms tore through the landscape, some so deep they seemed to pierce the planet's crust.
Entire cities were leveled, their glowing lights extinguished beneath clouds of dust and fire.
Energy shields over the remaining settlements flickered under the constant bombardment, barely holding back the falling wreckage from the shattered fleets above.
Natural disasters tore through the surface, hurricanes raged across continents, earthquakes split the ground, and tsunamis surged across coastlines, swallowing whatever remained in their path.
Another attack from the World-Ender struck the surface, carving a vast, smoking chasm that was visible even from the cold expanse of space.
Talon's stomach twisted as the realization hit him like a physical blow: not just his family and friends, billions must have died, all because of him.
The weight of that truth bore down on him, a burden he couldn't carry.
'Should I… just do it?' The whispers to die were now louder than any scream he'd ever heard as he closed in on the ship.
He struggled, he did not want to die.
But he didn't want to live like this.
As they neared the ship's docking bay, Talon made his decision.
'If I can't control how I live anymore, then I'd rather give in and just die!' he thought, grabbing the last bit of resolve he had left.
He reached up, his hands shaking, and touched the emblem on his chest. He felt the warmth of the life-support field, the only thing keeping him from the vacuum of space.
For a moment, doubt clawed at him, but then he remembered the voices, the fear, the deaths he had witnessed.
DIE!
He pressed down on the emblem and deactivated it. The shimmer of the energy shield faded. The B-ranked Super holding him saw the light dim, their eyes widening in shock. "NOOO!" they yelled, reaching out to stop him.
But it was too late.
The air was ripped from Talon's lungs, the cold biting through his skin like a thousand knives.
His chest constricted, his vision blurring as the vacuum sucked the breath from him. He tried to scream in pain, but his throat seized up, a silent scream clawing its way out instead.
PAIN
Pain lanced through his head, his body spasming as the frigid void clawed at every inch of him.
It was unbearable, excruciating.
but atleast it was his choice.
The last thing he saw was the frustration in the eyes of the B-ranked Super, their mouth open in a silent curse, and the distant silhouette of the World-Ender, locked in battle with yet another dreadnought, oblivious to his target's final act of defiance.
His heart stopped.
And everything faded.
---
Silence. Cold. Darkness.
Talon felt his body drift, weightless and numb, as if he were floating between life and death. The pain dissapeared, replaced by a dull, aching emptiness that seemed to stretch on forever.
His mind slipped away, thoughts scattering like stars lost in the void.
For a moment, there was nothing. No sound, no sight, no sense of time.
Only darkness.
---
Then, warmth.
A soft, unfamiliar warmth that seeped into his bones, chasing away the chill. Talon stirred, his mind struggling to piece together reality. He felt something solid beneath him, the scratch of fabric against his skin, the weight of a blanket over his body.
His eyes fluttered open.
He was in a room, a cozy space with dim, golden lighting. A fireplace crackled in one corner, casting flickering shadows across wooden walls.
He blinked, dazed and disoriented, trying to understand how he had gone from the emptiness of space to... this.
He sat up slowly, surprised as his muscles did not hurt in the slightest. The air smelled faintly of something familiar, a scent that tugged at the edges of his memory.
Like a home he'd never known.
'Where.. Am I? I thought I died.'
A figure stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, watching him with an amused expression. Talon froze, his mind reeling as he took in the stranger's face. He looked identical to him, down to the last detail.
Same eyes, same hair, same satisfied smirk that tugged at the corner of their mouth.
It was a one on one copy… of him?
The stranger tilted their head, their smirk widening. "Hello, Talon. Took you long enough."
— End of arc 1 —