Final Space Oneshots

Fractured From Himself (4)

QUICK NOTE - this is probably the last fic piece before season 3, and I apologise for the quality in advance because it's midnight where I am and I haven't written in a while.
So if you see any basic grammar errors/wrong words because my phone likes autocorrect a little too much, please highlight it and leave a comment, so I can edit it when it's less late.
THIS IS ALSO THE FINAL OART TO THIS ARC. Just in case I didn't make it clear with the ending :)

Avocato did not speak. He couldn't. Though the image in front of him flickered like static television, it was like he was there, and he almost reached out to drag the broken boy – no, man – away from the harsh lights.

Gary also said nothing, watching his younger self stare at the flames as they climbed higher, the orange blazes reflecting in his hollowed eyes, refining his pale skin. The house was burning, smoke coiling around the surrounding trees and into the fields around it. The younger Gary didn't even blink as stray embers burnt into his clothes and skin. Instead, the younger turned on his heel and walked away, his worn shoes silent as he stepped.

Sirens began to scream loudly from the distance, growing in volume as they descended closer. The younger Gary flinched, darting into the thick cover of the trees before the blue and red lights found him amongst the wreckage.

No one spoke for a while, only watching as this past Gary made his way onto the shadowed streets and further into the night.

Avocato did not speak. He couldn't.

Memories flickered around them in a dull mirage of brown and grey, each one looking as hopeless and as gritty as the other. The younger Gary was slowly deteriorating, eyes full of a blank misery as he searched for a place to stay safe for a few days before moving on. Avocato still couldn't concentrate, his mind still full of the house burning, Gary's soulless, hapless eyes, shining in the light –

Avocato could not watch anymore. He'd rather be selfish than be dammed to see more suffering from the human that had grown to be his closest friend and ally. He recalled bitterly how curious he had been when he snuck into this cursed room in the first place, remembered the excitement fluttering in his chest.

Now? He wished he never opened the door.

His comforts were futile, his words were useless; Gary was not responding anymore, and Avocato knew he had chipped away at the trust that pulled the two together. Such personal memories and experiences were stripped away from the human and were forced into the prying eyes of himself, all because he was bored and fancied a change of pace.

The world around them flickered again like dying lights, and another hopeless image of the past Gary died in front of him before being replaced. He would've looked away again – finally seeing enough – but the sudden and desperate movements automatically made his head turn sharply.

"Come on kid! Show us what you got!"

The younger Gary was scrambling away from large, sweaty hands that were clamped around his body like a vice. The human yelled out in pain and rage, kicking his attacker in the chest with a stray foot.

"I was here first!" The past Gary growled, sounding more like a feral animal than a human. "This place belongs to me!"

Avocato absorbed more of the situation, and pieced together that the two males were fighting over some shelter at the back of an alley. The young Gary was gripping a pocketknife tightly in one hand, eyes narrowed. But it seemed that the meagre tool did not faze his opponent, who was twice the size of him with a baseball bat slung over his shoulder.

"So what?" The man shrugged, grinning wolfishly. "Mine now. Get off."

Avocato watched in worry as the younger shook his head fiercely, heart sinking.