ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀʟɪꜰᴇ - ᴀɴ ᴇᴘɪᴄ ꜱᴍᴘ ꜰɪᴄ

V

[A/N big thanks to @/veloriium on Instagram for letting me use their "personified" void for this chapter. I hope you all enjoy the finale]

Charlie worked and worked on the machine. Schlatt was never told what for. Charlie never wanted him to know. He didn't tell Swagger either what was revealed to him in the dream. It would ruin both of them. So Charlie kept it to himself.

It was hard work. It certainly took more than a few days as Charlie had promised the days before. It had been nearly a week. Swagger constantly needed to be in and out of the nether for materials, around Bungerberg, in other cities and areas. He was faced with pity everywhere he went. 'Poor little Swagger...his little project was burned to the ground. Nothing but ashes now.' Apologies wherever he went. As a positive, a lot of the materials he'd been sent to get were coming in for free, from pity or otherwise.

Of course, there was also the negative. Shunned from cities that used to be home to victims of the blast. Near killed in a few.

This meant nothing to Swagger. As long as he got his friends back, this was all that mattered to him. So he was willing to steal and even kill for a chance at these two back.

A few times when Swagger came back he'd see Charlie talking with Schlatt at the edge of the pit. Other times he'd see Charlie pleading with something. The pleading stopped whenever Swagger got close. enough to make out words. That's when Charlie turned around to find Swagger holding parts.

Always he would thank Swagger and get back to work. Always he would make sure Swagger and Schlatt don't get hurt to keep them safe. Always Swagger and Schlatt before himself.

Every weekend, though, Charlie wanted to see Ted. Though this was taking some time away from the machine's progress, Swagger saw that he owed it to Charlie.

So every weekend they would make the trek to Ted's place. Every weekend Swagger had to play translator as Ted could never see Charlie. Every weekend, the two would have their moments together.

The last week of progress, though, Charlie wouldn't see Ted. He insisted that it would only delay their progress further. Charlie would not tell him the truth.

And so in that last week, Charlie worked harder than ever. While Swagger and Schlatt slept, Charlie still worked. He didn't take breaks. He didn't sleep.

Though one night, Schlatt woke up in the middle of the night. Charlie was still working so he knelt over the edge of the pit to hopefully get Charlie to get at least some sleep.

He caught sight of Charlie doing...something. He couldn't tell, not clearly, but Charlie knelt over himself, one arm wrapped around his stomach, the other holding some sort of ball. Schlatt couldn't tell what the ball was, but Charlie seemed to be trying to keep it safe. Slowly, he had removed his other arm from his torso. It was covered in some sort of glowing substance. Schlatt couldn't see much from where he sat but Charlie seemed to hold the object closer to him. He took a long look at it and then lifted it towards the machine, turning his hand and placing the object flat against the machine. It sunk into the machine effortlessly and the whole machine seemed to glow for just a second before returning to its previous state.

Schlatt backed away from the edge of the pit and returned to where he'd been previously sleeping, shutting his eyes in hopes to go back to sleep.

The next morning he didn't say anything to Charlie about what he'd seen.

xxx

Charlie pulled himself away from the machine. His torso stung as he stared up at the machine. He'd put his everything into the machine, figuratively and literally. He placed a hand on his solar plexus. He was hoping the machine would work. He didn't know what he'd do if it didn't work. If it was a trick.