The Lost Artifact Of Spode

33

A/N, I forgot to post this I'm sorry lmao. It's really important to the story. This takes place just before the skip
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"Dr. Mel Yazzie?"

The man looks up from his work station to see a trio of Proximians approaching. He recognises the garments they wore. While he can't tell what exactly that uniform meant, he had a few guesses. Soldiers... guards... someone with authority for sure. Someone he's always in trouble with.

He couldn't hide his grimace as they stepped to his work station.

"What did I do now?" He demands.

The one in the back pulls something out from his coat thing. A strange object that barely glowed yellow with a single, fat, matte, red jewel planted inside of it. Mel instantly recognised the object.

The Proximian explains, "We searched everywhere on Uzuri Nyeku, but we couldnt find any kind of ' "star".' This-"

"That *is* the star!" Mel interrupts.

He reaches his hands out in disbelief that he's actually being given this item. That his onset dream that sent him down this path was actually real.

Spode really was trying to reach out to him.

To fetch this star.

It's real.

The star is really real.

This whole dumb mission that nearly costed his life several times is real.

He wasn't being insane for listening to Spode.

Only careless.

The sight of the object actually brought tears to the man's eyes. To him, this peice of the star was justification for this entire mess of a situation he was in.

Proof there was a point for any of this.

It didn't make his crummy situation better, no. But the validation that there was a real reason for all of this meant everything to him in that moment.

Mel nearly jumped over his desk as he desperately reached out for the peice of the star. "Hand it over!"

He needs to hold that item in his hand. To prove to himself that it really is here. That this isn't some messed up dream. "Give it! Give it!"

The Proximian anxiously drops it into the eccentric human's hands. As the star weighed down his hand, the world around him suddenly felt lighter. As if this star robbed Mel of all the weight he's been carrying on his shoulders.

He cautiously brings it closer to him, afraid that if he were to move too fast, he'd wipe away having anything in his hands at all.

But no, this isn't a cruel hallucination.

It really, truely is that dumb star he lost his family over.

For a moment, Mel could only stare at the item as reality settled in. He took in every last detail that imprinted itself on this star.

This... oddly angled, 4 point star?

But stars have 5, even points.

The star in his dream had 5 gems, not this single one.

The star is broken.

He slowly lifts his head to the Proximians who delivered the fragment to him. "Where's the rest of the star?" He solemnly asks.

"I told you, that's the closest we found."

"But... it's only a peice! There's 4/5ths of this thing still out there!"