(TW: unaliving thoughts and memories at the beginning. It gets better over time, don't worry! Trauma is difficult to overcome...)
You didn't want a second chance.
You didn't want to survive.
You wanted the sweet release of death.
But it seemed li...
I gave up on the schedule, BUT WE'RE ALMOST THERE VGUINJROHENSVWUEO
~~~~~
For yet another time, waking up was agony.
It wasn't like Dreamswap's waking-up incident, though.
My soul felt...it felt like it was being crushed.
My head was spinning, my ears were ringing, and every single inch of my body felt like it was on fire.
I thought I could hear voices beyond the ringing, but I was in too much pain to think clearly or attempt to parse out what was being said.
Then my soul decided to take the opposite route of crushing. Now it felt like it was being torn apart and rearranged.
It was...awful.
I don't even think I could describe the absolute visceral pain I was in.
It felt like an eternity before the pain died away, the sparks in my vision fading out to simple darkness as my eyes remained closed.
"Eclipse?! ECLIPSE!!"
That was Gradient.
I struggled to open my eyes, my throat aching for some reason.
Ah...I probably wasn't very quiet through all that pain.
"G-Gra..." I tried speaking, my voice both wispy and raspy.
"E-Eclipse...stars..."
"Gradient...can you check her soul? "
I whimpered faintly as the tugging of my soul hurt slightly.
There was almost a stunned silence as my vision finally cleared properly, allowing me to see...fully?
Wait, I wasn't dreaming or something, right?
Unless I was in my dreams or with Fate, my eyesight was limited to single due to Nightmare's single eye.
But I could see fully.
And what I fully saw glowing above my chest was...not my normal soul.
It looked...like a heart. A bubbly heart. Glassy, even, but with a gray tint. Yet...when the ambient light of the night sky full of stars hit it just right, it shone like a rainbow.
~~~~~
Image by pngtree.com and also located by a lovely server member!
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
~~~~~
I blinked several times, simply staring at the beautiful construct. I nearly forgot the agony I'd been in moments ago.
Gradient carefully let my soul fade before glomping me: laying down edition.
I wrapped my arms around him tightly as he trembled. "S-Stars above, Eclipse, don't DO that to me...! I thought I'd...you'd...that....I had killed you..."
