Endless Sky ~New Beginning~

Chapter Twentyfive

The numbness lasted a few more seconds as the explosion cooled off. Fire and rubble scattered everywhere, the shadows only being cast onto OStar and her friends, none on the ground. It was too dark to see.
Estella was sobbing alongside Avaro who was screaming Roxxan's name. Lucerne was still holding the dragon back, tears in his eyes with Rual staring at the wreckage in shock. Charlotte looked at OStar, her eye wide with horror as she held the silver box close to her chest.
"OStar?" she called out, worried. "Did you know that was going to happen?"
OStar shivered, feeling eyes turn to her. "Had an idea but wasn't sure. It was worth the risk," she answered, keeping her eyes on the burning heaps of metal and other odd materials Mila had used.
"YOU SENT ROXXAN OUT THERE KNOWING SHE WAS GOING TO DIE?!" Avaro abruptly roared, nearly shoving Lucerne off to lunge at her.
OStar hissed, "I had the IDEA and Roxxan went along with it! She could've made it out! Besides," she finally looked at her friends.
"Either we risk her, or risk all of us. This wouldn't have happened anyways if you hadn't attacked that evil thing."
Avaro looked baffled as well as hurt, feeling as if all of this was now his fault.
"Kind of was," OStar thought.
The dragon looked away, more tears in his eyes as his celestial friend tried to comfort him.
"There's nothing we can do now. It's over," OStar added, padding off to the rubble. She wondered if she would be able to find Mila's remains to make sure she was actually dead. Or Roxxan. One of the two, maybe both.
A small voice seemed to be trying to speak to her, trying to get her attention.
"Not now Pargenti, can't you see that I am busy?" she hissed in her mind.
Pargenti replied quietly, her voice extremely fuzzy in OStar's head.
"Just wait a little longer, we can't risk another pass out. I won't be strong enough to do anything without some rest," she thought, waiting for a reply, but the little cat had gone silent. Either she had nothing to say, or she had lost connection. She was weak anyways.
"OStar!" Charlotte called out again, running over. "What are you doing?" she asked in a strained voice, as if she was trying her best not to break out in tears.
"Looking for remains," OStar meowed, motioning to the mess.
"I don't understand how you are able to act so calm about this?"
"Because crying and panicking won't do anything to help." OStar replied.
The teen frowned, not really understanding. "OStar, your eye changed," she said.
"What do you mean?" OStar blinked, looking down at herself, as if that would help her see her own eye.
Charlotte pointed to her own button eye. "The star, I don't know if it's the lighting or something. But it's black, wasn't it silver before?"
OStar was silent, thinking. There was no mirror or water nearby, so she had no idea if her eye had changed when switching control.
"...It's just the lighting, my eye is fine," OStar finally responded after a few moments. Charlotte looked uncertain, not completely believing OStar.
"Who cares anyways? It's just a color. I know there are people out there who's eyes change," she thought as she continued onward, scanning the mess and heading to the largest chunk of them all. It looked like the underbelly of the giant mechanical dragon with some guts still on it. Fire and smoke billowed off some sections.
OStar coughed and shook her head, reminding herself not to breathe in too much of the smoke or catch her fur on fire.
Everything was mostly still and quiet. Charlotte and Rual were the only ones who joined the search. Avaro was crying with Estella while Lucerne comforted them, despite crying himself. OStar had no idea how long they searched, shoving chunks aside and calling out Roxxan's name, but she was becoming exhausted. It wouldn't be long before she had to pull back, maybe let someone else take control.
Mila was still nowhere to be found as well as Roxxan. While Mila's fur and flesh might've been burned off, OStar expected to find at least bones or the metal parts of her. But there was nothing but more rubble and trash.
Maybe they'd missed something.
"Over here!" Rual shouted, using his tail to hold up a curved chunk of metal. "Finally!" OStar exclaimed silently, rushing over to the shifl.
"What did you find? Roxxan?" she asked as she slowed down, reaching the hunk of metal and glancing down at whatever was under it.
Definitely not Roxxan.
The lighting in this world was strange. There were no shadows unless there was an actual light source, such as fire, but no shadows were cast onto the ground.
OStar wouldn't be able to cast a shadow over Rual without a light nearby, nor would the metal be able to cast a shadow over what it was hiding.
She felt like she should cringe, or vomit, or react in some way. But OStar could only stare as if she had no idea what she was looking at despite it being as clear as day.
It was a skeleton, some flesh still on it, but charred to a crisp. Portions of the skeleton, no, most of it, shimmered like metal.
This was Mila. Or what was left of her.
She was dead.
Charlotte joined shortly after to investigate Rual's finding. The small voice advised OStar to keep the teen away, but she felt too immobilized to do anything.
"What is it?" Charlotte asked, looking down and quickly getting an answer.
"Oh, God," she gagged and backed away, horrified.
Rual blinked at his friend's reaction before lowering the rubble, hiding the body once more.
"Was that...?" Charlotte squeaked.
"Mila? I believe so," the shifl replied in a quiet voice, glancing at OStar.
"That was Mila," she confirmed, "Roxxan doesn't have an actual skeleton, or flesh..."
Charlotte shook her head. Maybe this was the first time she had seen a dead body; it would make sense since she was still only a teenager. OStar would be pretty concerned if she had already seen death like this before.
"I... need a moment," Charlotte finally said before walking off and sitting down a distance away before covering her face with her hands.
"Is she okay...?" Rual asked, worried.
"She's just in a little shock, I think, give her a moment to calm down," OStar meowed, feeling herself waking up. It was odd. She remembered everything, but it felt like a dream. Yet here she was, in the aftermath of what was supposedly her "dream". Asking what had happened seemed like something she should do, but she already knew the answer. If anything, waking up felt like someone had just passed her the baton. Her job was to continue what was started, not ask questions.
Rual nodded, having understood. "Do you think Roxxan is actually... You know?" he asked after a short silence. "She is a robot, maybe she's blast proof..."
"I don't know," OStar shook her head, frowning. "If she were alive, we would be able to hear her calling for help. But it's all silent. Motionless."
The shifl slowly looked away, the first time she had ever seen him look to be on the verge of tears.
"B-But that's why we have to keep looking, maybe she's just unconscious somewhere, but still alive. We won't quit until there is a body," OStar added quickly, not wanting any more tears. Rual nodded slightly before walking off, continuing his search.
After that, OStar padded off to Charlotte, wanting to make sure she was all right.
Again, something felt off.
Just a moment ago she would have left Charlotte alone and not cared, but now she wanted to make sure all her friends were okay. She needed to give them hope that Roxxan might still be alive, maybe even make them laugh. Everything may seem dark and depressing but giving up wasn't the solution. Was OStar truly awake?
"Charlotte? Is everything okay?" she asked once she reached her friend.
For a few long seconds, the teen sat motionless, face buried in her hands.
"I'm fine..." she responded in a muffled voice.
OStar frowned and huffed.
"Come on, that was just Mila. She was trying to kill us all! We're much safer now that she's gone!" she exclaimed, trying to brighten the mood.
Charlotte said something, but it was too muffled for OStar to understand.
"Sorry, did you say something?" she mewed, twitching an ear.
"I said, what if we find Roxxan like that?" Charlotte answered, her voice choked with tears.
"Roxxan is made of metal, it would be quite hard to burn her up. Come on, she could just be unconscious under all this rubble! We have to keep looking!" OStar bounced up and down, trying to pump some encouragement into her friend.
Charlotte stayed quiet for a moment before looking back at her.
"What the hell," she said after a few seconds, frowning.
"What? Did I say something wrong?" OStar replied, tilting her head.
"No, your eyes, they are both clearly silver now. Still a star and an oval, but silver," the teen answered.
"Oh, my eyes? That's not important right now, come on! We have a friend to save!" OStar purred before turning and quickly padding away.
Charlotte sat there, confused.
Just a moment ago, OStar was acting cold-hearted, hardly showing any emotion. Now she seemed lighthearted, wanting everyone to believe Roxxan was still here, alive.
"Are you coming?" OStar called out, looking back as she waited for Charlotte to join her.
The teen hesitated, but gathered herself together and got up, following her strange friend.
"I'm sure things will be okay. Once we find Roxxan, we can go home! After we deal with Mystic of course..." OStar rambled on, checking under chunks of metal for any familiar orange eyes.
"What about Mystic?" Charlotte tried to question.
"Let's try over here!" the white cat exclaimed before jumping away and shoving her face in a hole, nothing.
"OStar, are you okay?" Charlotte asked instead, stopping.
OStar looked over, confused. "Okay? Yeah, I'm okay. Why?"
"You're acting... Strange,"
"Strange?"
"Yes, strange!" Charlotte nearly burst out. "Just a moment ago you were acting like Roxxan was totally, one hundred percent, dead. Now you're acting like there's still hope!"
"Because there is still hope!" OStar meowed back, her ears flattening. "I didn't mean it like that earlier. I'm sorry..."
The teen sighed, giving up.
"All right... Let's just keep looking or something," she said, walking off in a different direction.
OStar stayed quiet, staring into space.
"Shut up! It's not MY fault you were being a jerk to everyone!" she silently yelled at herself. "I told you to at least TRY and act like her, but you never listen!" OStar hissed before continuing her search, ignoring any other words that were trying to reach her.
She decided to let Charlotte look around alone, splitting up was a better idea anyways. There was a lot of debris to search through, maybe some extra eyes could help.
OStar turned and started making her way to her remaining friends. The three looked to have calmed down considerably, except for Estella who was still in tears.
"Hey, guys," OStar called out to them, grabbing their attention.
"We're trying to find Roxxan, she might be stuck somewhere. We can use your help," she explained, not liking the glare Avaro was giving her.
"Didn't you say she was dead and there was nothing we can do about it now?" he growled.
"I... didn't mean it like that. We can't know for sure if she's dead unless we can find a body. She could be blast-proof since she's a robot," OStar meowed, motioning for the others to join the search. "We already found Mila, she's definitely dead."
"I... Guess we can search," Lucerne said, glancing at Avaro who huffed, but nodded in agreement.
"Estella?" OStar looked at the princess.
"I just want to find Roxxan," she said with a quiet sob.
"We will, trust me," OStar reassured, waiting for the three to get up before heading back to the wreckage.
They continued searching, splitting up to cover more land as planned. Each one called out to the others, discussing where Roxxan could be and what places had already been checked. "It shouldn't be long before we find her," OStar thought, getting incredibly tired as more time passed. She couldn't hold on for much longer.
Trying to keep herself together, OStar hopped onto a large hunk of metal and carefully walked along it. She made sure each paw step was well-placed as she used her tail for balance. The piece seemed to be hollow further up, a large hole visible up ahead. Familiar in fact...
"Oh... It was the hole she'd made..." OStar realized, padding over and slipping into it. There was a fair bit of space, as well as some more rubble she could search though.
A bit of hope sparked though her.
Maybe Roxxan had tried to escape but was too slow to make it out in time, so she got stuck here. That could be why nobody had found her yet. She was in here. Maybe.
OStar started pushing aside wire mesh and twisted metal, coughing again from smoke.
"She has to be here... She has to be," she thought, determined as she lowered her head to push aside some more rubble, only to trip over a large cord or pipe.
Only it wasn't a cord at all.
It was a tail.
OStar yelped and jumped back, blinking rapidly. There was no mistaking it.
That was Roxxan's tail.