Jackie was watching, the others—sans Stark trying to probe Davenport further. Trying to get more information despite the man clearly slipping away, when Jackie got the full implications of what he said. It wasn’t like they were suddenly stupid, it was just. A lot to believe.

It was up to them, to restart the universe or outright destroy it. Them, of all people, had fate in their very hands. Powerless specks, now had the ultimate decision.

“He’s not waking up…” Tracy pouted, rising from Davenport’s corpse. “Bastard checked out…”

“Well, there goes our possible revenge… N-not like it mattered now, but uh—” Aiko rubbed her arm.

“Checked out and gave us the keys to creation,” River shook her head. “Even in the end, Acion predicted everything after all—”

Jackie looked over to River, “And this isn’t the same as the comic thing you mentioned? What did the characters do in this case?”

“Well, character, in this case. Yui basically decided to lull everything in a beautiful sleep. Basically something that’s happening now, but everyone’s aware and ‘adds’ to the end. Final expression in the final moments.”

A silence fell over them.

“Now you get why I don’t like the Destruction of Acion movies—”

“So, what do we do?” Maddie asked.

Everyone turned to Jackie. The gesture was enough to make her tear up.

Jackie sighed shakingly, “I-I know what I want, but… This should be a dialogue, first and foremost.”

Tracy waved her arms, “What’s there to discuss?! That we’re basically deciding the fate of life itself?! That we’re suddenly on the levels of Gods and not at all prepared for such?! Will we even survive after this?!”

“…Well, yeah,” Aiko chimed in.

“That is a good point…” River pointed out. “If we flouted this experience so far, there’s a good chance that we’re gone after this too.”

Maddie sat on the “floor”, and made a noticeable show of it. “Point is, are we doing it or not? We’re either chickening out and watching everyone slowly die around us and like. Fall into some void. Or we’re launching ourselves in. And even then, there’s another fucking choice later on down the road. So make up your minds, because we have a whole ass dilemma to get to.”

“Story of our lives…” River droned.

“Which is whyyyy—if I may jump in…” Stark joined in the conversation. “Remove the… Well, hard-to-remove connotations… Is this not what we’ve been doing this entire time?”

The others waited for the strange girl to explain, as Stark slowly and softly walked about the grounds.

“You all wanted a fresh start… Leaving behind the pain of the mistakes, but keeping that in mind, to move forward. This is that, on a cosmic scale… It just boils down to if you think the universe is deserving of a restart.”

“Well,” Aiko—who was the only one brave enough to speak up after that. “You heard what he said, right? This doesn’t fix the Shift Noumena. We’re still gonna end up here, just with ‘better’ chances.”

“And in the end of the day, this proves that all of this crazy ass shit was meant to happen,” Maddie added, slumped over in her seat. “So really, are we doing really doing everyone a favor, here?”

Stark rose up her hands. “It’s your choice, in the end. On my part, I have half a mind with each position. It’s only fair.”

“…Y’know what.”

Jackie pointed at the raging, cosmic nebula below them. “We all know that this is going to be utter Hell, trying to get at the center of that. We all decide then and there, after the effort.”

Tracy cocked her head to the right, humming in agreement. River shrugged, hands in her pockets. Aiko nodded, and Maddie just rose to her feet.

“Sounds good!” Stark chirped, walking forward to Jackie, patting her shoulder. She proceeded to look about to the rest. “Yesterday, we were simply enigmas that weren’t worth solving. Today? We’re the answers to the universe’s riddle.”

Jackie smiled. “Hand and hand, then. Let’s finally save everyone, girls.”

The young women gathered around. Not only going side by side, but claps the other’s forearms. To insure that they’re all protected by each other.

One by one, they began shifting. Turning into a writhing mass of their essence, unbound.

The motion caused them to finally fall, through the so-called “flooring” that they were on. Now, it was just them versus the exploding cosmic.

Which generated Shifts of its own.

Each wave was so potent. The wispy energies forced the group back with every advancement. And not physically, but causing them to temporarily fade from existence, and set right back to where they were. But they continued to keep moving, no matter how long it took.

But each wave also carried a lashing whip made of the cosmic. It not only forced them back into their natural states, but destroyed the surface area. Jackie’s stomach was caved into pieces. Stark nearly lost an arm, but a sizable chuck was taken. River had her head sliced on the left side. Maddie lost her shoulder, Tracy got a spear through the chest, Aiko got the worst of it, as the whip lashed so violently, it destroyed her lower chest and mid-section.

But they kept moving. And through that, they managed to get closer and closer.

They got to a radius, where the remaining space was warped by the power. Creating the most impossible landscapes imaginable.

They braved a plane of living fire. Trekked through a sky made of stone. Navigated through a maze of clouds that were made of blinding light. Seas of stilled stardust was the last of what would’ve been thousands of combinations of natural elemental vistas.

Immediately being bombarded with the Shifts again. As they were beginning to layer on top of each other.

They were stripped until they were just structure. Skin, muscle, bone—they were just walking wires now. But they had to, so they could brave these Shifts.

It was strange. This was once a death sentence, the ultimate fear they were born into. Yet, they had no fear anymore.

At this point, they weren’t afraid of the Shifts anymore.

Even if they had flesh anymore, it would’ve been torn away at the presence of the imminence.

It was like staring into the core of the Earth. Facing the Sun. Peering into the face of a greater deity.

Pulsing, molten cosmic possibilities made manifest. Arches and flashes of physical color, melding into colors that shouldn’t be realized. They were so small, in the face of it. But they were there.

But they couldn’t move. Not anymore.

The journey proved to be too much. And they couldn’t hold themselves together anymore. Combined with the sheer weight of the core, one by one, they scattered away. Reduced to the last atoms that existed in the universe.

At the very least, the small specks danced in the shapes of who they once were. They floated about, they lingered. No matter how brief it was, they had a presence here. They mattered.

And it proved enough, no matter how short that existence was.

The mites gather, each recreating the shape that they belonged to. Not quite becoming solid beings again, but spirits of sorts. Spirits that were made of energy of their own making. The girls were reborn, within the presence of the core of possibilities.

They all took a bit, to look at each other, before facing the titan before them.

They made up their minds.

Each one moved forward, right into the heart of the core. Iridescent light of their creation followed after.