Kandy Karkat Writes

When the pinpricks of light calm down and she takes in the details before her, it's not her face, the crafted one in paint and with close-cropped hair, that she sees.

Instead:

A belt with the distinct pattern of red and white diamonds that has become the symbol of the revolution she started is in front of her, and as her eyes draw up the enormous figure, its outline a bleary purple as sharp teeth glint at her, something akin to the caps of a jester hat is on either side of a blurry mop of hair.

Gathering her head into her knees, she refused to see any more of her surroundings, for anything in this place of planets and stars and crowns and swords had edges sharper than she had blood to bleed, than she was willing to suffer for, her life now only having glinting metal hanging low above her, taunting someone that did not care for it anymore and was steady in choosing the handle over the mantle.

She was rushed upwards, away from the small rock she had curled up on, and a face tipped closer to her, large eyes surrounded by lavender paint overwhelming her field of view as Zhen grasped for something- anything- to ground her as she floated inches away from those large pupils.

Soon enough, the face contorted into a familiar expression, one of large, fluttering eyes, meant to convey the similarity it held for her, only ruined by the pointed smile glinting in the light of the cosmos. Zhen searched her mind for the expression, unveiling each fold storing the memory of her Jubilite rein that she had worked so hard to forget back into the open air, then found her answer.

Mizzlebip.

When she let her become the Supreme Honkifex, she had not only given her the title- Mizzlebip was granted the ability to have the dreams of succession she once had, the power to make meaningful choices. As the figure withdrew from her, the crown she had seen all those years ago in what was supposed to be her final dream twinkled into existence above Mizzlebip.

This wasn’t Mizzlebip anymore though, was it?

This was her final form. This was Nozzleburp, the ultimate Successor to Riotus, Lord Queen of the Jubilites, a creation just as much her own as it was the cosmos’. Here she stood before her, with all the power and godhood Zhen had denied, everything she was and could have been, yet representative of none of her at all, nothing but a distant, fading memory of her time on that foreign island, one that had become the center point of an entire nation far grander than she had been able to command.

Mizzlebip- No, Nozzleburp stared at her with that same familiar expression, then wrapped a celestial hand around her body, hoisting her even higher above the small rock she had awoken on.

Zhen didn’t know if she could die in her dreams, but instinctively, she felt herself extend her hand upwards until she could reach into the stars themselves and pull from them a constellation, the one she hadn’t seen in so long before tonight she had nearly forgotten about it. Her hand twirled it around into position, feeling a handle constructed of pure light as solid as the gases of Saturn as she lodged the Sword into the wrist of the Successor.

While she knew it was impossible to injure an immortal being, the Sword still proved effective as Nozzleburp released her when the stars sunk into her skin, the blade vanishing back into the cosmos, and it was evident that her decision in that faraway dream proved vital even now.

For as long as she had chosen herself what to do, chose the happiness of giving up the position Nozzleburp now held, her dreams would no longer affect her, even if a Successor willed it. The sword was an unmovable object, and the crown could do anything but interfere with its counterpart, not in the realm of stars they found themselves in, at least. She would have to find the other outside of this place, on stable ground, where they were equal in standing as opposed to giant versus mortal. And somehow, Zhen knew that would happen soon, her past come to face her again.

Cold in its embrace, a darkness enveloped her for a moment, before she quickly pulled open her eyes, feeling grains beneath her hands and feet. Pushing off the sand, she frantically searched around, eyes stilling as she caught sight of Abby and Percy basking in the light of the first rays of sun where the ocean met the land.

If being a former Successor, chosen by the cosmos and despite everything still alive, has ever helped me before, Zhen thought, please let it help me now.

She grabbed Abby's hand, hauling her wife on top of Percy with her, not bothering to explain yet as she rode them off into the distance, running from the crown, the sword, the planets, and the stars she could still see so vividly in her mind. And when Abby posed the question of what had spurred this, Zhen's only response was that her past was going to catch up to her soon, and she’d be damned if she didn’t get them away from it so they could live the happy life they had earned, the one she had chose.