#biorenewologist

"Casey, look what I found!" Nickle pranced--actually pranced--into the room, and you groaned loudly as you looked up from your very important work that was keeping the rebellion alive, no thanks to the idiot who led it. "What is it." They flicked your neat, organized pile of papers off to the side, and you barely restrained yourself from groaning again when you saw them flutter to the ground. The space on your desk cleared, Nickle ceremoniously placed a small rock in the middle of it. "Isn't it great! It almost looks like your token! I'm gonna call it--" "Do NOT nickname the rock."

                                                         ~

They are all dead.

There was no reason for it, and they’re all dead.

All of your friends are dead.

Nickle is dead.

You saw your friend, your friend, you saw them blown to bits, an explosion of fire and screaming. Nickle was screaming. You didn’t think it was possible for them to panic. And they’re not coming back this time, because they had their token on and in any case, Hubble isn't near enough to help.

Sure, you’re abrasive and sarcastic and skeptical, but Nickle… Nickle never seemed to mind. Or, at least, they were so completely absurd that it balanced out. But they were screaming in terror. Very real, very concrete, very provable terror.

You… you don’t know how to rationalise this.

There is lightning crackling around your hands, you realise. The scattered remnant of your people cluster, and they’re gaping in horror at a rip in the sky, a jagged tear into nothingness, and you feel a crushing sense of familiarity beneath your grief. They have heard the stories. This has happened before.

Your enemies draw back worriedly. They, too, have told tales of the Apocalypse, and

and

and they killed Nickle.

The thought sears through your mind anew, and you scream and the lightning flashes from your hands, an unstoppable, unquestionable streak of power. A horrible scent of burning floods the air. Reality cracks and splinters.

They are still mortal, after all. They can be killed. Just like they killed Nickle.

And you are the Apocalypse.