Splash

[Android 17]

The dragon was gone—its body crumbled and swallowed in the heart of the dying galaxy.  He’d seen the light fade from the creature’s eyes and knew that it was no more, but despite his satisfaction, he knew that his end was now as well.  The fight had taken everything from him.  Every fleeting grasp of strength had left his scrawny, battered body, and as he watched, the darkness drew him closer.

He’d slain the creature.

He’d won the day…

A faint smile spread across his face as the torn hole in reality reached out for him.  Dying was different, even when you’re already dead in the first place, but what waited for him now was something altogether different.  Was he just going to cease to exist?  Just blink out of existence?

Should he have been scared as he slipped into oblivion?

The smile lingered on his battered visage as the universe he’d known faded into the distance.

He fell.

Memories swirled around him in a blur as the darkness consumed him.  Friends, rivals, strangers… they all came and went in an instant as the world crumbled into pieces.

At the bottom of the blackness, there was a sudden flash of light.  A strange face was in the cyborg’s head, and there were even stranger words that filtered through his head as he fought to regain his senses.

By the time he could move his hands again, he felt the rush of water against his pallid countenance.  Cold, damp water.

Alive?  

Seventeen let out a groan as he lifted his head up out of the water.  Although he was still a little shocked from a combination of frigid water and his continued existence, he could see that he was in a large fountain.  Outside of the fountain, dozens of people were milling around.  Some were having conversations that seemed amicable, while others were engaged in tense standoffs.

Well this is a party.

The man grabbed for the edge of the metal fountain and dragged himself through the water.  Before standing up, he verified that he was still clothed in the tattered remnants of his old attire.  Most of his shirts were just tattered stripes of cloth, but he had been more concerned with the state of his jeans, which were intact enough to keep him modest among strangers.

With a groan, the raven-haired fighter stood up and tried to further assess his situation.  A quick rifle through his pockets revealed nothing, and the little sidebag that usually held the rest of his belongings was gone as well.  The latter made little sense, since he swore he had grabbed something from it just moments before the final sequence of events that had ended his struggle with the Monster.

Seventeen reached behind his back and noted that his scabbard was likewise missing.  He’d lost the sword after the katchin-infused blade shattered against his foe’s skull, but he didn’t recall losing its sheath from its usual spot on his back.

Where am I?

He’d been in the Western Quadrant.  He couldn’t recall the name, but the galaxy had been one devoid of any sentient life.

Then why was he in a fountain surrounded by a few dozen people?

“Hey,” Seventeen replied, reaching a hand for someone standing just a few feet from the fountain.  The person—some kind of strange little person in a heavy coat—turned and looked at him with a furrowed brow.  “Where the hell are we?”

“Nexus.”  The thing replied.  From the tone, they must have thought the half-naked man to be an idiot of some sort.  “Don’t worry, Fountain Fresh, you’ll figure out everything soon enough.  Just try and remember what the white man told you.”

“…White man?”

“Omni.  He spoke to you before you woke up.  Just… think real hard and it’ll come back to you.”

Just like that, the person walked away, leaving a still confused Seventeen to reflect on what had happened.

Fuck me.