Chapter Text
His head felt as though it was being split in half and yanked apart and stomped on simultaneously, over and over, an overabundance of information rushing through with no sign of stopping.
It was beautiful.
It burned.
The universe and all its content all at once. Secrets never seen, untold history, beings beyond mortal comprehension. He could see everything there used to be, was happening, and will be.
Every last bit, nothing being left forgotten.
It was beautiful and it hurt.
Hurt couldn’t even describe the pain. It was beyond human words, the ones that came to mind before being tossed aside carelessly.
He slumped against his chair with a low groan, headphones that he's been loosely gripping, finally slipping from his hands as his head hung low. He barely noticed the warm blood dripping from both nostrils in a steady stream, his brain all but mush. Hadn't noticed when his eyes slipped shut. He could still see it all, in a way. The room, his room, which was dim and dusty after he had spent however long sitting here and staring at his screen, at the world that shouldn't exist. The one that he had been stuck on just to think clearly.
The only thing that had made the ever present buzzing of unwanted knowledge manageable throughout this experience.
He could hardly understand any of it. Until now, anyway. Now, he could follow along and get what it was screaming, whispering, telling him in an instant, if he wished.
He tried following along to the stream of things, but he was tired and nothing stuck around for long, floating freely through his mind. Not the history of Earth or even the birth of a nearby universe flooding his senses. Especially not the feeling of his body becoming disconnected from his consciousness.
His computer dimmed before shutting off, the last thing opened on it being the note for Avery to find. Derek knew he would. He also knew that soon, he'd be gone. Could feel himself withering under the weight of the universe’s many secrets and wound tales.
But one thing despite it all kept circling back unprompted. Avery. The one he set out to save, the one he tricked to do just that.
—
“Avery, what's in your inventory.” He remembers typing it out, hands shaky and for once, it wasn’t from hunger or exhaustion weighing him down. No. It was because he knew what had to be done. He couldn’t drag Avery down with him, couldn’t risk it. Soon his response came back.
“What?” So simple, it made Derek grimace from behind the screen.
Hastily, he repeated his inquiry. There wasn’t much time. “What’s in your inventory.”
Avery's character froze, currently near the edge of the platform they were both on. The one he subtly urged Avery to: He knew he couldn’t win a fight with Avery here. So he did the next best thing.
He could imagine the look on the other's face, the determination to help him out of this impossible situation somehow.
‘Always so gullible’. The thought came and went, and despite his typical irritation towards people of that sort, he couldn’t help but feel nothing aside from disgusting amounts of fondness for him.
…
Wasting no more time on insane nothings, he attacked, sending the slime avatar off the edge.
“?>wdasdwadd” He could try, “WAIT” but in the end it wouldn’t work. Derek had to save him. Had to, to save thousands.
Behind the screen, he smiled, a tired, weary smile before typing out his last chat message to Avery. “Until next time, friend.”
The King would continue to fade within his rotten mind.
But Avery would be safe.
And in the end, that’s all that mattered.
—
Despite having known each other for such a short period, they made a big impact on each other. Derek knew Avery more than the other would even know himself and Avery knew nothing but Derek's name, but still somehow managed to care so deeply. It sucked. It made his barely feeling chest ache with loss he hasn’t experienced ever before.
He loved Avery. It didn’t sound right, but it couldn’t be helped, knowing everything there was and could be with Avery, seeing what they could have been if The King never interfered.
Derek loved Avery as if he was the air in his lungs, loved Avery like he was a drug he could never get enough of.
For a brief second, he wanted to continue holding on, wanted to desperately stay, just for Avery.
And yet he was falling. Falling, falling and falling away
For a brief glimpse he caught sight of his own body, sitting at that godforsaken desk that had been a part of his lifeline for months now.
He looked like an absolute mess. A corpse in the making. Malnourished and deathly pale with long hair so filthy now that it hung straight against his head. He winced as he remembered the soreness from sitting in the same spot for… Two months, with what Avery said being true, about it being New Years. Derek felt a small amount of surprise, a feeling he hadn’t expected to feel again, thinking back on how he had managed to survive all that time with nothing but smoothies and some granola bars he kept on top of his mini fridge.
But none of that mattered now. He was fading. Fading…. Somewhere else.
Down, down. Everything blurred past him, a disorienting ray of colors before suddenly ‘Landing’, if you could call it that. He wasn’t standing on anything solid. It was… Void. All around. Stars he knew the distances of with just a glance, asteroids he could list the components of.
This… Isn’t right.
He wasn’t dead. He couldn’t feel his body, sure, but he didn’t feel very dead regardless. In contrast, he feels more alive than ever before.
Derek held his hands out in front of him, twitching slightly and feeling nothing but quiet curiosity by the sight. They weren’t very solid. They looked like stained glass, with small fractals of light dancing with every movement he made, with the barest hint of amber veins connecting it all together the further he looked.
How pretty. Is this his soul? Right, yes, that’s what this is… Now why is-?
He didn’t even have long to learn why, either, as a gleaming golden gauntlet was tossed before him. It hit whatever invisible mass that was holding him up, dead silent compared to the expected clatter it should’ve made. When he looked up, he saw an unwelcome sight.
The King, draped in a long, now ragged and loose, yellow robe.
‘Hastur’, his mind unhelpfully supplied, ‘The King in Yellow, he who exists as nothing and everything and the all between.’
But… he looked worse off. He didn’t look like the regal, impossible figure he had been before. His robe was more torn and frayed at the bottom, no longer flowing in its unnatural glory. His crown was missing, and where his mask used to be, was now entirely empty space, faded away into nothing but a faint golden shimmer. The King was fading and Derek, he was-
Derek went to speak, but was cut off as Hastur held up one rapidly disintegrating hand, speaking in a cacophony of whispers and shouts that used to make him want to rip his ears off just to block the sound out. Every last voice sounded bitter and angry despite the way it wavered. “Hold your tongue, Knight. You won. Don’t bother questioning what’s happening, as I’m sure you’ve already pieced together what’s occurring here.”
And he was aware. He knew. And as The Yellow King faded with his throne, leaving one last and almost sarcastic, “enjoy”, Derek's own form started taking shape. It was his minecraft skin, D3rLord3, but more. The feather sticking out the back of his helmet shifted at the end, eventually changing into a red dust that swayed as though there was a breeze out here in the void of space. His cape was in a similar predicament, whipping around as the end flickered in and out of existence like a weak flame. Both his glove and gauntlet molded around his hands, gleaming ends now sharp and deadly with occasional sparks igniting off of them.
His ‘Face’ if you could call it that, was nothing more than dark shadows hidden beneath his helm with glowing white eyes. The helmet itself formed a sort of jagged crown, not too dissimilar to Hastur's own, with small black feathered wings on either side.
And right in the center of his chest with the armour he was wearing, sat a large dark heart that pulsed rhythmically, slow and calm despite it all. Even here, there were golden streaks among the crimson.
It would have been disturbing, if he hadn’t seen worse.
Even if he wanted to panic, he couldn’t bring himself to. He had already figured out this part was coming while The King faded into nothing more than waning energy, ready for the taking.
Derek ascended, somehow. Stole Hastur's throne in the process of killing him, and now he was the one with infinite knowledge. The one who could bring an end to all of humanity if he wished. The one who could change things for everyone with a wave of his hand.
But still, one person kept coming to mind. Avery. Avery Avery Avery….
Why was he so caught up on him? He didn’t stand a chance before, what would have changed now?
Derek knew Avery. Knew everything. Knew what his hands felt like. Yet, he never actually met him. Couldn’t exactly if he wanted to now, anyway. Avery himself only knew Derek's name.
And yet…
Stupidly, insanely.
Derek missed him. Missed what he knows could have been a part of his lonely life.
If only they met sooner, in better circumstances.
His eyes shut tight at that, unwittingly seeing the many scenarios where they had been in better places, better lives where they could be more than passing strangers fighting the same monster.
‘They were in college together, forced to work together on a project. They would argue and bicker and split away before meeting again, eventually until neither wanted to be apart from the other.’
‘They met through friends and grew close close close-’
‘They were getting married, his mom, however distant she was growing up, was sitting in the front row with tears in her eyes and a wobbly smile on her face. Avery’s scarce friends were cheering as the two came together and kissed. Derek could feel his own eyes sting but-’
‘They spent their mortal lives together, now old and sitting on a porch as they remini-’
He desperately forced his mind to pause, to stop rubbing in his face what he was denied ten times over. His hand hovered over the exposed heart in his chest, as if he could physically remove the grief he felt by throttling the fake organ from where it sat suspended by fleshy tethers. But, he knew it’d be useless.
He wanted Avery. He wanted Avery so bad his whole being ached with desire. The void around him shivered and constricted at the excess of emotions, drawing the previously distant celestial bodies closer, closer until it caught up and snapped him out of his thoughts.
He let out an unnecessary breath, and thought.
He sat and thought and thought some more. What's the point of infinite knowledge if it couldn’t be put to use? Hm… He dragged a clawed glove through the space around him, watching the miniscule things he’d never been able to see before stir in his wake.
He’s certainly more free than Hastur was, instead of being stuck in a block game like his predecessor, he had the whole universe- the whole multiverse and its many timelines. All at his fingertips for him to observe and change to his liking.
…
He had to figure out what was happening back at home, with mom, with his body that was left behind, with Avery.
He just had to get this form working the way he needed, first.
Surely, after sacrificing himself for everyone, he could be a little selfish this time around.
He doubts Avery would mind.
Avery was sure to hurt just as bad as Derek did now, it only made sense.
With that last thought in mind, he left, the space around him constricting and changing until he hovered before Earth.
Logically, he knew he should see his body, make sure it gets dealt with, see if mom noticed what happened after two months of no contact, however… His eyes drifted, almost unseeing as he drifted closer to the one he really wanted to see.
… It could wait. He had to see Avery.
He barely had half a mind to fix what he screwed up before he blipped out of existence.