Ariock lay in a lush meadow that was even more colorful than a cartoon rainbow. A breeze riffled alien trees that looked like cotton candy. Every flower on this planet had crystal centers.

Vy petted the friendly little indigenous animals that nestled up to her. She looked content.

But instead of enjoying this remote alien paradise, Ariock couldn’t stop thinking about the countless sapients who were suffering while he took a leave of absence. Was he being heartless and selfish? He gazed up at the daylight moons.

Go back! his inner moral compass shouted. You’ve taken more than enough time off. Save the universe!

Instead, he cuddled closer to Vy. They had devoted the last few days to simple hedonistic pleasures, making up for years of tension. The relief was almost as good as the sex.

He didn’t want it to end.

He didn’t want Vy, or himself, to make the ultimate sacrifice. Why not camp in various wildernesses until the universe ended?

A popping sound caused Vy to jump and scamper under the blanket. The air smelled of ozone.

Ariock sat up, more saddened than startled. He had not removed the tracker stuck on his back like a tiny metallic mole. Vy had one, too. He had considered peeling them off, but he had decided to remain reachable. Maybe Thomas or Kessa would talk him into returning to civilization and doing his duty.

He almost regretted that, now.

Ariock manifested clothing for Vy and himself. They were dressed within seconds.

He heard Evenjos sigh wistfully. Garrett spoke in a gruff voice. “It’s up to you, Thomas.”

With that, Garrett and Evenjos vanished. Ariock sensed their overwhelming double life spark depart, and Thomas stood there alone.

“I came up with a way to defeat the Death Architect,” Thomas said. “But I’ll need your help.”

Of course. Not a surprise.

Ariock picked himself up and stood, towering over Thomas. He had worn an inhibitor patch every day for the past four days. Now he peeled it off, and the sky began to darken with clouds.

Anyone else would have been intimidated. Not Thomas. He wasn’t fully grown, yet he had a way of looking formidable, even when dressed in understated clothes.

“This can’t wait any longer,” Thomas said. “I’m sorry. But we need you if we’re going to save the universe.”

It must be easy for the Lone Survivor to face the final battle. Thomas was guaranteed to survive. Vy would tumble into space, Garrett would be decapitated, and Ariock’s fate wasn’t mentioned at all. Only Thomas would emerge unscathed.

“I know we’re asking a lot,” Thomas said. “It’s more than anyone should have to face.”

No one else could do it, though.

Vy looked pained. But even she was nodding.

Ariock tried to agree. He tried to say that he would heroically sally forth and do anything that was required. But the words stuck in his throat.

There was a difference between bravery in the face of death and resignation to death. He always fought for survival, for freedom, for winning. Never for death.

Vy grasped his arm. “We’re blessed,” she said. “We’ve had everything. A lifetime, crammed into a few years.”

It didn’t feel like a lifetime at all, to Ariock. It felt like a beginning without a middle or an ending. He wanted a lot more life.

When he considered diving back into the struggle to save the universe, the despair of his nightmare rose up like bile inside his mind.

Fate was bigger than he was. Destiny had been orchestrated for him, not just by Garrett, but over millenniums and a thousand generations, starting with a long-dead oracle who had known every pivotal event in his life. Ariock was supposed to bravely rush to meet it.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

But instead of accepting a heroic death as his fate, he wanted to knock it aside and defeat it.

“What if I leave the heroics to the Lone Survivor?” Ariock said stiffly.

He could seize Vy and teleport away right now. It would be easy.

“Then you’d only get to enjoy yourself for a few days or a few weeks longer,” Thomas said calmly. “Because you’d be letting the Death Architect win.”

“Ariock.” Vy grabbed his arm, and he got the hint. Whenever Vy grabbed him, it meant she had something significant to say. He had better listen.

He knelt to face her at eye level.

“You and I are not the only people in love.” Vy grasped Ariock’s face. “You started this journey by caring about people you’ve never met. That’s one of the reasons I love you. You recognize the worth of other people. It never mattered to you whether they were born without the same advantages you have, or whether you know their life story or not. Well.” She gestured. “There are a zillion people who have as much right to live as we do. They deserve a future as much as we do.”

Ariock imagined alien families—and human families, too, for that matter—who expected to continue living. A thousand generations had suffered. Their descendants had finally won freedom, and if that was snatched away from them on the whim of a sociopathic Torth, wasn’t that a sick joke? He couldn’t let that happen.

Even if it meant leaving his fiancee to die in the black void of space?

“Garrett commanded me to brainwash you,” Thomas said, as if he was remarking on the cloudy weather.

Ariock felt an unfurling sense of infinity at the edge of his bodily awareness. Maybe it was fate. Maybe it was own potential stature, fully rested and more titanic than a hypergiant star. He could assume the gravity of this solar system. He could fight.

He just didn’t want to fight a good friend.

“Garrett insisted that I make you return by any means necessary,” Thomas said. “That’s what he said. ‘Ariock needs to be at the final battle no matter what it takes.’”

Ariock got to his feet, sizing up the super-genius. Thomas would not actually zombify him. Would he?

“You’re not going to—” Vy began.

“No,” Thomas said. “Of course not.”

Ariock wanted to believe him.

“I won’t take away your free will,” Thomas said. “Even if that means dooming the universe. You’re my friend. You might become my brother-in-law. As far as I’m concerned, your fate is entirely your own.”

Ariock remained tense. He knew that Thomas never told lies, but sometimes the boy did bend the truth. Sometimes he was ruthless.

Thomas backed away, beyond telepathy range. “I leave it up to you.”

There was a time when Ariock would have risked this heroic death without hesitation. He used to take serious risks to protect Vy, Cherise, Kessa, and Thomas, even when he’d barely known who they were. All he had known was that they were more worthwhile than himself.

He no longer felt that way.

But he also remembered vowing that he would never become as callous as elders like Garrett and Evenjos. Was he still as vulnerable—as human—as he had been back then?

There were so many people in the galaxy; a webwork of interconnected loved ones. That network was more precious than the Megacosm. It was the whole point of existence. Vy was willing to die for all those strangers. She was willing, because strangers could become friends.

Vy had once been a stranger in Ariock’s home. He had once been a stranger to her.

“I am with you,” Vy told Ariock in a whisper. “Come what may.”

Trust glowed in her eyes. She trusted Ariock to save the universe. She trusted him to figure out a way to escape the final prophecy and save everyone.

That was bravery.

Ariock let his awareness unfurl for a moment, cosmic in scope, yet he was also human in all the important ways. There was more to being human than humility. It was in the small moments. Touches. Laughter about silly things that didn’t matter. The vulnerability that came with having a body that had various flaws.

Love.

Maybe that was eternal, even if his body died.

“I, uh, could make it easier for you,” Thomas said, shy and hesitant. “Only if I have your permission, of course.”

“What do you mean?” Ariock demanded.

“In the long gone era of Evenjos,” Thomas said, “there were, uh, black market telepaths who used a very mild form of brainwashing. They helped addicts kick their addictions, and warriors face battle without fear. The power of suggestion wears off. It’s temporary. There are no long-term side effects.”

Ariock nearly condemned Thomas for keeping such a sinister secret. But then again, he understood why Thomas was always downplaying his powers. He was the Conqueror. Anyone in their right mind was terrified of him, except for his closest friends.

Those who knew Thomas knew that he never hurt people on purpose.

“You can make Ariock forget his nightmare?” Vy asked.

“I can,” Thomas said. “Temporarily. And only with his permission.”

“It won’t damage him otherwise?” Vy asked.

“No.” Thomas shook his head. “The effect will wear off after a day.”

Wasn’t a daring hero better than a reluctant one?

Ariock knew that in battle, he was at peak performance only when he stopped caring about collateral damage. He was at his most unstoppable when he didn’t have worries.

“Do it,” he told Thomas.

The boy looked surprised.

Ariock knelt. “It’s the only way I’m going to be able to do this. Erase my worries for a day. I give you my permission.” He swallowed his fears, and added the truth. “I trust you.”

Thomas had risked a lot by coming here alone, and admitting that he could have brainwashed Ariock. That was a show of trust and respect. He deserved the same. This was what friendship was.

Thomas solemnly stepped forward. He held a hand out and touched Ariock’s forehead.

Ariock felt his fears ease away.

The threat to Vy wasn’t a certainty. It was a nightmare without context. It was a vague hint from a moldy book.

It was nothing.