#I’ll use the shard to get the galaxy blade so I can knock out stronger enemies before heading down again

[puppyeared]

FUCK

[therearemonstersinthedark]

Book 2: Luciferous

 Chapter 13: Forest Fires

A Guardians of the Galaxy Fanwork

Pairings: Peter Quill / Gamora (one-sided), Peter Quill & Nebula (freindship)

Genre: Adventure, general

Word Count: 4.5k

Rating: T to be safe, mild gore and cussing in some chapters

Links: Fanfiction.net || Ao3

Summary: Mantis shares her favorite item, and Peter struggles to contact Eternity.

Author’s Notes: Title is from ‘Forest Fires’ by Lauren Aquelina

Chapter 13: Forest Fires

Peter and the Guardians remained in the court for some time afterwards. The closeness of his friends and Gamora's steady voice as she instructed Mantis and answered her questions kept him company while he struggled to come to terms with Nebula's realization. He'd been dying. The thought sent shudders over his skin. He'd known he'd been seriously injured during the battle on Traxxon III, but finding out just how close he had come to never waking up again, and what may have happened to his friends and this universe without him, left him uncharacteristically speechless.

"We need another weapon." Gamora's voice broke through the silence, and Peter looked up to find her jogging up the steps towards him.

"Um, I don't have any," he said, not sure what she was expecting here. "My blasters were destroyed by Ronan."

"Not blasters, something like a sword or another staff," Gamora said, coming to a stop half-way up the stairs and turning her eyes on Drax. "May we borrow your knives?"

"No." Drax's answer was flat and absolute.

Gamora narrowed her eyes, clearly not expecting such a rude refusal. "It's for the good of the whole team."

"No," Drax repeated. "I will not lend you my blades."

Gamora's lips pressed into a thin line and her shoulders stiffened into a pose Peter recognized very well; it was the same look she used to give the Guardians' when someone was being particularly stubborn or obtuse and needed a good tongue lashing, usually to be reminded that they were good guys now. Before things could progress any further, Groot cut in from behind her.

"I am Groot." Groot had left the fountain and was standing at the bottom of the stairs. The colossus held one arm out. From his palm a vine sprouted, growing rapidly until it formed a long, straight staff which he snapped off and handed up to Gamora with an appeasing smile. "I am Groot."

Gamora deflated slightly, turning away from Drax to accept the gift with a half-smile of her own. "Thank you."

"I am Groot." Groot nodded and returned to his fountain, shooting Peter an easy smile as he went.

Gamora spun the staff a few times before placing it at her side and turning back to Peter. "This will do for now, but it would be better to have something more solid."

"So now you're giving me homework?" Peter sighed, but it was hard to even pretend to be upset when Gamora was finally choosing to speak with him.

"You have eight cycles left until our deal is up," she reminded him before returning to Mantis in the open space below.

Eight cycles. Right. As if he didn't have enough to worry about right now, he had hardly more than a week left to search all of the known galaxies under Thanos's control for two people who may or not even be alive. By the time he got back home, he was going to have an ulcer and his hair would be ghost white from all this stress. If it hadn't all fallen out by then.

Peter sat up and stretched his arms, conjuring a small ball of light between them once he had shaken them back to life. "What's wood made of?" he asked aloud.

"Mostly cellulose," Nebula answered without looking at him.

"Oh." Peter wasn't sure how to make that. He wasn't even really sure what it was. A third grade education and a lifetime of street smarts still left many holes in his knowledge. "What about metal? Something hard?"

"Do you know how to make metal yet?"

"No... just rock, mostly crystal, and water..."

"Diamonds are a type of crystalline stone," she murmured.

"That can work!" Peter exclaimed. It was worth a shot, anyways. While he began the slow process of gathering the Light he asked Nebula, "You don't happen to know anything else about these Cosmic Beings, do you?" She always seemed to have a surprising amount of information about all sorts of things.

Nebula was resting her head on her arms which were balanced on her knees as she watched him from the corner of her eye. "Not much that Ego didn't already cover. I told you, I never actually read that chapter. Most of what I know is lore and legend, and there is no way to sort the truth from exaggeration and poor translations."

Peter pulled at the Light in his hands, stretching it experimentally. "How long are staffs?"

"They vary, depending on the use and handler." When Peter just stared at her helplessly she continued. "At least the length of both your arms."

It took several tries to figure out how to shape the Light into a long cylinder. Eventually he tried using Ego's trick of dividing the Light into portions and building the staff from the middle out. It worked well enough. His first staff was uninspired; A dull, foggy, off-white color, with a rough texture that was unpleasant to the touch. It was heavy, though, and felt solid in his hands.

"What do you think?" He handed it over for Nebula to inspect. She took one look at it and swung it against the stairs where it shattered into pieces.

"It needs to be stronger," she supplied, dropping the last piece and letting it clatter down the stairs. "This is hardly better than basic glass."

Drax snapped the next one in half with his bare hands, and they took turns testing his creations after that. Testing might have been too kind a word. Demolishing was closer to what was going on, and around his seventh or eight failed staff, Peter was growing increasingly aware of the pile of shards building up around him.

While he worked, they spoke. Nebula shared a few old legends about the Gods of Creation and Destruction, and even Drax chimed in with a story about a version of the God of Death named 'Hela' that he had heard of on Sakaar. It was actually fairly pleasant, and Peter was almost sad when Gamora called a break and Mantis suggested they all head back to the greenhouse dining room for an early lunch.

Gamora had been taking their lesson surprisingly slow and easy. They hadn't even crossed staffs yet, Gamora was just using Groot's gift to demonstrate several poses and movements. By now when he and his Gamora first started training together she had already given him several new bruises and thrown him to the ground an embarrassing amount of times. Even with Gamora's easy pace, Mantis was obviously tired from the work. Despite her protests, the others insisted on setting out the plates and getting their own food from the storage rooms.

"Don't worry about it," Peter said as clapped his hand on her shoulder and guided her into a chair. "We know where it all is by now. You're part of the team, not a servant. You rest, I'll get us both some food."

Peter was rewarded with a soft, grateful smile, and Mantis allowed herself to relax. Once he was sure she wasn't going to spring back up, he left to go gather their plates.

While he ate, Peter was distracted still by his attempts to form something hard enough to not snap after one blow.

"Try this!" Peter gasped, leaning over the table to shove his latest attempt at Nebula who snatched it from his hands before it could land in her food.

Peter held his breath while she sat back to give it an appraising look and couple of swirls. When she slapped it against the stone floor it didn't crack, and a fine ringing filled the room. "It's better, but it's too heavy."

Peter's shoulder's slumped. "I don't know how to make it any lighter."

"You probably can't without sacrificing its integrity," Nebula mused, still rolling the glimmering staff back and forth in her hand. It was just a few shades away from completely clear, and it caught the light and threw it around in dazzling rainbows. "How about this?" She waved her left hand across her cheek and a holographic display winked into life from the cybernetics around her left eye, hovering in the space before her.

"Whoah!" Nebula flinched back in her chair when Peter leapt to his feet to lean over the table. "I didn't know you could do that!"

He lifted one hand towards the display and she swatted him away with a vicious strike of the heavy staff. "Knock it off!"

Peter pulled his hand back, shaking it and wincing against the ringing in his bones. "Ouch, geeze, sorry. No touching. I promise."

She just gave him a very unamused look before continuing. "Instead of making the whole thing of diamond, you can create a core and surround it with a lighter, more flexible material to balance out the weight." In the light blue display in front of her, a long thin line of crystal formed. A moment later, a series of twisting vines wrapped around it to form into a sort of shell and give it the look of a more usual staff.

"Will that still be strong enough?" Peter asked, rubbing his stinging wrist and resisting the urge to poke at the holographic display of the layered staff.

"I wouldn't take it into battle." Nebula dissolved the display with a flick of her wrist. "But it should be fine for practice. At the rate Gamora's going, Mantis won't be striking anything but air anytime soon." Nebula shot a meaningful look her sister's way which Gamora returned with a wrinkling of her brows.

Peter finished off his plate and returned to his self-imposed project as the rest of the Guardians finished eating and cleared away the table. The Light was growing easier to manipulate, and his next creation was done before the last dish was taken away. Groot was happy to cover the core with a tight net of branches, and Gamora accepted the finished project graciously on their way back to the makeshift training grounds. Despite Gamora's warnings that she would be sore the next day, Mantis insisted on continuing to learn.

"I very much wish to be useful!" she had exclaimed, clutching her emerald staff against her chest. "And I am having fun learning something so different. I've never done anything like this before."

This seemed to win over Gamora who began showing her some blocks and self defense moves against another staff. The soft clacking of their staffs colliding in slow-motion strikes filled the quiet air as the rest of the Guardians settled back down as well.

Peter found a new seat among the steps, away from the shards that still cascaded down from his earlier seat, and pondered over what other sorts of useful things he could create. The sense of accomplishment at seeing his staff hard at work below and Gamora's reminder of his limited time overrode his earlier relief at getting the afternoon off, so he set to work shaping a bowl -ugly and a foamy off-white, but a respectable size and serviceable- and filling it with water. When that grew too tedious and boring he decided to try his luck at another element. The result was an immediate and spectacular failure, and Nebula had to throw the contents of the bowl he had filled earlier onto his hands where the bandages had caught fire while Drax pinned him down.

"Idiot!" she grumbled as she unwound the soggy and half-burnt bandages from his hands.

Peter hung his head and offered no complaint as he stood on the wet steps and held his hands out for her.

"What were you planning to do?" Drax asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he stared down at Peter.

"I can make rock and water, I thought if I could get a head start on the next element or whatever, the next session with Ego would go a bit faster. I mean, who even knows how long he'll be pouting over this Eternity thing? And I'm on a bit of a time crunch."

Nebula gave a snort at that as she finished working his left hand free, dropping the bandages to lay in a crumpled heap at her feet. "What are you planning to do about this Eternity and his interest in you?" Her eyes were trained down as she spoke, carefully looking over the healing cuts on his palm. He tried not to wince as she prodded at one.

"I don't know."

"I don't think this one needs to be re-wrapped. It's healing just fine, and you can take it easy here." She released his right hand which had been flayed open by the blaster and began unwrapping the left. "If he's as powerful as Ego claims, then he might be very useful against my father."

"He's definitely powerful, but he said there were rules against him messing with reality, which is why he wanted my help in the first place, so how useful can he be?"

"He could have answers we don't have," Nebula said practically. "And I'm sure he's more capable than he's letting on."

"That's another thing," Peter muttered. "Eternity said that one of his sisters was helping Thanos." Nebula's dark eyes flickered up to meet his before returning to Peter's hand.

"Death?"

"He didn't actually say, but probably a safe assumption."

Nebula grunted something like an agreement as she removed the brace from his fingers. "Go like this," she ordered, holding one palm up to flex her fingers into a fist and back out again. Peter did as ordered, moving his fingers slowly and wincing at the strange feeling in his muscles which had gone unused for so long. "The Nova Corps did a good job in speeding your recovery along, but this break was clearly much worse than the first. It would be better to keep it braced while you're playing around with the Light." The metal of her enhancement was surprisingly warm against his skin as she held his wrist in one hand and carefully tested the range of motion in his finger with the other. "Let it dry off and breath for now, and ask Mantis if she has any clean medical supplies later."

"Sure thing, doc," Peter said with a mock salute when she released his hand.

A dark look of warning flickered across Nebula's face. "Don't call me that," she growled, low and angry.

"I won't." The memory from his time in Gamora's mind of the body surrounded by surgeons, and the horrid screaming that had chased him through the hallways even as he pressed his hands over his ears, resurfaced in his mind and he hastily apologized. "I'm sorry."

"If you go back to sleep, perhaps you can speak with this Eternity again and demand more answers." Drax stepped in quickly, cutting through the cloud of tension that had formed between them as effectively as he could drive a knife through an enemy.

"Maybe? I mean, he said that he had a connection and could talk to me now? Which is good, because he wasn't making any sense before, and I'm really tired of those stupid nightmares keeping me up. I can find out tonight, I guess."

"Not sooner?"

"I'm not that tired, and the Nova Corps should be calling soon."

"You do not have to be tired." Drax held one fist up. "I am sure I could render you unconscious without harming you."

Peter quickly took a couple steps back. "Dude!"

"No," Nebula said calmly, reaching out one hand to push Drax's fist down. "We still need him awake for the Nova call, and I'm sure Ego would see to it that were repercussions for us assaulting his son." She turned to Peter who had inched sideways so Nebula was more or less between himself and Drax. "Do you have to be unconscious, though? If the connection is stronger now, perhaps you could try calling him?"

Peter waved his arms helplessly. "I don't exactly know the extension for 'beyond the veil.'"

"You could try meditation," Gamora suggested. Peter glanced over his shoulder to find she and Mantis had stopped their training and climbed up the stairs to see what all the fuss was about.

At the sight of her sister, the last of Nebula's good mood vanished. Her face fell into a guarded frown and she shifted further away from the steps.

"I dunno..." Peter murmured. Gamora had taught him the basics of meditation before, and some of it came in handy sometimes when dealing with the worst of the Guardian's discord, but actually sitting down and meditating was... mind-numbing. She'd given up about a week in after he had fallen asleep on her and started snoring for the third time.

"It can't hurt," she reasoned.

"Aren't you busy not teaching Mantis how to fight?" Nebula snapped, crossing her arms tightly over her chest.

Gamora gave her sister a look that was somehow equal parts annoyed and hurt. "I am sure Mantis could use another break by now," she said, her lips twitching when Nebula rolled her eyes. "I was going to teach her the basics anyways, if any of you care to join us?"

Peter glanced at Nebula who stared back at him expectantly for a moment before dropping her arms down. "Just go," she growled with a wave at her sister before turning away. "I've wasted enough time here. I'm going to go check on the rodent's progress and search for the caves again."

Gamora took a hasty step after her sister's retreating form, but hesitated.

"Nebula, wait-" Peter began, but Drax stalled him with a wave.

"I will go with her," Drax said, giving his arms a stretch and rolling his shoulders until they popped. "I do not care for meditation anyways, but you should stay here. It would be a better use of your time if you could get some answers from this Eternity."

Drax turned and jogged to catch up with Nebula, leaving Peter and Gamora staring after them silently. At his side, Gamora drew a long breath and let it out, and when he looked, her carefully neutral face was traced around the edges with just a hint of sadness.

-x-

Meditation practice was just as boring as Peter remembered it being. On the Milano, at least, he had been allowed to sit on his mattress or a pillow. Here, he sat cross legged on the stone court between Mantis and Groot, who had decided to join them. It was made extra difficult with the ceaseless itching of his palms which were exposed to the fresh air for the first time in days, making it impossible to quiet his mind. He was pretty sure at least an hour had passed before he gave up and had to stand to stretch his legs.

"Peter?" Gamora cracked one eye open to stare at him.

"Sorry, sorry," he sighed, dropping back to the ground. "You tried to teach this to me back in my universe too, but I'm just not the meditating type."

"Not if you keep fidgeting," she said, closing her eye and returning to her meditative pose. "You need to relax. Separate your mind from your body."

"Yeah, the only part of me that got that message is my butt." Peter rubbed at his back as he spoke. "It's completely numb."

Mantis let out a giggle beside him which was quickly stifled when Gamora opened her eye once more.

Gamora let out a sigh and stood in one fluid movement that defied the stiffness she should have felt after so long unmoving. "We should take a break for now, anyways," she said, looking at something over Peter's shoulder. He followed her gaze back to find Ego approaching from the pathway he'd vanished down earlier.

When Ego saw Peter looking he gave a wave and diverted his path towards the main building.

Peter gave another long languid stretch before following after. Mantis and Groot rose as well and they all made their way as a group into the open hall where Ego was waiting for them under a large video screen. Today it was Marlowe on the other end of the call.

"Good evening, Peter," she greeted when she caught sight of him.

"Hey Marlowe," Peter gave a wave and an easy smile. "It's actually more like a late lunch time here."

A spark of curiosity flickered across her face and her eyes sparkled like she wanted to ask more questions, but she collected herself and asked instead, "Where is the rest of your crew?"

"Exploring. It's a big planet."

"Have you seen them recently? Are they well?"

Peter quirked an eyebrow at the sudden concern. "Um, yeah, pretty recently. Why are-?"

"And you are well? Nothing has occurred that would break the terms of our agreement?" As she spoke there was an edge to her voice and her gaze flickered in the direction Ego was standing off to the side.

"I'm fine. What's with the questions, did something happen?"

"Cosmo sensed a... well, a disturbance was the best he could describe it to us. He sensed some sort of change in your Light, like it was eclipsed by something else. We were prepared to take more immediate action, but he assured us that he felt no danger to you and requested we wait. So, will you tell us what occurred this- well it would have been this morning, I suppose, for you?"

Peter hadn't even thought of what Cosmo might have sensed. "Yeah, I'm fine. We're all fine. I just met a uh, well I don't know what he was, really, some sort of 'Cosmic being?" He paused to throw a glance at Ego who stepped closer to address the Nova Prime's assistant.

"We were greeted rather unexpectedly by Eternity. It seems he has some sort of mistaken interest in my son, but there is no cause for alarm. We are dealing with it."

Marlowe narrowed her eyes and gave Peter a prompting look.

"It's true," Peter confirmed. "If you ask Cosmo, he might be able to explain it better, but I don't think anyone's in any danger." At least, he hoped not. Eternity might even prove to be useful, but Peter didn't dare voice that hope in front of Ego who was clearly still quite upset over his appearance. "How are things going up there? Have you made any progress finding Gamora's parents?"

Marlowe pursed her lips at his rather transparent change in subject. "Things are settling down. A couple of the members of the Council are still furious, but most of them are in agreement it was the best decision, the rest will come around. As for your request... Dey and I have been looking into our old records in search of known prison planets under Thanos's rule, but our resources are limited, and so far nothing has been very promising. Most of the ones we have records of have been since abandoned or relocated, or are so deep into enemy territory we are unable to find any reliable sources for them."

Peter glanced at Gamora who was standing at his side. Her face was carefully blank again and gave nothing away, but he was sure she was disappointed by the news.

"Do you have any memories," Marlowe asked, "that might help us narrow down our search? Any atmospheric anomalies, unique flora, the color of the sky? Anything at all?"

"Dark..." Gamora said, a wrinkle forming above her brow. "All I remember, under the false memories, is that it was really dark the last time I saw them, but I think we were inside a building. Maybe the smell of dirt. I'm sorry. Everything around the memories involving them gets... especially blurry."

Marlowe sat back with a subtle slump of her shoulders. "It's okay. We'll keep looking, but without anything more definitive to go on we're just firing into the dark here."

-x-

After the call ended Ego was quick to vanish again, apparently having completely lost interest in schooling Peter for the day. Peter was caught between being relieved at getting some time away from him and frustrated that he wasn't there to answer questions and provide help while he was learning to use the Light.

Gamora, Groot, and Mantis returned to their meditation while Peter returned to fiddling with the Light, but with Nebula and Drax still not returned and the rest of his crew busy doing nothing, that quickly grew boring as well.

"I'm going to take a walk," he announced.

Gamora gave him a brief nod but made no other indication she had heard him.

It was nice she was finally talking to him, but the businesslike politeness she was treating him with was a little disheartening. He couldn't really blame her after everything that had gone wrong for her lately; her shattered mind, her missing parents, and the obvious unpleasant feelings between her and her sister... Maybe later he could catch her alone and try to cheer her up. Right now she was busy, and not interrupting her meditation for his 'shenanigans' was a lesson he had learned the hard way back home.

Peter pulled out his Walkman, popped on the headphones and struck out down a pathway he'd never been down before which lead in the general direction Nebula and Drax had wandered off in. The path wound a scenic route around the canyon's edge for a ways and Peter found himself wanting to find a way across to the other side himself. The edge was tall and steep, but this was just the sort of thing the rockets on his boots were good for. The rush of the jump off the cliff's edge and free fall was enough to get him grinning again and he couldn't help the dance in his steps as he cut through the thick forest below towards where he thought Ego's ship was docked and Rocket would be.

As he meandered through the strangely clean and quiet forest he began toying with the prospect of making fire again. He kept the Light to small bundles this time, hoping to avoid a repeat of the earlier disaster.

The sun crept low across the sky. It was still a ways off from setting, but the canyon was cast in shadow and Peter had achieved something almost like flame, maybe closer to lightning, when a voice spoke up.

"If you're going to ignore my advice and keep doing that without a brace, at least go do it by the river so you don't burn the whole forest down." Nebula was stepping out from the trees off to his side, looking much more relaxed than she had been when she'd stormed off earlier.

"I'm being careful," he informed her, holding up his hands to show her the rippling ball of colorful light in his palms.

She made a face at his creation, clearly unimpressed. "What are you doing down here? Did you manage to contact Eternity?"

"No." Peter slumped his shoulders and let the ball of light flicker out of existence. "Where's Drax?"

"He wanted to return before dinner. Don't change the subject. Did you even try, or have you been wandering around trying to start forest fires since I left?"

"I tried!" Peter said defensively, a feint crack in his voice which he quickly tried to cover up. "For a while. It wasn't working, so I figured this would be more productive..."

"But why are you down here?"

"I was hoping I could run into Rocket. It's been two days now -Two and a half- and we haven't seen him." Nebula quirked a brow and he amended; "Well, I haven't."

"And you won't unless he wants you to. He'll hear your stomping clicks away and be long gone before you get there. Go back to the court and keep trying to find a way to contact this entity of yours."

Peter let out a low groan and flopped down onto a nearby rock. "It's so booooring," he heaved. "I was trying for at least an hour, but nothing was happening. No stars, no voices, no creepy feeling of being watched or sound of digging or any of the other usual stuff that comes with him. Just the cold hard stone making my back hurt and my butt go numb."

A look crossed Nebula's face. "Stars...?" she murmured to herself, bringing one hand up towards her face and getting that faraway look again. "And digging... Have you tried using the Light while you meditate?"

"What? Isn't that, like, counter productive?"

"You said that the last time you saw Eternity-the clearest time- was after Ego did something that was supposed to amplify your connection to the Light. And Eternity himself told you that his ability to communicate with you was dependent on the strength of that connection. He also said that he wasn't allowed to interact with this plane of existence..."

"Yeeeees?" Peter said slowly, wishing he could understand her better when she started talking like this. She was as bad as Rocket talking tech sometimes.

Nebula rolled her eyes at his confusion. "He can't enter this plane of existence," she repeated slowly, "so he needs you to step outside of it. If the Light is one of these alternate planes of existence which a Celestial has access to, then maybe you can use it to bridge the gap. Meet him half-way."

"Oh. Oh! I think I get it!" Peter leaped back to his feet, grinning. "Yeah, that could be worth a shot. Come on!" he said, waving her after himself as he jogged back the way he had come.

"Now where are you going?" Her face was screwed up in suspicion, but she followed after him, if somewhat reluctantly.

"To give it a try. There's a nice spot just back here. Not far." He'd passed a small creek a couple minutes back, with a bank that was carpeted in a plush moss. The moss was slick in some places, and he'd slipped and nearly face-planted into the creek climbing over it. If he was going to be stuck sitting on the forest floor, however, he'd rather do it there than in the hard dirt.

The creek side was just as he remembered it, and he quickly found himself a place where the moss had grown over a somewhat flat rock near a broad pool. It was high enough above the water to be not too damp. Nebula paused to lean against a nearby tree and watched silently as he settled into the familiar pose Gamora had taught him and began breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. It took a while to calm his racing heart and longer still to learn how to reach out toward the Light instead of drawing it towards him. The air was growing steadily chillier when he thought he finally felt something familiar. A spark of excitement distracted him and the tenuous connection snapped.

"Uuuuugh!" Peter let out a long groan and dropped his head. "I don't think this working either."

"No. Keep trying."

Peter glanced up to see Nebula was staring at him with a strange intensity flickering in her eyes.

"I think it was working. Try again."

"Okay," he said after a pause, straightening back up and reaching out again for the Light. This time when he brushed up against the Light, it felt like something was reaching back for him. The sensation almost reminded him of when he'd been swept away in Cosmo's connection to Gamora, but this time when the Light flooded into his veins and swept him up it was less intense.

"What a clever little mortal," a voice rumbled through the silence and Peter's eyes flew open to find the evening forest around him had melted away, replaced with an open sky filled with vibrant galaxies. The small patch of stream bank he sat on drifted through the empty space. When he glanced down at the stream burbling at his side, the water was filled with shards of light and glowed with a strange warmth.

Nebula was still leaning against the tree across from where he sat cross-legged on the mossy stone, the only tree remaining in this new place, but when he looked up to ask her if she could see all of this as well, he realized it wasn't Nebula after all.

"Eternity?" Peter asked.

The blacks of Nebula's eyes were nearly overflowing with their own universe of stars as she watched him curiously. "Hello again, Peter."

"It worked," he breathed, a smile splitting on his face.

Nebula's head tilted as her lips curled in amusement. "Yes," Eternity drawled, "It did. Now why don't we finally have a real talk? Just you and me?"

End