#so it's equally insane for her to take Briala back

[linka-from-captain-planet]

I've seen a sentiment of "it doesn't make sense for Briala to take Celene back in WHWE" often but imo, it makes perfect sense because it's Briala and Celene we're talking about: a pair of codependent weirdos who have been obsessed with each other since childhood, who are still delusionally in love despite nuclear levels of mutual betrayal. They are birds of a feather, peas in a pod, either side of the same coin, a terminal case of the matched freak. Yes Celene did all that, but she did it to the one (1) person in the universe capable of understanding at the sub-molecular level and coping with it.

What Briala needs from Celene at that point isn't a time machine, but reassurance that things will be meaningfully different this time - no Game, no pussyfooting, no relegating Briala to the shadows to do the dirty work while Celene moves chess pieces a millimeter at a time when nobody's looking. And when given a slice of an opportunity, Celene immediately, and enthusiastically, and openly shows up for her in a huge way. Realistically they probably would have taken a much flimsier excuse to crawl back under each other's skin, but they actually manage to resolve their main conflicts and lay a foundation for something approaching a real life together