Pechi curled around Cassie, her paintings knocked out against the walls. It was fine, she could fix it later, but no matter how many times Pechi set up the usual orientation of figures, she found herself curling back into Cassie's lap and pushing everyone else out of the way. She knew that the Fauna could not feel her beneath her body of stone, nor hear her voice, but she had made a promise of kinds, and if Pechi was only going to keep one promise in her whole life, she wanted it to be this one. She moved her head up towards the Fauna's downturned muzzle, which was still lowered in deep, reflective sadness. "And th-then A-Alexa threw m-me through th-the portal. We've b-b-been on b-b-board since, s-s-since the n-n-next one is even f-f-further away, b-b-but it's fine. We're b-b-burning hyperfuel. I do-don't know how the j-jump back is g-g-going to work." Pechi looked across the room at an old cannister she'd put up a while ago. She'd heard you could use any magically enhanced fuel (that is, the glowing stuff) to catalyse magical reactions, which she'd need if she wanted to go through with this.

She wanted to go through with this.

The hall started pinging again. Pechi felt herself grow weightless as the room seemed to stop, dozens of plants moving forwards on their shelves. Half were already propped up by items that worked like doorsteps, keeping them in their places, but one tree crashed to the ground with a noise that broke Pechi's tragile heart. The Canira's tail spiked violently. "I-it's been doing that," admitted Pechi. "F-for a while now. It sh-should c-c-come back on b-b-before the g-g-gravity gets too bad, but m-maybe I should..."

"Backup gravity's not working," called a voice down the hall. Pechi got out some more of her glue and started pinning things back down. Most everything was already in place, which was unfortunate, because it meant she had to arrange around these items when reorganizing, but it was a necessary sacrifice. Then the petrified crew began to float as well, and Pechi grit her teeth, kicking herself out into the hall. At the same time, she fell and the hall began to move again, causing her to fall against the ground. There was a violent clatter back in her room.

Pechi snapped, "Wh-what's going on out here? D-Dusty?"

"You've won," Dusty said, earnestly, already outside her room. "I'll give you that."

"Wh-what's happened?" asked Pechi.

A string of lights flickered off and on again, doing the wave throughout the room. "Emergency recalibrations," Dusty admitted. "It would appear that the ship is trying to figure out how best to use its remaining fuel, but certain... modifications have made it difficult for it to function."

"C-c-certain modifications inc-cluding th-the thousands of th-things you f-f-fixed haphazardly?"

"I have rerouted a lot of power to semi-functional systems in my time," Dusty said, as if this was an interesting though inevitably trivial anecdote that might illicit some kind of humor from his audience. "See, that goes against most principles, but is a quick enough fix to keep things operational? I would imagine so."

"A-a-are you j-just going t-t-to tell me about this, or are y-you trying to f-f-fix it?" snapped Pechi. "W-w-we could p-p-perish up here, d-don't you re-realize that? Y-y-your one job i-is t-t-to keep us s-s-safe so we c-c-can keep the mission going, b-b-but no, you c-c-can't even do that right! You've only ever been on t-t-two or t-three missions, you're hardly p-part of the cast, and y-you st-still have the audacity to ap-p-proach me like this is all s-s-some silly joke! A-a-are you even t-t-taking this seriously right now?"

Dusty desperately searched Pechi's face, his dark eyes suddenly fearful. "I want to be able to," he admitted, "But it's so hard, and it gets harder every day."

Pechi glared. "It's hard f-f-for all of us. G-g-get over yourself."

She descended onto the inner floor, where Alexa and the ship's computers seemed to be engaged in fierce debate that demanded rapid button mashing and continuous snarls along the lines of "There are better numbers than that, and I will rip them out of you."

"Y-y-you can't th-threaten it into d-d-doing what you w-want," Pechi warned. "It's n-not one of us."

"Damnit! I'm so close, it's only that we don't have enough-- we need some kind of magical organic matter to throw into the reactor, and that should be enough to get the ships operational--" Alexa's eyes gleamed as her green gaze caught Pechi. Dusty emerged down the other elevator, looking sheepish (and let him remain so, for all that Pechi cared), and Alexa snapped to the latter, "Look over the controls. Pechi gave me an idea."

"Organic matter?" asked Dusty.

Pechi bolted up. "N-no!"

Alexa was up the first elevator and Pechi was up the other just as quick, the two of them racing into the room at the same time, the golden Canis muscling her out of the way. "Survival situation. Step away from the plants, Pechi." Alexa breathed. "There are... there are some magical signatures on these. Strong ones."

"No, p-p-please don't move anything, d-d-d-don't touch anything, don't--" Pechi whined.

Alexa's telekinesis strained the bottom bench on the left side, which curved upwards as Alexa tried to pull one of the seraph-laden plants from it, specifically Hemera's. She threw herself against Alexa's side, going for the Canis's neck, but it was impossible to reach it beneath the giant mane that covered her. She tore through fur, her voice chattering in her throat as she sobbed with desperation.

Alexa merely twitched away from Pechi's frantic attacks on her, completely unharmed. "Why are you so sentimental about all of this garbage?"

"I c-c-can't help it," admitted Pechi. "I know I'm pathetic. P-please don't touch it. You can't hurt them. Don't hurt them. They're mine."

Alexa's face dropped. "What's in these plants, Pechi? What do you do in this room?"

The room stopped spinning again with a swift jerk, like an animal trying to throw its rider, and several of Pechi's belongings fell against the ground, including a vase containing several organs, which splattered and hissed as their glass body left them. The gravity started just as soon, causing everything to clatter again. Alexa looked at all the garbage and at last said, "What did you intend to do with--"

Dusty busted open the door.

"Why aren't you at the panel?" asked Alexa, in all her electric fury. Pechi cringed.

"Quick interjection, but I managed to stabilize everything-- that is, there's nothing I can do right now. You should know, though, that we have approximately twelve beats to a total core meltdown."

Pechi's jaw hung open. "W-w-we what?!"

Dusty said, "Does anyone have any incredibly potent magical catalyser we could use to fix the current core? More importantly, does anyone have a way into the core? That room is a labyrinth, and right now, it's on the verge of blowing apart. We're not supposed to run manual repairs on the core, but if someone could telekinetically move said nonexistent catalyser through the pipes--"

Alexa twitched.

"You'd lose control. Telekinesis becomes less stable in a magically treacherous area, and th-the level of fission g-g-going on at the core is g-g-going to be erratic and d-dangerous. We only h-have one sh-shot at this."

"Well, it was just a hypothetical," Dusty said.

"No," Pechi interjected.

"What?"

"No," Pechi said softly. "I have one of those. A c-c-catalyzer. I'd ha-had fu-fuel on board for p-p-personal purposes, b-b-but..."

Dusty closed his eyes.

"I th-think I could m-manage the v-v-vents in the c-c-core room. It's n-next to your 'laboratory'?" Pechi asked Dusty.

"You can't do this for us. You know what will happen," Dusty warned.

Pechi looked over her room. She knew she could see G'ana if the windows if she wanted. Two worlds was too long to hold out, apparently. Pechi felt herself seize up with a tremendous want, looking over her beloved items, and then at last turning to the petrified crew. The time was ticking down around them. They were likely eight beats out now, maybe less. Only Cassie would know a specific like that. With paws of lead, Pechi dragged herself past Tabai, who had been right about her but was wrong, now, and grabbed the catalyser.

"I-I'm not doing it for you," Pechi said.

"That's reasonable," Alexa agreed.

Pechi said, "You'll take care of them, though, right? You'll w-win?"

Alexa looked to Dusty. The Canis looked more desolate than Pechi had ever seen him. "Are we seriously going to let you sentence yourself to death?"

"Th-there's one th-thing magic and s-s-science have a-a-always had in c-c-common," Pechi said. "Y-y-you have to b-b-beware of quick fixes, Dusty. Th-the real an-answer is always th-the one you do-don't want to hear. I k-know that now." She looked to Alexa and Dusty, trying to force a smile, but she couldn't even manage it. Cassie was watching her from behind stone eyes, and Pechi wished in her heart of hearts that Cassie could be proud of her, that Cassie could know that she was giving up on all the awful things that disgusted her so much. "Alexa, th-they're j-j-just plants, but m-make sure t-t-to water them, p-please."

Dusty pressed her tail with his paw as she turned to exit. "Pechi," he said, sternly.

Pechi flicked him off. "D-d-do better," she said. "E-e-everyone else d-d-depends on it." Her heart was pacing violently, turning tight circles in her chest, and there was nowhere to run in this long white hallway. The lights had stabilized, the gravity was fine, and they had entered a calm before the storm.

Pechi entered Dusty's garage-like... well, it was a hideout, but she didn't have a more appropriate word for it than that, and turned a right into the core room. Even from the hideout she could sense a green energy beneath the door to the core, sharp and cruel as Alexa's eyes and twice as brilliant, and a grate by its side offered an alternative way in. Pechi, container in mouth, squeezed her way into the passage, which she was almost too thick for. Seasons ago, when she was still taking care of her body, she wouldn't have been able to fit, but now she was thinner than ever. She had been fasting for this moment, perhaps, waiting.

Down in the tunnel, a green light shone in the distance. Pechi's throat hardened, but she continued to press herself through, accelerating as she grew closer. She could feel the painful energy blister around her, settling in the spots where the world of Violence had torn her fur away, and then it was under her fur, too, vibrating through her bloodstream. It was the opposite of petrification. Instead of no sensation, she was experiencing all of it. This was everything, right now, and it seethed through her with intent to turn her back.

Pechi continued.

Coward.

Whole universes would not have deterred her.

It wouldn't be long. She wondered if this was how Cassie felt, or how her family felt as they walked out to the gallows. It was just a short trip, and then she wouldn't be able to tell it was over. If she was petrified, the pain would cease, but Pechi didn't know if she was going to be petrified. It seemed to her now that she might be torn apart altogether, and at least, for once in her life, she could at least claim to have given of her own terms.

The light was waiting at the end of the corridor, dancing before her eyes as it paced from side to side in its centrifuge. It came closer and closer, dangling in front of her, and Pechi felt every atom of her beginning to split apart. It was still too far to throw, and there was that critical moment where she'd need to install it. There would be one second, one chance to make it click, before she had nothing to grab with.

Her body was the most precious thing she owned, so perhaps, by giving it up, she could balance every other greedy thing she had ever done? No, that didn't sound right. Perhaps it didn't matter if it did. It was no longer about her at all.

Pechi closed her eyes tight and lept into the light.