The path forward wasn't blocked.
It was quiet.
A narrow bridge stretched ahead stable, clear, glowing with soft threads of code. But at the base of the threshold, something hovered: a single floating prompt, small and blinking.
> System Checkpoint: Emotional Access Detected
To proceed, submit one linked memory fragment.
Warning: Fragment will be removed from user recall.
Proceed?
Aya stepped forward first, then hesitated. "Does it want us to give up the memory of Jaden?"
Niko read the prompt again. "Not just any memory. One that matters."
Rowan frowned. "That's… cruel."
"It's not punishment," Jaden said, still kneeling at the center of the zone.
---
They stood in silence.
Not because they didn't carebut because they all did.
Deeply.
Kael was the first to break it.
He let out a breath, pulled something from his pocket. A small lid from a can of pineapple stew dented, scorched. He looked at it for a moment.
"He made this garbage for me when I couldn't walk. Said it was awful but nutritious. I threw the spoon at him."
He gave a short laugh, then stepped forward.
"I don't need to remember that to remember he showed up."
He dropped the lid into the light.
The bridge lit a little more.
---
Aya stepped up next.
She reached into her satchel and pulled out a photo torn from an old journal. It was just a corner, mostly faded, but it had a pressed vine and a note in the margin.
> "You don't need to bloom all at once."
Her hands shook slightly.
"I clung to this when I thought I was just... taking up space."
She closed her eyes.
"I think I'll be okay letting this one go now."
The photo disappeared into the light.
Another section of the bridge stabilized.
---
Rowan didn't have anything physical.
But he pulled out a page from his notebook one Jaden had written on without telling him.
> "You're allowed to be wrong. It doesn't make you less."
He looked at the writing for a while, jaw tight.
Then tore it in half, and then in half again, and dropped it in.
"I still remember what it felt like," he said. "That's enough."
---
Niko knelt on the ground.
She didn't speak.
She just took out a drawing.
It was messyscrawled on old packaging paper.
A picture of her, Jaden, and Whiskers. All smiling, like it had actually happened that way.
She placed it in the light without a word.
The drawing faded, and the bridge shimmered again.
---
Only Silas was left.
He hadn't moved.
Jaden looked at him. "You don't have to—"
"I know," Silas said quietly.
He walked forward, slow.
Stopped at the edge of the bridge.
Then reached up and took something from around his neck. A chain. From it hung a tiny trinketan old button from Jaden's hoodie, one Silas had picked up and worn like a joke.
It was scratched. Worthless.
And irreplaceable.
He rolled it between his fingers.
"When I left Heaven, I lost everything," Silas said. "This was the first thing I found that felt like... mine."
Jaden opened his mouth to say somethingbut stayed silent.
Silas stepped forward.
"I won't forget you," he said, voice steady. "Even if I forget this."
He dropped the button into the light.
The bridge locked in place.
---
The System prompt vanished.
No celebration. No sound effect.
Just a small message:
> Access Granted. Welcome Home.
---
They crossed together.
No one spoke as they walked.
But Jaden's eyes met each of theirs.
And even though they had each lost something small, the feeling between them hadn't changed.
It had only grown stronger.
---
End of Chapter 22 :Crossfade
Author's Note:
Me writing this chapter:
"I'll write a peaceful transition scene."
Accidentally makes it emotionally devastating instead
"Let's have them sacrifice something small."
Each memory hits like a truck filled with feelings and trauma stew
"Just a simple System checkpoint."
Turns it into a full-blown found family heartbreak museum
Kael: gives up pineapple stew memories like it's nothing but actually it's everything
Aya: emotional support botanist lets go of hope and still somehow makes us cry
Rowan: quietly burns his own self-doubt on paper
Niko: draws her feelings, drops them into the light, then walks away like a boss
Silas: "Just a silly hoodie button" proceeds to emotionally end me
This chapter was supposed to be calm.
Now I need to lie down in a field of soft vines and emotional damage.