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Sitting on the cool, dry grasses of the neighborhood park, one Cosmos Knight leaned heavily against his Chronos counterpart. Both had gazed up towards the sky, where space lay in wait, arms open in a gesture of welcoming. Gravina shied away from that welcome, terribly afraid of rejection. The sense that he was a tainted soul despite his best efforts and that space would be hostile to his presence weighed heavily on his mind. It was this that kept Gravina from visiting his Wonder since his rebirth.

He'd been a human less than a year, and a Knight even less time than that, after all.

"...Manu, are... are you sure? What if... what if I don't have a Wonder like you do? I mean, I'm sure yours is much nicer anyway. You're much nicer. I bet... I bet your Wonder is just perfect. I don't think space would like me anyway. I've... got more work to do. Maybe... we could just go on patrol tonight, instead?"

Maybe Manu would allow the trip to the Wonder to slip on by. Gravina had snuggled into him, enjoying his warmth and his soothing presence. Manu may not have been particularly powerful when compared to a Captain or a Super Senshi, but that matter not to Gravina. Manu -- and Roddy -- were just perfect the way they were.

"...or! Or, I could make you that steak dinner you've been talking about. Yes, wouldn't that be lovely?"

Gravina's puffy head slumped. Trying to distract Roddy with food didn't work this time.

This time, he'd have to go into space, a place he wasn't so sure would welcome him.

Cosmos and the Council giving him a miracle or not, would space feel the same way?

"They called her Princess Cosmos too, but... I don't know, I just call her mom. She's... she's really something, Manu. She's something I can't really explain. She looks young but she feels ancient, but... not in a wrinkly way? A very wise way, like she knows so much more than she can tell us..." Grasping Manu's hand, Gravina used the leverage to pull himself to his feet. Pressing himself into the Chronos Knight's broad chest, Gravina sighed deeply. "A movie marathon sounds great. I just... thank you, for believing in me..."

The Cosmos Knight closed his eyes, remembering how Manu explained one's Wonder called to them - the knight just had to listen. Perhaps Gravina was too absorbed in mundane things like grocery shopping and making sure Roddy and Staccato were well-fed and happy. He loved to take care of them... Now, the stars above were twinkling, singing a gentle melody that Gravina shied away from for a moment.

"I'll try.. I'll try my best..."

Closing his eyes, releasing a held breath of anxiety and holding onto Manu's arm, the Cosmos Knight reached out to the stars from which he was reborn.

--------

The world shifted around them in a slurry of color and sound, fading out from the familiar and reassembling into marble steps and a great expanse of the cosmos itself. The wide, gentle and pale marble staircase rose slowly to towering doors and the walls of a grand cathedral. Truly, it looked as though the church floating in a sea of space, a miraculous and starry river cutting right through its center. Indeed, right in the middle of the staircase, the marble (or whatever material it might have been made of) was semi-transparent, the flowing river visible through it.

Gravina had kept himself nestled in Manu's chest during the trip, hands over his face for fear that space would incinerate him on the spot for polluting its magnificence with his presence, but... the knight was perplexed to find that he was in one piece when their feet touched the base of the stairs.

Curious, Gravina opened his eyes and turned around, breath taken from him at the sight of such a beautiful church.

Was this... his Wonder?

"R-roddy? Is... is this...?"

Gingerly, the Cosmos Knight wandered up the steps, slowly, one at a time, to press his hand on the huge wooden doors. Inlaid with sparkling metal and carvings displaying vast amounts of stars throughout, the doors stood strong for the time being. Gravina's presence seemed to be the key for the lock, for his palm on the door caused the stars to briefly light before a loud THUNK sounded, the knight nearly being startled enough to fall back down the stairs. With very little effort, Gravina was able to push the door ajar.

He dare not enter yet. Turning back to Manu, the puffy knight started to panic. "UMM?? M-manu? What now?!"

It took a few moments of heavy breathing while Gravina's face was stuffed into Manu's mighty chest before the Cosmos Knight felt brave enough to turn around and face the unsettling quiet of the wonder. Indeed, it was a cathedral with a glorious starry river flowing beneath it, all nestled in the fabric of space itself. There was no land to which it was anchored, which was anxiety-inducing in and of itself. Since the loud noise emanating from the door, no other sounds had been heard save for the soft bubbling of the sparkling river.

Drawing a breath, Gravina nibbled on his lower lip in nervousness. No, he couldn't run away from this, despite his fear of being blasted out of the cathedral for having been Sin Incarnate not a year before. No, he was a Knight now, and Cosmos tasked him with a very important job. He wouldn't let her down, and he wouldn't let Manu down, either.

"Right. Right. Yes! What... what does this place say to me! What do I want to do!"

I want to go home and hide under the bed but I can't do that... I have to get through this. It's just a building, right? It can't be that bad. It's just a building... floating in space... where we can breathe somehow... because magic...

...okay just don't look over the side, you'll be fine.

Right.

Balling his hands into fists, Gravina put on his best Game Face.

>:C

Gravina took a few nervous steps towards the door and placed his hand upon it, intent on pushing it open. He had to be brave, not only for himself, but for Manu and for Mother Cosmos. With one motion, the Knight pushed against the door and found it to be heavier than he expected - ancient, unmoved for centuries, he assumed. Gravina did not know much about architecture, but being a cathedral in space, Earth architecture may not have been a good equivalent anyway.

The first furtive steps inside the cathedral were met with darkness and a strange, crisp and cool scent. The starry, sparkling water originated from somewhere deeper in the cathedral, was the only source of pinpricks of light. Huge and towering windows of stained glass bookended a long and wide corridor, both sides sporting matching pews from what Gravina could tell. He knew, somehow, instinctively, that his Wonder was not the cathedral, but the river than ran right through it.

"...Manu? I think... I think it's okay. Would you come inside with me?"

Strangely, Gravina felt at home here. It was not the same warmth that filled his heart when watching movies on the couch with Roddy and Staccato. This was a different kind of home, and the knight found he didn't quite understand it. "It's... not cold in here. It's awfully... not empty, but... quiet? I'm... not sure what I was expecting...?"

Once Manu had set foot inside the cathedral proper, greeted by the sparkling river, the rows of pews, stained glass windows, vaulted ceilings and furtive, nervous Knight for which the Wonder was named, something miraculous happened. An almost divine light began to glow from outside the cathedral, as if the morning sun had shone down upon it, casting rainbows of light upon them both. Gravina turned around, startled for a moment and stunned into awed silence.

The Knight of Cosmos couldn't help the joyous grin that crept across his features. Turning to look up at Manu, who shone so brilliantly in the rainbow light of the stained glass windows, he stood up on his tiptoes to plant a kiss on the chiseled chin of his boyfriend.

"I think... I think, it's welcoming you, too."

Perhaps it was the fact that the windows were alight at their presence, or perhaps it was the growing confidence of having Manu's strong support there with him, but Gravina felt himself becoming ever more curious about the cathedral. Spinning on his heel, the knight nodded to himself. Yes! We're safe here, and... here seems... sort of... familiar? But not... If Manu is here, though, then everything will be fine. We'll explore a little bit, and then head back for dinner or something! Yes!

Before them stood a pulpit of sorts, the same kind of podium that might be found in any modern church. On either side of the aisle were many pews, but what they were made of, Gravina could not identify right away. Maybe this was a church and people came here to listen to stories about the stars? At that moment, he wasn't sure, and didn't really mind at all.

"Manu! Would you mind taking a look around? I'd like to explore... just a little bit, especially now that everything's light and sunny. I just--"

Something prickled at the back of his mind, cutting Gravina off mid-sentence. Curiously, he tilted his head in the direction of the pulpit and wandered towards it without having a concrete reason as to why. Upon the flat podium, where one may lay flat a book from which to read aloud, was a small ring. It was golden, much like Gravina's outfit, and engraved upon its middle portion was Cosmos' star.

"Oh! Manu, there's jewelry here..."

Gingerly and without thought, Gravina picked it up to try on. Strangely, the ring fit perfectly on the ring finger of his right hand.

Oh, this might be thievery? But... this felt familiar too, just like the cathedral. "...do you... think I should keep this, Manu? Well, it must be important, if it's still here. It is lovely, isn't it?"

Giddy would have been the best way to describe Gravina's reaction to the lips pressed to his hand. Pressing his head into Manu's chest, Gravina tittered and covered his face like a schoolgirl facing her first crush. "Ah-well--you... stop that, Manu. You're very distracting!"

Manu knew it, too. Roddy was well known to wink at his boyfriend at the most inopportune times, causing Julian to fumble dishes or laundry or make embarrassing faces.

Still blushing terribly, the knight of Cosmos pulled away with his hands on his cheeks. The starry ring he bore on his finger felt as though it belonged there, which was an odd but comforting feeling. Beneath their feet, the Wonder hummed happily, as if whole again. Its knight was busy pawing over every surface, every nook and cranny, every pillar and pew and post. Most everything seemed pristine despite being thousands of years old. Was it always closed off like this?

Behind the pulpit, where the river disappeared into a wall, there was a long corridor heading left and right. Gravina thought it prudent to explore just about everything they could get their hands on. Did he live here, in a life long passed? "Oh, Manu! Look, there's a small bedroom back here! Someone must have lived here! Maybe they took care of the cathedral...?"

Maybe... it was me?

"We could have a picnic here, sometime. Well, actually." Clicking his tongue, Gravina shifted his weight back and forth while speaking to Manu through the echoes off the walls. "I think your Wonder is better suited for picnics! We should have a picnic sometime, Manu. And take a nap in the wildflowers. Doesn't that sound lovely?"

Manu had a good point - it would seem awfully lonely to live here all alone. But maybe the him of the past liked to be alone?

Gravina blinked.

How did he know that he used to be here? In the past? It was a very odd sensation of deja vu, and the knight stood there in the hallway with a dumbfounded look on his face for a few moments, attempting to parse it all. He twiddled his fingers while casting his blue gaze over the bedroom's contents - a cluster of crystals at the foot of a small bed that might have fit two if they were very snuggly... A small window, equally small bookshelf... Very few personal effects that Gravina could see, but he was drawn to the cluster of strange crystals like a moth to flame.

"Hmm... Manu, could you come here, please?" His voice trailed off as he entered the room, standing beside the clear crystalline structures that were at high as his knee. The puffy-haired knight was almost certain he knew what function the crystals played, but wasn't sure how he knew. His boots were quiet against what appeared to be a marble floor. Marble was cold, so...

Maybe a picnic in here wouldn't be so bad, if the floor wasn't so cold. With the crystals embedded into the floor itself (how did they get that way?), Gravina had an idea. "I think... a picnic would be nice, if it got a little warmer in here. I think--" Reaching out gingerly, Gravina's hand passed over the cluster of crystals...

...and they began to glow! It was a warm orange glow which started to fill the room with comfortable heat. The Knight could feel it in his legs, soothing. "Ah! Look at this! It's so cozy now~"