For a long moment, Troilus wasn't sure what to think. Well, first of all, he was considering thinking things, which he was pretty sure dead folk didn't do. Gradually, he became more aware of sensations next to his thoughts—stars above, the neck pain. He shifted, his body lighting up with all kinds of pain cues from being curled up in apparently restless sleep. Damnit, couldn't he have stayed dead, like everyone else? Wait.

He sat up abruptly and fell right out of his bed, adding new starbursts of sharp pain to resonate next to the long, deep aches of a messy sleep. Sucking in a deep breath, he moved more carefully and slowly righted himself in order to stretch. Several bones popped and cracked and he groaned loudly as many of the aches vanished.

Massaging the back of his neck, he pushed his door open and rushed through his home, to the outdoors, hoping against hope that if he woke up, maybe some others had, too—

But planet Troilus was as silent and empty as it had been the day he'd given up. Perhaps even emptier. At least there had still been a few insects buzzing around at the time.

No longer.

The silence seemed to magnify, to taunt him. Why was he still awake? Alive? Why? Everything else was ******** dead, didn't he deserve the same peace? Was he destined to suffer? Surely that couldn't be his job as a senshi. What could he even do anymore? Nothing lived. Nobody lived.

He sank to his knees and cried anew for the loss of his sweet son and adorable husband, for the loss of his planet, for the loss of everything he ever held near and dear.

Why was he still alive, when none of his family were? Seiche, Taran, his cousin Ryla, his friend Heibing—the sobs wracked his body thoroughly until he was all dried up again, feeling shriveled and small and worthless. He rubbed his eyes free of the dirt of tears and looked up at the sky, shockingly still full of so many stars that it took his breath away.

The longer he stared... the more sure he was that... There! Yes! A comet, traveling the sky, and it felt magical, he could tell, and excitement swelled in his chest—would there be other survivors? Someone he could find?—he reached out for it with all his heart, all his magic, and instantly was swept away in a dizzying warp of magic that pulled him from Troilus, his home, down

Down

Down to Earth. He blinked at the suddenness of it, of the life around him, the insects quietly chirping and buzzing and birds making odd birdy noises he couldn't place right away and the noise of life—other life—he knew a machine when he heard one, and where there were machines, there were probably people operating them, so that meant there were people around here, and—

He lurched to his feet and began sprinting through the trees, the park, eyes darting around to find even a glimpse of someone. A person. He needed to see one. To know he wasn't alone in all the universe.

Surely there would be someone out this late, right?