As he plummeted, Lynn's eyes reflected the countless enormous roots crisscrossing below.
By chance.
He seemed to glimpse a somewhat familiar figure racing toward him across the distant sky and hear that familiar voice coming through his sensors.
"Prepare for consciousness upload-"
"Quick-"
"Little Refrigerator, can you hear me?! The Mother Tree of Desire has entered the fray-abandon your current bodies-return to the Hive immediately-hurry!"
That voice grew urgent.
But Lynn ignored it.
He let himself fall, his eyes reflecting the ever-narrowing sky.
He tried to reach out.
All he felt was the light spilling down from those distant heights, slipping through his fingers and falling across his face. Dimly, he seemed to make out that desperate speck of light racing toward him.
But.
Let this be it.
Let's take this chance to never meet again. This should be the best ending, too.
"Little Refrigerator-hurry-consciousness upload-return..."
Crack-
Lynn closed his eyes.
He destroyed his sensors, formally cutting off all exchange of information with the entire cluster.
He turned over as he fell.
His eyes looked mercilessly into that bottomless abyss of crisscrossing branches, leaving only his back to the sky above.
Beneath the brilliant yet steadily narrowing light.
That speck of light kept desperately drawing closer.
But at last.
An enormous vine struck her hard and sent her flying. The vast fissure began to close, and countless roots strangled every Mechanical Unit that had fallen underground, shrouding the entire subterranean expanse in immense darkness.
Just before it closed, Lynn glanced sideways at the sky one last time.
Perhaps it was like a farewell.
There was no elaborate ceremony. Sometimes, a sudden accident alone could determine the course of everything to come.
"I'll remember you, Commander Sister."
"In Little Refrigerator's name."
He glanced in that direction, one last time as the