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The last thing Navi remembered was Aura’s scared face. The realization it had never seen its dear friend like that, frightened. Star was always so bright, kind, sad on a level that Navi was intimately familiar with. That had been the reason for it to reach out to Aura to begin with all those years ago. Seeing their soft features twisted and rough with worry hurt Navi, made them want to reach out to smooth the crease of their brow as reasurance.
It started to, hand outstretched in single mindedness to finally be able to touch its long time friend. But there was a jolt to the escape pod and Aura was gone.
Navi’s body exploded in pain.
Everything went dark.
And everything stayed dark for what seemed like forever, or maybe no time at all? Navi, stuck in some sort of haze, memories and dreams and twisting flashes of things it could not know and never wanted to. There was no solid awareness for so long, so long? Forever and never at the same time. Just flashes and darkness and then all of a sudden there was an Eye. It was big, bigger than anything Navi had ever seen, bigger than anything Navi could conceive. It looked at Navi, through Navi, and blinked. And when the gnarled unforgiving thing opened again, many, many more joined it. Countless more Eyes, all looking at Navi, into Navi, from Navi. They filled the space like sick imitations of stars.
It pushed forward, not walking, but still somehow moving through the inky blackness of the space it was now in. Only knowing it was actually moving because The Eyes were drifting past as it went. Navi tried not to look at them but even when it closed its own eyes their impression burned at the back of its eyelids.
That was when the whispering started. At first it was just a soft buzz, like static, but it grew and grew, crescendoing until every part of the starcore vibrated with the sound, until Navi could not hear its own thoughts.
Panic gripped it, and Navi started calling out for its friend. Aura would save it, it needed to find Aura. That's what would help. Surely if Navi was here, Aura would be too. (It secretly wished they were not, Aura did not deserve to feel the way it was. Aura deserved to only ever know kindness and joy.)
It called and it yelled, voice straining in an attempt to hear itself over the maddening whispers, whispers that said a million different things that Navi could only spare a moment to dwell on before they were gone. Whispers that circled it like a predator as it called out for Aura again and again, begging for help, begging for anyone.
And something answered.
Someone answered.
It said its name was Epsilon, and it spoke louder than any of the dripping whispers could manage. Its voice a soft mechanical chime, the sound like a balm to Navi’s ears. Navi wished the voices would quiet down for just a moment so it could give Epsilon its focus, could explain to him properly what a promise was, and could ask questions it should probably be asking. But they didn't as Navi told him to find Aura, and they didn't as Epsilon promised to help it and the voices morphed with anger, somehow growing immeasurably louder, louder, louder.
Navi realized Epsilon was gone.
Had it scared him off? Had it made the other uncomfortable? Navi was scared, Navi didn't know how to talk to anyone other than Aura. Had it said something wrong? Did it do bad?
Navi had long since stopped moving in the infinite void that stretched out around it. It curled up on itself, the starcore trying to find any solace it could give itself in this space. The whispering was still so loud, and with a cold dread Navi realized that they told secrets, secrets of the universe, secrets of itself, secrets of things that never were and never could be, never should be. Secrets Navi did not want to know and upon hearing would forget instantly. A cursed blessing, to know something so horrible, so life changingly harrowing, and forget it. The imprint of it sticking to your brain and the emotions it incurred staining your soul.
And that's when it heard something it could truly call beautiful. Distance soft tones it was achingly familiar with. Aura’s voice.
Navi could not understand a single word its engineer said, every syllable and sound jumbled and contorted by something it could not comprehend. But it was undeniably its friend, and it clung to the sound. The starcore clung to the sound like it was all that was holding it together. And at that point it sort of was.
But it was brief, fleeting, and the whispers picked up once more. Telling their bastard truths. Not that they ever stopped but Navi was too focused on its friend to think of them. Their gnashing sounds were clouding its head now though.
Time passed, or didn’t, there were no true stars or suns or light to help determine but Navi felt like time was passing. Could see the eyes that always watched blink in and out of being. Not that they stopped existing, Navi was sure, but they became indistinguishable in the pitch black. (Even when they were closed Navi could feel their gaze on its skin). Navi stared back at them all, its own eyes unblinking, some sort of impossible staring contest it always lost. And as if mocking it, the eye it was playing with would blink just after. The whispers taking on a laughing air to them when this happened. It churned Navi’s stomach, made it want to heave but it knew nothing would come up.
Then there was a new break in the whispers, and all of the eyes closed. Or maybe Navi was able to tune them out?
Epsilon’s calming voice graced its ears once more. The starcore was calmer this time talking to him, less overwhelmed, less panicked. Answering its questions and asking its own in turn.
Navi was asleep, in a coma. Aura was safe and awake and unharmed. They were on a planet, not on a ship.
Epsilon had to leave and Navi wished so so dearly that it would stay. But it didn’t say so, it simply let him go.
The eyes opened once more, the cacophony of whispers occupied the space behind its brain once more and Navi could not help but think they had given it a moment of privacy. Of reprieve.
(This would not happen again.)
Navi heard Aura a few more times, this also betraying the passage of time to it. Each one filled it with more hope despite no recognizable words reaching its ears.
Navi hoped star was talking to it. Telling it about the planet around them both in the awake world. Navi hoped star was not as sad as their voice betrayed.
Navi was heartbroken when the sound of Aura's voice came through, laced with tears and wracked with sobs. It kicked into motion once more, trying to move towards the sound of their voice but no matter which way it twisted or turned in this vast eternal chamber its star was always a different way, always too far, always behind it. Navi called out, called back, thrashed their tail and reached out with their arms (arm, there was one arm, it chose not to think about that, it chose to see two.)
Then Navi bumped into something, and Aura’s voice was cut short.
The whispers turned into screams and the eyes closed, surrounding the starcore in gross endless uninterrupted darkness.
Navi could both see and not see the thing in front of it. It blended it, but was also impossibly darker then the void space it filled. The starcore backed away, moving in the other direction as a deep horrible terror unlike any it had experienced here yet started to eat it inside out.
It was in vain however, as curling twisting tendrils locked around its tail and pulled. Pulled Navi back towards it. They were harsh and kind, and turned it to look at the thing once more.
Ceaselessly the thing that was there and was not, real and imaginary, cruel and mocking, sweet and caring, curled around Navi like vines. Holding it, caressing it, swaddling it in a blanket of too hot, too cold (Navi had never felt the cold) too much and too little.
(Navi had been touch starved its whole life but at that moment it never wished to be held again.)
As the thing twined up Navi’s limbs, the starcore saw things in flashes, wonders and devistations alike. It saw fire and rivers of molten rock. It saw endless stars, real ones, and purple castles that grew like trees. It saw a field of obelisks and orbs. Saw a room of sterile white and glass. It saw faces it didn’t know of species it could not name, it tried to call out to them, tried to ask for help, tried to ask who they were, tried to connect to them like how it and Epsilon did.
It saw Aura, it saw itself.
It saw nothing.
Navi saw Everything.
Slowly, too slowly, the images dissipated. Navi found itself free of the beast. It held itself curled away from the ever watching eyes as best it could. Navi’s heart hurt, something in all the visions and still permeating whispers sticking to Navi’s core like glue, coating it. The starcore could not place this feeling, could not bring name to it, it felt like every feeling at once.
Navi felt its desire to leave grow dim. The constant barrage was making it grow weak, was making it grow tired. How could it be tired in a dream?
This was not just a dream though, it knew.
In one last desperate attempt, it reached out for help. Out past the great beyond. It grasped something with a hand that was not there. It pulled. It begged. It spoke.
Epsilon spoke back.
Navi broke down to him, maybe in some sort of longing for comfort, mostly in a desperate attempt to make a last connection with someone, anyone. Navi was not waking up. The things here would not let it leave.
It hoped Epsilon would let Aura know.
But Epsilon would not allow it to stay. Would not allow it to give in.
It comforted Navi, confronted the starcore with facts, with reassurance, with understanding. He told Navi things it didn’t want to hear, but needed to. Navi felt its spark of determination relight. This time when they broke their connection, when the eyes and whispers bombarded it with their possessive perception, Navi was prepared.
Navi took a deep breath, not for air but for resolve. Navi moved to hold itself straighter, it looked down at its remaining hand, trembling, curling it into a fist.
“I want to leave.” Its voice quivered, there wasn't as much force behind the words as Navi wanted so it tried again.
“I want to leave.” This time there was force.
“I want to wake up.” The whispers stuttered, the eyes shrank back.
“I will not be trapped here. I have spent my whole life trapped. I wish to be free.” Navi closed its eyes, pulled its arm back and punched forward.
It felt an impact, but not one it was fully expecting. There was a give to it, but Navi could tell that it did not do any harm, the force behind Navi's fist no more harmful to it then being gently poked. Whatever was under his hand writhed, and Navi opened its eyes, fearful that the thing from before was back.
Instead, Navi was met with a great mound of flesh and teeth smiling down at it.
Rivaling feelings torn at Navi. First awe, awe and a desire to move closer. An allure it was terrified that it had for this thing. It was like nothing Navi had seen and Navi was disconcerted that it wanted to never stop.
Second, a nauseating, maddening fear that pulled at Navi’s mind, tangled in its nerves, begged Navi to turn tail and get away, despite the fact it knew it could not outrun this thing.
It called this place home, Navi did not.
For a painfully tense moment neither Navi nor The Beast of Meat and Mouth moved.
Then it spoke, a symphony or ringing chimes, or grating metal, or crunching tin. (It sounded like the escape pod, in its final moments.)
Navi could not hear words, but still understood these sounds as such.
The being told Navi it could not stay. Told Navi that it was glad for its company, appreciative even. It asked Navi to please excuse the “Young One”, a fondness there laced in a touch of sadness.
It told Navi not to return. That should it, Navi would not be allowed to leave.
It said this as a joke, a sickeningly sweet laugh spilling from its unmoving mouth. Navi did not laugh, but Navi also did not feel like it was a threat, there was no malice, no intimidation outside of what the beast naturally displayed. It was a promise, a fact, simple as that.
The starcore nodded in understanding, pulling its hand away reluctantly, holding it to its chest. It felt too good to be true, being told it would be sent away from here. Navi felt bliss, watching all the eyes around it divert their gazes and close. Navi did the same, looked down at itself, closed its eyes.
For the first time since waking up here, everything was quiet.