Sunny sat rigidly between his parents, the familiar, comforting weight of the moment pressing in. He watched his mother place the lit candle on the cake before him—a cake that smelled impossibly sweet, cloying in a way that should have been beautiful but felt, increasingly, like a shroud.

​"Happy 20th birthday, Son," his mother said, her smile a beacon of warmth and familiarity. "Make a wish."

​He glanced at her, then his father, then Julie, sitting across the small table. He stared down at the flame, its light steady and unwavering, a silent sentinel in this perfect, small world.

​'Sunny!! Wake up!! We need you!!!'

​The voice, inaudible to anyone else, ripped through the pleasant hum of the illusion. It was closer this time, sharp, like a sliver of glass cutting through silk, and tinged with a raw desperation that broke through the fabricated calm.

​'Who owns that voice?' Sunny looked wildly around the small, cozy room, the impeccable facade of his peace shattering like fragile glass.

​"What happened, Sunny? You look lost from the start, is something wrong?" Julie asked, her brow furrowed with a genuine, gentle worry.

​"Um..." Sunny shook his head, a desperate attempt to silence the intrusive call and just do the simple, requested thing: blow out the candle. But his resolve faltered. His hand trembled as he reached for the flame.

​"Make a wish, Son," his father urged, his own smile unwavering, an anchor of unshakeable parental expectation.

​"I... I wish...?"

​'Dad!! Don't make a wish!! If you do, you will be trapped forever!! We need you!! We all need you!!!'

​Sunny froze. The voice was Ellen's, high and piercing, cutting through the fog of his grief and desire. He clutched his skull as a dam broke, releasing a torrent of true, hard-won memories—the stark, vital world of Eldoria; Josephine's fierce, protective strength; Ellen's wide-eyed innocence and trust; Nioh's steadfast, silent loyalty; Star's smile, Jinx's audacious challenge; every face and every soul he had sworn to protect. They flashed in a blinding, painful succession.

​"What happened, Son?" His mother stood up, shock and a nascent fear etching her perfect face.

​"Sunny! Are you okay? Do you need to see a doctor?" Julie asked, true panic spiking her voice.

​"You..." Sunny began, his voice a hoarse, unused instrument, "You all aren't real." He squeezed his eyes shut, a plea for the strength to reject this heaven.

​"You all aren't real!" he repeated, the words solidifying the truth in his mind, replacing the sweet illusion with the bitter necessity of his life.

​The three figures exchanged quick, subtle glances—then looked back at him.

​"What are you saying? We are here with you. We are more than real," his father insisted. He picked up a brightly wrapped present, offering a distraction:

"You should open your present."

​Sunny snapped his eyes open. He looked past Julie, who sat directly across from him, and saw them. They were faint, ethereal forms shimmering at the edges of the room: Josephine, Ellen, Star, Nioh, and Jinx. They were his anchors, spectral hands stretched toward him, their expressions, desperate, pleading.

​He slowly stood up. His family—the illusion—rose with him, their initial confusion now morphing into a sorrowful understanding as he walked toward the group of ghostly figures.

​Sunny stopped before Josephine and the rest. He turned back to his mother, father, and Julie, his heart a heavy, aching stone in his chest.

​"Mum, Dad, Julie... I love you all. That is the one true thing about this place," he confessed, his voice low, filled with profound, heart-wrenching sorrow.

"But I must accept reality. You all are gone, and I've missed you more than I can ever say." He exhaled sadly, letting the grief for them settle one last time.

​"In the past, I would have done anything to keep this. This reality, this illusion. I would have happily accepted this peace and forgotten everything else." He looked over his shoulder at the waiting phantoms of his true, living family—the ones he had chosen.

​"But... I have my own family now. I am sorry again... Wherever you are now, I hope you understand that I have a job to finish."

​"Oh, dear." His mother walked toward him, not with the coldness of an illusion, but with the boundless love of a mother. She cupped his cheeks with both hands. Her touch felt impossibly warm, heartbreakingly real.

​"You will always be my boy, no matter what you do, or how you do it. I don't care who you are now, or what you have become," she said, her voice a pure vessel of unconditional love.

"I am just happy you found your peace and family... a bond so strong it reached you here." She kissed his forehead, a tear slipping from her eye.

​"I will always love you, my baby boy."

​Sunny fought back the wave of tears that threatened to drown him, nodding.

"Thanks, Mum." It was his final goodbye.

​"Go, my boy," his father said, stepping forward with a proud, tear-filled smile.

"We are proud of you. A man has to protect what he loves! You must protect them to the very end." He held his hand out, a gesture of blessing.

​Julie wiped a tear from her eye, forcing a tremulous, accepting smile. "I'm sorry for leaving you in the past, and I'm happy you've found someone new, who loves you to the very end. Stay safe, Sunny... We will be with you forever."

​Sunny nodded, locking their selfless images into his memory one last time. He had been offered everything he ever wanted, and he was choosing the hardship of duty and the love of his chosen family. He turned, facing the ethereal figures of his family, their hands still reaching out, an urgent promise of reality.

​He slowly raised both his hands and placed them on the outstretched palms of Josephine and Ellen.

​WHOOSH!

​A blinding, fierce, cleansing white light erupted from the ground, enveloping Sunny in a wave of power. He looked over his shoulder one last time, seeing the three figures of his past—his first family—smiling sadly, proudly in the brilliant glare, before he was wrenched from the room, their beautiful illusion dissolving into nothingness.

______

​[On The Island.]

​Ash sat on the shore, staring at the sea, which had obediently flowed back into its basin, returning the desolate landscape to normal. The magic was gone, the challenge over.

​Beside her, Sunny lay unconscious on the sand, looking smaller, more fragile than the determined man who had entered the illusion. On the lone, twisted tree, Elemental Prism sat, her eyes closed, radiating a quiet, profound tranquility.

​"When will he wake up?! It has been a day already!" Ash demanded, looking over her shoulder at the girl on the tree, her patience worn thin. Every hour spent waiting was an hour closer to the destruction of her tribe.

​Elemental Prism slowly opened her wise, unsettling eyes and glanced at Sunny's still form, a flicker of awe crossing her face.

​"He actually did it," she muttered, a trace of wonder in her voice. "He chose them. What a guy."

​"HAHH!!"

​Sunny gasped, shooting bolt upright. He took a heavy, ragged breath, inhaling the salt air, seeing the familiar beach, the real, merciless sea, and the real little girl on the tree. He then collapsed backward onto the sand, utterly spent, but wholly present.

​'That was... so freaking real. Thank you, Josephine, all of you.' He thought, a wave of profound gratitude and fierce, unshakeable determination washing over him. He was back, whole, and his heart was a furnace of purpose. The true battle was just beginning.

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