FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 47: Towards an Endless Future

Indy saw Mental Heart Bear's face twist into a psychotic smirk and sensed the energy build up even before it became visible. He gripped his katana in both hands and took off right at Mental Heart, slashing at him as psionic energy poured form his sword. Mental Heart barely had time to throw up a barrier and even then the force of the blow sent Mental Heart flying away.

"We finish this now!" Indy's body became wreathed in blue psionic energy before he took off, vanishing in a flash.

"Indy!" Take Care ran a couple steps as her husband disappeared. "Please come back." She looked down at her returned tummy symbol and wiped her eyes. She couldn't just sit back and wait to see if he never returned and with everything else that happened today her emotions were a wreck. She conjured a cloud car and hopped in and took off.

"Mom? Dad?" Cautious Heart Cat watched her go, then felt Get Well squeeze her shoulder.

"They'll come back, I know they will," she did her best to console her little sister, but even she had her doubts. Cautious Heart just nodded.

OoOoO

Mental Heart finally managed to stop with the Kingdom of Caring merely a small white puff in the distance amongst the sea of clouds and barely had time to get his bearings when Indy appeared, sword held in his left hand and glowing with blue energy.

"Nothing out here. No cities, no bystanders, no victims, just you," he pointed the sword at Mental Heart, "and me. I don't have to worry about hurting anyone except you," The energy around his body flared up, "So I'm going to finish this!"

"If you can!" Mental Heart charged up an orb of orange energy in each hand, what seemed to be a small crack appearing on his forehead, "When I'm finished with you I'll demolish the Kingdom of Caring and kill everyone up there!" He hurled one of the orbs at Indy, who sliced into it, creating a massive explosion! He plowed through the explosion and shot a blue beam at Mental Heart who hurled the other orb at it, creating another explosion between them.

Then Indy was upon him, his katana flashing and slicing at him as he battered at Mental Heart's barrier, only to be forced to dodge away as Mental Heart sliced at him with a blade of psionic energy then fired off a blast at Indy which forced him to dodge then charged at him, swinging for his neck.

Take Care slowed to a stop as soon as she could feel the shockwaves from Indy and Mental Heart's battle. She created a star-o-scope with her tummy symbol and peered through it, trying to watch the fight but could barely even keep up before her eyes started to hurt and she had to put it away. She gripped the car's steering wheel.

"Please, be safe..."

Thankfully, neither of the combatants noticed her as all of their senses were focused on each other, trying to fight attack, defend and counter one another. Blasts and blows peppered the sky, the shockwaves scattering clouds until most of the sky was completely clear.

Indy was already feeling exhausted, each blow sending a lance of pain through his head and his arms when he struck him his sword. His whole body felt like it was on fire and he panted as he slowed to a stop across from Mental Heart, who seemed to be shaking with rage.

"You can't beat me! Why not surrender and make this easy?!" Mental Heart raised a hand, beckoning to Indy.

Indy was about to respond when he saw the crack on Mental Heart's forehead spread. Was it like Futureheart had told them, where in the future Mental Heart was just living psionic energy? He looked down at his hand, feeling a spasm shoot through his arm. Was that the same fate that awaited him?

Mental Heart couldn't read Indy's mind and felt pain lance through his skull. "Stop ignoring me!" He fired off a beam at Indy, which he dodged by flying upwards as the beam disspated.

Indy's mind raced. "No! I won't let you win!" He sheathed his sword and charged right at Mental Heart.

"Let me win?!" Mental Heart grabbed Indy's coat as he came into arm reach. "You aren't 'letting' me do anything! I have more power than you ever will and I'll use it to destroy everything you've ever loved!"

"If all you care about is power then here!" Indy suddenly grabbed Mental Heart's face, "Take all of it!" There was a bright flash of blue light as energy poured into Mental Heart. He cried out both in pain as Indy poured more and more power into him for over a minute before he finally broke off and floated backward, his trajectory wobbly as he tried to stay in the air.

Mental Heart panted as his whole body shook, "This is your power! Now I have more than... than... eeeeuuuurrrggggghhhh!" He grunted and bent over in pain, cracks appearing all over his body.

"That bear from the future told me you didn't have any real control," Indy panted but gave a small smirk, "guess you couldn't handle any more."

"Why you! You! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Mental Heart screamed out as his skin was covered entirely in cracks. Indy used the last of his power to throw up a barrier as psionic energy broke out all over Mental Heart's body and with one last cry, he exploded! Mental Heart was conscious only for a moment afterwards as he felt his senses spreading out and out and out, growing fainter by the second until he was gone.

Indy watched Mental Heart's remains fall to earth then wobbled in mid air and started to fall, his power completely exhausted. He was surprised to hear an engine underneath him then then land in something soft.

"What?" He turned to see Take Care as she threw her arms around him. "Take Care?"

"Don't ever scare me like that again!" Take Care was crying. "I'm just happy you're alright."

Indy did his best to hug her back, but his whole body was sore. Sore yet relieved as a massive burden had been lifted from his shoulders. "I won't. Thank you. Can we go home, please? I need some rest."

"Yes." Take Care let him go long enough to set the car to autopilot back to the Kingdom of Caring, then let him lean against her shoulder and put her arm around his back as they flew home.

"I love you, Take Care."

"I love you to, Indy." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. He wanted to reciprocate, but right now all he could manage was to rest.

Take Care and Indy rejoined the crowd before they went home as everyone calmed down, some even cheering until Brave Heart asked the question they were all thinking, "How will we get along without the Great Wishing Star?"

"We will miss him, and we will keep his memory forever in our hearts", True Heart touched her restored symbol as did everyone else present. A silence hung over the Kingdom of Caring as the horror that had gripped them when they saw the star destroyed resurfaced in their memories, "Now we will have to protect the world with our own power."

"That's right," Noble Heart scooped down to pick up the only two pieces that remained of the Radiant Heart Crystal, each no larger than a raisin, "We'll keep caring together, no matter what happens."

"Then that's how we'll fix the Earth!" Confidence Heart shouted, linking hands with Love Heart and Shimmeringstar while Love Heart took Miracle Heart's hand. Everyone stared linking hands and moving until they were standing in a large ring. No words were said as all their tummy symbols started to glow. Emblems rose up off their symbols and began to spin around until the formed a massive glowing white ring that rose up high then exploded outwards, sweeping across the earth and restring color and light to everything before it faded.

As the glow faded, everyone's symbols had changed slightly with little images of gold or silver filigree around, across or through all of their tummy symbols. After that everyone decided they needed to rest, there was going to be a lot of work to do tomorrow.

OoOoO

Take Care had to deal with a stream of injuries that night starting with Indy and working on the rest of the Magi until she finally collapsed into bed at around 10pm. Un surprisingly she slept a full 12 hours, possibly due to the release of all the stress now that No-Heart was gone and she woke up to find Indy cooking lunch for everyone, albeit just heating up ramen noodles in beef broth with a few vegetables and some meat but she was grateful not to have to think about food.

"Are you sure you should be up, Indy?" she asked as she and her daughters took seats at the table.

"I'm tired, but I can't just stay in bed all day." Indy served four bowls and set them on the table one at a time by hand before slumping into his chair. "But I am completely drained." Before anyone could question it he pointed at his fork and tried to levitate it. It rose a centimeter off the table, wobbled, then dropped back down.

"Are you alright, dad?" Cautious watched as Indy picked up his fork and stirred his ramen to cool it off.

"I gave all my energy to Mental Heart and he overloaded and exploded," Indy spooled some noodles and blew them to let them cool, "I'm going to be out of commission for a while... but I never want to deal with that kind of power backup again."

"So you're not going to be a Magi for a while?" Get Well asked.

Indy slurped up his mouthful and swallowed before he answered, "I'm on leave, my power will come back eventually but I'm not going to let it get out of hand again. I want to be around for all of you for a very long time." He leaned over and gave Take Care a kiss on the cheek.

"That's good. One less thing I have to worry about," Take Care sighed, smiled then dug in.

Cautious Heart finished her food and stood up, "Well then, I'd better get going. A lot of cleanup work to do on Earth."

"I don't envy you, sis," Get Well could help but smirk at her. Cautious Heart just rolled her eyes and left.

OoOoO

After a week of cleanup on earth, the Care Bear Family decided to celebrate their long time victory, a celebration that lasted another week until the arrival of the ship from Lylat. After some negotiations, and diplomatic gymnastics, it was able to land in the Kingdom of Caring to take the Star Fox team and Andross' body back to Lylat. Along with four extra passengers: Soulful Heart Fox, Sweet Heart Pegasus, Renegade Whitewolf and his mate Nova, the latter two having assumed human form for ease of boarding.

Fox showed the remains of Andross, badly scorched but still recognisable, to the doctor onboard, a tomcat.

"Dead, but that's definitely him." The doctor sighed in relief. "A lot of people back in Lylat will rest easier now."

"Good. I was afraid we wouldn't get paid for this. Pepper's going to have to compensate me for the loss of the Great Fox." Fox turned to leave, "Pardon me, I need to make sure they're taking care of my Arwings."

Most of the Care Bear Family as well as the pegasus Fauna, Blue, Ruby, Arrow, White Fang his mate Aurora and their son Starfang had gathered to see their friends and family depart.

Soulful was saying goodbye to Bright Heart and Gentle Heart directly. "I'm going to miss you three," he looked over at the large ship, "I'm going to be surrounded by strangers up there... But to see space like that... I'll be kicking myself if I pass this up."

"I know," Bright Heart patted him on the shoulder, "We'll miss you too."

Eager Heart Ram reached up to the red fox, "Unca Soulful, will I see you again?"

Soulful Heart could help but smile down at the yellow ram, whose horns were partly grown in now. "Don't worry, you will. And your daddy can always send me a message if you want to talk."

"When I'm not helping building advanced technology for everyone to use," Bright Heart chuckled.

Gentle Heart could help herself and swept up Soulful in a tight hug, lifting him off the ground. She was tearing up, "I'm going to miss you so much!"

"Me too! Ack! Gentle set me down!" Gentle Heart blushed slightly a she set the fox down. "I'm never going to get used to you being so strong," Soulful smoothed the fur that had been stirred up by her hug, "but I'll miss you too, and most of these guys." He grabbed his suitcase, "Goodbye, and look after yourselves," then pulled it off as he walked to the boarding ramp. It was a military ship but with better accommodations than the Great Fox had provided, including space for passengers.

"Goodbye!" Gentle Heart waved as Soulful left.

"And good luck."

Sweet Heart was having a similar farewell with her family though dressed in dark pink uniform that had been custom made for the occasion, checking her Magi ID card which now read: Captain Ambassador Sweet Heart Pegasus. "I'll do my best up there, General." She saluted her big brother, who saluted back, "You sure you'll be fine without me?"

Love Heart was wearing his dress uniform as well, and visibly relaxed, "We will, but you don't have to call me General."

Sweet Heart giggled and relaxed, "OK, Love Heart."

"The damage isn't as bad as we thought anyway. There were a lot of accidents but less than you'd think with everyone devoid of feelings for a while," Love Heart sighed in relief.

"It's something humans do, even if they don't care about their work they can go through things on a sort of mental autopilot for a while," Confidence waved her hand.

"Promise you'll call us, Aunt Sweet Heart?" Miracle Heart Fennec asked.

"Yeah, we want to hear all about space!" ShimmeringStar jumped upwards.

Sweet Heart giggled, "I'll tell you everything. Just check with Bright Heart."

Fauna looked the large ship up and down, "You sure you're going to be fine up there, Ren?"

Renegade gulped slightly, "Not entirely but I'm not backing out now."

"Don't let those space animals scare you, Uncle Ren!" Ruby all but bounced in place.

"I won't," Renegade smiled.

"Yeah, I'll be there to keep an eye on him," Nova leaned on Renegade's shoulder.

"Make sure you do," White Fang said.

Renegade nodded, "If things work out maybe I can open a portal from Lylat to Pegasus Falls."

"Oy Gevalt!" White Fang covered his face with a wing, "I'm not sure if that would be impressive or suicidal."

"Just be careful, we'll be waiting for you," Blue said.

The four of them met up as they stepped up the boarding ramp. Soulful gave Sweet Heart a sideways look, "Are you sure you're up for this, Sweet Heart?"

"Yes." Sweet Heart paused, "And that's Captain Sweet Heart now. I spent time getting ready for this, I crammed for the last two weeks to get ready for this and... I need to do something to get out of my brother's shadow. He's never been a ambassador before, so I'm going to do this."

"Believe me, I know how you feel," Renegade said as one of the crew showed up to guide them to their cabins.

Everyone had to back off as the ship took off, most watched it go until it was no more than a speck in the sky, carrying their passengers off towards their future.

End Note: I honestly didn't think I would ever get here, and while my writing isn't finished I really hope you all enjoyed this. I want to say so much more but right now I just want to bask in the glory of finishing this story I started half-a-decade ago. Thank you to all my friends who leant me their OCs to give a send off and thank you to everyone, new and old, who read this story. I feel... the old Care Bear Fandom I joined in the 2000s will never be matched in my eyes, but here I think I've given it and the OCs and characters who inspired me the swan song they deserved.

I'll tell more later I just... I want to let this feeling sink in... Good day everyone and keep caring!