Planet Earth is blue 19

Faint starlight glinted on the ice outside the cave and Pluto hung low over the horizon. What remained of the Sun was barely visible now from Charon’s surface, diminishing with every hour. I glanced down at Lily’s sleeping form. Her head was in my lap and I stroked it gently.

Only fractured memories remained of being hurled across space by the explosion. When I last glimpsed the Sun properly, there was already a black stain spreading over its surface, the missile’s chain reaction working already. My power seeped away and Lily used the last of hers bringing us to land. We couldn't leave now.

Charon and Pluto face each other across their common orbit – Hell and his ferryman circling warily in the outer darkness. It seemed an appropriate enough place to end.

There was the sound of a footfall close by. Lily stirred in her sleep and I dared not move for fear of waking her. I thought for a moment that Uriel had returned, but then remembered that Lily had killed him. And the sigh I heard seemed to come from the whole universe.

In a moment the world changed and I found myself surrounded by grass and birdsong.