#while sitting next to a giant pile of cache | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kunrendeotaku · 5 years ago

Text

Chapter 9

“Oookay, we should probably get going!” I immediately reach over to grab Star by the shoulders, hoping to drag her away using this perfect distraction. Unfortunately for me, Janna recovers faster than I believed possible. She looks mostly like her usual self, but I dislike the look in her eyes even more than usual. “Well, you two can leave if you gotta… or I could show you a little bit of Earth magic. I’m a witch, you know, hehehe.”

The next thing I know I’m being spun around to be planted right back on Janna’s doorstep. Star’s hands are clutching the front of my hoodie, and she yells right into my face “I -knew- it! No dimension could survive without magic. Stupid Earth immigration class.” I wince, wondering if my new friend will ever learn how to turn down her volume. Thankfully she releases me and bounces over to Janna instead. “Show me show me show me! Witchy stuff on Mewni is usually suuuuper creepy, but magic is magic right?”

This is it. Today is definitely the day I die. Nothing good can happen from this pair teaming up… “Yeah, like, totally.” Janna brushes off Star’s words, probably barely even listening. She has a terrible habit of getting into her head when she’s got a scheme in mind, which throws even more warning alarms off in my own brain. I briefly consider just leaving and coming back later, but I know I’m too tied to my responsibilities as Star’s guide to leave her alone, so I just sigh and follow the pair of girls inside.

Contrary to all expectations, the inside of Janna’s house is perfectly normal to the untrained eye. Nothing creepy or evil or witchy, no traps or hidden caches of forbidden knowledge. I know better, being her primary victim-I’m certain every single painting on the walls and rug casually tossed on the floor is hiding secrets. We’re walking through the living room when Star and I are just about shocked out of our socks. A pair of blank, peaceful voices speaking in unison greet us with “Oh, hello Marco Diaz. Welcome again to our wonderful home.” They sip what I deeply suspect are empty teacups with identical dumb looks on their faces, eyes dull and smiles polite.

It's been a while since I last saw Mr. and Ms. Ordonia. Janna’s mother looks like an older, lighter skinned version of her, while her father seems like the kind of guy who was bullied for being a nerd in highschool (I know the type). They’ve always been polite and boring, but this is the first time I’ve seen them look so… zombified. Hell, they were just silently sitting on the sofa when we came in, staring at nothing! We didn’t even notice until they’d spoken. Star seems to also get the idea that something is wrong, and looks rather confused at not being able to figure out quite what it is.

I, however, already have a good idea at who the culprit is. I turn to glare at Janna and throw my hand up at her parents. “Janna! What the heck did you do to them?” She frowns at this delay, likely mostly bothered by being unable to continue whatever scheme she is planning with Star. After a shrug, she simply replies “I dunno. They seem fine to me.” In time with her saying that, the pair once again pick up their teacups and sip at them with better coordination than the Echo Creek High cheerleaders often have. While that's not saying much, it’s still unsettling to watch.

Just as I open my mouth to continue arguing, Star apparently loses patience. Deciding to leave the poor family to their fates, she snags both Janna and my wrists and starts dragging us to the stairs. How she knows Janna’s room is upstairs, I don’t know. Maybe she just assumed all teens have their rooms on the second floor? “Nobody cares Marco! It’s Magic time.” Janna seems briefly surprised by Star dragging her up as well, but is over it quickly by the smug wink she throws my way. Absolutely infuriating.

We stop only when Star realizes that she has absolutely no idea where she is going. Luckily before she can get the bright idea to start kicking in doors, Janna takes the lead and opens one of them up herself, revealing what I had finally been expecting all along. Its like if a goth, a witch, and...a mechanic for some reason? All had a baby. And that baby was a room. Ugh, that was a terrible metaphor. “This. Is. Amazing!” So Star exclaims while I’m in the midst of mentally face palming.

“Yeah, it's pretty rad. This is where I get up to most of my magic stuff.” Janna claims, wandering around the room cluttered with shrunken heads, skulls, nuts and bolts, and things I don’t even have a name for. “Watch out for Vladimir. That's my giant centipede, he gets out all the time.” I glance over at an empty terrarium and shudder, already feeling like something is crawling over my back. It's been years since I last visited Janna’s room-maybe her eighth birthday party? She was so much less crazy then… or maybe just better at hiding it. I did remember her shoving a pile of stuff into her closet before we were allowed inside.

I don’t know if it's because of who Star is or where she comes from, but she seems perfectly comfortable inside the awful room. Even adding her own little flair of weirdness, since we’re still all covered in glitter that kind of flecks off every few seconds. “So how does Earth magic work? Do you have a wand? Spells? A cauldron, or a book? Ohhh, maybe talismans and charms!” Janna glances back at Star and grins, then yanks open the door to her aforementioned closet. She’s clearly renovated whatever it was originally, as it opens up into what looks almost like a stone room, lit only by candles. I see a pentagram drawn in what definitely can’t be blood on the floor, and a shrine in the corner that for some reason has a picture of me?!

That can’t be good… I walk over to Star and put a hand on her shoulder, glaring at Janna and her little reveal. “Earth magic doesn’t work, Star. It's all bologna. She’s probably just gonna try to trick us into a séance or something where she says vague things that anybody's grandma could say! It's a hoax.” Star frowns, clearly unhappy with my assessment of all of this nonsense. She places her hand on my chest and shoves me back, before walking over towards Janna with a hmph. “Well I for one know Earth magic is real! How else would doorbells and light switches work if not for creepy demon rituals?��

I’m shocked by my first real rejection from Star. Is this her rebellious phase?! Wait, she’s always been a rebel! That's how she got sent here in the first place! Still, not being trusted kinda hurt more than I expected. I wonder why? We barely know each other, of course we’re gonna disagree… “Exactly, Star. Marco’s just a skeptic. He probably doesn’t believe in any magic at all-even yours.” Janna leads Star into her little closet, the latter blowing a raspberry at me. Ugh, why do I even hang out with these girls?

Seeing little choice in the matter, I follow the pair into Janna’s spooky closet to find them kneeling around the pentagram. The door slams shut behind me, which is only to be expected in this horrible home of Janna’s. Still gives me a mini-heart attack. “C’mon, Marco. There’s no harm in playing along if you don’t think it's real, right?” Janna and Star are kneeling around her pentagram on the floor, holding hands. They extend their free hands to me, “Yeah, Marco. Like, don’t be a chicken. You have to complete the circle.”

God above, I’m definitely going to die here. “We are going to talk about why you have a picture of me on a creepy shrine later, Janna.” I mutter, but eventually kneel down and take their hands. They’re right after all, as long as Star’s wand doesn’t act up nothing should -actually- happen. For all her craziness, Janna isn’t a real witch, right…?

#svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #rating: mature #marco diaz #fanfiction #fanfic

1 note · View note

miu-paras · 6 years ago

Text

Lvl. 5 ⋮ Red // Final Chapter

October 5th, 2019. 11:50 AM. ♪ - Sidewalks and Skeletons / Above (Part 1) | Disasterpeace / Vignette: Corruption (Part 2)

Several things happened when I got back to Earth.

First thing I did was panic.

A natural response, really. It had clearly been a fucked up night, one that only got worse the longer it went on. We had an entire army of android police on our asses, not to mention all the hitmen on Pixul’s side out to get us after the stunt we pulled.

We stole everything. Every device, every piece of gear, weapons, modifications, or tools at their disposal were gone. At least from her grasp, anyway. Now, they were here on Earth, surrounding us in scattered piles on the floor. All because I wanted Pixul, Vex, and the thing that tried to turn my mind into pudding to go through as much agony as they put me through. It was worth it, yes. But it left a disaster at our feet, that at first sight seemed impossible to fix.

Second, Spike and I worked hard to clean up the mess we made in the shooting range. Once I was done muttering about how my sensei was most definitely going to kill me, I shaped Red into a rolling cart large enough to carry the stolen artillery. It took several trips and significant manpower, with me pulling the cart with my mind and Spike pushing with all four arms and every ounce of Talurian strength he could muster, but we successfully managed to smuggle everything into an abandoned city building blocks away from the training space. It had a basement level luckily, and we were able to unload our hefty boon there for the time being. Until I could figure out something better, at least.

Third, I armed both my own home and most of the city with deadzoners. It took some time to figure out the algorithm, and Red had to offer assistance throughout the process, but I was eventually able to finish the custom programming, effectively making Tokyo a massive blindspot. My location could no longer receive transporter signals. I didn’t want anyone from Nuva being able to simply beam their way into my home again, let alone finding our cache of Pixul’s stolen goods.

Pixul…

Part of me wondered how angry she’d be when she found out what happened. Not just our escape, but her stash as well.

And another part of me wondered if she was even alive. How could she be? Not after we…

Enough of that.

Fourth, I raided the conbini and the outdoor supply store for as many goods and utilities as I could get my hands on. Food, sleeping bags, blankets, lanterns, anything that would help Spike feel more at ease. He refused to stay at my place, no matter how many times I offered.

“Someone has to keep watch over all this stuff,” he kept saying. I wouldn’t argue, of course. I was too tired to after the night we had. I’d eventually have some questions to ask about… all of this. But for now, that wasn’t the priority.

Fifth, I went to bed. And I slept like a fucking baby. For at least 24 hours.

That was, until the memories flooded my head again. Memories of Kalar lost in a fit of violence and rage, obsession blinding them from everything else. Memories of my mother fighting them. Of my mother… killing someone. And from that memory blossomed another, one equally disturbing. And another. And another.

My mother, my ima, was an assassin. More than just that, really… they were a harbinger of death.

I couldn’t sleep anymore after that.

It was a few days after the incident. I’d taken time to relax, as did Spike, whose real name I still hadn’t learned. I focused on work, on my beautiful girlfriend, my family, my friends. Anything that could somehow help distract from the fact that hundreds of stolen alien weapons were hiding in a basement somewhere in Tokyo under the watchful eye of a four-armed stranger who would absolutely eviscerate anyone that tried to touch it.

But now I was here, sitting cross-legged in the center of that basement floor, with Spike sitting across from me. Finally, a chance to talk. To figure out what our next move was.

And who the hell he was.

“Let’s start with your name, maybe?” I asked, breaking the pregnant silence between us. Spike straightened in response, eyes that stared aimlessly at the floor suddenly shooting up in my direction as he cleared his throat.

“I’m Sai. Short for Sai’xhanzi,” he began, “Born and raised in the slums of Gan’em.”

“And you… work for Pixul? Or used to? Or never did…?” I tilted my head slightly.

He shook his head in response. “Ah… the last one. I’ve got my own group… one that’s been fighting against Pixul and the many crime bosses in Gan’em like her for a long time.”

My interest piqued; an eyebrow quirked in response. Instinctively, I leaned in, waiting for more information.

Sai sighed, shaking his head again before continuing, as if searching for the right words to articulate his thoughts. “I’m from a street gang, known as Xh’andor. ‘Vitriol’ in your language. But we’re not like the other gangs in Nuva… we’re here to protect the slums.” A sternness entered his voice as he stared back at me. “For a long time, our communities have been torn apart by gang wars, violence, dirty black-market dealings, and corporations pushing us out of our homes. Most folks don’t have the means to recover, and just end up homeless, jobless, in debt, or worse… after a while, after seeing so many suffer at the hands of corruption, losing their livelihoods to the violence and devastation they never asked to be a part of… I just couldn’t take it.”

Sai stood, slowly pacing around the room, perhaps restless now that the difficult memories of his home resurfaced in his mind. He stared mindlessly at the stacks of weapons splayed out all around us, head turning only slightly in my direction. “I formed Vitriol to fight against corruption. To be the answer to all the madness that seemed endless… we stuck to local gangs for a while. Intercepting smuggled cargo, thwarting ambushes, engaging in all-out fights if we had to. We stole from megacorps too—whatever tech we could get our hands on… but lately, we’ve fallen pretty low on resources. Not enough to help those we promised to defend, and certainly not enough to continue the fight. Those of us with prosthetics were at a disadvantage as well, with our own limbs failing us from time to time. Things got rough, so… we had to change our tactics.”

He turned to face me fully this time. “I decided to go undercover, act as a double agent underneath one of the biggest distributers in Nuva’s underground trade. That’s when I found out about the giant weapons cache… and that’s when I found out about you.”

I blinked, suddenly wary about where the story was going. Sai could tell, and they immediately moved closer, dropping to a knee so they were eye-level. “I need your help, Miu. You’re a genius, from what I’ve heard, and from what I’ve seen. I know you were the one to disable the deadzoners. I saw how you defended yourself against the Vaanen. And then there’s your stunts in Talur… you’re… you’re exactly what we’ve been searching for.”

He paused again, the sigh he released more tapered this time. He was nervous. He was trying. Begging.

“You’re not a weapons dealer, I get that. You don’t want to be involved in all this, I get that too… but think of all the good you could do. Think of what we could do to more people like Pixul. Like Vex. People that only want to cause more suffering. I swear to you… your inventions will only be used for good. That’s something Pixul couldn’t promise you.”

I had to admit he gave a good pitch. Better than the vague, sinister one I received from Pixul, at least. But I was still on edge. Conducting business with him meant connecting myself with Nuva further. And last I checked, we were on Gan’em Most Wanted list before we high-tailed it the fuck out of there.

“How do I know this won’t put me in more danger?” I asked, my own voice now matching his sternness. “We angered one of the biggest gangs in Nuva. The Vaanen know our faces, and no doubt are hunting us down as we speak. There’s no safe place for you—for us—to conduct any sort of business with this big of a target on our backs. Besides, I… I’m not the genius you think I am…” I frowned, my gaze lowering slightly.

He huffed once, only quirking his brow with a half-smile. “You could’ve fooled me.”

The comment was enough to almost bring a smile to my face, one that would’ve matched his had I not shook my head and sighed. Slowly, I could feel myself being won over, but something still held me back from being pulled over the edge and onto his side, still sheltering me away from full acceptance. Like a pendulum off rhythm, or a scale out of balance. Something was… off. Uneven.

Something needed to give.

“Thanks for saving my life,” I said, offering a soft smile.

“You saved mine,” He shrugged. “We’re even now.”

My smile faded. “No. We’re not. Because now you’re asking for something else.”

He frowned as well, a brow raised to me. “W-well, I—”

“Y’know, prior to the beginning this year, there wasn’t much in my life I had to worry about. Other than my job, my loved ones, or whatever tournament I had in the coming days or weeks or months, I managed to live a pretty carefree life… until now. Now?? I have aliens up the fucking wazoo, and it seems like they only ever want something from me. Build them a bomb. Build them a mech. Build them bombs and mechs en masse until my arms fall off like I’m some god damn one-woman factory and nothing else! But has anyone ever stopped to say ‘Hey, Miu. What do you need’? NO! Because it has never once occurred to anyone that I came to Nuva with my own problems, my own questions, most of which are still largely unanswered and now have more problems tacked onto them. But no one, not a single fucking person, has so much as tried to give a SHIT!”

Now I was the one pacing, going back and forth while I ranted, and while a surprised Sai did nothing but stare in silence. I paused in my back and forth to take a breath, knowing if I’d gone on for any longer that lightning would be shooting from every inch of my body. Massaging the bridge of my nose, I finally sat down again with a sigh, eventually meeting Sai’s stunned face once my expression was calm.

“I respect what you’re doing. A lot. I really do. And… I do want to help you… in fact, I will. But you need to promise to do something for me first.”

Sai did nothing but nod this time. “Whatever it is, I’ll do my best.”

“Well first off, you’ll need to supply me.” I tipped my head towards the pile of weapons, gear, and materials, “Pixul’s shitty guns will help us get by for a while, but if you’re operating on a much bigger scale… I’ll eventually need more.”

Sai stared at the massive pile as well, then nodded once. “No problem at all. I wholly intend to.”

Glad to see we were still on the same page. Now I just needed to hope I wouldn’t lose him with my next request.

“I also… I need you to find someone for me.” I stated nervously, my leg bouncing rapidly as I continued, “Their name is Iannis. They, uhh… well, they were a server at Pixul’s club? Long, curly white hair, in braids. They had… strange scars on one side of their face…? Pixul had them sent away, and… I need to find them. Does any of this ring a bell at all?”

Sai was silent for a while, brows knitted together as they stared pensively down at their lap. The silence from him only lasted seconds, but I felt my heart beater faster longer it went.

He shook his head, his gaze settling on mine once more. There was a look in his eyes, one that seemed mournful. Regretful.

I felt my heart sink immediately.

“I was there… when they were taken away. They were, umm… quite the fighter. So I helped to pin them down.” He was averting his gaze now, eyes searching for anything else to stare at, as if the shame was too heavy to face, my judgement too scary to acknowledge.

“The Makalden… wasn’t able to sedate them somehow, so… we took care of it. Then they were dragged out, and that was that. As to where that was… um...” He shook his head. “This isn’t the first time Pixul’s had people… sent off. And it’s always the same place. The one place no one could get in, or out…”

He met my eyes again, stern and unwavering yet the regret still lingered. I swallowed, feeling the sadness in my heart being replaced with fear.

“It’s Vano.”

[ Oh no… ]

{ Where’s Vano…? Is that bad? }

[ It’s a civilization to the north. They are completely closed off from the rest of Ulteria due to the region’s high prevalence of Stormers. Not to mention, their sectors are heavily fortified and fragmented across the continent. No one gets in. And even if we could, it’d be like searching for “a needle in a haystack,” as the saying goes. ]

“So that means…”

[ Iannis may be lost to us. ]

“Oh fuck… Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I groaned, head falling into my hands as I fought back to urge to scream and cry. After everything I’d gone through—that we’d gone through—to get to this point… it’d be all for nothing.

“Is there any way you can… I dunno… figure out exactly which sector they were sent to? And who’s holding her? If there is a ‘who’?”

Sai shook his head again. “I could try, but… that’s information only Pixul would know. That and Vex. And whoever they had organize your friend’s relocation.”

My head shot up immediately, the defeated expression wiped clean from my features at the sound of Sai’s last words. “Someone else organized her trip to Vano…” I mumbled beneath my breath, "That’s it then! You just need to find whoever it was and get an answer out of them. It shouldn’t be that hard, right? They’ve gotta be lower down the ladder than Pixul and Vex—”

“They’re traffickers, Miu,” Sai cut me off, “These are dangerous people. I’d be putting my own operation in danger. My own people in danger. Even if there was a chance I could find your friend, I have fewer connections now than I did then. Not to mention, the Vaanen are out on the hunt for us. We have to wait for things to die down before I can do anything.”

I frowned, crumpling into myself like a deflated balloon in the wind, that defeated feeling almost returning. “But you’ll still do it… right? When things die down…?”

Sai let out a heavy sigh. He paced momentarily, hands on his hips, before facing me again. I looked up at him with hopeful eyes, waiting with bated breath for an answer. For a tiny sliver of hope to come and wash away all my worries. Desperately wanting to know I could do something right for once. To finally feel closer to getting the answers I need.

Maybe someone heard my wish.

“…I’ll see what I can do.”

I couldn’t stop myself from leaping to my feet, or from wrapping my arms around my new companion, clinging to him with all the strength I could muster. Sai was more than thrown off by my sudden affection, enough that I almost broke through his stoic demeanor. Four hands reached up to pat my back gently, and I could practically hear the soft smile he bore suddenly widen.

“It’s… the least I can do. You’re doing a lot more for me, anyway.”

I pulled away finally, nodding once with a smile of my own, though it fades once my eyes landed on the pile of weapons once more.

“I’ll need tools… and more metal. Bring me everything your people have in terms of equipment.” I began making my way around the room in circles, surveying the walls, the ceiling, the entrance. “It isn’t much as far as secret bases go, but… this will have to make do.”

“So that’s it then?” Sai asked, tension returning to his body as he held out a hand towards me, “We have a deal…?”

Trepidation crept over me, as if it was only now that I realized—truly realized—just what I was getting myself into. But there was no pulling out now.

And I didn’t want to.

I approached him, palm sliding into his as I gave his hand a squeeze.

“Deal.”

Ascension. Corruption. Dissent.

Do not become attached to the things of this world, for there are many more.

One and two, becomes three.

Three, two, one. One, two three.

The third holds the power…

The third… the third…

This is my last memory of the shar— [ MEMORY REDACTED ].

More than that… this is my last memory of Kalar.

They recited those words like a mantra. Over and over, without any sign of exhaust. And they don’t look uneasy as they do so. There is no sign of tension or anxiety. The unhinged glint in their eye that was present during Ghivussi’s execution is nowhere to be found. In fact, Kalar looked… relaxed. As poised and collected as they usually were, all while repeating those words over and over and over again.

Ascension. Corruption. Dissent.

Over and over. Without fail…

Things always seemed to come in threes.

Three words. Three worlds.

Three commands. Three prophecies.

Three…

The riddle was maddening.

And yet, my tsanagar seemed to have worked their way through it. Because today, they approached every new step with more confidence than the one before it. They were filled with a new determination. They knew exactly what to do, and exactly how they were to do it. As if it were the only mission with any purpose to them. As if it were all they had left.

Night. The 36th hour of Sandis Errmis.

Kalar grasps the [ MEMORY REDACTED ].

It glows upon contact, the device vibrating in their hand, heating up as the light it emitted became more and more intense. The light burns through the Minister’s palm; my healing manages to mend the seared flesh in equal pace, allowing Kalar to maintain their grasp. Over time, the whispers returned again, as did those three commands. Three steps to follow. Three prophecies to fulfill.

One of death.

The mysterious passing of Salas. Then the murder of Malvas. Umvis’ demise was unforeseen, but clearly tied to it all. Then there was Ghivussi’s execution. Death… death was prophesied. But the question of why still loomed over me like a specter.

One of cycles.

The cycle of loneliness. Salas is lonely. An outsider in Essa, or so it seemed. They cling to Vasniar as an escape, as a connection to the home the once had. An obsession they later carefully instilled in their child. Kalar, already feeling disconnected from their peers, clings to their religious beliefs, as it was the only thing left connecting them to their late ima. Faith and isolation, only strengthened by [ MEMORY REDACTED ]. Worsened by the loss of their greatest love.

The cycle of violence. It runs through the Aedonnoe bloodline. Malvas continues it, with cutting words, stringent teachings, and far too harsh reprimands. Kalar keeps to tradition with their own children—in some ways worse than their ima. Unable to break away from the only form of love they’ve known. The only form that seemed to have any permanence, as kindness always seemed to kill.

The cycle of… cycles. Of never-ending loops. Fates we cannot avoid no matter what steps we take. A butterfly effect, yet all the dominos fall in the exact same order, at the exact same place, each and every time.

But what was the third…

Kalar stares deep into the [ MEMORY REDACTED ], light filling their pupils as radiating colors danced across their face. And as it happened, the whispers grew louder. And louder. And deeper. So much, one could feel the ground beneath their feet tremble with each passing word.

And there it was…

One of rebirth.

[ MEMORY REDACTED ]

No…

[ MEMORY REDACTED ]

I’m so close…

[ MEMORY REDACTED ]

There has to be something here… anything. One last thing…

[ MEMORY REDACTED ]

[ M-MEMORY REDACTED ]

[[ MMEMORY REDAACTED ]

[ [[ MM-ME[MOR[[RRY RRREEDD[[ACTE—

…Darkness…

Darkness, and then light.

Something is different. This memory… it does not feel like something I databased. It does not feel like anything pulled from Kalar’s own mind. No… this wasn’t like that at all.

This was all mine. My own memory. One buried deep within the recesses of my programming, underneath years and years of service to my wielder. Devoid of tampering, of holes or missing pieces. It was as clear as day. A mind—mymind—freed from any connection.

Freed from Kalar, who sat before me, meters away.

It was an odd feeling. Like being a turtle ambling about without a shell. A moth just as it emerges from its cocoon, awkward and uncoordinated in its flight. I have lived my whole life, whole centuries, tied to this person. And now I am without them, freeform and floating in an ethereal space. Nothing about it felt right. If anything, it was rather… scary.

I was afraid. Terrified. Yet the closer I came to my tsanagar, the more I realized they weren’t. They were still just as at peace as they were before we ended up in this strange place. As if they expected it—wantedit

As if it were prophesied to them.

“One of cycles…”

The cycle of loss.

I was inches away from them now, and I settled my incorporeal form beside them. Their eyes were on me. Those piercing, icy white eyes that seemed so calm, so filled with a tranquility they’d been vacant of most of their life. Perhaps this was all they were seeking—to be at peace with themselves. To be free of the isolation. The fighting. The inescapable loops. Free of their fate.

Yet still… it felt like more than that.

A smile graced their lips, and their hand stretched towards me, fingertips just grazing past my spectral form.

“I will miss you, Kalonis.” They spoke my old name softly. A sadness began to swell within me at the words, and for a second I thought if I was capable of mustering it, tears would be coating my ghostly face.

Their hand pulls away from me, their smile fading as they turned their attention forward once more. The shard appeared in their palm, its triangular form glowing and pulsating more and more as Kalar’s grasp grew more firm. Beneath us, the ground began to shift and rumble, growing more violent with each passing second. But Kalar seemed undeterred, their arm trembling as they maintained their grip on the device, which was now shifting color. Darker tones filled their crystalline surface, purple, pink, and blue shades turning darker as they swirled around black, mixing to change their hues. Underneath Kalar, cracks began to form in the ground that previously had seemed like an empty, white void, splintering further and stretching past my tsanagar. The more it spider-webbed, the more I was certain we would fall through. Instead, the crevices opened further, making way for dark, inky fronds that slowly rose from the void, latching themselves onto Kalar like vines, snaking around her limbs and waist and constricting with all its might.

It was a sight that looked all too painful, but the Minister was unphased. My tsanagar was calm, at peace despite the chaos unfolding.

The price to pay for the power they wielded was death, and they accepted it.

[ M-MEMORY CORRUPT ]

The tendrils coiled around them fully now, nothing left in sight but the band that decorated their head, and the shard they grasped in their palm, now completely blackened and dull. It was then that the booming voice returned.

[ MEMORY CORRUPT ]

The voice grew louder and louder, repeating its commands over and over until Kalar had memorized it enough to whispers the words alongside it. And with the words came visions, images flashing in front of my vision before quickly disappearing. They were hard to discern, and even harder to make sense of.

That is, until the voices reached me as well.

THE TRANSGRESSOR PERISHES.

THE EXILED BEARS THE SUN.

ONE AND TWO, BECOMES THREE…

“The third holds the power in the end,” Kalar finishes.

An image flashes before my eyes. A barren wasteland, darkness blanketing where a great civilization once stood. Now it was all in ruins in ashes, and only shadows remained. Shadows and tendrils, jutting from the earth.

Another flash. A child falls upwards into the sky. Light radiates from every inch of them, pouring from their fingertips, their eyes, their mouth. They let out a mangled scream, one that carries until their back hits the ground—foreign ground—as the light around glowing more and more furiously.

Another flash. The child is old now. In their mouth, they carry an apple, held in place by their teeth. In their right palm rests a Maladian pine fruit. The left palm remains empty, that is until the light leaves their form, their ethereal glow replaced now with a dull, solemn statue of stone, and their left palm now heavy with the same fruit.

A final flash. The light wanders aimlessly through a shroud of darkness. Black clouds snuff out any other form of illumination, and the same black tendrils lash out in an attempt to grab or kill the glowing orb. But they do not prevail. For the light is safe. It is home. And it is waiting.

Suddenly I am pulled away from Kalar.

[ MEMORY CORRUPT ]

The distance between us grows, as some unknown force continued tugging me away, rapidly at first then slowly. Slow enough to watch them fade away from me. As if they were ceasing to exist.

Slowly into darkness I fell.

[ MEMORY CORRUPT ]

We returned to reality, me back in my metal form, Kalar back to sitting in the center of their quarters, our minds connected once more. They breathed heavily, their panting quickened as they stared wide-eyed at their palms, now blistered and scarred.

[ What… ]

“…Have I done?”

[ MEMORY CORRUPT ]

This is how it ends, isn’t it?

[ MEMORY CORRUPT ]

This is how it all ends.

[ MEMORY CORRUPT ]

I’m sorry, Kalar… my tsanagar… my friend…

[ MEMORY CORRUPT ]

Goodbye.

#p: red

0 notes