Voyage Through the Multiverse (Ended) [IC]

[Demincia]

Secrets of the Raven
Devil's Pit Mine
Dawn & Celeste Elissa

Before Dawn could answer Berith, Celeste spoke up. "You've caught them on a good day. Usually they're far more irritating and arrogant than this." She raised one hand and snapped her fingers, causing a rift to open in front of the group and dump Alex onto the ground. "She wouldn't even ask me, she'd rather let her mother suffer in silence." she said to her twin. "It's not very promising for their kind."

Dawn didn't interject during Elizabeth's emotional dilemma, not just because she couldn't relate but because she knew that it wouldn't help. Celeste, of course, did not share Dawn's restraint.

"Hubris." the Spacecrafter commented. "Typical. I'd hoped that after your incident with Terry that you'd have learned the dangers of being noncommittal, but it seems you're still naive. Luckily for you, it is not a universal issue. Problems require action, not persuasion."

Dawn glanced over at her sister, knowing that it would only cause more friction with the humans. "Leave it, let them have the delusion that they have a choice in the matter."

---

Seeds of Anxiety
Lludw Cigfrain, Cymru
Rosanna Dawson

Rosanna kept a neutral expression, but in her head was trying to go over what the man was saying. None of it made any sense, if it was true than she would have heard about it before through Bureau channels. All the reports of UFOs or wormholes would have crossed the radar of Special Intelligence, even if they were just hysteria resulting from a spree killing like Denton described.

Then he mentioned discovering Dawson through a rift, and she just looked at him confused. She started to laugh, and did for a moment even though no one else was. "Oh, that's funny. You had me there for a second, I thought you were being serious." She rubbed one of her eyes, still extraordinarily tired. "I don't suppose this can wait until after I've had a nap, can it? Crossing the Atlantic is a little tiring."

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

While everyone else made their way over to the airship, a small figure was already there to greet them, as well as the bugs that sat about near her. Miria hadn't wanted a thing to do with the battle below with her friends and the demons - not that she was scared, although that was a factor, but that she honestly had no way to help. The way she had seen it, the terrain around them wasn't particularly advantageous for her, as it had been with Ganon, and even then, the scale of both sides attacks made it far too perilous for her to risk fighting. The way Miria had seen it, it was better for her to get to safety, so that she wouldn't hold the others back. She felt bad for running like that, but she expected that they would understand.

When they arrived, she was clinging to the walls in one of the corners...near the ceiling. She'd been a little scared of all the commotion outside; well, she was also probably still hallucinating a little bit, and seeing something weird. Fortunately, seeing everyone return in mostly good shape seemed to help her relax, and Miria let go of the walls, dropping down and scurrying up to the group, fists pumping furiously. "You get'em? You get'em?", She asked, leaning in towards Madi, then Kiara, then leaning sideways and peering up at the tall Tengu. Her lips parted into a devilish grin, her left hand moving to adjust her spectacles. "Excellent!", She shouted. The small girl began to walk in a circle around the rest of the group, although she had to step back a bit when Madi began to walk away, turning to watch her, fumbling with her glasses slower. What was she up to?

Turning back to face everyone else, she took a quick head count, and cocked her head to one side. Weren't there more people? "Wait, this isn't all of us, right?", She asked, her grin dropping. "Where are the other people? What about Skye?"

[Menschenfleisch]

Seeds of Anxiety | Avarice and Tone

The air in the room cooled and everything came to a standstill. Paige could feel icy particulate forming on her corneas and frost condensing on her cheeks. All light was snuffed out and before her very eyes the whole world washed away like ink under the tap. As her surroundings smeared they gave way to a background of utter black: darkness that lacked definition or contrast yet which writhed before her eyes nonetheless. The only thing that did not fade was Avarice, who seemed to be an anchor amidst the eradication of reality. Its eyes throbbed to the rhythm of a heartbeat and with every pulse they emitted a tiny spark of red. It wasn't red light but a distilled sensation of menace delivered through a medium besides sight. "I could kill you." Paige's breath caught in her throat. Every muscle in her body was paralyzed, the only sensation she could feel was the pressure of Ava's sight. She felt as if she would be crushed by the sheer magnitude of its attention: when its eyes drifted across her body she could feel its gaze digging into her skin and pressing upon her skin so hard that she thought she'd bruise. She could hardly even form a cogent thought, let alone speak. And yet, words escaped her lips anyway. "Who? Me?" Avarice raised its head and cocked it a little to the side. "No, your species." Paige's mind turned to mush and ash. Her bones departed, her flesh burst and her consciousness was split into a billion, trillion incoherent memories and thoughts, each less substantial than the contents of a single neuron. And then...

"That's what I can do." Paige realised that she had been staring at Ava. How long had she locked eyes with her? Her eyes felt dry and hard as if she'd forgotten to blink in hours. She closed her eyes and took a few tentative steps back. "Jesus! You-... who put you up to this?" Ava blinked and squinted as if insulted. The mere realisation that she'd offended the woman somehow made Paige's blood curdle in her veins. She felt as if she'd have a heard attack. "Nobody! Well, I mean, Herbert asked me to speak to you but I wasn't trying to make fun of you, I swear!" She couldn't- she couldn't tell why she was so afraid but her heart kept skipping beats and her muscles kept tensing up. She wanted to run, she desperately needed to scream, but there was no reason to do so! Ava had done nothing to outright hurt or insult her so far, so why did she feel this way? Valerian laid a hand on Ava's shoulder and turned her away from Paige and as soon as the woman's eyes left Paige's line of sight all of that immediate dread and terror evaporated, giving way to a lingering feeling of wrongness. Slowly, she got her breathing back under control. The man who didn't seem to be a man spoke to her. His voice was as pure and transparent as diamond while being as cool as alpine water. When she listened to him her cares seemed to dissolve. "I'm sorry. She has an effect on people." Avarice swung around and for a moment - an infinitesimal yet impossibly titanic moment - Paige felt as if she would end right there and then. "No! I should apologise! I didn't mean to scare you."

It definitely wasn't the Chipotle.

When Paige looked at Ava she saw nothing out of the ordinary. Whereas before there had been a distinct aura of wrongness about her, now she just seemed... perfectly unremarkable. Was she some sort of siren? Or worse, an entirely different and exotic species of anomalous creature? She thought for a moment that she should scream, shout and reject the stranger's attempt to 'reconcile' with her. What she'd just said and done was absolutely inappropriate, it had just been insane! But now that she looked like a completely normal human Paige had the opportunity to look at her face and take it at face value. Ava's cheeks were red, her head was downturned and her lips trembled ever so slightly as if she was holding back an absolutely ingratiating, lengthy apology. It was still kind of creepy how emotionally immature the woman seemed for her age - if Paige had to guess she would've suggested that Ava was around twenty - but it was almost impossible to stay angry at a face like that. "... don't worry about it. I'm-" she swallowed with immense effort. "I'm fine." She was clearly not but Valerian decided to let it go for the sake of both girls. "As for me, I've been working with AEGIS on-and-off for a few months now. I'm not sure what information you're privy to but I was involved in an extensive interdimensional war against a spacefaring civilization. I can manipulate energy, matter, organic material, anything of the sort." Paige nodded energetically; she was eager to get her mind off Avarice.

"It was good to meet you, Ms. Cosette. I wish you luck." "And again, I'm sorry-" "It's fine. It's really, really fine." Ava and Vale followed Herbert out into the street whereupon they caught sight of a car pulling in. It was a little rough around the edges but for the most part it had been well looked after. From where they were standing Valerian couldn't see who was within the car but he was sure that if it had been driven all the way to the hotel from where it had been picked up without breaking out, it was sure to be relatively harmless. Then again, there was always the possibility that it had taken control of the driver or that it had escaped and replaced itself with a convincing replica. Someone with his breadth of knowledge always saw a thousand possibilities in situations like this. It was only too unfortunate that 100% of the time, nine hundred and ninety nine of those possibilities would prove to be utterly, abjectly incorrect. He stood upright with his hands by his sides, carefully watching the car. "So, who are Denton and McDowell? I assume they're colleagues of yours, judging by how familiar the janitor assumed that you were with them."

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn

"Lowest hanging fruit, huh? Did you just admit that your girlfriend was-... wait, what the fuck, Liz? I didn't know you were bi. I mean, I always kind of suspected but you never told me outright. And hey, I don't like your insinuation that girls can't be less attractive than cacti." Yadda yadda. Fillertext fillertext, mental breakdown mental breakdown. Even Jacquelyn was getting tired of rehashing the same old tropes and conjuring up the same two or three thoughts every ten minutes. She listened in quiet contemplation to Elizabeth's little rant about Andarta and her views on the world at large and Jack began to qonder what she would do if she were to be presented with the power to do anything she wanted. A few days ago the answer would've been simple: she would've left the world as it was and used her powers to explore every nook and cranny of it. The creations of nature were unfamiliar to her and that was why they seemed beautiful. If she were to recreate the world or forge it from scratch there would be no wonder in it because there'd be nothing unfamiliar. Now, though, she didn't know. Would she try to make everyone happy, knowing that such a state of bliss couldn't last and that by satisfying everyone's desires she'd be destroying what made them human - their desire to create, their desire to destroy, their ability to experience profound feelings such as contempt, regret, rage and fear? Or would she allow the world to continue on its current trajectory, one that would assuredly end in the universe's demise? Or maybe she'd just indulge herself for eternity, creating endless pleasures and companions to accompany her.

Jack knew one thing, though. She wasn't deserving of that power. Nobody was. Perhaps the pertinent question to ask wasn't what an omnipotent person should do but instead whether omnipotence should exist in the first place or not. A plan was forming inside her head: a desire and an idea. "Maybe we don't need to change her mind," She mumbled. "Maybe she's not the one we should be..." she trailed off. When Liz got hit in the head Jackie was relieved - and not just because Liz got hit in the head with a rock. Finally, there was something for her to focus on besides the depressing state of affairs that she found herself in! She quickly raised her hands, turning toward the rest of the team. "Woah, woah, woah! Put your fucking weapons down! The baby's done nothing but throw rocks so far! Actually, come to think of it, why'd we come all this way to find a god damn baby in the first place?" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ugh, figures. It's probably some terrifying anomaly with a nightmarish suite of magical superpowers or some shit like that." She turned toward the kid and armed her wrist mounted gun, readying a paralyzing shot. She approached it slowly, concealing the gun beneath her sleeve. "Hey hey, there now, kid. You lonely? You lost? What are you doing down here?"

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Kiara and Polly

Kiara boarded the ship with Skye's skull in her bag and not much else. She didn't feel any particular compulsion to bury her friend, it just wasn't the nature of Kalmites to do that. They tended to leave their dead out in the open where they would bloom into beautiful, ephemeral saprophytes: a second, shorter life after their long and productive first one. The fact that she'd lost her friend was only just beginning to set in, like mold slowly germinating on an apple left out in the open for too long. There was no immediate feeling of loss but instead a dreadful, gradual onset of despair. What was she going to do now? She wanted to have some time to herself, to move on from the tragedy but she had responsibilities, dammit. The grief of one person couldn't possibly stand up to the needs of an entire civilization now could it? And when Miria came up to her with that familiar optimistic gleam in her eye Kiara realised that she could no longer relate to the girl. The world no longer seemed to have that same lustre that had once presented itself to her, back when she'd first arrived. What had initially appeared to be a multiverse brimming with possibilities and beautiful sights now seemed to be a dark and dreary place, filled with victims and enemies - not friends and acquaintances. She did not answer the girl's question. How could she? How could she admit that Skye - her only anchor in the entire world - had been taken? She couldn't, and so she just walked to her room and shut the door behind her.

Kiara spent a long time staring at the skull of her best friend. She was gone. Absolutely, undeniably, irreversibly dead. "What am I supposed to do now? I knew one of us would die somewhere down the line but I didn't think it would be so soon." It felt more than a little macabre to be speaking to a cadaver but what else was she supposed to do? Go through the grieving process all at once and skip to accepting the fact that her friend had been excised from her life? That she was well and truly alone now, with nobody to turn to and nobody to speak with? She had responsibilities that were completely separate from the priorities of everyone else in the team. Nobody would have any reason to help her commit genocide because nobody on the ship had ever been to her homeworld, let alone been born and raised there. The moment that she accepted skye's death would be the moment that she accepted just how isolated she was now and how bleak her future seemed. Kalmites were supposed to live forever. They weren't meant to kill themselves and be turned into bioweapons. Why had Skye done that? Had she been forced to do it or had it been her choice? And if it was the latter, why would she have done that? It wasn't as if she could ask her friend's skull, now was it? The thing glittered under the light like a faceted gem. Kalmite bones were perfectly formed and flawless in their complexion, they were as smooth as enamel and as hard as tungsten. This skull could be preserved forever if Kiara chose to do so. But would doing that help her? Wouldn't it just trap her in the first stage of grief? She wanted to move on, she knew she had to, but how much of herself would she leave behind in the process? How much of herself would she have to bury in order to lay Skye's memory to rest? "Fuck you," she concluded. "Fuck you for leaving me like this." Her voice was dispassionate and empty of anger. She levied those accusations against Skye with an almost conversational tone. Then finally, she turned away and left her room. She'd be back to dispose of the body someday. Probably. Maybe. Possibly.

It wasn't as if there was nothing to keep her occupied aboard the ship, though. There was plenty of stuff to examine and tinker with. She spent about an hour inconspicuously peeling back panels and moving through the ship's various crawlspaces while inspecting the circuitry and making note of all of its functions. She spent a while sifting through the fridge and the medbay in order to find ingredients with which to manufacture plastic explosives and then she spent a further twenty minutes percolating those plastic explosives into a highly nutritious black treacle-like substance which she stored in a plastic container and put back into the refrigerator under the (incorrect) assumption that somebody would eventually find it and eat the unctuous black slime which had an unfortunately petroleum-esque smell and a four hundred year long shelf life. About two hours after boarding the ship she had written a good two thousand pages of mathematical formulae, architectural diagrams and schematics for various pieces of technology far beyond the capacity of anyone aboard that vessel's capacity to manufacture, largely owing to her breakneck writing speed and immense desire to distract herself from her present situation. She pulled together some toothpaste, licorice and spare cotton pants and somehow made it into a serviceable moonshine and put it into tins; she processed a stale lettuce and bacon bagel into an energy drink; and she melted down a plastic keyboard and somehow, somehow turned it into alcohol after swilling it and putting it through about two dozen different biological processes inside her own body before regurgitating it into a ceramic bowl. She repaired broken transistors, mended failing lights and sewed together the seams in the ship's furniture. She was like the onboard maid, what with how much time she poured into keeping everything in tip top shape. Perhaps someone interrupted her in the middle of bottling a fine vintage of toilet paper and honey (which, surprisingly, was actually a really fucking good drink) or perhaps someone didn't. Either way, she spent hours neither sleeping nor resting, only working and working and keeping herself occupied.

Polly, on the other hand, spent those hours hunched over a basin vomiting black, inky bile. Her body, wracked with aches and pains, had turned black and red following her foray into the facility. While AEGIS' foot soldiers cleared out the facility she'd laid in a cot while a doctor examined her tissues. Apparently, control over her magnetic abilities did not come naturally. She was far stronger now than she was when she was a kid but she lacked the control and finesse that her older (younger?) self had cultured over the years. Exerting such an amount of force had annihilated her capillaries and if not for AEGIS' healing technology (and a number of anomalous principles) she would've died of internal bleeding within mere hours. As it stood, while she possessed immense power she really had no way of using it all without killing herself. In order to get it all back, she'd need to put in a helluva lot of training. She wanted to become stronger, smarter and better than whoever she had been before. She insisted upon receiving lessons on English and mathematics even while in her sickbed: the itch to learn just couldn't be suppressed. She had always possessed this desire to discover but never had it been so clear and so close to the forefront of her mind. She felt like she was obligated to catch up on the decades of experience and academia that she had lost when her memory had been wiped, childhood and self-enjoyment be damned. She owed it to those who knew her to return to being that strong, reliable matron that they'd seen her as. The pressure to surpass who she'd once been was so palpable and immediate because she felt as if she'd just lost thirty years of her life all at once and now she was stuck playing catch-up to the rest of the world. She didn't want to be a failure, she desperately didn't want to live in the shadow of the person who'd come before her. And so, she buried herself in studies and practice and training and all manner of different ways of 'improving' herself with no heed for health nor sanity. When tutors and textbooks proved to be too slow she demanded infotrophs and psions, risks be damned. Whether AEGIS acquiesced to those requests was entirely up to those overseeing her - and for the most part they did their best to keep her safe and out of harm's way - and oftentimes they denied her requests for such things. She was supposed to be a tool for AEGIS, after all. Educating her would do very little to advance their agenda. Something something, end of post. Idk how you're going to respond to this, Crow, so just go buck wild with your ideas.

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
Lee
An Airship

Lee knew he had teleported. Lee knew he was on an airship. Lee knew he was tired as fuck. They were near the front of the ship. That means he would have to go back to find the beds. Not paying attention to anyone else, he started walking towards the back of the ship. He walked through a cargo hold, or whatever it's called. He walked through the med bay. He walked through a hallway lined with a ton of doors. He came upon the bar, and he finally stopped. Alcohol would be good. He grabbed the nearest full bottle, not even caring what it was, and walked back to that hallway. He had missed something, he knew it. That was when he realised that this was the crew quarters. That meant there were beds. He found the nearest empty one, or, at least, one that seemed like no one lived in it, and walked in. He closed the door and sat on the bed. He opened the bottle of alcohol and took a swig that drained a quarter of it. He was too tired to feel the burn from the alcohol. Or any pain caused by the dust. But he could still feel drunk. He tried to take a swig from the empty bottle for the third time before realizing that it was out. He set it down on the nearest flat surface that wasn't the floor. He took his cloak off and draped it on something. He collapsed onto the bed, and passed out. Then the dream started.

It started out the same as always since his parents died. He was trapped in an endless horde of various monsters. There seemed to be a spotlight on him, highlighting his actions. A fair bit away, about half a kilometer away, was another spotlight highlighting his parents. He knew the song and dance. He would try so hard to fight through the horde of monsters, to try to save his parents. But he would always fail in the end. The monsters would overrun his parents, and the spotlight over them would fade. Then it would either restart or he would wake up in a cold sweat. As he killed one of the monsters, he noticed something. Was that... fire in the distance? Now that he noticed, there seemed to be plumes of fire every so often in the distance. Then he noticed that the monsters had changed. They had turned into demons?! What the hell was happening!? On top of that, some had mechanical parts in them. There was one with a mechanical eye, one with an arm, one with an entire torso replaced. What. The. Hell. He kept on killing them, though. Then everything went dark. And he woke up with a gasp. What the hell was happening with his body and mind? "Status." He stared at the error message in fear. What was going to happen to him?

[Skylus]

Doug
The Great Wizarding Rebellion
We're finally out of the base yay The Flying Krock aka K. Rool's airship; unknown location

Doug found the hangar bay sometime later, a few of the reptiles known as Kremlings decided to start talking to him about the airship they were in as he entered the hangar bay, and that the reptiles were interested in his space fighter. however, before he could start talking to them, a massive rift opened up and scked him and his fighter through it, then, it was gone.

---

Somewhere Else

Doug was in complete freefall, as in, he was falling from the sky towards the ground. His fighter was underneath him, and was coming closer by the second. Just as the rift closed behind him, Doug slammed into the glass cockpit of his fighter and spent a few perilous seconds throwing the hatch open, strapping himself into the seat, closing the hatch, powering up the engines and ended up stopping the freefall of his ship.

The craft hovered in the air, and Doug could finally try to figure out where he was. The readings told him he was in a city by the name of London, with the date being June 27th, 1941.

"Well, these people have to have an air force. I reckon I'll be contacted pretty soon...They might want to talk to my superiors, if they can reach them, of course."

London
June 27, 1941

The arrival of a strange craft on London’s airspace was visible to both the civilians below and the British radar stations. Anti-aircraft guns swivelled on their bases to point at the esoteric fighter that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, but the gunnery crews haven’t been given clear orders for such an event, nor did they expect such an unknown visitor. Instead, Londoners starred at the jet, wondering if it was some kind of German trickery that would bring bombs down on London.

Fortunately, the radar operators had some foresight, and immediately phoned the commander in charge of the defense of London’s airspace. Having been informed of the strange visitors that appeared near Westminster Abbey an hour ago, the commander immediately contacted his counterpart in the RAF base on Northolt.

“Commander Winston Williams, we have a situation over the heart of London. We have a visitor.”, the defensive commander said over the phone to his RAF counterpart, who had been privy to the possibility of new extradimensional visitors as Churchill had directly informed all of the higher ranking officers in the London area.

“Sending in two fighters to intercept. We’ll see if they are friendly.”

Within a single minute, two Spitfires sped off the runway on Northolt, and were quickly in radio range of Doug’s fighter.

“This is the British Royal Airforce. You have violated British airspace. Identify yourself immediately.”

---

Yi Sun-shin looked at this watch. Without further ado, he called the Prime Minister.

“Sir, One has come.”

“Friends?”

“I do not know, yet.”

Doug
London, 1941

“This is second lieutenant Lincoln Douglas Forester of the Hyrulialus Royal Air Force, Farore division at your service, to whom am I speaking to? I am friendly, by the way, if you want to know my aircraft, it’s a Loftwing Mark seven.”

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

Miria probably seemed upbeat or carefree compared to everyone else, but in reality she was just as worn out and worried. She was just trying not to break down again, or give anyone another reason to worry. She was still dizzy and sick from the stress of being captured before the AEGIS base, and with everything that had just happened, it was a surprise that she hadden keeled over. Her thoughts were still swimming, one drifting and going, only for another to take its place and drift away again. She was having trouble concentrating on any one thing for a while, simply wandering the airship and attempting to process everything that had happened.

She had been seeing things when the gang arrived - Lunar urchin-spiders from the bright side of the moon, spines bristling and taught flesh pulsing. They had vanished when everyone else arrived, but she had still been paranoid. Next, she was thinking of how everyone was quick to go their own separate ways, not even acknowledging her, save for Kiara, who still said nothing. Next, she was admiring the view from a porthole, and inspecting the ship around her, thinking about how it reminded her of the airships that ferried people across the oceans between Janavaar and the Far North - some of the few methods of transportation between Human and Janavar territories. This airship was manned by reptiles, however, and not Humanoids. Miria wasn't too put off, though; she had some reptile in her, somewhere, so that made them kinda like cousins! Again, her focus shifted, to Skye and Polly. Skye was...she was dead, wasn't she? Miria guessed that, since Kiara was upset, and Skye wasn't with them. She hadn't known Skye well, but she was sad nonetheless. If she could go, of all people, then Miria wondered why she had survived. She wondered where and when it had happened, and how close they may have been to saving her. She didn't want to think too deeply into that; for once, she was glad that she couldn't focus. Polly worried her as well. She told them all that she would be fine, but Miria doubted it. She didn't trust AEGIS. She didn't trust Humans...well, not the majority, anyways. She was like the Tengu in that regard, although maybe less angry. Her paranoia could be chalked up to Janavaar superstition and propaganda, but still...she just hoped that Polly was right, and not her.

Miria sighed. Everything was so gloomy lately! It was rough, on everyone. They'd been shot at, taken prisoner, attacked non-stop, and they'd lost friends. Miria didn't even remember the last time a plan of theirs had worked, at least since London. Surviving that hotel was all that blonde woman's plan, and their escape today had been more sheer luck and desperation than any real, clean plan. They'd had their asses kicked a lot. They really needed something to help cheer the lot of them up, Miria thought.

She thought about food. They hadn't had a good meal in a while, at least since meeting back up with Madi. They hadn't slept well either. She guessed a good rest, even if on a cot, was good for all of them. They all had one on the ship, but a meal? Well, that would make for two good things to help them all out. She just wondered if it would be possible to get one while they were on the ship...or maybe, she would make one herself.

The airship was big enough that it would have a kitchen, right? Miria thought about it. She needed to ask, and then seek approval to use it. That was easy enough, she though, setting out to do so, while everyone else was preoccupied with their own problems. Miria sought out permission, and while Madi went to the bridge, and while Kiara moped in her room, and while the Tengu and Inugami, and Ammy and Ganon, and while Lee all wound down, Miria took up residence in a small, cramped kitchen, grabbed a stool to stand on, and dug around for ingredients for a simple, but at least somewhat decent, dinner. She had wanted to make curry - it was her favourite food - but they didn't exactly have the ingredients to make it, at least not well. That was disappointing; perhaps chicken tikka? It was nice, but...nah. Maybe. Miria still wanted curry.

She didn't have all the ingredients she wanted, especially not fresh, but in the end, she at least made something. It wasn't curry, but it was chicken, and it had sauce. It was her best attempt, with what she had, resembling chicken tikka somewhat. She wasn't a great cook, cooking being more her Mistress's thing, but she'd done well, given the circumstances, making a fairly sweet, and surprisingly spicy sauce, set aside on its own, with seasoned, lightly charred meat next to it. Thankfully, there was also rice on hand, easily cooked, so nobody would have to be left with just the meat. Miria felt good about her cooking!

Turning the stove off, covering the food to keep it hot, and clanging a clean ladle against the wall, Miria called out for everyone to get some food, if they desired. She hoped that at least a few people would appreciate it; it was no fun, eating alone, and she didn't want to be the only one with an appetite. "I, uh...I made dinner!", She yelled, not wanting to be too loud, but not wanting to be left unheard either. "I hope that's okay? It's, um...in the kitchen-thingy, with me!"

[Naval Monte]

Secets of the Raven
Devil's Pit Mines


The diminutive figure standing on top of the rock was pudgy in build, a typical build for any healthy human baby. However the skin was pale, shockley so. It's veins were visible through some parts of the skin and the patches of baby fat were also mixed with wrinkly skin, yet it was nothing compared to the head of the creature, or heads. The baby had two heads and it was there that any hints of it being a malformed human child were dashed as the face was something no human can produced no matter how maligned human genes can get.

Looking at Jackie's green eyes were four large dark saucers from the individual heads, her reflection being visible from them. Their noses were small buttons and were the only thing similar to be normal, though the nostrils were wider. The babies had two large ears at the sides of their misshapen heads, each resembling American footballs or rugby balls. On top of the baby's heads were wrinkly blumos that formed ridges and valleys.The mouths of the babies were small and circular and they had rows of small but sharp teeth.

The babies hissed at Jackie as they reached their hands out, almost reaching out for someone in the group. The girl would hear a rock rolling on the ground before it suddenly flew towards the baby and it grabbed the rock. Now armed with it's new weapon the baby lift the rock over its head and threw it at Jackie. The baby would repeat the same motion and once a new rock was on its hands it would threw it at Elizabeth.

The occultist saw the rock this time and quickly moved her head to the left as the rock flew pass her and towards Wei who caught it with no trouble. "Awesome. The little guy knows telekinesis. Granted it isn't much but he has a long way to go. Besides he has a pair of good throwing arms attached to his shoulders. You're going to be a great pitcher when you grow up aren't you." She said in the same tone most people would use when talking to any regular baby.

Yet where's as most babies would either ignore the baby talk or be entertained this one simply threw another rock at her. Once more she dodged it and Wei caught it again. "Oh aren't you a cranky one? Did we interrupt your nap time?" She looked at the small fangs. "Ahhh, I see now. You're teething and your acting out because your in pain." She asked, getting another rock thrown at her to wish she dodged again.

"I'm gonna take that as a yes." When Jackie asked if the baby has super powers the witch chuckled. "Jack, this is a baby. Any super powers it has will be very weak. No I don't want us to find it because it had powers we can use battle. I may be a bitch but I'm not so heartless ad to throw babies into conflict like that. Oh no, instead we can use what it likes to eat to our advantage. Because he is a thaumavore, or an eater of magical energy." She told the girl as the baby hissed at the two.

"His kind like to flock on places rich in arcane energy to feast on it. Some mages even use them to steal the energy of wards, traps, or enchanted objects. We can use the little guy to not only detect any magical traps but defuse them by feeding their energy to him." The witch explained. "Plus he is like ugly cute. Our team needs a mascot and why not a magic eating baby?" The witch said with a smile on her face.

Just ad most thought the witch was either going insane or was pulling their leg Celeste chose to speak by telling Elizabeth that she was showing not only her hubris but was not being committed in both killing Andarta and for not picking a side in the conflict between the two worlds. Just as Alex return to the group the wraith nearly splash wine on to the ground as she almost fell to the ground. The wraith looked at the two goddesses slightly annoyed. "I was enjoying drinking from Vlad's wine collection until you pulled me out. Also thanks for sending me to Dracula's secret lair by the way." The wraith would finish the wine before anything happens. 

Dawn told her sister to stop to prevent a fight but it was at that moment Wei chose to speak, taking Celeste's side."I agree with the goddess. We can't afford to die just because you believe she can change. I thought you of all people would that people like us rarely change, words aren't going to stop her now. We have to kill her now or she will kill all of us now. Once she is dead you can go die fighting for an impossible dream." The dismissive mage stated.

Alex looked confused at Wei on why he would say that to her daughter and ticked that he told her to go and die. Before she can chew him out Elizabeth responded back. "At least I want to do something to make this miserable cesspit we call a world better instead of running away like most of you cowards in the Celestial Order are planning to. You people are too quick to say the problem is impossible to salvage anything good from it before you turn to leave with your tail between your legs like spineless mutts." She fired back.

Wei applied the palm of his hand to his face as he shook his head at the stubborn witch. "We aren't being cowards, we are being sensible and realistic with our choice. The people and creatures who rule the world will never let the truth be revealed until the masquerade comes crashing down and the Final Nights are around the corner. Byths humanity will be a frightened here of mad animals doing whatever they can to try and restore normality to their lives, including destroying us. By that point we have every right to kill them to defend ourselves or to leave the world before either the war destroys it or the Final Nights." 

The mage told her, hoping to set it into her head why her option can't work with how the world was. In Elizabeth's mind she knew he was right, the powers that be will never let the truth come out until it's too late and they will try to profit from the chaos that will come after the masquerade. But she can't let the world that Rachel came from become the future for her timeline nor can she just let Andarta's genocidal portion of her plan be fulfilled by other groups in the future as well. No matter how ridiculous or impossible it sounds she just can't accept those two as the only options, even if the gods decreed it as such. 

In her mind the mental gears were beginning to spin for a plan that might lead to the foundation for her plan to bring about a better future than the one the Arwen Reavers came from, one not requiring the destruction of a side of the world.

"Hey guys… the baby is running away." Richard pointed at. The little humanoid having jumped off the rock it stand on and began running deeper into the tunnel. "Bugger all, we can't let that little tosser get away from us!" The witch shouted as she ran after the baby. However Theodore caused the ground to sink on the baby's ankles causing it to sink and harden, trapping it. Once Elizabeth grabbed the baby she pulled it off the puddy like ground.

"Mission accomplished people. We are now officially kidnappers." She told them as she carried the crying baby. It's crying echoing throughout the tunnel. Afriad that it will attract monsters towards them a panic Elizabeth tried to rock the baby but it wasn't working, she looked to the group for help.

[Turmenista]

King of the Stars
"CRASHING THIS SHIP" | Deep Space
Andios Lockjaw
__________________________________

OST — Kletka

A fittingly ominous song played in the bridge's vintage radio player as the crew went about their R&R, sans their captain, who just sat there, brooding over things as they moved through warp silently. A fittingly ominous song for Andios, that is.

The aftermath of the previous mission had left Andios partly confused at how they were able to simply squeeze their way through that one, yet also yearning for more intense space battles as before. By all means, he was relieved that they were out of such a terrifying situation, more so surprised at the capabilities of his crew and his ship than anything else. They still had a bit of work to do, though. The payment had already been transferred to his account, along with the coordinates for Geta's new space station, and rumors of a few new additions to his crew that were otherworldly.

He didn't care who they were or where they came from—only that they could fight and help him out on ground-based and ship-boarding actions. Being one of the only few people on his own ship that was a capable fighter was more of a detriment than it sounded, especially going up against disproportionately stronger or more skilled enemy defenders.

"Alert: We're coming up on Geta's station now. Exiting warp in five."

Astrid's voice prompted everyone to take their seats as they gradually slowed down, the silhouette of a space station appearing on the deep space scanner above the NAV tank. Their attention was towards the front viewport as the protective shutters raised, the metallic humming ambient noise gradually decreasing in volume throughout the ship as they exited warp. The Angel abruptly lurched forward as it tore a hole through spacetime, entering into real space as, from the outside, a blue portal opened up and spewed out the ship before immediately closing. The ship continued forwards as it made its way around a stray planetoid, Andios placing the ship in autopilot as he stood up to view the station in front of him, whistling. "I'm impressed. Geta surely is an eccentric man."

"Wonder where he got all the money from..." Jenkins murmured.

It was often said that traveling through space was akin to climbing a massive mountain with no top. Frontier stations — usually luxurious and privately-run stations in deep space — were then considered the "base camps" on this massive mountain. Granted, some of them were more like luxury playgrounds or fancy country clubs in the middle of bumfuck nowhere compared to earth-based truck stops like the vast majority of frontier stations, but that was aside from the point. Geta seemingly had taken it upon himself to purchase one of these waystations, an elegant and vaguely ring-shaped station, complete with its own automated defenses built into several false asteroids and planetoids around, including one that the Angel had passed without being obliterated. A name was visible on one of its facades: Heaven's Gate.

The station itself was nothing too extravagant, but Geta likely had paid much more for what was on the inside than the outside. A station that was formerly used as just a "rest stop" had turned into its own fully-fledged headquarters for future missions, a small group of ships flying to and from the station already.

"Astrid, take control and dock us at.." Andios paused, taking a look at the heads-up display on the front viewport to check for any free docking ports. "14E. I'm gonna go on and see what our new boss wants."

"Very well." The ship began the maneuvers in question, making very slow, incremental movements towards the station entering first through a sort of hangar where it traveled down a tunnel leading towards a large docking bay. Eventually, it passed through some hangar forcefields and the sense of stronger, artificial gravity took over, but the Angel still continued through the hangar, hovering towards the docking arm and opening its own docking port as it aligned itself with the arm. Metallic clinks were heard through the ship as the Angel docked with the Heaven's Gate, the ship's engines cutting off as the ambient humming of the engines cut off as well, while other arms in this large "hangar" began to repair the damages to the ship and re-stocked the Angel on its weapons.

Time to see where my money and the fruits of my labor are going, exactly.. Andios left the bridge for the docking bay, ascending up the lift to the docking arm. A short walk passed, and before he knew it, he was stepping foot onto the station, the artificial gravity becoming evident as he exited the docking bay.

Unlike the Pleasuredome, the interior of Heaven's Gate automatically dimmed its artificial sun lamps and changed its digital sky and environment to more of a nighttime setting when, traditionally in the system it was located in, it would've been bedtime on a typical planet. Most of the people here were miscellaneous traders, travelers, mercenaries, and the like, aside from the occasional guard hired by Geta that seemed to give a nod to Andios whenever he passed. He quickly came to realize that there was no enforced curfew on the station, so long as those who were still up were not loud for those who were sleeping.

Rather than collapse and sleep like most of Andios's crew seemed to be on the verge of doing, the Feli decided to take a visit to Heaven's Gate's living quarters, which weren't chock full like the Pleasuredome, but, rather, were fairly empty, yet pristine.

Hell, he even had his own room to go along with it...it was a quaint setup and a fairly relaxing room with a standard computer terminal setup, complete with a shower, balcony out to the artificial park, and — thank god, a door lock. The difference between this place and a regular dime-a-dozen housing unit in the Pleasuredome was that the lock could eliminate the awkward scenario of some unsuspecting person suddenly walking in on him in an embarrassing position — it was up to one's imagination to figure out what the context of "embarassing" was, of course.

Andios practically dissociated as he entered the shower and let the water fall upon his head, going deep into his thoughts about the earlier mission, about the present, and about the future. The mission was, by all means, a success, and the damage done to the ship was minimal...though, still, the painful memory of once again coming across another Black Battalion warship was a painful memory in his mind. No matter how far he ran from it, the past always seemed to be there, haunting his every movements.

After what seemed like an eternity, he left the shower and got dressed again, and was just about to head out the door when he stopped, instinctively reaching for his gun as he checked the peephole outside. A familiar face in a familiar white jacket was waiting for him, hands in his pockets, as if he were waiting for quite a while.

Andios opened the door, holstering his plasma pistol as he grabbed his other, placing it into his flight jacket that he had put on halfway. "Geta."

"I was wondering where you were. I had this uncanny idea that you'd be in here.." He saw the man eye his form up and down, Andios shuddering as he covered up his bare chest with the leather flight jacket. "Can I help you?"

"Let me answer your question with one of my own — may I come in?" Geta's smile, usually intended to reassure someone like Andios, quite honestly just freaked the Feli out, but at least he was being polite with it. "Sure."

Geta stepped inside Andios's room and took a look around while the Feli properly put his flight jacket on, watching the enigmatic and eccentric reality warper with curious but attentive eyes. "I took out the cruiser, as you asked. Payment already was forwarded to my account and I split it among my crew. Unless you've come to give me a drink or a good time, I don't really see why you're comin' in here." His eyes moved elsewhere as he sat down on the sofa, making sure to keep his tail away from his employer. "Nice station, though."

"Too quick to the draw, Andios.." Geta murmured, clasping his hands together as he looked around, as if he were searching for something, then revealed exactly what he was looking for with a flick of his wrist. "Ah, yes. Here's what I came for. Mind if I sit down?"

"Please. But don't use me as a pillow."

Geta smirked after Andios's snarky reply, making himself right at home on the sofa right next to his Feli pirate associate. "Right. While I was thinking of ways to expand our clout and make ourselves a bit more...public, I came across this report. Take a look." Geta set the trinket he was holding in his hand down onto the table, which began to play a video from a holographic screen before the two.

The video itself seemed to be taken on a space probe of sorts, showing a handful of strange, vaguely cephalopod-like alien starships clustered neatly in orbit of a planet, appearing as dashes in the background of the planet. They were flanked by smaller corvette-sized alien craft, but as the camera adjusted its zoom, the larger alien flagship came into view. It was massive, easily dwarfing the cruisers as it slithered past them and practically absorbed them into its shadow, its impulse engines a deep blue color, the hull a deep violet.

Andios watched intensely as the ships moved into formation around the flagship. "That's one huge-ass ship. Those Covenant, right?"

"Five and a half kilometers, to be exact," Geta murmured. "And yes, they're Covenant... an assault carrier. I remember now."

"I think I'd sure as hell remember seeing something as big as this ugly fucker," Andios crossed his arms. "It's fucking massive, and if you think I have either the firepower or the balls to take out something that big, you're surely mistaken, Geta. I have neither...although, I will say, I do have some balls in me."

Geta ignored the Feli's immature remark as he pointed his finger towards something miniscule beside the massive assault carrier, practically invisible to the unstrained eye. "I hate to break it to you, Andios, but I'm not too focused on the carrier, not right now. I'm more focused on that one. Do you see it?"

Andios looked closer, and soon, it became evident that Geta was pointing to something under the assault carrier's shadow. The probe zoomed in on the object, revealing itself to be a corvette-class alien ship out of the others. The flagship, its cruiser escorts, and many of the other corvette and frigate-sized alien ships were departing the system, sneaking their way into slipspace — a form of space travel similar to warp travel — before disappearing entirely with the elegance of high-class warp drives like the ones used on Andios's ship. They had done so with surgical precision, leaving behind little to no traces of their exit.

The alien fleet was now down to four ships, leaving the target corvette and three other identical ships in the orbit of the planet. Four versus one—Andios was now more confident with these odds than anything else.

"So, four versus one," Andios repeated the odds out aloud. "You want me taking 'em all out? Piece of cake."

To this, Geta raised a finger. "Not quite. What I ask of you is different — all but one of these ships needs to live, one very important ship in this group."

"Hm?"

Geta readjusted himself on the couch as the probe zoomed in on the alien corvette in question, a wireframe scan of it appearing on a display beside the camera. "Our new client believes this corvette is a courier of sorts from the fleet, inbound to either another fleet or another station, and while the Covenant aren't so much on the lam anymore, this is information that our new client believes could be crucial in defeating them. The mission is simple," Geta paused, as if for dramatic effect. "Intercept this corvette. Hijack it, retrieve the sensitive information onboard, and return it here for transfer to our client. Any alien shares on this ship, monetary or otherwise, are yours to keep, but the sensitive intel is our client's."

"Any intel on these corvettes?" Andios asked.

"Expect plasma weaponry, highly effective against shields. They're quick, but one should be an even match. If I were you.." Geta placed a hand on his chin. "I would ambush them. Force them into a place where their scanners are ineffective, such as a nebula, then go for the kill."

"I was thinking the same thing." Andios muttered. "Do you know where they're headed, or if they've left yet?"

"You may need to do some searching," Geta replied quickly. "This was taken rather recently, and I still don't know if the probe's still in town. In any event.." He paused, picking up the trinket they had used to view the probe's video from, typing something into the console on a holographic keyboard. "I'll give you this, upload it to your ship's NAV computer to find the probe's coordinates. From there, if the ships still aren't in-system, search around. Once you've warped away from Heaven's Gate, though, you're on your own. Keep a low profile. I've already taken the liberty to hiring some mercenaries for use as a boarding crew, you'll find them in the armory."

"Understood." Andios nodded, as Geta prepared to leave." And the pay?"

His boss paused, as if for dramatic effect. "10,000 credits. Each. Straight to your accounts."

---

Technically, Andios didn't need any larger crew than just the bridge crew to fly the Angel, but it at least helped to have additional crew in sensitive locations around the ship, like engineering, the hangar, and the like, to expedite the process of some maintenance work. Andios, obviously, took center stage again in his Captains' chair, being welcomed with a holographic display of the ship's systems as he rested his elbow on his right armrest. He swiveled back around to look at each of the bridge crew, before activating the intercom from his little command console. "To our new mercenary friends onboard, make yourself at home. To the bridge crew, and everyone else on the ship...the mission today is simple. We're intercepting an alien corvette, Covenant in origin. It should be an equal fight, but we're going up against three of its friends, so this should be an interesting fight regardless. We'll be leaving the station temporarily. Once we're outta this bitch, we're keeping a low profile, deep space scanners on and instruments on."

He turned to Navigation. "Alright, Jenkins, helmsman, get us out of here."

A light rumble was sent through the Angel as the smaller maneuvering thrusters turned on, inching the ship away from the station as it disconnected from the docking arm. More humming filled the bridge as the much larger low-emission impulse engines activated, moving them away from the docking area as they began towards the exit of the station's massive hangar. The way out of the hangar was a sort of "launch tube" similar to that on a carrier, though it was much larger to allow frigate and destroyer-sized ships and smaller to pass through with ease. The direction out into space was like a sort of runway, white lights blinking one by one out towards space, as if they were directing the Angel out into the star-filled expanse.

"Navigator has controls," the helmsman reported.

"I have controls," Jenkins repeated. On the front glass viewport, the heads up display activated to indicate a sort of ILS indicator of where the "bottom" of the station's "runway" was, along with a digital glidescope deviation guide similar to that of an airplane, and an angle-of-attack indicator. As the ship's engines warmed up, Jenkins took the stick and flared up the main engines, the larger rear engines taking over and providing them with enough thrust to shoot out of the hangar — and, subsequently, the station.

Those onboard felt a slight feeling of weightlessness as the ship passed through Heaven's Gate's hangar forcefields, before ultimately settling down comfortably to the floor thanks to the ship's own artificial gravity generator. As the Angel picked up speed and cruised away from the station, Andios inserted the device Geta had given him into the NAV tank, viewing their current course and the larger galaxy through the holographic view of the NAV tank.

"Colin, c'mere." Andios waved his first mate over. "Looks like we're jumping here," the Feli pointed to the system in question: Foundry. "What I'm thinkin' is that we warp in here, bypassing all those nearby hyperspace lanes and pretty much just popping in undetected.." He dragged a claw around Foundry's nearby systems, relative to their position. "And we ambush 'em. If they flee, we'll pursue, hopefully chase them into the nebula around Foundry, so they can't call for help. Then, once we take out this bad boy's escorts.." He paused, sticking a thumb to himself. "I'll board with the mercs, take out the guys in charge."

"A sound plan." Colin nodded in agreement.

"I'm calculating that we'll be reaching our destination in a little under an hour," Astrid noted.

The station, visible from the bridge's rear viewscreen, gradually became smaller and smaller as the Angel sped off into outer space.

"Astrid, plot a warp jump to the Foundry system with the coordinates of that probe," Andios requested.

"Copy. Waiting on navigation." Astrid responded, to which Jenkins went back to his station, summoning his own holographic control panel. "We've got the coordinates ready...standby for warp jump."

Jenkins's free right hand hovered over to the holographic control panel, which had changed from its usual nondescript screen showing the ship schematics and other fancy things, to essentially a screen of virtual levers and switches akin to a flight simulator. His hand was still on the joystick near him, but left it as he turned to the helmsman. "Helm, you got controls."

"I got controls," the helmsman repeated, with Jenkins calling back to him again. "Get us ready to enter warp, I'm punching in the numbers...now."

The helmsman made small, almost indistinguishable motions as he glided the ship away from the station's natural gravity well, and closer towards outer space. Now that they were in a position to jump (and a reasonably safe distance away from the station), Jenkins diverted his attention back over to the holographic console beside him, flipping a few of the virtual switches as the screen displayed a [CONFIRM JUMP] prompt.

Traveling through warp aside from generally quicker FTL jumps or using hyperspace lanes had its advantages—a ship in warp or slipspace technically wasn't in "real space" or perhaps even hyperspace, but essentially its own "bubble" of subspace, bypassing all the bureaucracy and time that came with stopping at a system, readjusting for FTL, and jumping again. It also made things easier—warp jumps generally had a lower profile than bombastically jumping into a system via FTL or hyperspace, even if it was more energy-consuming.

Jenkins tapped the [CONFIRM] prompt and began to slide the virtual levers forward. A low, metallic hum, similar to the ambient noise of a refrigerator, filled the bridge as whips of light across the electromagnetic spectrum licked against the ship. A blue, marble-textured sphere in space opened up, appearing as a hypnotic, undulating vortex that they promptly entered, plunging them into an infinite darkness as stars and systems and colors flashed by the bridge. The system Heaven's Gate was in stretched itself around the viewport as if it were a film reel on repeat, the ship seemingly remaining still as it moved forwards through warp.

Now, all it came down to was waiting. Waiting to see what would happen with the ships, waiting to see if the probe's data was still right..and waiting to see if they were in the clear for their ambush.

"Keep our signature low profile, engines on low emission at all time." Andios ordered, turning to his chair that began to raise up into the observatory. "If you need me, I'll be up here."

---

OST - Wyvern

The protective shudders slowly were still over the viewport as Andios, confident that they were not followed, gave a sigh of relief as he was lowered back into the bridge. He returned to the NAV tank, watching their progress towards Foundry. They had, quite literally, skipped across two neighboring systems and through the nebula to reach Foundry, a jewel hidden deep in the nebula. This system was one of the very few noteworthy systems in this end of the Galaxy that was, surprisingly, void of any pirate, smuggler, or corporate activity, namely because of the superstition of large alien fauna lying in wait in these nebulae that would surely eat any spaceship, and the general irrelevance of the system.

It was sad, too. Foundry looked like a quaint system to set up shop, maybe someplace Geta could move his station to, as well...

Gesturing to the holographic map above the NAV tank's flat surface, created from the data of the probe, he saw that the planet was positioned approximately three planets in orbit away from the aptly-named deep orange sun of Foundry. These were all conditions perfect for life, on the galactic setting, making the alien fleet's presence here all the more suspicious, and the contents of the sensitive documents they were tasked with achieving all the more mysterious.

Andios began to try and piece together a coherent story in his head. It was almost too perfect. Opportunistic humans wanted to know what the Covenant of all people were doing snooping around a planet like this, in a system like Foundry, some backwater, irrelevant system in the middle of a nebula. Or, perhaps, it was hidden for a reason... If this data was so important to these shady, opportunistic humans that had a bone to pick with the Covenant...maybe it was something that he could use as a bargaining token, perhaps to figure out what was up with those humans, after all.

"If the contents of this corvette are so important, they'd better be paying us some hefty shit to hijack it and get the stuff.." Andios muttered, returning to his chair. If his judgement was correct, which it usually was, they'd be exiting warp right about...now.

The shudders remained closed, but that was what cameras were for: outside, the maneuvering cameras came online, the static around them from their exit from warp dissipating as they focused in on the enemy flotilla. Four Covenant corvettes...one immediately marked as [HVT] on the HUD of the viewport as the shudders raised. They stealthily slithered into the system, the low-emission engines and powered-down state of many of their sensors, sans the deep space scanner, adding to mask their already discreet entry.

"Looks like they haven't spotted us," Colin noted quietly. "What's our play? How're we gonna take on all four of them?"

Andios placed a hand on his chin, deep in thought, as he thought of his next plan of action. They were most definitely outnumbered, but this didn't mean they were outgunned. In a one-on-one engagement, he had the upper hand when it came to firepower, and the diversity of weapons, as well...so isolating their HVT and forcing them away from the others was top priority now.

"Astrid, remove weapons safety locks on our MORAYs. Prepare to launch one...and bring up our electronic warfare suite." Andios instructed.

"MORAYs armed, captain." Astrid repeated. "Do we have a targeting vector?"

"Standby for remote detonation again, disable proximity detonation, and enable remote course-correction for my terminal." Andios paused. "Launch vector is bearing one zero zero, grid reference Victor zero-one. Declination zero zero point one four degrees."

A blip appeared on the front viewport's heads-up display..in the middle of the enemy fleet. "Done, Andios."

"Captain, they'll detect that thing coming in from a thousand kilometers away—"

"No, they won't." Andios corrected Colin, gesturing to the electronic warfare suite to his side. "Not with what I have planned. Now, Astrid, with that on hold...target the camera probe. Let me know when we're locked on." A new plan had formed in his head, Andios considering all his possible options right now as the wireframe image of the space probe appeared before him. "Locked on...now, we've just got to send a virus onboard, enable remote operation.. and.."

After a second, the ion engines of the probe suddenly cut on, the small, remote-operated spacecraft flying past the ship and accelerating towards the enemy fleet. Instantly, the corvettes moved into a defensive formation around the HVT ship, red lights gathering on their side as they prepared for a broadside. Bright bolts of plasma shot from the ships, some arcing off towards random directions, while others seemingly slowly crept towards the inbound space probe.

They took the bait, so now, it was time for Andios to launch his own attack. "Launch that MORAY, Astrid! I've got the stick on it.." He brought up a second holographic control panel to his left, already remotely operating the slaved probe to their ship with his right hand. Right now, he was multitasking—one hand weaving the probe past inbound plasma fire...the other making very small, incremental course corrections to the MORAY that had just launched, following right behind the space probe.

"MORAY's away, time to target is one minute. Time for spaceprobe to target is thirty seconds," Astrid announced. The distance plummeted between the spaceprobe and the enemy fleet: 50km... 40km... 30km... 20km...

At 10km left between the probe and the enemy fleet, Andios wasn't sure how the probe was still alive now. His suspicions that it was just going to harmlessly ram into the corvette were neutralized when a stray pulse laser from the alien ship hit the probe, instantly annihilating it and shattering it into trillions of pieces. In its place, in the ensuing, fiery cloud of debris that was once the probe, the MORAY flew through, ending its burn in the middle of the formation.

"Nuke out." Andios warned, hitting the button for detonation. A bright flash appeared in the orbit of the planet, followed by a giant glowing white orb that expanded outwards, briefly consuming the enemy ships before dissipating into sparkling embers. The enemy fleet was, miraculously, still intact, but their shields were completely neutralized, some of their impulse engines sputtering and going out entirely from the ensuing electromagnetic pulse.

"Launch our plasma artillery, ready the PAC to target the farthest corvette away from the enemy HVT ship," Andios instructed. The Angel crept out of its theoretical hiding spot and armed its weapons, two of the three escorts of the enemy HVT ship targeted automatically on the bridge's heads-up display. The frontal particle accelerator cannon fired first, a pair of thin, golden beams severing the target from prow to bow, as the other ship targeted, still immobilized, bore the brunt of the Angel's broadside, listing to the side and eventually splitting in two.

"Make sure they're still jammed and can't call for help," Andios muttered. "Target the last ship, full broadside of our plasma cannons."

"Aye aye." Colin repeated. "Weapons, at the ready, and keep 'em jammed!"

More green flashes came from the Angel's main heavy-hitting guns, green bolts of plasma accelerating away from the broadside and automatically making course-corrections towards the last remaining enemy ship. Even as its engines sputtered online, and as its shields reactivated, the Covenant corvette was no match to the sustained bombardment from the Angel, a few of the plasma bolts burrowing into the hull and sending large fragments spewing out, including what appeared to be the command and control nexus of the enemy ship.

"Get us closer." Andios ordered. "And keep him jammed. I don't want this sunovabitch leaving while we've still got him here!"

"Incoming plasma fire!" Jenkins screamed, a few of the blue bolts of plasma from the enemy ship splashing against the Angel's shields, while a few others were intercepted by retaliatory shots from the Angel's own point defense and plasma guns. The ship shook as it bore the brunt of the Covenant corvette's barrage, while it also tried to slip away and immediately began moving away from the Angel's effective range.

"We're getting a slipspace rupture at the front of the ship, random endpoint," Astrid reported, a bit of a shocked tone to her voice. "It's trying to jump!"

"So...that's how you're gonna have it, huh?" Andios swore to himself. Now, it was going to have to turn into a delicate game of cat-and-mouse with the HVT ship, no pun intended, and as risky as sending two ships through warp was, it was the only shot at trailing that ship. "We can't let that happen. Full speed, follow them in. Jenkins...prepare a short-range FTL tac-jump, grid reference Victor zero-one. Get us close!"

In an instant, it seemed as if the ship had lurched forward in space, everything going blurry as they seemingly teleported into the graveyard made from the enemy spacecraft. The Corvette was already entering slipspace, but the Angel was quick to follow, flaring its engines to its maximum possible output as it entered close behind the enemy ship.

After about fifteen minutes in slipspace, they were spewed out in a random location in the pinkish-reddish nebula, which not only cut off their communications back with Heaven's Gate, but also effectively stranded both ships. No one would be calling for help now, and no help would come from any distress beacons.

Just what I need. Towards the right arm of Andios's chair, a holographic console appeared, identifying that the ship ahead on the scanner was launching fighters. Teardrop-shaped starfighters began to dogfight with the Angel's own drones, to which Andios pointed to the mothership, pointing towards its rear. "Get a lock, weapons! I don't want it jumping away again!"

As a massive starfighter battle began outside, the Angel's mass driver point defense guns automatically began pounding the enemy ship, explosions peppering the ship as similar plasma explosions splashed against the Angel. It was an even broadside, for sure, both ships circling one another like buzzards as they pounded and probed their shields, assessing one another for weaknesses to exploit, for opportunities to capitalize from.

"We're in a stalemate," Colin said. "PACs should be readying up soon, just venting heat from the main PAC."

As Andios saw the white vapor extrude from the weapon on his bow, he pointed towards the Covenant corvette's rear, once they circled around to it. "Fire the PAC at the engines, I don't care if it'll do damage, just don't blow up the ship! We need to keep it from warning its fleet."

"PAC at one hundred percent.." Astrid reminded.

"Fire."

Two golden lances shot from the front of the ship, practically burrowing through the Covenant corvette's shielding as it briefly blinked, faltering once, then twice, before cuttting out at once. The second PAC beam shot out as well, slicing across the engines like a scalpel, bits and pieces of the Covenant ship breaking off as the engines exploded, shining a light almost as bright as the sun out at the Angel as it began drifting through the nebula, essentially ignoring the fight around them.

"It's got nowhere to go, nowhere to jump to..." Jenkins murmured. "Boss! You're clear to board!"

Andios nodded, executing an about face as he started towards the exit of the bridge. "Colin, take command while I take these mercs onto the ship. I'll leave through the hangar and come back through the hangar..."

---

King of the Stars
"WITH NO SURVIVORS" | Deep Space
Andios Lockjaw
__________________________________

OST — Extra

Small space debris and ice particles from both the space battle around them and the nebula itself bounced off of Andios’s armor as he and the other mercenaries exited the Angel’s hangar and executed a thruster-assisted descent towards the alien corvette. The feeling of weightlessness was instant as they passed out of the hangar and floated out, silent, colorful flashes of light and the occasional moomf of explosions around them confirming his suspicions that they were in the clear—at least, until an enemy fighter inadvertently splattered them, or a stray plasma burst vaporized them.

“Time to target is ten seconds,” Andios warned, watching the meters to the enemy ship plummet in his heads up display. Once he was directly above the alien ship, the thruster pack in his armor activated to slow his descent, while he used his arm to scrape against the enemy ship, slowing his descent as best as possible. Using his momentum, he practically swung himself off the side of the ship, activating his armor’s mag boots as he clung to the topside of the alien ship.

“We’ve got incoming,” A merc reported in a neutral tone as enemy contacts appeared both flying out of the forcefield topside, as well as on his motion tracker. Blue blasts of plasma shot by Andios’s face as he reached to his side for his plasma pistol. The armor’s shielded holster compartment opened as he drew his plasma pistol and practically hip fired at the incoming Covenant forces, a burst of red plasma bolts whipping past blue bolts, particularly those fired by an inbound Sangheili ranger that had activated his jetpack and began flying towards him.

Andios and the Ranger met in close combat, both of their shields blinking from the impact as they slipped over each other for a moment, before messily throwing one another out of the grapple, with the Ranger flying back towards the ship as Andios spun out into space.

Andios activated his thrusters and immediately corrected his spin, spotting the alien’s plasma rifle was floating in between then, slowly spinning into the vacuum as it descended towards the corvette’s gravity well. Evidently, he had disarmed the Sangheili of his plasma rifle, and as he launched himself towards the weapon and snatched it for his own use, he was too blind to see that the alien trooper was back, and more pissed off than before.

A two-pronged, blue glow appeared in the Ranger’s hand as the Sangheili flew forwards, Andios instinctively (and stupidly) using the plasma rifle as an improvised club to try and bat the sword out of the way. The energy sword cleaved through the weapon with ease as the Elite grabbed onto him, yanking him down and slamming him into the hull of the corvette.

With his free hand, Andios hipfired his plasma pistol again, downing the alien’s energy shields as he pistol-whipped the Elite’s visor, producing a sizable crack. The alien reached for his face and attempted to cover up the hole, blindly slicing downwards with his weapon, but as he missed, Andios lit him up once more, more red bolts ripping through the Elite’s armor and producing baseball-sized holes in his body.

Andios turned to the topside entrance of the corvette, pointing to enemy Unggoy, or Grunts, that had began hobbling out—it was an entire enemy squad, Grunts supplemented by Elites in the typical Covenant fashion.

“Engage!” Andios shouted, drawing a second plasma pistol from his side and firing downrange at the incoming hostiles. Both sides exchanged fire as Andios dug into cover, silent bolts of plasma flying past once more as he pointed towards an enemy grunt and another Elite ranger with his pistols. Downing the grunt with two shots, he refocused his attention towards the Elite and kept firing, sending a veritable flurry of plasma rounds downrange at the alien.

Keeping his pistols pointed downrange as the Elite charged, he wasn’t sure if the alien in particular was just too damn durable, if his armor was stronger, but Andios seemed reluctant to figure out which one was right. With one final effort, Andios holstered his weapons and reached for a compartment on his chest, revealing a tactical knife-like device that began to vibrate at intense speeds, blade end glowing rapidly.

He jammed the blade into the Elite’s chest, straight through the alien's shields, and practically pushed him down into the topside access shield, both he and the Sangheili falling through the shield and landing on the ground with a loud smash. It became readily apparent that there was still no gravity in here, the rest of Andios's mercenaries floating down through the topside shields, some opening fire on their way down as the doors to the hangar opened, revealing another EVA-equipped elite, a contingent of grunts, and Jackals in a phalanx, the latter of which were immediately engaged by the mercenaries.

The inbound hostiles were made short work of by the combined fire from Andios's mercenaries, their ears popping as both pressure and gravity were restored to the room, perhaps not on their own volition. Andios's armor neatly began to disassemble itself from over his frame, compacting nicely into a backpack-like device he wore. The other mercenaries did the same, Andios meeting eyes with a bald and battle-scarred human in particular, reading off his nametape. "Russell, right?"

The man nodded. "Aye. What do you say about takin' over this ship once and for all?"

"Follow my lead, shields up," As he spoke, an energy shield similar to that worn over his EVA armor appeared, briefly shimmering blue before disappearing from view entirely. "I think this is the way to the bridge.."

The team moved in unison, the automated doors letting off a brief humm chime as they passed through, Andios checking his corners with extra precaution. He didn't know much about Covenant ship security, but Elites with swords were most definitely not on his list to take on today...at least, not right now.

He gave a halting motion with his free hand, a fist balled up, as they entered what appeared to be the bridge. Rather than being located in the center of the ship, the bridge was in the bow, composed of a large encompassing perimeter platform which surrounded a number of control consoles, a large holo-tank in the center and a retractable conference table off to the side. Unsurprisingly, the bridge was chock full of enemy contacts...all Elites, whom Andios's mercenaries each began to aim at as they fanned out, acquiring targets.

"Stealth ones near the big guy in the center.." Russell reminded Andios, referring to the Sangheili Shipmaster in the center, whom watched the space battle outside from the viewport. Andios nodded, and took the first shot, watching in surprise as the Alien's shield blinked only once, the plasma round harmlessly bouncing away from the Shipmaster as he turned around. His guards, and all the other Elites, all turned around as well, mag holsters unlocking as energy swords, plasma rifles, and concussion rifles were prepared.

Andios didn't really have anything else to say, at that point. "Shit."

"Surrender, imps." The enemy Shipmaster called. "You are outgunned, your ship on the verge of defeat."

"I don't think so," Andios retorted. "We're coming here for something y'all have, and I'd be happy to take it from your cold, dead hands, If I really have to.."

He heard a chuckle come from the alien as the Shipmaster reached to his side, a large energy sword activating in his right hand as he assumed a fighting stance. "You shall die braver than most, then. Kill them!"

Andios practically went on all fours as the battle ensued around them, dodging the deadly swipe of the enemy commander's Energy sword as it cleaved through a pair of computers behind him like a hot knife through butter. Andios leaped off the ground, planting his legs on one of the pillars near the Commander's station, and sprung off, flying towards the Elite with a leg out, and knocking him off his feet with a powerful kick.

The Shipmaster rolled for a few feet, disoriented, then grabbed his energy sword and reactivated it, thrusting it out like a jousting spear. Andios wove out of the way, dodging another one of the berserk alien's swings, sidestepping another, then leaped up, firing a rapid burst at the alien with his plasma pistol. The Elite's shields practically ate the incoming burst, but while he was busy trying to dodge more shots, Andios drew his knife again and lobbed it at the alien, leaping backwards towards one of the corpses of the bridge crew Elites.

The knife practically ignored the Elite's shields as it embedded itself deep in his hand, shattering as he cried out in pain, cursing the Feli.

His swearing was met with a glowing blue orb that flew at him, and as he instinctively swatted it away, he remembered what exactly had been thrown at him anyways: the blue orb stuck to the alien's hand, and he could only let out but an enraged roar as he exploded, showering the room in blue fire, glowing white embers, and fleshy violet viscera.

The fighting ceased soon after, and Andios quickly marched over to the main command console, sticking a device connected to his belt into the machine as he waited. "Astrid...files received?"

"Received." Her voice confirmed, Andios removing the cord as he turned around to the mercs. "We're done here. Astrid, we're returning to the Angel. I think we need to get out of here, we're gonna do another space walk before we—"

"Slipspace ruptures detected." Outside of the viewport, dozens of ruptures in spacetime opened up...and, just like that, the enemy fleet from earlier appeared, forming a line before both the Angel and the commandeered enemy corvette. "Now would be a very good time to leave!"

Their armor assembling around them, Andios and the mercenaries sprinted away from the bridge, making their way for the hangar of the corvette post haste. Whatever information they had stolen from the ship likely was really valuable to the Covenant, making the raid itself—hell, the entire mission—all the more suspicious, as if it wasn't suspicious enough already.

[Skylus]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
The Flying Krock (aka K.Rool’s airship)


He wasn’t sure what exactly he was dreaming about. His mind was empty at first, a total blank, but then, he heard a voice.

”Link! Wake up!”

Aryll?

Then, he found himself staring up at a blue cloudless sky, the sun bearing down on him. He felt wooden planks under him as he tried to figure out where he was, then a young girl in a blue and white spotted dress appeared in his vision.

“You’re up! Did you forget what day it is?”

What is today? ...Does she mean today today or the date of this memory?

Link simply got up and shook his head as he continued to wonder where he was and why his sister was there.

“It’s your birthday, silly! Grandma told me to come find you, and I did!”

Oh yeah. Today’s the day, huh? The day my entire world was changed forever…

His sister’s voice broke him from his thoughts. “I brought you a gift, even though Grandma wanted me to give it to you later. I hope you like it!”

Aryll handed him a shiny brass telescope and Link promptly half turned and tested out the instrument on waves and a few seagulls.

“Well? Do you like it?”

Link lowered the telescope and turned his head to look at his younger sister, not speaking for a moment. “It’s great.” He felt a rare sense of excitement as he tested the instrument again, remembering everything that he had used the telescope for. I still have it, you know. It’s in my knapsack. Maybe they’ll let me use it on the airship.

“I’ll let Grandma know you’re up!” He heard Aryll’s footsteps retreating and then there wasn’t anything save for the sounds of seagulls and waves crashing against the shoreline. Link lowered the telescope again and simply looked out at the seemingly endless ocean.

And just to think that I had no idea of what was in store for me. That there’s ruins down there, that I would go on to save my world and others...Gods, now that I think about it, I’m not sure I even believe what I’ve been through, even if everything was real.

After a few more minutes of standing there on the watch tower’s second level, Link climbed down the ladder and walked across the beach to his grandmother’s cabin and walked inside, where she was waiting for him near the kitchen.

“I made these for you. You know what these clothes are, do you? These are the Hero’s Clothes; when each boy on this island comes of age, they are granted a set of these clothes and are granted a weapon of their choosing. Here, put these on so I can see how they look on you.”

The old woman handed her grandson the woven clothing and Link looked down at them in silence.

“Is something wrong? Don’t worry, if they don’t fit, I can always adjust them.”

If these really are my memories, then why can I think clearly? As if I’m still here, in this precise moment? ...I shouldn’t worry about it.

Link looked up from the clothes and nodded. “No, I’m fine. Although I am a bit nervous…”

“Of course. So was your father, but he passed the test of strength, just as I know you will.” His grandmother walked around him and started to walk towards the door, then looked back. “I’ll be outside on the porch, come see me when you think they’re adjusted enough.” And then she was gone.

---

The Helmaroc King screeched as the massive bird swooped down into the tower, its sharp talons piercing Link’s shoulders and lifting him into the air, away from the cage his sister and a few other girls were trapped in. Aryll rushed to the bars, screaming his name, but then she was gone as the bird took to the air and cleared the tower, climbing higher and higher as the thing carried him up to the broken ship in the near distance.

Ow. This hurts. A lot. I know how this ends too, why am I remembering this?

Still, the Hero of Winds felt the rare sense of fear course through him when the bird stopped before the broken ship. A robed man was standing on the wooden platform, his crimson eyes glowing in the dark. The man didn’t speak, instead, he waved a robed arm and the bird tilted its head back, screeched again, then threw Link away from the Forsaken Fortress, down to the Great Sea far below.

---

It seemed to take a while before the next memory decided to form. He wasn't surprised at which one it was, but yet he couldn’t get the sensation of falling out of his head.

He heard distant waves crashing against rocks. Then, a voice. “Link.”
Hello Red. Long time no see, huh? Man, the things I have to tell you about…
“Link. You must awaken, you have slept for too long and there is much I must discuss with you.”
Alright. Sure, I’ll wake up. There’s a lot I want to ‘discuss with you’ too but you’re not here. Well, here as on the airship you aren’t but in this dream, yeah.

Link found himself looking up at a stone arch, it’s underside darkened by the sun high above. He looked up at it for a while, trying to get his vision to focus, then realized he was rocking back and forth, as if he was on a boat. He slowly sat up and saw the prow/figurehead of the small boat he was currently sitting in. The figurehead turned around and started talking.

“Good! I am glad to see you are alright. I came across you floating on the surface of the Great Sea late last night, nearly lifeless. I brought you here to this alcove, on the shore of Windfall Island, to let you recover. Although you do not seem too surprised to hear me speak. Perhaps you are still in shock and not fully awake.”

Link simply nodded, and Red continued talking. “You may call me the King of Red Lions. I bet you are wondering who ordered the bird to throw you into the ocean? I shall tell you. The man is named Ganon.”

Here we go. Maybe I’ll actually listen this time around.

Red proceeded to tell Link about Ganondorf and his plans to eventually take over the Great Sea. Link simply nodded, having heard it all once before.

“And now, we must head for Dragon Roost Island. But alas, we cannot travel anywhere right now, for in order to do so, I require a sail. What good is a sailboat without a sail? Therefore, I must have a sail before we can leave… You do know how to steer boats?”

Link nodded again and stood up, then vaulted over the side of the boat, kicking up sand as he landed on the shore. “I’d better stock up on supplies while I’m getting a sail.”

Red nodded. “Yes. Don’t take too long.”

As he started to walk up the dirt path, Link couldn’t help but smile to himself. I guess I could consider this sort of a healing experience. However the smile soon faded when the scent of something made his stop walking.
What is that? Is it burnt seaweed? Maybe it got tossed up on the shoreline and sat in the sun all day.
It was not burnt seaweed, but rather the decaying corpse of a mangled Cucco, it’s remains thrown up on the pointed rocks a few feet away.
...That was not there before.

---

Something loomed in the near darkness, the sun’s rays dissipating as the two descended beneath the waves. As Red continued to descend into the depths of the Great Sea, Link remembered what memory this was.
The first time I traveled down here was to get the Master Sword and wake the castle up. I know there’s some significance to me remembering this.
At last the dormant and frozen castle came into view, the suns rays almost non existent. I could have sworn the rays reached down here. I guess not.
The sailboat hit the ocean floor and rocked back and forth for a few seconds, then spoke. “At last, we have reached Hyrule. You must go forth and retrieve Evil’s Bane from the castle’s basement, only then can we put an end to Ganon.”
Link vaulted over the side of the boat and nodded, looked up at one of the many flags that were frozen in time, then walked up the front steps and entered Hyrule Castle.

As soon as he walked inside the castle, Link found himself looking up at a frozen Darknut, its sword raised high. I forgot how big they were. Right then, open the way to the basement, get the sword, fight everything.
As he walked around the Darknut and down the steps, his view changed from the entrance hall to the basement and he stopped waking. Interesting. Well, I’m already down here, might as well get the sword.

The seven stained glass windows seemed to come alive as he walked down the stairs and up to the raised platform at the end of the hallway.
Link didn’t pay any mind to what was happening, for his gaze was only on the dimmed, silent blade before him. He walked up to it, placed a hand on the hilt, then pulled upwards.
The sword being drawn from its pedestal activated the seven knight statues above, one by one, they raised their swords to the sky and Link watched as the castle reawakened after five centuries of being dormant. He heard distant roars and he looked down at the Master Sword, then grinned. “Ready, Fi?”
He didn’t expect an answer, of course, the sword had been damaged by the killing of the two Sages that watched over it, but he did get a response. ”Yes.”
Little did Link know that the sword in the present day started to glow even in its scabbard on a nearby table.
Link swung the blade once, looked up at the knight statues, then turned away from the pedestal and started to walk towards the stairs.

His view changed to a Darknut, which was right in front of him. The thing raised its sword and brought it down, Link dodged and swung the Master Sword at the things’ chestplate, only for it to bounce off as the thing swung its broadsword at him.
Link was thrown backwards across the room, the sword flying from his hand as he hit a cracked pillar and fell to the tile floor.
This… did not happen. I don’t understand, what is happening?

The Darknut walked up to him and raised its sword, then stabbed downwards, causing his vision to go dark. Link wasn’t even sure if he was still alive or if he was really dead.
Can you die in dreams? I guess I’m going to find out. Still though, what happened? The sword didn’t do anything to that Darknut. I must still be alive because I still have thoughts. That said, I wonder what my -

He was back in the castle, standing over the now very dead Darknut. Link realized that he was covered in blood and gore, and that everything else in the castle was also dead. The Master Sword’s blade was slick with blood and some drops hissed as they hit the tile floor. Right. This is when I first realized that I could kill things.

He felt himself fall to his knees and he looked down, his lower chest quickly turning crimson. Oh yeah. I remember this too.
The Hero of Winds fell over onto his side, the sword clattering to the tiles before him and his vision went dark.
I got the scar then.
And then even his mind faded for a while.

---

Oh, hey, I'm alive. Yeah, my vision's blurred but I guess I'm awake...Right? What's that light? Where's it coming from, and why am I hearing voices? They sound strange, whatever they're saying. ...I can't seem to move...Alright, I can deal with that, I suppose. I wonder why I've been remembering things. Maybe I'll find out sooner or later - wait, what's that? Someone's there... I can't make out who they are... They're walking away... Huh, strange, I wonder who they were. Wait, they're back, and they have something... What is that noise? I've never heard it before. Is that a dagger? What are they going to do with it? They're not going to stab me are they? - Wait, no, don't - Aaaaaahhhh!!!!

So Link thinks he’s awake but he’s really not. He’s still dreaming. Anyway, he ‘wakes up’, finds that he can’t wake up, sees a bright light, then some dark figure appears above him, speaking in a strange language and holding a strange device. It makes a high pitched noise and then he’s stabbed in the head by the device.

---

“This is it, Link! We just need to get past whatever is behind this door, then I can help you in restoring the Master Sword!”

Link nodded as he looked up at the massive weathered twin doors before him, then gave Medli a side glance. “Are you sure about this? I have no idea what’s behind these doors.”

The Rito nodded. “Yeah. I am. Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

As Link walked up to the doors, they opened by themselves, allowing Link to walk into the seemingly empty room. Then the doors closed before Medli could enter, leaving Link alone.

Purple flames flickered in the near darkness and Link drew the Master Sword and raised it a bit, catching something in the blade’s reflection. For a moment he thought he saw dancing Gorons in the shadows before they vanished and he shook his head. Dark figures started running at him but they vanished just before they hit, they seemed to be created by the lantern light that was now dominating the room; and the sword was destroying them due to the reflecting light. Link blinked hard, trying to focus on the thing that was slowly floating towards him.
Big Poe. Alright, let’s do this.

It seemed like no time had passed at all since the battle with the lantern demon and soon the thing was nearly dead. Link raised Evil’s Bane for the final blow and just for a moment, he saw something looking at him with an evil grin, then the figure faded as the sword cut the monster in two.

He stood there for a moment as the torches surrounding the room flared up and he heard his friend’s voice behind him. “Link! Are you okay! I can get in now, stay there and I’ll be there in a second!” Just for a moment, he thought he heard harp strings being plucked, then he noticed the sword in his hand start to glow.

---

“Alright Link, I’m glad we made it through the Wind Temple! All we need to do is defeat the temple guardian, then I can help restore the Master Sword!”
Makar shook his head back and forth, the wood bits on his head rattling as they hit each other.
“Right. I’ve got a feeling this won’t be that easy.”
The Korok raised his small arms in a shrug. “Who said defeating the temple guardians was easy? You’re the Hero, Link, they’re supposed to test you.”

Link drew the Master Sword, now just one fight away from being restored and swung it once, then flipped it in a 180 circle before walking up to the giant door and opening it.

He was standing on a stone platform, a pit of sand below. Alright. Fighting Molgera again, this is going to be fun. Link took out the Hookshot, aimed at a wooden beam, then fired the weapon. The claw stabbed the beam and he swung out over the sand pit, then dropped, landing in a one kneed position, but then standing as he looked up at the dark ceiling. Where are you… Link started spinning the Hookshot in a circle absentmindedly as he waited for the sandworm to show up. It didn’t take long.

The thing appeared with a roar, flapping its’ mouth opened and closed as it circled around the arena, it finally slammed into the sand and disappeared. Here we go.

Then Molgera shot up from the sand and the fight was on.

The sand beast flew across the area, gaping mouth open wide. Link shot the Hookshot at its’ tongue and pierced the thing, causing Molgera to roar as it was dragged close to the Hylian, who then proceeded to slash at the monster with the sword. As he did so, he saw the faces of grinning demonic monsters appear on the sandworms' skin, along with those of the various races of Hyrule. The faces of the demon monsters were speaking and roaring in a strange language, while the good races seemed to be asking him to free them.
Molgera... Did it absorb souls? Alright this is new.

The battle continued until finally Link was able to get a lucky hit in and the beast turned to dust, the sand draining into vents on the sides of the room. Eventually, the Hylian Crest was revealed and Makar joined Link in the middle of the room. As Link swung the Master Sword once, he heard a fiddle start to play behind him and the sword in his hand began to glow with an intense light.

---

It was silent. Link realized he was standing on the beach of Sunset Island, rain pouring down from the skies overhead. He could barely see ten feet in front of him, even with the light from the Master Sword, the glow of which created a three foot circle around him on the sand.
I’m… Back home? Why?
A flash of lightning lit up the island and Link saw something a few feet away from him. It was a dead person, covered in blood and open wounds, no, sword wounds.
What… As he walked up to the corpse, lightning flashed again and he saw that the person wasn’t exactly a person at all, but was half person half Moblin.
What is this?!
Link took a step backwards as lightning flashed again, revealing that there wasn’t just one body, but several. They were all half human and half of various monsters that Link had dispelled with the Master Sword. As he stood there trying to figure out what had happened, he noticed a figure stumbling towards him. He heard something hiss and he looked down, then stopped breathing for a second as he saw that his sword was covered in blood, the crimson liquid hissing as it dripped from the holy blade onto the sand below.

The figure was close enough that Link saw what the figure was wearing - a small white dress with blue flowers.
...Ar...Aryll?
He took another step backwards, then another as he noticed the sword flash red for a brief moment. Then his sister revealed herself. Or, what had been his sister. Her corpse was covered in patches of missing skin, burns, and boils. Various sharp objects were stabbed into her, and her eye sockets were empty, blood dripping from them as the thing continued to stumble towards him. There was yet another flash of lightning; which revealed something else near him - his grandmother, in the same state as his younger sister.

“No!”
The crack of thunder and boom of thunder drowned out his cry as yet another figure appeared - Zelda.

The undead Princess started to somehow speak to Link as her corpse stumbled towards him. “You did this, you did all of this, everything that you see here, you caused.”

Link didn't say anything, he only raised the Master Sword and swung it once towards the three undead.

"Don't fight back. You know what you did, that you've killed people, destroyed history, spilt innocent blood."

Link hesitated. I'm talking to dead people. He then spoke. "You're lying." Two more figures appeared, Dragmire and the King of Hyrule. The undead stood there in silence, before Zelda spoke again.

"Those that you murdered in the other world, the desert planet, they were humans, beings similar to us, the white metal plated soldiers, they were souls that were abducted and forced to become who they were, and you murdered them. The beast soldiers, who were forced to follow their form of government, you murdered them. You have innocent blood on your sword."

"That... That's not true."

"The people who you killed, they were fighting those that would stop them from aiding their people, or that the one you call a friend yearns to get revenge on a group of people who were victims of a magical disaster."

No...No that's not...True... I...I only did it in self defense, I only... But yet what if all of it is true? What if... What if I am a murderer? Link looked up at the darkened sky, ignoring the dead corpses for a moment. What if my heroism is only a cover to hide my insanity? I think... I really do think there's no hope for me.

He shook his head and raised the Master Sword up a bit and then looked at it. No. You still accept me. That's proof. Proof that I'm still good ...Right? The sword didn't respond, the glint of the metal suddenly seemed to be taunting him.

Zelda gestured towards him and the corpses of his sister and grandmother started to stumble towards Link. "Get him. Make sure he dies."

Link started walking backwards, sword raised, eyes wide. I can't fight them, even if they are undead.

Then Aryll was gone from view, a flash of lightning half blinded Link for a moment and then he couldn't breathe - something was enclosed around his throat.
No. He tried to figure out what it was, then noticed the corpse of his grandmother was in front of him. Something hit him directly in the face and his vision was completely gone, he heard something hissing and then he realized he couldn't feel the rain hitting his face. He still couldn't breathe though and he heard a faint voice say something. "I knew my boiling blood would come in handy. Finsh him off dear."
Link heard his sister say something and then heard, rather felt, his neck snap, then everything was gone.

---

Link bolted upright with a silent cry, his eyes wide, his breathing irregular.
I’m awake. Okay. Just breathe. Is it supposed to be this hot in here? His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden onslaught of sheer nausea, something he rarely felt. Link was at a loss as what to do for a moment, then noticed a lone bowl atop a nearby nightstand. He realized what it was for a second later, reached out, and grabbed it. And not a moment too soon, as his normally placid stomach revolted. For a moment, he thought how strange it was that he felt better afterwards and then lifted his head a bit, trying to unblur his vision.

I’m glad that’s over. I really need to thank whoever put the bowl there.
After setting the bowl back on the nightstand, he decided to get up and walk around the room he had found himself in, but when he tried to stand, he collapsed to the floor, unable to move from the pain he was in.
Healing potion...would help.

He set his jaw and gritted his teeth as he reached for his knapsack that laid on the lower rack of the nightstand and pulled it towards him, then rummaged through it for a healing potion, downed it, then breathed a sigh of relief as the pain started to ebb away. Soon, it was down to a more manageable level; that was when he noticed the bloodstains on the bedsheets and his clothing.
Blood? Why is there blood? Did I hit my head or something?

Link then noticed a cut on his arm and wondered how it got there, then realized that both his arms were covered in open cuts and blisters and even a few boils.
What? When and how did this happen? Then again nothing like this started happening until i found that vial of dust. No it wasn’t dust, it was demon ashes. That Tengu said so. I need to find him and ask what happened. ...Ow… Something tells me that these wounds aren’t just on my arms.

Fortunately, there weren't any open wounds on the soles of his bare feet, so he could walk around at least. After regaining his balance, Link slowly walked over to a nearby wooden table and then he simply leaned forward a bit, laid his bare, lacerated, blood stained arms on the table, crossed them, then laid his head on his wrists, staring at the grain in the carved wood table.
He felt nauseous again, but thankfully his bile stayed down this time. After staying in the aforementioned position for several more seconds, Link lifted his head a bit, then reached out and placed a hand on the sword’s scabbard, managing a weak smile. Strangely enough, as soon as he did so, he felt slightly better.

The Hero of Winds placed his free hand on the edge of the table, then pushed backwards, picking up the sword as he did so, a moment later he was standing upright, trembling slightly as he looked down at his arms, then towards the closed door to his right.
I have so many questions. But I’m not going to get any of them answered if I just stand here.

As he found the rest of his gear and checked to see if everything was still there, he heard something from the room next to his. It sounded like a drawn out roar and he froze, eyes darting to the steel plated wall opposite him.
What was that? It didn’t sound natural.

He then heard voices outside the room that were saying the same thing he was thinking, albeit with various curses.

[The Japanese Americans]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
The Flying Krock (aka K.Rool’s airship)

-a snip so you don't get carpal tunnel-

Lee shook out of his deep thoughts at the sound of the roar. Immediately, he shot up, adrenaline rushing through his body. The ache and pain in his body begged him to rest, but his adrenaline drowned them out. A quick equipment check later, he rushed out the door. He tried to push past any others in the hallway before remembering something from his high school days. He stopped and ducked into a side corridor. He willed some of his mana out of his body. It floated like steam above his outstretched hand. "Now, flatten." And it became a roughly rectangular shape, but not what he wanted it to be. He was making a shield. "Condense." And it condensed into a flat, rectangular plane. A message popped up telling him he had created a Skill called Mana Shield. Dispelling the flat plane he had created, he lowered his hand. If he was right, then.... "Mana Shield!" A nearly transparent sphere appeared around him. He grinned. In high school, there was one kid who always ran through the hallways with this on so he didn't have to touch anyone. In fact, if people ran into it, it would be like they had just ran into a sturdy window, albeit spherical. He ducked back into the main hall and ran toward the source of the roar, pushing everyone in the hallway out of the way.

[Menschenfleisch]

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn

The baby, grotesque yet adorable in its malformed appearance, wailed and writhed in Elizabeth’s hands. Its cry was shrill and coloured by intense displeasure and indignation, the kind that only entities that thought themselves to be kings could feel and express. Nobody knew what to do - none of them were parents save for Alex but she had never been a particularly good parent to begin with - and so they just milled about and made half-hearted efforts to figure out a way to shut the infant up. At last, Simon thought to just silence the baby rather than placating it: a much more straightforward solution than the alternative, he thought. Thin lines of black energy bled from Samson’s fingertips and coiled around the child as he began casting a muting hex only for them to be gobbled up and dispelled. Samson pulled back as the baby finished gobbling up his emissions. Its faces scrunched up and its tiny hands balled up. It looked just about ready to burst but then with a shrill and contented sigh it relaxed and smiled, placated by the meal of magical energy that Samson had just provided. Valeria let out a breath that she hadn’t realised that she’d been holding. “It was just hungry.” “And now the ugly shit thinks that it can get food whenever it wants by putting a pin through our eardrums. Fucking A.” Nix scowled.

Weiss clenched her hand around Nix’s shoulder. “I hear something. Scuttling.” Rolo put his back to the wall. “Humanoids?” “No,” Weiss whispered. “Four legged… canines. Heavy, about the size of cows, and… extremely muscular.” “Casinebs,” Richard snorted. “They hunt in packs. If we cut the serpent’s head off, so to speak, and wipe out their vanguard they’ll turn tail.” “Hang on,” Valeria interjected. “Which direction are they coming from? I don’t hear a thing.” A low growl punctuated her query and as if on cue something leered out of the dark. In the ultraviolet neon glow of the group’s blue lamps, a face was illuminated. It glistened like eggwhite and bristled like cat’s fur. Hairs on end, a red dog prowled into view. It had short, coarse fur all along its body which grew in ruddy patches upon its face and torso. It seemingly had no skin or meat on its bones, and its raw muscles rippled with every silent step it took toward them. Its scalp was perforated with dozens of tight circular holes, each of which flared and constricted at a steady rhythm. It had no eyes, in their place there were pink membranes which resembled honeycomb. Wet, cartilaginous honeycomb. “That’s not a casineb,” Richard exhaled. “Dousers. Fucking… dousers.” The thing did not growl, it whistled like wind through reeds. And as if it were a cat standing before guarded milk it stepped closer, ever closer, silent as death and red as arterial blood.

Simon raised his rifle to his shoulder and painted the ground with the douser’s brains. Its head burst but rather than blood, it exploded into ash. And beneath its skin, which was paper thin and as weak as eggshell, he spied a coiled mass of black vines tied into an impossibly tight knot. Curdled midnight garnished with malicious intent: a recipe as old as time. Nix pulled his weapon downward. Her eyes were wild and welling up with anger born from panic. “Don’t fight it! We can’t beat it!” The beast’s skin regrew yet now, they all felt as if their skin was crawling with maggots and crickets. The douser’s whistling pierced their hearts and pressed down upon their bones, it threatened to harden their joints and sting their muscles. They felt sick and repulsed, they felt paralyzed yet compelled to flee. The song that the douser sang was discomfort and fear incarnate: illogical, subtle terror - exactly what a child would feel if they were to look into the unknowable, inky dark. “Nix, can’t you control the dark?” Valeria’s voice came out quieter than she’d intended, and with a faint quibble that she hoped nobody else noticed. “Not this kind. It’s… it is to regular darkness what a man is to a piece of steak. Dousers have wills and minds of their own.” Nix’s words were croaky. She was pale. The douser, emboldened by their fear, padded forward. “Can we outrun them?” Wei had to lick his lips before speaking, his mouth was so dry. “Maybe,” Theo admitted. “But we’ve got better odds of escaping than killing the whole pack.” “How many did you say there were?” Rolo demanded. He was terse, steely, tense as a spring. “Ten, maybe more.” Weiss responded. She kept low to the ground, ready to pounce or flee at any moment.

The douser’s tail rolled to and fro over the stones behind its back, gliding through the air as effortlessly as the ribbons of a dancer. Its head was at the same height as Jacquelyn’s, even though it was on all fours. Its paws had been implanted with seven black claws that gave off dull shrieks as they grazed one another, like razors’ edges being rubbed together. Its breath sounded like distant screams carried on the wind and its lips peeled back to reveal three jaws nested within one another, each lined with triangular teeth adorned with barbs. The mineshaft was only just large enough to permit one douser, or so it seemed. Above the first douser, another emerged. It clung to the ceiling without regard for gravity, its hairs were matted with saliva and oils which gave its whole body a greasy shine. Outnumbered, cornered and with no way of taking their hunters down, the group were forced to turn and run. The path sloped ever downward ahead of them, leading to unknown depths. Theo, Wei and Simon were the first to go, for they were nearest to the front of the team, furthest from the dousers. Jacquelyn broke into a sprint, though she found it hard to stay ahead of anyone besides Elizabeth. Her form, her gait and her breathing were all sub-par, even for a civilian. She found it hard to breathe, and her tattered clothing didn’t do her any favours. Her scarf was soaked in her blood and crusted over with dust from the walls of the mine. The air was thin - far too thin - and when she looked at the ground to catch her breath, she could just make out the faintest outline of what may have once been track or road. The air stank of what could only be described as dry, grainy sterility. Maybe if she brushed the sand off the floor she’d unearth something interesting. Bleached bones, mining equipment, veins of ore… or maybe more ochre. She turned to her left, she turned to her right. Nothing. No stains, no marks, just stone. She knew she needed to flee, to keep running - nobody, not even Alex had seemed confident in the face of the dousers - but she felt so bloody tired. Down here, where no sunlight reached and where there were no middle-aged witches to snark her, she felt at ease. She just wanted to rest. Yet she still stumbled forward into the dark. There was one thing propelling her now, one desire. She still had one last hope, a single potentially perfect moment she was yet to have the opportunity to experience. Until that spark was snuffed out, she would keep going on.

Terry elongated space behind him as he ran, constantly increasing the distance that the dousers had to run and decreasing that which the group had to traverse. Berith, atop his steed, led the charge and swung into the dark with his blade but consistently found nothing to strike. Terry’s efforts kept the dousers from catching up directly, but they did nothing to prevent the dousers from attacking them from other angles. The darkness warbled and quivered, stretched thin between Nix’s attempts to shield the group and the dousers’ attempts to breach their shield and quench their lights. The only members of the group who’d encountered the creatures - or rather, the abstractions - before were Alex, Nix and Richard, all of whom had… less than savory experiences to share. These things hated light. They had once been the warhounds of the Empire of the Nocturne and when it had fallen some twenty million years ago due to civil war and a plague of starlight, its beasts and military machines had been left to fend for themselves. Now and again, a douser would pop out of the walls or manifest itself ahead of the group and someone would be forced to deal with it for as long as it took for the rest of the group to run past it. Dousers were not canines by nature, they tended to kill and copy whatever they could find. Clearly, these ones had wiped out a pack of casinebs in the not too distant past. A douser emerged from a microscopic pore in the ground under Rolo’s feet: its head was the first thing to poke through and he cracked it open with his axe. Again, all that he struck was its shell. Its skin ripped as easy as rice paper and clung to the blade of his axe while its innards, the darkness that dousers embodied, simply parted around his weapon. The dark lashed out and three impossibly long parallel cuts opened up along his body, stretching from the top of his right shoulder to the bottom of his left calf. All he could do was keep running. These things were weaker in the light but no amount of fire or illumination could harm them. Only Nix, out of everyone in the entire group, could so much as scratch them. Even Elizabeth’s tenebraes were utterly impotent; they were a different kind of darkness, one more related to emotion and temperature than a sheer absence of light. Whenever they tried to attack the dousers they would just pass through one another as if neither were there. If shadows were black and lightbulbs were white, then dousers were blue and Tenebraes were orange. Weiss’ efforts to get rid of the dousers were even more ineffective; she formed runes out of fire and shot them into the dark, only for them to pass through the dousers and hit the walls.

The whole group followed Alex, their pathfinder so to speak. She had the path that they were supposed to take memorized, although some in the group suspected that Andarta was subtly twisting space around them to mislead them. How had it been that they’d fallen into the Crimsonites’ traps again and again, in spite of how many twists and turns they’d taken? Either the Crimsonites were setting up their defences based on whichever route the team took or they knew which direction they’d be going in somehow. It had been a miracle, to be honest, that the walls hadn’t caved in on them yet, though none of them voiced that concern in case it gave the enemy any ideas. Two dousers came running out of the dark ahead of them, teeth and claws presented. They did not growl, bark or try to startle the group. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that they were moving faster than a speeding motorcycle, it would have looked as if they were just casually plodding along. The discrepancy between the way that they moved and the speed at which they did so made them seem like video game characters whose running and walking animations had been swapped. Simon skidded on his side underneath one of the dousers as it pounced and thrust Samson into its chest. He expected the douser to burst like a rotten melon. Instead, Samson screamed and ripped himself out of the douser. He was covered in deep lacerations, his nails had been pulled out and the uppermost segments of his index and middle fingers were missing. He dribbled hot black blood which cooled and solidified on the ground like wax, and the douser kept going as if nothing had happened at all. Wei cast a dozen bolts of hardened blood at the douser and did naught but puncture its skin again. Finally, Weiss wrapped it in stone and forced it into the ground. The dousers could only be captured or delayed, not dispersed or destroyed. The douser easily bored a hole through its thin prison - it only needed a microscopic opening to escape through - and before it could be buried it fell upon Valeria in its casineb-esque form. She was not thrown to the ground or bitten in the neck but rather the douser passed right through her. As it did so, hundreds upon hundreds of invisible knives carved her up. Shallow yet innumerable wounds appeared all over her body as if a wave of stilettos had just washed over her. Her skin, though hardened to a steely finish by her powers, was practically flayed from her body. Even the flesh that was hidden beneath her clothes was damaged, in spite of those clothes remaining intact. The douser disappeared into the ground and she was left kneeling, wide-eyed and bleeding profusely from every surface. Her face had been left alone for the most part but her thighs, abdomen and arms were in pieces. Tatters of tanned skin hung from her body. That same grim fate awaited any other member of the group which was caught, or perhaps an even more severe one, since both Samson and Valeria had been far more resistant to such attacks than regular men.

Rolo grabbed Valeria as she began to keel over and lifted her onto his shoulder. Though he was not an excessively strong man he did not slow down enough to inhibit the group, though the strain of running and carrying her clearly took its toll on him. A good five minutes had passed since they’d first been attacked; the dark was as solid and as thick as crude oil. It physically pressed against their lights, making their lamps and torches feel as heavy as lead in their hands. The whole group had to strain just to move forward, and Terry’s breathing grew more desperate by the second. He hardly paid attention to the world anymore, he just kept recasting the same spell over and over again without any regard for its effects. Valeria was the only member of the group who was so injured that she had to be carried but Simon was barely in better condition. Samson was barely visible underneath an uneven coating of cloth and medical tape. Nix’s eyes were as red as strawberry jelly - the veins in her sclera had burst open like overtaxed floodgates - and her fingers twitched uncontrollably as she ran, having overtaxed herself keeping the dousers from just crushing the group. Every now and then the circle of light that the team cast around themselves would shrink and they would all stumble as they felt themselves being subjected to an immense pressure, both physical and mental. Jackie’s glowstick bent and shattered, Theodore’s torch guttered out and its temperature began to drop. He yowled and threw it away even as the metal apparatus froze over and cracked due to sheer thermal shock. A patch of skin was torn off too: it had frozen and become attached to the torch. As they ran, the ground grew ever more slippery and icy. The air was dry and their feet crunched on the ground which was covered in tiny granules of ice. Black blades, black knives, black hands and claws kept piercing their defences. Rolo had a deep cut in his shoulder - it almost reached to the bone - yet frostbite kept the pain at bay and it didn’t bleed because it had been cauterized by the cold; a layer of frozen blood kept it all in. The dark physically leapt out and clamped a massive set of jaws around Wei’s thigh and tore a chunk out. He fell forward and Alex willed her Tenebraes to convey him along the ground. Jacquelyn doubled over and expelled an unctuous grime from her mouth. It burnt, but not in the same way that fire or stomach acid did. It was like she was regurgitating polar ice. She reeled, she spat and choked. She was drowning. Her head spun, her breath wouldn’t come. More and more black, more and more vomit. Her innards felt cold, her heart slowed until she couldn’t even feel it beating anymore. Richard paused beside her and struck her in the stomach, forcing out a wad of tarlike bile. More came to take it place. She hardly even felt the strike, her body was so numb. He muttered an apology out loud - that was odd, coming from a man of his nature - and suddenly she felt something filling up her throat. It was cold and clammy, like the exterior of a fish, and it swam all the way down her throat, filling and bloating her stomach. She would’ve hurled, if only that were an option. Oh god, her eyes were welling up with tears. It was as if she’d fucked up while doing a sword-swallowing trick. Yet then the thing in her mouth came shooting out, leaving her chest feeling empty and cavernous, as if a major organ had just been torn from her. In Richard’s hand was an eel of some sort, blue as a daylight sky and slippery as a bar of soap - only that it was as large as a cat and inflated like a balloon. It was dead, and a grim black ooze dribbled from the corner of its mouth. Had all of that bilge been inside of her?

“Rolo, Weiss, someone tell me we’ve got a plan!” Simon called out. “Where are we going?! What are we fucking doing!?” His voice was strained. He was in immense pain. How much worse was Samson’s agony? “Dousers can’t be restrained or killed, at least with the kit we’re carrying. In their true state they can’t enter anywhere where there’s light but they’re strong, and they can take whatever shape they want. When they’re in the light they cover themselves in a shell. Without that shell, they are much more manageable, though no less dangerous than a… how to put this? No less dangerous than an angry doberman.” Richard responded as he tossed the bloated eel which had sucked the filth from Jackie’s lungs into the dark. As soon as it left the circle of light around the group it was thrown back at them. Its corpse was mangled and twisted yet completely flat as if it had been crushed in a press. A torrent of black liquid followed and, for one brief moment, drowned out Rolo’s light. The dark pressed in, slithering through the air, and wrapped itself around his leg. A great crack sounded out and he fell down. His knee was bent the wrong way: the bones in his shin poked through his skin; the darkness had given him a third joint. Valeria tumbled to the ground and she was only barely conscious enough to break her fall using her forelimbs. Weiss hoisted both into the air using arcane hands. Rolo’s torch slipped from his grip and clattered on the ground, and it soon disappeared into the darkness behind them. There was a crunch, and then its light was snuffed out for good. “Look, I’m… surely we can take them down somehow?” Simon did not voice a request, he voiced a demand - a demand for some way in which the group could survive. Weiss did not respond, she merely fired another bolt of fire into the dark. “Fucking hell, are you even listening to me?” All hope of escape was quashed. If Weiss wasn’t replying, that meant she didn’t have a plan. He knew that now, they were just running for the sake of running; desperately trying to buy themselves a few extra seconds of life. ”Idiot,” Jackie chortled. ”You think you can ensnare the dark? They’ll take your skins and wear you into the sunlight. There is so much prey on the surface. It is just too unfortunate that casinebs are too sensitive to live in the sun’s light.”

Jacquelyn skidded to a halt. She gurgled as she spoke, like her lungs were filled with seawater, and constantly retched an odorless black bile. ”They are already within you. Your wounds are entryways. You are livestock used for making clothes. Your skins shall make adequate disguises.” Jackie raised her left arm to reveal a tiny cut on the back of her palm, now festering with inky gangrene. Rolo, Valeria, Terry, Wei, Theo, Nix and Simon simultaneously vomited more of that black stuff and began clawing at their throats as they choked on the viscous substance - all but Valeria and Rolo, the most injured of them all. They laughed, still held aloft by Weiss’ magic. ”The one with the green eyes - it was so easy to control, it was laughable. It was almost relieved to let us in. These two were stronger. They were still only human.” Liz, Alex, Richard, Berith and Weiss stepped into a tight formation. The rest of the group stood around them, shuddering. Nix was the only one who was truly holding out. The rest of the group regarded her with neutral faces, but their words reeked of disdain and disappointment. ”Disgusting. This one knows how to enslave us. And you.” Their heads swivelled as one and locked onto the two Ashwoods. ”Shameful. You consort with false darknesses.” Rolo tilted his head. ”Babylon… they want to see the fabled Babylon. They have no faith in human ingenuity. Tell them: is it true that humans have tamed fire?” “Babylon?” Richard asked, raising one eyebrow. A single bead of sweat ran down his cheek. “It fell thousands of years ago.” Nix stumbled forward, reaching out blindly. In spite of her wounds, her words remained sour and mocking. “And you can bet your ass we’ve got fire.” Her neck snapped to one side, very nearly reaching its breaking point. It took all her strength to keep her head still; so much strength, in fact, that she didn’t have any to keep her fingers from being snapped. Ten clicks echoed about as each of them was bent in the wrong direction. To her credit she did not scream, only whimper and beg them to stop. ”Loathsome,” the darkness said as one. ”Fire. Hateful, bright fire. And what of Nocturne? What lives there?” “Vampires. Werewolves. Those sorts of things.” Richard swallowed. He was trying to stall his inevitable death. Yet, already, he could feel his innards cooling. He swabbed his tongue with his finger and saw that his saliva was nightshade-black. Soon, he would be like the rest of them; just skin. ”That… that is surprising. They are thinking about how to reply.” “Is there nothing you can do, oh great demon lord!?” Nix grunted. How was she still talking? It was damn impressive, what she could go through and keep speaking in spite of. “This… this is beyond me,” Berith admitted. His armour rattled and groaned as the plates and chains were pushed against one another. Although he had taken an immense amount of damage during his battle against the group he was still the hardiest of them all in a purely physical sense. It was likely that if he had not been there to take the brunt of the dousers’ assault the group would’ve been pulped several minutes ago. “Fall back,” Weiss whispered. “On my mark, run back in the direction that we came. If they wanted human skins, they could’ve just taken those of the Crimsonites, unless somehow, the Crimsonites shielded their sections of the mines against the dousers. If we backtrack, we should eventually stumble our way back into a safezone.” Honestly, Richard didn’t feel as if their odds of making it back to the cave where they’d fought Berith were very good. In fact, he considered it to be an utter impossibility. They’d spent over fifteen minutes running from there to here and in that time they’d lost almost two thirds of their group. There was no way, no way in any theological afterlife that they’d be able to escape. Yet, there seemed to be no other options. Gradually, they began to inch backward. Their once-comrades followed, plodding along with disconcertingly perfect gaits. Behind them, eleven casineb-shaped dousers, one of which was missing the front of its head; the one Simon had shot. Could Richard convince them to attack one another in order to compete for the group’s skins? There weren’t enough people in the group to provide every douser a unique disguise. However, whatever plans he would’ve been able to concoct were prevented from coming to fruition by his fear. He couldn’t think, he could barely even breathe. This was the end, he knew it.

After half a minute of silence the dousers’ possessed victims suddenly broke out into frenzied, angry speech. ”Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Vampires and werewolves... They are as inert as stones, as insignificant as flowers Too stupid to be pets, too insubstantial to be livestock. And humans are even lesser than them.” The possessed group hissed all at once. ”Pointless. This conversation: pointless. You have lost and now it is over.” The dark pressed in. Richard could feel the pressure of the dousers on every inch of his body. His bones creaked and threatened to burst, great purple bruises emerged on every surface. His eyes felt as if they would erupt and his teeth pressed so hard against one another he could feel his gums squirming as they pressed too tight. And then, a simple ‘tch’. Weiss smirked. ”Amusement? This one desires to be a costume?” “No,” she retorted. “I was just going to say… you stole my bloody line.” She gave Alex, who was doubled over in pain and almost deaf to the world - for her eardrums would not stop ringing - a smile. “I hope you’re proud of me.” Weiss raised her hand and revealed a simple circular stone in her hand. It was cinnabar, and it was covered in intricate carvings. Alex recognised it at once; the carvings depicted a simple map of the mines. “Weiss, you’re…” Richard could hardly believe what he was seeing. Weiss had never acted like this in the past. Why the sudden change? “I took after you when I came up with this plan, Alex.” Weiss turned back to the dousers. Her eyes were bright with defiance, even though her eyes were bloodshot and her limbs trembled uncontrollably. ”Improbable. You are inferior in all regards.” Alex’s smile only grew wider. “But you’re shaken, aren’t you? I know you are. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be trying to make me put the rock down.” Indeed, she was only trembling because they were pressing down upon her shoulder, intending to disrupt her plan - whatever it was. ”Warning. If you value the lives of your friends, you’ll put that down.” “Ah.” She gave the dark a single finger gun. “So they’re still alive? Thanks for telling me.” The foremost possessed, Theodore, scowled; it was the first physical indication of emotion that’d come from them so far. ”They will hollow out their bodies and inhabit them forever regardless of what you do. There is no hope for you.” She scoffed. “Isn’t there? Tell you what, if you leave their bodies and avoid attacking us in the future, I’ll put this little trinket away. Otherwise, I’ll show you precisely what this l’il stone can do.” Liar. You’re only bluffing. But they could see her sincerity and sense her confidence. They knew that she was legitimately sure that she could win, but they weren’t sure whether that was because she thought her bluff was working or because she actually had a scheme that she was ready to hatch.

”Pointless. Your life will end.” Weiss’ arm was forced downward faster than she could react. Her fingers were pried apart and the stone fell to the ground, whereupon a dark tendril reached out and snapped it like a cookie. In response, the simulacrum lowered her head and, if such a thing were even possible, widened her smile even further. “Oh, you dumb bastards.” The walls flared with light. Brilliant, overwhelming light. The walls were covered in scorch marks in the shape of runes and each of them emitted an overpowering luminance. Richard, Berith, Alex and Elizabeth had to shield their eyes; the light was so sudden, so incredible, that they felt as if they might go blind. ”Worthless. They will obliterate these lights.” The dousers’ casineb-shaped skins leapt toward the runes, throwing their bodies against them in order to drown out the glow. Yet, in spite of all their efforts, they could not smother the light. The whole corridor was alight; everyone could see that the walls had been covered in glowing runes in each direction for several hundred metres. The hallway was perfectly straight and so, though the dousers could smother eleven lights altogether, they couldn’t cover all of the runes which were in sight. “Did you think I was wasting energy the whole time that I threw runic fire at you? No. I was leaving behind lights, and when I fell back, it wasn’t to escape, it was to lure you into a part of the mineshaft which I had already covered in those runes.” The dousers clawed at the lights but were unable to. Even those who exposed their true forms could not break them away. “I didn’t run for fifteen minutes just to waste your time, either. When you first attacked us, the walls were orange: they were made of soft stone, which meant you could burrow through the ground and attack us from below. That’s how you emerged from the ground underneath us, did in Valeria and escaped from my little earthy prison. But now that we’re deeper underground, the walls are gray. You’re surrounded by bedrock, and I know that your doggy claws won’t put a dent in that; not in a hundred years.” ”Unbelievable. You...” “And that also means that as long as I keep the lights on you, you won’t be able to tunnel your way out. If I were to trap you here, you’d be stuck essentially forever. Nobody lives or works in these mines anymore, and these runes will keep shining for another hundred thousand years or so.” ”Idiotic. The empire fell long, long before your species mastered flame. One hundred thousand years to us will be but a moment.” “Then how about I put you in boxes and bring you back to the surface with me? I’m sure there are people up there who’d love to take you apart.” ”You would fail in your mission-” “And I can’t complete my mission without my team anyway. So there’s three ways this can end. One: Andarta wins and you die. Two: you let my team go and don’t spend the next hundred thousand years waiting for the lights to go out. Three: you kill my team and I encase all of you - the dousers, the skins and my buddies’ corpses - in stone and take you to sunlight land where there’ll be an army of scientists and soldiers waiting to get their mitts on you. Alex is a spiteful enough gal to do it: who’s to say that I’m not either?”

The dousers were given pause. Then, as if a dam had burst inside their stomachs, the possessed began to spew an endless stream of dark oil. They coated the walls, the floor and the roof in that rank sludge. Litres upon litres of it came from every orifice, and then when it seemed like they’d all vomited their own body weight in the stuff, the last droplets came trickling out and they returned to normal. The only thing that kept them all from spontaneously collapsing was the fact that if they did so, they’d fall face-first into the black tar beneath them which they were mired in up to their ankles. The dousers, still in their casineb skins, did not speak - they no longer could, for they had no skins to possess - and turned away. But was that a baleful glance that Weiss spotted as the last one turned away? Surely not. Nix spluttered and heaved, yet between gasps for air she managed to say: “how the fuck did you do that, Weiss? I didn’t know you had it in you.” The imitation of Alex gave the shadowmancer a pointed glare. “You didn’t think I was capable of being competent? Come on, give me a little more credit than that. Besides: I learned from the best.” At that, she looked to Alex. “Try not to get outshined by an copy of yourself, yeah? Next time, you save the day. Keep letting clones do all the work and people will start thinking that you're playing second fiddle.”

[Menschenfleisch]

Secrets of the Raven | Jacquelyn

Though they were adorned with wounds, scars and all manner of potentially deadly injuries, the team had no time to dally around and recuperate. Those who could still walk patched themselves up as they travelled while the others were tended to by those who were largely uninjured. Soon, they were all festooned with strips of cloth, gauze, tape, cotton and bandages. The application of antiseptics, blood coagulants and nutrient pastes followed, along with no small number of minor thaumatological rituals. Yet in spite of them exhausting all of their supplies, it still was not enough. They still bled, they still limped, they still ached in every joint. At this rate by the time they reached Andarta’s doorstep they’d be crawling with two arms and one eye between the lot of them. Though the dousers had departed the possibility of their return weighed heavily on the group, not least because the memory of regurgitating that turgid black tar and being prisoners in their own bodies was still fresh in their memories. Jacquelyn felt violated, as if her already tenuous grasp on her autonomy had been further weakened and deprived by the dousers’ possession. She’d do anything to not have to feel that way again. Control was all she wanted, all she had and all she could cling to in these dark and dreary days. Because sometime soon her exotic job at Insecuto would turn into daily drudgery and Elizabeth’s charity would dry up, and then she’d be nothing more than another woman in Branwhrn without the money or the skills to get out of town. The group held their flashlights and glowing runes high as they proceeded. Their boots clicked and clopped on the packed bedrock. They were far louder now than when they had entered the mines; they no longer had the strength or the will to mask their footsteps. All subtlety in their movements was gone and yet an undercurrent of grim determination remained. They knew that this mission had to be seen through. Not one of them was willing, bar one, to sacrifice the world of wonders that they lived in for the sake of long and prosperous lives. It was better to live in miserable whimsy than euphoric mundanity.

Weiss, now serving as their vanguard, raised her hand. “Doorway.” Curt and straight to the point: that was more like the simulacrum that the group knew. The healthiest members of the group, Theo, Richard, Simon and Weiss, fanned out. Although Samson had been largely incapacitated Simon himself remained largely unharmed, although he was forced to wield his uzi one-handed. Richard waved his hand through the air and willed a blue bundle of feathers into existence. It was the size of an eagle but resembled an oversized dove; its feathers were a brilliant, scintillating azure which glowed like electric filaments. An exotic bird of paradise pulled from The Vivant itself. No doubt, Richard had sacrificed much to liberate such a bird from The Vivant’s custody. Theo, though he took great pride in his art as a golemancer, had made himself a rather rudimentary form of protection. A sash of living clay had been slung over his shoulder, ready to take whatever form he needed it to take. In this case, he fashioned it into a shield for his left hand while his right clutched a pistol that he’d borrowed from Simon. Weiss’ weapons were her hands, she had no need of firearms or the like. They stepped forward as one, beholding what appeared to be a perfectly ordinary wooden door. It was thick and jagged around the edges but it looked sturdy and far from rickety. It had been reinforced with iron bands and bolts, meaning that it had kept its shape in spite of how long ago it must have been installed. “Is it trapped?” Theo was almost afraid to breathe. The whole group had been shaken by the events of the past half-hour. They’d been cornered, controlled, frozen, crushed and sliced all in the span of a few short minutes and before that they’d been subjected to the intolerable musics of the dark. It would be a wonder if none of them had nightmares about this in the future, or if none of them recited this with a reverential tone to one of their colleagues. Richard took a vial from his pocket, one containing a small white grub, and poured its contents out into the palm of his hand. He lifted it to his face and slid the maggot-like insect under his lower eyelid, allowing it to crawl behind his eye. It was a momentary discomfort for him, and an absolutely immense one for the rest of the group. “What the fuck,” Simon whispered. “What? What’s going on?” Nix asked, for she was still partially blind from her ordeal with the dark. Weiss responded on his behalf; “It’s better that you don’t know. Rich, what are we looking at?” “There are a couple of heat signatures behind the door. There’s… eleven, no… thirteen of them in there. It doesn’t seem like they’re moving.” Simon let out a long-held breath. “Right. Thirteen. Not great odds, considering how many of us are out of the game.” Rolo drew his axe, although it burnt just to heft the thing to the height that he wanted to swing it from. He strode to the front of the group, teeth clenched. “Are they looking in our direction?” Richard used his fingers to pry his eyelids back and, after a moment of consideration, put his hand down and grimaced. ”I can’t tell. If we break that door down we’ll be heading in blind.” Though Valeria’s skin had been flensed from her body, the dousers hadn’t done much to damage her lungs or throat, leaving her just functional enough to throw some shade. “Can you dipshits stay quiet? They’re obviously going to know we’re here now.” “Is there no other route we could take?” Jackie was welling up with concern. The group were injured and tired. If they went into a fight so soon after their last, someone was bound to die. “That would be an option if it weren’t for the bloody dousers. I managed to convince them to leave us alone for now, but there’s no doubt that they’d come for us again if we turned around. They’re smart, too; too smart to fall for the same trick twice.” Weiss understood that between the Crimsonites and the dousers, a fight against the former was undoubtedly preferable to a confrontation with the latter - though ‘confrontation’ would be a charitable word for what would eventuate if they were to go down that path. Berith pushed his way to the front, serving as the vanguard. The demon lord had proven to be useless against the dousers but in a fight against human mages, his power was sure to shine. “One way or another, we’re getting through that door. Everyone, get into position and breach on my mark. Formation five.” Rolo’s breath ran thin, he could hardly even order his squad to mobilise. How could he possibly fight in the condition that he was in? If it hadn’t been for the dousers he would’ve sent half of his squad back to the surface to regroup with Mai and Metis. As it stood, however, they were cut off. There would be no rescue, no reinforcements; what they had now was all that they were ever going to get. He took in one deep breath. “Mark.”

A single mote of light pierced the door and passed through to the other side whereupon it erupted into savage white light, easily strong enough to sear the skin off anyone standing too close to it. Next, the door caved in as a wave of alchemical fire rammed itself against the wooden emplacement. It burst into supersonic splinters which dispersed like the ball bearings in a claymore, trailing smoke and other debris. Rolo rolled in, flanked by Valeria and Simon, each of whom took up defensive positions near the doorway. The rest of the team rushed forward to breach. Jackie was at the very back and so when the vanguard ground to a halt, she didn’t even get a glimpse of what had convinced them to stop. An agonisingly protracted silence followed, only broken by the sound of liquid dripping into liquid. ”What?” She whispered. ”What’s going on?” She shoved her way to the front and then, as soon as she crossed through the doorway, she understood. Her foot squelched as she put it down and the first thing she noted was how rusty and rich the air smelled. It was like she was inhaling the scents of a fish market, a butchery and an abattoir all at once, only mixed and distilled. The air was thick with meat. The room beyond was like any other, only it was much taller than any of the other rooms in the mines and hanging from the rafters were twelve bodies and an empty suit of armour. It was them it was them it was them and it was them, the corpses were the team and the team was cadavers hanging from the roof, and her corpse’s neck was almost disconnected from her shoulders and all that connected her head to her body was a few pieces of gruel and the remains of a spinal cord which had almost been pulled out and it looked like her head would be pulled off at any moment by the noose of coarse bloodstained hemp which had been tied around her throat and which dug into her chin because she’d been hanging up for so long that her flesh had putrefied and liquefied meaning that the rope was inside of her body and her eyes were just empty sockets with dark slime oozing from them and her tongue was swollen up like a rotten pear inside her mouth and her lips were covered in dried saliva and red mucus and her skin was leathery and strange and tough and it looked like she was a strip of jerky which had been hung up to dry and her skin was covered in holes and wrinkles almost like a shriveled beehive and she swore that if she looked closely she could see that her body was hollow because her hands and feet were swollen with all of the liquefied internal organs that had pooled there and underneath her was a puddle with bits of rotten flesh bobbing up and down in it and her eyes, mouth and nose were all sewn shut with black string and she was a puppet oh god she was a puppet and the puppet was breathing and twitching and it was alive and it was her and she was just a fucking mannequin and and and - ”I want to go home.” She could hardly even muster a quibble. ”I can’t do this, I- I just can’t… please don’t let me end up like that.” Her ears rang, her mouth was dry. She could already feel her face tingling; the skin around her eyes was already stinging in anticipation of the needles’ touch. When she looked at Elizabeth she was like a puppy searching for guidance. Her face was scrunched up and ugly and scarred by fear. She felt out of breath and alone and very very scared and the only thing she wanted, more than anything else in the world at that moment, was to be held and protected. ”Liz, don’t leave me. Please, please, don’t let them do that to me.” She was talking about more than one group when she said “them”. “Christ, Vanth. Get a hold of yourself.” Nix laid a hand on Jack’s shoulder, a hand which she violently flung away. She pressed her back against the wall. Her heart screamed inside her chest, her eyes welled up with tears. ”That’s us! It’s- it’s me! It’s a threat, a message, a destiny, I can’t- I can’t do this, not any more! Whatever I came down here to do, whatever I wanted to prove, I can’t.” She fell to the ground, hiding her face behind her knees. ”I’m not good enough! I shouldn’t be here, I’m not a soldier or a hero like you - let me out, please, just let me out! Elizabeth, don't let me die.” She sobbed and snivelled and screamed without reason into her hands, refusing to move from where she was. Her stuffed, bloated corpse hung from the roof and swayed from side to side, its sewn-shut mouth gurgling muffled words. ”No no no no no, no no no no no...”

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion
Miria

"Hey!", Miria called out again. "The food's done, so - agh!", She yelped. The sudden roar cut her off, and sent her scrambling again, the girl almost running head-first into the stove as she dove into cover. Her dagger came out in an instant, just in case the noise came from something dangerous - which was likely, because friendly things didn't tend to roar like that.

They were on the ship though, right? Everyone in there was friendly, she thought? maybe something had snuck its way on board! Maybe it was just another weird noise hallucination. Miria thought about it, but then the crew all turned to look, and that strange boy also came barreling out, down the hall from her, so she ruled that possibility out. The noise was definitely real, and coming from something on the airship.

She was going to be livid if whatever it was went haywire and ruined her cooking.

[Demincia]

Secrets of the Raven
Devil's Pit Mine
Dawn & Celeste Elissa

Dawn stepped forward and stood underneath the row of corpses hanging from the rafters, looking directly up at them. "It's not a very good likeness, I don't think. What about you, Celeste?" she asked looking back. Celeste extended one hand and the ropes holding the 'twins' snapped and the corpses floated down and hovered in front of her. She stared over the pair, inspecting them silently.

After a few moments, she waved her hand and the two corpses dissipated into nothing. "They can't expect that would have any effect on-" she glanced sideways at the meltdown in progress and scrunched her face. "Hmmph. So be it." She pointed at each corpse individually, and rent it into individual atoms. "More human hubris."

The relative silence in the cave was interrupted by a mechanical chime from Dawn's watch, causing her to look down at it. "Interesting..." she locked eyes with her twin and the two exchanged an apparently silent nod.

[Menschenfleisch]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion | Kiara and Polly

Ashes, metal shards, the smell of a burnt out coil. In her palace of broken clocks and Frankenstein’d machines, Kiara stewed in her own neuroses. In all the eventualities and possibilities she had thought through before departing, had she ever seriously considered this one? Had she ever thought, for even a single moment, that she would be the one to live on while Skye, her stronger half, would live on? She thought that she’d come up with a contingency for every circumstance yet she felt aimless, and lost. Someday, whether in two minutes or two millennia, she’d have to crawl out of this pile of scrap and come to terms with the fact that she had to carry the burden - alone, if she had to. In fact, she’d have preferred to do it without anyone else on her side. Her life would never end via natural causes; Kalmites were empires unto themselves. They could colonise entire planets and turn them into saprophyte nurseries, plant themselves like seeds and produce organic complexes the size of mountains and perform as much scientific discovery as entire sentient races. It would be cruel and distressing to both herself and others if she were to rope them into helping her. Something beside her popped. The toaster had finished percolating the orange juice.

A roar echoed all throughout the ship. Although she was in the vessel’s walls and far from the sound’s source, she heard it with more clarity than anyone else aboard. It was guttural, wet and three dimensional: not a recording, then. The noise was too distorted by the ship’s metal walls to tell what the shape, size and constitution of the organism that’d emitted the roar but just based on its pitch and volume, she guessed that it was fucking large. Yeah yeah, Sherlock, get on with it. She was on her feet (as much as the cramped space that she’d inhabited allowed her to be) and out in a flash. She wasn’t armed; she didn’t expect to fight the creature, only observe and potentially help restrain it. Such a roar probably didn’t come from something that was particularly friendly but she wasn’t about to disembowel a wild creature for absolutely no purpose either. She sprinted through the kitchen and- oh, was that chicken? And it had sauce! “Thanks Miri,” she beamed a supersonic smile at the woman (she was older than Kiara: would it be sensible to call Miria a girl?) and ran right to the source of the sound, ready to defend herself if she needed to but not exactly expecting to have to fight either.

[Skylus]

TGWR
TFK

The cracks on the wall grew larger as whatever was on the other side slammed into it. A few seconds passed, then the sheet metal buckled, then was torn in half as the thing stepped through the opening and into the room. Whatever it was, the creature looked around, saw Link, and ran across the room over to him. Link barely managed to dodge a claw swipe before he was knocked to the floor, the creature towering over him. He picked up the scabbard from where it had fallen and drew the Master Sword, blade pointed towards the creature. Link swung it once, and the thing stepped back, growled, then knocked the sword from Link's hand and picked him up by the front of his shirt. Link simply acted without thinking and the room lit up as fire appeared from nowhere and struck the creature in the face, causing the beast to drop Link as it stumbled back.

And then the creature before him was no more. Instead, Madi was kneeling there, covered in blood, a distraught look on her face.
"Madi?" Link started to get up from where he had fallen but Madi waved a hand.
"Don't. Stay there."
Link stayed where he was and the two simply looked at each other.

"Telepathy." Madi lifted her head a bit.
"What?"
"I can talk to people in their heads now."
"Oh. Isn't that a bit intrusive?"
"I don't think I can read minds, just talk to people."

After a few seconds, Madi spoke again.
"Stupid question."
"Yeah?"
"How are you feeling?"
"Well, the health potion helped some, but not well."
"That's good... A lot better than me at least."

Madi moved to a sitting position and gave a weak smile.
"I'm glad you're okay. Well, a lot better than me, at least. I don't think it's over for you yet though."
"So, you're saying that the reaction I had could come back?"
"Yeah. It can, and I guess with no warning. At least your reaction is less than mine, obviously."
"So what now?"
"Well, I can feel my mind slipping away again, I'll have to lock myself in that room for a bit longer... Don't worry I'll put up spells and countermeasures."
"Against yourself? Are you sure they'll work?"
"I hope so. If not then I guess you and the others have my permission to stop me if need be."

"You know that I used that fire spell right? Do you think I can use real magic now?"
"Yeah. You told me before, your people already have magic, it just had to be unlocked. Those ashes must have done it."

Madi rose from her sitting position and crossed the room over to the hole in the wall, then stepped through it.
"You'd better leave and get the medbay. I think the Tengu is there, he'll be able to answer any questions you have." And then she sealed the wall back up and visible spells shimmered in the air for a moment before they dissipated.

---

There was, understandably, a small crowd outside the room when Link finally got the door open.
"Oh. So you were in... Yeah we've been meaning to fix the door for a while, never really got around to it. So what happened? You fought something, right?"

"First thing I'm doing is going to the medbay, then eating something. After that, you can ask questions." And with that, Link let the group standing in the hallway before the two rooms while he went off in search of the medbay. He eventually found it and walked in, only to look up as Ganondorf appeared before him. "Your wounds... They appear to be arcane burns." The man held out a hand. "May I?"

Link hesitated, then allowed Dragmire to take one of his arms and examined the burns. "I thought they would be worse. That's good, at least. Your wounds will heal over time, but I must warn you that the reaction you had may return without notice."
"I know. Madi told me."
"She spoke to you?"
"Yeah. She told me that she can talk to people in their heads now, too."
"Ah, telepathy. One of the more dangerous magic fields. What exactly happened, do you mind telling me?"
"Well, first she tore down the wall as this creature, then she stepped into the room I was in, attacked me, and just before I was killed, it was if her mind returned. Then the creautre disppaered and where it had been was Madi. Then we talked for a bit and then she barricaded herself in the other room."
"Interesting."

Dragmire let go of Link's arm and nodded. "Did anything else happen?"
"Well, I... Well I guess it'd better to show than tell you."
Link then summoned flames in his hand and Ganondorf nodded again.
"Remarkable. It appears that the ashes have allowed you to fully tap into the magic Hylians possess. Of course, you will need training... I suppose that is where I come in, if you will let me train you."
"Train me? For what?"
"Magic is dangerous and wildly unpredictable. Just as elders trained me to use my magic, I am offering to train you."
"...I'll think about it."

[The Japanese Americans]

TGWR
TFK

-snip-

Everything seemed to be relatively fine, at least to Lee. His curiosity to find out what happened burned within him, but previous experiences had made him resistant to it. He turned away from the door and started walking away. "Deactivate Shield." His Mana Shield disappeared at once, and his MP started to recover. He walked back to his room, taking an alternate path so as to decrease the chance of encountering any of the lizardfolk who were pissed at him. He got inside his room without any noticeable difficulty.

He sighed. He knew he was tired. He knew he needed new Skills. What he needed to decide was which one to focus on. He desperately needed rest, but he could do without that for a couple days. He needed more Skills if he wanted to survive, and there was no telling when another battle would appear. For all he knew, there was a flock of demons heading to intercept the ship. Goodbye, sleep. Hello, work. He sighed once more. Better get started. He outstretched his hand again, and summoned his mana. If he gathered and threw it, it was a Mana Bomb. If he compressed it into a point, it was a Mana Arrow. So if he twisted it and stretched it.... His mana turned into three cords and twisted together, lengthening at the same time. A notification popped up saying he had created a new Skill called Mana Rope. Now, if he bound someone with it, it would make a mez Skill. He wondered for a brief moment. He extended his Mana Rope around himself, circling himself multiple times. "Now." In the blink of an eye, the rope tightened itself around him. He fell to the ground, bound with his own rope. Another notification popped up. He had created another Skill called Bind. Nice and short. Now to dispel this. Without even saying anything, his binding disintegrated almost instantly. He had made good progress so far. He got back up and dusted himself off. Satisfied with his progress, he sat on the bed and grabbed his phone out of his pocket. Holding it horizontally, he suddenly jerked his hand to the left. Surprisingly, the screen extended itself. He jerked it up, and the screen extended that way. He jerked it down, and a keyboard appeared from seemingly nowhere. He had just turned his cell phone into a laptop. He opened the internet, which somehow had access to this world's internet, and tried to find out all he could about this world he was in.

[Naval Monte]

Seeds of Anxiety

"I would but you see…" Denton would see Herbert leaving the hotel with two people he never saw before. "We have some guests who want to see you." He told her as he unlocks the doors and turn off the car's engines. From the back the robber would linger for the car door but Dowell would lunge towards the man, wrapping his arms around him and tackling him down to the sun bleached, faded, faux leather seat cushions.

"Get off me you fat bastard!" The robber shouted as squirm underneath the rotund man. "Just stop struggling you piece of shit. Maybe we'll let you out early for good behavior if you stop making this harder for us." He told him as he pulled the man up by the back collar of his shirt.

As Dowell struggled to reach to the door, his culprit pulling back to prevent the two from leaving, Herbet heard Valerian's question. "Oh, Agent Denton and Dowell used to work in the same sector I worked out. Dowell in particular was my old mentor back when I used to be a field agent. The MST we belonged to no longer exists but we occasionally catch up whenever we have the free time. Those two were transfer to help this base temporarily until we have our own intelligence agents to replace them." He told Valerian.

The group would see Denton getting out first. "Herbert, it's been a while you old pencil pusher. How's it feel not being surrounded by endless pile of dead wood for once? Do you find it liberating or distressing?" The former agent smiled. "I take the paper work so people like you don't have to. I got the feeling you'll rather go down the Vore Hole back in Ohio than do my job for a day." 

Denton gasped in shock. "Do I like like the type to go into that death pit? At least give me a more memorable and less disgusting way to go man." The other door open and both Valerian and Avarice would see Dowell's back, the old man swaying back and forth. "A little help here!" Denton excused himself as he went around the car and when close to Dowell would place his arms inside and grab the robber by his shoulders.

The two would pull back and after a few seconds the robber would be dragged out, kicking and screaming as he hurled insults, threats, and expletives at the two men and "the American bitch in the car". 

"American bitch?" Herbert asked in curiosity. Denton's expression seem to lit up as he remembered something. "Right. We found another interdimmie, this one seems to be with the Feds in some other Earth. We found her cuffing this prep and you won't believe this, the damn thing was enchanted." Dowell, now free from holding the robber as Denton was doing it, went I to the car and pulled out the plastic bag holding the machete.

"Our thaumaic rings were burning like crazy the moment we got close to this thing. This bloke either got it from someone or he stole it, either way we need to get him to talk." He would hand over the bag to Herbert. "So are you two going to introduce our new guest?" The old man muttered about getting to it as he went to the door and open for Dawnson.

"This is our vigilante, agent Dawson. She claims to have come here on a special assignment from the Feds but we know that is bull. Judging from her expression she is either a good actress or rifts don't surprise her as much." Dowell explained.

Herbert looked over to the werewolf. "Good evening Ms. Dawson, it's nice to meet you. I'm sure you have many questions, such as where are you and how we know that you came through a rift. Be assured, we wish you no harm so long as you don't wish to harm us. We will be glad to answer any questions you have."

[Naval Monte]

The Great Wizarding War

When Kayta smelled the substance she would be hit by an overbearing, nauseated, scent that would overwhelm her senses and wrack her guts with a terrible sensation, almost to the verge of expelling her entire stomach content. The substance, whatever it was made from, had an obvious scent of decaying meat mixed with other compounds. She would have smell hints of both blood and mold within the substance. The substance had the same consistency as oil as she wiped it off the windshield. It was obvious that the shirt was pretty much lost to her.

She would see the spot growing from the shirt, like inky black tendrils spreading to consume an undefended prey, the previous color of the shirt was slowly being subsumed by the growing darkness of the substance. Eventually the whole shirt would be made black and some of the excess substance would begin to leak out from the shirt, staining the soil and grass with the oily substance. Kayta would not have the chance to observe to see what the substance would do to the grass as she would hear a loud snapping sound coming close to her location.

She should she look out to the other side of the car she would be greeted by the night covered field, accompanied by only a few trees and shrubs. Yet she would notice that a few wisps of mist was now present in the countryside. She try to recall if the mist was present before? The young woman would feel goosebumps forming on her skin and her hair standing on end, a part of her can sense that something was wrong. Each breath she exhaled would release small puffs of smoke, a clue that the area was much colder than before. Kayta would hear another snap coming from behind but as she turned around she would find nothing. 

As she search for any possible source to the noise, most likely hoping for natural explanations such as animals, she would not see that her shirt was sinking into the ground. Kayta would begin to hear new sounds, muffled at first. She could make out what appeared to be whispers but the origins she couldn't pick out. No matter where she would try to strain her ears the whispers seem to come from everywhere yet nowhere at once, what was becoming increasingly clear however was that the voices were beginning to surround her as they grew louder. As this was happening the black substance on the ground began to spill out from the soil, forming a dark puddle.

The more clearly she heard the whispers the more she realized that they were speaking in another language, most likely Latin from some of the words she can hear from them. As the voice grew louder the mist grew denser as more of it began to shroud the country, making visibility poor for her. From the mist Kayta would see shapes within the mist. They appeared humanoid... yet not. The shapes looked wrong somehow, like some parts were either arranged wrong or were too long or short to be right. The dark puddle grew larger and from it a shape began to rise up as the chanting increased in volume.

Whether she would retreat back to her car or remain in place she would still hear deep breathing coming from behind her. Kayta would only have time to turn to face whatever was behind her before a powerful blow came to her stomach, so powerful it would knock her to the ground on her back. She would feel pain pulsating from her stomach and if she touched her waist she would feel something wet on her shirt. Whether she looks at her shirt or her hands she would see the same black substance. Looking up she would see her attacker was the same robed figure she ran over with her car, now covered from head to toe with the same substance as black, twitchy, oil slick tendrils were withering out from his right sleeves. 

She would see the black substance on her shirt growing as it caused her shirt to experience accelerated decay, the very materials rotting away until they either tear apart on their own or fall off the shirt. If the black substance was on her hand she would see it growing around her hand with a feeling of intense cold and pain coming over it until she lost all sensation from it, the Russian losing all feeling and worse control from the limb.

The robed man would walk forward, raising his arm and swinging down his tentacles at Kayta. The shapes in the mist were getting darker as the beings within were getting closer.

---

Within the medical bay of the airship Tenzma was getting his bandage wrappings fully secured. While Lee healed the most grievous injuries he sustained a few minor ones still remained. What annoyed the tengu more was that he can't remember where he got the injuries from? He tried to recall where in the escape he got it but none of the fights they had can he remember suffering from fractured ribs from. The one entity he could have got that from retreated it before it can fight him. 

As the tengu grew more frustrated and worried over a forgotten powerful opponent he would hear a loud roar. The tengu would grab his spear and rush out of the medical bay without putting on his shirt or beaded necklace. As he tan through the hall he would see Yoshinori running from the other end as they both reach the door where the roar came from. "Crap! The ghoul is changing." The Inugami would take out a few cards and place them on the four corners of the door.

"The cards should keep her contain long enough for us to make a plan to deal with her. I was hoping we would have enough time before the transformation can occur but it seems she consumed so much of the ashes that it accelerated the transformation." Yoshinori said. The tengu frown. "We need to warn everyone that the ghoul is now a Nepharite and we need to get off this ship now. Our chances against the two demons from the AEGIS site was low, but with a Nepharite we stand no chance against it." 

From the air two Eurofigher Typhoons belonging to the Royal Air Force would be heading towards the airship. One of the pilots would send out a warning.

Unidentified Aircraft,  state your purpose in British airways and your origins now or we will open fire.

[Rostavykhan]

The Great Wizarding War
Katya

Katya didn't have any time to react before she was on the ground. Her whole body ached one moment, and then the next she felt nothing - nothing but the body-racking ache in her belly. It was the kind of pain that made her want to puke, and the struggle not to dominated her thoughts, instead of the instinct to get up or run. Katya whimpered and curled up, possibly attempting to shield herself. Her legs were shaking badly, either from being exposed to the cold, jittering from the shock of being gut punched, or both. The attack was doubly effective since she hadn't been expecting it, and between being attacked so brutally and caught off guard so suddenly, the woman was left confused and disoriented.

She turned her head, her eyes glancing up through a sliver of hair. Her lips twisted into a grimace, teeth clenched and face pale. Her chest rose - a sharp breath - and fell again. One shaky knee dug into the dirt, her free hand pushing up, as she attempted to get herself up; pain shot through her stomach again, and she slipped.

Why was she even trying to run? Katya whimpered again. Even if she was on her feet, she knew she wouldn't be able to run, or even hide. The last thing she wanted was to get killed while running away. She didn't want to die, though, and running at least allowed her the chance to get away. She couldn't outrun her attacker, however. What a pain, it all was. A hole was being eaten in her blazer, and her hand was numb. The ground was rough, and the air cold. She was alone, and defenceless. It wasn't looking good for her. Why was this happening, though?

Katya stared ahead, into the woods. It was almost like a bad dream, but it felt all too real. Her vision was fading, and her senses were dulling, but the sharp ache of pain in her gut, and the bite of the cold helped to anchor her back in reality, and the faint voice in her head urging her to run spurred her on, even if she could only manage feeble movement. Katya focused on the road again, but kept her attacker's position in mind. Finally, she spoke to the figure. "What do you want?", She asked, voice low and shaky. She looked almost delirious, though her eyes still had a twinkle of defiance to them.

Miria

For her part, after that little scene, Miria continued to eat. She knew it was taken care of, and whatever it was? She'd worry about it after her break. She'd been driven sick, delirious, and almost eaten, all in one day, and she deserved a damn break. She took her time to enjoy her food - it wasn't as good as back home, but good enough - and she even took a seat and let her legs stretch out some. Eating with the instruments at her disposal was a little weird, though. Forks were weird, but not hard to use, though she was used to simpler utensils. It was fine, though. There were worse things to deal with than unfamiliar eating utensils.

She was rather oblivious to the incoming threat that was soon to come their way, not being on the bridge or behind a radio. Miria instead finished eating, cleaned up, popped her back, and finally headed for the infirmary, where she'd heard activity. Under different circumstances, she would have been more anxious, or considered the matter more urgent, but considering how swiftly the situation had been dealt with, and the fact that the ship wasn't on some high alert, it was safe to assume that whatever happened had been of little concern. When the small girl's head poked around the corner, she spotted Link and Ganon conversing with one another. Her gaze narrowed. She was suspicious. Miria stepped in, adjusting her glasses, and approached them, speaking in an almost monotone manner that seemed rather normal for her, when she wasn't panicking or mimicking others. "What happened to you?", She asked, staring at the young boy.

[Menschenfleisch]

The Great Wizarding War | Polly and Kiara

Whispers through the walls. The tengu’s words were hushed but to Kiara they may as well have been spoken from inside her ears. The conversation that Link had with Ganondorf, too, was clearly audible to her. The gears of her intellect turned. Monumental thoughts, each so immense that a whole species might not successfully formulate them in generations, were constructed and discarded. Her brain, an empire of neurons, pondered the future and postulated many millions of solutions; carefully crafted possibilities, each of which could be achieved under very specific criteria. In the time it took for someone else to blink she came up with and decided upon a plan of action. The first step? Analysis. She had a lot of the facts but not all of them. There was an element of uncertainty in her scheme and she needed to be sure of where everyone stood, both physically and psychologically. Maybe she would’ve been seen as psychopathic by the others if they’d known what she was doing but in her mind, and to all Kalmites, manipulation and conversation were essentially the same thing. Really, the same ought to have been true of humans as well: wasn’t everything they said also said in order to work towards some desired outcome?

Cynical myopic assertions about human nature aside, Kiara padded into the medbay, pausing at the doorway. How should she approach this? Should she feign ignorance and see whether they were willing to relinquish the information themselves or should she go in with a heavy hand and try to force them to cooperate? Decisions, decisions. Of course, she’d already decided upon what to do: now she was only giving her plan a few finishing touches. “Link, give me your arm.“ She knelt down in front of him without being prompted. She could tell by the beating of his heart, the tension in his muscles and the faint electric clicking in his nerves that he was apprehensive, even unwilling to do so. However, she’d never been one to wait before acting. She was always caught up in the moment, reacting to physical events - like explosions and chemical reactions - to consider emotional ones. “I won’t tell anyone how you got this unless you want me to.“ She also knew that the boy wasn’t going to throw Madison off the ship either, which left her with only one possible solution to their dilemma: containment. She’d need sedatives, protective materials, catalysts, et cetera. If she could just tease apart Madi’s physiology, she could have a chance to keep her from harming everyone else - maybe even find a ‘cure’ for her condition. She knew that her blood was a neutralising agent for the dust but putting any amount of it into the ghoul was completely out of the question, at least until she knew precisely where to put it and what parts of her blood would help and while ones would not. She grabbed Link’s wrist and elbow and pulled them toward herself, sniffing and prodding the burns irregardless of what discomfort she may have been causing, although she was extremely careful so as to not cause Link any pain. “Hmm… traces of dendrophyte matter. Has Madi eaten fruit recently? Hmm… probably an irrelevant detail. Dermal cells, trace amounts of rendered platelets...”

Footsteps came from behind her. Kiara was up at once, leaping to her feet and turning around to see that Miria had appeared. Damn, that girl was quiet. She hadn’t even noticed her coming in. “Oh, Miri!” She didn’t want to say much else. She couldn’t reveal any information about the origins of the burns in case either Link or Ganondorf wanted to keep it hidden but there wasn’t much else to discuss. Thus, she left her patient and his newfound mentor talk in her stead. As for what she’d seen? It hadn’t been particularly helpful. No real insights into what kind of creature Madison was nor what effects the dust had on her. She’d need to study a fresher and larger sample: the original specimen. That could prove to be… problematic.

---

One two, one two. She was a woman with a girl’s memories, not a little girl in a woman’s body. Three four, five six. She wouldn’t be stuck playing catch-up, as long as she worked hard enough. But would it prove to be worth it in the end? She’d lost thirty years of experience. She’d need to work twice as hard as her former self had for fifteen years in order to make up for all that she’d lost. Was such a thing even possible? And if she did work for fifteen years, there’d be another fifteen years of hypothetical experience to catch up on, then seven point five, then three point seventy five, then… then… dammit, she couldn’t even do simple arithmetic. Seven eight. Nine ten. Forty pushups had been her limit. Now, though, running on two hours of sleep and maybe one square meal in the last twenty four hours, she could barely make it to twenty. Beads of sweat broke out on her brow, her arms seemed to scream. She recited the works of Shakespeare in her head. Hamlet, Oedipus. She’d started reading those books on her own; her tutors were obviously good but they weren’t school teachers by profession. Most of them were scientists and professors who’d volunteered to teach her specific subjects in their spare time. Only two of them were actually there specifically to render her educational help and even then they weren’t the best that AEGIS could provide. The organisation’s goal was to appease her with inexpensive textbooks and second hand teachers while they cultivated what they really wanted from her: raw, killing instinct. She was still undecided as to whether she’d assist them in earnest or keep them at arm’s length. Were they trustworthy enough to depend on, or would they deliberately make her dependent upon them? She didn’t know. And worse, she couldn’t even tell whether their propaganda was getting to her or not - or whether they were trying to indoctrinate her at all. Eleven twelve. Thirteen fourteen. Fifteen sixteen… seventeen eighteen… a swelling pain, like air bubbles were forming inside her muscles and threatening to burst. Nineteen…. Nineteen…

Polly collapsed in a heap. ”Hopeless,” she thought. ”Who I was before is dead and buried and I’ll be chasing her shadow for the rest of my life.” It wasn’t fair. The world had promised her love and safety, the compassion of her parents and the care of her older siblings. Days ago the universe had seemed to be brimming with possibilities. The last time she saw her mother felt like it had happened just two weeks ago - when she’d taken her to the aquarium to see the popotos - and yet, logic told her that it had occurred over thirty two years ago. Whereas Polly was only just coming to terms with her father’s death, she knew that her surviving family - her brothers and sisters - would’ve already moved on and had children of their own. She’d been cruelly robbed of thirty years of her life. She would die as half a person, having experienced only half as many years as anyone else. Sooner or later her panic would fade and give in to resignation and she would realise that all of this was pointless and that it would be better to lie down and die than to keep living in such a state, thus she kept pushing herself. She was unwilling to let go of her frantic desire to learn and improve not because she wanted to do those things but because she was terrified of what might happen once that drive faded away.

Back on her arms, then. One two, three four. Five six, seven eight.

[Naval Monte]

The Great Wizarding Rebellion

The robbed figure didn't say a word as he brought down the tentacles, smacking Katya further down on the ground, slimly tendrils resting on her face, chest, shoulder and stomach. The ones on her right cheek with a part of the tentacle resting on the corner of her eyebrow and almost touching her ear would begin to spread more of the black taint on her flesh, causing an explosion of cold and pain to wash over her as she saw the world from her right eye getting darker, until numbness and blindness replaced them both. Even a patch of her white hair began to turn black when some of the substance landed on her hair as droplets. Worse was the tip of the tentacle latch to her scalp, spreading the all consuming taint. Other tentacles rested beside her, corrupting the soil and grass next to her.

Droplets that on her other cheek, forehead, nose, and even lips and chin also began to spread much slower pace. The tentacles on her chest, shoulders and stomach would accelerate the corruption on her body, her blazer rotting away as her pale skin turn dark She would feel the tentacles leaving her body as the dark shapes finally revealed themselves as they step out from the mist. What greeted her was an utter horror show.

They were more of the robed figures but they were all wrong. She some with way too many arms in places they shouldn't be like their chest, back, shoulders, or even at their necks, a few had arms growing from their arms. Others hand multiple arms elongated into serpentine appendages, some bad their entire torso elongated into impossible length and possessing the flexibility of a serpent. Others had grotesquely large humps, gaping holes filled with noxious air coming out ad they breath, diseased gums leaking more of the black substance as their crook,  sickly yellowed, teeth had cracks releasing more of the fluids. Others had bulging bundles of eyes that were crying out the same fluid profusely. Others had so many tentacles that it was almost like a thorn bush was growing from their bodied.

Others had to many spindly legs below them or tendrils, others lack any signs of having abnormal legs or worse had no legs at all. Yet whenever they moved a trail of the slime followed, blackening the grass and seamly killing it. From their hands were large curved daggers made from a grayish green stone metal, carved to the blade were alien hieroglyphics signs that were impossible to comprehend. The chanting continue as they drew closer to Katya. The intent of the creatures were clear. Katya was going to be a sacrifice for whatever dark rite they wish to perform. 

The creature that attacked her made sure she was still able to see the others as they needed her to die feeling extreme fear the ritual. As it brought back the tentacles it would raise its arm to strike at her again. But as it did so the mist from above would break up as s vortex above disturbed it. The creature looked up to see the strange phenomenon, a few others looking up. From the air flashes would suddenly appear along with a sound that Katya would find very familiar, gunshots.

The one planning to attack Katya would begin to jerk violently as bullets began to riddle it's body, more of the black substance exploding out from its body as bullets tore through it. Other flashes from the air would signal more gunfire coming out as other creatures would being shot, each bullet tearing through the creatures. The creatures released bone chilling wails as their grotesque visage began to retreat back to the mist, it to seemingly retreating away from whatever was attacking the creatures.

A few rush towards Katya but they would only be greeted by more bullet fire as dark ropes materialize from the ether to land on the ground. From the same either people dressed in dark body armor and suits came down. Should Katya still get a good look she would see that their faces were obscured by gas masks and the lens of the masks emitted a red glow that now was eerie to see. The masked troopers began to form a perimeter around her as they kept firing at the few creatures still trying to get to her.

Some of the creatures would eventually fall down to the ground where they will explode into the same black sludge, Kayta would see massive kite shields emerge from the exosuits of the soldiers as they block sludge from hitting them. A few arm with gauss guns would fire off the weapons, the speed of the projectile exiting from the barrel would ignite the air as a small shockwave would be heard, the force not only tore a hole through the charging creature and send it flying back, but the projectile tore through other retreating creatures. All those struck by the gauss gun exploded into a sludgy mess.

Katya would see from her good eye one of the soldiers, using a shield and gauss rifle, approach and kneel down to her. "Shit, you've seen better day." The soldier had a strange voice modifier that made them sound more like a machine than a human being. "But you match with what the ARU team said. We're here to extract you from the area." The soldier took out a grayish black cylindrical object. Removing the top  small and thin syringe needle was revealed. "This will sting for a while but it will slow down the curse." Before Katya can say a word the soldier would stab her with the syringe on the chest, pressing a button on the case and releasing whatever was inside on the syringe.

Katya would feel warmth exploding from her chest fall by the sensation of pins and needles spreading throughout the parts of her blackened body, feelingly slowly returning to her in those areas. "Weston, grab her. She would be safe to touch now." The soldier told to a much larger and heavily armoured one who approached Katya, reaching down to grab the girl and carry her like a bride.

The two would see a medical stretcher being lowered from the air as a helicopter suddenly appeared from nowhere. Katya would take note that no noise was coming from the rotors of the helicopter. While being carried by the soldier as he walked to the stretcher she saw on the soldiers shoulder a patch showing a dark blue and black wolf head with reddish orange eyes, below the lupine symbol were the words "Midnight Fenrir". But on the forehead of the wolf she saw the familiar triangles with the eye on the center that told her who were her saviors. The AEGIS Imperative.

The man would put her on the stretcher carefully and make sure to strap her tight enough to ensure she won't fall but not to tight as to make it uncomfortable for her. As the stretcher began to rise up she would see that most of the creatures enter the retreating mist and many pile of sludge marking creatures slain by AEGIS, witnessing a few being slain by the soldiers with remarkable swiftness and efficiency. 

Once she was close to the side opening a few soldiers would carefully pull her induce and set her down at the center as they lower down more ropes for the soldiers on the ground, their mission on getting the VIP now done. It only took a few minutes for all the soldiers to be picked up, each one was in a hurry to get back I to the helicopter. With the curse on Katya they knew that delaying her treatment any longer will cause long term damage that will be difficult even for them to fix. 

With everyone now inside the helicopter the side the doors closed and the aircrafts began to move away from the battlefield. The soldier who injected her with the strange substance walked over to her. The soldier reached up to touch their helmet and Katya would hear a hiss coming from it as the helmet was pulled up; revealing the pale face of a woman, whose dark hair was tied into a bun and whose gray eyes stare down to Katya's blue eyes. 

"Looks like we saved your ass on the knick of time. Looks like those freaks were planning on having your as an offering to their god. You can call me Agent September, my task force was called in to retrieve you." She explained to her as she took out the syringe. "We injected you with a cocktail of synthetic biochemical, nanological agents, a d thaumaturgical elixirs to try and slow down the curse and fix some damage it has down. But it won't hold it off for long. We need to reach back to our hideout so you can receive proper treatment before it reaches to the point of it being untreatable." She gave her a small smile. "But with what I injected into you should hold on long enough for us to reach the doctors on time. I will have to put you out soon. Both for privacy concerns and because you don't want to be awake for the surgery. Trust me on that, you're better of knocked out during that operation." 

September would get up and walk to a seat. "So until we reach the point where you have to go to the Dreamlands and meet with the faeries just try to get as much comfortable as you can." The woman placed her helmet on an empty chair and began to check on her gauss rifle. "Also no, I can not divulge how we made the helicopters invisible and silent. I don't want to kill you after going through the effort on saving you princess."

[Naval Monte]

Secrets of the Raven
Devil's Pit Mines

Elizabeth looked at her own corpse hanging on the rafters, or at least what remained. Like Jackie's corpse what remaining flesh was there was dried up and leathery, just like jerky, it was shriveled up and wrinkly as well. While her copy still had tattered pants she saw no feet, instead she found the boots on the ground covered in dust, brown crusted traces of dried blood, and crusty remains of the black bile that her feet and no doubt portions of her legs. While the bangs hid her face Elizabeth knew there were no eyes from the corpse. The corpse arms were also missing too, she couldn't see them from the tattered sleeves. She wasn't sure if the corpse even had a torso anymore, what with her clothing and coat covering it.

Elizabeth felt her throat clinch as she tried to swallow, a single sweat breaking out. She knew that the corpses before her wasn't real and that it was just a scare tactic to destroy their morale, she had experienced tactics similar to this one in past cases before. Yet even with those experiences she still felt unnerved seeing her own corpse, especially with how good they made hers and the others appear. Well, that was her opinion anyway, Celeste and Dawn weren't satisfied with theirs and so not only did they delete their corpses but also everyone else's. Truth be told the witch was glad for that.

"I honestly can't tell if that was my corpse or Weiss?" Alex said, not being slightly fazed by the bodies. "They realize I'm already dead right?" The simulacra turn to her original. "I don't think they care for that inconvenient factor when they made your double." The two would soon see Jackie having a nervous breakdown after seeing her body. Her screaming would make the baby being held by Elizabeth's left arm to begin crying too. "Fuck me. Great job Vanth! You got the little shit crying like you." A very annoyed Valeria shouted. The esper hated the fact the younger Ashwood wanted to drag the little freak around with them and that the one with them was willing to let her kid go along with the idea. 

Elizabeth's right arm simply dangle as it took a beating from the Douser. On the back of her coat large slash marks were seen from their attacks. Elizabeth took those attacks to try and defend the baby from the Dousers as it clung to her for protection. Elizabeth looked at Jackie as she begged to leave the mine, to not die as her copy did. The witch turned to look at Alex. "Hey mom, mind holding the kid for me?" Alex nodded as she floated to her daughter.

Elizabeth would move her arm to give the baby to Alex but it would reach out and grab her vest, holding on as it pressed itself to her as it still kept crying . Alex saw the action and couldn't resist letting out a chuckle, letting a small smile form. "I think the little guy has warmed up to you." Elizabeth looked down at the baby and sighed. "Looks like I have two people to help out." The witch turn to walk towards Jackie. As Alex watch Elizabeth walk to their panicking team member she overheard Simon say. "I guess being a single mother is the new Ashwood tradition?" 

The masked slav suddenly felt the air grow cold around him, yet he felt that the chill coursing through his body wasn't coming from the cold alone. Hesitantly he turned to see where he was sensing a dark aura and what he saw was Alex, giving him a wide smile that was devoid of any hint of joy or any positive emotions, what he felt from both it and from her eyes was something he could only describe as pure malice. "I'm sorry Simon. Can you repeat what you just said?" She asked in a sweetly manner, one that Simon knew was dripping venom hidden within. Simon looked at the others for help.

Theodore looked away along with Richard and Wei, Valeria shook her head and Rolo looked as though he wanted to help but couldn't decide if he should risk it. Nix gave him a look of pity but like Rolo didn't step up, Weiss just gave him a blank stare that match the one Metis would give him. Simon was on his own.

Berith looked at the scene. "Should we do anything to stop this?" He asked the two goddesses. Rolo would speak up. "Best not to get in Alex's way. But do pitch in if she tries to kill him." The norse man stated as he watch Simon try to wake up Samson to help him with no results.

Elizabeth would summon her tenebraes and after sucking in as much air felt them moving within her arms. The witch squinted her eyes in pain, feeling the shadowy beings moving in her arm, rubbing against her bones and pushing against muscles and blood vessels. The tenebraes began to move her fingers to try and test how much control they have. As she got closer to Jackie the witch tried to rock the baby, doing what she thinks might help make the baby stop crying.

Once she was close she looked at Jackie at her eyes. Without warning her other hand went up and slap Jackie. "What the fuck guys! This was not what I wanted to do!" the witch knew her tenebraes won't hear her thoughts but she could have sworn to hear them laughing in her. Elizabeth would hear the baby stopped crying, looking down she saw it was looking up at her. Infact, everyone in the room was looking at her as the sound the slap made echo throughout the room. "Great, I'm at the center of yet more drama.. The witch decided from here she will take a small break after this case. If she survives it of course.

"Sorry about that Jack. But I don't have full control over my arm at the moment. Though it seemed to have gotten your attention." The other hand rose up and began to scratch the back of Elizabeth's head. "I can't blame you for being scared, I was freaked out to when I saw my own corpse there. But it was nothing more but a death threat, a simple scare tactic to make us jittery and paranoid so they can mess with our heads and either have us turn tail and run away so they can succeed with creating their new world order, or what is more likely, they want us to lose our morale so it can be easier for them to finish us off." She explained to her in a calm manner. 

"I'm not going to force you to stay here and fight with us. This wasn't your battle to begin with, you and Kyle just got drag into this miss by dumb luck in the first place. Either Nix or Celeste will get you out of here if you want. But if you ask me I say pick Nix, Celeste isn't the charitable type." The other hand lower itself down as it balled into a fist as it moved to her hip. "But than if you turn back now you would be leaving behind a disappointing ending for your story wouldn't it?" She tilted her head slightly to the left. 

"You say that you're not cut to be a heroine? Me neither Jackie. Hell I reject that title full heartedly. That title doesn't fit someone like me. I have done way too much shady stuff to ever call myself a heroine. I'm only here because if I don't than the world as I know it ends. I lose my family, my friends, my powers, everything. I'm fighting for self reasons as much as for altruistic ones, it just so happens the two complement each other in this occasion. I know you don't belong in this world and as such won't have the same level of attachment to it as me and everyone else in here. Yet I've noticed something Jack. You haven't said much about wanting to return back home." 

A small smirk form on her lips. "Instead you have been taking up a job in an extradimensional spa, trying to get enough money to buy your own place, and sometimes go out to do other stuff while not staying in my place. If I didn't know better I say you want this world to be your new world?" She tilted her head to the right side. "You don't want to go back home don't you? You don't like conflict but you still chose to come anyway? No doubt you were afraid that the Authors of yours would punish you if you didn't come here but I think you also came because you might liking your new life and you don't want Andarta to take it away from you?" 

She stayed silent to let her words linger in the air, to give Jackie's mind time to stew on the words. "Like I said, the option to leave is still available and I won't think less of you for leaving." The witch said as she broke the silence. "But if I also wouldn't mind if you stayed just a little longer to help us reach deeper to stop Andarta. If not to save our lives than do it for yourself Jack. You want to convince her to stop this? I think our chances of maybe getting her to stop this peaceful will rise up to fifty percent if we do it together than if I do it alone. I told you, I don't like killing unless there is no choice. Will you help me in ending this without having to kill Andarta?" She asked, extending her hand. 

As Elizabeth try to reassure Jackie the demon lord felt uneasy. It wasn't seeing the witch trying to reassure the former firebrand that bothered him, nor was seeing the armor from his ashy remains that unnerved him. No, he felt a dark presence was entering the room. A presence he unfortunately knew all too well. "We need to leave now!" He warned, his booming voice echoing in the room. "That girl may have attracted something to us either her fear."

Before anyone can ask him what Berith was talking about everyone would see dark fumes coming out from the cracks of the walls. From the fumes the dark power that Berith sense grew stronger, so was his fear on what it was. The baby seem to sense something was wrong as it began to cry loudly. "Wha-What is that?" Richard stuttered, fear on his voice. The others were also feeling a creeping fear come over them as more of the fumes began to break through the cave walls.

"Is this another trap by the Crimsonites?" Rolo room out his hammer. Whatever was making the dark fumes was rising in power expediently, it was enough to make most worry that it was either Andarta or worse the cult's goddess was coming from them. "This isn't the cult or Andarta's doing. This is something far worse than her."

[Skylus]

Post that I procrastinated making, you’re welcome

"Madi! A red letter came in the mail for you!"
Madi's eyes flew open. She wondered for a moment where she was, then remembered she had fallen asleep on the couch instead of her bed. She got up from said couch and walked into the living room, where her mother was standing by the front door, holding a red letter. Her mother handed her the letter and she opened and read it silently.
"Madison Goodwill, you are hereby accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed is a supplies list and information for your parents, as I have no doubt they will be confused. I hope to see you soon - Albus Dumbledore"
Madi read the letter a second time, then handed her mother a small booklet that appeared to be said information and went up to her room to look at the supply list.

---

"Hmm. Yes, I know just the wand for you, young lady, wait here a moment, please." Ollivander walked to the back and Madi stood there self consciously, looking around her in silent awe. The man returned some time later, holding an old wooden box in his hands. "This wand hasn't had an owner in a very, very long time. At least two hundred years, but you might be its' next owner." Then man slowly opened the box and Madi stepped up to it. Inside the box, nested in red fabric, was a wand of Ebony, with a core of Dragon Heartstring and its' length was 12.5 inches. The Witch reached out and picked up the wand, and as she did so, a white light appeared at its' tip and she could have sworn she felt a cool breeze wash over her. To further validate this, several papers blew off a nearby table onto the floor.
"Well done, miss Goodwill. As I've said many, many times before, the wand chooses the user, and it has most certainly chosen you."

---

"Keep up, you don't want to keep the older students and other professors waiting, do you?" McGonagall looked down at the first years with a stern look before turning around and walking up the steps. Madi was one of the last ones to enter the massive castle, as she simply couldn't take her eyes off of everything. Eventually, the group reached the Great Hall; one by one, each one was called until it was her turn. "Goodwill, Madison!"
Madi walked up to the stool and sat down on it, then McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on her head. "Well well well, this is most interesting... You're going to have quite an adventure while you're here, Madison. You may not be much now, but in a few years...Yes... In fact, I know exactly where to put you." GRYFFINDOR!" The Hat was taken off of her head and the First Year walked over to the Gryffindor table, where she sat down and was quickly introduced to everyone.
It was a few hours later, mostly everyone else was asleep in their beds, but Madi was currently standing at one of the windows in the Common Room, watching the sun set. I'm going to have fun here, I can tell. I wonder what that hat said, about me having adventures? Madi stayed where she was until the colors vanished and then walked up the stairs, found her bed, and sat down on the edge, looking at the wand on her bed stand. She could have sworn the tip lit up for a moment, before she decided it must have been because she was tired and she went to sleep a few minutes later.

---

Madi was absolutely lost. She had wandered away from the others and was now somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. The Witch eventually came across an empty clearing and sat down on a cut tree stump. A few birds flew overhead and as they did so rain began to fall. How long have I been out here? Everyone has to be worried about me.

Madi heard something growl nearby and she saw something looking at her with red glowing eyes from the trees. What is that?
The thing growled again and started to move closer. Madi stood and went to grab her wand, but then she fell to the ground as pain suddenly coursed through her. For a moment, she saw her band change shape into a brown furred bear paw, then she heard an earth shattering roar and everything was gone.

Her vision returned, although it wasn’t exactly right. She felt huge and powerful, almost unstoppable. What happened?
She saw a blurred shape in a rain puddle and realized that the thing staring back at her was a grizzly bear, and that she was the bear. This is cool.
A roar caught her attention and the bear turned her head, only to see a massive black bear with red glowing eyes lunge at her, claws glinting in the moonlight.

---

Hogsmeade. It had stood for a very long time and hopefully it would stand for a lot more. Today was Madi’s 14th birthday and her friends had decided to take her to the Wizarding village to celebrate. Except things had not gone to plan.

Around twenty dark wizards had attacked the village and had closed it off, basically trapping whoever was there inside the village borders.
Madi was currently stuck inside Honeydukes, staring down a witch wearing dark clothing.
The older witch grinned and raised her wand. “Try to keep up, dear.” And then started to cast spells.
Madi hesitated, then started to cast spells back. A wall exploded and the other witch flew backwards out onto the street. Madi walked out of the store and the other witch cast a curse in her direction. She dodged it and swung her wand downwards in an arc. Fire appeared and struck the other witch, burning her.
The other witch got up and dispelled the fire with a wave of her wand. “You win this time, but next time won’t be so easy. Lord Ableton knows of you Goodwill, he knows of the power you will possess and wants to stop you before you gain that power.”
“What power?”
The Witch started to walk backwards. “I assume you’ll figure it out sooner or later.” And then she was gone, having apparated away.
Madi stayed where she was, surrounded by ash and burnt wood. Eventually a few Aurors showed up, having caught most of the attackers, and they asked her what happened.
“Well, I was in Honeydukes, and these people attacked Hogsmeade. This witch broke into Honeydukes and started to duel me. I cast a fire spell in her direction and she fled.”

The Aurors decided to take Madi to St. Mungos, just to check her out and make sure she was safe, but as they were walking her to the apparition point, Madi saw something lurking in a dark alleyway - a massive black bear with glowing red eyes.

---

Madi was sitting on the couch in the Gryffindor Common Room, a few textbooks scattered on the table before her as she worked on her end of the year NEWTs essays. She figured she would get everything else she needed to write done in an hour, and was currently checking over her Potions essay. A mail owl tapped a claw against a nearby window, causing Madi to look up, then get up from the couch, walk over to said window, open it, take the letter from the mail owl, then walk back to the couch and sit down. She then opened the letter and read its contents.

To Madison Goodwill - we have been watching you since you first stepped into Hogwarts, I figured I would tell you this now, we believe you are involved in a prophecy made long ago. However, we must ask you to test something for us, and write back your findings. We ask you to try using hand magic, a type of magic only a few have learnt and used throughout history, Albus Dumbledore being one of those select few. We believe it will come naturally, although we do not know the exact method of activating hand magic. If you wish to know more of this prophecy, seek out Albus. - Fudge and the MoM

Madi stared at the letter for a moment, then set the letter down on the table and stood up, looked down at her right hand, and, as if on a whim, snapped her fingers. nothing happened. She tried again. Again, nothing happened, then, a single spark appeared and then it was gone. Intrigued, Madi snapped her fingers again, this time creating more sparks. She tried again, however, this time, a small fireball appeared and then died almost instantly. "Okay... This is new." She looked down at her hand. "Maybe if I get better at this hand magic thing I can use other spells."

Sometime later, she was standing in Dumbledore's office, the old Wizard looking at her behind his half-moon spectacles, the usual twinkles in his eyes shining. "Ah, Madi, what brings you here at this hour?"
"Well, I got a letter from the Ministry and Fudge, asking me if I could perform something called hand magic."
Albus got up from his chair and stepped around his desk. "Do they? Why? Do they need me for something and decided to send you to tell me?"
Madi shook her head. "No. The letter said something about a prophecy."

Albus gazed at Madi for a moment, then beckoned her to follow him over to a fountain of some sort, countless glass vials sitting on a bookshelf next to it. "Before i tell you what this is, I need to see if you can in fact perform hand magic."
"Easier said than done." Madi once again snapped her fingers and as if on command, a small fireball appeared and she grinned as Albus smiled. "Of course. Why, this explains everything..."
"What do you mean?" madi snapped her fingers again, causing the fireball to vanish and Albus picked up a very, very, very old vial filled with a golden liquid.
"This, is the memory of the prophecy Fudge believes you are a part of. It was made by a Seer by the name of Gernal Firebane, many centuries ago. The past Headmasters were tasked with keeping this memory safe, until now."

Madi watched as Albus uncorked the vial, then emptied it into the fountain. "This is the Pensieve, it allows the user to remember any memory, even if it wasn't theirs."
Water began to fill the bowl and it mixed with the golden liquid, causing the water to become murky. "Now. All you need to do is put your head under the water, and the Pensieve will do the rest. You don't have to tell me what the memory is, if you don't want to."
Madi nodded, stepped forwards, leaned over the bowl, took a deep breath, and put her head under the golden water mixture.

---

"It is too late, I am afraid. I have already won, even if you have sealed me." A man in dark robes was standing in front of several armed wizards and witches, all of them were wearing medieval clothing. They were standing in what appeared to be the central courtyard of Hogwarts. The one that seemed to be the leader stepped forwards, brandishing his wand. "What do you mean, Ableton? Speak, before I cast your soul and body into Hell."
The man started laughing. "Godric, you really have no idea what's happening, do you? My servants and underlings are still out there, waiting until the day I return, however long that may be."
A woman next to Godric fell to the ground, her eyes rolled back into her head.
Ableton stopped laughing and frowned with confusion. "Isn't that your Seer? The one who has never told a real prophecy in her life?
"I see...Hogwarts, many centuries from now... Our ghosts walk its halls, aiding those who are worthy... There is one... A Gryffindor... by the name of Goodwill."
"Eh?"
"Yes..." The Seer's eyes rolled back to a normal position and she stood, then started walking towards Ableton. "Goodwill will learn the art of hand magic and strike you down when you appear. She will be the one to do so, as only she will be able to match you in magic prowess in her day and age."
"Are... Are you saying the person to kill me will be a woman?" Ableton shook his head and tried to get up, but the other magical people shot spells in his direction and he vanished.

"Gernal." Godric stepped forwards. "Do you know what year he was sent to?"
The Seer nodded. "Yes. Five hundred and sixty three years in the future. I fear Goodwill may need help, Ableton is dangerous and unpredictable."
Godric smiled. "Well then, we'd be prepare, shall we?"
The vision started to blur and then everything was gone.

However, it seemed the vial had another memory for her. But yet, this one was apparently hers. From the future.
Madi found herself in what appeared to be a dungeon cell, slightly older, maybe a year or two; unclothed, bounded by iron-silver chains to the dungeon wall, and covered in various wounds. She heard what sounded like footsteps and she looked up, only to see a robed figure standing before her. "You're awake. Good. I thought we killed you. Fudge told us to lay off on the punishments for now, since he doesn't want you to die. So, we are. At least the physical aspect."
Her future self started cursing at the Auror and Madi's vision went white as the man magically lashed her face with fire.
I don't understand, how I can I remember this if it's in my future?
Her vision was still white, but she could hear the man still talking. "Actually, I think you still need discipline."
Madi felt her vision return, just in time to see the Auror raise his wand and cast Curcio.

---

"Madi. Madi. Are you alright?"
Albus' voice pulled her back to the present and she shot up from the Pensieve, water running down her hair, face, and clothes.
"I.. I don't know." She shoved herself back from the bowl and looked at the floor for a moment, then back up at Albus. "Is it possible to remember future events?"
Albus raised an eyebrow. "Did you?" He received a nod from Madi. "Do you mind telling me what that memory was?"

"Uh... I'm not exactly sure... I think I was maybe one to two years older, in a cell somewhere, unclothed, bound to a will by iron silver chains, covered in wounds and scars and all of that. An Auror walked into the cell and started to torture me... Oh yeah he said something about 'helping those not from our world' whatever that meant. And yes, I got the prophecy. It's true, it was about me. Who was Ableton?"

"Ableton was... Well, he was a dark wizard - lord - a few centuries ago. His motives and background are mostly unknown, but we do know that his goal was to enslave the non magical community and possibly muggleborns. After battling him here on the grounds of Hogwarts, the four founders used powerful spells and sealed him away, though no text says where he ended up. Some say he's in a pocket dimension, others say he was sent through time itself." Madi walked over to a nearby chair and sat down, Fawkes flying up from his perch and flying over to her before landing on her left shoulder. "So... What does him getting sealed away have to do with me?"

Albus hmmed. "Well, Gernal Firebane seems to think you're the only one who can stop him. Whether that be using a Time-Tuner to go back in time, or him somehow being sent to our time, that remains to be seen."
"Okay. I don't understand, isn't hand magic supposed to be rare and insanely difficult to master."
"Madison, yes, it is true that hand magic is rare and hard to master. I can do hand magic, as I have shown many times before, but even I have not fully mastered it. If Ableton is in fact going to show up, then you will need training."
Madi sat up straighter. "Training?"
Albus nodded. "Yes. Training. I believe I can train you, you certainly have the 'spark' for hand magic, we just have to ignite it."

The room grew quiet for a bit, before Madi spoke again. "Do you know why hand magic is...uh...vital?"
"Ableton was a powerful dark wizard, Madison, quite possibly the most powerful in history, asve for a select few. Hand magic is the only thing that can match his skill in dueling and spellcasting."

Madi moved her gaze to the bird on her shoulder, then to Albus. "Say Ableton shows up sometime next week, would you be able to train me by then?"
"I can most certainly try, but the question is, do you want to learn?"
Madi nodded. "Yeah. I'm in."

Albus nodded. "However, we cannot begin right this minute. You still have classes to finish. However, we can begin this weekend."
Fawkes flew back to his perch as Madi got up from the chair and walked towards the tower entrance. She turned back a few seconds later. "I'm still confused about all of this."
"Of course. If i was in your position, I would also be confused. But do not worry, I'll inform the Ministry of what has happened and have them prepared in the event that Ableton does show up."
Madi nodded and left the tower, taking her time returning to the common room, where she promptly fell asleep after sitting on the couch.

---

The last Qudditch match of the year. The air was thick was tension as the Gryffindor Lions, as well as the Hufflepuff Badgers, walked out onto the pitch and took positions. Hooch did her usual thing with "I want a fair clean game", released the balls, the two teams took to the air and the match was on. However, there was one Catcher who was not at the match, but rather on the sidelines in a seat, watching the game.
"Hey, Madi, shouldn't you be out there?", asked a fellow 6th year. Madi shook her head.
"Nah, I'm too busy, got stuff I need to do, I just decided to watch the game, see how it went, that sort of thing."
Th 6th year nodded and turned to watching the game. A moment later, Madi got up from her seat and eventually got to the bottom of the stand she was in, then snuck out of the pitch and started walking towards the forest, summoning a medium sized lighting sphere in her hand as she did so with a flick of her wrist.

She was mostly out there to check things out, see if anything was wrong, and if so, deal with whatever it was. The Witch stuck close to the makeshift path, stopping every now and then to look back, as if something was following her. Madi eventually walked into a clearing, only to find a strange circle of overgrown and cracked stones.

Madi walked up to the stone circle and noted that there were thirteen flat stones arranged in a circle, two circles of six and a center stone. thirteen more stones stops around the circle, faded runes carved into each one. The Witch walked onto the center flat stone and felt the air shift, as if the magic energy that was throughout the Forbidden Forest had gotten stronger. She then heard footsteps crushing grass and then someone appeared from the treeline, wearing a black robe.

The Witch watched in silence as the person started to walk towards her, then they stopped five feet away.
"This may seem like a strange question, but what year is this?"
"Two thousand seventeen, why?"
The person, revealed to be a man by his voice, nodded. "And who might you be?"
Madi gave her name and the man reached inside his robes. "Goodwill... You know, I was told about you, that you were going to be the one to stop me. Well, I can't have that, obviously." The Wizard drew his wand and yelled "Expulso", casting a blue spell in Madi's direction.
Ableton!

Madi dove to the ground and came up a few seconds later, having summoning her hand magic. Upon seeing this, Ableton smiled. "So it was true. You haven't completed your training, have you?" He laughed upon seeing Madi's face fall. "You haven't. This won't take long. Once I kill you I can resume my plans from long ago." Ableton started casting spells in Madi's direction and she was forced backwards, onto the strange circle of stones as she tried to deflect the curses heading her way. The dark wizard started walking towards her and a lucky spell hit her in the lower chest and she went down, laying up against a standing stone for support. Ableton towered over her, his wand aimed in her direction. "Pathetic. I thought the one destined to kill me would be fully trained and more than worthy to duel me. But you?" The man took a step forwards. "You're nothing. You do know hand magic, you did prove that, at least, but I'm afraid this so called seer that made the prophecy is a fraud." Ableton raised his wand and began to say Curcio but was interrupted.
The stones around and beneath Madi began to glow, and as Ableton lowered his wand and looked down, the stones lit up even more. "The Time-Stones. They're activating. But why?" Madi didn't speak, couldn't speak, but she cast a spell in the unsuspecting man's direction and he was thrown a few feet backwards, off the stones. Ableton got to his feet and started laughing. "Perhaps you are indeed the one to stop me. Run, run to the far ends of the earth, Goodwill, and come back when you think you're worthy of dueling me!" A wind picked up, the stones seemed to hum as the glow changed to pulsations, and then there was a loud boom and Madi was gone, the stone growing silent once more.

---

A year passed. In that time, Hogwarts fell to Ableton and he had started making moves on the MoM. However, there were rumors of powerful spells being cast near Dublin, on Ireland's Eye, that could been seen at night from the R105 and even in Dublin itself. Muggles made it seem like it was just some sort of lighting incident, but the magical community knew better. And finally, one night, a windstorm kicked up and it seemed as if a lighting strike hit the entire island all at once. The remnants of the MoM picked up a massive spike of magic at that point and then one at Hogwarts, in the Forest. Fudge looked up from his desk and smiled. "So it seems Goodwill is home."

Ableton was seated in the Great Hall near the back, looking over his subjects as they sat at the numerous tables. He sensed a spike of magical energy in the air and he stood up from his chair, drew his wand and started to walk down the steps towards the twin doors when they flew open, slamming against the wall as the doors were broken off their hinges. A figure encased in blue fire was floating in the doorway, glowing eyes visible. The Dark Lord raised his wand. "And who might you be?"
The figure said nothing and started to move towards him, arms raised with magic lightning striking the tile floor as the figure moved.
Ableton cast Lumos Caceis, which struck the figure but didn't seem to harm them. The figure ended up floating before Ableton and he had to look up at them.
"Who am I?"
At the voice Ableton's eyes widened. "...Goodwill?"
"I'm the one who's going to stop you." It was indeed Madi's voice emiting from the floating figure and she started throwing spells at Ableton, not caring what they were or what effect they would cause.
The Dark Wizard started casting spells as well and soon the Great Hall was lit with many colors as the two dueled.

Ableton began to be driven backwards by the sheer onslaught of Madi's magic. He wasn't sure if the magic user before him was even human anymore. What slightly terrified him was the fact that the Witch didn't speak as she fought him, she simply kept attacking. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the Dark Lord was thrown across the Great Hall and into the wall, hitting the floor a second later. As Ableton tried to get up, the floating magic user raised a hand and levitated the man into the air, magically ensnaring him by the throat. As she watched the man struggle to breathe, the figure tipped their head a bit, as if she was intrigued. "Such power... I can do anything I want now." Madi's grip tightened and a sadistic smile appeared on her face as the man started begging for mercy. "Mercy? Why should i give it to you, considering what you've done?"
"Because I can help you control your magic! Listen to yourself, you're turning into an insane murderer!"
Madi dropped Ableton and as he picked himself back up, the man grinned. "Did you really think I would help you?" He then blasted her with Lumos Caceis, this time sending her flying out of the Great Hall and out of sight. Madi didn't reappear and the man started laughing.
That is, until an emerald jet of light hit him in the head, killing him instantly. Madi, the magically powered figure she was now, floated back into the Great Hall and up to Ableton's corpse, raised her hands to the ceiling, tilted her head back, and cast magic in all directions. But then her vision faded to white, and it was as if everything was burning away, as if she was somehow being reborn. Then everything was gone.

---

Madi appeared in the ruins of the Great Hall, black spires towering over her, black ashes raining down from darkened skies. Dead students were strewn about and some had been turned into what appeared to be Inferi, albeit spawning out black fluids and black crystals embedded in their bodies. Those that could walk turned towards her and started blaming her for what happened there at the castle. As she floated there, encased in blue fire, the undead lamented about their fate, saying that Madi and her allies didn't keep them safe or save the castle, instead choosing to damn everyone there and beyond the castle.

The dead students continued speaking, saying that the fact that Madi chose to leave everyone after Czernobog was destroyed damned them all, for when they needed her most, she wasn't there to save them from the Muggle's onslaught. They also said that Fudge had been right when he had deemed her a villain, and that it was her fault, along with her friends, that the Ministry had become a dictatorial state after she had left, as well as the deaths caused by AEGIS and Czernobog.

But yet, the bodies let her pass and she soon came across what remained of the AEGIS site, the dead there moving towards her as shambling corpses. They too, condemned her for getting them killed., and that more dangerous anomalies were out there, running amok, and that anyone they killed, their blood would be on her hands.

The dead stopped speaking for a moment, then those she had helped on Gnosis somehow appeared and they called her a coward for leaving their world to be destroyed and altered by Andarta, because to them she was a selfish witch who would put her own desires over saving others.

Then, her view changed from the ruins of Hogwarts to the Wizardgoment (close enough) She was being declared guilty by Fudge and the others, then various Aurors stepped forwards and began using the Cruciatus curse on her, before the view changed to a cell, where various terrible and traumatic moments of her life were played out, each reaction made to be far more worse than what really happened.

Eventually, chains with hooks tore into her bare flesh and Madi felt excruciating pain, as well as something she had never felt before - exquisite pleasure. She stopped breathing for a second, wondering how she was supposed to process this, as the feeling currently coursing through her felt wrong, but it also felt right. A massive dark figure stood before her, its shadow cast by the light created by a black sun emitting rays of pale white light. The thing didn't say anything, it only looked at the witch as she felt her skin began to tear itself apart. Strangely enough, she felt as if she were breaking out of a cocoon; just as her body seemed to break, an arm similar to the deer demon punched out from her chest, and then she felt free as the void consumed her.

---

Madi's eyes flew open and she bolted upright into a sitting position, wondering why she was on the floor of the room at first, but then remembered that she had hit herself with Stupefy. She didn't get up just then, however, but instead mulled over the last few seconds of the dream. I had no idea that could even happen to me. Maybe those ashes kickstarted something. Madi then got up and then froze as she felt magical energy coursing through her veins, then felt herself start floating about a foot off the metal floor and noticed small flickers of blue flames surrounding her hands. What? Wait a sec, this happened before didn't it? Before she could continue the thought, Madi's vision went white and she felt as if she was on fire.

---

The door buckled as something hit it from the other side. It was hit again, and a third time, then, the metal door broke off its hinges and hit the floor. Something was floating in the doorway, a feminine figure covered in blue flames with glowing eyes. The figure spotted the Tengu and turned to face him. Strangely enough, when they spoke, it was with Madi's voice. "You. I don't know what happened and you seem to know, so start talking."

[The Japanese Americans]

Post that I procrastinated making, you’re welcome

-snip to stop carpal tunnel-

Lee jerked his head up. He had sensed a huge surge of magic, which seemed to be coming from the same place the road did. Dammit. He had just finished general world history. He stuffed everything that was his and wasn't already on him into his Inventory. He noticed that his clothes were glowing slightly. In fact, anything magical he had was glowing, which was pretty much everything. "I deserve to be paid for this shit. Mana Shield." His bubble of safety and personal space popped up around him again as he walked out of his room. "I really deserve to be paid for this shit." Once again, he ran right back to the origin of the roar, pissing off even more lizardfolk on the way.

He arrived quickly, finding the tengu, his friend, and the ghoul witch there. The ghoul was floating in the air, covered in blue flames. Under his breath, he muttered, "I really, really deserve to be paid for this shit." He inhaled sharply. "Can someone tell me why I felt such a huge surge of magic, and if there's going to be any fighting here. Because I will not be afraid to use anything at my disposal." To emphasize his point, he drew his katanas, which were glowing like glowsticks. "Why the fuck are my swords glowing?"