Tuyen was incredibly disturbed by the sight shown to them, fingers digging into her arms where they were wrapped around herself. People dying everywhere - children, dying, fighting an evil they were trying to stop. Yeah. It definitely seemed plausible that they were going to succeed. Rita huddled next to her friend as she watched the carnage through her splayed fingers. Penny refused to take part in the murder tourism, instead trying to keep herself focused on the real. What Amethyst was showing them was a worst-case scenario. They weren't there yet. The Glutton was still sealed, and she'd see to it that the son of a bitch stayed that way.
"Why the fuck should we just trust you?" Caelea shook her head, eyes narrowed as they focused on Amethyst rather than battle they were being shown. "Tell us how you're going to fix it first, then you can ask for our trust."
"I-" Before Amethyst could even finish the sentence Britney finished it for her.
"... 'Want to sacrifice you so I can achieve the power'," Britney snapped at her, "We've already been over this a thousand times before."
"Go to hell, you killed my lover!" Amethyst hissed.
"To protect Shimmer of course," Britney said without a hint of remorse in her voice. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."
"How about..." Lynette chimed in. "If you really want to help fix things like you keep saying, you help us; because we have a different plan to fix things!"
"I... I want to stop the Glutton, I really do," Amethyst said. "But..."
"You can't stand the thought of following anyone else's plan?" Rien helpfully supplied. "Or, y' know, following anyone I imagine."
"But my plan would save everyone," Amethyst said.
"Then what is that plan?"
"Don't even bother, Rien," Britney said. "You all know what she has planned." She crossed her arms.
"I..." Amethyst said, "... I wish there was another way, but I have no choice but to sacrifice you to seal the Glutton."
"I had a feeling we weren't going to be included in the everyone," said Penny.
"Oh yeah, of course, I'll gladly give you my life since there's clearly no other options," Rien retorted sarcastically.
"Amethyst..." Cindy added on, as she looked at the Watchers. "How about we follow them? Work with them? We all... we all want the same thing."
"You should listen to her," said Penny with a hint of desperation in her voice. She didn't want a fight, but she wasn't willingly going to lay her life down for someone she didn't even believe could succeed in the first place.
The battle went on around them but the tide was turning in the direction of the Glutton's forces. It wasn't long until the abomination decided to actively attack... its tendrils descended from the heavens and impaled the soldiers fighting against it. One by one they were killed brutally by a spear going through their bodies and consuming whatever it came in contact with. When the spears disappeared there were massive gaping holes left in their bodies... Blood flowed out as they dropped dead. Soon enough there were barely any healthy soldiers left, but the man in armor didn't give up. There were people on their knees praying to the Glutton, but this man knew that was what the thing wanted. The man in armor raised his sword as he shouted,
"I will never submit to you!" He screamed, "Long as I draw breath, I will fight for the protection of the human race!"
However, there wasn't much hope...
... A bright flash of light appeared behind and he felt a warming presence behind him. Eleven different lights shined brightly behind him as he turned around. There were many massive beings made out of eleven different lights. A massive flaming bull that was forged out of red light, a massive bat out of yellow, a dove made out of pink light, a deer made out of a green one, a lion made out of gold, a rabbit made out of purple light, an owl made out a cyan light, a bear made out the orange light, a raven made out of blue light, a butterfly made out a lavender light, and a massive black wolf made out of black smoke, the odd one out.
And in front of this massive line of beasts was a giant man-made out of a white light standing above all of them. He raised a hand up into the air and there was a wave of white light... and suddenly all the fighters were healed and all the Corrupted were purified of their mind control. He then began a march towards the Glutton as its tendrils went towards him. The animals made out light fired beams of their respective light at the Glutton as the being of light fired a gigantic beam of white light at it.
"... Father." The Hound said. "This is Father... and the Primordial beings of light." He explained.
The Glutton slowly shrunk in size but it fired it's speared at Father as they formed cracks in his body. Eventually... they wrapped around him and tried to crush him as the Glutton shrunk in size. However, they wrapped tighter and tighter around Father until...
They cut through him and Father was cut into hundreds of smaller pieces... which faded away. The battle that went on underneath the giants basically ended as they watched in awe as the creatures of light kept firing their beams at the glutton as they decreased in size as well. Eventually, the Glutton was the size of a one-story building... that was when the warriors underneath them; including the man in armor raised their weapons. Their weapons glow with white light as the Glutton was trapped inside of a square cube made out of white light. A rift made out of white light appeared out of nowhere and sucked the Glutton in as the Primordials faded away into nothingness...
"I..." Amethyst trailed off, unsure of how to feel. "I don't know... I think it's too late at this point to reconcile."
"You don't say," Rien muttered, shoving her hands in her pockets. Caelea gave a snort of agreement.
"I think you've forgotten what the Watchers were trying to prevent, Lady Amethyst," Goro said.
"Why do you even follow Amethyst?" demanded Rita, the puppet strings on the hand over her heart glowing.
"She does appear to be making the whole end of all humanity thing all about her," said Penny. She had one hand in her pocket. "Hell, I'd be fine if all of you just leave and let us sort this mess out. Our plan's going to work, you just need to stay out of the way. You're Watchers, after all. So watch, and stop fucking things up."
"Because it is my sworn duty as a Knight of Luminscience," Goro said... and he probably would have said that even if Rita. "It is apart of the Oath to follow the battle captain and any orders they may assign."
Soon enough the scene faded away and they were back in the cave. Only a few seconds passed but Amethyst realized her plan to turn the Awakened to her side has turned the Watchers against her. A tear rolled down her eye as she looked at Penny, "Even if I step aside...." She pulled out her dagger slowly as she said, "... you're not leaving here alive, not as Idraw breath!" She lunged towards Britney with the dagger in the air. However, she was stopped by a sharp pain in her stomach - she looked down and saw a wooden spear im paling her. She felt weak, woozy... she dropped the dagger.
"Amethyst," Britney walked up to Amethyst as a tear also ran down her eye. "I..."
"Shut up," Amethyst said, "I don't want your pity. Just... finish... me off..."
"I just want you to know that I'm sorry," Britney said as she created another wooden spike, and aimed it directly at Amethyst's skull. "For Pierre, for everything. I just thought that I was doing the right thing for everyone. While doing this I realized that truly..."
Britney sighed.
"... I was only acting in my own interests and mine alone."
The spike impaled Amethyst through the skull... instantly killing her. Britney shook her head, it was the most honorable death she could give Amethyst. Afterward the spike crumbled away into nothing as she faced Goro. Who she was surprised doesn't attack them.
"Goro..." Britney said.
"It was my sworn duty to protect lady Amethyst..." Goro said, "... However, we all have more important tasks to deal with. I will bring you to justice later, lady Britney."
Goro took a knee.
"The Watchers lend their aid, for the time being."
Britney smiled.
Deep inside the mountain, the ancient evil definitely noticed the roughhousing that took place several levels above it. The Speaker stood outside of the barrier of Godforce in which their master was contained, the herald for the thing merely grinned. A white cloak materialized out of thin air around the thing that could barely even be described as human and the hood covered their head. They put their fingertips together as they said,
"They are here," The Speaker said, "It is time..."
Suddenly, the masses of people in Farmer Hill that were corrupted by the Glutton were sprung awake. They quickly sprinted straight for the mountain in a massive horde of Corrupted, using whatever weapons they had on hand. They had a plan to kill all the Awakened, but the Speaker had a different idea. He grinned as he turned around to the ball of light that he called 'Master',
"I'll have you free within' the hour," The Speaker faded away into a mass of embers.
"... Master."
The Hound felt a presence that immediately made him snap to attention.
"... It's here," The Hound said.
"Wait, who the fuck is here?" Zoey asked.
"The Herald of the Glutton," The Hound answered as he turned around to see a ball of orange light, sparks, and embers forming in the ceiling. The Speaker descended from the ceiling with its fingertips touching each other and a grin on their face.
"So, you're all the final stand?" The Speaker said, "Ah, I remember thousands of these... know how they've all ended?"
"Think I give a shit you bald-headed bastard?!" Justin shouted at the top of his lungs as the soul-self appeared out of no where; letting out a firey "squawk" as it flew into the Speaker. However, the being put out a hand and a round barrier of orange light and embers appeared and stopped the soul self which exploded on contact. The Speaker shook their head.
"You still have the opportunity to renounce the false light and join me..."
"Fuck off!" Zoey said as she fired a bolt of lightning at the thing... which it didn't have the opportunity of dodging as the Speaker loudly yelled. Where the lightning struck... there were orange cracks on the Speaker's body that quickly sealed itself. Almost as if the Speaker was made out of a porcelain glass.
"Fine then," The Speaker said, "I already have what I need to free my master... you all can just, well..."
In the tunnels of the cave, they heard chanting, "Re-dempt-ion, re-dempt-ion, re-dempt-ion..."
"Thank you for buying me time with your distraction, Amethyst," The Speaker said with a smile. "But, it's time you are all offered as sacrifices."
"... Speaker..." The Hound said as he walked up. "So we meet."
"You are the False-Light's angel of death I hear so much about?" The Speaker said, "I think I've heard too much, in fact."
"I will personally end you..." The Hound said.
"So it's a battle to the death you want? It's a good thing I am above such... concepts."
The Hound turned its head back towards the group as it whispered, "You all; go ahead." The Hound said. "I'll keep them off of you."
"All by yourself?" Zoey asked. "That's a little crazy if you ask me."
"I am the Hound," The black wolf affirms, "There is no being that can conquer me..."
"We will also hold them off!" Goro shouted as he swung his blade and created a wave of fire. "I'm going to entrust that, whatever you have planned, is going to work! So go! Make it happen!"
"Die," The Speaker softly says as they stick their hand out and a mass of orange tendrils come out. However, the Hound disappeared into a cloud of black smoke as he appeared behind the Speaker and pounced him to the ground. A beam of orange light appeared and launched the Hound off of him but the fight went on. The chants of the Glutton's followers were getting closer and closer.
"We gotta go, now!"
"Maybe we shoulda picked a route we wanted to go before we came in," Lynette said as she opened the map, but the horde of Corrupted had already arrived in the nexus. Know what? Screw it, Lynette rolled the map up as she grabbed onto Penny's arm and picked a tunnel. "Penny! We gotta go!" Lynette took off with Sharon and Kimberly followed. The mob of Corrupted was massive. It was possible thousands in pure strength... that was too many for them to take on. Meanwhile, the Hound was fighting the Glutton and utterly ignoring whatever they threw his way. Britney wished they could do that. The Hound was sent flying in their direction as Britney shouted, "Move!" As she took off to the side and landed on the ground. She saw Lynette and some of the others run off in one direction... and the first thing that came to mind was follow.
"Oh fuck," was all Rien could think to say as quickly forced herself into action and ran behind Lynette. Tuyen stood frozen with fear, eyes wide and shadow curling around her as the chants grew closer. It was Min who grabbed her and yanked her out of the way from the Hound that was sent flying, dragging his cousin behind Britney and the others.
Eventually, the group ended up in one of the tunnels far away from the chaos. They could hear the fight faintly... but they didn't hear the Corrupt approaching them. "Everyone stop!" Britney shouted. Bringing the group to a stop in one of the tunnels. "We need to figure out where we are, and where we're going... Lynette?"
"Yeah um," Lynette said as she pulled out the map and looked at it. "So we were here, then... I think we ran here past all this nonsense; so I strongly believe we are here."
"How reassuring," Sharon said as she crossed her arms.
"So, I think the best way we're going to find out where we are..." Lynette looked down the tunnel they just ran down, "... Other than going back down there, is to keep going until we find a landmark. That sound good, Penny?"
"Yeah, definitely a better plan than returning to face a horde of possessed townies," said Penny as she caught her breath. She cracked a pen between her hands and dropped it on the ground to serve as a marker for where they'd already been. The last thing she wanted to do was waste time being lost in tunnels. Penny grabbed a torch from the wall. "I'll take point. Follow me."
As Penny pushed forward to get in front of the group, Rita stared back down the way they had come. It had looked as if the entire town had come to prevent them from stopping the Glutton. She kept turning her head over her shoulder as the group marched further into the Glutton's den, expecting to see the familiar face of the coffee shop owner or Martin's mom, yet nothing came after them. Rita shuddered—sometimes, seeing nothing was worse. Penny didn't even bother with worrying about what was behind them. She moved with a briskness, slowly only when the group got to a branch in the tunnels to take a glance at Lynette's map before dropping another token and picking a direction with the decisiveness of someone who was familiar with the place. In all honesty, Penny had as good of an idea as anyone else where they actually were. She just knew they had to keep moving.
However, they felt something they haven't felt in ages. A feeling that was affixed to a horrible feeling of fear and terror... all because they knew what the hell it was. The tunnels were illuminated with orange light.
"Don't tell me..." Britney hissed.
"The fuck's going on?!" Zoey asked.
Rita let out a sound of something like a bike tire being deflated and was already rushing towards the front of the pact as the others were still turning their heads.
"It's here, we gotta..." Lynette tried to say as a ball of orange light appeared behind them. It was horrifying, and it reminded them of the first form that the Glutton took before it attacked them. The Glutton's form was of an enormous ball that nearly took up the entire tunnel... giving them one way to run. Lynette knew - it could easily kill them then and now. But... it's not. It wants to toy with them. "... Run." Lynette took off and the others followed behind her.
"Go, go!" urged Penny as she dropped herself to the back of the group to help any stragglers.
"This is getting really fucking old!" Rien gritted out as they forced themselves to run after the others, regretting having never taken fitness seriously before in their life. This was an awful lot of running going on and honestly if they'd only know... but that wasn't the point right now. "How do we even get out of this."
"Just shut up, and run," Caelea responded before anyone else could.
The Glutton's avatar went up into the ceiling... and nobody assumed it was gone. It quickly came from the ceiling and crashed down in front of the group... who was unfortunately Zoey. She came to a skidding stop as she screamed as she was engulfed in the orange light of the Glutton.
"No!" screamed Penny.
"Zoey!" Justin shouted as the Soul-Self deployed, but it was too late. The Soul-Self disappeared...
Lynette's first thought was to get them out of here. It was risky, but using a stick she drew the earth symbol on the ground and collapsed the ground they were standing on... oddly enough they fell into a white light that was strangely comforting.
Was she back in the Godforce? No. This place was different. She got up as she looked around it was just a room full of white light. She climbed up to her feet and wondered if she was dead. Maybe they failed and are just waiting for the inevitable. Shit, all Lynette wanted to do when she came to this town found out the secret of her Grandmother. Not any of this.
"Lynette... sweetie..." Lynette heard a voice from behind her. As Lynette got up to her feet she turned around and saw... her grandmother? The woman appeared as Lynette last remembered her; around sixty years old, wearing sunglasses as she was blind, and a shirt and sweatpants. "It's great to see you again." She said with a thick Haitian accent.
"Grandma?" Lynette said, "You're..."
"Dead? Yes..." Her grandmother said as she walked around, "Yeah, I'm aware of that."
"What is this place?"
"This is... well, I don't know how ta' explain it to ya'. Well, it's like... your head. 'Cept not your head."
"Okay, I'll figure it out later," Lynette dusted herself off. "Are you my grandmother?"
"Yes, an' no," Her grandmother said, "Ya' know about the Godforce right? I'm just the leftovers of your Grandmother's mind taking a form."
"I guess in a way are my grandmother," Lynette said.
"I gotta' ask why in the world did you come to Farmer Hill?" She asked.
"I..." Lynette trailed off, "Wanted to find out your secrets, I got your diary and everything!" Lynette said as she pulled out her grandmother's diary. "Who are the Witch Mothers?"
"Well, well, well," She said, "Why didn't ya' ask me while I was alive!? Hehehehe..."
"I found it years after you passed."
"If you wanna stop the Glutton you gotta close up this loose end," Her grandmother started, "The Child told you about other universes, right?"
"Yeah, but how do you know all of this?"
"Don't worry about it," She said, "I ain't from your universe; Shimmer. I was born Akuba... in the universe of Glint. Where I descended from their adepts... the Witch mother line was a line of Doctors and medics that lived outside the bounds of the League. I had good times... except where I failed to revive one of they princesses and they made it seem likeI was the one that did wrong."
"Wait, I'm descended from Glint?"
Her grandmother nodded, "That means you, Jaden, and Cierra could learn how to use the Lux... but, I doubt that'd happen at this point. What, with you Awakening? Hehehehehe..."
"This is... incredible," Lynette said.
"Now, you gotta get out of here," Her grandmother said, "Gather the others, and stop the Glutton - or there ain't going to be a future for my bloodline!"
Soon enough, the scene faded and Lynette was standing in a cave by herself. Well, shit. This was going to suck, but the first thing she did was pull out her map and picked a direction. If everyone was scattered; she needed to gather the posse before their next action.
"Justin,"
On Justin's end, he also heard a familiar voice as he was lying on the ground.
"Get up, boy,"
"Is that...?"
Justin said as his eyes opened and he saw the room of white light. Standing right above him was... no way.
"... Grandma?" Justin said in Chinese.
"In the flesh," His grandmother, Lihua Zhao, said. She was as he last remembered her; wearing robes all the time, wearing glasses, had her hair tied into a gray ponytail, tall as hell, and of course a glass of wine in her hand.
Justin slowly rose to his feet as he had no other words. He stared at his grandmother for a few moments before he broke down into tears as he ran to her and wrapped his arms around her into a hug. "I'm... so glad to see you! I failed you, grandmother! I should-"
"Boy, we don't have time for that," Lihua said, "You have to listen and listen to me carefully - I know it isn't your strong suit, but do it just this once." Lihua sat down... on nothing it seemed? She crossed her legs and gave him that stern look... it was the Lihua look, they all called it.
"I hate that the fate of all known reality is in the hands of... children, but it's how these things go. My daughters, Kaitlyn, my brother, and his children... our future is in your hands, Justin. Because I am counting on you to defeat the Glutton, for all of us. So I need you to focus... what is holding you back?"
"You." Justin said, "I want to know who killed you, grandmother. It kept me up for ages - it just pisses me off that nobody in this town."
Lihua merely sighed and closed her eyes...
"... Why does it matter, grandson?" Lihua opened her eyes. "All parties involved are dead. After all... It's not like you can bring a dead woman to justice."
"Wait, woman?" Justin asked, "I... had a suspicion it was John Reid since he was the one killing everyone in Farmer Hill."
Lihua laughed as she took a sip of her wine.
"Ah, Justin, you're still bullheaded as always," She said after she was done laughing, "If you knew the answer, then why did you ask?"
"I wanted to be certain, because I... never actually saw him kill you, or any evidence that he did."
Lihua grinned.
"... Ah, now you are thinking like a Zhao," Lihua trailed off, as she took a sip of her wine, "Truth is, John Reid was dedicated to protecting this town, as flawed of a man as he was. If only he was smarter; however, he could have prevented all of this... carnage. But, truth be told... this needed to happen."
Suddenly a Recollection began and Justin saw just what happened to his grandmother. He balled his fist... but he had to take this up with the last remaining Reid. Like immediately. The white light faded as Justin had to find the others, like right now. He remembered that they could telepathically communicate.
Penny, Britney, Lynette, Caelea, where are you?
I don't think anyone will be able to readily tell you that, Justin. Britney sent back a telepathic message. There's no way we can reunite efficiently; so just find your way to the Glutton.
We're all over the mountain, but I have an idea, Lynette sent out the message... and there was a crashing sound coming from deeper within the mountain. Everyone follows the sound, fast as you can.
“Hey sis, you’re not going to yell at me for being here are you?”
Penny hadn’t heard that voice in years. The white light gave way as Henry appeared, not a day older than the last time she’d seen him as he set off by himself to walk home.
“I don’t even know where here is, so I think you get a pass,” said Penny, a sad smile forming on her face. “I miss you so much. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything.”
“It’s okay, Penny, it’s okay. It’s not your fault,” said her little brother.
“No, you’re wrong,” said Penny. “It was my fault. Your...your death. If I didn’t push you away, you would still be here.”
She accepted it, and the Recollection that played out filled in the details that she’d been fearing since the old abandoned schoolhouse. It was chopped together like an old silent movie running on a broken reel. Henry looked down at the leaves and stared at the compass rose on his hand, and then the film jutted forward again and again. It was a slideshow of him moving through the woods towards the school, stutter after stutter, twenty feet forward at a time. Penny realized the Recollection wasn’t broken; Henry was constantly teleporting a short distance with each step. He had been Awakened before any of them.
Penny knew how it was going to end, but she refused to look away. She had to face the truth. Henry jumped throughout the woods, laughing with glee at his newfound powers. What kid wouldn’t mess around with such a gift? She was waiting for John Reid to appear, or some agent of the Glutton, or some other asshole in a cape, but nothing of the sorts ever appeared. It was just her brother’s gangly limbs and his girlish laughter as he zipped around the forest. Faster and faster he blinked, from rock to log to a limb up in a tree that snapped under his weight. His laugh turned into a scream as he blinked once again. His blink followed his downward momentum, and the Recollection abruptly ended as her brother teleported himself into the ground.
“It was instant. No murder, no cover-up, no conspiracy. It was an accident, Penny. You could never have prevented it,” said Henry, softly.
Penny closed her eyes in pain as they were stung by salty tears, “I could’ve…”
“No, Penny, you couldn’t. Some things are just out of your control. Occasionally an awful thing happens and there is nothing you can do about it. Everyone else accepted that. You should, too.”
“I know,” said Penny after a pause. “You’re right. God, I was such an intolerable asshole, too.”
“Well, you’re still an asshole,” said Henry with a smirk.
“Hey now,” muttered Penny.
“But you aren’t an intolerable asshole,” said Henry, holding up his hands in protest. “You get things done that others would give up on. More importantly, you’re working with the others to take care of the awful things that you can do something about. You know what to aim for and you hit it, even if it seems like an impossible shot.” Penny felt her sigil glow with a pleasant warmth. “I’m proud of the person you’ve become.”
“I...thank you. I’m trying my best. Really, I am,” said Penny.
“I wish I could say the same for Billy. He’s with them now,” said Henry.
“Shit,” sighed Penny, her heart sinking. She had feared as much. “Don’t worry. He’ll be free soon enough. So will the rest of the town. I’m not the only asshole here determined to take this thing down.”
“No, but you are the biggest one,” said Henry with a smirk.
“Oh fuck you,” said Penny, as the white light faded.
“Missy, you can’t sleep here.”
Rita stirred awake and protectively moved her hand in front of her face, her eyes momentarily blinded by the white light. The man in front of her grunted and lowered his flashlight, and Rita was able to adjust to the world around her. She was at an enclosed bus stop sitting on a bench slumped against her suitcase. The single dome light in the booth was busted, but the bright moon was enough to allow her to make out the person in front of her. He was a middle-aged man with a brown hat and a khaki uniform. A cop, undoubtedly. Her first night in town and she was already in trouble with the fuzz.
“No, I wasn’t,” Rita struggled to sit up. How long had she been out? “I was…”
Afraid to meet with her host family. Not wanting to be a hassle she had declined their offer to be picked up by them, insisting that she had a ride to their home. She would’ve been fine with walking except her phone had no service and she didn’t know where they lived, and the idea of talking to a local for directions was just too much. So she had fretted, and her fretting led to her sitting down, and her sitting down led to her nodding off, and now she was a dangerous criminal who violated curfew.
“I don’t recognize you,” said the cop, taking a seat on the bench. “Are you a new student to Grand Ridge?”
“Yeah, I am,” said Rita, surprised by his deductive skills before realizing that was all the town had to offer. “I start this fall.”
“It’s a good school, but it’s a little early for new students to be arriving. I think they don’t clear out the graduates for a few more weeks. You have a place to stay Miss, uh…”
“Rita,” she said. “And yeah, I do. I’m staying at the Cromwells?”
“Oh, Alice mentioned she was getting a newcomer. Shouldn’t they have picked you up?”
She sucked in her lip and lied. “I got the day of my arrival wrong, and then my phone died.”
The cop laughed, “So you planned to rough it out in the bus stop til morning?”
Rita shrugged as if to say pretty much.
“Yeah, our town’s pretty safe and quiet, but it ain’t that safe and quiet. C’mon, Miss Rita, I can give you a ride to the Cromwells.”
“Really? Oh, thanks,” she said. She joined the man in his police truck, thankful that she was riding shotgun instead of in the back. He fired up the engine and took off down the road, passing by homesteads at a breakneck speed. Rita swallowed and gripped the seat rest.
“So Grand Ridge, does that make you one of those genius types?” asked the cop, looking over at her instead of the road.
“Uh, no, not really,” said Rita, nervously glancing at the road in front of them.
“Nah I figured that when you let yourself fall asleep at the bus stop,” he said. “So why move out all the way here to go to some school?”
“They didn’t want me back home,” said Rita.
“They? They who?”
“My parents.”
“And why’s that?”
Not knowing why Rita began to tell the cop everything. About her mom wants her to move out, about her dad and his new family, about her friends and how they shunned her. She left out little details here and there, she wasn’t going to tell some old dude everything, but it was more than she anticipated letting out. Maybe she was just lonely from the bus ride. Maybe she was lonely from everything before the bus ride. To the cops credited, he didn’t interrupt. He just sat there and listened, nodding his head every once in a while.
“Well that sounds pretty rotten, but lemme ask you this: did you want to leave?” he said after her story was told.
“No, not really, but—”
“Well, then you should’ve said something. People don’t know what other people are thinking. They can’t read minds. If you want something from somebody, you gotta speak up. Like, for example, you didn’t ask me at once to slow down despite being more scared than a deer come the end of October.”
“Could you maybe a little?” she said meekly. He dropped the speedometer from eighty to seventy. An improvement, technically. “I guess I never said anything because I figured they wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Well, it still wouldn’t hurt to tell ‘em what you want. We’re here.” The cop braked and turned into a long, pebble driveway. A house came into view not before long. “Alice Cromwell’s. She’s a busy woman so I doubt she’s even home, but Martin should be around. He’s a, uh…” The cop squinted, picking his next words carefully, “He’s one of those brooding, artsy types. You’d probably like him.”
“Uh-huh,” said Rita. “Well, thank you for the ride.”
“It’s nothing,” said the cop. “Hey Rita, before you go, could I ask a favor of you?”
“I suppose that’s only fair.”
“My son’s going to that school of yours next semester. He’s...well, he’s a bit of a prick sometimes, but he’s a good kid. Still, he doesn’t have too many friends his age and I thought, well, since you’re new in town maybe you can just say hi to him when you see him.”
“Sure thing.”
“Hey now remember what I said, if you aren’t okay with it you gotta speak up and tell me.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m sure he’s a nice boy,” she glanced at his badge, “Sheriff Reese.”
Rita walked away from the police truck with a smile on her face. Well, so far Montana seemed more welcoming than Texas has ever been. She turned and waved at the Sheriff as he spun around in the driveway and drove off. Someone must’ve heard the engine from inside the house because as she turned back around the front door was open. White light poured through the doorway as Rita eagerly moved forward. Undoubtedly, she thought as she stepped into the white light, this would be the best year of her life.
Tuyen found herself in a place blindingly white, and alone.
No dark shadow clinging to her. She almost cried with relief on the spot, if only she weren't in such a strange place. Was this where people went when they died? She felt strangely comforted. It was nice to escape.
"Tuyen..."
A soft voice that she hadn't heard since she was young in a language that had barely been spoken around her at that time. "Dad?"
"That's me, kid." The man standing before him smiled, dark eyes crinkling as it lit up his dark golden face. He was just like she'd seen in photos and in vague memories that haunted her at night. Not much taller than her, with a soft face and stocky stature that was framed by baggy clothing. Thin glasses sat over laughing eyes and a lightly wrinkled nose.
"Dad," Tuyen choked out, rubbing the tears out of her eyes as she took faltering steps towards him. "Why are you here? Am I dead?"
"No, you're not dead," her father laughed, a joyful sound that brought a slight smile to her lips before a seriousness creased his brow. "I guess you could say that we're in your mind. That's the simplest way to put it."
"Oh," the word's framed Tuyen's lips as she shuffled awkwardly, millions of sentences crashing into her mind even as she couldn't bring herself to say any of them. And there was so much for her to say to the father she hadn't seen in so long. Where did she even start? "I... have you been well?"
"In a way," her father smiled, before swiftly continuing. "But now's not the time to catch up. There are more important things to talk about. Tell me, Tuyen, why do you continue to ignore any confidence you might have in yourself? Why do you keep letting their words get to you?"
"I, I don't know what you're talking about."
"I know you do and I know it's been hard for you since you've gone, with your Aunt and Uncle. But you need to stop letting people's opinions get to you like that. They don't change who you are or you're worth. You're you, my daughter, and you are more talented than you give yourself credit for."[/i]
"But I've done nothing to help, in this whole situation! All I have are voices in my head and a moving shadow that torments me," Tuyen gritted out the words even as she refused to meet her father's soft eyes. "Everyone else has done so much to help and I can't do anything but bring them down."
"Why do you think your shadow ignores your wishes and feeds you so much toxicity? What do you think is feeding that, Tuyen?"
She shrugged.
"Stop doubting yourself and making you'll find you have more control," her father sighed softly. "If you don't let it get to you, just like other people, you might find it starts to listen to you."
Tuyen blinked, head tilted in thought. She had never even considered it - she had always thought her shadow was right, not even thinking that everything it told her came from her so deeply rooted self-hatred. And that thought had caused her to hate herself more and it, too.
"Think about what I said," her father smiled, gentle expression filling Tuyen with a warmth she hadn't felt in so long even as he faded away along with the white light.
It was horrible bright, a glowing white light that only washed away Caelea even more.
She was standing in front of a large, wooden door with her breath caught in her chest and keys in shaking hands. Slowly, carefully, she put them in the lock and pushed the door open with a creak. She closed it behind her as quietly as possible and yanked her shoes off, lightly running towards the stairs. Almost safe.
"Caelea Baird, where have you been?" The sharp face of her mother, contorted with anger, appeared from the living room. Caelea flinched slightly before turning to fix the woman with a sullen glare.
"Nowhere."
"Don't lie to me!"
"I'm not," Caelea retorted, hands fisted in her shorts.
"Then where have you been in the five hours since school ended?"
Caelea shrugged one shoulder.
"Start talking, young lady, or you'll find yourself in a much worse situation," her mother seethed, taking a step forward with a finger raised angrily. Caelea took a step back, hands shaking slightly even as she didn't drop her fierce gaze.
"I was at a school club."
"For?"
"Running," she muttered under her breath.
"Excuse me?"
"Running."
The anger that flared in her mother's blue eyes was greater than when Caelea had said it was nothing. She should've lied, said anything, but no. She'd told the truth. How stupid of her. She knew how much her parents hated it - and it wasn't even doing the things she truly loved and wanted to do.
"What did your father and I tell you about that?"
"Not to do it."
"Exactly," her mother took another, angry step towards her. "You are not to waste your time on such an idiotic hobby! No, you are to spend your free time studying as any good student would."
"But I don't like studying," Caelea snapped, breath catching as her mother raised a hand. "I hate it!"
She ducked, ready to run or protect herself when a door upstairs swung open and heavy footsteps thudded towards them.
"Caelea! You're home, perfect, we need to discuss something," her brother was all bright smiles even at the (far too normal) scene he saw in front of him. "Mother, can I borrow her? I promised to help her with her homework."
"Of course, dear," her mother smiled, changing just like that and stepping back. "Go ahead."
Caelea blinked, her grabbing her arm and dragging her upstairs. It was slightly rough, but it didn't bother. He'd saved her again, just like always seemed to. She just wished she had any power to fight against her parents. But she didn't get a chance to think about that much as her brother dragged her into a doorway of shining white light.
Caelea jerked back into consciousness as the white light faded, hand grasping through pale hair. That was intense and not something she wanted to relive again. Just as she began to gain some semblance of calmness when her mind spun with messages from Justin, Britney, and Lynette.
The crashing immediately afterward was jarring but easy to follow.
Lynette didn't know what it was about this mountain, but it made her stronger. It gave her the ability to materialize glyphs out of thin air which she did... she created a massive earth glyph that she used to lift a piece of stone out of the mountain and cause it to crash into the ground. The glyph disappeared when she did this, but then she decided to do it again and again. Making a lot of noise... which she didn't like doing, but it wasn't like she had any better ideas to reunite the group. Eventually, the first person to join her was Sharon Reid, who ran up.
Caelea appeared shortly after Sharon, able to control the air with much more finesse than she'd ever been able to before - something that meant she reached Lynette quickly. "So, everyone else fell into that strange white light, yeah? Any idea what that was?"
"Until I appeared somewhere else, I thought it was a panic-induce hallucination," said Rita, strangely calm for a girl that was always nervous, as she emerged from a tunnel. Penny was beside her.
"Maybe it was one of the things the Hound warned us of," said Penny. She looked at Lynette as yet another rock crashed against the ground. She smirked. "Careful, girl, you might bring the whole mountain down."
"Or give us all a headache," Tuyen muttered as she appeared, giving Rita a slight smile and wave. She felt... more rested than she had in a long time.
"It was pretty weird, is all I got out of it," Caelea shrugged as if her entire life hadn't been strung out in front of her. "I do remember the hound talking about something to do with memories or some shit, so it could be that."
"It wasn't memories that I saw..." Lynette added softly. "I saw the... "ghost", I should call it? Of my grandmother. Not that it's really important."
"The Child may have teleported us to safety..." Britney said, "The Mountain is a strange place, even for us."
"I saw a ghost too, sorta," Tuyen added with a light shrug. "I can agree with it being a strange place."
After a bit of chatting, Justin Liao finally ran up and he scanned the group for his target... Sharon Reid. He ran up to her, shouting, "Sharon!"
"What?" She asked.
"You got some explaining to do!" Justin said as he walked up.
"What are you talking about?" Sharon asked.
"What am I talking about? You've been lying to us about John Reid, the guardian bullshit."
"Hello, do we really have time for this?" Lynette asked. "Let's just wait until..."
Then that's when they heard the chanting coming down the tunnel, it was pretty obvious that the Hound wasn't able to hold all the Corrupted off.
"Shit." Justin said as he turned to Sharon as he said, "Let's settle this later."
The group broke off into a sprint as the chanting and horde of footsteps got louder and louder. It wasn't long until they hit one of the "landmarks" that Lynette was looking for. It was a massive chasm in the middle of the mountain with only a dangling rope bridge across. The rope bridge was old... and falling apart. However, Justin was the first one to run across it.
"One at a time!" Justin said. "This thing can't take all of our weight."
"Lynette..." Sharon said as they waited for their turn amidst the chaos, "I... I am so sorry."
"For what, Sharon?" Lynette said, "Look, none of this is your fault."
"It is... I... I am the one that killed John Reid," Sharon said. "That bastard killed my mom..."
"It's. Not. Your. Fault." Lynette said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I wish I could agree with you, but it feels like it is my fault," Sharon Reid said, shaking her head. "I wish I could change things... if I didn't kill John Reid, the Glutton wouldn't be acting on this. I killed him and look at this carnage! Farmer Hill is destroyed, and... so many people are dead."
Penny looked back at the two girls remaining on the other side of the bridge. What were they doing? She shouted across the chasm, "It's your turn, Lynette!"
"We're going to fix it, Sharon," Lynette said.
"We are..." Sharon trailed off. "I'm going to do it and you're going to help me..."
"Huh?" Lynette asked, but she didn't see the icy blade forming in Sharon's hand.
Penny did. A shout erupted from her throat as she stepped on to the rickety bridge, her fingers fumbling for anything in her pockets to use as ammo.
"Again..."
Sharon quickly swung the blade directly through Lynette's throat and droplets of her blood went in every single direction. Penny screamed as she launched a barrage of change at Sharon and started to run across the bridge. However, in the middle of Sharon's pivot, she put her other hand out and a beam of ice came out of her hand. It created an icy wall that separated herself from the group. Penny's coins embedded themselves harmlessly into the wall, and she soon slammed her body against the ice wall over and over to little effect. Lynette grabbed her throat as she took a few steps back, she put her hand out as Sharon rammed the blade into Lynette's gut and quickly brought it down and spilled her innards all over the floor which Lynette desperately tried to hold in as Penny shrieked from the other side of the wall. Sharon tackled Lynette as she violently stabbed her over and over again until Lynette stopped fighting and her head fell forward and her mouth was wide open... and her sigil started glowing through her clothes. Right between her breasts, that's where Sharon put her hand. Then the sigil disappeared completely.
Sharon closed Lynette's eyes as she whispered, "I'm sorry. I'm going to make this right, for everyone." She got up as she took off in the direction of a different tunnel.
Penny collapsed as tears streamed down her face and a horrible rasp escaped from her throat. Why? It had hurt Penny when the Glutton had taken Zoey, but at least she had been prepared to lose some people to their enemy. To see one of their turns and kill her friend destroyed her. She sobbed. She knew the others needed her to be strong, but she couldn't look away from Lynette. She pressed her hands against the ice and began to repulse the embedded coins around inside of it. As tiny shards were formed, she began to move those shards. Eventually, the barrier gave way and crumbled. Penny crawled through, looking at the mutilated corpse of her friend. She grabbed her friend's hand and tried to suck in the air to breathe. Lynette was already dead. Her sigil was gone, too. Penny recalled Sharon suggesting that they just destroy the mountain, but the Hound had warned against it. Could she be that stupid? Penny turned back to the group on the other side of the bridge and shook her head.
"Justin, keep going!" she shouted, her voice strained and steaming with sadness and anger. "I'll catch up, just keep going!"
"Penny..." Justin trailed off, he could understand what she was going through. He felt a similar emotion when Claire was killed - however, this was different. Sharon turned against the group - he didn't expect it, but it sure as hell did not surprise him. He had a feeling about what Penny was going to do, and while he didn't want anyone flying solo, he knew that this was a fight that only Penny could fight. Justin shook his head as he turned off. "Penny, whatever you do; just make sure you come back in one piece."
Penny held Lynette's hand for a moment longer and then rested it on her chest. She stood, wiped her face, and followed down the tunnel after Sharon, her hands trembling.
[Later]
Sharon ran deep in the mountain, far away from the group until she found her spot for her plan.
This was insane. I can't believe that I did that to Lynette... but, it was only a matter of time until they turned against me.
Sharon thought to herself as she created a massive spear made out of ice. Using the blade she began drawing a massive glyph in the ground... one that was the earth glyph. It was in her plan to draw a massive glyph on the ground and destroy the mountain. This plan of theirs... it was bound to get them killed as it was playing into the Glutton's game. Look what happened to that Zoey girl! The Glutton was going to take them out one at a time... she drew a long long line with her spear. However, if they just destroyed the mountain with the Glutton with it; then the world is saved. Lord knows she tried to do this... the easy way, but truth be told. This was how things were supposed to go. She didn't know how things were going to go from here, however.
Soon enough the glyph was complete. It was big enough to engulf the entire room and she could feel the power it gave off - it was powerful enough to destroy the mountain and change everything. She smiled at a job well done... she was going to fix things for everyone involved...
... However, she heard footsteps approaching.
"I can't believe you," said Penny through gritted teeth, her backpack in hand.
Penny didn't let her finish as she targeted Sharon with her enhanced abstraction. Her backpack shredded itself to pieces like pens, coins, paperclips, broken glass, rocks, and zippers repulsed away from Penny and homed in on Sharon, the makeshift bullets turning the girl's winter coat into swiss cheese. Penny shuddered as she stepped forward to deliver the coup de grace onto the fallen Sharon. However, the ground started shaking as the glyph started glowing - Sharon had activated the glyph and was intent on destroying the mountain. Rocks fell from the ceiling above as side of the mountain began sliding off, making an enormous rockslide that began to destroy the woods and the abandoned Farmer Hill.
"... You're too late. I'm sorry, but I've gone too far... too far to stop here..." And those were Sharon's last words.
"I'm so sick of that fucking excuse," growled Penny, as she repulsed the junk in Sharon's stomach up towards her brain. She reached down and placed her hand over Lynette's sigil, absorbing the abstraction for herself.
And then, the rock fell.
Justin was worried about Penny... he shouldn't have let her go off alone. On the other hand, however, Penny is probably one of their most capable members. He knew she was going to be able to avenge Lynette... and if she fails; then Sharon will have hell to pay when Justin gets his hands on her. The group kept going and going and going... until the ground started shaking. Violently. It was almost like they were in the middle of an Earthquake, knowing how weird shit had gotten the last few days that's a real possibility. Justin almost immediately fell over - but the Soul Self materialized and picked him back up. He looked around as he asked,
"What the hell is going on?!" Justin shouted.
"What the fuck," Caelea swore as she blasted around herself to keep afloat. Tuyen's shadow came to life to catch her, quickly flitting back out of life when it wasn't needed.
What they didn't take into account was the fact that these caverns were old... older than all of them put together times two. They haven't been traveled or maintained in ages - which is why when Sharon enacted her plan to destroy the mountain - well, she began to destroy the mountain. The cave above them began collapsing in at a terrifying rate - massive rocks began to fall from the ceiling above them, as the tunnel was collapsing from behind them. Rocks were falling from the sky. However, Britney turned on her heel as she put her hands out and she instantly created a forest out of plantlife that quickly went into the cracks. Wooden vines filled the cracks, and thick vines held the rocks. This was a toll-like no other on Britney. She fell onto her knee as she felt incredibly weak.
"Kimberly!" Britney shouted, her voice getting hoarse as her skin was covered in wrinkles. Her hair was immediately turning gray from her power overexerting itself, "Give Jordan's abstraction!"
"But-" Kimberly tried to object.
"Just do it!" Britney said, and Kimberly obliged. She put a hand on Britney's shoulder and transferred Jordan's abstraction to her. The sigil of an hourglass went from Kimberly back to Britney's back. Britney was increasingly strained as she tried her hardest to beat the tide.
Then she smiled.
"Good, now get out of here," Britney said, "I'll... see you guys later. I promise." She spoke softly.
"Britney..." Justin trailed off, realizing what Britney was trying to do. He sighed as he had no choice but to turn and run.
When the group left Britney finally broke down into tears as she was barely conscious anymore. It was only sheer willpower she was awake. Sheer willpower that she was even still alive - but, this was truly her... punishment. No, it was her redemption. Or was it something else? Part of her felt like she deserved it all. After lying to the group, getting Claire and many others killed due to her careless actions. She set Amethyst on the group and got the mayor killed. She... did so much wrong. She did kill Pierre, she was cunning and manipulative towards people who had her best interests in heart. Britney kept telling herself over and over, and over again that she was just... trying to do the right thing.
The cracks got bigger as she was unable to hold it back any longer.
Truth be told, it kept getting harder and harder to justify that. Even as she killed and lied and stole just to protect Shimmer from Amethyst, the League, and the Glutton; she realized that it was all pointless. She realized, all too late, that the ends could never justify the means. Mainly because the ends are shaped and defined by the means. If she means involved death... then how fitting that it ends with her death. Truth be told; she realized that she was just another hypocrite like Amethyst. Just one that managed to last a little longer in this blood bath. The reason why she demanded Jordan's abstraction was that; it was fueled by Jordan's guilt. Her guilt in her hand in her cousin's death.
And truth be told if anybody had something to be guilty about...
A pulse of white light came out of Britney and reality came to a stop. The rocks overhead were frozen in time - as the group probably were given more than enough time to get the hell away from the tunnel and to safety. Britney sighed as she fell onto her back - taking incredibly deep breaths as everything was going dark.
... It'd be Britney
When the time came back in, the plants that Britney was manipulating held the rocks off for long as they could. Eventually, they gave up... all the rocks came down on Britney as everything went dark.
Before it hit, she sent out one final message to the group;
Thank you.
At least she wasn't conscious to see it hit.
The rock was suspended in the air. Well, not quite. It was more like the rock that threatened to turn Penny into a pancake was stuck in the middle of a tug of war between gravity desperately trying to kill the poor girl and Penny attempting her hardest to make Newton roll over in his grave. She felt her vision swim as repulsing the large boulder upwards strained every part of her body, and she could taste the blood draining down the back of her throat. Penny stepped backward and the boulder rotated opposite of her, slamming down as her abstraction failed and burying Sharon's body in a rocky tomb. A smaller rock slammed into Penny's shoulder as she whipped her neck up in time to blast the next barrage away. Rocks closed up the exit behind her. Shit. Even if she managed to avoid getting crushed by an ever goddamn rock in this mountain, she'd still end up buried alive by the end of the destruction. She had to reverse Sharon's glyphs.
Easier said than done. She didn't have anything to draw with for starters. Penny's hand fished around inside of her jacket, searching desperately for some kind of pen and coming out with only a coin. She scratched the edge against the boulder in front of her; it left a thin white line. Good enough, she supposed. There was another rumble, and another wave of rocks came crashing down around her. Next, she needed to learn how to draw a glyph, which was...not possible. She had seen Lynette draw them before, but she had never really paid any attention to the symbols or their meanings. For all she knew, if she recreated one from her memory it could be a fire glyph and she'd burn herself alive—and, in return, seal everyone else inside of the crumbling mountain. Penny swore silently, and then she centered herself. Her memories wouldn't have the answer, but Lynette's would.
She placed her hand against the boulder and it started moving as if on its own, drawing intricate patterns that Penny had never even seen in her life. She didn't try to think about anything, letting Lynette's muscle memory work itself through her hand as it carved the glyph. One wrong line, one rock pulling her out of her trance, and it would be over. Memories that weren't her own flooded her head as she drew. A New York City skyline she had only seen in movies. Unfamiliar faces that filled her soul with a strange warmth. Some strange journal and something about Witch Mothers. Penny's hand stopped and she was back in control, her memories writing over the memories of her friend as she established dominance inside of her psyche. Before she was a completed glyph. There was no time to doubt the multiple recollections she had seen. With a thought, she activated the glyph. It glowed with dark light and then vanished as a rock fell behind her. A failure?
No. The mountain stopped shaking. Penny collapsed against the boulder, pushing her hair back as she laughed in disbelief. The glyph had worked as the rocks once again hardened in place. She had done it. She looked around. It was dark; the torches had all been knocked out by the chaos. She pulled out her lighter and sparked it up. An eerie orange light—she held her breath, before realizing she was the origin—filled the cavern. The glyph had worked too well. The rocks sealing the entrance had morphed into one and become yet another part of the walls of the mountain. She had no clue which way to go, but she at least now knew how to make it there. In the faint light of her death, she scratched a glyph into one of the cavern walls. This was going to take some time.
Soon enough the shaking stopped for whatever reason. However, the mountain was already horribly damaged but one end of the mountain stuck out. There were massive cracks on one side of the mountain and soon enough the shaking began again. An enormous avalanche of rocks fell down the side and further ravaged Farmer Hill... except there was a bright flash of white light followed by an orange one. Massive orange tentacles came out of the side of the mountain that were so long they breached the sky. The few people coming to investigate Farmer Hill came in and bowed to the tentacles.
The group continued running even after the tunnels stopped collapsing... they were met by a flash of white light as the Child appeared. "This... this isn't good."
"Thanks for the support," muttered Rita.
"Hell no it isn't," Justin said, "We just lost Britney."
"It's worse than that..." The Child said, looking down. "Shannon Reid just destroyed the first and second seal."
"What!?" Kimberly shouted.
"I know we should have took her out while we had the chance!" Justin punched the wall.
"So... what do we do now."
The Child was quiet.
"... We must prepare for the inevitable release of the Glutton," The Child said, "We can still defeat him, we have one chance."
Down and down and down went Penny, her glyph-created tunnel fissuring through the mountain at a comfortable pace. The forever-burning glyph was the only light she had now, the fuel from her lighter gone. It was so dim she couldn’t see her hands, just the small beacon in front of her moving further and further away. It felt like she had been descending forever, yet she never reached the glyph. It was the light at the end of a never-ending tunnel. Perhaps she was dead. Maybe she’d been sealed in a place with no airflow. That’d be the way to go. Live through a handful of counters with the most horrifying thing in the world only to die because she was completely unaware that she’d been suffocating. Lynette forced the thought out of her mind.
Wait, what?
Penny shook her head and forced the thought out of her mind. Her name was Penny Lawson, she was twenty years old, born and raised in New York City, and no, that was right. Penny started again. Her name was Penny, she was twenty, she lived in Farmer Hill, and she had sisters who—no, no, no—she had two brothers. Henry was dead. Billy was lost. Corrupted. Dead? Lynette was dead. She was Lynette. So she was dead? She didn’t remember dying, but she could remember being Lynette. She could remember being Penny, too. Which one was she supposed to be again?
“Just focus,” she said to herself, or maybe it was to her other-self. She was losing air, or the mountain was playing tricks on her or absorbing another abstraction was breaking her. She didn’t know. She just had to keep following the white lights. Lights? There had only been one, now there were two, three, ten. A lack of oxygen creating illusions. She was Henry, running through the woods. Dead. She was Lynette, destroying the school bathroom. Dead. She was Claire, arguing with herself in the conference room. Dead. She was Amethyst, watching from the shadows. Dead. She was Billy, lost, confused, losing her mind, but not dead. She wasn’t dead. Her brother wasn’t dead. The others weren’t dead. The Glutton wasn’t dead. She focused on that last one. Her name was Penny, she was going to kill the Glutton.
Repeat forever.
The light grew larger. She moved towards it. Would she see the Hound?
Rita drew back with a start as the rock wall near them shook and gave way to the dark tunnel behind it. Out of it stumbled a ghastly looking girl covered in dust and drying blood, her blonde hair and face wet with sweat. In her hand was a single copper penny, her fingers running endlessly over the ridges as she muttered to herself. A look of shock appeared on her face as she stared down the group, and then she squinted as if she were deep in thought.
“Penny? Are you okay?” asked Rita.
Penny didn’t respond for a second, and then a look of recognition appeared on her face. Her friends were still alive. She smiled. “Of course I am. Don’t I look okay?”
“You look like shit,” said Rita, unable to hold the words in.
"Penny, what happened...?" Justin was the first person to ask given what happened to Penny when she ran off. He... had a suspicion what Penny just did. Given that Penny was here and beaten up and Sharon wasn't. Just, well, he found it hard to blame her.
"That's what I want to know," said Penny, looking down at Justin's shoes instead of his face. She didn't want to point fingers, she didn't want to try and blame anybody, but he'd been the last person to talk to Sharon before she snapped and killed Lynette. She sucked in her lip and hesitantly asked, "What did you say to Sharon back there?"
"All that stuff about John Reid, it was bullshit!" Justin said as he crossed his arms and shook his head. "John Reid wasn't the one going after everyone it was..."
That was when the Recollection started.
The life of Lihua Zhao wasn't a particularly complicated one.
After she resigned from taking care of her daughters she decided to live her life on her terms. Which meant moving out to the middle of nowhere and sitting her ass down on the couch. Usually passing out asleep or watching television. Or passing out asleep while watching television. The elderly Zhao threw her head back as she tossed her pills into her mouth and quickly took a glass of water. Justin wasn't there so she neglected to close up her robe and she frowned. Her body was not what it used to be. She closed up her robe as she walked from one end of her house to the kitchen. She figured that she would surprise Justin tonight with her famous cooking - deciding to take a break from making him cook on her own. Though she made it to her kitchen she got out her cutting board and grabbed the piece of chicken that she left out to thaw and began cutting away at it.
Soon enough the sounds of her cutting filled the room... though she heard a sound from behind her that made her stop immediately. The old woman reacted with surprising speed and turned around and stuck her hand out as she did so. All she saw was a person behind her and in her rather narrow-minded quest to protect herself she glossed over the details. Suddenly hands came out of the stone tile and grabbed onto her assailant's legs, holding them in place. See, the Zhao elder held onto a dangerous secret. She was an Awakened... and that was why she asked her daughter Meifeng for a place to stay that time while she got the floor replaced with stone tile.
"Ah, nice try... but I'm no beginner," Lihua laughed as she looked at the intruder. The stone hands crept more and more up her figure as they constricted her... eventually, they clamp down and broke her legs as the woman let out a sharp shriek. "I figured you're the one going around killing people... I figured it'd be you of all people...."
Lihua looked at the person... it was a person she knew. Red hair, freckles, a manic look in her eyes and a knife in her hands. She looked down at her broken legs as their stone hands were the only thing holding her up. At the same time, they were clasping down on her and crushing her. One hand came out the ground and held onto the hand with the knife and crushed it.
"You've been outsmarted..." Lihua laughed. "... Amy Reid."
Amy had gotten sloppy... she thought that Lihua would be easy since she was older. However, she hadn't lost a step. She was in incredible amounts of pain at the moment and couldn't even spit out a word. She was certain she would have gone into shock if it wasn't for one of the abstractions that she had. However, there was one misstep that Lihua made...the knife that she was just using to cut the chicken began to float behind her without notice. The sharp end began to turn towards Lihua and shot directly into her back as the woman let out a shriek.
The hands released Amy as her wounds near-instantly healed with white light and she lunged for the Zhao. She stabbed her directly in between the ribs before she stabbed her again and again and again. Amy licked the blood off the knife as she kicked Lihua's lifeless body directly in the face.
"Now who's been outsmarted?" Amy noticed the sigil of hands on her thigh and put her hand there and soon enough it was gone. "Bitch."
Amy got up, flicked the blood off her knife and walked off.
The Recollection faded and Justin couldn't contain his rage. He punched the nearest cave wall and flames sparked off of it. "Amy Reid, the bitch in the Recollections, was the one that was killing everyone! Not John Reid, I don't even know why the fuck she even told us that!" He kicked a stray rock on the ground.
"Justin..." Kimberly muttered before she shook her head. She lost so many friends in such a short period. "Was that really the right thing to say to Sharon?"
"It's her fault for keeping secrets like that," said Rita, biting her thumb. She should've probed more when she had the chance, instead of being so scared that the others would find out about her abstraction.
"Fuck Sharon," said Penny, a dark look crossing her face before she turned towards the others. It was that old look of disgust, the one that had been fading away after so many years. How quickly she could pull it back from the depths. She caught the lifted eyebrows that Rita gave her and quickly softened her expression, wiping it and some of the drying blood on her face away with her sleeve. She glanced at Justin, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm not blaming you for what she did."
"It's..." Justin sighed. "... Alright." He shook his head.
"We should keep moving..." Kimberly said as she pulled out a map of her own. Thank God that Lynette also gave her a copy of the map - or else they'd be mega screwed right now.
"Um, before we go..." Justin pulled out a cigarette and lit it with his abstraction. "Penny, I should tell you that Britney... she didn't make it."
The change was subtle, but it was there. A droop of the shoulder, a clench of a fist, a twitch of the lip. First Lynette, now Britney. It was a difficult thing for Penny to even comprehend, losing people so close to her like that. With Lynette, the pain had been more straightforward, a knife in the gut that twisted and twisted. Lynette was her friend, her confidant, somebody she could trust to have her back even if they disagreed. Losing someone like that was like losing a limb. With Britney, it was more complicated. Penny didn't even know what they were at the end, be it friends or rivals, but their strained relationship ran deep through her core. There had been times when she had wished the girl was dead, but she couldn't even imagine a world without her being there as some kind of presence. She was an inspiration and a warning sign, a weird mentor figure, a mortal enemy, and the closest thing Penny ever had to a best friend. She felt something rip inside of her and closed her eyes.
"She'd want us to keep going," said Penny, finally, matter-of-factly, stone-faced and hushed. "I'll watch the rear."
She waited until the others had their backs to her, and only then did her resolve break.
The group went deeper and deeper into the mountain. Getting barraged by the nonstop barrage of memories from people they know and love, and of the deceased. There were white orbs of lights floating in the air and honestly they found that... comforting. They felt peaceful. As this was a place the Glutton couldn't pierce, as it was the point where all reality intersects. Eventually, they made it; they kept walking until they reached a cliff that overlooked a massive crater... with nothing but a blinding light in the middle of it. It was like a pool of sorts.
"Oh, you're here," The Child said as they appeared in a bright flash of light. "I'm sorry for the losses you've taken so far, but we cannot give up. We have to be quick... this is the Nexus-Point; the final step to Ascension."
The Child walked to the cliff as they looked down.
"I must tell you what you must do... it's simple; you must fall into the light," The Child said, "And when you do if your minds can handle it; you'll have the power to seal the Glutton back... possibly forever."
The Child smiled.
"Don't worry," They stuck out their hand, "I'll be there, holding your hand the whole time."
One by one the group grabbed hands as they faced the massive pool of white light. With a nod of their head, they all took a dive into the Nexus and entered into the Godforce... they disappeared completely. For a great period, which left their fates unknown. However, moments later a massive orb of white light came out of the pool and slowly hovered over to the cliff they were just standing on. Eventually, it faded away as the group was revealed to be alive. They were... different.
Justin looked at his hands and realized that his veins were glowing with white light - he felt stronger than ever before. Out of sheer willpower, Justin created a ball of white light in his hand and looked at it.
"You all... have ascended," The Child says. "You did it... I can't fathom how powerful you all are now. You might be, combined, stronger than I. However, we don't have time... you need to go face the Glutton. Go... my power wanes." The Child's physical body faded in and out...
The group followed the route made by Kimberly. Eventually, as they moved through the tunnels they saw an orange light... and they kept getting closer and closer until they were there. The massive room in which the Glutton was sealed behind. Just like in John Reid's recollection, the glutton was a massive ball of orange light sealed behind a massive glowing barrier made out of light. However, the barrier was cracked... and the Glutton's black tendrils can be seen wiggling out of it. However, they had the power of Ascension, which meant they could repair the barrier and seal the Glutton back.
However, when they entered the room; they heard a clapping above them. It was the Speaker, standing on a tendril and being lowered down, "I'm amazed," The Speaker said, "You all made it. The Hound couldn't keep me occupied for long... I was hoping you all would listen... just this once."
"Fuck off, we've come to stop you and the Glutton."
"Glutton... I hate that name, so insulting to my master," The Speaker said as they put their fingertips together, "A more accurate name would be... God."
Justin raised an eyebrow as the Soul-Self attacked... only for the barrier of embers and orange light to appear and block it.
"Ages ago, far before there was even creation; there was a being, God, who had the gift of no other. The gift of life. All existence was inside of her and together we danced, peacefully. No sin, no misery, no suffering, only true peace. However, other beings out there were jealous of God... so they ripped the gift of life out of her womb and created perversions of her creations. Molding all intelligent life after them and harvesting the gift of emotion from them. However, now they are hiding behind their perversions seeing that God wants back what is hers. Ah, I remember when my eyes were opened..."
The Speaker laughed as their hand was covered with a ball of orange light and embers as they forced the group into another illusion mimicking the recollections they've been seeing for ages. The scene burned away into embers... as another scene faded in. There was sand on the floor and there was an alley formed out of one building constructed out of a sand-colored stone. Soon enough a child came running with something in their hand as men with spears came running by.
"My world... its name isn't important, was simply a hive of sin and tyranny. It was so long ago... that I don't even remember my name."
If the group looked closely; that running child looked exactly like the Speaker. They tripped over a rock and what fell out of their hand was simply an apple, but the men caught up and beat the mere child with the other end of their spears and stomped on the child. Eventually, one came up with a dog and let the thing loose. The brutish creature ran up and mauled the young Speaker's arm as the men laughed.
"That'll teach you to steal from us, slave!"
Eventually, they grabbed the dog by the collar and gave the young speaker one last kick to the ribs. As the Speaker spit out blood, they tried to climb to their feet. They grabbed their arm as they walked down the alleyway back into the bustling street. All they could see were whores, thieves, tyrants... and they were a mere slave. Eventually, the Speaker made it back to a building and stepped inside the door - it formed a classical church.
"In my world, there was a powerful theocracy that was originally a benevolent one, but as time went on they let sin taint their souls and they let themselves become... perverted. Eventually, they did whatever they felt like and simply justified it with their religion. After all, they worshipped a deity of whoring and degeneracy."
Eventually, the Speaker dragged their feet to the middle of the aisle and dropped to their knees; they put their hands together and closed their eyes.
"Every day, I prayed for change. I prayed for a day I wouldn't be abused and raped by those tyrants... then she came."
The scene changed as the young Speaker walked through the streets that were lined with hundreds of dead. The streets were flowing with blood as the sky was red... and there was an orange ball of light in the middle of it that seemed to mask a blackness within it. The Speaker found it strangely enticing, they walked down the streets until they found themselves outside of the town. They stood on a cliff and stared at the Glutton...
The Speaker narrated.
"When I made it there, I screamed..."
"Why are you doing this to us!?"
The tendrils of the Glutton slowly descended from the sky and wrapped itself around the young Speaker. They were lifted into the air until they were engulfed into the being. "When I entered the light... my eyes were opened like never before. I realized this being was slaughtering us because of our sinful ways, that with every death we were being redeemed. That this being... was the God I so passionately prayed to for justice every night. Since then, I dedicated my life to serving her, and converting others to her ways..."
The illusion faded and they were back in the mountain...
"Since you all are so keen on this broken path... well..." The Speaker said as they stuck their hand out, "You will be redeemed..."
Out of their hand came a barrage of orange tentacles that forced the group to scatter. Taking cover behind the rocks, but Justin had a plan.
"I'll keep him busy! Fix the barrier!" Justin shouted.
"Let's go!" yelled Penny as she led the charge towards the barrier. Thanks to Justin running interference she made to the barrier unscathed, her hands glowing white with Godforce as she directed her will towards one of the seals. The power of Ascension took over from there, filling the cracks with light and mending the only thing keeping the Glutton locked away. She glared at the incomprehensible mass of orange light and black tendrils as it thrashed around inside of its prison. It wasn't a God. It wasn't even a monster. It was just a rabid animal, desperate to break free and rampage. A black tendril whipped through one of the cracks and stabbed out at Penny, she reflexively held her hand up. A Godforce-infused glyph appeared at her fingertips and repulsed a spear of white light into the tendril, pinning it against the barrier.
Rita stepped in beside Penny and nodded at her. The quiet girl didn't have a doubt in her mind what she needed to do as she lifted her hands and began channeling white light into the seal. With Rita taking over for her Penny was now freed up to assist the others. She moved with fluidity around the barrier as her eyes pathed the movement of the Glutton's tendrils, bolts of pure Godforce blasting out from glyphs to either knock away or pin down the tendrils. She saw Hagan. Claire. Zoey. She wouldn't let the Glutton lay one inch of its oily tendrils on any of her friends. Penny was a hurricane of white light and magical glyphs. With Justin taking on the Speaker and her locking down the Glutton's only defenses, the others were free to mend the barrier.
Tuyen found herself reaching another seal, taking a deep breath as her shadow erupted into life behind her and she lifted her hands to the seal. They glowed with a bright white light that aided in the reparation Rita was already doing, dancing from her fingers and giving strength to the failing barrier. She let her mind lose all its doubt, forced away from the negative thoughts that had been there, and let it all flow through into the barrier. Her shadow completely covered her, easily destroying any tendrils that came towards Tuyen.
Rien joined Tuyen in channeling energy into one of the seals, Caelea close behind. Even as she found her spot to help fix the barrier she kept an eye out for any stray tendrils that Penny missed, glyphs and wind flickering around her.
Justin floated in midair to the same level as the Speaker, as his Soul-Self floated behind him, however, the being stuck out their hand and a mass of tendrils came from the ground and trapped Justin in a cage.
"This won't hold me!" Justin shouted as he stuck both of his hands and fire came out.
However, the ground started shaking as a huge chunk of rock floated out of the ground, surrounded by orange light and embers. It flew directly at Penny as the Speaker stared on blankly. "When will you learn." Afterward, the Speaker followed with a barrage of tendrils coming out of their palm. Penny repulsed the giant rock out of harm's way like it was nothing, but it left her without time to dodge the tendrils. She held out her hand to attempt to blow them back, but instead, the tendrils just stopped a few feet in front of her hand. Her enhanced abstraction began to pull the Speaker towards her—an attraction instead of a repulsion. Penny smirked as she telekinetically attempted to drag the Speaker within her five-foot range, an array of white glyphs materializing around her body.
Penny got what she wanted when the Speaker faded away in a mass of orange sparks and embers and reappeared next to better. They made a knife-hand and swiped directly at Penny.
"Watch out!" Caelea shot out from her spot, easily propelling herself with a blast of air and another blast of Godforce to block the knife hand (even as she realized Penny could probably handle it herself). The Speaker smirked as he was stopped. Another tendril came out of their body and looped around Penny and went straight for Caelea. While another tendril split off of that one and tried to flank for Tuyen.
Caelea cursed under her breath as she had to suddenly change the direction she was traveling in, shifting the air around her to flip up and over the tendril that was aiming straight for her. As she did she pushed out her hands to shoot a bolt of Godforce at it to pin it to the ground below her. With Caelea away from the blast zone, Penny was free to activate her glyphs. The ground around her rippled as the mountain floor jabbed up like a thousand swords in an attempt to eviscerate the nearby Speaker before they could teleport away. And each spear and spike impaled the Speaker and cut clean holes through their body... which strangely fell apart as if it was made out of stone. Each part that fell off didn't reveal any flesh in the slightest. Instead, all that could be seen as the glowing embers. The Speaker's upper head was completely gone; replaced with a spike, and they still grinned.
Tuyen's shadow slipped around her to block the tendril aiming for her, form large and nightmarish as it grabbed it and slammed it against the barrier - but not before it pierced through the shadow's hand. The sudden, stabbing pain in Tuyen's hand was enough to jerk her out of her concentration at healing the seal even as the wound near-instantly healed. Her shadow tightened its grip and grew even more in size, trying to cover as much as Tuyen as possible, as she tried to regain her concentration.
Meanwhile, fire surrounded Justin until he was a ball of flames which pushed against the cage more and more - until it broke open. Massive flaming wings appeared on Justin's back as feathers made out of fire came down. Out of the cracks of the barrier, there was a tendril that sprouted many other tendrils out of it. From there other tendrils slipped through the cracks. However, Justin smiled. Behind him... every animal that Justin could think of, made out of flames, appeared. There were hundreds of them... and they all flew directly at the tendrils and slashed at them as the tendrils strike back. Slicing each other to pieces while Justin tried to make time for Penny and the others.
As the battle raged there was crashing against the barrier, the barrier that was getting more and more cracked as it went on. The Glutton was doing everything in its power to break free from its constraints. It probably was above concepts like pain - but it let out a hellish screeching sound with every crash. As the cracks grew wider the black tendrils of the Glutton were forced through the barrier... it let out a hellish screech as it tried to break the barrier apart. Undoing everything the group has been doing.
"You think I'm a mere human?" The Speaker asked as they half-grinned. "I am the embodiment of God's power, in all of its forms."
The Speaker disappeared and reappeared in the center of the room completely in one piece.
"Die, all of you."
Suddenly the Speaker exploded into an absolute hellish mass of glowing orange tendrils that ended with bladed tips as they attacked the heretics from all angles. Kimberly let out a squeak as she shot a blast of Godforce at the ground and created a wall of stone to block the tendrils - but one got through, stopped only by a blast of ice from Rita. Justin's animals were killed as he was dodging the tendrils left and right. Before he retaliated; he shot both hands out and fired an enormous inferno of flames that burned some of the tendrils. Penny repulsed tendril through tendril, creating some orange glowing form of a hellish rat king as she ducked and weaved around the rogue tendrils that slipped around her.
However, the Speaker was engulfed in flames... they teleported out and Justin fired another absolute hellfire blast of fire that sent the Speaker flying directly into the wall.
The Speaker was losing the battle; however, the Glutton wasn't going to stop and let itself get sealed. Oh no. The Glutton began violently pounding against the barrier, forcing itself through the cracks. It let itself make noise as it was burned by the Godforce, its body got smaller but more and more cracks began to form on the surface of the barrier. The Glutton had stuck tendrils through every available surface, trying to break the barrier apart. The orange light shined brightly through the cracks as the barrier was breaking down piece by piece.
The Speaker stopped as they turned around and let out a laugh. They grabbed onto their face as they laughed maniacally, showing the most emotion yet. "It's finally here!" The Speaker shouted as they stuck both their hands out and basked in the Glutton's light. "I've waited so long to see this, but God is free!"
Eventually, the barrier was falling apart like glass and then...
"No..." Justin said.
... The barrier broke completely. The ball of orange light that was the Glutton quickly ascended into the sky - eating the mountain as it rose. At this point, the mountain was collapsing in on itself. The cavern in which they found their way into the inner sanctum was collapsed. There was no easy way out.
"Kimberly," The girl heard the Child's voice, "You can save all of us."
"Huh-how!?" Kimberly shouted.
"The abstraction you never utilized until now..." An orb of white light appeared in front of her face and when it faded it showed a photograph of the forest outside of Farmer Hill. "Grab it and focus. Envision yourself and everyone there... your power has been increased to God-like levels."
"Ooookay...." Kimberly said as she bent down and focused on the photograph. It was good of an idea as any, mostly because they had none. She sighed... everyone there was being engulfed in purple light. They faded away much like they did when the child teleported them.
And then there were gone.
Eventually, the group was teleported to the forest... where the orange ball of light that was the Glutton was in the middle of the night sky. However... it was making a strange sound as its body violently vibrated as if it couldn't hold a stable form. It changed shape every second, as orange pus drained the light from its body. Around the Glutton were white motes of light scattered all over the night sky like will-o-the-wisps.
The Speaker stood under it, on the remains on the mountain, with a horrified look on their face,
"Master, that was foolish..." The Speaker said as they shook their head
Appearing out of a beam of light from the sky, the Child appeared in front of the group.
"The Glutton! It's weakened!" The Child said as they stuck their hand into the air. It gathered all the motes of white light towards the group. "We have only one chance! Everyone, put your hands together and we can end this for good!"
Justin was the first to join hands with somebody in the support group - Kimberly. When they touched they glow with a white aura as they power they felt went in between them. Justin smiled as he extended a hand to Penny. She grabbed it and linked hands with Rita, who offered hers out to Tuyen. Tuyen blinked before taking Rita's hand with a slight smile, offering hers to Caelea who took it quickly.
[After the group finishes touching dicks]
A massive beam of white light erupted from the group and quickly clashed with the Glutton.
"M-Master!" The Speaker said as they covered their face with their sleeve.
It wasn't long until the Glutton was being overwhelmed by the pure Godforce in its weakened state. It let out a hellish sound that faded with time... as it was erased from existence. The night sky went back to normal as the beam faded. The group had accomplished their goal at last - they eliminated the Glutton.
"We... did it!" Kimberly said as she jumped up and down like a child.
"Hell yeah!" Justin shouted as he high-fived Kimberly.
Rita squealed and threw her arms around Tuyen, who grinned and wrapped her arms around her friend in a tight hug in response.
"We fucking did it," said Penny, clapping Justin on the shoulder. "I think I'll skip the next campout, though."
"I don't think any of us will be camping again any time soon," Caelea snorted, rubbing her head.
The group was teleported to a different place in an instant by the Child... a white expanse that was seemingly made out of white smoke, far as the eye can see. And in front of them was the Child... who smiled.
"You've done it," The Child said, "You've saved us all from the Glutton. That abomination seemed... unstoppable, but you did it."
Justin smiled, "The impossible is possible, you should know that."
"I can't even begin to thank you..." The Child said, "We freed everyone who was being tortured by that thing."
"You said you might be able to resurrect the people killed by that thing?" Justin asked.
The Child nodded their head.
"I... cannot bring back everyone, however," The Child said, "The people who died in the conflict were so numerous that it's just too many..."
"... And The Child cannot revive those who have not been killed by the Glutton as it was their time to go," The Hound bellowed as he walked up. "Which means... certain members of your group are gone for good."
"I see," Justin said.
"Son of a bitch," muttered Penny under her breath.
"Nevertheless, I think they have some words for you." Suddenly behind the Child, the spirits of all the people who died in the conflict appeared behind them. From Claire to Lynette, to Aliana, to Dexter... all of them.
"This is the least I can do," The Child said, "Everyone who dies may have the choice to go back or pass onto the Godforce to continue the cycle - for now; say your farewells."
The Child nodded their head.
"Take as long as you need to."
"Hehe, you did it," Claire said to Caelea, bumping an elbow her way. "I was watching ya' the whole time, I gotta say; I'm impressed pretty squirt. I didn't think you had all that in ya'... I'm gonna miss ya'."
"What you talking bout, I was always gonna succeed. I'm tough, y' know," Caelea smirked in response, even as she rubbed an eye which had some dust in it or something but not tears. "I'm gonna miss you too... things just aren't gonna be the same around here, are they? Damn, it's gonna be so boring." Her voice wavered slightly even as she gave a fierce grin. She'd never expected to see Claire again - so now was the time to be fucking sad about that.
"I mean you're short, but big things come in small packages, sis," Claire said as her ghost put its hands on its pockets and floated off. "Things aren't going to be the same... but they aren't supposed to be." She shrugged.
"What are you talking about?" Zoey said as her apparition reappeared. "Aren't you coming back...?"
"Well, surprise," Claire said, "The Child said there wasn't enough room for both of us... so I agreed."
She shrugged as she sighed... a tear ran down her cheek.
"... You'll find new people," Claire started, "Both of you. Just... move on and forget about me."
Claire said as she disappeared.
"Take care now."
"Hey, Penny..." Lynette said, and as the girl turned towards her - she was wearing the last outfit she had on before she died. A heavy parka, jeans, snow boots, doesn't matter. Lynette smiled at her as she said, "Thank you... I mean, I know, I know. I... wish I could cry right now; I'm so happy you did it."
"You should have been here for this. It wouldn't have been possible without you," said Penny, her voice a wisp of its former self. "You had my back every step of the way. I was so consumed by the Glutton, I didn't see the threats closer to...Lynette, I'm so sorry. I'm so..." her voice broke and she hung her head.
"It's okay," Lynette said with a warming smile as her hand grabbed onto Penny's shoulder. "You have nothing to be sorry for."
"... It's me that has to be sorry, Penny," Sharon's spirit said, grabbing her arm by the elbow with her other one, not making eye contact with her. "I... made everything about me as Amethyst did. I didn't think about Lynette. I didn't think about her family. I didn't think about you. I just...."
Penny peered up without lifting her head, her eyes burning through the locks of hair that had fallen in front of her face. She felt something tug inside of her, a string trying to pull a cord on her back that'd feed the girl the acceptance she wanted. It would be the right thing to do. The living can repent for their mistakes, but the dead can only hope for forgiveness. All she had to say was it's okay and be done with it. A simple act of kindness. There was no need for pettiness now. Just say it's okay, even if it was a lie. Penny opened her mouth but no sound came out. Inside, she felt a swell of acid burn through the string. Traitors were disgusting. They deserved no sympathy. Penny lifted her head and gave Sharon a look that said what she could not bring herself to say in front of Lynette. Her look said: I will never forgive you.
"I can't be angry at you, Sharon," Lynette said with a smile. "We're both dead now, and we're going to be moving on... there's no point in holding onto these emotions."
"I can't forgive myself."
"Penny," Lynette said, "Did I ever tell you I had a little brother and sister?"
"You didn't," said Penny, finding her words. She thought of Henry and how she had tortured herself seeking closure for years. "I'll find them. I'll let them know what happened."
"I should have... we existed in two different worlds now that I think about it," Lynette she laughed. "Jaden and Cierra. They were two gigantic pains in the ass... they were normal. But, I loved them nonetheless..."
That smile disappeared before her face turned flat.
"Please... tell them everything," Lynette said, as she began to fade away, "They deserve to know, after all."
"You know I will."
Right before Lynette was completely gone had some last words for Penny.
"I'm going to miss you, Penny," Lynette laughed warmingly, "I know you weren't perfect. I understand you weren't, but I know deep down you're a good person. I'm... glad that you finally have closure for what happened. I died from having mine. If nothing else; I'm just begging you to stay safe out there, Penny."
She kept laughing right before she was gone.
"Maybe we'll meet again - but who am I kidding? We will. Maybe both of us will be alive," With that, Lynette was gone... however Penny heard her voice one last time. "Who am I kidding. This is the end, just remember this: I love you."
Sharon was still there and hung her head as she rapidly disappeared.
Jordan and Kimberly were stuck staring at each other wordlessly. Until Kimberly just lost all bearing and broke down into tears as she embraced Jordan's spirit for a hug.
"I'm going to miss you, Jordan!" Kimberly said.
"I'm gonna miss you too, girl!" Jordan said. "Nutty ass white girl!"
"I'm gonna miss you more!"
"I'm going to miss you more!"
"Jordan Nichols," The Hound said as he approached. He simply sat down on his behind as his imposing red eyes scanned the two girls. "We had a deal..."
"Maddie!" Jordan said as she hugged her cousin's spirit.
"She will have no recollection of her death, Jordan Nichols," The Hound said, "And for all intents and purposes; her spot will be switched with yours. The world will believe you died that day and Madison went to Grand Ridge Academy... but she will be alive."
"Okay."
"Are you... sure you want to do this, Jordan?" Kimberly said as one last-ditch effort to have back her only friend. "It isn't too late to, you know, turn back..."
"I know you may feel some kinda way about this, but this is the way things are supposed to go, girl," Jordan started off her explanation, "Finally... I feel that guilt lifted off my shoulders as I can finally begin again. Maddie can have the chance I took from her."
"... Won't she feel the same way?" Kimberly asked.
"Madison, unlike the others who have been revived, will have no memory of the other timeline," The Hound started, "... I suggest you keep it that way."
"Very well..." Kimberly sighed.
Jordan faded out of existence as she smiled at Kimberly for the last time.
"Goodbye, I hope we meet again."
Kimberly fell to her knees as she broke down into tears.
Justin wished that he could join the others but there was somebody he needed to see. Somebody important to him. Justin approached the spirit of his grandmother... for the last time. He hung his head as his arms dropped dead to his sides. He sighed.
"I failed to protect you, Grandmother," Justin started, "I am a disgrace to the Liaos, the Zhaos, and the -"
Justin was interrupted by his grandmother embracing him and he broke down into tears. What he didn't realize was that, on his hands, a sigil of a stone rock appeared.
"It's okay Justin... there's nothing you could have done to save me. If you were there; she would have killed you too... There's nothing to do at this point anyway - all parties involved are dead, so my death is formally avenged. Mystery solved my brave grandson."
Justin was sobbing as he said, "You're right, I gotta let this go..."
"I'm proud of you... you will lead a great family."
"Um...." Justin trailed off, figuring now is a good time. He clenched his fists as he closed his eyes - nearly speaking through his teeth, "I have a confession to make; grandmother. I'm... gay."
Lihua paused for a second.
"Hahahahahahha, so's your mother!" Lihua broke out into laughter as she dropped the biggest bomb on Justin so far. "Or bisexual, whatever the hell you young people call it these days. Know how many times I caught her making out with her best friend? And I'm not talking about a light kiss on the lips - I'm talking about tongue and everything!"
Justin was silent.
"Personally, I think that she married Danny to hide it, but she continued the family name. And that sister of yours is the same way!"
She waved her hand.
"I don't know what it is about my children - but it didn't come from me, it came from your grandfather. You'll continue my bloodline one way or another - or I'll have strong words for you when you get to the other side, yes?"
"... Yes."
"Now, I have one final request for you, Justin... I gave you my abstraction."
"Why grandmother... I don't feel like I deserve it."
"Yes you do, but I don't feel like poetically waxing about it," Lihua started, "I need you to go find a spot in the kitchen... it's that stone tile that always stuck out in there - pull it out, open it up, and take what's inside back to your mother. Then I need you to burn down the place."
"... What?"
Lihua chuckled.
"Don't worry about a little arson... maybe the fumes will improve the smell of that town - what's left of it that is." Lihua slowly faded away into nothingness. "It was great while it lasted, boy, but I must go. I fear if I stay here too long you'll want to join me. Just remember..."
Lihua smiled right before she disappeared and imparted these last words onto Justin.
"... Through fire, through stone, through peace, through war, through snow... I will always love you."
Then she was gone.
Justin could do nothing in response but smile.
A sigh escaped Britney's lips.
Of course, she couldn't do too much in the way of feeling now that she no longer had a body. The only sensation she had was this flowing sensation all over her body as if she was made out of gas. She looked at her hand and noticed it was transparent and green... she sighed. All she remembered was the rock, then she was here. She kept her hands together below the waist as she floated her way over to Penny and the others. There wasn't much to say at this point.
"... Hey," Britney said to Penny and the others, "I, well, don't know what to say really."
She shrugged.
"All my life... it has been dedicated to stopping the Glutton... and I wasn't even there to see it end," Britney began her longwinded yet heartfelt speech. "It's not even a pride thing. It's... everything I did in my relentless pursuit to stop the Glutton. All the lying, killing and manipulating I did and yet... it was pointless in the end. It was... I..."
Even though she didn't have a body to feel with; she had a soul. She sobbed as she couldn't say anymore. She hung her head and stared at her feet as she let out the end of her speech.
"... I don't expect any of you to forgive me."
"Britney, why is it that no matter how many times I told you to shut the fuck up you somehow kept talking?" said Penny. Her words were harsh, but her eyes were smiling. "What you did wasn't pointless. Those things you did were, shit, they were incredibly fucked up, but they still have weight. It was what got us here. You got us here. If you didn't push us as you did we never would've stopped the Glutton. So stop lying to yourself. You were there."
"Penny's right," said Rita. "I always felt like there was something off about you and it made me mistrust you a lot, but you sacrificed yourself to save us. So, thank you. Truly."
For a few moments, Britney was completely silent as she kept her mouth shut. She didn't know what to say... or even feel. Not anymore. She looked at her hand again and exhaled. "... I wish I lived, you know," Britney said as tears went down her cheeks, and began a speech. "I have a lot to make up for... I wish that I could live alongside you all. At least try to make everything I did worth something. Do you want to know why I was so ruthless? Because I just loved all of you. I couldn't let the Glutton or the League hurt you. But truthfully I finally got what I want: a world without the Glutton. And... I can't even live to see any of you enjoy it. Honestly, all I want is for all of you to be happy..."
Britney loudly sobbed into her hands as she began to fade away. It was her time to go to the other side... but she had one last thing to say.
"... This is for the best."
Those were Britney's last words.
After everyone said their goodbyes, the spirits of the truly deceased passed on. Fading away after their time was up. That just left the Awakened and the Child. Who still had some words for them. "Now... I have to say something; the Godforce has returned to Shimmer which means you all will be returning to a very different world."
“What do you mean by that?asked Rita, unintentionally using her abstraction.
"New Awakened will spring up all over the world, as well as Adepts will discover their true heritage and dormant Apparitions will awaken as well... I cannot interfere as it's my sworn duty as One Above All to protect the remaining worlds. And as I do that; I will be creating new ones," The Child said, "I... have one final request for you all; and I know it may be a lot, after what you've done."
"Yeah?" Justin asked.
"I want to seal away the Power of Ascension," The Child started, "It is simply too powerful... however, you will not lose it. If your power is required again I will awaken it inside of you. But, that is only for the direst of events."
"Fine... it was kinda broken anyway," Justin said.
"I kind of enjoyed it," said Penny with a smirk. "But seriously, nobody should have that kind of power."
Soon enough the group was engulfed in white light yet again. It was warming, comforting. Before the group was gone, the Child said,
"This is... goodbye, for now, I will be watching over you all." The Child started, "And don't worry, I cleaned up the mess the Glutton made."
They faded away into nothingness. Were they ready to enter a new world?
The first thing the group felt was the bright sun hitting them.
When the white light faded, they were in the middle of Farmer Hill. A rather frantic Farmer Hill, of course. All around them were EMTs, National Guard, and Reporters. The first thing that looked different was that the people that were sacrificed were gone. The graffiti of Redemption on the walls of the town were gone. There was no snow. Nothing. It was almost like a bright day in spring. There was something about Farmer Hill that felt... brand new. Uplifting even.
A reporter was standing in front of a camera not too far away.
"I am Reporter Molly Schuller," The Reporter started, "I report here at Farmer Hill where a seven-point-five magnitude earthquake suddenly erupted and ravaged this small town. As you can see behind me; it was powerful enough to destroy the mountain."
Mount Ever Reaching, the mountain that Farmer Hill was almost famous for, was collapsed just like it was in the previous timeline...
"Son of a bitch! shouted Penny loud enough to make Rita jump. Her hand was grabbing at the top of her head as the girl stared at her.
"W-what?" said Rita.
"I," Penny drew her lips thin and glanced towards the ruins of the mountain. Her eyes narrowed in the bright sun. "I think I lost my sunglasses in there."
After that revelation, the "Support Group" finds themselves at John Reid's farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Strangely enough, the place was intact. It was chosen by Kimberly by the virtue of being the only place that isn't swarming with the National Guard. They were all assembled on the porch of his farmhouse in their special spots, talking.
"Oh shit!" Justin said as he walked out of the farmhouse with two bottles of liquor. "His booze survived the earthquake!"
"Give me a shot," Zoey said with a sigh as she sat on the ground facing away from the group. "I'll need it"
"I'll take one too please," Tuyen said, running a hand through her hair. She wasn't much of a drinker but it was honestly needed after all that.
"Yeah, sure," Justin said, as he shook his head, "Mind having a word later, Tuyen?"
"I think I'll pass," Kimberly said softly. "Besides... shouldn't we be like..."
"Like what?" Justin said, "We saved the world! We should be celebrating!"
"... Talking about what happened, honestly." Kimberly brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around it. "Like you did, we did just save the world, but now what...?"
Justin was silent.
"Farmer Hill is destroyed, and now magic is back in the world. What do we do from here?" Kimberly asked. "Go back and try to pretend things are normal?"
"What else can we do?" Caelea commented from where she was perched on a chair. "Unless you want to, I dunno, start a support group for all those new people suddenly awakening. I think we deserve a break after that shit."
"Yeah, I think we had our fill on support groups," Hagan said, sitting on the steps. "Hate to say it, but I think it's time all of us head our separate ways."
"But, I'm worried about the people who lived here," Justin said. "Where are all ya'll going?"
"No idea," Tuyen said with a despondent sigh. This was the only place she'd ever known but she wasn't keen on moving somewhere else with her Aunt and Uncle. "I don't have a place to live or a future since I don't think we can just go back to college..."
"To hell with college," Caelea shrugged. "And plans. I'm fairly certain I don't have a home anymore but, you know, we just gotta make the most of it. Anywhere's better than here, right?" She tilted her head. "Can't believe I'm giving fucking pep talks now."
"My family's moving out east to New York I think," Kimberly said.
"I'm going to Florida," Hagan said.
"Going where the wind takes me."
"I might head back to Texas, actually," said Rita. She did still have a home, technically, and now she had a way to get the answers she always wanted. "See if I can't convince my Dad or Mom to throw me a bone."
"What if we keep watching?" said Penny, finally raising her voice.
"I mean, if you want to come along I can't—" Rita was cutoff.
"No, sorry, I meant for what Kim said. It'd be fucking irresponsible just to turn a blind eye on all of this and try and go on with our lives, but the Recollections have shown us the dangers of taking preemptive actions. So what if we just watch the world around us for anything weird for now and then decide with everyone else on how we're going to handle it?" said Penny as she looked around at the group. "Magical whistleblowers, non-psycokiller guardians, I don't care what we call it, but we can't do nothing."
"I meeeeeeeean..." Kimberly dragged out the e in mean very awkwardly as she looked around. "I had a different idea, but this works too."
"I don't I'd be much help," Hagan said as he put a hand on his leg and turned to Penny, giving her the side-eye, "But I'm good on keeping my eye open at the very least."
"Yeah, yeah, then the avengers will assemble," Zoey said as she created a massive snowflake made out of ice and launched it at the ground like a shuriken where it got embedded. "But, I gotta feeling that shit's gonna hit the fan real soon."
"No doubt in my mind about that," Justin said with a chuckle. "Britney did say that there are other threats like the Glutton out there, right? And I have a feeling that not all the Awakened are going to be as altruistic as us."
"... And what about the League?" Kimberly also said. "Don't forget about them."
"I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Justin said, then he looked at the rest of the group. "As for everyone else; I suggest keeping all of this on the low-low. Not just because anyone we tell will think we're crazy and all; people shouldn't know what we're capable of."
"But also, people will really think we're crazy," added Rita.
"Yeah, that's important too," Kimberly said.
"But you guys know what this means right?" Zoey asked.
"Huh?" Justin asked.
"... Snaaaaapchat group!"
The group groaned.
Kimberly rolled her eyes as she clutched her camera in her hands. "I have a better idea; one last group photograph before we... y' know, go our separate ways."
"Last?" Justin said, "Never say never, Kimberly... because I have a feeling we'll run into each other again."
"We'll see each other again through my Snapchat group," Zoey said laughing.
"If we keep talking about Snapchat I'm going to need another support group," said Penny with a chuckle.
"Agreed, a Snapchat group is the worst idea I've ever heard," Caelea rolled her eyes even as she grinned. "Does anyone even use Snapchat now?"
Zoey raised her hand.
Kimberly rolled her eyes as she pulled out her vintage-styled camera as she took a few steps off to the front of the group and aimed it at them.
"Yo, aren't you going to get into the picture?"
"Nah, it'll be better if I take the picture like this," Kimberly said as she brought the camera up to her eye. "Everyone, strike a pose!"
Justin crossed his arms giving a confident smirk. Penny mocked his pose, crossing her arms while rolling her eyes with a good-spirited, shit-eating smirk. While Hagan sat where he was, giving an aside glance as he kept his fist to his jaw (his trademark pose it seemed), while Zoey threw up the peace sign. Caelea forced a smile and a thumbs-up, incredibly awkward in photos. Tuyen hesitated a moment before throwing an arm around Rita and grinning, who in turn laughed and locked herself tighter around Tuyen.
With one button press and a flash, a fresh photograph came out of the camera, and Kimberly gave it a look. She tilted her head as she put her camera away and... wondered if something was wrong here. "Hey, guys come here."
They looked at the photograph and in the background showed Lynette with her hands together right next to Penny, Claire leaning up against Zoey, Jordan was sticking her tongue out and giving two middle fingers, and Sharon in the background facing away from the camera, looking sullen.
"... What does this mean?"
"We can photograph dead people now?" Caelea said.
"I mean," Kimberly said as she quickly rotated her camera in her hands, looking at it from all angles. "That'd be cool."
"Maybe it has some meaningful shit behind it. Like photos are moments locked in time or something so maybe this means they will always be with us or something!" Zoey added some rather insightful commentary.
Everyone stared at her, in shock.
"You know what, I kind of like that," said Penny.
"Or we're haunted," added Rita.
"No, we're going with the former," said Penny quietly, looking from the photo to the spot where Sharon had been standing.
"Definitely haunted," Kimberly said with a smile.
"I... I think this is where we part ways," Justin said as he began to walk away, "Goodbye ya'll."
"Yeah, see ya'll around," Kimberly said as she walked away.
"I'll stay here a bit," Zoey said, "Catch up with my boy Hagan."
After their group went their separate ways, Justin walked his way over to his old grandmother's house. Making sure to keep out of sight of the national guard. The house was in pretty good shape and he considered getting some of his stuff out of it. However, he needed to make this quick - Justin ran up and kicked the door open... and saw that the place was pretty thoroughly looted. Which means they have his PlayStation.
Damn it.
So, Justin had no distractions. He went inside and found the tile that his grandmother was talking about. It stuck out like Lihua wanted him to find it and now he had to channel the emotions that Lihua held to use her abstraction. He closed and focused... Lihua's abstraction was fueled by her...
"... Vanity." Justin said to himself as the sigil of stone activated on his hand. Out of the ground came two hands (which were strangely replicas of Lihua's hands) made out of stone which bent into their fingers dug into the ground and parted the ground. Inside the ground was a perfectly carved box made out of wood... which he opened up to reveal a strange glowing white crystal. There was something off about its glow and Justin didn't know what it was. However, Justin closed the box as he turned on the oven to let the gas out... before he stepped outside and summoned the soul self to ignite the house in flames. It was not going to go without notice, he turned around and the first thing he saw as the Hound sitting on the ground.
Justin was surprised, but he knew what was coming. He averted eye contact as he looked at the Hound,
"So, are you here for what I think you are here for?"
"Yes..." The Hound said as he walked to Justin's side. "I hope you're ready to pay the ultimate price for my help."
Justin balled his fists... he wasn't going to allow this thing to boss him around. He was going to be his own person... it was what his grandmother would have wanted. Justin grinned at the hound as heat radiated off of him.
"Sorry Houndie," Justin said, "But there's been a change of plans."
The Soul-Self erupted from behind Justin in its phoenix as he put his hands in his pockets and laughed as he ran a hand through his hair.
"You know you can't win..." The Hound, strangely enough, grinned himself, "So, why fight it?"
"Because," Justin said, "Jordan may have willingly gave up her own life, but I wouldn't be able to face my grandmother on the other side if I didn't go without a fight!" Fire surrounded him.
"Well then," The Hound laughed, "If you're going to fight me, make sure to entertain me at the very least."
Justin screamed as the Soul-Self flew from behind his back and jetted right towards the Hound who disappeared in his black fog. He knew how the Hound fought... or what the thing was capable of. He heard its paws slamming against the ground as he whipped around to see the Hound lunging directly at him - but the Soul-Self appeared in front of him and clashed with the Hound's paws. Forcing Justin to skid back as the Soul-Self blast fire into the Hound's face, Justin grinned as he pushed back at the Hound, sending the minivan sized beast flying.
However, the Hound flipped backward and landed on his feet, and the Hound laughed maliciously as he walked a circle around Justin.
"Not bad, Justin Liao," The Hound said. "However, you need to do better than that if you're going to stop me."
"Hmmm..." Justin said, "You're right."
A hand made out of stone appeared from underneath the Hound's jaw and grabbed the Hound by the lower jaw and grabbed on tight. It dragged the Hound's jaw directly into the ground and slammed it into the ground so hard that it cracked. While the Hound was stunned Justin ran after the Hound as his arms were transformed into stone and leaped into the air, with his fist cocked backward to bring it down on the Hound. However, the Hound seemingly exploded into a thick cloud of black fog.
"Shit!" Justin said as he looked around and could see nothing but darkness. Like hell he was going to stay in here - he immediately took off running as the symbol on his back began glowing. A skeletal blade cut through the fog and went directly for him as the Soul-Self reappeared as a tiger and slapped the bone spear in half in an explosion of flames. The Tiger ran around him and stood mighty as it opened it's jaw and fired a spinning inferno out of its maw. The thing burned the darkness away as Justin could see the Hound sitting on top of one of the houses.
Without a second word, the Soul-Self flew towards the Hound, spraying fire as it ran and fired a massive blast of pure flames at the Hound. The beast of darkness lept off the house as it was set ablaze and it fired another one where the Hound landed as Justin tried to close the distance. However, the second time the Hound landed the fog of darkness appeared as a barrier and blocked the explosive blast. It wasn't just a barrier, however... a mass of bones appeared to jut out of the darkness and launched themselves at Justin at breakneck speeds.
He immediately took off running and hit behind one of the houses. Okay, this wasn't good. He could feel the bones smashing against the wall and breaking the windows. He glanced from behind cover and got an idea... the sigil of stone on his hand began glowing and a towering hand made out of stone appeared behind the Hound. He whipped around and opened it's maw as a blast of black fog came out and shattered the hand.
Then it stopped glowing and the other sigil of the half-phoenix, half-tiger started glowing as he crazily ran out into the barrage... and then the soul self of a tiger appeared and slashed at every single bone that was coming his way. All he could see was flames and splinters - until he broke through the fog and ended up face to face with the Hound. As he got closer the Soul-Self grabbed onto Justin with its maw and tossed him up into the air as it disappeared as Justin tried to channel Lihua's vanity again.
Focus...
And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't turn his hands back into stone.
The Hound grinned as it rammed him with his otherworldly body and sent him flying across the terrain. Justin felt every bit of the concrete as he tumbled across and the grass didn't feel any better. He climbed to his feet as the Hound opened its maw yet again and fired a massive blast of the black fog and Justin rolled as it tore through the environment and shattered a house on contact.
"Definitely don't want to get hit by that," Justin thought to himself. So far... the Hound was kicking his ass. "How many fuckin' powers do you have?"
The Hound slowly walked towards him...
"You should worry about your own power, Justin Liao," The Hound said, "The Soul-Self isn't your true abstraction... and you are unable to channel Lihua's vanity properly so you're unable to use it to its full extent."
The Soul-Self disappeared as Justin's fists landed at his sides.
"Truth be told," Justin said, "I don't think I'll ever be able to see the way my grandmother did, but I'm going to try."
The distance was closed as Justin's arms up until the elbow was turned into stone and he punched the Hound in the jaw hard as he could, making the beast sway its head to the side. Before he grabbed the Hound by the neck and flipped him over to the other side to slam him onto the ground. He swung at the Hound with all of his might...
Only for the thing to disappear and Justin fell over onto the ground.
"... Ouch."
"Justin Liao," The Hound said from behind him and Justin hopped to his feet - the stone faded. The Hound was sitting on his behind just staring at Justin. "I said to at least entertain me."
"Is this a fuckin' game to you!?" Justin shouted as the Soul-Self manifested in the shape of a tiger and fired a massive blast of fire at the Hound... only for it to teleport again. "I'm not playing this again!"
"... It's as your grandmother said," The Hound said from his new position to the side of Justin, "You're so bullheaded you haven't realized your own abstraction changed."
"Huh?" Justin said as the Soul-Self charged up another attack.
"... You can feel," The Hound said, "You have tunnel vision, you can only see what's in front of you... which in this instance is me."
"Oh, I never noticed," Justin shouted as all the flames around him doubled in intensity and size... before burning themselves out. "NOW GO TO HELL, WILL YA!"
The Soul-Self unleashed a fireball the size of a small house and it flew towards the Hound... exploding on contact with him in a massive mushroom cloud of flames that could be felt from miles. Justin had to shield his face as the only flames in the area was the mushroom cloud. When it faded away, there was no Hound.
"Yeah, that'll show ya!" Justin shouted.
"... You were close to impressing me," The Hound said from behind him and before Justin could turn around the Hound grabbed him by the back of his shirt with his jaws. He lifted him into the air and created a black vortex of a strange thick and black liquid at his feet... before slamming Justin into it. "But, I will collect, Justin."
"Shit, fuck!" Justin shouted as he tried to climb his way out of the darkness but every time he tried to climb out, he sunk back in. He was desperately trying to get out of this blackness or whatever the fuck it was. Every time he tried, he failed. He was struggling to break free... and the Hound was just sitting there watching. Is that bastard happy? Taking some kind of pleasure out of this? Justin couldn't give up now! His grandmother, sister, aunt, cousins... they were counting on him! He couldn't fail them! He tried his best but he couldn't find his way out.
So, the Soul-Self manifested as a Phoenix and he grabbed onto its legs and it tried to pull him out... and strangely enough, the Soul-Self of the tiger appeared and bit down on his shoulder and tried to pull him out. He felt a ray of hope, but he was still sinking into the ground.
"What the hell is this!?" Justin shouted.
"The vortex of black death, Justin Liao." The Hound answered, "Nobody can escape it, once caught in it..."
Out of the liquid, dozens of skeletons came out and grabbed onto Justin, each of them pushing him down as the Soul Selves tried to free him.
No! This can't be it.
Why... why did I ever make that deal?
I can't let it end like this!
The Hound...
That bastard was going to pay!
I just... didn't have the power.
I'm going to stop him.
And whatever else crops up!
I just need to...
...
Justin stopped sinking and he ended up in the darkness... he looked around and that's all he could see. Except he looked down and could see himself just fine. This wasn't ordinary darkness...
... It was advanced darkness.
However, he felt the glow of the fire in front of him and the Soul-Self appeared in the form of a tiger. Sitting down and staring at him.
"Hey there litt-"
The Soul-Self - Tiger - stood on its hind-legs as it let out a roar that fired a jet flame directly into the air. Justin had to shield his eyes from it because it was so bright it hurt! Once the Tiger stopped and stood on all fours it lunged at Justin. Knocking him flat on his ass as he had to grab onto its head and had to try his hardest to keep it from biting his face off. He managed to flip the thing over and send it flying across... nothing. Justin hopped on his feet as he faced the thing down... as it flew through the air it, naturally, landed on its feet.
It charged him and Justin charged it back. The Tiger bit onto his leg as he brought down his fist on its neck and managed to kick it against its torso and sent it rolling. The Soul-Self lunged at him and Justin punched it across the face. And he felt pretty badass. How many people can say they punched a flaming tiger? However, he heard a screech behind him as he turned around to see the Soul-Self's form of the Phoenix flying right at him.
"Oh, you gotta be..." The Phoenix grabbed onto Justin by the shoulders and took off with him, "... KIDDING ME!"
The Phoenix slammed him onto the ground a few times as he helplessly tried to punch at it. It flew high up into the air(?) and dropped him onto the ground.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah..." Justin screamed as he fell onto the ground.
He hit the ground and he saw the Phoenix flying downwards at breakneck speeds with its claws out. Justin had to be quick - he rolled over as it exploded into a mass of flames and reformed. Justin grinned...
... Before the Tiger pounced on him.
"Fuck you!" Justin shouted as he punched it square in the face and threw it off, "I thought you two were supposed to be helping me!?"
He faced them as he shouted again,
"Wh-why are you attacking me!?"
The Tiger lunged at Justin from the front and the Phoenix came from the back. Justin tried to charge at the tiger but the Phoenix slashed at him from the back. He swung at the tiger but it dodged and slashed him in the chest. All the while the Phoenix was violently pecking at his back. He couldn't take this anymore as he fell to his knees and things started going black...
I guess I wasn't strong enough.
It really sucks.
Getting so far.
Only to fail in the end.
I need to...
Do I need power?
No.
More power wouldn't solve this situation.
I have to think of this from a different angle.
How would grandmother conquer the Hound?
She wouldn't use brute force.
Wait...
I can feel.
I can feel.
The Hound said I can feel.
When I couldn't while I used...
That means...
The Tiger and the Phoenix ceased their vicious barrage on Justin and he got up to his feet. The Phoenix was floating in the air as the Tiger was sitting on its behind. They were sitting side by side as Justin realized how stupid he was before. He was oblivious to their true nature before. He thought they were just soulless minions that took his emotions with him as they attacked. Justin walked over to the Tiger and placed his hand on the Tiger's head, the tiger affectionately shook his head.
He realized they were his emotions, and they were wild and out of control. A raging force of nature that few could control... much like Justin. However, there was one thing that could control Justin, his grandmother. He felt so bad he was powerless to stop her death, even though she seems to be at peace. He would rather have her here...
The Phoenix was next to receive some of Justin's affection as he caressed its head and neck and it affectionately returned the favor.
"Now I understand you," Justin said, as the Tiger began floating into the air much like the Phoenix. "You aren't minions or anything like that."
That was when Justin began floating up into the air with the Soul-Self... around them, his various friends, living and dead, appeared in the form of fire. Forming a circle as Justin ascended through the air. "You are me," Justin said, "And I am you."
Justin laughed as the Tiger and the Phoenix floated into him and he was surrounded in flames.
"I have a lot of answering to do when I get home," Justin muttered to himself as he looked to the side. "I think I finally understand my abstraction... it was telling me something that I was ignoring."
The sigil of the tiger and Phoenix on his back faded away and was replaced with a new sigil of a phoenix
"Justin..." The flaming reflection of Lihua floated towards him, "... I'm glad you're finally growing."
"I am, too."
"You are stronger than ever, which you'll need."
"... Am I talking to my grandmother?" Justin asked.
"Yes," Lihua said. "And not her memories or past consciousness, your actual grandmother."
"Are you here to tell me something?"
"You have a big heart, grandson, full of kindness, love, and passion," Lihua said.
"Thank you," Justin said. "But that's all...?"
"I need to tell you something important," Lihua said, "I wanted our last conversation to be our last, but there are still doubts on my mind about things left unfulfilled. Perhaps they should stay just that, unfulfilled - but, things are changing and I think it's fair that I tell you at the very least."
"Yeah?"
"Ages ago... well," Lihua said as she crossed her arms, "I'll just cut to the chase, grandson; I'm not from Shimmer."
"Huh?" Justin said, "Then where are you from?"
"A dead world..." Lihua said as the scene took the appearance of a desolate beach. Littered with skeletons from years ago and tanks that were rusted. There were other rusted guns as far as the eye could see. "... Shade."
"What happened here?" Justin asked as he looked around.
"War, Justin," Lihua said, "It was like World War two but perverted by magic and the Extra-Normal... it ended with the world being uninhabitable. Almost everyone here, dead by the end. Sad, isn't it? After the war ended many people moved onto other worlds, myself included. Some people tried holding on, but as you can see. The world is empty now. They've died without a whisper or a whimper. But if you listen closely, you can hear their voices. Echoing through time."
"So, I assume you awakened here?"
"That is correct," Lihua said as another Lihua, except not made out of fire appeared. She was younger, probably around Justin's age. She walked on the beach and pointed her hand into the distance. "Except... that wasn't my first abstraction."
A blast of energy appeared out of her hand as it created a portal in thin air... which Lihua walked through.
"Fueled by my desire to leave this war and world beyond for new horizons," Lihua said, "I could create portals and that's what I did... I was a vagrant of many different worlds. It was some of the best times I've had, Grandson. Traveling from world to world and having hundreds of different adventures and meeting hundreds of different versions of myself. I wish I could go back and relive it all, but..."
Lihua sighed,
"I've made many, many, mistakes," She said, "And none was worse than meeting him..."
The Recollection(?) or whatever it was changed to the scene of the teenaged Lihua standing on the bottom of the stairs, staring up at a sharp dressed man surrounded by several Apparitions and shadowy figures.
"... Thorton Walters," Lihua said, "He was charismatic, had big dreams, and wanted to build up to something new... he wanted a paradise for us, his... Inner-Circle he called us."
"And who were they?" Justin asked.
"A collection of people who were hurt across the All-Verse, of course, who needed some kind of community or peace," Lihua sighed as her burning effigy turned off and stared into the distance of the city. "And I was hurt, too. In ways... you'll find out as you experience my Recollections. He offered me everything and truly, I wanted to stop and find my happiness and build up something new."
Lihua sighed yet again and shook her head.
"I joined him, acting as the transport for the Inner-Circle and becoming his number two, of course," Lihua said, awfully low. "However, in time, it turned out that Thorton didn't have our best interests at heart as he said. He was obsessed with revenge against the very being you are facing at the moment and... he almost destroyed all life attempting to kill it."
The scene changed to the sight of Thorton Walters standing on top of a roof... gazing at a massive, all-consuming portal in the distance. Lihua was right next to him, absolutely horrified that reality here was coming to an end. He shook his head as he turned around and walking away.
"... We'll just have to try again," He callously said, "Lihua, let's go."
Only for no response, he turned around to see that Lihua was gone.
"Damn it!" Thorton shouted and that was where the Recollection ended and everything went back to the black void yet again.
"This..." Justin said, "Why are you showing me this now? Why are you telling me this?"
"Because... you were going to find out anyway, with my abstraction and all," Lihua said, "But, there's something more important... something crucial that you need to do, Grandson."
"What's that?"
"Stop Thorton Walters," Lihua said, "I was going to have Meifeng do it, but with your new abstraction and little epiphany there..."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Justin said. "You're asking a whole lot from me, grandmother."
"I know," Lihua said, "But, he is persistent and ruthless - driven mad by grief... he won't stop until he has what he wants, even if its at the cost of everyone else. Most importantly of all; he's going to come after you for the crystal and-or revenge. I'm not sure what."
Justin sighed as he put his hands in his pockets.
"Well, I guess..." Justin rolled his eyes as he looked off to the side, "Where do I even start?"
"I would start by destroying that crystal, but Thorton can probably easily find more of those," Lihua said, "They grow on trees in the universe where they're from. Sometimes; literally."
Lihua chuckled.
"But, I would start in Araminta... you know the place where Katie goes to school," Lihua said, "Find a man named James Vanburen - he'll help you with everything."
Justin sighed as he was, once again, shunted off to yet another adventure. Still, he had one last question on his mind.
"If you're not from Shimmer then..." Justin raised an eyebrow, "Where is your counterpart? Why do you have a brother?"
"You've never met her, but Qiaolian, my mother..." Lihua trailed off, "Is my counterpart... and as you can tell, she died years before you were born. She took me in as her daughter and I took the name Liu until I met my husband and married him."
"And that means uncle Jiao-Long...?" Justin trailed off.
"Well, technically not related to you by blood," Lihua trailed off, "But, he's still your great-uncle even in his state of... advanced age."
She trailed off, realizing that she told Justin all that she had to tell him. And Justin began floating out of the dark void up into the sky.
"But, you have work you still need to do," Lihua said as Justin ascended into the air towards a light, "... Defeat the Hound, for me, and then defeat Thorton."
"That I will..." Justin said as he was engulfed in light.
"... Grandmother."
Out of the black vortex came a massive pillar of flames that could be seen from miles away. And out of the fire came Justin, floating seemingly out of thin air. The Phoenix Soul-Self appeared out of the fire and floated behind him. Followed by the Tiger Soul-Self which quickly flew into the Phoenix and they merged into a massive ball of fire... before finally taking the appearance of two phoenixes joining together, forming a heart. They floated behind Justin giving him the illusion of wings as he floated in thin air, surrounded by a ring of fire.
He faced the Hound who was contently sitting.
"You've completed the rite..." The Hound said as he got to his feet, "Now, show me you are serious."
He lunged at Justin and Justin merely floated. The Soul-Self didn't deploy or move from its spot... however, various rocks and broken pieces of the houses from their battle began levitating - with a flaming aura around them. They quickly moved and pelted the Hound from all directions with flaming debris however that wasn't all. Justin stuck his hand out and a barrier made out of seemingly solid flamed appeared and stopped the Hound in his tracks.
"You're mine," Justin calmly said as the Hound was hit with raw telekinetic force - the impact exploded with flames as the Hound was sent flying through a building. The Hound got up as he faced Justin and black fog appeared out from around him and another barrage of bones appeared and flew directly at Justin. However, instead of the Soul-Self protecting him, Justin merely deflected them with his brand new abstraction. He quickly flew through the machinegun-like barrage of bones and other nonsense as he closed the distance to the Hound. The beast of black death lunged at him with his jaws open... however, Justin fired another blast of telekinetic energy that hit the Hound dead on and sent him flying into the ground.
The Hound was then lifted off the ground with the same burning aura and hit with another crashing blast of telekinetic force that sent him flying overhead to the treeline... and Justin was right behind him. The Hound hit the ground and Justin floated over the hound as he hit him with one powerful blast after the other that made a larger and larger crater into the ground that was also on fire. When Justin relented The Hound was on his side and he grinned and spot his one-liner.
"Looks like death doesn't come as th-" That one-liner got cut off as the fog came out of the Hound at lightning speeds and grasped onto Justin and yanked him through the air. He felt his emotions being sapped from his body as the Soul-Self disappeared. He was brought face to face with the Hound who climbed up to his feet and faced Justin.
"Ah... what a great fight..." The Hound said, "... Yet, you didn't make me use more than two percent of my power."
Shiiiiiiiiiit... he was going easy on him the whole time.
"I've got to hand it to you, Justin Liao," The Hound said, "You have passion, power... among other things."
"I refuse death," Justin said as he tried to break free but couldn't. The Hound brought him close.
"Even though you've been defeated, you still have a little fight left in you..." The Hound said, "... You truly will be a worthy successor."
The fog disappeared as Justin immediately deployed the soul-self to keep up in the air he was confused.
"What does that mean?"
"Change is coming, Liao," The Hound said, "And the bringer of change is death..."
The Hound sunk into the ground into the fog and disappeared into nothing and left Justin with some parting words.
"... and everyone dies. Even I, Liao. When the time comes, I will find you..."
That Hound... Justin floated to the ground as the Soul-Self disappeared. He was mysterious as always but was he toying with him the whole time back at that night... he said that he would claim Justin's soul. Still, he didn't stipulate when. Justin sighed as he looked around and then began the long walk home. He walked back where he left the crystal and picked it up.
"...Justin?" Tuyen appeared from around the corner slightly out of breath, not particularly surprised at who the source of the fire was. She'd just been on a short, far too thoughtful, walk after the group had gone their separate ways when she'd seen his soul self and heard the fight a short distance off. By the time she'd appeared there was just Justin. "Are you alright? Did something happen?"
Tuyen... she was still even here? Justin had his hands in his pockets as he looked at her. It was awkward... mainly because he was silently staring at her for what was probably a minute now. There was something wrong - when he looked he felt something that couldn't exist. Even before any of this happened. Now, with his renewed self, he couldn't go with it.
"I'm fine," Justin said, "I just wanted to know if... you're okay. Like, you know, with everything that's going on."
"I'm alright, aside from being basically homeless," Tuyen laughed nervously, shifting uncomfortably even as she forced herself to keep her gaze on him. It had been a long time, and they needed to talk.
Justin ran a hand through his hair before he realized he needed to stop dancing around the issue.
"Tuyen, I have a confession to make," Justin started his speech. "I've been lying to you, and I've been lying to myself. I thought it was because of what happened with my grandmother but I... I realized it was something else. And I know you've been feeling the same way, so I think we should just end it here because we're just... incompatible, if you know what I mean."
"I know," Tuyen sighed softly even as she forced a smile. "I've been lying too, even if it's still hard to admit to myself. We never really worked as more than friends, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the time together. But I agree that we should just end it here. That would be for the best."
"Yeah," Justin said with a smile. They've come to an understanding, and she didn't seem hurt by the revelation. To be honest, he felt like she swung the other way too with the way she was looking at his grandmother. "But, Min though... I think he'd be more my speed." He laughed with his hands in his pockets.
A hand flew to Tuyen's mouth as she choked back a laugh. "Well, I can hook you up if that's what you want," she teased, shrugging as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. It wasn't something she'd said out loud yet, but she felt like it was fine now. Accepted. "And maybe you could use your good looks to attract some girls for me to steal in exchange, yeah?" Her eye lit up with laughter and a bright, relieved smile.
"Ehhhh, I don't know," Justin said as he put a hand on his chin. "Min has a stick so far up his ass I think it'd kill him to take it out!" Before he started laughing. This was... nice. He looked at Tuyen in a different light now. She was... his friend now. Not a shield or a guard for his insecurities or what he was. They were perfect now. Perfect this way.
"So, are you really going to be alright?" Justin asked, legitimately. "We both have a very long road ahead of us with all of these... changes, y' know?"
"Honestly, I don't know," Tuyen shrugged as her smile faded, even as a bit of laughter remained in her eyes. It was nice to have someone concerned for her - someone, she could now properly consider a friend. She glanced momentarily at the shadow that still clung to her, even though it was no longer the same creature that had tormented her (as much). "Min is going with his parents to San Francisco, but I know I don't want to go with them. I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not anymore. So I don't know what I'm going to do or where I'm going to go but, I'll figure it out..." She grimaced slightly. "Sorry, that was a lot."
Yeah, it was weird not knowing what to do next. Justin felt the same way at this point. Sure, his goal was to honor his grandmother and fulfill her wish from the other side - but then what? Was he going to try to pretend things were normal? Course not. Things were, as they thing, completely fucked. However, Justin was going to focus on the now; his new "best friend".
"I would offer you a place to stay in LA... but, I don't think you'd want to deal with mama Liao," Justin said as he ran a hand through his hair. "She'd make you wish you were homeless."
Justin knew that his mother wouldn't take it too well bringing random girls from Montana to live with them... that isn't his wife and or girlfriend.
"And before I head back to LA, I got things I need to do," Justin said, "You know, go on a weird quest, stop another bad guy. That jazz."
"That's okay, I don't think I want to deal with that either," Tuyen smiled slightly. She'd dealt enough with overbearing parents that weren't her parents and she was pretty sure that would just be going back to square one. She'd figure out something - she still had some money left by her father, after all.
"Another bad guy? You sure do move on fast. I hope for your sake, and the world's, that it's not as bad as the Glutton was."
Justin smirked.
"Don't worry, even if he is as bad as the Glutton," He started, as he raised his fist to his chest-level and it engulfed in flames. "I'll shove his ass right back where he came from and make him wish he wasn't born."
"Of course you will," Tuyen laughed even as she rolled her eyes at his confidence and fiery display. "I'm certain that you'll do just that but... well, if you end up needing any help you've got my number and all. My shadow may have been a pain before but it's pretty good at fighting when I can convince it. I doubt you'll need it, though."
"Of course, Tuyen... I know I probably wouldn't have been able to do any of this on my own," Justin began floating in the air, but before he was gone he turned back to look at Tuyen. "Maybe... you can join me?" He asked.
It was hard swallowing his pride but he didn't want to adventure alone.
"I'd love to," Tuyen smiled brightly even as she had to crane her neck to look up at him. "It's not like I have other plans and, well, someone needs to stop you from burning everything down, right?"
"But that's the best part," Justin said as he extended his hand to Tuyen.
Tuyen went to take his hand but paused before she got too close. "You know you're on fire, right?"
There was a brief pause.
"... Oh yeah," Justin felt stupid, "I guess we can walk."
It was true.
In Farmer Hill, everything changed. Kimberly saw that firsthand. While everyone went their separate ways to try to act like things were normal... Kimberly had other plans. The Walton family moved down south to Florida. They were always thinking about it, but after their house was flattened they went through with it. So now, Kimberly lives in the metropolis of New York, she misses home but... this is how these things go. She went through on finishing her degree at New York University and she's putting it to good use. She felt the winter breeze hit her as Kimberly was forced to put her hands in her pockets. She thought, after living near mountains in Montana all her life, she would be more used to this.
Kimberly approached the gates to a graveyard and saw that it was chained down tightly, she grabbed onto the lock and gave it a little shake. She looked over the ominous fence and wondered if she could just hop it - but that was too much effort as she wasn't alone. Kimberly turned around and faced the person behind her. A guy with dirty blonde hair, that was scrawny and kinda white trash - holding a camera. If anyone stuck out like a sore thumb it'd be them -just because, individually they wouldn't be that standout but together... they were the oddest couple. He held the camera as Kimberly reached into her leather, vintage-styled satchel and pulled out a photograph of the other side of the gate.
"You know the drill, Rowan."
Kimberly snickered as she started glowing. She then stuck her hand out as Rowan grabbed on and the two disappeared in a flash of light. Then they appeared on the other side and were in the graveyard, giving Rowan a nod, she said.
"Hit it."
Penny... was right. Kimberly didn't do much, much to her distress, during the whole shitstorm with the Glutton which she regreted. Just that, after Jordan died, she didn't know what to do and was dragging herself along step by step. However, Kimberly couldn't just walk away from all of that and act like everything's normal. Hell no. Pretending isn't in her nature and despite how hard many of them try to move on like it's nothing, it's apart of them now. The whole thing will shape and define each one of their actions from here until... probably their death.
Rowan pressed the button on the camera and the rest light was the cue for Kimberly to get into the character she pulled out her microphone as she said.
"Hello, my name is Kimberly Walton, and this is Project Worlds Unknown," Kimberly began the introduction to her video. Most other people, after what happened, would probably have given up on such things - but not Kimberly. If anything, her interest in the supernatural has only grown... she couldn't help but take it a bit more seriously though. "This is the Riverside National Cemetary where a fire Apparition is believed to have taken residence. Going off some Reddit posts; this Apparition has been attacking people who come by and nobody has a clue as to why. Let's see if, today, can get to the bottom of this."
On the other hand, Kimberly was going to try to defend her community from the Extra-Normal anyway she could. And the way she picked was rather... eccentric? She wasn't sure anymore, but she decided to use her show as a cover for her actions - along with achieving her dreams of being an internet superstar. Do some theatrics, editing, and other nonsense, and the money prints itself. Enough to support Kimberly and allows her to make this her career! Along with bagging a little extra money if she "ghost hunted" for some rich people.
They walked through the graveyard as they approached the very center of the graveyard a massive pillar of fire appeared and when it faded it revealed a demonic creature out of the flame. He floated with his arms crossed, creating an orange light as far as the eye could see. Wendy looked behind her and Rowan took cover behind a gravestone with the camera positioned and then turned around to face the firey being.
"Who dares enter my domain...?" The being asked and Kimberly wondered if some random tombstone could be considered a "domain".
"Oh, um," Kimberly said as she kept the microphone to her mouth. "My name is Kimberly Walton, Ghost Hunter."
"Ghost Hunter...? I am no "Ghost", child," The Apparition said, "I am Agni, the spirit of fiery revenge, and I've come to reclaim my domain."
"I certainly have a dangerous ghost on my hands here! Look at the flames!" Kimberly looked back as Agni furrowed his brow.
"Child..."
"I'm going to try to negotiate with it!" Kimberly, still staying in character said, "Oh, Agni, the great spirit, why haven't you passed on?!"
"Child..."
"There must be something keeping you-"
"ENOUGH GAMES!" Agni shouted, "I am not here to amuse you, child!"
The fire got more intense as the Apparition created fireballs in the palms of his hands.
"Yup, I think the reasoning is out of the window!" Kimberly said as her stance dropped. Agni shot both hands out and two orbs of fire cut through the air at lightning speeds... but this wasn't the Kimberly back at Farmer Hill. When she saw the orbs coming she immediately dove behind a tombstone and when the fireballs hit they exploded. However, Agni roared as his maw opened and created a jet flame that went directly for Kimberly...
... However, she disappeared into a flash of light not unlike the flash of a camera - except it was a purple color. Kimberly had teleported across the graveyard and in her hand contained several different photographs of the graveyard. From a wide variety of different angles... see, Kimberly wasn't an idiot. Before she even attempted this, she took photographs to make great usage of her abstraction. She grinned as Agni looked across the graveyard at her.
He let out a roar as he charged Kimberly a swirling inferno in place of his legs and Kimberly was forced to run.
"Do I keep recording?!" Rowan shouted the question.
"KEEP RECORDING!" Kimberly shouted as she was literally running for her life. "THIS IS GREAT FOOTAGE"
Kimberly focused on another photograph and teleported behind Agni... except she reached into her satchel and pulled out her camera. Her old, trusty, camera... she would never leave this behind. Agni roared as he tossed a fireball in the direction of Kimberly and she dodged as it hit the tombstone and shattered it on contact. She definitely didn't want to get hit by that. She kept one photograph out as she noticed Agni sinking into the ground, burning a massive hole.
"Perfect." Kimberly primed her camera as she heard Agni burst out of the ground in a flaming display of strength. And she merely took a picture of him.
"What?" Agni said as he found himself stopping in his tracks... as he was getting sucked into the camera's eye. He grabbed onto the ground and created massive firey claw marks in the ground as he couldn't prevent his capture. Was she toying with him the whole time? Agni turned his head and saw the brown-haired one still recording him. Eventually, he was sucked into the camera... which produced one photograph with nothing but him. Kimberly grabbed the photograph and grinned as Rowan got close.
"Col-lected," Kimberly chuckled her catchphrase.
You see, Kimberly discovered an aspect of her abstraction - or was it even there to begin with. She could seal Apparitions inside of her camera but taking pictures of them... and it was usually an instant process. Certain Apparitions needed to be weakened first, or have several different pictures taken of them. Kimberly slid Agni into her satchel as she looked around... the whole place was on fire.
"I wish I could have gotten more footage," Kimberly hissed, "He would have made some cool scenes."
"But, this isn't going to go unnoticed," Rowan said - while he knew that the Extra-Normal couldn't be perceived by the normal.
"I know..." Kimberly said before she had a mischievous smile on her face, one that suggested that she had trouble on her mind, "But, you know..."
Her hand wrapped around Rowan's as she smiled at him, and whispered.
"... At least we get to enjoy the walk home."
Somewhere.
There was a light.
A strange ball of light.
Wrapped in thorns and vines made out the same green light.
After a moment.
It realized something.
I am the ball of light.
I didn't have hands.
Feet.
Or even eyes.
Yet.
I can think.
I can see.
I can feel.
Like I'm human.
But not.
What am I?
Where am I?
Or better yet, why am I?
I have memories.
I have a name.
I'm not even sure if it's mine anymore.
The ball of light floated up into the air... all it saw was a destroyed town. With nowhere to look or go, they kept going. It was completely desolate. Not a soul in sight. The only thing that they saw was the animals that now take refuge inside of the place. They kept going, being the only source of the light in the dead of the silent night. They hovered through the streets of the town until they stopped at one building that was still relatively intact. There was a sign.
Grand Ridge Academy.
"... Why hello there," The ball of light heard a voice from behind them, and they saw a skeleton with demonic horns wearing a suit. He floated with his hands in his pockets. "You must be a fresh apparition which is usual for disasters like this. Do you know your name?"
The ball of light wasn't sure if they could even speak. They had no mouth... but a mind that can comprehend words. And how the meaning keeps changing. However, they tried to speak.
"I have one, but I'm not sure if it's mine anymore..."
"Oh?" The skeleton said, "If you're not sure, then just give me something."
"... The Nurturing Will."
He kept laughing with his hands in his pockets.
"My name is Thorton Walters."
That name was a name The Nurturing Will knew. Thorton Walters had many names... terror across the multiverse backed by his organization, the Inner-Circle. He was an enemy of the League and plenty of others... however, he was sealed within Shimmer. They figured with the death of the Glutton and the return of the Godforce he was able to escape. That meant that he was going to resume his plans. Not that the Nurturing Will was planning on trying to stop him - they were done fighting Extra-Normal threats.
"I heard that the Glutton was destroyed and I just couldn't believe it! The All-Verse. Finally rid of that abomination!? I just had to see it for myself!" Thorton placed a hand on his chest as he looked off into the distance. "How about you, what's your story?"
"I... lived here, in Farmer Hill, I did everything to stop the Glutton," The Nurturing Will started, "In the end, I sacrificed myself to save the people that did it for me."
"Well, isn't that interesting?" Thorton said, chuckling, "No wonder you came back as an Apparition..."
"Yeah... I don't know what to do now," The Nurturing Will said, "I feel like all I've done was to stop that thing..."
"That's a problem most young Apparitions face," Thorton said, "Perhaps, you should join me. I've had quite a long nap and I'm after great things. The key to everyone's happiness."
"I think... I'm going to try to live for myself, Thorton," The Nurturing Will wanted no part in his crusade. "I don't know what that is yet but I'll find it."
"Ah, then I would suggest finding a human... somewhere," Thorton said, as a black portal appeared behind him and he hovered into it. "Maybe you can find a common language with them..." Thorton disappeared and that left the Nurturing Will lost as ever.
They disappeared into a portal of their own and shifted from one universe to the next. And next thing the Nurturing Will knew, they were in the middle of an expansive desert. They believed they were in Glint, the last place where they wanted to be an Apparition - however, they had an idea. There was this place in the middle of Africa that they wanted to visit, so the Nurturing Will floated for days on end. For about ten days and ten nights until they finally reached their destination. A very... basic village crafted out of loose materials like wood and leftover stone. All the Nurturing Will could see was dying and starving men and women... and children. Skin and bones... barely able to react to the Apparition floating into their village.
This... this wasn't right.
The Nurturing Will floated over to the fields that surrounded the village that were dead. In an instant, massive fields of lush fruits and vegetables began to grow to provide sustenance for the village. Probably enough for months... if they don't immediately devour it all. Soon enough the village was surrounded by vegetation and forest. The villagers celebrated as they immediately went to eat the food.
However, on the outskirts, the Nurturing Will floated towards a house in the middle of nowhere. There sat an elderly African woman with grey hair sitting on her rocking chair watching it all. The Nurturing Will floated over to her and she asked in a language that most couldn't understand.
"Who are you?" She asked.
The Nurturing Will thought hard and their body changed features. It went from a ball of light surrounded thorny vines and branches to a more humanoid form. Eventually, when she was finished shaping itself, it was a very familiar form. In truth, the Nurturing Will was unsure of whether or not they even should be taking this shape... but it was the only shape that came to mind. The Nurturing Will smiled at the woman as they said.
"I am the guardian of this town," She said, "The Nurturing Will."
Even though the Awakened had left Farmer Hill, there was still one final Recollection that they needed to see. One that would change everything.
John Reid had everything he wanted. Money. A beautiful wife. Loving children. And more importantly of all; power.
Though, was it really... perfect?
John Reid walked through his house in the dead of night. He opened up a door and saw his daughter asleep in bed, he smiled as he gently closed the door with the knob clicking. He went back into his bedroom to see that Amy Reid was gone. He sighed. This was the third time he noticed that she was gone in the middle of the night. First, she said that she was going to the bathroom and he nodded back off. Then it became... a routine. Then he realized that she was going nowhere near the bathroom and wondered how many other times did she disappear.
He heard a noise downstairs and immediately was sent on high alert. John Reid immediately reached underneath his bed and pulled out a box with a lock... unlocking it he pulled out a Remington shotgun. As powerful as he was... it'd be easier to explain killing someone with a shotgun than a bolt of lightning. However, he'd get the drop on them. He floated up into the air until he was a few feet off the ground and pushed open the door. John Reid heard a sound that was similar to the water running as he floated down the stairs into the kitchen. When he got there he saw somebody hunched over the kitchen sink like they were cleaning something and prepared to cock his shotgun. He stopped when he recognized the person leaning over the sink.
However, he could recognize her from anywhere.
"Amy?" John said as Amy immediately whipped around and John saw the horrible look on her face. She was bruised, beaten, and covered in blood... and his jaw went agape as he walked over to his wife and put his hand on her shoulder. "Wha-what happened to you?"
"I just..." Amy said, "Fell."
"This was not a fall... Amy, what's been going on with you lately?" John said.
"Nothing, John,"
"You've been disappearing at random."
"It's nothing."
"Being secretive."
"John..."
"And now you're here beaten, covered in blood!?" John almost shouted but he had to remember the kids were supposed to be asleep.
"John!" Amy shouted. "It's nothing, do not worry about it."
"Have you been doing drugs?" John asked as he got close, "I can- I can get you some help, Sharon."
However, John heard some small footsteps behind him as he turned around and noticed a little girl, about nine or eight years old wearing blue PJs and had red hair. She wiped her eyes off as she said, "Mommy, daddy? What's going on?"
John's heart sank as he knelt and put a hand on his daughter's shoulder,
"Bláthnat," He said, "Go back to sleep, it's okay..."
While this was going on Amy snuck by them and went upstairs and John sighed as he picked his daughter up. He carried her upstairs in his arms and placed her right back to sleep right into her bed and sighed. Before John went back to sleep himself... however, he kept his eye on Amy for the next while. He never let her out of his sight - and soon enough she stopped disappearing at night.
Until a few months later when John woke up in the dead of the night. Amy was gone and John shook his head - he was going to get answers now. He immediately hopped out of bed as he forced a Recollection to occur. Amy got out of bed and walked into Bláthnat's room and picked him up. That was when the Recollection ended. John's heart sank as he immediately threw on his jeans (or his "Dad jeans" as Sharon called them) along with his tan boots and ran out the door of his house. The first he was assaulted by was the winter snow... Montana was beautiful when it snowed, except it was the same sight that John has seen his entire life so it wasn't all that special or peculiar. He floated up into the air and focused...
And suddenly a blue line appeared from himself into the woods. He flew through the air at lightning speeds following after this pathfinder - until it leads him to the mountain. He's been here quite a few times in the past but why is Amy taking Bláthnat here..? He sped up as he approached the entrance and kept following the pathways fast as he could... until he made it to the place where he had his final confrontation with the final Awakened and where that abomination - the Glutton - was sealed. Right in the middle of the room, John saw Amy facing the orange demon behind the white shield, but her back was to him and there was something in her hands.
"Amy!" John shouted and Amy turned around and she had Bláthnat with a knife to her throat. His jaw dropped as he saw Amy with glowing orange eyes.
"Oh good, you're here!" Amy shouted, "You're here to see our God released?"
"Amy... oh my God," John said as he came closer, "... What has gotten into you?"
"My eyes are opened, John!" Amy said, "All my life there was something very wrong here! Now I understand it!"
"Amy... let Bláthnat go..."
"No, John," Amy said, then she grinned "... She's our sacrifice."
"Dadd-" Bláthnat tried to say before her throat was slashed and her blood was sprayed all over the place.
"Bláthnat!" John said as he ran over to her... he knelt and cradled her body as Amy walked over to the barrier. She laughed as he placed her hand against it and a white light pulsed down her arm. There was a loud crash as cracks formed on the barrier.
"Awaken!"
She laughed louder and louder before she felt a wave of intense pain overcome her. It was something she felt before, like being set on fire but not. She immediately dropped to her knees but kept her hand on the barrier as more cracks formed. The light of the Glutton glows brighter and brighter...
And John had no choice... he fired a beam at Amy and it pierced her directly through the heart. Almost immediately she fell over.
Then John fell on his knees with his face in his hands.
A few years later Amy and Bláthnat were buried in the Reid farmhouse. That just left Sharon and John... he knelt over their graves, crying yet again that he failed. He was about to give all of this up. He sighed.
"Dad..." John heard Sharon's voice as he turned around to see his daughter wearing a leather jacket with her hands in her pockets.
"Yes, honey?" John said with a singsong.
"It's been years, Dad," Sharon said.
"I know..."
"What happened to Mom and Bláthnat?" Sharon said as she narrowed her eyes.
John Reid was silent as he stared at her wordlessly.
"Fine," Sharon said, "I'll just find out myself!"
She said before she took off in a different direction and John, briefly, was unsure of whether or not he should follow her. Before he shook his head and activated his pathfinder abstraction. It leads him on the exact path that Sharon took... which lead him to Hillview High. He walked inside and came across the room... the room where Amy Reid found her targets. There were dozens of pictures names and other notes all over the walls with some crossed off. Sharon was mortified as she looked around... when John walked in, she turned around as she said.
"... Are you the one that has been killing people in Farmer Hill?"
For a second John paused, his mouth opened almost on reflex. Before he closed his eyes and admitted.
"... Yes."
"... Wh-why?"
"To protect us," John said, "This is what it means to be the guardian of Farmer Hill."
I have to protect Amy Reid's name.
"... Did you kill mom?"
John didn't say anything and in a fit of rage, Amy slapped him as she let out a hellish shriek. She stormed out of the room and John couldn't blame her. If it meant protecting Amy Reid, he'd take the brunt of anything.
He sighed.
It'd all work out in the end.
"... So that's what happened to Jordan."
However, everything faded away in time until it was two people standing in a dark void. Everything that just played out was one long Recollection between two people. One, Jordan's recently resurrected cousin, Madison Brown, being showed what happened by the other Kimberly Walton. Who was clutching her camera with both hands and had it hanging at her crotch-level.
"Yeah... I thought you deserved to know," Kimberly said.
"I don't know what I'm going to do with this... information," Madison said as she looked at Kimberly, before averting her gaze and staring into the dark void which she found oddly beautiful. "Does... I... this isn't the way this should be."
"Huh, funny," Kimberly said with her hands in her pockets. "That's what Jordan said..."
"I don't think I can change things so I am going to live for her, and her sacrifice. I'm going to make every day about Jordan" Madison said, "Tha... thank you for showing me this, Kimberly."
Kimberly nodded her head... before they both vanished.
Without the Godforce to draw people to Farmer Hill, in time, the town effectively died. After the destruction, there was barely anything left. Almost every house and major business had collapsed in on itself, and any businesses moved out elsewhere. The farming community that kept the town running was completely gone, and the elders that would have likely stayed there until they died got their wish. Most of their homes were destroyed and the ones that weren't were barely habitable. Farmer Hill ended up a ghost town as it was decided that it was not worth rebuilding. All that was left were the buildings that were destroyed that told a story.
The sad, sad, tale of Farmer Hill.
The birthplace of something new.
Thousands of new tales and adventures, all over the world, have popped up.
"And roll credits."
Wha... what's going on?
All she saw was blackness... and she didn't know how or why she even got here. She looked down and saw that she was completely naked in this dark void. Gee. Great. The girl wondered what in God's name was going on here. However, in the distance, she saw a black wolf with red eyes approaching her... the Hound? The Hound casually walked to her side and stopped. "Bláthnat Reid..." The Hound started.
"You're getting another chance."
"Ahahahahahahahaha... So they think they've won..."
In the darkest corners of the universe, where the Child, nor the Hound, nor the Awakened could touch. There was a light. A light in the endless void of screaming and horrors. It was a light that forced all the other horrors away as if it was the greater horror. The nightmare to nightmares, and like many nightmares this one keeps coming back.
"... I knew you'd have a plan, master," The Speaker said as they floated in the darkness, cupping a small ball of orange light in their hand the size of a marble. However, they affectionately stared at it. The Speaker caressed the... infantile form of the Glutton and felt pleasure like never before. "Let them fear us... let them hate us..."
The Herald's eyes glowed with an unholy color as they lost form... seemingly transforming into a mass of glowing sparks and embers.
