We're In This Together, You and Me...

[Saren Crimson]

Where is this…

Where am I…?

This darkness, it’s familiar…

But why have I...I’m not dead yet, am I?

So many questions yet I can’t answer any of them.

It’s so dark...there’s no light anywhere.

So cold...it seems fitting for me.

Staying within this dark space, my eyes shut, time felt as if it didn’t exist here. Wherever here is, I’m not sure. I don’t know if I want to know the answer to that. I can’t feel anything. I can’t see anything. I can’t hear anything.

This feeling of isolation is something I was afraid of but something I sought after for so long. Now that I have it...just what was next?

I didn’t think that far ahead it seems. Of course, I wanted this because I was tired of dealing with everything. I just wanted a new fresh slate. A life to live without those same problems. Though little did I know that I was going to be pulled into something much more, whether I was ready for it or not. I knew from this point forward, I wasn’t going to be the same.

Whether if I changed for better or worse would ultimately be decided by those who I would come to know. I had to be honest with myself, just where was I going to end up when I finally opened my eyes?

Wake up…

There, it was a voice telling me to open my eyes. Cold but warm at the same time. I don't know this person but I feel like there's a semblance of familiarity. As if I heard this voice before but that couldn't have been knowing throughout my young, long life that I've lived alone out in the far reaches of space. Yet, whoever this voice was sounded like it was right beside me.

I didn't want to but I had no choice but to comply. I was afraid of what I might see because I remembered just what it was I was doing before I blacked out. At least now I did but that was all I can remember.

I opened my eyes, slowly as if I was expecting light to hit my eyes but it never did. It was dark but not dark enough that I couldn't see. From there as I fully opened my eyes, the world around me was not the same as I thought I may had came from except, this place...

Made from pools of darkness, much more thicker than any substance than I had in my mind, blood. And here I was, laying right in it. The sky, if you can even call it that was in a perpetual state of twilight. There was a sun on the other side but it wasn't yellow, it was black and shone with black light somehow lighter than the darkness I was in. It wasn't warm, it was cold, very cold but surprisingly I wasn't chilled at all.

My numb body began to wake itself up allowing me to at least sit up once again. Drips of that dark liquid dropped into my body and into the dark puddle below but it made no splash. In fact, there was no sound at all. Not even when I breathed. Still, my mind was as calm as could be. This wasn't normal if the place I was in was evident of that fact.

However, when I happened to glance around at my surroundings, I could see a few trees. Fully bloomed with dark leaves and black roses twisted all over. The thorns were large, sharp, and most of all just wiggling and moving. Animated as if it was alive. I wanted to say something but I know that my voice would never make any sounds so I opted against it.

From what else I could see what happened to be translucent black mobs of what I assumed to be living darkness moving about. While I could see them, they had no sort of substance. If they did, it wasn't in this dimension. They seemed to be gliding along slowly across the pools of darkness on the ground, seemingly unhindered.

One happened to go right through my form, as if it was unaware that I was there even at all. As it did so, I felt nothing but I wind colder than the puddle that I was currently sitting in. However I wasn't cold but I still shivered anyway, whether it was on instinct or perhaps I wanted to have a normal reaction to something, I wasn't sure.

At this point, I decided to get up. My legs were no longer numb so I stood up but as I did so, I felt like the world itself rushed up to meet me as if I was shifting rapidly through space. When I stopped moving, everything stopped along with it. That's when those blobs stopped to look at me as if I disturbed them somehow.

However, they turned back then looked up at the sky. I was curious so I did so as well. From there I saw what seemed to be another being in the sky. Female. She was huge, bigger than anything I've ever seen before. She was curled up in a ball, her eyes closed, and she was naked. Her hair, raven in color just like the rest of the realm I had been in flowed around her and covered up most of her body.

Thinking to myself she must be the source of the darkness, I needed answers. Anything. As calming as this place was, I needed to get back to normalcy. Soon there was a loud rushing sound as if a lot of water was coming my way, I was on alert now. There I saw it, A huge, towering wave of darkness but it wasn't water but pure shadow coming toward me. I looked around to see if there was anything I could do to save myself.

There wasn't, I was alone now.

So I placed my arms up to protect my head at least and closed my eyes, waiting for the moment it'd crash into me. And I waited...and waited.

However, nothing happened. I opened my eyes once again. I saw that I was no longer standing on a puddle but rather over an ocean of dark water but it was clear like regular water and I was standing on top of it. There I saw the blobs again, moving along as if nothing happened. This was highly strange, the more I spent in this place, the more I was starting to understand it.

I happened to look quick back up to the sky but the female was no where to be seen up there. However behind me was a small island and there she was, laying there in the sand. What looked like sand, the only color different than anything else in the rest of this world or wherever I happened to be.

Cautiously, I looked down at the water then I took one step. The top of the water wasn't allowing me to sink through it as if I wasn't allowed to reach the bottom anymore. That was fine by me, so with that in mind I went ahead and walked toward her. As I did so, I began to hear voices in my head. It was low and unintelligible. Then another voice joined in, and another, until I was sure I heard seven different voices in my head.

Even when I thought I stopped my body to at least try to sort them all out. I discovered, my body was still moving although albeit slowly. My legs never stopped walking to her.

The closer I got to her, the more the voice began to grow louder and the more they began to say things I could actually understand.

"Is it him?"

"It must be you."

"You of the second of the seven."

"Do not be scared, child."

"Have no fear."

"I promise everything will be explained."

"All you have to do..."

"Is just reach out to me..."

The last one must have been her voice, when I came back to myself, I was standing over her. She was no longer big. She was small, like a child. Floating in the air, hovering softly. However, I could hear her soft breathing as she slept. Her hair moving and waving still covering her up. Her skin was a fair complexion unlike the world around us. She had a deep black and purple aura surrounding her body. However, it didn't feel evil in nature, in fact, it felt more divine than anything. Calm, just like the rest of the world.

Was this her home? It felt like it, I can feel her presence all around this place even though she was right in front of me. How far this place stretched on for, I didn't know but it felt as if it could've been infinite. I looked down at my hand, that's when I noticed that my body had this white, transparent, otherworldly glow around it. It was in stark contrast to hers. That was when I could feel it, this surge of power within my soul. It was calling out to her, even when I was standing here, our energies began to bend and twist as they were dancing.

I was so enamored with the spectacle that I didn't notice her beginning to stir from her sleep. My eyes, or rather my attention was too focused on what was above me. Soon I felt arms wrap around my shoulders and neck. That got my attention and I looked in front of me to see that she was gone but now hanging on me loosely. Our auras mixed together fully now, making them disappear as if it was searching something and found it.

She slowly opened her eyes, I took note of her deep amethyst color eyes, with a strange otherworldly glow with them too. Her eyes was still half lidded, however. I wanted to say something but she gave a small smile as if she knew what I was going to say. She raised her hand and pointed in front of me, way in the distance. There was a white building, it was very tall, regal looking and amazingly bright compared to everything else.

A snap of her finger which was audible, there was a low but violent rumble. Something was coming. Then a pathway of stone made from the same stone of the building way in the distance rose up from the water in front of me. Then she gave a directive, she wasn't forcing me but rather asking me.

"There...go there..."

She had softly spoke. I looked at it and I nodded.

"We're in this together, you and me. Let's go."

Without a second to spare, I began to walk on the stone path. The island disappeared when I did so as if it was never there in the first place. Soon as I got far enough, the sight behind me completely disappeared. I wasn't going to lose sleep over it though, wherever we must be going must have the answers I'm looking for. I'm sure she's important somehow too.

I say that but I was just going to know just how important to everything she was...

[Saren Crimson]

If you asked me if I believed in a world that wasn't the one I came from, I would've said such things doesn't make sense scientifically. Being a man of rationality, I had little to no belief in other worlds. Now? Well, I'm walking through one. This realm was so strange...so alien. I don't know if words would be good enough to describe this, would it be good enough even if it was? I don't believe so as it goes against everything that I was taught and maybe that's why I'm here.

The scenery changes often as I'm walking as if I'm walking through the lives of others, places they've been, places they've seen, and have yet been to. Some are strange, some are amazingly beautiful and breathtaking, and others are...questionable. I'm not clear why they were shown to me as I'm walking. However, these places...I sense something is wrong. Like this ever growing sickness that's getting strong over time. Blighted, as I would like to say.

I feel this pain in my heart, this sickness in my stomach and I feel scared of it. This feeling was the same when I thought about the woman who betrayed me. Who destroyed me on the inside then nearly killed me. This scar ran deep, like someone twisting a knife into my very being. This ever encroaching feeling in my soul...makes me feel dead on the inside but it's the only way I can describe how I feel when I look at these worlds. I don't know what's in them but it's like they're being slowly corrupted.

It was then that I stopped walking for a moment. I began to think back to how I ended up in this place. An explosion at the heart of my own world due to a universal threat destroyed it after I helped seven others defeat it. Then there was darkness and when I came to, I was in this place. That same feeling poured out of that...thing we had been fighting. It seemed...sad, angry, and vengeful. Like a kid lashing out because they felt threatened. It came to me then.

"How did I remember that?"

It was the only thing that was on my mind. I suddenly wanted to know what actually happened to my body? I pinched myself to see if I could feel pain. I did and yes, it did hurt. So I knew I was still alive but my senses were horribly dulled. The only thing I could even rely on was my sight. Other than the rumbling of rocks earlier, there was still no other sound. Nothing. I wanted to be scared, I wanted to have a normal reaction other than this calmness but nothing else showed but that. My thoughts, was still calm even though I felt empty.

While I sat there wondering if I would ever have a panic attack to the situation I was in, the girl who was on my back who I had forgotten about, had tapped me on the back of the head. It snapped me out of my thoughts and I turned to look at her. However, she didn't say a word and pointed to the tower that was still sorta far away but not as far as it used to be. It seemed, if I could put time to it, I could make it there within another two hours. I couldn't get tired. I don't know if that was even a possible thing here.

I just nodded and didn't speak. After all, I was pretty sure no sounds would come out. While I could hear myself, I doubt anything else could. Not that anything was normal but the only thing with a hint of intelligence in this strange place was the girl on my back and she wasn't going to talk to me. Her demands were pretty clear, just reach the tower. I didn't argue, why should I? If she had answers, it was logical to listen to her and be on my way. I wasn't going to get them anywhere else it seemed like.

So on I walked, and walked, and walked. The scenery changed often. To that of snowy fields, blistering deserts, underwater trenches, and rolling hills and grasslands. I couldn't feel anything walking through them. No temperature, no lack of air, no wind brushing against my form. Nothing. However, nothing lived where I was walking through. Nothing was there, nothing tangible at least. There wasn't anything to impede my progress even when walking through these elements.

"It's like I'm constantly walking through shadows of worlds before there was any life to speak of. Maybe I'm not allowed to see what I haven't experienced yet or maybe this is something I will experience in my future. It's hard to say now." I say speaking to myself in my head. Its weird to me that in order to keep myself normal is to talk to myself, as if I have to rationalize everything I see even though this is an affront to science in every which way you try to slice it.

Although no time passed by, I was keeping it in my head. In order to keep my focus, I began to count. I was up to four hours in this world, from the time I got in here to the moment I was on this rocky path walking. It would take, well approximately, another hour from where I was standing to get where the girl behind me wanted me to go. I wasn't going to lie to myself, even though I couldn't feel the emotion of nervousness, my thoughts couldn't articulate how I would react getting to this grand tower I see and one I was growing closer to.

Surprisingly enough, my thoughts weren't as empty as I thought they would be. This world is almost devoid of any stimuli to speak of other than sight. Anything I touched felt like there was nothing there, anything I try to hear was met with silence, there was no taste even when I was walking through that underwater trench even though I knew it should be heavily salty, and lastly there wasn't any smell either even when I was walking through those beautiful rolling hills and fields. The flowers that were there, didn't have any sort of smell.

It was like I was walking through a world comprised of nothing but air, and not even that because I couldn't feel that as well. Darkness, at least as I know it, didn't have any sort of tangibility despite this world being made up of it yet the tower on the other side of this vast world was filled with nothing but light. The only other thing I could see and the only other stimuli I could react to even if it was by sight alone. This girl that was on my back, I couldn't feel her but I know she was there because she was solid, hard to explain really.

I was now on hour five, and I was in the final stretch of rocks that led up to the tower. The rocks themselves became less bumpy and more smooth and even. They all were now more closer together than far apart. I didn't have to use any energy to jump to distant rocks even though I wasn't using any energy at all. Who knows? Maybe this is all in my mind? Kinda hoped that would be the case but I wasn't sure if I'd even liked that as an answer.

The rocks were now a smooth path as I walked to the gate. Tall, ivory gates. Regal and expertly crafted if I say so myself. Now I stand at the gate. The girl, who had been quite comatose this entire time began to animate. She lifted up her hand and I could see a symbol on the back of it despite her pale features, the mark was quite dark which was quite a contrast. Looked more like a tattoo but I could see what seemed to be free flowing energy moving through the mark on the back of her hand.

I was mesmerized by it, the way the energy moved and twisted...it looked a lot like the cosmic energies of space that had no rhyme or reason just free to move however it wanted. This energy now flowed out of her hand into a series of locks on the gate. The locks had writing on them, writing I could understand. It read: Life, Death, Knowledge, Time, Light, Darkness, and lastly Chaos. The locks weren't actual locks as I knew them, they were carvings of beings I've never met before. When her energy flowed into them, they animated.

They had different colored eyes and what I assumed to being their unique energy signature flowing around them. The carvings used their energy to flow into the center of the gate then there was a loud unlocking sound. I wasn't ready for it and I was startled by the sudden noise. It didn't stop there, however, everything I had been devoid of suddenly snapped back to me. My senses, my feelings, and my thoughts. I gasped a breath of air as my heart gave the biggest lurch I ever felt as if it was ready to jump out of my chest.

I felt weak, really weak as if my body didn't want to keep standing. I felt how tired I was, how hungry I was, how thirsty I seemed to be and there was this constant ringing in my ears as if there was a constant noise playing at a frequency that was barely audible for me to hear but my body to feel. I collapsed but something caught me. In my last moments of consciousness, she stood there holding me. Much taller than I was now. She had a more full body but she was still naked but I was in her arms and she was holding me close.

"You made it here.

Do not worry, child.

Until you're strong again.

I will take care of you.

So don't fret none.

I will explain everything.

But sleep now, rest now.

When you awake again.

You'll be stronger than ever."

She spoke with such power in her voice even though it was the softest I've ever heard. I got a better look at her face here. She had very long amethyst colored hair just like her eyes which covered her more sensitive areas but didn't cover her eyes. She was stronger than she looked and my body lost all sense of struggle and just laid limp in her arms. She began walking toward the tower which was only a short distance away. However, I couldn't stay awake and I fell asleep when she was only halfway there.

She had smiled, the sky was back to the way it was, there was a warm feeling in the air. That of life and love. The energy in the air felt as if I was lucid dreaming. A wayward feeling. I was unconscious but I could feel it in my soul. She disappeared within that tower with me in tow, now I had completely blacked out from everything around me. I was uncertain where she was taking me but I feel as if I could trust her. She didn't mean me any harm yet so for now, I will leave everything in her hands. Me? I will rest. It was a long journey.

I have much to reflect on but...this wasn't so bad. It could've been worse, I know it could've been but it wasn't and the most important thing I was still alive so there was time to get some closure to where I am, what my purpose for being here, and what's my purpose when I finally get out. I had a feeling I was going to take on a responsibility I couldn't imagine I'd take but one that was made for me in mind. Never in my life had I been so sure about anything and little did I know, how right I was going to be.

For now, however, I will leave that for future me. The me right now will stay in slumber for however long I needed and how keen she was on letting nothing disturb me. Good, I'm going to need time process what I had been through if I could even rationalize such a thing...