Where I Am

[Athena Myaló]

After months upon months of strange adventures and rapidly-changing surroundings, Athena had gotten used to waking up in unfamiliar places with little to no explanation. Still... how did she get here? The transition from home to this world was so fuzzy in her memory that she wondered for a moment if she had fallen back into her mind again. She shivered a little. She’d rather not repeat that series of events a second time. Only one way to find out. She slowly reached under her hair and untied the blindfold over her face, pulling it to the side. She still couldn’t see. Good. This was reality, then. She replaced the blindfold. Second question: Where was she? She cast around with her mind – and could immediately tell something was gravely wrong.

First of all, her sense was blocked somehow. Whereas formerly she could have focused on any area around her and “seen” anything in it with crystalline clarity, things too far from her were… dark. She could tell that she was seated on the brim of a serene fountain, but past sixty feet or so, she couldn’t have even detected a two-story house. Second of all, she was alone. Entirely alone. Not that she minded solitude, but not knowing where the other Souls were put her on edge. Upon realizing this, she laughed at herself slightly. I’ve become far too dependent. I’m not a five-year-old missing my mommy and daddy – I can function perfectly well on my own. Besides, they’re most likely somewhere nearby; I just can’t tell because of this infernal dampening of my senses. Despite this self-reassurance, though, Athena could somehow tell in the back of her mind that they weren’t close. She fingered the pendant around her neck – a simple bronze gear on a leather cord that Delta had given her. Should she use it? She had promised never to utilize its primary function except in an emergency, but it had other abilities, the easiest of which was allowing her to see through Delta's eyes. That would let her know where he was, at the very least, and probably the others. That would be the best course of action at this point. She momentarily sent out a mental link, pushing her consciousness through the pendant and out towards wherever he was – and it was cut off. Nothing was there but blackness.

The shock showed visibly on her face, even without any expression in her eyes; the color drained out of her skin. That is hardly possible. If the necklace couldn’t connect them… then her captain - Delta, the Soul of Time, the only person she had ever truly trusted and cared about - was entirely out of reach.

Immediately, Athena felt the swelling of emotion: panic, grief, worry all rose up inside of her and began to push down the walls that she had constructed to protect her mind. No. You can't allow that, Athena, you know that.

~~~

The task was complete - it was done - the Baroness was killed by Athena's own hand, as it had been planned. She had broken the steel grip of the twisted woman's control over her mind. She was free. Wasn't she?

Athena opened her eyes. The room swirled in fantastic, incomprehensible patterns. She opened her mouth and a scream somehow pushed its way out, mostly without her consent. She was being attacked - floating on the ocean - lost in darkness - her friends had turned against her and were lunging at her again, Kattly aiming a rifle at her face - the walls dissolved into purple goo - a dagger.

Athena clutched onto that vision as the rest of the images barraged her mind. A dagger. Somehow, through the psychosis and flood of warped ideas, she knew what she had to do. She wouldn't be held back by fear or self-preservation - it was a great relief. She had half a mind to start quoting Shakespeare. O, happy dagger... Wait, what was Shakespeare? And what was a half-mind, anyway? Was it the half that knew about Shakespeare? Was it the half that had turned against her? No, that was her whole mind, and then some.

Stop. No more of that. That way madness lies. She trained her gaze on the dagger. It was thin and teal-handled, held in someone's hands, but she didn't even dare look up to see who. She scrambled unsteadily towards it as the world tilted and shrank around her. A hand up - her own hand changed to dragon claws in her vision as she grabbed the hilt, but she focused her eyes on the blade and ignored it. She drew the weapon towards her, trying to keep from convulsing as terrors attacked her from all sides. Almost there.

Two swift movements, and it was done. Nothing but blackness. She sat down on her knees, listlessly holding the dagger in her hands as blood spilled from her face. She focused on the sounds around her - shouting, crying, someone screaming her name - but she only felt happiness. The nightmare was all over.

A jolt passed through her body as she realized she was wrong. She could feel it - the insanity creeping up the back corners of her mind, in the recesses and shadows. It would never leave her completely. But she wouldn't let it take over again. All she had to do was keep her mind under control. She simply had to stay calm.

~~~

Athena took a deep breath and decided to approach the problem from a more analytical standpoint. So her allies were inaccessible. If the necklace wouldn't function, that could mean one of two things: either Delta was dead, or in a different dimension entirely. She would not accept the first one. Best not to even consider it. So he was probably with the others in some other dimension. But what dimensions were there? As far as her knowledge extended, there were only three: the Timelines. She had been to both the First and Second, and whatever this place was - with her warped powers and this "Omni" - was certainly not either of them. So it was the Third... right? If Kiarza had told her that there were only three planes of existence, she had no reason not to believe him. He was a god, after all. Well, best to work on that assumption for now.

So, she was in the third Timeline. All she remembered hearing about it was negative: one ultra-powerful and insatiably violent high power (that already went against what she had seen of this "Omni," but her perception of him could be wrong - after all, she'd encountered him for only a few moments, though it had seemed longer), and darkness, fear, and danger around every corner. And without the other Souls, she had no power to summon a cross-dimensional white hole, so essentially, she was trapped here. At least, "for as long as she interested" the Omnipotent One. Well, at least she could be reborn. That was pleasant.

Still, the fact remained that without the others (especially the warrior Soul, Abstract), she would need to defend herself. She stood up and started pacing, and was unnerved when she realized that she couldn't feel the comforting weight of either the God Sword or Crescent Gold on her back. She had nothing to defend herself with but her powers - and even those seemed oddly weak. Wait a minute. Hadn't the Omnipotent One said that she could get anything that she desired? All she had to do was use that orb he gave her. She pulled it out of her pocket and rolled it around in her hand. "Okay, Omnilium," she muttered quietly, "I want my weapons back."

She could feel that the stuff was working - its presence was warping somewhat. Contrary to her expectations, however, it wasn't instantaneous, so she sat down again on the stone wall surrounding the fountain as it transformed. In several minutes, she had the God Sword strapped to her back again. Because she was on edge, she kept Crescent Gold in her hand, but folded into its dormant state. No need to seem too openly hostile, after all. There was also some of the Omnilium left in its orb form. I suppose I'd better put that away, she thought to herself.

Then Athena jumped. As soon as she had decided to put it away, it was absorbed into her skin. All of a sudden, it was just gone. “Wait, what?” she said aloud, startled. Then she paused. She could still feel the power emanating from it. It was… inside of her? She tried to make it collect in her palm again, and it obeyed, swirling up into a perfect orb. Another desirable feature of this dimension. After all, Omni had instructed her to get more, and after a while it would become cumbersome without some way to easily carry it. She absorbed it again with an effortless thought. Perhaps she'd eventually become accustomed to this place... although it would bother her if there were literally no other people, which is what seemed to be the case so far. In fact, she couldn't sense so much as a building. Aside from the fountain, it was completely empty.

Athena stood up smoothly from her sitting position and began walking in a very straight line, face hidden in shadow by her hood. She would come across something of interest eventually, wouldn't she? And even if she didn't, moving would help to calm her nerves. She had no inkling as to what she would encounter in the Omniverse, and she had the acute feeling of being grossly under-prepared.

[Athena Myaló]

Athena was becoming skeptical.

She had been walking for at least forty-five minutes, probably more. For the first twenty or so, she had been too lost in thought to notice, but eventually the strangeness of the situation began to dawn on her. There was nothing. She heard nothing, and felt nothing but the ground beneath her feet. She saw nothing, too, of course, but that was normal. She wondered for a humorous moment whether she had missed a clearly-marked "Signs of Life This Way" sign somewhere on her trek. After about forty minutes, she was considering turning back. Perhaps she had gone the wrong direction, and returning to the fountain would give her some idea of the correct course. Then again, some gigantic, palatial structure could be just out of reach of her senses, which would make turning back preposterous. It was an irritating paradox that way.

Sometimes she really missed her eyesight.

Just as she was leaning heavily towards turning around, though, she caught a blip of activity within her sense range. She began walking faster toward it, but simultaneously tightened her grip on her weapon. As she approached, she could tell that it was human. That was only a vague reassurance. After another moment, she realized that it was likewise approaching her. She stopped in her tracks. Oh, how it would be lovely to see. She had to wait for the human to get even closer before she could make out its shape and characteristics properly, and by then it could have a gun trained on her head. In fact, it could already. She wondered whether to make any verbal contact, but the other being took the initiative here also.

[Athena Myaló]

"Greetings, traveling Prime!"

Prime? Athena had been called many things before, but Prime was never among them. She wouldn't let her confusion show, though. She simply faced the approaching human. The voice was male, and muffled by some sort of mask... a space helmet, made of the same material as the rest of his armor (as she could tell when he came close enough). He was holding a gun, but in a traditional relaxed position. She jumped a little as she realized that more were approaching behind him - three, four, five? Athena gripped Crescent Gold and automatically tried to delve into the front man's mind to sense his intentions.

She couldn't.

Well. That would make things very different for her. That wasn't even one of her most recently-acquired abilities: she had been able to read minds since the second week of her existence. This dimension was rapidly becoming distasteful to her. Should she attack these people? No, there were too many for her to handle in her current pathetic state. This really was pathetic, after all. So, best to hear them out... and probably run for it if they proved to be hostile. At least she could always run.

The leader of the group stopped a few feet in front of her, Athena analyzing his every move. He coughed slightly and began addressing her.

"My allies and I send warmest welcomes from the majestic Empire of Coruscant. We are glad to see another Prime such as yourself arriving in the wondrous Omniverse." He uses too many positive adjectives, Athena thought dubiously. "We are commanded to assist newcomers in any way they might find necessary. We can answer any questions you might have, and would be glad to guide you to our world if you so wish." Ah, so it's a welcoming committee. Carrying guns. "Coruscant's high leader, Emperor Palpatine, wishes that you consider joining the Empire's faction as well. We are always open to talented Primes who can help us to enforce good and justice across the worlds."

Well, at least they claimed to work for the greater good. She had met plenty of groups that were blatantly evil and proud of it. However, there was no way in the three Timelines that she was going to join this faction of theirs outright. This group reminded her far too much of Firewall.

~~~

Athena, Delta, Abstract, and Zamir stood in uniform, in a line before Alice, their "personal Firewall representative." She held a clipboard as she addressed them.

"Thank you all very much for retrieving that abandoned spaceship so expeditiously. I have no doubt that you will all soon be excellent representatives of our fantastic company." She gave them all a warm-ish, fake-ish smile.

Abstract rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion. Delta shot him a glare, but Athena had to agree on some level. This woman was overly enthusiastic.

"Now, I just need a regular report on the task. Did you encounter any trouble on your way to the empty ship?" Alice continued.

"No, nothing of import," said Delta.

"Was there anything unusual on the ship or in its interior?"

Athena stiffened ever so slightly, but in a very calm voice, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, just anything outside of the regular equipment, especially seemingly dangerous material."

Athena's mind raced. Firewall didn't know, did they? About the strange substance that she had found? They certainly couldn't know how when she touched it, it gave her the strange ability of sensing human presences around her and speaking without her mouth... she snapped back to attention as Alice continued.

"Was there any sort of glowing substance in the ship's main storage container?"

That was far too uncannily specific. What if Firewall did know all about it, and this was a test of honesty? They had to tell the truth. And Athena had to do it. She was the one who had found it. The others were all looking at her expectantly.

"Well, some, yes. It was blue..."

There was no visible change in the face of Alice. There hadn't been much expression to begin with. All the same, Athena's stomach churned. The Firewall employee looked noncommittally down at her clipboard and scribbled a couple of things.

"What did you do?" she interrogated.

"I touched it..." Athena trailed off, growing more and more uneasy.

"And absorbed it?" Alice looked right at her. Athena gave a tiny nod.

As cool as ever, Alice reached into her Firewall official jacket, drew out a pistol, and aimed it at Athena's head, right between the eyes.

From that day forward, Athena was an official fugitive from the most powerful corporation in the universe.

~~~

Yes, definitely best not to trust them all too much yet. But she was quite interested in having some questions answered, and it had just occurred to her that she could be reborn in this world. (That would take some getting used to.) Therefore, she didn't have all that much to worry about, did she? She responded to the man who had greeted her: "I would very much like to see this Empire. I've been wandering for several minutes without direction. In the meantime, I also have just a few questions." The man seemed relieved - perhaps he was used to being attacked instead of treated cordially.
"Very well, this way," he said in an almost-friendly voice. Athena followed, still instinctively gripping Crescent Gold. She wasn't calm just yet.

[Athena Myaló]

Over the next hour or so, Athena prodded enough to get quite a solid debriefing about the world she had been dropped in. Once she had finished interrogating the leader of the armored soldiers (apparently known as "storm troopers"), she no longer felt quite so helpless and paranoid. On the other hand, she still hadn't put her weapon away completely, and any questions posed by the storm trooper about her identity or past were deflected with varying degrees of bluntness. In fact, she could only imagine that, if anything, he felt slightly less comfortable around her than he had when he first approached her. It didn't really matter to her much, though. Once she was in this Coruscant world, she would be all too happy to leave them alone entirely. She now knew enough to get by: Coruscant had seven tiers, with the first being the most thriving (she suspected that the lower ones were less than beautiful, but she couldn't get her storm trooper "friend" to admit as such) and the central area of government; other gates existed in the Nexus along with the Coruscant gateway, each leading to one of eight different worlds; and there were some differences between a "Prime," a being chosen directly by Omni, and a "Secondary," a mortal summoned by a Prime or born of natural causes. This fact intrigued her, and she pushed into it extensively: apparently, most of the realms' inhabitants were normal secondaries, but she was not among them. She was "special."

However, just as she was beginning to feel rather good about her lot in this world, the storm trooper brought up banishment. Athena quickly concluded that it was worth avoiding. Luckily, it didn't seem to be a common occurrence, but the very possibility of being pushed into a world ruled by some demonic uber-powerful entity made her hesitant to take another step. She had to keep moving, though. Towards escape from this world entirely. If death didn't offer a way out, then she'd have to get creative in completing that eventual objective. First, though, to see Coruscant.

About thirty minutes after Athena had joined up with the storm troopers, a message came in through some sort of communicator held by the leader. That reminded her - whatever happened to her Muse? She looked down at her left arm. It wasn't there. Not much of a surprise. After all, her weapons hadn't been present either. She would simply have to summon it. Just as she was about to begin the process, though, the leader exchanged more rapid messages through the communicator and then relayed to Athena and the group that soldiers from "Camelot" were approaching. This, as far as she could immediately gather, was not a desired development, and the whole troop about doubled their pace. According to the leader, fortunately, the soldiers wouldn't reach them before they could travel through the gate.

Athena asked for information about this Camelot. If Coruscant was the image of perfection to these people, she was curious to know what they considered its antithesis. She gathered some knowledge about the Kingdom, but she had suspicions that it was heavily biased. She would have to find out on her own sometime. All they told her about it was that it functioned "differently" - there was hardly any advanced technology to be found; there were several races that all seemed to despise one another, with constant tribal raids on villages of innocents; and the king, named Aragorn, cared little for his people (although when she asked for examples of his behavior, they tended to avoid answering). She didn't want to seem like an enemy or spy, so she gave up questioning about it after a while.

Soon after, they arrived at the Gate. Athena sensed it before the storm trooper announced their arrival - it emitted enough power that she had no problem picking up signals from it once she was within range. It was gigantic, and made of a smooth metallic solid. Two humans - also storm troopers, a man and a woman - flanked the gate, and raised a hand each in greeting to Athena and the unit she was traveling with. The leader responded with a similar salute, and then stated to the Soul of Mind, "We have reached the Coruscant gate." Obviously, Athena thought, but then realized that he was mistaken in his perception of her - he thought she couldn't see. Which was literally accurate, but "blind" was a misleading term to use. She simply knew what was around her, as clearly as if streams of reflected light were being absorbed by her eyes, as long as the objects were close enough. However, she decided, it might be prudent to keep that to myself for now. Things may proceed more in my favor if they underestimate me.

"This way," offered the storm trooper, and then disappeared into the portal. Athena wondered fleetingly how similar the experience would be to passing through a white hole - the closest experience she had undergone to using one of these - and then stepped forward into blankness.

[Athena Myaló]

To be continued in "What Is the City But the People"