06-09-2015, 06:59 PM
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.
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.
![[Image: 2WaRJHm.png]](http://i.imgur.com/2WaRJHm.png)