Hellfire Hexcavation

[Jade Harley]

Traces of river beds and crusty roads of snow cast shadows that paled in the midday sun, not one of them larger or more impressive than the lean, oddly-shaped shadow of the white tower in the distance.

Sitting on the crest of a hill steeped in frosty white, toes curled up snugly inside her shoes and breath misting from the cold, Jade Harley pouted and tucked her arms closer around herself. Despite the snowflakes perched on her eyelashes and the chill biting at her nose, her eyes and ears remained fixated on the slope of a knoll about three hundred yards out.

It was mostly a flat, level stretch of ground that lay before her, spotted with clutches of tiny blue grapes and shallow pools, the steam misting over them betraying the hot springs hidden beneath the innocuous piles of snow.  Gargantuan boulders and a broad-spectrum jumble of stones of varying sizes seemed to have spilled down the hillside in the wake of a clumsy giant, the smell of pond water and soggy, green plants lifting the ashen pastiness cast over the sky. It was a picture-perfect, gorgeous day… something that made it tricky for her to keep her guard up, but totally possible for an expert sharpshooter such as herself!

Still, she counted herself lucky that the snowfall had ceased for a bit— it provided good visibility and, like Grandpa always said, stealth and recon should always be the first priority on a hunt!— but the downside of that was she was pretty dang visible, too. And, well, that was a problem. A pretty huge one, at that! All she could do was sit and frown, hoping for a sign, totally in stomach-churning suspense, staying quiet as a mouse—

Jade almost leapt out of her skin when a voice rudely slashed through the silence. It came from Brennon Yadrisson, the red-bearded dwarf settled beside her on the hill, her prisoner and (temporary) lieutenant in the battle against Team BecBecca. But, it was awkward referring to him as her prisoner, even in her own head, so Jade had settled on the lieutenant title for now. He hadn’t seemed amused when she had first told him of this and, come to think of it, he hadn’t seemed very amused by anything she did to try and lighten the mood the entire time. And, from what he was yattering on about, he still wasn’t particularly pleased with this turn of events.

“Why are we doing this,” asked her dwarven comrade-in-arms. His voice was so flat that it was pretty damn near impossible to assign any interrogatory inflection to his words, even if Jade knew for a fact that it was in there. “You know they’re over that hill, just take your little blue cannon and—“

“Sssshhhh!” Jade hissed, mashing her finger onto his face and very nearly gouging his eye out in the process. Whoops! She drew her finger back and mouthed a silent apology, still trying to exude an aura of super-seriousness despite her smiling lips. On the other hand, before she could really argue his grave incursion here, there was the matter of the enemy to consider.

Heart racing, Jade raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun and the blinding glare of the snow. Her back straightened as she glanced back to check on their target, trigger finger itching and her tongue poking out in concentration. Slowly but surely, her gaze traced along the boulders lining the slope, the flowers, the misty ground springs, but all was deathly quiet and still. Almost too quiet and still, if you asked her. Hmmm.

Your entire bearing reeks of deceit, Mother Nature!  Jade mentally cried, but felt herself relaxing by degrees, anyhow. The final verdict? No movement. She breathed a sigh of relief, shoulders slumping.

Turning to face the dwarf, Jade’s eyes took on a frenzied gleam that the assassin was tempted to shy away from. “Because, silly, that’s not how the game is played! You have to break out your entire skillset… stealth, sneakiness, guile…”

“Those are all the same things, I’ll have you know,” Brennon informed her, clearly uninspired.

Jade stuck her tongue out at him, not even breaking her stride. “… and ninja skills! Now, shoosh, lieutenant dwarf-guy. I think they’re onto us after your little outburst.”

Brennon sighed and looked down at his bound hands, the manacles courtesy of the Kingdom’s soldiers. If only he could break these bonds, bash the silly dog-child over the head with them, possibly fix whatever problem made her so mental in the process, and make off with the star piece in the aftermath… yes, yes, good thinking…

“What does “Quarry-digger” mean, anyway? How did you even get that as your middle name? It’s kind of… weird that your parents might pass that one on to you. I mean, it seems to me that you didn’t turn out to be someone digging quarries for a living, considering where we are now. It’s sorta presumptuous, don’tcha think?”

Brennon’s face became reminiscent of a constipated puffer fish. All it would take was one good clobbering, that was all. All in good time, he supposed. All in good time.

The dwarf was drawn from his homicidal musings when the girl latched onto his arm with a vice-like grip. Before he could whirl around and spit in her ridiculously sunny face, she’d already begun talking excitedly, tugging on his arm and pointing while bouncing like a young miner who’d just discovered her first rare crystal.

“Look, Brennon! A scout!”

Mystified, her companion squinted against the brisk winds in the direction she was indicating. As they both watched from a distance, a white hare flumphed through the snow on the hill opposite to them, black-tipped ears trembling and dark eyes large. The dog-eared girl hardly breathed as the creature hopped along. It paused at the base, tiny pink sniffer twitching and snuffling, and then shot off like a bolt of lightning as it caught sight of something they could not see.

This was, apparently, of some importance to Jade, as she immediately yanked Brennon into a short, bone-crushing hug that was thankfully over as soon as it began. Unluckily, this was not the end of Brennon’s ordeal, as she quickly shoved a whole heap of freezing-cold snowballs into his arms.

“The signal!” the Witch roared at the highest volume her vocal chords would allow, surging to her feet and bodily dragging him along with her, one arm upraised to brandish an imaginary sabre. “Chaaaaaaaarge!”

Despite the fact that a signal had never been mentioned before now, they were suddenly clomping at drunk Clydesdale speed towards the enemy’s base. Jade grinned madly, her buckteeth bared and hair whipping in the wind, hand clamped firmly on Brennon’s shoulder as they half-ran, half-hobbled up the hill.

Is this what Purgatory is like? Brennon wondered, trying not to trip over his own feet as their Clydesdale formation nearly snapped its ankles and ended up at the glue factory.

It was a mighty struggle, powder flying everywhere and the soles of their shoes slipping deep into the slush, but with much focus and determination they finally reached the apex of the rise. There was a lot of yelling and waving their arms around (Jade) and giving the enemy their best death stare (Brennon), only to find that the enemy base had been abandoned some time ago. A few half-shaped snowballs were mashed pathetically onto the ground, the defenses of ice and rock were hardly stacked against an assault, and there were no imaginary twig, plant, and rock rations to speak of, but most importantly, there was not a soul in sight.

Jade let her own ammo drop from her slack fingers at the sight, listening as they did little more than plop uselessly into the snow.

“What…? Where…?” she asked no one in particular, her fluffy white ears drooping over the top of her head. She stomped over the refuse and glanced around, hands on her hips and a perplexed frown on her face. Brennon stood idly by and watched, secretly relieved that no snowball fight was to take place.

A peal of laughter jingled like the cheeriest of bells from somewhere to their left, just out of sight and circling around the slope they were standing upon. Tromping down the hill was much easier than climbing up it despite the clouds of midges whizzing and diving in the air, so it wasn’t long before they discovered the source of the laughter: Rebecca.

The Little Sister was seated beside a mishmash of puddles formed from melted frost and warm spring water, vibrant blossoms and other plant life flush with the shallow banks and an assortment of shiny stones placed in mysterious patterns around her. To Jade and Rebecca’s glowing delight, Becquerel scouted around the boiling springs and cool pools to bring Rebecca new objects to investigate— usually a stone of some kind, that was surefire, but other times a particularly lovely flower, what looked to be the head of a spear, the hipbone of some small creature, and on one occasion, a bright blue feather with black streaks lining its frills. The barkbeast would seat himself before her as the gifts underwent Rebecca’s inspection, all of them joining her pile of treasures whether they were pretty or not, and then set out to find more in short order.

Jade held her hands over her heart and beamed, cheeks glowing and ruddy, while Brennon just stared at her. He hadn’t been able to figure out the girl’s connection to the yellow-eyed child with greasy hair. They definitely weren’t related, at least not by blood, which left only a few other alternatives, one of which was very interesting. He had only heard of the Little Sisters by word-of-mouth, of course, but he knew enough to know that they weren’t supposed to be found outside of the Vasty Deep, and what’s more, only within a certain zone. To remove one was likely a bounty-worthy offense, to  boot! Could Jade Harley have kidnapped this little girl, earning a bounty in the process?

Brennon squinted at the side of the Witch’s head as she bounded down the slope to reach Rebecca’s side, chattering excitedly at the grim-colored girl and receiving a brilliant smile in return. With a heavy flounce, she seated herself right smack-dab in the middle of the wet grass and mud, the galaxies in her skirts fluttering between green and blue and hardly seeming to contract any stains. Strange.

Shaking his head, the stout dwarf sat atop a nearby boulder and settled in to watch his captors go about their silly business, manacles pinching at the soft skin of his wrists. Little white flowers with sunny yellow centers stirred all around on their short stalks, sheltered from the alpine winds by rocks speckled with moss and thick mats of blue mountain flowers growing in the shallow paddies on the ground. His mindset was that he might as well make himself comfortable before settling in to die of boredom, but something caught his eye. Something green, glowing, and blinking like a firefly on a muggy summer night.

The star piece was right there on the ground, slightly stuck into the mud and directly within his reach. The dwarf’s eyes surreptitiously slid back to Jade whose head was thrown back in a laugh, hair spilling out from her hood in boisterous waves. She must have dropped it. That was pretty unfortunate. It would be a crying shame if someone were to...

He could just…

Take…

The star piece...

Picking himself up and nearly rolling like a barrel over onto his stomach, Brennon was able to drop low to the ground, deftly latch onto the star piece with his mouth, and then take off at a hurried run with the celestial artefact clenched between his teeth. Even when a barked shout came from behind him, he just kept on kicking up snow in his wake. He just couldn’t stop grinning.

Jade shouted something that wasn’t really words at all but more of a mixture between sheer frustration and disbelief, nearly tearing the hair from her scalp as she clutched at her head and gaped after Brennon. Her limbs began to flash with an electrical energy that steadily increased in frequency as she prepared to give chase, temper simmering and a solar flare crackling beneath her skin.

She turned to look at Rebecca and Bec right before she zapped away, fists clenched and canine teeth bared in a grimace. “Be back in a jiffy, you guys!”

In a split-second blaze of green fire, she hurtled through Space after a person with stubby little legs and an object of immense power fit into his mouth like a hamburger.

[Jade Harley]

His knife bit into the animal carcass with a savage hiss of expelled fumes, the ripe tearing sound almost like when one presses their thumbs against the peel of an orange, squeezing until its pulpy insides bloom outward.

Using one green-skinned hand to steady himself against the beast’s still warm and furred hipbone, Orlando set about the skinning rhythm with tightly wound push-and-retreat motions, as if he were sowing seeds in the ground or working with a needle and thread rather than flesh and steel. It was a silent job. Red bled from the cut as he worked, steadily widening and steaming white vapor as it dripped onto the ice, the cold reacting swiftly with the warm lifeblood.

He kept his eyes squinted against the needle-like frost. The tiny barbs of cold irritated his nose, eyes, ears, lips, and tongue— to speak the truth, he could not tell which hurt the most for much of the time he spent glancing up, scarf heaving around the tusks protruding out from his mouth. It would not be unexpected for the loping shadow of a wolf or some other scavenger to materialize against the curtain twisted and flushed outward by the whiteout-blizzard, jowls slavering at the scent of turpentine death.

The snow was stricken with a pancake-like flatness, old wooden pallets settled on the thicker sheets of ice around his sled settled a short distance away, a string of tin cans rattling somewhere as it was batted about by the wind. Below his boots the lake water shifted and writhed as if through a glass window pane, wavy and scarred with scratches like scattered straw— probably from traveling dog teams or boots with iron spikes inserted into them to make scaling even the steepest, most treacherous cliff face possible, he imagined. Bubbles of the deepest blue and bottle green sifted underneath, expelled by the odd fish and sleek-furred seals seeking air holes. He looked up at the sky, watching a black raven plunge with its beak aimed perpendicular to the shrieking tundra before rearing aloft again, feathers whisking it up and up until it was nothing more than a speck against the emptiness of the sky, disappearing when a jealous gust of foggy powder hid it from his sight.

Cupping his hands in a scooping motion, the guts were skillfully removed and dumped into a nearby gash in the ice, cataracts of gore and bulging innards carried away by the pull of the lake bottom. With a huff and the loud, creaky protesting of his joints, he stood and shifted his position, tilting the caribou’s head so that its horns scraped against the ice and its glassy eyes became flecked with the myriad reflections of clouds and swirling flakes. The flat edge of the knife pressed against his fingers as he began to pinpoint sections of meat with the sharpened curve, mapping out the areas he intended to cut before resuming his work once more.

When at last the hide and meat were separated and the disjointed remains slung across his shoulders in his pack, the head (antlers still attached and weighing down on his shoulders with as much undue grace as they sported in life) swaying slightly as he collected himself, he washed his hands in the freezing water and then quickly tucked them into his woolen gloves, knowing that a fire would soon be literally within his grasp. Hunched forward like a beggar wracked with fever, he plodded with great difficulty through the piles upon piles of clumped snow, the jagged soles of his shoes scraping against the ice.

He turned to look over his shoulder, ever distrustful of leaving his back exposed. The withered badger pelt slung over his shoulder rasped over his leather clothing, only small notches of iron nestled against his knees and joints. He gruffed like an immense wild boar disturbed from its rummaging over a forest floor, slapped at the thick leather bracers on his arms, and then continued to walk.

An impression of a body remained pressed into the slush, a starburst of fizzy red ranging around it. He only looked back once, but it was just long enough to catch sight of a stout little figure scuttling across the ice— clearly a dwarf, if his eyes were to be believed.

Orlando’s scowl deepened into an even fiercer expression. His bow was still strung; he hadn’t had the time to unstring it after taking down the hoofbeast. The golden yew longbow’s limbs shivered when an arrow was nocked and drawn backward within the span of a second, the muscles of his arms straining against the force needed to pull it back to full draw. He held it in between his pinched thumb and forefinger for only a second, one eye squinted and the grey eagle-flight fletching fluttering like a piece of lint where the arrow rested beside his chin.

The dwarf scuttled over the ice in a haphazard shuffle in the next second, nearly tripping. Orlando noted this brief stillness, took a short breath in through his nose, and then—

Just before the arrow could be loosed, a dark shape materialized out of nowhere and knocked the stuffing out of the apparently fleeing dwarf. Muffled shouts could be heard, the pitch fluctuating and apparently rife with hurt feelings.

The troll hunter lowered his bow, allowing the bowstring to snap against the bracers on his arms before returning the arrow to its quiver.

Another time, then.

[Jade Harley]

“I can't believe you did that!” Jade complained, clearly upset, from where she was seated on top of Brennon after tackling him to the ground. “This green stone-”

“Star piece,” Brennon supplied, face smooshed into the snow and his copper beard already frigid with cold. “It's a sodding star piece, girly. You don't even know what you've got your hands on?”

Sniffing, Jade shifted off his back and helped him to his feet, but not before snatching the gleaming, brilliant green star piece up from the snow. Turning it in her hands and watching the light travel across its jewel-like surface, Jade figured that Brennon was lucky he hadn't chipped a tooth on the thing!

She sighed, pocketing it in the folds of her dress.

“Yeah, that thingamabob. Anyway... I promised my friend that I'd keep it safe, so that's what I'll do, even if it means I have to fight somebody to do that. And that means you, bucko! Don't try that again, mister dwarf, or we'll have to settle this like... well, like totally-not-decent people!"

Brennon stared at her, eyes slightly glazed over from how nonthreatening she was.

“Alright,” he gruffed, after a long and definitely awkward moment, bound arms tucked over his chest, seeming for all the world that he couldn't care less about the Witch's warning.

Well, good enough. Jade squinted hard at him for a moment before turning away, whistling two sharp pips to call in Bec as she did. After an answering bark came from over a far dune of snow, she turned her head to look back at him, expression caught between exasperation and something strangely... sad?

“I don't think it'll come to that, though. You seem nice enough and you didn't want that man to die, so I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.”

Becquerel came bounding over the hill, Rebecca dancing along behind and spinning wide with her hands spread out, laughter trickling through the air like the peal of early morning church bells and birdsong in the spring. The Witch's attention was immediately diverted, a warm smile blooming over her features and her green eyes lightened by the reflection of the snow, shining brighter than the little star stowed away in her pocket.

Brennon didn't bother saying anything.

[Tearen Wover]

After a few miles of trudging through the snowy climate, Tearen had to concede defeat. Even though he wasn't in his Eldritch Body, the cold still ate away at his strength at an increased rate. At first he had been loathe to show any sort of weakness in front of the new Prime girl, but eventually pragmatism bested pride. He crunched to a stop under a small stand of nondescript evergreen trees, his breath coming in large cloudy puffs. Essent, who had been lagging behind only because of her incessant Dataverse browsing, finally looked up as she almost passed him.

"Something the matter, Tearen?" she asked with a curious twinkle in her eyes. She could obviously tell Tearen was freezing, but the fact that she still felt pretty good encouraged a momentary flash of cockiness. The Shadow begrudged her this morale booster, and got straight to the point.

"C-cold...always has been a problem f-for me." he chattered, wrapping himself in his long arms. Essent nodded knowingly.

"Well maybe you should summon some warmer clothes?" she said with a wry grin. Tearen reciprocated her implied chuckle.

"Perhaps. I have a more expedient solution, if you'll humor me." Tearen said softly. Many possibilities crossed Essent's keen mind, but she was quick to avoid a jump to conclusions. She simply watched as Tearen changed shapes again, thankfully without any accompanying nausea. The ex-enigma's form shrank and molded itself into the form of a large, black crow. It bore no special markings, but Essent could obviously tell it was Tearen.

Especially when it spoke words into her head.

May I?

"Um. What." Essent stammered before Tearen proceeded to flutter up to perch on her shoulder anyway. Despite being such a large bird, the crow was still surprisingly light, though his thick plumage tickled her cheek. The bird ruffled its feathers and settled itself comfortably. Like everything else so far, Essent did her best to take it in stride.

"Okay, so...I'll need directions..." she said, trying to keep her eyes ahead. The crow gurgled slightly.

Of course. I am telepathically drawn to my daughter, so it won't be long. Head for those hills below the sun. Oh, and Essent. No selfies with the crow.

"R...right." the Fist user said slowly, before beginning to walk again. It was a shame, because this would have made a KILLER Omniblr post.

[Essent Rose Allison]

As much as she is disappointed about the Omniblr thing, she might as well go with it. But one thing crossed her mind. This guy can do telepathy. And telepathy reminds her of three people... Ender, Jacopo, and Nazo. They all have powers pertaining to the mind with Jacopo and Nazo being more on the psychic side than Ender's Fist of Empathy. But they were all mind readers all the same. Essent began to piece things together. She remembers him asking about Fist Powers even though she only said it once. She thought about her fist powers many times without saying. Could Tearen be a mind reader as well? This... This could be interesting. Well, if she's good friends with Ender, she can handle this guy.

But enough thinking about thinking. Essent took in the sights of the frozen fields around her. It really did remind her of home. The barren white snow, the hills, the bright sea surrounding the place. Then she can imagine the nights this place might have. A clear sky filled with stars and constellations. Sometimes she would stargaze and trace from star to star, connecting the dots to form her own constellations. Her imagination can run wild, essential for a scientist AND a fiction fan. Needless to say, the skies of night time Antarctica were beautiful. Twinkle twinkle little star. I wonder how you shine. Flying in the sky so high. Floating right through space and time...

Essent may be in a new world, but, if anything, it's best to accept it and move on. After all, sticking to the past will get you nowhere. You just have to learn from it. That's what history is for, right? Along with that, Essent looks forward to the future, which is why she is in the science field. The more she learns, the more discoveries that can benefit her in the future. And in that future, Essent would be more knowledgeable in a topic. Then she can teach it to others. These discoveries can benefit the future of not just her... But others as well. This is why Essent likes her job. Real life superheroes solving real problems, as she once said. Solving the mysteries of Omnilium, discovering more of the Omniverse, and getting to know those she fondly respects.

[Jade Harley]

The gentle shapes of the mountains rested beside the sky, but Jade only had eyes for her tower, the white cylinder standing out from the blizzard's grey foam. It was where she was set to meet her enigmatic PesterOmni pal, after all, the very first person to help her to gain any sense of stability in the Omniverse, even if he was an eldritch creature at the time— who wouldn't be excited about that?

Brennon. Brennon wouldn't. Though she could hardly blame him, the dwarf being her prisoner and all (that would probably be kind of awkward to explain to her friends... yikes!), his constant scowling really, really got her goat. It was preeetty tough to stay positive about the whole thing with one travelling companion being grumpy all the time, but at least Rebecca seemed to be in good spirits!

Speaking of the Little Sister... Jade dropped back from where she had been walking beside Brennon, still keeping one eye on him in case he decided to tear off again. A few paces behind, Rebecca was stomping in the snow with great purpose, obviously delighting in the crunching sounds the frozen ground made. Bec trotted alongside the younger girl, his tail waving contentedly back and forth, ears pricked up and alert.

Without Jade even having to say a word, Rebecca glanced up at her, smiling.

"Daddy's on his way!" She declared, one foot landing on a rigid patch of clumped frost. Crnnch crnch.

Jade's eyebrows shot up to her hairline, slowly lowering as her brow furrowed in confusion. "Really? And how do you know that?"

Rebecca shrugged, her black hair springing up a bit when she did. Her misty yellow eyes focused on the tower, smile unchanged. "I just know!"

"Fair enough! He just might be there, too," conceded Jade, also giving the tower a thoughtful look.

Her eyes narrowed when she noticed several indistinct shapes moving around its base, busy as a bunch of pollinating bees and almost seven of them in total. Definitely not who she was expecting, then, and where was all that... ash coming from? Because it was definitely ash, she just knew it; the clouds puffing into the air were all greyish-black and a crazy mixture of vapor and dust, broken only by the icy tundra winds.

"Who are those guys?" Jade mumbled aloud, fixing her glasses so she could squint a little harder at the fuzzy people walking around on her lawn. They were pretty short, she supposed— maybe they were dwarves! But, that didn't necessarily mean they would be friendly... A closer look was definitely needed!

Shouldering her blue blaster gun, Jade set off with purposeful strides toward the nearest maybe-possibly-dwarf. The dwarf in her company shot her a wary look, following behind at a slower, yet dogged pace while Bec herded Rebecca into what he no doubt considered a safer position at his flank opposite from the impending confrontation.

Smiling determinedly, Jade nodded to herself. Good dog.

[Tearen Wover]

As the day continued to wear on, the sun sank behind the hills that Tearen had called out so many hours earlier. Of course, by this point, Essent and Tearen were well over them. This was helped, in no small part, to the fact that the weather had held remarkably well, considering that the Fields were known for their vicious weather. Scanning the horizon, they had both noticed a swell of dark, angry clouds farther to the west of them, but the storm cell hadn’t moved.


Prime activity, most likely.


At the current moment in time, Essent was walking through a small fissure in the glacial hills, trying to trace a path through to the far side of the small mountain. Walls of ice towered over their heads on both sides, and Tearen could tell that Essent was beginning to feel a tad claustrophobic. That was good; after all, Tearen could sense a group of hungry, minds in the area.


Being who he was, they were, of course, in no real danger, but the ex-enigma wanted to see how Essent might handle herself in a life or death situation. Again, previous lessons had taught him that not all Primes had the wherewithal to handle themselves on their own. Like it or not, Tearen had formed a bond with Essent by this point, and he would not in good conscience leave her helpless.


The crow fluttered off of her shoulder and hopped a few feet down the trail.


Stay where you are for now, Essent. The shadow said in a grave tone. The pinpricks that had been tickling the back of Essent’s neck went rigid as she sensed something was wrong.


“What? What is it? Are we lost?” Essent said in a hushed tone. Tearen didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he shifted his form back to his Eldritch body. The glowing green eyes glinted brightly off of the blue ice around them, and back onto his obsidian skin. A tense minute passed before Tearen finally turned around and began to walk back towards Essent.


“Nevermind,I thought-” the Shadow started before the world seemed to explode. Essent shielded her eyes as a geyser of snow and ice erupted from beneath Tearen, enveloping the elder Prime completely. A shrill scream accompanied the outburst, and by the time the haze cleared, Essent still couldn’t see Tearen.


But she could see the giant red and white...centipede monster towering over her. Its round, compound eyes studied her closely as pulses of red-orange energy pulsed along curious armored nacelles on its sides. It also stood about twenty feet high, and that was just its reared-up front end. A scrap of Tearen’s burlap robes dangled from its chittering mandibles, and no telepathic messages came to the now very-much alone young woman.


A frozen moment blinked by, and then the Remorhaz lunged.

[Essent Rose Allison]

  

WHAT THE FREAKY FREAK IS THIS THING?! 

It just ate Tearen... Her only known friend in this new world. What does she do? Well, she does have to fight. She can't pull a Frisk and do Mercy on the thing! She would pull a Sans and dunk this thing but she isn't that strong! Who else can she do on this thing? And... How will she get Tearen back? Is he fully gone? Can she bring him back through summoning? If that's possible. She can summon anything, right? She has a limit right now... And her claws...

Before she could finished thinking, the thing lunges at her. She dodged out of the way by rolling, only to get stuck in the snow. She got up quickly and summoned her claws. Interesting how she doesn't have to shout out her attack. Perfect for strategic moments. She has no other choice. She has to fight! Either fight and live another day or die and drift in limbo until resurrection? Essent was close to freaking out... Though this reminded her of something...

Losing Ethan. Losing her entire lab. Having to fight the dreaded Stone King and, in turn, the Fist of God. Losing everything. Even her life.

But she was too determined. She called out for her True Fist. She fought until the end. She sacrificed herself for the world. She fought back against her Fist Persona and absorbed it. She wasn't ready to die again. And she knows this well. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? Essent has one choice now...



Go full on Alex Mercer and TEAR THIS THING APART!



While the strange thing prepared for the next attack, Essent began to run at the thing and prepared her claws for HER attack. She lunged, letting out a war-cry, hoping she would get a hit on the thing.

[Jade Harley]

It took Jade an embarrassingly long moment to understand just what she was looking at.

Her tower, once so isolated and forlorn in the midst of a sheet of barren ice, looked like an ivory needle with tangles of orange thread churning around it. Even through the mountainous morass of rocky outcroppings and steam the occasional gleam of a snowflake would peak through, twinkling gently over the veins of boiling lava spooling out on her doorstep. The forest of emerald-colored trees that surrounded her home, too— still prettily speckled with their red blossoms that glimmered like Christmas ornaments over the snow— hung on the periphery and shifted beneath waves of gossamer heat.

There were also dwarves everywhere, loads of them. What she had thought to be just seven was... well, a lot more than seven. There was a dwarf in full mail with battle gear strapped to her belt, scowling over the whole procession; two dwarrow miners with shiny brass helmets and laden down with loads of stone, jostling one another around, carrying pickaxes and streaked from head to toe with soot; one dwarf wearing entirely too many shiny, jingling trinkets to be chipping away at the stone like that; another dwarf dressed in warm furs and reading from a creased parchment letter, spectacles perched upon his round little nose; even more dwarves stomping their shovels into the frozen ground and grunting irritably when it refused to give. Dwarves, dwarves, dwarves.

A jarring chrn-nng! rung through the air, startling Jade so much that she would have tripped and fallen over if it weren’t for the warm, steady arm that shot from out of nowhere and caught her just in the nick of time.

Blinking slow, Jade looked down into the face of her savior, eyes widening when she actually recognized who it was— Kenan Badgerburrow! He was still wearing that funny bronze armor of his that fit him like an iron band strapped around a whiskey barrel, looking up at her with a crease denting his sweaty brow. A beard the very color of driven sheets of copper concealed most of his frown from view, dirt and bits of chipped stone caught in the unbraided whiskers. And, lord, he stunk too, like sulfur and rotten eggs left to warm in the sun. Gross!

“You’d best watch your step, lass,” he chided her, being very nice in helping her to regain her footing.

Jade thanked him with a nod, though it was more a slight tip of the head. She was too busy staring around at the chaos that had gripped her snowy lawn, mining tools scattered everywhere and dwarves scraping at frozen earth and bizarre streaks of burnt ground without so much as a by-your-leave.

The Witch of Space looked at him with pursed lips, eyes roving around the excavation site. What the hell is going on? she wanted to ask. Instead, all that came out was an unmistakably eloquent, “Um?”

Before he could come up with a no doubt blustery reply to that, the other Badgerburrow brother, young Treacy, hurried over. With his raggedy hat clutched in one hand and a rusted shovel in the other, fuzzy scrap of a beard streaked through with grime, he looked almost as if he had just emerged from battle. Still, even in his rugged state he was able to muster a grin for Jade, teeth flashing about as bright as the snow spread around them.

“Halloo, kind witch!” Treacy greeted her, face flushed red from the exertion of whatever he’d been doing. “It is good to see you again, ‘specially since you’ll now be able to share in the spoils! What d’you think of our operation here?”

“….your operation?” Jade repeated, baffled. She glanced around at the rugged ground, some of it lined with gigantic coal-like lumps of dusky rock, speckles of what seemed like dark glass glinting up at her.

Being confused was beginning to lose its previous luster.

Thankfully, Treacy seemed more than willing to enlighten her. Grinning, he whacked his hat against his legs to get the dust off from it before replacing it upon his head with a flourish. “Our operation, yes. Y’see, we had proposed to come back to make sure you were alright, seeing that you were in such a remote area. But you weren’t here, and all these fiery rivers were spread around and… and would you look at these stones they leave behind!”

He stooped over, snatched up a black stone, and summarily held it up for her inspection. A blinding grin lightened his cheeks. “A real beauty, isn’t it?”

“Wow, it sure is!” Jade murmured, correcting her glasses and leaning in to get a better look. The stone gripped in the dwarf’s grubby fingers was blacker than jet, speckled almost like a bird egg with small grey spots, delicate edges similar to a very poorly shaped knife blade pressing lightly against Treacy’s hand.

At a subtle gesture from the bright-eyed dwarf that seemed to say ‘go on, take it’, Jade carefully grasped the shiny piece of rock between the tips of her fingers, turning it this way and that with a cursory eye. It felt warm against the pads of her fingers and nestled easily inside her palm, sparks of heat tingling against her skin and glimmers of orange flame seeming to shift in kaleidoscopic patterns from some indeterminate source within.

When Jade finally looked up, Kenan was staring suspiciously at something behind her. For an irrational, affronted second Jade worried that his glare might be directed at either Bec or Rebecca, but when she turned she discovered that it was just Brennon standing there. The shackles were (thankfully) still on his wrists, but he had a cheeky bluster in his gaze and his bristly chin was tilted up in challenge.

Jade sighed. Honestly. Dwarves.

Following his brother’s gaze, Treacy’s eyebrows lifted towards his hairline as he looked between Jade and her companions. He didn’t comment on the shackled dwarf for the moment, however, instead focusing on Rebecca and giving his most jovial grin to the little girl. She had tucked herself away behind Jade’s skirt and was peering up at what must have been perfect strangers to her, only a few strands of her wispy, dark hair sticking out against the winterscape. “Well, isn’t this a surprise! I didn’t know you had any siblings, Miss Jade, least of all a sister.”

“That’s because she’s not,” corrected Jade, but smiled fondly all the same. “Treacy, Kenan, meet Rebecca! I’m looking after her for a very good friend.”

“Is that so?” Treacy’s face brightened and, without much further ado, he crouched down so that he was at the Little Sister’s eye level. “Hello there, little Rebecca! Would you like to see something absolutely, wonderfully, faultlessly amazing?”

One yellowish eye shifted with great reluctance into view, but twinkled with interest. “Is it shiny? Did the pretty angels leave it?”

“Uhm…” Treacy looked to Jade, who shrugged a bit helplessly. “…Sure? Yes, the angels did leave it! Plopped right out from their togas while they were strumming their golden harps in the sky, you know, and stuck deep into the snow. Come and see!”

This verification that the mysterious “angels” had somehow left something behind seemed to mollify Rebecca, and so she was then easily coaxed out from behind Jade and hoisted up onto the trusted dwarf’s shoulders. She and Treacy promptly traipsed off across the excavation site, Bec tailing behind, the squirrely dwarf pointing out odd objects to the Little Sister and laughing good-naturedly at her puzzling responses, whatever they were.

Kenan shuffled his boots, the fur cuffs on his legs and arms bristling with chilled white. He nodded to himself, pleased that the child had been shuffled off so other, less lighthearted matters could be discussed.

“So,” he said, turning to face Brennon with his arms crossed over his chest. “That nasty killing business finally caught up with you, has it, uncle?”

[Tearen Wover]

Meanwhile, about two and a half miles away, everything was terrible.

Fighting, fighting, fighting.

Ever since that idiot General working for Sun Wu Kong found her in the remains of her laboratory, Essent's life had been nothing but fighting, and intermittently talking about other people fighting. Honestly, as monotonous as all this walking had been, fighting for her life again was a sharp reminder how stale the whole concept was becoming. Then again, this monster was presumably trying to eat her, so the motivation was a little different then it had been previously.

The Remorhaz eagerly lunged in to meet the Fist of Genetics with a hungry hiss, but found itself sorely disappointed as its marauding mandibles were slapped aside by cruel claws. A follow-up blow from Essent raked the relatively soft tissue on its underside, causing a spray of boiling hot juices to spill onto the snow. Essent sprinted along behind the monster, gritting her teeth and somewhat comically waving her claws in the air. Whatever this thing was, its body seemed to be superheated; probably how it was able to burrow so quickly through the snow. She didn't even want to think about what Tearen must have gone through, so she returned her focus to the battle instead.

The lithe body of the Remorhaz snaked and contorted in a sickening fashion, allowing the beast to stretch its head back to snap at the girl once more. Clearly this thing could not be outmatched for ferocity, so Essent would have to use her more valuable asset to beat it.

Tearen watched the entire scene impassively from the top of the southern lip of the crag. After teleporting safely out of the Remorhaz's gullet, the Eldritch Human had resumed the form of a crow to monitor Essent's struggle. The beast could easily be driven off at a moment's notice if he so chose, but this was a valuable learning experience for both Primes. Sure, Tearen was certain that, once Essent found out he had intentionally sent them down a dangerous path and baited a burrowing horror to attack them, she would be reasonably upset with him. He just hoped she would have the sensibility to understand that he wanted to see if she was capable of protecting herself. In time, perhaps. As for Essent, it wouldn't do for her to be lulled into a false sense of security just because she might be around stronger Prime friends. Though the Remorhaz WAS a relatively minor nuisance to Tearen, there were certainly things in the Frozen Fields that COULD have dispatched him as easily as it had appeared.

The crow ruffled its feathers as Essent and the beast exchanged a few more blows. He could feel the seething anger inside of the Fist user from here. She was a wildly emotional girl, at least by Tearen's serene standards. His long term plans had a use for her considerable intelligence, but this sort of instability could be a liability if she came to represent his reestablished Institute. But, this was only the first test of many. He would not jump to conclusions, now or ever.

[Essent Rose Allison]

"THIS IS FOR TEAREN YOU MAN-EATING MONSTER OF A THING!!!"

Fighting. She understood the thrill of it now. Why Fist Users liked to fight a lot. The adrenaline was racing, her heart was pumping, and her claws sharp as ever. She had a great advantage with her powers, no matter how weak she was. Plus, she's been a Fistologist for years, now despite being twenty one years old. Probably the best out there ever since her lab was destroyed. She understands her powers well, even after achieving True Fist. How to use her chi wisely, which powers to use in a particular situation, creative ways to use her powers, etc. Plus, with plenty of chi at her disposal, she has plenty she can do! But things have changed. Her chi has changed to Omnilium. She's in a brand new world.

Her anger wasn't out of fear, it was out of vengeance. She wanted to take down this beast that ate her friend and prevent more lives from being lost. Prime or not, she is trying to protect others even if they are not watching. She saved her world, after all. She can save more lives. She held a grudge against Sun Wu Kong, of course, but she lifted that after defeating him and forcing him off the planet. Now this thing. This thing should end quickly. She hopes. With only her claws to use, she has to be very careful and attack precisely. Maybe if she... Attacks where the abdomen is... Maybe she can free Tearen before the stomach acids digest him!

So that is where she aims. If she can get her friend back, she can get back-up support with this thing. Unless...

If this guy can read minds, what else can he do? Is he like Cirrus, full with powers of many fields? Or is he just a normal psychic? Judging by his strange transformation, he can't be a normal psychic. He has to be a powerful being. That leaves her with two possible theories...

Tearen is really trapped in there and is waiting for her calmly or Tearen pulled a Phantom and teleported out of the way?

No matter which one it is...




Is this a test?!



Essent's deductions were naturally quick due to her scientist experience. Her anger slowly subsided. She can't really blame the other for this. She has to learn to not be too depended on others (no matter how powerful they are) or something that restricts her. After all, what were those words?

She wasn't interested in being the slave of a monster.

She will continue to fight of course.

Test or no test, Essent is already in the midst of strife and she can't escape now. No matter what...




This fight was for Tearen.





Essent scratched at where she thought the abdomen would be on this strange thing and scratched at it. She created an opening, a wound that poured out more hot juices. Realizing that she was pretty wrong, she went for her second option; the head. Eith her claws, she can easily dig into the flesh of the beast and climb her way up. Of course, she would have to stay on as the beast would thrash about and get her off. But wouldn't that cause he claws to dig even more?

She began to make her way up the beast, using her claws to guide her. Just gotta get to the head... That should be where the brain is, right? Take out the brain, the body will lose all function. She grunted as she went up, letting out a little comical "woooaaaaooaaaahhhh"s as the beast tried to get her off. Essent stayed determined as ever, climbing her way up to the head. Man, if only she had-

Her blade?! She's able to do Bladed Limb again! Perfect!

Once up near the neck, she began to saw through said neck to sever it from it's body. She still had a claw on one arm, Uno Scratch as she would call it, to keep her on the beast. This sawing would take a while... If only she were as strong as she was before...

This is gonna take some time to get that strength back.

[Jade Harley]

"Wait. What? You guys are related?"

Well, now that Jade was looking for it, she could sort of see a resemblance there. Similarly shaped noses speckled with freckles like teeny-tiny Greek isles, stocky shoulders, bright orange beards colored like bristled, flaming torches, squarish hands... Yep, they were probably related! Weird.

The look Kenan gave her was a long-suffering one indeed, but Jade was too busy considering the implications of this whole 'uncle-nephew' situation to pay him any mind. If they were related, and Brennon was a no-good, thieving killer, then what on earth were Treacy and Kenan doing out here? Surely they couldn't be evil...

Her eyes flicked over to where the younger Badgerburrow was showing Rebecca a small spurt of lava the very color of buttery gold rum, his youthful face practically glowing with the delight that came with showing someone his craft. Yeah, he definitely wasn't evil. That would just be.... well, stupid!

"Aye," Kenan answered gruffly, startling Jade out of her thoughts and watching her with a keen eye. He rolled his eyes, and really, he had no right to look so sarcastic with that ridiculously fluffy beard! "We're related. Thought you would've been taken in by some higher authority, if not the local guard, uncle. Soldiers from Dwarveholm, maybe... They're mighty fearsome. Your name and face line the back walls of every pub, too, you know, and rogues looking to make an extra pinch of coin roam free everywhere! It's a miracle you haven't been taken in, I say."

Brennon scoffed, as if being arrested and imprisoned were something he found particularly laughable. "I'm not afraid of those bounty-hunting louts. All talk and no action, they are."

The younger dwarf gave a knowing, sly grin, nodding along quite agreeably. "Oh, yes! They surely are. But, y'see, the guard and bounty hunters ain't the only ones out for your head. Ma has been looking over and under-hill for you for at least three months now, I'm sure she'd love to hear all about your travels. You've missed a fair amount of family dinners, too."

"You wouldn't."

When before he had merely brushed off the idea of a bloody, grisly, and probably painful death, Brennon paled significantly at the thought of an angry she-dwarf. Jade was sure she could hear him muttering prayers to ward off evil under his breath.

"Oh, but I would. I really would," Kenan grinned, eyes alight with fiendish glee. "You'll needta clean up first, though. You can't go to supper looking like you've just gone a couple rounds with a wood chipper..."

He slung a far from friendly arm around Brennon's shoulders, beginning to lead him off while the assassin only cringed. He knew full well that killing one of his sister's sons would only worsen his fate, it seemed. Jade just watched them go with an amused, slightly confused look on her face.

"And before I go, Miss Jade—"

The dog-eared girl glanced up at the retreating forms of Kenan and Brennon, the former grinning broadly while the latter only scowled. She didn't really know what she expected— a thank you, maybe, or an invitation to join them at dinner. That would be simply too good to pass up. But, instead the dwarf surprised her with a few simple words and a gesture of respect.

Kenan tipped his helm at her, bushy eyebrows and the bronze rim of his cap concealing the dancing lights in his eyes. "Ye'd better go and check on my brother and your charges 'afore he accidentally sets the lot of 'em on fire."

With that being said, he turned and strode away, half-dragging a stiff and uncomfortable Brennon behind him.

Jade's head whipped around to look at where she had seen Treacy last. "No! Don't play in the lava, Bec!"

[Tearen Wover]

Flickers of orange and red danced off the glistening walls of the glacial fissure as hunks of superheated carapace were hacked away from the beast. Clinging to the Remorhaz's underbelly, Essent delivered blow after savage blow to the monster, who responded in kind by writhing and bucking her off endlessly. It was becoming a drawn out, gruesome match of dexterity and strength, and Tearen was becoming concerned that neither side was going to win. But, at the very least, Essent had proven her tenacity through and through, which was really the only thing a Prime ever needed, given their immortal lifespan. A few more clangs of claw on scale echoed up to the crow's feathered ears, and the plumed black bird heaved a deep sigh. Alright, that was enough of this.

Essent shrieked a frenzied battle cry as she closed the distance between herself and the chittering horror once more. One way or another, she was going to take this thing down. It was upon that exact thought that she suddenly found herself hanging in the air, like a kitten picked up by the scruff. The remorhaz wheeled around, hissing gleefully as Essent struggled against the telekinetic hold. It lunged, jaws agape, and the Fist of Genetics reflexively looked away from her doom. There came a momentous thud, spurring her to peek open with one eye. Tearen was standing between the her and the insectoid serpent, having reappeared as quickly and casually as he had vanished. The remorhaz seemed to be struggling against some sort of rippling warp in space-time that Essent had to assume was coming from the elder Prime. Essent flashed a wry grin.

"About time! You didn't have me fooled, you know-"

"You can go home now." Tearen said softly. Essent blinked.

"Uh...what?"

Tearen held up a hand to signal for the scientist's silence. Apparently he had been talking to the nightmarish monster that had been trying to eat them for the past five minutes. The towering centipede reared up to its fully height, its bulbous eyes somehow managing to convey a confused expression.

"Go on, go home. No food here." Tearen said, making a small shooing motion with his hands. He sent a flood of basic sensory horomones and neuro-transmitters ricocheting through the simple predator's mind, coaxing it into believing that he and Essent were nothing more than set-pieces in this frozen landscape. After a moment of guttural clicking, the remorhaz turned away from them and began to scuttle off the direction the two Primes had been coming from. Essent's mouth dropped.

"Wait! Hold on! You're just gonna let it go?" she snapped as Tearen lowered her back to the ground. The eldritch human raised a white eyebrow at her.

"Is there a problem with that?" he asked softly.

"Well what if it tries to eat someone else?!"

"It probably will. That's what predators do. You would have it killed because of how it is forced to sustain itself?"

Essent rolled her eyes.

"That's not what I'm saying! I know predators need to eat, but if they're near where people are-"

"What people? Us people? Us people are on its turf. We're the ones out of place." Tearen said. He ran a hand down his long, braided hair and sighed.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought us this way. I was just overly concerned that there was going to be another young girl wandering the Omniverse who couldn't protect herself." Tearen mumbled. In all honesty he was feeling rather foolish. It had been easy to justify when he had assumed himself an authority in this hostile universe, but his own words had reminded him of the reality. The Omniverse was not his home turf; he was still the one out of place. So weren't they all, but that tenure didn't justify putting fresh Primes through hell just to see if they could protect themselves. Even then, what if she hadn't been able to defend herself? Rebecca was one thing, but Tearen couldn't go around toting every invalid Prime he stumbled across. Essent scoffed, appropriately so.

"Well professor, do I pass the test?" she snarked. He didn't sense any overt hostility in her tone, but the seeds of resentment always started very small. Tearen grit his teeth.

"I don't know Essent, how do you feel about your performance?" Tearen asked, trying to maintain a neutral tone.

"Pretty good." she quipped.

"Suits me."

A silent minute passed between them. In all honesty, this life was starting to wear thin on Tearen. He just wanted to see Rebecca again.

"Come on, I don't want to miss dinner." he said softly, treading away in the crunchy ice.

[Essent Rose Allison]

Despite this... Test, Essent did feel proud of herself for proving her strength. This fighting thing... Essent might not like it but she understands the thrill of it now. No wonder Fist Users like to fight a lot. No wonder the tournament was a thing. No wonder her Fist Persona wanted more fighting than SCIENCE. No wonder her main powers were more combat oriented. It was all for fighting. But Essent is in control now. She absorbed her Fist Persona, she understands her powers now, she is more in tune with her Chi. Well, she used to be. Now she needs to become in tune with Omnilium. Either way, these powers are good to have, just not in the way most people would expect. There would be times Essent would do Uno Scratch just to peel a potato or cut a pineapple. Sometimes she would just summon a tendril to carry something with a part other than her hands. Sometimes she would use Curb Stomper just to clear ice out of her driveway. The normal human stuff. Not fighting. Essent may be weary but she isn't afraid. She WILL defend herself.

The sky began to darken from a very light blue to a really dark purple. Stars began to shine and a hint of a galaxy was there. Essent looked up at the stars and immediately she could see lines connecting them, forming constellations. Essent pointed upwards towards them and traced the lines, forming her own constellations. Her mouth formed a smile. After a rough battle, it was nice to relax and see the stars. The universe is a wondrous place. Aliens, planets, stars, galaxies, space dust, even crazier space dust, the sort. Essent was no astronomer but the wonders of the universe still had her curious. Whenever she sees Mirion again, she might ask her more about her powers and what they do. For now, Essent was in awe of the far-away stars she could see with the naked eye. Well, naked eye plus glasses.

Essent stopped and sat down in the snow. Tearen noticed this and turned his head.

"May I inquire as to why you have stopped?" he questioned. Essent answered with a smile.

"Aren't they beautiful?" Essent lied down, looking up at the stars. She pointed at them, counting only a few. "I've only seen views of the night sky like this back home. I guess it really does feel like home here despite the dangers."

"Essent, I admire you taking the time to become awestruck by the stars above, but-"

"You can go on ahead. When you find them, you can bring them over. I'm just gonna take some time to unwind after that hectic encounter."

"As you wish." Tearen nodded in understanding and went his way. Perhaps it was for the best. It was Essent's first day here and it was reckless enough to put her into danger.

"See you then!" Essent called out. Her eyes remained fixated on the stars. How they glowed, sending their bright lights from light years away to this realm. Some take a short time, some travel a really really long distance. Essent is glad they provide the night sky with a beautiful view. It wouldn't be the same if it was all... Empty space. It would be so boring and dark if there were no stars. Speaking of stars, Essent pointed upward at a shooting one the was going across the sky! She let out an oooooooooh and aaaaaaaaaaah as it passed by. She would make a wish but, well, she can make it come true herself, right? She just needs the right qualifications.

[Tearen Wover]

Tearen wasn't entirely sure that Essent understood the fact that they had been traveling to Jade's dwelling for a reason: the eldritch human would be loathe to have to drag Rebecca back out into the cold wasteland after dark for no reason.

Oh well. Either she would catch on and come to the tower later, or, she would drift off on her own. Now that Tearen had been walking for a little while by himself, he had had some time to think about what it was he really expected to gain from the Omniverse. If he was being completely honest, he owed Omni quite a bit for giving him an environment in which he had been forced to reconnect with his humanity. The Omniverse was like a giant mirror; if a Prime didn't like what they saw when they looked at it, they could change themselves. Witting or not, Tearen had taken that opportunity, and he did genuinely feel the better for it.

On the other hand, so many Primes in the Omniverse had implicit expectations of him, and Jade was one of them. Honestly, facing her might prove to be a tad difficult. By this time, the girl had spent more actual time taking care of Rebecca than he himself had done, and yet he still presumed to be the Little Sister's proper caretaker. He wasn't sure how she'd react to having the girl taken away on such abrupt notice; it stood to be insulting to everyone involved.

But, Tearen was too far into this juncture to change his plans now, and as he crested the final hill out of the icy gulch, Jade's gleaming tower came into view. It stood tall and austere against the golden Fields sunset; a white pinnacle wrapped in bronze tinsel, lit from the ground by innumerable forges and smelt fires. It was a little different than he had been expecting.

He walked through the dwarven quarry camps like a wraith, silently stepping through the snow and allowing his intuition to guide him towards his goal. The dwarves, half-drunk and gorged after a hard day's work, hardly had the mind to pay attention to him. A tinkling peal of glittering laughter wafted over the murmurs and mumbles of the camp, and the ex-enigma's mind locked onto the source of the noise. Within moments, Tearen rounded a corner to see Jade, a few dwarvers, Becquerel and Rebecca all milling around at the doorstep of the Prime Witch's tower. Rebecca looked up immediately, and her yellow eyes gleamed with glee.

"DADDY!" she shrieked, sprinting over to Tearen. She clasped into his leg and snuggled her face into the burlap folds of his robe. The shadow's heart melted instantly, and he picked her up with a soft grunt. He impulsively took a deep breath, as if life was returning to him, and caught Jade's eager stare out of the corner of his eye. The eldritch human walked towards her with purpose, and while still holding Rebecca, wrapped his other arm around his fellow Prime in a brief embrace. Despite how cursory a gesture it may have been, Jade was still clearly flustered.

"O-oh! Okay!" she squeaked as Tearen gave her the half-hug. He stepped back and nodded towards her dwarven compatriots. They looked up at him with suspicion, but it was a paltry concern compared to the scrutiny of the guardian dog. The eldritch human knelt down and held out his hand to the green-white canine while looking up at Jade.

"Good to finally meet you, dear. I can't wait to catch up on how Rebecca has been doing. I hope nothing too dangerous?" the man asked with a wry grin. Jade's momentary wave of panic was not lost on the telepathic Prime, but he decided to let it go for now.

"Uhm..."

Tearen waved her scrambling thoughts away with a gentle shake of his head.

"No need to worry. She's fine, so far as I can see. Really though, we do need to talk. Inside maybe?" Tearen asked nodding towards the door to the tower. He turned his attention towards the little girl clinging to his shoulder, smiling giddily.

"...and you..." he said, booping her on the nose, "...need a bath!"

[Essent Rose Allison]

Essent, thinking a bit to herself, got up after admiring the stars. She still has a lot to learn about this place... Maybe... Maybe she can learn to do her own thing. Maybe she can meet more people. Taking out her communicator, Essent decided to text Tearen and let him know of her plans.

[[Hey. I'm going back to the Nexus. Change of plans, I guess. Sorry about that! If I don't see you again, it was nice meeting you!]]

Essent began to retrace her steps, hoping to find her way back to the gate. She tried to avoid the path that had those huge monster things and make her own path... Surely she can find the gate this way... She walked through the snow, the darkness of the night not helping her out in the slightest. Even so, Essent had enough determination to push through. She's had plenty of that since that encounter and, well, it was something.

It took about... Half an hour for her to find the gate. She looked behind her to see where she came from, sighing. It did seem rude of her to leave like that but, well, at least she let Tearen know. And what about Jade? Well, patience is a virtue. She can always meet her later on. Essent changed her expression to one of confidence. She walked through the portal, feeling all those sensations again before appearing back in the Nexus.

[ESSENT HAS GONE TO THE NEXUS.]

[Jade Harley]

The living room of Jade's tower was a cozy space, the orange glow of the perpetually burning hearth encircling Tearen and Rebecca like a warm hug the second they stepped inside. If it wasn't for the imposing, broad-shouldered corpse standing before the fire, one hand brandishing an oversized blunderbuss while the flames lapping at its back gave off a hellish glow, that is.

Jade stiffened, her head turning slowly with dawning horror to look at her taxidermied grandfather. Backtracking toward the door in that split second of panic, her eyes darted towards Tearen, because having a corpse on display in the household couldn't be normal everywhere.

Sensing the panicked turn of her thoughts, Tearen naturally was able to pick up on it and trace the cyclone of worry to its cause. He paused in his examination of the far wall, where the stuffed visage of an ogre grimaced in eternal ogre-y consternation at them all.

The cause turned out to be more immediately troubling than the stuffed ogre head.

"Are we... intruding on a crypt?" The ex-enigma asked, taking a precious moment to scan the room for any other surprise corpses.

Jade had her face planted in her hands when he looked over at her. It was a very unhelpful explanation for the situation. The endless stream of self depreciation and embarrassment simmering like radio static inside her head was no better.

Her reply was muffled through her hands, but her mortification was still pretty palpable. "It's a Harley family tradition!"

"I see," said Tearen. Rebecca chose this moment to wriggle out of his hold with a startling amount of strength. Bec promptly booped her cheek with his nose when her feet hit the floor.

"You have an angel in your house?" she asked Jade, eyes alight with wonder.

The dog-witch slowly peeked out from her hands. "Well, that's just his body. His brain is actually running around in a metal chassis right now, haha..."

Rebecca's eyes widened like Jade had just promised her the entire moon plus a couple of Saturn's rings, to boot. "A robot angel?"

"Well..." Jade pondered this, nibbling her bottom lip. Finally, she gave a slight shrug. "I guess you could say that, yeah!"

A wide smile split the Little Sister's face and she turned to Tearen to tug at his sleeves and gush about this wondrous news. Jade smiled a bit lopsidedly, shifting from one foot to the other to burn some of her nervous energy.

"Anyway, uhm. Sorry about the mess," she said, looking around at her Grandpa's large collection of big game trophies with a worried line between her eyebrows. "I didn't have time to clean up for company, what with all the dwarves slinging dirt across my lawn!"

Tearen's eyes lit up with mirth, one hand smoothing back the stubborn flyaway hairs on the top of Rebecca's head. He hid his smile by gently kissing his little girl's forehead. "I agree, you have quite the infestation. And you don't seem overly eager to ask them to leave, either."

It was true. He could tell from the way her thoughts flared with indignation at the word "infestation" before softening into fondness at the perceived joke. 'Yes,' her mind told him. 'But they're my infestation now, so they're totally okay!'

The Space-Witch flounced onto one of the two low couches in the room with a gusting sigh, arm falling across her face to mask her exasperation. "Noooo, I could never do that! They're fine. I think."

Nodding to himself, Tearen swept Rebecca up into his arms, the grey girl shrieking with laughter all the while. He gave Jade an expectant look as little hands whapped playfully against his chest. "You have a restroom someplace, yeah?"

Oh, right! Jade almost smacked herself on the forehead. D'oh! He had mentioned that Rebecca would probably need a bath!

Sitting up quick, Jade's head jerked in a nod. "Yep! There's a bathroom a few floors up, the transportalizer can take you there in a jiffy!"

[Tearen Wover]

Rebecca splashed happily in the water of the tub, singing soft nothings to herself as Tearen drew a warm washcloth over her skin. Jade lingered self-consciously in the door of her own bathroom, unsure how much she should involve herself in this bathing process, if at all. In fact, she pondered off-hand on how long it had been since she herself had taken a shower. Heck, how often did any Prime shower?! Despite having olfactory senses as acute as those of any bloodhound, she had never specifically noticed any pervasive stink in the Omniverse. Rebecca's yellow eyes gleamed giddily as Tearen rinsed soap out her slick, black hair. The affection radiating off of the elder Prime was palpable, even to a non-telepath such as Jade. She found herself smiling; it was good to see such a nice, loving thing after all the violence and betrayal of the Mountains. Jade subconsciously squeezed the green star piece through the fabric of her witch robes, and almost as if it were a trigger, Tearen started to speak in a soft tone.

"I think I understand the general events that transpired, since Rebecca came under the care of you and Becquerel." Tearen said flatly. Jade swallowed.

"...It's okay. I'm not sure I could have kept her much safer. You seek out danger, and danger seeks me. It makes little difference. I'm just glad she was with someone who helped her feel..." Tearen trailed off as Rebecca blinked up at him again. Those pale, fathomless eyes held all the adoration and silent pleading that a child could muster. Or, perhaps, he was projecting onto her. It was hard to tell. Regardless, the ex-enigma hoisted the girl out of the tub and wrapped her in a towel. Rebecca snuggled into the bundling like a silkworm, peeping over the edge of the cotton at Jade with a playful mischief. The Witch of Space waited for Tearen to finish his thought, but he changed the subject instead.

"Is there a place she can sleep?" Tearen asked. Jade quirked an eyebrow.

"I though she only slept if she ate Omnilium and stuff." the young lady asked. The Shadow nodded slightly.

"Under normal circumstances yes, but I feel it's better if I manually put her to bed for a while."

Jade nodded cautiously.

"Sure! Um. She can sleep in my bed for now and I'll summon another one for her." Jade volunteered. She showed her guests to the bedroom, and Tearen laid Rebecca down on the mattress. He carefully dressed her again before simply waving his hand over her eyes for a second. When he pulled them away, the little girl was dozing peacefully. This elicited mixed feelings from Jade, but she supposed it was good that Rebecca was getting some sleep. Goodness knew that she herself could use some! Regardless, there was the matter of Rebecca's bed to address first. The goodly Witch pulled a chair next to the wide windows and began letting Omnilium leak out of her palms. Tearen quietly moved next to her and began to assist with the production.

They both sat in silence for a minute, the soft buzz of the summoning process filling the silence before the eldritch human let out a noise somewhere between a chuckle and a scoff. Jade looked up from their work curiously.

"Nothing, just...here I am, a Prime you spoke briefly with over the Dataverse. I dump Rebecca into your lap without even having the dignity to deliver her myself, and show up months later to pick her up. Many people would have complained." Tearen sighed. Jade's mind turned the ensuing emotions over a bit before she responded.

"Oh, but...she's really not all that much trouble! Besides, I had Bec to help, and uh...I guess you just seem nice? So it was okay I dunno..." Jade said, her speech becoming more rushed and mumbled as she went on. Tearen grinned in spite of himself.

"She is rather easy-going, yes. I suppose I just feel selfish. On top of that...undeserving, I suppose." he said, glancing over at the sleeping girl. Her pale skin and tattered clothes seemed to form a natural sort of artistic display, as she lay sprawled among the snow-white covers of Jade's bed. Jade tutted at Tearen sharply.

"Don't be silly! You're her Daddy! You saved her from that awful place, and-"

"That makes me her savior, not her parent. I could have just as easily kept her with me, but at that stage in my existence here I only saw her as a tool. The Underverse changed me, and I seek to rectify that mistake. So I've been thinking..." Tearen said, letting out a long, long sigh. Jade turned her head and gave Tearen an askance glare. She wasn't sure she was comfortable with where this was going. Not necessarily because Jade didn't want Rebecca around, but because it seemed wrong for Tearen to just give up on her!

"I'm not giving up on her!" Tearen snapped, shooting matching Jade's green-eyed glare with his own. He found himself clenching his jaw, and sat back, breathing out through pursed lips. The witch blushed slightly, partially because it was a little awkward to have your thoughts read, but also because she had apparently been thinking so loudly. After all, Tearen wouldn't just go reading someone's mind without asking them right?

...Right?

"Listen, Jade, I think that you might not fully understand how Rebecca...eh...works. She's emotional, and affectionate, but otherwise most of her cognition is a pattern of pure brainwashing. To her, Daddy is not a specific person, but a concept. I'm sure she's called you such plenty of times."

"...yeah." Jade said in a short tone. Despite being confident in his reason, Jade's chilly response had his ego faltering. It made the ensuing confession all the more painful.

"...so, Rebecca doesn't call me Daddy because I actually developed that sort of bond with her. She calls me that because I rewrote her brainwashing when I took her from Rapture so she would perceive me as such. At the time it was just a function of convenience. You, on the other hand...no one asked her to start calling you Daddy. She chose to do that. This is significant." Tearen said, taking a harder tone with Jade. She turned back to face him with a slight gawk.

"At this point I don't really trust her with anyone else..." the eldritch human murmured. He scowled down at the floor.

"...not even myself. I think she should stay with you, but, I can't force you to take her."

[Jade Harley]

Oh.

Part of Jade felt warmed by his words, but most of her just felt sick. She felt sick with herself, with what she knew Tearen had gone through to become a new person like this, with this entire situation. The person-- the being-- that she had spoken to at the start of her foray into the Omniverse would never have been like this, so raw and open and filled with ugly, self-belittling emotion. It was almost as if the pressure, stress, and heat of the Underverse had fractured his perfect, untouchable glass exterior, searing into him until he shattered, exposing the gooey mortal center inside.

Her heart constricted painfully within her chest, but she kept the worst of her sadness at bay. She could appreciate the sacrifice he made to return to this state, the awakened recognition of feelings of love and sorrow he felt, but she still hated that hellish place for making him hurt.

A wisp of a sound drew Jade out of her thoughts. Rebecca's sleep-soft breaths and the rustling of her hair against the pillow registered easily within the span of her hearing, as if the Little Sister were settled into the crook of her elbow rather than across the room. Staring at the prime across from her, Jade felt the pebble of confusion that had started to turn over at the start of this conversation become immediately awash in doubt. The sky-wide window beside their chairs hummed in the ensuing silence, a steady hmmm-zmmmmmn that filled the somber space.

She took a steadying breath.

"Listen," she whispered, face crumpling into something pained and probably dumb-looking. "I... I know that you don't think that you were a good guardian for Rebecca, and honestly, you weren't. I'm a little offended on her behalf, to be honest, though I think I get what you're saying. You're not the person you used to be, now. But how am I supposed to be any better? I'm not even-- I'm just a teenage girl, you know, hardly Daddy material!"

Tearen laughed harshly, but finally looked up from where he had been glaring at the floor, so Jade counted it as a win. "Coming from the girl who could apparently shrink entire planets down to size of golfballs, that's not much of an argument." Honestly, what on earth was she getting at?

The young Witch's hands twisted in her lap. She was acutely aware of the ex-enigma's eyes watching her. "I know that. Compared to this, though..." she trailed off, eyes darting up to stare out the window, bottom lip pinched between her teeth. "It's a lot less daunting. I'm just. You know my grandpa, right?"

Tearen tilted his head with bird-like regard, thrown just a bit by the abrupt quesiton, but nodded all the same.

"Okay," said Jade. "O.K. Well, I know you've noticed this, but he's not here. I honestly don't know where he is. A-and, when he was alive, he was so great, so big and incredible and larger-than-life and I wanted to be just like him, I was so happy, but he... I brought him here because I missed him so much and he... he left me."

Her voice cracked a little on those last few words, going high and splintering like a bough bent too much by the wind. Chuckling hollowly, Jade scrubbed at her face with the back of her hand, knowing that her face was probably peaked with even more sharp red now. "I don't ever want to hurt Rebecca like that. And I worry that if I... gosh, I don't even know what word to use, adopt her, that maybe I will hurt her like that, and I couldn't live with mysel-"

"Do you even hear yourself? Jade, you couldn't hurt Rebecca even if you tried. And you wouldn't try, so this entire scenario is so incredibly pointless it's practically spherical. And here we are, stuck talking in circles," Tearen rolled his eyes and sighed, but found himself leaning forward to take Jade's hand so she'd stop fidgeting with it. Her fingers were startlingly petite, almost sparrow-boned, and the back of her hand damp from wiping at her cheeks. "Here's the deal: Rebecca and I will be departing for the Nexus gate soon, and you're welcome to accompany us if you'd like to have until then to make your decision. Whatever you choose, there will be no hard feelings and we will go our separate ways."

Jade nodded slowly, tried to smile. It came out a little wobbly. "Okay. I think I can do that."

[Tearen Wover]

Tearen nodded solemnly as Jade agreed to his proposition. It was good to know that the Omniverse had room for someone so caring.
 
“Good. In that case, there’s one thing left to do tonight.” The eldritch human said, standing up from the mostly-finished bed and brushing a few errant glitters of Omnilium off of his palms. He swished over to Rebecca, sitting next to her comparatively frail and ghostly form on the bed. He place a gentle hand on her forehead, which still felt clammy despite her recent bath. It was a physiological side-effect of the sea slug creature planted within her. Creative though he was, Tearen was not sure he would be able to offset these effects or remove the slug outright from Rebecca without causing massive harm. Maybe given a few weeks with her, the legendary Prime may have devised such a method, but this was not the case.
 
What he could do, however, was augment the effects of her brainwashing so that she had the capacity to learn and grow out of the veil that had been drawn over her eyes. The psychic took in a deep breath and allowed himself to fall into Rebecca’s mind through the palm of his hand, tumbling end over end through a sea of gilded clouds and gleaming statues. It was truly beautiful, the way Rebecca had been conditioned to see the world. As comforting as it may have been, however, she would need to learn the truth of the Omniverse if she were to gain the capacity to grow.
 
Tearen traced the foundations of her illusions to a murky sublevel in her mind, mired with tangles of untold grime and ghastly flesh. They clung at the heels of her beautiful artifices, cloying and throbbing hungrily. Rebecca’s mind wished to shun these abominations, and at the same time, was drawn to them. Her pursuit of angels, and the Omnilium within their blood; It was rooted at the very core of her psyche. Even roots could have roots, however. Tearen traced the path of these carrion creepers deeper into the dusty parts of Rebecca’s admittedly young mind. Obsession. Admiration. These were the core concepts the Shadow flew among now, and to tinker with any of these basic human thought processes was to invite ruin upon Rebecca’s cognition.
 
The root’s root. Find the why. There was always a why. He could smell it, quivering and clutching itself away from his scrutiny. An evasive, primal thing. Unmistakable to a telepath, it was Fear. Rebecca feared what would happen if she did not pursue the angels. It was imperative that she do so, because failure meant…no Daddy. Never again a Daddy. Abandonment. Ah…so Jade and Rebecca were more alike than it might seem.
 
Follow the thread. Abandonment. Rebecca had never known her true parents, only the other little girls that had been abducted into the Little Sister program. He saw himself through the windows of her eyes; larger than life, and looming. There too was Okor, and Jade as well. All of them turning their backs on Little Rebecca because she didn’t watch over the sleeping angels. Bah. So simple to revise. Tearen simply lifted Rebecca’s Fear and put it in front of the retreating giants. A twist of her neurosis, and her Daddies were rushing towards her, arms stretched wide. There, now instead of being abandoned for not collecting Omnilium-charged blood, she would be cherished and loved. A few more simple tweaks, and Tearen ensured Rebecca would be able to pursue whatever her true heart desired in the years to come.
 
As he pulled back out of the depths of her dream-like mind, he saw the tangled rot begin to wither and die. Ingrained as it was in the foundations of her waking delusion, eventually the golden, shining world she saw would collapse and crumble, leaving only the harshness of reality behind. That was okay. Everyone needed to grow up some day, and this process would take time.
 
But, at the very least, Rebecca would have a future outside of being a tool of Rapture. Satisfied, Tearen withdrew back into his own brain and let out a deep breath as his eyes rolled open again. He looked around, blinking slowly, and the first thing he noted was the orange light filtering in through the huge window panel’s in Jade’s room. The sun was rising, and Jade herself was half-seated, half-laying on a stack of stuffed squid toys on the other side of Rebecca. Tearen smiled softly; the poor teen must have been worried frantic about what had been happening. He hoped she hadn’t stayed up too too late on her vigil. With the help of delicate telekinesis, the elder Prime tucked Jade and Rebecca into bed properly and quietly shuffled out of the white-walled sanctuary.
 
A few hours later, and after a hearty, pumpkin dominated breakfast, the three bundled travelers set out back to the gate of the Frozen Fields. Before leaving, however, the Witch of Space had given the dwarven foreman a very stern warning that her yard should be presentable when she got back. It was a pleasant enough walk, under the cheery and rarely seen Fields sun, but the mirth was marred by a looming sense of gravitas. So, Tearen, Jade and even Rebecca kept themselves occupied by story telling. It was somewhat therapeutic to talk to someone about his trials in the Underverse, even if he did omit certain, choice atrocities. The same went for Jade, and her stories from under the Mountains. As for Rebecca…
 
“…and then all the rocks hitted the fish with a… with a biiig hit, and so then they exploded!” Rebecca said, throwing her arms out to punctuate the immensity of the event. Tearen and Jade laughed giddily at the little girl’s rambling yarn, and encouraged by the positive reception, Rebecca doubled-down on her punchline.
 
“…and then…then they exploded again!” she shouted. The Primes had to stop walking, due to their fits of giggles. It was a good two minutes before anyone was coherent enough to say anything. Jade had definitely noticed a change in Rebecca since last night. Tearen had explained his edits to her, of course, but seeing it was a completely different experience. Rebecca was the same girl Jade had always known, but now she seemed so much less…scripted. Hardly any mentions of angels and the like. It was almost enough to bring tears to the Witch’s eyes, but not as much as the stone that Tearen dropped on her in the next moment.
 
“We’re here. Time to choose.” Tearen said flatly. The seriousness in his voice caught Jade off guard, and honestly she had subconsciously been trying to avoid thinking about this. And yet, here it was, as plain as the moon in the sky. Jade decided to try and change the subject.
 
“So…but…either way you’ll be coming to visit and stuff, right?” she asked. The nervousness in her voice tugged at Tearen’s heartstrings, but this had to be done. He opted to stay silent for too long, and nervousness turned to horror on Jade’s face.
 
“W-wait, what? No?? Where are you even going, Tearen?” Jade asked in a panicked tone. Tearen sighed softly.
 
“I’m not totally sure, but I’m going to see Omni, and afterwards, it’s possible I’ll never see anyone in the Omniverse again. I need this world…to learn some things. Dante’s Abyss is a good platform for mass attention, so I’ll start there and-“ Tearen said, but was cut off abruptly.
 
“Wait, that killing game show thing? That’s how you’re going to do what Tyrael asked?” Jade said, waving her hands in desperation.
 
“Yes.” The Shadow replied, doing so in a tone that left no doubt in Jade’s mind. Well…this certainly changed a lot!