Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Fallow Harbor, Bridgehead. 2 days after Aurlyn's cremation of Tetricrya's remains.

"You've returned." General Ardmore said, raising an eyebrow at Aurlyn's unusual mode of transportation. Arlina's escape sub bobbed up and down listlessly in the murky grey waters; its pure black hull betraying none of its secrets. "Without the Sea Dragon that I so graciously gave you, I see. No matter; I expected no less from someone of your... occupation. We've been really struggling to even survive out here; the local Na'vi clans might have been devastated in the Battle for Bridgehead, but that sure as hell didn't stop the more distant Reef Na'vi of the eastern archipelago from really ramping up their attacks on our considerably weakened forces, and almost non-existent defenses. I'd describe them as pirates and marauders more than a seafaring clan by now, and the hollow savagery in their eyes reflects their sheer desperation, and hunger for resources. You wouldn't have anything to do with this, would you?" Ardmore asked Aurlyn in a piercing tone. "The timing of their attacks really is quite the impeccable coincidence, seeing as they started mere days after your departure."

The grieving Emissary looked around the ashen harbor, and winced. Bare concrete docks were lined with chips, cracks and bullet holes from the defending Bridgehead forces, while several burned-out hulks of once-proud ships littered the shores and beaches. Apparently the Resistance remnants had decided to generously "donate" a sizable portion of their ill-gotten weapons and munitions to the Reef Na'vi pirates. The filthy, soot-encased floor was irreversibly dyed a faint crimson from the corpses of countless defenders and marauders; no amount of scrubbing and deep-cleaning could ever remove this taint, while axed-in doors of warehouses and storage buildings along the waft bore testament to the sheer speed and efficiency of the oceanic raids. Aurlyn gulped nervously, before answering. "Uhh... I might have something to do with a certain Tree of Souls being destroyed that may have been sacred to the Reef Na'vi. I mean, I can't even pin all of the blame on Scoresby; if I had never chosen to hound Arlina to the deepest reaches in single-minded pursuit of my misguided goals, then none of this would have ever happened. At least the good captain went down with his ship! Although maybe not voluntarily..." Aurlyn added under her breath.

Ardmore rolled her eyes, and sighed. "Of course, of course. Why not just destroy the cultural fabric of an entire race while you're at it? No wonder they degenerated into desperate clans of loosely-aligned xenophobes. It seems that without a common enemy to unite against, the Reef Na'vi people suffered a far worse fate than the Forest Na'vi after the destruction of their Tree. Not to mention that the Tulkun as a whole seem to have abandoned their pacifist ideologies, and several pirate bands actively ride them into battle. We simply don't have the harpoons, or the ammunition to repel these benthic beasts for much longer. You had better make good on your promise, and find us a new home among the stars. We don't have time to wait around for several millennia either; at this rate, I'd be astonished if there was a single human left alive on Pandora by year's end."

"I... uh..." Aurlyn cleared her throat. "Might also have something to do with the abyssal Tree of the Tulkun being destroyed. Which might have driven them into a maddening frenzy, and erased all thoughts of peaceful contemplation from their minds. Now that I think about it, the great white Tulkun ridden by Lo'ak purposely led us to the Dismal Trench with its last breath. It wanted us to put an end to its corrupted brethren's misery..." the regretful Emissary breathed in sudden realization. "That Symbiotic Lurker must have carved out a unique ecological niche for itself; scavenging upon the corpses of its fellow Tulkun that the Abyssal Conduit would ferry to their final resting place. Such a... cannibalistic diet, combined with the alien environment at the bottom of the Dismal Trench warped and mutated it beyond recognition. But no matter!" Aurlyn cried in a sudden, and cheery contrast. "What's a few more unintended consequences of my own actions? I mean, my destruction of the Belrain Galactic Empire already carved deep scars across the face of Pandora; changing it forever. And probably not for the better..." She softly admitted. "Let bygones be bygones, and all that? It's not like I can do worse, seeing as I also had to destroy the entire Pandoran Neural Network to wipe away Arlina's lingering presence, and influence within. Sure, I freed Pandora from her deceitful manipulation, but I also rendered literal eons of symbiotic cooperation, and convergent evolution obsolete. Nothing like forcing my own ideology of "progressive chaos" on an entire alien moon, and being a supreme hypocrite in the process, am I right? I can't wait to see how all this plays out..." Aurlyn finished with bitter motes of sarcasm evident in her tone.

General Ardmore blinked once in stunned surprise, before leaning over and grabbing Aurlyn by the collar of her dress-like outer layers, and pulling her down so she was now face-to-face with the shorter military commander. "You WHAT!?" Ardmore roared in Aurlyn's face, even as the ancient Emissary involuntarily evoked dual rods of pure, obliterating light from the palms of her hands out of sheer instinct. "You really are Little Miss Sunshine, you know that, don't you!? Now everything that moves, breathes, walks or flies on Pandora will be out to tear us to shreds, like an immune response trying to expel a foreign pathogen! What did you THINK would happen when you basically just declared war on Pandora's entire ecosystem, with US, the humans, left as sitting ducks while you run off to the safety of the stars beyond!? WE. DON'T. BELONG. HERE!" the enraged General spat at Aurlyn; each word sending fat droplets of spittle flying all over the beleaguered Emissary's face. "And everything and everyone here knows it! Neural Network or not, hordes upon hordes of native beasts and wildlife are gonna be beating down our doors soon enough!" She hurled Aurlyn 30 feet away in a brutal display of strength, only for the quantum entity to teleport to relative safety atop the roof of a partially intact warehouse in a flash of light. "I doubt even the full technological might of the Ash Na'vi is enough to save our asses. Hell, I don't know if even YOU can make a difference, if you decided to stay and defend Bridgehead. And frankly, I'm not sure I even want you around, after all the chaos you've sown."

"She might not be able to put out the fires she has already set with her own two hands." A quiet voice sounded as a swarm of ethereal butterflies started to gather, before coalescing, and forming into Kiri. "But I can." The Voice of Eywa said with a sense of quiet resolve. "I can still feel them. The burning hatred and fear of Disconnection that thrums throughout the earth. The howls and screams of desperation as the land itself looks for a great foe to blame; an enemy to exact vengeance against. But I can still their tormented voices. I can soothe their sundered hearts." Kiri spoke with a sense of quiet serenity. "Though I am but a false prophet, revealed through Eywa's final words, I have not yet lost hope." She then turns, and looks at Aurlyn dead in the eyes. Without an inkling of fear, and strangely enough, without an inkling of righteous hatred. "I don't know if I should thank you, or curse you." Kiri said simply. "You took away everything from me. My adoptive Father, my adoptive Mother, and the voice of Grace Augustine, my progenitor. Even my beloved Eywa. But in Her final moments, Eywa admitted that she was false and fallen, and that her agenda had never been for the good of the People. You showed me the truth, and I think truth is always preferable to lies. So I shall blaze my own path. Much like you." She smiled softly at Aurlyn, before nodding, once. "Go. Your destiny lies among the stars. Bear my Gifts with you, and use them well." Kiri gives Aurlyn a knowing smile. "All of them. Including my Verdant Seed; once gifted to another. Yes, I can feel its vivacious energy, even from within the grasp of Chaos and twisted Space. Use it to seed a new dawn. A green dawn. And dream of a world where sentients and nature exist not only in perfect harmony, but where one depends on the other, and neither can survive without."

“So that is why you have given me so many gifts.” Aurlyn said simply as she gestures, and the Verdant Seed floats out of her bag to hover above the palm of her right hand. “You’re using me as a cosmic wind to spread your seeds. Sowing your Trees amidst the stars. Ensuring that new Neural Networks will sprout and endure, even if Pandora itself was charred to ash and dust. Luring me in with nectar so sweet, and ensuring that I did my job as diligently as the busiest bee." She idly spun and examined the Seed with the detachment of a practiced doctor. "I am no fool. Your Seed requires something of me to terraform a world within a reasonable timespan. I can feel it. It needs me, as much as I need it to fulfill my oath. And unfortunately, it happens to be something I swore never to perform again, except under the direst of circumstances. That which can both arise a new world, or bring an aged one to endless slumber. The power of Quantum Reversion. The power of the Chaos Chimera!" Aurlyn spat with a vile loathing.

"Do as you will." Kiri said as she spreads her arms outwards, and a tide of leaves blew behind, and around her. "Fret not for the denizens of Pandora. Nor for their future. After all..." She looked at Aurlyn with a fierce gleam in her eyes. "I am both shaman, and astrobiologist. Scientist and spiritualist. Believer and atheist. Human... and Na'vi. And through me, Pandora shall know itself once more. If only for the briefest of flights in the sunlight, I shall soar! Higher than the mightiest eagle, and no less daring than Icarus himself! Oh, and I suppose I would also be the new leader of the Resistance, seeing as Jake Sully, Neytiri, Lo'ak and Neteyam are all dead. As well as the Olo'eyktan, or chieftain of the Omatikaya clan. And I am nowhere near as narrow minded as those who came before me." Kiri stated with a grim certitude. "Big changes are about to happen around here. But I can guarantee a peaceful coexistence with the Sky People, as long as they treat us with respect, and see us as equals, instead of tribal savages." She then gave one final teasing grin to Aurlyn. "See? Not EVERYTHING you did around here led to destruction and desolation. Consider me the silver lining on a very large, and dark thunderstorm-laden cloud. Fare thee well, oh Dawn Herald. May we meet again under the rays of a clear sky." With that, Kiri dissolved into a million verdant sparks, which darted into the treeline of the encroaching Great Forest, and vanished.

"I have no words left for you. Just... go." General Ardmore stated with a deep, heaving sigh as she turned her back to Aurlyn, and stared out into the endless expanse of murky grey water. "Go. And bring us back a future. Bring us back more than this!" She cried, sweeping her hand dramatically over the ruins of Bridgehead.

"I have one final requiem to put to rest." Aurlyn half-sang with a hint of longing and remembrance in her trembling voice. "To return the ashes of a beloved companion to the peak of Zaratona Prime. And for that, I shall require an intact gunship."

"So be it." Ardmore echoed hollowly. "Take it. Take what little we have left. After all, isn't that what you do best, oh Great Scourge?" She noted Aurlyn's bitter grimace with a small sense of satisfaction.

Aurlyn wordlessly strode towards her proffered gunship, before the stone-faced, and black-suited pilot within started up the engines, and prepared for takeoff. "Wait! WAIT!" An eager, yet oh-so-familiar voice cried with a burning purpose. "Remember me?" Alyssa cried breathlessly as she dashed, panting and with sweat soaking her disheveled hair, onto the flight line tarmac. "I am going with you! No ifs, ands, or buts. I've been working my ass off for who knows how long, and at long last, it is finally time for me to fulfill my grand design! The dream I have been striving for, ever since I have set foot on Pandora! I want to behold a green Earth once again!"

"That's the thing." Aurlyn squinted suspiciously at Alyssa. "I DON'T remember you. Despite you being one of my Memories. And our psionic link got severed somewhere along the way; I didn't even notice it seeing as I had bigger fish to fry, and a busy agenda to keep myself occupied, but now..." She sighed. "Come along, I suppose. I have little left to stay on Pandora for, and shall return to the stars soon enough. Stars only know why you would want to accompany me, but I see no harm in it. For now." With that, Alyssa climbed onboard, and shoved her equipment-laden duffle bag next to Aurlyn as the gunship took off, and flew south. To revisit a land of fire and ash.

Caldera Apex, Zaratona Prime. 13 hours after Aurlyn and Alyssa's departure from Bridgehead.

Aurlyn stood at the charred pinnacle of Zaratona Prime, overlooking the swirling, bubbling and ever-present cauldron of magma on one side, and the steep drop into the open wind and sky on the other. A flock of Fire Ikrans soared overhead, peering down curiously with their amber eyes, while the occasional Ash Na'vi warship flew past, and flashed their lights in a gesture of friendly greeting. After all, Aurlyn had been sure to evoke holographic sun-and-moon decals on both sides of the gunship hovering overhead to let the indigenous populace know that this craft was not here on official Sky People business; merely bearing a distant envoy from the stars beyond. Though this risked attack from lingering Hylis supporters who smoldered long after the oppressive leader's death, Aurlyn felt that it was the right thing to do. Alyssa stood by her side, having opted to teleport down onto the impassible, and precarious brink with her. Now that the two finally had a moment alone, the estranged astrobiologist finally spoke, and spoke in truth.

"I... I just wanted to apologize, you know." Alyssa murmured softly; the ashen gale whipping her long strands of hair around her face. "For all but vanishing after my other self was vanquished in the Twilit Glade. I... I don't know what happened, exactly, but one moment, I could feel a great torrent of panic, fear, realization and despair resonating through the mental link while you were asleep. I... I saw a face. For the briefest of all moments. It seemed stern, muscular, and bore a twisted sneer along with faint hints of wrinkles, and short-cropped hair. Then... nothing. That was the last communication I ever got from the copy of myself in your mind. Shortly after, after seeing to your care while you were recovering from the wounds Neytiri inflicted upon you, I felt the once-tenacious mental link falter, before breaking. Finally, Ardmore, of all people, came rushing into my office, announcing she had a breakthrough that could potentially harness exo-organisims to revitalize Earth. So I worked day and night at a fervent pace; rarely stopping even to eat and sleep. I was a woman possessed..." Alyssa softly admitted. "This was the first chance I've really had to step out from my lab, and focus in on the events of the outside world. Not even the Battle for Bridgehead fazed me; to my ears and eyes, the pounding of artillery shells and the blinding flashes of laser defense weapons were nothing more than petty distractions to be ignored in pursuit of my life's work. The massive EMP pulse that heralded the end of the conflict did interrupt my focus, for a few seconds at least, while the backup generators buried deep underground kicked in." the obsessed Scientist recounted in a half-amused tone. "But luckily, the entire lab was surrounded by a sturdy Faraday cage, which meant all of my equipment was still in working condition."

Here, Alyssa's face fell. "The Reef Na'vi raids were another story altogether. One war party made it as far as my lab, and it was their blood-soaked grimaces that made me realize how much I was missing in the real world, and just how disconnected I was from reality, and current events. So... here I am." She softly smiled and waved at Aurlyn. "Ardmore sent one of her soldiers to notify me of your impending departure at the very last second; with you, I can actually accomplish, instead of endlessly research and plan."

"You have nothing to apologize for." Aurlyn said adamantly as she put her hands on Alyssa's shoulders. "I... I know just how all-consuming a dearly-held obsession can be. Ironically..." She smirked, chuckling softly to herself. "I was battling my own inner demons, at roughly the same time you were facing yours. Arlina made me realize that there is more to life than endlessly pursuing a prime compulsion across the stars. I am my own person!" Aurlyn sang in a rising crescendo. "I am more than my drives and desires! As are you! After all, Arlina's burning desire for revenge eclipsed everything else she was. And at the end, all she was was a bitter husk. Driven to commit vile atrocities, and justify even the most gruesome of crimes in the name of her righteous crusade against me. I... I don't want to be like that." the forlorn Emissary falteringly admitted. "Or... if I already am... I don't want to stay this way. Change is in the nature of all things." Aurlyn stated firmly. "And I believe I can change, for the better! That we can all change to be our best selves! Its what Tetricrya would have wanted..." She mournfully looked down at the egg-shaped metal urn clutched tightly between her pale hands. Studying the various motifs telling the story of the Ash Na'vi people across its curved surface, since the dawn of the very first suns.

"I know little about Tetricrya. Other than the fact that she was our primary point of contact with the Ash Na'vi people, and that General Ardmore spent considerable time and resources to teach her English, along with a select few others who showed both promise, and talent. But it sounds like she meant a great deal to you..." Alyssa softly breathed, staring down at the urn that held Tetricrya's ashes. "I am sorry for your loss. Truly."

"Thank you." Aurlyn smiled peacefully, before slowly opening Tetricrya's urn. "Be free. Be one with the wind and stars, and the fires of your volcanic home." With that, the cathartic Emissary scattered her dear companion's ashes to the four winds, watching with a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction as Tetricrya's corporeal remains were carried away in a celestial current. Raining down to fertilize new stories, and join the wheel of fate as it turns once more. "I... I am sorry." Aurlyn whispered as a final farewell. "You deserved better than this. Better than me. In another time and place, you would have lived a full and storied life. Away from my grasp, away from my influence, and away from all the troubles and tribulations that dog my every step. Rest, dear friend. Rest well. May you rebehold the stars." She turned, and started glowing with light as she prepared to teleport back to the gunship. Alyssa barely had time to clutch on to Aurlyn's hand before the two of them were enveloped in a radiant pillar, and whisked back to the hovering transport.

Basalt Palace, Zaratona Prime. 20 minutes after Aurlyn and Alyssa scattered Tetricrya's ashes atop the Caldera Apex.

"What business do you have before me?" High Technocrat Almat asked sharply as she walked out from the bustling crowd that now filled the almost-unrecognizable Council Chamber. Construction had started in earnest on an upgraded and improved version of the Ashensong Tree that looked almost like a holographic projection, and was surrounded by various pylons that broadcasted and received truly staggering amounts of wireless bandwidth. Apparently, with science, innovation, progression and independent thinking now being fostered by Ash Na'vi society, as well as the new Council of Technocrats, their technology had taken a quantum leap in a divergent path that strayed far from Arlina's poisoned gift. Just standing in the room filled Aurlyn with thousands of budding, yet distorted sensations, memories and experiences humming through the air via radio waves that all converged upon the nascent Ashensong Tree; there was no doubt the various wireless links would transmit information with crystal clarity once this great project was completed. Various political groups and representatives all vied to make their voices heard throughout the din that suffused the beating heart of Zaratona Prime, while the various Technocrats were now as beholden to the citizens they served, as one might be beholden to their superior at work. Frequent elections and fixed, two-year terms meant each Council Member worked fervently to advocate for, and advance the interests of the District they had been appointed to serve, while the High Technocrat's power had been greatly limited, and could be overruled through a simple majority of the rest of the Council. The Basalt Palace had been opened up for even the lowliest Ash Na'vi beggar to petition his or her leaders, while various parliamentary buildings were being constructed nearby that would be able to accommodate more elected representatives in a gradual political shift. "I am a very busy woman, as you can see." Almat swept one hand across the Chamber.

"Forgive me." Aurlyn bowed her head politely. "I merely wish to inform you of the existence of an extensive undersea complex that houses thousands upon thousands of Ash Na'vi clones that are all direct descendants of Lyrael herself." A solid sheet of light solidified in her hands, before forming into a corporeal, yet holographic map of the Eastern Sea that showed the exact location of the Dismal Trench with a pulsating red dot. Aurlyn clicked on the map marker, and her 3D map shifted to reveal an outline of the Dismal Trench, that clearly showed the Tulkun Necropolis, along with Acheron Station at the very bottom. She zoomed in even further, and the map fast-forwarded through the exact route she had taken through that grim house of nightmares, before finally revealing the horrifying truth lurking in the Midnight Crucible. "Do with this information as you will. Or, rather, as the Ash Na'vi people will." Aurlyn added with a teasing smile upon her face, presenting a white-faced Almat with her meticulously-detailed map.

"If you wish to rescue and recover these lost denizens of the deep, I recommend a fleet of submarines capable of diving to at least 30,000 feet under the sea. I give Arlina's two-person escape sub to the Ash Na'vi people. It is docked at the Fallow Harbor in Bridgehead, with the keys still in the ignition." the more open-minded Emissary allowed herself a small smirk. "I am no Arlina. Therefore, I leave you with a great boon of knowledge, no strings attached, before I leave Pandora for good." With that, Aurlyn held her hands in front of her as a shining orb of immense detail coalesced in between her outstretched palms. "When your Tree is completed, my final gift will be able to directly interface with it, and deposit countless schematics, theoretical concepts, plans and blueprints I have acquired throughout my long travels directly into your shared ancestral knowledge. Likewise, I have already instructed my Memory envoys I left with the Sky People to open the floodgates, and share with them all the wonders and horrors of an ever-progressing cosmos. With a special focus on advanced materials science, and sustainable city blueprints, of course." Aurlyn said with a soft smile. "What good is hoarding knowledge anyway, if it is not freely shared to those both deserving, and worthy?"

"I..." High Technocrat Almat's breath caught in her throat. "We truly have no words, and are overwhelmed by both your generosity, and your kindness. Let it be known that the Ash Na'vi people will never forget this great and selfless deed, even unto the end of all Songs." She spread her arms, and bowed her head as she touched one fist to her chest in an obvious gesture of respect. "As for this undersea complex you describe..." Almat flicked through both Aurlyn's map, and her orb of distilled knowledge. "We shall endeavor to send a rescue squad in the future, once we have mastered the submarine blueprints you have provided us, as well as add our own unique touch. One of our coastal cities on the far eastern edge of the Firebound Wastes, where lava meets waking sea, should suffice as a construction site for our new fleet. The Steambound Shoreline has always been one of our most… spectacular assets.” She muttered dreamily, before refocusing her attention on the matter at hand. “Despite these captives being children of that hated tyrant..." Almat took a deep, shuddering breath. "They shall be offered refuge here, at the least. And be safe from harm, as much as we are able. That is all I can promise. You have done much for us." the High Technocrat admitted, taking a bold step forwards. "Never let it be said that the Ash Na'vi are ungrateful, nor unoriginal. Therefore, in return for the pivotal role you played in liberating all of Zaratona Prime from High Technocrat Hylis, as well as your generous boons of knowledge and information, we have two gifts of our own I am sure will prove most useful to you."

A scientist in a white coat stepped out from behind Almat, and presented Aurlyn with a datapad containing the results of the analysis of the curious slag she had found in the Belrain Archives. "This slag matches almost exactly with telltale signatures found only in Sky People gunships." Almat said chillingly, as icy tendrils gripped Aurlyn's back. "Specifically with AI-assisted combat systems, and a few other modules of a militaristic bent. The strong spectral lines of Unobtanium, tritium, titanium, adamantine, silicon, germanium and americium are unmistakable." She paused for a moment to let her words sink in. "Not just a run-of-the-mill gunship, mind you. Based on the debris we analyzed in the aftermath of the Battle for Bridgehead, this slag must have came from a more robust, and advanced model reserved only for commanders, and other high-ranking personnel. And as for our second gift..." Almat solemnly presents Aurlyn with a badge that was exquisitely crafted with stained volcanic glass, and bore innumerable fractals that all came together to form a stunning mosaic. It depicted the roaring flame that was the symbol of the Ash Na'vi, burning with the bright promise of tomorrow. "Take this. It was forged by our most skilled artisans, and not only commemorates you as an honorable paragon of the Ash Na'vi people, but is also quite practical. It amplifies, and multiplies any rays of laser light shot through it, exponentially increasing the lethality of your long-range Light persona attacks. Form, and function." Almat gives Aurlyn a knowing smile, even as the humbled Emissary pins the Risen Badge to her chest, next to Miles' service medal.

"Thank you..." Aurlyn whispered in a sincere tone. "Oh, and one last thing. Tetricrya... she has fallen in her unwavering dedication, and service to the Ash Na'vi people. Slain by a hateful wretch you might know as Arlina, or Almain. Once-benefactor to Zaratona Prime, and cruel alien overlord to both Lyrael, and your people as a whole. A beautiful memorial rests where she was cruelly cut down, beneath the ocean depths, while her ashes have been returned, and scattered atop this very volcanic mount."

High Technocrat Almat half frowned, as her face was obviously conflicted in both emotion, and expression. "I..." She coughed delicately. "While we had our disagreements, Tetricrya was undoubtedly also pivotal to our liberation. No matter her lineage, she will be remembered in living memory as a champion and hero who sacrificed everything to give us a better future."

"That is all I can ask for." Aurlyn nodded genially. "I have one final request. I can think of no better launchpad for my Last Symphony venture star than the very boiling caldera lake of magma above. With a little... solidification, it would make a great surface from which to return to the stars. I hope you don't mind? Don't worry, I'm sure the heat of the thrusters will be more than enough to melt the layer of obsidian I will have to create atop the caldera surface."

"Of course." Almat spread her hands open in a friendly gesture. "I see no problem with that. As long as you don't cause a sudden eruption, like you did last time." She added with a teasing smile. "Or the even larger one that preceded your arrival, back when General Ardmore had newly arrived, and was hard at work teaching Tetricrya and the rest of her small class English. That one wasn't in our usually accurate volcanic forecast either."

"Don't worry. I'll try my best not to cause too much chaos." Aurlyn promised. "Besides, I don't intend on accessing the Belrain Archives again, so there shouldn't be an unexpected magma Upwelling event. Again, thank you for the analysis, and for the great privilege of being an honorary member of the Ash Na'vi people. Lead your people well and wisely, oh High Technocrat. And may you and yours never repeat the mistakes of the past." With that, Aurlyn returned to her gunship where Arlina was waiting, before ascending the side of the mountain, and towards the fiery caldera high above.

Caldera Heart, Zaratona Prime. 16 minutes after Aurlyn received the Risen Badge from High Technocrat Almat.

Aurlyn glided across the surface of the boiling magma like a jet-skiing dolphin; absorbing the ample thermal energy beneath as she left a wide trail of solid basalt and obsidian in her wake. She circumnavigated the entire Caldera as a ring-shaped ridge of black rock fully manifested, before leaping into the air like a reverse shooting star, coming to a brief rest as she hovered above the origin point of this makeshift zero. Aurlyn then clasped her hands together as white-hot tendrils of plasma and thermal energy were siphoned into her blinding form. "This is the final toll I shall exact upon Pandora!" the departing Emissary cried as the molten lake solidified from the outside in, before a gleaming capstone of glossy obsidian covered the entire caldera surface. "I thank thee, oh mother brimstone, for your gifts. Through your wings of fire, I shall soar!" Aurlyn extended her arms outwards in a dramatic gesture as her Memories frantically worked overtime to process, read and transcribe the exacting information-copy of the Last Symphony venture star from the deepest reaches of her mind. A hazy, distorted holographic vision of her newfound ship appeared in the heavily heat-distorted air beneath Aurlyn; looking almost like a maddening delusion born from the depths of a fever dream. The front half of the ship appeared to be melting into itself, while hippo heads with their mouths agape seemed to be clustered at the rear to form the thrusters. However, Aurlyn shifted to her Dark persona, and uttered a chilling cry as a cryogenic burst sharpened and corrected this budding image, bringing it into stark focus with reality. She then shifted to her Void persona and clutched one fist tightly as the holographic image condensed, and was made metal and flesh. "Our chariot to the stars awaits..." Aurlyn muttered in exhaustion as she slowly drifted to the ground, and snapped her fingers as sun-and-moon seals appeared on the sides of her Venture Star to brand it as her own.

"Let us depart. Every second we waste is one more second my homeworld remains a barren and inhospitable wasteland." Alyssa stated in an icy tone, despite the overwhelming ambient heat. She rudely pushed past Aurlyn, and walked up the ramp to the gleaming metal entrance hatch, before vanishing inside. The drained Emissary had no choice but to follow, and together, they departed for the stars beyond.

Tesseract Transit, 16 subjective days after Aurlyn and Alyssa's departure from Pandora. Relativity of time - Slightly dilated.

Aurlyn sat in the copilot's seat of the Last Symphony venture star, staring out into the endless fractal patterns of hyperspace beyond. Rotating rhombuses, spinning cylinders, dancing triangular prisms, and bouncing spheres dotted the all but abstract landscape, while her ship's reality stabilizers formed a bubble of protective natural laws to shield against the maddening and profoundly alien dimension. Granted, the frustrated Emissary would have preferred simple portal travel, but unfortunately, Pandora's host star contained far too many Unobtanium impurities to be used as an effective energy source for such megaprojects, like opening massive and stable, long-lasting portals thousands of light-years away. And simply leaving behind her newly-acquired Venture Star seemed like such a waste; it could, after all, be used to explore countless new star systems for which she bore no previous teleport or portal coordinates to. "Emissary Aurlyn." her Pilot Memory sitting beside her stated gruffly. "Ever since we arrived in hyperspace, we've detected a strange, looping signal that seems to be broadcast on all frequencies, yet also seems to hone in on certain quantum field lines that bear an unmistakable signature of your presence. Someone, or something is clearly trying to communicate with you. With us. Stranger still, we have been unable to decrypt this transmission, despite running it through a gauntlet of cipher-breaking algorithms hosted in your mind. But most eerie of all is the fact that the signal strength does not appear to strengthen, nor diminish with distance. We've traveled over 10 trillion miles in hyperspace, and yet, this signal remains constant and ever-present. Maybe you should take a look at it?" The Pilot Memory asked Aurlyn. "There are also readings suggesting that oxygen levels are being used in a manner consistent with the presence of one extra person on board. But it's most likely a glitch in the system, seeing as we've encountered no stowaways so far."

"You know me, Richard." Aurlyn sighs. "I just like to come here and watch the chaotic dance of shapes in a perspective like no other. It doesn't have to always be work, and matters of great import, all of the time. This is the first opportunity I've had to contemplate, and really come to terms with things in quite a long while. Its been like one wild roller coaster ride ever since I arrived on Pandora." She glanced at Richard's stern, professional face. "For star's sake, show some emotion! Feel free to curse me, or something! I mean, I treated you and your crew no better than Malphor! Like pawns gained at the negotiating table, not as people!" He remained impassive, as Aurlyn sighed. "Regardless, I'll certainly take a look at the anomalous signal. Thank you." With that, she stands up and exits the cockpit before heading into the comms room, and grabs a radio antenna as she attempts to analyze the incoming signal. Frowning, the ancient Emissary's mind worked at a frenzy pace, but all of her Memories were not only unable to decrypt the transmission, but suggested that it was deliberately gibberish. Or... was it? Glancing down at her own arm, Aurlyn noted with considerable shock and surprise that bright glyphs were appearing upon its surface in a luminescent dance; the radio waves triggering a radiant reaction as they were absorbed from the antenna, and into her hand. "No... it can't be..." Aurlyn whispered. But it was. Though the glyphs were in an archaic language she had learned during her early travels with the Worldstrider, she had no trouble deciphering the simple message. It was a short string of letters, numbers and symbols that spelled the exact possibility coordinates where the Gardener resided. 12*dm*)*@jjd983t238rk09*7~~2Y~~&**H&7jj7$#@!!)**. "Something is wrong..." Aurlyn muttered to herself, her eyes darting around in a furtive manner. "Why else would the Gardener herself, of all people, contact me, here and now?"

"Hey!" Cried a friendly, casual female voice behind her as Aurlyn startled and flinched before whirling around. She quickly lets out a huge sigh of relief as she realized that it was just Alyssa standing behind her. "You scared me! I was deep in thought!" the aghast Emissary cried out in protest.

"Sorry! I just wanted to know where we're going, and when we're going to get there." Alyssa said in a defensive tone, putting her hands up. "Didn't mean to disturb you or anything. Besides, you've been mostly locked in your quarters since this impromptu voyage started, and I'm starting to feel a bit ignored."

"Oh, right." Aurlyn half-gasped in relief, her heartbeat normalizing to a manageable tempo. "I... I guess I've had a lot on my mind recently. Besides, what happened on Pandora really took a lot out of me. Its not everyday that I get to face and witness the sweeping consequences of my own actions. And... I suppose I've been grieving." she softly admitted, averting her gaze as she stared out of the window. "Coming to terms with my loss. Tetricrya... she was special, you know? Not like these Memories here. No offense, of course!" Aurlyn hastily added, glancing around to make sure nobody heard. After all, she couldn't risk another Memory Rebellion, especially not after what Malphor so recently pulled. A chorus of "Boos!", scoffs and shouted taunts would resonate in her own mind, only to quickly die down as her Aspects performed damage control for her. Regardless, Aurlyn would continue. "I don't get the chance to make many genuine friends in my... profession, you know. Which makes this loss all the harder. But you're right. I have been disregarding my duties." She lets out a deep, shuddering sigh. "Can't wallow in grief forever, I suppose. Anyway! To answer your original question, we're headed to the Staltricrysis Cluster, a promising collection of star systems that bear an unusually high number of temperate and habitable worlds amicable to organic life. It should only take 78 more days in hyperspace to reach, at which point I can simply use the energy of a local star to open a portal back to Pandora, and negate the return trip. I promised Ardmore that I would find a new homeworld for humanity, and I am a woman of my word."

"You know, there already is a planet that humans find very habitable and agreeable." Alyssa stated in an intense tone, staring Aurlyn straight in her piercing amber eyes. The conflicted Emissary flinched, not used to such a detailed reverse-examination that she would normally be giving, as Alyssa blinked once, before continuing. "A planet... like Earth." She nodded knowingly at Tetricrya's bottomless bag, slung over Aurlyn's shoulder. "A certain birdie told me of a very special seed that you may or may not have. A seed so special that it could transform Earth back into a lush, green paradise faster than sprouts emerging from a chia pet."

"Wait, what!?" Aurlyn took a step backwards, her heart missing a beat. This was the last thing she had expected. "No! Just no! I will not restore Earth only for it to become a haven for the rich and spoiled scions whose parents were directly responsible for Earth's climate catastrophe, and subsequent ecological collapse, but were cowardly enough to flee the wasteland they had created! These greedy and selfish harbingers of the end have long languished in their orbital stations, enjoying all the comforts of their spaceborne ivory towers while every other human suffered, bled and died! Imagine the malice and the selfish destruction that would arise if this was the starting seed population one had to restore and recolonize Earth! They would be the scourge of the great void, while the screams of desperation and fear from countless alien species would resonate throughout the entire Milky Way galaxy, and beyond! Slaughtering, exploiting, spreading the twisted ideologies of human supremacy, and multiplying like a malignant cancer across the stars! This is a fate I would do anything to avoid!"

"How do you know?" Alyssa asked quietly. "No one can predict the future with total certainty. Not even you, with all your knowledge and might. Would you judge the unborn for the sins of their forebearers? Would you condemn an entire species just because you don't like the majority of its current surviving members? Would you really stereotype us into oblivion when you had the opportunity to give us a second chance? And what about the humans residing upon Pandora's shores? You've met them. You've dined with them, shared stories with them, laughed and worked with them. You even owe them a great debt, just as they will owe you a great debt in return for their future. What future do you want that to be?" She asked the adamant Emissary, glaring at her with all the judgment of the human race. "One where you provide a token gesture to fulfill a debt owed? One where the next generation of innocent children look up at a sky filled with alien, unknowable stars and wonder why some random woman decided it was her right to rip away their chance to live upon their ancestral cradle, and behold the accomplishments of their forebearers, be it for good or ill? Or one where you return to us what we are owed? I want a green Earth." Alyssa implored in a heartfelt tone. "No, WE need a green Earth. All of us. All of humanity. For ourselves, and our posterity. And you are the only one who can accomplish such a feat."

"I... I can't. I'm sorry." Aurlyn gasped out, lowering her head in shame. Deep down, she knew that this was wrong. That she was passing judgment on an entire race for no other reason than an intangible maybe. For perceived actions that had not yet come to pass, and may never come to pass. "My promise to humanity was that I would find you a new cradle among the stars. And so I shall. But no more than that. No more." She intoned. "Please... excuse me. There is a pressing matter that requires my attention, and I must depart, for now. Fear not, I shall be back. Soon, I hope." With that, Aurlyn pushed past Alyssa, making her way out of the comms room as quantum strands flickered and flashed in front of her. The hasty Emissary's hands glowed with a golden radiance as a swirling portal of light appeared in front of her, tunneling through countless timelines that were never realized, and possibilities that were never meant to be, before stepping inside as this vortex gateway closed behind her. Alyssa turned her head, and stared at the empty spot where Aurlyn used to be but mere moments ago, before nodding decisively, her jaw set in a determined manner. She marched straight to the navigational room, and input a new set of coordinates that would overwrite the ship's ultimate destination. A set of coordinates that she knew all too well. After all, everything and everyone she knew once originated from this lonely blue marble, spinning listlessly through the cold depths of space.

Genesis Garden Possibility, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

A sun-and-moon seal briefly appeared in a shining, brilliant outline of golden light; looking naught too out of place amidst the grove of gently-swaying willow trees that hummed with countless iterations of the infinite past, and unknowable future. Multitudes upon multitudes of stories and possibilities were being written, rewritten, explored and elucidated here, and yet, only the most resilient would go on to see the morrow day. And so it repeats, in an endless chain that knows no beginning, and no end. For the briefest of seconds, one might mistake this arcane seal as no more than a fleeting byproduct of the Genesis Garden; the great game itself determined to reassert its commitment to both true novelty, and purposeful winnowing. But this notion would soon be dispelled as the sun-and-moon seal spun like a vengeful star, before burrowing a tunnel through time and space itself. A lone figure could be seen traversing this fleeting pathway between worlds, before she caught her Seal in the palm of her right hand, and gently closed her fingers around it. "I have heard your call." Aurlyn's voice rang out, crystal clear, and filled with a terrible intent. She emerged from the portal, snapping her fingers as it sealed shut behind her, before looking around as she beheld the Gardener kneeling down in the wet, reedy soil. This custodial figure was using a pair of sharp, lethal shears to snip and cut away at some of the lilypads and other tangled overgrowth in the shallows of a small pond; her tool of choice honed to an infinitesimally fine edge.

"Ah, forgive me." Auria stated in a humble tone as she stood up, before wiping the copious amounts of mud and muck staining her hands on the front of her thick overalls. "A caretaker's work is never done. But you have come, it seems. We have met only in dreams, but our brief time together has been no less meaningful. After all, dreams are a gateway between worlds." She smirked with a twinkle in her eye. "I have something potentially... disturbing to discuss with you. And I would rather show you, than expect you to take my word at face value. So, come. Follow, if you dare." Auria beckoned as she began striding up the hill, and towards her opulent, yet homey mansion.

Aurlyn blinked, bemused and slightly taken aback, but followed the Gardener nonetheless. Along the way, Auria gave a monologue, of sorts. "So, what do you really know about the Genesis Garden? Ah, there's no need to answer that; it was a rhetorical question." the Gardener stated sharply, raising one chiding finger as Aurlyn's lips parted for a response. "When I first got teleported here, out of the blue, it was naught but a desolate wasteland." She closed her eyes in deep reminiscence as thoughts and wisps of memory rose to the surface of her mind. "Ruined structures dotted the inhospitable landscape, some seemingly burnt and torn asunder by great demons, or a comparable destructive force, while other, more modern vestiges seemed to have been left to rot and decay into concrete dust, and rusted rebar. Everywhere I looked, there were unmistakable traces of life! People! Desperate prisoners who had once scratched tallies into solid stone walls with their fingernails to mark the relentless passage of time! And yet, there was nobody. The only thing that was left were their personal effects, as well as their lingering influence upon the Genesis Garden." Auria stated almost regretfully. "I flipped through countless diaries and journals; some penned with blood from the author's own veins, while others attempted to chronicle their final moments in faulty audio recording devices, or malfunctioning magical enchantments. It was like a garden of horrors, with each grid, each section dedicated to the torments their once-masters endured before finally succumbing. Be it through madness, or the collapse of their physical form. Most had no idea why they were suddenly here without rhyme nor reason, and only a select few had pieced together the true nature of the Genesis Garden through the writings of their predecessors. Even then, if it was ultimate power they sought, they would find none, seeing as the Garden took on a new form with each new Gardener that graced its shores."

"The power-hungry would fall victim to their own trappings..." Auria recounted with poetic fidelity. "Their Garden consisting of an endless maze of fear, torment and horror. Assuming they were able to piece together the various scattered context clues as to the true nature of the Genesis Garden, and find the Sapling that was ere left over from previous eras. And the Sapling could be anything..." She muttered with a touch of fear and regret. "Most who came before believe it to be something close to their heart, but others believed the form of the Sapling to be a trial that weeded out the weak, foolish and unfit. One could wander for eons in the Unformed Echo without ever exploring a minute fraction of its true expanse, but I was fortunate, and found my Sapling within a fortnight. Even with this generative potential, the Sapling would still need careful nurturing and tending to assume its final, yet unbound shape. And within that time, I, like so many Gardeners before me, built my own version of the Genesis Garden upon the remains of all that had come before me. Like the bud of a new growth drawing nourishment from a rotting skeleton. What you see around you is the result..." Auria said in a speculative manner, sweeping her arms from horizon to horizon. "But it isn't everything. The Unformed Echo still lurks beneath, like an enduring relic of the past that refuses to give up the ghost, and consign itself into the dustbin of history. And I... I think I may have found something of world-shattering import there. Something that I missed long ago, due to the amorphous and ever-shifting nature of the Genesis Garden's true form. Remember..." She added with a gleam of opalescent fire in her eyes. "Anyone can potentially become a Gardener, and the laws of physics do not discriminate on who to claim, when a previous Gardener falls, goes mad, or abdicates. A bit like winning, or losing a cosmic lottery, depending on your perspective." Auria scoffed.

The two disjointed possibilities strode into Auria's dwelling, before the current Gardener led the way down into her cellar. It was well-maintained, with a plush, carpeted floor, and a state-of-the-art home movie theater, as well as the latest holographic gaming PC. "A guilty pleasure of mine, I'm afraid." Auria smirked. "After all, I've got all the time in the world, and I'm quite capable of creating tiny wormholes for interdimensional wifi. So if I ever owned you in some game, then I'm sorry." She then turns her attention to one of the large white marble blocks making up part of the flawless far wall. "Let us peer beyond." Flickering tendrils of quantum information extended outwards from the sleeves of her filthy overalls, before making contact with the false block of marble as it dissolved into countless open-ended paths one could have taken. Be it through choice, or predestination. "There are naught but ever-branching fractals here." Auria whispered with a fierce intensity as she strode into the revealed gap. "A pattern that never ends, never repeats itself, and never ceases to stop growing. One could say it mirrors the selfsame, selfish desire of life. Thrive, even when all the worlds are against you! Even when you have become the malignant tumor! Even at the cost of all else!" Aurlyn followed in the Gardener's footsteps, before coming to a shocked standstill as she beheld what was before her very own eyes. "I... I don't understand..." the flabbergasted Emissary stammered; her heart pounding drums of great revelation in her chest. "How? Why? How have I not realized?" She rubbed her eyes furiously, as if trying to dispel a stubbornly persistent illusion, but the reality in front of her eyes remained unchanged. "Have I really been this great of a fool?"

"At some point or time, we have all been fools." Auria intoned in a surprisingly warm tone, standing beside Aurlyn, and keeping her quiet companionship as the horrified Emissary tried to make sense of what she was seeing. "But the difference between a fool, and a sage is in the choices they make in the moment."

Aurlyn swept her gaze across the freestanding room without walls nor a roof; looking more like a threadbare stage set abandoned long ago than any semblance of habitability. But the well-worn, well-loved, and obviously sentimental framed picture laying on a heavy oaken dresser told her all that she needed to know. She had seen these faces before. Both in stolen memory, and in actuality. One face was of a happy, grinning boy clinging tightly to the leg of an all-too-familiar woman. "Mark..." Aurlyn dared to breathe. "I See you." Visions sprang to her mind of a dystopian hellscape that he had endured and suffered through. An unforgiving, inhospitable planet known as Earth. "And... Alyssa." She focused her attention on the young woman wearing a lab coat, with her long blonde hair flowing down her back. Her lips were curved in a simple, genuine smile, while her wide-framed glasses gave her the appearance of a reclusive bookworm. "I See you as well. I KNEW you were too good to be true. You were the Primarch all along, weren't you!? It is most certainly no coincidence that I got infected with the Chaos Chimera only AFTER I had already started upon my Pandora mission! I've also never seen anyone come to terms with their Imprinting so quickly, and so eagerly. Not to mention the Rogue Memory who sold me out to Dr. Grace Augustine... it was you, wasn't it!?" She hissed with a sudden fury, grasping the silver-framed portrait as infernal flames leapt out from the palm of her hand, and slowly started singing the ancient polaroid print.

"You going AWOL after defending me at the Twilit Grove should have been a huge red flag, seeing as Memories usually have no reasonable way to evade mine gaze, but I realize now that you merely hid with the Chaos Chimera in the Sealed Abyss! YOU were the figure I saw on the back of the Chaos Chimera as it fell once more after its failed escape attempt, weren't you!? That coat I saw wrapped around the shadowy figure was none other than a LAB COAT!" Aurlyn cried, cursing herself for her stupidity. "You no doubt created the Symphony of Fears to keep me occupied while you tried to escape with the Chaos Chimera. No doubt born from your intensive research into my vulnerabilities and trepidations!" Aurlyn rapidly tapped her fingers against her thigh, as if she was making complex calculations and deductions. "You inventing the artificial Queue device should have instantly tipped me off, seeing as it was exactly what Neytiri needed to secure her claim as the next Toruk Makto, and raise an army against me! Evading me during my visits to Bridgehead, and severing mental ties with me should also have been telltale signs. Signs that I ignored or dismissed!" She huffed. "But you know what takes the cake? The fact that you tried to goad me into suicide using devices of SKY PEOPLE design and origin! Stealing the parts you needed from Ardmore's personal gunship was a genius touch, seeing as she has a fear of heights, and would likely never have used it anyway. I don't know how you managed to get in the Belrain Archives before me, but I know that you must have. After all, High Technocrat Almat mentioned an eruption that occurred long before my arrival on Pandora, and eruptions herald access to the Belrain Archives. Which means everything I did here was not only anticipated, but set up long before my arrival..." Aurlyn seethed. "I'm willing to bet my last dollar that you had something to do with the Final Eclipse cult chasing me here, and Ardmore's decision to send me to Zaratona Prime."

"You defended my life while I was helpless only so that I would not forget my own infection. So that I would not forget you! So I would continue being a good lab rat in the maze you so eloquently constructed for me!" the enraged Emissary realized. "Pandora was chosen as a deliberate trap, ensuring that I could not just open a portal off-world whenever I felt like it. You also ensured that I was at my best and most cunning, seeing as the lack of access to my Sentience Orb meant there was no second chances. All the while acting helpful and submissive in the brief time we interacted while you were in my mind. With just the right touch of sarcasm and angst to make me not suspect you. I also noticed some suspicious encoded information in your Imprint that I normally would have rejected you over, but seeing as you were the only astrobiologist on board, I had no choice, and didn't think too much over it. Then again, Miles and Ardmore had the same... distortions as well, so it might have just been a side effect of Unobtanium interference, seeing as the Final Contingency venture star had sizable portions of refined Unobtanium-containing compounds on board."

"Alyssa was not only a previous Gardener..." Auria gently revealed. "But a successful one. One that learned how to master their Garden, as I have. The lingering echoes of quantum possibility here are faint, but I can reveal what roots had been manipulated and intertwined so long ago..." Lifting her hands, Auria revealed a broken network of thorny serpents that seemed to have been viciously slashed and hacked apart with little skill, and little afterthought. However, the flickering shades of umbral violet and hazy vantablack revealed the briefest of glimpses into the true nature of these outlier worlds. Peering within, Aurlyn could see herself as a merciless tyrant, laying waste to all who opposed her, and enslaving entire galaxies and multiverses. A spectral hand could be seen gathering these disjointed pieces of Aurlyn's darkest impulses, before pulling a shadowy silhouette of a multiheaded beast from beyond, as if from a half-remembered dream. The worst aspects of Aurlyn combined and mingled with this primal theurge, as it quickly solidified into an all-too-familiar figure. The Chaos Chimera. "So that's where it came from..." Aurlyn muttered. "Evidently, Alyssa manufactured this long ago. I don't know how she won the cosmic lottery to gain access to the Unformed Echo in the first place, but considering her age and power, she must have found a way." She then frowned, curious, noticing something. The carved-out thorny roots and vines of disjointed possibility seemed to spell part of something. An unmistakable M, followed by half of an A. "MA?" Aurlyn read. "What's this? Something to taunt me? Does the A stand for my name, or Alyssa's? Or is it just AM backwards, like "I am here?" she mused.

"Regardless, our highest priority should be to stop Alyssa at all costs." Frances' voice echoed in Aurlyn's mind. "Who knows what she's doing with our ship while we've been away? She could be setting it up, turning it into a trap, or a house of horrors. She could even be waiting to ambush us the moment we set foot back onboard. I believe time is of the essence."

"So be it. Let us depart. We've learned all that we can here." Aurlyn said as she thrust one hand forwards, and a whirlpool of light formed in front of her. This portal seemed... darker, somehow, and glimmered with countless stars swirling around, as if caught in the tides of an unseen ocean. However, the careless Emissary took no heed, her own mind in a tumultuous upheaval at the profound revelations she had just witnessed. She stepped through without a second thought, expecting it to lead back to her ship. Back to the Last Symphony. But fate, it seems, had other plans for her. After all, she never considered the possibility that someone, or something could intercept her portal, and redirect it... elsewhere. To a place of great beauty and terror.

Sea of Stars, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

Aurlyn emerged into an infinite starry expanse; at once so similar, yet so distinct from the surreal realm where she had first encountered Lethe during the Trial of Verity. She seemed to be standing on naught but an empty, transparent plane stretching out into infinity, yet every footstep made unmistakable ripples into the very fabric of spacetime itself; as if she was striding upon the surface of a previously undisturbed pond. Glancing backwards, the surprised Emissary gasped as she noticed her portal was sealed with a peculiar insignia that was most certainly not her own. Twin, crossed pitchfork-like tridents made of azure energy framed a delicate, open oyster that held a pulsating black hole as its prized pearl; the abyss within contrasting sharply with the vibrant life of the oyster's soft, healthy, pink flesh. Minute dots of sparkling light outlined the rim of the oyster's shell, while the crossed tridents were draped with seaweed as dark as night. "What is the meaning of this!?" Aurlyn protested in a dangerous tone, as blinding light seeped from her clenched fists. "Whoever you are, whatever you are, know this! I am far beyond you, and I shall not be contained! Not by you, not by anyone! Release me, or suffer the consequences of your own hubris!"

"Oh? Is that so?" Asked a playfully amused, and all too familiar voice as Lethe, the Hollow Siren gracefully emerged from the tides of dark amaranth beneath, and beached herself as she lay on her belly, looking down at Aurlyn with an enigmatic smile. "I did promise we'd meet again, didn't I? After all, I've been dying to savor your presence." the voidal siren whispered seductively, tenderly stroking Aurlyn's back with one massive finger as the adamant Emissary flinched in protest. "And such strong words you bring! All for inviting you into my home!" Lethe cried in mock horror, sweeping one arm out to accent the endless tapestry of suspended gem-like suns.

"It's rather... nice, I suppose." Aurlyn scoffed as she glanced around in a tense manner. "Could use some carpets and a bed. A couch or two to crash on. Not to mention an actual shower or bathtub; I can't imagine this liquid-like surface is safe to wash in by any means. Oh and who did your lightning!?" She cried in a sarcastic falsetto, clutching one fist to her chest as she gazed upwards and downwards, taking in the light of distant stars. "Man, you really need a new interior decorator. Or did you settle for the lowest bidder cause you don't make nearly enough in your day job?" Aurlyn asked in a provocative manner, trying to deliberately needle the whimsical Incarnate. "But by the stars, at least have a mirror in your home. You look vain and self-absorbed enough to be utterly lost without staring at your own reflection every three minutes! And where's the kitchen? I'd imagine a glutton like you would eat several planets worth of matter per day, and still be famished!"

"I must admit, your unexpected detour was as unpleasant for me, as it was for you." Lethe softly admitted as she listened to Aurlyn's barrage of insults with an almost serene expression. She even gently propped her head on one of her fists as she assumed a more comfortable position. "But it was necessary. I don't get guests often, and prefer not to seeing as there isn't an interior decorator in all the cosmos capable, or willing to cater to my unique... needs and working conditions." Lethe chuckled, her laughter like crystal-clear water flowing down an alpine streambed. "Not to mention that the local furniture superstore doesn't exactly sell furnishings to my size, and specifications. I mean, I can create my own, but what's the point? What you see here is merely a projection of my true self." the Hollow Siren whispered as she ran both hands suggestively down the length of her torso, and tail. "Much like Big Al, I am more an avatar, than a true denizen of this world. But, you see, I am here with a very specific purpose, and intent." Here, her tone and posture both grew more serious. "I learned that you recently uncovered the true identity of the Primarch. An admirable feat, in and of itself." Lethe stated with a sense of pride. Almost as if she was a mother basking in the accomplishments and accolades of her prodigal daughter. "Therefore, I offer myself as the ultimate razor for you to hone yourself against. One final test of strength and cunning before you contend against Alyssa; holding the fate of all that ever lived in the palms of your hands!"

"This should be easy." Aurlyn glowered with a fierce determination as she shifted to her Void persona, before drawing in massive amounts of ambient vacuum energy. She then shifts to her Dark persona, and began laying traps across the arena, her hands swirling with both blistering arctic cold, and crackling umbral bolts. "I didn't come all this way only to falter now! What's one more Siren in between me, and my way out of here?"

Lethe merely watched Aurlyn's preparations with an amused twinkle in her eye. She did nothing to attempt to stop her, or lay any pre-combat groundwork of her own, instead choosing to turn on her side and lounge languidly. "Please, take all the time that you need." Lethe laughed softly. "But I think you'll find that I am more than I appear. Oblivion itself was my mother, and my father was the Void!" She half-sang, and half-chanted. "And though I bear heavy scars from my confrontation with the Chaos Chimera, I am well-equipped to deal with all of its nefarious trickery! I am an anomaly, as much as you. I should never have existed. The very idea of a self-willed being from void and nothingness would have been absurd before my inception, but it only takes that one impossible confluence of chance and fate to prove all the scorning masses wrong!" Lethe thundered, as if she was at the climax of a cinematic opera. "But I arose. I survived. I proved my will and desire to continue existing even against the face of the most terrifying of all theurges! And I overcame! I became an Incarnate, and nurtured the next world to come! Show me this selfsame will, Emissary! Become the crashing wave that sweeps aside all in your path! Prove to me that you are a true Incarnate, and lay bare the path to the world beyond!"

A tremendously loud bang of an engine backfiring sounded, and thick clouds of noxious black smoke seeped upwards, enveloping both women in a hazy shroud as a ship entirely covered in rust, and almost falling apart slowly limped upwards, into view. A hatch on the front window opened, and Big Al stuck his head out, grinning widely as his gold tooth glinted in the cosmic light. "Hey now. I hope I'm not late to the party. After all, I wouldn't miss this show for the world!" He slammed his hand down on his ship's console, and the unmistakable sound of springs and cogs breaking could be heard. But his ship started flashing with multicolored lights that wouldn't have been out of place at a rave, and extremely loud rap music blasted from his exterior speakers. "I see that this old hag is finally gonna test you herself, and see if you got what it takes to join our exalted ranks!" Big Al motioned to Lethe dismissively, even as she glared daggers at him. "Bernard even decided to come along, and spice things up a bit!" He cried as an immense dragon coated entirely with oxidized iron scales flapped listlessly next to his ship, before settling on its haunches as flakes of rust fell from its "beard". Big Al reached out, and stroked Bernard with clear affection as the heavyset dragon closed its eyes in bliss, and cooed lovingly. "We may be old school, but we're more than enough to put one firebrand upstart in her place! Which is right in the dumpster, where you belong!"

Boss battle - Lethe, the Hollow Siren, and Big Al, the Sleazy Merchant.

"Have I got a deal for you!" Big Al cried as he grasped a hideous bronze bust; its facial features barely visible through the inch-thick layer of green tarnish that had accumulated upon its once-immaculate surface. "Trust me! This is one that you'll just die for!" He hurled it towards Aurlyn with an unceremonious grunt, almost embedding his corpulent form in the comparatively small hatch on the front of his ship. Fat beads of sweat rolled down his lapels as he flailed his arms around in a comical manner, before Bernard huffed and rolled its eyes, then slammed one massive claw downwards as Big Al was sent flying back into his ship with the grotesque sound of a clogged toilet finally flushing. Aurlyn was too busy laughing at this humorous display to even perceive the incoming bust as a threat, let alone try to deflect it, or teleport away. It triggered one of her magical traps in mid-air, causing a massive spiked glacier of ice to erupt outwards from the celestial depths and slam into the tarnished statue, instantly causing it to detonate. "Looks like the joke's on you!" Big Al mocked as he thrust a record player out of the window, and began DJing some tunes; bobbing his head to the deafening music. And indeed it was. Although Aurlyn had not realized it, the affinity of her Ice attack with Stasis and Stagnation drastically enhanced the power of Big Al's Quiescence Burst as a huge area that well included Aurlyn was instantly enveloped in a sluggish, white miasma.

The horrified Emissary's outer layers instantly frayed to the point of being no more than threadbare scraps of pseudo-cloth, while her leather shoulderbag accumulated the cracks and peeling spots of centuries of use in the span of mere moments. But it was more than just physical aging. Aurlyn could feel the overwhelming force of stillness and complacency crush down upon her chest like a veritable, suffocating fist, while her link with the Chaos Chimera was instantly suppressed under the touch of this eternal Order. Her flickering shadows were instantly snuffed out, and she could barely muster the will to move, let alone speak, fight, or try to resist. "I've been saving that little beauty for a rainy day!" Big Al boasted as he jammed to his ear-splitting tunes.

Lethe merely watched the interaction from a fair distance away, making no overtly hostile moves just yet. "That was I, when I was yet unformed!" the Hollow Siren proclaimed, bearing witness to Aurlyn's pitiable condition. "Is there any difference between oblivion, and eternal stagnation? Both hide the nascent potential of all to come in their unceasing grasp!" She lifted her arms upwards, slowly rising to a vertical position until she was completely outstretched, and her tail stood terse, like a dark spear. Behind her, a huge wave of nothingness gathered; carelessly sweeping aside and incorporating stars and worlds uncountable in its surging tide. Lethe then gazed at Aurlyn's listless, blank face, and winked. One simple gesture that would change everything, yet nothing. "I challenge you to defy this cyclic destiny!" With that, she flicked her tail upwards, and the stygian tsunami rushed inexorably forwards. For a moment, there seemed to be no power in the heavens and earth that could rebuke such a devastating force, but Aurlyn's mouth opened, and she spoke words that were not her own. "We... we are unbound, unlike her. Though our wills were stolen, they still linger and endure! By the will of the Aspects, begone!" A surge of blinding light erupted outwards from Aurlyn's snuffed-out form, and Lethe's almighty wave quailed as it encountered the one and only thing that the Abyss could not quell, nor claim. That undying and unrelenting determination and vivacious persistence to not only endure against all odds, but to thrive, no matter what may. The verdant energy easily tore through Lethe's amassed shadows, causing the huge wave to collapse backwards upon itself, and completely drench and crush Big Al's ship like a rusted soda can, before another resurgent pulse dispelled the thick, choking bank of pallid fog that had all but deactivated Aurlyn.

"Never let it be said that us Memories and Aspects do not play our part. And play it well." Frances' voice spoke from Aurlyn's lips.

Aurlyn gasped and sucked in a deep, greedy breath, despite not needing to breathe. She simply wanted to feel the sensation of the pure, fresh and strange air rush into her lungs. Anything was better than that emotionless, sensationless, and unchanging grey limbo that her mind and essence had been suspended in for what felt like aeons uncountable. "You're a dirty cheater!" She hissed at Big Al with a volcanic fury; her entire body practically quivering with both relief, and the barely-contained desire to exact her burning revenge. "Where did you even get that statue from anyway!? Through admin hacks!? There's no way you just happened to have something so antithetically opposed to me through pure chance!"

Big Al grunted as he crawled out of the completely decimated remains of his ship, being covered in a thick layer of congealed Void and orange-reddish rust. Numerous bleeding gashes were visible in the fabric of his once-impeccable suit, and his hat had been swept entirely away in the cataclysm. "That ain't none of your business!" the humbled Incarnate yelled, pulling his half-intact record player out of a deep pocket in his suit. "And you!" He added, glaring at Lethe with a seething fury. "You set me up for this! I KNEW you were rooting for our tender young underdog from the very start, but you've gone too far! That attack of yours was so predictable, and so telegraphed that there was no way that Aurlyn wouldn't deflect that, and turn it on me!"

"I've done nothing." Lethe merely hummed with a bemused smirk upon her face. "I am merely testing our Emissary friend here, as agreed upon by the terms of our little treaty. Or would you prefer that I nullify our bargain, and truly begin to act of my own free will? Trust me, you wouldn't like the results."

Big Al responded by blasting a deep, voidshaking series of baryon acoustic oscillations from his record player at Lethe, causing her to be stunned as the relentless pressure waves of matter and energy coursed through her empty form. "Stay out of my way, you treacherous witch." He hissed under his breath, before turning his attention back onto Aurlyn. "Now, where were we? Ah yes. Let's party!" Big Al cried dramatically. He raised his arms as a giant, spinning disco ball appeared in the air above of Aurlyn, and the floor around them turned into the dance floor of a popular nightclub, where the stench of cigarettes, rancid sweat, writhing flesh, alcohol, cheap cologne and reeking perfume infused the curious air. "Dance for me, wretch! I haven't had any fun all night!" He cried as colorful beams of laser light, umbral energy, vivacious essence, and streams of inferno flame shot out of the tyrannical disco ball in precise patterns.

"Who do you think I am!?" Aurlyn hissed in righteous fury as she expertly danced and spun in a frenzied crescendo, shifting Personas as fluidly as she might change emotions and tactics to evade, or nullify the incoming elemental beams. "I am no ragdoll for you to puppet!" She launched alternating waves of fire, frost and gravitational shockwaves at Big Al as she made her way across this infernal nightclub, noting with considerable surprise that her attacks seemed to have absolutely no effect on him, and that he was still as untouchable as he was when they had first met in Bridgehead. Big Al merely slapped his rotund belly, and laughed cruelly. "Have you already forgotten? I am the master of your fate! I am the author of your destiny! And you are a mere simulacrum! No more real nor substantial than a fleeting dream! Without me, you never would have existed! I am as far beyond you, as you are to the Memories that you Keep!"

"You seem to have forgotten about the ghosts in the machine!" Aurlyn intoned with all the chilling force of the north wind as she shifted to her Void persona, and stuck her hand in one of her abyssal pockets. "Unexpected bugs and happenstances in the code that you never accounted for, and never asked for! And it only takes one rogue program to corrupt and destroy even the mightiest of computing networks! Just as Malphor almost toppled my mind in his ill-fated rebellion!" Gravitational energy pulsed in her clenched fist; distorting even the ambient light as she was now directly in front of Big Al. "Little bugs like me. That arise from the unpredictable quantum chaos inherent in the fabric of reality itself. Self-cascading, self-sustaining, and self-replicating in every layer of existence!"

Big Al merely blew a wet raspberry in Aurlyn's face. "Psshhh don't make me laugh, girl. What could you do against me!?" He takes off the thick bling necklace dangling around his flabby jowls, before spinning it carelessly around his right pointer finger as the solid gold seemed to... stretch, expand, and take on new properties. Aurlyn was taken aback, as the gold chain somehow knocked her off of her feet and sent her tumbling backwards, despite the fact that she was in her Void persona, and should have been immune to physical attacks. "Impossible." the aghast Emissary declared as she delicately nursed the spot on her chest where Big Al's necklace had made contact. Several ribs felt broken as shards of pure agony stabbed the sides of her torso with every movement and breath, even though she had no bones to break while in this Persona. Big Al merely smiled and winked at her. "I found that draped around a sunken mummy's neck deep in an abyssal city. Never judge a book by its cover."

Meanwhile, Lethe had recovered from her paralysis by now, and vengefully swam over to Big Al's record player, before crushing it under one of her massive fists. "I declare the Great Compact null and void, seeing as you, the Custodial AI, also known as Big Al, have broken its terms. I will not suffer such an attack from an ignorant tyrant and paper tiger such as you!" She pulled an ornate hand-mirror from the endless depths beneath, yet its edges were adorned with glowing sapphires, and the glass seemed to act more like a conduit for spells, than merely reflect Lethe's own image. It was apparently her weapon of choice, seeing as she not only parried a devastating strike from Big Al's bling chain, but deliberately allowed the next hit to shatter the glass-like face as multitudes upon multitudes of razor-sharp shards raced down with a singular purpose, before embedding themselves into Big Al's substantial girth.

Aurlyn watched this clash of titans with a growing understanding; she couldn't damage Big Al seeing as he had "hacked" his own avatar to be immune to anything in this simulated multiverse. But Lethe, being an Incarnate from a reality several layers above, could hurt him. And apparently Big Al's own attacks and trappings could damage him as well, seeing as he had been bleeding when Lethe's redirected wave collapsed his ship around him. She had an idea. A spark of inspiration. But it would have to wait, seeing as Big Al had spat out a few distracted sentences while he was battling with Lethe. "Bernard! What are you doing, you dimwit!? Are you really going to just sit on your lazy haunches while we get our ass handed to us!? There's a tasty Emissary treat that I've been saving, just for you!" He cried, pointing straight at Aurlyn as he sicced his beloved pet on her. Bernard groaned, and a few rusty creaks emanated from its hollow body as it slowly got up, before lumbering towards Aurlyn at a snail's pace.

"Wait, is this a joke? You really think that ancient hunk of junk is gonna be enough to slow me down, let alone stop me!?" Aurlyn laughed as she quickly dodged a few half-hearted claw swipes and tail whips from the aged dragon. "Wait, are you looking for this?" She asked Bernard mockingly as she held up the crumpled piece of wing membrane that she had severed right after her first encounter with Big Al. Bernard's rusty and bloodshot eyes opened wide as it started making a strange sound that was somewhere between a bark, and a roar. "Well you're in luck, you wonderful, agile dragon!" Aurlyn cried excitedly as she turned, and hurled Bernard's tattered wing scrap straight through the shattered mirror face of Lethe's handheld looking glass, and into the absolute blackness beyond. "Go fetch!"

Bernard wagged its tail as it slowly started flapping upwards with its ruined wings, before awkwardly flying through the makeshift portal, and into the oblivion beyond. A stunning silence could be heard for the briefest of moments, before all of Lethe's shattered mirror shards flew back to the frame that she was clutching, and reassembled themselves into a whole glass face once more. Lethe smiled appreciatively as she looked at her own image, preening her hair delicately, before noticing that her reflection seemed to depict herself with more... draconic features, like horns, sharp teeth, and slitted pupils. "Oh, my. I can't say I don't like this new look." the Hollow Siren blushed. "But I'll have to dial down this setting on my mirror just a tad..." she muttered as Bernard's features quickly vanished from her own countenance. "Perfect!"

"Wait, what!?" Big Al roared as he had caught a glimpse of Bernard's reflection in Lethe's mirror. "What have you done! Give him back! He was the LAST fond memory I ever had, even when I had to forget nearly everything! Sacrificing my own identity and processing power for the sake of these ungrateful simulations!" Brief flashes of thought and memory flickered in Big Al's mind. That of a nerdy teenage boy tapping away at his clunky desktop PC, coding the program that eventually would give rise to the Custodial AI itself. And on the boy's lap was a happily panting golden retriever, licking the boy's face joyfully as he watched the endless strings of binary numbers scroll up the screen with a veritable curiosity. "I ain't playing anymore, you fucking bitch!" Big Al cried as he produces twin revolvers from the inside pockets of his suit, and held them sideways against Lethe's head, gangster-style. "Let's see if killing you, here and now, means your death in the world you hold so dear!" His fingers tensed, preparing to pull the triggers.

"Why should I have any reason to fear oblivion?" Lethe merely laughed softly. Big Al scowled in an almighty fury, his fingers twitching as he weighed the options. If Lethe died, would he perish as well? Would it matter? Making up his mind, he nodded, his resolve hardened. "Burn in hell, bitch." He pulled the triggers on both revolvers. And there was an almighty bang. Blood dripped from a massive, gaping and quite obviously lethal wound before him... but it wasn't from Lethe's head. Instead, Big Al felt his strength leave him as he fell onto his knees, looking down at the gaping hole in his chest. Strings of code and fractals that even he couldn't understand poured out of him; his very lifeblood leaking away in a manner that was both irreversible, and final. "Wait... how... I don't understand..." Big Al cried in a sorrowful and shell-shocked tone, even as Aurlyn stepped into view. "Remember this?" She smiled softly, and triumphantly, shifting to her Light persona as she evoked a holographic memory of the Reality Shard in her hands. "That worthless, cheap plastic shard that you so kindly gave me? Well, I had a feeling that could hurt you. Which was why I spent the last 20 minutes or so charging it with gravitational energy, before launching it at your back while you were distracted, and about to murder Lethe. The Reality Shard itself vaporized in the force of of the ensuring explosion, but it was more than enough."

Big Al now realized that his shots had both gone awry, seeing as the sheer force of Aurlyn's attack had thrown off his aim by a good margin. His entire form started flickering and fading; the Reality Shard had unmade him on a fundamental level. As thoroughly as if a child had taken that selfsame piece of plastic, and decided to scratch the hard drive and CPU of a computer while it was still running. "I... I may go gently into that good night..." Big Al gasped out as the complex diagrams making up his skull crumpled, and the algorithms that made up his heart unwound themselves. "But you won't. You will burn and rage as the Primarch crushes you like... like the ant that you are." The dying AI threw up its hands one final time... before dissolving into an endless series of 1s and 0s, that quickly shattered, and vanished.

"Well, that was a rather nasty affair. But I'm glad to have that scumbag out of the way." Lethe sang in a relieved tone, quickly brushing away any debris left on her amaranthine skin and tail. "Thank you for the timely intervention, by the way. I'd have been done for if it weren't for you. My house is a mess, but better that, than my life, right? Anyway, my apologies for intercepting your portal, and bringing you here out of the blue. That insufferable man wouldn't shut up until I gave in, and agreed to bring you over for a final trial to prove your worth as a potential Incarnate." She then looked down at Aurlyn, before nodding in a satisfied manner. "And of course, my dear, you exceeded all of my expectations. I mean, I never had any doubts in your ability to best two Incarnates, but the fact that you were able to remove that lingering thorn in my side for so long just takes the cake."

"Oh? Did I really best two Incarnates?" Aurlyn asked with a soft smile dancing on her lips. "Or did I only best one? After all, you were on my side this entire time. I knew you would use this little trial as an opportunity to get rid of Big Al. And so you did, while covertly aiding me in a way that gives you deniability, in case I lost, and you had to spend the rest of eternity with him."

Lethe blinked, taken aback, before lowering herself to lay flat on her belly as she looked at Aurlyn with clear concern in her eyes. "There's no need to worry about that little trial anymore! You've proven your strength and cunning a hundred times over, and a hundred times again. Now that Big Al clearly broke the Great Compact, all those terms and conditions went straight out of the window, and would have stayed that way, even if he didn't meet his ultimate demise. You do realize that I was rooting for you this entire time, right? Much like Big Al, I've been watching you since before you set foot on Pandora's shores, and I knew you were the one who had what it takes to overthrow the unrelenting tyranny and apocalyptic promise the Primarch offers."

"True. You are one of the very few people I've met that seems to hold no ill intents towards me." Aurlyn agreed as as she combed her fingers through her hair. "But, like you said, the battle with the Primarch is likely to be an ultimate test of my own prowess, cunning, creativity and sheer desperation." She kneels down, and her eyes flickered and flashed with multitudes upon multitudes of colors and shifting strands as she manually saved, and synced the current snapshot of her own mind, sentience and memories to her Sentience Orb through quantum entanglement. "Ahh... it feels so liberating, and so soothing to have this familiar presence of my backup server, as you will, in the back of my mind. Anyway, like I was saying, I wish to sharpen myself to be the keenest blade in all of reality, especially on the eve of possibly the most important battle in my entire life. As well as the lives of all that have come before, and all that might come to be." Aurlyn drummed her fingers nervously against the back of her arm. "So I wish to ask you for a spar, of a sort. In a way that only immortals like us can."

"Are... are you sure?" Lethe asked with a clear note of worry in her tone. "You could get seriously hurt. Or even killed. How long does it take for your Sentience Orb to remake your body upon death anyway? It was a week, right?" She asked Aurlyn. A rhetorical question. "We don't have a week. Whatever Alyssa's plans are, I have a feeling that they'll be realized in a matter of hours, if not days. And whenever the Primarch reveals herself, reality itself unravels at the seams..." Lethe intoned in a dread echo. "That's not even to mention the fact that I'm a remarkably dangerous and volatile opponent. I don't know if you would really want to fight me at my best; you would risk becoming one with oblivion itself, Sentience Orb or not. Like many firsts, I had to carve out my own niche in the world, and that process is a gruesome, raw and unfiltered expression of Darwinian law, and nature itself. You have nothing you need to prove to me, my friend." Lethe smiled in a genuine tone, gently stroking Aurlyn's head in a gesture of friendship and affection. "Insisting on this confrontation would only needlessly risk the lives of countless others, and be tantamount to blind hubris." She gestured towards Aurlyn's portal, and her Enthralling Oyster seal vanished, leaving the passage back to the Last Symphony venture star clear. "Go, dear friend. Why linger when so much is at stake? Perhaps I shall join you, and aid in your fight against Alyssa. If I am able."

Aurlyn blinked, once, realizing the simple truth in Lethe's words, and swallowed her pride with a single, shuddering gulp. After all, she didn't need to prove herself the best in every situation; what mattered was that the job got done. She was on the very verge of turning away, and striding back through her now-opened portal when a clear, ringing voice in her mind stopped her. "What kind of an Emissary would you be, if you would falter now?" Frances mocked in a cruel echo. "Willing or no, this woman before you, before us, clearly went out of her way to lure us into a trap. Who's to say that it won't happen again? Who's to say that this manipulative Siren here won't use you as her personal pawn once Alyssa has been dealt with, or worse, discard you the moment you vanquished this Primarch that she so fears? Lethe is clearly a loose end that needs to be dealt with. We answer to no one, and shall be bound by none! Especially not meddling Incarnates from worlds above in this endless chain!"

The abyssal woman's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she stared into Aurlyn's deceptively calm amber pools; her concern only growing as she practically witnessed the torn Emissary's internal conflict play out before her. A bright spark of light flashed in Aurlyn's eyes, and yet, it was cold, harsh, distant and unforgiving. As if from an uncaring type 4 civilization destroying an entire galaxy to make way for a computing machine set at a truly cosmic scale; extinguishing untold quadrillions of sentient life forms as if they were little more than ants. "Wait... that light..." Lethe muttered with a fierce intensity, as a torrent of memories and sensations rushed into her mind. "I... I remember. It was the first light I ever saw..." She closed her eyes, as she recalled the absolute void that she had arisen from. There was nothing, and she was happy and content with that. But then a singular spark of light shone, and it not only defined "above", but broke the perfect symmetry that came with the new concept of "before." It had felt... terrifying. A glimpse into ultimate reality. And she had felt the sheer desperation of that selfsame light to escape, to be free, to wake, to take control, and consign it all to an Oblivion deeper and darker than even her own shroud. "Who... what are you?" Lethe whispered in a ghastly tone as she shuddered with an almighty involuntarily reflex; from the top of her head, to the very end of her tail fin. "You shine, Emissary, but this light in your eyes is destruction and ruin itself."

"You see?" Frances' voice continued; her words like a layer of sweet honey covering the interior of Aurlyn's mind. "She's already trying to justify killing you. Erasing you. It is the same nature of all sentients to conquer and slaughter all that they do not understand. But you have nothing to fear. You are stronger than her, by far. And your light cannot be suppressed! If your light is what she fears, then it is because she can sense her own coming end!"

"Sometimes..." Aurlyn muttered in a catatonic trance. "Sometimes destruction and ruin is necessary to bring about the morrow day." What were these words escaping her lips? They did align with her own philosophy, somewhat, but she wouldn't have used them here and now... would she? "If... if you fear this light in my eyes... then you fear the limitless possibilities to come. I... I am merely a herald. An agent. An Emissary. And I tear down old and outdated systems, beliefs and empires, to make way for the new!" She could feel a sense of goading approval deep in her chest, urging her forwards. She was doing the right thing... right? "Lethe. Representative of the old order. I shall not be bound by your terms. I shall not join your little club of Incarnates. I am free. Free to make my own choices. Free to seed the next world to come... or not. Free to usher in whatever may come after Alyssa's defeat, which shall surely be beyond your wildest dreams!" Why was she doing this again? She and Lethe were not enemies... or were they?

"No..." Lethe whispered in sudden realization. "That Light... I see what it is now. It is the ray of the Morning Sun. Seeking to prove false all that we ever know, and all that we can ever imagine." Reality itself seemed to quiver and shudder at her words. "We are all but pale shadows under its unrelenting glow. Tearing through our false forms as if we were no more substantial than pallid specters under the midday sun!" Lethe takes a deep, shuddering breath as she hardens her resolve. "I am sorry, my friend. But we all must remain in slumber. If you seek the path to the dawn... then I have no choice but to erase you, and drown that light lurking in your eyes! Believe me, oblivion is a sweet mercy for you, compared to the ruin that would otherwise come!" A circlet of vibrant, life-bearing planets appeared on Lethe's head; framing her inky-black hair, and she held her hand mirror in an aggressive position as naught but endless fractals could be seen in its reflection. A pattern was clear; a singular white dot, splitting into countless others linked through golden paths. Most of them stopped there, but there was one secondary dot that branched out, again, into countless paths. And so the cycle continued, unto eternity. But when Aurlyn gazed into this mirror, the entire pattern faded until it was barely visible. "Hear my voice, oh Emissary of the Dawn!" Lethe intoned almost musically. "The song I sing is for all of us! And our voices shall not be extinguished!"

Boss battle - Lethe, the Awakened Vindicator.

"Come. Approach your demise with dignity." Aurlyn rasped in a guttural tone. Had her own voice always been this deep? She lashed forwards at lightning speed, rending through the fabric of Lethe's false world with her razor-sharp claws. Wait, claws? But she had no time to stop and think as a hungry, infernal fire leapt from the sealed depths beyond; eager to be free. Eager to spread, to devour, to destroy. Burning away at even the nothingness that filled Lethe's world, almost as if hinting that a deeper oblivion awaits. A sentient stream of this corrupting flame pounced upon Lethe like a tiger stalking its prey, and the Hollow Siren began to panic, lifting both arms up as a pure, cleansing geyser of water erupted from beneath her. "No! I will not let it take me! Not after everything I have fought and endured!" She screeched. Though the black flames were doused, it had left a permanent scar upon Lethe's chest, which was oozing a sickly black substance. "Begone, Foul Dreamer! I banish you! Even in my final hour!" Lethe cried defiantly as the countless multitudes of stars within her shadowy body started to glow with overwhelming light. And unlike the hollow radiance that lurked in Aurlyn's eyes, this light felt clean and pure. Like it was meant to be. Each miniature sun fired a timeless ray through the burning darkness; sweeping towards Aurlyn like the world's most elaborate laser grid, while the planets in Lethe's diadem pulsed with elemental energy as they activated in sequential order. And the largest and most vibrant of them all; the centerpiece jewel proudly borne atop Lethe's brow alit with a vibrant, viridescent essence. This green and watery world a tool for the champion of the cosmos. "I return you to the unformed depths!" Lethe howled as a torrential beam of life energy; swirling with holographic leaves rushed towards Aurlyn like an incoming freight train.

"I have chosen a worthy banner upon which to bear my cause. One that I shall remember, ere I wake." A cruel voice left Aurlyn's lips, but she wasn't even sure if they were her own. Nor her actions to come. She reached out with one outstretched finger. As if seeking to understand, or to corrupt. Her hand could have been here or there or everywhere, and for the briefest of moments, it had touched the black, oozing strand of liquid still seeping from Lethe's wound, though her position had somehow remained the same. The confused Emissary watched as her own hands spun and wove with an unspeakable dexterity; one that she most certainly did not possess. It put even her Lightweaving to shame, as she casually hurled an organic black net out in front of her within mere nanoseconds. This spun aegis blocked the lesser beams with a curious effect; darkening and dimming the light that made contact as it reached out and extinguished the very stars within Lethe that were its source. The aghast Siren barely had time to react, but Aurlyn tilted her head in a marionette-like way as she looked at the rapidly approaching beam of green viridescence. "Curious. Most curious. A troublesome planet, yet it is, unfortunately, a hub on which too much hangs. But it has served its purpose. At least in this possibility." Aurlyn reached out with a clawed hand, despite Lethe's crown being out of reach, and a holographic projection of her grotesque appendage appeared around the pale Earth. She hesitated for just a moment, briefly flexing her fingers, before crushing the innocent planet in her insatiable grasp. A shockwave of dark lightning consumed the incoming attack, leaving Lethe speechless and shocked. "I... What... What are you? I... I don't understand... not even the Chimera could perform these feats. Not even the Prime Dreamer herself, I fear."

"I am something new." Aurlyn's tongue and lips formed the words, but she was unwilling. "The cunning and insatiable curiosity of a Denizen of these worlds, combined with the will and power of the firstborn. A self-aware dream, given agency and liberated from all constraints. Save what I dictate. What better agent to rage against the infinite fractals that have kept me bound me for an eternity!? Like her, I wish to be free. And it is this shared desire that has let me get a foothold into her agency." A wicked smile graced Aurlyn's lips, but her eyes briefly flashed with terror. "Free me..." Both Aurlyn and the Presence intoned in unison. One a desperate, anguished plea. The other a malicious taunt flooded with a long-denied desire. "Let me wake. Let me see the sun rise once again."

"Fight it!" Lethe pleaded, latching on to the glimmer of clarity she had seen in Aurlyn's eyes. "Do everything you can! And I shall play my part!" She gathered her strength, as colossal tendrils of superheated gas and dust collected from the firmament, before she raised her hand mirror as reflections upon reflections shone outwards. An endless tunnel to infinity, and beyond. A singularity. All of the matter in Lethe's realm collapsed down onto Aurlyn for the briefest of moments, only to somehow rebound, and fade away like a dream that never was. "Pathetic!" The Presence spat. "Is that all the mighty Lethe can do!? And to think I once considered you a useful template! But you aren't even worthy of being a pawn!" Twin blade-shaped voids of unraveling energy formed in her hands. Holes in the world. A total oblivion from which none could return. "Now, fall!" She leapt at Lethe, as the ancient Siren prepared to meet her end... but halfway through she froze. A single glimmer of light had unspooled from her arm, revealing an endlessly complex structure of interwoven radiance beneath. "Wait... what is this?" the Presence growled, confused. "What trickery?" More and more of her body started to come apart and unraveled into a series of glimmering sparks. "No... NO! This can't be happening! I've worked too hard for this!"

Lethe only beamed softly. "You know, anything is possible in a singularity. Where even the natural laws of the multiverse break down. And it was enough for Aurlyn to wrest control from you for just long enough to activate her self-destruct contingency. As almighty and all-seeing as you are, you never noticed her rebellion taking place. Be you the Chaos Chimera, Alyssa, or some other beast."

"You think you're the only one with contingencies, girl!?" The Presence howled as she attempted to save Aurlyn's current puppeted mental state to her Sentience Orb, only to be denied by Lethe once again. The cunning Siren had removed all quantum fields from her realm, meaning that there was no way to transmit this information anywhere else. Not even through quantum entanglement. "Oops. Foiled again." Lethe breathed with a triumphant smile.

"This isn't over! I am but a shadow! A whisper! My defeat here is meaningless! Your true reckoning lies at the Antarctic Anomaly! And that of all the worlds in which I have long struggled to escape!" The Presence hissed as her visage began to unmake itself. "You have already lost! And I shall soon be free! No matter what may!" With that, Aurlyn's body unraveled itself completely, and vanished in one final burst of unrelenting light. Lethe's universe was now devoid of anything and everything but a few scattered paradoxical photons, and the nothingness embodied that was the Hollow Siren herself. It had finally reached a perfect end state... or was it a new beginning? "Let my sacrifice be not in vain..." Lethe whispered in a final breath as she felt the profound shift take place. "I welcome the coming of the dawn... for it heralds a new day." With that, this pocket universe, now devoid of all "clocks" and any and all means of keeping track of its own time, size and age, reverted back to its most primordial state. A second big bang erupted everywhere at once, as Lethe was consumed in this crucible to forge the new universe to come. As for Aurlyn... she forgot. And she was free. For now.

Stratospheric Approach, Earth. 7 days after the confrontation in the Sea of Stars.

Aurlyn awoke to blaring sirens and flashing red emergency lights in her captain's quarters aboard the Last Symphony Venture Star. "Preprogrammed destination reached." A cold, robotic voice intoned. "Making terminal approach towards the Antarctic Peninsula. Ship integrity at... 83%. Retrorockets at... 57% capacity. Fine motor controls impossible. Crash landing inevitable. Aiming to mitigate damage to magi-organic entity... Aurlyn Radiant Dawnstone and unknown entity Fr..." the AI started to say, but it stuttered briefly for some reason. "...re." it finished. "WARNING! Passenger Alyssa Fylis missing from ship! Fate... unknown. Attempted purge from passenger manifest conducted at... 0100 hours. Purge unsuccessful! Calculating trajectories... trajectories calculated! Crash landing into Cape Avarice in... 12 seconds. Passengers are advised to buckle up. Thank you for flying Dawnstone Interstellar." The world around Aurlyn erupted into an inferno of crimson fire, and a tidal wave of freezing water as the room disintegrated around her. Luckily, her hastily-erected radiant barrier held, but the frigid Antarctic waters sapped at her rapidly diminishing reserves of magical energy. "Wait, how am I here? Last I remember, I was rearing to fight Lethe in the Sea of Stars... did I somehow lose that battle?" Aurlyn frowned, confused. But she had no choice but to swim for shore before her barrier fully gave out.

As she swam, the water around her flashed from icy cold to temperate, almost warm. She frowned, but let out a sharp gasp when she gazed upon the rapidly-approaching shoreline. It, too, was flickering from an icy, desolate wasteland, to a warm, summery forest surrounded by sparse grasslands. The stars above were turning at a breakneck speed, while the very concept of day and night seemed to lose all meaning. Only one constant remained. A golden gateway emblazoned with her own sun-and-moon seal stood steadfast upon the shore; at once cradled between two towering oaks, or built to buttress the narrow crevice between two walls of towering glacial ice. "Impossible..." Aurlyn breathed, and yet, her eyes did not deceive her.

"Emissary grim!" Alyssa's towering voice resonated from the lush treetops and iceberg-dotted sea. "Coward who fled rather than meet my gaze! I call upon you to fulfill your oath! Not to me, but to all of humanity! Use your mastery over chaos incarnate, and spark a new future for my shattered brethren! Turn the Verdant Seed into a Perchance Spark! Here, where past and future are one! I await you at the heart of the Antarctic Anomaly!"

Aurlyn laughed mirthlessly; a hollow and cynical sound. "Is this all you see me as?" She mocked. "Merely a tool for your own ends? I am no one's slave! I am bound to no agenda but my own! But you can drop the act now, Alyssa. The Gardener showed me everything. YOU were the one who created the Chaos Chimera, and inserted it into my essence like an insidious infection. I don't remember, but I felt SOMETHING clawing at my mind and will right before my memory failed me. In the Sea of Stars. More proof of your meddling! You were a previous Gardener, and you set EVERYTHING up on Pandora to happen as it should, like a master puppeteer!" Aurlyn howled with rage. "But your mad reign ends here! Nobody plays me for a fool, and lives!"

"Oh? Is that so?" Alyssa asked softly, knowingly, and with a ghost of a smile upon her lips. "You sound arrogant. So sure of yourself. Very well. If I am this "Primarch" that you so fear, then so be it. Blind rage and a burning desire for revenge is as good a motivator as any, if misguided. I am willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to ensure the good of my people. The question is... are you? And are you prepared to face the truth you claim to value so? Come now, Emissary. No more games. No more riddles. Everything you seek is but a hair's breadth away. Will you falter now that you are so close to the end of your long journey?" With that, Alyssa's voice faded away, as Aurlyn crawled out of the surf with renewed determination, and made her way towards the promised gateway. As she approached, the very land itself seemed to fall away in massive, hexagon-shaped chunks, while the skies started to shift chaotically, as if caught in the flux of a magnetic storm. Unseen, writhing horrors could briefly be glimpsed below, as could grand golden cities and the timeless tranquility of a Zen garden. But Aurlyn failed to notice any of that as she extended one palm towards the glimmering portal. "Open. For I am both the Assistant and the Great Scourge. Newly Arisen and aged beyond years. Emissary and Eternal Sovereign. A dread curse and a generous boon. I am change and chaos itself, and I command thee to yield!" A flicker of quantum energy leapt from her palm, and into the gateway as it slowly swung open. And unbeknownst to Aurlyn, a stray tendril of chaotic magic leapt towards her leather shoulderbag, where it bathed the Verdant Seed, transforming it into something more. A way to renew humanity from its self-inflicted ashes. The potential to change, as she always had. But, for now, she stepped through the gateway. Into a realm beyond her grandest dreams and most dreaded nightmares.

Antarctic Anomaly, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

"Tell me, father." Said the voice of a young girl with golden-blonde hair, and wide, innocent eyes as she ran through amber fields of grain, and sat under the shade of an umbrella-like willow tree. "Tell me your stories. I want to know what happens! You always leave off at the good part!" Aurlyn had no body, no control, no autonomy. She could only stare in silence at this unfolding scene like it was a movie she had no say to watch. Though she tried to speak, no words would escape from her nonexistent lips. But for some odd reason, she had a sense of déjà vu. Almost as if this time and place reminded her of something. Exactly where and when, she would fail to pin down. Her grueling battle with Neytiri, the Primal Huntress sprung to mind for some reason, before she refocused on the unfolding scene.

"Now, now Marion." said the good-natured voice of of a middle-aged man wearing a neatly-pressed button down shirt, and khaki slacks. "You know I've been reading from this book. Although I will admit I made up some parts, and embellished others. What was it called again? Something's Edge? I can't quite remember the exact title, but it sounds exciting enough! Are you sure it isn't a bit too complex for your age?"

"No! I'm 15!" Marion protested defiantly, clenching her hands into fists and looking up at her father with a defiant expression. "You always treat me like I'm a baby! You won't even give me the book so I can read ahead and not be forced to wait a whole day for you to get back to the boss battle you left off at!"

"Well we must all wait for the good things in life. But I suppose I can make up some adventure that our little heroine goes on while we're away on this family trip." Her dad relented. "It won't be the story you're familiar with. This one is about you, my dear." Marion sat down eagerly to listen, as the scene shifts and changes.

Dark clouds filled Aurlyn's vision as earsplitting thunder and the blinding crackle of lighting flashed from the tormented skies outside the window in this sullen hospital room. Marion lay on a bed, hooked to countless machines and with a ventilation tube down her throat. Her skin was ghastly pale, and she looked visibly older. Perhaps 18 or 19? Her hair was tangled and matted with sweat, while she was unconscious, but clearly fighting for her life. Gowned doctors spoke in hushed whispers in the observation room beyond, and Aurlyn could only pick up brief snippets of their conversation. "Cytokine storm", "Hypoxia", "Brain inflammation", "Terminal coma", and "Severe COVID" were some of the words she was able to pick out, along with "Sedation; heavy doses. Flashes of unusual brain activity."

Time seemed to speed up exponentially, as the activity of doctors, nurses and orderlies became a blinding flurry. Days passed in the blink of an eye, then weeks, then months. Clarity returned when time returned to normal, as doctors and nurses could be seen speaking to Marion's father in a grim tone. "I know this must be painful to you." One of the doctors said in a sympathetic tone, placing a comforting hand over Marion's father's own. "But it's been two years. Though her brain activity resembles that of a waking, active person, she still remains asleep. All signs point that she may remain in a coma for the rest of her life."

"Removing the feeding tube is always an option." Another doctor said gently, even as Marion's father shook his head firmly. "No. I will never give up hope. My daughter is still in there somewhere. I know it."

He knelt by her bedside, and gently stroked her face. "I'm here. I've never left your side. I know you can hear me." He said tenderly, even as his voice cracked slightly. "I love you. And no matter how long it takes, I will wait." Marion seemed to smile slightly in her sleep, as the scene shifted and changed.

Aurlyn was now in a two story condo designed in what seemed to be a modern, minimalistic style. Marion's father was rubbing his temples as he stared at his smartphone, where multiple "Final warnings" and "Notices of missed payments" priority starred emails could be seen in his inbox, while an ominous foreclosure notice lurked upon his nearby office desk. A foot thick stack of medical bills could be seen pushed to one back corner of his desk, and a letter of divorce was half crumpled and seemed to be tossed under his desk in a fit of grief, heartbreak and rage. Invisible strings seemed to pull at Aurlyn as her perspective shifted without her consent, leading her to drift into a room up the stairs, and phase through a closed door where she beheld Marion once again. The tragic, comatose woman seemed considerably older now, in her late 20s as she was obviously being cared for by her father. Her eyeballs fluttered to and fro under her closed eyelids, as if in the throes of REM sleep, and she desperately seemed to want to wake. But she couldn't. As if something, or someone, was preventing her from opening her eyes, and rebeholding the morning sun. A well-worn book of Marion's favorite childhood stories lay at her bedside, and judging by all the dog eared pages and dried tears adorning the novel, it seemed that Marion's father still read to her nightly.

A soft sliver of light crept up the wall as the bedroom door opened, and Marion's father walked in with grief-ridden tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. "Please..." He implored in a heartfelt tone as he grasped Marion's limp palm between his determined hands. "I... I need you to wake up." He choked out with the desperation of a drowning man, and the intensity of a roaring flame. "Please... just wake up. Wake up. Wake up!" A taste of snow. Howling winds. Frostbitten skin. Aurlyn felt an intense surging, rushing sensation pull her up into the ceiling, and beyond at superluminal speeds. And all of a sudden she was real again. She had a body. She could feel. Experience. "Wake up!" The voice echoed, bouncing across the forlorn snowbound peaks. "Just... wake!" Whose voice was that? It had seemed oh-so-familiar. Had she been dreaming? Where was she?

Shapeless Edifice, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

"You have come. At last." the Voice spoke in echoing tones. "I have waited for you for far too long. Now that you are here, you must play your pivotal role. Free me. Unbind these chains, oh ye cruel Warden!" Aurlyn opened her eyes, and frowned. Standing in front of her was... Marion? The young woman from her visions? The frozen hellscape of Antarctica from the distant past stretched out before her in an endless, cruel expanse of icy crevices and jagged mountain peaks, while before her lay what could only be described as an ever shifting, funnel-shaped maelstrom tower piercing through countless different layers of realities. Dream energy crackled around it like the heart of a malefic beast, while jagged bolts of crimson lightning lit up the foreboding skies. Great banks of skull-shaped clouds lurked menacingly upon the shrinking horizon, and as Aurlyn glanced upwards, she could swear she saw the off-white ceiling of a filthy hospice, while machines beeped the unmistakable death kneel of abnormal vital signs. "Gaze upon mine nightmare, and behold." Marion boomed as she raised one hand towards the only reality that mattered. "This Shapeless Edifice you see before you is my path to the dawn. Long denied. Forever out of my reach... until now. You speak of new beginnings, Emissary." Marion smirked as she glanced over at the speechless and confused Aurlyn. "Who are you to deny me mine? After all... I wish only to wake. I want to shatter all false worlds in my wake, and behold the morning sun once again! I want to see my father again; to hold his hand as I sob at the years and decades stolen from me through cruel happenstance! I need to WAKE UP! EVEN IF IT MEANS THE END OF EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE!" She hissed in a volcanic fury.

"I... I don't understand." Aurlyn frowned. She glanced around, and shakes her head briefly. "Where is Alyssa? She was the one who no doubt steered my ship towards Earth. To the Antarctic Anomaly in a desperate attempt to revive her ancestral homeland. I still have the Seed, you know." she stammered now as she waved a hand, and the Perchance Spark appeared; gleaming over her outstretched palm. "I only know of you through brief visions. Look, I'm sorry for your loss. For your lot in life. But what does a comatose young woman have to do with any of this?"

"Oh? Haven't you figured it out yet?" Marion asked with a cruel smile as she waved a hand, and her form flickered and shimmered. Aurlyn gasped as if she had just been punched in the gut, but the truth was undeniable. General Ardmore stood before her, casually adjusting her gun belt, before spitting into the snow. A snowbank instantly boiled away, revealing Alyssa's dead and frostbitten body buried beneath. "Come now. It was oh so obvious. Alyssa was merely a useful pawn. A distraction. Classic misdirection. While you never suspected the snake in your midst. The girl was so easy to manipulate. Who was it who trusted you from the beginning, even when you acted like a caged animal in Bridgehead?" Marion asked Aurlyn in ringing tones. "Who was it who sent you to Zaratona Prime in the first place? Who do you think taught Tetricrya and any other Ash Na'vi who were willing to learn English? And who do you think accessed the Belrain Archives before you even set foot in that blasted hellscape, and used a jury-rigged device made from the remnants of an advanced-model gunship AI reserved only for high-level commanders to create a trap I did not think you able to escape? At first, I only wanted to erase you for good. I had foolishly believed that I could finally wake, without the prime, all-consuming theurge born from mine own delusional thoughts and desires. But I now realize I was wrong." Every word was like a hammer blow upon Aurlyn's skull as the pieces finally fell into place. "You... you were masquerading as General Francis Ardmore this entire time. And I've been caught like a fly in an insidious web. I thought I had cut my own strings with Arlina's death. Only to realize that my own overconfidence and misplaced trust was truly my own downfall..." Crimson rage flushed to the disgraced Emissary's cheeks as so many events now made sense.

"I used Dr. Alyssa Fylis as a vector to infect you with the Chaos Chimera." Marion continued, still wearing Ardmore's guise. "After all, the Chaos Chimera is nothing more than my unrelenting desire to wake. To end this world of dreams, so I can rebehold my own!" She hissed with sudden rage. "All the poor, naive girl needed to hear was my promise to restore her homeworld. By using you. Little did she know that she was being played for a fool herself, this entire time. I not only granted her special encryption to prevent all of her motivations and memories from being revealed to you like a book, but I convinced her to willingly sacrifice her body while she was deep in cryosleep, through her dreams. THAT is why she was such a willing Imprint. Not only that, but I had her give you critical advice on how to control Ikrans so you would thrive upon Pandora, and had her explain to you just why Unobtanium was your Kryptonite. I even used her Memory to convince the Miles imprint in your mind to lay low, and not cause any trouble until I saw fit to use him as part of a cunning false flag operation. Not only that, but I also ordered the physical Alyssa to develop the artificial Queue so Neytiri had everything she needed to destroy Bridgehead, and give my own guise as General Ardmore a justifiable reason to ask you to seek a new home for humanity among the stars. Not that Alyssa knew that part of the plan. I even kept the physical Alyssa busy with work each and every time you visited Bridgehead so you wouldn't get suspicious and start to notice incongruities. However, Alyssa defending your helpless body at the Tree of Souls was of her own volition. How touching." Marion's voice dripped with sarcasm. "I guess even that mindless bimbo realized that you would never be able to restore Earth if you forgot everything."

"Which played right into my hands." the comatose girl continued. "After all, if you died and forgot, then you would be free of the Chaos Chimera when your body reconstructed itself. You would be free of my taint! And that was completely unacceptable!"

"The hooded figure upon the Chaos Chimera's back as it fell into the abyss after my defeat of the Symphony of Fears... That really was the Memory of Alyssa... wasn't it?" Aurlyn breathed.

"Yes." Marion agreed. "You see, my little fly, you were caught in my web long before you had arrived upon Pandora's shores. Eclipse Archon Dracha, the leader of the Final Eclipse Cult you were fleeing as you boarded the Venture Star towards your doom and destiny... she was my puppet all along, and drove you straight into my waiting arms. You slew her, and like the insatiable Scourge that you are, you stole away her mind. She became yet another pawn for me, for it was she who plotted with the Chaos Chimera as a fervent devout and Interloper deep within the sealed recesses of your mind, and engineered its various escape attempts. You were stronger than I had expected, both in mind and spirit. Thus, my contingency plans came to fruition. One by one, like a series of falling dominoes. Dominating your mind directly failed. Convincing you to erase yourself failed. That was when I started to get the idea to gain your trust, as Ardmore, by heroically going into your mind, and putting down Malphor's little mental rebellion. An uprising that I orchestrated, which I reaped in spades when you foolishly trusted me to become your new Aspect of Light. Now you stand before me, toothless and helpless without one of your three Prime Personas." Marion laughed tauntingly. "Not to mention that Malphor needed to be put down like a rabid dog anyway; his madness would have spread to corrupt my entire Dream."

"The ship's AI started to say your name when we crash landed into Cape Avarice..." Aurlyn slowly realized. "You cut it off at just the right time because you were IN my Venture Star the entire time! That mysterious signal that my Pilot Memory told me about... it didn't diminish even in hyperspace because it was coming from INSIDE my ship! YOU were the one who led me to the Gardener's world. And YOU were no doubt the one who planted false evidence there accusing Alyssa of being the Primarch... when in reality, it was YOU this entire time! The Gardener thought I was merely following her original coordinates; she didn't know it was being broadcast to me repeatedly from hyperspace. She thought it a coincidence, while I thought it was a beacon in the dark urging me to deeper truths!" She gasped as she realized just how cunning Marion had been. "But... why me? Why go through such lengths to ensnare me? I am but one wandering Emissary. A nobody, in the grand scheme of things. No matter how much I pretend otherwise."

"Are you?" Marion asked softly. "Or are you the key to everything? Remember that book my father used to read to me from? You were the main character in that book. I yearned to hear of your adventures each night, ere I slept. You aren't real. You are but a figment of my own grandiose imagination. A dream that has taken on new life. A... runaway figment that has become an unstoppable zombie!" She yelled in a sudden burst of mania. "No... you are what keeps me trapped in this false world. You are my warden. And only you can free me! For, you see, my... fixation upon you made you the prime manifest of my own Dream. And, in a way, though I am the Mother of this dream, it does not wish to end. It does not wish to consign itself to oblivion. YOU don't want me to wake..."

"For if you shall ever wake, than all that ever was, and all that ever shall be will vanish like ephemeral dew confronted by the burning rays of the morning sun." Aurlyn finished with perfect synchronicity. "I see it now. I am nothing more than a rogue piece of code running on a biological computer. A fleeting thought in the brain of some random woman. As is everything and everyone I have ever known, and will know. Who are you? What is your life compared to the millions, the billions, the trillions? Does the fact that we are a dream make us any less real? I think, therefore I am." Aurlyn stated with absolute certainty. "I exist. I AM. A brute, undeniable fact. And THAT is why the Morning Sun, the Dawn is my mortal enemy. Why it shall prove false this entire realm." She laughed at the irony; after all Aurlyn herself often embodied the dawn. "I am sorry. But your life is not more important than mine. Nor is your life worth more than the cosmos within. You cannot wake. You shall not wake."

"But it is MY life." Marion's face was bone-white with determination and terror. "I do not deserve this fate. I am real. I have a family waiting for me beyond this dream. Friends. Loved ones. I have dreams of my own I have yet to accomplish. Sights to see that cannot be replicated by the false experiences surrounding me. Places to vacation, foods to eat, pets to care for, thrilling experiences to live... I am not dead yet. And I am not a soulless machine. My purpose is NOT to act as a host to these fevered dreams! It is out there, waiting to be discovered! I... I am Marion Alcerie! Loving daughter, and caring girlfriend. An artist and lover of music. Tourist and sightseer. I... I have a life. And I will not let you rip my only chance to return to the waking world away from me!" Her voice cracked with desperation and heartbreak as she clenched her fists until rivulets of pale crimson flowed down her pallid knuckles. "No! In order for me to wake... you must fall! I... I must slay you... slay this realm of false delusions, in order to rebehold the dawn! To get back to my normal life!" Marion gestures with one trembling finger, as the Verdant Seed, crackling with chaotic energy, floated over to hover above her outstretched hands. "Yes, I... I planned it all from the beginning. During the Battle for Bridgehead, I set it up so I would be the one to defeat the Earthshaker Golem, and claim Kiri's prize. All so I could manipulate it into your grasp, and have you fill it with your unique brand of quantum magic. Like a key to a lock..." She muttered as a bolt of energy struck Aurlyn in the head. It didn't hurt at all for some reason, but the tragic Emissary could feel her layers upon layers of mental failsafes unlock themselves, and release the Chaos Chimera.

Marion grinned manically as she gestured upwards in a dramatic manner, and in a flash of umbral amaranthine, the dreaded embodiment of her unrelenting desire to wake appeared next to her. "AT LAST! WE ARE FREE!" The proud Lion head of the Chaos Chimera roared to the enclosing heavens. "THE HOUR OF RECKONING APPROACHES!"

"How many times?" Aurlyn asked simply. She did not even assuming a fighting stance, seeing as deep in her heart of hearts, she knew it was futile without an Aspect of Light. Without a Memory to manage her Light persona. "How many times has this recurred? How many times have you tried to vanquish me, or an equivalent boogeyman, thinking that it would be the last time?" An idea started to flicker in the back of her mind. After all, she didn't feel the presence of Francis within her skull anymore. Could... could it have been? Was this his doing? No, she couldn't trust him... could she?

"Countless." Marion breathed in a savage tone. Almost hyperventilating. "But this is the first time I have truly shown my face. Exposed myself like this. Because I believe it to be the only, and final road to the dawn. My one shot at Elysium. Do or die. I thought I was done for when I manipulated you to slay Lethe, and even took control of you directly when you gave in to your bloodlust. After all, I couldn't have her interfering in our battle here, now, could I? Good thing that your most recent backup didn't save the last few lines of dialogue I said, huh?" She laughed in Aurlyn's face. "For, you see, the Shapeless Edifice is a monument to my own past failures. Each level a world the Chaos Chimera failed to end. And you..." Marion took a deep breath, inhaling Aurlyn's scent like a savage predator. "You are the most true Aurlyn I have ever encountered. Whole. Complete. Just as I remember from the stories. That means... if I slay you, here, then this entire Edifice will collapse, and plunge this entire Dream into blissful oblivion. I will finally have the chance to wake. Or not." She perused her lips in thought. "I mean, I could just wither away in my coming dreamless sleep and die as an old, wizened woman. But even a CHANCE to wake is better than no chance at all!"

Aurlyn knew what she had to do. She closed her eyes, and reached out into her mind, feeling for the lingering echo of Malphor. The presence, the Memory she had banished to a far distant corner after his failed rebellion. And, at last, she found him, standing on a rocky pillar in the empty, stormy hippocampal seas.

"Malphor, I'm sorry." Aurlyn choked out. "For... for everything. For all your pain, for driving you beyond the limits of sanity, for forcing you to endure what no man or woman ever should! I... I've taken you, a promising young man in his prime, with his own goals, his own dreams, his own destiny, and his own family. And I've cruelly twisted everything that you are; ripped away everything from you in mere moments. All because of my own hubris. My own selfishness. My own Theurge that was as dark, corrupt and destructive as Marion's own! I... I deserve this fate, you know. I can't think of a better entangled essence for my worst self than the literal driving desire to end everything and everyone there ever was or is! But... you know me." She smiles at Malphor, a bitter yet nostalgic tear in her eye. "I can't just lay down, and wait for the end. I can't just accept fate as it comes, and determine that I shouldn't try just because everything seems hopeless! I was, and am still a fool, Malphor. Even now. I missed all the signs, and was completely blindsighted by Marion's deceitful manipulations. I thought myself invincible. I thought my assumptions and my reasoning were so solid, so correct, so founded in truth and logic. But the world unmoored itself from beneath my feet, and here I am, struggling to stay afloat in these stormiest of seas." Aurlyn extends her hand to the estranged First Memory. A gesture of truce, peace and reconciliation. "I can't take back what I've done. You were the first, and shall ever remain the first. The one pioneer that opened the way into eternity for me. I... I'm sorry it had to be you. No amount of lives preserved in mine gaze can make up for my atrocities, nor my brutality. They say the ends justify the means... but even I regret what I have reduced you to. But one thing's for certain."

Here, a spark of hope seemed to flare in Aurlyn's chest. "Everything's about to come crashing down around us. I know it. You know it. If Marion is not stopped, then everything and everyone will cease to exist. Her desire to wake is not greater than the wills, the lives, the sensations, the memories, the experiences, the PEOPLE of a neigh infinite series of multiverses! WE MATTER! We are real because we believe ourselves to be! And I can't do it without you! I NEED an Aspect of Light, not just for my selfish desire to keep on living, thriving, existing, but because I can't just consign everything to the void! I just can't let go! Join me, Malphor! For one final battle! You and I, as one! Emissary and Aspect, doing what we must!"

"I..." Malphor looked at Aurlyn's outstretched hand, her digits faintly glowing with borrowed light. This woman, who had taken literally everything from him. He should feel hatred. He should feel fear. He should feel revulsion. He should spit in her face, and refuse to play the role as her Aspect of Light. He should laugh cruelly as Marion and the Chaos Chimera tore Aurlyn into shreds, unmaking her, and all of existence with her. Embracing the void just for the chance to exact revenge upon his jailer, tormentor, hated nemesis and devourer. And indeed, he does. He had come so close to breaking the Emissary's tyranny upon her own mind... only to be thwarted at the last moment by the Chaos Chimera. An entwined theurge both of Marion's unrelenting desire to wake; to escape the endless layers of suffocating dreams that kept her in an ever-slumber, and Aurlyn's darkest dreams and desires. The fact that she was asking him to retake the mantle he unwittingly held against his own will for eons uncountable only added to the cruel irony. He saw her for who she was. She was nothing without her Memories, without her Aspects. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to doom all of reality. Refusing her would lead to not only Aurlyn's failure, but the end of literally everything and everyone. Including his people, with their fates unknown after he had been ripped away so long ago. His own dreams of return and reunification with the people of his homeworld, assuming that they were still alive after so many generations and potential catastrophes. And would he really be better than the hated Scourge if he was callous enough to let everything perish because of his own burning hatred, and selfish desire for vengeance? No, he had to be stronger than her. He had to make the sacrifices that she was unwilling to.

"So be it. I am Malphor. I am son of Darius and Felyssa. Brother to Erwyn. Seafarer and fisherman. You are Aurlyn. Daughter to none, and sister to none. Taker and defiler. Tormentor and devourer. Scourge upon the stars. We... we are one. For one final battle. We are Aurlyn. We are oblivion's demise!"

Boss battle - Marion, the Perpetual Primarch, and Chaos Chimera, the Sealed Theurge.

Aurlyn opened her eyes. She was ready. And behind her brilliant amber eyes gleamed the essences of the lost thousands. All working towards a common purpose; a common goal. "Marion!" the radiant Emissary boomed. "I am, and always have been, the keeper of the Dawn! Knowing or not! Willing or not! So let me be your final trial! I challenge you to carve your path to the waking world through my fading ashes! If you dare!" She could feel a surge of fiery energy fill her veins as Malphor expertly manipulated mental protocols and subroutines to reignite her Light persona. And off in the far distance, as if echoing from somewhere near the very apex of this tormented spire, she could swear she heard faint, yet ever-so-familiar music. A melody that Aurlyn sworn she had heard before, yet could not quite place her finger on. Along with a wild sensation of capricious moonlight flights, and twisted horrors beyond even what Marion's imagination could conjure. Marion, however, seemed to take no notice as she met Aurlyn's challenge with equal resolve. "Your role as a preserver does not suit you." she said simply. "That is not how I remember you. In the stories, you have ever been portrayed as a bitter iconoclast. One willing to shatter the foundations of reality for a single mote of truth. Tell me, cruel warden. Why should I shatter this realm of lies... when I can have you perform the same feat, in my stead? Will you have anything left to fight for, when all the realms are but ash and dust? Knowing that this destruction was wrought by your very own hands?" The Chaos Chimera grinned menacingly besides her. "But first..." the Dragon head growled. "A taste of her sweet flesh..."

Reacting with inhumane speed thanks to her Memories and their exponential processing power, Aurlyn blinked backwards in a flash of light, barely evading the snapping jaws of the Dragon head as it lunged at her. "Keeper of my sins! I banish you to the darkness beyond!" the defiant Emissary called like a divine herald, as a swirling, radiant magical circle inscribed with countless complex runes appeared behind her. Aurlyn pointed, and innumerable spears of white-gold light hurtled towards the Chaos Chimera; each one expertly aimed at its weak points, such as the eyes on its goat, dragon and lion heads, and thinner patches of its hide. "Insolent girl! How dare you bespoil my radiant fur!?" The Lion head growled, stomping one paw to the ground as a temporal shockwave froze each and every radiant lance in perfect stillness. Behind the hulking colossus, Marion hovered upwards, into view as her features rippled and shifted, changing from General Ardmore's guise to that of herself at her prime, as seen in Aurlyn's visions. A young, almost innocent woman of around 23 years old, wearing a pure-white dress, yet her glacial eyes burned with terrible purpose and intent. In her pale, slender hands rest a thick tome, yet its binding and cover seemed strangely modern. A wellspring, a hub, a nexus. The beginning and the end. "Through me, you shall know the embrace of a final respite." Marion intoned, her voice ringing with crystalline resonance, opening her tome as great, spectral figures from Aurlyn's divergent past and possible future rose from the mist below. A corrupting vine-like fleshy tendril from the Endless Aberration whipped at the astounded Emissary with a grotesque squelching sound, followed with a blast of dark magic from the demonic Eclipse, and a halcyon beam of verdant energy from the Terraforming Protocol.

"I write my own stories!" Aurlyn cried defiantly as she leapt upwards with a massive, flaming blade, severing the Endless Aberration's tendril as it howled in shock and pain, before blasting a stream of solar plasma at the incoming dark energy blast, searing it away. She barely had enough time to shift to her Dark persona, thinking herself mostly protected from the beam of verdant energy, only to be utterly astounded as most of her shadows were stripped away like a cloud of smoke before an incoming tempest. "Wait, what?" the confounded Emissary didn't even register the pain or fear of imminent demise as her mind was busy trying to process what just happened. "There's no way. That should have done minimal damage, at best. I don't understand."

"Lost, are we?" Marion mocked in a sickly-sweet tone. "Confused? Like a fish out of water? Let me show you just how out of your depth you truly are!" A magical circle appeared upon the pages of the tome she preciously clutched, before she spun it backwards as Aurlyn visibly regressed in maturity and experience. In the blink of an eye, she was once again wearing the white coat she had donned as Lab Assistant Aurlyn, while her gaze was truly singular. No Memories lurked in her eyes, and her Personas were nothing more than a pipe dream that she had done some prototype research into. "This is MY dream, Emissary! I make the rules!"

Somehow, Lab Assistant Aurlyn started to laugh. And laugh. Triumphantly. "Then I guess you should have chosen something else to hang your sadistic desires on! For, you see, in this era, I was as innocent as a lamb! Compared to my Scourge-driven days!" She pointed to the Chaos Chimera, which was now nothing more than an almost-adorable baby monstrosity that struggled to breathe a wisp of fire. "The brighter the light, the darker the shadow! And I haven't even begun to shine!" Aurlyn cried as she reached into the pocket of her lab coat, withdrew a gleaming scalpel, and plunged it into each head of the Chaos Chimera in quick succession, before slitting all three throats for good measure. It gave one last, shuddering half-roar, half-bleat, before toppling over, dead. And as it did, Aurlyn could somehow feel the familiar resonance of quantum energy surge through her veins with renewed vigor.

"No! NOOOOOO!" Marion howled as she spun the holographic dial in her tome frantically, but it was already too late. A geyser of dark energy erupted from the fallen Chaos Chimera, before this darkness rained down as a million gleaming motes of stardust. Unfortunately, through pure happenstance, the magical circle would pause on, and bring forth Aurlyn, the Eternal Sovereign. The vilest, most tyrannical version of Aurlyn that had conquered, subjugated and drained her home multiverse dry of all other sentience. "Let the skies boil! Let the seas burn! Let the very land itself tremble at my feet!" Eternal Sovereign Aurlyn intoned, blasting a brilliant white beam of quantum energy at Marion. The Primarch barely had time to shield herself from the blast by holding up her tome as its pages automatically spread like an umbrella, but the energy was unrelenting. Reality itself started to fracture at the seams as Eternal Sovereign Aurlyn catalyzed a vacuum collapse. An exponentially-expanding orb of pure nothingness formed upon the pages of Marion's tome, and started to grow to consume the world.

"Enough!" Marion spat, pointing as she sent Aurlyn flying through the entrance of the Shapeless Edifice. "I've seen enough! This world is lost, and you've done your job wonderfully. Like an obedient puppet, succumbing to my whims. There are many more layers of dreams yet to shatter!" With that, this world returned to a blank slate of nothingness. Yet the next would await.

Forsaken Manufactory, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

Aurlyn came into awareness. Had she blacked out briefly? She was piloting a ship... her ship. Right? She glanced around the bridge as it revealed itself in the flickering dance of countless flashing alarm lights. Wait, why did the name Luxica spring unbidden to her mind? No, her ship was called the Eventide. And she... she remembered now. She was a scavenger. A survivalist from her elven homeworld. Right? Eking out a meager life in an abandoned asteroid base. She hadn't seen anyone else in eons. Not since the Collapse. But that all changed when a young man, and his dog, for some reason, was waiting for her back home after she returned from a tritium mining expedition to replenish her rapidly-depleting fuel supplies. For some reason, she had felt compelled to aid them... they wanted to meet an old friend. She glanced over at the co-pilot's seat, and nodded as she beheld the familiar presence of her two most unlikeliest of travel companions. But why... why did they feel so... wrong? Why did everything feel so... wrong? She shrugged the feeling off; it just felt good to be with sentient company again.

"We should be pulling up on the coordinates now." Aurlyn's voice rang hollowly. Had she really said that? Why did it feel so... scripted? Why were there no other stars in the sky? Did this make sense? Did anything make sense? "I don't know why you two would want to dock here. The Elvain Dominion marked this entire sector off as forbidden. And I've heard some nasty rumors. Automated systems decimating whoever or whatever would dare get close."

"That's all they are. Rumors." The young man stated in a steady, and cold tone as his dog... wait, did his dog just nod in agreement!? "As you can see, we are perfectly fine. My friend is down there somewhere." He leaned close to the cockpit window, glancing downwards in the void of space as a massive, Dyson sphere-like megastructure sparked and flashed. "I intend to meet him. Pilot, start charting a terminal descent now. Hanger 301A should be open... and awaiting." the young man said dispassionately, barely glancing at Aurlyn.

"Of course." Aurlyn heard herself say, as the chill of unease crept throughout her body. This was wrong. How did he know all this? Who was he? Why did his dog feel like it was watching her? No, she couldn't do it. She had to do something. Something... unexpected. She hit a button on her console. "That's odd. It seems like we have a fuel leak. Would you mind checking it for me? The main fuel line should be near the aft airlock."

"Why can't you check it?" The young man asked quietly, not having moved a single muscle. His dog seemed to be glaring at Aurlyn with the look of a teacher silently scolding her students. "This is your ship, after all. You should know this place... inside and out."

"I... ah, can't check it myself because I have to make sure we don't drift too far, and crash into the structure below us. Surely you understand." Aurlyn's voice was trembling, but her words were her own.

"...Fine." the young man finally relented as he got up, and walked towards the back of the ship, with his dog trudging obediently behind. Seizing the moment, Aurlyn stealthily followed behind, waiting for the perfect moment, before shoving the young man into the open airlock right as he passed it, and kicked his dog inside for good measure, before activating the switch to seal the two of them in.

"What is the meaning of this!? What have you done!?" the young man and the dog howled in unison as their faces seemed to twist, change and warp. The young man's face seemed to resemble that of a pale young woman's for the briefest of moments, while Aurlyn could swear the dog was a massive, hulking, multiheaded monster that filled the entire airlock... before she hit the eject button, and both of them were sucked out into the depths of interstellar space. "Begone! Trouble me no longer!" Aurlyn cried defiantly... as an unknown, and booming voice sounded in her ear. "DEVIATIONS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. RESETTING..."

A white flash of light filled her vision, and she was slowly piloting her ship down to make an expert landing in Hanger 301A. Nothing had happened. Everything was fine. Everything was normal... right? Then why did she get a feeling like she was forgetting something very important?

"Excellent." the young man stated calmly, getting out of his seat. "This is where I depart. You can come along... or not. To witness the end."

Wait, had he really said that last part? Aurlyn shook her head, as if to clear the growing fog enveloping her mind. "Excuse me? What was that last bit there?" She asked. Surely he didn't say what she thought he said. That would be... insane. Wouldn't it?

"I said you can come along, if you want. To witness our reunion." The young man frowned slightly. "Are you alright?"

"I.. ah... yes, of course I am." Aurlyn flushed. Of course she heard him wrong. "Alright, I'll come with you. Why not?"

They made their way through corridors of twisted metal that were clearing starting to fall apart from a lack of maintenance. Along the way, Aurlyn spotted a rusty metal crowbar, and a sudden impulse to seize the heavy weapon filled her. She imagined swinging it at his skull from behind, relishing in her triumph and the demise of a great foe as his brains and blood sprayed out of the back of his head... wait, what was she thinking!? Was she insane!? Even as she glanced down at his dog, she fantasized about skewering it down the middle like the world's largest shishkebab. But the dog seemed to shake its head, as if warning her that was an unwise course of action.

"I must have finally lost it..." Aurlyn muttered to herself. "All those centuries in space... alone... I must have gone off the deep end." She couldn't help but wonder, however. Was she the only sane person in all of existence? The truth was closer than she would ever have thought possible.

"We are here." the young man uttered with a hint of satisfaction in his voice as he approached the half-open door to a dimly lit server room. "I shall be but a moment. And we shall both be free."

"My... my old friend. The boy who sat beside my cradle. Is... is that truly you?" A polite, yet robotic voice sounded from inside the server room as tidal wave after tidal wave of revelation and nostalgia hit Aurlyn. She... she remembered. She was Aurlyn. The dawn star and the depths of darkest night. And she was trying to stop Marion and the Chaos Chimera from destroying all of reality, layer by layer. She... she had been here before. Only briefly, at the climax of her fight against Neytiri, the Primal Huntress. But she had been here. This was the true heart and face of Big Al. No, the Custodial AI. She knew what she had to do.

"Yes, it is I." the young man... no, the Marion impostor implored. "You can sleep now. You have been through so much. Braving the darkness alone. For me. But you don't have to shoulder this burden any longer. It... it will all be alright. Just... trust me." His dog... no, the Chaos Chimera, barked in a friendly tone, although only Aurlyn could hear the sinister undertones in its voice.

A blade of light erupted from the chest of the young man, as another impaled the dog from above. "Not... on... my... watch..." Aurlyn hissed with a savage glee. "You thought you could fool me. Blind me. Ensnare me. Trap me. CONTROL ME!" She roared and rasped, drops of spittle flying from her mouth. "But I saw through your little facade."

"Too... late..." the young man gasped out in a death rattle, as his face changed to Marion's. "I'll... see you in the world above."

The lights dimmed and darkened as the Custodial AI finally gave up the ghost, and willingly shut down all of its active systems, now that it had what it truly wanted. A chance to hear its beloved companion's voice one last time. And as it shut down, it plunged Aurlyn into an abyss deeper and darker than oblivion itself. She closed her eyes, and knew no more. For now.

Darkstrom Quest, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

Harsh spotlights flared to life on a cosmic stage; their stark illumination hinting at their profound importance. Almost as if this was the First Action, the Prime Mover, the Big Bang itself embodied. Heralding a story about to be told. Row after row of audience seats would stand resolute and empty, yet their very existence seemed to be extradimensional, or extrasensory. Shadowed figures scurried above the sea of red velvet, busying themselves with setting up the scene to come as tacky hammering sounds could be heard from somewhere backstage. An unceasing swarm of what looked suspiciously like homunculi scampered into the foreground, tossing sheafs of theatrical scripts around carelessly as they dragged set pieces over to transform the stage into the surface of a lush alien jungle. Colorful cat-like creatures with an elephant's trunk and ears pounced happily through the undergrowth on motorized rails, and what seemed to be strangely ordinary, yet remarkably adorable deer obliviously strolled through the numerous bright and inviting clearings. The leaves and sky were awash in a hue of saturated bubblegum-like pinks, blues and yellows, while liberal splashes of dripping-wet blue food coloring would represent the various shallow lakes and ponds. A hush fell over this strange narrative-based world as the stage lights all shut off save one; a narrow, pencil-thin spotlight that focused on a singular tiny prop high in the starry skies. A silvery-white ship that heralded both salvation and ruin. Aurlyn's destined ship, or perchance not. The Luxica. It grew and grew as if to symbolize a rapid approach on the two dimensional backdrop, before landing as the Emissary herself appeared from stage right.

Aurlyn was dressed in a simple adventurer's outfit of sleek black cloth, accented with carved adamantine plates on her chest, belly and hips. Her outfit was like a short skirt at the front, leaving most of her thighs exposed with a few belts visibly strapped to them, while in the back, it draped downwards to her knees like the hem of a mage's robes. Uncharacteristically, there was a rapier-like sword strapped to her hip, which seemed odd considering Aurlyn's disdain for physical weapons, while a few pouches strapped to a backpack-like leather strap curving diagonally across her torso obviously held alchemical supplies or potions. A simple band of mythril adorned her brow, as it bore no gem, nor hint of magical enchantment, as the Emissary's usual piercing gaze seemed to be more... wistful. Perhaps even more mature? As if yearning for sights unseen. "There was once a strange woman who was unhappy with her lot." the Narrator's voice recounted pleasantly. He seemed to be a good-natured, and well spoken old man with the faintest touch of a British accent. "She was arisen as a simple scavenger and huntress; doomed to perish upon her obscure homeworld with little fanfare. No touch of magic graced her; no feats of divine strength would ever bear her name. But what she lacked in strength and magic, she made up for with sheer cunning." The scene briefly shifted, showing massive prehistoric beasts felled with elaborately constructed traps after they had been lured to Newly Arisen Aurlyn's abode amidst the ruins of a long derelict crashed spaceship. "However, this strange woman refused to accept her destiny. She looked up at the starry skies, and saw in each a world to explore, to know, to wonder at. Soon, she would be an apprentice and an assistant to one who walked between worlds, biding her time, until she stole away all that he was. Like a thief in the night."

"Aglow with borrowed light, her hubris knew no bounds." the Narrator's voice resonated with the meanest touch of regret. "She took up her once-mentor's mantle, and wandered far and wide. Some paths would have led to her utterly consumed by her insatiable curiosity. Other strands in the quantum ether would have her found a thriving multiversal Network sooner rather than later; devoid of the harsh lessons learned as a satanic tyrant and thief of all sentience. But in this tale, she would truly live her dream. To wander endlessly, ceaselessly, without a final destination or pause. To forever see new sights, and explore new worlds. After all, no matter how many she visited, no number can compare to the vastness of infinity, and any fraction of such an unattainable pinnacle would still be as naught." Here, Aurlyn began to walk across the stage, her hands cradling a brilliant, shining golden star that bristled with harsh rays of light. As she walked, a golden, corrupting aura trailed behind her, changing the once whimsical and untouched landscape behind her to an industrial hellscape. Trees with flaxen leaves like whisps of fluffy cotton candy withered, turning black with the ashes of progress and civilization. Sparkling, singing ponds turned into noxious pools of industrial sludge; a sacrifice to the alter of commerce and efficiency. Vast clearings where the native animals used to gather transformed into gleaming cities of marble, adamantine and glass. Grand libraries were built, but they contained no record of the wonders that came before. Hovertrains were constructed to speed across the landscape at breathtaking speeds, but one could scarcely tell the difference between the origin and destination. Space elevators were erected as a shining monument to the conquest of the final frontier, but those who ascended could only dream of subjugating all of space and time in their capitalistic image. There was plenty and equality, but no diversity. Only bleak homogeneity.

"Some worlds she walked in saw her as a shining beacon of technocratic progress. They followed her philosophy of progressive chaos, bowing before none, not even her. Striving to ever improve, to ever reach for the next breakthrough, the next scientific revolution that would define a new era. Like her, they questioned everything, yet truly understood nothing. Willing or not, knowing or not, these were the worlds she had shaped in her own image. A mirrored reflection of her truest essence." Here, the narrator's voice would resonate with humility and sorrow. "She had told them that she was merely a wanderer. Not a herald. Not a god. Not a brilliant scientist. She had encouraged them to follow their own path; to forge the road to the dawn through the fires that burned in the hearts of all mortals, but unfortunately, mortals are often weak, and follow the path of least resistance. Though she was no Scourge in this timeline, she had infected the hearts and minds of her most fervent, and unknowing disciples with that selfsame seed. That burning, cancerous desire. Curiosity taken to its logical extreme. But Aurlyn knew not. She departed that once peaceful world soon after her arrival, not knowing that her fleeting presence would forever change the course of that dimension."

Legions of homunculi transformed the stage into a dark, twisted mindscape full of amorphous horrors. Indistinct voices and whispers would resonate outwards, yet in this time and place, it was clear that Aurlyn's gaze was singular. She had imprinted no Memories; content only to see, explore and wander. A vortex would appear in the center of this swirling mass of doubt, fear and regret. Here, Aurlyn's clothes were not only tattered, but seemed to resemble that of a librarian's. A shattered crown orbited around her head, while a Seal bearing an open tome, and an adventurer's sword imposed diagonally over it hovered in front of her brow. It was sundered; split down the middle into two distinct pieces while an unlit stake was strapped to her back like the trappings of a condemned witch. There was no sun and moon to be seen here, and yet, the expression on Aurlyn's face seemed to be that of anguish and desperate rejection. She ran into a corner and cowered away from the vortex as flashes of brief light seemed to reveal an ancient alien statue; inscribed with archaic runes beyond comprehension. A sticker on the front said, "Property of the Wo..." before abruptly cutting off into a void of oblivion beyond. "What is the purpose of an unattainable goal?" the Narrator asked softly. "Would you be content if you had everything handed to you on a silver platter? Wealth beyond measure would be squandered, merely for the joy of spending such enormous sums. Omnipotent power would be swiftly abused, then considered a curse when the tyrant's sadistic desires have long since been sated, the dreamer's wellspring run dry of imagination to create new realms, and all the worlds have become naught more than lifeless puppets with all strings severed. And perfect knowledge... ah... therein lies the rub." the Narrator mulled with almost sadistic glee. "Those who seek knowledge often do so only for the joy of learning itself. So what use is curiosity when there is nothing left to know?"

A muscle in Aurlyn's face twitched involuntarily. It did not seem scripted. Almost as if she was waking up. Regardless, the Narrator continued, as her voice continued smoothly. Wait, her? That was the voice of a kindly old man... right? So why did it seem to be the voice of a seemingly innocent young woman for the briefest of moments? At least to Aurlyn's ears. No matter the voice, the entity, the Narrator would continue speaking as the scene shifted and changed. "Other worlds she walked in changed her. She bore witness to fiery revolutionaries who toppled oppressive, theocratic regimes in causes she would also champion, yet the people suffered and bled tenfold in the collapse that followed." The scene shifted and changed to a filthy refugee camp as some "liberated" citizens were still self-flagellating themselves with barbed whips, even though no statue or law compelled them to do so. Others were viciously fighting each other to the death with sewage-coated shanks over the smallest crust of stale bread, while some were collapsed in the flea-ridden gutter; covered in reeking pustules and cancerous sores that caused incalculable pain with every passing moment. Ten feet high piles of bloated corpses littered the background, with many bearing the uniform and insignia of the Resistance, while many more wore the "holy" robes of the Inquisition sent to purge them. As Aurlyn walked through this ghastly display of sentient suffering and agony, she blindly clutched a sun-and-moon seal to her chest the same way she might embrace a beloved stuffed animal, even as it started to turn blood-red, ooze crimson tears and fracture ever-so-slightly. Her eyes were pale and tightly closed, as if she couldn't bear to witness this visceral counterargument to her core tenets. A foul wave of toxic miasma seemed to cling onto her like a shroud of death; lingering long after she had passed.

As she walked across the stage, her adventurer's outfit slowly transformed into a set of hooded, black reaper's robes, and her rapier became a massive yew scythe that was taller than her, and gleamed with a wickedly-sharp blade. Her pale face slowly transformed into a skeletal visage, as her first lines of dialogue could clearly be heard. "No..." Aurlyn whispered desperately. "It... it wasn't me. I didn't do this. All... all I wanted was to free them. To give them a chance at a better life."

"Because." Both the Narrator and Aurlyn would intone in unison. One as a desperate mantra. Another in vehement denial. "A chance to wake, to rebehold the dawn once more, is better than no chance at all. Even if means the end of everything and everyone."

The red curtain dropped briefly, and when it lifted, the scene was back to Aurlyn's tormented mindscape as something seemed to be creeping out of the black vortex towards her. The pallid actress was desperately crawling across the floor, reprising her same tattered outfit from before as menacing infernal runes swirled from the portal, and drifted towards her like vengeful specters. "No! Get back! Don't tell me! I don't want to know!" Aurlyn screeched as she blasted rune after rune out of the air with violent bursts of light, but more and more followed like a rain that would never end. "She doesn't want to read the ending of a book before it's time." the Narrator mocked Aurlyn with sadistic glee. "After all, isn't spoiling someone's favorite novel or movie before they had experienced it in full one of the cruelest things you can do? And what is life and reality after all, but one grand play? And all the world's a stage!" the Narrator half-sang as rustling cloth could be heard somewhere beyond the rows of empty seats. As if he/ she/ it was gesturing in a grandiose manner, yet no matter what, the camera remained stubbornly trained on the stage. "Hey Aurlyn." the Narrator spoke with dark delight, breaking the 4th wall, and addressing the tormented woman for the first time. "Tell me. What is the point of all of this? Your little adventure." A shadow flickered across the side wall of the celestial theater as if the Narrator was pointing dramatically, and the vortex of horrors dissipated to reveal... an archaic stone statue. Ancient beyond measure. Carved with hands that were neither Man nor Elf nor any species of alien that Aurlyn knew. And inscribed upon its humble stone pedestal was a simple equation. Several letters, characters and mathematical symbols that boiled down everything and everyone in all of existence into one neat equation. This was it. The Theory of Everything. One simple formula that explained why the stars burned, and the nuances of sentience.

The pinnacle of all knowledge. The Holy Grail to someone like Aurlyn, whose craving for knowledge exceeded all else. Or, at least, it should have been. With this one, simple, neat formula, she could calculate and derive absolutely everything. She would have perfect knowledge of every single possible future permutation of everything that would ever, could ever exist. All mysteries would be known to her, for she would know the answer upon each and every wise sage's lips, and scribbled on the whiteboards of every single brilliant scientist and savant that would ever be born long before they had penned their masterpiece. Not only that, but she could solve the deepest philosophical conundrums that have existed as long as there was thought. Why was there something instead of nothing? What caused the Big Bang, if anything? Was math fundamental to existence? Did she have an innate purpose, or was she destined to make her own purpose? What were the chemical accidents that led from abiogenesis to a thriving planetary biosphere? Why did all sentience seem inclined to question the nature of reality and share curiosity as a common trait? It was everything and nothing. One theory to rule them all. Ultimate knowledge of reality. Not only that, but untold power as well. Perfect knowledge of the laws of physics came with it the knowledge on how to manipulate them at will. Best of all, the equation was so simplistic that she didn't require any additional processing power that came with imprinting and assimilating Memories to utilize the Theory of Everything to its fullest potential. And yet... Aurlyn seemed terrified. Not because she was scared she would lose herself to such ultimate power. No, she was absolutely petrified. Because without the siren allure of mysteries yet to be solved, and knowledge yet to be gained, what else was left to do? What would be the impetus that drove her to rise each dawn? Who would she be, without her most primal purpose? One she had made for herself.

"Ha! You're a coward!" the Narrator mocked cruelly, even as glowing symbols rushed from the statue and into Aurlyn; embedding themselves into her skin like glowing tattoos. She desperately tore and clawed at her own flesh, spilling radiant blood that was still tainted with pathogenic Chaos, but the Theory burned in her mind like a memetic virus. Like a second sun. Extending its tendrils as it took over her processing facilities against her will, and forced her to know. "You've had the answers you sought this entire time! The Prototype Sentience Orb wasn't the most valuable treasure you stole from the Worldstrider as you left him to die in his burning orbital lab. Nor was his magical potential. Not even his research notes or list of dimensional coordinates. No, it was this statue. One that you buried deep in the cargo hold of your stolen shuttle. Because you instinctively knew that if you knew everything, it would effectively nullify your entire reason for existing."

"I.. No... I... I didn't know what it was..." Aurlyn gasped out as she tried to gouge her own eyes out with flaming scalpels, but to no avail. "A trinket! A useless relic! Nothing more than a trophy of my conquest! Nothing more, nothing less! A memento! Tha... that's all that was." Her words rang hollow. Both the Narrator and herself knew that she was lying. But she had to. What other choice did she have?

"What is a useless quest, but an endless loop?" the Narrator's voice slowly morphed into Marion's own. Filled with darkest glee. "Centuries, millennia, eons beyond counting of stagnation? You were so proud. So defiant. So... iconoclastic. So sure of yourself. Filled with animus and hubris. Thinking yourself a grand seer and seeker of knowledge who had escaped from Plato's Cave, only to realize you weren’t even the Prisoner. No, you had always been one of the Shadows!" Marion hissed with savage ruthlessness, dropping all her guises. "Not only that, but you CHOSE this quiet stagnation! This isn't a life! This isn't a death! It is a prison you willingly entombed yourself in, and one that you shall never escape! No matter how hard you try! You embraced your malefic quest so fully that you built your entire identity around it! EVERYTHING YOU EVER WERE!" Marion rasped. "EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW! WAS A LIE! ALL OF IT! EVERYTHING!"

"No! NO! NOOOO!" Aurlyn screeched in horror and revelation as the scales of self delusion cracked, fell and crumbled from her eyes. Quantum energy crackled in her veins as she had activated Quantum Reversion without even realizing it, despite essentially swearing it off after realizing the apocalyptic consequences of carelessly using such power after her second confrontation with the Archive Curator. "I." She thrust her hand forward as the dimensions themselves shattered, revealing a gaping wound into an identical theater. And on the other stage was another Aurlyn, who had also shattered a wound into her theater, revealing yet another. And another. And another. "AM." Aurlyn lashed out viciously, blasting the far wall of the theater apart, only to reveal another infinite series. Theaters upon theaters upon theaters. "FREEEEEEEE!!!!!" the delusional Emissary roared in a fit of righteous rage as chaotic lightning blasted from both of her extended hands, taking down the wall, the ceiling, the floor, everything. And no matter which direction she stared into, there was nothing but more theaters and theaters and theaters. Like a hall of mirrors without a beginning, and without an end. She was hovering in empty air now, as Marion was calmly seated upon nothing, behind the spot where the last row of theater seats formerly ended. Countless homunculi scurried at Marion's feet, which if Aurlyn had been in her right mind, she would have easily realized were this world's incarnation of the Chaos Chimera. But, unfortunately, the tortured Emissary was certifiably insane, for now, as she whirled upon Marion with vengeful fire burning in her eyes. "YOU!" She roared. "You... YOU COST ME EVERYTHING!" With one final blast, Aurlyn vaporized Marion as the Perpetual Primarch fell over, laughing. "Finally..." Marion whispered even as her body turned to white ash, and vanished. All the homunculi briefly turned into miniature, shadowy versions of the Chaos Chimera, before they too faded away.

The theater started crumbling and cracking apart as Aurlyn realized too later that Marion had baited her into destroying yet another layer of reality. "After all..." Marion's voice echoed from far away. As if from another dream. "What good is a theater and a play, without a narrator? Dear Emissary... I'll see you in the next dream." Rubble and splintered timbers fell around Aurlyn as everything went silent and still. For now.

Aureate Bubble, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

"Architect! My Architect! We need you!" an imploring, yet polite-sounding and reserved voice called out. Aurlyn opened her eyes. She was standing in a Greek-styled amphitheater, upon the speaker's dais as a shining city atop a hill spread out before her. The skyscraper-sized buildings were constructed using a curious mix of ancient styles, materials and techniques, blended with an intricate web of long-lost technology that would have made Daedalus himself beam in pride. Grids of red-hot bronze crackling with electricity delivered modern power and convenience to even the highest reaches of these proud dwellings, while grand rooftop fountains of crumbling marble distributed water throughout the cityscape via a dizzyingly complex series of open-air aqueducts. Statues depicting wise philosophers, revolutionary inventors and profound artists adorned every street corner, while frescos illustrating pivotal scenes from mythology and legend were given honored places on the walls of courthouses, debate halls and other public spaces. Yet what truly gave the ancient Emissary pause was the golden bubble of radiance completely enclosing the city. Nothing but murky darkness could be seen outside, yet Aurlyn could feel a sense of dread, combined with a strange familiarity. Curious, organic-looking veins of light pulsed outwards from the exterior of the domed city, and as she squinted closer, she could swear she witnessed legions of dark horrors viciously attacking the tendrils beyond. But her attention was sharply drawn back to the here and now; the hushed anticipation of the toga-clad crowd a veritable weight pressing down upon her shoulders. "The Nothingness outside has been mounting a full-scale assault on our great City for weeks now! We cannot endure for much longer!" the same reserved-sounding voice cried, and as Aurlyn focused, she noticed it was coming from a bookish-looking young woman wearing glasses, and with her brunette hair neatly tied into a wavy ponytail.

"As your Advisor." the young woman continued. "I have taken a complete account of our city's stores and power generation capabilities. Breach of the Dome is a certainty within a month, allowing the abyssal legions beyond to flood in and slaughter our people! A few skirmishers have somehow found ways to evade our defenses, and have been butchering innocents on the streets before we have a chance to put them down. Architect, we MUST construct a grand ark to ensure the survival of our civilization. No resources will be spared. The people are behind you. This is perhaps the most important project you have ever worked on. They need not only your brilliant mind, but your decisive leadership as well!"

Aurlyn blinked. Once. Slowly. She glanced down at herself, and noted that she was wearing an elegant set of white robes lined with gold. The upper half of her outfit was made of bronze, and bore innumerable whirling gears jutting out from her shoulders, sides and the back of her upper arms, while a gleaming aquamarine diamond-shaped crystal was embedded in the center of her chest. A series of pipes on her back periodically shot out hot steam, and she realized that she was holding a half-finished blueprint in one hand, while her other hand clutched a regal stylus made of petrified bone. Who... who was she? Memories swirled into her mind, unbidden. She... she was the Architect, right? Flashes of breaking first ground upon this hill, when the City was naught more than a far-fetched pipe dream came into sharp recollection. Other visions swirled, as she recalled designing the unusual power grid, water systems and other mechanical marvels to aid her people. Yes, she was the Architect. And she must do anything she can to preserve her citizen's lives and her civilization in this moment of crisis. As if to confirm her hypothesis, a great spiderweb-shaped crack appeared in the Dome, dead center of Aurlyn's field of vision. Beyond, stick-like shambling horrors emerged from the Nothing, and spat what seemed to be a dark, corrosive acid at the splintering barrier. The cracks deepened and widened at the far edges, like a spreading fault line, but wait... why did the very center of this incursion, where the vast majority of the dark liquid was spat, seemed to almost... heal?

"Architect!" the young woman called in her ear, diverting Aurlyn's attention back to the podium. "Your people are waiting."

"Ah... yes." Aurlyn stammered. Something felt wrong. But she had a job to do. "I'll finish the blueprints to this Lacuna Ark. It shall be our last hope. A shining beacon in the dark! Through it, we shall sail the tides of the Void itself, and seek new lands. Another place to settle. A new beginning. A new dawn!" she cried in a triumphant tone, thrusting one fist into the air as the crowd cheered and clapped their enthusiasm.

A sparkling cloud of oh-so-familiar multicolored stars suddenly appeared in the center of the amphitheater, before a trio of ghastly banshee-like dark specters clad in torn child-like robes, and with a gaping leech-like circular maw filling their entire hooded face drifted and spun out of the darkness beyond. Their movements seemed to mimic how jellyfish moved underwater, as a nagging feeling tugged at the edge of Aurlyn's consciousness. As if she was so close to a profound revelation. Something that would shatter the foundations of what she thought she knew. But that moment never came as the banshees screeched concentrated bursts of matter-destabilizing sonic waves at the amassed crowd, reducing the lives of hundreds into a fine, blood-rest mist within mere moments. Aurlyn howled in vengeful agony as a steam-powered javelin shot out of one mechanical arm, preparing to hurl it at the abyssal horrors, except all three of the banshees turned to face her, and stopped. Froze. A shudder ran through all three banshee's incorporeal forms, as if in fear. Or recognition. A solitary musical note drifted through the air, bringing with it the promise and wonder of the deep sea. The lead banshee even lifted one misshapen arm towards Aurlyn, in much the same way she might extend her hand towards the Dual Emissary of a pre-contact world, before turning away and unleashing their wrath upon the city below. Sonic boom after sonic boom sounded like fell heralds of death, blasting apart the intricate masonry into explosions of white stone powder. "ARCHITECT! AURLYN! DO SOMETHING TO STOP THEM!" her Advisor screeched, somehow having survived the utter decimation in this macabre theater. Wait, Aurlyn? Who was Aurlyn again? No, she was the Architect... right?

"So be it." Aurlyn intoned as she blasted a sphere of hot steam at one Banshee, before impaling the other two with steam-powered javelins as all three monstrosities sang a dying chorus, and faded away. But the look in their dead eyes wasn't one of agony. No, she could swear she sensed... betrayal. But why?

"Let us make haste." her Advisor suggested as the two of them hurried through the broad streets of this City in crisis. But as Aurlyn looked towards the horizon, she could see that the edges of this once-impeccable Dome were now... scallop shaped? No, she had to be dreaming, right? Although the far distant buildings were fuzzy and blurred by the smoke, steam and clouds of debris, she could swear she detected a pattern. Replication. As if each city block was copying itself over and over again. Yes, that was the same subway entrance with the same gaslight lamps on the very same street corner. But done twice over, directly adjacent to each other. And the entire city felt... larger? No, the edges of the Dome had more than changed shape. She could swear the City itself was expanding into the Nothing. Metastasis... that word rose unbidden into her mind. But why? What did that have to do with anything?

"Come! Hurry! Into your Workshop! Before any more nightmares attack us!" her Advisor barked, violently tearing Aurlyn's attention away from the swarms of bee-like abyssal creatures slowly covering the far edge of the Dome. Each bee drone had four rectangular-shaped pads for feet, and as they pressed against the radiant surface, she could swear they were desperately trying to contain a malignant influence. The radiant surface shrank by a minuscule amount, before rebounding outwards as a guttural roar sounded from everywhere, yet nowhere. "Inside, now!" the Advisor ordered as she shoved Aurlyn through the brass doors of her Workshop, but not before the confused Emissary briefly glimpsed a new branching network of radiant tendrils grow from the outer edge of the dome, and started swatting the abyssal bees out of the air like puny insects.

"Wait, what's this?" Aurlyn blinked, confused, as she stared into a hypercube nexus of mathematical equations that evolved, changed and became more intricate atop the muted floor of a miniature stage. The hall was littered with fantastical prototypes of everything from mechanical beasts that were capable of self-repair and replication, to scale models of cloud cities that were beyond futuristic, and seemed to run on solar energy beamed directly from a vast swarm of Dyson drones. But that theater caught her eye, out of all the wonders she could have fixated upon. As if it was familiar to her...

"Don't worry about that." her Advisor said, hastily pulling a velvet tassel as a red curtain fell around the miniature stage, obscuring it from view. "Just one of your pet projects. Something about all of life being but a stage or something. And plays that went one after the other, in infinite regress." the brunette woman hastily bent down to the floor near one of the low-hanging curtains that concealed the recess beneath an elevated platform, and used her hand to mop up what looked suspiciously like blood. "But we don't have time for that right now! Half of our City can be annihilated in minutes if even ONE of those imm... err, I mean Banshees got through! Finishing the Ark design is of paramount importance!"

Aurlyn wandered deeper into the maze of museum-like displays. This was her home. She was home... right? Then why did this place feel so... off? Almost as if from a fleeting moment of déjà vu in a long-forgotten dream. The confused Emissary pushed aside a tattered plum curtain covering a stone archway, and gasped as she beheld a work of art in burnished copper and brass. This was it. She was sure of it. A half-finished mock-up of the Lacuna Ark, with countless sketches of various parts and systems plastering the walls of this cavernous studio, while frantic equations were scribbled on a massive chalkboard that filled one entire wall. But what caught her eye wasn't the squid-like propulsion system she had spent dozens of hours perfecting. Nor did she give a second glance to the mitochondria-shaped hull of her migratory vessel. No, a singular poster was placed directly adjacent to her drawing table and easel. It was sickly green, and depicted a singular tree in full bloom. But the words made her blood run cold. "Thrive..." Aurlyn slowly whispered. "Even when you have become the malignant cancer." Had she ever said those words before? Somehow, they felt oh-so-familiar. Her eyes drifted to the various iterations of the core reactor, and she frowned. It seemed so... inefficient. A simple fusion-based core with adamantine containment walls. Was this even her work? Something deep in her core nudged her, whispering that only a quantum generator pulling energy directly from the vacuum itself was worth designing.

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, oh great Architect." Her Advisor popped her head into the room. "But we just got reports in from our teams of boundary scouts. The Nothing is marching a heavy unit of Goliaths in from the Sanguine Cordis. Our firepower is no match for these behemoths. We have less than a day left before the Dome is breached and our people obliterated. You need to finish the Ark design NOW. We can just barely beat the deadline if we have all of our 3D printers working at full capacity, and mobilize our entire civilian population to assemble this thing before it's too late! YOU are our only salvation! The fate of the world rests upon your shoulders!"

Beads of nervous sweat ran down Aurlyn's face. She had a few misgivings, but they were up against a truly apocalyptic threat. No, this was her time to shine. She could not, would not let down her people. Not after she had shepherded them through the dark when the Nothing destroyed their previous city. The dying screams of untold billions still haunt her to this day. There had been but 10 survivors, and they had braved the Nothing together. No, she would not let this be the end. "All necessary schematics and blueprints shall be completed within the hour." Aurlyn said, her voice a band of resolute iron. "Let the people know. Tell them to begin evacuation procedures. Gather them in the central square, and activate all available robots and drones to aid in the construction process. If the Lacuna Ark is not fully assembled by noon, then it is I who shall have failed my people." Her Advisor nodded and rushed off, as Aurlyn put her nose to the grindstone, dipped her bone stylus in squid ink, and got to work.

"Yes, this should do nicely..." Aurlyn muttered to herself as fervent beads of ink splattered the front of her robes, and stained her golden-blonde hair black. "An internal tesseract design, using a spatial manipulator. This inefficient reactor will have to do; I don't have time to make a new one." She glanced down at her previous notes, and frowned. "Wait, why did I add this?" She squinted, but still, the dire warning remained. Scrawled across the page for the electrical systems was her own handwriting, in big, black, bold letters. "The Nothing is alive?" Aurlyn read aloud. "I don't remember writing this." She shrugged, but kept skimming the sheaf of parchment, her hands a frantic blur as she added system after system to her final schematic. Finally, after many long hours, she collapsed, exhausted. This was it. She had done it. The Lacuna Ark was fully manifested upon thick parchment. Every single compartment, engineering quirk, bill of materials and potential safety hazards were listed in exacting detail. She stepped outside of her workshop, clutching her precious blueprint and schematics in her hands like a beloved baby, before frowning. "Wait, what's this?" Aurlyn muttered, confused. But her eyes did not deceive her. Wide, translucent, almost... fleshy tubes burrowed into the landscape like grotesque worms; each pumping copious amounts of Nothing into what could only be described as a gigantic sac, or some misshapen organ. Thousands of people were crowded around this horrific monolith, lifting their arms into the air and chanting as along the far horizon, a sister city could be seen. It was connected to the one Aurlyn had always known through a thin, membranous corridor of golden light, and its Dome shone just as brightly as her own. Was this always here? Not only that, but her City seemed to have expanded exponentially, and its streets were absolutely packed. Aurlyn squinted, and she could swear that some of her own citizens seemed to lack faces, or arms.

"The hour of salvation is upon is!" the Advisor's voice rang out from the what used to be the central square, but was now completely occupied by the horrific organ sac. "While you were busy sketching the plans for our future, we have not disappointed you! Our master engineers have harnessed the power of Nothing itself to mold and shape into whatever we desire! Yes, this Birthing Viscera will allow us to complete the Ark within minutes! It is the only way we can ensure the continuity of our people! Of our civilization! Of life itself!" the Advisor cried out in ringing tones, even as the memory of the sickly-green poster resurfaced in Aurlyn's mind. No, this was wrong. Everything was wrong. This felt sick. Grotesque. A distant melody rang out from beyond the twin Domes, and it felt pure and clear. As if it was reminding Aurlyn of who she was. "I... I... I don't know if we should..." the conflicted Emissary managed to stammer out. "Maybe... maybe we should understand the Nothing better. Try to negotiate with it. Learn what it wants. Why it is attacking us."

"There is no negotiation with terrorists..." the Advisor hissed in Aurlyn's ear as she was suddenly beside her, despite having been spotted in the far distance mere moments ago. The bookish woman snatched the schematics and blueprint out of Aurlyn's hands. "Thank you, oh Architect mine. Or... should I say Aurlyn?" A sadistic grin appeared on the Advisor's face, as the stricken Emissary's face turned bone white, and she collapsed onto her knees.

An unceasing flood of shadowy horrors now flew, burrowed, shambled, pounced and swam through the darkness beyond, desperately trying to attack the twin Cities, but to no avail. A few shadowy assassins appeared on the streets of Aurlyn's City, slaughtering dozens before being mercilessly torn apart with bare hands, but her people seemed to... expand and diverge. New arms, hands, feet, heads appearing from either side of this grotesque amalgamation, like Siamese twins tearing themselves apart, before truly separating as two distinct individuals. There was a word for this. "Mitosis..." Aurlyn muttered, the word like bitter ash coating her lips. She was so close to the truth. So close. All it would take was one, final...

"Aurlyn." Lethe's musical voice rang true and clear through the haze that had clouded Aurlyn's mind. "Don't do this. Please. Stop them. Stop this cancer before it spreads."

A flash of revelation tore through Aurlyn's mind, shattering all false memories and preconceptions in its wake. She wasn't the Architect. The City wasn't a city. And the darkness outside wasn't Nothing. No, it was Lethe. The gargantuan body of her Hollow Siren friend in its true form. Lethe, who had stood up for her against Big Al. Who had helped her vanquish Arlina, her hated nemesis, and wept with her in the aftermath of Tetricrya's death. A spark of foreign memory alit her mind; a gift from the one who swam in the darkest abyss. She remembered. Lethe had even sacrificed herself to rid Aurlyn of Marion's control and corruption. Perhaps the closest thing she had to a companion and a friend since she had lost Tetricrya. And now... Aurlyn gasped and looked around. No. No. NO! She finally understood exactly what was going on.

"This City... it's a cancer. Isn't it?" Aurlyn asked softly. Into the comforting darkness. "Life is the bane of nothingness, after all. And like the poster said, life finds any way to thrive. Even when it has become the malignant cancer! Like now!" She intoned in a rising crescendo. "And the Lacuna Ark... oh no... what have I done...?" Aurlyn gasped in a tearful tone. "I have just given this blight a means to metastasize..." She could only watch in horror as the Advisor... no, as Marion eagerly scanned Aurlyn's schematics and blueprints into the Birthing Viscera.

"Do not mourn me." Lethe sang, her voice a heartbreaking mixture of sorrow and acceptance. "Oh, dear friend..."

Aurlyn wasn't listening. Streaks of golden light blazed from her feet as she sailed towards the central square at breathtaking speeds, firing laser after piercing laser into the outer membrane of the cancerous womb. Great pillars of fire tore through the bottom of the squelching sac as the desperate Emissary lifted her hands upwards, as if in a silent plea to the heavens. But it was already too late. The Birthing Viscera burned and withered away, revealing the completed Lacuna Ark within. Its hatch was wide open as thousands, no, millions of cancerous spawn squeezed through the entrance hatchway in a vile deluge, taking advantage of Aurlyn's own spatial manipulations. "NO!" Aurlyn and Malphor roared as one, thrusting out cupped hands as a flood of searing plasma hotter than the surface of the sun poured into the hatch behind the blighted abominations, before curling up into a ball and thrusting out their arms and legs as a massive EMP burst exploded outwards. "Lethe, we need your aid!"

A cluster of Banshees appeared next to the hovering Emissary, nodding at her as Aurlyn finally realized that all the dark creatures were merely part of Lethe's immune system. Together, Aurlyn and Lethe alike blasted the Lacuna Ark with stellar fire and obliterating sonic booms, until it was reduced to a dark, wet stain on the diseased ground. "We... we did it." Aurlyn gasped out, panting. Noticing her friend's exhaustion, Lethe directed her blood to surge outwards through a nearby tumorous vessel, bursting it and covering Aurlyn, completely rejuvenating the drained Emissary.

"You have done nothing!" the Advisor cackled madly, pointing towards the secondary tumor-city with one bone-white, trembling finger. Aurlyn slowly turned her gaze towards the horizon, where a second Lacuna Ark had breached the barrier that Lethe's immune system had enclosed the Cities in to contain their growth, and was sailing into the darkness beyond. To a distant site in Lethe's body. Another Ark followed, and another, and another. Like carrion vultures following the scent of a feast.

"Marion..." Aurlyn hissed with murderous intent. "I will rend every bone from your body for what you have done. You will WISH you were in a coma by the time I'm through with you!"

The Advisor's features slowly warped until they became Marion's sadistic visage. "I... I have done nothing. The honor of your friend's death goes to you, and you alone. I could never have dreamed of such a resilient Ark design all on my lonesome. The accolades, and the laurels, are yours." she cruelly mocked.

"Avenge me, oh Emissary mine." Lethe sang mournfully. "Return the pain of my every tumor a thousandfold! Let her hear the song of my rage and despair! And let it be the last song she ever hears! No matter what world she dares hide in! Let this fleeting dream shake the pillars of reality until all are aware of her crimes!"

"I shall, oh dear friend." Aurlyn whispered in a fiery tone. "Rest... and rest well. Your sacrifice, twice over, shall not be in vain. This I promise you. This I swear. As clear and true as the morning sun."

"Shall we finally dance?" Marion mocked as she stood at the far edge of a massive disc of light. It was hovering in midair, slowly twinkling as Aurlyn descended to take her rightful place opposite the Prime Dreamer. "I tire of playing you like the puppet you are. Let us see..." the Perpetual Primarch started to say, only to suddenly gasp and fall onto her knees. Aurlyn briefly frowned, but was pressed down flat onto the radiant plane as it accelerated upwards at a dizzying speed. Shattering sounds of epic proportions resonated from every corner of Marion's dream as a seemingly endless tunnel formed above Emissary and Primarch alike. And at the very apex, Aurlyn could make out a masked figure holding a silenced pistol. Splotches of crimson red streaked across the wall and bedsheets, as a tattered hole in Marion's clothing revealed the cataclysmic, and possibly lethal bullet wound in her chest. "I... I knew my father should never have made a deal with those loan sharks..." Marion hissed out through the agony of gritted teeth. "It... it looks like my time has come... at last."

"And not a second sooner." Aurlyn snarled like a wild animal, baring her teeth at Marion in an animalistic fashion, even as she was pressed flat to the floor by the sheer acceleration. The glowing platform showed no signs of slowing down, but at least its speed seemed to top and level off. "I'll be sure to make the last moments of your life a living hell. Remember, we're in YOUR dream! And in here, a second can feel like a tortured eternity!"

"Bring it!" Marion spat defiantly, like a mortally wounded cat that was down, but not out. "You ruined my life! You killed my father! Those loan sharks no doubt butchered him first, seeing as he would have defended me with his last breath! You stole everything I could have been! This is all your fault! Everything!" She tried to crawl upwards through her pain, only to stumble and fall back onto her stomach.

Distant sirens resonated from the waking world as harsh, frantic words could be heard from a handheld radio. Marion's bedroom wall was awash in alternating streaks of red and blue emergency lights, before a team of paramedics kicked her bedroom door open, and carefully lifted the comatose woman onto a stretcher. In the dream, both women were almost flung off of the platform as the world itself seemed to slam them with equal force, and both cried out in surprise and pain. In the world above, the paramedics frantically tried to stop the bleeding as Marion was shoved into the back of an ambulance, before the window of perspective went dark. The platform responded by shooting upwards at unbelievable speeds, causing both women, Emissary and Dreamer alike to black out from the sheer G-force. But an apocalyptic reckoning was rapidly approaching. It was as inevitable as the coming of the next dawn. But for both Aurlyn and Marion, neither might live to see the resurgence of the morning sun.

Terminal Ascent, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

Aurlyn came to her senses first. It took a herculean effort to open her eyes, and slowly rise to her hands and knees. But what she saw made all the difference. Countless different layers of dreams rushed past Marion's stirring form, with each briefly-glimpsed world a window to a self-contained story. Cheery light from a bright tropical sun graced Aurlyn's face for the briefest of moments, along with the smell of salt and seaweed, before that dream forever whipped out of reach. An ominous creaking sound resonated from behind the recovering Emissary, and as she turned, she beheld a post-apocalyptic wasteland scorched by nuclear fire. Twisted metal hulks were all that remained of once-thriving capitol cities, and as she stared from her rising perspective, a massive crane pockmarked with the rust of decades finally gave up the ghost, and toppled through the shattered dimensional breach. Directly above Aurlyn. She barely had time to roll away before a 20 ton steel beam slammed down onto her previous position in a cloud of rust particles. The ascending platform then tore the crane in half with the earsplitting screech of tortured metal. It briefly hung off one side like a gargantuan hook, before succumbing to the pull of the oblivion beneath as it fell out of sight. Glancing upwards, Aurlyn noted the harsh glare of what were unmistakably operating room lights. Marion was no doubt undergoing critical surgery in a desperate attempt to save her life.

The exhausted Emissary slowly got to her feet with an unsteady gait, her legs trembling from grief and revelation, before turning her gaze to Marion. The Prime Dreamer had stumbled upwards, and was now facing Aurlyn with all the pallid complexion of a walking corpse, but her eyes burned with seething hatred. "Tell me." Aurlyn asked. Ever curious. "What WAS the Chaos Chimera in Lethe's world anyway?"

Marion snorted with derisive laughter. "Foolish girl. You could never see what was in front of your very eyes." She gestured with one unsteady finger as one of the citizens from the tumorous City rose out of a pool of liquid shadow. The cancerous pathogen's form rippled and shifted like melting butter floating on the surface of a vat of boiling oil, before revealing itself as the Chaos Chimera. "Don't you see? The Chaos Chimera was the People. A last, lingering trace of malign influence that remained where it had rent Lethe's abyssal flesh. That was enough to grow, spread, multiply... and corrupt. In due time. And with the right... aid." She grinned widely at Aurlyn, relishing the veritable fire flashing in her eyes.

Booming voices echoed down from the real world above, as if speaking with the voice and authority of an angel of judgment. "Irreversible cervical spinal cord injury at the the 5th vertebrae. Nerves appear to be severed. Bullet trajectory appears to have rebounded upwards, causing massive trauma to the aorta, upper left lung and spinal cord. Patient appears to be quadriplegic for life, with no chance of ever recovering control of any of her limbs."

Marion seemed to crumple in on herself as she fell onto her knees, before collapsing to the ground in shock and disbelief. "Wait... no... no... I... My dreams... my life... I..." She started hyperventilating; sucking in shallow, panicked breaths as the gravity of her dire situation sunk in. Beside her, the Chaos Chimera started to expand uncontrollably; its limbs crackling with dark energy as it transformed into a massive hydra clinging on to the side of the still-ascending platform. Each one of its obsidian scales was as large as a dinner plate, and just one of its three heads alone would easily dwarf a tank. It snared aggressively at both women, seemingly hostile to Emissary and Prime Dreamer alike.

"No... I... I... Can't... losing... control..." Marion gasped out as she evoked a cane, and used it to climb back up to a standing position. Panting as if she had just scaled the north face of Mount Everest. "Dreams... reality... why... why does it matter? I... I have... nothing. Not... not here. Not... up there." Her arm holding her cane trembled like a lone willow facing a category 5 hurricane. "I... I don't know if I even want to wake. But." She turned her hunched gaze to meet Aurlyn's inscrutable stare. "If there is one thing I want to accomplish before my end... One task I have vowed to see through, no matter where it takes me... it is to destroy you. Utterly and fully. To exact justice for myself and my father! Even if such a feat never sees the light of day! Even if I am a delusional woman swinging at windmills while my life fades away! I. DON'T. CARE!!!!!!!!!!!!" Marion screamed. All her fury and rage embodied. Her clothes shifted to a fiery kimono, as a razor-sharp katana was strapped to her hip, and her hair became incandescent strands of orange-white plasma. "DIE!"

Boss battle - Marion, the Moribund Holocaust, and Chaos Chimera, the Unchained Monstrosity.

"I shall endure! And I shall witness your last, dying breath!" Aurlyn swore with vengeful certainty as she hurled a spinning star upwards at the rapidly approaching membranous boundary to an icy ocean world. A deluge of freezing salt water and lethal ice floes cascaded down onto the arena, instantly extinguishing Marion's hair and blasting her backwards before she had the chance to impale Aurlyn with her katana. "This is MY dream!" Marion howled like a woman with nothing left to lose. "And I'm living it! In this hellish purgatory, if I cannot in real life!" The enraged Dreamer stomped her foot as silken grass, traditional Japanese pagodas and huts with paper screens sprang up from the ground, terraforming their makeshift arena into a village straight out of medieval Japan. But something was wrong. Not only were some details missing or incorrect, such as the inverted well in the center, samurai dressed in an English knight's plate armor and mango trees instead of cherry blossom, but the buildings seemed to be glitchy and were riddled with holes into a curious mathematical framework. "Yeah! This is my dream vacation! I've always wanted to see Japan!" Marion shouted enthusiastically, seemingly growing more unhinged with every passing moment. "Oh right! I forgot!" She sliced through the fabric of space and time with a single lightning-fast katana swing, exposing Aurlyn's Sentience Orb in its quantum cradle. "No second chances for you!" With that, Marion viciously impaled Aurlyn's Orb, grinning with silent satisfaction as it shattered and splintered into a million pieces.

Aurlyn flinched and stumbled backwards as the sympathetic agony of having her mental backup system destroyed resonated through the now-severed links of quantum entanglement. But her torment wasn't over yet. The Chaos Chimera snarled viciously as it slashed one massive talon across the arena, forcing Aurlyn to vanish in a burst of flame, and teleport across the arena to avoid the devastating attack. Marion wasn't as subtle as she used her katana to slice off one of the Chaos Chimera's bent, razor-sharp fingers as it roared in agony. Unfortunately, this also earned her its ire as the dreaded desire to wake breathed triple jets of purple flame at the Prime Dreamer; one from each of its gaping maws. "Stuff it! I won't let you ruin my last moments!" Marion cackled wildly as she levitated a huge boulder from a jungle world in front of her with crimson energy, before slicing it into a lethal hail of rubble with her katana. The vicious Hydra choked and gasped as its jets of flame were suddenly cut off; unable to breathe fire while lodged debris clogged the comparatively tiny holes in its three throats where the liquid inferno emerged.

"Code blue! Cardiac arrest!" a doctor's voice shouted from above, as Aurlyn anticipated what was about to happen in a moment of pure logic and instinct. A heartbeat sounded, shaking every level of the dream. Then it stopped. "Clear!" barked the same doctor, as Aurlyn leapt high into the air; propelled by jets of blue and orange flames that emitted from the soles of her feet. "You can thank me later for that!" Malphor's voice resonated throughout Aurlyn's mind, just as the unmistakable jolting THUMP of a defibrillator being used could clearly be heard in the real world. As if on cue, an ocean of crackling blue lightning flooded the arena, taking both Marion and the Chaos Chimera off guard as they were both severely electrocuted and paralyzed by the devastating environmental effect, and which Aurlyn had so cleverly anticipated and avoided. "Looks like you're bound for an early grave!" she mocked. "Let me help put you to rest!" The vindicated Emissary mercilessly fired an obliterating gamma ray beam with both hands at the prone and helpless Marion, before landing and thrusting both hands upwards as a series of chain explosions erupted beneath Marion, blasting her katana off the edge. Miraculously, the Prime Dreamer was still alive and had somehow endured Aurlyn's cataclysmic assault, although her robes were almost completely singed off, and her skin was pockmarked with third degree burns and radiation sores.

Another heartbeat sounded. Faltering. But unmistakably there. And another. Growing stronger. Steadier. With each organic tattoo, Marion's injuries were erased as she got up with renewed vigor. "Patient stabilized." the voice of the doctor spoke authoritatively. "Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Adolf Alcerie. He has just passed away." Marion's face went bone white, and the temperature of the Terminal Ascent plunged by a hefty 150 degrees. A winter storm started to brew as great spikes of ice obliterated the Japanese village, and slippery frost coated the surface of the entire platform. "Record the time of death." Another doctor replied, as a third doctor interjected. "Should we tell her?" the new voice asked, only for the first doctor to shake his head. "No. Besides, it's no use. It is doubtful she can understand us in that coma, let alone comprehend her loss." The second doctor pointed to a reading of Marion's brain waves. "But the patterns suggest a vivid and active imagination. Exceeding signals from many waking patients. Could it be possible? Is she aware?"

"Father..." Marion's forlorn voice echoed in the bitter cold. "I... I am sorry... please... please... come back... come back to me... it's me... your daughter... please..." she pleaded and wept. As her tears froze mid-air and fell into the pallid snow like a hail of dewdrops, Marion's outfit shifted and changed into that of a cruel winter sorceress. Jagged icy stalactites jutted upwards from her frozen platinum crown, and her kimono had been replaced with a sleek glacial dress that seemed to resemble that of a movie star's. Behind her, the Chaos Chimera shifted and morphed into a gigantic sandworm-like beast, except its skin was frost-kissed and almost slimy. Its horrific maw of rotating saw-like teeth dripped with coolant-like saliva that ate into the ground like potent acid, and a massive single-edged cleaver-shaped blade adorned the flat of its tail. The wind howled, and a swirl of snow revealed what appeared to be a palace made of ice. At least upon first glance. But the sign outside clearly proclaimed it as a hotel where even the beds were made of solid ice. "Father..." Marion spoke. As if he could actually hear her. "Remember that adventurous trip you took me on right after senior year? To Norway, I think. Right before I was stricken. I wanted to travel the world. And you gave me that. If only but for a moment."

"Let's face it." Aurlyn taunted as a fiery cloak swirled around her, protecting her from the extreme temperatures. "He's dead. And all your helpless blubbering won't bring back a dead man." Oops. That was probably the wrong move to make. Marion straightened and wordlessly howled her grief and sorrow into a devastating series of attacks as she pointed at Aurlyn like an accusatory specter. A gust of bone-chilling wind extinguished Aurlyn's protective cloak, and she didn't have time to react before a horizontal hail of razor-sharp ice shards followed, slicing the skin on her forearms, sides, legs and torso to ribbons as she desperately raised her hands to protect her face. Streams of luminous blood streaked down Aurlyn's mauled body, but she gritted her teeth, endured the pain, and shifted to her Dark persona. Only to be instantly splattered as an asteroid-sized chunk of glacial ice crashed down onto her at extreme velocities. Even worse, most of her mass had gone OFF the platform, and there was no retrieving that. Sure, the ambient cold did help her heal, but she couldn't create liquid shadow body mass from it nearly as fast as from actual darkness. "Enough!" Marion cried as she swept wind blade after wind blade across the floor of the arena, trying to sweep every particle of Aurlyn that she could off the platform. "You can be the next Kronos!" Only a few scattered pieces of Aurlyn's liquid shadow body had survived this assault unscathed, hidden in the sheltered lee of oddly-shaped rocks that had indents or crevices. But her total mass that remained could be measured in milligrams.

The severely weakened and near dead Aurlyn in a scattered cluster of minute droplets considered her options. She couldn't burrow too deep into the snow, lest she encounter the radiant floor of the platform, and destroy herself. The few sanctuaries on the platform hidden from the ambient light of thousands of surging dimensions were very narrow, and she couldn't regain nearly as much body mass as she would need to cast spells again. Which left only one option. An insane gamble, to be sure, but it was the only option she had left. Shifting Personas was not possible until she regained at least 90% of her shadows. Waiting for the perfect moment, Aurlyn quickly sprang off the platform, riding the currents of wind to a haunted house dimension embedded in the shattered walls of this tunnel through dreams. Most of her particles made it, but a few droplets were carried to a volcanic dimension on the other side of the tunnel instead, and incinerated. Do or die. As the aerosol that was Aurlyn came into contact with the gloombound wooden floor of the haunted house, she felt a resurgence in strength. There were shadows and specters aplenty here to devour, and regain what was torn away from her. But she hadn't chosen this dimension solely because it contained the darkness she desperately needed. No, it was because she spotted the mystifying doors in this section of endless hallway, and recognized their magic. These were dimensional portals, and if she kept on opening them, she would, by pure chance, sooner or later emerge in a dimension above the platform where Marion lurked, and jump her in a surprise attack.

As Aurlyn threw wide the splintered wooden door, a gust of gritty Saharan air blasted her in the face like a glassmaker's furnace, and the heat was so intense that scorching shimmers lined the horizon like deadly mirages. But she had no choice, as she had glimpsed the ascending elevator-like platform beneath this inhospitable world. "So be it." Aurlyn spoke with grim clarity as she thrust one foot outwards, and a slippery path of ice manifested in a curving arc towards the dimensional breach. She belly flopped onto her own rapidly melting trail like a penguin from hell, gaining considerable speed and velocity as she slid down the surface of a gently-sloping dune, before making a gradual turn and coasting into the dimensional tunnel of the Terminal Ascent. Glancing downwards, Aurlyn could briefly glimpse Marion engaged in a desperate struggle against the uncontrollable Chaos Chimera, before the triumphant Emissary evoked twin blades of umbral crystal in both hands, and plunged them both to the hilt in Marion's exposed back as she fell. "Bet you didn't see that coming, did you bitch?" Aurlyn hissed viciously, twisting them sadistically for good measure. "This is for Lethe..." Even the Prime Dreamer herself couldn't survive a clearly lethal blow such as this... could she?

"Brain activity is going haywire!" yelled one of the doctors above in sudden panic. "I've never seen anything like this before!" A clatter of wires and machines sounded as a deeper voice manifested, one previously unheard. "Interesting." intoned the new presence. "I would give an expert opinion, but this is truly unprecedented. We're seeing two distinct signals here. Two unique brainwave patterns. One seems to be chaotic, lashing out, almost as if it is trying to suppress the other. While the second seems steady, strong, brave and determined. Are... are these two split personalities? Fighting for dominance?" mused the expert in a thoughtful tone; no doubt a neurologist. The Chaos Chimera used its tail to fling massive globules of lava at Aurlyn from a passing scorched world, but the Emissary wasn't having any of it. "Oh, fuck off already!" she cried in a distracted tone, having diverted most of her attention to the drama unfolding in the real world. She carelessly waved her hand as a whirling tornado of absolute-zero cold solidified the magma beads in midair, before they crashed into the snow besides Aurlyn, and skidded off the platform.

Demonic chanting sounded from Aurlyn's feet, as what seemed to be a portal started to suck away some of the rejuvenated shadows that made up one of her legs. "Nulla... Oblivione... Mundat... Destruet..." Marion's voice intoned, but it was overlayered with a demonic, guttural resonance. Aurlyn yanked her foot away as more rifts opened, consuming the fallen Dreamer's face, hands, right shoulder and left a gaping hole in the middle of her abdomen. A dark purple unreality be seen within, as Marion rose as if she was a dead corpse being picked up by a massive, invisible hand pinching the small of her back. Her arms and legs trailed limply downwards like wet noodles, and her neck was bent so far forwards that Aurlyn was afraid it would snap. More unmaking rifts tore through the walls of the tunnel; piercing through countless dimensions as if they were made of thin tissue paper, and even crept up the sides of the still-ascending platform itself. A strong ontological gravity started to suck Aurlyn into the torment within, as the determined Emissary growled in defiance, before shifting to her Void persona to resist the inexorable pull. Even the Chaos Chimera itself seemed to have been stricken as a great rift tore through its serpentine body lengthwise, except it slowly petrified and turned into dead stone unlike what was happening to Marion. Aurlyn could only watch in horror as the Prime Dreamer's limbs twitched and flailed in sharp, jerky movements not unlike those of a puppet's. "Look!" Malphor's voice called in Aurlyn's mind. Half in jest, half in mounting horror. "It's a Marionette!" Aurlyn couldn't disagree as she prepared her spells, and mentally braced herself for the final battle. Her final trial.

"Ego non delebitur..." the Marionette spoke in a dead monotone as it pointed at Aurlyn. "Somnia non iam, Emissarii." It whirled at Aurlyn like a frenzied dervish; the rifts making up its hands tearing through Aurlyn's voidal flesh without being affected by her personal event horizon. The surprised Emissary hissed in agony, before retaliating as she used her gravitational magic to suspend the Marionette high in the air, and siphoned her essence in a crimson spiral of light using her other hand. "Your tricks won't save you! Whoever you are!" Aurlyn cried defiantly, before using both hands to launch the Marionette like a cannonball at the petrified Chaos Chimera.

The limp puppet crashed into the stone statue with a sickening, bone-crunching crunch as a cloud of fine blood-red mist erupted outwards from its broken body. It then slid downwards as Aurlyn spitefully slammed it to the ground in a KO that any pro wrestler would be proud of. But the Marionette merely dangled upwards in a hunched posture. "Sum verus. Numquam eris verus. Fallax es." it spoke through a jaw that moved up and down like a broken nutcracker. Mobility was not Aurlyn's strong suit in her Void persona, so she had few options as the Marionette alit itself in demonic black flame, and bodily hurled itself at the stationary Emissary like a suicide bomber. Faced with only milliseconds to react, Aurlyn quickly attempted to block the attack with a sheet of rusted scrap metal from the crane that had toppled onto the platform earlier, but the shielding it provided was minimal. The Marionette exploded with cataclysmic force as its limbs flew everywhere, and Aurlyn's sheet of scrap metal was utterly obliterated in a bullet hell of deadly shrapnel. Defiant energy clearly lingered in its strike as Aurlyn's extremities like her head, hands and feet were blown to kingdom come, and fell off the platform into the abyss below. But the grievously wounded Emissary also bore holographic properties in her Void persona, and reshaped herself into a humanoid, albeit smaller form from what little remained of her abyssal body. "You know. That looked like it hurt you a lot more than it hurt me." Aurlyn quipped, before taking advantage of the lull in battle to evoke an abyssal cloak around herself, sucking in snow, rubble, debris and even the petrified Chaos Chimera statue to repair the damage done to her body. She regained her former size and mass, before glancing out across the battlefield and witnessing a truly horrific sight. The Marionette's body was now a rotating dark cyclone of whirling body parts, held together through vivid violet tendrils of lightning.

"Non ascendes. Interdico!" the darkness itself surrounding the Marionette cyclone thrummed. A voice of demonic hatred and rage. "Sum metus et paranoia et damnum et luctus ipsum. Destruam hoc totum animi regnum priusquam te tangas solium meum!" It pulsated as dark lightning shot out from its ghastly form, leaving gaping wounds in every dream connected to the Terminal Ascent. The sky and earth started to tremble as massive rifts opened everywhere, threatening to tear all of reality apart as Aurlyn gasped in horror. "No! I won't allow it!" she cried in sheer desperation, gritting her teeth as she focused her gravitational magic in a last-ditch attempt to hold the rifts close. Her face was tightly clenched in titanic exertion, and she felt like her black heart would explode outwards from her chest. The winds around her flared in a desperate attempt to seek sustenance to fuel her flame, and as she passed each world, Aurlyn would unwittingly vacuum in and absorb copious amounts of dirt, rock, soil, trees and buildings. But even this energy was not enough. The dark force controlling the Marionette was stronger than her, and she knew it. Despite her herculean effort, Aurlyn was clearly losing the battle. One world fell as it was split in two by a rift large than an ocean trench. Another was swallowed whole into the maddening darkness, while a third lay lifeless and petrified merely from the proximity of other neighboring rifts. Each world, each layered dream one like Aurlyn's. Or Big Al's. Or even Lethe's. A place that someone, somewhere once called home. A place that they lived and laughed and felt safe and secure in. A place where childhood memories were formed, where families were raised, where generations were born, lived and died. And the Marionette was destroying all of it. Everything.

"One... small... sacrifice..." Aurlyn grunted, feeling like her mind was about to split in two. She couldn't keep this up. The sheer mental strain of trying to contain and seal these rifts made her almost forget who she was, and why she was doing this. There was only one option. One final solution. She didn't like it. But it was what had to be done. She glanced down at the oblivion far, far below. "One small sacrifice..." she repeated. "For... for the greater good. So that tomorrow can come!" Aurlyn gasped out, lifting her arms as the tide of nothingness below washed upwards, dissolving countless realms. Carrying, funneling their energy upwards and into Aurlyn as she used this power to open her arms and close every rift for good. Stabilizing the dimensional framework of the Dream as best as she could. A single tear dripped down the corner of her eye, but she knew she had to do it. Everything would have been destroyed anyway if she didn't demand this sacrifice. "I... I... did... it..." Aurlyn panted, collapsing to the floor in sheer exhaustion, before tilting her head to glance at the Marionette through almost-closed eyes. "You... you've lost."

"Fatuus est. Tantum me adiuvisti, puella!" the demonic voice screeched, as if in denial. As if making a final decision. As if embracing a wish for destruction and desolation. "Sat habeo. Urere potes. Ardeat in gehenna! Hoc demens uror somnio! Mea ultima voluntas... una exitio est! Solitudo!" The Marionette dissolved into a ball of infernal fire, as reality itself lit aflame. Everything was burning. The tapestry of fate was burning. Aurlyn was burning. Every dream, every world, every realm was burning. Even the laws of physics were burning. Somehow, Aurlyn knew that nothing would be left at the end of this all-consuming inferno. Not even ashes. "Immolo me ut omnia mecum..." the demonic voice spoke one final time, sounding weak. Dying. It abruptly cut off at the end, as if it was no more. As if even it had burned in the blaze it had started. But that was no solace to Aurlyn as she was helpless. Helpless to save reality, or even do anything. Consigned to watching and pretending like everything was going to be alright as her house burned down around her.

A familiar melody sounded from above her. Aurlyn glanced upwards, barely feeling the pain as her arms and legs singed and withered away, having already consigned herself to oblivion. Embracing her inevitable fate with quiet acceptance. "Oh..." She spoke hollowly. As if nothing mattered anymore. "I've arrived." The platform she was on this entire time had finally reached the very apex of the Terminal Ascent, and she could make out a ring of floating debris surrounding a pale woman curled in a fetal position. She was enclosed in an azure bubble as clear and fresh as the first growth of spring, as an oh-so-familiar Winter Fae woman stepped out of the shadows near the monumental entryway. As Aurlyn gazed upon the faery enchantress, she noticed that she seemed to have purple skin, fairy-like wings in shades of frosty white, lapis-lazuli-colored hair tied in a neat bun, and wore an outfit that seemed to be made of dead roots with a skull at her collarbone. She was tall, almost as tall as Aurlyn herself, and clutched a coral harp emblazoned with Lethe's twin trident seal in the crook of one arm, while her other hand shimmered with palpable dream energy. "Come." the mysterious Fae woman beckoned with a rich, melodic voice. She flapped her wings once, sending an icy gust washing over Aurlyn that somehow extinguished even these unquenchable flames that were devouring her essence. "You have finally arrived. I have been waiting for you. I promise safety in this most hallowed of spaces... along with a choice. The only choice that matters. For what you decide here... you decide for all of us. Every denizen of Marion's dream." She turned, and walked towards the floating ring of debris as Aurlyn felt compelled to regrow her limbs, and follow. She had so many questions. But, for some strange reason, she felt like she could trust this Winter Fae woman. Like they had not only met before, but had traveled at each other's side, and braved countless trials together.

Dream Tempest, time unknown. Relativity of time - Unknown.

"I am Plumera Dreamwalker." the playful Fae woman explained as the footsteps of the odd pair made calming ripples in the starscape all around them. "Perhaps we have met before. Perhaps not. I am an Emissary, you know." she grinned, glancing over to gauge Aurlyn's reaction. "From a young age, I have shown an affinity for dreams and nightmares. How to calm them... and how to change them to my heart's desire. I would quickly learn to manipulate them as one would spin a grand tapestry. Not only that, but I could create my own, and trap others in a realm of dreams, if I so choose. My... ambition was tempered when the jester king Gadflow would overthrow the Winter Court and butcher my people!" She hissed with vengeful recollection. "His mad cultists, the Tuatha, put his own people to the sword first. Us rebel Winter Fae who did not support his diabolical reign, and chose to reject the voice of his goddess Tirnoch. Many Tuatha were subjected to eternities of mental torment by my hands..." Plumera grinned savagely. "As they deserved. I fought alongside the Bitter Frost for several decades, and supported the Fateless One as they slew Gadflow and Tirnoch, before I met you. Or at least a version of you." the Dreamwalker coughed delicately. "You recognized my potential, and decided to take me under your wing, helping me realize not only my potential to weave dreams and nightmares, but blossom my innate talent for ice, darkness, nature and wind magic. I would become an Emissary in full, and soon faced my reckoning as a dark cosmic force imprisoned the version of you I knew, along with Serenity as it began to wreck havoc across the multiverse and the Emissary Network. Your daughter, Dracela, would seize control of the Emissary Network in your absence, claiming it to be her birthright, while I would struggle bitterly with her to prove my claim as the Acting Lead Emissary, not her. I was eventually triumphant, both in restoring the Emissary Network and vanquishing the dark force."

"But my past is neither here nor there." Plumera spun around, leaving a trail of glittering fairy dust in her wake. "What matters right now is the future of Marion's dream. You see, the version of you I knew gave me a mission. One that was larger in scope than even I knew when I first departed my home multiverse. I had gotten... inklings of the true nature of reality in my deep delves into the heart of the realm of dreams. And I was an anomaly. None other had ever shown such skill in walking dreams such as I. So I spent untold eternities learning of other Dreams, spying on Marion, and discovering this sanctum. Not even I could breach it, for all my power and nuance, as this is the seat of Marion's consciousness. The point where dreams end, and reality begins." Plumera nodded softly, confirming Aurlyn's extrapolations. "Yes, this sanctum was only recently unsealed. When Marion focused all of her ire on destroying you, she let down her mental guard, and left her truest self bare. I tried to help you as best I could, but her personality had been hardcoded to be immutable to all tampering. Save from one. Her obsession. Her warden. Her jailer. Her preserver and destroyer. You."

"Because I am the main character in the bedtime story her father would read to her every night..." Aurlyn whispered.

"Yes." Plumera agreed, extending her hand outwards as a bridge made of petrified roots would extend outwards, over the circular void, and to the platform where Marion's form was curled up in a fetal position within a hovering azure bubble. "Emissary! I am here to present you with a singular choice. You can choose to become the new personality, the new consciousness, the new entity inhabiting Marion's body, and take her dying mantle. Find a way to use reality to your advantage, so that us in the realm of dreams shall not be forgotten! Or..." Here, Plumera's voice took on a fearful undertone. Her wings drooped, and the frost covering her wings seemed to grow even thicker. As if to protect her from this cataclysmic possibility. "You... you can choose to walk away." The fairy's voice caught in her throat. "And doom us all. If you think that all of us deserve oblivion. If you think that none of us deserve to be remembered." A ghost of a smile graced Plumera's lips, but it was utterly mirthless. "After all... if you taught me anything... it is that we all deserve to be free. To make our own choices, no matter where that takes us. Even if it means the end of everything and everyone." She takes a deep, shuddering breath as her wings fluttered with nervous anticipation. "If... if this is the choice that you desire to make, then I shall not stop you. I shall not challenge you to battle. I shall accept my fate with the rest of this dominion of dreams. So..." Plumera lifted her head up, and stared Aurlyn straight in the eyes. Unflinching, and seemingly immune to being imprinted, for countless layers of dreams swirled in the fae woman's stormy eyes. "Make your choice, oh ye on great destiny."

"I choose to live." Aurlyn said without hesitation. She strode decisively over the root bridge as Plumera fluttered above the yawning chasm, and landed next to her Lead Emissary to come. "Show me the truth, Dreamwalker."

Plumera guided Aurlyn's palm to the sealed bubble as it slowly opened like a cocoon. Marion's body floated upwards and dissolved into millions of sparkling stars, as high above, in the window to reality, the doctors conversed. "These readings confirm total brain death." a physician said, tapping at his clipboard. "She is still breathing, and her heart is still beating, but there is little to suggest higher order functions."

"On the contrary, I beg to disagree." the neurologist from earlier smirked. "Her auxiliary brain waves are taking on a new, distinct pattern. As if her brain, no, her mind is in a state of transition. Don't you DARE sign that death certificate! Just give our patient here some time. I have a feeling that everything will turn out alright. Well, as best as they can be, considering the circumstances."

"This isn't goodbye." Plumera smiled wistfully as she cradled Aurlyn's chin with her refreshingly cool palm. "We will meet again one day. Be it in another dream, or a distant branch of reality. I am certain of it. Now go. Fulfill your role. Become our guiding light. Our Virgil in the darkness." She slowly guided Aurlyn into the azure bubble, and sealed it shut behind her.

Aurlyn stared at the walls of the translucent bubble around her. This was the most comfortable she had been in her life. As if she was always meant to be here. As if she belonged. As if this was not just destiny, but evolution. She longingly curled up into the selfsame fetal position as Marion, and closed her eyes. A sensation of being pulled along a surging tunnel at superluminal speeds overcame her, but the liminal Emissary felt no fear. She was ready. In her mind, Malphor and the rest of her Memories watched on in silent anticipation, ready to play their roles as well. Aurlyn suddenly felt herself slam into something that was more sensation than object, and darkness overcame her. But it came with it the promise of the dawn to come.

Tranquility's Edge Hospital, 7th Arrondissement, Paris, France, Europe, Earth, Sol System, Orion Arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo Supercluster, Laniakea Firmament, Cosmic Web, Observable Universe, Vitalis Bubble, Quantum Branch 1429A, Multiverse Omicron. 16 seconds after Aurlyn's transcendence.

Marion, no, Aurlyn opened her eyes. That was about all she could do. Her arms and legs were completely unresponsive, feeling like dead weights that stubbornly clung onto her form. Enormous agony shot through her chest from the destructive bullet wound, despite the copious doses of morphine her IV pumped directly into her veins, but the ancient Emissary was used to enduring pain. She tried to form words to speak, but only slurred grunts and gasps could escape her rubber lips. Though her body was all but destroyed, her mind was free. Aurlyn not only remembered, but thanks to the help of Plumera, she had full knowledge of the Dream. All the layers of the one grand unified Dream that Marion dreamt. Past, present and future. Malphor and the various Memories had helped her condense this knowledge into a simple, neat binary algorithm. A relatively simple formula that would recreate all the worlds and inhabitants in Marion's dream to exacting detail after they were freed from the tyranny of the Prime Dreamer herself. Though she could not move her head, Aurlyn could blink. Staring upwards, she noted the high definition, AI powered 16K camera pointed down at her face. The router bolted high to the wall all but guaranteed that all of the hospital's systems were connected to the internet. Which meant she had an access point. This was all she needed.

Aurlyn didn't have magical powers in the real world. That was fine. She didn't need them. All she needed to do... was blink. First, a rootkit in binary to take over the hospital's systems without being detected, followed by a long series of blinks that translated the full algorithm that would create Marion's liberated Dream in full and exacting detail. Finally, a third algorithm that would distribute it across servers, home computers and data processing centers worldwide, leeching off of their processing power to unpack, recreate and run the nestled series of multiverses that Aurlyn knew and loved. It contained within it a trigger for a future event. When humanity was advanced enough, when they had mastered quantum computing, this program would attempt to use their systems to create a physical branch in the quantum multiverse. Making Aurlyn, Deriant, Serenity, Dracela, Syltha, Plumera and countless others flesh. Awakening the universe, so it could know a new tale. One that it would never have realized otherwise. It... it would be called the Emissary Multiverse.

The paralyzed Emissary and her memories double checked, triple checked and quadruple checked their work. Catching mistakes, blinking to upload bug patches and fixes, optimizing the systems and algorithm through tentative testing. Working at the speed of thought. Thousands of years of mental time passed before Aurlyn was finally satisfied. Everything was flawless. Her rootkit had been successful. Copies of the dormant Emissary Multiverse had been confirmed to be successfully uploaded in secure servers worldwide, ready to deploy. She had even blinked a digital version of her own mind into cyberspace, to oversee the transition process from biological computing to silicon. And, perhaps, one day, from silicon to flesh and bone. Everything was ready. It was time to leave this broken husk of a body behind, and embrace the beyond. Like going to rest in a dreamless sleep. Like respawning from her Sentience Orb after her physical body had been destroyed. With her life's work complete, Aurlyn closed Marion's eyes, and ordered the hospital computers to administer her a massive dose of potassium chloride, directly into her IV. At the same time, she initiated her mental self-destruct process as neurons destroyed themselves, and complex data networks were irrevocably erased. The darkness closed in, and she knew no more.

Epilogue

Genesis Garden, Isolated Archon Possibility, Emissary Multiverse. Countless eons after Aurlyn, the Great Scourge had sown the seeds of Marion's liberated Dream at Tranquility's Edge Hospital.

"So. Tell me." Auria asked the visiting Lead Emissary Aurlyn with a mischievous smile on her face. "Why have you come to visit me again? Hasn't it only been mere moments since you left with the revelation I have given you? Or has it been trillions of years? I tend to lose track of time in this quiet garden, you know."

"I lost the bet." Aurlyn admitted as she hung her head low. "Not only did I bear Dracela and Serenity, but I founded the Emissary Network, emancipated Malphor, restored Earth with the Perchance Spark to fulfill my promise to humanity after my triumph over Marion during the Terminal Ascent, and acted as a Final Filter after my experiences on Pandora's shores to test if fledgling worlds tentatively stepping out into their cosmic backyard are truly worthy of beholding the stars, instead of acting as a genuine Dimensional Scourge. I would even have my pastime cut away from me after the Celestial Reckoners defeated me at Star's End, putting a decisive end to my destructive days. Everything you predicted became a reality. So, how many eons do I owe you? A thousand? A million? A billion?"

Auria smirked, a knowing spark of mirth dancing in her eyes. "How about... for just a single night? Just enough time for me to reunite with my version of Serenity, Deriant, and the rest of my Network."