More Meteor Showers Bring Even Stranger Powers. (O/A)

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Lokelonni piped up, "Actually it's Princess Rydia Fae-"

"Yes! Um, yes. You can just call me Rydia. There's no need for the whole thing Cor O'Si." interrupted the princess, her face flush with embarrassment.

Lokelonni huffed, "Well. Someone has gotten brash in the time I have been away. That is your father's influence, no doubt."

Fenris laughed nervously and said, "Ah, why don't you kids go find Kerana's mom? My mama and I have to talk about some things best said in private."

Rydia nodded solemnly. She knew there were going to be many tears in the next few minutes. "Of course."

Rydia stood up and said, "I'll be just outside the door when you're ready, Kerana."

Lokelonni listened to her granddaughter leave and then turned her attention back to Kerana. "It will be alright, dear." she said in a comforting tone. "The only thing sweeter than a meeting is a reunion. The apprehension will soon subside, and then there will be joy."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Silhouette's hands reached up and desperately clasped onto something in front of her neck. That something soon began to bleed into view like glass that had paint poured onto it. That something was strangling Sil with hands that looked like they belonged to a zombie. After a few seconds, the something clearly became the twisted Silhouette that Trinity's ancestor had fought millennia ago.

Her teeth ground as her disgusting yellow eyes glared into her own dying, silver ones. "NO! I CAN'T! I didn't want him to feel what he'd done! It would've killed him! Then, by the time I was imprisoned in the deepest depths of the shadow realm, when I should've lost them, it was already too late!"

The Silhouette on the ground became visibly weaker. The twisted Sil tightened her grip and screamed into her own face, "Everything is my fault! The end of the second age! Countless plagues, wars, and atrocities! The framework that would become Daedalus! Your mother would still be alive if I had kept my mouth SHUT! If I had done anything to stop him!"  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

"Oh sh-wow. You just came right out and asked, huh?"

Alec pondered the question for a moment. He looked out to the ocean and thought about the countless lifeforms that existed within it's depths. He then looked up to the sky and thought about the endless possibilities that surrounded their pale blue dot...

"The angry and cynical part of me wants to say, 'be born, ********, and then die.' The relatively new hopeful part of me wants to say, 'find love, hold onto it, and become the soil for future life.'"

"But then, when I really think about it, either answer is really small. I mean, it's important to me, but in the grand scheme of things? It's all so insignificant. I'm just a dumb kid who died twice and stumbled into becoming the embodiment of the thing almost everyone fears at one time or another. But then there's Kerana...everything about her is so, so, incredible. There's no way something so wonderful can have no purpose. Then I think about the Hellstar..."

Alec became silent for almost a minute before he took a deep breath, looked out to the horizon, and recited, "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

"Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."

"The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth..."

Alec turned his gaze to Legio, his eyes burned with ardent determination, and finished, "...is where we make our stand."

"Carl Sagan had the right idea, but no idea of the scope. We are just another attempt at stopping that thing from devouring us. Maybe, long ago, there was a meaning to life. But, I think, that meaning was lost the first time the Hellstar descended onto the first people to make the journey."

"You want to know what the meaning of life is? I don't think there's an objective answer to that. But I can tell you what my meaning is! I'm going to help the others destroy the Hesllstar! Then, with Kerana, build the life we've dreamed of together. I'll take every moment I can to make her smile and laugh. Then, when our time is over, join her in the collective soul and become one with her and life itself until we meet again."

"Life is what you make of it, Legio. What matters isn't it's meaning...it's your meaning."

He looked out to the ebb and flow of the waves then sighed again, "But then again, what do I know? I'm just a kid."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heather let out a humming chuckle and said quietly, "Don't you go falling asleep. If you do I'll doze off too, and then we'll be in a pruney pickle later."

She stroked Liv's hair several more times and then asked, "Do you feel a little better now? I hope I didn't weird you out when I split my tongue to...y'know."  

[BeaMichelle]

The next rift was close, but it was cut off by the appearance of what the people from that time had taken to calling "seekers." They were a quadrupedal mishmash of human and animal parts that were the approximate size of a puma. They could see as far as a hawk, track as well as a bloodhound, and kill like a pissed off Tasmanian devil.

There were 2 blocking the way to the nearest rift. A bit further away in a darker part of the mindscape was another one that didn't appear to have anything lurking around it.  

[Nova Blancke]

Theo was still grinning from ear to ear from the experience. It's been a while since he could just be a kid and have fun. What kid could have more fun than one with power like this without having to worry about any kind of collateral? One with two powers. He just had to think of when to use which one. He'd most likely continue his own the most since it's familiar to him and it's flexible to use but using the Wind is easier to use. Flying with pressure is basically propelling him to move. Pushing him in the direction he'd need to go. Wind however is just...letting him float wherever he wants by simply wanting to. Maneuverability is so much higher with the Wind. Though he might be faster with pressure.Then again Wind speeds can also quite fast.

He had already gone Supersonic speeds. Which was anywhere between Mach 1.2 and 5 with speeds between 915-3,806 MPH. Maybe he should start with actually measuring it soon. Right now he was in the middle of an ocean and that didn't take him long to do. Had he become faster that Super Sonic speeds? Did he reach Hypersonic? This did pose a bit of a problem as he had no idea where exactly he was. hopefully the communicator still had range.

"Gidget, I do hope this thing works....Gidget you copy? If you do....I have no idea where I am. Think you can...um....locate me? I'm on the ocean right now with no land in sight."  

[Nova Blancke]

Hands behind his back, staring out at the ocean he listened to Alec's interpretation of the meaning of life.

"Carl Sagan,...We are all made of star stuff." He quoted.

"I could tell you the purpose of Kerana looking the way she does to you but that is not....romantic as they say. You are attracted to her, her personality, her face, her body. All of it. A perfect mate for you. You say when your time is over but will that ever be the case? You are Death, she is Life. The two of you might be eternal."

"But the meaning of life....to me is life itself. Without life, there could not be anything asking for the meaning of it. Life just exists. It's only purpose is to stay in existence in one form or another. I do not think there is a greater purpose than wanting to be."

"I do like this planet and the abundance of life. Even if the vast majority of humanity does not seem to care that much outside of their own lives. I shall protect it. I am not arrogant enough to say I will defeat my precursor. But if I can chip away at it's flesh and absorb enough,I will be able to stop it."

"It's very tempting..... Can dragons even get pruney?" She joked.

"Ya know, I can definitely get used to that. It was...interesting."  

[PixelMuse]

Rikki Tikki Travi

Silhouette's hands reached up and desperately clasped onto something in front of her neck. That something soon began to bleed into view like glass that had paint poured onto it. That something was strangling Sil with hands that looked like they belonged to a zombie. After a few seconds, the something clearly became the twisted Silhouette that Trinity's ancestor had fought millennia ago.

Her teeth ground as her disgusting yellow eyes glared into her own dying, silver ones. "NO! I CAN'T! I didn't want him to feel what he'd done! It would've killed him! Then, by the time I was imprisoned in the deepest depths of the shadow realm, when I should've lost them, it was already too late!"

The Silhouette on the ground became visibly weaker. The twisted Sil tightened her grip and screamed into her own face, "Everything is my fault! The end of the second age! Countless plagues, wars, and atrocities! The framework that would become Daedalus! Your mother would still be alive if I had kept my mouth SHUT! If I had done anything to stop him!"

Trinity glared daggers at the weakened Sil as she spoke while she was being chocked. How dare she mentioned my parents in this context!? At this point she felt she needed two of her and sure enough her ancestor came charging with her glowing glaive. She connected her shoulder with Twisted Sil's to get some distance away from Trinity and the weakened Sil.

Well, that works. she thought as her ancestor took point.

She looked at the weakened. "No! NOT everything bad is your fault! Especially when comes to my parents. Don't you ever, bring my parents up as part of this! That's on Daedalus NOT YOU! Do I make myself clear!?" She sighed to herself and recomposed "Look, you may have created the entity but that entity had some form of free will and that is what to lead to my parents' death. You are not a direct cause of it, Daedalus was the one who pulled the trigger."

She shook her head, "Anyways … that's not getting us anywhere. We can sit here and dread about all the things we've done and continue to do nothing while Eclipse calls for the Hellstar to destroy the Earth. You've already been a big help to us so far. We wouldn't have been able to come up with a decent plan if it weren't for your intel. We would have been unprepared. Because of you we have learned from the past to plan for a better future."

"I understand you want to uphold your promise to your mom. Yet in a way would you think it may be failure from the start? He is chaos. How is one supposed to keep him sane? As for keeping him safe?" she sighed to herself, "I'm not sure if that can be an option. He's currently hell-bent in destroying the world with the the Hellstar. At this point I don't know by the end of all of this you'll be able to keep your promise especially when he's only operating on the dark side of his emotions."

"Now there may have been a chance if you were able to return his emotions to him. But that looks like it's not the case." she paused for a moment. "He truly brought all of this on himself. He didn't think twice of how what he would do to you or how summoning the Hellstar. You need to stop blaming yourself for someone else' actions. He was the one who decided to run with your idea. For a while you had no idea what he would be up to until recently. You've only recently gain your sanity back but had to sacrifice that to unveil the memories we needed to prepare. If you continue to wallow in all the ways you didn't stop it or should have stop it . Then by doing nothing, you'll end up help Eclipse in his goals to destroy the world."  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

A garbled message replied to Theonis.

"How d** *** ge*...**vermi***. You're so fa* *** ** ** system that I can't ge* ** ******** **** on you. But it ***** **** you've ****** * *** ** *eteoro******* to *****. **** hang on f** * few mi*****."

It didn't take long for help to come. The crack of a sonic boom echoed far in the distance. A moment later, Leo came to an abrupt halt several yards away from Theonis.

"Um...hi. Gidget said you needed help getting back?" he asked awkwardly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alec listened closely to Legio's words. He was mostly satisfied that they were on the way to an amicable conclusion, but it would really depend on the next few minutes. There was so much he wanted to tell Legio. Especially the part about absorbing the Hellstar's flesh.

"That's good to know." he sighed. "But we have five months until we make the journey. What do you plan to do between now and then?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Heh, maybe not when I'm scaly, but I think I'm still susceptible to the prunage when I'm like this."

Heather smiled and basked in the afterglow for a moment. She wanted to stay in that moment in time forever, but there was a doubt that was eating at her. She hated it, but she was still self conscious about her appearance. It caused her to tense up a little bit. She sighed, and then remembered something she used to do in prison to pass the time.

"Hey, want to see a trick?"

Heather turned her head so that there wasn't any danger to Liv. During through their...moment, Heather found herself accidently expelling flame through her mouth while in the throws of passion. She had to partially focus on keeping her throat and sinus anatomy human. But the trick required a bit more dragon than human.

She cleared her throat a few times and took a shallow breath through her mouth with the distinct sound of her taking in air to create fire. She closed her mouth and took a deep breath through her nose. She made an O shape with her lips and puffed once. She then quickly put her lips closer together, like she was going to whistle, and puffed again.

What resulted was a heart shaped ring of smoke with a line of smoke that pierced the center of it. It hung in the air for a few seconds before it dissipated. "I had a lot of free time over the last month." she said sheepishly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Silhouette coughed and gasped as she caught her breath. The twisted one was bound by Trinity's ancestor. It didn't make any move to free itself. It only glared at Silhouette and the present day Trinity with it's yellow eyes. Eyes which had pupils that resembled an "8" laying horizontally. Sil looked over to her awful past after Trinity stopped speaking. "Damn those eyes." she muttered under her breath.

Sil shifted her position until she sat on her rear with her knees bent to the left. "You're...*sigh* you're right. About it all. My sincerest apologies. The sudden release of my memories, along with the neuro-degenerative effect of the infinite eye, caused me to lose sight of the truth. I'm sorry you had to see me like...that."

The twisted silhouette disintegrated and blew away like dust in the wind. "It seems I owe you my life yet again, Trinity. Had you not brought me to my senses, I may very well have been dead come sunrise. I'm the oldest being in the world, and I've been saved by you, a human, twice. It's honestly a little embarrassing."

The was a whimpering sound from just beyond Silhouette. It sounded like the young Eclipse from before. Sil swept her head in the direction of the sound and caused it to fall silent again.

"And then there's that. I felt all of his despair, grief, and regret. It's compartmentalized now. So long as I don't look into those eyes again, I'll be fine."

She looked to Trinity and smiled sadly. "I know what needs to be done. Like Crosis, my sweet little brother has become sick. Even as he is now, Eclipse is suffering. Mother wouldn't want that. She'd make the hard choice, and so I'll act in her stead and put him out of his misery."

Silhouette sighed and looked around the darkness before she returned her gaze to Trinity. "Now that the madness has gone again, things should be a bit brighter in here. But, it seems I'm not the only one wrestling with demons tonight. Also...were you drinking?"  

[PixelMuse]

Trinity felt relieved as Sil started to sound like herself again. She smirked as she mentioned as she mentioned how it was embarrassing for a human to have saved an ancient being twice now. "Well... meta-human but who's counting. Never count us out entirely we can be a crafty bunch." Then she heard young Eclipse and turned her head and she felt more relieved when she came to an agreement to put Eclipse out his misery.

"Yeah… I guess it's a 'tradition' in some sense. I get black out drunk after saving all of Valhalla or the whole world. It helps me cope, helps me meditate and processed what happen and most importantly helps me move on and be ready for the next battle."  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Silhouette chuckled, "hmhm. I remember when the humans of the first age invented ingestable alchohol. It was it was nearly unpalatable. From what I could sample when I had control of your body, it has become worlds better."

"Now, it's been a very long while since I've gotten 'black out drunk,' but doesn't it still result in sunrise sickness? Surely there are healthier ways to cope."  

[PixelMuse]

"Yeah, we normally call them hangovers. We manage to have come up with a way to deal with that too."

She lays down on her back and looks toward the sky. "There's probably a better way to cope but I find this works just fine for me. Besides saving the world and all of Valhalla doesn't happen every day. There have been scuffles, break-ins hackings. It's not like I do this often. Normally I do a glass of wine to relax at the end of the day. You've got nothing to worry about when it comes to my health, you very well know that, first hand. I tend to keep very close track of what I consume and work off whatever extra calories."

Looking toward her ancestor, "I bet you drank a lot more than I do, huh?"

"Hell yeah I did. Even made money placing bets and out drinking men. Because I'm a woman they've severely underestimated me. Mainly before I crossed paths with Nova."

She looked to Sil with a look that said see what I mean?  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Silhouette couldn't help but laugh at the brash nature of the past Trinity. "I wish we had met under better circumstances. I believe we would've been good friends."

She turned her attention back to present day Trinity and said, "Very well. So long as you're careful. Although, if you don't mind me saying, I found that inbibing was best done with company. If that company happened to follow you to bed, all the better."

"Since you're here until sunrise, and you saved my life, I'd like to offer you an ear. It's the least I can do. So, is there anything you'd like to get off your chest?"  

[Nova Blancke]

He turned the way of the sonic boom after Gidgets message which he could barely understand. A few minutes later he heard a sonic boom. So that was what that felt like to hear. He usually made them. Then he saw the person arrive who caused it.

"Oh s**t, either I am not that far away or you are quite fast. Possibly both." Theo said surprised. But then he started to try and figure some things out. Took him a few minutes to get here. Even with going faster than sound. Yeah...he definitely was far away.

"Yeah I uhh...needed to clear my head a bit and let it all out. Nothing to destroy here nor anyone to hear me so I figured why not. Feeling a lot better. It's not good to keep it all inside."

"So uh...yeah..." Theo said a bit awkwardly like Leo did early. They haven't talked that much and him being his kid from an alternate timeline is ....still very ******** weird.

He sighed and made his way over to Leo. "Look this is awkward for the both of us. I'm sure you've got things to say or ask. I'm not your dad nor will I ever be him. Hell, there's only a few years difference between us. I can be a friend of you'd want or maybe a bit of a mentor regarding your powers. Though if future me raised you, I doubt I'll have anything to add on to that."

"I am unsure. The world is still quite vast. Majority of the ocean's have yet to be explored. Perhaps I will do that. Maybe once I have the right powers for it, try and Terraform the moon or Mars. It would certainly be an interesting challenge."

"Sure. I'm not going anywhere." Liv responded.

She couldn't help but smile as she saw the smoke heart.

"Awww, I love you too." Liv chuckled. But not wanting to be outdone she figured it was her turn. She looked over to where the light switch was and shot a small semi-hardlight ball at it. Jus to turn it off.

"Since we are doing tricks....."

A colorless orb of light rose from her chest and made its way to the middle of the bathtub and rose to the ceiling. It then burst into a small cloud of dust-like softly glowing particles. It was like the night sky but all around them.  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Rydia stayed silent and half listened to Kerana's concerns. The other half of her was thinking unkind thoughts.

I stood over the bodies of my mother and father just yesterday. How I wished I could have your problem. To worry about my mother's well being. But I don't, because I know she's not coming back. Not after having her throat slit. But no, you go ahead and worry if your mother will hate you for looking different.

No, that isn't fair. There's more too it than that. Your problems are not her problems. Mother and Father told me how perspective changes severity. I'm only angry because I haven't taken the time to process their...my loss. I'll uphold my dignity as royalty and respect their sacrifice by remembering their lessons.

Rydia took a deep breath to calm her mind and smiled kindly to Kerana, "I think it would be best to just go and see her. I'm almost certain she has her own reservations about seeing you after so long. Show her how much you've grown, how much you've learned. That you're healthy, loved, and cared for. You love her, and that's why you worry. If your legs start to become weak, I'll be here to help you. For now, let's just put one foot in front of the other."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leo put his hand up in front of himself and waved them, "Oh no, yeah...I get it. Mom, er, that is to say Liv and our Gidget were very clear about the separation between the people here and the people there. As far as needing mentorship...you, I mean, the other you, died a few days before my thirteenth birthday. He taught me a bit, but I still have a lot to learn. And he couldn't do anything to help with shadow manipulation."

"But yeah, I guess we can be friends. I mean, it's like you said. You're not really my dad. Just like the Trinity here isn't really my mom. It's just...very confusing. I mean, none of us are really right in the heads after a lifetime of fighting relentless monsters that don't sleep and whose only soul purpose is to seek out and devour all of humanity and feed it to a colossal mass of eyes and teeth not to mention the ever present threat of other survivors who would just as soon eat you than share food plus we also lived underground for who knows how long and I don't even...even..."

Leo finally halted his rant to finally pay attention to where he was. He looked down at the ocean, and then he looked up and around at the sky around him. A single tears slid down the right side of his face. "It's so...blue."

He shook his head and roughly wiped the tear away. "Anyway, Vahalla is this way. I'm sure you'll have no problem keeping up with me, but please don't smoke me. I can find home if I go in a straight line, but I'll get lost otherwise."

Leo sped off beside Theonis. After a few seconds he called out, "I'm sorry about what Dawn did yesterday. She knows better. Plus it looked like she really upset Trinity."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alec had to bite his tongue again. "Um, I mean...that's pretty cool and all, but maybe start with something a bit smaller and work your way up. Like, isn't there anything, or anyone, that you might stick around for. I heard you saved the life of a young elf boy. Heron, I think. The other kids say he wont shut up about you. Something about owing you a life debt and not leaving your side until his dying breath."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heather's draconic eyes lit up at the incredible display. She could see beyond the normal light spectrum of a human. It filled her with so many wonderful and conflicted emotions.

"It's so...I can't even describe it. It's, it's..." she choked out. She huffed and squeaked out a small whimper. Her bottom lip trembled, and she started to cry openly and silently with the odd sniffle here and there.

"Are you really okay with what I am? I can't look like this all the time. I have to spend some time in scales keep the dragon under control. Plus I'm not a good person. I don't deserve you, and you can do a lot better than me."