User blog:GamerNerd i/Power Corrupts: Apocalyptic Poetics

��Summer screws up my writing schedule, okay? I'll make efforts to keep writing but between a bunch of games to play and projects to put off finish, I make no promises.

Also, pardon me if this gets incredibly cliche'd or whatever later on. Things I see/hear probably have a greater effect on my writing than I'd like to admit.

Testimony: Rotom
Rotom lived with Aidan and was basically free to do whatever he wanted as long as no one noticed any changes. The only two devices he was allowed to possess were Aidan’s computer and his mechanical body. He had to resist the temptation to enter the washing machine, the toaster, the fan, and that little robot thing that cleaned the floors. (He possessed the Wi-Fi router once. Aidan really didn’t like that.)

Life was pretty boring on a normal day, especially for the troublemaker who couldn’t make trouble. Most of Rotom’s time was spent watching Aidan’s family and Aidan’s interactions. He saw Aidan’s affection, anger, and confusion. Rotom thought he had seen all of Aidan’s emotional states. Granted, he didn’t have that many noticeable physical changes when his feelings shifted.

This was the first time he saw pure panic in Aidan’s eyes.

As soon as Aidan entered his bedroom, Rotom knew that something was up. The boy rushed about with a frenzy Rotom hadn’t seen before, a wild look in his eyes. He was dressed in the clothes he wore in that one world. Something really bad must have happened if he forgot to change. Aidan ran around the room, searching his books and racking his brain for something.

“Hey! Whatzzz the rush?” Rotom asked. “You didn’t even take off that robe thingy.”

Aidan glanced up but continued to rifle through several notebooks at once. “S-Something’s wrong with N,” he said, his voice shaking. “I didn’t—Well, I knew, but never believed—I didn’t think this would happen. This is bad, this is bad, this is—Here it is!”

Rotom peeked over Aidan’s shoulder. He caught a glimpse of a cobalt-colored sword etched with writing before Aidan slammed the book shut.

“God, how could I forget this?” Aidan was saying. He rushed around again and grabbed a map. “Rotom, do me a favor and bring Azura and Frey to N’s school. I’ll meet you there, I need to go steal a cursed sword.”

“Why?” Rotom asked, entering his dronelike body. ''Yezzz! Zzomething to do!''

“I—Just do it, please?” Aidan was already half inside the portal. “I’m under a lot of pressure right now, okay? Trust me on this, buddy. Please. I’ll explain later.”

Rotom reluctantly buzzed in agreement. ''I guezz it’z better than... Wait, what waz I going to do again?''

“Thank you so much!” Aidan partially closes the portal, before calling out, “And make sure that Azura doesn’t charge in before I get there!” The rip in reality closes, and Rotom’s body warps to the Recreators’ castle.

Rotom zoomed around the massive, ever-shifting castle. He knew where the children would be, if only he could find that darn door.

His mind was very preoccupied. Aidan tended to be the calmest person in his house, and on the adventures he had. He had a great concern for Nadia, but how bad could it possibly be that Aidan—Oh, there it iz.

Rotom entered the room. Azura had Frey in a headlock, trying to give her brother a noogie. Frey patted her arm and pointed to Rotom. She looked up and immediately let go.

“Oh, hi!” Azura said casually. “We were just uh... Roughhousing a little! Right?”

Frey rolled his eyes. “You were. I was trying to watch The Emoji Movie.”

Rotom liked the children, even though he still didn’t understand how Aidan and Nadia already had children. “Well, az long az—Wait, izzzn’t that a bad movie?”

“Horrifically bad,” Frey confirms. “In my time, it’s still legendary how utterly terrible it is. Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on who you ask—it’s hard to find a quality copy of it. I just wanted to see how true the rumors are.” He pauses for a second. “It’s even worse than people say it is.”

“Zzzokay,” Rotom responded, not really understanding what Frey just said. “Well, Aidan told me to bring you to Nadia’zzz zchool. He’zzz... Really worried.”

Frey and Azura give each other concerned looks. “Is it mother?” Azura asks.

“I azzume it izzz, but I don’t know. He zzzaid he’d exzplain zoon.”

“Let’s get over there, then!” Azura exclaims enthusiastically, jumping out of her seat. “I’m not going to lose mother again!”

“First I need to make sure you don’t lose yourself,” Frey mutters, grabbing his necklace.

“Shut up, Frey. Let’s just go.”

Rotom giggles, thinking about how much the two interact like their parents. Then he opens the portal to the all-girls school Nadia attended.

Testimony: Frey
On a normal day, Nadia’s school was attractive. Most of the buildings had been recently renovated and gave off a metallic or glassy sheen. The older buildings retained their smooth concrete exteriors. Sprinkled throughout were planters, adding a little bit of green wherever it was needed. Walking around the high school almost felt like walking on a college campus.

Today was not a normal day.

The campus looked like a tornado had torn through the area. Several planters were empty, the plants torn up by their roots. Some of the buildings had large parts of them ripped out, exposing the wires and plumbing. The brick paths had been mostly ripped up, leaving the outline of the brick pattern or potholes in what was left. A building had collapsed entirely. In the distance, a massive swirl of matter joined together in a multicolored tempest. Rotom, Azura, and Frey emerged from the portal and watched as another massive chunk of a building was torn away and drawn toward the storm.

Frey stood in awe of the destruction before him. Having watched several films of the kaiju genre—giant monsters—the wreckage was scarily similar. He had been excited to see his mother’s school, but he didn’t expect it to be like this.

“Thizzz... Thizzz is bad,” Rotom buzzed sadly.

Azura stumbles as a brick came loose from under her. “It’s like a massive blender,” she muttered quietly. “You said that this is mom’s school?”

Rotom nodded. Frey remained silent, watching the landscape. Something nagged at him. Something wasn’t right, and it wasn't the destruction of the campus.

“It’s Thursday...” Frey slowly realized. “And it’s only 1:00... School should be in session. Where are all the people?"

Rotom and Azura looked around. Now, they too realized that the school was completely abandoned.

"Don’t worry about that, I already handled it," someone said.

The three turned around. Frey saw his dad walking toward them grimly. A dark sword hung at his side, contrasting sharply to his brown cargo pants, blue school T-shirt, and green Slytherin jacket. Frey instinctively touched his own version of the jacket—a gift handed down to him by his now deceased dad. (At least, deceased in his own time.) Something was... Strange about his father. He wasn’t his normal self.

"Dad, are you okay?”

Aidan sighed. “Not really. I mean, I should be taking a chem test right now, but if I don’t stop this, there probably won’t even be a school to take the test in.”

Azura’s eyes widened. “But you told us that all the major threats can’t come into the real world. Who is it?”

Aidan reached behind him and pulled out... Nadia’s indigo staff. “Ask your mother. I’m... Having a hard time here.”

An indigo glow formed on the staff around Aidan’s hands. The glow hardened and extended as Aidan let go of the staff, forming arms, then a shoulder, until the purplish mirage of Frey’s mother stood before them, staff in hand.

“Mom?” Frey whispered, shaking. “What... What happened?”

The mirage shook its head. “I’m afraid that I’m only a fragment of myself right now. I am the manifestation of the only emotion I have control of right now—compassion.”

“That doesn’t answer his question,” Azura muttered.

Nadia’s form frowned. Not in frustration, as Frey normally saw. This was a frown of something Frey had never seen before—patient sorrow.

“It doesn’t. I’m also trying to fathom what’s happened to me. I...” she trailed off. “Someone split me into the different emotional states of my rings. My soul is divided. Now, 1/7th if my soul is stuck in each ring—or in this case, my staff.”

Frey regarded the statement gravely. His mom’s soul had been split and trapped in her weapons? Only the vilest villains could do that.

“But... How?” Azura stammered. “That’s not possible. That shouldn’t be possible.”

The apparition shook her head. “I wish I could tell you that it wasn’t. Soul transfer is relatively common, especially for villains. But the only nondestructive soul splitter that I know is—“

“Tom Marvolo Riddle,” Frey interrupted. “Voldemort. But the Horcrux thing is only for the user...”

“Alone, yes,” Nadia said. “But with the Stones, anything is possible.”

Testimony: Azura
Azura knew that her mother wasn’t talking about any rocks. She racked her brain. Hadn’t she seen some very specific stones in her studies? Something from the narrative artists...

“Oh no,” She realized. “Mother, you used the Infinity Stones?”

Aidan nodded. “I’ve never seen her use them all at once. Heck, she’s never had them all in one place, for fear that something bad would happen. I don’t think she originally had them this time, either.”

Nadia’s form nodded. “I never carry them with me. Someone—something, maybe—planted them in my pockets all at once. Like I said, whoever it was forged them into my rings,” she shakes her head. “I was between classes when I discovered them. Once I felt each one slide onto my fingers against my will... Well...” she gestured to her ethereal state. “Thankfully, there are only six stones. And I can’t say that being split into 7 raw emotions is fun, but at least I can be with you here. Partially.”

“It’s a blessing that you’re here at all,” Aidan said. “Let’s get moving. We have a Humpty Dumpty to put together again.”

Azura started walking beside her father. “I thought Humpty Dumpty couldn’t be put together again.”

Aidan looked at her with a fierce determination that she hadn’t seen before. “All the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men couldn’t. But what did you expect? They’re soldiers, not medics.”

Azura shrugged and kept walking. She knew her father was defensive, but this was something else entirely. She had never seen this side of him before...

Aidan led the children to the heart of the storm. Nadia’s compassion had retreated back into the staff, which Aidan held tightly in his hands. Crouching behind a planter, he showed them what they were up against.

A vortex of building debris swirled in the center of the football field, tearing up the sod and wrenching free the bleachers and light poles. The maelstrom shone with a rainbow of colors that somehow made the image even more terrifying.

Six figures stood around the eye. They were all identical, except for the color they glowed in. Holographic images of Azura’s mother manipulated the storm in flashes of red, orange, yellow, green, and pink. Only one was fully colored; the figure glowing blue.

“The physical body would be the one holding the Space Stone, wouldn’t it?” Frey muttered.

“The physical body would also be holding your mother’s most vital emotion—Hope,” Aidan said. “Unfortunately, that’s the one we need to eliminate last for my plan to work.”

Azura said nothing, continuing to stare at the eye of the storm. Something wasn’t right. In the center... Was that...?

“Father,” Azura started, pointing, “I thought you said that you had already evacuated all the students?”

Aidan looked, then slapped himself in frustration. A few girls were huddled in the eye of the storm, terrified at their surroundings. Aidan began to swear under his breath and started to move. Azura pulled him back.

“Father, wait,” she said, taking out her camera. “Frey and I can do this.” She nodded to Frey, who took out his laptop.

Aidan looked at the two skeptically but said nothing.

Frey handed Azura a cord, which she plugged into her camera. She set it to video.

“Ready?” She asked.

“Yes, but be as steady as possible. And try to keep the whole group in the frame; we don’t want to leave any behind.”

Azura clicked “record” and held the camera as still as possible.

This was one of the many ways the twins combined their powers. Azura’s artistic eye gave her a very good understanding of composition and viewing angles. Frey’s expertise in video editing techniques made it possible for him to change parts of a film in a very short time span. Add the power to bend reality to one’s will, and Azura can live stream a scene to Frey through her camera while he edits the video to get people or things to safety.

Aidan seemed to understand this. “Bring them as close as possible and be ready to engage your mother’s emotions,” he instructed. “I should warn you, this isn’t going to be fun. Try to stall them until I get there.”

Frey nodded. Azura wondered why her father looked so grim.

“Dad, you ready?” Frey asked. “Effecting CGI warp... Now!”

A light flashed both in the eye and outside it. At that moment, the group of girls were taken out of the maelstrom and placed close to the three. Azura and Frey hastily put away their tools and rushed in after their father.

Testimony: Aidan
Aidan knew he was in deep when he heard the rhyming chants.

Nadia’s anger first noticed that their hostages were gone. In rage, she chucked a large building fragment at the small huddle. Aidan ran between the girls and the projectile and raised his voice.

“D’nah fo Noit’Cetorp, draug eht t’neconni!”

The debris sailed over Aidan’s head and toward the girls. The group screamed and scattered, but the building shattered against a golden barrier that surrounded them all. Aidan turned to help everyone up.

“I need you to get up and get out of here, now,” he said sternly, “I can open a portal to a safe place where everyone else is-“ he noticed a particular face staring at him. “Steph?!”

Stephany had been Aidan’s crush in elementary school. They had been reluctant friends. The two had more or less cut ties once they both graduated.

The Mexican girl regarded him fiercely, as she always had. But this time, fear and awe lurked behind her eyes as well. “Aidan, what are you doing here? What was that? What is that?”

Aidan refocused, remembering that his future children were fighting their mother. “Doesn’t matter now. Unless you guys get out of here, you won’t live to hear me explain.” He opened a portal to a room in the castle where he had sent all the other people. Stephany stared at him while the others clambered through. “Nadia is my partner, okay? I have to do this. I’m more than capable of handling myself.” As if on cue, a sharp pain shot up Aidan’s arm as a dagger embedded itself in his shoulder. “Go already!”

Aidan turned around to fend off another attack. When he looked back at the portal and assumed Stephany had gone through, he closed it. Then he drew his sword and turned to face his assailant.

“Double double, roil and bubble,” the glowing red image of Nadia chanted angrily, “''This world shall burn, this school shall crumble. / If you wish to cause us trouble, / you shall lay among the rubble!''” The apparition attempted to spit on Aidan with its fiery vomit.

Aidan ducked out of the way. The ethereal dagger was still stuck in his shoulder. Dammit, I got distracted talking to Steph, he thought. ''Stupid! The next one over here will be-''

The glowing orange image of Nadia rushed at him. “Mine!” It screeched in Nadia’s voice, echoing with the voices of a thousand other orange ring bearers.

Aidan leveled his sword, and Nadia’s greed impaled itself on the blade. “By the runeblade Frostmourne, I reclaim your fragment of Nadia’s soul!” He said, ripping the sword upward with a massive swing. Greed dissipated, and the orange ring fell into Aidan’s hand. It was as Nadia usually wore it—except for the amber stone set where the Corp’s crest would be. One down, he thought.

Rage howled in... Well, rage. Rotom was buzzing around the image like a fly, occasionally spraying a volley of bullets into its form.

“Rotom, here!” Aidan yelled. He began running toward the duo. Rotom complied, diving to Aidan. As expected, the angry apparition dove and followed, frothing with napalm vomit.

Aidan met Rage’s blade with his own.

“You,” the raw emotion snarled through its froth. “You are a pathetic, incompetent whelp, / unable to do anything without my help,” Aidan’s force faltered. He seemed to shrink at the insults—literally. “I am sick of your puns and mistakes, / you fail no matter how many attempts you make!” Every single one of Aidan’s failures shone around him at once as Rage pushed back, causing him to lose his balance. The raw anger furiously swung its blades in blind rage.

Aidan recovered and watched the apparition’s movements, putting the painful images out of mind. The words had confirmed Aidan’s worst doubts about himself. Not that he let it stop him. “You’re right,” he said calmly. “I am worthless.” He warily kept an eye on the swinging blades. “But that’s only because your other emotions aren’t here to give you the whole picture.”

With a single, well-timed thrust, the image and illusions dissipated. The red ring, fitted with a shining ruby, fell to the ground. Aidan picked up the ring and inspected it briefly. Two down, four to go. He shoved the ring into his pocket and ran to join his children. Rotom hovered above him.

The bright pink image of Nadia intercepted Aidan. He stopped dead and readied his sword. Neither combatant made a move.

“Please don’t do this, my love,” the apparition cooed. Nadia’s voice was unusually soothing and suspiciously friendly. “My actions will make us happier than doves.”

Aidan eyed the slightly mismatched ring and gem — a purple stone in the pink ring. “Don’t call me your love,” he said flatly. “You have her looks, you have her emotion, but you are not Nadia. Even then, that’s a lot farther than… Nevermind.”

The image shook her head sadly. “''Clearly you do not understand. / This world will be ours—how grand! / I will perfect it, given time. / Please don’t treat this like a crime,''”

“Sorry, but perfect is boring,” Aidan said through gritted teeth. “Call it tough love if you want, but I need to take that ring now.”

The gem glowed a threatening shade of lavender. “You refuse to listen, it is true / Then forgive me for what I must do,” Love said. A beam of raw energy fired from the ring, a purple line infused with a pink light.

“Magnet!” Aidan yelled as he extended his hand as if to catch the beam. A blue aura formed itself around his hand, creating a bubble of psychomagnetic energy in front of him. Aidan turned away as the beam struck his bubble.

The laser entered at full strength, but was dissipated before is even reached Aidan’s hand. The aura converted the raw power into a less threatening energy that he could absorb. Within thirty seconds, Aidan’s shoulder wound—left open when Rage had been defeated—closed. Only a scar remained.

The beam died. Love stared in surprise at the seemingly unharmed Aidan. “How?”

Aidan trembled—not from weakness, but from an overload of energy. “Love you too, Nadia,” he muttered. Then he released all the absorbed power at once. “Fus ro dah!”

The shout disintegrated the illusion. “My... Darling...” Love managed as it took the hit.

The ring dropped as Aidan drew the trapped soul into Frostmourne. Three of the seven runes glowed as he caught the Star Sapphire ring. Rotom buzzed sadly. “Are you zzzeriouzly doing what it zzzoundz like?”

Aidan closed his hand, gripping the ring strongly. “I don’t like having to capture her souls, especially with this sword, but I didn’t see any other way.” He heard Frey calling. “Come on, old friend. Let’s help my kids.”

Testimony: Frey II
Frey knew that his mom was strong-willed. Today, he learned just how strong her Will was. Literally.

His dad’s instruction of only restraining proves to make things more difficult than he had expected. Mainly because the stupid green ghost kept rewinding time whenever he managed to checkmate it.

Frey’s strategy had shifted from snare to stall. The glowing emerald apparition of his mother attacked him relentlessly. Not even Chuck Norris’ impressive skillset would last long. To make things more confusing, Nadia’s Will occasionally rewound or fast-forwarded its personal time, appearing where it had been or would be.

“You are skilled, I’ll give you that,” the image said, shifting again. “But I am more experienced in hand-to-hand combat,” Frey predicted where the Will would reappear and executed a strong roundhouse, landing a satisfying crack on the image’s temple. (Not like it mattered, since it didn’t have a skull.)

“Shut up, mom,” he said, panting. “I’ve already beaten you ten times over. The only reason you’re still moving is that you have that stupid Time Stone.”

Willpower recovered and moved back. “''Your persistence is good, your will is strong. / Compared to mine it won’t last long.''” The image formed twin daggers in its hands and rushed at Frey. The boy reacted slowly and braced himself with a force field.

Frey never took the hit. Aidan came out of nowhere and bashed the image out of the way, then went to his son. “Are you okay? You look rough.”

“I’m fine,” Frey said. “But you need to stay on your guard. This one has the-“

Something warped. Frey’s father vanished, and the image waited from where it had been standing a moment ago. Frey saw his coming dad this time, charging out of the corner of his eye. “Dad, wait!” He cried out, too late.

Frey watched as the image’s twin daggers found their marks in his dad’s chest and back. Aidan stumbled and fell, pushing the dagger in the front even further into his torso. The spectral green blades were stained red.

“Dad!” Frey screamed, running to his father. He felt Aidan’s pulse. It was still beating, for now.

“Merely... A setback...” Aidan wheezed. “I’ve... Survived worse...”

Frey couldn’t believe his father. “Dad, you’re letting out blood like the Titanic was letting in water.”

“I’ll… Be fine…” Aidan sat up with only slight shakiness. “Fear, Frey. Fear is the key.”

“What?”

“Your mother told me this...” Frey noticed his father’s eyes glowing red—but not in an injured way. “The yellow light of fear weakens the green light of willpower,” Aidan coughed. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine with a few potions,” he smirked mischievously. “In the meantime, go scare the s**t out of your mother.”

In an effort to comfort Frey, Aidan wrenched the blade out of his front with a gasp and took a swig of a crimson potion. Through the hole in his shirt, Frey saw the wound begin to close.

That did it. Frey turned around and faced the malicious Willpower, his shadow lengthening unnaturally behind him.

“Fear, huh?” He muttered angrily, “Well, that seems almost too easy now. Mom’s always been a bit of a scaredy cat. And I do like a good horror flick.” His shadow continued to lengthen, now completely covering his dad. “Let’s see... How about this one?” With a snap of his fingers, Frey plunged his mom’s Willpower into a sphere of complete darkness.

From the outside, Frey manipulated the illusion like a puppet master. He reconstructed the entire town. The 19somethings town where a group of self-proclaimed losers managed to win against an ancient evil. Specifically, he recreated its dark, dank sewers—an area that was apparently “dank” in a different way.

“This should be scary enough, right?” He muttered to himself. His dad loudly sipped more health potion behind him. “I mean, this has been memed to hell and back, but it’s still terrifying.”

The only sound within the sphere was the dripping sewer water... For now, at least. Frey couldn’t see it, but the image flickered, weakening. Something terrible was about to happen, it knew.

It turned a corner. An exit? What was the boy planning? In its best judgment (slightly influenced by the typical poor instincts of horror movie protagonists), it should wait to see if there was a trap. What it didn’t know is that it had already fallen into the trap—just as one unfortunate girl had before.

The image heard a loud crashing. Far to its right, a door had fallen, revealing a glowing orange stage and... A clown? This wasn’t a typical clown. It was something more... Sinister. It danced as its stage inched closer slowly.

Closer and closer... The dimming image stood frozen, forgetting that it had a time-warping emerald in its ring—or that it had a ring at all. With its final flicker of light, it dashed for the exit. The clown leaped impossibly far from its stage. Willpower dissipated completely with a final scream of terror.

Frey put his hands down. His dad walked past him, picking up the green ring. The fleeing soul was drawn into and trapped by the sword at Aidan’s waist. Aidan slowly walked back to his son. Other than the holes in his shirt and jacket, Frey couldn’t even tell that he had been stabbed earlier.

“That was quite a show you must have put on,” Aidan said, putting his hand on Frey’s shoulder.

“It was quite a show anyway,” Frey responded. He eyed the dark blade his father was carrying. “Dad? What... Is that? Why did the remnant...?”

“Frostmourne captures souls,” Aidan said simply. “Come on, your sister is fighting Fear. For her, that’s not a good thing, unless you’re with her.”

Testimony: Azura II
Azura shared many aspects with her mother. She was feisty, headstrong, and rather pretty, according to most people. What others couldn’t attest to was her fear—a weakness also inherited from her mother.

So when Frey engaged the green mirage, what could she do but target the yellow? Their father had said to leave the blue for last, and he was already fighting off three others at once. How was she supposed to know that the yellow image was Fear, anyway?

Azura had a lot of time to contemplate this as her mother’s sadistic Fear probed her mind and trapped her in the most horrible nightmare imaginable. Over and over, she relived her worst moments, died, then woke up to another terrorizing scene. Her parents’ death flashed before her eyes. She watched her newly-reassembled family be slain one by one until she alone was left. She suffocated as she struggled in vain to save her burning works of art. Lastly, and most terrifyingly, Azura felt herself be ripped to shreds by some unknown beast—dying without even knowing what had killed her. On and on this went, slowly chipping away at what courage she had left.

Then the cycle broke. Azura found herself being shaken awake by her brother.

“Azura? Azura, wake up, please!” Frey helped his sister sit up. “What... Happened? You’re paler than chalk!”

“A nightmare...” Azura mumbled weakly. She shuddered. “That... Thing... The thing that looks like mother,” she looked around frantically. “Wait, where is it?”

Frey pointed. Azura’s father was fighting the apparition.

“We can’t let him do that alone!” Azura said, trying to stand up. Frey pulled her down. “What are you doing? He needs us!”

“I know he does, but you shouldn’t fight that thing again,” Frey asserted calmly. “Not after seeing that you were at its mercy for a long time.”

Azura gritted her teeth. “Just because I shouldn’t, doesn’t mean that I can’t,” she managed. She pushed Frey away defiantly and ran to help her father.

Aidan blinked in surprise as Azura began to fight alongside him. He throws aside the yellow image of Nadia and attempts to dissuade her.

“You’re going to do what you want, but please think this through, Azura,” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I don’t want this thing to-“

“You always told me to face my fears,” Azura interrupted, “and now you try to keep me from it?”

“Azura, please. This is a serious case. This isn’t just- Hng!” Her father stopped short and fell forward, leaning almost entirely on Azura. The image had come up behind him and slashed across his back. “Can... You... Not?” Azura caught her father as he crumpled. A large gash ran diagonally from his shoulder.

Azura glared at the image. Her eyes flashed in anger. “You! I don’t care what kind of terror you put me through, but I will not lose my father again!” She began to swing at the apparition.

Fear’s yellow ring glowed as it floated out of Azura’s reach. “The determination in your voice I hear,” Nadia’s distorted voice said, “but soon it shall be drowned in fear.”

With a flash, Azura found herself in her nightmare again, face to face with that mysterious beast. This time, she was too angry to cower. “You can try your illusions all you want,” she screamed, “but this is my mind—my reality!”

The vision rippled. For the first time, Azura saw what monster lurked in the shadow. “Oh, it’s you,” she said in minor surprise. The beast’s origin was rather paradoxical. For a such a fearsome creature, it was only the Jabberwock from that one silly poem her mother had read. Azura had been frustrated in trying to visualize the it that she had looked it up. As soon as the image popped onto the screen, she’d fled straight to her mother. “I was scared of you once, but not anymore. How did you die again?” Azura’s brush materialized in her hand. The Jabberwock roared. “Yeah yeah, whatever. Let’s see... I think it was...” She leaped straight at the monster and swung the brush twice. “Snicker-snack!”

The Jabberwock shrieked in Nadia’s voice, which caught Azura off-guard. The illusion shattered into yellow shards. Azura caught her mother’s yellow ring as it fell. A wisp of yellow struggled to flee but was pulled to behind Azura. She followed its path to her father’s sword. A rune lit up, making five out of the seven. Aidan was pale but otherwise stood tall, as usual.

“Father... What...?” Aidan pulled her up, but his touch was cold.

“There’s not much time left,” he said. “I swear to explain this all to you later. For now, let’s complete your mother’s soul so I can shatter this sword.”

Azura glanced at Frey, who was putting some bandages away. Both shared a troubled look. Nonetheless, they followed their father as he approached the final corrupted soul fragment—possessing Nadia’s body.

Victim: Nadia
Today was supposed to be normal. Obviously, it didn’t happen.

Nadia woke up feeling dizzy. Not the “Oh wow, that was a really weird dream” dizzy, either. Her mind felt crowded, as if too many thoughts were running through it. It’s just a headache, she told herself. It’ll go away. Besides, she had tests today. She couldn’t miss those.

Unfortunately, the headache didn’t go away. It just got worse. She probably failed her Latin test—a first for her. During second period, the migraine became so bad that she had to ask to go to the bathroom. As Nadia left the classroom, her pockets suddenly became heavier. In surprise, she reached into the pocket and pulled out her six power rings.

For the split-second that Nadia held them, she noticed that something was different. Each Lantern Corps insignia had been replaced by a gem. She realized in horror which gems these were as the cluster of rings flashed a blinding light.

Nadia woke up angry. Then she woke up greedy. Then fearful. Then strong-willed. Then hopeful. Then compassionate. Then loving.

All at once, Nadia understood what had happened; someone had split her into her emotions. But why?

Six emotions fell—the ones with the rings. Compassion—trapped in Nadia’s staff—watched as the other parts of her writhed. She heard the voices speaking, commanding them to do things against their collective will. But they had no effect on Compassion. Then the voices were silent.

Nadia realized that this control was being exercised through the gems, somehow. Cognitively cut off from her other emotions, Compassion fled, knowing that there was only one person it could trust to set things right. Meanwhile, the six, now under complete control of this unknown force, began causing havoc in the school.

Nadia struggled to restrain her selves. But it was no use. Her being was confused and out of focus, experiencing seven different situations at once. In six cases, there was destruction. In one, there was a calm frowned out by the screams and ripping of the other six views. In addition, there was another presence inhabiting her body, controlled by the blue ring of Hope. Someone, something that had orchestrated this turn of events and now exercised near complete control of her shattered soul.

Compassion caught Aidan between his classes. “Aidan!”

Nadia’s partner gave the image an unusual look. “N? Why are you here? ...And why are you glowing purple?” “There is no time to explain. My school is being attacked.”

“And you can’t handle it yourself? You’re just as capable as I am. Besides, I have a test next period.”

Normally, this would have elicited a smirk or some other proud reaction. But without the other emotions, Compassion was unable to put herself before others. “Aidan, the attacker is me. I am not whole.”

Aidan squinted at the image. Suddenly, his eyes grew wide. “Oh... Oh my god— are you?”

Compassion nodded. “My soul—“

“Stop right there,” Aidan put a facade of calm over his panic. “Go back and take as many people as you can to safety.”

Compassion agreed. Aidan vanished as Nadia returned to her school.

Some people still wonder what happened that day. Rumors circulate of a ghost bathed in a purplish light shielding students with a staff and shepherding them to safety. Others say that the ghosts were the ones attacking the school. Still others describe a boy with a dark blade, fighting off multiple ghosts at once to give students a chance to escape. Some said that they recognized both figures, but few believed them.

Whatever they saw, they were usually right. Within ten minutes, Compassion and Aidan managed to evacuate the entire school to the safety of their other-dimensional castle. Nadia took grim satisfaction at their work while her other six parts communed in the football field, in a variety of reactions. Aidan met up with their children while Compassion broke the bad news.

Now, she watched—and fought—Aidan, Frey, Azura, and even Rotom. Nadia flinched whenever she managed to land a substantial hit on Aidan. She hated to see Frey have his impressive creativity exhausted by Will. She watched in sorrow as Fear terrorized Azura so sadistically. Each time one fell, she felt part of her soul he sucked into Aidan’s sword, and for the rest of the time that emotion only experienced a dark, shadowy void.

But with each emotion defeated, Nadia’s mind grew clearer. The sword also managed to begin patching her soul together. The fragments became one again. They were trapped in an oppressive darkness, but at least they were one.

Another soul also resided in the sword. It too was incomplete, but it wasn’t in fragments. The essence flowed in from some unknown source, like the sand in an hourglass. There was something familiar about it, but with her split focus and the only partial formation, Nadia couldn’t put her finger on who it was.

Now, the Recreators were approaching Nadia’s body, infused with what she believed to be her most powerful emotion: Hope. The sapphire ring and matching gem glowed on Hope’s finger as she channeled forces unfamiliar to Nadia. Hope chanted and moved its arms, urging the storm to grow ever stronger.

It paused for a while when Aidan, Frey, and Azura approached. Hope turned around. Unlike Nadia, it radiated a kind of calm, contrasting sharply with the whirling tempest of debris behind it.

“I watched you struggle through these trials, though it took you quite a while.” It said. “''Now, you face your partner’s Hope. How, I wonder, will you cope?''”

Nadia almost couldn’t bear to look at Aidan. He had a disturbing amount of red all over his clothes. The jacket that she had bought for him was slashed and bloodied. His eyes burned fiercely, barely restraining his lycanthropy. His skin was unnaturally pale, even more so than when she had seen him sick.

“At least you admit that you’re not her,” Aidan growled. “Unfortunately, you have her body. I kinda need that. N’s soul needs to inhabit something, and it’s not going to be me. Or a robot or whatever,” Aidan sheathed the sword near the staff. Compassion could hear the blade whisper. “And since you have the body, I can’t exactly slash you like the others. So please, I beg of you, take off your ring. It’ll be easier for both of us.”

Nadia wanted to. Unfortunately, the ring and the stone prevented her from doing so. Her body only housed 1/7 of her, compared to the whole... Whatever it was that also occupied it.

Aidan began to walk toward Hope alone. The ring of Space glowed, but Aidan didn’t seem to be aggressive. The ground beneath his feet shifted constantly so that Aidan walked but did not advance. In spite of this, Aidan kept walking. “Come on, N. You’ve stabbed me five times over already. Look what you’ve done to this jacket! You’re the one who bought this!” He put his hands through the cuts.

The ground continued to shift. “''Your partner, your friend is no more. Cease your insistence and prepare for the endless war.''” “An endless war, huh? Is that what this is all for?” Aidan unbuckled his sheathed sword and tossed it away. “Well, it’s hard to have a good war without weapons. Will you really fight me if I don’t have a weapon on me?” Compassion noticed something up Aidan’s sleeve. Literally.

The ground stopped moving. Aidan was allowed to advance. Azura ran to join him but was pulled back by her brother.

“What are you doing?” She demanded, “He’s unarmed and approaching that... Thing! He needs us!”

“He needs us here, Azura,” Frey insisted. “You know how dad is. He always has a plan, but he seldom tells anyone.” Azura’s strain loosened up a little, but not by much.

Hope found itself face to face with Aidan’s gently determined face. “So, is this a peaceful resolution?” He placed his hand on Nadia’s tenderly. “Can you stop this now?”

Hope became rigid. Nadia knew what was going to happen, and was doing everything in her limited power to prevent it. “''You really shouldn’t have tossed away your tool. To come this close unarmed, you are a fool.''” With those words, a glowing sapphire blade ran Aidan through. The staff shook. The sword, laying at the side, shuddered as five soul fragments struggled to break free. Azura broke free from her brother’s grip but tripped and fell on the grass, sobbing. Frey could do nothing but stare. Rotom buzzed quickly in panic, before getting distracted by some other noise and going to search for it.

Aidan winced in pain but seemed to be the only one who had expected the thrust. He leaned heavily on Hope. “I’m the fool... am I?” He coughed weakly. “You... of all people should know... that I’ve survived worse than this.” Worgen fur began growing on him as the voice deepened to the bestial growl it usually did. “You couldn’t even... Betray me correctly...”

Hope pushed the blade further and leaned in closer. “He keeps talking, this one? You have lost, I have won.”

“You know...” the Worgen grunted, smirking, “I know you’re a righty... but just this once... you should’ve used your left.”

Aidan’s claws gripped the ring on Nadia’s free hand and yanked it off. The sapphire glow and sword dissolved as Nadia took a step back. Whatever was in the ring lost control of Nadia, but she still couldn’t move. Aidan staggered back, still bleeding, and clicked a detonator he’d slipped up his sleeve. A few feet to the side, his dark blade exploded, releasing the five trapped soul shards. Rage, Greed, Fear, Willpower, Compassion, and Love all rushed back into Nadia’s body. She inhaled sharply and regained total control of herself. Aidan too inhaled sharply, then slumped to the ground. The storm ceased immediately.

Nadia stood still for a moment, wriggling her extremities. Nothing was broken, nothing hurting, she thought. Wow, he really- Oh gods, Aidan!

Postscript
//Okay yes fine, "cliffhanger REEEEEE" Frankly, I'm trying to shorten these as much as possible. It's super inefficient for this platform at least. Maybe I should move some of this to Fanfiction.net like my friend told me to. But keep an eye out. I hope the aftermath goes up maybe a week or so from now? If not, head to the Discord and spam-ping me. I think my tag is in my message wall intro.

//Last thing; if you're here and you're in Vergel's Heroes role-play thing in the Discord, double check the names in this story. Just cause.