ONE Team Esports 2-1 Anti Eco Eco Club

rib.gg vlr.gg
Bind: 7-13
Haven: 13-9
Lotus: 13-7
ONE Team Esports rib.gg
Anti Eco Eco Club rib.gg
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Map 1: Bind

Team	ATK	DEF	Total
ONE Team Esports	2	5	7
	DEF	ATK
Anti Eco Eco Club	6	7	13

ONE Team Esports	ACS	K	D	A
W1nner Viper	271	15	17	11
xYU Jett	238	17	16	6
YanLi Brimstone	187	13	15	5
ChiaWei Skye	111	7	15	5
ra1nYu Breach	78	6	18	6

Anti Eco Eco Club	ACS	K	D	A
MrCANI Reyna	289	22	10	1
Inori Raze	252	17	12	6
trinity Skye	225	17	11	6
PPDBJ Brimstone	217	16	12	3
Sing Harbor	121	9	13	4

Detailed Bind Statistics

Map 2: Haven

Team	DEF	ATK	Total
ONE Team Esports	9	4	13
	ATK	DEF
Anti Eco Eco Club	3	6	9

ONE Team Esports	ACS	K	D	A
W1nner Omen	246	18	13	12
xYU Jett	230	18	13	3
ra1nYu Killjoy	215	15	15	6
YanLi Breach	189	17	16	6
ChiaWei Sova	178	14	10	12

Anti Eco Eco Club	ACS	K	D	A
trinity Sova	329	26	16	3
MrCANI Jett	201	15	17	2
Sing Omen	128	9	17	13
Inori Breach	127	11	15	5
PPDBJ Killjoy	80	6	17	2

Detailed Haven Statistics

Map 3: Lotus

Team	ATK	DEF	Total
ONE Team Esports	6	7	13
	DEF	ATK
Anti Eco Eco Club	2	5	7

ONE Team Esports	ACS	K	D	A
ra1nYu Killjoy	217	14	12	3
ChiaWei Fade	208	17	10	6
YanLi Astra	205	16	13	7
xYU Raze	205	16	12	3
W1nner Viper	162	13	14	4

Anti Eco Eco Club	ACS	K	D	A
trinity Gekko	216	14	13	8
Sing Omen	196	14	15	9
MrCANI Jett	193	13	16	2
PPDBJ Killjoy	153	10	18	3
Inori Breach	142	10	15	5

Detailed Lotus Statistics

There were only two of them left in the boat when Pierrat awoke. Only Gilgen sat perched at the other end of the skiff now, already teasing out the bellows of that dratted instrument.
‘What happened to Dimitri?’ Pierrat asked, fighting his way out of an exhaustion that sleep only seemed to make worse.
Gilgan raised his eyebrows and shrugged, the accordion letting out a pained wheeze. ‘I thought you might know.’
Pierrat neither knew nor cared. He’d never exactly liked Dimitri. No one had.
‘Perhaps the shark got him,’ Gilgen added with a supplementary scraping squeal of the accordion for dramatic effect.
Pierrat cast a cautionary glance over the side of the boat. The dark shape that had been following them for the last few days seemed to have vanished.
‘Lucky shark,’ he muttered.
***
The wind cried again that day as if it knew their fate. Four days alone in open water and what little hopes of salvation he might once have held had dissolved.
All the while, Gilgen pummelled away at his accordion, the bellows shrieking and whining like a drunk cat in a burning barn. He’d never seen an accordion abused that badly before.
What were the chances? Of all the people he could have escaped with he’d ended up in close quarters with Saint Dimitri the Pious and Gilgen and his hateful accordion.
The night the ship had sunk had been nothing but a blur. He’d been roughly awoken at some arcane hour by the news that the ship was on fire. The night had been full of the drumbeat of running footsteps and hoarse shouts and the swinging shadows of the lanterns, and Pierrat hardly had the time to get his bearings before he was bundled into a boat and pushed out into the safety of the cold, empty ocean.
It wasn’t until the sun rose the next day and the ship was long gone that he realised there were only two others with him and that they’d been sent out with no food or water. Instead, they had only one oar, a dog-eared bible, and a pistol loaded with a single bullet. And Gilgen’s accursed accordion.
Pierrat had thrown the oar overboard in a rage before the end of the first day. He’d hurled the bible after it a few hours later and threatened to send Dimitri over too if he didn’t cease his wittering about the Lord’s Divine Grace despite the incontrovertible evidence against it.
A dreadful mistake. He could’ve eaten that bible.
Gilgen had moved on to playing something that sounded like a hornpipe being put through a meat grinder. Pierrat gritted his teeth. This was hell, wasn’t it? Surely hell could sound like nothing else.
‘For all that is unholy, can you just shut up? For once in your miserable life? Must I suffer my final days accompanied by the sound of a broken harpsichord full of caoutchouc and doorknobs?’
Gilgen only shot him a hard look and played louder still.
There was only so much a man could tolerate. That accordion should have gone the way of the bible long ago. With a shout, Pierrat lunged at Gilgen, the boat swaying wildly beneath him.
Gilgen stopped him short with a boot to the chest and kicked him back. ‘Don’t you start at me, lad. It’s that impetuous temper that’s got you into this mess, and it’ll do little to get you out of it.’
‘How dare speak to me–’
‘What did you expect, treating people the way you do? Do you believe our circumstances are nothing but a cruel twist of fate? That the three of us didn’t bring this upon ourselves?’
Hazy memories of the night of the fire swam behind Pierrat’s eyes. He’d been too wrapped in panic to register that there had been no smoke nor the distant glimmer of fire as the ship faded away into the night.
‘You know, I’d first assumed you’d killed Dimitri in the night,’ Gilgen continued. ‘But like as not, he threw himself over to spare himself the inevitable.’
‘If I had done, you’d have thanked me for it,’ Pierrat growled. He leapt forward, diving for the gun, but the boat pitched heavily under his weight.
Pierrat stumbled, his shins smacked into the gunwale, his hands grasped at empty air.
And the dark sea rose up to meet him.
***
He spluttered to the surface only for a wave to throw him under again. He fought his way back up, strength failing, lungs burning, the brine sour at the back of his throat.
Over the sighing wind, he caught the first strains of Gilgen’s latest tuneless shanty.
Beneath the rolling swell, something large brushed against his foot.
No, he thought as he dipped under again. Surely this was hell.
---
Original here.

Chapter 1 Previous Chapter
“Nice to meet you, Sanya. Look, me and that scary-looking but actually sweet guy here got captured like you and we will try to flee. Coming with us?”, asked Raphael pointing towards George
The young girl paused, her gaze fixated upon them with unwavering intensity. Seconds stretched into an eternity as Raphael held his breath, waiting for a sign, a glimmer of trust. And then, finally, it came—a subtle nod, barely perceptible, yet filled with unspoken understanding. It was a flicker of affirmation that resonated deep within him, lifting the weight of uncertainty from his weary shoulders. Relief flooded through his veins like a soothing balm, grateful that he had managed to persuade her to join their escape, sparing her from the desolate fate of being left behind. With determination in her eyes, Sanya reached out and clasped Raphael's hand, mustering every ounce of her weakened strength to lift herself up from the cold, unforgiving floor. As she rose, her fragile frame trembled, bearing the visible signs of prolonged hunger and deprivation. Her cheeks were hollowed, etched with the haunting shadows of days without any food. As Raphael eyed her from up and down, his stomach began to grumble.
“Sorry, right now, we don’t have anything but we will get you something as soon as possible. Do you have enough strength left to run or should we carry you?”, Raphael wanted to know. “I think, I ca-”, Sanya started before getting interrupted by George as he scooped her up, holding her in a princess carry. “We don’t have that much time, ya know? I am all for helping her, but if she can’t keep up, we will be slowed down and caught again. And this time they will not just capture us, I guess.”, the Orc said grumpily. “Ya have to put up with it, till we are safe, okay little princess?” “O-o-okay.”, Sanya said intimidated. “Good, Raphael, ya need to be up front. No cold feet, understood?”, George said.
Filled with newfound determination, Raphael stepped forward, taking the lead as they ascended the stairs. To his right, hanging on a solitary nail, he spotted the keyring that held the keys to their former cells. And directly ahead of him loomed a sturdy bulkhead door, a barrier between their confined world and the unknown outside. Proceeding with caution, Raphael exerted gentle pressure on the door, creating a narrow gap that offered a glimpse into the world beyond. As his eyes beheld the sight before him, a sense of stark contrast washed over his senses. There, sprawling beyond the threshold, lay a meticulously maintained garden, resplendent in vibrant shades of green. A winding gravel path led their gaze toward the very cellar they had longed to escape. But what caught Raphael's attention was the centerpiece—a fountain adorned with a striking modern art sculpture, an arrangement of hexagons and rectangles. Though Raphael had never quite grasped the allure of this particular art form, his focus now remained fixed on the grand manor standing tall in classic English architectural elegance. He knew all too well that such properties commanded exorbitant prices, symbols of immense wealth. This revelation only grew more apparent as his eyes fell upon the carport housing at least three luxurious supercars, each one a testament to opulence and excess. Having indulged in his fair share of mindless television, Raphael was all too aware that properties of this caliber were rife with surveillance, their every move scrutinized. It seemed as if all hope was slipping through their fingers, until a revelation pierced through the haze of uncertainty. In a secluded corner, a cage confined the majestic Griffin, captive against its will. The flicker of an idea ignited within Raphael's mind—a daring plan to unleash chaos and diversion. If he could dismantle the bars of the Griffins cage, setting the magnificent creature free, the resulting pandemonium would create the perfect distraction, enabling them to jump over the fence that encircled the property and forge their path to freedom, if the Griffin did not decide to attack them instead.
“I have a plan to get out of here. But it is dangerous.”, Raphael began explaining his plan.
As Raphael delved into the details of their predicament and outlined his audacious plan for their escape, he couldn't help but notice the growing gravity etched across George's face and the fading of colors from Sanya's. The weight of his words settled upon him, weaving a tapestry of doubt and uncertainty. Even as he spoke, the very sound of his own voice seemed to echo with the specter of a perilous undertaking—a mission that bordered on the brink of death and played with it. Yet, in his heart, he saw no alternative. Desperation propelled his determination forward, and the need for a diversion, compelled him to consider the Griffin as their savior. Regrettably, he alone possessed the ability to dismantle the confining bars of the creature's cage, thus placing the weight of this outright crazy task solely upon his own shoulders. Seeking solace in his own reasoning, Raphael attempted to convince himself that this act of self-sacrifice would give purpose to his existence. Perhaps, safeguarding the lives of his companions and giving his life while doing so, was the meaning why he was born. A huge contradiction to the bitter reproach his father had hurled at him in moments of drunken tirades. In the wake of his revelations, a hushed silence enveloped the trio, hanging heavy with unspoken thoughts and uncharted emotions, until it was Sanya who finally broke the stillness, her voice infused with a mix of trepidation and resolve.
“Uhm. If you can use magic, why can't you just not throw it?”, Sanya asked innocently.
Next Chapter
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Captain sits in a somewhat small room on board Commander Beckett's ship.
Commander Beckett sits across from him, setting up his holo-display to record the interaction.
Alien Captain: "Is this interrogation truly necessary, Commander Beckett?"
Commander Beckett: "This is not an interrogation, Captain. This is merely us asking you a few questions about the entity you encountered."
AC: "Which one? The Voidborn, or the Stellar Dragon?"
CB: "The dragon, but I would be interested in learning about the Voidborn as well. That is, if you wouldn't mind."
AC: "I would not, but I am confused as to why you would need such information from me. Was he not a human? Does his current form of existence not have something to do with the Terran High Command?"
CB: "Actually, it doesn't. As far as Terran High Command was concerned, he failed in his attempt to become what he is. The genetic modifications didn't hold up, and, as far as we were made aware, he died in the attempt at conversion into his current form. So, imagine our surprise when we have an existence claiming to have formerly been a human, that we were unaware still existed, quite literally flying through space, saving folk from some kind of nightmare creature we were also unaware existed."
AC: "... you do realise that the Data-net is accessible to all, yes?"
CB: "... I am, but Terran High Command doesn't believe anything it doesn't have actual living proof of. Which is unfortunate because we're living in some very interesting times, and if they continue to cling to only believing what their eyes see, then we're screwed."
AC: "Very well. I will answer what I can, but I do not know very much of anything about the Stellar Dragon."
CB: "That's fine. Honestly, what you know is more than we actually know about him."
...
Human Dave exits a room and sees Captain leaning against a wall just outside waiting for him.
Human Dave: "So, Captain, how was your interrogation?"
AC: "Remarkably civil, all things considered. I have been accused of much in my life, simply as a member of my species, but to be only asked questions on what I saw was a refreshing change of pace."
HD: "Yeah, I've seen first-hand the kind of reception Cradelians get out there."
AC: "Did they ask you about Drakonis as well?"
HD: "Yes, along with taking my recordings of the Voidborn. How is it that Terran High Command didn't know about something like that?"
AC: "Commander Beckett informed me that they did know of it, but chose not to believe that it existed."
HD: "... yeah, that sounds about right. Terran High Command doesn't bother with such useless things like common sense or the Data-net for truthful information."
AC: "That particular belief struck me as odd, Human Dave. Why would they willingly refuse to believe such information?"
HD: "Fear, mostly, I suppose. Can you imagine if your people were living on your cradle-world for hundreds and thousands of years, and suddenly, one day, an apex predator simply appeared? No indication during those hundreds of thousands of years that it even existed, then it just up and wipes out a city. And apparently, it's always been there, but your people have just been unbelievably lucky never to have seen one before."
AC: "... your argument is sound, Human Dave. I am struck with Apex Fear with only the mere thought of this hypothetical scenario."
HD: "And that's probably why they didn't want to believe that it was real."
Human Dave and Captain walk through the hallways, getting lost several times, and having to ask for directions many times; both engrossed in their conversation.
After far longer than they should have taken, they finally emerge into the docking bay, and start towards the familiar form of Captain's ship, before hearing a voice.
Unknown voice: "Yo, dumbass!"
Human Dave goes still, and turns his head to regard the one who spoke.
HD: "I'd recognise that damn voice anywhere!"
Human Dave turns his whole body, and charges at the one who spoke; who, in turn, starts charging at Human Dave.
The two collide with a THUMP, and Human Dave is the one to fall back after their chests collide.
HD: "Damn it, Barry. Would you stop being so fucking tall, you arsehole?"
Human Barry: "Make me, little brother."
Human Barry extends his arm to Human Dave, and pulls him to his feet.
HD: "The Hell are you doing all the way out here? I thought you were getting that pirate ship you stole retrofitted."
HB: "Okay, firstly, it was acquired by us. We took it through completely legal means. And we even got it registered, so stop saying we stole it."
HD: "You killed the pirates who were trying to rob you, and robbed them of their ship."
HB: "See? Completely legal. And they weren't going to use it after that."
HD: "Yeah, about as legal as that time you took Dad's speeder out and--"
Human Barry quickly covers Human Dave's mouth with his hand, and fixes a glare at him.
HB: "We made a promise not to speak of that again, baby brother."
Human Dave pulls Barry's hand off his mouth.
HD: "That was under the prerequisite that you never call me 'baby brother' ever again."
Human Barry's eyes widen in shock.
HD: "And you just broke it, so there's nothing to stop me from snitching now!"
Human Dave runs from Human Barry, and activates his holo-display.
HB: "OH NO, YOU FUCKING DON'T!"
Human Barry chases after his brother, who is starting to yell into his holo-display as he runs from his brother.
Captain watches on with amusement.
...
Both Human Dave and Human Barry sit in the Mess Hall of Captain's ship.
Human Dave is nursing a black eye, while Human Barry is hunched over, clutching his side.
The brothers glare at each other, before bursting out laughing.
Human Barry winces at the movement, and clutches his side tighter.
HB: "Aw, fuck! Don't make me laugh, you idiot!"
HD: "You're the one who got me in the eye, you arse!"
HB: "Yeah, but you got me in the rib. How am I meant to do anything with this?"
HD: "You never did say what you were doing out here."
HB: "Beckett sent us a message that you got involved in some kind of situation. Mum was setting up your kids with a home of their own at the time. The family home is pretty big, but even it can't contain 15 people at once."
HD: "I've been meaning to visit again, but we had some trouble getting any cargo hauls heading back this way for a while now. I think we found out why, though."
HB: "Yeah, I heard. You got attacked by some kind of space squid?"
HD: "Oh, is that what they called it? Hold up; I'll show you."
Human Dave sends a file through his holo-display to Human Barry.
Human Barry opens the file, and watches it, still hunched over in pain.
Which quickly fades as he realises exactly what he just watched.
HB: "I assume you didn't mean to show the message you made for us?"
HD: "... ah, shit. I sent you the unedited one."
HB, grinning: "It's good, Dave. You're finally getting in touch with your feminine side."
HD: "Oh, go fuck yourself, you absolute arse!"
HB: "No, but really, are you okay? That can't have been easy to go through."
HD: "I'm fine, Barry. Not the first time I've had to deal with PTSD, remember?"
HB: "I do. And I do remember you drank yourself almost to death before Mum got through to you."
HD: "..."
HB: "Is it so hard to think we might be worried about you?"
HD: "... no. I know you guys looked out for me at my lowest, and I haven't relapsed in a long time."
An Aflarrian waddles its way into the room, and climbs onto Human Dave's lap.
HB: "Being out here with Captain has been good for you. And these little guys as well."
Human Barry leans over, and gives the Aflarrian a little pat on its head, as it lounges on Human Dave's lap.
Human Dave starts stroking its back, and it purrs in happiness.
HD: "Yeah. They'll keep me from being too reckless, and Doctor does know about my history, so she's been keeping an eye on me as well."
HB: "Is she still obsessed with Donnie Yen?"
HD, witheringly: "Unfortunately, yes. Wait. How do you know about that?"
HB: "You asked for the movies you've been watching. Who do you think has been sending them to you?"
HD: "Wait a second. You've been sending me stuff from your personal collection? You swore that you'd never do that again after I accidentally corrupted one."
HB: "I did. I also acknowledged that it's been almost two decades since that happened, and I let go of that grudge a long time ago."
HD: "..."
HB: "Besides, I know you won't let them get damaged now, since you're on a ship filled with people obsessed with them. And I'm pretty sure that Doctor will never forgive you if she can't see Donnie shirtless ever again."
HD: "... God forbid that ever happen. I'm pretty sure that she'll smother me in my sleep if it does."
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Equisa frowned as she looked at her bosses again. The three Sprilnav Elders before her, not even Refined Elders, were simply staring at her disdainfully as if she'd asked if gravity was real. One of them wasn't even bothering to look at her and instead was scratching at his neck, likely a result of a bite.
A long time ago, there'd been someone who had released genetically modified Sprilnav into the air. They had been modified so heavily that it was definitely illegal, but the creatures were unusually hardy, bred fast enough to double their populations in a day, and constantly irritated most Sprilnav, even those who weren't Elders. And, of course, the products to prevent the bites were extra expensive, with planned obsolescence just another part of their hated design.
"But why can't I go back? There's no good reason for it. I want to see Joshua and Meihala again." She missed them greatly. Equisa had forgotten how lonely life was when there was no one you could call a friend. Even with all the wonderous tech of the Primary Galaxy, there was nothing that would fix that. Nothing real.
"Is fornicating with them your only reason for wishing to see them?"
"No," she replied. "But my relationship with them is a factor. I don't understand why you're constantly stonewalling me. It's unnecessary."
"You were trying to share technology with them."
"Then I won't do that anymore. Simple. Happy?"
"No."
"I can sign a binding non-disclosure agreement."
"You did last time, too."
Equisa scowled.
"I would like to talk with Nova, then."
The looks of disdain became those of derision. One of them looked like she was about to laugh at her.
"Nova is a Progenitor. He does not have time for you, much less should his divinity be tarnished by our presence. No, you are going to remain here and wait. Go find something else to do than waste our time."
The Elder pulled a hood over his head, tightened the straps of his cloak, and made a sign with his claws for the other two to follow. Equisa knew she wasn't invited to whatever meeting they were about to have. She assumed that she was going to get fired now and would have to find another place to work. That would be both demeaning and difficult. Another reminder of what she'd lost by being forced to leave the Alliance behind.
Equisa turned around mournfully, gazing at the door which led to the main corridor and elevator to the ground floor of the building. With absent amusement, she noticed that the windows had extra bars on the sides to prevent people from jumping out. Though she could jump off the very highest building in the city and come out unscathed.
Clearly, this wasn't getting her anywhere useful. Equisa had to re-think her options and determine a path forward. She exited the building, weaving through the crowds of Sprilnav that were walking and flying through the streets between the massive skyscrapers. Some of them had bought personal flight devices, useful for those who didn't want to deal with pedestrians. But it often led to disaster when people got drunk. But there were always more Sprilnav, so the accidents weren't being dealt with anytime soon.
She could see the high arches overhead, supported by huge amounts of metal and a superstructure that went down to the very core of the planet-sized city. After grabbing a few pieces of food that looked particularly good, like some meat from a new cloning facility, she settled down on a patch of artificial grass. There were other Sprilnav there, mostly couples on quiet excursions or children playing on various different playsets. But Equisa was alone.
She'd never had any children and didn't intend to. None of her previous mates had lasted longer than a few hundred years at most, which hadn't ever been enough time to unravel the complicated mess of secrets and suspicions surrounding almost every Sprilnav Elder. And having relationships with the common Sprilnav would be seen as a black mark on her reputation, perhaps the equal of the one she'd apparently received for daring to love two humans instead of some dry Elder who only moved one day a year.
While her relationship with Meihala and Joshua had been sudden, it hadn't been bereft of real love. She really did love them and wanted to have friends again. For far too long, she'd been alone. She didn't like feeling that anymore because it was in times like this when depression could sink its claws into her without warning.
She'd been trying to get in touch with the Alliance again without success. Even the more secret emergency methods she'd established weren't working at all. No quantum connections were successfully linked with her implants. Errors and notifications about having no access plagued her vision as she tried in vain to even send out a single message.
There was no way for her to reestablish contact, which worried and angered her. Even her ship was being watched, not that she could actually get to the Alliance using it. Wormholes were far too expensive for people of her stratum to be able to afford.
And she didn't have sponsors that would be willing to pay, either. She needed information, friends, and actual help. Help that no one was giving her. Her bosses didn't even care. It saddened her greatly. Equisa didn't know where she could find Nova, either. It wasn't like he was easy to find unless one knew where to look. He could easily disguise himself as a normal-looking Sprilnav, after all. Many technologies existed to allow that, and Nova likely had the best of the best.
Of course, Equisa wasn't sure how one could hide a tail, but that was just her. Even being able to have seen him once in her life was already far more than most Sprilnav would ever know. In that way, she'd been exposed to a higher power. Within the Sprilnav, the Progenitors were gods. They had cults and religious followings in their names, political power so immense that not even the rest of the species together could pool their resources enough to resist.
It was said that no one disagreed with them. And they didn't. Not if they wanted to continue existing. Equisa had a feeling that if Nova wanted to help her, he would. Though it wasn't like someone of his stature would appear before her.
"Why not?"
Equisa could feel the mindscape bend slightly and looked up to meet the eyes of a being that was far beyond her own abilities to comprehend. She didn't know what she felt at that moment.
Certainly surprised, for sure. A large amount of reverence for him and a growing disbelief that she wasn't dreaming. Perhaps she really was lying in bed with Meihala and Joshua again, and this irritating life would disappear when she awoke once more. But when she opened her eyes again, Nova still stood before her.
His small stature was quite distinctive. Despite her height advantage, there was no question as to the hierarchy of power here. Even the grass was bowing to him, bending low to the ground in a way she'd never known was possible.
And his voice held an aura of command so utterly intense that she only now noticed she was kneeling. She didn't bother trying to rise.
"What?" Equisa asked.
"Why wouldn't I appear before you?"
Of course he could read her mind. She expected nothing less. But it did feel a little violating. Okay, it felt very violating, but it wasn't like she could say that to his face. Oh. She just had.
Nova's small form coiled around itself before bulging and changing color. Soon, a normal Sprilnav was standing before her, but that ethereal air was still there. It was like a smell in the air but beyond that. Something pleasant yet distinctive. It didn't seem like perfume, either. She knew that it was affecting her mind in some way, but she didn't really care. Perhaps that was part of the effect, too.
"You're way too high up. I'm a nobody compared to you. At most, I should be seeing a Refined Elder, not a whole Progenitor."
"Am I not what you expected, then?" Nova asked. His amusement was clear in his strangely commanding voice.
Equisa sighed. "I don't know whether you're real. I can't tell if you're mocking me. I... don't know how to feel about you being here."
"You don't want me here?"
"No, it's not that. I want you here, but also... sort of wonder. Why come to me now? Why me and not the countless other Elders? Am I special? Was I chosen as something greater? And why do my superiors refuse to let me return to Earth and Luna? I have a life there."
Equisa knew now, more than ever, that she didn't have a life here.
"You do not have a life there. The humans you care for will die in less than a millionth of the time you have lived. Elder Equisa, to put it simply, associating with them in such a way is not just immoral, but it is not possible in even the short term."
Nova's cold eyes made Equisa flinch back. "I... I want to live a life free of shackles. Is that so much to ask?"
"Yes. For a Sprilnav Elder from the Primary Galaxy, it is. As an Elder, you are an envoy to the species as a whole. You represent us. Know that your actions on Luna were so reviled by some that I have already dismissed motions to assassinate you."
"People came to you, a Progenitor, to ask permission to kill me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because if they did it without my permission, due to your very close ties with Humanity, it could become problematic for them. I would not protect them from the consequences of their actions. And additionally, there are some Elders that have called for you to be sealed away for somatic realignments."
Equisa couldn't hide her fury.
"They want to alter my mind, because they couldn't handle the thought of a human sticking themselves in me? How insanely childish and petty. In fact, I'd think the reputation of always being down for it is far better than that of genocidal sadists, which is the reputation our species has among all the others. Progenitor, kill me if you must, but at least let me die free."
"You shall. However, I am not here to kill you. I am here to determine what to do with you. Sending you back to Humanity would prevent a rupture of relations, particularly the only positive relations that Elders have with them period, with the exception of Nilnacrawla in Penny's head. However, doing so would also anger a number of highly powerful conservative factions, particularly those based around supremacy and purity of our species. Granted, I would not have to worry about such an issue. But you, and your family, might be different. It is entirely possible they might wipe out all of your relatives, were you to leave for Luna to go back and soil yourself among the humans."
She frowned. "I did not soil myself, Progenitor. You don't understand what it's like. Even now, everyone I thought I knew ridicules me for daring to love who I love. Even you. You're the closest thing to a god this universe has ever seen. And yet, even you stand before me, heaping your disgust for me onto my already burdened shoulders. They're not animals, Progenitor."
"Your actions are casting the Alliance in a negative light as well, in the eyes of many Sprilnav who would not care otherwise."
"And so what? They don't matter."
"They do, you just do not want to admit it. If I wanted to stop you from loving them, I could, Equisa. Right here, right now, I could rearrange your brain, altering your memories like clay in my claws. I could make you forget what love even is. I could turn you into a slave, or into a living bioweapon. My disapproval of your decisions is mostly from the standpoint of someone who had to deal with the fallout. I care not for your decision to try and mate with humans."
"When you love someone, none of the other stuff matters. I want to go back, Progenitor Nova. Back to the Alliance. I don't know who decided that this punishment was necessary, but surely your word is above theirs."
"Yes, it is. That is not the only reason I have come to see you today. And I should note that you would do better to be more careful with your words around other Elders, or especially if you have the misfortune to meet any other Progenitors."
"I am... destabilized, Progenitor Nova. I apologize. The people I love are in another galaxy, and I am not able to reach them anymore. I'm not sure if you know how that feels."
"I did. I lived a life with my mate for eons. Before the Source war, I was the happiest Sprilnav there ever was. Now, she is long dead. The Source personally dug its claws into her chest, turning her bones to a constantly exploding supernova within her body, all while keeping her alive for a subjective time that is longer than your life has ever been. My grief after the war was great enough that I considered taking my own life. So yes, I know what it is like to love. But I am warning you about the cost of your actions."
Equisa could feel the venom in his voice. It triggered her instincts to run, but her muscles wouldn't move. Terror rang like a bell throughout her psyche as she was consumed by the hunger in Nova's eyes. And then, it all faded. The bone-curdling fear disappeared, and Nova tilted his head. She took it as a cue to speak again.
"You faced the Great Enemy alone?"
"Not alone, until she died. Yes, the Source killed her. Do I hate it? Not really. The deed is done, and the scar is cold. The real reason for the Source war was that during the glory days, we were sucking the very life force of the psychic realm away. The Source tried to open a dialogue to prevent it, and failed. When the last of its family died, leaving it as the sole inhabitant of the mindscape, the war began."
The scar wasn't cold, that was for sure. No matter how much he liked to pretend otherwise. "I can still hear your thoughts, you know."
"Yes."
"It would be nice if you allowed me to live in my delusions for a while longer."
"Well, back to the conversation then. You claim that I have tarnished the reputation of the Sprilnav, and yet we continue to purge species in the Secondary Galaxy for the mere crime of making an AI. Even though you alone could easily reach across the galaxy to deal with it at that point." "Yes."
"But you're a god."
"Yes, I am. However, that does not mean that I wish to willingly fight another one. An AI that reaches technological singularity is also a god, as much as the concept can be constrained in reality."
"What do you mean?"
"When a being becomes immensely powerful, their conceptual weight also increases, assuming they increase their psychic energy footprint. That's why Penny was able to survive being disemboweled by Yasihaut several times in quick succession. It is part of why Elders can survive forces mundane Sprilnav cannot. It is why I could walk into a black hole and survive."
"Have you?"
"Yes."
"What is it like?"
"There are no words."
"Nothing?"
"Describing something that does not exist is very difficult. How do you count in a universe where numbers do not exist? It is much the same for them. The mess inside the event horizon of a black hole is incredibly damaging, even for a being such as myself. Were I to remain in a singularity for long enough, though it would not kill me, it would begin to hurt."
"There seems to be a lot of extra importance with concepts, then," Equisa said.
"Elder Equisa, concepts run the universe. The Source's power is conceptual, just as mine is. Even the hivemind has some conceptual power, though it does not know it for sure yet. And you will not tell it, if you are to go back to Luna."
"Can you protect my family?"
"Of course," Nova replied. He clacked his jaws once, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled.
"Will you?"
"Maybe. I will need a favor in return."
"Well, if I die completing your favor, don't hold it against me."
"Do not worry. That is not the type of favor that I require. Rather, I need you to monitor the progress of the Alliance. Particularly the powers of the hivemind, Penny, Gaia, and Brey. And the intelligence of their various AI citizens."
"Can't you do that?"
"Yes, and no. Remaining near the Source's bones for a long time is not preferred."
"Then I will try. But it may not be easy, and there is every possibility my information could be wrong."
"Yes. I am aware," Nova responded. "But I will see what you can do."
"So I can go back?"
"Yes, Equisa. Though again, do not share what you know anymore. You are allowed to provide context for situations. Sharing any technological knowledge will be looked upon negatively." "I understand. I just want to see them again."
"You shall."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"She did what?" Hive Emperor Calanii growled.
"The Alliance claims that Rank 10 Ambassador Liinara insulted them several times, and has provided a recording of what was said. It has been verified by VI analysis as authentic," his advisor said.
Calanii quickly put on his clothes, now finished with the deep massage he'd been waiting for all day. He stretched a bit, feeling the gaps in his chitin more than he used to. He was getting old, slowly. Not that he'd die of old age with the immortality treatments, but aging still was possible. And the growth hormones in it had resulted in him becoming larger than he'd once been.
"I'll come back to that later. Where is she now?"
"She has gone into hiding, likely presuming that you are going to kill her. We know where she is."
"I shall issue a formal apology, then. I will also give the Alliance any compensation they reasonably request. They are requesting compensation, yes?"
"They are."
"Then deliver the contents of their list to my desk tomorrow."
"As you wish, Hive Emperor."
The advisor bowed and left. Calanii was glad that the pheromone blocker was active right now. His anger was barely contained, especially at the thought of such a stupid blunder. Reaching Rank 10 wasn't something just anyone could do, especially as an Ambassador. Liinara would die if the Alliance requested it. And if they did not, she might still die anyway.
He'd schedule a call with them and try to reestablish diplomatic ties. There was no way that their relationship would survive any longer by being left out to thaw with such a heinous breach of etiquette. He then received another call, this one directly to his office.
The banners overhead fluttered with a light breeze, obviously artificial but still pleasant on his chitin. He'd been very stressed that past few days, with Exii'darii's jailbreak looming over him. She'd try to kill him, that was for sure. The countermeasures were being put in place all around the palace, and most military sites and urban centers would receive special equipment deliveries soon. Logistics were a mess, but when the call went out, an executive order from the Hive Emperor was an easy way to speed things along.
Calanii sauntered over to his desk, realizing that he would need much more anti-stress ointment than he'd thought. It was so intense that his actual body was starting to feel it. When he answered, the screen showed the face of a Cawlarian.
"Who is this?"
"I am Truth Speaker Huatil."
"The Nest Overlord's mate?"
"Yes."
"What business do you have with me, that he does not?"
"The Sennes Hive Union has intelligence that the Sprilnav are operating several clandestine mind-control cells, intent on sowing discord and chaos amongst your populace. They have a particular focus on government officials, such as Ambassadors."
Calanii got what she was suggesting. He didn't question how she'd learned the information. No one that shacked up with the leader of an entire nation would be some pointless nobody with no connections.
"You mean Ambassador Liinara?"
"Her and others. Rich executives at companies, such as one under scrutiny for certain actions against the Alliance several years ago."
"How long has this been going on?"
"That is unknown," Hautil admitted. "What is known is that they will begin to cement their power soon. When they feel that the have enough, they will make their moves."
"Then we must move first."
"Yes, we shall. But that does not include us alone, but also the Alliance."
"What exactly are you suggesting?"
"Well, an agreement. A treaty organization, perhaps. Drafts of the documents will be given to you if you agree to inspect them. Note that this would likely be a full defensive alliance, with all that entails. There would be no room for half-measures."
"Then why the Alliance?"
"The Alliance will be a peer player in under three years," Hautil said. "By every metric, they have already reached the level of technology of our base militaries, though not specialized technology like stealth or shields yet. In particular, their ability to have an outsized impact despite their small population due to Phoebe and Edu'frec's control over vast drone and android forces is already becoming a potential concern."
Calanii knew that was true, at least. His own spies within the Alliance had noted the explosion in their fleet size with worry. Their encryption was already incredible, though that was because of their two AIs. Furthermore, they had a whole species that quite literally could not be infiltrated for spying. Perhaps that extended to mind control, as well.
"Estimates place the number of satellites in their stellar constellation within the Sol system at 330 billion. That is enough to power hundreds of times their current civilization's total power usage. Their Mercury-class guns have been confirmed capable of breaching Sprilnav ships, placing them on par with our own battlecruiser weaponry. In terms of fleet numbers itself, they have 11 dreadnaughts, with 13 more assumed under construction, 30,000 battlecruisers, 50,000 carriers, 120,000 cruisers, 500,000 destroyers, and 1.1 million frigates. In addition to that, nearly 2 million drone craft, capable of linking to direct battle networks, directed by Edu'frec and Phoebe. These numbers have not been publicized."
"Quite something, but nowhere near the billions we have," Calanii replied. Those numbers were similar to the reports he'd received. Supposedly, most of that expansion was possible due to Guulin and Acuarfar populations being so high and the wealth of the Alliance skyrocketing along with the average living standards. And most crews were small, with only a little above the number of people necessary to run a ship being placed on one, though all had overlapping specializations. This was most true for humans, which had the ability to take all the typical specializations and roll them into one.
Due to the hivemind, a human could be the best engineer ever seen at one moment and the best pilot ever the next. Its usefulness seemed to know no bounds.
"Yes. But they can put up a fight now, and most of our fleets would be tied up as defense forces in a war."
"And mind control?"
"We have confirmed that there isn't any of it within the highest members of their government. The number of surprise scans has increased considerably, and it seems that their leadership is in a contained panic over the possibility. They seem to be looking for a capability to block the abilities of mind control chips to work period," Hautil reported.
Calanii had a theory.
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
"I would not."
So she was willing to lie to his face, then. His own intelligence agencies only had one single spy within the Blue Intelligence Agency. That was how they'd learned the method of placing chips within the brain to directly interfere with any attempts at establishing control. It was likely a stopgap measure since an Elder would likely find a way around it with enough motivation, resources, and time.
"Truth Speaker, yes?" Calanii asked, bemused.
"I am."
"How interesting. I know who you are."
Calanii could almost smell it in her carefully controlled movements.
"Do you? Who do you think I am?"
"You are an Agent. Top 100, most likely. Your control is admirable."
"You have been taught about something?"
"Yes," Calanii replied. "My uncle was a highly connected individual, just as my parents were. We do have our equilavents, you know."
Hautil grinned. "I've run infiltration missions on your so-called 'Star Raiders' before. You don't exactly run it as cleanly as it could be. I could provide some pointers, for a price."
That wasn't exactly comforting. She wasn't just in the lower numbers, either. Maybe he was even talking with someone below the designation 010.
"And you are authorized to give me that information?"
"Yes. I could be said to be a little... high in the hierarchy. Know that this is not to leave the room either. React to me normally at a summit or meeting, and we will be able to establish a proper working relationship."
"I do not trust you."
"Good."
"And when it comes to the Alliance, I will determine what actions to take."
"Don't wait too long, or they may just decide to seize control for themselves."

Chapter 29

Chapter 30 Daniel vs Elohim/Cain son of the Demiurge

Cain began to form. His body blobbing as if something inside of him is moving like a cocoon. He fell face down to the marble ground, making a blood disgusting crunch on impact. Daniel stepped back as he witness Cain's body hatching like a deformed cocoon. The insides of his body shakes and moves all over, making a mixing sounds of flesh and bone. With one step back from Daniel, a snapping sound can be heard inside the body. Strong pale fingers cuts through the cocoon. Tearing off the coat to reveal a strong pale hand emerging from within. Dark blood, bones, and flesh spread on the marble floor.
A large growing creature rises from the cocoon of Cain. The creature is humanoid in shape and by far bulkier and muscular in size. Its skin is the color of burning flesh. Strong and brutal hands with rock like knuckles. Its legs are of a deer and the hooves looked to be stones of ancient hells. The head is by far one of the most resembled because its head is of a bear with antlers as its ears. Its eyes full of treacherous hatred as they stare into Daniel's eyes. Its teeth of darkness menacingly hungers for blood and death. The heart that which Jennifer saw in the beginning became visible before his eyes. Veins are pulsing around the heart, flowing with blood of a dark eldritch god.
This is it. This is the true and powerful form of the real Cain. Born from the demiurge, the beginning of ignorance and king of all gods. The never to be heir'd prince of all gods in existence. The blood of the jealous king. Cain, brother of Abel, returned to conquer all that exists and all that dares stand in his way. He is the darkness at the edges of universes.
Daniel. A man of metal and steel. His heart filled with hope and faith. Born from the man who was a world taker single handedly but then lives freely as a free man and a father. He is a man of hope and he rises to greater strength to raise others hope and defeat the evil that stands in their way of light. He is the lantern of hope in the darkest times.
Daniel rushes forward with a jab, but the target moved away super fast. Cain spun around with his claw raised and he caught Daniel in the chest. He then pushed him far away, making him soar in the speed like the falling star. There was no mountain nor anything, so his body kept soaring before he was hit in the head by Cain's powerful blow. Daniel's body roles down from the powerful impact that he struggles to stop rolling. Cain kicked him upwards and by the time Daniel's body was up to 15 feet, Cain threw his own chains at him. The chains wrapped fast tight on Daniel and Cain pulls down with instant strength. Daniel's body crushes to the marble ground but did not make a crush. The marble floor not broken nor impacted by the blow.
The cracking of Daniel's body is heard and he groans from the pain. Cain's teeth drools with hunger for such a brutal fight as he pulls Daniel's body forward with the chains in hand. Daniel's still strong and he tries to break free from the blood curdling chains. Cain threw him up in the air but as soon as Daniel was, he finally broke free from the chains and landed on the ground with the slam of his feet. That made impact, which Cain recoils a bit backwards.
Cain threw the chains at him. But Daniel learned his lesson. He caught the chains and wrapped his hands around it. He then pulls it with his strength, forcing Cain to be pulled towards him. By the time Cain is inches in front of him, he uppercuts his right fist with the chains wrapped around it. Cain's body soars into the sky. Then was pulled downwards by Daniel's force on the chains.
Daniel was about to swing his axe but he was hit in the head by Cain's soaring fist. His head impacted against the marbled floor. A flash of discomfort of dizziness explodes in his head. Trying so desperately get out of the dizzy state, he was unable to get up until Cain grabs his arm and threw him into the exosphere. The planet is the size of a thousand Jupiters and the atmosphere is 200,000 km above.
When he enters the exosphere, his dizziness stopped and he gained back his mind and conscious. It was too late for him to go back down because Cain caught him in the neck already in a fast pace. The soared through every planet and every galaxy conquered by Cain's power hungry hand. They're able to sustain and endure such high speed that should've been impossible. "This is all the galaxies I've conquered Daniel!! All together like a family of my own!!" He laughs demonically with a bears roar. His breath so foul that Daniel turned his head away from him.
Daniel kept punching at Cain's face. But as they arrived in a new world, Cain threw him down to the ground of the planet. Daniel's body crushing through the planet and the planet exploded. The planet's explosion grew into a massive size of a sphere shape that it destroys the 12 planets near it.
As the light of the explosion fades, Daniel regained his balance in space. He watches the discarded shards of the planets float in random directions. If this is the galaxy Cain conquered, are there innocent people living within these homes? There aren't any bodies nor anything alive around him nor resides near the planets shards.
He returned his focus on Cain and saw he was going to throw the gigantic shard of a planet right at him. When he threw the shard, it soars with such fast speed. The shard hits directly at Daniel. Daniel was stuck from the shards impact. He tries to move his arms and successfully places his hands on the gigantic shard. His feet burst blue flames as he pushes against the shard. The shard's forced weight was too hard for him to push but his hopes never stopped and kept growing as he pushes.
Cain watches the shard slowly turning to a stop. He waited for something to happen, until he was suddenly hit by the shard he threw. It was super fast that the shard broke into pieces right as they impacted Cain.
Daniel, now in front of Cain, punched him in the face massively hard that Cain soars downward, traveling through hundreds of galaxies. He finally lands to a planet that is something he never expected in the first place. The marbled floor all full of steel. The sky grey as ever but there are faces watching over him. Their faces are expressionless as they are the watchers of this world. Instead of emptiness, there are statues of the ancients and unknown gods never heard of before. Pillars scattered his surroundings, collapsed by some fall from something big.
Cain have forgotten this world even existed and became much excited. His muscles have intense from the excitement of this fight. The kind of fight he never could have enjoyed for many long years. This is unlike anything else he could've ever imagined. He began to laugh with the pleasure of the battle. So much opportunities for him to do here.
Daniel instantly arrived at the planet to find Cain gone. He looked around to see where did he go. He saw the faces in the sky watching him from above. They don't seem to be harmful. Only to watch. He saw another face facing at the opposite direction. He followed where it's looking at and saw Cain with a pillar on his shoulder.
Cain swings the longest and largest pillar directly to his target. The pillar impacted against Daniel's body with heavy precision that he was forcedly flew from it. He rolled by the time he landed on the ground. He got back up to see Cain was in the air, who was about to slam the pillar downward. He pushes himself away to which he avoided the heavy blow of the pillar. The pillar broke into pieces and Cain was looking at him with furious eyes of evil. The eyes never left its dark side.
They started to brawl with their fists. Exchanging blow after blow, some failed to strike, while others made impact with bruising fists. Cain then turns around and kicks Daniel with his hooves, making him soar off into the collapsed pillars from afar.
His body crushed through many rows of pillars, scattering broken pieces of them everywhere. His back slammed into a pillar that cracks behind him instead of breaking, due to the force of the impacts of the pillars he broke through. He stood on his knees, catching a bit of his breath, whilst Cain approaches him, walking with menacing intentions. "You still don't get it do you, Daniel? That 'goal' you are so hopeful to accomplish is nothing but lies! Everyone dies, what's the big deal! You're hoping to save everyone, to save all life but you don't even realize that we need people like me! I'm the one that can make a difference and you're in my way. But if you could just join me, we'll make the world a better place just like the apocaly-"
His sentence was interrupted by the incoming pillar. He swiped it off with the swing of his arms with ease, whilst he looks at Daniel in the eye. "You think that's going to work on me? Try harder!" An axe sparked from Daniel's hand and he jumps forward, ready to swing. He knew that approaching him with a swing of his axe would mean too late. His shield sparks on his forearm just in time before Cain's aggressive fist strikes.
Daniel deflected his strike and swung his axe at Cain's left side of his abdomen in a direct hit. He held the handle with both hands and pushed him back in about 3 feet away while Cain tries to get balance. He kicked Cain in the abdomen, pulling out his axe and ready to strike again. Cain tries to catch him but Daniel ducks down, moving away. Cain then got struck in the back by the sharp edges of Daniel's axe.
Daniel jumped up and kicked him with both feet, impacting Cain's back with a brutal bone crack. Breaking his spinal cords. Cain did not fall so easily. He turns around with the look of mockery and evil. His teeth gnarled with pleasure, enjoying the pain he gets. "You know. We're not that much different, you and I."
Daniel became so exhausted and injured that he could only say one word at that moment. He was getting weak but slowly healing. The healing was, for some reason, slowed down twice than it normally does. "Why?"
The chuckles coming from Cain's voice is enough to make Daniel annoyed. "You and I took so much pain. And yet, our bodies heal from our broken, burnt, infected, and bruised body. We heal so rapidly that it's making us invulnerable to everything else. We are on this to make a better world! A better place!! And here we are!! Fighting for WHO IS THE STRONGEST TO GET OUT ALIVE!!"
He raised his arms in praise of his own plan and efforts. looking up into the sky, to watch the galaxies before him shine above him as his crown of his own justice. Daniel was not surprised. He knew what he wanted. He knew what he was doing to the world and other galaxies. Cain's ideals and principles are the means of becoming a tyrant of a new world of his own image. That makes Daniel sick.
"I'm not like you."
Cain looked at Daniel with a baffled expression. The sound of stretching The words he spoke caught his attention. "What?"
"I did all this, not for making a better world. I did all of this to save everything that holds dear to life. The people, nature, homes, all of them. I don't want to control people nor become some sick king to them. I want to give people the hope and faith. And we're not the same. Because all you do is make your own sick fantasy come to life."
Cain's face turned into madness, as way a bear gets turned into a mutated creature. His teeth drools with hatred and so is his eyes. The antlers glowed with the flames of blood as the malice grew in his chest. He slams his palm against his chest while looking at Daniel dead in the eye. "You are a fool!" He started to groan as he grabs the handle growing out of his chest. He pulled the handle with his strength. The more he kept pulling, the more pain he feels all over his body.
Finally, he pulled the staff from his chest with pleasure coursing through his heart. The staff is made of ancient hellish stones with the blood of his enemies and victims coursing through the cracks around it. He began to laugh with such menacing energy. He raised the staff up high. Two large blades emerges from the 2 sides of the staff, which is actually an axe. The blade is sharp, flowing with blood and hatred. The distorted face of his victims slides up on the blade like a reverse waterfall, until it disappears into the top of the axe.
He raised his axe high with both hands and jumped forward to strike Daniel. Daniel jumped up, avoiding the axe. He stomps on Cain's bear head and jumps off of it. By the time he lands on the ground, he turned around and deflected the blow of the axe. Screams can be heard when the impact was made, which makes Daniel spooked.
Cain raised his axe as he gains strength to chop Daniel down. Daniel was slow and he knew he won't strike in time. So he jumped away from the blow, but was then grabbed in the head. Cain punched him in the abdomen, making him soar far behind. Daniel's back hits against the pillar wall, making cracks all over it but still not break. He found himself next to a big stone of the pillar. He struck his axe into the stone, making it stick into the cracks. Then spun around and threw his axe with the stone attached, directly at Cain. He was both struck by the stone and the axe. The stone breaks from impact and the axe cuts into his chest.
He rips it off of him and threw it away. The axe flew back to Daniel's hand with the sound of echoing metal. They raised their axes and threw them at each other. The 2 axes clashed together, making a loud clang of metal with the painful screams of the unholy blade. The axes stays attached from the impact. "Why are you not releasing your anger!? Release it!! Show me the monster from your temple!!"
They rushed at each other. By the time they are 10 feet away from each other, the axes returned to their hands. They struck their blades of the axe at each other, at the same time with such powerful and intense power. The sound of ringing and metal hitting against each other is so loud that the sound of them reaches through hundreds of galaxies under a second. Daniel's axe broke into pieces and they all fell to disintegration. Daniel knelt down in pain as the sound was too loud for him to bear. Even for Cain as well that his antlers are vibrating by the powerful doppler effect.
Cain roars in the painful fury with the screams of the victims. Daniel went forward for a hit but was too slow that he got slammed in the torso by Cain's powerful swing of his forearm. Daniel's body broke through every pillar and escaped into the hugest space. He slides to the marbled floor, then regained his stance. But it was too late as Cain grabbed his neck with his bear right hand. Daniel tried to lift his hands up but the force of power holds him in place. Cain is using his power of telekinesis to hold him as he struggles to get free.
"Well. Looks like your hopes have lost. Look around you and tell me. Did anything change? Was it worth your hopes on this pathetic goal of yours? 'To save everything that holds dear to life. The people, nature, homes.' 'To give people the hope and faith.' Was it really that much big of a deal?" He scoffs, then laughs mockingly at Daniel's fading face. Slowly, the tears appeared beneath Daniel's eyes as Cain lives on, and he dies. He can't say a word. The grip of Cain's hand was too tight for him to speak. His vision beginning to fade as the world turns into hell. His friends are going to die hopeless. They're helpless without each other and once they've finally died, Cain will have their souls for eternity. Same goes Daniel. And all of life itself. The shame and pain in his chest grew as the guilt infects his mind and soul. There is no hope anymore. James, Steven, Jennifer. I'm so sorry.
"Well. Nice kno-"
Then suddenly, time has stopped. A bright light flashes in front of Daniel's eyes. The tight grip around his neck is gone and the force with it.
Chapter 31

This is the first time I’ve actually shared stuff like this with an audience and I’m pretty much a novice so bear with me. It might not make sense but I needed to put this somewhere. Thank you.
The things that we carry
I mean really carry
They aren’t physical
Sometimes we carry scars
The fading outlines on my wrists and knuckles that to me carry no significance
Signs of a forgettable brush with an errant blade or a sharp corner
“Fuck!”
Remembered only for a second
“How did I get that?”
What I want to talk about are our own personal Atlas myths
The most soul crushing weight
The weight we put on ourselves
We carry it because there’s nowhere to put it down
And sometimes, we can’t bear to separate ourselves from it.
This weight resides deeply in the mind, often latent.
Until I hear that song
Or pass that spot
That weight is the difference between then and now
You and I
The worst part
It’s my fault
I loved you the very best way I knew how
I really tried
In that trying, I failed
It’s one thing to not try
Failure is the natural outcome
But to feel like you can crawl on broken glass with a smile on your face and still fail?
That is the weight that I bear
I wake up with that weight in the morning
And sleep with it at night
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The first sensation that came to him was the gentle lapping of something cool around his legs. The feeling in question had an almost kindly character to it. He let that sensation carry him through the rivers of muddled consciousness, thought slowly emerging.
The first question was a pressing, if quite basic one.
Was he?
It dominated his mind, filling it to the brim as he asserted his existence. He certainly did exist, that he was fairly sure of - what was considering the question, if nothing indeed existed? So he must exist, but in exactly what mode or medium he wasn’t exactly sure. All he knew was of himself, drifting along a slurry of thought, with something cool lapping at his legs.
So, then if that question was, at least for the time being, answered, who was he?
He strained at the boundaries of his empty mind, and found nothing - no scrap nor iota of recollection or memory.
He gave up, and left himself to drift for an indeterminate time.
The third question, which he hoped might be a little easier to answer - where was he?
He opened something with effort, and something bright streamed in. ‘Eyes’. That’s what he had opened, and the streaming thing was ‘light’. It wasn’t the usual kind, at least he thought so, although he couldn’t exactly remember what the ‘usual’ kind was. It was soft, gentle, not so much ‘streaming’ in, but laid down on the surface of his vision like gossamer.
As his vision resolved, he became aware of what lay… in front of him? Above him? Directionality was a little fuzzy. What he did experience was blurred tones of orange, red, blue and dark purple, mixing together in splashes and strokes. The ultimate effect was something like a gradual gradient, with uncountable tiny dots letting forth that soft light.
Ah.
Starlight.
He was looking upwards then, with a sky full of stars and colour above. Again, there was that definite sense of the unusual, that this was not what skies were ‘supposed’ to look like. And again, he couldn’t quite remember what the ‘usual’ sky was to contrast. Something deep within told him that he’d seen many skies, or potentially the same sky many times, and it did not look like this.
His body, light as a feather, experienced no strain as he sat up. Once more, the unusual feeling, and once more, no usual feelings to compare it to. His legs were submerged into dark waters, which rose and fell around him slowly. Cool, but not painful or irritatingly cold, it stretched out with only the merest ripple into the horizon. Below him, yes it must have been ‘below’, was a fine black sand that gently sloped into the ocean.
So that was what was forward, now what about behind?
He turned something, his ‘head’ he seemed to recall, and found much of the same. Another sea, although this one was made out of the black sand instead of the black water. The dunes too stretched to the horizon and beyond, with the stars vanishing behind them.
So, where was he then? Evidently ‘here’, wherever here was. Now, he was certain that he’d been somewhere else before, but had no way of knowing where nor how long ago it’d been. Had he been ‘here’ before? Perhaps. There was a sense of familiarity to the place.
He stood with the merest effort, black grains cascading down to join their siblings. One foot after another sank into the damp sand and soon he’d left the imprint of his body long behind. The stars, nor the sea, nor the sand seemed to change character or position as he walked.
Onward. Onward. Onward, along what he thought was a straight line into the far distance.
It was some time later when he stopped to take a glance around, and found nothing behind him. Perhaps he’d barely moved at all, and the imprint had merely been washed away by the gentle waves, or perhaps it was too far into the distance to see. There was nothing before him either, merely the exact same sand, water, and stars. There was no lightening or darkening of the endless sky, no change in the positions of the constellations, merely the black desert, eternal for all he knew.
Perhaps no time had passed at all, and all the movement was merely inside his mind.
The water flowed over his feet as he walked at its edge, trying to discern matters of who, where, what, when, why? Perhaps he was nobody, perhaps this place was nowhere, and perhaps there was no real reason to be here other than… being here. It was all rather confusing and any time he seemed to be getting close to an answer it stole away.
Ultimately, when all the questions were gone, there was only the walk, one step, two step, across the sand.
He tried to count the steps and got lost somewhere around fifty thousand. He tried to gauge whether he was ‘hungry’, or ‘tired’. Those were things, he thought he knew, that were supposed to happen after a while. If he was remembering correctly, such things seemed to have little sway here. Hence, time passed, for him if not the world, and he found himself walking onwards.
He seemed to remember a concept of ‘day’ and ‘night’, a brightening of the darkening used to tell time. But the light was always the same here, an ethereal twilight stuck between the two. There had been something else, however, that he was sure of, that indicated the passage of night and day.
It took him another couple thousand steps before he finally had it. Sun and Moon, that had been it, hadn’t it? They were… circular, that he was pretty sure of, and one had been warm, and the other cooler, and smaller. The moon was the former, and the sun was the latter, or maybe the other way around?
New thoughts shelved for the moment, he continued on his path to places unknown. It took his fancy to turn left and wander across the dunes with the ocean to his back. Up and down, up and down, he trudged across the hills and troughs of the dunes. Yet, when he glanced back from time to time, the ocean always seemed to be the same approximate distance. He kept at it for a while, trying to see if there was any indication of distance being gained.
It was a consummate failure. The sea was still there, its lapping waters calling to his back.
Once more, he found himself at that endless shore, and in the far distance, both touchable yet incomprehensibly distant, hung a pale circle.
‘Moon’.
He remembered that, at least.
The sea had changed, gone from bare ripples to a smooth mirror. The darkness underneath its surface had deepened, something stirring beneath. It was reaching for him, no longer be beckoning, with a hunger that belied its apparent calmness. The moon hung low to touch the sea and where they met, a black shadow pressed against the interstice.
From that shadow a voice ripped across the stilled waters, prying against his ears. The worlds were fashioned out of something sharper than any blade, darker than the night sky, peeling reality with harsh syllables.
“PAIN,” it said, over and over, a drum sounded out the beat of a wild and wounded heart.
The water had crept up around him while he stared, small waves brushing just below his knees. The shadow against the moon grew great and terrible, half submerged, half silhouette. The character of the thing was impossible to make out, with only the vaguest resemblance to a horrible flower. Elements of it unfolded like petals with a luminosity that shattered the twilight of the desert.
There was a gaze, or perhaps a multitudes of directed lines of intention that intersected solely on him. He was dissected, without consideration of dignity or privacy, everything perceived and understood. The waters before him parted, drawn back like bare cloth and he saw the true scale of the thing.
It underlay the bottom of the world, an incomprehensible mass of tangled roots and mad thoughts spreading through every deep place and high recess. All merged, all twisted with no end nor beginning, and deeper, deeper still, a baleful light shining as a furious star. It pummelled his perception, tore at what little memory or identity remained, coiling and snaking those hateful roots through his very soul.
He began to slip, pulled as inexorably as gravity pulled one downard without pity or reprieve. He was a grim prize, an unknowing creature that had walked into reach of the mind flower. The waters rising, he attempted to summon a pathetic protest, to deny the fate which had been chosen for him. Such defences were swept aside and crushed with unceremonious ease, as the waters rose, and rose, and rose. He felt the first touch of the thing, uncountable mental fingers groping, and having found their target within him, closing in an impossible grip.
The scream was high and hideous, an echo of a thousand languages calling out in incomprehensible fury. His own soul began to crackle in tandem with a pain so furious it drowned every other sensation. All of it, the scream, the water, the faint pressure of the moonlight, blurred into the chaotic static. A rent in reality was beneath him, around him, the beach vanishing into the distance. He was falling into a void, where nothing and no one could reach.
The dread certainty of utter destruction was upon him. Whatever impression he’d left upon existence would be washed away, mere grains of sand drawn into the depths of the sea, never to be seen nor known by anyone nor anything.
But before that fate was sealed with oblivion, something pulsed out across the darkness. Something high and pure and beautiful where there was once only the corrupt horror of the flowering abomination.
He found himself curled up on the sand, staring out into a moonless sea.
It took him some time to remember who he was, or rather, the fact that he was, period. A sense of horror, pain, and a narrow escape from peril echoed in his head, though the detail was fuzzy. Clutching himself, and shivering despite the lack of chill, he lay on the sand for an indeterminate amount of time.
When he managed to pull himself up to his knees, he found that the scene had definitely changed. The dunes and stars were all the same, but what lay between them was entirely different. The empty air folded and swirled, little eddies and ripples and warps, turning the sand and waters into structure.
Climbing to his feet, he found that the distortions stretched out far into the distance, expanding and extending to greater heights and widths, increasing in complexity and detail. He was standing in a place, something definite and specific, built with purpose and intent.
He walked out into the warped location, clambering deeper and deeper into the distortions. He found that the shapes became more definite, and more obvious the further he went. There were flowers, yes, unmistakably flowers, of different shapes and sizes. A twisted lamppost without candle to light it, recalling other memories of warmth and lights. A rocky stream, complete with moss and lichens, so real he could almost hear the bubbling of non-existent waters.
The next dune brought more sights, trees and cobbles and blades of grass. The one after that, walls, both chest high and well above his head. It was building itself around him as he stepped over the sand, and when he crossed the last dune…
Promenades and boulevards, staircases and great lofts, immense windows and walls that looped and winded and reconnected with each other in ways that seemed impossible. Corridor after loft after wing after walkway, terraces and sloped beds and balconies and pillars. None with any colour or brightness of their own, but rather sculpted out of the stars and sand and sea.
Space itself had been folded, pinched, and pressed to create a masterwork of bizarre architecture. Between all of the structures, there were trees and flowers and lawns of both distantly familiar and absolutely alien character. It was a garden, a garden in a timeless place with no colour, yet substance.
A garden of glass.
He stepped on the transparent cobbles, and walked a zig-zagging path that turned into itself and out between an arch of a walkway. He was greeted with a small pool and the sound of falling water. He stooped and gathered a handful of a liquid that he couldn’t see, but could feel. Deep within, far larger than what should’ve fit through the portal, swam immense creatures. Coiling and folding in on themselves like the garden itself, they floated above what must’ve been an entire city, all sunk deep below the black sand.
He surveyed the series of bridges and districts that extended into the dark, before finding to his left another bench. This one had not been there before, and was now accompanied by an immaculate lamppost that emitted a not-light. From a spiralling post, there were hanging baskets of flowers with trailing vines that moved in a non-existent wind. He made his way over, and found that the bench held his weight without give.
An indeterminate amount of time was spent on trying to guess at the rhyme or reason behind the labyrinthine architecture. Eventually, he had to give up, the turns and twists impossible to follow for long. Perhaps it had not been designed at all, rather such complexity was some kind of inevitable law of this place.
There was something beside him on the bench.
He picked it up, taking more than a moment to recognize what it was, so different was it from the rest of the Garden. Solid, with a colour and texture all its own, a paper envelope, faded by age and dust, with a flaking red seal at its centre. A ‘letter’, alive and unsculpted unlike the garden, with its own sound and smell. He picked at the wax, and opened the letter with the satisfying rustle and scent of old, folding paper.
Then he departed from the grey half-life of the black beach, and found himself somewhere entirely different.
He was at a desk, his desk, a great behemoth of red-brown wood with a frankly ridiculous amount of drawers. Not that he could see much of them, with the sheer amount of parchment and books drowning the surface. He had a hand, one of warm flesh and blood, closed around an inkwell that was teetering dangerously over a fresh sheet.
He frowned at the sudden sense of displacement, sure that there was something wrong, but he wasn’t quite sure wha-
A knock at the door, hurried but strong, came to interrupt his thoughts. It was almost hidden behind one of the great red curtains arranged around the walls of the considerable room. Light bled through a handful of them, suggesting the presence of windows. Those walls that didn’t were furnished by floor-to-ceiling bookshelves stuffed to the gills. He quickly righted the inkwell, and gave some customary response while drying his hands with a cloth.
A voice, muffled by the wall, but still legible as a young woman’s, answered, and the door practically flew open. Into the room bursted a youth in the prime of adulthood, carrying a dusty grimoire. She paced toward the desk, and he suspected that she was barely holding herself from sprinting.
Before he could afford even a ‘good morning’, as was their custom, she slammed the book on his desk. This drew both an annoyed grunt and a reproachful look from him, which she responded to by nearly spilling an inkwell as she flipped open to a page. Words began to drift in and out of perspective, too blurry to make out. Clearly she was excited about something - well of course, she was always excited about something or other.
Wait, how did he know that?
How did he know her? He definitely did.
He was about to reach out, to call out, to ask her name, who she was, who he was, before her final words came into sharp clarity.
“...and that’s only the beginning, professor Efrain!”
Efrain. Yes. Yes, that had been his name. In some other time, some other place.
‘Efrain’.
The vision was gone, and he was sitting on a bench made from black sand in a garden made from the world. Above him, between all the spires and walkways, a great thing floated. It looked almost like swirling scraps of cloth and paper, scrawled in ink and charcoal, with words and symbols from many different languages. They twisted and compressed into a sharp point beyond his eye’s sight, but which he was certain looked at him.
He wasn’t pulled, that would imply that some kind of force was exerted upon him. Rather, the scene shifted and moved so that he was closer to the mass of turning lexicons.
“You do not belong here,” came a voice, authoritative and cold.
The garden, the beach, the stars and sand, all vanished upwards as he tumbled, deeper and deeper. Out of space and memory and time he fell into a warm current which carried him away back to a different consciousness altogether.
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First/Previous/Next
Happy Friday Everybody! Here's the second part of Chapter 3. As always comments and suggestions are more than welcome. Enjoy!
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The Golden Citadel Chapter 3 Part 2
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Sooner rather than later, to Mannad's almost inaudible relief, they had made it through the maze of tunnels and reached a hole to the surface. All she needed to do was climb yet again, except instead of a ladder it was a pile of rubble. Far easier in a way, at least this time she wouldn't have to exert herself going straight up. The incline and abundance of handholds was far more forgiving to her than she would have thought, not needing to climb far either as she merely needed to cover the single height of the tunnel before she was standing in the exposed chill of the open air.
Wind and dust blew gently around her whilst she stood and revelled in the exposure.
"Guess you haven't seen the sky in a while" said Shand as they walked up beside Alice.
"Even before I was frozen, my life was labs and orbital stations" she replied. "I’ve seen plenty of skies. Just rarely from the ground."
"I can’t imagine growing up without a sky. But we don’t have green anymore. Not like this planet. In our capital the only nature remaining are isolated to the parks. Instead, skyscrapers go as far as the eye can see with the occasional spacescraper reaching up like giant fingers of the Empress grasping the void. Hell, from my living hab alone you can see the dawn sun rise above the peaks of the spires, the way the light strikes and reflects off the glass…" Shand trailed off.
They stood there in silence, each lost in their respective memories.
Alice broke the shared silence between them “I tried asking earlier but you were cut off. So tell me, please, just how long was I asleep for?”
Shand seemed to shift awkwardly, as if she had been dreading the question. “I'm sorry, I don’t know for sure. Hundreds of orbits at least. Maybe a thousand. There’s something else as well”
Alice looked at her, wondering what more there could possibly be.
Shand continued “Since you woke up you seemed to have been under the impression we’re fellow survivors of… whatever happened. I’m sorry but we’re not. We’re not even from here”
Alice grabbed Shand by the arm in an attempt to get them to look at her “What do you mean you’re not from here?”
“My race are the Leasha. We came to colonise and strip mine the system before detecting your bunker’s faint signal. We barely picked it up, the only reason being we’re far removed from Sovereignty space” Shand informed her.
“Surely you must have picked up something else besides me when you approached? Anything at all” Alice begged.
“When we arrived in orbit we did very thorough scans. Beyond basic plants and lower food chain lifeforms… I’m afraid we didn’t find any signs of civilisation.” the Leasha officer revealed.
Alice let go of the arm she’d been holding like a vice. She turned to get away from the person before
her who wasn’t even human. They had looked human, but she should have known better. Surface appearances in a galaxy with multitudes of races inevitably overlapped.
Shand attempted to comfort her as she stepped back. “Don’t leave this place without a memory, this could be the last time you see the sky of your home”
"It doesn’t matter anymore anyway." Alice said curtly as she wandered away to find a secluded spot, not waiting for an answer or permission. “What good is the sky when everyone’s too dead to see it anymore”
She rushed away with long strides, around the corner of a rockslide that had formed a wall encircling where they had exited the bunker, almost like a guard keeping it safe.
Checking over her shoulder that none of the aliens had followed her, she reached out with her right hand and a holographic menu appeared before her, projected from the chest plate of her suit. She tapped an icon in the upper left and the seal around her helmet popped, releasing a small amount of pressure with a slight hiss. Dismissing the blue light with another wave of her hand, she reached up and lifted her helmet off her head, revelling at the feeling of fresh air on her unnaturally pale face. Her short coal black hair fluttered slightly with the breeze and dust blowing around her.
Alice closed her eyes and basked in the faint rays of the setting sun that had nurtured the Earth for so long. The warmth running across her body like the caress of all those she was leaving behind bidding her farewell.
She opened her red eyes again and looked at what had become of her world. The sight was almost too much to bear and tears threatened to well up.
The once grand city nestled below the mountain range was no longer even a ruin like she had thought she had seen on the camera. For a moment she could picture in her mind's eye how it was in its prime, with the packed walkways between spacescrapers that reached like the fingers of giants towards the edges of the atmosphere. Skies full of the majestic ships flitting about like worker bees tending to their queens. But as much as she could imagine, it was undeniable it was gone forever and the image faded.
Mangled wreckage rusting away to nothing marked the mass grave in front of her. Encroaching vines marred the souls staring back at her. Sightless eyes staring at her from between the shadows. All who had perished in the final moments, helpless before the inevitable fire that had consumed them.
She wished she could have stayed there forever, letting her bones form with the earth. What was one more corpse amongst the untold billions. She wished it hadn’t even happened. That the fathers and mothers and children before her had never suffered the fate that had been inevitable by the end. Mercilessly butchered by those who had sworn to protect them. The anger suffusing her being from earlier threatened to bubble back up again. A scream begged to be bellowed from the depths of her chest to the silent sky, one last howl to ward off the night. Balling her fists, she struggled to contain her primal rage. Instead, she swore a promise to the innumerable souls watching her. Begging her for vengeance so they could finally rest. An innumerable mass listening from beyond the veil for the promise they demanded.
I’ll make them pay. All of them
But just hurting them wasn’t enough. Not to satiate the shades before her.
I’ll make them hurt until the last of them begs for the mercy they never showed us. And then I’ll wipe them out from the face of existence.
Her helmet slammed back on her head, automatically sealing with a small hiss. Deep and long breaths helped to find her composure she needed to maintain in front of the strangers. Earth held nothing for her now. It was a memorial of the past and better left to the guardianship of the dead and damned. She'd miss the sun but at least now she wouldn't be trapped underground or alone.
She moved back towards the awaiting shuttle. The others had extricated themselves from the hole and were milling about while Yurisa appeared to be talking on her radio again with how her head was cocked. Shand was waiting nearby for her to return and walked with her to the strange shuttle. The lines put her in mind of a ray with two too many fins meeting at the tip. As she walked she could almost feel the heat from the burning questions Shand must have been desperate to ask but still managed to hold back.
"Take any seat you like that's free" said Yurisa as she walked past.
The rear of the shuttle was open and the rest of the squad had already boarded the troop compartment inside. Ten seats lined either side of the walls, two being taken up each side around the middle of the sections. Iftan and Mannad were on the right with Doane and Hedi on the left.
Alice was unsure where she should sit, nervous at sitting with beings she didn't know or how they would behave. Most of all she didn't want any pestering questions on the flight out of atmosphere. So she took a seat on the left just on the inside of the doorway, the furthest she could get from anybody else in the cramped vessel. Shand came on behind her and sat next to Doane with the commander taking up the rear and ending up opposite Shand, next to Mannad.
A voice came over a hidden speaker as the boarding ramp began to rise with dull motorised hums.
"Ladies and gentlemen, especially the ladies, we have a short flight back to home base with a slight chance of buffeting, please keep your seatbelts on and any in flight entertainment will be provided to you by our lovely steward"
"Can it Seash!" yelled Iftan.
If the pilot heard him or not over the whine of the engines spooling up Alice didn't know. Instead she turned and looked out of the long window which lined the wall behind her.
The ground gave away without a jolt as they took off into the sky, slowly building up speed as they climbed. The cityscape fell beneath them to slowly be replaced by a horizon of gold and green. She was happy to see green, at least her planet wasn't completely dead and maybe she could return one day.
The golden hues of the sunset sky slowly gave way to pale blues which thinned to the pitch black of space. She couldn't see their destination even if she craned her neck, the shuttle was approaching in a manner where the ship was hidden from view.
Instead, Alice watched the Earth slowly rotating below, the night side as dark as the space surrounding it. It was odd to see none of the city lights she had known so well when growing up in one of the orbital stations as a child. She remembered how she would watch the small glittering patterns like fireflies frozen in the dark. She could even name all the cities just from the patterns alone. But now there were no fireflies, no cities, no lights. The only glittering came from the stars in the void.
Her home was replaced by a large mass of purple metal of an outer hull as the shuttle must have been approaching a docking hanger. Certain enough, the purple hull was replaced just as quickly as it had appeared with dull grey utilitarian metal. As the shuttle turned she could see mighty doors beginning to close behind them, like a giant maw sealing them inside the belly of the beast. The tiny ship settled in position inside the wide empty space and engines whined back down. The boarding ramp opened again as the soldiers began to collect their equipment and disembark onto the far larger vessel.
Alice remained in position, remembering what the commander had said about quarantine. Shand disembarked with a small wave before Commander Yurisa motioned for Alice to follow her.
Disembarking behind the stern woman, Alice spotted two purple beings in long light blue fully sealed uniforms with clear plastic breathing masks affixed to their faces waiting for them.
The similarity to how human they appeared should have startled her, they even appeared to have been anticipating it with tensed stances. After the revelation given to her from Shand, she had been fully prepared for creatures ranging from the completely bizarre to those not so dissimilar to herself, like the wider galactic community she had seen in the education vids growing up. These people comfortably fell into the latter. Two eyes, two ears, mouth, nose and even hair.
If it weren’t for how they were bright purple she would have thought they were human. As she stared the more she noticed. As similar as they were, they were still distinctly alien. Their facial features were slightly too sharp, the eyes a fraction too large and the same colour as their skin, the mouths smiling wider than a human could. The effect was disconcerting, like they didn’t mean the expressions they were pulling. And their ears were pointed. Almost like elves of fantasy crossed with bats. A thin waxy sheen formed a layer on top of it all, like a second skin. As she studied the features of these people, she noticed how the sheen was attached to the masks they wore. Which meant that it wasn’t part of their anatomy after all, but rather a way to form a physical barrier not unlike a hazmat suit.
“These are the medical staff who will be performing the scan, please follow them to the quarantine room” said Yurisa.
The kindly smiling aliens waited patiently for Alice to overcome her initial shock at the sight of what her rescuers actually looked like beneath all the heavy armour. She looked at Yurisa. The commander must look similar to them beneath that helmet she realised. Shand too. And the others.
Perhaps it was the way they had seemed so unguarded around her and the full body coverings creating an illusion within her mind, but it only now hit her that her rescuers were truly alien.
Seeing that she still wasn’t moving, one of the kindly aliens took her gently by the arm and began directing her towards a door opposite the exit ramp of the shuttle. Her steps fumbled across the unfamiliar metal floor of the hanger.
As she was led off, Alice turned her head back in time to see the commander remove her helmet, revealing her own light purple skin. A small smile was also on her face, although not as large as the ones the medical personnel sported. Yurisa’s piercing and equally purple eyes gazed back at her, somehow looking into her own, past the glass faceplate.
A slight chime and smooth whoosh of the door admitted Alice into the quarantine room. The alien let go of her arm, allowing her to step inside. Another chime and whoosh of the door closing and the Commander’s gaze was cut off, replaced by a plate of glossy glass and metal. Looking at her new surroundings Alice saw the room was made from the same dull grey metal of the hanger. Perhaps the entire ship followed this pattern. It would be exciting to find out, not to mention meet the rest of the crew. A cushioned bench jutted from the wall to her right which Alice sat down on. There was nothing to do but wait for the scans and think.
Thoughts she had forced to the side in the moment began to catch up with her now she had time to pause. The first moment of peace after the completely overwhelming past few hours. Alice bent over, hiding her head in her arms from any cameras that would definitely be watching her. Rage and sadness battled for domination in her mind. Which would come out the victor only time would tell.

First/Previous/Next
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Chapter 3 Part 1
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They always said that you never dreamed in cryogenic sleep. Which was true. It was \impossible to dream with your entire being frozen to negative temperatures, body flooded with preservation medications so ice crystals wouldn't form in the cell walls or a host of other complications that would otherwise kill a person. What they neglected to tell you was the dreams you had when thawing out and waking up.
The dreams a person experienced while undergoing this thawing process were always intense too. As vivid as reality as it was sometimes reported. No one knew why. Whatever it was; whether it was the combination of drugs, the brain trying to understand the trauma it had just experienced or even the soul catching up with the universe as some more spiritualist elements theorised, without fail the dreams were the most intense someone could experience. For her, this time, they were far more than just intense.
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Her eyes darted under her eyelids as the ghosts of energy bolts from aeons past darted in her memory. She heard the screams at the shaking of each dust filled rumble in her head. Her ears barely registered the dulled hum of ancient machinery fulfilling vital life sustaining protocols and the silent clicks of her standardised survival suit undergoing restart checks. Her helmet blocked out everything else or she'd have also heard the murmurs of voices beyond her pod. The cries of the dying desperately making one last stand echoed in her ears, drowning out the dull sounds. Those dying to protect her.
In her dream her arms reached out painfully slow for her father. She ached for them to go faster. This time she would make it. She'd be able to block the lid from fully sealing, preventing the cryogenic pod from starting. She was millimetres away. And yet the pod sealed effortlessly with a resounding hiss. At that her limbs decided to move normally again and hammered on the inside of the pod as the reinforced armour glass door's magnetic locks clunked to activation.
A dull green light shone into her face. Glacial coolness washed over her body as she slowly succumbed to the sensation of drowning. In one last desperate attempt she tried again to reach for her father. He wouldn't even look at her. A woman in midnight black armour cloaked in ragged robes embraced him from behind.
She screamed herself hoarse, trying to use sheer force of will to make the glass melt away. For her fingers and hands to phase through the transparent barrier and wipe away the tears staining his white bearded face. To just touch him one last time, even through the haptic feedback of her suit. To get him away from the stranger caressing him and wiping away the tears that belonged to her. She screamed a guttural scream as his face became sallow at the stranger's touch. It was killing him. Eyes sunk into sockets and flesh peeled back at the rapid mummification. "Alas" said the midnight black armoured woman in the ragged robes, holding her father's grinning skull in a gentle caress on the tips of her fingers. "Poor girl. Time to wake up. Wake up, and smell the ashes"
Fear gripped at her heart in a vice. There was nothing she could do but watch. The only way out was the emergency release button embedded at her side. But it was already too late, she didn't get to try as the feeling of drowsiness drowned her out, pulling her deep into the depths of slumber.
Except this time the feeling didn't become a stifling cold malaise. Instead, it was getting warmer. The sensation of drowning was slowly dissipating. As if she suddenly remembered she needed to breathe, her chest gave a mighty heave and began to rise and fall. For the first time in both more than a millenia and less than a handful of minutes, a large gasping breath passed through her lips. The inside of her visor fogged from the condensation.
She still heard the residual echoes of screams and cries in her ears like a phantom pain. But they were fading. Being replaced by a newer, stranger sound. The murmuring of a language she couldn't understand filtered through the glass and barely perceptible inside her helmet. Voices crowded around her pod. She hadn't yet opened her eyes. She didn't want to. She wished she was still in the dream.
Revival was always a confusing process and this was no different than the fifty odd times she’d undergone it before. But each time she had woken up her father had been there. He had to be there. Like how he’d be there this time. After all, it had only been a bad thaw dream.
The urge to open her eyes and look was almost overwhelming but she had to keep them shut. It was imperative until the medical diagnosis beeped an all clear signal. Otherwise she risked retinal damage before they were fully thawed. Until then she was alone in the dark with her thoughts. It was comforting to have thoughts however. What’s more; it was an even greater comfort knowing that because she was even having thoughts, she wouldn't spend an eternity of limbo in her frozen tomb, lost to the universe.
Finally, after what felt like an aeon, a dull chime resounded inside her helmet. Her eyelids slowly fluttered open. Microsensors within her helmet immediately noticed the movement and activated her suit's display systems. A heads up display appeared in front of her face. Light teal transparent letters flickered as she read information being displayed.
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CRYOGENIC REANIMATION COMPLETE.
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PLEASE EXIT THE UNIT AT YOUR DISCRETION.
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This was strange. If her father was monitoring he would have already opened the pod right as her eyes opened. At least the words were reassuring. If there was anything wrong with either the pod or herself it would have been indicated in bright red flashing letters. A flick of her eyes and a blink dismissed the notification from her visor and she laid there in a stupor. She needed to get out and find everyone, find out what had happened.
It had all been so fast. There was barely enough time to even put on her survival suit and rush to the lowest levels.
The guards escorting her, Sergeant Lockley and a subordinate of his she had never got the name of, had practically dragged her in their rush, the entire bunker wasn’t even bothering with security procedures anymore. Everywhere else had gone quiet days ago, as far as they had been aware they were the last ones left.
No matter how much she'd pestered Sergeant Lockley he'd never given her any details on what had happened beyond that they needed to hurry and were about to be under attack. He didn't need to say by who, especially that late into the war. If it could even be called a war by then. It was more like a genocide with the fleets falling from the sky burning the heavens. City after City had collapsed, less and less reports coming in until they were isolated. And then it had been their turn. The entire human race reduced from carving out their own territory in the wider community to a scant few fighting tooth and nail for every scrap of dirt in a few decades.
That pit in her stomach as she'd been unceremoniously thrown in the pod while her father had ran all the checks himself when it normally took an entire team, was returning. Or had it never gone and she was only now allowed to feel it once again?
But she had been woken up. If she was awake then someone knew she was here, which meant they must have won. Beat the terrible odds stacked against them and come out the other side. If it had only been a few hours, or even a few days, either way it didn’t matter. She needed to get out and help the survivors, an extra pair of hands would be absolutely invaluable.
Looking at the lid, there were unexpected layers of thick dust caked against the outside of the glass, all except where her head had been. Maybe the combat had been so heavy the cryo chamber had nearly collapsed and whoever had woken up had brushed that portion aside to check on her. Yes, that must have been it. Holographic displays floated in front of her beyond the glass, their brightness blinding her eyes as well as making it almost impossible to make out who stood beyond their glare. She tried squinting past them, the shapes of the people outside were hard to make out, the fuzzy outlines of their bodies blurred together. However, their heads were still identifiable in the darkness as her eyes still adjusted. And from the looks of it there were at least four people in front of her. There was only one way to definitively find out though.
She motioned her fingers to indicate she was awake to the internal sensors inlaid into the walls of her glass coffin. She didn’t know why they hadn’t used the external controls to let her out, maybe they had been broken.
A dull clunk sounded indicating the magnetic locks had been released and the holograms flickered off as the glass slowly slid upwards with a motorised hum. The metal brim passed over her face, her visor compensated automatically for the low light levels, revealing, at last, her rescuers.
Four definitely humanoid figures crowded around her in the dark room. If she hadn’t been wearing her helmet the light coming from their torches being shined directly in her face would have blinded her. Instead, the glare was automatically filtered, revealing the figures standing in the room with her. They wore strange plated purple armour, bulky in the fashion all military equipment tended to be. A metallic point descended in the middle of their faceplates giving them an appearance similar to angry owls. Maybe it had been a special prototype her father had kept in storage somewhere, something given to the few elite soldiers remaining that helped to turn the tide. All the guesswork and unanswered questions directly after the panicked scramble to get into the pod was beginning to agitate her.
As a result, even through her reasoning, something nagged at the back of her mind. Trying to tell her something was off. She slowly looked over the four people again with her eyes, studying them closely without turning her head and giving away what she was doing. The one to the far right of her had their weapon hovering vaguely in her direction, as if unsure of what to do suddenly. Why would people that knew about her be so scared of her? It looked like an odd combination between an ornate staff and a rifle yet not quite either and looked to be encased in the same dark purple material as their armour. No matter how it looked, a weapon was a weapon and these people were dangerous. But they had also just woken her up. Surely if they had done that they wouldn’t be here to harm her. If they were, they could have easily done that while she slept.
The one directly in front of her, however, had no weapon out that she could see. Instead they had paused with a hand pressed into what looked like a computer device embedded on their forearm armour. The glow of the screen was reflected in the strangely shaped visor.
She tried weakly reaching out of her pod for the one closest to her in an attempt for aid.
"Where’s my dad? Did we win? How many days has it been?" She asked in a rapid succession, her weak voice amplified by the speakers within her helmet. She had to know.
The strangers looked at each other. They seemed more shocked at her speaking than helping her get up in her weakened state. She gave up on reaching out and instead used her arms to adjust herself on her near vertical frozen bed. She could feel the strength slowly return to her limbs as she moved. It would take a little while longer until she felt she could make an attempt to stagger out of her cryo pod but until then she was essentially helpless.
The strangers simply kept staring at her, as if they didn’t even know what she was. Which meant they weren’t from her bunker. They truly were strangers in the truest sense. But even so, they were survivors. And if they had survived then perhaps others had as well. For now however she needed information, her feelings either way could wait until she knew more.
"Who are you, how did you get here?" She asked again.
One of the beings, the one she had been reaching out to, spoke. It was a strange, melodic language that she didn't understand. Almost haughty in tone. That it hadn’t been automatically translated meant it must have not been in the system. An oversight by the programmers no doubt. Either that or they were speaking in a form of code. She sighed, that would make this far harder in an already difficult situation. Her powerful in built computer would be able to eventually figure out and create a translation if it really was a language but until then she needed them to speak more to hurry the process. Or even better, if she could activate one of the embedded computers on the wall, it would be able to extrapolate from just a scant few words. A common frame of reference to start with would be the best option but she struggled to think of what to use.
She remembered reading back when she was younger; even under the best of circumstances experts would deliberate for months, even years, on the meanings and nuances of individual words to ensure the most accurate translations possible. Computers helped immensely with the process but without the subtleties of organic beings they could create embarrassing inaccuracies.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand. But if you can understand me, please help me get to the computer over there I'll be able to understand you" she pleaded, pointing with her right hand at the dust covered screen mounted into the wall.
The second stranger on the left, standing behind the closest one she had been reaching for, said something in their still untranslated language and slowly walked over to the computer.
They must not be able to understand me either she thought.
The stranger pointed at the screen and said something. She had a feeling this time it was a question with the tonal inflection. That was good, if her hunch paid off it would help immensely.
Hoping what they had asked was something similar to "do you want me to turn this on" she nodded. The being said something that sounded harsher this time and the two she hadn't interacted with raised their weapons squarely on her. That message didn't need a translation. They obviously didn't trust her. The being cautiously reached out while looking at her, hesitating only for a moment, before wiping away a layer of dust and placing their hand on the touch sensitive glass. The machinery hummed to life as the screen registered the limb pressed against it and turned on.
Relieved by the fact that the fortress bunker's fusion core was still operational, she watched as the state of the art device cycled itself.
Yet another dull blue glow added to the room’s illumination as the main screen activated. Her own armour's holographic interface automatically synchronised to the system and displayed in front of her, adding to the blue light, its own illumination and brightening the room from a dull gloom to a faded glow.
The strangers still eyed her warily, fingers not on their triggers but hovering close enough to fire if she tried anything. This was more than not trusting her. They seemed scared of her.
Slowly and deliberately to show them she wasn't up to anything untoward, she lifted her right hand to tap on the translator option in front of her among the myriad of options. The haptic feedback in her glove gave her the sensation of resistance as she pressed and the computer gave a chime of recognition. Three concentric rings appeared on the screen, pulsating like a heartbeat. She spoke and the rings pulsed in time with her words.
"If you speak, that should be able to translate for us in real time" she said.
The one to her left lifted up her arm with the miniature screen and pointed it at the wall computer as the one who had touched the wall screen voiced more of their melodic speech.
"I think it's a translation programme, commander. I've managed to connect and uploaded our language to its database. They obviously designed it to be universal, it automatically reached out to my pad. It doesn’t seem like there aren't any defences or compatibility issues at the moment but this one will need to go through maintenance checks back on the ship" the being said, the software translating the language to her in real time. “But right now the risk is minima, I’m letting our systems access the programme now”
It was a wonder of coding, even managing to mimic vocal tones and cadences of the individual accurately. Although there was a slight disorienting disconnect in person when the sounds didn't quite match up to the mouth movements but that was something you got used to.
She smiled inside her helmet and relaxed, the tension that had been building easing out of her body. It was working and she'd be able to talk to them finally. And get some much needed answers.
"At least you’ll finally be able to understand me" she said.
The beings were confused for a second, each looking at each other like they'd been the ones to say it before it dawned on them that she had just spoken to them in their own language. They turned to stare at her from behind their owlish visors. It would have been almost predatory if their brief naive confusion hadn't been so amusing.
Immediately, the two with their weapons trained on her began to lean in, their fingers barely hovering over the triggers. The one who had placed their hand on the computer moved in front and motioned to them with a gesture. They lowered their weapons but did not appear to have calmed down.
"Who are you?" the person demanded.
The simple question confused her immensely. If they didn’t know who she was then why were they even down here in the first place? Even so, she needed their help to be able to get out of her pod. Let alone leaving the bunker and getting to the surface and finding any survivors. There was little choice, she needed to be careful. Secrecy protocols drilled into her by intelligence trainers until she’d had migraines were almost second nature at this point. Especially with what she should reveal and to who. But her name was something she shouldn't have to worry about.
"My name is.. Alice" she said with only the briefest hesitation.
Deciding that she could get further with these strangers by forcing a situation and getting out of the pod rather than just laying there, Alice leaned up and took a tentative shaky step forwards. She braced herself with her hands against the cushioned sides as she placed her weight on her dominant foot, stepping out warily. As soon as she lifted the weight off her back foot her leg buckled and she collapsed onto the ground in a heap.
The one who had been closest to her this entire time rushed forwards to help her.
"Are you alright?" they panicked as they helped Alice stand.
"I'm fine. Just a bit shaky after being asleep for so long." Alice replied calmly. "It's a side effect of the drugs for cryogenics. It'll take me a few more moments for it to get out of my system"
"Why would they keep you frozen for so long if it would have such deleterious effects?" asked her helper.
"What do you mean for so long? It’s just what’s used"
"Can you tell us why you were here? What happened? Why are there so many dead soldiers in this facility?" asked the demanding one.
Alice couldn’t let them see how such a casual line of questioning shook her. Taking all of her meagre strength to not simply collapse again from shock. She had to compose herself or she’d let something go by accident. At least she could be honest in this instance.
"I don't know any of that either. I was put in there before any of that happened or anything was explained to me" she said, indicating with a thumb over her shoulder. Her casual body language was key. Keep them off balanced, make sure they didn’t know how much she was internally panicking then.
he body language of the person asking her so many questions appeared incredulous at her hesitancy to be forthcoming.
Besides which, Alice had questions of her own.
“Not to be ungrateful, but who are you all?” she asked.
The one who had been demanding of her appeared to straighten up their back even further somehow.
“I am Commander Yurisa. The one kindly helping you stand at the moment is Second Rating Shand."
The latter term was unfamiliar to her but she perfectly understood the implications of there being a commander. There were enough survivors to field a well equipped and manned military. Tentative hope began to form as Alice looked at the person helping her. She gave them a nod of greeting.
"What about them?" asked Alice, indicating to the two who had been the tensest and most willing to point their weapons eagerly at her. They were still slightly hovering their weapons in her general direction.
"Conscripts Doane and Hedi. They do not need your attention, pay them no heed" said the commander curtly.
The lack of respect for the two subordinates caught Alice off guard. The two people, Doane and Hedi, may have been jumpy at her. But they didn't deserve to be dismissed so out of hand.
Even so, she could think about the ramifications of someone who would dismiss their underlings in such a manner later. Now her focus was changing as the strength returned to her limbs. She needed to find out about the rest of the bunker, what had happened after she had been frozen.
She untangled herself from Shand who had been helping her and stood straight on her own, albeit still slightly wobbling.
"Thank you for waking me up, all of you. But if it's alright, I'd like to know what happened. How many days has it been since I was locked in there?" she slightly chuckled nervously.
"Not until we know you won't pose a danger to my people or my ship" Yurisa replied sternly, a hand extended in front of her. They had evidently identified the weapon she carried.
This seemed like a hard line she shouldn’t push for the moment. She didn’t know these people and they in turn didn’t know about her it seemed. A rapport was more important for the moment, leaving her only one course of action if she didn’t want to be shot by the jumpy soldiers. Slowly reaching towards her thigh for the standard issue civilian sidearm clamped there. Making sure to deliberately grab it by the casing rather than the grip and placed the rugged weapon in the proffered commander’s hand.
Yurisa looked at her for a seeming eternity before hooking her gun on an armoured belt.
Stand down" she commanded.
Doane and Hedi once again relaxed, except this time they slung their weapons onto their backs in fluid motions.
Content they had relaxed and weren’t going to shoot her after all, Alice went to the computer she had indicated to Yurisa to turn on. She tapped the screen to change menus from the translation software to a full cultural database download. The computer chimed and began downloading the entire memory bank into her onboard storage. All the information amassed before and after her sleep. All public research and development. All scientific theories and art and literature. The entire sum of all human knowledge and culture. She'd carry it with her. The weight would be immense. The guilt of leaving it behind would be worse.
"I promise I'm not a threat commander" she said dejectedly. The energy rushed out of her as fast as it had returned, like a collapsing wave on a beach. She accessed the imaging network. Before there had been hundreds of cameras available, ranging from CCTV in the cities to satellites in orbit. Now it seemed none remained, not even static from severed connections. They were simply blank screens with error codes. She couldn't even see what had become of her home. She tried accessing previous recordings, hoping at least the final moments of the people who had protected her had been saved. The files listed themselves in front of her in a cascade of videos all dated and timestamped. She added them to the download, vowing to sort through them at the earliest opportunity.
"I just want to leave. I want to get out and see what’s survived. Who’s survived. I want to see the Earth and help rebuild, maybe even find anyone I know if I’m lucky."
She stared at the screen, willing the cameras to life. To show her the bustling streets and busy sky lanes. To see the grand ships hanging in low orbit above the urban centres, ever watchful sentinels of the heavens. But the screen defied her will and remained stubbornly black. Her rapt attention shielded her from the awkward glances the people seemed to be sharing behind her.
Shand nervously cleared her throat. “About that..”
She began but the commander furiously cut her off with a swift hand signal.
Frustration clawed at her as Alice repeatedly swiped horizontally through the vast list of camera nodes, the error codes stubbornly refusing to yield. A single flash of colour blurred past her frantic swiping. She swiftly backpedalled, searching for the frame that had zoomed by. With a tap, the swiping stopped. She had found it. A single camera she had overlooked. Tapping on the frame to enlarge the feed, she stood back. The image before her was severely cracked and pitted, barely feeding a picture let alone video. Static suffused almost the entire screen. But past it she could just about make it out. The ruins of the city. No fires flared or smoke dissipated into the sky as she expected. Or even rebuilt to its former splendour like she was hoping with these strangers being in her bunker. Instead, her eyes tried to process the rusted sharp jags of bare metal left to rot into nothing. The illusion her brain had imagined while she had been so desperate moments ago shattered at the reality in front of her.
It was gone. All of it. Just how long have I been frozen?
Grief and fear threatened to rear up in her before an entirely different sensation replaced them.
They destroyed it all. All of it. No mercy After all we had given them. Their very reason for being. If it hadn’t been for the human race they wouldn’t have even existed. HOW DARE THEY!
“HOW DARE THEY!” she screamed, punching the screen with unbridled rage.
Webs of cracks spread out from under her fist as she took deep breaths. She had to control herself. She didn’t want to turn and look at the people no doubt staring at her after her outburst. No clacks of weapons had sounded so at least they weren’t panicking even if they would be on edge yet again.
A warbling chime broke the spell around her. The download was complete. Everything that had been was now with her. The importance of it was undeniable before but now it was possibly the only record left in the galaxy. She had to guarantee its safety, as well as her own. The fallback option when she was woken up without the expected personnel. She typed in the final command she had been told to do when she had been briefed so long ago.
​
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
​
Alice snorted to herself.
Of course it would be that, they always thought they had a sense of humour. What idiots.
And with those last letters, the fortress that had survived fathomless millenia protecting its charge shut down with barely a dulcet low whine. The ruined screen flickered as the fission reactors went off line. The dull blue light slowly dimmed, once again returning the room to darkness. The last thread of life that had lasted so long finally free. And the last man made structure died, its duty carried for so long fulfilled.
Alice turned from the console a final time. The only sources of light came from the torches of the people standing in the room with her. She reached up to the side of her own helmet and touched a small pad. An embedded LED just above her faceplate illuminated itself, adding a narrow cutting beam to the wide ones of these apparent soldiers.
Commander Yurisa appeared to become distracted for a moment, her head tilting slightly to one side as if someone were talking directly into her ear. Her reply to whoever was on the other end of the obvious communication was heard by Alice.
"No, nothing to worry about. Sit tight, we're on our way back" she said to whoever it was.
Judging by that context, Alice guessed they were heading back up to the surface. They had come down and discovered her and were now leaving with their prize in tow.
No matter, as long as she could get off the planet she didn’t care where they took her now. She didn’t think she could handle the ghosts if they left her here.
Commander Yurisa indicated towards Alice, gaining her attention.
“We will be taking you back to our ship in orbit. Standard procedure means you will be confined to quarantine until medical scans show you are clear of any pathogens or other such contaminants that may prove a risk to us. These scans are non invasive and barring any complications will last no longer than a single rotation” she said in a statement that sounded rehearsed more than sincere.
Alice’s brain scratched like a record at what she had just been so casually told. A ship in orbit. She could barely comprehend all the implications it raised, not least of all the biggest one of how. She had to find out, to see if they had found an intact ship or maybe were even from a separate colony that had been missed. Her mind raced as she simply nodded in return, keeping the facade.
“I understand. I wouldn’t want to cause any harm to any of you. Just please, can we leave.” she begged.
“Doane, take the lead back to the surface. Second Rating, follow him and map our way out” ordered the stern commander.
Doane performed an odd slamming across his torso and nodded before heading towards the doorway. Alice gave one last glimpse at the pod that had kept her safe. She didn’t know if she would miss it in time but for now she felt hollow. Everything was proceeding so quickly and sooner or later she would have confront being left behind for such a long time. At least soon she would be getting answers. Why they had never found or woken her before now. She didn’t even know when now was, that was something she’d have to look up in the records when she had time.
Her lamenting was interrupted by the form of the commander filling her vision. Arm extended, indicating it was her turn to leave. Passing through the once pristine doorway, she immediately noticed the state of sheer decay. Instead of an elevator, rubble and rust met her eyes. She looked up, trying to spot where these people had climbed down. The opposite doorway wasn’t far above her, barely two levels. Doane and Shand were already more than halfway up. More beams of light were cutting through the gloom back at her, revealing the individual that Yurisa must have been talking to over the radio earlier.
Crossing the debris strewn floor, Alice reached for the corroded ladder, grabbing the rung closest to her. With mighty heaves she brought herself up, step by step, her limited strength making the simple task a strained ordeal.Finally she reached the opening she had seen from the bottom. Reaching out with her left food to dismount she hopped the small gap. Her weakened muscles still building their stamina back up from her lengthy internment failed her. Her foot slipped off the rung as she overexerted her leg, her left foot buckling from beneath her. Arms waving in front of her, desperately scrabbling for purchase on anything before she would plunge back into the darkness. Gravity inevitably overcame her struggle and pulled her back into the black shaft. A hand shot out, yanking on her forearm and dragging her back from the brink of her overbalance and firmly out of the doorway.
Alice collapsed hard onto her hands and knees, panting at the loss of strength and exhaustion wracking her body. Desperately trying to catch her breath, she looked up at who had pulled her in. Shand stood over her, head cocked while watching her. Alice fought against a giggle from erupting, the helmet the being was wearing made it look like a curious bird caught red handed in a spotlight.
Were they concerned? she wondered to herself.
Shand extended their purple gloved hand to her as she gasped from exhaustion. Alice grabbed the proffered hand. With a mighty heave, and a grunt from Shand, she stood unsteadily on her feet. Two of the soldiers rushed to her aid as she swayed on the spot, their rough armoured forms propping her up between them. Which two had helped her Alice didn’t know but nevertheless she voiced her thanks to them.
One of the group took the lead and began to head towards where they must have entered from. That must have been Doane, and Shand was the one following. She was easier to tell apart due to the holographic map being displayed on her wrist.
As they walked she looked at the aged remains of the carnage around her. Bodies and weapons strewn about the wreckage, no one left to bury them but entombed all the same in this bunker.
My father could be in here Alice realised as she slowly walked past an armoured skeleton wearing the stripes of a Sergeant draped over the remains of a concrete barrier.
They had still clung onto their rifle in a literal death grip, defending her as she had been frozen and slept. Guilt flushed through her at the sight of so many who had given themselves. Especially the Sergeant.
"Commander Yurisa. Could we stop for a moment please" asked Alice
The commander walked up to her, seeing her staring at the remains around her in the chamber.
"I think we can spare a minute or two" said Yurisa.
Alice gently removed the support of the two people who had been helping her and knelt in front of the Sergeant. An unsettling grin stared back at her through the smashed face plate of the helmet that once fitted. The unsettling truth suffused her being as she knelt. Days, or even months wouldn’t leave such a bare skeleton. This was years, decades at least. Alice looked around her at the other bodies lying around her, as if looking for any scrap of evidence that what she was realising couldn’t be true. All were beached with age, their tooth filled smiles laughing at the cosmic joke being played on her by the universe.
Looking away from the grim audience, she reached past the neck, briefly rummaging for the chain necklace she hoped would still be there. Gently lifting it past the skull, she dangled the rugged jewellery in front of her visor and attempted to read the dog tag hanging in the air. The thin slice of treated metal was caked in rust but even then it wasn't so far gone as to be illegible. Wiping the plate with her thumb, she read the name she had suspected it would say since seeing the rank of the remains.
Lockley.
The man who had rushed her to her pod so she could be where she was now. Alice bowed her head at the man she once knew. The man's armour may have been corroded with age but tradition was still tradition.
She reached out and disconnected his bulky left shoulder armour, the magnetic clamps still keeping it secure in place after so long. Placing it on top of her own civilian suit's lightly armoured shoulder with a light click, the piece looked completely out of place compared to the rest of her suit. A large dent in the centre showed where something had struck the late Sergeant as he had fought, perhaps an energy bolt or shrapnel from the fight. She rotated her shoulder, ensuring the piece wasn't interfering with movement or cumbersome. Satisfied it wasn’t, she then placed the dog tags back around the man's neck. The last thing she needed to take was his identity. The final thing he could keep.
Her deed done, she stood back up, looking around at the people she didn't realise had been staring at her.
"It was a tradition that started during the war" she said sheepishly. "You take the pauldron of whoever saved you if they died, that way you can carry them with you out of respect"
"That's a nice tradition" one of the soldiers she didn't know the name of yet said from behind her. One of the pair who had helped her. One who had been there when she had woken up. Which meant this must have been Hedi.
Alice chuckled slightly to herself as a sudden absurdity came to her. "Yeah but unfortunately I don't have enough shoulders right now for all the rest" she indicated with a sweep of her arms.
The group gave a few quiet sounds of amusement of their own, looking down at the ground or up at the ceiling rather than meeting her faceplate.
With a heavy sigh Alice willed herself to move. If she stayed any longer she would begin to lament on the lives lost for her and if she began that she may never leave.
Catching up with the awaiting Shand and Mannad, the group were led to a narrow maintenance utility shaft embedded into the wall. The cramped spaces twisted and turned as they took a winding path directed by shand.
The soldier Alice had not yet learned the name of was revealed to her when Iftan annoyed Mannad with an attempt at humour commenting on how it appeared to take longer to return the way they had come and if Shand had gotten them lost. Apparently Mannad had acute claustrophobia, however it was swiftly eased with a thump on the back of Iftan's helmet.
Alice smiled to herself at the thought of how soldiers were soldiers no matter what time or part of the universe you were from.

I’ve recently started a search for some new headphones for my PS5 and wanted to share my results as it has been tough to find a set that is comfortable and doesn’t cause pain.
TL:DR – Start with the Sony InZone H7 (or even the H3 or H9).
For some background, I have a child under 3 and recently became able to play a bit longer each day. I am averaging around 1 hour a day using launch Pulse3Ds. Maybe once every week or two, I will have a longer session of up to 3 or 4 hours. Prior to this, I was at about half that time. As my playtime has increased, I have found myself getting headaches and ear pain. Specifically, pain in front of each ear near my temples and my left ear gets raw from rubbing the inside of the headphones. It seems that my shorter sessions were not an issue, but these longer sessions have added up to me being unable to wear headphones for days at a time while I recover.
I also work from home and wear a HyperX Cloud Stinger headset during meetings. This equates to around 4 or 5 hours a day of additional headphone time and I have not had this pair hurt or cause headaches.
Lastly, my rough head measurements are 23 inches around, 6 inches wide and my left ear (the one that rubs) sticks out around 2/3 of an inch.
Below are my thoughts on the headsets I’ve used in the order I tried them. I’ll try and cover what helped me land on a final set as it will hopefully help others with fit/pain issues. I am not covering sound quality much and will link to RTings for that. Given my head rejects most headphones, my focus is on comfort with sound quality and features being of much lower concern. My goal is to find the best headset I can that does not hurt me and will work wirelessly on my PS5 and possibly my Steam Deck (stretch goal).
​
Sony Pulse 3D
--Recommendation – I bought these at launch and would only buy them now if you are not sensitive to clamping pressure, have small-ish ears and do not want to buy anything of higher cost on this list. I sold my pair as these are what started this whole journey.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sony/pulse-3d-wireless
--Spent - $100 + $30 for third party ear pads.
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--My Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight - .65 pounds
--Clamping pressure – .9 pounds
--Cup Friction – Some rubbing pain after long sessions.
--Testing Duration – 2 Years
--Thoughts – I powered through these for ~two years. This is the pair that caused me a lot of pain now that I have more gaming time. I thought the sound quality was fine at the price point, but the clamping pressure felt higher than .9 as the original and third-party ear cups were not soft enough. They also rubbed my ears and never loosened up. The top headband would also hurt my head if I moved around a lot during a session (getting food, water, etc). The original ear pads broke down and I replaced them about 4 months ago. These helped make them more comfortable, but the clamping pressure overpowered them. Lastly, I had to run a USB extension cable away from the console to plug the dongle in to as they would cut out randomly from some sort of interference otherwise. I do have a lot of electronics near the PS5, but most are powered off when I play and the only active WiFi thing is a Harmony Hub so I’m not sure what is causing the issue. The extension did solve the issue about 99.9% of the time.
​
HyperX Cloud Stinger
--Recommendation – I’ve owned these for a long time and would buy them if you have basic wired needs. I’m keeping my pair for Zoom use only.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/hyperx/cloud-stinger
--Spent - $30
--Type - Wired
--My Usage – Zoom, 4-5 hours each workday. Experimented with them as an option for long term gaming.
--Weight - .6 pounds
--Clamping pressure – 1 pound (these are old, so this is probably less now)
--Cup Friction – No rubbing pain.
--Testing Duration – 1 Day
--Thoughts – I bought these on a whim pre-child when I started playing PS4 games that needed a microphone. These worked fine for those rare cases. However, I would not recommend them for regular gaming use as there are many better wired options now. However, they are totally sufficient for zoom meetings as I don’t care about sound quality or the mic being excellent. The volume control on them is also handy for this use case as is the flip up mic. While it would be nice for them to be wireless, it’s not worth the money to replace them just for Zoom. They have not caused me any pain during long stints, and they have held up extremely well over the past 3 years that I have used them heavily for Zoom.
​
Bose QuietComfort 35 II
--Recommendation – I’ve owned these for years and I love them. Everyone with comfort issues should own a pair for anything other than gaming. I’m keeping them until they break and may stockpile a few depending on what Bose does with the QC line. Will use them as a backup set for gaming.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/bose/quietcomfort-35-ii-qc35-ii-wireless-2018
--Spent - $350
--Type – Wireless Bluetooth
--My Usage – Mainly travel and focused listening. Stints of up to 10 hours at a time on planes. Have been using them as a backup set for gaming on the PS5 while testing everything on this list.
--Weight - .54 pounds
--Clamping pressure – .69 pounds
--Cup Friction – No rubbing pain.
--Testing Duration – 3 Weeks
--Thoughts – These are the first set of quality headphones I ever purchased. I used them mainly for travel and focused listening and did not realize how spoiled I was. These are extremely comfortable, and I think are part of the reason that I have such high needs for comfort in headphones. The only negative is the slight “underwater” pressure feeling you get when the ANC is on. However, they do work in a pinch for gaming and are extremely comfortable. If Bose ever makes a set for gaming that works over 2.4, they will have my money immediately. They are Bluetooth and thus need an adapter or something to hook into your system. I pipe the audio through a Taotronics Bluetooth adapter hooked into the headphone jack on my TV and it works ok. I’ve owned these since 2018.
​
Aftershokz Trekz Air (Now called Shokz OpenRun Pro I think)
--Recommendation – I’ve owned these for many years, and you should try a set of bone conducting headphones if you have not. I will always own a pair of this type of headset mainly for their versatility in providing audio when you don’t want to fully disconnect. I’m keeping these for other uses and maybe for the steam deck on rare occasions but they are not suited for regular gaming.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/aftershokz/trekz-air-bone-conduction
--Spent - $160
--Type – Wireless Bluetooth
--My Usage – Cycling, walking the dogs, listening to things while watching the kid. Experimented with use on the Steam Deck and as a final solution for PS5, and they are meh. So basically, I will use them for listening to things where I still need to hear the world.
--Weight - .06 pounds
--Clamping pressure – .32 pounds
--Cup Friction – N/A
--Testing Duration – 1 Day
--Thoughts – They will not blow you away with sound quality, but I do love them for cases where I want to listen to something but need awareness of the world. They are weird feeling if you are not used to them, but I find I use these the most in my daily life outside of my Stinger headset for Zoom meetings. They are great for walking the dog, cycling, or listening to a podcast while Paw Patrol is on. Seriously, try a pair if you never have. Not really an option for a gaming headset though.
​
Steelseries Arctis Nova 7p
--Recommendation – Would buy if you are not sensitive to clamping pressure. This seems to be the best set for the price of all that I tested, and I would have kept them if I could have solved the pain issue. Ended up returning them.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/steelseries/arctis-nova-7-wireless-7-7p-7x
--Spent - $140
--Type - Wireless
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight - .72 pounds
--Clamping pressure – 1 pound
--Cup Friction – Rubbing pain after long sessions.
--Testing Duration – 2 Weeks
--Thoughts – I was hoping these were the holy grail that everyone said. The sound was excellent, and the unit was well built. The headband was comfortable however, my ears still rubbed a tad but more importantly, they caused a ton of pain on each temple after only 1 hour. This seems to be due to the clamping pressure and the design of the pads (and possibly my head shape). My wife experienced the same issue though. I suppose I could have put them on a box to stretch them out and reduce the clamping pressure, but I experimented with manually reducing the pressure while they were on, and they still hurt my temples. It seems the pad/clamping combo does not work for me, and I really don’t want to gamble on the box method and buying third party pads as that seems like a lot to ask to make them work when there are other options.
​
Astro A50 2019
--Recommendation – Skip these. I was extremely unimpressed compared to the cheaper sets on this list. Also, mine came with the headband busted which seems common and crazy as these launched in 2019 and this should be solved by now. I returned them.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/astro/a50-gen-4-wireless-2019
--Spent - $300
--Type – Wireless Dongle/Base
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight - .8 pounds
--Clamping pressure – 1.3 pounds
--Cup Friction – Rubbing pain after short sessions.
--Testing Duration – 2 Days
--Thoughts – Man I wanted to love these. They seemed full of features and of a high-ish quality. However, the headband constantly popped out, the cups kept sliding up and down when I took them off and on, my ears rubbed quite a bit and the sound was not particularly better than the Nova 7ps. Overall, I was thoroughly unimpressed by their price point and comfort. Lastly, the pads were a bit rough and had a weird smell to them that would probably go away but was noticeable from 2 feet away and was nauseating. Obviously, these were a huge letdown.
​
Logitech Pro X Wireless
--Recommendation – Probably skip these as they have a white noise hiss and clamping pressure issues. It’s sad as they sounded good, and I really liked the build. I returned these.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/logitech/g-pro-x-wireless-lightspeed-gaming-headset
--Spent - $180
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .83 pounds
--Clamping pressure – 1.1 pounds
--Cup Friction – The white noise prevented a long session, but no rubbing pain after the short session.
--Testing Duration – 1 Day
--Thoughts – The build of these really impressed me when I took them out of the box. They felt sturdy and solid when moving it around. However, they hiss when turned on, which is crazy as these launched in like 2019. Apparently not everyone can hear it, but I can and it’s a common complaint for people who can still hear in that range. I tried updating the firmware sliding the volume around on them, the PS5, etc., and they just hiss. It’s like a light white noise that you can barely hear when it’s quiet. They also put a lot of pressure under my cheek bone after around 30 minutes. I’m not sure if that would be solved with some tweaking or using the second set of pads they came with as the headache inducing hiss was enough to send these back.
​
Sony InZone H7
--Recommendation – These were my final pick after a couple of weeks of testing. The sound was a little less full than I would like, but it’s not noticeable unless directly compared to other headsets. I also felt the surround sound was better than most and these are really light and comfortable for a long time. I’d start here if you have similar issues to me.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sony/inzone-h7-wireless
--Spent - $200
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .71 pounds
--Clamping pressure – .8 pounds
--Cup Friction – No rubbing pain.
--Testing Duration – 3 Weeks
--Thoughts – I really did not want to like these at first as they look like shooting headphones and feel cheap. Also, you cannot adjust the EQ on the PS5. However, these are extremely light and comfortable, and the spatial audio is good. I’m not sure that they are worth $200 compared to some of the others on the list, but these were the only pair that worked well over long sessions for me. The Barracuda Xs were close, but those were a little uncomfortable at first but that faded away in long sessions. The thing that sold these were the slight edge in comfort and the dual audio with Bluetooth.
​
Astro A30
--Recommendation – These a worth a try if you do not mind a rubbery material on the headband and earpads and have a head/ears in the medium/small range. I personally found the material bothersome, and the headband hurt the top of my head. Returned them.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/astro/a30-wireless
--Spent - $230
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .76 pounds
--Clamping pressure – .9 pounds
--Cup Friction – No rubbing pain.
--Testing Duration – 3 Days
--Thoughts – At first, the material on the pads seemed neat. It felt nice in my hands but the second I put them on, I hated it. The ear cup openings were a smidge too small for me but did not hurt when wearing them. The sound profile was decent, but the headband ended up hurting me after a long session. If the cups were a tad bigger and the material on them was different, I think they would have worked and not caused me head pain.
​
Razer Barracuda X 2022
--Recommendation – These were my #2 choice. I really did like these to solve my comfort issues, but there was some random interference and very slight comfort issues during the first 10 minutes of wear that made me send them back. If it weren’t for that, I may have kept them as they are the cheapest set with a low clamping pressure.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/razebarracuda-x-wireless-2021
--Spent - $100
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .59 pounds
--Clamping pressure – .8 pounds
--Cup Friction – No rubbing pain.
--Testing Duration – 3 Weeks
--Thoughts – This is a tough one. They were comfortable for long wear, but they caused interference with my controller and would cut out rarely even with the dongle on a long extension cord away from my entertainment center. I found these to sound slightly better than my #1 pick (H7s), but the Bluetooth was not active while playing and they could not have the EQ adjusted. It was by a slim margin that these went back.
​
Razer Kaira Pro PlayStation Edition
--Recommendation – They have a good all-around feature set, and I would try them only if you have a medium/small head and ears and are interested in the haptics as I don’t think the clamping would be an issue on a smaller head or maybe on someone with a different head shape. I sent these back but wished I didn’t have to.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/razekaira-pro-wireless-for-xbox (They didn’t have the PS5 specific review)
--Spent - $200
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .73 pounds
--Clamping pressure – 1 pound
--Cup Friction – Rubbing pain after short sessions.
--Testing Duration – 2 Days
--Thoughts – I really liked the idea of these with the haptic feedback, but it ended up just feeling like extra bass shake. I suspect I would have disliked it of long sessions and turned it off immediately. They put too much pressure on the front of my ears and caused pain and made them feel clogged. They also made my ears hot and both ears scrapped a bit. However, the feature set, like being able to swap sound profiles with a button, was great as was the sound.
​
HyperX Cloud Alpha
--Recommendation – Hello white noise my old friend. While not as bad as the Logitech Pro X, it was still enough to make these a no if you can hear it. If you cannot hear it, and are sensitive to clamping, these are a great option. Since HyperX has no fix for the white noise, I returned them.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/hyperx/cloud-alpha
--Spent - $200
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .7 pounds
--Clamping pressure – .9 pounds
--Cup Friction – The white noise prevented a long session, but no rubbing pain after the short session.
--Testing Duration – 1 Day
--Thoughts – I thought I would hate these as they looked really ‘gamer’, but the build quality was pretty good. I liked the sound profile, and they were comfortable. I would say that these would have been a front runner if not my final pick were it not for the white noise. It was just enough that I knew it would cause a headache, which is unfortunate as the cups and headband did not cause any pain. So, if you cannot hear the white noise and are sensitive to clamping, consider these.
​
Razer Kraken v3 Pro
--Recommendation – Basically the same as the Kaira. I was hoping that these would feel better as I like the Kiara, but no luck.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/razekraken-v3-pro-wireless
--Spent - $180
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .8 pounds
--Clamping pressure – 1 pound
--Cup Friction – No rubbing pain.
--Testing Duration – 2 Days
--Thoughts – I really liked the Kaira ones and was hoping these would feel different. Like the Kaira, they put too much pressure on the front of my ears and caused pain and made them feel clogged. They also made my ears hot, but it didn’t scrape like the Kairas.
​
Razer BlackShark V2 Pro
--Recommendation – I tried these as I liked all the other Razer models other than their comfort issues. These also caused a lot of ear pain after about 20 minutes, so I sent them back. They were one of my favorites if you ignore the pain part.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/razeblackshark-v2-pro-wireless
--Spent - $130
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .72 pounds
--Clamping pressure – 1 pound
--Cup Friction – Rubbing pain after short sessions.
--Testing Duration – 2 Days
--Thoughts – Again, the Razer headsets seem to have clicked with me other than the comfort issues. I ordered this one on a whim to see if it would be better than the others, but the wire cup mountings made them less adjustable, and I think are what caused the pain so quickly. I thought these were well rounded and was a bit sad that the pain hit so early.
​
Razer Barracuda Pro
--Recommendation – Since the lower end Barracuda X was a finalist for me, I threw a stab at these despite the higher clamping force. Sadly, the clamping force was an issue, and they made my ears hot. I returned them.
--https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/razebarracuda-pro-wireless
--Spent - $250
--Type – Wireless Dongle
--Usage – Gaming, 1-2 hours a day with bursts of up to 4 hours.
--Weight – .75 pounds
--Clamping pressure – 1.1 pounds
--Cup Friction – Rubbing pain on both ears. This was the only set to have that on both.
--Testing Duration – 2 Days
--Thoughts – It’s strange that these are so different from the 2022 X lower range model. I understand they have different drivers and features, but you wouldn’t think they would feel like a totally different line. However, they do and given the shallow cups and that they cause clamping pain and made my ear hot after only 30 minutes, these were a big disappointment.

The Guard 2-0 FaZe Clan

rib.gg vlr.gg
Fracture: 13-2
Lotus: 13-6
The Guard rib.gg Liquipedia Twitter Twitch VLR YouTube
FaZe Clan rib.gg Liquipedia Twitter Twitch VLR YouTube
Join the subreddit Discord server by clicking the link in the sidebar!

Map 1: Fracture

Team	ATK	DEF	Total
The Guard	10	3	13
	DEF	ATK
FaZe Clan	2	0	2

The Guard	ACS	K	D	A
tex Raze	301	16	9	7
trent Fade	278	17	5	7
neT Cypher	236	14	6	2
JonahP Breach	234	13	8	9
valyn Brimstone	166	9	9	18

FaZe Clan	ACS	K	D	A
BABYBAY Neon	213	11	13	3
mummAy Breach	188	6	14	12
TiGG Skye	175	9	14	4
poised Killjoy	115	6	13	1
supamen Brimstone	112	5	15	4

Detailed Fracture Statistics

Map 2: Lotus

Team	DEF	ATK	Total
The Guard	7	6	13
	ATK	DEF
FaZe Clan	5	1	6

The Guard	ACS	K	D	A
tex Jett	303	21	10	5
valyn Harbor	270	18	15	13
JonahP Skye	193	15	12	5
trent Viper	187	13	13	4
neT Killjoy	183	15	12	3

FaZe Clan	ACS	K	D	A
BABYBAY Jett	302	20	18	4
poised Killjoy	236	17	16	1
mummAy Viper	167	12	14	5
TiGG Skye	112	6	18	4
supamen Omen	94	7	16	5

Detailed Lotus Statistics

The Guard 2-0 FaZe Clan

rib.gg vlr.gg
Fracture: 13-2
Lotus: 13-6
The Guard rib.gg Liquipedia Twitter Twitch VLR YouTube
FaZe Clan rib.gg Liquipedia Twitter Twitch VLR YouTube
Join the subreddit Discord server by clicking the link in the sidebar!

Map 1: Fracture

Team	ATK	DEF	Total
The Guard	10	3	13
	DEF	ATK
FaZe Clan	2	0	2

The Guard	ACS	K	D	A
tex Raze	301	16	9	7
trent Fade	278	17	5	7
neT Cypher	236	14	6	2
JonahP Breach	234	13	8	9
valyn Brimstone	166	9	9	18

FaZe Clan	ACS	K	D	A
BABYBAY Neon	213	11	13	3
mummAy Breach	188	6	14	12
TiGG Skye	175	9	14	4
poised Killjoy	115	6	13	1
supamen Brimstone	112	5	15	4

Detailed Fracture Statistics

Map 2: Lotus

Team	DEF	ATK	Total
The Guard	7	6	13
	ATK	DEF
FaZe Clan	5	1	6

The Guard	ACS	K	D	A
tex Jett	303	21	10	5
valyn Harbor	270	18	15	13
JonahP Skye	193	15	12	5
trent Viper	187	13	13	4
neT Killjoy	183	15	12	3

FaZe Clan	ACS	K	D	A
BABYBAY Jett	302	20	18	4
poised Killjoy	236	17	16	1
mummAy Viper	167	12	14	5
TiGG Skye	112	6	18	4
supamen Omen	94	7	16	5

Detailed Lotus Statistics

We are in a den of thieves
Surrounded by stealthy whisperers
Whispering to our souls and minds
No protection from a fading light
As we lose our soul's desire and peace of mind
Lost in the den
Blind and forgotten
We test these chains on our souls
Pulling us in all direction
We hope one may break free
But shadows of souls take no prisoners
Weaving their way thru our essence
Our very being
This path we walk is no longer free
We pay with our lives
Our futures
Our existence
We pay the den of thieves
​
https://www.reddit.com/OCPoetry/comments/13x1kql/comment/jmigmi6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
https://www.reddit.com/OCPoetry/comments/13x1m9e/comment/jmig6j5/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3

First/Previous
Okay everyone. Chiyo began, as all members of the household settled down and sat cross legged in a circle in the living room. We're going to try out a guided meditation. It should help with stress and anxiety, and it's really relaxing! Start by gently breathing deeply through your nose, and then keep repeating this until the guide tells you what to do next…
It was getting late in the evening, and Jack had only returned about an hour ago, having very much lost track of time before he finally made his way back. He had a little trouble finding a path back through the districts despite being able to use a marker on his commlink to pinpoint the location of home. The hot tub, which was slightly larger than Jack had expected, had been mostly finished by the time he arrived. However, due to several employee absences the team leader apologised and promised to finish the last of the plumbing the following afternoon after the group got back from school, which Alora quickly planned out with them. Sephy had swept the area for any possible bugs or electronic tags an undercover enemy could plant, but had fortunately found nothing.
A few of them looked sceptical as Chiyo put on a guided meditation program with some relaxing music in the background, which to Jack sounded like the most bizarre series of timbres and pitches unlike anything he had heard. It had the peaceful, slow quality of meditative music from earth, but it still jarred him somewhat due to its unnatural nature.
Still, he tried to follow Chiyo’s instructions as the Ilithii floated back to the circle to sit next to Sephy, who already looked like she was having trouble concentrating, though she made the effort for Chiyo’s sake. Next to him, Nika was already controlling and slowing down her breathing along with him, both of them semi-used to the concept of meditation already, and it looked like Alora was doing something more akin to prayer. The twins and Vanya seemed to be able to cope enough as well, all having some kind of magical ability that required some basic kind of mental concentration.
“Now, bring your attention to your physical form…” The soothing voice of the instructor gently called out over the background music. “Feel your body pressing into the surface beneath you, and take note of any areas of tension or discomfort…”
“I’m well aware of my injuries you dumb bit-” Nika grumbled before Chiyo psychically reminded her to be quiet during the meditation.
“Do not try to change anything with these sensations, merely observe them…”
Relax Sephy… Chiyo quietly told the Skritta, who was slightly fidgeting. Try not to overthink it!
“Now return your attention to your breathing, noticing all the sensations as you inhale, then gently exhale…” The voice continued. They did so, though by the sounds some of them were making they were overdoing it.
“As you continue to breath, bring yourself mentally to your peaceful place. This could be any location that brings you a sense of tranquillity and relaxation. Now imagine yourself in this place, surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells that make it special to you…”
Jack’s mind brought forth an image of home. His mother, his father, his brothers, his sister, his grandparents all surrounding him. He was safe, he was with his family. He had his whole life ahead of him…
And it had all been taken away from him.
Jack squirmed involuntarily as his mind was dragged back to a dark place, his grief threatening to overwhelm him again…
“As you bask in this tranquil scene, allow yourself to let go of your worries and concerns that may be weighing on your mind. Imagine them fading away, leaving you at ease…”
All the faces of the people he would never see again stared at him coldly, judgingly. He had committed acts of horror he never thought he would ever have to commit. Even if there was a chance he could return to Earth, could his family even recognise the shell of a person he had become? What would they say?
“When you are ready, take a deep breath, and as you exhale, slowly open your eyes, and reorient yourself with your surroundings. Carry this sense of calm and relaxation with you into the rest of your day…”
As the guided meditation came to an end Jack quickly got to his feet to get a drink.
“Jack, is everything alright?” Alora asked him in alarm.
“All good.” He lied. “My legs are just a bit stiff, and the meditation was a bit hard.”
“Yeah I get what you mean.” Sephy used her wings to help her kick up. “I don’t really understand the whole ‘sit-and-do-nothing’ thing to be honest, it’s like I need to be actually doing something. But hell, I still gave it a go…”
Thanks for trying it anyway Sephy! Chiyo smiled.
“So what do we do now?” Nika asked everyone, as Jack returned with some canned drinks for all of them. “Still got a few hours before we probably need to go to bed."
“Nothing exhausting, please. Let’s just watch a movie?” Alora suggested after a few seconds of nobody contributing anything.
Perhaps some of our new housemates have a suggestion? Chiyo asked, looking to Vanya and the two Squa’Kaar, who hadn’t been confident enough to suggest anything as the newest additions to the household.
“I’m only a temporary housemate, I still have my own place.” Vanya smiled softly. But maybe WageMage?”
“That’s a good classic to start with!” Sephy grinned. “Have you seen it before Jack?”
“Can’t say I have, the Temple of Hope didn’t really have movie nights.” Jack reminded her with a smile. “What’s it about?”
“It’s basically a comedy film about an office worker that uses magic to get ahead and prank her bosses!” Vanya told him. “But you really need to watch it!”
“I’ll get some snacks.” Alora called, quickly grabbing a few bags of sweets out of one of the cupboards while the others tried to get comfortable on the sofa. It was large enough for all of them…just about.
“We should probably go furniture shopping at some point.” Sephy pointed out the obvious problem. “Especially if you’re gonna offer refuge for those that need it, Alora.”
“Damn, well, we are gonna hit a few of the rubbish heaps and scrapyards for materials we can use to fix up the shuttle, and anything else that we could use for home improvements.” Nika reasoned. “We even got this sofa from one of them though it was a bitch to drag all the way back here!”
At least we have more people that could help now. Maybe even more depending on who joins us. Chiyo added. Because I remember helping you spend half the day dragging that here, and I swore never to do manual labour ever again!
“Well, perhaps we can find a better way this time.” Alora concluded as she came back with the sweets while everyone sat down, and took a few blankets to warm themselves up with. Jack took one of the ends of the sofa so he wouldn’t be squished between two people this time, and Vanya was quick to sit next to him, even putting an arm around him, which he wasn’t opposed to. The thick, warm brown fur of the Chuna made him feel comfortable, and he subconsciously leaned in and relaxed.
“Ooof!” He grunted, as Sephy sat on his lap, pulling the blanket over them and cuddling up to him. Jack reflexively put his other arm around her to keep her in place, lamenting that he could no longer reach for the bag of sweets until Chiyo telepathically sent one his way.
“Hey Chiyo, could I have one as well?” Sephy cheekily asked the Ilithii.
Sure! Chiyo agreed, sending another sweet floating towards Sephy, before pinging it off her forehead,
“Ow!” Sephy grunted as they started the movie.
Jack appreciated the humour and plot of the movie, with the hapless office worker using magic to explode her boss’s tea, and accidently making her manager believe his wife was cheating on him, only to later discover that she actually was. He could see why this movie was a favourite with the girls, though he didn’t know if it would be well received on earth. Though this film was well written and amusing (despite him not understanding much of the humour), he could imagine it being received as too woke back on Earth. When the plot eventually evolved into the protagonist trying desperately to avoid the investigations of the alien equivalent of ‘HR’, it really ramped up the humour, which had even him chuckling on occasion.
However he was more subdued as the others laughed freely at the shenanigans, his mind going back to the horrible experiences he'd had, and his grief from being separated from his family. Yet all around him, like a beacon of hope was a home full of friends having a good time with him.
Could he get used to this?
Yeah. He thought he could.
*****
Svaartal snarled as his arms ever so slowly pushed the weighted bar up, feeling the burn in his chest and arms as he repeated the motion, over and over, his heart pounding as he pushed himself to lift more weight than he had ever lifted before with his natural strength. Forcing himself beyond his limits, he felt his muscles straining as his breaths became more and more laboured. He knew he was overdoing it, but he didn’t care. He was determined to become stronger, more focused, more powerful. He had Carrow watching over Svaarti, so this gave him the opportunity to really cut loose.
Devil’s Daughter would come for him and Svaarti again. He barely won their previous encounter and it took all he had to stand a chance against the raw power of her spells. Next time he would be better. He had heard the words she spoke to his sister, calling Svaarti a thief, though as far as he was concerned, if his mother looted the Golden Staff during the Demonfire War from the Stygians, it was hers by right of conquest. Not that the Devilspawn would care. If Devil’s Daughter was going to target him, Svaartal had no doubt she would attempt to do so through his sister, so he needed to be ready.
He had been pushing himself harder and harder ever since he first faced Frost to a standstill in that ambush, fully expecting to face him again soon, especially after the Drow of House Mal’Kar recruited him. He had been thoroughly changed by that experience, and he suspected the Outsider was changed by it too. From open hostility towards one another in their first week to caution in the next, it was a strange dance the two of them did.
But now?
Something about the Klown attack had changed him even more. For just a moment the two of them had fought side by side for a common cause, and though he did strongly consider it, he didn’t stick with the human. Despite that however, the words Frost told him certainly stuck with him.
Help me stop them.
And he did, didn’t he? He stopped to rescue several of the trapped partygoers and had cut them a path to safety, only to then decimate the Klown numbers with his most powerful spells. He had been considered a hero of the battle, alongside Frost himself and the dragon-bitch that officially kicked him out of the Red Legion. In a strange way, it felt…gratifying?
‘Though the greatest hero that night may not recover from her sacrifice…’ Svaartal thought to himself sadly. Why, Svaarti?’
He got up from the bench and slowly slunk over to the tension cable, cranking up the weight as high as he dared. Taking a deep breath he grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled, yanking the cable over his shoulder before releasing, then doing the same exercise over his other shoulder.
His memories of his fight with Devil’s Daughter came back to him, though he cursed not having a recording so he could better recall. Many of his actions had been instinctual, so much so that he could barely remember what he even did in several instants. He was fortunate that he kept a versatile array of spells prepared and ready for use in any situation, though it was his blade and quick thinking with his illusion and spacial magic that allowed him to slip through the Stygian’s defences.
But though he focused on the fight, her words still rang out in his mind.
‘Why the hell do you hate my people so much?!’
Dumb question. The Devilspawn killed his mother, and even after the Demonfire War many of their kind went rabid, committing horrific acts on innocent people, just the same as they did when Azazel, Lord of Torment was still alive.
But something about the sheer hurt in Devil’s Daughter’s expression tugged away at the back of his mind, like an itch that wouldn’t go away. Perhaps it was…
He was interrupted by the noise of someone approaching. Letting go of the handle, the cable he was pulling quickly snapped back to ping against the weights as he collapsed to the floor, his body dangerously overheated and his breath coming in ragged gasps. He quickly activated the enchantment of his Riverspray Ring, sending out a cloud of cooling mist that instantly made him feel slightly better.
“Good evening, Dextra.” Svaartal greeted the drow politely as he slinked over to where he had left a towel.
“Hey.” She replied, before something caught her eye and she pointed to his bare back. “What happened there?”
“What do you mean?” Svaartal stiffened at the sensitive question, having an idea what Dextra was referring to.
“By the gods…” She muttered. “Your scales are cracked and fucked up, and you’ve got a lot of scars, how?”
“I am aware that my scales need grooming.” Svaartal replied tersely, trying to be patient with the inquisitive drow despite the sensitive subject. “However I did not have anyone to teach me how to do it growing up. If it displeases you I will attempt to rectify the issue…”
“I’m not my sister, so you can shut up.” Dextra snorted. “You’ve got a fuckton of scars too, that can’t be good for you…”
“It is not.” Svaartal growled in anger before he quickly steadied himself, realising he was talking to a Drow Noble. “My apologies Lady Mal’Kar, what did you wish from me?”
Dextra snorted at the sudden formality, but she paid it no mind as she showed him her commlink. Displayed was a NetTube video from a channel by the name of ‘DevilLover69’.
“What is this?” Svaartal asked, confused.
“You might find this kinda funny!” She grinned, and played the video, the thumbnail of which displayed a medium sized, overweight looking being with pinkish-brown fur, a long cone-like trunk, huge grey bulbous eyes and thin, spindly arms.
“Ahem, attention everyone! Listen up, for I have a message for all of you! Recently, I have heard rumours that somebody out there has apparently defeated my beloved waifu, Devil’s Daughter, in combat! Let me tell you, that is something that will not go unpunished! I have spent countless hours defending her honour online, but now I have heard the call, and The Supreme Gentleman will step up and avenge her!”
“I’ve been training hard all this time, inspired by the queen herself! I’ve watched all of her fights, and I’ve practised martial arts on my Devil’s Daughter body pillow! So I hope the killer is watching, because I’m ready, and I’m coming for you! And I promise you, when I defeat you, you will wish you had never been born! I’ll see you on the streets, punk!”
“Pretty funny right?” Dextra asked, as Svaartal gave a slight grin.
“I really hope that’s not a troll!” he chuckled.
“Well if The Supreme Gentleman is legit and if he comes for you, it’ll give the others a good laugh.” Dextra giggled. “And…um…I could try and help you with the scales if you want? The datanet should have some videos and I could do your back if you want?”
Svaartal considered it for a moment, knowing where this would likely end up. He had not been requested by Izadora tonight, who seemed to be particularly busy with House Mal’Kar business, and they had never been anything more than casual so he had the freedom to do as he wished.
“I don’t see why not.” The Nirah shrugged, as he followed the bubbly drow to her chambers.
*****
“He’s her son.” Grandmaster Ilvella told her with a sad look on closing the door to his quarters. “I knew it the moment I saw him, though I couldn’t believe it.”
“What?” Nya exclaimed, having broken protocol and immediately followed her master to talk, with Rena trying to stop her. “Not a chance! There’s no way! They’re nothing alike! He’s evil, he can’t be!”
“I knew Svaarvali for a long time.” the Grandmaster sighed, drained from sharing his painful memory. “Even if he didn’t resemble her physically, there were subtle things I saw in just those few moments meeting him that could only have been from one of her line.”
“Are you certain he is not a different relation to the Saviour, Master?” Rena asked stoically.
“I am certain.” The Grandmaster nodded, closing his eyes. “But irrespective of how I may feel on the matter I will not sacrifice everything we have built for sentiment. Our plans do not change.”
“What are your orders, Master?” Nya tentatively asked.
“Do not engage this…Svaartal under any circumstances, unless in self-defence, and maintain your civilian cover.” He strictly told them both. “He will no doubt expect Devil’s Daughter to retaliate soon if she is able, so we will be patient and wait. I have not seen this Svaarti you are familiar with, but it seems like she may be more receptive than her brother if she is able to recover. If she does, continue to be her friend and get closer to her.”
His gaze then returned to the steely look Nya was used to from her master.
“However, Devil’s Daughter must be sighted soon, unharmed and doing something good to restore the people’s faith. A few days of inactivity will be expected before you must return, and with luck we can completely obscure the truth of your defeat as mere rumours.”
“I don’t think Head Whisperer Ratai has anything recent, save for the possible signs of the latest Killer Klown attack.” Nya reasoned. “And Scholar Volus is still deciphering what was discovered at the Pallid Pit, though Jack and his group have not relinquished the Gloom Cauldron they discovered as far as I am aware, which had ties to the ritual room, and which they’re theorising might have worked as some kind of beacon, though for what I have no idea.”
“I am sure we will find something.” Ilvella concluded. “Perhaps you and Rena can discover something in your civilian lives? The Outsider for one certainly seems to be a good source of trouble. Regardless, you two are dismissed. Heal up and rest early. You have school tomorrow.”
With that, Nya and Rena took their leave.
“This is…” Rena began.
“Impossible.” Nya snapped. “I refuse to believe it.”
“Nya…” Rena gently called to her, understanding the Stygian’s pain.
No, Rena.” Nya snarled, causing the usually stoic Vulsta to take a step back in shock. This wasn’t like her friend at all. “I should have killed him when I had the chance during our fight, and now I learn he’s related to the Saviour? Her son?!”
“You have another chance in the future.” Rena pointed out. “And you can lay the groundwork for that by preparing and training. Taking a loss like that is difficult, but it can be a blessing if you learn from it.”
Nya looked at her friend conflicted, and Rena was glad that the stone corridor of the monastery was deserted.
“Yes.” Nya sighed as she let go of her anger and returned to her normal self. “You’re right. I’ve taken losses before and I’ve come out stronger. I even faced the Killer Klown himself and sent him fleeing, so the problem isn’t necessarily my abilities, but my mind.”
Rena nodded calmly, seeing that Nya was pulling herself up. “And what is your next move?”
“The Grandmaster is right that I need to make a quick reappearance as Devil’s Daughter.” Nya began, sounding more like her usual self. “The Cult of the Destroyer would be an obvious target but the ones at the Pallid Pit were wiped out when my friends decided to go there for some reason, though at least we were able to kill the Stygian masquerading as me and tarnishing our people’s reputation."
“As a civilian I am already friends with Svaarti.” Nya then reasoned. “And unlike her brother, I can actually believe her being related to the Saviour. I can only hope that she wakes and recovers from her arcane backlash. I did talk to her in astral form, so I have faith.”
“So what will you do now?” Rena prompted. The coolly composed Vulsta still expected an answer to her previous question as Nya closed her eyes to think.
“The Whisperers might have something for me.” She decided. “Though there was clearly nothing worthy of Grandmaster Ilvella’s attention, maybe they have something smaller or less reliable I can use to at least been seen by the public.”
“That would be wise.” Rena agreed. “You still need to heal.”
The Chamber of Whispers was set on the ground floor of the monastery, hidden away and far from the entrance or anything else. Following the subtly different pattern of dim lights, the two quickly made their way to the hidden underground bunker that served as their resident spy headquarters.
“BWAH! I knew you’d be up and ready for more work in no time!” A jovial voice called out before they had a chance to knock on the doors. “Hello to you too, Rena!”
“My footsteps were silent…” Rena muttered as they entered the room.
Upon entering, the first thing that struck Nya’s attention was the sheer number of lights illuminating the chamber, bathing the entire room in powerful brightness, and allowing for no shadows to form in heavy contrast to the route they took to get here. Then she focused on the huge table in the middle, with a large map projection of Naganai City, complete with many extensive annotations on several notable districts, and with one of the Whisperers compiling a report on the Pallid Pit.
The walls of the room were lined with the blue glow of several monitors, either displaying popular all-day news outlets or with investigation boards on notable personages. In one of the side rooms Nya could see one of the monks at a console talking away on a headset, likely tapping into the community’s small network of contacts in the city from the safety of their remote system.
“Nya!” Head Whisperer Ratai grinned as the chubby Stygian waltzed over and gave her a gentle bear hug that still lifted her off her feet. “I’m glad you’re back! We’ve got news but it’s not urgent, so you should probably rest…”
Ratai gave her a knowing wink.
“What’s new Ratai?” Nya smiled, used to acting familiar around the man despite his high position.
“HAH!” The Stygian chuckled. “We mostly have reports of the post-klown cleanup, but a few players have already made their moves. Nothing too big but interestingly I’ve received a reliable rumour that our Outsider friend decided that massacring the klowns wasn’t enough for him and was involved in liberating a thinly populated swamp district."
“He’s claiming it as territory?” Rena asked, suddenly alert. “He may be more of a threat than I had initially warned…”
“No, no.” Ratai’s grin got wider. “Nobody seems to have claimed the land, but interestingly enough Clan Ashtail seems to have rehomed the vast majority of the population, and they seem to be sincere in allowing them to rebuild and recover in their newly annexed territory.”
“Do you consider Clan Ashtail a threat?” Nya asked.
“Of course!” Ratai snorted in amusement. “Vetch Ashtail was the one who all but hinted at the damnable rumour in his last correspondence to me, the smug bastard! His clan plays the game well, but there are many other more nefarious groups that will attempt to take advantage of the chaos. I'm particularly concerned about what Corvin Enterprises will try to do, but if they are planning on making a play, which I am almost positive that they are, then they are being very subtle about it.”
“Anything immediate?” Nya asked.
“That admirer of yours was quick to post a new video!” Ratai teased, causing Nya to bury her face in her hands in embarrassment.
“Don’t remind me.” She groaned. “That guy is pure cringe and you need to stop mentioning him to me!”
“Hah! Well I haven’t gotten much within the city itself, but we’ve found a series of accounts online about gangs trying to run protection rackets and establish themselves as local powers. Maybe you can crush a few of the weaker ones to make an appearance as you recover to full strength?”
“Nya will still need some time to recover.” Rena cautioned. “But if we approach this like any other mission and I act from the shadows, it will be fine.”
“Excellent, I shall begin my delving and let you know.” Ratai smiled. “In the meantime, you kids should go to bed!”
“I wish I didn’t have to.” Nya sighed.
“I didn’t exactly have much of a weekend.”
*****
First/Previous
And with that, the weekend is over for our....heroes?
If you're impatient for the next chapter, why not check out my previous series?
Some pictures have been added to The Galactic High Info Sheet! If you have any fanart or any pictures you think might fit one of the entries, please let us know on the discord!
Don't forget! You all have the ability to leave comments and notes to the entries, which I encourage you to do!
As always I love to see the comments on what you guys think!
Don't forget to join the discussion with us on Discord, and consider checking me out on Youtube if you haven't already! Until next week, it's goodbye for now!

Bleed through me,
Bleach my skin with your light,
Leave me stained and faded,
Sunburn me with your love
I'll be your shoulders,
Though I have none of my own
I'll be your eyes,
Though I'll face your fears alone
I'll be your mouth,
Though I'll say things I regret
I'll be your lover,
Sacrificing my support for your neglect
Bleed through me,
Bleach my skin with your light,
Leave me stained and faded,
Sunburn me, my love
https://www.reddit.com/OCPoetry/comments/13xnawi/the_onion_rock/jmi8308?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
https://www.reddit.com/OCPoetry/comments/13xe3kz/360_degrees/jmi7nzn?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

About Amber Heard

Have you HEARD about her? [External: Twitter]
Who is Amber Heard? [External: amberheard.info]
All of Amber Heard's Projects and Where to Watch & Support Them.
Amber Heard in the book 200 Women Who Will Change the Way You See the World, 2017.
Amber Heard Can Be Quite Inspiring, When Seen As a Human Being.
Amber Heard reads the letter of Chanel Miller in 2016 and presents her with the Glamour Woman of the Year award.
Amber Heard’s Grace and Class.
Amber Heard's Settlement Full Instagram Post.
Books Amber has been seen reading.
Subreddit dedicated to Amber Heard.
Twitter Thread of Threads About Amber Heard. [External: Twitter]
Some of Amber Heard's Activism. [External: Twitter]
Why Amber Heard Said She Was "So Wrong, Just So Fucking Wrong".
Sadness over the acting career Amber has missed and is currently missing out on.
Despite everything she's going through, Amber's still managing grace.
Action plan to make sure this doesn't happen again.
A Holiday Gift for Amber Heard.
Bernardo Triana did a live video talking about his experience with Amber.
Man (Krishna Patel) defends Amber Heard, attests to her kindness.
How Amber Heard looks in real life. [External: Twitter]
Just a thread of Amber Heard being unbelievably cute. [External: Twitter]

The Case for Amber Heard

Why We Believe Amber Heard: Part 1 and Part 2.
Why You Should Believe Amber Heard.
Why I Believe Amber Heard.
Dr. Bonnie Jacobs' Notes (2011-2014).
Dr. Bonnie Jacobs' Notes (Unsealed) (2011-2019).
A Video Summary of Dr. Bonnie Jacobs' Unsealed Notes by Medusone.
Medusone's Neutral Breakdown of the Entire Relationship Timeline With Receipts.
A complete timeline of the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard relationship and abuse allegations from both sides. [External: Twitter]
The Jurors' Reasoning for Why They Ruled For Depp is Deeply Flawed. [Twitter version here]
Amber Heard's Testimony In Virginia: Part 1 & Part 2.
Evidence for May 21, 2016, the night that Amber Heard left Johnny Depp for good. [External: Twitter]
Amber Heard's Interrogatory Statements.
Depp v Heard: How is this defamation? - A post-separation timeline with sources. [External: Fauxmoi].
Intimate Terrorism, DARVO, and Violent Resistance: Part 1 (2011-2013) & Part 2 (2014).
Amber Heard's violence against Johnny Depp was a reaction to years of being subjected to physical, sexual, psychological, and emotional abuse from him. [External: Twitter]
Amber Heard only hit Johnny Depp in self defence. [External: Twitter]
Witnesses to Johnny Depp's Violent Behavior, Abuse of Amber Heard, and the After Effects. [External: Twitter]
Revisiting Stephen Deuters' texts and the time Depp infamously kicked Amber on a plane.
List of Receipts.
Paige Heard saw timely photographs of bruises and texts about Johnny Depp's actions from Amber Heard.
About the Nose Amber Said She Thought Was Broken.
All the times you can see the cuts that Johnny Depp gave Amber Heard in Australia.
The Gold-Digger Files: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Michele Mulrooney and the Post-Nup Negotiations.
Johnny Depp strangled Amber Heard on her honeymoon.
Johnny Depp fans were noticing bruises on Amber Heard as early as 2013.
Johnny Depp admitted Amber Heard's photographs were consistent with being headbutted.
Dr. Amy Banks, a world-renowned relationships psychiatrist, believes Amber Heard.
Nurse Lisa Beane on being told by Dr. Kipper that Depp injured Amber Heard.
The context to the "I hit you" audio that Johnny Depp edited out of his leaked audios.
Does This Look Like a Woman "Obsessed" With Johnny Depp?
This Backstage Photo of Amber Heard on James Corden's 'The Late Late Show' in December 16, 2015.
Was Amber Heard really that unbelievable as a sexual assault victim.

The Case Against Depp

A Look At The Inconsistent And Conspiratorial Nature Of Those Who Support Johnny Depp.
Some of the Many Problems With Depp's "Hoax Theory." [A Comment]
More Problems With the "Hoax Theory."
Full text conversation between Marilyn Manson and Johnny Depp discussing Amber and ERW.
How himpathy plays a role in the Depp-Heard case.
Let's talk about how Johnny terrorized Amber with coercive control.
Let's Talk About Johnny Depp's Financial Abuse of Amber Heard.
More of Johnny Depp's Financial Abuse of Amber Heard: The Mustang Repair Costs.
Depp & Love Bombing: A Deep Dive into Magazines, Interviews, Texts, and More about Depp’s Relationship Cycles.
Frequent property destruction is abusive and part of domestic violence.
Johnny Depp Acknowledging That the Allegations Would Ruin Amber Heard's Career NOT his.
A List of All the Evidence Showing that Johnny Depp Injured That Finger. [A Comment]
The Sexual Objectification & Dehumanization of Amber Heard. [External: Twitter]
The Truth About the Poop Incident. [External: Twitter]
More Truth About the Poop Incident. [External: Twitter]
Even More Truth About the Poop Incident. [External: Twitter]
The Case of the Witnesses Who Testified in the UK Trial but Were Rather Conveniently Missing From the Virginia Trial: 1. Hilda Vargas; 2. Trinity Esparza;
I struggle to think of a single accusation from Johnny Depp that wasn't projection.
The Australia Dogs Case.
Johnny Depp's violence against co-workers; More of Johnny Depp's violence against co-workers; Even more of Johnny Depp's violence against co-workers.
Johnny Depp's narcissism.
Amber Heard was being hated from the start for being a “homewrecker”.
Johnny Depp's Fading Star Power in Charts.

Johnny Depp's Lies

(Some of) The lies of Johnny Depp: A Compilation.
More of the Lies of Johnny Depp: A Thread. [External: Twitter]
Johnny Depp's Lies in the UK Trial. [External: Twitter]
Some of Johnny Depp's Glaring Inconsistencies that His Supporters Overlook Or Excuse.
In response to "how can you believe her lies??". [External: Fauxmoi/]
The Photoshopped Photo. [External: Twitter]
UK vs. VA Trial - Johnny Depp's Childhood Exposure to Domestic Violence.
Johnny Depp lying about his cast.
Johnny Depp lied that he's never ever - not even in self-defense - struck Amber Heard or any woman.
Johnny Depp Lied That He Wasn't Addicted to Cocaine.
The lie that Amber Heard getting the TRO against Depp in 2016 ended his life. [External: Twitter]
The lie that Amber Heard ruined Johnny Depp's career. [External: Twitter]

Johnny Depp's Witnesses' Lies

The Lies of JD's Witnesses. [External: Twitter]
Kate James: The Sexual Assault Lie [A Comment] and The Spitting Lie. Her Rude Testimony.
Kate James: A Deep Dive. [External: Twitter]
Shannon Curry, Part 1: A Forensic Psychologist With 25+ Years Experience and 500+ Forensic and Psychological Evaluations Compares Shannon Curry's Methods to Dr. Hughes'. [External: YouTube]
Shannon Curry, Part 2: Her Testimony and Her Opinions Before She Met Amber Heard [A Comment].
Shannon Curry, Part 3: Her Praising Emily D. Baker During the Trial (on May 28, 2022). More of Her Unethical Twitter Activities During and After the Trial.
Shannon Curry, Part 4: Curry v. Dr. Hughes, Who Should You Believe? [External: Twitter]
Stephen Deuters. [A Comment]
The Kevin Murphy & Starling Jenkins Testimony Swap.
Starling Jenkins: The Missing Phones.
David Kipper.
Adam Waldman and the 75+ Questions He Refused to Amber.
Adam Waldman and His Shady Putin-Linked Dealings.
Sean Bett.
Isaac Baruch.
Morgan Higby Night.
Morgan Tremaine: His Lie, The Depp Tattoo and His 15 Minutes of Fame.
Debbie Lloyd.
Jennifer Howell: About Her Letter.
Samantha McMillen.
Monroe Tinker (during deposition).

Johnny Depp's Past and Friends

Depp In His Own Words and Those of His Coworkers (1995-2006).
This has always been who he is: a deep dive into magazines, tabloids and blogs regarding Depp’s reputation.
Johnny Depp's legal woes: Arrests and settlements.
Johnny Depp Himself Ruined His Own Career. [A Comment]
Johnny Depp's Unusually Long List of Abusive Friends.
Gregg Ellis. The Restraining Order Against Him.
J. K. Rowling.
Lori Anne Allison & Morgan Higby Night.
Lori Anne Allison.
Johnny Depp’s Bodyguard Jerry Judge Offered Money to Gold Coast Bulletin Reporter in 2016.

Anti-Amber Myths Debunked

List of AH/JD abuse myths debunked: Part 1 & Part 2 [External: Fauxmoi/].
A thread on debunking misinformation about the Depp v. Heard trial and malicious myths about Amber Heard. [External: Twitter]
Another thread debunking myths, lies, and conspiracies about Amber Heard. [External: Twitter]
Amber vs. Johnny: Myths, Misconceptions, and the Failure of Media. [External: YouTube]
The Myth that Amber Heard Murdered Someone in a Car Crash Debunked.
That Amber Leaked the Kitchen Video to TMZ: TMZ has always been in Depp's pockets.
That Amber Leaked the Kitchen Video to TMZ: A Rebuttal and Debunking.
That Amber Leaked the Kitchen Video to TMZ: The Whole TMZ /Copyright Summarised in a Tweet.
Johnny Depp was the One that Leaked the Kitchen Video. [External: Twitter]
That Amber Heard is a "Gold-Digger." [External: Twitter]
That Everyone Believed Amber Heard Before the US, Virginia Trial: A Study & Some Receipts. More Receipts. Even More Receipts. More More Receipts [External: Twitter].
That Amber Shed No Tears On the Stand.
That Amber Purposely Submitted and Lied About the Two Identical Photos that She Submitted.
That Amber Called TMZ When She Went to Court to Get a TRO on May 27, 2016. In addition, Note That TMZ Has Employees Stationed at That Courthouse at All Times.
On the Claim that Amber Heard's Injuries Do Not Matcher Her Testimony.
On the Topic of Amber Heard's Sexual Assault Injuries.
The Pledge-Donation Distraction: A major gifts experienced fundraiser explains that they use "pledge" and "donation" synonymously in the field; Pledge & Donate are used interchangeably by many media sources; Amber Heard was on schedule with her donation payments before Depp sued her. [All External: Twitter]
The "Satanic sex parties" conspiracy theory. [External: Twitter]
The Lies From Paul Barresi.
Do We Believe Amber Heard Just Because She's a Woman?.
On the Viral Lie that Amber Heard Cheered for Domestic Violence. [External: Twitter]
False Sexual Assault Allegations are Extremely Rare: What Studies Show. [External: Twitter]

The Unsealed Documents

The unsealed documents thread (2022). [External: Twitter]
Even more unsealed documents (2023). [External: Twitter]
Johnny Depp attempted to use revenge p*rn against Amber Heard.
Dr. Kipper's Deposition Evidencing the Extent of Johnny Depp's Drug Use and Its Negative Effects.
Johnny Depp Drugged Ellen Barkin With Quaaludes.
Evidence of Johnny Depp's memory problems that was hidden from the trial.
Stephen Deuters' Deposition Showing Him Expressing Belief that Depp Injured That Finger.

The VA Trial: Selected Important Issues

To watch the trial without commentary to maintain objectivity, click this. (External: YouTube]
Summary of Amber Heard's Motion to Set Aside Verdict.
Grounds for Amber Heard’s Appeal.
The Real-Time Effects of the Trial On a Domestic Abuse Survivor.
How Johnny Depp Fans Reacted When the Judge Granted Amber Heard's Request to Keep the Jurors' Identities Sealed for One Year After the Trial.
About that Imposter Juror.
Why Amber Heard was Looking at the Jurors So Often.
Why the Jurors Very Likely Were On Social Media During the Trial.
Proof that at Least One of the Jurors was on Social Media While in Court.
Did the Jurors Pay Attention During the Trial and Look at the Evidence? Not Likely. I mean, Not Likely At All.
Why Dr. Bonnie Jacobs Was Not Called to Testify By Amber Heard's Team.

The UK Trial: Selected Important Issues

The Judgement: Web Page [External: bailii.org] and PDF [External: judiciary.uk].
Dismissal of Johnny Depp's Application to Appeal.
NGN / Dan Wootton closing submissions.
More about NGN / Dan Wootton closing submissions.
Raeden Greer's Summary of the UK Trial Judgement.

Johnny Depp's Anti-Amber PR Campaign: The Evidence

The Company that Johnny Depp Used for His PR.
Assessment of the credibility of Dr. Teresa C. Silva.
The incel hate group of youtubers that spawned anti-Heard content.
Brian McPherson ("Incredibly Average") is Lying and I can Prove it: Part 1 & Part 2.
The Skewed Trial Viewership Stats that Show that Far More People Watched Pro-Depp Clips and Content than Watched All the Trial.
The Power of Social Media in the Spread of Propaganda.

Support For Amber

A list of public figures who support Amber Heard. [External: Fauxmoi]
The Open Letter for Amber Heard.
Whitney Heard.
Constance Wu.
Phoebe Bridgers.
Emily Ratajkowski (aka EmRata).
Julia Fox.
Amy Ziering.
Zara Larsson.
Constance Hall.
Masterlist of youtubers who HAVE supported Amber Heard.
Mega-List of Some Major Pro-Amber Heard Twitter Accounts.
Leftists should have been Amber's biggest supporters.

Those Against Amber

Celebs who liked Johnny Depp's post (updated list). [External: Fauxmoi]
What celebrities and other public figures have said about Depp v Heard (includes few pro-Amber celebs). [External: Fauxmoi]
Celebrities who supported Johnny Depp/mocked Amber Heard. [External: Twitter, Suspended]
Celebrities who have supported Depp / Made fun of Amber Heard. [External: Twitter]
Robyn Rihanna Fenty.
Serena Williams.
The Awful Things That Some of JD's Friends and Celebrity Supporters Have Done.

Those Who Mocked Amber

YouTubers who mocked Amber Heard and her testimony.
TikTokers who Mocked Amber Heard and her testimony: Part 1 & Part 2. [External: Twitter]
Zachary Levi.
Doja Cat.
Melissa Chen.
Raven-Symoné.
Andrea Burkhart.
The Problem with Emily D. Baker.
CodeMiko.

Those Who Changed Their Minds

People Who at First Fell for the Pro-Depp propaganda but Later Changed Their Minds.
Former Depp supporters who changed their minds AFTER the trial.
Not Even Emily (@uhhmmily).
My Grandma Opened my Eyes.

Bullying And Harassment Against Amber and Her Supporters

Death threats towards Amber and Oonagh Heard on Twitter.
The worst artwork/takes I've seen made about Amber Heard, and the global humiliation she had to endure (Major TW: graphic misogyny).
The normalized sexual objectification of Amber Heard by Johnny Depp’s supporters.
The Coloring Book Dedicated to Abusing Amber Heard.
The Game Abusing Amber Heard.
Death threats against Amber Heard in 2020. [External: Twitter]
Those who mocked Amber Heard on Halloween. [External: Twitter]
Megathread documenting the abuse and harassment faced by those who supported Amber Heard.
Thread of some of the abuse and harassment targeting Amber and her supporters . [External: Twitter]
Mélanie Inglessis said that she faced online harassment, received death threats, feared for her safety, and that testifying on behalf of Amber Heard puts her career in jeopardy.
Attacks Against the Signatories of the Open Letter for Amber Heard.
Johnny Depp supporters have started harassing Amber Heard’s ex-girlfriend Bianca Butti who is recovering from breast cancer.
Attacks Against Cara Delevingne.
The Attempted Racist Doxxing of Kamilla.

Past Lawsuits

Depp v. TMG (His Past Financial Managers).
Gregg Rocky Brooks vs. John C. Depp et al: The Case in a Nutshell; Depp's GQ Slip-Up; The Settlement.
Who let the dogs in? A breakdown of the Australia dog smuggling controversy.
About Amber's Insurance Suits.

This is a sort of Part 2 of my grand theory of "Ancient Zonai", and you can read Part 1 here:
https://www.reddit.com/tearsofthekingdom/comments/13rdwog/the_zonai_have_been_in_the_story_this_whole_time/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Strap in, because this is a long one! Spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild, and Skyward Sword.
I'm a believer that the lore in Zelda isn't just slapped on. They've said at least since 2001 that they have documents written about how each game connect, and when they put so much work into describing symbols and potential backstories for small things in THREE different books, I think it's safe to say that the connected lore is important to Nintendo.
But, before I go on with my theory, it's important to establish something I've just recently started to think about: The Legend of Zelda are LEGENDS in the games. I believe each game shows what really happened in those times, but because each game is so far apart, the events of other games are merely myths and legends within the world of Zelda, as many games explain many times. Aka, what happens in the games is true, but the stories told within the games are legends. How the world was created, who the godesses were, what happened i previous eras, etc. that are explained in-game are how the residents of the world at that time interprates history, because it's all (again) legends and myths.
One of the major head twisters in TOTK is "Where is anything taking place?!". Is TOTK's memories between SS and OOT? Or in the distant future, before BOTW? Where is the Great Calamity 10 000 years before BOTW taking place? Does it happen before all other games, and that 10 000 year gap is our timeline of games? Etc.
BOTW is confirmed to be far, far into the future compared to all other games, which means the same for TOTK. Wether the timelines have merged, or if only 1 is canon and the others are legends within this world, or if all are canon and this is still in one of the timelines, is unknown. But where is TOTK's memories taking place?
I believe they happen in the distant past, even before Skyward Sword.
There are several things that goes against this, I know; Hyrule was established after SS, not before it. Demise was the origin of Ganondorf, so it can't take place before SS. They talk about the Master Sword, but that wasn't forged until SS.
Well, let's begin (and keep in mind, this is purely FUN for me to do! I love lore that is very hidden and subtile like in the Zelda universe. Weather it's correct or not, I'm still having a blast, so don't shoot me for getting certain things wrong or for disagreeing with me haha).
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THE SECRET HISTORY BEFORE SKYWARD SWORD

The world was created by Din, Farore and Nayru, and the godess Hylia is said to be the protecter of the Triforce. I believe she wasn't a spiritual pure godess so to speak, but a human with goddess powers, aka like Zelda, and her family protected the Triforce for generations as the Triforce is hidden in the Sacred Realm. Through legend and myth, she was believed to be a goddess as she was the first one to show magical powers.
The Zonai was one of the very first races to exist alongside humans, and they were living in islands in the sky. They were blessed with technological knowledge to help and serve the gods. They decended upon the land, and people thought they were gods at first due to their appearance, magic, and highly advanced technology.
The world flurished, and the Zonai created the ancient robots seen in Skyward Sword, and later the Temple of Time in Lanayru seen in both TOTK and Skyward Sword. Why and how, you ask? In SS, we learn the robots were active thousands of years prior to the game, meaning an advanced civilization lived thousands of years before SS. The robots' body parts are connected with energy just like Zonai constructs. The robots' ship, the Sand Ship, has the Zonai swirl symbol on it, which even is confirmed in one of the 3 Zelda lore books to be the clear symbol for the Zonai.
https://preview.redd.it/yk85sjfbzd3b1.png?width=728&format=png&auto=webp&s=45d3a957ea367fbf8130370c6bfbf1ab5b380200
Aka, this Sand Ship is a Zonai ship, and those ancient robots are Zonai robots. There is no question. Why else would they choose to use this symbol in these places? Now, what were the robots mining in the Lanayru Mining Facility? Probably Zonite. As we see when using Timeshift Stones, Lanayru was once filled with green fields of grass in the ancient past.
And what's right next to the Mining Facility? The broken Temple of Time. And what is almost directly blow TOTK's Temple of Time? The Abandonded Central Mine. And what do we see in TOTK's memories? A fully in-tact Temple of Time, in green fields, built with very similar white-stone material to the one from Skwyard Sword:
https://preview.redd.it/xbic4jxozd3b1.png?width=1343&format=png&auto=webp&s=66a274e358ad8c9a4c0935d9ceb589a77022061d
https://preview.redd.it/jhtoqtx20e3b1.png?width=1427&format=png&auto=webp&s=85ea6251b78232dbe865cf8fca35b6abdfce5271
In other words: Both in Skwyard Sword and TOTK, we see the first Temple of Time, and both have mines next to them. It's the same temple. The ONLY thing I cannot figure out, is that the TOTK temple is said to have been sent to the sky as a hero was destined to awaken there. So if the SS and TOTK temples are the same, but the SS temple has decayed, when did it rise back into the sky as a fully constructed temple again? Here I need your help.
Now, Rauru, the sage of light from OOT, is written to have built "the second Temple of Time", meaning this one in SS is the first one. King Rauru built the first Temple of Time, and light sage Rauru was named after him and built the second temple thousands of years later. It all makes sense.
Rauru has Secret Stones, perhahs he made them himself or they were gifts from the Gods.
Years passed after the temple and robots' creation, and the Zonai tribe became less and less (not sure how, but probably due to marrying and breeding with humans). The Sheikah tribe who protects the Royal Family is taught the technology from the Zonai. Rauru married Sonia (a decendant of Hylia who thus posessed magical powers), and the two of them finally united all the lands and created Hyrule.
So to sum up so far: The world was made. The advanced Zonai race decended from the skies, taught the Sheikah their tech, built robots to mine Zonite, built the Temple of Time, and eventually Raru and Sonia founded Hyrule and became its first king and queen.
Ganondorf was then born and did not want to bow down and be united with Hyrule. But a demon lived inside him. He killed Sonia, took a Secret Stone, and his demon inside came out, and Ganondorf became known as the Demon King. Yes, this happens before Demise. Stick with me. A war breaks loose known as the Imprisoning War, and Rauru gathers sages and, through sacrificing himself, Rauru seals Ganondorf deep underground, warning Ganondorf (or the Demon within him) that a hero with the blade to repel evil will one day come for him. How can this be, when the Master Sword wasn't forged yet?
Because Rauru's decendants made the Goddess Sword.
We know Rauru and Sonia had a child, as Sonia is a blood relative to Zelda. This means this child is part Zonai, part hylian and has the blood of the original "Goddess". Because the Royal Family now has blood of Zonai as well as the Godess, it explains why Zeldas in the future has both the power of light and time. Rauru and Sonia's child may very well be named Hylia, renamed after that first Goddess. I believe Rauru knew, and was even responsible for, the creation of the Goddess Sword. Look at its design - its neon-green color is perfectly Zonai in nature:
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https://preview.redd.it/cie84sm12e3b1.png?width=319&format=png&auto=webp&s=ce572c999b39d1f03f575e7441c1135009aa165a
The legends in the games says the "Godess Hylia made the sword", but that's the legend. The fact is that one of the first Hylia's long decendants made the sword, or Rauru himself did - or, Hylia the decendant made it, which fits. This is also why the ancient robots protect a Sacred Flame on the Sand Ship, because the Zonai constructed them too. This explains how Rauru knew a hero with this very sword would one day defeat Demise/Ganon's demon, because he knew of the sword's creation.
Thousands of year pass, and the Zonai are almost no more. Only Rauru and Sonia's long, long decendant named again Hylia of the royal family, as well as sages and the Sheikah who has kept the Zonai technology and knowledge, are alive. Perhaps a few Zonai are left, becoming more like savages and develops into their own branch... Keep that in mind.
Then one day, the demon within the Ganondorf who was sealed deep underground, leaks out through cracks in the earth.
https://preview.redd.it/hz0aqqdgee3b1.png?width=1427&format=png&auto=webp&s=51e63d6dd070302b7069088157505b6779cbf303
The demons, and Demise himself (the Demon King as he's also refered as), literally comes out from where Ganondorf is sealed. The Demon has left Ganondorf's body and is now in his pure form. Demise is the true form of the demon that resided within Ganondorf all those years ago during the Imprisoning War, and he has now ascended from Ganondorf's body and up to the surface. And as we see, the scar from the Tear that Ganondorf used can still be seen in Demise's forehead:
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https://preview.redd.it/2v3kfcq53e3b1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=5477922f92f233d6914949efbf411a9a3b5c6611
Hylia and the rest manage, through their Zonai technology, to lift the land into the sky just like her ancestors of the Zonai could. She then keeps fighting, uses the Triforce, and seals Demise.
Thousands of years pass, and the ancient Hyrule on the surface fade into legend. Only Gorons and other species are left down there, and the ancient Rito are now exctinct. Skyward Sword happens, and at the end of the game, Demise finally unleashes the never-ending curse upon Link and Zelda. THIS explains why there is no Link or Master Sword during TOTK's memories - because Demise's curse isn't active yet. SS doesn't show the origin of Ganondorf, but rather the origin of the curse. From THIS point on, a boy with a hero's spirit and the godess' blood are reborn anew alongside Demise's incarnations.
People later start to learn of the Sacred Realm and the Triforce and conflict came from it. Rauru, most likely a long decendant from Rauru and Sonia, thus built the second Temple of Time in history, made that the only entrance to the Sacred Realm and sealed it behind the Door of Time. Even though the Zonai who served the gods are long gone, there are a few humans remaining who were long decendants of the Zonai and thus still posess their magic. Due to their dangerous magic and evil intentions, they are banished to a different world called the Twilight Realm, and their ancient magic are sealed within what's called the Fused Shadow. Why is the Twili the same as the Zonai?
Because first of all, it's never stated WHO got banished, only that they were interlopers who were skilled at magic. And they are shown as hylians, but they have Zonai blood (just like Zelda has Hylia's blood and thus her magic). The Zonai blood still remains in certain hylians after mating with them for eons. These hylians, now transformed into the Twili after being in the Twilight Realm for so long, still posess their ancient ancestor's magic, seen through their green magic, their anti-gravity magic, and Swirl Symbols. The Fused Shadow is filled with Zonai Swirls and even has serpants breathing fire, another very common Zonai symbolism. And hell, even Zant's throne is filled with Zonai Swirls identical to the ones we see in BOTW and TOTK... and, at the top of the throne, we even see a big Zonai Eye symbol...
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https://preview.redd.it/8ty2t8lv7e3b1.png?width=750&format=png&auto=webp&s=6710347bfcf561f113735e900c9e45f9ca6fc419
There is literally more evidence of the Twili being long decendants of the Zonai than evidence that contradicts it.
Zelda and Link's decendants later brings all lands together and founds the new Hyrule once again.
A civil war breaks out, and from there, Ocarina of Time occurs, and events repeat themselves in an eerily similar matter as they did all those thousands of years ago; Ganondorf is born and does not want to be under Hyrule's regime. Yet, at this time still, the ancient corpse of Ganondorf is trapped deep, deep underground. People say two Ganondorfs cannot exist at once. But why not? The Ganondorf from deep underground is essentially dead, and the Demon powers aren't in him. He's basically kept on ice through countless thousands of years. The very first Ganondorf is sealed deep below the Earth throughout all of the Zelda games.
After all the games, X amount of years pass and we end up with the Great Calamity, where this malice from the ancient Ganondorf finally leaks out, and the Sheikah (who still has the technological knowledge they learned from the Zonai all those years ago) constructs the Divine Beasts and Guardians. Coincidence that Sheikah's protectors (Guardians) are called the same as the presumably Zonai-constructed Guardians from SS?
The Sheikah are then "banished" by the king for being too dangerous (again, that happened to the Zonai, only more dramatic back then). The Yiga Clan that forms here is similar to what happened to the Zonai. Zonai and Sheikah became the Twili and Yiga Clan. Again, history mirrors itself. Master Kogah of the Yiga Clan? Crazy and unpredictable? Sounds familiar to Zant, doesn't it?
And even though the pure Zonai race was gone long before Ocarina of Time, their remains can still be found throughout the series - as seen with the Twilight Realm and the symbols and magical similarities. If these are built by the Zonai when they were still fully present, or if they're made by hidden decendants in the present times, is unknown.
The Tower of the Gods share the same dot-connected pattern as both the Fused Shadow and the Sheikah Technology in BOTW. Tower of the Gods is also filled with Zonai square swirls, especially in the boss arena and the boss itself. The boss (Gohdan) is even designed like a Zonai construct with its mask design, eye symbols and the blue-green colors and yellow top.
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https://preview.redd.it/rzt5jhzeje3b1.png?width=1499&format=png&auto=webp&s=5fa4e75c11a44ed1a37c9759267194219efc85ca
As you see in BOTW and TOTK, there are 2 main swirl designs the Zonai are known for: The square swirls as seen in the pics above, and the rounded ones with a little tail at the end. This may represent different lineages of the Zonai, where the square ones represent the original good ones, and the rounded ones represent the lineage that evolved into being more barbaric and eventually become the interlopers.
The Earth Temple from the Wind Waker shares a fun similarity to BOTW's barbarian armor. HIGHLY probably a coincidence, but fun to think about nontheless:
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https://preview.redd.it/5qgsp9qxje3b1.png?width=291&format=png&auto=webp&s=a94c1f2f5a137354a18534e5045ff12337d49b6d
https://preview.redd.it/gslkjox2ke3b1.png?width=1416&format=png&auto=webp&s=c97222afc078ce7f14bd95ae6477f13d30f379e4
Both the doors in the Earth Temple and the Barbarian Armor set have skulls and pink-purple hair or spikes. May again be a coincidence. However...
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https://preview.redd.it/7yrgp57fke3b1.png?width=1429&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fa1986cd32e8bcc24d1331c97a7b86a00fa0393
The temple also seem to be filled with ancient symbols that are not Hylian. And, most importantly...
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https://preview.redd.it/zy8php1ske3b1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=3286dc53f59556b640c5d7891d13fee5922fee83
The boss of the temple seem to have the Zonai swirl on his belly, alongside the swirls all along the arena walls. This one is a long reach, but it's fun to theorize if the Earth Temple is an ancient Zonai constructed temple. It's worth noting that the boss wears a mask, a staple among the Zonai... It is possible that the Earth Temple has acted as a prison for the savage Zonai at one point.
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THE SUMMARY

World was created. Zonai served the gods in the beginning and were highly advanced. Hylia was the first woman who posessed godlike powers and she was a human. Sheikah was a tribe who protected her and her family, aka the royal family. The Zonai decended to the lands and created the ancient robots, a ship for them, and had them mine Zonite in the Lanayru Mining Facility. They taught the Sheikah their technology. They married with humans and the races started to merge. Various structures were built, including Tower of the Gods. The original Temple of Time was created close to the mine, and Rauru the Zonai and Sonia the human brought the lands together and made Hyrule. Ganondorf was born and had a demon inside him, and he killed Sonia and took one of the Secret Stones, bringing out the demon within him. Rauru created, or started the process of creating, the Goddess Sword. Ganondorf was later sealed deep underground by Rauru and the sages he chose. The pure Zonai race faded into legend but blood relatives in form of humans remains.
The demon within the deeply sealed Ganondorf leaked through the ground and escaped thousands of years later. This demon was known as Demise. The scar on his forhead comes from Ganondorf's earlier Tear placement there. Hylia used her ancestor's technology and/or magic to once again raise islands into the sky. Demise was sealed, and Hyrule became forgotten and only certain races survived and lived on the surface. Demise broke free, Link (the first hero) was born and found the old Zonai Goddess sword, forged it into the Master Sword, and defeated Demise. Demise's curse was created, binding the 3 of them together for eternity. The old, deceased corpse of Ganondorf was still sealed deep, deep below the Earth.
Generations pass, decendants of the Zonai who has become power-hungry and dangerous in magic, was sealed to the Twilight Realm. Rauru, a decendant/relative of Rauru and Sonia, built the second Temple of Time and blocked it off with the Door of Time. Hyrule was once again united and founded.
A civil war broke loose and the Hero of Time was born. Ganondorf was born again with the power of the Demon King, while the ancient first Ganondorf was still sealed deep below the ground. The timeline split. Various artifacts and structures from the ancient Zonai can still be found.
In the distant future, the sealed ancient Ganon has his powers leak through the depths and into the world as Calamity Ganon. The Sheikah, having passed down the ancient Zonai knowledge through all generations, makes weapons to defeat it. 10 000 years later, Calamity Ganon comes back, and is eventually defeated. Link and Zelda then finds the very first Ganondorf from eons back, sealed deep below Hyrule Castle. The war depicted on the walls is the very first war. The first war against Ganondorf and the demon Demise.
Hyrule has been founded many times throughout history, and the Zonai Rauru and the Hylia decendant Sonia founded the very first one, way before Skyward Sword.

Brand new “Before we fade to black” T and black “coffee by the roadside” I am willing to pay $110 if anyone is trying to get rid of either item. If not then I will pass. I don’t need them but instantly so think about it and let me know. I won’t do anymore just because it’s second hand. Size MEDIUM or large depending on the shirt. Heavyweight I wear M and medium weight I wear L