Nu slept. The nightmare Shadow had set upon her exhausted her. She dreamed of nothing: no revival of memories or scenes of what could have been: only silence and blackness.
When she awoke, the Aether Spirit stood before her. Shadow was absent.
"Where is he?" Nu asked the spirit.
"Near," it answered laconically.
Nu felt a heavy pulse in her belly. Somehow she felt as if some outer source was beckoning to her.
"You feel it, don't you?" The Aether Spirit asked.
"Yes," Nu responded, "it is near." She looked up the spirit. "What are we going to do?"
The spirit looked down at her with saddened eyes, "You may not like what I have decided for us." Then its expression hardened. "But what will happen will happen."
The weakness Nu felt at these words threatened to put her back to sleep. But then a voice called out from behind.
"Master," Ravage's shrill was sour to the ear. "I've retrieved the eye."
The words froze Nu's heart. The little girl moved in through the cosmic image all around them. Her lurid pink dress shattering the illusion.
"Oh," she muttered, quietly, admiring the scene, "pretty." She sauntered over to Shadow with odd reverence. One hand-carried the Eye of Aion.
Black smoke eased in from every corner of the room, collecting in the center.
"The time has come," said Shadow as he took form.
"The time has come." Ravage echoed, smiling broadly, excitement in her flashing red eyes. She placed the ancient trinket in her master's hands.
No, Nu thought, this can't be happening. She looked to the Aether Spirit. "We must not go through with this."
The Aether Spirit gave her a solemn look. "There are greater things beyond our home realm, Nuallis, don't you see?" It took Nuallis's hand and tried to lead her to Shadow. "Think of the possibilities and what we can do to not only purify our own kind but others that suffer."
"But Shadow is evil," Nu retorted, "what good will come of this?"
"If he is the evil, and I am the benevolence. Our union will be one of balance. Every creature that lives knows the pain of disorder."
"You must not trust him!" The Aether Spirit began to glow, and wisps of light sprouted from its torso. "All he has done is deceive us." The wisps formed into tendrils that wrapped around Nuallis. "He only desires power. Can you not feel his greed? His hate?" The tendrils tightened and began to lift her. The Aether Spirit did not deign to argue; it carried Nuallis to the fiend.
"I too desire power," was all the Aether Spirit would say, its tones flat and emotionless.
"Stop," Nu begged as she struggled against the force, "Let me go! Stop this!"
But the more she fought, the more restricted she felt; soon, she could hardly move her jaw to speak. Shadow stayed where he was, holding the Eye by its shiny blue chain; he stared into the three-pupiled eye which, too, stared back at him. When Nu became close enough, the Eye gazed at her instead. By its own force, it floated in her direction like a lodestone.
"Patience, patience," Shadow mocked the artifact, tugging the chain, "soon we will get what we want."
Ravage stood by, quietly humming a sorrowful melody as the tragedy unfolded.
The Aether Spirit stretched its hand towards Shadow; the fiend took it with mock reverence, the Eye of Aion in his palm.
No, no, thought Nu.
White energy exploded from the relic. Veins of light crawled onto the pair's hands: scarlet working its way through the Aether Spirit's and sapphire on Shadow's. The cross flew up from their grasp and blinked, forcing golden tears to drip from between its lids.
I'm sorry, Nu said to herself, silently, I'm too weak. Van…
The last thing she saw was Ravage sprinting away from them.
Then it was like Nu was traveling between realms again. She saw the Aether Spirit's past: The crushing of her family when they fought against Ozma. When that was over, she saw the lives of her predecessors: witnessing each one of them meet their demise. What seemed like Shadow's history was there as well: centuries of pain and suffering as well as the anger of which it had given birth. She even saw poor Magpie, bound and used as a slave. Elyza? The revelation lingered in her mind, that's her name, is it?
The theater of thoughts stewed, and the countless lives both these entities knew overwhelmed her. Soon, Nu lost her grip on everything around her; the vortex of memories and emotions consumed her, and she became one with it.
Was she gone? Dispersed into nothingness? No, quite the opposite. She became everything. They became everything.
When they awoke, there was nothing above their head but sky; the top floor had crumbled. Fragments of the hospital's roof had scattered across the city. The transfiguration had ended with an explosion of energy, it seemed. Flying debris had done significant damage to neighboring structures.
What is this? They looked at their new form: Six great wings sprouted from their back, and a red aureole shimmered above their head. Their hair was black as midnight and went down to their ankles. Half their body did not seem like flesh: it was like glass and within it, the vast cosmos. The Eye of Aion affixed itself to their breast. But the most magnificent change was that of power, of course. They commanded the four elements, and the one kept secret by the spirits of old: Oblivion.
They realized they were being watched. Ah yes, they silently mused, those creatures. The four stood side by side, where the double doors to the operating room would have been: the lovers, Ignatius and Magpie; the bereaved fae, Carlos; and him, Vandal the gunner.
The latter was the first to speak.
"Nu," the creature muttered, lowering his gun, "is that you?"
"She is here," they mused more than answered.
Ignatius took a few steps forward and said: "You will not get away with this, Shadow."
They cocked their head at this. "Shadow is here, as well, as is the Aether." They spread their wings and hovered above the quartet. "But we are neither." Their halo began to burn fiercely. "For we are unyielding. Our purpose is known." Their left eye became a raging inferno. "We know of the neverending wounds dealt onto all life by nature." She swept an open hand across at them. "Oh, and how I taste the pain emanating from your souls as you stand before me." Carlos looked away, gritting his teeth and clutching his sword's hilt. Raising their open palms to the sky, they made the floor shake. "We must close the tears and put an end to the torment." Black and green spikes of oblivion sprouted in a ring around them. The four companions jumped back to avoid injury. Shards of ice crystallized in her left hand; a tongue of fire ignited over her right.
"We are Dark Weaver. We shall weave all worlds as we see fit."
Artist: Jiachen Z.
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