After Darkness

Prologue
The planet Ganlomb was a lush tropical world on the edge of the known verse.
Orbiting a single class M star right dab in the so-called habitable zone, it was one
of 5 celestial objects in the small system but the only one that could be classified as
a planet by any typical reasonable standard. Its inhabitants, classified as simply
Ganlomb on most indexes, were a primarily female society. They had men on the
world, but only a select few, and were lab-grown specifically and used for breeding
purposes. Their skin hue primarily ranged on the blue to violet scale but their
shared dominant feature was pronounced long pointy ears that jutted out
horizontally. Ear length was, in fact, a way to tell status and age, as the longer they
were, the older and more revered someone was.

Azonne Le was a native who was glad to see the glow of her homeworld once the
Bleedgate had opened before her. Her skin color was more on the pink end of the
scale, while her short neck length hair was a shade of purple and only hung down
to her neck. 

On her face, tattooed above and below her right eye were two black arrowheads
above her eyebrow, and one below her eye. She wore segmented armor that ended
at a point down near her naval which were colored a bright shade of orange. On her
chest was a white circle, surrounded by also white arrowheads that brought to mind
a sun to most societies; she wore orange armored boots that went up to her thigh
with forearm length gauntlets to complete the ensemble.

 The rest of her uniform was just plain black to break up the orange. She'd spent
the last 6 orbital cycles off-world, bouncing across the verse putting out whatever
crisis she came across, big and small. On each hand sat a golden ring, dubbed the
most powerful weapons in the 'verse. With a small mental command, the rings
allowed her to pierce through the gate and into real space where she hovered for a
bit, taking in the view. She floated about 20 AU from the large green marble she
called home and with a flick of her hand, she closed the gate behind her. Most
ships had specialized engines that opened gates into the bleed, a connective tissue
that keeps multiple universes from overlapping and presumably destroying each
other, and here she could do it with little more than a thought. Most powerful
indeed.

At most our understanding of this bleed had only allowed for local travel within
your native universe, and there's been no breakthrough that would allow others to
cross the bleed and into an alternate parallel reality; research was still ongoing on
that front. Azonne often wondered if she could, but surprisingly her knowledge to
do so was sorely lacking. If the rings knew how to cross the bleed, they weren't
saying anything, so she surmised it was probably impossible.

Are you glad to be home? Spoke the voice in her mind. It belonged to the first, the
original wielder of the power she channeled through her two rings. Acting as a
guide and companion to each successive bearer and so on until presumably the end
of time. Azonne wasn't sure when her time to pass the mantle on will come but as
The First has told her many times, she'll know when the time presents itself.

"You know I am." She replied, she'd grown into the habit of speaking out loud to
it, she didn't really have to. The protective aura surrounding her allowed her to
speak freely in the void. "Too bad it is work-related." With a slight burst of energy,
she propelled forward toward the planet, forward, of course, being relative.
Moments later she was bursting through the atmosphere, white-hot flames trying
and failing to cling to her aura, dissipating off like water evaporating off hot
asphalt. Her people were a once-proud warrior race that over the ensuing
generations became more technocratic minded. As such while much of the lush
greenery that made up the majority of the surface was well preserved, large
megacities were scattered across the planet. Still, as a people, they never forgot
their roots and much of the planet is considered sacred and not to be touched by
modern contrivances such as buildings and plumbing.

Nature itself soon began to fade away before her as the edges of modern life began
to encroach. Over the horizon, glittering towers made of glass began to rise up. The
side of her head began to buzz, Incoming hail, from the protectorate. Azonne
sighed inwardly, not surprised they'd want to personally touch base. The
Protectorate was a set of ruling Ai's that handled all governmental business on the
back end, and once a generation a Ganlomb is chosen to be their font facing avatar.
"Put it through." In her peripheral vision a small window popped up, it was a
waveform that stretched and expanded as the person on the other line spoke.

"Ah welcome home, Light Bringer." Said the voice. "Everything is set up per your
requests, and we wanted to personally thank you for wanting to meet with the
young ones, they look up to you most of all."

"It is no problem at all." She replied as she lowered her altitude, deeper into the
city itself. Those who caught sight of her stopped what they were doing, their
hushed whispers almost willing themselves to be heard.

"I trust we'll be seeing you shortly?" It asked.

"I have something I'll need to do first, but yes. Shortly." She responded. As she fell
lower, the skyscrapers floated away, broken up by the thick steel platform serving
as support. That continued for another few feet and she was greeted by the city
within a city. She dodged the incoming elevator headed back to the Upper City and
buildings built in the old style greeted her enthusiastically; her aura serving as a
greater illumination than the house lights scattered across the ceiling. As she
landed another murmur of ooh's and ah's began again all around her. The thick
flood of Ganlomb she had landed into quickly parted to give her space; Azonne
smiled awkwardly. Up there she was an interesting curiosity, but down here she
was something revered.

The sea of people parted further as she walked toward a storefront. It was in better
shape than compared to everything around it, although shades of rust and disrepair
littered in spots of the outer façade. She pressed her palm to the metal plate
situated over to the side of the main entrance and it slid open vertically with a
cranky whine. It didn't shock her that her palm was still encoded after all this time.

"Grandfather." She uttered after the door screeched behind her. A short squat of a
creature was huddled over a large table, shoulders hunched forward as it worked
over something. The area was small and cluttered; electronic detritus littered every
corner. A small light shone over the tiny person's head, putting a shine to its
stringy white hair and dull purple skin with ears so long they hung dead at the
sides; they nearly touched the floor. It froze when Azonne spoke, and it glanced
over its shoulder. The older Ganlomb's eyes grew wide when he noticed her.

"Azzy!" He let out a boisterous laugh as he rushed her. His quickness was
surprising, large arms wrapped her up so tight she whistled out a tiny bit. He put
her down and looked up at her, his eye level was only about waist-high, but he kept
an affectionate hold onto her gauntleted hand. He was proud of her. "I didn't think
I'd see you so soon after being chosen!" He said to her.
"It's been 6 cycles, grandfather." She smiled.

He poo-pooed her. "Well sue this old coot for thinking that preserving the balance
would keep you away for longer than that!" Azonne blushed a bit, her skin would
turn a mauve color whenever that happened. He took her arm and led her closer to
the light. "So you must tell me of your adventures in the void."

"Grandfather..."

"Have you fought it?"

She looked at him for a moment before finally, "It's here."

***

"In the beginning, there was great darkness." Azonne sat surrounded by 12 little
young ones in an Upper City classroom. Every eye locked on to her as she spoke.
"When suddenly there was a great explosion, bringing light and life into the void.
And that darkness...?" She glanced around. "...it was not happy." She let the pause
hang in the air as she looked at every wide eye fixed onto her at the moment. She
studied each face briefly before moving on to the next. "This is a tale I was told
when I was around your age, but what I've found out since being chosen is that
almost every civilization has a similar story." All the children looked to each other
and nodded, they all remembered hearing of it.

"Now, with the light came the balance. The balance acted like chains for this
darkness, it was a role now, a role that it had to play; and thus it became The
nameless. And when the great explosion that created our universe occurred, a
fraction of that energy coalesced and became a man; although not really a man. It
had no gender only a form, a life. It became known as The First and it battled the
nameless until it ultimately fell. That brief period is when the nameless first spread
out into the void."

A small voice spoke out, "What happened then?"

Azonne smiled at the little face. "Its power, its very essence, was placed into
these." She held up her left fist and showed off a golden ring. Its bright gold band
shimmered under the incandescent light of the classroom. Ancient markings were
etched into the side and face, and an exact duplicate sat on her right hand. "The
rings were forged on a planet and within a society whose name was lost to time
eons ago. They were the first terrestrial beings living among the stars. The only
trace of their existence remains right here." She took an index finger and tapped
her temple. "The rings were first bequeathed to a female warrior of their tribe and
since then they've been passed down to another female of another species and to
another and another until I was chosen."

"Why were you chosen?" Another voice asked.

"I don't know. None of us know until it's time to choose a new successor." She
shifted in her seat. "Each ring bearer passes on a part of themselves each time they
move on; all their experiences, their skills, all of it live on within me. Eventually,
whatever I learn will be given to the next person and so it will go." There,
imperceptible. A shimmer in the air, a shift in reality maybe? A little hand shot up,
Azonne's eye twitched in the child's direction.

"What's this darkness?"

She thought for a second. "It's pain. It's hate. It's terror--It's all the things that scare
you and give you nightmares, given form. And when it touches a world it spreads
nothing but corruption and darkness; left unchecked, those worlds are...gone." The
air was still. Azonne motioned to herself. "And that is my purpose."

"What is your purpose?" The same child again. A thick black globule pooled
around its nose before a large chunk siphoned itself free to collide on the floor.

"To preserve the balance."

The explosion was sudden, yet silent. If not for the sheer force felt against her skin,
Azonne would never be the wiser. All beings in a small radius around the dark
young one had disintegrated, leaving behind thick black pools of bubbling fluid.
The child itself jerked unnaturally while oily black tendrils slithered up and out
from all its pores and orifices. The room filled with an unnatural screeching and
buzzing as this black mass rose higher. Azonne closed her eyes and raised a fist;
the ring sparked and flashed before exploding outward in a brilliant light that
engulfed the creature. More screeching and wailing greeted her when she raised
her other fist; the energy beam grew wider and more intense. Azonne swallowed
hard, this had to be done.

With a final screech, the darkness was burned away, disintegrated into dust and
gas; it swirled around mixed in with smoke once she had stopped firing. The entire
room was half a crater. Azonne dropped to her knees, exhausted. She had to do it,
she told herself again, and again, and again.

She had to preserve the balance.

No matter the cost.

A large explosion in the distance shook Azonne out of it. She rose to her feet,
walked over to the smoking hole that used to be a wall and gazed across the Upper
City. There, in the center. Black smoke touched the sky. Azonne hurtled up and
away from the crater; the entrance to the lower city rushed at her. It was a big
gaping hole that now vomited black crud. She fired off an energy beam ahead of
her to pierce through the viscous mess bubbling out from the hole. How is this
happening? She thought. First, as always, was there to answer: Picking up multiple
manifestation points across the planet.

"At once?!" She yelled as she dove through the freshly made hole she had created
earlier. It sealed itself behind her as she passed through. Screaming filled her ears
from the city below; it was a living nightmare down there. Black ooze leaked from
every crack, hole, and seal as hundreds of Ganlomb fought and screamed with one
another and sometimes at nothing at all.

Yes; this is new and bad. It shouldn't be able to do this, unless-

"Unless the balance is broken." She responded as she hovered. She swallowed
heavily at the carnage below her, she'd heard all the stories, knew how corruption
spread on a planet it touched. Ring bearers before he had seen it first hand and now
it was her turn, of course; she just never expected it'd be this soon. It didn't help
that none of this made any sense because, since the day she'd been chosen, she had
been jumping from world to world tracking potential manifestations across the
verse. Most of them ended like today should have; corruption burned out, with
disintegration par for the course. Sometimes she hated it but it was her purpose.
But to be here and this strong? She suddenly grew fearful of the implication.

There was so much violence around her that it was tough for her to know what to
do next. A group of Ganlomb surrounded and stomped a lifeless figure on the
ground over there; another threw itself off its own balcony, shrieking; black hands
and faces bizarrely began to emerge out from the black pools forming across the
lower city. Any attempt to recall any past experiences utterly failed, so Azonne's
focus quickly became her grandfather's storefront; she rocketed there in an instant.

Shadow beings emerge all around her as she lands; their blows bounce off
uselessly off her protective aura. With a thought, she expanded it outward to push
them away. She approached the door, reached out to the pressure plate, when--with
a piercing sound--it blew off its track and collided with her. The force from the
impact pushed her back a few feet but her aura had kept her standing; a quick pulse
of energy and the door flew off her and to the side. Black tendrils exploded from
the gaping maw that was the doorway to her grandfather's shop and raced at her;
Azonne disintegrated one with a quick and dirty burst from her hand but the
second proved too quick. It pierced through her aura and impaled her shoulder
violently. The inky black pierced through her shoulder and out her back before
curling up as some sort of makeshift hook in order to lift her off the ground. The
pain was too much, she felt unable to concentrate or to deal with what was
happening as it began to drag her toward the door.

Black ooze began to pour out from her wound and attempt to engulf and wrap
around her and that was enough to wake her up; with a guttural scream light
exploded from within her turning the tendril and the area immediately surrounding
her into ash and dust. She collapsed to one knee.

That was when it stepped out.

All four foot nothing of her grandfather's frame sauntered out from a black hole but
it walked as if it were five times bigger. Black slime dripped from every pore, and
long heavy ears trailed behind it with every step leaving behind a trailing slime of
black grossness. It emerged from the store with black stands pulling away from it
like melted cheese; as if it were breaking free of webbing crafted by a monstrous
spider.

"So you're the new one." It spoke. As if it were thousands of voices somehow
funneled into a singular prism, it echoed across her mind; she squinted. Blacker
puss exploded from it, causing her grandfather to morph and grow unnaturally.
Azonne scanned around her, all the other Ganlomb had stopped fighting, and they
all faced her now; they and hundreds of other faceless shadows. "I've learned
much." It sputtered as black ooze poured from its mouth and bubbled like freshly
molten lava.

Azonne raised a fist and stood slowly, The First relayed options available to her
instantly. The darkness ignored her and continued to speak, "You jump from world
to world trying to find us...we've been with you the whole time."

Impossible.

"Everywhere you went, a little seed." It towered above her now, different parts of it
jerking in every direction as it went on. "You will be the last." The giant mass of
oil tried to collapse on top of her, Azonne dashed backward and fired off a beam of
hard light from her right hand that collided with the mass and sent thick heavy
globules everywhere then she swung her fist hard to her right. The hard light beam
collided with the growing crowd of corrupted Ganlomb forming. Azonne rose
about 20 feet into the air and with her Left hand fired a concentrated beam of
plasma radiation that cut the mass into two pieces; it shrieked horribly. Azonne
looked around her then turned her gaze to the upper city entrance, it was sealed
shut by black goop as if she had never passed through it at all.
Azonne crouched low, drawing in energy. A tickle hit the back of her skull, it was
a feeling, a memory that fluttered around her sense of self. Her predecessor, ages
ago, once met a man--a human man. The tales told about him herald him as The
Greatest Hero In The Verse. It was a slight exaggeration, but only slight; his feats
of strength were legendary even here on Ganlomb. Though Azonne had never
considered them true until now.

She detonated upward toward the hole, the energy she had gathered within her now
exploded from her chest made her white-hot. She shut her eyes upon impact with
the black bile that clogged the entrance. With a hot sizzle, the blackness shrieked
as she pushed through. It taunted her as she pushed through with thousands of
more voices now; no doubt it was further spreading across the planet. She blocked
it out, she was almost through. The memory had surfaced for a reason: She needed
help. She needed to get off-planet. She exploded free from the goop, finally in the
upper city and she continued to climb higher still. Azonne rose high above the
glittering towers of her home city, all the while she ignored the horror all around
her. She was beyond the atmosphere before she knew it, her aura caught fire as she
opened a gate to the bleed.

To Izanami, in the Brachium system.

Where Captain Steel called home.

 Chapter 1 :
"all the world was in the midst of massive upheaval and social unrest as the wrath
of climate change came to bear upon them all in the late 21st Century. But the fate
of humanity was forever changed on the 22nd when The Bleed was first
discovered. While the theory concerning the existence of parallel universes, a
multiverse if you will, had been proven decades prior, the discovery of The Bleed
suddenly made it science fact. In layman's terms, The Bleed was a connective
tissue between all the universes that ostensibly kept them apart, allowing them all
to exist simultaneously.

It took 50 years for us to discover how to breach it, and another 50 to create the
means of traveling through it. Although they couldn't pierce through the other side
into an alternate universe, they were able to travel to different parts of our home
universe easily; suddenly interstellar travel was more than viable. An ark ship was
built and sent off to colonize an earth-like planet first discovered decades ago by
scientists, leaving the majority of humanity behind. After all, who could
realistically afford space travel but the ultra-rich?

they discover the ability to instantly transmit information through The Bleed,
creating an all-new Bleednet which eased the introduction of humanity into the
greater galactic community once the first-contact was eventually made. Now
human fashions, celebrities, and even entertainment were shared and enjoyed by all
manner of species. Once settled on the new planet, Izanami, humanity had landed
with a splash.
after the Planet Earth exposure to the solar flare, it became almost too hot
wasteland but the life remaining has mostly stabilized. Those who have remained
had little choice in the matter, but with so many leaving the planet in the ensuing
decades, things became somewhat easier although decidedly more tribal. Those
with power who had chosen not to leave sensed that they had carte blanche to do as
they pleased, and so far they were right. However, the majority of humanity calls
"Izanami home."

Emilia scream as the lights in her room began to flash off and on in 30-second
intervals. It was 7:30 in the morning, and she knew that if she stayed in bed any
longer an ear-piercing klaxon would be forthcoming. She kicked the blanket off in
a mock tantrum before proclaiming, "I'm awake." And the lights stopped flashing.
She laid in bed before she swung her legs over to the side. Her room was sparse
and relatively small, but that's how she loves it; she wasn't much for decoration.

She stared into the mirror, the bags under her eyes were particularly bad today, and
she needed to start cutting down on the late-night studying. The upcoming
placement tests were too important for her future, she thought to herself. At least
that's what everybody says; she was skeptical.

She played with her long red hair, it hung down to the small of her back and picked
out individual strands for further inspection. Various info boxes began to appear on
the mirror: the weather, news of the day, and things of that nature. A quick news
blurb had caught her eye:

"Lady Steel smashes Terrorist raid."

Her favorite topic, she tapped the window to enlarge. A talking head began to
expound upon the headline: "Lady Steel, also known as Corina Kyle, was honored
yesterday by local officials in Saint Century City for her role in ending a plot
aimed squarely at the city's elite." videos of Steel suddenly flooded the screen in
talk shows or meeting with her fans.

she clicks into one of those videos, and the reporter went on, "King Robo, the self-
proclaimed 'Mechanoterrorist', had allegedly devised a Trojan virus to infect the AI
governing many of our homes, devices, and appliances; some say in an attempt to
show that those AI's are, in fact, living beings and deserving of equal rights much
like his robotic brethren. Some may recall that it was only just a year ago when it
disseminated it's 'Robot bill of rights'..." Emilia shook her head and swiped the
screen away, machine rights were a big topic in philosophy class a year ago and
her head spun just reminiscing about it.

Another headline had popped up, something about old earth. She hovered a finger
over it, hesitating. She had set an alert for any earth news about 6 years ago when
her grandparents had finally told her the truth about her parents. It was her tenth
birthday, and she had been spending the better part of the years before constantly
asking about them: what happened to them? Why aren't they here? And so on,
usually met with a dismissive wave or worse: a flat statement like when you're a
little older. Why did they decide that 10 was the right age? She had no idea.

Maybe she had asked too many times? She instantly got why the had waited once
they had finally told her, however, because they were still on old Earth. Ideally.
Hopefully. She sighed and touched the window; she left her finger there. There
was a brief hesitation before she swiped the window away. She didn't know why
she kept tabs on the place anyway, it's not like she'd catch sight of them on the
cams out there. The truth was it was her closest lifeline to them, and it was better
than nothing. Once the tingling sensation in her mouth faded, she leaned over the
sink and spit out the leftover fluoride with a loud splat. The faucet ran
automatically and, just as quickly as it had landed, the mess was gone.

She tapped the side of the sink and out slid a small red reed; she diligently began to
style her indomitable mane. She remembered when her grandparents had confided
in her that they were surprised at how well she took the whole story. She shrugged
at the memory. 16 solstan years ago they had come into a bit of a windfall; either
some sort of settlement or her grandfather had won big on some stocks, she
couldn't remember.

Her grandparents had built a decent life here. Most of the money had gone into
paying for relocation, permits, and a house. The rest probably sits in a bank, Emilia
took one last look in the mirror; straight-ish and good enough. She replaced the
comb back into the holder, which snapped back into the sink with little fuss.
"Closet." She uttered as she stepped back a single step. The sink and mirror slid
back into the wall while, to her right, a large cylinder rose from the floor. It had a
sleek mirror-like outer shell that served as a full-length mirror once its doors slid
open.

"Emilia?" the disembodied voice of her grandmother had slithered into the room; it
dripped with the kind of tone that seemed to keep a reprimand ready in its back
pocket. Emilia loved her, she really did, but the woman sure could hover.

"I'm thinking of what I'm gonna wear, Grandma." She shot back and winced
immediately; bad tone.

Her grandmother said, "Just hurry up, dear."

Emilia sighed as she looked over her clothes, she wasn't feeling any of it. It felt
like a lazy day for her, but then again every day started feeling like a lazy day to
her. She was getting burned out by school--by life--and it was starting to show. In
the end, she decided on comfort: black leggings with a black crop top. She didn't
care if people saw her as some stereotype who wore nothing but black and wrote
poetry on their webpage. And not just because she actually did those things but
also because it wasn't worth stressing about what other people thought; she was
happy with herself.

besides her hair looked great contrasted with the black. She studied herself in the
mirror once she was finished getting dressed. She cocked her head slightly as she
made a silent pass of judgment. Satisfied, she tapped a panel on the cylinder and
with a hiss, the doors slid back closed before it sulked back into its hole. honestly,
she preferred tactile mechanisms over voice commands but she had a few she kept
in her front pocket just to get more comfortable with it. "Time?" she said aloud.

A voice answered from the ether, "8 am." from the main AI running the house.
Perfect timing, she thought. While our time measurement was based on old earth
terms, the reality was each day lasted about 48 solstan hours on Izanami. She
shuddered thinking that the first half of her day has only just barely started,
fortunately, School was only 12 hours today. Emilia grabbed her personal slate
Lots of messages from Wes, her best friend. That boy could be manic sometimes
but he had a good heart. She sometimes wondered if she liked him-liked him but
then he'd do something ridiculous or dumb and that thought would fade; it was an
ongoing battle. She looked at each message, he'd been freaking out about how bad
he was at studying, with the majority of the messages being either emoticons or
strings of gibberish text. She pulled up the virtual keyboard and began to type:
Good morning to you too.
The app indicated he was responding so she waited, "Emilia I can't hold it. I'm
going to fail."

She shook her head and replied, "Don't be so dramatic. I'm a good crammer. I
gotcha."

"The reply was simple,"

"See you in a bit," she typed and shut the screen down. Her door slid open upward
as she approached it, then she made her way downstairs.

Emilia entered the kitchen humming a tune she'd heard almost two weeks ago; her
grandmother was used to it by now but had grown sick of it by day 2. She whirled
from the counter where she had been chopping apples and tossed a slice at her
hoping to get her to stop. Emilia flinched and the slice thudded against the door
frame beside her. "Hey!"

It worked. A tiny clean bot emerged from one of the walls and squeaked as it made
its way over to the fallen apple slice. Small metal polls emerged from within the
device to stab at the apple piece as a tiny hatch slid open on its oblong body.
Deftly, it stuffed the slice into the crevice with another squeak before it jetted back
into its hole. Emilia eyed her grandmother with a bit of an incredulous look before
sitting on a stool at the kitchen island. Her grandmother turned to face her holding
up a still intact apple, she motioned it toward her questioningly. Emilia held out
her hand with a smirk. She caught the apple and began to munch on it, looking
around the kitchen. It was fairly large and spacious, even with all the counters,
cabinet, fridge, stove and kitchen island. Unlike her room all the furniture and
kitchen equipment were essentially bolted down and permanent. They were top of
the line, and most homes couldn't afford this, usually opting for quick slide-
in/slide-out equipment that was easier to maintain. But her grandparents were a bit
old school, and they had no problem paying for it.

"Wheres grampa?" She uttered in-between mouthfuls, which prompted a look

from her grandmother and she blushed. "...sorry."

"He's playing with the AI, I sure wish he'd just call someone professional how
knows what to do." She said with a wistful smile.

"As do I." The AI stated flatly. Emilia winced, she hated when it listened and
offered its own input, but she realized that this was born out of a bit of prejudice on
her part.

"Alice, I swear to god..." Emilia's grandmother began. "If you start talking in
Chinese again I'm going to scream."

"Por favor, No grite."

Emilia stifled a laugh as her grandmother threw up her hands. "Well, at least we
understood that." Emilia offered with a chomp.

***

Entering real space in 3. 2. 1

With a tremendous force, Azonne emerged from the bleed and out into the real. Far
off in the distance, she could see the main system star, a class F sub-giant shining
like an old lighthouse on cliff shores made of gas and dust. The rings allowed her
to view the world through a variety of electromagnetic wavelengths so she could
make out which of those stars out there were actual planets. There were at least 6
other stellar objects orbiting the main star: four dwarfs, one gas giant, and one
terrestrial world; a little green marble. Welcome to the Brachium system, The First
told her. She stayed silent for a moment, taking in everything. This was all still a
touch overwhelming to her and it often made her crazy when she'd realize just how
new she was at all this. Was that why her home was now gone? Home, thinking
back to what she left behind nearly made her break down. At this point it was more
than long gone, it was corrupted.

Azonne...

"I shouldn't have left them..." She uttered in response. The First remained silent, it
knew she needed to work through this herself. It hoped that she knew, deep down,
that none of this was her fault. At worst, the fault belonged to it and it alone, but as
for how to express that it was at a loss. Azonne took another moment to compose
herself and just as quickly she had her game face on. "Do a Bleednet search, we
need to know where to find him."

Searching.

While it did that, she plotted a course mentally across Izanami. When she had first
been chosen The First would do that for her but at this point, she had become more
comfortable with it. It took a simple thought to begin exerting enough force to
move forward in space, picking up speed with each moment until she was traveling
just under the speed of light; she'll be within orbit in 20 minutes or less. "Well?"
she said after a few moments.

Apologies, I had to do some double-checking.

"What? Why?"
He is dead.

Azonne felt like an unseen hand tighten its grip around her heart; how could he be
dead?

It appears that he had been beaten to death in defense of another world 4 cycles
ago.

Azonne nearly broke again. She abandoned her home for this. They had a plan, this
ridiculous plan that was honestly barely a plan at all. All she had was a memory
that wasn't even hers, of a man she had never even met. In some ways, she was just
a body housing other being's strengths and experiences; it was how the mantle
functioned. All skills that those who came before her knew how to do--she could
recall in an instant. Alien dialects were understood and spoken fluently, fighting
skills were performed perfectly, and strategies were executed with smoothness. But
it wasn't really her, at least it never felt that way. That would come in time, she was
told. But now she wondered if that would ever be the case, that maybe her
choosing was a mistake and that this inherent inexperience was the reason that the
balance was now broken.

Someone has taken up his mantle, his sister.

"Oh my god" Something stirred within her--hopefully a lifeline to rescue a flawed

strategy from drowning, but probably not. "She can help. She has to."

I will attempt to make contact.

Izanami increase larger with each passing minute. Lush green and sparkling blue
splotched different parts of the planet, which only served to remind her of
Ganlomb but she stayed strong. The halo-like atmosphere glowed on the edges of
the planet. She began to pierce through, kicking up flames around her. Soft fluffy
cloud cover came into view below her and she pierced through it with a mid-air
horizontal twirl; cloud entrails twisted around her before they vanished into
nothing. Sparkling blue water awaited her under the cloud cover and she took a
moment to appreciate it, having missed out on the chance to do so on Ganlomb.
She began to skim the water, keeping only a few inches between her aura and the
surface. She rose up a few feet more so that she could skim her fingers through the
water; for a moment she'd forgotten why she was even here.

Incoming ships from the north.

Azonne looking for them but she sees nothing "Can you hail them?" she shot up
back toward the cloud top quickly, bursting through it in a splendid explosion of
fluff. She slowed down to let the ships catch up to her, she even lowered her aura
as to make her appear less threatening; something she had to learned the hard way.
There were two ships, sleek silver cigars that cut through the sky like two bullets
fired from a cannon. They matched her speed and hovered on either side of her.
She stared at her reflection on the hull, The First took it over and spoke with her:
"They wish to escort us to their commanding officers." It had her voice when it
spoke, but it was for her ears only. The reflection shrugged and spun around onto
its back as if it were flying while laying down. Azonne never asked, but she
assumed that The First did this because it was the closest thing it could get to being
real again, and it was like it had a body of its own again for the first time in a really
long time.
"Did you tell them about her?"

"Yes, they said they aren't entitled to do anything but escort you."

"J'all." She cursed the bureaucracy. "Tell them we will follow."

The reflection greet and returned itself to Azonne's current right side up position,
lifeless once more. She looked ahead, she still felt this nagging despair wash back
over her. What if what she said wasn't good enough? What if they fired on her?
Would she fight back? Could she? She shook her head, annoyed. Sweat pooled
upon her brow while her fingers itched; if she had to fire on them then...

Blue ionic energy exploded from the two ships snapping her out of the funk. They
now took the lead, Azonne kept up easily without having to reignite her aura; she
synced up with their formation perfectly and cruised. She became aware that the
three of them were decreasing in altitude every few meters, even more so once a
large continent came into view. At first just a blob or singular mass of color, a
massive jungle for sure but then quickly individual trees, roads, vehicles, and
finally--a city.

Saint Century City.

 Chapter 2 :
A human being with unnatural talents and abilities, whether born with them or
not. Considered naturally aggressive, prone to violence. Is this the kind of thing
you want your children to look up to?

-Anti Lady Steel propaganda distributed periodically.

Saint Century City was one of the first major settlements on Izanami almost 2000
years ago, and it remains the shining star of the Izanami Central Government, a
corporate democracy that has risen to power in the last few decades when they paid
some lip service about giving normal folk some power. Everyone is a shareholder
is an old favorite slogan of theirs for a reason. When humanity first landed here
there was an attempt at change, a sliver of hope, because this was an ark ship.
Hundreds of gestated embryos represented humanity's future and the small crew
that cared for them took their job seriously. It was a utopia, for a time. Everyone
helping one another, all for the common good. But these people brought their own
biases and prejudices with them, as humans are prone to do. Even the best
intentions fall flat. Strife, fighting, wars, more of the same happened on Izanami,
but one thing remained the same: the rich stayed rich. For now, the world stands
united under one banner, but who knows who long that will last? Throughout it all,
Saint Century has endured; but not without some cost.

It's horribly segregated with zones, or districts, completely ignored by the .5

percent: the majority stockholders of ICG. Most of these districts are home to
OverHumans, the sometimes pariah, sometimes celebrity, and all times curiosity
that some consider a black mark on our shared history. For some, it represented the
hubris of our genetic manipulation. And now they spread like wildfire;
OverHuman births have been on the rise steadily for over a decade. The
northernmost district of Saint Century was government central, it was where the
elite lived and it was where the central AI was housed. Central One, as it was
known, handled the back end and security of Saint Century with various sub-minds
handling things such as traffic flow or public transportation.

Emilia didn't live there, her family was a bit below that line. Quite a bit. In a way,
they were the forgotten, not rich enough to matter, and not poor enough to hate. It
wasn't the worse place to be and growing up and it seemed to have done her some
good. Emilia had been making the right people from the right institutions take
notice of her because she was smart, within the top 5 percent of her class. She
excelled at most work, her problem really was when it came to engagement; she
was bored. Frequently.

She hated all the notice, personally. She didn't want to be up there or, god forbid, a
major stockholder or some other super mega serious remarkable person. The
thought made her gag. She liked her simple life and just preferred more of the
same at the moment. Her counselor often chastised her for lacking ambition, which
she never agreed with. She had plenty of ambition, she just didn't know for what
yet. Something more than just living to work and working to live.
Emilia was standing close to a light pole just adjacent to the maglev train station
entry, she was busily browsing through social media utterly not surprised that Wes
was running late. Another train was coming in 5 minutes, and if she missed this
one she was going to be late. Normally she wouldn't care but she's already had 7
tardies this semester, and one more meant detention. She didn't have her own
accounts, she hated posting, but she loved browsing laughing at all the dumb quips
and stupid memes. It was a terrible way to pass the time, even she could admit that
to herself, but it was routine at this point.

There was breaking news about ships being scrambled to meet up with a bogey
that had broken through our atmosphere, which made her perk up a bit. She loved
space and the greater galactic civilization humanity was apart of. She dug deep into
any primary sources she could find about other races and cultures--maybe this was
her true calling and passion? Hard to say.

She was poised to tap the story when she was interrupted by the sound of running
footsteps on the pavement just behind her. She glanced at the time on her
notification drawer, 3 minutes to spare. "Yo yo yo!" Wes Gibson had exclaimed as
he sidled up next to her. Emilia didn't say anything, she just folded her slate up like
a napkin and placed it in her bag before she walked down the stairs. "Shit, you mad
at me?"

"Nah, I just can't miss this next train." She replied.

"Uh-Huh." Wes was skeptical but it was in his nature to think others thought the
worse of him, even his closest friends. He was a slightly chubby boy, but he wore
it well; he was clearly still growing into his body. He had thick black eyebrows and
medium-length black hair that usually sat upon his head like a set of loose threads
and yarn. He was dressed in simple basketball shorts and a plain white tee. Emilia
thought he could be pretty handsome if he tried more, but that wasn't him by any
stretch. He enjoyed coasting--his own words--because he found life easier when
little was expected of him. Sometimes it drove her crazy but it wasn't her place to
judge; she just hoped she was some sort of positive influence on him.

"No, really." She offered. "Another tardy and-" she made a thumbs down with her
hand while blowing a raspberry. They both reached the platform as the sleek new
mag train was pulling into the station, it was virtually quiet except for the hissing
coming from the platform hydraulics as they prepared to shift toward the train once
it stopped. Emilia and Wes both paused as the iris scanner went over their faces,
making sure they belonged here. Not everyone in Saint Century was given access
to the train system, both Emilia and Wes were blessed by virtue of the school they
attended: The Century School for Bright Minds. It was as pretentious within those
walls as the name implied.

Emilia was chosen to attend the school because she excelled at all the pre-
admission testing. Wes, however, was from a well off family which all but
guaranteed him a spot. He often lamented how much he wished he could go to a
'normal' school. The train was packed, of course, as the stop before was a major
junction in which most everyone boarded. Emilia could walk the few blocks it
would take to board at that station but she hated trying to navigate the sea of
people, it stressed her out big time. The two of them packed into the car like fresh
sardines and, as per usual, the two of them squeezed together were awkward.

She wondered if it was her feeling the awkwardness or was it him giving that vibe
off and--did it even matter? The only saving grace was that in three stops the train
would mostly empty out, as that was Government Central. Their school was in the
same overall district but still another 5 stops away after that. Still, it was enough
time to unwind once the mob spilled out like a broken jar of mayonnaise.

"Okay-" Emilia began. "-so why couldn't you study this time?"

"Uh--well..." He sort of shrugged after a brief silence. "I mean--my eyes just
basically got all cross-eyed the deeper I got in." She studied his face as it went
through a small cavalcade of emotions from non-plussed to anger, at himself.
"Damn." He spat. "I hate reading on a screen, I always have." She smirked and
cocked her head to the right slightly, as a grandmother would do to a lost child.
This was basically his privilege in action.

"Wow. How are we friends?" She asked, mockingly. He stared at her with an
incredulous look, eyebrows raised. He rose his hands in front of him, palms out as
if surrendering to the moment.

"Well excuse me!" He spat with half a laugh caught in his throat that could not be
stopped. The two of them broke into a fit that was loud enough for the rest of the
train to notice. Emilia blushed when she saw other people taking notes, and tried
poorly to compose herself. After another moment of snickering, Emilia turned to
Wes and asked him, "You have an AUG right? I forget."

He nodded and tapped the healing scar on his right temple. "Yeah, pops finally got
me one for my birthday--its the last-gen model though." He added.

"So, old firmware then?" She asked; he nodded. "Perfect then." Emilia reached into
her bag and unfolded her little slate. She glanced up at the board to see what stop
they were on; 3 more to go. She tapped an app on her home screen and a command
prompt screen appeared. She began typing. More windows would pop up and she'd
resize, inspect, swipe away and repeat.

"Uh, Emilia?" Wes asked eyebrow cocked.

She glanced at him briefly before returning her gaze to her slate. "So I know they
make you turn your AUG off for tests or-"

"-or in general, if we're honest." He interrupted and she shot him a look.

"Anyway-" She started. "I've been coding this thing in my spare time. Ideally, it
masks the AUG so that it looks like it's off when it's not--Johnny from PE gave me
the idea, remember him?"

"Ugh, that guy?"

She rolled her eyes. "The only problem is I haven't tested it."

"And you want to use it on mine?"

"Well, you know a better way to pull up any answer you're going to need on the
test Mr. I can't study?"

"I thought you were the expert crammer here?" he said with a smirk.

"Just let me connect already." She shot back while returning her attention back to
her screen. Wes leaned back and closed his eyes, they blinked rapidly as he
accessed his mental OS. "Okay, ready." He said. She made a few more adjustments
on her screen before tapping one last time with a flair of finality. "There, it's loaded
on." She said.
Wes' eyes blinked rapidly again. "Ah, there it is. So, how will I know if it's
working?"

Emilia had begun to answer when she was slightly jerked by the train slowing
down in the station. The AI controlling the train announced that they had arrived at
Gardner St station. She put her slate away and turned to Wes with a smile and a
shrug, "Just give it a shot in class?"

***

Towering high in the sky, past the cloud top, stood the main ICG building: Central
One. 200 stories of glass and ultra steel materials, it was the tallest structure within
the city. The building was wide at its base but designed in such a way that it
appeared as if it were twisting on itself--ending at a pair of points at the very top.
Under the pure white shine of Brachium, it was equal parts a shining beacon and a
looming shadow for the city. The top of each spire housed a landing pad and
elevator; each of Azonne's escorts took one for themselves. Their ion drives
cooled, and they both landed so effortlessly; it was a routine practiced and honed
over thousands of hours in a simulator.

A memory came to Azonne, a flash of a human male attached to his main cockpit.
He was wearing segmented black armor, at each joint is a socket and each socket is
full of cabling that comes together at a singular outlet at the top of the ship. He's
wearing a nanomex helmet that completely covered his face, with small round eye
holes protected by red lenses. More cabling jutted out from the sides of his head,
just above where his ears would be; these would plug into machinery behind his
seat.
"Flying using your mind, interesting." She said out loud but really to no one in
particular.

They said you can land on pad 1.

She did so, softly. They view was breathtaking, Azonne took a moment to peer out
to the city. It was little moments like this that gave her strength and always brought
her back to the beaches on Ganlomb; when she was young with the wind on her
face. She suddenly had a dark feeling swell in the pit of her stomach--even these
memories are ruined now. A part of her couldn't help but wonder if anything even
mattered at this point, but she shook that off.

She turned around to face the approaching soldiers. They were armored from head
to toe, and it was broken up with plating that was attached with stretchy
microfilament fiber that allowed them to move and breathe freely. Both held large
pulse rifles, they had silver barrels with black grips. Their handle on the rifles was
fairly relaxed, however, since they didn't view her as a threat. They asked her to
follow them and she did, having another tug of memory as the doors to the lift slid
open. Her predecessor had made this trip too; do they think she is her? And if they
did, were all of these theatrics necessary? Her hands started to itch, she hated this.

The elevator was barely spacious enough to house the soldiers let alone all 3 but
luckily the trip down was short; it only passed two floors before coming to a stop.
Azonne exited first into a large white and round room. It was sparse, no
decorations, furniture or anything of the sort. At the top of this room was some sort
of housing, it was cylindrical and wide with an opening at its end. An insectile like
robot emerged from within, unfolding itself as it did so. Small manipulators
unfolded from its underside while it's head', a ball with a blue camera lens,
unfolded from the very tip. Another recollection; was the city AI. A door on the
other end of the room opened and a figure stepped out. The soles of her boots made
solid clicks as she walked across the floor. She was tall, statuesque, wearing a
simple grey canvas jacket and black combat pants. She had a slightly rounded face
with round eyes that spoke of weariness on her shoulders. What stood out about
her the most, however, was none of those things; only her bight pink hair. It was
brought back tight on her head and was long, going down to about her butt. She
kept round beads at the end of her hair, no bigger than a small mason jar. The
majority of her hair funneled itself into them. It was a row of 6 across and 3 down,
with these coalesced strands of hair sticking out at the end of each row.

"I'm Lady Steel." She said. "Call me Corina though, please."

Azonne nodded and looked back up at the AI, it eyed her fitfully. Almost as if it
were going through different lenses in its eye, studying her.

"So-are you like her assistant or..." Corina asked which broke Azonne out of her
own study of the machine.

"Excuse me?"

"Solar Flare," Corina explained. "You're obviously not her, but your uniform is
similar."

"Is that what they called her on this world?"

Corina nodded, "Mostly the media, but yeah."

Azonne found her self smiling, "We're called different things all over the void. On
my home I was 'Light-Bringer'" She stopped smiling. "I'm her successor, Azonne
Le. She passed on 6 cycles ago."

Corina looked up at the AI and asked, "What's that in Solstan?"

She is Ganlomb, it takes that world 2 human months to revolve around its main
star, so one year.

Corina looked back at Azonne and said, "Interesting." Before crossing her arms.
"So what's this about my brother?"

Azonne looked down and started to pace. After a moment she said, "Yes, I'm sorry.
I didn't realize he was dead. I've been jumping around so much I'd never heard a
thing."

"It's alright," Corina replied. "What's wrong?"

"I-ah-" Azonne stopped pacing, she faced Corina. "The balance is broken,
somehow. I-I don't know how--I thought I was doing well, I thought I had been
fulfilling my purpose. I'd go to a world I sensed on the brink of corruption, I'd then
find the source and-and burn it out...but, obviously, I can't even do that right."
Azonne paused to swallow down a sob. This moment of pure honesty surprised
her. She'd never felt this hopeless before. Corina just watched Azonne, and she
waited for her to continue. Azonne eventually did, "The next one was at my home,
my world, and-and I had to do it again--only this time it got worse. Somehow the
nameless has figured out a way around our roles! It has gotten stronger and-"

"Okay hold on, time-out." Corina interrupted. "I'm sorry but I have so many
questions."
Azonne threw her hands up. "There's no time! What don't you understand? The
entire void is now vulnerable!" Her eyes grew wide as she spoke. "Even on my
world, as a youngling, I'd heard of your brother. 'Captain Steel, the greatest hero in
the verse!'." Her voice got shrill for a second. "I thought that, maybe, such a figure
could help me restore the balance, or if not, maybe help me find a new balance if
anything. But he's gone." She swallowed heavily again.

"But you still came here because...you hoped I could help?"

"Yes, I-" Azonne stopped. Something was caught in her throat. She doubled over
and began to hack as black liquid sputtered out instead of saliva. She puked and
black gunk hit the perfect white floor with a splat. She looked up, her eyes as wide
as quarters; at the edges, more black puss seeped out. This can't be happening, she
thought. This is impossible! All the black crud began to coalesce, and an ear-
piercing shriek began to fill the room. The soldiers at the other end are impaled on
black tendril spikes before they can even think to move. The black mass grew
larger still from her body, swinging its entire form and it smashed into the AI body
which snapped off the frame. The robotic bug slammed into Corina and pinned her
against the wall. Before she could move again, a thick black stem came rushing
toward her and further pinned her against the wall. Again the black goop merged,
this time into a monstrous figure. It had a wide-body and stood hunched over like a
Terran primate. Its face and head was a nightmare vision of teeth and white eyes.

They all looked at Azonne who still coughed and shuddered on the ground, with
bits more sludge coming out with each orifice. "We told you, we were with you the
whole time." Its voice echoed both in her head and in the room as it spoke. "our
first corruption--was you."
Azonne eyes shot up at the creature. It was unbelievable yet made perfect sense
with everything that has happened. With everything, she's felt. She's been the
source; she's been the one, inadvertently causing corruption everywhere she'd
gone. And now, she'd done it again.

"This world is perfect..." It said. "Very ripe."

Azonne pounded at the ground. The First had been silent the entire time--possibly
corrupted itself now, or maybe their connection severed because of what had just
come out of her. She needed to burn this out, now. Her eyes glowed bright orange
as her aura returned around her, and it also grew brighter and burned hotter. She
heard a whisper in her head, their connection returning. It was working. She got up
to one knee, and the black beast stepped back. It screamed as her aura expanded
further nearly touching it. Azonne raised a fist. The ring sparked and plasma
energy came roaring out. It pierced the monster and blew a hole through the roof.

Azonne! Recommend retreat!

Finally, they were one again. She felt her confidence returning; her previous panic
seemed like some bad dream. She rocketed over to Corina and cut her out of the
black crud enveloping her, grabbing hold of her to fly out of the hole she had
created. More black vines exploded from the hole and tried to go reach for them
but she sent another huge explosion of energy down into it, the entire landing pad
exploded in an intense flash of light, leaving the top two floors a smoldering crater.
Central One shuddered in the wake of this but ultimately held firm. Corina shoved
her away, shouting, "Are you insane?!" before she hurtled herself back to the
building.

Azonne, I suspected this.

"Say that again."

I just hoped it wasn't true. I'm sorry.

"And now?"

A small bit remains, I'm afraid you cannot burn it out completely without killing
yourself.

Azonne sighed. She was angry but what good did that do now? "We have to fix
this." She said before she flew back down to the building herself. "Corina was
inspecting the now open-air white room, shoving around debris and steel easily.
No part of the beast still remained. She stared down at the AI body and shook her
head. She tapped her forehead and spoke, "Sorry about your body, give me a status
report."

As Azonne landed she said, "I know it did not look it but that was a precision
strike. The hanger was empty and the energy did not travel any lower than this."
She paused for a moment before she added, "But I had to do that."

Corina nodded to something being said to her through her AUG and looked at
Azonne. "Well Central One confirmed all of that, so I guess I'm less mad, but still."

"It had to be done."

"So it's over then?" Corina asked.

"No, not at all. Ask your AI about any reports of rioting."

"That's normal around here."

"Just ask it, please."

She did, again she nodded. "Getting sporadic reports of violence all over the city-
hold on." She nodded some more. "Other cities on-world too now."

"That is its influence. It will start small."

"So, what now?"

"You must evacuate the planet."

Chapter 3 :
Captain Steel Dead!

Perished in defense of our colony brothers!

Dateline Drusula-For decades now Captain Steel, also known as Micheal

Masterson, has met any and all problems with a punch and a smile. He was seen by
human and alien alike as The Greatest Hero in the Verse and no problem was too
big for him, until now. Drusula has been a colony under constant siege by the alien
crime lord known as Gray Grimm. When Captain Steel arrived on the world to face
the man, the two fought and nearly ripped the colony apart. For once our hero had
met his match but he was battle-tested and hardened and gave as good as he got.
Both collapsed --succumbing to wounds and broken bones--upon each other
having beaten each other to death. Captain Steel's body will be transported back to
Saint Century City for funeral services. His sister, who was also off-world doing
humanitarian work, will be arriving alongside his body. Although nothing official
has been stated, officials are considering shutting down the entire city to mourn.

-BleedNet news flash from 2 years ago, 2100 (solstan).

"I can't imagine myself I'm saying this to the same person twice in one day-"
Corina began. "But are you insane? We can't evacuate the whole planet just like
that."

"You don't sound to get that once darkness takes hold on a planet, it doesn't
survive--am I being translated correctly?" Azonne said, with a bit of exasperation.
"A purely corrupted world is a husk of itself. Black shadow creatures roam where
society once lived, and drain the planet of all its energy and life, leaving these
places as little more than floating dead rocks."

"Just what the hell is this darkness, anyway?"

Azonne began to scratch at the tattoo above her eye. "It is simply the nameless, but
it has existed since the start of this universe. The...' big bang', as you call it. That
brought light into this universe and forced the nameless into a role it has detested
ever since."

"Which is?"

"It is the source of all hate in pain in the universe," Azonne replied. "There's a
balance to that, and my purpose is to preserve it. And I thought that I was but it has
somehow found a way to undermine it; I've become its instrument instead." She
cursed under her breath.

"We can't just run, we have to fight."

"All we can do is keep the main mass occupied while you work to get your people
away, I can do that much," Azonne answered. "After that...I may have to go into
exile, away from civilization while I figure this out."

Corina grabbed Azonne by the collar and lifted her up off the ground effortlessly.
"You're so damn nonchalant about this and it's really pissing me off!" She snarled.
Azonne was too startled to do anything, but once that feeling passed she stayed still
because she knew where this anger was coming from; she understood it. "You
bring this-this plague to my world and then say there's nothing you can do?
Bullshit!"

Azonne adjusted her self in Corina's grip. "I-understand. But. It's the truth--your
world is dead. I'm sorry!" Corina raised her fist, anger swelled from her every pore,
from her very eyes. But she let Azonne drop. Azonne landed on her butt with a
loud slap but was otherwise unhurt; she got up to one knee. "If you want to help
me keep it busy you may," Azonne told her. "Who knows, maybe you can do what
I had hoped your brother would, but wouldn't you rather have those evacuations
going on than not? Just in case?"

Corina couldn't really argue with her, but the entire situation struck her as
particularly baffling. She wished her brother were here, as she so often did. Mostly
because she still missed him greatly, but also because he always seemed to know
what to do or what to say. Some would say that was his true gift, not the incredible
strength or ability to fly, but his good nature. He chose to view the world as one
based on everyone's best intentions, he saw good in people and coaxed it out of
even the worst of us. She was just endlessly cynical, she constantly questioned her
place in this world and didn't always like the answer. He also had a bit of big dumb
jock in him in that he solved most everything with his fists, while she much
preferred more indirect ways of making someone's life better.

Before he died she was off-world, lending her strength and speed where it was
needed, housing projects, farming, and other things of that nature. She hated the
spotlight and preferred a much lower profile in those days, any time spent home
she was simply 'Captain Steel's little sister' while out in the black, she was just a
regular jane helping where she could. She was fulfilled by it, and it all came
crashing down when news of his death broke across the net. It sent a shockwave
throughout the universe that is probably only just reaching folk out in outer edges
which could explain how this Azonne didn't know, she thought.

She resisted it at first, taking over his whole enterprise. First and foremost, he was
a brand. He was a legacy, and an ideal; things she actively shied away from. She
was hounded by it from minute one from everyone; from his team of marketers,
publicity agents and even his now widow. "He did so much good", they'd say or
"He's leaving a massive void that needs to be filled." because her brother was also
a fighter, and a defender of worlds. Most of his career up to that point had been in
defense both our outer colonies or other alien civilizations; his door was always
open, so to speak. If one needed assistance in some manner or another, he always
listened.

Izanami seemed most vulnerable, especially since it was his home base. He had
plenty of enemies who would have--and eventually did--crawl out of the
woodwork, all in attempts to test out this new normal. There also was the argument
that having an OverHuman that was such a public and celebrated face did a lot of
good for the community. Any time one used their abilities to hurt people, it would
suddenly, maddeningly, reflect on the group as a whole. She couldn't really ignore
that.

The choice was made for her when Gray Grimm had suddenly woken up, enraged.
The government had stupidly brought the creature's body along for transport, as
they wanted to study it and argued they had every right to do so. But they also
didn't tell anyone. Grimm was a hulking beast of a creature, over 9 feet tall and
basically pure muscle. His race of people was known as Vaadoo, they were a very
humanoid like the race that was characterized by their tight, aged, and weathered
skin and chalk-white hair. Unfortunately what no one had known about these
beings is that when they "die" they are again "reborn", or "rebooted", the
translations were very iffy; especially Vaad to English. It is apparently a very,
very, painful process and as such, Grimm lashed out at everything and everyone as
he freed himself and tore a line thorough all Izanami in a crash course with Saint
Century. He wanted to break "his" home, for daring to kill him. Corina jumped at
the chance to face and take down her brother's killer. In fact, she felt it was
serendipitous and relished it.

They fought at just the outskirts of Saint Century but the entire city shook when
each blow connected. Grimm consistently underestimated Corina, often insinuating
he had nothing to fear from a "lesser version of the man who killed me".
Unfortunate for him then, that the best-kept secret in the verse was that Corna was
always stronger than Micheal; much stronger. She eventually ended the fight when
an exhausted Grimm had allowed her to get behind him and wrap her arms around
his neck; she broke it minutes later. Corina surveyed the carnage that had been
wrought around her, all told over 500 people died in the melee. The irony wasn't
lost on her; she was her brother now, whether she liked it or not. Not keen to make
the same mistake twice, Grimm was placed into a casket that housed its own
custom stasis field and shot off-planet; doomed to orbit a neighboring gas giant for
all hopefully all eternity.

She accepted continuing her brother's work not long after but refused the name.
She would not have felt right parading around with that name, plus there was only
one Captain Steel. Eventually, the marketing team eventually settled on the
simplest monicker: Lady Steel. With the defeat of Grimm, in so public of fashion,
her approval ratings were already through the roof. Coupled with the sympathy
from her brothers passing and she had already hit the ground running in the hero
game. The uniform was similar to her brothers, a thigh-length grey dress/coat with
a large collar and an asymmetric zipper; highlighted with burgandy colored seams
and accents. She also had thigh-high burgundy colored boots and burgundy colored
cuffed gloves.

The team had talked her into a small cape that buckled to her left shoulder and she
didn't completely hate it. Finally, she wore a nice looking belt that clasped at the
center with the modified logo emblazoned on the buckle. All told, she didn't hate
the suit but she tried to wear it as little as possible, much to her inherited marketing
team dismay. She wanted to be more than just a suit and a symbol; she'd rather
people loved the woman behind the symbol more so than the symbol itself. And so
far it had been working, she'd carved her own little niche here and abroad. In fact,
she'd been told that she had eclipsed her brother's scores years ago, not that it ever
mattered. She was happy helping people, even if it meant throwing the occasional
punch.

"Okay, Central One will handle the evac," Corina said. "So what do we do?"
Azonne considered for a moment, "the main body will be at one of the corruption
points, hang on." She closed her eyes. Every ring bearer is supposed to have access
to the sight, it allowed them to see across the entire electromagnetic spectrum
simultaneously. Azonne struggled with this the most. Using it never felt right, but
The First told her that--like everything else—it would come with time.
Unfortunately, Azonne had never felt less a part of it than right now. It was the
lingering corruption for certain, but it suddenly occurred to her that, if she's been a
carrier this whole time, then was it any wonder she'd never felt comfortable using
it?

So she resolved to find some other way to track it. It had a modus operandi, of
course, it loved showing in young minds first; it loved to watch them tear each
other apart. She started to scour the bleed, she checked maps and records; she had a
hunch it wouldn't stray far from her. They were connected now, beyond their
purposes. There, something promising popped up. "There's a school near-by?"
Azonne asked.

"Yeah, The Century School-our best and brightest," Corina answered.

"It's there. Right now."

Horror slowly crawled across Corina's face as she realized exactly what Azonne
just told her; all those kids were likely dead. The look faded for one of grim
determinism before she said, "Then I'll lead the way." Both she and Azonne rifled
into the sky, banked sharply around Central One, and angled themselves downward
and toward the school. Thoughts raced in her mind at an intense pace as they
picked up speed, but it always came back to hope. I hope that she wasn't too late,
hope that she could save at least some lives.
I hope that was destroyed when she saw the festering crater at the center of the
campus.

***

20 minutes earlier.

Emilia sat utterly bored in the guidance counselors office, but she did her best not
to show it. The room was of decent size and he had opted for no furniture aside
from some couches and lounge chairs. He claimed it made the students more
comfortable but Emilia just thought he probably thought it made him look cool.
Most women on campus regarded him as something of a creep, and although he'd
never done anything untoward in regards to her, the rumor was very strong and
colored her perception of him. It wasn't fair but reminding herself of that did not do
much to quell her dislike of the man.

As usual, she was being dressed down by this man, for another subpar test score on
a criminally boring test. "Brilliant but lazy" was how it's been put to her many
times, something she fundamentally disagreed with fervently. She studied, hard
and often. But Humanities class? Who really cared, honestly? She tried but found it
impossible to find the motivation to even be bothered. It was a useless subject that
only served to fill time-why did it matter that the score was low? At least she
passed.

"Your placement tests are in two months-" He stated. "-they could make the
difference between continuing your higher education or having to just become a
worker, you understand that don't you?"
She did. High marks meant you continued to learn, a one-way ticket to a lucrative
career in a field of your choice; usually in government. Poor marks sent you to be a
worker drone, just a regular laborer with no real prospects, future, or even a chance
at advancement. Neither option appealed much to Emilia but a working-class life
was probably more interesting. "I know." She replied. "I've been studying."

"Well, we both know your problem isn't whether you study or not. It's
engagement." He told her. "But life isn't about engagement, or even loving what
you do, life just doesn't work that way. You're gifted, but you're wasting it on
daydreams."

Emilia silently seethed. Of course, she dreamt--sometimes about being a musician,

others had her living off-world, working with a colony. And sometimes It was just
about living her life however she damn well pleased. What was wrong with any of
it? Every one was so concerned with trying to fit her and everyone else into some
box, no one actually gave a crap about what she really wanted. That was probably
what galled her the most, no one actually really cared. It was, and seemed to
always be, a matter of "how can we fit you into this machine" to keep it going; how
can we plug you in as to not upset the status quo? Then again how could she talk?
It wasn't like she spoke up for herself or others, she was always ready for a stock
answer; anything to get her out of there.

"A lot of people have high hopes for you Emilia, don't throw it away."

"Yes, sir. May I go now, sir?"

"You may, I see you have a 2-hour block of study hall coming up, I suggest you
make use of it."
"I will sir." She did her best not to visibly roll her eyes as she stood up and grabbed
her bag. She found herself considering cutting that 2-hour block, maybe go catch a
movie with Wes as he was always game to skip class. She decided against it as it
didn't feel right; it would cause more problems than it solved. The Century school
was first built 20 years ago as part of making good on an ICG Promise to the
People made when they had first taken on the reins of power on the world. It was
just one arm of a jobs and education guarantee that had a ton of asterisks behind it
but overall it kept the elites happy and most kids busy.

It was meticulously maintained by a subroutine spun off of Central One acting as

both janitor and security for the building, at all times keeping everything just so
and any bad behaviors in check. Lacking the processing power of Central One, it
was possible to trick the systems using sophisticated hacks if one wanted to leave
the campus with little issue, and Emilia just wasn't in the mood to mess with any of
that right now either. She opted to go right to study hall instead, no one said she
had to actually study anyway.

Emilia had her nose buried in her slate when she was bumped the first time;
nothing unusual there, she got bumped often. But then it happened again; and
again; people were rushing past her at all manner of speeds, something was up. She
locked eyes with Wes who was emerging from a bathroom with a bemused look on
his face. He cut through the current to reach Emilia on the other side whose eyes
had been following each new body that passed them by.

"What's up?" Wes asked, hands in his pockets.

"I was hoping you knew." She replied. They both caught wind of someone they
recognized and stopped the guy in mid-stride, pulling him over to them both. He
was a waifish kid with a messy mop of red hair, he appeared annoyed but chilled
once he saw who it was. "What's going on?" Emilia asked him.

"Central One got attacked!" He exclaimed before returning to the sea of bodies.
Attacked, really? Emilia was stunned. Wes grabbed her arm and lead her into the
stream where they followed the mob to the main cafeteria where everyone had
been packing in to. The cafeteria was an open-air area about the size of a football
field and had see-through ceilings and walls that usually opened for beautiful days
such as this one. However, all were closed shut at the moment; likely due to what
had just happened. Through the ceiling, Central One could be seen smoking from
one of its towers and appeared as if a fire had just recently gone out. Emilia did
what she always did during times like this: scour the news apps. A bunch of
headlines all said basically the same thing: "Central One under attack?" She tapped
the most recent one and read the blurb underneath.

"It says some sort of explosion went off there..." she said aloud, although Wes
wasn't listening--his gaze was locked on the building. "Apparently an alien was
escorted there not long before, wow."

"They're always escorting off-worlders there." Offered some girl who had been
reading over her shoulders. Emilia shot her an annoyed look, quickly folded the
slate back up and shoved the tiny slip back into her pocket. The girl sucked her
teeth, which gave Emilia a small bit of satisfaction. Truth be told, there was always
something big going down in Saint Century, due mostly to the fact that this is
where Lady Steel called home; although Emilia had never had quite a front-row
seat like this. Behind her, behind the crowd, someone screamed but Emilia ignored
it.
The smoke had begun to clear and it looked as if the top two floors of the tower
had been completely destroyed. The school then shook. Another scream and Emilia
glanced back. Suddenly there was another, followed by a steady cacophony of
screams and curses and then pressure as people in the back had begun to push
forward in a panic. Something was happening back there but she was too short to
actually see anything, not that the primordial mosh pit was any help in this regard.
Wes had grabbed her hand to keep them from getting separated when he was
suddenly grabbed from behind by someone. This person had grabbed Wes by the
throat and ripped him back forcing him to release Emilia who found herself being
swept away in the panic. "Wes?!"

Emilia eventually surrendered to the forces pushing her away, which allowed her
to bounce off once she got closer to the edge. She tripped and fell, landing hard on
her butt was otherwise unharmed. More blood-curdling screams filled the air, this
time followed by unholy roars that made her heart skip a beat; what the hell was
that? She thought. She hopped on to a lunch table in order to spy what had been
going on in the back and her heart nearly leaped from her chest as if it had grown a
mind of its own and was only interested in self-preservation. People were beating
and fighting with each other, violently and without remorse.

A group of 5 were busy stomping out someone on the floor before they ultimately
turned on one another. Emilia covered her mouth in horror, hoping that Wes wasn't
among them. Everyone was so busy trying to squeeze out of the cafeteria entrance
outside that they had become stuck, with people in the back shoving those in the
front so hard no doubt some had already suffocated to death. Even worse was the
sickly looking rioters who had started to advance on the crowd itself; they all
jerked in unnatural ways as they moved, with thick black goop that dribbled from
all their mouths. A ton of scenarios ran through her mind but none really mattered
at the moment; she had taken stock of the fact that everyone was ignoring the other
exit toward the side. Sure, it didn't lead outside--just another wing at the school--
but at least it lead away from here and that was good enough right now.

Emilia leaped from the table and booked it toward the door. A rioter took notice of
her and attempted to dive at her, but she sidestepped him which sent him crashing
into the Plexi-window with a foul thud. Emilia stared slackjawed at the crumpled
body of her would-be attacker but was jarred out of her stupor by a loathsome roar
from the rioters who witnessed what had just happened. She took off again, this
time making it to and out the doors; 5 or 6 of the hideous rioters gave chase.

The hallways of the school, normally recalled easily like the number of fingers on
one hand, suddenly became a maze of twisting corridors that made no sense. Every
door she came across she tried to no avail and with each passing failure, Emilia
became grateful that she appeared to move faster than her pursuers. A detonation
from somewhere else in the school rocked the entire building and caused her to
lose her footing briefly. She scrambled back up and glanced behind her, yet her
stalkers seemed unaffected by what had happened; instead, they gained more
ground.

Security bots began to flood the hallways; these dog-sized creatures on wheels
seemed to identify who needed pacifying easily as they zipped past Emiliay and
struck the rioters with stun batons that had emerged from their hulls. Emilia had
finally found an unlocked door and jumped in quickly before she slammed the door
shut behind her, the last thing she saw being the inefficacy of those batons. It was
an empty classroom but looked like a disaster area. Desks had been strewn about,
slates where everywhere--some cracked in half. Black viscous slime was scattered
on the floor, alongside a crumpled body.
Emilia choked back a cry and averted her eyes; she shouldn't stay here, but here
was safer than the alternative. She unfolded her slate again, checking for any
updates since she had last looked. "PLANETARY EVACUATION ORDERED"
was plastered on every page, with speculation being some sort of contagion
spreading as being the cause from most of the talking heads. Emilia immediately
thought of her grandparents, she needed to get home and now; suddenly very little
else mattered. As she folded up the slate, the classroom door slowly opened; she
took a step back and held her breath. Her eyes darted around furiously searching
for a weapon, anything.

"Emilia?" It was from Wes. She breathed again as he filled the door frame, she
threw her arms around him happily but recoiled when she saw the cuts and bruises
on his face. "Oh, my god how are you still standing?" The building rocked again
and he nearly fell over but caught himself.

"The power of satan obviously." He tried to crack a smile but pain washed over his
face, he started to go limp in her arms. She tried to guide him down gently but his
weight was too much for her; he ended up collapsing hard to one knee. Then he
began coughing, black ooze hit the floor with a splatter. Concerned Emilia knelt
beside him and tried to bring his face up to hers but he shoved her away hard. Wes
stood after that, suddenly he was moving in those unnatural jerking movements
like the rioters. Emilia scrambled backward with each step he took; more ooze
escaping from his every pore as a loud buzzing filled the room.

"W-Wes...?" She stammered and he was on her quickly. She screamed and fought
him with every ounce of power she could muster; punches glanced off his face
with no reaction. Her next blow was intercepted, and black eyes stared back at her.
She tried to pull it back, but he held firm. Emilia suddenly found herself pleading,
trying to get to Wes, to see what he was doing; with a sick snap, he broke her arm.
She screamed, he reached for her throat.

Then the wall exploded.

 Chapter 4 :
"Try to imagine our galaxy, better yet, just space itself as a huge city, okay? A city
divided into a bunch of different neighborhoods and districts, but there's a catch:
the only way one would be able to get to these other districts is a highway built just
outside the city limits. That highway is The Bleed. It's essentially our pathway to
the other "neighborhoods" within our own galaxy. Technological breakthroughs
have enabled us to not only discover this "highway" but also access it. In other
words, in the terms of my analogy, we've built an onramp from our district, to this
highway, and then to our other neighbors. Now, the question then usually becomes:
'What is The Bleed, exactly?' which is the million-dollar question [laughs]. We
don't really know, but I have a few theories about it myself. Think about parallel
universes and alternate realities. I personally believe the existence of The Bleed all
but 100% proves the theory that they exist. So let's say, for the sake of argument,
let us presume that there's an alternate galaxy just like ours out there; it's exactly
like ours in almost every way save for a few key differences, right? So, if I could
go back to my crude analogy for a minute, if our galaxy is a city, and the parallel
version of it is also a city, then The Bleed would be the interstate that both
separates and serves them both. I think what The Bleed really is, is a membrane of
sorts that keeps the two realities separate. And while we've been able to build on
and off-ramps throughout this highway to other galactic neighborhoods, we've yet
been able to build an "exit" to that other city on the other side. But just imagine if
we could? Or did? It's exciting to think about."

-excerpt from a live Q&A with Dr. Raymond Gibson, Old Earth 2245

The giant black monstrosity pulsating brothy scum twitched as it grew two more
sizes; both Azonne and Corina noticed coming in high and fast and screeched loud
enough to bust every window in a 5 block radius. Around it, gunk covered rioters
collapsed to the ground as the disgusting emollient spread more and more around
their bodies, dissolving them as if they had fallen into puddles of acid; again the
nameless grew. It began to take a more exaggerated humanoid form when Azonne
picked up more speed. "Get the non-corrupted!" Azonne shouted as she shot past
Corina and then past the creature as well. She turned as she did so, and it appeared
as if she were sliding back into the hole that the nightmare organism had created
before she had ever got there.

She outstretched an arm and took aim, clasping her arm in place with her other
hand, and let loose a hard light bubble that encased the creature. As she continued
to move, with the beam from her ring connecting them to each other, so did the
bubble and, eventually, the nameless itself once the bubble wall had collided with
it. Azonne had essentially siphoned off a fraction of her protective aura and
wrapped it around the ancient filth, and drug it into the school with her.

With a guttural scream, she spun back around and she dragged her hand forward as
if she were throwing a punch. The connective light beam between her and the
bubble gave slack momentarily, forcing the bubble to whip forward like a
tetherball. It shot past Azonne with a thunderclap before it slammed into the
ground in front of her causing the entire building to shake. She released the bubble
and the creature further tumbled down the broken hallway, taking out lockers and a
few of the loitering corrupted.

Azonne landed and skidded to a stop herself, she stared through the thing as it
morphed itself to quickly be right side up; she was attempting to keep her anger in
check and failing. The nameless rose up again as a singular blob before it again
took an exaggerated human-like shape, body hunched over with 4 fat long arms
that were too long, and squat legs that remained bent. Massive hands smashed
against the walls on either side of it, as if to taunt her.

"Little one-" It echoed. "what will this accomplish?"

She didn't answer, she just fired; rapid bursts of plasma that sizzled through the
creature but did little else. They charged one another at full speed, Azonne
concentrated her aura into a thick forward-facing shield that crushed the creature
head-on. The nameless dug its hands into the wall to stop their momentum and
before Azonne could register what had happened it grabbed the shield at either
side. It squeezed, and the construct shattered in a vivid explosion that tossed
Azonne up and back into the ceiling. She crashed down to the floor face first; the
wet snap she heard was her nose cracking. Blue blood spattered everywhere as she
tried to lift herself off the ground.

Incoming!

Azonne rolled to her right as a heavy fist buried itself into the ground and narrowly
missed her by centimeters. She stopped the roll when she was facing upward,
outstretched her fist, and fired a shot; it burned right through the creatures leg,
disintegrating it. It began to fall but stopped itself with a free hand against the wall
while black tendrils shot out all around and attached to nearby walls acting as a
stabilizer. Azonne kicked her legs up and rolled through the motion, rising up on
her hands before she pushed up with a rising kick that knocked jagged teeth
everywhere; the creature screamed but caught her in mid-air with its a free hand
and slammed her into the wall. She careened through this wall into an empty
classroom, then another, and another until she rolled to a stop in a mostly empty
hallway. Weakly, she glanced up. Four corrupted jerked their way to her. Visibly
tired and annoyed, she raised her arm and cast a wide beam; the four began to burn
and their screams faded as they cooked to nothingness.

Her whole body shuddered as she attempted to stand; she was exhausted and hoped
the evacuations were long underway. As she turned to face the hole she had just
made, a gelatinous branch shot out from the smoke and wrapped around her neck.
In a panic, she placed her hands around it and it felt clammy under her touch. She
attempted to fire a blast to sever it but the tendril shook her like a wild stray cat
before it shoved her through the other wall. Again she tumbled through the floor as
debris flowed all around her.

Something shrieked as she landed, it caught her attention. A corrupted had been
caught off balance by the rubble and was attempting to stand; just beyond it was a
young girl. She had long red hair and looked to be favoring an arm, dried tears and
shock were plastered across her face. It was Emilia. Azonne got to one knee and
fired a beam toward the corrupted. It shrieked as the dark muculent patches on and
around its skin began to bubble under the intense heat: it began to cower.

"No!" The girl had grabbed her forearm, the beam went wide and Azonne shut it
off. She looked at the girl, her brow furrowed. "Please?!" the girl pleaded but
before Azonne could answer, the nameless let loose a shrill cry that made them
both feel like someone had walked over their graves. Azonne looked to the hole,
the mass was pouring into the room; this was more taunting, it wanted her to
squirm. She looked to the girl whose eyes were locked with the trembling
corrupted, then to a nearby window and finally above her. She grabbed the girl by
the waist.
"Come." She said before blowing another hole in the ceiling and flying through it.
Fires had raged all across the campus, alongside the screams and moans of both
corrupted and injured alike. Azonne glided low just over the roof of the facility,
before ending up back at the ruins of the main entrance. She carried Emilia in her
arms who had her own arms around her tightly. Corina was there, and having
noticed Azonne she flagged her down. She was next to a shuttle; Azonne hoped
that there were more before it. She landed softly and guided Emilia over to Corina
who asked, "Sit-rep?"

"I found her while I was fighting it," Azonne replied. "It's still in there."

"Is that good or bad?" Corina asked.

Azonne kept eying the girl, a memory stirred. But this was different, it felt more
like a singular feeling. One that was shared among all who had come before. After
a beat, she looked at Corina and said, "I may have been mistaken."

"About?"

"I may be able to stop this..." She said and turned to look back at the building. "...at
least for a while." She rose up off the ground slightly. "Just stay back, okay?"

"Wait!" Corina took a step and yelled. "What are you going to do?!"

"What I must." Was all she said before she rocketed back into the school. She felt
calm because she finally understood. Why that memory had come to her; why she
felt compelled to come here. If The First suspected, or-even more likely-it knew,
she could have exiled herself easily rather than risk contaminating another world.
But then what good would that do? Her charge, her lineage, it would end with her.
The balance would be forever broken and all the sacrifices that those who came
before her made would be for naught. This was where she needed to be. At this
time. At this moment. She was a bridge.

I'm sorry I failed you Azonne.

You didn't fail me and maybe I didn't fail you, she thought. This was just simply
always her fate, that was clear now. The nameless commiserated in a wide-open
gymnasium deep in the school. It was surrounded by its corrupted, who stood
around it jerking around with spasmatic movements as if earthquakes were internal
mechanisms borne in their very soul. She landed just beyond the mass with a soft
thud that kicked up dust all around her. The thing turned to face her, its
nightmarish teeth all grown back in its ugly head.

"Still you persist?" It said. "Go find us a new world, little one, we'll join you soon."
When it laughed, its corrupted laughed too; a melody of hyenic chittering.

Azonne took a step forward, she powered down her aura. The nameless eyed her,
curiosity piqued. Around her the corrupted silently encircled her, they were jumpy;
eager. She took a few more steps before she finally said, "I surrender to you." She
held her arms outstretched.

"What?" it echoed.

"I already have a piece of you within me forever, I refuse to willingly live like
this."

The mass shifted and shrunk with a disgusting bubbling noise like a hot spring
ready to explode. It continued to shrink until it took a more normal humanoid form
about her height. The body was smooth and black, more like a two-dimensional
shadow that had come off a wall to play in the real world. No mouth, no eyes, no
defining features or muscles; just void. "And-" it began. "-what of your
companion? Surely, it has something to say of this?"

"The Balance is tipped." She replied. "Its connection with me is weak and it has no
say here. Complete our connection, and you'll be free of your chains, forever."

"we're free now!" it said with a shout the echoed off the lips of every corrupted that
surrounded them.

"But you'll also control it all, light and dark." She offered. "You will be balanced."

The nameless stood silently. It began to shrink again, flattening itself against the
floor; the flat disk glided over to her, under her. How could it ignore such an offer?
It was toying with her this whole time anyway, why keep up the charade? Why not
end it now? Wisps began to rise up from the disk and attach themselves to Azonne.
They began to climb end over end on each other, each time spreading out further
every time one made contact with her body. She clenched her fists, she could feel it
in her mind.

It spread further all over her and she doubled over in pain. Is this what getting
corrupted always felt like? Azonne began to think of all the beings she'd seen
suffer through this and she wept. Her eyes desaturated from glowing orange to a
deathly black; its voice now echoed in her brain. It was a part of her now,
completely.

"Wait-" she said, her voice amplified with its own. "No!" she yelled. Her aura
returned, at first dulled but then brighter and brighter with each passing moment.
Heat began to pulse off her and she dropped to one knee. Azonne screamed as
energy exploded from her eyes, burning the black that had been there before. She
raised up slightly from her kneeling position, then held her fist in front of her; she
focused on her fist through gritted teeth. The air got still and waves of energy drew
into her body. She bent her knees slightly and shot up to the sky, her aura so hot
she literally melted through the Plexi-sheet roof. Higher she climbed, past the
cloud cover and into low orbit; she was still screaming. She was getting brighter,
hotter.

Azonne, thank you.

She closed her eyes as her body began to break apart, she was rapidly turning to
ash that surfed on the edge of the atmosphere. Her last memory was a beach on
Ganlomb. The sun always colored her skin and she had felt so safe and content.
Her grandfather called her name; it was time to go home. Her ashes floated away
and she was gone, but something else hung there among the detritus. They moved
silently along with what was left of her before gravity asserted itself and began to
pull them down back to the planet.

They caught fire as they made their descent, but they felt nothing. They fell rapidly
and Saint Century rushed up to greet them. Buildings were narrowly missed, which
was fortuitous because when they landed they had created a mile-wide crater not
too far from Central One. The smoke would clear, and reveal what these objects
were:

Two golden rings.

 Chapter 5 :
"They say we're prone to force! They use this as an excuse to force us to be
ashamed of what we are! They say all we do is kill each other when the police kill
more and more of us each year! Sellouts like Lady Steel sing and dance to get love
from the man while the rest of us rot. When they forced us to register ourselves,
where was she? Where were our so-called allies? Now they want to literally put
chips in our brains so we can be tracked at all times; they want to put these in our
babies! I have to ask: when will enough be enough?!"

-Activist John Kirby, speaker, OverHuman rights rally 3125.

Six Months Later

Corina Kyle stood in front of the view-window, arms folded. The opacity was set
about halfway so that she could still see the world outside her window despite what
she might have been watching. She half paid attention anyway, it'd been six
months since The Incident and all the talking heads on TV could talk about was
speculation over the true nature of the emergency. The ICG had been mostly
transparent about it; how a space-born pathogen had infected a portion of the
population around the world before being stopped thanks to the heroic sacrifice of
the alien known as Solar Flare. It was close enough to the truth as Corina
understood it; she didn't pretend to get all the talk about a "balance" or whatever
else Azonne had told her in between panicked breaths.
Personally, Corina agreed with Central One and the Board of Directors: the fact
that she had brought the madness with her didn't need to be public knowledge. She
had saved us and deserved to be honored for it.

Central One had made sure to provide all footage of her during the battle itself, the
campus cameras had survived the onslaught and had captured amazing footage. A
2-minute clip loop of her final sacrifice had been viewed by over 100 billion
people, and that was just counting human beings living on Izanami and her various
colonies; most other civilizations had their own tracking metrics that didn't get
shared. Six months later and Corina still couldn't wrap her head around her doing
that. She got feeling that cornered, of course, there were times where she
considered sacrificing herself for the greater good, but there was always another
way. Perhaps maybe she had grown too optimistic over the years; too much buying
into her own hype. Drinking her own kool-aid, as it were.

Due to the many battles both she and her brother had to fight within city limits,
Saint Century had invested trillions of credits into a new debris clean-up system
called Post Fight Beautification and Tidy system; PE-BATS for short. It was a
tandem system involving insectile-like robots that released millions of tiny little
nano drones to aid them in the sifting and cleaning of all debris that was typically
emblematic of supernatural powered beings going to town on each other in a
heavily populated area.

They got to work quickly once Azonne had sacrificed herself. Those corrupted still
alive had immediately grown docile and soon recovered fully, complete with full
memory of everything they did; with all the good and bad that entailed. All told,
about a million people had died during The Incident, a stat that kept Corina up at
night. For all the fights she'd had, none had turned out as poor as this one did, and
she had barely participated. That galled her too.

PE-BATS had come across the rings while a small crowd had gathered around
them; some had attempted to try them on only to suffer from 3rd-degree burns just
from touching them. The bots cleared the crowd away and scooped up the rings to
give to Central One later. Corina still remembered how she felt when she had them
in her palms: a bit heartbroken, and confused as to what to do next. Was she
supposed to give these to someone? Azonne had spoken of her being someone's
successor, but how did that work? Would she just know? She placed one on each
hand, half expecting something to happen but utterly not surprised when nothing
did. In the end, she decided the best thing to do for now was to honor her at her
brother's museum with the rings as the display of honor.

The Captain Steel Museum was built in the wake of her brother's death. It housed
all sorts of memorabilia from his many adventures and had even expanded to
include a wing dedicated to herself. With everything that had happened, Corina
had gotten the idea to rebrand it as the Saint Century Hall of Heroes, as there had
been others over the decades that had made their own contributions. It was high
time they were acknowledged, and Azonne would be the main attraction. That it
was superficial did not escape Corina but for now, it was the least she could do for
her; even if she deserved more.

The two rings sat behind her in her study, encased in a steel glass case and
suspended in a stasis field; it served as a prototype for what they will be housed in
at the museum. Corina lived in a penthouse highrise of the 3rd tallest building in
Saint Century, left to her by her brother. In fact, the entire enterprise occupied the
top 5 floors of the building as the marketing, PR and merchandise teams worked
below her. She was more like a CEO of her own corporation than hero most days,
a fact that had begun to increasingly bother her; more so since what happened.

Was the fact that she'd grown complacent the reason for most of her in action 6
months ago? It was a question she had found harder and harder to answer one way
or another. There has always been a contingent of people who viewed her as a
corporate sell-out and it never used to bother her, but now it was something
constantly on her mind. There was a buzz on her AUG, she tapped it. Her agent--
also inherited from her brother--was at the door. "Come on in, Alex." She said.

Her study door slid open silently, and he walked in beaming as he usually did.
Alex was a tall man who clearly worked out, even while working; such was the
wonders of having a top of the line AUG programmed for multitasking. He was
nearly as tall as Corina was, a rarity in her life she quite enjoyed as not many
people can look her in the eyes. He was dressed casually, well for him anyway: a
black dress coat and slacks, with a white dress shirt that was unbuttoned at the
collar and not tucked in. His white and black wingtips were immaculate as always,
which made the rest of the outfit stand out that much more. He had brown hair that
was buzzed short around the sides, while at the top it came to sort of a plateau near
the front.

"Casual Friday?" She asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Trying something new." He replied with a smirk.

"It's not you." She smirked back. "What's up?"

"The team would like to go over the plan with you for today's relaunch."

Corina sighed. "Again?"

He shrugged. "You know how they are."

"Tell them I trust them." She offered. "I'll shake the mayor's hand, sign some
autographs, blah-blah." He grinned and nodded. "Anything else?" she asked as she
sat down on the leather loveseat just adjacent to the window.

He thought for a moment before answering, "Oh right, I came to grab the-ah-main
event for the opening." He motioned over to the two rings. She waved him off, a
silent giving of permission to take them. Before he walked out with them, she
stopped him with a question: "Am I a sell-out Alex?"

He paused for a moment, weighing his options. He wasn't sure what she was
angling for but he shot his shot anyway, "You are, but there's nothing wrong with
that." He replied before stepping out.

Isn't there? She found herself wondering.

***

The nightmare was the same every night. It wasn't very scary, which was odd, but
Emilia hesitated to call it just a dream. She was always back in that classroom,
only Wes isn't in there. Just that black oozing mass that would slowly, steadily,
pour into the room. The alien wasn't there either--she, like most people, only
learned her name after the fact. It was always just her...and that thing. Now, the
dream didn't always end the same. Sometimes the black fluid would fill the whole
room until she suffocated in it; others she'd find it bonding with her, corrupting her
like all the others. Either way, it was always a bad end all the same--yet she had no
fear through any of it. Another constant of every dream was this faint calling of her
name, Emilia...
She shuddered just thinking about it. Sometimes she felt like she could hear it even
while she was awake, but that was just crazy. Emilia held out her arm in front of
her and flexed her fingers happily, the entire thing had healed quite nicely. The
best part was that the break was clean, which meant she didn't need any cyber-
organic implants to make up for any lost bones; the concern that her grandparents
would have to shell out big credits just to afford that procedure would keep her up
at night sometimes. To her, that was scarier than anything she had just witnessed,
but only barely. They had health insurance, kind of, but almost-extinction level
events were considered "acts of god" and you had to pay extra if you wanted that
covered.

She recalled standing next to Lady Steel, but it was an event monumental in and of
itself that barely registered. Her eyes had been focused up at the sky as she
watched Azonne rocket up into the stratosphere like a reverse comet. She'd found it
awe-inspiring at the time, but when she learned that that had been her final
sacrifice to save everyone--well, she may have swooned. Hyperbole? A bit. But
then she recalled when she looked into her eyes when she pleaded with her not to
kill Wes, and the look she had given before she flew back into the school;
something had stirred in her.

"Time?" She asked out loud to Alice.

7:30. Replied the AI. She had planned to skip school today but wanted to give her
grandparents the impression she was going. In the aftermath Wes had not coped
well at all; the look on his face as he was carted out of the school said it all. Days
later and he had refused to see her when she had gone to the hospital to visit. It
wasn't until a month had passed before she had actually gotten to see him in
person, and even then he struggled with looking at her. She desperately wanted
him to understand she didn't blame him for what had happened but, as grandmother
had told her, people have their own time tables when it came to healing. Emilia
understood, completely, but she still tried to make things easier. Today was one of
those days.

Wes had been pulled from school in the wake of The Incident and his parents had
hired him a private tutor. Truthfully, Emilia thought this was better for him
regardless, in the long term. He wasn't the kind of person that excelled in a class
setting. The school itself was back in business about a week later but Emilia was
able to stay away for another month due to her injury, which she did not mind in
the slightest. Sure, the synthetic cast did its job and she could have gone to school,
but she wasn't quite ready to step back in there just yet; it wasn't a picnic when she
eventually did either. Regardless she had been planning this day since it had been
announced that The Captain Steel Museum was getting retooled, and she wasn't
going to miss it no matter how much trouble cutting would probably do for her.

Her plan was to bring Wes to the opening, and he had tentatively agreed to come
but he was more prone to change his mind these days when it came to going
outside, understandably. What she had hoped for is that maybe seeing something
honoring the being that had spared his life would help with the healing. He didn't
quite agree with her but eventually had settled on the notion that "It probably
couldn't hurt." Some of this was selfish, Emilia had to admit. Not only to get their
friendship back to where it was before, but she needed to see this thing too. Since
The Incident she has spent more time than she'd care to admit looking up Ganlomb,
it's people and even any stories concerning Azonne's predecessor who humanity
only knew of because she had visited us once. It was a simple visit and gave Emilia
no further insight into Azonne so she moved on.
Emilia grabbed her bag and bounded down the stairs two at a time, she hoped to
shoot past the kitchen without being stopped. "Hey!" No dice. Emilia froze in her
tracks and backpedaled sheepishly until she was in the kitchen doorframe. Her
grandmother viewed her through questioning eyes. "Breakfast?" she asked after a
beat.

Emilia forced a smile that came off more as more of a grimace. "Um, no? I was
kind of planning on getting something at school?" She replied. She pointed beyond
her, to the front door and said, "I'm going to be late."

Grandmother eyed her wearily, she knew Emilia was still hurting but she didn't
even know where to begin. "Have a good day, dear." She said with a smile. Emilia
sighed internally and made a bead for the front door. The day was beautiful and
Wes' family lived about a few blocks due east, a separate part of town clearly
marked by the fact that grime was suddenly nonexistent. Not that she lived in a
particularly dirty neighborhood, obviously, but his family was on a whole different
stratosphere.

His father was a big-time broker who, rumor had it, had turned down a spot on the
ICG board of directors. Emilia found it hard to believe rumors in general but that
one always had an air of truth about it even if Wes himself had no idea if it was
true or not. His mother was a well-traveled socialite whose gatherings made the
news often; Emilia loved scanning the stories about socialite parties if only to see
what kind of fashion they were trying to pull off.

Before she started walking she shot off a text to Wes, letting him know that she
was on her way. He read it but didn't answer, which didn't much matter to her as
she had put her slate away in her pocket. The family lived in one of the fancy high-
rises that most of the elite had made home; it was waterfront property that lined the
cliff shores of the city and overlooked Johnson Harbor. In fact, it was just a few
blocks away from where Lady Steel lived and Emilia often hoped to catch
glimpses of her either leaving or perhaps just walking among the people with no
luck.

The main entrance was heavily fortified and did not even possess a COMM system
so that you could contact the occupants inside. You were already pre-cleared to be
coded into the system or you were basically out of luck. Thankfully, his family
liked her and so she was let in easily after a brief scan of her irises. Clean bots
were hard at work with upkeep when she had walked in, she mocked waving hello
at them as she passed and waited for the lift to arrive. She checked her slate again,
still no answer. She let him know she was downstairs and he finally responded
with a thumbs up emote. With a small chime, the lift doors opened and, as she
stepped inside, she had begun to brace herself for whatever excuse he could muster
not to go.

What will she do then? She shouldn't force the issue, clearly--but she also really
wanted him to come with her. She exhaled forcefully as the lift had stopped at the
correct floor and the doors hissed open. The lift had let her off directly into their
apartment, and no matter how many times Emilia walked in there she was always
blown away. Immediately after exiting the lift she was greeted by an immaculate
foyer, as Gibson's tastes clearly run on the high-end side with all the old world art
and decorations ranging from the finest china to elaborate ornate vases. Beyond
that was a grand staircase that led to a second level, and under that were french
double doors that lead to a lavish balcony outside overlooking Saint Century.
Good morning Ms. Belmonte, the penthouse AI greeted her with its usual
manufactured cheer. I can inform young master Gibson that you are here if you
like. However, before she could answer one way or the other, Wes had appeared at
the top of the staircase and said aloud "Don't bother." Emilia took one look at her
friend and winced internally; he looked like crap.

"Wes, you're not even dressed."

Sheepishly he placed a hand on the back of his head and rubbed it ruefully. "Ah, I
don't know Emilia..."

She had begun to walk up the stairs to meet him, offering a small smile. "My guy,
how long have you been cooped up in here?"

"I like it here." He shrugged half-heartedly.

Emilia leaned slightly against the banister and eyed him curiously, she wondered
how far to push it. "But I'm totally cutting school for this, don't you want to take
advantage of this totally rare opportunity?"

He exaggeratedly blew air out of his mouth, "You cut class all the time." He
replied. Silence fell between them before they both started laughing; it felt good to
see him smile, she thought. Emilia approached him and put a hand on his shoulder,
she half-smiled sympathetically as she said, "C'mon, get dressed." She grinned.
"It'll be fun, promise."

Wes sighed and threw his hands up. "Okay fine." He led her away from the
stairway and down a small corridor, at the other end was a barely visible crevice
that housed the door to his room. It slid open as he approached and Emilia winced
at the state of it. Typical for most boys, it was a mess and she expected a mess
because that's just Wes. But even this was unexpected. Clothes littered the floor so
much so she wasn't sure floor even existed; Schrodinger's floor she joked to
herself. His bed no longer had a top sheet and soda cans were stacked in droves on
damn near every dresser, desktop, and even closet shelves. "Jeez, Wes."

"I know." He turned red slightly but had turned his back on her so she couldn't see.

"Don't you have clean bots to take care of this?" She asked.

Wes was busy picking out a shirt from one of the piles, not answering until he'd
found one that apparently met his standard of clean. "I disabled them in here." He
replied.

"Why?" His only answer was a shrug. The state of it all broke her heart. She turned
around once she noticed he had moved to look for pants to wear.

"Have you ever been there?" He asked.

She glanced behind herself slightly, "The museum? No, never."

"That's surprising."

"How so?"

"You used to talk about her a lot."

"Lady Steel? I mean--yeah, I guess I did." She said. "I guess, I just never had the
time, ya know? What about you?"

"My parents took me once when I was a kid." He replied. "I don't really remember
much of it except, I'm pretty sure it had a 'Hall of Losers' there?"
Emilia snorted slightly. "Serious?"

"Yeah, and I only remember it because of a guy named...damn, what was it?" He
paused to finish hitching up a pair of jeans. "Rip Ripley, that was his name."

"Oh boy." She chuckled. "Do you remember his deal?"

"He ripped, of course." He snorted and began giggling uncontrollably, Emilia

turned around to study him with half a smirk. There was the old Wes, surfing
beneath the surface there.

Emilia.

There it was, faint like always but definitely there. Just right off the edge of
consciousness, like a misfired neuron that danced across her cortex. She tilted her
head slightly to the right, a half measure between trying to focus on it and
pretending it wasn't there at all. She felt completely ridiculous. She sometimes
wondered if maybe it was just a form of PTSD. She'd refused any kind of
counseling and she found herself second-guessing it now.

"Emilia?" His voice snapped her out of it. "You okay over there?" He asked.

"Hm?" she looked up at him, he was dressed in a band tee--Vidjya Hammer--and

black jeans. "Yeah, sorry. Spaced out." She turned a shade of red, impressive
considering her complexion.

"I know that look. I've had that look."

"Oh?"
"Yeah." He replied. "I just-I see it, you know? When I close my eyes, sometimes
when I don't; I see everything that happened, everything that...that I did." Silence
drifted in between them. Surprisingly, Wes spoke up first. "This is weird, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it must be, for you." He replied. "It is for me. After-after what I-" his face
had contorted as his eyes began to water. Emilia didn't hesitate, she stepped over to
him and held him. He started to openly weep so she had hugged him tighter. He
was so much taller than her the sight was almost comical, but she didn't care. She
had released him when the sobbing had grown a bit quieter, and she placed her
hands on his arms, just at the elbows, and smiled at him.

"Hey." She began. "None of that was your fault. And yeah, it's a little weird but we
just gotta work through it together. You're my best friend, dude. Nothing will
change that." She smiled.

Wes nodded slightly and said, "I just keep thinking that you hate me, cuz I hate me
and it makes perfect sense if you did."

"Never, man." She told him. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Rather than grabbing the next Magtrain uptown to the museum, Wes offered to pay
for a hover taxi. It literally hovered and was pushed along thanks to microsonic
waves broadcasted at a certain frequency at a carbon-fiber sail. It was slow-
moving, which was the point for tourists; it also allowed them to travel without
getting their iris' scanned. They had to be dropped off a few blocks away from the
museum as traffic had grown unbearable the closer they got. The driver offered an
enthusiastic thanks when he saw the tip that Wes had left him. Emilia and Wes
weaved in and out among the people as they made the trek up the hill leading up to
the museum.

The building was immaculate, the entire front had been completely done over. It
was styled in classical roman architecture with massive gray ceramel pillars lining
the front entrance, while a massive shallow pool filled with crystal blue water lay
in a center courtyard lead up to it. A massive statue of Captain Steel had been
erected at the center of the pool; he was posed with both arms flexed up in a front
double bicep pose, the muscles chiseled perfectly into the stone. His classic grin
was carved expertly, while his uniform was so meticulously sculpted it appeared as
if it were legitimately clothing.

In real life, he typically wore a canvas jacket with an asymmetrical zipper. His
logo, a stylized "C" and "S" broken up with a lightning bolt, was plastered on each
of his shoulders. It was recreated perfectly. Emilia couldn't take her eyes off of it,
and even Wes was similarly awestruck.

There was a steady stream of people filing in and milling about the courtyard.
Floating news cameras hovered about sending out a live stream out into the
Bleednet. Emilia was disappointed she had missed the opening itself, she had
hoped to spot Lady Steel. Emilia sometimes wondered if Lady Steel would
recognize her at all; she actually had stayed by her side until a police escort was
able to get her home. Emilia had always appreciated that because it wasn't like she
had to do it. She was this big-time celebrity, Lady Steel existed on a completely
different level yet she was genuine, asked her questions, and spoke with Emilia as
an equal. It eased the trauma, which was probably the point.
The lobby was cavernous, ornate light fixtures hung from the ceiling like glittering
stalactites. At the front desk, they got their passes and Wes gave a small donation.
Emilia downloaded a museum map to her slate; the main exhibit was on the 3rd
floor. They grabbed the next lift and squeezed in with about 10 other people.
Emilia sidled up next to Wes and he felt hot. After a chime from the AI, they all
spilled out like pyroclastic flow.

Blown up captures from the footage lined the walls; action shots of Azonne mixed
in with softer more candid ones taken in between. Each had its own personal
voiceover: "Azonne Le before she had flown back into the Century School." And
things like that. In the center was a wax recreation of her, it was immaculate. Her
skin and uniform were meticulously detailed; Emilia gazed up at it, something
stirred in her; it felt alive. Beside her were the two rings, they were suspended in
mid-air above a pedestal via a stasis field that shimmered under the bright lights.

Emilia.

She stopped in front of the rings, the voice was louder this time--louder than it had
ever been. She couldn't look away, they were beautiful. They shined within the
stasis field, light reflected off their golden metallic sheen. Alien geometric symbols
were lightly etched all across each face, then repeating up and down the bands. It
was so ornate and Emilia wondered if it was her language; she found herself
wishing that she had gotten to know this alien. She felt a sense of loss that she
hadn't. To her surprise, Emilia found herself reaching out. Upon the realization, she
hesitated. But she had to. She felt compelled to touch them, she needed to.

"Emilia?" Wes had said as if he were in the ether. Like he wasn't actually there,
just on the periphery of her awareness. "What are you doing?"
What was she doing? She reached out further. No one else existed, it was simply
her and those rings. Her fingertips breached the field and if an alarm sounded she
couldn't hear it. If a defense mechanism activated, she couldn't feel it. All that
mattered was what was in front of her. Upon contact, a brilliant light pulsed
outward. It flashed brighter and brighter as Emilia clasped a hand around them
both. Another pulse flashed out, brighter than the last. Emilia's eyes grew wide.
Another flash.

Emilia Belmonte.

The light became blinding, it engulfed her entirely.

You can shine a light in the face of great darkness.

Suddenly, she and the rings were gone.

 Chapter 6 :
The Izanami Central Government does not speak for you! Ignore all the
propaganda, ignore all the lies, we're so far removed from them how could they
possibly know what we go through? Man has been living in space long enough
now that our ways of life have become completely separate and totally alien to our
Terran brethren. Think about it, have they ever spent the majority of their day in a
pressurized suit? Is cosmic radiation a constant threat to them? Oxygen rationing?
Artificial gravity? No! They're in cushy offices planetside; they have no idea what
life for the average colonist is actually like. They think because they've read a few
reports and watched a few vids, that they can just bleedcast a few mandates our
way and call it a day? We say no! If you feel as strongly as we do, if you also
believe that Colonies should be self-governing, then help us spread the word. Help
support the initiative for the first Sovereign Colonial Government, free from ICG's
influence once and for all!

-United Colonies of Humanity via viral message broadcast throughout the

Bleednet.

"I've been waiting for you."

The sound of that voice had stirred Emilia awake. How long had she been out?
Why had she been out? She continued to lay there a moment more, eyes shut,
while she tried to piece it all together. Maybe it had been a dream. Of course, she
figured that once she opened her eyes she'd be back in her bed and everything
would be fine. And so she did. She wasn't. Everything was white.

She blinked her eyes again a few times just to be sure they were open. She sat up
quickly in a panic and looked around. Everything was blinding white, it was tough
for her brain to comprehend. This room, if it was a room at all, was pure white; no
boundaries appeared visible. Yet somehow here she was, sat down on a floor
perfectly supported as if it were an actual surface yet none seemed apparent.

"You heard me call out to you, didn't you?"

Emilia's eyes tried to search around for the source of the voice, but nothing came to
her. "Who said that?" She asked. "Where am I?"

"You're in The Bleed." It replied.

Slowly she stood up, her mind incrementally coming to grips with the impossibility
of her surroundings. The Bleed? No living being can just exist in The Bleed, she
thought. "Okay, so this is totally a dream then."

"Does this feel like a dream?"

"A bit." She shrugged. "But I'll play--Who are you? Why can't I see you?"

"Would it make things easier if I had a form?" the voice asked her.
"A little, yeah." Emilia was surprised at the steady beat of her heart, she wasn't
panicked-not even a bit. The area before her contorted slightly as energy began to
swirl around it. It was an exquisite vortex of color, orange and yellow, that further
stood out in the stark white of the expanse she stood in. The light began to spin
around on an axis before it started to morph and stretch. It took shape in front of
Emilia, a humanoid shape. It was at first undefined but features began to take
shape in the swirl until finally it was done and a familiar figure stood in front her.

"You?" She thought for a moment, a name on the tip of her tongue. "A--Azonne?
You're...alive?"

"No, I'm not her. You find comfort in this form, do you not?"

Emilia didn't answer that, instead, she walked around her utterly fascinated. "I keep
waiting for me to wake up any minute...who are you? What is all this?" She
stopped in front of this apparent avatar and eyed it suspiciously.

"I have no name, I am simply The First." It replied. "And you've been chosen."

"Chosen?"

"To be a light in the face of great darkness. Darkness you're very familiar with
now."

Emilia was instantly taken back to that day 6 months ago. All that fear and anxiety
that she had felt that day hit her like a freight train and felt real enough. She shook
it off as best she could. "This really isn't a dream, is it?"

"No, Emilia. I was created at the dawn of time as you know it." It began, now it
was 'Azonne's' turn to pace around Emilia. "The universe was originally engulfed
in nothing but darkness, however when I came to be it became my purpose to keep
it from having such power again."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"When the time came, I passed my abilities--my very self--on to a female warrior
from the first intelligent civilization. They had created these." It held out its right
hand, which was clenched in a fist, but she turned it over and then unfurled them;
the two rings sat in her palm. "I was placed into these, and I have guided each
successive bearer in this purpose since then."

Emilia thought for a moment. "And you're choosing...me for that?"

"Yes." Was all it said.

"Is that where we are right now? In there?" She nudged her head forward a bit,
indicating the rings.

"Yes and no." It replied. "I am housed in a section of the bleed not accessible by
ordinary means. In a way, I'm not that different from the information and data that
is passed through your so-called 'Bleed Net'." Emilia was incredulous, but it
continued. "I transported you here because we do not have much time."

"What do you mean?"

"This has never been done in this fashion, typically the current bearer will identify
the next-in-line and then bequeath them the rings and the mantle." It replied.
"However, with the balance being broken, I guided her to the next likely world
where she'd find one: yours."
"Okay..."

"When you had met this form, there was a connection. Azonne knew then that you
would be the next one chosen."

Emilia's eyes grew wide but she had to ask: "But, why me though?"

"You're intelligent and you have a good heart." It replied. "You're selfless and put
others before yourself in your own mind but you are lost."

"Lost?"

"You seek something bigger than yourself." It told her. "It eludes you because this,
it turns out, was your fate."

Emilia wasn't sure how to take any of that, she didn't really believe in fate and it
was always in her impulses to push back against praise. Still, she was apparently in
the bleed and talking to a being made of light; maybe she could stand to be
openminded. "So what happened with Azonne?" She asked.

"She allowed the nameless to corrupt her in total so that she could burn it out
completely in order to buy the verse some time. She knew she would not survive
that, she was a brave soldier; worthy of the mantle." The First fell silent.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Emilia offered.

The First looked up at her, it seemed almost touched by the words. "The nameless
cannot be fully destroyed." It eventually continued. "Such is not its fate in the
verse. So Azonne imprisoned a piece of it, in here, with me. Until such a time
when you came to take up the mantle."
"Wait, so you're saying that that thing is in here, with us, right now?"

"Yes, locked away deep in this little pocket dimension. It was the only way
Azonne could insure not just your world's survival, but the entire verse." It replied.
"Once you accept the mantle and you leave this place, it will be free."

Emilia took a step back, nearly floored by what she just heard. "You are assuming
a lot." She spat back. "And what if I don't accept?"

"Then I will send you home." It replied. "And it will still be free. I opened the gate
by bringing you here, what's done cannot be undone."

"This is crazy!" She exclaimed. "I'm just a 16-year-old girl, I've never even been in
a fight!"

The First smirked and blinked out of existence, while the white of room had
drained from it completely. Emilia was steeped in darkness, it washed over her. In
the distance, a chair had materialized and she took steps toward it. It was a
perfectly square leather armchair, not so different from one found at home. She
touched it to make sure it was real, and it was. 'Azonne' too had materialized
beside her, hands folded behind her back.

"Please sit." It said and she did so. "Look out into the darkness, what do you see?"
It asked her.

"Literally nothing."

"Look harder." So she did. Something became clear to her, in the distance. They
were imperceptible little dots at first but they grew larger with each passing. They
were balls of energy, coming right for them both. "Do you see?"
The lights approached and it was clear these were other beings, the first of them
flew past her. It was an alien, completely chrome features, the face was a blank
slate, but Emilia could tell it was a female. It wore armor similar to Azonne's;
similar but not alike. There were minute differences in styling, but the sun-like
symbol was prominent on her chest. More began to whip by silently, soon there
were so many it all became a blur of fast-moving lights blowing past them both.
"There's so many." Emilia finally said.

The first nodded. "Nearly billions, each one making their own mark in service to
preserving the balance." It told her. "All their shared experiences, all their talent,
and skills would be available to you. They would be your skills, your talent, and
your experiences to wield. You will not be alone Emilia."

"And what are you, then?"

"I am your partner, your guide, and your AI, all rolled into one." It replied. The
passing beams of light all coalesced and had turned the room stark white again.
There was one last straggler, it was Azonne. She had an arm outstretched and a
stoic look on her face. Emilia watched her the closer she got until she too had
faded into pure whiteness. "I would be advising you and helping you--anything
you need to be done, just ask and hopefully I won't fail you like I did Azonne..." It
had said, snapping Emilia out of a daze.

"Uh, maybe you should leave that out of your sales pitch, yeah?"

"I apologize." It sat on the edge of the armchair, looking away from Emilia. "This
has never happened before--no bearer has ever died before choosing a successor."
It got up again and paced briefly.
"How did this happen?" She asked. "Why did Azonne have to die?"

"She was corrupted at some point while on a target planet." It replied. "The
mechanism of which I do not know. I suspected this may be the case when the
second and third worlds we saw also erupted with corruption. I should have told
her my suspicions then and there but I wanted proof; I spent so long searching this
mind space for any signs of it and I never found a thing. But perhaps it was always
her fate to be simply a transitional bearer; all of this may have had to happen."

"That's crap." Emilia shot out, it forced The First to look at her. Emilia blushed
slightly, feeling suddenly self-conscious. "It's just I have a hard time with saying
life is pre-ordained somehow. Maybe she made some mistakes, I don't know—"
The First nodded solemnly and let her continue. "-but, she saved my world. As far
as I'm concerned, she was a hero." Emilia offered. "Hard to say if you failed her or
not, but you should be proud of her. As you said, what's done can't be undone
right?"

The First said nothing to this, it only continued to study her.

"I mean, instead of wondering if maybe she was destined to fail—or whatever—
just focus on what good she actually did." She continued but stopped when she
noticed it was looking at her. "Uh-I'm overstepping my bounds, aren't I?"

It smiled. "Not at all. You're very wise, Emilia."

"Speaking of-" she smiled a bit. "If you don't have an actual name I'm going to
have to give you one."

"So do you accept? Will you take the mantle?"

Now it was Emilia's turn to study the avatar. A small part of her was scared,
although not so much fear but of pressing anxiety. There was this little voice
calling her stupid for even considering she could handle such a purpose. Like, get
real, Emilia. You barely pay attention to the classes you like. And that voice was
right, in its own way. But there was another voice, a louder voice. Telling her this
entire situation defied being compared to something so mundane as a school.
Everything that had come before this had no bearing on whether she could do this
or not. And besides, it was right about something. She had been searching for
something bigger than herself, and maybe this was the engagement that she'd been
searching for her whole life.

In the end, Emilia decided to do what she always did: go with what feels right. "I
do." She finally said.

It smiled and bowed its head. It held out its hand again, the two rings rose up from
its palm in hovered over to Emilia. "Then place these on your fingers, and be still.
It will be...intense, at first."

She cocked an eyebrow but didn't say anything. She reached out confidently, all
anxiety draining away as both rings floated into her open hand. She brought her
hand back and inspected them, and she thought this was it. Nothing would be the
same from then on. She placed the first one on her left middle finger, it seemed
loose at first but the ring band auto tightened to fit. She felt a small tingle in the
back of her head as the ringlet off a small spark. She repeated the motion on her
other hand felt and was compelled to shut her eyes tightly as a wave of energy
overcame her.
Every aspect of her body seemed to vibrate down to her very atoms; a sensation
she lacked the clarity to describe had washed over her. Her neurons danced and
sang inside her brain as information began to fill in, creating new synaptic
responses for her to call on. She knew now she could manipulate energy all across
the electromagnetic spectrum at all wavelengths; his predecessors called it 'The
Sight'. She knew now that she could speak any known, and some forgotten,
languages fluently. She knew now she had thousands of alien combat styles at her
fingertips, she even practiced a few in what The First dubbed her "mind palace," a
location not dissimilar from her current location. She could hear him explaining it
all in great detail because he now resided in the back of her subconscious.

Also, a key to the mantle was the aura the would surround her at all times. It was
pure light energy that she could also manipulate to suit her needs depending on the
situation. She could expand it to protect others, or condense it to create small
shields for herself. Her light could be hardened or softened on a whim, should she
require it. But as it was explained to her, "Nothing will come to you easy. It will
take time, and focus, for you to master all your abilities."

More important than all of that, however, was all the knowledge she learned about
the nameless. How it corrupted worlds by filling living beings with extreme hate
and pain; they'd fight until they tore each other apart. Then came the feeding,
where a giant oily mass would drain all organic matter until the world was simply a
dead husk; there were billions of such worlds scattered across the universe.
Eventually, she found her body normalizing, the pins and needles sensation slowly
drained from her and she was able to leave her mind palace and open her eyes. She
was back in the white room, but she was alone. She stood up quickly and noticed
she wasn't wearing her clothes anymore. She was wearing a uniform.
It was similar to Azonne's but different like all the others that had come before her.
The orange-colored segmented armor only went down to her chest, a hard-line cut
off rather than coming to a point like Azonne. Instead of forearm length gauntlets
on each arm, there were dual orange bands that went up to her wrists while her
hands were encased in a hard metallic seeming shell that had holes for her fingers
and thumbs to slide out of; they reminded her of MMA gloves. The rest of the suit
was pure black, with an orange-colored geometric circle appearing near the
midline along with solid orange rectangles wrapping around her waist to break it
up. Segmented armor was also present at both knees and at the bottom of her feet;
which came upwards slightly, covering her toes and heels and appearing as a
make-shift pair of soles.

Vrenna Lugbak, the 15th ring bearer, had first created the uniform. It has become a
tradition ever since; each one taking aspects of the bearers subconscious self-
image.

"So what now?" She asked, still staring at her hands. This was all so very surreal to
her.

You'll need to breach the walls of reality to exit Bleed Space and get back home.
Like the technology your people use to traverse the void, you too can pierce the
veil to surf the bleed and travel where you are needed.

"And how will I know where I'm needed?"

You just will. As you become more experienced with your abilities and
comfortable with The Sight, it will become like second nature to you.

"You said the nameless will be free from here once I leave, correct?"
Correct. Once you are back home, you must track and find its most likely
manifestation point and then burn it out. Being imprisoned has weakened it some,
if you can stop it from achieving a full infestation on your planet again we may be
able to restore the balance.

"No pressure, I guess." She said. A thought occurred to her, "Burning it out," she
asked. "This will kill the person won't it?"

Correct. It is unavoidable.

"I don't know how I feel about that. You're basically telling me that this 'nameless'
can infect people, make them into these raging monsters, and there's no remedy for
something like that besides a death penalty?" She was incredulous and had asked
that with arms outstretched. For a moment this felt like one of those times where,
maybe, she'd made a poor choice. "Surely there's another way?" She asked plainly.

Corruption cannot be removed without killing the host body.

Emilia huffed silently, unsatisfied with that. She hated being told that something
couldn't be done, hated it. It seemed especially ridiculous when discussing it in
terms of such phenomenal cosmic powers. Has anyone even tried, she wondered?
Although she knew the answer instantly. No one had ever tried because they were
told it was impossible; essentially creating a negative feedback loop. People died
because that's just how it was done. Well, she was going to try then.

It cannot be done.

"Hey!" She spat. "No more responding to my thoughts, alright? If I don't directly
ask you something, don't say anything. Understand?"
That may prove...difficult.

"Well start trying, my guy." She thought for a second. "You know what? That's
your name. Guy."

Guy?

"Yeah." She shrugged. "We'll try it on for a bit." She smiled and raised her fist. She
furrowed her brow as she concentrated on a fixed point in the white expanse.
Energy hummed at the spot, that energy became a tear, a tear that began to widen.
Just as suddenly, it was a full-blown hole and on the other side was Saint Century.
Beads of sweat dripped from Emilia's forehead; this was hard. The concentration
required to rip a hole in the bleed was immense. She gritted her teeth a moment
more before dropping to a single knee. She looked up hesitantly but was relieved to
see the hole had remained.

Very good Emilia, most gates close the first time.

"Thanks, Guy." She said as she began to float up; it had happened involuntarily
and she was freaked out about it for a moment. She found it easy to float over to
the hole and stared through it. It was nighttime but the place still buzzed, bright as
ever. She raised her fists to take another look at the rings, everyone was going to
freak out. Hell, she was low-key freaking out herself. Emilia took a deep breath
and then breached the hole, which closed behind her the minute she had fully
cleared. She was above Saint Century but found herself dropping in altitude.

She didn't panic, at first, as she had actually somewhat enjoyed the ride. One of the
highrises was rising up to meet her, however, she brought that feeling to bear
rather quickly. She thought back to the ease in which she had floated earlier and
tried to apply that thinking to her present situation. She just had to think about it
right? She thought about slowing down, and she did. She slowed her self at an
angle before turning back upwards, and she wanted some speed so, with a burst of
energy, she was in the cloud top. A grin had spread across her face from ear to ear,
how could it not? I'm honest to god flying! She thought and her heart was racing,
but in an, I'm on a roller coaster kind of way.

Emilia cleared the cloud cover and had begun to turn back toward the city in a
gigantic loop. Another energy pulse and she rocketed fast toward the city before
she leveled off and began traveling north toward her home. A mental map of the
city had been pulled up in her peripheral vision, completed with GPS like tracking
of her position in relation to the ground. She had reached the house quickly but
stood floating over it, hesitant.

"Hang on." She said. "I can't just walk in with this thing on." She motioned to
herself.

Think of something you would normally wear.

She did so. Her ring sparked and an energy ring engulfed her and traveled from
head to toe, replacing her uniform with just a plain white t-shirt and black jeans.
She remarked, "That's pretty handy." And floated slowly toward the house, landing
just next to the staircase. Her grandparent's home was a brownstone style structure.
Grandfather had always loved that style as a child, so when it came time to order
his own he had specifically asked it be done in this style. It was purely superficial
as the entire house had all the modern amenities and comfort. Emilia bounded up
the stairs two at a time; she assumed that her grandmother must have been worried
sick since she'd have been gone almost the entire day. She pressed her palm onto
the plate and the door hissed open.

Welcome home...Emilia? The AI had greeted her.

"Uh, yeah?" She responded. "Who else would it be?" A terrible crashing noise
came from the kitchen, Emilia rushed over there. Her grandmother stood in the
center of the room, frozen. On the floor were the remains of a plate she had just
been holding. Her eyes grew as wide as saucers. And then she said, softly,
"...Emilia?" there was disbelief in her voice, it trembled.

"Gramma, what's-" but she was cut off by a forceful hug. Her grandmother sobbed
heavily as she held on to Emilia, squeezing her tighter and tighter. Emilia couldn't
believe this. Sure grandmother was a touch dramatic, but this was just too much.
"Grams..." She tried to interject. "...I can't breathe...!"

"Oh!" Grandmother shouted as she released her, but only so much as she had kept
her hands on her shoulders. "I can't believe it!" She brushed a hand across Emilia's
cheek. "It really is you."

"What is with you, grandma?" Emilia asked incredulously. "I'm sorry I was gone
but it's only been a couple of hours!"

"A couple of hours?" Her grandmother replied and brushed some hair out of
Emilia's face. "Honey--it'sbeen 5 years."