A/N-Alright peoples, time to begin the next installment of the Two Worlds Collide series! A quick note for those just joining us on this tale: there are four books prior to this one: Two Worlds Collide, Expanding Horizons, Reaches of Reality and Time's Revelation. While the first couple are not that great, all are necessary to understand where this starts off, as this and the next book are the culmination of several storylines coming together.

Also, for those who like to look at the title pictures of stories, special challenge: the original sketch has three Hebrew words in it (even if only one is fully visible): shinui, emet, and havah. Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what they mean!

Prologue

"Alchemist!"

Jezebel swept into the room, the flowing scarlet robes draping from her shoulders sweeping up clouds of dust from the floor as she headed for the table at the far end of the room. Hunched over the furniture piece and fidgeting with what appeared to be a leather harness studded with small jewels, was a person with the appearance of a young woman, with long, back-length light strawberry blonde hair and an outfit consisting of ankle-length pants and a loose apron-like tunic covered with dozens of pockets.

The younger woman looked up with tired eyes at the interruption. "Yes, Jezebel?" she asked softly.

"Is it ready yet?" Jezebel snapped. "I have but a few weeks to put everything into motion and I need the device in working order if I am going to have the necessary advantage. Though the beasts are big, and our ally well-endowed with the practices of war, there is only so much they can do for me."

The alchemist sighed, clearly not wanting to have this discussion. "I told you already, I have not tried this technique before. Previous fields have been difficult to strengthen as it was, and this layout is far more complicated; several projection points and quantum layering are hard to synchronize. Once I have everything lined up, the field should be stable and I can copy the pattern. If you rush me, there's always the chance you'll just blow up when you activate it." She turned back to the harness and grabbed a small stone out of its inset in the center, replacing it with a slightly larger, darker tinted version that was lying on the table nearby. Then she pressed the central stone, causing a glow to light up within, an electric spark running around the inset and carrying the glow into the several metallic veins spreading outward, connecting to gems around the entire vest. Soon the harness was completely aglow.

"There," the alchemist said, "the first test is complete. It will take me a few tries to work out any residual kinks, but," she held up the harness and handed it to Jezebel, who looked it over, nodded, and handed it back. "Good. Now, ensure that the rest will work as well. We can't have all my infantry going down so easily this round."

Jezebel turned and headed for the exit, before stopping and glancing over her shoulder. "And don't forget, alchemist, if anything goes wrong and I find out that it was deliberate, I don't need to remind you of what the consequences will be." She held up a short silvery necklace, with an inset carrying an emerald dangling from the end.

The alchemist scowled. "Yes, I understand perfectly. And I do have my own name, you are aware."

Jezebel only laughed. "So long as you work for me, your name is whatever I choose to call you." With that, she disappeared out the door, leaving the woman alone in the room, the only sound to be heard being the hum of the energy running through the harness.

The alchemist pressed the central stone again, turning the device off, before looking slowly around the room. On the shelves and tables were dozens of stones, odd metals, and old devices and machines, each one either a weapon of destruction or a reminder of a past failure. She walked over to a dark corner, passing an electromagnetic circuit she had built over a hundred years before, and picked up a small piece of marble carved out to look like a group of hardened warriors; her family.

She looked at the piece for a few minutes, lost in the silence and her own memories. Then, putting the figure down on the table again, she sat down and wept. The drops fell for her family, for herself, and for what she knew she was about to enable. The tears flowed all the harder as she stayed there, just as she knew blood would in time.

In another corner of the world, deep inside the sculpted spaces of a rocky cavern, another figure stirred. A pair of emerald eyes opened, and glanced around at the hundreds of creatures that filled the space around her. Each one of them could be named, could be given an origin, could be called a friend, but there was something no longer right about them, a feeling that swept through the room. Many of them were stirring tensely, an unseen force pulling at them, beckoning them to steal away from their home.

The figure sat bolt upright, grabbing the curved blade at her side. Something was happening, something she knew she could not fight on her own, and something that would, after nineteen years of near-complete isolation, finally force her to come out of hiding.

Her mind briefly flashed to the past, of a memory of an island she had left so long ago she barely remembered what it looked like, and of a people who had rejected the knowledge she now held as utmost truth. Did she dare to reveal herself to them in this, to ask them for the help she knew she so soon would need? Was the action worth risking everything?

A flutter of wings nearby, echoed around the cavern, told her that if another option did not present itself shortly, she would have no other choice.

A/N-Several questions for you all: who are the two new characters here, any ideas? :D And, bonus points to those who can tell me what story series will be paid tribute from here on out.

Let me know your answers ad predictions in your reviews!