Disclaimer: I am in no way the legal owner of anything in this fictional work. All intellectual materials are the properties of their respective owners.
Concept [spoilers]: What if Double H was unable to stop the DomZ high priest from gathering Jade's spirit?
What would have happened? Well, this fic aims to theorize just that, read on and find out.
Notification: The first part of this one-shot is more or less a recitation of the cutscene before the final boss battle in the game, though it is still recommended that you read the whole thing even if you've played the game to its completion – else some readers might find themselves a bit confused.
Either way, here's a BG&E one-shot. Enjoy.
Shadow of the Soul
Jade stood on the descending elevator.
Beside her was her two companions.
One of them was Pey'j, her pig-uncle, who she had just recently brought back from the dead with some sort of strange power she'd previously been unaware of.
The other was Double-H, an armour-clad IRIS agent who she had first rescued from the Nutripils factory, but who had since grown into a great friend and companion.
Outside, the battle between the Alpha Sections and the Hillyan army raged on, though the sound started to fade as the elevator descended deeper into the depths. It soon reached its destination.
The elevator stopped on a small patch of land, beyond which there was only impenetrable darkness. Two hands, seemingly belonging to some sort of statue, were barely visible in the distance, half-concealed by the darkness.
And then a voice, deep-toned and alien-sounding with a sort of scratch to it, as if the wielder was a bit hoarse, spoke.
"Shauuuuuuuuuuniiiiiii." it said, as the statue in grew more illuminated, revealing the full humanoid, four-armed, structure. Its face had a thin veil in front of it, of what material one could not determine in the darkness.
"You have finally come back to me..." the voice continued. Part of Jade simply thought the words to be utter nonsense, but within her, another part (which had just recently started surfacing) resonated incredibly deeply with it.
"You have served your master well, Shauni." the voice continued, the increasing illumination of the surroundings giving show to its source: A DomZ. However, it did not look like any ordinary DomZ. Hovering between two of the massive statue's hands, the being, complete with several protruding parts akin to a squid's arms, though made of DomZ materials, gazed at the humans. The exoskeleton typical of most DomZ, a material that was prominent in this being as well, held large, glowing, yellow eyes, with which the being watched the trio which had just arrived.
"You alone have brought the Hillyans to me." came next, as a continuation for the last sentence. As the words were spoken, seemingly from something mouth-like situated at the bottom of its body, the tentacle-like protuberances slowly waved around, calmly, in the air.
"They have followed you blindly." were the following words, imbued with a hint of pride. They were starting to have an effect on Jade's mind, causing the previously unknown part of her to start grasping around, reaching for the surface of her mind. And yet, whilst it was still the same as before, the DomZ-being's words were having an effect on it. Changing it. Trying to control it.
Feeling a part of herself being affected and slowly grasped for by the being's words, the woman put her right hand to the same side of her face, trying to keep control of her thoughts as her eyes started to glow with the energy of the surfacing piece of herself. Seeing this, Double-H turned to her whilst simultaneously asking "Miss Jade?" in a concerned tone of voice.
"DorthKaul Pahkahn!" the DomZ shouted out, and a loud, powerful noise, similar to that one hears when handling energy-based devices such as laser weapons or shields, was heard from above. Though, in their current position, finding out what exactly had happened was out of their reach, and right now it was the last thing on Jade's thoughts.
"You are not who you think you are." the DomZ now said, further increasing the turmoil within the green-eyed woman's mind.
"The pig has hidden your origins from you..." came next.
As a response, Pey'j jumped in front of Jade, waving his arms around whilst simultaneously shouting "Jade! NO! Don't listen to him!"
The DomZ reacted immediately, firing a blue beam of energy from one of the statue's hands. As it hit Pey'j, he let out a muffled cry; the energy beam carrying him up into the air, towards the hand which it came from.
"You are the source of my power, the instrument of my strength." was said by the DomZ-being next, as it controlled the statue into grasping Pey'j with its hand, holding it out on the side (to the left of Jade) with the pig still caught within the orb of light ensnaring him.
"They took you away in the hope of destroying me." it continued, as its grasp of the spirit within Jade slowly grew.
"But I have survived." followed as the next statement, emphasized by the being moving forwards with two of the statue's hands right behind it.
"Feeding me with only the most miserable of sacrifices." was said, as the illumination in the room increased further, giving light to the green-yellow walls of the massive chamber. On them, a number of DomZ Sarcophagii crawled, but the truly horrifying part was the sheer number of human corpses encapsulated within the walls themselves; a storage to the hundreds of Hillyans the being had already 'fed' on.
Now having a firm grasp over the 'Shauni' part of Jade's mind, the DomZ overlord-or-high-priest-or-whatever said "They made you Human." which was followed up by "But you are not like them."
An inner battle began between 'Shauni', now fully under DomZ control, and Jade's conscious mind, the former getting the initial advantage. By that, Jade's conscious mind began to try and pull in any help it could find, enlisting the aid of the parts of the brain responsible for controlling her body, leaving her standing straight up, almost like a pillar; her eyes glazing over as she fought for control.
"You are mine, Shauni, and I am going to kill the Human part of you." the being said, transferring a beam of energy from its middle eye to the controlled part of the woman's mind; once again gaining the advantage over the other participant.
Double-H, having been standing there in surprise, blurted out "Jade!" whilst jumping into the path of the beam, aiming to block it off with the energy-shield he carried on his right arm. But something went wrong.
The energy-shield failed to activate, causing Double-H to be knocked out of the way by the sheer power of the beam as it ran straight into his face. However, that single split-second interruption was enough for Jade's mind to get a chance in the mental struggle she fought.
Having started to rely on the energy flow, the controlled side momentarily lost its focus as the flow ceased, even if it was for only half a second. That single bit of time gave Jade a chance to act, pushing the DomZ influence towards the edge of her mind.
But it was not enough. The energy flow returned, giving the DomZ-side new power in their struggle. It began to push back – Jade's control over her mind decreasing every second. It was not until then that she realized that this was not a battle she could win with brute force – too much of her mind had been taken over already, and if she fought until the last breath, she would only be annihilated, and 'Shauni' would be enslaved to mindlessly do the DomZ's bidding once more.
So she did the only thing she could think of that didn't mean annihilation or surrender.
With one last gathering of mental energy, she pushed past the assault of the DomZ-controlled parts; the DomZ attack ending up confused since its target was gone. Using what little mental power she had left, she navigated into the overtaken parts near Shauni, hiding until she could regain some of her energy.
The high-priest-or-whatever (Jade didn't know its actual name) must have thought that she had ran out of energy and been annihilated, for suddenly Jade felt her mind seeping out of her body, through the energy beam, and into the DomZ-being's mind instead. Her body, now lacking a mind to control it, fell backwards onto its back, landing next to the unconscious form of Double-H.
The transportation of the mind via the energy beam was surprisingly painless, though since all of it was transported at the same time, it all merged into one. Jade became Shauni. Shauni became Jade. They were one and the same now; a combination of two minds, no longer separable.
Now one and the same, the two minds learned about each other as they melded together. Shauni found out about Jade; a kind and compassionate soul more caring than most, and who also had knowledge of the outer world that the other lacked. Simultaneously, Jade learned of Shauni; incredibly naive and lacking any knowledge about lies, therefore easily manipulated. Yet, Shauni held incredible power, far beyond what Jade had ever felt before.
And then there was the question of the third mind – the original inhabitant of the body that Shauni/Jade now inhabited.
This being, apparently High Priest of the DomZ, exerted its influence into every inch of its own body. Jade did not have that kind of influence – all she could do was watch, lacking any control over the body's movement.
Through the being's three eyes, she could see the platform her old body had fallen on, now as dead as the countless other 'sacrifices' around the room. How she knew it was dead, that was a mystery – she just knew.
Next to it laid the very-much-alive body of Double-H, slowly returning to consciousness. A few seconds later, he slowly lifted himself up on somewhat shaky arms, groggily looking around. In less than a second, he had spotted Jade's fallen body.
"Jade!" he blurted out, noticeably worried, whilst turning his body towards her.
When there was no reaction, he got up on his knees and used his arms to try and shake life into the now-dead body.
"No, no, no, no!" he said, each 'no' louder than the previous.
"Jade, wake up!" came next, Double-H shaking her former body harder and harder in a desperate attempt to wake her up. He continued for a few more seconds before he stopped, having realized that she was not coming back.
So he just sat there for a few seconds, giving Jade a moment of silence, before he got up on his feet and turned towards the cause of Jade's 'disembodiment' (or, well, as he thought, death), the DomZ High Priest.
In his eyes there was no friendliness, unlike what Jade had grown used to seeing aimed at her. Instead, there was only anger, hate even, and a hint of sorrow over the recent loss. It was not an expression that Jade had expected to see from Double-H, especially not aimed in her direction, even though she knew very well that Double-H didn't see her in the DomZ High Priest.
Frankly, it was a rather hefty surprise, catching Jade off-guard. Or part of her, anyways. The former Shauni part never really knew him before they merged together.
And then the body's second inhabitant, the DomZ High Priest, sent a mental message telling Jade to let the powers she held out into their body; to allow the DomZ Priest direct access to it. The first target was obviously going to to be Double-H.
Jade resisted, however. Double-H was one of her best friends, she knew it. He was Jade's friend.
But, was she even Jade any more, or had Jade been destroyed the moment she left her body? Was she... something else now?
'no!', part of her thought. Jade was still Jade, even if she no longer inhabited her original body. Most of her did not feel like Jade, though. It felt... different – she was not the same. Was she even still a 'she'; were spirits not genderless? Was she an 'it'? It was all too confusing – her mind grasped around for the right concepts, but found none.
She did not feel quite like Jade anymore, so then what was she? She was within a DomZ's body, so was she a DomZ now? Part of her practically revolted from the idea, but other parts fully agreed – or was that just the body's influence talking? If she were to assume both Jade and DomZ as not being her, then what was she? Shauni?
No, that did not feel quite right either – Shauni had vanished just as much as Jade when they merged during the transfer. That identity was as gone as her own. If none of those were correct, though, then what alternatives were left? She could think of no more.
The DomZ influence was growing stronger. More of her started feeling closer to the DomZ – what that was she was, ultimately? Some of her had been, once. Of that she was almost certain, even though she had until recently inhabited a human body for her entire life. That made no sense – how could she have been DomZ before she was born? Was that... her hidden origins?
No, she was not Jade. She wondered – had she ever been? It was all getting a bit foggy, blending together into an indecipherable mess of garbled thoughts and memories.
Who was this 'Jade', anyway? She had trouble remembering. It felt important, but she couldn't for the life of her think of what it was. Not with the influence of the rest of the body pushing against her mind more and more and she couldn't think. She was losing focus, and fast.
No, she was Shauni. And Shauni was DomZ. The DomZ were her. They were one and the same, but at the same time, they were not. They were separable, for they had once been apart. Of that, she was still fairly certain.
...Or had they? Had they not been together – always, as was the natural order? The body she inhabited told her so, that she belonged here – it must be true, right? Things were true unless proven otherwise, or how was it?
She was DomZ. The being in front of *her* was not, but rather was making its way towards her, wielding a hammer of some sort. She couldn't let it harm her – if that was the hostile universe around her, she had to do everything she could to make sure that the DomZ – no, she, for they were the same being now (or had they always been?) – stayed alive in it.
Without further thought, she released the power she'd withheld; annihilating the being in front of her. She did not even give it any thought, for she had her mind set solely on the thoughts of everything she would do to subjugate the universe – make it safe for her.
And so she set out, doing what she now saw herself as always meant to do.
Yeah, there goes that one-shot. Maybe a little bit depressing, this one.
Admittedly, I really shouldn't be working on this one right now. I originally was going to work on Mann to the Core, but since I hit a writer's block, I diverted my attention to another story – Return of the Machines, on Fictionpress. When that also ran into the wall that is writer's block somewhere near the end of its second chapter, with its creation up to that point only providing a partial writer's block passage through MttC, though... well, this one popped up in my head.
Maybe now that it's out I can get back to finishing the last quarter of Mann to the Core – Chapter 12 or, alternatively, Return of the Machines – Chapter 2.