Promised Land
Dead
The planet had lied to her.
She had been willing to sacrifice herself for the good of all and found herself in the Lifestream, her body being used as a conduit. Power that she didn't know she had was being sucked from her, draining her. How long had she been floating in shimmering green nothingness? It felt like an eternity and she could feel the vastness of time stretch out before her into forever.
"Why?" She screamed in her mind, her body twisted with pain as she fought against the Planets pull.
"It's for the good of all living things, now and forever." The Planet answered, it's voice timeless, sexless. There was no emotion or compassion for the lives it promised to save.
Then the whispers came, fervent hushed voices and she knew without knowing how that they were the voices of her ancestors and they told her the truth.
'It wont hurt if you don't struggle.'
'It will become easier in time.'
'You will come to enjoy it.'
And they filled her mind with secrets and knowledge. They were the Cetra, a millennium ago they had saved the Planet and been taken by it. Their souls had become hosts and the planet a parasite that used their strength to power itself.
Suddenly she understood everything and she felt something inside of her snap..
"I cannot stay here and be a witness to life. I'd rather pass out of existence than suffer this. You have the power of the Planet. Break free." She said, but the Cetra had been there so long that they liked their prison. They told her that they were One with the Planet and all of it's creatures. From the birth of a microscopic bacteria to the death of a towering thousand year old tree. They there for the birth of every infant, shared it's life with all its hopes and dreams and suffered its eventual death. They didn't want to be free. They had become Life."
"You are prisoners." She cried.
"We are imortal." They patiently responded.
"Help me get out then." She begged. "I will do good. I will bring Peace to humanity. No more War. No more Suffering. I will fill the Planet with Love. For you I will create the Promised Land."
Silence, as they considered her words. Aeris held her breath.
For them it was too late. They had no wish to move on, but they liked her proposal. They had always hoped to find the Promised Land.
'Let go child, and return to Life.'
Aeris breathed out with relief, tears filling her eyes as she felt the energy from every Cetra that had ever lived fill her.
The Planet tried to block her but she had the power and knowledge of the Cetra coursing through her and with single minded intent she willed herself to back.