Ch7

Elizabeth and Cassie bowed towards Carter and then left the arena. Then Satellizer walked in.

"Carter, I challenge you to a duel of strength. No accel, no high-speed dodging; just strength and weapons." Carter bowed and motioned for her to walk further into the arena where they could begin the duel unrestricted by walls and other obstacles.

"Shall we begin?" Satellizer asked. "I think we shall." Carter replied.

Satellizer attacked first, Carter dodged (it wasn't a high-speed dodge, just one of your average human dodges), he then punched her in the stomach; clearly holding back when compared to what he had done to Ganessa and Attia. The punch winded her, but she quickly regained her breath and incarnated her Volt weapon: Nova Blood. This would be her first time using any of her abilities (besides Volt Texture) since she got back from Alaska - after the E-Pandora incident.

Just as Satellizer was about to bring Nova Blood down on Carter's arm, an alarm went off. They then heard an announcement: stating that all first year Pandoras were to go to their dorms, all third year Pandoras were being summoned to battle a Humanoid Nova, while all second years were to remain on standby… then came another announcement: Carter was to provide combat support to the third years. "Oh come on! Really?" Carter whined, "Really, now? Just when I'm getting back into the hang of things. Oh well, nothing I can do about the Nova's timing, might as well take care of it."

The fight was fairly quick and uneventful, to Carter it seemed as if this Nova was weaker than any he had ever encountered, it was even weaker than those he fought during simulations. The only thing that was of worry was that a second Nova appeared as he killed the first one. As Carter turned a corner, instead of coming face to face with the second Nova, he was face to face with a Nova-fied Satellizer. He'd heard from Ticy that Satellizer once went Nova but that it was due to their absorption by the Nova itself. 'Great,' he thought, 'just when things were getting easy… the Nova just had to evolve.' Carter knew what to do: if he could get to the Nova, it would try absorb him, but the Nova had never encountered a Promethean before, so the interdimensional being wouldn't know what to make of him and he could then destroy it from the inside out… Of course, this meant getting past Satellizer first.

'Help me…' she thought, 'I know I've gotten out of this before but I can't do it, I JUST CAN'T!' Satellizer tried to stay calm, but she was overrun by fear; she tried to gain control, but she was powerless against her own body. 'I don't know what to do… how did I get out of this last time?'

"It's quiet here, isn't it?" she heard a voice, "Calming and somewhat therapeutic."

Satellizer thought she was going insane, she was hearing voices; now she felt the same way she did the last time she went Nova, only this time there was a voice… a slightly familiar one at that. "Who's there?" she asked, in her head.

"It's me, Carter."

"How are you in my head?" Satellizer asked.

"Legendary Pandora can use telepathy when in Nova form, I can use it freely. But that's beside the point, you still haven't answered my question."

"Uh… y-yes, it is quiet here, too quiet for me though." she finally replied.

"Depends." Carter replied.

"On what?"

"On what you make of it. You're inside your mind, it's your playground." he said, "You can make up whatever you want, you can create your own little world; although I wouldn't suggest trying to create the whole world, that would result in a severe headache."

Satellizer was confused, she'd only had an experience like this once before, but that was a complete nightmare, this on the other hand was calming… to a certain extent, anyway. What person, besides Carter, enjoys being surrounded in nothing but their own thoughts? Even the suicidal ones.

"And the rest of your answer?" Carter asked.

"Huh?" Satellizer said.

"You only told me about the silence, but I also asked about whether or not you found it calming and therapeutic."

'Oh, right.' Satellizer thought, not realizing that Carter could hear her; then she said to him "It feels slightly calming, save for the fact that I'm slowly turning into a Nova. Whether or not this is therapeutic is debatable."

"Fair enough, although, as I said earlier it depends on what you make of it."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"Simple: this is your mind, you can imagine anything you want. All you have to do is imagine it, because in here anything is possible." Carter replied.

"Sooo I can imagine Kazuya and then he'll appear here?"

"Pretty much. It will be as good as the real thing, depending on how many details you remember." Carter said.

"Details?" Satellizer asked.

"Yes, details. Say you've lost a pet, it died many years ago and you really miss it, imagine your pet were standing in front of you and it should appear, if you even remember what it's personality was like then the one in here will have the same personality as the real thing. Heck, you can even use this to simulate events before and after they happen. In your case, you want to imagine Kazuya, just imagine him and if you remember him perfectly, then you'll get a perfect replica of him."

"Like this?" she said.

Carter looked over and noticed Kazuya standing next to him. "Like that, yes."

'Wow' Satellizer thought to herself, again not realizing that Carter could hear her every thought.

Carter looked around, noticing that they were now in the cafeteria. He looked out the window and, to his astonishment, he noted that he could see everything in the school. Or rather, the view looked the way it should, as in it was perfect, as in Satellizer had just recreated the entire academy. "Oh boy" he said to himself, "Now she's gone and done it: created a replica of the whole academy."

Then Ticy walked in. "Plus the students" Carter said. 'That's just great, now she'll probably forget she's even in her own head at all, since she recreated everything in perfect detail she'd have no reason to doubt that this was the real thing' he thought to himself.

Carter then heard laughter and chatter. 'Yup, every little detail. There's no getting her out of this now' he thought.

Satellizer was already having lunch with Kazuya and a few others when Carter turned his attention back to them. "Satellizer, let's go." Carter said to her.

"Mmh?" Satellizer asked.

Kazuya then asked "Satella, who is this?", everyone else at the table looking at Carter in confusion.

"Kazuya," Satellizer said, "this is Carter, don't you remember him?"

"To be honest I've never seen him before in my life." Kazuya said.

"Satellizer, have you already forgotten? We're in your head, this is all your imagination, come on, we need to go now." Carter said.

"In my head?" Satellizer asked.

"Oh my word, you can't tell me you've gone and forgotten it all. At this very moment you're in Nova form destroying the entire school."

"Listen pal," Kazuya said, "I don't know what you're up to but I certainly don't like it, now move on."

"Nope, sorry kiddo, but I'm not going anywhere. You see, at the moment Satellizer is in Nova form, I'm here because I can telepathically communicate with people and now I'm in her head with her; you are all figments of her imagination, I'm sure that if I were to break a window it would reveal a white or black void because she hasn't yet imagined what's outside this building." Carter replied.

"Fine then, I'll-"

"Chiffon?" Satellizer asked?

"Wait, what?" Carter said, turning around to see what Satellizer was looking at. And there she was: Chiffon.

"Yes, el Bridget?" Chiffon asked.

"You're alive? But how?"

"Satella, what's going on?" Kazuya asked, being silenced by Carter before he could ask any more questions.

"Chiffon, you died during the E-Pandora incident. You went Nova and blew up." Satellizer said, starting to cry, "How are you still alive?"

Chiffon looked at Carter, "Brother, is this true? Am I dead?"

"Yes, Chiffon, you died a few weeks ago…" Carter trailed off, he himself was starting to tear up.

"Oh, right." Chiffon said, "I did die a while ago, didn't I? Amelia, an E-Pandora, went Nova and was about to explode; I myself then went Nova and cocooned her as her Nova form blew up. I may have died but I saved many lives that day." Chiffon blankly stated.

"What is going on here?!" Kazuya shouted, a massive Promethean hand covering his face to keep him quiet.

"If you need more proof that we are most certainly not in the real world…" Carter said, grabbing Kazuya by the ankle and hanging him upside down all the while breaking a window with his free hand, Carter then hung Kazuya out over the dark abyss that surrounded the cafeteria building.

"Carter! Please, don't!" Satellizer shouted.

"Fine then," Carter said, putting Kazuya down safely, "but I still have to deliver a shock to your system to get you out of here and in control of your body" he finished, walking out of the cafeteria and down a corridor. A few seconds later he came back with someone else in his grasp: Satellizer.

"What the?" Kazuya asked.

"This is easily explained: Satellizer fears her Nova form, understandably, but now that she's in Nova form all she wants is for things to be back the way they were. I almost thought you'd recreated the entire academy in your head, which would be surprising for a first timer, but alas. Anyway, you forgot that 'back to normal' entailed a distinct lack of me and a dead Chiffon… you also forgot that you yourself are part of said 'normal', so you recreated yourself without your own knowledge. And that's how we got to where we are now. I honestly hope that this is shocking enough to your brain because I'm probably beating you to a pulp in the real world and I really don't want to get back only to find out that I've killed you" Carter said.

"Brother," Chiffon said, "throw her out the window."

"Of course, it would shock her system more than enough to wake her up. But what if-" he looked up only to see that Chiffon had vanished, "Never mind. Satellizer, forgive me for what I do here and now, but this is for the sake of saving your friends and the lives of everyone in the academy."

"Whatever it is, do it; I don't want my friends to die, even if I do."

"Alright then. And, for future reference: I'm sorry." Carter then threw the imaginary Satellizer out the window and into the darkness. He then grabbed Kazuya and threw him out as well. Carter then started throwing every person in sight out the window, it pained Satellizer to see her friends die, but she knew it wasn't real.

"Carter! Carter stop!" a voice shouted. Carter stopped and looked around, searching for the source of the voice, but he found there to be none. "Stop this instant! If you hurt her anymore, physically or mentally, I will personally see to it that you spend a week on the chopping board in Hell."

"Who are you?" Carter shouted

"Now I can't hear you," the voice started again, "but I know you can hear me. Stop whatever you're doing, I'll pull you both out of there, you've done enough to damage her mental state. Physically she's in bad shape, but she's a Pandora, she'll heal. What you've done to her mind, on the other hand… I'm not sure that damage will ever heal."

Suddenly Carter found himself standing where he was just before he entered Satellizer's mind. He looked at his hands: covered in blood. He looked around… and saw the corpses of 3 Nova, Satellizer lying – almost dead – on the floor. Out of nowhere a tall, muscular man in a suit appeared, the man placed two fingers on Satellizer's blood caked forehead and she instantly began to heal.

"Who are you?" Carter asked.

"I'm old."

"Answer my question. Who are you?"

"An old man. One who just saved your life and the lives of those around you… including her."

"That doesn't really answer my question." Carter said.

"If that doesn't answer your question, I don't know what will."

"Are you always this cryptic?" Carter asked.

"Only when I want to be." The man paused, "But you have a problem, son."

"What problem? In case you hadn't noticed, the Nova are dead, there's nothing left to be done until they come back."

"You think the Nova are your only problem? The Pandoras are a double-edged sword, you're one as well. Only, with you there are two separate blades, connected to one another by a very small hilt in the middle. Not a lot of space for grip, very little room for error. Believe me, son, your problems are only just beginning."

"First of all, stop calling me son; secondly, this double-bladed weapon is handling itself just fine."

"This 'double-bladed weapon' is sitting on a stand in a glass case when compared to what it could really do."

Carter was starting to lose his cool, first this man saves his life when he felt he didn't need help, then this stranger insults him, his dignity was a little hurt.

"Oh, calm down." the stranger started, "It's not like anyone saw me save your life, your dignity is intact. At least for now, anyway."

"What do you mean?" Carter asked.

"My friends will be arriving soon. We were just passing by but I noticed a spatial disturbance and came to investigate."

"Spatial disturbance?" Carter asked, "Like as in someone or something teleporting?"

"Along those lines."

"But isn't teleportation impossible?" Carter asked.

"When you move, you aren't moving through space, space is moving to accommodate you; you don't see the stretching and warping, but it's there; to teleport is simply to fold space upon itself so that you can instantaneously move from one place to another, this leaves little tears but those usually close up by themselves. Often in an explosive manner. Hence why your 'Nova' explode after a certain amount of time…"

"OK, so… that means the Nova aren't from another dimension?" Carter asked, slightly confused.

"What bothers me," the stranger started, seemingly ignoring Carter's question, "is that they explode instead of implode. They should be imploding on themselves. Maybe they have a half-life?" the stranger asked himself.

"Wait, hang on." Carter stopped him, "How do you know about the Nova? How do you know they explode after a certain amount of time?"

"I read it in her mind. I've been piecing her mind together while we've been talking, seems she had quite the valid reason for her extreme apephobia, hence 'The Untouchable Queen'."

"So she's OK then?" Carter asked.

"She'll make a full recovery. I suggest she spend the next week or so in her dorm with close friends to keep her company, they'll aid in the healing process just by being there."

"OK that can be arranged, I'll make sure that happens." Carter said.