Cearbhail:

So, last chapter our heroes delved into the deepest parts of Vatu's mind, and relieved a bit of what the Oblivion Crisis was like. I even gave you the past of how Calfire's mother died. Jurard pretty much kept that fight as canon as possible, only adding on what she needed to say to Cal's mother before she died. And now... we're moving on.

=^^= Enjoy...

[Davilia]

I wish I could have stayed to watch Hans and the two Sosias duke it out with the massive Daedra Lord, but even watching that… I couldn't say that I wouldn't be in danger of being a potential casualty. The amount of magicka they were throwing around was weak compared to the ground shattering magick pulses Mehrunes Dagon was blasting out. His hands waved madly at the flying Sosias, one hand even slamming through a building with the effort of swatting a fly. He wasn't spewing any magicka at anything, so I wondered if he had any magicka to even work, or if he just had his weapons. Either way, he was taking each and every magicka attack like it was nothing. Even Sosia's biggest attacks were not even making him flinch. And Hans hacking at Mehrunes' shin was doing nothing.

Primrose and sprinted our way to the house, which was being blocked by several Xivilai, each one carrying a claymore twice their size. And Xivilai are bigger than most Orcs by three feet. That's pretty huge. I glanced at Primrose, nodding to her. "Are you combat ready?"

She was almost in tears. "I can't be!"

"You have spells, right?" Pra'ja asked from beside her.

Primrose kind of shrugged. "Yes? I mean… I am a battlemage… I should act like one."

I shook my head. "No, Primrose. You're not a battlemage. You're a War Mage. There's a difference. Battlemages are trained for protecting the world from evil creatures like Daedra. War Mages are battlemages that are used for the purposes of saving the world from evil that threatens to destroy it. We're War Mages, and while this might not be the end of the world… it's the end of our friend's world if we don't save him. So, let's go war mage this group."

That seemed to have the effect I was hoping it would have. Primrose's tears stopped flowing, and her eyes sharpened slightly. "Yes… let's do this…" She glanced at me. "People still say that, right?"

I nodded. "Yes, Primrose. I'm sure someone does." Aren't I supposed to be the quiet one? Why did I have to adopt the leader mentality here? Man, this has been like a personal character arc for me or something. I wonder if Erandur has to endure some kind of character arc too. Too bad he isn't here with me though. I could have used his help in this place. Then again… if he was here, he'd be the one giving speeches, and I'd be standing behind him, probably nodding my head. Hans did this on purpose. He knew I needed to break out of my shell more. Dammit… this was his plan all along.

I Sent out a small blast of Telekinetic Pulse as he neared the Xivilai, but that seemed to be nothing for them, and the first one I came up to slashed his claymore at me so quickly I almost didn't have time to react. Luckily, my training came into play and my body moved for me. I threw up an isolated Shield spell over my left elbow, and I reached out, knocking the claymore away from me as I dove underneath it. It worked as a fluid movement, and before I knew it, I was underneath the Xivilai, lightning cooking on my fingertips. I launched a small blast of lightning at the Xivilai, hitting him hard enough that he recoiled at the contact. He screamed a protest as he stepped back, but my other hand was already coming up into his stomach with my knife. I slid the knife through his gut, cutting him in half.

I glanced back at Primrose to see her doing a similar dodge to the Xivilai she was fighting. She was using a Shield spell in a similar fashion to me, which made sense since that's how we were trained to use it when fighting sword users. It helped keep our magicka usage low, and it was a concentrated spell that required barely any concentration on our part. Once she managed to deflect the attack, she stuck out her staff and blasted him with a Flash spell. Not the fast-moving spell that allows us to basically one-shot an enemy. A blinding flash spell. She flashed him in the eyes, blinding him. And then… she stuck out her hand and touched him. The Xivilai folded over, dead.

"What did you do?" I asked as I looked at the dead Xivilai.

She shrugged. "Daedra need magicka from their realm to stay alive, right? Otherwise they die in our realm. So… I severed his magicka. Without magicka from his realm to connect him to this realm… he can't live. So…" She gestured to the dead mass on the ground. "he just dies." Wow… that's pretty ingenious.

There were still five Xivilai or so, and Nexa and Pra'ja were doing what they could to fight them while we conversed. Pra'ja was just as useless as before. She was too small of a person to do any real damage to the Xivilai with her tiny fists and legs. Add in the fact that Xivilai are resistant to every magicka excluding Shock and… well, whatever Shadow fire she was using was useless. And I'm guessing a small eleven-year-old Argonian couldn't use something like advanced Shock moves yet.

Nexa was another story though. Vatu's mental representation of her being a small badass was still holding itself pretty well. Nexa was flipping in and out of her Shadows, slashing with her miniature ninjato, cutting enough into the Xivilai to do actual harm to them.

"This is bullshit!" Pra'ja screamed as her kick to the face of a Xivilai was met with nothing but a slap that sent her flying over towards a building, which Pra'ja recovered from by Shadowporting herself to the ground.

"This is because Vatu loves me!" Nexa screamed, slashing through the neck of the very same Xivilai that just tossed Pra'ja like a ragdoll. "He wants me to succeed. That's why I'm awesome."

Pra'ja picked herself off the ground, wiping at a stream of blood dripping down her lips. "No. You're awesome because Vatu didn't know you when you were a child! He has no knowledge of how badly you sucked at your craft! Me? He knew me around this time, so he knew I was physically weaker than a Daedra. If I had your sword, I could probably do just as much damage as you can. Except, as a child, he knew I was bad at sword fighting too."

Nexa ignored Pra'ja as she shadowported away, slashing at another Xivilai, killing the last one with a thrust through its neck. Once it was dead, Nexa shrugged. "Well, I'm just going to go on believing that I'm just the best at everything. It's just my nature to think so."

With everything dead except for the towering Daedra Lord, I turned my attention to Vatu's house. It was a small house, like any of the ones you'd find in the Elven Gardens. In the right side of the yard leading back to the back of the house was a small garden, filled with colorful flowers. Huh… I suddenly wished I lived in a place like this. I mean, I grew up in Morrowind, in Telvanni cities filled with ash yams, as well as other disgusting roots.

I shook my head as I came back to the reality of what was going on. As if to confirm that we were running out of time, the entire area darkened, like the sun was a slowly dimming candle about to die off. The ground we stood on shook violently, and Mehrunes Dagon shifted for a second, becoming nothing more than a boxy outline filled with numbers before shifting back to his real form.

Ok, I just had to open this door and we'd be inside. I reached for the doorknob and twisted it open. When I pulled the door open, I wasn't standing outside anymore. I wasn't standing in anything anymore. I was just… standing in this impossibly black place. I couldn't see anything.

"Dav?" I heard suddenly. It was Primrose's voice.

"Yeah?" I asked as I looked around, but no matter where I looked, all I saw was the same impossible dark. "Can you hear me too?"

"Yeah, I can. I can't see anything though. Wait… let me try something." There was a small silence as a sudden bright light flashed in my eyes, and I had to look away, shielding my eyes as the light came from the staff in her hands.

The light bounced around in the nothing, and… nothing was happening. Well, I could see Primrose standing there, in her robes, but other than that… we were still standing in complete darkness. It was like standing inside the Void. "Where are we?" I asked as we looked around.

"I don't know." Primrose said with a shrug of her shoulders.

The empty void seemed to stretch on forever, but I could at least see Primrose now, and she could see me. "Well… we're not getting closer to Vatu by just standing here." I said as I started walking forward. It was creepy; my footprints made no sound, and it was a bit disorienting when it looked like I was stepping on empty space. Man, this was messing with my head.

"Maybe… it's over?" Primrose said as she looked around. "Vatu's mind could be shattered. This could be what it's like to be trapped in the mind of a dead person. Our mental bodies left to wander aimlessly for the rest of our eternity… separated from the rest of our souls. Condemned to this silent hell."

I shook my head in response to that. "No, I don't think so. Hans, Sosia, and Jurard would all be here too. We're alone, which means we're in a new place altogether. They're still fighting Mehrunes Dagon, I'm sure of it."

I continued walking forward, Primrose following behind me after a few seconds of hesitation. "What do we do if we are stuck in here forever?"

I came to a small stop, and I had to entertain the idea somewhat. If we were trapped in here forever… we'd have to get really friendly with each other, because we'll be with each other for the rest of our existence. That's a sad thought. I turned around to look at her. "Got any cards?"

She shook her head. "I don't think so."

I looked at her staff. "How much of a charge does that staff have?"

She looked at her glowing staff. "Um… I'm not sure. I don't think it's going to run out though."

That's some good news though. "Well then… we have a journey ahead of us, don't we?" First thing's first… we find out where we were.

…

[Vatu]

Where am I?

What is this I'm feeling…

A cage of fear… of doubt. A cold slimy feeling of entrapment. Cold tendrils of the nothing wrapped around me, holding me still. I couldn't see anything, I couldn't hear anything, and I couldn't move. Was I even a body? Did I even exist? What is existence?

I'm so tired… I was to sleep.

…

[Davilia]

It just kept going on. No matter how much we moved, it just continued going on and on. "Hey!" I screamed. "Vatu! Are you in here!" I screamed, and I expected to at least hear an echo. I guess the emptiness doesn't have an echo inside it. Sad.

I looked back at Primrose, who followed me timidly as she clutched the staff close to her. "Davilia? I'm getting pretty scared. I mean… what's going to happen to us? Are our minds slowly going to wisp away?"

Gods, Primrose, shut up! "Prim… please, and I'm being nice right now, stop thinking we're dead. Even if we are, let's just focus on escaping. If we don't get somewhere in two days' time… then we know we've failed either way. But for right now, let's just imagine that Vatu's alive still, and that we can still find and save him. That's all we have to do, right? Find Vatu, and free him. His Conscious Mind is somewhere in all this mess.

…

[Vatu]

"Hey… Vatu… are you…"

Light echoes of a voice sounded in my ears, which caused me to open my eyes a little. I didn't see anything other than the darkness, but I could feel my body returning to me. I wasn't just a thought. I existed. And as I tried to move, the tendrils wrapped around me tightened their grip, holding onto me even tighter. I felt like I was being choked out. A thick tendril started sliding across my throat, keeping my voice silent as I slowly eased myself into a relaxed state.

Rest. The whispers of something in the back of my mind pushed into me, forcing my arms to release their tension. I started falling deeper into the dark, forgetting that a voice had even called out. Did I even exist?

Sleep. It was such a nice idea. Sleeping gets rid of all the bad. I just needed to sleep, and then I'll never have to think again.

…

[Davilia]

There's seriously no end to this. It's like a never-ending maze of the same nothing over and over again. There had to be an end somewhere. Unless… unless.

I looked back at Primrose. "Primrose, I have a thought. Stand still. I want to test something."

She looked scared at the thought, her eyes widening. "What? You want to leave me alone? What… what if once we're separated… we never find each other again… and then… we'll always be alone, in the darkness… with no one…." She started hyperventilating at the thought.

I tried my best to calm her down. "Just trust me, Prim… can you do that?"

She tried her best to nod. "I'll… I'll try."

I released her and then started backing away. "I just want to see how far this place really goes." I kept backing up, further and further away from Primrose, but… I wasn't getting too far away. It was more like… her body was disappearing from the feet going up. Was… was I on a rounded plane? I turned around and continued going as forward as possible. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually could see a glowing light, and with it… Primrose's back.

So, this was a rounded world then. We weren't just walking around a constant abyss, blind of everything else… we're walking around a large world-like structure comprised of the same dark substance as the dark sky… or lack of sky.

"Hey, Prim!" I screamed. Primrose snapped around to see me standing there.

"Dav? Did you walk around in a circle or something?" She asked as she ran over to me.

I shrugged. "Something like that. I think… we're on a small orb or something. Like a small world, I'm guessing. I have an idea. Vatu's somewhere in here, right? What if he's in the center of the orb we're on? What if he's the planet's gravity?"

She looked straight down. "If he is… how do we get to him?"

I looked at her staff. I gestured to it with my hand. "I think Vatu gave us the key a long time ago."

She looked at the staff for a few seconds before pointing it at the floor. Nothing happened. "Um… nothing's happening, Dav."

Yeah, state the obvious, Primrose, that'll help Vatu.

I shrugged as I looked at the tip of the staff. "Try touching the ground with it."

She tapped the glowing staff tip onto the orb, and I expected nothing to happen. I was expecting this to be exactly what Primrose thought it was… our eternal purgatory. But when she tapped the staff to the ground, there was a pulse. The ground shifted like we touched a pool of water, and it parted around the staff like it couldn't stand touching it. She pushed the staff further in, and more of the black ooze backed away, but it became obvious that it wasn't going to work, because as the staff went further into the ooze, the ooze started warping over the top of the world, almost closing off the staff once it got far enough from the small light. Going like this wasn't going to work. We'd have to do this on a grander scale if we were to break this orb apart.

"I think we know what we need to do now." I looked at Primrose. "Can you feed your Restoration into that staff? Make it a lot brighter?"

Primrose seemed taken aback by the suggestion. "I never even considered that." She closed her eyes and focused on the staff while pressing it down on the orb. The staff tip started glowing brighter and brighter, and the orb we stood on started shifting around like it was personally being attacked. I heard the most inhumane scream ever concocted. Large dark tentacles rose up from the orb and started swarming all around us. Tentacles were already wrapping around my legs, trapping me where I stood. As I was about to shoot the tentacles with lightning, four more tentacles shot up from the orb, wrapping around my arms, and effectively Silencing me.

"Primrose!" I screamed. "Use the staff!"

As the tentacles launched themselves at her, Primrose screamed and brought the staff up, fueling the staff with as much power as she could muster, I'm sure. I was nearly blinded as the staff lit up; the tentacles burned away in the bright light, even the ones wrapped over top of me. I could see that the light of the staff was burning up the tentacles of this dark world. The world was melting underneath her, and she just floated there, almost levitating as the world around us started melting away.

I turned my attention back to the giant hole forming inside the orb. I could almost see something in the middle of it all. "Vatu! Can you hear me? You have to wake up!"

…

[Vatu]

"Va… wake…"

Silent words on deaf ears. I wanted to sleep. Why wouldn't they just let me sleep?

The wraps on my body were getting even tighter now, almost to the point where it hurt for me to breathe, not that I had a choice. The thick tentacle in my throat was pumping air in for me, allowing me to breathe while it sustained me in this… indefinite state of semi-awareness.

There was this… uncomfortable feeling overcoming me though. It's almost burning.

"Vatu! Wake up!" I heard a loud scream behind me, and it forced me to actually open my eyes. I didn't see anything though. Still nothing more than the darkness that enveloped me. But still, there was this warm feeling behind me, this… I'm not sure what it was.

"Don't worry, Vatu… we're coming." I could hear a voice behind me. I… I didn't know who they were though.

The darkness wrapped over me seemed to tighten, but… it was scared. I could feel the fear inside the darkness. It was scared of the light. I'm not sure why though. I just wanted this to end, whether the darkness quietly claimed me, or if this light burning its way to me took the darkness away for good. I'm just tired of being stuck in the middle.

"Almost there, Vatu. Prim, give us more light!" I heard the voice scream almost right behind me.

"I'm trying, Dav… I'm already pushing as hard as I can."

"Just… I don't know. Think of Vara, and how much you love her."

There was a second of complete silence and then… the tentacle in my throat seemed to scream in pain, all the tentacles wrapped around my arms and legs quickly pulled away. "I don't love her!" The other voice screamed.

Whether or not she did, the light only grew brighter, and I felt the darkness begin to release me. It was then that I felt a hand on my back. "Don't worry, Vatu. I got you."

…

[Davilia]

My plan worked. The staff Primrose got from Vatu's Subconscious was the key we needed to reach him. It was a Restoration staff, one that helped destroy the darkness that is slowly enveloping him. When I reached him, I expected Vatu to be 11 or something, but he looked almost as old as me.

As soon as I placed my hand on top of him, I grabbed him and pulled him with me. Time for us to wake up and for all of this to finally be over.

The dark world around us shattered and a bright light consumed us. When the light cleared, I didn't find us sitting in the medical ward, where all this started. Instead, I found us lying on the ground of some old ruin. Vatu was lying down next to me, and Primrose was as well. In the corner of the room was Nisha, Vatu's younger sister. She was lying on her stomach in a doorway, almost as if she tried to run away. In the air was a thick cloud of what looked like Welkynd dust, which in high quantities can be very lethal.

"Where are we?" I asked as I looked around the room. It looked like several of the Ayleid ruins we'd been during our Ayleid ruin traps week. The only difference was the giant floating black Welkynd stone hovering over some pedestal. Other than that, it looked just like an Ayleid ruin.

"We're in an Ayleid ruin." I heard Sosia say as she walked up to us, Hans and Jurard were right behind her. She looked around the room. "But, I've never seen this one."

"And there's a reason for that." A new voice said from somewhere in the room. We all looked to the corner of the room to see a dark-robbed figure wearing robes with a red skull on them. He pulled down his hood, nodding his head to us. "This is my little secret." I knew that face… that was…

"Mannimarco!" Sosia screamed, unleashing a bolt of that multi-colored rainbow lightning she used earlier.

Mannimarco waved the attack off, smiling at her. "Well, well, well…" He looked at all of us. "New playthings. About time, I was getting tired of this child."

Cearbhail:

So, we're coming to the climax of this little arc. It will start to look more like the original now, and I wanted to kind of finish it off like this. But either way, this is all about to end. The arc, not the story.