Awakening
*Infinitas stalks out of shadows and gazes directly at readers.*
*Twenty minutes later Cp walks into her bedroom, freezes, and slowly just turns and stares at the Time Immortal.*
*They both just blink slowly at each other*
"Ok…then," Cp says slowly as she discreetly grabs her laptop before fleeing her room quickly.
*Infinitas smirks*
(Warning: Mention of extreme violence and insanity in this chapter, as well as some blood and gore)
Images and scenes flashed before my eyes faster than even I could see. The world around me was blurred, and I had the strangest feeling; it was as if everything around me was spinning and twisting erratically in every direction.
I tried to close my eyes and block out the frustrating sight, but the images and emotions that went along with them wouldn't fade.
Growling, I reached deep into my mind, searching for one of my Cores. I had three different types of power! I should be able to control my own mind!
I grunted as a very vicious memory slammed into me, and I was bombarded with images.
Blood soaked into the ground, turning the mud bright red. The sky was ablaze with flame as numerous souls hung in the air, outnumbering the Reapers attempting to collect them. Severed limbs, digits, and random innards lay scattered across the ground like a thick blanket of gore.
The world was gripped by an eerie silence, the only sound was the faint echo of blood dripping softly to the soaked ground.
An insane crackle escaped my lips as I looked around at the destruction around me. The air was heavy, and there wasn't a living thing in sight. Building were flatted, and mountains crumbled as my power hung think around me.
"Drip, drip, drop...oh what a wonderful sound!" I exclaimed happily as I wandered through the gore stained earth.
"Red fills the air and copper stains the land! Why don't I sever your hand? All day and every night, I shall fill your dreams with fright!" I sang as I twirled my blood soaked sword through the air, watching as small bits of gore flung from the blade.
"Oh what a lovely sight lays before me." I chuckled, enjoying the squishing sound my boots made as they walked through the endless puddle of mud and gore.
"Are you happy M`lady?" I asked as I glanced up to the orange sky, clouds of smoke blocking out the sun and keeping the world in shades of red. "I have done this only for you!"
Giggling again, I spun on my heel and continued skipping through the endless battle field.
"Red fills the air, and copper stains the land...isn't this a lovely way to end?!"
As if on cue a magnificent explosion erupts in the distance, and as the resulting fire ball consumes the planet, Mortem's sad voice echoes on the wind.
"Oh E're, what has Fati done to you?"
I almost vomited as I was thrown violently from the memory, and was suddenly glad that I wasn't physically there, or I would've spewed.
Wincing, I forced the dark red memory away, and closed my eyes. I had an idea why my subconscious thought it would be a good idea to remind me exactly what happened the last time I lost myself to my memories; but that didn't mean I appreciated it!
I shivered and pushed the thoughts and images of the memory away.
Ok, this was my head, I was supposed to be in control here not the other way around!
A low growl ripped from my throat as I pushed back against the flood of memories and emotions that surrounded me. I had done this a million times before, I could do it again!
"Stop!" I commanded, and with a pleased smirk I felt my mind taking control again as everything paused around me.
Opening my eyes I glanced around at the frozen scenes and stilled emotions. This was a disorganized disaster...
Pulling my focus I swept my mind across the memories, forcing them to condense, and change. Almost instantly, I found myself standing in the middle of the ancient stone hall of the castle that I had chosen millennia ago to be my mindscape. A small smile stretched across my face of the sight before me, the Great Hall looked positively mystical and ghostly with the hundreds of thousands of orbs that floated within it.
Each orb was a different color, and one represented a memory of my many lives.
I sighed in relief as the chaos was stopped, I hadn't been in my mindscape for quite a while. So, leaving the colorful floating orbs in the Great Hall for now, I walked through the large doors and then out of the castle.
Stretching out my awareness as soon as I stepped out onto the grounds I was pleased to see that my mindscape wasn't too damaged, though the castle was crumbling and the plants withering. The normally bright blue water of the lake was now a sickly, inky black that smelled rotten. The grass was yellow and thick, dark grey clouds hung in the usually clear sky.
There was a chill in the air, and a faint sense of chaos hidden deep within the fabric of my mind. I knew that this was a result of my mental break, but also of the wall that Insania had constructed.
With a sigh, I set to work. Wrapping my thoughts in my Immortal power I pushed through every fabric of my mindscape as I physically walked through it. As I passed by, my power cleansing and restoring the land around me. The grass regrew brighter and thicker, buds appeared on the trees and a soft, sweet smelling breeze started drifting through the trees.
Entering my mental Hogwarts, I pushed as much power as I could into the stone as I wandered it's many hallways.
I had to battle with the many thick threads of darkness that my own thoughts had created, as well as a few of Fati's left over from her many years of manipulations.
After restoring the castle I sighed, and then started on molding the castle.
For many years I had simply stored all of my memories as books or paintings, some scattered around Hogwarts, but most in the library.
Knowing what I did know, that had done me nothing besides making it easier for Fati to find and mess with my memories.
It was time for something a bit more Stark style.
Molding the hallways so that they overlapped and crossed each other randomly was easy, as was creating corridors that hadn't existed in my First Life. What was more challenging, was creating the thickly laid traps and enchantments around the many new floors I had created.
Each of these floors don't really 'exist' in my mental Hogwarts. In fact when you wandered around my mindscape, you wouldn't be able to find them at all. The only way to find my hidden floors was if you already knew that they were there; also the guardian of the floors, who sounded a lot like Jarvis even though it was a giant shapeshifter, had to grant you entrance before you could enter.
There was about fifty hidden floors, each with one to two hundred rooms. Each room would hold the memories of a specific life.
By doing this, the memories wouldn't flood my mind and it would take much more to trigger them. I would be able to think about, and recall them just fine, but they wouldn't rule my mind. I would rule them.
However, because all of my memories were currently floating around the Great Hall, they were practically right beneath the surface; and any number of them could flood my thoughts without warning.
I needed to sort them, organize them into their assigned rooms. But, there was the problem.
None of the memories were organized at the moment, and so I would have to go through and view/remember them to be able to place them in their assigned room.
That wasn't exactly an easy thing to do, and I had a feeling that it would take me many hours, and quite a bit of self control to recognize them.
Because, for me to remember and sort the memories, I didn't just have to view them. I had to accept the memories and the emotions that go with them. I had to relive them.
Which was something I wasn't very keen to do.
With my hidden floors and rooms done, and my shape shifting guardian created (who I had decided to call Sal) I set out fixing the outer shields and traps guarding my mind.
My walls were still think, but many of my traps were disabled and many were shattered. Rebuilding my walls stronger was hard, as I had to take the old ones down at the same time, as to not leave my mind vulnerable.
My previous shields were ones I had created in my Second Life, and then altered for the last time in my fourth. I had crafted them based on the many wards I knew, as well as a few extremely resistant energy based shields; and in my Fourth life I threw a few devils traps and supernatural wards up on top of them.
That of course, was the problem that I could now see. All of my defences were layered on top of one another. My new ones...well, they were going to be woven together.
It wasn't a simple task, and it took four times the amount of time and effort that it had to create my hidden halls and guardian. I started with wards I knew from my First Life, and then wove them into the energy shields from my Second. Enforcing them with the same enchantments I had in my Fourth, and then wrapped in phasing technology from my time as Ben. I also wove in my own natural shields, and the ones that I had helped Dad create.
After creating my very powerful and complex net of shields and protections, I wove in the traps and snares, ones of varying lethality but all very effective.
Collapsing my previous shields and throwing up my new ones sent a wave of power and electricity through my mind, leaving my whole mindscape giddy.
It was with a smirk on my face that I threw up a mass of electricity around my wall, acting like a powerful storm raging outside of my shield.
With my defences but up and running the rest of my mindscape came to life. The clouds cleared and the sun shown down. The Lake faded back to blue and an electric warmth filled the air. I was greatly amused to see the Whomping Willow come to life and dance happily in the breeze.
Proud of myself, and starting to feel drained, I made my way back towards the Great Hall, but only to stop as the sun intensified.
Glancing up I noticed that the sun wasn't it's normal yellow color, but instead a bright silver. I was confused for only a moment, before I realized that the sun was now the representation of the Bond.
"Of course," I muttered to myself before willing some soft music to drift into existence. Before, my Bond with Mortem had just been a silver door in the Gryffindor Common Room, but now...now it was much more integrated into my mindscape. Though it was rather cheesy.
"There's no way I'm letting Mortem find out about this." I noted to myself as I shook my head and wandered back into the Great Hall.
Looking around at all of the floating, colorful orbs that were my memories I sighed.
This was going to take a very long time.
The world was painted with dark and faded colors as I gazed up at the sky on a moonless night. Stars twinkled rather brightly considering was I was in the city, and a cool breeze brushed against my skin.
My Core thrummed with the chill in the air, and although I could hear my sister's calling voice echo from my room, I didn't turn my gaze away from the sky.
Moments like these were rare.
Blinking, I sighed. That had been from my Second Life, and one of the few truly peaceful moments I had in the early years of my Existence. (Though the later years weren't much better.)
Waving my hand the light blue orb vanished, reappearing in the room I had designated for my Second Life.
Reaching out, I brushed my fingers along a red orb, hoping that it was a simple memory…
I blinked as I suddenly reappeared in a mythical looking field. My memories were a jumbled mess, and I winced as I recalled the rather bloody way I had left my previous life.
Obviously, I wasn't being completely reborn, I realized as I looked around. The world was...different...something was nagging me at the back of my mind, but I couldn't figure out what.
Not for the first time in my many years I cursed Fati for the fact that I didn't know who I was in this world, I didn't know who's dead body I was now inhabiting.
"Lyn?!"
I blinked again as a young boy, about thirteen, appeared in front of me. His large blue eyes were wide and his hair had a strange purple sheen to it. His clothes were an interesting mix of medieval and modern, and he had a short sword strapped to his back.
I hesitated, not sure who I was or what I was supposed to be doing in this new world. My Duties were being strangely quiet, though I had a vague sense of familiarity with the boy in front of me.
"How is it you're alive?!" He gasped as he looked at me in awe. "You're HP dropped below zero! You vanished, died...the Nerve Gear should've fried your brain!"
I blinked again, "What?"
What was this kid going on about...what kind of world had I landed in?!
He paused, and looked at me with a suspicious eye. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
I shook my head slowly, digging around in my head for any possible clues. I didn't recognize this world, and I had no idea what was going on.
His eyes narrowed further, and he asked slowly, "Do you have any idea who I am?"
Pausing just long enough to search my memories again I shook my head. That was the problem with the lives where I just appeared in someone else's body. Sure, I was Awake instantly, but I was almost always dropped into a situation with no knowledge or clue.
"I don't even know who I am." My voice was smooth as I spoke and I noticed that I was only a few years older than the boy in front of me.
The boy stared at me wide eyed and I had to bite back a sigh.
Why did I always end up in the strangest worlds!?
I waved my hand as I was pulled out of the memory. That life had been short, small, almost non existent. I had barely been there two weeks before I gave a pep talk to a black swordsman, and then two hours later I was crushed by a mid-level boss.
I sighed as I turned toward another memory.
This was seriously going to take a while.
Hi all! Updating from my phone again, and I apologize for the wait. I've been swamped with homework...and am actually writing this in science class. (The teacher hasn't noticed)
Hope you liked the chapter, I know it's not that interesting…
I hope some of you caught the very large reference! I didn't make it very subtle.
Thanks to everyone! You all rock!
Cp
