Rachel awoke with a start. The moonlight still streamed in and a cold breeze ruffled the blankets she was under. Jinx was sleeping curled up beside her oblivious of the world around her. The Midnight Empress studied the young woman who lay there. For everything that had happened and the time that had passed, she did not seem to be the same girl when they fought in the streets. HIVE versus Teen Titans. It seemed so long ago and so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Rachel ran her hand through the loose pink hair and her the woman purr and snuggle deeper into the blanket.
What had woken her up? The room was quiet except for the night insects singing and the wind moaning through the open balcony window. She felt it again, a sharp pang of irritation which she immediately honed in on Jason's mental scent. Something had made him quite angry. He had not called to her but she had felt the emotion boil over.
It was curiosity that got the dark sorceress in the end. She threw back the covers and made her way softly down the stairs only in the nightshirt that one of the minions had provided to her when they settled into the castle. The ancient passageways were massive but silent. A few guards stood completely oblivious of her passing, their dull green glow coming through the chinks in their armor and eye sockets.
The flight of curving stairs took her towards the throne room where firelight could be dancing across the threshold of the door. Rachel slowed when she heard raised voices.
"Really, Millennium, after the years we have been together, you would bring this up now?" Jason's voice came across irritated.
"I speak to you about it because the situation is not the same any longer," the deep thrum of the giant insectoid creature's voice echoed through the hall and Rachel's bones. "You can see what the power has done."
Jason was silent at this. She could feel him seething but not at his loyal soldier. A feeling of warm cotton descended over her mind and the feelings became distant. She crept closer to listen.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Show the paths so she is not surprised when she reaches the crossroads, Atethis."
Atethis. Was that his real name? Why was she shocked that his name wasn't actually Jason. Rachel shook her head trying to focus and ignore the warmth in her mind.
"You want me to jeopardize everything we have been working for?"
"This is your quest, my lord," Millennium said with a respectful deflection. "You gave me my bargain and I have accepted it for eternity, no matter the choices you make. I just do not want to see you suffer again….like with Zanah."
"Do NOT speak her name to me, Millennium," Sovereign hissed and the burst of power radiated out from the room.
"I beg your forgiveness, my lord."
"We will continue this tomorrow. She is asleep and there is nothing we can do about it now."
Rachel pushed herself into the shadow of the half-open door and Sovereign marched past her and up a different staircase to his meditation chamber. Her heartbeat loudly as she tried to decide what to do. What if he checked on her and came looking? Why could he not sense her there?
'Come, Child. You are safe. He will sleep now.'
Millennium's voice caused her mind to vibrate and slowly she stepped into the cavernous room to see the massive cybernetic goliath beetle crouched in the corner. His keen, black sheen eyes focused on her.
"How did you know I was there?"
"I am the one that shielded you from him. Sovereign is ancient...but so am I."
Rachel continued to approach as the wave of friendliness continued to call to her and the soft cotton on her brain.
"What...what are you doing to me?"
"It is a side effect of the energy field I project. Allow me to adjust."
The feeling bled away as the cold air gripped her and the cold floor made her bare feet ache.
"What were you talking about?"
"You know who we were talking about."
"Me."
"Yes."
"And his name is Atethis," Rachel asked wanting to get that thought of her mind.
"It is. He usually adopts a name that is comforting from the reality we enter. From your mind, he felt the name Jason would be the easiest for you to accept."
"Got me on that."
"He is very good at what he does."
Rachel's lips pressed into a thin line. Her body wanted to just ignore everything, the cracks in the story but her mind refused.
"I want answers, Millennium."
"I have none that I can give you but I do have a story if you'd allow me to tell it."
Rachel felt the moment of truth had arrived. For a minute she hesitated and then she nodded.
The world was black when Raven found herself floating in a pitch-black void. She found on her shoulders her cloak and a quick check showed she appeared as she did when a member of the Teen Titans.
"Where am I?" she called out to the void though Raven knew her voice didn't travel.
"This is the space between spaces," Millennium's voice rumbled all around her. "This is before the reality that you knew shaped and evolved. Look ahead."
Raven squinted but at first, could not see anything but the inky black void and the sparks of her cornea in her eyes. It was after a few minutes that she saw something strange.
"Is...is that blackness darker and moving?"
"It is."
Two golden pinpricks of light appeared and streaked through the void towards it. When they collided, she felt the heat of the golden energy explode off of it. It was like two insects zipping around and slamming into the void.
"What's going on?"
"It is Atethis and his mate Zanah. They were the first to evolve, the first beings of the void. The representation of life and power. They fight the whisper, their opposite."
Raven watched fascinated as the two seemingly insignificant specks battled the power cloud of inky blackness but she could feel the emotions of hatred and howling fury coming off of it.
The two golden sparks joined together and in one last attack slammed the creature causing it to shriek in agony and rage before vanishing. It was then that Raven noticed one of the golden sparks was dim and then exploded in a beautiful rainbow shine of colors that wafted like oil paints in water. The cry of agony and loss that tore through her, she recognized.
'Jason!'
"Zanah gave her life essence to stop The Whisper from consuming the fledgling multiverse. Atethis never recovered from the loss."
The world swirled around her and she found herself on a planet full of lush green life and giant skyscrapers that seemed to be made out of resin. They were beautifully crafted and exquisite in the sunlight.
"Where are we?" Raven asked squinting pulling the blue hood a bit down to cover her eyes.
"My home. Before a god descended among us."
To punctuate his words, a golden beam of light ruptured the sky as she saw a form dropping toward the city. The once beautiful skyscrapers melted under the heat of the golden energy wave that carried the rage directed at no one in particular.
The image swam and was replaced by a blackened world where life did not exist. The sky was full of stars since the atmosphere had been burned away. Raven looked in horror at the figure, her Jason standing there speaking to a much smaller but familiar insectoid.
"He told me when he first came that the realities were flawed and people suffered because they were born out of bloodshed. Atethis was so full of anger and fury that he destroyed without hesitation. I, for some reason, took his fancy. I don't know if it's because I had campaigned on my own world of peace through the elimination of all who threatened it or something else but he would calm and listen to me when I spoke."
Raven watched as Jason pressed a hand against the young millennium's head and the brilliant gold transferred to him. A pulse wave of green exploded from him giving that sickly green light to the husks that remained around him.
"I chose to let him end my world so we could move all the multiverses towards a peaceful resolution."
The world swam again and she found herself laying on the stone floor of the fortress, still in her nightshirt and the older insect in front of him. He seemed more vulnerable than he once did.
"Why...why are you telling me this?"
"Because his quest is about multiversal peace but there is another reason you must know. He will not tell you because he cannot bear to accept that it's his true motivation."
"What? What is it?" Rachel's heart trilled in fear.
"Zanah's energy, her blood, and essence spilled within the void forming so many different realities. The reality you live in, the realities the Iris is trying to protect, have grown and flourished in the bones of the mate he loved and lost. You all remind him of what he lost so many eons ago."
Tears formed in Rachel's eyes as Millennium lowered his head. "He will give you peace. You will be offered a choice. Take the select few who will continue the embodiment of peace and culture of your reality and move them adjacent to a new world outside of his beloved. But do not for a second think he will not crush this reality and destroy it and those who are left behind. The question you must ask yourself is the one that I asked. Will the sacrifice be worth it for the peace of those who survive?"