Banging on the cold metal door of the locker she was trapped within, Taylor Hebert was screaming and sobbing at her long absent tormentors, begging for release from her small, cramped, disgusting prison. A prison filled with her tormentors used toiletries and products.

She continued her crying, her begging, even as she felt the rotting contents of the locker soak through her clothes, dirtying her skin. She continued to scream and shout, even as she felt the insects and maggots wriggling and crawling over her body. She did not stop, even as she felt pain begin to race through her nerves, letting her know that she was being eaten alive.

She screamed even louder when, as she banged her fists and arms and elbows and shoulders upon the locker door, she felt bugs crawling up her face, skittering into her mouth, burrowing themselves into her eyes.

She felt it all. How the bugs' legs tapped across her pale skin. Shade felt the cockroaches quickly crawling up her torso and neck, biting into her flesh the whole way up. She experienced first hand how beetles' shells tasted as they invaded her still screaming mouth. And she felt everything that happened to her eyes, her head.

She felt the maggots burrowing through her eyelids to get to her pearlescent orbs. She felt how the flies landed on her sockets, sucking up all of the fluid that leaked from them. She felt everything about how the countless other bugs and insects crawled around her face until there was nothing left for her to see out of. Only hollow places where her eyes should have been.

Her screaming and shouting only ceased when the bugs that were scampering around her body ate through her vocal cords. Now, the most noise she could make was a gagging gurgling sound at the back of her throat.

Her tears, however, never ceased for a moment, even when her eyes were merely a ruin of their previously brilliant violet orbs. The eyes that she had inherited from her mother, and the only thing she had of her own to remember her by. That thought had caused her all the more grief, as she devolved into sobbing silently, quickly ending her futile attempts at banging and scraping at the locker door, and at getting said door to open.

She just gave up, and curled herself into a ball, completely aware, but uncaring, of the hundreds of cockroaches and maggots and beetles that were crawling over her entire body. All she could think of was that she had lost her mother's eyes, and that she didn't even tell her father everything.

And it was with those last thoughts of regret and self-loathing that Taylor Hebert closed her eyes for what she believed would be the very last time.

Taylor felt strange. Now, it wasn't a bad strange, definitely not seeing as she couldn't remember the last time she had felt that well. But that was the issue. She should not have been feeling well, not at all. She remembered everything.

She remembered her time at school. She remembered all of her classes, the three bitches causing her life at school to be hell, the usual. Madison, being the usual brat that she was, stole her homework for every class, causing Taylor to not be able to turn in any of it.

She remembered Emma, the traitor, massing with all of her books and papers. The bitch took her bag and poured a whole bottle of water in it. She even had to go the extra-fucking-mile and shook around her bag so that the water got everywhere.

Then there was Sophia. Oh, how she remembered Sophia. And she hated it. She hated the girl with a passion, one that was reciprocated by Sophia herself. She was always the worst, the one that caused the most trouble for Taylor. She was the one who physically hurt her, none of the other two did that, but Sophia always did something.

She found Taylor in the halls, always bumping shoulders and kicking out feet, if only to trip her. Whenever it happened, Dumb and Dumber always laughed that annoying laugh, with Sophia looking at her with that 'I'm better than you' smirk.

Sophia was the one who actually pushed Taylor into the locker, too. Taylor had gone to her locker to put away some of her things. She had a locker for a reason. Anyways, she walked up to the locker and immediately noticed the stench that came from it. She was wary, but she had to open the door to her locker, if only to see what was in there and to tell someone to get it out.

So she walked up to the door, put in her code, and opened the locker. Inside her locker was a pile of used tampons that looked as if they had been rotting for years, given that they were all black and molded. Maggots and cockroaches crawled all over the pile that spilled from the locker.

It was such a disgusting sight that Taylor couldn't help herself; she threw up right then and there, directly on top of the pile of horror and disgust. It took her a few seconds to empty her stomach, but it was those seconds that almost assured her fate.

As she was puking, her three tormentors had come into the locker room, expecting her to be there. They saw her puking her guts up on the pile of trash and rot, and must have had the great idea to push her in and lock the door.

So that's what they did. After Taylor had finished puking up her guts, the three bitches had come up behind her, and Sophia had pushed her in, having the other two close and lock the door. And that's what brought her here and now. Her screaming and crying and banging and scraping, the bugs, the stench, the rot, the decay, the death.

And now she was here. Feelling better than she had ever been in recent memory, and somewhere that felt safe, if unknown. Now, she had to figure out where she was-

"Ah, you are awake." A voice stopped her thoughts short. It was a male voice for sure, the deepness of it made it so that there was no other option, but there was a force behind the voice as well. A strange sense of power that had brought her up short. And it was because of that power that she chose to be silent.

"Come now, there is no need to be afraid. I am only here to help you, after all." The voice had a strange accent, one that she could not recognize, so it wasn't an English one. She knew every English accent, something she prided herself on, though it was mostly because her mother was an English teacher.

Then, after a few moments, the content of the man's words actually registered within her mind. She snapped her face around towards where the voice came from, her eyes still blind, though not in pain.

"Wait, what!? What do you mean you're here to help me?" Something within her voice's tone must have been funny to the man, because he started chuckling almost immediately after she finished her sentence. When she heard his snickering, she ducked her head, feeling the blush rising up her face.

For a few more moments the man continued his quiet laughter, though he eventually trailed off, leaving silence in its wake. The silence continued for a few peaceful moments before it was broken by Taylor herself.

"So… what did you mean by you being here to help me?" Though she couldn't see, still, she could almost feel the smile that appeared on the mystery man's face.

"Well, Taylor Hebert, I meant exactly what I said. I am here to help you, by giving you my power." And just like that, Taylor's train of thought crashed and burned. She was silent for a minute as she collected her thoughts, the man staying quiet throughout. When she had finally calmed down enough, she spoke once more.

"Okay, no what do you mean by that?" She had never even met a parahuman before, let alone had one offer her their own power. She didn't even think that it was possible to pass on a power.

"Once more, I mean what I say. I wish to give you my power, so that you may use it as you see fit. If only you don't cause unneeded harm to innocents, mind you." Taylor was basically speechless. A random person who she just met, wanted to give her his own power, and basically just told her to go be a hero. Not something that happens everyday, she thought.

"Alright I get that part, but why? I mean, we literally just met." She could feel the lightness of the air disappear, a tension running throughout the room as she heard the man sigh tiredly. She could hear the weariness in that one exhalation, so much so that it almost made her tear up for the man.

"I am dying, Taylor Hebert. My people have long since passed, and I am of no use to this world as I am now. If I pass on my power, whosoever receives it will eventually surpass me when I was in my prime." And didn't that give Taylor a whole assload more questions. "But, my power is a… fickle thing. It will only take to someone who it deems worthy. As it just so happens, that person would be you, Taylor Hebert."

She was quiet as she contemplated his words, questions stampeding through her head with all the grace of a bull in a china shop. Plus, now that he mentioned it, she did feel some kind of aura around him that radiated sadness and decay.

She steeled herself from asking those many questions and just settled with one. "What would happen to me if I accepted your proposal?" And just like that, she felt a beaming smile form on his face. Even blind as she was, Taylor still had to block her eyes with a hand. She could almost feel the light shining from his grin. It was very strange.

He cleared his throat, drawing Taylor's attention back towards him, his smile toning itself down to just a grin. "Well, I have never given my power to anyone before, even temporarily, so I do not know exactly what will or could happen," Just like that, Taylor felt nervousness creep into the edges of her mind. "Do not be afraid, please. I do not know the exact details but I have a fairly good estimate as to what could happen." She felt the slight fear that had snuck in evaporate.

She nodded at him to continue, seeing as he took a pause as she collected herself slightly. He nodded back, grinning. Taylor didn't know how she knew that, you know, blindness, but whatever. "Alright, first and foremost, your appearance will most likely change, becoming closer to that of my people. Your most important features, however, will likely stay mostly the same." Well, that sated some of her worries at least.

She refocused on him as he started speaking again. "I do believe that your personality will be very, very slightly affected by my power." A little nervousness formed, though she pushed it back with pure willpower. "It will not change the most important parts of your character, but I do believe that you will become more confident, more cunning, and more… regal, for lack of a better word. Mostly good traits, all in all."

Yes, they were mostly good, she thought. But there must be a catch. Somewhere. "Yes, a small catch. If you allow yourself to become complacent in your power, you will, no doubt, become an arrogant woman. So do not let my power become your only out, your only answer." Alright, that sounded about right for someone who ended up in that situation.

"Aside from the most obvious change, being your gaining my power and strength, you will find yourself knowing, instinctively, the innate skills of my people. Those skills being martial prowess, staff combat, magic, and an auratic avatar. There are others, but those are the most important ones." She thought it was pretty cool that she would be able to do all of those things, even if she had no idea what half of them were.

Well, if that's it that I better- "Ah, yes, I forgot something." Alright, bit more then. "You will be able to understand my peoples' written and spoken languages, and be able to decipher and translate them into your own language, english, I believe it is called." That last bit confused her. Immensely.

"Wait, but we're speaking english right now, though. How do you not know the name of the language you are currently speaking?" Her confusion had stopped the man in his tracks. He stared at her for a moment, completely silent, which made her nervous.

Then he burst out laughing.

The suddenness of the noise startled her into making an 'eep' which only made the man laugh all the harder. When she finally got a hold of herself, she just crossed her arms and turned away from the laughing man with a huff.

When the man finally gained control of his hysterical laughter, lessening it down to just chuckles, he finally spoke. "Ah, thank you, Taylor Hebert. I haven't laughed like that in millenia." Taylor's brain screeched to halt right then and there. Did he just say millenia!? Completely oblivious to her brain's self immolation, the man just continued talking. "Well, I haven't mentioned this before, but we are in a space of my mind where all languages being spoken are translated to the hearer's birth language. Very useful for speaking with foreigners."

It was only at that point that he noticed Taylor's complete disregard of the world around her. "Ah, Taylor?" It was only several hours-in his mind-later that he managed to rouse Taylor from her stupor.

Taylor's eyes twitched as she faced the man who she had spoken with, who was, strangely, in the japanese dogeza position. And her eyes had finally healed so she could actually see the man before her clearly, more so than ever before.

He was tall, taller than her father, standing at a colossal 6'4, with a dark tan covering his entire body. He was muscular, that much was certain, seeing as she could trace the lines of every muscle group on his body with absolute ease. He had aristocratic features, dark purple, almost black hair and eyes, the former of which reached his mid back.

On his head was a golden headdress with a black scarab pendant resting in the middle of his forehead. He was shirtless, revealing divinely sculpted abdominals and pectorals, though his lower half was wrapped in what looked like a half toga/skirt combination. Wraparound sandals adorned his feet, while on his belt and back were an ankh symbol and a was-sceptre respectively.

But Taylor wasn't focused on that. What she was focused on was the immense irritation that she was projecting towards the man that was bowing in front of her. Eventually though, she just sighed, and leaned back into the reclining chair she sat in. The man however, did not move.

She sighed again. "Oh, get up you big baby. It's fine now. I was just irritated that you didn't introduce yourself until now." With her verbal confirmation gained, the man finally got back into his high-backed throne.

He looked at her slightly annoyed face again, and winced slightly, rubbing the small red mark on his cheek. "Ahem, well I am sorry for not introducing myself, but would you really have believed this to be real if I had? Especially since you had just fallen unconscious believing you were going to die." He looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

She got a slightly sheepish look on her face, turning away a little. "Well, I mean, but-," She stopped and sighed. "No, I guess I wouldn't have." She looked at him, fire burning in her eyes. "But you can't blame me for that! It's all those three bitches fault I thought I was going to die in the first place!"

He nodded his assent, successfully getting her to calm down. "No, I suppose you can't be blamed for that. Although my point still stands. You would not have believed me if I had told you outright." She nodded in agreement, somewhat reluctantly.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, simply enjoying the peace and quiet. And they would have continued their silence, had it not been for a green light to suddenly envelop Taylor's chest. Taylor herself, looked at herself, startled, while the man just looked in with sad eyes.

"Uhm, hey, do you know what this is-" She would have continued speaking, but at that point she turned to the man, who stood from his chair and walked over to her. He had a sad look on his face, and the aura of decay around him became almost stifling.

"What are you-" "It is time." His voice slammed into her with all the force of a tidal wave, keeping her silent. She just stared, and as she did so she saw his hands and feet begin to flake away into white ash.

He looked into her eyes. "Taylor Hebert, do you wish to take upon yourself my power? The power of the God of the Morning Sun?" There was no doubt the tone in his voice was that of sadness, but there was also something else in there. Hope. And that was all Taylor needed to say her choice.

"Yes."

The man- no, God- smiled at her. He put one hand upon her forehead, in the same spot on her where his scarab pendant rested. "Do you, Taylor Hebert, swear to use my power as I would, to keep the cycle intact, and to control the balance?"

There was no hesitation this time. "Yes."

His smile widened, and Taylor felt something being flowing into her, and as it happened she saw his arms and legs begin to scatter to dust as well. "And do you, Taylor Hebert, swear to protect those whom you care for from harm, and to protect the innocents of your world?"

An instant answer. "Yes."

His smile beamed, and she felt the very Sun light a fire through her veins as the god's power rushed into her, like water flowing down a drain. "Then, Taylor Hebert, be reborn as I am with the Sun each day, and become a goddess. Become the inheritor of the will of Khepri!"

Taylor saw his smile shrink, as he looked at her with a fondness that she hadn't seen from anyone since her mother died. It brought a pain searing through her chest and she felt tears gather at the corners of her eyes. He smiled at her one last time before they both became enveloped in light.

And then everything went white.