She was alive.
She was lying on a barred gate, which trembled uncomfortably with the slightest movements, threatening to flip over and dump her into the void below. She was drenched in cold sweat, breathing so fast that she felt like her chest was going to explode, and, were her muscles not paralyzed by adrenaline, she'd probably roll over and be violently sick.
But she was back in her body, in flesh and blood, despite how utterly awful it felt.
Slowly, her vision came back, no longer confined to a narrow tunnel. Then she saw the three glowing green dots above her.
"Ah, so you are just taking a nap, kid?" A voice soon came from the same direction. "Good. Don't move, until auntie tells you to."
Under any other circumstances, listening to a random floating humanoid shape with really old voice would be a bad idea. But, after the series of astral mindfuckery that just transpired, it was oddly...relaxing, to stop thinking and just follow the instructions.
"Can you raise your right arm? Slowly?"
Okay, the woman wasn't floating. She was swinging around and adjusting her position, while she raised her right arm, inch by inch, at a speed so slow as to be robotic. Definitely hanging onto a rope of some sort. And someone just lowered her further; they were a lot closer to each other now, close enough that she could see the woman's goggles and armored vest.
"I'm gonna grab you now." Immediately, she felt an iron grip on her wrist, "Now lunge forward! Get a grip on me!"
Her mind went blank, the moment she did as said. All she felt was sheer terror, as the barred gate below made a clunking sound, but the feeling of weightless free-fall was soon replaced by real, hard gravity, as she was kept hanging in midair only by the woman's grip. joints making painful noises at the sudden stress. Screaming, she made a bunch of wild grabs with her other hand, while everything was still spinning around her—
"Okay, stop moving."
She heard the words, but her brain refused to translate them into actions this time, and all the swinging and spinning only made her more dizzy—
"Seriously, stay still. Or I'll make you."
The woman didn't even sound angry. But there was a casual chill in that low, raspy voice that managed to overwhelm even her panic, leaving no doubts about the seriousness of her intent. In the fraction of a second, she went as limp as a rock.
"Good girl. Now raise your other hand," the woman said. "And grab my vest."
Numbly, she did as told. There were more flurries of movements, interrupted by a few orders, before she found herself securely clinging onto the woman, arms wrapped around her waist. With a satisfied sigh, the woman reached above her head, and tugged on something. The next second, both of them were lifted upwards.
"There we go. Just sit tight and relax. Clancy's waiting for you."
Despite how dry and painful her throat felt, these words finally broke her out of her daze. "Really? Are you her colleague?"
"Nah." A pause. "Our camaraderie didn't exactly have a good start. I kinda stabbed her a few times."
"Oh, okay—" Her mindless reply was quickly cut short by a choking noise, "No, WHAT? What the fuck did you do, you—"
"Hey, calm down, kid," The woman patted her on the back, as her struggles began to shake the rope again, "In my defense, it's a case of mistaken identity, and I didn't stab her in any vital spots!"
Before she could make a retort, a burst of light erupted from below, followed by a shockwave that seemed to ripple through the very fabric of space itself. Like a leaf in the wind, they were violently blown away—maybe the rope snapped, or maybe Clancy let go of it.
The next second, they were falling, falling—
I must be dead right now.
The first few seconds of peaceful darkness sure made it seem like she was no longer in the realm of the living. Then everything started to hurt.
Rei felt the cold stone surface pressing against her left cheek, and saw the blue glow nearby. A giant Sharecite crystal probably wouldn't be the first thing to greet her in the afterlife.
No, on second thought, maybe that was part of the punishment.
Her eyes were open, but no matter how hard she tried to force her limbs to move, her body remained paralyzed, like she was being superglued to the rock below and roasted alive. Wispy tendrils were writhing at the edge of her vision—they weren't going anywhere else, thank goodness—
Wait. She took it back. She took that power back.
As the panic and dread flooded her mind, so did the searing agony. Rei thought she was screaming, but she couldn't hear a sound, her throat was burning too, and all she felt was the violent shivers that accompanied the dark blue flames, bursting out of her fingertips and flickering aimlessly in the air.
This wasn't like before. That power was taking over her body again, without making her go crazy, but she couldn't command it to do anything either.
Which was of no surprise. She was still too weak, a mere...
The dark blue aura seemed to have died down a little. Without her glasses, her vision was still a blur; she could see Lynka's face with perfect clarity, however, lying only a few feet away from her, eyes still squeezed shut.
At least this power wasn't going anywhere else, preying on the awful feelings of someone else. That was, if she could keep holding it inside her...for Goddess knew how long, before, before help arrived...
A flash of gold. Huge tremors shook the entire platform, almost tossing her up into the air. The Sharecite crystal in the distance glowed even brighter.
Lynka's body twitched. Little specks of blue light began to come out of her body, like a flock of fireflies, and under their eerie glow, Rei could see her...changing. Her hair was becoming shorter, as if snipped by an invisible scissor, while her face was becoming rounder, almost chubby, with each passing second. Her sleeves were growing longer too—
No. It wasn't her clothes. Her entire body was shrinking, growing backwards, reverting to that of a young child.
Rei's silent shrieks of horror were cut short by another stab of white, hot pain, surging through her nerves.
Whatever Lynka had started...it would soon come to fruition, from the looks of it.
And no one would be coming to save her.
—Before a solid surface rapidly approached them. Seconds after she slammed into the rock face-down, the weight of another body crashed onto her.
The woman hit the ground rolling, and soon got off her. While she was still groaning, curling up into a ball and wondering how many ribs she might've broken in that fall, the woman had already stood back up.
"You okay there, kid?" Before long, she was staring into a pair of trifocal goggles.
"I'm..." She gritted her teeth, as she was carried up bridal-style, "Doing great for a human cushion. Yeah. Thanks for asking."
The woman let out a chuckle, before putting her down. "You are welcome. Now try sitting up, check if you can still use your arms and legs, while auntie go grab that sweet loot over there!"
"What?" She frowned, as she propped herself up with one arm. Out of sheer luck, they had landed on the remnant of another wall, or ceiling, or floor. The woman was now yanking something out of a pile of debris, which had stacked up near the edge of the platform. With a small crack, the dark, streamlined shape of an assault rifle entered her view.
"Hmmm, expensive shit." There was a clicking sound, as the woman ejected the magazine, and began examining the weapon. "A little too fancy for my liking, but nice flashlight you got there..."
The flashlight on that assault rifle. That was Clancy's.
Before she knew it, she slipped into her enhanced vision, bolted up from the ground, and looked up.
She was pretty sure that huge chunk of building wasn't tilted in the same direction, while she was still astral-projecting. Writhing shapes were crawling all over its exterior, their outlines glowing a faint red, and below them, dangling in midair, was a golden silhouette—
"Scram!"
She heard the splat coming from behind, but right after the yell, the woman was besides her, rifle raised overhead. With one swing, she slammed the butt of the rifle into the shadow phantom's head, causing it to reel backwards, followed by a roundhouse kick that sent it tumbling over the nearest edge.
"Sorry, babe." She gave the rifle a pat, after making sure its barrel wasn't pointing at either of them. "You are as good as a baton right now. It's not your fault, really. Some things are just fussy eaters when it comes to bullets."
Crap. Clancy was still up there. Grabbing onto a rope of some sort with one hand. But she didn't know how much longer she could hang on, and they were definitely too far down to reach her now...
"Hello, kid? What are you hoping to see up there? A double rainbow?" She felt a hand on her shoulder, "Quit zoning out, and start moving!"
She sidestepped away from the woman and summoned her blade, aiming it straight at her. "Hey, fuck you for stabbing my sister! Give me one reason why I shouldn't return the favor and stab you right back!"
"Woah. Calm down." The woman shrugged. "Yeah, I know, an eye for an eye or something. Can we leave that to a later date, and focus on the bigger problem at hand? It's raining shadow people right now, in case you haven't noticed."
"Of—" She turned around at another splat, stabbing her blade into the back of the shadow phantom's head before it could pick itself up, "—course I noticed! Now leave it to someone who could actually damage them!"
The woman made an "Ooh" sound, as the phantom dissolved into a puddle of ink. Then, as if casually stretching, she raised the rifle and bashed it into another shadowy appendage, clinging onto the edge of the platform. With a few extra stomps, it let go.
After she had created a few more ink puddles out of falling shadow phantoms, there were several seconds of dead silence, and no new phantoms came raining down. Right after she heaved a sigh of relief, a huge shadow fell over them. The woman gripped her by the hood of her clothes and dragged her out of the way, just as the thing came crashing down.
The ground shook violently, almost throwing both of them into the air. Before she even saw the full form of that writhing mess, the rock below it crumbled apart under its weight. It tumbled into the void below, together with over half of the platform they were standing on.
"...Holy crap," she muttered, after a long silence.
"Holy crap, indeed," the woman said, and she realized that she was clinging onto her again. "Are you scared?"
"No! I'm just SO happy to die inside a dimensional rift, besides a creepy stranger, where my body would never be recovered!" She took a deep breath, "That is sarcasm, if you can't tell!"
The woman was practically cackling at her reply. "Aww, you are adorable. Being scared means you are still alive, and auntie just feels more alive than ever in these trying times!"
Abruptly, she turned away, pointing a finger into the void, "Hmm, it isn't a double rainbow, but if you want something to look at, there's that over there..."
Out of spite, she almost didn't want to look in that direction. But soon, it became impossible to ignore.
Like a tear in the fabric of a veil, a crack was spreading across the dark blue energy around them, its edge gleaming with a golden light. When she glanced down into the void below, tracing the rift to its widest point, she could see the tip of a giant spire on the other side—no, it wasn't just a regular spire, but a Golden Peak, phasing in and out of her view.
"Wait a sec. These drones, the complex..." The woman took a deep breath, as she continued to stare at the rift. "Oooh boy. My Commanders would kill for an aerial image of the Blast Generator. Literally. With their bare hands."
"You know what that is?" She shook her head, "No, you know whose that is?!"
"Indeed. It belongs to a very evil, but smart person. She wouldn't have survived for so long and became Planeptune's Oracle, if she wasn't such a smartass."
"...Be more specific?"
"Sure, if you pay me."
She didn't say a word, and just stared at the woman, looking as unimpressed as she could possibly be. It earned more laughter out of her—really, was there anything that wasn't funny to this deranged lady?!
"With information, I mean," The woman clarified, once she was done laughing, "About your Clancy. Mine's dead and rotting in the earth, and, from the looks of it, she'd have company soon. You can't blame auntie for getting a little, y'know, sentimental, right?"
Something suddenly jingled in her mind. Your. Gosh, no, she couldn't possibly be...
"Are you me?!"
"Clearly not," the woman replied. "I haven't been that green in decades, and if you were me, you wouldn't be asking that question!"
"As in, is your name Ubi too! Ubiquité, that's my full name, and—"
"Uh, I don't have a name." The woman gave her a blank stare. "If there is one, I couldn't remember."
"What?" She frowned, "Did the fairies take your m—"
"Fairies? Oh, you truly are the cutest little cauliflower I've ever met!" The woman gave her a slap on the back, "Sadly, auntie didn't see no fairies even when she was still a tiny rascal, 'borrowing' stuff from dead folks and shanking people to save her skinny ass. And my Clancy wasn't one for fairy tales—"
As if pulled together by an invisible string, the rift suddenly shrunk into a tiny line, followed by another burst of golden light. Gravity came back down on everything with a fury, causing the platform they were standing on to plummet downwards at a dangerous speed. She felt the woman's grip came loose around her, and the next second, she was gone.
She flailed wildly, trying to grab onto something, anything, as the chunk of rock began to tilt and spin mid-fall, threatening to send her over the edge. By sheer luck, she did grab onto the stump of a pillar, just as the free fall ended, and the platform went still once again.
She must've called upon her power again in a panic, as she scrambled back up. Her sight was homing in on the little golden silhouette above, at the very edge of her vision, shaking, exhausted, sliding further and further down that rope. This time, she was even further away. There was no way she could catch her. Hell, she wasn't even directly below Clancy.
Think, think. If she used her power longer and willed her way through the incoming pain, maybe...
But could she even get the right one? The abilities to, well, cross a vast distance against the forces of gravity with ease?
Knowledge was the key. As well as...following those who came before. What even was the rest of Ms. X's cryptic nonsense?
Did that mean she needed to focus on a specific someone, in order to get their memories and skills, instead of having a random one dumped on her? Someone she knew, like...
Now that she thought about it, she didn't actually know Brøø all that well. No, actually, they didn't know each other all that well, despite the crap they shouldered through in such a short timespan. So why the heck was Brøø so willing, so ready to make that last minute sacrifice? Like she was this mentor figure in a bad movie that had outlived her usefulness?
She squeezed her eyes shut. Darn, she was so angry right now, she felt like crying again. Even though this had to be the worst time to burst into tears.
"Oh wait. With how crazy everything has been so far, I've forgotten to ask your name!"
Her eyes snapped open again at that familiar, cheerful voice. She knew it was a hallucination, and the words were nothing but a snippet of their past conversations. Yet the girl was real, so real, from her messy blonde hair to her white robes, extending her hand towards her with an expectant look in her eyes.
"So, tell me? Pretty please?"
"I..." She gritted her teeth, as she reached for Brøø's hand, and embraced her formless body. "I'm Ubiquité."
She was a moron who didn't know when to quit doing the same thing over and over again, who had to depend on other people to fish her out of her messes, whose power didn't even work properly until very recent times, who just kept falling to the same asshole's tricks.
But this time, she was going to save herself and everyone else, before it was too late.