Chapter 73: A Witch Without a Name
Floating.
Drifting.
A sea of endless seas stretches out before you.
Wandering.
Wondering.
A dream of endless time carries you.
The waves of time's march wash against your ears and you drift forward to a destination unknown. There are seagulls cawing in the air tonight. Or this morning. The moon sets, the sun rises, the moon rises, the sun sets.
Eventually you feel no motion beneath yourself besides the tides attempting to pull some sand back with it.
You hear footsteps in the distance, crunching down upon the hundreds of grains of sand that surround you.
You raise your head and the sky swirls around before your face. You feel dizzy, but try and remain focused. You see an unfamiliar sight: A suburban neighborhood.
...Something's wrong.
Roofs are caved in, some houses look like they were set on fire, or crushed into a heap. There was half of a massive spaceship plunged into the ground a mile away like the tip of a giant's sword.
The sky was sunny. The world wasn't ending yet. But there was an omen in the air.
"Why did you let this happen?" The sky whispered back.
You thrust your head down to ignore this but when you do, the world conjures up a surprise for you.
Alex Whiter stands before you, looking like he always does. There's a heavy expression on his face. He appears mournful too.
You approach him, but he takes one step back and you stop.
He shakes his head and looks at you with only his sorrow speaking for him. Finally though he looked you right in the eyes and says the words that'll shake you to the core.
"Something's coming, ^&%," The occasional word left his mouth eclipsed by static, and the state of the world began to distort in a fuzzy manner, "%$#^%$ said it'll be the end of the universe. No...all of # !# !$^&^."
He then lifted his static filled hand up, the fuzziness crawling all the way up to his shoulder in seconds, "If we're to survive, I need you to tell me where-"
The world is devoured completely in static, as your brain flickers back on like a lightbulb on its last legs...
"Ugh..."
In the current reality, Mew creaks his eyelids open slowly with a groan and finds himself staring up at a ceiling. When his vision stops being grainy for one second he can tell that he's not back home but at the Aurora household.
He opened his eyes some more and tried lifting his head. His body felt fuzzy all over, especially in the chest. His mind, however, was lucid and barely able to register the rest of his surroundings, or even how he got here.
After pulling his back up against something solid, possibly the arm of a couch, he immediately dipped into his memories to try and recall what happened last.
Flashes of conflict with Beerus floated through a sea of fog, ending on the clear and concise image of him staring up the God of Destruction's open palm. After that his brain retaliated with a painful scratching feeling that left him collapsing flat on his back.
"Ow..." He groaned.
"So that's what happened. I...lost...?" He left his arm draping over the side of the couch and squinted his eyes partway shut.
Now his body was feeling sore all over, especially in his upper arms. If he tried moving a muscle he worried that he'd risk tearing a tendon or two.
"Ugh, I've lost fights before but I've never felt THIS sore afterwards...Guess this is just the power of a God of Destruction..." He said, his tone lifeless.
He pivoted his head towards the front door and found it was quiet. Too quiet.
"Where is everyone...?" He muttered.
With a few forced coughs to sort of warm up his sore vocal cords, he tried shouting out for someone, "Kairi! Maria! Shina! Auris! Heeeeellooooo?"
No response. Nadda. Zilch.
He flopped down with a heavy sigh and remark of, "Well SHIT."
He plopped a hand on top of his stomach and said, "They couldn't have bothered putting a blanket over me or something?"
At least his sense of humor wasn't gone. That's good.
"Haaaa, nothing else for me to do except lie here and wait..."
He laid there in a state of contemplating silence. His body was slowly getting better, and after an hour he could feel his arms and legs again.
He started drawing circles in the air with his pointer finger, then went on to try and count all the bumps in the ceiling paint. He got to 500 before stopping himself from falling back to sleep.
He rested his hands behind his head and crossed his legs. The couch was starting to feel uncomfortable but he just didn't feel like getting up yet.
It was soooo lonely in here. Where the hell could everyone be?
Loneliness. A terrible disease. It infects the mind and forces it to think negative thoughts. In Mew's case, he started to recall more about what happened between him and Beerus.
"You have good friends on your side, Mew. Cherish them and your world, as I never could..." For a brief moment, the God of Destruction had sounded remorseful...and scared.
And it reminded him yet again of what Justek had said, about how the mysterious ones called the "higher-ups" brought ruin to many lives.
Riku had mentioned that the Marvel Universe had been destroyed too, but when Alex was confronted on that he danced around the issue entirely. And honestly, given the knowledge he had up until this point, it made it sound like Alex was used as an instrument of destruction by the "higher-ups".
A name, or rather, a figure had been brought up by Alex before: A witch in gray. They pitted Alex and Shina against each other and nearly thwarted all their efforts to reclaim the Cosmos Drive.
And if they would go that far to spite Alex, then who is to say they wouldn't also force him to stain his hands in blood.
Alex had become deranged by whatever had occurred in the three-year gap and despite all the evidence compiled in his head, Mew realized that he really didn't know the full story. He only had Alex's perspective to go on.
There was one other thing though regarding the "higher-ups". He HAD heard their name uttered one other time.
Three-years ago, in the battle to save reality from being wiped out, he had met a being called the Chronicler. They explained that the "higher-ups" were observing over the battle, one of the very few survivors in the face of Mr. Reality's corruption at the hands of the Parakali parasites.
Their numbers were three, he remembered that clearly. But they had done nothing to interfere in the battle, even though clearly they were stronger then the erasure of reality.
But if their M.O. was destroying worlds then why would they care anyways?
…
However, that didn't make any sense either. They let the universe be restored without any fuss not just once, but twice. When Justek was defeated, everything was back to normal.
But at the same time, they had punished the Star Spirits of Mario's world for intervening in a battle between Alex Whiter and Joe Dark.
"Uuuugh, this is making my head hurt...!" Mew grabbed and ruffled his hair around, feeling immensely frustrated with himself.
"I'm trying to make sense of the motives of beings I can't even see..." He flopped his arms down by his sides and sighed.
"I need to narrow it all down. What do I know about these 'higher-ups'? They've wiped out entire universes in the past, seem to govern the higher powers of other worlds, have a connection to the Elemental Overlord AND the Dark King somehow, and might have had a hand in Alex going crazy..."
And that made them dangerous. But at the same time, were they a threat?
…
"Why would I think that?" Mew thought in a mild moment of confusion.
He did not consider at the time that, in truth, despite the threat level his knowledge painted of the "higher-ups"...He really didn't have a motive that made sense of WHY they were a major threat.
As hard a pill as it was to swallow, he was ignorant. He needed to learn more.
The front door opened from the corner of his eye and in walked Auris AND Shina carrying bags of groceries. Mew narrowed his gaze at them and thought, "And I know just the people to ask..."
Shina was the first to catch wind of him being up and let out a gleeful proclamation of, "Hey Mr. Sleepyhead, welcome back!"
She tip-toed around the other couch. Clearly she was running out of shirts to wear as her swollen belly was poking out. Her cheeks were positively glowing, not in the way her personality let them shine, of course.
Mew weakly waved his hand up and uttered "Yo" casually.
Auris strolled on up beside her, her eyes narrowing in a stern glare his way. She then nudged her head to the right and said, "Shina, can you sort the groceries out for me?"
She handed them off and Shina hoisted the six heavy looking bags up in both hands with a smile, "You got it mom!"
As she wandered off to the kitchen she said, "Glad to see you're doing well, Mew!"
Mew then tried sitting up and stretching his hands in the air. Auris sat herself at the couch in front of him while he let out a long yawn.
"I was wondering when anyone was getting back," Mew chuckled to himself, "Truth be told I was expecting Kairi and Maria to be hovering over me when I woke up, ha ha ha."
Auris closed her eyes and murmured, "They would still be if I didn't force them to go back to school."
Mew flinched and laid his arms down upon his knees, "Oh really? ...Huh."
He rolled his shoulders around and despite a little cracking, he felt pretty good.
Auris then peered at him with a mild smile and said, "Riku came running to Sancturia the moment he heard what had happened. He gave you some of his energy to heal, but I told him not to overdo it."
"Heh, that's my brother for ya. I hope I didn't worry him too much though."
"Mmm..." Auris continued on softly, "Later on Joe Dark came in. He called you an idiot. I'm sure you're not surprised."
"Not in the slightest." Mew chuckled.
"He then sat down next to you for twelve hours. He didn't eat, he didn't move. He was staring at you the whole time, mumbling 'Why?' occasionally."
"...I-I see." Mew stuttered.
Auris bridged her hands under her chin and closed her eyes once more, "Gabriel applied some herbal remedies to your skin to keep your muscles from atrophying while you rested."
Mew stared at both his arms and shook them around, "They were definitely effective I'll give him that! I'll be sure to thank him later."
"...Catherine popped in then immediately left, claiming that she 'got lost' on the way to a meeting."
Mew stared blankly at Auris and muttered "Uhh, what?" while she immediately peered open a narrow gaze and said, "Even Solaris stopped up to check on you. Admittedly he spent that whole time trying to shake your body awake, but still..."
"R-R-Really?" Mew was a little taken aback by this, "That's...something."
Mew leaned comfortably back into the couch where, after a short, silent pause, Auris' fingers began to curl inward and she mumbled bluntly, "What the HELL were you thinking?"
Mew flinched and as he was ready to muster a response Auris was right there to cut him off, "When you first saw the God of Destruction did you brain tell you 'Run' or 'Avoid conflict' or was your cranium so flooded with adrenaline that it kept the message from its destination?"
"Uhhh..." Mew's jaw dropped and Auris continued on, never raising her voice, though her words still raged on like an erupting volcano.
"Its lucky for me that you lived cause I'm half-tempted to kill you myself right this minute."
"What're you ragging on me for?" Mew shook his hands about and didn't know how to best deal with her temper cause, to his recollection, she'd never been this outwardly mad before, "Everything worked out just fine. Beerus left and I'm alive!"
"...You consider this 'fine'," Auris creased her eyes shut and pulled herself off from the couch grumbling, "Of all the nerve..."
She then whipped her right hand forward with a stern glare, summoning her blade towards Mew's face. He raised his hand defensively but on reflex, nothing spurted out of his skin but a few measly embers.
Auris turned her gaze aside and then swung her hand down to dispel her blade. Mew was left staring at his open palm, shaking it around to try and get some more fire out.
"Uhhh, what's going on here?"
"Did you learn NOTHING from what happened to Riku? These powers aren't something you can just experiment with willy-nilly." She settled down back into her seat and looked Mew straight in the eyes.
"Do you honestly not remember the state you were in when you blacked out?" She murmured, as Mew stared back into her eyes with a blank expression.
"I can't even put words towards what your body looked like," Auris bridged her hands over her mouth but it was clearly she was scowling from the way she glared at him, "Honestly. Trying to brute force your body to achieve Chaos Form was tantamount to suicide. So again, I ask...What the HELL were you thinking? And don't give me one of your smart-ass answers or I'll banish you from Sancturia forever."
Auris was really laying it in to him far beyond what was necessary. Mew wondered why she was so pissed all while he told her honestly, no kidding around it, "I was just trying to beat Beerus."
"...I figured that'd be the reason," Auris dropped her hands down and said bluntly, "And its a stupid one at that."
"So either its too stupid or too smart-ass for you. So what did you want from me?" Mew bluntly bit back.
"I want you to consider your choices with a little more thought than that. But clearly your fighting instincts overrode any sense of reason you may have had." Auris droned off into a mumble and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth.
Mew arched his brows at her and remarked, "Well maybe if you had given us a heads-up that he was coming we could've been better prepared for him!"
Auris grimaced and then froze up, her eyes blanking out like she was seeing a ghost. Mew stared at those eyes of hers and said, "I mean I get not wanting to throw the future out of whack but I think someone like Beerus warrants a little warning don't you think?"
Auris squeezed her eyes shut and stuttered, "D-Don't try to divert the issue here, Mew. This is the present moment now, so realize your mistake and owe up to it like a person should."
"Mmrrr..." Mew felt uncomfortably pushed into a corner of dishonesty here, "All I was trying to do was..."
With her staring him down he knew he didn't have any free time to come up with a convincing argument. For now, begrudgingly, he closed his eyes and said while rubbing the back of his head, "Fiiiine, I went too far this time. I won't try pulling a stunt like that again."
"You better not, or there might not be anything left of you to salvage next time." Said Auris, rubbing further salt in the wound.
"I'm all done, mom!" Shina broke the gloomy atmosphere with a cheerful entry, upon which Auris stood up with a half-smile and wandered towards the kitchen.
"Thanks for the help, dear. I'll handle the rest and then start preparing dinner."
She patted her on the shoulder and then wandered into the kitchen. Shina, meanwhile, tucked her hands behind her back and strutted on up to the couch in front of Mew to take a seat.
"Heh heh! We haven't gotten to sit and chat for a while, huh?" She said with a beaming smile.
Mew, recovering from the talk he just had, took a moment to pay her any heed, "O-Oh, yeah..."
He looked at her stomach and remarked, "How's the baby doing?"
She rubbed her stomach gently and said, "Still kickin'!"
"That's good to hear. You're like, two months away now right?"
"God, that's going to take forever at this rate!" Shina playfully rolled her eyes and leaned back into the couch, "I just want to shove this little tyke out already and get it over with!"
"Please don't say stuff like that." Mew mumbled meekly.
She giggled with her fingers before her mouth and then rested both hands on her legs, "You really had us worried for a while there, Mew. I mean, ya fought Beerus, the God of Destruction!"
"Yeah well clearly it wasn't my finest moment to some people..." Mew crossed his arms against his chest and sank into the couch, propping his feet up on the table.
"Yeeeeeah well..." Shina awkwardly glanced aside and let out a hiss, "Maybe you shoulda had one of us as back-up?"
"Kairi and Maria TRIED to jump in and help but Whis held them off."
"Oh no kidding?" Shina's eyes lit up in surprise and with a pump of her fist by her chest she grinned.
She then settled back down and giggled, "Sis really likes to keep an eye out for you, that's for sure."
"Maybe a little too much. Sometimes it feels like she's got a chain around my neck..." Mew rubbed his neck and the two of them chuckled.
But then Shina rested a hand upon her cheek, and rubbed it around sighing, "Oh Mew, so naive..."
"Eh?" Mew perked up and Shina immediately jumped at the chance to say "Oh nothing!" to shut him up.
She then clapped her hands down upon her knees and leaned a little closer to say, "I'll give you a hint. She's gotten sick, and you're to blame."
"S-Sick?" Mew stuttered in a panic, "Aw man, I hope Beerus didn't carry a contagious disease to Sancturia..."
"No not like that kinda sick! You know, the other type...?" Shina fiddled her fingers against her chin as Mew sat there staring at her all dumbfounded.
"No, I...don't think I get it." He said.
"Iiiii think you do." Shina said teasingly.
Mew shook his head and uttered "Nope" before shrugging his shoulders.
Shina closed her eyes and while still smiling, started to mumble aloud, "Oh my god there's no way you're this dense."
She laid a hand against the side of her face and sighed, "Darling you give love, a bad name..."
"I can hear you, you know."
Shina's eyes thrust open with a red tint in her cheeks and she quickly brushed her hand up in the air, slapping Mew upside the face with a plank of aura, "Well who asked ya to?!"
"Ow!" Mew rubbed his sore cheek bones.
Shina then let out a frustrated huff and said more hastily, "You do know sis was sitting by ya while you were out, don't you?"
"Yeah yeah Auris told me all about that..." Mew grumbled, "I'm not surprised. Besides, I wasn't out that long..."
Shina sat upright and her sudden silence was unnerving. Her smile turned to a confused pucker and with a tilt of the head she said, "Uhhhh, did mom not tell you how long you were out for?"
"N-Not that long right?"
"Mew, you were out for a year," Shina said in a dismal tone, "This is my second baby, Joe Dark's child."
Mew stared long and hard at Shina and she stared back. He then nudged his brows down and she pouted out in an annoyed tone, "Nothing doing huh?"
"That's not very funny." Mew said coldly.
"Oh fine! You were only out a week." Shina puffed her cheeks and grumbled to herself for a while.
"A week?!" Mew shot upright and then started coughing up dry air, "H-Holy shit, ok, point taken Auris...I'll definitely not try anything crazy like that again. Jesus, an entire week?!"
"I've missed so many shows!" Mew exclaimed, grabbing the sides of his head.
Shina fluttered her eyelashes and chuckled, "A-At least you got your...priorities straight?"
Mew then stared at the ground and thought, "I'm getting distracted here by shenanigans..."
He clapped his cheeks and sat up to look Shina in the eyes, "Hey, Shina."
"That's me! What's up?"
"It kind of occurred to me that I've never heard the full story of you and Alex's travels." Mew slapped his knee and leaned back into the couch.
"Oh, you want to hear a few tales while you relax?"
"Sure, but there's one part I'd like to hear about first," Mew waved his hand out to ask, "Can you tell me what you know about a 'witch'?"
Shina froze entirely, her smile wobbling for just a few brief moments. She then closed her eyes and murmured, "What good's a story where you jump around all the over place? Why don't I start from the beginning?"
Mew shook his head and remarked, "We can get to that later. Its really important I learn more about the 'witch' who targeted you and Alex."
"Is it REALLY?" Shina tilted her head the opposite way, "Don't ya wanna hear about the time we helped Spyro collect some gems?"
"Like I said, later."
Shina curled her fists and a vein popped out of her forehead as she proclaimed, "God Mew I'm being about as subtle as a sledgehammer here, take the friggin' hint!"
Mew jolted upright and Shina slowly settled down with a large sigh. She then shook her head and apologized profusely, "Sorry sorry...I didn't mean to yell but like..."
She opened her eyes and had a melancholic expression as she whispered, "Why'd you have to go and mention that person? I was finally getting over them too..."
Mew sank back into the couch and said, "No I'm the one who should apologize...I figured that whole experience was a bad memory for you."
"But even still..." Mew looked her straight in the eyes, "Its important I know who that 'witch' is."
"...Why?" Shina whispered. Then, taking a deep breath, she rested her hands between her legs and let out a sigh.
"Mew, before we continue this conversation, there's something really, really important I want to say to you. And you gotta promise not to tell anyone else."
"Oooookay?" Mew let her be.
She laid a hand on her chest and remarked, "I've been giving it a lot of consideration about the best way to handle this child after its born. He's gonna grow up without a real father around..."
"Yeah, I think we talked about this before, right?" Mew nodded.
"Well..." Shina perked up with a big bright smile and said, "I...want to name you the kid's godfather."
"..." Mew sat still and heard his heart begin to thump.
"M-Me...?" He let out a short, tense gulp.
"There's no one better that I can think of." She said with a tender smile.
"I mean..." Mew collapsed against the back of the couch letting out a huge puff of air. He then stared up at the ceiling mumbling, "Me...help raise your kid?"
"You do a great job with Maria!" Shina nodded a few times, "Plus you've always been good at listening to people when they need someone to talk to."
"Yeah, but then...that's just another person I'll have to protect," Mew stared at his right hand and found it shaking all on its own. He squeezed it into a fist and couldn't find the strength to smile, "And when I couldn't even beat Beerus, how..."
Mew lifted his head towards Shina and whispered to her, "Thank you."
Shina smiled back.
"But that's just all the more reason why I need to find that 'witch'."
And then she frowned, her eyes sinking in suit.
"Please Shina, can't you just tell me their name?"
"Mew, I..." She shook her head feverishly and then thrust her eyes open with fury, "Absolutely will NOT!"
She squeezed her fists up against the sides of her chest and rose up over him shouting, "Mew, I won't let you go down the same road Alex did! Going after that witch isn't worth it! So just drop it, ok?!"
Her voice blended together timidness, fear and confidence all into one sentence, and through it carried a great power. But that wasn't enough. It could never BE enough, to stop Mew down his determined path.
Yet he acknowledged the strength of her conviction and tried to reassure her, "I'm not going to suffer the same fate as him, that'd be stupid."
"YOU'RE being stupid!" And just like that she quickly devolved into being childish, albeit an emotion that's likely been influenced by her pregnancy, "You're not Alex! If you die, you die! That's it! No resets, no 1-UPs, nothing will bring you back!"
She then threw her fists down and leaned in to scream, "And if you do anything to make sis cry again I'm going to hound your ass to Hell and kick it a thousand times over!"
She then flinched in pain and slowly sat herself back on the couch going "Ow ow ow" over and over while rubbing her belly.
Mew just sat there flat out and saw Shina going through some labored breathing for a bit.
"What's going on here?" Auris suddenly walked into the room and Mew felt a chill down his spine.
Shina raised her head and shouted, "Mom, can you slap the stupid out of Mew for me?"
"Actually, I need you to go back to the store for a minute. I forgot the onions."
"You did? Mom!"
"I know, I know, its very unlike me..." Auris sighed in embarrassment.
Shina jolted right back up and proudly said, "Well don't worry, leave it to me!"
And she was right out the door without another word.
Mew blinked a couple times then felt a whip crack at the back of his head that knocked it over.
"OW!" He grabbed the back of his head and saw Auris wandering past shaking her right hand out.
"Perhaps that will put your brain back in alignment." She said coldly as she took a seat back on the couch.
He sat up, grit his teeth and muttered, "Did you have to hit so hard though?"
"Frankly you deserved a harder hit to the skull after what you were saying to Shina." Auris remarked, her motherly instincts kicking in full force here.
Mew grimaced and hissed through his teeth, "Ooooh you heard all that..."
"Hard not to when I hear her screaming and begging for you not to go after that 'witch'," Auris shook her head and muttered aloud, "I tolerated your ridiculous behavior in the past out of necessity for the future but now you're testing my patience, Mew."
"When did you suddenly develop a death wish, hmmm?" Auris gave him a few seconds to respond and than snapped her fingers sharp enough to make him flinch, "You're trying to contend with powers you can't even begin to fathom let alone want to piss off."
"...Yeah, I sort of got that from what Justek and Beerus were saying," Mew said with a sigh, "Its not what you think though. I'm not trying to find the 'witch' or the 'higher-ups' to fight them."
"...Oh, this isn't just about the 'witch' then," Auris narrowed her eyes and her voice got cold and angry, "You're after 'them' too."
She summed it all up as "Ridiculous" and shook her head in disappointment, "How did you even hear about 'them'? Did that mangy cat run his mouth?"
"No?" Mew gestured his hand out and said, "I heard it from a guy called the Chronicler years ago. Beerus and Justek sort of just helped me remember them."
"Of course..." Grumbled Auris, bridging her hands over her mouth.
"From what I understand the Elemental Overlord knew them, so...It sounds like you did too."
"I never met them personally but I knew them through my husband..." Auris shook her head and murmured, "And the visions of the futures they've destroyed..."
Auris glared his way and asked, "Does that not register in your empty head, Mew? These beings are capable of destroying universes. Not worlds, not galaxies, not cosmos, ENTIRE universes. And they can do so on a whim."
"Yeah but still-"
She suddenly punched the table and looked towards him with her eyes flared open larger than they've ever gotten.
"Listen here, Mew Whiter," Auris spoke stern and quiet towards him, "You cannot beat me in a battle of attrition. No matter how long you keep this conversation going my stance will NOT change, and the name of the 'witch' you want to hunt shall remain locked up behind my lips beyond your reach, even after you've grown old and died. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?"
Mew glared back at her but felt his body pull back in retreat all on its own. He gripped the edge of the couch until his fingernails dug in and then shook his head.
"Loud and clear, but quite frankly..." Mew flared his eyes open and told her, "I'm not going to stop, just cause you asked."
"...!" Auris gasped and her pupils shrank with fury, her fist shaking on the table.
He then crossed his arms against his chest and told her, "You don't understand how important this is for me to do."
She grit her teeth and turned away muttering, "Of course I can't..."
She stared him straight in the face yelling, "Its completely incomprehensible why you'd even consider going down such a futile path!"
"...Its not futile. I've survived everything the universe has thrown at me. Black holes, Gods of Destruction, reality-consuming leviathans..."
"There's a point where luck isn't good enough anymore," Auris narrowed her eyes and asked, "And when it fails you, will you be able to laugh in Death's face? I doubt it."
"Why are you so antsy all of a sudden, Auris?" Mew plopped his heels up on the table and scoffed, "You already know what's going to happen, right?"
Auris grimaced, her eyes widening in a rather blatant manner, as she quickly went silent and turned her head away, hung in shame.
"..." Mew slowly sat up and stared at her, prompting her to turn her head further away and brush a hand up beside her cheek.
"..." Mew narrowed his eyes and stood up, approaching her from the front and leaning down to stare directly at her face. She pulled away some more, but it was too late.
Mew took a close enough look at her eyes to finally see that something looked off about them, and in truth, that they had been this way for a while now...He had just never given it any thought until now.
"...Auris, you...Can still see the future, right?"
Auris forced a smile and let out a dry "Hmph!" before resting a hand on the other side of her face and stroking her fingers through her hair.
"So you've seen me vulnerable, and you believe that makes you right?" Auris stood up and gave Mew an aside glance, "That's right. I've been unable to see the future for a while now."
Mew crossed his arms and wondered, "How?"
"That's none of your business." She shut him down immediately while facing him directly.
Then, like a flash of lightning, her hand blistered him across the cheek. And while he was stunned she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, reminding him that bundled underneath all her robes was an amazonian build.
"Did that take you by surprise?" She said with a playful giggle.
"OF COURSE IT DID!" Mew shouted angrily.
"Now take that feeling of surprise and multiply it a millionfold," Auris glared into his eyes, "That's the level of stress my body's been enduring ever since I was cut off from seeing the future. Every waking moment my body is tense with concern about what might come next. I used to dread what I could see and now I dread that which I cannot see, and the fear is a exponentially worse than you could possibly imagine."
"So when I see you fighting Beerus, or making light of going after the 'witch' and even the 'higher-ups', I feel all those fears come crashing down on top of me all at once, crushing me into oblivion."
She crushed his shirt in her hand and pulled him in inches from her face, "Right now is the only point in time where you're weak enough for me to stop you from making a terrible mistake that'll end us all! So I don't care if I have to meticulously break every bone in your body or make you comatose again to do it, I will NOT let you go off on some damn witch hunt!"
"DO. I. MAKE. MYSELF. CLEAR?!"
With his heart beat and breathing rapid Mew kept his eyes focused deep in Auris' pupils. He saw two-thousand years of pent up rage burning outward at him, and behind it, a wetness swelling in her eyes.
"I just," Mew grit his teeth and whispered, "Wanted to protect everyone..."
"..." Auris closed her damp eyes and let him go. He stumbled back, falling onto his butt.
She tightened her fist by her hip and used her sleeve to dry her eyes. By the time Mew stood up she was already turned around, making her way towards the door.
She glanced over her shoulder to whisper "There's something you need to see" before taking one step out the door.
Without hesitation Mew followed her out with his hands in his pockets. His legs felt like crap but he knew bitching about it would earn him another slap.
And it wasn't a short walk either. They were going all the way to the opposite side of Sancturia, where the temple they first met at lied...
The place still looked like crap, but that was never going to change.
Auris silently pushed the door open and they wandered through the dust-filled insides. Finally she stopped at the back wall and rested her hand against a pressure plate hidden among the architecture. Suddenly another part of the wall pulled back, revealing a secret passage.
Mew's eyes widened and Auris prompted him towards it with, "Follow me."
It was surprisingly narrow and lightly lit, with no dust in sight, meaning it had been used recently. At the end of the hall was an enclosed room glowing with torch alight altars.
And in the center of the room was a slightly bigger altar, which Auris plunged her hand down into the flame lighting it up. Mew cringed even knowing that she'd be ok. Then, he heard a click.
The altar let out a depressurizing hiss and rose out of the ground, carrying up a hefty chunk with it. There was a large, rectangular glass case containing a brown and gold coffin, perfectly preserved in both beauty and structure.
Once her hand healed she placed it on top of the glass case while Mew wandered closer, hesitating to put his own hand down.
"I feel something...familiar in this coffin. Like I've sensed this once before..."
Auris closed her eyes and remarked softly, "You know who this is, don't you."
"Inside this coffin, is my husband's body."
Mew reeled back with goosebumps all over his skin. He slowly turned to Auris and gasped, "H-How is that...possible?"
"...The story goes that the Elemental Overlord was punished for a terrible sin and forced to lose his body," Auris turned to face the coffin and softly stroked it, "And that's not a lie, its just not the full truth."
"His soul was extracted from his body and placed inside the Genesis Orb until the day his successor would appear to claim it, and the powers within. And with his body empty, I carried I back with me to Sancturia, placing it inside of this coffin that has preserved its condition for two-thousand years."
Mew stared longingly at the coffin some more and then looked puzzled at Auris. She was staring at the coffin so deeply that it seemed like it wouldn't be possible to grab her attention anymore.
"..." Mew put his hand on the coffin and closed his eyes, finding he could sense a trace of elemental energy within the body.
They were there for quite a bit before Mew felt the courage to speak up, "You're preserving him? Why?"
Auris hummed and her hand began to glide to the edge of the coffin, uttering a single word, "Hope."
"Or rather...the hope of a scared, broken little girl..." Her tone went somber, "She wanted to believe in a potential future where her lover's soul could be returned to his body...That the ones who doled the punishment would be punished instead."
"But all she saw was the emptiness of destruction staring her back at the end of every road. The enemy can not be beaten. Attempting to do so will end the universe she and her lover were in."
"And so the last traces of hope were squeezed out of her, leaving nothing but a bitter shell that could only march forward on an empty road."
"Mmm..." Mew looked at Auris for a moment and then faced the coffin yet again. With a heavy feeling in his heart he reminded her, "Not to mention when Alex died..."
Her face curdled and Mew sucked his lips in murmuring, "N-Never mind."
She pulled her hand away and said, "Yes you are...right. They are gone. They are never coming back."
Her tone was odd, like she was trying to accept that, but somehow...She wasn't? She was clearly in a bad state emotionally so he wasn't going to say anything about it.
She then turned sideways and locked eyes with Mew, her hand firmly atop the glass. And, without any condescension, she spoke to him slowly, and gently, "Sarajin's life goal was to protect everyone. He couldn't accept a world where everyone wasn't happy or at peace with themselves."
Mew felt a twinge in his heart and a curling sensation in his stomach.
"And the 'higher-ups' exploited his good-nature, working him tirelessly across many worlds until he was broken and worthless to them."
Her fingers subtly curled into a fist and she took a brief knock at the glass, turning up the sternness in her voice a little bit, "He saved countless lives, but what was his reward for all that he did? Not a grand welcome in the afterlife. No burial surrounded by loved ones. No triumph on a grand battlefield against an insurmountable foe..."
"He was made hollow, his soul confined to a prison of glass, and then a prison of destructive flames."
"You think you can find glory in being an Elemental Overlord?" Auris scoffed, "There's none of that in this role. There NEVER was. Your name is hated by many across the galaxy. Suffering and hatred from the past will follow you around every turn. And you can never turn your arms against the ones who cursed you with his fate, unless you wish to lose everything you ever cherished."
"This..." She pointed to the coffin, "Is the end of your story."
"..." Mew made an idle glance at the coffin...and shook his head.
"You and Justek both have said I'm...similar to the Elemental Overlord. But there's one major difference..." Mew put his hand on his chest proudly, "I'm still here. I'm still fighting the good fight."
Auris' eyes widened with a closed gasp.
"I never got to know Sarajin. I wish I could've...He sounded like a great guy," Mew turned to look down at the coffin, "But I don't think he regrets the life he led. Part of me feels he's smiling right now..."
Auris' hands slowly reached up for her face, cupping over her mouth.
Mew stared at her and closed his eyes, shaking his head, "And he entrusted us to keep that dream alive. And if he did that knowing who the 'higher-ups' and what they were capable of, then maybe there's a chance that-"
"STOP!" Auris gasped, tears wrenched from her eyes.
Mew stared blankly at her quivering hands being pulled away from her face.
"I-I can only hear my husband's voice coming out of you...! And no matter what I say or what I do, you won't change your mind at all...!" Her voice's usual confidence was gone.
She was scared, fully losing herself to fear, powerlessness, and rage.
"What do I have to do to stop you from walking the same path as him? Is it not enough to watch your loved one die once? Must you make me suffer that again?!" Auris pushed forward and slammed her fists against Mew's chest, staring deeply into his eyes, "And would you inflict that pain onto Kairi too?!"
"N-No...I wouldn't...I would never..."
"You have so many people who care about you...! Isn't that ENOUGH for you?!"
"I..."
"Swear to me that you won't go after the 'witch'! Or the 'higher-ups', or anyone close to them again! Forget Beerus! Forget Justek! Forget all of it!" She grit her teeth and draped herself against Mew's body like she was attempting a hug, "You've fought enough...Please just live the rest of your life peacefully..."
Mew's heart sank and for the first time, he felt his determination waver.
He was seeing one of the strongest people he knew breaking down in front of him. Because of what HE was trying to do. She was so miserable and ugly with her tear-ridden face that he didn't know how to help her. HE was the one feeling powerless. And god help him, if this decision to pursue the 'higher-ups' hurt HER that much...How devastated would the rest of his friends and family be?
"...I can't do this."
It was true what Auris said. She would always win a battle of attrition. Both physically...and emotionally.
Mew put a hand on the back of her head and held it against his warm chest.
"Ok. I promise not to get involved anymore."
She slowly pulled her head back and with a fond sniffle she smiled and said, "Thank you...You don't know how much that means to me."
It had been a long last few days...or rather a week at this point. But Mew had reached a conclusion, reluctant as he was to accept it. Maybe it was just time to stop fighting, and settle down. Or least, give some greater thought towards his future than what he had done so far.
After Auris wiped her face dry she let the coffin sink back into the ground, and the two walked out of the temple, leaving the past behind...And moving towards the future.
STORY 9: Destructive Impulses END
NEXT: Story 10: In Times of Peace