Previously:
"Insolent Bitch!" The South cries as the looks at the mass of rubble which may or may not contain the East.
"You bet your glowing non-corporeal ass," Jilan says back and holds her axe at the ready.
--
Another cry of anguish and anger rips out of the South. She makes a slash motion in the air with her arm and a streak of red illuminates and blinds them all for a moment.
"Jilan!" Pizoku blinks when his sight comes back and sees Ashlee running towards the fallen figure of the blond girl. All sense of feeling seems to drain from him as he looks down at her unblinking blue eyes. Ma'at is trying to climb out of the crater but Raul holds her back. Pizoku is dimly aware of his mother's hands pulling him to her.
--
"You incur the wrath, you face the consequences!" Pizoku looks back up at the advancing form of the angry Representative of the South. Ashlee glares up at her as the South makes to strike her down. Then there is silence. And stillness.
Ashlee seems to understand as she gives the South a hard look. "Try to keep that in mind."
--
They all watch as she flies upwards into the air, high into the sky where storm clouds have gathered. They can just see her glowing figure; they can hear her shrieking. Then the lightning comes, from all directions, converging on her in an intense electric fury that makes them all cower. Pizoku finds that as much he wants to he cannot look away.
Then there is an explosion, an impossible force sends a shockwave outwards. Ashlee flings herself over the body of Jilan. Pizoku covers his mother as the massive force sweeps past them and they feel the sand dust over their bodies with stinging fury. Then it's over.
--
He turns and watches as they walk over to where Ashlee still kneels beside Jilan. Kha'lei bends down and lifts the Bajoran girl up in his arms and stands. He turns and walks back the way he came, not once glancing at the others around him. Pizoku watches as Ashlee follows him closely, her head held high. She carries the axe with its blade facing forwards and she moves quickly to walk in front of Kha'lei, slicing a path through the dust.
--
He thinks back to their first meeting, just a few days ago in New York. She had been teasing but kind, playful. She had been inquisitive. She had been protective. Pizoku begins to feel something, unfortunately it leans towards Less Safe.
Episode One Hundred and One
"Rhapsody in P"
A Pleasantly pungent perfume permeates the pristine peacefulness of the Night. Sengemo of Nine perceives with placid pride the panoply of playfully prancing pink pachyderms that pace and promenade through the plants and the palms ahead.
Sengemo pauses to ponder the preternatural powers placed upon her by the Great One. They have proved to be practically paramount in pacifying the panic and pandemonium of the people that previously had to be punished for their perversion.
But the village was put down and placed under the preponderation of the Way. Sengemo's purpose continued to prevail over the peevish peons. The Paradise of the Great One would soon be perpetual, she is positive of this point.
She presides over the parade of pink elephants which persists onwards. Her senses press her to peer West. A strange pulsating perception paralyzes her in place.
The piercing trumpeting of elephants overshadows the screaming of the petrified people as the Shockwave plows over the village in India. Sengemo can perceive it, the Wrath of the One. She is perturbed and palpitates and then falls prostrate.
The village is pulverized, the elephants are pitched over and the plants as far as the eye can peer are planed to the ground. Thus is the product of the Shockwave.
Meanwhile, in the Dust that once was Heliopolis
Pizoku keeps his eyes on the glow of Neah as he and his mother walk through the unmoving dust that was once the ruins of Heliopolis. The shock of the loss of Jilan still numbs him so that he isn't entirely aware of his surroundings. So when he begins to slip about as he walks he is taken by complete surprise.
Izanami looks at the shining white surface with shock. "Why is there ice?"
"The Nile briefly diverted," Neah replies without turning around. "Then it froze."
Pizoku barely registers this rather vague explanation. He is too busy staring in slightly detached fear at the figures of the Great One and his two Nine guards.
"They aren't attacking." Raul sounds more than a little surprised and edgy. "Why aren't they attacking?"
Izanami grasps onto her son's arm as they all stare. "Because they can't," Pizoku realizes. "Time is standing still."
Ma'at does not look at the Great One. Instead she stares at Taylor who seems to be the controlling force behind the time freeze. "This is his doing, isn't it?" She asks Neah, who has slowed down to observe. "What is he to possess this power?"
"Everyone possesses this power," Neah proclaims firmly. "He just has abilities that let him wield it differently."
Ma'at surveys the surrounding area as she considers Neah's words. "He destroyed Heliopolis," She points out.
"Not all of it," Neah counters as the come close to the Arch of Stone.
Pizoku watches the energy ripple in the middle of the arch. "The Portal."
Izanami gasps. "Naoki!" Naoki Takenouchi stands beside the portal waiting with Reese. She runs over to him and they embrace.
Pizoku watches this and then notices Ashlee walk through the portal. "We're going?"
Neah looks on as her brother carries Jilan into the energy field. "Can you think of a reason to stay?"
"What about them?" Raul asks as he looks to the Great One and the Nines.
Taylor is the one who speaks. "The Great One is regaining." His voice sounds strained or restrained, Pizoku can't really discern which. He watches his parents ushered through the portal by Reese. "We must leave quickly."
Pizoku looks at Neah and to Reese. "What do we do now?" No one answers.
To Be Continued...
