by Louis IX
Check first chapter for disclaimer and global warnings.
Gaslighting UndineThis is the story of Undine, a gentle girl who had one friend… and lost her. Not to death, but worse, in a way: she was betrayed. After the summer camp she spent further down the coast, she found Emily, her friend, siding with an unknown girl and mocking her.
Worse, when she entered high school those two were there already, and started mocking her there as well, using as ammunitions secrets she had shared with Emily. The two girls, the second of which she ended learning the forename of (as being Sonia), quickly gathered a like-minded posse, the first of which named Madeline. And with the others, those three started demolishing Undine's life.
At the beginning, she hoped that the responsible adults would see what happened, and act. She noticed that a few did see. But none acted. By the time she thought to act herself, she was already so far down the school's totem pole that even the administrative personnel thought she was an attention-seeking liar – because, yes, it is possible to hurt yourself in the pursuit of attention.
Reminds you of something? It should. The pivotal moment is even almost the same, and occurred when the Trio of Witches (with a bee) cast a spell on her, or something like that: pushing her into a locker filled with refuse, in the farthest recess the school had, they locked her there… and left her.
Without much in terms of openings, the piece of furniture acted much like a coffin, and Undine passed out. And she got to dream.
In her dream (or, shall we say, a nightmare), she was living a relatively decent life, up to her best (and only) friend abandoning her before tormenting her. In her dream, she was called Taylor Hebert, Emily was Emma, Sonia was Sophia, and Madeline was Madison. In her dream, she becomes a hard-ass hero, and saves the Earth from Scion's destruction.
The dream is so vivid that she was sure she had lived it. Or that she had the front row in that hero's head. Whichever the case, it creates quite the disconnect when she awakens. She thinks herself as being Taylor Hebert for a while, only that she had been pulled into a parallel universe.
Or in Hell – what else could emulate her trigger event so identically? Although… it wasn't tampons and other used sanitary products, emptied in the dusty corridor by the rusted locker finally giving up the ghost after decades of disuse. It was bones. As if she had been locked in with dead animals.
Was she dead, herself? How much time did she really spend, in that locker? What could have caused so much rust, and dust? She looked at herself and noticed that her body was emaciated, and her hair white. But she was still the small girl she had always been – was her life as Taylor imagined so as to live as a tall person, something she had dreamed, at times? She thanked her lucky star that she didn't envy men like some of her peers did, because she didn't fancy spending Taylor's life with that added burden.
Dead or not, she could still hear, and noticed that there was much noise outside. With reflexes acquired in a life not her own, she made her way towards it… and noticed that there were many capes, out there, fighting one of the biggest threats she had ever imagined: an Endbringer.
And, as the parahumans died by the dozen, she felt herself rejuvenate quickly, losing as many years of apparent old age in the process… and gaining ghosts. Or fairies. How do you call the translucent beings who looked like capes and who could unleash their power upon your command? She called them fairies. And with the behemoth outside mowing through them, she was quickly back to her younger appearance (thankfully not regressing further).
Thankfully, Scion arrived soon afterwards, his energy beams undeterred by the Endbringer as they slammed into it, throwing it back until it disappeared. And then the golden fool flies away, without rhyme or reason. Undine wonders if it's the same representation of the depressed planetary-sized worm like the one Taylor fought. Having had that dream really cast everything under a veil of doubt. Was the PRT corrupt? Was Cauldron a reality?
She looked around and noticed that some of the heroes fighting the "good fight" had stances that reminded her of the people she used to dislike, both in her dream and in her life before her own version of the coffin-like locker. One was Sonia/Sophia, her black costume and cape hiding her skin. Another was Emily/Emma, who looked like she could throw gem-like grenades. The third was Madeline/Madison, who could fly on a rainbow of glitter. She attacked them on sight.
Sonia didn't attack back, for some reason. Emily only smiled sadly, backing away slowly. Madeline only shook her head sadly. When the other heroes assembled, all weapons drawn, Undine understood her mistake: really, attacking capes during an Endbringer truce! Who did she think she was, Taylor Hebert?
Words and sentences like "She's mad." echoed around her, not even transmitted with powers. Perhaps she was. Or perhaps she was just someone who had been kicked into the deep end of the pool and just didn't drown. Despite her ability to teleport, displayed when she joined the group, she didn't resist when they surrounded her with containment foam and then transported her into the Birdcage – the prison for parahumans. Apparently, her attacking three Wards was cause for getting a strike for each, and three such strikes meant she was out.
But she didn't care. In the prison, she reaped the powers of anyone who died, and was able to show enough strength to ensure some veneer of civilization among the captives. She had work to do, to really discern if her dream and this world were the same or not. And to ensure that nobody could ever try to pin a stake through her heart – given that she triggered in a coffin-like piece of furniture, and that she seemed immortal, she thought that Vampire would be her cape name.
Instead, they called her Glaistig Uaine.
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To be continued… dyslexically