~ Xenoblade Chronicles X
The day everything ended began with a splitting migraine.
Maribel's powers had been kept hidden, both by herself and by people who refused to acknowledge what laid beyond the realms of the known, by her sickly nature. More often than not, her bouts of 'illness' were merely the results of her power taking a toll on her physical and mental state, directly or indirectly. Once she had been sent to a sanatorium because she had accidentally gotten infected from a cut inflicted on her by a monster. None of the orderlies had believed in her. In that sense, Maribel wasn't a sickly woman.
In the more practical sense, she was. She'd gotten better about controlling her powers, but not perfect. Some nights she would dream of places she hadn't meant to, spiriting herself away. Some days she would wake up untethered from the world. If it hadn't been for Renko by her side all these years, Maribel knew that she would've simply become another forgotten missing person.
Today she woke up with a headache so splitting that it robbed her even of the ability to go back to bed. She cracked open her eyes and the gentle light of the morning that filtered through the bedroom might as well have been red hot needles. Even after Renko closed the blinds, Maribel's vision swam with zig zagging lines. She couldn't tell if they were boundaries or not.
Renko eventually had to leave, at Maribel's behest. Klaus had become draconian, and Renko had already gotten in shouting matches with him. He was nearing the edge of his patience, apparently. Galea and Renko both were stymying his progress with a dangerous experiment. Maribel wouldn't put it past him to put Renko's position aboard Rhadamanthus in danger if she was late. In any case, Maribel was feeling better now. Dizzy, nauseous, and tired. But nothing major.
Renko had only left after much wheedling, and finally Maribel threatening her.
Hours later, Maribel fell to the floor as Rhadamanthus shook. Pain once more threatened to split her head. Her vision became white, and then black speckled with countless stars. She saw, for a brief instance, the Sirens that guarded Rhadamanthus fighting back against an invading force.
Rhadamanthus shook once more. Elysium's alarms began to blare, which didn't help her headache. Maribel would only learn much, much later that the Saviorites, a faction of Realians who chaffed under the abuses of their kind by humanity, had launched an attack on Rhadamanthus.
She wouldn't remember quite what had happened later. There was screaming. Crowds of people trying to get to the escape pods. Elysium in disarray, Paradise thrown into pandemonium. It was miraculous that Maribel had managed to push past all of that as she made her way towards the labs. She couldn't remember how she had done it.
She collapsed in the middle of a deserted metal hallway. Rhadamanthus shuddered under her fingertips, and Maribel swallowed back bile. The pain came in waves, so great that she had to stop herself from bashing her head into the wall just to make it stop. She felt hot and cold, and her vision kept going white.
She was so close.
When her vision came back, she was no longer in her body. She stood, incorporeal, in the middle of the lab.
"No! The results have not been confirmed! It's too dangerous!"
Doctor Galea marched past bewildered lab technicians. On her heels was a furious Renko, who stopped as she caught sight of Maribel. She was the only one to see her.
"Merry…?" Renko asked, stunned.
Professor Klaus stood over the keyboard of the Trinity Processor. The three gems gleamed in the computer. A maniacal grin broke his face.
"Ridiculous!" he barked out as Galea grabbed him and tried to bodily pull him away. "It's perfectly safe!"
Maribel could only see Renko out of the corner of her eyes. She was frozen in place. Beyond the glass pane Klaus stood in front of was Everything. A cross of golden, blinding light. Maribel couldn't tear herself away from it, even as every instinct in her screamed to run in the face of such absolute power.
"We are about the bear witness to the birth of a Universe!" Klaus snarled, pushing Galea bodily to the floor. Renko tore her gaze away from the frozen Maribel and ran towards Klaus.
"Once, only a God could perform such a miracle!" Klaus said, typing away at the Trinity Processor. "But today, Mankind moves one step closer to the Divine!"
"Stop! Klaus-!" Galea cried as she scrambled to her feet. Renko was seconds away from tackling Klaus when he pushed the button.
Maribel felt Everything shudder. The golden cross shone. The Trinity Processor shone in turn. Ontos' red crystal turned orange as the stress of Klaus' experiment taxed the Trinity Processor.
The golden cross opened its eye. A single emerald pupil stared down at Maribel, before closing once more. Finally, she could move.
Renko hauled Klaus up with her as she stood up. The entire world shuddered as Klaus' experiment ran its course.
"What have you done!?" she demanded, holding him by the collar of his shirt. Klaus bared his teeth and pushed her away. Maribel caught her, and Renko turned around.
"Merry!" she cried. "What-?"
There was no time.
With the last of her strength, Maribel shoved Renko away as
the world
shattered
…
..
.
The star said, "I Am Monado."
In the golden light of a nascent universe, an emerald star shone. It twinkled, as the light of creation coalesced into an endless sea. The emerald star watched, red core pulsing, as from the depths of the sea sprung two great Titans.
The star said, "I Was Here At The Beginning."
At once the larger of the two, a Titan made entirely of metal and stone, swung at its counterpart, a great sword of stone and steel in its hands. The smaller of the two, made entirely of flesh and blood, blocked it with a blade made of pure light.
The star said, "And I Will Proclaim The End."
