(Continued)
The spunky blue and white skunk diving deep beneath the crimson seas, coming upon the sunken fortress...the unleashing of a magic unknown to him. Then a flash to the colored forests where the winged wonders lay to rest...the fae of her rarest dreams, leading the skunk to the great egg-shaped prison. A battle with the tentacled beast of her horrid day visions...the cracking of the egg. A face she thought would never be seen again...
A brief moment passed, when she remembered her reaction to this...when she caused such commotion over nothing, her fears and her doubts coming forth in full. Her nude bathing with a new interest...the commotion when her beloved returned to their palace. Something inside her broke that moment...she reclaimed the fears she held as a child, became nothing more than heap of tears and sorrow...her worst nightmare come to pass. Yet they came to her rescue...the dragon-princess from a realm not too different from her own...the fanciful skunk and even the man from the border of dimensions...ones she had abducted, ones she had enslave in her realm...came to her aid in her time of need. If only she'd seen this sooner...
"M'love..do you understand...?" That soft voice again, not beside her...yet...within. She could not see herself or her love, merely the visions...
"I-I still do not understand why you torture me with this.."
"....Keep watch...you shall soon dicover truth." At his words, another flash...she was standing in her palae, amongst the blackened marble, her gaurdian keeping watch...his great form quickly mutating from throne to living beast of lore. The dragon she named Drekh....bestowing him with all the knowledge she possessed and all the power to protect her lest she be unable. He seemed perplexed...a bit unnerved as well. Ah, it came to her then...Mitra, the wretched insect...she had taken advantage of her Goddess' weakness and enslaved her in an uncharted area of the realm. Mar was in turmoil then...all of her minions gathered in this single room to speak with the grand Oracle, to figure the puzzle and save their Mistress. The transformations had been completed long before...the skunk became a dark and deeply unhinged winged wolf...bent on the destruction of all things living with no way to sate his hunger. The beautiful dragon princess became much smaller in size, far less attractive and in serious lack of her once great powers...bestowed with only wings as consolation. The man from the border of demensions was unchanged, yet sticken with pain and confusion for the new love he'd aquired...for she now was missing, and the realm he'd began to consider home was crumbling before him. Yet they listened to the dragon, they followed the hybrid he sent them to and they trecked across the uncharted area, to a world they never expected to find..only to save the one whom had done these terrible things to them, who had taken their forms, their lives and altered them forever...and they battled her demons for her...the demons...the red dragon...ANONN!...
"You said you were not there to harm them, why did you attack!?"
"M'love..keep watching..these memories are not merely yours and difficult to reproduce...please cooperate.."
"How dare you-" Another flash...inside the all too colorful castle...within the rubber room...the damned fae, her high-pitched laughter ringing throughout her Goddess' ears as she lay helpless and shackled in blinding tears. This image creating such pain within her...as she remembered those moments alone with her creation...her first born of the Catalyst...the device she built to change beings based on their desires, no matter how vile. This creature she once considered a daughter...one to love her...one to care for her in all things forever now held her in misery while she pondered control of her realm. Mitra...you wretch. The spikes came then, those images, the memories...the spikes along the faerie's arms, her legs, her hair...digging into her Goddess' as she lashed out at her...in anger, in jealousy, whatever the reason...she held nothing back. A void within her spread at that moment, she grew to beg for an end, to sacrifice all she'd come to adore would mean nothing if only the pain would cease...Dyre...the Dark Goddess...was afraid...afraid of this miniscule creature she had created...and was begging for a death that would never come.
"Stop...please...just stop showing me this.."
"Keep watch love...it shall end soon...just keep watch"
Outside the castle...the dragon princess and the lupine fought against who they assumed to be their enemy...they blamed everything upon him...the raven-haired demon upon the red dragon. Yet, the demon never truly attacked back. She had not been witness to this battle, all she had were the words of her minions to go by. Anonn had not attacked with full force, through the battle he wished to tell them he was there to assist...yet they would not have and persisted...where stood her new love...who had taken her heart from him? These were all he wished answers to...none came, he nearly destroyed them by only fending them off. Then leaving in dispair, he watched from afar as they discovered the true issue and bottled the fae for her deeds. Another flash took her into Anonn's lair...deep within the crimson sea, within a bubble of shadow he sat upon a throne of bones...a smile crossed her face at this image, remember when they created this space together...for when he wished to be alone. She had thought it destroyed..yet there he was, seated beside his new pet dragon...whom he captured after the foolhardy hybrid Dyre had sent for ran through the Catalyst without thought...only to be transformed and stripped of all his majesty. Anonn sat upon the throne and spoke aloud to the dragon beside him, 'I slept for ages within that prison, and for what reason? Punishment for speaking my mind? For asking my love to end her ways? Requesting just a moment of peace from all the death?...I nearly rotted within that blasted egg, praying that she would be transformed once I emerged, that her days of bedding every man, woman, beast she met outside her realm were over, that she would cease this idiocy of creating an army...that she would end her ways...and when I am released, thinking freedom and peace were in the midst, I come to find it was premature, and she has found a new love..one she claims more allegiance to than myself? She has been betrayed by her own and turned to a heap of emotion...yet for me there is no forgiveness, I who wished to save her alongside the others, I who wished for only an eternity of love with my Goddess by my side...I shall stop her, I must...she will be set free of this hunger...this dark lust she has aquired. My love...I come for you soon....I only beg you not to greet me with hate.'
The next flash sent her to the battle...her minions fighting with full force, sending her to the silver waters while hitting Anonn with a ball of light that for all purposes should have killed him there. They were wounded, nearly dead, she was sent into a coma...and the war had only begun.
"Are you saying this was all for naught? That battle with you was futile? You came to save me? What wretched lies!"
"Will you be silent woman and watch!"
From the darkness, he emerged...as the Goddess slowly woke from her deep sleep to the comforting eyes of her white knight and the dark fae flew freely about the realm again, released by her very enemy the winged lupine, a new evil approached. Dyre had unknowingly called to him...as darkness filled her upon waking...the fear she loathed returned. Her minions had grown apart from her...those who'd saved her seemed distant now. The sight of him, eyes of ebon, skin of ivory...his raven hair cut short and slightly spiked...he had anger in his voice and despair in his eyes as he called to her, his mother.
"...Daemon... Why bring him into this? His presence made no difference..."
"Ah, but it did, my love...for you called to him as a savior...what came instead? To the point, what came after?"
"...My precious jewel...my dark angel..."
Upon a cracked tombstone amidst the shadows of night and the scent of fresh dirt, she sat curled around a dying rose...crimson tears streaming down her snow white face. Voices within her mind screamed, the visions came so fierce...her mother was in danger...and not an ounce of remorse was felt in her now empty shell. Yet she looked up to the high moons..bathing in their serene blue light...and she prayed...to her grandparents...to her families high above the heavens...and the answer came to her, in the dead of night...she heard a voice she had not heard in centuries and it sounded cold and frightened. A whisper to the winds was her only response, 'Mother...I am coming..'
It had begun that moment, the fae had joined with her nemesis and they had plotted to never allow another overthrowing of their Mistress...The lupine had not enjoyed his loss of power, nor his brush with his past, while the Goddess weakened, he also weakened and so did the world he now lived within. These were unaceptable possibilities and he vowed never to allow them again...the one responsible was discovered, the one whom returend the Goddess to emotion...and let free her fear...allowed her to become vulnerable. Posing a pact with the fae may have been a rough decision to make, yet he had no choice...she was the only one cruel enough to agree to this, and crazy enough to make it work. She called more to their side and began the ripple that caused a tidal wave of ruin....
"I knew they plotted against him, I was not that naive...yet they fought the wrong enemy, they should have been fighting me!"
"M'love..why did you fall for that cad anyhow? Was it the mere differences? Was he just unique enough to keep you from thinking of me?...He had you pegged for conquering from the start...and you allowed it. You let down your gaurd and fell in love with the wrong outsider. I sat by and watched as you romanced the amazon, as she broke your heart and you made her the tiny wretch she is now. I sat idly by and allowed you to take the englishman from a mortal time long forgotten and suck every ounce of his soul from his body, confusing him in ways no being should be subject to, as you took his form and combined it with anything you could find to punish him for- what was it again? Looking at that barmaid? I sat in your bed for hours on end, stark naked and full of love to share while you slept about demensions trying to escape me! You actually cared about someone...you knew I owned your heart, your soul...I had control of your emotion and this frightened you...so you find some reject from a rip in dimensions to coddle?...You were given your just dues when he opened your heart as I once had...yet this time you were not prepared, you were not as comfortable..and you fell to ruin because of it. You let another in and look what has happened? They had every right to turn on him, if only you'd seen it sooner, if only you hadn't sent them for me...you would have seen this!"
The visions fade and she finds herself in a white room alone...with Anonn standing before her.
"I..I have no time for this! A battle wages on and more have arrived, yes the arrival of our children did take me by surprise, the fact that they too wished my new love's demise caused issues...but I have not chosen the wrong side...I fight for love now, Anonn...not power."
"Bullshit...I may have slept for the majority of a mellenia, but I was not born yesterday, Dyre. You knwo of your faults and you know what decision there is to make now...a battle does wage on, but it is not outside this haven I've created...it is within you. Become what you were meant to be and end this! I did not try to keep you from being yourself those many years ago, love. I tried to keep you from destroying yourself. You have grown, you no longer seek to fill the void inside with sex and mortal vulgarities...you have come to a crossroads...you're lost..and too full of pride to admit it. I am trying to help you find yourself, I can assist you if you would merely let me. Or would you prefer to watch another of your family torn to pieces by your own hand?"
..."The visions...you...caused those?"
"Your future, my sweet...lest you act now. This war may have begun in this realm of yours, you may think it will end with that 'angels' life...yet he is only the begining, you gave them power and the means to use that power...and now you've given them a target....you wanted revenge, did you want death?"
"..Stefan...is not...the only one they seek to destroy?..."
"Mitra has spoken to the wolf...and the dragon woman....they'll soon tell the others...and our children will only reinforce their hatred. The Gods will suffer this time...this prison will not hold them forever...they have already learned how to roam freely to and from...how long until they seek more power?"
"...But...not Zhara...not Ersatz....they rescued me...they sought to destroy what made me weak..this is their goal..."
"As you see it maybe...but you've weakened in the past few encounters with the angel...he's weakened you so. You've lost judgement....you've lost control...and you've enstilled a hatred for your parents in each creation...now they seek the same as you once did...only they lack the memories of joy that you hold of the Gods...they'll attempt to destroy them all, thinking it another way of serving you...what will you do now?"
..."I...I must speak with my minions, I must end this battle...has he been defeated?"
"Stefan?....Not quite....you've only been in this trance for a day...they still seek recruits...thinking your army will outnumber them. Do they know?"
"...No..."
"So they believe it possible to defeat the lupine?"
"Yes...they were merely pawns, you know that...he and his kin, those created at the time he was...they were made with care. I even gave the dragon back her size...I...cared for them."
"What of Delgrij? Does he know?"
"He's lost...in love again."
"She's arrived now, you know...so has your first mortal love...and her kin. They've come...but I've no clue as to whose side they shall take in this. You must act quickly. The others are arriving, the Exiles....have begun to flock to their home for reasons they do not know...and what will you tell them? You made a mistake? You were wrong?...Could they comprehend? Would they care?...They could destroy you in such numbers...what shall become of you if they realize this?"
"...I'll prove my worth as their Goddess once more...and I shall...put an end to my follies...This is not over yet, Anonn. I have not yet forgiven you for what you've done...yet this has only begun and I need all the allies I can get."
"Well then m'love..let us begin."
White walls fade to black marble as she is within her palace once more, laying upon the ground. A glance about shows no sign of her love yet she stands slowly and walks to her throne, taking her seat, a gentle touch to the arm awakens the dragon whom twists his head downward to look at her seated upon him.
"Yes, Mistress?"
With determination in her eyes and a scowl across her ebony lips, she speaks her final order to him, "End this..now."