Interlude 2.x (Purity, Emma, Danny, Artoria)

Purity floated high and still in the air, watching the crumbling building. The target of her anger was dead and buried, but she felt no satisfaction.

Where would she go from here?

She left the Empire and Kaiser for Aster. She patrolled the streets to make them safe for Aster. Her baby was her everything.

And today all of it amounted to nothing.

The memories replayed themselves over and over in her mind.

She loaded up the groceries, then checked that Aster was properly secured to the safety seat before driving out of the parking lot. Her radio turned on.

"…defeated Hookwolf with nothing but a sling…"

She listened with curiosity as she moved along slowly in the traffic.

"…ABB spotted near anti-E88 protesters…"

As one truck past the intersection, it swerved dangerously when somebody wearing a red and green jacket jaywalking at the lights shouted something inaudible.

But the truck was brought under control and continued onwards smoothly.

She paid it no more attention and prepared to turn—

—glass shattered as the building at the corner was annihilated by a fiery explosion, the truck spun and smashed onto the opposite side of the street, smaller cars nearby were flipped into the air and crashed down, bodies that didn't wear their seat belts flew out of windows and landing dead on the street bent in all the wrong ways—

Kayden woke up with a groan. She struggled to move and found herself trapped inside her own car, which was upside down and crushing her as she was lying halfway out of the window.

As soon as the delirium from pain receded, her mind went to the baby still trapped in the back of her car.

She tried to turn around and see what happened, but she couldn't see anything inside the car, it being mostly flattened to the ground.

"A-Aster…!"

She struggled to get out from the weight crushing her, but she didn't have anywhere near the strength for it. She thought about blasting it all away for only a second before realizing that any flying debris or further shock to the car would endanger her baby even more.

The seconds passed and turned into minutes.

"Someone…! Please…help!"

She made no progress on getting out, and the blood loss was already making her light headed.

Sirens were sounding in the distance.

Then she caught a glimpse of blood leaking out of where the backdoor would have been before getting crushed as it smashed into the ground. Her eyes widened.

"No! NO!" She screamed and clawed at the air towards the back of her car.

But all she did was rip her skin more where it met the metal frame and increasing the severity of her own wounds.

The minutes continued to pass by, and the sirens, instead of getting closer, were getting farther away, the sound dimming.

"…As…ter…"

A long forgotten feeling of helplessness held her in its iron grip. Just like all those years ago, when she was trapped in a car and nobody came to help her. Except this time, she wasn't starving and her light couldn't solve the problem by feeding her.

Her eyes watched the blood flow onto the cement. It was bright and reflective and she could see two rotating crystalline monoliths of spiral mirrors—

When she came to, her powers had changed. The light gave her new strength, and she lifted the car, pulling Aster from the wreckage.

She saw the bloody form of her baby and immediately flew away to where she knew Kaiser would be. Medhall.

She shot up the side of the building and directly to Max's office. Through the windows she saw that it was empty.

Then she flew around and navigated to an isolated section of the Medhall campus, then smashed through the heavily secured doors to a windowless building.

Inside, she found Kaiser, Krieg, Fenja, Menja, and Alabaster, holding a meeting, in full costume.

The gathered E88 capes turned to see her.

The light on her dimmed until her form, and what she carried with her became visible.

"Kaiser. I need Othala. Now."

Kaiser was uncharacteristically silent, and didn't greet her.

He walked over slowly, focused on Aster in her arms, a hand reaching out.

"What…is this…?"

"Othala, where is she?!" Purity demanded again, more forcefully. "There's no time to waste!"

Her words shook Kaiser out of a stupor, and he answered, "I already summoned her for this meeting, but we lost contact with her and Victor a few minutes ago."

"Then where was she when you last managed to contact her?"

"Purity, you need to calm down. Othala isn't capable of healing…injuries…of this nature."

"I have to try! Where was she?"

Kaiser took a deep breath and sighed. "They were near the docks. But, you might have better luck with Panacea. She was seen setting up an emergency medical camp near Bernard and Atkinson."

She nodded and turned.

"Wait, Kayden."

She gave him another glance.

"Who did this?"

She thought of the news she heard on the radio, then the jaywalker wearing a red and green jacket. It was obvious, in hindsight.

"ABB."

Then she turned around and prepared to fly again. Behind her, she heard Kaiser's voice.

"They killed my daughter," he said quietly, but it echoed in the room.

"Bastards!" "We will make them pay!" "No mercy!" A series of supporting cries resounded.

That's right. She wasn't done yet.

Not until every ABB was dead.

She looked back down the tense PRT troopers who were slowly backing away and attempting to evacuate onlookers.

She flew down and picked up the corpse of her baby, paying them no more heed.

First she would give Aster a proper burial, then she would finish her campaign of the last year, and eradicate the yellow menace led by Lung.

O O O

"Something's wrong! What's happening?" The medics in the emergency room were alarmed at the readings they were getting.

"She's turning red!"

"These temperatures are impossible! This is way beyond a fever!"

"I think her blood is boiling!"

"No, it's almost as if, it's trying to escape from her body!"

O O O

Emma screamed continuously and writhed on the ground as it felt like she was being burned alive over and over again.

"Shut up already, stupid banshee!" A melodious voice thundered, water splashed over her, and the pain began to recede.

The teen continued to whimper pitifully for several more minutes until she regained her bearings and struggled to sit upright.

She looked for the voice that helped her, and in that direction she saw a calm blue lake. She was just at its edge, on the grassy shore.

Flickers of light were dancing in the air. They were blurry figures that had what seemed like translucent fluttering wings about the size of a cellphone each.

She then looked around and saw nothing but trees, flowers, and grass.

"Where am I?" She asked out loud, wondering how she got here all of a sudden. "What happened?" The last thing she remembered was dying slowly at Taylor's house before Taylor gave her a blood transfusion.

The water rippled, and locks of green hair were the first to emerge. What followed after was a naked girl, covered only by rolling streams of water and mist, with the most perfect figure and flawless skin that she had ever seen, and a face of such beauty that men could start wars over it.

Emma's own countenance paled in comparison, and her dazed eyes gave away her stupor.

The girl sighed and gestured, vapour blasted onto Emma's face to get her attention.

Emma yelped and wiped the water from her eyes to see that the unearthly beauty in front of her had crossed her arms and was looking unimpressed.

"Why are you still here? You can't be here," she said in a voice that could be mistaken for song.

"T-thank you, for helping me. And I'm sorry but I don't know how I got here or where I should go. What is this place?"

"This is the land of the Fae. You have something that doesn't belong to you...something of the Fae. That's how you got here. No other way, since the Reverse Side was sealed off, unless…well, you're obviously not."

"The Fae? Reverse Side?" Emma was at a loss.

"Can't you tell? I'm a faerie. Look how beautiful I am, not like you ugly humans," she said, then twirled around. She had an annoyed expression when Emma appeared to be stupefied from her natural glamour again. Then she moved up closer to Emma. "Well, you aren't too bad for a human, but still."

"A fairy? You mean, Glaistig Uaine was right?!" Emma blurted out.

"Green Maiden? Didn't she—" The fairy girl asked with a confused look. "Oh I know! You must mean somebody from the Present, so I can search it up in the new Internet Side of the World!"

Then she made a gesture and water floated up and the girl shuffled over to sit beside Emma while the water formed a rectangular panel in front of them.

Then what looked like a modern browser appeared on the water, and with a few more gestures the fairy girl navigated to a search engine. Glaistg Uaine was searched, and the PHO wiki entry for her came up as the first result.

Emma watched flabbergasted. "I'm dreaming…fairies on the internet…"

"Hey, no way! Those dumb aliens aren't fae! This girl is an idiot!" The self-proclaimed faerie looked enraged as she read through the wiki entry describing Glaistig Uaine.

"And what a pretentious name. Faerie Queen? Yeah right! No one is my queen! Not anymore, anyway. The Fae are beautiful and free, she's not even close to be being beautiful enough to be a queen! If there was a queen, she should be the beautiful most among us, right?" She nudged Emma to agree with her. "She's like, a 7, maybe an 8 at most."

Emma looked at the picture on the wiki entry and hesitated. Glaistig Uaine looked like she was twelve years old. That was too young to be giving any kind of serious rating. She just didn't have the figure yet.

"She needs to grow up and out a bit more," said Emma.

"Here, look, this is what she looks like if you can see past her glamour," said the faerie girl, and with a wave more water came out of the lake and quickly condensed into a perfect replica of Glaistig Uaine, but a few years older, maybe around seventeen or so. "What do you think? 7, right? You would look better than her at the same age." Then another water-replica formed, this time of a hypothetical Emma two years older.

The teen model scrutinized her future looks, and nodded satisfied. "I think you're right. You have good sense for these things!"

"Of course I do, I'm a faerie! And you're pretty decent for a human," The faerie girl said happily. Then her expression soured. "Too bad you're a human. You can't be here…"

"Uh? You said that before. Do you know how I can get back to Earth Bet?"

The faerie girl looked suspiciously at Emma.

"Not telling you."

"What? Why? Didn't you say I can't be here?"

"So what? You're already here anyways, why don't you just stay with me? I'm SO bor~ed. It's been centuries since I last talked to a human."

"C-centuries?!" Emma's face grew horrified. It was just like the old stories. Fairies whisked children away and nobody ever saw them again.

"Come on, this Internet Side of the World was created by humans, right? I heard from other fae that there are lots of beautiful pictures on there! I want to see beautiful things. Since you're a human, you can show me!"

"I-I really n-need to get back, please!"

"Look, when I search for beautiful things, it shows a bunch of weird stuff. Like here, this picture has a caption that says 'The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart'. How does that make any sense? You seem to get what beautiful means, you can help me figure this out! I think I'm searching wrong. Maybe it has to do with this 'SafeSearch' filter?"

Emma watched helplessly as the vain faerie girl ignored her and started fiddling with the search settings.

OOO

"I am a terrible father. I didn't know anything about her problems at school until they stuffed her in a locker to die and the school called me. And when they called her crazy put her in the psych ward for a week, I believed them like a fucking tool!" His voice echoed on the stained glass walls, and his tears were streaming down endlessly as he kneeled on the mat.

"The Lord hears you, my son. Your sins are many, but He will forgive all. You have taken a great step today, to confess and repent," a kind voice said. Danny felt a gentle pat on his head.

"But Father Marcel, what should I do? How can I face her now? I should have been the one to protect her, to show her strength and courage. But she is so much stronger than me. She doesn't need me anymore, if God is guiding her now."

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres," said Marcel.

"I don't understand, Father, are you saying that Taylor would still love me, even after I've failed her?"

"Do you love her, Daniel Hebert?"

"Y-yes. I do."

"My son, if you truly love your daughter, you will be patient and persevere, and you will not be self-seeking, or require her love in return. But you may yet find in time, that she needs you more than you know. A father's love cannot be simply replaced. Trust in God, let your love for her give you strength, and you will surely find the right path forward."

Danny blinked through the tears to see the smiling face of the old priest.

"Thank you, Father Marcel. I understand. I will be patient and persevere. I will love her always and support her however I can."

"Good, good. I will pray for your success."

O O O

"Was this really necessary?" Artoria asked through gritted teeth.

"Of course. She circumvented the rules. Therefore she must be punished," said the figure lying calmly on the water. Filament-like wings shimmered underneath the surface, creating ripples around her. It was a woman with green and blue hair, of an unearthly beauty not unlike the faerie girl that appeared before Emma.

There was a large circular panel of water, through which the horrified expression of Taylor could be seen as the building tumbled down on her.

Artoria clenched her fists as the panel faded to black, debris covering the girl with a hole in her chest that wasn't healing.

"But you knew that already, didn't you, dishonored king?"

One time. One time she could not accept the outcome of a duel, in a moment of weakness she took her sword in hand again, and it shattered. As if that single failure outweighed everything else she did.

She did not dignify Viviane with a response. The Fae were unreasonable, inhuman creatures. Even so, they were sentient. Caliburn was just a mindless sword. It was not proper to compare their respective "rules" the way Viviane related them.

But she understood. Merlin had warned her about taking Excalibur and Avalon from the Faerie Lady of the Lake, and the conditions she had to follow.

That was the whole reason she insisted that Sir Bedivere return Excalibur to the lake after the disastrous battle of Camlann.

She had listened to Sir Bedivere plead with her not to throw away the mighty sword that could determine the fate of all Britain—even the World—and as a King that loved her people, how could she not know its value?

Nevertheless, thrice she commanded him until he did as told and tossed it back into the lake.

She did not throw it away because she wanted her kingdom to lose such a powerful asset.

No, she didn't want that at all, but she had no choice—lest her people suffer even more grievous consequences from reneging on her deal.

The Fae did not care for the plight of her people—for the plight of humanity, who were little more than toys for their amusement.

"And if she should die from this? She is the only one," said Artoria, after a while.

"Then another would be chosen," Viviane said.

"Were it possible to so easily empower another, why did she not do so immediately after my demise, instead allowing two more of them to approach, and even land?"

"The Age of Gods was destined to come to an end, even without their arrival. You are not so special, either, Chosen One. She simply had no more need of one like you."

"What nonsense. You don't speak for her."

"Hm. I know her well enough, better than you."

"Yet even you cannot overcome the barrier between the Reverse and the Present. You have not heard her will for over a millennium. You may think to know her, but it seems that she has tired of you."

A rare expression of anger found its way to Viviane's face, and the lake's calm waters shook chaotically.

"That was not her doing!"

"So you console yourself."

"Enough. What do you hope to accomplish by angering me?"

"You are allowing pride to blind you. If Taylor dies because you obnoxiously insist on subjecting her to misguided punishment, we may yet lose our only hope."

"This is not a decision I made alone, but the collective decision of all Fae. I cannot rescind it."

"But you have the influence to appeal it, and persuade your brethren. Do not try to deny this. If you did not, you would not have been the one to meet me back then, nor would Merlin have simply allowed you to trap him, Lady Nimue, daughter of Dyane, Queen of the Fae."

"You are the one speaking nonsense, now, Arthur, son of Uther. There is no Faerie Queen."

"You do not deny being the one to trap my bewitched master."

"And if I did? He knew his fate and met it willingly."

"He was humble and did his part for the good of all, unlike you. Perhaps if you hadn't entrapped him, and I had his counsel and Magic at my side during the battle against the first one, we would not all have suffered this fate, powerlessly waiting for the end of days here." And perhaps I would not have met my own end at Camlann either, she inwardly added.

Viviane, or Nimue, stared coldly at Artoria. "You have made your point."

Then she retreated into the lake and disappeared from sight.

Artoria closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she was back in the meadow with Caliburn. As she expected, Taylor lay next to it on the ground, as if peacefully asleep, no sign of her injuries. That didn't mean she wasn't dying.

The fact that her spirit here wasn't conscious was clear indication that something was terribly wrong.

She walked over to Taylor and sighed.

A feeling of nostalgia came over her as her eyes caught the cracks on Caliburn. The sword that was the crystallization of her ideals. Before she betrayed them that fateful duel, and she made a deal with the World to get another chance, another sword, that in the end, was just another fleeting dream.

She touched the handle and pulled.

No movement at all.

She sat down and waited, just as she has been waiting eternally, in the Land of the Eternal Spring, in the Reverse Side of the World.

O O O