After the End: Serenity

The world spun around Lancaster. Individual scenes stood out, and as he looked at them he knew everything that was happening, but as they moved away it faded.

He only kept small pieces.

A Tutorial that was both the same and different. He remembered not quite taking it seriously.

A group of friends, all former police from before the explosion, traveling back into the city to gather supplies and rescue survivors.

Entering a dungeon and leaving carrying loot and the bodies of two good friends.

Listening to a radio they had managed to salvage from the ruins report the destruction of Washington, DC. The newscaster speculated it was a nuke deliberately detonated when it was clear the city would be lost.

Gathering together all the survivors they could find to fight back. Some small groups wouldn’t join, but as long as they fought beside his group, Lancaster didn’t care.

Celebrating the defeat of the last group of invaders on the continent and the end of the years-long war, mixed with horror at the methods used by the group that defeated them. Lancaster met them after the victory, but for some reason only one stuck in his mind, and it wasn’t the leader. Vengeance didn’t look all that different from anyone else, even with his black armor and large axe; many others had adopted that sort of equipment. It was the look in Vengeance’s green eyes that somehow seared his face into Lancaster’s memory.

Trying to rebuild a shattered nation, and failing more than he succeeded.

The news of a new invasion that did not fight the same way as the ones they had defeated. News of people captured and herded into holding pens, never to be heard from again.

Leading a last hope attack against the new invaders, deep inside the conquered territory. They destroyed the invaders’ teleportation array, but Lancaster would never know if that was enough.

The world spun again, and for some reason Lancaster heard Vengeance’s voice again.

“I did manage to take out the guy that killed you, if that helps?”

Moira watched her Lord as he stepped back into reality. It was much more comfortable with him present, though she somehow felt more free when he wasn’t there. When he wasn’t there, she missed his presence.

She felt more than saw a wave come from him, and the world disappeared around her, leaving her standing in darkness. Three silver threads ran from her breastbone out in front of her.

The first was dulled and pitted. It ended with a picture of herself, dressed in sensible traveling clothing. She knew this was the path she’d have taken if she’d never met Serenity. It was a path to power, and might someday take her to the heights she dreamed of. It was a lonesome path, and one that would require her to give up all the friendships and ties to other people she’d gained in the past few weeks. The first step on the path would be asking Serenity to release her from her Oath.

The second thread was bright and nearly glowing. It ended in a picture of herself dressed as a medieval knight in armor. She knew this wasn’t a literal picture; instead, it was the path where she put everything she had into loyalty to Serenity. It would be an easy path to follow. There were no dilemmas or hard choices on the path. It might lead to death or greatness, but neither was what the path was about. It was simply loyalty above everything else.

The third thread was dim and nearly invisible, but without the tarnish of the first thread. It led to a picture of Lancaster, though as she watched the picture other people appeared and disappeared. Lancaster appeared the most. She could not tell what the path meant. It was unclear. As she watched it, she realized that this was the purpose of the path. It did not have a single clear goal or driving force; instead, this path took life as it came and did the best it could. It refused to set one thing above all others, whether that was ambition, loyalty, or even love.

As she watched, the first path frayed and eventually the picture tore away, leaving the frayed thread whipping slightly in an invisible wind. The other two paths twisted a little, but did not give. She realized that looking at the paths had helped her reach a decision: she preferred either of the other paths to unfettered ambition.

So she was left with a choice between loyalty and the freedom to choose. It was not a choice she wanted to make.

She did not know how long she looked at the choices before it occurred to her that it was a false choice. Yes, she could follow either path, but there was nothing that said those were the only paths she had. There had been a third choice before, and perhaps there would be again. All she had to do was choose it.

She grabbed the whipping, damaged cord and wove it around the others. It stung her hands, but she ignored the pain. After a moment, she found that all three threads could be moved and she started braiding them together.

I will make my own path. I will not abandon my Oath, but I WILL be my own person. My life is MINE to choose.

[Title Awarded: Walking Outside the Lines]

Walking Outside the Lines

When presented with a set of choices, you are not afraid to take a choice that isn’t there. Grants additional freedom in Path choices.

[Time affinity initiated]

Rissa watched the space where Serenity would reappear. He’d seemed a bit disturbed and distant after the last Tutorial, and she wanted to be there for him if he needed her. Even if he didn’t need her, she wanted to be there. They’d been separated too long and it was all her fault for not accepting that people change and that he was still the person she’d fallen in love with.

For not accepting that he’d had to change for her sake.

She felt guilty and she needed a hug to reassure her that she hadn’t completely screwed everything up.

Serenity appeared and then stopped, surrounded by colors that weren’t colors. Rissa watched, entranced.

A wallet, phone, and keys fell to the ground outside the hospital. Rissa recognized them as hers. She watched as Serenity bent down and picked them up.

“Rissa.” Serenity was crying. “I should have done something. Anything-” He clutched the items tightly, then turned towards the parking lot.

As he took a step forward, the scene faded out and Rissa could hear her mother’s voice. She felt her mother’s arms around her, and this time it was Rissa that was crying.

“Shh. It’s all right.”

“No, it’s not.” The seven-year-old Rissa insisted. “He shot me. It hurt. He shouldn’t do that.”

“I know.” Rissa’s mother gently rocked Rissa on her lap. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t see your Death Day so young, but at least you have time.”

Rissa was talented. Her training consisted more of learning how to not see than how to bring visions. One lesson was the hardest.

She couldn’t change the future. No matter what she tried, what she saw always happened. If she tried to change things, they always went worse for her than if she accepted the future.

Always.

She tried for years, despite her mother’s advice. Sometimes she’d change a tiny detail and have hope, but the events of the visions never changed.

Only a Child of Time can unbind Fate. All we can do is be the Child’s Eyes. That is who we are. For each of us, a Child is born. We pray to meet our match, but most never do.

There hadn’t been a Child paired with a Seer for hundreds of years. Rissa strongly doubted that a Child of Time existed for each Seer.

It was not a truth Rissa wanted to accept, but until the day of her death her visions always came true.

Rissa saw again the events of her death. The gun loomed large, larger than it had been when Thomas knocked it away.

Then she saw reality play out again.

Rissa had almost stopped Thomas from opening the door. She would have, but she’d been too slow. She shouldn’t have spoken, she should have kept her mouth shut. She should have stopped him; letting him open the door just meant that he would die, too. She could almost see it happen.

Only it didn’t. Thomas somehow knocked the gun aside and knocked her killer out.

When he did, she felt a moment of fear and rage from him that wasn’t her Thomas. That had never been her Thomas. Rissa wasn’t sure if the stranger in Thomas’s body or the loss of certainty in her visions scared her more. She’d always hated that they couldn’t be changed, but it had brought certainty to her life.

It hadn’t occurred to her until now that maybe - just maybe - they were the same thing.

Perhaps Serenity was her Child of Time.

If he was, she needed to be his Eyes. She needed to tell him what she’d seen.

She didn’t want to. She didn’t want to tell Serenity that he’d failed, or see the pain on his face she’d seen in the vision.

So she’d wait. She’d see if it came true or not, and if it failed … if it failed through Serenity’s action, that would be proof. She’d tell him the next thing she saw.

It didn’t occur to her that Serenity wouldn’t assume her vision to be absolutely true. Despite everything, she couldn’t forget that they always had been.

[Time affinity increased]

[SpaceTime Concept initiated. Time and Space Concepts merged into SpaceTime Concept]

[Time Affinity may not be merged while in an area of heavily manipulated time. Please try again in a less stressed area]

[Time Aspect initiated]

Serenity’s vision cleared, and instead of his own strand of Time wrapping around itself, he saw the center of the camp appear around him. It seemed to be shimmering strangely, and he could somehow see the strands of Time that held Space apart shaking under the stress and pulling towards him.

He felt a rush of Time energy wash over him. It pushed the memories of the past two years’ worth of Tutorials into the background. The memories of this Tutorial seemed fresher and less faded.

[Recursive Tutorial entrance disabled for 12 hours while local Time ripples dissipate]

[Additional Time manipulation may extend the duration]

Serenity looked at the notices. He hadn’t realized he was manipulating Time. On second thought, he must have been; that was what an Aspect did, after all.

His friends all glowed slightly with a residue of Time, but they all seemed fine. Hopefully it had all been visions and the like; visions were a relatively minor side effect for awakening an Aspect, but they were common enough with Time that he could hope that was all that had happened.

They all stared at each other. Doyle and Rissa were crying.

Serenity broke the silence. “I didn’t expect that. Are you all - was it just a vision?”

Echo set the tone. “I saw the past. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Lancaster’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Serenity. “The voice is the same. I think I saw your dream. That had better not happen.” Serenity hoped Lancaster hadn’t seen everything. There were many things in his past he wasn’t proud of. He would try to avoid them all.

“A mix, then.” Moira’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “I saw that my future is mine to choose. I don’t have to take the choices other people lay out for me, not even the Voice.” She made an odd noise, somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle. “I say we all remember that and keep what we saw to ourselves unless it’s important, hey?”

Serenity seemed to be the only person who wasn’t happy with that, but he couldn’t argue. Whatever they’d seen, it must have been very personal.

Name: Serenity

Species: Human Chimera (Altered Template)

Core: Connecting

(Unique when connected)

Progression: 89.9%

Features: 2/10

True

Crystal

Path: Paths Available

Level: 97 (870/980)

Tier: 0, 0/97 Spent

Path History: None

Condition: Healthy

Healing Available: Full

Mana: 830/830

Stamina: 850/850

Might: 75

Agility: 75

Phys: 75

Understanding: 73

Will: 77

Mind: 73

Perception: 75

Luck: 71 - 168%

Ev: 23

Resistances

Chemical: 137

Cold: 553 (53 active)

Curse: 263

Darkness: 277 (27 active)

Heat: 532

Light: 298

Pain: 1034 (34 active)

Pleasure: 24

Shock: 334

Sleep: 1

Unknown

Affinities

Death: 101.83%

Life: 14%

Mind: 30%

Arcane: 50%

Plasma: 42%

Liquid: 6%

Vapor: 14%

Solid: 17%

Energy: 40%

Void: 60%

Time: 48%

Space: 21%

Essence: 94%

Concepts

Death

Mind: 15%

Arcane: 78%

Plasma: 26%

Energy: 52%

Void: 25%

SpaceTime: 25%

Essence: 2%

Aspects

Essence: Initiated

Time: Initiated

Unknown

Titles

Previous Supreme Existence

Altered Template

Named

Ghost in the System

Aspect Pathfinder

Coin

1 Etherium