Separated Worlds The Essence of Truth Iruka Typed: 11:13 AM 10/1/2001 Written: Um... I think it was either 5/1/2001 or 6/1/2001 :) ~~~~~~~~Author preface :) Separated worlds? What’s that? *giggles* yeah, I finally typed the stupid thing up for you guys. It’s only up because I had writer’s block for creative writing again! *sniffles* oh well. Hm... Well, before you read this you should know that it’s contains spoilers about the past (Oracle) and the future (Tranquil Moon). I’m going to keep them as minimal as I can, and release an episode of Separated Worlds to every two of Oracle (I think) .... Hm..... ~~~~~~~~~Disclaimer Also, I actually have a true disclaimer! Aglaia/Faith is technically mine (it’s a part of my RPG) but the characterization for the character (wow) is owned by Kassandra Summers, one of my best friends who is my co-Gm of Golden Kingdom RPG and who played Aglaia/Faith/Eris in the RPG. That said, here’s the story! ~~~~~~~~ Story The first thing she noticed when she came to was that there was no pain. What a relief, she thought to herself, I can handle death and destruction, but not that soul consuming pain! Faith groaned and groggily opened her eyes, blinking as she looked about her. All at once all her motions ceased as she realized she was definitely not in the bedroom Dana had given her. The walls of this space were peach, and glistened with the light of the stars of the universe. With a start she realized that she was floating, for there was no floor beneath her unsteady feet, nothing supporting her weight at all. "Woops." She gripped, looking around uneasily. "Forgot the number one rule of Looney Tunes- never look down." She finished, forcing a laugh, but that hallow noise was enveloped in the silence of the peach void. Uneasily she looked below herself again and still saw no floor, but only shrugged. "Guess who ever made this world never saw the Coyote and Road Runner cartoons." She murmured to herself as she folded her arms across her chest, shivering in spite of herself. Perhaps her experience with the Nyte Renegades had done her some good, because she was used to unfamiliar events suddenly occurring. Brunhilde had been known to have an eye for theatrics, after all. A few moments passed, and the silence remained uninterrupted. Once again her Nyte training came in handy, because without it she would have surely gone insane for want of noise. Instead she used those heartbeats to meditate and try and figure just where "here" was. She was still drawing a blank, which was beginning to look more peach than white as the heartbeats dragged on, when a shadow of a figure appeared before her. Wary, Faith called out to the shadowy figure, an uneasy feeling in her chest. "Who are you?" She called out, and then began to mentally cursed herself for voicing a lame question. A true warrior wouldn’t be bothered by mere identities, but would ask important questions, such as where the hell she was. When the shadow did not speak, she decided to try anew. "What is this place? Indeed, where am I?" The figure stepped out of its shadow (which was strange indeed, for Faith could find no evidence of a light source in the shimmering peach around her), appearing as the one and only Sailor Nike, guardian of Victory as well as, in a little known fact, one of the guardians of fate. Nike’s glorious autumn hair was wrapped around her head in a braded cornet, the rest falling in long waves to tease her sandaled feet. But the rest of Nike’s appearance seemed unchanged since their last meeting a month ago. Nike’s face became a lit with a brilliant if gentle smile. "Faith, you certainly have not changed in the time that has passed since our last encounter, not that any of us truly thought you would." The smile fell a notch in brightness as she continued, her eyes blazing intensely. "The Guardians and I thought for all this that you would never reclaim your destiny, it seems we were wrong." Faith blushed with mortification at the subtle barb about her past as Eris, lowering her eyes from the glorious truth Nike represented in the flesh. Shame made her breath quicken and her eyes water with tears she had not shed... not shed in a very long period of time. "Reclaim my destiny?" She finally asked, composed enough to regard the awesome Senshi before her again. "So I do have memories locked away inside of me?" She was startled by the boom in Nike’s voice as she laughed more like an ancient Viking of old then the Quiet Guardian that she was. "Oh, Faith, your memories of the past are in tact, lying just beneath the surface of you present incarnations memories. But you of all the Lyte Renegades had a reason to never remember those memories, for there is a story, a tragedy, about your past life that you subconsciously wish never to remember. But it is..." Nike paused to straighten, apparently considering her next words with the up most of care. "imperative for your future and his that you unlock the holds on your memory and let the past live, even if it is only for a moment." "He?" Faith asked breathlessly, the wind firmly knocked out of her in a way akin to having a fist slam into her gut. Nike allowed her face to soften again into a resemblance of a faint smile. "Yes, he, your beloved that need you in this time, if you could only remember..." The grace and charm returned to Faith, as well as a new poise, that of nobility. Nike caught it and lightly nodded in approval. "What do I have to do?" Faith asked, blinking her gray eyes for a moment as she sought to calm her raging emotions the word "he" had created. The tinge of a smile grew "I never lost my conviction that you would return to us, Faith, in all of your former glory." With a flick of her hand Nike called into being a heavy staff with silver and gold inlays adorning its heavily polished surface. Flicking her wrist, Nike threw the staff at Faith, who caught it and gaze upon it, startled at how familiar the weapon seemed to her hands that held it with a practiced confidence. She glanced up at Nike with an unspoken question in her eyes, her brow beginning to wrinkle up as a faint memory began to appear. "It was yours, long a go, before the end of Grace, before the end of Truth, before the end of the age of Silver." Nike replied in a strained voice, pain apparent in her eyes, as she averted her eyes from Faith. "I-" Faith began, but was cut off by Nike’s raised hand. The Senshi of Truth slowly turned her eyes back to Faith, a fire spreading across her face. "You can not be sorry for something you can’t remember. Save your regrets for when you can remember the glory of the old days. Otherwise, its all just vacuous platitudes." Nike’s voice was full of a still tender ache, but as she turned completely from Faith, her back straightened and her aura, a vague mist of silver, gold, and emerald, began to surround her form, a stark contrast to the peach backdrop. "I can be sorry that you had to witness the death of something you loved and had no power to stop its destruction," Faith began, but was startled by the sharpness of Nike’s voice as she responded. "Keep that in mind." Nike warned, as her faint aura began to engulf her figure. "Wait! Where is this place! How can I remember with the aide of just this stick! Wait!" She yelled frantically, secretly afraid of returning to the silence again. Nike’s form materialized in the mist again, briefly. "Silly girl, this is your soul! Now, just remember!" With that, the most powerful of the Renegades departed, leaving her in the stillness again. "Well," she mumbled, regarding the staff, which looked far to ornamental to be functional in battle, "At least I have a tangible part of my past. I don’t know how it’s going to remind me of who I was..." Her words felt like they were torn from her throat and cast into the peach void, the glimmer of a memory beginning to grow stronger as the brilliant peach began to gleam even brighter around her. She was having a hard time believing that she was in fact in her own soul, but it even harder to believe that Nike, mistress of truth, would lie. "But I don’t even like peach!" She wailed to the unyielding walls, her frustration apparent in every fiber of her confused body. Calm swept over her, though, and she felt embarrassed over her slip of control. With a sigh she brought her legs up and settled into a cross-legged position, her hands and the staff resting on her knees. She closed her eyes and felt a surge of power blasting her hair above her head, and sensed that her sign was blazing on her forehead. She gasped in pain as the doors to her memory were cast open, knowing deep in her heart that there would be no going back... ~~~~~~~ Hehehe.... oh man, my writing has SO improved :) Anyway, hm.. let’s just say that this little chapter will not be the last! I’ll type up the next one Tuesday night I think... I’m not sure because I have four midterms coming up and I should be studying :) Anyway, more later! ~Loran (chibi_iruka, Iruka-chan, they all work)