Limbo

Posted on Sat Jun 16th, 2018 @ 9:57pm by Staff Warrant Officer Nexi & Aewia Larani

Mission: Curing the Black Blood
Location: Deck 16, USS Hera/ Danu's Garden, Granweh

Nexi's heart raced as she ran through the corridors, her hounds at her heels; she had long since given up the chase for Marci when she sensed an opponent far more worthy of her attention, a soul as dark and tormented as her own! She sped by random crew, ignoring them completely as they fled; these beings were so far beneath her, they were not worthy of a death at her hands! She ripped open the lift doors and like a shadow she disappeared down the empty shaft, reforming from a puddle on deck 16. And there was her prey with a face both familiar and unfamiliar, similar to two different faces, both with names just beyond her reach.

"You!" Nexi practically growled as her hounds reformed at her sides.

The Aewia-turned-Master turned from the docking port for the Captain's yacht towards the presence forming behind her and she grinned a face splitting grin. "Have you come to join me, sister? No, I sense that you desire my blood. We will not be such easy prey, for we are now the Master." Without further words, she sent her first panther after one of Nexi's hellhounds while a rippling red and black darkness bubbled out of Aewia's right shoulder, a bunch of eyes popping open, followed by a panther's face and head. Within mere moments, a second panther had sprung from her and was attacking the second of Nexi's pooches and Aewia herself was standing there seemingly a foot taller and shrouded in shadow, ominously grinning down on the fight.

Nexi let her hounds fight it out with the panther familiars, knowing full well her beasts were capable on their own. In the blink of an eye, Nexi was gone, vanished in a shroud of shadow, and just as quickly half of Master Aewia's face was gone, clawed away by Nexi's own hand. The momentum of the strike threw Aewia against the bulkhead, and in another blink Nexi was on her, grasping her by the throat with her bloodied hand.

"You gave up the right to call me 'sister'," Nexi spat back, the last vestiges of her sanity guiding her words, but rage and the Blood and its madness were in full control of her actions. "I fought the madness, for you! But you're weak and pathetic, you just gave in to it!"

Aewia laughed as her face reformed. "You think I'm weak and pathetic? You fool!" Not even bothering to defend herself, she took the hits, regenerating the damage with seeming ease. With one hand, she ripped one of Nexi's arms off and threw it against the wall, splattering black blood everywhere. "Why would I fight it? I am the Master now! I have been reborn into your sister's body! You and your pathetic crew only thought you killed me!"

Nexi required a moment longer to reform her missing limb from the black blood oozing from the stump. "I couldn't care less about you, just the traitor you were made from," Nexi replied, reaching into her gaping wound and then flinging a handful of the Blood, which became a series of blades mid-flight, at the Master.

Aewia used a string of black blood like a whip through the air to gather up those black blood blades and absorb them, then arced that whip out at Nexi, slicing at her, nearly taking her head off and easily cutting through the wall behind her. "She tried to resist. She even told herself it was for the greater good that she know what I know. But in the end, with my brain in her head, she had no chance!" Laughing maniacally, she lashed out again and again at Nexi, thrashing her and slicing the wall up, but making no lasting damage to Nexi herself as the wounds would close as easily as they were made.

"There's always a choice!" It was then that Nexi's hounds abandoned the attack on the panthers and returned to their master's side, and the still healing wounds on Nexi's body ripped open and the Blood came forth in a sort of aura around her filled with eyes. Nexi reabsorbed her companions, and when the panthers tried to attack her, a single monstrous hound maw appeared from the Blood to consume one of the panthers, crunching it to nothing in just a few bites. "Just like now, I chose for her to suffer!"

"Then I choose for us to walk the path of destruction together!" Calling her other panther back to her, Aewia reabsorbed it as well, splattering herself across the bulkheads and forming a wall of red cat eyes across it. Where the edges of the two met, red sparks and lightning seemed to shoot between them and the ship itself started to tear asunder. Several white gloved black arms then pulled themselves free of the wall of eyes, equipped with silver and black bayonets, which then stabbed mercilessly into Nexi's form, the red lightning intensifying as they did so.

After the first attack, Nexi blinked away, but her voice could still be heard from all around. "Destruction?" A thick laughter sounded out from all around. "This is why you'll only ever be the Master; I am chaos, I don't need ambition!"

A single giant eye opened up on the floor, covering the entire path from the lift to the shuttle bay doors, and from this eyes sprouted dozens of black blood arms that started clawing at the Master, trying to drag her down

"Welcome to the Madness, dear sister," came a whisper from behind the Master as Nexi reappeared in the door well leading into the shuttle.

This just made Aewia laugh all the harder. "Yes, yes, yes, dear sister! Show me what you can do! Let us fight like true demons! YES!"

But the rest of the fight would not be, for Danu had different plans and had caught them both in her transporter. "NOOOoo...." was the fading last cry of the newborn Master as they vanished from the Hera.

---

Nexi woke with a start, her eyes darting about with shallow panted breaths. The first thing she realized was that she was laying down, and the second was that she didn't recognize where she was; still breathing hard, Nexi slowly sat up as she looked around. To say that she was in a beautiful place was an understatement; Nexi normally didn't care for gardens or even aesthetics of beauty, not that she could remember what in particular she did care for, but wherever she was even she could admit this lush garden was stunning, and scattered about was various equipment detailed with intricate interwoven line-work. As she gazed across the garden, Nexi realized that though she could recognize that this place was not familiar, she had no idea of what was familiar, and when she tried to think back to where she had been before, all she could recall was being encased in... something... and then it felt like her body was being torn apart, or maybe something was being ripped from her, but nothing else, not even her own name.

Aewia had awoken a short while earlier and while remembering a bit more, she was less aware of her surroundings. She had gotten up and walked around the garden a bit, mindlessly petting the flowers and smiling at the sunshine filtering through the glass roof. She didn't know where she was and she had the feeling she had woken up from a pretty bad nightmare, but she couldn't remember any of that, so she didn't worry about it for now. She didn't worry about anything at all.

She had something to worry about now; as Aewia came into Nexi's view, Nexi's hands clenched at her sides to tightly that her nails dug into her palms drawing blood. The Brekkian woman had no idea who this stranger was, at least not consciously, but for some reason she could feel this uncontrollable rage swelling up inside her, and before she could examine this feeling or wonder why she was feeling this way, Nexi was on her feet and running full speed towards Aewia.

And yet Aewia was completely oblivious. Catching the motion of Nexi from the corner of her eye, she turned and waved at her, smiling like an innocent babe. "Hello. Nexi? Sister? Is it hug time?"

Before Nexi could get half way to Aewia, Danu had placed herself in front of the rage filled woman like a barrier. "Calm thyself, child. Your rage is not for her."

Nexi didn't bother stopping and kept running, intending to plow down this strange woman to get to the other strange woman, but she wouldn't make it that far, instead running full force into a barrier protecting the Celtic goddess, so forcefully that the snap of her collarbone was quite audible. Nexi held her shoulder as she fell to the ground, muttering a 'Fuck!' as she winced in pain, but it did help to snap her to her senses.

"W-what just happened?" Nexi said, stunned as though she had only just woken rather than a few minutes ago. And though she had recently been working on learning Basic English, she was now reverting back to Ferengi, which Danu's technology had no trouble translating.

"Are you more yourself now? Do you remember who you are?" asked Danu, kneeling to heal Nexi's broken collar bone with her 'godly powers' and leaving Aewia alone to continue... Well apparently now she was licking the honeysuckle... "You've both been through some terrible times. I'm Danu and you've been entrusted to my care for healing for now."

"Who I... am?" Nexi echoed, shaking slightly in pain until the bone was fully mended. When Danu pulled her hand away, Nexi looked at her shoulder and rotated it experimentally, and finding it no longer in pain she started to relax and breathe easier. "No, I... can't remember anything," Nexi replied with a shake of her head. Then she saw Aewia and once again the rage began to build. "Who is she and why does she make me so furious?" she asked as Danu picked up her bleeding hands to heal them as well.

Danu spoke softly as she healed Nexi's hands. "She's your sister, Aewia. You've both been through some very traumatic experiences. It seems you lost your memories while she lost her sanity. Your name is Nexi and you both came from a starship called the USS Hera. Your captain is very worried about the both of you, but I told her that it may take quite some time before the both of you are healed enough to return."

"USS Hera? That sounds like a 'Fleeter name, what the fuck would I be doing with 'Fleeters? For that matter, what are 'Fleeters?" Nexi asked, sounding very confused at this point.

"You've led an interesting life, child." Danu chuckled softly as she helped Nexi back to her feet. "Your Captain was kind enough to transfer your records as well as some personal effects as well as your ship before she left. She also left a message for each of you when you're well enough. Apparently, you've been a member of Starfleet for some time now, for your sister's sake."

"Sister?" Nexi looked at the strange woman trying to lick sweet nectar from the stigma of honeysuckle flowers, but there was no recognition in her eyes, only rage. "I still don't understand why I'm so angry when I look at her."

"Well... Normally, I leave memories to recover on their own. They're still in there, but the link to your mind is broken by your more recent experiences. In this case though, I think healing a few of those connections will speed your recovery along and be beneficial to your sister's healing as well." Danu reached up and poked Nexi's forehead with a glowing green finger, sending a slight green wave through her mind, reconnecting many of the memories relating to her sister.

It was a strange sensation feeling those memories reconnect to one another; Nexi didn't recall anything specific, there were no flashes of memories crossing her mind because those connections were still so new and her mind was still so fragile, but she could feel the memories there as well as the love, and the need to protect Aewia was so primal and visceral and so completely at odds with this rage she felt. But she knew Aewia now, and that was so much more than what she had just a few minutes ago.

"I should go," Nexi said as she stepped away uneasily. "I still feel so angry and I don't know why, but I don't want to hurt her."

"Your sister needs you for her own healing. She was possessed by an ancient evil and I believe the anger you feel is actually for that. She's lost much of her mind because of this and though I can perform many miracles, with her my healing is limited." Danu let Nexi stew for a moment longer before continuing. "Besides, if you left, do you know where you would go? I promised your captain you would both be safe."

"I'm not trying to leave leave, just is there another room I can go to so I can think?" Nexi asked as she watched Aewia try to lick something off her nose even though she had both hands free to remove whatever was stuck to her face. "When I look at her, I can't think over the anger," she added, almost pleading to Danu for relief.

"Ah, of course. The observatory is normally empty this time of day. It's just that way." Motioning towards a large set of arched double doors, Danu smiled gratefully. At least one of the sisters seemed to be recovering somewhat. "I don't think you'll see many stars, but..."

Suddenly Danu was interrupted by a blood curdling scream coming from Aewia as she thrashed about, her hands pressed tightly to her head. "GETOUTGETOUGETOUT!!! Get out of my head!" Flopping to the ground, she writhed in pain from the seeming mental onslaught.

Danu had no choice but to rush to Aewia's side and place a hand on the poor girl's forehead, pouring green light into the wild eyed girl, doing her best to calm and heal her. "Shhh... it's ok. He's not there anymore. I removed him. It's just a bad memory. It's ok. It's ok. It's ok. Shhh..." As Danu worked, Aewia went limp though her eyes were still wide and filled with fear.

Nexi took a step towards the double doors as though to use this opportunity to escape, but those wide fear-filled eyes tugged at her heartstrings. Without a conscious decision to move, Nexi approached her sister laying limp on the grass, then slowly knelt beside her and gathered the frightened girl into her arm and held her. Nexi said nothing, she had no idea what to say, but she felt deep down that she didn't need to say anything, although in the back of her mind she wondered if Danu kept cake and ice cream on stock for later...

It took Danu quite a while to finish up the last of what she hoped would trigger another similar episode. Even removing the parts of her brain that were literally made of black blood as well as all of the infection, there were still memories left behind. It had regenerated the rest of her brain, but still, the damage was there.

Eventually Aewia was calmed down and relaxed, nearly asleep and Danu let up on her healing energies. Leaning back on her heels, she looked exhausted. "I think that's all I can do for now."

It was then that Nexi found herself smiling. "I think there's one more thing you can do," she said with a hint of a laugh as she smoothed a hand over Aewia's hair to help calm her. "Do you have cake and ice cream?"

"Of course, I'm a Goddess," replied Danu, momentarily her normally somewhat haughty self before dropping the act. "Every table here has a thought controlled, voice activated replicator. If you can name a food and think of it, it can produce it. A bit more advanced than you're used to, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it pretty quick."

"Then that's all we'll need," Nexi said with confidence in this feeling she didn't know she had. And that anger, the rage, was still there, but this need to help Aewia and protect her was drowning out the rage; Nexi said she couldn't think over the rage, but this required so little thought and the decision was made! "We'll be alright, we just need each other, and cake and ice cream."