Project Transcendence

[sovereign]

Blackness. She was lying on the ground, if it could be called that. It had no discernable texture, and seemed only to exist in as much capacity as to oppose her weight. There were stars, she saw now. It was difficult to focus on them, and she could not decide if they had been there before... but now there were many, the perfect darkness of the sky pierced by an army of shining jewels.

Two of the lights flashed for a moment and then began to descend, spinning around each other as they fell. They seemed so close that she felt like she could touch them, and she reached out toward them. They moved to just over her hand, and stopped.

The pair of lights then drifted away, moving playfully as though to beckon her forward. She stood up and began to follow them, walking slowly at first. They began to move faster, and she began to run after them. The lights began to sway as though in wind, and danced around before her, always fast enough that she had to run to keep up with them. A feeling of warmth flowed through her, and she found herself laughing playfully as she hadn't done since she was a child.

She was in a field of flowers now, colors ablaze in the midday sun. She chased not a pair of stars but a boy of no more than ten, running after him and laughing merrily. It seemed an eternity that she spent here, playing with the boy whose face she could not see.

She followed him over a hill, and stopped in her tracks. Before her lie a beach, sand pure and sparkling in the sun's glow. Beyond there was a great sea, shimmering beautifully and moving with a calmness and serenity she had nearly forgotten. The boy stood at the water's edge, foam washing between his toes. She walked to him, feeling the softness of the sand and the cool ocean breeze.

There they stood, between land and sea, taking in the calmness.

Home...

The word moved through her mind gently, but deep within her something moved in alarm. It was familiar, the way the word had formed...

The boy spoke now, though the words flowed through her mind just as before as well.

"There are still those who would love you. You could come home, and they would protect you. They would love you and keep you safe..."

The boy turned his gaze from the sea, and her eyes moved to meet his.

In those eyes was something beyond words. The stars she had chased were there, but there was more... she saw in those eyes her own dreams and nightmares, and was moved to feel pity. She saw suffering there, and a blue glow she was all too familiar with. It was different, though, far softer... and more refined, precise. It was as two, one guiding, one acting. Yet more she saw... something ancient off in the distance, and images of the sites she had visited flashed before her. The gates, the dyson sphere, and the city in Newcastle- all there, with the same ancient presence she had felt. Those eyes watched all the others, layered all the way back to the eyes of the young boy. He was quite nearly crying, but stayed strong enough to speak another few words.

"Find me. Help me."

With that, there was nothing.

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