...
Venus watched with worry, as her child entered the portal. She had to admit she was relieved when it was closed 'before' she had arrived...
but the Time Devourer was willing to mess with the Time line, just so Lilly could be at Jenny's side. It might turn out that she really did not belong there... even with all her coaxing, and watching, trying to steer her to be strong... Lilly was indeed strong in her own terms, but this was different.
She was going to be completely outside her element...
But... there was so much more at stake, then one life... even two... there were billions of lives, on Earth, hanging in the balance... and the gods were not willing to just allow, one person to die, to save everyone... Venus did not want to lose the little girl she favored, even to save a Number's life.
so now, 'everyone' was at risk, as all the paradox and inconstancies, made the Enemy wrap itself, around Earth... as they toyed with Fate, and Fate raised the stakes higher and higher, until... this really could be, the final night.
"Oh my child... please... be careful."
Light...
It was... so much light. So bright, in this strange space where... it was as if, space had reversed. No longer dark black but a white emptiness sprinkled with curious spots of rainbow light. Lilly looked down and saw she was standing on a bridge, made of light. It glistened in a strange reflective pattern that reminded her of the moon.
A moon bridge.
Lilly stepped forward, awed by the strange passage that the numbers went through. She didn't know what she was expecting, but she was not expecting such a strange unearthly realm as this. Slowly she walked forward. What confused her most of all though, was the music...
... Yes, there was music here.
It chimed to her ears, sounding like... twinkling diamonds. A constant rhythm, that had an almost primordial sound to it. The music seemed to be counting with emphasis on each beat... one beat... two beats... three beats... four beats...
... and it repeated.
"Beautiful," said the little squirrel girl in some awe... resisting the urge to 'move' to that musical rhythm. but that awe gave way to the fact that, she wasn't quite on Earth any more... nor was she with the magic girls. She hoped that she would find Jenny or Artemis at the end of this portal, but it was all just a vast emptiness.
She had to give pause to consider... where she was. Somewhere else... and she did feel a little afraid. Lilly was just a little girl now, as much as tried to recall that it wasn't always so... she felt like she should be playing in the trees. Still her heart was telling her to continue. Her strange companion, had sacrificed so much just to bring her here. She hoped Sakura would be okay.
She took a few steps, noting that the bridge was changing color, becoming a dark red around her feet. She stumbled slightly as the light bridge shook violently. She ended up on all fours, holding on... and was aware of cracks starting to form around her. This thing was collapsing! She had to run.
She ran quickly, and glanced behind... only to see that... there was 'nothing' there. The bridge was disappearing but... not only that, the 'world' itself was disappearing into the bright light... she moved quickly, going as fast as she had ever ran before...
... but there was just no way she could out run it... not all the way to it's end... an end that seemed infinite...
She was swallowed by emptiness...
...So she fell...
and fell...
Sakura stumbled into Jon's house, a little... grumpily. The cat went into Jon's bedroom, and curled up on the slug-girl's bed, but really bothered about the layer of mucus on the floor.
She... needed to recuperate. Consuming the past... even a few seconds of it, hurt the Time-Devourer... and worst of all, it was getting their attention.
Return to us, they said. You are part of the whole. A part of all of us. We are under attack. Return to us Time Devourer.
The cat yawned, flicking it's tail, as it's shadow seemed to move of it's own accord to anyone that might notice. "Lilly named me... Sakura. I am no longer part of you."
If our existence end... so does yours, they reminded.
Sakura shook her head. My existence might end... but my life, will not, said the cat back.
You do not possess a soul.
Lilly, is my soul... said Sakura, simply as she licked her burn wounds. The little girl gave her a purpose to be more then just that which a spell intended of her.. she was indeed, part of the Enemy and forged by magical spells, to be the end of all things... but now she was more then that. She did her best, to help her mistress...
Initiate integration Spell.
Sakura groaned as the cat felt herself rise, hurtling out Jon's window, and into the darkened sky at the force the Enemy employed. The cat's grown turned into a growl, of pure anger. She was pressed into the darkness, surrounded by the body of the Enemy... and onto their physical manifestation of Earthly reality.
I will... not.. be... integrated... Sakura said, as they tried to rip her apart... to take back that what she was made from. All you have done... is brought me where, I need to be...
Lilly still continued to fall, into the void, wondering if she would ever see her friends... her family... anyone again. Was she consigned to Limbo?
There was nothing here...
Then she saw a strange light... another person? Oh God! Please... "Help!" she screamed to the entity.
The strange girl had some kind of... brush in her hand. She stared at her quietly, floating into the vast emptiness just as Lilly was... though did not seem to mind the fact that they were 'falling'.
She used the brush to draw a simple line under Lilly. She didn't even feel a 'thud' as it was apparent she was now 'standing' on this line... "T-Thank you."
The strange girl tilted her head, then carefully drew a door.
Lilly looked at it recognising the door... it was her house door. It even had their number and buzzer, detailed onto it. Was this... really a way back?
"Home," said the strange girl, responding to her thoughts.
"I... I'm lookin' for Jenny. She's fightin' the Enemy." Lilly explained, carefully feeling the floor. "Where.. are we?"
"Go... Home," she repeated, with a touch of annoyance.
Lilly's twin tails bristtled "I ain't goin'! I came this far an' I-"
Lilly felt a force across her body, as she was thrown firmly, but not painfully aside. Feeling attacked she got up quickly. She brought out her strange blue stick, pointing it at the girl. "Let me get to my friends!" the squirrel-girl said angrily.
The woman stood there, impassively. she only pointed to the door... and that was it. The door back to Lilly's house... she didn't seem to be bothered by the magic stick, and Lilly had a feeling it wouldn't work on her. It only worked on the Enemy... whoever this person was, she could not be the enemy. "Who are you? she asked, calming down a little.
The woman closed all her fingers, gently... then framed her two hands together, forming an O shape. "I am zero." she said. "I guard the path of the Numbers... I am how the numbers... die," she explained.
"W-what?"
"How... do you kill a number? They are eternal, child, even if their bodies might not be. You are where, only numbers can exist. You are not a number... and your presence is making this world, unstable... so please, go home..."
"Take me to where Jenny has gone... an' I'll go," she said defiantly.
"Jenny?"
"Magic... girl... Four."
"'Magic girl' Four? Hm... I see" she said a little strangely. "It is not.. as simple as that, child. Only a number can transcend the infinite... they have already gone past this world, and into the Great Equation, where they face the Operators... that which is behind those you call the Enemy... You can not help in this battle, as you are not a number."
Lilly stood there a little dejected. This was a world of cruel, unforgivable logic. She could not help because she could not... it was as simple as that. "But... I'm her friend," she said quietly.
"Numbers don't have friends," said Zero with a twinge of bitterness.
Lilly was getting angry at that- but she stared at Zero feeling a little... pity. "How... long have you been here?" she asked. She surly couldn't have been here alone for...
"...A long time," said Zero with a shrug.
Lilly quietly took that in. "Look... I'm sorry you didn't have any friends... nobody knew 'bout you. Get me back to the bridge, an' I will cross it." said Lilly.
"You will die of thirst or other bodily needs, before you even begin to cross it... it is an infinite bridge. Don't be silly. Only numbers cross this world... go back home."
"What about Artemis?"
"Oh... She formed the bridge through this world, and yours.... one world among many."
Lilly looked in confusion to that.
The woman sighed. "You are thinking in such three dimensions, and I can not convey to you, where you are... or what they are doing. The Enemy does not simply exist in your own universe, but in many dimensions... in infinite 'direction'. They attack not just your world, but 'all' worlds..."
Slowly she started to draw a circle, calling it 'Earth'... and another circle, to represent the moon... then she drew two circles, surrounding the 'earth'... that was the Enemy. After this depiction,she drew a line, between Earth and Moon, but at the area representing the threshold of the Enemy, she made a 'zig zag' pattern. She thren drew a dotted line, Running across the Earth-Moon line, that seemed to go 'perpendicular' and across the Enemy, Earth, and moon. On one end she drew 0, and the other the symbol for infinity.
"An infinite world requires an anchor, for your numbers to return to... This line you stand on now, runs between myself, and infinity... and crosses your own world in the middle, with the moon bridge... and the center of which, lies the Great equation of your reality... Artemis is now on... what you would call, the 'moon'. Her home... as you should be too. Back... that way," she reminded gently.
Lilly stared down... the impossible distance, so far away... so very far away... infinitely far... but then she smiled. Then she made a very peculiar girlish laugh. "I'm already at the end," she realised in some awe at the realisation.
Zero looked at her dubiously. "You have not even moved."
Lilly looked down at her feet... at the reflection of the bridge. She crouched down, staring at the reflection, as it looked back at her. There was a strange feeling as if the world turned around... She could feel it.. that person reflected... with perfect symmetry... the only difference, is that she was wearing her friendship bracelet now on her right arm, instead of her left...
... it was her though.. it was still her.
She was now her own reflection... on the other side, of infinity, where the strange white world, took on a deep blue shade. The place where the magic girls fought the Enemy... it was here. She was very close now.
"I am Infinity," said another woman, who looked very similar to Zero. There were some strange subtle differences though. "I do not know how you have come here, but you should not be. You are not a num-"
Lilly was starting to have enough of this. What would Lucas do? Not thinking much of it, she ran between the woman's legs and into the final door, as she gave an embarrassed gasp.
"I gotta go!" said the Squirrel girl apologetically to the second guardian.
