Spoiler (Click to Show)
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Luther woke up with a shock. Something important had woke him. Vaguely he recalled something from his dream. A short woman kneeling next to Luther. He still remembered her eyes. They were not looking at Luther’s forehead, at his mark. Instead they were pointed somewhere far over the horizon. It caused an intense feeling of sadness that simultaneously made him smile like a madman.
“Still having nightmares Luther? “, a high pithed voice rasped in the darkness of Luther’s cabin.
Quickly Luther turned on the small lamp standing beside his bed. He didn’t have to reach far since the button was next to his pillow. The light shattered across the room, only to reveal an empty wooden cabin with simple furniture. “Who is there, what are you doing inside my cabin!” Luther shouted furiously. Surprisingly, nobody answered his shout.
This sentence often filled his dreams: Still having nightmares Luther?
It was the first time he experienced the voice to be so real. He swore he could almost feel the air shiver around him as the voice spoke. Ever since he merged with the Roch, Luther had been having nightmares where in the end somebody would ask him this exact question. Enraged by his own lack of sanity, Luther rubbed the sleep from his eyes and decided to go for a quick sip from the bathroom’s sink.
Before Luther opened the door, he noticed a glow coming from underneath the door. It flickered white. Luther swore he didn’t leave any lamp glowing, he always checked twice before going to bed. Maybe out of caution, maybe out of fear because of the previous events, Luther slowly opened the bathroom door.
He couldn’t believe his eyes. Was he still asleep? Having a nightmare?
In the centre of the bathroom something was floating mid-air. It looked as if the air was tore, a tear towards a new area. The edges of the tear shone bright, Luther had to squeeze his eyes in order adapt to the sudden transmission from the darkness. Luther just stood there, completely unable to move, afraid to disturb the absurdity. As his eyes adapted to the brightness the centre of the absurdity began to sharpen. The area inside began to show itself. An open field, covered in goldyellow grass. Luther could vaguely see an individual standing towards him, though he did not know if the individual was pointed towards him or towards the enormous majestic oak tree that stood in front of the individual.
As if something pushed Luther he fell towards the absurdity. Luther tried to stop himself from smashing against the absurdity with his hands. In reflex he closed his eyes simultaneously. Where his hands were supposed to touch the absurdity, he only felt cold air, then grass.
The smell of fresh grass filled Luther’s nose, a soft breeze stroke through his hairs.
Quickly Luther stood up and again, and was astonished by what just had happened. He actually fell through the absurdity and now stood in the open field. The yellow grass tingled between his bare feet. A shiver ran through Luther, he realized he was only wearing his combat trousers.
Everything looked and felt so real. “This is no dream” Luther mumbled to himself.
The individual still stood in front of Luther. Now recognized by Luther as a woman, standing with her back towards Luther. Her long black hairs reached her hips. As a black wave with a brownish glow it waved with the air. The woman was watching several silhouettes that lay underneath the big oak tree. Some missed limbs, some were beheaded, from each head seemed to emerge light, some blue, some white, some red. A strong feeling of recognition hit Luther and he couldn´t help but question himself if he´d seen the woman before. Hell, he even though he recognized the tree with the multiple bodies.
Slowly Luther started walking towards the woman. His bare feet mumbled the sound of his steps.
Just a few meters behind the woman Luther stopped. He could now see the woman’s figure. She was slim, but Luther recognized by the way she held her back straight she was a fighter. Just when Luther was about to say something the woman turned around. Luther held his breath.
“Luther”, the woman spoke with a glimpse of sadness, “Time to make a choice”.
The woman turned around and revealed her face. Her facial expression stood fierce, but her eyes told different. Luther could see a tear running on her cheek. Suddenly in the glimpse of a second, her skin transformed to scales. Wings appeared behind her. Her eyes no longer stood sad, they now transformed into eyes that looked similar to cats eyes, but there was something odd about them. She spoke again, this time her voice seemed much lower and it trembled the air as she spoke: “Will the circle be unbroken”.
In the glimpse of an eye the woman suddenly charged at Luther. Her lower arms showed vicious spikes coming out of her skin ready to stab Luther. Barely able to even lift his arms to deflect the attack, the pikes pierced Luther’s bare chest. His feet lost grip on the ground, a flash, Luther got smacked against the ground. Luther looked at his chest, two spikes were dug deep into his skin.
Luther barely managed to stand up again. His chest had lost all feeling and his arms started to get heavy. “I don’t understand!”, he shouted while he charged back at the woman. The woman, who just lost parts of her body, the pikes. Was looking at gaping holes coming from her arm. Her wings seemed to shrink and her eyes stood normal again.
"You can’t win this Luther, even if you do, I will stop you eventually, for the greater good”.
With limb arms Luther body slammed the woman, she saw it coming, and do to his limb arms the slam wasn’t all that powerful.
Luther watched as the woman struggled to maintain her balance, but somehow she was able to maintain it and she pointed her hand at Luther, who was not two meters in front of her. Some sort of substance filled her hands and transformed into a vicious sabre. Almost one meter long the sabre looked as if it could pierce anything, even Luther’s skin.
Luther knew this was a fight he couldn’t win, he had no focus, his mind was starting to blur due to the pikes sticking in his chest. All he could do, was run.
Quickly Luther turned around and started running back towards the “portal” which still floated midair in the middle of the field. He did not hear the woman following him, but why?
While maintaining his pace Luther watched over his back to see if the woman was actually not following him. He was right, she just stood there, facing the tree once again.
A sharp pain hit Luther’s chest as he ran into the sabre of the woman. The cold feeling of metal pierced him. The sabre was held by the exact same woman. “There was a chance you might do this” she said calm. She pushed Luther backwards and let go of her sabre. The sabre vanished, only leaving a small black dust which flew away on the wind. Luther’s legs were not able to withstand even this small push and he fell backwards. The soft grass tingled in against his back as he smacked against the ground.
Minutes past. The woman kneeled next to him. Her face directed to the pikes, Luther wasn’t able to see her face. He tried to get up, but wasn’t able to move even an inch.
“I’m sure you wonder why, they all do”, the woman spoke. “Now, do you remember why you are here Luther? Be so friendly to listen carefully now”.
Luther’s head felt like it was going to burst at any second, he felt his hearth pumping blood to his muscles, but still he wasn’t able to move, or speak, “why?” he thought to himself.
The woman continued as if she read Luther’s mind. “Why you ask? It is rather complicated, you see, I can see the truth, I can see the choices you are going to have to make. Each choice creates a different dimension, a different world. For example. You toss a coin to decide whether to do something or not, you let faith decide, at this moment you create two different dimension, one in which you do it, and one in which you don’t”. The woman turned her face towards Luther. The images in Luther’s head began to blur. “Now, you recently created multiple dimensions, multiple that will corrupt you and sow death and destruction across these dimensions, and few who guide you to stop the destruction from happening. I’ve seen the probabilities of your decisions, multiple lead towards the corrupt ones, but I offer you a path to the right one”. The way she pronounced you was not as in “Luther” but as if she was talking about multiple Luther’s.
The woman now was merely a shade in Luther’s eyes, it wouldn’t take long or he’d have no vision at all. A warm feeling began flowing through Luther’s body. A white glow fell over the woman’s face. Her eyes looked at Luther’s forehead, but not directly at him, as if she was looking past the horizon. “You will wake up and not recall anything”. Her voice sounded hopeful, then turned sad. ”I’m sorry I had to kill you, again”
The last word of the woman echoed in Luther’s head as he fell to the endless sleep. “again----”.[/spoiler]
My story
Spoiler (Click to Show)
Over the deafening flutter of the chopper, Luther focused on the words flowing into him through his headphones. The drowsiness still lingered upon him, weighing him down. He was still a bit baffled by the dream – or reality covered up by the operator, or whatever that was – he had earlier, but Luther meekly took the file folder labeled “Pluto” from the Operator’s hand.
Luther took a peek into the plain, white folder, but there was only a single sheet of paper that looked like a document, and several photographs of a girl at about his age in late teens. She was standing in the middle of the arena, drenched in blood blooming from her shoulder and with an odd smile stretched across her face. Strangely, the black-haired girl was staring directly at Luther from the picture, as if she knew she was being photographed. Her black eyes, different from his hazel-brown ones, were dark with a glint of sinister atmosphere. Something was off about the way she poised herself, and then Luther realized; there was a piece of iron bar protruding out of her thigh. Judging by the location, it was probably the only thing supporting her leg. How could she smile at a situation like that? Was she a subject of the project, designed to have anesthesia? As he skimmed through the profile, the Operator started the briefing on Luther’s new mission.
“The girl’s alias is Pluto, “legally” seventeen of age. She does not remember her name, so she gave us her nickname of sort. This girl joined the Corporation a while ago, and as you can see, we do not have much information about her for she kept things a lot of things discreet. Her family history is vague, and could not we find anything about her parents or possible relatives. We have only seen her fight once during her evaluation. All we know is that she is a half-dragon that wields two weapons, – a dagger and a sword – knows everything and--”
Luther looked up from the paper with a sudden interest. “What do you mean by she "knows everything?”
“She claims to have an ability to see every “truth”, but never described things in detail. We suggested a dorm for her so that we can observe her better, but she refused. She said she owned her own house, though. Our plan was to grab hold of her right after the battle, and that girl slipped out of the arena right after her opponent was down and hasn’t showed up since. That was more than a month ago.”
“The arena? How did she--”
“She uses inter-dimensional portals to teleport herself from place to place.”
At the explanation, Luther nodded slowly. Out the window, he could see the thick canopy of trees looming, forming a vast maze of greens on the land below. It was a deciduous forest, stretching far over the horizon. Pluto’s profile mentioned something about the forest, so Luther assumed that this was the reason why they were here. “The Grove”, it was written. But how on earth was he going to find someone who can travel through various dimensions and, what was he supposed to do about her even if he did? As if he read Luther’s mind, the Operator shifted uncomfortably and described the mission in detail.
“Unknown is a possible danger, Luther. Your mission is to find Pluto and gather information of her. Usually, this kind of job would be more suitable for intels, but the team decided that she is too dangerous for normal agents to interact with. Also, if she won’t cooperate, kill her.”
The expression on his face was so stern; Luther dared not to reject it. What choice did he have anyways?
“So—how can I find this Pluto character?”
“Unfortunately, that is part of your assignment.”
Luther swore under his breath. He started to protest, but the Operator cut him off with the wave of his hand. The authority spoke to him in an unpleasant monotone, “You are to do as you are told, Luther Wright. You agreed to work with us, therefore you will follow. Do you understand?”
The words overpowered him, just like the time when he pressed his pulsing hand upon that poor Servant lady. Luther gulped, and nodded his head in submission. Wincing at the pool of blood still evident, he looked away from the malformed figure sprawled across the floor. The hazel-eyed boy looked straight ahead, although he could not control the thick metallic scent of brown-red liquid under his feet. The chopper was slowly descending. The silence would have stretched on, if not for the desperate shout of the pilot, followed by a massive impact that hit the helicopter head on.
“What on earth—oh no, brace your--!”
Even before he could finish his sentence, the pilot died on spot due to a gigantic form crushing him with unbearable weight. The chopper was disassembled into bits and pieces, tossing everything inside it – Luther, the Operator, two corpses and blobs of blood – into the air. It was if the airframe had exploded without a flame. Despite his high damage threshold, the cut produced by a projectile proved lethal, creating a deep gash on his forehead. Now that made Luther feel like he was on flame. Airborne and helpless, the dark-haired teen’s conscious began to slip away from the surprise, his body desperate to shut his brain down as he gasped for air knocked out of his lungs.
Luther heard an agonized howl and a strong gust of wind in his ear. A slim, cyan body whizzed past him. A dragon, Luther decided. Feeling the tugging on his collar, the boy closed his eyes and let his mind sail away.
* * *
Nightmares. As much as Luther hated them, they always haunted his dreams, gnawing and clawing their way through Luther's mind. He was in his old cell again. The very table he had crushed that Servant to death lay in front of him. Luther grabbed the steel furniture, overturning it. The clone died. Foam of blood seeped from her parted lips while she mouthed the same words he could never forget, “Why do you think you are here, Luther!”
Metallic, red paint filled the cell floor, making its way through the bed of hay. The Servant's voice echoed around the warm, gradually getting louder - a deafening crescendo - until it was no longer a query but a series of screams roaring with pain. Luther covered his ears, but with no vain; the voice seemed to have come from inside his head. He could not shut it.
“I said I don't know! Leave me alone!”
As he shouted, his veins started glowing blue from anger and fear. The current, too overloaded and unable to be contained within Luther, sparked across the room like a lightening. It crackled inside the metal room, and the hazel-eyed teen saw the dead corpse beginning to sizzle until-- it exploded into tiny morsels of