Death and Rebirth

Death and Rebirth

The RFI was fully charged, but the price had been so high to achieve this moment.  Laroche and many of his men were dead, along with countless Militia and civilians.  Nix, in her final moments, had damaged the Beast long enough to give Cole a chance to finish the job Kessler had bestowed upon him: the job he was meant to do.

Cole felt unsurprised at his decision; in order to save the world every Conduit, including himself, would have to die.  Funny, how life works out sometimes.  The Beast was before him, hunched over from Cole’s many attacks on the steps of the church.  Kuo was next to him, her quick breathing an indication of her fear and pain.

“This is where it must end,” Cole muttered, holding the RFI in his hands.  He looked up at the man formerly known as John White, now consumed by the power of the Beast and his own method of saving the world.

With weary resignation, Cole pumped his energy into the RFI, readying the final activation sequence.  As he did so, he couldn’t help but smile at his situation.  Here he was, about to activate a strange device, just like back in Empire City.  Thousands would die and only a few would know the truth of what happened.  Maybe he would be remembered as a hero this time, instead of a terrorist: he could only hope as much.

The RFI began to spark, signifying it was ready.  As Cole let go, he felt a tug towards the Beast from the RFI.  Energy seemed to be flowing off of the Beast and into the RFI as well, just like with the others back at Zeke’s rooftop hideout.  “What the?” were his last thoughts as both the RFI and Cole shot towards the heart of the Beast.  A tremendous explosion of sound and light emanated from the impact point, sending a beam into the atmosphere.  All around the world Conduits died, every single one, and in the city of New Marais the detonation point was only the Amp with the RFI laying on top of it.  The world had irrevocably changed.

Cole opened his eyes to see nothingness.  Well, one could call it nothingness, but others would simply call it a lack of tangible material.  He saw he was floating through an inky blackness, the only light coming from the electricity flowing over his body.

“Am I dead?” he asked, simply curious as to his current whereabouts.  He didn’t feel anything, but then again he couldn’t be in heaven or hell: where was the light, or the flames even?  The inky blackness soon gave way to a million points of light, each one brighter than a bolt of his most intense lightning.

Cole passed each one, amazed but speechless at the things he saw.  Whole worlds, each unique in its own way, were spread out before him in numbers beyond counting, beyond imagining.  As he drifted for what could have been either minutes or an eternity, he came to one particularly bright light.

“What is this?” he thought, reaching out to the pulsating light, his curiosity overriding any sense of fear.  As if by magic, he felt a tug towards it; try as he might, he couldn’t resist the pull.  He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to resist it: it had an almost maternal feel to it, like some kind of mother welcoming back a child.  Upon making contact with the light, Cole felt his mind falter once more and slip away.

The first thing he noticed upon becoming conscious was a distinct lack of feeling in his fingers and toes.  He could feel the soft grass beneath his palms, and strangely, his feet.  “Where are my shoes?” he wondered, trying to stand up.  Leaning backwards, he lost his sense of balance and landed on his back, the dirt pressing his wings into his back.  “Wings?” Cole thought, his eyes shooting open.  Turning his head, he saw a large pair of leathery wings poking out of his back.  If he didn’t know better, he’d say they looked like a dragon’s.

“What in the hell?” he nearly shouted, getting back onto all fours.  With a look of confusion, he saw he no longer had human fingers; instead he had a five-clawed hand, luckily with an opposable thumb-like claw.  He looked up and saw his arm was covered in scales on top of the arm, but the underside was soft and furry.  The same became apparent for the rest of his body; a hard scaly back and sides and a soft underbelly.

“Is this some kind of joke?” he said, stomping the ground with his back feet.  In shock he spun around to see he no longer had feet, but a pair of long horse-like legs, each ending a large hoof.  A long and muscular tail curled out from his hindquarters, with a double row of long spikes trailing along the end.  He looked around to his back and saw the leathery wings were more spread out; they could easily hide him under their fold.  Curiously, on his rump was a mark that couldn’t be natural: a pair of crossing lightning bolts on either side.

“I need to get a better look at myself,” he thought, walking over to a nearby pond.  All around him mountains and pine forests stretched as far as he could see.  Looking into the clear water’s edge, he found himself looking back at a dragon-like face.  Strangely though, his snout was elongated but round, and a mane interspaced with spikes rose from the back of his neck.  On the front of his forehead sat a large curved horn, similar to that of the unicorns Trish had been fond of when they were younger.  Only he had never seen a unicorn with a horn shaped almost like a forward-facing claw of some sort.  Seriously, it looked like a talon of a dinosaur was sprouting from his skull.

“Great,” he thought, opening his mouth to check his teeth.  Normal-sized incisors backed up by rows of alternating sharp and dull teeth; definitely omnivorous.  But how was he going to find any food in this body?

“So what in the hell am I?” he wondered, walking around the forest.  A distant boom of thunder signified a storm was coming.  Ever since he gained his powers water and he had a special relationship; it was always trying to kill him.  It was likely the same with this new form, and there was no chance of him staying out in a storm.

“Better find some shelter,” he muttered, looking around.  High above him, on a winding slope, sat a cave entrance.  From his angle it seemed deep enough to shelter him from the storm, but what if it was occupied?  Cole experimentally tested his powers: nothing came from his hands, but a bolt of lightning shot forth from his horn.  “It’ll have to do,” he said, working his way up the forested slope.

Climbing over the very last ledge, he pulled himself into the cave.  Deeper and deeper he went in, until the entrance was like a distant door letting in only a little light.  All around him gemstones and rubies glittered in the faint light, and several glowing blue mushrooms provided a faint ambient light.  “That clinches it; I am nowhere near any place on Earth I’ve ever heard of,” he muttered, curling up on the ground.  Normally he would have just laid down flat on his back, but this position just felt right to him.  With a rumble of thunder and the howling of the wind greeting his ears, he fell asleep.

Meanwhile, outside the cave...

The pack of timber wolves sought shelter from the storm, the howling winds hurting their ears.  The pack leader sighted a cave off in the distance and soon picked up a strange trail.  Even as the rain began to fall and dissolve the path, there was an unmistakable set of tracks leading to the cave entrance.  However, the timber wolf had never smelled anything like it before; it was neither hydra, cockatrice, or even manticore in nature.  It was something he had never smelled before, and he had been trekking through these forests and mountains his entire life.

Howling to his pack, he followed the trail up and into the cave, his fellow wolves right behind him.  The slashing rain soon gave way to the cool dryness of the cave’s entrance.  Following the trail, the timber wolf came upon a sleeping form.  It had wings, a long muscular tail and spikes, but the softly glowing horn and the odd hindquarters ruled it out from being a dragon.

His pack was hungry and this sleeping creature would likely make a good meal.  But before he could signal an attack the creature woke with a snort.  Turning to face the pack, the sleepy animal seemed to spring into action, jumping up into a fighting stance.

The alpha timber wolf let out an attack howl, but as the pack surged forward, something changed.  The air around the creature shimmered before a bolt of lightning shot forth from its horn.  The bolt impacted a stalactite behind the pack, causing it to explode.  With a yelp the pack began to retreat as more bolts flew from the creature’s horn.  A resounding and blinding blast shot forth from the horn, much larger than the other bolts.  As a wave of light the expanding wall of electricity pushed the pack out of the cave and sent them tumbling down the slope.  Landing in the mud, the bruised but otherwise unhurt timber wolves ran off, howling every now and then.

“Good riddance,” Cole thought, pushing some of the debris to block the cave entrance.  Those wolf-like creatures looked like they were made of tree bark and probably thought he’d make a good meal.  Tough luck: much, much bigger things had tried making a meal of him before and in turn had failed every time.  “Maybe now I can get some shuteye.”  With that he went back to his spot, curled up and fell back asleep.  Outside of the cave the noise of the wind drowned out the sounds of the howling of the scattered and frightened timber wolves.

In Cole’s wandering mind, his dreams gave way to nothing but confusion.  He saw the rising sun and setting moon, alternating between two winged unicorns in a majestic castle on a cliff-side.  Cities and towns, filled with multi-colored talking ponies dotted the landscape, each filled with colorful characters.  One small town in particular held his mind in sway: a library located in a tree, with a small talking dragon assisting a colorful pony.

But then his dreams took a different turn.  Off in the distance a statue displaying an amalgamation of different animals moved away from its stationary platform.  The odd statue slithered through dense forests, murky swamps and over a set of high snow-covered mountains.  It slithered into a deep ravine and seemed to sit there, waiting for something.  “I guess I’ll have to take a look around in the morning,” Cole thought as his disembodied form drifted from dream to dream.  The thunder continued outside, but for once his dreams silenced his mind to the troubled outside world.