What If: My Second Life

CHAPTER 27: Mind Trip

“Just get us in there Zeke! The damn thing looks like it's gonna explode!” Vinyl was standing back from the Calling Card as it violently shook and glowed on the floor. It bounced up every few minutes or so and it let out some sounds that sounded like bones being cracked and snapped.

“Fine. Are you sure you two are ready?” Jace and Vinyl nodded at the same time and they were encased in a red aura by Zeke. The Calling Card flew up next to them in the same red aura and Jace and Vinyl started to glow white.

“Uh...I don't know about this...” Jace looked up from looking at his glowing hands. There was a sound that sounded like electricity and wind whipping. The sound got louder as the two glowed brighter and brighter. “Alright..That's a loud sound...Uhhh...I don't know about-” He was cut short when the two disappeared from the room and the Calling Card dropped to the ground. Zeke floated over and picked up the hourglass and put it around his neck, floating to a chair and sitting down as he waited for the two to return.
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“Mmm...Bacon...” Jace mumbled in his sleep as he laid on a red velvet couch. He was jolted awake from a bacon-y dream he was having, to find himself in a big room. He looked around the room and took in the characteristics. Furnished with very nice furniture, paintings on the walls...This is something out of a dream! The walls were painted a light blue and the floor was tiled in alternating black and white tiles. There was a chandelier hanging in the middle of the room that gave off the only source of light in the room. On the other side of the room, there was a door made of what seemed to be redwood.

After taking in all of the room, he started to get memory back. “Alright, this is the Calling Card...I'm in it..” He tried to piece the puzzle together in his head, when the door opened in front of him. He turned to see Vinyl dressed in royal attire.

“Ah, Jace. How nice to see you here.” The Vinyl smiled and made her way over to him, stopping right in front of the couch he was laying on. “We found you outside, passed out. Don't worry, Miss Scratch is already up and talking with Aksheal...”

“Aksheal? You mean, my dream form?” She nodded and turned from him back to the door.

“I will take you to them if you wish..” Jace stood without another word and started to walk with Vinyl...Well...Dream Vinyl...'I'm gonna need a name for her...I can't call her Vinyl and Vinyl Vinyl...What? Now I'm confusing myself!'

They walked the entire way in silence down halls with paintings of wizards and kings and such. They stopped in front of a large iron door and the Dream Vinyl knocked on it a couple of times. The doors slowly opened and the sounds of soft music and conversation could be heard in the room. “Ah, Jace! Welcome to the Calling Card!” There was a man in golden robes sitting in a chair next to Vinyl sipping on some red wine. Vinyl turned and smiled at Jace.

“Jace! This place is amazing! Aksheal was just telling me how he rearranged the place so that this mansion could be made in the Calling Card. There were a bunch of clocks and things around, but he made this out of nothing!” Aksheal smiled and took a sip of his wine.
“Nothing is impossible for a god..” He smirked and laid back on the chair. “But, I wish to speak with Jace for a while...Vinyl if you will please leave us..” The two looked at each other and were soon out the door. The door closed behind the two and Aksheal stood up to get some more wine. “You know what we want Jace...” He turned to face him. “We want out..”

“I can understand this..” Aksheal moved over and handed him a glass of wine. Jace took it and slowly took a sip. It was sweet and bitter at the same time. He had wine before, a long time ago. He sighed contently as he took another sip and set the glass on the table, walking to a chair and sitting down. “What I don't know is how you will be able to part from me and Vinyl...If that was to happen, more beings would be made in the dream real-”

“Markarth...”

“Excuse me?”

“Markarth...The realm is named...Markarth...” He was looking out a window, seeing a large area in front of him where ponies worked and played. Then it was gone in an instant.

“Well, if you were to leave here, then the same beings would be made in Markarth, and sent to the Card for storage. If they wanted out, and I let them, the same thing would repeat. If it kept happening, the world would be filled with clones!” Aksheal slowly turned from the window and pulled his hood down. His eyes were pure red and there were orange cracks in his skin.

“If I continue to stay here my body will change into that of a reaper...The Calling Card was made for the flow of time to be changed and stopped so a reaper can do his job. This is also how a reaper is born. Staying in the card will complete a transformation that fuses the bones in a way to sustain themselves without muscle or skin. This is how a reaper is able to be bone...” He walked over to Jace's seat and looked right into his eyes. “If I continue to stay here, I will become the next reaper. Vinyl is unaffected since she is female. It's always been the male who becomes a reaper.” He put a hand on Jace's shoulder. “Please, let me out. I suffer here, and Vinyl worries for me...”

Jace buried his face in his hands and started to think hard. His brain went through a million different outcomes at once, trying to find a way to let Aksheal out. “I could be absorbed..” Jace looked up as Aksheal's words rang in his ears. “I can stay in your mind. The Calling Card is not meant to hold us, your mind is. We are alternate personalities of you and Vinyl. The Calling Card is not living; it cannot handle a personality.” Jace looked down and thought it over.

“Would you still be able to come out?” Jace looked up to the face of his more powerful form. “Or will my current personality be absorbed since you're the more powerful one?”

“I will take up residence in your mind. If I do get out in some way, I will have to go over it with you to make sure it would be alright with you. It is your body after all...But, absorbing me might be painful.” Jace raised a brow at this statement. “I have been starting the development of a magic well inside of my body. A reaper develops one the more they stay in the Card, and it is used to teleport and such. So, if I was absorbed, the well would have to made and that will be rather sudden.” Jace sighed and laid back in the chair.

“So...Even if I tried another way, I would be fucked either way because the personality would be being all itself in the world..” Aksheal shrugged.

“It looks that way..” Aksheal walked to his glass and picked it up, taking another sip. “I would rather live in your mind than here any day..” Jace started to laugh at this.

“I don't think it's any better...My mind is a dark place man..”

Aksheal turned and looked at him with a serious expression. “My entire life has been dark. I've lived in my own world and then had it taken away only getting to return when you go to sleep. In your mind I can live in my world and rule as I choose. It would be better than ruling here...” Jace sighed and took a drink of his wine and stood.

“Alright...Let's get this over with...”

“I must get the two Vinyls first..” Aksheal walked to the door and opened it, and started talking to the Vinyls. They came in after a while and stood side by side. “We are getting out of here Vinyl...Into his mind..” The two Vinyls looked at each other with a concerned look.

“But..Would that mean I won't exist to become the embodiment of Vinyl when she sleeps?” Aksheal shook his head.

“No, his mind will be the conduit for us to live since the world was made by HIM. When she sleeps, you will be the embodiment of Vinyl when the two are together.” The dream Vinyl nodded and walked over to Aksheal, standing next to him.

“I hope I get to see you in better terms Aksheal...” Aksheal turned to face Jace and he smiled, holding out his fist. Jace looked at it and smiled as he met Aksheal's red eyes and bumped his fist with his.

“We are one in the same Jace...That will never change...You will ALWAYS get to talk to me..” Jace grabbed Aksheal's arm and pulled him into a hug. Aksheal was a bit taken aback by this, but soon started to hug Jace back. The two stayed like that for a while before moving from each other.

“Let's do this...” Aksheal nodded and held his hand up, a white aura coming from it and soon Jace's head was encased in the same light. Jace's breath was taken when it happened and he found himself in a hallway with many doors each saying different things on them. He looked around and was fascinated by all this.

Soon, Aksheal started to materialized in the hall and walk towards him. “I had to bring you here to have us find our way into your mind. Thank you Jace, for doing this for us...” The vision of Aksheal slowly started to fade and Jace felt the air leave him again as he was standing in the middle of the same room he had just been in with Aksheal, who was now gone.

“That was...Trippy...I think I just had a mind trip...LITERALLY.” Vinyl ran over and hugged on his waist.

“You did it! Now we can go home an-” There was a rumbling all around them and the room began to shake.

'Run Jace! The home is unstable now that I'm gone! You have to run!' Aksheal's voice rang through Jace's head.

“Zeke! We need out NOW!” As he was trying to call for help, the room started to fall apart. The tables fell over, the couches as well started to fall. All the glass in the room shattered and sent shards everywhere. “ZEKE! GET US OU-”

*CRASH*