Head trip! ^_^

When I awaken.....it's in a vast nothingness. I'm drifting...with nothing to give me a sense of direction. Nor can I move...I'm simply.....existing. Existing in non-existance.

I try to shake m head- try to recall why I'm here, where I am- and on that list WHO I am...it's..odd. Everything slips away as I grasp it, taking away more than what I gain in my attempts. Memories....

Blue sky.....stone walls. Dark chamber...hateful eyes...

All of them are slipping away even as I find them, leaving me alone in a way no being is meant to be. I try not to think, try not to persue those memories in hopes of keeping what few still remain- but even they begin to slip away.

Then there is pain as I hit something...I would say a floor but there is no floor in this dark, endless place. Not that I can see at any rate. Everything is the same...all the same...

"Wh....what's going on...."

My voice- alien to my own ears. I wince at the anger- the fear- in my own tone..anger at this abandonment of my own memories...afraid- because without memory- without the self- how can you proceed?

I lay there for ages, or maybe only moments....time means as little as everything else here. Listening to my breathing, trying to move...I can remember how to speak, but not how to even raise my own hand. I would close my eyes if it would make any difference- but then a sound catches my attention.

Footfalls...coming nearer. I want to turn my head, to look, but my body refuses to obey... so I wait. Each step becoming a hearbeat as I lie there...then they stop, so close to me. And yet I see nothing...

"So you came at last. Just like all the times before."

"Who are you...?"

"And you ask the same question. Who are you? I can answer both of those questions with a single answer. I am you. Every you that has ever been up until this day. And now, I will be the last one."

"..I don't understand.."

"You are lost, right?"

A rustling of clothing- someone settling beside me. A hand brushes over my eyes...and sight is restored, though the "scenery" hasn't changed much. Still black nothingness- but now there is a man with long white hair and violet eyes...

"...now we will have direction again. One last time. Come, Golbez..."

We awoke to find ourselves in what looked like the Tower of Wishes still.....but now broken and scattered. Palom and Porom awoke before I did, working to clear away the rubble so we could leave. Golbez was no where to be seen......did he drag us up here just to leave us?

Grimacing in pain, I sit up and scan the place he brought us to....If someone were to ever ask me what hell looked like- I could likely answer now. A black wall stretched on endlessly around us- overhead as well- but you could see clearly for miles....and what was there to see?

Destruction. Our world destroyed a thousand times over at numerous periods in history. Various towers of Bab-il pierce into the black sky and walls....shattered remains of many Baron castles lay strewn through various others- and still other places I don't recognize.

But in the midst of it all is one place I CERTAINLY don't recognize- and which appears in only one place.....though I cannot call it whole. A massive ruin that looks to have once been a temple....

"Cecil! Are you alright?"

Porom runs up to me, looking me over worriedly. I can likely owe the fact I show no real injury from that to her...her healing magic had gotten so much stronger since the last time we had fought side by side...

"I'm fine......what happened to Golbez?"

Palom pauses in his own excavation- though oddly he doesn't turn to face me.

"We don't know Cecil...when the spell took hold, I felt him starting to get pulled away from us...but I couldn't keep a hold of him..."

It only takes me a moment to see why Palom did not turn around once I approach him. For all that he is moving this rubble around- his hands are torn and mangled...'couldn't keep a hold of him' looked more like 'nearly had my hands torn off'. I sigh and cast my gaze about a second time, settling on that temple- then wave Palom away. Even if his hands had been fine, he would have been a poor choice for this job.

"Let Porom see to your hands, Palom..I'll clear the path."

It takes an eternity just to find a way down from the half-collapsed tower...and once on what passes for the ground here, we can see what's truly ahead of us. Floating islands of ruins, some joined, some not. I think I can see what path we will have to take to get to that temple- but it will take us some time......

"Lets go...if Golbez is here, he's sure to head there as well. With or without him though.......we have to end this....."

And for the second time inmy life, I'm finding myself wandering towards a goal I don't quite understand, using a path that's far from clear- and accompanied by two people who's full abilities have yet to fully develop. At least last time, I had had my convictions to show me a light of some kind.

In this place? There is only doubt and confusion......

(Continued in: Despair in Darkness)

heheh. Now come on- surely you guys had to've seen this plot twist coming. ^.~