trans_9 | Peering into the Crazy

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Peering into the Crazy

The city. After what had gone down here earlier, the near bloodbath that the crew had barely survived, Lyta hadn't expected to find herself back down here this soon. But, here she was. She was not, however, alone. She--like much of the crew--had learned learned her lesson during the battle with the roaches that wandering off alone in this ship (despite Stacy's 'protection') wasn't something to be done if you wanted to stay alive.

So, here she was, standing--with companions--in front of the strange gravity-defying building that the Doctor had referred to as Escher. It was definitely just as creepy-looking as it was fascinating. Stairs hung upside down from the ceiling and led to doors to rooms that looked as if they, too, were suspended from mid-air. Part of her wanted to turn around, go back the way they'd come and pretend the bizarre building didn't exist. But the Doctor had said there was something inside. Something telepathic. Something powerful. And being a powerful telepath herself, Lyta knew full well what that kind of power could do if wielded by something sinister.

Going poking around was one thing, but leaving something that powerful unexplored and potentially free to take control of the mind of anyone who passed by was too much of a risk to take. Besides, if she was going to find the entity that had been possessing the captain and get answers out of it, she would have to start looking. And who knew, whatever the being inside the Esher building was might have some of those answers, too.

"Everyone ready?" she asked, giving each of her companions a look.

**open to anyone. i left it free for multiple companions (preferably at least two) to jump in, but i'd prefer that this stay as one continuous thread of one group rather than a series of subthreads**

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come. to. me.

"Who-are-you?" Lyta pushed.

Nathan was quietly tense. There was something palpable about the evil encroaching in the distance.

"Which means we stay back."

"This...doesn't feel right," says Leela. There's a strange tingling at the base of her skull.

i see your minds.

a schemer, a mindreader, and...

a dreamer.

i am dreams.

"No. Nuh...NO. Get out! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

Leela drops to her knees, as her eyes cloud over, first the typical white they usually do when she's having a vision, then black.

She's not a telepath, but the door to her mind is left wide open, to let in the dreams and the daydreams, to let the future in--

"Muh-make it stop!"

Now it's letting something else in, too.

"Worms. Worms in my head." Her nose starts bleeding, as tears pour down her face. "They're all going to bleed. Everyone's going to bleed and burn and cringe and cry, as the black stone cracks, and only the blood of gods and spirits can stop it--"

Her concentration shattered by Leela's screams, Lyta whirled around just in time to see the girl collapse to the floor and cradling her head in obvious pain. What the hell had just happened? Lyta had been shielding them. Nothing should have been able to get through. Not, at least, without her realizing it. But, get through was what something had just done.

"You're right, this was a bad idea," Lyta said, rushing over to Leela and grabbing the girl by the arm to help hoist her back to her feet.

Again. Bad idea. One would think Lyta would have learned not to go grabbing on to people who suddenly collapse.

Thoughts couldn't get through.

Dreams on the other hand, dreams were a different story. Dreams were living things, breathing down the back of Leela's neck.

Dreams would consume her. Destroy her. The floodgates had been opened.

When Lyta touches her, she can then see what's really there--tentacles. Ethereal, wispy, not-really-there tentacles reaching out of the darkness that the voice had come from and into Leela's head. Nathan likely can't see it, but Lyta can.

They're wrapped around her brain and the entry point is at her neck, through the necklace permanently embedded in her skin there.

"They'll kill infants. Children. And realize too late that blood is on their hands. Don't trust them! Don't trust the ones without real faces! They're lying. They want to kill a star--the star has to be saved or the crossroads of everything will be lost. Un-Man must become god, not us--not any of us!"

Nathan's eyes narrowed, and he then stepped forward to scoop up Leela. The sayings were odd, but he's had enough experience with prophets back home to make note.

He then barked gruffly, "I got her. We have to get out of here. I can take her and come back for you." He's fast, he can do so. Fly fast and hard the hell away from this place.

"No WAIT!" Lyta cried out, grabbing on to Nathan's arm in an attempt to prevent him from taking off. Something inside the darkness ahead had somehow made contact with Leela, rather than her, despite Lyta's attempt to shield her and Nathan.

"There's something swarming all over her mind," Lyta exlained. "If you take off with her you could sever the connection too abruptly and it could kill her."

Nathan immediately stopped at that.

"All right... what do you suggest we do about it?"

"Just...just set her down," Lyta answered, motioning to a spot on the floor. "And give me few minutes. I'll see if I can get it out."

"I can see the end. The end of all things. The Darkest Night. First in one world, then in all worlds."

That presence is FIRMLY in there. And it's strong, vast and powerful.

Nathan carefully laid her down on the floor, and then stood up again, his arms folded in front of him.

"I take it I don't have to say work fast?" He remarked to Lyta, though still keeping an eye to Leela.

Lyta cast a hesitant look toward Nathan before sucking in a deep breath to steel herself for what was about to come. She was going to try to get it, whatever IT was, out of Leela, that was for certain. But first, she was going to try to get some answers, the answers she'd failed to get when she'd hastily expelled the presence possessing the captain.

Satisfied that she was ready, Lyta crouched down on the ground next to Leela and gently placed her hand on the side of the girl's head. Then, she pushed.

What are you?

Lyta is greeted with images. Images rather than words.

A bat-winged monster. A man with skin as dark as the darkest night, like its very own void, sucking in and killing all light.

She sees a pharaoh wandering worlds, being trailed by legions of followers, wild-eyed and crawling over the bodies as they fall from exhaustion, dehydration, and hunger.

She sees worlds fail and die, thrown into chaos and madness. She sees the deepest depths of sin and depravity, and the chaos that results of them.

She sees horror. She sees madness. She sees chaos that crawls like some slick fungus over the surface of planets.

And from this, she can likely realize that this is far, far beyond her.

She's only being shown this because It enjoys it.

Nathan was just watching the two silently, his arms still folded in front of him and tense. He never liked enemies he couldn't see, or had no way to stop or control them.

Her head jerked back as she was inundated with images of death and destruction. But she was not giving up...at least, not yet. It--whatever IT was--wanted to show her horrifying pictures. Well, two could play at that game.

Mustering up her memories, she pushed back, broadcasting the horrors she'd witness into Leela's mind for the thing to see.

A tank. Filled with fluid. Inside, an unconscious Lyta floated, naked, with a breathing apparatus over her mouth and nose. Her red hair fanned out around her head.

Her eyes flew open. All around her were identical tubes. Each filled with fluid. Each with an alien inside of it. Some growing. From fetus, to child, to adult. All being 'altered'.

Space. A large fleet of ships travels in formation. Some are identical. Yet the differences between those that are make it obvious that it is fleet of allies. Several worlds, several species united under one banner, for one cause.

From nowhere, tens...hundreds...thousands...tens of thousands...of massive, black spider-like ships shimmer just off the fleet's flank. They attack. Purple beam weapons slice through the fleet. Tearing the ships apart piece by piece.

A planet. From orbit. A multitude of large, blue funnels of energy form. Jump points from hyperspace. A saucer shaped ship the size of a continent emerges, escorted by hundreds of other, more oddly shaped ones.

The Vorlons. A blue strip along the front of the primary ship begins to shimmer. Then to glow. The energy begins to form into one point on the strip. Then it bursts outward. Targeting the planet. The beam burns through the atmosphere. Slices through the crust. Tearing it from the mantle. Screams. Millions die as their planet is torn to pieces.

Space. A ship. A probe fires, soaring through the vacuum toward a black moon-sized cloud. Fuzz. Static as it is hit from an electromagnetic wave. The static fades, the video becomes clear. Nanites. Millions of them. Tens of millions. Billions. Sweep across the planet that is shrouded by the cloud. Devouring all life. Molecule by molecule. Plants. Animals. Amoeba. Sentients. All consumed.

Missiles. Launched from the cloud. Soar toward the planet. Burrowing. One mile. Two miles. Five. Ten. Twenty. All the way down to the core. Explosions. Nuclear. Thousands of megatons. Thousands of missiles. Thousands of megatons times thousands of missiles.

The planet killers.

Try again!

All of those things back, all of those things across worlds and worlds and worlds. Ships and ships, planets exploding, worse things than ships crawling out of the deep dark between universes.

It thrills in it all, in the things she sent.

It helps cause things like what she's sent.

Everywhere.

And it shows her.

For Leela, having all these things funneled through her head and back, it's devolved to incoherent screaming.

More and more chaos. More images of death, famine, pestilence, and slaughter fill Lyta's--and Leela's--head. Lyta prepares to send another volley of horrific images back to IT when Leela's hysterics draw her attention.

She won't be able to take it. Any more of this 'one-up-manship' and the girl will most likely go insane. It would take Lyta months to wipe the images from the girl's memory.

All right, I think it's time you left, she said to IT, realizing she was just going to have to push IT out just as she had the thing possessing the captain.

It's big. Whatever it is is big, it's vast in scope...

But it's weak. At least right now.

Next time.

It's likely an intense, tremendous effort on Lyta's part, but the tentacles release, even if they leave something slick-black and oily behind--but then that image fades as they withdraw into the dark.

Leela's eyes turn from black back to the dull, glowing white, back to normal, and then she passes out, still sobbing even as she loses consciousness.

Damn. Better get her to the medi-bay and hope her brains didn't get too scrambled.

"You done? Can we get the hell out of here now?" He asked, his voice still in that low gruff growl it gets sometimes.

Edited 2009-02-16 17:57 (UTC)

Peering into the Crazy

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