Emily Hayes - Prologue; Phoenix Down
@Gummi Bunnies @Capri @Ver @Crunch @Josh @Lucky @Atomic Knight @Neko Shogun @Others?
At first, when she had returned home, she had thought all hope was lost.
For when she had been called away from Alledia, she had until that point forgotten the monstrous transformation she had undergone, and the kind of fate that awaited her, when the pain from her past was too much to overcome.
It was so hot, yet... Cold. She had so much power at her fingertips, yet she couldn't control it, with her body nothing more than a phoenix-like creature, made up of fiery energy.
In many ways, it felt like she was stuck in a limbo, somewhere between dreaming and waking, only able to observe her own actions she was forced to take. Like many before her, the voice unleashed her like a weapon amongst those that she once cared for.
But then, something happened...
As her flames threatened to engulf a homestead, a naive child stood up against her, shouting at her. While she couldn't quite hear his words clearly, his attempt to help his father, trapped under a collapsed support beam as her own flames began to engulf the building brought back a surge of emotion.
Her mind suddenly went back to that day she had tried desperately to save her father, even though she was far from strong enough.
The same traumatic event that had turned her into the monster she was, had also allowed her to gain a level of lucidity.
Everything else, almost came naturally to her.
On her fiery wings, she flew away to a distant planet, one where she entered the void... And began to truly understand the nature of her power, and thus, how to control it.
"Remember to take action while you're still strong! Give into your fear and you will remain here like the others!"
It confused her at the time, why in the void, an old woman had told her that. Until her meeting with the voice, the entity that had been controlling her real body up until this point.
By then, she had her mind made about what she was going to do; she was going to forge her own path, and conquer the powers that had made her a monster. And, though she still had many questions left to answer, now was not the time. She knew what would become of her in the future, and in addition, the true power her stone held within it.
And then, it happened.
As she awoke in her true body, flying through the air, she concentrated, straining every fiber of her body, using every ounce of strength she had in her until her mind went numb... Until alas, the fiery energy that had formed into a phoenix-like shape dissipated, absorbing itself back into her body.
She fell, but instinctively shielded herself, creating a crater in the ground, but alas, she was awake... And... Alive.
As a test, she lifted herself into the air, and found that the very power that she had once been unable to control practically flowed around her.
She had tamed the stone, and the voice that had plagued her and other stonekeepers for so long. It called out to her again, begging her to come back, but in response, Emily asked it for it's name; Ikol.
Though there was still much to discover about this mysterious being, she knew what to do.
"Ikol. I want you to know that I'm not here to follow you. You are the one riding along with me." She said.
And with that, it was over. The struggle she had with controlling her stone's powers had come to an end, at least for now, and after finally un-masking the Elf King, revealing him for who he was, she used her stone's powers to travel into space, intent on saving the family she had left from an impending disaster.
...
And then, before she could even begin to forge this new path for herself, Emily once again felt this strange, tugging sensation. Except this time, instead of pulling her through the multiverse and into a dimension, she felt everything around her stop.
Something was wrong.
With all the power in her, she tried her best to fight it off, but that alone would not be enough.
All she really could do was delay the inevitable, until eventually that other, more familiar tugging sensation occurred again. It was like another, external force was trying to save her, pull away from her impending doom.
And so, she would find herself in another place, more alien to her than the void itself, or any other world she has ever visited.
As she listened to Billy and Touma talk, she soon realized what had happened; though only a few days have passed since the last time she traveled across dimensions, it was clear something went wrong, terribly wrong. And ontop of that, memories popped into her head, as she felt herself reliving the very events that had brought the multiverse to its present state, and had called for such drastic action that resulted in her being sent here.
But, determined as she was, Emily intended to help out the best that she could. What had happened back then had not been the end of Elliot or Revan as she had thought. In fact, the latter was at the epicenter of the disaster that came, with Elliot facilitating Revan's ascent to power.
Though, even with all that Revan had at his fingertips, Emily was prepared to fight him with all his might.
While it was uncertain if even her stone had enough power to face Revan alone, she knew that with the help of all those gathered here, they might just stand a chance. They had to try, after all.
Her stone was still emitting a bright, violet glow, floating in the air, as if it was cooling down from her usage of it earlier, even as she spoke.
"I'm Emily, Hayes." She said, a determined look already set on her face.
Looking around at those gathered around her, she sighed, realizing there was evidently alot of tension going around, so much so that one would almost forget that the multiverse as they knew it was changed forever, if not outright gone.
Fortunately, all that seemed to have settled down, albeit resulting in a rather fierce outburst from Biscuit, and some display of power.
Which, made her think; what
were they capable of?
Perhaps knowing that, might help facilitate some kind of plan to restore the multiverse, or at least stop the worst of what Revan was going to do. That, though, was something she figured she could gradually work on learning. For now, she decided to focus on their main goal; Revan.
"Tell me, Billy. Do you think we can stop him with the power we have?" She said, her attention turning to Billy first.
It was definitely strange now that she thought about it, that the man who she thought had been dead would be the cause of so much trouble, so much pain. But now, she at least knew what was responsible for the strange phenomenon before she had arrived here.
