Post by Delashano on Jul 21, 2014 18:16:21 GMT -5
Jenns let out a low groan of pain as she blinked her eyes open, her vision was blurry, every inch of her body ached, and she had NO idea why. The dull pain that pulsed through her body was just enough to keep her from reacting violently or even really at all to the present situation despite her mind buzzing with activity. Slowly her vision came into focus and much to her annoyance what she found was not in fact the comforting sight of her tent but rather an almost utterly empty room save for herself, dragging herself up from her place on the floor Jenn sat upright and took a better look at the room finding it was truly barren all that existed in the room outside of herself was the four walls, ceiling, floor, and a doorway all made from some sort of strange material, it held the feeling of polished stone and the look of something between blue granite and ice with flecks of red dispersed intermittently throughput it. “Where the hell am I…?” Jenn muttered to herself as she dragged herself to her feet finding that the more she moved her body the more the dull ache began to fade, it was perhaps a small victory in what appeared to be the beginning of another few days of hell.
The last time she had awakened in a strange location with her body in pain and her mind in a fog she had been in the labs of UNITY however despite the startling similarities the ‘feeling’ of the situation just did not seem to sit the same as UNITY, the building she had been taken to by Toiu had been a state of the art facility of some sort that she only now vaguely understood the scale of when it came to just how advanced UNITY had been… this place felt strangely familiar in neither a negative or positive way and most importantly seemed to have a more ‘old world’ design and feel to it from what little she could see. Despite the fact that she felt reasonably confident that this was not UNITY’s work that did little to actually comfort Jenn, UNITY while she had not had more interaction with them beyond her adventure in the halls of the building was in some way familiar territory at this point, she knew some of the big players involved there and most importantly knew she could take on a good number of UNITY’s agents… this place was foreign territory so to speak, whoever had brought her here was an unknown.
But soon enough that would be dealt with, she just needed to find a way out of this place just as she had done with UNITY, with that in mind Jenn proceeded to the only exit from the room she had awakened in a door seemingly carved from the very wall it was attached. Placing a hand on the door Jenn attempted to push it open and found the door gave no resistance and in fact upon any amount of pressure being placed on it Jenn found herself on the other side of it rather than actually opening the door, she had not fallen through, had not walked, she had simply touched the door and instantly she was in a long hallway with walls made of the same strange material and many more doors, gathering her bearings Jenn detected the familiar sensation of magic as whatever power had moved her out of the room still lingered in the air. “Teleportation?” Jenn muttered the word questioningly to herself, it felt similar to a teleportation spell and yet utterly different at the same time. “I can already tell this will be a rather great test of my patience…” Jenn said with a sigh as she took a better look around, she found that the hall extended a decent ways in both directions enough that there were seven doorways on each side of the hall with a few feet between each doorway though certainly not enough space to account for the size of the room she had just been in. “So the rooms are bigger on the inside? Wonderful that is certainly always fun…” Jenn said through gritted teeth, dimension manipulation was always a major headache as if someone was capable of warping how much space something contained then they almost invariably also possessed the skill to make rooms connect in ways that did not ‘make sense’ one could enter a doorway and walking directly into the same hallway they had just existed with such magic. Jenn played around with such magic herself while inside her ring and at time it had even become difficult to keep track of her own little world let alone trying to understand how someone else had set there’s up.
A problem faced Jenn now, what exactly was she supposed to do? She had a few options on where to go but unlike back in UNITY there was no map to give her a concept of where to go and worse yet she had no clue if she was even in a proper building at this point. For all she knew she could be something like her lamp. “I might as well explore a few of the rooms, the worst case scenario being… well I suppose the worst case is I might get lost forever and spend eternity wandering an endless maze until I find out whether or not I truly can live forever… Maybe Its best I do not think about the worst case any more...” Jenn said to herself cringing slightly at the thought, she NEEDED to get out of here Vixi would be worried if she awoke to find Jenn gone with no notice, worse yet what if whoever had taken her had taken Vixi as well. Jenn clenched her fists at the very thought, the concept of Vixi being taken however also reinforced the idea of checking the rooms out, she had been in one of these rooms so if perhaps they were holding cells of some sort then perhaps Vixi would be nearby. Jenn immediately stalked up to the door just across from the one she had exited and with a deep breath placed her hand against it.
“Sei… Do you ever wish things were... I don’t know different?” It was a younger Jenn that spoke these words, while she looked much the same as she did in the present there were subtle differences that separated this version of the blue genie from her modern counterpart, she was lounging on a chair outside of the Guardians temple enjoying the warm sunshine of summer as just a few feet away stood without question the most important person in this Jenn’s world, he was not an impressively tall man nor was his body amazingly fit, his robes were not flashy just simple cloth that provided comfort enough while still fitting his idea of what a man in his position ‘should’ wear, all and all a fairly average man looking man and yet despite this he had the bearing of someone so much greater he seemed to exude an aura of calm confidence that made him seem so much larger than he was. This man was the Earths Guardian, the first known to this era. Seikatsu.
Seikatsu turned slowly to look at the younger Jenn his expression indecipherable as he seemed to think over her words for a moment. “It would be a lie for me to say I do not at least wonder, I have often wondered what other paths I could have walked down and where they might have taken me. But I do believe I once made a wish to make things different, I do not think I would trade that wish away for another.” He said his expression cracking into a smile as he took a few steps closer to Jenn as her face flushed slightly.
The day had been the moment that she had finally given up the façade and actually told Sei how she felt, he’d done the same and it had been wonderful so very very wonderful. But Sei’s duties meant that a ‘full’ relationship in the traditional sense had not really been possible, as while Seikatsu had not had many ‘the world in imminent danger’ issues to deal with he had rather had mountains upon mountains of smaller problems to deal with things that had built up over many thousands of years of the Earth being without a guardian. Jenn slammed her fist into the wall and when the strange material neither broke nor inflicted any form of physical backlash against Jenn she let loose another scream of frustration. It was so very hard to not just go back, to let herself fall into the memory and be where she had so desperately wanted to return for so long. “What the hell is this place..” Jenn said through gritted teeth to the emptiness around her, even as preoccupied as she had been she KNEW that what she had experienced had not been some spell to bring forth a memory it had just happened, she’d entered the room and had remembered the day in complete vivid detail.
“Still have not figured it out yet?” a calm almost cold voice spoke up causing Jenn to whip around to find the source and what she found was beyond surprising… it was a strangely familiar figure though she was certain that she had never actually looked upon the woman that stood before her, she stood impressively tall easily a few feet taller than Jenns present form with a powerful build to match it, that powerful build was as well coated in a thick armor of blue scales that coated her body almost entirely from what Jenn could see, only her face appeared to lack the same style of scales though her keen eyes allowed Jenn to spot that while her face APPEARED to be skin rather than scale it was in fact just coated in a layer of flesh tones scales to give the appearance of skin. “Who the hell are you, and where the hell am I” Jenn snarled at the scaled woman taking a few aggressive steps forward however he progress was halted as what she believed at first to be a whip cracked the floor immediately before her stopping Jenn in her tracks for the moment, upon closer examination jenn found that it was not a whip that had snapped at her but rather a long powerful looking tail that appeared to belong to the scaled woman, taking a moment to really look at the woman as a while jenn also noted the signs of what appeared to be wings folded onto the womans back “You’re a-“ “Not quite dear, almost but it is a bit more complicated than you might think.” The scaled woman said cutting Jenn off before she could make her statement her lips curling into a smug grin “As for who I am and where you are… well that will perhaps be a bit troubling for you to learn, are you entirely sure you want to know? It might be more enjoyable to just enter one of the rooms and take a stroll down memory lane for a bit longer, I can assure you what is to come will not be pleasant.” The woman said and strangely despite the smug look on her face Jenn could feel as if the woman was actually being genuine with what she said.
“No. Tell me now, I don’t want any more of that.” Jenn said her expression hardening as she made what was in her mind the ‘right’ choice, much as it would perhaps be more enjoyable to just lose herself in those strange memory recreations it would just be all the more painful afterward and more importantly there was still the possibility that Vixi was in danger. “Alright then dear, I am you. This is your mind.” The woman spoke with not a hint of joking in her tone as if it should all have been obvious to Jenn “I... your ME? What are you even talking about I’M me and what the hell do you mean this is my mind!?” “I am as much you as you are you, I am simply a division of your mind and personality. For now think of me as a sort of guide, as for what I mean this is most assuredly your mind or at least a perceived concept of your mind, under normal circumstances you would be able to rearrange this ‘world’ as you saw fit within reason, those doors represent important memories to you I made sure that you would arrive somewhere that possessed some of the more pleasant memories though I appear to have made a slight miscalculation on that one” the woman said gesturing to the door that Jenn had just exited “I am still rather ‘new’ so my concept and understanding of our emotions is a bit skewed. Your mind is at war with itself Mahajenn, and it has come to a head today. I did say that things would not be enjoyable once I explained things, the aspects of yourself that you are fully conscious of are your dominant personality, the one in control, but there are two others, myself your newest ‘division’ and the other, she has from what I can tell existed nearly as long as you have though you two were more whole for a great many years, you have since been growing distant. Today she seeks to take the position of dominant personality from ‘you’” the woman explained but despite her speaking clearly and at a reasonable pace Jenn found herself almost utterly incapable of following.
“Wh..what are you talking about more than one personality… I.. No I’m the only ‘me’” jenn said adamantly refusing to accept the woman's words, for her part the woman simply remained silent as Jenn spoke her expression completely neutral as Jenn took a few heavy breaths in an effort to keep her calm “I am sorry that you need find out about this at such a time, but it is the fact of the matter. I had hoped you might have picked up on this in some way, she has manifested briefly before against the ‘demon’ Ketsueki, you and her found common ground that day but it was the first break in your union, her first ‘taste’ of true existence the fact that she is composed of aspects of your personality that find many of your choices disagreeable has only exacerbated her wish to become the primary mind.” The woman explained and the more she spoke the less Jenn found she was unable to deny the words, even as strange and out of the blue it all seemed to be the more Jenn thought and listened the more she felt a strange sort of connection to this place and the woman, familiar and yet utterly foreign. She’d known it possible to enter one’s own mind through meditation but it had never been something she’d had much interest in, if only she’d tried perhaps this could have been avoided. “So... so what do I do? What do WE do?” Jenn asked finding herself a bit overwhelmed by all of this “Well presently my task is to bring you to the other, she was the one that specifically drew you into our mind I am unsure how she intends to exactly bring about a switch between you and her being primary.” “Why are you helping her? If I’m supposed to be the ‘primary’ then why would you help her over me?”
“Because this is how it is meant to be, I cannot answer the whys on this matter, I simply must do this. Make this easy for the both of us and come with me willingly. You will almost certainly require all of your strength for what is to come and wasting it on a fruitless effort to fight me would be foolish. We are the same being, we have power equal to one another but certain traits are amplified in each of us, I have defensive abilities inside out mind comparable to even Anri” the woman said her expression flashing a brief grin at the mention of the Vennor “But I am able to maintain my defenses far longer, you MIGHT defeat me but in doing so you would waste precious energy required for your meeting with the other. “So I will be fighting her then?” Jenn questioned receiving a curt nod from the other woman “I imagine so, she is very… direct. I imagine she intends to physically subdue you and proceed from there, she maintains an intellect that is the same as your own but without the rigors of needing to focus on daily life for the most part.” The scaled woman said and as she spoke she gestured for Jenn to follow as she began to depart down the hall once her explanation was wrapped up the two remained in silent as Jenn was lead down various hall ways of what was apparently her mind.
“How did my mind get set up like this? It’s not exactly how I feel I would have set things up it’s a bit… dark and a touch eerie to be honest.” Jenn questioned finally breaking the silence that had fallen over them and receiving a chuckle from the woman “When not directly influenced the mind forms in its own ways I understand the exact mechanics behind it as well as you do to be honest, the other has her own ‘realm’ within our mind that she has directly changed, I imagine if you are victorious that with some work you could sort things out into a manner you feel is more aesthetically pleasing, I have already begun work on my own section, I am modeling it after Abednego’s lair.” She said earning a raise of the eyebrow from Jenn as a small amount of realization washed over her “Abednego? Is that why you’re a dragon? Did he have something to do with... well... you? Or hell THIS in general?” Jenn asked receiving a laugh from the woman “No no Abednego did not cause your division, I suppose in a way yes he is the cause for my appearance and my existence in a way but It is more an extension of the preexisting division, I am partially manifested from the power Abednego implanted within you those many years ago after we helped him protect his lair, however that power was only recently unleashed. Had it been unleashed that day I would have never existed as it was before the divide between you and the other was significant enough to even truly be considered a divide, I would explain more to you but I believe we have arrived.” The woman said as they came to a stop at the end of a long hallway, Jenn had been so focused on listening to the woman speak that she had barely noticed that as they had traveled down this particular hallway the little flecks of red that had always been present had grown more and more signifigant until finally at the end of the hall the ways were an inverse, deep red with a few flecks of blue, before them was a door much like the others but significantly larger, in many ways similar to the doorway that lead to Kemuri’s throne room.
“Before I go in… do you have a name? I know you’re a part of me but you’re so… different, you seem like an entirely separate person.” “Until now I’d simply identified myself the same as you, Mahajen Delashano, if you prefer however you can call me Tiamat though we are not necessarily as different as you think we are, it is difficult to really understand all of your own traits. I simply emphasize our traits differently then you. Good luck.” Tiamat said nodding to Jenn before slipping past her and proceeding back down the hallway “You are not coming in with me? ” Jenn called to her, on the one hand that meant it was very unlikely that Tiamat would be providing the other her with any aid but all the same it felt a bit odd that the woman would not be there for this “No, but I will be watching, this battle is not one I should be directly involved in it is far more important that I remain away and not involved past this point.” Tiamat called back her voice slowly trailing off as she moved further and further away down the hall until finally she was gone from Jenn’s view leaving her alone once again. “Might as well get this over with…” Jenn muttered to herself and with that she reached out with a single hand and placed her palm on the door as if to push it open.
Red. She didn’t much know why she favored that color in particular, maybe because her other half so favored blues? Red and Blue were often paired as opposites ‘warm’ colors and ‘cool’ colors and all that so perhaps that had something to do with it, the warm and cool analogy even worked out to an extent, her other half was generally pretty calm and collected, she preferred direct action, force when necessary. Quick to anger and even quicker to fight back, that was what she was and today was the day that she would fight back against the greatest injustice in her existence. Soon enough her other half would be awake and be brought here to face her, a smile spread across her face at the very thought of the coming battle.
Unlike her other half she RELISHED in the concept of a good fight, sure her other half certainly appreciated a good battle but actually getting her to the point of physical conflict was incredibly difficult unless someone was fool enough to press the wrong buttons, they had spared with and training many of the guardians but it had all been done very carefully neither had wanted to push things to such an extent that one or the other was injured too significantly as healing was often a difficult and dangerous form of magic if done improperly. Before that there had been many battles, tussles with the idiots her summoners would bring with them, fights between idiots who bothered her while she enjoyed a bit of freedom, combat with great creatures when she occasionally strayed a bit too far into their territory it had all been great fun for her though more often than not her other half had felt a lasting regret in many cases, originally not for the humans they had fought for the most part but the others certainly, even she could feel a bit of regret when things got TOO serious and death was required for anything that was not a human, most of the creatures in those cases had been just too unwilling to back down from a fight they could never win.
Perhaps one of her greatest fights had been one that had occurred so very recently, it had been a VERY long time since her other had tapped into the power that really only served to strengthen the division between them and within the span of a week the form had been used countless times in order for them to survive, more often than not her other lost control and the reigns would slip to her hands, fighting Anri had been GLORIOUS, the Vennor could take a hit like nobody she had ever met and was more than capable of dishing out blows just as well as he could take them, that fight was comparable only to their meeting with Ketsueki when they had discovered the form for the first time, things had been so very different back then, so much more simple. They had not even grown apart in that fight; the form had brought them TOGETHER instead, one mind, one focus, to destroy the man who had threatened their family. But that had logn since passed, being one with ‘Jenn’ was not possible any longer her other refused to see the writing on the wall, refused to accept what was true and be done with it. And for this she had decided it was time that ‘Jenn’ take the back seat for a while, perhaps she simply needed time to gain the same sort of understanding that had come to her.
A spark of magic surged through the room heralding the arrival of her other half, a cold smirk spread across her face as every muscle in her body tensed. “It is time.”
“So you are ‘the other’ me then I suppose?” Jenn asked as she ventured forward finding that the doorway that had led to this ‘room’ had faded away the moment she’d taken her eyes off it “That I am, though if scales has given you any information at this point you should know that very soon it’ll be the reverse you’ll be ‘my’ ‘other’ “ The woman snapped back at Jenn her tone filled with anger and venom as her eyes narrowed on Jenn “Why do we have to do this, were the same person I-“ Jenn began only to have the woman cut her off “We share the same body, but we are no longer the same person. We have long since diverged from that point Jenn, we are two halves, as the dragon does not quite count into the equation as far as I am concerned. There is nothing you can say that will change my mind, control will be mine I am done watching. I take the name Delashano today you can keep the first half of our person and all that it entails Mahajenn and since were in the habit of silly nicknames, you can call me Della.” The newly named Della smirked as the air around her exploded as her power began to climb her aura coming to life in the form of a blazing inferno around her as she kicked off the Lookout ‘s floor dashing with incredible speed right at Jenn.
Della’s speed was certainly incredible to behold but even still the distance of the lookout was great enough to give Jenn the time she needed, much as it had for Della the air around Jenn exploded as she called upon her strength Jenn was quickly shrouded in the mist generated by her aura as she too kicked off the Lookouts floor gaining the speed necessary to meet Della head on, the two woman moved like images in a mirror each punch mirrored by a perfectly timed block or expertly executed dodge, even the slight difference in height between the two seemed to have little to no effect on how either was able to perceive how the other would attack as just as quickly as it appeared that Della would gain an advantage from it Jenn completed a shift to match Della’s height and minimal reach advantage “I suppose It makes sense that that would not work against you.” Della said as they continued trading blows “What is this even going to accomplish Della, we fight exactly the same we ARE the same!” Jenn snapped at the woman angrily earning a chuckle from Della before she moved to boot Jenn in the chest, seeing it coming Jenn moved to intercept the kick locking her arms around the leg and finding herself surprised that she had succeeded in actually grabbing hold of the woman.
And the a sharp pain spread through Jenn’s chest causing her to release Della’s leg and stumble back “Ooh, not quite deep enough but I guess that makes my ‘point’” Della said mockingly as Jenn grit her teeth, as Della’s twisted around to avoid falling off balance Jenn saw a flash of metal in the sunlight revealing what she had miss, a knife attached to the end of Della’s foot a rather creative if dirty tactic one she would have personally avoided “I told you we’re not the same Jenny, now quit your crying I barely even scratched you.” Della said as the knife vanished into a puff of smoke revealing it to also have been a manifestation. ‘that explains why she’s been avoiding kicks up until now, I’d have spotted the glare of the metal before then.’ Jenn thought to herself with a scowl as the mist worked its way around the wound forming a protective bandaging around the wound and then forming an additional layer of armor “Ooh are we moving onto the big stuff then? Because I’m MORE than willing” Della said with a smirk as her flames began to spread from just around her to actually coating her skin slowly the flames began to mold together forming a set of crimson and gold armor with a flame like pattern etched into the metal with darker reds and golds.
Jenn raised an eyebrow as her familiar set of light brown leather armor formed over her body giving her a small layer of protection against the attacks that would soon be coming at her once again, for how perfectly they had mirrored one another it seemed incredibly odd that Della had chosen a style of armor so different than her own, perhaps it was simply because the fact that at their level metal and leather held little difference in terms of how much it would restrict them, and in fact would do just as much to hinder them from harming one another. “So Della, if you’re able to manifest like I can, does that mean you have access to all of my other techniques?” jenn asked trying her best to pose the question as innocently as possible, Della had down herself to be a bit of a hot head and it was likely that implying that the techniques were hers alone would go a long way towards frustrating the woman and perhaps getting her to make a mistake of some sort. As per Jenns assumption Della’s teeth gritted in anger over her words “Take a guess” She spat and with that the battle was on again as Della dashed forward closing the gap between them and resuming her physical assault, her movements were fast and precise but just as before easily predictable enough for Jenn to avoid any actual harm.
This of course all changed when Della threw a quick combination of punches that forced Jenn to raise her arms to defend her face, her vision was block for just long enough for Della to take in a deep breath and as Jenns arms came down Della released the breath unleashing a stream of fire upon Jenn, the flames bit and tore at Jenn burning her arm as she desperately rolled back to escape them, half way through her roll Jenn coalesced some of her mist forming a heavy steel shield, as her roll completed and the flames crept closer upon Della pushing more power into them Jenn brought the shield up to defend herself empowering it with a fraction of her energy to give it a momentary blue sheen, when the flames made contact with the shield the blue sheen returned in full force as the shield absorbed the power behind the attack causing the flames to lose much of their power and disperse off the edges of the shield harmlessly. With a grunt jenn pushed up from her knees and charged forward through the flames and just as Della had caught Jenn off guard with the knife and the flames Jenn finally managed to catch Della off guard bashing her way through the line of fire until she was right up in Della’s face, once close Jenn did something even more unexpected she slammed the shield directly into Dellas face causing her to shriek and sputter as she stumbled back from the attack, not one to let an advantage go unpressed Jenn stepped forward and struck Della with the shield again quickly followed by a swift kick aimed at her abdomen, Della caught the leg and unlike Jenn made no effort to maintain a hold instead she grabbed tight and swung Jenns leg causing Jenn to sway with imbalance over the sudden movement.
Blood streamed down Della’s face as the edge of the shield tore a significant cut into her cheek, thankfully for the red genie the wound was not particularly deep but the stream of blood would become a hindrance if not dealt with, she pulled herself a few feet away from Jenn as her other half staggered to remain on balance, flames flowed over the wound coalesced into bandage to cover the wound, it would do well enough for now and thankfully as this was a battle within the mind the wound would neither be permanent nor would it have risk of infection unless somehow this battle proceeded for longer than a day and even still it would simply be this mental projection’s injury and not an injury inflicted upon the physical body. With Jenn armed with a shield she knew it was necessary to counter it with a weapon something with reach to allow her a way to mitigate the usefulness of the shield, a small smirk spread across Dellas face and in an instant flames lashed out before her forming a long spear, a nice simple weapon for the time being, once it was in her hands the spear seemed to wreath itself in a low red sheen of energy, it was at this point that Jenn recovered and moved in for another attack a sudden swirl of mist around her free hand and suddenly it was far less free as a sword formed in her grip glowing with a pale blue light just as she shield had.
The two halves of one woman clashed with their weapons, Della keeping her distance and doing her best to strike at Jenn with the spear while simultaneously using it as a defensive tool both mitigating Jenn’s ability to close in for an attack and also using the shaft of the weapon to deflect incoming attacks, a powerful jab with the spear found itself deflected to the side as Jenn raised her shield once again, another strike and Jenn pulled away at the last second rolling with the blow as it glanced off the shield and ending up putting a bit of distance between them, the two slowly moved around each other both silently scanning over the other looking for any indication of their opponents next move some way to exploit an opening that the other had not yet noticed they had left, both Jenn and Della each occasionally making mock starts at the other trying to get a reaction out of the other to force them to either move into a specific defensive motion or to force a counter attack on a fake attack however as both halves were of the same whole they both knew well when an incoming attack was fake or not knowing exactly how the other would think. Even for jenn it was simple enough to follow Della’s train of thought, while she had no experience monitoring her other half she DID know how she fought and Della’s earlier attack patterns matched her old style of fighting to a T, a bit more refined by tactics she knew now but it was almost identical which came to little overall surprise to her at this point. The most unfortunate part of knowing exactly what her other half was capable of, was the fact that it meant that Della was just as likely to know what she could do and already she had shown the ability to use manifestation and the Flame Tongue technique. Winning this would almost certainly be a long and incredibly difficult process.
The last time she had awakened in a strange location with her body in pain and her mind in a fog she had been in the labs of UNITY however despite the startling similarities the ‘feeling’ of the situation just did not seem to sit the same as UNITY, the building she had been taken to by Toiu had been a state of the art facility of some sort that she only now vaguely understood the scale of when it came to just how advanced UNITY had been… this place felt strangely familiar in neither a negative or positive way and most importantly seemed to have a more ‘old world’ design and feel to it from what little she could see. Despite the fact that she felt reasonably confident that this was not UNITY’s work that did little to actually comfort Jenn, UNITY while she had not had more interaction with them beyond her adventure in the halls of the building was in some way familiar territory at this point, she knew some of the big players involved there and most importantly knew she could take on a good number of UNITY’s agents… this place was foreign territory so to speak, whoever had brought her here was an unknown.
But soon enough that would be dealt with, she just needed to find a way out of this place just as she had done with UNITY, with that in mind Jenn proceeded to the only exit from the room she had awakened in a door seemingly carved from the very wall it was attached. Placing a hand on the door Jenn attempted to push it open and found the door gave no resistance and in fact upon any amount of pressure being placed on it Jenn found herself on the other side of it rather than actually opening the door, she had not fallen through, had not walked, she had simply touched the door and instantly she was in a long hallway with walls made of the same strange material and many more doors, gathering her bearings Jenn detected the familiar sensation of magic as whatever power had moved her out of the room still lingered in the air. “Teleportation?” Jenn muttered the word questioningly to herself, it felt similar to a teleportation spell and yet utterly different at the same time. “I can already tell this will be a rather great test of my patience…” Jenn said with a sigh as she took a better look around, she found that the hall extended a decent ways in both directions enough that there were seven doorways on each side of the hall with a few feet between each doorway though certainly not enough space to account for the size of the room she had just been in. “So the rooms are bigger on the inside? Wonderful that is certainly always fun…” Jenn said through gritted teeth, dimension manipulation was always a major headache as if someone was capable of warping how much space something contained then they almost invariably also possessed the skill to make rooms connect in ways that did not ‘make sense’ one could enter a doorway and walking directly into the same hallway they had just existed with such magic. Jenn played around with such magic herself while inside her ring and at time it had even become difficult to keep track of her own little world let alone trying to understand how someone else had set there’s up.
A problem faced Jenn now, what exactly was she supposed to do? She had a few options on where to go but unlike back in UNITY there was no map to give her a concept of where to go and worse yet she had no clue if she was even in a proper building at this point. For all she knew she could be something like her lamp. “I might as well explore a few of the rooms, the worst case scenario being… well I suppose the worst case is I might get lost forever and spend eternity wandering an endless maze until I find out whether or not I truly can live forever… Maybe Its best I do not think about the worst case any more...” Jenn said to herself cringing slightly at the thought, she NEEDED to get out of here Vixi would be worried if she awoke to find Jenn gone with no notice, worse yet what if whoever had taken her had taken Vixi as well. Jenn clenched her fists at the very thought, the concept of Vixi being taken however also reinforced the idea of checking the rooms out, she had been in one of these rooms so if perhaps they were holding cells of some sort then perhaps Vixi would be nearby. Jenn immediately stalked up to the door just across from the one she had exited and with a deep breath placed her hand against it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Sei… Do you ever wish things were... I don’t know different?” It was a younger Jenn that spoke these words, while she looked much the same as she did in the present there were subtle differences that separated this version of the blue genie from her modern counterpart, she was lounging on a chair outside of the Guardians temple enjoying the warm sunshine of summer as just a few feet away stood without question the most important person in this Jenn’s world, he was not an impressively tall man nor was his body amazingly fit, his robes were not flashy just simple cloth that provided comfort enough while still fitting his idea of what a man in his position ‘should’ wear, all and all a fairly average man looking man and yet despite this he had the bearing of someone so much greater he seemed to exude an aura of calm confidence that made him seem so much larger than he was. This man was the Earths Guardian, the first known to this era. Seikatsu.
Seikatsu turned slowly to look at the younger Jenn his expression indecipherable as he seemed to think over her words for a moment. “It would be a lie for me to say I do not at least wonder, I have often wondered what other paths I could have walked down and where they might have taken me. But I do believe I once made a wish to make things different, I do not think I would trade that wish away for another.” He said his expression cracking into a smile as he took a few steps closer to Jenn as her face flushed slightly.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
the younger Jenn opened her mouth to respond but the world seemed to distort and tear as the older Jenn let out a scream a mixture of fury and sadness as she felt overwhelmed by the memory of something so long ago the image the strange recreation of a moment in her life finally fell away crumbling until it was nothing more than a pale sphere of silver in the middle of a room much like the one she had arrived in, tears streamed down her face as her fists clenched in fury, Jenn threw herself at the door in an effort to put as much distance between herself and the orb as possible. It had all been so sickeningly real, as if she had been thrown back through time, back to him, so long even before he had grown old and sick. But it had not been a true trip into the past, she had been thrown into the ‘body’ of her younger self inside that strange sort of recreation but there had been no control, it was like perfectly reliving the memory of that day, she could not let that memory go on any longer than it had the pain of being ‘with’ him for even those brief moments again had been heart wrenching enough but she refused to relive THAT day again, for as much joy as it held it was just as equally painful now with him gone.The day had been the moment that she had finally given up the façade and actually told Sei how she felt, he’d done the same and it had been wonderful so very very wonderful. But Sei’s duties meant that a ‘full’ relationship in the traditional sense had not really been possible, as while Seikatsu had not had many ‘the world in imminent danger’ issues to deal with he had rather had mountains upon mountains of smaller problems to deal with things that had built up over many thousands of years of the Earth being without a guardian. Jenn slammed her fist into the wall and when the strange material neither broke nor inflicted any form of physical backlash against Jenn she let loose another scream of frustration. It was so very hard to not just go back, to let herself fall into the memory and be where she had so desperately wanted to return for so long. “What the hell is this place..” Jenn said through gritted teeth to the emptiness around her, even as preoccupied as she had been she KNEW that what she had experienced had not been some spell to bring forth a memory it had just happened, she’d entered the room and had remembered the day in complete vivid detail.
“Still have not figured it out yet?” a calm almost cold voice spoke up causing Jenn to whip around to find the source and what she found was beyond surprising… it was a strangely familiar figure though she was certain that she had never actually looked upon the woman that stood before her, she stood impressively tall easily a few feet taller than Jenns present form with a powerful build to match it, that powerful build was as well coated in a thick armor of blue scales that coated her body almost entirely from what Jenn could see, only her face appeared to lack the same style of scales though her keen eyes allowed Jenn to spot that while her face APPEARED to be skin rather than scale it was in fact just coated in a layer of flesh tones scales to give the appearance of skin. “Who the hell are you, and where the hell am I” Jenn snarled at the scaled woman taking a few aggressive steps forward however he progress was halted as what she believed at first to be a whip cracked the floor immediately before her stopping Jenn in her tracks for the moment, upon closer examination jenn found that it was not a whip that had snapped at her but rather a long powerful looking tail that appeared to belong to the scaled woman, taking a moment to really look at the woman as a while jenn also noted the signs of what appeared to be wings folded onto the womans back “You’re a-“ “Not quite dear, almost but it is a bit more complicated than you might think.” The scaled woman said cutting Jenn off before she could make her statement her lips curling into a smug grin “As for who I am and where you are… well that will perhaps be a bit troubling for you to learn, are you entirely sure you want to know? It might be more enjoyable to just enter one of the rooms and take a stroll down memory lane for a bit longer, I can assure you what is to come will not be pleasant.” The woman said and strangely despite the smug look on her face Jenn could feel as if the woman was actually being genuine with what she said.
“No. Tell me now, I don’t want any more of that.” Jenn said her expression hardening as she made what was in her mind the ‘right’ choice, much as it would perhaps be more enjoyable to just lose herself in those strange memory recreations it would just be all the more painful afterward and more importantly there was still the possibility that Vixi was in danger. “Alright then dear, I am you. This is your mind.” The woman spoke with not a hint of joking in her tone as if it should all have been obvious to Jenn “I... your ME? What are you even talking about I’M me and what the hell do you mean this is my mind!?” “I am as much you as you are you, I am simply a division of your mind and personality. For now think of me as a sort of guide, as for what I mean this is most assuredly your mind or at least a perceived concept of your mind, under normal circumstances you would be able to rearrange this ‘world’ as you saw fit within reason, those doors represent important memories to you I made sure that you would arrive somewhere that possessed some of the more pleasant memories though I appear to have made a slight miscalculation on that one” the woman said gesturing to the door that Jenn had just exited “I am still rather ‘new’ so my concept and understanding of our emotions is a bit skewed. Your mind is at war with itself Mahajenn, and it has come to a head today. I did say that things would not be enjoyable once I explained things, the aspects of yourself that you are fully conscious of are your dominant personality, the one in control, but there are two others, myself your newest ‘division’ and the other, she has from what I can tell existed nearly as long as you have though you two were more whole for a great many years, you have since been growing distant. Today she seeks to take the position of dominant personality from ‘you’” the woman explained but despite her speaking clearly and at a reasonable pace Jenn found herself almost utterly incapable of following.
“Wh..what are you talking about more than one personality… I.. No I’m the only ‘me’” jenn said adamantly refusing to accept the woman's words, for her part the woman simply remained silent as Jenn spoke her expression completely neutral as Jenn took a few heavy breaths in an effort to keep her calm “I am sorry that you need find out about this at such a time, but it is the fact of the matter. I had hoped you might have picked up on this in some way, she has manifested briefly before against the ‘demon’ Ketsueki, you and her found common ground that day but it was the first break in your union, her first ‘taste’ of true existence the fact that she is composed of aspects of your personality that find many of your choices disagreeable has only exacerbated her wish to become the primary mind.” The woman explained and the more she spoke the less Jenn found she was unable to deny the words, even as strange and out of the blue it all seemed to be the more Jenn thought and listened the more she felt a strange sort of connection to this place and the woman, familiar and yet utterly foreign. She’d known it possible to enter one’s own mind through meditation but it had never been something she’d had much interest in, if only she’d tried perhaps this could have been avoided. “So... so what do I do? What do WE do?” Jenn asked finding herself a bit overwhelmed by all of this “Well presently my task is to bring you to the other, she was the one that specifically drew you into our mind I am unsure how she intends to exactly bring about a switch between you and her being primary.” “Why are you helping her? If I’m supposed to be the ‘primary’ then why would you help her over me?”
“Because this is how it is meant to be, I cannot answer the whys on this matter, I simply must do this. Make this easy for the both of us and come with me willingly. You will almost certainly require all of your strength for what is to come and wasting it on a fruitless effort to fight me would be foolish. We are the same being, we have power equal to one another but certain traits are amplified in each of us, I have defensive abilities inside out mind comparable to even Anri” the woman said her expression flashing a brief grin at the mention of the Vennor “But I am able to maintain my defenses far longer, you MIGHT defeat me but in doing so you would waste precious energy required for your meeting with the other. “So I will be fighting her then?” Jenn questioned receiving a curt nod from the other woman “I imagine so, she is very… direct. I imagine she intends to physically subdue you and proceed from there, she maintains an intellect that is the same as your own but without the rigors of needing to focus on daily life for the most part.” The scaled woman said and as she spoke she gestured for Jenn to follow as she began to depart down the hall once her explanation was wrapped up the two remained in silent as Jenn was lead down various hall ways of what was apparently her mind.
“How did my mind get set up like this? It’s not exactly how I feel I would have set things up it’s a bit… dark and a touch eerie to be honest.” Jenn questioned finally breaking the silence that had fallen over them and receiving a chuckle from the woman “When not directly influenced the mind forms in its own ways I understand the exact mechanics behind it as well as you do to be honest, the other has her own ‘realm’ within our mind that she has directly changed, I imagine if you are victorious that with some work you could sort things out into a manner you feel is more aesthetically pleasing, I have already begun work on my own section, I am modeling it after Abednego’s lair.” She said earning a raise of the eyebrow from Jenn as a small amount of realization washed over her “Abednego? Is that why you’re a dragon? Did he have something to do with... well... you? Or hell THIS in general?” Jenn asked receiving a laugh from the woman “No no Abednego did not cause your division, I suppose in a way yes he is the cause for my appearance and my existence in a way but It is more an extension of the preexisting division, I am partially manifested from the power Abednego implanted within you those many years ago after we helped him protect his lair, however that power was only recently unleashed. Had it been unleashed that day I would have never existed as it was before the divide between you and the other was significant enough to even truly be considered a divide, I would explain more to you but I believe we have arrived.” The woman said as they came to a stop at the end of a long hallway, Jenn had been so focused on listening to the woman speak that she had barely noticed that as they had traveled down this particular hallway the little flecks of red that had always been present had grown more and more signifigant until finally at the end of the hall the ways were an inverse, deep red with a few flecks of blue, before them was a door much like the others but significantly larger, in many ways similar to the doorway that lead to Kemuri’s throne room.
“Before I go in… do you have a name? I know you’re a part of me but you’re so… different, you seem like an entirely separate person.” “Until now I’d simply identified myself the same as you, Mahajen Delashano, if you prefer however you can call me Tiamat though we are not necessarily as different as you think we are, it is difficult to really understand all of your own traits. I simply emphasize our traits differently then you. Good luck.” Tiamat said nodding to Jenn before slipping past her and proceeding back down the hallway “You are not coming in with me? ” Jenn called to her, on the one hand that meant it was very unlikely that Tiamat would be providing the other her with any aid but all the same it felt a bit odd that the woman would not be there for this “No, but I will be watching, this battle is not one I should be directly involved in it is far more important that I remain away and not involved past this point.” Tiamat called back her voice slowly trailing off as she moved further and further away down the hall until finally she was gone from Jenn’s view leaving her alone once again. “Might as well get this over with…” Jenn muttered to herself and with that she reached out with a single hand and placed her palm on the door as if to push it open.
- - - - -
Red. She didn’t much know why she favored that color in particular, maybe because her other half so favored blues? Red and Blue were often paired as opposites ‘warm’ colors and ‘cool’ colors and all that so perhaps that had something to do with it, the warm and cool analogy even worked out to an extent, her other half was generally pretty calm and collected, she preferred direct action, force when necessary. Quick to anger and even quicker to fight back, that was what she was and today was the day that she would fight back against the greatest injustice in her existence. Soon enough her other half would be awake and be brought here to face her, a smile spread across her face at the very thought of the coming battle.
Unlike her other half she RELISHED in the concept of a good fight, sure her other half certainly appreciated a good battle but actually getting her to the point of physical conflict was incredibly difficult unless someone was fool enough to press the wrong buttons, they had spared with and training many of the guardians but it had all been done very carefully neither had wanted to push things to such an extent that one or the other was injured too significantly as healing was often a difficult and dangerous form of magic if done improperly. Before that there had been many battles, tussles with the idiots her summoners would bring with them, fights between idiots who bothered her while she enjoyed a bit of freedom, combat with great creatures when she occasionally strayed a bit too far into their territory it had all been great fun for her though more often than not her other half had felt a lasting regret in many cases, originally not for the humans they had fought for the most part but the others certainly, even she could feel a bit of regret when things got TOO serious and death was required for anything that was not a human, most of the creatures in those cases had been just too unwilling to back down from a fight they could never win.
Perhaps one of her greatest fights had been one that had occurred so very recently, it had been a VERY long time since her other had tapped into the power that really only served to strengthen the division between them and within the span of a week the form had been used countless times in order for them to survive, more often than not her other lost control and the reigns would slip to her hands, fighting Anri had been GLORIOUS, the Vennor could take a hit like nobody she had ever met and was more than capable of dishing out blows just as well as he could take them, that fight was comparable only to their meeting with Ketsueki when they had discovered the form for the first time, things had been so very different back then, so much more simple. They had not even grown apart in that fight; the form had brought them TOGETHER instead, one mind, one focus, to destroy the man who had threatened their family. But that had logn since passed, being one with ‘Jenn’ was not possible any longer her other refused to see the writing on the wall, refused to accept what was true and be done with it. And for this she had decided it was time that ‘Jenn’ take the back seat for a while, perhaps she simply needed time to gain the same sort of understanding that had come to her.
A spark of magic surged through the room heralding the arrival of her other half, a cold smirk spread across her face as every muscle in her body tensed. “It is time.”
- - - - -
Much as it had with the other doors touching this one removed Jenn from the hall and deposited her within the room, just beyond the large doors as if she’d casually pushed them open stepped in and closed them without all the actual motion of doing so, calling what she had stepped into a ‘room’ was perhaps a bit of a stretch, it was more a recreation. Something that Jenn had done herself in the ring, it was a copy of the Lookout though it was distinctly lacking in the garden or temple simple appearing as a great marble plane before them with the sky all around, unlike Jenns room in the ring however this recreation came with a ‘real’ sky complete with sun high overhead. “Welcome Jenny” called out what to Jenn sounded like a horrible parody of her own voice, in truth she’d heard it before, it was what she really sounded like, her adventures into the city had given her an opportunity to hear a recording of her own voice and it was startlingly different than what she normally perceived it to sound like, though the woman whom it belonged to seemed to bare little actual resemblance to her, she looked in fact far more like her human guise with a few modifications, shorter yet darker hair slightly sharper features, dark red eyes and if Jenn was not mistaken she was even a little taller, she stood with arms crossed over her chest at the other end of the lookout, despite the distance it was easy enough to hear her.“So you are ‘the other’ me then I suppose?” Jenn asked as she ventured forward finding that the doorway that had led to this ‘room’ had faded away the moment she’d taken her eyes off it “That I am, though if scales has given you any information at this point you should know that very soon it’ll be the reverse you’ll be ‘my’ ‘other’ “ The woman snapped back at Jenn her tone filled with anger and venom as her eyes narrowed on Jenn “Why do we have to do this, were the same person I-“ Jenn began only to have the woman cut her off “We share the same body, but we are no longer the same person. We have long since diverged from that point Jenn, we are two halves, as the dragon does not quite count into the equation as far as I am concerned. There is nothing you can say that will change my mind, control will be mine I am done watching. I take the name Delashano today you can keep the first half of our person and all that it entails Mahajenn and since were in the habit of silly nicknames, you can call me Della.” The newly named Della smirked as the air around her exploded as her power began to climb her aura coming to life in the form of a blazing inferno around her as she kicked off the Lookout ‘s floor dashing with incredible speed right at Jenn.
Della’s speed was certainly incredible to behold but even still the distance of the lookout was great enough to give Jenn the time she needed, much as it had for Della the air around Jenn exploded as she called upon her strength Jenn was quickly shrouded in the mist generated by her aura as she too kicked off the Lookouts floor gaining the speed necessary to meet Della head on, the two woman moved like images in a mirror each punch mirrored by a perfectly timed block or expertly executed dodge, even the slight difference in height between the two seemed to have little to no effect on how either was able to perceive how the other would attack as just as quickly as it appeared that Della would gain an advantage from it Jenn completed a shift to match Della’s height and minimal reach advantage “I suppose It makes sense that that would not work against you.” Della said as they continued trading blows “What is this even going to accomplish Della, we fight exactly the same we ARE the same!” Jenn snapped at the woman angrily earning a chuckle from Della before she moved to boot Jenn in the chest, seeing it coming Jenn moved to intercept the kick locking her arms around the leg and finding herself surprised that she had succeeded in actually grabbing hold of the woman.
And the a sharp pain spread through Jenn’s chest causing her to release Della’s leg and stumble back “Ooh, not quite deep enough but I guess that makes my ‘point’” Della said mockingly as Jenn grit her teeth, as Della’s twisted around to avoid falling off balance Jenn saw a flash of metal in the sunlight revealing what she had miss, a knife attached to the end of Della’s foot a rather creative if dirty tactic one she would have personally avoided “I told you we’re not the same Jenny, now quit your crying I barely even scratched you.” Della said as the knife vanished into a puff of smoke revealing it to also have been a manifestation. ‘that explains why she’s been avoiding kicks up until now, I’d have spotted the glare of the metal before then.’ Jenn thought to herself with a scowl as the mist worked its way around the wound forming a protective bandaging around the wound and then forming an additional layer of armor “Ooh are we moving onto the big stuff then? Because I’m MORE than willing” Della said with a smirk as her flames began to spread from just around her to actually coating her skin slowly the flames began to mold together forming a set of crimson and gold armor with a flame like pattern etched into the metal with darker reds and golds.
Jenn raised an eyebrow as her familiar set of light brown leather armor formed over her body giving her a small layer of protection against the attacks that would soon be coming at her once again, for how perfectly they had mirrored one another it seemed incredibly odd that Della had chosen a style of armor so different than her own, perhaps it was simply because the fact that at their level metal and leather held little difference in terms of how much it would restrict them, and in fact would do just as much to hinder them from harming one another. “So Della, if you’re able to manifest like I can, does that mean you have access to all of my other techniques?” jenn asked trying her best to pose the question as innocently as possible, Della had down herself to be a bit of a hot head and it was likely that implying that the techniques were hers alone would go a long way towards frustrating the woman and perhaps getting her to make a mistake of some sort. As per Jenns assumption Della’s teeth gritted in anger over her words “Take a guess” She spat and with that the battle was on again as Della dashed forward closing the gap between them and resuming her physical assault, her movements were fast and precise but just as before easily predictable enough for Jenn to avoid any actual harm.
This of course all changed when Della threw a quick combination of punches that forced Jenn to raise her arms to defend her face, her vision was block for just long enough for Della to take in a deep breath and as Jenns arms came down Della released the breath unleashing a stream of fire upon Jenn, the flames bit and tore at Jenn burning her arm as she desperately rolled back to escape them, half way through her roll Jenn coalesced some of her mist forming a heavy steel shield, as her roll completed and the flames crept closer upon Della pushing more power into them Jenn brought the shield up to defend herself empowering it with a fraction of her energy to give it a momentary blue sheen, when the flames made contact with the shield the blue sheen returned in full force as the shield absorbed the power behind the attack causing the flames to lose much of their power and disperse off the edges of the shield harmlessly. With a grunt jenn pushed up from her knees and charged forward through the flames and just as Della had caught Jenn off guard with the knife and the flames Jenn finally managed to catch Della off guard bashing her way through the line of fire until she was right up in Della’s face, once close Jenn did something even more unexpected she slammed the shield directly into Dellas face causing her to shriek and sputter as she stumbled back from the attack, not one to let an advantage go unpressed Jenn stepped forward and struck Della with the shield again quickly followed by a swift kick aimed at her abdomen, Della caught the leg and unlike Jenn made no effort to maintain a hold instead she grabbed tight and swung Jenns leg causing Jenn to sway with imbalance over the sudden movement.
Blood streamed down Della’s face as the edge of the shield tore a significant cut into her cheek, thankfully for the red genie the wound was not particularly deep but the stream of blood would become a hindrance if not dealt with, she pulled herself a few feet away from Jenn as her other half staggered to remain on balance, flames flowed over the wound coalesced into bandage to cover the wound, it would do well enough for now and thankfully as this was a battle within the mind the wound would neither be permanent nor would it have risk of infection unless somehow this battle proceeded for longer than a day and even still it would simply be this mental projection’s injury and not an injury inflicted upon the physical body. With Jenn armed with a shield she knew it was necessary to counter it with a weapon something with reach to allow her a way to mitigate the usefulness of the shield, a small smirk spread across Dellas face and in an instant flames lashed out before her forming a long spear, a nice simple weapon for the time being, once it was in her hands the spear seemed to wreath itself in a low red sheen of energy, it was at this point that Jenn recovered and moved in for another attack a sudden swirl of mist around her free hand and suddenly it was far less free as a sword formed in her grip glowing with a pale blue light just as she shield had.
The two halves of one woman clashed with their weapons, Della keeping her distance and doing her best to strike at Jenn with the spear while simultaneously using it as a defensive tool both mitigating Jenn’s ability to close in for an attack and also using the shaft of the weapon to deflect incoming attacks, a powerful jab with the spear found itself deflected to the side as Jenn raised her shield once again, another strike and Jenn pulled away at the last second rolling with the blow as it glanced off the shield and ending up putting a bit of distance between them, the two slowly moved around each other both silently scanning over the other looking for any indication of their opponents next move some way to exploit an opening that the other had not yet noticed they had left, both Jenn and Della each occasionally making mock starts at the other trying to get a reaction out of the other to force them to either move into a specific defensive motion or to force a counter attack on a fake attack however as both halves were of the same whole they both knew well when an incoming attack was fake or not knowing exactly how the other would think. Even for jenn it was simple enough to follow Della’s train of thought, while she had no experience monitoring her other half she DID know how she fought and Della’s earlier attack patterns matched her old style of fighting to a T, a bit more refined by tactics she knew now but it was almost identical which came to little overall surprise to her at this point. The most unfortunate part of knowing exactly what her other half was capable of, was the fact that it meant that Della was just as likely to know what she could do and already she had shown the ability to use manifestation and the Flame Tongue technique. Winning this would almost certainly be a long and incredibly difficult process.