+Author's Note+ Began at February 10, 2006. The mystery of the protagonist and the antagonist's identity was deliberate. You can play guessing games all you want, I'm not telling cheeky grin All the haikus you will find are mine. +Source of Inspiration+ This fic was inspired by Kirika's "Absence"; Crawlspace's "The Cruelty and Fairness of Fate"; and a conversation between bored insomniacs on the bajillion ways one could do with Pluto's Time staff. Of course, I shouldn't forget to add that Jessica's "Power Transcendent" is my newest source inspiration as well. I love how she writes... Is anyone starting to suspect a pattern here? Heheh... Of course, I'm not ripping anyone off... The theme may seem unoriginal but the plot isn't. ---------- How do you begin. A story without endings. Softly close your eyes... Prologue She could see nothing. Blood is dripping... there was nothing else but... It oozed out from the gash, covered the remaining distance between torn skin and the floor, then it collected into a puddle. It was all a quiet, rapid process that is the process of dying. But for someone whose senses were impaired, and with hearing the only thing left functional, the staccato sound of dripping sounded like a sledgehammer pounding away against her skull. Then she was aware of her head jerking to the side... something hitting her with enough force to cause such an involuntary motion. Then she felt her hair being pulled, her head lifting in the process, and someone leaned in close to hiss in her ear, "Stupid human, you ruined everything..." If she could laugh she would-- the sound would be hollow and bitter. And if she could speak, the words would be, "Right back at you, bitch." Maybe she didn't need to say those things... Perhaps the expression on her face was enough, because the grip on her hair tightened-- and the paralysis, that had delayed her body from succumbing to the trauma of its fatal injury, faded away. The pain was unbearable. "Simply a taste of what I have done to your friends." The voice's icy amusement was obvious, the kind of unfeeling quality that rolled the words so cruelly-- with no hint of the anger that had burst out from her nemesis earlier. "Do you remember how many times we have done this? Are you not tired of dying again and again? Seeing your friends die again and again? Wouldn't it be simpler to just let me win?" "Never!" She choked out. "Hm." The click-clack of heels and the sharp pounding of a staff rang in her ear as the unseen enemy moved... circling her like a vulture would around its prey. "Of course you wouldn't... because that would be out of character, wouldn't it?" It chuckled. "But I am closer to victory now... I can feel it. I have almost perfected the game. I will go to each alternate reality again and again... destroying and creating... until you wear out. And finally I win. It is inevitable." "Don't brag... It's unbecoming..." She mocked. And the instant the words left her mouth, a swift kick was delivered to her ribs. She howled in agony, choked, then laughed. Laughing made the pain worse. But it felt good. If there was one thing SHE perfected in all of this dimension-hopping business it was her sarcasm. "Why do you sound so sure?" She said at last, the hilarity dying away and leaving an empty feeling inside her. "Some destinies change, and some don't. Our destiny is fixed--" "Shut up!" "You realize that, don't you... No matter how many times you go to different worlds to change things--" "SILENCE!" "--your sick dream will never come tr--" She felt herself being hurled in the air as the burning blast of the Time staff's Dead Scream hit her. She collided with a wall, which gave out against the power of the impact and caused dust and debris to fly everywhere. Then there was silence. Then there was maniacal laughter. When it died away, the following words were uttered with quiet and untarnished conviction, "You're right... I knew this from the from the beginning. But each time I failed, I got stronger... However, I did not expect my success to be delayed this long. Thanks to you, I am unstoppable. On the NEXT world... My paradise WILL be realized. Even something as inconsequential as destiny cannot touch me now." There was a pause. She couldn't feel the pain anymore. But she knew it was not because of the paralysis like last time... She was startled when the genderless voice whispered directly in her ear, its tone was full of honest sympathy, "I admit... You are one of the most annoying and persistent of pests... You have challenged me more than any other. But this is the last chase for you." She couldn't feel pain anymore... Finally... There was nothing at all.
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