11

Chapter Text

Focused or distorted voice

Flashbacks

Erased

Thoughts

[Shard speak]

Spice 2.7

"I give you a new kind of time without parallels, it will always diverge. There will be no concurrent points on its curves. I give you the Golden Path."

-God Emperor Leto Atreides II

-March 26, 2011, 12:01 pm, hidden base in the Docks, Brockton Bay-

I was nervous, not because of the operation, oh no that was already underway. Dinah had an oxygen mask, was submerged in the tank and her genetic code was being rewritten. Both Panacea and Glory Girl had agreed to be blindfolded before getting here and since I spent the last few days making a tunnel, which I will destroy later today, it was still safe. No, I was worried for one reason.

"Is it me or have the gangs been quiet?" I said out loud. The last couple of patrols had been tame, to say the least. 3 break ins, 4 attempts at robbery, 2 assaults and 1 drunk trying to pee on a generator. It was downright peaceful!

"Do you want more crime?" Vicky asked, I glared at her and stuck out my tongue. 

"No, it's just worrisome. Parahumans seek conflict, it's a drive that none of us can truly avoid. Which is why I'm worried." I said while slowly walking around the tank, Dinah's body stayed perfectly still, not even a single twitch. Her breathing was perfectly steady.

"Maybe they're waiting for something?" Vicky suggested as an answer, but that begs the question,

"Like what?" I asked. 10 seconds later I got my answer. Belle immediately sounded the alarm as the room shook. Taylor swore under her breath and yelled, "Lung is fighting the protectorate! They're moving closer to the warehouses!" 

"Mother fucker!" I swore as I put on my mask and costume. Neither Vicky nor Amy had brought theirs, so I grabbed a few bundles of silk and transmuted them into their costumes. Modified Amy's so that it could in fact take a knife without breaking and yelled,

"Belle, keep the base safe!" I had a rage dragon to put down.

I made another tunnel, this one led to the east, Vicky flew out quickly, Taylor and I soon followed. Amy chose to stay behind since someone needed to be with Dinah. I would've disagreed since having another healer would be a boon, but she was adamant on staying behind and every second spent arguing with her was one more second Lung had to grow.

Miss Militia fired out of what looked to be a grenade launcher several explosive rounds that seemed to knock Lung back into an empty warehouse. Each explosion was loud and shook the very earth, Lung growled and shot fire at where she was. A small sun formed in his hands as he threw an orb of fire, melting steel as Miss Militia ran. I could see several wards far away and it clicked in my head why Militia was fighting Lung. 

"Ah crap baskets." I mutter as I clap and hit the ground. Several fists of concrete rose from the ground and hit the rage dragon in the stomach. Drawing out my staff I yell,

"Hey Lung! What the fuck is wrong with you? Can't a girl go out shopping without any of you fucks attacking?" A plume of flame aimed at the sky is his response. I shiver as his eyes fall on me.

"Witch." He says in Japanese. He had to be taller than 8 feet now, his skin was pure silver and flames seemed to dance around it.

"Fairy, you dickless lizard!" I reply in kind. My branding is very specific dammit! The dragon of Kyushu grinned, his scaly mouth revealing rows of fangs before he said,

"So Lee wasn't joking when he said you spoke the language. Join me." Really, just join me? Fuck that shit. Being a better alternative to actual Nazis, fucking bond villains and junkies isn't a big hurdle.

"Yeah, no. Not Asian, nor into sex trafficking and not into the entire serve or die aesthetic you have." I replied as I created several dozen cannons and fired at him. To his credit, he barely budged from the impact of several cannonballs, the balls of fire he sent my way were also well aimed. But given he was distracted by me, Militia had a moment to breathe and more importantly make a bigger gun. She fired, Lung screamed in pain as part of his leg was lost.

"Bitch!" He roared in English, that was when Vicky struck, she came down like a freight train on top of him, punching him through several warehouses. I could see the outline of his body burned through the walls…

"Maeve, glad to have you here." Miss Militia said catching her breath, "But I need you to leave, the PRT has this handled." I didn't need to be a walking lie detector to know that she was bullshitting me. I shook my head and asked,

"How long until Legend comes?" No point in fighting her and Lung simultaneously, might as well change the topic. Vicky grabs a truck and tosses it in the direction of Lung, trying to bury him.

"As long as it takes him to deal with the Butcher in New York and come back. He had to leave." Militia says after a few seconds, I stare at her before saying,

"That sounds like information that I shouldn't know."

"He asked me to relay that to you and that he wants to talk with you." She replies with what I can only assume to be a shrug, the earth trembles as Lung begins to tear his way out of the debris.

"If this is about what I did to Hookwolf…" I say walking alongside her in the direction of the rage dragon.

"I'm not authorized to say. But I doubt that it is about him, however unofficially I will say nice work." She replied before adding the qualifying statement of, "Never do that again."

"No promises on that front… Is it me or has he grown larger and has wings?" I say holding back a bit of laughter at the duality of the heroine. S

"It's not you. Can you and Glory Girl hold him down? I think I have something to tear those wings down." She grimly says, her power manifesting as new weapons seemed to cycle until she settled on a type of rifle.

"Yeah, 5 seconds is as much as I can give you." I say discarding several plans for a simple one.

"I'm in position." Weaver says as I take several red stones and use them simultaneously. Lung was 14 feet now, his wings unfurling, his fire burning brighter than the sun. A giant set of hands uppercut him, Vicky follows him into the air, punching him ever higher. He rears back his fist and meets hers, both are knocked back. Vicky begins to rapidly fall as Lung opens his maw and fires a gout of flames towards her. The sky darkens as a biblical swarm of insects covers Vicky and slowly changes the direction of her fall. The sheer amount of bugs that Taylor has at the moment is very scary.

I create chains, made from the same material I would've used to make a spaceship, and fire them at him. One misses, but the other wraps around his leg and I make the chain pull him down. I can almost hear the sound barrier break as he lands. Militia breathes in and out. Then she fires, one, two, three, earth shattering bullets slam into Lung, damaging his wings. My body moves towards his,

20 feet, he roars and grows.

15 feet, he takes aim at me with a fireball that is my size in height. I whisper an apology and focus on moving. I can feel the muscles in my legs snap as I move faster than I had thought before.

5 feet, I begin to siphon the heat from him. My insides burn, I scream in pain as another swarm surrounds both Lung and me. The basic plan that Taylor and I had thought up in case of fighting Lung was simple: I would act as a distraction, while she would build her swarm. Ideally I keep him in a low level of escalation until she can drop enough poison on him to make him wish he was dying. He screams as he tries to make fire, but I was taking away the heat from it. The poisons begin to spread through his body. 

The dragon of Kyushu glares at me and grabs a piece of the concrete. My legs are locked, everything hurts, he raises his arm.

I hear a shot, Lung's right arm falls to the ground. Above I see Weaver with the lasgun, I give her a thumbs up and promptly kneel on the ground. My body is burning up, every cell is in pain but I need to keep him weakened.

An explosion is heard, and for the first time I regret leaving my shield with Amy. Oni Lee tosses several grenades while dodging fire from Miss Militia. The smoke fills the air and I hear a grunt.

" Fairy… You have insulted the dragon twice over, you will fall. This I swear. " Lung says in Chinese.

"Kiss my ass lizard." I reply in the same language, making him laugh as he retreats. Several warehouses begin to fall as more bombs go off. Bakuda and Lee… 

"Shit." I mutter and fall on the ground, I can barely breathe, Taylor grabs me and says,

"Hold on, Panacea will heal you." 

Oh, she cares.

According to Taylor I fainted several times, while on the way to the base, Amy had finished fixing what little damage Vicky had when I arrived. 

"Her costume is almost fused with her skin!" I heard her say, fuck, that explains why she hadn't healed me. I used the circle on my boot to identify my costume and destroy it. It was to this sight that Dinah woke up to: me in a corner covered in blood in my undergarments, Taylor having several giant beetles give Amy mushrooms to work as biomass for me to heal with. 

"The hell happened?" She asked and I finished fainting.

It was around 3 in the afternoon when I woke up, a metallic face greeted me. It was similar to my own, the nose was a bit smaller, cheeks were more defined and it was almost silver in coloration.

"Belle?" I asked.

"Creator! You're awake!" Belle said, hugging me tightly. Huh metal is softer than I thought, withe highlights with gold colored lines decorate Belle's body and clearly it's a gynoid design, she was also wearing what can only be described as a green sundress. Where she got it, is a question for future me. First things first, make sure the kid is okay.

"Yup, glad to see you up and about kiddo." I replied, "How's the new body?"

"Oh, it's excellent. So much data! Moving is so much fun, I can feel everything… Wait, are you trying to distract me?" She asks, but before I can answer,

"Yes, yes she is." Taylor said, interrupting my response. "But that doesn't mean she didn't mean it. Now go get Vicky, Dinah and Amy, we need to have a talk."

"Hey Tay, have mercy? I mean I got better." I said, pleading. Taylor smiled. It's the type of smile that promises pain. I'm fucked.

-March 27, 2011, Hebert Household-

"So now I'm stuck here." I said as I finished talking to Emily on the phone. Taylor hadn't been that mad, but she had said that she wanted us to stay in for the next few days in order to prevent what happened last time. Aka I was now forcibly stuck at home. Turns out doing your homework early and not being allowed to do anything strenuous was doing wonders for my hyperactivity, I was now || that close to begging any of my friends to come and save me from my boredom.

"Alright, alright, I'll head over, see ya in an hour." Emily said, undoubtedly smirking, over the phone. Still I was thankful. It took her an hour to arrive and she brought her guitar and…

"Why do you have a violin?" I said, grabbing the instrument from her hands. It was in an immaculate state. I looked it over, took the bow and tested it. I could hear it clear as day, it was tuned to perfection.

"Well, I remembered that you lost your own and well I think I've told you that my dad works with instruments for a living. This beauty fell into his hands about a year or two ago and he never sold it. So he gave it to me in order for me to learn." She replied, my hands froze up for a second before I started playing and I slowly gave it back to her. She shook her head and said,

"Think of it as a loan for now, you'll need it to teach me later." 

"I-I can't." I stammered out, one doesn't just give away a damn violin! Emily just shook her head and said in a tone that brooked no argument,

"You will. Now help me with my English homework, I know you finished yours." I wanted to insist, but at the same time I didn't want her to get angry. So sighing I decided to postpone the argument in favor of helping her.

"Fine, where are you stuck?" I asked and she replied taking out the giant English book,

"Othello…" I nodded and she began explaining. The entire day was spent like that, me and her alternating between homework and music. I felt alive.

-???, dream–

[Awaken] the voice of my shard said. It was no longer a giant human shaped creature made of stars, instead it was a reflection of me. Down to the Blue on blue eyes…

[Update will hurt.] It warns me with some level of worry in the pseudo mechanical tone.

[I… we… apologize] It surprises me even more by gently stating.

[Sleep Marie.]

-March 28, 2011. 11:59 pm. Hebert Household-

"Taylor, everything will be fine." I said forcing myself to relax on the couch. Despite my tone my heartbeat was fast and loud, I had spent every waking moment of the day writing down several ideas and drawing blueprints just in case. 

"I want to believe that Marie. But we both know what happened last time." She said pacing around the room, as if it made time go slower. I could feel the moment it came.

Everything slowed down, my heart rate spiked in spite of my normal control over it. My brain hurt as if someone had jammed a pickaxe into it, I barely managed to contain my scream as every limb in my body spasmed. I could feel my bones cracking, Taylor moved, her eyes wide with worry.

One heartbeat, she yells my name.

Two heartbeats, she grabs my hand.

No heartbeat, my sight goes dark.

-????????, ????????-

The sand gives way to rolling hills, grass sprouts all around me. The sweet smell of spring fills my nose as a mountain rises to the east. I can feel the earth beneath me shake as it rose and opened, the magma flow was visible from where I stood. My knees went weak as I slowly began to realize where I was, I couldn't breathe. The memories of this world overtook my mind for precious few seconds. 

I don't know if I stared at the sky or I nearly died but came back, regardless the result was the same. I knew where I was, I almost lived here when I was a kid. The rolling grass let loose a single tone, this world sang. It was a blessed land, one ruled by wisdom, one protected by bravery, one sought out by power.

"Hyrule." I state in awe. The call of the world, I could feel it in my bones. Guardians rose from beneath the earth, their weapons glimmering in the sun, moving step in step all in a single formation before me. I laughed in pure joy, the automation was beautiful, the Sheikah towers rose and let loose their light.

My heart raced, I could build so much, so many possibilities… Behind me I heard the sound of flute, of wind chimes, I smelled ozone and I saw it. In a stone decorated by three golden triangles, the blade that seals away evil, the bane of calamity, the Hero's blade, the master sword.

I want to wield it.

Spice end. 

Golden path has begun.

Notes:

Author's notes:

The most important part of this note is the following, Thank you all for reading. For commenting, giving kudos, sharing, everything. I cannot stress how much it helps and how much I appreciate it.

Now as you can see it took a bit longer than what I expected, the Dune tech tree is big. Really, really, really big and while I mostly focused on the original 6 books I also took cues from the others, including the prequels. I hope you guys enjoyed it and as always leave a comment or kudos I'd you like it and Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year and the like. I'll return to writing around February, hope you guys have a wonderful time.