Chapter Fifty Seven: Weap For The Burdens

It was the absence of Penny that Ember realized she had no chance of recovering. It was Penny's friendship that meant so much to Ember. But now, everything had become so difficult and trivial. Trust was wanted but could not be found within Ember.

She sat upon the ground, no longer moving..no longer searching for an exit..no longer looking for reasons to escape this prison. She knew that she was better off within the abyss than to be released and free to face the torment of the Journey she had left behind.

" Everything has to change. Not just within the past but also the future. If I'm nothing more than a tool to this cruel world then so be it..I have to see this through though " Ember consoled herself. " I have come this far and I must see this through. But I know that the past cannot change without the Key..and the Key cannot change the past without..me.." Ember looks down to her hands and sees a bright red fire bursting from her hands. And though she is surprised, she doesn't seem to concerned with the new development. This fire..felt familiar to her. As though she had known it from long ago, as though she was it's long time friend.

" I am more than Human. And I am more than a monster" Ember closed her eyes as a single tear strung down her cheek. " And I am not weak " Ember rose to her feet as a bright red fire began burning from the ground surrounding her. She could feel a power, strong and familiar, surrounding her. She felt strong, she felt determined, she felt renewed by the flames of this world..or from her own.

This was not the beginning but this was also not the end for her. She knew that this hand to happen because it was foretold long before she had ever been conceived. This was the place that she was meant to be. This was a home away from home. This was everything in nothing to her all at once. A place of importance and yet a place of obscurity. This was where she could find herself and lose herself all at once. But most importantly this was a gift that had been bestowed upon her by an unseen force. A force that had once used this as punishment head down unknowingly uses 12 waken who she truly was.

" Watching " a whisper can be heard in the distant darkness. " Always watching " Another whisper surrounded Ember as hundreds of additional Whispers repeated the same thing over and over again until finally, the flames that surrounded Ember dispersed and the dark Abyss that Ember once found herself within, was now illuminated.

Outside, within the middle of nowhere is where Ember found herself. A Crator, the size of 3 immense cities engulfed the human as a strange red glow emitted from the sky. Thunder cracked in the sky from miles a mile away though this did not deter Ember from her focused thoughts.

" Are we not one? " Ember smirked as she gazed up to the sky and saw before her, within the clouds, a giant glowing red eyes which stared upon her with an intensity unlike anything Ember had ever felt, but she knew in this moment, that it was her home..

" Call To me, This Melody. Of Ashes from wrought I've sown.

A memory, and Enemies, and friends that I have known" Ember recited as the words came to her clearly within her mind. She knew them as a guide for all that she had lost and all that she needed to recover. This was her answer and her punishment.

" I will save this world, because that is what I've been asked to do. But this world, shall know of me, from now on, as The Protector.."