CHAPTER 36 – BEFORE THE FINAL BATTLE

Current Time

Zooming through the eddy of the Veles-Snail Man gateway close to the surface of the shell, Priya held onto Dazin's hand as the warmth of that portal splashed over their faces. Going some distance, they found the shy moon orbiting, isolated from all that which encompassed civilization. "There it is" she pointed, locating the temple of the voices of reason exposed in the fair chalky frame of the moon. At its front they stopped for the scientist to remove an article from a pocket of her lab-coat. "I will be waiting in wonderstruck synthesis" read the telegram. "Here is the easy part" she noted as the geometry detached, forming an opening to the walkway that led to the main room. Trying to figure out what to do, a buzzing noise came from outside the building. It ceased, prompting the architecture of the temple to fully disband, save for the floor that they stood upon. Homogenous yet glorious, Wonderstruck Synthesis extended out into the distance. Several feet from the edge of the floor a purple diamond shaped fissure opened up, beckoning her. "I'm won't be gone for long, then we can spend whatever time we need to, every day will be like a vacation" Priya promised, holding a hand to his cheek. "Are you just saying that?" Sam asked, removing her hand. "Our love will be like …. metaphors" she promised, encouraged by the cutting, unmistakable features of his face. "What are you getting at? Am I just a piece of metaphorical ass?" Sam promptly retaliated, casting off illusions. "Wait, what? No, I'm just saying how this is going to go back to the way it was before" she defended. "Priya … this is Eric talking. I used to be my own person, and then you tried to change me. You forced me to be what you imagined as your ideal guy … " he affirmed, giving distance between them. Pain beat against her chest. The scientist's face became stiff. She looked into the fusion to get a closer look at what truly was, "What about you, Sam?". Instead of returning her gaze, he looked down, "Priya, everything has been moving so fast. You moved on". Tears of one clarified feeling dropped down her cheek, "but Sam". He turned around and walked to the end of the platform, "We will always have Alpha". Unable to move, she stood there quivering, then out from the space of her lost tooth came a man, Valco, who stood beside her. "Damn you Dazin! Have you any idea what she has been through for us? You are worse than the enemy and a traitor! How dare you make her cry!" he roared. He towered a foot above the scientist, a pillar of brawn. "Priya, when this all started, I was lonely, and it was dark in the cave, so I called out and fell in love with my own echo. There you were, a beautiful woman, ideal. But I'm much older now" he explained with notes of idiosyncrasy that only she could comprehend. "Idiot! You don't deserve her!" Valco blasted, holding onto the woman's shoulders to give her stability. "Sam, please … turn around and tell me you love me" she begged. Staying in the present with great effort, and shunning the past, he faced her again, "Echo, maybe that's really all we had in common". Valco knew enough to say nothing, even though his sole thought was to punch him out into the oblivion of wonderstruck synthesis. Striding through silence, the girl made it to the other end of the floor, where he stood and placed a hand atop his forehead. With that subtle touch the two that had been forced together into a fusion split apart, a ghostly mitosis, until Sam and Eric returned, the insult to their freedom undone. Sullen with fresh melancholia, she lifted off the platform and glided towards the diamond. "No, don't go like this" Valco spoke, halting her progress, his grip was hard on her arm, and they were both positioned with nothing below their feet. "Well, what else do you want me to do?" Priya replied, with all the potent magic and imperceptible exaggeration of her appearance absent. "Give it to me" he demanded. "What?" she asked, not knowing what his plan entailed. "Do you remember empty recurrence?" Valco questioned, the true strategy of his thoughts becoming clear. She rubbed the streaks of eyeliner from her face. The lab-girl phased a hand through the white coat, into her chest, coming back with the pulsating centerpiece of her anatomy. She performed the spell, and handed it to the patron. "Dazin! Having you learned nothing! After eons you should know when a woman loves you! Your words can't hurt her anymore, they can't touch her. Watch this and see!" he rebuked, and summoned a portal below them. From a bird's eye view the lab-girl could see a mountainous landscape below, rugged and beautiful, seemingly long before humans and their meddling ways. Flexing the thick muscles of his arm Valco took the lady's heart and punched it down towards the mountain-range below, into the mouth of a volcano brimming with hot deadly lava. A great plume of fire and chaos met the midpoint of the sky, greeting it with the bowels of the earth and a silhouette of evaporated elements. Priya bit her teeth as the hot heart returned to the cavity of her chest, and felt all the emotion of untold years leeching out. "Now you are purified, go" he said, and she turned towards the purple diamond, embracing the color of that threshold.