Somebody Stop Him [A Progression Fantasy Epic]

"Ah, sheet," I muttered under my breath as I braced myself for the inevitable explosion. It was like watching a slow-motion train wreck–you knew it was coming, you knew it was going to be messy, but you couldn't look away.

Ember Stratos, my sister, a walking, talking, fire-breathing embodiment of 'Things That Could Go Horribly Wrong' stopped right in front of our table, her gold-orange eyes blazing with fury, crystalline mane smoking as wisps of dragonfire flashed between each ruby gem.

"Martin," she snarled.

"Yes?"

"What. The. Abyss. Did. You. Do?"

"Do? I haven't done anything. Just enjoying a lovely lunch with my… besties."

"Besties?" Ember's voice rose an octave, attracting the attention of nearby tables. "You mean your… owners?" She spat the word like it was poison, eyes flicking between Vespera and Cinder, her dragonfire sparking dangerously.

Vespera, ever the provocateur, leaned back in her chair with a devious smirk. "Jealous, Emmy-chan? Wish you had a cute bonded kobold of your own?"

Ember ignored her, her fury laser-focused on me. "Don't play dumb with me! I… I want to know the truth!"

"Which truth?" I asked. "Can you be a little bit more specific?"

"What was that shit with the Skinwalker yesterday?"

"A post-shift sting operation organized by Justice Nova," I shrugged. "To capture a dangerous, high level ghoul. His appearance in Skyfall was your fault, just so you know."

"My fault?! What?! You have five seconds to explain everything, Martin! Or I swear to the Hoard, I will…"

"Will what?"

She trailed off, seemingly searching for a threat dire enough to convey the depth of her rage. I knew what was coming. It was always the same threat, the ultimate weapon in Ember's arsenal of sibling smackdown.

"…I will tell Father!"

I laughed, pulling the Alexander Glock mask on harder. "Really? And?"

"And… I don't know! Maybe he'll disown you!"

"Is that what you really want? Me, completely out of your life?" I arched an eyebrow, not moved by her threats in the slightest.

"Urmmm, no," she seemed to deflate.

"Emerald," I said sharply. "I saved you from perma-death twice now. I saved you from a corpse world demise at the hands of Zee Captain entity and freed you from an execution in Shandria. You agreed to be my Sixie. You owe me six million O-bux. The dimensional shift doesn't make debt or Sixie declaration go away. So, sit down, calm your tits and shut the fuck up."

Ember choked, not expecting my offensive. She grabbed an empty chair, pulled it close to me and sat down, glaring daggers at me.

"There we go," I said. "Now we can talk like adults. Valor Thornheart aka Uxtish Legon was an Astral Phantom, a Skinwalker that you involved with Cassie two years ago as Emerald at lake Eerie. He and his skinwalker buddies bound themselves to the lakeshore with a repeated sacrifice ritual. You should have gone to the authorities instead of pursuing imbecilic personal vengeance. Uxtish Legon existed in Cinder's soul for two years and manifested into current physical reality as her 'fiance' because of you."

"Fuck," Ember paled.

"Any other inquiries?" I asked, watching as Ember fretted on her chair.

"I…" she let out, rubbing her face. "I… I don't know who I am and who you are anymore Martin! Yesterday everything made sense, but since those damned Stabalist Scruits 'fixed me' by digging into my head, I feel like three different people!"

"And you're blaming me for this?" I asked. "All of us feel like three different people." I waved at the Omnids around us. "We're all sorting this stuff out!"

"I am not blaming you," she admitted, her voice less sharp. "It's just that… Everything's really messed up. Screwy. I have conflicting memories. Of being horrible to you. Of… treating you like… like you were nothing." She paused, her breath catching in her throat. "And then… other memories. Of you… saving me. Helping me. Hitting and drowning me in the Genesis Pool. I also remember you being my brother on a magic-less… human-only populated Earth. I remember you as a random, annoying nullie who infiltrated Skyfall… and then I remember watching over you for years after your human mother abandoned you, sold you to dad!"

"It's the dimensional shift," I shrugged. "It rearranged things, jumbled up memories, messed with identities and relationships. It's not your fault, Emmy."

"Who… who are you, Martin? Really?" She asked.

"Your brother," I said. "Three versions of your brother, I think. We drifted apart because of a truly catastrophic dimensional shift and then were brought together again by the most recent one."

"You did so many horrible things to me before the blasted dimensional shift!" She growled.

"Only because you were absurdly hostile to me," I pointed out. "You tried to banish me from Skyfall."

"Are you really my… half-brother?" She asked nervously.

"We can run a DNA test in the Foxden Artifactorium," I offered. "But what will that prove exactly? Dimensional shift rearranges the physical. It's not like we can go back in time and check if I was genetically your brother before the worldwide Celestorm. Hrmm. Oh, I know, we can talk to our dad, see if he had a relationship with a human girl from North Acadia before the shift."

"Arghhh," Emerald let out, dragonfire on her head dying out completely as she slumped onto the edge of the hexagonal table beside me. "Eff' my life."

"I believe that you have got a choice to make going forward, Emmy," I said. "Who do you want to be? Emerald Stratos, a Sixie of Rainbow and Thunder Omnicorp and a big nuisance for me that I can throw to the wolves… Or Ember Stratos–my big sister?"

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"Em. You've been effing horrendous to all of us before the shift," Cinder crossed her hands. "And we ain't gonna put up with your shit anymore. Cross me again, and I will murder you."

"Ya," Vespera nodded. "Are you gonna smarten up n' fly straight?"

Emerald let out the smallest nod.

Magdaline inhaled. "She has no idea where to even start being a new person," she said. "She does feel bad, so there's that."

"You can start by apologizing," Vee said. "To all of us. For… everything you've done, ya dum' beerch."

Ember sighed. She turned to Vespera, her face hesitant.

"Sorry, Vee," she let out. "I treated you like a kobold when you were a firstborn Prima… like you were beneath me. Like your… your family wasn't good enough. Like you weren't good enough."

Vespera nodded with a smug expression.

"Same goes to you," Ember turned to Io. "I used your gate skill, recklessly pushed you into doing stuff with my Charmchain voice. Sorry, Io."

Iogann shrugged.

Ember slowly turned to Cinder and winced. "Ci. I… manipulated you to get stronger, to gain levels faster, to control you… I'm sorry Ci. I don't deserve to be your friend. It probably doesn't mean much since we aren't actually friends in this reality, but I'm sorry for everything awful that my stupid, pre-shift self did to you."

Cinder crossed her arms. "I don't forgive you."

"I don't expect to be forgiven," Ember said. "I honestly… I don't want to lose my brother, that's all."

"Aww, Emmy, you do care for me," I said. "So what was all that earlier menacing growlery about?"

Ember growled at me.

"She's confused and angry and has no idea how to deal with it all," Magdaline brutally extrapolated with her Scrut skill. "Two thirds of her sees you as a brother. The rest of her sees you as a human nemesis and an insane, horrifying Clan Leader, the Slayer who broke her into submission, forced her to become a Sixie for his Omnicorp."

"Ah," I nodded.

The red dragon girl sighed.

Then, she stood up, stepped to my side and smothered me in a one-armed hug and then gave me a noogie. I hugged her back, staring at her gold eyes. There was fear and anger there, but it didn't look like she was angry with me. More like angry with herself.

"Sorry, Martin," she let out. "I forgot you… I did so many awful, horrible things to you, when I should have been taking care of you."

"S'aight, Em," I said. "Don't do it again."

"Emerald is dead," Ember said. "She's not coming back. I'm… not going to let her. The current me is older… Less wrong. Better than my past selves. Hopefully."

"Probably not the healthiest way to deal with it, but you do you, sis," I said. "If you want to let out some dragon-ree, you can try kicking my ass at the coliseum."

"Sounds good, ya nulls," she grinned at me. "Think you can take me on?"

"With enough hexasuits, I absolutely can," I fired back

"You're so on," she smiled. "In fact both of your… dragons are on," she eyed Vee and Ci. "If you want Martin, you'll have to fight me for him in a duel!"

"Not that we owe you anything but I'll absolutely kick your ass," Cinder said.

"Seconded," Vespera nodded. "Expect much ass-kickery!"

The dragon girl seemed to relax at the prospect of violent beatings. The Kitsune waiter came our way with the menus and we all ordered lunch.

The group broke apart after lunch and the rest of my classes passed quickly with Cinder keeping me company.

"Right then," Vespera said, dragging Cinder and me towards the Silver Tower and up the stairs. "Operation: Un-Shell the Fox, is a go!"

"Un-shell, huh?" I repeated, stumbling momentarily as Vespera practically carried me across the hall, Cinder trailing behind us with a somewhat weary look.

"Yass," Vespera bobbed. "As we agreed! No take-backsies! I told everyone to piss off, 'cus ya need some therapy, so the entire room's ours for three hours!"

She picked me up and threw me onto our widened bunk. I landed on it with a soft thump. Cinder followed, leaping up with a flare of rainbow wings and settling onto the bed beside me as Vee drew the silver curtains and engaged the privacy hexagrams around the expanded space.

"Come on," Vee fluttered around me and began massaging my shoulders with her talons. "Make with the feels."

"Fine," I said. "I'll try to… feel stuff."

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, and began spinning my soul-armillary, trying to make the Architect sink down. After a minute I realized that wasn't working. My dimensionally-skewered self didn't want to let go of the Architect, absolutely didn't want to face everything that happened.

"Bah! Seems like you need motivation!" Vespera commented, sending sparks raining over my shoulders. "Ci produce moozikal motivation and make the fox feel things!"

Cinder nodded and pulled out her guitar from her extradimensional bag. She chewed her lip for a minute and then began to strum.

"Green eyes, hiding, deep inside
Walls you build, can't stem the tide
Behind mirror-shell so deep

Lie secrets that you longing keep."

She began softly and then punched up.

"Little fox, why do you hide?
Let me stand right by your side.
This armor that you wear so well,
Has become your prison cell!

Your Prison Cell!"

Her words and guitar solo echoed unnaturally, pounding at my psyche, wrapping around my entire body like warm, wing-hugs. The song seemed to touch some distant part of me, causing me a sense of deja vu.

"I catch that spark within your stare
A fire dancing, wild and rare
Through mists of logic, plans, and schemes
I see the truth behind your dreams!

Scattered pieces on the ground
Fragments of what once was found
But in each shard, a light still gleams
More beautiful than what it seems!

My shiny fox!"

Cinder stared deep into my eyes, her ocean blues igniting from within like two brilliant flares.

"Let your broken wings take flight
Surrender to the fading light
We're here to catch you when you fall
Together we can brave it all

We'll brave it all!"

My consciousness spiraled into her gaze, the armillary of my soul spinning madly along with her music, drowning in her rainbow wings.

"So shed the weight you've carried long
And let your heart become a song
For even broken souls can soar
When they don't have to hide anymore!

Don't hide anymore, cus I love you soooo! Love you soooooo! Don't run anymore!"

Her words stretched on, spinning a Charmchain storm around me. The Architect fraction of me finally unfurled, came apart, sunk into the depths of my subconsciousness. Cinder slipped the guitar down and drew me and Vee into a warm embrace of a Quetzi-Thunderbirb sandwich.

[Love. Embrace it. Fall into it. Let it consume you!] Vespera's Electrofractal voice buzzed in my head. [Feel everything! Think of a happy memory and give me a genuine smile!]

A flicker. A memory. Fragmented, hazy around the edges.

I saw myself, younger, much younger, sitting on a sun-drenched porch, the warm breeze rustling through my hair. A woman with dark hair and kind, tired eyes and a warm smile sat beside me, humming a soft Kaska tune.

Her hand, rough but gentle, stroked my hair, a gesture of unconditional love.

The memory was simple, almost mundane, but it carried a weight, a depth of feeling that I hadn't realized I had long forgotten, ran away from. A warmth bloomed in my chest, a faint, flickering ember of something.

[Good,] Vespera's Resonance echoed across me, her voice deep, her breath warm against my cheek. [Hold onto that feeling. Let it grow. Let it ignite you from within.]

I focused on the memory, clinging to it like a lifeline, letting the warmth, the faint echo of joy, spread through me.

I wanted this. I needed this. To feel. To be more than just a self-made weapon of devious trickery and lies, more than just a survivor that smashed himself against Frontenachii Fear Wards and stopped being human, stopped feeling everything.

The warmth in my chest grew stronger, spreading outwards, tingling through my limbs. The memory of my childhood, of that simple, sun-drenched moment, became clearer, more vivid. I could almost smell the scent of Stormwood pine needles and warm earth, hear the distant chirping of birds, feel the gentle pressure of her hand on my head.

Then, another memory surfaced, unbidden, but welcome. A different place, a different time, but the same feeling.

The Crystal Citadel on Arx. Our room. The shared bed, the weight of Cinder's wing over me, the soft hum of Vespera's electrical field. The feeling of belonging.

The warmth intensified, becoming a steady, burning flame. It wasn't just happiness, not anymore. It was something more. Connection. A deep, bone-deep sense of rightness.

Of home.

Of everything I had, lost and gained.

Long, buried feelings hit me like an ocean.