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Abby - By Fire or Ice TG - Part 1

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Previously on The Abby Longbloom Tales

Abby Longbloom, young explorer of parallel worlds, has been searching. Ever since the sudden disappearance of her father many years ago, she has sought clues in the reality-altering ‘anomalies’ he used to research and what he’s left behind for her. Despite her long travels, she knows she is getting closer to finding him at last…

Leaving her childhood home of Alashir, Abby goes in search of others to help her through the most dangerous place in all reality, a fractured realm known as The Dark Forest of Mirrors.

She calls on her friend Korri Morrey, a disgraced but dedicated agent for the Transdimensional Protection Division, an organization charged with protecting parallel worlds from harm.

And she calls in a favor from a prominent Nuhaizi Corporation executive named Nakagawa Katsumi, who lets her borrow two employees, Alexis Rillera, a junior researcher into unexplained phenomena, and Arona Gahlrei, a mercenary for hire.

And she seeks Nana, a young woman who dwells at the edge of the Forest and helped Abby to recover when she fell through the confusions and illusions of the Forest many years ago.

Together, they venture into the deep Forest where Abby reaches through the darkened shadows and finally finds her father. He is kept captive in a false world by the Erasers who tried to annihilate all others like Abby. Before Abby can hurry to his rescue, she encounters an entity which claims to her sibling.

Hiding in the Forest, he has slipped through the margins of Abby’s life and the lives of those around her by seemingly manipulating time itself. In particular, he took a notice of Vivian Longbloom, the ex-wife of Abby’s father, at a young age and has long-term plans for her. Vivian, who escaped with her Aiborae daughters and pet, worked with Abby’s sibling to summon Iao, the Eraser who wants Abby dead and his version of order forced on reality. Vivian’s attempted plot leaves her life in shambles. But Abby’s sibling isn’t done with her yet…

The consequences of Vivian’s deal leave Abby’s protector, Moira, dead and Abby’s goggles and heart shattered. As Iao’s forces prepare for his final cleansing of reality, Abby and her friends escape into the unknown.
 

     
   

By Fire or Ice (An Abby Longbloom tale)

Abby Longbloom didn’t notice the glimmering, transparent sword sticking out of her stomach until the dull ache in her back became a sharp, burning sensation. Her trembling hands circled around the end of the sword. It was clean and bright, as though it hadn’t just plunged through several of her internal organs.

She turned stiffly to see her attacker but an all-consuming, bright blur with fringes of blackness surrounded her. Abby felt freezing and blazing hot at the same time. From far off and muffled beyond recognition, she heard voices with different timbres of sadness but that was all.

The blurriness spread till all was sun and shadow. In the shivering burn, Abby felt a nothingness, made of fire and ice, overwhelm her.

-----

"That's not how the story goes..." interrupted young Abby Longbloom. She clung to her covers and looked over at her godfather, Marcus Ward, with a frown of disappointment.

Marcus looked up from the heavy book in his hands. He’d left his broad hand outstretched as he often did during his lectures. He hadn’t gotten to gesticulating yet but that wasn’t far off.

His hand dipped and his untamed eyebrows rose as he answered, “Oh. It isn’t?” He paged back through the tome, mouthed a few words to himself and remarked, “Well, there is a bit of a skip. Or did I skip a part? Of course, I did often read this while eating rumberry jam long ago. Might’ve stuck some of the pages together…” He poked a nail at the edge of the page.

Sitting up from her glossy, silvery covers, young Abby, whose subdued tenth birthday was still fresh in her mind, waved her hands and said, “No. That’s not it….”

Jerking his head up, Marcus accented his motion with an upward finger and offered, “I know. I added Mister Rizzlebottom last time. Probably getting into trouble, as usual.”

Abby leveled a calm look at Marcus. He set the book in his lap and held his tongue. With a sigh, Abby answered, “It did have Mister Rizzlebottom…but it’s not that. I…”

She took a deep breath and clutched her goggles without moving them from the top of her head.

“I mean…that’s not how it should go. She’s lost so much. She doesn’t deserve it…It’s cruel.”

Marcus leaned back in his chair set beside Abby’s bed and passed a hand through his dense beard. He mulled, “You’re right, my dear. Perhaps we should switch things up. We can set this story aside for another time. Instead…how about this one story I heard from a student? It’s a remarkable little yarn for bedtime. The land of the cloud people and the little lost storm cloud. If only I could remember how it starts…”

Abby pressed her face into the covers. She wanted to hold her tongue. She didn’t mind a silly little story which Marcus laughed to himself about while swerving around parts he suddenly recalled. But she spoke the words pressing against her thoughts as she felt the warmth of her goggles on top of her, “Am I in the sad and scary part of a story?”

Marcus’s eyebrows curled into a frown and his hand dropped to his lap. His voice eased to a soft, careful tone. “My dear, why would you think that?”

Fighting back a shiver, Abby pulled the covered close. “Dad’s been gone so long. And all the trouble with the house and the goggles and your trouble with the regents…”

Quickly, Marcus raised his hand and gave a shake of his head. “You don’t have to worry about the regents. They may want to fire me out of a cannon into the sea but I’ll just swim back and ask for another go. And all the papers about the goggles and the house are in your name. It’s all settled.”

Abby watched Marcus’s face for signs of uncertainty but he gazed at her with wide eyes and a beard-peppered smile. Still, she held onto the feeling of Marcus’s long arguments before he left work. She read the news about the scientists who wanted to study her goggles and what inventions Demetrius left behind. There was one item Marcus hadn’t touched upon and they both knew it.

Clearing his throat, Marcus folded his hands together and told her, “Those things, put them out of mind. The rest….I’m sorry to say I don’t know. But that’s me. I don’t know where all the socks have gone when it comes time for laundry. But you…I know you will find him. No matter what has happened. No matter what will happen. I believe that.”

Abby buried a quick smile against the edge of her covers. The socks really were a mystery. Despite her godfather’s words she felt the sadness and the fear clinging to her.

“But how?”

He laid a hand on the edge of her bed and said, “With words like those. Not those exact words. They just popped out of my head. But better words from you. Find your words. Hold onto them. Focus on them. Believe in them. Make them real like chipping a shape out of stone.”

Softly, faintly Abby reiterated her plaintive call of “How?” Marcus cupped his mouth and bent his head. “You’ve begun that. You’ve read his journal more times than any story like this…” He bent up the book in his hands and smirked gently. “And you’ve spread the word. Everyone in the whole of the archipelago knows Demetrius and that he’s missing.”

Urgently, Abby brought up the possibility of her traveling. Maybe even with one of those eager scientists as a chaperone. But Marcus was as resolute as always, reminding her of Demetrius’s wishes. She nodded listlessly and ran her fingers over her goggles.

The silence brought another throat clearing from Marcus before he continued, “Fight the sadness with smiles no matter how much it tries to wear you down. Fight the fear with laughter and joy. Confuse the heck out of it till only good things are left.”

Abby raised her eyebrows as he continued, batting a hand, “I know it’s silly but I also know Demetrius, wherever he is, would want to know you’re smiling. So smile so hard he can feel it even out as far as he might be.”

It was entirely silly. But the feeling of tears waned from Abby as she tried on Marcus’s notions a little. In her head, she repeated the words he told her. It was something. And it was easier to pull back her frowns.

Lifting his book with a cough, Marcus noted, “Now…we can continue. Head over to the clouds. Or something else…” Absent were the tales which Abby told in bits like she used to with Demetrius’s blank storybooks. Those were special and reserved for when Demetrius came back. She didn’t want him to miss a single one of them.

Thinking it over for a little bit, Abby leaned forward in her bed and said, “We continue. It would be wrong to leave her in a sad and scary place.”

Marcus gave a firm nod and slipped back into the book with rumberry stains at the edges. Gently, Abby eased back against her pillow. Her face was only tickled by the small light across the room provided by a resting, familiar hover-bot. There were no filtered stars above her and her room still showed signs of its conversion from one of Marcus’s offices. But Mister Rizzlebottom guarded the border of the bed with his blank limbs.

Young Abby listened as the story continued.

-----

The nothingness evaporated with a violent, seizing jerk and Abby fell forward. She brought her hands up in time to stop herself from getting a face full of sand. Flinching and coughing, she rolled over and slowly sat up.

She reached down to touch her stomach. No wound. No pain. No cut in the cloth of her top or jacket as she reached around to feel the back. She did have a strange, lingering pressure on her temple like several foreheads pressing against hers.

She rubbed it and looked at her surroundings. Her eyes widened. Nothing but loose, golden sand in all directions. An absolute desert.

Clearing her throat, she pushed up from the slick but coarse ground and began to brush herself off. However, her hands and clothes were pristine. Looking behind her, Abby couldn’t see the marks she’d surely made from her landing. Curious…

Before she could ponder this further, she noticed her goggles sticking out of the edge of her pocket. Gently, tenderly she cradled them. She let out a long, slow breath and said, “Moira…”

Nothing of the black material remained. The gray frame, strap, and internal electronics of Demetrius’s design were sturdy enough to stay in one piece. Abby clutched them in her hand as tightly as she dared and looked out at the golden desolation. An idle wind bent the edges of her jacket as Abby carefully put the remains back in her pocket.

For the first time in as long as she should remember, her head was bare. However, the strange pressure was still there. Shaking her head, she tried not to think about her goggles for the moment. There were far too many other things to think about. Her friends…

She’d arrived alone. But she reminded herself that she’d also arrived alone at the Forest (though that was different). She scratched the back of her head. It tickled a little. After checking again that she didn’t have any slow-oozing wounds she’d missed, Abby pulled out her scanner and turned around in place.

The blue scanner chirped in protest for a moment before it froze and blinked off. Shaking it did nothing to rouse it back to life. Hanging her head, Abby put it back in her pocket and sighed. The feeling in her head wasn’t getting any better. It was starting to feel like a full-blown head cold with a prickly, burning sensation traveling along her neck.

Abby distracted herself by inspecting her hands. Not a trace of the glow from before. She thought of the blasts of bright energy she’d willed from them streaming across the swarming black sky as the Forest broke around her. She clenched her hands into fists but the light still didn’t return. She pressed one to her forehead. It had been a long time since she’d gotten this bad of a headache.

She mulled whether it was a side-effect of traveling or using her flaming “creator energy” or whatever it might be. She distracted herself from the discomfort by striding, her boots making only light prints in the sand with muffled footfalls as she walked in a careful circle. A dune crest wasn’t far from her, like the frozen swell of an ocean wave with trailing ripples.

Following the sand, she noticed there were patterns, regular patterns. Lines banded the sand like a zen garden she’d seen once. The marks looked just as artificial. Trying to take readings with the scanner still met with a black screen. She rotated her neck and frowned to quell the discomfort.

Cupping a hand to her mouth, she called out to the emptiness, “NANA!....KORRI!....ALEXIS!....ARONA!” She repeated the sequence several times in as loud a voice she could manage without coughing. The words didn’t echo, they just seemed swallowed up by the expanse. Turning, Abby called in each direction, her ears trembling with phantom sounds to fill the void.

On her last turn, Abby noticed another something strange. It was harshly bright out. Stark light shone on the sand, giving it that brilliant, golden tone. But the sun was nowhere to be seen. There was a mottled, pale mass of clouds along the sand dune behind her but Abby checked her shadows. Sharp and trailing behind her. Ever more curious…

Before she could think further about this, a biting pain pressed against her entire forehead. The muffled edge of words whispered to her and she whirled around, calling out, “Who’s there?!” But she was still alone.

She called out the names of her friends even louder, coughing between each yell. Her eyes darted to catch any sign of movement. Turning, she noticed only the last few steps she had taken left a mark. The others had vanished away. Gritting her teeth and panting, Abby mashed her boot deep into the sand to leave a heavy mark. Backing away, she watched as the crater gradually filled like the mark had never been there.

Shaking her head did nothing to ease the pounding pain. Grunting, Abby assaulted the ground with her boots worse than any treatment she ever gave the sea. Sand sailed around her in hazy swarms but didn’t land on her. A minute of fury left her standing at the center of again-pristine sand.

Slowly, she collapsed to sit with her legs curled up. She took the goggle remains out of her pocket once more and traced a finger along the edges.

That last time. Moira’s last words she spoke to her before the Forest.

“I only hope it is enough…for your sake, Abby.”

She tightened her lower lip and bit into it. That and so many other words Moira had told her. The things she’d left unsaid. The quiet resignation. Abby realized she must’ve known something bad was going to happen. She was preparing for it. Abby shook her head.

Moira should’ve told her, she should’ve said something. She could’ve helped her. It could’ve been different. The pain in her head was becoming a consuming, ill feeling all through her stomach and sliding lower.

And the attack on the Forest. Iao’s army. If they could get to the Forest and get to Moira then they could get to everyone else. Abby covered her eyes and tried to breathe. Too much. It was all too much and she was alone here, wherever here was.

She focused through the blinding pain at what she had reached for when they all held each other. Clinging to a frail hope and an idea. It was…oh, so hard for her to focus.

It was to take them…somewhere far away. Somewhere safe. That was it.

She didn’t have a location in mind. Just aiming out into the unknown. No idea where she would land.

Looking up, she gazed all around. Still nothing but endless sand.

Solemnly, she thought of her humble home in the Forest. The chair stuck in the wall. The knitting left undone. Living so close to the shores of oblivion and meditating in its depths. From the scared little girl to the….wait. Abby widened her eyes. None of that was her thought.

But still, the thought ran through her mind with flavors of words Nana had given to her from time to time. The feeling. The accepting loneliness. The calm clarity. The resignation that she might never see her original home again. And now, the only home she knew was perhaps destroyed forever.

Clutching her throat, Abby turned and bent forward like she was about to heave. The pain came in waves until she was beyond mere screaming. Her eyes flashed with pin pricks of light and, when the worst of it finally passed, Nana sat up next to Abby with a bewildered expression.

“Abby?! Did we make it…?”

Staring at her mentor in her comfortable lavender robes, Abby lunged forward and wrapped her up in an embrace and whispered, “You’re okay…”

Nodding gently, Nana cradled Abby’s hand and said, “I am. Well, so far as I know. Everything still attached?” Letting herself have a glimmer of a smile, Abby answered, “Yeah.”

Nana stood with Abby’s help and gazed around in the same turning circles as Abby. “Are the others alright?”

Part of the pain had abated with Nana’s appearance but a feeling like someone was scraping the point of a pen inside her skull lingered. Rubbing the sore spot, Abby said, “I haven’t seen them. I arrived first…I think. I’m not sure. I’ve got the worst kind of headache.”

Returning to Abby’s side, Nana rubbed her shoulder and said, “Just relax. I’d offer you some tea, if I could. But I can at least give you this…” She pressed her palm against Abby’s back and massaged her muscles. It didn’t really cut the edge off the pain but she welcomed it as another distraction to keep her mind off the discomfort.

Looking out across the desert, Abby told her, “I’m sorry…”

Nana paused just a moment in her massage to ask, “What for?”

Abby shook her head and fought back a cough as she answered, “I shouldn’t have caught you up in all this. It’s all gone bad.”

Nana found a pleasant spot down the middle of Abby’s back as she asked, “Do you still have what you came for?” Abby peered at the goggles. The system memory was likely intact. And the others had saved copies. The best Abby could answer was, “I think so…yeah.”

Leaning around to look at her, Nana gave a calm smile. “Then it’s not all bad. Don’t fret the bad things. Focus on what you can do about them.”

The headache hadn’t waned but Abby’s tolerance for the pain after Nana’s massage allowed her to manage as best as she could.

With a deep breath, Abby told her, “I’ve messed up though. I could spend the rest of my life in prison. But I deserve it for what I intended to do. I’m as bad as the ‘mean bug’ that know-it-all talks about…”

Nana cocked her head and curled her mouth. “What do you mean?”

Abby opened her mouth to continue but the line of thought left her head. Softly, she offered, “I’m not sure…why I just said that…” Nana raised an eyebrow and told her, “Those didn’t sound like your words…”

Abby had to agree with her. Tensing her brow again, Abby fought off the pain long enough to retrieve her misbehaving scanner. It still only showed a black display. Abby prodded it urgently without success. Nana offered what ideas she could, which vibrated through Abby’s skull. The pen sensation had gotten to the point she feared it might soon split her skull open.

Mulling over the possibilities, Nana quickly noted, “Perhaps there’s too much information here like you said with that library you visited? It is a massive desert.”

A familiar notion. But even the Library had just started to crash the scanner. It hadn’t made it shut down. This was just a desert, right?

It was the only idea Abby could cling to through the rising pain. She dialed the scanning radius down bit by bit. Still, the scanner didn’t react. Frustrated, she turned the scanner to the lowest level and pressed it against her skin. The mode for medical issues. Just the immediate foot or two in front of the sensor. Finally, like it was hobbling to its feet, the scanner chirped a long, mournful sound and displayed its readings.

Abby turned her head and looked down at the information before muttering, “That can’t be right….ooo…ffffff…” The pain didn’t let up. Nana urgently asked, “What is it?”

After she’d taken a moment to steady her thoughts, Abby announced, “According to this….everyone one else is here. They’re right here…where the scanner touched. Here…”

Slowly, Abby’s eyes widened and she muttered, “Oh my gosh…it’s right. The others are here. What I just said to you. It was something Korri must’ve been thinking. It sounded like her.”

Nana puzzled a bit and asked, “How can that be?”

Abby clutched her temple. “No idea but the Forest. All those crystalline shapes. Connecting so many different versions of people. Like holograms layered on top of one another. Maybe…it’s crazy but….maybe just imagine that real people could be layered like that too. One on top of another in the same space. Who knows! The Forest is weird and this place is probably even more so! And this headache! So bad for thinking…oh..oooohhh.”

Bending at her stomach, Abby motioned like she was about to throw up. Instead of emptying her stomach, a flicker of yellow darted through her and tumbled to the ground in a flailing heap. Mercifully, the sharpest, pen-poking edge of the headache left Abby with it. On the barely-disturbed sand in front of her sprawled Korri Morrey with her eyes wide.

“The hell…”

Abby raised a hand. “Haven’t discounted that yet. Feel much better though…”

Propping herself up in her lightly-colored but durable TPD uniform, Korri scanned around at the immense desert and asked, “What happened?”

Abby let out a quick chuckle and muttered, “The biggest question. You were inside me. Somehow. Someway. But we arrived at our destination. Somehow. Somewhere…”

Creepingly, the pain was returning and Abby didn’t look forward to that.

Korri turned over the words, “Inside you? What…?”

“Don’t tell your significant other…Wait, was that one me? Alexis? Arona? I’m still pretty full. And I now see the appeal of a good trepanning.”

Her mouth hanging open, Korri looked over at Nana, who offered a pleasant, though uncertain, smile.

Abby raised her fingers and coughed suddenly. “Alright. Catch-up time. Fell in a desert. No idea what it is but the sand is weird, goes back in place. Also, no sun in the sky. Plenty of clouds. Bright as noontime. Not the weirdest place I’ve been. Not yet. I would kiss a colonnade for some aspirin though…oooohh…”

Taking two heavy breaths, Abby continued, “I thought of somewhere safe and somewhere far away when we held on to one another and I was all glowing. I’m hoping both descriptions are right. No. One of them. The safe one. Not sure why the glowing stopped. But nevermind that. Korri! Can you get a signal on your…thingie that makes you go to other universes?”

The blurriness twinkled around Abby’s vision especially at the brightest parts of the sand dunes. Korri withheld her multitude of questions and reached for her device. Its display was as blank as Abby’s scanner but no amount of manipulation would rouse it from that state.

Korri shook her head. Abby pressed a finger against her nose. It didn’t help. Sighing, she asked, “Alright. Okay. So I got my scanner to work because I turned down the radius. Happened in the massive library too because it was like an overload error. Too much information. Must be the same thing….So what are you hiding?…” She hopped up and down on the sand for emphasis then kept hopping.

With a quick smile and a nod, Abby mentioned, “This helps some. Would be a lot better with a load of plushies to hold. Just slip into a nice dress and forget about how much I hurt from basic training, forget about all the dark stuff. Maybe put on a nice anime…”

Abby slowed her hops and pointed out, “I don’t think I was supposed to say that…”

Korri shook her head and asked, “What are you talking about?”

Abby ran in place a little and pointed out, “I’m not sure myself. I kinda have a lot of stuff going on in my head. Three heads in one. I don’t recommend it.”

Nana approached Korri and offered her best explanation, “It seems we all were merged with Abby….somehow. And the others are still…part of her.”

Korri looked like she might soon be getting a headache of her own as she absorbed this information. “What…how could that happen? I don’t remember anything after we held each other and you glowed….” Nana confirmed that this was also her last memory before waking up with Abby in her current state.

Abby raised her hands with a laugh. “Alright! More information. Not sure it helps. All I know is…oh she has a Mister Rizzlebottom! That’s so adorable! More of a face and limbs on him though. I’d forgotten what heeeeeeee….”

Bending back, Abby whimpered as she pressed her hands to her face. Quick as a blink, Arona tumbled at her feet with her satchel and weapon coming to rest next to her. She flailed and sat up before reaching for her stuff.

Panting, Arona asked, “Are they gone? Where are we?” She tucked her equipment and weapons, including the loaner she’d given Korri, back inside the satchel and met eyes with everyone before the confusion started to set in.

Abby gestured to Nana and Korri and said, “You two, explanation duty. Best effort.”

Korri cast a skeptical look at Abby while Nana rested a hand on Korri’s shoulder. Arona’s confusion just deepened. She moved to brush the sand from her khaki jumpsuit and boots when she noticed the same phenomena as Abby.

Nana cleared her throat and offered Arona, “Apparently, this is a strange desert where none of our equipment works. Abby meant to send us somewhere safe and far from those creatures. We also arrived occupying the same mind and space as her.”

Abby clutched her forehead and remarked, “Well put!”

Still, Arona found herself gazing back and forth between the jittery Abby and the serene Nana. She raised her eyebrows, left her mouth open with a shake of her head, and said only, “…Okaaay…we have seen some shit lately. What now?”

Abby gestured emphatically and smiled. “Yes! Alright. We are in a desert. Why? What’s with this desert?...Aside from having sand which is…phobic about people and being moved. And the sky being cloud-covered but everything still bright. None of it makes sense! None of this makes sense! This is a dream. We just gotta wake up!”

With a hand, Abby slapped herself across the side of the face. She winced and grunted before announcing, “Bad theory. Not a dream. Alright alright…oh. Two heads in one is still no fun. Fun is plushies though and you have a lot of plushies, Arona. Even more than me.”

Suddenly, Arona’s jaw tightened and her hands pressed into her legs. “I don’t…I don’t know what you mean…”

Abby batted a hand and pointed to her head. “You were in here, so I know. It’s okay. I won’t tell…oh…scratch that. Uh, ignore me. I’m probably completely incoherent anyway.”

Arona clung to her satchel and looked around at the others quickly before announcing, “Yeah, ignore her. She uh…what’s our security situation? What about sources of food and water?” Korri squinted at Arona but she didn’t flinch.

Abby’s teeth began to chatter. “Ohhhh…this is not pleasant. I’m sorry but talking is a sorta distraction from the pain. Not a good one. But it’s better than nothing and nothing is as bad as this.”

Korri and Arona scouted the directions a little bit from their location. When they passed one another, Arona quietly said, “Not a word from you…” Korri held up her hands in answer.

Unfortunately, they didn’t learn much more than Abby already knew about prints disappearing in the sand.

While Abby did a strange, prancing dance (as though on hot coals), Arona passed along that she only had a small supply of emergency rations and water meant for a short trip into the Forest. She didn’t even have a tent they could set down to get out of the sun, if it decided to blaze down on them.

Arona and Korri were beginning to make sense of things when Abby gritted her teeth and blurted out, “I hate working with you! You always bully me! Big meanie!”

Whirling around, Arona’s eyes suddenly widened. Everyone else’s did too. Abby blinked to herself and looked around at the group. “What? What is it?”

Korri was first to ask, “Where did Abby go?”

Abby shook her head. The pain was missing the sharpest layer but regular thoughts were still difficult. She answered, “I’m Abby. What…did something happen?”

Arona answered, “You look like Alexis…”

Digging deep into her pockets again, Abby pulled out her scanner. Careful not to change its settings, she had it shapeshift into a mirror. Looking down at it, Abby took a sudden step back as she saw a different face from her own.

She had dark hair cut short with little white barrettes towards the back. She felt her lip curl as Alexis in the reflection frowned. Abby gazed at the mirror and Alexis shook her head. She was wearing the same researcher outfit which yearned for a lab coat to go with the Nuhaizi Corporate colors. Abby gave a little eyebrow raise and looked at the others.

“Well…didn’t expect this I gue…” Before she could finish that, Alexis collided with herself. Abby and Alexis bonked, face-first into one another leaving a restored Abby clutching her head and a fallen Alexis doing the same as she groaned and tried to get up.

Leaning back on her legs, Abby chuckled and noted, “So much better now. Everyone is here. All we have to worry about is…that it’s suddenly getting dark and blurry all over…”

Korri frowned with concern and pointed out, “No, it’s not…”

Staggering on her feet with her head wobbling from side to side, Abby managed, “Oh…must be me…” before she plopped onto the sand. Korri hurried over and knelt beside her while Nana checked Alexis and helped her to her feet.

Korri tried to rouse Abby with a shake and quickly checked her vitals, announcing, “She’s breathing. I guess she just passed out. Hopefully…”

They made Abby comfortable with one of Alexis’s tomes wrapped in some spare clothing from Abby’s jacket. Korri stretched and looked over at Arona, who was scanning the horizon with a small pair of binoculars from her satchel. She stood beside her and only asked, “Anything?”

Arona lowered the binoculars and said, “Just sand. And tons of confused questions.”

Korri chimed in, “I have a few myself…” Arona looked over at her with narrowed eyes before Korri added, “…about our situation.”

Nana took on explanation duty for Alexis as Arona sifted through her satchel. She took out her device for transit between universes. That aspect was as unresponsive as Korri’s.

Shaking her head and smacking the device several times, Arona announced, “This is bad. I don’t know what you TPD guys use but this is top-of-the-line. It should be getting something. It still got something in the deep Forest. This is nothing. It’s completely blank…”

Puzzling over that as she watched Abby’s slow, even breaths, Korri mused, “What could cause that?”

Arona rubbed her eye and looked down at the blank screen. “I mean, it’s on. There’s power going into it. The only way it would be getting nothing would be….if there’s nothing there but we’re obviously somewhere. We’re on a world in a universe…somewhere.”

Gazing at the lines and crests of sand stretching as far as she could see, Korri replied, “Hope so…”

With a sigh, Arona clung to her bag and fiddled with the device. After a minute, she announced, “I can get other systems to work at least. Messages and data storage but that’s it….oh…wait a minute. I have something…”

Korri asked urgently if it was a sign of where they were. Arona had to shake her head but she said, “It’s a message from Nuhaizi HQ. Pretty recent, I think. The device was in sleep-mode with notifications off but it must’ve been around when your friend went all fiery and we held…on…” Arona’s neck clenched as she looked down at the small screen.

Nana and Alexis joined them. Korri asked, “Well…what does it say?”

With just a long sigh, Arona turned the screen so the others could see.

It read, “UNDER SIEGE STAY AWAY”.

-----

I will bend the worlds out there to my order.

Patrick led Gertie out into the fields. Gertie gave a normal “mooo” as Patrick smiled and brushed back a stray lock of her tan hair. She had on a ‘loaner’ pair of jeans which fit pretty well and a checker-patterned top from the old clothes her father kept in the attic. It was good enough for farm work.

Stretching her arms high, Patrick sighed. She resolved to finally pick a new name for herself before Abby’s next visit, despite her lingering hope of being a boy again some day.  

Looking back towards the yellow farmhouse, she noticed something massive and dark off in the sky. Too dark to be rain clouds. Before long, the entire sky was filled with blackness. Gasping, Patrick realized the darkness was creatures, thousands upon thousands of creatures, all swarming everywhere. They blotted out the sky with a rush of endless legs like centipedes spread across the heavens.

Patrick covered her mouth in horror as a cold wind blew.

I have Abby.

Greg glared at the textbook for the fifth time and sighed before plunking her head down on the wrought iron table. Her eyes were immediately covered by her reddish-orange hair, which she puffed at futilely. She’d tried to get it cut several times but whatever process which had been used to change her made the hair extremely hard to cut closer than a certain length.

She refused to change her name, even though the TPD had given her all the appropriate papers. She had heard back really positive things from them about being able to turn back into a boy, then not so positive things, and she hadn’t heard back from them after that. She thought about contacting Abby but life continued, especially with shocking reveals to family that she could now share clothes with her younger sister.

Looking out across the Trimountaine College café, Greg frowned and noticed that things appeared gloomier than a moment before. Looking up, she gasped at the sudden swell of bug-like creatures blackening the sky and uttered, “My Goddess!”

Right here. Right now.

Abigail rarely returned to the Library. She even considered taking a trip to the university planet below, like Alexis had done a few days ago. But small steps.

She loved the park with its glittering towers of apartments. Since she was literally the eldest, some thought she should be in charge, no matter how she looked. Conversely, Alexis offered to adopt her. She refused both offers. She wanted to just enjoy, at least for a little while, before she made the serious decisions of the rest of her life. Mostly, she tried to see how high she could climb the trees in the park before fear forced her to retreat.

Sitting with a slender picture book, one of her favorites, she found a nook between tree limbs which seemed perfectly made for her to sit. Just as she began to read, she felt a sudden chill. Looking up, she saw an all-consuming blackness wriggle and swarm through the air, like it had burst through from her worst nightmares.

Staring between the branches in horror, Abigail shook her head and croaked, “No…not again. Please not again....”

You will die.

Marcus Ward walked through the winding streets of Alashir without purpose. These days were the worst. The between days. The empty days. The days without Abby. The waiting days. The worrying days.

He’d tried visiting a street market but the sight of the first red-headed child crushed his enthusiasm. He could go back to tinkering but he liked the way Abby had left the house too much to undo it so quickly.

He bought some of Abby’s favorite candy for her return and tried to focus on the positive. Perhaps the next time he saw her it would be with Demetrius hugging her close. He missed his old friend. But even that mental image left him with a tingle of melancholy.

Pacing himself, he leaned on his walking stick and made his way to the waterfront. Resting against the edge of a boardwalk, he happened to glance towards the university. He didn’t notice anything at first. Then, like a dead spot in the sky, came the black dot. The first of many.

People around him screamed in terror as the black swell moved like the sea, obsidian projections stretching from the sky.

While everyone else was running, Marcus stayed where he was. He said a prayer for Abby and closed his eyes.

Then, I will find her. She will dissolve in screams. And I will erase everything she ever touched.

Tara Morrey had thoroughly worn out the TPD staff and no one could find the words to tell her to leave. She still had energy to twirl in place and propose yet another game. As the staffers considered this offer with light laughter, screams came from those nearest to the office windows.

Sprinting with all her usual speed, Tara gaped as the blue sky turned to living blackness. Frost developed on the glass and she stepped away. All the happy giggles of a moment before vanished and she whispered, “Sis…please be okay…”

Every world to which her influence spread.

It didn’t take Katsumi long to notice the commotion of people looking out the windows down the hall. She cut off her phone call and stared out at the horrors Abby had warned her about. Gritting her teeth, she spat out the words, “No, you bastards! You won’t take away my dreams.” Turning from the window, she immediately made another call.

She was ready to fight with fire.

Every place she changed. Every thing she has done till there is nothing left.

The creatures came out of the sky everywhere. On a world which had been ruined by the fires of attempted perfection as screeching, hovering machines rose to meet them. On a world where everything had been preserved and cared for. On worlds ruled by a dark queen of a nameless race. On worlds where the Rift was revered. On worlds where little snake girls danced and played….they came.

Then, order will rule eternally.

Iao dug his projections over the spot where Moira had lay, scouring the floor until he had erased down to the seabed foundation and water began to trickle through.

He tidied up his projections into a shape more like his old crown and sneered at the ruined, soaked spot.

“Enjoy oblivion.”

Iao focused on rejoining his army. He looked around the room. He hadn’t moved. With a deep chittering, his annoyance grew. She’d done something. He roared to shake the walls.

He ripped through rooms, destroying whatever was in his way until he made it up to the lobby. He stopped to consider the humans running from him or staring out in horror. Later. For now, he had to return to his army.
 
Standing at the waterfront, he scowled at the sky. With the shard of Moira, they’d tracked every world which ‘stunk’ of Abby. This was the worst, where he’d sent the lion share of his forces. Their darkness should’ve blotted out the sun.

But a glow, like the agonizing shine of the Creator world, blazed like a shimmering shield over the heavens.

“How?!” He called out, half-expecting Moira to answer.

His army didn’t advance beyond the glow. Iao flailed at the air, willing himself to float up but whatever force held them back kept him grounded as well. Only by inspecting his projections and limbs did he see puffs of smoke wafting from the ends. Was this the same trick that fool Vivian had tried?

Iao scoffed at the smoke and the dull but lingering pain all over his body.

“It will take more than that…” He intoned the harshest curse in the language of his kind and began walking from Covaley University towards the center of Alashir.

He tightened his projections again and proclaimed, “I am one but I am enough!” Glancing left, he noticed a few of the humans trying to sneak past him towards the subway entrance. He darted over and grabbed the nearest one. While it burned and melted the edge of his projection, he erased them into nothingness. Their last screams pushed away the pain as new cries rose from the fleeing crowds.

It had been too long since he’d felt such satisfaction. He was going to enjoy this.
<<Previous Part --- NEXT PART>>
(Links with when there are more parts.

Cover Art by :iconhandsofmidaz:

This is the finale of the Abby Longbloom series...well first series. Which could be considered an entire book when taken together. It has been nearly three years since I posted a canonical appearance by Abby. This was very difficult to start but I've finally planned it out. Parts will continue as soon as I can finish them. I expect somewhere around a dozen parts to constitute Abby 5 and 6 under the name "By Fire or Ice".

Hope you enjoy this opener. There was some stuff I had to move into Part 2 because this was just so long.

majorkerina.deviantart.com/gal… - See the rest of Abby here.
© 2015 - 2024 majorkerina
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On2XSecretProbation's avatar
Not everyone can make a good joke about brain surgery.

Abby? Wear a dress? I find this highly unlikely!

Iao is a real jerk.

Get back there and show him what-for Abby!