Abby - By Fire or Ice TG - Finale

By Fire or Ice (An Abby Longbloom tale) *continued*

(Part 6)/Finale

*THE FINAL PART OF ABBY 5*


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With finality, Marcus closed the tome and set it down.

Young Abby’s eyes sprung wide with alarm as she begged, “We can’t stop there! Just a little more, please!”

Marcus leaned forward with his vast, gray eyes focused calmly on Abby as he told her, “It is very late. But we will pick this up tomorrow evening, I assure you. Now, we both need our rest.”

Abby had plenty of energy to show to the contrary but she did feel an aching tiredness in her eyes which not even earlier little naps had lessened. Marcus’s eyes had subtle creases and folds around them which made her think of pastry ornamentation. But, in the skin around his broad, distinguished nose, she noticed the dark shading. It lingered there even when he moved towards “Chipper”’s light.

Burying a frown, Abby pressed herself into her covers and said, “Okay. Thank you for the story.”

Rising from his chair, Marcus smiled and crept around to check the windows on the side to make absolutely sure they were sealed. He set the book back in its proper place on the shelf. He drifted a hand through the air and asked, “Are you warm enough, my dear?”

Abby nodded and pulled her covers a little closer around her. Marcus settled onto the edge of her bed and asked, “Would you like to keep the light on?”

She didn’t give a quick answer. She missed the ever-present filtered light in her other room. But this part of town always had something passing by to wash a quick, slender wave of light over the windows.

She wanted to be brave. She wanted to welcome the darkness with calm relaxation. But the darkness was a blank horizon where the most fretful scenes she could imagine played out like movies on a shadowy projector. With them crept shivering fears.

She pressed her warm, constant goggles against her head and said, “Keep.”

Nodding once, Marcus reached out to brush Abby’s shoulder as he told her, “Sleep well, my dear.”

Before he could reach her, Abby leaned up in bed and wrapped her arms around Marcus’s broad shoulders. He put his arms around her too, holding her as he did those few months ago when she cried and clung to him the day Demetrius disappeared.

Gently, like a butterfly’s flutter, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and settled back into her bed. Her frown had drifted away, replaced by a look which mirrored Marcus’s ease.

Leaning his head and raising a thick eyebrow, Marcus asked, “What was that for?”

Setting her hands in her lap, Abby answered, “You’re a wonderful…other daddy. And I love you.”

The dark shading around Marcus’s eyes seemed softer, even if it may have been a trick of the faint light. Wearing a flowing smile, Marcus replied, “Thank you, my dear. You are an amazing little lady. I love you too. And you have all my love for as long as I can give it. And you’ll get even more onward into your always ‘ever-after’. Goodnight. I’ll see you in the…later morning…”

With a half-hearted chuckle, Marcus straightened Abby’s sheets. Certain other parts of the house may have been a minefield of books set wherever they could be managed in unsorted piles gaining their own little parasitic piles and layers of dust like booby traps lest anyone try to tamper with the disorder but Abby’s room was cared for.

Abby set her head easily against the pillow but kept her head high enough so she could watch Marcus as he left, slowly closing the door behind him.

-----

Marcus opened the side doors of the library out onto the trim courtyard surrounding the building. The emergency alarm wailed until Iao shattered it with one of his projections.

With a faint smile, Marcus took a deep breath. The teasing, seaward breeze wafted smells of the small, bright flowers towards him. Their aroma wasn’t as vivid as it had been in his youth, same with the sight of them, but his memories filled in the details.

Iao skittered ahead of Marcus and stared. In turn, Marcus leaned on his walking stick and stared right back. Sternly, but without yelling, Iao ordered, “Get moving.”

Rubbing the back of his hand gently, Marcus snorted and stretched his shoulders. His pocket settled with the weight of the candy from earlier. He’d nearly forgotten about it. He slipped it into a side pocket of the bag which held “Chipper”s remains when Iao scanned around for other humans.

When he was satisfied those who’d attacked him earlier weren’t preparing for a foolhardy second attempt, he repeated his order to Marcus and added, “Or I will break you like I broke that wretched machine.”

Cracking his neck, Marcus took a step forward and surveyed the area before saying, “This used to be the edge of Alashir when I first moved here. Tall alders, dense sumac, and prickly bushes as far as you could see with a touch of gold and lavender come springtime between the low grasses. They hadn’t tamed any of the streams so whenever it rained all the streets filled with little brown lakes.”

Iao leaned closer and grumbled, “What are you blathering on about?”

Raising his head, Marcus declared, “Everything. The past, the present, and the future. Professor things.”

His projections looming around Marcus’s head, Iao declared, “Cease or your death will be excruciating.”

Leveling his head, Marcus stated simply, “No. I will talk as long as I like about whatever I wish. You’ve settled on my death. I have nothing to fear from you.”

Iao stood motionless. “You make no sense. Fear is all you have left.”

Stretching a finger out, Marcus nearly touched Iao on his blank face as he responded, “Wrong! I’ve got Abby! And if you dare to stick one of your disgusting worm arms inside my head to search her out, as I’ve promised you, all you will have is fear…of her.”

He nearly brought a projection down into Marcus’s head just to spite him but he saw the flash and fire of determination in Marcus’s gaze and turned away. “I fear nothing and no one. I am beyond intimidation and pain. I could hurt you in ways which would make you crave death like sweet poison. I could dash away swaths of your memory till you don’t have words to speak. I am the one in control!”

Pressing a hand to his forehead, Marcus stated, “Those truly in control don’t need to keep shouting about it.”

The burning, golden pressure had gone from a buzzing nuisance for Iao to something he couldn’t ignore. Some of his projections had eroded so badly they were skinnier than they’d been before he seized hold of his true destiny.

In those early days, he was placed in the role of culling would-be kings. Some were normal humans with vain fantasies that they could hold a throne. Only the kindling of disorder from beyond could set them on a path to rule. He felled them all without a challenge. He upended entire lands with just a touch.

Before long, he knew the job of holding back pretenders to transitory thrones was thoroughly beneath him. He was destined for greater things. While he recalled being given a name and a role, he refused to believe he was made by another. No. He was different.

He was aware in ways the others were not. He had powers beyond them. He was meant to rule! It didn’t take long for him to divine the subjugation of his kind. He used what he’d learned of charisma to wield the others and command them to shatter the Creator home world to nothingness.

But Moira turned on him. Somehow, she managed to hurt him. And, in the fallout of his victory, his followers betrayed him too. They were weak and afraid, scared to face a reality with him as absolute ruler. But he was patient. He knew he had existed as long as time itself. He let himself be a momentary prisoner to his lessers. But they would all pay in the end and he would rule supreme.

He reminded himself of this as he clenched his quivering, slowly-dwindling projections and said, “To me, the one truly in control…the protests of those beneath my will mean nothing. Just futile cries before their screams.”

Marcus rubbed his eyes and said, “Yes, yes. You have the biggest bug genitals ever made. Good for you. But you have to come along to my house and destroy it now without delay.”

Every strong and brutal force within Iao aimed itself at Marcus’s frail, human body. The things he wanted to do to this insolent lesser splintered through his mind. He did want to destroy the house, the place where Abby dwelt, as soon as possible. He wanted to enjoy it like so many fallen screams of horror. But Marcus’s words soured his satisfaction. He refused to be told what to do and where to go. He was the only one allowed that power!

As a compromise, he stalked around in a slow circle before declaring, “I will destroy it at the desire and the time of my choosing! You will follow me and we will only go where I want!”

Folding his arms while still leaning against the walking stick, Marcus told him, “We’re still going to the same place I’ve decided to go and I’m only going with you if I want to. What are you going do about that, King-for-Life? Your first rebellion. How will you keep the subjects in line?”

His rumbling deep enough to rattle nearby stone and travel through Marcus like a vicious massage, Iao answered, “I’ll find an innocent child and let you watch as I strip every thought from her until all that’s left is mindless and screaming until death. And, if that’s not enough, then I’ll find another. Then another…till all the children in this realm have felt my wrath.”

Marcus clenched his jaw and pressed his lips together. Iao wore a glimmer of satisfaction that he’d gotten the best of him and led the way.

-----

“Whoa…whoa…WHOA-kay! Yeaaaah. Okay…Yaaahahah…I…really yeaaaah….deep breath time…hooo.”

Abby had to hold onto the nearest wall, which wasn’t an easy task with how glossy it was (and now smeared by her touch). Gail bowed her head and wore a tense frown.

Blinking a few times, Abby gazed around the room. The others looked up from the floor as the last scene cycled back and played again. With a wave of her hand, Gail dashed all the images away.

Alexis’s hands shook as she gripped her notebook, writing furiously. Arona clutched her forehead and grit her teeth. Korri appeared immensely tired and wary as she leaned against the glassy table. She looked to Abby and seemed ready to bolt over to support her if she started to pass out again. Nana pressed her hands to her face and her eyes darted back and forth, as though revisiting unseen images now set within her mind.

After making sure she was steady enough to stay on her feet, Abby blurted out, “What the heck was that?! I don’t even…I’m not sure where to begin with all that except to ask…could someone pinch my cheeks really tight and pull on them?”

Arona raised a hand to volunteer but Abby opted to do it herself, wincing and groaning as she muttered, “Makes no sense…”

Gail conjured up a crystalline place for them to sit as Abby plopped down and wished she still had Gail’s projection in her head to make it feel softer.

Shutting her eyes, Abby muttered, “Alright. Question dump. Did we see the beginning of the current multiverse? Why did someone who looks like me and has my name kill the creator of reality? What happened next? Why didn’t you yell something about this at me when we met? What does this all mean? Who was the killer? Someone from before? A me from before? Why did she have my name? Where did my name come from? Why a lot of other stuff I’m probably forgetting as I try to process all that…and wish for a really good nap which isn’t just me passing out for some reason…”

All that out, Abby took a long breath and clenched her eyes tighter. Gail settled close to her and set a hand on Abby’s shoulder as she began, “Those were the feelings, memories, images, and sensations of what happened to the one I loved more than anything else in all realities. The one who gave me life and a reason to live with her every smile and word. And I killed her.”

Straining her eyes, Abby raised a finger, “Just to be clear here. Because not a lot of this is clear… You don’t literally mean you were also the one who stabbed her, right?”

Her head down, Gail answered, “No. I wasn’t the one who physically stabbed her but I might as well have been...It was my left behind avatar…a body and life I lived and couldn’t let go of. She did it…because I planned and ordained for her to do it.”

Rubbing her lips, Abby looked over at Alexis, who was still furiously writing. Korri pushed herself to her feet but took no step towards where Abby and Gail sat. Arona alertly watched the shimmers in the floor twist and shift around like an excited swarm of fireflies.

“This avatar…had the name ‘Abby Longbloom’ and passed that name to your creator. So my next question is…why have I been witnessing feelings, memories, images, and sensations about your creator since I got here?”

Lifting her head, Gail looked Abby right in the eye and said, “Because they are meant for you.”

Abby smacked both knees and took a deep breath. “…I…can guess what you’re implying by that. And that’s a very big implication…”

Her eyes still locked on Abby, Gail made it clear. “I know my maker.”

Furrowing her brow, Abby looked away for a moment then turned back with a new inquiry, “What about when we met? You didn’t seem to recognize me.”

Gail’s gaze wandered over Abby as she answered, “Faces can lie. But that name, your name, revealed the truth to me.”

Crouching, Abby felt uncomfortable with all of this. She rubbed the back of her hand till it was red.

She sought the faces of her friends. Korri’s expression was still flirting with confusion but her light eyes locked on Gail, as though searching for some tell like on the suspects she observed through a one-way mirror. Arona’s expression was inscrutable for Abby with how she grimaced and pressed her arm against the glass table as she hunched over. It could’ve meant Arona wanted Abby put Gail in a sleeper hold or ask her about the nearest bathroom. Alexis looked attentively between Abby and Gail, working through little flashes of pain, and still took fastidious notes. Nana wore a relaxed, calm presence which reminded Abby of warm tea.

Abby took it all in, shut her eyes for a long breath, and said, “Alright. But, according to the vision or whatever it was, she killed by this avatar named ‘Abby Longbloom’. What does that mean?”

Her legs quivering despite the warmth of the flannel pants wrapped around them, Abby wasn’t sure she wanted to hear Gail’s answer. Still, she listened for it with a slimy, sick feeling in her stomach.

Gail gave a little frown and shook her head without speaking. Abby leaned as far back in her chair as she found comfortable and explained, “Alright. Let’s see if I follow first. Your maker and best friend arrived in this forever desert without a name. She’s lonely, so she makes you. But that’s not enough, so then you both make a lot more. But it all goes wrong. Over and over, the two of you fail. It leads to her suffering and you want that suffering to end. I get that…but you said you picked out an avatar of yours…and that avatar was named Abby Longbloom and she looks like me…”

Gently rubbing her arms, Abby continued, “I guess what it boils down to is...how could she possibly have my name? And, if I assume this all to be true, how could I even have my name? I wasn’t born Abby Longbloom. I was born Abby…some name of a family attacked by one of the bugs you came up with the idea for.”

Pulling her arms tight, Gail nodded. “I know. They’ve killed so many. Again and again. Over and over. New lives, same destruction. Each time it’s a little different but all the sad things keep coming around, no matter what. The lives that Abby lived…I desperately hope you have lived happier.”

Abby’s questions receded from her mind as she bent close to Gail and told her, “I did. I am. I think. There’s a lot of things going on. Along with sprinkled fears of even worse things. But, at the same time, there are flatulent cows, flaming clothes, seas kicked in the mouth, and random dances with friends. There are libraries beyond measure and worlds which make no sense in the best way. There are little girls and old men and all of them should be smiling. I can’t really measure my life against anyone else’s except for what I personally remember but yeah…despite and because of everything…I’m happy.”

Gail’s quietly quivering lip was all the warning Abby had for the fervent, smothering hug she launched upon her. While Gail didn’t sob as much as before, her eyes still twinkled with glassy tears.

Abby gave a calm sigh and reminded her with a gentle rub, “Sooo…why does my name exist?”

Receding from her sadness, Gail took a calm sigh like Abby’s and answered, “Because of me.”

Giving the young girl a squinting look, Abby brushed at her hair and mulled, “So…you gave it to your avatar and your avatar then gave it to…your maker. I get that. But again…I wasn’t Abby Longbloom at birth.”

“Sometimes the name one is destined for isn’t the name they are born with…” said Nana. She raised an eyebrow at the two of them as they looked over. Abby clenched her mouth to the side and muttered, “That’s not very scientific…”

Nana held out her hands and proposed, “Destiny…Or consider the possibility there is no beginning. Only an endless cycle and your name carried with it. The reasons and details as lost as so many things with the passage of time.”

Abby pressed her furrowed brow and commented, “It better not turn out to be a paradox where I eventually travel back in time and give it to…myself.”

Clutching her hands together, Gail said, “I’m actually not the one to ask about her name. You would do best to ask her yourself.”

Seizing on this, Abby leaned forward and asked, “The Abbytar?…Sorry. So she’s still alive?”

Gail nodded in return and said, “Our work to change the cycle didn’t stop the day of that horrible decision. It only started. She renounced her name and so much more. She devoted everything she had to making sure no one ever has to be in her shoes again. I let her do what she felt was right. I can only hope it turns out for the best.”

Holding onto a frown, Abby had another notion in her head as she asked, while shifting into her male form with a motion of her toe, “Does she look like this now?”

The lack of surprise on Gail’s still puffy face was confirmation enough for Abby. She nodded and said, “Similar. She gave up her old life to take on a new one and was reborn with a face…like that. She can still come and go from here as she pleases…”

Abby nodded to herself and remarked, “I know. I’ve seen her…him. She calls herself my sibling. My big brother. Makes sense…as if any of this makes sense. But there is something Nana always said and something I always wondered. When you fall through the Forest, you can run into alternate selves like warped reflections. It made no sense if that was just my brother. He was always an alternate me.”

Nana’s eyes widened as she nodded and responded, “I remember. It’s been years but I still remember. You said you had a strange experience like being hit by a dream some weeks before you started to remember yourself. You saw…a burned world. I remember that very specifically because I dismissed it as a false vision like so many in the Forest. But perhaps it was actually a memory?”

Shutting her eyes, Abby remembered it too. Vaguely, but it was there. She felt like she was shaking her individual brain cells to try and tease out more details. Then, she opened her eyes and looked to Gail, who had crept very close to her.

Clutching Gail, Abby asked, “Memories. This place…This Index. It remembers. Everything is here. All of it. What I experienced then. Every mystery unseen and unresolved. What’s happening to the rest of reality right now…It’s all here. It’s all watching, isn’t it? Can we look at it?”

Gail gazed at Abby’s hands as she held her and said, “Yes. It’s all watching, always watching. But it’s rare I look into it. Except to find the olden times which made me so happy. To the brief, beautiful moments when my one light in all the worlds smiled.”

Sympathetically, Abby offered her a light smile as she asked, “What do I need to do?”

Lingering in Abby’s grasp, Gail looked beyond the table and over to the larger room. “Let me show you.”

Together, they walked over to a clear floor space. Korri kept her distance and glared at the spot where her stun pistol should’ve been. Nana kept watch with her eyes squinted and her chin held firmly in her grasp. Arona limped with Alexis beside her and still clutching her notebook.

Spreading her hands out, Gail reached towards the floor. Instantly, a blur of images burst across the glass like a distant reflection. One rapid reflection layered on top of another till several expanding stacks filled the floor like a holographic interface. Only the sensations weren’t confined to the visual. As Gail stopped on a single one of a pinewood forest, Abby smelled the faintest hint of fresh trees and moist mud. She also could hear the sounds of the natural world.

Flicking her hands up, the image spread around them and replaced the glass with the depths of the forest. Korri turned her head in all directions and came around to smack her face against a glass wall which she couldn’t see.

A second too late, Gail explained, “We’re still in the room. It’s just the information of this place.”

Nana maneuvered around where she knew the wall was and set an arm on Korri’s shoulder. Arona and Alexis slowly joined them. The illusion lacked the sound of their footfalls as their feet passed noiselessly through the mud and thick grasses.

Abby turned around a few times and asked, “Is this happening on some world right now?”

Nodding, Gail twisting a finger so the three-dimensional projection moved without them taking a step. It was as though they saw through an invisible camera which could pass freely through anything. Before long, they came to a clearing.

Narrowing her eyes, Abby looked straight up at the ceiling. Instead of normal blue sky above she could see a golden, glimmering wall of light spread across everything. She pointed it out and asked, “What is that?”

The others looked up as well. Korri frowned and remarked, “It looks like the light you make, Abby.”

Gail turned to look at Abby as she tightened her hand. There was no such light from Abby’s hand at the moment. Turning her head, Abby asked, “Can you…pull back?”

Raising her fingers, Gail maneuvered the camera to provide them a vertigo-inducing view of an entire landscape and then an entire world. Before long, that receded to walls of galaxies like curling, knotted creamer in black tea. Still, the barrier of golden light remained as far back as they went. Even to the point the light spots became invisible, the golden glow remained.

Tapping her chin, Abby asked, “Where is this?”

Reaching out, Gail plucked at the air. The blackness sucked into her hand and she held it out like a page from a book. Turning it around, she presented a complicated geometric shape which she said was its name. “A name of words or numbers would be too long to express without extending beyond sight. This is a visual shorthand. I’m afraid there’s not an easy search system. Not since…her death. She could reach out and track down exactly what she wanted. I can only sift blindly through the immense layers of information.”

Gail stepped away from the center of the room with her head down. Abby took a deep breath and stepped into the spot she had been. For a long moment, nothing happened. She swallowed and reached her hands out. Slowly, the images began to pile up on the floor again. She darted her hands away and the room cleared.

“Okay…alright…okay…just a second. Korri? Could you come here a sec?”

Korri leaned her head and asked, “What is it?”

Abby stepped away from the spot in the floor and requested, “I want you to do what I just did.”

Her mouth hung open slightly but Abby preempted her next question by saying, “I just…need to know if it does that for me and her or for anyone.” She glanced over at Gail even though she doubted she’d be able to catch any sort of trickery on her part.

Stepping aside, Abby gave Korri the whole room. With a shrug, Korri reached down and mimed the same actions which Gail and Abby had both performed. Nothing. No stack of images. No sudden activity. It was as though she was just doing an odd pantomime in the middle of a crystalline living room. After several different actions and Abby watching Gail, Abby nodded and conceded, “Alright. You can stop, Korri. Thank you.”

She knew she could’ve asked the others to do the same but she felt that was enough.

Abby replaced Korri in the center of the room, stretched her hands out, and the piles of images immediately returned. Slowly, Abby had to take a breath before she felt lightheaded. She admitted, to herself, that perhaps there was something going on which…something which…She stopped herself there.

She resolved find out about the world outside for the others first.

Gail couldn’t offer her much in the way of instructions for using the interface or whatever it was. Shrugging, Abby decided to focus on it much like she did with the Forest. Only, instead of trying to think of her father, she focused on familiar things. The office of the TPD where Korri worked. She stretched out her fingers and closed her eyes. She tried to visualize it as best she could. She tried to imagine herself inside it.

A flicker of images passed over. She caught a glimpse of an office building but it went by too fast for her to see. When she arrived? All the images dropped out but one. She flicked her hand up and the glass room was replaced by the office of the TPD. Scooting around with her fingers brought her to a moment she remembered well.

She was sitting across from Korri with her hands out. Abby tapped the air and the frozen moment unpaused.

“But my people apparently made a control-freak bug named Iao mad and he…tried to wipe them out. But Moira was a good bug and she saved me when I was a baby…”

She tapped her finger again and the moment froze with Abby’s mouth shifting to form the next word she would speak.

Korri looked at her confused past visage and admitted, “This is freaky….”

Abby took a deep breath. Everything that had ever been was laid out before her. If this worked for her then she could see anything. She could see the moment Demetrius was taken. She could witness every moment she’d forgotten. She could see when she was young. No event that ever happened would be invisible to her. Such power was right there with godhood.

She had to step away and take a deep breath. Gail winced and moved towards Abby but stopped short of touching. From the wide eyes on Nana’s face, Abby guessed she realized the same implication. Arona spoke up, “What about now? What about what’s happening?”

Abby nodded and made her way back to the center of the room. Same world, now. The place stayed the same but the people shifted into different positions. Some hurried about, passing through them as they ran. Agents yelled to one another. Some were on their communication devices. Many were looking out the windows.

Korri noticed Angela rushing around. Then she caught sight of her sister with her hands clenched in front of her. Abby pushed the image over there. Softly, they could hear Tara’s gentle plea, “You’re going to be okay, sis…because I’m going to give you a great big hug…” She spoke to no one in particular but Korri smiled with the words.

Arona, whose face looked just like her alternate’s, glanced away with a cough and a grimace. Nodding quietly, Korri told her sister, even though she couldn’t hear her, “You’re right. And I’ll be home soon. Promise…”

Quickly, Tara looked up. Korri’s eyes widened and she waved a hand in front of her. Still, Tara looked past her as her head dipped down and she sighed to herself.

Abby held her hand steady and said, “Over there…”

Carefully, she scooted the image over to a computer system and they could read the information on the screen. The dark bugs had been sighted on countless worlds as reported by agents. Then came the golden barrier. It held them back. No attacks. But, a last addition said many worlds were reporting the barrier was fluctuating.

Quickly, Abby darted away from the computer and pulled back so they could see the sky. Indeed, though very faint, there was a flicker to the glow, like a light at the point of dying out. She couldn’t remember if it had been there before, so she flicked her fingers back and watched as the steadiness of only a few minutes before quickly deteriorated to the current state. The bugs were pressing against the field.

Arona asked, “Can you check on the other worlds? Is it everywhere?” Alexis hugged her notebook.

It didn’t take Abby long to think of and skip to the world where she’d met Alexis and Arona. She even dipped into the office room where they’d been sitting. With a glower, Arona admitted, “If only I could be there…to help. But what is all this? What’s holding them back?”

Abby shook her head and sighed, “Dunno. As Korri said, it looks like my energy. Creator energy or something. Whatever that means. But it seems to be weakening…what’s the source?”

She thought about that and stretched her hands out. The interface did nothing. It just stayed on the image of the energy stretched across the area of Nuhaizi HQ. She’d found a limitation. She didn’t know which world the energy was coming from therefore she couldn’t tell it where to go. Made sense but disappointing.

Gritting her teeth, Abby immediately thought of one place in particular she had to check.

-----

Marcus kept his own pace no matter how loudly Iao yelled at him and no matter how the creature’s projections curled threateningly near his neck.

Before long, he returned to little stories of the area. The efforts to flatten some of the steepest hills. The utter failures of local government. He’d told some of them to Abby. Some he’d forgotten until now. It only took five stories before they made it to the house.

It sat there as it always had. Smart ceramic tile roof. Walls as pale as melted vanilla. Those shifting, solar windows like every other building in town and lined with wrought-iron, rubber-tipped rods. He cracked a faint smile. Rubber-tipped so little Abby wouldn’t be afraid of birds impaling themselves on the pointed ends.

Iao growled and declared, “As foul as anything I’ve ever seen. It stinks of her all over.”

Leaning gently against a nearby fence, Marcus corrected, “It smells of her life. All her days here…not as many as I would like. All her scampering out of bed in the morning and dragging her tired eyes closed at night. All those stories. All those meals. All that clutter. All that life. How can you be so repulsed by life?”

Whipping his head back, Iao roared, “It’s disgusting. A burning glow. I hate it with every piece of my being. It stands against me as a blasphemy to my destiny to stamp it all out. A rotting, rancid flame of anarchy…”

Dashing his projection through the fence, Iao ripped it aside, erasing what he needed to get through. Marcus called out, “It has a gate!”

Ignoring him, Iao ripped first at the door, with its weighty, golden knocker, tearing it from its hinges. He stumbled clumsily through the opening and sought out whatever smelled worst.

Marcus took his time coming inside. He glanced over at the layers upon layers of coats which Abby had sifted through to give away. Most of them were Abby’s, from when she was much smaller. He’d convinced her to save a few of them from the donation pile.

Iao quickly undid much of Abby’s work with the books, flinging them as viciously as the ones at the library. With a deep breath and twinkling snowflakes of dust sailing around, Marcus settled into his big, brown bear of a chair and eased back against the creaking springs.

He listened as Iao shattered the plates and dishes in the kitchen. With a great crash, Marcus figured Iao had toppled the hutch which had been in his family for some generations. He always hated that garish thing almost as much as he knew Abby hated colonnades. No great loss.  

Leaning to his right, Marcus noticed the table compartment underneath the light was ajar. Set on top of a pile of stowed away novels was one of the old scrapbooks which held Abby’s drawings and scrawled writing from when she was young. The silly participation awards had been discarded and the stiff papers were preserved behind plastic sheets. Looking up, Marcus pressed the opening closed to seal away his secret.

It wasn’t long before Iao returned to dart his crumpled, icy face through the sitting room again. He regarded Marcus with silent annoyance. In return, Marcus gestured with his walking stick to the other side of the room and said, “That support beam over there? Abby loved it. And everything under it. Better erase the beam and make sure you stand right there so you get everything.”

Iao looked where Marcus gestured but stayed where he was. With a rumbling voice, Iao demanded, “Do you still take me for a fool?”

Widening his eyes and leaning back, Marcus asked with his own question, “Do you really want a truthful answer to that?”

Growling, Iao dashed a projection through the largest pile of books and, this time, erased several along the way. Then he grunted, as though in pain. The projection whipped back with the job half-done. The curls of smoke still wafted away from him. Marcus watched but said nothing.

Panting, Iao curled his projections back and roared, “Show me her room now!”

Easing further into his chair, Marcus noted, “Can’t you sniff it out?”

Iao cast several pieces of furniture aside as he loomed in Marcus’s face and said, “Now. Or I’ll find a crying girl to ‘play with’.”

Scowling, Marcus lifted himself ponderously to his feet. He led Iao to the stairs, which the bug was almost too large to ascend. Snarling, Iao bashed cracks into the walls but did little to open up more space for himself.

His feet trailing with his body, Marcus opened the door to Abby’s room. It was left much as it had been all these years. Fake, pale green stars above to replace the filtered starlight of her other room. Remnants of projects and ideas. Books and papers here and there. A neatly-made bed. An old, framed photo of Demetrius on one of the nightstands. The walls often cycled through images of her favorite characters from books and little reminders of this or that. Right then, they were decorated in the outlines of imaginary forests like frozen lightning strikes rippling out to the sky with blooms of faint color.

Marcus took in all in as he stepped aside and Iao barreled through to lash out at the first thing he saw. The bed was demolished and the knickknacks broken. The books were rent apart. The walls were scoured of all decoration. Iao took special time to erase the photo of Demetrius and all other images he could find. Then he dove into the closet and came up with a plushie which glared back at him.

Its legs had caved in even more than before. Its arms looked like someone had given up in its creation. Little more than a decorated pillow, Iao grasped Mister Rizzlebottom tight and proclaimed, “This…she loves this…”

Marcus shut his eyes and listened as the fabric ripped again and again with short, sharp sounds like screams and puffs of stuffing blasting through the air. He opened his eyes long enough to watch Iao erase all but one lumpy leg of what was left.

Looking over, Marcus gave a slow, mocking clap as he pronounced, “Congratulations. You’ve destroyed a child’s stuffed animal. How much bigger do you feel now? Feel like a true king?”

Iao glowered and returned to the closet for more. Marcus shook his head and rested against the wall. Before long, Iao turned his attention to the bedtime storybooks. He snapped them in half along the spine and then worked to erase them.

Shaking his head, Marcus told him, “It’s just stuff. No matter what you do doesn’t erase the joy and love she felt here. You’re just a beast gnashing at shadows.”

Still, Iao continued. There were a few times where it seemed that he was far enough away that Marcus might be able to hustle off and out of the house. He could see himself falling back to the security forces as they surrounded the house. But the possibility of what would happen to the next best person Iao found kept him from running.

Before long, Iao had stripped the house of all its features and charm. The clutter was gone along with a lifetime of reminders. He made Marcus watch as he razed it to rubble and then poked around the hole left by the basement.

Sighing, Marcus looked up and frowned. He saw a wavering in the golden shield above. He saw it flicker as the blackness behind it shuffled and seemed to press against the threshold.

Soon, Iao noticed something as well. The acidic burn all over his body was lessening. By chance, he looked up and cackled gleefully as he announced, “Finally! I knew it couldn’t last forever. The trick…the trap by that vile traitor is finally breaking down. Soon…very soon my army will be through and so will the lives of everyone here. Scoured away just like this.” He gestured with his faintly-smoking projections to the remains of the Ward house.

Steadying his hands, Marcus tried to keep fear from his expression as he said, “Let them come. If they’re your followers then they’ll probably get lost trying to find the ground.”

Ignoring the quip, Iao tested his ability to teleport and float. He couldn’t press himself off the ground but he did feel some of his former strength returning.

Marcus lifted his stick to poke at Iao when a bright, golden shimmer appeared behind him at the threshold of the gate. It wore the silhouette of a person with rays projecting out as arms and legs. Squinting, Marcus tried to work out the features. Not too tall.

Soon, the details came into focus. Marcus gasped and said softly, “Abby…”

It took him a moment because she was missing her ever-present goggles and her jacket was done up differently than usual.

Abby had thought of home and being there. She expected the front of the Longbloom residence where her goggles had always dropped her off and which she often visited between trips but she’d appeared before Marcus’s home instead. The others in the glass house gasped and so did she when she caught sight of Iao looming just beyond.

She felt herself caught between screaming for her Marcus to run and smothering all sound so he could get away. Her eyes begged him to move as desperately as her flailing hands.

Iao whipped around and nearly bolted from his spot to where Abby was. But he stayed, even as his legs and his cold, dark limbs twitched to smash Abby to pieces. He saw the golden outline around her. She wasn’t actually there. A trick some of her kind had used as a distraction to project themselves to where they were not. He’d seen through it swiftly and hunted down their real bodies.

With a loud breath, Iao hissed, “Abby Longbloom, come to join us?”

He could recognize her by that same odor, even from this far away.

She looked like Iao expected and he didn’t feel the least bit intimidated as he stepped closer.

Abby had only seen Iao in Moira’s vision but he appeared even taller like this. He clung around Marcus like the darkest of night. In the glass room, Gail wore a clenched, sharpened expression and pointed it directly at Iao. She stepped forward and her image projected itself right beside Abby like a cast shadow.

When Gail appeared, Iao paused. He took in the new figure. She smelled different. She almost smelled like one of his kind. Her presence evoked the vast emptiness in which they all dwelled, a void where all odors they knew elsewhere were drawn away, cleansed of their impurities. Her golden glow also paled beside the brutal mark around Abby.

“Who are you?”

Gail resisted trembles and staved off fear with a half-glance in Abby’s direction.

“I am the one responsible for you. I birthed the idea of your kind. And what have you done with that? You stand before destruction. Is it yours?” She gestured to the ruin of the Ward home behind Iao with her black eyebrows sternly fixed.

Abby felt better with Gail beside her. She turned her eyes back to Iao, who brought his projections up into the form of a quivering crown even though they were skinnier than they’d been the last time he’d assumed the pose.

He answered, “It is mine. And it is only the beginning. I have killed the traitorous Moira who thought she could shield Abby from me. I have cleansed reality of the infernal light of those who would seek to set my order and my rule aflame. All that remains are the frail embers left to be smothered.” All the while, Iao kept part of his attention on Marcus.

Gail tightened her gaze and said, “I remember you. You’ve been around a few times. Different names sometimes but always the same. All that comes from it is your own destruction. Each and every time.”

Abby thought of the darkness and the cold blotting out the light in the cycles she’d seen. She wondered how many of them were from the work of another iteration of Iao. But that led her to a scarier thought. What if there were times just like this in the little moments the recording missed? Again and again. Over and over. With the same sad endings….

She looked into Marcus’s steady, silvery eyes. He stood there as though part of one of those symposiums he so often attended, just waiting for his turn. The fears inside her head quieted.

Iao clenched his crown to the point it seemed like it might snap his projections in half. He howled back, “I don’t know you and you don’t know me! You are nothing to me!”

Gail quietly shook her head and noted, “You’re right in one respect. I am nothing. Nothing beside my maker, who stands here with me. She is my light. She is the one who made all that ever was. She died once…because I loved her too much to see her suffer. But she lived again. You tried to wipe her out but still she lived. She is the light which cannot be put out. She is the love which cannot be extinguished. And you? You should run.”

With a smirk, Marcus looked back at Iao. The creature set his legs. He didn’t stagger. He didn’t show a sense of intimidation with his blank, statue-like trace of a humanoid face. But his crown wobbled.

Smashing the ground with one leg to crack the stone, Iao declared, “Lies! The same lies this one tells. Abby? She’s just the last one not in hiding. I will scour everything she’s ever known, touched, or loved to the ground.” He loomed right behind Marcus with his projections beginning to twist downwards.

Abby yelled out, “Marcus! Get away!”

Not bothering to look back, Marcus raised his eyebrows at Abby and said, “Oh! I didn’t want to interrupt. Sorry. So dramatic. Is it true, Abby? Are you even more special than I suspected?” He cracked a cheery grin as Iao’s projections didn’t dip further. They hung there with a strange uncertainty.

Looking between the blackness about to attack him and her godfather’s serene face, Abby didn’t know what to do. She wanted to reach for him. She wanted to grab him, wrap him up, and protect him like Moira had protected her. But all she had were words across the distance. So she talked.

“I…I don’t know. It’s all really confusing. Probably.”

Leaning on his walking stick, Marcus bobbed his head and told her, “Why…it’s just like the stories we used to read late into the early morning. Special little girls with unexpected pasts and brilliant destinies. You’re living it, my dear. And I’m so glad I got a chance to see you. Everyone well?”

Abby did her best to hold back the shivers as she answered, “Yeah. A little banged up. We found a desert place which remembers everything that’s ever happened. And I found him. I did it.” She withheld Demetrius’s name with Iao so close and hoped Marcus would understand.

With a widening smile, he nodded. “I knew you would, my dear. I knew you would…”

Iao snarled behind him and Marcus picked up his head to announce, “Would you mind, sir? That’s very impolite. I am speaking to my goddaughter, who also happens to literally be a god. I will be just a minute.” He shook his head the same way as whenever there’d been an interruption to his lecture.

Despite all the anxiety of the moment, Abby felt warmed to hear him say that. Iao held his position. Abby swallowed and said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. I’m sorry for…stuff I can’t even remember right now. I’m sorry for not staying more. I’m so sorry…dad. Daddy. My daddy…I love you!” A tear slipped down the side of Abby’s cheek as Gail watched with empathetic pain.

The projections curled around and in front of Marcus as he held a calm, happy look and told her firmly, “No need for tears, my dear. Smiles and laughter, remember? Fight with all that beautiful love you have. Never fear. And I love you too…always and ever-after.”

Like an animal’s strike, Iao brought his projections around to clutch Marcus in his grasp. But, as soon as his focused on erasing Marcus, the touch burned like a blistering coal, more painful than anything he’d ever experienced. Screeching, Iao darted back.

Two of his projections shattered to stumps. Moaning, Iao took his remaining projections and yelled, “Enough!”

He snaked a projection around Marcus’s neck and squeezed.

The walking stick fell away with an echoing ‘clack’ against the ground. It wobbled back and forth, rolling until it finally came to rest against the hole in the fence.

Abby didn’t want to see it but she couldn’t will her eyes to shut. She couldn’t scream. She couldn’t find words to cry out. She couldn’t even fall to her knees. She was just frozen and watching as it went on and on and all she could do was stare.

When it was finally over, the projection receded. Marcus came to rest on the ground, a faint smile still etched on his face, his eyes shut, and a peaceful sense about his whole body as though he’d just drifted off to sleep in the middle of a good, long book.

Finally, Abby wailed into her cupped hands. She tried to touch that which was too far away for her to reach. She mimed her hands around his hands. In her head, she held flashes of hope. There were worlds out there, worlds with science beyond measure. Medicine which was miraculous compared to anything in Alashir. Something could still be done. But time was running out on any of those possibilities.

Abby Longbloom rose to her feet, clenched her hands, and told Iao, “Big mistake…”

Iao leaned forward and demanded, “Oh? And what are you going to do about it, little girl?”

In her head, Abby wondered about where the local security forces and police were. They had to be close with all of this destruction. She had to get Iao away from Marcus so they might rescue him before he was beyond any means of resuscitation. She just had to push.

But, despite the distance between them, he still loomed like a flash of blackness from one of her nightmares to swallow up the light. She was afraid. And her world felt a little darker with her one constant glow on its last embers. But she had to be strong.

She relaxed her hands, bent down her head, and let herself wear a calm, steady expression. Iao’s legs shifted slightly.

“I have no idea what I’m going to do but I know this…You messed with the wrong little girl. And we’re both about to learn exactly what I’m capable of.” She advanced on him with steady, even steps. Iao held his ground.

“Tough talk. I’ve heard it all before from so many others who thought they were stronger than me. They’re all gone. Moira and Marcus especially…”

Abby flexed her hands. They felt as though they were held over hot coals. He didn’t back away as she got right up next to him. Stretching out a hand, Abby reached for Iao’s body.

Iao’s smugness lasted just a moment before he started screaming with a hiss of steam blasting from him. He crawled backwards into the rubble of the Ward house and cried out, “Impossible! You’re just an image!”

She raised her eyebrows and countered, “Are you sure about that? Want to see if I can do it again?”

Iao scurried away till he was off the property. With a quick glance behind, Abby saw people in uniforms advancing on Marcus’s body and felt a frail flicker of hope before returning her attention to Iao.

“You can run but I am coming for you. For all the people you’ve destroyed. Wherever you stand, wherever you flee, will be no safe place because you will answer for everything you’ve done. And you can’t even imagine what I will do to you…”

Abby wanted to push Iao away again but she wasn’t sure if whatever was transmitting the energy through the connection between worlds would work again how she wanted. All through her words, she knew she could’ve been stronger, she knew she could’ve shaped what she said into more fearful things. But all she could think of was Marcus’s still and quiet body.

Then, the bright barrier around everything fell away and Iao’s forces cast a crawling shadow over all of Alashir.

Cackling to himself, Iao answered, “Say what you like, my army is here. And time is up for all the worlds you touched. See you soon, little girl…”

Clenching her teeth, Abby heard Iao’s bitter laughter as she stepped out of the projection and back into the glass room.

-----

For Vivian, everything was burning.

She was beyond the mere feeling of pain. Everything was raw. She could hardly see and barely breathe. Still, she tried her best to hold on. The creatures above felt like they were crawling across her scalp as they looked for openings.

It felt like she’d been holding the air in her lungs for every moment. Moment after moment as the pressure mounted. She passed what she once thought was her threshold of pain. If not for the fact she had no idea how to make any of this stop, she would’ve caved a long time ago.

Just when it seemed she couldn’t take another ounce of it on top of her, she heard a familiar voice at her side.

“That’s enough, Vivian. You did well.”

The fragments of thought she had left told her that had to be the sibling, the one who’d appeared to her in the mirror. She had no idea how he could stand right next to her. She wanted to hate him, to scream at him, but his presence lessened the pain all around her.

Soon, it was all gone. And so was the golden shield above. With it, a swarm of horrors on countless worlds had nothing to hold them back. Before she could gather her thoughts to panic about that, the sibling’s voice told her, “Take my hand.”

She stared at it through bleary eyes and tried to speak.

Abby’s sibling reassured Vivian, “Your girls will come with us. Don’t worry. Your work here is done.”

Struggling to find her strength, all Vivian could do was push her arm at the shape of a hand and let it clasp around her. In an instant, she felt the grass vanish beneath her feet and they were gone.

----

Abby stumbled on the glass floor, panting and trying to hold back her tears. Moments ticked by, moments she didn’t have. The others were talking but she wasn’t listening. She turned her attention immediately to Gail and asked her, “We have to get out of here. We need to stop him right now! How can we leave?”

Gail’s eyes widened and she stammered a bit before saying, “I don’t know. I’m not sure how you got here…”

Abby burst out with the shortest version of being in the Dark Forest of Mirrors, the flaw in reality and willing herself somewhere safe. She added, “And this is definitely a safe place but we need to get out. We need to leave before something terrible happens to the rest of reality!”

The others took out of their transport devices. Questions were offered if there were some coordinates which might allow them to leave. Gail shuddered under it all and shook her head as she said, “I don’t know. I just…Wait…”

She looked to Abby and offered, “There might be something. You are my maker and I am your creation. Your first creation. Take me back, as a part of yourself. It might be enough to relight your old powers along with the ability to cross freely from here to all the worlds you made.”

Abby grimaced and shook her head as she asked, “But what about you? What will happen to you?”

Gail clutched Abby’s hands. “There’s no time to worry about that. I give of myself freely in the hope it may, by some small measure, help undo the horrible crimes I have done. Please let me do this. Please let me help!”

The others chimed in with nervous words and questions but Abby had to turn away from them as she said, “She’s right. There’s no time left. Whatever we can do, we have to do it now, before more innocent people...die.” She tensed from the word.

Nodding together, Gail and Abby clutched each other’s hands. Slowly, Gail shut her eyes and said a few soft words to herself. As Abby watched, a glow, like the one which emerged from her hands before, spread all over Gail’s body. She became more like a being of light, indistinct and shimmering. Only her hair remained like a flickering shadow.

As Abby inhaled, the light which was Gail spread to her like fiery breath. It enveloped her as she bent her head back and stretched out her arms. The others had to cover their eyes from the brilliance which gleamed like the sun in the sky.

Then, it burst out like a golden fountain erupting from Abby’s arms and legs. The light washed out her body for several blinding seconds before finally fading.

When it was done, they all looked and gasped.

Standing in Abby’s place was a girl much like Gail. Her face and features were a little smaller than Abby’s. But she was clad in her same clothes from her high boots to her flannel pants which hung a little loose on her body.

The only addition was a long, flowing garment like a lab coat the same starkly white color as Gail’s dress. Underneath, she still wore Abby’s blue jacket with its broken pockets and a dark shirt underneath. The cuffs met the end of her wrists when she moved a hand up to brush at her eyes.

The new girl blinked several times and shook her head before announcing, “I…don’t have long hair….”

Reaching behind her, the girl brought several of her long locks around to see, widened her eyes, and muttered, “Scratch that. Wow, it’s bushy…and it’s everywhere. Geez…”

As the others looked to one another in confusion, the black-haired girl in Abby’s clothes and a lab coat felt around and proclaimed, “I’ve gotta be shorter too. And this is a weird face. This is her face, isn’t it? It feels all…squished inward.”

Nana was the first to step forward and ask, “Who are you? What happened to Gail and Abby?”

The black-haired girl stopped her self-examination with her shoulders and said, “I am Abby. Not sure where Gail is though…”

In her head, the black-haired girl heard a soft, familiar voice say, “I’m here too, Abby. I wasn’t sure what would happen. I’m sorry that your body changed.”

Pointing to her head, Abby announced, “Ah, she’s inside me. Makes sense…oddly enough. And, so far as body stuff, I turn into a boy a lot so this is just a minor issue. Major issue is we have to get out of here right now and stop Iao. Then I can freak out about a dozen things which are in a mental holding pattern in my head. Are you all ready?”

Leaning on her good leg, Arona winced and asked, “How do we know you’re the real Abby and not an imposter?”

Abby narrowed her new eyes and said, “We really don’t have time for this…Plus we are in a place which knows everything so anyone who might try to replace me would have everything they need. But fiiine…”

It took only till Abby got to the names of stuffed animals in Arona’s collection (from the leftovers of having Arona inside her head) that she begged her to stop and admitted, “Alright! You know stuff. Actually…I don’t care if you’re really Abby or not. Can you get us out of here to stop those bastards from destroying everything?“

Black-haired Abby clenched her face, took a long breath, and told her, “I hope so…”

Like they’d done when escaping from the Dark Forest, they all joined hands together. The little voice of Gail inside her head urged her, “Just think of home.”

Shutting her eyes, Abby thought of home.

She thought of the Longbloom house, carefully preserved by her so it would be as Demetrius remembered it when he returned. But she also thought of the cluttered Ward house, a house of life and too much mess. A place of laughter and stories. Of bad days and so many great ones. She tried her hardest to think of Marcus with wide, warm eyes and a smile on his face.

With the first feelings of tears on her new cheeks, Abby thought of home and they all vanished from the room with a slim glow of golden light.


=========


*TO BE CONCLUDED IN ABBY 6: FROM ICE AND FIRE*