A horrible ringing echoed through the numbing darkness as a flicker of thought ignited within a dormant mind. What had happened…? Light began to fade in and out as she struggled to open her eyes, unable to see anything except a grey blur. Everything was aching, as if she had just fought in a fierce battle, but… she couldn’t remember anything.  Scrunching up her face, she pressed the heels of her hands against her temples and shut her eyes, “Focus, Sapphiria… Focus.” Taking a deep breath as she gave her body a second to awaken, she reopened her eyes.

                Much to her surprise, the grey blur had been fairly accurate. She was situated at the center of a strangely sterile and metallic room, blinking lights that almost looked like indicators shining in the seams of the plating. Frowning in confusion, she began to look up but flinched from the blinding light shining from behind a pane of glass. It was hard for her to tell, but… it almost looked like it was an electrical light. Who would use electricity for light when star stones were… A hint of dread settled over her as she looked around uncertainly. Where was she?

                Cautiously stretching her back, she began to push herself up but paused as she noticed her chair. Like the walls, the chair was mostly metal, but it wasn’t the decorative kind she was familiar with. Running her fingers over the suspiciously thick, metal armrests, she glanced at the table in front of her. Like the chair, it was thick and mostly barren save for the illuminated panel covered in strange symbols. The panel reminded her of the control panel in her workshop, but if this was a workshop, then why had she never seen it, and… why was it more advanced than her own?

                Closing her eyes, she rested her face in her hands as she struggled to remember anything. She vaguely recalled a banquet, but… she had been surrounded by friends and loved ones, certainly not a suggestion of where she was now. Sometime afterward, she had been traveling to… Mercanta, but why? She had been there shopping… for something special. It had been a gift, a present for… but that definitely didn’t have anything to do with where she was…

                Shaking it from her head, she took a slow breath and focused on the very last thing she could remember. Bright blue sky shone overhead as birds chirped. She had been sitting on a terrace enjoying the morning alongside… her mentor. They had been talking about the future when… Everything went black… Her brow furrowed slightly. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t remember anything past that point. Whatever had happened afterwards absolutely had to do with where she was now, but… how could a morning with her mentor, someone she trusted with her life, lead to where she was now?

                Feeling the faintest hints of anxiety, she shivered nervously as she glanced around once more. Suddenly, she froze. Printed on one of the walls was a series of symbols, but despite her knowledge of their language’s history… she couldn’t place them. The top symbol was a circle with a line curling off its top, the one below it being two stacked circles, and the final nothing more than a vertical line. Trepidation entered her heart as she studied them. How could there be symbols she didn’t recognize after all she had learned? If she had forgotten them, then Atom surely would…

                All her thoughts came to a screeching halt. “Atom?” she said in sudden panic as her gaze shot to her empty shoulder. Completely forgetting about her strange predicament, she dropped to her knees and frantically searched. “Atom! Where are you?!” Fear swirled in her heart as she stood and looked around. Atom never, EVER left her side! What had happened to her friend?!

                “K-Kaden?” she called out fearfully as she slowly sat back down. “Atom? Can anyone hear me?!” She turned her large ears, straining to pick up even the faintest sound, but all she could detect was an ever-present humming. “Is… is this a test?” Waiting a moment, she slowly hugged herself fearfully, “I-if it is… I don’t want to do this anymore!”

                A cold feeling gripped her heart as silence answered her. “T-think logically… this… this has to be a test! After all, it’s… it’s the council, right! They… They wouldn’t…” Blazing, orange light flashed through her mind. “Or… or a dream!” Sapphiria said desperately as she clutched her head. “That’s it! It has to be…”

                “Hurry, Sapphiria! There might still be enough time!” a familiar voice shouted as the air quaked.

                “A… A nightmare, maybe?” Sapphiria whimpered, pulling down on her ears as her heart wrenched. Screams danced in her ears as flames roared around her, Sapphiria struggling with all her might to deny the memories slowly returning to her, “It can’t… It can’t be real! This has to be a nightmare! I have to wake up!” Breathily shakily, she whimpered with all the pain in her heart, “Please… Please don’t be gone… I can’t… I can’t be alone… not again…”

                Sapphiria suddenly shot bolt upright as a click echoed around the room. As much as she wanted it to be, that sound hadn’t been her imagination, which meant… she wasn’t alone, but who- All her thoughts came to a screeching halt as a voice broke the silence. Although she could recognize that someone was speaking… whatever they were saying was gibberish! The voice babbled on somewhere behind her, but try as she might, she couldn’t make out a single word. Fear gripped her heart as her thoughts raced. Where in the world was she?!

                A fresh wave of fear rolled through her as footsteps punctuated the air in her direction. Swallowing hard, she quickly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Slowly, a wave of calm passed over her as she did her best to appear like the professional she was supposed to be. Until she knew what was going on, there was no sense in panicking. Exhaling slowly, she sat up straighter and looked to her right as the footsteps closed in. Motion suddenly caught her eye.

                All thoughts of professionalism vanished as Sapphiria reeled in absolute shock. Fear and confusion swept through her as she struggled to understand what she was looking at, but… her mind had completely stopped. In all her years, she had never once seen anything like the creature now standing before her, its arms crossed as it stared down at her.

                Like herself, the creature was bipedal, but that was where any similarity ended. To her slight disgust, the creature was completely furless, seemed to be roughly a foot shorter than herself, perhaps six feet tall, and had no tails! Both of its ears were ridiculously small, but what disturbed her most was the creature’s horribly distorted face, only possessing a ridiculously angulated nose. It almost looked like an automaton made of flesh, but… it was so much more disturbing!

                Her eyes darted back and forth while her mind raced. She was thinking back on everything she had seen or read, but no resemblance came to mind. It was nothing like anything that had ever been recorded by her people! Was this actually a nightmare? Had something caused her mind to snap? As desperately as she wanted it to be true, she had a very, very bad feeling that this was real…

                Taking a deep breath, her eyes darted down as she noticed its clothing. Instead of a robe, it wore what looked like a dark suit with a white shirt underneath and a red tie hanging from its neck. While it wore shoes, they looked like leather, something her people had never… Her heart stopped as a thought suddenly occurred to her. If this creature was unlike any on her world and possessed its own culture, then… was… was it not from her world?

                With wide eyes, she looked back up at the creature’s face as it began to speak again, none of its words making any sense to her, but there was one thing she did understand. Within its eyes, she could see something she was all too familiar with. Between its confident smirk and the venom in its eyes, it was clear that this creature held nothing but contempt for her. She took a shaky breath as she tried to think logically. She had to figure out some way to make sense of all of this, otherwise she would never find out what had happened.

                Briefly considering her options, she closed her eyes and drew on all her courage. “I… I can’t understand you,” she said, offering the creature a smile. Her smile faltered as the creature cut off, a scowl instantly touching its face. Clearly her attempt to speak had angered it, but what choice did she have?!  “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me… I don’t speak your-“

                Sapphiria recoiled in stunned fear as the creature suddenly began to shout in fury. What had she done to anger it?! Surely it understood that she couldn’t understand it! “Please!” she exclaimed desperately. “I don’t understand what’s going on! Why am I here?! Where are my friends?! Where is-“

                A dull crack suddenly echoed around the room. Sapphiria yelped as her head was whipped to the side, her eyes watering as pain flared through her cheek. Slowly, she clutched her head as tears began to stream down her face, but they weren’t tears of pain. Memories began to swarm her mind as she struggled to grasp her situation. Where was she? Where were the people she loved?! What had happened to everyone?!

              Breathing shakily, she looked up in fear. The creature grumbled as it stared at her with disgust, shaking its hand as if it had hurt itself. Without warning, it began to shout and growl, pacing away from the table as it began a theatrical tirade. Its voice grew louder with frustration, the creature gesturing at her as if it couldn’t believe something that she had done. Suddenly, it stopped, as if something had just dawned on it. Emitting an exasperated snort, it finally rolled its eyes and stomped past her without another word. With a click, silence descended on her once again, but it was more than she could bear.

                Gripping the sides of her head, she shut her eyes and began to cry. Although she knew she was supposed to be stronger, she was terrified. Her mind was full of horrors she couldn’t understand, and nothing made any sense! The last thing she could remember was sitting at home with everything going right in her life, and now… now she was terrified that something horrible had happened to all the people she loved. Hunching over, she shivered as she wrapped her tails around herself. Once again, she was completely alone…

                “Atom…” she whispered, “Where are you?”

——————————————————————————————————————————————-——————-

                Grass flattened beneath her knees as she frantically collected her fallen scrolls, mentally tallying them as she tried to keep from panicking. They had been so close to being home free! What had happened?! Shoving the last one into her bag, she paused before sucking in a breath of terror. One was missing! Beginning to look around in panic, she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw it. Taking a moment to calm down, she reached out. A red furred foot suddenly stomped on it. Sapphiria winced as the foot turned back and forth, squishing her scroll into the grass. Now she was in trouble…

                “Why are you still here?” a voice hissed. “You know you don’t belong, freak.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, she gazed up at the figure looming over her. His massive arms were crossed over his chest, thick muscles bulging beneath his vest while a cold wind caused his crimson tails to drift. Like herself, he was a Krysheek, but unlike her, he was considered normal. His fur was a common color, he had a normal number of tails, and his ears were short and perky, exactly the way a Krysheek was supposed to be…

                “You’re lucky you’re protected here,” he growled in disgust. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t hesitate to incinerate every single one of your stupid scrolls.”

                The Krysheek, her people, were an ancient race with a rich history, but their most defining trait was their powers. Each Krysheek was born with innate abilities that gave them control over other worldly forces. Some could control the flow of wind or light while others could craft telekinetic weaponry and move mountains. In the case of the individual standing over her, his powers, unfortunately, matched his hot-headed personality.

                Glancing at her scroll, she sighed and frowned up at him tiredly, “And what have I done to earn your ire, Hinaro?”

                Hinaro chuckled, “It’s simple. You exist.”

                She flinched as a sad frown settled onto her face. To the near entirety of her people, she was a freak. The Krysheek were a bipedal race closely resembling foxes or wolves and could come in almost any color, but there was one color that had always escaped them.

                Wind rustled her blue fur as she self-consciously rubbed her hands. In the expansive history of her people, a blue Krysheek had never been born. Because tradition hadn’t accounted for her, her people saw her as a mutation instead of as the missing link to their colorful heritage. Additionally, she had seven white-tipped tails instead of the normal two or three, and she had very, very large ears. Because of her strange characteristics, her people treated her like an outcast, a resentment she was reminded of every single day…

                One of her tails looped around her waist anxiously as she regarded him as calmly as she could, “You’ve made your point, Hinaro. Can’t you go and bother someone else?”

                “Why should I?” he huffed. “Everyone else is normal. Why don’t you do us all a favor and leave? Something like you doesn’t belong here!”

                “I have as much of a right as you! I proved that I deserved to be chosen, just like everyone else!”

                “Don’t kid yourself. Everybody knows you cheated.”

               “What are you talking about?” she asked suspiciously.

               “I heard all about it,” he sneered. “Instead of accepting that you don’t have powers, you decided to further spit in the face of our traditions and had someone build you a swarm of automatons which you then passed off as your own. There’s simply no way that a backwards mutant could ever pull off something like that!”

                Cold fury wormed its way through her. Engineering was the only thing she was an expert at! This was one insult she couldn’t ignore. Narrowing her eyes, she pushed herself up and met his hateful stare, “I’ve spent my whole life honing my engineering skills, and I spent the better part of a year building each of those insects with my own two hands! Forgive me if you feel insulted! Maybe you should have spent more time in the library instead of adding muscle mass!” She instantly clamped her mouth shut as she realized what she had said.

                Flames ignited in his eyes, “You dare speak to me like that, freak?! I’ll show you!” Before he could step towards her, Hinaro yelped as a rock smashed into the back of his head, knocking him onto one knee as he doubled over. A frown settled onto her face as she briefly wondered how else the exchange could have ended before looking up at the small, mechanical object descending from the sky.

                “Forgive me for interrupting,” the mechanical bird chuckled as it alighted on her shoulder. “But last I checked, attacking others wasn’t very civilized, but perhaps you simply lack the intelligence to grasp the concept of decency.”

                A smile crossed her face as she glanced at the little bird. As a child, her differences had prevented her from spending time with other children, so she had put that spare time into becoming an engineer! Atom had been the very first automaton she had ever built and had been at her side for many years now, and remained her closest, and only, friend. “I was beginning to wonder if you had left me here.”

                He offered her a cheeky grin, “Sorry! It took me a while to find a rock big enough to pierce his thick skull!”  

                “YOU INFURIATING FREAK!” Hinaro roared, making her jump as flames erupted across his shoulders. “I’ve had enough of your insults,” he snarled, Sapphiria stepping back fearfully as the air sizzled. “You, and that pathetic machine of yours, will burn!”

                Flames roared down his arms as he threw them forward and launched bolts of white-hot fire. “Atom!” Without thinking about herself, she scooped him off her shoulder and spun around, holding him tightly to protect him from the seething flames. Regrets flashed through her mind as she shut her eyes, but… nothing happened. After a few moments, she cautiously opened her eyes. Why was she not a smoldering crisp? “Atom? Are we still alive?”

                “Somehow, but I don’t…” His eyes were wide as he stared past her, “You need to see this.”

                Hesitating from the red glow reflecting in his eyes, she turned around. Her jaw dropped. A rippling wall of flames burned not more than a foot from her, but an invisible force held it back. Atom flew up to her shoulder and tapped his beak as he studied the peculiar sight, “It would appear that someone is interfering with his attack.”

              “But who?” she asked in amazement as the wall of flames began to die out. “There isn’t a single person here that would fight on my behalf…”

                 An infuriated Hinaro reappeared as the flames spluttered out, his fury hardly quenched. Locking his eyes on her, he roared and charged as flames streamed around him. Sapphiria cried out and threw her arms up as he leapt towards her, but he suddenly came to an abrupt stop midair, prompting him to look around in confusion. Without warning, a gust of wind sent him flying backwards into a wall with a resonating boom, dust raining down as he slumped to the ground. Shaking his head, he looked up with a snarl. Looking past her, his momentary look of surprise quickly turned into abject terror.

                “Archon!?!” he said with a tremor in his voice.

                She gasped and spun around.

——————————————————————————————————————————————-——————-

                Sapphiria’s eyes flew open as she shot upright. She breathed heavily, her heart pounding like a gong as she slowly processed her surroundings. Blinking a few times, she finally groaned and slumped back in her chair. As rough as that had been, nightmares were something that she was getting used to. Both sequences she had just experienced had been memories from her past, and they had been so vivid this time that she wasn’t sure if she was back in reality, or trapped in a third nightmare…

                Groaning tiredly, she rubbed her eyes furiously before looking around. As she had been before falling asleep, she was sitting on the bridge of her prototype frigate. Composed of two levels, the bridge was divided between command and logistics with the ornate captain’s chair at the center of the upper level, but for now, it was her chair. Arranged before her was a row of unmanned consoles that would eventually house the crew needed to operate the colossal vessel while the level below them housed the bulk of the monitoring stations. Despite all the room, she was the only one on the entire ship. Well, technically…

              “That one sounded bad,” a familiar voice echoed.

                “They were just the usual nightmares,” she grumbled, her armor gleaming. Ceremonial in appearance, her armor lacked the bulk seen in the rest of her work. Possessing shelled shoulders and a more organic flow, its most eye-catching detail was the metallic draping around her waist, a protective barrier that could block projectiles, but what made her suit truly special was the machinium it was made from, a normally scarce metal more durable than other known metal. Normally, her suit would cover her entirely, but she’d left her gloves and helmet off this time.    

                Frowning in thought, she closed her eyes, “One was back at the Sanctum with… It doesn’t matter. At least I don’t have to see it now.”

                “Maybe we should develop a sleeping gas,” the voice chuckled, a panel above her sliding open. A monitor slid out and hovered in the air, lights briefly flashing along its sides before a glowing, mechanical, sapphire eye illuminated the screen. Numerous components spun and shifted as it focused on her, “Or I could just bludgeon you over the head with a frying pan! Which would you prefer?”

                “Neither,” she grinned tiredly. “What I want is for the nightmares to end. Falling asleep doesn’t do me any good when they make it impossible to rest.”