Book 5 Chapter 21.5  Draft

Darkness.

Violent and silent darkness.

As far as xant knows there is no way to forcibly join two minds, it takes a gigantic amount of skill to join in the first place. They must be united, calm and accepting of each other, a task he knew impossible. 

They needed to be joined, if it could not be through peaceful means then he would unite them through the rage. He drew in the pain and the rage and made the connection.

He wakes up on the familiar shores of the beach of jasmines subconscious, but there are differences, the stars are constellations he recognises,the ocean is blue instead of black and the sand has fields of red grass.

Jasmine lays beside him asleep, she is wearing the power armour but her hair is long, he goes to wake her up but is interrupted by a voice.

The Lady stands on the shore, looking more human then her avatar previously depicted.

“Let her sleep, let us stay here a little longer…”

“Its beautiful, isnt it? Infinite realities conjured with such little material…” 

The lady waxes philosophical about humans and their dreams, how messy and illogical their bodies are but somehow are able to escape their pain and guilt through these spaces and just how *unfair* that is.

Once she says unfair the human persona begins to shift and the human part stars to decay and the tendrils from her body lead to the massive brain of her actual self, floating above the shoreline. 

Xant instantly turns to wake jasmine up, shaking her and the pair get up and start running from the Lady.

The lady summons shadow servants, jasmine asks what the hell is going on, and Xant replies with some of the lady's ramblings about dreams.

Jasmine has an ‘ah ha’ moment and is able to use dream logic to shift the world around her, she transforms into something imposing and graceful before she starts to summon projectiles that easily destroy the servants, but that only causes the lady to get more irate and she starts to send her own projectiles back towards them.

Jasmine gets hit and realises that the pain is very real. 

They will die here if the lady has her way.

They need to neutralise her before they're killed. 

Jasmine tries to stop the lady, putting her to sleep to paralyse her, trap her somehow, but every failed attempt causes more pain and exhaustion.

Xant gets Jasmine to run with him towards the ocean, she follows him and asks his plan.

Xant takes her hand.

“Forgive me,” (or another call back)


Jasmine wakes up in the bridge, Xant is still asleep, his hand falls away from her face. She screams at him and tries to reconnect but it’s no use. The battle rages on, aralukia and the others are still fighting around her. Jasmine screams for help.


Xant stands on top of the dark waters facing off against the lady. She insults him, calls him a poor imitation of a species long forgotten and a desperate attempt to become what he cannot. She points out in this dream he has human hands.

He looks down at his five fingered hands and back up at the lady.

"Fuck you."

The water beneath them breaks and they fall unto its depths. The lady panics, struggles to swim but her size and weight drag her down. Xant falls too, watching the surface fade. He will stay here, keep the lady in the dream if he has too.

Accepts his fate.


Then a hand reaches out.

Jasmine scoops him up and swims towards the surface, the light.


When he wakes jasmine is crying tears of relief, blood, Red and blue, pouring down the side of her face. His hands have been cut and his nerves forcibly attached. But the battle is over. The lady has been subdued.