DIVA: End of an Era #1

[deucexm]

I started writing a scene I had been meaning to write for some time.  It took an
entirely different direction, and ended up rewriting some very foundational lore
- and in that, I am pleased with it.  It is true to itself and to the
characters, which is ultimately the important part.

Three acts, possibly four.  Please look forward to it.  :)

End of an Era: A DiVerse Alpha Chronicle
by Felix

========

ACT 1

The Goddess of Destruction lay dreaming, and hoped for a better tomorrow.

She knew her time was short, and grew ever shorter.  Even now she could hear the
rest of the Pantheon arguing about the damage she had caused - ah, if she could
only tell them the true architect of all this misery.  But to do that, to open
her mouth, would be to let loose the very Thing she had worked so hard to keep
under control.

Like a parasite this Thing had spread through All Creation, twisting it and
turning it against itself; all of their carefully-laid plans, the cultures they
had nurtured and watched over, sickening and rotting from within, ever so
slowly.  She knew; and somehow, she knew that the Thing itself had evaded
everyone else's notice.  But not hers.  By accident or by stratagem, she could
not tell - but this was no simple opponent, to bring calamity upon the entire
universe.

So she had destroyed the effects of the Thing as best she could.  But that
destruction was not enough; and so she had taken part of the Thing within
herself, trapped it there, and used it as a focus to pull more and more of it
inside with the aid of the Dream.

It wanted out, but she refused it with all her might.  She could feel the
threads of fate tugging on her, and hear the mocking laughter inside her.  It
would be free, it promised her menacingly, one way or another, soon enough...

All Creation was corrupted to the core; the Thing's influence was far too great,
even if it was no longer free.  The Pantheon loved its garden, but it was now
well beyond the point of saving; the slate had to be wiped clean, all things
made new.  Only then could she be /sure/ it would remain free of the Thing and
its baleful designs, whatever they might be.  But the Pantheon would never agree
to this, she knew; certainly not when they already mistrusted her, save for her
beloved.  She would have to take drastic measures, or else see the Temple of
Fortune itself crumble; and that above all else she could not abide.

And so she stood tall in the Dream, still asleep on the couch, and gazed upon
everything one last time.

All the stars in the sky.  All the lights of every individual life.  The cosmos
in all its fullness, even broken and diseased, was still such a beautiful thing.
 "This vista is mine," she whispered, feeling a gentle breeze tugging at the
loose cream-colored toga she wore both here and in the waking world, and the
soft and dewy grass beneath her unshod feet.  "If nothing else, I shall remember
it always."

"It is MINE," hissed a voice, a shadowy copy of her appearing in a pall of
gloom.  "MINE is everything in existence!  MINE ALONE!"

The Goddess shook her head, and lifted a hand to the sky.  "You can never
possess aught without destroying it, o Shadow of mine.  It is your nature, poor,
twisted thing that you are.  But some things should not Be; and if the Dream
must die so that others may live, so that none may ever again meddle with the
deep and secret nature of things-"

She curled her fingers into a fist, slowly.

One by one, the stars began to flicker and fade.

"-then I shall destroy it myself."

The Shadow said nothing, merely glaring sullenly at her.  It had no real power
here, not with her around, and they both knew it.  And so no more was said.

And the stars disappeared until there was not a single light left burning in the
sky, and the rest of the Dream froze over; and in the darkness the Goddess
gripped the cold substance of reality and shattered it, over and over again,
turning planets into dust, dust into tiny particles, particles into empty space,
and space into-

-nothing.

And in the heart of Reality, where the Dream had been, there was naught but the
Goddess of Destruction and her Shadow.

"They'll end you for this," the Shadow finally hissed, after a small eternity
floating in the absence of the Dream.  "They'll end you, and in doing so free
me.  And NOTHING you have done will matter."

The Goddess of Destruction smiled at the uncertainty in the Shadow's voice. 
"They will /try/, perhaps.  But I know them all too well for that; and you - you
and I shall dance for eternity, until someone puts an end to us both.  Someone
/else/."

"... You wouldn't DARE."

"I wouldn't dare /not/ to."

And then, there was nothing at all.