Phase One

Morpheus P.O.V.

There was something special about this girl. She may be a mere human but her incell DNA truly makes her a wonderful work of art. She hasn't even achieved the strength that sleeps within her. If only she could realize just how special and strong she truly is. 

This human girl was the only survivor for a reason little does she know there is a great destiny already laid out for her, a destiny where she will stop all this chaos and stop the reptilian bastard once and for all. I just have to get her to reach her potential. 

She looks once more at me before she goes through the portal. Her voice drifts outward towards me before the bright light that illuminates the night sky. 

"Wait before I go in, I haven't gotten your name, if I may be too bold to ask?" 

Her question draws me in and I soften my gaze looking at her as the beams of light dance on her face. 

"Morpheus, " I replied, and with a flick of my wrist, I sent her fully on her way to the other side. 

Now her journey through the bridge will begin. Keeping her in the balance between the dream world and the physical world. 

Emily's P.O.V.

'Morpheus' his name played again and again through my mind. I couldn't help but think that his name sounded familiar to me. It nagged at me relentlessly until I finally decided to tune the thought of his name from my mind. 

Looking around there were no walls, no ceiling, not even a floor. This was a literal empty space that seemed endless. I looked to my left and there was nothing, I turned my head to the right, and behind me all the same result.  'Where the fuck am I?'

I could feel my heart begin to race as panic was setting in. Great just freaking great, I am out of one hell hole and into another. Just want to go back to my friends, back to Z.

The thought of her name made my heart skip a bit and a breath got caught in my chest. 'Oh Z, what she must be feeling right now. I hope she is okay, ' I think to myself. Crossing my arms I begin to start walking forward one foot in front of the other. 

I figured I had nothing to lose, either I walked or stood in one spot utterly decreasing the chance I get to go back home. 

'How do I get out of here?' I think to myself as I keep up my pace. 

"Face your fears, " I hear the same scratchy voice behind me. His voice is almost like a whisper. 

"What is that supposed to mean? I thought when you said I would have to face them that they would literally be popping up in front of me!" I shouted back frustration in my voice. 

"I told you I would help guide you, so that is what I will do, the rest is strictly up to you. I will help you with this one simply to be nice, after that you're on your own girl." He snaps back at me.

I roll my eyes but stay silent. I really don't have any other choice and I don't find it wise to argue with the one person I have that can help me. After a brief moment, Morpheus continues.

"Now to put this simply for you, when I say face your fears it is just that facing them. This room is void of anything physical, any walls, roofs, flooring, items around you. All of it is gone, this room is your blank canvas." 

I look around soaking in his words as they flutter through the air towards me.  It's starting to make sense to me. 

" I want you to close your eyes and remember. You need to remember any time you were afraid, any pain you felt, any negative heart-wrenching emotion. You need to feel it all, and face it all."  His voice echoed and faded away. 

Now it was just back to me and my loneliness, my thoughts. I let out a sigh exhaling through my nose. 'Alright Emily it's now or never.' I sit down , crossing my legs indian style and try my best to focus. Inhaling through my nose and exhaling out my mouth. I can feel my body relaxing. All the tension subsides. 

"Emily, where are you? Where did you go?" I open my eyes? I know that voice. I stand on my feet. 

"Dad?!" I cry out. I can feel the tears build in my eyes threatening to run over. "Dad I am here, I'm right here." My voice is breaking. 

I keep looking around and all I see is emptiness. Until I feel a strong warm hand on my shoulder. Pausing for a moment I slowly allow myself to turn my head slightly. And there in front of me is my father. 

His warm smile greets me and his emerald green eyes look at me tenderly. It is him, my own father. I haven't seen him since the day I went into the pod. The day our lives changed and our world was taken from us. 

"I missed you so much dad." I say giving him a hug. 

" I missed you too." He replied back. 

And then as quick as he came back to me he began to crumble into ash. His hands and arms crumbled beneath me, the rest of him quickly followed, turning into a big pile of ash. My heart ached and a sickening feeling hit me in the stomach. There I was facing his loss all over again. The wound that had healed and scarred over was now wide open and bleeding. 

"Bullshit!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I was hurting all over again and that quickly turned into anger. I cursed a thousand times under my breath. What kind of shit is that? To have my father back only for him to be ripped away from me once more. 

I don't know how much time has passed. It was difficult to manage what time or day it was here. There was no way to differentiate between morning and night. If it was minutes or hours that had passed. It was all just a big jumbled up mess. 

I sat with my knees to my chest resting my chin upon them. I felt broken. My will to move forward to keep pushing had diminished. I might as well face it there really was nothing left for me in 3034. Everyone has changed, and humans are obsolete. I have no one left.

Morpheus P.O.V 

It seems the will of the girl is quite brittle. She definitely has never come to terms with the loss of her family. The loss of her father. I wonder if maybe seeing her mother again would lift her spirits? 

I willed for her mother to go and greet her and soon she appeared on the bridge. The girl was still sitting knees to chest and her emotions seemed cold. Hopefully, this does give her a little boost.  

"Hello Emily, " her mother spoke softly. 

Emily picked her head up in a hurry and her eyes went wide as saucers. She was speechless, her mouth hanging open. 

"M-mom" she stuttered out. 

"Hi baby girl, " she said gently, placing her arms around her. 

" Mom, what are you doing here?" She replied pulling back to get a better look. 

" To help you of course dear, " she smiled. 

"How?" Emily asked puzzled. 

" To show you that you are not alone, you never have been. Your father and I have always been with you. And even now we are with you. Emily, you must face your pain and go back to your friends, you must go back and stop Solarious." 

" You know about him?" She asked as her eyes went wider. 

Her mother nodded her head. 

"I want you to focus now. It is going to hurt,  but no matter what you must go through it all to come out better and stronger." 

Emily did as her mother said and refocused her energy. I could see the anguish on her face as she held her eyes closed and her fist became together and tighter. 

To say I was impressed by her new found determination is a huge understatement. Surely, I thought this girl was special but she far exceeded those expectations. 

.

Emily's P.O.V.

I did as my mother said, I refocused every bit of myself back on to the task at hand. Everything replayed in my mind as some quick fast forwarding movie. I could see my death the time I was kidnapped. It all felt really, as if it was happening to me again. The torture, the life that left my body. The coldness and darkness that had consumed me. All of it came crashing back into me. 

I started to feel my knees grow weak. The weight of every painful memory hit me one after another. Someone might as well should've been throwing bricks at me. 

" Don't stop Emily, keep going." My mother said, placing her hands on my shoulders. 

"It hurts mom." Gasped. 

"I know my sweet girl, but you must keep going, you can do it." 

The memory of when I thought I had lost Z hit me next. It flashed little snippets jumping all around playing images as if I was watching on a projector. Soon after came Roland. Everything passed in an instant. I was there next to him the day he died. That explosion that engulfed him in flames and sent me flying backwards. 

I saw his body being consumed, it looked as his skin began to melt and turn black. Slowly being torn away like paper to a flame. His screams calling out for help and in agony until finally life left him. 

I still feel guilty that I didn't do anything more to help him. That I was right there next to him and all I managed was a few cuts and bruises while Roland lost his life enduring the torture that came with it.  There is so much that I wish I could do and say but I can't. 

"You're right you can't. Move on, you can't change things and I don't blame you. Emily you must let go. Fight Solarious, bring him down." I heard Roland's voice speaking to me. Next thing I know he is right there in front of me. 

"Roland?" I whisper as my eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing. 

"Emily, you must not hold on to that pain and guilt. It isn't your fault and there was nothing you could've done. Please let me go and remember me for the brilliant man I was, not for the way I died." He placed his hand on my shoulder and kissed my forehead before vanishing. 

His words made me feel lighter than I have in a long time. A high aching weight lifted off of me. And with it some of the heartache and pain I had been feeling. 

"Thank you" I spoke softly, bowing my head for a moment. 

Hearing Rolands words, dream or not, it brought me comfort and some peace of mind. With a sigh I opened my eyes once more, my mothers presence had diminished as well as all the memories of the almost whole year. 

"What's next?" I asked aloud, waiting for Morpheus to reply. 

"That was phase one, you managed to clear some troubling memories and pain from your soul and find peace. Now you have to make peace with your destiny."  His voice echoed. 

"My destiny?" I responded confused at what he meant. 

Morpheus P.O.V.

Emily was truly magnificent, she had managed to successfully complete the first phase of her journey. I wasn't expecting her to be able to do it so well and at that being able to have her mother stay longer to give her strength through the ordeal. And at the same time coming to terms with the death of Roland. 

This girl is truly the one sent to kill Solarious and bring peace to the galaxies. Oh great fates you have truly chosen wisely with this one. 

I hear her call out to me what was next. Now, she is ready for phase two and I can see the fire and determination in her eyes. This is going well and what she really needed. However, was she ready for the second phase? Here she must face her future. 

"Yes Emily, your destiny. It is time for you to realize and accept what it is and what is to come. Are you ready?"

She looked around the area trying to locate me. Her expression remained confused but focused. I could sense a hint of doubt coming from her. Doubt was not a good sign. If she was to have a chance at surviving this phase and being released from here, she would need to go in calm, focused and confident.

"Don't diminish your determination. Bring that fire I saw moments ago back to your eyes. You must shed all doubt Emily. All of it or you will perish."  I may sound stern but she needed to know. And I wasn't going to sugarcoat it. 

Emily closed her eyes and clenched her fists. Her knuckles turned white with how tight she maintained them. That's good she has brought the fire back. 

"Alright Emily, prepare yourself."  

Nicole P.O.V.

Adkins placed my sister on the hospital cot. I began to hook her up to oxygen and started to run a complete scan of her to see what damage had been done. We are not your ordinary cyborg. While some parts of us are circuits and wires other parts of our body are not. We still have a flesh heart beat, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, and brain. Along with many other vital organs. We may not have many bones but we do have some in our arms and legs. 

In her condition I would say if the scan reads that nothing major was damaged that would be a miracle. Z was one to always have control and the fact she lost it like this just shows how much Emily being away has affected her. 

Oh Z. I thought to myself. Both of my friends we're going through so much and there was little I could do to help them. And now my sister has become a casualty of all this chaos. I can't help but feel some anger towards Z. And yet another part of me couldn't help but feel bad for her.  All the pain she must be feeling. Even now, dealing with the possibility that my sister may never come back to me, I was still worried for the two of them. 

I wonder if this was normal for someone like me to feel this way. I have never thought caring for another would have this much of an impact on me. My sister is by a program where we have a bond. But, it has never been known for a cyborg to feel or express such feelings. That is truly intriguing or at least to me it is. 

Shaking my head I refocus back to the task at hand. With hurried hands General Adkins and I rushed around the room gathering any and all materials we would need in case the worst was to come. 

It felt like hours for the scan to complete even though it was mere minutes. Finally the robotic voice had confirmed the scan was completed and displayed the results. 

My head hung low and I could feel this watery substance everyone called tears form in my eyes. The news wasn't good and at this point I am unsure what to do. 

Natasha was suffering from a collapsed lung. Brain damage and has a hole in her heart. Right now all that was keeping her alive was the circuitry that ran throughout her body. 

"We can fix this." General Adkins said, bringing me into a tight embrace. 

I stayed silent looking at my sister and back to the monitor. He said it could be fixed that Natasha could be fixed. But how can you fix something when you don't know how. 

"I don't think it can be done. I don't think she can be saved. The damage….its… too much. We found her too late." My voice was shaky and my eyes remained low avoiding him. 

" I'll worry about that, you need to focus, find the wolfsbane in the herbal garden across the courtyard and outside the palace walls." He placed a hand on my shoulder. 

I didn't move, I couldn't move, I felt sadness in my heart and rage in my head. How could she do this to a friend? A friend that was trying to help her, a friend that wanted nothing more than to be there for her. 

"Nicole, " He said, shaking me from my thoughts. 

Looking at him he continued.

" Look, I know it's hard right now but I need you to focus. Z isn't herself and if we don't stop her soon there won't be anyone to save. I need you to do your best and shake it off just for now. I know it's hard but I can't do all this without you."

He was right, there would be time for anger and sadness later. Right now Z needs to be stopped. So, I cleared my mind and exhaled. 

"I'll be back." I said running out of the room and down towards the courtyard just as he had said.