Twenty: Dream Tower

John's limbs felt heavy, weighted down with chains of lead, but he managed to sit up anyway, holding his love tight. He looked around the inside of the Tower, sighing softly when he saw the worn faces of his Infected and his siblings gathered around him or close by. They, too, appeared relieved, as did Epheria and Xo'ar. "Welcome back, Spartan," Xo'ar greeted.

He snorted softly. "I have to say, that trip was certainly better than the first one that brought me here," he growled.

The other Spartans chuckled softly, and some of the Infected laughed outright. Epheria and Xo'ar smiled gently, understanding. Cortana squeezed him tight, then stood up. John followed her a moment later, gaining his feet after a momentary wobble. He triggered a control inside his armor to retract the plates of his helmet, the metal sliding away to float over his shoulders.

His AI smiled up at him, then gasped sharply. "John!"

The Spartan recoiled slightly, startled. Several people moved closer to see what was wrong. There were more sudden inhalations. Venera groped for something reflective, finally laying hands on a polished medical tray and holding it up so he could see.

His eyes were green – a dark, almost sickly hunter green. His pupils were slitted, and there was a thin black ring around the outer edge of his iris that seemed to have tiny black nerves extending out into the whites of his eyes. His eyes were not even the most obvious transformation; from the way the angle of sight had changed, the Spartan could tell that he was closer to seven-and-a-half feet in height, now. His build remained about the same, he assessed as he looked himself over, meaning that he was around four hundred and fifty pounds of augmented and mutated flesh, blood, and bone.

'Thank god the Forerunners figured out how to make the armor change with me centuries ago.'

He returned to examining his appearance, running his fingers along the edge of his jaw. There were small spikes there, the most prominent one where his jaw turned up to join with his skull. There were similar ones on his elbows, shoulders, and knees. 'I've had worse in the encroachments.' He raked his fingers through his green-brown hair, searching for more and drawing attention to his ears.

His now-pointed, green-tipped ears.

"I look like a demonic elf," he growled, and paused, both at the sound of his own voice and the new, sharper canines in his mouth. They were longer and sharper than an ordinary human's, but not long enough to inhibit speech. "Scratch that, I look like a vampire," he snapped, trying to ignore the strange layering in his voice, so like the original Gravemind's.

Something on his back moved. Something that wasn't his spines. He whipped his head around to look over his shoulder, and beheld something that looked like small, vestigial wings with no webbing between the spines. That he could deal with, but – "A tail?! A fucking TAIL?!" It was long and whip-like, with more spines running down it, shortening to stubby spikes as it thinned and ending in two venomous, curved spines that reminded him of a scorpion.

His Infected started howling with laughter at his obvious indignation. Even the Spartans let out a few snorts and chuckles.

"At least you're not a sparkly vampire, Commander."

"Was that supposed to reassure me? Ugh, next thing you know, I'll be getting all kinds of magical powers."

Epheria gasped hopefully from somewhere behind him, anime sparkles reflecting off the tray, making him squint.

"NO."

"Aw, man…"

In the reflection on the tray, he saw the goddess and her brother glide up behind him, and he turned to look at them. Xo'ar put his hands on John's shoulders to steady himself as he stood on his tiptoes to get a closer look. Epheria did the same, and then they both stepped back to glance at one another. They then stepped to either side of him and lifted their hands above their heads, a plane of light forming between their palms. It felt like ice water when they passed the light down through his body.

"Hmm. It looks like your involuntary physical transformations have – well, transformed," Xo'ar said after a moment of silent conversation with his sister. "Your body won't change shape again against your will, but it's safe to say that this is now your base appearance, the one to which you will return if forced out of a shift."

"So – so no more Encroachments, and all I really have to do is wear a trench coat and contacts?"

"Correct."

John's shoulders sagged, and he sighed in relief.

"Oh, one more thing."

"I'm not gonna like this, am I."

"It depends."

"On what?"

"On how you feel about bits from the Shard in the Origin accidentally getting embedded in your nervous system."

"…What?"

"Oh come now, Spartan," Epheria rolled her eyes, "You didn't honestly think that just any old Gravemind could speak to his followers from all the way across the universe, did you? When Corporal Locklear destroyed a Shard in the Origin, there was not enough mass left behind to account for the whole of the crystal, was there? Some of it escaped into Slipspace, yes, but more escaped into you – we're talking subatomic particles, a lot of them, but still subatomic particles," she added, noticing the look on his face, "distributed mostly in your central nervous system – and now in those of your Infected. You'll be able to communicate regardless of how far apart you are, but don't be surprised if it starts doing funny things to you, no matter how small the individual particles are."

"Come on. Am I ever going to catch a break?" he asked, burying his face in Cortana's hair. She hugged him tightly, sensing that his complaining was just a farce even without his presence inside her. She rested her head against his chest plate, looking around at the same time, taking everything in. Her curiosity drew everyone else's attention to the innards of the Tower, the Spartans and Infected seeing for the first time what John had before the Parallel even knew he existed.

The Tower of Eternity was as magnificent as it ever was, filled with myriad colors and stretching upward further beyond what any mortal eye could see. Now that he actually had time to look closely at it, he could see faint shadows here and there, as if there were divots in the sides of the Tower. The material of the structure itself was glowing, playing havoc with his vision and preventing him from really seeing. However, it looked like the divots were deeper than that, extending well away from the structure.

"Confused?"

John turned to look at Xo'ar as the god approached. "A little. What…?"

"Come outside."

The mortals followed the Guardians of the Tower back out the way they came in. The once-glacial environment outside had melted away, revealing a prairie of vibrant green grass that came up to their waists. Many of the stalks were topped with buds that were blossoming even as they watched. Epheria snapped her fingers, and the flowers bloomed as one. They were like nothing they had ever seen before – brilliant, glowing, aqua blue lilies with red anthers so bright they seemed to be tiny LEDs.

John knelt next to a cluster of the flowers and lightly cupped the flower from below. The petals responded to his touch, darkening slightly, even as the anthers brightened even more, making him squint. When he let go, the flower returned to its previous state. A fresh wind stirred the grass, provoking the same reaction from the rest of the flowers.

"They're beautiful," someone whispered, but no one was sure who.

"These are the Life Flowers, so called because they grow by the waters of the three springs that make up the River of Life. But they are not what we brought you out here for. Look up, and tell us what you see."

The hybrid stood and tilted his head back to look up at the night sky. Or, what looked like the night sky. The… moving… night sky?

John sharpened and narrowed his vision, focusing on one spot. The stars were a lot closer here than on Earth or any other planet he'd been on, a lot bigger. 'What…?' The orbs of light… weren't stars at all. He turned his attention to the blackness around the 'stars,' but it… was moving, too? In almost diamond-shaped patterns?

'What…? What? What!?'

And then he realized.

:light:

John's lips parted in surprise.

:sunbeams traveling through the canopy, throwing dappled patterns of light across the forest floor as the wind rustled through the leaves:

He gasped sharply, whipping around to look at the Tower from the outside –

No.

Not a tower.

"Yggdrasil?"

A tree. A simply enormous tree with thick branches extending out for hundreds of feet before disappearing into the canopy of jet-black leaves. The glowing orbs – the fruits – hung from thinner branches high off the ground, but now that he was looking closer – he snapped his helmet back on and activated the zoom on his visor, opening his mind to his Infected and reaching out to the Spartans and Cortana, letting them see what he was seeing. Contained within the fruits were galaxies, many tiny galaxies swirling beautifully on a purple background through the small space.

"Yes. This is the basis for the Yggdrasil legend." Epheria and Xo'ar looked up with them. "But those are not just fruits. They are alternate universes. All of them. Every decision has consequences, and creates a new reality as a result.

"And that, is the Origin. Very aptly named. The 'Parallel' parallel universe is right next to it, a bit to the left – the one with the slightly greenish hue."

They turned to look – and beheld a massive, vaguely apple-shaped universe suspended in the air at a point a few kilometers off the ground. The Tower shrank and split into four support beams that spiraled around the Origin before remerging above it, leaving enough space between the beams to clearly see the universe. The "fruit" was only comparatively large, like a watermelon next to an orange, but it seemed so much larger. The Parallel was, indeed, right next to it – almost conjoined with it, "cantaloupe" sized, and colored faintly viridian.

:…welcome…:

The Spartans weren't nearly as experienced with people talking directly into their minds as the Infected were, and so failed to recognize it for what it was right away. The hive consciousness was another story. All of them straightened out of reflex, their mental shields ready to be lifted, but John could feel no malicious intent. He reached out into the world around them.

For a long moment, he felt nothing but his families and the systems – the input/output zones – in their gear. But as always, his world expanded to include other, slower, organic life after a few minutes. His eyes drifted closed as his mind touched a vast, ancient something – something far more powerful than Epheria or Xo'ar or both of them combined. It was ancient and ageless, wise and dumb, slow and quick, and he could feel it observing him as he observed it.

:… we the Tower… bid you welcome… welcome home…:

The Tower wrapped their minds in the equivalent of a gentle hug, and just as when they were transitioning from the mortal plane to that beyond it, they were one. Everything was exposed among them, but there was no judgment, only acceptance.

No one was sure if it was the Tower or one of their own who turned their attention outward, but outward they turned. It was then that they saw the others. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of other Towers, each with their own Origin and millions upon millions upon millions of Parallels. The tree branches often overlapped, resulting in the blending of various universes – "crossovers," someone supplied – and the "Parallel universe fruits" varied in size from larger than pumpkins to smaller than an orchid seed.

They watched as the souls of Those Who Came Before slipped from the "fruits" like raindrops, falling from high above and making soft "plinking" sounds as they were absorbed into the River of Life. The water of the River and the souls of the deceased were absorbed by the Yggdrasil-like Towers, the water feeding the tree and the souls being purified, wiped of most of their memories as they were drawn up through the roots. They passed up through the trunk and branches, down the stem of one of the fruits and into a new life, a new world. The souls traveled all over, some further than others, some better memory-wiped than others, but rare was the soul who went to the same world twice.

The consciousness of the Tower, its thoughts made of fragments of memory from the souls inside it, let them go a handful at a time, the connection dissolving bit by bit. As they slipped away, they thought they felt something :higher:.It was an indistinct presence, like trying to discern a face through heavily frosted glass. But they knew something – someone – was there, above, on a higher plane, and marveled.

When they were free at last, all of them exhaled at once. "Amazing. Just… amazing."

The god and goddess exchanged glances, smiling faintly. "And now the moment of truth," Epheria said, turning to the hybrid, "We can do this one of two ways, John: we can wipe your memory of the Parallel and return your body to its previous state, or we can send you back and wean you off of the Flood DNA before removing it entirely."

There was a long pause in which John seriously considered their offer. Then, equally serious, he said, "I'm afraid I'll have to decline."

"What?"

The Spartan smirked. "Once you get Infected, you never go back. You're not getting rid of me yet." Cortana, the other Spartans, and he were promptly forced to cover their ears when his zombie army all started cheering at once, the hybrid reaching out to shield his beloved and his brethren from the mental shouts as well.

The guardians looked surprised, taken aback, as the Spartan disappeared under a pile of infected bodies, but then they smiled as one. "His experiences define him," Xo'ar said with a soft chuckle as John managed to squirm free of the dog pile, only to get tackle-hugged by a certain pair of overenthusiastic twins, "And this defines him more than anything. If he had not entered the Parallel, he would be a very different man."

Epheria nodded her assent, still smiling, then stepped forward as the hybrid pried the twins off of him and promptly put the other Spartans between him and his secuaces. "Alrighty then, now it's time for the two most important words until the next two most important words."

"Which are…?"

"'Luke, I am your father?'"

"That's not two words."

"Carpe diem?"

"Already done that."

"Just drive?"

"Done that, too."

"Jiggle physics?"

"What?"

"Ah, my Spartan, still so innocent…"

"No, seriously, I didn't hear what you said."

"…"

"Those aren't it either. No." Epheria sighed and shook her head. She then looked John straight in the eye and said, "Wake up."

**********

A/N: For those of you who don't know, Yggdrasil is the world-tree from Norse mythology, around which the nine realms revolved. The gods held court at the foot of Yggdrasil, and its roots extended to three springs: Urðarbrunnr, Hvergelmir, and Mímisbrunnr. I thought it was appropriate, as the Tower is at the center of the universes.

Also, secuaces: minions, followers. I keep imagining the little yellow minions from Despicable Me.