#autoplot

[abandonedafresh-blog]

> Be overwhelmed and underwhelmed all at once.

Time seems to slow around you, and for once you're not sure if it's just your perception or if you're truly affecting your environment. Jade Harley lies dead at your feet, looking small and pathetic. This is what we spent months hiding from? This is what we were so afraid of? You hadn't expected her to put up so little fight, hadn't expected to win at all. As you watch, she degrades into dust and blows away, surreal as a scene from a movie. She was much too old to exist without the sustaining time powers. 

You wish her a mental farewell, but even as you do you can feel the change. The one you weren't warned about. You weren't in the foyer meeting. You've never known the handmaid. You weren't expecting this at all. 

You drop to your knees, hands clutching your head as the knowledge of everything that ever was is forced into it, power crackling like electrictity through your veins, eyes flashing whites and yellows and purples. 

And the the voice, his voice in your head, orders to kill and tear apart. 

[eviternalencatenation-blog]

A simple recruitment job.

Now it is just between the Handmaid and Aradia Megido.

It is as if all else disappears and falls away, leaving an almost serene atmosphere.  Both of them know, now, the vagaries of time splaying themselves open to be plainly understood, the circumstantial simultaneity of this event playing over and over in their heads like the time loop that it is.

The Handmaid will enlist the Eternal Servant, extending the same bargain once offered to her.  It will be the sort involving neither negotiation nor possibility of refusal, expressed in terms plainly understood by the doomed Maid. The Eternal Servant, as thenceforth shall she be known, will once again manipulate timelines in a way the Witch of Space could not, and she will serve as her new master's maid, carrying out his work in places he cannot reach.

The two remaining combatants in the fray, surveying both Space and Time, will make each other pay for the crimes against their friends.  Their payment will be mutually dealt in the currency of punishment and reward at once. The Servant will be rewarded with the power and immortality her new service entails, and punished by the grueling slavery for which it is synonymous. And the Handmaid, in turn, is to be punished by death at the hands of her replacement. And so too will this be her reward.

And thus carried out is the tale of the Demoness in human form.

The timepiece and its great pendulum strike their final movement, and the Handmaid falls.

Long live the Handmaid.

[abandonedafresh-blog]

==>

"You're the brave one around here," you reply. "I'm just doing what I have to. I know you'll take care of everyone." You almost kiss Kanaya's cheek, but something about it just doesn't seem right, so you settle for squeezing her hand. 

And then you're zooming out the door, equipping the mascarachete as you go. You can't really tell if you're running or flying or some weird combination of the two, but the point is you're heading straight for Jade, straight for certain death no matter how this turns out, at as high a speed as you can. 

You see no point in drawing this out, and swing the blade at her throat the moment you're close enough.

[abandonedafresh-blog]

And just where have you been all this time young lady? There's no excuse for such inactivity. 

You've been here all this time, keeping a close eye on Equius, Rose, and Terezi, ready to intervene if it became apparent they couldn't handle things. Realistically, you probably could have thrown up some runes and not been noticed amongst the dozen other short haired Aradias, bit underestimating Jade is the last thing you want to do. 

You know you're here to die, that you're the closest thing they have to a secret weapon and you know if you come in too early it could spell everyone's destruction.

Something clicks in your head, some innate sense of timing. Psionics and an old whip won't do for this, you realize. You seek out Kanaya in the foyer (and you force yourself not to dwell on the fate of her alternate, a body lying prone on the floor glanced at from a distance, that's what you're here to prevent) and ask, somewhat urgently, "Kanaya, I need to borrow a weapon."

[indigenceinexcusable]

==>

She's faltering now, and it doesn't matter whether it's a result of your efforts or something larger. All that matters is beating her.

Bolts fly from your crossbow, and you hope beyond hope that one of them will strike true. All you need is to see them strike, hear the impact, watch her fall--

It's fruitless, you can tell.

With a deep breath, you concentrate, calling on the powers that Rose showed you. You've let the Void guide you through this fight. Now, you have to make one demand of it.

It gleefully obliges.

Your body fades away, overcome by darkness, and your eyes glow a fearsome yellow. Opaque and translucent at once, you've reached the limits of your power.

You are the dark made manifest, the Heir of Void, and you charge to tackle the Handmaid then.

[eviternalencatenation-blog]

==>

You miss.

You miss.

The Void has drawn Equius away, making it impossible for you to strike him when you need it most.

Without the advantage of Time on your side—Aradia's constant temporal twelvefold distortion makes any attempt to leverage it somewhat useless—you're left with only Space.

And now Space is failing you in the face of Void.

The battle is at a standstill, and continues unabated for what seems like eons.

And then, critically, Caliborn's disgust with your work escalates to the point where he decides that perhaps allowing one of your aggressors to kill you might be the best plan.

Someone with dominion over Space had its advantages, he reasons, but this Handmaid's control over time had never really been up to his expectations.

[indigenceinexcusable]

==>

She fires, and you feel like you've been dipped in magma. The proximity of the blast nips at your clothes, licks your skin--

--but the Void doesn't falter, and it pulls you away from the scene.

You make a note to thank Rose for the books she gave you.

The darkness of the Void begins to replenish your strength, but as you push to bring yourself back to the fight, there's resistance. You hear whispers of concern, of fear; if you continue, you may never come back.

You ignore them.

You find yourself crouching in the desert again, crossbow at the ready.

[eviternalencatenation-blog]

==>

With a mighty and noble DOOF, you get an Equius moving at full tilt to your side, and fall over gracelessly, careening into the desert sand.

With an inhuman growl, followed by a banshee-shriek, you take both needles and fire them both in the same direction, straight towards Equius, the high-pressure crackle quadrupling in size when the two beams meet halfway.