Asha'rah could not recall any time she had ever been so overwhelmed in her own mind. Wait, there was that time...no, that was a new memory. Or was it an old one? When was this? Asha'rah found herself even more grateful than she was each day for her time with the Kame monks. Awash as her mind was, decades of mental training compelled her to find her center, to allow her consciousness to rise and fall with the currents while remaining anchored to a fixed point deep in her core. It was easier said than done. Time and again her will broke, and she found herself lost and drowning in memory, losing all sense of past, present and future. Yet she reached out each time, more by instinct than reason, and anchored herself to her own center to keep weathering the storm.
But it wasn't enough to merely go on and pretend as if nothing had happened. Something had changed irrevocably within Asha'rah, and she would have to face it, process it. She picked out a memory, and
lived that moment once more. Around Asha'rah and Meagan, the scenery changed. They saw the world through Asha'rah's eyes, as she had experienced them. The sky was black with ash, spewed forth from miles-long rents in the ground. Remains of mountain ranges lay strewn across the landscape. What remained of an ocean boiled into the sky, mixing with the ash to create giant storms of acid rain and thunder. A parting in the clouds, recently made from an energy blast of some sort, revealed shattered celestial bodies across the sky, and the sun wavered and writhed from an unseen mortal wound.
Across the battlefield floated a Saiyan warrior, crackling with strange energies. He was not without injury, but stood resolute in the face of Asha'rah.
"Your rebellion must be punished," He said, his voice reverberating with power, "but I'll say it again. Surrender, and I shall plead to Zeno-sama to show you mercy. Fight on, and only utter Destruction awaits you."
Asha'rah laughed, sorrow and resolve balanced in each note.
"I hoped that you would join me, Indar'en, but I knew that you would not. No matter how far you came, you always remained loyal to power. And who has more power than Zeno? None may stand against him."
The Saiyan spread his arms, exasperated.
"Then why-"
"Because I choose to! Because I allowed Zeno's will to override my own, and laid a deeply flawed foundation that has already inflicted untold death and suffering that never needed to come to pass. How many times have we spoken of this? You know well my discontent."
Asha'rah, the version of her in the vision, raised a shimmering fist, also bearing injury. This fight had already gone on for some time.
"I shall fight for this universe, and perhaps my rebellion will reach Zeno where words alone could not."
Indar'en narrowed his eyes and assumed a fighting stance.
"You will fail, and all shall suffer for your impertinence. To think I once looked up to you."
Indar'en charged forth. Fist met parry, and the sheer force of their strikes split the earth beneath them. The Saiyan charged a sphere of dark energy, shimmering in a spectrum betwen violet and obsidian. Asha'rah met it with an orb of golden light, the meeting of opposing forces stirring up a maelstrom as reality itself bent and twisted around them. They remain deadlocked for several moments. Then a rumbling from beneath them, and as Indar'en turned to look, a blinding light burst from the planet's core, washing away his aura in a wave of seemingly infinite light.
"You bastard, you drew me here!"
Asha'rah reached forth, and stone materialized to entrap her opponent's limbs. She placed a hand on Indar'en's chest.
"I created the very concept of the power which you hold, old friend. I know and respect its potential. To stand any chance in this war, I'll be needing it for myself."
Indar'en looked down, then around at the devastated planet, using his death glare to hide his panic as Asha'rah's light wormed its way through his body like a spider-web, gold and violet mixing in a dance as old as time.
"You created this planet in...how long have you been planning this?!"
Asha'rah took one last look at Indar'en, burning into her soul the gravity of what she was about to do.
"Long enough."
Then she
pulled, and Indar'en screamed.