Chapter 145 - Shadow
A/N: A big thanks for Marius Arnesen!
Also: take that extra!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before Nurina touch hands, the situation was a bit confusing.
"Ysmir" beard! Look at that building... it's all made of glass."
"What is that thing? Jonhild! Why is your mind so messy?"
"Is that carriage moving on its own? Dwemer?"
"Why is this place so big?"
Hilda, who was in the middle of a foreign universe, was losing her composer at a rapid pace.
The Mind Realms shouldn't be that big or that populated, her mind realm was the planes in front of the clan's town. It was all green and she chased behind the Wolf in that place to gain its recognition.
But the place around her had people even though none of them interacted with her, it had strange objects moving around, and the building has a little bit too much glass in her opinion.
"Why is that Jon's mind realm? Shouldn't it be a place where he spent some good times at? Where in the world can such a city exist?"
Hilda was roaming the streets of Alexandria some time. Every time she takes a direction, she finds herself back at square one. There was always that shop that had a blue sign and served strange food.
Hilda moved her hand and it went through the glass and she actually could pull a round piece of the golden strange food out. Once she tasted it, she almost lost herself to the taste.
"No no no! This is not true! This is an illusion, I am sure of it... If such a delicious food existed in the world then it will be the most famous thing."
Hilda denied the sweetness of the food and turned around to leave but and urge grew within her and she passed her hand through the glass again, then she took a handful of it decided to keep searching while trying them.
She put some of them in her mouth and was about to chew when suddenly...
"Hilda!"
"Pffft!"
... she turned around and spat all the food in her mouth out!
"Nuria! Why are you here?" Hilda was surprised.
"What are you doing? Where is Jon?" Nurina asked as she was still in a serious mood.
"What happened? Did something happen?" Hilda sensed that there is some sort of a situation.
"The hall is on fire, some got injured?" Nurina was still in the hype of the action from outside.
"Wha! Why? What happened?" Hilda asked in confusion.
"I'll tell you later, where is Jon?"
"I don't know! I have been looking for him but all I see is rounds and rounds of the same place."
Nurina started to pay attention to the surrounding and opened her mouth agape.
"What is this place?"
"Beats me! Tall buildings, a lot of glass, lights everywhere... Have you ever heard of a place like that?" Hilda asked.
Nurina looked around then nodded.
"Two times!" She said.
Hilda held her breath.
"The first was from my master. She told me about a place called Clockwork City."
"You have a master?" Hilda was wondering what kind of an absurd being can that be.
"An undying old bitch! Anyway, this place is full of humans and its automatons are not the usual ones from Clockwork stories."
"And the second time?" Hilda asked.
"Jon's past life!"
***
Hilda and Nurina were running around the streets and trying to take notice of the landmarks.
"Past life? Come on. It's his usual excuse when he wants to lie or hide something." Hilda who was following Nurina started trying to make sense.
Nurina paused her steps and looked up at Hilda.
"Jon... he never lies to me!" Nurina said while holding a finger up.
"Jon may misguide people and trick them but he is not good at lying. He can make up something based on the truths he has. The truth is... right now we are seeing a reflection from the place he loves the most, and it is not Riften or Winterhold or anywhere we know on Nirn." Nurina said and walked ahead.
Hilda remained in place thinking.
"... Then all these things that he is saying and doing... there is a big truth behind it?" Hilda reached a scary realization.
"The dragons, the Dragonborn... he is trying to tell us something?" Hilda held her arms together and shivered.
Nurina who went ahead a few steps halted and looked back at Hilda.
"As I told you, there is some truth behind what he says. I don't dare say there will be dragons or any of that but Divines save us if it is completely true. And Divines save us as it seemed that the three Elder Scrolls are only a little thing to worry about."
Hilda's face reddened from fear. Her eyes turned moisty and her breath became heavy.
"Nurina... he always said that *sob* that to me and I never believed him! *sob* I never knew..." Hilda started crying and covered her face with her palms.
Compared to Nurina, what she knows about Jon is what she sees in him from her and from Jonrad. He is smarter than most of the Nords and thinks of practical and new ways but it never crossed her mind that there is more to the story.
She was sad for Jon! She was angry at herself! She was jealous of Nurina who got to know him more than anyone else!
Her frustration that the few days Jon spent in their family home was not enough to get to know him that much.
"Hey, sister! It is not that easy to understand that smug face." Nurina approached Hilda and started comforting her. It was an unusual behavior for an elf.
"I am sure he wants to stand there someday and laugh at the world saying 'I told you so!' whenever that thing happens. But don't forget how much he works to get ready for that day. Don't forget that he made progress no one in his age can make that easily. He is arming himself with knowledge and power all day long and making progress every step he took. He is getting ready for whatever comes. But don't forget who is he to you and to me, he is our son, our child. Us, the toughest two bitches on Nirn."
Hilda cleared her tears and nodded, she smiled at Nurina's words.
"Good, be positive and we will find him soon... here I am getting a response!"
Hilda took a breath and regained her composer.
"Can you use magic here, I couldn't."
"It's not magic but a bit of Divination. I still I can get us out of here."
Nurina formed a blue hue of energy on her hand and took an alleyway.
"This way."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jon saw two more people in the dark space...
One of them was a red-haired child that was holding his head from pain.
The other one was a huge young man with a very familiar face but his colors seemed a bit in a negative effect.
"Truth be told, I was focusing on the main host soul, not the medium. But who would have thought that the main host soul only had this little control! Truly wonderful. I think I picked wisely this time." The huge negative colored man spoke to himself. His voice was the one that spoke to me a little while ago.
Jon who was in the appearance of his past life's was looking at the negative colored man and the child. He soon understood what the child is.
"You... you were the one who made that illusion?" He asked while standing in a careful pose.
The negative colored man looked at him and laughed. Once he took a step forward, Jon took a step back.
"I am sure of it now, you are the brains and he is the muscle." The negative colored man said while pointing at the child.
That child was the other part of Jon, or it was Jon too.
"And who are you?" Jon asked.
"Me? Hmm! Weird question... Well, you can think of me as the shadow of you two... for now!"
Jon gulped... he didn't understand what shadow meant but he was sure this is not someone to make the light of.
"Okay, Mr. Shadow. I am not sure what the is going on here but can you help see heads and tails out of this messy situation?" Jon asked in a well-mannered way.
"Gladly!" Shadow replied.
"You are a person." Shadow pointed at the adult Jon.
"He is the ZanpakutÅ Spirit." Shadow pointed at the red-haired Jon.
"I am the Hollow!" Shadow pointed at himself.
[A/N: Bleach reference.]
".... Ahaha!" Jon paused for a second the laughed giving Shadow a face for his joke.
"HAHAHA!!" Shadow was taking a liking on the joke as it seemed.
Shadow suddenly stops laughing and looks at Jon who stops laughing awakwardly.
"So, Mr. Shadow! I still not sure about at standing here but it seems that you are on some bad terms with our friend here. Can we perhaps get to talk about it on some coffee."
"Oh! And I thought we are going to fight..." Shadow seemed disappointed.
"We can do that too, best friendships started with a brawl."
"Great!" Shadow seemed delighted.
"Can we get him first? I am sure he loves fighting." Jon pointed at the young Jon.
"He does... Believe me, you don't want to let him loose. The first thing he did when he saw me was throwing punches." Shadow started complaining.
Jon was reading the situation with his mind rapidly.
There seems to be a third entity in his mind and quite the powerful one to separate him from the other Jon. It also seemed to be aware of all the memories in Jon's mind including the ones from his past life.
Jon was not really amused by the fact that he was too exposed. The only one who knows too much about him is the Augur and Jon was sure that this was not anything related to the Augur.
He also felt insecure being in his past unsuitable-for-combat self. He knew that the other him was there and just waiting to be merged back together then he would be able to take control of the situation.
He was looking between himself and his other half and counting the steps between themselves.
"You still want to go back to him?" Shadow talked. "It's true he is a special person and a Dragonborn and all that but you are underestimating yourself way too much, young man!"
Shadow approached Jon who was nervously stepped back.
"It is not only you that you need him, but he also needs you. You may feel invincible when you are with him but he also feels safe when he is with you. During the time I isolated you two from each other, how do you think you managed to cracked the illusion that easily. Do you know that he was calling for you all the time?"
"Calling for me?" Jon was confused.
"Yes, the abnormalities that happened, the memories that kept popping up in your head. It was all him try to reach you."
Jon reached another realization.
"And the TV advertisement was you?"
"Indeed!" Shadow said. "I tried to hold you long enough to test the boy but I'll test you two together."
Shadow turned around and walked to the darkness.
Jon, who was worried about the other Jon ran to him and shook him.
The other Jon opened his eyes and shouted "Finally!".
"We need to get to..." Jon was about to say something but something interpreted him.
*HISS*
A strong hissing sound was head all over the place."