Monday, July 7, 2014

Elysha, The Awakened (The Seven)



Elysha, the Awakened
I'm floating in the air. I'm in this large, never ending space of whiteness. In front of me, it looks like some girl is sleeping in this bed. It's weird; the angle I'm at makes it seem like I'm above her. From time to time, she looks at peace and at other times, it looks like she's having a nightmare. I pity her. As I start to feel sorry all the more for her, I start to cry. One of those tears drops off of my cheek and splashes on her forehead. It was almost as if the sensation of splashing my face to wake myself up coursed through me..... As soon as this happens, I see this flash of light. I open my eyes bashfully as they still seem heavy with sleep. “Had a nice dream, princess?” asks one of my comrades.
I begin to recollect my thoughts about the current situation and who I am. In response to his snarky, playful quip, I give him a punch in the arm with a smirk on my face. I'm currently on a kingdom helo troop carrier (kHTC) with a platoon. I'm in en route to quell a riot of sorts in one of the cities in the territory deep in kingdom possession. I bear the heavy arms for the unit; in other words, I'm the demolitions expert. I'm not just any demolitions expert; I use hexplosives that demoralize anyone afflicted by the explosion. Once a shell is launched and detonated, gases seep into the air and instantly become absorbed into the being of the victim and are thus subjugated to its control. It's one of the more intermediate forms of order and control here in the inner parts of the kingdom. Guess it's best to disperse this stuff by air. I hear that the king is also known as “the prince and power of the air” so I suppose this is appropriate. “Alright! We're moving in on the area 'controlled' by these insurgents. Command and Control wants exactly that over the situation. We need to leave them bleeding, wounded, and sorry they ever disturbed the status quo!” barks our commanding entity. We all shout in recognition. “We’ll help them pay the price of coming against the wondrous kingdom The plan is to deploy the close quarters units to go in with nonlethal, suppressive rounds in their rifles to nullify and movement while the artillery stays in the chopper and provides air support; I and others like myself will be deployed onto the ground to help finish the sweeping of the rebels. Honestly! What's the problem with these fools?! What point is there in resisting if they know that this is going to happen? Not only that, what is there to resist against, exactly? It makes no sense. The kingdom offers anything and everything anyone could ever want and it's delivered or executed with the utmost ecstasy. The boys all rappel down from the kHTC and begin to move throughout the city streets. We begin to provide aerial reconnaissance and danger-close, hexplosive support. We activate these special night-vision features built into the lenses of our helmet as required for nighttime ops. I decide to make things easy for the boys on the ground and set the hexplosives to explode in the air so that the essence can distribute and afflict suspects; this is good for us as we’re immune to the stuff at this point in our careers. I fire the first volley of shells and they do exactly as they’re programmed to. My CE then gives me the order to rappel down and I do just that to give danger-close support only after ten minutes being airborne. I could fire my launcher at a wall five feet away from me and I won’t be hurt; awesome weapons of war these arsenals of the kingdom. I’ve never stopped being impressed by them. I’m sprinting through an alley making my way to cover and support one of my comrades when I begin to feel extremely exhausted. I crouch to the ground, dropping my weapon and any gear not attached to me in the process, and I grab my head. It’s hurting something fierce. Next thing I know, I fall asleep…. I wake up in a meadow. White, yellow, blue, and purple flowers dot and cover the landscape. I look down to examine myself. I’m no longer in any sort of combat garb; I don’t have my gloves, helmet, or anything. Even my weapon is gone. Instead, I’m in this white dress and am barefoot. I stand up and begin to walk around. I cannot contain myself as I start to feel alive and free! I start to hum and sing and dance and skip and giggle. Can’t say I’ve done any of these things in awhile; feel alive, feel free, hum, sing, anything of the sort. I try to cherish these moments as much as I can. All of a sudden, dark storm clouds begin to form out of nowhere. The sky was sunny and clear a moment ago; now it’s shrouded in these angry clouds of darkness. I begin to feel unsettled and disturbed. There’s something foreboding about these clouds. I close my eyes as if to blink, but the next time I open them. I’m standing on a barren plateau with the same dark sky-scape. It hits me; I’m standing in the same place I just was with the meadow…. The rolling hills covered in flowers are just mounds of earth now…. I begin to tear up as my paradise vanished literally in the blink of an eye. I put my face into my hands, closing my eyes as I do so, but something feels weird. I feel gloves on my hands and my face; I put my hands down and I find myself back in my old garb, back in the city, lying on the ground, with my helmet off. I can't help but find that I'm in tears and I don't know why. I pick myself off the ground and I wipe the tears from my eyes. I grab my launcher off of the ground, put my helmet back on, and I sprint in the direction of the action. I don't know how long I was asleep; I don't know where I fell asleep; I don't know what's happening with the op or with my comrades. I hear over the comlink “Elysha, where are you? You disappeared off of our motion sensors for a few minutes there. What happened?” asks one of my comrades. I radio back, “I somehow fell unconscious, but I'm fine.” “Really?” he asks. “Don't need a medevac, do you?” he goes on. “No thanks. I'm good to go. I'll make those insurgents pay!” I respond with vigor. I sprint around a corner and I come across this civilian. I can't tell if she's a rebel or not. She's definitely been affected by the hexplosive gas. She's cowering in the fetal position, scared out of her mind. Tears are streaming down her face as she shirks in the face of her nightmares. I pity her to some degree. Anyone and everyone in the kingdom's military have been subjected to this kind of spectrochemical warfare.  I leave her to be as I continue my mad dash to rendezvous with my comrades. I have orders that if any of us come across any flagrant or hidden forms of insurgency, we’re to bind the suspect in question and leave a marker on them so they can be taken in for torture and re-education. It’s fortunate for us that they’ll be able to show forth any resistance as they’ll be completely vulnerable to our advance. I finally come across a squad mate who had gotten separated from the main group. He’s got a rifle with stun rounds, so this is going to compliment my hexplosive capabilities well in order to help enhance the pain and bolster the suffering of our enemies. We radio in to our CE and tell him that we’re going to not meet up with the main strike force, but rather we’re going to form our own recon team to scope out a few city blocks and possibly even hit it big against the rebels. We cover a couple of streets as we scan for any form of infidelity. For some reason, my head begins to hurt and I begin to lose consciousness. I feel my comrade catch me, but I also feel myself fall asleep. This time, it feels like I’m in some sort state of suspension as in nightly rest. I feel warm. As I open my eyes this time, I open them to the tune of sharp, intense stinging pains all across my body. From a pounding headache to the feeling of deep cuts in my skin in various places to the feeling of soreness of my abused muscles. I’m looking down at my legs; I can’t help but notice that my clothes are destroyed. I can’t move my hands or legs; I’m bound to this metal chair I’m in and I cannot move nor can I see my restraints. Someone pulls my hair to make me look up. “How do you feel NOW?!” this thing screams. My vision corrects at this point from all the disorientation. What? What is this? The person holding me up by my head is a wraith in the kingdom’s military. I can tell he’s got some rank to him. He’s not alone form what I can see; a couple of lieutenant wraiths are standing next to a table with various torture apparatus. I don’t know why they are torturing me. The chief wraith screaming in my face is a strong, powerful wraith of aref and his lesser companions are wraiths of iserft and greret. “Don’t you see that being a joint partner with the Kingdom is worthless?! I’m disgusted! Your very presence curdles my skin. There’s too much light in you. Let’s take that away,” barks the wraith of afer. He nods to the wraith of greret, the wraith moves over to me a backhands me really hard across the face. With this, I fall unconscious again. I wake up again once more in the real world. This is getting absolutely ridiculous. What are these dreams anyway? Are they even real? Are they hallucinations of a mind out of control? Why do they keep happening? Why have I gotten one every single time I’ve gone unconscious? It seems a little convenient, but for what, I don’t know. This doesn’t seem right. In that last one, I was an agent of the Kingdom?! That’s completely absurd! Crying out. What in the aether is going on?! Much as I hate to say it, I think I may need a little bit of education and visit a spectropsychist. I’ll probably need to up the ante on my meditation. What did that first dream mean? I can’t say either of them bothers me more than the other does. Maybe I’m overreacting and this is really nothing to worry about. After many inquisitions by my strike squad comrade if I was truly at one hundred percent and my many insistences that I am, we continue to follow through with our mission. This is getting ridiculous. I understand the need to approach this operation with caution. The chain of command has been really tight on letting anyone know anything about the op outside a select echelon of individuals. All I know is that some of the best of the best in any given area of war in the sector was selected to take part and fight in this thing. At this point, the strike against the unidentified rebels drags on into the main city streets after bleeding out of the suburbs. For some reason, we weren’t given any information about enemy numbers, weapons, or even what they looked like. Is this a mission against loyal kingdom civvies or what? Our CE knows, but I highly doubt he’s going to divulge such information. Ugh. Forget it. I don’t need to be thinking about this right now. I’m on an op right now and I need to remain focused on the goal. My compatriot and I are running down one of the avenues in the city when we get a radio call from our CE. “There’s a change of plans. Command and Control is beside themselves. Instead of subduing and capturing select targets, we are to subdue anyone and everyone on the streets who is not wearing any kingdom military colors. Martial law was declared and anyone not following it is subject to suspicion of being subversive to the kingdom. After subduing a set amount of targets, you are charged to bring them to these coordinates. Further orders will be given then. Command and Control has run a thorough scan of the entire city; there are about fifty or so targets in the city. There’s good news though. We’ve rounded up forty seven of them and the final three are in this small sector of the city. Move swiftly and move with prejudice,” says our CE. Something doesn’t feel right here…. Any civvie can now be caught in the crossfire? I’m not one to question the kingdom or orders, but…. GAH! What’s wrong with me?! Orders are orders. “Let’s move!” I shout to my partner.  Little do we know that as we turn the next street corner up ahead, we come across three civvies…. It’s a woman and two children…. As much as I feel some sort of inner condemnation against what I’m about to do, I motion to my partner and we begin to escort the three to the coordinates provided by our CE. When we finally arrive, we bind all three and line them up on their knees in the same fashion as the other forty seven. Just as we finish doing so, the kHTC carrying our CE descends. He dismounts the craft after it lands; everyone including myself salute him. He orders us at ease and that we all remove our helmets. For some reason, I know really uneasy, so much so that it’s to the point where I’m squeamish. My CE and his two lieutenants look so familiar…. The lieutenants were on the ground, but they were both in charge of different squads. “Well done, everyone. You’ve performed with excellence and will get some well deserved “R ‘n’ R” back at the base. However, first, we must deal with all of these infidels. Command and Control has ordered a mass execution for all fifty of them. They will serve as an example to those in the kingdom that whosoever turns their back on us for a moment shall be devoured!” our CE declares. Everyone barks a shout of approval except for me. One of the lieutenants throws a hexplosive gas grenade at the final arrivals so as to make them suffer. It’s a good thing I’m not the only woman in this unit or things may have gone sour… I look up to the night sky. I can no longer see the stars above… I see great, dark clouds with lightning dancing through them. They threaten to unleash a torrent upon the city. The CE and his two lieutenants load up their pistols to carry out what they were told; they look as if they’re savoring what they’re about to do. I find it slightly repugnant. As I note this, a mighty headache overtakes me. I scream all the while gripping my head as I fall to my knees. I can now feel a great deluge begin to descend onto the city like a mighty storm, but it’s almost as if it’s focused on me. I close my eyes as I cannot keep them opened and I feel as if I’m falling asleep once more…. I open my eyes, but as I do, I feel no pain. I’m back in that room with that girl who’s sleeping in that bed once more as I hover over her, it seems. I’m really perplexed as to why I’m here… Suddenly I hear, “well, why don’t you get a closer look at her face?” I decide to heed this Voice and descend slightly to the bed….. IT’S ME. WHY AM I SLEEPING IN THIS BED? I’m awake… right? She… I mean me…. I’m crying. Why? “You’re asleep and you cannot seem to wake up. That is why you weep amidst your deep sleep,” replies the Voice. “Now, look down at yourself,” It continues. I do as it says and see that I’m wearing the white dress from the vision of me in the meadow, but I’m covered almost from head to toe in this dark ooze… As I notice it, I start to feel heavy physically and emotionally. I begin to cry because I don’t know what to do or think. I don’t remember how I got this way or anything past a certain point. “Why am I like this?” I ask the Voice. “Here in the Sanctum of your heart is where your true self dwells. The you in the bed is your true self. You were forced to sleep  even deeper as things happened to your ethereal self. However, I never said that you were ever truly awake.” It explains. This mighty Figure of Light manifests before me and proceeds to touch me in the center of my forehead. I begin to remember things…. I begin to remember everything…. I was a citizen of some minor kingdom territorial city and I was apprehended for some unknown reason by the kingdom in a secret raid on that city much like the one I had just participated in. I was then interrogated by the kingdom for many weeks. That explains that mysterious flashback with those wraiths of afer, iserft, and greret. They demoralized me; they scarred me; they tortured me; they brainwashed me to think and operate as they wanted to without order or question; they fed me commands while I was in a perpetual trance for me to carry out. “It’s because I want to wake you up that you experienced those visions and expressed doubt against they who controlled you,” explains the Voice. “I am the Spirit of the Sovereign,” It announces. I cannot explain how I feel. I’m conversing with the enemy of all enemies…. But is He truly an enemy? “You don’t seem as villainous as the kingdom paints you to be, O Sovereign. Why is it that the kingdom struggles against the Kingdom that you rule?” I inquire. “We are at war because of this: there is Good and there is evil. I am all that is Good and he who rules the kingdom is all that is evil. He knows that he will eventually lose this war and will lose everything that he’s ever attained, but he wants to make sure that so many also lose all that they have in the process. There’s no such thing as a dual citizenship; one can only serve one master,” explains the Sovereign. “I will reveal the rest to you over time. It is time that you awaken. It is time that you truly awaken,” He goes on. Next thing that I experience is this complete submersion in water as if I’m in the middle of the sea, but I’m not drowning… This water is different… It feels almost as if it is alive…. The water destroys the darkness that clings to my body. I look to where I’m asleep in the bed; a single drop of water lands on my forehead and I wake up. I subsequently begin to stretch after pulling my covers and sit straight up. I then see me get up off the bed, walk a couple of feet, and disappear. I close my eyes to blink, but as I open them again, I’m back in the ethereal; I feel no more pain and I find that I’m IN A GIANT PILLAR OF WATER. My platoon is all gazing on in horror as no one knows what to do. I stand up and a flash of light engulfs me. When it clears, I notice that my black and orange kingdom fatigues are now a set of royal blue, gray, and white. There is a distinct cross that forms on my uniform; a great, white cross forms in the center of my jacket. There’s also some sort of mark that I can feel manifest in the shape of a water droplet on my left shoulder blade. I pick up my hexplosive launcher and its camouflage changes from black to an urban style involving the same color scheme as my uniform. I look down at my hips where I sense something forming. Two blue and black pistols in a hip dual pistol holster appear. Everyone in the platoon still has no clue what to do. I now know that they’re no longer my comrades, but my enemies. I fire my launcher at my former comrades and it detonates in the midst of some of them as they tried to scatter. It shot out water…… a water rocket… As the water rocket exploded as water explodes, it releases tiny gushes of water from the impact location in random directions to further increase, literal, splash damage. The first rocket tagged eight of my foes; a few of them disintegrated because they were beings of malice or wraiths as darkness is destroyed by this water. The four who did not disintegrate became engulfed in light. Just as the Spirit of the Sovereign worked in me, He worked in them too. They then turned on their former comrades instead and their ballistic weapons then began to fire water bullets as my launcher shot water rockets. I yell to my reinstated compatriots to subdue the commanders and eliminate or change everyone else. As soon as I said this, the Spirit told me to use my launcher on the civvies that were rounded up. He said the same thing would happen to them; the effects of the hexplosives will wear off and their bonds will be broken off. Those who are actual insurgents will then take up arms with me against their captors. I promptly began to do as the One says and allow the Light to free those afflicted by the dark with living Water. It’s an all out urban war, but those who fought with me now stood victorious. My former commanders were now bound and helpless. The Sovereign revealed to me that the three before me were indeed the wraiths who tortured me in that unknown kingdom bunker. These wraiths of afer, iserft, and gerert. I took out my two pistols so as to execute all three with extreme prejudice. The Sovereign tells me to keep the wraith of afer alive for interrogation and information extraction. I promptly put bullets into the elbows and knees of the wraiths of iserft and greret so as to have them bleed and suffer as they have made others suffer. These pistols also shoot rounds of water; they too explode but that only occurs upon entry. This is total war. Maximum damage will be dealt to the enemy especially in a war of this mighty scale. There has never been or ever will be a war as grand as this one. After they’ve leaked enough darkness and light shone forth from their wounds, I put a bullet into their skulls. I also debilitated the wraith of afer but so as to discourage any attempt of escaping. I give the order to start up the kHTC; it’s a really large aircraft as we’re able to fit every changed combatant and civvie as possible. In all, there’s twenty of us including myself. I feel the Spirit tell me that we are to fly out to the nearest Kingdom border outpost and report there for debriefing. He gives us a name for our destination: Naecob. I don’t know what He’s in store for me, but after being delivered like that, I don’t care. I just want to do all I can for He who had saved me. I’m curious to know who I’ll meet and what I’ll do. I suppose I’ll find out when I get there.









Musical Inspiration: Hypnotized - Pillar

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