What colorful butterfly will fly next?

[waterfell]

Cold fog swirls, and makes the darkness even deeper, shrouding everything in a damp, cloying mist. There's a smell of ash in the air. To the side, a single golden pin impales a blue butterfly with black markings, just above the thorax. It struggles with a vain flurry of its tired wings, but for all the writhing desperation, there is little life left in the spasming body. It rests weakly between fits of frantic activity.

Beneath the butterfly, a picture of a blue-haired girl in a tiara and sailor-style collar has been clearly marked 'Mercury'. Nearby, similar displays bear the names of other planets. In some, the butterfly's wings have been pulled off or its body has been singed and scorched or bent to sickening angles; others are fresh and empty, but labeled in anticipation. They stretch into the distance as far as the eye can see in all directions.

Comments

[sixthsefira]

[It's the sight of the butterfly pinned while still alive which catches and holds her attention most. The setting itself sickeningly reminds her of another place she's loathe to ever visit again, and of the man who oversees it. While it may be too late to save the butterfly, at least it could die without that pin through its body. Thus she pulls it out with care.]

No one deserves to die trapped like that.

sorry for the waffling. XD

[waterfell]

[As soon as the pin is drawn out, the butterfly falls to the ground. The hole left behind is still a clearly grave wound, but at least the careful handling has kept it from worsening in the process. The creature's legs kick at the air in its pain, before the twitching gradually subsides to something calmer.

It's form shifts, and the butterfly shimmers and fades to reveal the body of the very same girl on the label: Mercury. Her uniform is torn and battered and burned, and an ugly hole at her chest signifies the wound from the pin. She stays laying on her side, hands clutched tightly close to her. She seems disoriented at first.]

You helped me?

[sixthsefira]

[That had been unexpected to say the least. Perhaps the butterfly had been a metaphor, similar to the birds in her own dreams. She only briefly considered the ugly wound before using the restore materia slotted within her armlet, seeking to use its healing magic on the girl's injuries.]

Yes.

[waterfell]

[The healing magic knits together some of the torn flesh, but the uniform remains in tatters, and the hole remains where it is, a gaping, ugly sign of her experience. How she's still speaking, even with difficulty, is a mystery, and her words come out broken and shaky. She doesn't try to move yet.]

I thought I'd be left there. I thought maybe it was my punishment.

[sixthsefira]

[Part of her wanted to cast the spell again, for obviously the main injury remained. It was a logical response really, though if one were to actually apply logic to the rest of this dream, butterflies didn't turn into young women and certain wouldn't be capable of speech with such ugly holes is their chest. Thus obviously logic had little place here currently. The hole perhaps was another metaphor, much like the butterfly had been in her opinion and thus was dismissed as a worry for the time being.]

What could you have done that would warrant such a punishment?

[waterfell]

[The simple question injects logic into the scene, and Mercury falls quiet. That's right: What is this punishment for? The one responsible for her being here isn't likely to care about the things she's done.

Yet in a dream, the buried regrets are harder to let lie. The star graveyard, and this skewed form of it in her mind, might not be related to it, but she knows herself for someone cruel and terrible, and she's been caught between that and the part of herself that never wanted it to grow this overwhelming.]

If it's not, then how did you come here?

[hero_complexed]

[ This is not something Harry can stand to see. The sight of torture is something that he's had burned somewhere in his memory and watching the poor butterfly struggle just makes him feel sick. He's not sure if taking the pin out would instantly kill it or not but he knows that he doesn't want to see it suffering so much. ]

[ Slowly, he approaches the poor creature and pulls the pin out with a sharp jerk, briefly wondering if he knew any healing spells. Hermione probably would. ]

[waterfell]

[Without the pin, the butterfly falls to what passes for the ground. Its legs kick in pain and if only it could scream, it surely would. The thrashing subsides after a long moment, quieted to a slow, labored waving of a bent antenna.

In that moment, the creature shimmers, and reverts to form of the label: Mercury. Her uniform is tattered and torn and burned, and the wound from the pin has become an ugly, sickening hole at her chest. She chokes on the words she tries to speak at first.]

[hero_complexed]

[ Harry stares in some level of disbelief and looks around for something to help- maybe a potion or-or something! ]

C-can you hear me?

[waterfell]

[Someone is speaking to her. The voice is distant to her own ears, and she has to realize it's actually coming from much nearer. She doesn't try to move yet, but the words come - slowly, still slightly garbled, but they come.]

I hear you.

[Wait. She does hear him, and more, she knows that voice.]

Harry Potter?

[hero_complexed]

Yeah.. it's me.

[ He nods vigorously ]

I-There might be a potion or something that could help you-I could look?

[waterfell]

[In the dream, the actual star graveyard has merged with its guardian's sadistic tendencies. It's unlikely anything of healing or good will be found here. It's also highly unlikely anyone would be found here.]

How did you arrive here? How did you come this far?

[Dimly - it's so hard to think - she remembers he isn't precisely a normal human, not by her world's standards: he's a wizard. Maybe that's how.

There's nothing to stop Harry from looking around, despite Mercury's lack of answer. The closest displays hold the names of planets Harry would recognize as his own solar system. The fog stays thick enough to hide what might be beyond them; but in this graveyard at the end of the world, now that he's here, there may be other markers he'll recognize.

There may also be something to help them after all. Introducing something new can begin to break down a closed system.]

[one_one_se7en]

The Spartan keeps his eyes on his reticule and radar as he moves amidst the fog... Oddly, many glows come through it. Not by the glowing silhouettes of his HUD, but by Yuuko's gift. One of them is not so much of a glow, but a darkening.

The area around that butterfly darkens in his eyes. He feels a very familiar spectral presence. And the disturbingly familiar image below it.

Ami. As he turns, he sees many, many more spectral auras in all of the wounded butterflies. Countless senshi and countless planets consumed. By Galaxia.

He walks toward the one of Mercury, and removes the pin. He will have to remove the rest as well, but her... She is important.

[waterfell]

As soon as the pin is removed, the husk of butterfly falls to what must be taken for the ground. Its movements, still weak, are barely discernible at all.

Then it changes. The butterfly fades to the form of the picture: Mercury. She lays on her side, uniform as tattered and torn and ragged as the butterfly had seemed, and moving just as little.

She seems disoriented, and as she tries to gasp out a breath, she winces with the pain instead, and falls back to inactivity. Only one word is croaked out.]

John?

[one_one_se7en]

"I'm here to take you back."

He's spoken those words before to someone like her. The Spartan leans down to her, to begin treating the wound in several procedures he's done so many times he doesn't even think of them. One of them extracting the biofoam from his suit -- The means to both sterilize and seal the wound with an expansive healing antiseptic foam.

"What did this?"

[waterfell]

Many of the wounds are serious, but treatable. The wound at her chest, however, where the pin had been, stays as a hole that simply refuses to disappear, no matter what.

Take her back? Across the galaxy... no; she isn't sure she can even go there, now.

What did it? As though surprised by it, Mercury suddenly moves just her head, to look down at the prominent wound. That's right... She was injured. Badly.

Killed?

"A battle." The words are the easiest summary, and the fewest she can speak while still trying to explain.

[one_one_se7en]

The Spartan notices it. From what he sees of the wound, in spite of the creeps Ami's aura gives off... It's supernatural. Something part of Mercury. Of the senshi.

He will bring her back across the galaxy if necessary. He has done it before.

Her?

The Master Chief doesn't ask. His helmet still turns to her, wanting to mentally confirm who he thought it was.

[waterfell]

Who. There's someone she should have a grudge against for this, for the state she's in right now. (It's so hard to think, and that worries her the most.)

She remembers. "Sailor Aluminum Siren."

There hadn't been time to avoid it. The attack had come suddenly, as soon as the enemy had located her. That force and that power had made a quick end. Her sailor crystal- she touches her hand to a spot just near the hole- had been taken. Her eyes narrow; but she lacks the strength to give it the threat it should be.

[toxicwillpower]

The line between madness and genius were often thin and fragile. It was a known fact that boredom corrupted them both. It was that very same boredom that drew Kadaj here. He opened his eyes at the end of his journey—a blind walk into nothingness. In the middle of it all was an impaled a butterfly. Imprisoned. Destined to torture by its mere existence.

The corner of Kadaj’s mouth twitched upwards.

“It serves you right.” He spoke aloud to the pathetic insect. “You’re in service to the planet. Its torment was bound to get you eventually.” The remnant got closer for a better inspection. Blue and black wings, interesting design. “You know,” he crouched to study it and realized it was still alive, “the more you struggle the quicker you’ll die.” No truer words had been spoken. “I could save you,” he suggested. A moment’s pause passed and then a soft chuckle escaped. “But you’ll have to give me a reason to.”

[waterfell]

There was nothing to show fear but the weak rubbing of the butterfly's first two legs. All around them, countless others in the same situation were already still and silent in the death Kadaj had warned her of. She would not make the mistake of hoping for different.

But in the throes of pain, there was nothing to do but struggle - and suffer. Even as the butterfly forced itself to lay still and quiet, perhaps in the hope he'd assume it was already dead and pass by, the sharp tearing only felt more and more powerful, as though it threatened to rip her entirely in two.

[mooneternal]

What is this place? Is it another dream? It's so strange... but somehow, Usagi finds herself being drawn to the butterflies. There's an ache in her chest as she sees that some of them have been ripped a part, torn to pieces... even if they're insects it's not like they deserved a cruel fate like this!

But -- as her eyes finally drift down to the placards... her hands immediately flutter up towards her mouth, as she stands there locked in a silent scream. "N-no way!"

[waterfell]

The scream does nothing to take away the sights in front of Usagi. Though a few, like the blue one, still struggle feebly, most are already completely still and quiet, lending the whole area its unnatural hush.

All that moves on the blue butterfly are her forelegs now; they wave weakly in the final throes of her efforts to free herself, but it only lets the pin impale her further.

[mooneternal]

A movement? Usagi seems to rush towards the blue butterfly's case, her eyes wide. Sure enough, 'Mercury' is displayed almost proudly just in front of it. "It's alive?!" that's enough to get her to react, even in her shocked state. Her hands, shaking, reach forward to pull the pins from their position, her heart racing.

[waterfell]

The butterfly husk falls to what passes for ground as the pin no longer holds it in place. It shimmers suddenly, and in its place, curled up on her side and with her uniform as tattered as the butterfly's wings had been, is Mercury. A hole still gapes where the pin had been, at what is now her chest.

She doesn't speak at first; when she tries to breathe, the sound is a horribly pained gasp and wheeze, but finally, she seems to recognize the person in front of her.

"Tsukino-san...?"

[mooneternal]

The change seems to happen before she can react, and the moment that the girl takes shape before her -- Usagi's knees buckle under her as she leans over the fallen soldier. "Ami-chan! But how did... Who did this to you?!"

Her eyes are searching that injury -- the severity of it is making her panic. "H-hang on! I'll help you!" There had to be something she could do!