A long awaited Reunion [Wyntre]

Wyntre was one of the few people alive who knew what being alive felt like. Life, you see, is much like a nose. It's always there, it's never not, and the mind has grown accustomed to its presence. So much so, in fact, that the mind has learnt to ignore it. Life was a lot like that. Water has a taste, but the mind ignores it. Everyone has their own scent, but the mind (mostly) decides to ignore it. Life exists and the mind tries to cover up the evidence.

It didn't last for all that long, but she definitely felt how life was meant to feel. But then her mind began catching up and pushed her straight back into harsh reality. Her skeleton was gone now, it simply faded from actuality, leaving her alone. In her grave. Surrounded by ice and the occasional dead root.

So she did the only logical thing you could do in her situation and got the bloody hell out of there. The ice was weak, it shattered easily. Zucceta would have been to blame for that.

The planet certainly wasn't pretty. It was dead, very dead. Horrifically, mortifyingly dead. The star taunted her with its vivaciousness. The dead tree simply sat there, its deceased bulking mass causing the occasional crack of pressure. This was a very dead planet.

She stayed there for cyberkami-knows-how-long. Maybe it was an hour. Maybe it wasn't. What was definitively true was that she was engrossed in her thoughts, the immense shadow of a great tree overshadowing her very self. Enough.

She flew up to the wooden protrusion. It was quite easily visible from space, it was just that large. And now, she was to do something Zucceta would never achieve. She thrust her hand out as she worked her magic… somewhat literally. A great rumble had been heard, the entire tree's bulk being lifted by a hand far away. This was the zenith of her telekinetic potential. With a sudden movement of the hand, the entire tree collapsed to the side. She wasn't powerful enough to send it to space with her mind, but it was a sign. It was now separated from the ice, from the ground, from the planet itself. Now, she would be able to separate it from her eyes.

She flew under it, chips of wood surrounding her and breaking under pressure from many sides. The tree's girth on her hands, the Empress lifted. She flew, and it took considerable effort, but the entire tree was being lifted who could barely be seen. What else was there to do now but to throw it into the sun? And that was just what she did.

She received a telepathic message from a… an ally. Zexama, Majin Princess of Candy. What was alarming was the Power Level: her PL was about three million. She knew it was about this from watching her fight strong opponents from crystal balls from hell, but to see it from her scouter was something else. What was this new emotion she was feeling? Was she proud of her? No, probably not. Just a swore mind from lifting a megatree. Probably.

So she responded. I'm on Arcose. What used to be the Trading Sector, I believe. I'll come to your location. Zexama… It's nice to hear a familiar voice.

And so she flew to the location the scouter allocated to the Power Level, without a hitch.

It was a while ago, when she first ordered the construction of the grand ship, when she first admired it. It was sublime: sleek and metallic. A spear of blue icy metal to be hurtled through the stars. When she first saw it, she felt something she would never feel again, for the rest of her life. This was the exception. Its insurmountable scale was terrifyingly brobdingnagian, even the tallest of soldiers not even being visible in comparison. It spoke for itself to a great extent: so much so that, in its many journeys, it had never actually been given a name. But now? Now, it had earned its name. For it was the Valiance.

Seeing it for the first time since she had died made Wyntre give a little internal smile. She was now close enough to communicate with her voice rather than her mind, so she did just that. "I'll be in the Gravity Chamber. I've neglected my high-gravity training due to a few… minor inconveniences. I'll see you there." Wyntre then commenced to completely bypass the opening of the ship (and as a result Zexama) by using an interesting technique she learnt in hell to phase through the ship's walls and make her way to the Chamber without any of the absurd amount of hallways and elevators.

There was a familiar smell. It was the smell of achievement.

It had been so long since she had last been in this room. Struck by a sense of nostalgia, she slowly made her way to the control panel, ready to be pushed passed her body's limits. So she put it up to 150x… and barely noticed. The feeling, though, brought nice memories back. She would wait for her frially to get into the room, so that they could train and converse. The facility had many holographic projectors that she hadn't used all that much: perhaps that could be of use. Besides, they had much to talk about. What happened to Bing (she had watched it all from the Afterlife), what happened to the fractured AE, what will happen to Earth. A second invasion seemed likely. It was only a matter of time.

"Zexama, my friend," she spoke, referring to the Princess as a friend, "It has been too long."

One of the great miracles of reality was how much it hated itself. In its eternal effort to destroy itself, reality always made what shouldn't be, be. For example, Zucceta coming to power should have never happened, but it did anyway. Wyntre's murder should have never happened, but it happened anyway. Zexama's (adopted) sister should not have been murdered by Zexama's (adopted) father's successor... but reality didn't give a damn. It forced actuality to comply through brute force.

This was why there was a cookie on the '150x gravity button', despite that not making sense. For a start, there was nothing to jam the cookie into, as jam only tastes nice with bread. It also didn't make sense, of course, because there was no '150x gravity button'. However, despite this, is was firmly lodged in there anyway. Why? Because Zexama.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have no patience? If they did, then I am here to tell you that they were right."

Of course, Wyntre ignored the insult. She had received her fair share of them, of course, a good amount of those from Zexama. 'Old Hag', she was called. The irony was, of course, that Zexama was a lot older, a fact the Majin often elected to ignore. She could ignore insults because she was the Empress, and she did not stoop to actually being insulted. However, she was known for... analyzing the vibrant comments sent her way and demonstrating how idiotic they are.

"A spar, already? I've been murdered. Now, I return quite a while after, meet you in a form you've never seen before, and you want a spar: no questions asked. Typical, really. Yes, we should spar, but I have something to do first."

The Valiance was hers to control, of course. It knew who she was, and it knew to do what she said. Out of respect, one could say. "Computer. Set course for Planet Earth." she ordered politely, her attention again turning to the Majin. "It's humorous. This is the highest level of stable gravity technology can produce and yet it feels natural. You should strike first, friend."

You could see the dead planet from out the window. Oddly, without seeing the planet slowly getting further and further away, you wouldn't be able to tell you were moving at all, that was the magic of artificial gravity. Her hand pressed against the transparent pane, the damage of a great tree blatantly shown.

Normal people might have cried in her place.
Wyntre was not normal people.

"Your statement is almost as false as it is asinine. Or rather, to rephrase, it is entirely untrue. It is so utterly untrue that I have to describe how utterly untrue it is to you, despite you knowing full well how utterly untrue it is. Lest I remind you that I have out-waited stars and gods alike?" she spoke, conveniently forgetting to mention what kind of star and what kind of god she had out-waited.

Of course, Wyntre would never 'pull a quick one' and 'smash Zexama with a hit or two'. Wyntre was honest in the same way a triangle had three sides, and she had stated that Zexama was to strike first. She would not go against her word, for what would it make her if she did? Not a very good Empress. Not a very good friend.

The 'Empress' did not sense the ki of an god's daughter disappear. She did not feel the life of a friend, a sister, slither into the darkness to retreat from the terminal damage of her corporeal frame. She did not feel betrayed, she did not feel like she was being murdered by someone she would have once called a friend. She was not aware of the betrayal's repercussions, nor of its existence. However, she was aware, entirely so, that something was bugging her friend and therefore that something was bugging her.

"Not a single attack has been made and I've won already. And here I was hoping our spar wouldn't be the same as all fights with me tend to be. Anyway, you do seem… visibly bothered. Would you mind giving an explanation as to why?"

Her Power Level would soon get comfortable at about one hundred thousand. Perhaps it would be best if both of their powers were to be suppressed and equal.

"... What an odd question that was."

She briefly wondered how she was to answer such a question. There were so many factors, so many things to say, and so many outcomes. Should she say that she actually went to hell? The very fact sickened the Empress. The nerve of that big red King fellow, to send her down to hell... if such a thing were possible, it would have enraged her. She was not common street rabble, she was not a criminal low-life. She was no thieving villain, nor was she an evil conqueror. She did not, and it ought to be repeated, deserve such a punishment! But, you see, such a punishment was what she received nonetheless. No, she decided, she would neglect to mention such a thing. Her honor should not be debased because of the mistake of one fat ogre! After that, more pressing matters came up. How she came back from the afterlife was quite a story, one that couldn't be summarized well. However, before she could continue this line of thought, she spoke again. Oh.

She hadn't heard much about Rei. What she did know about her was that she was supposedly Zexama's sister (probably not biological) and that she may have been the daughter (again, probably not biologically) of the fellow on Earth, it's 'Guardian', who she had a nice telepathic chat with a while ago. That certainly explained the outburst: apparently, other people valued their family members merely because of their status as family members. What was this weird feeling coming from Wyntre's heart, though? Was it grief, was it a desire to calm a friend, was it pity? No, it was none of these things. She felt left out, actually. For the first time, she realized how little she knew about her friend's life, or her friend's friends, or her friend's adventures, or her friend's... family. You could call it selfishness if such a term suited, but such a thing is understandable so shortly after returning from death.

In hindsight, it explained why she asked how she escaped quite well.

"I was contacted by a powerful entity referred to as Egregore," she explained, skipping out on the alternate universes, messengers, games of chess and extra-dimensional doors, "I trained under him and his disciples,-" she explained further, not mentioning that these disciples were, in fact, alternate versions of herself, "-and  had an encounter with Egregore's brother, Vortigern. But I made it back. Now, while my story probably won't happen again for anyone else... remember that Koramund made it back before. Probably twice by now. There are ways."