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"She is approaching the portal, where is she going?"
"More importantly, where is it going---"
"Who is that in the way? Wait, that’s... Uaine, isn't it?"
At once, the line dropped, all of them.
Just moments later, as they all voiced their confusion and incomprehension at the sudden loss, the entire world went white---
Satya Yuga
It was to a blessed world that Lisa Wilbourn returned, blinking like a newborn.
A world that was untouched, a world that was unaffected by the problems and conflicts of Gold Morning and those times before.
It was dreamy. It was perfect.
Lisa had stepped, legs shaking and desperately trying to understand everything, out of the place she had once called home and blinked, confused at the utter... normality of the world. Cars were driving past; people were walking without concern for the fact that they could be attacked and killed by Scion any moment. Every section of unpaved ground was filled with flowers that filled the air with an unfamiliar scent like incense.
"Mum, I don't wanna!"
"James come down from that tree or so help me I'll fly up there myself!" the mother threatened even as she began floating just a few inches above the ground.
What.
Nobody was paying mind to it, either. Nobody was watching the obvious Cape mother and child, who were not even wearing masks. No, people simply went on their way, some even looked upon the scene with bemusement--- wait, was that a flying man in a suit?
Is late for work. Normally prefers to walk. Finds it embarrassing to use his power
But he wasn't wearing a mask, the man was so plain and mundane beyond that---
All humans have Parahuman powers.
She swept her eyes over a street of people, going to and from their jobs and other places. The longer she looked, the more wrong this scene looked, the screens and pieces of technology that looked relatively normal but, upon examination, were blatantly Tinkertech... the trees festooned with the flowers of water lilies and lotuses, bio-tinkered to bloom beautifully.
Vibrant holographic images, traffic wardens using telekinesis to manipulate signs and control the flow of traffic with it.
The world was dominated by powers, and there was no fear among the majority of the people she saw.
Numb, feeling as if she was in a waking dream, she had stumbled into a coffee shop. Despite the sudden normalcy of the world, this would make sense, right? Just a drink, just watching people going about their lives. A barista lit her hand on fire to heat up her coffee, a controlled jet of flame even as her companion, an affable middle-eastern man ground the beans to the finest of powder between his palms.
She patted herself down for her wallet, only to find nothing there.
"Ah... I’m sorry, can I run home to grab my wallet to pay?"
"Pay?" the woman asked, frowning.
Payment is not a concept. Nobody works for money. Payment is not necessary.
She was left standing there awkwardly, holding up the queue with coffee in hand, gawking slightly, to the point that the staff grew worried.
"You alright? You seem out of it; have you been Mastered?" Everyone was... acting concerned. Not stepping away from her in fear, not reacting as somebody should to a mastering victim. The woman behind her in the line even escorted her to a seat, a pleasant sort.
"No, I just... woke up on the wrong side of bed today."
A few people bought it, others did not. The woman behind her in the line sacrificed her place to escort her to a chair. She was middle aged, with one of those round faces perfectly suited to an overly caring auntie or teacher working with young children. She even pulled out the chair for Lisa.
"You alright hon? I have a Tinker daughter and I'm a Thinker myself, I know what it's like to sometimes space out a bit or find that disconnect."
"I'm fine." She replied automatically.
She is not lying. Is a Thinker; enhanced social awareness(?)
"Alright, I'll leave you to decompress but if you need anything, I'll be over in the corner meeting with my colleagues, alright?" The woman was... very nice. Actually, a lot of people in the room seemed to be far more friendly than she was used to, that she had experienced before... whatever happened. After all the things she had seen and experienced in her life, it felt subtly wrong to see people interacting like this.
She took a sip of her coffee.
Divine, delicious... huh, what quality of beans did this place use? This was some gourmet shit, not crappy Starbucks, or chain cafe stuff.
But what had happened? Nothing about all of this was right, had she in some way been thrown to one of the innumerable parallel Earths? Surely if power use was normalised here then Taylor would have made use of this population’s abilities for the fight with Scion...
She took out her phone, and began to search.
Scion. The results were all giving the definition of a descendant of a notable aristocratic family or notable line, the traditional definition before it came to be the name of the Golden Man.
Undersiders. That produced nothing at all.
If alarm bells were gently blaring in the background now, they were blaring in her ears by now her vision was beginning to swim as a Thinker headache increasingly announced itself like a child going at a new drum-set.
Just... what the hell was this world?
But then...
Kephri--
She who brings peace and blessings to all the world.
Creator of All. Preserver of the Cycle. Destroyer of Evil.
The Highest Judge, destroyer of the Worm.
Praise be to her all-pervading kindness.
The words on her phone screen were across the top of the results like a blaring banner, three times the size of any other results as if to try and smash her in the face like a sledgehammer.
Following it there was a comprehensive article, depicting a stylised mosaic of Taylor's face, and images of stone statues that were supposedly centuries old. It was like reading an article about some manner of ancient religious figure, as much shrouded in myth and legend as it was reality, filled with quotations from ancient scriptures and sutras from across the world.
What.
She spent so long reading that the barista asked if she wanted another drink, her eyes were stinging by the time she walked, in a numb haze, out of the cafe.
She wandered the streets of the city, of a Brockton Bay untouched by conflict, without the Crater Lake or all the damage that had been inflicted over the years. As if in a dream she walked, unable to do anything but take all in. Everyone around her was just... happy, they celebrated, there was a party going on in Lords Market as if it was some major celebration going on.
But the weirdest thing was the temple.
Actually, not just one temple, but temples, plural.
There were so many of them, temples, little shrines, statues. all of the same image, Taylor, and at each of them was a steady throng of people, fervent worshippers who all prayed and knelt in dedication. They used so many names for her, including the ones she had read about on her phone, but there were so many others... an entire religion dedicated to her. And it went back centuries as well.
"Praise the Goddess! Praise her and her ten thousand forms! Praise be to the planets that orbit by her whim, the sun that shines to illuminate her world---"
"Now now Henry, didn't the Goddess say to forever forgive those who err? Do not say her name in vain!"
"---blessings upon mankind, ten thousand blessings upon the world. Thank you, o'goddess for your blessings, thank you, o'goddess for providing salvation for all living beings."
She stood watching it all, the protestation upon the flagstones, the adoration visible upon their faces.
Their dedication is real. They know nothing else.
Even as she watched, she felt a sort of detached yet happy serenity settling over her, as if everything about the world was in some way correct. She knew that it was not real, that it was not correct, and yet she could only do a little to fight it.
Everything was just so... so... calm.
Idyllic.
There were goddamn children skipping and playing in the streets and sky, the heady perfume of the flowers was like a sweet delight. There was no conflict or trouble, nobody was looking over their shoulder constantly with suspicion and there were no prices on anything. No shortages, no homelessness. Just... a perfectly happy world filled with joy.
She returned to her home to find a young man a year or two older than her just outside of her door, the sound of his knuckle against the door still echoing down to her ears.
Probably here to---
Your neighbour now. Is not here looking to score. Is here to give you a gift. Entirely out of the good of his heart.
... Huh, she was still getting used to this perfect world...
Perfect world? It was a perfect world, wasn't it? Throughout the day every man, woman, and child that she had met had been so kind, so pleasant and helpful that she just could not quite get her head around it after her life, after Coil and the world that had been before.
"Oh, hey! I was baking brownies but I made too many, want some? They're better warm and fresh," her supposed neighbour that she had never met before said with a grin, there was a splodge of batter caught in the mans stubble but he seemed so cheerful. She accepted the box of brownies automatically.
"Blessings of the goddess upon you."
Her hands clenched, for some reason. The young man paused upon noticing.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah... yeah... I am fine."
Why was everyone so caring?
The world can only be good. The world can only be virtuous. A world ranging master effect designed to create a perfect world. There is no hatred, vanity, or evil thought; no sorrow, no fear.
As she ate the brownies, she struggled to find the terror, the nerves that she should.
It had all been washed away by the strange serenity of this world. It was all so perfect that she fell asleep without a concern.
Treta Yuga, five months later
The wheel turns.
She woke up that morning with a distinct feeling that something was different to how it was before.
Lisa could not really place it as she turned over in her bed, frowning.
Why did she feel less... comfortable than before? Just yesterday she had been doing... something, she struggled to remember quite what, the blissful serenity of her day-to-day existence had long since melded into a comfortable norm, and yet that morning she woke feeling as if the entire world was different to how it was before... and when she went out that morning it was to find subtle differences in the world.
Everything was... noticeably less perfect.
Like, she did not mind, everything was still a lot like before...
But suddenly she needed to pay for coffee, and there was much more of a feeling of... stratification. All at once there was governance, there was order and control when before everyone had worked utterly in harmony without the need for such things. She fell asleep to serenity and harmony, and woke up to the Mayor of Brockton Bay being sworn in and the establishment of a council and equivalent to the PRT... things she had practically forgotten existed.
It was like waking from a beautiful dream.
The world was still lovely, just a few small imperfections and annoyances.
Without her powers to make her special, she had gotten a job to make ends meet.
Everyone has adjusted to their powers. Conflict is growing with the weakening of the world-wide Master effect.
Why was it only her that seemed to notice that latter part?
Well, so long as it paid... although with how her previous life had gone,
Even if she got along far better with her new colleagues. Even if... she was actually rather enjoying it,
But she could not even get a job in something as basic as hospitality now, her power was not ell suited for it.
Society was forming lines and stratifying based on powers. Society, formerly harmonious was growing more and more divided, but for the most part things were still pleasant.
"... Is it me, or are everyone’s powers stronger now?" she had asked, frowning as she looked up from her phone screen, to watch a man take to the air with a great burst of air, when before Lisa had only seen him levitating around with controlled air gusts from his hands.
"Hm? What do you mean, Lisa? Of course, powers are stronger now," her co-worker asked, taking a cigarette from her mouth. Did cigarettes and alcohol even exist yesterday?
"You know... everyone seems so much stronger now..." she commented. She was not quite sure why she had joined her colleague on a smoke break, she did not smoke herself but... if Anise could have several small breaks a day for her addiction, why could Lisa not have a few minutes of (somewhat) fresh air as well.
"I mean yeah, to be expected, there’s more evil around, so of course the powers get stronger."
Is not lying. Earnestly believes 'evil' correlates to the strength of powers. The level of 'evil in the world is unrelated to powers but related to the nature of the cycle. Powers will continue to get stronger.
Wait what. But all the powers were already so strong!
"Huh?"
"... Sometimes I really wonder what sort of sheltered upbringing you had Lisa, of course things are different now, we're into the Treta Yuga now."
Everyone else within this society already knows these concepts. Was raised with them.
"... Yeah, of course, sorry. I stayed up late doing paperwork," she lied. Fortunately, her colleague, Anisa, did not pick up on her lie. "You know how it is, sometimes you just forget the most basic of things."
Anisa raised a brow.
"Uh-huh... have you hit your head any time recently, Lisa?"
"Not that I know of," she shrugged, and pretended to put the matter aside. Without that constant bliss of before she could feel her head straightening out. She had dallied and been distracted by the wonderful fancies of this world for months, living each day like some sort of lotus eater. And the worst part?
She did not feel horrified or betrayed by it all.
Even if the world was more vexing now, it was still so very pleasant that they were minor issues. She could recognise the problem and yet she did not feel panic or anger, betrayal, it was as if those emotions that she had experienced in a previous iteration of the world did not exist anymore, as if she had been remoulded to fit into this one and wasn't that in many ways a whole lot worse?
That night, she opened up her phone again and began searching for people she had previously known, or those that she had lost.
Barely any of them turned up.
Her fellow Undersiders, heroes and villains whom she had encountered both as friend and foe, next to none of them existed or remain in this world, at least publicly. But she remained, and so did Kephri. There were not even historical records of Gold Morning, of the revelation of Cauldron and its manipulations and efforts to fight Scion. There was no mention of other Earths, no Earth Gimel or Aleph, even this one... it was just... Earth.
The only earth known.
A world-wide theocracy dedicated to the veneration of a single figure, a world influenced by their grand will and forced to run in some manner of cycle. The notion should bring a certain chill down the spine, a chill she almost longed for and yet could not feel.
And yet...
Why could she not feel like she cared? Or that everything was still fine?
Dvapara Yuga, four months later
The Wheel turns
The world had become more evil, again.
Again, she felt it the moment she woke. The palpable... flaws in the world.
It was a more marked decline than before as well, it was like some great weight had settled upon her, all manner of thoughts and feelings that she had been unable to feel before were back to her. It was like emerging above the surface of the water and taking a deep gasp, except that the air was both foul and sweet at the same time. It was clarity, it was unpleasant. It was the ability to feel and do negative things with the full benefit of the freedom of choice.
The world that she emerged into from her apartment was much like the world she had left behind, the world before Gold Morning, no, before even that.
The only difference was that everybody had powers, and as a result there was so much more potential for chaos and damage, destruction and worse. In her old world, the world that she had been born into, only a small proportion of people had powers, even if a third of people could have them. But in this world, anybody could have a power that could destroy you. She kept an eye over her shoulder as she walked into work.
The PRT was out in force, pickpocketing and other crimes had escalated dramatically, not a day went by without a report from somebody in the country causing chaos. People whom she might just the previous day considered a friend seemed so different now, her next-door neighbour, who had long provided her with brownies was all moody and surly. He was trying his best, but it was as if the grim blanket of depression had suddenly been cast upon him.
He did not bake brownies anymore, nor did he occasionally come over to chat and speak as friends.
He was not the only person caught up by the resumption of 'normality' upon the world. Well, Lisa's approximation of normality.
Anisa had been put on leave. She was caught trying to alter a few documents to benefit a friend who had fallen afoul of a few rules, nothing too major, but it was enough to be put under review. And now Lisa was alone at her desk, working overtime to keep up with the demands of the world.
She almost felt the temptation to use her power as a quicker means to money, working a normal job was annoying, surely, she could put her power to use in some way... and yet, just as the world now had more powers, the risks of using them were higher. There were far more thinkers about now, far more ways to be noticed doing wrong. There was no number man anymore either, no pre-established backdoor channels.
With the arrival of the new age, such things were being set up and established. But she could not benefit from them.
Clocking out of work and emerging into the street to watch a PRT van zoom past, a fire somewhere in the distance. Surely, if Kephri did rule over this world, then why would she allow it to slip in this way? Taylor may have been judgemental; she may have slipped far from the person she once was into something almost unrecognisable by the end but still... according to her power and the way
Was it a case of not having enough power? Or enough kindness?
It was the classic trilemma question: “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
She looked towards the sky.
Increasingly the sky had darkened over the course of the cycle, during the first cycle everything had been so bright and blue, beautiful, and green, but now it was dark and grey, as if the amount of sunlight reaching her had diminished, as if the kindness and beauty had disappeared. The white buildings covered in flowers and beauty were turning grey, the flowers wilting and needing more and more care that fewer and fewer people were willing to give.
There was a shadow moving across the sun, slowly.
A Dyson sphere, surrounding 90% of the solar system’s sun, created through long ranged matter manipulation. Intentionally faces the incomplete section towards the earth to guarantee its health. Rotation of the sphere is creating the reduced sunlight.
Mass harvesting of energy through tinkertech technologies that translates 99% of all solar radiation into usable energy. Kephri will not run out of energy.
Presence of advanced megastructures and cycle in progress will deter simmilar entities of Scion from interferring with Earth.
So 'god' was omnipotent, but still allowed this world to come to be, to slide further and further along the cycles. Why? She gave infinite blessings and kindness for the majority of the year, and yet things continued to slide forwards... Taylor was many things, but she had always been a pessimist, a realist. She had assumed evil first due to the things that had happened to her, and only continued to do so. Was this all some manner of purgatory, then?
Walking down the street, all the same evils of the world that had been present in her old life were again part of her consideration. People looked over their shoulders, they worried about money and petty concerns, there was jealousy and envy again.
The Satya Yuga lasted for five months.
The Treta Yuga, for four.
Everybody at the temples had said that the current would last for two.
And the final Yuga was just one month... although nobody wanted to discuss it much, regarding it in much the same way one might speak about something foul and unpleasant, still overly focused on the here and now. But if the world had been slipping and sliding away from the 'perfection' of the first, then she could hardly imagine that the fourth and final would be pleasant...
Kali Yuga, two months later
The wheel turns
The final part of the cycle was so much worse than anything she could have imagined.
The sky had darkened, clouds of red hid away the sun, plant life withered and died, rotting away as water turned foul and vile. The world was bleak and black, and that was before all the 'monsters' came. In the space of one week, the world had gone from a normal, sinful world into a vision of hell.
"C'mon Lisa! We have to get to the sanctum!"
Anisa, she pulled Lisa along as they ran, ran away from Brockton Bay to the one safe place left. The streets had fallen into open panic, screams and chaos dominated even as law keepers and government attempts to direct everyone where to go, such societal rules collapsed. Now it was just instinct that guided everyone in the same direction.
It was almost like an Endbringer battle...
Except that the entire world's population was heading to one place, a miraculous place rather than Endbringer shelters.
As the Kali Yuga dawned upon the world, the clouds had parted to reveal the floating Palace of Kephri, hanging high in the sky not far from the city, and where the light touched the ground was a land of milk and honey, a blessed lake and land in which the monsters could not be born, in which Humanity would hide and weather the storm of the Kali Yuga. Well, weather it for the most part, seeing how they still had to fight and defend themselves.
Defend themselves from the monsters.
Except they were not monsters... because Lisa recognised some of them.
Villains that she had encountered throughout her life, all of them warped into horrific parodies of their past selves, unthinking, rampaging---
Judged as ‘evil’ by Taylor. Now they serve as the ultimate test for the 'good.'
And the Endbrigners as well, they were there.
All of them. Not just the three that had been around when the Undersiders first formed, oh no, all twenty or so. The leaders, the muscle, the 'bosses' as it were that the faithful sacrificed and threw themselves against, the drivers of conflict and despair. The battle was continuous, the virtuous and just huddling beneath the Goddesses palace, taking it in turns to fight off the infinite hordes, joining together... It was like a month-long Gold Morning except instead of Scion it was villains and monsters from her past life, it was warped monstrosities no longer recognisable as humans who surged forth to rip apart and do war with mankind.
With everyone’s powers at their maximum strength, all manner of strange effects happened, the battles were intense, worthy of some manner of epic poem or novel...
Was that the point?
A test. A means by which to explore powers after an extended period of peaceful exploration of uses; the Entities focused entirely on conflict. Growth through conflict is harmful. Conflict based growth accounts for a lower proportion of power exploration. The purpose of the Cycle remains unchanged. Taylor desires to find the answer whilst maintaining humanity and guaranteeing its future---
She was just a Thinker; she was behind the lines.
Days upon days of listening to the distant conflict and battle, listening to accounts of individual heroism and strife, struggle, and pain. Around her, others who cold not directly contribute did so in others ways, providing communications, and for those who could do nothing else---
"Preserve us!"
"Save us!"
"Forgive us our sins!"
They prayed.
Prayed to the deity far above them on their shining, floating white platform. Lisa could not find it in herself to do so, because she knew that god was a farce. Kephri was never a god, even with all this power, but she herself was powerless to convince others of the same... already she had seen a number of people be ripped apart and killed for the temerity of judging the goddesses’ actions. The Kali Yuga did not just bring monsters into the world, but the worst of human nature as well.
Taylor has created a world in which humanity is provided for, where 'evil' is performed by choice. All humans know the price of being 'evil' and the punishment they shall receive. Incentivises the avoidance of 'evil' deeds.
What a divine farce!
When did her power care about good and evil!
People were turning on one another, desperation brought out the worst, food was running out, there were just a few more days of this Yuga left, right? And yet despite that, despite that all, in desperate times, desperate people turned to equally desperate measures. Lisa did not join the praying masses or those who were fighting to hold back the hordes of monsters, instead she sat, arms around her knees staring upwards at the immense floating structure above them.
Taylor had always been a judgemental person.
And with time, she had spiralled.
They all had.
Was this just the natural course of things?
Anisa's hands were around Lisa's neck, her colleague, a person who... slowly, had been starting to become a friend was trying to strangle her to death, thinking that Lisa had turned on her, had stolen the last of the rood rations between them.
In the distance a bright pillar of light was expanding, beaming down from the floating palace of Kephri.
Its brightness swallowed up the faithful, the sinners, the monsters, obliterating, disintegrating.
'Evil' will be removed from the world by the light.
Lisa could only watch as the pillar of light grew brighter and larger, eyes unblinking, until it crashed down upon them.
Her thoughts were swept away like dead leaves within a tsunami as the light consumed her.
Satya Yuga, Cycle two
The cycle begins anew.
She awoke again.
Once more to a world of bliss.
Once more within the Satya Yuga.
Lisa stared at the ceiling, numb.
Her skin was unblemished, despite the fact that just moments ago to her mind, Anisa had been throttling her, had been trying to take her life. Her bed was the same, the same delightful pleasant and comfortable mattress that she had enjoyed in the previous cycle.
What...
What was this horror?
She emerged into the same perfect world, but wiser... and able to see the differences. There were people missing from the first cycle, the neighbour boy with the brownies was still there, but despite her best attempts to track her down... Anisa was gone---
She gave into her evil nature multiple times.
All of this, a test.
There was less people in the world this time---
The white light removes the impurities of the first cycle. Taylor will create a perfect world. Repeated cycles will continue to purify the world and refine the cycle.
A test of human nature and of powers, passing judgement on human beings when faced with both the good and the bad, the beautiful and the horrific. Pursuing an inevitable goal, everyone would remember the previous cycle, but none of them remembered who they had lost, only Lisa could remember Anisa and the other, transitory figures from the previous cycle. Gone forever, would they turn up during the next Kali Yuga to fight against humanity?
And what’s more...
"... Why, Taylor?" she asked the empty air.
I will create a perfect world.
Isn't that right, Lisa? A world without evil and strife, and I shall find the answer without destroying the world.
Scion could not imagine a better way. I can.
She should feel horror yet... she didn't.
She was trying so hard to resist the feelings of joy created by this blissful world.
Everything was alright, and yet it was horrible! She didn't want this, and yet after everything from before Kephri... she wanted to just recover and relax, already thoughts of Anisa and the people who had been removed from the world were fading away.
Even if her rational brain was shouting at her she found herself smiling happily and going to get coffee.
The world was so perfect again... so why did she feel like screaming?