Chapter Text
The sound of an alarm clock rang through her ears; a clear indication that she was to be awake by now. Eclipse arose up from her very comfortable bed, and took a step on the cold hardwood floors of her bedroom. Now facing her calendar, Eclipse noticed something that she had forgotten; it was her fifteenth birthday. “Nice!” She exclaimed before stretching out her arms and walking towards the door. The door creaked open, and she stepped out into the kitchen.
To her surprise, it was almost completely silent, minus the fans whirred in the background. “Might as well head to the living room couch—“ she said while already making her way to her destination, before being abruptly interrupted with a choir of voices—her parents and grandparents—in her living room greeting her happy birthday. She glanced around, all the while noticing the few gifts left for her on the table, and the birthday cake, in all its fondant and icing glory.
Time flew by quickly, as she was mostly preoccupied with talking to herself in the bathroom mirror, until one confusing interaction came. Her grandma walked up to her, to offer a special gift that she wanted to give personally. “Here you go, dearie” her grandma opened with a smile, and handed her a box with a small white ribbon keeping it from opening accidentally. “Open it when you’re alone, it’s a special gift, just for you”, she was told, and wait she did, till it was the end of the party, and the sun was setting. As much as she wanted to open it, Eclipse was genuinely curious as to why her grandmother had given it to her personally, considering how the two had never really been close.
After helping out with the post-party cleanup, Eclipse walked to her room, gifts and mystery box in hand. Setting all the gifts aside, she opened them one by one, reading the cards, and taking off the wrappers to see the gifts; socks and pencils mostly, obviously leaving the mystery box for last. After putting away all of the other opened gifts, Eclipse was brimming with curiosity and excitement for what was in the gift from her grandmother. “Maybe it’s a necklace, or a ring?” She thought about the many possibilities of what it could be, but came to the quick conclusion, “I’ll just have to open it and find out!”, while she carefully untied the ribbon and opened the box.
Surprisingly, it was neither of her guesses, and was a vintage pocket watch, with sparkling purple accents, and a smooth silver exterior. The inside seemed just as refined as the exterior, and also featured a crystalline purple finish. Judging from how it looked, it was probably mechanically powered, instead of the more modern battery powered ones.
She loved, no, adored this gift. “It’s beautiful!” She exclaimed, “This is sick! Wait.. do I have to adjust the time displayed so I can actually use it? Oh probably, I might as well.” She mumbled before pulling on the dial at the top. Suddenly, the pocket watch began to emit a mysterious purple glow, before properly adjusting itself.
“What the hell was that?” She whispered under her breath, with an extremely weird gut feeling, and a strange tingling sensation at her fingertips. “Woah, did I just get cool powers?” She guessed, surprisingly accurately, before actually noticing the book below where the pocket watch was, conveniently hidden under some wrapping paper. She took it off, and removed the concealed hardcover book from the box. It had a smooth leather cover, with ‘a guide to your powers’ etched into it. “Oddly specific, but I’ll take it!” She declared, before opening the book, and reading through its contents, testing out trick after trick. It mostly contained different small things she could now do, related to either teleportation via shadows, and shadow manipulation. What caught her eye however, was the 157th page, that was an explanation and guide of teleporting yourself to other places, worlds, universes!
“What?? Oh I’ve got to try that!” She exclaimed before immediately trying to teleport herself, completely missing the second page next to it. She was progressing fast, and within 30 minutes became able to teleport to the other side of her room. “Wait, maybe I need specific intentions to teleport to another universe… Where would I go anyways?” She asked herself in contemplation before getting a totally not dangerous plan. What if I went to a fictional universe? She asked herself, before landing on one relatively quickly; Epic the musical. Now with powers and a will, she made her way to the other universe. She felt herself fading into her own shadow, a cold chill coming over her. Darkness enveloped her, fully covering her vision and letting her visibly disappear from her bedroom. She could only describe this experience in one word: “Cool”. However, the second page held important information that she probably needed for where she was going.
In the blink of an eye, she was now in Ancient Greece, on the top of some hill nearby what she hoped to be Ithaca. “Woah! I wonder what point in the story I’m in!” She said, before following a random path leading to the nearby kingdom. On the way, she passed by many merchants and travellers, who all stared intensely at her, thanks to her outfit. She stood still after realization dawned upon her. “Right, Ancient Greece. Of course I stand out, I’m wearing clothes from another era entirely! Sheesh, how’d I forget?” She said under her breath, before deciding to walk just a bit closer to have a look at how it was like at the time when Odysseus existed, before thunder clouds surrounded her.
“Oh boy.” She said even quieter, before a gleaming strike of lightning struck near her feet; she was sure that the next to come would hit her directly. This lightning was different from what she knew, as it flashed more than one color; a divine hue. That only meant one thing; divine intervention. She was about to be smited with lightning by none other than Zeus. Unwilling to deal with the situation, Eclipse smartly decided to teleport the hell outta there, but unluckily for her, another lightning strike was going straight toward her as she disappeared into the shadows. Eclipse blocked her face with her forearms, which wasn’t a bad move, as the lightning struck her just before she fully teleported away from Ancient Greece.
With a flash of light, the powerful impact spread across her body, as she recoiled onto what felt like the ground, and screamed in pain, but this time surrounded by darkness. A constant ringing filled her ears with a lot and no noise at all, leaving her disoriented. Where the lightning bolt hit, she felt a burning ache spread across her right forearm. She groaned as she laid on the ground in pain for what felt like an eternity of suffering. After a couple minutes of writhing agony, she was able to slowly get back to her feet. “What was that?” She asked, voice sore, but no one was there to answer her.
She realized that she was in what the book called the shadow realm, where time passes differently than outside, and accelerated her healing. It was the space separating everything, the wall between fiction, reality, and any alternate universes. She also liked the quiet. There was no one to judge her, just her and her thoughts. It was a kind of peace that was rare to find. After a while of sitting on the ‘ground’, she got up, and checked her arm. A lightning scar, shimmering a faint golden color, was visible. “A reminder to not be dumb I guess..” she said, softly this time to avoid hurting her throat any further. Rolling back down her long sleeve, she slowly teleported back to the comfort of her own room, before curling up into a ball in her bed. It was already night time, and she was definitely tired.
She awoke the next day alone in the silence of her room. Her parents would be out and not return for a week, she learnt, as she read through her messages on her phone. She had no plans for the whole day, and had nothing to do, so she decided to actually read the guide book she was given. “Oh… THIS COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED?” She exasperatedly exclaimed while reading the second part—page 158—which stated that this type of teleportation was quite literally against the rules of the universe, and that if she were to teleport anywhere other than her home world, that any divine being would automatically hold some level of hostility against her, mainly to get her to leave and to go back to her origins. Along with the fact that the strength of the lightning strikes during ‘celestial storms’ depend on the involvement of said divine beings in the plot/universe of the world she travelled to.
As she properly read through the book, she learnt even more about her powers, including what to not do. However, this time around, another page caught her eye; the 786th page, which stated that as long as she has her powers, she’ll be immortal, starting her first use of the magic.
“WHAT?” She shouted, realizing that she should’ve read the book before doing anything rash. Eclipse had just inevitably doomed herself from the start, and never knew. “Congrats Eclipse.” She said dead-panned. “You’ve just won the award for dumbest person ever.”
Tired and bored of moping on past mistakes, Eclipse decided that she’d just make the most of it, considering she was now stuck with it for the rest of her now extremely long life. Exhaling, she flopped once more onto her bed. “Might as well have fun with it..” she mumbled before changing into better clothes, shoving her phone and wallet into her pockets and teleporting to a nearby mall. “If I’m going to suffer, I’d at least like to look good.” She stated, before walking into a random clothing store.
“Something that’s versatile across a wide enough range of time should be good..” she mumbled, going through rack after rack before stumbling across a rack of black trench-coats. “Jackpot.” She whispered, while taking one her size, and paying for it at the cashier. Afterall, 25,99$ was cheap if anything, especially after a 20% discount.
Eclipse slowly browsed the many stores in the mall before getting an outfit that suited her taste, and what’d make her stick out less during her travels. It consisted of a greyish blue vest on top of a white button up dress shirt, with a navy blue pair of stretchy formal pants, topped off with a black trench-coat, and black work boots. Eclipse folded them all and put them in one shopping bag, before going into a stall in the girls washroom to teleport back home without getting caught. Mission success.
Suddenly, an unmistakable ringtone pierced the silence, and she rushed to pick up her phone. Eclipse grabbed her phone and checked the notifications at the lock screen ‘3 new notifications from Mother’.
Taking a deep breath, Eclipse clicked onto the most recent one to open the messaging app, only to be reminded of why she ever considered leaving in the first place. The message read: “We got a 50% off pricing for our stay if we stayed for more than three weeks, so me and your father will be staying at the resort till Christmas break! See you then!”
Eclipse sighed before heading to her room and flopping onto her bed. “I should have known..” she whispered. “It’s not the first time I’ve had to survive more than a month by myself, but I know that I can’t skip class no matter how hard I wish..”
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Around one week has passed since Eclipse’s initial attempt to traverse universes. Ever since she almost got smited by Zeus himself, Eclipse has been determined to not almost die again. “This time,” she declares, “I won’t get hurt again.”
“Maybe if I had better reflexes, I’d have been able to teleport out of danger before getting hurt..” Eclipse pondered, before getting an idea to avoid getting hurt; practicing teleporting on command. As usual, her parents were out on a ‘couple vacation’ so she was left home alone for about a month, giving her a lot of time to work on her newly acquired skills.
Eclipse was dead set on getting better reflexes, and decided that because of how she needed more focus to traverse universes, that she’d get the best practice out of practicing universe-hopping. According to the book, she also learnt that the power of the lightning strikes depends on how long she stayed and the personality of the main god, or head honcho of immortals there. “As strange as it sounds, it is what it is.” Eclipse thought to herself as she read that passage.
Using her deductions based on her last attempt and her guide book, Eclipse concluded that her next attempt should be to try to go to another piece of media she liked; Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Unfortunately for her, as she concentrated on teleporting, she suddenly sneezed, which broke her concentration, and in turn went to a completely different universe that she didn’t know. “Damn it!” She exclaimed annoyedly once she appeared.. wherever she was. “At least now I know that I also resemble the artstyle of whatever universe I’m in..” she sighed sadly, while moving around what seemed to be Lego hands. The artstyle was unrecognizable to her; Lego but 2D? Now she really didn't know her whereabouts.
She ended up deciding to explore her surroundings, and found herself in a bustling city centre filled with crosswalks and roads, resembling Shibuya crossing. She walked around, until she was in a somewhat quieter area, still with cars and people, but definitely quieter than the initial city center. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted some spiky haired guy with a red ribbon in his hair, and a red staff with golden accents.
The staff was so well made that it caught even Eclipse’s eye, and so she acted upon her thoughts. “Hey, nice prop! Did you make it yourself?” She asked curiously as she walked towards the stranger waving directly at him. Surprisingly enough, she watched as his face shifted from a confused expression to realization, before he replied to her question. “No, no, this isn’t just a prop, this is The Sun Wukong’s legendary staff!” He exclaimed, wielding it in cool different poses as he spoke, adding lots of emphasis on his statement, but Eclipse was not convinced at all. In fact, although the enthusiasm was in fact genuine, she couldn’t believe it. “Oh really? Prove it.” She stated demandingly. “Let me hold it.” Shocked, the guy responded, “Nuh uh!” While crossing his arms, and still gripping onto the staff. “I won’t steal it, promise. And plus, if it truly is as you say, then I probably wouldn’t be worthy of holding it, and would have to drop it on the ground, so you’d get it back either way, prop or not.” Eclipse reasoned, grin slowly growing on her face. “Oh it’s on.” The stranger nodded before handing it to her. “So much for the staff.” Eclipse huffed as she wielded it with ease, before handing it back to him, and walking away. “See ya mystery boy!” She shouted before making a quick right turn and vanishing into the shadows, leaving the guy shocked. Gazing up, Eclipse took note of how quickly the storm clouds started rolling in. Any other calls to her name, Eclipse missed completely, as she teleported almost immediately after making the turn into an alleyway.
Now back at home in her room, only 2 hours had passed. Now, Eclipse knew more about what she could do, and learnt that time is pretty much parallel between universes, like an infinite number of clocks, ticking in sync. This left her even more excited for her next adventure.
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This time, a more experienced Eclipse would attempt a successful adventure to another universe.
Ready for her next adventure, Eclipse actually wore the outfit she had bought in the past as a test run to see if it was actually useful. Now, the only test that remained was the actual teleportation, and Eclipse was fully prepared for it. She had limited all distractions, and had even traced a few transmutation circles in a notebook that she kept in her pocket, now, it was time to actually try. With the same destination as last time—Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood—Eclipse was determined to succeed.
Now used to teleporting, she traveled in the blink of an eye; one moment in her room, the next in some alleyway in what she guessed was east Amestris. Stepping into the main roads, Eclipse found herself at a crowded street market, which made it easier to blend in, however, it didn’t help that she couldn’t do anything too suspicious, especially within the crowd, or else this trip would end up just like her first attempt, painful.
Walking with the flow of the crowd, Eclipse swiftly observed the vendors and customers in the street while slowly making her way towards an opening to what seemed like a thick forest. She now knew two things, that she could understand the residents of Amestris, ultimately eliminating the issue of a language barrier, and that her outfit pretty much fit in, as she had gotten much less attention towards herself. Now, there was only one question that remained, could she execute a successful transmutation?
If she were to succeed, it’d prove that she was actually able to gain access to use certain abilities depending on where she was, but if she failed, she’d have to test the waters and see for herself what she could do. Call it an experiment if you will. Unlike all of her other questions, surprisingly enough, the book didn’t mention the possibility, nor did it deny whether she could or couldn’t. Eclipse was also curious to see if she’d be able to do it without a transmutation circle, although she didn’t exactly have her hopes up for her success in this portion. Worst case scenario, she’d be sent straight to the Gate and Truth, but the chances were low, and Eclipse didn’t mind the risk. Now deep in the forest she saw earlier in the dead of night, notebook in hand, it was time for her to actually perform alchemy.
Ripping out a page from her notebook with a transmutation circle, Eclipse gently placed it on the ground before preparing herself. “Whabam!” she exclaimed at the same time as she set both her hands on the transmutation circle and bracing herself. With a flash of fluorescent blue light, Eclipse couldn’t do anything other than stare as the circle seemed to start glowing red, and what resembled an eye opened from it. “Oh shit.”
Before she knew it, white light blinded her eyes. Eclipse blocked her face with her arms, but once her eyes had gotten acclimatized to the pure white surroundings, she had realised that she probably should’ve executed her plan a little more carefully.
“What a surprise, an otherworldly visitor~” Truth grinned.
At this point in time, there was only in one thought that passed through Eclipse’s mind repeatedly; BARGAIN, BARGAIN, BARGAIN! I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE-!
“Ahahah… hi. So umm.. whaddya say we make a deal? You let me hang around in Amestris and use alchemy, and you can take whatever’s equivalent to that!” Eclipse reasoned, slightly nervous. Surprisingly, Truth agreed to her offer on one condition:
“No take-backsies!” Truth laughed, before gesturing down at her legs.
“What!?” Eclipse watched in horror as both of her legs seemed to dissolve with the air, if there even was any, before being pulled into the Gate with hundreds, no, thousands of hands. Suddenly, lights flashed before her eyes as information came at her faster than she could initially understand.
Once she regained consciousness, she found herself on the forest floor, which was obviously not a good spot to bleed out. The spot where her legs used to be started to sting with each passing second, throbbing with the cold wind. Inevitably, Eclipse did the only thing she knew to do, teleport away just like in Ancient Greece, and before she knew it, she found herself in the shadow realm once again.
Even though there wasn’t light, Eclipse had gained enough courage to look at what she’d lost, even as stupid of a plan as it was. She felt nauseated at the sight—both her legs from the knee down were gone, blood staining her pants. Eclipse laid down once more, resting her head on what was probably the floor. She was too weak to cry in pain, but still somehow able to stay conscious. Eclipse couldn’t help but smile slightly with the irony of the situation. She had gone to Amestris to run away from her old life, and now, she’s lost the ability to even run. She had no choice but to wait for the wound to close on its own because of her accelerated healing in the realm, and it wasn’t like she’d planned on going to a hospital so it worked in her favor anyways. From there she had two possiblilities; lose too much blood and die, or heal just enough to close the wound. Although she didn't like her odds, Eclipse had no other choice but to put her life into the hands of luck and fate.
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What seemed like hours of agony passed, as Eclipse slowly regained her strength in the shadows, or at least enough to sit up. She wasn’t really sure what to do at first before realizing that she could just get the materials to make her own prosthetic considering she could use alchemy without a circle, which made her life so much easier. Now, she just had to figure out how to get them, and just a day later, she had figured out a plan. Sticking her hand out a portal, Eclipse sent the portal to a hardware store before grabbing a huge pole of galvanized square steel, slowly pulling it into where she sat and doing the same with getting her phone from her room. She now was sitting with an entire pole of galvanized square steel and her cellphone which somehow still had access to the internet. She then repeated this process with just about everything else she needed, whether it was food, water, or more materials
Googling Finding a blueprint of prosthetic legs was an easy task, and now, Eclipse with more or less all the materials she needed, was eager to start walking again. She inhaled deeply before clapping her hands together and setting it onto the galvanized square steel, fabric and carbonfiber, a crack of blue lightning contrasting in the dark realm. The galvanized square steel then instantly turned into the different components for the two steel prosthetics, and it was now just a matter of assembly like a piece of Ikea furniture.
Hours passed as Eclipse assembled her prosthetics like a Lego set before finally being able to actually put it on what was left of her legs, its suction and inner mechanisms holding a tight grip on her thigh. She was honestly surprised at how well it worked, considering how she made it herself and how she had used a concept inspired on something so improvised. Although the mechanisms were the trickiest part, Eclipse had more or less figured out how to make the knees and ankles function in a way that looked natural enough, which was fine for her.
Standing up, she ran a few laps and did some cartwheels as a test. As unathletic as she was, Eclipse also knew for sure that her legs needed to stay on her for long enough, and look realistic enough for no one to notice her missing both her legs knee down. She was glad to say that her first creations worked surprisingly nicely, and looked absolutely sick. Now that she looked more or less the same minus the blood stained pants, the fact that she was missing a part of both of her legs, and that it still ached a little, Eclipse was ready to go back home.
Teleporting to her bedroom, Eclipse changed into less bloody clothes, and threw the stained ones into the washing machine. Inevitably, the stubs of what remained of her legs already started to ache even more, so she took it as a sign that she should probably rest. It was a long day, and Eclipse still had 6 more days to herself.