((Ok, first timer on the writting challenge.
This is a story about one of my alts, Twilight Zoe. Some folks might remember a story a did a while back called, Twilight in Paragon, it's about how Zoe's parents died during the Rikti war. The parts of this story in italics are copied and pasted from that story as flashbacks. The theme song for Zoe, in case some folks don't recoginize it, is Ode to my Family by the Cranberries. Enjoy.
))
Understand the things I say
Dont turn away from me
Cause I spent half my life out there
You wouldnt disagree
Dyou see me, dyou see
Do you like me, do you like me standing there
Dyou notice, dyou know
Do you see me, do you see me
Does anyone care
The small sixteen year old girl stood atop the roof a red brick building looking out over the area of Paragon City that was known as Skyway City. She serveyed her surroundings, her former home.
Great patches of the sky were blocked from view by the multitude of highways that etched across the neighborhood. Buildings huddled under them, cars moved across them, and the lonely wondered the streets hiding in their shadows.
This was the place they had died. This was the place their lives had changed forever. This was where her parents had made their last stand against the invading hordes bent on distruction.
Zoe crossed the street, toward one particular building directly in front of her. She was no longer the six year old girl inside that building anxiously waiting for her parents to return. Now she was Twilight Zoe. Now she was a hero...just like them.
It looked about that same. The brick facade, the faded grey steps leading to the entrance. The green and white awning. She looked up the face of the building and could see the window that once was her home. The room where she last saw her family. Her mind travled back in time, as if it were only yesterday...
Arika smiled at her daughter as Zoe looked up at her, fear in her eyes. The small purple skinned child leapt up and raced to her mother, clinging to her legs desperately. Her small spaded tail whipping back and forth in anxiety. Arika stroked her shoulder length hair.
"It's Ok dear, daddy and I are patrolling the block, nothing will get past us." She turned to look at Samantha.
"Sam, any word on who or what they are, it's hard to follow the comms out there." She asked.
Sam shook her head, "Nothing specific yet, but from what folks are saying, they sound alien."
Unhappiness, wheres when I was young
And we didnt give a damn
cause we were raised
To see life as a fun and take it if we can
My mother, my mother she hold me
Did she hold me, when I was out there
My father, my father, he liked me
Ol he liked me, does anyone care
She walked across the street after deftly leaping to the ground below her. She walked up to the building and entered. It was now worn down and ratty. It smelled of mildew. She ascended the stairs until she reached the floor she had once shared with her family.
The hall was dark, only sporadic flickering lights pulsing before her. She moved with the grace of a trained warrior to the apartment that had once played with dolls in. Dolls, she could remember dolls, just barely...
She stood before the door. She reached out with her lavander hand and touched it. A lavander hand so like her mother's. She remembered her mother's lavander hands holding the brush she used to pull through Zoe's hair while they sat in the living room talking about what it would be like when she was older.
She held her hand on the face of the grimey wooden door and remembered the night her parents had discussed what was to come next...
She looked up into his eyes, "Deac, I want her to be safe. I want to help out the other people in need. I can't turn my attention to others when I'm worried about Zoe."
"Ok, so what do you suggest? It doesn't sound like any part of the city is safer than any other, where do you think she'll be safe....oh wait..."
"Deac, honestly hon, it's perfectly safe, I mostly grew up there." She cut him off. "They are like family to me. I'd never send her somewhere I thought there was even a remote chance she could be in danger."
Deacon looked into her eyes, "Babe, it's another dimension! Don't you think that's a bit extreme?"
Arika shook her head, "Not in the slightest. It's another dimension not currently being invaded by gross wrinkled pink aliens blowing up the city." She countered.
Deacon nodded, "Agreed, but...it's just...she'll be so far away...and I couldn't get to her I needed to." He whispered the last part.
Arika hugged him tightly, "I know, but trust me, I will be able to get her back once this is all over. She can stay with Zuriel's tribe, they will look after her like they looked after me."
Deacon closed his eyes and breathed heavily, "Ok." He whispered, "Get her to safety, then we take back our city so we can bring her back." He clinched his teeth.
Understand what Ive become
It wasnt my design
And people everywhere think
Something better than I am
But I miss you, I miss
cause I liked it, I liked it
When I was out there
Dyou know this, dyou know
You did not find me, you did not find
Does anyone care
Zoe Barnes pushed the door open, motes of dust scurried across the scrapped wooden floor. She stepped into the apartment. This had been home. This was where family had happened. Then it was gone. Pink fleshy aliens had taken it away. A small six year old girl had been ripped out of this world, this apartment, this future, this family, and taken to a place of purpetual twilight. A place of love and surrogate family, but still a place of twilight. A place that wasn't this place.
She walked across the floor, eyes casting about the empty rooms. Her brain, trained by the Unari as a warrior, plotted possible escape routes if attacked while in here. She shook her head, this was not a hunt. This was what was home. She couldn't help being the young woman she had become, but she longed for the young woman she was supposed to be.
She remembered her mother leaving her in the village with Zurial's tribe. She would be safe there from the invaders. Zurial would take care of her until her mother could return for her, once the danger had passed in their world. Her father had promised they would move heaven and earth to make sure she would be home as quickly as possible.
She watched her mother disappear in a wink. A wink that was her power. A wink that opened a door to another dimension, their dimension, their home. She watched her mother wink out of her life and began the wait for her return.
Midnight Traveler focused her mind on the hero and prepared to open a portal, pulling her to safety. The Deacon, up on the hill, had paused long enough to look down and see the raiding party moving on the survivors. He had grabbed three other melee heroes and they were racing down the hill to help protect them. He caught sight of Arika preparing to pull the fire controlling hero out of harms way. He shouted as he raced forward, "Arika....behind you!!"
Arika thought she heard Deacon's voice, but was so intent on saving this hero, she couldn't focus on what he said. As she could feel the portal beginning to open she felt a warm wave pass over her shoulder and down into her stomach. It was relaxing as the warmth spread out, but when her eyes quickly looked down she saw a large silver blade coming from her stomach and protruding out from her, the edges glowing a sickly green.
Unhappiness was when I was young
And we didnt give a damn
cause we were raised
To see life as fun and take it if we can
My mother, my mother she hold me
Did she hold me, when I was out there
My father, my father, he liked me
Ol he liked me, does anyone care
Does anyone care
Zoe walked back to the room that had once been hers. The barrien emptiness of it overwhelmed her. She dropped to her knees and began sobbing. Her hands covered her face as wetness played across her fingers. This was not the way of the warrior....but she was not a warrior...she was a sixteen year old girl.
"Mommy...." she sobbed, wishing that in some way it was possible for that mere word to cause her to materialize before her. She had waited so long in that place for them to come back for her.
Even though she had discovered she had the same teleporting powers her mother had, and eventually found her own way home, she was still waiting for them to come for her.
"Daddy..." she sobbed again, yearning to feel his warm hands as he picked her up and placed her on his shoulders.
She had gotten the full story from Antonio Nash at the GIFT office, she knew in her mind that they had died defending the city agaisnt the Rikti. She knew they had saved so many during their fight...but they had not saved her...she was still that six year old girl waiting for them to wink back.
"Yes," Mystic Dawn sighed, "there, there it is. I see..." His voice trailed off as a harsh bluish white ball of energy slammed into his back. His body arched for a moment as the bolt burst through his chest, singeing his robes and vaporizing his organs. As quickly as it happened his body fell forward, onto the burning bowl of herbs and blood, sending it skittering off to the side. The swirling fumes flashed briefly as Deacon caught a glimpse of Arika's Shadow Realm.
He could see the twilight sky and the small white sun off in the distance, winking like an overly bright star. He almost thought he could see a village in the distance and shadowed figures with a blue tent to their skin walking around. The entire vision winked out with a blast of magical energy as the spell disappaited and lost structure.
Deacon screamed out into the night, "NO!!!"
His scream was short lived as three energy blasts from aliens concealed around him and Mystic Dawn, slammed into his own body from different angles. Vaporizing his spinal column, liver, and kidney, as they passed through him. Deacon fell to the ground before the last breath had even left his body.
After the sobs had finally stopped, Zoe dropped her hands to her side. She looked around the room again, her vision blurred from her tears. She weakly rose to her feet. The closet door before her was standing slightly ajar. She walked toward it.
It had been her closet. It had been full of pretty dresses, bright colored shoes, warm winter coats, but now it was just another empty room. She noticed a crumpled piece of paper sitting the dusty corner. She reached out and plucked it from the gloom, not certain why.
She opened it slowly and smoothed it out. A shocked wimper escaped her mouth. She stood alone in an empty room, of an empty apartment, in a run down building, of a forgotten section of the city, and started at a small piece of white paper with three stick figures drawn crudely on it. The figures baring the names, "Mommy", "Daddy", "Zoe" written with black crayon across the top.
She clutched the paper to her chest, smiling at the ceiling as tears streamed down her face and whispered, "Thanks Mom and Dad, I got it."
