Everything was dark, there were no sounds either, it was a plunge into the void, time meant nothing here, neither did space or any other concept that defines our universe, there was only darkness.
Then a voice softly spoke, "Are you lost, my friend?". The voice echoed through an infinite corridor and ultimately reached her ears, finally aware of herself, she was ripped away from the peace of the void and into reality.
She opened her eyes and saw a girl, she had big inquisitive brown eyes. As the rest of her senses came back she realized she was in a bright room, laying in a soft bed. The girl that had awoken her was standing at the bed's footboard and she wore a big smile that somehow warmed her heart.
“Do you remember anything?”, said the brown eyed girl. As she tried to answer, her dry throat only allowed her to expel a dry wheeze. “Of course, water”, said the brown eyed girl as she poured a glass of water from the bedside table and gently helped her drink.
As she drank, the mysterious helper spoke again, “It's okay Sana, take your time”. As that name hit her ears an eternity of memories rushed into the bedridden girl. “Mumei?” said Sana as a single tear rolled down her cheek.
“You remember!” cheerfully said Mumei as she put the glass away and hastily hugged Sana. “I was so worried… that you wouldn't remember…”, she stopped as if she didn't dare say more.
After a long hug and with a ghastly face Sana spoke “What happened?”. Mumei looked grim as she blankly stared into Sana, after a lengthy silence she answered, “We lost you… we really tried Sana, but we just couldn't…”, Mumei dropped to her knees as she held Sana's hand, “we lost so much that day”.
As time passed all of her memories began to decompress and unblur, as Mumei held her hand Sana remembered so much, both good and bad, both adventures and misfortunes, but the end still escaped her, why was she here?
As days passed Sana slowly recovered her strength, and Mumei did not leave her side, but every time Sana would try to ask about her situation Mumei would trail off into other topics or simply state that she forgot.
Eventually Sana left the room where she first awoke, she was greeted by the gardens and large open spaces of Council's headquarters, as she walked on through a tunnel made by the tree tops she reached the throne room, a large space with six chairs carefully placed at the center and matching towering statues at their backs. Sana stared at those statues and wondered what had been of her friends, only Mumei was there and there was no sign of the others having been there in a long while.
A strong conviction filled Sana's heart, she needed to know, and she knew she had to leave. As she entered the room, for the first time, Mumei wasn't there, only a note was left on the bed, “I know what you must do, I cannot bear to be there, but know you are not alone”. Sana held the note close to her heart.
Remembering her power of old, she darted away into the stars beyond the timeless space of Council's headquarters. As she crossed the universe at impossible speeds she wondered what had been of Earth, that planet had so much promise and it held so many fond memories, so Sana decided to zip by and take a quick peek at it.
Her heart was heavy and her mind couldn't stop spinning, what she saw was not the green and blue orb that she expected, instead it was a torn mass of rock, the moon was no more, as it had been shredded by what must have been a meteor rain unlike anything in the solar system. Sana could feel that the very sun was wrong, it seemed out of place, the entire local celestial bodies seemed to be in disarray. Scared and confused, Sana dashed off to finish her mission, finding Bae.
Bae was the head of Council, the oldest among them and in some ways the most powerful, her realm was hidden among the seemingly endless stretches of the void among the stars, much like the rest of council it existed in its own pocket dimension, and they had complete power over it. Sana knew this and was expecting the usual endless chaos that ruled that place, up and down meant nothing, what is wasn't and what should be, was opposite, an ever changing maze of moving walls, slides, and endless stairs, but Sana had been there before and she knew she could feel Bae's presence and track her.
Once she arrived she was shocked once more, everything was still, and the color was gone, only gray stairs and simple brownish corridors, the aura of the place was grim and Sana's heart was heavy, for it had once been such a fun place to be, but Bae was there, somewhere. After a long and boring walk Sana found a large metal door at what she guessed was the center of this realm. Sana opened the door and found Bae, resting on a desk, as if she had fallen asleep while working, she was covered in dust though, how long had she been in this dreamless dream? Sana rushed to her and at once shook her to wake her dear friend. Slowly Bae came back, her eyes lazily opened and scanned the room and her hands, which were below the desk, came up and in them she held a small orb of light. “Are you lost?”, asked Bae mindlessly as she woke, “Not anymore”, answered Sana as she hugged her friend.
The color began to return to the place, noises could be heard of loud bells, drums, slot machines, and dice rolling. Bae finally locked eyes with Sana and she could do little else than sob as they held each other. After helping her dust off, Bae spoke some strange words into the orb and at once it came to life fluttering and zipping through the room, “IRyS”, said Sana with a great sorrow in her voice, then with less determination than before Sana asked what she knew she would soon regret, “What happened? Why are you like this? Why is IRyS like that? What happened to Earth?”
Bae snapped her fingers and a massage chair appeared in front of her desk “Sit down Sana, this is gonna take a while”. Sana shyly sat down and IRyS perched on her shoulder. “It was just another day, business as usual, when we were warned of a terrible presence approaching this reality, it was an all-consuming darkness that threatened to wipe our reality”, as Bae spoke anger began seeping into her words, ”council was assembled and we managed to cast it away, defeating it was beyond us, but we made a plan and agreed that keeping it at bay was our job”. Bae stopped and stared blankly at her desk, “you died”, she said as tears slowly fell on the dusty wood of her desk, “in order to stand a chance against it we combined our strength and imbued it on you, you grew to a galaxy rendering size and with that power you opened a tear into reality and tossed the darkness away”. Bae raised her head and filled with sorrow she stared into Sana's eyes, “we thought you could take it, but your body was destroyed and the force of a trillion stars whipped away what the humans called the Andromeda Galaxy”. Sana was speechless, she could do little more than stare with dead eyes into Bae.
“For the next couple hundred years we were weakened and in disarray, we helped the humans and other lifeforms escape the destruction”, Bae's face turned white as she held her palm open. “IRyS was the first to go, as civilization was on the brink of extinction hope faded from the universe and IRyS returned to her primal state”, the orb of light then flew from Sana's shoulder and into Bae's palm. “Next was Fauna, as most life forms were whipped away she was weakened and took the form of a tree, which we planted in one of the colonies”, Sana couldn't help herself from weeping as the thought of her beautiful friend caged in a wooden prison crossed her mind. “Mumei never lost her human form, but her abilities were pretty much gone, she was a regular human for all intents, she stayed in the headquarters after the first fruitful colonization efforts”, Sana gasped in pain as she remembered leaving her friend alone as she dashed off looking for answers.
“Me and Kronii stayed in our realms, we were waiting…”, Bae paused and looked at her palm, “we hoped you would return”. Sana's pain and frustration were too big even for her boundless body, she rose from the massage chair and picked it up as if it was made of paper, she then tossed it, breaking the wall and falling into a bowling alley successfully knocking all pins and getting a celebratory automated fanfare. Bae was silent and Sana kept staring through the broken wall, she then fell to her knees, “I’m sorry” said Sana as she uncontrollably sobbed and mourned all she had lost. Bae rose from her chair and hugged her friend from behind, “there's nothing to forgive, you are here, that's all that matters”.
“I'm sorry about your wall”, said Sana still sobbing but with much more composure, “Don't even think about said bae as she helped her friend up from the floor. Bae then promptly snapped her finger and the wall was repaired and a box of tissues appeared in her hand. As Sana wiped her nose Bae continued, “We may be weakened, but we never lost hope” she said as she proudly displayed IRyS in her hand, Sana laughed a little and hugged Bae once more. “What are we going to do?” asked Sana. “I think it's time CouncilRyS gets back together,” said Bae with a cheery glee.
Without much delay, Bae and IRyS went to Kronii's realm, Sana wanted to greet her but Bae advised against it, as she knew Kronii wouldn't be prepared for such an emotional display so soon after awakening, so Sana went for Fauna. As she reached the planet she was amazed by it, much like Earth this colony had all humans needed but this was much closer to paradise than ever before, their technological advancements allowed them to finally avoid old worries such as resources and space, the galaxy was big and no longer did they fear the boundless expanse, this made Sana happy. Fauna was in a clearing surrounded by tall skyscrapers, the tree was beautiful and almost as tall as the very buildings around it. Sana stood next to its massive trunk and whispered as she gently laid her hand on it, “please Fauna, come back to us”. As she spoke those words the tree shriveled and gap among its trunk opened, there stood Fauna, still in a daze she nearly fell but Sana quickly caught her, she was naked as if she had just been born, Sana held her and whispered into her ear once more, “we need you Fauna”. A flash of light covered them and before Sana could react the tree trunk was closed and Fauna was clothed and staring straight into her eyes while still in her arms, “I missed you” said Fauna as she reached to kiss Sana on the cheek, Sana flushed and both of them giggled innocently.
Sana roughly explained to Fauna what had happened and the both of them traveled to their headquarters. As planned, they entered straight into the throne room where the rest of Council patiently waited for them. In less than a day IRyS had taken her human form, however she was still the size of a child. Kronii stared at both of them, she looked proud and refined sitting in her throne and wearing her formal clothing, she rose before anyone could speak and approached Sana, ”So, you're back”, she casually said while avoiding eye contact, “And I'm not going anywhere…Kroniinii”, as Sana answered she hugged Kronii who tried to wriggle away, but Sana's arms had the pull of a black hole that not even time could scape, and as she held her the rest of council rose from their chairs and joined the hug.
As the six of them caught up to speed, they soon realized that their abilities and strength were back to normal, or even greater than before Sana had gone missing. Bae, Kronii, and Sana, being the first of Council to manifest into existence, no longer felt the invasive forces of darkness pulling at the threats of fate and diminishing their force, Mumei was now greater than ever, as civilization had expanded among the stars and reached technological advancements beyond their dreams, this mastery over their fate had allowed civilization to properly protect and cultivate the wonders of nature, giving Fauna an increasingly growing place in the universe, and IRyS, who had been dormant for so long, had been in a period of metamorphosis, for as soon as the brief yet cataclysmic period of destruction ended, they found hope everywhere they went.
Finally Mumei told her tale, of how one starry night as she gazed into the endless expanse, Sana fell from the sky like a shooting star. As she fell Mumei casted a net into the void and caught her. “It is common to make a wish when stars fall, you were my wish Sana, and I'm glad you're no longer lost, my friend”, finally hearing Mumei tell her tale, Sana simply smiled and with the thundering voice of a supernova she said “I was never lost, or alone, I know there's no challenge we can't overcome, thank you for believing in me back then!”
And so, a new age of progress came to be, council was once again what it was always meant to be and one clear thought lingered in Sana's mind “Infinity sounds good to me, as long as you are by my side, cause somehow, the universe is fun now”.