Science and Sorcery: The Next Dream

"Torika…"

"maaaa… wha?"

"Torika, please open your eyes,"

Torika cracks her eyes open, the light piercing her eyelashes as her other five senses kick in. She opens up her eyes all the way to find herself standing in the center of a coliseum-like room with the walls all lined with medieval-style doors with heavy iron rings for knobs. Torika feels the magical aura around her, and to no surprise of her own, she recognizes this place, as if having seen it coming already.

"Y'know, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same," Torika calls out, her voice echoing out through the entire spacious world. She swivels her head around, looking for the inevitable figure of…

"Torika?"

Torika nearly trips over as she turns back to confront the voice coming from behind her. In the same motion, she whips forward her arm, summoning up a large emerald staff with a silver globe-like apparatus on the end.

The globe's surface folds in on itself, condensing into a ring rotating about the same axis as the globe, and making the device at the end of the staff appear like a gyroscope. At the same time, four jewel-like figures appear out of the hollow globe and begin to move about in intricate patterns. Three of them, an amber sun, a sapphire moon, and a golden star, orbit around the globe like moons around a planet, while the fourth jewel, a ruby heart, rotates in place along with the silver ring.

"Jeri… I should've known," Torika comments, pointing her staff aggressively at the throat of a tall figure with pale skin, neck-length black sideburns, and a hooded navy cloak with a golden half-sun on one side and a golden half-moon on the other side.

Jeri lowers his hood, allowing his black ponytail to hang down. He smiles at Torika, causing her to relax her aggressive posture for a split second.

"Sorry about the coliseum. I know this place doesn't exactly bring back good memories… for either of us," Jeri apologizes calmly, showing no signs of nervousness to Torika's wand shoved practically right down his throat.

Torika grumbles before lowering her wand and her gaze, turning away from Jeri entirely. She closes her eyes again. "Forget it, Jeri. If you think you can crack your way into my dreams using tricks you picked up from Sang, just to get me to change my mind about joining you, then you're dead wrong. For the last time, I'm not turning against my friend. So you can take your fancy Hitzusen and shove it."

Jeri cracks an amused smile, which Torika ignores on account of being turned away, before he paces towards her and places a gentle hand on her shoulder. "My, my, you've gotten quite formal over these past five years. Yet I can't help but think that you're still holding it against me that I-"

"That you what?" Torika interjects, a tear appearing in the corner of her eye for a split second before she subtly wipes it away with her wrist. "That you showed up one day, you - …you changed my life forever… and then the next time I see you, we're back to fighting each other?! Of course I hold it against you, you spineless sell-sword! What's your excuse this time?!"

A long and awkward pause ensues while both Jeri and Torika collect their thoughts.

Torika is the first to break the silence. "You know I hate fighting… especially against those I care about…" she peeps.

Jeri places his other hand on Torika's other shoulder. "I only want what's best for you. If you get in Yuko's way, she'll kill you right alongside Ariel, and there's nothing either of you can do about it. I don't want that to happen."

Torika gulps down her venomous rebuke. She gently lifts Jeri's hands off her shoulders before she turns around. She stares up into Jeri's sincere eyes. "Jeri, please. Don't make me choose between you and Ariel," she begs, leaning forward and resting her forehead on his shoulder. "Because even you wouldn't win that."

Jeri holds back his arms to keep from embracing Torika in a warm hug. After all, that wouldn't get him anywhere, he thinks. "She's not just your friend. I know about you two. Ariel is… she's practically you, isn't she? The daughter of Pariah and Angel, just as you're the daughter of Paladin and Mage?"

Torika looks back up at Jeri and nods somberly. "So you know why I can't turn on her."

"But is that really a good enough reason?" Jeri asks.

Torika responds by backing away and putting on an amazed shock look, as if Jeri had questioned the necessity of breathing. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Jeri takes a single step closer to Torika. "Ariel isn't you, Torika, any more than you're her. You're good-natured. You're pure of heart. You're compassionate-"

"Good for you; you can use a thesaurus," Torika spits out. "Just where exactly are you going with this? …You're not… …Are you trying to convince me that Ariel is …evil?"

"Only because you won't," Jeri counters. "You're not the type of person to slap a first-impression label on someone from the moment you meet them," he explains, pausing to blush slightly. "I should know."

Torika cracks a small smile, catching Jeri's reference.

"But you see, that's why I'm so worried about you around Ariel," Jeri continues, dissipating Torika's happy smile like flame through a fog. "You know too much about her for your own good. You know what she's been through. Where she's going. And how she gets from Point A to Point B. Instead of appealing to pessimism and cynicism, you gave Ariel a chance. A chance that I'm not sure whether or not she'll abuse. And not one I'd want you to risk. I'm only concerned for you. The last thing I want is for Ariel to do to you the same thing she did to Keiko."

Torika turns her back on Jeri. "That's got nothing to do with it," she insists with sharp promptness, yet with calmness in her tone as well. "Keiko sold us up the river. Pariah was killed because we couldn't trust her. She took away everyone left in the Omniverse that meant something important to Ariel. She deserved every inch of that sword."

"And you're thinking," Jeri infers, "…that if you stay on Ariel's side, she won't kill you like she did Keiko." Jeri shakes his head. "Torika, you're simply too nice to call Ariel out for who and what she is. There's a reason Yuko wants her eliminated."

"Yeah, save the angels and the demons, the Sakura's and the Dncyltr's of the Omniverse, all in one fell swoop," Torika remarks sarcastically, folding her arms disdainfully at the thought of the very ideology.

"And why not? Should they both be thrown to the wolves, then?" Jeri raises his voice, arguing vehemently, pausing to take a couple of deep breaths before continuing. "What demon is so insidiously evil that I should sacrifice my angel to bring it to ultimate ruination?"

Torika goes pink in the cheeks, unknown to Jeri. "Your angel?" Torika chides, putting up an objecting vocal façade to hide her flattery. "Why do we even have to sacrifice anyone to defeat our enemies? Why can't the angel live and the demon die? Why can't the Forces of Good just prevail all the time like they're supposed to?"

Jeri shakes his head again. "What do you think this Omniverse is? This is real life, not some kind of fan-fiction." (A/n: Here's hoping the irony isn't lost on anybody…) "Real evil is more powerful than honor and love. Real evil is deceptive, always right where you least expect to find it. And real evil is masterful at perpetuating itself."

Torika raises an eyebrow at Jeri's last observation. "Perpetuating itself?" she responds uncertainly, looking back over her shoulder at Jeri.

Jeri gently places a finger under Torika's chin to tilt her gaze up to meet his. "Even if Ariel lets you live, I'm afraid that journeying around the Omniverse and hunting Disorder might be getting to you. That you might one day turn into that which you and she fight against so hard: a murderous, hate-filled demon. It's already happened to Ariel, and I'm afraid that, if you stay at her side, you'll be next."

Torika keeps her eyes hypnotically-fixed to Jeri's, her magical senses feeling a deeply honest concern in the magical aura around Jeri's spirit.

"Ariel killed Dncyltr…" Jeri continues. "…because Dncyltr killed her mother. But now, the same murderous rampage that Dncyltr carried out during his existence is now one that lives on through Ariel. Yet now that Ariel is finally alone, abandoned by the Omniverse itself, she has no more possible successors to spread the virus of her hatred onto. That's why Yuko wants Ariel killed. But…" he drones off. "If Ariel has already contaminated your spirit, I have to tell Yuko. Tell her that you have to be destroyed as well. In fact, Yuko might make me do it myself," he explains, knowing of his duty but clearly despising it utterly.

"Try as you may, I'd kick your butt six ways from Sunday if you tried." Torika warns. She shakes her head back and forth to banish the thought. "Even if I didn't want to…" she continues somberly.

Jeri gently places his left hand around Torika's waist, pulling her closer, and places his right hand behind her head, softly petting her hair back. Torika responds in kind, laying her arms over Jeri's shoulders as she pulls herself closer to him and hugs him back, resting her chin over his shoulder. After a long and intimate pause, Torika hears a whispering in her ear.

"Please, don't be so cruel as to force me to be your executioner. I couldn't bring myself to harm you if I tried, but I know what Hitzusen intends, and I can't shirk the inevitable. But I don't want to take Pariah's way out. I don't want to be pushed to my limits. I don't want to know the kind of things I'm capable of."

Torika listens very carefully, both with her ears and her magic, feeling an unsettling aura building up inside of Jeri's energy that was caring and warm just seconds ago. She can feel Jeri's sadness without even looking at his face. But suddenly, she feels something else. Something not from Jeri, but as if from the air around her. A cool breeze. Torika feels Jeri let go of her as he pulls away. She opens her eyes and looks around, the coliseum around them being replaced with a wide-stretching meadow, bathed in a plane of night.

Looking up, Torika sees the bright full moon amidst a sea of stars that glisten brightly in the night, casting a soft blue glow across the placid fields. Torika looks all around. The field is untouched by any trace of mankind. No litter, no machinery, not even a footprint as far as the eye can see. Only a pure, untouched field.

"It's so pretty…" Torika says softly.

"This place, like the coliseum, is another part of my mind," Jeri explains. "It's how I imagine peace and quiet in my dreams. It's where I come to think." Jeri takes a seat on the grass and leaning back on his elbow-locked arms, he stares straight up at the moon.

Torika crouches at Jeri's right-hand side and looks over at him. "So… what're you thinking about now?" she asks cautiously, realizing that, under the circumstances, her question may very likely be unwanted.

Jeri only sighs in response as he leans back, laying down flat on the grass, folding his fingers behind the back of his head. "If only you could see what I've seen. To see how important it is that you come back to Yuko with me as an ally, not an enemy. To see that I'm not trying to turn you against Ariel for spite's sake-"

"I know why," Torika intervenes, cutting into Jeri's rant. Torika sits down in the grass next to Jeri and lays back against the ground. To her pleasant surprise, the grass isn't cold, wet, crusty, or sharp, as the case would be outside of a dream. On the contrary, the grass is actually warm and soft, soothing to lay on like the softest cushion imaginable. But despite the comfort, Torika can't help but to nudge closer towards Jeri until they are immediately right next to one another. Torika turns her head to the left and smiles, seeing Jeri stare straight up into the sky with tense seriousness plastered all over his face, as well as throughout his invisible aura. She wants to speak up, but he is clearly in a deep thought, so she just leaves her thought unsaid.

"Go ahead and say what you want. I won't bite or anything," Jeri allows, completely out of nowhere, not even taking his concentration off the sky.

Torika's smile widens with warmth as she lets out a sigh of relief in her mind. "This place is so calm. So peaceful. It really is a great place to think…" she compliments before beginning to drone off. Suddenly, a thought hits Torika like a brick wall. "Wait a sec… a place to think… Think of an answer… Thinking together… Jeri, I think I just-" she begins, but out the corner of her eye, she sees Jeri pinch at the bridge of his nose like he's suffering from a migraine. Torika meekly hushes up. "Sorry. Sometimes I just like to think aloud. I didn't mean to bother you or anything," she apologizes.

Jeri sighs with exhaustion. "No, that's not it. I really don't mind if you think aloud. It feels like there's a jackhammer chiseling away at my brain anyway, so it's not like it matters much." He turns his head towards Torika, and Torika responds immediately by nervously sending her gaze skyward, attempting badly to hide the crimson tint in her cheeks. Jeri grins back. "But it sounded like you thought of something just a second ago. Well?"

Torika clenches her eyes closed in doubt. "I'm worried that you'll think it's a stupid idea. I'm sure you'd hate it."

"I wouldn't hate it…" Jeri offers with compassionate objection. "You know you can tell me anything. So go ahead. Tell me, and I promise, no matter how dumb you think it is, I'll listen." He turns his open right palm upwards, invitingly laying the back of his palm against the back of Torika's left hand.

Torika's first response, after a moment, is to nest her own comparatively petite hand in Jeri's open palm, grabbing soft hold of his hand.

"Y'know, maybe…" Torika begins, looking over at Jeri with a smile. "Maybe there's a way we can all win. Ariel and I make a great team. We even defeated Orsa, but we couldn't have done it without each other. There's nothing we can't do, no power we can't defeat, if we put our heads together. If you join up with us, the three of us can surely find a way to stop Yuko, even with Hitzusen on her side."

Jeri shuts his eyes and lets out a long exhale through his nose.

Torika initially shrinks away from Jeri, moving to slip her hand out of his, but Jeri's hand gently closes around hers.

"I'm not mad, Torika," Jeri answers.

"You still don't trust Ariel…" Torika interprets. "Don't you trust anyone?" she asks, getting Jeri to turn his head. Their eyes meet as they blush harmoniously. "I can tell that you're concerned for me. I can feel it in your aura. And your concern is really, really sweet. But you don't have to prove your feelings for me." She reaches over to Jeri with her right hand and places it on Jeri's cheek, sliding her hand under his hanging sideburns. "Just… trust in me. Think about it: if Ariel is 'evil' and I'm 'good', and if Ariel can turn me evil with her influence, couldn't I possibly turn Ariel good with my own influence?"

Jeri is caught dumbfounded for a split second. "Don't you know how risky what you're trying is?" Jeri responds, not entirely convinced, but touched nonetheless.

"I know…" Torika whispers. "Ariel is violent and angry. That I'll admit. But what you call evil is what I'd call lost. Ariel is convinced in her heart that she's all alone in the big wide Omniverse. She's an orphaned only child, with death as her only other companion. She's lashing back, forgetting the person she used to be. But there has to be some goodness left, some shred of her humanity remaining in her heart. I'd bet my life that I could find it."

Jeri's now-worried eyes look back at Torika. He reaches up and strokes her cheek with the back of his left hand. "But what about you? What if you're wrong?" he asks.

Torika blinks slowly and smiles, sneaking her right hand around behind Jeri's neck. "If I'm wrong," she begins, emphasizing the stipulation. "…then I'll be dead before I have a chance to regret anything anyway. But don't worry about that." She pulls herself closer and closer towards Jeri's face. "Because I'm not wrong." She slowly closes her eyes.

"Bu-bu-but what about- what if-" Jeri stutters rapidly before Torika gently stills his lips with her own. Jeri lets his eyes drift shut as his worry evaporates. Only one thing in the world matters to him. His right hand squeezes hold of Torika's left hand, and she squeezes back.

Torika pulls away from Jeri first. She sighs blissfully, grinning from ear to ear.

Jeri stares back at Torika with longing and care, but he can't hide his aura from her.

Torika sits up, pulling her knees to her chin and folding her arms, now wearing an expression of sorrow. "You still don't think I can pull it off…" she mutters, staring on forward at the nighttime horizon.

Jeri sits up next to Torika, looking across at her. "No, that's not it," he responds calmly. "I understand your decision now, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for it. Frankly, knowing what a sweetheart you are, I should've seen the reason behind your answer from the start, instead of stupidly trying to convince you otherwise. …I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize for that," Torika replies. "But thanks for saying so."

"But…" Jeri interjects ominously, turning Torika's head.

"But?" Torika repeats. "But what? What's wrong now?"

Jeri closes his eyes. "Even if you're confident that Ariel won't kill you, there's still the matter of defeating Yuko. I can't let you try that. Dare I say, I don't think it can't be done."

"Jeri, we destroyed a Slann together. That's really hard to do!" Torika explains. "I think a human sorceress would be small potatoes by comparison," she boasts presumptuously.

"You'd think that'd be true, but it's not," Jeri explains. "Yuko is more than just a Dimensional Witch. She's even more than a Prophetess of Hitzusen, which makes her dangerous in her own right. But that's just the beginning. Recently, she acquired a weapon of incredible destructive powers." Jeri clenches his fists tightly. "She managed to somehow get her grubby hands on a voidblade."

"Void blade?" Torika asks, perplexed. "What's a void blade do? …And why do I get the feeling that I really don't want to know?"

"It's a weapon made of living metal, and it eats spirits alive," Jeri explains horrifically. "It's the same class of weapon as Ragnarok. I'm sure that by now Ariel has told you all about that nasty little piece of work…"

At the sound of the name 'Ragnarok', Torika's emerald eyes glass over. "Ragnarok? You mean… THE Ragnarok?! The killed-Ariel's-mother Ragnarok?!" She shakes her head in doubt. "I've only heard of that thing. I was kinda' hoping Ariel was just exaggerating about it actually destroying her mother's soul… So there really are weapons powerful enough to kill the soul, aren't there?"

Jeri stares straight forward. His fingers grasp at the cool, crisp grass, only for the grass to wilt away at his touch. More patches of wilted grass crop up across the plane, but Jeri is far too preoccupied with thought to bother. "Fortunately those weapons are supposed to be extremely rare, but all that matters now is that Yuko has one." He sends his gaze back in Torika's direction, noticing the skittish deer-in-the-headlights look in her eyes. He tilts his head inquisitively. "Torika? Something the matter?"

Torika clenches her eyelids closed tightly. "My mother… She survived. Had Ragnarok found its way into Sakura Showron's hands instead of Sakura Kinomoto's… I'd probably have ended up the orphan by now, not Ariel. I got lucky, nothing more."

"…uhh…" Jeri mutters, trying to think of something to say. "Er, better lucky than good?" he attempts cheerfully.

"Oh shut up!" Torika snaps back, shutting Jeri down in an instant. "Ragnarok ruined Ariel's life. Knowing the warrior that Ariel is, if she truly has no purpose, then she has no incentive to go on existing, if she can at all help it. She might use the voidblade as a way out. Exacting on herself the cost of her own perceived failure," she explains.

Jeri shakes his head defiantly. "I won't let that happen. If you want, I could talk to her and-"

"No, you can't!" Torika shouts back. "You just… can't…" she reiterates, shaking her head timidly. "You know about the voidblade. Ariel will interrogate that information right out of you, whether you like it or not. You may think you'd be helping by tipping her off, but all you'd end up doing is supplying her with the information she needs to destroy herself. It'd be no different than if you killed her with the voidblade yourself. And I can't let that happen." Torika freezes up.

"You seemed to have put a lot of thought into this…" Jeri compliments.

"Seems like you just haven't," Torika remarks. "Jeri, tell me. What went through your mind when you first learned about the Omniverse? That your… that our world is just one of untold billions of different possible realities? What did you think when you first realized that?" she asks calmly.

Jeri is struck down with silence as he stares forward. "Well I… uh… I mean…" He sighs loudly as he hangs his head, conceding Torika's point. "I really didn't think much of it at first." He then looks back across at Torika, who doesn't even look at him. "What about you?"

Torika stares on, boring a hole in the stars themselves with her profound stare. "Have you ever considered what kind of responsibility we have? Look at us. Everything seems to turn out all right. Our parents are together, alive and well, and they love us very much. But look at Ariel. She'd kill to walk in my shoes, to feel the bond that we share, and to remember that feeling... even for just a moment. Did it ever occur to you that we're like the ones that got away? The ones who survived?" Torika asks transcendently? "What about all those other me's in other alternate dimensions? The ones I haven't even considered the existence of yet. How many other me's failed in their own journeys? How many of them died? How many of those who perished didn't have to die? Doesn't the very thought of the Omniverse ever just get to you like that?"

Jeri places his hand on Torika's shoulder. "That's not fair. You can't be everywhere at once. Of course there will be some that you can't help. But if your mind is consumed with all those postulates, all those 'what if's, you'll drive yourself insane."

Torika looks back at Jeri, though her eyes seem to gaze beyond him. She places her right hand on top of his, that he had placed on her shoulder. "I know I can't change what's already happened. And I'm not one for fighting. But we both have to fight our hardest if this reality is meant to be the best-case-scenario."

"So what do you propose?" Jeri asks.

Torika leans toward Jeri, resting her head on his shoulder. "Ariel and Yuko have their parts to play in this reality. Now, so do we."

"Right," Jeri answers. "We have to fight and defeat Yuko."

"No, not Yuko…" Torika whispers. She looks up at Jeri, who looks back down at her, and Torika sends a look of sorrow up Jeri's direction.

Jeri looks deeply into Torika's eyes, not quite the aura-reader that she is, but he manages to deduce her intent nonetheless. He gulps down hard. "You mean… fight each other? How could I raise a hand to you? Why does it have to be like this?"

"If you love me," Torika begins. "…you'll fight me with everything you have. Everything. Ariel's not an idiot. If we go easy on each other, she'll know something is up. She'll learn about the voidblade. And then, it'll all be for naught. I can't let her die. If I did, I'd literally lose a part of myself."

"What part?" Jeri asks.

"The part that cares. The part that believes that what we do actually matters. The part of myself that separates me from how Ariel is now." Torika responds.

Jeri looks away from Torika, his mind going even faster. "If Ariel could see through us pretending to fight, couldn't she figure out about the voidblade on her own?"

"I doubt it," Torika replies. "Put yourself in Yuko's shoes. You've got a blade that can destroy your arch-nemesis, right down to the spiritual level. But your opponent knows hundreds of different ways to kill you painfully before you can actually put your plan into action. Why would you flash your trump card to make things all-the-easier for your target?"

"Hmm," Jeri responds. "I guess you're right."

The two sit in the midst of the once-green field, now pocked and ruined, not having its sustainer's full concentration to maintain its serene beauty. A bright white light crawls up from the horizon and envelops the entire area, but Jeri and Torika make no personal reservation as the light swallows them as well.

Jeri and Torika are now standing on a stone bridge over a calm-watered river, with green fields of grass on both sides. The night sky remains, but is broken suddenly as the sun begins to crack over the horizon. Jeri and Torika find themselves leaning on the ledge of the bridge, with Torika on Jeri's right and Jeri on Torika's left, watching as the sunrise causes the entire horizon to glow.

The bright white glow dies down as Torika takes in the serene scenery. She looks to both sides of the bridge, seeing a tall ivory archway at each end. A translucent silver curtain is maintained within these arcs like the film of a bubble. These curtains begin to sparkle brightly as the sun continues to rise.

"So where did we go to, now?" Torika asks.

"It's almost morning," Jeri explains.

"I can see that," Torika remarks, looking towards the sunrise and rolling her eyes.

"No, not that," Jeri corrects. "I meant that it's really almost morning. If you go through one of those curtains, you'll wake up. This dream is almost over."

Torika initially takes the news with a sad frown, but she quickly recomposes herself. "I guess we can't dream forever," she responds softly, hiding her sad tone. "You know I'd only fight you as a last resort, right?" she asks, but this time making no attempt to conceal her sorrowful tone.

Jeri pauses for a moment. "I know, and the feeling is mutual," he responds frankly. "If we get through this alive, I'll find some way to make it all up to you," he promises, holding out his open right hand.

Torika rubs her eyes with her right forearm before responding to Jeri's gesture with a smile and by lowering Jeri's hand with her own, letting her step right up to him and place her arms over his shoulders. She stares straight into Jeri's sapphire eyes. "If we get through this alive… all of us… that'll be all the thanks I'd ever ask for," she responds. "But there's nothing more in the Omniverse I want that I don't already have." She pauses, leaning her head against Jeri's chest and diverting her eyes from his and vice versa. "…when you're here…" she whispers softly, hoping for Jeri not to hear, but she feels a slight yet warm flux in his aura, causing her to light up in the cheeks. He heard her.

"Until this ends," Jeri begins, wrapping his arms gently around Torika. "…know that your spirit will always be welcome in my dreams."

Torika lifts up her head and leans her chin on Jeri's shoulder.

Jeri feels a warm peck on his cheek.

Torika lets go of Jeri, as he lets go of her as well, and they both turn away from each other, heading for the silver gateways on either end of the bridge.

"Thank you for letting me see you," Torika calls back. After a few paces, she crosses through the silver curtain like a wall of water, leading her back to her own reality.

Meanwhile, Jeri remains in place, now alone in his dream once more. He places his hand on his cheek, where he had felt that tender touch just a moment ago. He smiles. "I guess that's what it must have felt like for her the last time…" he ponders, his speech and thought now one and the same. He heads for his own portal. As he crosses, the world around him begins to fade into a bright white light, consuming the sun, the horizon, the land, and finally the bridge itself.

With the last dreamer fully on the other side, all that remains of the dream world behind him is the last ivory arch, but that too fades and dissolves into the abyss of light.