Somewhere far beyond time and space
Okay, so… Imagine yourself as someone really, really rich. Yeah, a strange thing to start on, but roll with it for a second, this situation was much easier to understand if it was translated into a metaphor. So, you're rich, powerful, and like to exercise that wealth and power by lounging on your sofa and watching TV with a fizzy drink of your choice in your hand. Except, there's nothing good going on there, and all those numbskulls responsible for putting something on the waves keep dropping the ball over and over again. And that lasts up until you think to yourself: 'Hey, I'm rich, can't I simply throw some cash at the issue and put the stuff I want on TV instead?'.
So that's what you did.
You spent a small portion of your power to establish four whole studios' worth of content creators. One studio was specialising in sci-fi (you know, spaceship dogfights, mechas and plasma swords), another in fantasy (sword and sorcery, political intrigue, princes and princesses), and so on, and so forth. Sure, the content they produced was a little bit samey, since at the very beginning you specifically asked them for grand stories of Good versus Evil - but it's still something just good enough to watch.
So, you were content to let these four studios work for as long as they could after you provided them with the initial resources. You told them to do their best, and went back home to finally enjoy some adequate quality television. Blocked all the senior staff members' phone numbers too, so that they didn't get the bright idea to pester you for your input or extra cash - those creative types always worked best without executive meddling.
Except, one of the senior staff members of the fantasy studio decided that he'd rather speedrun their bankruptcy.
So he concocted a scheme where he sent one of their best actresses on a wild goose chase to look for your backup phone number. And hey, you actually liked that one actress - her adventures were always very exciting and fun to watch, so you sent small bits of cash her way whenever you felt like it.
And then, one day, when you were on the phone with the gal, the little bastard from the senior staff decided to terminate her out of the blue. Naturally, you didn't appreciate the gesture, and went there to make your displeasure known - and the stupid little schemer demanded that you destroy that entire studio, because yadda-yadda it was always meant to be destroyed.
So you picked up your trusty shovel (never leave home without one!), bashed his stupid head in, stuffed the body into the trunk of your car, drove into the woods, used that same shovel to bury the body in a shallow grave-
Okay, yeah, maybe this metaphor was running away from Her a little bit.
Long story short - this underling of Her underling had the gall to improvise a way to summon Her, and then told Her to do his own job and destroy that entire world - not only killing one of her favourites in the process, but also somehow forgetting, that the guys who were trying to protect the world were also working for Her, and She did not care if the worlds persisted or were destroyed - only that they did so on their own accord, since that made for the most interesting story possible. So She destroyed the little shit for the impudence, and for an extra pinch of irony, She had done so while controlling the body of the girl he killed to summon Her into this world.
And then, She considered what to do from that point on.
The physicality of this possession was… Kind of novel, so She planned on taking the body back home - except, one of the girl's comrades really, really, REALLY didn't want to let her go, and made sure to make it known. She would've destroyed him too, but the guy's perseverance was kind of impressive, especially for such a minute being. And given that this body wasn't gonna last all that long as Her host - She decided to bring the girl back to life, and return her to her comrades instead.
And now, She had a little bit of an issue on her hands.
You see, She wasn't kidding when she described that girl as one of her 'favourite actresses'. The gal was one of the few souls capable of directly channeling even a single microscopic iota of Her powers, to say nothing about the fact that her antics were some of the most amusing things to watch - so She initially planned on resurrecting the girl elsewhere. Maybe on the same world in a new body, maybe on another - didn't matter as long as the adventures continued.
And yeah, She didn't even consider 'trimming' the copy of all the seemingly unnecessary stuff - for all She knew, some of it was load-bearing. It wasn't like, for all Her power, She was an expert on human souls and minds. She just knew which ones were interesting to watch - once again, no point in 'corporate meddling'.
She was already done with copying the girl's mind and soul by the time She decided to do a generous thing and bring her back to life instead. And now, She had that copy in Her possession instead, and didn't know where to put it.
Just throwing it away felt like a waste - there were few mortals as amusing as the girl, so it was like suddenly getting an extra copy of an out of print, ultra-rare, one-copy-in-existence, foil card. Bringing it to the same world as the original would've been tacky - besides, there already was a number of the girl's copies running around, even if they felt more like a joke at her expense. Sending her to one of the other three worlds… Was an option, but given some peculiarities of the four worlds, it was entirely possible to travel from one to another - meaning, it would've been just a step or two away from the 'same world' option.
So, there was no throwing the copy away, and no putting it somewhere on the four worlds either. What to do then…
Suddenly, She thought about what could be generously described as 'other TV channels'. They were generally not Her cup of tea, but… Hmm… What about that one?
Oh, that one could become very entertaining with a monkey wrench thrown into its works.
She was not gonna overwrite any humans, or go with the reincarnation route - if only on account of this girl then being able to immediately send that world's entire narrative off the rails - which was admittedly a fun idea, yet something better suited for a single movie, rather than a fully fledged series She was hoping for.
No, the best vessel for this girl's mind and soul was probably…
There!
With a smirk, She made a perfect baseball pitch, throwing the 'package' across time, space and dimensions.
The 'ball' went past the boundaries of the four worlds, and sailed across the infinite Sea of Chaos for an infinite moment - before finally, breaking its way into a network of worlds that were normally way too repetitive and dull for Her liking. The plot that was currently unfolding there was only a bit more interesting, like a highly rated season finale of an otherwise dull TV series - but if Her intuition was correct, said finale was gonna go sideways in the most amusing ways very, very soon.
The 'ball' was not aimed at the central world of that story - like She said, there was no point in replacing one of the actors with the copy of the girl. No, instead - it curved to the side, and hit one of the countless boring, nearly lifeless copies of the world, currently occupied by these ginormous, stupid, biological quantum computers from beyond space.
Or, more specifically - the 'package' hit the core of one of said supercomputers. Now, normally that would've been little more than a blip of discomfort for such a vast, if dull being - but is she understood enough about this particular soul- yep! It overwrote the entire thing, and did so the very moment the supercomputer tried to establish a connection with one of the many humans of the 'central' world!
Which meant, the proverbial table was set (or rather, primed to be flipped) exactly like she wanted, and all that was left was to see how the situation was going to unfold from there.
Oh, this was gonna be fun~
Was it 1012 AK? Pretty sure it was.
Opening your eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling was always a disorienting and disquieting experience. Even more distressing was the fact that she was pretty well-traveled, but she couldn't even begin to place where in the world she could see this kind of architecture - what was within her field of vision differed greatly from Sailune, Zephilia, or Lyzeille.
And that was another thing - she couldn't really check more of her surroundings at the moment. No matter how much she strained, it felt like her entire body, up to her eyeballs, was impossibly heavy and unwilling to move - like all she could do was stare at the ceiling, breathe and blink.
Like a freaky version of a sleep paralysis that didn't seem to end with time.
Which meant, all she could do was was keep trying to move, or hope that a healer was gonna get to her soon eno-
"Goddamit…" her lips moved on their own, followed by her hand, reaching for her forehead and pressing into it - all without her input.
"What the hell?!" she balked. Was someone puppeteering her?!
"What?" her body jerked, looking to the sides, showing her more of an empty, clearly hospital room in an unfamiliar style "Who's there?"
"It's me! The owner of this body you're puppeteering!" she somehow screamed in return, despite her lips not moving. "Give it back, OR ELSE!"
"The hell do you mean the owner? It's min-"
"I swear, if you don't give me my body back right now, I'm gonna make you regret this SO much, pal!"
"That's it. Either I had gone crazy, or this is some parahuman nonsense. Hopefully, the latter…" Whatever this meant, she did not know nor care.
Then, her body moved.
Once again doing so without her input (and, in fact, completely ignoring it), her body slowly sat, and then stood up - very, very shakily. Now that she was paying attention, it felt like she was hurt all over, with odd burning sensations radiating from beneath these weird, baggy clothes she was wearing. Was she feverish? Why?
"What the hell are you doing, you body snatcher?!"
"I said this is my body," the body snatcher denied, "Hold on. I'll show you."
Slowly, very unsteadily, and using walls to prop itself up, her body approached a side room - that seemed to be a bathroom, and a pretty darn weird one. Stepping into the room, she nearly fell, as her hands were forced to grip at the sink like it was a lifeline.
Above the sink, was a mirror.
And the face she saw in it was nothing like hers.
Thin, pale, a little bit plain, but with a wide mouth, with these long, distinctly black locks of curly hair framing it, kind of like a ghost. The girl was clearly around her age, but she looked worn out - as if the life kept bowling her over, over and over again.
This…
This really wasn't her body.
But why-
Suddenly, she remembered.
Sairaag - a city twice destroyed, its people raised from the dead as mere pawns in an evil game.
Fibrizo, a scheming demon general, playing her like a fiddle since long before she had realised his involvement.
Gourry, captured, his very existence teetering on the brink.
The forbidden spell, the one she was supposed to never cast, going out of control.
And then-
…
"I see. I'm sorry. You can go back now," she said as plainly as she could manage at the moment.
The body that did not belong to her nodded, and then began to slowly, shakily move back towards the bed.
January 4th, 2011
Leaving the hospital the very next morning after the THING that landed me there felt downright surreal to me.
One would've assumed I was gonna spend at least a whole week on antibiotics, fighting off an entire cavalcade of infections, only to then waste yet another week under observation, with countless blood tests and whatnot in-between. And in nearly any other city in the United States of America, that was exactly what would've happened.
However, the city of Brockton Bay, New Hampshire, had Panacea. A literal superhero, who used her powers to heal people, ranging from victims of car crashes to cancer patients and anyone in-between - and it took her all of a couple of minutes to flush out every toxin and virus out of my system with just a touch and a confirmation that I agreed to being healed.
In a way, Brockton was probably the best place in the world to have the worst kind of a thing to happen to you.
The only reason I wasn't sent home on that same evening was that the hospital was legally required to have me under observation until morning, in case of any unforeseen complications of Panacea's parahuman power being used on me. Given how she was a well known quantity, I was put in a solitary low-priority room that was barely checked on - which, considering some other recent developments, I was very thankful for.
So - yeah. Dad had picked me up in the morning, and was currently driving me home in our old pickup truck.
The direct path from the Brockton Bay Central Hospital to our house was about twenty minutes in a light traffic. Naturally, Dad took a slightly longer, winding path - if only to avoid some of the shadier streets, where we could've gotten mugged. Because yes, being in a car didn't mean you couldn't get mugged - not in this town.
I stared out of the side window, watching as the nice-ish buildings of the Downtown gradually turned into shittier and shittier apartments and then the weathered suburban sprawl of the Southern Docks. If we traveled to the North-West from here, things were suddenly gonna get all prim and tidy on the semi-gated and affluent Captain's Hill - but we didn't live there. Just near enough that our street was somewhat safe by proximity.
"The money will be tight for a while," Dad said, pulling my attention - but not my gaze - from the city I was born in. "That- … …Principal Blackwell refuses to even foot your hospital bills. We could try to fight her in court, but the DWA lawyer's pretty sure she somehow managed to cover her ass well enough for it to be an uphill battle."
"Joy," I sighed. Story of my life - I was put through hell, and the supposed authorities not only did nothing in the meantime, but also refused to take any responsibility. "Can you at least get me out of that hellhole masquerading as a school for a few weeks?"
"…of course, Taylor…" Dad answered after a short pause, clearly not wanting me to skip school - except, he also wasn't sure how else to resolve the situation.
We drifted too far apart since Mom's accident - and while yesterday seemed to jolt him awake from that endless fugue he was stuck in for the past three years, it didn't mean he suddenly knew how to handle me anymore.
And, well.
I didn't know how to handle him either. But I was gonna need that time out of Winslow - and not even to cope with what just happened. No, there were far more important things for me to consider.
Finally, the pickup truck had pulled into our driveway.
"What would you like for dinner?" Dad turned to me again, "I… I'm taking today off, so I can cook something."
Oh, wow. Not takeout - he was actually putting in some effort.
Despite everything, I fought off the thought of brushing him off.
"How about-" I wanted to name his signature spaghetti bolognese, but after… …after yesterday, an image of it flashing before my eyes made me reconsider, "Mac & Cheese?"
"Sure, Taylor. I'll do a quick trip to the store, we might not have enough cheese and milk. Or elbows, for that matter."
"Okay. Thank you, Dad," I nodded, staggering out of the car and closing the door behind me. "I'll go have the longest shower possible. Love you."
"Love you too, Taylor. I'll be back soon," he nodded, and then drove off.
Welp.
I had some time until Dad came back, and even more time before dinner - so I entered the house.
Okay.
"Are you there?" I asked as calmly as possible, despite feeling deeply uncomfortable about it.
"…yeah, I'm here," the voice in my head answered, a bit shakily.
Because yeah, this was another thing. When I woke up in the hospital, I had a voice in my head. One that, in fact, demanded that 'I gave her her body back, or else'. It took me stumbling into a bathroom to check on my subpar, toady reflection to finally shut her up - after which she grew silent, only answering me some questions, and also piping up a couple of times - most notably, to voice her displeasure about hospital food.
There were three options to what this was. The first one was that yesterday's happenings broke something in my head, and I was hearing voices - I hoped such was not the case, if only because I wasn't sure what this information was gonna do to Dad. The second was that I fell under an effect of a parahuman power - but given that I was a literal nobody, there was no point for a random cape to target me. The third…
The third was what I was hoping for - that this girl's voice in my head was a part of my own parahuman power. For all I knew, every parahuman had someone talking at the back of their head, and it just wasn't a part of public knowledge - it wasn't like I had met a lot of them (or any, for that matter) before Panacea healed me yesterday. Or maybe I did, and just didn't know, since secret identities were also a thing.
Because yeah - people were never born as parahumans, they all gained powers at some point of their lives. I wasn't sure how or why - only that there was a cosmic lottery giving out superpowers going on, every single human being in the world was unknowingly participating, and that I might had won SOMETHING out of it.
I didn't care much what it was. Well, I hoped that it was something powerful, of course - but even if my power was just 'a voice in my head that knew useful things', I was gonna take it. Not only because it meant my brain didn't glitch out after… after THAT, but also because any power at all meant I could finally do the one thing I dreamt of since I was little - I could become a hero.
If not the kind that saved the day by punching the Endbringers in the face to keep them away from citizens - then I wanted to become someone like Panacea, who helped people in less flashy ways.
And for that, I had to establish rapport with this voice, and learn what this potential power entailed - despite how, uncomfortable this situation made me.
As far as I understood, there was no privacy between us. Well, almost. She could apparently see, hear, taste, smell and feel the same things I did - she just couldn't read my thoughts.
I think.
Which meant, I was gonna pick up the sleeping mask from the attic before going to the bathroom - because yeah, I was NOT turning my much needed shower into a show for her.
"Tell me… Does the name Lina Inverse mean anything to you?"
"It doesn't," I admitted, "Is it yours?"
"Yeah."
"Are you a big deal?"
"I was - right until I messed it all up. I can't even imagine how much time had passed since my time…"
"Your time? Are we talking Middle Ages? Antiquity?" I asked, before stopping. "Right, people in those times probably didn't refer to them as such. But you must've lived relatively recently, if we can understand each other?"
"I'm… not sure about that. I couldn't read the signs on the way here. Does your country use multiple languages or writing systems?"
"I mean… There are many nationalities, but…" I thought about it for a moment, and made a detour to one of many booksheves at our house, grabbed the first book in English off it, opened the thing on a random page, and stared into the text. Uh... Ozymandias? It was an old poem I'd never really read, but Mom…
Mom actually told me, that if any parahuman ever picked 'Ozymandias' as their cape name, they were either an absolute pretentious asshole, or a total idiot. Maybe it had something to do with the text itself?
"I… I can't read it. What does it say?"
I blinked, shrugged, and read the entire poem to her, finger tracing the words as I went.
Spoiler: Ozymandias
As I finished reading, there was a short stretch of silence - followed by chuckling. A dry and bitter laugh.
Shit. I didn't think this through - I really should've had read the poem by myself first.
"You okay?"
"Just… …just peachy," she answered, voice sounding a bit strained.
Not sure how else to react, I nodded, put the book back, and continued my way to the attic.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I offered clumsily.
"I'd rather not. Better tell me - how difficult would it be to exorcise me?"
"Exorcise?"
"Yeah. I'm pretty sure this is something a good enough priest should be able to fix."
"And why… …would you want to be exorcised…?" I asked carefully, stopping in front of the collapsible stairs that led to the attic proper.
"Because I'm clearly a spirit way past my expiration date, because I possessed you entirely by accident, and because I'm stuck in your body, unable to move a single muscle or cast a single spell, while being moved around against my will?"
Ooookay, that sounded like an absolutely horrible experience. I didn't even have it in me to fault her for trying to move my body, considering she was essentially forced to be its passenger at best, and prisoner at worst. I would've tried to as well, if our places were switched. Though…
The hell was that about spells…?
…
…Thoughts for later. Even with my utterly lacking social graces, I could see that this was not time for that.
"I'm… not entirely sure that we can find an actual exorcist," I admitted. "There are a couple of churches and maybe some mediums in the city, but they're probably complete quacks."
"What about that healer girl, Panacea? She managed to cast a wordless Recovery on you yesterday."
Cast?
"As far as I know, she doesn't do brains."
"What? No. Possession is a matter pertaining to souls, not brains. I'm not a specialist, but I think a spell like Holy Bless, that only affects undead, should do the trick."
"Uh… Hold on," I pinched the bridge of my nose. "What do you mean by 'undead'?"
"Vampires, ghosts, zombies. Why?"
Was she just talking about biotinker stuff, or…
"Are those really such a problem on your world that there are entire countermeasures made against them?"
"I mean, any idiot with more magic talent than common sense can pick up a tome on necromancy and start raising the corpses of his neighbours - and then lose control of them once he bites off more than he could chew," she explained as if it was an entirely normal thing. "So any sorcerer worth their salt has a trick or two up their sleeves in case of a vampire."
Oookay, hold on just a second.
"Magic...?"