247 - The Capture Part 2

Lexie blinked at her father as he dispatched a large energy pulse that shoved most of the golems against what appeared to be an invisible wall that marked the borders of their new reality.

He did it again and again, holding them there, while the Ward-Hero put up shields that deflected the bullets.

Another hero, a shorter auburn-haired woman, was crouched close to the ground, her hand out, scanning whatever was underneath, and the Wolf guy had his teeth bared, and his claw hands extended, yanking his head from side to side.

The rest of them stood around watching.

"What the hell?" Wolf-guy said.

"Help me hold them," Aiden ordered, and a short man flared out a series of force fields that acted as barriers that kept the creatures in place. Aiden then twisted his hand around, and the portals bent in odd shapes, twisting and perverting reality.

They widened, hitting the corners of the sky, corners that shouldn’t be there, but now shimmered into existence, probably thanks to Lexie’s messing with the dungeon.

The rocks were floating up the wrong way. There was also the sound of waves crashing for some reason.

Reality was breaking apart, but then it started fixing itself, the rocks lowering.

Aiden kept pushing back the snarling golems towards the newly stretched portals. His eyes were closed in focus, his arms twisted in odd orientations, as the sweat slicked down his face. 

“Dad?” Lexie called out in concern, but he shook his head and used the last of his energy to push the golems through the portals and close them.

Suddenly, something opened in front of them. A portal to a pocket dimension. 

“Everyone get it,” Aiden barked.

They didn’t need to be told twice. They rushed into it, through the portals into a space that looked almost exactly like the ones they were just in, but with smaller corners. As if they entered a box within a box,  inside a Russian nesting doll of existence. 

“What’s happening?” Vacek asked. 

“Domain inversion,” Aiden explained, as he caught his breath. “The Alchemist, I believe, essentially turned his pocket dimension inside out, and trapped us within it.”

“How?”

“It’s very complicated to explain,” he said. “But if we detach this space from the dungeon, then we’re as good as dead.”

The Heroes looked spooked. Vacek, to his credit, looked relatively controlled. He simply asked, “So what do we do now?”

“I’m going to try to transport us out of here using my own pocket dimension,” Aiden said. “I sensed corridors in the portals, so I might be able to use that to get us out of here. Then again, it might just lead us into another dimension that's a part of the network. Lexie, do you think you can teleport?”

Lexie tried. She activated her card, but she couldn’t get out without Yasycht’s help. The constants were different. 

She shook her head.

“I thought as much. I’m also having trouble doing the same.” He rubbed his eyes. “Barring that, we have to somehow try to invert the inversion. The good news is that we know that the Alchemist is closeby. The dimension was actively resisting my interference, which means he's actively controlling it, and he won't be able to do that without being somewhere in the vicinity. Perhaps in another dimension in the network. And since he’s attached to this domain, we can track him using it.” He glanced at Pvilycht, who nodded.

He travelled towards the corners of reality, touching them.

“We have back up on standby,” Vacek said. “If we suddenly disappear, they’ll be called in to take him out.”

“That’s if he’s out of the domain," one of the heroes said. "You said it might be in another pocket dimension, right?”

“Right." Aiden nodded once. "But we can still track him through the corridors, and that might force him out.”

“What if he traps the other heroes, too?” Another hero asked. 

“I don’t think his power stretches that far.”

“You sure about that?” Vacek said right as the sky darkened rapidly. They looked up and saw that the sky was…being peeled back. 

Like opening a box. The edges folded to reveal nothing but a swirling darkness.

Then a hand reached in and slammed on the ground.

The heroes jumped out of the way, but the hand continued trying to smash them like bugs.

Lexie tried to VOID it, but it didn’t work. The VOID passed right through the hand, making Lexie frown.

“What’s happening?” The force-field guy said, panicked. “Why can’t I do anything?”

“He’s adjusting the rules of the domain,” Aiden said. “Outfitting the domain in real time, with properties that negate our powers. You can’t use the same power more than once."

“But most of us only have a handful of skills.” The woman said. 

“I know,” Aiden said gravely, making Vacek grit his teeth.

Then, they had more things to worry about. Not only was the hand chasing them, but their escape was disappearing, too. The ground was being folded up beneath their feet from the edges, their world getting smaller and slimmer. 

Lexie immediately activated her air-linking and her anti-magnetic combo, attaching them to the edges of the Earth to keep it in place.

It was hard, like fighting against a hand that was trying to force it to fold, but Lexie held on and also activated a few more creature cards, sent them out to hold the edges of the world in place. 

“Pvilycht,” she glanced back at him. “Work fas–”

Pvilcht wasn't moving. He was staring at something floating in the air.

Something like a mirror.

He was reaching out to it, touching it. It morphed into a mess of bodies that had been attached together in a very grotesque way.

“Me,” Pvilycht said. "I am Pvilycht. I am no one. Who am I? Nothing.”

“Pvilycht?” Lexie called, but it was hopeless. Pvilycht wasn't listening to her. She even sensed her bond to him weakening, although not significantly.

Lexie guessed this was how the Alchemist negated the creature card. It treated Pvilucht like he was another player, and gave him something that he cared about more than Lexie's orders. It found his weakness, whatever it was, and tied him up in it.

Lexie activated her soul card, flooding him with light and power. It worked at snapping him out of the mirage he was in.

He gave Lexie a bashful look.

"It's okay," she said." "Just get to work."

He nodded dutifully, and Lexie hoped the Alchemist didn't have a counter for her soul card.

At least not yet.

The hand was moving faster, and reality was twisting between them, too. Lexie stepped up and wove the air around the hand, restricting its movements. Then she used lighting to blast through it completely. 

It was replaced by two more hands, and after Lexie got rid of those, there were four.

Then there were thirty, which targeted each hero individually.

Lexie got three hands just for herself. She activated the creature cards to help her take care of them. They wouldn't last as long as she couldn't fortify them with her soul card the way she did with Pvilycht. They weren't her disciples.

Luckily, though, she had more than enough to use and more than enough skills to take care of the numerous hands sprouting out of everywhere, including the ground.

I want. I want. I want.

Lexie sliced one with forcefields. Blasted another with fireballs. Used a rare skill, sticky slime, to trap another to the earth.

All the while dancing around the hands that were smashing from the sky.

At the same time, she kept an eye out for her father, ensuring that he wasn't hurt. He seemed to be handling it okay, but he was dividing his power between protecting the heroes and attacking. The dimension still hadn't figured out a counter for all his skills, probably because her was using Alchemy, which was harder to figure out and more malleable. He only had to change a skill slightly, and it became a new skill, and that was easier to do with Alchemy than with strict magic.

Seeing her father safe gave Lexie some relief. Enough that she started to almost dance, having fun and getting creative with her own attacks.

"I can do this all day,” she yelled out, somewhat enjoying this insane game of whackamole. She had an endless store of cards she could call on and skill combinations that she could use against the weird things holding the dungeon. The links she’d secured on the edges eventually, and they began to fold in again.

Lexie activated more creature cards and sent them out to physically hold the edges in place. 

"Aiden," Vacek said as he grabbed a knife that had been on the floor and stabbed towards a hand wrapping around his ankle. The knife disappeared. "We can't keep this up forever."

"I know. We’re in his world. We play by his rules. The only way to stop is to change the rules.”

“How?”

"Run interference. We deliberately refuse the realities of this dimension, and we play around, destabilizing the edges and forcing constant recalibration."

"Once again, how?"

“Lexie, see if you can use the dungeon to find a way out." Lexie narrowly avoided a hand slam and sliced off the fingers with her sonic vibration. "Whenever you get the chance."

"'Kay." Lexie sang.

"Vacek, help me weaken the limits of the pocket dimension. It’s alchemy, so you won’t be able to collapse the whole thing, but if he’s changing it actively, then you might be able to weaken his control of the domain. I’ll show you how.”

Vacek nodded. 

“Lexie, just keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Sure,” she said, as she hopped over a hand that swept at her. “Ooh. Too slow.”

While her father worked, the air started raining acid, too. She created an umbrella whirlwind that contained the rain, and she sent it back into the sky.  

The next round had the ground splitting where she was standing. She floated, but then, when that failed, she teleported within the domain to where her father was.

The domain did it again and opened a corridor between them, a dark space big enough that Lexie didn't want to cross by just flying. She teleported to him again.

It wasn't just here. The same gaping passages opened between sets of heroes, too, with only Aiden, Vacek, and Pvilycht standing on theirs.

The domain was trying to split them up.

Lexie had to hold it together.

Lexie frowned, teleporting again and again, back and forth, to weave the pieces of earth back together...

Until suddenly, one of the teleportations brought her to a space where there was nothing but darkness.

She was surrounded by nothing.

Damn it, it had trapped her.

Uh oh,” she murmured. She might have gotten a little carried away. Her eyes adjusted, and she called out, "Dad? Vacek? Anyone?”

There was no answer, and Lexie got a little anxious. Not for herself. But for her father.

Lexie took a deep breath, trying to get back, but the constant had changed again. She was now in a new space. Another pocket dimension? In the same network or outside the network as her father's dimension within the dimension…

God, it was all getting so confusing.

Her father must be scared, worried sick. Oh, he must be freaking out right about now. Lexie knew that for a fact.

It probably brought back traumatic memories for him.

She just hoped he wouldn't do anything rash because of her. She hoped he was safe. Pvilycht was probably still working for him and might help him get out.

Wait, Pvilycht? Could she use him to get to her father?

She could still feel their bond, but it wasn't directional. She could pull Pvilycht to wherever she was, but she couldn't put herself where he was.

She also couldn't feel her father's psychic connection in her mind. She assumed he wouldn't be able to find her through the tag either.

“I’m trying to find my way out, Dad,” she told him just in case he could hear her. “Just hold tight, okay?” 

She hoped he and Vacek would continue to weaken the Alchemist's control over the pocket dimension. Maybe if she could communicate with the dungeon, then she could find a way out of here.

Or better yet, Yasycht might be in the dungeon. 

That’s right. Wasn’t Yasycht connected to a whole bunch of dungeons that the Alchemist was in control of? If this dungeon were attached to other dungeons, then she could enter the dungeon, find a doorway, and poof...she would be out.

Then again, it was an unstable dungeon, so if she went in, she might be trapped forever and dissolved in the mind of an Eldritch before she could get out.

Therein lay the risk. She wondered what to do. Did she try the simplest but most dangerous way, or did she wait around waiting for her father to figure it out?

Her dad and Vacek were probably–

“We finally meet again, you irritating little scamp.”

The voice echoed in the VOID, and Lexie glanced around with more curiosity than fear. “What the hell? Who are you?”

“Oh, come on. You know who I am. You came here looking for me, didn't you?"

Lexie's breath stopped.

“Vulcan.” Lexie was actually relieved to hear from him because it meant that he was still here. Good. She was scared that he'd run during the chaos, and that would have made her very annoyed.

She felt her anger and her bloodlust spike, but she kept calm.

She paced in the dark, trying to sense where the voice was coming from.“Or do I call you John?”

“Definitely don't call me that."

“Why not? It’s your name. Cecilia told me.”

He waited for a few seconds, then he asked, “Who?”

That ticked up Lexie's blood pressure even more. “You don’t remember her?’

"Why would I? You have no idea how many people I meet in a single human second. No idea. If I remembered all of them, I wouldn’t have any more space in my brain.”

"Right." Lexie wanted to know how these domains worked. Was he really here?

Was he also connected to the dungeon in some way? Could she find him? "So, where are you? And what are you doing here?"

“What do you think?”

“I think you’re a murderous piece of shit.”

"And I think you’re an aggravating little brat, and you’re short.”

Lexie glared into the abyss.

"Ha. I knew that one would hurt. I saw all about your height insecurity in my visions. Saw a whole lot of other things too."

"Speaking of which, I heard your visions of me weren't very accurate."

"No. But I have a workaround."

"What's the workaround?"

"Why the fuck would I tell you?"

Lexie thought about attacking, but she didn’t want to waste her skills shooting blindly. Instead, she reached out to the dungeon, wondering what the piece of shit wanted.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“Well, I figured since I finally get the chance to kill you, I should give you a murderous little soliloquy. Isn’t that how it usually goes in the movies?”

“You can't kill me."

“Can't I?”

“No. You’re too weak.”

That one was his insecurity. Lexie felt his anger pulse in the air as he retorted, “I wasn't too weak to kill your mother, now was I?”

Lexie froze. Steam rose out of her ears. She took the second to activate the charades champion. Even if she couldn’t see him, she might be able to read him from inflections in her voice. “She’s dead?"

“Obviously.”

Hmm. It was hard to tell whether or not he was telling the truth. Lexie turned it up. She got closer.  

“So why did you leave us that lifegem?"

"Why not? Didn't you like my little present?" He laughed. "I thought you would want to know how she died. Thought you would want to watch her final moments and find it as entertaining as I did. Thought you might want to know why she died, too, because the reason might not be as straightforward as you might think.” He said. “Tell me, Lexie, do you want to know the truth about the head of the association and who he really was to your mother? Was he her hero or the one who sent her down a dark path with no way back?”

***

Dewie was chewing his nails when Xena ran across him in the dining hall. 

“What’s up?” she said as she slid her bowl next to him. He shook his head.

They were the only two in the dining hall. It was pretty early in the morning, but Xena had early training with Lionel, and Dewie had simulations first thing too, so he probably hadn't slept too well.

"Dewie, it'll be fine," Xena said. "I mean, obviously it'll suck while you're in it, but then after that–"

“No, it's not that. I'm worried about Lexie. She's not answering her calls, and I can't reach Mr. Vacek either.”

"They’re probably on a mission and got distracted."

Dewie nodded. "I know, I just have a bad feeling." He sighed. "I checked last time at the park, and Lexie's guillotine was still there."

“But you warned her, right?”

"Yeah."

“So she should be fine. 

"I hope so."

After soothing Dewie's fears and barely eating her cereal, she went to Lionel. She wasn't sure if Dewie's anxiety rubbed off on her, because she got increasingly distracted during training.

"Okay," Lionel said, when she was unable to bend the lightsaber he sent at her neck. "Tell me what's up before I accidentally decapitate you."

Xena shook her head. "It's nothing."

"It's about your friend, isn't it?"

Xena didn't bother lying. Lionel could read her too well. "How do you know?"

"Because it always is."

"So what is it?"

"Dewie had a vision about her being trapped somewhere, and I guess I'm worried."

"Does it have to do with her recent stay at the dungeon? You think she might go back?"

Xena shrugged. "I don't know."

"Have you asked her if she wants to see me?"

Yeah. She doesn't need help. 

"You sure?"

"I don't know, but she doesn't want it so..." Xena shrugged in a universal gesture of 'What can I do?'

Lionel sighed. "We have a meeting today."

"Yeah, with who?"

"Fae delegation."

Oh." Xena said. She wasn't sure how to feel about that

She wasn't sure, even more so when a few hours later she was walking into a meeting room which only held a large Fae man with a strange smile on his face

"It's so good to meet you," he said. "Xena Lightlark. I'm Ambassador Raz-Ro-Nan."