"Try to imagine our galaxy as a massive city, okay? Our galaxy is a city divided into a bunch of different neighborhoods and districts, understand? Ah but guess what? There's a catch: the only way one would be able to get to these other districts is a highway built just outside the city limits. That highway is the Bleed. It is essentially our pathway to the other "neighborhoods" within our galaxy. So what do we have now? We’ve discovered this "highway" but so far we can only use it to travel vast distances within our galaxy what about beyond that? I’m talking beyond the Milky Way; big picture sort of stuff. Beyond the Milky Way are other galaxies, are they also connected to the Bleed? Likely, but we don’t know yet. Now, the question then usually becomes: 'What is The Bleed, exactly?' which is the million-dollar question [laughs]. Let me say if I could go back to my crude analogy for a minute, if our galaxy is a city and the closest galaxy to it is also a different neighboring city, then The Bleed should be the interstate that serves them both. That is, at least what it seems to be, how the Bleed functions purely on a surface level. But I posit that that can’t be what the Bleed is. It has to be bigger than that because if a galaxy is a city, then the universe is a country. Beyond the Bleed, I believe there to be other countries; other universes. I believe the Bleed is a membrane of sorts that serves to keep not only our universe but also its parallel twin separate. Now, while we've been able to build on and off-ramps throughout this highway to our galactic neighborhoods, we've yet been able to build an "exit" to not just other galaxies in our universe, but whatever might be on the other side. But just imagine if we could? Or did? It's exciting to think about."

-excerpt from a live Q&A with Dr. Raymond Gibson, Old Earth 2152

Attacked, really? Roxanne was stunned. The sea of students all moved as one in the same direction, Roxanne pressed herself flat against the lockers for fear of being dragged by the tide. Wes grabbed her by the arm and led her into the stream, letting the mob guide them to the main cafeteria. Everyone had packed in like a can of cocktail weenies because it was the best spot to catch a glimpse of Central One which was currently on fire.

The cafeteria was an open-air area about the size of a football field and had see-through ceilings and walls that usually opened on beautiful days such as this one. However, all were closed shut at the moment due to what had just happened. Through the ceiling, Central One could be seen smoking from one of its towers, the fire from earlier had just recently gone out. Roxanne did what she always did during times like this: scour the news apps. A bunch of headlines all said the same thing: ‘Central One Under attack?’ She tapped the most recent one and read the blurb underneath.

"It says some sort of explosion went off there...," she said aloud, though Wes wasn't listening; his gaze was locked on the building. "Oh and, like, an alien was escorted there not long before that? Wow."

"They're always escorting off-worlders there," Offered some girl who had been reading over her shoulders. “It’s uh standard op, duh.”

Roxanne shot her an annoyed look, quickly folded the slate back up, and shoved the tiny slip back into her pocket. The girl sucked her teeth; ah, such sweet satisfaction. Petty? True. Worth it? Roxanne smiled to herself. Behind her, someone screamed but Roxanne ignored it.

The smoke had cleared and it looked as if the top two floors of the tower had been destroyed. This was so surreal for Roxanne. Yes, there was always something big going down in Saint Century, since it was where Lady Steel called home, but Roxanne had never had quite a front-row seat like this. There was always a bit of distance when stuff like this happened and she was having trouble parsing how this made her feel.

The school then shook. Another scream and Roxanne glanced behind her; a steady cacophony of cries and curses soon came followed by pressure as people in the back pushed forward in a panic. Something was happening back there but she was too short to see what. Wes grabbed her hand to keep them from getting separated when he was abruptly grabbed from behind by someone. This person had seized Wes by the throat and ripped him back forcing him to release Roxanne who found herself being swept away by a quick forming primordial mosh pit.

"Wes?!"

Roxanne eventually surrendered to the forces pushing her away, which allowed her to bounce off the pit once she got closer to the edge. She tripped and fell, landing hard on her butt but unharmed otherwise. More blood-curdling screams filled the air, this time followed by unholy roars that made her heart skip a beat; what the hell was that? She hopped onto a lunch table to spy what had been going on in the back and what she saw caused her heart to grow a mind of its own and nearly leap from her chest. People were beating and fighting with each other, violently and without remorse.

A group of 5 were busy stomping out someone on the floor before they ultimately turned on one another. Roxanne covered her mouth in horror, hoping that Wes wasn't among them. At the other end of the cafeteria, everyone was so busy trying to squeeze out of the entrance outside that they had become stuck. People in the back were shoving those in the front so hard no doubt some had already suffocated to death.

Even worse were the sickly-looking rioters who had started to advance on the crowd itself. They all jerked in unnatural ways as they moved, with thick black goop that dribbled from their mouths. Roxanne, trying not to lose it, took stock of the fact that everyone was ignoring the other exit toward the side. Sure, it didn't lead outside—just another wing at the school—but at least it led away from here and that was good enough.

Roxanne leaped from the table and booked it toward the door. A rioter took notice of her and attempted to dive at her, but she sidestepped him which sent him crashing into the Plexi window with a foul thud. Roxanne stared slack-jawed at the crumpled body of her would-be attacker but was jarred out of her stupor by a repugnant roar from the rioters who witnessed what had just happened. She took off again, this time making it out the doors; 5 or 6 of the hideous rioters gave chase.

The hallways of the school, normally recalled easily like the number of fingers on one hand, suddenly became a maze of twisting corridors that made no sense. Every door she came across she tried to no avail and, with each passing failure, Roxanne became grateful that she appeared to move faster than her pursuers. A detonation from somewhere else in the school rocked the entire building and caused her to lose her footing briefly. She scrambled back up and glanced behind her, her stalkers were unaffected by what had happened and had gained more ground.

Dog-sized security bots flooded the hallways. These creatures on wheels seemed to identify who needed pacifying easily; they zipped past Roxy and struck the rioters with stun batons that had emerged from their hulls. Roxanne had finally found an unlocked door and jumped in. The last thing she saw, seconds before she slammed the door shut behind her, was the inefficacy of those batons.

Roxanne found herself in an empty classroom, it was a disaster area. Desks had been strewn about, slates were everywhere with some cracked in half. Black viscous slime was scattered on the floor alongside a crumpled body. Roxanne choked back a cry and averted her eyes. She shouldn't stay here but here was safer than the alternative. She unfolded her slate again, checking for any updates since she had last looked.

‘PLANETARY EVACUATION ORDERED’ was plastered on every page; speculation from most of the talking heads centered around the spread of some kind of alien contagion as being the cause. Roxanne immediately thought of her grandparents, she needed to get home now. Very little else mattered at this point if the world was ending. As she folded up the slate, the classroom door slowly opened. Roxanne took a step back and held her breath. Her eyes darted around furiously searching for a weapon; anything.

"Rox?" It was Wes, oh thank goodness he’s okay; her skin felt on fire from joy. She breathed again as he filled the door frame. She threw her arms around him happily but recoiled when she saw the cuts and bruises on his face.

"Oh my god, how are you still standing?" The building rocked again and he nearly fell over but caught himself.

"You should see the other guys," he said, there was an attempt to crack a smile but pain washed over his face and he went limp in her arms. She tried to guide him down gently but his weight was too much for her and he ended up collapsing on both knees. He coughed and black ooze hit the floor and splattered. Concerned, Roxanne knelt beside him and tried to bring his face up to hers but he shoved her away hard.

Wes stood after that; moving in those unnatural jerking movements like the rioters. Roxanne scrambled backward with each step he took, more ooze escaped from his every pore as a loud buzzing filled the room.

"W-Wes...?" She stammered and he was on her quickly. She screamed and fought him with every ounce of power she could muster yet punches glanced off his face with no reaction. Her next blow was intercepted and black eyes stared back at her. She tried to pull it back, but he held firm. Roxanne pleaded while black sludge pooled out of his mouth and onto her face. Casually, he snapped her arm with a sickening snap. Roxanne screamed while Wes he reached for her throat.

Then the wall behind them exploded.

***

Earlier

The Century School’s front entrance was vomiting thick black smoke in the face of constant rioting; stained rioters battled clean bystanders with vicious depravity. Azonne caught a tiny gasp escape from Lady Steel’s lips. The smoke reversed itself back inside the building like a giant vacuum had been turned on and a stream of black sludge took its place. This sludge spasmed and grew two disgusting arms and a melting head.

The giant black monstrosity, pulsating brothy scum, twitched as it grew two more sizes. It noticed both Azonne and Corina coming in high and fast and screeched loud enough to bust every window in a 5-block radius. Around it, gunk-covered rioters collapsed to the ground as the disgusting emollient spread around their bodies, dissolving them as if they had fallen into puddles of acid. The Nameless grew and took a more exaggerated humanoid form when Azonne picked up more speed.

"Deal with the non-corrupted!" Azonne shouted as she shot past Corina and then past the Nameless as well. She turned as she did so, gliding on her back into the hole that the nightmare organism crawled out of. Azonne outstretched an arm and aimed, clasping it in place with her other hand while she let loose a hard light bubble that encased the creature. With the beam from her ring connecting them, Azonne zoomed into the school and drug the ancient filth in with her.

With a guttural scream, Azonne spun and dragged her hand forward as if she were throwing a punch. The connective light beam between her and the bubble gave slack momentarily, forcing the bubble to whip forward like a tetherball. It shot past Azonne with a thunderclap before it slammed into the ground in front of her causing the entire building to shake. She released the bubble and the creature further tumbled down the broken hallway, taking out lockers and a few of the loitering corrupted.

Azonne landed and skidded to a stop herself. She stared through the thing as it morphed itself to quickly be right side up; Azonne had her teeth bared. Her home gone, this planet on the precipice; she caught a frustrated scream in her throat. The Nameless rose as a singular blob before it again took an exaggerated human-like shape: its body hunched over with 4 fat arms that were too long, and 8 squat legs that remained bent. Massive hands smashed against the walls on either side of it, as if to taunt her.

"Littlelittlelittle oneoneone," it echoed. "Whatwhatwhat willwillwill thisthisthis achieachieachieveieveieve?"

She didn't answer; rapid bursts of plasma exploded from her rings that sizzled through the creature but did little else. They charged one another at full speed, Azonne concentrated her aura into a thick forward-facing shield that crushed the creature head-on. The Nameless dug two of its hands into the wall to stop its momentum and, before Azonne could register what had happened, it grabbed the shield at either side with the other two free hands and squeezed.

The hard light shield shattered in a vivid explosion that tossed Azonne up into the ceiling at a forty-five-degree angle. She crashed to the floor face first and the wet snap she heard was her nose cracking. Blue blood spattered everywhere as she lifted herself off the ground with one hand.

Incoming from above!

Azonne rolled to her right as a heavy fist buried itself into the ground and narrowly missed her by centimeters. She stopped rolling when she was facing upward, outstretched her fist, and fired a shot that burned right through the creature’s legs, disintegrating them. The Nameless fell but stopped itself with a free hand against the wall while black tendrils shot out and attached to nearby anchor points acting as a stabilizer. Azonne kicked her legs up and rolled through the motion, rising on her hands before she pushed up with a climbing kick that knocked jagged teeth everywhere. The creature screamed but caught her in mid-air with a free hand and slammed her into the wall.

Azonne careened into an empty classroom, then another, and another until she rolled to a stop like discarded trash. Now in a mostly empty hallway, Azonne glanced up but felt unsteady. 4 corrupted jerked toward her. Eyes heavy, breath haggard, she raised her arm and cast a wide beam; the four burned before their screams faded as they cooked to nothingness.

Her whole body shuddered as she attempted to stand and her knees buckled. Azonne hoped the evacuations were long underway, she wasn’t sure how much more she could take. With the Balance broken she was outmatched and overpowered. As she turned to face the hole she made, a gelatinous branch shot out from the smoke and wrapped around her neck.

In a panic, she placed her hands around it and they felt clammy under her touch. She attempted to fire a blast to sever the limb but the tendril shook her like a wild stray cat before it shoved her through the other wall. Again she tumbled as debris flowed around her.

Something shrieked as she landed and caught her attention. A corrupted had been caught off balance by the rubble and was attempting to stand, just beyond it was a young girl with long red hair and favoring an arm; dried tears had crystalized on the child's face. Azonne got to one knee and fired a beam toward the corrupted human. The thing shrieked as the dark muculent patches on and around its skin bubbled under the intense heat, it cowered.

"No!" The girl grabbed her forearm and the beam went wide forcing Azonne to shut it off. She looked at the girl and her brow furrowed; a single neuron fired in her brain, this was how it felt when she recalled a predecessor's memory.

But none came.

"Please?!" The girl pleaded. Before Azonne could answer, however, the Nameless let loose a shrill cry that made them both feel like someone had walked over their graves. Azonne looked to the hole and the mass was pouring into the room slowly, this was more taunting; the Nameless wanted her to squirm. She looked to the girl, whose hazel eyes were on the trembling corrupted that Azonne had nearly destroyed, then to a nearby window, and finally above her. She grabbed the girl by the waist.

"Let’s get you out of here," Azonne said before blowing a hole in the ceiling and flying through it. Fires had raged all across the campus, alongside the screams and moans of both corrupted and injured alike. Azonne glided low just over the roof of the facility before ending up back at the ruins of the main entrance. She carried Roxanne in her arms, who had her arms around Azonne tightly and was shivering.

Corina was there and, having noticed Azonne, flagged her down. She was next to a transportation shuttle and Azonne hoped that there had been more before it. She landed softly and guided Roxanne over to Corina who asked, "Sitrep?"

"I found this one while I was fighting it," Azonne replied. "The Nameless is still in there."

"Is that good or bad?" Corina asked. “Probably bad, right? I should punch it.”

Azonne kept eying the girl, she couldn’t help it. The girl felt familiar but that was impossible. Like before, this felt like those times when recalling a predecessor’s memory but nothing came. This was different; not quite a memory; a singular feeling that was shared among all who came before her. After a beat, Azonne looked at Corina and said, "I may have been mistaken."

"About?"

"I may be able to stop this," Azonne said and turned to look back at the building. "...at least for a while." She rose off the ground slightly and said "Just stay back, okay?"

"Wait! Stop being cryptic and weird!" Corina took a step and yelled. "What are you going to do?!"

"What I must," was all Azonne said before she rocketed back into the school. She felt calm for the first time since she put these rings on. Azonne finally understood; why that memory had come to her; why she felt compelled to this planet. The First knew, because of course it did, and she could have exiled herself rather than risk contaminating another world. But what good would that have done? Her lineage would end with her; the Balance forever broken; all the sacrifices that her predecessors had made would be for naught.

This was where she needed to be.

At this time.

At this moment.

She was a bridge to the future.

I'm sorry we failed you Azonne.

You didn't fail me and maybe I didn't fail you, this was her fate, wasn’t that a function of the mantle? One never knew when their time came to an end until they knew. D’Grav had stressed that time and time again. So be it, Azonne found great comfort in the idea; finally.

The Nameless commiserated in a wide-open gymnasium deep in the school. It was surrounded by its corrupted; humans with black throbbing veins that were stitched into their skin and moved spastically with mannerisms similar to that of a newborn deer. Azonne landed just beyond the mass with a soft thud that kicked up dust around her. The Nameless turned to face her, its nightmarish teeth all grown back in its ugly head.

"Stillstillstill youyouyou perperpersististist?" It said. "Gogogo findfindfind ususus aaa newnewnew worldworldworld, littlelittlelittle oneoneone; we’llwe’llwe'll joinjoinjoin youyouyou soonsoonsoon." The Nameless laughed and, when it did so, their corrupted joined; a cacophony of hyenic chittering.

Azonne took a step forward and she powered down her aura. The Nameless eyed her, curiosity piqued. The corrupted silently encircled her, they were jumpy, they were eager. She took a few more steps before she finally said, "I surrender to you." She held her arms outstretched.

"Whatwhatwhat?" it echoed.

"We are bonded, are we not? I already have a piece of you within me forever and I refuse to willingly live like this; take me and finish your works."

The mass shifted and shrunk with a disgusting bubbling noise like a hot spring ready to explode. It continued to shrink until it took a more normal humanoid form of about her height. The body was smooth and black, like a two-dimensional shadow coming off a wall to play in the real world. No mouth, no eyes, no defining features or muscles; just a void.

"Andandand," it began. "Whatwhatwhat ofofof youryouryour comcomcompanionionion? Surelysurelysurely, ititit hashashas somesomesomethingthingthing tototo saysaysay ofofof thisthisthis?"

"The Balance is broken," she replied. "Their connection with me is weak and they have no say here. Complete our connection and you'll be free of your chains, forever."

"We’rewe’rewe’re freefreefree nownownow!" It said with a shout that echoed off the lips of every corrupted surrounding them.

"But you'll also control it all: light and dark," she offered. "You will be the balance."

The Nameless stood silently. It shrunk, flattening itself against the floor. It became a flat disk and glided over to her, under her. How could the Nameless ignore such an offer? It’d be ignorant to not even try.

For the first few billion years, the Nameless played along with its new normal. It went through the motions, interacting with intelligent life and playing the tempter and the serpent. But that grew boring. It spent the next few billion playing the jester, a foil for whoever held the mantle for however long that lasted; boredom persisted. This eternal nightmare has spent this most recent cycle trying to undermine the balance and here it was, toying with her now and right on the precipice of what it always wanted.

Why not end it now?

Wisps rose from the disk and attached themselves to Azonne. They climbed end over end on each other, each time spreading out further whenever one made contact with her body. She clenched her fists; microscopic stands of wet black thread seeped into her cerebellum and physically pierced her brain matter. It felt like a crowbar was being jammed into her skull.

Ink spider-webbed and spread over her armor and skin; she doubled over; she screamed. Is this what getting corrupted felt like? Azonne thought of all the beings she'd seen suffer through this and she wept. For her, supposedly corrupted this entire time, it had never felt like this. Maybe this meant that she wasn’t, that she was just playing her part in the Balance; she felt one with her power for the first time. Her eyes had desaturated from glowing orange to a deathly black and the Nameless’s voice echoed in her brain.

"Waitwaitwait," she said, her voice amplified with its own. Her aura returned but it was dull at first. It breathed and throbbed; it pulsated heat and forced her to drop to one knee. Azonne screamed and energy exploded from her eyes. The slime burned away and, briefly, her thoughts were once again her own.

Finally.

She raised slightly from her kneeling position and held her fist in front of her. The energy that made up the atoms of life spoke to her and she drew it in; the air got still. Azonne bent her knees slightly then shot up to the sky. She burned so hotly that she melted through the gymnasium roof. She climbed, beyond the skyline, past the cloud cover, and finally into low orbit; she continued to scream.

She grew hotter, brighter.

Azonne, thank you.

She closed her eyes while her body began to break apart. She was rapidly turning to ash and surfed on the edge of the atmosphere. Her last memory was of D’Grav.

“They want me gone too, don’t they?!” she wailed. Azonne expected a quick answer, a final answer, but when none came she looked back up to find D’Grav apparently in deep thought as if conversing with someone only they could hear. Imperceptible nods came every so often until they got up from the chair and approached the young child. Their hand reached out and touched the young girl's chin; Azonne felt her body clench. Her heart raced for the first time since being in this room and she wished she could just hide and go away. She shut her eyes expecting the worse.

“Azonne, I want you to listen to me alright?” The little girl opened one eye, it was pensive and damp. D’Grav lowered themselves down to a single knee so that they could look directly at her.

“You are not bad. You are not good. You are a living being balancing between the two extremes, as it should be. I will not destroy you.” A loud bang could be heard from the room beyond the mirror, D’Grav ignored it and pressed on.

“When you come of age, my power will be yours.”

“W-what?” Both eyes were open now, ducts seemingly dry.

“They thought I was here to kill you—I thought I was here to kill you—but I cannot. You are my successor.”

“Me? But how-“

“-Do I know? It’s the nature of the job, I just do.” They stood up, never taking their eyes off Azonne, and sighed wistfully. “But, you’re still too young, and I’ve got some years left in me so…” They held out their hand. “I’ll be your friend.”

The sun colored Azonne’s skin but finally, she felt safe and content. Her grandmother called her name; it was time to go home.

Azonne’s ashes floated away and she was gone.

However, something else hung there among the remains. The objects moved silently along with what was left of Azonne before gravity asserted itself and pulled them down back to the planet.

They caught fire as they made their descent. They fell rapidly and Saint Century rushed up to greet them. Buildings ended up thankfully missed before the fireball created a mile-wild crater just south of Central One. The smoke eventually would clear and reveal buried at the center:

Two golden rings.