Of Love and Death.

The Past Chapter 15: Cold's Requiem Pt. 2

Darkness. There was nothing but darkness. This part of the universe was black, black, black. Deathly and dark. Even the tiny stars were far, far away. Everything near this place had been eaten up. Swallowed and destroyed until it was nothing. Gone forever and ever. Cold had been here so long, beating her butterfly wings so fast.

All that motion was making her ache. Cold's wings felt sore and like every motion was a fight to move. Hovering here, how long had her wings been beating? But it was worth it, hopefully. She needed to build her courage up. This was a risk. She knew it was a risk. Theoretically speaking, she should be fine. After all, the only thing that could truly kill her was a lack of blood.

But, then again. No one really knew what lay beyond the sphere of blackness behind Cold. Maybe beyond the horizon everything broke down. Information, the laws of the universe. Maybe she had miscalculated, and she wouldn't be able to get out. Maybe she would simply be ripped to shreds the second she crossed the border, and lose her blood that way.

Maybe Cold was just worrying for nothing.

Swallowing hard, Cold realized that she had come to the turning point. Either she crossed the event horizon, or she went back to the Orb with her tail between her legs. Had to face her partner and admit she's chickened out. The Nexus Force would have to say that she had been too scared to follow through with her plan.

Closing her eyes, Cold took a moment. She took a moment and felt. She felt her toes, her wings. How her hair fell around her shoulders, how her dress billowed around her legs. The way her fingers twitched and the way her heart beat. This was what it meant to be alive. To have motion, to be able to feel. And Cold was willing to lose all of this. She knew the truth of the words. This was what her plan meant to her.

Twirling around, Cold turned and saw actual darkness. Even darker than the sky behind her, dotted with the light of stars. This was truly the body of no light. It was simply a sphere of blackness. There was no accretion disk, it was no longer feeding. A black hole. There was a sense of terrible awe within her. She wasn't one to be intimidated. But this? This?

It was unimaginable. Indescribable. So huge, so massive. Full of power. There was almost a deep humming within Cold's bones. Urging her nearer. And, well, who was Cold to disagree? So, without any more hesitation, the most evil of all the shadows folded her wings, and let gravity take a hold of her.

Falling, falling, falling. In a single breath Cold fell into that blackness, that darkness. Panic set in. She was moving too fast, she couldn't stop herself. Should she have brought one of the other Shadow's with her? Gravity, or even Singularity? Was this it? Cold beat her wings frantically, trying to slow her descent. But it wasn't working. WHY WASN'T IT WORKING?

No. No Cold wasn't going to panic.

The icy shadow had expected this. She had known this was going to happen. Instead of just wandering off into the universe looking for this black hole, she'd done her research. And her whole plan edged on one idea. That she could, theoretically, go into a black hole. And, no, she wouldn't be able to get out.

But Cold didn't just exist in one place. She wasn't just her body. The force of the universe that was her stretched across all of existence. And that was her bet. That she would be able to take what she needed from inside, and teleport her consciousness halfway across the known universe. Yes, her body would die. But, hopefully, she wouldn't. And if she did? Well, at least what he'd done wouldn't bother her anymore.

Oh. Yes, what he'd done.

A surge of determination flooded its way through Cold. What he'd done. That was the whole reason she was doing all of this. Focus came back to her, she stopped panicking, and allowed herself to keep cascading towards the center. She just dropped off, going slightly limp. Letting herself drift along for the ride. It was almost relaxing.

Then, Cold felt her hands. They like silly putty, almost. Like she was slowly being stretched out, before she broke in two with a snap. It was one thing to know her fate. It was another to see it in action. There was something disturbing about feeling herself warp in front of her eyes. Seeing everything that made her up start to change, rip up into atoms.

But the shadow wasn't turning back. Not that she would have had much of a choice. This was a one-way thing. However, she did have to hurry. Find what she was looking for, sooner rather than later. All Cold needed was to spy the streaming matter. The stuff that was formed in the core of stars. Perhaps she could have divided inside one of those flaming spheres instead of the epitome of blackness. However, the very idea of being surrounded by so much heat made her skin crawl. Here though, here she was nearly chilled to the bone. Plus, she would come out fine on the other end. So, no harm no foul.

Really, the only direction Cold could look was straight ahead. So that's what she did. Look straight ahead. And she saw nothingness. Darkness. Because all the light ahead of her wasn't coming back. Haunting. It was haunting. It should have been nice. Darkness and all. But it made her shudder. And she was coming closer to it. She had no idea where the center really was. Only that it was there.

Eons. Cold could have eons to find what she was looking for. Or, she could only have a few moments. Before all of her blood was ripped from her body as she stretched apart. But she couldn't worry about that. She had to focus. Find what she was looking for before she ran out of time. This time was the time to forget that fear existed.

So Cold sent out her feelers. Reached into the universe, feeling the temperature of everything around her. How nearly frozen it was. But some of it differed from the rest. Most everything in this hole was solid. Nearly unmoving in its rigid frigidness. But some of it...some of the strange matter was still moving. Barely. Barely, barely, barely. But it was moving. Moving just a little bit more than everything else. Still slipping and sliding, something fluid-like.

Bingo.

Stabbing the fluid with imaginary claws, Cold could feel it. Feel the fragile heat inside, terrified. It knew what was coming to it. It knew it was dying as Cold forced everything inside of it to stop. To halt. To become so frozen it felt like a part of herself. And maybe it was. Maybe this thing, this material she'd chilled was now a part of her. Hopefully it was. That was the plan, trick the universe into thinking it was her, so that it would come with her.

Cold could feel herself coming apart. Feel herself tearing up even more than before. This was it. Time to let go. Time to ignore the pang of sadness. Why was she sad? She was still herself. She just needed to let this body of her's go. It was going to die. So, time to jump ship. Right. She was being illogical. Just time to go. This was all worth it, she'd deal with him after this.

So, Cold drew within herself. She reached in and found everything that connected her to everything else. Her force, the very thing she was a part of. And, she could still feel the icy thing. The star material. Although, maybe it could be found outside of stars as well. Never the matter. She got it. And it was coming with her.

The icy shadow found a sort of peace come over her. All of the sudden, almost without her will. Because she almost hadn't. It was everything else. Who she was helping her out. Dragging her consciousness, her memories, who she was away. Dragging it and the frozen matter away. Dragging it out, out, out. Somewhere else. Somewhere far away.