Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights

CHAPTER 1: Heart of Darkness

"This can't be true... the data has to be flawed somehow!"

I assure you, it is not.

"No... no way. Kyubey, you gotta check it again! It's gotta be wrong!"

We have verified the data to be factually accurate to within a 0.00001% margin of error. Our results are sound, Kerberos. I apologize if this upsets you.

"But if it's true, then... then it's all for nothing. All their sacrifices, all their suffering, all this destruction..."

It would appear to be so.

"No... I won't accept this, I won't! There has to be some way. There has to be..."

While I am impressed by your optimism, Luna, I am afraid the facts are clear. Despite all we have done to preserve it, the multiverse is dying. It cannot be saved.

SHATTERED SKIES

By BHS

Note: All characters are property of their respective creators and studios. I do not own them, and have made no profit from this work whatsoever.

EDIT 12/24/22: Minor changes have been made for consistency with later chapters.

WARNING: This story will contain MAJOR SPOILERS for ALL of the series involved. You have been warned.

ACT I: UNRAVELING

CHAPTER 1: Heart of Darkness

-VERTEX THREE: 8.333882^7-

Somewhere in Earth Orbit

It was all going wrong. It was not how it should have been.

Joker should have been dead.

More accurately, he should have ceased to exist as the individual called "Joker" at the moment he finished merging with Emperor Pierrot.

Yet he could see. He could hear. He could even feel what Pierrot was feeling... though the feelings were faint.

So if he was not alive, per se, at least he still existed in some fashion.

It was all going wrong. It was not how it should have been. Not at all.

Whatever limbo the harlequin was trapped in, he felt echoes of his Emperor's fear as the great shadowy being drew back, shrinking away from the light. That light, that blasted, burning light, threatening to melt Pierrot away like dew evaporating on morning leaves...

Before him (them?) was a great flower, blooming impossibly in the void of space. Its petals parted, and from within, there rose the immense figure of an angel, radiating that light from within, hands clasped as if in prayer, white wings unfurling to shield the wasted planet behind her from further harm...

From within Pierrot, Joker raged at the angel wearing the face of the Precure leader. He spewed venom and hatred at her, cursing her name, mocking her, looking right into her shining eyes and refusing to blink.

But Emperor Pierrot was frightened. More than that, he was terrified. Fighting back should have been so easy, but Pierrot simply floated there and watched the angel approach...

It was all going wrong. It was not as it should have been.

The angel opened her arms, and now Joker screamed at Pierrot: Fight back! Damn you, fight back! You've almost won! You're almost there! Why won't you fight back?!