Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

FORTY- Backs Against the Wall

our backs against the wall, we're surrounded and afraid
our lives now in the hands of the soldiers taking aim
our questions ricochet, like broken satellites
how our bodies, born to heal
become so prone to die...

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I don't know how long we drifted there, lost in the empty grey fog. There was something about the place that numbed the mind, making it more and more difficult to move properly or even think coherently the longer we were there.

It didn't take long for me to completely lose myself in the blank void. It was like I'd been frozen in time, my worried thoughts eventually fading into an indistinguishable blur.

Essa had won. She'd successfully locked away all her significant enemies, and there was nothing left standing between her and the domination of the universe.

Well, there was still Giselle, I supposed. But I didn't know how that would play out, and it didn't matter anyways. Either way, reality was about to fall into the hands of a wickedly vindictive madwoman- did it really matter which one?

I looked idly at the other two Primes...or, technically speaking, the other Prime and the boy who was supposed to have been a Prime. Jasper was curled with his knees tucked against his chest, hiding his face in his arms. Julia's eyes were closed, her body loose and relaxed as though she was asleep. Her dark hair floated around her face as though she was underwater, and her expression was tense and sad. I shut my eyes again, not having enough energy to keep them open.

This was even worse than the horrific future-space Essa had trapped me in before. I hadn't actually been able to, but least there I'd had a chance of hanging onto my senses.
This place didn't bother to trick your brain into giving up. It just consumed you.

Of all the ways I thought I might go; this wasn't one of them. I wondered distantly if Essa was going to leave us in here for all eternity, or if she was going to send at least Julia and I back to our timelines and carry out the things she'd threatened back in the End.

I was far enough gone that I couldn't even care. It didn't matter anymore.

Time stretched on.

Seconds, minutes, hours, ticking by and yet not moving forward at all.

It didn't matter.

I don't know how much time passed before I felt myself gradually rising, pulled upwards by an indistinguishable force. I didn't notice it at first, too far down under layers of mental fog.

But even once I did realize what was happening, I couldn't do a thing. I was paralyzed, as though my mind had been cleanly separated from my physical form.

Fragments of thoughts drifted idly, as I registered what was going on. Slowly, ever so slowly, my brain started working again, thoughts breaking through the intense haze.
What...what is happening? Is Essa getting us out to exact her revenge? I wondered. Or could this be...a rescue?

I couldn't move, couldn't even open my eyes to confirm either of these ideas. I began to panic, as I tried harder to move my limbs and nothing happened. I was aware that I was still rising, but aside from that, I couldn't sense my body at all. I was utterly powerless to fight back against or help whomever was pulling us out, if that was indeed what was happening. I'd dealt with sleep paralysis in the past, but this was a hundred times worse.

Was there actually a chance that it was Lukas, Aiden, and Jacek coming to our rescue, or was I deluding myself? How long had it been since Essa trapped us in there? Had she already managed to overthrow reality?