When her eyes closed, Jade felt herself sinking into the darkness, the chant echoing around her until that too faded. She found herself floating in a void of absolute darkness, the only source of light a bare dozen stars in the far distance, a murmur of whispers coming from them. When she looked at them, images flooded her mind.
Waking up surrounded by tall stones, waving grass spreading into the distance...stones, grass...there were words for these things...words shaping in thoughts...
"I..."
That voice...my voice...I am...
A searing pain. The past flooding into my mind. This doesn't work well...it needs to be fixed, before there's too much...
The temple is still being built, but already the enchantments are laid. So much easier, waking up like this than the old way...need to lay down instructions so humans can do it for me, time weighs heavy on my companions, I doubt they could do so again...
Jade flinched back from the voices, from the light, from fate...only for more stars to appear in the darkness around her. One by one, the green stars flicked on as energy gathered to them, and each one murmured with a voice from the past, murmuring murmuring...unless she focused on one, and then the memories blazed in her mind, more than she could take. Eventually, the sum total of the murmuring became an almost roar as she became surrounded by light. Squeezing her eyes shut and covering her ears, she screamed defiance against the overwhelming flood of the past. "NO! I'm not all of you! I'm not some cog in fate or history or the world! I'm ME! I'M JADE!"
Her scream echoed over the roar...which faded. A chuckle echoed from all the lights before focusing in one...one that stood on Jade's shoulder.
"Well who else would you be?" Saint asked softly as she walked calmly down Jade's arm, seeming to swell until at last she leapt off Jade's hand. When she landed in front of Jade, she looked her right in the eye. She seemed to still be growing, but held it back. "This should be easier for you to hear from than me as an adult." A face that was almost - but not quite - a mirror of Jade's looked her in the eye. "I'm Emeraude. It's a pleasure to formally meet you, Jade."
Jade blinked in confusion as she lowered her hands. "W...what?" she gasped out. "I...I don't-"
"You're confused," Emeraude explained. "You've come here expecting things to go a certain way, to have no choice in the matter, to be completely overwritten by the Fate you're here to face. I know. I was there." She gestured to the lights scattered around. "We all were-"
The first batch of lights pulsed, and a brief murmuring interrupted Emeraude's words.
Emeraude rolled her eyes. "Fine, most of us were!" she snapped irritably, much like Jade herself would. "You lot don't really count in this case. You were the first few, after all!" She pointed at the light that had sent the thought of writing instructions for humans. "The Temple was built in your lifetime, after all! At your instruction, at that!"
More irritable and contradictory murmuring echoed. "Hey!" Emeraude snapped out, putting her hands on her hips in a manner very reminiscent of Jade herself. "How many of you were eleven when this happened to you, huh? Huh?" Silence echoed. "I didn't think so! So how about you let me handle this, huh? Let us girls talk it out our way, rather than having a bunch of old men kibitzing! Hearing all of you nammer about how improper I was being drove me nuts when it was my turn! I got stuck on her shoulder for a reason, after all!"
"...oh my gosh, I'm such an idiot..." Jade groaned, burying her face in her hands. "There's no way a human brain could hold all this...so there was never any chance of me being overwritten...none of it was going to pour uncontrolled into my head to begin with, was it?"
Emeraude chuckled as she sat down, a table and chairs appearing in the void as a grassy plain spread around them, the stars that were past lives now shaping a night sky. "Don't feel too bad," she offered as she poured tea for them both. "I was the same way when it was my turn. It's why I tried to recklessly stop it...until a second Hsi Wu showed up with the Deja Vu stone to tell me what would happen if I went through with it." She took a sip of tea. "Waiting was definitely the second best choice I ever made. My body wasn't ready at 11." She offered a plate of bat-shaped cookies. "Want one?"
Unsure what else to do, Jade took a cookie and nibbled it. She then stared at it. "...how long has it been and he still hasn't updated the recipe?" she asked awkwardly.
Emeraude giggled girlishly. "Glad to hear that's still the same. It was nice watching him from your shoulder."
Jade frowned a little guiltily. "So...was it him that you were...?"
Emeraude blinked...and then an expression of grossed out disgust crossed her face. "Eww, no! Why would you even think that?"
Jade found herself bristling. "What? Something wrong with him?" she demanded angrily.
"Other than being my big brother, I guess not," Emeraude allowed as she shuddered.
"...what?"
Emeraude smirked. "Yeah! It wasn't me that bound him to me as a familiar. That was my Dad. I was two at the time...and he did that because I'd already blown up his wizard's lab six times!"
Jade couldn't help but chuckle. "Bet Hsi had fun with you..."
"That he did," Emeraude agreed warmly. "It was formative years for both of us. In demon terms, he wasn't much older than me. It was...nice."
Jade took a sip of the tea, and found it was her favorite flavor. Briefly, she wondered if that was deliberately chosen by Emeraude to make her feel comfortable or just something else they had in common...only to discard the speculation as unimportant at the moment. "So...why'd you make him promise not to tell me?" Jade asked sadly, her fingers closing around the Taijitu half-coin she held.
"Because of one sentence I let slip when I was older...that might have ruined things for you in the now," Emeraude explained softly. "When talking about being the Chosen One...I described it as the best choice I ever made."
Jade blinked in shock. "Wait...you mean I get to choose?"
"Of course," Emeraude confirmed. "Being the Chosen One is more than just a matter of being born into it. It's a duty, a role, something you need to embrace. Just because your chi is right for the job, doesn't mean your mind or heart are. That's what all this is." She gestured to the starry sky, and to the grassy plain, making Jade see that each blade of grass was another spark of life, from the world itself. "This lets you see the true nature of the role, and your own true essence...so you can decide if you're cut out for the job, and more than that, if you're up to it."
"And...the reason why he couldn't tell me that?" Jade pressed.
Emeraude smiled impishly. "Do you really think any words could have done justice to how this feels?"
Jade thought about that, leaning back as she let herself just feel. All the energy flowing into and through her, balancing her against the world and the world against her...the feeling of all of history unfolding for her just by looking up...knowledge and wisdom simply waiting for her to need it, an awareness just beyond awareness of past lives...
"No...words couldn't do it justice," she allowed finally. "Even if they were the right words...it'd be a pale shadow...and a terrifying one at that."
"And that plus knowledge that you got to choose..." Emeraude explained softly. "You would either be overwhelmed and terrified, convincing yourself you weren't cut out for it before you even got here...or be consumed with a desire for the power and knowledge, convincing yourself you could handle it or worse, deserved it. We'd end up losing the good ones and only getting the bad ones."
"And...if I choose no?" Jade inquired. "What happens then?"
Emeraude gestured around. "This fades. You wake up without memory of what passed here, and only knowing that the burden was not yours. Your chi returns to the pre-catalyzation state. The things you learn so easily will come harder, as they no longer tap into past life knowledge. Magic will be harder as you won't have ready access to past-life chi. And the essence will move, passing to the next Chosen One, until another chooses to embrace it."
"I...see," Jade mused thoughtfully.
"The ritual's almost finished," Emeraude spoke carefully. "Are you ready to choose?"
Jade closed her eyes, letting all of it flow through her mind. In her heart of hearts, she thought about what type of person she was, and what this all meant. After a time, she opened her eyes...
...and chose.
I need a time machine... because these cliff hangers are killing me!
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I got one, but I have to hit 88 Miles Per Hour to get us into the future, so I'll need a the time and day that the next chapter comes out if you want to get there.
Nice to see that Jade has the choice to have phenomenal cosmic power or not to hold it in that itty bitty living space called the human body. I can imagine why Hsi didn't bother updating his cookie recipe though of just to drive the others around him batty.
I think Jade will accept the offer. Personally I think that this is the same realm that Celestia took Twilight when she ascended. So alicorn equivalent Jade yea! Now I wonder what would have happened if Twilight knew she could refuse to be an alicorn?
Aw cliffhangers! My one weakness!
Awesome chapter
Saint must be weirded out that everyone keeps pushing her new incarnation into a relationship with her brother.
She may consciously be able to seperate the matter but I think it would still be weird, worse when they're older and actually go for it.
A very mature conversation chapter indeed. But wait... if Emeraude already sat on one of Jade's shoulder all this time... who was on the other shoulder?
Okay even though I saw this coming I still found it an amazing read!
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Future Head of Section 13 Jade in a prankster mood!?
...Huh. I don't actually know what she will choose...
Nice to see some of Jade's questions finally being answered. Hopefully it will make the choice a little bit easier. Given all that she's been able to do with her chi and how much she could lose if she turns down the role, my guess is that she's going to accept. But it's Jade—you never really know...
Also:
Was this supposed to be 'formally,' or is it some kind of wordplay since Emeraude is one of the former Chosen Ones?
Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Five
"Bad Day"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 43
"He's Not My Boyfriend!"/"I'm not his Mistress!"
Chapter Count: 0/0
Total Count: 49/7
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It was meant to be formally, but I do like the wordplay joke.
Still fixing it, though.
Dalong Wong is SOOO screwed. Jade is going to have lots of frustration to work out on him.
8764565 Do you have the Mr. Fusion upgrade or are you still using the Plutonium powered flux Capacitor????
I hope Jade chooses yes, though I could see her making the choice either direction.
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I honestly think you should leave it in with an edit of "Or should I say" with how you fix it so people can still get the joke after the edit. Though this is your story not mine and I haven't been disappointed with how any of your works i've read/reading has turned out
She drank the red soda.
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I would prefer the steam option if it is available as it looks cooler.
8764985
Personally I prefer the variant that taps directly into the time stream, it needs eight people to fly properly and I always forget to turn off the parking brake, but it is so much roomier than other options.
Now THIS was certainly unexpected! <3
8764955
Considering what happened in the previous chapter, it seems the most probable that she accepts.
I just realized why that name sounds familiar!
As long as Jade doesn't have to pray to keep the world stable, i'll take it.
Jade is going to make Hsi Wu's even more miserable for having not mentioned that Emeraude is his sister. I can see the merciless teasing he gets now getting cranked up to 11 when Jade starts making incest jokes.
8765138
But if we use that one we cannot screw up the timeline. Stupid fixed points.
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One of the things they never tell you about Time machines: You’re never actually going into the past or future of your own time line. Instead, you’re being boots strapped into a parallel timeline. And one of the more dangerous side effects is that you can never guarantee that you’ve landed back in your original timeline when you return.
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Well I could have always gone and gotten the Good Doctor's 'TARDIS' but you know how he gets.
What a choice!
8765406 We could try mugging that elf kid for his Ocarina, not like he can tell anyone. 😈
8765761
Yeah but that only takes the person who plays it into the past or future, if you are several people that want to see the next chapter of the story you need a time machine then.
Chapter One Hundred Seventy Five
"Aiyah!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 49
"One More Thing!"
Chapter Count: 0
Total Count: 83
8765824
Precedent says otherwise - we see the Ocarina of Time:
1) Timeshift special blocks causing them to disappear/reappear in the present
2) Teleport the user (and fairy guide) to different places
3) Send someone standing next to the user back in time 7 years
4) Change form appropriately when used by someone wearing a transformation mask
5) Bring the user back to a set point in time
6) Move the user forward in time to any of several fixed points
7) Slow the flow of time significantly for the user
Some of these things may be magic from the songs played rather than the Ocarina playing them.
Anyway, the key point is that, at the end of Ocarina, Zelda uses the Ocarina of Time to return Link to his own time, making it clear that it's possible to use the Ocarina to send someone else through time.
Ugh. Ending on a Cliffhanger.
Oh you horrible tease...
That was mean!
I really like this. The Chosen One isn't only chosen by fate, but by the one. It's like a safety mechanism ensuring that free will wins out, thus maintaining the spirit of all the good that the chosen one is meant to do.
This is why you need to get into television or video games one day. Your story ideas outclass about 90% of what we usually get in the mainstream.
I watched more Marlon Webb than I cared to the point that after the line “she chose” I imagined little Jade starting a “Band of the Bold” line to her consciousness.
That’s stupid and it would strip the result of all formality.
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I know i had said I watched it just at its later half imof running
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That it is pal.