Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-26892768-20180510232714/@comment-26892768-20180511190632

Meanwhile, in yet another world, a phoenix soars through the air above an ocean with only one target in mind. It doesn't notice the rift that opens up below it, or the red ring that flies out.

''Inside the phoenix's mind - for lack of a better word - is a completely different scene. A small world lit up by an orange sky, with two figures inside it. One, a black specter with markings all over it, its face completely featureless save for the spiral symbol engraved on it. The other is a fourteen-year old redheaded girl, currently trapped where she stands. Not by any physical restraints, but rather, by the amulet around her neck, or, to be more precise, the stone in the amulet.''

''These two are the phoenix. The girl who once commanded the stone, and the spirit who tried to use the stone to command her, to no avail...until it managed to find her one weak point in her will, and hit it hard.''

''Now, she's no longer in control of her body. She's trapped by the will of the Voice, stuck in her own body while the spirit uses it to..."remove" her family and friends. Not enough room for them, with the Voice's masters planning to make Alledia their home. So it's using her so that it doesn't have to get its hands dirty.''

''Needless to say, the stonekeeper - Emily Hayes - is not very pleased about this arrangement or how it came to be, although she's less pleased about the latter rather than the former. Good thing the Voice is currently being quiet for the moment. Gives her some space to think over certain events in the recent past.''

And how frustrated she is at herself for them.

''She'd never let the Voice take control before. Yes, she'd used more force than really necessary; gave the Voice more influence than she liked, but never before had she actually lost control - even when facing down a threat to her family and friends...and yet, all it took for the Voice to take over was to offer her a little perspective on what happened the night her father died. Show her that the man they'd swerved off a cliff to avoid was actively trying to get hit. Give her a little prompting...and she fell for it. She was fully prepared to use her full power on a man she barely knew, who really didn't deserve any blame when she thought about it in hindsight, and was a second too late to realize what that meant.''

''The Voice didn't really help, taking the guise of her father when he urged her to "make him pay" and all, but she should've realized something was wrong from the get-go. She should've thought it through. She shouldn't have fallen into rage just because she got something to blame for her father's death...''

Because now she might just lose the rest of her family too, her only hope being in a certain elf prince who may or may not be alive...

The red ring flies under the phoenix, still unnoticed, and seems to take aim...

Then it flies into the flames towards the stone hidden beneath them and starts rapidly spinning, starting to drill into the stone on impact.

And then the sky cracks.

"Hmmm? What is this?" ''The Voice looks up, for once looking as confused as Emily is. Then the ground shakes, causing Emily to stumble, before readjusting herself so that she can stay steady. Then it occurs to her that she can move now, for some reason.''

''But before she can really act on that, the ground in front of her starts to crack, forming a circle with a symbol she doesn't recognize and glowing red before spawning a similarly glowing red humanoid figure - a rather tall one at that. An image of someone long gone - someone to be feared and respected.''

Then it starts walking towards Emily.

The Voice immediately acts, exerting its will over this world, but no amount of tendrils, walls, or  quicksand slows it down.

"Emily Hayes of Earth." The voice seems to boom from all around. "You have great rage in your heart."

It reaches out a hand. "You belong to the Red Lantern Corps."

The Voice is silent for a moment, and then it laughs.

"Stonekeeper..." The Voice trails around behind Emily. "Need I remind you how you ended up in your current predicament? Besides, you know me. You know what I'm after. This Red Lantern Corps is a complete anomaly. Better to go with the devil you know then the devil you don't."

''Emily thinks for a moment. Admittingly, the Voice does have a point - wasn't she just berating herself for giving in to rage and letting the Voice take control? But, on the other hand...this Red Lantern Corps has nothing to do with her family. If she takes their offer, she could be free, and her family unharmed.''

That, and judging by the sky cracking further and further, she gets the feeling it isn't really a choice.

''"Well...there may be other ways to save my family from you..." Emily turns from the Voice to the red figure. "But none so certain."''

She takes the hand of the red figure.

"NO-"

The Voice is drowned out as Emily falls, falls, and falls as

every

thing

burns

The red ring successfully embeds itself into the amulet.

The phoenix halts in midair, seeming to hover for a few moments before the law of gravity kicks in.

It spirals down, forcibly regurgitating blood as its body starts shifting into something else, only getting more blood in the water as it keeps falling...

But when it gets close to the water, it flies up, its transformation now complete - and now more clearly a she.

Emily's clothes have returned in a different form - a red and black uniform with a black hood, with the symbol on her stone having shifted to that of the Red Lantern Corps insignia. Emily involuntarily snarls for a moment, a bit of blood still dripping from her mouth...and then she seems to snap out of whatever that was and looks down at herself.

And almost immediately, Emily notices that she didn't change back all the way. For one, she's still partially on fire, which seems to be mostly centered around her chest and is less drastic spreading outwards. This only really affects her upper arms, her back, the ends of her hair, and her upper legs, but that's still not something she's happy about. Another thing she isn't happy about is when she reaches behind her and feels how bony her back is - her spine didn't completely finish changing back to human size, and while her wings are mostly gone, the bones that used to form them are now embedded in her back, leaving her with a row of bony spines and two bony bumps on either side of them. And when she looks at her reflection, she sees that her eyes are still orange instead of returning back to their original brown.

Not exactly favorable.

Then a rift opens up in front of her. There's no voice, but almost instinctively, she knows why it's there. She needs to retrieve someone late for a meeting and bring him to the meeting herself.

With a new path set for her that she already has a few misgivings about, Emily enters the rift...

...and enters someone's house?

"What?" Emily briefly notes that her voice hasn't fully changed back either, before focusing back on her surroundings.