The Rebirth

It was different this time.
Her sight flipped through the magical layers to the land with the red churning sea, but she concentrated too hard, flipping to another land, with an edge, and a deep abyss of screams sucking her in, drawing her closer, closer, reaching for the box.
And she blinked, and it was again the red sea, spilling near her feet. She backed up,
and both scenes flickered back and forth, rapidly, sucking away from her, almost pulling her to reality before she focused again. She took a slow, wavering, step, as steadily as she could with her shuddering back. "It’ll all be over soon" was her only comfort, and it was just as scary, daunting, terrifying, heartbreaking as it was comforting.
Another slow step. The sea/abyss was moving faster than she was. She needed to get to the box.
Her mind went blank.
And she began walking.
Thoughts pulled at her, chaos screaming piercing screams, layers of reality flickering back and forth back and forth in her vision, and she let them, not caring, not moving. Feelings didn’t matter, and they did, at the same time. Elena let it all in. She didn’t fight. She let herself feel- her fear. Her crushing sadness. The intense, intense, intense pain of everything- being there in this awful place, breaking her ribs, leaving it all behind. This is what she's been training for years. For this moment. Her Sight lead her here. Her ability to see between different worlds gave her friends that could help her- the Sphinx, Oakley, her river friends, the blinking lights. And her meditation, her constant meditation, was going to get her to that box.
She kept her mind blank and her feet walking.
Time was being meaningless. She didn't know when all this pain would end, and thinking about it would break her concentration. She just let herself keep walking, getting sucked backwards but inching forwards, experiencing all these thoughts and feelings but not acknowledging them, continuing on…
Somehow, in what felt like seconds and an hour at the same time, she reached the box. She looked down, her feet planted in one place, and blinked, a thought coming to her- “This is the box.” And with this, everything crashed- this was nothing like when she ended her Buddhist meditation, slow thoughts spilling in, gradually growing larger every second. This was a huge crash of thoughts that slammed into her back into the room- the room where Setti, Benji, and Wyn were in.
Her last glance at the room before closing her eyes and concentrating again was Setti’s face: surprised, but cold, calm. Uncaring. He was confident he’d get his way in the end.
He said to her, as he broke out in a run to stop her from leaving one last time- “You’ll only delay the inevitable.”
Elena closed her eyes and pointed to her friends. With as much strength as she could, she managed to gasp this sentence: “But they will stop you.”
She was going to die.
She knew she was going to die.
She didn’t know how- maybe by getting sucked into Chaos? The thought was terrifying- and she didn’t know how she knew. But it was as certain, as right as everything she’d ever felt in her life.
If Elena was going down, she might as well go down in flames.
The last thing she saw was Setti running towards her, still as calm as ever. He really did believe that if he didn't catch her, and she defeated him this time around, he would still end up becoming a god in the end.
Her heart closed up. What if she was doing this all for nothing? What if she was delaying the inevitable?
No. She couldn't think like that.
"But they will stop you."
Elena dipped her Sight back into the different magical layers one last time.
The scenery was blurring together. The abyss was becoming the Chaos, and the Chaos was becoming the abyss. The sounds were mixing together- the boiling and churning of the red steam, the screams of souls. They were becoming one.
Elena reached down to touch the box.
She retracted. Whatever was in there was so powerful, so strong, so golden, so holy… What could it possibly…?
Her mind clicked.
She reached down and banged the lock, saying desperately, coughing, “I release you”, so concentrated, so focused, that the scene stayed the same. She began banging the box. “I rele...ase you, I relea..se you, I... release-”
“Foolish girl,” voices rang inside the box, grumbling and arguing with each other. “We’re bound by magic. You need magic to get us out.”
The one thing I don't have.
Almost wild with focus, concentration, and insanity, Elena took the box and hobbled over to the Chaos Abyss, sticking just the slightest bit of it into the burning steam of darkness and throwing it as far as she could away. A hole in the glowing, holy chest began burning, melting, like acid spreading all over the container.
Light, magic, and two of the brightest, fieriest images she’d ever seen poured out of the burning hole in the box, howling as they rose higher, and higher.
All she remembered was a burning whiteness of a thousand suns melting into her eyes, into her brain, dissolving her into an essence.
A blast shook the room from which she left. Benji and Wyn cried out as the Sphinx, following the orders it could barely understand, clutched them by the backs and soared up out into the hole from which they came from. As they were sobbing, looking back, they saw the underground place as large as a stadium shaking, catching on flames, and began to collapse, Setti standing motionless, composed, watching it all. He gave a slow wink, just before they were sucked up back into the mortal world, and Wyn and Benji knew this was not the last time they were going to face him.
Elena Maya Rodriguez. Died age sixteen. Survived by parents, Yolanda and Christopher Rodriguez. July 17th, 2027.
The Fates clucked their tongues. A blanket of color, layers, and a base of silver lay in front of them.
There once was a girl, and she made a decision.
They faded from the scene.

Notes

ohmygoodnessthischapter