If the world was reborn in your image, would it be paradise or perdition?

[Mogar]

They had spent several days together, but unfortunately it was time to get back to work. The world they had visited had grown, from chaos came order, nations had risen, empires formed, and now the sides were set for a battle to decide the fate of this world. None of that mattered to Mogar though, The dream Empress Hoshiko had sold was turning into a nightmare for the population, there was no choice for them but to follow her into whatever she chose for her people. He had witnessed her innermost thoughts, saw every weakness and dark thought she ever had, she would lead them into darkness, or into a gloriously bright future.
 
It was all out of his hands of course, he wanted no part of the war, he had his damsel back, and now it was time to return to where it all began. Back to Rapture, but did he create his own dream, or did it turn into a nightmare after he abandoned it? There were many questions to be answered, and many more artifacts to be collected.
 
 
tick, 
tock,
tick,
tock.

[Mogar]

The switch back to the old world was more difficult this time, he had been out of practice with the jumps, forgetting what it felt like, the pit of your stomach becoming a black whole, sucking your entire body down for what felt like eternity, even though it was a fraction of a second. The supercav submarine carrier they had traveled in was able to travel well beyond the limitations of traditional vessels but it was still a lengthy trip from Tokyo to Rapture. 

 

They were in the office, a room crowded with bookshelves and monitors, he sat upon the oaken desk, Antasija lay upon the old leather couch nearby, sleeping peacefully, they were one third of the way there, but the artifacts left would become gradually more difficult to capture. he sighed and stretched, leaning back in his chair, turning around to look at Antasija, she began to shift in her sleep, muttering something, he got closer, sitting down and running his hand through her hair. He still couldn't get over how she simply fell into his lap again. Now though, she spoke clearly in her sleep, eyes fluttering behind their lids. "Life has a melody, Mogar. A rhythm of notes that become your existence once they're played in harmony with God's plan. It's time to do your part and realize your destiny." 

 

What had they done to her up there? Antasija was still the same quirky woman he had fallen for, but there was something different, she seemed distracted, almost as though she hadn't fully returned.

[Mogar]

Antasija dreamt of strange things.

 

She was standing in a field, dressed in literally nothing but a very, very light dress that billowed stupidly. She was confused and she didn't know why, which is, perhaps, why she was confused in the first place. The puzzle of her existence was one she hadn't quite figured out in this particular instance of subconscious reflection.

 

A dark figure stood on one side of the field from her, in the other side was Mogar. She began to walk towards Mogar, "What's happening?" she asked him, frustrated and not afraid to show it.

 

"Don't go to him." Mogar's voice said from behind her.

 

She stopped and looked back, the dark figure held his hand out to her, shadows bleeding off of it like mist, "It's a trick."

 

She looked at him critically, "Oh no, this is some kind of faith test or some !@#$ isn't it?" she said within the dream, ruining the dramatic feel of the whole thing for anyone who might be watching but not caring terribly because, after all, it was her dream, she made the rules. At least ostensibly. "Come here." the dark figure said in response, not seeming to notice her outburst.

 

She looked back at Mogar, who was simply smiling sweetly at her, "You're both ass-holes." she says.

 

No response.

 

"Goddamnit." she ran towards a perpendicular side of the field, away from both of them, and ran directly off a cliff. After a minute of falling, she landed back into the same field.

 

"... This is some !@#$."

[Mogar]

A few hours later, Antasija began stirring in her sleep once more, Mogar turning away from the desk and watched her for a moment before deciding to wake her up, though it was difficult to maintain a proper sleep schedule without the sun. sitting down next to her again he shook her shoulder, "Hey, wake up." Antasija shot up and looked around, scanning the room before relaxing, "Ugh, that was a ride." she said, laying back down and taking deep breath to try and calm down.

 

 "What were you dreaming about? It did not seem like a pleasurable one." He asked politely, but was unable to stop himself from continuing his thought he had woken her up for in the first place, "I've been thinking about what sort of state the city is going to be in, It's been almost six years since we were last there." She yawned, stirring from her slumber, "It was some kind of puzzle loop !@#$%^&*." she says, rubbing her temples, "Neither answer seemed like the right one so I just sorta picked the third one over and over until it ended. The city is probably in shambles if you've been away that long."

 

 "Some leader I am eh, give people a perfect world and then leave them to their own devices, normally I enjoy feeling like a god, but this time the feeling is not pleasurable. I can't reach anyone on the traditional communications methods, I'm worried I created a paradise and my children destroyed it." he said disappointedly, "It could just be a storm or any number of things, but I just got a bad feeling this time."

 

 "I'm sure it's fine babe, without you around doing mad experiments what could have possibly happened other than a general descent into anarchy?" she asks from her place on the couch.

 

 "I'll have you know I was not the only scientist, we had several hundred, and my experiments were not the most extreme, I just wanted to create better humans, some of them wanted to create better deadly animals, if we enter Rapture and there's scorpotigers we can just leave and blow it up, but I do plan on at least trying to save the most important thing I have done in my life." he said dryly, laying down next to her, "You know it's four in the afternoon right now."

 

"That doesn't mean I can't get some rest. I reverted back to old habits when I was up there." she says before pouting at him and putting an arm around him, "I thought I was the most important thing you'd done?" He bit his lip, at least attempting to stay serious for now, "I did not create you, merely benefited from your existance, though I'm sure if I hadn't died in Bangkok I would have sought out eternal life, and perhaps you'd have met me a few decades earlier?"

 

He bit his lip, at least attempting to stay serious for now, "I did not create you, merely benefited from your existance, though I'm sure if I hadn't died in Bangkok I would have sought out eternal life, and perhaps you'd have met me a few decades earlier?"

 

 "Well you did save me from a Cryo tube in a jungle." she pokes him in the chest for emphasis, "That's something you did, if you hadn't I'd be there for eternity and would probably perish eventually."

 

He pulls her closer and kisses her forehead, "You were only in that cyro tube because of me, I owe you at least continued existance and not a death at the hands of the experiments they were also holding down there once they sniffed around enough to realize there was a nice vampsicle for them to devour, besides I've learned to be used of your company, even if it is occasionally a pain in the neck.

 

"Oh god." she rolls her eyes, "You did not just say that. I should shoot you for that pun." she kisses him instead, "I'll forgive you for now. And I don't quite remember how I got to be there in the first place, but it's interesting to know that you were related to that."

 

He shrugged, remembering his conversation with Micheline as they were unthawing Antasija, and the records he skimmed at the time. "Well, you were originally found in New York, evidently you had fed upon someone in an alleyway, and MoG[Corp] agents noticed upon survillance and tracked you, then drugged you and brought you to Africa, from what I read they basically planned to flash clone me and then turn me into a vampire, but attempts at cloning failed spectacularly, which led them to creating chimeric monsters to try to find a solution that would return me to the mortal realm." He laughed, it sounded like a bad action movie, and then began laughing harder at the fact their entire lives had played out like a very long one.

 

"Huh." she says, "That definitely explains why I was there." she shrugs a little, "Well, the past is the past I suppose. Kidnapping isn't cool but it's led to an odd place so why complain."

 

He thought for a moment, "I could come up with a more romantic tale, how about Once upon a time, there was this beautiful prince, who had alot of trust issues with men due to one turning her into a vampire, one day she meets a handsome, intelligent, witty, charming prince, who wished to save her from her undeath, and then they had adventures and lived happily ever after."

 

"Well in that case you've still got an objective hanging out there, because I'm not terribly interested in leaving the whole "Undeath" thing, though it makes for a convenient complaining point when needed." she admits with a turn of the corner of her mouth.

 

"You're so difficult sometimes, fine, you come up with the story we'll tell the abominations we are going to end up creating once all this adventuring is over."

 

"Your father and I have a very complicated relationship. You'll learn about it when you're older." she says in exactly the same tone she would use with them. She kisses him, "No need to let go of the mystery."

 

He kissed her back slowly, "I say we keep it as a surprise for their eighteenth birthday, provides them with an incentive to stay around once they get their licenses

 

"Well you know, we have to overcome biology first. Not that that's hard at all." she says, "But why have children? What happens if they're not as eternal as we are? I'm still not entirely sure what you did, but I certainly can't justify doing to them what happened to me."

 

That was certainly not something he had ever considered when speaking off the cuff about children, how would they overcome that? "I could provide them with the choice, rather than force it upon them, and give them the option to choose when to stop aging, unlike yourself."

 

"Eternally being jailbait isn't really that much of a curse." she comments.

 

Snorting he replied, "Which one of us is actually robbing the cradle, grandma?""

 

 "Just because I was born in the middle eighteen hundreds doesn't make me grandma-worthy Mister Timetravel, do you even know how old you are by now?" she says, booping his nose.

 

"277 years, 11 months, and 21 days, would be my rough estimation, i cannot go more accurately due to the way our trips through the gate work, each technically cut or added several hours to my "life", if you're refering to this body specifically, about 20 years and 5 months." he spouted off, "It does however make you still over a hundred years older than me."

 

She pauses for a moment, "I fought in the Civil War you know." she comments after a moment, "Never thought that was terribly relevant but I suppose now is as good a time as any to brag. I still look younger than you though."

 

He snickered, "I'll have to upgrade to a younger body then if this is a competition, what do you think, we can have a modern high school date. For which side? did you meet anyone famous?" he asked teasingly, suspecting the grey uniforms due to their stance upon vamp cattle.

 

 "Confederates." she rolls her eyes, "Didn't espouse the ideas but America had done some things to me since I'd gotten there and I was still a legitimate teenager so I kinda wanted to see it burn. Met Robert E. Lee once."

 

"Were you a spy, or just a mulan type character, paint the picture for me, so I don't have to travel back then and find out for myself, maybe bring you back and see how persuasive I can be." he joked, though the idea of two of her was a bit overwhelming, he'd be drained dry by the end of it.

 

 "Cannoneer." she said simply, "It was fun on occasion. Got to shoot at large groups of people. I threw a cannonball at a dude and caved his chest in once when no one was looking."

 

"So you've been a wild child forever, I'll take that to heart and be sure to not trust you whenever we're near cannons." he muttered, cuddling closer to her, $%&@ what time it was, he was exhausted, and it was time for both of them to rest, hopefully with good dreams.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Mogar