|| Cracks || Chapter 5 ☾ Arc 1 ☽ ||

Instructions

Splehhhhhhhh finally <3333 -Luna !!! TW !!! Violence, bl00d Ch. 5 Rue's chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, almost reminding Luna that the world wouldn't move with her. Almost. It was 2 AM, and she was scribbling furiously into her notebook. Rue hadn't let her bring up the bulletin board and red string, so she'd had to resort to something more subtle. She picked up her red pen and drew a line between 'No Me' and 'F5'. She then connected THAT to 'ToS'. Her eyes lingered on that for a moment, a pounding increasing behind her eyes. "Crap," she muttered, squeezing her eyes shut against it. But it came through anyway. A bloodred scene blossomed before her, a lunar eclipse shining overhead. Directly beneath it were Lloyd and Glitch, fighting. "How shocking," Luna growled, before she noticed what was in Glitch's right fist. A sword. It was large and azure, with a crystal-encrusted appearance that made it look more ornamental than anything. Its energy was absent, but Luna recognized it as a cloaked prismatic blade immediately. Glitch raised it. The scene cut elsewhere then, to a single, two feet square section of cobblestone illuminated in cold light. Within it, shattered fragments of the sword and a green antler, sprayed with bl00d. It only remained there for a split second, before Luna lurched back into the real world. The sudden movement had Rue stirring, muttering about "freaking conspiracy theorists", before settling back down. Luna almost wished she had woken her girlfriend up. It would have been nice to talk her vision out. Instead, she got out of bed and headed downstairs for a snack. When she got to the kitchen, she raided the fridge and sat down with leftover cocktail shrimp and diced passion fruit. While she ate, she jotted down more notes. She chose to assume most things would be the same, considering how they had happened in her universe, so she simply wrote out the possibilities of how things might go, including the information obtained from her vision. When she was done, she washed out the storage containers. As she turned to head back to her room, satisfied with her progress, her ears picked up on a sound coming from the opposite stairwell. A grinding sound. She considered her options for a moment, then followed the sound to find Glitch upright on her bed, whittling. "Can't sleep?" she guessed, startling Glitch. She nodded, avoiding Luna's eyes. "Mind if I sit?" She gestured at the corner of the bed, and Glitch shrugged. So she sat. "What are you carving?" Glitch shifted her wrist to show her. In her hand was a half-finished girl, her rough body enveloped in what looked like wings, thick hair pouring down her back. It was easy enough to guess her identity. "Willow," they breathed simultaneously, and looked at each other, succumbing to an uncomfortable silence. After a minute of this, Luna exhaled. "Look, Glitch... "Yeah?" "I'm sorry for trying to stop you. I didn't realize how much pain you were in, and I feel a little hypocritical now that I do. "But you have to realize, the consequences of your actions are unpredictable. I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen in your universe, and you k!lling Lloyd would completely derail that." Glitch wrinkled her nose. "I will repeat, screw the timeline. Why does it matter? It's not YOUR universe." Luna froze, not sure how to answer. Cautiously, she replied, "We-ell, I kind of set some... plans in motion there." Glitch stared at her incredulously. "You've got to be kidding me. What plans?" 'Oh boy,' Luna thought. "I'll tell you, but only to a certain extent. Got it?" "...Fine." "Okay. First of all," Luna began, "There's a little history lesson involved." Glitch groaned, earning a glare, which shut her up immediately. "Millennia ago, I met, and worked with, a group of elemental masters known as the Forbidden Five. They learned an ancient, powerful art, called Shatterspin, that corrupted them. It could only be countered by a technique called Rising Dragon." Luna glanced at Glitch, ensuring she was being followed. "Anyways, some stuff happened, and I abandoned them when they needed me- AKA when their actions finally caught up to them and they were trapped in a dimension known as the Netherspace. "Their knowledge and teachings were not lost with them, though. You know that tiger guy in Imperium, Ras?" Glitch nodded. "Well, he's got big plans, and they involve releasing the Forbidden Five. And he plans to do it during the Blood Moon." "As in, the eclipse?" Glitch asked. "When is that." "Well, here, it and the ritual passed about a year and a half ago," Luna explained, "But your universe is two years behind mine, meaning we have around eight months." Glitch nodded slowly. "And what do your plans involve?" Luna patted her notebook beside her subconsciously. "We return to your universe for the ritual. Let it play through as it did here- interfering to set things right if needed- and then things get a little more complicated." (continued)