White noise cancelled out the screams that Daniel was sure he head coming from the lungs of himself and Zee. His skin felt like it was being peeled from muscle by millions of tiny jagged hooks. He could taste the mixture of copper and bile in the back of his throat.

An implosion then, the artifacts of the world dragged into the white source. It was best described as a black hole of a different color, until it took the shape of man. Danny lifted his head, the strange sense of vertigo that he should never experience fading. His equilibrium regained, he rose to a knee. His mask nearly torn in half; bloody, battered, and bruised, Danny saw Zee blinking in and out of existence and time, like a fading signal sent to a television. He bore down, his eyes never leaving the white figure as the inevitable rush of the past and future broke from its dam and flooded over his body.

The world exploded in static.

STATIC
I hear Zee speak to me, telling me a story. She wants me to know why I?m here. She says:

Born of tragedy, strength comes to those who survive. Strength of character and mind and body. The greater the tragedy, the easier it is to shape the trauma into what is necessary. Used? Yes. For the right reasons? There will always be opinions. Pawns dressed up like knights, believing themselves to be more important on the chessboard than they really are. Daniel, what do you know about your predecessor?

STATIC
They hit me with sticks. My skin bruises and scabs from the rough edges. It will heal, become stronger. Sticks won?t hurt me.

STATIC
?Danny, I don?t want to die here. Please, we have to do something. I don?t want to die!? my friend sobs as another passes away from hypothermia. Why can?t I remember his name? Their names? Why did I have to be the only one to survive?

STATIC
They hit me with steel. Metal. Aluminum. My skin welts and bruises. My bones break. I will heal. I will become stronger. My body will be stronger than steel.

STATIC
She gasps, the sound spilling from between her full lips. I smell the scent of her perfume as she begins to sweat, our bodies writhing and undulating in harmony. ?Danny,? Zee murmurs in my ear, ?I?m so close.? It?s our first time. I wonder if this is what love is.

STATIC
They stab me with knives. I bite down on a piece of wood so I don?t scream. The wounds will heal, my body will recover, there will be no scars. I will be hard to pierce.

STATIC
My body sinks into the beanbag chair. She?s so close to me. My hands play with her track pants. My heart is in my throat. ?Friends,? she says. I feel the twinge in my breast; the abstract pain of a heartbreak that feels worse than any physical pain I?ve endured.

STATIC
I yell as I face down the entire department of the Watch. I?ve defeated
armies and I?ve already incapacitated half of this squad. They keep coming at me, battering me, but I won?t go down. I?ll take down the whole city Watch if it means protecting her.

STATIC
I cradle her dead body in my arms as I wail and sob. Am I destined to lose everyone I care about in life? I cannot save her. Then the others come up to me, they say they can. It?s against everything I know to hand her over, but I do. Why?

STATIC
Her fingernails scratch down my back, like she?s marking me. My fingers curl tighter in her blonde locks. She speaks to me, she begs me, ?Please.? Her words are like honey to my ears. I would end all of creation itself if she asked me to.

STATIC
Zee and I set out. We?re going to stop him. I?m the only one that can, just as he was the only one who could stop the one before him, and so on. He?s gone mad. His mind snapped from living so many lifetimes in so few years. I wonder if this is a glimpse of my fate.

STATIC
I stare down the City of the Reach. Blood on my hands. I have nothing left. Tragedy has finally broken my heart and soul. I will tear everything down for what this City has done to me.

STATIC
?I love you,? I say, preparing for the worst. She kisses me, her face lingering near mine. Her words come out in a warm exhale, ?I love you, too, Danny.? I don?t wonder what love is anymore. I feel it, made come to life by a self-proclaimed Geko named Lizzie Liddell.

My Lizzie.

The static dissipates and clears. I snap back, my pastpresentandfuture selves aligning as one. The white figure backs up a step as I am on my feet. It doesn?t have enough time to react until I?m upon it, my hands going around what I perceive is its head. I am going to channel my chi into both hands and refocus its energy before I stand. I will hope to infuse enough of my chi with its own to disable it. It couldn?t be killed, just subdued. It was a force of nature, and I was shocked that even that could be done to it. Then I think to myself, they created me to be a force of nature. Fitting that I should stop it. Zee arose shortly after. Reality slowly reaffirmed itself, along with all its laws.

Daniel and Zee approached the unreachable temple. The darkness crept upon them with each step into the uncharted unknown.