Mount Cthon is riddled with tunnels. It's easy enough to knock down the climbers and set off landslides, but Tasha can't exactly bisect the mountain itself. So it's a matter of constantly blasting the mountainside, then flaming the caves around the summit to keep anything from coming out.
"I may have figured out the gate," Galatea whispers into Tasha's head.
As Tasha studies the landscape, she nods to Galatea knowing the strange being can see her do it. "Think, or have?" She considers flying around to scourge the caves, but that might leave her vulnerable, and it's a long fall. She scans for movement, and especially, The Silver Chain.
There haven't been any glimmers of silver since her first strafing run with the Fusion Cannon. But the invaders may be holding it back for now. "Given the time available, I think that you can be the gate," Galatea explains.
"Any option is a good option right now. Be careful of potential interference from your side, as well. It's unlikely Nyarlathotep will appreciate our plan once he realizes what I'm doing. You might want to warn Kai to keep tabs on him when and if I am able to make it through. If I can make it through a gate made from myself." Tasha considers the results of her attack. All is silent. She suspects they're assessing, and planning. The powers that are observing are taking note; the moon's nominal ruler has surely noticed. She suspects the Harlot is watching, too. How many she just angered, there's no way for her to know, but as she seems to be attacking Nyarlathotep's forces she suspects the other powers will take a wait and see -- if the Vril-wielding surprise hasn't taken personal offense by her open warfare on his lands.
"I think Nyarlathotep is busy fighting Kainudy still," Galatea says. "Kai is disconnected, so cannot monitor anything. You are the not the problem when it comes to coming through, you just need to wake up. Bringing another entity along is the challenge."
"If it comes down to it, I intend to try to connect to the Flame of Life when the Phoenix dies. Persephone told me something very interesting: When she remade me, it was the Flame she used, as exists in all living things. And, it was a piece of her Flame. Her eternal, infinite Flame of Life. Which is why I can bear any life. That might save me, it may allow me to survive such a connection. And if I can, perhaps you can make use of that surplus of energy in your gate." Tasha frowns at a shadow, but it's just a shadow. It's all shadow really, on this dark, dark moon. "Nyarlathotep is not a local being. His avatars are many, he can act across realities simultaneously. Samael and the ship are his. Be wary of them. I normally trust Samael as much as I can, but we've never tested his loyalty this hard before. And the ship was a reward."
"I can only accommodate so many variables, Tasha," Galatea notes. "The Flame of Life will need to be the means of transport. Which means you will be giving birth to the Phoenix in our world. I'm trying to figure out how to handle that safely, since I don't think you want to explode."
"Oh." Tasha momentarily loses her focus for a second; she hadn't expected this particular result. It makes sense to her, but it's a lot to absorb that she's about to be pregnant and give birth in what subjectively may be less than an hour and, in the waking work, something like a second away. Well, she considers, she always did do things in a extreme, strange, and often spectacularly violent way. And she'd be running from kids for a while now. It feels like her life's finally caught up with her, for good and ill -- and she's pleased to realize it is mostly for good. "Okay. What was I talking abou-- Variables. Yes. Okay. Okay. Yes, exploding would be... counterproductive." She wonders if Galatea caught the pun.
"I'm trying to make preparations here," Galatea says. "Mainly opening the door to the balcony and making sure Sharon is out of the way."
The summit rumbles slightly. It could be the Phoenix or something else.
"I was just about to ask you move Sharon. It sounds like you're busy, and it seems like I'm about to be, too. Lets keep talk to a necessary minimum." Tasha drops her helmet plate, easing towards the ledge to have a look around. She mislikes that rumble.
There's a lot more heat coming out of the Phoenix's cave, so its time may be close. But the rumble sounds different now, more shrill. And then something breaks through the wall of the cave, having bored its way inside. And behind it is a Moon Beast carrying the Silver Chain.
Tasha wastes no time, she opens fire with Galatea's strange otherworld pistol, and manifests a constellation of Yellow swords, which fire forth. Then she accelerates to maximum speed to place herself between the invaders and the Phoenix, in a ear-splitting crack of sonic dash movement.
The boring device-creature melts away under the disintegrator beam, while the one carrying the chain drops it after being hit with a Yellow sword. "The chain is useful, grab it!" Galatea instructs.
Tasha doesn't bother to walk, she snaps across space in another hypersonic dash, and reaches for the Chain. "I hope you're right, I don't like chains."
"We need to get the Phoenix to revert to an egg instead of combusting here," Galatea says. "Ask if it can do that."
Tasha eyes the Chain with some distrust, holding it in her pistol-free hand. She decides if Galatea thinks it's useful it probably is, but it still makes her uncomfortable. She steps away from the tunnel before closing it with a couple blasts of disintegrator aimed at the ceiling, not wanting to be immediately followed, and then quickly makes her way back towards the Phoenix.
"I've acquired the Chain. I need to know if you can revert to an egg rather than explode. We don't have much time, so be succinct," Tasha calls out.
"My egg state is transitory," the Phoenix claims. "It exists for only a moment."
"Ask if the chain can prolong that moment at all, we need time for the transfer," Galatea asks Tasha.
"Thank you." Tasha turns her back to the Phoenix, resuming her watch on the trance. "How long, now? I've stopped what I think was the original plan to capture you, yet now that it's been stopped, attention may be turned to this place and wonder why." To Galatea, "There you are. Transitory."
"Transitory does not help if we don't have time for you to wake up while holding the egg," Galatea notes. "The stupid chain must be good for something!"
Tasha considers this, then she calls back to the Phoenix. "In order to evacuate you we're going to use me as the gate. That means the Flame of Life will connect with my nature, and you will be reborn through me. That can't happen if I explode before I wake up. Is there some way to delay things long enough for that to happen? Time is different between here and there. We need time for me to wake."
"The Silver Chain may prolong the egg state, if it is wrapped around quickly enough," the Phoenix admits.
"Then you'll have to decide how much you trust me." Tasha spreads her hands. "I am what I am. I've built worthy things, helped people like you from despair and tragedy. I've also wrought tragedy, but almost always in defense, or for a cause. I believe hope is worth fighting for; I believe you are worth fighting for. We're a little a like, in so many ways. Neither one of us can sit still for long." She considers what else to say, and adds, "You'll be around nice, interesting people. And you'll have me."
"Being chained as an egg serves no one, so I will accept it," the Phoenix says. "But you must be swift! My time grows shorter."
"Then lets get to it." Tasha Fire a few more shots from the Fusion Cannon to suppress the mountain and the countryside, then hurries back and collapses the ceiling with the disintegrator, sealing herself in with the Phoenix. "There." The Fusion Cannon melts away, as if it never was. "I'm coming, I'm coming... "
As Tasha walks closer her Red aura kicks in, and she begins the process of calming her mind for the trance state she may need to connect to her inner world, the source of her existence, her own Flame. At the same time she pulls the cord loose, dropping the pistol, which likewise ceases to exist as it falls. Closer and closer, she seems almost in a daze.
It's very hot now, the flames of the Phoenix brighter than ever, shining right through Tasha's eyelids. "Hopefully the egg will be small," Galatea says.
"Hopefully," Tasha agrees. She pushes out any thoughts otherwise; she can't afford to be distracted now, she doens't even have time for irreverent humor. Her Red aura blows backward with the sheer might of the Phoenix's own flame, like a flag in the wind. Tasha ready her inner Flame, almost like physical and metaphysical heat sink, to drain the fires of Life in to her own rather than weather them directly -- something she is certain would blast her to ashes in the blink of an eye. The chain is held ready, in both hands, and she gets closer and closer until she's passing the Phoenix's beak, moving toward center mass.
The Phoenix shrinks. Her wings fold around her and become the shell of the egg, which is still fist-sized and the feather pattern is visible. But it's also beginning to pulse!
Tasha uses her energies to snap forward, again wasting no time, allowing for no missed second, no room for regret. She practically stumble-tackles on to the egg in what ends up a chain-wielding hug. "Am I doing it, is this enough Galatea?!"
"Wrap the other end around your wrist, we're waking you up!" Galatea replies, and the cave around Tasha begins to fade.
Tasha does so as quickly as she can, to the point of risking accelerated movement to close the gap, hurting her arm as it hyper-extends. But she's no stranger to pain to pay a price, and this is worth all her risk. And so as she wraps the chain around herself, ignoring the agony, the Dreamlands may be fading, but the dream continues.
Everything swirls and changes, and then she's looking up at the ceiling of her bedroom and something is moving in her lower abdomen. "Start pushing, Tasha," Galatea says calmly. Sharon does not look calm at all. "Her belly is glowing, Tia!"
Tasha inhales sharply, still dazed from the transition. "P-push wha- I've never- ah!" What to push becomes immediately apparent with the contractions that come, ages of instinct coming to her like a flash storm. She lays her ears back, squeezes her eyes closed, and pushes.
This helps move the mass further along, but then Tia has her hand up in there too. "Doing fine, doing fine," she says softly. "Just a few more inches to go."
Tasha has a lot of questions about everything, but she maintains her momentum, not wanting to miss a moment through a lack of focus. She pushes and pushes, and it feels like the whole process takes forever. Tales of her own childhood come flooding back to her unbidden. "Ha, she so small I not notice until it happen! Have chick right on deck, thought it something I ate!" She always hated that story, mainly because he mother would crow it to anyone who asked about how she came to be.
At least the story provides a needed distraction between her efforts, diverting her from pain, and connecting her to her mother.
It occurs to Tasha that she, too, may be a mother, now. Focus. She'll process that later, she decides. Yet, the idea lingers.
A few more inches are achieved, at which point Tia gets hold of the egg and pulls it out the rest of the way. Tasha gets only a glimpse of the glowing orb before Tia streaks away through the balcony door, leaving a vacuum in her wake that causes a localized sonic boom.
Tasha winces at the boom. It's so much easier for her to handle when she's the one making them. Her ears stay glued to her head as that head flops back on to a pillow.
So, that was childbirth, she realizes. She really can give birth to anything, including anythings that happen to be one-of-a-kind. It's all thought of in a mild haze. She remembers Sharon. "Sharon..?" It's practically a croak.
"Oh.." Sharon starts to say. Then there's an intense flash of light, followed by the windows exploding inward and the entire building shaking with a deafening boom.
Tasha's showered with glass, her ears are already glued to her head, and she's staring at the ceiling. She winces as the hards hit her, and some may have gone in, but she's beyond such minor inconveniences as being stuck through with glass. And she had a child, there's a wonder and warmth there she's never felt before.
Or maybe it's the quasi-nuclear blast.
Even through the ear ringing, Tasha can hear the base alarms. It takes a moment to locate Sharon.. she's all the way across the room at the far wall, apparently unconscious and bleeding from many small cuts (her healer garb doesn't provide a lot of coverage).
Tasha hurts, but it hurts her more to see Sharon injured. She can handle a thousand wounds, but she can't handle seeing the people she loves suffer. It's always been one of her greatest weaknesses as a leader. So she hauls herself up as best she can, ignoring the pain and the glass, grabbing her bathrobe and pushing herself to walk across the room and kneel to inspect Sharon.
The girl is probably unconscious from being thrown across the room, since she was standing when the shock wave hit. She does begin to moan though, which is usually a good sign. The glass (well, not really glass, but close enough) didn't cause too much damage.
To be safe Tasha does not move her, but makes a note of her injuries, and then she's spinning around and marching towards the balcony, pushing the drapes out of her way and stepping out in to the light and what devastation may be beyond.
She can see the lake still in turmoil, and the dragons rising up from the castle beyond it. The blast was high enough up that the forests weren't set on fire, and there's a bright point of light up there still. The airfield looks intact, so nothing was shoved around at least. There's no telling what windows survived though. The alarms die down and Gabriel is shouting over the intercom for everyone to report in.
Tasha steps over to punch the intercom and bark, "I'm fine, Sharon's injured and unconscious, seems minor can't be sure, thrown against wall. Need to go, heading for light. Explain later." She doens't wait for a response, instead running back to to balcony, extending her wings, and ascending with a crack of thunder with a growing sense of maternal unease. Somewhere up there is the Phoenix, and that's where she needs to be. Now.
The air feels burnt when she gets close to the Phoenix. It's small, about the size of Redfang, and just hovering with its colorful wings extended. It has several long tail feathers, and a short hooked beak. The flames around it are beginning to die down as well, its feathers becoming just feathers.
Tasha wonders where Galatea is, having expected her to be holding the little creature. Instead it's just the two of them; she hopes Galatea was able to get clear. If not, she at least can be reassured Galatea -- the true Galatea -- is somewhere beyond, piloting her remotes.
But that's a problem for later. Tasha hovers before the little Phoenix, apprehensively. She knows how it all went, knows this was a very different form of pregnancy, and more than anything she knows she doesn't know what to think. Or feel. Yet, she feels all the same. She holds out her hands, palms up. "Hi. It's me."
The bright bird drifts over and lands in Tasha's hands. "Hi. It's me," it echoes back to her.
Tasha can see Gwyndrael flying towards her as well now.
Tasha does what her heart tells her to do, which is to gently move the Phoenix to her chest and pull her wings in, curling in to a ball in the air. She risks giving the little bird a kiss on its tiny forehead.
The dragon arrives. "What happened?" she asks. "No serious injuries at the castle, but the kobolds and Whisper are shaken."
Tasha's her own egg of feathers, floating silently in the air. She doesn't respond immediately, because she's crying, holding the little bird to herself with all the delicate touch in the world. Yet her tears evaporate in the smoldering heat, and her robe trails flame where it extends and flicks in the wind beyond her aura. And time passes.
The wings unfold just enough to give the dragon a glimpse inside, of the glowing little bird, and of Tasha nuzzling it muzzle-to-beak.
"You found the Phoenix?" the dragon asks. "Is that what that explosion was? I always thought it was just a fire!"
Tasha holds the bird to her chest, where it can stand, but be shielded by her wings and muzzle. "We were able to save them. We brought them from the Dreamlands, Galatea and I. I... I gave birth to them, channeling the Flame of Life through myself. I'm the Phoenix's mother." She'd be impossible to hear over the din, the wind and the remaining noise, yet Gwyndrael is a dragon. "I should land." She expended a lot of energy suppressing an entire mountain range, personal energy in all the travel, in giving birth, and more emotional energy than she thought she had in having a child. She's beat, and warnings are flashing at her.
"The Phoenix gives birth to itself normally," Gwyndrael points out. "The lakeshore is a mess, you'll want to land inland."
"We did things a little differently this time." Tasha begins to descend, lowering from the sky until she can see the landscape enough to move towards the shuttle landing pads and tarmac. It's there she sets down, or rather lands, her power fluttering out and then giving away completely as she touches down. It's there she sinks down to sit cross legged on the ground, radiating heat, fascinated by the little bird in her hand. She continues to wonder what their relationship really is, but for now, she lets her instincts ride.
She's soon surrounded. "What's going on?" Gabriel asks. "Half the base windows are gone, Sharon's in the medbay, and we can't locate Kai or Tia anywhere." Katie is leaning over too, putting a hand to Tasha's forehead.
Tasha would probably register as deceased and a potential fire hazard on any modern scanner, her forehead feels like it could boil water. Yet despite all the attention she continues to seem fascinated by what she's looking at, there, concealed and shielded by her wings. She doesn't know how gentle she should be, how protective, all she knows is that she'll shield this little bird from all the world if she has to, and a fear she can never be cautious enough. It feels like holding the most fragile thing in all the world, full of love, and hope.
All the talk is like wind against the walls of a building, where she and the Phoenix reside, safe beside the fire. As the questions become more insistent, she knows she has to supply a answer. People are missing. She had obligations. Duties.
Just a little longer, she just wants to be where she is a little longer. But the world never waits.
Tasha opens her wings enough for Gabriel and Katherine to see inside. "I saved the Phoenix. They were reborn... Reborn through me. My little birdy." She touches her nose to their beak, and her tears evaporate right off the corner of her eyes.
"Wait, you mean the burning bird that is reborn from the flames of its own death?" Katie asks, looking at the chick. "What does it eat?"
"I suppose we'll find out, won't we?" Another nuzzle, Tasha's tired and slightly singed tail wagging. She pushes herself to stand with instead legs, growing stringer and more stable as she rises. "We need... We need to find Kai. He won't be happy. Samael may be forced to intercede." And then for a moment she pictures Tia, smiling, frowning, so often unhappy Tia, and a wave of light, and then she's gone. "I think... I think Tia sacrificed herself to save us from the egg's hatching. If she lives, we need to find her. I'll... I'll check in... " The weight of everything feels like it's catching up to Tasha, but she presses on. She can keep going. As long as it takes.
"Galatea. Please report."
There's no response. Eventually though, Kai responds. "Galatea is not going to be available for awhile. I think I've recovered all of the important pieces in order to reconstruct her in the Astraea."
"What egg?" Gabriel asks. "Was the explosion the hatching? It was pretty high up, right near the dimensional horizon."
"I see." Tasha sounds pained, but she isn't as pained as she could have been. She had expected worse, not much worse, for how could one fair worse than being blown to pieces? She's been there, and it was only a step from oblivious. Thankfully, Tia is hardier than she was. "Please keep me informed. I'll visit when I can. And, tell her thank you. We did it. Tell her... Tell her that was very noble of her. Tell her she chose right." Vapor, wafting from the eyes. She turns to face the others.
Except when she goes to talk she stumbles for a moment. So tired, and so she gathers herself again and presses on. "We found the Phoenix in the end of its days. I had hoped it would help me find a way, instead we were the one to help it, and in doing so, we found our own way." She then looks down at the little bird and nods. "After laying the egg, Galatea -- Tia -- spirited it away in to the sky to prevent the hatching from destroying us all. Kai said... Kai said she thinks she found all the important pieces. To put her back together."
"That's worrisome.. isn't she supposed to be indestructible?" Katie asks. Hakeber is there as well, and says, "She's vulnerable to magic."
"Galatea's never been indestructible. That's just what so many think when they see her. She's always been rather fragile, really." Tasha rubs her eye with the back of her arm, though there's nothing there by the time her arm reaches up. "I hope she's okay. She did really well. She didn't have to help. Or to care. But she did. She made a choice. I couldn't have done it myself, alone."
"We need to protect her until she recovers," Tasha adds a second later, adamant. "From anything. And the Phoenix, too. Here and now, I declare us to be more than a force fighting the absolute. We are guardians of hope and life. We are a place for the forsaken. We will bring life to where it has come to ruin." And then she touches her nose to the Phoenix's. "You'll see."