Episode Ember Grover: Chapter 3: The Echo

Chapter 3 of Ember Grover's adventure.

            Ember blocked a powerful attack from the stranger in the coat.  The blades of light, while she was able to block them, felt nothing like Hard-Light Dust.  Light-based Dust weapons always had a physical feeling to them as if one was striking a wall as was the case with most prisons that used the technology.  However, this felt different.  Whenever Ember’s tonfas struck the blades, they felt as if it were a combination of both striking a normal blade but also hitting pure energy itself.  It reminded her of her sparring sessions with Bovia when she used water around her own weapons.  Not exactly the same, but similar enough that Ember was able to deal with these strange weapons without throwing off her own rhythm.  Ember took a breath and focused on her defensive stances initially.  Despite wanting to distance herself from him, her father’s lessons in waiting to learn an opponent’s rhythm and flow before going on the attack especially against an unknown was the best strategy.  The stranger pressed the attack, wielding the blades with a reverse grip in both hands.  His attacks seemed hesitant however, as if he was not comfortable with this particular weapon.  Like he was learning how to use them on the fly.  He had techniques that he knew beforehand, but had not wielded these particular weapons with said techniques.  But he pressed the attack regardless.  Refusing to simply slow down and question what was happening.  Because of this, some of his attacks seemed more erratic than calculated.  Ember watched and studied, then began her own counter-offensive.  As the stranger swung his right arm diagonally towards Ember, she blocked it with her tonfa in her left hand and guided the blade down and away from her.  As the motion continued, she brought her right tonfa up, leveled it on her descending arm, and as the opportunity appeared, fired a point blank shot in the face of her enemy.  This caused the stranger to recoil backwards a bit, but not send him flying as Ember had anticipated.  The stranger slowly collected themselves, cracked their neck, then created an X with their slicing blades.  This slash sent out a burst of energy in the shape of the X.  Ember did not react in time and the attack landed squarely on her chest, greatly reducing her Aura levels.  She quickly got back up as the stranger was pressing the attack given this new opening.  Ember did not wait to learn any more techniques however, she saw that her attacks weren’t necessarily going to send her opponent flying like the creatures of Grimm or grunt soldiers like back home, so she tried to do everything she could to land hits at every opening she could find.  From repeating similar attacks of blocking strikes than using the motion to find openings to fire projectiles to also finding patterns in the stranger’s swings to dodge and then hit directly with the tonfas.  The battle was fierce, and both sides seemed to be trading equal blows.  But Ember could tell: she was out of practice having sat at home for the last few weeks.  Her muscles remembered her techniques, but her mind wasn’t as sharp.  But the fact the stranger was also dealing with fighting without truly having mastered their own techniques meant it was nearly an even battle.  After a strong attack from Ember that sent the stranger sliding back a short ways, the stranger decided to slow down and stand up to regain his bearings rather than continue to press the attack.

            “What an interesting power” the stranger said pointing one of his blades at Ember.  “I wondered what kind of different being could generate such unique energy.”

            “Different being?” Ember wondered as she remained in a battle stance.  “Unless you’ve got some animal ears beneath that hood buddy, far as I can tell we’re both human.”

            “Wait, you don’t know about….ah of course.  You’re the prime.”

            “Prime what?”

            “Never mind.  This makes sense now.  That’s why multiple entities been looking for me.”

            “Someone’s looking for you?”

            “Not me specifically, but rather an echo of myself.  Another version if you will.”

            “Another….version?”

            “Here,” the stranger said as he put one of his blades away and brought his new free hand to his hood.  “Perhaps this face will provide some potential insight.”  As the stranger removed his hood and revealed his face, Ember almost fell backwards in shock.

            “….dad?”  It was uncanny.  Ember was looking at the face of her father, but he looked no older than she was now.  She had seen picture of when both he and Yang were in school together and some of their early years raising her, but compared to the last time she saw him, this version of Nathan looked like he had turned back the clock twenty five years.

            “Interesting” Nathan said as he slowly walked towards Ember.  “You recognize this face, but I don’t recognize yours.  I wonder why.”  Ember kept slowly backing away from this alternate Nathan, not sure how to respond.  She fired several shots from her tonfas at him, but he easily deflected each one of them off to the side.

            “Who are you really?!” Ember screamed.  “Why do you look like that?!”

            “Child,” the alternate Nathan said with a sick grin, “I look like this because in my world, I have taken on a challenge of greater purpose.  I have cast my old…..”

            “Not your monologue version!  Why do you look like my dad from twenty years ago?!”

            “An echo of myself has had a child?  Fascinating.  The time dilation between worlds is truly something to behold.  But if we are meeting face to face right now, then that means…..” the alternate Nathan trailed off, then suddenly a wave of worry crossed his face.  “He must be not too far from here.  If he’s looking for me or an echo of myself, then that means…my apologies but I am going to finish this battle now.”  As he said this, the alternate Nathan reactivated his other weapon and quickly charged forwards.  Ember was still reeling, and tried to block the attack but this time it was not good enough.  With a decisive swing, the alternate Nathan broke through Ember’s defenses, and as soon as he saw an opening, landed a powerful strike on her chest knocking her down to the ground.

            “My apologies,” he said as he prepared for the final blow, “but if he’s looking for me, I have already more than likely raised the alarm and….” Before he could finish, a flash of blue appeared almost out of nowhere, and struck the alternate Nathan in the chest.  Ember couldn’t see exactly who it was, but they were wearing a black leather biker jacket with a pair of jeans and were holding a strange looking blade.  It was blue with wings as the hand guards and the symbol for the world “light” formed the teeth of the weapon.  The alternate Nathan growled as he pointed his weapons at this new opponent.

            “Lost your Keyblade I see Nathan” the new stranger said clenching his free hand into a fist.  “Such is the price of Darkness.”

            “Such is the price of following a failure” the alternate Nathan said.  “Besides, I still can wield it.  But I’m sure you can sense it too.  This space is not our world.”

            “And yet I can still summon my weapon” the stranger said with an air of confidence.  “Perhaps a sign of the power of the light.”

            “Or perhaps a sign of how you bent over backwards to serve the Arbiters.”      

            “Speaking of whom, what do you think will happen if you kill this one here?”  As the stranger said this, the alternate Nathan’s eyes grew wide with worry, and then he quickly put his blades away.

            “You going to arrest me now?” the alternate Nathan said with a growl.

            “I don’t think I can” the stranger said with a sigh lowering his own weapon.  “I can sense it, you’re not actually here.  Something is happening that invited an echo here.”  As the stranger said this, he turned around and looked right at Ember.  And what she saw surprised her even further beyond the alternate version of her father.  Much like the alternate Nathan, now stood an alternate Miles who looked as young as the other alternate across the way.

            “What…”

            “And given what I’m looking at here,” the alternate Miles said with a sigh, “suddenly a lot of things are starting to make sense.”

            “In that case,” the alternate Nathan said with a sick grin, he then charged forwards with what Ember could tell was his most powerful attack.  As she braced herself for impact, the alternate Miles turned around raised his right hand, summoning a large wall of energy that blocked the attack.

            “Sorry you’re getting dragged into this kid.  I know this all confusing right now…”

            “YOU DON’T SAY?!” Ember yelled in frustration.

            “I promise I’ll explain everything next time.  I hoped that by speeding things up it might cause your Nathan to come out of hiding, but that seems to have not worked in the slightest.  So until next time…” with that, the alternate Miles took his blade and pointed it out just behind Ember, and then a beam of energy shot out opening a portal similar to the one that found Ember in this strange place to begin with.  And before she could protest, the alternate Miles shoved her through the gate.  As the energy began to envelop her and drag her back to her own world, she saw the two alternate versions begin to do battle.  Then there was a bright flash of light, then she found herself back in the same chamber that she was in minutes ago.  She quickly got up and prepared herself for the likely battle with both Memoriare and the stranger in the black coat as well as the three guards she knocked out.  But as she surveyed her surroundings, she noticed that she was alone.  No one was left in the ruins.  As soon as she realized this, she took a deep breath, looked back at the gateway she passed twice through, then took her leave and made her way back out through the ruins and then back to her airship.

 

 

 

            As the airship touched down next to the house on Patch, Ember stepped out and saw her mother standing there waiting for her, arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

            “I know,” Ember said with a sigh, “I’ll clean up the basement before dinner.”

            “Why didn’t you wait for me?” Yang said with a slight growl in her voice.

            “What?”

            “Why didn’t you wait for me?!” Yang yelled as she marched towards Ember.

            “I was just checking something, it didn’t….”

            “I found your father’s secret room” Yang said as she held up some of the loose files from said secret room.  Ember looked down in surprise.

            “How did you even get in there?  I phased through the door?”

            “You left the security up, and the door was pretty obvious so I punched it open.”

            “Always the brawn mom….” Ember said almost laughing.

            “Don’t change the subject!” Yang snapped.  “If this had something to do with your father, why did you do this by yourself?!  Why didn’t you wait for me?!”

            “You were gone and I didn’t want to worry you!  I know how much stuff related to dad stresses you out, so I assumed….”

            “Don’t assume anything young lady!” Yang yelled as her hair began to burn with rage.  “I am done letting my family walk out on me for the sake of the so-called greater good!  I’m not some weak old crone that needs to be sheltered!  I….”  Ember suddenly realized what the problem was as she saw her mother start to lose her anger and break down in tears.

            “Mom I…. I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to leave you behind.  I just didn’t want you to get hurt more than you already have.”

            “Leaving me in the dark already did hurt me.  Not just with this, but also with not talking to me about what’s been troubling you these last several weeks.”

            “I didn’t realize.  I’ll do better.  I promise.”  With that, the two of them embraced and shed a few more tears together.  From there, they had a quiet dinner, and then both went to bed.  Ember stared up at the ceiling, thinking about what she saw today.  What it all meant.

            “Mom’s right” she said aloud to herself.  “I can’t keep playing lone wolf.  Tomorrow’s going to be busy.”

Author's Note

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