#space!danny

They’d never been fond of the Sarcophagus, the hinges and carrys meant to hold back Time staring back at them tauntingly. Now those same grips were struggling to keep Power contained.

Pressing a hand against the prison, Clockwork closed their eyes and concentrated. Entering Power’s domain was never easy. A slimy sensation washed over Clockwork as they disentangled themselves from time, the process just as painful now as it had always been. Blinking back the oncoming headache Clockwork could finally open their eyes and look into the landscape of the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

It was vast, the wide open night sky casting little light on the soft rolling hills that decorated the area. In the distance they could see Pariah, leaning against one of the few trees present. Floating slowly Clockwork carefully approached their fellow Ancient, stopping a few feet from the lounging ghost and taking in his missing armor and lax demeanor. Pariah had yet to move, eyes closed as he rested against the thick trunk of his tree with fern like leaves reaching to nearly the ground he sat on.

Clockwork hesitated, form shifting nervously as they considered returning to the Long Now and forgetting this ridiculous endeavor. Then the biting cold behind their eyes returned and desperation began to claw in their throat.

No.

They had to be here.

“Come to taunt me Timekeeper?” Pariah lazily opened his eye, turning his head to look at Clockwork’s flickering frame in annoyance. If the time ghost had come here simply to annoy him with cryptic messages Pariah would send him away immediately. He had no need for that in his current imprisonment.

He waited for the other to speak. Surly Clockwork had come to him for a reason and not simply to stand around in these barren hills? After a time his patience grew thin with the useless silence, the constant ticking of Clockwork’s core the only noise to accompany them. Just as he thought to push the ghost out of his prison Clockwork spoke.

“What was it like?” Their voice was a whisper, leaving behind the base of their official form and shifting to something smaller, younger.

“What?” Pariah was shocked, seeing his sibling’s true form like this. When was the last time he or any of his siblings had shown what they truly looked like? In this form Clockwork truly did look like the youngest of the Ancients, softly curling white hair falling into their face and covering the gory remnants of their left eye. They shuffled, gingerly sitting down next to Pariah and adjusting their staff in their curled lap.

“When you killed the Ens Entium what was it like?” Clockwork ignored the sharp intake of breath from beside them, keeping their gaze down at the pale gray grass beneath them. “I remember feeling the shockwave at my birth but I was not there to witness it.”

“What is your goal here Timekeeper?” Pariah was certain this must be a trick of some kind. He had lost any trust from his siblings long ago, Clockwork would never show him such a vulnerable form. But there was his youngest sibling, face still clinging to the last bits of baby fat and red eyes round and innocent as Pariah remembered. Those same eyes were wide with a terrible fear now, a haunted look in them as Clockwork avoided eye contact with their older brother.

“Please-” Clockwork felt their chest catch, a terrified chime ringing out from their core as they looked desperately at Pariah. “Tell me what it was like.”

Pariah sighed. He may have his doubts about why Clockwork had come to him now but he knew his sibling was genuine in their curiosity. Scooting closer to the young ghost Pariah stared out into the sprawling sky above them.

“You were not born yet, none of the others were. Only the Entium and I existed at the beginning. They were powerful, more powerful than me and vast beyond comprehension. It was… inspiring to be in their presence.” Pariah paused, looking briefly at Clockwork to ensure the other was listening. Clockwork had yet to look up from where they had shifted attention to their lap but the time ghost was clearly paying attention. He supposed that would be enough. “But you know what I am, Power must take and Ens Entium was all that was available to consume.”

He remembered those early days, trapped in an expanding darkness with nothing to latch onto. The Entium had been boundless and Pariah had felt his own domain quiver against the might of the First Ancient. That had been his first taste of Power and it wasn’t his own. It had felt like a mockery at the time, that another had overshadowed him in his own domain when Pariah had only just come into existence.

It had enraged him.

“I had hoped to eat them, consume that power for my own. But I was not strong enough to contain such energy and neither were any of you.” When he had killed his first sibling Pariah had never expected such a backlash. His strike against Entium, drawing the first blood ever to be spilled, shook the very foundation of reality. He had hoped to strike their core, to rip it from his sibling and eat that Power. Instead he was met with the howl of the universe as Entium churned and clawed, finally taking shape after an eternity of darkness. It made him afraid and Pariah’s fear and hope for power had birthed his first sibling, Nocturne crawling from the remnants of Ens Entium’s now shattered form. Together they watched the burning of their sibling, Entium shattering further and their power spreading across the universe. It was that churning that brought about another sibling, Clockwork wailing in the blood of the Entium as the first moment of Time began.

“Entium broke and I stabbed into their core and took 2 shards for myself. You all gathered your own pieces and the others scattered.” Pariah looked carefully at his hand, where the Ring of Rage would have been. He’d fashioned his shards of Ens Entium’s shattered core into items of power, items that would make his control of the emerging space left behind by the death of the first ancient much easier.

“I… recall.” Clockwork clutched their timestaff close, their own shard of Ens Entium’s shattered core housed inside the item. It had felt like a gift at the time, something to know their sibling by.

“Then why do ask me this Clockwork? Must we rehash old wounds?” Pariah sighed, mind returning to the present as he looked at his sibling. “Or have you come to your senses finally? Do you all understand what a danger Ens Entium is now and why we must rule with an iron fist?”

He was getting angry, he knew that. Why had Clockwork opened this scar? The death of their sibling had been necessary but it had painted Pariah as little more than a hungry monster in the eyes of the other Ancients. Nocturne and Clockwork understood to some extent why he had done it, the three of them bearing identical scars from the Entium’s death echo, but they still hadn’t lived under the Entium’s weight for that endless amount of time. The newer Ancients had always looked upon him warily, knowing him as nothing more than the Tyrant King who killed Space. And Clockwork had brought that all rushing back to the surface and Pariah wanted to scream.

“Did it hurt?” Clockwork nearly sobbed, finally turning their gaze to Pariah and it was desperate, like a cornered animal that knew it could not hope to win the upcoming fight. Pariah softened immediately, always holding a soft spot for the one sibling who had trusted him implicitly.

“Immensely.” It had burned to kill Ens Entium. But he would accept that burning again if necessary. That had to be the reason Clockwork was here, rehashing such old wounds. Ens Entium had returned. “You must let me free to deal with Ens Entium once more.”

Clockwork shook their head fervently, wounded sound leaving them as the frost behind their eyes began to creep in once more.

“They are still scattered.” Clockwork shuddered, a chill sweeping through them. They reached for Pariah’s hand, turning it over and calming at the warmth that radiated from their brother. It was enough to push back the chill in their core and push out the real reason they had come here. “Daniel’s coronation was today, the first halfa to take the throne.”

“No.” Pariah could feel his core thrum in his ears. He must have misheard. He must have.

They didn’t put a halfa on the throne.

“Ens Entium and Ens Reale, two made one. I saw it, in a vision from outside of my sight.” Shame colored Clockwork’s face as they looked at their brother. They knew what Pariah must think of them, of their choice to back the half-breed that none of them could see properly. They had been optimistic that such clouded sight meant Daniel was destined for great things, things far greater than even Clockwork could know. But Pariah had seen something different, saw a depth that none of the other Ancients had taken seriously. Surely Pariah was paranoid, still traumatized by the mark Ens Entium left behind.

Now they would pay the cost for their foolishness.

“We cannot hope to stop this.” Clockwork leaned against Pariah, taking some comfort in their brother’s presence for the first time in centuries.

“You may not, but I will not sit idly by and let your foolish decisions jeopardize us all! Your faction has made their choice and this is the result. It is time I took action.” Pariah spoke with authority, form shifting into the one he had worn nearly an eternity ago in the darkness. The form of Power, more concept than king and exuding a level of control that ensured something would happen.

“I’m sorry to have asked this of you.” Clockwork felt a final chime echo from their core before they were back in Pariah’s Keep and out of the Sarcophagus. They had awoken a beast, a second one that could hopefully deal with the first beast they had created. For as much as they loved Daniel the universe could not handle Ens Entium and Ens Reale existing at the same time. Daniel’s ascension had already begun but Pariah may be able to do something about it.

For ill or for gain Power would strike again.

-----

Vlad absolutely hated being in the office during the fourth quarter of the year. There was always a rush of paperwork, purchases, approvals, and meeting that should have been emails. He could feel the migraine that had been building all morning finally catch up with him and wanted to scream bloody murder. It wasn’t even lunch yet.

Pressure spread across his forehead and Vlad groaned, leaning back into his chair and ignoring the concerned look his secretary sent him. The pain in his head had spiked suddenly, going from a painful if not uncommon migraine to searing heat behind his eyes in a blink. His vision blurred, a warm haze spreading across his sight and too late Vlad realized this was no normal migraine as his core spiked alongside his head.

Weakly he tried to push himself up only to feel his limbs give out beneath him.

Something was very wrong.

He could hear his secretary, Olivia, saying something just out range but he was too tired to make it out. He was melting practically and his vision going from fuzzy to spotted black quickly.

Before he passed out entirely he heard a familiar voice speak, far clearer than the muffled sounds around him.