Sarah sat on her bed, wide-eyed, stone-still, and suspiciously silent. Lazarus and Fenrir sat at her side, alternating between watching Ashwood burn and staring at their roommate in concern. Sarah contemplated the recent turn of events over and over in her head: attacking Katie, then being attacked by her own sister, and then learning Katie had died young. Out of those three things, she did not know which was the worst thing of them all, and the fact that she knew full well what she had done wrong did nothing to abate that sting.

Her bangs had been parted as a result of her escape from that scene, and at first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the forehead this had revealed. Yet as Fenrir rose a hand and gently streaked a digit across the seemingly-flat surface, he frowned when his pad met with a little bump in dead center, and one so slight he had to double back just to confirm it was there.

Sarah paid him no mind, not even a batting of the eyelashes. She gazed past the window, not really focusing on the fires that rampaged beyond and below. She heard Fenrir and Lazarus muttering about her in concern, but simply tuned them out, her mind whirring a mile a minute. Over and over again, she mulled, idly considering a great many courses of action as makeshift responses to the events which had happened hours ago.

This only started a whole cavalcade of queries that came with a bit of prodding about her forehead that she thought needless, although it did actually receive a response in the form of shaking her head at every one of them. Still tuning them out, she kept staring at the window, and ignored the prodding for some twenty minutes on end… until Lazarus got the bright idea of getting up, trotting in front of her, and plopping his own rear end down close enough to obscure her sight. He leaned until they were nose to nose, eyes narrowing irritably. "What the hell is your problem?" he asked.

Sarah's face barely shifted, and even then it was only limited to her mouth as she replied in a tight voice, "I attacked the shortstock, and got attacked by my sister."

Lazarus's face hardened. "Why?" he asked tersely.

Sarah didn't blink at the query, opting instead to thrust her claws up and shove Lazarus aside before promptly flopping on the pillow, denying him the chance to react until the very moment she buried her face in said pillow. "I don't wanna talk about it," she hissed, her voice muffled as a result of trying to hide in an object that wasn't doing a particularly good job of even cradling her cheeks.

Lazarus heaved a sigh of relief, then snorted at Sarah's rather belligerent manner of dodging the question. He turned to Fenrir. "What crawled up her ass and wedged itself there lately?" he hissed.

Fenrir merely shrugged and shook his head. "That, I know not. She's usually not this pertinent," he stated earnestly. "And as somemutt who has seen how pertinent she can get, that's saying something."

Lazarus groaned. "You're telling me you babysat her ass?" he groused.

Fenrir nodded. "That is… one very forward manner in which to put it," he replied, shifting uneasily as a frown framed his muzzle. His ears flattened against his head. "Although… it was less akin to babysitting and more akin to administering some sorely needed discipline." When Lazarus raised a brow and tilted his head in silent askance, the answer came in a very terse, very clipped tone, "Sticky talons."

Lazarus's brow dipped so low it came close to making one of his eyes snap shut then and there. Afterwards, and oddly enough, he cracked a small smile. "I remember when Matt was still trying to get over the whole Catastrophe incident. He and Natalie got a real bad case of sticky hooves themselves," he chirped. "I just watched them from the shadows, and looking back on it now, their little heists were amusing as hell. Back then, though…" His smile dropped. "It was strictly a matter of survival."

Fenrir's brow furrowed at that. "Were there not any other options or opportunities available at the time?" he queried.

Lazarus shook his head. "Nobody particularly liked us after we caused the Catastrophe, left, and wound up gaining ten thousand degrees of notoriety for it," he replied grimly. "Hell, I am still surprised they landed a military job, and thought enough of me to tell their boss about it to get him to recruit me."

Fenrir's frown deepened. "Sounds suspect," he muttered.

Lazarus shrugged and opted to flop down next to their cranky roommate who was doing her best to pretend her pillow was a hole in the sand. "Eh, it is what it is," he replied. "What's happened happened. I think we need to…" he trailed off when a thought hit him. He turned to Fenrir and asked, "Why were you feeling up her forehead?"

"She has a bump… one I have not noticed until now, as it is a very miniscule one," Fenrir replied with a genuine tone and a shrug of earnest. "I do not know if it is merely an old wound, or perhaps a slight deformation of her skull."

"Deformation?" Lazarus parroted.

Fenrir nodded. "Possibly from excess calcium," he answered.

Lazarus nodded back and opened his mouth, but did not get another word in edgewise as a gentle scratching filled the air, the noise drawing itself out for three whole seconds before stopping and starting again. Lazarus hopped out of bed and trotted to the door, noting the sounds grew louder as he came closer. Lighting his horn and opening the door with his magic, he frowned when this act revealed Maria standing outside the door, reared on her hooves and her talons splayed wide.

She sheepishly dropped down to all fours and looked at Lazarus. "Daddy won't open his door," she muttered. "I think something bad happened…"

Lazarus kept his frown, though he fought to keep it from deepening. "Did you try the knob?" he asked.

Maria nodded. "Won't move," she answered, before tottering off down the hall. Lazarus sighed and turned to Fenrir.

"I'll be back in a minute," he muttered before cantering out the door and looking about to find Maria trotting to the master bedrooms. He heard something from Sarah, but as she kept head firmly on pillow, did not make out her very muffled utterance before he closed the door behind him magically, dimmed his horn and trotted after the young foal. He caught up to her, but did not pass her as they strode to the master bedroom on the right side of the hall. Once they reached it, Maria reared up onto her hooves and grasped the knob with both claws and jostled it for a bit.

It rattled without fully turning—rattled, and nothing more. Maria motioned with a claw and pressed an ear up to the door. Wordlessly, Lazarus followed suit, frown deepening as he heard a very soft, but very unmistakeable, sobbing. The more he listened, the more familiar he grew with it… and it did not take long for him to determine it was a mare that was doing it. His horn lit up again, and his magic grasped the knob. He heard a tumbler turn—before runes lit up on its metal surface, glowing a fierce and bright gold, its aura seizing his horn and sending shocks through his system. With a startled yelp and his magic fading entirely from surprise, Lazarus staggered back with his tail puffing in alarm.

The bolts did not just zap him, either. The currents darted to Maria of their own accord and zapped her, making her cry out as she tottered back, mane, tail, and feathers frizzed and standing on their ends as a result. Within seconds of being greeted with a small dose of lightning, they heard muffled hoofsteps, before a lock clicked and the door opened to reveal a wide-eyed Natalie standing inside. The sobbing now flooded the hall, though it was still soft, and as Lazarus and Maria gathered their bearings, they noticed that her face was not red. "What happened?!" she queried, keeping her voice to a whisper.

Lazarus shook himself to dispel any lingering jolts that overstayed their welcome in his nerves before speaking quietly, "General's kid heard crying, came to me, I tried to lockpick the door to investigate the crying on her behalf, and got zapped by enchantments."

Natalie turned to him and glared, though not in the typical hard-frown and narrow-eyed look he was expecting of one of his now-commanding officers. Rather, her brow furrowed slightly, and her frown was so slight it seemed as though her mouth's corners hadn't moved at all. She turned to Maria, who nodded in confirmation, before the expression faltered and she sighed. "You two okay?" she asked, and both nodded, though Natalie figured they were still experiencing some aftershock. "You sure?" Again, both nodded. She sighed and glanced back at the master bedroom. "Well… one of our own went to bed… crying," she muttered, ears folding back. "She's probably not going to be in the best of moods tomorrow…"

"Who?" Maria asked. Natalie turned to her, stepped out of the room, gently closed the door behind her with a swift flick of magic, and knelt down to her level. Silence held for a moment.

Natalie then glumly shook her head just as Maria opened her mouth to ask again. "I… don't know what to tell you," she muttered, pausing to sigh tiredly. "And honestly, I don't know if the soldiers lied to get out of the job early… but the fact that a wildfire's now raging may well have forced their claws."

Maria's brow furrowed. "Did they do a bad thing?" she hissed. "Can I hurt them?"

Natalie shook her head again. "No, you can't hurt them… and they did not do a bad thing," she replied, her frown deepening.

"What did they do if it's not bad?" Maria asked.

Natalie gently lifted a hoof to her face and ran it up the bridge of her muzzle, veering it once it reached the base of her horn to rub at her temples. "...found… something unsettling…" she muttered. "And it was enough… to make your mother snap."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Sand devils danced, though now no light from above shined on their swirling forms. Something else danced with them, however, blurring Katie's vision as she trotted on determinedly. Something white, flaky, cold, that should not have been present in the dustbowl to begin with, yet it was. It, combined with the sand, stung mercilessly at Katie like a thousand needles, digging into her chitin and her frail flesh. Raindrops were also in the fray, lukewarm and yet hammering her just as fiercely. It all whirled about her in a heated fervor, swirling about at such speeds she could not even see the individual flecks and drops clearly without the grit getting in the way.

The wind propelling them, paradoxically, was unbearably hot. It came fast, bearing a sandy sleetstorm on its invisible shoulders, and it was strong enough to slow Katie's trot to a snail's crawl. It battered her everywhere, threatening to rip her mane and tail right out of their pores, forcing her wings wide and making them flap uselessly, tried and tried again to get her to yield her feeble hold on the shifting ground. With recalcitrance, a fair bit of reluctance, and an already-faltering hold, she marched nonetheless.

Impossible shapes formed in the veritable storm, shapes sporting long ears and glares like embers. They judged Katie as she kept trotting through the storm. "It's hopeless, mutant," one shape hissed in an ethereal voice.

"Just give up," another chided disapprovingly, shaking a vague approximation of its head. "You're weak… worthless…"

Katie tried to ignore the judgemental statements, pressing on even as an ache formed in her legs as she continued to fight the storm. She clenched her jaws, even as the sand and snow swirled into her throat via her nostrils and split mouth, slowly but surely clogging up her throat. "You're following a foal's dream," another silhouette spat scathingly as she trudged past him. "You'll never find the herald of our slaughter."

Katie coughed feebly, trotting on stubbornly. The act only served to fill her lungs even more with arid, unbreathable air. "Look at her, siding with the ponies," another form hissed, forming directly in her path. Katie simply trotted through it, her knees beginning to buckle as ice crackling with lightning formed on her legs while the form itself danced around her. "She thinks those fools will help."

"They will only cast you out once they're through with you. Just like all of the others have before them. What makes you think they're any different from the rest?" another growled. The storm started to howl around Katie, swirling with stronger and fiercer winds, as if it were determined to knock her off her hooves and bury her in its snow-laden sands.

Katie did not answer. She could not answer, not when the storm itself was seeping its windswept tendrils into her lungs in an effort to choke her one way or another. She had no other option but to trot through it, but the more she moved her legs, the faster the lightning and frost spread upon her chitin. She squinted her eyes, feeling something pooling at their corners, and though she had an inkling of what it was, she couldn't bring herself to stop. Not here. Certainly not now.

The scoffings of the silhouettes did not stop there. An impossibly tall one formed and started ambling at her side, its vague-leg movements faster and with a carefully-collected grace in their stride… but it kept perfect pace with her, almost mockingly at that. "Have you forgotten whose banner you last served under, you feeble-minded grub?" it hissed, the voice distinctly masculine and packing a deep baritone that gave off an authoritative tone.

Katie shook her head, and simply pressed on. Her legs were starting to shake, going numb with cold, their movements turning more hesitant with each and every step. Her wings buzzed haltingly; hopefully that would be enough of an answer to the specter now dogging her every move. "I admit, it was admirable of you to try to defend the hive… even as we lay dead all around you. Tell me… where did that lead you, my little mutant?" the figure asked, and rather sincerely at that. Silence answered him, and he growled disapprovingly. "Not going to talk, are we?"

Again, a shaking of the head was his only answer. A shadow began to form in the tall silhouette, becoming more defined and more corporeal, yet becoming even more of a faceless thing as he kept up with Katie's fast-faltering steps in the process. Whether it be paradox or irony, Katie had no intention of finding out. "Godcat was merciful enough to let us connect to you, even in the afterlife… and this is how you dare spend your time in our company?"

That remark actually caused Katie to pause. Her legs stopped moving, and she slowly turned to the sandy shadow as he, too, stopped. Her mouth opened a little, but then closed when she realized she did not have anything to say to him. He turned to stare back at her, his ember-like gaze turning into a pair of orbs so light a blue they almost seemed grey, narrowed into slits that were ablaze with a coldness even she thought unnatural. A defined, gnarled horn sat atop its forehead, as long as Celestia's but as hideous as the storm that whistled shrilly through its grooves. Fragments of a short, stringy mane danced from the thing's neck and around the horn's base, framing long ears that stood as tall as the horn itself.

The other silhouettes, now casting shadows themselves, caught up to the two, and surrounded them. More and more eyes, all eerily grey, were trained on Katie. She kept her focus on the tall figure before her, even as darkness gathered until what little light that did not come from the menagerie of eyes was simply shrouded. The shadow knelt to her level and asked a simple, short, "Why?"

Katie shivered as the cold, the lightning and the storm began to wreak havoc on her nerves. Her mouth worked, but all that would come out was a series of spluttering coughs as she tried in vain to keep the storm from suffocating her. Her orbs flickered, weakly, and she felt liquid trickling down her cheeks. It took her several long moments, but eventually she gave an answer. "If I… don't… then who will?" she asked back.

The orbs of the figure before her narrowed a little more. "Time itself has all but forgotten us, our society, and the very order of our hive with it. And though I know not how much time your ailing body has left… as with all life, you too shall be reclaimed by the Void that we have crossed to so long ago," he said in warning. "Yet you still carry on, on some unfounded hope that may be shredded when happenstance tears it from your cracked, softened hooves?"

Katie's vision blurred as more liquid formed in the corners of her eyes. Her body continued to grow numb to the storm, as the frost turning it that way was now up to her neck. She stood, defiantly, for now she had little choice. "... all I have left are my memories, and that hope," she said in finality, though her voice cracked in strain and weakness of lung. "S-someone… on Fantasia… will k-know…"

"Know what?" the shadow hissed, leaning in close until he was nose-to-nose with Katie.

"They… will know what… happened to us… so we won't be lost and forgotten by the mists of time," Katie answered, noting she was fast losing feeling in her ears. It wouldn't be long before the rest of her head followed suit. The figure before her reared up with a series of unnatural crackles, tossing his head back and bellowing out the most hollow laughs she had ever heard. The rest of the shadows joined in, and soon even the storm's winds were drowned out in a growing chorus of maddened mirth.

Frost crept along Katie's muzzle, freezing her teeth together inch by inch. The laughter lasted for mere seconds, yet rang in her head for some time after the figure before her dropped to her pitiful eye level again, a soft twinkle of some sort flickering in his orbs. "How noble of you… but that little ploy of yours has too little planning and far too many holes to be even a smidgen plausible. Let's say you did indeed tell someone. What were to happen if they died in a war? Had no foals to pass the tale onto? Or simply cared not for it?"

Katie's orbs widened even as frost covered her eyes then and there, and she began to consider the shadow's rebuttal that blew her idea right out of the water. She wanted to speak, but the frost now secured her lips tightly shut, and all she could manage was a small croak that itself was drowned out by the ongoing storm. "You thought too little ahead, my little mutant. But… I suppose that's to be expected from someling clinging onto something as feeble as hope. A perfect allegory… for a perfect mistake of the late hive," the shadow said in a scathing tone of voice, with the slightest tinge of mockery to it.

Then, one by one, the shadows dispersed, each turning into sable sand and snow to run away with the wind to parts unknown. The tall shadow idled, scrutinizing Katie as the rime of frost thickened on her body with a weak crackle of her stub-horn. They stared at one another for some time, until he was the only shadow that remained in the storm. "The Void will claim you soon, as you have stolen a power from it… a power noling should have in their hooves, least of all you. It will stop at nothing to retrieve that which you have wrongfully taken." He shook his head pityingly. Katie's stomach twisted as she watched him, powerless to do anything, his harsh words ringing in her ears.

"And you will become just another arcane shadow in the mists of time. No past, no future, not even a name to call your own—merely another casualty in a sea of just as nameless corpses. As have countless others before you. Before us," the tall shadow finished in a tone of finality. He sneered one last time before he, too, lost his shape and joined the countless others in the ongoing storm that was simultaneously scorching and chilled. The wind kept blowing for some hours after that, but how long was lost to her. Gradually, its winds changed direction… and grew warmer and more hellish as they did. The ice slowly melted, and the lightning it produced faded as well.

The ground heaved with an unnatural groan. Dust flew from it as another tremor rocked the barren soil. Katie tried moving, but only managed a bare twitch of a knee that she could not feel anymore. Another shudder ran under her, and though light returned in the form of a scant few moonbeams, something else caught Katie's attention in the corner of her frost-covered eyes. She turned her orbs, and mentally screamed as… as… as a giant hole of blackness formed, distant but steadily growing larger. Deep violet veins, almost black themselves, pulsed through the hole, and a myriad of clawed tendrils reached out and lashed at the ground from the hole's edges.

Screams upon screams came from that hole, distorted beyond compare and less… less bestial than they should have been, producing a chorus that was both unnatural and unbearably loud. The clawed tendrils struck again and again at the ground, each impact making it shake erratically, ripping out chunks of earth to toss into the purple-lined maw that was its very corporeal body. Not even the moonlight could dent it; in fact, it started sucking the scant rays towards itself with no damage whatsoever. The air around it distorted as it continued to grow, causing patches of the earth and sky to shift colors just as they vanished into the black abyss.

Katie started wiggling violently, forcing more ice flecks to part from the coat of rime that held her in its merciless grip. Feeling slowly returned to her body, and she noticed an ache that came from her rapidly-beating heart as it tried to burst from her chest. Her mind screamed "You need to move!" but no matter how hard she tried, she could not get her defrosting legs to work. The… black, clawing hole that was devouring both earth and sky grew even larger.

And even closer.

The frost wasn't melting fast enough. Feeling was coming back to her rattled nerves just as slowly. All the while, Katie's orbs were trained on the approaching danger that seemed to take its sweet time gorging itself on virtually everything around it. She screamed, but the ice muffled her as she worked as fast as she could to get off of the spot of ground to which she'd been affixed against her will.

Time wasn't on her side. Cracks formed in the rime, but only thanks to Katie's persistent wiggling. Even then, the cracks were small enough to go virtually unnoticed. The sand and snow clogged them up, and the rain froze upon contact, sealing them shut with a vengeance. The ground shook, but never enough to knock her over, as if it were doing this just to spite her. Panic rose, and with it Katie's maddened shaking increased tenfold. New cracks formed, but were sealed tight just as they'd opened.

The black hole grew larger still, unceasingly, uncaringly, without faltering once. The ground, sky, and moonlight wasn't enough to sustain its rapidly-growing mass. Its horrendous cries upon cries rose to a new octave as the ice finally started giving way and Katie moved her legs for the first time since she'd gotten stiff with frost. Her hooves slipped and she fell onto her stomach thanks to the coating on her hooves, and though this caused the last remnants to break away, she realized with dread clawing at her thoughts that she still could not entirely feel parts of her body. Worse yet, she looked at her back, only to find that the frost had ripped her wings right out of their sockets with it, depriving her of flight.

Katie's stub-horn lit up of its own accord, and the light it gave off was a crackling red in color. Bolts of freezing cold lightning fired off from it by themselves, launching up to the hole… only to be absorbed by it. It wasn't until several dozen went into it, only fueling the thing's growth, did her horn cease launching energy, and by then the behemoth was as tall as a mountainside. Even so, her stump continued to give off light, its red glow cradling her in its pitiful radius.

A single voice, coming from the hole itself, shouted through the throng of cries with a crystal clarity that Katie could not ignore. "Run, you spellcasting idiot! The Void will swallow you whole if you don't move!" it yelled, the utterance spurring Katie on. She forced herself to move her legs, to get her hooves under her, and once she did the ground's heaving increased tenfold as the Void grew tall enough to shroud even the moon.

It was high time to start running, and Katie was all too eager at this point to do anything but. She didn't even attempt to cancel out the glow, or use her magic to propel herself onward, unstable as it was. Instead she turned and made a mad, stumbling dash, having to catch herself within the first few steps. There was no room for error; the Void was fast gaining ground, and Katie needed to put as much distance between it and herself as possible.

One slip-up would cost precious seconds that she couldn't make up for. Her gallop was clumsy, frantic, fueled entirely by a primal fear that held her fast, and disoriented thanks to the sand and snow and rain now flinging themselves directly into her eyes, but it was certainly better than nothing. More than once had she caught herself looking over her shoulder, and each time she did her heart drummed harder in her chest, and her stomach came that much closer to turning itself inside-out at the sight she continued to behold.

Behind her, the Void continued to rend the dustbowl asunder, without mercy, without moderation, without even a modicum of restraint. It did not know the meaning of the word 'empathy,' for it was entirely focused on one task and one task only: the utter destruction of its surroundings, and whatever lay in them. It had to have fuel, one way or another, and nothing would stop it from getting it. The rational part of Katie's mind was doubting her ability to outrun this beast, but that rationale was tossed to and fro in a sea of unparalleled terror that only her wide eyes and shrunken orbs could convey.

She simply kept scrambling, hoping with all of her childish might that she could get away. The Void, however, was slowly, surely catching up to her. The air turned chilly, then plummeted to sub-zero temperatures in an effort to stall her even as it, too, was sucked in to that black maw of empty nothingness that was utterly hellbent on consuming anything and everything. It seemed intent on sating some sort of hunger not even its fleeing prey could hope to grasp.

The ground shook a hundredfold now, as the Void grew large beyond comprehension, reaching, perhaps, Fantasia's core. To run from it as it was now only spurned Katie further; she did not wish to know what it would do to her if she were caught here and now. Her footing became steadier, truer, faster and more coordinated, and as a result her speed had picked up. To go back and face the Void head-on would be like a flea facing off against a lich-wyrm—it was a fight that was hopelessly one-sided and would surely end in disaster.

She couldn't stop it from wreaking havoc. Couldn't stop it from desecrating Fantasia. Just like she couldn't stop her hive's desecration. All she could do was survive, but even that was looking less and less likely as the Void only continued to grow with its maddened consumption. The screams continued to rise octaves higher, until they were beyond ear-piercingly loud.

An idea sparked in Katie's head. She could warn somepony about the Void, and they may be able to stop it! Though… she'd have to find somepony first. She kept running, determination now fueling her stride. Unfortunately, gravity started to alter towards the beast behind her, further ripping entire chunks of land and pulling them towards that black abyss that should not have been present, yet was. It was slight enough to go unnoticed at first, but the shift increased tenfold in a second.

Katie clenched her teeth to stave off the ringing in her ears, the ache in her chest, the pain growing in her legs and back with each and every step she took. She had to focus, putting her mind into scrambling and setting aside all else in her desperate bid to outrun the Void and tell somepony about it. But as gravity continued to shift, that was becoming increasingly difficult to manage; within another five seconds, she was slowed to a snail's crawl all over again. The loose, barren soil didn't do her any favors either, pulling her with it into the growing nothingness that was doubtless a few paces behind her now.

She still had to try, clutching feebly onto her hope. It was all she had left at this rate. But now, she could not move forward with the loose soil pulling her back. Not even digging her hooves in helped; that just ensured she was slowed down further. In fact, all her efforts yielded now was a series of accidents that resulted in Katie tripping over her own hooves repeatedly. She still kept at it, praying that this would not end up getting her sucked in.

She failed to notice a chunk of ground being torn directly behind her, creating several cracks that isolated a crude circle around her. Trying in vain to move forward, her vision now completely clouded by sand and rain and snow, she just worsened her woes by continuing to slip. Within moments, the Void was directly behind her, clawing at the ground with its many tendrils, screaming and crying and hollering as its mass came within millimeters of the end of her tail.

Katie was utterly helpless as a tendril reached her and pried the chunk of soil that she stood on out, her heart stopping as she realize she'd been flung clean off her hooves and up into the air in the process. It did not take her long to start emitting a terrified screech as the nothingness capitalized on her lack of flight without mercy, snatching her once again in its shadowy limbs, and yanked her bodily inside its hungering maw.

The screaming, the crying, the howling of the Void stopped as she was sent sailing ass over teakettle into the bleak unknown, with only the aches in her body to keep her company. Not even her scream reached her ears; she wasn't even sure if she did shriek at all. Dead silence now permeated this place; in fact, it reigned here with a steely grip. Sound all but ceased to exist here in the sable.

Here, the air was deathly still, even as countless chunks of soil broke apart around her and everything else was sucked into that hungering beast. As these chunks passed, even if they brushed up against her mane, tail, or legs, neither of those things would move until some force she could not see broke them apart. Katie had to manually move her legs, mane and tail of her own accord just to register that they even shifted. Gravity never took hold in the Void, instead replaced by a feeling of weightlessness, and for a time she could've sworn she had trotted on empty air that felt solidified, yet somehow liquid at the same time.

Light never really was, nor had a place of its own, in the Void, despite being likewise devoured. Even with her meager glow, Katie could not see an inkling of her surroundings; here, everything was a black abyss that she'd been forced to paw around in, if indeed anything other than herself was corporeal in form and mass at this point. She wasn't even sure if she was the only corporeal being trapped within this endless blackness.

She winced, idly figuring that the shadow was right. The hope to which she clung did her no good, since she'd gotten swallowed up. The only thing to do now was to press forward… but where? Here, her sense of space was completely skewed and turned on its head, and with her ability to see stolen from her by the inky black, there was no way of knowing which way was forward. Time was, likewise, distorted here. There was no sun, no moon, no stars with which to keep track of it; had she not known any better, she'd have assumed time was cemented in one ever-expanding, ever-infinite moment. It certainly had the vibe of such.

Katie opted to continue sailing through the Void. She figured it would take her somewhere in its belly. It wasn't like she had any better options at the moment, either. It took eons, perhaps, but something eventually broke the silence of the Void: a roar unlike any she'd ever heard. It was one that carried with it a distortion that echoed from everywhere, something powerful enough to shake her surroundings and, at the same time, giving some light to it that revealed a crimson galaxy of stars all around her. Planets and suns and moons and nebulas passed her by, and for but a moment Katie was genuinely awed by the sight.

Her eyes went wide. She tried to move toward a star… and found solid ground, formed of stardust, beneath her hooves. The star in question hissed and glimmered bright red as she approached it, forcing her to back away when it started giving off an unbearable heat. Katie marveled at the star, tilting her head at its mere presence. Her awe continued to grow, and she tried to approach a nebula. It hissed around her too, also giving off heat, but unlike the star it let her trot through it without incident. Perhaps this was why the Void was destroying Fantasia, just to create this in its stead?

But the initial awe gave way to a deep, heart-stopping fear that froze Katie when a deep, guttural, demonic voice reached her ears, "I have lived for countless eons… my enemies fell as time marched on…" Katie whimpered, feeling a gaze of pure rage landing on her as the Void shifted around her once again, returning to the endless blackness from before, and gravity once more shifted as it dragged her deeper into itself.

"And none would be foolish enough… to perform what you have done…" it added scathingly, just as she twisted around to find a large, toothy maw bigger than a mountain, fast-approaching from the black and from behind her. Its skin was unnaturally greyish-red, almost the color of rotting flesh, but it swallowed her quick as a flash before she could take in the rest of the monstrosity's features.

There was nothing she could do at that point, except watch from within the belly of the beast as it continued to destroy Fantasia. She cared not for how she could, in fact, watch from within even as sickly, foul-smelling damp walls of more putrid-seeming flesh squeezed her for all it was worth. The fact that she could even see beyond her new prison sent chill after chill down her spine, idly noticing that a crystalline substance of some sort was solidifying around her at a frightening rate. Outside, she bore witness as frozen mountainsides, whole forests and deserts, a volcano or two, and even a city with towers and magitek that managed to reach the heavens… no matter what it was, it was all devoured by the Void.

The land… nay, perhaps all of Fantasia became one with the Void. At the sheer devastation, just as a series of bright lights flashed outside of her prison which then revealed an earth brown corridor of stone and chains adorned with spiked links and runic writing carved into the steel, she let out another strangled scream. The crystal finished solidifying around her at that point, and she became trapped and immobilized like an insect encased in amber, mouth frozen open and fear etched onto her tiny face, her scream henceforth leaving her forevermore.

It was the only thing she could do, locked in a prison such as this. She doubted anyone outside her prison, if indeed anyone was even present, would hear her anguished cries.

There was nobody there to help her.

Time stretched until she lost track of it all over again.

That one scream lasted for an agonizing eternity.

But none could hear her, regardless of how long her scream became.

Her screams went unanswered, unheeded, entirely devoid of even a shred of acknowledgement to the outside world. It was as if she hadn't existed at all...

Katie's orbs alighted and she jumped to her hooves, shaking like a leaf and with her mouth agape as she took in her surroundings. She was back in the lounge, on the couch, with the lights shining from the chandelier revealing that NoLegs was in front of her, looking at her with a frown. Katie crumpled back to the couch, heaving an immense sigh of relief. NoLegs watched her intently, and when he was sure she wouldn't jump back up again, he waved his tail and alighted it in his magic. "You okay?" he asked as his magic gripped her head.

Katie still shivered. "Th-the Void… it got me…" she muttered.

NoLegs quirked a brow. "The Void?" he repeated.

Katie nodded that time. "Wh-what time… is it?" she croaked, hoping to change the subject.

It was NoLegs' turn to sigh. "About four in the morning, and the only one you woke up with your hollering was me, in case you're wondering," he answered glumly, his aura seizing her body and lifting her gently up. "You need to sleep in a proper bed. A couch ain't good for someling with your particular combination of ailments," he added in a gentle reprimand. Katie didn't dare argue with him, idly figuring that her nightmare was indeed the fault of the inert couch.

Instead, she decided to ask him something. "Can I have more purple wasp for breakfast?"

NoLegs nodded. "Eh, we probably got some spare wasps in the freezers. We can stuff them, fry them… what all you in the mood for?" he replied.

"Sliced and with bread," Katie answered with a shrug. Her mouth opened a full 90 degrees as she let off an exhausted, gargantuan yawn. "And toasted," she added once the yawn had finished leaving her mouth. Exhaustion gripped her, despite the fact that she just woke up, and she realized she still felt that ache, settled deep into her chest, though now it was little more than that.

NoLegs yawned, nodded, stretched his tail, and started ambling with her in tow towards the lift that lead to the bedrooms.