Parallel Summaries (part 6)

No going back......

It's a liberating feeling, this sudden freedom. However it is tempered by a fact that has already occurred to them right before this had happened. Immortal they may be now, for all practical purposes, they aren't above feeling pain......and deadly incidents will never be easily ignored. That healthy fear is a part in them all before and remains so now, keeping them from making TOO rash of things.....

"But....." Astra begins to protest, thinking that something is amiss....that this Agent is going back on his word.....

They vanish into a realm between realms....a place that another Astra and Fred saw each others soul....and then found their hearts forevermore link together in love....and trust.....

Due to the nature that seems to be the wont of Fred and Astra....so does it happen to THIS Fred and Astra!

The time: a few ticks between the clock between the time of teleportation. The place: the realm between realms. A certain entity finds himself interested in a couple of people that had been displaced....and saw that he could help them in a way while they could help himand his kind. Agent 4 is on a much needed vacation....what the heck! So, certain Astra, Fred analogs are having what is something of a dream, and something not of a dream..... Astra's mind drifted in a white mist, awash with sensations that she had never experienced before. It wasn't erotic, but it was pleasurable. It was peaceful, and things were clearer here to her than she'd ever had experienced before within her short but eventful life! Then she found this realm not so pleasurable. As she looked over the past few weeks of the chaos surrounding her live, only to climax with a sudden twist of fate. She knows, now, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she CAN'T kill Fred.....for she's fallen for the man! That has serious consequences......

I can't go home..... she said to herself with a moan and sob.

She had been tasked by her mother, the Amazon Queen of Aquilaria, to go forth and slay the Third Shogoth. Either she did it, or she would forevermore be exiled from her homelands....without honor or privilege. It had been a bitter pill to swallow, but Astra had bowed to destiny that the prophetess had decried while in a trance....and had gone out and waited in the lair of the Dragon of the Northern Cavern (their nation's ally).

Something about the last teleport into the lair when the Shogoth appeared had caused Astra to wonder if something had gone wrong, but no matter. Her destiny was about to be fulfilled....

Only, she laid her eyes on the target....and her heart foolishly fell in love with the thing!

Gods know what would have happened then if an apparent struggle within the handsome looking man hadn't happened!

She's probably be dead.

The Shogoth was gone, but Astra had been tasked to kill the human vessel that contained it....never having figured that the demon wouldh ave been forced out in the first place and leaving the human behind. Indeed, Astra had only thought that the person she'd meet would have been the hollowed out shell of a human being....the original human spirit within consumed long ago.

The fact that something human had lasted within Fred told Astra that this guy was something.....incredibly noble.

But despite it all, she was now stuck....never to return home. The human person is amazing in his or her capacity in being able to delude themselves and not acknowledging realities, but that ability has null and void in this realm.

It was the realm that Seers touched that let Visions be. It was a realm were Truths and Visions were clearer and brighter. Only when the Seer return to the realm of man, did his or her human condition cloud and confuse what had been seen. Some Visions were too much for some minds to cloud (and thus protect) themselves, and there was a good chance of insanity (like what had happened to a certain dwarf......). Training in this Arte provided a shield of sorts, but also created blind spots.....like not being able to See one's own death approaching (as a certain Oracle found out when murdered by a rogue AI). All this information Astra wasn't aware of, for all she could feel was a deepening sense of despair and fear.

"What am I going to do?" she nearly whined, feeling alone and pitiful.

That's when Fred's presence made itself known. Astra gasped in shock and joy as emotions filled her heart......

Astra looked up as her heart felt the presence reach out and embrace her. The presence had a familiar feel to it.

"Fred," Astra whispered, in awe at what she saw.

Fred's spirit appeared to Astra as a perfect version of his mortal form, and Astra as in awe at.....how beautiful he appeared (for lack of a better word).

Astra's form appeared to others as the perfect version of her mortal form, with her long red hair flying about and glowing like it WAS made of flame.

Fred's spirit was laid bare to her, as was any who saw others in this realm where truth could not be hidden. Fred's soul was a noble thing, ready to again and again do the RIGHT and honorable thing, no matter how hard it was. Fred wasn't perfect, and sometimes his sense of honor and fair play clouded his view on things. Sometimes, he did things or said things that shouldn't be said. Sometimes, he was forthright and honest when the situation called for a bit of tact and cunning. Thus was the key to why Astra was still breathing!

What was undeniably apparent was.....that Fred was in love with her. Without conscious thought, Astra reached out and "hugged" the presence as she felt her heart melt.

"No matter what," Fred whispered fiercely. "No matter what, I'll do right by you .....lovely Astra.....I'll make it work....." He also had been overwhelmed with the properties of this realm, but instead of being faced with.....distasteful truths like Astra (though he also could not return home....since to kill the dregon would onpen the way to disaster for the world if the One Shogoth over got that dragon blood from him), Fred had been awed by the fact.....that he'd fallen in love with Astra somewhere along this journey together. Then, he had come to Astra when they'd felt the waves of sadness emanating from her.

Astra "shivered" as she "hugged" Fred closer to herself. Thus two hearts were joined forevermore.

Then, somebody else spoke.....

"Now that you trust each other I must tell you the last part of your quest," Agent 4 says softly, "Go to the Tower of RASSILON, on Gallifrey, in the Death Zone and deliver this letter to his crypt. It shall revive him and convince him his services are direly needed....yet again. Being that Borusa just got teleported out into space when the Time Scoop just malfunctioned and all......"

That's what happens when you scoop up several Eternal Champions (Dr. Who, Inquirer, Sigin 2, Betty, Ragan, B'elanna, Elrondir, and Gilmuriel) as well as the Doctor in his fourth regeneration with Romana in her second regeneration!

This time the fourth Doctor got dragged to the Death Zone....but at the expense of Borusa's life! Scene 28: INT: GALLIFREY, THE DEATH ZONE, A CORRIDOR (From the tele-play: "The Five Doctors", copyrighted to the BBC) The first Doctor is wandering along the passageway. There is the sound of thunder. He spots a shadow.

DOCTOR 1: Susan...surely it's Susan...

SUSAN : Grandfather? Oh, Grandfather! Thank goodness I've found you. How did you get here? What's happening?

DOCTOR 1: I wish I knew, my dear.

Astra: I think we are on Gallifrey in the Death Zone....and we must get to Rassilon's tomb.

Both Doctor and Susan jump in surprise, not having seen Astra and Fred appear out of thin air.....

This is where these two new Champions come into the picture.....in the "Dr. Who: the Eternal Champion" thread.

Nod

As for the tale of the elves known as Elrondir and B'elanna (originally called Seeker and B'elanna Torres).....

Their origins are from different universes, but they meet within a pocket universe called Nod.....

In their own words:

Elfin B'Elanna Torres

The Never Ending Quest - episode 7377

The golden haired elfin lady turned and looked at the coppery maned elfin man, who give a half smile and shrug.

"Ladies first?" Seeker smiled, causing Torres' elfin heart to beat a little faster in delight.

Torres, very much a product of the 24th century, found this small display of chivalry on Seeker's part delightful. She smiles a dazzling smile and nods affirmative.

She turns to the other elves and beings to speak.

"Okay.....I have to warn you two that what I'm about to tell you about myself will sound insane....but it's the truth," Torres beings.

"After all that has happened today to us that would take some doing," Fred quipped. Astra nodded in agreement.

"Well the day is just begun....but anyway here it is," Torres says. "I wasn't born an elf. Rather, I was....er....made as something else before this." She gestures with her hands at her curvious, beautiful body.

"Oh, did that mad mage get you also?" Astra said, feeling a sudden kinship with this other female elf.

"No, that didn't happen," Torres said, looking at a loss to say this without sounding like she was crazy.

She sighed, for she couldn't think of anyway to do it diplomatically.

Dream Prop or no, she was still more of an Engineer and much less of a diplomat. In other words, she would have to do this by her usual.....no frills approach.

"I was created in an alchemical bath by a vile mage by the name of Tesla," Torres says abruptly. "I was a creation that he termed as a Dream Prop, which is what I'm told is some type of magical golem. I gained sentience, and for a while I thought I was....something other than what I was......"

"TESLA OF ATLANTIS?!" both elves squeak in shock (yes squeak).

Eyes look into the deep purple orbs that this elfin lass has, and see that this is not a joke (and what a poor joke it'd be if it was)! As for being a golem, both Astra and Fred were familiar with the stories of how certain settlements of those of the Jewish faith had created vagueally humanoid creations to serve and protect them from those who'd harm them (and considering the hatred that some - who both Allaria and Aqualaria found to be just a step above pond scum - such creations were a good idea).

The woman that stood before them hardly looked like something related to the animated pieces of clay. She hardly acted like something supposed originated from such as those....either. A golem was powerful. It was strong. It wasn't much in the way of....personality, however.

Then again, there had been other rumors of a sentient golems...supposedly found and befriended by Queen Alicia of Ethiopia, were true, also. It was rumored that the golems were so life like in appearance that one could not tell from looking alone. Behavior, of course, was a different matter....since they weren't human. However, they were hardly the magical automation like their Jewish counterparts.

But if the other golems were....active long enough.....then what? Fred thinks to himself....and had a feeling that something special might occure.

Something like a thing becoming a person in it's own right?

Looking into the pure pools of color that were B'Elanna's eyes put to rest any doubts about the validly of her claim.

"Okkkayyy," Fred says finally, a little spooked. "You're a golem that came to life....sort to speak. I take it from the way this story seems to be going that you were going to turn on that evil bastard? And more to the point....."

"How in God did Tesla survive all these years?!" Astra put in....aghast at all this. "He killed himself when he destroyed his nation in his rage."

"First, let me tell you what I know....through the magical virtue of having been created by him," Torres says softly. "All creations by him have a working knowledge of the life of him. It's something of a mental conceit on his part....as well as a signature of his workmanship. So, through that, I know that he had faked his death, and moved himself to the a private resort he'd made for himself called Nod. Now, Nod had a few shortcomings in that while he could produce some items with although....it didn't have the right......whatever.....to be usable in as far as keeping him alive and magically going. But the dark mage was familiar with the fell practice of necromancy and....he changed himself into a vampire....that is after he killed all the other versions of himself."

Two pairs of eyes blink at that, not certain if they had heard that correctly. Other versions of himself?! That made no sense!

At least not yet, that is...

"God have mercy," Fred whispered hoarsely. Brave though he was....Tesla was WAY out of his league!

"Thus he was able to extend his life indefinitely....but in the process of becoming a vampire....he had locked himself to the land of Nod so he could never leave it," Torres sighed. "Vampires needing the dirt of the homeland where they were converted and all that. But, though bound, he could use the nature of Nod to his advantage, and he soon went back to old habits of Empire and conquest. He tortured the dreams of those he wanted to use as puppets for conquest and......he did it quiet well for a LONG time. Soon, his greed turned his eyes back to the world that had spawned him.....the place we'll just call Terra Prime for the sake of argument."

"Why should this world be Prime?" Astra asked with a touch of pique. "Why not call my Tera Prime?"

Fred looked like he wanted to ask the same thing.

"First, because this is their world and it's a courtesy gesture if nothing else," Torres said, slightly annoyed. "Also, for another thing...."

Torres told of what Seeker had told her of what had happened to the Terra that he had been on. Doing that...and getting the other elves to believe was a bit of a heroic effort, but she managed (painful as it was.....and she was half amazed a herself for not losing her patience).

Then again, she felt sorry for them when the idea of weapons of mass destruction translated to....as far a body counts go. They looked rather green around the gill.

"So the Enemy is on par with the Atlantians on that front," Fred said quietly.

"As well as the Military," Astra threw in. "But from what B'Elanna has said...and from what my intuition is telling me.....the Military is by far better in their morals than the Enemy and the Atlantians....who strike me as being rather....evil."

Seeker mentally sighed in relief. On the last world, it had been an uphill battle to get the locals to trust the Military (or the Golems as the locals called the Military....for the Cybernetic Avatar that the Military used to make their presence felt down on that world). I would have been much easier for the humans of the Military meet the natives in the literal flesh....to allay fears. But that had courted death with the mysterious Phage.

"As it was," B'Elanna continued. "Tesla could not reach out in the usual way. Something about it being against the Rules. Don't ask....I can't tell you anything about what that's about because I don't know anything more than what I've told you. However, he had hatched a plan to circumnavigate around the limitations set upon him.

"He couldn't well reach Terra Prime via his normal method but he could and did attempt to do it via accessing realms with little to no magic within," Torres said.

"How...could a civilization of any worth survive without a bit of magic?" Astra wondered aloud.

"Probably....through the use of science," Fred speculated with a distant, thoughtful look. "It's not as effective as magic is in healing and other things....but it's by far more affordable to the masses....and I always had a feeling that we haven't even begun to see it's full potential..."

Fred and Astra started to argue about the merits of science when Torres interrupted.

"That's exactly how Tesla planned on doing it," Torres said, almost smiling when she sees Astra blink in surprise...and then nod. "Tesla might not understand science as he understood magic....but he could control those who had science...so it made little to no difference!

1. "I was fashioned after on of the crew members of a science powered ship called the Voyager, a ship capable of travel between the stars.....if you can accept that.

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