Consensus, Day 4-2: Time

(Sorry this one took so long! Ended up being a lot longer than I expected it to be.)

Violet’s heart pounded in her chest as she sat before her computer, five hours before the encounter with Mae and eventually Christina took place. Five hours. That was all it would take for someone whose voice could shut down Violet’s entire body to go looking for her.

She couldn’t be at the house when Christina arrived, that much was obvious.

What could she do? Her anxious mind raced to think of a solution, though more problematic hypotheticals made themselves apparent. Encountering Christina was out of the picture, she was simply too powerful. How long had she possessed such insurmountable abilities? Violet didn’t know, but what she did know was that she’d only have about one chance to find out.

If she went back in time to when they were in school together and attempted to stop Christina then… what if these powers were latent to her black-haired rival? Christina was in a rather fancy suit, what if she had waited until she was in a position of power before revealing her insane abilities to everyone?

All Violet wanted to do was travel to some sort of time where she could be alone. She was built like a truck and had the 4th dimension at her dilation discretion, but all she had ever wanted was to live a quiet life with Zach. Before she could do anything, she had to make sure he was safe first. Then, Violet would have everything she needed.

Wasting no time, Violet ran to the nearest train station. Her massive strides mattered little, as the nearest train was still minutes away regardless of how fast she bolted. On the train, her eyes refused to stay put, always checking behind her shoulder for any suspicious activity that might spell her doom. She had no clue if Christina from the future remembered where she had vanished to or what abilities she had, or if the fearsome businesswoman even still existed.

Too frightened to check, Violet simply stewed in silent anxiety during the hour-long train ride. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a familiar voice shout her name.

“Violet! Oh my goodness, it’s you! Thank god!”

Time froze. Violet backed up into the nearest wall, knocking over several mannequin-like people who were mid-stride. It wasn’t until she calmed herself that Violet got a good look at who had called her name.

“Mae!?”

Sure enough, frozen with her hand in the air, eyes locked upon where Violet would have been, was the mailwoman from earlier. How had she of all people tracked Violet down!? Still in a panicked state, Violet frantically checked every nook and cranny within a mile radius of Mae. There didn’t seem to be any wires on Mae’s body, no other suspicious individuals watching them, no parked cars packed full of armed men.

No Christina.

Violet wasn’t sure how long she spent within paused time—technically, no time at all. She sat before the frozen Mae, curled up into a ball as she weighed her options. Sure, staying stuck within stopped time was optimal, but those nagging regrets were eating away at her.

“Mae, what are you doing here?”

Mae paused briefly, disoriented by what seemed like sudden teleportation from Violet. “I dropped everything and followed you here! Er, hold up, that sounds creepy, let me explain better. When you escaped, I somehow escaped too, I found myself back in my mail truck, nearly crashed the damn thing, but whatever. Your time displacement, it must’ve sent me back to the beginning of my mail route. Violet, you saved me from Christina—you saved my life!”

Such encouraging words found warmth growing within Violet’s body, and yet, there was still hesitancy within her voice. It all seemed… a bit too convenient.

“H-how did you find me?”

“You had mentioned in our conversation from earlier… er, later? Whatever. You were going to meet your boyfriend at the airport around this time, right?”

“Y-yes, that’s true…” Violet admitted, still on edge.

“Well, I’ve got something to admit… Christina, she killed my husband. I frantically ran home, only to see she had ransacked it and left him for dead.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” Violet spoke, the edge from earlier vanishing entirely.

But Mae simply waved her hand dismissively. “Honestly? That’s the best thing she’s ever done for me. Saved me the trouble of doing it myself.”

“So, er, what’s to admit then?”

“It means I’m finally free, Violet.” Her voice spoke with an elation that sounded long neglected. “Free to travel the world, be my own person, I think.”

“W-what are you suggesting?” Violet asked, hope reigniting in her eyes.

“That we get the fuck out of here, together. I know of a place where that bitch Christina can’t find us. Maybe we lay low for a while and then work together to take her down.”

Violet bit her lip, rubbing her sinuous shoulder. “But… What about Zach?”

“Forget him for now! We’ll go look for him when we can confirm we’re safe ourselves!”

“No! I’ve been waiting my whole life to see him, and I’m not going to wait any longer! I can’t let some stupid bitch from elementary school get the better of me at such a crucial moment!”

Mae sighed as she watched Violet run ahead, bolting into the airport as fast as she could. Too many witnesses.

Pulling out a camera, she snapped a photo of the exit to the gate. Looks like it might get ugly. I’ll probably have to improvise.

The tension ticked up as the seconds ticked down. Violet was becoming antsy, waiting at the exit gate for her Prince Charming to arrive. With every landing plane came renewed anticipation, Violet craning her head as far as her monolithic body would allow, attempting to see past the one-way gate which the plane passengers exited from.

Then, just as she was starting to lose hope, there he was. With her increased height, Violet could just barely make out the top of his head from the rest of the crowd. Strange, had he actually been that short this entire time? But when the rabble dispersed, Violet was treated to the surprise of her life.

Zach was in a wheelchair.

“Violet!?” the New Zelander spoke, his voice in disbelief as he had to crane his neck upwards just to look his once-virtual girlfriend in the eye.

“Y-yep, that’s me!” Violet replied, somehow more nervous than the boyfriend she towered over in size.

A brief silence between the two occurred, both of them realizing that they had omitted several details about their appearances. Eventually, Zach was the one to break the ice. “Um, so, I didn’t realize you were such a beefcake. Does that still mean you’d like a wheelchair bound—”

Without waiting for him to finish his sentence, Violet effortlessly picked Zach up by the wheels and brought his lips up to hers. Only after a suffocating twenty seconds did she finally release him from her grasp and return him to the ground.

“Th-this is everything I could have ever hoped for… and more.” he spoke, wide-eyed.

“Heehee, if you think that’s something, just wait until we—”

Now it was Violet’s turn to be interrupted, as without warning, Mae punched her in the back of the head as hard as she could. Blood erupted from the blonde’s mouth and nose, coating her smaller boyfriend in a splatter of red before collapsing atop him. Now, Violet was knocked out cold, with Zach pinned under her, screaming for help.

Civilians screamed and panicked, confused by the senseless violence. Guards pulled out their firearms, not hesitating to open fire upon Mae. Their rounds bounced harmlessly off her flawless skin as the Mailwoman pulled out her phone to make a call.

“I’ve taken her down. Out cold. Couldn’t bring her to a less populated environment, but I managed to find the opportune time for when she was distracted to strike.” Tears poured from Mae’s eyes, the last expression of her buried-deep true feelings towards this whole fucked up situation from the cloudy brain miasma of her new overlord’s control.

From the sent photo, Christina appeared, bending reality to her whims as she arrived at the airport. She spent a good while simply basking in the fear and terror of those around her, knowing that someone who was once a mere janitor could bring about such chaos and devastation to the world through sheer ingenuity and merit. She had conquered Howard Grove, conquered a company, conquered prison and, most recently, conquered reality itself.

If anyone deserved to rule, it was undoubtedly her.

“Guards, kill anyone who attempts to interfere with my plans,” Christina’s overlapped voice spoke, almost bored. Like clockwork, every officer turned their attention away from Mae and onto securing windows and barring doors.

“Ah, my beloved Violet, now back in my grasp. I suppose I was wrong about you, I thought you’d die before you found a boyfriend, but I now see that you’ll die with him in your arms! How romantic!”

She drew the pneumatic extraction tube. “But first, Mae, your reward for such diligent bounty hunting!”

Mae could not resist as Christina stabbed through her outfit, piercing her stomach and extracting her powers, leaving her a shriveled, cracked husk just like the rest of the businesswomen's victims. Finally given a taste of freedom, only for it to be so effortlessly stripped away. Christina then wasted no time applying the filled needle to herself. The tyrant was positively, impossibly beautiful, as if there were even words to describe the ascension she was about to go through, much as this author will try.

Tanned and sleek, so smooth they looked like polished marble, the unending length of her legs were so packed with sculpted, sinuous muscle that several of the mind-controlled guards’ chins dropped and their mouths began to water. Impossibly defined striations popped from her suit’s raven surfaces with every movement. Christina then strutted forward, taking her time in reaching the downed Violet as everyone ogled the absolute works of art that were her calves, thighs and torso.

A body that was model sexy yet more than capable of lifting a semi truck, if not a skyscraper. Then she spoke. The sound finally tore everyone’s gaze away from those polished abs to focus on her equally magnificent face, a knowing smile growing upon her face from the overwhelmingly provocative glimpse of her lower body.

“Would you lesser fools even be able to handle me if I had even more power flowing within my body so soon? Would your minds literally explode? I suppose there’s only one way to find out, yes?”

“Stop right there! I cannot allow you to do this, Christina.”

Christina looked about the abandoned airport, confused. The feminine voice she had just heard appeared to come from nowhere and yet everywhere at the same time. Then, just as her eyes returned to Violet after a full scan of her surroundings, there she was, standing in between the tyrannical woman and her ultimate prize..

“Who the hell are you?”

The woman’s autumn eyes glistened with determination, even as they sat within bagged eyes. She was a gorgeous, buxom blonde, though there was an ever-so-slight disheveledness to her form. Whoever this was, she was clearly stressed beyond belief.

“I’m the spirit who bestowed those powers you so absentmindedly take for granted. And now, I’d like them back.”

Christina scoffed. “You? Some glorified secretary lesbitch? Give me a break. I earned these powers, fair and square. It’s survival of the fittest, after all.” She puffed out her chest, her custom-fitted outfit straining to contain its contents.

The spirit simply took a deep, tired breath. “‘Earned’ is quite a strong word. Your powers were merely a byproduct of me hexing Howard Grove for a lifetime of misogynistic actions. This was not meant to happen. Howard Grove was simply meant to learn the error of his ways by unintentionally empowering women via his hateful words. But this…”

“And what is ‘this’ exactly?” Christina replied, a sculpted eyebrow raising on her face. “To me, I see a woman who seized a moment. To become exactly what she deserved.”

The spirit woman’s face narrowed furiously. “Well, to me, all I see is a horrifying monster who kills her fellow humans merely for the unattainable desire for total and complete domination!”

“Well, it sounds pretty sexy and empowering when you say it like that.”

The mystery woman’s breathing began to quicken, adopting a mile-long stare as she ran a hand halfway into her mane. It was worse than she thought. This woman, upon hearing the truth, only became more eager for the senseless destruction of her fellow humans’ lives. The spirit was running out of options.

“Please… Just lay your weapon down and stop all of this,” the woman pleaded. Though that only seemed to further invigorate Christina.

“A verbal plea? That’s the best an ascended being like yourself can muster? I’m beginning to think fear of the unknown is all you have to offer in this fight.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s simple. I don’t think you’re capable of hurting women.”

A brief flash of fear across the woman’s face all but confirmed Christina’s educated assumption. It was then confirmed when the businesswoman punched the spirit woman in the face. The woman gripped her bleeding nose, the orifice having broken on impact with Christina’s fist. When Christina returned to a neutral stance, awaiting retaliation, none came.

“I-I may not be able to fight you, but I can always protect her,” the spirit woman countered defiantly. With a great exhale, a large, glistering bubble-like object surrounded Violet and Zach “And your mortal machines will not work on the body of an ascended being such as I.” Her shimmering eyes gestured towards the pneumatic extraction device clenched tightly within Christina’s fist.

Sure enough, upon an effortless claw into the mystery woman’s torso, the inner machinations of her body were nothing like the organic makeup of humans. Like the vastness of space with inverted colors, a large plane of empty peach-colored whiteness was all that existed within the facade of human skin. Nothing to steal, nothing to latch onto.

“Then, you are useless to me,” Christina spoke, raising her bloodied fist to finish the job.

“If you kill me, you’ll never get to her!” the woman shouted, half out of self-preservation. “The only way that shield’s going down is if I turn it off myself. And I’m never going to do that.”

“Oh, don’t worry, you’ll do it. And you’ll do it with pleasure.” Christina’s voice echoed with the power of control. The woman’s eyes became half-lidded for but a moment as she briefly succumbed, but the affliction vanished as soon as it had arrived.

“You really think the powers I bestowed upon you would be enough to afflict me?” the woman spoke with a dismissive tone. Even beaten down, she retained a supernatural air of elegance and authority. “Selfish, power-hungry humans like yourself could never defeat a goddess like me. You need to learn your place.”

“Wrong. It looks like you, pitiful goddess, will be the one learning your place soon. Observe, the true power of my might, a dimension which your mind will not escape from!”

A clench of her lithe fist and Christina made the world around her morph to her will. The airport setting peeled away like ancient paint, replaced with a substanceless, off-white void. People, terrain, objects—all shaved off from reality like Christina took to it with a vegetable peeler. Dread built up as the spirit realized what Christina was doing. The ascended being couldn’t be killed from the natural cycles of life, so she would instead be forced to wander endless eternity. A truly harrowing fate.

“Byeeeee,” Christina taunted with a rippled wave of her fingers, before she too was shaved away from the new setting. All music had ceased, all the noise that composed the hustle and bustle of average life, all gone—replaced with

All that stood out from the endless milkiness was a tiny speck of red, one that would have gone unnoticed were it not for the dot being the only contrasting color within the white void. Squinting, it almost appeared to be door-shaped, the potential of an escape now fresh in the woman’s mind.

Then the red dot began to shrink, as if fleeing in the opposite direction from her.

With no other leads, she ran as fast as she could, desperately chasing it down and not letting the incandescent red of it leave her sight. Even in her weakened state, the woman’s run speed was just brisk enough to gain on the fleeing construct, the intensity of its glare glowing brighter as she grew closer and closer to it.

The harsh reds grew only more vigorous as she closed the gap, alternating in hue rapidly. They pained her eyes, but she could not look away now. Not yet. She was so close. So… close…

Closer.

She needed to be closer, move faster! A splitting headache wasn’t going to stop her from escaping. As long as she kept the door in her sights, there was no way it would escape her grasp. Christina was powerful, yes, but she was a mere human! Never had a human successfully conquered a karmic being, no matter how insurmountable the odds may have been! No matter how sleepy the woman now felt.

Just a continuous stare at the door… at the alternating light… The way it now swirled in a spiraling pattern, seemingly taking up more and more of the surrounding space, though perhaps it was a mere trick of the light.

She would not let some cheap light show get the better of her.

Heavy.

Yes… her legs were becoming heavy. How long had she been running? She was actually catching up to it at this point. Perhaps she could slow down a tad. She couldn’t afford to be tired, not when she needed to focus all her efforts on escaping this strange fate that had befallen her.

Besides… she didn’t need to run to bask in the hopeful radiance of the spiraling red light.

Derobe.

Derobe? That made sense. Her clothes were adding unnecessary weight after all. Maybe that would finally make her feel less groggy. That was a problem… anything that drew away her focus on the singular goal of reaching that door… they were problems.

Her robes fell down to her feet, her nonstop walk towards an object perpetually out of reach left the pristine attire in the dust. The cool air lapped at her perfect skin, now unbothered by the sweaty creases and chafing edges. Now, instead of the false warmth from her clothing, she could now properly bask in the one true warmth—the warmth of the light.

Focus.

Yes, she needed to focus more. More on the light. She couldn’t recall the last time she blinked, nor would she dare start now. It was her time to focus, so focus she did.

“Snap out of it! That is not the way of the world!”

This voice… this nagging voice, it’s barely audible, somewhere deep in the back of her brain. It’s distracting. Why won’t it leave!?

Focus.

Yes. There are too many voices. From her own naysaying thoughts to her employers attempting to redirect her attention away from escape! Who did they think she was? Telling her to put her  clothes back on, to simply look away from the red light that was nearly within arm’s reach. Telling her that this was a trap devised by the human to control her mind.

But those voices were a distraction. If she even stopped for but a second to consider what they were saying, out the door went all of her focus. A powerful merchant of femininity would not let masculine voices dissuade her from her goals. A good girl. That’s what she was.

Empty.

The voices fade away in an instant, never to return. Good. A busy woman like her doesn’t need such distractions. Now, a true sense of focus could be obtained. She was a good spirit of femininity. And she was focused on the only object that truly mattered in this situation.

Empty.

She was a good spirit of femininity, and she was focused on escaping.

Empty.

She was a good spirit of femininity, and she was focused.

Empty.

She was a good spirit of femininity.

Empty.

She was a good… a good…

Empty.

She was…

Empty.

…

A dribble of drool slipped out from the left side of the woman’s mouth, her dead-eyed stare a constant as the alternate universe illusion melted around her. She continued to walk along the airport moving walkway, the same place her tormentor had trapped her to make the “dimension” she was in seem endless.

Christina giggled. All it took was a reality check from Mabel, a bit of muscle from Tessa to sell the illusion as physically tangible, then to modify the sound waves of Carrie’s voice to match that of the red light’s electromagnetic waves with Mae’s strength modification and this beyond-human spirit of feminine karma was reduced to yet another of her playthings.

“Simple hypnosis trick, amped up to eleven. Pretty cool, huh? I read about it in SkyMall on the way here.” Christina tossed a crumpled-up magazine into the hands of the nearest lackie. “Nothing else of interest. I already skimmed the whole book before I even opened it.”

Zach began frantically shaking her girlfriend with all his might, attempting to wake her. However, she simply wouldn’t stir.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” the businesswoman spoke, stifling a yawn. This chase had gone on long enough. It was time for the final piece to be slotted into place. Her ascension could finally be completed. “Alright spirit, be purposely useful for once and drop this shield.”

The spirit did as she was commanded. After all, she knew nothing else to be true.

The barrier dropped, the last source of protection between the downed couple and the conquering warlord. Christina wasted no time on quips, drawing the draining device from her side satchel and attacking Violet. But in the knick of time, Violet awoke, only to witness her boyfriend leaping in front of the device.

A blood-curdling scream erupted from Zach’s mouth as the device sucked away at power that wasn’t there, ripping through meat and bone just to find an ounce of energy that never could have existed in a body like his.

In that moment, three events occurred.

The first, Christina lunged at Violet, abusing her hold over reality to ensure that her attack maintained priority over whatever local time nonsense her old classmate could throw at her.

The second, Violet screamed in agony at the sight of her deceased boyfriend. That the one thing left in her life had been so senselessly taken away from her in an instant. Her powers went haywire, not sure whether to travel forward in time, backward in time or to pause entirely.

The third—and arguably most important one—the time-space continuum itself collapsed as a result of the first two, rupturing a massive hole within time that Violet and Christina were promptly consumed by, before completely eviscerating the rest of this reality.