Sell you a Bridge chapter 290

June 14th 2016 Hollow Bastion 6:00 PM EDT

The  first thing I noticed about this place was the obvious. Past the  cracked purple stone was what looked like a set of ancient ruins. The  castle I could see a ways off was connected to them, but cut off from  the ruins themselves...like, a wall of waterfalls. I didn't know where  the water was going, but it was pouring into a basin that never seemed  to fill. Deciding it was worth risking, I took a deep breath, and slowly  peeked open my aura sight. As I did, I braced for what I might see, for  what kind of higher dimensional madness might be waiting behind my  third eye.

As the world changed though, it became clear  that I was applying expectations that didn't fit my situation. My aura  sight felt much more natural now that I was a god, more like a part of  me. I felt like I could have controlled it, throttled it back like I'd  done with my power before, but I didn't need to. My mind was more than  it had been, I was more. I could handle seeing something like Taylor's  gift again without the accompanying mind break.

What I saw  here wasn't mind breaking, and wouldn't have been even before my  change. It was sad. This world was dead. Not in the way of a corpse,  decomposing and rejoining the circle of existence though. This world was  unnaturally dead, stagnant, unliving in a way that nothing that I'd  seen could even approach. Something had ruined this place, made it  wrong, and I knew if I swam up those endless waterfalls there would be  nothing on the other side but the empty ocean  where the castle lay, at  least until I fell off the edge of this sickened chunk of broken rock.

I  stepped forward slowly, onto the ruins platform connected to the stone,  and I noted numbly that there were several other chunks of purple stone  forming small floating islands alongside the platform. I could see that  the ruins didn't actually reach all the way to the castle, but the  islands could be used to bridge the gap. Shaking off the daze of looking  at a dead world, and turned back to check on the others. My heart was  pounding in fear as I imagined everything that could have gone wrong.  I'd been distracted for a minute, but I needed to know they were alright  before I did anything else.

I trained my aura sight on  the others. Aside from Taylor mid gift, none of them would have been a  problem to look at before my change. Even Tommy wasn't really jarring to  see so much as hard to pin down visually. His aura was kind of  uncertain and chaotic, which fit him, but it wasn't as...BIG as Taylor's  when he was actively using his gift. Then again, Tommy wasn't using HIS  gift either, so it was hard to say how accurate that assessment was.

Still,  the others weren't damaged or scarred in any way I could detect, which  was a win after all of us fell through...that. I could still feel  Morana, Zee, and Drea too, all of the bonds connecting me to my family  solid and steady as a rock, so I knew their current unconscious state  didn't have any implications I couldn't see with my third eye. I walked  over to the others, my metal feet clanking along the stone, and knelt  down to shake Drea awake. She was the closest to me, and the most likely  to know what the hell was going on here. I was pretty confused, so  hopefully she could fill me in on some of the context with her New  Genesis knowledge, otherwise I didn't have a clue what to do.

I  couldn't take the corridors home, not with the others. Protecting them  had been all I could manage when I was just swept along for the ride,  doing it while actively moving us through the dark would be all but  impossible, not to mention I had no clue where the fuck we were or how  far the trip would be. I somehow doubted it would be the usual quick pop  through liquid shadow. We weren't IN the darkness though, that much I  could tell. This place was connected to the dark, but it wasn't quite  there. Some kind of island of reality in the endless abyss Barbatos had  been aiming to drag us into.

Drea groaned as she was  shaken awake, wincing as her head lifted from the hard ground. "Gods,  what hit me?"" She seemed groggy for a second before shooting upright,  eyes wide with terror. "Morgan!" She spotted me and let out a ragged  sigh of relief before looking around again. "Zatanna, is she?"" Her  voice was stricken with terror, and I winced because she must have had  her bell rung pretty good to have forgotten about the bond.

I  reached out gently to cup her chin, and turned her head slowly to stare  in the direction of our girlfriend. "Peace, love. She's fine. Only  resting. How is your head?" I pulled her up towards me. "Here, sit up a  bit, tell me if anything hurts. Zee isn't damaged or anything, we can  check on her in a second. Everyone is alright so just focus on  yourself." I understood the panic, I'd felt it myself when I first  looked around, but Drea hadn't had the benefit of my armor to protect  her. Besides, her condition could give us some idea how the others would  feel when they woke up.

She took a few deep, calming  breaths, closing her eyes as she centered herself, when she opened them  they were tranquil and serene. My Beautiful Dreamer. She was our rock  whenever it matter, always the most reasonable and even tempered of us. I  smiled at her softly and leaned down to give her a quick kiss, making  sure to let all of my relief and joy that she was ok bleed through into  the gesture. She put her arms around me and squeezed, and we just sat  there like that for a minute.

Once we got past that, we  stood up, and looked off into the distance toward the castle. "Ok, so,  Tartarus says this place is called Hollow Bastion. Before you ask, no, I  can't respond or ask questions, it didn't really speak so much as Name  the place. Whatever the case, I don't think we're EXACTLY in the  darkness that...the B-guy controls. At least not directly. I suspect  this place is in it. But it's like an island in that dark ocean. Which  is...good I guess. So, have you heard anything about ANY of this?"

I  made a point of NOT saying Barbatos's name. It seemed like a poor  decision based on what had happened when Neron said it before. Drea,  sadly, just shook her head. "No. This is...this is beyond me. The  Forever People were explorers, but we might as well have been a bunch of  local kids touring the neighborhood compared to this. We spent all of  our time in the Sphere, where this is definitely NOT. Still, we should  get the others and head up to that castle. I don't know what's there,  but I'm not comfortable exposed like this."

Looking around  uneasily, I nodded. She wasn't wrong. I knew it was unlikely there were  natural predators here, but I wasn't so sure about unnatural ones. At  least the castle had walls, even if I was pretty sure we'd have to kill  SOMETHING in there. It was fine though. once we got settled I still had a  card to play. My bond with Rana was still solid, and she could move in  darkness too. She should be able to follow it to me and figure out where  we were and how the hell to get back. Past that...I'd need to figure  out a way to insulate my people for the trip back, hopefully I could  find an email for that.

So Drea and I split up, myself  heading to wake up Zee while Drea roused Sindella, before moving on to  the others. Jim was already waking when she got to him, but I left her  to handle all that while I knelt next to Zee, shaking my sorceress  awake. "G'way Morgan." She mumbled cutely. "S'lpn." I felt my heart warm  at her peaceful sleeping face, but sadly, all good dreams must end.

I  shook her again, and she groaned. I leaned down. "Time to wake up,  love. It isn't safe to sleep here." Her eyes snapped open at that, and  she shot up, every bit as panicked as Drea as her eyes focused first on  me, then on our goddess, then on her mother, and finally Artemis. My  heart filled with flames yet again at the order she checked on us.  Still, despite her obvious relief, she was clearly not happy not to  recognize this place.

Pulling her to her feet, I let her  turn and look around. She was much more shaken than she would normally  have been at seeing some kind of magic castle. The events on the street  of gods had shaken her if she was this upset rather than being giddy  about the possibility of new magic.

Still, even with the  worry, she wouldn't be my Zee without at least a touch of fascination.  "Ok, what the hell is that?" She said, a bit of reverence in her voice.  "Because...I can FEEL the magic coming off it from here. It might as  well have been built out of mana stone." She paused. "Actually what is  any of this? Where even are we? Is this still on earth? Are we back in  the Sphere of the Gods again? Somewhere in the Nightside?" She didn't  sound too worried about any of those options, which led me to believe  she was starting to get far too used to our crazy lives.

I  just shrugged. "I have no idea what that is. As for where...well I can  tell you where we aren't. None of the places you mentioned. We also  aren't in the dark world or wherever the B-guy who shall not be named  wanted us. Not exactly." I explained what I'd noticed through my aura  sight when I'd scanned the place while they were still out.

"You  know." She said with a wide grin. "You always take me to the nicest  places. Other girls our age have boyfriends that grope them at the  movies or take them to boring dinners at french restaurants. I get magic  castles outside the proper universe. You spoil me." The grin was a bit  strained, but it was easy to feel through the bond that she was choosing  to focus on the excitement rather than the fear of the unknown, and I  was unspeakably proud of that fact.

Running  my eyes down her body I gave her a wink. "I could grope you IN the  magic castle if you'd prefer, and we can get the best of both worlds." I  sent a pulse of reassurance down the bond, letting her know without  words that I understood what she was going through and that I was happy  to play along and treat this like one big adventure, since we were going  to have to look around before we decided on our next move anyway.

There  was a loud throat clearing noise, and I turned to see a distinctly  uncomfortable looking Taylor, and a far too amused Sindella having  collected themselves and looking right at us. Sindella waved, Taylor  having been the source of the noise. If they were expecting  embarrassment, they weren't getting it from me, I cheerfully waved back,  and Sindella giggled as Taylor pressed two fingers to the bridge of his  nose.

Since  everyone was awake, I quickly explained the situation as I knew it,  figuring it would be faster to move on from the weird parental vibes  from Zee's sort of uncle. Once I finished, I pointed up at the castle in  the distance. "So, long story short of it, we're stuck in a dead world  I've never heard of and getting us home is going to be impossible for me  short term. My vote is heading up to the spooky castle to take shelter  and possibly raid it for cool magic shit. All in favor?" It was a  testament to the quality of people I surround myself with that no one  hesitated for a second before raising their hands.