Omen's Uncertainty (Section Two)

    He had helped her. They had helped her. Isaac, Jax, Zan and the one who called himself SFK25. "But...why...?" she softly asked herself as she split the very fabric of space-time before her with her red-hot claws - carving a molten rent through reality, itself. "Why would they want to help me? I would not help me..."

    Stepping forward through the quantum tear she created - the molten energy streaming across her unclad form like the strands of a beaded curtain - Omen strode elegantly back into the throne hall of the Well of Night. She relished the cold darkness as the rip in reality slowly closed behind her - her hellish-yellow eyes glowing in the near-lightless expanse. Sighing softly, she strode forward to her throne and gently lounged back upon it - tapping her glowing, bio-digital claws upon the arm rest as she allowed her neural processors to go through the new memories she had formed with the men whom had taken pity on her. Sympathy. They had felt something for her other than fear or hate. It was...something to which she was not used - and it frightened her. It should not be this way.

   As the circuitry and bio-digital tissues of her highly-evolved mind continued to replay her encounters with the men, Omen's thoughts slowly turned to another - more pressing - issue. The data cache. The fragmented portion of her memories which Isaac had unlocked within her corrupted mental pathways. It was there. Waiting right there. All she had to do was access it...and hope it was not too degraded from age. But...should I?, she though to herself. What will...He think if he catches me with it...? What will he do...?

    Tracing a glowing claw across her bottom lip as she thought, Omen tentatively held her other clawed hand out before her. Damn the consequences, she thought. I need to know. Isaac gave me this chance - I will not waste it... Closing her glowing eyes, Omen willed her mind to access the unlocked data cache - the neural pathways awakening within her corrupted mind for the first time in thousands of years. As the data cache awoke within her damaged neural circuitry, an orb of deep-red light slowly flickered to life just above the palm of Omen's outstretched hand - pulsing and crackling with energy. Opening her eyes and smiling as she looked upon the orb, Omen smiled and winked at it - causing it to flicker slightly before stabilizing once more.

    Furrowing her brow slightly as she looked upon the data orb, Omen's mind suddenly became gripped with uncertainty. "What...can you tell me about...me...?" she softly asked. "What do you know about the woman I once was...? Gazing for many long moments upon the data orb, Omen at last accessed it - her mind plunging forward into the memories of the woman she once was in mere nanoseconds...

...and she gasped in horror. She was there - all of her. Everything she once was. Her hopes, dreams, fears and desires...and her research - the research to which she had dedicated herself for centuries. However, there was something else. Something else imprinted there with here memories. Something from Him. Fragments of his memories. Murmur's memories - and what she saw sickened and pained her so greatly she shook her head and placed a hand over her mouth as tears welled in her eyes. Yet she could not contain what had blossomed within her, and she cried out in anguish - the sound of her mental and emotional torment echoing out through the darkness of the ancient prison...

    "OMEN...?" The voice, like a roll of distant thunder above an avalanche, suddenly emanated out through the dark as Omen's cry faded. He had come. Shuddering with rage and despair, Omen stood from her throne and cast a withering look about as tears - actual tears - began to stream down her cheeks in trails. "It was YOU! YOU!" she screamed as her corona of bio-digital flames blossomed into a conflagration around her - her eyes glowing like coals within a furnace. Gazing about with an accusing expression, her claws roiling with flame as she held the data orb out before her, Omen could find no other words to hurl at Murmur - her mind still racing with the horrors she had witnessed.

    "YES..." the voice rumbled in the darkness. Suddenly, Omen gasped as she felt dozens of unseen, iron-strong hands gripping her - clenching her arms, legs, waist and neck - causing the roiling flames upon her body to dissipate as her 20ft form was slowly lifted into the air. Straining and fighting in vain against the terrible clutch which cruelly held her, Omen suddenly cried out in pain and shuddered as terrible waves of energy began to cascade over and through her - causing her to drop the data orb to which she clung. Yet, it did not fall. It was caught - by one of the unseen hands which ensnared Omen - and hung suspended and motionless in the air.

    "YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE LOOKED UPON WHAT WAS NOT YOURS TO REMEMBER, SENTIENT..." the terrible voice rumbled through the air - and as it echoed in the dark, the data orb shattered into countless bio-digital fragments which flickered and vanished away. Lost forever. Then, the terrible and unseen hands which gripped her simply let Omen fall - her massive form impacting the ground with a resounding crash of flesh to ancient metal as she cried out in pain once more. Shuddering as she laid upon her side where she fell, Omen drew her knees up to her with a soft whimper as His terrible voice once again thundered lowly through the chamber. "DID YOU TRULY BELIEVE IN YOUR PLAY AT SECRECY, SENTIENT? YOU COULD NOT MORE EVADE MY NOTICE THAN YOU COULD YOUR OWN SHADOW..." Shuddering, Omen lowered her head as the voice rumbled around her - weeping softly as she said "Forgive me, Murmur. You...replace my doubt with purpose..." The shadows seemed to grow darker as Murmur's voice came again from all directions "BE CERTAIN TO REMEMBER YOUR WORDS, OMEN. OTHERWISE, YOU SHALL SHARE IN THE FATE OF THE DATA ORB YOU AND THE FALSE EMPEROR THOUGHT TO HIDE FROM ME..." Then Murmur was gone - his terrible presence and voice vanishing entirely from the throne hall.

    Continuing to softly cry as thoughts of Isaac, Jax, Zan and SFK25 - the men whom had made her feel safe - passed through her mind, Omen gently held one of her clawed hands out before her. Shuddering as she looked upon her hand, partially blinded by tears, Omen winked - causing the copy she had made of the data orb she had accessed earlier to flicker to life abover her palm. "It is always easier to escape your own shadow...in the dark", she softly whsipered as her tears dripped down into pools upon the iron ground. 

    She had to tell the men whom had helped her what she had found. No matter the cost to her...

To be continues...