Chapter Text
The mighty Kiana Kaslana collapsed into the cheap seat pushed against the wall of the medical waiting room, her face in her hands.
Bianka raised an eyebrow. "So how'd it go?"
Kiana groaned into her palms. “Auntie Theresa chewed me out for a good 30 minutes for abruptly leaving the moon and using my powers to blow up a decently sizable area- even though it was in the middle of nowhere.” She grumbled out the last part. Though the next moment she sighed in resignation, her usually laid back vibe practically imploding within moments. “Don’t get me wrong, Dudu, I understand why she’s upset. I left before fully consolidating all Honkai energy and then I expended what could be considered a decent amount saving Mei. Despite the fact that I pulled it back in afterwards, it had still contaminated the area and now they have to check Mei and her students to make sure they’ve had no adverse effects from sudden Honkai exposure.” She looked pleadingly up at her sister. “I just… I could feel it, Bianka.” Her voice had dropped nearly to a whisper. Her voice sounded so small. So unlike the usual confident, boisterous Kiana they all knew. “I felt it when Mei got hurt. The pain dropped me on the spot. I think because of how I was using my senses my body felt Mei’s pain as if it was my own at the same time I was feeling it directly from Mei. I felt it twofold. Something like that has never happened to me before… It terrified me.” She hugged her arms around herself.
Bianka was quick to sidestep the Honkai wings hovering protectively around her sister to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. The soft clank of her armored knee against the tiled floor followed soon after, the older woman leaning down so she could catch her sister’s eye. “I can’t say I understand what it’s like to experience the world the way you do ever since you obtained these powers, Kiana. But I do know I probably would have made the same choice if I had felt Rita in pain. Though I do have good news.” She smiled, “Doctor Einstein told me Earth’s Honkai levels are so incredibly low there’s a chance you arriving may not have any adverse effects.” She gave her sister a wry grin. “You know, unless you start throwing around Honkai Energy willy-nilly.”
“Heh.” Kiana chuckled (with only slight sniffling). “Thanks, Bianka. I wasn’t really thinking when I left. The only thing on my mind was getting to Mei. But now that I’ve had time to think about it I couldn’t help but worry… what if I’d messed everything up by coming back too soon? All that hard work for nothing? But, heh,” She smiled, a bit of her brightness shining once again. “Either way I can’t deny it feels amazing to be able to see you all again without waiting for the stargate to recharge again.”
Bianka’s grip shifted, pulling the younger woman into her embrace. “I could say the same. It’s lovely to see you again, Kiana.”
While the two sisters took comfort in each other’s arms, the door on the opposite wall slid open with the hiss of mechanics. Pulled from their intimacy, the girls turned their attention to the figure leaving the doorway.
“Mei!”
Bianka released her sister just in time for the woman to leap out of her chair, her wings dutifully floating after her. Kiana reached Mei in only a few long strides, her hand reaching out before hesitating mere centimeters away from her beloved’s skin. “You’re okay right?”
Mei's own hand closed the distance, entwining their fingers with a soft smile. "Yes, I'm okay Kiana. Not keeping a watchful eye over me while I was in there?" She giggled.
Kiana shook her head. "I'm trying to… not use much Honkai energy at the moment." Kiana winced a bit. "The Cocoon isn't very happy that I've basically forced myself down to normal human existence for the moment. Honestly, I'm not either. I feel… kinda off, but… Aunt Theresa's right that me using Honkai on Earth is very different from siphoning it back to the moon." Mei gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "I'm really good at controlling my powers now, but we don't know how the planet will handle my presence since I'm basically a never ending well of Honkai and a hole into imaginary space. Bianka told me Einstein said there's a chance nothing bad will happen, but…"
"Always some unexpected variables, hm?"
"Yeah…" Kiana nodded.
"We'll handle them. After all, we're together again, and there's nothing we can't do together. Isn't that what you told me last time?" Mei grinned. "You're not just some hole into the limitless energy of imaginary space, you're my Kiana. Don't forget that."
A weight seemed to fall from the Herrscher’s shoulders. The woman stood up straighter, her face brightening in a way only Raiden Mei could bring out of the woman. “I wouldn't dream of it, Mei!”
The taller woman cast her gaze behind her lover, to the blonde standing there with a loving smile on her face. “Thank you for staying with her while I was being checked on, Bianka.”
“Ahhh, it’s nothing. You’re both family.” Bianka rubbed at the back of her neck, a slight reddening coloring her cheeks. “I’m always happy to spend more time with my little sister.” She locked Kiana with an unamused stare the instant the woman turned around. “Even if she does get me dragged out of bed at 3 am.”
Kiana grinned sheepishly. “Ehe…”
“Alright, then,” Mei let her hand once more intertwine with Kiana’s. “Shall we check on Eve and Carole? I must give my report to Theresa, and then… we can head home. Together.”
Kiana smiled so brightly Mei swore you could see the universe itself shining in her eyes.
Kiana slowly drifted awake from the best slumber she had ever had in the last eight years. The soft glow of the morning sun slowly drifted through the cracks in the room's curtains, splaying their rays across the sleepy forms in the room's large bed. As Kiana's consciousness slowly awakened, the first sensation to come to her mind was the unfortunate taste of hair on her tongue. Her face scrunched in distaste and she immediately raised her hand to pull the offending strands from her mouth. Or at least, she tried to. Mysteriously, her arm refused to cooperate with the commands her brain was sending it. It was as if her bones had turned to lead. Or like… something was on top of it…
As she slowly blinked herself more and more awake, she eventually registered the body snugly held against her own. The groggy woman raised her head, eyes roaming over the form curiously. Her movement caused the other body against her to rise back to conciousness, a sharp intake of breath preceding the body rolling slightly onto her back.
Kiana blinked. "Mei?"
Mei hummed sleepily. "Good morning, love."
Kiana hesitated. "I didn't unconciously create illusions again, did I?"
A toned arm slung itself around Kiana's neck and pulled her back into the soft embrace of the pillows. "If having you back is an illusion then I don't think I ever want to leave."
Kiana huffed in amusement as the half-asleep woman nuzzled under her chin, the tension in her limbs melting away under the adorable assault of a sleepy Raiden Mei. "Well, I don't usually get this far in them after waking up, so I think it's safe to say those cute noises you made last night were very much real."
"Kiana Kaslana…" Mei's gravelly morning voice was tinged with playful reproach. "You are incorrigible."
"Hehe, but you loovvee meeee." Kiana shot back.
"I do…" Mei's voice immediately softened. Her lips pressed against what exposed skin she could reach without moving too much. "I love you so much. You always have, and always will be, my whole world."
Kiana felt her cheeks bloom with heat, arms tightening around the woman lavishing her collar with affection. "W-wow, um," Kiana's still awakening brain rushed to find anything that could even hope to match her wife's declaration of love. "I- ummmm I'm really glad I get to kiss you again?"
Mei halted her ministrations. The raven-haired woman pulled back just enough to plant a kiss squarely on the woman's nose. "Dummy." She couldn't hold back the giggles that bubbled in her chest at Kiana's indignance. "If you're awake, we should probably get up, hm?"
"Heyyyy… you make it sound like I never wake up on time!"
Mei pushed herself up, noting how Kiana's eyes trailed after the sheets sliding off of her shoulders. "I never said that, I'm simply speaking from experience that you tend to enjoy sleeping in."
"Well it's not like I need to anymore, but it's a lot nicer when you're with me. Yet here I am, being bullied for cuddling with my wife." Kiana pouted.
Mei stood up and began searching through her drawers for an outfit for today. "Oh my darling Kiana, how could I ever make it up to you?" She asked sweetly.
There was a shuffle of sheets and two arms quickly slid around her waist. "Weeellllll, I bet a yummy breakfast from Mei will make today the best day ever! I haven't had your cooking in foreeevveerrrr!"
Mei chuckled, "You know I'd never say no to a request to cook for you, Kiana. After that, I can show you around St. Freya. It was dark when you got here and it's changed a bit over the years, I want to show it to you."
Kiana grinned. "A date with the beautiful Raiden Mei? Sounds like a plan!"
The sun shone brightly over the courtyards of St. Freya, bathing its grounds with the gentle warmth of the morning sun. The combat school looked remarkably similar to her memories and it struck a deep chord of nostalgia within Kiana. There were some new buildings, an expanded outdoor sparring arena, more metal being used than stone in newer more modern construction. But it was still recognizably St. Freya. Even the fountain Mei had taken them to remained the same as she remembered it all those years ago. Back when a hot headed young girl had tripped and fallen into its clear water in a poor attempt to escape the hunt of the alcoholic red-head chasing after her. The memory brought a small smile to the Herrscher's face.
"Sooooooo… What's with your hands?"
"Carole!"
Kiana chuckled. Her wife and her students almost reminded her of how much they would exasperate Himeko all those years ago. Though she'd never been quite so in awe of Himeko as Carole and Eve seemed to be of Mei.
She held up her hands and studied them for herself for a moment. Shaped, calloused, and strong like they had always been they now had an always present, shifting dark purple energy mixed with traces of a lighter amethyst roiling along the skin. Much prettier than the dark purple of a bruise, it shone with a faint inner light. Four curved white ribbon-like shapes snaked their way from her wrists to about a quarter of the way up her forearm like tattoos. Two came from the back of her hand and wrapped around to the underside of her arm, the other two mirroring them from just under her palm. They stopped where the purple Honkai energy painting her skin faded into her regular pale skin color like dye becoming cloudy and diluted in too much water. The casual glance might make one think she had simply painted her hands, but upon closer inspection they would notice it was more as if the woman was wearing living gloves. If said gloves were as much a part of her as her own skin.
She then held them out for Eve and Carole to get a closer look. "When I became the Herrscher of Finality my body changed to adapt to my new powers and the massive amounts of Honkai Energy I have within me. Part of those changes was that the Honkai energy permanently bonded itself to parts of me like my hands." She next gestured to the sharp angular patterns along her skin jutting out from under her chest piece stopping just below her collar bone, partially obscured by the black, purple-rimmed flowers lying diagonally from right shoulder to opposite collarbone as decoration. "And these black tattoo looking patterns that appeared all over my body. Though it seems they mostly serve to accentuate the outfit my clothes changed to when I transformed, there's whole patterns no one ever sees underneath. Well, no one except for Mei that is." She winked.
"Kiana!"
The two students both turned away with disgusted grimaces on their faces. "Ugh, I didn't need to know that!" Eve gagged.
The Herrscher of Finality bravely stood fast against the might that was a glare from Raiden Mei. "Ehe… Hey," Kiana began, definitely not desperate to change the subject, "Now that I've had time to settle down, where's Bronya?" She looked around the courtyard as if doing so would cause her best friend to manifest before them.
"She's out on a mission with her squad." Mei answered. "She's gone dark so we haven't been able to tell her you're back, or else I'm sure she'd be rushing back here as fast as she could."
"Tch." Kiana rolled her eyes. "That Bratnya and her little stealth missions, would it hurt for her to be callable when I wanna call her at least?"
Eve and Carole made a poor attempt to hide their snickers at the nickname, luckily the older women weren't paying them much attention at the moment.
Mei smiled softly. "I know you miss her, Kiana, just give her a few more days to get back to St. Freya."
"Hmph, she better hurry up! She owes me so many game nights!" Kiana threw her hands up to emphasize her displeasure, though her pouty indignance made Mei want to giggle more than anything else. It would seem even now Kiana would fall back on her all too familiar antics to mask just how much the separation had hurt her. It might fool others, but Mei knew the woman much too well at this point. It probably wouldn't even fool Seele, though the two weren't nearly as close as Kiana was with Bronya. Mei shook her head fondly, keeping her worry restrained to her searching gaze roaming her beloved's face.
Carole leaned over to Eve, cupping her hand next to her mouth to direct the sound away from the older women and murmured "You know, I didn't expect the Moon Goddess to act so…"
"Childish?" Eve finished.
"Hey I heard that!" Kiana whined.
"Just ignore them, Kiana." Mei advised. "Otherwise you might whine too much and prove them right."
"Ugh, I am beset on all sides…"
Mei patted her shoulder in a rather uninspired attempt to comfort her wife, seeing as she couldn't keep the corners of her lips from twitching upwards. "How about we take a walk into the city? We can go through that old park and you can see whether your presence is affecting the environment or not like you were worried about?"
A look of determination quickly formed on the Herrscher's face. "Yeah! Lets do it Mei!"
After making sure she had given her students their assignments for the day, the lovers set off. While St. Freya was near the city, it was far enough away that the duo could get a decent walk out of it. Now Kiana wasn't usually one for things like long walks (Unless she really needed to clear her head), but if there was one thing she couldn't resist it was time alone with Raiden Mei. Surrounded by the well-cared for greenery of the large park between them and the city's CBD, the wind softly trailing through their hair, and the sun warming their skin… After eight years on the moon, it almost felt unreal to Kiana. With her perception of time as warped as it was sometimes when using her powers, even those eight years felt like they began a lifetime ago.
While her and Mei continued chatting away, taking this peaceful moment to catch up with her beloved for more than a few minutes for the first time in months, Kiana tentatively unclenched the mental muscles keeping her senses restrained. While most didn't exactly actively use Honkai energy, she had held them back regardless in St. Freya just in case. It had been strange, pulling her senses back and bundling them up protectively, bringing herself back down to the level of Kiana Kaslana the human for all intents and purposes. Her senses had felt dull. Incomplete. Like she was stumbling in near-blindness, unable to fully grasp the world around her.
That was to say, it felt horrible if she was being honest. Not that she really wanted to tell Mei she had been severely underselling how bad it felt back in the medical ward. When it came to Kiana, Mei would always get overly worried. Which Kiana didn’t mind most of the time, it meant she got to be pampered by her beautiful wife after all. But in cases like this, where Mei couldn’t actually do anything to help… Kiana grimaced mentally. All it would do is cause her undue stress.
And then the overwhelming feeling of relief as she allowed her senses to once again bloom and take in all around her nearly dropped her to her knees.
Mei gasped and frantically moved to support her lover as the Herrscher stumbled with a sharp intake of breath. A moment later she exhaled, the relieved sigh carrying so much emotion Mei was taken aback. "Kiana are you alright?!"
Kiana nodded, straightening herself back up. A new glow of happiness lit up her eyes, those pink irises once more meeting Mei's gaze with that familiar sense of otherworldliness. "I'm more than fine! I feel fantastic!" Kiana grinned. "Now that I'm more confident in letting my restraints on my powers and senses slacken I feel so relieved. Honestly, I don't even know how I managed with only regular senses anymore. Everything felt so… muted… bland." Kiana shuddered. A smile returned to her face as she stretched her arms above her head. "This is much better."
"It's a bit concerning hearing you describe the regular human experience like that, Kiana." Mei began. "But at the same time, I do often find myself missing the enhancements being a Herrscher provided."
"See? I knew if anyone could understand me, Mei could!" Kiana beamed. She tilted her head, as if listening to someone speak. "The Cocoon's pretty happy too, Earth is much better when experienced with more than just a restrictive five senses."
"Is that what it said?"
"Mmm…" Kiana tapped a finger to her chin in thought. "It's less saying and more what we feel. Not embracing the full range of our senses makes us feel so small and trapped, I can understand why it wanted to lash out at this world’s rules attempting to restrain it like that." Kiana touched a finger to her chin thoughtfully, completely missing the way Mei’s next step faltered. “Good thing we figured out how I can help, right?” Kiana grinned.
“Yes, Earth is lucky to have such a brave protector.” Mei’s wry smile couldn’t quite reach her eyes. “Though if I may be selfish for a moment, I would much rather have my Kiana with me like this.”
“Ehe.” Kiana smiled through the pink dusting her cheeks. “I gotta say,” She leaned over and placed a loving kiss on the taller woman’s cheek. “I also think it’s a lot better being wherever I can have you in my arms, Mei.” Kiana’s cheeky grin only widened as she watched the bright red of her wife’s blush spread all the way back to her ears.
Mei playfully shoved the girl away from her with a giggle. “As charming as ever, my knight.”
The smile wouldn’t leave Kiana’s face, the girl’s heart swelling with joy. As she skipped along in front of Mei, she allowed her hands to drag along the nearby tree trunks, subtly probing the plants and animals nearby for unwanted Honkai energy. Despite having spent eight years training her abilities, the fine control and mental fortitude required for sensing things such as honkai radiation at the cellular level still mostly eluded her. Kiana frowned. There was a faint hum of something familiar, but it felt so far away it was hard to grasp where exactly it came from. It could be Honkai radiation slowly leaking through her from the Cocoon, or it could very well just be the background planetary radiation she had yet to siphon and- for at least for a few years yet- she would never know the difference. Yet still she persisted. The Cocoon's ability to exist on a higher dimension nearly impossible to get to without the help of the Authority of Finality gave Kiana access to dimensions beyond even the other Herrschers. Dimensions that could… shift her perspective. Brows furrowing in concentration, Kiana pushed her consciousness into these different layers of existence. Some much easier to comprehend, others so strange, and so far beyond human understanding she was certain the changes to her mind wrought by becoming one with the Cocoon were the only reason she retained her sanity. Shielding herself from the multitude of insane and reality bending effects these places could have with the help of the Cocoon, she layered them over her consciousness one at a time. Kiana used them like a focusing lens; to change her perspective of her proper world in an attempt to glean deeper knowledge of the environment around her.
Mei watched on, curiously, as Kiana halted next to an aging tree. Her eyes seemed to grow unfocused and her brows furrowed. Was she searching for something beyond sight? She could no longer tell ever since losing her Herrscher authorities. Time slowly stretched on from seconds, then to minutes. The minutes had stretched into the double digits and Kiana had yet to move a muscle besides minute twitching of her frowning expression. Mei approached slowly, unsure if interrupting the woman was wise, yet her concern spurred her forward.
“Kiana?”
No answer. Mei waited a few more seconds.
“Kiana?”
Still the woman did not move.
"Kiana!"
Deciding confirming Kiana was alright was worth the risk of interrupting whatever she was doing, Mei gently laid a hand on her shoulder, intent to shake the woman back to her senses. However the instant their skin made contact, Mei cried out as an intense pain seemed to pierce directly into her mind. Suddenly she wasn’t in the park anymore. She was floating in an endless void, the stars around her twinkling with their typical stellar beauty. Until she watched as a shadow passed snuffed out the light of two adjacent stars only for the movement to reverse and the lights reappear. The cold fingers of a dawning terror clutched at her heart as the process repeated all around her and she was overwhelmed by a dark panic as she realized they were not stars. They were watching her . She couldn’t stop her own hyperventilating. Tears pricked at her eyes as she desperately clawed at the void around her. A deep seated desperation to get away consumed her every thought, every instinct, there was nothing but the all encompassing urge to flee . And just as suddenly as she arrived, the world around her warped and twisted and faster than she could blink she was no longer there. Her lungs burned, sand spilling from her lips and pouring into her eyes before she could clench them shut. The rough grains scratched painfully against the sensitive organs. Her limbs felt like stone, pulling her
Down
Down
Down
Down
Just when she reached her limit, her feet pressed against solid ground as if she had been there all along. Deep breaths of burning air rushed into her lungs. The grassland she stood in bathed in the blood red light of the star hanging in the sky. The air scorched her lungs with every breath, and she couldn’t shake the all encompassing feeling of wrongness that permeated her entire being. It was then that she registered the sharp pain spreading through her legs. Waving softly in an unseen wind, the blades of grass dug painfully into her flesh. Each blade was sharper than any weapon Mei had ever seen. Mei tried to move, only to have more wounds torn into her flesh. Panic set in, the sense of wrongness making her skin crawl, a growing terror settling in the back of her mind. The Valkyrie failed to push it away, feeling her legs move in an attempt to escape, the points and edges piercing and carving away at her legs until there was not enough left to support her weight. Down Down Down she tumbled. Her eyes locked onto the countless sharp blades of grass awaiting her, and she briefly wondered if Kiana would ever find her, wherever she was.
The world warped again, like signal lines on an old tv cutting through her vision. Mei could hardly understand the images that rushed past her eyes. One instant she was but a barely conscious blob of primordial ooze, the next she was burning through the cosmos as a comet, another she felt the life of a being so large and ancient it defied all logic. The universe was its body, strings of stars formed its hair and dotted its body like a tapestry woven of the fabric of reality itself. Eyes like galaxies searched through the past, present, and future with impossible ease in search of some unknowable goal. Simply trying to gaze upon its entirety made her head feel like it was splitting in two. More images flashed past her vision, each causing the splitting headache to increase in intensity. Mei could no longer hold back her voice, her breaths heavy as she panted and groaned under the pressure threatening to shatter her. Her eyes were wide, desperately darting back and forth between the warped and distorted sensations and images in a vain attempt to understand and lessen the clawing panic etching itself into her very soul. Over and over and over she tumbled, unable to comprehend the things passing before her, spiraling and spiraling, a darkness clouding her mind and sinking her further and further into hysteria. A roiling, rumbling roar intensified in her ears, the waves of sound carrying with them whispers of beings too strange to be considered beings at all. Mei pressed her hands over her ears, certain that if she attempted to listen she would lose herself entirely. Yet her hands did nothing. The roar and whispers grew louder and louder, a cacophony of swirling chaos a single Valkyrie couldn’t hope to keep at bay. Growing and growing, the pressure on her head becoming impossibly painful, the cracking of bone and tearing of sinew reverberating through her body until she would have done anything for it to stop.
And just as suddenly as she had been swept away in the chaos, all fell quiet, and Kiana Kaslana snapped back to reality at the sickening thump of a body hitting the ground.