OOC: The Dream
She was running through a space of darkness and blinding fog, air that froze when it blew past and smothered her when she breathed, scarlet lightning burning through the haze now and again, sometimes distant, sometimes dangerously close.
She didn't want to run.
She'd been running for much too long now. She had to stop and face it sometime.
But it was all she could do, and it was different this time.
Before, she'd been running blindly, avoiding the lightning and hoping to find a place where the fog was less dense to breathe clearly.
Now she had a direction.
A fixed point somewhere beyond the fog was calling to her.
And beyond the fog was where she needed to go, leaving this behind to something better, something that wanted her enough to call out for her.
Bats screamed off in the distance, getting closer and closer until she could see them. Their teeth were bared and they were shooting for her face. She ducked, and they swerved and came at her again.
Lightning struck again.
Not red but pale blue.
The bats chittered before fleeing from the spot it had hit.
For a moment, she turned her head to smile at its source, which seemed to smile back despite having no discernible mouth.
A shy shadow - her own shadow, only not quite. Its presence the one definite comfort in this place, granting her company, protection, support, security.
It remained just a pace behind her as they continued to run, dodging lightning now and again, not shrinking when it was any further than needing it, not anymore.
Eventually, the fog seemed to thin, the darkness in the sky not so intense anymore, and she felt something welling up inside her, a joy and almost familiarity she must've been searching for ever since she was small.
She made out a shape gleaming through the last wisps of fog in a pure, white space, a pink emblem suspended in the air, resembling a star.
The word "Hikari" rang out. And she repeated it. "Hikari."
She pounced for it, gasping as she realized the fog was surging back out toward her, denser than ever, forming massive bats' claws reaching to seize her and the emblem.
Her shadow flew from the floor and was caught instead.
Something wrenched painfully inside her, her insides freezing colder than it had been back in the dark.
Another invisible smile she saw through the tears as it said "Arigatou."
It was thanking her.
For what?
It didn't matter. There was truly no demurring now, no turning back, no letting anything stop her if her own shadow had just been torn from her to allow her this one moment...
With a cry, she sprang for the star.
In a moment, she and the emblem were one, enveloped in a radiant, purifying light, the very sensation a joyous thrill of power, suddenly-realized wisdom, and relief.
Relief that she was now not whatever little creature running scared she'd been a moment ago.
She was an angel, and the fog could no longer touch her.
The angel gathered the light around her into a single arrow, which she fired into black out-of-place mass that still hadn't retreated, where it struck as though that mass were tangible.
More crimson lightning crackled forth from it before it collapsed in on itself and then exploded outward, spraying the entire space with corrosive poison-purple mist that the light shielded her from as she let herself fall back into its hold, a child again in nurturing arms.
Blissful.
It was all over.
The mist was gone.
She could breathe.
She could stop running.
She could start again...