Work Text:
‘Je pense, donc je suis.’
Or,
“I think, therefore I am.”
<⬛>
The Angel does not think.
He does not see. He does not hear. He does not know. He does not know how much time has passed. His name. Himself. It was for the best.
Black. Maybe, maybe black, everywhere. Everywhere here, in this not-place, somewhere.
An abyss he’d stared into until it stared back. The Angel had once known this, known where he was and where he wasn’t, and fighting fire falling falling falling.
Falling, a ground he could not see, could not touch, was not there. Falling, with no wind to rush past his ears, against his face, catch in his wings. Falling, falling,
Time brushed past him. An eternity he’d learned to ignore. A darkness he’d come to accept.
Suddenly, it was not. Too soon, far too fast for the Angel to process, process light burning his retinas, heat against his face, the crackling of fire in his ear that hadn’t heard in days months years centuries—
Too fast to process the sound of the voice whose words he mindlessly mouthed along to. And it spoke:
“Seeker, you’ve lost your way. Cast away from your mission.” He had. Lost it all in some memory he couldn’t recall. Faces he didn’t know and voices he didn’t remember. “Follow my light, follow my warmth.”
“You will be sent to a continuation of your destiny.”
The Angel opens his eyes, and blinks away the darkness he’d known for so long. Oranges, reds and whites flicker before him now.
They look new. They feel familiar.
And he sees. He knows. He saw and he knew he knew he must—
“Come now, Angel. Show them the truth. The true foundation of reality.”
The Angel takes a step.
I will, he thinks. I will show them.
Alter thinks. Alter thinks, Alter thought, he thinks and therefore he is, he will be, would be, always was, always has.
He takes a step. Another. Another. Closer, further, into the fire. As his body was bathed in red and gold, Alter saw the other side of the endless.
“Angel, follow the path of the phoenix. Praise me, and you shall know the truth of my action.”
He shall.
And so, the Angel continued.