Tonks sat up on her bed.
Her head swimming with confusion as she looked around herself before she paused for a minute and sighed.
She could feel that something was wrong with the world around her.
Something was keeping her awake.
An instinct of sorts which kept making her feel like there was something observing her, evaluating her and keeping her here.
'What's wrong…' Tonks questioned herself, not even pulling open her timetable like she usually did after getting up in the morning.
Instead she closed her eyes and began to calm herself. Trying to spend some time 'soul-searching' so that she could figure out what was making her feel so weird.
'Did I forget to do my potions homework?'
'..no Professor Snape's been busy with brewing something recently and didn't want to give us any homeworks that he'd have to spend time correcting…'
'...perhaps I forgot to send a letter to mom?'
'Oh no!! I totally forgot!!'
Tonks quickly opened her eyes, grabbed her bag before rushing to the owlery where she could use one of the Owl Spirits that Hogwarts had to send a message to her mum.
Along the way she made sure to glare at any of the boys that her instincts warned her about before finally stepping into the owlery.
Except as soon as she stepped there she grew confused.
'....?'
'Where did all the owl spirits go?'
'Huh…wait a second…Hogwarts? Didn't I graduate from here a long time ago!?'
Suddenly she felt an instinctive sense of danger as the entire world around her collapsed and she awoke with a jerky start, snapping up straight on her chair as she pulled out her wand and aimed it at the person right in front of her, almost blowing them up if not for the control she had on herself.
"!Good!" Moody said softly. Taking a step away from Tonks while his magical eye still kept a tight lock on Tonk's Body of Heart and Mind.
"That was unnecessary!" a now grown up Tonks complained.
"Unnecessary?" Moody asked, raising his eyebrows as he normal eye fixed on Tonks' drool on her chin causing her to feel flushed before quickly wiping it away.
"Constant vigilance." Moody said again, turning around this time as Tonks quickly followed after him while still muttering under her breath.
"Seriously!? Just because I fell asleep after constantly chasing those evil cultists yesterday you put me into a mental loop where my room was blowing up!? I blew up seventeen times!!! Who does that to their one and only apprentice!!! I'd rather clean a Dragon's enclosure than feel the sensation of being blown up again!..."
Just as Tonks was about to continue further, Moody stopped in front of the elevator and turned around to look at her.
"....no way! I'm not cleaning any enclosures as a favour!!" Tonks immediately reacted knowing the last time she did her teacher such a favour she found herself scrubbing away at the walls of a stinky shack for hours because she couldn't use magic as it would've disturbed the magical animals inside.
"Mum even barred me from entering the house for a week you know!?" Tonks said grumpily while quickly arranging her hair and clothes, since they seemed to be going somewhere important if they were using the private elevator of the Auror Office.
Moody huffed and waited for the elevator in silence, entering it with Tonks when it arrived before thumping his staff on its floor to select the floor.
The elevator itself moved soundlessly, but the thin sound of it cutting through winds at high speed still remained, giving Tonks the weird feeling of riding a broomstick without actually riding one.
It wasn't long before they arrived however and Tonks found herself surprised as she stepped out.
"Department of Law Enforcement? We're going on a private mission this time then?" Tonks asked since they'd gone on such missions plenty of times these last few days where Moody had been training her for the official Auror exams so that she could quickly become part of the force.
And while Tonks was glad that someone as legendary as Moody was giving her a hands on training, which mostly meant hands off since he barely did anything as he believed in letting people learn from their mistakes, she also secretly felt a little dissatisfied since she could see that most other Aurors weren't even on her level from right when she'd graduated.
Some couldn't even properly cast a shield charm, forget about complicated things like breaking through ligilimency spells that Moody put her through when she was caught off guard.
She also secretly felt that Moody just wanted her to lose her limbs like him so she could truly look the part of being his apprentice. But she never said such thoughts out loud, she knew better than others that saying that would only earn her extra time in more 'hands-on' training.
"No missions." Moody simply said, before walking ahead as if he wasn't going to entertain any further questions.
Tonks was not one to back down though. Her curiosity had been piqued and she knew best that Moody couldn't say no to her, he was almost close family to her at this point since her Mum had even invited Moody to their house for dinners, and that was from a mum who was fiercely protective of the rule of keeping business and family separated.
She still remembered the time when her mum had set her father's case files on fire simply because they were lying on the table during dinner.
So while Tonks still had to make sure to clean up the smell of strange herbs and potions that Moody brought along with him under the strictest inspections from her mother accompanied by the smug laughter of her father at not having to do any work or help out, she didn't find it awfully terrible.
If anything she'd come to regard Moody as a sort of grandfather she'd never had.
"Then who're we going to meet!?" Tonks blurted out.
Moody's face remained stoic but his lips twitched slightly.
He stayed silent for a bit, as he tried to stop himself but he ended up speaking anyway, "Office Head, Amelia Bones."
Tonk's eyes widened.
The Bones name was quite famous among the Aurors.
Amelia was someone legendary in the British Wizarding Aisles.
If Professor McGonagall was seen as the strongest woman of her era, then Amelia Bones was the strongest woman of the current era.
She'd singlehandedly outgrown those who'd started off at the same rank as her even while they had the full support and backing of the snobby purebloods.
Her grip over her operations and people was so firm that she reigned unimpeded even through Voldemort's reign of terror even when the then Minister Harold Minchum, a hardliner failed to keep the dissenting voices in check.
If the British Wizarding world was at peace today and truly believed that they could find and trust in the Authority of the Ministry, it was purely because of Amelia Bones and her ability to keep the corrupt officials busy with everything else other than Justice.
Of course, sometimes external interference was inevitable, but if Amelia personally involved herself in something Justice was most certainly the only outcome.
"Seriously!?" Tonks asked after calming down a little, but still failing to keep the excitement in check.
Moody gave her a short glance and what Tonks noticed was an unmistakable frown, as if he'd felt hurt in some way, but Moody never answered again, instead they carried on through the department of Magical Law Enforcement in silence.
They had to wait for a few minutes outside Amelia's office before the receptionist said they could go in but the time didn't get the least bit boring for ever the most inquisitive Tonks.
Instead, as soon as they stepped into the waiting area by the office, Tonks began to most noticeably fan girl about things with the way she was ogling every single bit of the space as if afraid to miss anything about the legendary figure.
There were antique paintings filled with seemingly legendary battles happening in them, a couple of antique looking vases that seemed to jitter around every few seconds as if they'd trapped something evil inside them, along with a bunch of smaller trinkets that happened to be gifts from various countries that Amelia seemed to have been to or helped in some way.
But most notable of all was the lectern sitting in front of the center of the far wall of the room upon which rested a simple book underneath a large painting of Amelia herself.
Not containing the urge to flick through such an obviously placed book Tonks quickly walked up to it and studied it, only to realise that it was a book she had in her home too.
It was the British Wizarding World's Magical Law Compendium.
Although she'd stuffed her copy that she'd received when she joined the ministry in some corner and promptly forgotten about it, Amelia seemed to have treasured hers greatly.
Tonks scratched her head in slight embarrassment as she looked up at the portrait that was similarly looking at her in amusement as it shook its head softly like it was amused for the child's future before going back to sipping on its tea.
"You may enter." The receptionist suddenly said after a few unscrupulous looking members of the parliament left Amelia's office with expressions of dissatisfaction and slight anger.
Tonks nodded excitedly as she quickly grabbed Moody's hand for support, just so that he could stop her in case she pounced on Amelia to bludgeon her with questions.
Moody snorted but didn't let go of her hand as they entered the office space.
The first thing Tonks felt was that it was abnormal.
Something about the place felt eerie, as if there was a heavy sense of oppression that lingered in the air.
It caused Tonks to straighten up, tense a little and take a step closer to Moody even though she was a fully graduated student of Hogwarts certified by the Charms Professor and an adult herself.
It almost felt like she couldn't even breathe without permission in this place.
Something about the space filled her with worry.
Especially when Tonks failed to find Amelia in the office anywhere.
A desk at the far end of the room that had piled up papers looked empty without its owner, the chair turned slightly to the right to indicate that someone had left it recently since it had not been corrected by the house elves.
The room was lit by a single tall ornate stained glass window placed directly behind the chair.
The figure of the woman of justice was collaged on it, giving one a vague feeling of being watched in spite of the blindfold on her head.
Suddenly the blindfold lifted to reveal a set of ornate life-like golden eyes. They were made of tiny pieces of golden glass that bent light in a way to carve out the thin streaks in an iris as they followed everyone's gaze.
However as soon as the figure in the stained glass met Tonks eyes, it relaxed, the aura emitting from it diminished before receding entirely along with the figure itself, leaving behind a simple stained glass window with flower patterns on it.
The entire experience left Tonks with a heavy feeling of confusion and mental exhaustion.
At least until-
"Hmm..?" a door on the right wall creaked open as a woman walked out while wiping her hands on the towel attached to it.
She looked at Tonks first, a little confused before looking at Moody and releasing what was happening.
She then looked at the window and smiled lightly.
"Pardon me for that. It was a defence mechanism that activates when I'm not here and someone of considerable 'importance' walks in."
Forgiveness was a far thing for Tonks who had already forgotten the reason for her fear.
Instead it was Moody who was actively trying to stop the girl from walking over to Amelia and grabbing her hand to question her about her entire life.
Amelia chuckled softly seeing Tonks so excited causing the girl to blush embarrassingly before turning to Moody, "I suppose she is your suggestion?"
Moody nodded wordlessly.
Sigh…"All this time I've been pleading with you to take on an apprentice and you've rejected me… and now you come up with a girl I know nothing about?"
Moody only snorted gruffly and said nothing else but his meaning was clear.
'No one was good enough.'
The vote of confidence filled Tonks with a little pride causing her to push her chest out a little with a fulfilled smile.
Amelia chuckled some more before looking at Tonks with a serious expression as she spoke calmly, "I suppose you've seen these before?"
Amelia's hands waved on the desk and produced three weirdly shaped illusory black lips all emitting an eerie and strange whispers that affected one's ability to think clearly, constantly making them feel and want to act out degenerate things.
Tonks nodded, immediately turning serious when work was mentioned.
"They are….the 'spoils' of my last mission?" she said, slightly unsure where this was going as she looked at Moody who only gave her a soft and reassuring nod.
Amelia nodded, "I see…"
She then turned to Moody and gave him a short glare, "You didn't tell her anything did you?"
Moody stayed silent but one could see how gleeful he was, but Amelia was clearly annoyed. She had a lot more things to do than going about introducing someone to the Beyonder world.
And while it did 'seem' interesting to see the shock of other people when they found out about it at first, it was only good for once or twice, she'd grown old now, and such things only made her annoyed.
Why had she even hired so many people in the first place? Wasn't it so that they could take care of these silly things themselves?
Now here she was, introducing another newbie.
"...?" Tonks stood confused.
She looked at the collection of small eerie lips and grew even more confused.
Was there something special about them?
She'd obtained them from the small group of evil cultists she'd defeated last night. They seemed to be holding a ritual to sacrifice someone to what they thought was a God.
They didn't really know a lot of magic other than rituals since she'd taken them out rather easily with a few simple chain spells and the ritual seemed to have backfired at that point and caused them to drop dead and produce those eerie items which she confiscated and returned to Moody when she was back.
It was a simple mission really.
Simpler than most others where she had to run about and ask people about things, interrogate them, collect clues and solve various problems without letting anyone know of her actions.
However another possibility clawed its way into her mind from the subconscious.
Perhaps she was cursed by the ritual in some way? And it's a rather harsh curse which could kill her immediately if not treated!?
Tonks' eyes widened.
She looked at Amelia with shock and surprise but Amelia put a rest to her question even before she could ask it.
"No. It's not a curse and your life is not in danger." Amelia shook her head, "These are Beyonder Characteristics…"
Tonks only stood in silence after that, quietly listening to Amelia describe to her the secretive world of Beyonders.
Her mind vaguely tried to process how an entire world lived alongside the Wizarding world that the wizards knew nothing about.
'Was this how muggles felt when they were told about Magic?' Tonks asked herself, finding it rather troublesome to match what she was listening to with her own experiences.
"....so you want me to become this…Beyonder(?) then?" Tonks asked softly, causing Amelia to nod, making Tonks give her an unwilling expression.
"But…"
"Don't worry. I'm not asking you to choose their pathway and become an evil cultist like them." Amelia reassured, "I want you to become a member of my pathway."
Tonks' eyes instantly brightened up.
And before she could control herself, she nodded.
Except before she could say another word, the world around her shattered, and she awoke once again in her bed at Hogwarts.
'Huh?'
Tonks looked around in confusion for a second as a strange sense that something was wrong overtook her senses for a second before she quickly opened her timetable where she saw the words-
'CONSTANT VIGILANCE!'
-before her room exploded with a 'Bang~!'
…
Nicholas looked at Prenelle for the umpteenth time.
"What's going on here…?" Nicholas asked with a slight frown on his face as he felt puzzled about what he'd gotten himself stuck in.
This wasn't the real world, that much he was sure off.
He'd started off believing that this place was his Mindscape.
Except the more time he spent here, restarting over and over, only to watch Prenelle slip through his hands, the surer he became that this wasn't even anywhere inside his Body of Heart and Mind, no matter how similar it felt or looked.
So the only other option was clear.
'It's almost as if I've been brought to a new place entirely?'
Nicholas thought with a deeper frown because he didn't know.
He didn't know what the nature of this new place was.
It seemed to somehow be able to recreate his life in excruciating detail. It wasn't the real world or his mindscape and he couldn't feel the outside world from wherever 'here' was.
'Is this the Divin-'
'No. That can't be it.'
As such Nicholas was truly puzzled.
He couldn't understand what had trapped him so thoroughly.
He'd tried to connect to the Spirit world to escape through it earlier, but he'd failed. He couldn't even feel the connection of his spirit to the spirit world.
'Is the only way to ask 'Them' for help?' Nicholas frowned.
He tried bringing up the runes that powered this place for the final time before giving up since there were no runes. This was clearly the work of a Beyonder's abilities but Nicholas just couldn't figure it out.
'A Beyonder pathway connected to an entirely new world?'
The world around him collapsed once again as he returned to Prenelle's side.
He looked at her delicate face that was rapidly turning pale as thick branches grew around her heart.
This was a scene from his past.
Something he hadn't ever let anyone know.
Well, except Loki.
It was when Prenelle had nearly died after visiting the Abyss.
Of course the scenario in front of him was blatantly false since Prenelle had survived, or he'd have died with her.
But it being false probably wasn't without reason.
Prenelle in the past had only survived because she'd managed to snag access to the Uniqueness of the Arbiter Pathway for a few minutes before being forced to lose it lest she risk being corrupted by 'Her' again because 'She' had 'Her' attention on it.
'...at least this thing can't recreate the Uniquenesses of pathways.'
'...or maybe whatever this is just hasn't needed to do so yet?' Nicholas doubted himself, since something that could trap an Angel was likely capable of creating a Uniqueness if only for a short duration.
Nicholas's brain fired as the thought sparked a chain reaction in his extraordinary mind.
Domino's fell as his face turned ashen.
He'd realised what he had to do.
It was just that he wasn't confident he'd be able to live peacefully after he did what he was about to do.
"Bastard."
"What a despicable man…"
"I underestimated it when Dumbledore told me that he was the only person capable of fighting Grindelwald…"
"I thought he meant it only casually, not literally…"
A bitter taste lingered in Nicholas' mouth as the feeling of regret flew off his tongue.
The world collapsed once again as a 'fresh' Prenelle came into view.
Nicholas lifted his hand but paused since his eyes still hadn't firmed.
'I don't even know how all this works…'
'Wouldn't it be too risky to act?'
'Or is that also just another part of this little game?'
Nicholas closed his eyes and consolidated everything he'd seen so far to make sure that what he was going to do next wasn't the wrong thing to do.
This place wasn't in the spirit world.
It wasn't the Astral world or even a mindscape.
And it definitely wasn't the real world.
He didn't know what this place was.
Or how it could replicate everything about his life so perfectly by making Prenelle seem so life-like by making her share their personal memories, as if someone had been sitting right beside them and watching them speak.
So there was no way to retaliate.
He couldn't break the system.
And so he could only resort to studying the system to break its purpose.
What could the purpose of such a system be?
A system where he'd have to watch the death of his beloved any number of times while preventing him from changing the outcome in any way?
Merely a delay for Grindelwald to use it to escape?
Hardly.
If Grindelwald truly wanted to remain hidden and reach his destination, he would've never been seen in the first place.
After all, clearly, the man had some mysticism knowledge that Nicholas himself completely lacked even after being alive for an amount of time much longer than him.
What was this place?
The legendary forgotten land of gods?
Nicholas chuckled, he truly didn't know.
He would've tried contacting Mr. Error here if that were the case since it might've interested 'Him'. But Nicholas couldn't even begin to feel the spirit world.
Either way, what remained true was the fact that Grindelwald had used something big on him.
So this was always the plan.
After all, no one would use something so cleverly built, a trump card, on their whims and fancies.
So using it to trap him had definitely been the plan all along.
'It seems Grindelwald's seer abilities aren't for show…'
'He seems to have foreseen our interruptions and planned accordingly to keep us trapped…'
'And if I'm right…he wants to make sure that we can never advance further and only regress, at least for a short duration from after we break this trap he's sprung onto us…'
The world dissolved under Nicholas' raised hand once again and reformed with Prenelle showing an expression of defeated pain but acceptance.
There was a smile on her face like she'd seen her death coming and had made peace with it.
She stretched her hand out to Nicholas and spoke calmly with a soothing tone.
"It's alright Nick. I'm sure we'll meet again, elsewhere."
Nicholas' heart ached for what he was about to do, but he pushed away his fears since he believed none of this was 'real', and thrust his hand forward.
A dense congregation of spirituality erupted out of Nicholas' hands.
Having become an Alchemist by the means of his pathway, Nicholas had a fundamental principle.
True alchemy was the one aspect of mysticism that involved transforming life itself.
It wasn't like the other pathways which played with life on the surface.
While the other pathways that dealt with life, the Planter, the Corpse Collector and the Apothecary pathway all moulded it in some shape or form; Only the paragon pathway had the ability to deconstruct it.
To rewrite it and change its fundamental nature, it could change a human into a demon and a demon back into a human, of course the price was something neither side would ever be willing to pay, but it was still an option.
And this essence of being able to manipulate life was what Nicholas feared and revered the most.
As a young alchemist he'd been full of fire, wanting to explore the limits of his reach irrespective of its repercussions.
He'd attempted to tame life itself. To make himself immortal even before he'd reached Sequence 3.
And in doing so he manipulated the life of someone else for the first time.
Nicholas still remembered very clearly what he'd done.
In an attempt to escape death, to make sure he remained immortal, he'd studied the methods of all the various pathways.
And of all of those he could get his hands on, the most invulnerable were those of the Aurora Order.
A near perfect body that could heal itself with the help of any other Beyonder, regardless of their pathway.
On top of that they did something truly baffling.
It was a well known fact that one's spirituality could not be controlled by someone else since it was your essence, it stemmed from your soul and acted as its external aura, something unique to you.
Yet those of the Secrets Suppliant pathway could break this rule.
They could 'graze' those of other pathways, and then use their souls to command total control over the spirituality of others.
They could freely use the abilities of other pathways using the spirituality of the souls they'd captured.
And they could do it all without losing control.
Truly strange.
But Nicholas then found it fascinating. And as such he'd studied a number of them.
He'd dissected numerous Aurora Order fanatics just to see how they would heal if he subjected them to every possible method of inflicting harm he knew.
He wanted to see how they could so proficiently control the spirituality of others so that he could steal the method for himself and use magic to replicate it.
While nothing came of this madness since the idea was rather naive and flawed in its essence since it required merging non adjacent pathways, it was also something that had allowed Nicholas to delve into the depths of the human soul.
And in doing so he'd developed something a little…special.
But even trying it just once had caused him to swear it off forever.
He'd promised even Prenelle that he'd never touch it again.
But fate was always a fickle thing and played with you in funny ways…
Somehow now he was using this cursed knowledge of his on his beloved to save himself…
He truly didn't know who was right or wrong in this situation.
An inherent sense of wrongness formed in his heart as he continued.
The dense congregation of spirituality in Nicholas' hands flickered for a moment before condensing into a bright pearl.
The pearl hovered above Prenelle's face for a moment as she looked at him with warmth and love.
"Ah~ sending me off with a beautiful gift deary? I love it."
The soft words caused Nicholas' face to scrunch up.
'Prenelle' clearly didn't recognise a spell she should have and it ticked Nicholas off.
He didn't know how Grindelwald knew about this spell of his, but it not being replicated in Prenelle's memories just to make him see her suffer through it snapped something inside him.
But he didn't stop.
'You wanted me to become a monster…then a monster I shall become.'
'The situations don't define who I am…'
'I'll make sure I'm just as sane as you are after all this, Grindelwald.'
As the pearl touched Prenelle's skin it suddenly sank into her body.
Except instead of the relief that Prenelle was waiting for, only hell waited for her.
Her eyes widened instantly as she looked at Nicholas with terror.
"Ni…NICK!!!!" Prenelle shouted, her body trembling wildly, blood spraying out of every pore as the branches on her body quickly grew stronger with her losing the focus and the energy to fight against them.
An expression of betrayal painted her face as Prenelle suddenly felt herself lose control of her body.
Her own soul betrayed her as it split.
First into two fragments before into four and then innumerable.
She was forced to watch from every single fragment as she was 'absorbed' into Nicholas, piece by piece, with her mind being locked behind a cage that could only 'see' but not 'do'.
Nicholas had it worse.
As he watched the body of his beloved wife disintegrate he felt an exhilarating sense of joy and jubilation, he was forced to.
And immediately after, his mind collapsed.
A heavy wave of darkness engulfed it as his own mind was assaulted by the whispers of multiple deranged and maddened beings, each rushing to eat his soul, grab a piece for themselves so that they could gain what he was taking for himself.
…