Immortal:
(New Alexandria on Earth #8193, in the year 1990 A.D., the Lothrin Estate, the Palisades, the Sprawling Gardens.)
Narrator
Chapter 32 = Immortal... The Lothrin Estate in the Palisades District of New Alexandria of Earth #8193 in the year 1990 AD… The armoured stretch‑ACE glides through the Narrows like a steel leviathan, its tinted windows swallowing the city's prismatic glare. Inside, Gwen sits stiffly, her arm wrapped protectively around Emilia. The girl, her fiancée, her miracle, her impossibility, leans against her shoulder, still pale, still trembling, but calmer than the night before. The hum of the ACE's engine is low and constant, a mechanical heartbeat.
Gwen stares out at the passing streets, her mind a storm. Every turn of the vehicle feels like a tightening noose, drawing them closer to Anya Lothrin. The text still burns in her memory: I see you.
Emilia shifts, her voice soft but steady.
Emilia
"You're squeezing my hand too tight."
Narrator
Gwen loosens her grip, startled, and Emilia offers her a faint smile. It's fragile, but it's real. Gwen exhales, brushing a strand of hair from her face.
Emilia
Gwen… we can trust her. Anya's done so much for us already."
Gwendolyn Valentine
"I know. I know she has. But I'm terrified, Emilia. I just got you back and I can't… I just can't lose you again."
Emilia
"Come on, we know Anya. She would never intentionally harm us. Not me. Not you. Whatever else she is, Anya isn't our enemy."
Narrator
Emilia pulls Gwen into a tender grounding kiss to help calm her nerves. The ACE turns and proceeds down long stone driveway. The Lothrin estate rises like a fortress as they pass through its iron gates, the mansion's windows glowing faintly in the pre‑dawn light. The vehicle rolls to a stop at the front steps. The driver, faceless behind mirrored glass, opens the door.
Anya and Emma stand waiting for them in the doorway. Emma, radiant as ever, steps forward first.
Emma
'Welcome back to our home, dearest friends."
Narrator
Proclaims Emma warmly before pulling Gwen into a friendly hug paired with a gentle kiss on the cheek. Then Emma turns and pulls Emilia into loving embrace aswell.
Emma
"Welcome back to the land of the living, I missed you" [Loving Whisper]
Narrator
Emma places a brief but passionate kiss on Emilia's lips, bringing a blush to the girl's cheeks, before stepping back to Anya's side, causing Anya and Gwen to both grin awkwardly at the brief but intense display of affection.
Anya Lothrin
"Well, with that done, shall we proceed inside?"
Narrator
They all proceed inside, shutting the door behind them. Inside the estate is warm and regal with polished wood and marble floors, the faint scent of jasmine drifting through the air. Emma lingers only a moment longer before excusing herself, her voice apologetic but firm.
Emma
"I'd love to stay, but I still have many duties to attend to. Anya will take care of you both."
Narrator
With one last playful smile and wink at Emilia, Emma disappears down the hall and around a corner, leaving Gwen, Emilia, and Anya to proceed into the downstairs east kitchen alone. The kitchen is surprisingly vast and grand, composed of gleaming steel and stone, dominated by the massive industrial refrigerator that looms against the far wall.
Anya turns to face them, her expression unreadable.
Anya Lothrin
"Before we go any further, I need your word. What you're about to see, what you're about to hear"
Gwendolyn Valentine
"I already know you're the Knight-Raven so can we skip this and move on to what comes next?"
Emilia
"Wait, what really?" [suprised wtf tone]
Anya Lothrin
"Am I that obvious?"
Gwendolyn Valentine
"Well, I hate to tell you, but Knight-Raven showed up in the city right after your mysterious return from the dead. You are one of the only ones in the city with the wealth and resources to fund such a crime-fighting venture. Your extreme childhood trauma is public knowledge and then there is the fact that you have been stalking me ever since Emilia died. Does that about cover it, or do you think I left something out?"
Anya Lothrin
"Wow fair enough, I guess. Kk so then yeah come with me."
Narrator
Anya moves over the side of the fridge and presses a hidden button cause the secret mechanism to spring to life with eerie hiss as the large metal fridge suddenly sinks into the floor revealting the stairs down into the knight-gallery. Rows of glass cases gleam with relics of Anya's crusade; armor, weapons, fragments of shattered masks. The air is cool, humming faintly with hidden machinery. Gwen tightens her grip on Emilia's hand as Anya leads them deeper, past the displays, and into a state-of-art medbay of sorts. Anya takes Emilia by the hand and guides her over to a sleek diagnostic station.
Narrator
The machines whir to life at Anya's touch. Screens flicker, scanners unfold like mechanical wings. Gwen feels out of place, a trespasser in a sanctum built for secrets.
Anya Lothrin
"Sit her here. We'll run a full panel. We need to know exactly what Ice Heart did to you after it killed you."
Narrator
Gwen sits down a padded bench nearby to observe as Anya guides Emilia into the scanner. Anya moves back to the scanner controls and activates it. Scanner waves passes over Emilia's body, bathing her in pale blue light. Numbers and graphs begin to fill the various connected screens and monitos. Gwen stares, uncomprehending, as Anya studies the data.
Anya Lothrin
"Okay, so you're not radioactive, which is great.
Emilia
"Good to know" [nervous chuckle tone]
Narrator
Chuckles Emilia nervously.
Anya Lothrin
"No toxins either. But you are emitting the same unknown particle waves that Ice-Heart did though they seem to be just as save now as they where when we were studying Ice Heart directly"
Narrator
Gwen and Emilia exchange nervous smiles at the seemingly good news so far.
Anya Lothrin
"Though there is this…" [contemplative analytical tone]
Narrator
Anya gestures Gwen and Emilia's attention to the display. Emilia's cells, magnified a thousandfold, rotate in a holographic projection. Each cell glowing faintly, covered in some sort of crystalline lattice.
Anya Lothrin
"Every cell in your body has been rewritten. Saturated. Mutated by Ice‑Heart's power."
Emilia
"Just like what happened to the cells we exposed to Ice Heart during our earlier tests in the lab"
Anya Lothrin
"Exactly"
Gwendolyn Valentine
"What does that even mean?" (quietly)
Narrator
Anya's tone is clinical, but her eyes betray a flicker of awe.
Emilia
"It means Ice‑Heart did to me exactly what it did to organic tissue when we were testing it before."
Anya Lothrin
"Precisely, first it regrew and restored Emilia's necrotic tissue, aka charred skeleton, back to full form and then once it resurrected her, it moved on to doing what it does to living cells, which is to radically reverse the ageing process. Hence why Emilia's external appearance has become so dramatically altered."
Narrator
Gwen starts looking extremely uncomfortable causing both Emilia and Anya to spring into action. Emilia rushes out of the scanner and over to Gwen pulling her into a loving embrace as she places a soft kiss on Gwen's head.
Emilia
"Baby, baby, don't worry, I am still me. I have still be on earth for 24 years no matter what my appearance says, I still have all my memories and all my feelings. I am still me, I am still your Emilia and I still love you and there is nothing that could ever change that." [Loving tender tone]
Anya Lothrin
"That's right, no matter what she looks like she is the still Dr. Emilia Lebestocher Ice Heart has done nothing to her mind or sou, she is still who she has always been. Only now judging by these test results she will never grow old and die and she is most likely now immune to all forms of disease or illness."
Narrator
Explains Anya in a soft soothing tone, trying to help Emilia relax, Gwen's nerves.
Anya Lothrin
"However, there is one last test we should do today based on our previous lab studies of Ice Heart."
Narrator
Anya opens a drawer and withdraws a knife, its blade gleaming under the gallery lights.
Gwendolyn Valentine
"What are you doing?" [Alarmed tone]
Narrator
Anya sets the blade on the table.
Anya Lothrin
"Emilia, place your hand here."
Narrator
Emilia nods, almost serenely, and lays her hand flat on the steel surface. Gwen lunges forward.
Gwendolyn Valentine
"No! Stop! Don't you dare!" [Panicked tone]
Emilia
"Gwen. Relax. I know what Anya is thinking. And she's right. This is the last test we need to do today." (soft, steady)
Narrator
Her calmness disarms Gwen more than Anya's command ever could. Gwen trembles, torn between protest and trust. Emilia kiss her and smile as she gestures for her to step back.
Narrator
Anya grips the knife. Without hesitation, she drives it through Emilia's hand. The blade pierces flesh, metal ringing against the table. Emilia gasps, her face contorting in pain, but she doesn't scream. Gwen does.
Gwendolyn Valentine
"EMILIA!"
Narrator
Anya withdraws the blade. Blood wells for a heartbeat, then stops. Before Gwen's eyes, the torn skin knits together, the wound sealing in seconds. Within moments, Emilia's hand is whole again; unmarked, as if nothing had happened.
Narrator
Emilia exhales shakily, flexing her fingers.
Anya Lothrin
"You good?" [playful tone]
Emilia
"Yeah, it hurt… but only for a moment."
Narrator
Gwen stares, her mind reeling. Anya sets the knife aside.
Anya Lothrin
"Now we know. She's not just alive. She's, for lack of a better word, functionally immortal and immune to most, if not all, physical harm."
Narrator
The words echo in the gallery, heavy with implication. Gwen clutches Emilia's hand, holding it as though it might vanish again. But the skin beneath her fingers is warm, whole… alive.
Anya Lothrin
"Also, I am moving you both into my home here.
Gwendolyn Valentine
"What the fuck, why?"
Anya Lothrin
"The Narrows is too dangerous and I cannot stomach the thought of anything dangerous or fatal happening to either of you ever again. Plus there is a whole range of tests that we still need to run so having you both living her will also be far more convenient. Movers are already at your packing your things. I am giving you the whole Lower East-Wing all to yourselves."
Gwendolyn Valentine
"But you can't ju…"
Emilia
"Gwen, honey, hey hey. Anya's right the Narrows is far too dangerous for us, especially now and Anya's right about the tests also. Plus think of it this way, this is only way we would ever legally be allowed to live outside the Narrows. Honestly babe, it really is a step up, we should be grateful."
Narrator
Emilia pulls Gwen in close kissing her softly on the lips to calm her nerves before turning and nodding to Anya in the affirmative.
6 Months Later…