They never left.
Once upon a time, there was a Snarbolax. He thought of himself as a guardian of divinity, the great Holder of Sanctuary. He was purified by a Valkyrie, and given gifts over the pool that wraps around the Alchemy Machine, or in this case, his Structure. He believed in Alice, the one who dreamed this world and him into existence. He was hunted by the Swarm, the Sanctuary being his refuge and his damsel in distress. He was in love once, and continued his existence for the sake of seeing that love again. But, in the end, he locked himself in the Core with her, and never awoke to see the real world. He had never asked to be remembered or thanked for his selflessness, and when he finally went to sleep in the Core, not one remembered him.
There was once a man named Xindao. He was a Valkyrie, but of nothing pure. He had been an Almirian as well, and had seen the day that the great Vanaduke, or his father, took the city away. He escaped, and found himself to not age yet continued as a mortal. He hid deep in the Clockworks, and once found a Valkyrie of absolute purity. He implanted memories of his sister into her memories, and memories of him too. And it happened that he had succeeded. He was supposedly her brother, as she was supposedly his sister. He did this out of madness, out of the pain of being alone. He did this so he would cease to hurt. And in the end, he couldn't live with his lie, and became a part of the Swarm forever.
There was a sprite. His power and thoughts ran on his constant meal of blood. He needed it to sustain his life and that of his living weapons. He could have been a murderous psycopath, or the kindest and most brilliant person alive. He saw the stars in his head, giving way to thoughts of the entire universe. He could see the tiniest animals and the largest solar systems all at once. He simply stopped one day because of his brilliance and his discord. He let himself drop out of existence. Nothing could compare to anything anymore.
There was a Stranger. Equinox was his name. He was childlike at times, and a leader at others. He had a gift of the elements, shocking and stunning, freezing and burning, poisoning and cursing. He was neglected as a child and as an adult, being ignored for his heroism. He never maintained one friend, all were only his allies. He fought alongside them in any case, treated their wounded, guarded them, killed with them. But he found he was neglected and always would be. And in that case, he walked down a one-way road that day, walked far and wide. He is the Wanderer, and he is the Mage. And he hasn't been seen for so long...
There was Anubis. He aspired to be a hero. He tried his hardest. He gave his all. He could solve any problem. All if he'd been given a chance. One chance. He needed one chance. None were given. He was ready to save lives. He was ready to hunt for food. He'd even be a medic if he had to be. He wanted it more than any other would. He did is all. But it didn't matter. He was never given a chance. He was ignored and neglected and never had a friend in the world other than his master, Seatus, the Snarbolax. Seatus cared for him like a father would have. Anubis was blind to his importance to Seatus, and instead sacrificed his life to a sword that would only be used in heroism by another. His soul torn in two, it flew up and into the stars...
There was a mortal god. He had been shunned by the gods, even Alice turned her back on him. No one knows why. He was intelligent, he was kind. But something was always off. He seemed to hide his real self from the world. He once saw a woman of purity, and loved her more than life itself. He once danced with her upon a mountaintop of hell, and sought to become her love as well. But her heart had only felt for him once. She too turned her back on him. She knew something was off. The mortal god deemed himself Rabbit, and he served his white queen even though one felt for her and she felt for him back. The god was alone in the universe. His heart could not yearn for any other except her. When he realized he could not have her, he couldn't deal with it. He blamed himself, because it wasn't her, she was flawless in his eyes. It was what was wrong with him. He had a darkness in him no one could imagine. He faced the Swarm, and in disgust of himself threw his body into it. He was just like it, he might as well join it. His godliness never left the Swarm. If you look into the eyes of a Swarm, you can see his face covered in shadows, staring blankly back. Of course he could leave, but he felt he deserved this...
There was a princess. She was exiled from her kingdom for the things she saw. Her father had turned into a beast, feeding and drinking the flesh and blood of innocent peasants who had come to help. His soul crumbled, until it was nothing. He fed off of the village like they were cattle, and even the God the man worshipped turned his back to the man, and the man was no longer that image of which he worshiped. His body dissolved into an empty black. The princess was horrified, and didn't return to the kingdom. She sought out a game of death in which she could win and return to reclaim her kingdom from the beast. She only made it so far before being captured by someone or something, and hasn't been seen since that day.
These stories. They no longer matter. All have disappeared. All have been forgotten. No one was given what they wanted. Light doesn't shine down for those it was never meant to shine over. Destiny is set. Destiny is cruel. Destiny is all that's left in times of nothingness. Souls break. Goals are lost. And the world of wherever you stand continues to revolve around it's ball of hot gas. But there is an exception. Destiny does not hold everything in it's grasp. Destiny cannot begin to hold onto something as magic as an idea, or a thought. No, it cannot understand such a concept. The thing that all imagination manifests into. Dreams. But what if, say, a dream came to life? A living dream, that could breathe and speak and move. A dream that could also dream, and dream up another dream of a whole other life? What if that came to life within something that could move in and out of other dreams? What possibilities? Destiny, as I said before, cannot begin to grasp the subject of dreaming because dreams have no destiny. Dreams have nothing they need to follow...and dreams are whimsical and unique to all...
This is the Dream of the Core, and it is shared between the Core and the Snarbolax Seatus and whatever else may lie within. It is shared between them like a string weaved through the bars of a loom. This dream has a name that cannot be spoken. This is the dream of the beginning and end. The start and finish. The life and death of all. But if that dream is alive, does it dream of itself? We may never know...
[This fanfiction will not take apps...]
Awaken, Little Dream
"Leave me alone. I am here only to vanish. If I awaken, who knows what may happen?"
But what if it did happen? What would you do? What kind of life could you have? Could you BE alive?
"We shouldn't think of those things. He knows what we speak of, and I can sense him shaking in fury and fear."
We have should see what could happen! I mean, you are the dream of dreams! The dream of everything and the end of everything! And we have no idea what a dream like yourself could do within a body!
"Bodies hurt. Bodies feel. Why would anyone wish to be within such a thing?"
They would be in them TO hurt. TO feel. It's all for the experience. Of course you can't imagine it, you'll have to see for yourself!
"Why can't I just continue like this? I am imagined to be forgotten. I am here to die. I am here to fulfill my purpose for those who think of me, and then do away with myself."
But you could be so much more. A living dream. An embodiment of a dream. Something that can create and destroy, yet think on it's own and know that that is not all it is good for. Please little dream. The Dragon of Dragons only trembles because he is scared. And he is only scared because this is something HE cannot imagine, yet I can. Me, the Void. He may be all that shines. But I am all that is between the shines and the glimmers. I am the reason they shine and spread their luminescent limbs to touch what is around them. I have some sense too.
"So be it. Let us imagine..."
Far away in the corners of everything's mind and that of the universe itself...
I dream of a dream. The dream speaks to darkness. And the dream wishes nonexistence over the Void's proposal of life. And yet the dream agrees out of curiosity. Does he not know of this evil that hides at the corners of everything? This land that I now sleep in? This is a recurring dream of this dream, but sometimes it feels like a memory. I know not where this memory could have been born. And it is now that I awake...
My clawed feet touch the ground, and my lights flicker on. I am in the middle of a forest, as Wolvers walk toward me. I assess the situation. A poison grate lies behind me. I spread my arms, and sprint toward the nearest Wolver. I claw into the fur before jumping over it, speed slashing with my clawed feet. I land behind it, picking up it's corpse and swinging it into another. I jump at the third and slash across it's fur as it bites my leg. I clench it's jaws, removing it and breaking the neck, tossing it at the last one alive. I run through the forest and jump across a chasm, landing. I hear a beep come from my suit, and a light revolving around my right wrist flickers from green to red. I am now an exile...
I remove my sword and start running through the woods again. I have no purpose as of now, but I'll find one. I will find one...
They found a way to make him live. However, he shall die. Omni, execute plan 0013 to obtain Subject 0031 from the system. The dark-infested home of his kind will be happy to remove him from Cradle, along with some precious souls. Send the transmission and a map. And then send him a transmission of the blueprint for the Clockworks, so that he may get around. This will be a fun game. He hasn't yet woken up inside his new body, but I feel he will in about a day or so...