Resurgence

Connection

Abigail

Rain and Abigail exited the woods to see the rest of the Frostbourn anxiously waiting. Azura and Dexter flew nearby, waiting.

On the way back, the Nether Queen had relinquished her hold and had allowed Abigail to regain control.

As the Frostbourn saw them, they stiffened, pointing their weapons forward. Abigail's eyes widened and she took a step back. Rain grabbed her arm.

"It's ok," he told her. "They're just not sure if your still the Nether Queen. This is just a precaution They don't mean you any harm.

Abigail nodded, relaxing. She took in the number of soldiers waiting for them. The Nether Queen must have been fearsome if this was considered just a precaution.

Rain waved to them to stand down, and they did, looking relieved. Azura flew back to Dreadfort. Rain and Abigail joined Patrick at the front of the soldiers.

"It appears that you were successful, Dragon Tamer," he said as they approached. He turned to Abigail, studying her. "You must be Abigail. It's a pleasure to meet you." He extended his hand twords her.

Abigail shook his outstretched hand, noticing his stiffness. She examined him, and saw that he was tense and prepared to fight.

"You don't trust me, do you?" she asked.

Patrick stiffened, and glanced at Rain, who chuckled.

"With all due respect, no I don't," Patrick replied. "You, as the Nether Queen, were responsible for many deaths and losses for us. While I know that you were brainwashed and manipulated, such actions cannot just be forgotten."

"I understand that," Abigail said, nodding, "but you should know that even the side of me that is the Nether Queen wants to ally with you."

Patrick looked at her confused, and then turned to Rain.

"I told you that I could break through to her," Rain said, shrugging. Patrick nodded, and turned back to Abigail.

"Well, we are able to repair your mind," he told her. "Azura is preparing the machine right now."

"Rain told me," Abigail replied, gesturing to him. "I am prepared for the procedure."

Patrick nodded and turned to lead the small army back to Dreadfort. As he left, three others came up to them. There were two girls about her age and an older man.

"You got her?" asked one of the girls. Abigail was surprised to see that she was also a Netherkin.

"Yes," Rain replied. He looked at Abigail. "Abi, this is Stella, Kane. and Ciara," he said gesturing to each one of them in turn. "They've helped me a lot over the past few months."

The girl with the horns, Stella, Rain had said, was practically bubbling with curiosity. "So your Abigail. Rain's told us a lot about you. It's nice to meet you." She was bouncing up and down with excitement.

The man, Kane laughed. "Calm down Stella," he told her. "No need to go crazy about this."

Something tugged at Abigail 's mind. She studded Kane and then the young woman beside him. Rain said that this was Ciara, and she was glaring at her with open hostility.

"I recognize you two from somewhere," she said, trying to remember. "Do I know you?"

Kane's smile faded. "Yes" he said. "We met when you were the Nether Princess. You, well you actually killed Ciara."

Abigail started at that, but she felt confirmation from the part of her that was the Nether Queen. There was even some guilt there, as if she felt sorry for killing Ciara.

"Well, she's Abigail now, not the Nether Princess," Rain said. He glanced at Ciara and added, "There's no need to blame her for what the Nether Princess did."

Ciara scoffed and stalked away. Kane gave Abigail an apologetic look.

"Don't worry, she'll come around eventually," he told her.

They made there way to Azura's lab. Stella chatted all the way, asking Abigail a ton of questions. Normally, Abigail would have been anoyed, but Stella seemed genuinely interested, and it was hard to be mad at her anyways.

Eventually, they reached the lab. Rain knocked, and a few seconds later, Azura opened the door. She saw Abigail and smiled.

"Ah, there you are," she said. "I was beginning to think that you weren't coming." She steped aside letting the through.

The lab was chaotic, but not in the normal way. It wasn't messy, there was just stuff everywhere. It was an ordered chaos, one where you could still find what your looking for.

Azura led them to a side room, were a machine was humming. She stopped beside it and glanced at Abigail, suddenly looking nervous.

"This has never been tested before," she told Abigail, "so there are some risks."

"Risks?" Rain asked. "What type of risks?"

"Well, I designed it to repair someone's mind," she replied, "but its just a prototype. If something goes wrong, it could end up destroying your mind instead."

Rain paled, glancing at Abigail. She licked her lips, nervous.

"How confident are you in success?" she asked.

"Reasonably confident," Azura replied. "I only bring it up because it could happen." She studied Abigail. "Nobody is forcing you to do this," she said. "You could back out."

Abigail considered, and the shook her head. "I'll do it," she said.

"Abigail, are you sure?" asked Rain. He was watching her nervously.

"Yes , I'm sure," Abigail replied. She put her had on Rain's shoulder. "I have to do this Rain," she said. "I can't live the rest of my life with another person fighting for my mind."

Rain nodded and stepped back. Abigail took a deep breath and walked over to the machine. Azura laid her down on the platform.

"I don't know how long this will take, but I suspect it will be quite a while," Azura told her. "If anything goes wrong, I'm pulling you out."

Abigail nodded, and said, "Go for it."

Azura activated the machine. Abigail felt it begin it's work before she fell into unconscious.

~ ~ ~

They floated in the nothingness. It felt remarkably like being dead. For a second, they thought that something had gone wrong, but the could still feel the machine working.

So they waited, drifting in the emptiness

Suddenly, they felt a sharp pain. They became slightly aware of the real world. They heard voices shouting. Rain was yelling the loudest, but they couldn't understand his words.

They screamed in agony, the pain intensifying. They could here Azura scrambling to shut the machine off. But they feared that it would be too late.

~ ~ ~

Abigail jolted awake, gasping for breath. She lurched up into a sitting position, nearly colliding with Azura.

"Woah," Azura said, "calm down. Your safe now."

Abigail panted, mind racing. "Wha-" she gasped, "What happened?"

"The connection between the machine and your mind began to fail," Azura explained. "We almost lost you."

Abigail fell back panting. Well, that was close, she thought.

Yes, it was, a voice inside of her answered.

Abigail nodded, and then froze in shock, an emotion mirrored by the other voice.

They paused, before Abigail heard the voice speak again.

Who are you?