Vivi

III

Peter insisted on joining Vivi for the ride.

The site of the statue was half an hour out. Neither of them spoke much. Vivi cried a little on and off, and Peter occasionally handed her a tissue. He seemed concerned.

They arrived. "Stay with the car," said Vivi as she got out. Peter shrugged. "I guess I've seen enough movies to know not to get mixed up in superhero stuff. But you be careful, okay?"

Vivi rolled her eyes. "I'm not a superhero."

*

It was a bit of a hike to reach the site of the Statue. The path followed a river through a forest. The sounds and smells of nature were all around, but Vivi barely noticed them. Even the tourist information boards failed to annoy her like they usually did. Her heart just ached for her Statue.

At last Vivi reached the waterfall that came down over a rocky outcrop – the outcrop where the Statue should have been looking out over the valley. Seeing the mountain of glass with her own eyes hit Vivi with fresh pain. She let out a guttural wail and ran the rest of the way.

At last she was there before the devastation. Shock and dismay hit her to see it all so close up. Even the ground had been altered – crushed and flattened into a crater. Trees were in splinters and dead birds lay all around.

"How dare you!" cried Vivi through gritted teeth. "How dare you!"

Vivi stared at the mountain of glass and fiercely willed it to go back to normal. The glass shuddered and melted, and even began to climb upwards, but she already knew it wasn't going to work. She sighed and let the glass fall back down again.

Vivi knew she couldn't really create from such a place. She had to feel. And rage didn't really count. She had to feel the essence of the Statue, the way she had the first time she had made it. Vivi keenly wished Peter was there – or Celine, or...

There was nothing for it but to go through all her feelings, one by one. Vivi raged, until a feeling of helplessness overcame her. Then she fell to her knees and cried. She felt her heart aching, and felt the terrible hurt, as if someone had done this to her on purpose, as if they were attacking her...

At last, a little bit of peace and loving warmth emerged in Vivi's inner landscape. She could remember her statue, the feeling of her statue, the special essence it was made of... she willed that essence to flood her body until it was as if she was made of it. Vivi opened her eyes and saw a shining light as the glass levitated and reformed. Waves of energy spread out from the centre of her workspace, and a fierce wind blew...

There was an earth-rending boom and for the second time today, the Statue of Awakening shattered. Vivi's power kept flowing, and for a second the glass kept trying to reform according to her vision while her mind caught up to what was going on.

"MORPHEUS!" yelled a voice.

A man was flying in the air above Vivi. He wore a blank mask.

"Stop breaking my stuff!" yelled Vivi. Her ears still hurt from that blast – in fact, they rang so badly she could barely hear herself.

The man said nothing for a long while.

"What do you want?" yelled Vivi.

As if in answer, the man waved his hand and, with another horrible, earth-shaking boom, blew another crater into the landscape, shattering boulders and blowing trees into the air. Vivi's ears began to ring even more fiercely. She feared she would be deafened.

On an impulse, Vivi leapt upwards, kicking off springy, imaginary steps in the air.

She hadn't meant it as an act of aggression. She just wanted to talk to this man face to face.

Somehow, impossibly, Vivi saw her own body torn apart into a spray of gore. She floated there, an empty space of awareness, for several seconds, mind completely blank from the shock. Then everything faded into a beautiful white light.