Fire and Ice

Posted on Sun May 24th, 2026 @ 3:19am by Captain Marie Batel & Patin

1,621 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Character Development
Location: Celestial Temple

The compassionate side of Marie wanted to follow Patin straight away to let her know she wasn't alone in her discomfort. The Captain side of her told her to wait a few moments to let the weight and the anget settle.

The ion storm continued to fire, and Marie moved towards it, seeing Patin like the conductor, throwing fire and thunder around as though it were hers solely to command.

"You'll have to show me how you do that" she quipped by way of alerting Patin to her presence.

The storm answered before Patin did.

Blue-white lightning split across the darkness in jagged sheets, curling around her suspended form like furious living veins. Ionized clouds churned and folded beneath her boots despite there being no ground to stand on, the entire storm twisting itself around the rhythm of her emotions. Every pulse of anger sent another crack of thunderless light rippling outward through the void.

Patin stood at the center of it all with one hand clenched tightly at her side, “You probably shouldn’t learn this one,” she muttered at first, not looking back toward Marie. Another violent arc snapped across the storm front hard enough to illuminate her silhouette in harsh white flashes. “Kinda starts with unresolved trauma and escalates from there.”

The sarcasm landed thin. Frayed around the edges. “Besides,” she added bitterly, “I’m apparently a cosmic cautionary tale now.” A lightning strike detonated outward behind her like punctuation. “The Chaotic One persists. The Chaotic One continues. The Chaotic One needs therapy.”

Another pulse rolled through the storm. This one less violent. Less explosive. The lightning bent sideways around Marie instead of toward her, instinctively avoiding her presence despite Patin’s mood. That alone betrayed more than Patin probably intended.

Marie took in the stance, the anger radiating like the lightning that flashed around them. She closed her eyes for a few moments, searching the timelines, finding what she needed with an ease that got more fluent the more she practised. "They care about you, despite what they say," she said softly, stepping closer and placing a hand on Patin's shoulder.

Patin laughed once, sharp and humorless, and the ion storm answered immediately. Lightning forked across the darkness in violent white veins. “Oh yeah,” she said bitterly, not looking at Marie yet. “They care.” Another crack of thunder rolled outward as her fingers flexed at her side. “Not about who I was. Not about what I survived. Not about the blood or the scars or the parts of me I carved away just to keep ownership of myself.”

The storm surged again, blue fire rippling through the clouds behind her silhouette. “They care because I play a part.” Her voice tightened around the words like they physically hurt to say aloud. “I’m a god damned pawn. A side character in their Rhenora arc.” She finally turned then, eyes bright with anger and something far more exhausted beneath it. “I spent my whole life fighting hard not to belong to anybody.” Lightning flashed hard enough to silhouette her against the storm.

The thunder quieted slightly after that, less explosive now. Still dangerous. But wounded, dangerous instead of furious. Patin dragged a hand through her hair and looked away again toward the raging clouds. “And the worst part?” she muttered more quietly, smoke and storm mixing around her. “I’d still burn the universe down to keep her safe.”

Marie let the anger wash over her, not absorbing it - but witnessing it's intensity. She knew it wasn't directed at her, she had the same feelings, but something had shifted fundamentally over the last few moments, she had retained the ability to shift through time, to observe, to continue. She peeked into the future, not only for the crew of the Sunfire, but for themselves.

"They have a purpose for you, one that I think you'll find agreeable. One that carries more than just trying to teach God's how to behave like grown ups." She couldn't help but let the jibe echo into the turbulent mist. They were listening, aware she had the ability, and now moving to intervene. "Your roll of Guardian Angel is about to become a little more tangible, a little more real." The mist arrived quickly, surrounding her and blocking her from any further communication in the short term.

"What? Don't like that she knows the plan? You know if she KNOWS the plan than she might be a more willing participant in it" Marie shot back at them with fire in her eyes.

"Communication goes both ways"

Patin’s anger didn’t vanish when Marie snapped back at the Temple. But it shifted. The lightning still burned through the ion clouds in violent veins, but the strikes no longer lashed outward blindly. They curved. Circled. Coiled around the two women instead of through them, as though the storm itself had accepted Marie into its orbit.

Patin stared at her for a long moment. Then, slowly, one corner of her mouth pulled upward. Not her usual sharp grin. Something smaller, more real. “Well,” A faint huff of laughter escaped her. “Nozz would absolutely adore you.” The compliment carried more weight than the joke.

The storm dimmed as the voices arrived.

The path diverges.

The finite call this choice.

The mist curled around Patin gently now, no longer restraining. Waiting.

The Chaotic One has demanded consequence and accountability.

The Chaotic One has demanded freedom from design.

The Chaotic One teaches.

A pause stretched through eternity. It is so.

The stars shifted. Timelines unfolded in fragments around Patin. A guardian standing unseen beside Rhenora through years yet unwritten. A protector at the edge of fate. A presence that endured. And elsewhere, another possibility. Flesh, and breath. Rebirth. A life reclaimed instead of merely observed. Both paths existed waiting.

The Guardian must choose.

The Reborn must choose.

We will not impose conclusion.

Patin’s expression flickered at that. The storm around her loosened further, thunder fading into distant murmurs.

The finite desire free will.

WE have listened.

For once, Patin had absolutely no smartass response ready. Which, more than anything else, proved the Prophets might actually be learning.

Marie waited, watching the myriad of emotions chase each other across Patin's face. She had seen both choices play out through time, both living or being full of purpose.

"There is no rush, as you know, time is both infinite and finite." Marie counselled, thankful that there was at least a choice to be had. "They begin shore leave, there's a tropical island..." she looked wistful, as though she could very much picture herself on said tropical island. "You can be whole again, without pain"

The lightning had softened into slow pulses now, flickering through the ion clouds like the dying heartbeat of something exhausted from being angry too long. For once, she wasn’t fighting it. Wasn’t throwing herself against the universe hard enough to drown out the quieter things underneath.

Marie waited. And eventually, Patin spoke. “I think,” she said slowly, voice roughened by something deeper than anger now, “for the first time in my entire remembered existence...” She laughed faintly under her breath, though there wasn’t much humor left in it. “...I’m scared.”

The storm dimmed another fraction. Marie said nothing, letting the admission breathe.

Patin dragged a hand down over her face before looking back out into the churning clouds. “Not of dying. Did that already. Turns out I’m annoyingly good at it.” A weak smirk flickered briefly before fading again. “I’m scared of leaving myself behind.”

Lightning rolled quietly through the mist. “This?” She gestured vaguely toward herself, toward the storm, toward the sharp-edged chaotic soul she’d spent a lifetime becoming. “It’s all I know. Every scar. Every bad decision. Every ugly little piece.” Her jaw tightened. “I fought like hell to become this person.”

The stars shifted faintly around them.

A younger Patin standing bloodied in resistance snow.

Patin laughing beside Rhenora beneath a broken shelter.

Patin burning with fury inside the Temple itself.

Patin didn’t even look at the visions. “Yeah, yeah,” she muttered upward immediately. “I know I’ve been scared before. Difference is back then, I knew who I was while it happened.”

Patin exhaled slowly. “What if rebirth changes that?” she asked quietly. “What if I wake up and I’m... less?” The word looked painful leaving her mouth. “Kinder. Softer. Some cosmic self-help version of me that doesn’t fit inside my own skin anymore.”

The storm tightened briefly around her again, mirroring the panic beneath the words. “And what if I screw it up?” Her voice cracked slightly there before hardening again out of reflex. “What if Nozzie needs me and I’m not me enough to protect her anymore?” That one lingered.

Real fear now, not for herself but for Rhenora. Patin swallowed hard once, staring into the storm like it might hide answers somewhere inside it. “I can survive a lot of things,” she admitted. “But letting her down?” A small shake of her head followed. “Don’t think I'd survive that one, twice.”

Silence settled around them after that. The ION storm now a whisp of a memory. Then, quieter still, almost like the thought escaped before she could stop it, “And now that you’re here...” Patin glanced sideways toward Marie at last, vulnerability laid bare in a way her anger never could manage. “I’d be leaving you alone with them.”

Somewhere behind them, the Temple itself went very, very still.

TBC

 

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