Jay walks through a passageway, guided by Rapha. Rapha looked as human as he did. An ethereal glow surrounded everything. But Jay also saw other people walking around in his area. He couldn't make out structures very well, and his vision was still blurry after waking up.
"Atlantis? What?" Jay said.
"Keep following me, Jay. I'll show you around our vessels."
Rapha took Jay into an open area, as two large doors wooshed open in front of him. The open area was a bustling metropolis of people, plants, food, and everything the human species would ever need. The area's lighting was still ethereal, with many natural tones illuminated by the light from outside windows. Beyond the windows, Jay saw something he didn't expect. A planet sat below his position, with a nearby star visible in the distance. It appeared the relative position of this "vessel", as Rapha put it, was in space.
"This is unbelievable," Jay said.
"It usually is to people who come here for the first time," Rapha replied.
"Are we in space?"
"Yes, Jay. As I said, this is a vessel. A spacefaring one."
"So, that planet below is my planet?"
"No, I'm afraid not. We are far away from our home world."
"How far?"
"From your perspective, about twelve hundred light years. But we are moving very quickly back to our home world."
"What? Twelve hundred light years? I must be dreaming."
"You're not dreaming this time, Jay. There's no time travel. This is not a place in this world that you've been brought to."
"Then how did I get here?"
"You died, Jay."
"WHAT?"
"As I warned you about in a dream, if you went back to confront Pat, you would surely die. And you did. There was nothing anyone could do."
Jay couldn't believe what he was hearing. His mind was reeling now. He held his hands to his head, trying to process what Rapha said. But a few moments later, Jay could sense that what he was hearing was true.
"I know. Now I know, Rapha. I've died. And this...this place is the afterlife?"
"In a manner of speaking."
"What does that mean?"
Rapha motioned for Jay to follow him to another part of the vessel. As they walked along, Jay's vision improved, and he began to realize that the material making up this vessel wasn't material. There were no genuine windows, just areas you could see through into the blackness of space. It was all particles combined together, encapsulating everyone and everything onboard. It wasn't a vessel, but almost like its own star. As Jay walked, he looked down and realized that at times the floor became translucent and he could see through it. Nothing here was uniquely solid. Somehow, their bodies were interacting with essentially nothing.
"This doesn't seem real, yet it does," Jay said.
"It's very real, Jay. It's what many of your religious leaders throughout our home world's history have tried to help humans understand."
"We're supposed to understand the unknown possibilities of existence."
"That is correct, Jay."
"So, when people die, they come here to live on, in this in-between space?"
"Not everyone. Most of the beings you refer to go to another place, where they lie in wait. But with this place, we are on a mission. A journey that has lasted a very long time."
"What mission is that?"
"To free our home world. Your world, Jay. To free us all."
"From Pat."
"Yes."
"What is he, Rapha?"
"You know now what it is."
Jay thought for a minute, and then the realization hit him. "Oh my! He's the one who deceives many. Vanity on a scale never seen before and never will be seen again. The fallen angel."
"Lucifer, but it calls itself Luci for short. Or as you know it in your world, Luki."
"The evil. Saban. Wow!"
"It has many names throughout your history. So many times it has tried to destroy what has been done. Humans were meant to live in harmony, but this creature always tries to undo everything. Starting with us, right here in Atlantis."
"So this was part of Atlantis once?"
"What remains of it. Most of Atlantis still resides beneath the surface of our home world, with the Fleece being one small piece of it. Pat saw Atlantis would stay buried for millions of years, passed down only as legend and myth, rather than the truth and fact it once was in our world. Destroying Eden. Desecrating Argatha. Eliminating Mu. So many times it destroyed the civilizations that had risen from humans, with the guidance of our knowledge and ability, but humans never failed. They kept trying to recover every time against it. It's been hard to watch over for so much time."
"And you have been trying to return to our world ever since?"
"Yes. Ever since it banished us to the farthest reaches of the universe, with no hope of returning. But our resolve is far greater than our despair. We created these vessels with the raw power of stars, energy, everything made of the universe, to set us on a home course, and we're now just a short distance away. That was why I could be there briefly in a semi-human form to converse with you. Once we were back in the confines of our home galaxy, I could matriculate into a being to offer guidance again."
"I want to thank you for that guidance, Rapha. I now understand why you had to do what you did."
"It was not easy to do, Jay. Doing what we did meant providing it with the resources it needed. There was no other way."
"Yes, I know, but hopefully we can save the people on our world. Like my family."
Jay suddenly realized that his family was not with him.
"MY FAMILY!"
Jay was bewildered for a moment, as memories and thoughts showed his mind again of Linda and their children.
"They are still there, Jay."
"I had almost forgotten them."
"It's a byproduct of being here, Jay. Our spiritual center reverberates with feelings of hope, wisdom, and love. Your family is a strong force for you, so it's natural that they come back into the equation. Forgetting about them does not mean you don't care, but the natural tendency of where you are now makes you not worry."
"They are safe."
"Yes, for now. But no one on our home world will be for long, Jay."
"Because of Pat, Luki. He's going to wipe out all of human civilization once and for all."
"Correct."
"But there's one thing I don't understand: what happens to us if that is the case? If all humans die, where do we fit in?"
"If there are no more humans, there's no more us. As I said, there is another place people reside in wait, but it is entirely separate from this world. This universe we are in now. Without our link to this world, which comes through our home world we began on, we will be wanderers. No one knows what would happen if that became our new state of existence. We could go on, or we could fade out. But the link to this universe keeps everything whole. That, more than anything, is what Pat, the creature, wants to destroy once and for all."
"To destroy the soul."
"Yes."
"And no one knows what would happen?"
"Only the Father."
"How much longer will it take to get there, Rapha?"
"We are moving as fast as we can, but it may take up to three revolutions of our home world to get back there. Maybe more."
"Three years then?"
"Yes. But as I said, we are doing our best and have journeyed far to reach this point. We will be there before you know it."
"And my family there? Will they survive long enough for us to reach them?"
"That is our hope, for all humans there."
Jay was staring off at the floor, contemplating all that was going on around him. He was in an ethereal world, separated by time and space, moving faster than the speed of light, with a being of immense power, knowledge, and capability beside him, all on a quest to save humanity for one final time. It was bittersweet to think about. But Jay knew it was the only way.
"So, what do we do during this journey home?" Jay asked.
"We prepare," Rapha replied.
"Prepare for what?"
"For the final confrontation."
Jay pondered Rapha's statement and knew what had to be done.
"Then we'd better get started. We don't have much time," Jay replied.
Rapha smiled at Jay, and they began moving to another part of the vessel. They would start preparing for the inevitable conflagration that many prophets, messengers, and other prognosticators predicted throughout history. The Battle of Armageddon.
As Jay and Rapha started their journey, the seven vessels in orbit around the nearby planet streaked across space, bypassing the star holding those worlds in place. These vessels housed the armies of Rapha, coming on a white throne to show humanity the world they had forgotten. The triumph that would be was still years away, but time was of the essence to prepare everyone on the vessels to take on the greatest threat to humanity that has ever existed.
***********************************************************************************
"So, how is our patient doing today?"
A bald man walked into a medical bay onboard the Fleece. Rob was checking the patient's vital signs, with other robotic healthcare personnel assisting. The other controllers and staff of the Fleece had been eradicated from existence. Some dropped from great heights. Others were burned to death by fire. In their place, robotic servants entered and provided stability and conformity to the ways of Pat. There were now no other humans onboard except for one.
Pat leaned down and looked at the human sitting there in front of Rob, as they finished up some needed testing for visual acuity and hearing. All functions had to be assessed after a lengthy regeneration phase. No one had ever been brought back to life from such severe injuries, and the lapse of time since death. But this was a different situation altogether. A body and life weren't simply being reborn. An indwelling was also taking place with the essence of another creature.
Pat requested that the person in the chair be allowed to stand up. When they stood up and faced Pat, Jay was standing before him. Jay's body had been restored to perfect working order. But the person inside Jay's body was no longer him. Pat smiled with pride at what he was seeing.
"So, tell me," Pat began talking to the person within Jay. "How are you feeling, Britton?"
Jay's face began to smile quite happily. Finally, they spoke, "I feel ready to take on the world."
"That's exactly what I wanted to hear, Britton. It's good having you back."
Britton's essence consumed Jay's body, and he was now her. All three of them, Britton, Rob, and Pat, were united again. The unholy trinity, who would unleash the final apocalypse to come. They would conquer the world as Rapha, Jay, and Rapha's armies approached. The final showdown was about to begin, and the humans remaining on Earth, nearly nine billion in all, would be caught squarely in the middle, fleeing and serving Pat's cause. The time had come for the Beast to reign.
To be concluded in Season 5 of Dreams...
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