The Mercy of the Norns

Posted on Sun Jan 14th, 2024 @ 12:22pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Inara Senn

Mission: Hard Earned Peace
Location: Inara's Quarters

Inara entered her quarters and sat down within. She looked at its bare walls. Nothing.. It was all destroyed when Hela burned all of it. She was nothing now.. As she sat, for some time in the center of the room, a new voice came.

"I haven't taken everything from you yet, you monster." A new woman appeared in the room. "There's one thing left, so you won't be a threat to us or anyone ever again."

"Who are you?" Inara asked.

"I am Urd, and I am here to render our judgement. All your memories, every last one, all your skills, your knowledge, I will leave you as a shell of what you once were. A pathetic shell" she stated. "You will mumble, crawl, and screech like a beast, for you care for no one and nothing but yourself."

"Get it over with, you bitch. You've already taken everything else. I'm a monster, and I accept this punishment." Inara stated. "Everything I've done... I've done to myself." She looked at her. "Do it then. Get it over with. If I am to be reduced to an infant in a woman's body, then so bet it. At least I will not remember."

"I did not say you would be made an infant. You are correct though; you have done this to yourself." The veiled blonde towered over Inara. "You seem eager for this judgement. Not sure if it is ignorance or courage coming from you. But if you are prepared, I will take from you everything."

"Halt!" said another voice. Suddenly Morrigan appeared, sword drawn. "It is not for you to judge her. She is not your charge. You will not render judgement on her alone."

"I'm sorry... for everything... Morrigan." Inara noted. "I have nothing left. Everything I thought I was doing has been proved so... pointless. Unforgiving... Just judge me and get it over with." She shed more tears. Her room was barren and lifeless, her paintings gone. Everything she was, was gone. Only shame, guilt, and resignation remained. Pride gone, only pure defeat.

Urd looked at Morrigan. "It has been a long time since we have seen you Morrigan. You claim dominion over this mortal?"

Two additional females then appeared. Urd looked to them, "Greetings, sisters. Verdandi, Skuld, Morrigan is claiming dominion over this mortal in regard to punishment. Do we wish to meet her challenge?"

The three Norse goddesses gathered together and stood tall as they stared at Morrigan. They spoke in unison, "Why do you claim dominion over her? Why would you seek to keep us from judging her for her crimes?"

Morrigan remained stalwart as she narrowed her vision towards the three. "Danu has made her my ward. I have no choice but to lay claim to her and punish her for her misdeeds. You know our rules well. We can take this to combat, or you can accept my compromise, and we can judge her together."

The trio gathered and spoke to one another in hushed tones as Morrigan remained in a battle stance over Inara. Urd finally looked down at Inara and then up at Morrigan, "We accept your offer of a combined judgement. Let us speak together now and come to consensus."

"Your wisdom is great" Morrigan replied as she sheathed her sword. She looked down at Inara, "Stay put." She approached the trio, and they began to speak to one another in an unknown language that the universal translator had no ability to translate.

"This is like those symposiums at the Daystrom Institute, only they're discussing my lobotomy." Inara quipped.

After several minutes of the quartet of goddesses talking in a language that sounded like gibberish to Inara, they all turned and looked at her. Morrigan was the first to speak, "We have come to a decision. You will not like it, but you don't have a choice in this matter. You made your choice and tempted fate, and now you must deal with the consequences."

Urd stared at Inara. "I want you to know, this goes against my better judgement. You have done terrible things, and it was my vote to reduce you to particulate atoms. But the others believe that you deserve to live some sort of life, they voted for mercy. You will live in this time period, but your access to Void matter or anything else that will allow you to traverse time will be taken from you. Should you attempt to gather such materials again, your life and that of your lover will be forfeit. We will also take your memories regarding all things from the future of this point in time, leaving you with only vague recollections. You will no longer remember who you wished revenge upon nor why, and we will leave you with only a few vague memories of this Josephine. The you from the future will no longer exist, you will be now and forever Inara Senn, a simple StarFleet Science Officer."

"And so, you complete Kyle Cragen's insult to me? The memories of the woman I loved beyond everything, removed from me? The greatest joy and sorrow of my life, and you purge her. Get it over with. Kyle Cragen robbed someone I loved more than life itself, and you have completed his work." She turned around. "Do it and get the hell out of here. I never want to see you self-righteous bitches ever again." She opened a desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of wine, and she popped it open and began to drink it straight from the bottle.

Morrigan waved her hand, and the wine suddenly became water. She smiled, "You remember back on Earth, I always wanted to do something like that." She giggled as she looked at the Norse trio. "Get over your self-pity Inara. Bad things happened to you, and you made the choice to follow those vile deeds with horrible choices of your own and compounded everything with this time travel debacle. The other option of eliminating you from space and time is still available if you feel it a more appropriate punishment."

"Remove my memories and put the wine back in the bottle. I don't want to be sober for this." Inara noted. "It's just that I... Loved her... Enough to do terrible things for her" Inara mentioned. "And believe me, having nightmares of being broken into a pleasure slave, and then willingly torturing the woman I loved, is amongst the many memories I don't want."

"You won't have a reason to be drunk in a moment. Bad memories and good memories alike are being erased, and in a matter of moments it will be as if you never existed in the future, so everything associated with those memories will no longer exist either. You may hate me or my kind for doing this to you, but maybe one day you'll understand that this was a kindness." Morrigan placed her hand on Inara's forehead and her hand glowed for all of a few seconds. Urd and her sisters vanished, leaving Morrigan to deal with the aftermath.

Morrigan removed her hand from Inara's head, memories wiped, history changed. "You'll be alright Inara. Next time listen to your friends and superior officers" she said innocently. "I'll be around when you need help lass. Consider me your guardian angel." With that Morrigan vanished, leaving a completely new Inara Senn to contemplate seeing a person vanish before her eyes, and with a major headache.

Inara woke up, her quarters the way it was before it happened even the painting of Josephine, though Inara wouldn't know why she painted it. But it was still left as something of an omen. The stereo set in the corner was playing as Inara awoke.

Sundown all around
Walking through the summer's end
Waves crash, baby, don't look back
I won't walk away again
Oh baby, anywhere you go
We are bound together
I begin, baby, where you end
Some things are forever
Circle in the sand, 'round and 'round
Never-ending love is what we've found
And you complete the heart of me
Our love is all we need
Circle in the sand (circle in the sand)
Circle in the sand (circle in the sand)

"Ugh. Goddamned Hela. Probably gave me this splitting headache to piss me off this morning. Aside from the counselor taking her side. Ugh, psychology. Computer turn off stereo system."

She entered her lavatory and picked up a device, placing it to her temple. It activated and the headache was soothed.

When the headache went away, Inara tuned to leave, that was when she noticed a larger painting at the foot of her bed. "Goddammit Hela!!!" It seemed Hela left something for Inara to remember her by.

Hela watched unseen, seeing all that had transpired. As Inara exited Hela materialized and looked over everything once more. "They finally did it. How interesting" she whispered aloud.