Energy rippled rampant across the pulsating green void. Standing upon the small balcony shaped island which floated within the Stream, Throm could feel the very hairs upon his head begin to stand on end...each and every strand energized in it's own right. Stepping forward to the island's ledge Throm nearly ignored the bolt of energy which struck near his foot silently. Reaching into his cloak, he drew forth a black vial...the second one which he had collected from his recent field trip. Immediately the pulsating of the Stream grew more rapid, it's subtle heart beat like tone now accompanied by a dull whine. Throm felt a sick feeling within his stomach as he realized the irony of what he was about to do. Closing his eyes, he blocked out this feeling, recalling his recent argument with Sanria. Her words came back to him as if she were standing beside him.
"Throm... it was a dream!"
"It was not!"
"You said so yourself! You could interact a bit more than normal, but it was still a dream!"
"It wasn't....I'm sure of it. It wasn't just a dream. Like one yes...but not one."
The nausea stemming from his stomach grew more prominent as did the droning whine of the Stream. Shaking his head to clear it, he pushed himself to focus ever the harder on his task at hand. Drawing the stopper from the vial, he clenched his eyes shut tighter, pulling forth his recent memories as if to bolster his resolve in what he was doing.
"In the vision...I was told to retrieve the Black Makou of which we spoke...the substance I found within Sephiroth's Tower. I was to place the Makou in the care of Colin until he could administer it as a cure."
Silence...
"It could kill her....You have given Emalia the antithesis of what she is."
Nearly doubling over now, Throm clasped the ledge to steady himself. He looked upward into the endless green expanse, calling out.
"I'm sorry! This will not wound...only sting. I have to know!"
The whining grew louder, the shrillness of it nearly deafening him. Flashes of bright white blazed around the island...the Planet's disapproval evident to Throm even through his haze.
"Forgive me..."
Letting the vial slip from his fingers it fell into the Lifestream, a black speck amidst a blanket of green silk. At once the whining stopped, leaving the lone sound of a rapidly beating heart to fill Throm's eardrums. The sick feeling vacated the pit of his stomach, and he was able to catch his breath in relief. Suddenly, the black speck began to grow as if feeding upon the very Lifestream itself. Clutching the ledge once again, Throm immediately regretted his actions. How could a virus cure a virus? This was not something in the way of a common cold...no. It would continue to devour Life's energy until only it would remain. Realization dawned upon him. There was no way a single mortal body would have the constitution to fend off such a parasite whether it be in the form of an actual virus, or a 'cure'. A new question gripped him, accompanying this realization. Did the Planet itself have the constitution to resist the Black Makou? Did the Planet have the ability to fend off that which he had just subjected it to?
As if on que, the sound of a million screams split through the void. As tendrils of silky energy moved to intervene the Dark Lifestream, Throm clutched his ears in a vain attempt to block out the deafening noise which rang within his head. Such was his pain that he did not notice as the tendrils of Lifestream encompassed the Black Makou as though attempting to contain it.
Flash after flash of bright green light forced Throm back from the ledge, his hands still clasped about his ears. He did not notice as the tendrils did not manage to scale the Black Makou back down. Rather through the blinding pain which burned his mind apart he wondered how it could come to pass that his dream had been wrong. Two chips...two chips that were of the same color.
The dream...
Colin's odd behavior..
A new chip landed within the pot of events collected within Throm's now tormented mind.
Colin's dream...
The blob that was now the Dark Lifestream rose level with the small island upon which Throm staggered. Though now it moved to the will of the Planet itself, it's tendrils carefully guiding it...shaping it.
Through his ever increasing haze, Throm recalled Colin's words which had been lost in the assumption that they had meant little at the time.
"Dream... .dream....I had completely forgotten it but I had a strange dream."
"Mystra?"
"No, it was strangely vivid. A man who called himself Halethiel. I'm sorry... it's still quite hazy. I think he had something to do with the Jihad...I'm sorry... this isn't making much sense, is it?"
"Nor were dreams meant to..."
The puzzle peices had been layed upon the table long ago...yet now, they fit into place...and now Throm's vision had a name. He had been duped. The Dark Lifestream shifted and writhed before the island, still held in check by the everpresent tendrils of green. At once, as though firing it from a catapult, the tendrils launched the Dark Lifestream directly at Throm. The impact of the black energy striking him in the chest knocked him backwards off from his feet. If there was pain involved, it came long after he had lost consciousness.
