Episode: 6.15

--- Prosperity ---

---(Two Years Ago)---

She sat across from Jack as he spun around in his desk chair, his bare feet tucked under him, before coming to a slow stop facing her.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” She asked, her meds leaving things just a little too grey.

“Your powers.” The dark-haired youth answered.

(Of course…)

She rolled her eyes, having expected this conversation for the last two weeks.

By some means still unknown to her, Jack had managed to figure out she was a Wonderlander, a secret she’d yet to share with anyone. The only solace she had was in the fact that she was almost positive he hadn’t realized she was Tempest, though that was more because he was a little out of touch with things from the last two or so years.

(Was nice of him to hold off on interrogating me for a while at least…)

“Alright…” She sighed in resignation. “What do you want to know?”

Jack tilted his head to the side. “Well, for a start how much do you know about Wonderlanders?”

Her eyes scrunched up in confusion. “A fair bit given how I am one.”

Jack tilted his head to the opposite side, while giving her a grin that said he knew more than he was letting on. “Do you know why they’re called Wonderlanders?”

“Um…” It took her a while to remember an article she’d read on the internet after Ariel had first identified her as one. “It’s got something to do with the way we project our reality onto the world, turning it into our own personal wonderland.”

Her fellow patient nodded excitedly. “And what ‘ve you got in your Wonderland?”

“It’s got… butterflies… and roses?” She offered equal parts trying to keep him from connecting her identity to Tempest, as well as satisfy the curiosity of her only friend in this hellhole.

Jack’s head fell between his legs in an overly exaggerated manner. “That’s so… disappointing.”

“Well, sorry.” She scoffed, not really sorry. She’d long since gotten over her insecurities towards her powers, especially since her little butterflies helped bring down the Dark Corruptor.

“Why haven’t you built anything interesting~?” Jack whined childishly, as he blatantly ignored her sarcasm.

“And what exactly was I supposed to build, rainbows and gumdrops?” She asked dryly.

Jack shrugged. “If you want. I mean I wouldn’t, but you do you.”

She blinked, not expecting him to take her sarcasm seriously, and in that moment of shock she had a revelation that she probably should’ve had before.

(The meds are really taking me off of my game…)

“Jack…” She licked her lips before continuing cautiously, “How, how exactly did you figure out I was a, a Wonderlander?”

“I told you, I’m ‘Touched by Madness’.” Jack reminded her, placing a hand over his face fingers spread before giving a mad giggle, one she felt horrifyingly familiar.

She remembered him telling her he was touched by madness when they first met, an odd introduction that she’d tossed aside half because of the young man’s eccentric mannerisms and half because of her reluctance to be here, something she was starting to regret.

She tapped her hospital slippers on the white tile floors as she gnawed on her lip, considering what exactly he was really telling her. “When you say… touched by madness, what do you mean exactly?”

The usual levity she’d come to associate with Jack slid off like water on a mirror, as he took a more serious tone. “Had a bad run in with the Original Madness.”

For once she actually heard the capital letters.

“You mean like…” She glanced around making sure no one was watching, before clenching her fist and making a single glowing blue butterfly. “this?”

Jack’s dour mood once more did a one-eighty at the sight of the madness construct, causing him to break out in a manically mad grin as he nodded with enthusiasm. “Yes!”

She swallowed down a number of newly formed apprehensions as she realized just what this meant. The only people she’d ever met who could detect Madness were the Malcontent and the Corrupted, but if Jack had actual proper experience with it…

She watched the half-mad young man for a moment, noting the way his eyes seemed to dart around the room taking note of anything and everything that caught his interest as a question began to form on the tip of her tongue.

“Jack, how much do you know about Wonderlanders?”

The young man’s eyes snapped to her, and as she gazed into his eyes, she finally noticed the cunning edge hidden beneath the madness.

“Lots.”

---

“The first thing every Wonderlander needs to figure out, is how to access their wonderland.” Jack told her as he paced her room, and she sat on her bed.

“I can already draw things out of my wonderland.” She reminded him, while weaving her dreams into a butterfly.

Jack rolled his eyes before giving her a look. “But can you go into your wonderland?”

No, no she could not.

“Then you figured out how to use the mail slot, not the door.”

She frowned but held back any biting remarks. “Well since you’re the expert how am I supposed to access my wonderland then?”

“Lay down.” He told her making a shooing motion with his hand.

“Okay…” She looked between Jack and the bed for a moment, before lying back. “So, what now?”

“Close your eyes and relax.” Jack instructed pinching his own eyes shut.

(I guess it’s a meditation type of thing…)

With a sigh she made herself comfortable before closing her eyes and waiting as Jack continued to pace for a moment.

“Stop that.”

Her eyes opened as she sent the young man a questioning look.

“The ‘seeing without seeing’ thing,” Jack explained with a glare before giving a full body shiver, “it makes my skin feel all creepy crawly.”

She blinked at that comment.

(Is he talking about my Awareness?)

It was one of her more passive abilities, she’d always just thought of it as an enhanced spatial awareness born from keeping track of all of her butterflies in a fight, (but maybe it’s something else?)

Before she could truly ponder that, she felt hit her ear.

“Ouchie!” She winced rubbing her ear as she turned back to the still glaring mad youth.

“You can ponder the fact that you barely understand your powers on your own time. Right now, we’re focusing on accessing your wonderland so you can quit being such a boring Wonderlander.” Jack told her sternly.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re an ass?” She asked, pushing a little bit of power into her ear to stop the stinging.

“Many people have called me a jackass over the years.” He calmly admitted as if everyone should be aware of that fact.

“You… Did you seriously just…” She pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the start of a migraine that for once had nothing to do with her power. before shaking her head and falling back on the bed with her eyes closed.

“Never mind. Let’s just get on with all of… this.” She told him with a gesture towards… (him…)

She sensed Jack nod; the mad man not bothered in the slightest by the implied insult.

“Alright then, just relax, and draw in your awareness.” Jack told her once more, his voice soothing as he ran a hand gently through her hair, an action she felt would’ve made her tense had it been from anyone but a handful of people, (a handful I didn’t even known he was a part of…)

As he ran his hand through her hair and her tension slowly drained away, she began pulling at her awareness, trying to draw it back in, a task she’d never considered having only ever used the additional sense whenever her butterflies were flying around. Still she found only the slightest effort of will was all it took to draw it in, the often-misunderstood power oh so eager to please, to finally fulfill its primary purpose.

(“Oh, we have been waiting oh so long for you little butterfly…”)

Once her power reached her skin, removing all awareness outside of her own little world, she felt the mattress beneath her begin to soften as she somehow began to sink even further into it, the solid bedding becoming little more than a hammock in feeling.

(“Now down the rabbit hole you go little one…”)

It felt like she was falling through the air, only the air felt more like water (?) a sensation far different from the dream running she was used to doing around the city.

She tried to open her eyes, but they wouldn’t budge.

She tried to spread out her awareness but sensed only darkness.

She tried to panic but felt only a wonderous calm.

From beneath her eyelids she saw numerous clouds of color moving just beyond what she could perceive, dancing in such a fashion that some subtle part of her wished to join with all of her being.

Eventually she felt her decent begin to slow.

There was soft swooshing sound beneath her as the feeling of falling faded and a mass both softer and firmer than her bed settled beneath her as a gentle breeze swept over her form.

Belatedly she realized whatever compulsion had kept her from moving or feeling had begun to pass leaving her once more capable of opening her eyes even if she couldn’t quite feel the world around her yet.

As her eyes fluttered open and she managed to pick herself off the ground, she realized she’d found herself in a field of roses, with glowing butterflies of various colors drifting all around and a moonlit sky watching from above.

And as she took in this scene, as she breathed in the air of this new place, tears spilled from her eyes as she finally fulfilled some deep longing, she’d never realized she’d had.