Empyrean Iris: 3-102 We Are Legion (by Charlie Star)
FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Star/starrfallknightrise,
Checked, proofread, typed up and then posted here by me.
Further proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800 u/BakeGullible9975 u/Didnotseemecomein and u/medium_jock
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Watch out Nocturne used his ult!
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
She was surrounded by darkness: darkness so profound that it seemed as if she had never been able to see in her entire life, darkness that... that was less like darkness because darkness assumed the absence of light, this assumed the light had never existed to begin with and never would exist.
The experience in itself was jarring, disturbing beyond all the things she had ever seen in her life on Anin. As a creature of light she was consumed by this absence, unable to fight it. Her mind spiraled, jabbering further into madness than she would have been able to go on her own.
And then…
Light.
At least kind of?
When she opened her eyes, she could suddenly see herself, her hands and her body as if she was standing under some sort of illumination, though when she looked around there was no light source.
Outside of herself, everything was black. She didn't get the sense of there being walls and a ceiling, this was not a room but, a black void of some sort? The only thing that seemed even remotely familiar was the floor under her feet. Or perhaps floor was not entirely accurate either?
Unlike everything else the floor interacted with light, and she could see a dim sort of reflection on the floor around her feet, which vanished where the wall of blackness took the floor out of sight.
When she flexed her feet, the floor rippled, and when she took a step those ripples spread, disrupting the surface until she realized that she was standing in a shallow pool of water, water so shallow that it didn't even touch the tops of her feet, but whatever kind of liquid she was standing in was completely black.
She turned in a nervous circle, looking for anything, signs of life or otherwise.
But she found nothing.
She walked forward towards the wall of blackness, but as she walked the blackness receded.
Her footsteps sloshed gently through the puddle of water, casting ripples in a wide circle around her.
She continued to walk, but it seemed as if she just stood in the same spot because every step took her no further from this place, and no closer to anything she recognized.
However, she did not grow frustrated.
Anything was better than that pure blackness she had experienced before... more like an undoing of herself than it was the absence of light. She would rather walk forever through this void than go back to whatever that was.
She paused, and looked down into the water, surprised to find that she did not have a reflection, instead what she saw was a dark mirror looking in on another world much like the one she stood in, but this one...
This one had figures in it.
Kazna knelt down in the water, so similar to the temperature of the air that it was hard to even tell the difference. Was there even something at all there? When her hands touched the surface, they seemed to sink through, and she jolted forward. On the other side of the reflection, dark shadows turned to look at her.
Their great looming shapes scared her, caused her heart to go crazy inside her chest. She wanted to pull away and run, but pride stopped her cold. She was not a child to simply be sent running at every shadow.
No, she was a warrior and she would behave as such.
She steeled herself and pressed her hands harder downward until she felt them burst through the other side. Her arms continued to sink, until they were up to her elbows, and then her chest.
She turned her face to the side, feeling as the strange substance enveloped her, holding her breath as she vanished below the surface of the dark mirror. For a horrible moment she thought she was going to be stuck, entombed inside the border between places.
Her hands flailed.
But then something caught her, and she was dragged through.
She burst through, gasping, arms flailing. Blackness dripped from her body and her skin returning to the pool below her. The room, or void she stood in was exactly like the one she had just come from, with its black coated floor and distant blackness.
There was one key difference.
The black shapes looking at her.
Having come through the floor she thought she might be able to see them better, but that was not the case. They were simply silhouettes, two dimensional and completely light absorbent, like looking into a black hole.
They stared at her, and she stared back.
When they moved, she could see they were in all sorts of shapes and sizes , the vast majority of them appeared human, but she saw an extra set of arms here and there.
"Who are you!"
She demanded,
At first no one replied.
But Kazna stepped forward and attempted to grab one of the figures, her hands passed through it like smoke, and it reformed to her other side as she stumbled arms flailing. When she stood, she stood face to face with a creature that was just as tall as she was. It had no definable Drev features other than a second set of arms which rested gently by its sides.
And then in a voice like the hiss of a corpse worm it spoke.
"We are legion."
[…]
"What is it?"
Adam asked.
"Not sure."
Krill said,
"I have never seen anything like it."
"If you had I would be shocked."
Adam said, pacing around the cube. His feet echoed on the marble black floor while overhead the cube was completely silent, simply a conduit to... whatever this was.
"Maybe it's a portal of some kind... Like in that movie you made us watch."
Ramirez said,
Adam glowered at him,
"I have made you guys watch a lot of movies with portals in them, so you are going to have to narrow that down a bit."
Ramirez rolled his eyes,
"The one with the goofy robot who lost his brain and the cyborg with the robotic arm."
"Treasure planet?"
Maverick ventured.
"That would be the one"
Conn said,
”Couldn’t you have said something sooner?!?”
"I would interpret for you, but his brain runs like the NASA supercomputer that sent Armstrong to the moon."
Ramirez looked between them,
"Was that supposed to be an insult? I just heard SUPER in there."
Adam grimaced,
"It is actually…. basically he is saying that the average cell phone has more computing power than your brain."
Maverick frowned and patted him on the shoulder,
”It’s alright, you're pretty enough not to need to be smart."
Ramirez huffed and Adam laughed.
Conn tittered as well.
Ramirez pointed a finger at him,
"Laugh again and that gravity belt comes off."
"What is with you people and always threatening to undress me."
He struck a pose,
"If you find me attractive, you can just ask."
Ramirez grimaced,
”Ew no, you're not my type, and honestly that is kind of a low bar that you miss, considering that everyone is my type."
"Slut."
Adam muttered
"You better believe it."
Sunny continued to wander around the cube while Adam continued that line of conversation.
"So aliens aren't your thing?”
Ramirez shrugged,
"I never said that."
Adam frowned,
"Wait really?"
Ramirez shook his head,
"Gotta try everything at least once to know if you like it, maybe two or three times to really know for sure. For instance, if a Drev or a Tesraki walked up to me at a bar and offered a good time, I would have to say yes just on principal. Now I will likely never get the chance with the Drev seeing as I would have to fight it first, and that sounds like a lot of work."
Even Sunny snorted at that.
Adam rolled his eyes.
Krill crossed his arms,
"As much as your banter is entertaining, perhaps we should work on figuring out what we are doing here other than simply causing someone trouble?"
"Trying to find answers."
Adam said,
"Well perhaps we should move on, considering that this room clearly does not contain any of those answers. And let us be honest here, you are only using that as an excuse to "go see cool things" again."
Adam shrugged,
"Maybe, but what is cooler than the Makers home base?”
"My office, my nice warm office where there is light, and a nice steaming mug of sugar water, that is what's COOLER."
"You didn't have to come."
"OF course I had to come! Who else was going to watch out for the group of you!? Out of all the galaxy this group of people right here has exactly one braincell between them, maybe two maximum! For instance, Ramirez is a marine which means we can already rule out on him owning the brain cells."
The others laughed.
"Same thing goes for Maverick, though I thought that on occasion she might bother go get some sense. Clearly, I was wrong, and then there is Conn, who I might point out went against his entire race to come join the humans galivanting across the universe, and the only thing keeping him alive is a gravity belt that can be undone with one click of a button. Then of course there is you Adam, and I have already waxed long in my explanations of why you are an idiot."
He turned to look at Sunny,
"You I am disappointed in, I thought you were better than this, I was counting on you to be the cautious one."
Sunny shrugged,
"My brain cells are less affective when spread out over a wide area."
"Might I point out doctor that you also abandoned your own race to go galivanting across the universe with humans, and you can easily be killed if I turn up the thermostat to high?”
"That is... Beside the point."
Adam stepped closer to the cube next to where Conn was floating, looking down into the vast sky beneath him.
"Well, as much as I would like to know what this thing is-"
There was a loud THUMP at the door.
All of them leaped in their places, startled.
Adam spun on his heel.
…
And lost his balance.
His hand flailed outward to try and catch onto something, but only managed to snag onto the back of Conn's flannel, and then the two of them were pitched backward.
His feet flailed as they fell through the cube's curtain. Blackness faded behind them as they were engulfed by a glowing clear blue sky.
He screamed.
And screamed.
And screamed.
All the while they were falling though the clouds of an unknown sky.
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story in its original form written by starrfallknightrise and I am just proofreading and improving some parts, as well as structuring the story for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this.
Posted Aug 12, 2025, 4:18 PM UTC