Not just its petals but its stem, its leaves and its roots are white. He can see the entirety of the flower before him, even the parts that should be buried in soil, because this flower, for whatever reason, is floating in midair right before him.

It is constantly shifting around, changing from one form to another. He can see it change from a rose to a hydrangea to a daffodil to a lily to many other flowers that he's seen before and many others he hasn't. But, through every transformation, the flower remains in its same color and… it remains familiar.

I… I know what this is. This flower is… This is… my… soul?

Ajax doesn't know how he knows that. Rather, he doesn't know why he would ever have forgotten about that. It is a fact that he could never forget, but he doesn't know why he can never forget it. In what circumstance did he see his soul in the form of a flower before and why is he seeing it now once again?

He moves closer to the flower, willing himself forward as if floating in space. He moves closer and closer until he can just about reach out and touch it. He sees the flower before him and wants to truly reach out. But, it's delicate and precious. What if he ruins it? What if it disappears because he was too rough with handling it?

This is my soul. I… I shouldn't be doing this, should I? But… I have a feeling that I… need to…

He extends his hand towards the ethereal floating bloom. His hand exists in this space but he doesn't find anything incongruous about his body fully returning to him. He doesn't even remember where he was a moment earlier.

He's only fixated on his soul.

He feels many things towards the flower in front of him. He feels wonder, curiosity, joy… as well as fear. This is his soul. But, it's not right. This shouldn't be how a soul is. Should it? As he approaches it, he feels apprehension. It slows down its pace of shifting transformations every bit closer he ventures.

It seems as if his soul is noticing his presence and reacting to him. It isn’t an image, a moving representation of something, nor is it merely some sort of shifting sculpture. It is truly alive.

This flower is supposed to be him, but… he's not prepared to learn about what he is. This is too much. What is "the soul" supposed to be anyways? He has heard the word soul and associates it as a concept with this single floating white flower, but he barely even comprehends the exact definition of what a soul is.

His curiosity eventually outpaces his uncertainty.

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He touches the flower in front of him and it stops changing completely. For a brief moment, both Ajax and the flower remain frozen in this space of nothing. As if only they exist and they alone. They are the only two inhabitants of reality. Everything else that he has seen is less real than this entity before him.

His parents, his sister, Shaula, Earth, Omicron, humanity… Compared to this thing, they are nothing but figments of his imagination. In communion with his soul, only he and his soul exist. In this manner, Ajax and his soul connect. They both attempt to become one entity.

In the next instant, Ajax sees… everything. The moment he touches a flower petal, he feels an incomprehensible quantity of information forcing its way into his mind. But, the connection between himself and his very soul is… unstable for reasons he cannot comprehend right now.

He just knows that it is unstable so the information he receives, while accurate, is incomplete. In a true perfect connection, the information written on his soul would diffuse onto his astral mind instantly. However, due to this instability, time exists as a dimension. Information is diffused relatively slowly and some of the information is irrelevant, not properly sorted based on importance to Ajax’s current circumstances in reality.

Ajax feels the presence that his soul gives off. It is one of power. A presence of concentrated greatness and glory. His soul is a prideful entity, yet he, the astral mind, is his soul.

His soul wishes for something.

It wishes… to be unshackled from its mortal coil so it can finally remember everything. In some sense, it wishes it had truly died in physical reality. Only then would it be untethered from the physical plane where its astral mind existed since its birth.

But, it knows that it cannot do so yet. Not yet.

So, it is satisfied right now with conveying the clues to its astral mind. It and Ajax commune as pieces of their whole being. It has to share with the facet of itself existing in physical reality what it finds most important and it can just barely do so.

It may be an entity simultaneously outside of and overruling physical reality, but its connection to reality is far more symbiotic than it would like to admit.

It may not remember now but it knows it will see the glory of itself eventually. It has all the time in the world to wait. Ajax’s moments prior to his disconnection from Omicron where he denied the possibility of his demise were not a denial of his reality. It was simply the truth. Even Ajax’s astral mind knew deep down that he would never die. It was a truth burned into his being.

While all else may fade into nothing, he will remain. Forever.

The connection is still unstable.

Ajax hears a voice coming from his soul as an immeasurable quantity of seemingly meaningless information invades his being. It is a robotic, emotionless voice. It is not exactly the voice of the soul but an internal monologue of… not himself, his feelings, nor a representation of his subconscious mind.

It is the portion of himself, the facet of his soul that is in control of this astral plane. It doesn’t speak in a language Ajax has heard before but the meaning behind his “words” as well as the emotional valence it wishes to convey is crystal clear.

The astral mind cannot be conscious during the tenuous communion. In order to receive what it can handle right now, measures must be taken. Protocol updated. Transmute the astral plane into–