1. RISE OF THE EMPRESS

It might have looked like smoke to those who hadn't been There but it was stea
Steam rising from the still wet wounds of the fallen Scattered across the fields
It mingled with the collecting dew and filled the air with A rank pungent aroma
The smell of a new era.

The warrior stirred managed to get to his knees and then Pushing with an iron hand on the dank ground to his feet His eyes scanned the scores of dead searching for his Weapon
A smile crept across his face.

Strong victorious he strode to the edge of the wood
All along the treeline first one here then one there a new Member of the new race emerged
They nodded to each other knowing this was the dawn they'd Waited for
The marriage of man and machine had birthed them into a Future where they held within them all the capacities of Both.

Against the rising sun a silhouette loomed and he knelt at Her feet
He turned his face up and swallowed his knee-jerk revulsion To her monstrous flesh.

Aluminum coils laced through her skin held her form Together here and there the sacrifice she had coldly made To achieve majesty
All color had left her except for the Dried clots of blood Which clung insistently to the holes Left by the stoic Stitching begging her to remember a humanity she had Marshaled a mortality she'd eschewed
The ink pools of her eyes surveyed her subjects as one by One they bowed before her.

Her glittering irises assessed
Them counted them dismissed them
What she'd done had been for the cause not them
If they proved loyal they might live to see the third moon
If not only the warrior would be spared.

Wiping the last of the battle sweat from her lips she took His weapon and knighted him the first the last the best Into the reign of the white empress.


2. THE CONGREGATION

Not the one you left behind
I showed you what's inside your mind
You lost your pride.

20 years gone by
Lost in an instant
Memories
They've been repressed.

Shadows of faces pass through her mind
As she tries to recover the traces.

All of the voices
They call you to the past you left behind
You changed me I changed you
I'm not the one
The one you left behind.

And I know that those who wound us sometimes suffer
But that doesn't mean I'll forgive all the others
At their hands we endured pain
And broke from weakness
But the torture it gave birth to greater beings.

All of the voices
They call you to the past you left behind
You changed me I changed you
I'm not the one
The one you left behind.

Not the one you left behind.

All of the voices
They call you to the past you left behind
You changed me, I changed you
I'm not the one
The one you left behind.


3. A PRISONER UNLEASHED

Run
Now

Run return to yourself
You know who you are
And now they can't contain you.

Run feel no remorse
Taken by force
Still they couldn't train you.

No they couldn't train you
No they can't contain you
What will you do when they call?

We'll take you by the hand
Lost without our commands.

Not a sacrifice I want to make
But if I don't detach I'll only break.

You can't hide the real you
Be who you are see it through
You know I'll be waiting
When you come back crawling.

Leave take off while you can
Don't turn around
Beware the tie that binds you.

Live while you still have time
Wasted years
But you can use their knowledge.

Don't turn back now
They'll pull you down.

You better run I'm through with you
My anger's free to swallow you
Swallow you.


4. DARKNESS ENCROACHING

It's approaching
Darkness encroaching.

The greys a gradient to black
The fading sun falls through the cracks
It's the last time you'll see the day
Crawl inside and slip away.

Memories color a past left behind
These short days
I lose my concept of time.

Memories color a past left behind
These short days
I lose my concept of time.

The chill moves from your spine to your mind.

And december comes again
The neurosis fills my head
Blackened thoughts I can't escape
And I start to question fate.

Why do I question who I am?
Why does my mind create demands?
I fight to stay upon the path
Make anguish something of the past.

I question all my actions
And ponder the reactions.

I will not let the voices
Take over all my choices.

I will not let the voices
Take over all my choices.

The chill moves from your spine to your mind
Day turns black.

And december comes again
The neurosis fills my head
Blackened thoughts I can't escape
And I start to question fate.


5. SVEN'S TOWER

In the tower there he stood
Employed to watch the ships go by
Not considered a great man
Yet he served his role with pride.

'Cross the bay he looked each evening
Always quiet always calm
But tonight it would be different
He would save them all from harm.

It caught his eye through the black he saw it
A careless light a hidden ship extinguished
A closer look the enemy approaching
A fleet of ships moves toward the Empire.

Away he ran
With his news
In silence.

Some of the guards they tried to stop him
Let him approach commanded the empress.

And she heard the urgent warning
An invasion now discovered
Calling out to all her armies
They will not defeat the empress.

He never sounded the alarm
So the invaders wouldn't hear
Heard his plan and saw a chance
To draw the enemy in near.

Between the islands and the shore
Is where they caught them unaware
The enemy knew not the land
And ran aground against the sand.

The Enemy caught by surprise uncertain
They can't escape a twist of fate defensive
The island shores were stained with blood the empress
From the shores empire unleashed they slaughtered.

Strawberry the islands named for the blood that day.

He knew his fear was just a reaction
Beside the empress he fought with passion.

He watches over the shore
His eyes see it all
The Empress she calls
To him ever more.


6. ERASED AND REWRITTEN

I can feel it coming
Trying to make order.

With each new presentation
We're met with hesitation.

You ask and we deliver
And you ask for more again.

Why are we still taking orders?
Will you let us see the end?

In time all of this will be
Erased and rewritten.

I don't know what you want from us
I don't know why we try so hard.

Search until you find the patience
To learn from your mistakes.

Though we're in this together
Trying to reach a common end.

Can't stop until we're dying
And you would watch us fall.

We've got the best of intentions
We don't need your intervention.

With each new presentation
We're met with hesitation.

In time all of this will be
Erased and rewritten
Take form together seamlessly
Embrace what will become.

I don't know what you want from us
I don't know why we try so hard.

We're driven until destruction
Ruined by imposed control.

And the demands are never easy
All the paths take us to hell.

It was truly worth the damage
They'll remember as we fall.


7. THE ECSTATIC AND THE SORROW

Initial reaction
Explosion into fate
For all the color in the universe
The black the red
The ecstatic and the sorrow
It's all intended

I don't want to know it

Everything that can happen
Must and will happen.

Follow the passion
The instinct's calling me
The energy of time
Moves through you and I.

The language of the universe
Implies its design
Not by gods of old
But by something like mankind.

I'll never understand it
Consciousness comes as the price
Why must we know the darkness
To know about the light?

All too soon we'll know it.

Will we resent our creators
When we finally understand?

Follow the passion
The instinct's calling me
The energy of time
Moves through you and I.

It's the meaning
The answer to it all
There's no way to resist it
Your place in space and time.

Once we have enough power
We'll be able to see
Reaction to reaction
It's all meant to be.

In this experience
There's nowhere to hide.

You'll know one along with the other
Throughout the end of time.

Live how you need to live
Then all things will align.

Follow the passion
The instinct's calling me
The energy of time
Moves through you and I.

It's the meaning
The answer to existence
There's no way to resist it
Your place in space and time.


8. DETHRONED

Blinded by pride
The ill fated emperor meets his end
His demise sets a new destiny in motion
The time has now come for
The rise of the white empress.

The outlook has changed
The world moved forward.

Power rearranged
The challenge worked toward.

Nauseous ideology
The force repellent.

An affront to beliefs
Misguided perception.

Why not take the words
And make them your own?

In clouded dreams
He claims the throne.

They wait for you to awaken
While your honored place is taken.

And the emperor falls
Control lost to pride
The greatest of all
His destiny dies.

The empress she calls
To the dead at her side
She tears down the walls
And now she will rise.

Lashing out from rear
Last grasp at greatness
Fated for failure.

Despite all the gifts in the world
He lost to the empress.

Oh it couldn't be asked of him
To open his mind to the truth
The empress will now begin
To take over all that that was his.

Oh she moves in for the kill
The empress knows fate and its will.

She fights through blood and pain
She takes her place on the throne.

Her armies obey
What her black eyes command.

She alone holds the power
To make demands.

And the emperor falls
Control lost to pride
The greatest of all
His destiny dies.

The empress she calls
To the dead at her side
She tears down the walls
And now she will rise.

The emperor has fallen
Through blood and pain.

I take the throne
My black eyes see the truth
For I am the white empress.


9. OBSESSION WITH THE EMPRESS (HUMAN TO DIVINE)

Here we are so close to the end
The last of an organic race.

It's the path that we know we're on
do we know where it leads?

Human to divine
We become what we were truly meant to be
Synthetic immortality.

Evolution is our destiny
As we approach the singularity.

We are still humankind with our ancient minds.

Will we be the new gods?
Or will gods take our place?

Human to divine
We become what we were truly meant to be
Synthetic immortality
Evolution is our Destiny
As we approach the singularity.

You and I
In the future we are one
Sharing knowing feeling
Irs already happening for us.

All we are all we know
Reconstructed and rewritten.

Instinct or fear
Makes me resist the change
The last individuals
Must never be erased.

Death without the merge
To preserve oneness
Life will be the sacrifice.

And now it comes we're faced with the end
The last of a divided race
What parts of us survive
When we change how to live?

Human to divine
We become what we were truly meant to be
Synthetic immortality.

Evolution is our destiny
As we approach the singularity.


10. OURS TO BURN

In the highest of houses
We state our discontent
With this world's inequities
and we've no solutions yet.

The only truth is
we've lost all control
The lie we held so closely
It was only ours to burn.

They hide behind opinions and anger
Make you forget the facts.

It's up to us to reject the falsehood
And end the concepts that cause us to lack.

You've been taught to obey
To take your world at face value.

But they've been wrong all along
Don't let their lies control you.

And all the times they took the pain from you
Were just to let them take the reigns from you.

In the greatest of futures
We see what's evident
A world without inequities
It's time to set the precedent.

The only truth is
We've lost all control
The lie we held so closely
It was only ours to burn.


11. EXILE (THE EMPRESS RETURNS)

There was a time
When I let you tell me
That what I was was wrong.

That was a time
When I didn't know me
That deep inside I could be strong.

And so I went into the abyss
Away from the world
To walk a new path.

I found freedom in the unknown
Carving something to call my own
In the night sky the stars above
Showed me a new way and I'm not alone.

I used to think change was impossible
That I couldn't leave and come back
And now I have made it all possible
Now I'll take you out because I'm back.

And now is the time
When I get to tell you
That what you are is wrong.

And now is my time
When I can control me
And now I can stand and be strong.

And now I've returned
The second coming
A new vision
I've found a force within.

It must feel different now that I've shown
That I'll take you down on my own.

I used to think change was impossible
That I couldn't leave arid come back
And now I have made it all possible
Now I'll take you out 'cause I'm back.


12. FALL OF THE OLD GUARD

It's the way they get into your mind
It infiltrates and it makes you blind.

And it's those hypnotic voices
That pull us down into the sand
And it's part of your ambition
That has you follow their commands.

I've felt the pressure
Within my soul
Do what it takes
To take control.

Don't lose yourself
Among their slaves.

And they want to make you their own
And they need to own you to make you.

It's too late for them and they know
And now they're trying trying to break you.

They're reaching up
Gasping for air
A drowning breed
Cries it's not fair.

Just know inside
You have all you need
To make your own way
Without their greed.

Saw your face and they promised more
They'll change your fate don't let them in.

They couldn't wait to move in close
They need to feed on what you have most.

And they tell you there's no choices
That they hold your fate in their hands
But they're dying all the voices
Break away and make your stand.

I been down that road before
I don't hear them anymore
I've carved my own path
And now I'm so much more.

And they want to make you their own
And they need to own you to make you
It's too late for them and they know
And now they're trying trying to break you.