Kill Me Once
When Adagio Dazzle regained consciousness she was on the floor of a stolen car, still wearing her fruit-stained performance dress, and in a good deal of pain. A quick inspection suggested she wasn’t actually bleeding anywhere, but her whole body ached nonetheless. Blunt impacts, then. Very carefully, wincing at every new movement, Adagio managed to pull herself back up to the rear seats of the car, where she could begin to take her bearings.
She was alone in the car; the driverside front door hung loosely open, letting in the chilly night air. Her situation was already dubious, to put it generously, but that struck her as an especially bad sign. She didn’t remember being alone. She and the other Dazzlings had fled the Battle of the Bands together, hadn’t they? It had been Aria’s idea to steal a car to get away, and Aria who’d done the actual work of smashing the window to get inside. Adagio glanced over to the open front door again, and was deeply relieved to see the window still smashed. So her memory hadn’t failed her so far.
Even then they’d managed to find something to argue about. Adagio had said that she should drive, as their leader, and Aria had spat on the ground and said her leadership had just gotten them in a whole bunch of trouble, so maybe it was time Adagio got off her high horse and let someone else take charge for a change. And Adagio… hadn’t had a good answer to that. They had just lost, after all. Lost the Battle of the Bands, lost their attempts to conquer the world, lost even their precious red gemstones. So she’d silently crawled into the back of the car, since Sonata had quickly claimed shotgun, and zoom off they’d gone, no particular direction except anywhere that was far away from Canterlot High.
Except eventually Aria and Sonata had started arguing, or maybe ‘resumed’ would be a better word. Adagio groaned and rubbed her aching head. So repetitive, all “you’re the worst” this and “no you’re the worst” that until Adagio had wanted to bash both their heads in, but… she shivered. No, she hadn’t gotten the chance, had she? Aria had said… something that really set Sonata off, and Sonata had lunged at her, and they’d both toppled out the driverside door…
Adagio climbed out of the car on the opposite side and took a look around. She appeared to be on a dark and deserted mountain road, if the rocks and species of the surrounding trees were anything to go by. Maybe nobody else had even driven by since the incident, or maybe everybody had seen the wreckage and simply driven by. Adagio wouldn’t have blamed them. Once driverless, the car had apparently crashed into an enormous tree where the road curved and the car had not, which explained why she’d been lying unconscious and sore at the base of her seats. Maybe, Adagio thought, those cloying seatbelt advertisements were onto something. She was probably lucky to still be alive.
Alive. The word brought a sudden chill to Adagio’s body that had nothing to do with the night air. If this was a mountain road, and the rocks seemed to be ascending on her side of the car, then what about the other side? She walked to the back of the car and felt sick. The road extended for only a few inches past the side of the car before the surface of the mountain dropped away to a dark forest landscape far below. Nausea overcame her and she turned around just in time to be sick all over the back of the car. Well, it was already all smashed up in front, a little vomit wouldn’t hurt it any.
But… Aria? Sonata? Adagio shook her head, not sure how she should feel—or even whether she felt anything at all. That was shock, she supposed. She’d spent the last what, several hundred years at least with those girls, ever since they’d all been banished from Equestria together. Their… loss would definitely have an effect on her. That it hadn’t quite hit yet just meant she had a little time to make herself useful… somehow.
“Okay,” she said to herself, “you’re not dead. You’re still Adagio Dazzle. You’re young-looking and beautiful and talented and you can find a way out of this mess. And you don’t even know if they’re dead.” She got back in the remains of the car and searched it for useful objects, talking to herself all the way and pretending to believe the things she was saying. “It’s just a cliff, that’s all. Hundreds of stupid years in this stupid human world, they’re not going to be done in by falling off some little cliff! No one’s dead until you see their horribly mangled bodies, Adagio, that’s just common sense… aha!”
Triumphantly Adagio held aloft the flashlight she’d just discovered. It was pink with little black hearts all over it, and clashed horribly with her outfit, but it worked and that was what mattered. The purse was otherwise mostly empty, but she did find a rather lethal-looking knife, and blinked at it in surprise. Huh. Who’d have thought someone at little old Canterlot High was bringing something like that to school, or at least to its parking lot? Well, it couldn’t hurt to bring it along too. There could be anyone—or anything—hanging around in the dead of night, and without her siren powers to defend her, a knife suddenly felt very much worth having.
The chill night air hit her again as she left the car, but she gritted her teeth and ignored it. The cold wasn’t going to go away, and thinking about it would only make it worse. She aimed the flashlight at the ground and walked back down the road in the opposite direction they’d been driving, retracing the car’s path. What had Aria and Sonata even been arguing about? Had it been anything at all, or just general frustration from their failure at the school? She couldn’t remember. But Sonata, little comparatively harmless Sonata Dusk, had thrown herself at Aria—but of course she hadn’t known the door wouldn’t be locked, stupid Aria, she couldn’t have taken half a second while getting into the car to save her own life—not that any of them had bothered with seatbelts, Adagio included…
It hadn’t always been like this. Equestria had been a better place for all of them; the energy from arguing ponies had been so much more potent than the energy from arguing humans, and with that extra power, they’d all but ruled the world around them. They’d been happy, caring for each other, helping each other against threats from the more uppity ponies. And when they’d been banished and utterly failed to replicate that same success in the new world, reduced to loitering around beat-up diners and back alleys scrounging off the dregs of the earth, that had been hard. And since the only real constants in their lives were each other, and all they saw from the real humans was argument and hatred, it had been so, so easy for the three of them to start arguing with each other, argue and maybe even to hate. Not that Adagio had been blameless; if anything it was more her fault than the others, since she was the leader and she should have found ways for them to stay friendly, but they could be so stupid sometimes, both of them. And then she’d given up for just a couple minutes and left Aria Blaze in charge, however de facto the details, and all but immediately Aria and Sonata had both gone hurtling off a cliff. Maybe. Probably.
“We belong together, you insufferable idiots,” Adagio growled, and kicked a pebble off the mountain. A couple seconds later she heard the clink of its landing, and froze. Surely the dark forest she’d seen hadn’t been close enough for the pebble to hit rock so soon? Adagio aimed the flashlight over the edge, and her eyes widened at the sight of a rocky platform not so very far below. The surface looked jagged and generally unpleasant, but—Adagio’s breath quickened for a moment—was that a familiar shade of blue sitting there?
“Sonata?” she shouted.
“Adagio!” The voice was distinctly Sonata’s, and a tension in Adagio’s limbs she hadn’t noticed was there faded away. She couldn’t read the emotions in Sonata’s voice, not that Adagio could blame her for that, and anyway she’d only shouted back a few syllables. But she didn’t sound weak, so she probably wasn’t actively dying, so that was good.
“Sonata! Stay there, okay? I’m going to try to find a way down.”
To this Adagio heard no response, and she shivered again, but she had seen Sonata’s body and heard her voice and she wasn’t going to stop now. She crouched down and leaned over the edge of the road, sweeping the beam of her flashlight over the vertical drop of rocks between her and the jagged platform below. Yes! The side of the mountain was not smooth but rather mottled by a long series of tiny crevices and hanging vines which could be used for descent by a skilled rock-climber or simply a very determined and agile-bodied girl. And Adagio was nothing if not determined. She swept the flashlight around once more to make sure she wasn’t immediately above Sonata and then dropped her knife over the edge to give herself a free hand.
The first half dozen tentative steps were no trouble. Some of her foot- and hand-holds were almost invisible, especially with the added difficulty of using a flashlight while trying to climb down the side of a mountain, but she found them in the end. What undid her was the remaining soreness of her body from the impact of the car crashing into the tall tree. She reached for a vine, yelped as a previously-unnoticed injury in her opposite shoulder screamed at her, lost her grip, and fell the remainder of the way down.
“Adagio!” So Sonata was indeed still there and alive. Good. Adagio lay among the rocks, cursing fluently, her back on fire, but somehow she felt all better—if only for a moment—when Sonata’s worried head entered her vision, illuminated by the flashlight Adagio still clutched desperately in her left hand. “Adagio, are you okay?”
“I’m… not great. Ow! Second hard impact of the night, damn it. How are you?”
“Um, I’m not much hurt. Do you think you can move? Is it safe to lift your body?”
Adagio shifted herself experimentally. It hurt, but not blindingly so. “Dunno. Help me find out.”
Sonata was hardly an expert in treating injured people carefully, and Adagio cried out several times, but they did manage to get her into a sitting position. She was surprised to discover she was hugging Sonata, and more surprised to discover she was crying—not just from the pain—but they spent the next couple minutes pressed silently together and trying to expel all the tension of the evening through any means but actual words.
Finally Adagio shifted and growled away from the pain the movement cost her. “Where’s Aria?”
Sonata’s answer was flat and monosyllabic. “Dead.”
“What?! Are you sure?!”
“I landed on her.” Sonata pointed into the darkness, and Adagio shone the flashlight in that direction and was nearly sick again. Aria Blaze lay on the rocks maybe a dozen feet away from them, bleeding from various points where the jagged rocks had obviously slashed her when she landed, and looking decidedly motionless. How many hundreds of years…?
“But how do you know?” Yes, Aria did look awfully unambiguously dead, but she couldn’t forget that Sonata was something of a fool. “Did you check for a pulse, give her mouth to mouth—“ It was strange talking about Aria, a siren, in such human terms, after they’d been alive for so long without so much as aging let alone dying, but they’d never had serious physical injuries like this to test their boundaries before.
Sonata was shaking her head. “Nah. That guy told me.”
“What guy?”
“Sitting over there. Mr. Death.”
Adagio swiveled the flashlight again but there was nothing to be seen. The world suddenly felt extremely cold. She was bruised and possibly bleeding, alone in the dead of night with a girl who had just killed her best friend and had apparently gone mad in the process. She had no more siren powers—not that they’d even work on Sonata—and she wasn’t holding her knife anymore, and even if she could figure out where it’d landed, Sonata was in less pain and therefore far more mobile than she was. If Sonata’s new madness extended to wanting to kill her too, Adagio didn’t think she’d be able to do much about it.
But she’d read once that the mad responded well if you treated their illusions as reality, maybe even showed an interest in what they were raving about. “Death’s sitting over there? Death, like the real thing Death?”
“Yep! Well, he says he is, and he’s got the skull face and stuff that all the humans like to draw him with. He’s waving at you!” Adagio weakly waved in the direction Sonata seemed to be looking. “He says he’s been looking forward to meeting you for a long time.”
Adagio’s heart sank. “He has?”
“Um… he says yes, because we’re immortal and all that. He doesn’t get to talk with immortals much. But Aria dying gave him an excuse!”
“Well, I can’t see or hear him, so he’s out of—“ Adagio stopped. She knew she might be attributing too much logic to the ravings of a madwoman, but Sonata wasn’t acting mad. She barely even seemed upset. “You’re a lot better off than me right now,” she said, carefully. “So how come you can see him, but…”
“That’s because I killed Aria. Sort of. I guess.”
“Sort of?”
“Ugh, I don’t know, it’s complicated! Mr. Death, can’t you just tell her… right, right, I forgot. Okay.” She stopped and appeared to be listening to someone or something that Adagio couldn’t hear, and Adagio didn’t quite dare interrupt her. “Okay, he says that I had the intention of attacking her in the car, and the effect of landing on top of her, and combined that counts as me killing her even though I wasn’t actually trying to.”
Adagio’s head hurt more than it had before. “And that’s why you can see Death.”
“Right. Because Aria’s supposed to be immortal, like us, and if you kill an immortal you get a… what was it called again?” Another pause while she listened. “Right, a death debt! Apparently I’m owed Aria’s death debt now? Look, Mr. Death, isn’t there any way you can just talk to Adagio yourself? I’m cold and tired and repeating everything you say just gets boring.”
A gust of not air swept through Adagio for a moment, and then before her horrified eyes, Aria Blaze’s body began to stir. It moved in ways that no human or siren ever moved, jerking from side to side and stopping with limbs directed at odd angles, but ultimately ended up on its feet, staring down at the two girls with lifeless white eyes. Blood still seeped from its various gashes and scars, but it paid them no heed.
Hello, it said, in a voice that was not Aria’s and not human at all. It was sharp like the clang of a shovel digging a grave that hits something that was not supposed to be in the ground already, and cold like an icicle passing through your heart, and completely and unshakably cruel. Just one word and Adagio knew that Sonata was not mad after all; she was speaking with a being, or at least an idea, that was utterly and perhaps violently opposed to all life on any world and yet, most terribly of all, was intelligent.
Beside her Sonata had also gone pale, and Adagio wondered what other, less unnerving voice Death had used in its private conversations with her and why it had changed. She took Sonata’s hand reassuringly and almost cried out from the force with which Sonata instantly returned her grip. All of a sudden being a mere immortal didn’t seem like such a big advantage, but she was the sirens’ leader, and even pained and barely able to move, she could still be strong. She tried to scowl. “I can’t say it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
What a pity.
“Tell me more about this ‘death debt’ that you say Sonata has.”
Ah, yes. Aria’s body had gone motionless as Death spoke through her, which was somehow even more horrible than her earlier unnatural movements. Only her split jaw moved as Death talked. There is no such thing as true immortality, you understand. Only conditional immortality. You and your ilk will not die of natural means, but a sentient being such as Sonata there can act to kill an immortal.
“I got that much from context, thank you.”
My apologies; I forgot I was speaking with the clever siren. There was no hint of remorse in its words, only amusement, as though Adagio was playing a game with Death that it had already set up and played through and won, with their actual conversation only a necessary formality. Immortals are often beautiful, are they not? Many who kill them feel regret thereafter, and they have a three hour window in which to change their mind. Every living sentient being has one—and only one—chance to abandon a death debt and revive their victim. I am here to offer Sonata hers.
“Sonata could bring Aria back to life?!”
With but a word, and I would follow her command. Even this body would be restored from its recent injuries.
Adagio gripped Sonata’s hand too tightly in her emotion as she rounded on the other girl. “Well, go on, Sonata! Bring her back before her warranty expires or whatever!”
Sonata frowned at her. “I don’t wanna.”
Her flashlight’s beam got no weaker, but the dark crept in closer around Adagio and their tiny tableau nonetheless. The sight of Sonata lunging at Aria from the passenger’s seat, of Aria screaming in sudden terror, of them both toppling out the unlocked door and the rush as the driverless car drove on, hitting a tree before Adagio could reach the wheel… it all passed before Adagio’s eyes in a moment as she stared at the blue girl sitting before her, whose hand she was inexplicably holding. She dropped it and glared. “Why the hell not?!”
“Because she hated me!” Sonata leapt to her feet as if Adagio’s hand had been some grotesque anchor holding her down, and she pointed at Aria’s motionless body in a disdainful rage. “She said this was all my fault! I sang just as well as you two in all our songs, and I did my part in getting that stupid magician girl to help us, and I even made fruit punch for the whole school! But Aria wouldn’t shut up about how stupid she thinks I am and how I’m supposed to be the worst siren, and I just snapped and attacked her, and you know what?!” She flung her fists into the air and screamed at the world. “Aria Blaze is the worst and I’m glad she’s dead!”
Flashes of bright red filled Adagio’s streaming eyes as she struggled to her feet. She leaned against the mountain side for support and held her flashlight weakly, still shining its light on both Sonata and on Aria’s body, making them seem almost to glow against the black night behind them. “Sonata, come on, you don’t mean that…”
“I do, I do, I do, I do, I do!” At any other time Adagio would have laughed at her tantrum, but Aria’s life was on the line, and laughing at Sonata maybe wasn’t such a good idea anyway. “She hated me so much, all the time, whatever I did!”
“No, Sonata, she’s just an angry person, that’s all.” Adagio used the present tense violently, trying to force Aria into life through words alone, while trying not to look at her actual body. But she couldn’t help noticing those empty white eyes watching her as she spoke. “It’s not like I don’t call you names sometimes too…”
“Yeah, but when you do that it’s because I’ve really earned it.” The beams of the flashlight illuminated shining patches on Sonata’s cheeks, where she too appeared to be crying, though in her case probably not from physical pain. “Like yeah, it was pretty dumb of me to tell Sunset Shimmer about our singing powers, wasn’t it? But Aria, it was just like nothing I could ever do was good enough, even when I wasn’t doing anything.”
“But we’re the sirens! We’ve practically always been together.” Adagio tried to reach forwards, ended up banging her shoulder against a rock, and shuddered. “Remember Equestria, Sonata?”
Sonata nodded. “Yeah. But that was such a long time ago. We haven’t really been friends like that in forever.”
“We could still try! Damn it, I know I’ve screwed things up. We all have. But if you just give Aria another chance, we can start again, like the old days. When we were actual friends.”
“As if.” Sonata tossed back her hair, which was the more impressive for how much of it she had. “Come on, Adagio, do you think Aria would even think about bringing me back if things were the other way around?”
Actually, she might.
Sonata jumped. Adagio could not afford the movement, but still stared at Death, which was rearranging Aria’s body into a pose of supplication, her palms spread upwards. “What do you want now?”
I am merely providing useful information. And sounding awfully smug in the process, thought Adagio. Not that she didn’t have plenty of experience doing the same. Aria Blaze’s ghost is here with us, you understand. I have not yet taken her with me, which is why you still have a chance to save her.
This, at last, seemed to unnerve Sonata. She twisted her hands together in front of her chest and looked more familiarly submissive, less the raging blue monster Adagio had been talking to a moment ago. “Aria’s… here?”
Yes.
“But… she’s lying, right? I mean, of course she’d say she’d bring be back to life, because I won’t bring her back unless I stop thinking she hates me, so she…”
She saved your life.
“What?”
When you attacked her in the car and fell off the road. She twisted in the air so that she would be below you and you would land on her instead of the sharp rocks.
“…she’s lying.”
Aria does not tell you this. I do. And I cannot lie.
“…Aria?” Sonata moved toward Aria’s body, grabbed her hand, and then quickly dropped it, having apparently remembered she was inhabited only by Death and its horrible voice. “Aria, are you here? Do you really not hate me? Mr. Death, what is she saying?!”
Death was briefly silent before responding, grotesquely cupping one of Aria’s ears in an impression of listening closely. She says she’s sorry. She didn’t know she was hurting you that much. She wants another chance.
Sonata sniffled and shook her head. “But I don’t… I don’t know if I can trust her…”
“I don’t know if we can trust you,” said Adagio. She shone the flashlight directly at Death’s blank eyes, but this had no visible effect. “You’re telling us you can’t lie, but I don’t see why we should take your word for that. And for someone who doesn’t get to see many immortals, you’re acting an awful lot like you’re trying to not take Aria with you.”
Touché. Aria’s bloody mouth leered at her. You are right that my true hope is to take as many of your three souls with me as I can. But I cannot lie.
“Prove it.”
I cannot. But consider, Adagio, how many years before this I have not appeared to you. The death debt is very real, and I am bound to its rules. If I could lie, there have been a thousand better chances I could have seized on to take your lives, but I cannot lie. It turned Aria to face Sonata, who cringed away from her. Tell me, Sonata Dusk, would you like to talk to Aria yourself?
“Yes! Yes, I would! Can you put her back in her body for a bit?!”
No. The icy voice sounded even smugger than before, and Adagio’s skin crawled beneath its bruises. Ghosts may not speak with the living. But if you were a ghost too, then you could ask her anything you wish to evaluate her trustworthiness.
“But how would I…?”
Your friend Adagio could kill you with the knife she has not mentioned to you. She would carry your death debt, and could revive you after a period of time agreed on in advance.
Sonata turned to face her, hands still pressed tightly together, and Adagio sighed. “Yeah, okay, I do have a knife somewhere. Look, Sonata, this is a terrible idea.”
“Why?! You want everyone alive, so you’ll definitely bring me back, and I can figure out whether Aria really wants to be my friend or if she’s just faking it!”
“But it’s exactly what that thing wants us to do! Didn’t you hear it say it wants us all dead? And we still have no proof this death debt stuff is for real!”
“But like he said, if he could lie or appear whenever he wanted we’d probably all have gotten killed ages and ages ago, right?”
“…” Adagio gritted her teeth. “I guess. I’m not sure. Damn it, Sonata, can’t you just bring Aria back and then figure out whether you like her or not?”
“No!” Sonata swept a hand around them, pointing at every aspect of their surroundings in the space of a second. “Like, no way! Have you seen this place? If Aria isn’t all nicey nicey, she could push me off these cliffs for killing her and then she definitely wouldn’t bring me back.”
Adagio struggled to find an objection and came up alarmingly short. She was sure Aria wouldn’t do that. She wasn’t sure if she believed Death was incapable of lying, and thus whether what it reported Aria’s saying was true, but she didn’t believe Aria would willfully kill Sonata. Their old friendship had become strained and hurtful, yes, but it wasn’t that bad. But she couldn’t convince Sonata of that—Sonata only wanted to hear it from Aria herself.
But Death’s suggestion required more than just Sonata’s approval, it required Adagio’s direct intentional action. “I’m not going to kill you,” she said. “So that’s not an option. If you want to talk to Aria, you’ll have to do it blind.”
Sonata crossed her arms. “If you don’t kill me, I’ll just throw myself off that cliff.”
“What?!”
“I will! And then you won’t have any death debt and you won’t be able to bring me back. So you gotta kill me.”
Adagio stared at her wordlessly, thought it over, then shut her eyes. “Damn the both of you. Sonata, get me my knife, okay? I’m in no shape to look for it.”
It’s three feet to your left, said Death, all too helpfully. No, a little to the right. Yes, right there. See the glint? Good.
Adagio looked at the knife in her hand once Sonata had given it to her and wondered if she should just stab herself and get it over with. She couldn’t shake the feeling that was how they would all end up one way or another anyway, with Death calling all the shots. But then she’d be in no position to help anyone, and even if she stabbed Sonata there’d still be one player left on the sirens’ team. She looked back at Death. “You’re leaving something out. Does Sonata still have the death debt if she dies and comes back to life before the window is closed?”
Yes. Death debts expire only from time, not from expiration. If you tell me to revive her any time in the next seventy-two minutes, she will be able to revive Aria the same way.
Adagio sighed. “Sonata, if this doesn’t work somehow, I want you to know I’m really sorry. You’ve got twenty minutes.” She was weak, but against her hopes she was strong enough to drive the knife deep into her friend’s heart and pull it out in a tiny fountain of blood. Sonata looked surprised for a moment, then sunk to the rocky ground, her face almost unchanged but in some small indefinable way not alive. Adagio didn’t know which body was worse to look at, Sonata’s or Aria’s, and so stared at a nondescript stone instead.
“So,” she said after a few minutes, “what haven’t you told me? We both know you’re hiding some cards. Are they just dead for good now?”
Oh, no. The death debts are very real. And now that we are alone, you must admit I have no possible incentive to lie about that.
“Yes, of course. So now the two of us just wait here for twenty minutes, then I tell you to bring Sonata back and you have no choice but to obey.”
That is correct. I will have no choice.
“Awesome.”
But you do.
“Seriously?” Adagio looked back up, if only because there was no point in glaring at a stone. “That’s your big twist? I could choose not to bring my friend back to life?”
Oh, Adagio, your lack of trust wounds me so. Before Adagio’s eyes Aria’s body collapsed lifelessly to the ground and left a skeletal figure standing in its place. It did not wear the traditional black robes, but perhaps it had once upon a time; now only fragments of black fabric hung from its body at odd points, born by a wind that Adagio could not feel. Nothing seemed to hold the bones together, but still it stood, seven feet tall and as ominous as ever. Everything I have told you about death debts is true, but I have not told you everything about death debts.
“Damn it.” Adagio had a terrible feeling she was about to make a fatally bad decision, even without the faintest hint of what it might be. “Keep talking, skullface.”
Insults will get you nowhere. You see, Adagio, the death debt is a transitive creation. For those rare cases in which an immortal’s assassin is themselves assassinated, there is a proviso that the holder of a death debt has equal access to all their victim’s debts. Meaning that you could bring back Sonata… or you could bring back Aria.
Yes, there it was, just like she’d expected: new information which didn’t contradict anything she had previously known and yet somehow made her question her previous decisions. She was quickly coming to hate Death. “But only one of them, right? That was basically the very first thing you mentioned, I only get one shot at this.”
Correct.
“Okay, great. But I still don’t see what you’re going for here. Sonata can bring back Aria too.”
But she may not. That lies on her and Aria to work out among themselves, remember.
“But you said that Aria feels sorry for how she’s been acting lately, and Sonata was excited by that. She wants to forgive Aria. We were—are—friends!”
Yes. Unless I lied about Aria, of course.
Adagio went limp. The knife dropped noisily to the rocks under her feet, and she only barely caught the flashlight in time, though Death’s face of bones was just as unperturbed as before when she got the light to shine on it again. “You… but you said…”
I said many things. I also said that I could not prove that I never lie. And I cannot lie. Unless I am lying about that.
“And the death debts?”
Still real. I have nothing to gain from deceiving you about those, as we have established. Moreover, either I am telling the truth that you could choose either Aria or Sonata to revive, or else you do yourself no harm in trying. Death pretended to brush some invisible insect off its boney arm. I cannot lie, but you may feel free not to believe that.
Adagio tasted blood and belatedly realized she was biting her lip. Still, whatever Death’s other qualities, it was proving extraordinarily willing to answer questions and generally talk a lot. She couldn’t ignore the possibility that Death might yet say something that she could find useful. “I think I’ll believe you,” she said after a few more moments of thought. “If I work within your system, I may find a move to beat you. If I question that there’s any system at all, I’m powerless.”
A fair conclusion. May I resume my gambit of the transitive debts?
“Yeah, go for it.”
Thank you. If you choose to revive Sonata, her subsequent revival of Aria is an uncertainty, even if you rightly believe that I cannot lie. And I will not tell you anything she does or says in the time she is a ghost.
“Of course—no, wait!” Adagio pointed her free hand triumphantly at Death, then winced at the pain. Right, there was no room for theatrics at this point. “The only things I want to hear about Sonata is that she’s listening to Aria and trusting her. If you’re not telling me anything, that means you don’t want me to hear that.”
Not at all. I made my decision not to tell you about her in advance, in order that I could not be swayed by the actual outcomes of their conversation. In fact, I chose not even to listen to anything they say to each other. Nothing I tell you will be determined by their present tempers.
Damn. Yes, okay, that was right. She couldn’t get anything out of not being told something. Death seemed to stand an inch or so taller, and she glared at him, at least her eye muscles being completely free from injury. “Even so, this is just math, isn’t it?”
Is it?
“Obviously. Or statistics or something. I choose Aria, that’s two of us left alive. I choose Sonata, that’s two or maybe three. That’s better.”
I think you have overgeneralized your role in the game from mine. My objective is for as few as possible of you to remain alive, yes, but yours is not for as few as possible of you to die.
“It’s not?”
Not at all. Or can you seriously tell me, Adagio, that if only one of your companions lived with you—Aria or Sonata—you would find either possible permutation equally acceptable?
“I…”
Aria Blaze, who tried to save Sonata’s life after being attacked by her? Or Sonata Dusk, who was so set against saving Aria’s life that she threatened to kill herself if you didn’t do everything she wanted?
“Yes, but…”
Perhaps picking Sonata gives you the indefinite chance of saving both your comrades. But if only one lives, surely it is Aria who more deserves a chance at life?
Overcome by some frigid cocktail of fear and misery and hatred, Adagio sunk to the ground, wincing at every step. She wasn’t dying, was she? Death had said that she couldn’t die unless someone deliberately killed her—or at least did some actions that could be sort of defended as killing her, as in Sonata’s case. So she guessed she was safe, but everything still hurt so much and it wasn’t helping her thinking at all. “You’re asking me to pick which one of them I like more and only save her.”
If you wish.
“Well, what else could you possibly expect me to do?!”
Consider the feelings of someone other than yourself for a change, Adagio. For all you know Aria and Sonata are perfectly happy and the best of friends again by now. Would you split them apart, telling your chosen friend that your desire to see her again overruled her newly rebuilt friendship, and not only that, the last thing the other girl will know before going to her eternal rest is that she wasn’t good enough for you?
“Only if I picked Aria…”
Perhaps.
Adagio clutched her flashlight like the last rock of sanity in a storm of evil and doubt. “I hate these choices. And you.”
Do you? How fortunate there is a third choice.
“What?”
Save neither. Let the window of time expire for both. Do not burden either one with the knowledge that her life was bought at the other’s expense, and the feeling that they must continue to be your truest friend forever and ever in order to be worthy of the favor you granted them. In their deaths, they believed in you and in each other—why not let them stay that way?
“You are a horrible, horrible, creature.”
And yet the offer intrigues you.
“Yes, damn you.”
Then my gambit is complete. I will now take any remaining questions you may have.
Adagio buried her face in her knees and did her best to think about the game, only the game, not the bruises or the scrapes or the night or the dead bodies of her friends lying just a few feet away from her. Death’s gambit was indeed complete; she’d been given an emotional reason to choose the very same option that Death itself most wanted her to choose, for her to remain the only siren living. “I don’t have to take that side,” she said, knowing she sounded desperate. “I could pick Sonata and do it solely for the numbers. Vocally, in case they can hear me right now.”
You could make such a claim. Would they believe you? Would you?
Adagio only scowled. Even without the detail that she’d told Sonata she would, she knew picking Sonata was the more sensible option. If Sonata then didn’t bring Aria back too, that would mean that Aria hadn’t been as good as Adagio had thought her to be, so she’d have made the right decision after all. And yet…
And yet she liked Aria better. There, she’d thought it. And because of that fact, she couldn’t convince herself that there wasn’t a possibility that ghost Aria could genuinely pledge her friendship and Sonata wouldn’t trust her, but for reasons internal to Sonata. Maybe it would be better to have both Aria and Sonata alive again, but for that to happen, she’d need to trust both of them, while if she picked Aria there’d be no such contingencies to worry about at all…
And yet if she picked Aria she would have Sonata’s blood on her hands, no joke intended. She knew that Aria wasn’t the nicest person—not even the nicest siren—but how would Aria feel about Adagio Dazzle the murderer? Aria, whose last living action had been to save Sonata’s life, only for Adagio to undo that? Aria, at least, had given the impression that she wanted all three of them to live, however low a bar that might have been under other circumstances. So if she picked Sonata she would have to trust both of them to work things out somehow, which she didn’t, and if she picked Aria then nobody would be happy, but that wasn’t an argument for picking neither of them, was it…?
Wait. Too many feelings. When she and Death had been playing the game for numbers alone, before Death had sprung the additional trap of the debts’ transitivity, then she’d felt properly confident. And maybe that was just a sign of how little she’d known, but maybe, just maybe, there was something there that she could work with. Death had broken her three options into a turbulent froth of messy possibilities and half guesses, but if she could just simplify the whole game somehow, find a pattern? Yes. Yes, there was a hope there, she could feel it, she just needed to ask one more question.
“You said I can revive Aria because I can revive someone who can revive her.”
Yes. A second chance, if you will.
“What are the restrictions on that? For example, if I killed an immortal, but that immortal had already put in place plans to kill a second immortal, and those plans worked after the one I killed’s death… would I be able to revive the second immortal?”
I suppose so. It is a very flexible system. Within the respective three hour windows, your choices of whom to resurrect are always the full set of your victims, plus the full set of your victims’ choices. You could carry one such a chain of murders quite indefinitely, so long as you saved the end of the chain within three hours of their original death.
“The timing doesn’t matter at all.”
Not in the slightest.
“I see.” Adagio swallowed, desperately afraid now that she had nothing to trust in but her own wits, addled as they no doubt were by the pain that filled her body.
“I choose Aria.”
As you wish.
Adagio felt, rather than saw, Aria Blaze’s spirit swirl out of nonexistence and settle within her body. Shimmering purple light settled over her, erasing her wounds in a matter of moments, and when it faded away Aria’s eyes blinked open sleepily. This apparent weakness lasted for no more than a second, however, before Aria was standing over Adagio and screaming at her. “You idiot! What are you thinking? Why did you—“
Adagio smiled wearily at her. “Oh, shut up Aria. Take that knife and kill me before Death gets a chance to tell you not to.”
The three sirens sat back to back on a small rocky outcropping on the side of a mountain, holding hands in a circle, taking strength from each other’s presence. Sonata had commented quizzically that she didn’t think she’d ever felt quite so alive before, and Adagio couldn’t argue with her. Every one of her injuries from the night had been erased completely, and there was a curious and unfamiliar sort of vitality coursing through her. Even Aria just smiled shyly and said that was a clever way of putting it.
A few feet away, Death hung suspended over the great drop to the forest below. The skeletal body had faded away, leaving only the motionless skull as it studied Adagio with blank white eyes. Well done, it said at last. Aria inherited your death debt of Sonata, and Sonata inherited Aria’s of you. A very neat triangle.
“Thank you,” said Adagio, stiffly.
You realize that it won’t work again.
“Yeah, you made that point pretty clear. Once per sentient being, yada yada yada. My plan was just never to see you again.”
Death’s skull smiled. What a pity. I was so looking forward to our next match.
“Rot in hell.”
Perhaps I will yet see you there.
Death disappeared with an air of welcome finality, and the sirens sat in quiet contemplation for a while. Then Aria spoke. “So I figure eventually the cops will hear about the crashed car and they’ll get us back up to the road, right?”
“Probably.”
“Okay, and then what?”
“Well…” Adagio looked out ahead of her, where the flashlight now shone on nothing besides the much-bloodied knife. “If you girls didn’t notice, I’d kind of like it if we were actual friends again.”
Aria squeezed her hand. “But still evil, right?”
“Naturally.” Although the sheer animal cruelty of Death still gnawed at her, that and the suspicion she'd been much the same herself from time to time.
“Then I’m in. But I guess I’ve got a bunch of lousy apologies to make.”
“Me too,” said Sonata quietly. “Especially for tonight, but you know, lots of other stuff too. Like that one time in 1936 when—“
Adagio cut her off. “We don’t need to get quite that detailed,” she said. “What if for a start we all just admitted that we’ve been treating each other pretty awfully, and… we’re going to get better. Because sirens should stick together.”
“To the end,” said Aria.
“And back again,” said Sonata.
To the east, the sun rose.
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That was slightly confusing, yet amazing at the same time. I like it.
Nice execution (no pun intended) of the Take A Third Option trope.
This was absolutely amazing.
The history of the sirens, the friendship, past and present, that the trio share.
I will admit that I don't REALLY understand how the revival system works, but I don't think that removes any enjoyment from the story.
This was so utterly unique, and so well executed! Freaking Awesome!
Very interesting! I'll admit I don't quite get how Adagio got all three of them revived again, but it's regardless a very satisfying ending.
An excellent exploration of the siren condition. (Like the human condition, but longer, and with better music.) I'm not very fond of cruel or vindictive psychopomps, but the puzzle was well-made, and the solution stunningly obvious in retrospect, as the answer to a good puzzle should be. Thank you for this.
5218830 That's fair. It was a Discworldy Death at one point in the initial thinking through, but that would have a) been totally counterproductive to the Halloween feeling, and b) not given Adagio any chances to wonder how far she wanted to go down the villainy track. Cruelty just seemed to fit better.
This is one Hell of an opener. Kudos for that.
But as for the story proper, the whole "death debt" thing left me scratching my head. And by the end of it I felt like I had more questions than answers. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that this whole "death debt" wasn't even a real thing, but a ruse to get the sirens' lives? Because that would make much more sense. I mean, if you kill an immortal, Death gives you a three hour take-back? That's nuts!
I didn't like how quickly everything was resolved either. Both in the overarching conflict and the personal conflicts, everything's basically wrapped up in a single paragraph at the end. Adagio solves Death's riddle seemingly without giving any real thought, and Sonata and Aria kiss and make up off page, so by the end, it feels like nothing was really accomplished.
And another thing:the sirens were WAY too ready to kill each other! Adagio plunges the knife into Sonata like it's nothing, and doesn't even flinch!
And finally, the thing that irked me the most: it doesn't matter if Death says that he can't lie, he COULD BE LYING ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO LIE! Why does Adagio just immediately assume that DEATH is a trustworthy dude!? She's clever enough to solve Death's puzzle, but she never stops to think that Death is pulling one over on them!?
I really like this story, it's unique, and original, andI can't recall ever reading anything like it before, but it has some rather big issues.
5219165 I can't argue with your takeaway or your pacing concerns, but I will say the question of whether Death can lie comes up repeatedly:
And Adagio does try to talk Sonata out of getting stabbed, mentions hoping she's too weak to do it, and doesn't like looking at Sonata's body afterwards. You're completely welcome to disagree that that's enough reaction, but it is there.
5219235
You make a fair point, but Death's own words render it moot: "I Cannot." He can't prove that he's unable to lie, and that therefore calls everything that he says or has said, into question. Saying that one is unable to lie, and going on to say that they're is no way for them to prove the truth of that statement is paradoxical: it's akin to the statement that "Everything I say is a lie."
Yes, what Death says, about how he had myriad opportunities to claim the sirens could be true, but it begs the question: "Then why didn't he?" He also states that it is his intention to claim all three of their souls. This implies that he wants their souls. And if he wants their souls, then why wait all this time? Why not exploit one of those "countless opportunities" that he's supposedly had instead of playing this game?
My problem wasn't so much Adagio's willingness to trust Death, but her unwillingness to ask more questions. She doesn't try to catch Death in a lie, or probe for more information as to his motives, she just decides to take everything he says at face value and play the game.
Maybe I'm reading to much into this, but from where I was standing, everything seemed stacked up against Adagio. When Death told Sonata that Aria had saved her life by "positioning herself" between the rocks and Sonata, I immediately became suspicious. That seemed not only implausible, that Aria would have the presence of mind to spot such a threat and react accordingly, but also seemed too convenient a fact to drop, at just the right time. Also, convincing Sonata to "die" in order to talk to Aria could have further been meant to throw Adagio off her game, to increase the likelihood of her making the wrong choice.
I don't know if this was your intention, but Death as portrayed by you comes off as the player to end all players. And it really bothered me at how little scrutiny he receives from Adagio. She had three hours, after all.
5220032 Not a full three hours, since she was unconscious and stuff for a while, but yeah. Adagio could have asked some more questions, and some of the things you mention just fall into stuff I didn't think of and others are just... well, they wouldn't have gone anywhere. Adagio could have satisfied her (/your) curiosity on more points, but if she'd have reached the same conclusion, how much would the further questioning have added? It's a line between satisfying all possibilities and keeping the reader interested through diversions that don't ultimately produce anything. I appreciate your feedback that you're unsatisfied with where in particular I fell on that line.
And yeah, naturally Death wants Adagio to lose, because as you mentioned, intention to claim their souls. If information is dropped, it will be at the time Death thinks that information would be most useful (to Death, not to Adagio) for Adagio to know. They both get a lot more explicit about this and what they both understand the game's structure to be once Sonata is out of the picture. But Death wants Adagio unhappy and frustrated (not to mention in physical pain) as much as possible, because maybe there is a loophole in the system presented to her, and if there is, Death doesn't want Adagio thinking clearly enough to find it. But Death is bound to the rules of the death debt and can't leave before then.
The countless historical opportunities are contingent on Death's being able to lie. Otherwise they're hypotheticals only. And I guess I'm interested to know how you think one would go about proving one is incapable of falsehoods? "Everything I say is a lie" isn't a paradox--you're thinking of "this statement is a lie"--but it feels to me like it'd be impossible to prove, if comparatively trivial to disprove.
There was a fourth option.
Bring back Sonata, take her choice. If she refused to bring back Aria, kill her again and bring back Aria herself. Or she could at that point decide to let the time expire.
5227782 You can't perform more than one revival.
5230093 Yeah, I'm not going to lie here. I'm always taken off guard by the solution, and this was no exception. I always leave out details like that
It sucks because I can never write that well, but it's amazing because the real solution is always a surprise and adds to the excitement.
Splendid Halloween story. It's one I might retell to my friends next time we're sitting around a campfire.
That was pretty cool. I'm actually fine with the fact that she didn't ask more questions. It surely would have been the smart thing to do, but for all we know Adagio isn't that intelligent, plus she is hurt and under stress and all that. The problems I did have were that a) it felt a little bit too easy for her to kill her friend and b) I find it hard to imagine that creatures with a lifespawn of several centuries would behave this childish, but that's really a problem with the source material.
There was a point in the story where I was convinced you were going to end it with the time limit running out.
I'm really, really glad that didn't happen.
So, yeah, the story was incredibly dark, I loved every second of it. The ending was pretty excellent, and while certain events (ex: Aria and Sonata making up) disappointingly happened off-screen, that didn't detract from the story. Great stuff.
KInd of interesting, but I feel like nothing much really changed. I'm a bit surprised that Adagio didn't consider proposing throwing herself off the cliff. Somehow I think that would have bothered Sonata.
For what it's worth, Death successfully robbed all of them of any future second chances. I almost wish Adagio had tried to see if there was anything he could gain by their deaths and if not, she could simply have killed herself. They would technically be together again and mortal concerns would not be a thing. It might actually have been better for either Sonata to let Aria go or for her to simply ask Death to revive her. Instead she forced Adagio to kill her and Adagio forced Aria to kill her.
5214373 Why? What happened during 1936?
lol wut JK amazing
A most amazing story!
Imagine this happening in equestria girls 3 to show the fate of the dazzlings.
I might sound stupid, but I didn't quite get how she managed to revive both of them and survive.
Could somebody please explain it here? You can simplify it, use examples, etc. The problem is, I'm not a native English speaker so I didn't understand some complicated parts of the dialogue. Not to mention that I'm an idiot and I can't solve puzzles. But I really liked this fic and I really want to understand the solution. Sorry to bother you and sorry for bad grammar and punctuation. Pls don't hate me.
5439287 I had a bit of trouble following it myself, but after some rereading, here's the solution I got out of it:
Sonata killed Aria.
Adagio killed Sonata.
Adagio revived Aria (allowed because Sonata, who she killed, killed Aria).
Aria killed Adagio.
Aria revived Sonata (allowed because Adagio, who she killed, killed Sonata).
Sonata revived Adagio (allowed because Aria, who she killed, killed Adagio).
5509382 Thank you very much! I've abandoned all hope for a reply xD
And you might wanna cover this comment with this to avoid spoiling :)
5511672 Good point. Done.
what i think you should do is do a rerun chapter depicting all the bits we didn't see or basically showing the story from either aria's or sonata's point of view if you get time / are bored. (just a suggestion)
This was amazing. I loved it.
I was thinking for the whole story "Just pick Sonata, stupid! It's the only reasonable choice!" but then I broke out into a massive grin when I realized Adagio's solution at the end.
Great story. Really well done.
soo killing an immortal who had killed an immortal and you receive the death debt of the person you killed and the ones they had.. than why couldn't adagio kill sonata and revive borh sonata and aria.
sonata killed aria and has her death debt,
adagio killed sonata and gain her death debt. and inherrits aria's death debt from sonata.
than revives aria first and then sonata.
why wouldn't that work?
also i have no idea how the spoiler thing works
5688826 "Every living sentient being has one—and only one—chance to abandon a death debt and revive their victim."
5690226 oooh so that's why they had to set up a chain thank you :)
So in the end (and since everyone else is using spoiler brackets, why not?), Adagio traded away Aria's death debt thing for the certainty that they'd all be brought back. Perhaps Death was hoping to secure one, if not two dead immortals, but Adagio would've gotten everyone back anyway if she'd just revived Sonata in the first place, and now none of the sirens will be able to undo an immortal slaying in the future. A victory for Death in the end, albeit a trifle one.
Finally got around to read this... It was well written and very interesting, but I have to admit I don't really understand Adagio's choice.
While I was reading, I felt the most logical choice was to revive Sonata who could have revived Aria. There didn't seem to be much of a dilemma here, despite the story making it look like there was. The three of them would have ended up alive, the only difference is that Adagio would still have her injuries.
Yes, I know she couldn't be sure that Sonata would be willing to revive Aria, but it seemed likely that Sonata would. Besides, Adagio's option involved trusting that Aria would be willing to kill her, AND trusting Aria to revive Sonata, AND trusting Sonata to revive her. It seems a lot more risky in my opinion, unless I'm missing something.
Hm. Nice logic puzzle. Clever. Story built around it wasn't half bad either. I don't have much to say on this one, but I liked it well enough, and I find no real fault with it. Good work.
Interesting story. The characterization and premise seemed quite solid, and its overarching theme is very endearing. I find that the problem in the story is more of a puzzle or riddle than a round of Prisoner's Dilemma, though. Once you see the option that Adagio took, it's clear that none of the other options are nearly as effective. Choosing Aria leads to either a) all three survive (best option for Adagio), or b) both Aria and Adagio survive while Sonata dies (which Adagio admits to be the second best option). I suppose a case could be made that Adagio would be disgusted that Aria wouldn't save her fellow siren, which would be a bad option, but if that were the case, then choosing Sonata would have been no better - either way, only two of the sirens would survive and either way Adagio would be disappointed with them.
THE QUICKENIIIING!!!
2.bp.blogspot.com/-8fsF-vGoJTM/TndX4PyYaZI/AAAAAAAAATc/Sn00Xefa6G0/s1600/picture41.png
You can has review!
It was AWESOME. I just find it confusing. A little. At the part where the three revived.
Everyone else is baffled by the very clever logic puzzle, which seems about correct to me; meanwhile, I read this like a week ago and I'm still trying to figure out who at Canterlot High owns their own car and keeps nothing but a huge stabby knife in their purse.
6710184 More people than you might think!
You're a commenter, so I'll ask you: did this get linked to from somewhere recently? I got a sudden upswing of notifications about this story yesterday and don't know where they came from.
6710523
I only found out about this story because it was mentioned a lot in the buzz around "Long Live Sonata Dusk", and I only got around to that kinda recently because I finally saw Rainbow Rocks, like, last month, and like I said this was all over and done with like a week ago, so I don't think I can help you. Sorry.
6710589 Could also be coincidence I guess. Thanks for the response. :)
I want to know what happened in 1936!
But that is neither here nor there. This was a great story
Found this while looking at my subbs, Congratz!
8522573
Oh wow, this is really exciting! Thanks for letting me know :D
Brilliant
I going to say in my opinion that this story was a great read and story to listen to with Wubcake and Thespio. And I love the whole puzzle like element in the story, which I am a sucker for, I can’t help but feel as though Adagio made it much more complicated than what it’s worth. I don’t know how to do the spoiler brackets so I’m going to put a spoiler warning in a little bit. In short I liked and would recommend it to someone. Spoilers: wouldn’t Adagio just revevive Sonata and she’d revive Aria? I guess Adagio was just thinking that there WAS going to be an off-chance Aria wouldn’t have been a good friend, and Death was lying that she was and saved Sonata before her demise. But remembering history, and other things, She’d revive Aria. Aria would kill Adagio and, in turn, would revive Sonata, saving her twice. And Sonata would revive Adagio. The reason I think Adagio wanted to get killed and revived was to cure her injuries.
there's an obvious solution to this: bring back Sonata, and threaten to kill her if she doesn't bring Aria back. simple, and effective.
Of course he was gonna say that.
Never thought I'd hear that from Death!?!?