//------------------------------// // 078 - The Collector, Part 2 // Story: Songs of the Spheres // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Aradia died again. She was fighting Davepeta, and the method by which her death was triggered was a sword known as Caledscratch, a time blade at least twice as tall as Davepeta themselves. It drove Aradia through her chest, triggering a Heroic death. The rest of the present Aradias twisted their wrists and charged Davepeta, cracking their whips. They charged from all sides, only to find multiple Davepetas all around them. Aradia knew better than to think they were separate entities – Dave never used time travel in such a way to split his time stream if he could help it. She was looking all at one continuous timestream, where there was a future-most Davepeta. She was going to use this to her advantage. She split her timeline, allowing a version of herself to watch the events from afar and determine which version of Dave was the furthest in the future. She waited for the Davepeta clones to temporally resolve into one, then jumped back in time to tell the Aradias which was which. They tackled the future-most Dave – but as the future-most Dave, he was able to feel and react to the shift in time Aradia had triggered. He swung Caledscratch wide, mortally wounding three of the Handmaids. There were either Heroic deaths or wounds that would be taken care of by loose members of the Collection. Davepeta charged again, this time with accelerated time. An Aradia fell, but two others used their whips to lash around Caledscratch, disarming Davepeta. Other Aradias used their telekinesis to hold Davepeta in place. They just traveled to the past to escape Aradia’s grip, but lo and behold, Aradia was waiting there at the exact same time, swinging Caledscratch back at them. Davepeta glanced to the Omnitrix, considering using it – but they knew it would actually hinder them. If they didn’t have access to time travel, Aradia would make quick work of them. Their default form had the highest control over time and a smattering of other abilities, so the choice was obvious. They leaned back, unable to dodge the blade completely, but their sprite-nature allowed the blade to pass through them, the power of the blade culminating in an annoying itch. They used their sudden proximity to the Aradia to use their claws to tear the temporal clone’s face off. “Why so serious?” an Aradia asked from a distance as Davepeta dealt with more of her selves. “I never knew either of you to go into a fight without cracking at least a few jokes or narrating your own attacks.” “Because this meowtherfucking sucks,” Davepeta spat. “I’m killing you hundreds of times. You’re like, both my old creepy friend and my time meowntor. And you’re not even trying to kill me! Not a single lethal blow!” “Davepeta… I’m basically the god of death in many ways. It would be easy for me to do that, especially considering how you fight.” “Then why aren’t you?” “I can beat you without killing you.” Davepeta shook their head while they rammed two Aradias’ skulls into each other. “No you can’t! I’m a sprite Aradia! You can’t just contain sprites!” They spread their wings and flew into the air, unleashing a beam of sprite energy at the ground. The Aradias appeared all around Davepeta, tying them up with whips - except Davepeta decided to be intangible for the moment, allowing the whips to pass through. “See? You can’t hold me in place with whips. I can time-shift out of your telekinesis every time. It’s a standstill Aradia!” “No it isn’t!” Aradia shouted, several of her clones, trapping Davepeta in her telekinesis. Davepeta shifted to the past, but the Aradias were already there, keeping them frozen. Davepeta shifted to the future, but the Aradias were there as well. “You’re not going anywhere,” the Aradias said, pressing down on Davepeta’s head, trying to force them into unconsciousness. A future version of Davepeta appeared next to their past self, removing the past version from the telekinesis and telling the past version to become the future version. Then the future version started cutting off heads. Aradia twitched, trying the telekinetic barrier again – but the same thing happened. Fine then, I can’t outright defeat you. I’ll go do other things while my other selves keep you occupied. Aradia appeared between Nanoha and Corona as they fought Hastur and Kars. “Hey girls! How’s it going?” “Please tell me you’re resistant to the conditioning,” Corona muttered, blood dripping down her face. “Yep! For now anyway,” Aradia said, checking her mental defenses. All good up there. “I believe I can revert Kars to a previous time-state simply enough… Just-” Davepeta appeared in front of her and skewered her through the chest. “OH COME ON!” Another version of Aradia yelled, dragging Davepeta further into the past. “How did you know!?” “Not the only time traveler in the Collection,” Davepeta revealed. “I do have the most control over it out of all of them, which is why I’m dealing with you, but the others who can see through time and move through it on smaller scales will keep informing me of where I need to be.” “I would recommend changing up your strategy,” a tall man in a labcoat said, walking out of a rift in time. “See, it’s come to our attention Davepeta is simply fighting you to a standstill. So naturally we must offer our assistance.” “Professor Paradox…” Aradia frowned. “I wondered what happened to you. …Wait, are you the same version I know?” “Sadly, no,” Professor Paradox said. “But I’m not your biggest problem here.” A purple monster made of mist and clockwork appeared between Professor Paradox and Davepeta, roaring furiously. A time eater. “Well that explains why there aren’t any time anomalies here, if you’ve got one of those,” Aradia observed. “I’m afraid it will have to devour you now.” Aradia sighed. “And I’m afraid I have to become Maid of Death. I am sorry.” She thrust her hand forward, shifting time slightly to confuse Davepeta and Professor Paradox. As she expected, the time eater did not move with the time shift – it was impervious. But she still had something she could do, assuming the time eater had a soul. She tapped into the realm of spirits and the dead, the pupils in her eyes vanishing for a moment. She looked like something that had died for a moment. The copies of herself kept their living nature, throwing themselves at the time eater to keep it occupied – being devoured by the dozen. It was enough – the spiritually attuned Aradia gripped the spirit of the time eater. “I bring you to your fate,” she said, emotionless. The time eater lost all of its spirit, dissolving into a pile of gears and gnashing teeth. It fell to the ground, destroying one of the Plaza’s discs. “What the fresh hell was that!?” Davepeta blurted. The ghostly Aradia stared at Davepeta. “Not an ability granted by being the Maid of Time. I was dead once, as you know, and even before then I had felt a deep connection to the dead of the world. After a few hundred years I learned that connection could be used in terrifying ways.” She lifted her hands up. “I’m not as impressive as Death himself, but that doesn’t matter, does it?” Professor Paradox clutched his heart, trying to shift through time to escape – but the other Aradias blocked his passage long enough for him to fall to where the Time Eater was. The ghostly Aradia turned to Davepeta, face emotionless. Davepeta only knew Aradia was sorrowful because of the faces of the other versions. The ghostly Aradia moved her hands past each other – and Davepeta’s soul left their body. The sprite’s strobe green-orange color becoming muted. They fell to the ground, lifeless. “We’re not done!” Another Aradia shouted to the ghostly one – not coming in time. A copy of Davepeta appeared behind her and drove a Caledscratch through her chest. She fell Heroically. Davepeta leaped back – it was only a matter of time before another Aradia tapped into her spiritual powers, and then they were dead. Aradia wouldn’t fall for the time-clone again – and frankly Davepeta felt disgusted that they’d allowed the forced loyalty to make them do that. The Omnitrix did have a handful of beings immune to spiritual manipulation – Ghostfreak most prominently – but none of them could also manipulate time. …There was one, though, but that’d be risky… Who cared if it was risky, it was the only way to win. “ALIEN X!” Davepeta ordered the Omnitrix. In a flash of green, they transformed into a female Celestialsapien, their body tapping into the substance of the universe. All of the Aradias froze – there was no way this was going to work, right? Celestialsapiens had to internally debate every action they ever took – but she wouldn’t put it past Nepeta to have a good understanding of the Celestialsapien’s internal thought process… Rogue of Heart, after all, she could probably convince the internal voices without too much trouble… Several Aradias acted, rewinding time around Nepeta, forcing her back into the form of Davepeta. The sprite took a moment to process this – enough for the Aradias to not only grab with their telekinesis, but crush Davepeta as well. Sprites were more or less indestructible, but a purely psychic attack coming from over a dozen powerful psychics was more than enough to incur lethal damage. Glowing green-orange fluids began to burst from their body, making them scream. Aradia winced. “Davepeta, I’m sorry!” “You’re… doing what you have to…” Davepeta muttered. They forced a smile that tried to be ironically cute. “Nya Nya!” And then the sprite exploded in a shower of neon light. Aradia dropped her hands to her sides, breathing heavily. “…I barely knew you were still alive,” she muttered to nobody in particular. One of her versions picked up the Omnitrix and looked at it closely. She tucked it in her robes – something to look at later. There were still other things she needed to do here. ~~~ “Incoming call,” Thanos told the Collector. “Coming from inside. Marked ‘urgent’ in every way I can possibly think of.” The Collector chuckled. “Finally, something I can do instead of waiting.” He rushed to his computer and answered the call. “Yeah?” Olivia was onscreen. “Guess what? I’m being forced to tell you something. Your program is really effective, amigo.” “What did you do?” “Oh, nothing much. I just hacked into your uncontrollables room.” The Collector fell silent. “Now, Gyro knocked me in the face before I could do anything intentional, but it says right here that I released one of them. I have no idea which one it was though!” Olivia grinned. “Have fun with that!” The Collector curled up his fists. “You’re going to defend that room from further digital attacks. Got it?” “Oh, I’m already doing that. Cause, y’know, it’s the best way I can serve my new master in this semi-injured state. I gotta say, I absolutely love not having any say in what I do. Isn’t that right Gyro?” “It’s excellent,” Gyro muttered, forcing a cheesy smile. The Collector saw that he was tending the wounded. There was a lot of blood all over him. “See, ballsy and I here have been bonding over how much you suck. By the way, the moment I get free from this loyalty, I release all of them.” The Collector folded his hands. “In that case, instead of defending it, I want you to lock yourself out.” “…Wait, what?” “You heard me. There’s a high chance you get freed again because someone interrupts it. Lock yourself out now.” Olivia twitched, pressing a few buttons. “There. Scrambled it. Now I’ll have to get back in from scratch. Happy?” “Very. Add extra firewalls and then throw away the key, if you can.” “I’m not sure you understand how this works.” “Not really,” the Collector admitted. “But I know you can make it more difficult for your future self. So keep doing that.” Olivia showed him her middle finger and cut the transmission. “I wonder why people think that gesture is ever going to be effective in riling people up,” the Collector muttered. “Thanos, what’s happening?” “Aradia’s won. She’s beginning to take control over things on a temporal level.” “The moment it gets completely out of our control, tell me.” The Collector moved a finger toward a button on his keyboard. “I’ll cut the timestream physics.” Thanos nodded, continuing his examinations of the situation. His projections ranged from extremely favorable to absolute garbage. A mixed pot of probabilities that were continually changing as the conflict evolved. ~~~ “DIVINE BUSTER!” Nanoha shouted, engulfing Hastur and Kars in a blast of her energy. Hastur retaliated with an eldritch pulse that tore at Nanoha and Corona’s minds – but Corona used her empathic abilities to heal hers and Nanoha’s mind. To her, it took a few minutes to root around their minds – but it was effectively instant to Kars and Hastur. Nanoha shifted to juggling long-range spells to keep Kars and Hastur back while Corona set up a complex spell to take care of Hastur. The physics of this universe are highly malleable, likely because the Collector wanted to be able to alter it on a whim. Good for us though, Raging Sights, because that gives us an in. Hastur’s eldritch nature is forced into his current yellow-cloak wearing self, but if we tweak the conversion around him just slightly compounded with a sealing spell and some flashy fire to make him react… Run the calculations needed to seal him away while I set up the rest of these circles. Understood, Raging Sights responded, processing the request to seal Hastur with the complex spell. Kars noticed Corona was doing something. Clearly it needed to be stopped – he created four black wings from his back, using his hands to bring magical power to himself. He punched at the fiery mage. “BARRIER!” Nanoha shouted, creating a magical shield between Kars and Corona. “A simple barrier is nothing!” Kars shouted, creating an extra-sharp unicorn horn out from his wrist, piercing the magic barrier with his own power, sailing toward Corona. “Bacon Pancakes, flatten him,” Corona muttered, trying very hard not to break her focus. Any Stand user would have been able to dodge the low-will attack, but Kars was unable to even see Bacon Pancakes. He essentially ran right into the central disc of the Stand, flattening like a piece of paper. Nanoha took advantage of this, using her long-range spells to cut him up into dozens of pieces, keeping Hastur back with another Divine Buster. “Execute!” Corona declared. The circles around her activated, creating a set of six circles around Hastur, boxing him in. Having just been hit by one of Nanoha’s heavy attacks, he didn’t offer much in the way of resistance as he felt the physics inside the box reduce his power considerably – enough to where the magic circles could wrap around him. With a pop, his essence was sealed within a small, gray marble. Corona grabbed it from the air and pocketed it. “Got him.” Nanoha threw her staff into the air, ignoring the pain from the wounds in her hand and chest. “Woo! We won! I haven’t had such a close battle in ages…” She wiped blood from her eyes. “You need to get out more…” Corona muttered, stretching. “You’re not done yet!” Kars shouted, having completely regenerated from being shredded. “…Jenny should probably be dealing with this nut,” Corona deadpanned. “Regen v regen has a way of cancelling out.” Nanoha sighed. “Lets see if I have enough energy left for a Starlight Breaker.” “I think we might need to push some lethality into it.” Nanoha nodded, deflecting piranhas that Kars was throwing at them. “Time to break out the vaporizer…” She twisted to the side out of instinct, narrowly dodging a punch from Superman. She didn’t dodge the bite from Alushy, but she managed to throw the vampire pegasus off quickly. Corona was completely unable to deal with the tag-team that was Tornado and Giorno. The powerful telekinesis tossed her into the fists of Gold Experience Requiem, creating wounds that she couldn’t heal. Corona grasped her broken ribs, wincing. “Nanoha! We can’t win this one, we’re way too injured!” “BEAM PULSE!” Nanoha shouted, pushing back all their attackers with a spherical magic burst. “I know Corona! But I don’t think they’ll give us time to escape!” “We’ve gotta figure out so-” Both of their magical senses shook them fundamentally. They felt, for a moment, the loyalty program weakening its attack on their mental shields. They saw their attackers pause… But then the loyalty program fixed itself. “Did you feel that?” Corona asked. “Yeah!” Nanoha answered. “That was Starbeat’s magic, I’m sure of it!” “We need to teleport the-” Corona had to use Bacon Pancakes to defend against Gold Experience Requiem, unable to flatten the golden humanoid. “We can’t teleport!” Nanoha shouted, having serious difficulty with Superman and Kars. “And I don’t know who else we can trust to deal with it for us!” She raised a shield, but it wasn’t enough to stop Superman’s fist from tossing her to the ground. Tornado did the same to Corona, except with telekinesis. The two powerful mages lay prone on the ground. “Giorno might keep us alive…” Corona grunted. “Kars won’t,” Nanoha coughed. Corona sighed. “I had so much left to do…” “You always feel that way,” Nanoha said. The two of them saw Kars produce his arm-blades, aiming for both of their hearts. They didn’t have the energy in them to resist in this situation they knew they couldn’t win in. And then time stopped. Aradia appeared in front of them and lifted them to their feet with her telekinesis. “You look like you need a hand.” Corona let out a sigh of relief – an action that was painful to her broken ribs. “Ow. Ow.” “You two have somewhere to go,” Aradia said, numerous temporal copies of herself appearing alongside her. “I can take care of this now. Go, find Starbeat.” Corona nodded. “Right.” She prepared the teleport – but stopped. “Aradia, look out!” “Hm? None of them have time po-” “Gold Experience Requiem i-” Giorno’s Stand moved on its own through Aradia’s stopped time, punching the Aradia that was in the stopped time – somehow freezing her and letting all the rest of time to resume. Another Aradia froze everything, but Gold Experience Requiem still moved. “Well this is going to be a little challenging,” the new Aradia commented. “Still, go, I have nearly endless lives. You don’t. I can keep them busy now.” Nanoha nodded. She lifted Raising Heart, scanning for the source of Starbeat’s tremendous discharge of magic… and about ten seconds later teleported herself and Corona away. It didn’t take long for Aradia to discover the true pain that was fighting Gold Experience Requiem. Aradias began falling like dominoes in the middle of stopped time. “Okay, okay, your ability is cheap!” Aradia flung her arms wide – only to be shot into a time loop of her own creation by Gold Experience Requiem. At this point Aradia was able to use her psychic powers to sense the location of the Stand, but she couldn’t imagine how in reality it was actually doing anything. “What are you!?” “A requiem Stand,” Gold Experience Requiem said. “…You can talk!?” “My ability is to ensure my target never reaches reality.” “Manifesting as a very complicated undo button with a lot of strange side effects, apparently,” Aradia muttered. She was hit by Gold Experience Requiem and frozen in her own time. “You know, I kinda fail to see how this applies,” another Aradia muttered, narrowing her eyes. “I think Alushy has a word for this.” “Complete Bullshit?” “Yeah. Yeah, that’s it.” Aradia narrowed her eyes. “So, I’m going to have to be clever here.” “You will never reach reality.” “Yeah, but my past self can knock your user out. No matter how independent you are, you still need Giorno’s will to operate.” She winked. “Goodbyyyye!” A past version of Aradia kicked Giorno across the base of the skull in stopped time, and then allowed time to resume so Giorno would register the kick. He passed out – and Gold Experience Requiem was recalled. Aradia smirked, smiling at the rest of her opponents. “Sweet!” Alushy shouted. “You beat the Complete Bullshit Stand!” A few dozen Aradia’s cracked their knuckles. “And the rest of you can’t do anything to me!” She tried to stop time again – but found it didn’t work. Shortly thereafter she felt all her control over time vanish. Time manipulation was no longer allowed in this universe. Aradia did a count – there were over a hundred of her still in the Collection. But she wasn’t going to be able to make any more now… She was going to have to be careful. Considering how three of her had died while she was contemplating this, she wasn’t off to a very good start. Superman plowed into her miniature army, knocking her selves down like bowling pins. Kars threw a bunch of piranhas into her group, severely wounding many of her. Most of Aradia took to the sky, resorting to whips and telekinesis to fight. She discovered the hard way that Tornado’s telekinesis was leagues ahead of her own. Five Aradias at once tried to go at her in a telekinesis battle, all five were crushed against distant walls. “Sorry, but it looks like I have to…” Aradia muttered, forcing one of her selves to tap into her spirit powers. She pointed at Kars, ready to remove his spirit from his body. But then Death himself showed up. He extinguished Aradia’s soul with ease. I AM SORRY, GUARDIAN OF SPIRITS. “No way, they got you t-” the Aradia saying this fell back, dead. I AM THE DEATH ORIGINALLY TAKEN FROM THE DISC YEARS AGO. Another Aradia fell. Alushy, Tornado, Superman, and Kars stopped doing anything – they just watched Death work without inhibitions. IT IS A HORRIBLE MISUSE OF MY POWER. IF ONLY THERE WERE A PUNISHMENT WORSE THAN DEATH THAT COULD BE GIVEN TO THE COLLECTOR FOR THIS HEINOUS ACT. Some Aradias tried to run, but Death took care of them first. One Aradia tried to attack Death’s spirit, but it was far too strong a light for a mere Maid of Time to deal with. She fell- and fell again. And again. Aradia realized with no small amount of fear that she had no backups outside the Collection right now. There were a handful of her selves spread around in other locations, but that was less than a dozen. She could actually die here. Death reduced the number of Aradias before him down to one. I HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO HUNT DOWN THE REST OF YOU INSIDE THIS COLLECTION. ARADIA, YOUR LONG LIFE WILL END HERE, IN THIS PLACE. I AM TRULY SORRY. Aradia sighed. “I won’t hold a grudge over it.” “Pff, that’s stupid!” a new, female voice blurted. A young woman walked up to Aradia – her hair flowing in the nonexistent breeze, her intelligent emerald eyes scanning the world around them. “Anyone who kills you deserves to get a least a little revenge handed to them.” Death stared at her. “…WHO ARE YOU?” “Oh, little old me?” she chuckled. “Name’s Monika. Aaaaand… You want to take a nap!” Death’s body twitched as if it were made of a glitch – and then he fell asleep. “I didn’t know he could sleep,” Alushy observed. “He couldn’t,” Monika said, smirking. “Let’s see what I can do to your character file…” Superman punched her through the gut, making her cry out in pain. An instant later she was perfectly fine and Superman was on the ground, clutching his chest. “W-what?” “Kryptonite mode! Enjoy feeling like a small bit of Kryptonite is next to you until I switch it off!” Monika grinned. “Whooo’s next on the editing train?” Aradia let out a laugh. “With you on our side we can just go to the Collector and make quick work of him!” “Maybe,” Monika said, making Alushy’s wings stop functioning and forcing Kars to eat his own piranhas. “But I don’t have any idea where he is. Just figured that you were the good guy here since, you know, you were being beat to a pulp and the guy who was killing you was apologizing for it.” “It is a complicated situation,” Aradia admitted. “Hey, you have access to the ‘code of the universe’ right?” “Yeah, why?” “Think you can turn time travel back on?” Monika grinned. “I sure can try!” ~~~ The Collector rammed his fist through his monitor. “Why did it have to be Monika!?” “I would say it was just random, but ka probably conspired against us here,” Thanos suggested. “She could ruin everything…” the Collector growled. “It was nearly impossible to trap her in there in the first place! Just… Gah!” The Collector pressed a button again – undoing Monika’s edit of reality to again disallow time travel. He knew in a few seconds she would just add it back, and he’d have to push the button again… A pointless, vicious cycle that was likely to bring about paradoxes like candy at a movie theater. “Lightning only needs a few more minutes…” the Collector grunted. “To do what?” “The plan, Thanos. The plan.” Thanos looked at the Collector. “…I’m starting to wonder if you actually have a plan.” “The good thing about our relationship is that you don’t actually have to have faith in me, you just have to do what I say. Keep analyzing. If you can find a way to defeat Monika, I’m all ears. It took several hours to get her in there last time and we really don’t have that right now.” Thanos shook his head. “I suggest keeping her distracted until whatever Lightning’s doing completes.” The Collector nodded, continuing his pacing and rubbing his knuckles. Monika better not screw this up at the last minute. ~~~ Corona knew a conditioning spell when she saw one. The instant Nanoha teleported them into the Catcher room, Corona intercepted the spell from Lightning and dissipated the energy. “How about no, we don’t brainwash Starbeat?” “Oh thank goodness,” Starbeat said, sighing in relief. “I’m re-” She blinked. “You two look like you went through a meat grinder.” “Not that far off…” Nanoha muttered, coughing up blood. Corona noticed who their opponents were – Lightning, Rick, and the entire Primary Team of Merodi Universalis. None of them looked even slightly injured, while both Corona and Nanoha had been just shy of death mere moments ago. Rick lifted his button to press it – but Lightning held her hand. “No, Rick. These two will make excellent additions to the Collection. We can take them as they are.” Just to be safe Corona teleported Rick’s button away from him and sent it to a pocket dimension. “Great going Lightning, there goes the instant win button,” Rick spat. “Whatever, it’s your funeral.” Lightning drew her weapon – a foldable gunblade, capable of acting as both a shortsword and a burst rifle at the same time. She pointed it at Nanoha and Corona. “Just turn yourselves in. I don’t want to accidentally kill you in a fight.” “We can’t win this…” Nanoha muttered. “I want to punch her smug face in anyway,” Corona said, curling her fingers. “It’ll be fun.” “I think both of us would rather live, hrm?” Corona thought for a moment – and dropped her fist. “…I hate it when the answer is to just surrender. Always feels nasty.” “YOU DON’T HAVE TO WIN!” Starbeat shouted. “JUST DESTROY THIS PILLAR RIGHT HERE BY ATTACKING THIS RED SPOT AND KEEP NOVA FROM REWINDING IT!” She raised a shield, blocking a death ray shot from Rick, but was unable to stop Lightning’s ‘Thundaja’ spell. It forced her mane to stand on end and her entire nervous system to freeze up, paralyzing her. Corona blinked, turning to Nanoha. “Think we can do that?” “DIVINE BUSTER!” Nanoha shouted, unleashing a torrent of energy at the pillar’s weak spot. Lightning placed herself in the beam’s path. “Shellga!” A shimmering green shell appeared around her, deflecting the beam. Vriska and Jotaro moved in next, pummeling Nanoha with everything they had. Her luck was sapped and she was punched enough to pass out completely. Meanwhile Corona was setting up a cascade spell while dodging Rick and Nova’s energy blasts – specifically Rick’s, since they were more deadly. She was managing to hold her own using a combination of Bacon Pancakes and automatic defense spells loaded off onto Raging Sights. And then Pinkie had to ruin the entire thing by appearing inside the shield and smacking Corona with a squeaky hammer, interrupting her cascade spell. The explosion went off, but it wasn’t powerful enough to bring the Catcher down. Another hit from the hammer knocked Corona to the floor, prone. “Aaaaand gotcha!” Pinkie cheered. Corona grunted, lifting up her hand. A yellow magic circle appeared around it. “Corona don’t make me beat you up more.” The magic circle activated – and sent out a pathetic yellow squirt of energy. Corona let out a sigh and let her body go limp. She wasn’t out cold, but she really didn’t have any energy left. She’d way overtaxed herself at this point. Flutterfree sighed. “Well, I think that was our last-ditch attempt to get out of this mess.” Rick grunted. “You talk like you expected them to succeed.” “I did,” Flutterfree said. “All it would take was one carefully planned shot. If they hadn’t already been so weak… We would be free right now.” Lightning shrugged. “That might be true. But don’t let your guard down. It’s times like this when someone pulls something completely unexpected out.” “You got that right,” Starbeat said, a small yellow circle of magic still rotating around her horn, curing her of paralysis. She drove her horn into the weak point and flooded it with magic again. Nova tried to rewind time – but she found that the universe no longer allowed the manipulation of time. The Catcher exploded. Starbeat leaped back to avoid extensive damage from the shrapnel. And the Catcher’s loyalty conditioning completely failed across the Collection. ~~~ Many universes away, in a padded cell, the Twilight known as GM felt something. Freedom. She let out a truly joyous laugh, the elated motion forcing tears out of her eyes. Freedom. ~~~ Every being still conscious within the Collection felt a weight on their soul vanish. Everywhere, fighting stopped. The Collected dropped their weapons – many breaking down into tears of joy or dances of celebration. Many of them had been here for longer than their natural lifespans and didn’t know what to do with the freedom. They just froze. It was a select few who were actually loyal to the Collector, and the majority of them knew fighting would be pointless now that enemies surrounded them. They kept quiet while the celebrations broke out. Gyro was doing none of these things. He and Olivia were pulling a large sled made from cobbled together pieces of metal through the Plaza. “HEALER!” Gyro called. “WE NEED A HEALER!” A girl in a white dress and similarly colored pointy hat lifted up the folds in her clothing and ran over to them. Her face was that of someone who had been through their own personal gauntlet, but her body seemed perfectly healthy – a testament to her abilities. “Who’s dead and who’s not?” Olivia moved Lieshy and Lileur to the side, leaving Morty, Ivan, Johnny, Froppy, and Lady Rarity on the sled – only the latter two were conscious. The white mage clapped her hands and infused the five of them with life. Morty, who had been clinging onto life by a thread, gasped and sat up, eyes wide. “…What have I done?” “The Collector’s bidding,” Froppy muttered, rubbing her head. “I hope they’ve turned him into a bottlecap.” Morty didn’t have anything to say – he just stared at the forms of Lileur and Lieshy. Ivan, now fully reconstituted, looked at his hand and sighed. The white mage dusted her hands. “Right…” she said, breathing heavy. “I can try Arise, but it hasn’t been working lately. I think the flow of life in this universe has been horribly corrupted.” Gyro equipped steel balls in his hands and placed them to the heads of the two corpses. “Try it anyway.” The white mage checked with the others – they all nodded, save Morty, who couldn’t stop staring. “Arise! Arise!” She called, flooding the bodies with white light. Then she took several steps back. The spell bounced off Lieshy’s body, rejected. It went into Lileur… and brought back something that wanted to eat them. Gyro took care of the thing before it could attack – just a little Spin to the back of the head. The white mage stared at Lieshy’s body. “…Are you sure she was alive in the conventional sense?” “Yeah,” Lady Rarity said. “Healing magic worked on her before.” She walked over to the form of her friend, shaking her head. “But there was something odd about the end…” “She’d touched the room at the top of the Tower,” Olivia pointed out. “Maybe… Maybe that has something to do with it?” “What does it really matter?” Lady Rarity asked. “It just means she’s not coming back.” Olivia put a hand to her face, hiding her expression. “This is all my fault…” Morty said. “This is the Collector’s fault,” Gyro said, putting a hand on Morty’s shoulder. “Kid, you know better than most how cruel and horrendous the multiverse can be. Don’t let this be the thing that gets to you. Don’t let the Collector consume you.” “Everyone good? Good.” The white mage picked up the folds of her dress and ran elsewhere. “I’ve got more healing to do!” She met up with a group of other, similarly dressed healers who talked for a few moments and spread out, giving everyone the aid they needed. “…At least it’s over now,” Olivia said. “I guess we won.” Gyro smirked in Olivia’s direction. “Yeah. Yeah you did. I’ve never been so glad to be on the losing side in my entire life.” ~~~ The Collector forced himself to sit down in his main chair; refusing to let his hands move nervously. It was the time to end all times. He would not let the nervous habits get the better of him, no matter how much it drove his stress levels through the roof. “Thanos?” the Collector asked. “Mm?” “You’re free. You can go now.” “I’m aware,” Thanos said. “But I meant what I said earlier. I believe in what you’re doing. You seek a better multiverse.” “…It’s nice to know some people just get what I’m doing. Even if it is you. You do know you’re basically the face of ‘greater scope villain’ right?” Thanos shrugged. “It is a role I find no issue being assigned, even if I do not agree with it.” The Collector nodded. “Thanos… They’ll be coming. I want you to let what happens happen. You obviously have choice of your own now… but that’s my request. Just let it happen.” Thanos looked incredulously at the Collector. Then his gaze softened. “I think I see what you’re planning.” “Really? Cause at this point I’m not so sure anymore.” Thanos said nothing, opting to stand at the far left of the Collector, hands behind his back. There was silence in the Collector’s office for all of ten seconds. The Collector began tapping his fingers on the desk. “…You know I wish they’d hurry up and ge he-” With a flash of blue light, everyone who had been in the Catcher’s room appeared – Rick, Lightning, Starbeat, Nanoha, Nova, Pinkie, Vriska, Jotaro, Flutterfree, Allure, and Corona. Rick unleashed a death beam – but the Collector’s personal force field deflected it. The Collector stopped all other motions to end him by lifting his free hand, revealing it to be wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. “That won’t work in this universe,” Nova said, nervously. “I can alter the fundamental nature of any single universe with the push of a button,” the Collector said. “What makes you think I can’t make this item work here?” He pointed at them with the Infinity Gauntlet, making the large group twitch in fear – save Lightning. She just looked sad. “One thought, and all of you are disintegrated,” the Collector said. “You would be no more. I could snap these fingers and extinguish every life within this universe, including the Flower fleet. I co-” Pinkie was holding the Infinity Gauntlet in her front left hoof, standing on the desk next to the Collector. “…You don’t have to try to sell it anymore,” she said. “You’ve gone far enough.” The Collector gripped the edge of his desk with his fingers, silent. Nobody moved – the scene might as well have just been Pinkie and the Collector, standing alone at a desk. Pinkie produced a simple katana with a black hilt, hefting it behind her head – aiming for the Collector’s neck. “You ready?” “…Ready,” the Collector breathed. His life flashed before his eyes. A kid who liked stories, perhaps too much. Loved to learn everything about them. Obsessive to the point of a fault, a fault that sometimes got him in trouble. But he enjoyed his life immensely, content when most people of the world weren’t. He grew up like this. …And then he found the simple mind control device and a dimensional device, buried under a tree in the woods. It had just been a simple camping trip. But that day he was overcome with a realization of what he could do – and what all this meant. He had spent a long time theorizing about the multiverse. He knew it was the multiverse he had pondered over the years. He knew before he left that the multiverse was a terrible place. He knew what he could do about it. Using his knowledge of fiction, he entered certain worlds and manipulated the events to his favor, placing people under his control to accomplish these goals. It started out just with the villains and the unsavory types, but he eventually moved to heroes, finding that it was much easier to give them advice if they had no choice but to take it. And the Collection was born. He subjugated some science-fiction types to help him build it, and from the very start prepared to hide from beings like the Flowers. He knew they existed – though at the time he wasn’t positive they would be the Flowers, or something he hadn’t considered yet. One of the first worlds had Lightning… She understood his dream, eventually. He spent much of his flashback thinking of her and all they’d built. Then of all those centuries in the Collection… Accumulating more and more people, more and more power, more and more experiences with all these people… Where would they be without him? Nowhere, that’s where. They wouldn’t have amounted to anything anywhere near what he had offered them. Nothing at all. And here he was, about to get his head cut off. About to die and give up everything. About to die… He… … …He didn’t want to die after all. The Collector held up a hand, catching Pinkie’s katana. “…I’ve changed my mind.” Pinkie’s eyes widened. “But… But your plan!” “As it turns out… I’m still a human being. I… I can’t go through with it.” With a flick of his wrist, she was sent flying backward, Infinity Gauntlet and katana flying away with her. Lightning held out a hand to the Collector. “G-” “Sorry Lightning. Change of plans.” He pressed a button in his arm, activating the expansion protocols within his mechanical suit. His human body remained the same size, but his armor popped open like popcorn, folding out larger mechanical folds that were definitely too large to fit inside the original suit. He kept growing, the suit replacing the larger pieces of armor with even bigger ones. Nanoha pointed Raising Heart at him. “BOOST!” She called. Everyone with magic in the room gave her power, allowing her to form a sphere of magic. Rick took out seven different kinds of guns and fired them all remotely – every burst of energy deflecting right off the Collector’s armor. “How the fuck!?” “It’s made of every unbreakable alloy he could find,” Thanos reported. “Good luck finding anything that can break it.” The Collector turned around just before he became too big for the office – punching out the back aquarium wall. Three walls later, he emerged into the Collection Plaza, still growing. “I’m not done yet!” He yelled at all the people below, holding up his hand. “The Collection is mine! It isn’t going to be taken from me today!” He may not have had the Catcher anymore – but he still had the simple mind-control device he’d picked up all those years ago. Everyone with a weak mind in the Plaza succumbed to his will in an instant. “Let’s remove these invaders! And once we’re done we’ll move the Collection where not even the Flowers will be able to find it!” “S-STARLIGHT BREAKER!” Nanoha managed, pushing every last ounce of effort she could muster into the spell, adding a focus spell to it. It would only hit the Collector in a focused beam. The Collector was now large enough to stop the beam with his hand. The power of the White Devil wasn’t enough to power through the anti-magic of the Collector’s armor. Nanoha let out a soft laugh. “Of course that didn’t work…” she passed out, falling into Corona’s arms. Monika appeared in front of the Collector’s face. “Hey, guess what?” The Collector didn’t give her a response – his now dinosaur-sized body swiped at her, flattening her like a pancake against his palm. She glitched back into existence, fully healthy, with an annoyed expression on her face. “Well aren’t you grumpy.” He summoned swords into either of his hands, planning to cut her to shreds. “Fine, be that way.” She accessed the universe’s physics files. “There you go. Mind control is now impossible here. Enjoy!” The Collector swung at her – but she was already gone. Then his day really started going downhill. The entire Collection surged as an army against the Collector. Superman punched the Collector across the Plaza, embedding him in the far wall of the nation-sized cavern. The Collector’s girth crushed many beneath him – but there was a Higher Angel nearby, continually healing everyone except the Collector. A few PPC agents were working with lesser ka-technology – probably to ensure casualties were kept to an absolute minimum. “I brought you all here!” he shouted, bathing the ground of the plaza in an eldritch pink fire. “Don’t you understand what a gift that is!? What we were working for!?” Tornado appeared in front of him, eyes livid. “Nobody understands.” She worked together with other psychics to psychically press him back into the wall. “GOLD EXPERIENCE REQUIEM!” Giorno shouted, preventing several of the Collector’s attacks from even firing. “STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!” Jotaro shouted, pummeling the Collector’s feet. Vriska rolled eight eights and plowed right through the armor on the Collector’s left arm. Aradia summoned a torrent of spirits whose deaths the Collector had caused, bringing down judgment. Alushy joined, giving her own spirits to the onslaught of retribution. Pinkie Pie threw the Unbreakable Katana between the Collector’s eyes. Johnny unleashed the Infinite Spin on the Collector’s chest, twisting him to the point of breaking. Gyro joined with Ball Breaker. Kars launched a lava flow at the Collector, using biology that didn’t make sense in most universes – but was just fine here. Hundreds of others unleashed finisher, end-of-series style attacks at the Collector, bringing the giant to his knees. “ENOUGH!” the Collector shouted, undoing everything with a quick reality edit. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM!?” He drove his foot into the ground, shaking the entire Collection. “I AM THE ONE WHO BROUGHT YOU ALL TOGETHER! I AM THE ONE WHO MADE THIS POWER POSSIBLE! I AM THE CREATOR OF THIS FORCE FOR THE BETTERMENT OF ALL! DO YOU DARE FIGHT ME FOR DOING WHAT NEEDED TO BE DONE!?” “IT DIDN’T NEED TO BE DONE!” Starbeat shouted. For a single moment, it was just the Collector and Starbeat. Explosions happened around them, but in their perceptions, it was just them. “You didn’t have to do any of this,” Starbeat growled. “You’re not cursed. A Gary Stu doesn’t have to be evil.” “I’m not evil,” the Collector said. Starbeat raised an eyebrow. “…I’m evil for a purpose,” the Collector corrected. “I don’t think you are. Not anymore, at least.” The Collector charged. “MINI-NUKE!” Corona shouted, creating an explosion that most certainly gave half the people within eyesight a form of cancer, but it had the intended effect of pushing the Collector back. Corona could hear the healers groan about all the cancer they were going to have to cure now. She’d apologize later. “You have no idea who I am…” the Collector said, punching Superman out of the sky. “What I am is beyond your understanding!” “A Gary Stu Self-Insert!” Jay’s voice rang out through the Collection. “Who really needs to be assassinated. Your time’s out, Collector! Just give in already.” “Even you have just barely scratched the surface!” the Collector shouted at the PPC agent. “I am not just some glitch for you to deal with! I am the Self-Insert of the Prophet of this story! I AM G. M. BLACKJACK! AND I CAN ONLY BE DEFEATED IF I WILL IT TO BE SO!” “Wrong,” a single voice said. The Collector whirled to see Lightning standing in the hole that led to his office. The Infinity Gauntlet was on her hand, pointed right at him. “Lightning…” “Goodbye.” She snapped her fingers. The Collector’s body began to disintegrate – armor and everything within, flaking off like specks of paper. He let his limbs fall limp. He crashed to his knees, looking up. It was anyone’s guess as to what he was looking at. “I’m sorry,” he said. Nobody knew whom the apology was addressed to. Then he laughed bitterly. It was the last noise he ever made. The Collector was no more. Lightning snapped the Infinity Gauntlet once more, using it for the more mundane task of floating into the center of the Plaza. “Everyone within the Collection, listen to me!” She called, her voice reaching every person in the universe. “You know me as Lightning, the Collector’s second in command. If you don’t know already, he is no more. I killed him.” She took a breath. “All of you – no matter who you are – are free to return to your home universes. Hero or villain, it doesn’t matter, you’ve been kept here long enough. The teleporters will soon be altered to accommodate interdimensional warping. But I understand that a lot of you won’t want to return home. Some of your universes are no more. Some of you have been here centuries. Some of you may not return for some other reason. “Hear this – this is the end of the Collector, but not the end of the Collection. I ask - not command - all of you to stay here with us to continue protecting the multiverse. We will not serve the vision of one man, but a collective vision that all of us strive toward! Let us turn all the evil that the Collector has done to something good!” She raised the Infinity Gauntlet into the air. “No more will we stand for slavery, power, or control! We will stand for justice, honor, and the defense of what is beautiful! We are the Collection! We will not let our tragedy fizzle out into nothing! We will take it by the horns and transform it into a legacy of our own!” There were cheers. Lightning smiled. “We need to form a council to lead us. Anyone who is interested, make your way to the center of the Plaza. Today is the day we decide what we will be doing moving forward.” She snapped her fingers, returning to the wet, ruined Collector’s office. She looked to Thanos first. She put her Gauntlet-covered hand on his shoulder. “I don’t agree with anything you do. I need you on that council with me.” Thanos smiled. “I figured as much.” Lightning turned to the Merodi, Rick, and Nanoha. “The invitation extends to all of you as well.” Rick burped. “Lemme thi- FUCK NO! I’m grabbing Morty and I’m out of here. Goodbye suckers!” He pressed a button inside his jacket and vanished in a puff of blue smoke. “Same,” Pinkie said. “We already have something we belong to. But I’m willing to stay around and throw a party!” “I’ll have you coordinate with any other Pinkies,” Lightning assured her. “…I’ll stay,” Starbeat said. Everyone turned to stare at her in disbelief. “Are… Are you sure?” Vriska asked her. Lightning leaned down to be eye level with Starbeat. “You were never actually part of us… You only pretended to be. You’re an outsider. Do you really want to stay?” “I’m entering a new chapter of my life, freedom from the curse and all that.” Starbeat set her face, determined. “I’m ready for something completely different. My only condition is that we keep the doors open so Vriska can visit.” “Awwwwww,” Corona said. Lightning nodded. “Thanos, think we’ll have any issues letting the people who freed us back in?” “None at all.” Pinkie glared at Thanos. “I’m gonna be watchin’ you, makin’ sure you don’t act out on your evil-ness.” Thanos made no response. Nanoha coughed, managing to stand herself up. “…He actually did want to die, didn’t he, Lightning?” Lightning nodded slowly. “I kept a promise.” “It was his plan the entire time,” Jotaro said matter-of-factly. “From the start, wasn’t it?” Lightning nodded. “We’d barely begun when he decided this was how it was going to end. With a grand battle where the Collection was freed from his tyrannical grip. He knew he was evil. So he planned his own defeat.” She looked over them all, expression unreadable. “Please, don’t tell that to the Collection. If they know that they’re just doing what he wanted… It will fall apart. They have to think we’re defying him.” Nanoha nodded. “The secret is safe with the TSAB.” “Merodi Universalis as well,” Pinkie asserted. “Riiiiight everyone?” Everyone nodded. Lightning pointed at Starbeat and Thanos. “We need to go – they’re probably waiting for us at this point. All of you… The losses you’ve suffered, the pain you’ve gone through… We can never repay it. It is unforgivable. I thank you for what you’ve done.” Allure’s scowl softened. “It… It’s not okay. But I understand why.” Corona nodded. “I do as well. For what it’s worth, I wish you luck protecting the multiverse. Tone down the extremism a bit though, okay?” Lightning nodded. “I’m fairly certain we will.” She snapped her fingers again, taking Starbeat and Thanos away. Vriska wiped her eyes. “…Look at her. She doesn’t even need me anymore.” “Nnononono!” Pinkie said, putting a hoof to Vriska’s face. “She still needs you. You’ll never not need each other. Got it!?” “…Got it.” “Glad we’ve come to an understanding.” Pinkie yawned. “...I’m going to go find a bed before I plan that party. It’s time for this really, really long adventure to end.” ~~~ Rick appeared in the center of the Plaza next to Morty and Gyro. “All right Morty, we’re blowing this joint. I’m thinking I’ve got an account somewhere that’ll have accumulated a fuck ton of interest we can blow in Blitz and Chitz all at once.” “Rick, listen to me, because I’m only going to say this once,” Morty said. “Uuuugh, what is it?” “No.” Rick blinked. “What?” “Kid said no,” Gyro said, folding his arms. “Shut up Ballsy,” Rick said. “What do you mean, no, Morty?” Morty didn’t falter. “I mean I’m not going to Blitz and Chitz with you. I mean I’m not going adventuring with you. I mean I’m staying here and going to try to get on the council, if they’ll have me.” “Morty, stop being stupid. Let’s get out of here.” “This place has been better to me than you ever were!” Morty shouted. “It wasn’t just continual pointless ‘fun’ that scarred me for life! There was a purpose behind it! And the Collector never treated me like I was a worthless piece of shit!” “Morty, he was evil.” “And you aren’t!?” Morty blurted. “You’re basically the same! Except he actually had a conscience somewhere in there. You’ve got nothing!” “It’s a weakness, Morty.” “You ruined me Rick!” Morty shouted. “I killed two people today! Two! People! I didn’t have to! There were ways around it! But I’ve been conditioned by you to shoot first and ask questions later! To not care!” Tears started dripping down his face. “That was you Rick! And I was too weak and alone to stop you from doing that!” Rick put a hand to his forehead. “Look, Morty, you aren’t thinking straight. What about your family? If you sta-” “I can go back to them and tell them what’s happened,” Morty said. “Easily. They’ll probably support me becoming a hero rather than your personal sidekick. And you know what else? I’ve already talked with Gyro, he’s going to try to get my original Earth into the USM! To fix what you and I did to it!” “Morty do you have any idea how hard I try to avoid multiversal societies!?” “Exactly! That’s why I’m signing us up! Because you’d never let it happen!” “MORTY!” Rick shouted. Gyro stepped forward, taking a defensive posture in front of Morty. “Oh, have you replaced me now? Is that it?” Rick blurted. “What’s this fashion reject going to do for you?” “He’s going to take me on adventures that don’t suck!” Morty shouted. Rick grabbed Morty’s arm. “That’s it, I’m done talking about this. We’re going.” “No you’re not,” Gyro said, summoning Ball Breaker. “Oh and what are you gonna do? Spin me to death with your smooth baby balls!?” “I can try. And if that doesn’t work…” “…I’ll take a turn,” Ivan said, stepping forward. “Then I will,” Johnny said, pointing his fingers at Rick. “Ribbit,” Froppy said aggressively. Olivia drew her gun and pointed at Rick. “Just another hat in the ring.” Lady Rarity slammed her hammer onto the ground, cracking it. “I might just lose control of myself, dear, and try to eat you.” Others made their intentions known – Aradia, Superman, Giorno, Alushy, and dozens more. All people ready to defend Morty, or people looking for an excuse to punch Rick’s smug face in. The vast majority were both. Morty tore his arm away from Rick. “Go away, Rick. I don’t need you.” Rick pulled out his portal gun, created a portal, and walked through it. It vanished with an unceremonious pop. The moment he was gone Morty started hyperventilating. “That took everything I had in me…” Gyro put a hand on his shoulder. “You did good, Morty.” “Thanks…” ~~~ Allure walked in the front door of the League of Sweetie Belles. Her mane was tattered, she had bloodstains in numerous places on her white coat, and she just looked tired. She didn’t care about any of this – anything that had been serious had already been healed. What she did care about was who Squeaky had on her back. Minna stared at Allure. Allure stared back at Minna. Minna leaped off Squeaky so hard the poor unicorn’s head hit the floor. Allure ran toward Minna, infusing her legs with magic for a burst of speed. Mother and child collided, laughing and crying, falling into a pile on the ground. The Sweeties in the League looked on with proud, joyous smiles at the reunion. Alushy poked her head in the front doors, opting to lean against the doorframe instead of actually coming in. She lowered her glasses, watching Allure and Minna, together once again. That’s all I needed to do, she thought, putting her glasses back on. She turned to leave. “Alushy, wait,” Allure called. Alushy turned around. “I was just dropping by, I d-” “Thank you.” Allure said, giving Alushy a peck on the cheek. “You were there for Minna and did so much to help us.” Alushy rubbed her cheek. “…Well that was unexpected.” “Don’t read too much into it. Especially because there’s a second half to it.” “Wha-” Allure slapped Alushy across the face. “What were you thinking doing all those things with Minna!? She’s seven Alushy! SEVEN! That’s not even old enough to work at the TSAB!” “I don’t operate according to the rules of society, Allure. I eat ponies.” Allure sighed. “…You can visit Minna, if you want. But only while I’m there too.” “All right, all right, I get it, I’m the dog, you’re the one who puts me in the doghouse. It’s like we’re an old married couple already!” Allure facehooved. “Oh for the…” Alushy chuckled. “I’ll be off then. See you around, Minna. Maybe I’ll find something fun for us to do your mother doesn’t find absolutely disgusting. Why, I hear the-” Minna stopped her short, hugging the vampire pegasus tight. “Thank you for finding Mom.” “Oh you’re too precious… Hnng… Think I’m having a heart attack…” Allure raised an eyebrow. “You’re undead.” “I have enough blood inside me to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool! …I think. The point is that blood has to flow somehow.” “Or maybe it’s just under pressure.” “Sounds like something to experiment on!” Minna said. “I’ll get a knife!” “Minna no!” Allure yelled. “Minna yes!” Alushy called. The two ponies looked at each other and decided the situation was so absurd the only reasonable response was laughter. ~~~ Corona returned to the Golden Joke bruised, battered, and really really tired. Despite this, she was more than willing to rush Eve into a hug from behind. “WAUGH!” Eve shouted. “I’m back!” Corona said, grinning. “And better than ever!” “You look like you went through a meat grinder.” Corona blinked. “Oddly enough, you’re not the first person to use that metaphor on me today. At least I fixed all the bones.” A sharp pain hit her in the side. “…Maybe I missed one. Ow.” She placed her hand on her pain and started healing it. “How bad was it?” “Lost a lot of people,” Corona said. “On both sides. Not as genocidal as the Bloodbath – not by a long shot – but still hard. I don’t even know who’s alive and who isn’t at this point…” A haunted look came over her face. “I still don’t know who that was…” “Who what was?” “I’ll find out eventually.” She stretched. “It… It was harder than the Bloodbath too. After a bit, it was clear that we were going to win there. Here… We got lucky a lot of times, from what I hear. Very lucky.” “Perhaps it’s fate,” Eve said, smiling. “Ka needed us to win.” “It sounds like it was a lot of things,” Corona muttered, deciding to sit down on the ground. “But it feels good to finally be done with it. Once again I don’t think we really have any enemies.” Eve smiled, looking at all the people walking around the Golden Joke – people from all the local multiversal societies. “Brutalight’s still out there somewhere. As is Flagg.” Corona nodded. “Brutalight doesn’t seem like much of a threat anymore. And Flagg… I don’t think he’ll be back for a while yet.” Eve nodded in agreement. “Think we can finally stop holding our breaths?” Corona spread her wings and started preening them with her fingers. “Maybe. Maybe not. At the very least we don’t have to spend every waking moment of our time stressing out over some big bad looming over our heads.” “…Maybe,” Eve said, gaining a glazed over expression. “What is it?” “Nothing important for now,” Eve said. “And no, I’m not trying to just blow you off, it really isn’t important.” She stretched her wings. “Want to go grab something to eat? I won’t have to make a speech until things settle down.” “Sure!” Corona said. “I need to do something that doesn’t involve people trying to kill me for a while.” ~~~ Nova barged down the door to her home, expecting the interior to be a complete mess. To her surprise it wasn’t any messier than usual. “…Huh,” she said, walking into the dining room to see Sunburst and Stardust sitting at the table. “Oh! You’re back!” Sunburst called, brightening up in an instant. “…You think they would have called me.” “It’s a mess back there,” Nova said, taking a seat at the table. She looked at her three-year-old filly, sitting in a high chair, munching on what was probably mashed potatoes. She was a filly of few words – and few worries. “She called for you a few times,” Sunburst said. “But I think she thought you were just on one of your extended missions. Didn’t notice I was worried at all.” “Ah, to be young and ignorant,” Nova said, sitting back in the chair. “…Sometimes I wish I could have just pretended like nothing was going wrong. …There were a lot of times I didn’t think I would be able to come back.” Sunburst adjusted his glasses. “Well… We would have waited for you anyway. Long as y-” Nova pulled him into a kiss, shutting him up. He didn’t mind. Stardust started laughing. “Apparently we’re amusing,” Sunburst commented. Nova pulled back from Sunburst, smirking. “Well, we are, aren’t we?” “…I dunno. I’ve never been very good at telling what’s funny and what isn’t.” “Ah yes, the ‘dead rabbit’ joke.” “…I still think it’s funny.” “It made Stardust cry! I don’t even think she was able to understand words then!” “I am never going to live that down,” he said matter-of-factly. “Never!” Nova said in her ‘hammy villain’ voice. “…Celestia, I’m glad to be home.” “Mommy’s home!” Stardust blurted. Nova smirked. “You’ve got something on your face, Stardust.” “No I don’t!” “Stardust, stop lying. It’s right there on your chin.” Stardust realized she was trapped so she just clammed her face up and refused to say anything. She did use her horn to remove the potatoes though. Nova rolled her eyes. “You’re crazy, you know that?” Stardust was still in ‘no talking’ mode. “…Right. Well, the joys of being a parent. I get kidnapped and forced to do slave labor for a while, and when I come home there’s clearly a need for a nice talk.” A sparkle appeared in her eyes. “Oh the things I’m going to be able to pull on you when you become a rebellious teenager.” “Um… Should you really be looking forward to that sort of thing?” Sunburst asked. “Shush, Sunburst. I’m in parenting mode.” “…Okay then.” ~~~ Eve cleared her throat. “So, here’s the Golden Joke’s final report as a base for taking care of the Collector. I’m proud to announce that our primary goal has been a complete success!” The Golden Joke’s meeting hall erupted into applause. Eve waited for the motion of the clapping to stop before continuing. “There are some things that everyone should know if they don’t already. First off, the Golden Joke will not be closing after today – the USM has courteously declared this world neutral territory available to all multiversal nations who are interested. Related to this announcement, the Eldritch Embodiment and TSAB have agreed to send representatives here more regularly. The Flowers denied the request and have stopped answering any of our communications. “The Collection is a bit more complicated than that. They have agreed to keep an open channel to the Golden Joke for personal reasons, but they have decided that they don’t want to be connected to any particular part of the multiverse. They will move back into hiding, out of sight from all but the most powerful societies. They will work from the shadows, making the multiverse a better place with little acts of heroism. We have all agreed to wish them luck in their endeavor, and are in the process of signing a treaty to formalize our admittedly nuanced relationship with them. “A memorial for those lost in the battle against the Collector will be constructed at this site within the next few days. May we always remember their sacrifice.” She let there be a moment of silence. “…I just want to say thank you to all of you who have put so much of their lives into fighting the Collector. All those hours banging our heads against the wall, looking for answers – they were not in vain. We accomplished what we set out to do, everyone. Let’s move on to the new era.” Applause filled the room as she stepped down from the stage. ~~~ It was a rare day when Valentine laughed jovially. He was usually a rather serious individual. But Gyro just had a certain way about him that brought out the best in the Ambassador. “I worked on thirteen verses to this song!” Gyro said, pouring himself more of a strange, green alcoholic beverage. “Turns out there’s a lot of ways to sing about kicking the Collector where the sun don’t shine.” He did a twirl for effect, dancing around Valentine’s personal lounge. “I think we should only have it in small doses,” Valentine said through his chuckles. “We barely survived the onslaught the first verse gave us.” “Too bad, so sad, I feel like singing. Wooooooooooooooaaaaaah~” Johnny shot a fingernail at Gyro’s glass, shattering it and stopping the song before it started up again. “Mercy! Mercy!” “Johnny…” “Mercy! Merci!” Johnny started laughing. “Johnny, how did you get so drunk so fast?” “The answer… is… Spin…” “He doesn’t go out drinking much,” Valentine said. “He is a family man now, after all.” “I know. His kids are nothing new.” Gyro folded his arms. “How long have you been leaving them hanging to look for me?” “Eleventy-two,” Johnny muttered, “Give or take a year.” Gyro shook his head. “You need to get back to them.” “Right after I catch the tiger.” Johnny grunted. Gyro looked at Valentine. Valentine shrugged. “I don’t know either.” “The world may never know…” Gyro mused. “Right, so, moving away from family talk, how’s about we move onto more pressing matters!” He put his hands on his hips. “Have they made the TV show about our adventures yet?” “Found it,” Johnny said. “Steel Ball Run. Some guy named Araki. Prophet power.” “I mean our adventures. That only started on the Steel Ball Run, Johnny.” “Dunno,” Johnny said, waving his finger in the air. “Probably will try soon though!” Valentine cleared his throat. “I am aware of a team doing an adaptation of our early adventures, yes, attempting to do it in the style of the Steel Ball Run anime.” “…Anime-whatnow?” “It would take way too long to explain.” Gyro shrugged. “Well, I want to see this ‘anime’ thing.” Valentine smirked. “If you wish, I can have it streamed right now.” “You hear that Johnny? We get to rediscover the wonders of sitting on a couch watching stuff!” “I’m too drunk for this…” “That’s exactly as drunk as you need to be!” Gyro laughed. “Let’s get this party into full swing!” He poured everyone more green alcohol. “To us!” “To us,” Valentine said. “To… Us...” Johnny said, barely managing to meet the toast. He then proceeded to pour the green stuff all over his face. Gyro laughed. “Johnny… Never change.” ~~~ Jenny looked at her Wall Of People I Really Want Dead. It was down to two again – the Collector’s picture had been torn down and tossed into a fire. Sure, she may not have done it, and she may have spent most of the fight in deep space, but it still counted. Plus, Ivan was back. “This wall is macabre,” he observed. “That’s what I was missing all this time,” Jenny said, grinning. “I was missing your needlessly pessimistic and defeatist attitude! I was really getting down because it was gone, y’know?” Ivan put a hand to his face and sighed. “Ah, that noise! I forgot how much I loved that noise!” “Is this supposed to make me feel appreciated, or something?” “I dunno, I’m just saying what I think. There is no filter on this crazy train! Choo choo!” “You’re upset you spent most of the fight in space.” “OF COURSE I’M UPSET ABOUT THAT! Who wouldn’t be!? How was I supposed to know he’d be impervious to world-ending punches?” “…Reason?” Jenny twitched in annoyance. “…Welcome back Ivan.” “Thank you.” ~~~ Corona, Lady Rarity, Olivia, and Toph stood in front of the Memorial. It was an hourglass-shaped statue with a large crack purposefully placed in it. Names were engraved in bold letters all around the rounded surface . The four of them looked at one name in particular. LIESHY (FLUTTERSHY) “…If I had known…” Corona said, laying a hand on the name. “If I had known…” “You would have lost your cool and punched Lightning’s lights out,” Toph said. Corona didn’t have any response for this. She stared at the name, silent. “What did she want out of life?” Olivia asked suddenly. “I may have spent the last few years of my life near her… But she was never somebody I could read very well.” “She kept her cards close to her chest,” Lady Rarity admitted. “It was never easy with her… She could be in a foul mood for weeks and not let anybody see it.” “She was content,” Corona said. “She didn’t really want much of anything. She had people she cared about, people who cared about her, and something to keep her occupied. She didn’t want anything more. She was a complicated mare with her words… But deep down, she was simple.” Corona sighed. “She just wanted a life that wasn’t made of lies, and she found one. She was happy, even if she never showed it.” Toph saluted the memorial. “It was an honor.” Lady Rarity wiped her eyes. She was about to say something – but then she saw Morty standing nearby, staring at them. She took a defensive posture out of instinct. Corona held up a hand. Lady Rarity saw it and forced herself to calm down. Corona motioned for Morty to come over. “Uh… I-I should really be going…” “Nonsense,” Corona said, pulling him in with her telekinesis. “You have every right to grieve. We shouldn’t keep you from it.” “…I’m here for selfish reasons though. I didn’t know her. …I just killed her.” “And the fact that you’ve come here means you deserve to be here.” Corona said, tears in her eyes. Her red shades accentuated the streaks on her eyes. “You can pay your respects.” Olivia took a deep breath and let it out. “Yeah. Corona’s right. I can’t promise I’ll be very nice, but go ahead.” Lady Rarity bowed her head. “…I’m sorry.” “Don’t be,” Morty said. “It was a horrible situation for everyone involved. There’s nothing we can do about it.” “We can move past it,” Corona said. “Which is exactly why we’re here.” The five of them took a moment to take in the Memorial. They stood, motionless, for an indeterminate amount of time. It was only when an overweight mud-brown stallion with a serious overbite came in that they broke the silence. “Ah… Clockwork,” Corona said. “…We’ll leave you with her.” “T-thank you,” he said, sitting down right in front of Lieshy’s name. “Who’s he?” Morty asked. “Lieshy’s fiancé,” Toph answered, voice choking. Corona put her wings around Toph, Lady Rarity, Olivia, and Morty, ushering them out in a large hug. None of them left with dry eyes. ~~~ Aradia and Vriska sat on a bench a fair ways from the Memorial. They had already looked at Davepeta’s name – which had, inscribed under it, both Dave Strider and Nepeta Leijon. “I was hoping the three of us would be able to get together and have fun at some point,” Vriska said. “The lost trio.” Aradia nodded. “…It was a beautiful life, Vriska. A life they ended on their own terms.” “Aradia, for once in your morbid life, can you not go all ‘death is fascinating’ on me?” Aradia smiled warmly. “…Sure.” “Thanks,” Vriska said. “…Do you think there’s anyone else who was flung out there?” “Lord English is gone and all the ghosts are sealed. Only you, me, and Davepeta were actually alive there. Not even Hussie was alive. He’s sealed away with all the rest.” “Maybe he’s still fucking with us from there. Death by friend seems like totally part of his style.” Aradia shrugged. “Maybe…” She pulled the Omnitrix out of her robes. “That Davepeta’s thing?” “Mhm. At one point I thought I might be able to revive them with it. It has their DNA inside it, but it doesn’t have any of their memories.” “Was worth a shot,” Vriska said, kicking her feet. Aradia held the Omnitrix up to the sun. “This is a powerful artifact. …I’m not sure what to do with it.” “You could always use it yourself. One Time player passed on to another.” “I’m already really strong, Vriska. I don’t need more of a boost.” “So? Take it anyway. Unless you can think of someone else they wanted to give it to.” Vriska’s frown deepened. “That we have access to.” Aradia nodded. “All right.” She placed the watch on her wrist. “Guess I can turn into anything now.” “Fun times ahead,” Vriska said, not really looking at her. “…Maybe with all these allies we’ll be able to find home soon,” Aradia said. “They never want to help.” “I’m sure that’ll change eventually,” Aradia said. “We’re moving up in the world, Vriska. We’ll find something sooner or later.” Vriska smiled. “That optimism of yours sure is contagious.” “I know! Isn’t it amazing?” “When it’s not that it’s fucking annoying.” Aradia laughed. Vriska rolled her eyes. “There it is…” ~~~ I smiled. “Ah, you’re awake!” Blackjack opened her eyes. “Hnn? …Didn’t I die? …Again?” “Yes,” I answered, helping Blackjack up. She was in my library, along with myself and her alternate, Jackie. Jackie waved at her. “Hey, me.” “Hey myself,” Blackjack said, waving as well. She noticed that her hoof wasn’t mechanical. “Woah…” “Grew you a new body,” I said. “It was easier than fixing everything. Frankly it’ll work better for you as well.” “I am not complaining,” Blackjack declared, stretching her real legs. “Oh this feels good…” “Restrain yourself. Twilence doesn’t need to see you go all out,” Jackie reminded her. Blackjack rolled her eyes. She took this moment to realize she still had wings. “Oh. Hey. I thought I was supposed to lose these when I died for real? Like you. Me. ...Nevermind.” “You were,” I said. “If you had died on Equis Fallout with the correct spirit setup and your Blank nearby. That didn’t happen. You died in the Collection where there was no place for the part of you that’s Luna to go. So you stayed together when I rescued you. Hence, still alicorn.” “So hey, we’re going to continue to not be identical,” Jackie said. “That’s good.” “Yeah,” Blackjack said, stretching her wings. “So… Who are you exactly?” I smiled. “I’m Twilence. Think of me as the Watcher for the entire multiverse. It’s not a perfect metaphor but it works.” “Huh. Your eye is creepy.” “I get that a lot,” I admitted. “So… What now?” “You disappear,” Jackie said. “Like I did. You can’t be a hero anymore, Blackjack. You gave that up.” “I’ve given you the opportunity to let ‘Security’ die in the Collection,” I added. “You can go settle down, start a life. You can do what Jackie did and watch over Equis Fallout from the background. Or you could go to one of the worlds you’ve visited in your journeys and stay there.” I gestured toward my notebook. “Whatever you do, I’ll ensure you stay out of any part of the larger story as long as I can. You deserve that much.” “…Huh. Do I get to tell anyone I’m still alive?” Blackjack asked. Jackie shrugged. “I guess so?” “You can if you want,” I told her. “But what I’m doing will make you seem like a shadow to them. Most of them won’t really register you because they have to be part of the story. All that’ll do is get them to remove your name from the Memorial.” Blackjack nodded. “Ah. Right…” She scratched the back of her head. “Y’know, I think I’ve been trying to avoid making friends so much I don’t really have anywhere to go… I mean, besides Gilgamesh, but I can tell he’s just going to get me killed.” I furrowed my brow. “...I can put you in Ponyville on Equis Vitis. You’ll just be another pony in the background. I might be able to keep Rev in your loop, she doesn’t go out on adventures that much and tends to be a more background influence. “I’ll take tricky,” Blackjack said. “It won’t be the first time I stayed in a church, anyway.” I smiled. “…I should probably have asked this first. Are you okay with me giving you this life?” “I mean, it sounds better than getting killed again.” I nodded. “It is. …I can give you back your talent for sacrifice.” “No,” Blackjack said. “I’m not going back to that.” I spread my wings. “In that case… Blackjack, I declare you alive. Again. Go live a normal life, as long as I can keep you in it.” “Thanks. …Sure the wings won’t be asking for trouble?” “There are a lot of alicorns in Merodi Universalis, there’ll be no problem,” I told her. “Can I have some wings then?” Jackie asked. “No,” I said, smiling innocently. “Ouch. That grin is painful.” “I know. I’ve perfected it over quite a long time.” I turned around. “Now, before I send you on your way, does anyone want to play a round of Blackjack?” The two ponies groaned at me. I laughed at my own joke. That made it all the lamer, but that also made it more memorable. “What about Go Fish?” “Twilence, stop.” ~~~ “Big changes for you, huh?” Vriska said, walking with Starbeat down one of the Hub’s many halls. Starbeat laughed nervously. “Yep! I got put on the Collection Council by virtue of ‘outsider opinion’ and ‘ka expert’. So now I have two nationalities. Because nobody in the Collection wants to demand my loyalty and Eve is just so nice that she allows dual citizenship with just a simple signature, so now I’m a Merodi Collected. Collected Merodi. Something.” “You sure hiding yourselves again is the best thing?” “It’ll keep anyone from taking advantage of us. Don’t worry, I’ll be around. You just aren’t allowed to ask me about my job. Hush-hush stuff, top secret, you can’t take advantage of it.” “Sounds like you’ve got it figured out. Is there anything left for us here?” Starbeat chuckled. “Well, you get to see my amazing, free face now!” “We were gonna see that anyway.” Starbeat nodded. “I’m still your head ka researcher. Won’t be producing as much stuff, but you’ll get that. Tell the Research Division not to worry its pretty little head. Unless that head is Rohan, in which case worry away!” Vriska took a moment to pick Starbeat up and hug her. “…Okay, what is it, you don’t do public hugs unless you’re overcome with emotion.” “Just… glad we’re finally talking,” she said with an awkward smile. “I could drop you if you want.” “Wait no do-” Vriska dropped her. Starbeat dusted herself off and chuckled. “I guess I did ask for it.” Starbeat looked into Vriska’s eyes. “How did you deal with being controlled by something else?” “I’m fine,” Vriska assured her. “Keep in mind I’ve been brutalized, captured, and enslaved a few times before. …And been the one doing all those things as well. I’ve seen it all from both ends. This time was just a little odd, is all.” She folded her arms. “…For once in my life I’m actually wondering what the hell the outcome should have been. The fact that the Collector basically got what he wanted still bugs me. A force to protect the multiverse from whatever!” “Just because someone’s a bad person doesn’t mean they can’t like good things. Hitler liked puppies, I hear.” “Mhm… Then there was his whole spiel about being our Prophet…” “I think I can help you there. So what if he’s the ‘self-insert’ of the guy writing this story? From what I understand, the guy writing this story is just a kid on an Earth somewhere, and the Collector was probably dreamed up to be ‘what would happen if I was given power’? I doubt the Collector was even a ‘correct’ answer to that question. Then again, I am going off incomplete data and the Flowers calling him a ‘glitch’.” “We don’t really understand anything, do we?” “Nope! We just have to be fine with that. It’s a step better than the Flowers, who think they understand everything.” She looked up at nothing in particular. “We do know what the Dark Tower is now, at least. It is the reason things are the way they are. Somebody wanted to add meaning to existence.” “Someone dared to answer the big question,” Vriska said with a soft chuckle. “They asked ‘what matters?’ and got ‘nothing matters’ and decided ‘screw that, let’s make something matter’.” “But does that really make anything matter, or is it an illusion?” “That’s a discussion to have with Rev and Nova, not me,” Vriska said. “I’m just the spiderbitch. I don’t need a grand unifying picture of the cosmos. I just want to go home and have a good time.” Starbeat grinned. “That’s an accurate description. …By the way, where are we going?” “Iroh’s Teashop,” Vriska said, kicking in the door of the establishment. “SURPRISE!” Pinkie shouted, placing a hat-of-honor on Starbeat and sticking a party blower in her mouth. “It’s time for your free-from-the-curse-and-becoming-a-councilmare party! Woo woo!” The room was filled with Starbeat’s friends, streamers, balloons, exotic culinary dishes, and a large banner with her face on it. Starbeat blew the party blower and laughed. “Finally, I can actually enjoy one of your legendary parties. SHOW ME THE CAKE!” “HERE IS THE CAKE!” Pinkie said, throwing it at her. It exploded, covering the entire party in icing. Everyone laughed.