Hussie, Roxy, Jade, John, and GM all sat in Hussie’s room, waiting for Monika.
“…So…” John said, tapping his fingers together. “We just sit here?”
“I guess?” Roxy said, shrugging. “I’m not sure what exactly we can do until Monika comes back with uber-GM.”
“Uber…” GM said. He had the beginnings of a joke in his mind but couldn’t fully formulate it. “Something something driver, I dunno.” He sat down in one of Hussie’s chairs.
“Did I say you could sit!?” Hussie barked.
“N-no!” GM blurted, standing bolt upright, fear in his eyes.
“But you can sit. Because I’ll be nice and not report breaking and entering to the police.”
“The police?” Jade said, raising an eyebrow. “They’ll be effective?”
“There’s no police here, Hussie has his own realm,” Monika said.
“I can make police!” Hussie said, waving his hands.
“Poorly-rendered shitty ones, right?” John said with a smile. “Oh, are Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff around? Maybe they’re the cops!”
GM stared at John, awed by his ability to flawlessly make jokes at a time like this.
“Why are you so surprised?” Roxy asked. “A near-identical version of you is probably the one writing this.”
“I mean, I dunno? I understand he would, but… it doesn’t seem like something a real person would do.”
“Gee, thanks,” John deadpanned.
“Ack! Sorry, I didn’t mea- I mean, I coul- GAH.” He put his hands over his head. “Why?”
“Existence is cruel, buttercup. Get used to it,” Hussie muttered. “And three, two, one…”
Monika appeared again – a sour expression on her face and no GM with her.
“Uh… Monika?” Roxy asked.
Monika said nothing. She created a whiteboard from nothing along with a red dry-erase marker. She scribbled an image of GM similar to the one Hussie had shown them on the projector. She drew another one, drawing an arrow from the new GM to the older GM. Then she drew a third GM behind the second one. Then a fourth. She added another GM above all of them, drawing arrows to the fourth and from the third. A fifth GM soon took shape on the marker board, with multiple arrows pointing to each other GM, including a sixth GM that had a few arrows tied in knots around him. Soon the marker board was filled with so many arrows it was hard to tell which one was going where.
Monika snapped the dry erase marker in her fingers. “Behold, the tangled nest of thorns we find ourselves in.”
“…Shit,” Roxy said, scratching the back of her head. “It’s not going to be easy to get to him, is it?”
Monika rolled her eyes. “Brilliant deduction, Holmes.”
“…What if the highest GM doesn’t exist?” GM asked. “What if it’s a loop with branches?”
“Not possible with the way the Tower does things,” Monika reminded him.
“Oh, yeah, right. Sorry, I’m a little freaked out so I’m not going to remember all my rules the best. …Are they even my rules?!”
Monika folded her arms. “And if it was just a loop, there’d be no need for all the branches, you’d just need a few dozen of you in one loop to make it impossible. There is a highest GM, he just really really doesn’t want us to find him.”
“There has to be a way to find him though,” Jade said. “Get him to change things.”
“Or at the very least put energy back into our GM,” Roxy said, scratching her chin.
“Oh, of course there would be,” Hussie said. “But you’d need access to the Dark Tower, multiple Prophets, a lot of high-end powers, and oh hey look, what do you know, we have almost all the ingredients we need here.” He clapped his hands together. “IMAGINE THAT!”
“It’s been imagined,” Monika said. “Multiple Prophets – we’ve got Hussie, which should almost be enough, so we just need one more good one. Rohan will work. John and I can give the powers needed, and GM can give a personal connection.”
“How can we use that connection?” Roxy asked. “It’s not that useful, it only tells you if someone’s an alternate of you and can be used to find the closest one. It’s…” She blinked. “Black Thirteen.”
“Oh, geez,” Jade put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “Don’t tell me…”
“We need Black Thirteen,” Roxy said. “It can follow that connection wherever. Combined with everything else we have, it should work. We can find the true GM and end his narrative control, turning our GM into the real Prophet. Right?”
Hussie shrugged. “As far as I know. Black Thirteen’ll probably be able to tell you if you’re right.”
“Good. So, here’s the thing, only those who have been to the top of the Dark Tower can hold Black Thirteen without going mad. Who here has been to the top of the Dark Tower?”
No hands went up.
“Shit. We’ll have to work on that too. Monika, Rohan first, he’ll be easiest.”
“Righty-O a-” Monika blinked. “…Oh.”
“I don’t like the sound of that ‘Oh’,” John said. GM nodded in agreement.
“I uh… I’m not obfuscating ka scans right now,” Monika said with a nervous smile. “Apparently running through all the GMs disabled it. So Twilence probably heard everything we just said.”
“Block it, block it!” Roxy blurted.
~~~
“Corona, I have to leave you. I need to stop some morons from meddling with the fabric of narrative itself,” I said.
Corona blinked. “You were just telling me we needed to attack their Tower Ring, now you have to leave?”
“There’s multiple things going on at once! I trust you to handle the Tower thing. I have to deal with this. I won’t take any soldiers, just myself. Since the other side is currently lacking Monika, it shouldn’t give them any edge. You still have Pinkie – use her. I have to take care of the GM problem…”
“…Okay. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Not me, no. You just need to stop the Tower Ring.”
“Soon as we know how, I’ll get on it.”
I nodded, spreading my wings and lighting my horn.
“Good luck.”
I smiled at her – and was gone in an instant.
Corona ruffled her feathers and sent a quick message to all the commanders – mobilize, they’ve fixed our old Tower Ring and are ready to use it. She knew Empress Twilight would already have the Void on standby for something of that magnitude. Meet at Empy’s castle in fifteen minutes. Pinkie, you arrive sooner, I need to talk to you.
Corona teleported herself to Empy’s castle. She gave a curt nod to the Empress. “Twilence had to run off to deal with the GM and John problem. So expect the other side to see all of this.”
The Empress nodded curtly. “Of course.”
Pinkie’s Party popped in the front door. Pinkie herself was smiling and moving with energy, and only Vriska was able to join her. Nova looked as though she was struggling to keep her gaze forward. Jotaro’s expression gave nothing away, but given how closely Pidge was watching him with concern, he was still not taking Jolyne’s betrayal very well.
Corona’s soft smile vanished. “…I’m sorry, I have to call you all back to action. They have a Tower Ring.”
“…Dammit,” Nova muttered, putting a hoof to her muzzle. “Just… dammit.”
“Where’d they get it?” Pidge asked. “All intelligence says the Combine’s efforts aren’t producing any fruit!”
“They repaired ours,” Corona said, folding her hands.
“…Fuck,” Vriska said, pupils contracting. “FUCK.”
“That does about sum it up,” Pidge admitted.
Jotaro sighed. “What do we need to do?”
“I’m still formulating the plan – and we need to talk to the others as well. Right now, we’ve got the militaries mobilizing and the Void at the ready. Pinkie, what do you know?”
Pinkie shrugged. “The war’s ending. Pretty sure this is the last day.”
“And they’re the ones with the Ring…” Corona muttered.
“It doesn’t mean we’ve lost. The Ring is re-programmable.”
“But they had time and resources to reprogram it! We don’t!”
“There’ll probably be something,” Pinkie said, pursing her lips. “Y’know, there are a lot of other groups doing things I can’t see. Monika and John are doing weird meta stuff and I’m pretty sure Blumiere’s doing something, but he’s been completely hidden for a long time now.”
Corona nodded slowly. “Anything else that might be helpful?”
“Since Monika’s off elsewhere, we’ll know exactly when Eve and Giorno move the Ring, and to where.” Pinkie beamed. “Instant response!”
“At least they won’t be able to surprise us.” Corona narrowed her eyes. “I’m forming a plan in my head, but I don’t want to say it out loud. I’ll need you five as a team of heroes for it. I know you probably aren’t up for it, but we don’t have that luxury. None of us do.”
“You can count on us!” Pinkie said with a salute. “Right everyone?”
Vriska and Pidge didn’t wait – “yeah!”
Nova forced a smile. “Yeah.”
Jotaro’s face was dark. He nodded but made no further motions.
Corona smiled sadly. “Glad to hear it.”
It was at this point the other leaders started to arrive. Phage, the Shabanash, Minna, Feferi, Thanos, Morty, Edelgard, a Starcross cloud-being Corona couldn’t remember the name of, and a handful of others.
Corona waited for the start time before explaining. “We need to make a plan to stop their Tower Ring from preserving the multiverse. Keep in mind that they can see everything we do right now because Twilence is off on a mission to deal with John Egbert, GM, and Monika. Be careful what you say. We do not kn-”
“TWITCHA-TWITCH!” Pinkie blurted. “They’re doing something!”
~~~
“How are we going to move it?” Starbeat asked. “It’s not a simple maneuver to place a Tower Ring around the Tower. The dimensional calculations are complex, take time, and have to account for the Tower’s tendency to refuse incoming travel.”
“Simple,” Giorno said with a slight smirk. “We hitch a ride.”
“With who?” Eve asked. “Do the Xeelee remnants have enough technology to do that?”
“Close, but not quite.”
A small, white, humanoid projection appeared in front of them. “Hey! Long time no see!”
“White Nettle!?” Eve said, mouth agape.
“Yep! It’s me, your friendly neighborhood Downstreamer!” She winked. “I’m ready to move this Tower Ring to the Nexus’ rose planet whenever you’re ready!”
“It’s time,” Giorno said.
“Great! Might want to get inside, not sure what’ll happen to the rest of this universe.”
“Insid-” Eve, Starbeat, and Giorno were teleported into the Tower Ring. Along the edge of the spinning device was a long corridor that went all the way around. The corridor was wide enough to house trucks, though it was empty. On the inner surface were numerous screens, a few of which displayed the purple word PRESERVE in big bold letters. One-way windows lined the outer surface.
Eve took out her phone, seeing several messages, including ones from military leaders concerned about the nature of the orders. Don’t worry; we had to keep this secret to keep Twilence from finding out, she replied. We’re finally ready. This is the final day. She quickly realized the phone wouldn’t be enough to actually help her organize everyone, so she created a chair and rolled to the side of the corridor with the screens, interfacing with the technology. She found it already prepared for her. “Nice,” she said.
“I’m surprised he thought of so much without consulting me,” Starbeat noted.
“He’s the Overhead of Intelligence for a reason,” Eve explained, watching reports file across her screen. “An-”
The Tower Ring shifted. Eve fixed her gaze on the windows and witnessed an amazing show of color. The three of them were graced with a brilliant trip through White Nettle’s many-universe body, scenery shifting dramatically from a void universe, to one that was composed entirely of electrolytes submerged in a solution, to a large crystal matrix that served as her primary brain.
They eventually appeared around the Dark Tower. Since the Dark Tower was in the center, Eve couldn’t actually see it – but looking out the window, she could see a planet covered in endless roses. The red planet –around the nineteenth most distant star of the Nexus – was already surrounded by Preservation Alliance ships.
The preservation protocol activated. The purple areas of the Tower Ring started to glow brighter, forcing the Tower Ring itself to shake.
“Do we need to get out?” Eve asked.
“It’ll automatically remove us at the last minute,” Giorno said.
“But there’s no way it’s going to work now,” Starbeat said. “Three… Two… One…”
The Void tore through reality and grabbed hold of the Tower Ring, finding a much easier time accessing the Nexus because it was a universe so close to its home. It would have disintegrated the Tower Ring…
…were it not for White Nettle using her power to counteract it. White and Black flashed along the edge of the Tower Ring until the power of the Downstreamer nearly overpowered that of the Void. The great construct of darkness would fight to its final breath, however, and latched itself onto the center teeth of the spirograph-like Ring, preventing it from fully interfacing with the Dark Tower.
“And now we have to last long enough for the Void to fail,” Giorno said, narrowing his eyes.
“Their fleets are already arriving,” Eve said, glancing at the reports on the screens. “Nothing but simple retaliations right now, but they’ll have a plan sooner rather than later.” She saw a feed from Scooter. “They’re already plotting carefully. Corona’s got a plan, but she’s being deliberately vague about what it means…”
~~~
Blumiere and the rest of his ‘companions’ walked through the field of Roses, Can’-ka No Rey. In order to keep themselves from being cut up like they were in a shredder, Vivian had taken to burning a path ahead of them with her fire. She felt horrible burning the beautiful flowers, but they needed to get to the Tower, and levitating all of them would have been difficult.
“Question,” Jenny asked, raising a hand. “How do we know the Tower is this way?”
“All things serve the Beam!” Dimentio said, not that Jenny could hear it.
“Watch the way the flowers blow in the wind,” Nanoha said from her awkward tied-up position on Alushy’s back. “This close to the Tower, the randomness of the building blocks of existence tend toward a particular path.”
Jenny cocked her head – and saw it. The flowers they were walking over all leaned ever so slightly in the same direction, forging a path, while the rest of the roses leaned in mostly-random directions.
“You know, I think I read about this,” Jenny said.
“You? Read?” Alushy laughed.
“I read!”
“You wouldn’t remember, though!” Renee said, smirking. “I doubt a little thing such as that would stick in that damaged little brain of yours.”
“You seem happy,” Jenny deadpanned.
“I am!” Renee said, taking a moment to stroll through the roses, returning to the path without a single scratch in her legs. “I’m at home here, darling. Among the red flowers and the Beam – so right.”
“Right, that’s it, what’s your deal?” Sai asked, reminding everyone she existed around Blumiere’s neck. “I’ve run every calculation I can think of, compared every piece of data, and I can’t explain you. I’m not even sure why you’re necessary, there were ways for us to get the Ritual without you! We could have gotten to the Tower without you!”
“As true as can be! Also, don’t give yourself voice inflections, it’s not like you’re a full AI. You and I are the same, little machine.”
Sai beeped. “You are more than just a machine. Those who Come Back Wrong do not get this level of Awareness.”
“On the surface, you and I are the same. Deeper down you’re just a loose electron in the Sea of Infinite Possibility.”
“What are you?”
Renee grinned. “Screwing with you.”
“GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!” Alushy roared.
“And that’s a point for me!”
“Stop it, children,” Blumiere called over his shoulder. “This momentous occasion gains nothing from your bickering.”
“Au contraire, my fine blue friend,” Renee said, trotting up alongside him. “How much do you think the… ‘audience’ cares about these little tag-alongs now?” She looked straight out. “Wouldn’t it be a shame if something happened to them?”
“Did… did you just threaten the readers?” Vivian asked.
Renee didn’t change the position of her gaze. She simply chuckled. “Blumiere, Dimentio has something he wants to tell you.”
Dimentio shot Renee a look.
“Ah, the harlequin finds himself speechless! Try to change your plan. I dare you. See what happens, just to spite me and my unknowable ways.”
Dimentio ignored her, turning to Blumiere. “You need to make a call.”
Blumiere raised an eyebrow. “What kind o-” he blinked. “Ah. I trust it there’s some message-sending ritual?”
“Ahahhaha! What do you take me for, a primitive scrounging in a cave? Just use your cell phone, this universe is within range of the receivers.”
Blumiere blinked. “Oh.” He pulled out his phone and sent a quick message.
Jenny tried to get a look at what it was, but he kept the screen hidden from her. “Hey! Come on! Spill the beans!”
Renee held a magic blade to Jenny’s throat. “Such a shame, she talks too much…”
“Don’t you dare…”
Renee booped Jenny on the nose. Jenny stared at her in disbelief.
“Did you just assume that I would be brutal because I cut your hand off earlier? Please, you people and your assumptions!” She pulled the knife back and chuckled.
“You stole my thing,” Sai beeped.
“It wasn’t your thing, dear.”
~~~
Corona checked the message she got on her phone. Never before had she pressed the delete button so fast after reading something.
“Who saw that!?”
The leaders looked at her with confused expressions.
“I’m asking Pinkie,” Corona said, magically wiping her phone of stray data just to be safe.
Pinkie shrugged. “Well, I didn’t see it, so I don’t think anyone else saw it. What was it?”
Corona glared at her.
Pinkie chuckled. “Ahah… Sorry. Ahem.” She shook her head. “I don’t think they’re doing anything about it. So we’re safe to assume nobody knows what it was.”
“Good. It’s paramount they don’t know. But this also means the plan isn’t going to make a lot of sense…” She folded her hands, taking a moment to confer with Raging Sights about the nature of the plan. “Okay, I’m going to make this clear. You are all going to have to just trust me on this.”
“They’ve got a Tower Ring around the Dark Tower,” Phage said. “We’re willing to try anything.”
“I hope you are,” Corona said, furrowing her brow. “First off, our fleets need to do their very best to occupy their fleets. But, we can’t have any of our ships actually attack the Tower Ring directly.”
“…What?” a Shabanash asked. “Seriously? Don’t try to destroy it?”
“Yep. Don’t try to destroy it. Just keep the other ships occupied. Don’t even try to get a shot if a clearing opens up.”
“That’s absurd!”
“Probably,” Corona admitted. “But I can’t tell you why, or else they’ll know. So just go with it, we don’t have time to argue.”
The Shabanash nodded reluctantly.
“Pinkie, just double checking, White Nettle is currently protecting the Tower Ring?”
Pinkie nodded. “She’s pretty integral to the whole plan.”
“Your team is going to be tasked with getting her hold off the Tower Ring. Morty, you need to create other teams to try the same thing. I won’t lie – they’re going to be Redshirts. There’s a chance one or two of them mean something, but we need a lot of cannon fodder to make sure Pinkie’s Party gets in.”
Morty looked at a data pad. “Already checking out some people. Should they be high-level hero sorts?”
“If you can bring yourself to spare them, yes. Nettle should be focused on combating the Void, so she won’t be able to watch her insides very well. That’s your way in.”
Pinkie saluted. “You can count on us!”
“The third part of the plan will be mine.” Corona stood up tall and spread her wings. “I am leading a group of heroes directly to the Tower Ring. We don’t get to attack the Ring either; we have to get to it. I’ll give everyone who makes it further orders upon arrival.” She turned to Minna. “Think you can round up volunteers?”
“Easily,” Minna responded.
Corona cracked her knuckles. “Good. Empy, how much time do we have?”
“Four hours. Maybe less,” she said, focusing intently on controlling the Void. “If we mobilize now we won’t be in danger of cutting it down to the wire.”
Corona clapped her hands. “You heard her. Move it. Everyone should find something to do on one part of the plan. Ships, Nettle, or with me. Go! Go! Go!”
~~~
“They’re mobilizing,” Giorno said, checking one of the reports from Scooter. “They’re trying to keep their plan from us.”
“Well, yeah,” Eve said. “That’s what they’ve been doing since the war started.”
“But they don’t have Twilence now – we should be able to tear something out of them.” He narrowed his eyes as he read the report on the plan. “It’s almost like they think they can reclaim the Tower Ring.”
“Can they?”
“Not any way I’m aware of. It took us weeks to reprogram it. They won’t have weeks.”
“Doesn’t mean they can’t,” Starbeat pointed out.
“But they’d have to do it some other way. Some way we can’t plan for…” Giorno grimaced. “And Corona’s being careful. As far as we’re aware, she’s the only one who actually knows.” He folded his hands together. “I have to go consult with the rest of the Intelligence Division – Eve, I trust you can run things from here?”
“I’m not the only leader here,” Eve reminded him. “But yes, I can oversee the conflict. Go do what you need to do.”
Giorno nodded, leaving through a portal.
Eve turned back to the reports, scrolling through them. “Starbeat, you’re my new assistant.”
“You have a lot of assistants,” Starbeat pointed out.
Eve smirked. “I’m a mare who needs organization, what can I say?”
“Anything you need organized?”
“Yeah, let’s look at that plan again… They’re specifically trying to not destroy the Tower Ring, so let’s move some defenses back from it.”
“Unless that’s Corona’s plan. She could be trying to dupe us.”
“True, but we’ll know if she communicates something to anyone else.”
“Will we? It says here we have no idea who sent that message to her that changed everything.”
“Calculated risk. We can see her. If she sends something, it won’t be as easy to hide.” She looked through the reports. She sent out orders to loosen the defenses on the Dark Tower itself and spread out, covering more ground to keep the rest of Corona’s fleet occupied. Attached to those orders was the suggestion to keep a very close eye on Corona and her people. Ships might have had a hard time hitting such small targets, but if enough were shooting…
“Ah, that’s what their fleet is for,” Eve realized. “Our fleet won’t be able to focus on Corona with them attacking.”
“Whatever she’s doing,” Starbeat said, scratching her head. “Luckily I think Giorno’s handling her, so…”
“The third aspect of the plan, Nettle. She clearly only expects Pinkie’s Party to be of any use there. And we have something that can counter them – a defense.”
“Something?”
“Well, several someones.” Eve pressed a few buttons and sent a message to the League of Sweetie Belles. “I can only hope they’re able to work past recent events…” Her confident, somewhat pleased demeanor dropped as she remembered what had happened to Renee.
She couldn’t think of that now. Bigger things were at stake.
~~~
Rohan sat under the watchful eye of the Research Overhead.
“Are you certain?” the R.O. asked, holding up a page of manga.
“Look, I’m about as certain as a goldfish concerning last Christmas.” Rohan folded his arms. “It’s a story. I think it’s good. It’s about Eve and triumph.”
“Except you have doubts.”
“I’m up against Twilence. She’ll just overwrite it.”
“She’s busy at the moment, Intelligence says,” the R.O. pointed out. “You might have a momentary advantage.”
“Really? Then why haven’t we gotten word of the victory yet? Eve should be facing off against Corona right now and achieving victory.”
“Time displacement.”
“If you’ll look at the meticulously planned background you’ll see a few time codes in the screens on the Tower Ring.”
“Five seconds from now…” the R.O. said. He counted the five seconds in his head, the stars in his featureless face pulsing with every tick. On the fifth tick, John zapped into existence with all the rest of his group. Roxy delivered a punch to the R.O.’s face.
The R.O. seemed mildly amused at the punch. “Ineffective.”
“You forget, I’m also a genius inventor!” Roxy said with a cheeky grin. “In about… oh, whatever, now, the virus will take your muscle functions offline.”
The R.O. fell into a heap – still completely conscious, but otherwise helpless. “Why? I understand you are on our side. I would have assisted you.”
“Couldn’t take a risk, no time to explain,” Jade said. “Sorry.”
“I’m not!” Hussie shouted. “Take that you smug toaster!”
“He was rather smug,” Monika agreed.
Rohan kicked the R.O. “Serves you right. You’re the worst editor I’ve ever had.”
“Hey, guys!” Jade waved her hands. “Don’t be mean to him!”
“We’ve gotta go anyway,” Roxy said. “John, Tower world, doesn’t matter which one as long as we can breathe.”
“How can I do that?” John asked.
“Just think about it and it’ll happen,” Monika answered.
“Kukukukukuku…” a new voice said. Everyone looked up to see Magane on top of a bookshelf, kicking her legs back and forth. “Foolish Monika, it’s not that simple!”
“Yes it is!” Monika blurted.
“A lie about a lie…” Magane snapped her fingers.
Roxy blinked. “Wait, you’re the one who bends reality with lies.”
“Yep! You’re welcome by the way. Magane: savior of the meta-team!”
John cocked his head. “So, wait, all I have to do is think about i-
ZAP
-t and it… Woah, it actually worked!”
They were standing in a field of roses with noticeable tufts of grass between the flowers. They couldn’t see the Dark Tower, but Monika felt more than enough ka energy here to do what they needed to do.
She clapped her hands together. “Okay everyone, we’re close! We just have to get one last piece of the puzzle – Black Thirteen.”
GM shuddered, but said nothing.
“Do we know where it is?” Jade asked.
“I still haven’t gotten an explanation as to what’s going on,” Rohan muttered, folding his arms.
Roxy summoned several stacks of paper and manga drawing pens. “Here, you and Hussie are our prophets. We’re trying to get to GM to edit the main story of Songs of the Spheres to preservation by getting this GM his Prophet powers back.”
Rohan looked at GM. “This kid is the greatest prophet?”
“A-HEM!” Hussie spat, hands on his hips.
“Your style is too shitty to be the greatest.”
“Just you wait until I snop you across the face you little fucker.”
“Try it and see what happens, Waste.”
“Uh, I’m not that great,” GM said, raising his hand. “I have no idea what I’m doing most of the time.”
“Besides the point,” Monika said, waving a hand. “The point is that we are going to need to get Black Thirteen. Which is problematic for two reasons. One: we don’t know where it is. Two: none of us have been to the top of the Tower.”
Roxy slowly turned her head to Magane. “Hey… You can just say you were at the top of the Tower, right?”
Magane shook her head. “If I could do something like that I would have made myself God a long time ago just to see what it was like.”
“Figures.”
“Maybe we can convince Flagg to help us?” John suggested.
There was a large chorus of laughs all around. Monika stopped short. She glanced at GM. “Is that…?”
“It’s so crazy it just might work,” GM said. “…Man, I’ve always wanted to say that.”
“I don’t like this plan,” Rohan said.
“I love this plan!” Magane said with a laugh. “Talk to Flagg! Oh this should be rich! Hey, Rolal, get me some popcorn!”
“Nah,” Roxy responded, hand to her chin. “Who do we know that’s been to the top of the Tower?”
GM adjusted his glasses. “Uh… Allure?”
“Allure’s backup,” Monika declared. Then she turned to Magane. “Since you’re here, you might as well make yourself useful.”
“But I already diiiiid!”
“Just make it so we find Randall Flagg easily.”
“You can already do that.”
Monika grinned. “Uh, no I can’t.”
Magane facepalmed. “…I was serious. You are the Lord of Ka. Black Thirteen basically is ka. Just follow the trail!”
“Oh.”
Magane chuckled.
“This all seems a little too absurd and whimsical to be deciding the fate of the multiverse,” Rohan pointed out.
“That… is probably my fault,” GM said. “Sorry.”
“Why apologize?” Jade asked. “I think it’s keeping us all sane.”
“SANE!?” Hussie blurted.
Jade glared at him. “Those of us who were sane to begin with, anyway.”
~~~
The Batter walked through the roses of the field. He felt them tearing at him, but he didn’t bleed. He never bled. He was the Batter, he couldn’t let things such as the roses impede his progress, no matter how sacred the flowers were. His sacred mission was higher. His mission was higher than all else.
He would find the retconner. He would Purify him. He would ensure the sanctity of existence was not ruined by one man’s fickle, impure mind.
None could escape the bat of the Batter. He was more than a force of nature, he was a force of Purity, and as such was just as dangerous to those who had summoned him as whatever he was tasked with Purifying.
The Ritual of Purity had no control over what the Batter’s mission would be. Many had summoned him only to find that his mission was to Purify their entire world, making the multiverse better off.
He continued to stride through the roses, bat always at the ready. The life within the roses recoiled from the bat – they knew it wasn’t what every normal sense told them it was. It was an instrument of the Batter, an extension of him. It was more than a weapon. Much more.
However, even the Batter was not immune to the trials of the Dark Tower. He was close to the Tower’s influence, and thus, could not escape the twisting of ka. He himself remained Pure, perhaps the most incorruptible being in all of existence, but the world around him did not. The sky slowly faded to a deep red as he walked, a bizarre disjointed tune starting to play in the background.
He knew who it would be long before he saw them. A small child, Hugo, looking at him with pleading eyes.
The Batter had no issue reliving this moment. He swung the bat, Purifying the child in one swing. It had taken more than one swing the first time.
The first in a long line of completed Purifications. Compared to that first one, this would be easy. There were no worlds that needed to be erased this time, no corruption that had gone too far: just one man with an unholy power.
A woman appeared out of the roses. “You do not need to kill him.”
The Batter had nothing to say to her. He Purified her easily – apparitions were nothing. The retconner was his goal. Everything else was just an obstacle.
Then he saw himself appear out of the roses. This was the first thing that gave him pause. He did not need to be Purified – he was as Pure as could be. He marched up to himself.
The other Batter blocked him.
“I need to continue my sacred mission to Purify the retconner,” the Batter told his other self. “Let me pass.”
“I must continue my sacred mission to Purify the Zones,” the other Batter said, hefting his bat. “As the guardian of this Zone, you must fall.”
The Batter knew the Dark Tower was trying to get him to see things from the perspective of those that needed Purifying. But he had never doubted himself before, and he would not doubt himself now – that was part of what made him Pure.
Never a second thought. Never any hesitation.
He met the bat of his other self, not surprised in the slightest to find him a slightly more solid apparition. They both ground their teeth, struggling to overpower the other with strength alone. The area between the bats began to glow.
There was an explosion that uprooted all the roses for several meters. When the dust cleared, only the Batter remained.
He sensed his ordeals were not quite over – behind him, a devious eldritch being that drove all who saw it mad rose into the sky. The Batter glanced over his shoulder, shrugged, and moved on.
“DO YOU NOT REMEMBER YOUR FAILURE!?” the apparition of Azathoth screamed at him. “DO YOU NOT FEEL THE NEED TO PURIFY ME TO SATISFY YOURSELF!?”
The Batter didn’t turn back.
“BATTER! TURN AROUND! TAKE WHAT IS YOURS!”
The Batter refused.
“BATTER!”
The Batter kept walking. ‘Azathoth’ eventually dissipated. The Batter gave this fact no recognition – he moved forward as if he had not endured any trials whatsoever.
~~~
“Ah, the Tower’s in sight!” Renee said, running ahead of the group, deep into the roses. She pulled the tarot card out of her hat and held it up, matching the image of XIX Tower with the Dark Tower itself. “The past is gone!”
“…What?” Jenny asked. “…Good grief, I am getting tired of saying that…”
“Be resolute!” Renee said with a cackle. “There are trials ahead. And rewards for those who strive. Hah! The surreal search endures!” She pointed toward the Dark Tower. “Just take a step. And I will watch you struggle.”
Nanoha glared at Renee. “We know the Tower changes your perceptions when you get close.”
“…We do?” Vivian asked.
Nanoha looked at her with pity. “I’m sorry, little one. You may be subject to your worst nightmares, you may be reverted to what you once were, you may be given your greatest dream. The Tower will drive you to anything it deems appropriate.”
“The White Devil speaks the truth,” Renee observed, rubbing her hooves together.
“Let’s get this over with,” Blumiere said. “I’ve been here before. I have no intention of returning to Bleck again.”
“The confidence!” Dimentio announced. “Is it the trait of a paragon or a fool? One could argue they are one and the same!”
Alushy groaned. “That psychotic book is talking in your head again, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Blumiere said, adjusting his hat. “And I do not care what it has to say.” He continued walking forward, looking right at the pillar of darkness that was the Dark Tower.
And then he was alone. No Prognosticus, no Timpani, nothing. It was only him… and Renee.
“Are you an apparition of the Tower or are you really here?” Blumiere asked.
Renee smiled, refusing to answer.
“I don’t know what I expected…” He continued forward. Renee trotted backward such that she was always a few meters in front of him. She said nothing.
Blumiere decided he didn’t mind her silence. Her gaze may have been unsettling, but her words were always worse. Spoken with a voice of a dear friend, blaspheming the lost unicorn’s memory.
“Shouldn’t you be worried about the others?”
“I am,” Blumiere answered honestly. “But if the Tower wishes me to be separate from them, there is nothing I can do. If I am to enter the Tower alone, so be it.”
“Ah, the determinator! So fixated on the goal he’s willing to leave all else behind! What about your dear wife?”
“I would not be here if she were not in agreement with me,” Blumiere said. “If… if she has fallen back there, or will fall, the only way to honor her is to make it to the Tower.”
“Without the Prognosticus?”
“I doubt the Prognosticus will allow itself to be consumed by the Tower.”
“Aw, poor Blumiere, making assumptions again!” Renee stood up on her hind legs and clapped. “How cute!”
Blumiere made no response.
“You’re the least fun. Too sure of yourself, now. You can’t just be put through the ‘evil self’ thing again, that’s already been done. The others are much, much more interesting.”
“You torment us?”
“Remember where you are,” Renee said, rolling her eyes.
“Wouldn’t that be an assumption?”
Renee laughed. “The slightest hint of some real understanding! Maybe I should give you a test – show you that you don’t even know enough to get a D.”
“Not all of us are Twilence.”
“Twilence, Twilence, Twilence… The closest. A-minus, probably.” Renee chuckled.
Then they were at the front door of the Tower.
“How…”
“Who cares about space?” Renee asked. “We’re next to the Tower. If you’re supposed to make it to the door, you’ll make it to the door.” She leaned against the eldritch bricks of the Tower. “You’re not even the first one here.”
Jenny was leaning against the Tower as well, the Prognosticus in her hand. “Figures you’d make it.”
“Thinking of running away?” Blumiere asked her.
“Wouldn’t do much,” Jenny said, handing him back the Prognosticus. “You’d still do whatever it is you plan to do in there, and I’m not getting anything from that book. I don’t think it likes me.”
“She’s absolutely delightful to torment,” Dimentio said, chuckling.
Timpani and Alushy appeared next. Timpani was covered in blood, a harrowed expression on her face. Alushy looked afraid.
“What happened?” Jenny asked.
“I was Timpani. Timpani was me,” Alushy said. “It was fucked up.”
“That sounds kinda fun ac-”
“STARLIGHT BREAKER!”
A beam of red-pink light shot across their visions. The next thing they knew, Nanoha had been thrown into the wall of the Dark Tower at high speeds. The Tower itself could not crumble even from such a large force, so she was effectively flattened against it. She fell down, the roses on the ground cutting deep into her, even through her magic barrier jacket.
“Experiencing defeat,” Blumiere guessed.
“I’ve experienced defeat before,” Nanoha muttered, standing up. “I was fighting Fate-chan with Vivian and Sai. That should have gotten us out th-”
Vivian was thrown into the Dark Tower – but she had a yellow scythe device planted in her head, electrocuting her dark body. Sai hung around her neck, screaming just as loudly as Vivian was.
“VIVIAN!” Blumiere shouted, pulling on her with his magic. The yellow scythe dissipated the moment he touched it, but the damage was done. By the time he got her down, her shadowy form had dissipated, leaving only her hat and the necklace of Sai. Sai was flashing rapidly, unable to process what had just happened.
“WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT!?” Jenny shouted at the Dark Tower.
“Oh, it wasn’t a point for her,” Renee said, grabbing hold of Sai. “It was a point for Sai – and all of you, I suppose, but reminding you that this isn’t happy Candyland isn’t really much of a point, is it?” Renee held up Sai, smirking. “This poor partial AI has been given hints and snippets of what true sapience is, ever since she entered the top of the Tower with Corona. A glitch here, a tweak there – not able to see it. To understand it.” Renee pointed at Vivian’s hat. “But oh, look at that. Fixed to Vivian. Experiencing full sapience as her, able to feel true fear, true panic, and the true feeling of death!” She tossed Sai into Blumiere’s hands. He caught her. “I guess we aren’t so different after all, our roots are so closely intertwined in this way… A play on soulessness…”
“That’s it, you’re dead,” Jenny said, pulling her fist back and punching Renee.
Renee flew backward, landing on her hooves. “Genevieve, darling, put that fist away and talk like an adult. This is a big girl zone.”
“Are you trying to make her mad!?” Timpani blurted.
“She is,” Nanoha said, casting a spell on Jenny to make her slip. She turned to Blumiere. “We both know how this goes.”
“You attack me, I use the Prognosticus to win,” Blumiere stated plainly. “I already have your precise soul reading.”
Nanoha nodded. “So let us not fight, let us talk.”
“You know I have to go in there.”
“I do. Once the Dark Tower has called someone, it is a rare individual who can turn their back on the summons.” She placed her hands together on top of Raising Heart. “All I ask is that you reconsider what you do once you are inside.”
“I won’t do that either. I will do what I need to do at the top of the Dark Tower.”
“THE TOP!” Sai shouted, starting everyone. “We must all go at once! At the same time! The Tower will open as it never has before! This is the moment, the Choice, the death, the life!”
“She gets it,” Renee said.
Sai somehow floated into the air, moving toward the door. “I can open it. I have to open it. Of course! I would never have let something as pedestrian as death keep me from the answers! The final solution!”
“I guess I arrived at the perfect time then,” a new voice said.
“Just keeps getting bigger and better,” Alushy muttered as they turned to see who the voice came from.
A single Aradia stood outside a dinged-looking TARDIS, an omnitrix on her wrist. “I was sent by… the winds of ka. I don’t have a side in this conflict. So I get to watch it happen.”
“Who cares!?” Sai blurted. “Death is upon us! Get in line!”
Aradia stared at the floating ‘AI’. She clearly didn’t like what Sai represented.
“DARK TOWER!” Sai shouted. “THIS IS SOMBRA! I have come from beyond the final door demanding you open yourself to us! The time is at hand!”
Renee grinned, nodding with approval.
The doors to the Dark Tower slid open…
~~~
Corona flew through the space around the Tower’s planet, hundreds of heroes lined up behind her. All of them wore personal armor, giving them speed close to that of speeders.
She’d meticulously made sure she didn’t know any of their names – either by selectively removing them before they left or altering her own memory.
They were all Redshirts for her. Because she had to do it.
All her companions died behind her by the dozen as they flew through the field of ships. Tears streamed from her eyes – she was purposefully leading all of them to their deaths. They all thought they might be able to come with her to the end, but that would not happen. All of them but her.
She was the only one who could do it.
But for now, she needed to keep up the illusion of being a commander.
“LEFT!” she shouted, diverting them away from some TSAB magical ship weapons. The TSAB ship tried to lock onto them again, but a Starcross behemoth barreled into it, keeping them safe.
She saluted them with her wing and continued to lead her heroes through the space – closer and closer to the planet. To the Dark Tower. To the Tower Ring, that horrid black Spirograph. That Spirograph that had been hers.
Corona’s team started getting smarter – dodging more fire, angling away from the ships attacking them, and taking advantage of areas where ships were busy. This was seen best when they entered the shadow of the Austraeoh and Starjammer – the ships O’Neill and Minna were running. Both were whaling on each other.
Maybe it was the proximity to the Tower, or maybe her empathic abilities had chosen to evolve considerably in that moment – but she could see the fight between the two happening.
(“Starkilling weapons only – I want that ship down!” O’Neill shouted.
“Shields aren’t holding!” Clandestine said. “The Spectral Rods are having difficulty breaking through the runes!”
“I don’t give a damn about those Runes!” O’Neill shouted. “Cause a fallout if you have to – get that ship down!”)
(Minna saw the nuclear missiles coming. She ordered the Starjammer to shift out of the way at a perfect angle to direct the radiation at the Austraeoh’s ally ships.
She said nothing to her soldiers – they knew what she wanted, and did it.
They would prove the Austraeoh, for all its power, to be just a fancy toy.)
Corona led her team closer to the interior of the army. They saw a large Combine construction blocking their way. “Split up – half, take out that ship, rest, with me!” She twisted to the side, dodging numerous explosions aimed at her.
One would think those sent to destroy the Combine construction would have been sacrifices – but in reality, it was the other way around. Everyone was fixating on Corona, not the rest of the team. They were able to take out the Combine construction almost unimpeded while Corona’s team dwindled to only a few dozen.
Corona sensed a few deserting. She didn’t blame them.
She met back up with the strike-force half and dove closer still to the planet. She still couldn’t see the Dark Tower, but she knew it was there. She could feel it.
They had passed the ship layer of the battle, entering what could best be described as the Layer of Heroes. Skaians, superheroes, and many others fought each other out in the open, losing most if not all coherent plan to focus on punching each other. Capture devices flew left and right rapidly.
It was a better fate than incineration by space laser.
(Thanos and Lightning glared at each other as the various heroes punched around them.
“So it’s come to this,” Thanos said, flexing his Infinity Gauntlet.
Lightning held up her own. “Both useless here.”
“I know, completely pointless. Such a shame, it would have been better to have a true fight.”
Lightning smirked. “I’m going to punch you with it anyway.”
He chuckled and nodded. They both pulled their fists back simultaneously and punched each others’ respective faces in.)
Corona continued on. Most of those with her had been caught up in smaller fights or had been defeated already. There were a few Skaians left with her, and a couple Twilights from the Sparkle Census. They were working as a pretty effective military unit. “Good job,” she told them.
“Thanks,” the leading Twilight said – she was an earth pony. “…We know what you’re doing.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“You’re forgiven. But, if you could do one thing, could you not fail?”
“I’m not planning on it,” Corona assured her. “And, for the record, try to get captured, not killed, okay?”
The Twilight nodded. “Got it.” She pulled up, purposefully taking the Census away to distract All Might.
“I AM HE-”
“You’re over there,” the Twilight said after bucking him away.
(Meenah and Feferi’s tridents clashed together in the skies while hundreds of their Skaian followers battled around them.
“Just have to say, you’re cool. You know that?” Feferi said, twisting around her weapon and kicking Meenah in the face.
“What the shell? This isn’t some feelin’s jam, this is war!”
“So?” Feferi giggled. “We’re fighting, doesn’t mean we have to hate each other!” She took a punch from Meenah for that one.
“You’re so cray,” Meenah muttered, shaking her head.
“Aw really?”
Meenah shrugged. “Really, I guess.”
Feferi stabbed her with her prongs. “GOTCHA!”
“…We’re ghosts, Fef.”
“Yeah, but that still hurt, right?”
“Scrodclammit,” Meenah muttered. Their tridents clashed again.)
Corona wasn’t actually alone when they got through most of the fighting. Her group entered an area of calm in the atmosphere of the planet, just over the field of roses. There would be another wave of resistance at the Tower Ring itself, but until then they were in the clear.
Or so she thought.
When Giorno showed up and took out her five remaining soldiers, she knew she was in for it.
“GOLD EXPERIENCE REQUIEM!” Giorno shouted. “You will never reach reality!”
He had clearly planned this – laid a trap for her and her group, taken them out in an instant, and aimed his supremely overpowered Stand right at her, planning to create a feedback loop where she could never make it to the Tower Ring.
She couldn’t let him hit her. She slowed perceived time down to a crawl to converse with Raging Sights. “Okay, we can’t let this fist hit us, but it really looks like it’s going to hit us.”
“Empathize through the arm from the side.”
“Might take too long. Bacon Pancakes will be pretty ineffectual as well. Do we have time to shift space?”
“Not definitely.”
Corona’s mind raced. “I have to get through this. If I let him stick me here…”
“The death spell would do it.”
Corona paused. “No, no, no. He has an immunity anyway“
“Not if you cast it with all the tricks you had at your disposal.”
“It… it would work. His Stand is affixed to his spirit and it would translate right to him before he could keep me from reality…” She gulped. “He was banking that I wouldn’t dare use it. Not on him.”
“We are so close, Corona. What’s one more?”
“Don’t talk like that. Never talk like that,” Corona said – crying even though she was stuck in her mindscape. “Every death has meaning. Every. Last. One.” She clenched her fists. “Prepare the spell.”
“Stand by ready.”
Corona opened her eyes and grabbed Gold Experience Requiem by the wrist. In less than a fraction of a second, the fist itself would hit her. No matter how much energy she pushed into any attack, the Stand was still going to make it.
Sorry, she told Giorno telepathically.
Giorno’s eyes widened – knowing his gambit had failed. He had no defenses aside from the magic and technology on him, many of which were Corona’s own creation. She overrode those things and sent the spell into his frail human body.
He fell to the roses below, lifeless. Gold Experience Requiem lost all substance, passing right through Corona without doing anything.
He wanted to end it quickly. So I did.
Corona descended to the roses below. She lifted her hands, casting the revive spell.
Giorno opened his eyes. “You won.”
For a moment, Corona allowed herself to be hopeful. Maybe she hadn’t killed him.
But then she saw the murder in his eyes. She felt the lack of empathy, the emptiness. He was just one of the smart husks.
Corona blew his brains out. It was the quickest way – sometimes they were immune to simple death. “DAMMIT!” She shouted, stamping her foot on the ground and lighting all the flowers for a mile on fire. “JUST… GAH!”
Raging Sights beeped in an attempt to comfort her.
“Thanks,” Corona said, forcing herself to calm down. She was tempted to just think of Giorno as another statistic – but she couldn’t let herself fall to that. She had sacrificed and killed so many. If she let herself think differently, she would lose herself.
She would never lose herself.
She used her magic to create a grave for Giorno right there among the roses of the Nexus. She turned away, expression blank.
In the distance, the Tower stood, ominous, a seemingly small black ring surrounding it. So much smaller than all other Tower Rings constructed… and yet so elegant, so appropriate.
She spread her wings and flew toward her goal.
~~~
Flagg was sitting in a nondescript black chair, waiting for them. He had Black Thirteen prominently displayed in his left hand.
Monika, John, and Roxy were standing in front of him.
“So I take it you were expecting us, huh?” John asked.
“I always know if people are trying to look for me,” Flagg said. “Even if such attempts are ‘hidden’ behind subterfuge some girls think are clever.”
Monika steamed but kept quiet.
“What do you want?” Flagg asked.
“We want to talk,” Roxy said, creating a chair identical to Flagg’s and sitting in it, crossing her legs. “The multiverse is nearing a climax.”
“I know. I’ve been watching. I’m a bit disappointed they didn’t abolish those annoying capture devices, but I can’t really complain about war on such an unprecedented scale. And to think, I didn’t even have that much to do with it! Makes it all the more exciting.”
“Wouldn’t you prefer it if the multiverse continued to exist after this war?”
Flagg grinned from ear to ear, making John recoil in disgust. “Roxy, you think I have some sort of self-preservation instinct? I am tied to Black Thirteen and cannot die.”
“You won’t respawn without the Tower,” Monika pointed out.
“True,” Flagg admitted. “Very true. But there will be a whole new world to interfere with once the Tower is gone, and it will be a much smaller world. More vulnerable.”
“And you won’t have ka to give you the benefit of being a force of evil.” Monika folded her arms. “Nobody will be able to alter things on these large of scales if they win. Come on, you want to keep being evil, don’t you?”
Flagg grinned. “If I were as simple as you say, I would have been with the Nihilists.”
“…Is he saying no?” John asked.
“I don’t know, am I?” Flagg asked, chuckling.
“Cut the crap,” Roxy snapped, pointing a finger. “Help us with Black Thirteen or we’re going to take it from you.”
“And watch how diplomacy falls.” Flagg shook his head. “Should have tried longer, honestly, I may have been swayed.”
“No, you wouldn’t have,” Monika said.
“That’s true. Sad. Oh well, have a nice day!” He held up Black Thirteen, taking a moment to decide how he would scramble their minds to cause the most chaos.
A portal opened up behind him and disgorged Hussie, Rohan, and Magane. Hussie grabbed Flagg by the collar, snopped his other fingers, and threw the Man in Black to the ground like he was a Flat.
“Magane told me I could do that. I said I couldn’t. Win-win.”
Flagg willed himself back to his fully-defined self. He sighed overdramatically. “It looks like I’ll have to get my hands dirty.” He lifted Black Thirteen.
…Except Black Thirteen wasn’t in his hands.
“…Where…?”
“Over here, lord of darkness,” Allure said from the other side of the portal. Flagg saw her – holding Black Thirteen in her hoof without adverse effects. She was standing at the base of a large crystal-brain mainframe with four other Sweeties – Thrackerzod, Squeaky, Bot, and Burgerbelle. “Your precious toy just got snatched by a tiny unicorn.”
“Stop brea-”
“Just stop,” White Nettle said, appearing behind Flagg.
“Why are you helping them!?”
“I like the multiverse, I like being a giant universe-polymer jellyfish.” She sneered. “You could have helped, you know. Gotten a point on your record as one of the good guys. I bet you could have turned that into something very destructive after the war was over! I’m disappointed in you, Randy.”
“…RANDY!?” John blurted, bursting into laughter.
“…I don’t think it’s that funny,” GM said.
“You’re the Prophet, you must have thought it was funny enough to put in here,” Monika pointed out.
GM put a hand to his head. “I’m just… not going to think about that.”
Flagg let out a calm breath. “I suppose I am an object of ridicule. Shame. It looks as if I’ll have to ruin your nice day.” He held up a hand, tapping into his own power, causing all of White Nettle to tremble. “I do not need Black Thirteen to destroy all of you in an instant! F-”
John appeared in front of him and tapped Randall Flagg’s nose. “Got your nose.”
“Juvenile li-”
John Zapped him away.
White Nettle stared at where he had just been. “Where did you send him?”
“Several hours into the meta-future,” John said. “He won’t be able to do anything until this is allll done.”
“Huh. Good luck surviving after those few hours.” White Nettle winked. Everyone ignored her.
“Thanks, Allure,” Roxy said, walking up to the unicorn.
“Don’t mention it. I… I think I needed to do something important that didn’t result in a tragedy,” Allure smiled – it was pained, but genuine. She juggled Black Thirteen in her hoof. “What do you need me to do?”
Roxy pushed GM forward. “Link him up with every other version of himself. Not mentally, just on a level we can detect and search.”
“How?”
“You know how,” Magane said.
Allure rolled her eyes. “No I don’t.”
“A lie about a lie…”
“That seems like cheating,” Allure observed, looking deep into Black Thirteen. “Yech, this thing is disgusting.”
“If it drove even eldritch beings to madness, it must be,” Thrackerzod said. “What do you see?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Allure declared. She seemed to find what she was looking for. She briefly touched Black Thirteen to GM’s forehead. “There you go.”
GM blinked. “I feel… like a salmon hit me in the face?”
“Probably a false memory,” Allure said, rolling the black orb over her hoof. “Need this for anything else?”
“That should be all we need, thanks,” Jade said. “…I guess you can keep it, since none of us can hold it.”
Allure looked at it. “…I can already feel it trying to eat away at my soul. I… don’t think it’s a good idea for me to try to use it to defend Nettle.”
“I’ll take it!” White Nettle said, grinning.
“First of all, you’re busy with the Tower Ring. Second, you haven’t been to the top of the Tower. Third, I don’t trust you.”
White Nettle huffed and dissipated again.
“How about I just throw it through the portal you guys leave through?” Allure asked. “Just leave it in the roses or whatever. Or maybe you can destroy it?”
Magane laughed. “Destroy Black Thirteen? How amusing.”
“We totally could!” Roxy shouted.
“…And they try to exploit me again.” Magane sighed, leaning back. “Shame, shame, shame…”
“Let’s just deal with it after we get GM’s powers back,” Jade said, creating a portal to the field of roses. “Go ahead and throw it through the portal.”
Allure did. The roses leaned toward it like it was their master – which, in a way, it was.
“Okay everyone, we have everything we need!” Monika said, clapping her hands. “Let’s build the… The uh…”
“Meta-inator?” GM suggested.
“That’s a stupid name.”
“So are a lot of things. A lot of name-changes I did were kind of stupid.”
Allure blinked. “Allure isn’t stupid!”
“I wasn’t being specific! Allure is fine!”
Allure looked GM up and down and decided he was telling the truth. “Ah, sorry, I just, some people don’t like the name, think it’s weird…”
“That… is what some of my readers thought.”
Allure twitched. “…Nice talking to you GM.”
“Oh, come on, I’m sorry!”
Allure sighed. “I know. Just… I’m barely okay with my own existence right now, so if you could bring the existential questions your presence makes me ask back later, that’d be great.”
“Uh… Okay.”
“Good. Glad we’ve come to an understanding.”
“That means shoo,” Burgerbelle said.
GM nodded slowly and left through the portal with everyone else, leaving only the five Sweeties left in White Nettle’s brain universe.
“I like him!” Sweetie Bot said.
“You like everyone,” Thrackerzod pointed out.
“Oh yeah…”
“He’s just a person,” Allure said, shaking her head. “Never really believed that until now.”
“Meeting your creator can never be what you expect,” Burgerbelle said.
“I wasn’t created by him, just… shaped. He didn’t make Sweeties up, you know.”
Burgerbelle shrugged.
“Do you want to talk to him again?” Squeaky asked.
Allure frowned. “…Maybe later. Much later.” There’s things I need to work through.
...Will I be allowed to?
~~~
Eve saw Corona coming, tearing through the final layer of defenses that kept her from the Tower Ring surprisingly easy. Something had her fired up.
She suspected it was the report of Giorno’s death she had just gotten. Corona couldn’t be happy about that, since she was likely the one who had done it.
“She’s going to get here,” Starbeat said. “It won’t be long.”
“Yeah,” Eve said, summoning Seraphim. “We’ll be ready.”
Starbeat looked away, ashamed.
“…Starbeat?”
“I shouldn’t be here when she arrives,” Starbeat said. “That would destroy it. The moment. I’d need to be brushed aside quickly to facilitate the encounter between you two. I’d be useless here.” She put her data pad away. “I have to go elsewhere so I can still be helpful.”
Eve nodded slowly. “I understand.” She pressed a few buttons on a console. “You have full authority to issue orders in my name, Starbeat. I trust you to lead the effort while I’m… busy.”
Starbeat nodded. Then she pulled Eve into a hug. “I have no idea what’s going to happen.”
“Welcome to the club,” Eve said, laughing out a few tears. “Take care of yourself.”
“I should be saying that to you.” Starbeat lowered her goggles over her eyes. “You’re the one this all rests on.”
“It doesn’t rest on just me.”
Starbeat checked her data pad. “Out of all the ka streams I’ve been watching… yours is the only one fighting alone. There may be other points, but they have the Magic of Friendship with them. You… you won’t.”
Eve closed her eyes and nodded. “I know. It has to be that way.”
Starbeat nodded. She saluted Eve. “You’re one of the wisest mares I’ve ever met. Thank you for everything.”
“Thank you for showing us how to deal with personal hardship,” Eve said, saluting with a wing.
Starbeat nodded – then teleported away.
Eve turned to the large window, wiping the tears out of her eyes. She could see Corona coming without the screens now.
With a growing pit in her stomach, Eve waited.
~~~
Pinkie’s Party had an experience rather similar to that of Corona. They entered White Nettle with several hundred teams all working as one. However, despite White Nettle’s fixation on the Void, her body still had some self-defense that whittled them down to just one team.
It was rather predictable, to be honest.
“And apparently boring enough to completely gloss over!” Pinkie blurted.
“…Pinkie?” Nova asked, cocking her head in concern.
“The narrator was being colorful again,” Pinkie said, grinning. “Sorry.”
The five of them walked along the crystalline edges of White Nettle’s mental nexus. They knew they could distract her for a moment by destroying any small crystal, but if they wanted to do any real damage they needed to get to the central control crystal.
“Allure’s waiting for us,” Pinkie said. “Eve chose them to deal with us.”
“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro muttered, adjusting his hat.
“You said it, Jojo,” Pidge agreed.
Vriska cracked her knuckles. “Well, I’m all up for beating the stuffing out of a bunch of white unicorns.”
“How can you be so candid?” Nova asked. “There were thousands of us coming in here. Now there’s just five. We watched most of them die!”
“We’ve seen a lot,” Vriska said – saying it with a soothing voice, rather than an aggressive one. She put a hand on Nova’s shoulder. “It hurts. But it hurts less if you don’t let yourself fixate on it.”
“That’s not always healthy!” Pidge piped up.
“Shut up, I’m being comforting!”
Nova let out a short chuckle. “At least you’re trying.” She smiled at Vriska. “That means more than what you actually said.”
Pinkie put a hoof around Nova. “Glad you finally realized we’re all here for you.”
Nova nodded. “I… I always knew, I just didn’t want to, if that makes any sense.” She hugged Pinkie back. “…I forgot that you’re all my family too.”
“Aw…” Pinkie said. “GROUP HUG!”
Star Platinum grabbed them all together and forced them into said group hug.
“Heh. Just like old times,” Vriska said.
“I don’t remember this!” Pidge muttered, flailing.
“Older times. We existed before Allure’s loops, y’know.”
“I... don’t have a witty response to that.”
“Guess that means we’re done then!” Pinkie said, bouncing out of the group. “Behold, our goal!”
The League of Sweetie Belles stood in front of the main crystal that housed most of White Nettle’s higher functions. She could survive without it – she had backups – but destroying it would be decidedly problematic if she wanted to focus on anything.
White Nettle’s projection floated above the Sweeties. “Done with all the touchy-feely stuff?”
“Hey!” Bot shouted, glaring at White Nettle. “That was beautiful.”
“Bah, whatever,” White Nettle folded her arms. “You may be the great and legendary ‘primary team’, but I’ve got these delightful little guardians and I can focus right on you. I know where you are, no amount of reality anchoring is going to stop me from wiping you out right here, right now. I might not even need th-” She paused. “Well shit.”
“What?” Squeaky asked.
“Empy just got clever. Hold that thought.” She vanished.
Allure looked at Pinkie. “Yep, totally saw that coming.”
“Textbook case,” Pinkie agreed.
“Like moth to a flame.”
“LAMP!” Burgerbelle shouted.
Pinkie broke out into laughter. “Ah… Ah this is going to hurt a lot.”
Allure nodded slowly. “I’m so sorry, Pinkie.”
Pinkie frowned and shook her head. Allure got the message – Pinkie’s team didn’t know about Renee yet.
“…Pinkie…?” Nova asked.
“Yes, it’s important, and yes, you’ll be mad at me for keeping it from you,” Pinkie said. “But we need to be at the top of our game right now.”
Allure nodded. “Same over here. Right team?”
There was a chorus of ‘yesses’.
“Now let’s get out there and play ball!” Pinkie shouted, suddenly wearing a referee's hat and a whistle.
Burgerbelle matched it with a hockey stick and mask. “FORE!”
“STOP IT!” Nova shouted.
Everyone stared at her.
“This isn’t some sporting match or a friendly spar!” Nova continued. “This. Is. War. We don’t have to try to kill each other over this, but can we at least take it seriously!? We are one of the battles that decides the fate of the multiverse. Can we at least act like we know what that means for once in our lives? Drop the toys, drop the antics, and be what we’re supposed to be.” She marched forward, taking the lead. She bowed to Allure. “Allure, I respect you. But I will not treat this as a game.”
Allure nodded. “As it should be.” She readied a fighting stance. “Everyone, bring your best.”
Jotaro looked to Nova – and smiled in approval. He cracked his knuckles.
Pinkie nodded. “Okay.” She brought out her warhammer and smashed it into the ground. “Guess we actually fight.”
Allure summoned her Heart, furrowing her brow in focus.
Both sides waited for the other to make the first move.
~~~
“OKAY EVERYONE! Here’s the plan!” Monika rubbed her hands together. “We need to get GM back his Prophet powers so his new story can take effect. Got it written?”
GM held up a laptop. “I have the manuscript on here. I’ll make a single typo-edit after I get the powers back to make it take effect. …That’s just to make sure my brain accepts it as finalized, by the way. It doesn’t have to be typo-free.”
“Yes, thank you. Anyway, to get to GM, we’ve got to do a few things. Jade has provided us with a handy-dandy Fourth Wall straight from Earth C itself.” Monika gestured at a window-like device with four panes and a series of arced pipes along the edges. “As I’m sure some of us know, these are pretty good at breaking through ka barriers.”
“You’re welcome,” Hussie said, folding his arms proudly.
“…I really hate this guy,” Rohan muttered under his breath.
Monika continued. “However, no doubt the big-honcho GM will be writing a counter-narrative, so we can’t just use Black Thirteen’s connection to get to him. That’s where Hussie and Rohan come in. Together, they should be able to create a counter-counter-narrative. They have their MSPaint and manga stations already ready. Use whatever cheats you want to make sure we do this.”
“We’re doing this, man,” Hussie said. “We’re making this happen.”
“For the love of…” Rohan sat down at his desk and started scribbling with Heaven’s Door. Hussie shrugged and started his work in… well Monika was pretty sure it wasn’t MSPaint.
“Good. So, when they get far enough with that, John, you’ll use retcon on the fourth wall to make sure we get to the real GM – just in case he’s time-displaced through metatime.”
“Got it!” John said, smiling like the dope he was.
“I’m in charge of editing reality the entire time so the world doesn’t fall apart while we’re doing this,” Monika said, adjusting her shirt. “No pressure.”
“Ooh, ooh, what do I do?” Magane asked.
“…Sit there and look pretty?”
Magane raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know, you’re just a tagalong! You tell me why you’re here!”
Magane shrugged playfully.
“Do you even have a side?”
“Not really. I’m just interested in seeing where this goes.”
“…You don’t care if the collapse happens?” Roxy asked. “But what if you die?”
“I know I’ll survive,” Magane said.
“But you can’t know that, right?” John asked.
Magane stared at him in disbelief. “…I’d already taken care of that lie about a lie weeks ago. People are just so easy to manipulate… I will survive.”
“Right, just sit there and look pretty,” Monika muttered. “Roxy, Jade, same deal.”
Roxy raised her eyebrow. “I’m the leader. That’s more than standing around and looking pretty.”
Monika rolled her eyes. “Sure, whatever. Hussie, Rohan, you ready?”
“We’ve got enough written!” Hussie announced, cackling like the madman he was. “ENGAGE!”
At that point, the Batter crested the hill nearest to the group.
I wasn’t far behind him.
You thought I wasn’t going to show up, didn’t you?
~~~
Corona stood on the outside of the Tower Ring.
She knocked politely.
Come on in, airlock’s open, Eve told her telepathically.
Of course it’s Eve, Corona thought to herself. Who else would it be?
Behind Corona, some of the remaining ships and defenses were still shooting. The shield at her back was more than enough to take care of their attempts. She made her way to the airlock and walked into the Tower Ring.
Eve was waiting right on the other side. The purple light of the screens matched her well. The glow from the word PRESERVATION highly accentuated her deep eyes, her cosmic mane, and her shining ears.
Corona’s own ears twitched and she spread her wings.
The two of them took up angry, aggressive poses. They lit their horns and poised their limbs for a leap. Eve padded the ground and Corona pulled back a fist.
Both of them lost steam in an instant. The magic auras dropped, the wings fell, and their bodies sagged.
“Guess we just weren’t cut out for this,” Eve said, shaking her head.
“You could say that again,” Corona said, turning her back to Eve and looking out the window at all the destruction. “Remember the war with Skarn?”
“How could I forget?” Eve said, having turned on her ears the moment Corona looked away.
“You told me you thought you were ready to sacrifice, and later you found that you weren’t.”
“Do you feel the same way?” Eve asked.
“I’m not sure,” Corona said, frowning. “This isn’t what I wanted, I know that. And I’m probably not going to find out if it is worth it.”
“Is there any way to measure that?”
“No. There’s no measurement. The individual doesn’t know enough, and the masses are wrong.”
“The Choice is a riddle with no solution.”
“And it comes down to two individuals anyway.” Corona turned back to her, allowing Eve to turn her ears off.
“There are others fighting for things just as important.”
“But we’re the only ones fighting alone.”
Eve nodded slowly. “I think so.”
Corona sighed. “We did this once before.”
“Them’s little games.”
“It seemed like it didn’t matter then, did it? That there would be no consequences.” She shook her head. “I thought our fight may have been one to truly be that way. But look where we are now. Opposite sides once again. And we fight.”
“It’s not a fight to the death,” Eve told her.
Corona smiled. “Yeah. All I have to do is get you down so I can disable the Tower Ring.”
“Just disable?”
“There’s more to it, but I shouldn’t say any more.”
Eve looked outside. “Nobody’s coming to help us.”
“…They either know it needs to be the two of us, or are conveniently caught up in other battles.”
Eve sighed. “We… We really have to do this. Throughout this entire war, I suppose I knew this moment would come. I even imagined how it would play out a few times. What I would do with you. What I would say.” She shook her head. “This wasn’t what I expected.”
“Same,” Corona said. “…I can’t afford to delay any more. I’m sorry.”
Eve closed her eyes and took in a painful breath. A tear streaked down her cheek. “I know.” She spread her wings and activated Seraphim.
Corona activated her dimensional defenses and summoned Bacon Pancakes. Corona’s flames surrounded her, a tiny sparkle of darkness coming from Sombra’s nanobots. Eve’s eyes became one with darkness, the ice of Seraphim creeping along the walls – though a spot of fire came from Celestia’s essence.
They were both fully aware of their directly-opposing natures.
Their determined faces once again gave way to grimaces – but this time they did not stand down. They no longer had the luxury of talking.
The Tower recognized the momentous nature of their battle. So close to it, the winds of ka warped and twisted the scene. They remained within the Tower Ring, and the screens shone through eternally… but to them, it was almost as though they were facing off in the Castle of the Two Sisters.
What location could be more appropriate?
They launched attacks at the same time - a burst of fire from Corona’s hands and horn met a burst of frozen air from Seraphim. The extreme difference in temperatures caused the air pressure to change dramatically, throwing Corona into Eve. The cold began to eat away at Corona, but unlike the battle in Them’s games, she was prepared for the frigid temperature. A magic barrier kept her internal temperature constant while she forced Eve down with Bacon Pancakes’ pins. Bacon Pancakes’ center rushed to flatten Eve, but she teleported away, using a burst of magic to drive Corona into the ground.
Corona bounced up from the cold metal floor and shot a flamethrower at Eve. The alicorn turned off Seraphim’s absolute zero adjustment, allowing the Stand to deflect the flame. The frozen air began to dissipate, letting Corona lower the magic she was devoting to her temperature barrier. She used the extra power to attack Eve from three directions with magic beams.
Seraphim could only absorb so much damage - parts of it singed Eve. She grunted through it, lighting her horn. She looked Corona apologetically in the eye.
A spell created a spire of solid oxygen behind Corona and stabbed her through the stomach.
Corona cursed herself for assuming Eve had to use Seraphim to make things that cold. She fell to a knee, using Bacon Pancakes as a shield against Eve’s onslaught of magic missiles. Corona didn’t have a Seraphim - she was dependent on her own magic barriers to defend herself. Injured as she was, the shields weren’t as effective as they should have been. They broke down and the laser hit her, burning some of her dress, hair, and skin.
She shook her head, clutching the hole in her stomach. She needed some time to heal herself. She told Raging Sights to activate the nanobots, attacking the one part of Eve that was artificial - her hearing devices. The loudest sound the devices would allow were transmitted right into Eve’s brain, making her scream in agony, dropping all attacks.
Corona grimaced, but took the opportunity to mend her wound with some holy magic. Then she rushed to the control consoles of the Tower Ring - maybe she could end the fight right here and now… She saw what she needed to press. She had the codes. All it would take was a few seconds…
Eve teleported the inner section of her hearing devices away from her, prompting blood to pour out of her ears. Corona stopped trying to access the Tower Ring’s controls and threw Bacon Pancakes at Eve. The alicorn teleported through the red Stand and connected a hoof with Corona’s face. Corona retaliated with a kick to Eve’s stomach. Both of them absorbed most of the impact with their natural magic, but they still felt it.
They flew apart. Before they landed again, they fired simple beams of energy at each other. Orange and purple collided, exploding in a shower of arcane sparks.
The light cleared. The two of them stood up, panting heavily.
The interior of the Tower Ring had been dented in a few places - but operation was still at one hundred percent, according to the screens shining through the Tower’s castle illusion. Corona wondered if she could destroy the Tower Ring by herself, if it came to it. But neither her nor Eve wanted it destroyed, so that was a moot point. One way or another, the Tower Ring would be activated.
One way or another.
Corona covered her body in flame while Eve encased herself in a deep, chilling armor of frozen air. They charged at each other again, prepared to fight as long and as hard as they needed to.
And yet, their expressions were not angry, not determined, but sorrowful. Neither of them wanted to be there, but they didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.
~~~
The Chosen.
Blumiere. Timpani. Sai. Nanoha. Jenny. Alushy. Aradia.
Could Dimentio and Renee be counted as well? Maybe. But they were questionable at best.
The others had been chosen. When Sai opened the doors with her understanding, they led not to the spiral staircase of the Dark Tower, but to a white room. There was no staircase there.
Just a door on the other side. It was the same as the door at the top of the Tower, except it lacked a name. Instead, it only said
CHOICE
“Who will swing this door upon its golden hinge?” Renee asked. “All of you are here. Any one of you could be the one to enter.”
Blumiere moved forward – but Nanoha beat him to it. “You’ll have your glory, Blumiere,” she said as she set her hand on the knob.
Blumiere nodded curtly to her. She opened the door.
On the other side was the room. But there was no mysterious barrier barring their entry, no clever trick to send them somewhere random in existence. For once in its life, the Dark Tower was letting people in without a fuss.
It was a special occasion, after all.
They all filed in without incident. The symbols on the dark walls seemed to dance, inviting everyone to look at them, to discern some meaning. But for all the symbols’ movement, no one paid any attention to them.
They paid attention to the two things in the room. The Source – that ever turning spirograph encased in white energy which held the secret to ka’s production – and the clock.
That grandfather clock with the spirograph on it that looked so much like the god-tier clocks of SBURB; for it was what they were based on. It was the original judge of Justice and Heroism.
Blumiere walked up to the Source and opened the Prognosticus, turning to the last page.
“The Choice that all will make…” he mumbled.
Jenny considered punching him, trying to stop what was happening… but she found she couldn’t. She was transfixed by the momentus nature of the occasion. No one could do anything anymore. They could only watch.
Blumiere closed the book, ready.
Tick.
Everyone turned to the clock.
Tock.
The clock that had never counted a single second in its existence was active.
Tick.
“The Dark Tower is ready to decide,” Aradia declared. “Blumiere?”
Tock.
Blumiere paused for a moment.
Tick.
He clenched the Prognosticus tight in his hand.
Tock.
Renee grinned from ear to ear.
~~~
Flutterfree looked up at the sky.
“What is it?” Rev asked, coming out from the church.
“Something’s wrong.”
Rina rolled her eyes. “There’s a war going on up there, of course something’s wrong.”
“No. There’s something wrong that’s not supposed to be. Or maybe it is. I don’t know.” She rubbed her head. “They’ve missed something.”
“Who?” Rev asked.
Flutterfree looked her right in the eyes, allowing the unicorn to see how terrified she was. “…Everyone.”
~~~
Tick.
Tock.