//------------------------------// // 138 - Crimson // Story: Songs of the Spheres // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// “This is a big tree.” Roxy floated down the lake-sized leaves of a tremendous world-tree sticking out of Nucleon’s side, rubbing her hand down the trunk that seemed more like ground than a tree, and probably would have been ground if Nucleon’s gravity wasn’t taking over. “Fun fact: it’s still not big enough to discern from the whole of Nucleon,” I reported. “If you see all of Nucleon, you don’t see it.” “I know, we’ve been looking at Nucleon for the last few hours.” Chancellor Fluttershy put a hoof on the bark. “I wonder what world this was originally from.” >>There are many universes that are one tree, so this really isn’t all that impressive,<< M printed. “I don’t even need to read that to know you’re being a spoilsport,” Roxy said. >>A simultaneously intelligent and petty observation.<< Roxy didn’t read or respond to that. She kept floating down the tremendous tree, getting closer and closer to the actual ground. “Geez, this is taking forever…” “We’re not traveling all that quickly,” Monika pointed out. “We need to get out of the branches of the tree if we want to get to the bottom. Or…” She snapped her fingers, creating an orange five-pointed star in midair. “I can just launch us.” “What does this launch involve?” Rohan asked. Roxy didn’t wait for an answer. She jumped into the star. It spun around her with an electronic charging up noise and flung her down at high speed. Her momentum was easily higher than it should have been factoring in air resistance, but she arrived at the surface unharmed. Not bothering to wait for any of the others, she investigated the ground. Such a giant tree should have bathed the land in eternal shadow, but the twilight nature of Nucleon ensured there was enough light coming from the side for any purpose. She furrowed her brow, looking at the leaves falling off like it was autumn. How does Nucleon know the seasons change? …Maybe it can’t, and it’s just trying its best. With a flick of her wrist, she summoned a scanning device to see if she could find anything of interest. It wasn’t until Chancellor Fluttershy and M appeared behind her that she noticed something. Not on the scanner – it read everything as normal – but in her ears. “…Do you hear that?” The Chancellor swiveled her ears around. “…Are those screams?” >>Yes, those are screams. Very tiny, insignificant screams.<< Roxy narrowed her eyes. “I think they’re just distant…” She flew across the leaf she was standing on to a lake-sized section of bare dirt near the tree’s trunk. She could hear the screams louder now, but they were still small. Looking closer, she saw why – the people were literally ants. They had a hill-like castle and were taking large trips to and from their home to deliver small segments of the leaves as food. It clearly wasn’t efficient enough to feed everyone. Roxy focused her hands together and stole the nothingness from existence, creating one of the leaves above them. She allowed it to fall overtop of the ants, saving them. Rohan jogged up. “You know, I often forget you can do that.” “The Rogue of Void gets one of the more… interesting movesets,” Roxy admitted. She floated around, creating more leaves for hills she noticed were uncovered. “These things are huge…” “What?” Rohan called – she was so far away he could barely hear her. “Nothing important!” Roxy called over. “Just leaves. Nothing but leaves.” She moved much closer to the trunk, finding a much larger area of the ground not covered in leaves. She reached her hand into the ground and found lots of black dust. “Hmm…” “Hello, child.” Roxy sighed. “I’m not a kid anymore, how many times do-” She realized she was talking to a three-story humanoid in a red cloak. “Oh. Sorry, I don’t know you.” “You and I are about to become very well acquainted…” the Crimson King said, reaching out his hand. A nebulous mist of churning power forced itself upon her, entering her nose and swimming into her brain. She made an attempt to erase the Crimson King with Void, but found him highly resistant to it. She had enough time to let out a yell for help before her mind was completely adherent to the Crimson King. Rohan and Chancellor Fluttershy ran over. “What’s going on?” “Eh, just got surprised,” Roxy said, making it so they couldn’t see the Crimson King. “Turns out the ants can bite.” “…Heaven’s Door,” Rohan said, summoning his Stand. “So much for stealth…” the Crimson King revealed himself and shot the darkness at Rohan and Chancellor Fluttershy. Rohan tried to fight it with Heaven’s Door – and this was his mistake. He fell to the darkness easily. “Defenses!” Chancellor Fluttershy shouted at M while running. >>Activated.<< The darkness hit Chancellor Fluttershy from behind, but couldn’t worm its way into her brain. “Warn Monika!” >>Sending message. Sent.<< Unfortunately, it came a little too late – Monika had already brought the cage with myself and Flagg in it down to the surface. She checked her phone after she had landed. “What…?” >>…Chancellor, I seem to have failed. Sorry. I th_<< The Crimson King was suddenly grabbing the Chancellor. She let out a scream Monika didn’t hear through the Void clouding her perceptions. The mechanical components that made up and housed M shattered into a thousand pieces. “M!” Chancellor Fluttershy shouted. Monika heard this scream through the winds of ka. She whirled around, trying to figure out what was going on and how she could stop it. The Crimson King raised a finger to Chancellor Fluttershy’s head… and then lowered it. “No. You aren’t important enough.” He threw her to the side like a bug. He rushed the cage – getting there just as Monika figured out she should probably edit herself to detect Voided abilities. She saw the Crimson King just as he destroyed the cage. ~~~ “The ka is flowing…” Starbeat paused. “Well, whatever way it’s flowing, we’ll follow it regardless… So…” “Do I go left or right!?” Caliborn shouted, gesturing at the two cavernous tunnels they had to choose from. Both were identically dark, gray, and boring. “Whichever you want,” Starbeat said. Caliborn went to the left, grumbling. “Fucking bitch spends so much time saying she’s in charge and doesn’t take charge…” “She’s listening to the advice of her teammates,” Trixie said. “…Actually I think she just doesn’t care which way we go,” Saitama, the newest addition to the ka-seeking team, added. “Motherfuckin’ right,” Gamzee said, breaking out into a toothy grin. Starbeat chuckled at Gamzee’s remark. “More like it doesn’t matter. We’re going left, we’ll get to where we need to go. The ka’s so strong right now we’ll end up there regardless.” She tapped her goggles. “There’s something we need to see. Something important. Given how this path is sloping upward, it’s probably on the surface, but you never know.” “I’m just hoping it isn’t something we have to fight,” Saitama said with a sigh. “That’s always over so fast.” “Then let some of us have a go at it for once!” Caliborn yelled back. “He does,” Trixie retorted. “Remember the sea of shrimp demons?” “Oh yeah.” Caliborn let out an evil laugh. “That was fun!” “As much as it pains me to agree with the cherub, that was fun,” Starbeat admitted. “I’d never really felt the heat of being in the moment of combat like that before… I think during the war too much was on the line for me to appreciate it.” “Yeah, you just need to get a little motherfuckin’ relax on,” Gamzee said. “Get in touch with your inner self and feel it.” “Says the purple berserker fairy,” Trixie deadpanned. “Hey, hey, I’m chill, we’re all chill, it’s just that when I probably shouldn’t be chill I motherfuckin’ ain’t.” “If you’re so chill why do you swear every single sentence?” Trixie asked. “That is a good question,” Saitama added. “It’s just the motherfuckin’ way I motherfuckin’ am,” Gamzee answered. “Yes! Double down on it!” Caliborn shouted back. “Fuck them and their foolish judgments!” Trixie rolled her eyes. “Aw, look at the little snotling, calling other people ‘foolish’! Cute.” Caliborn twisted time and was in front of Trixie before she could react. “You didn’t.” “Did!” Trixie said, sneering. “Whatcha gonna do about it?” “I. Am going to remove your eyes. And then replace them. With ping pong balls. With similar eyes drawn on them.” “That doesn’t sound original,” Trixie mused. “He’s found this Red vs Blue show,” Gamzee said. “Identifies a lot with the purple shoutin’ guy.” “If only he had chosen a more regal color!” Caliborn shouted. “Purple is the color of royalty,” Trixie muttered. “GREEN IS KING!” “Aren't you a Lord?” Saitama asked. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Caliborn said, drawing his gun on Saitama. “…Didn’t we learn anything from last time?” “I am going to kill every last one of you one day…” “Aw, but then who would you talk at?” Trixie asked, nudging him playfully. “Come on, you know you looooooove us.” The word caused Caliborn physical pain. He switched his gun to the scepter form and smacked Trixie upside the head. Trixie, despite the bruise, kept giggling. “The power of looooove Cal! Loooooooove!” He started chasing her around the caverns with his scepter, screaming out expletives. Trixie just kept laughing. Saitama took a picture with his phone. “Kinda cute. In a messed up way.” Starbeat rolled her eyes. “Come on you two, break it up. We have places to go, things to do, ka to fulfill.” Trixie sighed. “Fiiine. I’m leading the way this time.” “Bitch! I was leading!” Caliborn whinged. “Doesn’t really matter, Starbeat’s ka-navigator,” Trixie said. “She’s done a pretty good job of it so far.” Starbeat smirked. “Three treasure hoards, two monster nests, and two collapse cells, all taken care of.” “Oh yeah, I forgot about the nests and cells,” Trixie put a hoof to her chin. “Wonder why I’m never on those…” “You’re not a warrior and never have been,” Starbeat responded. “Even in the war all you did was tell Discord what to do.” “Heh. Yeah.” “Maybe this time we’ll find a preservation cell,” Saitama said. “That’d be a nice change of pace.” “You just don’t want to punch them into submission!” Caliborn accused. “You’re right. I don’t.” “They know what they did,” Starbeat said. “They need to know that can’t just be brushed aside. It will be with them forever.” “Hmm…” They continued up through the winding tunnel of the caverns until they came to a dead end. “…Ka will lead us where we need to go, huh?” Caliborn laughed. “More like to a dead end!” “I don’t think this is a dead end…” Starbeat tapped the ground above them. It was not rock, but soil, and there were large roots worming through it. “We’re near the surface.” “Ugh, we have to dig out?” Trixie groaned. “That’ll take forever…” Starbeat smirked. “Saitama?” Saitama pulled back his fist. “Normal punch.” ~~~ Flagg and I were sent flying in different directions when the cage exploded. The magic locks on us that sealed our powers remained, but we were free to move. As was Monika. She created a giant neon-blue axe out of thin air and brought it down on the Crimson King. His response was to shift his body around the axe. As this was happening, with a free hand he picked up the now-free Black Thirteen and punched Monika with it, forcing the Knowledge into her mind. She fell back to the ground. “Yes!” Flagg shouted. “My king, you have returned! I beg of you, release me so I may sta-” “You will inevitably betray me,” the Crimson King said, cutting Flagg in half with a chop of his hand. “You served your purpose.” “Chancellor, get me out of here!” I hissed. She heard me and rushed to my aid, but Roxy stopped her with a punch to the face. The Crimson King had both her and Rohan under his complete control. And now they were coming for me. Two giant boxing gloves appeared out of nowhere, knocking the two of them to their backs. “…What!?” the Crimson King shouted. Monika was already up and floating again. “I know that trick.” She sneered. “I can keep my mind clear if I want.” He waved a hand, ordering Rohan and Roxy to stand back up, despite the fact that they should have been unconscious. They charged Monika. Upon finding she couldn’t access their character files, she shrugged and encased them in a giant glass box. They charged right through like the box was made of nothing. Monika sighed. “Really?” She clapped her hands and suddenly the two of them were falling down a hole. The Crimson King disintegrated her with eldritch power. It was a simple automatic-rewrite for Monika to reconstruct herself. She put her hands on her hips and struck a sassy pose. “Looks like you’ve got a case of underestimating people!” The Crimson King was behind her, grabbing onto her soul and removing it from her body. “The soul is just as editable as everything else,” Monika said, healed to full once again. She scrolled through several things she’d saved in her internal files over the years, settling on an antimatter cannon. A gun with a five-pointed barrel made of neon yellow crystals charged up and fired, enveloping the Crimson King in an explosion that tore him asunder. Unfortunately he was eldritch and could just reform himself however he wished. He took the form of a mansion-sized crimson spider and tore Monika apart. She was fine again in an instant, creating a small army of humanoid robots to take the Crimson King on. He tore through them like butter, but she kept duplicating them with simple copy/paste technology. The Crimson King reverted into his humanoid form and held up Black Thirteen. “Do you know what Black Thirteen can do, Lord of Ka?” Monika summoned gigantic snowflakes and hurled them at the Crimson King. They all deflected right off him. “It can take you anywhere in the multiverse, which is useless, and it can show you truth, which drives you crazy.” The Crimson King held Black Thirteen out to Monika. “It also has control over ka itself, if you know what you’re doing. Your powers are no more.” Monika paled – and then fell to the ground, clutching her heart. “Wh… Wh…” The Crimson King slowly walked to her, holding out Black Thirteen like a weapon. “It is ka itself, the manifestation of it. Of all the Rainbow, it is the one that represents the Tower itself. Naturally it has the control along with the knowledge and connection.” The Crimson King raised a hand. “The people of this era have so much power… and no appreciation for it.” Monika was disintegrated. And then Monika was behind the Crimson King with a chainsaw and cut his head off. “I love me a decoy!” As the Crimson King struggled to regrow his head, Monika kicked Black Thirteen out of his hand. Then she created a mechanical butterfly that took Black Thirteen and dropped it in the hole where Rohan and Roxy were, hitting Roxy on the head and keeping her from returning to do the Crimson King’s bidding. The Crimson King regrew his head, along with the red hood. “You…” Monika put on a mocking expression. “Aw, you upset your little ploy didn’t work? Trust me, I’m sure it’ll be-” He teleported Black Thirteen back to his hand. He teleported Roxy and Rohan to his side as well. “Space is nothing.” Monika twitched. Then she vanished. “And so she flees…” The Crimson King laughed. “Just as expected…” He turned to me. “She should have freed you, Muse. That might have done something.” I ground my teeth. “She’s too proud.” “And her pride will be your downfall.” “How about you remove my restraints and we have a fair fight?” “A desperate attempt.” I gulped. “It was worth a shot. After all…” I stopped, having seen something. “Hey, Crimson King, look into Black Thirteen. You’ll find something that will shatter your worldview.” The Crimson King took a moment to look at Black Thirteen. Saitama punched out of the ground right under him, sending the robed monstrosity high into the sky. “Coast cle-” “HEAVEN’S DOOR!” Rohan shouted, summoning the Stand. Saitama’s face popped open like a book. “SOMEONE STOP ROHAN!” I shouted. “He’s being controlled!” Dozens of golden bullets shot out of the hole, shredding Rohan’s interior with ease. Heaven’s Door dissipated, and the manga artist slumped to the ground in a pool of his own blood. Caliborn jumped out of the hole and laughed. “That was the guy, right!?” “You didn’t have to kill him!” I wailed. Caliborn kicked him. “Eh, but I wanted to.” Roxy punched Caliborn in the face. Caliborn’s jaw dropped. “The Voidy bitch…” Gamzee jumped out of the hole next, trying to tear into Roxy with his teeth. She vanished, appeared behind him, and shoved him into Caliborn. Trixie and Starbeat came out next. Starbeat took one look at me and her eyes became murder. “You.” “We have bigger issues right now!” I wailed. “What could be bigger than you?” The Crimson King landed on the ground again, Black Thirteen still held tightly in his claws. He activated the controlling miasma again, but Starbeat used her magic to deflect it. Roxy delivered a series of punches to Starbeat and Trixie’s faces, tossing them to the side. Then she took out her gun. “BITCH!” Caliborn shouted, shooting at her. Roxy allowed the bullets to pass right through her. She turned the gun on him – but he slowed time so he could dodge all the bullets. Once he was close enough he whacked her with his scepter, a weapon the Crimson King could not make her Void through no matter how much he wanted. The Crimson King forced her to stand up again - but Starbeat saw this. She shot a beam of energy right at the gemstone on her back, shattering it in two. “None of you have power…” The Crimson King said, pointing a finger. “Death.” “Normal punch,” Saitama said, hitting the Crimson King in the chest. The eldritch being’s very essence imploded and twisted as the force of the man’s fist threatened reality itself with how powerful it was, vaporizing the Crimson King’s equivalent to a spine in an instant. He went flying back, splayed on the ground, motionless. “…Man, one punch again,” Saitama muttered. “Figured he would be-” “He is,” I said. “Don’t kid yourselves. Someone remove these limitations so I can help you!” “Not happening,” Starbeat said. “Starbeat!” Starbeat kicked me. “Stop talking.” The Crimson King slowly stood up, clenching his chest. “You… have ka brimming within you… the power of victory…” “Yeah,” Saitama said – a smile forming on his face. “And you can take a punch.” The Crimson King held out Black Thirteen. “You should have used your full power. You may have ended my reign.” “Your reign? You going to tell me your complex backstory now?” “No,” the Crimson King said. “I’m going to kill you.” He rushed forward with Black Thirteen. “Serious punch,” Saitama said, pulling his fist back. “No, Saitama, don’t touch Black Thirteen!” I warned. “Gotcha,” Saitama said, adjusting his punch slightly to the left so he would hit the Crimson King head on without touching the artifact. The Crimson King let the punch connect. Absolutely nothing happened. “…What?” Saitama said, blinking. The Crimson King drove his free hand through Saitama like he was made of jello. “I do not have to touch you to remove your ka!” He tossed Saitama aside like a ragdoll. “Your one chance is gone.” “Let me out!” I wailed. “I can do something!” Starbeat kicked me hard enough to crack a rib, refusing to acknowledge me otherwise. What happened to you that I can’t see? The Crimson King took a slow couple of steps forward, past the broken and shattered forms of his two puppets. Just to add insult to injury, he made both of their bodies burst into black flames. “Fools…” Caliborn let out a scream and started filling him with the bullets from his gun. The Crimson King felt them – they were not ordinary bullets and carried with them the power of the Lord of Time – but they were still nothing more than little ants among his internal darkness. He reached out his hand, charging it full of enough energy to kill them all in an instant. “Serious punch.” The sound of the impact was enough to make everyone wince in pain. The Crimson King’s body split into several pieces and still there was enough force not only for him to make it to the trunk of the world tree, but also bore a hole all the way through it. Where he had been a moment ago stood Saitama with a smoking fist – Monika standing behind him with a cute smile on her face. “So, as it turns out, I can give people ka powers back so long as I can edit their character files. Who knew?” “Is he dead?” Saitama asked me. I coughed. “No… He had Black Thirteen, it saved him.” Saitama ran to the other side of the world tree, finding nothing there to punch at all. He ran back. “I don’t see him. Or the black thing.” “He ran away,” I said. “He didn’t want to chance it against both of you.” “Woo!” Monika shouted. “We won!” “Not really…” I sighed. “He has Black Thirteen. That’s what he came here for. We have to find him so he can’t use it for… Whatever he needs it for.” “You don’t know what he needs it for?” Chancellor Fluttershy asked. I shook my head. “I didn’t even know he was back… I’m not even sure how he can be back…” “Don’t know, don’t care,” Monika said, creating two revive potions. She tossed one at Rohan and one at Roxy. Roxy’s Carnelian Gem reformed with a flash. She sat up and grunted. “Ugh… That was a sucky experience.” Rohan sat up… and said nothing. There was no spark in his eyes. I sighed. “…No way we could have escaped without sacrifice… M… Rohan…” “You still talk like that,” Starbeat muttered under her breath. “Like you must fight…” “We must!” “I should kill you right here, right now,” Starbeat declared. “Starbeat!” Trixie said with a gasp. “She deserves it, Trixie. She wasn’t just some soldier fighting in a war, she was a traitor before the war even started. She can’t think like us… It’s impossible.” “…What happened to you?” I asked. “Can’t you see!?” “No. I don’t have Black Thirteen, I just have the Eye…” Starbeat let out a snort. “I survived. That’s what happened.” “Motherfuckin’ amen,” Gamzee said. I twitched. “You do realize you’re traveling with Gamzee Makara and Caliborn right? The Bard of Rage and the guy who becomes Lord English?” “…English?” Caliborn said, thinking for a moment. “Oh, that’s right, I do take his name…” “Stop being so prejudiced,” Starbeat spat. “I knew who Gamzee was. Admittedly, I was unaware Caliborn would become Lord English, but right now he’s manageable and I’m working him over.” “Working me over!?” “Caliborn, quiet, the adults are talking. …Actually, I shouldn’t even call you an adult.” “What’s gotten you so mad that you’re resorting to petty insults?” I asked, confused. “You. What you stand for. The fact that I can’t end you since I’m pretty sure we need you to find the Crimson King.” She seethed. “I’m not an idiot, I know a greater evil when I see one. Trixie, send word back to the Hub, we’re going on a monster-hunting quest.” “On it. Should I ask Storm for backup?” “No. We have enough here.” “If you remove this magic seal…” I said. “No. You’re just here because of that Eye of yours. I am not giving you a chance to escape. I’m going to put you on trial.” “Do you want to talk about trial? I can put you on for war crimes caused by your ka inventions!” “I will make Caliborn shoot your throat out and make you communicate with me in mime if I have to,” Starbeat muttered. She angrily turned away and walked to Gamzee. “I’m done talking to her, someone else figure out how we’re going to find him.” Trixie cleared her throat, walking up to me. “She’s angry, give her a break.” “…She’s not going to put me on trial, right?” “Pretty sure she is.” Trixie looked me in the eyes. “…And I can’t exactly tell myself you don’t deserve it. You did do a lot of shitty stuff.” When something like that is said so frankly and matter-of-factly, it often carries with it more weight than having it screamed in your face. For the first time in a long while, I felt legitimately afraid of what these people I called friends might do to me. ~~~ Flagg respawned in front of the doors to the Dark Tower. He promptly got his brains blown out by Roland. He slumped to the ground, dead. Again. Renee chuckled. “Told you it was a good idea to be here.” “I extend my gratitude, Emissary.” Flagg respawned and Roland blasted his brains out again, letting a second Flagg pile onto the first. Renee put on a pair of comically-oversized 3D glasses. “Impressive.” The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth Flaggs all suffered the same fate. The seventh came back while Roland was reloading. “Wait!” Roland didn’t wait. He shot Flagg in the crotch, prompting the man to retch in pain for a second. Then he shot him in the head. The next Flagg got a shot to each arm, the heart, and the head. This continued for some time. “GODAMMIT ROLAND!” Flagg shouted. “STOP!” “I lived a thousand lifetimes with no release,” Roland said, shooting him through one eye and then the other. “I wasn’t responsible for that!” “No, that’d be me,” Renee admitted. “But I also let him out.” Roland shot Flagg through the throat. “Stop! Just stop!” Roland didn’t stop. “ROLAND!” “I don’t see why I should,” Roland commented, shooting this Flagg in the stomach several times so he would bleed out slower. “If there is one being that deserves to die, it is you.” “But I can’t… Be killed…” “I can keep shooting you until the Tower falls. Then you die.” “You can’t keep this up forever.” Roland shot Flagg in the head again. After reloading, he used his free hand to pull out his phone. It took him a minute to remember how to dial Nanoha, but he did. “I need a shipment of bullets to the front of the Tower. Walter’s not dying enough.” He hung up. “Still calling me Walter, huh?” Flagg cackled – before another shot to the neck shut him up. “What a childish name…” “Gee, I wonder why he calls you that,” Renee said with a smirk. “You’re the Emissary…” Flagg said, clutching at the blood pouring out of his chest. “You know what I am to you…” “A force of evil with a little bit of humor thrown in to keep you from being mind-numbingly boring.” She rolled her eyes. “Nothing that special, really.” “But I-” he was shot in the middle of his sentence. “I am Legion! I am the last survivor! I am Randall Flagg! I brought worlds to their knees!” “You were more a tool than anything,” Renee said with a delighted chuckle. “Real characters go through changes, find ways to shift, to grow. You just got better at doing what you always did.” She shook her head. “You do have a chance to be something else, now.” Blood poured from Flagg’s mouth. “What?” “Make a wild guess.” Flagg died again. Nanoha appeared before them in a flash of light. “Where are the bullets?” Roland asked. “Nowhere.” She snapped her fingers, imprisoning the fresh Flagg in magical restraints. “You’ve already made a hundred bodies Roland, that’s not sanitary. Wait until killing him will actually do something.” Roland nodded slowly and put his gun away. Flagg let out a sigh of relief. “That was getting decidedly annoying…” “I can make you suffer an infinite loop of deaths inside your own mind,” Nanoha said, fire in her eyes. “So you better give me a good reason not to make you suffer until your death can be made permanent.” “…The Crimson King has just stolen Black Thirteen and killed me.” Nanoha narrowed her eyes. “Information is a start…” “He has retained eldritch nature despite physics not allowing it. I know not how many he killed, but Monika, Rohan, Twilence, Roxy, Chancellor Fluttershy, and M were all there. The location was a world-tree somewhere on Nucleon. This very pla-” “They know,” Renee cut him off. “I’m not that cruel; I’ll tell them the name of the planet they’re on.” “So you named it.” Renee chuckled. “I’m not explaining my nature to anyone again. But luckily you’ve been around long enough to figure it out on your own.” She patted him on the head. “Good boy.” He twitched. “Awww, is the Legion of Darkness not having a nice day?” “I imagined the Emissary of ka to be more… neutral.” Renee rolled her eyes. “Everyone always says that, and they’re always wrong…” Roland loaded his gun. “The Crimson King will be here soon. We should tell the people about this.” Nanoha nodded. “I’ll arrange a meeting and start moving everything we can into town. I hope Arceus is in the mood for another round of creation, it’s do or die time.” “Mostly die,” Flagg said. “How can you hope to defeat the Crimson King when you cannot access the eldritch nature?” “We know he won’t win,” Nanoha said. “What we don’t know is how many of us have to die in the process before he falls. I don’t suppose you have any suggestions?” “Erase him from existence or become one with the eldritch energy. Oh wait, neither of those will work anymore. My bad.” Roland shot him in the leg. He let out a scream of intense pain. “Roland!” Nanoha said, healing him. “He’s not dead. No more bodies for you to deal with.” “We need him cooperative.” Roland shook his head. “Lock him away and don’t let anyone speak to him.” Nanoha shook her head. “I’ll bring it up at the next meeting when we decide what to do with him, but I don’t think we’ll be doing that. He’s too valuable a source of information, Roland. Even if he is close to evil incarnate.” Roland let out a grunt indicated he accepted her decision, but wasn’t pleased. “And the gunslinger is forced to go into diplomacy…” Flagg said with a chuckle. A bullet went into his other leg. ~~~ “…What is that slapping I hear behind me?” Mattie asked as she looked at the map of the universe. The center was close. It wouldn’t be more than a day until they arrived. Swip let out a groan. “They’re just playing patty cake.” Mattie turned around in bewilderment to see Burgerbelle and the Everykid doing exactly that. “Hold on. Both of you are much, much older than you look. Why!?” “What’s the point of looking like a kid if you never act like one?” Burgerbelle asked. The Everykid nodded in agreement. Mattie smacked her lips. “Well, I don’t have any response to that. Thrackerzod?” Thrackerzod grunted. “Just as weird as your bizarre obsession with pain.” “Right, no help there. Nettle?” “I don’t even know the context of this conversation,” Nettle admitted. She was looking at Burgerbelle and the Everykid playing with… longing? “You know, I bet the Emperor can cook up a de-age spell if you want to join them.” “No,” Nettle responded. “I don’t want to be even more helpless than I already am.” “Then what’s the problem?” Nettle shrugged. “Nothing besides my own inadequacy.” She stood up and walked off the bridge. Thrackerzod sighed. “Should I do it, or you?” “We’ll do it,” Burgerbelle said. She and the Everykid ran out into Swip’s halls after Nettle. The Everykid used her time hat to jump in front of Nettle, trapping her between the two of them. “…What do you want?” “You know, you could be friends with Everykid too,” Burgerbelle said, folding her arms. “It doesn’t just have to be you and me talking.” “Is that what you think I’m hung up about?” Nettle rolled her eyes. “You’re clueless.” The Everykid shook her head. She took her hat off and gave Nettle puppy dog eyes. “I don’t get what she’s saying.” Burbergelle leaned on a nearby wall. “She thinks you’re upset that your powers aren’t surfacing like everyone else’s.” Nettle grunted. “Of course I’m upset.” “Jealous?” “Yes!” “How do you think everyone else felt when you were in your full multiversal body?” Nettle opened her mouth to respond. When she found herself unable to form words, a spinning rainbow wheel icon appeared in front of her face. She brushed it away. “Burgerbelle…” “Sorry, couldn’t resist.” Burgerbelle coughed. “And that’s my problem. I flaunt my powers around a lot because they’re so different. And I enjoy being me.” “You get to be you.” “And everyone else got to be you.” “What?” The Everykid facepalmed. She shoved Nettle into Burgerbelle, making the two hug. Nettle seemed shocked. Something stirred within her, and she wasn’t exactly sure what it was. Something… warm. “You look baffled. It’s just an awkward hug. A-” A comical quack sound came out of Burgerbelle as her expression shifted to realization. “…Nettle, how many hugs have you actually experienced?” “…I… None?” Burgerbelle smiled. “Then it’s time for a bear hug.” “You aren’t a be-AAAAAAR!” Nettle squirmed but found that trying to remove herself from the embrace was completely impossible. It was over when Burgerbelle said it was, releasing the poor white woman. “That was…” “Great?” “Painful.” “And?” “…I’m not sure.” Burgerbelle snapped her fingers. “You should try to get sure. Talk to people, find out what they mean. You know what I think?” “What?” “You should stop trying to become what you were.” “But I’m no-” “You are though. You may be thinking to yourself you have a new life, but you aren’t really living it. You’re talking, trying, but you still dwell on what you were.” She put an arm over Nettle’s shoulder. “Think about it this way – jellyfish-Nettle is gone, and human-Nettle is here to stay. You should try figuring out what human-Nettle is, and that includes getting to know other people, discovering what it means to be human.” “Friends!” the Everykid chirped. “Yes. That. Friends. You can’t just use us as support blocks like you want to, you need to let everything go both ways.” Burgerbelle pulled out a two-way arrow sign. “And who knows? Maybe once you accept what you are, you’ll be able to figure out something new about yourself.” “So… If I want powers, I have to be fine with not having them?” “Maybe?” “That’s stupid.” “I’m a girl made from a poorly-edited jpeg image who is obsessed with burgers and can pull memes out of her hair. That’s also stupid.” Big, pixelated white letters spelling out ‘THIS IS STUPID’ appeared below her face. “…I might try it.” The Everykid made a ‘woohoo’ noise and did a victory dance. Nettle kneeled down to her eye level. “Hello… Everykid. What… do you like?” The Everykid held out her palm. Nettle met it confused. “Oh come on!” Burgerbelle blurted. “Just do what you saw us doing earlier!” Nettle clapped her hands and met the Everykid’s other hand slowly. Then they sped up until the Everykid was giggling. There was a smile on Nettle’s face. “Anyone who isn’t busy report to the bridge,” Mattie called over the intercom. “We’ve just found ourselves a little somethin’.” The three of them ran back in. “What is it?” Nettle asked. “Well, it looks like a fleet of ships,” Mattie said, pointing at a bunch of silvery blobs on the main screen. “Not that we’re very sure what kind of ships they are, sensors are wiggin out a bit. No idea why.” “…We should go say hi,” Nettle said. Everyone turned to her with blank stares. “...What?” “You. Suggesting we go say hi to people,” Thrackerzod said. “…Never mind. It’s a good idea. Mattie?” Mattie smirked. “This is your Mistress speaking. We’re about to go charge off to meet a fleet a ships and say ‘hi’. There is a very high chance that they’re going to try to shoot us out of the sky before we open our mouths. So consider this a warning to buckle yourselves up, we’re in for a bumpy ride.” Swip sighed. “I hate you.” “What? That was completely innocuous!” “Because you’re saying it, it’s automatically not. Setting course…” ~~~ Chem the Them-chinchilla was floating in space next to Flep the Celestialsapien as the fleet moved ever closer to the core. “-and then I figure out they have a machine that washes the dishes for them! Can you believe that Flep? Can you?” Flep, as usual for his kind, made no response, and if he had been thinking of making a response, all thought of such was banished when Chem started talking again. “And don’t get me started on the other stuff they had me do. A freaking Horrorterror corpse! That took forever to disintegrate completely, and it didn’t even help the mind-stench in the area! It was all a big waste of everyone’s time – mostly mine though – and it was just a huge mess to begin with.” Flep seemed to be listening. Even though he hadn’t moved a muscle the entire time Chem had been talking. “And the games. The games are boring. I mean it’s more interesting than the multiverse was, still glad I’m a chinchilla, but gaaaaaaaah why play chess? Why not play Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth-Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip-Poker? Now there’s a game I could get behind, but nobody’s got the wherewithal to face ME in a duel! It’s all futile…” “Cards,” Mite said. Chem took the presence of Mite in stride. “When did you get here? You missed a lot of good ranting!” “Doubtful.” “Oh, please, it was quality stuff. Real quality stuff. About… Uh… Ranting and the quality of life in this fleet.” “Lotus.” “Yeah I don’t understand what that means so I’m going to ignore it. Do you have any sort of entertaining games to engage me while we wait for the inevitable showdown at the end of this road?” “Maybe.” “That aren’t mind-screwing word games.” “No.” “Then what are you good for?” “Solipsism.” “…You’re a bundle of humorous anecdotes ain'tcha?” “Gratitude.” “Well scruff my ears and call me a marshmallow, you’re going to keep doing this forever.” “No.” “Why not!?” “Bridge.” “…Which one?” “Austraeoh.” Chem let out a groan and teleported them to the bridge of the Austraeoh. “Hey, fleshbags, Mite h-” “I’m not a fleshbag,” Lapis Vee corrected. Chem twitched. “Ahem. Mostly fleshbags. Happy? Mite wanted me to be here. And him. Mite, what’s this about?” “Scans,” Mite droned. Lapis Vee checked the scans. “I don’t see anything too out of the ordinary.” The Xeelee text appeared on the main screen. |> That’s the problem. There’s nothing out of the ordinary. This close to the core world we should be picking up something, but we are not. Mite has caught an interesting glitch in the system. O’Neill raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. Can we clean it up?” |> Attempt has already been made. Cleared up a few details, but scans now clearly show a heavy field of shrouded ka around the entire central system. One nucleus world, one orbiting planet, further details indeterminate. Minna closed her eyes. “I sense… we missed something somewhere else. Perform a full advanced scan of all surroundings. Have the entire fleet do it.” “You heard her,” O’Neill said. Clandestine nodded, sending out the order. “Hey, Xeelee… …We need a name for you other than Forward-numbers.” |> Randomizing name… Nala shall work. “Gotcha. Mind sending out scan corrections to everyone else, Nala?” |> Already done. The scans are being performed. Minna checked the incoming reports. “We’ve got one from the TSAB Oma. There’s something heading at us in a strange spatial distortion.” “Onscreen.” The… thing coming at them was a blurry blob of red and brown. “…Care to explain what I’m looking at?” |> A low resolution picture of an object our sensors are having difficulty dealing with. “How long until it arrives?” “Three minutes,” Clandestine said. “One until it’s close enough for our hails to pierce this… fuzz. I think.” “Keep trying. In the meantime, raise shields and charge weapons just in case.” Minna closed her eyes. “I… Hmm. Let me focus for a minute…” She put a hand to her forehead and focused. “…I don’t sense any firefight coming. But I can’t tell you what I do sense, it’s just too fuzzy…” “Flep must be going stir-crazy,” Chem said, twitching his nose. “I mean, if you were used to knowing almost everything and suddenly were in a place where everything was fuzzy, what would you be doing?” “I get the point,” O’Neill said. “Any response to communications?” “Nothing yet.” Lapis Vee furrowed her brow. “I’m getting more data. There are ship signatures in that cloud. And… other things I can’t identify.” |> It is certainly not something within the standard database. “Got a connection!” Clandestine said. “Channel open!” “This is General-Overhead Jack O’Neill of the Austraeoh. What is your purpose here?” “Why helloooooo General! Fancy meeting you here...” “…Is there no video?” Minna asked Clandestine. She shook her head. “To whom am I speaking?” O’Neill asked. “You don’t recognize my voice? Unsurprising, since you weren't very involved when I was around… But surely, surely, you can remember the name! The name… of Tzeentch!” “…Who?” “…Stop playing games with me.” O’Neill smirked. “Sure thing. So should we shoot you out of the sky or should you go find another place to spread your Chaotic message of change?” “I am the Lord of Change and I ha-” “Tzeentch, stop tormenting them for your petty amusement,” the Emperor’s voice said, accompanied with an image of him on screen. “I don’t want to have to repair this ship again.” “Your ship repairs in an instant!” “It costs the crew time and resources!” “They’re all happy all the time! It doesn’t matter!” “Then how about because I’m the mother-fucking Emperor and I said so?” “Ahem,” Mattie said, her image appearing on screen as well. “How about we let the children fight it out for a while and actually get to business ourselves? Glad to see you still around, O’Neill.” O’Neill smirked. “Likewise. Who’ve you got with you?” “Some of the League, a truly ungodly amount of Aradias, the Emperor of Man, Tzeentch and his gaggle of transformed demons, a friendly version of the Everyman, and White Nettle.” “White Nettle?” “She’s human right now, sorry, no multiversal jellyfish for you. I know, I was disappointed too.” Minna shivered. “What’s the matter, dear?“ “I’m psychic, remember?” Minna said. “I got that image.” Mattie grinned. “Glad to be of service. So, if I’m readin’ this right that means you’ve gotten everybody on both sides agreeing for once in their moronic lives?” “The war is over,” O’Neill confirmed. “You have said that so many times…” Chem groaned. “We’ll be right over to discuss what we’re going to do with this fuzzy ka-planet. Mistress Mattie out.” She saluted and cut the feed. Clandestine blinked. “…Did she really give herself the title Mistress?” “Yes,” Mite said. “She…” “Intentional,” Mite confirmed. “I like her already,” Lapis Vee commented absent-mindedly. “I’m going to choose not to read into that,” O’Neill said. “You know, it was nice when I had a choice in the matter…” Minna said, hanging her head. “The curse of returning powers.” ~~~ “Problem,” Strange said, addressing everyone within their small consortium of ships. “Lord English just passed us in an instant.” “Toying with us, as expected,” Sherlock said. “It just means he wants to get there first. To do… something. Perhaps get the weapon.” “Or destroy the core world,” Johnny suggested. “He would have started already if that’s what he wanted to do,” Sherlock said. “…Though I suspect he will get to it eventually, it’s not his primary goal. To get to that, he has to get the weapon.” “Whatever the weapon is…” Discord muttered. “Do we have any way to do anything?” NOT THAT I AM AWARE OF, Death added. WE DO NOT HAVE THE PHYSICAL POWER NECESSARY TO ATTACK HIM IN ANY WAY, EVEN WITH MOST OF OUR MAGIC RESTORED. “Take the weapon from him before he finds it?” Insipid suggested. “We don’t know what it is,” Discord pointed out. “I mean, like, get close to him, don’t attack, and then run off with it?” “He’ll start attacking the moment we look like we’re going to try something,” Sherlock said. “The best we can do is warn people. Have we received any messages back?” “About that…” Cosmo shook her head. “The ka around the core world is so strong it’s creating physical manifestations in the atmosphere of the core system. I don’t believe anything we’re saying is getting through. They probably can’t even detect us.” “But we can detect English,” Lightning pointed out. “Because he wants to taunt us,” Sherlock countered. “He could hide easily if he wanted. Currently he’s just… standing there. Waiting at that one particular spot.” “Anything there?” “From what we can see, sand. Lots and lots of sand.” Strange furrowed his brow. “What is he doing…?” “I’ve barely understood why he’s done anything lately,” Insipid said with a nervous laugh. “You’re like, the detective or whatever. So, like, tell us.” Sherlock nodded slowly. “I’m thinking… He’s sitting there. Either the weapon doesn’t exist yet or it has to come to him. Cosmo, can we see anything besides us heading to that area?” “There’s something fuzzy within the ka field…” Cosmo admitted. “It might be a ship.” “We need to catch it,” Strange announced. “There’s no way we can get to it before it gets in his range.” “Then we have to get as close as possible.” Lightning said. “Discord, Insipid, Cosmo, we need a teleport chain to move the Crimson Blitz there as fast as we possibly can. Death, Sherlock, come as well, I think we’ll need you. Strange, you’re in charge of the fleet. Get there as soon as you can.” Strange nodded. “Got it.” Lightning snapped her fingers, teleporting the team of six to the Crimson Blitz. “Start teleporting, we have no way to know how much we can waste.” Insipid touched Discord to absorb his powers while Cosmo made the first teleport-jump. In teams of three, they rotated on and off, moving the ship dozens of kilometers every second, with an ever increasing speed. The core of the universe still looked pathetically far away. ~~~ The Jarn sailed through space, near enough to the core world to make out details of the surface. The bridge of the ship was large – and mostly empty. At the moment, only Pinkie and Mlinx were there, watching it get closer and closer. “What do you think is down there?” Mlinx asked Pinkie. “The end?” Pinkie said with a shrug. “Of what?” Pinkie pursed her lips. “I don’t know. I really hope it isn’t the end of everything, I’d like to get some mileage out of these eyes.” She absent-mindedly tugged at the blindfold hanging from her neck. Mlinx looked at the display of the core world on the screen. “Is it still fuzzy to you?” “I know its name now,” Pinkie said. “Nucleon. All else… I guess the Tower’s there, somewhere, but it’s not like I can just point to a location and say ‘hey, that’s where it is’. It wants to shroud itself. I think it’s been specifically keeping me from seeing other storylines moving parallel to our own. The rest of our friends who survived have stories as well. I can’t wait to see what they are.” “Assuming we make it through this.” Pinkie frowned. “I… It wouldn’t be satisfying if everyone died. There has to be some… survival. Some hope.” “Almost everyone’s gone, Pinkie.” Pinkie nodded slowly. Then she let out a laugh. Mlinx leaned on Siron’s staff and looked at Pinkie quizzically. “What’s so funny?” “You know, back when we first started exploring, I knew some of us weren’t going to make it. I asked myself if I wanted to be part of that. I said yes.” She shook her head. “If I had any inkling it’d be this bad, I would have crawled under a rock and never come out.” “Was it the wrong decision?” “No,” Pinkie affirmed. “I needed to be here. I’ve done a lot of good for the multiverse. A lot of it may have been undone with the collapse – but a lot of it wasn’t. And even those things that were undone… we’ve been out here for a long time, Mlinx. Somewhere around a century of active exploring and adventure. I may look pretty young, but I should be into my twilight years right about now.” “Your pony lifespans are twice as long as the average human.” Pinkie nodded. “Yeah… You can see wrinkles on Jotaro. He might have been approaching his sixties when he took it…” Mlinx shook his head. “We are giants, Pinkie. That’s what we are.” “I don’t think I follow.” Mlinx held up Siron’s staff. “We all have powers, resources, and lives beyond what most people could ever imagine. We stand above them all in a very real way. …We’ve been made better than them, stronger than them, more important than them.” “That’s the Dark Tower for you,” Pinkie said. “We like reading and hearing stories about the legendary, the powerful, the different. We give them values and place them on a pedestal, so the Tower does as well. We’re products of that. And that nagging doubt you’re feeling is right. It is wrong. We should be equal. But we aren’t.” Mlinx lowered his hands. “…When I was still in the original tribe, I felt lesser than the rest of them. I was sure I was. But that difference made me greater than them. Than all of them. And as my people have almost fallen to nothing, I have survived. Because I was different. I was special.” He looked right at Pinkie’s eyes. “This feeling is worse than being the runt.” “…I wonder how Corona feels.” There was a poignant silence in the bridge at that comment. Veila and Flutterfree walked in, carrying their conversation to the bridge. “Are you sure?” Flutterfree asked. “I am the only p’e’thika in existence,” Veila explained. “We never found any other demons and magic has not blessed any of those born since we moved. Not even genetic engineering has helped. We suspect it is because the Blue Moon Spirit was taken all those years ago.” “But aren’t there magic technologies you can use?” “Of course, and many do. But the p’e’thika have a special relevance to our culture, one of the fe-” “We don’t have a culture anymore,” Mlinx said abruptly. Almost immediately he put a hand to his faceplate. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.” Veila sighed. “Your criticism is legitimate, Mlinx. Why try to save something for a society that, as far as we know, is just the two of us?” “Make a new society,” Mlinx answered. “Join whatever Pinkie leads us to.” Pinkie grimaced. “I’m not gonna pull any punches here, there’s a good chance it’s hot smoking death down there.” Flutterfree nodded silently. “…We would not hold it against you if you just dropped us off.” “We didn’t really have much of a goal before we found you,” Mlinx admitted. “We wouldn’t have one if we left you.” Veila nodded in agreement. “Then I’m glad you’re with us,” Flutterfree said with a warm smile. Vriska and Rina walked in at this point, with Vriska talking off a full head of steam. “So then he goes ‘I do not understand the way of your people’ and I was like ‘shut the fuck up you fucking nerd, just let it slide nicely’ and then he said ‘sure’ and that’s that story.” “I feel like you left out some important details,” Rina pointed out. “As I discovered long, long ago, my fellow crewmembers tend not to like to hear me talk about Hastur.” “Why? He sounds amazing!” “She goes into too much detail!” Pinkie shouted. “It’s enough having buckets ruined for eternity!” Vriska smirked. “Hey, you’re Aware, you know anyway.” “Doesn’t mean I have to think about it constantly!” Flutterfree looked to Vriska in concern. “…Vriksa, about Hastur…” “Dead, probably,” Vriska said a little too quickly. “And Starbeat burned that card, soooo…” “Why haven’t you talked about it?” “Because we’ve been a little fucking busy in case you haven’t noticed,” Vriska spat. “And I did talk about it, just so you know.” “To Rina?” “To Rina.” Flutterfree looked to Rina. “Give me your truthful opinion. Were you a good influence here?” Rina put a hoof to her chin. “Well, considering how none of you can hear the word ‘fuck’ without flinching mentally, I think I was a pretty good listener. See, sometimes there’s something to be said for details.” “So long as you keep it offscreen,” Pinkie said. “How am I supposed to know when that is?” “If you’re talking details, you’re not on screen.” “Oh. In that case-” “Don’t make the scene end, it needs to go on a bit longer,” Pinkie said. “I…” She shook her head. “I just got a really bad feeling.” “Bad how?” Mlinx asked “Bad like ‘you’re really not going to like what happens next’ bad.” Flutterfree sighed. “I’ll tell everyone to prepare for battle.” “You do that. Put on the alert too.” Pinkie shook her head. “Something’s up… Is there anything wrong with where we’re landing?” Veila shook her head as she scrolled through a console. “It’s a perfectly normal desert as far as we can tell.” “Ka is hiding it from us… Hiding it well…” Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “What is it though?” “We can’t know,” Mlinx said. “All we know is that it’s coming. And it isn’t going to be pretty.” He hefted Siron’s staff. “…We will meet whatever it is head on.” “You’ve grown so much, you know that?” “…It just means the gap between me and everyone else is even larger. Always larger, larger larger…” The Jarn descended into the gravitational well of Nucleon. ~~~ Corona, Eve, Sunny, and Daniel’s Skiff entered the gravitational well of Nucleon. “We’re about a thousand kilometers from the surface and it already latched onto us…” Sunny observed, taking note. “That’s… definitely not what I was expecting.” “It’s the biggest planet in the entire universe, so far as we know,” Corona reminded her counterpart. “I know that, but that messes with the law of gravity wells I was working out…” She put a hoof to her chin and started scrolling through her data pad. “I really don’t have much of an idea about how the world works. So far every model I’ve tried doesn’t predict with accuracy…” “Have you gotten anywhere at all?” Eve asked. Sunny nodded slowly. “I can generate a map of any given moment. Take a picture of the sky, figure out where the planets are. Things close to the core here tend not to have many degrees of movement, but stuff further out is so chaotic I can’t even begin to say my current understanding is adequate.” She pressed a few buttons on the pad. “Luckily, here is easy. We’ve got the core – we really need to name it – and that one planet that was blocking all scans. We’ll have to investigate that eventually.” “Don’t see how…” Eve said. “It was like when Seraphim would create a one-way forcefield. If we went in I doubt we’d be able to come out without some form of reality warping.” “Which we don’t have, I know.” Sunny furrowed her brow. “It’s just bothering me. Something about it seems… important.” “It’s orbiting the core and we can’t get to it, of course it is,” Daniel muttered. “It’s not what we’re here for, though.” Eve looked to the tired old man with a sad expression. “…What are we here for, then?” “I don’t know.” He let out a tired, dry sigh. “I don’t know…” “It could be that we’re all here for different things,” Corona offered. “Different fates.” “…And you’re a good judge of fate…” Daniel rasped. Corona looked away. Daniel didn’t apologize. He may not have been raving mad about hating her anymore, but that hadn’t removed what he actually felt about her now that the war was over. Nothing Eve had said had lessened this. Corona didn’t want to push it – Daniel was frail enough as it was. Life had not been kind to the archeologist. “I’m picking up a giant tree,” Eve said, pulling up an image of a moon-sized tree. “Geez, maybe this is why the gravity has to go so far. It’s hundreds of kilometers tall.” “Seems as good of a place as any to set down,” Corona said, pointing a finger. “Engage.” Eve rolled her eyes. “Yessir.” She made a mock salute with her wings and took the Skiff down through the branches of the world tree. Everyone aside from Daniel took a moment to take in the size of the plant – its tremendous autumn leaves, the bark that became like crevasses when they neared it, the rivers of dew flowing down it to the ground far, far below. It took several minutes to make their way to the absolute bottom of the tree. The first thing they noticed was the giant hole bored right through the trunk. The second thing they noticed was the signs of an immense struggle that were all around. Antimatter laser burns in the ground, blood everywhere, a couple holes in the ground that went deep, and… “Is that a grave?” Sunny asked. Eve took the Skiff down to get a closer look. They spotted a simple, rounded-top tombstone over some freshly-moved earth. Rohan Kishibe. “Rohan!?” Eve blurted. “Wh… What happened to him?” “I don’t know,” Corona said, checking the scans of the area. “The computer seems to think there was eldritch stuff going on here, but that’s not possible…” “There is ka, though, and a lot of it,” Sunny reported. “Eve, scan the tombstone closely.” Eve did, using her own magic to bolster the scanning resolution of the ship. “It’s too perfect, too smooth,” Corona said. “This gravestone was created in an instant from someone with a creation power. Given the shredded ka scans…” “Monika,” Eve said. “Monika was here. That’s… good, right?” Daniel let out a sigh, not needing to say anything to indicate how he felt about that. “Can we find her?” Sunny asked. “Scans can’t find a trail,” Eve reported, furrowing her brow. “It’s like… everything here was scrubbed or something. Or ka doesn’t behave as we understood it. Or the ship’s broken. Or…” “I’m picking up a different signal.” Corona said, tapping a few buttons. “Not ka related at all. Just… a normal, average beacon. Marking a location.” “Setting course,” Eve said, turning the Skiff in the direction of the beacon. “I hope whoever’s there, they’re friendly,” Corona commented. “If not, you can certainly make them behave…” Daniel said. Corona shook her head but said nothing. The Skiff sped off into unknown territories… ~~~ Lord English sat in the sands of the desert – waiting. Waiting for them to come. Waiting for them to bring what he wanted. Waiting for the pieces of the puzzle to call together. A plan an eternity in the making… He ground his teeth – the thought of his plan falling apart was enough to make him burn with Rage. He would not let it happen. He could never let it happen. They were concerned. Expecting something. Ready for when they arrived to face something on the sands. Their ship was being cautious, scanning, gently drifting down through the atmosphere… As if that would help them. The fools. He was already there.