//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: Altercation // Story: The Unbinding // by awesomesauce4 //------------------------------// It had been a few weeks, and lately Isaac had taken to silent contemplation. He was often to be found staring at his Mother’s statue, in the Garden of Heroes. Princess Luna wanted to ask him what he was thinking about so often, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to do it. She began to feel as though she should not have taken Isaac away from his mother – not out of any regret for adopting the child, she had long since quelled those feelings. No, the melancholy that plagued the Princess of the Night was one of a different sort: She felt she had stolen his happy ending. It wasn’t a feeling she could quite put into words, but if she had to try, she’d say that she felt as though she were an interloper in Isaac’s destiny: an unwanted variable, a… a thief. She’d removed him from his parental guardian, demented though she had been, and attempted to substitute with herself. And what a laughable substitute it was! Luna saw her mortal subjects’ dreams of their children: Playing in the parks, eating together, laughing together. They didn’t scheme to take down gods together. They didn’t have to deal with endless thoughts of what it meant to be a demon and whether their child was secretly evil… But Isaac wasn’t evil. He’d occasionally wake up as a demon, and though he would freak out, he’d still be himself. He’d still cry and hold her, and Luna would have to try her best not to emotionally lash out – though whether she wanted to blast the demon or hug the child, she knew not. Luna knew instinctively that she shouldn’t give herself the chance – the last thing in the world that she wanted was to cause Isaac any more pain. Speaking of which, she had lately taken to being interviewed by the media. She’d given a brief introduction of Isaac, stating that he had been taken under a dark spell and she was working with him to help him adapt to Equestria just as she had. A few had witnessed his first demonic transformation, to which she had assured that this was just a side effect of his original transformation, and that he was still the same under the surface. She had also given brief synopses of the other Basement Children, keeping the nastier parts of their personality well out of any interviews she gave. Her reviews of them were positively glowing, as any mother’s should be when asked of their child, and the media lapped it up. Meanwhile, Luna had noticed the Basement Children talking more and more lately. They were often to be found in hushed groups, whispering amongst themselves and falling silent when anypony approached – even Luna. This concerned her quite a bit – for, after all, had she not made herself out to be trustworthy? Was there something that she had done wrong? All this and more plagued her soul lately. Huffing a sigh, she trudged down the corridor to resume her nightly duties. Samson, meanwhile, was busy fighting Isaac’s demonic form in the Royal Guard training arena. “Come ON, use Brimstone already! We all know you can do it!” the Hero roared. “No!” Isaac shouted back, falling back on his usual tears – though this time they were tinged with red. “I’m not using any dark magic, who knows what might happen!” Samson growled angrily and picked up a nearby table, flinging it towards his counterpart in a fury. “You’ll use Brimstone, or I’ll rip out your intestines and squirt blood out of those instead, you pathetic excuse for Luna’s son!” Samson countered. Isaac, infuriated by the sudden seriousness of Samson’s taunts, held his breath and sucked in his gut, feeling the strange liquid that was Brimstone slosh around inside. Once he felt he had gathered enough, he opened his mouth, shooting a blood-red laser at the Hero. It hit dead-on, and Samson was blown backwards through the wall of the training arena. Isaac, shocked that he had lost his temper, flew over to check on him, lip quivering and an apology already making its way past his lips. “Don’t you dare apologize,” Samson growled from within the rubble. “That was the first time I’ve seen you really trying at this, and you’re finally good at it.” Isaac, unused to such praise from Samson, blinked once and remained silent. Samson pushed off the last of the rubble and dusted himself off effortlessly, looking back at what had once been a wall of the armory. “Still, we’ll need to inform them about that,” Samson muttered, kicking a chunk of thick concrete with his foot lightly. It flew twenty feet away and shattered against the opposite wall, and Isaac flinched. “Isn’t Mom gonna be mad at us when she finds out we broke this?” he inquired falteringly, and Samson shrugged. “I did that every day for a while – she just fixed it with her magic and didn’t comment. Probably best not to make a habit of it, but what can ya do when you’re fighting the forces of light and darkness, yeah?” Isaac snorted in half-amusement, and the two departed for the castle, Isaac’s form shimmering and flickering back to his human self once more. “Go fish,” Cain announced, and the group groaned. “This game is so boring,” Eve moaned. "I dunno, I think it’s fun!” Azazel replied, a fanged smile gracing the Teacher’s face. “That’s because you keep losing on purpose, Zazy,” Lazarus replied, sighing as he shuffled through his meager deck. Judas snorted in amusement, sneaking a glance at Lazarus’ cards. “Got any two’s, Lazarus?” he inquired. Lazarus didn’t even pause as he handed over three two’s, and Judas laid down his set of four triumphantly. “I wouldn’t raise those above your head,” Maggy joked, and Judas stifled a chortle. “I have enough Coins as it is,” he rebutted, and everyone stared at him. Judas stared back for a full second before everyone burst into laughter. Luna poked her head around the doorway, smiling as she noticed the children still giggling. “Greetings, children!” she introduced, and everyone chorused their greetings in return. She took a seat next to Azazel, who draped a leathery wing across her withers as she nuzzled his cheek. Lazarus and Cain looked on, looking somewhat jealous, while Maggy simply smiled at them, and Eve and Judas ignored them altogether. “So, what is new?” Luna asked, and every child shrugged in turn. “Nothing. Nothing’s happening. Life is boring,” Eve groaned. Luna giggled. “One wouldst think thou wouldst be happy to have a break,” she teased the Lover, who merely glared at her before cracking a smile. “Yeah, well, a break in the middle isn’t as great as a break at the end,” Eve rebutted. “Now I’m just wondering when it’s going to end and we have to get back to doing stuff.” Luna nodded in thought. “True, but it would seem to me that life is just a great big 'middle'. Thou art going to return to work eventually, so why dread its coming? Just enjoy it,” Luna enthused. She had had similar thoughts once, centuries ago when she and Celestia had just started being princesses, and she echoed her sister’s advice on the matter, feeling oddly out of place as she compared herself then with herself now. “Where are Isaac and Samson? They should be back by now,” Lazarus wondered. Just then, there was a knock at the door, and it opened to reveal none other than the Sacrifice and Hero, both looking oddly disgruntled. “Sloth came… and went…” Samson announced grumpily. “Why so annoyed?” Cain asked. “Bastard didn’t put up a fight, he just sat there and took it. Didn’t even bother possessing anyone, either,” Samson answered. Isaac shrugged. “He really did just appear in the middle of the courtroom and lay there. Some of the guards were poking him with their swords by the time we got there,” Isaac added, and everyone in the room chuckled at the mental image. “So, six down, one to go, then maybe some Guardians, and then the big leagues,” Judas concluded. “Fun.” Azazel shrugged amicably. “Hey, at least no one’s died yet.” Luna swallowed nervously at the mention of death, but the kids took it as a joke, chuckling amongst themselves. “Are you feeling alright, Mom?” Maggy asked, and Luna glanced at her. “Y-yes, quite fine. It was… very funny! Ha ha!” Luna tried, mustering a laugh that sounded fake even to her. At this point, Judas put down his cards. “Okay, what’s the matter?” he asked in mild exasperation. “Er…” Luna began, unsure of quite how to phrase it. Fortunately, Azazel was quicker on the uptake. He snapped a claw, bringing everyone’s attention to him. “Has anyone told her about what happens when we die?” he asked. Samson raised a hand from his bunk, not bothering to look at Azazel as he limply let his hand fall after a moment, apparently too exhausted to bother speaking. Azazel acknowledged this with a nod, and turned to Luna. “I know death is… a rather serious topic for you, but to us it’s really not. We’ve died millions of times before, we’re used to it. If one of us gets killed, we’ll just wake up in the Basement again and be fine,” he soothed. Luna looked away, and Azazel gave her a quick hug. “Yes, but I always fear… that thou should not,” Luna admitted. Azazel smiled at her. “Don’t worry. We haven’t so much as gotten scratched yet. We’ll be just fine,” he assured her, and Luna hesitated for only a moment before returning his confident grin. “Perhaps thou art right,” she muttered reluctantly. “I’m going to the bathroom,” Isaac announced suddenly, and left the room, quickening his pace as he fairly ran out the door. Luna watched him go in consternation, and Azazel attempted to cast a soundproofing spell on the room. It failed, however, and Azazel’s smile fell as he fought to cast it correctly. He’d been attempting to learn magic as of late, but was rather unsuccessful at any harmonic magic – though not for lack of trying. Luna put a hoof on his shoulder. “Allow me,” she asserted, and cast a flawless spell of her own. “Okay, so, um… it’s been a while since we talked about anything serious, and I just wanted to say that… I’ve been picking up on how you’re feeling,” Azazel muttered, the other kids watching with interest – even Samson had sat up in his bed in surprise. Luna swallowed, taken aback. “Oh? And how is that?” she asked, half in curiosity and half in worry. Azazel sighed. “You feel like instead of having one child, you were handed nine.” Luna looked away, although inside she was relieved – she had gotten over those feelings quite some time ago, and was glad Azazel hadn’t picked up somehow on her recent worries. “It’s alright, Aza-“ she began, but was stopped by a finger to her lips. “What if I told you… that pretty soon you wouldn’t have to worry about that?” Azazel asked, and Luna was shocked into silence. “Wha – what do you mean?” she asked, her mind running into overdrive on all the possible horrific meanings Azazel could be speaking of. “Poor wording, man,” Cain muttered. Azazel grimaced. “Uh, yeah. I mean, what if… what if instead of dealing with nine of us… Oh, I can’t do it. Can one of you tell her?” he asked. Judas shrugged. “Alright, short version. We’re all some aspect of the original Isaac, right?” he asked Luna, who uncertainly nodded. “So as soon as he figures out himself, as soon as he determines every last bit of his personality, he’s going to re-fuse with us to form the original. So we’ll all still be there, we’ll just be… one person,” Judas concluded. Luna thought about this for a moment. “Oh,” was all she said, and Judas sighed. “Look, we’ll still be around, you know? It’s not like you’ll suddenly just have Isaac.” Luna nodded uncomfortably, for once feeling as though no motherly expertise could possibly cover this topic. Isaac, however, was wishing for someone to tell him what was happening. Lately, he had been getting strange urges to be off by himself, and although he had tried to satiate them by going to the Garden of Heroes, they wouldn’t go away. Perhaps if he locked himself in the bathroom, things would become clearer? It wasn’t the best plan, but Isaac wasn’t the type of kid to plan things out – life just sort of kept happening around him. He locked the door, and crossed to the mirror. He held back a stifled gasp – Caasi was looking back at him, a disgruntled expression on the demon’s face. “Jesus Christ, what took you so fucking long?” Caasi griped, casting a soundproofing spell on the room. “Wha – what do you want?” Isaac wondered aloud, feeling oddly glad that he hadn’t been just going crazy. “Oh, trust me, you’re already completely off the wall,” Caasi advised, evidently reading his thoughts. “I’m just here to-“ but at this moment, Caasi was surprisingly interrupted. A white hand had shoved him out of the mirror, and he could be heard protesting in the background, though Isaac wasn’t paying attention. His eyes were on the being that had just floated into the frame. “You!” Isaac squeaked, shocked and more than a little frightened. The being, for its part, simply smiled. “Me,” it replied, flexing a white-feathered wing experimentally. “Yes, I am the other half of your conscience. You may call me ‘Isaac’ if you wish, to contrast with my demonic counterpart, but naming me as such is really just going to lead to confusion. All these personality splits and pieces… they do you no good, Isaac,” his angelic form advised. Isaac was still too shocked to comment – all he could think of was horrible memories of a cold, cold Cathedral, and a version of himself who refused to die… Sensing his apprehension, the angel looked at him, nonplussed. “Why so scared of me? Surely Caasi has… Oh, Caasi, you didn’t,” the angel called off-screen in exasperation. “I didn’t want to scare him!” Caasi could be heard grumbling from somewhere. The angelic Isaac crossed his arms. “Get in here and show him,” he demanded, extending a wing and pulling in Caasi from outside the frame. “Okay, okay, fine,” Caasi acquiesced, turning to face Isaac outside the mirror. There was a flash of red, and there stood another figure from Isaac’s deepest nightmares: The Lamb. “Yeah, yeah. I know, we’re powerful and scary. But you’re powerful-er and scarier!” the Lamb told Isaac, its skeletal mouth hardly moving as it spoke. “True, although quite… candid in nature. You are the sum of us, Isaac,” his angelic form added, attempting a smile. “We could not exist without you… and you, us.” The Lamb chuckled. “Yep. So, quick lowdown: I’m your loving, but sinful side, and he’s your hateful, but dutiful side,” the Lamb announced, and the angel beside him hesitantly nodded. Isaac, meanwhile, was in turmoil. This was so much to take in at once! The Lamb had secretly been yet another side of him all along? His angelic self was on his side? They were working together? What few notions Isaac had held of himself were being turned upside-down – for if these were two halves of his personality, then clearly he was more messed-up than he thought! “Hey, there’s no call for that!” his angelic self rebuked. The Lamb smirked. “Says you. Personally, I’m inclined to agree with him…” the two quickly started to bicker. “Oh, of course you would, there had to be some part of us that thought this was a good idea” – angelic Isaac began. “Yeah, the intelligent part,” the Lamb countered. “Well if somebody hadn’t revealed himself so directly-“ “Yeah, what were you gonna do? Pull some dreamy self-realization bullshit?” “Oh please, I would have been much more-” “STOP!” Isaac cried, watching his two halves fight and actually feeling the mental tension. The two of them immediately clammed up, and watched him sheepishly. “What’s wrong with me?” Isaac demanded. “I thought it was bad enough when I figured out that every other Child was a part of me, but now you two come along? How many personality splits do I have to face? How many of myself do I have to deal with? When will it end?!” Isaac cried, rushing out of the room. The Lamb and Isaac watched him go, shocked frowns on their faces. The angel turned to the demon. “Um.” “Yeah?” “Should we…” “Yeah.” Isaac raced through the corridors, hurling himself headfirst through a window in his rush to get away. Almost as if he had predicted it, his demonic wings unfurled – and then turned a strange shade of gray, flickering to the white of his angel wings before settling back on leathery demon ones. “Stop it!” Isaac cried, knowing what those wings – those hateful two sets of wings – represented inside him. Strangely obedient, they vanished, and Isaac took this moment to realize he was still all the way on top of Canterlot Mountain. He screamed the whole way down.