//------------------------------// // 41 -- Karma // Story: Mente Materia // by Arad //------------------------------// “Wait, that’s not right at all!” Tommy objected, his voice rising in volume. “The good guys are supposed to win and the bad guys are supposed to lose! What do you mean, ‘they were never seen again’?! That’s not how it’s supposed to work!” The unicorn guard turned slightly to give the human a long, quiet look. “I… suppose I can agree with you there. It is a bit of a downer that some of those villains escaped the punishment they so richly deserved.” A snaggle-toothed grin appeared on the unicorn’s face for just a moment. “But we can always play the ‘what if’ game, right? Nopony knows what really happened to them, but I have my own little theories…” ------ Pain. That was the first thing that Tirek awoke to. His muscles and joints were stiff from the physical rigors he had gone through, which was only multiplied by whatever rough handling he had gone through since his inglorious defeat. That, above all else, hurt the most. One mistake. One single moment of overconfidence cost me EVERYTHING, he thought, his mind swimming back to consciousness. Even the Elder is gone, and my connection to their consciousness as well. I am… alone. The short time that Tirek had held the power of an Elder had been… illuminating. When he had first ambushed the Ethereal, far more than mere magical capacity had flooded into him. Alien thoughts, plans, and memories all threatened to bury the centaur’s mind… before the Elder had made it’s presence known. ‘Glee’ might have been too strong of a word to describe the Elder’s initial reaction, but the whispers from the creature had a certain degree of excitement in them. You will be a ruler, it-- they had whispered. A god on this plane of existence. An avatar of our collective will. Vindication had filled Tirek then. His place, his rightful station at the pinnacle of all creation, was finally within his grasp. And a single mistake… a single accursed flower blossom had stolen his glorious destiny from him. “... an unusual combination of both humanoid and equinoid features…” The voice was feminine, and the words were in the Equestrians’ language but the accent made it a struggle to understand. The voice was enough to elicit curiosity from Tirek, and with curiosity came consciousness. An entirely new pain made itself known as white light stabbed into his eyes the moment he opened them. Slowly but surely his hands and hooves moved beneath him as he righted himself while his current surroundings came into focus. Three of the walls were painfully white, as was the ceiling and floor, and made of a material that the centaur had never seen before. The one remaining side, however, was transparent glass. The room beyond was almost completely dark, the only illumination coming from directly above Tirek. The only thing that Tirek could see was a human in a lab coat with a flat device cradled in her arms. “Field reports indicate that its Gift is unusual, having the ability to siphon away the energies of other creatures to power its own magical capacity as well as increase its size and stature. As lead researcher, I have vetoed all requests to test this ability as our other captured specimens get their magic artificially and human volunteers do not channel enough energy to have a noticeable effect. As the Equestrians do not know that we possess this specimen, even asking them for a volunteer is out of the question,” the human continued to speak in barely understandable Equestrian, either not noticing or not caring that Tirek was now awake and glaring at her. Tirek slammed his unbroken arm against the glass, the effect of the impact far less impressive than when he held the power of an Elder. “I will not be kept in this hole!” he shouted in outrage. “The Princesses could not hold me forever! Neither can you!” “Another serious concern is the confirmed reports of the specimen’s power while at its apex. As our last guest from Equestria taught us, our conventional building methods are not able to contain creatures that can channel magic of this magnitude. For the record, this specimen was capable of overpowering and capturing Princess Cadenza, who is a lesser alicorn and a cherished friend of our previous guest, Twilight Sparkle.” The woman cleared her throat before continuing, “Given the difficulty our ground forces had in subduing it and the potential danger it may pose in the future, I’m electing to proceed directly to interrogation.” “Interrogation!?” Tirek blurted out, again banging his fist against the glass ineffectually. “Pitiful human, needing answers? You’ll get none from me! The Princesses left me to rot in a hole and I never capitulated! If you expect my cooperation, human, then you’ll be left wanting!” The human stopped mid-monologue and slowly leaned forward. The light from Tirek’s cell finally revealed her face in the process: A mess of scars and a pair of eyes that were utterly devoid of emotion. A vicious smile tugged at the unscarred portion of her face as she locked gazes with Tirek and held it. “Your cooperation is not required,” she stated, and one of her fingers tapped a button on the console in front of her. The woman’s tone, combined with her grin, sent a chill through Tirek. “What do you think you’re doing!?” he roared as metal shutters began to descend over the glass. “I will remember you, and when I escape, I will make you suffer!” The last thing that Tirek saw was the woman’s vicious grin as the shutters finally closed. ------ Defeated. Again. Those two words festered in Vide’s mind as he lay on the operating table. His sense of time had clouded in the following minutes and hours after Vide had run, then limped, then crawled his way to the EXALT Kaleidoscope hidden deep within the island as his superior healing factor and stamina coped with the catastrophic amount of blood he had left behind. The last thing he had remembered before blacking out was an inferior Beta scooping him up and carrying him the last few steps to the teleporter. I will remember this defeat, Captain Harris and Princess Sparkle, Vide swore to himself, all of his not inconsiderable mental focus devoted to the many creative ways he could eviscerate the two of them. The only distraction to his imagination was the ongoing operation as the doctors performed some vital procedure to correct some of the damage that Vide’s implants and enhanced healing factor had been unable to cope with. Vide’s wandering imagination had drifted to the combination of acidic chemicals and fresh wounds on the two that had beaten him when the doctor gave him a light pat on the shoulder. With his concentration interrupted, the pain he had been ignoring came back full force. Every inch of Vide’s body ached, but it was equalled by the splitting headache that pounded in his skull. I never thought I’d experience pain equal to that of the Jammer grenades… another thing to add to my list of grievances for those two. Vide thought as he struggled to rise from the operating table. “Apologies for not giving you more time to recover, sir,” a female voice said, and a white buttoned shirt was pushed into his vision. The voice’s owner was a dark skinned and black haired woman wearing the uniform of a field agent rather than the scrubs of a doctor. Her uniform still bore some of the signs of battle, and a pistol and stun rod hung from her belt. “Please get dressed. The Lady has requested your presence.” A curious form of dread clawed at Vide’s mind. The Lady was the one that gave me my mission… the one who gave missions to all of us. I do not look forward to explaining my failures to her, he thought, though a grudging amount of respect remained for her. To request this meeting when I’m in this condition is rather clever. No physical superiority over a withered crone when I’ve just gotten out of major surgery and no prosthetic to replace my lost arm. Another spark of anger ignited in his mind, and he added changelings to his list of grudges as he struggled to button his shirt with a single hand. Once he was as presentable as possible, the female agent led Vide out of the infirmary and down a series of corridors. The sterile white walls of the operating room vanished in favor of polished hardwood, paintings and tapestries lining the walls. The cold tile floor vanished beneath immaculate patterned rugs, and the fluorescent lights disappeared in favor of the light filtering in through the massive windows that lined the hallway. Their journey came to a stop at two large double doors, which the female agent and Vide passed through. The room on the other side was massive and expensively furnished. Bookshelves lined the walls, occasionally punctuated by an ancient piece of pottery or sculpture. The center of the room was dominated by a massive holographic projector which bathed the entire room in reddish light as the Equestrians’ homeworld hovered in the center of the room. And just beneath the projected world was a high-backed padded chair that completely obscured its occupant, save for a single nearly skeletal hand that cradled a glass of wine beside the armrest. “Apologies for my tardiness, Lady,” Vide said, the short bow that he performed sending another nauseating wave of pain through his head. “I have just been released from medical.” An uncomfortable silence fell, prompting Vide to continue. “There were many factors that led up to the final battle on the other world which the reports detail, but I accept responsibility for my failures. I am ready for any punishment you--” A sharp cackle from the other side of the chair cut Vide off. “Why would I want to punish you, young man?” The Lady asked, her tone full of amusement. “I’ve reviewed all of the reports that were submitted, and I called you here to offer my warmest congratulations on completing all of EXALT’s strategic goals.” Stark silence fell over the library for a moment before Vide could manage a reply. “Congratulations!?” he sputtered. “We’ve been routed! We lost all of our hardware and most of the agents that were sent to the other world, not to mention all of the resources that were lost when we scuttled the Kaleidoscope to prevent them from tracing our location! Without our efforts in the theater, the work of the Elders will be severely hampered!” A sigh could be heard from the other side of the chair. “Young man, do you recall the original objective of your mission? You were to assess the indigenous peoples there to gauge their capability to resist an invasion from forces not native to their world.” The wine glass disappeared behind the chair as the Lady took a sip before another chuckle could be heard. “I daresay you’ve done well in proving that they are quite capable in that regard, even without their ‘Princess of the Sun’.” Is… is she mocking me? A spike of anger coursed through Vide, but was leashed as he spoke. “Forgive my… questions, Lady, but do you mean to say that all of this was according to some grand plan? Most of our Alphas died on that forsaken world, just to prove that they could defend it?” “Not at all, young man. Their deaths were just a happy side effect.” Before Vide could even begin to respond to that, the Lady continued, “Clever boy, do you know what the key difference is between your precious Alphas and the Betas you discount entirely?” “Are you saying you wanted the Alphas to--” “Answer the question, child,” the order cut through the air like the crack of a whip. “The Alpha candidates were provided to the Elders for modification directly by them and as a result benefitted from far superior enhancements. The Beta candidates were modified by EXALT technicians and are only marginally superior to a normal human being,” Vide replied automatically in response to the order. “A perfectly correct answer, but also not the answer I was looking for,” The Lady replied, and a moment of silence passed before she continued. “The key difference is that the Alphas provided to us by the Elders suffer from a subtle form of indoctrination that shifts their priorities to assist with their operations whenever possible. The Betas are pure in their loyalty to humankind and the Earth. The chuckle that came from behind the chair had an unsettling quality to it as the Lady continued, “I know I made a deal with the devil, agreeing to work with the Elders in their attacks on Earth. Only they had the capacity to fight the darkness that lies ahead, and I accepted their offer to save humanity from extinction. But when news came in regarding Twilight Sparkle and her people, I felt... regret. I had sold humanity’s soul to secure an alliance with devils, when our misguided cousins in XCOM had won the friendship of angels.” Vide’s spiraling thoughts struggled to process everything that he was hearing, the sheer incongruity of it plus his hammering headache preventing the pieces from coming together in his head. “But… but why did--” “Impatient child, don’t interrupt an elderly woman when she’s talking,” The Lady snapped with a huff. “For all that we have learned from the Elders, I now know it was a mistake to try and parlay with them. The Alphas were effective in combat but were without empathy or remorse, and just as much puppets to the Elders as their Sectoids. I needed a way to purge EXALT of the Alphas without drawing the attention of the Elders… and that is where you came in, my dear, stupid boy. In your bloodlust, you threw your Alphas into the meatgrinder in Equestria, while sending the ‘feeble’ Betas back to me. And now... you’re the last Alpha. The last loose end.” An emotion that Vide had never felt before gripped him. It was cold and paralyzing. “Why are you telling me this?” he asked quietly. “Because you and I are more alike than you realise. Like you, I’ve always enjoyed the manipulation of people and events to my benefit; the more theatrical the performance, the better. Like you, I also enjoy the sight of someone who slowly realises that they have walked into a trap,” The Lady answered, her cackling laugh filling the library. I… I have to escape. The Elders must be told! Vide thought, his mind racing. He took one step back and tried to tap his Gift, and was rewarded with a blinding spike of pain stabbing directly into his skull. He fell to his knees as he lost his balance, and it took every ounce of his strength just to raise his head to look up. “Did your Gift fail you? That’s to be expected, since I had the doctors install a Rule Breaker into your body while they worked.” The Lady’s voice was smug as she continued. “Vivi? Be a dear and take Vide back down to Medical. He may be useless to EXALT now, but his implants may be salvaged.” The click-crackle of a stun baton extending to it’s full length was the only warning Vide had before the strike landed on the back of his neck. The second struck him in his lower back as he fell flat onto the ground. By the time the third and fourth blows landed, the darkness of unconsciousness had pushed aside the pain of failure, betrayal, and the truth.