122 - High Ground
“She’s yours now,” the Doctor said, tossing a key to a small group of Aradias – the living ones, each with an Omnitrix on their wrists.
“…Are you certain?” the Aradia who’d caught the key asked. “I… we aren’t exactly unified since…”
“That’s probably for the best,” the Doctor said. He laid his fingers on the outside of the TARDIS, tracing the lines of the fake wood with his nails. “If you’re not a single voice, you won’t make the same mistakes I did.”
The Aradias glanced at each other nervously.
“She has many uses beyond time travel – if you truly decide to abandon that completely. And I can’t think of a better person suited to using her. The Handmaid herself.”
“…Do you really think I’m worthy?” Aradia asked.
“We,” another one corrected. “I thought we agreed to be distinct now?”
The Doctor smiled. “I never thought I’d be happy to see disagreement in this way.”
(The Doctor’s face appeared on the screen. “Ah, hello. I’m the Traveling Doctor. I’m known by many names – the Oncoming Storm, the latest nemesis of Flagg, guardian of multiversal time, great destroyer, and a few other names that shouldn’t be repeated in polite company.”)
The Aradias frowned. The one with the key opened a portal to a dead universe and used it to duplicate the key, giving one to each of her temporal clones without rewriting the universe they were in. “We are not worthy of this gift.”
“I do not know of a Time Lord worthy to carry it – definitely not a version of myself. So it falls to you. All of you. You can have her.” He looked at the TARDIS with sad eyes, caring not that he was openly crying in front of Aradias. “I’ve made her the most versatile of multiversal ships. Time is string to her, space is jelly, and dimensions are but sheets of paper. Everything you could ever want, she has.”
“But not weapons…?”
“She has weapons,” the Doctor said, expression clouding. “I never used them as such. But as her new pilots, if you think they must be used…”
“Some of us will.”
“Then use them. Use them to protect the multiverse.”
(“I’m giving a message to everyone who ever knew me – friend, enemy… companion… even those other versions of myself dotted across existence, blessed not to hold my burden on their shoulders. I suppose this message is, in parts, an apology. Those of you who knew me, who traveled with me, who fought against me… You’ll know how I held myself.”)
One of the Aradias in the back coughed. “Doctor… You do know why we’re dividing, right? Without the temporal convening of our minds… we can’t agree on the question.”
The Doctor looked up, finding the sky to be gray and overcast. “That’s one of the reasons why I’m giving her to you, I suppose. So that the guardian won’t be led by a single choice...”
(“I always held myself high, certain I had the moral high ground over everyone. I was the Doctor – I was ancient, wise, and understood the struggles of the individual when most of my people considered everyone nothing more than cogs in a machine. I was the paragon of purity and light, the hero who would stop at nothing to do what was right.
“What I thought was right.”)
“…I think you’re overselling it,” an Aradia said, concerned. “You… We… aren’t as important as you think.”
The Doctor shrugged. “What does importance really matter? We’re all people. We all do things.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the master ball – enchanted with so much magic it was glowing a soft pink. “We always guard something. We’re all heroes. We’re all villains.”
Several Aradias sighed.
(“I was a judge. I was the judge, the one who held people responsible who couldn’t be held responsible. I brought a lot of justice to the world. But I also judged some unfairly. …I judged many unfairly. But I was the great Traveling Doctor, I had the right! I was higher than them, better than them! I would never come out and say it – never even admit it to myself – but I was arrogant. I thought I was truly better than them, and that’s why they needed me. Needed my help, and my heroism.”)
The Doctor turned his back to the troll women. “Promise me that you’ll do your best to do what’s right. Even if the rest of you disagrees.”
The Aradias glanced at each other, gulped, and nodded.
The Doctor smiled. “That’s all I need to know.” He placed a hand on the TARDIS. “Goodbye. It was nice, wasn’t it?”
There was silence. The Doctor knew what it meant. His smile faltered and he removed his hand.
He reached into his jacket and touched Black Thirteen – and was gone, leaving the Aradias alone. They would duplicate the TARDIS a few times and start divvying it out among their versions.
He hoped they’d do it fast enough. They were purposefully avoiding time travel now. It was like a light switch had been turned on in their minds.
Ka was cruel.
(“I’ve been shown that I was wrong.” The Doctor held up Black Thirteen to the screen for all to see. “There is a bitter truth of existence that this war has brought to my attention and the attention of so many others. There is no one who has the right to truly judge. No one. Not even me.”)
The Doctor walked into an abandoned shed. Memories both horrible and pleasant flooded his mind relating to this place. Some of them were of destruction – times he had to press a button to end a Gallifrey, to stop a Time War from continuing. The other memories were of him finding a way to not press the button. Finding a solution that didn’t involve death.
Any single Doctor would know that only one of those memories were true. But he wasn’t just a Doctor. He was the Traveling Doctor, and his past… His past was a fusion of several different ones. Were any of those memories truly his? Had he corrupted them with his later escapades through time?
He was too old. Not even Gallifreyans were meant to live as long as he had. He couldn’t divide them up anymore.
(“I was always aloof, always running, always refusing to think about what I was truly doing. After all, why would I? It didn’t matter, I would make the world a better place wherever I could. I was the light in the darkness. I gave hope to the hopeless. And I ignored those who told me otherwise – even those close to me.”)
In the shed, there was a small box with Gallifreyan markings on it. There was a young blonde woman standing next to the box, arms behind her back.
She raised an eyebrow. “The Doctor of Doctors, hmm?”
The Doctor nodded, walking up to the box. He took out two items – the master ball and Black Thirteen.
(“So I guess what I’m trying to say is… I’m sorry. I wasn’t who I thought I was. Some of you will get some satisfaction out of being proven right. Others won’t know what to make of this. I’m not sure what I think about that… But I don’t think it matters now. Not at this point.”)
The Doctor held Black Thirteen over the box. In an instant, the box transformed into a flower made of white metal with a stick poking out of it, upon which sat a red diamond-shaped crystal. A button.
The Doctor hesitated. “What’s my punishment this time, Moment?”
The woman who was the machine looked into his eyes. “You come here unwilling to pay everything?”
“I’m just curious.”
“You’re stalling.”
“Waiting for mister retcon to appear,” the Doctor said.
(“Because I’m going to do something I promised myself I’d never do, and told myself was just a twisted memory of a convoluted past.”)
“…That’s an excuse,” the Moment said, leaning against a wall.
The Doctor sighed. “You don’t know.”
“You’re right. I can’t tell if there’ll be a punishment or not. You’ll have to start to find out.”
The Doctor nodded. He touched Black Thirteen to the red crystal, careful not to push the button down. The Time Lord sent his mind into the horrific mists of Black Thirteen, grabbing hold of a very particular power buried within it. A power of connection.
He sent that connection into the machine – the Moment. He felt its inner workings resonate with Black Thirteen. The power to completely destroy a time-based society. The power to end a Time War with the push of a button. Transcending timelines, universes… it was one of the strongest weapons in existence.
But it was still only of Gallifreyan construction. It could not create a level of destruction even close to that of a Xeelee superweapon. For all the Time Lords’ boasting, they were not on the same level as them. Alone, it could do nothing in a multiversal war.
However, the Doctor wasn’t going to use just one Moment. He activated Black Thirteen fully, tapping into every Moment across the multiverse. Black Thirteen found the connection through the ka that branded every Moment as an alternate version, tying them together in a web.
(“I’m going to end the reign of my people. Just as I do not have the right to judge, they do not have the right to rule. The least I can do is prevent them from dominating. It will be a tremendous price to pay… but if I’m being honest, I’ve already paid that price numerous times.”)
The woman who was the Moment fused with all her alternates. She appeared the same – but her expression changed from one of warmth and understanding to something completely impassive. An averaging out of all the Moments’ different personalities.
It was here that John zapped behind the Doctor.
The Doctor smiled. He tossed the master ball behind him. John ∂ø∂©´∂ å˜∂ ®ø¬¬´∂, π¬å爘© ˙ˆß ˙å˜∂ ø˜ †˙´ Îøç†ø®
ıÒÅÇ ˇÓˆ‰ˇ´´˜
Ó´ †øßß´∂ †˙´ µå߆´® ∫嬬 ∫´˙ˆ˜∂ ˙ˆµ. Ôø˙˜ tried to dodge. But the master ball had taken a different path than he thought it had taken.
Elsewhere, Rassilon screamed. “What was that!? What was that!? Where did he get Black Thirteen!? How is he able to get it to listen to him!?”
The master ball touched John, activating its capture sequence. John tried to transform into wind and get away, but it was too late – the extra enchantments on the ball were too much. It sucked John’s essence into it and locked him inside. His mind was forced into an unconscious state, one not even Rassilon could take him out of.
If Rassilon had a few minutes, he might be able to get John out through some other method. But he didn’t have that kind of time.
(“I’d ask for luck, but none of you will see this until after it’s already done. So I’m not going to ask for anything. Not even forgiveness. I’m just going to hope for your understanding. …Maybe I’m giving you the chance you need, maybe not. Maybe this Black Thirteen really is driving an idea in my mind I shouldn’t listen to, maybe not. There’s so much I’m unsure of at this point. But I do know I’m going through with it.)
The Doctor activated Black Thirteen, sending the master ball somewhere far, far away. He turned to the Moment. “Anything to say?”
“You will not return from this,” it deadpanned.
“I’ve always been ready to pay that price.”
“Your punishment extends to all Doctors,” the Moment continued. “As you use all of me to bring this destruction, I use all of you.”
“…It might be time for the multiverse to move away from the Doctor.”
“You will experience the fate to which you have doomed so many. Erasure.”
The Doctor nodded. “Very well.” He took a moment to pause. This was it, his last moment. He felt the sudden urge to say something witty – one of his many catchphrases perhaps? A ‘geronimo,’ just for old time’s sake? No, that didn’t seem right…
But he needed to say something.
He placed both hands on the button, grimacing. “…Gallifrey falls.”
(“Make the most of what I’m giving you.”)
He pressed down.
~~~
The master ball appeared in the air in front of Nanoha. She caught it in her free hand.
Raising Heart told her John was inside.
Nanoha said nothing – she just turned her gaze to the map of the multiverse she had. She checked the most up-to-date reports reconnaissance ships were giving of the Time Lord sector.
One Moment, there were thousands of golden-yellow lights indicating Gallifreyan strongholds.
The next, all the lights had vanished. A few fleets of alliance ships had been taken with them, but overwhelmingly all the losses were Gallifreyan worlds reset to a timestate where there were no Time Lords.
Nanoha knew in her heart that the Doctor wasn’t coming back.
She took one look at the master ball. John could be released now. The Time Lords had no more hold on him. He would be free to choose…
She pocketed the ball. It would just be giving him to whatever side he chose. The power would shift from Gallifrey to someone else. John had to be kept away from the conflict.
Nanoha turned to a console and pressed a few buttons, calling the Empress of the Void. “So… they’re gone.”
“…It’s a little demeaning that the solution ended up being… that simple. I feel cheated.”
“There are probably others who feel the same way…” Nanoha said, letting out a sigh. “But the Doctor was a hero of sorts. He… did what he felt he needed. And it changed everything.”
The Empress nodded. “You are right.”
“…There’s no fighting right now. Let us come together and actually make a decision. Not based in war, but in debate, respect, and friendship.”
“You know I would love that more than anything,” the Empress said, smiling sadly. “…But the Combine and Starcross Society have already declared war on each other.”
Nanoha clenched her fists. “Can’t we… stay out of it?”
“I’ve already made my decision, Nanoha. I will be joining the war on the side of the Starcross Society, as I intended from the beginning. Your hopes for a peaceful solution are admirable, but wrong.”
Nanoha said nothing.
“You’re the Chief Sovereign of your people. They trust you. You must lead them well. …Don’t let your personal feelings keep you from letting them fight.”
Empress Twilight of the Void ended the transmission.
Nanoha took in a deep breath to calm herself. A tear rolled down her cheek.
“Such a common expression these days…” she muttered under her breath. She placed a hand on another console and started making calls. “Call the council. We need an official declaration of war. …I’ll also need a report on how much our forces have been damaged. Contact Evening Sparkle and whatever half of the Collection is on our side. …The Combine too. They’re our allies, now.”
~~~
Across-multiverse communication was becoming difficult. With the fall of Gallifrey, the cooperation between nations to keep a long-distance network up fell in an instant. Long-range video calls were now impossible with reception regularly dropping at inopportune moments. No more could plans be made and activities discussed from afar. There was no way enough information could be shunted through unless the Everyman felt like cooperating, which simply wasn't happening.
So everyone who was anyone on the preservation side of the conflict was summoned to Midchilda, the TSAB homeworld. A high-end Merodi speeder ship would have taken a few days to get there with the current state of things.
But the Living Tribunal was back on his metaphysical feet and more than willing to offer his aid, claiming that he was their servant now; they should not feel ashamed to ask him for even mundane things.
Eve selected the team personally. The Living Tribunal, of course. O’Neill for military advisement, Ava Jandice to speak for the general population, Monika for meta knowledge, and Flutterfree. Flutterfree was there because Eve knew she’d need emotional support and that pegasus was the last rock she had in life aside from Luna and Spike, and neither of them were available.
Valentine was also hitching a ride with them. The USM still wanted to be involved, despite being just a Class 3.
The seven of them stood in a circle in Eve’s office. The Living Tribunal had shrunk his presence down to a more manageable size – eight feet tall. Modest, but still large enough to let everyone remember who he was. “Are we ready?”
“Yes, yes, get on with it,” O’Neill said, waving a hand.
The Living Tribunal looked to Eve for confirmation. She felt one of Flutterfree’s wings fall onto her back, holding her close. She smiled. “Yes. We’re ready.”
The next thing Eve knew they were on an outer TSAB world. She knew there was a transit time of a few minutes even with the Living Tribunal’s power, but she was not aware of it.
The TSAB mages were waiting for them. A few scans were performed, but then the seven of them were directed to a hexagonal platform. Four mages provided security codes to the platform, teleporting the seven of them right to Midchilda: specifically the interdimensional port of a grand hall.
Eve recognized early-era TSAB construction when she saw it. Most of it was white, metallic, and minimalist to the extreme. There were few consoles or computers around, instead everything was optimized for space that no one used. It was a strange aesthetic, but Eve couldn’t exactly complain.
One of the higher-end mages – identifiable by his unique self-generated barrier jacket – walked up to them. “They’re waiting for you.”
“How are we the last to arrive?” O’Neill blurted.
The mage shrugged, indicating that he didn’t know and he didn’t particularly care. He simply led them to a large set of automatic sliding doors, taking them into the main hall.
The room itself was just as sparsely decorated as the outside, though it did have over a hundred chairs of differing shapes and sizes set around a snaking network of tables. At the head of the room, there was a separate table set at a higher place than all the others, one that held the leaders of the preservation effort.
Eve wasn’t given the opportunity to process any further – for she realized everyone in the room was looking expectantly at them. At first she thought they were treating the Living Tribunal with respect, but she quickly realized they were all looking at her.
Some of them were bowing.
Why? She thought. We’re weaker than everyone else… We’re divided… We’re not even worth all that much! Why are they treating me with reverence?
She blinked. It isn’t about power. It’s about what I stand for. I’m the FACE of this conflict. Corona’s opponent…
She looked at the table with the leaders again. There were six seats, five of which were filled. The two center seats were occupied by Nanoha and a Combine official named Immen, a peculiar alien being composed of a single, blue flame. The seats on the edge were occupied by humanoid Class-2s she didn’t recognize but would soon find out were E-Sphere locals: the Kromaggs and Paratimers. Lightning represented her half of the Collection, sitting to Immen’s side.
And there was one empty seat.
Eve glanced to Ava, exchanging a conversation with looks. They decided in an instant that the people here wanted Eve to sit there – so she got to hold the honored position next to Nanoha. Eve trotted over and sat down, keeping an eye on the other five Merodi. Valentine took a seat far from everyone else, folding his hands together.
Nanoha said they would wait a few more minutes for others to arrive. Eve noticed there were several empty seats, possibly reserved for any other Class 2 or 3 civilizations that cared to show up. …Given how few were represented here, she was forced to come to an unpleasant conclusion:
Most were either too afraid to involve themselves, were joining the other side… or had been damaged beyond repair by all the fighting so far. She activated her eye of Light and began to gather information, finding her fears were true. The few Class 3 societies that were here aside from the USM were terrified that they would just be wiped off the map like their neighbors had. The majority of societies were opting out of a war they couldn’t engage in entirely, focusing instead on researching reality bunker technology in case the collapse did happen.
A Class 3 technology base would likely not be sufficient to fully understand the technology required to create even a semi-functional bunker. Even Eve’s scientists had been having difficulty working that one out. It didn’t come with Corona’s Message.
…And there were still only six Class 2s here, though counting the Collection was somewhat sketchy at this point. She knew the Void and Starcross Society were joining up with Corona, probably with a few lesser Class 2s. The Many-Angled ones had dropped out of sight entirely, while the Flowers remained neutral…
If she was doing her math right – and she knew she was – there were now only about a dozen Class 2 societies in existence. How many had been wiped out by the destruction of the D-Sphere? How many had been destroyed by Gallifrey’s time ripples? What about all the Class 3 societies – there should be more here, even if all of them were terrified.
Just how much destruction had been unleashed already?
Eve saw Nanoha let out a sigh – a small one that was barely perceivable, but a sigh nonetheless. Eve took this as a good time to turn on her ears – there were too many alien mouths to keep track of with her eyes. “I call this meeting to order,” Nanoha said, holding up Raising Heart. “The Time Space Administration Bureau, Combine, Merodi Universalis, Collection of Preservers, Kromagg, Paratimers, and associated Class 3 societies have come together to form a cohesive unit to fight for the preservation of the multiverse. Normally we would start with introductions, but we do not have time for that. As we speak, most of our nations are either engaging in war or preparing for war. The longer we deliberate, the more advantage our enemy obtains.”
Eve winced at the use of the word enemy.
“Let me lay this out simply. The two of us usually considered ‘advanced’ Class 2 societies in this room have suffered such extreme losses in the battle with Gallifrey that we are no longer the powers we once were. Our militaries have been decimated and our ability to control the worlds under our purview has been shaken considerably.”
Immen clearly wanted to object, but also knew what she was saying was completely true.
“The ‘good’ news is that our opponents also suffered the same losses. The Void and Starcross Society are no better off.”
“The Collection is engaged in Civil War,” Lightning offered. “And most of the rest have suffered collateral damage from the previous battles.”
“Not Merodi Universalis!” a human yelled – possibly a Paratimer, but she could have also been from a Class 3 as far as Eve knew.
Eve ruffled her feathers. “Merodi Universalis has lost several worlds to the collateral damage, including Earth Stand, one of our founding universes. We know the plight the rest of you suffer.”
“That’s just Plot Armor!”
“And why does this make you upset?” Eve asked, cocking her head. “Wouldn’t you want someone like that to fight alongside you?”
The woman narrowed her eyes. “I am not rejecting your assistance in this war. I am merely pointing out that you aren’t like us.”
Immen spoke up. “It is also the truth that many of your forces defected under Princess Corona. This would seem to offset your Plot Armor, as it were.”
Don’t say a word, Eve messaged Monika, sensing the ‘Lord of ka’ wanted to blurt something out that wouldn’t have been good for the meeting. Eve responded in her own way. “Maybe you are right – maybe we can’t know exactly what you feel. But we do not wish to be your enemies, nor do we wish to look down on you. We know full well that the cards the Tower has dealt us are unfair to the rest of you. But we want to use that unfairness to help you – not push you down. We are not here to seek power in any shape or form. We are here to keep the multiverse together.”
The woman nodded – clearly wanting to still argue, but realizing they didn’t have time. They all had to work together.
Nanoha allowed herself to smile, glad that they’d gotten that sorted out quickly. There was silence.
Eve realized that Nanoha was choosing to let her continue, rather than be the Chief Sovereign of this conversation. Eve kept her composure and continued along that thought. “This war that we are about to fight is going to be a horrendous event in all our histories. You have already seen the carnage of the Class 1 and Gallifreyan wars, the battles that tore the multiverse apart, forcing giants to fall to the ground. They evened the playing field for us – but we are all scared, all terrified of the cost we will have to pay. Scared with good reason. If the cost of fighting is death, why must we fight?
“Sadly, we must fight because there are those who think fighting is the only way to resolve their differences.” Immen knew this was a slight directed at the Combine, but didn’t speak up against her. “So we must fight. But there are ways to fight that will minimize how long – or how deadly – this war will be. We must all focus on constructing Tower Rings, so we may end the war in a single decisive battle rather than being forced to beat our enemies until their societies collapse. By doing this we will force them to do the same. The days of quickly moving through the multiverse and finding Tower Rings in an instant are over. I am assured it is now a viable strategy.
“Secondly, there is a way to minimize the death on both sides in the actual battles. O’Neill?”
O’Neill nodded and stood up – surprised they got to this point so early in the meeting. He reached into his coat and pulled out a small spherical device, white on one side, red on the other. “This is a capture device, originating from ‘Pokèmon’ universes and those like it. It is able to latch onto virtually any entity in a weakened state and imprison it. Once imprisoned, they may not break free – they can only be released from the outside. Any mental powers are suspended because they are unconscious inside. A much rarer version of this device was used to capture John.”
There were murmurs in the room.
Eve took control of the conversation again. “These devices can be used as weapons in our war – a way to defeat an enemy soldier without killing him, if it is possible. While the rare and advanced versions of the capture devices cannot be mass-produced by the Tower’s mandate, these simple ones can be created millions of times over by simple duplication spells. Give a few to every soldier and they will be able to capture the enemy, rather than kill.”
“That only helps the enemy’s death count!” a TSAB mage shouted.
Eve smiled warmly. “Not if we tell them what we’re doing. This entire meeting is ka-screened, I know, but if we want them to know something, Twilence will probably pick up on it at least. If we contact them directly, I’m sure Corona will hear about it. And I know her – she’ll want to do anything she can to minimize death on both sides. These simple devices are the best way we have to do that.”
“…The capture of millions upon billions of soldiers…” Lightning said, furrowing her brow. “…It’s a good idea. I see absolutely no downside.”
They could be used against us! a Combine Advisor blurted.
“How?” Nanoha asked. “They only work on those whose spirits have already been weakened. Considering how almost all TSAB mages fight with nonlethal spells, these capture devices would be perfect. I suspect the only reason we haven’t used something like them in the past is due to ethical concerns and a lack of need.”
And why is it ethical now?
“Why are you concerned about that?” O’Neill questioned, calling attention to the fact that it was the Combine asking the question.
The Combine didn’t respond. Nanoha shook her head. “A captured soldier lives. They have no freedom and they are in a horrendous situation, but they are alive. And perhaps they are more likely to survive the collapse if we fail.”
“This is conjecture,” Lightning said. “There is no downside to using the capture devices if they’re available, no need to debate them further.”
There were mostly nods – a few of them were begrudging, but everyone was able to accept this was how they’d be fighting.
Eve realized Nanoha was looking at her again. It would have been really nice if you told me I would be heading this ahead of time, she messaged.
I figured you knew you were the face. Don’t worry, I can help you through it – but it has to be you, not me. I’m the old way, the high society, the Seat. You’re the protagonist.
…Good point. Talk about strategy next?
Probably.
I’ll sic O’Neil on them.
Might be the only entertaining moment we get out of this meeting.
Eve had to struggle not to let out a snort. “Moving on, tactics…”
~~~
Corona slammed her hands on the table. “All right, listen up!”
Mage Rarity, Minna, Scarcity, Thanos, Ahzek Ahriman, a white-haired woman from a lower universe named Edelgard, a lizard-man called Phage who ran the Class 2 Society Phage Industries, and a blue energy being that represented the Shabanash all focused their attention on Corona.
“Some of you, I like. Some of you, I don’t,” Corona said matter-of-factly. “Some of you I barely know. Some of you think the rest of us look like food. We’re going to put all of that behind us.” She clasped her hands together, sending a reality-bending ripple through the room. “Am I understood?”
The only one who wasn’t startled by Corona’s sudden assertion of dominance was Phage – and he accepted it with a toothy smile.
“Right, so, I don’t want to hear any complaining about the ‘motives’ behind why we’re doing this. Some of us want to destroy things for the heck of it, others want to stop suffering. It doesn’t matter here why we’re doing this, got it? All that matters is that we do bring about the collapse. And we will be using these.” She set a red and white capture device on the table. “Any objections?”
There weren’t any.
“Good. Start equipping your armies the moment this is over. Minna, ours are already doing it, correct?”
Minna nodded.
Corona turned to the rest of the leaders. “The plan is simple, and probably what all of you came up with already or would have come up with given time. We need to build Tower Rings – several locations at once, so if one is found and destroyed we have backups. We here at the Raven Hotel will be building ours with the Prognostici, and Blumiere has already begun construction. The rest of you are just going to have to figure it out on your own. Yes Phage, I know you’ve already started, we don’t need to brag amongst each other here.”
Thanos smiled. “You seem to be sliding into your role well.”
“I fought as a commander in the war with Skarn,” Corona explained. “I learned some things.” For a moment, she paused, remembering the things she witnessed during the war. She shook her head and returned to the discussion. “While we are creating the Tower Rings we will wage war. Sai and our other artificial intelligences have been scrambling to come up with complex diversion tactics to keep the other side from finding them easily. Conversely, they have been trying to come up with ways to find Tower Rings that are hidden. The war will be one big game of intelligence hide and seek.”
Mage Rarity nodded. “As expected. The war goes to whoever gets a fully operational Tower Ring to the Tower and successfully activates it. That is our goal.”
“The only other win condition is utter destruction of the other side,” Corona said. “And I don’t exactly like our odds on that one.”
“You would just rather the collapse kill them than do it with your own hands,” Scarcity pointed out.
Corona nodded. “Very true. The fact that you’re suggesting that makes me weak is telling of what your priorities are.”
Scarcity bristled.
“I agree with Corona’s aversion to total annihilation,” Thanos said.
“As do I,” Edelgard added. “Some of us may have to live in the world that comes after.”
Phage gave a nod to indicate his agreement.
Mage Rarity smirked at Scarcity. “Outvoted.”
Scarcity twitched. “This isn’t a democracy, this is a council.”
“We don’t even know who’s a member or not!” Ahzek spat.
Corona glared at Scarcity. “So…?”
The unicorn didn’t respond.
Corona took that as a signal to continue. “Moving on, we have a few major threats within the other side. They have John – though we suspect they will not chance using him anymore. He’s too much of a wild card. They also have the Living Tribunal.”
“We have the Rebellious Star,” Scarcity asserted.
“Can a Star take out the High Abstract?” Mage Rarity asked.
“He can if he fights with us,” Scarcity said.
“It’s a possibility,” Corona admitted. “We do need a plan to take him out, he’s too much of an influence on them. Luckily, aside from him, the strongest single power they have is the Shaping Mechanism.”
“The TSAB has secret weapons,” Thanos pointed out.
“That are secret and we can’t really prepare for,” Corona said. “Plus, it is very likely they’ve used most of them already.”
The Shabanash rippled. It said nothing, but everyone got the feeling it agreed.
Phage narrowed his eyes. “Their advantages are the Tribunal, the TSAB’s information databases, and the Shaping Mechanism. What do we have to counter them?”
Corona glanced at Scarcity. “The Starcross Society suggests the Rebellious Star, but I doubt it. What we have is the Void itself, and Twilence.”
“They have Monika,” Mage Rarity said.
“Monika is powerful, but single-universe scale,” Corona reminded her. “Twilence’s Prophet powers go far beyond that and far above most other Prophets. They’d need Andrew Hussie or something to challenge her.”
“So our advantages are an ancient dimensional construct and a Prophet,” Ahzek summarized.
Corona nodded.
“And theirs are a near-god of a Class 1 society, the intellectual property of a Seat society, and a mechanism that can mesh universes together?”
“To be fair, that last one is easy to protect against.”
The Shabanash commented that it all seemed nearly balanced.
Corona nodded. “What’s the discrepancy?”
The Shabanash responded that they only had a small section of Merodi Universalis, not half. The other side had the whole might.
“Merodi Universalis isn’t that strong.”
The Shabanash reminded her that they were the Protagonist Civilization.
“And I was one of the protagonists. Twilence assures me that I balance out Eve’s own presence.”
“So it is balanced,” Thanos said, tapping a finger on the table.
“It’s been stacked that way by the Tower,” Scarcity pointed out. “First, the Class 1s annihilated each other. Then, there was a war to bring the Class 2s to a relatively equal playing field. There are no High-Class 2s anymore!”
“You forget the Flowers,” Edelgard reminded them with a hint of disdain.
“The Flowers don’t count,” Scarcity spat. “The point is, we are tier three. What if we’re just another layer on the cake that needs to be removed!?”
“…I’m not sure a Tower Ring could be created effectively without Class 2 infrastructure,” Corona said. “A Class 3 could try, certainly, but the amount of time it would take…” She furrowed her brow. “No, we’re already involving them in the war. The Tower doesn’t need to push the power level down any further. It would be too much.”
“Are you sure about that? How can you be sure? You aren’t a seer of any kind!” Ahzek huffed.
I appeared in the middle of the meeting, scribbling on a notebook. “It’s what I think is happening. The Dark Tower has reached as far down the power scaling as it needs to. We are the actual war. The actual fight. Because now the ‘main characters’ are the ones at the forefront, rather than a bunch of godlike civilizations clashing and destroying the heavens.”
“See?” Corona said, holding out a hand. “We’re the last line.”
I wanted to say that there could be a twist as far as I knew – but I decided that wasn’t good for the meeting.
“So, let’s fight to win,” Thanos said, curling his fist.
Corona met his fist with her own, smiling. “Yeah!”
Mage Rarity, Edelgard, and Phage met them as well. The Shabanash chose to abstain, considering its penchant for eating solid beings.
Scarcity grumbled, but put out her hoof anyway.
On another day, they would have been enemies.
Today they certainly weren’t friends.
But they would fight as one.
~~~
Allure and Thrackerzod walked through the main hall of Renee’s castle. What was usually a place of bustling Expedition activity was now a ghost town. All Expeditions except the most important had been suspended, and most agents had been assigned to O’Neill for use in the war.
Allure had a sour expression on her face, one that had scarcely budged since Minna had left.
“…The Embodiment is still useless,” Thrackerzod said. “Can’t make up their minds, even when they themselves are on the line. They never know how to change.”
“Big surprise there,” Allure muttered.
Thrackerzod let out a deep, slightly annoyed sigh. “Allure, I have to be the least qualified person to say this, but you’re not okay and sh-”
“Oh, I’m not okay? Big surprise!” Allure let out a bitter laugh. “I mean look at me, my daughter betrayed me, some of my closest friends have become villains, and there’s a war going on with them! Tell me how I could be okay with that!”
“You couldn’t,” Thrackerzod agreed. “All I’m saying is y-”
Allure put a hoof on Thrackerzod’s shoulder. “I know. I know I’m not doing good. I know. But I don’t have the luxury of just standing by and letting myself get better – there’s too much going on right now.”
Thrackerzod blinked. “We could take care of it.”
“I have a role to play, Thrackerzod. If I ignored the call I’d never be able to live with myself. We’re the League of Sweetie Belles. We can do something now.”
“And we could do that for you,” Thrackerzod insisted. “You don’t have to be the one leading the charge.”
“Thra-”
“Minna is not your responsibility anymore, right? That’s how ‘growing up’ and ‘leaving the nest’ works.”
Allure blinked – and then shook her head. “No. You… uh…” Allure stamped her hoof on the ground. “I don’t care if she’s grown up, she’s still my responsibility.”
Thrackerzod made a face that suggested she thought Allure was wrong, but also suggested that the eldritch unicorn didn’t have enough confidence in her understanding of family dynamics to say for sure.
Allure was glad the conversation ended there.
They soon arrived at the door to Renee’s office and knocked. The doors slid open, allowing the two of them to enter without the usual teleporting fiasco. Renee sat behind her desk, alone. Her hat was slightly off center, her mane not as smooth as it usually was, and her glasses weren’t on her face.
She looked presentable – but to the people who knew her, she looked like a mess.
Allure noticed a small pile of empty ice cream containers that Renee was trying to keep hidden behind her desk. The small unicorn’s expression softened. “Renee…”
Renee smiled awkwardly. “Ah, Allure. I… wish I was happier to see you. But I have a feeling I know why you’re here.”
Allure sighed. “I want to sign the League of Sweetie Belles up for the war effort. …Anyone that is willing, at least.”
Renee levitated her glasses back onto her face, pulling up a display. “Will you be included?”
Allure nodded. “Yeah.”
Renee pressed a few buttons. “…Done.”
“That’s… it?” Allure asked, cocking her head. “No argument?”
Renee looked at the ground. “I know you wouldn’t listen to me if I said anything. I know this is what you want. I’m your sister, not your mother; I don’t have to watch over you like one. As much as I would like to…”
Allure forced a smile. “Th-thanks. I…” The smile faltered. “Thrackerzod, can you give us a minute?”
Thrackerzod nodded. She copied the confirmation that the League was available for the war effort onto a data pad and left, presumably to start the arrangements. Coordination with Squeaky would be a must. …But Allure didn’t want to think about that right now.
She wanted to talk to Renee.
“You’re doing worse than I am,” Allure observed. “I’m just angry, and I want to do something about it. You… there’s something deeper here.”
“This is going to sound petty, because your daughter was the one who betrayed you, but… almost all my close friends joined the other side. Pinkie jumped ship with them… Eve and Flutterfree are barely keeping each other held together… And…” She looked at the ground. “Daniel and I have been having fights.”
“…You almost never have fights.”
“He wants Corona dead,” Renee said, grimacing. “And it’s so deep in his psyche that I can’t even do anything! Me! The Sylph of Mind! I can’t help him! And these days we can’t just treat her like an outlier… She’s in the forefront. We can’t just…” She rammed her head into the desk. “I can’t generate hate for her, like you can. Part of me wishes I could just so I could help our relationship…”
Allure grimaced – she knew there was nothing she could do here. This was a deep relationship of a kind she had never had. A kind she had decided she didn’t need. She didn’t know how to fix it.
Could it even be fixed?
“You still love him, right?”
“More than anything. And I know he feels the same,” Renee said, tears in her eyes. “It makes it all the more painful… And there’s all the people I have to send to their deaths, all the betrayals, and all the destruction everywhere…”
Allure walked over to Renee and pulled her into a hug. “I can’t do anything to help you.”
“…You could stay here, with me.”
“…You know I can’t do that.”
Renee nodded slowly. “You have to do something. I don’t have that. I… I just keep going on.”
“And you’re strong enough to do it. Never forget that.”
Renee smiled. “…You’re precious, you know that?”
“I learned from the best.”
The two embraced in silence.
~~~
Daniel Jackson was doing what Renee couldn’t bring herself to do – manage the agents of the Expedition Division who were being sent to the war as task forces. He had been checking in with every single team as they passed through a stargate-type dimension device to a ship somewhere in another world. Each team went somewhere different, ready to integrate with a Merodi or, in some cases, an ally’s ship.
Most teams didn’t need anything other than a smile and a ‘good luck’ from him. Some needed some words of encouragement, and he had to send a few back for being ill-prepared or clearly not emotionally ready for what was about to happen to them.
He didn’t know the names of most of the people who came to him – he had to rely on his data pad updating information quickly. It worked most of the time, but occasionally a bug-like person would come with an unpronounceable name and it would become awkward. But he managed. He always did.
He was mildly surprised when a name from the past shot onto his screen.
Oncoming Storm.
Daniel looked up with raised eyebrows at the gray-skinned human coming toward him. Once, this man had been Director Storm, head of A.I.D. on Earth Vitis. Then he had been Manager Storm for the Earth Vitis section of the Expeditions Division. Daniel had no idea what he’d done after that. Given the addition of a cybernetic arm, it must have been something interesting.
“It’s been a while,” Daniel said, smiling.
Storm let out a jovial laugh. “It’s been nothing. Wait until you hit your thousandth birthday, then you can tell me it’s been a while.”
“You haven’t changed a bit.”
“I wouldn’t be me for very long if I kept changing, would I?”
“Definitely not.” Daniel look over his shoulder. “What’s your team?”
Storm stepped to the side, a smirk crossing his face. “Enjoy.”
Daniel saw two ponies and two humans. He only recognized two of the faces instantly – Alushy and Jenny. The others forced him to turn to his data pad. One was a white alicorn with a red and black mane who had almost no documentation. Her name was Beryl, apparently. The human was a woman named Magane Chikujoin. She wore black, had dark purple hair that covered half her face, and had teeth far too sharp to fit in a human’s mouth.
Magane Chikujoin… Daniel thought to himself, narrowing his eyes. Something was wrong here.
“I assure you, you have no idea who I am,” Magane said.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve heard about you from somewhere…”
Magane shrugged. “A lie about a lie…” she snapped her fingers. Daniel suddenly felt all his worries shift away – he might as well have never been concerned at all.
“I never get tired of seeing that,” Jenny said with a smirk.
Daniel blinked. “Seeing what?”
“Nothing,” Beryl muttered, scratching at her upside-down green crown of a cutie mark. “We’re just here to get to our assignment.” She levitated a data pad in front of her eyes. “Fuckin… looks like the TSAB Saisai contingent.”
Alushy let out a snort. “Hope they like graphic levels of violence!”
Storm chuckled. “I’m sure they will. Now, who’s ready to go to war!?”
“We are!” everyone but Beryl shouted. Beryl just nodded.
Daniel nodded to them. “Well, everything seems to be in order… good luck.” He gestured toward the stargate. They all filed in.
“All right!” Storm called out, spreading his hands wide. “Hello! The Storm has arrived!”
A TSAB mage let out a disgruntled sigh. “Right this way, we’ll have your team equipped in one of the droppers shortly. Are you all combat ready?”
There were five nods of confirmation.
“Good. Just do whatever the voice of Commander Onna tells you to. I would show you your quarters, but we’re expecting to launch in less than an hour, so ask about that later if we survive initial contact.”
The ‘dropper’ turned out to be an octagonal room with eight empty chairs. The floor was made of glowing pink teleporter crystals ready to grab the soldiers above and ‘drop’ them wherever was needed. A quick delivery system.
They were the only five in there.
“You are task force 47-JZN,” the mage reported, logging them into the room. “The computer consoles on the walls will inform you of anything you need to know.” He pressed a button and all five of their ears suddenly felt like an ant had just bit down inside of them. “And now you can receive auditory orders anywhere. Be prepared to go at a moment’s notice.” He then ran out, leaving them alone.
Storm let out a chuckle. “Heh. Looks like they’re having a difficult time organizing everything.”
“Organized management is always a panic,” Jenny said, sitting down in her chair with a playful smirk. “So, what’s all your stories? Besides Magane, already know yours.”
“You wound me so!” Alushy blurted, falling back onto her chair in false fainting. “The memory of my soothing, enthralling voice is nothing to the likes of Jenny of the Red Gloves! I’m fuck-all to her!”
“Give it a rest,” Beryl said, shaking her head. “We need to learn to work together as a team. Jenny’s right, we should all get to know each other better. All we know now is that Storm found us and chose us all.”
“And are you going to let out your secret, or no?” Alushy asked.
“W-what secret?”
“You really aren’t a smart pony,” Alushy said, shaking her head. “Who here knows who ‘Beryl’ is?”
Magane and Storm raised their hands. Jenny just looked confused.
Beryl facehooved. “Oh for the… I was supposed to vanish! Why do you all just know!”
“I chose you because I knew,” Storm said. “And Magane’s probably cheating.”
Magane smiled predatorily, saying nothing.
“And I used my amazing powers of deduction!” Alushy blurted.
“…You just served with me in the whole Collection fiasco.”
“Fiasco? I thought you more creative than that, my Princess of Winning.”
Blackjack facehooved. “I’m not the Winner anymore. This cutie mark is fake. I’m just an alicorn who knows how to use weapons.”
“And who’s being an idiot and coming to war.” Alushy rolled over in her chair. “Hey multiverse, I’m Blackjack, and I’m supposed to be staying out of conflicts! Please, come fuck my shit up!”
Blackjack shook her head. “It’s not that. I have to do this. It’s… personal.”
“Personal?” Jenny raised an eyebrow. “What, did someone die?”
“Only everyone I knew,” Blackjack muttered.
Jenny realized she stepped on something she shouldn’t have. “Uh… Sorry…?”
Blackjack blinked, finding nothing to say in response to this.
“The fly buzzes through the air…” Magane said with a chuckle. “And she is not aware what she mocks is a great spider, a hair’s breadth away from lashing out in anger…”
Jenny raised an eyebrow. “Well I ne-”
“47-JZN! Get ready!” the announcement came. “Intel suggests there is a Collection strike about to happen on Nathalim. We will be there to defend! Expect heavy infantry combat!”
Alushy laughed. “Aw, so sorry, looks like our moment of bonding has been cut short! We’ll just have to hope we all suddenly know how to fight as a unit when we get there!”
Blackjack gulped. “Yay…”
“Also, everyone, this girl’s an idiot, you’ll probably have to protect her over and over again.”
“Alushy!”
“It’s perfectly fine for me to say that if you’re a self-proclaimed idiot.”
“Alushy!”
Storm held up his fingers. Three… Two… One…
The teleportation cut Alushy off in the middle of a sentence about buckballs.
~~~
Jotaro steered the Atlas through the Great Void, following a faint signal a Void agent had given them, presumably one of the larger secret bases for the collapse.
Behind him sat everyone else – Pinkie, Nova, Vriska, Pidge, and Jolyne.
Just a minute ago, they had all been laughing. Pinkie had thrown a Happy Fifth Day (Maybe) On The Atlas Party! not too long ago and it had been a great time. Even Jotaro had broken out in smiles and chuckles, the moment serving as a great reminder that all joy had not been sapped from existence.
But then they’d picked up a loose transmission signal carrying what was apparently an important public message.
The Doctor’s last message to the multiverse. Pinkie’s Party may have already heard about the fall of Gallifrey, but they didn’t know anything about how it happened, or that the Doctor was involved.
The message was a surprise to all of them.
“Make the most of what I’m giving you,” the image of the Doctor said on the screen. Then he waved with a sad smile – and the feed ended.
Most of them simply stared at the now empty screen in silence.
Vriska was the only one crying. “Fucking… bastard…” She wiped her face. “Thinks he can redeem himself… thinks he can apologize…”
“…Can’t he?” Nova asked.
“Well I can’t exactly stay mad at a dead guy can I!?” Vriska blurted, slamming her fist into a console. “Wouldn’t be ‘fair’ to him. Wouldn’t be ‘proper’. He fucking gave himself for everyone and apologized, how in my right mind could I still be pissed at him?” She let out a demented laugh. “Always a master of manipulation…”
“You don’t think…” Pidge began.
“I don’t know,” Vriska said, grunting. “I can’t know with him. He always kept himself hidden. He could always manipulate people seemingly without trying. Fucking effortless. And now he’s gone and whatever fucked-up secrets he had are gone! He’s made sure he’ll keep the moral high ground by ‘admitting’ he didn’t have it! Whoop-de-do.” She put a hand to the bridge of her nose. “It hurts.”
“You never really wanted him dead,” Jotaro observed.
Vriska said nothing.
“We’re just going to have to learn to move past things like this quickly,” Nova said. “Everything’s falling apart. We have to make sure we don’t fall apart.”
Pinkie smiled. “Yeah! Nova’s got the right idea. Really, really bad things are going to start happening. We’ve got to keep ourselves up above the waves.”
“Bad things haven’t happened already?” Jolyne blurted.
“That’s not what I-”
“Anasui has been rewritten, Job doesn’t know where I am, and people are fucking dying!”
“And that is going to keep happening,” Nova said. “That’s my point. We’re… just going to have to get used to it. Or we’re going to have to break.”
Jolyne looked like she wanted to shout but couldn’t think of anything that didn’t make her sound like a raging lunatic. She let out a sigh. “…Fine. I get it, I get it. Just have to toughen ourselves up.”
“…If we can,” Pidge said.
“We can,” Pinkie said, grinning. “Because we’re us! Think about all the things we’ve been through these past few decades! We took all of that – we can take this. Are you with me?”
There was a split between ‘yeah!’ and awkward silence. They weren’t given time to comment on this though – because the Atlas was teleported right into one of the Raven Hotel’s docking bays.
I stood there with Corona and Mage Rarity. I force teleported all of them out of the Atlas, startling them – but my smile quickly put them at rest.
“Welcome to the Raven Hotel,” I said, extending a hoof. “Glad you made it.”
Pinkie bounced forward and shook my hoof. “I’d hope so, we’re about to become your best fighters!”
“Yare yare daze…” Jotaro muttered.
Corona picked up Pinkie and hugged her. “…I’m glad you chose to come. It… It means a lot.”
Pinkie squeezed her back. “Make it all worth it, Corona.”
Corona let out a short laugh. “I’m trying as hard as I can.” She released Pinkie and moved to Jotaro. She fixed him with a pained expression. “…I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Jotaro didn’t say anything.
Corona extended her hand. “Let’s make that sacrifice mean something. Together.”
Jotaro hesitated for a moment. Then he grabbed her hand and shook it. Corona noticed his hand was trembling slightly, but she didn’t comment on it. She greeted Nova, Pidge, and Jolyne in much the same way.
Vriska ignored her, walking right up to Mage Rarity and me. Despite her tears just a moment ago, she broke out into a huge smile and laughed. “Looks like we’re getting the band back together!”
“In more ways than one,” I said, holding up my hoof.
“Greetings,” Mite said.
“Oh. My. Gog,” Vriska gasped. “You got Mite too? Oh, this really is everyone! …Everyone who can be here, anyway.”
Mage Rarity nodded sadly. “I’m sure she wouldn’t want that to be a shadow over us.”
“Fuck no,” Vriska said, putting her hands on both our backs. “We’re a team, and we will always be a team, even if we’re all part of other teams. It took the fate of the multiverse to get us back together. Let’s go out with a bang!”
“Implosion,” Mite droned.
“If you’re going to get technical I’m going to mention that you can’t call the collapse an explosion or an implosion due to interdimensional effects.”
“Irrelevant.”
“Oh, then why did you care earlier?”
“Entertainment.”
Vriska rolled her eyes. “Ooooof course.”
Corona coughed. “Sorry to break this reunion up, but we have work to do, and I can’t keep up my tough-girl image if I keep hugging you all like this. I might have to be a little harsh in the coming weeks, just be warned.”
“Got it!” Pinkie said, saluting.
“Just know that I’m glad to have you here, regardless.” Corona gave them all a wink. “Anything you really need to tell me before I put you in with all the other teams?”
“Nothing your Source wouldn’t have told you already,” Pinkie said.
“Good. …You guys remember Poe, right?”
Nova facehooved. “How could we forget?”
Corona rolled her eyes. “I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you, at least.”
“Yaaay...”
Corona led them inside, checking them in to their secret little war effort.
~~~
Eve and Flutterfree had finally gotten a moment away from the chaos, deciding to spend it at Flutterfree’s cottage. It was the one place that still looked more or less the same as it had before everything had happened. The tree had grown, certainly, but it didn’t look much different. The branches were still the same natural color, the leaves were filled with animals, and there was a beautiful arrangement of larger plants around it.
Flutterfree knew her house was essentially a park in Ponyville, but at least she got to keep most of her scenic view, even if the noises of the city were still audible.
Flutterfree had just finished warming up some tea for herself and Eve, setting the dishes out across the living room table. The sounds of Eve taking a shower could be heard up the stairs – Flutterfree was sure she’d be done soon.
Discord dropped in for a moment. “Oh, you finally made it back!”
Flutterfree smiled. “Yeah. I don’t have much time. I’d appreciate it if I actually got to relax with Eve.”
“Say no more. I’m technically busy on the front, anyway,” Discord said, taking some of the tea.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were fighting. …Are you sure that’s what you want?”
Discord shrugged. “It seems like the right thing to do. Plus, it is a little fun getting to ‘catch ‘em all’.” He snapped his fingers, putting on a Pokèmon trainer outfit and levitating six of the capture devices in his hand. “All of them!”
Flutterfree chuckled despite the morbid reality behind the joke. “Watch yourself, okay? The big players may be gone… But there are still things that can hurt you out there.”
“Trixie’s watching my back.”
“You bet Trixie is!” Trixie’s voice came from somewhere in Discord’s ear. “The Great and Powerful unicorn of the Internet sees all!”
“You missed the nega-Discord an hour ago.”
“He wasn’t playing fair!”
Flutterfree rolled her eyes. She heard the water shut off. “Oh, looks like Eve’s done. Sorry, Discord.”
Discord bowed extravagantly. “It is no matter. I shall endeavor to encase many in cotton candy clouds in your name, Flutterfree.”
Flutterfree chuckled. “Just keep yourself safe.”
Discord nodded – then vanished.
Eve came down the stairs a few seconds later, towel wrapped around her mane, somehow managing to keep the hairs of cosmic energy contained. Flutterfree suspected the spells required to do that were rather complicated.
“How do you feel?” Flutterfree asked.
“…Strangely, not that bad,” Eve admitted. “I should be panicking, fretting about a million details, be ready to explode in magical fire… but I’m not. I feel… calm.”
Flutterfree smiled sadly. “That’s… good.”
“But…?”
“I think your body and mind have realized they need to shut a lot of themselves down in order to survive the coming ordeals,” Flutterfree sipped her tea, giving her a moment to collect her thoughts. “I’m feeling it too. You were there after Pinkie left, I came to you a wreck, but I had to put myself together for you. And now… well, I don’t feel great, but I don’t feel like the world is falling apart around me. Even though it is.”
“Is this an unhealthy denial of some sort?”
“It might be, if existence wasn’t actually falling apart at the seams,” Flutterfree said. “I’ve talked to Rev. I’m pretty sure this coping mechanism we’ve come up with… it’s damaging us. Giving us a chance to act, yes… but how will we come out of it?”
“A lot of immortals end up distant, or impassive,” Eve mused. “Maybe because it’s only a matter of time before they have to lock themselves up to survive?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is that we don’t have much of a choice.”
“Yeah… Everyone else is more important than our individual mental health.”
“…It’s amazing what you can do when you have no choice.”
Eve smirked. “That quote again?”
“I like it. It… describes my life, in a lot of ways. And it is applicable to the situation.”
“Mmm…” The two of them fell into a moment of silence – not an awkward one, but one of relaxation. One of contentment. One where they didn’t have to worry about the fate of existence for one small moment.
Then the priority line on Eve’s phone rang.
“How long did that take?” Eve asked, flipping the phone out and turning on her ears.
“Forty local minutes,” Flutterfree said.
“Hm. More than I expected.” Eve put the phone to her ear. “Overhead Evening.”
“Ambassador Valentine,” Valentine said from the other side. “The final vote on our place in this war went through.”
“…Wait, why did you come to the meeting if there was still a vote?”
“The outcome was inevitable, and it went just as I predicted,” Valentine answered. “If there’s one thing we Muricans like, it’s an enemy to fight. Even if they’re ‘bigger’ and ‘stronger’ than we are, we are the people of freedom, and we will never back down from that fight. USM forces will be joining Merodi Universalis and the rest shortly.”
“You don’t seem all that thrilled.”
“With this vote the USM has signed its death warrant,” Valentine said. “We cannot survive a war of this scale. Our internal politics are already so unstable; one wrong push will send the entire thing into a tailspin. We have no unique skills, no ancient artifacts, and no significant ka presence. We are just a Class 3 nation who doesn’t know when to keep their head down.”
“You tried to stop it, right?”
“I did. If by some miracle the USM survives this war in any form, no doubt my actions will be the start of my own political downfall. The route of pacifism is… decidedly unpopular.”
Eve smiled. “I’m glad you stuck up for what you believed in, even when everyone else was doing the opposite.”
“It was all I could do. And it wasn’t enough. …Eve, I need to ask you a favor. If you are able, forget what we stand for and what’s happened in the past. You are the strong ones in this case, and we are the weak. Try to protect us.”
“I’ll do what I can,” Eve promised. “It’s what friends are for.”
“…I suppose it is.”
“And don’t worry, this conversation didn’t happen.”
“Goodbye.” He hung up.
Eve put the phone away and turned off her ears. “Well… I guess we can keep relaxing. For now.”
Flutterfree smiled. “Good.”
They accepted their gift of a moment to breathe.
~~~
Morty watched as the soldiers of his half of the Collection laid waste to a universe of bright pink flowers simply because some collapse-leaning individuals were hiding amongst the beautiful flora.
There was no more beauty to be found here. There was only fire.
A loud burp sounded from behind him. He hoped, in vain, that it was one of the Ricks he was working with. Barring that, an assassin from the other side. Anything but his Rick.
“How’s it feel to be me?” Rick asked, tossing a beer bottle over his shoulder.
“The fact that it feels terrible means I’m not you,” Morty deadpanned.
“Your feelings don’t mean shit.”
“Rick, we established a long time ago that’s not what I think.”
“God, you’re still a naive idiot… bringing war to everything in existence and you still think this is real?” Rick let out a mixture of a snort and a burp. “You know, if everyone stopped caring about ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, none of this would happen. Who’d care either way?”
“Rick, even you couldn’t live without some fucked-up idea of morality. You haven’t exactly physically removed your emotions, have you?”
“Tried a few times,” Rick admitted. “Bad consequences.”
There was an explosion in the distance. Some dark magic spell coagulated the blood into a demonic squid monster.
“Maybe that should tell you they mean something.”
“Or the Tower’s a bitch.”
“Then destroy it.”
“Nah.”
“Why not?”
“No difference either way. You’re fucked over by stories or fucked over by reality.” Rick stretched his back, yawning. “You’re all set on going after the better option and are willing to kill everything over it. Idiots. Every last one of you. There’s no difference. You live or you don’t either way.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Fucking Tower’s random dimensional jump matrix. I was going to Blips and Chitz.”
Morty let out a bitter sigh. “That place still exists…”
“Amazing defenses. I’ll gamble until everything goes pop,” Rick laughed, slapping his thigh. “And then nothing will change.”
“You could be dead.”
“Nothing.” Rick pulled out his portal gun and created a gateway to Blips and Chitz. “Wanna take a break?”
Morty scowled. “I am never doing anything with you again.”
“Your loss.”
~~~
Mage Rarity was one of the most valuable pieces on the field of battle; even though as a higher-ranked member of the army she was supposed to stay back, her true power wasn’t on display unless she was in the thick of it.
She was one of the best White Mages the Void had to offer, able to resurrect several people at once, heal virtually every wound, and remove any status the multiverse could think of. She even had a safeguard in her spells so that anyone who was Brought Back Wrong would just be killed automatically.
But she was very effective at not letting anyone around her die. Sure, the fact that both sides were using capture devices kept the death count down, but Mage Rarity was still the greatest force of healing available at the moment.
It did help that she was also excellent at actually fighting.
“Holy Meteorga!” she shouted as she flew across space, a Void-device on her back that kept her shrouded in a bubble of reality and used dark energies to move her around much like a rocket. Her combination spell went off – a series of impressive white orbs erupted from her horn, spiraling toward a Starcross Society ship. The white orbs became infused with the essence of cosmic meteors, bombarding the ship’s already-weakened shields. The impacts broke the barrier, allowing the holy energy to coalesce into a tremendous laser that cut right through the ship’s bridge, disabling it.
She tapped into the connection she had to the Void, using it to shift universes to a world where the ships couldn’t fight – an infinite plane of whiteness where single ‘entities’ were limited to a set size no larger than a bus. Warriors from all sides popped into and out of existence, trying to beat the other.
Most of them didn’t even know the point of the battle – which was to get entry to universe
‘Zel-57’ and use the construct within to help build Tower Rings faster. The only problem was no one could find it in all this chaos, especially considering how the universes kept being moved across the Sea of Infinite Possibility, screwing up their coordinates.
Mage Rarity didn’t need to worry about this. She just did what would help her army.
She leaped through a Void-portal to another plane of existence, this one where ugly cobbled-together Kromagg ships fired upon the behemoth Combine star-constructs. Mage Rarity didn’t care to engage in this fight – she’d only attacked the Starcross ship because it had been weakened – but she was interested in using it. She moved herself between the Kromagg and Combine, enveloping herself in a sphere of black Void energy.
The Combine’s reality-tearing beam hit her, passing through the Void and into the realm she had just left. She shifted herself back to the limiting expanse, finding thousands of charred corpses.
She smirked – using her weak Raise spell to bring them all back. There was no small number who Came Back Wrong and just started screaming before they were automatically killed. But any others came back to life weak, barely able to move – easy to capture with the devices.
The remaining soldiers were those on her side, so she healed them back to full and sent them back to fighting. She saluted, winked, and did a backflip through a Void portal to another realm, this one a seemingly endless maze of blue circuitry.
She was somewhat surprised to find it mostly abandoned. She was only supposed to be jumping to universes with heavy amounts of combat.
“And the rabbit went for the carrot,” someone said from behind her, accompanying the line with a psychotic laugh.
I was intercepted, she realized. She quickly teleported herself several meters forward, barely dodging a thrown starmetal sword.
“Blackjack!?” she blurted, eyes wide.
“Oh. That’s what your name was,” Jenny said, looking at Blackjack.
Blackjack paid her no mind, instead pointing the starmetal sword at Mage Rarity. The once-Princess of Winning’s face was livid. “How could you?”
“…Blackjack, dear, you know what my beliefs were, and where my loyalties lay.”
“Bullshit! I’m an idiot! You never told me outright, how was I supposed to know!?”
Storm raised an eyebrow. “I take it there’s some history here?”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Alushy muttered.
Storm held out a hand and Magane provided him with some popcorn.
“…Are these your new friends?” Mage Rarity asked. “The ones who convinced you to put your life on the line?”
Blackjack twitched. “I made that decision on my own.”
Mage Rarity shook her head. “You’re going to die, Blackjack. You’ve run out. You aren’t a winner anymore.”
“So? Fuck that, I’m going to do what needs to be done.” She charged Mage Rarity with the sword.
Mage Rarity jumped back through a Void portal, expecting to escape their snare. But she found Jenny of the Red Gloves waiting for her.
Jenny’s fist twisted with transdimensional vibration energy. She punched right into Mage Rarity, disrupting her Void shields and cracking the mare’s jaw.
In an instant, Mage Rarity healed it with a Cure. She dodged to the side as Magane came flying out of a random dimension, somehow wielding a blade seven times too heavy for a human to control effectively.
Crap. She’s probably a reality warper of some sort.
Mage Rarity tried to focus a Holy blast on Magane, but the woman simply vanished the moment it would have hit her.
Alushy charged from another realm of existence as Mage Rarity jumped into a world where the only things in existence were trees. She unleashed a Holy spell on Alushy, her vampiric nature making her particularly susceptible to the attack. “OH FUCK, THAT’S A DEEP PAIN!”
“It gets worse,” Mage Rarity muttered, activating her Quick spell. She was able to layer four spells overtop of each other, creating Holy-Meteorga-Slow-Mini. Alushy was hit with holy meteors from on high that encased her in a sludge of slowed space-time, all the while her size was shrunk considerably.
“…Sweet,” Alushy commented, stumbling and passing out from the sudden onslaught of holy power. It was quite possibly the worst matchup for the great vampire.
Mage Rarity moved to capture Alushy, but Magane was already there, capturing Alushy herself to keep Mage Rarity from getting to her. Storm came from the side and hit Mage Rarity with a lightning bolt fueled by a galaxy in a marble.
“Do you want to hear the story behind this artifact?” Storm asked, grinning mischievously. “A fun story – we were wandering around a universe wh-” He dodged a Comet spell from Mage Rarity. “Or we can fight. That works too.” He lunged at her, taking out a sword. The blade split up into hundreds of sections, allowing him to wield it like another limb. It cut at her from the side.
She teleported to another universe, somewhat surprised to find that the sword was able to cut through dimensional barriers and follow her. She galloped across the hull of a Combine ship, avoiding both the natural point-defenses of the ship and Storm’s artifact.
Magane was suddenly in front of her. “You won’t be leaving this place.”
“Oh yes I will.”
Magane grinned. “A lie about a lie…” she snapped her fingers.
Mage Rarity understood. So that’s how her powers work. Exceptionally broken, exploiting truth like that… She smiled. But I have a workaround.
“Undo!” Mage Rarity shouted, letting out a spell that negated Magane’s warping of reality, making it as if it had never happened – though both Mage Rarity and Magane remembered it happening.
Magane laughed. “Clever girl…” she said, baring her teeth as if she were a great white shark delighted to have some challenging prey.
Mage Rarity wasn’t having any of that. She teleported behind Magane, kicked her in the back of the head, and then forced her timestream to Stop. She planned on cutting the woman in half, but the Combine point-defenses caught up with her. The Void absorbed most of the damage, but Mage Rarity felt the plasma energy burn off some of her skin and break a rib.
She allowed herself to fall back into the blue circuitry realm, annoyed to find Jenny and Storm waiting for her.
She was beginning to realize she wouldn’t be able to keep this up. She would make a mistake – and that would be that. She needed backup, but everyone was so busy. Empress Twilight might send someone, but would they get here in time?
Taking the time to think that turned out to be her mistake. She had failed to notice Blackjack get back up. Her starmetal sword cut right through the Void’s defenses and hit Mage Rarity’s horn – snapping it in half.
She let out a shriek as her immense magic exploded from the bony stump. White magic blasted out in a shockwave and she slumped to the ground.
Blackjack stood her ground, using her own magic to deflect the release of power. “I’m sorry.” She took out a capture device.
And then Vriska appeared out of a Void portal and kicked Blackjack in the face. “Got your back, Rares.”
“Ah… Thanks,” Mage Rarity said, reaching for the broken half of her horn – she’d need it to reaffix it later. “Be… careful.”
“C’mon, I thought you knew me!”
“You’re… never careful…”
Vriska chuckled. “That’s what you think. Mite’s already working on them.”
Jenny realized she had lost control of her body. “Ah, frick.”
“Shrimp,” Mite said from his position on her shoulder, hacking into her internal system of nanomachines that powered her magic.
“I AM NOT A SHRIMP!” Jenny shouted at Mite.
“Sure…” Mite commented, throwing Jenny’s fist into Magane.
Storm narrowed his eyes, looking at Vriska. “…Where’s Twilence?”
“Where do you think?”
“Ensuring our downfall,” Storm said. “Everyone, fall back!”
“Fall back!?” Blackjack blurted.
“They have the Prophet focused on them!” Storm shouted. “Fall back!”
“Oh, you’re not getting away…” Vriska said, pulling out the infinite-sided die.
“Ah, but I think we are!” Magane said.
That won’t work, she has to start… Mage Rarity thought.
“Magane, we’re stuck, just give up,” Storm said with a grin.
“A lie about a lie…”
…Dammit, that’s broken as Tartarus.
Somehow, Vriska managed to fumble with her infinite-sided die just long enough for the enemy team to escape to another universe. Mite hopped off Jenny at the last moment.
“Trace them!” Vriska shouted.
“Nope,” Mite said.
“Why not!?”
“Twilence.”
“She told him not to,” Mage Rarity said, following it up with a cough. “…Just get me back to base.”
Vriska threw her hands in the air. “Well okay then! Guess we have a draw a-” An alarm went off in her ear. She stopped talking and got everyone out of there instantly.
One of the higher-end TSAB ships had unleashed a multidimensional weapon in a nearby universe. The realm of blue circuitry began to shatter like glass, becoming deadly projectiles. Some of the fragments embedded themselves into Vriska and Mage Rarity before they left – but it was nothing compared to the storm of death that was created afterward.
The war continued to tear universes apart even at this smaller scale.
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EIGHT!
Are we calling Corona's group the Legion of Doom? Because I'm totally calling them that.
Nice to see Rick again, honestly Rick always had the right idea when it came to travelling the multiverse. Don't get involved unless you have to, don't do anything you don't stand to benefit from. It's a selfish way to live but you end up hurting a lot fewer people that way. In that respect, Morty was always the bigger asshole considering the number of people that would wind up dead because he decided to do what he thought was right, but Rick always let him because I imagine he thought Morty had to learn why doing what's right isn't a good enough reason for doing whatever you want.
After all, if you do things for selfish reasons then at least when everything goes horribly wrong you at least get to walk away with something you actually wanted.
Rick may be a terrible person who does selfish things for selfish reasons but at least he recognizes that fact. Morty is far more dangerous because he's more concerned with doing what's right rather than what's best.
9870538
I disagree with you, fundamentally.
Wanting to do the right thing doesn't ALWAYS cause more harm than good in the end. Only if you are consistently unlucky or exceptionally stupid (but then being actively selfish doesn't actually help either - passivity does).
Morty being both consistently unlucky and, honestly, kinda stupid... doesn't mean that altruism is a worthless quality for a powerful, intelligent, and... not cursed person.
I heard it just like to say it's utterly amazing how you're giving it basically every character a satisfying conclusion to their character Arc no matter how minor they are
9870549
I don't necessarily agree with Rick but I do think in this case he is right. The Legion of Doom is gonna kill everyone because they believe a world free of ka will be better but in reality, nothing is actually going to change, people will still suffer for seemingly pointless reasons and all this death will ultimately be for nothing.
As for whether or not it's better to be like him... I think it's the safest way to live but obviously, in the end, you wind up alone with everyone hating your guts because you got out of your way to push everyone away.
Honestly, I'm surprised Rick is even alive, in the show he was always battling thoughts of suicide with his relationship with Morty being the only thing that keeps him going (not that he would ever admit it).
So that was the death of pretty much every humanoid life form in every version of Dr. Who.
The Doctor has been very clear that the reason so many species "look Timelord" is because they seeded their DNA throughout the universe and history. With the Timelords retconned out of existence...
Also why do so many people think not being part of a story is a good thing? Not to get political but look at our world. China is... *shudders*. The US President openly asked foreign powers to investigate political opponents, and the Brazilian president purposely had the Amazon set on fire.
9870790
Yep, that's why I agree with Rick in this chapter. If you think reality is somehow any better than a story then you're an idiot.
You made it El.
It was still sad to see the Doctor go. As a fairly consistent presence since the first scene, his appearances were always pleasant, and he always meant well even when there was disagreement. I never found myself able to dislike him.
Gallifreyan problems require Gallifreyan solutions. And I don't just say that to be glib and memetic. You need that kind of omnitemporal technology to definitively put them down.
Because it's more dramatic that way.
There's something wonderfully absurd about a war fought with Pokéballs. It's the Battle of Appleoosa on a multiversal scale. However...
That's a very good point. You guys ever work out the whole "brainwashed into loyalty to the capturer" thing? Or maybe that bit only applies to Pokémon.
Of course. Of course Edelgard is in favor of collapse. The crests are a microcosm of ka. Darn it, now I want to see Claude appreciating the nigh-infinite diversity of the multiverse. Preferably before everything caught on fire.
And by saying that, the possibility either rose or fell drastically. Depends on whether it's foreshadowing or violating the Unspoken Plan Guarantee.
My irony sense is tingling.
The Thanos-Corona fistbump is a perfect symbol of this entire war. It's an awesome moment, but at what cost?
Oh, hey. Oncoming Storm still exists. And has made some very interesting allies in these trying times.
"Speaking from experience, that means she'll be an incredible badass once she loses a limb."
"I've lost every limb."
"And then you grew them all back. See, that right there? Big mistake."
This sentence is the equivalent of lighting a fuse. Not to say that there aren't many, many others already burning away, but this one now joins the boompile.
It frightens me to say this, but Rick Sanchez may be the wisest being in the multiverse right now.
I don't suppose he got it from a cat named Orion?
The stage is set and the players have begun. This will not end cleanly.
9871071
Edelgard showing up at all is 200% my fault because I wouldn't shut up about her. Also because I sent the credit version of Edge of Dawn to GM and he loved it. I could legitimately gush for hours about her, and her place here... but I'm trying to save some of that enthusiasm for my 127 story.
Hard agree about Claude too. Where their in game goals were similar, just with different means, here... well, I can't see any multiverse where an instance of Claude goes Collapse. And Dimitri... well, I don't think he's in a state to actually be bothered about either the Tower or ka.
So here's a thought experiment for people, what villain(s) do you imagine siding with the collapse and why? Forget whether or not The Legion of Doom (Corona's group) would actually accept them (because I have to think there is some kind of limit to whose help they would accept).
I've honestly been imagining the Joker siding with the collapse just so he can hang around and constantly mock all the various heroes and just making them overall uncomfortable with the fact that they are on the same side as the Joker.
9871441
I'll throw my hat into the ring on this one and expand upon the question:
What about the villains joining the side of preservation?
We've already got Scaracity on collapse and the ENTIRE COMBINE on preservation. It's a struggle both sides must face.
-GM, master of Jokers.
I hate myself for it, but this time I agree with Rick. The whole "dispute" over whether it would be better to destroy ka or keep it has caused far more death and suffering than simply leaving well alone would have. Plus, it's completely disregarding the fact that hope and happiness are also generated by ka, not just suffering.
I'll also point out that the Doctor once faced a similar question, on a much smaller scale, and reached the conclusion that enough good came out of it to justify leaving the situation as it was - see Genesis of the Daleks.
9871452
That's tricky because I can imagine many villains siding with preservation purely because they have no interest in dying.
Lex Luthor definitely would have nothing to gain from the collapse unless he could guarantee his survival.
Bill Cypher would definitely be pro preservation since he probably wouldn't be able to exist in the new world.
Honestly I don't find it as interesting since so many villains would be for preservation simply in the name of saving themselves. But I don't pretend to be a master of villains so maybe other people have better ideas.
9871441
For the Collapse... Hrm. Does it count retroactively if I got Edelgard mentioned in the actual story? No? Okay.
Well if not, Fire Emblem has other brilliant villains. Like her in-series inspiration.
Arvis of House Velthomer, the Emperor of Flames, comes from Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War. Arvis was willing to make any sacrifice for his vision of a world of eternal peece. He manipulated good people and wicked people alike for his ambition, working with an objectively evil cult to make himself the Emperor of Grannvale, and ruler of the entire continent of Jugdral.
While the later years of his reign leading to the ultimate collapse of the Grannvale empire and his death broke him, if a younger Arvis were to hear the message - or even an Arvis that, say, Merodi helped keep in power (via destroying the evil cult for him) - he would doubtless side against the Tower. Ka demands conflict, and conflict makes his peace impossible. Given a chance he would answer Corona's call.
Also Kingdom Hearts Xehanort, since... Collapse was sort of his plan anyway, apparently? Just on a far, FAR smaller scale.
The Pale King from Hollow Knight might not technically be a villain, but he is an asshole. Quoting the bug himself: "No cost too great." He sacrificed the bodies of thousands of his own spawn to the Void in hopes that one fit his standards of being a hollow, empty being. And it failed. If he lived to be faced with the predicament of the Tower I believe he'd side with Collapse.
Porky Minch wouldn't be satisfied with the death count of a Collapse, but it would be a start.
9871452
I'm having a harder time thinking of villains that would side with Preservation. The easy ones are villains that just want power, not destruction. Bowser - if he picked a side at all - would be Preservation, though depending on where his characterization is being pulled from he might not even count as a villain. Same with the likes of a lot of Nintendo 'villains' really: Dedede, Meta Knight, Wolf O'Donnel, K. Rool... Even Ganondorf would probably be Preservation if you hadn't killed him around 80 chapters ago. I could make the same argument for Overwatch's Talon, whose motives are either power or a messed up sense of what is right and wrong. When push came to shove I can see at most Doomfist siding with the Collapse.
The Elders/Ethereals from XCOM could be Preservation, for much the same reasons as the Combine.
That's all the villain that I can think of to answer the questions right now, or at least that I have confidence in my understanding of. A lot of other villains - and heroes - I could see going either way depending on more personal circumstances, as their quests or ideals don't really line up clearly with either side.
9871466
I can see Luthor siding with Collapse solely because it would screw over Superman.
9871452
From Dungeons and Dragons, you'd see the entire strength of the Nine Hells thrown behind preservation. Asmodeus is like Dr. Doom, he thinks the best future is one unified under his rule. Conversely, the Infinite Abyss and the Demons therein would be all for collapse. Their quid pro quo is to invade different realities and corrupt them to the point where they collapse into the infinite planes of the Abyss. Waaaaay easier if its all in one place.
9870796
9870790
Sorry, people, but when you were typing the first line of those comments, you died. Everyone at your country, everyone on this planet, everyone in this universe died as well.
Then you all were replaced by copies with a different history.
See, someone used time travel to change history. It's an exciting story. Unlike a silent death of a universe.
But when you were done writing the second sentence of those comments, you looked up through the window, on the steet. There, you've accidentally seen a wizard, with a wand, casting a real spell. Then, he rose his wand to you, and you, that you, died. You were replaced by a version that doesn't remember the last 20 seconds of it's life. The wizard went on with his life, and the story of a secret world was preserved.
Your alternate versions in an identical universe that was connected to a hell and heaven, instead of annihilation, went on to meet an orthodox version of Yahweh who never had a son. The two instances were judged to hell for eternity for working on saturdays, blashpheming, and believing in the wrong version of the God - or perhaps for not believing at all.
Again, the death toll of neither Collapse itself nor of a war for it compare to a death toll of a single hour of existence under the Dark Tower. Let that sink in.
Story, just as a non-story reality, doesn't care for the wellbeing of sentient species. But the story has so, so much more ways to screw you over.
9871984
You know, the Celestialsapiens were limiting time travel before Time Lords interrupted them. So just keep Ka and remove time travel?
9870570
Probably a different Rick. There are literally millions of them.
9871984
Yeah but it's not like I have any memories of those previous versions of myself so what's the difference I only ever know of who I am now and that's the only thing that matters. It's sort of like in Arrow when time travel caused a character's daughter to become their son. They were really angry about this but at the same, they don't remember their daughter and they absolutely love their son so getting past that fact wasn't too difficult for them once they were over their initial anger.
9872224
You aren't afraid to abruptly die, then, so long as nobody notices ?
And you feel no compassion for the versions of you that did ?
9872083
What about all the other things ?
Hells. Memory wipes. Grimdark worlds. Ka curses. Unnecessary deadly conflict for sheer drama. Periodic destruction of all old knowledge and life so that a new era isn't influenced by the old for stroy purposes, with no hope for true immortality or permanent progress.
I am not a true supporter of Collapse.
But calling all Collapsers stupid and/or villainious... is way too far.
9872224
bruh
9872255
I don't think collapsers are evil just insane, obsessing over things that can't be changed and don't really matter.
And yeah the previous versions don't matter all that matters is the me I am now. I mean the only difference between Twilight and Eve was that Eve knew she was a copy. Take away that knowledge and would their have been any real difference?
9872270
...bruh.
Maybe it's worth it to pay more attention to the details ? Or maybe it would be a good idea to read a few articles or watch a few videos on ethics ?
The fact that both Preservation and Collapse are treated narratively equivalent, with clearly no official hero or villain side, should be a hint there.
What about your current alternate versions? They aren't any different from your past alternates. Would it be OK to kill them knowing that you will survive?
There is no difference whether the original or the X-copy survived. But there is a relevant thing here, and that thing is that a person died. Twilight was born - or created - , then she lived, and then she was dead. The process probably wasn't painless either. I think that should count for something.
9872270
...Quite literally the sum of Corona’s discovery was that things can be changed. That’s the entire reason she started the Collapse movement in the first place. And you consider the constant deaths and endless torture of literal countless quadrillions or more individuals to “not matter?” Do you have an empathy deficiency or something?
Holy crap. I am speechless. Never before have I seen someone miss the point so entirely and utterly. Those people’s souls still died. They were destroyed utterly, and might not even have gone to an afterlife. Just because the were removed from existence doesn’t mean they never existed. Only John’s retcon might work that way, and we don’t even know that for sure.
I said I wasn’t going to participate here, but... Goddamn.
9872277
Those are one of the opinions held but I am of the opinion that individuals are just that. The alternate me doesn't matter to current me. I don't want them dead but neither will I obsess over their fate nor do I think it's worth killing everyone and destroying everything to prevent something like that from ever happening again.
People die every day better to have a copy then nothing at all. In the new world when someone dies then they are just gone forever, why is that better?
9872278
All those lives matter it's why I view the collapsers as villains because they all follow the classic villain motivation. They've all suffered loss or tragedy as a result of the current world and now they want to make sure noone else has to go through what they did and they don't care how many people they need to kill to make that happen because they honestly believe the ends justify the means.
Take away the need for mass murder and the fact that all they are doing is replacing one crappy world with a world that will be crappy in it's own way and maybe I can get on board. But as it stands they are just a bunch of villains seeking to fulfill their selfish ambitions no matter who might disagree or get in their way.
9872307
That is not a classic villain motivation. That is a classic anti-hero motivation. The classic basic villain motivation is “I want to kill because I want to kill.” And what do you mean “they don’t care how many people they kill?” They very explicitly do care. That’s why they agreed to use the capture devices. That’s why Corona is starting to fall back into depression. This is not a black-and-white issue like you’re implying. This is very much a morally grey issue. And not everyone would die in the Collapse. Sure, a huge amount will, but I feel like you’re missing the sheer scale of the multiverse. There are 10^19 universes in the multiverse. A decent portion of those are dead or empty, but lots more are inhabited. So, even if each of those universes had just a baseline Earth the population of the multiverse is, at the very, very, very, very least, 7,500,000,000 times 10^19. That is a stupidly large number. And that’s just a very conservative estimate. Universes like WH40K have populations in the quadrillions, if not more. Many would die in the Collapse, but the standard population of a universe is a speck compared to those who would survive, and those who would die are a speck compared to those who die in a second under Ka.
9872294
So by your logic, you shouldn’t mind if someone tries to kill you. You will just lay down and die because hey; there’s still another you somewhere, and he’s not getting murdered. So will you only fight for your life when you are the last and only version of yourself left?
And there’s one more point you are missing; dimensional alternates are all individuals. They may be incredibly similar, but they all have had different experiences that caused them to develop into different people. There is no “perfect copy.” The moment a copy is made it has experienced something different and become a completely different person. That was the whole point of the Twilight-Evening dichotomy.
9872338
The fact is alot of pointless deaths happen right now but all the collapsers are doing is bringing about a world that will continue to have pointless deaths and to make it happen they are causing alot of pointless deaths. That's what I agree with in regards to Rick, this is a pointless war that will ultimately change nothing and is only happening because neither side will back down.
But if I had to pick a side I'd pick the side whose solution isn't mass murder.
And no, feeling bad about killing everyone doesn't mean much when you're still willing to go through with it. I couldn't care less about how bad Corona feels when she just keeps doing it. At this point they are just following an "in for a penny, in for a pound" mentality.
9872352
I... I am fucking speechless. Are we reading the same story here? They literally just implemented a measure that will stop pointless deaths (the capture devices) and you still choose to believe they want to be mass murderers? And yeah, the post-Collapse universe will still have pointless deaths, but it will have far, far less. The mass apocalypses, murders, and destruction for the sake of “a good story” will stop. Endless torture just to “convey a moral” will stop. How many times have stories shown the destruction of entire worlds, galaxies, or even universes just to add drama, tension, or stakes? That would stop almost entirely. The bottom line is, under Ka, there are incomprehensibly more deaths than there are without.
9872363
And incomprehensibly more life. Why does stopping all the bad mean more than all of the good that exists and won't be able to exist in the new world? Scaling things down doesn't make it better just easier to manage. But in the grand scheme of things 100 lives lost in a world of 1000 isn't any worse than 10 livess lost in a world of 100.
9872367
Yes, but under Ka there is no opportunity to change that. Without Ka, it is possible to bring about true change. In time, the population would match or even surpass the old multiverse, and this time the deaths wouldn’t scale to match.
9872376
To be fair, it might backfire into permanent negative change.
But because people aren't prone to pointless villainy outside of stories, and because trivial problems like food or age would be easily solvable with leftover technology from the bunkers, it's far less likely.
9872383
We can only speculate, because it would be literally impossible for us to know for sure. But yeah, IRL the good outnumber the bad, and they’d still have a fair bit of the tech the multiverse had.
9872383
True but there are no guarantees which is the biggest problem. They are assuming that things will carry over or that people who know important things will survive and ignoring the possibility of everything ending up returned to zero resulting in a world that isn't any better off.
They are just acting on the blind faith that a world with no tower has to be better.
They could just as easily end up in a Horizon Zero Dawn situation.
9872389
Again, you seem to be missing the sheer scale of the multiverse. The entire population of the Earth is a damn speck of dust compared to just one percent of the entire multiverse. The chances of every last one of those who know important things all dying in the Collapse would be very, very low. And because Ka would no longer exist to make million-to-one chances happen all the time, it would be almost guaranteed that many would survive.
9872391
Assuming someone doesn't screw everything at the last minute, which given this is a story, is a real possibility. Things won't work out perfectly just because they want it to. Ka needs to go but Ka won't let itself go quietly so better to work with it than risk everything trying to destroy it.
9872398
Who says Ka would do that? Ultimately, what makes for the better story; the continual perpetuation of an established order, or the removal of that order for one that promotes change anew? For that matter, which is more common?
9872398
...
You might be onto something here, but... well... Let’s just say that, no, it wouldn't be vindictive. It would be a worse story if it ended with such an unjust punishment, after all.
9872399
9872407
The best story ever told won't nescesarrily have a happy ending.
9872410
True. But nobody's claiming this is the best story ever. In the end, it comes down to this: All things come to an end. All stories will end, our civilization will fall. Ka understands this. Ka is, in the end, just the collective imaginations of creative minds everywhere given ultimate power. I think most people would like The Story to end nicely, no?
9872415
If they wanted it to end nicely their wouldn't be a war to begin with. In the end people expect a catch and for things to not work out perfectly because in reality they never do.
9872422
No. In reality, things work out perfectly all the time. Ka is the thing that enforces the opposite. Do you really think people would want absolute devastation? Do you truly have such little faith in humanity? In order for the war to never have happened, Corona would have had to never ask The Question, and that is what her arc was building up to this entire time. Resolution without conflict is impossible, and conflict without resolution is unsatisfying. The war is necessary to make a good story, but if it ended poorly only emotional pain would result.
9872410
Oh, by the way, this also applies to the Preservation ending.
Something might go wrong at the last second, and the perpetuation of Ka could come out way worse than expected.
9872389
But they are not acting blindly. They know exactly what the state of the multiverse is now, they've witnessed the effects of memory wiping and time travel, they understand the methods Ka employs...
Here's an example you might not remember. Way back when, the University of Doors made sure Twilight Sparkle never discovered the bowling ball. An entire universe was destroyed, replaced with an exact copy that knew nothing of Ka. Luckily, Evening Sparkle wasn't in-universe then, so she survived-- and when she discovered herself and made her aware of the situation, unaware her understood and supported the edit being undone. Even knowing it would kill her. And it did-- once Equis Vitis was returned to normal, that entire universe was destroyed again. But the original is also still dead, which means two universe's worth of people were doomed to nonexistence just to fix a single, tiny mistake.
And if you don't think Nova's pre-reformation actions made branching timelines, that's another six or seven dead Equis Vitis, which means, in total, nearly ten times its entire population was killed in events that took maybe an hour at most to complete.
Another example occurred just now. When Jotaro's own universe was reset, everyone in it died-- every native there was replaced by a different version of themselves, and visitors were just deleted. He was shunned by family that now hated him, and everyone he knew from there is gone forever, which is exactly why he joined the Collapse-- to prevent this from ever happening again.
They've been given the Choice, and they decided-- through careful consideration and inevitable guilt-- that the Collapse was the best option. It's not because they're evil, or misguided; they just want to prevent life from being fucked over again, even if it requires a sacrifice they might not be completely ready to make.
9872422
If they had an opportunity to come to a rational, civil decision and take an option that would allow everyone to win, they absolutely would. But they can't, because of the very force they're trying to get rid of: Ka. Even in these moments, it is still driving them to conflict, sacrifice, death, moral dilemmas, etc. because that just makes a better story.
I made a lot of relevant points in my conversation with Blaze Rod, but I'll just focus on this one: this is the greatest story that has ever and will ever take place, because Ka will never get this opportunity again. So it wants to make the most of it, and make this story the wildest it can possibly be. No matter what people try to do or what sides they take, this battle still must happen, through no fault of their own.
9872432
THE PONYGOOD CAVALARY HAVE ARRIVED
Well to be fair, one could say it's the Time Lords' and Beyonders' leaderships' fault.
Or maybe GM's fault.
(Although I'd say that, if anything, it's the Builders' fault. Screw you, Gan!)
9872430
Which is why the war is pointless, no matter who wins there is equal chance of things working out perfectly or immediately turning to crap.
9872453
Except that the expected utilities of the choices are not, you know, equal.
One choice is still better on average, even if both are unreliable.
9872453
Let’s compare the outcomes then, shall we?
PRESERVATION: Ka is kept and the Dark Tower remains. The status quo stays the same, and the story never ends.. On the surface, it appears more people survive. However, even if they do find a way to stop time travel, countless continue to perish under apocalypses, mass murders, and galactic destruction due to Ka wanting to “keep things interesting.” As well as the countless deaths, a near-equal amount of people suffer endlessly in literal hells, with Ka there to ensure they never die and continue to suffer for things trivial in the face of all else. Worst of all, Ka ensures that it never changes, that the bad always scales with the good.
COLLAPSE: The Dark Tower is destroyed, Ka fades, and the multiverse fuses into one. A huge portion of the multiversal population is destroyed, but the number that survive far overshadows even the most populous of singular universes. Without Ka, nobody has an advantage because they are more interesting. Over time, the population returns to and perhaps even surpasses what it used to be. However, this time, nothing is making sure the bad scales with the good. Nothing is there to create constant conflict to “keep things interesting.” True change is achieved, and things continue peacefully without Ka. This may just be conjecture because it would be literally impossible for us to read a definitive account of what would happen after the Collapse, but this is a fair guess. In reality, the good outnumber the bad, things are allowed to turn out perfectly, random chance is truly random, Without Ka, everything is closer to our reality.
Now, I may be biased, but which one sounds better?