134 - We are but Dust
Roxy crouched behind a crate made of reddish wood; just in the nick of time to avoid being spotted by the acolytes in disgusting brown robes. She had a grimace on her face, an expression which had many causes. First of all, she was sneaking around a place without full access to her Void powers, which meant she could be spotted. Second, she was currently acting under orders from me to get anywhere. Third, she actually agreed with the plan, which made her even more distasteful of working for me.
The camera is on us. I can hear you seething, I told her telepathically.
Get out of my head.
I am not in your head. I’m just reading how things are going. If it wasn’t noteworthy to point out your anger I wouldn’t know about it.
Roxy grunted, chancing a look over the box, finding that the acolytes had passed. Well, since you’re here, how’s it look on your end?
Monika and I are in position. Which is to say, we’re trying not to shout at each other.
Business as usual.
…And now she’s shouting at me. Excuse me a moment…
Roxy was glad to have me out of sight and out of mind. She took a quick look around. The hall she was in was covered in innumerable flags - all tattered, worn out, and spray-painted with an angular symbol representing ka, a K-A hybrid letter inside a circle. There were a few spirographs around as well, though those were less common.
There were currently no acolytes in range, and the closest ones she heard were a fair distance away. She leaped out from behind her box, darting down the hall, careful to make sure her footsteps were muffled. It helped that she was wearing large socks, not shoes, which was admittedly a lot more comfortable.
She ducked through a side portal to the acolytes’ restrooms. As it turned out, these were just holes dug in the ground separated by wooden stall doors. She positioned herself at the highest point she could, using two legs and an arm to keep herself pinned. With her free hand, she focused; tapping into what little power she had recovered.
Her weapon of choice appeared in her hand – a silenced rifle. She didn’t need to aim – she just pointed it at a position in front of the hole and waited. The longer she remained, the more she felt like trying to pull her sword out of her Carnelian gemstone, but that would most definitely take more magic energy than her inventory.
Eventually, some guy walked in. The moment he closed the stall door, he was dead from a bullet to the head.
She quietly landed on the ground and took the guy’s robe, putting it on herself, careful to pull the hood so far over her face only her mouth was visible. The pink-red tone of her Carnelian ‘skin’ was close enough to normal that it wouldn’t arise suspicion unless someone managed to look closely. She kicked the body down the hole for disposal.
Egh. I know he’s dead, but geez even dead bodies don’t deserve to be down there… She gently opened the stall door and walked out of the restrooms. She walked out in the open now, well aware that her ambient aura of Void would keep people from paying attention to her. How much of this was actually her power and how much of it was my mad scribbling she had no idea, and she frankly didn’t care.
After she had passed through a long hall, she entered the cult’s main meeting room. Essentially, it was a cavernous space the size of a small cathedral. Admittedly, it looked more like the inside of a diseased sea cucumber than a cavern, but all the fleshy and mucus-like substances were really rocks with unusual texture.
She mingled with hundreds of other acolytes, keeping her head down, listening to their conversation. Scarcely a second went by when she didn’t hear the word ‘ka’ or ‘Dark Tower’ or ‘the will’. This was exactly what she’d expected – what else could possibly come from a psychotic Dark Tower cult?
Engraved in the ceiling was a spirograph interlaced with an image of a Flower, their symbol of ka within the spirograph’s center. The engraving was glowing black, a color no doubt chosen because the Dark Tower was, well, dark.
Then she saw the tributes – dozens of people were imprisoned in a large cage, all of whom were slated to be judged through a coin flip if ka wanted them to live within the New World, or if they must be purged.
Idiots don’t realize the dusting was the coin flip…
We already know how stupid they are, I reminded her. Just confirm if there’s anything that could obfuscate my sight.
Roxy looked around, checking the entire space. I don’t see the cult leader yet.
He’ll be out in two minutes if all goes as expected.
Roxy contented herself with wandering around for two minutes, finding nothing out of the ordinary. …Besides people talking about how they wanted ka to deem more people die than usual.
The cult leader came out and everyone let out a chant. “The Tower’s will is yours!”
“My will is given to the Tower,” the leader repeated. Roxy had no idea what his name was, and she didn’t care. She did know he was a dwarf of some sort, given his stature and tremendous braided beard. “My brothers and sisters!” he announced. “I have great news! I have been blessed with knowledge from beyond our feeble understanding!”
The crowd held its breath, gasping.
“I have learned that, with the creation of the New World, the Dark Tower has been given a voice! We have been judged worthy to hear words directly from the Tower’s own mind! The Emissary of Ka is here!”
Roxy blinked. Uh…
I think he’s crazy, I said. Black Thirteen says nothing about such an Emissary.
It doesn’t show you everything.
True. But really, how ridiculous would something like that be? The Dark Tower doesn’t have a voice and never has. It’s just a force.
“You may ask how I have come to know this unbelievable truth! Well, rather than tell you, I’ll show you. We have a very special guest here today…” He stood to the side, allowing his guest to take the stage instead of him.
Roxy’s mouth dropped open when she saw who it was. “Shit…”
A Flower composed of dozens of orange bulbs affixed to a narrow stalk floated into the center. People of the Hannas Tower’s Shadow, I come with great news. The final act of the Flowers – my race – has resulted in the birth of a being unlike any other. All the time we have lived in the dark, fumbling for answers, is gone…
There’s the thing messing with your sights, Roxy thought ‘loudly.’
My mental voice came to Roxy in bits and pieces. Renee… He’s talking about Renee… How could I have…
Get it together, we need a new plan. How about… wait, something’s happening.
The Flower continued spreading his message. …and we will travel to the central world of Nucleon to meet this Emissary and let her bestow upon us great knowledge. The will of the Tower will be known a-
“Excuse me, but this all seems a little unbelievable to me. I mean, seriously, an Emissary of ka? Does that even make sense?”
The hundreds of faces in the room all turned to see Randall Flagg standing in the middle of the room, not even wearing one of the robes. He had one hand on his hip and another in the air, moving around as if illustrating a point.
Roxy did a double take. Flagg!? How the hell did he get away and what the fuck is he doing in here!?
I don’t know, I responded quickly.
…Care to Elaborate? The Flower asked Flagg.
Flagg smirked. “I thought you’d never ask.”
~~~
“How long do we have?” Strange asked Sherlock.
“About two minutes, I’d say. Less if he thinks there’s something fishy going on.”
“Then we need to move!” Lightning shouted, tearing numerous capture devices off the shelves and throwing them into a large crate Strange was levitating. “Help me here!”
“I am,” Sherlock said, grabbing hold of a shelf and shaking it, making dozens of the balls fall into the crate. “Strange, you’ll be glad to know these are mostly people of the preservation. Seeing as-”
“I know a Void installation when I see one,” Strange commented, using one hand on the box and the other to levitate capture devices into it. “Not many others are constructed out of pure crystal.”
Sherlock rolled his eyes. “One minute.”
Lighting tossed the last of the capture devices into the crate. “That’s all of them. Strange?”
Strange pressed his hands together and focused. He had been the first to uncover his magic a few days ago and had been advancing very quickly since then. He surrounded them in an arcane sphere and teleported them to the base’s docking bay where the Crimson Blitz and a large Void carrier ship waited. Unlike Lightning’s ship, the carrier was rounded and of a dull blue color. Strange ran into the carrier with all the capture devices while Lightning and Sherlock jumped into the Crimson Blitz. Lightning grabbed onto the controls of her ship and tapped into her magic. “Here goes nothing…” She pushed all the energy she had into the ship and it came out of the engines in a burst of lightning, blasting out of the Void’s base.
Sherlock pressed a button, activating a tether that affixed itself to the carrier that was only half working and needed a boost. Naturally the sharp jerk the carrier experienced broke the box open and spilled the capture devices everywhere, opening up a couple of them.
The most notable occupant was Discord himself. Despite the shaking and trembling, he stretched his arms and yawned. “Ah, what a nice nap.” He looked at Strange. “So, what happened?”
“We lost, busy trying to escape the planet-destruction laser of Lord English.”
“Oh. Well I can help with that…” He snapped his fingers – and nothing happened. “…Again?”
Strange wasn’t doing anything, so he put a hand on Discord’s shoulder. “I’m going to use my magic to awaken yours. It’s going to hurt a lot.”
“What do y- AAAAAAAUUUGHHHH!” Discord grabbed the part of his body where his heart should be and started writing on the ground, his physical form becoming more amorphous.
“Like, what did you do to him?” a freed unicorn, Insipid, asked.
“A rush job,” Strange commented, glancing at the feed of the planet they were leaving. “He needs to get over the pain quickly or I don’t think we’re getting out of this…”
“Out of what?”
Strange pointed at the screen showing the planet they had just left. Aside from the Void installation, it was a red sandy world made almost entirely out of termite-like beings. The dead bodies of these termites were the only thing the living termites were able to use for anything, since everything else that landed on the planet was also converted into more termites.
Currently, Lord English’s vaporization breath had already started wearing away at the termite planet, sending smoke and the smell of cooked bugs into the atmosphere of the system. The shockwave would hit them soon…
Discord suddenly stood up, his form once again stable. “That was the worst trip of my life.”
“It’s how my sort of magic tends to work.”
Discord raised his hand and chuckled. “Let’s try… this.”
A giant rubber duck appeared behind the carrier and Crimson Blitz. As the explosion shockwave from English’s attack on the planet hit it, the duck let out a quack so loud people could hear it on several planets over. The sound waves of the quack mitigated the shockwave of English’s beam enough for Crimson Blitz and the carrier to get away.
They felt a slight shaking from the duck though.
“What the hell was that!?” Lightning shouted to Strange over communications.
“Discord was released. I jumpstarted his power,” Strange said. “He will get a hangover and lose much of his aptitude shortly.”
“He has the worst bedside manner I’ve ever seen,” Discord added.
“It saved us,” Strange asserted, dusting off his hands.
“Like, woah, it did!?” Insipid gasped. “I… What’s going on?”
“I’m sure Strange will explain what’s going on,” a new voice said – that of Princess Cosmo Sparkle.
Sherlock let out an amused grunt from his end. “Welcome to fun explanation city, Doctor Strange. Enjoy.”
~~~
“That’s it, you don’t get gun privileges anymore,” Starbeat said, tearing Caliborn’s gun out of his hands with her telekinesis.
“HEY! GIVE THAT BACK, BITCH!”
“Mmm, no.” Starbeat said, holding it just above his reach. She gestured at the ground. “You just killed that stallion.” There was, in fact, an orange stallion with a hole in his head laying on top of a few corn-chip plants.
“I will remove your eyeballs and grind them into a tasty smoothie that I will make you drink.”
“Trixie?”
Trixie grinned. “Hey, hey, Cal, Cal, you can’t beat her.”
“Yes I fucking can!”
“With what? She has your gun!”
“I AM THE LORD OF TIME!” A gear of red energy surrounded Caliborn and the flow of time for everyone except him slowed. He would have preferred to jump back in time and hit Starbeat before she could even take the gun, but he hadn’t figured that out yet. She said it was impossible to do that in this New World, but he wasn’t going to believe a word she said. He reached for the gun.
She shifted the gun into its scepter form and smacked him across the face. “ACKPTH!”
“If you can access your time magic I can access my defenses against such things,” Starbeat said. “Like always.”
Gamzee chuckled. “Yeah, bro, this has happened the last five motherfuckin’ times.”
“Your stubbornness is legendary,” Trixie added.
“TRAITORS! TRAITORS, ALL OF YOU!”
“Two thirds of us were never loyal to you, Lord Swampy.”
Caliborn snarled. “I am going to kill all of you! I am going to fucking kill all of you!”
“I doubt it,” Trixie said dismissively. “We’re just too cute and adorable.”
“THAT’S DISGUSTING!”
“And you loooooove disgusting things!”
“STOP IT!”
“Make me.”
“You asked for it, bitch!” He charged, green claws extended. Trixie sidestepped and Starbeat tripped him. He fell onto the stallion’s body, the corn chip flowers crunching under his face.
“Let’s put this simply,” Starbeat said, twirling Caliborn’s scepter. “You’ve got to stop just killing people. How are we ever going to make the most of this world if we don’t get people to follow us?”
“WE CONQUER THEM!”
Starbeat smacked him with the scepter. “Wrong answer. Conquest by force requires power. Power we don’t have. It’s also horribly inefficient. It removes your ability to control. No, we need them to follow us – willingly.”
“You think too much,” Caliborn muttered.
Starbeat smirked. “Well, it’s certainly better than the alternative you’re exemplifying.”
Trixie snickered and Gamzee honked.
“You will stop making a fool of me this instant!”
“Stop being a fool then,” Trixie said, smiling coyly.
Caliborn let out an inhuman roar and stomped off. Again.
“This is becoming predictable,” Starbeat muttered under her breath.
Trixie cocked her head. “Him? Yeah. You? I’m very surprised at you. It took me years to figure out how to deal with this kind of unapologetic disgusting troll. You’ve just adapted to this whole thing in a few days. You’re changing pretty fast if I do say so myself.”
“It’s motherfuckin’ amazin’,” Gamzee added.
Starbeat smiled smugly and dusted off her chest. “Well, I guess I just see a situation and how it needs to be dealt with.” She tapped her goggles. “The ka around me has been increasing lately. I’m being built up for something.”
“Have you figured out what yet?” Trixie asked.
Starbeat shook her head. “The ka patterns are different in the New World. Overall trends still make sense, but the personal patterns are changing so much of the science has been… clouded. I am working on it though. With time I shall understand.” She looked up at the swirling planets again. “Although… it seems to me the initial fate of this New World is more important than the specifics of ka. We should focus on that.”
Trixie chuckled. “You never struck me as much of a big dreamer.”
“We didn’t really talk much before,” Starbeat said with a shrug.
“Eh, fair enough.”
It was at this point they heard Caliborn yell out in surprise.
“Oh what is it now?” Starbeat groaned. “Did you kill a bunch of baby birds or something!?”
He did not. He had discovered a weak section of the ground that, as soon as he stomped on it hard, had broken like an eggshell and dropped him into a cavernous space below. Normally the other three would give a bunch of exasperated sighs (or honks) and go rescue him. However, they had a problem to deal with at the moment.
Caliborn’s destruction had caused a chain reaction and the ground they were standing on was breaking apart and falling into the abyss as well.
“Oh for the – AAAAAAA!” Starbeat yelled, scrambling with her hooves in a vain attempt to get away from the crumbling zone. Soon she was part of a tremendous rockslide into a cavernous space. She quickly secured her footing on a large boulder sliding down into the earth at a relatively level orientation.
Already they had passed into a lava tube-like cavern and were rapidly losing the twilight light from the surface. Starbeat made a quick scan to find everyone. She couldn’t see Caliborn, but she saw Gamzee and Trixie. With her telekinesis, she grabbed onto both of them. With considerable effort, she brought them to her and set them on top of the rock as well. “HOLD ON!”
“THAT’S WHAT I WAS DOING BEFORE YOU GRABBED ME!” Trixie shouted indignantly.
Gamzee held onto the boulder without a fuss.
Starbeat scanned for Caliborn again, but couldn’t find him. Darnit… She soon had to focus on keeping the three of them alive, since the standard cavern had given way to a tube of mixed metal and chiseled sandstone with lots of spikes. Whatever protocol meshed this cavern together had a weird idea of what was supposed to be here… With barely any light to see by she had to raise shields to deflect incoming rubble. Already, she was straining her very limited control over her magic.
Suddenly, there was light. The rockslide was shunted into a spherical hole in the earth about the size of an island. In the middle of the sphere was a small, glowing globe that warmed the jungle-like surface of the sphere. In the bottom center, there was a city-sized structure made mostly of smooth white metal…
Trixie’s jaw dropped. “Is that the Hub!?”
“Looks like it!” Starbeat said, beaming. “Thank the Tower!”
“Uh, I hate to burst your bubbles, but we’re falling,” Gamzee pointed out.
“Oh. Right.”
The rockslide was now a rockfall, pouring out of the opening into the spherical hole.
“…I am definitely out of energy, I’m not going to be able to do much here…” Starbeat said, biting her lip. “Uh, Gamzee…”
Gamzee shook his head. “Ay, rock doesn’t have any thoughts, ain’t nothing a Bard of Rage can really do to that. Least not me.”
“Trixie?”
“Smoke bombs will not help!”
“Right, so… Uh… What do we…”
Then she saw it – a rainbow shifting light from just to their left, the light that happened when a god-tier player died and was revived from a death that was neither Heroic nor Just. It was Caliborn.
He took one look at them, sneered – and then slowed time down to a crawl. From Starbeat’s perspective he moved like a roadrunner, darting from rock to rock until he hit the giant boulder all of them were standing on. Then he pushed the rock to a much slower speed with his raw power, directing it away from where the rest of the rocks were falling.
The boulder plowed into the jungle at a manageable speed – though it was still enough to toss the three occupants off and into a nearby fruit-bearing tree.
“HAHA! I JUST SAVED ALL OF YOU! Who’s the fool now!?” Caliborn laughed, put his hands on his hips, and rolled his head back just to complete the image.
Starbeat laughed. “You’re such a dork.”
“What, HEY I JUS-”
Starbeat tossed him his scepter back. “Learn to take some friendly ribbing in stride.”
Caliborn looked at his weapon blankly. Then he made a grunting noise and turned away from them.
It was at this point they noticed the two dozen glowing purple zombies marching through the jungle toward them.
“Caliborn, remember how I said killing people isn’t the answer all the time?” Starbeat asked.
“Yes…”
“This is not that time. Go nuts.”
Caliborn let out a cackle. “FUCKING FINALLY! Prepare yourselves fleshy bags of meat! These bullets all have your names on them! DIE DIE DIE!”
“Normal punch.”
A caped baldy jumped out of the forest and disintegrated all the zombies with one movement of his fist.
Caliborn twitched. “FUCKING KILL STEALER!” He opened fire, lauching dozens of bullets at the interfering superhero.
The bullets bounced right off Saitama – he didn’t even notice them. “Oh, you’re… Starbeat, right?”
Starbeat nodded, putting a gentle hoof on Caliborn’s gun to get him to stop shooting for no reason. “Yes. This is the Hub, right Saitama?”
Saitama nodded. “Yep. I can get you through the gates. I know some people who’ll be happy to see you.”
“Still as apathetic as ever?” Trixie asked.
Saitama shrugged. “I guess.”
~~~
I started flipping through my notes in a panic. “How did he get there? When did he get there?”
“Flagg?” Monika asked.
“Yes, Flagg, who else?” I blurted. “It’s bad enough that there’s a Flower in there, but… Hold on a minute…” I closed my eyes and focused, drawing my attention once again to Roxy’s narrative.
(I want to hear what he has to say, the Flower responded, leaning in to Flagg. The Emissary doesn’t make sense?
“It’s simple, really,” Flagg said. “You should all remember from the Tower’s Testament that the Tower’s will cannot be fully understood by a mortal mind, or even an eldritch one. And I can attest to this personally.”
“Yeah, right! Nobody can do that!” A female acolyte yelled.
Flagg chuckled. “Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong. Some of you have already realized who I am, but for the rest of you clueless infidels... My name is Randall Flagg, the Man in Black, Legion.”
He speaks the truth, the Flower confirmed. This does not mean he is correct. He is the Tower’s villain after all.
“Ah, but villains have just as much a place in the Tower’s Will as heroes, isn’t that right my orange friend?”
While you must be respected, you are not to be treated as a trusted source.
“Psh, get off of your high horse. I don’t have to be trusted – I just have to make sense. And let me tell you, all of this you’re spouting about an Emissary seems very heretical.”
The crowd started murmuring about what Flagg was saying.)
“He’s got them eating out of his hand…” I muttered. “That makes them vulnerable but I can’t imagine him getting what he wants is good… But how did he-” Black Thirteen spoke to me. I saw an image – an image of Rohan removing his restraints. “Screw it, Rohan’s gone off the record of the plan.”
“I mean, he wasn’t part of the plan besides ‘watch Flagg’ to begin with,” Monika pointed out.
“Ghhh...” I narrowed my eyes. “We can still probably shut this place down. If the Flower is occupied with Flagg…”
(Find a place to take the shot, I told Roxy.
Roxy nodded, having already tuned out the back and forth between Flag and the Flower. She moved through the crowd until she found herself at the edge, near one of the flash-like stalagmites. Everyone was very focused on the Flower and Flagg as far as she could tell, and her Void nature should take care of the rest.)
I scribbled more and more information about Roxy’s Void power into my notebook, trying desperately to ensure nobody would notice her.
“Someone’s going to notice her,” Monika said.
“Who?”
“Why are you asking questions? You have Black Thirteen!”
(A pony acolyte walked up to Roxy. She quickly put the rifle under the folds of her robe, hoping the pony hadn’t noticed.
“You’re being very suspicious.”
“Oh, well…” Many thoughts about how to dispatch this pony ran through her mind.
“Good thing I won’t turn you in.” The pony lifted her hood. “Overhead-Chancellor Fluttershy of Labor, Equis Concrete, Merodi Universalis.”
“Roxy Lalonde, Intelligence Division Second. ...Overhead now, I guess.” She kneeled down. “What are you doing here?”
“Saving the acolytes.” Chancellor Fluttershy lifted up some of her robes to reveal a digital screen tied to her hoof. “M and I have been doing this for weeks.”
Text quickly appeared on the screen. >>Their minds fall short when attempting to reason out my plans. Which your presence has complicated.<<
“I’m here to take out the cult leader and free everyone. Twilence will come in after and disband the cult entirely.”
>>And Flagg wasn’t part of the plan,<< M stated.
“Definitely not… We suspected the Flower, but…” Roxy bit her lip. “Any ideas?”
“You can take the shot on the leader,” Chancellor Fluttershy said. “But wait until the exact moment we have freed the tributes. You’ll know it when you see it.”
“Gotcha.”
Chancellor Fluttershy trotted away.)
I turned to Monika. “No one else is going to see her.”
“This is totally going to go wrong though.”
“Yes…” I said, scribbling more in my notebook. “Flowers have a habit of making that happen.” I kept trying to read the Flower in Black Thirteen, but I wasn’t all that surprised to find he was completely inscrutable. Couldn’t even find his name. “What am I going to do with Rohan…?”
Monika shrugged. “Don’t ask me, you’re the one keeping us all prisoner.”
“Yeah, yeah.” For a moment I asked myself why now? It didn’t take me long to realize of course it’d have to be now. One of them was going to try something eventually and it’d have to be at the least opportune time. I tried to give Chancellor Fluttershy and M a narrative boost, but it was difficult since I still wasn't clear on what exactly they were doing. Everything in that room was a scrambled mess of ka.
I could swear Black Thirteen was laughing at me. It was immensely helpful until I really needed it to tell me something, then it was just dark.
Probably why Flagg was able to lose at all…
I focused on the flow of the story, trying to see what was happening from any vantage point other than Roxy’s, but I couldn’t. So I had to settle down and accept what I had. I readied a teleport just in case I needed to get in there to do something directly… Which was seeming more and more likely.
(Roxy waited for the signal, prepared to draw and fire her rifle the moment anything happened. She was expecting a signal flare, an explosion, anything.
Instead what she got was every tribute in the cage suddenly starting to sing.
Flagg and the Flower stopped their debate and stared at the ominous chanting coming from the tributes.
“Do they usually do that?” Flagg asked.
Not to my knowledge, the Flower responded.
The cult leader’s face twisted in rage. “We are being mocked! This is the sign of th-”
Roxy shot him through the brains. At the same instant, the cage all the tributes were locked in opened up. They poured out like a small army, suddenly charged with the great power of a cheerful song.
“…Well, I’m not complaining,” Roxy muttered to herself. “Time for me to check ou- shit.”
One of the tributes that had been in the center of the cage was wearing very dark robes and a multi-horned helmet that just screamed evil Chaos sorcerer. “AHAHAH! I, AHZEK AHRIMAN, AM FREE, AND YOU WILL ALL DIE FOR YOUR HUBRIS!”
Roxy didn’t think – she just acted. She swiped her rifle to the left and fired it right at Ahzek. The bullet was absorbed by magic that was far too strong for most in the New World. “Foolish girl!”)
“Moving in, sorry!” I teleported myself into the room and raised a magic barrier between Ahzek and Roxy. Ahzek’s spell broke through my initial shield, but my own internal magic was able to absorb the rest of it. I went flying – but Roxy was fine.
“Greaaaat, plan’s completely fucked,” Roxy muttered.
“Oh you don’t know the half of it!” Flagg said, laughing.
“I know enough!” Ahzek flung a spell at Flagg. The Man in Black managed to dodge out of the way, but he was clearly annoyed by the attempt.
The calming voice of the Flower went out over the chaos. It is all as the Tower wills.
~~~
Lightning had called a meeting on the carrier ship – the only one that actually had a meeting room. “Before I get started, Strange, is everyone behaving?”
“Currently, yes. They’re not that accepting of my authority though.”
“That’s not going to last long,” Sherlock said, sitting back in his chair.
“I will speak to them myself,” Cosmo said. “No offense, Strange, but I have more authority than you do in this situation.”
Sherlock nodded. “Which is why you’re here. In fact, all six of you were chosen because you are the ones who need to understand the gravity of the situation the most.”
Cosmo, Discord, Spades Slick, Johnny Joestar, and Death all turned to look at the sixth – Insipid.
Insipid blinked. “Yeah, like, I’m not much of a leader, y’know?”
“Your role within this group is as important as all the others,” Sherlock said, folding his hands together. “You were with the collapse movement and turned away from it. Usually the flow of loyalty goes the other direction. Your input will be unlike the words of any of the others, unique and enlightening in its own way.”
“…Like, really?”
“Really.”
“Major fresh.”
Spades grunted. “Enough of this. Word goin’ around is that our new enemy is Lord English.”
“That’s right,” Lightning said. “When the multiverse collapsed, the retcon paradox that was keeping him sealed failed. He was released. And unlike the rest of us, who keep having to relearn our powers, he was able to figure his out in a matter of seconds.”
“…It took me about five seconds,” Discord pointed out. “You know, temporarily, or something.”
“Thank Strange for that. He’s figured out a transference spell.” She folded her hands together. “It only gets you to a certain level of understanding. For a being like you, Discord, that seems unimaginably powerful. But you’re back down to minimal levels, right?”
Discord grumpily nodded. “I can barely summon a party popper, woe is me!”
“Some of us don’t need magic,” Spades smirked. “I’m in great shape.”
“And you think that’s enough to do something to English?” Johnny asked.
Spades tightened his grip around the golden scepter he held. “Doesn’t matter. He trashed the casino. He has to pay.”
YOUR ABILITY TO BE FIXATED ON MINOR DETAILS WHEN THE FATE OF EXISTENCE COULD BE AT STAKE IS BEWILDERING AND APPALLING, Death said.
“I’m helpin’ you, ain’t I?”
“Not going to be much help…” Johnny muttered.
JOHNNY, IT IS NOT HELPFUL TO BE ANTAGONISTIC.
“We lost, how are you all so calm and collected!?”
“The looming presence of a multiversal threat tends to take your mind off the simple things in life,” Discord explained.
“It shouldn’t! I have no idea what happened to so many people, the rest are all dead, and I can’t access Tusk right now!”
“I can work with you and your powers later,” Strange said. “Right now we need to decide what to do with English.”
Cosmo closed her eyes. “I still have the Harmony within me. But we do not have enough ships or resources to make full use of its effectiveness.”
“Not to mention the moment you try to use it, the magic around you will drain and you won’t get much out of it,” Sherlock pointed out.
Insipid raised a hoof. “I could just take his powers.”
“We will be vaporized before we even get close to him,” Lightning added. “He’s unlocked his power. He doesn’t seem to be able to just destroy the universe at will – thank whatever mechanisms were behind the collapse that it seems to have limited him - but what he can do is beyond us. Even though we’re ahead of him for now, at the rate he’s accelerating he will eventually go so fast we can’t keep up with him. Every time we stop to help someone, the time we have shrinks.”
“He’s getting to the center before us unless we can find a faster ship,” Strange said. “Or find some magic that can do it. Discord has the potential…”
Discord coughed uncomfortably. “Er… teleporting isn’t exactly… working.”
“There’s a way to transfer yourself into light and transmit,” Strange explained. “I used it to save us at the base. I only have it short-range at the moment. I also fear English seeing us using it and figuring it out.”
“A lot of the game revolves around how English will react to what we do,” Sherlock said. “Right now, he doesn’t care about us, but he certainly knows we’re here. It’s a complex game of ‘you would know that I would know that you would know’. If we make a move too early, we ruin his perception of us. If we move too late, well, people die by the billions.”
“I say we go out there with everything we have and kick his sorry green face in,” Spades muttered, stabbing one of his many knives into the table. “Get some power, come at him from all sides, take him out before he can get stronger.”
“He’s already too strong,” Lightning said.
“I don’t know, that duck did pretty well…” Discord said, playing with his claws.
“No, no it didn’t. It barely deflected a shockwave from his attack.”
“To be fair I wasn’t really trying that hard…”
“Just don’t. We can’t go charge at him with what we have now,” Lightning folded her arms. “Understood?”
“Crystal,” Spades muttered.
“We need to get everyone organized and on the same page,” Cosmo said, ruffling her illusory wings. “Strange, I’ll need you to awaken as much of my power as possible. I’m well versed in space travel spells, I should be able to get us some more speed.”
ARE WE SENDING WARNINGS AHEAD OF US? Death asked.
Lightning nodded. “We have been. But most people don’t want to leave their planets, and few have the ships to spare to do so. And our little stunt at the capture device repository… That was too risky.”
Cosmo nodded. “…What about morale?”
“Everyone here was either on the side of preservation or neutral,” Lightning said. “What do you think?”
Cosmo nodded slowly. “I’ll get them together…”
“Yes. Yes you will,” Sherlock said, a smug smile on his face.
“What is it?” she asked him.
“Nothing, just a slightly amusing observation. Wouldn’t be proper for me to announce it.”
~~~
The remaining civilization of the Hub had gathered around the one place they still felt safe. Not the Mirror Portal, it and the green diamond had been completely inert since the New World formed. No, the place everyone trusted was the age-old homey space of Iroh’s teashop.
Azula had, at this point, run it for longer than her uncle had, and nobody questioned that she deserved to be delivering tea to everyone who came in the door. Ever since the collapse she had stopped charging anything for the steamy beverages. It wasn’t like money meant all that much anymore, and there was plenty to go around since 99% of the population was gone.
She set a tray of six cups on the counter. “Table nineteen,” she called. Her only assistant – the pink plastic-like Seskii – rushed to grab the plate, hopped across the three tables between the counter and her goal, and gently set it down for a group of ponies to enjoy. She smiled and winked before returning to the counter.
Azula smiled awkwardly at her. Then she looked out at the patrons. As usual, the teashop was full – everyone basically lived here or in the nearby flats, after all. But the shop wasn’t full of life. Sure, it was better than the first couple of days, where people rarely talked or just broke out into tears, but it was still cold. People were living without much reason to do so.
She’d been given access to the Hub’s databases by one of Twilights of the Sparkle Census with clearance. The population of the Hub after the collapse had decreased by another thirty percent due to suicides. This included the Twilight who had given Azula clearance.
The walls were closing in on everyone. Azula was confident she’d make it through – she’d seen and dealt with too much in this teashop over the years to not gain an appreciation for life – but it was still difficult.
“I know,” Seskii said, doing that thing where she didn’t read Azula’s thoughts but knew exactly what she was thinking anyway. “It’s hard. Everything was destroyed and those who are still around have been hurt too much.” She took a sip of her own tea. “The people who had been the happiest before… Drifting away.”
“Aside from you.”
Seskii smiled and blushed. “I… I’m Aware. I take lots of comfort in that.”
Azula nodded slowly, preparing some more tea, crushing some dried leaves between her fingers. “What’s left of us, Seskii?”
Seskii shrugged. “Dunno. What we see, I guess. And whatever that ends up being, it’ll be enough. Civilization survives.”
“For what, though?”
Seskii opened her mouth to respond, but stopped herself. She smiled. “…Hold that thought. We’re about to get some visitors.”
Azula looked at the front doors. She was not surprised to see Saitama walk in – he really liked the tea here and had often said he should have visited the Hub before the war happened. Two of the people he was with she didn’t recognize – a purple-blood troll and some green goblin thing. But the ponies… Starbeat and Trixie.
“Look what the punch tossed our way!” one of the patrons said, standing up to make himself known.
“Director Storm?” Starbeat asked. “It’s good to see you!”
“Likewise!” Storm said with a smirk. “Hey! Everyone! We’ve got some old friends!”
There were a few half-hearted claps from the teashop. Seskii was the only one who showed any enthusiasm with her cheer.
Azula jumped over the counter and walked over to Starbeat. “…I’m sorry. It’s been difficult.”
“I understand,” Starbeat said. “…It’s disheartening, though.”
“I think it’s the appropriate response,” Caliborn muttered.
“No, you think the appropriate response is shooting everyone,” Trixie commented, twirling her hoof in the air.
Caliborn growled.
“What’s the situation?” Starbeat asked. “Who’s in charge?”
“Technically, Storm is the Second of Expeditions, so he’s the highest rank here,” Seskii said. “But we all know Azula’s the real head of the culture here.”
Azula bowed meekly. “Everyone simply chose me to be their anchor. I provide the tea, and the center of the new society.”
“Good… Good…” Starbeat scanned the room with her goggles, rubbing her chin. “So much hopelessness in this place…”
“Can you motherfuckin’ blame them?” Gamzee asked.
“No. No I can’t. But I think I can do something.” She looked to Storm and Aradia. “Do you have a way I can address everyone?”
“The city-wide intercom still works,” Storm said. “What you planning on saying?”
“I’m planning on giving them a little something to work toward.”
“I’m not doing anything else until I get my chamomile,” Saitama said.
Seskii chuckled. “I can handle that. You go show Starbeat the communications, Azula.” She jumped behind Caliborn and grabbed him by the shoulders. “I’ll also watch this little rascal.”
“GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!”
“Technically speaking, nothing ever touches anything so my hands are not able to be ‘on’ you in the purely scientific sense.”
“…What?”
Seskii removed her hands and winked. “Just another one of my maaaany mysteries!” She jumped behind the counter and took out a cup of tea. “I have a nice spicy blend for you.”
“You think I’d take tea from YOU? HA! I’d ra-.”
“Extra suuuugar! Your favorite.”
Caliborn stared at the tea.
“I’ll take it if he doesn’t,” Trixie said.
“NO, IT’S MINE!” Caliborn shrieked.
“You two play nice now,” Starbeat said with a chuckle. “Come on Gamzee, let’s give these people something to think about.”
~~~
I met Ahzek Ahriman’s attack with my own beam of magic energy. The attacks matched, the resulting explosion killing a dozen acolytes.
Why does he have that power?
[Wishing artifact] Black Thirteen told me. [Used up]
“Of course he’d wish for his powers back…”
Problem, Muse of Ka?
I turned to the orange Flower, jumping out of the way of another energy beam. “Yeah, maybe a little. That’s your fault, hmm?”
My fault? Partially, but there is more to this web of narrative than you realize.
Roxy leaped out form behind me. “You know what? You’re an asshole.” She primed her gun and pointed it at the Flower. She fired, and missed. “…Probability shield?”
“Probability shield,” I agreed. “FLAGG!”
“Yes, princess?” Flagg asked from his cocky vantage point atop a ventricle-like rock.
“What’s your goal?” I flipped over another attack from Ahzek.
“STOP IGNORING ME!” the chaos sorcerer shouted.
I, of course, continued to ignore him, focusing on Flagg.
“Why, it’s quite simple really. I want chaos. And Black Thirteen, but this particular plan is not likely to give me that. It’s just fun.”
“You always have some sort of plan beyond that,” I responded, sending a few missiles at Ahzek just to keep him occupied. “Where does this lead?”
“Is Black Thirteen not giving you the answers?”
“NO! IT ISN’T!” I roared in rage, sending a beam of energy at him. This allowed Ahzek to get a hit on me, tossing me to the side again. This time blood spurted from my side. I grunted, rising to my hooves. I sent a pulse of time-slowing magic his way, but the chaos sorcerer was able to deflect it.
“You are but a puny equine! The Stars laugh at you!”
“Yes, they do, so what?” I took up position beside Roxy and started blasting at Ahzek repeatedly. He had to go on the defensive.
Unfortunately, a second later Roxy did as well. Some of the acolytes specifically charged her, forcing her to use her hand-to-hand specialty to take them down and not Ahzek himself. I began to lose my edge on the chaos sorcerer. I needed backup… But Monika wouldn’t be of much help, Roxy was already there, I didn’t know where Chancellor Fluttershy was, and Rohan was being a traitor…
Is this mission going to fail? I asked Black thirteen.
[No][The tributes will be freed and this cult will be destroyed]
What about the cost? Will we survive?
[No casualties on your team]
Does this take into account the Flower?
[Yes][You are permitted to see this now]
I grunted. You’re more trouble than you’re worth. I dodged another attack from Ahzek Ahriman. This time, instead of retaliating, I grabbed Flagg with my magic and threw him at Ahzek.
Ahzek laughed. “FOOL! You shall burn in the chaos!” He raised his staff to attack Flagg.
“Stop breathing,” Flagg ordered. Ahzek laughed for a moment – then realized he couldn’t breathe in. Despite this, he fired an attack at Flagg anyway.
Monika showed up out of nowhere and pushed Flagg out of the way. Ahzek Ahriman toppled to the ground, suffocated.
“Monika, you were supposed to stay on observation! You can’t do anything I-” I blinked. “…Wait, you can’t teleport yet.”
And the trap is sprung, the Flower declared.
“Okay, now,” Monika snapped her fingers. Suddenly, Rohan and GM were standing there.
“HEAVEN’S DOOR!” Rohan yelled. Suddenly, his Stand appeared – I was certain he couldn’t use it – and it rushed Flagg.
“Oh for th-” his face popped open like a book and he fell back, unable to move.
GM held out the pen I gave him. He clicked it.
Nothing happened to me.
Monika glared at me. “You lied.”
“I didn’t lie.” I spread my wings, creating two tremendous magic swords. “I just made it so it would only respond to a GM with an unedited mind. You’ve edited his mind, am I wrong?”
Monika grimaced. I saw her eye twitch slightly – she was editing a character file.
“How could you hide this from me?” I demanded. “How!?”
“I’m just as powerful as you,” Monika said, striding toward me. “I can keep whatever I wish from you. I can create a hole in ka that you wouldn’t even recognize as a hole.”
“But Black Thirteen…” I shook my head. “It’ll show me truth. Not warn me. It wants me to fall.”
“It’s just a device,” Monika said. “A device that’s corrupting you! Changing you from what you once were!”
GM shivered – but showed no signs of wanting to push the button.
“He’s not going to do it,” I asserted. “I have not been corrupted by it.”
“Yes you have!”
“You just don’t want to be taking orders from a collapser!” I shouted back. “You can’t live with me or my goals!”
“We can’t exactly stay prisoners, can we!?”
“…We could have been more reasonable about it,” Roxy muttered, shooting down the few acolytes who still felt like fighting her. “As it is, we’ve probably killed about a hundred people because of this little ‘game’ you played. Without telling me.”
“Telling anyone would have tipped Twilence off,” Monika said. “Editing you would have been even worse, since Twilence was involved with you.”
“You just can’t accept it…” Roxy shook her head.
“What’s wrong with you? You should want to be free!”
“Of course I fucking do, but I don’t want to kill a hundred people to do it! That’s why we didn’t go for the collapse, remember?”
Monika clenched her hand into a fist. “I can still take yo-”
I proved her very wrong. I only had to do one thing – I pressed Black Thirteen to her forehead.
She had never been to the room at the top of the Tower. She would not be able to handle the horrific Truth it contained. Granted, she should have been able to last a few minutes – but I needed to get her out of the equation quickly. I shoved the essence of Black Thirteen into her mind. Monika’s screams made everyone in the cavern freeze.
A decidedly desperate move, the Flower said. I clenched my teeth and ignored him.
“Geez…” Roxy said, eyes wide.
“She’ll edit her file back eventually,” I muttered, backing away from Monika’s convulsing form. I trapped Rohan and Flagg in magical restraints, allowing Flagg to retain his book-like appearance. Finding this level of restraint unsatisfying, I encased the two of them in crystal. They looked uncomfortable, but who cared? I was done worrying about them at this point. Everything had gone wrong.
Speaking of…
I found Chancellor Fluttershy and M. “You… You weren’t supposed to be here.”
>>Ka works in mysterious ways,<< M printed.
Chancellor Fluttershy nodded slowly. “It seems we were fated to be here today. To be part of… this.”
I glared. “But you and your song did something to Ahzek.”
>>It was just a heartsong-initiating protocol I developed. A pleasant distraction, symbol, and crowd control piece. It worked.<<
“But everything still exploded.”
>>That was your fault. Not expecting there to be a trap.<<
I froze them as well. “…Enough of that.”
Enough of everything, it seems, Twilence.
I turned to the Flower and twitched. “Shut up.”
Is it stress getting to you? Or is it something more? Do I serve as a symbol? A reminder of a past failing?
I lit my horn. “Stop talking.”
You shall see in a few seconds the point of my presence, my discussion, my words, m-
I…
I vaporized him.
At the time of the act, I felt nothing but anger, righteousness, and the need to take him out of the equation. He was way too arrogant, powerful, and had manipulated events in ways all of us could not understand.
When he was gone, I turned to Black Thirteen… And I understood.
And I was afraid. I turned to GM. “No don’t d-”
He reacted more out of a fear reflex than anything. He pushed the button and I lost all sensation.
…In the end, I am glad I gave that to him. Even so, I still overestimated my ability to handle Black Thirteen. I was so sure I could…
…Why was I even trying to attack that Dark Tower cult in the first place? I had magic, the plan didn’t have to involve violence, and I could have tried talking. But I didn’t.
I failed.
I’m glad I did. I don’t want to know what it would have turned me into.
I’m sorry, I guess is what I’m trying to say. Not sure to who…
...
…The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a cage with Flagg, magic inhibitors on my horn and hooves. Flagg had a magic filter on his mouth and hands. In between us was a metal box welded to the ground with seven different locks on it.
I had no doubt it contained Black Thirteen.
I looked around. We were in the middle of a campsite on a world where the sky looked like it was filled with stars eternally. I spotted Chancellor Fluttershy, Monika, Rohan, and GM asleep in their sleeping bags. Roxy was awake, tending to the fire.
She looked to me. “…Sorry it has to be this way.”
“Don’t be,” I said, stretching my wings. “I’m surprised you kept me at all.”
“Monika didn’t want to,” she explained. “…I had to vouch for you.”
“…Thanks. …What happened to the cult?”
“Destroyed,” Roxy said. “They won’t be meeting up again. …We weren’t able to find anything out about where the Flower got his message from.”
“I destroyed too much…” I hung my head.
“It was the artifact and you know it.”
“I was still your enemy.”
Roxy pursed her lips. “I’m not so sure about that.” She glanced to Monika and Rohan. “I think you’re a better person than those two, even if you’re a little messed up in other departments.”
I let out a short laugh – stopped short when I heard a beeping. “What’s that?”
Roxy sighed. “The latest in Artificial Intelligence annoyances, M.” She walked over to Chancellor Fluttershy’s pack and removed a screen. She held it up, displaying the message for me.
>>Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You made a choice, and it was the choices you had to make at the time. Get out of that pit you’ve placed yourself in and stop wallowing. Just because an artifact told you what to do does not mean the end of everything. There are other important topics to understand, and more nuance in the multiverse than any of us could ever hope to comprehend. You understand the most – so you shouldn’t need me to tell you this. Leave it and dwell on more useful things.<<
I smirked. “You’re right. You shouldn’t have to tell me.”
>>Also, this is for everyone, you’re all thinking of things in terms of black and white. The aforementioned nuance? It’s important. You can’t just paint lines across a room and say ‘if you’re here, you’re right, if you’re here, you’re wrong’. As of right now, everyone in this camp aside from Roxy and Flagg are thinking in terms of ‘sides’ and Flagg doesn’t count because he’s an absolute monster.<<
I frowned. “…Is there a middle ground here?”
>>Even during the War there was a middle ground, it was just one everyone refused to find. This is the New World, stop being idiots and find it.<<
“…I will.”
“We will,” Roxy corrected.
I laughed. “Of course, of course, sorry.”
>>Stop apologizing so much.<<
Roxy looked at me. “I have to keep you in that cage, sorry. The others just won’t accept you outside of it.”
“It’s fine. I’ll accept my punishment.”
>>I said stop wallowing.<<
“M, I’m going to say this once and once only. Not everything you say is a piece of philosophical genius. You have good points, but you could stand to learn a bit more about pride and arrogance.”
>>…<<
~~~
“So, uh, like, Lightning? I think we might have a sorta, kinda, problem.”
Lightning looked down at the profusely sweating form of Insipid.
“…What happened?”
“Well, Discord and Spades are… …sorta gone.”
Lightning twitched. “What do you mean sorta gone?”
“Well, I mean, they were there, and then they weren’t, that sorta gone.”
“Where did they go?”
“…Outside the carrier?”
“To do what?”
Insipid touched Lightning, grabbed her powers, and then cast four layers of Protect on herself. “Ahem. I’m pretty sure they said something about Lord English and punching him.”
Lightning cast Thundaja on Insipid to unleash her livid frustration. This wasn’t enough, so she also let out an outraged scream. “STRANGE! DISCORD AND SPADES ARE BEING STUPID!”
“…Is that why I’m suddenly detecting an enormous amount of activity out there?” Strange asked.
“Almost definitely. Get us eyes out there!”
Sherlock nodded, pressing a few buttons. Soon, a display of Lord English was on the screen. He had his mouth open, unleashing a torrent of spacetime-rippling energy. Discord created a tungsten pie tin the size of a small moon to block it.
“He got that strong in just two days?” Lightning said, gawked.
“His learning curve is exponential,” Strange explained. “His peak power is very high. The versatility of his powers is nearly unlimited on a single-universe scale. He may eventually run into the same ceiling as English, given time..”
“There’s a problem though,” Cosmo said, walking up to the screen. “Lord English was a multiversal threat. He’s already hit that ceiling, as far as we can tell.”
“Any dimensional effects have been completely removed,” Strange reminded her. “He has no Green Sun, no universe destruction…”
Sherlock shrugged. “He has the powers of a Prophet, a highly advanced computer, raw strength, that sarcophagus of his, some level of ka manipulation, and whatever the power the Lord of Time classpect still provides in this New World. Discord is just a Spirit of Chaos and Spades is just a clever cyborg stabber.”
Spades rushed out of an invisibility field Discord had created, shooting Lord English with the golden gun. In response, English summoned his sarcophagus around him, bouncing all the bullets back like they were nothing. Spades threw several dozen knives and cards as well, discovering them to be just as useless. He shifted the gun to its scepter form and charged.
Lord English vanished and appeared behind him, grabbing the carapacian from behind and tearing him in half. Mechanical pieces and blood flew everywhere. Lord English grabbed the scepter, his old weapon back in his hands at long last.
He tossed it over his shoulder like it was useless. Then he turned his attention to Discord.
Discord created a moon’s worth of unusual weapons ranging from pie tins to conventional guns to orbs of pure chaotic energy and threw them at Lord English.
Lord English didn’t do anything. He let all of them sail right into him.
Nothing did so much as scratch him.
Then he spoke. “POINTLESS.” He snapped his fingers, transforming Spades, Discord, and the scepter into pure light, teleporting them right to the bridge of the carrier. “YOU CAN NOT HIDE. YOU ARE NOT SAFE.”
Everyone on the bridge was speechless.
“…Guh… Little help?” Spades asked.
“HOLY SHIT, HOW ARE YOU ALIVE!?” Insipid shouted.
THAT WOULD BE ME, Death said, kneeling down to inspect Spades. THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE A SIMPLE FIX.
“Then get on it,” Spades muttered. “Won’t be the first time…”
Discord looked down at Spades – and shivered.
Lightning slapped him. “THAT WAS STUPID!”
“…Yes…” Discord managed.
“I… Just… We agreed not to do that!”
“I get it, oh no, Discord screwed up!” Discord waved his hands around. “I think being out there and having your best be danced around like a cat with a mouse does things to you.”
Lightning clearly wanted to continue ranting at him – but Cosmo put a hoof on her shoulder and shook her head. Lightning sighed. “Just… Just get out of here.”
Discord obliged, vanishing in a puff of light to somewhere else in the ship.
Lightning sat down in her chair and put a hand to her forehead. “What are we even trying to do here? He can destroy us at any time…”
Sherlock smirked. “Ah, yes, he can – but he isn’t. And that fact tells us something. As do all the things we just witnessed.”
Cosmo nodded. “Yes, Sherlock, give us your analysis.”
“First off, he could destroy us at any time, but he doesn’t. This either means he doesn’t find us threatening… Or he wants us to be around when he gets to the core. I’m leaning toward the latter, especially since we’ve just seen that he can assuredly move much faster than he’s been going at any moment he pleases.”
“So, he’s toying with us,” Strange translated.
“Precisely. To him, we are nothing more than little flies. But he also knows we have power – I also find it likely he is treating us like a ‘nemesis’ to further his own ego. He is known to readily accept the way of the villain, despite knowing the typical villain archetype. He wants his glory more than he wants to win.”
“So we shouldn’t think he’ll win?” Cosmo asked.
“Corona collapsed the multiverse, I don’t think we can take that bet,” Lightning commented.
Sherlock nodded. “Lightning’s right. What we have is an enemy leagues more advanced and powerful than any of us. We know that for sure now. We also know he’s playing a little game to keep things interesting. This is likely both for his personal gratification and the ka of his story. He could destroy us at any moment, and wants us to be scared.”
HE HAS SUCCEEDED, Death pointed out.
“And we know something else,” Sherlock said, folding his arms. “He threw away Spades’ weapon. The weapon that used to belong to him. That could indicate he thought it useless to keep – but I don’t think so. He hesitated for a moment, considering it. It’s a powerful weapon and it has meaning to him. So either he needs Spades to have it for some reason… Or, and this is my actual deduction, he’s already got another weapon in mind.”
“…He’s looking for a weapon to power himself up further?” Cosmo asked.
“It seems likely,” Sherlock said.
“What could it be?”
“I have absolutely no idea!” Sherlock shrugged. “That’s the fun part!”
“…At least some information has come to light from this stupidity,” Lightning muttered.
You’re welcome, Sherlock thought. Things had to be arranged just perfectly to get those two to do that…
~~~
Starbeat sat in front of the central communication nexus of the Hub. All around her, screens displayed the state of the Hub – mostly empty, but a few cameras showed the teashop and nearby areas where there was some bustle.
She took one last look at the flow of ka through her goggles. It was focusing around her – whatever she said next would have a profound impact, this she knew. She took the goggles off and placed them above her horn so everyone would be able to see her eyes when she transmitted. Behind her stood Azula and Storm, their presence there simply to indicate approval. Gamzee was off-screen, giving her a thumbs up for support.
With a clear of her throat she pressed the transmit button and started talking.
“Citizens of the Merodi Universalis Hub. Some of you may know who I am, but for those who don’t, my name is Starbeat Glimmer of the Collection council, ka researcher for Merodi Universalis. You all know too well about the tragedy we have suffered. Every last one of us has lost someone close – or simply doesn’t know if the ones we love are okay. The world around us is new, confusing, and in many ways dangerous. Our numbers are small and the powers we’ve taken for granted have become limited and confusing.
“It feels as if we have no reason to go on. Nothing to strive for besides simple survival.
“I’m here to tell you that’s wrong. We have much to look forward to in this New World – we have a goal. A purpose. Just because we lost does not mean we need to admit defeat. The world outside may have been created by the collapse movement, but we are the preservation. Even if what we want to preserve seems lost, we must strive to bring it back, to do the best we can! The multiverse is gone, but the Hub is still here! No doubt there are other Merodi worlds and cities out there to be reclaimed!”
She held up a hoof. “This New World wants to start over from scratch – I say we don’t let it! The civilizations that were supposed to be toppled and reduced to rubble by this event do not have to be! We have survived! We can restore what we’ve lost! Our history, our people, our culture; we cannot let it fall into nothing, left to be uncovered by future generations as a curiosity! We are above that!
“We do not have to take what the other side – no, the enemy – has given us! They wanted us to fall, they wanted us to lie down and die! Well we aren’t going to do that! We’re going to stand up tall and rebuild! We’re going to uncover magic! We’re going to show the New World that they can’t escape their past!” She rammed her hoof onto the metallic surface below for effect. “We will tell the enemy what we think of their victory, and it all starts here, with the Hub of Merodi Universalis – you!”
And then she saw it – the life returning to the people. They suddenly had a goal.
She grinned – and talked for a while longer about several things. They were going to start using money again, and take a census of everyone who was left. Storm would start directing Expeditions to explore the New World, just like they had before. They would return their lives as close as possible to what they had been before.
“…and that’s all I have for now. I expect to talk to you again tomorrow, but for now, just remember – despite what they’ve done to us, the future is bright. We can make it that way.” She waved and cut off the transmission. Nobody noticed the slight purple glow in the back of her eye as she turned away.
“That was motherfuckin’ awesome!” Gamzee said, grinning.
“I second that, my clowny troll friend!” Storm said. “I couldn’t have given a better speech if I tried!” The two of them patted her on the back and led her out of the room.
Azula stayed behind, a concerned expression on her face. She wasn’t sure if it had been that great… or good.
~~~
Terezi had lent Corona and Eve a Merodi Skiff to get to the center of the universe. They had been traveling along in it for a few days, zipping by world after world, stopping whenever they thought they found something interesting or wanted a place to rest that wasn’t the cramped interior of the Skiff itself. It was designed for six people to be able to sit in – sleeping was not really part of the arrangement.
They still made do, but it was much nicer to lie on the grass out in the open, or on some exotic world of another sort. It wasn’t like they were in a hurry.
Corona stretched. “I’m getting a drink.”
Eve raised an eyebrow. “Corona…”
“No I’m not going to touch alcohol, I learned my lesson yesterday.” She chuckled sadly. “I’m going for some milk.”
“Oh. Get me some as well, would you?”
“No problem.” Corona turned her chair and stood up, opening the door to the cargo hold. They stored quite a bit of food in there since neither of them had reliably figured out food generation magic yet, but most of the cargo were records from Lai and Merodi technology that probably wouldn’t be easy to find out in the New World. A lot of it didn’t work, but Eve didn’t want to leave the possibility of studying and fixing them behind. When they weren’t studying planet-charts or just talking about life, the two would work on analyzing the way certain technologies worked in the New Word.
So far? Dimensional effects and FTL were completely useless. The rest of the magic components depended on the exact nature of the magic being used. Which was inconsistent. They were learning a lot, though, probably enough for a scientific paper or twenty.
This PhD is useless now, Corona thought with a bitter laugh. Just because she wasn’t throwing herself into volcanoes anymore didn’t mean everything was suddenly fine. It was just… getting better. And spending time with Eve was helping a lot. It removed the stress of dealing with other people, most of whom would hate her.
…Even the few collapse-supporting worlds they had come across had mixed feelings about her. They respected her, but they couldn’t be happy. None of them could.
Things are getting better, Corona reminded herself, opening a mini-fridge and grabbing some milk. Just give it time. A lot of time.
Just before she closed the mini-fridge, she heard a loud thunk. She slowly closed the door the rest of the way and turned around, a quizzical eyebrow raised. Behind her was a large box about half her height. It was unlabeled.
She lit her horn and popped it open with her magic. Her jaw dropped. She sent a message to Eve. They hadn’t hammered out full-on telepathy yet, but she could get Eve’s attention.
Eve was there in an instant. She walked into the hold – and gasped. “Oh my…”
A very elderly version of Applejack with deer antlers lifted her head from the inside of the box. Aside from her, there were a lot of potatoes in there, some of them half eaten. “…Oh.”
“…Is she who I think she is?” Corona asked.
“Yeah,” Eve said, blinking slowly. “…Lai’s Applejack.”
Applejack coughed. “Look, I just needed to get off Lai.”
Eve blinked. “I… I thought you liked your cell.”
“The guards vanished. I had to escape or starve.”
“…That’s terrible.”
“Like you care. L-”
Eve levitated the deer out of the box and held her in her wings. “The world has begun anew, Applejack. We don’t have to do this again.”
“…You don’t remember me very well, do you?”
Eve smiled innocently. “Not at all! But I’m sure I can get to know you again. Come on, we’ve got some extra seats on the bridge and Corona just got some milk. …If you’re okay with it, Corona.”
Corona shrugged. “Eh, sure, why not.”
“What do you say? Want to have some milk and talk?”
Applejack looked at the potatoes she’d been eating. “…I’ll take the milk.”
“It’s a double-deal, the talk isn’t optional.”
“…Fine.”
“Great!” Eve beamed and went back to the bridge.
“She’s so going to friendship you,” Corona said with a legitimate smirk.
“She tried once before,” Applejack pointed out.
“She’s gotten a lot better at it.”
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I can only imagine what the Emissary thinks of this.
Now that has her laughing into her latest ridiculous fruit drink. (Likely with an entire fruit salad along the rim and a silly straw.)
Flagg giving a TED talk. There's a mental image.
Are you surprised? The multiverse collapsed, and probably took his favorite store with it. Saitama cries on the inside, Trixie.
Can't argue with that. At least in the sense that I can't dispute it as a factual statement. I can say that that doesn't make this mess a good thing.
Dang it, Sherlock, stop smarming uo the ship and share with the rest of the class.
I thought Twilence was a Muse.
Preach.
Also, good to see they pried Black Thirteen off of Twilence before something incredibly disastrous.
God. Damn it. Sherlock. Yes, this is useful information, but he just gambled with a lot of lives.
Oh, that's a very dangerous way of looking at things. I can only hope someone in the Hub has read Homestuck. Yes, at least they have a reason to live now, but this could get very ugly indeed...
Also, wow, Applejack of Lai? Did not see that one coming. It's certainly been a while. Hopefully she'll be more willing to budge in her old age. Doesn't strike me as terribly likely, but I can hope.
The pieces are moving into place. We'll see how they position themselves next.
On the one hand, viewing the members of the Collapse Side as the enemy is a dangerous way of thinking in the long term since, even though we haven't seen any, there may be some who have truly realized the error of their ways and wish to do some good to make up for all that they've done. But on the other hand, we've seen that there are members of the CS who are still insane extremists who only care about destroying the tower so better to be safe than sorry.
Somehow I’m not at all surprised that Insipid is back. I wonder why?;)
9993997
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised to see some preservers moving to the collapse side. There were many who’s objection to destroying the Tower was the huge loss of life. Now that the price has already been paid why not finish the job? I can see some people thinking this way at least.
9994160
This is true I can easily see a lot of characters adopting the nothing else to lose mentality and join the Collapse Side which is totally understandable since when you take personal feelings out of the equation collapse is a no brainer.
I'll admit one of the most confusing aspects of the War of Existence was the reason why some characters are willing to join the CS. I mean I can understand that after everything they've seen they'd be more than willing to sacrifice anything to bring about a better world. The problem is even the most self-righteous villains have a bit of doubt about what they are doing. By which I mean no matter how much they believe the sacrifice is necessary there are still things that they refuse to sacrifice such as their loved ones.
For example, Pinkie's team joining the CS never made sense to me, I kept waiting for the reveal of them being double agents, after all, they definitely had people they would want to protect. But no they were 100% on board and were even directly responsible for the CS winning and I never understood why. Why are they so willing to sacrifice there loved ones, after all, there is no indication that they believe those important to them will be spared and even Pinkie seems more upset that her family died before the collapse rather than at the fact that they died. I guess I just wish it was better explained why so many people were suddenly okay with sacrificing their loved ones for the sake of the greater good.
A lot of people have been criticizing Collapsers/Corona for being evil, and blaming her for fighting for the Collapse even after saying she wouldn't. I decided to go back through the chapters to see why it all happened, to remind myself as much as everyone else.
It began, in a sense, with Corona wanting to reach the Wishing World. She went behind the Merodi's back to do so, since they kinda assumed she'd just wish for straight Collapse, and reaching the Wishing World was too important to Corona to wait. But then she wished to send the Message instead, knowing a single person shouldn't be responsible for the decision.
In her Message, she mentioned she would support the Collapse, but she did so in an off-hand way and tried to bring attention towards peaceful discussion instead.
Once she'd returned home, she was immediately attacked by basically everyone that knew her. They were apparently angry with her for sending the Message in the first place, and not just about her choosing Collapse. This caused her extreme emotional turmoil, but she tried to push through to her friends to reassure them and try to make sure they were calm... which didn't really work.
Since Corona and Evening were two prominent figures in Merodi, they obviously had to oppose each other in their meetings for the benefit of the people. Corona lost this due to majority vote, and accepted that she would probably undergo a trial and jailing, since even many of the Overheads seemed to hate her.
It was somewhere around this time that the meeting of the Seats devolved into war, followed shortly by the Great Will and the One Above all destroying the entire D-Sphere. Corona watched this happen from... somewhere, couldn't tell, mentally preparing herself to be imprisoned. It was a combination of the ongoing war and the threat of Class 2's and 3's to be caught up in it, plus her desire to act overpowering the idea of sitting down and giving up, that led her to become active in the War. Things progressed from there, culminating in her eventual battle with Eve and the Collapse? winning.
Corona didn't want to get involved at first. But so many people hated her for even sending the Message, and the War was inevitable due to the existence of ka, so she reluctantly joined the fight. Even then, she still tried her best to remind everyone that neither side was the other's enemy. So, no, Corona is not evil. Misguided, maybe. Naive, definitely. But not evil. You can ultimately blame the Gallifrayans for wanting to win, or the Tower for wanting to tell an exciting story. Everyone else was basically just reacting and sticking with their beliefs.
Also, it's funny that a lot of people hated/still hate Corona for sending the Message, since a lot of us readers seem to hate her for that exact reason, too.
9994243
The biggest problem with Corona and the rest of the Collapse side is there is no redeeming aspect to them. Yeah, they are trying to make a better world but they seem to do it in the coldest most calculating way possible. The only thing the story does do to make the Collapse side look less evil (and most of the arc does seem devoted purely to that goal) is that Corona feels bad about it. I mean how are you supposed to get behind a group that mostly seems comprised of people who see the sacrifice of their own children as acceptable.
The story tries to argue that both choices are evil, which is technically true, but what the hell was the Preservation Side supposed to do? Just let everyone they care for and countless other innocents just die? The fact is if you ever cared about anyone else, that is currently still alive, the only rational choice is preservation. Unless you're insane and view collapse as mercy.
I respect the author for not wanting either side to come across as a clear villain but after all is said and done I think it would be a tall order to argue that Corona and the others aren't the villains.
You need to look at this situation ironically, just judge for yourself.
The emissary praises himself, even if he does not speak completely about himself.
And in general, the whole situation with the cult exists only because the program itself, together with the real grandmaster, decided to remove the cult of the Dark Tower. It is a cult of oneself.
If it is more correct to use this term about yourself.
By the way, a very important issue that includes the functionality of the program.
So can this program change under the influence of other creatures, if suddenly there are creatures outside the power of ka?
We will return to this issue later, although there are some assumptions about the "City, near the Dark Tower"
Of course, this is nonsense. But then again, they do not know the truth about what is happening.
That all events take place in the imagination of real GM. And that the whole story with all the events is now recorded not only on the physical plane but also on electronic media. More precisely, all this has already been invented before.
So Emissara can be called the soul of the imagination of the multiverse, which without it you can’t imagine a story further.
But You think I don’t understand you,
but you’re wrong. Time and the Dark Tower are almost unconnected except true death itself.
Yes, you are a special paradox of existence/imagination and non-existence.
The title of the chapter justifies itself, all fictional characters are essentially your piece of dust.
The dust that will leave after you.
After all.
9994311
Yes, you've said this before. Any contradictory points I try to bring up will be immediately ignored or downplayed to support your opinion. I'm not going to enter a discussion with you-- not because I'm subconsciously letting you win it before it begins, but because it would be a waste of time.
Corona's problem is that when she chooses a problem to focus on and decides on a solution, she immediately attempts to implement it. She doesn't bother consulting anybody, discussing it, or considering what the possible consequences might be, she just assumes that she's right and everything will work out the way she wants it to, then goes ahead and does it. She doesn't even check if the problem really requires a solution in the first place. This could be a serious issue in a normal person, never mind somebody with as much personal and political power as Corona. Nobody called her on this habit, or even noticed it.
9994447
I’m not really sure what you mean? She did consult with other people, she literally asked ever sentient being to give their opinion. And before that she asked her close friends. Her entire journey through this story was to bring her to the opinion that Ka had to go.
I do understand not agreeing with her on the collapse, but to say there was no reason for her decisions is basically saying you didn’t read the story. It’s all there, wether you agree with it or not.
9994509
She sent the Message without thinking through what it would do, or even asking anyone whether it was a good idea. Sure, she let people who wouldn't be able to cope with it forget, but somehow she never expected a war.
Yes, I understand she had her reasons. I disagree with them, but I understand she had them. I also think she desperately needed a professional counsellor long ago, but instead she coped by laser-focusing on "solving" things she deemed "problems". This is a pattern of behaviour that she's exhibited, and it's not healthy. And none of her "best friends" noticed that.
9994209
The characters dont matter anymore....the war is more important than the people fighting the war. Thats the problem with this entire Arc.
But there is a third answer to the question of why.
Where did the Multiverse come from?
Since logic dictates that asking this question must result in an infinite regression - What created the Multiverse?
And what created the Thing that created the Multiverse?
Etcetera - this suggests that the mental engine of logical thinking is not designed to determine the Answer.
9987374
I was just saying that something calling for purity without specifying what kind is open to all sorts of loophole abuse.
Oh my god this has literally turned into freaking Fallout.
Sure,that sides and motivations are different, but the ending and aftermath is the same.
Vault Techs plans was to build a new world after the bombs wiped away the old one, they tried to use Vaults to do this. But neither the bombing nor the vaults work. Now the new world is objectively worse than the old one, and what the new one was suppsed to be.
Welp, I'm pretty sure lord English is after a certain juju that can absorb eldritch power and use it on literally the only source of said power left.
I want to be surprised, but I'm not. Sherlock has always been arrogant and self centered. He thinks he knows best and prefers to keep his allies in the dark until everything comes together, of course he would sneakily go against orders.
So, Starbeat was starting to worry me, but then she talked about how they couldn't use force and conquer people, and I relaxed. Then she made her speech. She clearly declared the collapse as the enemy, a dangerous, though understandable, position. If that were all things wouldn't be too bad, it might even be good for maintaining cohesion. Solidarity based on hatred of a mutual foe isn't the most uplifting or stable, but it could be just what the doctor ordered to cure the major depression.
But that wasn’t all. No, there's more. The purple glow. What caused it and what does it mean? I'm not confident, but I do have theorys. It's purple and so are the zombies, that's a possible link. Unlikely, but it's the best I've got. The effect could be a compulsion charm of some sort. I suggest this because of Azula's thoughts:
That sort of discrepancy could be indicative of mental manipulation. Or I could be looking to hard. Either way there's no way Starbeat is aware of the anomaly.
Caliborn. He's not lining up nicely into any predictable long term paths. Originally I was expecting him to inevitability either ascend to Englishdom and go on a rampage or be killed first, but now I see another possibility. He saved them. Maybe there's a chance he could turn out alright? You know, for a given standard of alright, like the other Trolls, Allushy, and Spades Slick.
And hey, it's Lai Applejack. “…You don’t remember me very well, do you?” Not really, no. You hated the currant leadership of Lai a century ago for reasons. I think they hurt your hometown? Then you got locked up and refused to talk. Then again, did we really know you that well to begin?
9994526
Chapter 116, She Who Dared to Ask, Part 1:
I disagree with the way Corona handled the question, but let's stick to arguments based in truths and opinions, not that which never was. Perhaps a dozen close friends sworn into secrecy isn't the people you think she should ask, but she did ask, and they erred toward agreeing with her. Three Collapse, two Preservation, and Lady Rarity, not Corona, came up with the idea of the message.
Huh. I thought it was Corona's idea too. But that's why I flip back to the relevant chapter when making a case.
I agree with the counselor bit though. I started thinking that shortly after the Skarn War.