A Shred of Hope
I had this all typed out and ready to upload...and then I deleted the folder it was in.
Clever me
Anyway, I retyped it to the best of my ability. Enjoy!
(update) Like my other two Lego Movie stories, I did a quick proofreading because the errors were bothering me. I've left this story unchanged aside from that.
On another note, I'd like to thank all of those who have taken their time to read this and support it. I'm glad to see this story was received so well!
The door to the room creaked as it opened slowly, stopping when it was only halfway open. The sliver of light that managed to slip in from the hallway was the only illumination in the large office. The man at the door, known as President Business, looked in with a frown, clutching the newspaper in his hand as he did so. He knew he didn't have to check for anyone in his office, but he did so anyway, to reassure his mind that he truly was alone.
Confirming that it was clear, President Business stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and returning the darkness to the area. His eyes slowly adjusted to the dim lighting coming from the large window coming from behind his desk. The sky was very overcast today, accompanied by a storm that beat upon the windows in small taps. Occasionally, thunder could be heard echoing in the distance.
He slowly made his way over to his desk, trying to read the paper in his hands using the little light he had. On the front page was an image of the wizard Vitruvius, one of the only pictures left of the deceased magician. Hero Remembered, the headline read, along with a story giving a summary of his role in stopping the end of the world and how he had been one of the group of Master Builders that helped the Special.
The reason why this was front page news was because that day happened to none other than Vitruvius' funeral, which had been put off for a short amount of time. The events of Takos Tuesday had caused a considerable amount of damage to the city of Bricksburg.
And then there was that completely random incident with those weird Duplo aliens that had proceeded almost immediately afterwards.
After that was all said and done, the Master Builders had put their work in rebuilding all of the damage to the realms on hold in order to honor their oldest and one of their most experienced leaders. President Business was sure the funeral was being well attended, with the amount of people the wizard's actions had influenced. As a matter of fact, President Business himself had been invited by Emmet to join. But as gratified as he felt for being invited, President Business had decided that it would be better if he didn't come.
After all, he was the one solely responsible for the wizard's passing, and that was no secret. Everyone in the world knew that he was to blame for Vitruvius' death somehow, whether it had been direct or indirect. And the fact that the majority of attendees at the services would be Master Builders, the ones who had been affected the most, only made it worse. Despite the fact that he had been invited, President Business had a hunch he wouldn't be welcome by everyone. Though he had promised to make up for the evil deeds he had done, not even he could bring someone back from the dead. That was the one thing he couldn't fix.
President Business set down the paper with a sigh and turned towards the window, watching the raindrops streak down the glass as his thoughts stirred around bitterly. It was rather ironic, when he thought about it. Before Takos Tuesday, when he was still evil, the people had been fine with their lives and thought he was the best leader they'd ever had. Now that he was good, having changed his ways and starting to fix the wrongdoings he had done, the citizens of the world hardly trusted him at all. Sure, they had allowed him to remain their president, but he could tell that they were skeptical. Whenever he went anywhere, citizens kept watch of him out of the corners of their eyes, as if he would try to pull something.
After everything that he had done, President Business knew that he shouldn't blame them; but the thing was he did. Even though they had every right to be afraid of him, it made him frustrated and angry. After all, how was he supposed to be an effective leader for these people if they didn't even trust him?
President Business knew that these negative emotions were probably from his former life as a villain. Having anger and hate was kinda mandatory for being an Evil Overlord. But he was no longer a bad guy. He was a good guy. So why was it so hard for him to feel like one? Truthfully, President Business had found that his life was easier when he was a villain. Maybe that was a sign that he had made a mistake. Could bad guys really just quit their job and switch to the good side? Or did they follow the "once a bad guy, always a bad guy" rule?
As he thought to himself, it seemed that the temperature of the room suddenly dropped a few degrees, sending a chill down his spine. Then President Business got the ominous feeling that he was being watched. Slowly, cautiously, President Business turned his chair around and scanned the room.
"Hello?" he called out. Even in the darkness, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. A few potted plants on one side and a chair or two with a bookcase on the other.
President Business dismissed the sensations he felt as a trick of the mind and prepared to turn back to the window when he heard a chilling, unearthly moan.
"Lord Business," a voice called out softly.
Okay. That did it; there was definitely someone there.
Putting on a brave face and standing up in his chair, President Business searched the room once again, trying to pinpoint the speaker.
"Alright, who's there?" he demanded, resorting to intimidation "if this is some sort of prank, I am not amused! Show yourself now or I'll call my robot – wait."
President Business paused, remembering that his robots had shut down when the kragle exploded. The only robots that were left were the ones in the police, since they made up a majority of the police force.
"or I'll call the police! Yeah, that's it!" he exclaimed, regaining his confidence. "Come out or face justice of the law!"
"Lord Business, I'm right here," the voice spoke again, sounding rather close.
Business cocked an eyebrow, not seeing anyone "Where?"
"Look up," the speaker instructed.
President Business did so; and nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a pale ghostly figure wearing a headband and wielding a staff floating in the air above him. He had to admit, it looked a lot like…
After staring a few seconds in disbelief, the President let out a rather shrill scream, jumping back in his chair and tipping it over. After he fell on the floor, he began to crawl backwards in an attempt to escape.
"Vitruvius' ghost!" he screamed "it come to haunt me!"
"Lord Business," the ghost began before being interrupted.
"Please don't hurt me! Or steal my soul! Or whatever ghosts do to people!"
"Lord Business,"
"I'm a good guy now, I swear!" the president said with a pleading voice as he backed into a corner. "I give out candy to the children whenever I can!"
"Lord Business," Vitruvius said a little more forcefully.
"I'm fixing everything that got destroyed!"
"Lord Business, for goodness sakes man, pull yourself together!" the ghost snapped impatiently. "I just came here to talk!"
"I even promised to rebuild that multi-colored freakshow circus of chaos in the sky! What more do you-" President Business paused, the specter's words finally catching up to him. "wait, you just want to…talk?"
"That is correct," Vitruvius confirmed.
President Business gave the ghost a questioning look. "You, of all peo – uh, spirits, want to talk to me?"
"Yes, yes, I'm not going to hurt you." Vitruvius answered with a sigh as he floated down next to the desk. "Come, take a seat." He said, gesturing to President Business' fallen chair.
President Business stared a few seconds before hesitantly getting to his feet and walking over to the desk. He picked up his chair and set it back upright before sitting down, trying not to look too scared at being in a ghost's presence. He glanced at the ethereal figure with uncertainty. Then, with an afterthought, he reached across his desk and flipped on the desk lamp, illuminating the room slightly.
"Comfortable?" the ghost asked.
"Uh…yes?" President Business replied, unsure if that was the right answer.
"Good, good," Vitruvius said, sounding satisfied "that'll make things a bit easier."
"…Sooo," President Business began "what did you want to talk about?"
"About you, Lord Business. A-"
"President Business," he interrupted "I dropped the Lord title when I turned good. Supposedly."
"Oh, yes, sorry," the spirit apologized before getting back to his original statement. "As you are still the leader of this world and everyone in it, I thought it would be for the best if you had the right mindset. Unfortunately, that's something you seem to lack at the moment."
President Business looked offended. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked indignantly.
"I mean no offense, but your depression is clouding your judgment." Vitruvius said.
President Business sputtered. "Wha – but - I'm not depressed!" he protested.
"You're not?" Vitruvius asked, unconvinced.
"No!" President Business snapped before reconsidering. "Okay, maybe in the slightest bit, but that's just a side effect! I'm just…frustrated. And confused."
"And why is that?" Vitruvius asked. "Do you know?"
"It's…" President Business sighed "It's just the position I'm in. I'm still the president of the world and nobody is willing to trust me."
"And this upsets you?" Vitruvius prodded.
President Business gave the ghost a scowl. "Of course it does! In the past, it was easy when they just go along with everything I say and everything worked in a perfect system. Now, they all have minds of their own and not one of them thinks positively of me! Do you have any idea how frustrating that is, when you have to be the one responsible for everything when nobody is willing to support you?"
The ghost listened intently. "Actually, I do."
President Business hadn't been expecting that. "You do?"
"Yes. As a matter of fact, it was a short while before my death," Vitruvius said, causing the president to wince slightly "When I had gathered the Master Builders to make a plan to stop you from ending the world, they had little faith in our chances for success. They were so certain that we'd fail that they quit before we could even begin. I admit even I was a little discouraged by this."
"That explains why it was so easy to capture them," President Business said thoughtfully. "But, you still got into my tower and tried to destroy the kragle, and you almost did. How'd you manage that?"
"Because of an important lesson I had learned in the past and one that the Special learned that day. Sometimes, being a leader requires that you keep going on despite the doubt from those you lead. Sometimes, your followers need a little push in the right direction before they find their own motivation."
President Business sighed "But I have been waiting! And I've made practically no progress!"
"Just have patience. It may take some time," Vitruvius said reassuringly "you have to show them that you truly have left your evil ways behind."
"That's the thing; I haven't left my evil ways behind!" President Business said with a frown "I still have a short temper, I'm still very demanding, and whenever someone takes the parts from something and builds it into some random object, it bothers me a lot more than it should!"
Vitruvius looked at him "That doesn't sound very evil…"
President Business shrugged "Well, no, I guess it doesn't sound all that bad, but the point is, I've hardly changed all that much!"
"You're not evil; you're just labeling your personality and traits as such." Vitruvius told him "yes, they may not exactly be positive, but whether or not you truly are evil depends on you."
President Business looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"If you want to be bad, you'll be bad. If you want to be good, then you'll be good." Vitruvius explained.
President Business shook his head doubtfully. "It can't be that easy!"
Vitruvius held a hand "We often make the mistake of forgetting that people can and often do change over time. We think that their past actions, beliefs and mistakes will always define who they are. But it doesn't have to be that way; whether or not you change depends on your desire to. If you desire to do better, then you'll find that change comes easier because your wish to do so motivates that transformation."
President Business pondered these words as Vitruvius continued. "And believe it or not, you have changed more than you think, President Business."
This caught the President's attention. "Really?"
"Yes. When the Master Builders met together to plan how we were to stop you, we never considered trying to talk to you such as Emmet did. We were fully prepared to imprison you or destroy you if it came to that."
President Business' mouth went tight with those words. "That's…good to hear…I guess." He mumbled nervously.
"But the moment when Emmet tried to talk you out of destroying the world, you proved us all wrong when you chose to actually consider his words." Vitruvius explained "When you chose to not only listen to Emmet, but to destroy the kragle yourself, that was when you showed that somewhere inside, you had a desire to be good."
When President Business gave Vitruvius a questioning look, the wizard knew he had to elaborate. "It may seem unlikely and sound a little cheesy, but consider it; if you were completely evil like you believe, you wouldn't have bothered to listen to reason. There had to be at least a small desire to be good in order to override the evil thought process you listened to for so long."
President Business scratched his chin. "I guess it makes sense. So…I'm good as long as I want to be?"
"It's a start. But in order to achieve something, you have to work for it," Vitruvius informed him. "a simple desire to be good doesn't excuse you from errors you've made in the past. You still have to do your best to mend the wrong you have done."
President Business nodded in understanding, but didn't say anything as he thought. The only sound in the room for a few moments was nothing but the storm outside and the tapping of raindrops on the window.
Finally, President Business turned back to the ghost "Were you a part time counselor in life?"
This obviously caught Vitruvius off guard. "What?"
"Well, it's just you seem to have an answer for everything," President Business said with a shrug. "So, I can only assume you've done this before."
"I've done it in the past, yes," Vitruvius admitted "but only because I'm a wizard. For some reason, wizards are always the ones helping people through their physical and emotional problems and giving advice. Just ask Gandalf and Double-door, they know exactly what I'm talking about."
"I see," President Business said with a nod.
"I believe my work here is done," Vitruvius said "I wish you good luck, President Business. Just remember; you don't have to be perfect, you just need to do your best."
And with that, the ghost began to fly skyward, fading slightly as he did so. With a thought, President Business held up a hand.
"Hey Vitruvius, wait!" he called out.
Vitruvius stopped, looking back down. "Yes?"
President Business paused, unsure of how to word his question. "There's, uh…there's no hard feelings about the flying disk of death thing, right?" he asked hesitantly.
The ghost said nothing as he considered the words. "President Business, I've learned a lesson in death. And that is that some things, such as being suddenly decapitated, are more difficult to forgive than others."
President Business looked down sheepishly. "Yeah. Sorry about that."
"And you also have to consider that you blinded me with that laser," Vitruvius pointed out.
"Yeah," President Business admitted.
"And then you kicked me off of that cliff,"
"That's true,"
"And your robots did shoot at my friends and I quite a few times,"
President Business held up a hand with a wince, "For the sake of time, can we just say "and everything else"?"
"Sure," the ghost agreed.
"I just thought that I should apologize for that…and everything else," the president said.
"You're already on your way, President." Vitruvius replied, sounding optimistic. "but if you truly want my forgiveness, then you'll do your best for these people. They deserve that much. Once again, good luck, President Business."
The ghost turned skyward once more, flying through the ceiling and out of sight. President Business watched him go, a small smile stretching across his face.
"Thank you!" he called, even if he didn't know if the ghost could hear him or not. Then, he realized that he was alone again, listening to the storm outside. Vitruvius had certainly given him a lot to think about, and he would certainly take it into consideration. But where would he start?
Looking around, he frowned. "Now what?" he asked himself.
Thanks for reading this! It took me more time than it should have, having to retype it and all.
(Update) Once again, thank you for all of the support. I'm glad to see that my time and effort paid off.