Broken Prophecy
~The Return~
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to anything in the Earthbound/Mother franchise or its fan games. All rights to their respective owners.
Warning: Contains massive spoilers for the excellence that is Mother Cognitive Dissonance: Between Two Times
This was it. The applechaser, time traveler, and barrier warrior Zarbol was dying. He knew this was a suicide mission, but he'd hoped it would be under better circumstances. Zarbol assumed that his death foretold in the apple's prophecy would be a grand one; protecting the chosen four from Giygas's onslaught so they could destroy him for good.
But no, he was swatted and splattered apart like a common house fly.
Zarbol's kind were somewhat like a combination of the common Earth bee and Earth stink bug. Naturally, they weren't very resilient to blunt force trauma, especially fly-swatters. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, as he'd be safely tucked inside a cute lil' UFO, but the thing didn't fit in the meteor that Zarbol had traveled in to transcend time.
Looking back though, why DID the apple want him to do that? The team had access to a perfectly good phase distorter. Everybody could've come and the chosen four would have five powerful psi users to assist them in their endeavors. What was the point of all that Magicant craziness to begin with?
Oh, it didn't matter anymore. Zarbol successfully delivered the Sound Stone to Ness, setting him on his journey to save the universe. He could rest knowing that he caused the prophecy to pass. As the pain slowly faded so did Zarbol, but he was at peace.
"Wait," the bug thought, "I know this feeling." A familiar energy washed over Zarbol, dulling the pain he felt as he teetered between life and death. "Lifeup! But how? My psychic points are drained from fighting Starman Jr." The only possibility quickly flitted into the bug's mind: Ness. The boy's adventure hadn't even started yet, and he was already saving his first life. How precious!
"NO! What's happening?"
Zarbol recognized the voice immediately. "Apple? What's wrong?"
"Why are you still alive? This isn't supposed to happen!"
"What? Why are you freaking out? You're never like this."
"Look, prophecies can be... finicky... When something happens that shouldn't, the universe has to rearrange things to make it work; otherwise, the prophecy will be undone. Minor damage like Greyface is easy, but tampering with something as important as your death could lead to unforeseen con- WHY IS ONETT ON FIRE!? Ghost of Starman units shouldn't be here yet! I didn't predict this!"
If Zarbol could still move his body, he would've recoiled at the disembodied voice. The Apple of Enlightenment was an artifact of infinite knowledge designed to prevent apocalypses through prophetic guidance. Its very essence was tied to the space-time continuum, so if it didn't know what to do, the time stream itself wasn't just being altered.
It was being irreparably harmed; and the prophecy with it.
"I don't understand, my future vision isn't giving a straight answer. The prophecy is falling apart! Someone must be messing with time! Wait, what is... THAT! That's the source of this mess. It looks like the Greyface, but it's so much older, and uglier."
"Sounds like the woman that swatted me."
"Zarbol! You'll be healed soon. If you insist on living, it likely won't have any ill effects with how damaged the timeline is. I'll replenish your PP and send the others your way. Keep Ness safe until then. We can resolve this issue later.
"I won't let you down sir!" At that the bug felt his body return to full working order, ready for the approaching battle.
Alinivar!
Col. Saturn!
Larice!
Niiue!
...Giegue...
Something's gone wrong...
Mt. Itoi was the last place anyone would think to willingly meet up, with it being the sight of the alien invasion five years ago and all. However, compared to everywhere else in America you could teleport to, this was the only quiet place there was.
Well, America may not have been as good a name as Eagleland. Ever since the invasion, the world had lost its mind. Countries were being renamed and having their borders redrawn, alien refugees were popping up after their homes were allegedly destroyed by some "Transcendent Lord" guy, and American/Eagleland dollars were quickly overtaking all the world's currency (rest in peace, multicolored Canadian coins. You will be missed.). Suddenly, the remote, desolate mountain crawling with Grizzly Bears, Rockoyles, and Titanians was the only sane place on the planet.
God help us all.
Midway up the mountain, by a house conveniently placed to heal up after the first half of the dungeon that wasn't beta-tested, a young woman, about seventeen, was sitting under a tree, idly tossing some charred pieces of metal from a robot she beamed to oblivion.
Hey, this place was quiet and sane, not safe.
The girl was wearing a bright pink dress; not the type of thing you'd want getting scuffed up on a mountain, but it was date night, and she wanted to look good. She'd even brought the matching sun hat just for the occasion. Granted, it didn't fit perfectly; the girl couldn't cover up her blonde pigtails. She really needed a new one.
"Hey! Ana! Sorry I'm late, some Wallys were provoking some Barbots and building ended up exploding... again..."
Ana dropped the metal and stood up to face the young man that had just arrived. Much like her, the boy was about seventeen. He woar a blue shirt with a yellow stripe, jeans, and a red baseball cap with a blue rim. A tuft of black hair came out from under the hat, and he was holding metal baseball bat in his hand. Ana quickly ran in, giving the man a kiss. "It's alright Ninten, though I wouldn't mind if you used 4th-D Slip and just avoid those guys."
"Last time I tried that, they set Laura's Forrest on fire."
"Oh! Are the canaries all right?!"
"Relax, Pipi got them out of there. Apparently, she's upgraded from strongest girl in the world to strongest AND fastest girl in the world." Ninten let out a sigh. "Getting away from her without teleporting is near impossible..."
Ana let out a giggle. "I take it she's still convinced that you're her boyfriend instead of mine?"
"Oh, she's a complete menace! Remember when she kicked you over a building?"
"I thought we agreed never to speak of that again."
"..."
"Ninten?"
"...!"
"Hey, I thought we agreed the whole "silent hero" thing wasn't going to- Hey! Ow!" Ninten had ducked behind a rock, pulling Ana with him. "What was that for? Oh, the bottom of my dress is... torn... oh... oh no..."
Ana's eyes trailed the object in the sky that they were hiding from. It was a mountain sized, cylindrical ship composed of multiple segments. At the front was a flat disk suspended by three protrusions coming out of the cylinder. There was only one ship like it in the galaxy, and it's arrival could mean only one thing: Giegue had returned.
Ninten and Ana looked into each other's eyes, steadying their resolves and giving each other a silent goodbye in case things didn't turn out well. That small moment was all that they needed to not see the humongous metal sausage barreling towards them, pulling up and missing the mountain at the last second. The ship proceeded to violently thrash about in the air; flipping, spinning, going sideways, and many other maneuvers it clearly wasn't supposed to do.
"Oh, wonderful, he's drunk."
"Ana, I think this battle may be easier than we thought."
Eventually, the ship steadied itself, and a UFO popped out of the hull and darted off. The mothership quickly flew to the top of the Mt. Itoi, landing inside the mountain's crater. Ninten and Ana raced to the top, the typical mobs of Mooks and such scared off by the commotion. They managed to get there before the ship could finish proper landing, hiding behind some rocks on top of the sheer cliff face.
With the ship sunk fully into the crater, only the top of the cylinder and disk were visible. From the space in between, a familiar looking alien floated out and sprawled out on the ground. The thin, white, cat-like humanoid figure was unmistakable as Giegue, though something was off.
He was tiny.
When Ninten had confronted the alien years ago, he was roughly human sized. Now he was about the size of a normal cat. Mini Giegue didn't seem to notice the humans watching him, and stared at the sky muttering something under his breath. "Damn it Boson... God damn it... Why'd you let Larice drive? I'm gonna be sick..."
At that point, the humans gave up on trying to understand what was going on. Ninten pulled Ana back behind the stone (he was doing that a lot today wasn't he?). "Look, I don't know what's going on, but this is our best shot. We'll take care of Giegue, get in the ship, figure out how many reinforcements he has..."
"Or, y'know, you could just ask, and we'd let you in." The humans froze, slowly turning to see another alien. This one was near identical to Giegue as Ninten had seen him years before, but the few differences were stark. He had blue eyes, a pink tale, and blonde human-like hair. He also wore a near replica of Ninten's outfit; a seemingly innocuous detail for most, but it certainly disturbed Ninten and Ana. The alien shifted his glance between the two, and quickly wrapped his arms around both. Neither human found it in themselves to move, and they couldn't concentrate enough to use any form of psi.
After a few panicked moments, the alien released them backing away slowly. His eyes were quickly welling up with tears. "Ninten, I'm sorry, you... just have no idea how good that felt."
Ninten put himself between the alien and Ana, readying his bat. "W-who are you?"
Ana formed a power shield around Ninten. "If you're here to invade, w-we'll stop you all like last time time!"
The alien held back laughter. "Right, you have no idea what's gone on in your absence. Come with me, I'd rather explain where a monster can't ambush us." The alien started towards the ship; the humans hesitantly following. The alien swept up the still nauseous Giegue in his arms and charged up Healing. "Hush now my child, I'll make you feel better."
"...Don't patronize me, Niiue."
Hello everyone!~
A bit of a disclaimer here... Don't expect this thing to get updated really quick. College is massive time sponge and I have another story that I haven't updated in, like, a year.
Also, there's Cognitive Dissonance in this story, and getting information for that game is... frustrating... The wiki's got more holes than my upload schedule, so while I know there's equipment I haven't found (the drop rates make the gutsy bat seem common), I can't look up what it would do, and if the team should come equipped with it or not. Then there's the matter of status resistances, something I know the characters have but can't tell from the game.
But despite all that, I hope you all enjoy!
~Minima