I finished writing the rough draft for Time Distorter on Monday, so I had time to get back to this story. I actually wrote most of these two chapters in one day (don't ask me how), breaking my personal record. Um... yeah, I don't know why you would care, but... xD
Anyways, I decided to do somewhat of a mix between the two choices that I had on the poll. I'm going to continue updating as I go instead of writing the whole thing out (which you're probably figured out by now given that you're reading this :P), but I'm going to work a bit further ahead.
I've never felt so much like George RR Martin as I did when writing this fic. So political. xD I tried to make it interesting, though. But honestly, what are you gonna do when you need to cover the president's PoV? If you're curious to hear what happened to Ninten, that's what next chapter is about. :)
If you don't know me, sorry for spilling this, but... well, this fic is the second one in a planned trilogy. I'm not going to lie; the first installment of the trilogy isn't anywhere near perfect and I can totally understand if you don't want to read it. But it does have things that I did relatively well... I mean, it's obviously not going to be as sleek and clean as a published book, but I think that I didn't do too bad of a job on it, all things considered. :) If you're willing to check out the first installment, it would mean a lot to me. :D But... just a warning: it's kinda long. xD Again, it's totally fine if you don't want anything to do with me anymore. The back button is in the upper left. I won't know if you press it. ;)
...Still going ahead even though you haven't read the first part? Well, just in case a few of you do that, I should clarify a few things. First, there are some OCs, although most of them have relations to canon characters. Actually, a lot of them feature in this chapter. Wait! Don't go! I mean... you can leave if you want to, but I promise that my OCs aren't cancer! DX Really, I try to make them good. Some of them are OP, but only as antagonists. Ah, I'm not really making a good case for myself, am I? Well, here are the ones that feature in this chapter:
-Minerva Carpainter, president of planet Ceres. She's the daughter of Mr. Carpainter and ordered his capture and execution. She's considered a benevolent ruler, but only because she sweeps ugly truths under the proverbial rug. Her main claim to shame is that she basically destroyed Lucas' and Claus' planet (called Aphrodite) with nuclear weapons for reasons that aren't completely clear.
-Megan Aniah: Secretary of Psionics on Planet Ceres. She's friends with Minerva (although she doesn't know about the whole nukes thing) and is Ana's mother.
-Juno Monotoli: Distant relative of Geldegarde Monotoli; she's really annoying and not much else is known about her. :P
So yeah, I don't want to scare you away with those chars. ;) But instead, I may have scared you away with a big wall of text. I'm sowwy. D:
And also, I just realized a few days ago that my line breaks in ch. 29 (with the back and forth scenes between Ninten and Ana) didn't show up for whatever reason. No wonder some of you were confused. xD I fixed that. Sorry!
Also, Merry Christmas! :D
Minerva Carpainter walked through the upper halls of the Ceres capitol building. Since the place used to be a psyching palace, it was filled with enough artistic shit to make her eyes bleed.
Don't lie, she told herself. The reason that you don't appreciate art is that what you've done has prevented you from seeing any beauty in this universe.
Minerva sighed inwardly. It was tough being truthful with herself, especially as someone who had killed millions of innocent people. Genocide. It was as if that word had been etched into her mind, never allowing her to escape thinking about it. She supposed that she deserved it.
A familiar figure walked up to Minerva, interrupting her thoughts.
"Ah, Ms. Monotoli," Minerva said. "Do you have something to report?"
Juno Monotoli twirled her red, curly hair around one of her fingers.
"Are we in private?" she asked.
"As private as I can get. Nobody else is supposed to be up this high, and there are more psionic enchantments than I remember making sure that it stays that way."
"Well, then…" Juno said. "One of the chimeras escaped."
Shit.
"Well then," Minerva said. "Let's put it down and blame the starmen. It's what we always do."
"Well…" Juno said with a grimace. "It's not that simple. You see, this is one of the chimeras on Vulcan."
"One of the human chimeras?" Minerva asked.
Juno nodded.
"Psych," Minerva swore, clenching her fists.
"So what do you plan to do, Ms. President?" Juno asked, and Minerva swore that she covered up a smile.
I guess she enjoys watching me squirm, Minerva thought.
"I have a… friend who will take the chimera out," she said.
"This one's dangerous," Juno said. "It's the savant."
A chill ran down Minerva's spine. A psionic savant running free on Vulcan? That was almost as dangerous as Giygas!
No. Deep breaths. Minerva was overreacting. She had survived the scrutiny that came after the destruction of Aphrodite; she could take this.
And is that all you're worried about? Minerva asked herself. Scrutiny? Not the countless lives that the chimera will reap? Not the pain that you just caused to people who already have nothing?
Minerva shut her mind up. She needed to find a practical way to deal with this.
"My friend should be able to deal with the chimera," Minerva repeated, straightening her back and speaking in a commanding voice. "She is skilled at killing things, and even psionic savants are mortal."
I guess Dr. Andonuts was right. Minerva thought. I should never have tried that experiment. I guess my only choice is to clean up the mess that I've made.
"If you say so, Ms. President," Juno said, seeming unconvinced. "After all, it's not my neck on the line."
Thanks for reminding me, Minerva thought wryly.
"I hope that's all," Minerva said curtly.
Juno Monotoli nodded.
"Then you are dismissed," Minerva said. "Try not to torture any more teenagers, all right? Otherwise, I might have to find another job to fire you from."
Minerva enjoyed watching the color drain from Juno's face more than was probably healthy. Juno gave a stiff curtsy and walked away. Minerva's smile faded as she looked at her watch. It was already time for the meeting. And after that meeting, she had another one scheduled… today was going to be a busy day.
Now, time for another doozy, Minerva thought, taking a deep breath.
"Teleport," she whispered.
The next second, she appeared in a secluded room behind a glass table table. The window on the other side of the table displayed a view of the prettier parts of Ceres, such as the crystalline towers and the massive Shard that was stuck in Ceres' ground like an arrowhead that barely pierced the skin. In front of that window stood Megan Aniah, Minerva's close friend.
She did not look pleased.
"Minerva," she said. "I hear that you used ectoplasmic warriors to fight the empirists." She took two stiff strides forward and slammed her hands on the table. "How?"
You don't have to yell, Minerva thought, resisting the urge to plug her ears.
"That's my little secret," she said, putting on what she hoped was an insufferable smile.
"It has something to do with the needles that you and Morgan were looking for two years ago, doesn't it?" Megan asked. Furrowing her eyebrows, "What became of that, anyways? You never told me the details."
Thank goodness that she's not clever enough to figure out the whole equation, Minerva thought.
"I suppose that it doesn't matter," Megan said, "Nor does it matter how you controlled them. The question is why?"
"Would you rather send real soldiers over to die?" Minerva asked.
"Actually, yeah!" Megan exclaimed. "What part of an army of robot-like machines that kill ruthlessly and that you can't completely control doesn't immediately alert you to the fact that something is horribly wrong?"
Minerva stared out into the distance, marveling at the sparkling towers in the distance. If only all of Ceres could be so nice. Minerva wanted to base her decisions off of what felt right to her…
But sometimes, what needed to be done felt just plain wrong.
"…How do you know that I can't exert complete control over them?" Minerva asked.
"Because I'm not stupid?" Megan said, narrowing her eyes in disgust. "You can't control each individual soldier. There's no psyching way that you have enough energy for that. You just give them basic orders for them to follow… and the soldiers don't always follow through that well!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Minerva asked.
"My husband told me today that your little soldiers killed civilians. Dozens of them. Not even empirists."
"When was this?" Minerva asked, raising an eyebrow. "I made sure that my soldiers only went after empirist warriors."
And I nearly blew up a village full of unarmed people, she thought. But Megan doesn't have to know that.
"It was today," Megan said, scowling. "Can't you at least show some remorse?"
"That wasn't me," Minerva said. "Now that Boras Lorune is dead, I can shift my focus over to domestic policy. I gave Geldegarde Monotoli control over most of the active soldiers."
"Oh, that's better," Megan said sarcastically. "You didn't kill dozens of innocent people, you only gave someone else the tools to do it. Everything's fine now."
"How was I supposed to know that he would attack civilians?" Minerva asked. "It's unfortunate, but I made the statistically correct decision based on the information that I was given. I am sorry that it happened, but we won't get anything accomplished by mourning for them."
"I'm not psyching asking you to mourn!" Megan shouted. "I'm asking you to get rid of those soldiers! They're a psyching disgrace!"
"Calm down," Minerva said.
"THERE ARE TIMES TO BE ANGRY AND THIS IS ONE OF THEM!"
Minerva grimaced. She hadn't seen Megan this angry… well, ever.
Imagine what she would say if she knew what really happened on Aphrodite, Minerva thought with a shiver.
"Listen," Megan said. "This is not acceptable. We will not let ourselves fall to the level where we see needless tragedies as necessary."
"I agree," Minerva said, "But these soldiers are a powerful peacekeeping device."
"Are they really?" Megan spat. "Because I think that they only perpetrate more war."
"War creates peace," Minerva said. "And it's not so different from a psion blasting people from far away."
"Commanding machines to do our killing isn't right," Megan hissed. "Yeah, psions cause a lot of collateral damage, but at least people can think about the consequences of what they're doing. Ectoplasmic warriors can't."
"I'm not going to send my people to death," Minerva said. "Not when these soldiers will fight for me."
"I'm afraid that you're just playing into the fears of the Vulcanese," Megan replied. "They already have a view of the Ceres government as harsh and uncaring. Sending in psionic machines to do our dirty work only adds to that image. We cannot have the entire planet of Vulcan against us, Ms. Carpainter."
She called me "Ms. Carpainter," Minerva thought. Not "Minerva." Ouch.
"I suppose that you are right," Minerva conceded. "While you may not have evidence that the tragedies taken place would really be prevented by eliminating the soldiers…" Minerva cleared her throat as Megan scowled. "Not everyone recognizes that. The people on Vulcan are already bitter, and casualties due to ectoplasmic warriors will not help our cause. I will discuss this with Geldegarde Monotoli."
"Good," Megan said. "I'm just upset that I had to resort to that argument. Two years ago, you would have seen that what you were doing is wrong."
Minerva swallowed her anger. How many times did she have to explain this to Megan?
"Change is not bad," Minerva said. "I see more clearly now. Sometimes, you have to do the wrong thing to survive. It might not be justified, but it's our only way to get by."
Although, Minerva thought. That's the logic that I employed when ordering the destruction of Aphrodite.
Minerva looked into Megan's fiery eyes.
She would try to murder me where I stood if she knew, Minerva thought. And I don't know if I would have the will to stop her.
Dangerous. The universe needed Minerva, even if she was an evil dictator under the guise of a benevolent ruler. Without her stranglehold on the starmen, Giygas would have swept over all human civilization by now. She couldn't afford to die now, as much as she wanted to.
But what happens in ten years? Minerva asked herself. Twenty? Fifty? A hundred? How much longer can I hold on? And when I finally let go and die, what happens next?
Minerva sighed. This is why she didn't think more often.
"What's that sigh for?" Megan snapped.
"I just want there to be an easy way out," Minerva said truthfully. "I want to be the person I told myself that I would be. But life isn't that easy. Life isn't that simple. Life is tiring. That's why I sighed."
Megan's face turned from enraged to empathetic. Her shoulders slouched back into their regular position.
"I get what you mean," Megan whispered. "I want to make things right. I want to solve every problem with the flick of a switch. Sometimes, I wonder if I should just give up… but I don't. God wants me to do this. He gives me the tools so that I can do it."
Minerva almost snorted. Religion was nothing more than a tool used to manipulate others. Her father had shown her that simple truth.
"So," Megan said. "I guess that I can understand why you want to take the easy way out."
"What do you mean?" Minerva asked. I'm not trying to kill myself yet, she finished in her head.
"There's a problem," Minerva said. "Bam. Empirists. They have a big sword, metaphorically speaking. They're a threat. So what do you do? Get a bigger sword and try to hack them to bits. It's easy; it's there. Going into and addressing the cultural and political roots behind the empirist movement is hard; trying to use brute force to solve the problem is easy."
Minerva raised an eyebrow. She wanted to counter Megan's argument but couldn't find the words to do so.
"There are times when war is necessary," Megan said. "But I think that those situations occur less often than you might expect. I think that we could have addressed the root causes that lead to the modern empirist movement: frustration with business and poor resource allocation. We could have gone to Vulcan as friends instead of soldiers."
"It's a little late for that," Minerva muttered.
"It is," Megan said. "I wish that I had seen that sooner. So now that we're enemies with Vulcan and… I don't know what to do."
"I guess I'll start by meeting with Mr. Monotoli," Minerva said. "The empirists are scattered. We don't need ectoplasmic warriors to win this war anymore. He has to see that."
"You didn't see that just ten minutes ago," Megan pointed out.
…Shit.
Minerva clenched her jaw.
"…Politics are the psyching worst," she said.
"It really is a crummy job that we've got, huh?" Megan asked with a wry smile.
"Well," Minerva said. "Nothing to do but make the best of it, I guess. Goodbye, Megan."
"See you, Minerva."
Minerva smiled. The fact that Megan referred to her by first name when she was calm proved that the two of them retained at least a little bit of their bond.
"Dimension Door," Minerva said, a portal to emptiness appearing in front of her.
She hopped inside. After using that psionic power so often, she was no longer fascinated by the inexorable emptiness that stretched off to infinity past the portal. Minerva floated in oblivion for a few seconds before creating another dimension door and hopping in.
She braced herself for the toxic air as she appeared in a building on planet Vulcan. Naturally, the place reeked of smoke and oil. The air tickled her throat. Minerva resisted the urge to cough. The sight of so much grey and black seemed to sap some of her energy.
She turned to face Geldegarde Monotoli, who stood just a few feet away. If he was surprised by Minerva's sudden appearance on Vulcan, he didn't show it.
"Well, this is unexpected," Monotoli said with a chilling smile. "What brings you here, Ms. President?"
This had to go well. If it didn't… how many lives would be lost? How much more damage would Vulcan take? Minerva buried her anxiety and put on a welcoming smile.
"It was brought to my attention that you killed some civilians with the ectoplasmic warriors that I gave you, Secretary Monotoli," she said. "That doesn't look good on us."
"An honest mistake," Monotoli said with a shrug. "They sure looked like empirists. At least, from the point of view of the ectoplasmic soldiers. Their senses aren't the best."
"Well, you had better do something about that," Minerva said, trying not to let anger seep into her voice.
"It was just a small incident," Monotoli said. "We can bury it. No harm done."
No harm done except to the civilians, Minerva thought.
"I see what you're thinking, Ms. President," Monotoli said with a knowing smile. "You don't like hiding things from your people, especially since we're supposed to be the good guys. Well, even the good guys have to cover up these kinds of incidents every once in a while. The public doesn't always react rationally to an honest mistake such as this one. Every government throughout history hides things from its citizens; it is madness to try to change that now."
Minerva clenched her jaw, letting the pain that sprouted beneath her cheeks comfort her.
"I… suppose that you are right," Minerva said. "We can cover it up, but we need to do more to prevent such… mistakes from happening in the future."
Geldegarde Monotoli nodded.
"Ah yes," he said. "I shall be more careful in the future."
"Not good enough," Minerva said. "I shall take the warriors back and store them. We basically won the war already; our psions can do the rest of the work."
Monotoli stiffened.
"You are mistaken, Ms. President," he whispered. "This war is not over. Not by far. Yes, the empirists are scattered. But they are like rats: if there are any of them left, they'll spread throughout the metaphorical house. So what do we do with rats?" Monotoli's eyes shined with zeal. "We kill them," he whispered.
Minerva felt queasy. Why did Monotoli look so much like her father in that moment?
"The empirists can predict and understand our psionics," Monotoli continued. "They know what psions look like and what we can do." He leaned in and whispered into Minerva's ear, "These warriors are our secret weapon. We'll keep the empirists in a constant state of fear. If we keep them worried about their own safety, then they'll lose the motivation to go on the offensive."
I don't know if that's how it works… Minerva thought.
"Besides," Monotoli said. "The people of Ceres already received the news about the existence of these warriors. If you pull your soldiers out… let's just say that if the empirists attack again, you'll have to answer some pointed questions about why you don't care enough about our safety to send some soldiers in to deal with the empirists."
The atmosphere in the room turned from toxic to unbearable. Having to deal with a mob of angry people wanting a stronger military… That was basically Minerva's worst nightmare. Well, it was her worst nightmare besides what happened on Aphrodite two years ago.
"Yes," Geldegarde Monotoli said. "You do care about how the people view you. And this is a democracy. You should listen to what your people have to say, yes? If they want to continue using these soldiers… isn't it your duty as a democratic leader to follow their requests?"
He knows too much about me, Minerva thought. I've always been a champion of the people, and I'll support pretty much anything that they want.
"These same people would also say that killing civilians is unacceptable," Minerva pointed out.
"Yes," Geldegarde Monotoli said. "They would. That's why I'm going to be more careful. But to eliminate this key portion of our militaristic strength entirely… maybe you should run a few polls on that and come back to me."
Minerva wanted to object, but the picture in her mind of angry protestors yelling about how she didn't care about dealing with the empirists was too much to bear.
I'm the most powerful person in the universe, Minerva thought, Yet I am more than a puppet. A puppet for the people to control and then the scapegoat that gets blamed for everything.
Well… except for that mistake on Aphrodite. That was my bad.
"You make compelling points, Secretary Monotoli," Minerva said. "I agree that it would be… prudent to poll the public before taking drastic action." Megan's going to kill me. "I shall return to you in a week, but if I decide that the soldiers must go…"
"Yes, yes," Monotoli said. "I shall respect your wishes. I'm glad that you can see reason, Ms. President. We wouldn't want to do anything rash that would get us into trouble with the public, after all."
"All right," Minerva said. "I shall be off."
"Have a good day, Ms. President."
Minerva nodded, feeling her nausea grow. She had one meeting left, a meeting that she had been dreading for three days.
It was time to play that bad guy.
"Teleport," Minerva whispered, trying not to hurl.
The next second, she was standing in a utilitarian room with a bed, sink, and toilet. It looked quite similar to a prison cell, the absence of windows only adding to the effect. Inside the room stood a teenage girl with a face mask on. She jumped, turning around to face Minerva. Her eyes widened upon seeing the president. A small flame appeared between her hands, as if that would do any good against Minerva.
"Silence," Minerva said, waving her hands to manifest the power.
The psionic power created a sound bubble around the room, meaning that nobody standing outside would be able to hear them. It was a power often used to cover up the screaming of tortured victims.
Minerva reflected wryly that this usage of the power was not so different.
"Why the psych are you here?" The girl shouted, her hands shaking. "What do you want from me?"
"I think that you know, Ms. Aniah," Minerva said, covering up her guilt with a cold smile.
"N-No I don't," Ana said, taking a step back. "I didn't do anything wrong…"
"But I did," Minerva said. "Isn't that right?"
Ana's eyes widened even further. It looked like Minerva was right.
"It wasn't that hard to put the pieces together," Minerva said. "Based on you looked when I scryed on you yesterday-"
"You were scrying on me?" Ana asked.
"I scry on everyone," Minerva said with a superior smile. "I'm a seer. Scrying is what I do. As I'm sure that you know from your studies in history, seers are the unsung heroes of wars. Being able to get firsthand information about the location, number, condition, and morale of enemy soldiers and psions is priceless."
"So am I an enemy soldier?" Ana asked.
I'm worried that you are, Minerva thought.
"No," she said. "But I am worried about you."
"Worried about our psyching agreement, you mean," Ana hissed. "That I'll be your good little psionic slave in exchange for you not torturing me in front of my parents' eyes."
I don't actually think that I would have the willpower to do that, Minerva thought. So thanks for taking me seriously.
Still, the agreement was dangerous on both ends. Minerva had been surprised to see how much self-control Ana possessed years ago when they made the deal, but the time since had already taken its toll. She had wanted to harness Ana's extraordinary powers to help the universe, but she now worried that she was doing more harm than good. A question surfaced from the depths of her mind, a question that she couldn't quite answer:
How much longer could Ana Aniah last in her current state?
"However you want to put it," Minerva said. "You are a troubled young woman. It comes with meeting Morgan, I suppose."
"You don't give a psych about that," Ana said, shaking her head. Minerva could only imagine that she was sneering under her face mask. "You just care about what she told me."
Nice of you to finally say that, Minerva said. I wouldn't want to reveal that I blew up Aphrodite if you didn't already know it.
"That's how you knew Claus," Ana said. "He comes from Aphrodite, doesn't he?"
…When did she pick up on that?
"Yes," Minerva said. "He knows the truth about me."
"That you blew up an entire psyching planet?" Ana asked. "Show some psyching remorse, will you?"
You'll never know how awful that makes me feel, Minerva thought. But the universe needs me alive and well. It might need you too, which is why I'm trying to keep you in line. I wish that I could show you how I feel, but life doesn't work that way.
"You sound a lot like your mother," Minerva mused.
"Yeah, because she always says what she thinks," Ana said. "And right now, I'm doing that. You're a psyching monster!"
"Maybe I am," Minerva said, "But I am a 'psyching monster' with leverage over you. I believe that it is in your best interest to continue to support me, yes?"
"I can't believe that I'm psyching hearing this," Ana muttered. "I learn that you destroyed an entire planet and you want me to keep supporting you? No psyching way!"
"Is this really so different from before?" Minerva asked, coughing from the smoke-filled air. "You always despised me, Ana. You always feared me."
"I'm so afraid of you that I hallucinated something like this when I touched a psyching orb," Ana muttered. "You know, the one in the school curriculum where someone who touches it sees the person who scares them the most?"
Oh, Minerva thought. That.
For some reason, it made her feel sad that Ana feared her more than any other person in the universe. But that was natural, wasn't it? After what Minerva had done, she didn't have the right to feel surprised.
"What was the point of that, anyway?" Ana asked.
So that I know who everyone fears, Minerva said. At least, unless Agerate lied to me when he wrote down what was on their minds. This year's psions were particularly frightful. Ness feared Diana the most, obviously. The Dalaamian fearing his father was interesting, especially since he didn't actually say anything to defend himself… but Claus' fear scares even me. It's sad that he's so terrified of his twin brother. Although, I'm more scared of Diana than I'll ever admit.
"That doesn't matter," Minerva said. "The point is that I have leverage over you, so telling anyone else about this might not be beneficial to your health, if you know what I mean. And we both know that you don't want to cause the people you love any pain by getting yourself hurt."
Ana drew a shaky breath.
"…Fuck you," she said, her eyes narrowing. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"
Minerva wanted to jump for joy.
"No, you really don't," she said.
"Fine," Ana said. "I won't tell anyone else. I'll pretend like I still support you."
Minerva smiled.
I hate to do this, she thought, But…
Minerva turned on her PSI vision. While she hadn't refined hers to the level that her sister Diana had, she could still read Ana's thoughts quite clearly without using any sort of psionic power that Ana could potentially detect. Most of Ana's thoughts pictured her murdering Minerva in colorful ways. Minerva barely kept from flinching upon seeing what Ana wanted to do to her. She did see that Ana was serious about keeping her word, though… And she hadn't told anyone else yet.
Minerva resisted the urge to sigh in relief as she turned her PSI vision off. Ana cocked her head slightly.
"You seem relieved," she noted.
She's perceptive, Minerva thought. Most people can't read me at all, even when I'm under this level of stress.
"Of course I'm relieved," Minerva said. "If this got out, it would be disastrous for both of us. I don't want that to happen."
"…All right," Ana said. "Now do you have anything else to tell me?"
She feels the atmosphere too, Minerva thought. I want nothing more than to get away from this situation, and she almost certainly feels the same way. It's unbearable.
"No," Minerva said. "I'll leave you alone. Dimension door."
Minerva created a portal to extradimensional space in front of her and hopped in. She then made a portal to her office on Ceres and jumped through. She hardly noticed the clean air or the beautiful decorations as she landed in her office.
I'm free, she thought weakly, standing alone on Ceres.
No more hiding her emotions. No more playing the villain. Here, alone in her room in the capitol building of Ceres, she could be herself. Minerva released all of the tension in her body as she walked around the room. She could smile and not have political enemies use it against her. She could sigh without having to reveal to the world that she needed a way to release her anxiety. She could just stand there without anyone telling her to work harder.
It was the best feeling in the universe.
As Minerva took a deep breath of air, the world in front her started to fade away.
Oh no, she thought, watching her room grow paler and paler. Not this. Not now.
Minerva screamed, but no sound came out. She felt a vague sense of floating away and then… nothing. No sight, no sound, no smell. It felt like her spirit was being torn from her body.
Which wasn't so far from the truth.
Minerva adjusted to her psionic senses quickly, perceiving a massive being in front of her. She always wondered where she was, where this creature's lair was located. This all would have seemed like a dream if it hadn't happened to her several times already. She knew that this entity was somehow cutting the connection between her physical self and her cognitive self in an effort to speak to her cognitive side.
Minerva was no stranger to seeing the cognitive realm; her PSI vision allowed her to do just that on a daily basis. But without the connection to her body, Minerva couldn't experience anything, not in the physical sense. It felt… unsettling, to say the least.
"Hello, Minerva Carpainter," a woman's voice spoke in her head. "Or shall I call you… Forsaken one?"
If Minerva could perceive pain, those words would have hit like a slap to the face. Feelings of uneasiness gripped her, and not just because of the creature talking to her. Unlike Diana, Minerva wasn't comfortable without her physical senses. She wanted to see this thing, not just perceive it with her PSI vision.
"Let me go!" Minerva shouted mentally. "I don't know what you want with me, but-"
"Oh, you do know what I want," the voice spoke, sounding slightly amused. "I want you to find yourself again, Minerva Carpainter. Such wonderful potential, lost in that explosion two years ago. Forgive me if I cannot feel sympathy for you… or them. I've never been very emotional, you see."
"Shut up!" Minerva shouted. "I'm not weak enough to call on something like you for help! How did you even sever my cognitive self from my physical self?"
"You ask that every time," the voice said, seeming exasperated. "And would you mind keeping it down? We don't want Giygas to hear us."
"I don't really care if he does, honestly," Minerva said. "Why should I trust you any more than him?"
"The enemy of my enemy is a friend," the voice said. "Have you ever heard that saying, human leader?"
"Yes, but I don't trust you," Minerva said.
"You don't have to," the voice replied. "Regardless, if you stop your screaming and flailing, then I can tell you why I called you and you can get back into your body more quickly. How does that sound?"
Minerva stopped "screaming and flailing," which she assumed meant quieting her wild thoughts and ceasing her mental resistance. Words that described physical actions didn't translate to the psionic realm very well.
"There," the voice said. "Now, I have to talk to you about the war on Vulcan. You need to end it. As much as I love chaos, this needless destruction is morally wrong and needs to stop."
"Who are you to say anything about morality?" Minerva asked. "You work for Giygas!"
"Were you even listening?" the voice asked. "I work against him. Now, even on a practical level, your war is faulty. You're only alienating yourself further from the Vulcanese. You'll push more of them to extremism by continuing to fight. For every empirist that you kill, you'll persuade two others to take up arms against you. Stop this, human leader. And this message is coming from an agent of chaos."
"Too late," Minerva said.
"It's not," the voice replied. "Call off the war. Say that you won by killing Boras Lorune. Sure, you'll end up going against popular opinion, but it's worth it. Trust me."
"I wouldn't trust you with five dollars at a candy shop," Minerva hissed.
"Let me put it this way," the voice said. "Giygas is waiting for you humans to destroy each other. Do you want to do what he's expecting?"
"You could be lying," Minerva said.
"You're quite stubborn, aren't you?" the voice asked. "Well, I guess that's all for today. I just wanted to tell you how to save the universe. You know, nothing big. When it comes down to it, you'll have to choose who you want to side with, Minerva. You have to decide between Giygas' order or my chaos. And I sincerely hope that you choose chaos. Have a nice day, forsaken one. Maybe I'll have better luck with your sister."
The next second, Minerva returned to her body. Her senses came flooding back to her on overdrive. She could feel the air touch her skin. She could taste the inside of her mouth. She could smell the flowers on her desk.
She didn't care.
Minerva collapsed to the floor, weeping.
"Silence," she whispered, a sound bubble appearing around her.
This was too much! She had to deal with a war, a morally dubious army of immortal soldiers, a rogue chimera, and she had to do it all in a way that the people approved of. That alone was next to impossible, and now an entity that Minerva didn't understand was trying to influence her?
"It's too much," Minerva whispered, tears blinding her vision. "It's too much, it's too much, IT'S TOO MUCH! …I can't take it. I'm barely hanging on as it is. The bombs that I dropped on Aphrodite…" Minerva squeezed her eyes shut. "I can only take it for so long. Two years! Two… Psyching… Years! I have to let it out eventually. I can't… And now I have all of this other shit weighing me down. Wars, negotiations, creatures that I don't understand… how can anyone take it?"
But Minerva had to take it. The universe needed her. There was no other option.
"I want to die!" Minerva shouted. "Please, let me die!"
Naturally, nothing responded.
"Please…" Minerva whispered.
Minerva had to hang on, but she knew that she couldn't. What was she supposed to do?
"I guess I'll just… lie here and cry," Minerva whispered to herself. "I'll just stay here for a little while. Nobody can hurt me, not here. I'm safe to cry. Journalists won't record me; political enemies won't try to kill me. Scream, scream, scream. Cry, cry, cry. That's a good plan."
It did seem like a good plan. While inside the sound bubble that she had just put up, Minerva could scream until her throat was raw and nobody on the outside would be able to hear.