Sorry, guys. I was so tired yesterday that I forgot to post the chapter, even though I wrote out the AN and review responses and everything. What you see below is what I wrote yesterday:
Hey, everyone. :) Still no more progress on actual writing; I might have to take a break after I'm done with this fic to just crank some chapters out for the final installment. That will probably be better than having to balance writing and editing (not that my editing is super great haha).
Anyways, I'm tired from doing vacation stuff with my family (for me, most activities are more mentally than physically straining because I'm always super focused on trying to fix my form and stuff), so if I sound totally dead or make a bunch of mistakes that's why.
Important-ish note: It's been revealed (although I don't know how many of you guys remember this) that Dr. Andonuts has an alter ego named Pan Lorune and is Morgan's brother. This chapter, it is revealed that *spoilers* Dr. Andonuts is actually insane and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. This is a disclaimer that I know how schizophrenia does not split a person into multiple identities. Dr. Andonuts and Pan Lorune are like Mr. Agerate and Diana Carpaitnter. The alter ego is a disguise only and has nothing to do with schizophrenia. So hopefully I won't get a bunch of angry reviewers trying to correct me on this one.
Also, I watched Finding Nemo recently (because my mom had never seen it before), and after doing research on writing and stuff I realized that Finding Nemo is basically a thriller in terms of its plot progression. There's always another chase or attempted escape scene around the corner to keep that heart rate up. xD Still, it was better than I remembered it, even though I don't like thrillers.
And I beat Xenoblade Chronicles! Hopefully I won't get distracted as often now.
I think that's all I have to say. I should probably write the review responses before I drift off to sleep.
Shimo no ko: I mean, Minerva's a pretty vulgar and unstable person. ;) Paranoia tends to happen to people who are often targets (such as presidents like Minerva), and Morgan's a pretty vengeful person, yeah. Yep, Morgan was the one talking to General Kim. Yes, yes, Jeff is going to play a bigger role later in the story, although direct combat isn't much of his thing. Yeah, Voice is a character from City of Progress, and he plays a pretty large role there. Basically, he's Lucas from Mother 3 who travels over to the City of Progress universe where he gets his body hijacked by the Lucas from that universe. It gets complicated. Ah, you're welcome! :) And thanks for sticking with me through all this time! See you! :D
PKtofuMaster: Yep, the cast needed a little thinning out because it was getting too bulky. :( I still managed to introduce quite a few new characters in what I've written of Ceres 3, though. Ah, thanks! I was scared for as second because when someone says "To be absolutely honest..." they usually follow it up with something super harsh. Well, I didn't see the scene with his mother coming either; so I guess it took us both by surprise. :) Yep, Claus angst and I needed to get OP Lucas away from the scene for what happens next... ;) The metal spherical object is a reference to the way that Giygas appears in Mother 1/EB Beginnings. I thought that it would make sense for Giygas' physical body to appear that way. Yeah, sometimes loose plots go well, but sometimes they take a turn for the horrible. I ended up writing a scene that made no sense at all (as in character X doing something OoC just to move the plot along) and just decided to ignore it. I still need to rewrite it, actually...
College orientation was okay. I signed up for classes, which is nice. I'm kicking myself for not having taken the AP Chem test, though... it would have gotten me out of a full 12 credits required for my major and made it so that I could take creative writing classes my freshman year. They only let me place out of one term of Bio. :( And thanks; the writing anxiety does seem to come and go without reason. I wonder if I pushed myself too hard in the period where I wrote 5-8k words consistently every day (seems like an impossible feat now haha). I wouldn't say that I'm mentally stronger than you, though. Lack of mental fortitude is one of my greatest weaknesses (along with the complete inability to multitask). There weren't any high placing Lucases in Smash 4, but Hyperflame got 4th in Project M. My college starts in September, so I'll have time to finish all of this fanfiction stuff up (hopefully).
DarkFoxKit: Yep, Morgan's one sneaky schemer. Yep, same Voice from City of Progress. He's not doing a whole lot, but since he can travel between universes and stuff I thought that it would be cool to put him in here. Especially since he's the restless type and still follows the happenings of the physical realm while most spirits stop caring after a while. Don't fear; the cliffhanger is (pretty much) resolved in this chapter. :)
PSIBoy: Yep, the ending sequence for this fic is initiating and hopefully it turns out well. :) Yeah, those psions aren't super important to the story. They mostly exist to provide exposition and bring up the distrust between psions stuck in situations where they're no harder to kill than a regular person. Yeah, Giygas basically admitted to luring Lucas in, and we'll see if any of the others have global plans and traps. I will say that a group of teenagers aren't the primary targets for such an elaborate scheme, though. :) Yeah, Gerardo's death wasn't really supposed to be emotional, which is probably why you criticized Xiyen's death more. Yep, Poo is just a little too slow. But he'll get his time in the spotlight soon enough. Yeah, Xiyen's death is supposed to feel a little pointless. While psions play their games and move their pawns, innocent people with deep motivations and compelling stories get brushed away like insects. I should have probably made that sense of unfairness more clear in the chapter and I'll try to touch on it in later chapters. Thanks; it's good for me to hear that. :)
Really? The worst cliffhanger in a while? I thought it wasn't that bad considering that Minerva is quite clear about hers and the Aniahs' chances of survival. Yeah, I needed a poison that could kill off a psion like that (because I need to remove Minerva from the story; she provides too much stability to the universe to make things interesting), so I just tacked it onto the Tanetane mushroom. Yep, I wanted to set up the mushrooms with Morgan going to decent lengths to get them first so that it didn't seem too out of the blue. True, Morgan's not really in a great mental state right now, to the point that calling her "insane" might be an insult to people with actual afflictions such as schizophrenia. See you! :)
crabbyTomato: Yeah, multiple universes can work as a story mechanic but even then it's best not to delve in too deeply. Yep, I'm beginning to see what you mean about how closing out a fic is way harder than starting one. I haven't dealt with anything nearly as large as Ceres before, so it's a little more daunting. In City of Progress, the ending scenes were about 2-3 chapters. In Ceres, it could be a whole 10-15 chapters of tying all the loose ends together (Giygas, LOVE, the knives, the Osohe, ect). Yeah, Ana's character is... interesting. Although I honestly feel like most people tend to see others (even loved ones) as parts of personal plans for themselves (more or less). The rest of us just aren't pin-pointing every time we enjoy feeling competent while trying to help others. I could be wrong, though.
Yeah, I pictured a Victorian dress myself... I'm basing a lot of old-fashioned Eagleland on stereotypes from Victorian culture (and I don't think anyone liked that time period haha). Yeah, that was kind of the point. I wanted to show how easily he could just... die. And there was the fact that General Kim probably wouldn't let him live logically, given his character. Yep, Dalaam is basically Southeast Asia with a stronger Chinese influence than anything else. And honestly, I just thought of "Mori Haruki" as a general Japanese name. I didn't put a lot of thought into that line. "Screw Minerva, really." I can't stop laughing at that line. It's like you're saying "Oh yeah. Her. Well, I don't really care." See you! :)
But at the same time, I know that I can't live forever. So what happens when I die? My nuclear warheads are specifically designed so that I can reach out through the psionic realm and control them. Only people with PSI vision can do this, so it's either me or Diana. After we're gone, nobody will hold the starmen back.
Basically, Giygas is free to invade our homes after I die. So why do I keep holding on? It's going to happen eventually. Maybe I should just let go and die.
After all, my happiest moment of my life will probably be my last.
"Hey guys," Voice said, floating around the room in the Shard where Jeff and Diana stood. "I know that you guys are kind of busy, but-"
"Hold it," Jeff said, looking at the screen on the floor.
The Shard's floor displayed a third person view from behind Poo, cloaked and unrecognizable. He stood over the still body of another Dalaamian youth about his age, and Jeff could make out sounds of quiet weeping from the Prince of Dalaam. The cobwebs and dim lighting only added to the dark tone of the scene.
"I think that's Poo's half-brother Xiyen," Diana Carpainter said. "But how did he die? The corpse looks new, but I can't see any wounds on his body."
"Ahem," Voice said, bobbing up and down in front of Jeff and Diana. "I might be able to help. The Shard sometimes tells me things that it wants its visitors to know."
But is it in our best interest to see what the Shard wants us to? Jeff asked. From what I've heard, this place is designed to shatter and scar the people who come here.
"Diana," Voice said. "You may want to check on your sister."
Diana's face paled, although she showed no other reaction. Minerva was at Yazhou, right? If people like Xiyen were getting killed, then it might not spell good news for the President of Ceres. Not danger to her physically, Jeff assumed (for she was essentially invincible), but maybe danger to her mental health or political negotiations?
"All right, Shard," Diana said. "Would you please show me what's happening to Minerva Carpainter?"
The ground changed from showing Poo weeping over Xiyen's corpse to what looked like a party. Festive decorations lined the walls; piles of food lay out on tables. Minerva Carpainter stood at the head of the largest table, her face pale and her limbs shaking. It took a couple seconds for Jeff to truly believe Minerva's frail appearance; what in the universe could weaken her like that?
"Oh my god," Voice said. "TaneTane mushroom poison. Most of them are hallucinogenic, but a rare strand leaves-"
"You don't have to tell me," Diana said, her voice shaking. "I figured out recently that Morgan Lorune killed my father with that poison. There's no way to survive once you've ingested it. My sister is dying."
"But I thought that you hated her," Voice said.
"I don't like how she blew up Aphrodite and created a psionic savant with the potential to kill us all, but I still love her." Diana bit her lip. "When I was growing up in my father's cult, she was the only person who cared about me. It kills me to see her so small and afraid…"
"Do you want to teleport over and help her?" Jeff asked. "Even if it just means saying a few last words to her, I don't think that either one of us can judge."
"It's Shard prohibits teleportation," Diana said. "I would have to take the long way out if I wanted to reach my sister. Even without the differences in oxygen levels from here to Yazhou that would damage my brain if I teleported, I wouldn't be able to reach Minerva before she dies. If she's starting to show symptoms now, she won't last another five minutes."
Divine Rulers, Jeff thought. What would it be like to see someone you love die right before your eyes while you know that there's nothing that you can do? I have no idea what I would do…
But then again, I'm not really close with anyone to begin with.
"And Jeff," Voice said. "You might want to check on your dad."
Jeff's heart skipped a beat. Was Dr. Andonuts on the brink of death as well? If so, Jeff wasn't sure that he wanted to know.
"I don't think he's hurt," Voice said. "But she really thinks that you'll want to know what he's doing."
Who is "she?" Jeff thought. But I guess I'd never be able to forgive myself if I missed this, regardless.
"Okay," Jeff said, walking up to the stained glass pillar in the middle of the room. "Would you please show me what Dr. Andonuts is doing?"
Jeff felt his heart pounding in his chest as the section of the floor started to morph into a scene inside Dr. Andonuts' lab. It showed…
Ninten entered Dr. Andonuts' lab. Inside, papers lay scattered across the floor. Chemicals bubbled on the floor next to shards of shattered glass. Random scribbles and angrily drawn circles of chalk stood out on the blackboard in the back of the room.
In short, the lab looked like a complete wreck. And in the middle of the mess stood Dr. Andonuts itself.
"Ah, more visitors!" the scientist said. "I didn't think that you would choose to come back so soon, Claus. Did you miss me?"
"What the psych is this place?" Claus said. "It was messy when I came here, but not like this."
Claus crumpled up a piece of paper and tossed it into a puddle of chemical solution to prove his point. The ball of paper sizzled and dissolved until nothing remained.
"You see the result of an unbalanced mind," Dr. Andonuts said. "It's been a struggle to stay healthy all of these years, but I think I finally pushed myself over the edge."
"Do you want us to help you?" Ninten asked.
"You couldn't if you tried." Dr. Andonuts barked a laugh. "I don't think you understand what I mean, Ninten. It's still a struggle for you to escape your past, and you had it easier than I did."
"What makes you so sure?" Ninten asked.
"We're the same!" Dr. Andonuts said. "I can see it inside of you, Ninten. The rage. The hate. The fear. The weariness. You want to save this universe, but you know that you can't possibly fight so much hatred. So eventually, you turn into one of the people you despise."
"That's everyone," Claus said. "The difference is that we chose to stand up and fight while you're messing around with devices over here."
"My inventions improved millions of lives," Dr. Andonuts said. "The portable telecommunicators that I made allow people to contact their loved ones from hundreds of miles away. My televisions bring entertainment to the poor. Not everyone can afford plays, you know. And what have you done, ginger? Do you honestly buy into the Aphroditian bullshit that we should only live for our community rather than concerning ourselves with bigger issues? Genocides are allowed to happen when people ignore the world outside their little village."
"I don't," Claus said. "But if inventing is the way that you help the world, then keep going. What I see here doesn't exactly look like a creative environment."
"But I can't," Dr. Andonuts said. "And I don't think that you care very much about me anyways. Why are you two here? Oh wait, I can just read your minds."
Ninten gritted his teeth. He hadn't expected things to go so poorly right off the bat. What would Dr. Andonuts say once he knew their goal?
"…The knives, hmm?" The scientist asked. "Ah, you have Phonus! But why do you want the other two? You don't even know what they can do once you get all three."
Ninten and Claus exchanged a glance. Was Dr. Andonuts crazy, or did he actually know about a special power that required all three knives?
"Ah, I see," Dr. Andonuts said. "These knives have sentimental value to you. Oh, look, you don't trust me with Osohe artifacts. There's the kicker."
"So," Claus said. "How about it? I don't think we have much to trade, but I'm sure that we can arrange something."
"Trade? For priceless artifacts? I don't think you understand, Claus. These are mine, and they hold sentimental value for me as well. Having them here reminds me that there is a worse fate than insanity."
The psionic essences… Ninten thought. My great-grandmother Mary is trapped inside of Dynaldas. It's got to be agonizing to find yourself trapped inside of a crystal like a living amber fossil.
"Well fine," Claus said. "But they're ours, so please give them back."
Dr. Andonuts broke into scornful laughter.
"Now that's funny," he said. "Killing opponents on the battlefield is okay, but stealing their stuff is totally wrong?"
Claus frowned, and Ninten could see the gears turning inside of his head. Considering his self-proclaimed insanity, Dr. Andonuts could put up one psych of an argument. Or maybe Claus and Ninten were just stupid.
"Listen," Ninten said. "We wish to reach a compromise that works for both of us. I understand that the knives mean a lot to you, but they also mean a lot to us. Please, Claus' mom is stuck inside one of those knives."
"And my grandmother is stuck inside the other," Dr. Andonuts said.
Ninten blinked. Were he and the mad scientist… related? After all, Mary was his great-grandmother. And that would explain how Dr. Andonuts knew Morgan so well; maybe they were cousins or siblings.
"So what about it?" Dr. Andonuts asked. "Are you willing to kill someone to get what you want, knowing that Morgan and I spared both of you when you were in our power?"
When Dr. Andonuts phrased it that way, Ninten wasn't nearly so sure.
"Claus," Ninten said. "We don't need those knives, right? I'm starting to think that it might be better to leave him alone."
"And give up on our mission?" Claus asked. "What about getting our family back?"
"You gave up on your mission to kill Lucas, right? I saw you two chatting with each other back in Onett. Sometimes, we just need to let it go."
Claus clenched his fists, his eyes scanning the dysfunctional lab.
"And do you trust him with Osohe artifacts?" he asked.
"I don't," Ninten said. "But intervening now might just make things worse… And I'm not about to kill him just because he stands in my way. I learned from my mistakes."
"My father would be proud," Dr. Andonuts said. "The poor fool gave up his life for you to learn that lesson. I don't think anyone else would have made that trade."
Boras is his father? Ninten thought. That means he must be Morgan's brother. So why do they look so different?
"Dr. Andonuts," Claus said, turning back to the inventor. "I don't think that I can let myself leave this place empty-handed. Not after what I've seen. Somebody needs to step in and get you back on your feet."
"And that person is you?" Dr. Andonuts asked. "Don't make me laugh. You two are already barely holding your own lives together. Just leave me alone and forget that I ever existed."
"That's the exact thing that I can't do!" Claus shouted. "It's what Minerva wants everyone to do about Aphrodite. About my home."
"Are you sure, Claus?" Ninten asked. "If he doesn't want us to step in…"
"Yes, I'm sure! We have to help him. We can't pretend like someone else will solve the situation if we can't; nobody else is going to pass through this godforsaken place."
"And stealing my property will help me how, exactly?" Dr. Andonuts asked.
"We need to teach you how to care about people instead of weapons."
"But you can't," Dr. Andonuts said. "I am an outcast. Nobody else understands me because nobody else has seen what I have."
Dr. Andonuts walked back over to what looked like a metal statue depicting an alien out of a children's book. The statue consisted of a spherical body, stubby legs, a bulbous nose with whiskers, and a ribbon.
The section of the floor that held both the statue and Dr. Andonuts started to rise, supported by a triad of metal wires. After a few seconds, the patch of ground rose far above Ninten's head.
"This is the work of psionic engineering," Dr. Andonuts said, gesturing at the raised ground that he stood on. "You can't reach me up here. And more importantly, you can't reach my most dangerous invention."
"You mean the phase distorter?" Claus asked. "I thought you said that it doesn't do anything."
Ninten raised an eyebrow.
"The thingy behind him," Claus explained, "That looks like it came out of a picture book."
"Well, I lied," Dr. Andonuts said. "The phase distorter does a lot of things. The user can travel through time, if he or she wishes. It's something that I promised myself not to mess with."
"Are you serious?" Ninten said. "That's too psyching dangerous to keep around!"
"I call it my invention, but I really just polished it off," Dr. Andonuts said. "The Osohe made the actual machine, and I can't destroy it. I suppose that I could have teleported it to the bottom of the sea, but I became curious. Soon, I discovered that I could look into alternate dimensions."
"And you're sure that isn't part of your insanity?" Claus asked.
"Yes. I actually do experience both auditory and visual hallucinations, but I've learned to distinguish the real from the fake." Dr. Andonuts shivered. "Living with schizophrenia is something else. It puts me in a state of constant paranoia. I know that you two both fear certain people. You've probably felt a tingling sense that they were… right… behind you."
Ninten barely resisted the urge to look behind him. His father and grandfather would not torment him any longer, psych it!
"I can see that you understand what I mean." Dr. Andonuts' lips formed a bloodless smile. "Now image that you always felt that way. I always see knives lurking around corners and monsters hiding in the shadows. Just imagine going through your entire life never being able to truly relax because your instincts keep telling you that someone's standing right outside your door with an axe. That is the curse of paranoia."
"Why bother explaining it to us?" Ninten asked. "I thought that nobody could ever understand you."
"You're right; I should not have gone off on that tangent." Dr. Andonuts walked circles around the phase distorter on his suspended platform. "But the point is that I can distinguish real from fake. For a time, I calmed the voices in my head. Schizophrenia has a genetic component, you know. I would watch out if I were you, Ninten. But back to the point…" Dr. Andonuts halted. "The alternate dimensions that I saw through the phase distorter were real. I saw their fates over the millennia of their existences. Many universes were quite similar to ours. I saw one where you became the psionic savant instead of your brother, Claus."
"And what?" Ninten said. "Did they all meet tragic ends? Did that make you sad?"
"No, actually. In fact, many of them experienced long times of peace and prosperity. But as I looked through the dimensions, I started to see strange patterns. I synthesized all of the data that I gathered, and all of the universes that I study have uncanny similarities. They all have some form of psionics, and many people with the same personalities pop up in different universes where it makes no sense. It's almost like… someone is pushing on the fabric of the universe itself."
Ninten frowned. He was more inclined to attribute all of Dr. Andonuts' findings to insanity, regardless of the scientist's confidence about his ability to distinguish real from false.
"There are other patterns so subtle that I don't quite know how to describe them. Every time I look into another universe, I can almost see an invisible hand pulling on strings, aligning events so that they work out in the way that it wishes. People say that the world's a stage, and just like in a play we're given predetermined lines."
"And you think that it applies to our universe as well?" Claus asked. "That there's some mastermind nudging us towards some sort of goal?"
"Exactly," Dr. Andonuts said. "But it doesn't matter if I'm right or not, since we might not survive the hour. You can sense them too, can't you?"
Now that he mentioned it, Ninten could detect a mass of distant psionic auras besides Claus' (he assumed that Amourus masked Dr. Andonuts' aura). A few seconds later, several dozen starmen appeared in the laboratory, firing off lasers.
"Here they come!" Dr. Andonuts shouted, waving Dynaldas and Amourus in the air. "They sense the presence of all three knives in one place, and they want to make sure that it doesn't stay that way."
So something dangerous happens when the three knives are held together? Ninten thought. He made a similar comment before, but it could still be a ruse…
"So you didn't call these starmen yourself?" Claus asked, unslinging his sword.
"Maybe I did," Dr. Andonuts said. "What does it matter to you?"
Ninten looked down the army of starmen in front of him. Now was not the time to ponder the meaning of the attack.
Now was the time to fight for his life.
After Morgan's entrance, the king and other Dalaamian nobles flooded out through another exit in the room.
"Call weapon," Ana hissed, a massive axe made of green ectoplasm appearing in her hand.
"This is too psyching perfect," Morgan said, smiling at Minerva. "The greatest schemer of all gets caught in another's web."
"Ugh… what the psych?" Megan asked, grabbing onto a table and standing up. "We never poisoned those goddamn cookies."
"Didn't I say that I wiped your memory?" Morgan said. "What happened yesterday at noon?"
"Don't know," Adam said, standing up alongside his wife. "It's like there's a hole whenever I try to think about it."
It killed Ana to see her parents so weak. All of her life, she knew that she could rely on them if something ever went wrong. But here they were now: pale, shaking, and hardly able to stay standing. She walked over to support them and saw the fear in their eyes. Psions lived with the knowledge that they were extremely difficult to kill. Whenever they got themselves into a dangerous situation, they could just teleport away and stall any lethal damage until later.
But for Megan and Adam Aniah, there was nowhere left to run.
"That's when I poisoned the cookies," Morgan said. "And you two let me erase your memories so that Minerva wouldn't be able to read your minds and tell. You knew that you would die, but you did it anyway."
"Heh," Minerva said. "It's probably true. She isn't powerful enough to erase your memories by force. Besides, this was how she killed my father, so I'm sure that she had the process perfected."
"No!" Megan said. "We wouldn't betray you! Listen to me, Minerva. I'm your psyching friend! We share so many good memories… Tell me why I would ever want to give you up!"
Ana looked into her mother's eyes. Megan Aniah was on the verge of tears.
"Please believe me," Megan whispered. "I would never do this to you."
"I think that you would," Minerva said, "If you knew half of what your daughter does about me. Did you tell them the truth, Morgan?"
"I did." Morgan put on her signature doll-like smile. "Believe it or not, they were willing to forgive you for nuking Aphrodite and for founding those chimera labs."
Minerva's eyes lit up.
"Indeed," Morgan said. "What pushed them over the edge was how you treated Ana. How you went behind their backs and shoved her into becoming your successor. How you hurt her and beat her and pushed her further than she was willing to go."
Minerva closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Ana knew that all of Morgan's accusations were true.
"Did you really poison the food because of me?" Ana asked.
"Don't know," Megan said, smiling in spite of her impending death. "I guess my memory got wiped, so I can't psyching tell. But if I did do it for you… then I suppose it wasn't such a bad decision after all."
"Agreed," Adam said. "You mean so much to us. If I found out that President Carpainter was abusing you on top of these crimes that she supposedly committed, then I can see why I went down that road."
"It was a fucking horrible decision!" Ana shouted. "I had everything taken care of!"
Ana resisted the urge to look away from her parents' horrified expressions. She couldn't back down now, not when it really mattered.
"Oh, really?" Morgan asked. "Then why did you barf up nearly everything you ate for a year? Why did you turn to stabbing yourself over and over just to gain some control over your pathetic little life?"
Minerva gasped.
"Ana," she said. "Did you really do that to yourself?"
"I was fine," Ana said, her voice turning to iron. "Nobody needed to die because of me."
"Ana," Megan said. "Please don't talk like that. If you had told us about this earlier…"
"Then Minerva would have murdered you in front of my eyes!" Ana shouted. "Don't you get it? We're tools! We're replaceable! Minerva Carpainter doesn't give a psych about anyone except for her own fucking self!"
Minerva opened her mouth to respond but collapsed to the floor instead, wheezing and coughing.
"The poison will take her soon," Morgan said. "How long will you stay standing, old friend?"
"Ana," Megan said, ignoring Morgan's comment. "I'm sorry that you can't agree with us, but I think that we killed ourselves for a noble cause." Megan coughed up blood. "I'll… see you in heaven, all right?"
Megan Aniah collapsed to the ground. Her chest rose up and down, indicating that she was still alive. Her eyes fluttered, alternating between closing and opening.
"No!" Ana shouted. "You're not going to die! Please, mom…"
"I'm sorry," Megan said. "But I think that Morgan's telling the truth. If Minerva really did do all of those things, then somebody needed… to take… care…"
Megan closed her eyes. This time, they didn't open back up after a few seconds.
"Megan!" Adam shouted, trying to take a step forward and tripping to the ground. "Please, speak to us!"
"Aw, isn't this sweet?" Morgan asked. "And you even brought it upon yourselves! Even I can't believe that I came up with a plan this perfect."
"Go fuck yourself, Morgan," Ana growled. "And then commit suicide once you find out that you can't actually fuck yourself. And while you're at it, change your name to Narcissus."
"Ana," Adam said, shaking uncontrollably. "I don't think that I can last much longer. Please… forgive me."
Adam drew a shaky breath.
"Dad…" Ana said, leaning over Adam. "Why did you have to do this?"
"Because…" Adam wheezed. "You needed… to be… free…"
Adam Aniah fell unconscious, lying next to his wife. Ana tried to muster up sympathy but only found a numbed sense of outrage.
"So this is how it ends," Ana said. "I thought psions were supposed to be hard to kill."
"That's the secret to the universe," Morgan said. "Everything dies. Everything fades. Entropy shall consume us all."
"I barely know what you're saying," Ana said, tightening her grip on her axe. "But I'm pretty sure my response no matter what is 'You're going to die today.'"
"You want to fight me?" Morgan asked. "Oh, how lovely! I've always wanted to tear your pretty little head off of its shoulders."
"Come at me, freakshow."
Morgan and Ana unleashed psychokinetic explosions that scarred the room itself. Even though the castle was made of stone, the repeated bursts of energy coming from both parties left noticeable dents in the walls and floor. Ana slung fire, ice, and shot beams of energy while Morgan propelled stones and knives forward with her psychokinesis.
Even though Ana's powers carried a larger destructive force than Morgan's stones, Ana found herself giving up more and more ground to the empirist psion. Morgan weaved in powerful explosive attacks into her attack patterns, constantly keeping Ana on edge. While Ana packed more firepower, Morgan found ways to use her psionics in clever ways to bridge the gap between the two.
"Why not pull out your strongest powers?" Ana asked. "I can teleport away any time I want, you know."
"I'm quite aware." Morgan adopted a condescending smile. "My psionics are likely weaker than yours, since I lost a lot of my strength after overchanneling once. It was the price I had to pay to save my village from Minerva's destructive fingertips."
After a few minutes, Ana felt her stores of psionic energy start to run low. She charged towards Morgan with her axe in her hands, determined to force Morgan into expending more of her energy on healing rather than offense. Right before she reached Morgan, a boulder fell from the ceiling and smashed into Ana's head, knocking her over.
Ana's head swam with pain as she tried to heal herself. In the back of her mind, she realized that someone was restraining her. By the time that she regained her senses, she found Morgan pinning Ana's hands to the ground with her knees.
"And there it is," Morgan said. "The reckless charge. Don't you know that we've come further than that in our combat strategy? You really do never use that head of yours."
"Why do you hate me so psyching much?" Ana said, struggling to free herself.
"Because you live with perfect relatives and great opportunities while still finding ways to feel overwhelming amounts of self-pity. It's disgusting how hard you think your life is when you're actually on the easiest track possible."
"Don't you think I know that?" Ana asked. "I don't inflict harm on myself because I think that the world is out to get me. I inflict harm on myself because I know that I should be doing better."
"That doesn't make me hate you any less." Morgan wrinkled her nose. "I was hoping that you would eat the cookies and die with your parents, but I guess this will have to do. Any last words?"
Morgan summoned an ectoplasmic knife and held it up to Ana's throat. Ana stared her down, unwilling to show weakness in the face of certain death. The last thing she could do was to not give Morgan the satisfaction of watching her squirm.
"It's not fucking over," Ana heard from across the room.
Morgan's hands went up to her chest in surprise, which meant that her knife was no longer stationed at Ana's throat. Ana looked to the side to see Minerva Carpainter standing up without any support. Her back was hunched over and she took heavy breaths; her skin looked like a sheet of crumpled paper and limbs shook like twigs.
But Minerva Carpainter was alive and standing.
"Oh, such a valiant attempt at survival," Morgan said. "Don't you know that you're a dead woman walking?"
In response, Minerva summoned an ectoplasmic glove on her hands. Claws sprouted at the end of her gloved fingers, making her look like a corny superhero from a television show. Without flinching, Minerva Carpainter used the claws on her gloved hands to dig into the flesh of her lower abdomen.
Then she tore her own stomach out of her body.
Ana nearly barfed as Minerva's guts went flying across the floor. Minerva didn't even blink, proceeding to manifest a psionic power. Little black specks from her guts on the floor flew towards Minerva's fingers and gathered themselves into a black droplet that floated over her palm.
"Clever," Morgan said, "Trying to rip the poison out of your body by force. Unfortunately for you, much of it has already seeped into your muscles and nervous system. You're still going to die just like Ana's parents."
"You misunderstand me," Minerva Carpainter said, her voice surprisingly clear. "Survival is not my goal."
Minerva let the floating droplet of Tanetane mushroom poison fall onto her right pointer finger.
"Then wha…" Morgan's eyes widened in realization.
Morgan started to move her hands in an attempt to warp away. Before she could finish, Minerva teleported over and rammed her pointer finger up Morgan's nose, poison and all. Morgan screamed as Minerva shoved her finger further in.
"No!" Morgan shouted. "I… I swallowed the poison! No!"
Minerva shoved her finger further up Morgan's nose, a look of grim determination on her face. Morgan wrenched Minerva's finger out of her nose.
"I refuse to believe this!" Morgan said with panic that couldn't be faked. "There… has to be something that I can do."
"What did you say about a schemer being caught in another's web?" Minerva asked, collapsing to the floor. "It looks like you got caught in your own."
"WHYYY?" Morgan asked, screaming to the ceiling. "Why… me…?"
"It's hard to come to terms with death, isn't it?" Minerva said. "To be honest, I don't take joy in your suffering. I never wanted you to die. And I certainly don't blame you for killing me."
"If you didn't want me to die, then why did you murder me?" Morgan demanded.
"Because you were about to kill Ana," Minerva said. "We both got our chances and we fucked it up in the most amazing way possible. But she didn't even get that. She… deserves to get a fair shot."
"I will not believe that any of this is happening to me!" Morgan said. "Teleport!"
Morgan Lorune vanished from sight. Ana realized that she had been holding her breath and exhaled. After the raw energy of her psionic battle and the sound of Morgan's screams, Ana didn't know how to respond to the room's eerie silence. After a moment of contemplation, Ana turned back to the President of Ceres.
"Wow," Ana said, kneeling down next to Minerva. "She basically ignored you. Everything has to be about her, doesn't it?"
"Ah, careful," Minerva wheezed. "You probably don't want my innards staining those nice robes of yours."
"Give me a break. You just saved my life!" Ana caught herself yelling and took a deep breath. "Thank you."
"I mean everything that I said. You deserve a real chance, not one that I fucked up for you. This is the least that I can do. Besides, don't you hate me?"
"I do," Ana said. "But I can't stop myself from feeling bad."
"Heh…" Minerva coughed. "I know what you mean. I felt that way when I ordered my father's death. But it doesn't matter anymore. And don't worry about Morgan, either. There's not an antidote to that poison in this whole psyching universe. She won't hurt anyone ever again."
"I'm sorry," Ana said.
"Sorry for what?" Minerva asked.
"Sorry that you had to die like this."
"Save your sympathy for someone who deserves it. I'm psyching happy that life is finally over. For the last couple of years, I could only think about making sure that nobody discovered what I did. I wasn't even living, really. I guess I was just waiting to die all this time." Minerva closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Psych, this feels so good. I can finally let go of everything."
"Every day, I fantasized about killing you," Ana said. "But now that you're dying, I don't know that I want to see you leave. If you were the same person in the office that you are now, the universe could be an amazing place."
"No," Minerva said, opening her eyes and looking at Ana. "I haven't changed since then. I'm still a demolitionist, someone who destroys one thing in order to preserve another. I'm not proud of killing Morgan to save you, and neither am I proud of dropping nuclear bombs on Aphrodite in an attempt to save the universe. It's just more of the same."
"No, it's different," Ana said. "You bombed Aphrodite out of fear. You killed Morgan out of a desire to help."
"Ah, Ana, didn't you tell me once that only the results matter?" Minerva asked. "I still have more blood on my hands either way." Minerva barked a weak laugh that eventually turned into a coughing fit. "I guess the negotiations with Dalaam are out the window. Monotoli will probably become the new president since your parents aren't going to make it… Don't trust his lying ass. His campaign on Vulcan was a disaster, even with you and your friends trying your damndest."
"I never have trusted him, and I don't think that I ever will."
"Good, good. Don't be afraid to stand up to him, all right? I still see the potential that I saw in you all of those years ago. I think you're more similar to me than you think. Please, don't let your fear make you stupid."
Ana bit her lip. What was she supposed to say to that?
"Well… The world's growing black," Minerva said. "I think it means I have to go soon." Minerva smiled more sincerely than Ana had ever seen before. "I finally get to die."
Minerva heaved a final breath and closed her eyes. If her stomach weren't torn open, it would almost look like she was sleeping. Ana realized then why that description was so cliché; it was simply the first comparison that came to mind. Ana walked back over to her parents and took their heartbeats. Nothing. She took their hands and clasped them over the crosses that they always wore around their necks.
Please, God, Ana thought. If you do exist, please make sure that they're okay. I think that you're not super cool with suicide, but can't you see what they were trying to do? I don't approve of it, and you don't have to, but at least they tried, right?
At least they tried. That was a phrase that Ana had never before believed. If someone failed, then it was the same as not trying. The consequences were the same, after all. It affected the people around them in the same way.
…But did it? Because even though Ana wished that her parents hadn't started this whole mess, she couldn't hate them too much when they tried their hardest. Was that how other people saw her? Is that why Ninten still wanted to help her, even though she was a pathetic excuse for a friend?
Those were tricky questions, and not one that Ana had the answers to. She took Minerva's pulse and found nothing as well. Strange that the president should die so soon after falling unconscious. Maybe Minerva used up every ounce of energy to kill Morgan and speak with Ana so that her body couldn't even power her basic functions. As Ana walked out of the room, she took one last look at the president's corpse sprawled on the floor.
Minerva was still smiling.