RJ and Martin:
Chapter 35: The Second Strike
Ronilda's mind was still shut from the experiment her body was dealing with. For every ounce of MMP that got drained out of her, it kept refueling and the physical pain endured.
At one point of the endless torture, Ronilda finally ignored her pain. Soon, her eyes opened and she was back in a world of darkness outlined in blue. But for some reason, instead of seeing herself in her containment and wired, she saw herself in some kind of palace. What it was made of, she couldn't tell, but the way it looked suggested that it was carved out rather than built out of foundations. Faint voices were heard arguing at the end of the hallway she was in, so she followed the trail of torches to some giant door. Ronilda wasn't sure if she should knock or open the door, but once she saw her hand phasing through the solid barrier, she shrugged and walked her way through.
Ten beings were arguing in what looked like a throneroom, none of them noticed her presence. The beings didn't seem to be humans. Well, they had humanoid limbs, but they had other strange anatomies. Their heads had appendages built up to create shapes out of the different unique materials each had, their shoulders, wrists, and ankles had spikes growing from them, and each being had its body and eyes glowing in a different color. It took Ronilda only a few minutes to realize that these beings were the space gods.
Her link with Royal must be causing her to see his past memories.
Ronilda spotted the past memory of Royal. His blue glowing form was the only one sitting to the others standing. He wore some kind of armor carved out of a thousand glowing crystals, covering most of his body, his skin was as dark as outer space, and his crown was made of a mass of crystals and glowing stars, it almost looked like his head was growing a volcano pouring gemstones instead of lava. Unlike his fellow gods, he seemed to want to avoid speaking. No, he looked depressed and was stroking some kind of glowing red rock that rested on his laps.
"Brother, we need your word on the matter," one of the other gods spoke up at last. Ronilda couldn't tell if it was a female or a male; the robe and headdress the divinity wore were made of some metal carved out to resemble human bones gathered to make a thousand spider legs. "With Violet sealed away in that black hole and Crimson now gone, we need to know what you think we should do. The frustration of Violet has plagued the mortals, I fear corruption and negativity are now part of their natures."
"It must be how they decided to split their essences into shards," Ronilda realized. Luckily, nobody in the memory heard her. She looked back at Royal, who was still stroking that red stone and looking miserable and inattentive to the other gods. Ronilda wasn't sure why he wasn't paying attention until she remembered what Kronos and the other god had said.
Crimson and Royal were consorts.
Crimson now gone.
"Crimson must have died when they were up against Violet," Ronilda gasped, feeling pity for the king of the gods.
"Give our brother and king some space, can't you see that the loss of Crimson has pained him?" A brown-glowing goddess chided the others and placed a hand on Royal's shoulder. "My apologies. The situation is tensing them."
"Can you blame them, Cedar?" Royal sighed. "My brothers and sisters, I must confess. Our new problem has gone to heights that not even I can handle. I've been tricked by my own benevolence. Maybe Violet was right... maybe mortals are not as harmless as we envisioned them."
Half of the gods nodded in consent. The other half shook in disagreement. "But it's not the mortals' fault!" A small goddess, with glowing white pearls making her hair, protested. "Violet corrupted them against their will!"
"Sure, Pearl." An indigo god made of glass said mockingly. "She corrupted them, and even though being banished to a black hole has freed them, a quarter of the mortal population is fighting to destroy our temples, execute our priests and priestesses, and melt our statues to make weapons!"
Royal straightened on his chair. Ronilda quietly watched and listened as her god turned to the gray one. "Iron, as the god of age, what is your opinion on the matter?"
"Both parties are right on the matter," Iron said. "Pearl and her supporters believe firmly that the mortals are mere victims of Violet's influences of frustration, which is true. But banishing her and forbidding her of a physical form has kept her from manipulating them, we let time pass, and we see that the mortals are still reacting out of free will. Don't get me wrong, it is a good thing that they are learning to care for themselves and improving on their methods of survival, but as they learn to survive, they learn to evolve, and as they learn to evolve, they choose to stray off from the gods."
"And with Crimson gone, the mortals spread hatred between each other," an orange colored god, with the motif of branches carved out of topazes and tiger's eyes, spoke up. "If they do not evolve so much to the point that they'd downright kill us, how long do we have until they lead to their own extinctions? How much time do we have before there's the rise of genocides, slavery, discrimination, murders, and individual harassment?"
"And how much time we might have left before these mortals decide that they are meant to be gods and choose to steal our essences?" Iron nodded.
Royal stomped his hand on his throne, getting the attention from the other guards. Ronilda never imagined he'd get so angry while he kept holding the red rock in his hands. "We already lost two goddesses through betrayal and murder. This will never happen again!"
"What should we do then?" Cedar asked.
"Do you remember how we went in hibernation until we finally reincarnated from the forms of full humanoids?"
"The shard expelling? Again?" The indigo colored god groaned.
"Yes, the shard expelling again," Royal glared at the indigo colored god.
"Isn't it supposed to be for emergencies?" Pearl asked.
"This is an emergency. We will once again split our essences into shards and spread them throughout the universe. But this time, have your largest chunks sent on a specific planet that can turn it into an artifact. Only a worthy one can wield the powers of your essence, and the worthy one's firstborn will be your host. If two or three of you have gone through the three strikes, that means we were right about mortals. Our pantheon must be revived to cleanse and reborn once more."
"But as our king, you can only split in two shards." Pearl pointed out.
"I'll crush the smallest and send the biggest to that planet I've been building in the Milky Way. The mortals there aren't fully corrupted yet."
The world of the memory dissolved around Ronilda and transformed to what seemed like the current reality. Ronilda knew that it wasn't real since she didn't have wires draining her and she wasn't floating in fluids. The containment glass was gone, but she found no reason to get up and leave. She just sat and admired the darkness surrounding her.
She felt someone sitting next to her. Since she felt like she was sitting next to rocks, she knew who sat next to her.
"How come I'm seeing your memories?" Ronilda asked Royal.
"Probably because I've been recalling them too much to think about certain things."
"I'm sorry about your consort."
Royal spoke as if he was forcing himself to remain composed and avoid crying. "I missed my love so much, I only managed to preserve her heart."
"That rock you were holding? You know, 'heart of stone' is taken a little too literally here..."
"Normally, she could split her essence in ten, and her heart was not even the biggest piece."
"Now I feel stupid."
"Don't be. Crimson and I had a good relationship. It broke me to be apart from her, I risked bringing her heart with me when I had to send my essence to Earth. As I stayed dormant, waiting for my right host, her heart had been consumed by Toshimu and his descendants got Crimson's aspects of Mystical Monkey Power."
"Crimson had an influence on..." Ronilda slapped herself. "Of course, it makes sense! I have blue MMP because of you, but the Fiskes have red MMP because of Crimson!" She paused. "But... that can't mean that Martin is her host. Does it?"
"I've been trying to think about it. It's highly possible, but I'm not sure. Crimson doesn't seem to have responded at all to her having a host, unlike me. She might just be sleeping her eternity away for all I know."
"OK, we need to think of a plan." Ronilda got into her thinking pose. "A, how do I get out. B, go on Earth and kick some alien butt. C, given the circumstances, what to do to avoid alien gods destroying mortals?"
"It's more of replacing than destroying. You know how you mortals have these stories about some man putting his family on a boat while his god floods the world or how some siblings threw rocks behind them to sprout men and women? That's kind of our cleansing plan."
"But you can't just remake mortals out of scratch! I mean, sure, you are correct about their faults, but isn't there a way to be more diplomatic? Some mortals still need to evolve, it's the only way they can embrace change. Do you know how long it took humans to embrace equality between genders, races, and religions?"
"3 centuries, 2000 years, and too many eras. You humans really take a much longer time to evolve." The god shrugged. "But that's where you come in. You're my host, and you must take charge. If some of my kind have been located in mortal forms, it means that our pantheon must be gathered. The mind of the mortal plus the powers of the gods should give you the edge you need to avoid total razing of the mortals."
"But I don't want to play god!" Ronilda complained.
"Whether you are willing or not, one of the methods will have to be applied."
Ronilda groaned. "OK, fine! If you help me out and I end the alien invasion, I do what you want?"
"And in return, I can give you an old ritual that would allow you to extract me out of you." This stunned Ronilda at the possibility of being normal. "I must warn you. The price will cause you some time away from home. Even I am not sure when you'll return."
"I'll have to leave Earth?" Ronilda gulped.
"Maybe for just half a year... but if I hit the third strike... It would be forever."
Ronilda sighed and got up. "Fine. I'll do it."
"Good. FYI, you'll have to raise your body temperature to explode those wires."
Ronilda wasn't sure why he said that, but then it made sense after further thought. Royal had disappeared, so she sat down in a Lotus pose, closed her eyes, and took deep breaths. I am made of fire, I am made of fire, she thought. Her mental self began to glow in a blue fire that got higher in heat and wider in flames, but her physical body began to grow a blue aura that enlarged by the second. The wires draining her couldn't take the heat and began to explode like miniature fireworks, causing her glass containment to break. Green fluids splashed into the darkness.
Ronilda lied on the floor, her body severely burned. The dark areas began to lighten on her skin and she felt her body lift up back on its feet. Her eyes opened to see herself free.
"Huh. I don't feel different..." Ronilda stepped off the platform of her containment and nearly slipped. When her hands grabbed on to something to keep her balance, she froze.
Her skin was as blue as when she glowed, only it looked like this time, the cool pigmentation was permanent. She picked up a glass shard from the floor: aside from her skin, her ginger blonde hair was royal blue-colored and reflecting light, meaning each strand was made of very thin crystals, and her hazel eyes were now icy blue.
"I guess now I know what it's like for your skin to turn blue when you're evil," Ronilda said passively. She threw the shard away, but she did not hear it hit the floor. Rather, it sounded like something else caught it.
Something that was made of metal.
Royal told her something in the back of her head. "Wow. No wonder I thought you were creepy by appearing in weird places, Helga Ottoski," she spoke. "I'm sorry, Iron."
The glass shard moved forward into the light, accompanied by the one holding. It was Helga Ottoski. As she walked towards Ronilda, she began to physically change: she got taller and younger from the upper body to her toes, but she still kept the face of the old crone. Her rags' threads began to weave themselves into a more modern dress made of thousands of spider legs carved out of metal human bones. Her human legs kept the flesh, but the feet were as grey and as solid as the metal she was made of. She kept the hair and wore a small crown of the previously listed material. Her human eyes were now solid gray.
Helga/Iron swung her stick, turning it into an iron scepter. "Well, brother... or sister..." The reincarnated god paused. "Are you Royal talking through his host or are you still Ronilda Stoppable?"
"Why didn't you mention when we first met that I hosted a god?" Ronilda demanded. "Or that you were one?"
"I had to make sure it was you. I was still having a hard time determining if you were a host or your father was, but after witnessing you reviving that Englishman, my doubts were confirmed." Ronilda took a step back and almost fell before Iron caught her hand and pulled her back up. "Frankly, I agree with Royal. You were a better choice."
"But... what about Helga? How come I didn't sense her the way I..."
"The way you sensed Ruba Kala as Violet's host? Quite simple: you and Ruba aren't fully reincarnated. I, on the other hand, have reincarnated from Helga Ottoski for a long time. Since I could split my essence into six shards, I sent my biggest one on Earth in the hopes of finding and reviving my brother and king. Not so different to your family's history, my shard has been turned into an artifact, an iron star of David pendant, and passed down to every generation in the Ottoski family. I waited until I could find a member with the right age and purity, and I found it in Helga Ottoski."
"Age and purity?"
"She was eight when World War II started, I knew she'd need me as a mature companion, considering what was doomed to happen to her family after she boarded on the Kindertransport. Granted, I thought she'd be more mature when handling the news of their deaths. I tried to warn her, but she repeatedly tried to commit suicide... her third attempt was the last."
"And enter Helgiron?" Ronilda arched an eyebrow.
"Helgiron..." The god contemplated with a smile. "I actually like that."
"Look, I know what you're going to tell me. Your attempt to convince me to jump off a drop tower? You wanted me to fully reincarnate. Well guess what? I talked with Royal. I agreed that I'd try to resolve that 'problem' you gods have my way... unless the third strike hits. And in return, he'll give me what I need to free myself of him."
"So sacrificial you are, Royal," Helgiron mused before going back to Ronilda. "You do know that even if he pulls himself out of you, spending enough time in you will give him the codes he needs to make his own body? Royal will just reincarnate, in you or not."
Ronilda said nothing. So why did she feel like she was hurting?
Be cautious, Royal said. I know Iron. He may be the god of age, but he's crafty.
"That's mean," Helgiron commented as he telepathically heard Royal and began to pace around Ronilda. "All I'm saying Ronilda is that your intentions are good, but your ambitions are low. You think it's a mere coincidence that people like you, Ruba Kala, Helga Ottoski, and somewhat Martin Fiske, are chosen to be reincarnations of extra-terrestrial gods? We could have just reincarnated in any mortal. Destiny chooses us for a reason." Helgiron placed his cold hand under Ronilda's chin and lifted it up so that she could look at him. "You were destined to become Royal's host, thus you are destined to become the new queen of the gods. You'd become Royilda."
"Yeah, now you're just copying me."
"Do you understand my point?" Helgiron asked dismissively.
Ronilda bit her lip. "I don't know... I don't want... I don't know what I don't want anymore."
"I do. You don't want to be shut out from others. You do not want to be seen as inferior. You don't want relatives who force you into living a life that is not one you desire." Helgiron let go of her and held out his hand, hoping that she'd grab it. "Be the goddess you were meant to be. With our brothers and sisters gathered to execute every law you establish, your creatures to serve you, and the mortals to grovel before you, you will be free. As the reincarnation of the god of power, power is freedom!"
Ronilda frowned. "I'm not sure..."
"And since the Fiske lad happens to be the unaware host of Crimson, you could bring him along."
And Ronilda was officially lost.
Back on Earth
The battle was getting intense on Earth. The humans were giving their best shots at the alien artillery, but the battle proved to be too difficult with the alien pods and weapons enhanced by MMP. The Fiskes had to go around, enhancing their allies' weapons with MMP so that Drakken's vines could have better shots at strangling the pods to death or for Killigan's golf balls to explode some robots. Many were engaged fighting against Wardeth, Diamona, and Flora, but Martin was primarily focused on fighting Ruba.
He ended up understanding why Ronilda found herself in a tie while fighting Ruba. The latter underestimated nothing. If Martin tried throwing her a kick in the stomach, she'd dodge and strike him on the side. If he tried to trap her in a headlock, she'd flip him over. Martin didn't dare waste his MMP on her, preferring a hand-to-hand combat. More than twenty to thirty minutes of combat, he was now lying on the wet floor of a UN bathroom with most of the toilets and sinks destroyed and the pipes creating a water display.
"I must admit, I'm somewhat impressed." Ruba snickered. She sliced off a pipe with her claws and twisted it until she had created her own form of club (the kind you use for a weapon). "You've lasted longer than ten men combined."
"I've heard better compliments." Martin's ribs hurt badly, but he still leaned on the wall to support himself as he stood up.
"I see two options here." Ruba filed her nails with her pipe club, making sparks fly. "I either kill you or you just surrender. You humans don't stand a chance against Wardeth and his invasion."
"Ronilda will stop him!" Martin snapped.
Ruba frowned. "Still loyal to her? But she's the daughter of your parents' worst enemies!"
"Yes, my parents hate Team Possible... but just like me, they came to care for Ronilda. She didn't deserve the treatment her biological family gave her!"
Ruba clutched on to her club, only now she looked like a frightened child holding on to her teddy. "I don't understand! Why aren't any of you being what your parents have destined you to be? Why is a Fiske a nice person and Ronilda Stoppable a psychopath?"
"She's not a psychopath!" Martin took advantage of Ruba's confusion, grabbed the club off her hands, and kicked Ruba into a cabinet. "But that's just the thing about you, isn't it? You don't underestimate humans, but you still don't understand their natural behaviors."
"I understand enough those who have been enhanced by the gods!"
An crack got their attention. They turned and saw that the mirror in the bathroom suddenly changed its material from glass to crystals. The crystals moved to create two big hands that pinned Martin and Ruba onto the floor. Just then, the sounds of explosions echoed from outside.
"What was that?" Martin exclaimed.
"That would be me."
Two figures stepped out of the mirror's framing.
"R...Ronilda?" Martin choked when he saw the blue-skinned version of his beloved.
"No!" Violet shouted through Ruba's mouth at the metal demon with the face of Helga Ottoski standing behind Ronilda. "I should have known you were behind this! Royal, get some sense into you for once!"
"She's Royilda and you'll treat her with better respect!" Helgiron snapped her fingers. All the metals in the area pulled themselves in to create two cages moving on giant spider legs. 'Royilda' flung her hand, forcing Ruba and Martin to land and get trapped in the cages. "Don't worry. You two will be safe."
"Just until we destroy whatever is unworthy on Earth," Royilda shrugged. "Then we'll all be on our merry way back to where we came from."
"Royal, you can't do this again!" Violet snapped and had Ruba's hands shake the bars vigorously. "You can't let Iron... I mean, Helgiron guide you again!"
"Why should I believe you?" Royilda said indifferently.
"I'll make sure to deal with them, Your Majesty." Helgiron curtsied before Royilda.
"Thank you," she said. "I have some unfinished business with the Lorwardian and my filthy mortal parents." Royilda stepped inside the mirror frame and disappeared.
"All this time," Martin scowled at Helgiron, "Helga Ottoski the traumatized Holocaust survivor from Netherfield was just another space god?"
"Like I already told Ronilda before she became Royilda, Helga Ottoski was my host whom I eventually permanently reincarnated."
"Because you knew fully well that Royal would find himself a host sooner or later!" Violet snapped.
"Wait, I'm confused." Martin shook his head and pointed at Helgiron and Ruba-being-used-by Violet-to-speak. "Are you two both bad guys and is the Lorwardian just a mere pawn?"
"There's no such thing as bad or good people," Helgiron let out an odd smile. "There's just... those who knows what's best for the gods and then the insects they squash on."
"So you're the bad guy." Martin said drily. He turned to face Ruba. "But I thought Violet was the evil one."
"Oh, believe me, it's easier to blame the aggressive goddess of frustration than the patient, reliable god of age."
"Patient my butt!" Violet spat. She turned to Martin. "Yes, I did corrupt mortals. But what the mortals never realized was that this isn't the first time this has happened! Everytime, the gods keep recreating mortals and treating as nothing more than docile livestock in desperate need of divine shepherds to guide them, and everytime I keep trying to get it to their heads that evolution should not be something forbidden to the mortals!" Violet went silent and Ruba came back. "But if you've been awake since World War II... did you purposely set up events to make sure that Royal's host would awaken?"
"Very good!" Helgiron clapped his metallic hands, making it sound like a cracked clock's ticking. "Since gods can only reincarnate in the children of those who are truly worthy of the gods' powers, I knew I'd first have to find the Ultimate Master of Royal's energy. It took me a while, but eventually, sometime around the end of the 1980s, I became aware of a group of Japanese warriors who were becoming increasingly concerned about 'the rise of the one born in the line of the kind European Jewish man' and that 'his contrast would reveal the keys to the worthy's powers'."
"Buffy said that the Yamanouchi ninjas gave a tea full of Royal's essence to a child from the Stoppable line during the rise of Protestants," Martin realized. "The keys must have been the Jade Idols my father found."
"Coincidence or pure engineering?" The humans' widened their eyes at the god. "Yes. As the god of age, I know how to manipulate mortals depending on the sanity level their ages provide them. With Monty Fiske, all I had to do was indulge on his thirst of knowledge and power to get him his fanatical, primate behavior and excavating the Jade Idols. Though it wasn't part of my strings, fate had Ron Stoppable be Kim Possible's sidekick, so I convinced Monkey Fist to call upon her services to get the last statue for him."
"And rise the spark of what would become my father's arch-rivalry with Stoppable and awakening the latter his powers."
"I did tire of Stoppable's slow development with his gift, so I then went on to manipulate the events that would lead to the Lorwardians invading Earth back in 2007. The dread of losing his beloved Kim finally awakened him as the Ultimate Monkey Master... while at the same time, I realized that you..." Helgiron reached out and clutched Martin's chin. He groaned as the metal went through his skin. "Your mother descends from Toshimu, the guardian of Royal's corpse. While Royal blessed Stoppable's line, the line of Toshimu was blessed by what was left of Crimson, which explains why her powers and yours are red. But for some reason, she's still dormant!"
Martin let out an unhappy gasp. He hoped that it wasn't true. He couldn't be the host of a space goddess!
"Funny how Violet's smoke turns mortals into zombies, but her sting can put anyone in death-like slumber, especially gods," Ruba snickered. "I guess he's useless to you if his goddess is nearly dead."
Helgiron let go of Martin. "No matter. Eventually Crimson will have to awaken when Royal will permanently reincarnate in his host."
"What did you do to Ronilda?" Martin demanded.
"Lamentable vocal corruption." Helgiron shook his head. "You know, it's much easier to corrupt a mortal soul traumatized by abandonment in need to prove themselves, especially when they're adults, but this is the first time Royal dares to genuinely love his host! He dares admit his faults and warn her to be cautious of me, and all I had to do was convince her to take you with her so she'd fulfill her role!" Helgiron then cracked his knuckles. "Eventually, I'll have to damage her badly enough and then, well... Royal's going to have to choose. He either dies in her body... or she dies in his."
Martin threw an angry red blast at him, but the bars of his cage reflected back at him. He yelled as the pain overwhelmed him. Helgiron snapped his fingers and the cages began walking on their spider legs.
"Violet is expandable, but I'd rather have her alive to finally face the gods' justice. As for Crimson, well, pain will have to awaken her eventually. Don't worry, you two will be evacuated once the battle's done. Now if you'll excuse me, I must watch Royilda destroy her family and friends before I then destroy the Ronilda part of her." Helgiron walked his merry way out and into the hallway while the cages walked towards the other direction.
"Compared to him, I now label your psychotic godly parasite a saint!" Martin scowled at Ruba.
Her eyes looked at the top of her head and then stared back at him. "She says it's the nicest thing any mortal has ever told her, but unfortunately she doesn't know how to get us out. Our cages are god-proof."