Trial By Lightning

by Sleepysaurus Rex

Okay, what happened wasn't my fault. Yes, I persuaded my five other friends to camping in North America without any supervision. No, it wasn't me who decided to go wandering off and accidentally find the bear. After that, I got zapped into a new world and a new body, and pretty much everything went to hell. My name's Cade Mason and I have one weird-ass story to tell. (OC insert)

18. Chapter X- Clash of the Titans

Authors' notes:

Sleepysaurus Rex- The basis of this chapter is a collab with Regal EagIe, and Daniel Clausen (who is writing Trial By God) also had some input to keep his character Felix (Godzilla) in canon. Wanna say hi, guys?

Daniel- Hello, everyone.

Regal Eagle- Heya guys, we really hope you'll like this, it took us three days just to write it in 3rd person point of view… And we're not counting about writing it with our character's point of view.

Sleepysaurus Rex- Yup, but it was cool to do.

Regal Eagle- It totally degenerated tho… We planned to do something that would have a regular chapter length, something like 3k words, 4k at best… We tripled that objective.

Sleepysaurus Rex- Yep… And editing it was a nightmare, AND THEN I have to make it first person… I'm not gonna have much time left this weekend. Anyway, enjoy everyone!

Regal Eagle- We'll leave you with our review responses then you can enjoy this product of both our imagination!

With thanks to my Patrons:
Regal Eagle

In response to reviews:

Blaze1992: They're dragons in body, but still teenagers in mind. And who wouldn't run from gigantic spiders?

Wizzer96: Yep, Trial By God is part of the Plainswalker multiverse. As for having Darius' sister, I have reconsidered, and I don't think that would work… Wouldn't their parents become

super protective after losing Darius? I'm not sure… PM me, I guess.

Slayer of The Abyss: Why am I censoring swear words? Because I don't like writing them, but I'm including them for realism. Therefore, censorship.

chris: Thanks dude. What realm will Cade go to after the Inheritance Cycle? Well, Plainswalkers don't abandon their realms after their stories are finished. They have to remain there to keep watch for Shadows.

Man4God: Happy Birthday for the 11th, dude! I hope you enjoy this!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Inheritance Cycle.

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Chapter X: Clash of the Titans

It was a couple of days since I'd ditched everyone and returned to Locostral, but I wasn't really enjoying my break. I'd flown out to one of the beaches on my first day, and had tried to relax, but that wasn't working. My thoughts were too active, whirling around my heads, making it impossible to unwind.

The second day, I'd met up with Spanners and asked whether I could help her out with anything. Surprisingly, my presence was required for a project that she was doing. I wasn't sure if that was relieving or concerning, but the project itself was pretty interesting. After she'd given me the infiltration bot, that I could control through a headset and a multiform, Spanners had started work on robots that could take commands directly from a headset, and relay back sensory data to the headset's wearer. To me, the concept was kinda like how a pilot was connected to a Jaeger, and already existed, but Spanners insisted that what she was developing was different.

The life-size car that I was trundling around her workshop drove rather smoothly, considering that I had never driven anything before in my life. It being an automatic helped me a lot, and the system was pretty responsive, although only sight and sound were relayed, so having my heightened sense of smell being cut off was really unnerving.

Still, Spanners thanked me for my help and input, but as I left, she said "Hold up, something's wrong with you."

"How did you know?" I asked, turning in the doorway of the aircraft hangar that was Spanner's workshop.

"If you've kicked around this city for as long as I have, then you see the same expression in everyone as they settle in." The quartermaster said. "It's in your eyes now, all six of them. You're not happy with how your afterlife is turning out, and you're struggling to cope. You can either talk to someone about your problems, or you're probably going to be unhappy for the rest of your immortal life."

"Are you offering to talk?"

"God, no. I have more important things to do now you've tested the Think-Send system for me. I've heard that the Thunderbird that joined your clan the other day is in town. Go talk to him about it. Now get out. I've got things to build."

With that, I was booted out of Spanner's workshop and left to wander around the city, looking for Regal. I hadn't really talked with him much since he'd arrived, but he seemed like a good guy. Although it wasn't a Gathering today, there were still quite a few people in town. Plainswalkers milled around in groups of three or four, talking or laughing with each other while I was still homesick and bodysick. Locostral helped with the homesickness, but as for the bodysickness, I had no cure.

Sighing, I eventually wandered into a large café that overlooked a lake. Ducks swam over the sparkling blue water, as well as a few coils of scales which might have been Paddles, or some other sea serpent. It was hard to tell.

Someone called out "Heya Cade! What are you doing here?"

Turning, I saw Regal waving a wing around to attract my attention, and I plodded over towards him before doing my best to take a 'seat' at his table. I wasn't really built for sitting, but I could do something that was the midway between that and squatting.

"Hi Regal." I mumbled. "I'm kinda down at the moment, and I heard you were in town, so I thought we could talk or something."

Regal raised whatever his eyebrow equivalent was. "Oh? What happened?"

I sighed again. "I'm homesick. Bodysick too. And Amara ****ed me off, so I needed to get away for a while."

Regal's eyes widened. "Oh, I see… I haven't really been homesick to be honest. Yes, I know I won't see my family or friend again, but… I don't really know why, but I feel like I wasn't that close to them. I guess that's because I wasn't really sure what I would do in my life before… Now I know what I want to do, and I'm enjoying it. As for being bodysick, I mostly complain about the beak and the absence of hands, but the ability to fly balances that out."

I sighed from all three heads and groaned. "I miss having proper arms. I still have hands, but it feels weird to walk around on them. It's like I'm a toddler again. And I miss my voice. My proper voice, not this ESP ****."

Regal chuckled, which didn't really help my state of mind. "Hey, you got lucky. At least you can manipulate things with your hands, I've got to hop or stand on one leg if I want to pick up something that I can't with my beak, although I have mostly adapted to this. Though I'm sure that someday I'll ask that a quartermaster make me robotic hands that I can strap to myself, I'm fine with how I am currently. How long has it been since your transformation, by the way?"

I clicked one of my tongues as I did the math. "About six and a half months. I got turned into this in July last year."

"Hmmm, I've only been like this for a month and a half, but I think there is a difference between you and me. Did you often imagine how it would feel if you were in a different body shape back on Earth?"

All three of my heads looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I had some fantasies about being a Halo Spartan II. Faster, stronger, tougher, things like that, but I never imagined it actually happening… Thinking about it, I wonder if we do have a Spartan here."

Turning, I ordered a chocolate milkshake, then realised that a full-sized Godzilla was glaring at me from the other side of the cafe, drinking out of a water tower-sized mug. I tensed up and scowled, my hackles rising as an indescribable anger started to rise from deep within me.

"How long has he been staring at me?" I asked, trying to keep my voice level.

Regal followed my gaze and chuckled "Probably since you sat next to me. I didn't really pay attention. Contrary to you, I only have one set of eyes, and although I can see much more sharply than before, it's still 2 pairs less than you have. But back to our topic at hand- the difference between us. You got thrusted into a body with absolutely no experience at all-"

Annoyed, I interrupted, waving a wing around for emphasis. "I watched the movie! There was loads of lightning and ****! And a massive hurricane! And an Alpha Call thing!"

Regal waves a wing in a 'perhaps' gesture. "I didn't say that you don't know your abilities, but I meant how much time have you imagined what it would feel to BE Ghidorah? I've spent almost all my time in my last three years or more imagining what it would feel to be an eagle, to have wings instead of arms, your mouth replaced by a beak, deadly talons instead of feet, and a tail that would help you steer in the air. How would the wind feel with feathers instead of skin, seeing the world much more sharply that you could, even defying gravity and flying! I went from imagining an eagle to imagining a thunderbird, because it's basically the same but you add two pairs of wings and trade the tail feathers for two long, streaming tails. So when I woke up one month earlier, I already had an idea of what to expect, and my imagination was pretty spot on, but the reality is so much more exhilarating. So, how many times have you spent picturing yourself as Ghidorah?"

Thinking about it, I remembered "Like… maybe once after I watched the movie. I'm not saying that I'm unhappy with what I got, because flying is awesome, but… it's just not fully me, y,know? Is that guy still staring at me?"

Regal peeked around my head to check on Godzilla. "Yup. I'm not sure what's up with him, but I guess that's just his instincts egging him on. You're probably going through the same thing, but… just don't blast him before we're out. Unless he blasts you first, that is."

I growled softly. Regal was right, but I didn't care as my anger rose, overriding my reasoning. "I'm not gonna blast him… yet. And if it comes to that, I won't just blast him. I'll break him apart."

Regal ignored my comment. "And I understand about you not being you… I'll confide with you, I wasn't really feeling myself as a human. I always longed for the sky, but not by using machines or wingsuits, just by using my own body. I guess that I already was a Thunderbird at my core. Being a human is great, but it's boring after a while. Everybody is the same species as you, it's just… nobody is truly different from each other. I guess that comes with the fact we're the only sentient species on our planet. So that's why I don't feel as bodysick as you- I was already bored of my humanity I guess. Just hold on, I'm sure that in a couple of years you'll totally get used to your new body. Don't focus on the drawbacks, but on the benefits of your new form. After all, we all died, and as a famous bearded wizard said, 'death is just the start of a new adventure!'"

I groaned. "You're bringing quotes into this? Really? Dumbledore too?"

Regal scowled. "Hey! I always had lots of difficulties to uses quotes, still have, let me have my moment of inspiration… Golden lizard."

Was that the best he could do? I snorted. "Magic turkey."

"Apocalyptic wyvern."

"Honestly, I see that as a compliment. It's factually correct on both fronts."

The thunderbird sighed. "I'm trying to stay playful, and not actually insulting you. It's kinda hard with your profile… And 'bird brain' will get old fast for me, so don't bother using it."

I chuckled. "Meh. I do stuff like this a lot with Jacob. You ain't got nothing on the zingers he comes up with."

Regal does the best shrugging motion he can, which wasn't much more than a flap of his wings. "I never have been the best for humor, I'll admit. I'm doing what I can…"

I looked over my shoulder with my left head and saw Godzilla was still glaring at me. I growled again. "That guy is still glaring at me! What the **** is his problem?"

Regal began to shift nervously in his seat as my growling started to grow in volume. "Hmmm, not sure how prominent your instincts are for you, but I could really feel them when I learned how to fly. They aren't as insistent as before, though they still nag at me sometimes. I guess the fact he's Godzilla means he's an Alpha, but, so are you, so he maybe sees you as a threat to his leadership..."

My tails started to angrily thrash around. "**** his leadership. I'm the Alpha guy here. I'll easily take him."

Regal gulps. "I think we should leave before it comes to blows…"

I made a big effort to calm down, closing my eyes and taking in long, deep breaths, pushing my anger down. "No. We'll finish when we want to, and then we'll go. Not before. I don't want him thinking he... unsettles me. Which he does, but don't tell him that, or I'll lock you up in a big cage and hang you from the ceiling in my room."

Regal shakes his head, then took a sip of his drink. My three noses said that it was a vanilla hot chocolate, and from the smell alone, I was tempted to try and steal a sip.

The golden bird said "If you say so… Where are you in your own realm by the way? If I understood right, you're kinda in the same situation as me, as you're with the main cast?"

I nodded happily. "Yep. I'm with Captain Splashy, Gandalf, and the jelly-bean hoarding Smaug. Or Eragon, Brom and Saphira if you want to be a normal person."

Regal snorted, barely stopping from spewing his drink all over the floor. Gulping it down, he said "Yeah, I see what you did there… and I heard about that… incident. You're just after Teirm in the timeline, right? I'm pretty familiar with the story, and I've read the books several times… What do you plan to do with Brom? I'll try to avoid one death or two in my realm, but for you it's much more complicated. Brom's death is really important for the story, since it spurs Eragon on… There aren't that many deaths in my realm anyways."

I groaned and plopped my heads down on the table with a loud thud, almost spilling our drinks. "I… I'm gonna break at some point with this job. I had to let Garrow die, and I'm still beating myself up about that, and I'll have to let Brom die too… Maybe I can tell him what will happen before he passes on. Just so he knows that his death isn't in vain. Those people that make the sacrifice so that others can still live, they never know whether their sacrifice is in vain or not. Confirmation that his death will lead to the downfall of Galbatorix… I'll give him that. He deserves to know. He doesn't have long left though… we're almost at Dras Leona, and his clock's ticking."

Regal sighed. "That's the hardest part of our job- without contest. We know what the future is for the realms, some of us have the ability to even go to the end and kill the villain without all the struggle, too. But in the end it's always a bad idea, because we'll mess up the timeline so much that the worlds can quickly degenerate to chaos.

Imagine that you or me manage to kill Galbatorix right now. We could do it. I could, for example make a giant railgun in the clouds pointed directly towards the king, and fire it with a tank shell. Or I could just create the mother of all lightning bolts that would drain all his energy and kill him. It would be hard, but possible. But it's a very bad idea, because first, I'm not sure if the captured Eldunari he has would survive the strain to power up his wards, so they could all shatter and we would find ourselves only with those from Doru Arabea. And secondly, it would cause chaos, the chain of command would be so destroyed, and an uncontrolled civil war would spring up, causing much more death than if the events stayed on course, and it would be a pain to decide who would take his place.

So no, we can't have shortcuts, because that would create ripples and make the situation worse than what we started with. People like Gem have it so much easier than us. They just content themselves to watch without interacting, but we have kinda been forced to stay near the main characters, your situation being even worse than mine. I can try to act from the sidelines, you'll have to stay for the action without being able to fade out."

I groaned, reminded of my promise to Umaroth. "And I'm bound by an unbreakable oath to protect Eragon and Saphira at all costs... At least that gives me the excuse to be by their side at all times, making sure that things keep on track. Although after Brom dies, I'll try to save as many people as possible."

Regal frowned. "Hmm, Brom is one thing, but Ajihad and Murtagh are another… Nasuada is the one that starts the war against the Empire by getting out of Farthen Dûr… And Murtagh is kind of a mixed bag… He really helps against Galbatorix by knowing the Name and using it against the Black King, but he really doesn't help in the battle of the Burning Plains. It's complicated. The main issue is that both their fates are tied."

"I know. Ajihad… I might have to let him go. Murtagh on the other hand… I might have to talk to him about it after the battle of Farthen Dûr. I need him where he is, partly to get the Name, partly for Thorn's sake, and partly to help Nasuada when she's captured. However, I could save him a lot of pain. But then Thorn wouldn't hatch. Maybe I'll just abduct them after the Burning Plains. Perhaps before… I'm not sure if Hrothgar's death influences things much, so I could save him."

Regal looked over his plumage and shuffled a few feathers back into their proper place. "Well, the main thing about Hrothgar is that him living would avoid the election of a new Dwarf King, which is a like a third of Brisingr's book, and it also keeps the Dwarf army in reserve for the battles of Feinster and Belatona. But the issue lies more in the post-Galbatorix era, as he would refuse to allow the Dwarves to become Dragon Riders. Orik would- and does. And about Oromis and Islanzadi…"

I nodded from all three heads. "I'm saving them if I can. Glaedr too. Hell, I'll even go to fight in the place of Oromis and his companion. I can regenerate. They can't. Islanzadi died against... Barst I think, so I could zap him and then go for Galbatorix. I can take out Shruikan when he flies out to scare the Varden, which will **** off Galby, and make the final battle easier."

Regal thought about the repercussions. "Yeah, Islanzadi means that Arya could help Eragon rebuild the Riders,-"

"And maybe make out." I added in.

Regal ignored my comment. "-and Oromis and Glaedr could retake their roles as teachers, so it would be all benefits… As for me, I just have two deaths that I can stop, since it wouldn't change the timeline a lot. Fairy Tail is fairly tame death wise compared to Eragon." He sighs "Though my main issue will be that in order to keep the ripples to a minimum, I'll have to leave my realm for seven years in like… six months. Not sure what I'll do in the meantime, but I guess I'll try to develop my abilities in another realm… Probably get some advice from natural born Thunderbirds too. But that won't matter before some time, so I'm fine."

I drained my milkshake and stood up, licking my lips. "Well that was illuminating. Wanna go play some videogames?"

Regal nodded happily. "Yep! That sounds like a great idea, what do you have in mind?"

I started walking towards the door. "I dunno. Maybe something strategy-based?"

Regal drained his drink and stands up. "Okay, I'm warning you, I was a very good player of RTS games, practically pro level, so do not be surprised if I totally wreck you."

I smirked. Strategy was what I was good at too. And I'd make it harder for him, too. "Oh, I'm going to bring backup. All of you, against all of me. How can you possibly hope to stop me?"

Regal groaned. "I see what you did there- Ultron quote. And I'm not sure that you have more computing power with two more brains."

I gave him an incredibly cheesy line that I made up on the spot. "Three brains, two more minds, one victory."

"You don't seem to have a proficiency for multitasking, and you totally don't have a personality disorder, so excuse me if I'm sceptical."

I just grinned, looking over my shoulder at Regal as I waited for him to catch up. "Be sceptic all you want, I'm gonna-"

I was interrupted by someone bumping into me- hard. Turning around, I saw Godzilla doing the same, and the uncontrollable anger I had earlier surges back up. Both of our eyes narrow.

Regal freezes on the spot as he sees what happened, and said in a small voice "...Please no."

My Rage building, I squared up to the larger kaiju, standing upright and raising my heads to be on the same level as Godzilla.

I growl out "What do you want, Beam Breath?"

The kaiju replies "I could ask you the same, Three Face. You bumped me."

I snarled, my senses focusing on Godzilla. "You bumped me, jackass! Watch where you're going!"

At the edge of my awareness, Regal faintly said "Cade! It's not worth it, let's go!"

I don't take his eyes off my opponent as I start to glow and get bigger, enlarging to my full size. "Stay out of this Regal. This is between me and the Kid of the Monsters."

Godzilla was a little unnerved by this abrupt change in sizes, but he replied "Is that the best you can come up with? I wonder, did your IQ lower with more heads, because it certainly looks that way. My name's Felix, ****faces. Use it."

I almost didn't catch Regal saying "Cade, last warning before I do something drastic."

I was utterly focused on Felix, and didn't bother to reply as I reached full size. I had to bend over a little to still fit in the room, which just made me more intimidating. "Last chance Geckozilla, **** off."

Felix's spines start to glow blue. "There's not a chance in hell of that happening. Now apologize for bumping me and fly away to your little hole."

I heard a faint clicking, but it was soon drowned out by my incandescent anger. It was burning, raging, consuming. Nothing else was important except for what my opponent. I would tear him apart. I would rip him in two. I would prove myself as the stronger. I WOULD BE ALPHA!

I suddenly felt something brush against my back I started flaring golden arcs of electricity around me. Suddenly, my world flashed a bluish-yellow, and I was stood in front of the door into Mount Bluepeak. Turning my three heads around, I saw Regal panting on my back.

I triple-roared, right in his face "I TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT OF IT!" before I grabbed Regal in one of my mouths, deposited him in front of the door, and started beating my giant, golden wings. As I rose above the surrounding skyscrapers, I screeched a triple battle cry of death and destruction. My cry is answered from across the city, where a glowing blue aura fills the air. The challenger. He would be destroyed! Sirens began to scream in a crescendo of noise as I began to charge up, lightning flickering over me as storm clouds started to fill the sky, thunder clapping and booming in the distance.

The challenger roared in fury as he saw my dive out of the sky, and fired his atomic breath at me. I corkscrewed around the blast and returned fire with three beams of lightning. They struck Felix, distracting him so I could slam into him with my clawed feet, knocking him to the floor through a few skyscrapers. Glass tinkled to the ground, but the sound was lost within the screech of bending metal and a shockwave that shook the whole island. I landed further down the street, turned around, and roared three cries that came from beyond hell.

Felix pushed himself back to his feet amidst a cloud of dust and shook his head to clear it. I didn't give him the luxury of having time to come to his senses. I charged, running on all fours, firing three sparking, golden beams at him. The first bolt of lightning speared from the clouds as we collided. Felix was knocked backward by the force I was exerting on him. However, he kept on his feet, clawing and biting at me. I purely went for bites, aiming at Felix's neck.

Suddenly, an ear-splitting screech was unleashed from somewhere as well as a massive lightning bolt which blasted between me and Felix. The sheer force knocked us both back a few steps, but I managed to absorb some of the energy that had been spread through the ground.

Someone started yelling at us as loudly as possible. "ARE THE TWO OF YOU COMPLETE PEABRAINS OR WHAT? YOU ARE IN THE F*CKING MIDDLE OF LOCOSTRAL AND ARE SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE WHO AREN'T ABLE TO SURVIVE A FIGHT BETWEEN THE BOTH OF YOU. EITHER SOLVE YOUR ISSUES PEACEFULLY OR GO FIGHT IN AN AREA WHERE NOBODY ELSE WILL BE AFFECTED!"

I tuned out of the rant at that point, charging up for a massive onslaught as one of my heads glares up at the speaker- a tiny gold speck in the sky. I would not let it interfere. I sent out a mental attack with the force of a wrecking ball smashing into a flea to everyone in the surrounding area. Felix used the opportunity of me being semi-distracted and fired his atomic breath at me. I returned fire with my Gravity Beams, and the two attacks struck each other in the middle of the distance between us, achieving beam-lock. Unlike regularly, it is clear to see that my beams aren't just lightning. Pieces of rubble are being pushed towards Felix, with the challenger having to walk in place to keep up with my barrage of beams.

Realising this, I… I? No, not I. We. That was right. Anyway, we re-evaluated the battlefield we were in. Skyscrapers were crumbling around us, debris falling to the ground or getting pulled into the fields of gravity generated by my golden beams. Behind our challenger, at the end of the road is a simple railing, and beyond that, clear sky. We can fly. Our challenger cannot. This is one of the edges of the island, and we are going to push him off it!

Whirling round, we smack our club-like tails into the face of our challenger, sending his beam flying askew. Both of our energy attacks cut off as he staggers backwards, but then we fire again. This time, our beams strike Felix in the side. Instead of zapping him, they fluctuate around his form, lifting him off the ground. He roars in outrage, and then blasts our left head into sludge as he is pushed backwards through the air, making us drop him with an almighty crash.

As we seethe in pain, waiting for one of us to reform, someone shouts our name. "CADE! THAT IS NOT YOU! STOP THIS BEFORE YOU BLAME YOURSELF FOREVER FOR KILLING ONE OF YOUR COMRADES!"

Something landed on our middle head, pecking on it. Our left head quickly regenerates, rapidly forming a cocoon that which bursts as it re-appears and re-joins the fight. Anger surges at the thing that dares to interrupt our battle.

We find its mind and surge into it, our voices full of scorching pain and anger, as we briefly lock up all of its limbs before releasing him. "WE ARE ALPHA! KILL CHALLENGER! KILL HEADKILLER! KILL! WE ARE ALPHA! WE ARE KING! CHALLENGERS MUST DIE!"

The speck that dares attack us barely manages to get his body back under control before crashing, and flies away as the storm intensifies. Once again, we charge at our opponent, going for him, no holds barred. Blood spurting from the wounds we tear in each other, falling to the ground in a sticky, crimson rain. We were easier to hurt, but due to our rapid healing, there wasn't much to show for it apart from burns from our challenger's atomic breath. Felix was much harder to hurt, but he did sport bleeding marks from our bites, and seemed a little unsteady on his feet because of the electricity we had pumped into him.

As we battled on, thunder boomed in the background, and lightning started to spear down onto the skyscrapers. Dark clouds threaten to open up and drop a downpour of rain on the city as small fires start in the wreckage of buildings. The wind rose from a breeze to a howl, to a roar, whipping at everything in its way and shredding it. In the distance, supercells swirled into being, spawning tornadoes that began to consume the city. They ploughed through skyscrapers and parks as we ploughed into our challenger, the radiation he was emitting giving us the strength we needed to fight on.

Out of the maelstrom burst a giant, grey spaceship. We knew it instantly, but it was only a replica of the real thing. It was also modified for combat within the atmosphere, sporting a lot more guns on it, but it was still impressive, lightning flickering around it as it fully emerged from Slipspace, MAC cannons at the ready.

A metallic voice flowed from hidden speakers as Felix and we fought on. "Attention Plainswalkers Felix and Cade. This is Elder Ragnar, Captain of the UNSC Infinity. Stand down, or we will deploy our mecha squadron to your position and regard you as hostile."

At the same time, both of us fired our beam the ship. They all impacted on the ship's shields, but did nothing else.

Ragnar said "...Roger that. All units, prepare to engage! Targets are Godzilla and Ghidorah! Subdue, but do NOT kill, it looks very bad on my report when we kill our own!"

Large blast doors opened under the belly of the ship, retracting into place with a bang. Five mechs dropped out, all of them massive. And spurting quotes.

A deep, male voice boomed "Omega Supreme: Activated. Power: Optimal. Mission: Subdue Plainswalkers."

A lighter, female one followed up with "Gipsy Danger, ready for the big drop! Neural handshake strong and holding!"

Five synchronized voices, both male and female yelled "Activate interlock! Dynatherms connected! Infracells up! Mega-thrusters are go! Let's go Voltron force!"

A second team of five had barely finished shouting "Megazord battle mode activated!", but they were cut off by a metallic roar that drove us to new heights of fury.

"Mazers ready. Absolute Zero Cannon charged. Mechagodzilla 3 ready for battle!" So this was Ragnar. This was another challenger.

Both us and Felix kaiju roared in outrage, and we looking from the kaiju facing us to the new arrivals. Who to go for- our first challenger, or the second? While Felix was glancing at the advancing mechas, snarling at them to back off, we made a decision and struck. Our heads darted forward, the outer ones grabbing Felix around the wrists, and the centre one striking around his neck. Felix roared and tried to kick us off, but that just made him easier for us to manhandle him.

The robots were charging into battle now, launching missiles and firing various beam weapons at us, trying to draw our attention from dragging Felix towards the edge of the floating island. We didn't care. They did not hurt us, and we had bigger things to take care of.

The one called Gipsy Danger got within punching range of us and activated her Elbow Rocket, but she was swatted to the side by one of our tails as we slowly, but surely pushed Felix back. Our throats started to flicker red, little flashes of crimson light flowing down them, towards our stomach. We was draining Felix's energy, and powering ourselves up at the same time.

Seeing this, the five giant robots focused their attacks on us. Omega Supreme fired a massive laser that hit us in the back with enough power to burn through our scales and into our internal organs, making us drop Felix, roar in pain, and whirl around, smoking. Our back stitched itself up, and our bones and organs started to follow suit as we placed a clawed foot on the downed Felix,

Spreading out our wings, we screamed a wild, primal cry. It was a savage call to arms, a claim of dominance, an Alpha Call. The mechs were not affected by our call, but across the city, numerous responses came, most being roars of challenge, but some being scared cries of submission. The challengers would all die, and the submitters would be ours to do as we liked with.

Ragnar said "He's calling for backup! Let's end this before anyone else gets injured!"

Voltron, Gipsy, and the Megazord unsheathed swords and ran at us, with Omega Supreme and Ragnar charging up their respective lasers and masers. The three sword-wielding bots all tried to take Thanos' advice into account and go for our heads, and managed to cut one of them off. We screamed in agony and lurched backwards, allowing Felix to get back up and fire off his Atomic Breath at us. **** move, Felix!

As Omega fired at us, we ducked the blast and returned fire from our two remaining heads. Ragnar shot his Oral Masers at Felix, drawing his attention from us so we could retreat and then strike back. Felix turned to the smallest Mecha and his eyes widened, then narrowed as he recognised his opponent and the danger he was in. Ragnar spread his arms, and three panels in his chest opened, revealing the Absolute Zero Cannon.

Felix roared and opened fire with his Atomic Breath, trying to destroy the weapon before it could fire. Ragnar calmly fired his Oral Masers, achieving Beam Lock with our challenger as the AZC began to charge up.

In the meantime, we had been dealing with the four other mechas. Our decapitated head had already regrown, and we were busy in Beam Lock with Omega Supreme's laser as our other two heads fired at the Megazord and Voltron while we used our claws to rip off Gipsy's arm and smash the Jaeger with it. It was complete and utter carnage, and we were the kings of it.

With Gipsy clutching the sparking remains of her shoulder and retreating, we had the opportunity to focus on the three other giant robots that were engaging us. Voltron was too agile for us to catch, and Omega was wisely keeping his distance, which left the Megazord for us to destroy. It was slower than its two counterparts, but had heavier armour, which allowed it to take more of a beating.

And it took one heck of an impact as we suddenly switched all three of our heads to fire at Omega, breaking the Beam Lock. Then we quickly slashed at Voltron with our claws, and swiftly spun on the spot, slamming his two mace-like tails into the large, clunky Megazord.

Voltron managed to dodge the attack, backflipping out of the way with its thrusters firing, and Omega was only knocked a few steps backwards, but the Megazord was hit hard, its armour being severely dented by the impact, as well as punctured by our tail spikes. Backing off, it clutched it's new wound that was leaking some kind of green liquid and a white gas, and threw one last punch at one of our three heads before picking up Gipsy's arm and retreating in the direction that she had.

Meanwhile, Felix had narrowly dodged Ragnar's AZC blast, leaving crystals of ice clutching to his dorsal spines. Their Beam Lock had been won by the Kaiju, forcing Ragnar back, but it wasn't a total victory. While Felix tried to recover some of his energy, Ragnar fired the full contents of his blue, rocket-launching backpack, quickly followed by the pack itself. Felix was knocked backwards, but didn't show any external injuries from the impacts as he turned back towards the mecha who was only half his size and roared in challenge.

This roar was answered by our three screeches of hatred, and a single burning, golden beam, knocking Felix to the side and halfway through a skyscraper. Turning, he saw us, two of our heads holding up Voltron by the arms and draining the energy from its five reactors, making the giant robot go limp. Dropping the powerless hunk of metal, we charged the radioactive monster, taking to the sky halfway through the charge.

Felix fired his atomic breath, but it was countered by our gravity beams, which held a slight red tint to them. The beams collided with each other and locked, but Felix's attack was quickly overpowered by Cade's souped up gravity beams, which slammed into our challenger and sending him sprawling towards the edge of the city. The winds picked up as we let loose a cry of victory, then let loose with our gravity beams, picking up the stunned Felix and raising him out, over the drop as lightning flashed in the clouds.

The moment our Gravity Beams cut out, and all was still for a brief moment. The wind slowed, the thunder and lightning held off for a brief second, and Felix seemed to hang in the air. Then inevitability made itself known, and Felix began to fall with a cry of panic.

As we rose and spread his wings, we threw back his three heads in victory and let loose a jubilant cry. We had won! We were Alpha!

Suddenly, we were blasted in the back by an immeasurable cold. We seized up, our cry of victory choking off as we froze, ice spreading over our body as Ragnar's Absolute Zero Cannon powered down. At the same time, Omega Supreme transformed into his spaceship mode, rocketed over the side of the city, and down though the clouds to catch Felix.

Ragnar collapsed to one knee, venting heavily, but we couldn't hear it. Unlike the effect from his lookalike's weapon, we weren't frozen solid, but the tons of ice coating us kept us him confined and unable to break free as our brains were put into a pseudo-cryosleep. We could still see and hear what was going on outside of our icy prison, but we were unable to process what it meant.

The Elder declared, "Targets are neutralised, and the storm is dying out. Everyone can come out now, but keep away from any broken buildings- they may be structurally unstable. And who was the person that decided keeping Godzilla and King Ghidorah on the same sky island was a good idea, because we really need to talk about how goddamn stupid that was."

Regal swooped down, alighting next to the Mech, trying to explain the events. "I didn't plan for Cade to join me at the cafe, and I hadn't noticed Godzilla- Felix that is, until he noticed him himself… We talked a bit, then just as we were getting out, they bumped into each other, sparking an argument. I tried to relocate Cade soon after, but the challenge had already started… Then you just saw the rest, Elder."

Ragnar growled. "Saw it? They literally broke everything in this sector of the city apart from the fourth wall! Damn, now I've done it…"

Regal shook his head. "It was bound to happen one day or another though… and I guess Cade's instincts really overwhelmed him- he's not like this usually. If they ever get within one hundred feet of each other again, and I'm nearby, I'll try to relocate Cade as far as possible, even though it exhausts me to do so."

Ragnar holds up a metal claw in a 'wait a moment' gesture, then put it to where his ear would be if he was still human. "Damage report? You can freaking see the damage, Aegis! Were there any casualties? ...Oh, good. Well, slight to severe radiation poisoning and several hundred injuries isn't great, but at least nobody died. ...Yeah, I know, we need to stop having so many powerful guys here. ...No, I don't have a solution yet. I'll let you know when I think of something. ...Yeah, I need a medic team down here. And half a dozen mechanics too. Gipsy's lost an arm, Voltron's out of power, Meggy is leaking hydraulic fluid all over the place, and I've only got around 20% battery left in my tank. ...Okay, thanks. I'll see you later then. ...Okay. ...Yeah, the Infinity is gonna dock at the spaceport. …Yes, we were on our way back anyway. The asteroid belt was a cool trip and we got a lot of metals from mining it. Have a docking bay prepped for us, and tell GLaDOS she can set the ship down. ...Roger that, over and out."

Regal said "I would offer to refill your batteries, but I'm all out too, I forced Cade to ride a lightning bolt for 2 kilometers and struck down a 10-foot wide bolt between the two. The small number of bolts I've managed to snag only made me able to stay above Cade so that I could counter him if he tried to call down lightning on you."

Ragnar stood back up to full height and shook his head. "Hey, don't worry about it. The Infinity can transfer charge to me the same way the White Herons that carried Kiryu into battle do. I'll be fine once I get back on board, but first, we'll need to get your friend to some kind of medbay big enough to accommodate him. The other dude too."

Gem landed beside the two along with Jacob and Darius and looked at us through the walls of our freezing cage.

"Oh Cade, what have you done…?" she said, trying not to tear up.

That was the last thing we heard before the intense cold fully shut us down, forcing us into a deep, deep, sleep.

---

We woke to a massive headache. It pounded inside our skulls like nukes were going off at point blank range to our ears, and we whimpered at the pain. Our entire body hurt. It burned like we'd taken a bath in Seithr oil- not an experience we wanted to repeat. Eventually, it receded to a low buzzing, and we blearily, opened our eyes and look around. We seem to be in a large blue dome of energy which is producing the fizzing noise. Four obelisk-like structures surround it, providing energy to the shield. Weird. We're pretty sure that this isn't our room.

Then we try to get up, but we flop to the side, as our limbs haven't woken up yet. Our heads continue their search for how the hell we got here as we get back up, and we spotted Gem, Regal and Elder Ragnar. Wait a second. How did we know him again?

Focusing at Gem, we sleepily asked, "We haven't... missed anything… have we?"

Gem frowned. "Err, say again Cade?"

We yawned. "We said, we haven't missed anything, have we? No Shadow attacks or anything?"

Ragnar whispered something to Regal that we couldn't make out. Regal's reply was also to faint for us to hear.

Gem continued talking though. "Cade, you've been out for a couple of days. How are you feeling?"

We groaned. "Not great. We feel like we've been burnt, sledgehammered, crushed and drained of energy, then baked, frozen and microwaved."

Ragnar asked "And do you remember why you're here?"

We frowned as we looked back through our memory. "Not… really. We remember up until we finished our drinks in the cafe, and everything after that seems to be sorting itself out. It's getting clearer, but slowly."

Regal shook his head. "This will be a pain to wait until you get your memories back…" He turned towards Ragnar and asked, "Do we wait or do we start to explain now?"

Ragnar decided "Start with his sudden desire to say 'we' instead of 'I'. That'll give him time to process what he did in the background while we occupy his attention."

Regal nodded. "Cade, you never referred to yourself as 'we' before, but only to the single person, what changed?"

We were confused. "Wait, what do you mean? We've been saying 'we', not 'we'..." Oh. God. We shouldn't be a we, but we were… We were divided! We weren't one! Each of our heads start looking at each other in panic.

Splitting from a singular 'we' to three 'I's, our middle head said in shock "What the ****? The actual ****?"

Our right head jerked as far back as it can from the other two. "OH GOD! STAY AWAY FROM ME! GET OUT OF ME!"

Our left head had a completely different reaction. "OH MY GOD! THIS IS TERRIFYINGLY COOL!"

Regal blinked "... Okay, that's new."

Gem seemed lost, but tried to help. "Cade! Cades? Okay, this is weird. Um… all three of you, calm down!"

All three of us screamed at her "HOW THE **** DO YOU EXPECT US TO CALM DOWN! THIS IS-"

Then each of us come up with a different ending.

"AWESOME!" Left decided.

Right yelled "****ING AWFUL! THERE'S TWO OTHER PEOPLE INSIDE ME WHO ARE ALSO ME!"

Middle followed Right's example and shrieked "ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING!"

Regal rubs his head with a wing. "I'm gonna have a headache if you all talk at the same time… Okay, stop right now, we need to clear that. Just… breathe."

All three of us close our eyes, and we take a few seconds to recollect ourselves.

Left commented "Y,know, this is actually quite relaxing…"

Right's eyes snapped open. "IT WAS UNTIL YOU TALKED! NOW I'M PANICKING AGAIN!

Middle just groans as our two wings come up between our three heads, blocking us from seeing each other. "Can I get myself decapitated please? If these two are gonna keep it up, I don't think I can take it..."

Regal was staring at us with his beak open. "...I'm out of my league there… I seriously hope the same thing won't happen to Amara."

Amara… Oh no… All three of us moan in despair. "Oh, God… when she sees us… and Saphira… we're gonna be ridiculed for the rest of our lives!"

Ragnar rubbed his chin. "He seems to be having moments where he seems fairly united, but then he splits again… I honestly have no idea how he's gonna deal with this."

Regal asked "This is a first for a Plainswalker right? We don't have any other hydras who had a personality split?"

"Let me check through our files…"

Gem supplied "I haven't met anyone like that, and I've been here since 2013."

Right snapped, and went into full-blown sarcastic mode. "Tell you what that is. It's ****ing epic that's what! We're the first ****er with multiple personalities!"

"More like multiple consciousnesses, really." Middle observed. "We're all still Cade, but we're just being Cade at the same time as two other people are- kinda like accessing an account on multiple computers at once."

Left wasn't convinced. "But we have different opinions! How does that make us the same person?"

"Doesn't everyone have multiple opinions on everything?" Middle argued, making us see sense. "Take Amara. We love her because she's family, but she drives us up the wall sometimes."

Right muttered "I think this is all Regal's fault. He kept on zapping us. He must have mucked something up inside us."

Left came to our clanmate's aid. "No way! This must have been Felix… hey, we won that fight didn't we?"

We all grin. "That's right! WE BEAT YOU, MOTHER****ER! TAKE THAT! WHO'S THE ALPHAS NOW, HUH? US!"

"So you remember the fight now, huh?" Ragnar asked.

Right smiled savagely. "Yep. We got that sucker good. And we would have finished him off if… wait, why didn't we?"

Left starts to tear up. "Oh God… We had a fight, didn't we? And the city… WHY DID WE DO THAT!? WE COULD HAVE KILLED SOMEONE! WE'RE ****ING MORONS!"

Middle's eyes widen, but we manage to control ourself. "How many people died? Give it to me straight."

Regal replied "None hopefully, but we have several hundred injured and some with radiation poisoning, though that was the Zilla's fault."

Ragnar broke in as we sighed in relief. "I'd like to stop you right there. Zilla is a completely different monster than Godzilla. America ****ed up in their first film of the big guy, creating Zilla, the mutated iguana. He was bought by Toho purely so they could kill him on screen in Godzilla: Final Wars."

Regal shifted around a little. "Uh, I just said that because it was shorter… Anyways, no we haven't got any casualties, you've been very lucky for that."

We relax, but then come to a conclusion that would be for the best of everyone in Locostral. "Thank God for that. But… you should probably lock us up somewhere, just so something like this can't ever happen again."

Ragnar asked "Why do you think we brought you here? You're in the middle of a forcefield bubble, impossible to get into or out of, even through teleporting or using the Rift. However, you don't have the luxury of sitting around on your butt for all time. You have a realm to protect, and a worried cousin to get back to. And she says that your charges are getting worried too."

We covers our heads with our wings. This can't be happening! We're too dangerous to be around other people, and if they won't lock us up, then we want the only other way to permanently ensure that we don't hurt anyone else. "No. We're not going back. We're ****ing morons who are a danger to everybody here. We don't deserve to live after this… Kill us. Please. Make it safe for everyone else."

Gem was shocked by our request, then quickly recovered herself. "CADE, DON'T EVEN THINK THAT! YOU'RE GONNA LIVE, YOU DUMBASS...ES! NOTHING'S GONNA CHANGE THAT!"

Regal also yelled "CADE! I know that adapting to a new body is difficult, but that's not a reason to give up! You lost control of yourself. That's not great, but at least nobody died and we're gonna put measures in so that it doesn't happen again! As for your consciousness split, well… that's a new one, but I'm sure you… three can manage. Just give it time like always, and don't take a decision like that on a whim. Think about what Jacob, Amara, Saphira, Eragon, Brom and all your Plainswalker friends would think of you… Breathe and calm down, and let's resume the conversation, but only when you're not in that state of depression."

We groaned, adamant on our conclusion. If we stayed around, then a repeat of today was not only probable, but likely. The other Plainswalkers of Locostral didn't deserve that. "We want to die. We don't care what you say. We're too dangerous."

Regal shook his head. "So. That's it? Just because you met your nemesis for the first time and got overpowered by your instincts, you quit? You no longer care for any of the realms that are out there? You no longer care for Gem? You no longer care for me? For Amara? For Brom? For Eragon? For… Saphira? You think you'll always be overpowered by your instincts and so that you're a walking danger? You don't want to try to reign them in and take the easy exit? Well, I thought better of you, coward."

Right starts crying as we start to break down. "DON'T YOU ****ING DARE CALL US THAT! IT'S BECAUSE WE WEREN'T A COWARD THAT THIS WHOLE **** HAPPENED!"

Left looks at Middle and Right and we come to a conclusion. "They aren't going to help us, so… together?"

Middle nods, and we are united. "Together."

Each of us closes on the base of another's neck, jaws gently holding onto the scaly limbs.

Ragnar realised what we were doing. "****! DEACTIVATE THE SHIELD! ...YES, DO IT! …I DON'T CARE! THE FOOL'S ABOUT TO SUICIDE! I HAVE TO STOP HIM!"

Gem slams her claws down on the shield, pleading "CADE! DON'T!"

Regal's eyes widen in shock "CADE, IF YOU DO THIS I SWEAR I'LL BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOU ONCE I JOIN YOU IN THE AFTERLIFE" He look at one of the forcefield generators "Oh for fuck's sake!" And then he puts his claw on it and overloads it with as much energy as he can, making it explode.

Our eyes close and our breathing rapidly elevates as we prepare ourself for what we have to do. "We're already in the afterlife Regal. And we guess it was good while it lasted."

With those words, each of us bit through the neck it was around. There were three screams of pain, and then a massive pain. Our writing mass of golden scales fell to the floor, blood spurting from our self-inflicted wounds as we collapse and go limp, our three heads thrashing around a little before falling still. But we were still alive. Did we have to wait for brain-death?

Gem starts crying as the shield flickers out, but it was too late for her to help us. "The… The ****ing idiot… Why did he do it?"

Regal lands next to our body and sighs as our world started to dim and become quieter- less vibrant. "The fool, he thought that it would solve his issues… But he just chose the coward's way out."

Ragnar puts a metal hand over his eyes. "Why? Why does the Rift do this to us? Remake us, then break us? Why does it make us have to stay strong?"

Regal puts his wings around our body, hugging it. Weirdo. "Wait… His hearts are still beating. Why are they still beating?"

What? We're still alive? Our world goes black, scentless, and soundless. What has happened? Are we dead? Did we do it?

No. We're still alive. Suddenly, Middle breaks through the gelatinous mass of a regenerative cocoon it is in. Our sight, sound, hearing, taste, and touch are restored. Middle looks around, then starts sobbing. We can't protect those who we care about if we can't die!

Our wings and tails thrash around violently, but Ragnar keeps our head in place as Middle screams in panic "We can't die! We can't die!"

Right breaks through next, already spitting out "DON'T CALL US COWARDS, YOU ****! I WAS LISTENING TO THAT AS I DIED, THEN I HAD TO MULL IT OVER AS I REFORMED! **** YOU!"

Left completely and utterly breaks us down. "Why?! Why can't we end this suffering!? Did we **** of Death or is he just having a nap! WE WANT TO ****ING DIE!"

All three of us let out a shrill, piercing cry before going full waterworks, arching back and howling in sorrow. Only Ragnar manages to keep his head down, but Gem and Regal are both lifted into the air, the latter having to take off before he fell. Luckily for them, Omega Supreme entered the area and managed to pin Left and Right back to the ground.

"Omega Supreme: Present. Assistance: Given."

Regal said "Can somebody call Amara? I'm all out of ideas!"

Gem nodded. "I'll go get her. We're lucky today's supposed to be a Gathering, but with a smashed Stadium, that's not gonna happen." She then runs out of the room and flies off.

Ragnar smacked Middle, hoping to knock some sense into us. "Get it together Plainswalker! You have a duty to your Realm, your Clan and your Multiverse too stay alive, so STOP ACTING LIKE A WHINY *****!"

We yelled back "WE DON'T ****ING CARE!"

Suddenly, a giant bird that seemed to be a Great Eagle from Lord of the Rings entered the room. He looked down at us, analysing the situation, then sighed. "This sure is a mess, Ragnar. Not only have we had a considerable part of Locostral in rubble since two days ago, we have also one very promising Plainswalker that's close to the mental breakdown."

Ragnar used a one fingered hand gesture, but we just screamed "THE **** DO YOU MEAN 'CLOSE TO'? WE ARE HAVING A MENTAL BREAKDOWN!"

The Great Eagle shook his head. "No, you have clearly never experienced a full mental collapse. You're depressed and are having suicidal thoughts, even had a suicide attempt, but you still have hope. You're not lost, I know the situation is very painful for you, but we can solve this, find a solution. It would be truly a shame to lose such a wonderful person forever. So, start to breathe, or I'll have to do more… sturdy methods of crowd control."

We screamed at him "**** OFF AND LET US BE MISERABLE!"

He sighed. "Can't tell I haven't warned you."

Ragnar scowled. Well, we think he did. "Just make it quick, Aegis. This guy's hard to hold down."

Aegis walked towards us, right up to our middle head. Then he gave us the look. That look. Oh God, we will never be able to describe that look properly… It was as if he was an alpha of the universe, and we were an ant at his feet. It was terrifying, but it also made us feel safe, and it almost felt friendly. Slowly, we began to calm down and think rationally again. Our heart rates slowed, we took deep, slow breaths, and we closed our eyes. There was also something that was restraining our mental influence, but not quite suppressing it.

This lasted for several minutes before Aegis said, "Are you ready to have a civilised discussion now?"

Left sniffed. "Yes."

Right was still upset, but growled. "No. **** off."

Middle sighed and we used a wing in a 'get on with it' gesture.

Aegis nodded and began talking. "Ok, so why do you think you're a danger to the multiverse?"

Right scowled. "Because we're ****ing overpowered, and if we face someone who we subconsciously see as a rival Alpha, we obliterate them and anything in our way. Hell, I even ripped someone's arm off, and I enjoyed it!"

Aegis tried to shrug, but much like Regal, it was more of a flap of his wings. "So? We have got other people that enjoy twisted pleasures, mostly those whose form is that of a villain, but we managed to accommodate that. Your uncontrollable instincts were mainly because you were in a battle frenzy. Adrenaline can give strange results to people, and we're no stranger to dominance fights too. It happens a lot with werewolves, but it's just that your fights are… up the scale. Nothing that happened two days ago is new to Locostral either. Heck, we have got fights between our Optimus Prime and Megatron reincarnations that have destroyed some skyscrapers too. The ones you crushed will be fixed by next week if you wanna know. Your issue is not the first one, but the trick is to make sure this is a one-time thing."

There was a pause…

Left grinned sheepishly. "I have suddenly developed a twisted pleasure for waffles."

Middle groaned. Were we really this stupid? "For ****'s sake, you're Jacob 2.0."

Right agreed with Middle. "And you're part of us, which makes it worse."

Gem came back in, and was still stunned by the fact that we were still alive, but managed to get us in a headlock and give Right a noogie as we were let up. "YOU COMPLETE *******! YOU DON'T JUST DIE ON ME THEN COME BACK TO LIFE AND DEMAND WAFFLES!"

Right positively screamed. "AH! GERROFF! CUDDLE THE DUDE ON THE LEFT, HE'LL LIKE IT!"

Regal shook his head, relieved that were was on the way to being back to normal. "Cade… You complete Jackass, just… Please don't do that again to us, it's bad for the heart. After all…" He got a smug look. "We still haven't done our game."

We smirked at him. "We're so gonna beat you. Especially now."

Regal rolled his eyes. "Dream on, just because you now really have three consciousnesses doesn't mean you have an advantage on me."

Amara bursts in, then launches herself at us. "GEM TOLD ME YOU TRIED TO SUICIDE, YOU DUMB ****!"

She bowls us over, which was impressive since we're three times her height, and we're knocked to the floor with a crash that makes everyone except Ragnar and Omega Supreme stagger. The two robots nod silently to Aegis and walk out, leaving us all with the Great Eagle.

Amara scowled down at us, and we almost trembled at her five glares. "What were you thinking, you prat?! You could have died and left me alone with these weirdos!"

Left looks guilty and looks away, Right just grins, and Middle says "Well… We kinda did."

"WHAT!"

Left jumped into the conversation. "It was only for five seconds! We reformed! Hug me!"

Amara looked shocked. "Wait, what?"

Right scowled and grumbled. "Just do it. He'll keep asking until you do. You know how stubborn we are."

Amara slowly backed away from us, her ten eyes opening as wide as they could. "C-Cade… What… what happened to you?"

Right glared at Left. "Great going dude! Now you've freaked out the only person who doesn't resent us for destroying most of the city!"

Left got as far away from Right as he could. "Sorry! Sorry! It's just… family, y,know?"

Middle ignored our infighting, and asked "How much of Locostral did we actually destroy?"

"Of the city, nothing that we can't repair." Aegis said "As for people's opinions of you, you're pretty much at the top of the 'most wanted' list along with Felix. Some of us understand, but a lot of others won't. However, you just have to wait until someone else cocks something up, then all will be forgotten."

Amara is still staring at us in horror. In barely more than a whisper, she asked "What happened to him? What happened to my cousin?"

That statement alone crushed us. We may not have shown it externally, but we were emotionally shattered. Our cousin no longer saw us as ourselves…

Regal didn't pick up on our hearts breaking, but he explained. "Well, you know how Alagaësian dragons have an Eldunari that allows them to live even if their body died?"

Amara shook all five of her heads. "Err, no."

Regal facewinged himself. "... Read Brisingr after. So, an Eldunari holds a dragon's consciousness if their body dies. That explains how he managed to regenerate his bitten off heads, but not the triple consciousness… So we think that he doesn't just have one, but three Eldunari in that belly of his."

"Can you talk about us like we're actually here please?" We asked, our mental voices thick and trying not to choke up.

"And are you calling us fat?" Right added.

Amara still looked confused. "What's an Eldunari?"

Regal rolled his eyes. "Well, if I remember right, it's a gem that is located next to the heart of a dragon, and it's transparent at birth, but at any time, the dragon may choose to transfer his consciousness into it, making it so that even if his body dies, his consciousness will survive. He can also choose to disgorge it, and it'll reveal a big gem that is the color of his scales. This is what an Eldunari is. In the Ancient Language it means 'Heart of hearts'."

Amara's eyes lit up in understanding. "So it's like a hard drive with Cade's memories on it?"

"Err, yes you could say that."

"But why is he… why does he have someone else in his heads?"

Right growled. "I take immediate offense to that statement."

Left pouted instead. "And I feel hurt."

Middle spoke for us when he said "Jeez cuz, you couldn't find a worse way to insult us, could you? We're all Cade, but we're multiple consciousnesses inside the same body. We all remember the same stuff, but we're acting on the top three opinions that we have about something. Like how the dude on my left wants a hug because we're family, and how the guy on my right is being an annoying prat because we're still a little ****ed off because of the lake thing."

Amara simply said "Oh."

Right scowled again. Evidently, he was the part of us that got annoyed and frustrated easily. "We really need to name ourselves. This 'left dude, right guy' thing is getting tiring."

Gem nodded "Good point. So what do you guys want to be called?"

"Cade." We all said at once.

Regal snorted. "Of course the consensus of you three will still be Cade… For the left head, I've got the perfect name: Kevin!"

Middle and Right spoke unanimously. "I'm not being Kevin until Hell freezes over."

Left was a little late to the draw. "I'm not being… ****. Guess I'm Kevin then. Oh well. It could be worse."

Amara looked at us hesitantly. "Can I have a go?"

We just shrugged. "Go for it."

Our cousin thought for a moment before saying "Your right head seems pretty grumpy and hardcore, so how about Sparta?"

Right grinned savagely. "And this is why I like you. Sparta… yes. That's me."

Middle looked at our Clan Leader "Hey Gem, got one for me?"

Gem scratched at her chin. "Hmm… you'll want something to characterise you, I guess… If I wasn't put on the spot I could probably come up with something better, but what do you think of Driscol? I think it means 'interpreter', so it kinda fits…"

Middle mulled it over, running his tongue around his mouth while looking at the ceiling. "Well it's better than Kevin-"

"Hey!" Kevin squawked indignantly.

The newly named Driscol ignored him. "-so I'll take it."

Gem turned to Aegis. "So what happens with Cade now?"

Aegis looks at us, and we could swear that he had x-ray vision from that single look. It just bored through us. "I'm gonna say that he's back to normal, though I'll add he'll need some close monitoring for the next months." Looking at Amara, he added "You in particular, report ANYTHING unusual about him, we're not having another kaiju fight."

We nodded in agreement. "And our punishment?"

"You'll receive it once you're in a calm period in your realm, I'm familiar with your story, and I'm right that you're about to have several weeks of being chased, having a battle between army and travel half the continent, again? I've nothing to say against the punishment your clan decided against you though."

We instantly went on edge. "Why? What did Jacob do?!"

Gem laughed. "For once, it wasn't his idea. And your jelly bean privileges have been revoked."

Kevin spluttered "WHAT!"

Sparta roared "YOU UTTER ****S!"

Driscol was shocked, but spoke for all of us when he said "We deserve that, to be honest… and far more."

Aegis nodded. "Yep, the punishment from the elders will be a lesson, both in mind and body."

Driscol looked away. "Well that's ominous…"

Regal chuckled. "Seriously though, I'm pretty sure that my idea will be the one that'll stick more. You're so crazy with Jelly Beans that it's ridiculous."

All of us snapped our gazes towards him and shrieked "It was your idea?!"

Regal shrugged, then gave a glare at Cade "Yes, and that's kinda my revenge for ignoring my THREE attempts at make you see reason and going with your fight still, remember that I exhausted myself trying to put distance between the two of you, tried to halt the fight with a 10-foot wide lightning bolt, and screaming in your face while pecking it. Oh and don't forget the tornado that you tried to throw at Gem and me."

What? Had he tried to stop us apart from the weird teleporting thing? We didn't remember that. Sure, we saw tornadoes, but we didn't think that Regal would have been near one.

Driscol looked at the rest of us. "Do either of you remember doing that stuff?"

Sparta shook his head. "Last thing I remember of Regal was screaming in his face before dropping him off at Bluepeak."

Kevin looked thoughtful, and squinted as he thought back. "Hmm, well… actually no, I don't… Were we that lost in our instincts?"

Driscol sighed. "Must have been."

Sparta uncharacteristically apologised. "Sorry Regs."

Regal blinked at the new nickname, then shook his head. "Just make sure it doesn't happen again, and once you've free time, if you remember how you did to create a storm, I'll make sure you're responsible with that, and give you lessons if you prove it to me."

Sparta looked at the rest of us. "I think it was kinda a pull in our gut or something. You know what the Percy Jackson books say controlling water is like? A bit like that."

Kevin cocked his head to the side. "Maybe? I dunno. I might have been blasted off at that point."

Regal rubbed his head with his wing. "Sounds like it's different for you… I can work with that. Also, I'll invite you to see my memories of your fight later so that you can see it from another point of view and probably without holes, should help you."

All three head's awarenesses pushed into Regal's mind. He winced in pain, making Driscol push out Kevin and Sparta, and scan through his recent memories.

We then pull back, both physically and mentally, wincing. "Christ. We really ****ed up. That's terrifying. I don't even recognise that monster as us..."

Nodding then turning to Aegis, Regal asked "Is it safe to get back to Mount Bluepeak now? I'm pretty sure it should help him to get back with the other members of our clan."

Big Bird nodded "Yes you can, but he must take his normal size first, he should have a low profile for the moment."

All of us nod, and we shrink down to about Jacob's size rather than being our usual Gem-like bulkiness. "We agree with that."

Amara winced. "It's still weird how you talk with three voices. They're all the same though, so when you all talk at once, it sounds layered or something."

We shrug. At least she accepts us as us now. "Nothing we can do about that."

Regal stretched out his wings to loosen them up. "Let's go then, the others must be waiting for us."

---

We were in the lift, going up into the interior of Mount Bluepeak. We'd attracted a lot of looks on the way there, but we kept our heads focused on the ground in shame. There was also an awkward moment where Kevin detected the smell of doughnuts and tried to follow it, making us trip up when we tried to go in two different directions at once.

Driscol glanced nervously at the ceiling. "I'm starting to think this was a bad idea."

Gem nudged us encouragingly. "Hey, it'll be fine. We're gonna be the only people who don't care that you demolished a lot of stuff, and Jacob is practically in hero-worship right now. Felix's clan leader is understandably annoyed, but I think that was more because you won the fight than anything of theirs getting destroyed."

Sparta smirked. "We did a good job of breaking things. Maybe we should consider a career as demolition guys."

Kevin shook his head, and in a rare moment of wisdom said "Nah. It'd just remind everyone of this."

For some reason, Regal muttered "Must be a dragon thing."

We didn't understand what he was talking about, but the doors opened and Gem, Amara and Regal stepped out.

Driscol looks at the rest of us. "Let's just get this over with."

Gritting our teeth, we walk in, returning to our regular size.

Jacob was instantly bounding over towards us. "Cade! You're back! You wrecked stuff! You kicked Godzilla's ass!"

Sal smiled and looked at the ceiling. "Of course that's what he's focused on. I'm more worried about whether you're okay."

"And I want to know why you started something without asking me to help!" Darius smiled at us.

We sigh, Kevin glancing away as Sparta winced. Driscol decided to take the lead. "Err… well, I guess that you can see that we're back, and we're okay."

Jacob, Paddles, Sal, Darius all echoed "We?"

Regal did us the mercy of explaining. "Oh yeah, basically Cade now has three consciousness inside him, we suppose that's because he has three Eldunari inside his chest - I'll explain later for those that don't know what that is- but basically he woke up like this. May I present you Kevin, Driscol, and-" He was saying while pointing at each head before being interrupted by the last head.

Sparta decided to try out for the quote awards and yelled "I AM SPARTA!" before we slammed a foot into the sofa, knocking it over, but not pushing it far.

Sparta glared at the sofa and said "... I want a hole in our room."

Driscol looked at him like he'd gone mad. "Where?"

Sparta rolled his eyes. "In the floor, where else, dumbass?"

"But we could fall into it." Kevin pointed out.

Sparta huffed. "You people are no fun."

"Maybe if we get a balcony out the main windows you could kick stuff off it?" Kevin suggested.

"That'll work, I guess." Sparta grumbled.

Jacob looked at us in confusion. "Wait… run that by me again…"

We groaned, and stalked over to the sofa before we realised we'd kicked it over and righted it again.

"Someone else please do it." We asked. "We've had enough of everyone staring at us like we're freaks."

Regal looks pleadingly at Gem. She obliged and started trying to explain what happened as Amara sits down next to us.

"Hey cuz. Cuzes. Cuzi?"

"That last one isn't a word." Kevin said glumly.

"Isn't it?" Sparta asked. "I'm gonna google it."

Driscol rolls his eyes and slaps a headset on Sparta.

Sparta nodded to him. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Driscol replies. "Hey, Amara."

Jacob sat on our other side as the TV flicked on and Sparta opened an internet browser. "Hey dude. Or dudes now?"

Driscol sighed. "Dudes. We're dudes. Who would have thought it would have come to this?"

Kevin bobbed around on the end of his neck. "I personally like being dudes. We can't get lonely anymore!"

Jacob smiled. "And I'll always have one of you to talk to!"

Kevin curls himself around the Night Fury in a hug. "Yeah! This is awesome!"

Paddles still held his distance. "It seems strange for me, but it must be extremely weird for you… three."

Driscol nodded and sighed. "You don't know the third of it. Kevin's more of our happy, overexcited, pranking self, Sparta's us when we get ****ed off, and I'm… Frankly, I don't know what I am. Maybe I'm the sane aspect of us."

Regal chuckled. "Nobody is sane, we are all more or less insane. That's what I like to think, there is always a part of us that'll sound insane to somebody else."

Driscol rolled his eyes. "Well zippity do for us. We're mad on the inside and the outside."

"Wanna play some games or whatever?" Kevin asked.

"I'm not opposed to that." Driscol said as we shrugged.

Regal looked smug. "Now is the perfect time for you to try to beat me. Will you be the ones that'll beat me at Supreme Commander?"

Sparta hummed in interest. "Huh. So that's what it means."

"What?" Kevin asked.

"Cuzi. It means 'bro' or 'homie', according to the urban dictionary."

Amara followed Sparta's gaze. "So close enough then."

We shrugged. "We dunno… Jacob or Darius are probably being closer to having our 'homie' status."

Amara looked at me, putting mock hurt into her voice. "But I'm part of your family!"

Jacob instantly jumped in with "I claim homieness!"

Darius smiled. "Click on what homie means. I want to see if I'm eligible for it."

Sparta followed the order, and we all read through the results.

Jacob read "It says that friends would bail you out of jail, but a homie would be sitting next to you saying 'THAT WAS ****ING AWESOME! Let's do it again.'"

"That's more you than me, then." Darius considered.

Jacob pumped a fist. "YES!"

"But we technically think as three guys." Sparta pointed out. "Wouldn't we have seperate homies, or would there be homie sharing? Or a homie group?"

Driscol shook his head. "I have no ****ing clue, mate."

Regal glared at us. "Aaaaaaand you totally ignored me."

"You denied us jelly beans." We justified. "You have therefore removed yourself from the group of homie candidates under rule 17, subsection F of the Bro Code."

Regal spread his wings in a 'what?' gesture. "Hey! I tried to lessen your punishment from the Elders! I hoped they would go with that, then they wouldn't have to punish you more."

Jacob got as close to Sparta's ear as he can and whispered "I got you, fams. Meet me later, under the hard-light bridge to Thundergulch Gorge." All three of us grin and wink at him.

Driscol announced "Jacob has been raised to homie status. Homies two and three have yet to prove themselves. And yeah Regal, we're totally gonna beat you."

Regal's eyes narrowed. "Bring it on! I could have tried to go for a pro career in SupCom, if there was a pro scene, but there haven't been enough people playing it for that…" He shakes his head then grabs a headsets and puts one on, taking control of the TV to launch the game. "Bring it on!"

All three of us smirk. "Jacob, you want in too?"

Jacob nodded happily. "Sure!"

"I'll take Regal's team if he'll have me." Darius said. Traitor.

Amara nodded. "Same."

Sparta raised whatever we had instead of eyebrows at her suspiciously. "And why would that be, dear cousin? Are you no longer trying to attain homieness?"

Driscol smirked. "You really are manipulating sometimes."

Sparta gave him a smug grin. "Why, thank you. What can I say? Great minds think alike."

Regal ignored us. "Anyway, first, if there is one more person on my team, we can do a 4v4, with all three Cade's head controlling an ACU each, and second, we should all go to our rooms anyways, we cannot really play on the same screen, else you could just spy what the other side does."

Paddles walked over to Regal. "I'm going with you then. Partly because you need me, but mostly because you have Jacob."

"Hey!" Jacob complained.

"Are you messing with our homie?" We asked Paddles, our heads rising a few meters.

Paddles nodded. "Yes. What're you three gonna do about it?"

We narrowed our eyes at him. "Nothing… yet."

Jacob glanced towards his bedroom, then back at us. "I dunno if my room's big enough for both of us, Cade."

Regal clarified "Nah I mean, each member of a team is in their own room, and my team talk via microphone-"

Sparta coughed loudly.

"I said MY team, you can just mindspeak with Jacob."

Kevin winked at our teammate. "Of course, we can just look in their heads to see what they're doing."

"And no spying on us either or it's automatic forfeit!"

We stared at him, stunned. "How the **** did you know what we were thinking?"

Regal snorted. "Dude, it's so obvious, that it's telegraphed."

Driscol and Sparta glared at our third head. "KEVIN! YOU IDIOT!"

Kevin whimpered. "Sorry!"

Jacob hopped off the sofa and began trotting towards his room. "Enough talk, more play!"

Regal turned towards Gem and Sal "Do you want to play the roles of commentators? It'll be a perfect thing to watch for the residents of Locostral, and will reassure them about Cade's mental state."

Gem nodded. "I have very little experience commentating on things, but okay."

Jacob turned back and started pushing us off the sofa. "TO GLORY!"

Regal shook his head and motions to his team to head towards their rooms. We and Jacob head towards our room, set ourselves up with headsets, popcorn, and cokes, and sit back and wait for Regal to create the game.

"So do you have any experience in RTS games?" We asked him.

"I mainly rush the enemies." The Night Fury replied.

"Cool." Driscol said. "You and Kevin harass them while Driscol and I focus on resource allocation and getting a stable economy going."

"Roger, Big Chief."

"If Driscol is 'Big Chief', what am I?" Sparta asked our homie.

"Leonidas?"

Sparta snorted. "Nah. Enough 300 references. I'll stick with my new name."

And with Kevin burying himself in a bucket of popcorn, we began the game.

---

A few hours later, and it was all over. Although we had put up a valiant effort, and eliminated Darius, Paddles, and Amara, we lost Kevin halfway through, and Regal eventually bombarded Jacob and the rest of us into submission. Adding to that, we were totally wasted.

Kevin was pretty much drowning in his bucket of popcorn. Jacob was passed out, lying upside down on our bed with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Sparta had found a pillow, but had it in his mouth instead of under his head. And finally, Driscol had managed to get most of our body covered by the coke-stained blankets, but lay awake in the night.

Strangely, we could now be sleeping and awake at the same time. That would be useful for taking guard shifts, but it was still strange. Our centre head tossed and turned as the blue light of the TV washed over us, but he couldn't get to sleep. We were still bodysick, even after the massive fight, the awakening, and all that talk. We just hadn't had time to deal with it after becoming a 'we'.

We still weren't sure how we felt about that. On the one hand, as we'd pointed out ourselves, we were all still Cade. On the other, this was completely freaky. You don't usually wake up and find two other people strapped to you. However, we did have moments of unity, where we all acted together, and who knows, perhaps we could use each other's perspectives as we debated who to save and how.

Driscol sighed and bent around to see the TV screen. Nosing on a headset, he just began surfing the internet. We'd be fine if he had to sleep a few hours. Kevin would let him sleep over his neck. Driscol started with browsing a few social media sites, looking up some memes, and checking what new videogames would be going out next.

Glancing at the clock, we read the time. 2:43 am. Driscol silently groaned. It wasn't like we could go flying. Kevin and Sparta would be woken up. Kevin probably wouldn't mind, but Sparta would definitely be ****ed enough to bite off our centre head. Having multiple people in one body was a pain.

Bored, Driscol started thinking about our bodysickness. We missed being human. As we said before, we were happy in this form, but we still missed our old life. That got the cogs in Driscol's brain whirring. When the idea came to us, we were scared to try it out, but we eventually did it. After all, nobody could blame us for logging into our old social media accounts.

Doing so was a remarkably pleasant experience. We saw what the old gang were up to, which mainly consisted of gaming and actually getting on with life. We saw what Mom and Dad were doing too. It seemed like our death had been a very bumpy road for them, but they eventually got past it and started travelling the world on a cruise.

Driscol smiled. It looked like our death had been an oddly good shakeup of everyone's lives, least of all our own. Still, it gave us one last thing to research. Our death.

Our centre head typed our collective name into the search bar and hit enter. What popped up was… surprising. Despite the vision we'd had of the graveyard, it turned out that our body hadn't been recovered. The grave was just to mark our passing, while the largest physical part of us had been part of our right arm. That had been taken by Mom and Dad, and had been cremated. They had entrusted our ashes to my friends, which we thought was a nice touch.

Finally, we opened up Discord, switched our profile onto invisible mode, and jumped into our private server, with Jack, Mark, Sarah, Jane, and Bob's text chat. Once again, time proved itself to be out of whack, as it seemed to be about seven in the morning for them.

Driscol watched as the messages began stacking in. Memes, insults, dares, prank ideas, and questions for each other. A smile formed over his mouth as our bodysickness finally began to fade. It wasn't what we were that defined us. It was who we were. Our actions, and our personalities explained us far louder than any words could.

And it was because of our actions as a stupid, immature, person that caused what happened next. After a brief decision, Driscol flicked our visibility to online and typed in the following message:

'This is Follower_of_Chief. Reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.'

---

Snapshot #2A

The whole Hogwarts shebang was a fiasco. Darius had completely flipped out because of the spiders, and had set fire to the entire Forbidden Forest.

Naturally, we decided to bail the realm after that, which led us back to Locostral. And Jacob.

"Hey Cade? How are you three doing?"

"Not bad." We replied.

"Cool! Now I need your help for something."

"What did you break this time?"

"Hey! I didn't do anything. This is probably the safest project I've ever done."

"So what do you need us for then?" Driscol asked.

"If there aren't explosions, then I'm out." Sparta grumbled.

"Can we get waffles?" Kevin questioned.

"I need you guys to be my cameraman."

"Say what?"

---

Authors' second notes:

Regal Eagle- DONE!

Sleepysaurus Rex- WE'RE DONE! IT TOOK THREE DAYS! BUT WE'RE DONE! WOO!

Regal Eagle- That was… A long ride.

Sleepysaurus Rex- Yep. It was a looooooong time. How many hours do you think we sank into this?

Regal Eagle- More than a dozen for sure… We totally not planned for the plot to be like this at the beginning, I think the original intent was to just have the cafe scene and a cameo of Felix (the Godzilla) but… We just went into the flow and it resulted in that monster of a chapter.

Sleepysaurus Rex- An absolute monster… This will be uploaded in the original, third person version on my profile, but each of us will release a version from our character's point (or points for Cade) of view… That's gonna be a nightmare to edit…

Regal Eagle- You've an even harder job than me too… Most of the story that we wrote on the original version could almost be considered Regal's PoV but on the 3rd person, you have parts that are not described for you… And there's now your consciousness split, can't wait to see how it'll translate in the rest of your canon story.

Sleepysaurus Rex- This IS canon. But yeah, it'll take FOREVER, but I owe it to my viewers for the short chapter I put out last time. I hope all you guys reading enjoyed this chapter! Tell us if we should do something like this in the future, because it was awesome to do.

Regal Eagle- Not for several months at least tho… I've written two VERY long chapters back to back, if I don't post for two weeks, that's normal, first I'll be on vacation in a ski station next week so I probably won't have the time to write and not even sure I'll have internet, and second… Just on the Gdoc we wrote together, it's 12k words long, and I'm sure the final result will be longer, at least we could just copy the dialogues.

Sleepysaurus Rex- MUCH longer… Skiing's cool though. I've done it about once a year since I was 5 or 6. Anyway, we do have another collab planned… but we won't tell you when or what it will be! Yes, we're evil. Deal with it. See you guys next chapter!

Regal Eagle- Same! And don't worry, we'll start the main storyline of Fairy Tail for real in my next chapter, that's a promise!

Bye guys!