AN: Hey all, so I've been writing this story for, like, a while, and I've kinda gotten sick of all the complaints, and it's gotten kinda long, so I'm just gonna, like, copy Wildbow and skip to the end, because if he did it then it's, like, totally a good idea. But, like, writing the big fight seems, like, a lot of work, so I'm just gonna skip to the end. Hope ya'll, like, enjoy!
Conclusions 41.20
I sat and relaxed on the beach resort I'd had built on my own personal world, staffed by powered automatons that I controlled, just like the city nearby. It was nice to relax, with everything all over, with no more foes to fight, and no more problems to solve.
My best friend, Herb, sat on another chair beside me, as we sat and enjoyed the calm waves. It'd been a long three years, but we'd finally won, dealing with more bad guys then I could count, so I didn't bother. Cauldron had been a problem, but we'd finally broken them, taking their resources for their own.
I'd come to understand that the problem hadn't been what they'd been doing, with the abductions, and the murders, and the forced experimentations. No, the problem had been that they'd been doing them wrong. I, of course, could do it better, and I had. Using Master powers on people wasn't the problem, using it badly had been. With that revelation, and the ability to harvest powers from The Thinker directly, everything had become so much easier.
Heartbreaker had been an amateur, Gallagher-ing his control in narrow, overly large doses, sandblasting people's personalities. Me, I was an artist. Small changes, rooted deeply into their minds, could make enormous changes, and had helped everyone to understand. I'd always struggled with not understanding others, and of others not being able to, or unwilling to, understand me in turn.
Now, that was no longer a problem.
I'd started small of course, correcting the flaws inherent within my best friend, finally helping him understand what he was doing wrong, and to correct it. I'd had to go a bit deeper than I would've liked, but his thoughts were just so chaotic, so jumbled, that I'd spent a while smoothing them out, making them orderly without changing how he presented himself that much. The outputs were generally the same, but his mind worked much better now.
From there, it'd gotten easier. Taylor's Insecurities, Amelia's Fears, Rebecca's Arrogance, all had been fixed, making them all much better people, working together for a common goal. I'd even discovered how to use it on myself, removing the things that had been holding me back, letting me take the risks I avoided, pushing forward instead of being a coward about the entire thing.
Some had died, yes. Dean's death was a tragedy, but Victoria found comfort in her sister's arms, and my own. But we'd progressed, and for every one that we lost, we removed a thousand threats, and those we made examples of had helped deter others.
Things had gotten a bit touchy, and starting that war with Russia and the CUI could've been handled better, but taking over the Vatican had been a masterstroke and let us bring South America in line. Africa might be gone, but it was a sacrifice I'd been willing to make, and then, only a month ago, we'd stumbled across the solution to all our problems.
As his powers grew, Herb was able to turn into larger and larger things. The tipping point had happened seven weeks ago, when something had unlocked, and He'd gained the ability to turn into an Entity.
One on one, the Warrior might have been able to defeat him, but twenty-four on one, each of his Replicants a separate Entity, along with their Stands, along with myself and my own Stand added to the mix? It was child's play.
Now, strong enough to handle any foe, we relaxed. Herb's Replicants had been a blessing in disguise, and, once made to understand, had been an invaluable resource. Humanity continued, one united government working to achieve utopia, and spread through the stars. Those of the next generation that sought to overwhelm the order, or those with enough power to cause problems, would understand the need to work together for the good of all.
With the power I'd gained, and the powers I'd learned to gift to others, me and mine were immortal, in every sense. We'd help ensure that Humanity stayed on the right track, not a Sword of Damacles, but the invisible hand, letting others live their lives unknowing of the danger that had been averted, but with the worst among them punished, seemingly by Fate, and they'd understand why doing the right thing was, well, the right thing to do.
But those were thoughts for another day. We'd won, and the world didn't even know, ignorant of the final battle, assuming that our conflict with those other dimensions was the last great conflict. While quite a few had died, it was the only way that I'd been able to find the dimension the Warrior was hiding in, so their deaths were not in vain.
For now, I relaxed. "So, whaddya think?" I asked Herb, sipping the power-created ambrosia. "Relax for a few more hours, or head back to our rooms?"
He laughed, shaking his head. "Still getting' used to you not having to do somethin' all the time."
With our foes gone, that need I'd had, the fear of not being enough, had been a detriment to my happiness, so I'd removed it, understanding that it wasn't necessary any longer. "That's not an answer. Let me guess, you want to head back to your room, you horn-dog."
He glanced down the beach, towards where the others were relaxing. He'd finally settled down with Kayden, Hedera, and Contessa. The fact that the second half of his Replicants were all female, and all liked him was a bit odd, but I'd understood that it wasn't incest, but masturbation, of a sort, and with their genetics changed by Amelia it wasn't even really that.
Snorting, he shot back, "Like you've got room to talk, what with your Harem." I glanced over as well, at Taylor, Amelia, Rebecca, Victoria, Jamie, Akemi, Carol, Paige, Cherie, Jeanne, Abigail, Ashley, Dragon, Noelle, Faultline, Lily, Sveta, Ciara, Miranda, Elle, Shatterbird, Madeline, Mimi, Emily, Crystal, Lisa, Hannah, Karen, Sherrel, Narwhal, Dorothy, Sabah, Rachel, Ziz, Scylla, and Titania. The last three, the Endbringers, had been a surprise, but with time I'd even been able to make those engines of destruction understand, and, if they wanted to pursue me, who was I to say no? There were others of course, but these were just the ones that had come with me on vacation.
"Dude," I scoffed, "I can make copies. There's more of me then there are of them. If anything they're the ones with harems."
Herb looked like he wanted to disagree, but he didn't, understanding that I was correct. "So what next?"
I shrugged, "That's what I'm asking you. I got nothing. Our industry's working away. Overwatch is well, watching the world, and with the restrictions we put on the Shard Network, no one's getting any power that's really a problem."
With Scion dead, we were finally able to seize control of the mechanism that allowed people to Trigger, re-writing the commands they were sent, limiting the ways powers could manifest. The Conflict Drive had been replaced with the Cooperation Drive, and those that went against the grain, as long as they kept the damage minimal, could be ignored, not having the power to shake the system up deeper than just under the surface.
I thought back to disbelief when I'd railed against what Herb had done to Dinah, how I'd risked everything for a girl whose powers didn't even work properly, hadn't worked at all until I'd helped both her, and her Shard, understand me and how they needed to function. Quinn had adopted her, and, with the backlash gone, she now helped out her father monitoring things from out of sight of larger society. She was an asset, yes, but if I'd let her suffer a few days more, and come in with the plan to kill Quinn from the start, then save her, so many problems could've been avoided.
Those early days, I'd tried to only kill in combat, saving assassinations for those who truly needed them, prioritizing saving lives over ending threats. I'd learned, and things had improved because of it. Yes, they'd lost some people because of it, like Ethan, but with those threats eliminated they were never in a position to threaten anyone else again. Those that could be captured were made to understand what they did was wrong, and became allies, but most of them were just removed, like Legend had to be, though his clone was much more amenable, and only his husband had noticed the difference, but he'd understood why it'd been necessary.
"Let's hang out a bit more. Not like we can burn," he laughed, and I laughed as well, our twin chortles echoing across the waves.
While my power had stopped Amelia from making improvements, even undoing my own understanding if I didn't re-apply it, I'd tracked down someone who had a weaker power, one that protected against more minor damage, and harvested it, before passing it out to the others. We were now all built like Greek gods and goddesses, my own power rendering them perfect, and the other's keeping them there.
However, with time to experiment, and uniformity, while good in societies, being boring, Amelia and I had made some. . . improvements. Taylor's Antennae, Amelia's blood-red hair, Karen's furry ears and thin, prehensile tail. It made them all the more unique, and those that had been doubtful had understood why I wanted it.
I took another sip, letting the taste of concentrated life-force fill my mouth, and sat back. I'd been so concerned about morals, about doing what was right over what was easy, about not using my powers to my fullest, that the hell I'd found myself in, during those first few months, was really one of my own making. It would've been far easier to grab who I wanted and leave, travelling the country, then the world, taking the powers I wanted. When the Endbringers would've attacked, I wouldn't've been hamstrung, but could've killed it with ease, Lily's power making such a task simple.
But I'd been bogged down with mental chains, shackled to 'preserving agency' and 'free will', thinking that any actions against those were evil, when that was far from the case. Humanity still had agency, still had free will, but was protected from misusing them, just like, when you had a toddler, you put a gate over the stairs and capped the corners with softened material. When they proved themselves capable of handling more responsibility, of growing up, they would get more freedom, but they'd shown, time and time again, that they couldn't be trusted with it.
That's why the small, individual evils, like theft, non-lethal violence, or date rape, we left alone, only stepping in if it threatened people's lives, or started to affect society. Without the room to make those lesser mistakes, and on the scale of society they were truly petty concerns, how could we tell when Humanity was ready for more?
Some had disagreed, as they always did, but they'd come around to my point of view, understanding why they weren't that big of a deal, especially as, powerful as they were, they had nothing to fear from them. I would never do such a thing, of course, but then again I was the example to measure all others against, Brockton Bay the proverbial City on the Hill, by which all others would be measured, and almost always found wanting.
It was hard to be on top, not exactly lonely, not with my wives, but difficult. At times I questioned if this was the right thing to do, if there was not some other, better way, but even when my own understanding waned, that of those around me did not, and helped me understand that my way was correct, and that I needed to help myself understand it once more.
Humanity had won against the Entities, and now we could rebuild. The fight had been costly, over half of humanity dead, but it was nothing that we couldn't get back in some way or another. It's ironic, I thought to myself, that killing the golden man would usher in a new golden age.
I sat back, letting my wind blow, on my beach, in my dimension, among my people, and relaxed to enjoy my victory.
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Yeah, fuck that, Next Chapter's up on Sunday, like usual.
