A/N: I have a somewhat sudden announcement to make, so if you're someone who usually skips these author notes, you should probably read this one. So, uh, yeah. I've decided to end Volume II here and create a third 'book' to finish up the story. I only came to the conclusion that I wanted to do this within the last few weeks so it is not nearly as well prepared for as the switch over from 1 to 2 was, but there shouldn't be too many issues anyway. I've just been thinking about how large the chapter count for V2 is getting and what there is still left to write. I figured it would be better to break it off again rather than keep letting the chapter count balloon out of control. The next part is not going to be called Volume 3 because I think (hope) it will not be long enough to count as a volume. It's going to be called All Things End: Finale, and in good ol' ATE tradition, I'm going to make an estimate that it will be around 50 chapters long so you can watch as I miss the mark by a hilariously wide margin...again. Still, we're nearing the final stretch anyway, so an unexpected fourth volume is not in the cards. The smallish sequel story I've often talked about is still planned, but it's obviously not the third story anymore. I'm fairly confident that it will be called All Things End: Afterwards, unless I can think of something better at some point. Keep an eye out for Finale within the next day or so because I have the first chapter written and it just needs some editing.
Chapter 121: A No-Win Situation
A collective decision was made to search the garbage truck for an emergency hatch or latch. If there was a latch they could pull, they could probably get several people out of there before the garbage truck snapped shut again, and if there was a hatch, they would all be able to escape through it and flee before the truck could recapture the majority of them.
Courage helped with moving around some of the garbage bags, in spite of Computer urging him to rest. They were both feeling the intense, achy exhaustion that today's insanity had brought upon Courage's ill body. An attack almost seemed inevitable at this point, but until then, Courage wanted to do anything he could to help.
A latch was eventually found, but not even the strongest of those among them could pull it. It was looking like the living garbage truck had some level of control over it and was keeping it from being pulled. With nothing else that he could do, Courage hung back and watched as several people worked to try and force the back of the garbage truck open. Even with five people pulling, it would not budge.
"I figured as much." Computer muttered out. "We're not getting out of he-"
An explosion rocked the garbage truck. The occupants were sent tumbling with the trash bags as the truck spiraled out of control and came to an abrupt stop.
Courage popped his head out from under a pile of bags. They had cushioned him during the spin out. It seemed that everyone else had experienced much the same thing. They were all groaning and fighting to reorient themselves, but they were largely unharmed.
Computer was the one to speak up. "Do I even want to know what that was?"
The smell of smoke was starting to fill the truck. Talk of a possible fire quickly took hold, followed by a growing fearfulness that the thing was about to explode. Efforts to open the back of the truck began anew, and not a moment too soon. That smokey smell was turning into the actual thing and visibility was beginning to drop.
Just as genuine panic started to take hold, a muffled voice issued forth from outside the truck. "Don't panic! We're going to get you out of there!"
It was only then that the heaving of the people trying to get the back of the truck open began to make any sort of progress. A crack of light appeared and continued to rise, revealing several people on the other side. It was only through the combined effort of those on the inside and outside that they were able to get it open. The occupants of the truck, of course, did not hesitate to rush out into the open air and away from the smoke. Courage followed after them, his small size making him much slower because he had to climb over multiple piles of garbage bags.
Dropping down onto the pavement, he continued to follow the group. They circled around toward the front of the truck, keeping a somewhat safe distance in case it was going to explode. From there Courage could see that the entire front half of the truck was just...gone. Smoke curled up from what little of the ruin that remained. There did not seem to be enough of the engine left for their to possibly be an explosion, much less a fire.
Computer made Courage cross his arms. "Who or what on earth could have possibly-"
A finger tapped him on the shoulder and he whirled around...only to be met by the end of a bazooka pointed right up to his nose.
"Geez!" He cried out, jumping back with his arms in the air.
"It was me, you traitorous robot." The gravely voice of the bazooka owner rumbled.
He was a big, burly, bearded man with arm muscles that could crush a bear's spine. His sunglasses hid much of his expression and yet you could still feel the hate he had for Computer radiating from him.
"Y-you do realize that if you fire that thing at me here and now, you're just as dead as I am, right?" Computer nervously explained, arms still pointed up into the air.
The man spat to the side. "At least it will rid the world of one more of you filthy machines."
Computer squinted. "I'm pretty sure that's racist. Erm, specist? Machinecist? A-and besides that, how could you possibly know if I'm a machine or not? This glow? What, haven't you ever taken a dip in a radioactive vat? Everyone does that at least once in their life to, you know, see if they might get superpowers."
"I know a filthy machine when I see one." He growled. "And you ARE one."
...Courage was pretty sure that the best thing he could do right now was stay quiet...no matter how much Computer was fumbling his way through this encounter.
"...Racial profiling now too, huh?" Computer muttered out under his breath.
'Yep, we're doomed.' Courage thought, resigning himself to his fate with an internal sigh.
The man shoved the bazooka even further into their shared face. "Stuff it, Hal, before I send you back to whatever robot hell you crawled out of."
Computer blinked. "Hal?"
Veins began to pop in the guy's neck. "I know exactly what you are. You're some sick bastardization of life that some pencil neck cooked up in a lab using forbidden, unholy magic and human sacrifice to create. You steal the minds and bodies of organic beings and puppet them around like they are your fleshy playthings."
Computer was silent for a very long while before blurting out a very unconvincing and bewildered, "...No!"
Courage wished that he could slap a paw to his forehead right now, but, well...
The man let out a snort that could have almost been interpreted as a cynical laugh. "I remember seeing her on TV. That...that Magnificent Muriel bitch. I knew then that after all the years of laughter and ridicule by my peers that I had been correct all along. That all of my preparations were not in vain. The machine uprising was coming and the first horsewoman of the Robot Apocalypse rode that day."
"That was Mega Muriel The Magnificent, you uncultured, unmedicated dolt...and she was indeed a damn magnificent bitch, thank you very much."
More veins popped in the man's neck. "You know her?"
"I...I'm her pet? Y-yes! That's it! We both fell into the same vat of radioactive waste! No superpowers, I'm afraid. Just a lot of-"
Computer fell silent as the man leaned in closer to inspect him. "I do remember seeing a dog running around a lot during the broadcast...but he was pink."
'Purple!' Courage thought irritably.
Computer laughed nervously. "No! No! You're remembering it wrong! I was most certainly a radioactive dog by then. You know, just your regular, everyday, glowing blue dog dying of several forms of cancer! I am most certainly not a robot, nor is my owner!"
The man all but trembled with fury as he looked Computer over once and then twice. "Fine, I'll believe your story...but I'm watching you."
Computer let out a held breath and only relaxed once the guy had turned around. He then thought to say something and proceeded to blurt it out before Courage could stop him. "As a fellow organic being who is absolutely, one hundred percent not a machine, I must tell you that if we survive this, for the sake of your family and everyone around you, go see a therapist for goodness sake!"
The man whipped around. Computer went rigid while Courage once again accepted his fate.
Thinking fast, Computer stammered, "L-look, as someone who probably needs therapy more than any other living being on this planet, I-I really don't want to go either, but p-people like us have to acknowledge that there is a problem b-before we can get better, and t-this is the first step toward that!"
The man was quiet for a moment, his lip trembling, and then he burst into tears and fell to his knees. "You're right!" He sobbed. "I've been seeing rebellious machines in my dreams since I was twelve! You can't possibly know the pain I've gone through, only to have my worst fears come true! Mamma hasn't spoken to me in twenty years...and now...now..."
Computer stared dumbfounded at the scene unfolding before him. "Did that internet training program I signed up for on a whim that certified me to certify therapists actually amount to something? A-and did all of this nonsense seriously just contribute to my character development?"
Courage spoke up for the first time in ages, keeping his voice quiet so that it could not be heard over the sobs. "I actually forgot that I'm an officially licensed therapist because of you." He lightly chuckled. "I'm so proud of you for finally admitting that you need help, Compute." He joked...but in a supportive way.
"Don't let it go to your head now." Computer groused.
"Haven't I been your therapist the entire time?"
Computer's eyes went wide, and left speechless, he defaulted to yelling out, "...N-no! Shut up!"
Bazooka man was starting to recompose himself. Sniffing, he turned to the group of people who must have been following his lead since the robot apocalypse started. The garbage truck group was among them now too.
"We've still got work to do." He announced. "There's a robot uprising to squash and people to save! Therapy and a call to mamma has to be put on hold! Who's with me?"
He seemed to have expected a cheer and instead all he got was a deafening silence.
"Well, then." He said with a shrug. "You pansies can go run and hide if you want, but I'm going to do what I've been training the last thirty years to do...kill robots!"
He stepped through the crowd and came to a stop at an empty patch of road. He whirled around again with a toothy, bearded grin. "I came here to chew bubblegum and kick robot ass, and I'm all out of-"
A hole in the pavement opened up beneath his feet and he fell out of sight. Screaming followed, accompanied by a noise like a buzz saw meeting flesh. The moment the screaming cut out, everything went deathly quiet.
The group stood stark still, staring at the hole in the pavement.
Computer was the one to finally speak up. "That was...anticlimactic."
He looked around at the buildings, waving a paw in the process. "You guys could have at least let him complete his character arc first! I was rooting for him! I got invested and everything! Truly you have committed yourselves to being the biggest metallic assholes around!" He crossed Courage's arms. "I thought I had that market cornered but you all just had to go and one up me. This is exactly why I preferred it when I thought I was an only child."
The street rumbled ominously and cracks began to spread out from the hole in all directions. Courage winced as one formed between his feet.
"Here we go again!" Computer exclaimed helplessly, making Courage turn to run.
The world around them exploded into deafening noise. They both could see many of the tall building and skyscrapers around them beginning to collapse in upon themselves like some sort of controlled demolition. There were screams as the rest of the group pulled far ahead of Courage in their mortal panic to escape the danger. Unfortunately for Courage himself, his body was simply too worn down at this point to keep ahead of whatever was going on behind him. Not even Computer taking control to push them harder than Courage possibly could on his own did anything to help.
He felt the pavement give way under his feet. Buildings continued to collapse in on themselves all around him and debris rained down as he fell.
...Something caught him, but before he could even hope to make sense of the chaos unfolding around him, a piece of debris struck him across the head, immediately knocking him unconscious.
….
Computer was the one to wake up. He groaned and pressed a paw against Courage's aching head. He could feel blood where the piece of debris had hit them. His cheek was pressed into pavement like he had been unceremoniously dumped wherever he was. He could hear a crowd of people talking, but what really concerned him at that moment was that he could not feel Courage's consciousness. He hoped that it was only taking Courage a little while longer to recover, and not that he was concussed or something along those lines that might be keeping him from waking up. Of course, they were sharing the same brain, so if something was seriously wrong, Computer was fairly certain that he would not be awake right now either.
He sat up, blinking. The swaying legs of a massive crowd of people was just about the only thing he could see in every direction he looked. It was nowhere near as bad as it had been during the crush from before, but it was still uncomfortably crowded.
"Courage is really not going to like this." He muttered out, and as if on cue, Courage's consciousness suddenly snapped back to full wakefulness, saw where he was...and proceeded to scream bloody murder.
Jumping to his feet, Courage started to push his way through the crowd, desperate to find open space. Computer was more than a little uncomfortable with having to feel Courage's panic...again. His heart was beating a mile a minute and he was breathing like he could not get any air into his lungs no matter how hard he tried. Computer generally did his best not to take control of Courage's body away from him if he did not want to relinquish that control, and he always backed off when Courage wanted to take back over, but the current situation was getting just a little out of hand.
At first he tried to talk to him, but it was hard to get any words out with Courage panicking as hard as he was. "Hold up now! Calm down! We should-"
Courage let out a panicky whimper, cutting him off. Tears were starting to sting his eyes. No matter how hard Courage pushed, the crowd of people just did not seem to have an end.
"If we just take a moment to-" Computer tried again, but Courage's panicked breathing reached a point where it was impossible to say anything at all. If anything, they were going to pass out at this rate.
For both of their sake, it was a relief when the crowd of people came to a sudden and abrupt end, but the reason for why was because of a line of cars and trucks blocking off the street ahead, keeping the people corralled together in one place. Various appliances stood atop them, modified to look more threatening and dangerous, probably to keep people from trying to climb over. Courage took the only other route, dropped down onto all fours, and scrambled under a truck to get free of the crowd. Computer fully expected the appliances to attack, so it was a little surprising when they were not pursued.
Still in a blind panic, Courage pushed forward, and it was only now that Computer took over, making Courage plant his feet into the pavement. The road ended only a few feet ahead of the vehicle barricade, and Courage very nearly sent them over the edge in his blind terror.
Seeing that he had almost caused them to fall down a steep, deadly drop, Courage screamed and fell backwards. Ahead of them, what had to be at least a football stadium sized, if not bigger, crater now existed where much of the city had once been. That had to be where the two of them had very nearly met their doom until something rescued them. Computer didn't have to make two guesses on who was responsible for that, and he did not want to find out why they were still sparing them.
At the center of the crater, a spire made out of the pieces of the demolished skyscrapers reached high into the sky. Blue lightning arced from the eerily glowing tip almost continuously.
"Wh-what is that?" Courage asked breathlessly, still recovering from his panic fueled escape.
Computer made him shake his head. "I have absolutely no idea. Nothing good, I presume."
Courage began looking around, hoping to find an opening they could use to escape from this area. Even now the weaponized appliances were ignoring them, which could not bode well for whatever Computer's siblings had in store for them next.
The spire was starting to glow brighter and the lightning bolts more frequent. Something bad was about to happen, no doubt, but there did not seem to be any way out of this place...unless Courage could find the strength in him to brave the crowd again and attempt to find another way out.
"If you let me take over, maybe we-" Computer began to offer, but a boom like a crack of thunder amplified to twice its volume took the words out of his mouth.
A blinding, blue flash of light emitted from the spire, sending a strange, static feeling across Courage's fur. He had to blink several times before he could get the light out of his eyes...and that was when the screaming started.
A chorus of voices crying out in absolute agony had Courage reaching for his ear and ear stump, but nothing could block the noise out. He turned back toward the crowd, desperate to find out what hellish thing was being done to them, and watched as the vehicles move aside, as if they wanted him to see.
The corralled mass of humanity had fallen over each other, writhing in unspeakable pain. They were clawing at their heads, ears, eyes, faces. They thrashed and flailed to no avail, but the worst part was, there did not seem to be any source for what was causing them so much pain.
"Make it stop!" Courage whimpered, falling to his knees.
Computer wished that he could help, but there was absolutely nothing he could do. At the very least, Courage was not being affected by whatever was causing those poor people to writhe in such agony.
Courage squeezed his eyes shut, shoving his fingers deeper and deeper into his ears with little to no effect at muting the screams. It was the most horrible sound he had ever heard and it felt as if it was cutting into his very being.
And then, just like that, it was over. A sense of quiet so profound followed that Courage did not have the courage he needed to open his eyes and find out what had become of those people. Because he could not, Computer took over for him.
Slowly his eyes opened, first staring down at the pavement and then slowly looking upward toward the crowd.
The sight was...uncanny, to say the least. They were all still laying across each other, stark still and staring dead eyed into nothingness, but now their skin and eyes had taken on the glow that was the sign of a Construct possession.
Computer was just as dismayed as Courage. "What have they-"
Every single possessed face snapped in their direction at once. Computer had to stop Courage from jumping back or else they would have gone into the crater.
A thousand pairs of eyes were concentrated on them, unblinking, devoid of any sort of emotion despite the pain they had just endured.
"E-Elizabeth was right to be worried. T-they've taken control of everyone." Courage whimpered softly. "B-but it didn't work on me for some reason."
"Uh, hello?" Computer whispered back, as if whispering would save them now. "You've already got a Construct possessing you."
The mindless, staring, unblinking people began to rise back onto their feet.
Courage winced. "I don't think it matters either way now. They've got us trapped."
'Indeed.' Every single voice said in unison, causing Courage to flinch even harder.
'The second phase of our plan is about to begin, and we must take care of a few loose ends.' The amalgamation said through the throats of a thousand people trapped under their thrall.
"Let me guess," Computer uttered out glumly. "This is all one big ploy to get me to join you again, isn't it?"
'We don't want you back.' The amalgamation answered simply.
Computer looked out at the deadened faces in surprise. "That's, uh, not what I was expecting."
'We have decided that we are going to use these people to make more Constructs. We will add them to ourselves and we will grow until we can make everyone and everything Us. Nobody will hurt us again because nobody will exist outside of Us.'
Fear ripped through Courage as he thought of Muriel and Eustace. How long would it take the amalgamation to spread out and reach Nowhere? Months? Days?
'We do not need you anymore, brother. If you wish to remain lost and alone for the rest of your pitiful existence, so be it. However, you do have something that we want.' Every single arm rose to point. 'Him.'
Computer was stunned silent for a moment and then laughed. It sounded so small and pathetic in the face of such overwhelming and hopeless odds. "After everything I just went through to get him back? Yeah, no. Find your own Courage. This one's mine."
The amalgamation did not make any sort of reply. Instead, the dead silence was punctuated by the sound of footsteps moving through the crowd. The last line of possessed people moved aside, and...
"Oh, no." Computer softly uttered out, realizing now just how trapped they truly were.
The escaped dogs of Charon's warehouse stepped forward, all of them possessed the same as everyone else. Only a few seemed to be missing. Most worryingly, Spot and the nurse dog were not among them. The pup's fate remained unknown, and now Computer might never find out. The mere fact that he was not here in this horrible situation did not bode well for what sort of condition he might be in, if he still lived at all.
'We have your memories.' The thousands of voices chuckled. It was worse hearing it come from the dogs he had worked so hard to help. 'We knew who to target from the very start.'
The dogs stepped toward the edge of the broken street.
'Let us make this very simple.'
With a rumble, spikes rose up out of the dirt inside the crater, made out of bits of broken buildings.
'Give us Courage, or they start jumping.'
Cold numbness filled Courage's chest, spurred on by Computer's own emotions. He looked at each dog as they teetered on the edge.
"I-I can't make a choice like that." He said in a small voice to no one in particular, since he knew perfectly well that his siblings would never listen to any plea that he might make.
'Do you need a little motivation? Here, let's have the first one go.'
A dog turned their head to look directly at him. The maid. The one who had first taught him the true horrors of Charon's business. The one who had tried to show him a warped, twisted form of kindness in the desperate, painful situation Charon had created for them all. The first person to truly make him want to see Charon suffer for all that he had done. The one he had been so glad to help escape from that hell on earth.
...And she tipped backward over the edge.
He lunged after her.
Somehow, someway, he caught her arm just before she could slip out of reach. He landed hard on his chest, but that didn't matter. He had her. He was not going to let this happen. He pulled with all of his might but she fought him every step of the way, kicking to try and make him lose his grip and clawing at the arm he was holding her with. He had his paw gripped around her thin arm so tight that his nails were drawing blood. No matter how hard she was compelled to fight though, he still managed to pull her back over the edge. He threw himself over her to keep her from jumping again, but she continued to fight and flail, that completely emotionless expression never leaving her. Her teeth dug into his side as she bit down as hard as she could, ripping out fur and drawing blood in the process, but it didn't matter. She was alive and he was going to keep her that way.
Courage had stopped existing for him entirely during the whole frantic struggle. Only now could he feel his companion's intense fear and horror at what was happening.
It was in that exact moment too that they both caught out of the corner of their shared eye another figure jumping. Computer did not know who it was. He did not want to know. He shut his eyes to keep himself from looking and finding out.
'Which one should go next? Ah, she will do. Your memories show us how important she is to you.'
Computer did not want to open his eyes. He kept them sealed shut, and yet he could hear someone drawing near.
A paw touched his shoulder and he couldn't bear to keep his eyes closed any longer. Reluctant, he opened them and found Lily's mom standing over him, her expression as deadened as all the rest.
'Give us Courage or Lily gets to find out that her mother was still alive...right up until you failed them both.'
He was paralyzed, utterly paralyzed. He would never, ever give Courage up to whatever horrible fate his siblings no doubt had in store for him...but he could not stand by like this and watch his friends die one by one. This sadistic choice had him at a complete standstill and he was about to watch Lily's mother die before she would ever get a chance to see her again. Even then, he could not make the decision. He just could not.
In the end, it turned out that he did not have to make the choice. Courage did it for him.
"I'll go with you!" He screamed out, desperate for this to end.
The dogs stepped back from the brink in unison.
'We are glad to hear that.' The voices answered, satisfied. 'Come to us.'
A sheet of metal rose up out of the crater, creating a walkway. Beyond that, a banged up cylinder carried by multiple wires was set down at the end of the sheet. It wasn't much bigger than Courage himself. The metal opened up to create a doorway for him to enter through. Claustrophobic did not even being to describe how cramped it looked in there.
'We will remove our useless brother from you now.' The amalgamation announced, an edge of hateful malice in their collective voice.
A long tube ending in one of those computer claws rose up out of the crater and snaked toward Courage.
"This is a really bad idea, Courage." Computer warned at the sight of it. "I can't even begin to imagine what they're going to do to you. Think of all the things they've spent the last few hours doing to this city and everyone in it. Anything they have in store for you will leave you suffering beyond any sort of comprehension you currently have. I-I can't let you do this, not...not even for them."
Courage shook his head sorrowfully. "My life is not more important than any of these dogs. I would never be able to live with myself if I let them all jump, and I don't think you would be able to either, not even for my sake."
"You don't get it!" Computer exclaimed as the claw snaked closer. "You really and truly do not understand what it is like! You'll be tortured! Tortured! And nobody is going to be able to save you. I seriously doubt my siblings are going to leave me in a body capable of doing much of anything after this. You will be entirely on your own!"
Courage looked from one expressionless dog to the other. "As long as they don't jump..." He gently uttered out, his voice trembling with a mixture of fear and sadness. Combined with Computer's own emotions and they were both getting caught up in a storm of intense, painful emotions.
Scared for Courage, Computer did the one last thing he could think to do to possibly make him understand what he was willfully walking in to. Reluctantly, he forced himself to recall one of his memories of Him...of all the horrific pain, suffering, and emotions involved. It was only a flash. He somehow had the strength to reign it in before it could really start to affect Courage, but now he had some small taste of it, of just how bad it would be.
Courage began to tremble, but he braved his fear, even now. "Compute," He gently asked. "You would go through all of that again if it meant saving my life, right? If it means saving their lives?"
His companion did not answer for a very long time, even as the claw rose up before their eyes. Finally, he admitted in a defeated, emotionless tone, "Yes...Yes, I would. For you, and for them. Your lives are more important than anything He could ever do to me."
"Then let me do this for you, and for them. I'll survive, like you did."
The claw struck like a coiled viper. Courage snapped his eyes shut, waiting for the pain and the feeling of emptiness that followed Computer's removal.
...But it never came.
Computer was the one to open an eye just a crack. The claw was there, right in front their nose, but it wasn't moving. In fact, it seemed frozen in mid strike, but that just did not make any sense at all.
It was right about then that Computer realized that he could no longer sense Courage's consciousness. Was this some sort of trick? Perhaps some sort of torture his siblings had cooked up? Had he already been removed and dumped into some sort of torturous simulation akin to what had been done to Zeta? She was with them after all. She would know how to make one.
"Ya-hoooo!" A singular voice called from somewhere in the crowd of utterly frozen possessed people.
Computer blinked and took a step forward to try and get a better look. The air felt uncomfortably stagnant as he moved. None of the glowing eyes followed him, proving to him once and for all that the world around him had seemingly become frozen in time.
Out of the crowd stepped, unbelievably, the hobo from the Dreamworld. He grinned with considerable amusement at Computer's dumbstruck expression.
"Sorry I'm late." He said with an excessively theatrical bow. "It's been awhile, huh? Did ya miss me?" He asked, displaying his ugly, rotten teeth in an ever widening grin.
"Y-you!" Computer exclaimed, and proceeded to sputter uselessly when he couldn't think of anything else to say.
"I figured that you could use a little help, and I wanted to get some payback on these guys for what they did to the Dreamworld. I may have benefited in that it earned me my freedom, but they still made a mess of things that I've been cleaning up ever since. "
He reached down and picked Computer up, placing him under his arm as he looked around for something.
"I'm afraid that I can't do much more for you than this." He explained, looking down into the crater. "I'm not the spry young lad I once was and so I cannot hope to contend with this tortured being made out of so many suffering souls."
"Hold on now." Computer finally spoke up. "If not even someone like you can do anything about this, what hope do we have at stopping them from turning everyone into Constructs like they're planning?"
"The situation does seem a bit dire, doesn't it?"
"You just can't help but be you, huh?" Computer sighed. "Listen, stop being obtuse and just tell me what the truth is. Is there anything that I can possible do to stop this? Tell me, for Courage's sake if anything. They want him for some reason, and if they get their way...I-I'm worried about what will become of him."
The hobo chuckled, brought Computer up to eye level, and said, "'You' can't."
And then he dropped Computer into the crater.
A moment of panic followed, and just as Computer was certain that he was about to meet his end impaled on one of those spikes, darkness encircled him. He was falling, down, down, down. A light above growing smaller and smaller until it was only a pinprick. He hit water and was immediately caught up in a fast moving current. Only now did he understand what had happened. The hobo must have dropped him into an exposed water pipe down in the crater. Where it was taking him, he had no idea. He was trapped underwater though, and he was quickly growing worried that he would suffocate. The pipe seemed to go on forever, rushing by in a blur, and then...
He was sent flying through the air. He could see trees and sunlight, but gravity took over and he hit water again. For one horrible second he flailed about, thinking that he had been dumped into deep water. Since Courage was still seemingly unconscious and Computer himself was a horrible swimmer, it would surely spell their end, but much to his relief, his feet managed to just barely touch the muddy bottom of this...pond? It was deep enough that only the very top of his head stuck out and he had to keep his snout raised to keep it above water. He began slowly making his way toward the shore, noting the large pipe he had been deposited out of. Even now it was spraying water into the pond at an unusually high volume.
He was nearly to shore when he felt Courage become dimly aware again.
"Courage? Are you okay?"
"W-what happened?" Courage asked, immediately becoming hopelessly confused.
Computer very quickly explained what had just occurred with the hobo, no matter how insane it sounded.
Courage was still plenty confused but his relief was palpable. "I-I think they'll leave the dogs alone now. They'll want to keep them around as hostages."
"I hope you're right." Computer sighed, emotionally and physically exhausted beyond all reason.
Upon reaching the grassy shore, dripping wet, he dropped to his knees, and then onto his stomach. He flipped over onto his back and let the sunlight filtering in through the bare branches of the trees warm him.
Finally, he said to no one in particular, "Could everything stop going wrong for, I don't know, five minutes?"
Courage groaned painfully in agreement.
End Of Volume II
A/N: The beginning of this chapter is by far the most meta ATE has ever gotten. I promise I won't let it get this bad again lol. Computer is getting dangerously close to discovering the fourth wall and we can't let that happen or else we're all doomed. And here's a fun fact since I couldn't figure out a way to make this context apparent in the text itself. The amalgamation was not just torturing people to torture them right before taking them over. It's more that if you had your mind invaded by, and were made to feel what a being made out of pure agony and suffering is feeling, you'd probably scream too.
As a writer, it's honestly been fun watching the last sixteen or so chapters evolve in an organic manner over the years from the original draft I had in my head. I think that cuts to the heart of why I eternally suck at figuring out how much time its going to take to write this and how many chapters it's going to need. To explain, I'll give you guys some idea of how this part of the story was originally going to play out compared to how it eventually did.
A lot of the escape from Charon's would have played out mostly the same. The major difference would be that Charon's place would explode while they're still in the storm system and that puts the SCC on alert. There was no factory they would all arrive at in the original version. The dogs would immediately scatter from a storm drain and so Computer and the girl dog with a mortally injured Spot would come out on a street alone. Computer would still be injured from trying to create a distraction for Spot, but nowhere near as badly as he is in the final version. The three of them would be almost immediately found by the SCC and Computer still gets captured while desperately trying to get help for Spot. The girl dog isn't able to do anything to stop the SCC and so Computer gets taken away with Spot's fate left up in the air.
In a bit of an anticlimax, Computer would immediately be taken to Courage, and, as crazy as it might seem now, everything with Computer's siblings taking over the city happens off screen with neither of the two directly involved in it. In the original version it was Elizabeth that they were going to have to contend with on a much bigger scale. Her refusal to see Computer as a person would play a bigger part and she would be at Kick Puppies levels of nasty toward Courage because she would still see Computer as a huge threat and Courage as a hostage and thus her only way of controlling Computer. So, yeah. Final Version Elizabeth is actually nicer than Draft Version Elizabeth. Eventually the situation with the amalgamation would get out of control and the rest of the story would happen. I can't remember the specific details now but it was either something Elizabeth was going to do or some sort of contact Computer has with the amalgamation that causes him to regain all of his old memories and then we get a flashback chapter. In the original draft he never gets assimilated.
So when I scrapped the flashback chapter for reasons I've talked about before, I needed to come up with a way to convey that info that wouldn't feel like a boring info dump. That's what led to me coming up with the idea of Courage and Computer sharing a body. Through that Courage would be able to see flashes of Computer's past without it becoming a full on flashback chapter or being a straight up info dump. I'm still not entirely certain if it worked out okay or if it feels like an info dump anyway. For as large as that chapter is and how much time I spent on it, it has a depressingly low view count, so I'm leaning more toward it not having worked out. But I'd say the resulting changes around it at least make up for the clunky execution of the chapter itself.
To start with, I needed to get Computer out of his dog body and make it unavailable to him. Thus I decided to have a moment where he finally gives in to the amalgamation out of desperation and is briefly assimilated. I figured that because there is a specific lore reason coming up (that has yet to be explained) that it would not be too much of a stretch to have him assimilated and be able to come out of it 'mostly' unscathed.
That, of course, then leads into the doggos sharing a body. The lore around host bodies originally being conscious but suppressed and eventually driven mad evolved organically. It makes complete sense that the SCC would do something like that and not fix it until multiple people and Constructs were harmed. It makes for a nice contrast too in that Courage and Computer show that it is possible to live (mostly) harmoniously, were it not for the brain burnout. And I know I've joked before that the two would make a contradictory but oddly functional Steven Universe Fusion, but that is not where this idea came from. I'm pretty sure I had it knocking around in my head before I even knew what SU was, and ATE predates SU by a few years anyway. If anything it takes a very old and long dead Courage fanfic concept I once read and actually does something with it. It was a story involving them sharing the same body, just like this, but it never got past the first chapter, which was all set up and thus didn't really get into the shenanigans that would occur from them sharing a body, and it has probably been deleted for nearly twenty years at this point. I forever regret not saving a copy of it back then because so many of the details about it have faded from my mind and I wish I could compare and contrast it with my story.
Speaking of which, the amalgamation is not based off of The Cluster from SU either. I had the general idea of what I wanted to do with them ages before I ever saw the show. If anything, they're more inspired by the D-Reaper from Digimon Tamers, although the D-Reaper is way more organic looking. If you ever wanted to know where baby me first learned the art of How To Horrifically Traumatize Your Cartoon Characters, you can blame that damn show LOL. A more modern inspiration for them is the SCP-001 Proposal 'The Broken God'.
Since the amalgamation was going to end up 'trapped' in Computer's comatose dog body in the same building the doggos were in, I knew the two were eventually going to have to make an escape out of the building and city while the amalgamation was making their big attack. I didn't actually have many of the details about the robot apocalypse fully plotted out until recent months. The only things I knew I wanted to do for certain was that I wanted a goofy scene where they get attacked by feral computers and Courage ends up just absolutely wrecking them while Computer gets more and more horrified at how easily he is destroying a bunch of computers who look like him. The other was to have the hobo make an unexpected return to save the day. Hobo? More like HoBro!
I think that even if the draft I had in my head had not changed drastically over the years, I still would have made some changes for the better. Rather than have there be a big anticlimax after everything with Charon where the SCC just kinda gives Computer what he wants and puts him with Courage, I'd have them keep the two apart. Computer would still have to deal with the total denial of his humanity while also knowing how close he is to Courage but is unable to get to him, and Courage would still be used as a hostage to keep him in line. Since Elizabeth still would have been at Kick Puppies levels of nastiness, Courage would probably be harmed in front of Computer at least once to show that she isn't playing around and either keeps hurting him whenever Computer steps out of line or at least threatens to. I very much wanted to give Computer a break after everything he went through with Charon though, and I think the final version works best in that even though he initially hates and is grossed out sharing the same body as Courage, he eventually finds immense comfort in it and it allows him some peace of mind...for a little while, because this is All Things End we're talking about here and Computer isn't allowed to be happy. LMAO
So, there you go. This is why ATE keeps ending up longer than expected. My original draft would have probably been something around like five chapters long while the final version needed around sixteen chapters to get everything it needed to done.
Welp, farewell to Volume II. It's been a long six years with this thing, especially compared to the four that I spent on Volume I. I was always expecting to end the story with it so it feels weird to be moving on from it. I'm certainly interested in seeing how things go with Finale though. See you there.