A/N: Before I begin this chapter, I want to thank everybody that still reads this thing for waiting so patiently for it, and to apologize for it taking so long. Hopefully future updates won't take a month in the future, and if they do I will leave a note like I did for this chapter beforehand. So everyone now please enjoy this utter monstrosity of a chapter.
Aflame
Chapter 19
Here comes the sun
It should have only been a quick walk.
It shouldn't have taken any longer than a few minutes to complete.
But like most things nowadays, nothing went as planned, and by the time he had taken no more than a few steps outside his house, Lord Brudo was reduced to a wheezing, panting, and exhausted mess of a person that was left completely out of breath.
He knew he had made a mistake. He had gotten ahead of himself and tried to rush to his destination at top speed, but his own bad health and the summer sun beating down on him took its effect, and his "rush" turned into more of a "drag".
It especially didn't help when he discovered that certain parts of the sidewalk were still blocked with pieces of rubble, collateral damage from an event that he helped cause. But no guilt was felt when he saw the various chunks of brick, masonry, and metal blocking his way. He only felt annoyed. Annoyed because they forced him to walk around it, thus taking up more previous time.
And that didn't even begin to mention the buildings that had collapsed entirely, something that required him to have to detour around and go down a different street altogether. This created its own problems because he really only knew one way to get to the Sanctuary, and that was the only route he had memorized fully. Combined with the fact that he hardly ever went outside his house, the result was that there were certain parts of his walk where he had no idea what part of the town he was in.
Occasionally people took notice of how he was practically gasping for air and tried to help. This was no surprise. After all, because of the whole "tax day" business, Brudo was now one of the most popular people in town, even if all that money was now being used to fix it.
And to the Avarius Lord, the whole situation was becoming ironic. Brudo had distracted everyone into coming to the mansion with his money, and now that same money was not going to be used for its intended purpose but rather to repair damage from the demon attack that he was protecting them from with the money.
So it was all rather poetic. Which is exactly what Bren told him later on when he had explained the whole mess early this morning, right after Butterfly's speech.
But back in the present, all these people tried to desperately help Brudo. "Are you okay?" They would ask, their eyes full of concern for him. "Do you need any help?" "I think you need to rest…" "Hey Brudo, thanks for giving everyone that money. We really appreciated it and…...why does it look like you're having a heart attack?"
Among other things.
But Brudo waved them off and said he was fine to every single one. He was on a mission. One that he mustn't fail. He would get there. He just needed a little more time.
Although cursing the annoying townsfolk and random prices of debris were far from the only thing on his mind. In fact, those two could be considered secondary topics. He was mostly thinking about the call he got from Bren. The most recent one, where he talked about how his idea for kidnapping Rafael was "genius" and that he should go to the Sanctuary to discuss it with him. (A task which he was somehow still managing to accomplish.)
At first, Brudo had been excited. It had almost put a smile on his face. But after awhile, he was starting to get more and more suspicious of it. And now that he really thought about it, Bren's voice had almost sounded fake during that call, like he was putting on a voice. Brudo began to wonder whether the happiness Bren had been displaying was just a way to mask another emotion. Like anger, irritation, or worse... disappointment.
Then again, it was likely just because he had never really been praised by Bren like that before. He was more of a "good job, now shut up and get back to work" type of person. So it made perfect sense for Brudo to have been put on edge by it.
'That's right.' He thought, trying to convince himself. 'Bren isn't angry with you at all. You heard the joy in his voice. That was genuine happiness. The same happiness you heard from your children when you told them they could help Dennis build something for Ludo. Although I did make them promise that they would have to make it up to me later…...and who could have known that they would be so good at breaking into prisons?'
He could still recall that moment. The moment he told them that they would have to wear masks on their faces, sneak into the town's prison, and break out all of Mina's followers. Shame that they hadn't been wearing masks then, as Brudo failed to contain his laughter at their expressions.
At first there was silence. They had all started complaining at once, some asking him why he would want them to help the same people who hated their kind, and others who simply refused to do it and hardly said anything else.
But once he had reminded them that they owed him for letting them help out Ludo, as well as the fact that they would never survive out in the world by themselves given how young they were, they begrudgingly complied. He told them Bren's prison plan and they managed to follow it to the letter. It was quite impressive really, just how easily they pulled it off. But now they were back at home, no doubt grumbling about the whole thing.
As he thought about his children and how angry they must be at him, another worry came to mind. Dennis. Dennis, mostly notable for being the tallest of his children, was decreed by Brudo to be almost as much of a disappointment as Ludo was. Which was definitely saying something. He had left the household on his own and appeared to have managed quite well last anyone heard, although Brudo personally hoped that wasn't true.
But the real threat was if one of them decided to tell Dennis about what they did. He would no doubt call the police in an instant and everything they (he) worked for would be ruined. But Bren said he had a way to make sure that none of them talked, told Brudo to leave it to him, and the Avarius Lord agreed. He trusted him enough when it came to stuff like that.
Unfortunately, the more Brudo thought about it, the more he realized that it might only cause more problems. He "trusted" him with making sure they kept quiet, sure. But that didn't mean Brudo wasn't starting to regret letting Bren takeover that aspect of the plan. Bren's method would of course be either to threaten them with Tom or actually hurt them to make a point, and neither of these options made Brudo happy. The only person who hurt his family was him. A scowl on his face was the only result of thinking about it.
But the "more problems" part came with the actual way of keeping them quiet. Bren was cruel. Evil. He enjoyed watching people suffer and die before him. All of these things were well known to Brudo as well as anyone else that knew him. So whatever he had planned for the Avarius children obviously wasn't going to be pleasant.
But depending on what he did, they might talk anyway.
From a very young age, Brudo was taught that two of the most powerful forces on the planet were fear and control. Although he never wished to recount the events that led to him learning this lesson, it was something he had truly never forgotten. And he learned that a person can get almost anything they want through the use of those two forces. Information. Power.
Loyalty.
But now that Bren had these two things in abundance, and was sure to use them against his children, anything could happen. But the most likely option and the problem was this: Brudo was...not a good father. He had used fear and control to keep his own children in line throughout their entire lives, the same way he had been as a boy. His children were terrified of him, although they rarely showed it to anyone, even their own equally scared siblings.
But now that Bren was doing his own thing with them, his own power over his dozens of sons and daughters might crumble as they realized that Bren is what a true monster looks like, not their father. He was the one they should be scared of, not some overweight, weak old man losing his hair by the minute.
He would become nothing if this is what transpired. And then they would revolt against him, forget all about Bren in the heat of the moment, and tell the police everything. About how tax day was just a ploy he had done alongside the towns current and most hated enemy. And while them just forgetting about Bren was a bit of a long shot, Brudo knew just how much his children hated him. They would want to hurt him as much as possible, as fast as possible. Reporting him for what he did was definitely a way to hurt him. Hate would overcome fear as his life would be ruined.
'Hopefully he hasn't done it yet.' Brudo thought, sweating even more than before. 'I have to keep my power over them. When I told Bren he could do whatever he wanted to keep them quiet, I hadn't thought it through then. I need to learn to be patient. To think things through all the way. Otherwise...this happens.'
But there was no more time to reflect on any of this. He had made it. Or, at least, made it to the path that led to the Sanctuary. Brudo quickly glanced around to make sure that no one was watching him and moved forward, taking note of every colorful songbird singing in the trees or fluffy squirrel scurrying about with an acorn in its mouth. It was disgusting. Nature and kindness had clearly never been his métier, and in this forest it was all he was surrounded by.
Soon however, he was met with a sight that was much more familiar, and that was one of giant holes in the ground, trees lying on their sides, and scorch marks as far as the eye could see. He knew what this was. He was getting closer to not just the Sanctuary, but to the exact spot where Bren had Tom summon the giant demon up from the Underworld. He traveled slightly more carefully after seeing these things, as if another demon would leap out of nowhere and tear his head off.
Then, he reached a clearing. He stopped mid-gaunt as he saw the Sanctuary standing before him, looking as imposing as ever. He had only ever seen it once, when Bren had shown it to him as their meeting place in case things took a turn for the absolute worst, but he hadn't let him inside.
"So much for absolute worst…" He mumbled, before walking on and reaching the stepping stones that led to the structure. He carefully leapt over them one at a time, trying not to fall into the lake that now trapped him on said stones. He wasn't sure how deep that water was, and he certainly inclined wasn't to find out.
At long last, he made it across and now his only obstacle between him and the inside was the door that stood in his way. Worry flicked in his mind as he thought about the things that could go wrong, which was a lot. So many things that he didn't even have time to list them all. He simply imagined them happening and then moved on to the next one.
But he had already come this far. So to give up now was foolish. He made his choice, and there was no turning back.
He grabbed the handle.
He opened the door.
And immediately he was hit with a blast of hot air and smoke that was as solid as a brick wall. Foul-smelling smoke, like someone had overcooked a pig and left it there burning. He coughed and waved the smoke out of his face, desperately trying to get away from it.
"Talk about a warm welcome…" He grumbled, before further coughing ensued. But this didn't dissuade him in any way. He had a mission to complete. Bren was probably inside right now, waiting for him. And the last thing Brudo wanted was to keep him waiting.
He pushed through the wall of smoke and ash and entered the main sanctuary and tried to look around, but inside wasn't much better. The burning fumes that had just poisoned his lungs were clouding the entirety of the Sanctuary. He could barely keep his eyes open from the tears being forced out of them by the heat. He dropped to the floor and crawled back outside, hacking and continuing to cough like his lungs were on fire.
"Bren!" He screamed at the entrance, although his voice came out as a pained whisper. "Are you there? I can't get through the damn door ! There's too much smoke!"
He received no answer. If Bren was there, he didn't seem to care that Brudo couldn't get in. All the Avarius Lord could do now was wait until enough smoke had funneled out of the building that it was safe to go inside.
He sat down on one of the stepping stones, the water staining the edges of his clothes. But he didn't even seem to notice. Frankly, he was more concerned with what might happen next. If Bren wasn't inside for whatever reason, then he would come back to Brudo sitting outside the Sanctuary while it was smoking and possibly burning down. Brudo could see the hint of a flame or two through the thick cloud of fumes, but he wasn't sure if that was an actual out-of-control fire or just an addition Bren made after he rebuilt the place. As said before, he had never seen the inside of the Sanctuary for himself, but he knew Bren liked fire, so it wouldn't be a stretch for him to decorate it as such.
But it was really the smell that put him off. He knew what a regular fire smelled like. The ones that destroyed houses and were caused by idiots playing with stoves in the kitchen. But this fire didn't smell like that. It smelled like something (or someone) was burning alive in there. He nearly gagged as he inhaled another breath of the stuff, and he scurried backward to another stone, the lake water now completely staining the bottom of his robes. This time he noticed, but didn't do much to stop it.
'This better be worth it.' He thought, remembering the horrible journey he took to get there. 'I haven't traveled that far a distance in years. And what was I greeted with? A bunch of hot, flaming, cancer filled air that invited itself into my lungs! Is something actually on fire in there, or does Bren just keep it full of smoke all day long?'
His question was answered when the last of the smoke trickled out of the Sanctuary and provided a glimpse of what was inside. He stood up and stared, surprised that all the smoke had disappeared in such a short time. But he was far from complaining. He wringed out his robes as best he could and entered the Sanctuary, making sure that his breathing was as slow as could possibly be.
Inside was magnificent. He looked around in awe at the place, which could only be described as a work of art. Statues, patterns, weird spiral things made of orange pebbles on the floor...everywhere he looked there was a new sight to see. But he didn't see the one thing he was expecting: Bren himself.
"Hey!" He shouted. "Are you here? I got your little phone call, and came like you said!"
Silence.
"Are you serious?" He asked himself. "After all that? Why the hell isn't he here?" Brudo looked around frantically, as if expecting Bren to pop up out of nowhere, but he never did. It was just him. No one else. He walked further into the building and took a glance at everything, a small shred of hope left in him that Bren would still arrive.
But as he approached one of the fire pits, he could see small amounts of leftover ash flying out of it. Odd, considering that there wasn't really a draft anywhere, but he was more interested in what was causing it. He walked towards the pit and made sure to keep a safe distance, lest he burn half his face off. But after some awkward maneuvering, he managed to angle himself in a way that he could peer into it safely.
His eyes widened as a choking sound forcefully escaped his throat. There was somethi-no, someone in there. He knew now. He knew what had been causing the burning pig smell.
It was a pile of charred and blackened bones. Burned to the point that they resembled charcoal more than bone, but still recognizable as human. The fire was making quick work of them, and in half an hour would surely be gone altogether.
Brudo nearly gagged when he realized what it was, and he ran backwards, his hands on his knees as he bent over, continuing to gag like he was going to vomit.
"Wha-what the hell…" He exclaimed, breathing heavily. Pure horror was the only emotion that he was displaying. While he knew Bren was basically evil, and that he would do anything to get his revenge, this was something else. Seeing his work firsthand was not the same as hearing about it. He almost felt like he was having a panic attack, but he did his best to slow down his breathing and calm himself. It seemed to work, at least for the moment. Once he was calm enough to think clearly, a million thoughts fluttered through his mind. Why did he do this? What was Bren's reasoning behind it all? And why here of all places?
But the real question was who they were. Why would Bren just kill somebody and throw them in this pit? Who would have done something so bad that it would have prompted him to do this?
He paused.
'Okay, that's a stupid question.' He thought. 'Sometimes it seems that pretty much everybody everywhere had done something to piss him off. Except me, I guess. But he was so happy on that phone, so excited for my plan…'
Brudo turned toward the center of the sanctuary.
"So why the hell isn't he here?!" He yelled, momentarily forgetting about the burning skeleton.
A loud pop crackled out from one of the fire pits, and for a second Brudo thought that the Sanctuary itself was mocking him.
"Ergh. Calm down." He told himself. "He'll be here. He'll show up any second now. He said that he'd meet me here, and has he lied before? No. He should be arriving right now…."
Brudo glanced at the door, expecting Bren to walk through it right then and there.
He didn't.
"Hold on…" Brudo said. "Why would he…"
Something in Brudo clicked as he realized that this was making less and less sense. Why would Bren tell him to meet him at the Sanctuary? Why would he bring him to what was basically his most sacred domain just to talk? When he could have easily done that on the phone or at the mansion?
There was no reason he would do that. And he had hung up awfully quick back at the mansion. That wasn't like him at all. Bren loved to explain his plans and reasoning behind everything. It was a pattern that Brudo had seen many times, and one that he suspected would eventually be his downfall.
And then there was one final thing that Brudo realized he should have seen earlier.
He would never have liked his plan to work with Mina's followers. He hated Mina, and thus them, with the absolute highest contempt. He would have killed them if they hadn't been locked up in prison.
'But now they're free again.' Brudo thought, a look of horror crossing his face. 'Does that mean…?'
Brudo's heart nearly stopped as he slowly looked back at the pit with the bones in it, still smoldering away. A terrible thought began to form at the back of his mind. Had he brought one of the followers here, killed them, and then dropped them in that-
'No. Nonono.' He thought. 'He wouldn't. He wouldn't just-'
Yes he would, a voice in the back of Brudo's mind said. That is exactly what he would do to someone that he hated. And the more Brudo thought about it, the more it looked like what he feared was exactly what had happened.
"Oh you son of a…" Brudo started, realizing he had been tricked. Fear and disgust turned to anger as he discerned that Bren hadn't intended to speak to him here, or anywhere really. He wasn't planning on supporting him! He just needed him out of the picture for a little while. No doubt while he took down the rest of the followers and ruined everything! The phone call had been a fluke! Everything was a fluke!
"Nononono!" He yelled. Without a moment's hesitation, he dashed out of the sanctuary, not bothering to close the doors behind him. He had to hurry. He had to get to his house and call the followers. Let them know who was coming for them. He leapt over the stepping stones five at a time, moving faster than he ever thought he could. He ran through the forest at speeds that even his flying children couldn't reach, and dashed back to the mansion, moving so quickly that everyone on the streets took notice.
At least, that is what he wanted to happen.
In actuality, he jumped over a single stepping stone and sprained his ankle when he landed, and he fell on top of the next one and groaned in pain. He managed to lift himself up somewhat and crawl-hopped across the rest of the stones, taking about five minutes to make it back to the main forest.
From there he continued his crawl/hop/sort-of-a-walk-but-not-really thing down the path, grumbling and wishing that he hadn't been so foolish. He should have known to never trust Bren. He wished for the collective demise of them all. Why had it taken him so long to see it? Why did he think that he would be spared for helping?
Brudo winced. Maybe he never did. But his brain had convinced him long enough that he had no choice but to face the consequences.
Once he had completed the long and repetitive walk through the path and made it back to the sidewalk, he let out a cry of anguish upon realizing that he hadn't even completed one quarter of the journey back to his mansion.
He buried his face in his hands before hobbling off, pushing past everything and everyone on the street. Nobody could help him now. His plans had been ruined. Forget warning the followers about Bren. The only hope he had now was to get back to the mansion, grab everything he could, and skip town. Maybe Bren would be too preoccupied with Star and Marco to chase him. Maybe he could get away from all this and start a new life.
But he knew that was never happening.
It was already far too late, and the only thing he was doing now was limping slowly towards his doom, like a prisoner leading themselves to their executioner.
"Come on...someone please pick up. Tenth time has to be the charm…"
Ring...ring...ring…*beep*. "Hello. Sorry, but we are unable to take your call at this time due to a busy signal. If you need help, please contact-"
"Ergh!" Angie exclaimed. She slammed her phone down on the table out of frustration, before pausing and carefully checking to make sure it still worked. After taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself down after her uncharacteristic outburst, but it was getting harder to do by the second. "Again?" She asked, a question directed at no one in particular. "What are they even doing?"
"What's wrong?" Eclipsa asked from across the room, before putting her own phone down momentarily and walking over. "Have you explained the situation to the police yet?"
Angie sighed and gave the Queen a tired look. "I would if I could reach them." She said. "But I've called them ten times, and each time I was cut off by an automated voice telling me that there's a busy signal, which I didn't even know was possible for 911."
Eclipsa frowned and put her phone on hold. She sat down next to Angie and struggled to find the right thing to say, as she knew that if there was a problem with the phone lines, then there wasn't much she could do to fix it. Just as she was about to open her mouth, probably to say something reassuring, Angie spoke up again.
"And because of this, we have no way to let the police know about Rafael." She continued. "Other than driving down to the station and telling them ourselves. Which we can't do because the only way to get in is blocked by giant pieces of rubble from the demon attack, which they still haven't cleared." She sighed again. "Among other things…"
"Hold on." Eclipsa said, rearing back in confusion. "Wouldn't that mean the police aren't able to get in either? Where are they working now? Where are those calls going exactly?"
'And why didn't I know about this sooner?' She thought.
"That was the "other thing" I mentioned." Angie said. "An email was sent out to the whole town this morning by the mayor informing everyone that the police will now be working at a secret location, because he's worried that Bren might attack them otherwise. I got it about a half-hour after Star's speech, but didn't mention it because of all the…" She attempted to find the right word for it. "...Hullabaloo. So the only way to get to the police is by calling them."
"Wha-that's a terrible idea!" Eclipsa yelled. "No wonder it's a busy signal. With all the recent news about the prison break, people are likely freaking out and frantically calling asking for more details or if they should be worried!" She grumbled and buried her face in her hands. "Why did he even do that? He was at the meeting when Bren crashed it. He should have heard him say that he really only hates Star, and doesn't care about him or the police. They're just in the way."
"I assume they think that he'll still try to take them out." Angie said, letting herself sink into the couch cushions. "Try and make sure that they won't be able to interfere with his plans. But you're right. It's going horribly if that signal is any indication. I think the police line is going to continue being like that for a few days."
"Or until the end of time." Eclipsa scoffed. "I've met the Echo creek police department. And I can say that they constantly complain about the dozens of calls and visitors to the station they get every day droning on about menial things. If the only way to contact them truly is by phone, then that alone would provide a "busy signal" 24/7. And with the prison outbreak happening just this morning, there's no chance we can get through." She groaned loudly. "I can't believe the mayor didn't ask me about this before authorizing it…"
"I'm not really surprised. The mayor wasn't always the most...popular person in town. He just passes random laws every now and then that always makes someone mad." Angie revealed. She checked her watch and looked ready to call 911 again despite Eclipsa's rant. "So should you try and get the Mewnian knights?" She suggested. "They did successfully help you and everyone else defeat that demon. I'm sure they'd be happy to help out with this."
"To be honest, they were blind drunk when they fought that creature." Eclipsa said. "And as I predicted, they hardly remembered any of it the morning after. But...yes. I do believe that they would assist us if I asked them too. They still retain some of the loyalty they had from that day." She then mumbled, "Even if it took forever to convince them…"
"Glad to hear it. Then I think the next move should be to call them." Angie said. "To be fair, I don't know what I expect them to do, but it would be nice to have more than just us working on this."
"Quite." Eclipsa agreed. "But before that I'm calling the mayor and telling him to make the police public again. We can't have that line down indefinitely, and especially not now. And then I'm telling him to connect me to them to ask for their help as well."
She picked her cell phone up and took it off hold, before explaining a few things on the other end. Angie couldn't exactly make out what they were saying, but the voice she heard sounded oddly familiar.
"I have to go…...yes, it's because of that…...I know, he probably should have told me…...I won't forget. Don't worry about that. Okay. Goodbye." She then hung up and grimaced at the screen before Angie started speaking.
"Who did you call?" She asked, having been genuinely curious about this fact for a good longl while. "You said they were an old friend right?"
"They are." Eclipsa replied. "But if you don't mind, I'd rather you don't know. I prefer to keep my secret sources...secret."
"Secret source? What are they a source for?"
"..."
"Right. Also a secret." Angie realized, waving it off.
Eclipsa nodded. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing too important. In fact, it's not even that related to the investigation we've having right now. It's simply something that I do everyday at the exact same time. Normally I would do it in private, but fate had other plans, and I was forced to do it here. Although I suppose that if something like that was going to happen on any day, it would be today."
Angie personally wanted to know more, but the tone in Eclipsa's voice as well as the expression on her face told her that she was already uncomfortable with telling her this much. So she felt it was best to not pursue it any further. Besides, if she had said it wasn't important, then it likely wasn't. Angie trusted the Queen enough by this point to believe that she wasn't lying.
And by the time she had worked this all out in her head, a full minute had passed in the real world.
"So...I think I better call the mayor now." Eclipsa said, finding Angie's silence in response to this divulged information to be slightly confusing. She dialed the number for the mayor's office and someone picked it up almost immediately.
"Hello?" They said, and Eclipsa instantly recognized the voice as the front desk attendant. Someone she had been forced to speak to numerous times while meeting the mayor. Even though she had an authority ten levels about the attendant, he still made her fill out all the paperwork and forms like it was a regular person seeing him. And after hearing that the mayor was never the most popular person in the town, she wondered if all this was actually his doing for whatever reason.
But she would be having none of that right now.
"This is Queen Eclipsa." She responded. "I need to speak with the mayor immediately."
"I'm sorry, but the mayor does not usually talk to people on the telephone without having scheduled such an appointment with him." The attendant deadpanned. "And nobody by the name of "Queen Eclipsa" is on the list for today."
'Oh, you little…' Eclipsa thought, going from zero to pissed in a moment. 'Are all desk attendants in this town terrible or what? First this person I had to talk to who knows how many times, and then the woman at the hospital. I swear, once this is all over, I'm having a meeting with the High council to talk about this and this alone. Clearly we need better recruiters for this profession.'
"It's an emergency." She said. "A man's life is on the line. And "Queen" is my title. I'm the actual Eclipsa, the person on the high council and one half of the duumvirate. So please, just let me talk to him, and you get back to whatever menial task you were doing."
There was a brief pause and several typing sounds were heard, before the attendant spoke again, still sounding like they didn't have a soul. "Sorry." They said. "But no one named "a man's" is listed on the town registry. I have no choice but to assume that you are lying to me, and that this is a prank call. Thank you, and goodby-"
"Okay, now you're just trying to piss me off!" Eclipsa swore, making Angie look at her surprise by her sudden swearing. "Listen, I don't care if you're bored with your job. I don't care if you don't enjoy it. I don't care about any of that. But if I don't have the mayor on the line in the next five seconds, I will fetch the Mewnian knights and have them drag you out of that office and imprison you for failing to do your damn job!"
Eclipsa stood there as the line went silent, breathing heavily after her uncharacteristic outburst. She wasn't one to do something like this often, but it was like she said. Rafael might die if she didn't get to the mayor and the police. She had no patience for this type of thing anymore. Everything she had been bottling up every since Marco's death was coming out. The anger, the impatience, the restlessness. And after seeing Marco reduced to a husk and Angie breaking down before having an outburst of her own, this idiotic desk attendant was the last straw. She had to let it loose on someone. If this didn't work, she'd get the knights to storm the office and sic Meteora on them as a bonus.
Luckily, the attendant finally gained an IQ point or two, and gave Eclipsa what she so desperately wanted. A satisfactory answer.
"...Okay." They said. "Let me put him on for you."
Eclipsa's rage vanished in an instant and was replaced by confusion. 'Are-are they really going to let me talk to him? Just like that?' She thought, utterly flabbergasted that her rage-a-thon had an effect on the drone-like attendant. All she was doing back there was letting off some steam.
She hadn't expected it to actually work.
A few rustling sounds were heard, and then a conceited "Hello?" was heard, which Eclipsa instantly recognized as the mayor's voice.
"This is Eclipsa." The Queen said, knowing that the attendant likely hadn't told him who was on the line. She didn't bother waiting for a response and started talking again almost immediately, as time was of the utmost importance. "There are a few things I need to discuss with you. First and foremost, I need you to get the police and have them-"
"Okay, for a second." The mayor interrupted, sounding rather vexed. "Before we get to any of that, can I know why you yelled at and then threatened the front desk attendant? He came to me looking like he was about to cry!"
"About to cry? He has emotions?" Eclipsa asked snarkily, unable to stop herself. "That's odd. When he talked to me, he was like an emotionless robot that had the wits of a sloth."
"...That's just insulting."
"I don't care." Eclipsa said. "That's a problem for you to solve. As for right now, I'm asking for help with a problem that's much more important, and that I need the help of the police for."
"What is it?" The mayor asked, now sounding rather bored.
"Someone was kidnapped. A man named Rafael Diaz." Eclipsa said. "He was kidnapped by Mina's followers right after that speech Star made and is currently in their possession."
"A kidnapping?!" The mayor exclaimed. "Again?! I thought they already went that route with those two babies. They're literally doing the exact same thing they did last time?"
"Basically." Eclipsa said. "And not only that, but they left a ransom note and said they would kill him if we didn't give into their demands. Only problem is that they left us with no way to contact them…"
"Why would they-"
"Because they're morons and don't know what to do with themselves now that Mina's gone." Eclipsa replied. "Frankly, it's a miracle that they managed to break out of prison in the first place. And speaking of which, do you have any idea what did that? I'm still in the dark."
"Really?" The mayor asked. "I thought you would have been all over it, considering that the ones who escaped are technically your enemies."
"Well, "technically" they're everyone's enemies." Eclipsa said, her tone lined with spite. "And I had...other matters to attend to."
"Matters like…?"
Eclipsa groaned. "Long story short, Marco Diaz died and was brought back to life at the hospital because of an ancient fire god, but not before I hit Bren with my car and sent him flying into a tree."
"Wait, is that what that call was all about?" The mayor asked frantically. "I got a report from the police earlier that somebody called in that there was a zombie uprising at the hospital. That was you?"
"No. Well, yes, we brought him in, but we didn't bring him back." She said, before realizing she was dangerously close to rambling on. "Argh! It's not important. There are no zombies, and no one died permanently. The end, not a concern to you. Hopefully. Now, I need you to get in contact with the police and put them under my command so I can recruit them to help with the kidnapping."
"Why don't you just call them regularly?" The mayor asked her. "Why did you go straight to me?"
Angie snatched the phone from Eclipsa when she heard this and started furiously whisper-yelling into it. "Because it's a busy signal that's being caused by a hundred people calling at once! Without any way for people to go down to the department regularly, everyone is calling instead and nothing can get through!"
"Uh, who are you?" The mayor asked fearfully, not knowing who the lady on the other end of line was.
Eclipsa offered her hand out and Angie reluctantly placed the phone in it before sitting down again, wondering what she was doing acting so angry.
"Sorry about that." Eclipsa said. "It was a friend of mine who's been trying to contact the police for some time. Rafael is also her husband. You know, the person who was kidnapped."
"Oh." The mayor said, with a voice that almost sounded like he pitied her. "Well, as bad as that is, we can't tell everyone where the police are! Bren might-"
"Bren doesn't care about you." Eclipsa stated. "He cares about Star and no one else. Me, you, the police, Mina, her followers, the royals, everyone else that isn't Star is seen as nothing but an obstacle to him. Trust me, he doesn't care at all."
"Maybe." The mayor said. "But there are two ways to get around obstacles. Go around them or go through them. And that encounter I had with him at the meeting made it pretty clear that he's a fan of the latter. If we try and stop him, he'll kill us all just like that guard he had the demon boy throw out the window!"
"That's true." Eclipsa admitted. "But this kidnapping is not his doing. It is the fault of the followers of Mina Loveberry. Who, may I remind you, Bren burned alive. He hates them just as much as you or me, and they are obstacles as well. I have no doubt that he will literally tear them apart if he finds them. And he will not attempt to stop us from arresting them. This I know for a fact."
The one went silent for a moment before the mayor decided to trust Eclipsa's judgment. She knew about this stuff much better than him after all. And although he still had plenty of questions, particularly concerning the fire-god she mentioned as well as hitting Bren with a car, it was like she said. Someone's life was on the line. More important things to deal with.
"Alright." He said. "I'll contact the police, and tell them to head down to the monster temple. They'll wait for you there until you arrive upon which you can order them to do whatever you want. Is there anything else you need from me?"
"No, that should be it for now." Eclipsa said, surprised that the mayor was already accepting of this plan. "But after this whole thing is over, me and you need to have a talk about-"
Ding-dong
Eclipsa stopped talking, froze, and then slowly turned her head towards the Diazes front door, just as the sound of the ringing doorbell finished echoing throughout the house. Angie did the same and got up, staring at it like the Grim reaper was on her front porch.
"Hold that thought." Eclipsa said, putting the phone on a nearby table. She looked over at Angie. "Were you expecting visitors?"
"No." Angie replied. "Do you think it's someone from the hospital? Looking for Marco?"
"If it is, then I'll make sure to have Janna get them fired and then ruin their life anyway she can." Eclipsa said, before pausing as another possibility came to mind. "Wait. Didn't Marco say that he was certain Bren would save Rafael a while ago? Do-do you think that-"
"That he's already here?" Angie said shakily, the two of them exchanging glances.
"...I think you should get the door." Eclipsa said. "If it really is Rafael, then-"
"Bren is probably with him, and I don't want to see that." Angie said. "If he's behind that door, make sure he's alone. I don't want to see the face of the person who murdered my child."
"...If you say so." Eclipsa said, before sighing mentally. 'Oh, who are we kidding?' She thought. 'Sure. Rafael is right outside and Bren saved the man whose son he just killed. Next thing we're going to assume is that something is going to blow up randomly to top off the day. Considering all that's happened…' She reached the doorknob and opened it. 'It really only seems appropriate-'
"Oh, hello Queen Eclipsa!" Rafael said, now standing before the shocked matriarch. "It's nice to officially meet you! Before I ask you what you're doing at my home, have you seen my wife or Mijo around here? I think they'll be looking for me…"
Eclipsa couldn't speak. Behind her, a faint thud was heard as Angie fainted and fell to the floor. Rafael noticed and pushed his way past the shocked Queen, taking his wife in his arms and trying to wake her up.
"Angie!" He said. "Wake up! It's me!" He looked at Eclipsa. "Is something happening or-"
"No, it's...it's….um…" She still had trouble finding the right word, mostly due to the fact that she was dangerously close to fainting as well. They had literally talked about Rafael standing there behind the door, and lo and behold, their predictions had come to life. It was almost as shocking as Marco's resurrection. Apparently two of her family members dying or disappearing before miraculously returning in one day had been too much for Angie to handle.
"She probably passed out from shock." Eclipsa finally said. "Why don't you set her down on the couch, and you can tell me what happened before I do the same."
Rafael did just that, and soon the two of them were sitting in chairs facing each other, with the bulky man taking occasional worried glances at his wife.
"Can I ask a few questions first?" He said. "I know you have dozens for me, and I prepared myself to answer all of them for whoever was home on the way back here, but there are a handful of things that I need to know."
"Of course." Eclipsa said. "Ask away. I can't imagine what you've just been through."
Rafael laughed deeply. "It wasn't actually that bad. Apart from being slightly uncomfortable." His smile soon faded and his gaze turned serious. "Hold on. Where is Marco?" He asked. "Is he here?"
"He's...upstairs." Eclipsa said, dreading telling Rafael about all the horrid things he went through during the day. "We should probably leave him alone for now."
"Why?" Rafael asked. "Is something wrong with him? Is he sick?"
Eclipsa shook her head. "It's much worse than that I'm afraid. Simply put, Marco's been through a lot today, and along the way it required him to go to the hospital."
"Hospital?!" Rafael exclaimed. "I thought he was going on a beach day with Star! He-wait. Did he almost drown or something?"
"No." Eclipsa said, bracing herself for when she inevitably revealed the truth. "Much worse than that as well."
"Then what happened?" He asked, growing more panicked by the second.
Eclipsa took a deep breath. She knew Rafael was going to keep prodding her, so there was no point in keeping it in. Unfortunately, she couldn't help herself from trying to soften the entire whole story.
"Star and myself believe that while they were at the beach, something took hold of Marco and he had a few...bad dreams, so to speak." She said. "The thing that possessed him-"
"Possessed him?!" Rafael said. "Like a ghost or something?"
"Not entirely." Eclipsa replied. "An entity. A very powerful entity that is possibly responsible for every event involving Bren up to this point."
"That's...definitely saying something." Rafael said. "What happened next?"
Eclipsa clenched her teeth. "Forgive me if I pause often during this, but the part will be rather hard for me to tell, especially considering that you're his father and I know how much a child's safety means to a parent."
Rafael winced and his eyes gripped to the floor, now understanding the severity of how much Marco had been through in his absence.
"Tell me." He said. "Whatever it is, I...I need to know."
Eclipsa nodded. "Alright." She breathed. "Now a lot of this was a first hand account from Star, so I have my doubts whether all of it is completely true, as I'm not sure if any of her memories were damaged because of the days events."
"Damaged memories?!" Rafael cried out, spouting one shocked question after the other. "I thought my mijo was the one who had been through a lot today. What happened to Star?"
"That's part of the story." Eclipsa said. "So Marco got possessed, had a nightmare at the beach, and Star said he wasn't himself after that. Eventually your wife arrived to take them home, but when they got there, it seems that Marco wanted to get revenge against Bren, by Star didn't let him because she thought he was being rash and would get himself killed in the process. They argued, it escalated, and eventually...it evolved into a full-blown fight."
"A fight?" Rafael repeated, his eyes blown open.
"Yes." Eclipsa said. "And Star lost. Then Marco took off to fight Bren. Angie came home, found Star, and then she contacted me to get Janna so the four of us could save Marco. We went as fast as we could, but…" She took a deep breath. "We were too late."
"Too late?" Rafael asked, still noticeably reeling from the news that his son and girlfriend had fought each other. "What do you mean by too late?"
The next part would be the worst of it, so Eclipsa knew that she just had to prepare herself and say it aloud.
After that, it would be easier. Sure, things still went horribly after that, but it wasn't as bad as Marco's dying.
"When we got there…" She continued. "Marco was in really bad shape. He had lost his fight to Bren ten times worse than Star had lost hers to him, so we had to rush him to the hospital. But on the way there…"
"..."
She paused and tried to speak, but the words refused to leave her mouth, much to Rafael's irritation.
"Why did you stop?" He asked. "What happened next? What happened to my mijo?"
Eclipsa looked into his eyes. Both sets had the same look in them. Dread, and fear that something terrible was about to happen next. "His heart stopped, and he died." She said. "But don't worry, he-"
Too late. Before she could say anything more, Rafael's eyeballs rolled into his head, he fell over, and then flopped onto the floor, having fainted just like Angie did. Eclipsa sat there for a moment, mouth hung slightly open, before groaning in response and dragging him over to the couch where he had placed Angie. She set him on the floor beside it, stared at him for a moment, and then walked over to the kitchen, looking for the coffee maker.
Once she found it, she yelled as loud as she could, her voice somehow being deadpan in the process, "Marco! Your father came home! I don't think Bren was the one to save him by the way! Come downstairs and...say hello...or…...oh forget it." She buried her tired face in her hands as she tried and failed to lean back in the wooden stool she was sitting in, and then remembered something important.
She got up, walked back into the living room, grabbed the phone she had been using earlier and placed it to her ear.
"I'm back." She said. "Sorry for the wait. I was preoccupied and-"
"No need to explain. I heard everything." The mayor said. "You never put the phone on hold, and besides, it was also on speaker. I heard every single word. So I guess this means there's no need to send the police for that kidnapped man anymore, right? Considering that he's...no longer kidnapped."
Eclipsa took a moment to process this and then responded. "You're half right." She said, choosing to not make a comment about the part where the mayor was listening the whole time. "Yes, Rafael is no longer kidnapped. But we still need the police to arrest those followers. Unfortunately, as he's passed out at the moment and didn't give me any information before doing so, we're still in the dark for the time being."
"Then wake him up." The mayor suggested. "Shouldn't be too hard. Just get some cold water or something and dump it on his face."
"An excellent suggestion, if things were that easy." Eclipsa huffed. "I just told him his son died and he fainted before I could explain that he had come back to life. Well, physically at least. I think he's currently dead inside…"
"What was that last part?"
"Nothing." Eclipsa said. But the point is that there is still a lot more I haven't explained to him. I need to take this slow and easy, for his sake. And forcefully waking him is definitely not within those guidelines. And besides, without a hostage, those followers have nothing now. I doubt they're going to try kidnapping someone for a third time."
"Are you sure?"
"...No." Eclipsa admitted, knowing that ignoring them entirely for the time being would be foolish. "Okay. Change of plans. Have the police go around town and patrol the area for any signs of Mina's posse. I'll call you back once Rafael's woken up again and given me the information we need to settle this once and for all."
"Got it." The mayor said. "I'll get on it. But try and do it quickly. I'd like to handle this situation before Bren takes advantage of all the panic."
With that, the line went dead. Eclipsa set the phone down and rubbed her face before once again taking a seat on a kitchen stool, waiting for the two slumbering Diazes to wake up from their unintended nap.
Then she realized she forgot something important.
She hadn't put more coffee on for herself.
Upstairs, a minute or so earlier, in a darkened room with all the curtains drawn and lights off, Marco Diaz sat quietly on his bed as he listened to the shouts from downstairs. Something from Eclipsa. Something about how his father had come home, and that he should go downstairs. Marco ignored this and didn't bother getting up from the bed, although he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the news, surprised by how fast Bren or the police or whoever it was that saved him had accomplished this task. However, this small gesture was the only movement he made, and his expression didn't change in the slightest. He felt stone-dead inside.
And that now familiar feeling had persisted ever since the flashback he had, the one that felt like his brain had been dumped in a vat of boiling water. In fact, it had been growing in the back of his mind the whole damn day, a feeling that came with an abyss of hopelessness and dread, and the flashback, the nosebleed that accompanied it, and smashing the back of his head against the pavement was what finally allowed it to break free from its prison and come to the surface.
But this feeling was in no way a normal feeling. It wasn't like being happy, sad, angry and or any kind of simple emotion like that. This one was something he felt in every one of his senses, like it had come to life and was now standing in front of him.
He could hear the whispers and high-pitched ringing sound that came with it, which was like a thousand voices speaking at once. His ears felt like they were having a migraine.
He could almost taste it as well, and on the tip of his tongue he could feel the blood he had in his mouth just before he died, Star's sobbing face being the last thing he saw before pitch black took over. He hadn't even eaten anything since then, so the metallic flavor would still be there even if he wasn't having a breakdown.
The smell, meanwhile, was like a thick smoke, similar to that time Marco walked past a burning building whilst coming home from school. It had traveled through the air and invaded every space it could like some kind of infection, covering the sky above and almost blocking out the sun. It took hours for the fire department to put it out, and by then it had already spread to three other buildings and killed five people. All the people of Echo creek make an silent agreement that day to never again speak of the event. Some things were best left forgotten after all.
And as for touch? That was the worst one of all. Even if he wanted to, (which he most certainly didn't) Marco couldn't quite physically touch the dread that had polluted his soul. But he felt the pain. His nerve endings were screaming at him like he was being skinned alive. A feeling he had already been unfortunate enough to experience once before, back at the beach, when the sand swallowed him up in his dream and dragged him down to that arena.
He wished for it to stop. He just wanted it-no, he wanted everything to go away and for him to be at peace for the day. He could feel his psyche beginning to crack. He knew he couldn't go downstairs and see his father, lest he risk the possibility of something else happening to him. Then he would go insane and be committed to an insane asylum, never to see Star again.
Wait…
Star…
His mood improved by a minuscule amount as he remembered the last time he saw her, when she had blown him a kiss back at the hospital. Nothing that occurred today had damaged their relationship. Not his torture dreams, not him beating her up, and especially not him dying. If anything, that last one might have only strengthened it. Now she would never want to be apart from him again.
He knew what he was doing this for now. Star was the only thing keeping him going at this point. She had comforted him through all this. She had helped anyway she could and refused to get medical treatment until she knew he was okay. All of it was for him. He had to return the favor anyway he could.
He couldn't give up. For her, he couldn't give up and let himself go mad. She couldn't live without him, and vice-versa. Marco stood up. Together, they would save Tom, kill Bren, and make sure that Earthni became the paradise that it should be. No more people like Mina. No more enemies trying to murder them. No more of any of that.
Just them. Just the world. And maybe…just maybe...
He walked over to his desk and grabbed his wallet off the top of it before opening it up and grabbing the ring inside that Star's parents had given him. He looked at it for a long time, fantasizing about all the wonderful experiences that they would share together in the future.
And maybe when the time was right, he would ask her to be his lifelong partner, his soulmate, his wife.
Then all would be right in the world.
He clutched the ring to his chest and flopped onto his bed, falling asleep in an instance. And with that ring helping him through it when Star wasn't there, the nightmares of the day's events didn't ever appear.
Only the face of the person he loved, staring down at him like a guardian angel.
"Where is he?!"
"I don't know! He was right here!"
"Then find him you worthless reprobates! if I don't have him right in front of me in the next five minutes, then I'm feeding you to a pack of wild dogs!"
Downtown in the town's official stereotypical abandoned warehouse, it was chaos. Rafael's escape has proved to be quite a bother for all of them. And in the meantime, one of the guards had disappeared and vanished into thin air.
Not that anyone really cared about that though, considering that something more important was going on at the moment.
"FIND HIM!" One of them screeched, having already made themselves de-facto leader. (His real name was Tim.) "If we don't find him we have nothing! Nothing! Everything we've done is pointless! What would Mina-"
"PRAISE MINA." Two dozen voices rang out.
"Praise Mina." Tim said proudly. "Now…...FIND HIM!"
Nobody argued with this order. If Rafael was truly lost, then Tim was right. They had no leverage, and they would all be thrown in prison for the second time once Rafael reported them to the police and the Mewnian knights.
So in short, they were screwed. Again.
"He's not here!" Somebody yelled, walking over to Tim. "We searched the entire warehouse. He's long gone."
Tim growled and punched a nearby wall. "DAMMIT!" He yelled, before pulling back and cradling his wrist, nearly broken from slamming his hand into concrete.
"Dammit…" He repeated. "Okay, get everyone over here. We're going to have to figure out a new plan."
Shouts and footsteps echoed throughout the building as all of the followers ran over to Tim and stood patiently in front of him like a flock of pigeons waiting to be fed by a person on a park bench.
"Listen up you mugs." Tim said. "If Rafael's gone, then we have to be too. We have no more leverage to use against anybody, because he was the only thing we had. Our only hope now is to get the hell out of Earthni and maybe, just maybe, we can try and start a new life."
Everyone stood in stunned silence.
"But-but what about the vision?" Someone asked. "About a monster free Mewni? The one that Mina-
"PRAISE MINA."
"...Praise Mina. The one that Mina died for?"
Tim nodded his head solemnly. "I know. I'm sorry. But the way we're going, that vision will never come to pass. Our enemies are too powerful. The enemies of our enemies are too powerful. With both of them working against us, there's no chance. This is the way it has to be. We failed. It's time to accept that fact."
Nobody spoke. Some were looking like they wanted to be comforted after hearing this news. One or two of them were even wiping tears of sorrow from their eyes.
"Now." Tim said, breaking the brief tranquility. "Our first step at leaving should be to-"
Riiiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg...riiiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg….
Tim stopped mid-syllable and everyone turned their heads to the right as the sound of a phone ringing rang throughout the warehouse. But they all knew that this wasn't just an ordinary phone. It was the one their boss used to talk to them. The one that was used only in times of emergency. And as it rang and rang with no one answering, everyone started thinking the same thing, but only one person dared to say it aloud.
"D-does he know?" They asked, their voice quivering.
'No, he shouldn't know.' Tim thought. 'Rafael went missing less than a half-hour ago. There's no way Brudo is already aware of this. Unless he was someone watching us the whole time…' Tim gulped as he thought about the implications of that. If Brudo had been spying on them ever since they arrived, then he had likely heard everything. About their secret plans to betray his worthless monster hide and take the town for themselves.
If he knew…then the odds were that the police would come busting in at any moment.
As Tim got more and more nervous, the phone continued to ring. The tone almost seemed to get louder as it went on, as if it was angry at being ignored.
"Should somebody pick that up?"
Tim snapped back to the real world and glanced at the phone. He decided that someone should. Without saying a word, he walked over to the phone and picked it up.
"H-hello?" He said fearfully, fully expecting the phone to somehow blow up in his hand and end his miserable existence.
"This is Brudo." The voice on the other end said, although it sounded like Brudo was suffering from whooping cough. "Who am I speaking to?"
"Uh, Tim. Sir." Tim stuttered.
"...Right. You. Whatever." "Brudo" said, no doubt not even knowing who Tim was. "Listen, have you found Rafael yet? I know he escaped, so there's no point in denying it. I know everything."
Tim winced. Yup. He knew. Only thing he could do now was hope that Brudo was in a good mood.
"We haven't." He said. "We think he escaped the warehouse and is somewhere in the town."
Silence on the other end of the line. 'Here it comes.' Tim thought. 'He's going to fall the police, and there's no way we'll be able to make it out of town in time. Guess it was fun while it lasted.'
"Okay." Brudo said, without any emotion. Tim raised an eyebrow at this, perplexed that Brudo had such a nonreaction to it. "I understand. All of you come done to the mansion so we can discuss our next move."
"But-but it's going to be really hard to get across town without being seen-"
"DO IT!" Brudo screeched. Tim reacted instinctively by holding the phone as far away from him as he could. That was the reaction he was expecting. Clearly Brudo was trying his hardest to keep his cool, and his hardest wasn't quite good enough.
"Okay! Okay!" Tim said. "We'll be there in a bit."
"A half-hour, no more, no less." Brudo said. "Take any longer than that and the deal is off." With that, the line went dead and Tim carefully set the phone down. He turned back to the rest of Mina's posse, who had been waiting and sweating in place the entire time.
"New plan." Tim said. "New orders from Brudo. He knows everything, and now we're heading to his mansion so we can figure out what to do next."
"To the mansion?" Someone said. "That's all the way across town! We'll never make it there without being seen! We haven't even changed out of these clothes!"
"I know, but we have no other choice." Tim said. "If we don't do it, then our deal with him is off and we're on our own. As much as I hate, we need him if we hope to accomplish anything."
"Didn't you say just a few minutes ago that it was over and that we failed?" Someone else asked.
"Yes, but that was before Brudo called us and gave us a new chance." Tim sneered at him. "The only chance we have. Now everyone get ready to leave. We're going to Mansion Avarius, and that's final."
While a few people still wanted to protest Tim's decision, especially from those who didn't even know who he was, (which was most of them), they knew that time was of the essence. Everyone crowded around the exit to the warehouse and then set off on Tim's order, making sure that it was impossible for anyone to spot them as they snuck around town.
The pieces were slowly falling into place.
After an half an hour of sneaking around town, running through allies, and hiding behind any miscellaneous street objects they could find, Mina's posse had finally made it to Mansion Avarius, and were staring at it from behind a nearby bush, looking like a bunch of paparazzi waiting for a celebrity to exit their house.
"Alright." Tim said, taking charge yet again. "This is what we do. Brudo said he left the door unlocked for us. Since we don't have to worry about that, the only thing we do have to worry about is not being seen. I think our best chance is to get in while no one's looking."
"Duh." Someone else said. "What else were we gonna do? Announce to the world that we're currently entering the mansion while walking as slowly as possible?"
"Shut up. And don't talk back or disrespect me like that." Tim hissed, sounding like an angry parent berating their child. "In case you've forgotten, Brudo has made me the leader of this whole operation, and as leader, I will not allow any insubordination." Tim then grinned widely, fully expecting this to work and make everyone follow him without question.
It didn't, and one of the followers quickly announced their displeasure with it, his voice sounding like that of an Irish chipmunk.
"Leader? Leader?!" They exclaimed, gawking at him. "Brudo didn't make you the leader of anything. In fact, I remember that when he called us, he didn't even know who you were at first! You only took control because you literally said to all of us, "do what I say and we will find Rafael. I'm sure of it." And guess what? We didn't find him. He's gone, and he brought our leverage against Eclipsa with him. So now because of you, we're hiding behind a bunch of bushes like a pack of children playing hide and seek against the townsfolk."
"I mean…" Someone else started, butting into the conversation. "We've been doing just that ever since we broke out of-"
"Shut up." Two voices said simultaneously, specifically Tim and the follower he was arguing with. (His real name was Doug-Doug.) Tim and Doug-Doug then glared at each other, annoyed by the mere fact that they had said it together.
"Alright." Tim said, getting up in Doug-Doug's face and attempting to take charge again. "Here's how it's going to go. You can blab all day long about how I'm a terrible leader, but it doesn't make a difference. Everybody here that isn't you will still listen to me, no matter what."
"Wanna bet?" Doug-Doug asked, refusing to back down. "Because I'm sure that most of the people here don't even know your name."
Tim chuckled. "We'll see." He stood up slightly and got everyone's attention by whistling a few times. "Everyone!" He announced. "Our fellow follower Doug-Doug has claimed that none of you know who I am and likely don't respect me, So I, Tim, your leader, have decided to officially excommunicate him from our-"
"Who are you?" Someone asked, tilting their head at him like a confused puppy.
Tim gaped at the follower who had said this, almost like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "T-tim." He stuttered. "I literally just told you that, and as your leader, I have decided to-"
"Who made you leader?" Another asked, sounding slightly miffed by the proclamation. "Why should the leader be someone who we don't even know?" This was met with several murmurs of agreement but the rest of the posse, and Tim suddenly became more enraged at them than at Doug-Doug.
"Brudo did!" He lied. "Brudo told me that-"
"No he didn't!" Doug-Doug interrupted, sensing an opportunity. "Brudo didn't make you the leader of anything!" He said, repeating the same things that he had told Tim earlier. "You just took control!" He turned towards the rest of the group. "You all saw it, didn't you? You all saw how he took control and didn't give us a chance to speak up before he started giving orders!"
"..."
"What?" Doug-Doug asked, befuddled by the sudden silence.
"Who...are you?"
Doug-Doug almost facepalmed right then and there. While he understood that most of Mina's (praise Mina) followers were not ranked high in the intelligence scale, as well as the fact that some were human and this not as knowledgeable about what went done on Mewni, this was something else. Somehow they had forgotten that out of all the Solarians, every single one of them, Mina (praise Mina) had chosen him to battle Eclipsa first. And while the battle had ended in his defeat, he had still completed his primary objective of buying enough time so that the others could get ready.
'So then not knowing who I am is impossible!' He thought. 'Unless...they're really just that stupid." He sighed in defeat. "Only one way to find out."
"My name is Doug-Doug." He said. "Don't any of you remember me?"
"I thought your name was Carl…" Someone muttered.
"Nono, Carl was that doctor at the hospital you told me about that one time." His friend said. "The one that liked to make terrible puns."
"Oh yeah...may Mewni rest his poor soul."
"He-he's not dead dude."
After this rather moronic exchange of words, everyone started arguing amongst themselves, and soon it was nothing short of chaos. Both Tim and Doug-Doug watched in shock at what was occurring, some of them not even talking about names but about random topics."
"No, you're wrong!"
"Oh yeah? Well, I say my Solarian armor looked best. Wouldn't you agree!"
"They all looked the same! And even if they didn't mine would have looked best."
"I still think you're wrong."
"Wait, what's going on again?"
"BE QUIET!" Tim screeched, unable to continue listening to one more word of this incoherent babble. Everyone stopped talking and looked his way, all glaring at the person who had so rudely put an end to their conversations.
"I have heard enough…" He said, almost whispering. "I...am done. We are getting nowhere. Brudo is no doubt wondering where we are, so we can't have any more distractions. We're going inside, and that is final. We wait until the coast is clear, and then as a group, we run as fast as we can to the door. Then I open it, and we all pile in. The end. Now, does anyone have a problem with this?"
Nobody spoke. Even Doug-Doug, who still hated Tim to the extreme, was glad that everyone had finally shut up. He still didn't accept Tim as leader, but it would have to do. For now at least. Once inside, Brudo would sort the whole mess out, and
"Good." Tim muttered, seeing no response from anyone. "Now on my signal, we all run, understand? I don't care if you know who I am or accept me as leader or not. This is what we're doing."
Surprisingly, there wasn't a single word of protest from anybody. It was as if Mina (praise) herself had given the order, and her words, will, and voice were speaking through Tim like he had been possessed by her ghost.
And so, they responded with the only appropriate response to such a speech.
"Okay."
Now that this was done and Doug-Doug was left to grumble to himself, everyone got in position, putting their imaginary running shoes on. They all kept a close eye on the sidewalk, waiting for the right moment. Once the pedestrians had cleared and nobody was watching, Tim whisper-yelled "go!" and they all took off.
Or tried to at least.
From the very start it was a disaster. Ten of them tripped over each other and fell to the ground in miniature explosions of dust, scrambling to get which only resulted in them falling over again.
Several more were pushed out of the way by their ilk, resulting in more people falling over. Like a line of dominoes, the entire crowd flopped over like a sack of potatoes. It took them all a moment to gain their bearings, and they decided it was best to just walk, the fact that someone might see notwithstanding.
Once they reached the front door however, they all thought they heard someone coming down the street, and Tim frantically through the door open and yelled at them to get in. Unfortunately, they all obeyed this command at the same time, and more chaos ensued. Imagine the three Stooges trying to fit in a tight doorway all at once, only if this time there were two dozen stooges.
Tim was the first to make it through, covered in bruises and groaning. Then Doug-Doug, and then the rest one at a time. Once the last person had made it through, they shut the door bending them and fell to the floor.
"That could have gone better." Tim said, stating the obvious. "But it worked. We're inside now, and I'm sure that nobody saw us. Now all that's left is to speak to Brudo."
Tim then clambered to his feet and looked around the massive foyer for Brudo, expecting him to be there waiting for them, but he was nowhere to be found. The only thing in the middle of it all was a large chair sitting right in front of the stairs that led to the second floor. The back was facing towards them, so Tim couldn't see exactly who was sitting in it, but the arms that were set on the chairs armrests certainly weren't Brudo's, and that was enough for Tim to note it as a red flag.
"Excuse me." He said. "Are you-"
The figure stood up and faced them. Every one of Mina's followers suddenly felt an intense feeling of fear strike their heart as Bren appeared, broken phone in his hand and smirking at them. Before anyone could say anything, they heard a shuffling shuffling sound and looked to their left, where Tom appeared wearing a deadpan expression. He walked over to Bren and stood by his side, and Tim knew they were fucked.
"Wha-what are you doing here?" He asked. He knew who Bren was. Everyone knew who Bren was. They had seen the wanted poster. And even though he had killed Mina (praise), they were more terrified than angry. This was the end for them. Anyone that had killed their goddess Mina (prai-oh screw it, who cares) must surely be unstoppable. They had no chance.
"Reasons." Bren said, taking a step towards them. "I'll make this quick, because I need to be quick. You morons are useless and I can't you leave this place alive, so I'm going to kill each and every one of you. If you try and escape, I'll have Tom burn you to a crisp." He cracked his knuckles and took a deep breath. "So without any further ado...let's get started."
Almost on instinct, Tom quickly took a few steps backwards and prepared himself for the gore-a-thon that was soon to follow, already having been informed that he wasn't going to be the main participant in this. As Prince of the Underworld, he was used to this kind of stuff, but this…...this was something he didn't want to see.
"I normally wouldn't do this myself…" Bren stated, walking towards the followers while they trembled in place. "But hey. After today, I think everyone needs a chance to let loose."
He moved forward, grabbing Tim by the throat before he could even react. And a second later, the sounds of screaming and splattering began and started to echo throughout the house, unheard by the oblivious people on the outside.
And now that almost every piece had been put in the proper positions, the only thing left was to start taking them off the board, one by one.
"Okay, they'll wake up in five...four...three...two...one...and now!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Please wake up?" A faint voice pleaded, followed by a sigh of defeat. Both of these things were the only sounds coming from inside the Diaz household, apart from maybe some distinct breathing that could only be heard if one was standing next to the source of said noise. And when this muffled breathing continued to be barely audible to the world around it, a loud groan was heard, as well as a sipping sound as Eclipsa, bored halfway out of her mind, emptied her fifth cup of coffee and set the mug down on the table.
At this point she could be called an addict. But who could blame her? The caffeine was the only thing keeping her going at the moment, and she had to resist the temptation of falling asleep and just bringing the day to a close. The obnoxious, long, horrendously bad day that felt like it had stenched on for weeks if not months.
But she couldn't give in. There was still work to do, a group of morons to arrest, and a severely traumatized boy to console.
Although by now she figured that the last part would be best left to that boy's parents, as Eclipsa doubted that anything she said could really help him in the long run. For that, he needed help from his real family. The ones who knew him best. And despite the fact that Star had told her at one point that she knew him best (which apparently had led to some incident with a painting), his parents would also not certainly do just as well. At least on the comforting side.
But this was, of course, easier said than done. Marco hadn't been the only one suffering. His parents had as well, after learning about what had happened to their child. They would need therapy just as much as he did after today.
…
Well, okay, that's not true. Marco's situation definitely took precedence, all things considered. But they would still need some form of help. Their son had literally been beaten to death and resurrected, and they weren't there. Eclipsa knee how they probably felt. Like they had failed their duty as parents, letting him die and being unable to stop it. And because of this, because they-no, because all of them had to tried and failed to prevent it, he had been transformed into a depressed, stone-cold shell of a person.
In the end, they hadn't lost him. He had come back.
But at the same time, he was no longer the same person he once was.
And Eclipsa was certain of it. By taking one look in his eyes, she could see that there were a few small pieces of his soul that weren't there anymore. It was like staring at an incomplete jigsaw puzzle. And each piece represented a different part of emotion. What was missing now? Joy? Excitement? Optimism?
Happiness?
It had to be something along those lines. Eclipsa hadn't even seen him so much as smile, not to mention the way he talked was like…
like…
no…
That was wrong.
She had seen him smiling. Back at the hospital, when he was with Star. Just as they were about to leave, she saw a grin come across his face as the two teens bid each other goodbye. And again, almost, back in her car, when he mentioned going back to the hospital to see her. They had been a half-grin. The third and final time was when she found him still alive and well, and Star had tackled him to the ground in a hug. He had been smiling plenty then. And all three times they involved her, the life of his life. Because of Star, a small semblance of the person he used to be was breaking through the veil that held the true Marco. Kind, loving, and someone that they could all rely on to listen to them, instead of just walking away like he had a million better things to do.
That was it. It was Star. She was the only thing that was allowing him to push forward, wasn't she? The one shining light in a sea of darkness. It was like Eclipsa thought earlier. She was the one who knew him best. She was the only one who could break him out of this mood entirely.
'If that's truly the case…' The Queen thought, slightly perturbed by the sudden realization. 'Then whenever he gets help for the things he's going through, Star needs to be there. Regardless of whether the hospital approves of it or not. The odds are that she is the only thing keeping him from sinking so far down that he would never be able to climb back up to the surface.'
She then glanced over at Rafael and Angie, still snoozing away and dreaming about who knows what. Probably something unpleasant.
"And they'll have to know about this as well.' She thought. 'They will want to help him. They will do everything they can to help him. But Marco barely reacted to Angie when he walked through the front door. If that's not foreshadowing for the fact that he doesn't want help from his parents then I don't know what is. From his perspective, Star is all he has left, and now she has to show him that that's not true. That there's more to living than just her. Like how he lived before the events of today…'
Eclipsa thought about this with almost one hundred percent certainty, treating it like it wasn't some theory she had come up with but rather a full-blown fact. In her mind, she had enough evidence for it.
So now she just had to make sure that those two got back together as soon as possible. She would have to schedule another hospital visit or something. Maybe early in the morning, to get Marco in a relatively good mood straight off. Either that or she could have Janna hypnotize him into thinking Star was with him. Cruel, possibly, but for the greater good. He had to remain as happy as possible. Lest he sink down into the void that had contaminated his mind, and decide that that place was better for him than anywhere else.
As this train of thought finished up, Eclipsa almost laughed, hardly remembering a time where she cared so much for someone else's well being and so little for her own. But a within like this required it, and so she would have to sacrifice a piece of her own sanity for the moment, making sure that Marco was in good spirits.
Just as she was about to chuckle to herself, a loud groan from the other room rang throughout the house like an airhorn, signifying that someone had woken up. Eclipsa practically threw her chair aside as she dashed into the living room and saw Rafael rubbing his head and slowly getting off the ground.
"Ugh...what happened?" He asked, the question posed to anyone that was listening. He then checked his surroundings and a look of confusion spread across his face. "Why am I on the floor? Did I fall asleep?"
"Technically, you fainted." Eclipsa said, making Rafael look up at her in surprise. "Do you, uh, remember what we were talking about?"
Rafael rubbed his head again and gave it some thought. "I-I think." He said. "I came home, Angie fainted, and then I asked you some questions. I recall it all going dark when I asked about…" His eyes suddenly went wide. "Marco!" He exclaimed. "You said he died!"
"Please don't pass out again." Eclipsa said. "There's a lot I need you to tell me about-"
"I have to check on him!" Rafael yelled, and without a moment's notice he ran into the foyer and sprinted upstairs, taking the steps five at a time. Eclipsa heard loud thuds as he reached the landing in the second floor, as well as heavy footsteps as he made his way over to Marco's room,
Then, a door creaked. A slight pause followed. The silence was almost deafening. After that, the footsteps returned and Rafael came back down the stairs, looking like someone had rejected him.
"Well?" Eclipsa asked. "How is he?"
"He is asleep." Rafael replied with a saddened tone. "So I thought it would be best to not wake him."
Eclipsa nodded and she once again took a seat in the same chair she had sat in earlier, and Rafael did the same with his chair a moment later.
"How did it happen?" He asked. "How was he brought back?"
"As much as I'd love to answer that...I'm afraid I need to ask my own questions now." Eclipsa said, knowing that the mayor was likely tired of waiting. "I need you to tell me everything you know about Mina's followers. Where they are, where they will be, and how many of them escaped and grouped together."
Rafael paused and looked like he was about to protest, but a moment later he sighed and realized that arresting Mina's followers were more important than his own feelings at the moment.
"I see." He said with a tone of defeat. "I understand. I probably should have just let you question me first, rather than fainting and wasting everyone's time." Eclipsa was about to respond, but after he said this, he looked her dead in the eye and glared at her with neither contempt nor approval, neither disgust nor fear. Just a glare with no ill will towards the Queen behind it, but also intense enough that it would make anyone buckle under it.
"But after that…" He continued. "I want you to tell me everything. From start to finish, and leaving out no details. No questions either. I'm not going to be asking you anything. Just tell me the whole story of while I was gone. Every single bit of it."
Eclipsa nodded, trying to ignore the glare he was giving her that felt like he was trying and failing to read her mind. "I will. I promise." She said. "But...now that we're in agreement, I think I-"
"Of course." Rafael interjected, and just like that, his glare vanished and he put on his classic smile. "Ask away. I'll answer all your questions as truthfully and as accurately as my memory allows."
"Excellent." Eclipsa said, putting on a smile of her one before clearing her throat. "First things first...how did you escape exactly? I know I should probably be asking something more important first, but this one had been at the back of my mind ever since you showed up, and I can't ignore it any longer."
The moment she asked this, Rafael let out a bellowing laugh, as if she had brought up a hilarious memory and not one she assumed would be terrifying. After a few seconds of this, he calmed himself down and answered, his voice filled with great amusement.
"That's quite a story. And complete proof that those people are completely incompetent at anything they do." He said. "Basically, they had me tied up in a warehouse with some cheap rope that looked like it had been fished out of a dumpster. Two of them were guarding me, but eventually one left to go grab a snack or something. I then came up with the idea to convince the other one to untie me in exchange for cooking him a meal, as he had been complaining about food for a while. It eventually worked, he undid my restraints, and I knocked him out with a karate move that Marco showed me."
"..."
Eclipsa remained silent after this lengthy explanation, as if simply hearing it had disturbed her to the point that she became a mute. Rafael took notice almost immediately and prayed that she wasn't about to faint just like he had.
"Are you okay?" He asked. "If...you need me to explain in a little more detail, I can, but I think that it might get a little repetitive-"
"No, it's...it's not that." Eclipsa said, frantically blinking as if she had woken up from a bad dream. "It's just that I can't believe that that food plan of yours worked. I knew they were gullible and unoriginal, but this goes beyond that. This-this guard actually untied you, the prisoner that was their only leverage against the town, under the pretense that you would cook him something. I-I'm surprised that they even know how to feed themselves in the first place."
"I was surprised too, but I definitely wasn't complaining." Rafael said. "I saw the gullibility that they had, used it to my advantage, and it worked perfectly. Although I must say, I am confused as to why the first question you asked was how I escaped, and not how they kidnapped me in the first place."
Eclipsa flinched like someone had pinched her. The question hanging around in the back of her head notwithstanding, normally in a situation like this the first thing she would do is ask how the person had been taken in the first place, just like Rafael said. This way, she and the mayor could enact laws that would nothing like it could ever happen again.
However, in this case she figured that the followers stupidity had made them unable to come up with a better than waiting until Rafael was line, grabbing him, and then throwing him in the back of a truck or something. And besides banning trucks or having security cameras installed on every street corner (neither of which would fly with the public), there wasn't really anything they could do to prevent something like that.
But now that he had put the question in her mind, she just decided to go with it and ask.
"So...then how did they capture you?"
"Oh, they just waited until I was alone, grabbed me, and threw me into the back of a truck." Rafael answered. "Then they took me to their warehouse hideout and tied me up."
'Figures.' Eclipsa thought. 'Should I even be surprised at this point?'
"Then what happened?" She asked, trying to get the main conversation back on track. "Did you come straight back here, or did you try to contact the police?"
"Actually neither." Rafael said. "After I knocked that man unconscious, I stayed in the warehouse for a bit and found a good hiding place."
"What? Why?" Eclipsa asked him, dumbfounded.
"Because I figured that I could be more useful this way." He replied. "You see, by that point these followers had already mentioned several crucial bits of information amongst themselves which I overheard. Almost like they assumed I wasn't there at all, or that I would forget later."
"Not surprising, all things considered." Eclipsa mumbled. "So did you actually hear anything useful?"
"I heard everything!" Rafael exclaimed. "They talked about everything they were planning and who they were working for. I assumed it was because their memories are so terrible that they have to keep reminding themselves of things."
Eclipsa was about to make a comment about how that was probably true, but something Rafael said had stuck with her. 'Who are they working for?' She thought. 'If we know that...then that might be it. Assuming they're not Bren, which they're definitely not, then we could just find and arrest them like that!' She snapped her fingers, prompting a confused look from Rafael. 'Hm. Then this takes precedence over all else. The time for any other questions can wait for later. For now, it's time to end this silly charade.'
"Who are they working for?" She asked. "Who's in charge?"
Rafael took a deep breath. "Lord Brudo." He said. "I heard one of them mention it, and he seemingly even called them on a phone while I was there. If what they said is true, then right now every single one of them is at his mansion."
'Brudo?!' Eclipsa thought, her eyes bugging out. 'He's in charge?! But he's a monster! Those followers would never listen to a monster! Not unless they were completely…desperate. Which, I suppose...they...are.' She sighed and wished that it wasn't true. But a small part of her told her it was. And then she remembered what Star had said back on tax day. About how she should keep a close eye on Brudo.
If she hadn't forgotten about that, maybe things would have played out differently...
"Are you sure about this?" She asked, her tone sounding akin to that of a depressed person's.
Rafael nodded and started speaking in the same depressed tone. "I know it's hard to believe. I didn't want to believe it either at first, especially considering all that Brudo's done for the town. All the money and compassion for its plight that he gave to us. But I heard it straight from them. Brudo is their leader. Any doubts I had about it back there disappeared on my way home."
Eclipsa gulped. This was both good and bad. Good because the leader was someone they could easily take down, and because all the followers were at said leaders house, they could literally arrest everyone in one massive raid. But the bad part was the reaction of the townsfolk. Even though Rafael had heard it straight from the horse's mouth, he still had trouble believing it. He didn't want to. Eclipsa didn't either. It was like he had said. All the money they Brudo gave up had done so much good, and now, they were supposed to let him rot in prison? There would be an outcry, even if they released all the evidence for the Avarius lord's involvement.
But it wasn't like she had a choice. She had her target. The police had their target. The entire town had it's target. There was no stopping now, not after they had come so far. If she ignored this, then it would have all been for nothing. Brudo would be taken into custody, whether the people liked it or not.
She stood up and took out her phone. "I'm calling the mayor and informing him about this." She told Rafael. "Any other questions I have can and will wait for later."
"What are you going to tell him?" Rafael asked.
"What did you think?" Eclipsa said, not posing it as a question. "I'm going to tell him exactly what you told me. That Brudo is behind this, the followers are all at his mansion, and if we hurry we might be able to take them all out right now."
"Then it's really happening. Brudo is getting what's coming to him." Rafael said, before stating the thing that Eclipsa had been worried about only a moment earlier. "But I don't think the townsfolk will be particularly happy about any of this…"
"They won't be. But I don't care." Eclipsa said. She dialed the mayor's office and waited for him to answer. "I'm ending this now. With this, Mina's followers will be stopped for goods and I'll make sure they get put in a prison that they can never escape from."
Rafael almost flicked her away from the Queen, taken aback by the raw anger in her voice. 'Marco wasn't the only one who had a terrible day, was he?' He thought. 'I'm betting it's been a living hell for everyone…'
Almost on cue, the timing coming from Eclipsa's phone stopped as the mayor himself answered, instead of the robotic desk attendant that had pushed Eclipsa to her limits the last time.
"Well?" The mayor said, knowing full well who was calling. "Are they awake?"
"Rafael is awake." Eclipsa said. "And he gave all the information we'll ever need. For whatever reason, most likely because they had no one law to turn to, Mina's morons have been taking orders from Lord Brudo, and it is possible that he is the one who broke them out as well. As of right now, all of them are at mansion Avarius. If we move fast, then we might be able to catch every last one of them."
"..."
"I know." Eclipsa said, fully expecting the mayor to be silent at first. "Brudo's done a lot for the town. But Rafael heard it from the mouths of the followers themselves. He is behind all of this, and nothing we do can change that. And time is of the essence, so don't start asking me questions about "why" or "how", because we'll deal with that later. Just tell me if you can have the police ready to head over as soon as possible."
The mayor took a deep breath. "...I can send them over there right now." He said. "I'll tell them to mobilize a swat team to infiltrate the manor and arrest them."
"Good." Eclipsa said. "In the meantime, I'll contact the Mewnian knights anyway I can and tell them to head over there as well. We might need all the help we can ge-"
"No need." The mayor said. "I already got them. After I hung up on you earlier, I made sure to send someone to go get the knights to assist us in all of this. They're with the police as well. I can send both groups in, the knights and a swat team. We'll make sure to hit them hard and hit them fast."
Eclipsa was briefly stunned into silence. "You're really on top of this." She pointed out. "I'm impressed."
"Thanks." The mayor said, sounding like he was smiling widely. "You just stay where you are for now. I'll send them in and call you back later to inform you on how the operation went."
"You-you don't need me for anything else?" Eclipsa asked. Truthfully, she hadn't expected to be the one earring the charge or to even be in it at all, but she had expected to at least be there when it happened. For some reason, the thought of staying here and sitting by while the police and knights risked their lives didn't sit well with her.
Although, that was their job...and she couldn't risk dying over something like this. If the fight escalated or if the followers had weapons, then it could easily turn into a bloodbath. With her in the middle.
That was not a pleasant thought.
"Not particularly…" The mayor said, answering truthfully. "Is that okay with you?"
"Yes, it's completely fine." Eclipsa lied. "I just don't want any of them to get hurt."
"Don't worry." The mayor said. "This will be a piece of cake. If those guys are anything, it's incompotent. Although I'm wondering how Brudo managed to break
them out of prison in the first place…"
"It's possible that he's not alone in this. In which case we have to be extra careful." Eclipsa suggested. "They may be incompotent, but that won't make a difference if the swat team and the knights get mobbed the second they step inside."
"Fair enough." The mayor said. "Alright then. I'm hanging up now and sending out the order out to both groups. Shouldn't take them any more than a half hour, so in the meantime, you should probably relax. You sound like you really need it."
"Uh...thanks." Eclipsa said, wondering if this was really the same mayor she knew. "Same to you."
A second later, the line went dead for the second time, and Eclipsa was left alone with Rafael. She flopped herself back into her chair and decided to do exactly what the mayor told her to do: relax.
"Sooo…" Rafael said. "What are you going to do about-"
"Can I have a moment alone?" Eclipsa requested, her voice cracking. Rafael reared back in surprise and was about to push further, but after seeing the look on her face, he understood how much of a toll this was all taking on her. So instead he simply followed her advice, said "okay", and left to go get himself something to eat from the kitchen.
Once he had left, Eclipsa stared at the ceiling like it was the most fascinating thing in the world, and her mind sank into an abyss that seemed to call out to her and reminded her of all the things she still needed to do today. She groaned, stretched her limbs, and told the voices to shut up.
'Is there really no more coffee left?'
It took an hour.
After an hour of painful walking, annoying glances, and ignoring frantic questions from worried townsfolk, Brudo had finally made it back to the mansion. Tall, imposing, and looking like it had been waiting there just for him. Momentary happiness at the sight of his house was replaced with a deep feeling of dread as he opened the gate and slowly strolled up the walkway. For once, it did not feel good to be home.
He took the doorknob in his hand and hesitated. What was waiting for him on the other side was either instant death or the best luck of his life. Either Bren was there waiting for him or nobody was. Either way, he had no other path to follow. This was the only choice he could take now. If he left as he was, then he would be broke and useless, without a penny to his name. And it's not like asking the townsfolk for help would work either. They might have been worried about him because he was injured, but there was no way in a million days that they were going to give back any of the money he had given them. Especially considering the current state of everything…
Brudo's brow furrowed as he thought about all the other options. Ask Queen Eclipsa for help perhaps? She would likely protect him, but that would require admitting that he had been working with Bren, which would end badly. Then he would be thrown in prison like Mina's posse had. Or worse. Many citizens would no doubt want all of Bren's conspirators to die, no matter what they had done in the past.
'Wait.' He thought. 'That might not be true. I basically saved all their lives back during the demon attack by having that tax day. If I go to court for my crimes and tell them that, then it light loosen the load and…' Brudo's hopeful thought train stopped short when he realized that the tax thing hadn't even been his idea. It was someone else's. 'Ugh, no! That was Bren's idea, not mine!' He thought furiously. 'Just so Star wouldn't go insane. It won't work if I tell them that. Unless, maybe, I can convince that it was my idea to begin with…?'
Brudo growled in frustration when he saw another flaw to that plan. There's no way that Bren would let him say that. If he was actually captured, the little brat would tell them everything to ensure that anyone he worked with was dragged down with him. Brudo suspected that he was a sore loser, and that his "I want you to try and stop me" thing was a load of crap. If Star and Marco got close to stopping him, then he would show his true colors and become a writhing angry mess of a person.
Now, all this was true or maybe it wasn't. Brudo only suspected that it was. But no matter what kind of person he thought Bren was, he knew that he was the type that didn't appreciate people scheming behind his back. That was his thing after all.
And now he was completely at that person's mercy. Unless he acted fast. He gripped the doorknob, turned it, and flung the door open. The house inside was completely dark, with all the curtains closed and the lights off. But he didn't even care. He entered and closed the door behind him, effectively trapping himself in the darkness.
He paused once he realized his mistake.
'Okay, should have thought that one through.' He thought. 'No matter. I'll just find a light, get everything I can, load it up into that carriage at the back of the house and get out of here.'
A small voice in the back of Brudo's head reminded him of his family, the people that he would be leaving behind if he followed through with the plan. His conscience, presumably. But he waved it off.
'That doesn't matter.' He told himself. 'If I don't leave now, then it might be over. Every second I spend here not escaping is another second Bren has to come over and finish me off. There's no time. So get lost. I buried you years ago.'
His conscience remained quiet as Brudo straightened himself and prepared to find a light. Shouldn't be hard, there was one right in the middle of the foyer. He took a painful step forward, only to be met with something warm and wet touching the tips of his toes.
And the feeling of dread that he had earlier suddenly tripled itself.
Carefully, and with slow deliberation, Brudo knelt down and dipped his finger in the liquid, still completely blind as to what it was. He raised his finger to his nose and sniffed it, praying to anybody that was listening that it was just a water leak or a drink that one of his children had spilled earlier.
It smelled metallic. Like copper or iron.
The dread building in his gut was now so strong that Brudo almost threw up right then and there. He knew what it was. He had smelled it before. No matter what creature it was from, it was always the same. The fresh scent of blood.
Brudo took a step backwards, inching towards the door. He didn't want to know who's blood that was, and he wasn't about to let himself find out. He had to get out now, or else he-
*BANG*
With a popping sound that almost blew up Brudo's eardrums, the entire area was suddenly illuminated in a blinding white light, so bright that it was like looking directly at the sun. Brudo instinctively covered his eyes to protect them from the change in luminosity, although it scarcely helped. Spots danced in his vision as he turned away from lights, desperately trying to keep his eyeballs from melting inside his head.
In the distance, he thought he heard Bren's voice say, "Too bright Lucitor! Too damn bright! Turn it the fuck down or you'll ruin the atmosphere," followed by further cursing. The light then faded to a dull glow similar to a hundred candles, and Brudo rubbed his eyes desperately. Once he had regained his vision, he took his hands away from his face and looked around, now able to see what was around him.
And once he did, he actually threw up, his vomit splattering on the floor and making a giant mess.
At least, it would, if there wasn't a worse mess already covering every square inch of the room.
Everything around him had been painted in a new coat of crimson. The walls, floor, even the ceiling was drenched red with blood, dripping down onto the ground like some kind of macabre makeshift rain. But it wasn't just blood. Littering the stone floor was hundreds if not thousands of individual body parts, ranging from hearts to intestines to fingers to entire limbs, all looking like they had been torn off or out of their original host by a terrible force. Brudo almost thought they were spelling something out for a second, before he realized that it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, trying to make some sense of this whole macabre mess.
It was simply...horrific. Something the Avarius lord had never seen the likes of, and something he would never be able to forget, not even if he lived for a million years more.
And in the middle of all the carnage? Bren himself, sitting in Brudo's favorite chair, every part of him stained scarlet by the massacre. His clothes, his hands, even his damn face had been soaked with gore. There was no doubt that he was the one who had done this. As if Brudo even needed to ask in the first place. In his hand was a disembodied head, the expression on its face being one of terror. He tossed it in the air and caught it repeatedly like it was a baseball, all while wearing a self-satisfied and sadistic grin. Anyone looking at him would think that he was enjoying himself, and they wouldn't be more correct.
But worse was the fact that he wasn't alone. Tom, his personal demon lackey, stood in the corner of the room. Surprisingly, he was mostly clean of blood except for his boots, which were of course just as blood-red as everything else. Tom himself had a sorrowful and horrified expression on his face, as if even he, the literal prince of hell, was disturbed by what he just witnessed.
"My my…" Bren started, breaking the deafening silence while tightly gripping the head in his hands. "Someone hasn't been doing what they've been told..."
Brudo couldn't speak, as he was currently transfixed with terror. This was it. This was his end. If Bren wanted to, he could simply give the word and Tom would blast him with a fireball. But Brudo knew that's not what would happen. Bren was going to tear him apart like he had Mina's followers. There was no one else the blood could have belonged to after all. After all, Bren was already-
Then he realized where they were, and the other group of people that might be the remains that lay before him. A group that was much closer to him to those followers ever could be.
"My-my-my family…" He stuttered, shaking so much that he could barely speak. "Is-is this-"
"No." Bren said. "No, all of this is Mina's morons, as I'm sure you've guessed. Your family is safe. Even if you used them to break these idiots out of prison, I have no grudge against them. They simply did what you told them too. Just like you should have done with me…"
Brudo opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Bren reared his hand back and threw the head at Brudo like a basketball, yelling "catch", a second before he did so. Brudo shrieked and instinctively ducked, resulting in the head smacking up against the opposite wall with a loud SPLAT. It slowly slid down and hit the floor, it's dead eyes now staring at the Avarius Lord.
Brudo shuddered and turned back to Bren, who had grabbed another head from behind the chair and tossed it up and down just like with the last one.
"You know…" He said, tapping his foot against the ground. "I checked, and surprisingly, these guys actually do have brains. Want to see?"
"I-" Brudo started, but Bren didn't let him get any further, tightly gripping the once-living object and then squeezing it as hard as he could, resulting in the head practically exploding in his hands and showering the area in gore and brain matter. Brudo gagged and did his best to keep his lunch down, while Tom winced and looked away. Even after witnessing the hundreds of painful and inhuman tortures the Underworld could inflict on its residents, this was starting to be too much. Bren, meanwhile, looked rather amused at what he just did.
"Oops." He said, not the slightly bit disturbed by his actions. "Looks like I applied a little too much pressure. Ah, no matter. Plenty more where that came from." He shook the various bits of bone and blood off his hand and then reached behind the chair again, grabbing a third head in the process.
"How about this." He said, preparing to give Brudo an offer. "I'm going to ask you a couple of things, and if I like what I hear, then you don't have to witness any more heads exploding. If I don't like what I hear…"
He then crushed the head in his hands and it burst like a pumpkin, the insides of it gushing out and drenching everything around it while also providing a perfect example.
"Then that." He said, taking hold of another head soon after. (Tim's, specifically.) And I know you're getting ill from watching it, so why don't you do what I say for once in your pathetic life and we can get through this without any more…" He chuckled evilly in the most cliche way possible. "...bloodshed."
Brudo tried to keep his lunch down as he quickly considered his options. Earlier, he had suspected that Tom would kill him if he tried to leave. But now he wasn't so sure. The demon prince looked like he wanted no part in this and hated every second. There was a chance, however slim, that he wouldn't respond to an order from Bren.
But now Brudo wasn't so sure about Bren either. He had thought that Bren was just a pushover and not much of a threat when it came to an actual physical fight. But he was completely drenched in blood here. Tom hadn't taken part in this slaughter, it was all Bren. Who was now giggling to himself like a patient at an insane asylum.
"Ah, I know what you're thinking." Bren said, half talking, half laughing. He cleared his throat and put in the same voice he did with the (currently deceased) followers from earlier.
"Oh no." He said dramatically. "Look at all that blood. Bren did all this himself. He didn't use his demon lackey at all. What a fool I was to believe that he was a weakling and that I could probably beat him in a fight." He coughed and switched back to his normal voice. "Right? Isn't that what you were thinking?"
While Brudo didn't believe he could really beat anyone in an actual fistfight, the rest of Bren's imitation was right on the money, and they both knew it. Bren was just playing with Brudo at this point; he could kill him at any time he wanted. Brudo was tempted to find a way to kill himself right there, as whatever the person sitting in front of him had in store was a thousand times worse than anything he could do via suicide.
"Well?" Bren said expectantly. "Aren't you going to say defend yourself? Give me a reason as to why you should live past the next five seconds?" His tone grew noticeably angrier, as if he had a switch on his back that had just been flicked.
"I-" Brudo started. He took a deep breath. It was now or never. Truth be told, he figured that he was dead no matter what. Unless, of course, he made some kind of miraculous escape. If there was one thing that Brudo was aware of, it was the fact that Bren loved to talk. Repeating the same things over and over again. If he kept him talking, and waited until the right moment, then he might be able to get away.
He had no other choice. All the cards were on the table, and Bren had a full deck, whilst Brudo only had two. An ace, and a joker. One would save him, and one would mean certain death.
So he just had to play the right one.
"You've got the wrong person." Brudo said, doing his best to appear as fearless as possible. "Think about it Bren. Why would I want to help Mina's followers, and why would they help me? They hate monsters. To work with me would be to work against everything they stand for.
Bren frowned and sighed. "Don't bother. I already heard the truth from one of Mina's morons. He told me himself that you're in charge. Right before I killed him of course."
Brudo almost choked on the air he was breathing, his mind going back to the smoldering pile of bones hay he found at the sanctuary. "Then-then those bones I found at the sanctuary...was that-"
"Yup. That was them." Bren said, grabbing Tim's head by the hair and swinging it around. "I had to get rid of their corpse some way, so I burned it. Unfortunately, I understand that there must have been quite a bit of smoke when you arrived."
"No kidding." Brudo mumbled, doing his best to keep the conversation going while at the same frantically searching for another way out. "I nearly burned my lungs from all that smoke."
"Poor pitiful you." Bren said, entirely without empathy. "Alright, head-crushing question time." The head he had been swinging around like a kid with a yo-yo landed back in his hands, and he prepared it to smash them together. "Brudo. Why did you work with Mina's followers against me?"
"Because-because you were taking too long." Brudo said truthfully, suspecting that Bren would immediately know if he was lying. "You promised me revenge against Ludo, but it never came. You promised and you promised and you never delivered on that promise. So I decided to take matters into my own hands."
Bren paused, looked from side to side, and then slammed his hand together, causing Tim's vacant expression to explode outwards. Brudo turned away and felt the bile starting to rise yet again. He wasn't sure how much more this he could take.
"Why…" He groaned. "I told you the truth and-"
"Yes. You gave me the truth." Bren said, sliding another head out from behind the chair and placing it under his left foot. "It's just that I didn't particularly like it. You did this because you were impatient? Are you serious? I would have gotten you your revenge! It would have come to pass! I had everything planned out perfectly! But-but because you didn't want to wait a few weeks for it, you decided it was a good idea to go against me?! Have you lost your mind entirely, or at you just as stupid as Mina's little playgroup was?!"
Brudo took a step back. He had to take this in another direction. And Bren was right. He should have been more patient. He should have trusted him when he said that he had everything planned out, all those months ago.
So why didn't he? Because that wasn't like him? Because his thirst for revenge against his son was so great that he couldn't wait to see him die? What had Ludo even done in the first place? Dishonored the family name? Kicked them out of the mansion? Did he really deserve what Brudo wanted for him?
'No.' His conscience said. 'You're petty. You were petty. You only followed your gut instincts, and look where it got you. On death's door. Congratulations, you're a worthless, pathetic piece of trash."
Brudo sank where he stood as he saw that his conscience was right. He was being petty about this whole thing. Sure, Ludo had been a to his family, but he had been a pretty horrible person himself. He never cared about them. Only about stickers and more recently, revenge. He had failed as a father and as a person.
He had failed at everything.
"Why so glum?" Bren asked, sensing the aura of despondency that was practically radiating off of him. "Oh wait…...I know what it is. I've seen that look before. That's the look of someone who's failed at everything. Failed their family, their friends, and life itself." He leaned back in the chair and rested his hands on his chin. "I'm happy that you finally see the truth about yourself Brudo. And all it took was a good talking-too from me. Hm, when this is all over, do you think I should become a therapist for people like you? While I don't really see myself moving into that profession, I do believe that-"
"Just get to the fucking point." Brudo demanded, staring blankly at the ground.
Bren did a double-take. "Excuse me?"
"Get to the damn point." Brudo repeated. "Either finish your stupid speech or kill me."
"Well, I'm not done with my "stupid" speech." Bren said, pressing his foot down on the head that was placed below it. "I still have a lot to say, insults to deliver, and heads to crush. So why don't you settle in and-"
"Oh god...SHUT UP!" Brudo screamed, hardly caring for his own life anymore. Bren reared back in surprise, utterly shocked by the Avarius Lord's sudden outburst. He never had been one for such things. Although I was more the fact that he had stood up to him in the first place.
"Okay...wow." He said. "Uh, Brudo, I think it's best if you calm down and-"
"NO! None of that…" Brudo hissed. "You don't get to tell me what to do anymore. You don't get to tell me to do anything! Why should you? I've heard it all before anyway. You're completely unoriginal. Every word that comes out of your mouth is copied and pasted from something you previously said. It sounds like a loop at this point!"
While Brudo paused for a moment to catch his breath, Bren rolled his eye and glanced over at Tom, who was equally as surprised as he was. He snapped his fingers at the demon and motioned for him to stand by the front door, blocking an escape attempt. Tom nodded and slowly started inching his way along the wall, unbeknownst to Brudo.
Once he had found his voice again, Brudo spoke as soon as he could, tearing into Bren with everything he had.
"And you…" He started. "You think you're special. Some "final enemy" for Star and her little boyfriend to defeat. And even though you want them to fight you simply for the fun of it, you still get angry and whiny and sad every time they actually do something that interrupts your plans. You're just a child with too much power on their hands Bren! I've seen the exact same traits in my children, and now I'm seeing it in you!"
He then gestured to the blood-soaked room. "And this...ohhhh." Brudo wrung his hands together and almost grinned despite his position. "And this is nothing but a temper tantrum. You were so mad at me and Mina's followers that you couldn't bear the possibility of me or them taking Star and Marco away for you. So you did what any child would do: break everything and ask questions later. But that's what you do, isn't it? When you get angry, you break things and couldn't care less about the consequences. You're so immature it's a wonder that you even got this far in the first place."
Bren sighed. "Fascinating Brudo." He said, entirely without emotion. "Now, if you don't mind, I have a lot of things to do, so I'm going to-"
"No. No, I'm not done. I'm going to die, so you're going to hear this." Brudo growled. He clenched his fists and walked towards Bren, who was no longer staring at Brudo like a person looking down at an ant but more like a person looking at a cat that was meowing furiously at them.
"Another example is that stunt you pulled at the meeting." He continued, which Bren raised an eyebrow toll ll. "That's right. I heard all about it. So you stormed the meeting, killed some guards, dangled Princess Spiderbite out of a window, and then left? What was even the point of that?"
"It was to-"
"NOTHING!" Brudo screeched, making Bren stop mid-syllable. "It was for absolutely nothing. Just another show of your immaturity. You wanted to show off your power like a child showing off their birthday presents to a person they hate."
Tom couldn't hold it in and actually snickered behind Brudo after this, but was quickly quieted down by a glare from his master. He bit his lip as hard as he could to keep himself from laughing, although it clearly wasn't working very well.
Hearing the giggling sounds from behind him only motivated Brudo to move forward, even if they meant that his closest method of escape was a lost cause. He took a deep breath and continued.
"And you know what?" He said. "That's exactly what everyone else thinks. I spoke to the followers. I told them what happened. I told them what you did. And you know what they said? They agreed with me. That's right Been. Even someone as stupid and them saw you for what you really are."
"Then what am I?" Bren demanded, finally getting a full sentence in. "Because by the looks of it, you're the one repeating yourself now Brudo. Not to mention an outburst like this is hardly like you at all…...but god, I get it, you think I'm a child and that I'm immature. So why don't you get to the fucking point and stop wasting everyone's time?"
"The point? You want my point?" Brudo asked, seething at him. "My point is that you will not win this. Not the way you're going. Saying the same things, acting the same way, doing everything like it's some kind of sick game and pretending that you're five moves ahead. News flash, you're not! You may have plans on top of plans, but if they're all created by you, then they won't work."
"They've worked fine so far." Bren pointed out.
"Oh yeah? And what about your plan for me? Did that work out fine?"
Bren didn't respond to this and merely narrowed his eyes, and Brudo could tell he was staring to break him. Just a few more pushes, and he would snap and prove Brudo's point in the most perfect way.
"You were a mistake." He said. "Everyone...everybody…every...single...fucking…person…..." Bren growled at himself and his hands started shaking in anger, unable to bring himself to admit that he had made a genuine mistake. He was getting closer and closer to the breaking point. Brudo could see it in his eyes. Which were currently glowing brightly for some reason.
"What? Make mistakes?" Brudo asked. "Is that what you're trying to say? Because you're getting kind of hard to understand. Are you so angry that you can't even speak, or this some weird tactic to get me to be afraid of you?"
Bren started mumbling incoherently and slammed his foot down, smashing the head that was under it into blood bits. Brudo wasn't fazed in the slightest, and in fact smiled widely and started another rant.
"And that reminds me of something…" He said. "This whole thing you did. Killing everyone and spreading their insides all over like the place some kind of sick decor. It might have been effective at first, but not anymore. Because I see what it really is. Not just a temper tantrum. No, this is something else. Your pathetic little attempt at scaring me. Trying to look like some kind of tough guy that can do whatever he wants."
After this, Bren's fists noticeably tightened in anger, while behind him, Brudo almost thought he heard Tom whisper, "keep going...keep going…", seemingly directed at the Avarius Lord himself. Who in turn chuckled and did just that.
"But you know what?" He continued. "It's just stupid. This kind of stuff is a lame teenager would find badass. Which is yet another sign of your immaturity. You can't think of an effective manner of intimidation, so you went with the blood option. Something that you overused…"
Bren couldn't take any more of this. Brudo had finally broken through, just as planned. He stood up, his nostrils flaring and his gaze now looking like one from the devil himself. "You disrespectful, little piece of-"
"Oh yes, please, go ahead and insult me again." Brudo said. "That's it. I simply can't bear it anymore." He groaned dramatically and walked over to a piece of broken bone on the ground, the edge of it as sharp as a knife. He picked it up and held the dagger-like end against his chest. "Here." He said. "I'll do it for you."
"What are you-"
"If you can't bring yourself to end my life, then I'll do it myself." Brudo responded. "I can't handle listening to you for a second more. It never ends, and it's so damn repetitive."
"You fucking-"
"Oh Mewni, just kill me already."
"YOU-"
"Please kill me?"
"GAH!" Bren screamed, throwing his arms in the air. "THAT IS IT! I AM ONE HUNDRED AND TEN PERCENT DONE! TIME TO DIE AVARIUS!"
Brudo could hold back his laughter. This wasn't even scary anymore. It was a low, bellowing laugh, more powerful than any he had done in years. Still laughing his head off, he straightened himself and looked Bren in the eyes, and his laugh faltered slightly, but only slightly, when he saw that they were no longer orange, but a dark green.
Seeing his hated enemy react like this only enraged Bren further. Now out of control and back to his original self, he rushed forward and grabbed Brudo by the neck before slamming him against a nearby wall. But his laughter didn't cease, not even for a moment. Because he knew that even if this boy, this creature, took his life right here, he still would have won. Everything he said about Bren would become true. As if it wasn't already.
"STOP LAUGHING!" Bren screeched childishly. "STOP OR I'LL TORTURE YOU TO DEATH MYSELF!"
Brudo giggled like a madman and looked him dead in the face. "I really don't care." He said. "What are you going to do? More torture? More death? More blood? Every after everything I said, you still don't see that I'm right? That you're nothing?"
"Nothing?" Bren breathed. "You think I'm nothing? I am EVERYTHING! YOU ARE NOTHING! YOU AND BUTTERFLY AND DIAZ AND ALL OF THEM ARE NOTHING BUT OBSTACLES IN MY PATH AND I WILL-"
"Oh for god's SAKE." Brudo complained. "Now you're just being plain annoying! This is nearly making my ears bleed! Listening is bad enough, and I can only imagine what it must be like to have to read what you're saying. I pity those poor souls out there…"
"You think you're funny?" Bren asked, clenching his teeth. "That you can just talk your way out of this? I literally have you against the wall and can kill you at any time. In no way does this end well for you. So do yourself a favor and-"
"Nope! Not listening anymore." Brudo announced throwing his hands in the air. "Nothing you have to say is worth it anyways. So please, do yourself a favor and get some help. Oh, and you might want to go to a doctor. Your eyes have changed color, and I'm pretty sure that's not a good thing."
Bren's anger vanished in an instant and he suddenly got a look of fear on his face, like the switch on his back had been flipped for the second time.
"My eyes have what?"
"Cha-" Brudo coughed. "Changed color. They're green now. Don't know what that's all about."
Bren dropped Brudo the second after he said this, letting him flop to the floor. He turned away and started whispering to himself frantically, sounding like his voice was connected to a keyboard and that someone was typing away on it at 250 words per minute.
Although still greatly amused by what just occurred, Brudo couldn't help but wonder what the hell Bren was doing. He looked over at Tom, who merely shrugged in response.
"Get ahold of yourself." He thought he heard Bren whisper. "He's trying to piss you off. He wants you to kill him. Don't give him what he wants. Get back in control. Don't be who you were before…"
Brudo blinked in shock. While the second part of that was still a total mystery, it was really the first two things she said that had stood out. 'Holy shit.' He thought. 'Is this really happening? Could I actually make it out of this hell alive?' Although Brudo had accepted he was going to die and was currently taking it with a surprisingly indifferent attitude, the idea of staying alive another day made his old, terrified-of-Bren self return for a moment.
He looked towards Tom again, the question he was about to ask displayed but his expression alone. The demon shook his head and stepped directly in front of the doorway, before mouthing to him, "Sorry, I can't let you go, otherwise people I care about will get punished for it."
Brudo let out a silent groan but consented to this. Of course Bren had a hostage situation against Tom.
Odds were he wasn't strong enough to deal with him the old fashioned way. After all, even a fool would know that the their to the Underworld would be a much harder challenger than dozen or so bigoted morons.
'Back to Bren then.' Brudo thought, turning to the aforementioned person. Who was currently grasping the sides of his head and having what looked to be a panic attack. He wasn't paying attention to Brudo. He wasn't paying attention to anyone.
'Wait. This-this is my chance.' Brudo thought. 'He...he's completely zoned out. I can kill him right here. End this madness. Be labeled a hero. And maybe...just maybe...I'll get a pardon for all the things I did to get to this point.'
Picking up the piece of jagged bone from earlier, Brudo gripped it like a knife and moved towards Bren, preparing to stab him in the back of his neck and hopefully sever his spine. But he didn't even make it five steps before he felt a hand on his shoulder, Tom's hand, holding him back with a strength far greater than anything he could have possibly possessed.
"What are you doing?!" Brudo hissed at him. "Why are you stopping me? Hell, you should be helping! He's right here! Distracted as can be! Hit with one of your fireballs or something and I'll finish him off!"
"I-" Tom started, before taking one last look at Bren to make sure he wasn't listening. "I can't." He whispered. "He's thought of everything. If I kill him, then my parents die anyway. He's got this weird system connected to his lackeys down in the Underworld. Even if he's gone and the main plan is stopped, my mom and dad will still die."
"Wait. He has your parents?" Brudo asked, taking ahold of his hand and pushing it off his shoulder. "That's why you've turned into his slave?"
Tom immediately regretted letting that part slip out, but then he figured that since Brudo was almost certainly going to die anyways, it was probably fine.
But he wasn't going to go any further then that.
"I...don't want to talk about it." He said. "But yes. That's his leverage against me." Tom sighed, and for a second Brudo thought he saw pity in his eyes. "I'm not going to lie, what you did back there was brave and stupid. Mostly stupid, but also kind of brave."
Brudo frowned.
"But it won't work." Tom said, taking another quick glance at his master . "All you've done is made him angry. Once he comes back from...this, he's going to make sure that you do what he says."
"What, by threatening to kill me?" Brudo asked, rolling his eyes. "That doesn't faze me anymore. Killing me will only prove my poin-"
"Yes!" Tom said, raising his voice, if only for a moment. "Yes. And he knows that. Everything you've said is correct. He's immature. He throws temper tantrums. He thinks spreading blood all over the place will make him look badass. And you know what he's going to do, now that killing you is temporarily off the table?"
"Torture me?"
Tom paused. "Uh...I mean, that might be in character for him, but no. He's going to do the same thing to you that he did to me. He's going to use leverage in the form of other people."
"What are you-"
"LUCITOR!" A furious voice rang out, making them both tense up on the spot.
"Oh shit." Tom breathed, before stepping back from Brudo and doing his best to pretend that nothing happened. Brudo gulped and wheeled around at a now back-to-normal Bren, his eyes glowing orange like an electronic Halloween prop and wearing a scowl that seemed to spread across his entire face like some kind of infection.
"What...are you doing?" He asked, his tone a mix of curiosity combined with a small bit of are-you-out-of-your-goddamn-mind.
"..."
"Oh no, you can speak." Bren said, giving Tom permission to talk for maybe the first time in weeks. "I want to hear this."
Tom gulped. "I was just...uh…" He then clamped his mouth shut as soon as he had opened it, knowing that the odds of one of his parents getting out of this one was slim to none. He knew he had to say something. But he was so scared for his parents that the words just weren't leaving his mouth.
"Spit it out." Bren growled. He pulled out his device from his pocket and his finger hovered over the button. "Tell me or I'll tell my friends to draw and quarter your dad."
"..."
Bren sighed in exasperation. "Okay. Fine. Keep silent. You win!" He exclaimed. "You...chose this. I warned you, but I guess it just wasn't enough. Have fun living with yourself, demon."
"NO!" Tom said. "DON'T-"
Too late. He pressed the button, and the device started to emit a loud ringing sound similar to a ringing phone. Tom somehow went pale white and his voice died in his throat as the line kept ringing and echoed throughout the entire house.
"You know, I did have the thought just press that button to give the signal to kill both of them." Bren said to Tom, who looked like he was about to throw up. "But if fires that I wouldn't have anything left to hang over you after that, so I figured it was a bad choice. So as a treat, only one of them will die. And you will keep doing whatever I say, or the next time I press this button, it won't just ensure the death of your parents, but the entire Underworld as well. I'll make sure the entire dimension gets murdered that day."
Tom didn't even respond to this, still standing in place and remaining frozen in fear or shock. He had done everything Bren said, followers ever command, all to make sure that his parents remained safe and unharmed. And now that the day had finally come, when he had failed after all this time because he just couldn't keep his mouth shut, the shock that all the monstrous things he did was for nothing turned him into a statue of regret and grief.
Bren, however, giggled like a four year old when he realized this hilarious (to him) fact, and a second later, a loud, "Yes sir?" was heard coming from his device-phone, sounding like a tiger that had the vocal cords of a parrot.
"The prisoners." Bren said, while looking directly at Tom, who was shaking in his boots. "How are they?"
"They are still alive and being fed and watered, as per your instructions." The person on the other end said. "Wait, is it finally time sir?" They asked. "Time to show the prince the consequences of his errors?"
"Yes". Bren said enthusiastically. "First, I want you to kill-"
"WAIT!" Brudo blurted out, making Bren pause mid-sentence. "Don't." He pleaded. "Just...hold on, will you?"
Bren glanced at the device he was holding and then back at Brudo, as if contemplating whether to hear him out or not. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he gave another order into the device.
"Hold that thought." He said, and Tom couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief, although he was still as white as a sheet. "What is it Avarius? I'm kind of in the middle of something."
Brudo took a deep breath. There was no going back now. He still wasn't scared for himself anymore, but rather for someone else, maybe the first time this had happened since he was born. "Don't...kill his parents." He said. "Just listen for a second."
"Listen? Listen?!" Bren exclaimed. "Tell me, why should I listen? Hell, why am I even allowing you to talk right now?! This isn't your business. Tom disobeyed me, so I'm killing one of his parents. Stay out of it."
"No." Brudo said. "You're not going to do this."
"Why do you care?" Bren asked. "Since when have you genuinely cared about anyone that wasn't you? You don't like your family. You don't like your children. I don't even think you like your wife! You only stay here because you got a lot of room and that presents a lot of opportunities to be by yourself! Don't start acting like a selfless person for no reason, because it's not going to work. Especially when I know who you really are…"
Brudo winced as the Bren's words faded. He was right of course. This wasn't like him. To try and save someone else. He had only ever cared for his stickers and his own well-being. So why now? Why did he care for Tom's parents now? Right before he was about to die, something he had literally laughed at just a few minutes ago.
'Why?' He asked himself. 'What changed? What made me order him to stop? Have I really turned into a selfless person? Just like that?'
'You didn't turn selfless.' His conscience said, returning and sounding nothing like him. 'You're still the same cruel, apathetic, horrible person that you were an hour ago. Nothing has changed.'
'Then what-'
'Because you saw a potential method of escape.' It said to him. 'You believe that if you could confuse Bren and Tom long enough, you might be able to flee and survive to lie another day. That's all it is. That's all it was.'
'That rant I did earlier?' He suggested.
'Yes, that was part of it.'
'Me laughing and not being afraid to die?'
'Again, yes. And you were afraid to die. You just didn't show it at that moment. Or were not entirely aware of it.'
'So you're saying…' Brudo thought. 'That it was all faked? That none of what I did made me different at all? I'm still the exact same person?'
'Haven't changed a bit.'
'How are you so sure?' He asked, doubting the voice in his head that he was pretty sure wasn't even there.
'Because...I am you?' His conscience said, sounding confused. 'You are literally talking to yourself here. Technically, I don't exist.'
'So...then that means...I'm still the same person I always was.' Brudo realized, putting on a face of defeat. 'Well then, only one thing to do.'
'Yes.' His conscience said. 'In the last few minutes of your life, you must try your hardest to become the best person you can be and-'
'What? No.' Brudo interrupted. 'If I'm going to always be this person, always a selfish person even when it seems like I'm caring towards others, then I'm going to embrace it. If I survive this, I'm going to spend the rest of my life caring and helping other people, but only if it's for my benefit in the end.'
'...While I agree with the first part of that plan, the end goal has a lot to be desired.' His conscience said, sounding rather unnerved by the whole thing. 'How about instead you-'
'Don't need it.' Brudo thought. 'Besides, what more could I learn from you that I don't already know? You said it yourself.' A small grin formed on the edges of Brudo's mouth. 'You're not even real.'
'...Touché.'
Brudo came back to the real world as he swiftly banished his conscience to the darkest corner of his mind. It was time to put a stop to this. He had no clue by this point whether he could die or not, but it was like he said earlier.
He really didn't care anymore.
"You want to know why I care about them?" He said to Bren. "Because maybe for once, I want to do the right thing. Maybe for once, I don't want to be a selfish piece of garbage that hates everyone he sees and wants to be alone with his stickers. Maybe for once, I-"
"Oh god, shut up." Bren said. "This is so out of character for you it's starting to make me gag. But fine." He threw his hands up in the air. "Try and be a hero Brudo. See how well it works out for you. Come and try to take the remote from me. You'll fail, but hey, that's what doing something gets you."
Brudo paused but didn't back down. He couldn't. Not yet. Not after all he had done.
"I'm not going to try and take it from you." He said. "I wouldn't be able to anyways. But I'm still going to try and reason with you."
"Do you realize how stupid you just sounded?" Bren asked him. "Reason with me? Seriously? If trying to reason with me worked, then I would have stopped doing all this a long time ago. Trust me, nothing you say can talk me out of finishing my end goal." He let the device fall to his side and gazed at Brudo with a fretted expression. "And once again, I know what you're thinking. That after all you said to me, all the insulting and cursing and whatnot, that you just have to keep going or else it'll all be for nothing. Well, that's what I'm thinking as well. I'm doing this for a reason that you couldn't even comprehend. For a reason that nobody in this entire worthless dimension would ever be capable of understanding. So I'm not backing down. Ever."
Nobody spoke after this. Not Brudo, not Bren, and not Tom. A faint dripping sound was all that was audible. They briefly seemed to observe each another, almost like equals, even if no one in existence (especially themselves) would consider them as such. Finally, Bren opened his mouth and spoke in a deadpan tone, sounding like he was tired of the whole situation.
"But…" He continued. "I see that you're not going to give up. You're not going to let Tom's parents die.'I don't know why, but you're not. And I can respect that, even if it's coming from you." He stared Brudo in the eyes, a glint buried deep within them. "But someone is going to be punished for this. So I have another idea. An idea where you can make the final call."
He glanced over at Tom. "Lucitor. Do what I told you to do earlier, and grab the smallest one you see."
Tom froze in place for a second but soon obeyed, knowing what was coming next was the only chance of both his parents surviving the day. He stepped further away from Brudo, raised his arms, and disappeared in a flash of fire.
"Where-where did you send him?" Brudo asked.
"Oh, someplace special." Bren said. He took a few steps towards Brudo, who refused to back away and stood his ground. Although it was plain to see that he was having a hard time doing that. "Brudo, what did I say earlier, when you asked me if all of this-" He raised his foot and crushed a stray eyeball that was lying on the ground. "-Was the remains of your family?"
"You...you said that it wasn't." Brudo replied, starting to get a bad feeling about what was coming next. "That they weren't here."
"That's right." Bren said. "And they're not here because I told them to go to that taco stand in the middle of town and wait there while I deal with their dear old dad. Of course, as you've probably guessed, I never planned for them to stay there forever. I made sure to put them somewhere easy to find, accessible, and inconspicuous. For Lucitors sake. Speaking of which…"
The tower of flame returned, having taken no more than a minute, and Brudo's eyes widened at the sight of Tom carrying little Zudo under his arms, who was busy trying to escape from the demons grip. He stopped when he realized where he was, only to scream at the top of his lungs upon seeing the gore and viscera covered room. He then spotted his father and began yelling at him frantically.
"Dad! What's going on? What did you do?! I thought you said that if we did that thing for you we would be safe! What's-"
"Quiet!" Bren yelled, no longer finding it funny. He approached the boy and eyed him up and down, as if he was a walking computer attempting to analyse something. "Zudo, eh? Hm. Not a bad choice. Lucitor, set him down."
Tom literally threw his arms apart and let Zudo drop to the floor like a rock, although he got to his feet a second later and desperately tried to wipe all the blood off his newly-stained clothes, babbling all the while. Bren motioned for Tom to grab Brudo, and did so before the Avarius lord could even react, snatching up both of his wrists and holding them behind his back. He then forced him to his knees while Bren strode over to Zudo, who froze in response.
"Hi." Bren said, standing over the terrified child.
"Um...hello." Zudo said shakily, remembering full well who Bren was, as well as the violent threats he made towards them if they didn't leave the house and go to that taco stand.
"You see your dad over there?" Bren asked, pointing toward Brudo.
"Y-yeah." Zudo replied. "What are you-"
"I just want you to know that what I'm about to do next is in no way your fault Zudo." Bren said reassuringly. "It's his. Recently your father has pissed me off with his antics, and since he apparently isn't afraid to die anymore for some stupid reason, I have to find another way to get him to do what I want."
Nobody moved for a split second.
"So yeah. Sorry about this." Bren said. And before Brudo or Zudo could even react, Bren reached forward and grabbed the child by the head before lifting him up into the air. Zudo screamed in terror and tried to get away from Bren, but his arms were too short to reach him.
"No! Let him go!" Brudo yelled. "Don't you dar-"
"Uh uh uh uh uh." Bren said, making the Avarius stop short. "Okay. Here's what's going to happen. Since you didn't want Tom's family to die, yours is going to have to take its place. Starting with this one." His finger tightened around Zudos skull, producing a faint cracking sound as the bone began to snap under the pressure.
"NO!" Brudo yelled. "Don't-"
"Then what did you want?!" Bren yelled at him. "I hate you, you know. I hate you for making me do this. I have standards. You want me to kill a few dozen racist, moronic adults? Fine. You want me to kill two teenagers that caused the destruction of the last of the parallel dimensions? Fine. But if you wanted me to kill an innocent child like this, with my bare hands, for no good reason other than the fact that you're stubborn, then I might have actually refused!"
"This is not what I wanted!" Brudo yelled. "I just didn't want Tom's parents to die!"
"And look where it got you." Bren hissed. "And I know. It must be surprising to hear me say something like that. To know that there are situations where I don't enjoy killing people and might even balk at the prospect. But everything I do is for a reason. And like I said, this…" He shook Zudo up and down like a dog with a chew toy. "...this is for no reason."
"Then put him down." Brudo pleaded. "Don't hurt him."
"Why should I?" Bren asked. "Because you asked me to? First you tell me not to kill Tom's parents, and now this? How many more people am I going to have to go through? How many more lives should I spare? Who lives, and who dies? Can you handle being the arbiter of that decision?!"
Brudo didn't respond. He couldn't think of any good response. He looked at Zudo's face, stricken with horror and pain with tears flowing down his cheeks like a waterfall. A face that knew death might be coming, and held a life that was in someone else's hands.
Brudo shook in place as Bren glowered at him, looking like he might explode with rage at any second. Again. And despite the fact that it wasn't even his own life at stake this time, he was more scared of what might happen now.
"Now." Bren growled. "You can do one of two things Brudo. One. You say that I can kill Tom's parents. I don't really need your permission, but since you were practically on your knees begging for them not to die, I want to hear you do the exact opposite to save Zudo's life, which brings us to option two. I kill Zudo, and both of Tom's parents will live. But no matter what, someone is going to die, and you get the honor of choosing. What matters more to you? A family you know nothing about, or the family you created but never really cared for?"
"I...I don't-"
"I'll give you ten seconds, how about that?." Bren suggested, although it wasn't really meant to be one. "And then I'm deciding for you and killing Zudo. So, without any further ado...TEN!"
"Hold on!" Brudo said, his heart rate increasing so fast that one would think he had just run a marathon. "I need you to-"
"NINE!"
"Let me go!" Zudo yelled futilely, still trying to get away from the hand that was clenched around his skull. His movements had become much more frantic and panicked, as he had a feeling his father wouldn't be able to decide before Bren hit zero. He had to break free now or he would die.
"EIGHT!"
Tom, meanwhile, stood in silence, wondering whether or not he should do anything. Just like Zudo, he was pretty sure that Bren would reach serious before the Avarius lord would make a decision, and therefore the boy in Bren's hand would die. But, if this happened, then both his parents would live. He was still recovering from the jolt of fear he was hit with earlier, when Bren pressed that button and started barking orders into his little device. So he was as eager as possible to keep them alive. Unfortunately, the conflicting feelings between saving them and trying to save Zudo were growing stronger, and started to become too much.
"SEVEN!"
But he knew what he had to do. What was necessary for keeping them demons clenched both his fists tightened as well as his teeth as he silently made his choice. If he spoke up, then Bren would kill one of his parents anyways. Nothing he could do to save Zudo would result in them staying alive. So he knew he had to keep his mouth shut, like he should have done earlier. And if Brudo actually made a choice and told Bren to kill either his mom or dad…...then he would make sure to tear Brudo a new one whether his "master" liked it or not.
"SIX!"
'Nonononononono!' Brudo thought, having trouble coming up with anything to say. 'What do I do?! I mean, obviously, I should save Zudo. He's just a child, my child, and has no part to play in this. Him-no, all of them are only involved in this mess because of me. I can't let him die.' Brudo then almost gagged on the spot, disgusted by how unselfish his thoughts were becoming. 'Gee, so much for only doing things for myself. But…'
"FIVE!"
'...If I say that one of the Lucitor monarchs should die, then I might be killed anyways.' He continued. 'I know that Bren has that demon on a leash like a trained dog. And that he might be grateful for me stopping the earlier execution. But if I change my mind now…'
"FOUR!"
'Then he might burn me out of anger! After all, it would be partially my fault. And since he wouldn't dare attack Bren because of the risk that his other parent would die, I would be the only choice. Although, at that point I think he'd be so overcome and blinded with rage and grief that he might go straight for Bren no matter what. Upon which I could grab Zudo and finally get out of here!'
"THREE!"
'Yes, that is the only option. That is what I will do, because Tom will attack Bren. I'm sure of it.' Brudo thought, nodding along with himself. 'Even a person as heartless as me was downtrodden when my parents died, so that demon would practically explode, and then I'll make my escape. Even though, technically, I was the one who killed them.' He then turned and looked at nothing, as if an invisible person was there watching him. 'Don't judge me! Most people would do anything to inherit that kind of fortune and you know you would too!'
"TWO!"
'Is this really happening?' Bren thought, a small part of his soul telling himself to stop the countdown and end this madness. 'Am I really going to kill this kid just like that?' I've killed so many times before now. Hell, this entire room is literally splattered with body parts from people that I slaughtered only a half-hour or so ago with my bare hands! But for some reason, this still doesn't feel right.'
"O-one."
'But why?' He contemplated, wondering what the reason was for him thinking about these things. Things that were so out of character for him. 'I don't care about this boy. I shouldn't care. He's nothing but a tool I'm using to get ahead. And compared to what I have planned for this entire damn town, crushing his head is pretty dull!' His concerned frown turned into a snarl as his grip stiffened and Zudo whined in pain, still trying to escape. 'I can't give up now! This isn't what they would want. They wouldn't want you to give up! So you can't! You are the last of your kind! There's no room for weakness! And now…it's already too late.'
"ZERO!" He shrieked, knocking Tom and Brudo out of their thoughts. Zudo's face became transfixed with terror as he felt Bren move his hand muscles and prepare to deal the killing blow. But before he could end his existence, a final cry of hope for the boy's life was heard.
"WAIT!" Brudo yelled for perhaps the fifth time. "I've made my decision!"
Time seemed to stop as he said this, and Bren slowly turned his head away from Zudo and looked at the person who he hadn't truly expected to respond. But being Bren, he knew that this might lead to another opportunity. One that he had been thinking of ever since Tom had come back with Brudo…
"Oh?" He said, his voice sounding like thunder compared to the death silence coming from the rest of the house. "Alright then. Which is it Brudo? Who am I killing? Your son or one of Tom's parents?"
Brudo inhaled sharply and then responded. "O-one of Tom's parents. That's who you should kill. Just let Zudo go."
Silence.
And then the Avarius Lord felt a hand grab him by the back of his hair and he shrieked in pain. He didn't even have to ask who it was. He started panicking and tried to escape, but it was no use. Tom's grip was like it on and fueled by rage. This was not how it was supposed to go. This was not how it was supposed to go at all. But the demon, feeling utterly betrayed that Brudo had chosen to let his family die right after he had tried to save them, felt nothing but a desire to kill the old royal.
He then felt the remain hand yank him backward and flip him head over heels, and he landed flat in his face, the now partially-blood staining his clothes and rippling around him in waves. The back of Tom's shoe landed flat on his back and crushed him against the floor, and soon he was pressing his foot down so hard that it felt like it would go straight through this chest. And just when it felt like it actually would, a loud voice interrupted them all.
"Wait!" Bren yelled, momentarily snapping Tom out of his hate-filled outburst. The demon turned his head three hundred sixty degrees and glared at Bren, who had set a trembling Zudo down on the floor a moment earlier and was now approaching the pair, shaking the device in his hands as if to remind him that he was still in control here.
"Don't kill him. I need him alive. For now." He said. "Lucitor, let him go."
"..."
"LET HIM GO!"
The demon scoffed but relented and took his boot off of Brudo's back, making him groan in agony. He walked past Bren and headed back to the corner where he once was, breathing heavily and growling like a rabid dog.
"Stay there until I have a use for you." Bren ordered, before kneeling down over the pained old royal and sighing.
"What a shame." He said. "If you hadn't said anything, this might have actually played out in your favor. But I suppose that the "new" selfless you or whatever couldn't help itself."
"Can...you blame me?" Brudo choked out, spitting some blood into the floor where it mixed with the rest. "Even if I'm pretending to be selfless-"
"Pretending?"
"Doesn't matter." Brudo said, hoping to play it off. "But even if I am, I have my limits. And even if I saved Tom's parents from dying earlier, that doesn't mean i'd do it again if-"
"That's not it." Bren interjected.
"What?"
"That's not it." He repeated. "That's not what you were thinking when you told me to kill one of the Lucitors. You were planning something, weren't you?"
The look that crossed Brudo's face after this told Bren that he was correct. He grinned in response, but it soon faded back into a frown.
"I don't blame you." He said. "Also, I don't even care what it is. I assume it had something to do with Tom? Like maybe you were hoping he would attack me after I gave the order to kill his parents and not right after you said that that was okay with you."
"..."
"Wait, seriously? That was really your plan?" Bren asked, visibly surprised that Brudo had come up with that all on his own. "I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or impressed…"
"Can we just skip to the end of this?" Brudo groaned, feeling older by the second. "Are you going to kill Tom's parents or did my decision not even matter?"
"I don't think I am, if only because I was still salty over you insulting me all those times earlier and it gave me great amusement to see him beat you into the ground like that." Bren said. "Hear that Tom? It's your lucky day! You going berserk actually saved your folks lives."
If Tom made any sort of response to this, Brudo didn't see or hear it. Instead, his gaze shifted toward Zudo, who was leaning up against a wall and standing on his toes, trying to get as far away from all the blood as possible. Bren caught his eye and sighed.
"Let me guess. You think I'm going to kill Zudo now that I'm no longer killing Tom's parents. Fortunately for him, not the case. If I really wanted to end his life back there, he'd be dead. But now...since those two options are off the table…"
Brudo knew where this was going. This was finally it. Maybe. Possibly? He would have to wait and see how things played out. By this point, attempting to predict what might come next would likely result in the exact opposite happening.
"I have decided that I'm not going to kill anyone here but you Brudo." Bren said, to no one's surprise. "Something I suppose I should have just done from the beginning. But no matter how many chances you gave me, I foolishly refused time and time again." Bren's eyes then turned once again shifted color, with one eye staying the usual burning orange while the other turned into a lush green, making it look like he had heterochromia. "And thus, you made me do and say a few things that I'd rather not repeat."
"I didn't want to scream or go psycho on you like that earlier. I didn't want to threaten your child's life right in front of you. Surprising as it may seem, even I have standards. And as I held Zudo's head in my hands while he pleaded for his life…" He paused and his organs pupil was split in half, now replaced by a half-green, half-orange one. As small of a detail it was, it was a fascinating thing to witness, even if nobody that saw it could make heads or tails of what it meant. "...A small part of myself told me to stop. It told me that what I was doing wasn't right. That if I did this, there was truly no going back. And guess what Brudo?"
Bren took a deep breath and stride towards the Avarius patriarch, although there was no malice in his gaunt, no hostility, nothing at all about his posture that informed Brudo that he was about to be attacked.
Once he got within arms reach, he stopped and the two stared each down. They both looked deep into the eyes of the person opposite to them, as if they were studying a painting. Brudo's were still yellow and filled with a general hatred for the world around him, while the two colors that made up Bren's split eye were starting to merge together, forming a murky brown. Bren himself seemed to be unaware of this for the time being, while Brudo was still lost as to what it could mean. Not that it mattered to him. He ha-
"I almost did." Bren finally said, derailing Brudo's thought train. "I almost stopped, if only for a second. For one small, infinitely short second…" He put his index finger up in the air to enunciate his point. "I really considered putting him down and letting all this go. I don't know why. Mercy isn't something I like to show, as I'm sure you've guessed by now. Maybe only to the most loyal people for the smallest of mistakes. Or those who I know won't betray me for fear of what might happen, so their punishment instead goes to the people that they care for…"
He glanced over at Tom, who shifted nervously under his multi-colored gaze.
"But...I didn't." He sighed, looking back at the person he had given a death sentence to before turning his back to him. "I refused to stop. Because I knew that if I stopped now, it would all be for nothing." He swiveled around and outspread his arms, gesturing toward the entire blood-soaked foyer. "My plans...the people I've killed…and the dimension I lost...it would all be for naught. I couldn't have that. There...was no room for weakness. Not in me. Not in him." He pointed at Tom. "Not in anyone. These people. Mina's posse. They were weak. Naive. They didn't see what was right in front of them until it was far too late. It's the same thing that everyone should see."
He cleared his throat like a person about to deliver an important announcement.
"That no matter what you do, that no matter how hard you hope, or try, or pray, there will always be a point in your life where you will be completely and utterly outclassed. A point where you can't do anything to stop what's coming next. And...in my personal opinion...the only thing you can do at that point is to give up and let it run its course."
He walked back over to Brudo's chair, shuddered, and grabbed another head from behind it, holding it up and displaying it to all present like a MVP holding up a trophy.
"They didn't understand that." He said. "They thought they could keep fighting and everything would turn out okay. Even when I tore them to pieces like so many others, the few that weren't frozen in terror still tried to fight back, instead of attempting to flee like they should have." He sighed. "Even if it was futile to try such a thing. But now, their ignorant, pitiful, and despicable souls join the rest in Limbo. Or Hell. They probably went to Hell."
"What are you trying to say?" Brudo asked, not sure if he was getting the full picture.
"Who knows…" Bren replies, dropping the head he was holding and letting it fall to the floor. "Maybe I'm rambling on like I always do. Because you know, you were right earlier. All those things you said about me...it was the truth. Because just like they couldn't see that they had lost after I burned Mina alive…"
He turned once again and gestured towards the demon in the room who had been listening to his monologue with apt attention ever since Bren's eyes shifted in ways that no normal eyes should.
"...and just like he knows he's outclassed by me when I have this device…" Bren continued, before taking a seat in the armchair and resting his hand on his forehead.
"...there's something that I couldn't beat. Something that even I couldn't possibly hope to stop. And that thing...is myself."
Everybody in the room tilted their head at this, even Tom, as this little piece of information was news to him as it was to Zudo and his father. They all waited for Bren to speak again unsure if what to make of this.
"Because Brudo, as I'm sure you saw, when my emotions get out of control, my eyes react accordingly. If I get made, they glow. If I get depressed or sad or something along those lines...that glow fades. And if I lose control, if the person I used to be manages to fight their way to the surface, it changes to how they originally were. Green."
Bren's head then dropped, obscuring his face from view.
"That person is the only one that has eluded me. The only one that I have never been able to destroy. No matter how hard I try, I can't get to them. But they can certainly get to me. It's like a loathsome parasite, latching onto my soul and feeding off my emotions. They whisper, they scream, and they beg. Sometimes for days at a time. Pleading for me to stop thinking about revenge and just...forget about it."
Bren then rotated his gaze skyward (or ceilingward in this case), and for a moment, Brudo thought he could see a single glistening tear coming from his split eye, something that he had never seen Bren do and something he never thought he'd do.
"But I won't forget. It's already too late for that nonsense." He said, his hands gripping the sides of the chair. "Like I said earlier, stopping would mean making all of it pointless. And so...I have to keep moving forward. Day after day...hour after hour...year after year..and maybe when Star is finally dead, and when this dimension is a pile of ash, I'll let the other guy come out, and he can see what I have wrought."
"And he can see...just how beautiful it all is."
After he said this, the tear that was in the edge of his eye slowly slid down his cheek and fell onto the ground below, making a noise so soft and gentle that nobody should have been able to hear it, but they all did anyways. All four of them, deafened by the sound.
And then the silence that came afterward was just as beautiful as Bren's vision of a world consumed by fire.
Unfortunately however, the moment did not last.
"So what?" Brudo asked, crossing his arms. "Am I supposed to feel sorry for you now because of this? Is that it?"
"No. No, I don't need you to feel sorry for me." Bren said. "I can do that myself if the need arises."
"Then what was the point of telling me all that? What was the point of telling any of us?"
"Maybe I felt that somebody just needed to know." Bren said with uncertainty. "Or maybe I felt that you deserved to know for whatever reason. Considering you'll be dead soon."
"Dead?" Brudo said, before huffing. "Is it for real this time? Because at this point, I still have no idea whether you still want to kill me or not. It's been back and forth ever since I arrived."
"The plan was to kill you from the start." Bren said. "And then you made me reconsider after your little rant, because if I did it out of anger I would be doing nothing but proving your point. But now...I don't really care if your point is proven. I'm not doing it out of anger anymore. I'm doing it because I want this thing to end already. It's gone on for too long, and now, I'm bringing it to a close. With this, the day will end. This day...a day that nobody will forget."
Brudo nodded and silently accepted his fate. It was like Bren said. This was going to happen from the start. With the way things had gone, it was always inevitable. He summoned up all the willpower he had to switch his mood back to the person from earlier, a person didn't care if Bren killed him or not. It only felt right to die as someone he wasn't, after everything.
And so he gave up for one last time.
And in that moment, the lord Brudo that once was ceased to exist. And in its place, a Marco-esque shell of a man, broken and apathetic as anyone ever was.
"Then do it already." He told Bren. "Just get it over with already so we can end this dismal affair."
"All in due time." Bren said. "But I'm not going to kill you like that. You're going out with a bang. Lucitor, go get it and start setting it up. We're done here."
Tom stopped learning against the wall at this order and briefly walked into the shadows, before dragging out a large crate made of metal. He grabbed the top off of it and threw it to the floor with a loud CLANG, before taking out a large barrel, a line of wire, and a few other things that Brudo's didn't recognize.
Bren then looked at Zudo, who didn't know what to make of the whole situation anymore.
"Go. Get out of here." He told him. "You're not needed anymore. But if you tell anybody about what you heard here, then next time I will kill you."
Zudo paused before taking the opportunity and sprinted for the door. Brudo didn't even glance at him as he opened it, ran out, and slammed it behind him, no doubt going back to the safety of his siblings.
Bren sighed. "Honestly, I'm glad I didn't have to kill him. He seems like a good kid. And before you make a note on all the stuff from earlier when I said "no room for weakness", don't worry. He'll probably perish in the end anyways…"
"What is this?" Brudo asked, ignoring Bren's comments on his son and focusing all his attention on what Tom was setting up. "Is this what you meant when you said "go out with a bang?""
"It is." Bren said. "You see that barrel? It's filled with the same material that I killed Mina with. Extremely flammable, and explosive if contained in large amounts. The wire is a simple tripwire connected to something that'll ignite a spark…and I'm sure you can guess what comes after that."
"I see." Brudo said. "How big of an explosion will it make?"
"Wow, you don't really care, do you?" Bren noticed. "I can't say I blame you. If I was in this your position,
with no hope of escape in the face of an inescapable death, I would give up too. I suspect that most people wouldn't, but I guess people like us, the ones who don't care, we're not like that. Almost makes me have a bit of respect for you."
"How. Big. Is. The. Explosion." Brudo repeated, pausing between each word.
"Big enough that everything within a block of this mansion will be demolished." Bren said. "I spent a longtime on making that substance as powerful as possible. With this, the town will once again be thrown into disarray. I imagine the death toll alone will cause riots for something to be done. And the best part is that it's coming right after that speech Butterfly made this morning. Everything she said and convinced them to do will be reversed when they're terrified that I can strike at any time."
"Very impressive." Brudo said, not caring as he knew that the taco stand that contained his family was not within a block of the mansion. Hopefully Zudo could get clear in time. But besides these little internal emotions, Brudo didn't show any emotion, something that Bren took notice of, and almost seems to admire.
"Hm. You know, as out of character as it is for you, I'm glad to see that you no longer care." He said. "It'll make everything for you a lot easier. Now, you can stand wherever you want. When the police arrive after Rafael tells them everything, they'll rush to arrest you, trip on the wire, and boom. Your story ends, as well as theirs."
Brudo didn't even bother asking how Rafael had escaped, nor how he knew about him being the ringleader, or even how Bren knew about any of that in the first place. Not just because of his newfound (sorta) and possibly permanent apathetic attitude, but also because at this point it was less confusing to simply listen than to ask and become even more confused.
"But...I'd recommend sitting in your armchairs. I'll place that wire in front of it for you. All the blood should have been dried by now, so you don't have to worry about that."
If Brudo was concerned about this in the slightest, he didn't show it, and instead casually walked past Bren and sat down. It was extremely uncomfortable, and smelled like it was made of rusty copper.
But it was still familiar.
"Great." Bren said, seeing that Brudo had resigned it his fate and settled in. Soon after he said this he began to hear sirens in the distance. It was time. "Lucitor. Are you finished? Say yes or no."
"Yes." Tom said, having completed his task only a second ago. Like Brudo and Bren, he too had been hit with a wave of apathy, the unfortunate aftereffect of all the fear he crumbled beneath after the close call with his parents. Any interest he had for the safety of the Avarius Lord faded when he made the choice over which life Bren should take, and just like his master's eye (which was still a dark merged brown), those two things had fused together and created a feeling that was the metaphysical manifestation of "I don't give a damn."
The day had taken its toll on all of them.
"Good, good." Bren said. "Prepare to teleport us the hell out of here. I still have a few closing words I'd like to have with our Avarius friend."
Bren took a short stroll over to his Avarius "friend", and looked over him. Brudo's response was to stare him in the eyes again, which hadn't changed color since the last time. He began to wonder if he should tell him about his split eye, but figured that if Bren hadn't noticed by this point, then there was no point in doing so.
"Looks like this is goodbye Brudo." Bren declared. "I'll make this quick, as I'm sure that as you've heard, the police are already on their way. I'm kind of surprised that they didn't arrive sooner, but hey, more quality time between us."
He loudly cleared his throat and sighed. "Brudo. You were a real pain in the ass. But the partnership between us, however brief it was, I enjoyed. I had hoped that you would live to see the end result of my plan, but sadly, I suppose you couldn't let that happen. It's a shame too. I would have let you and your family go live freely and peacefully in some other dimension. I thought I would be happy to tear you to shreds, especially earlier when you insulted me like that."
He put his hand on his shoulder. "But seeing you the way you are now...having given up on everything and any hope of escape, I don't think I hate you anymore. You're an odd one. I thought I knew you. The kind of person you were. But after all that I've seen in the last half-hour, I guess I didn't really know you at all. You could be twenty different types of people if you wanted to. A fearless person. A selfless person. A person indifferent to everything around them. So many roles you played, all in an attempt to escape, or trick, or any number of things."
Bren then leaned back and started to walk over to Tom. "What I'm trying to say is that it sucks that you have to die Brudo. But some things are unavoidable. You were an unbelievable asshole your whole life, and you waited until it was a bit too late to try and reform. Oh, and as for your family, don't worry. I won't hurt any of them. Not even if Zudo tells the police and Eclipsa what he heard here. About me. About me having Tom's parents. About any of it. Sure, it'll make things harder down the line, but I enjoy a good challenge."
He took one last step toward Tom and looked back at the chair, who's occupant had hardly moved during his speech.
"Goodbye Avarius." He said. "I'll make sure to take full responsibility for everything. Consider it a last gift. Making sure that whatever reputation you have is upheld."
And with that, Tom raised his arms, and they were gone in a puff of smoke.
And Brudo? He looked down at the wire, and contemplated over why Bren had given him the chance to escape. The door was right there. He could easily get out now.
But he didn't.
Instead he sat, and he waited.
Waited for the ones who would release him from this predestined existence.
A dozen or so police cars swerved and screeched as they shot down the road like a group of rabbits, all moving in one giant unit. Accompanying this miniature car brigade were several warnicorns with fully armored knights riding on top of them, specifically the same knights who had been, as Eclipsa put it, "blind drunk" during the demon attack but had helped out nonetheless. Two of them were missing however. Higgs and Sir Stabby were not among their ranks, as they were currently down at the monster section of town, restoring order after a small riot was incited because of a claim that stated that a "super secret monster freedom fighter group" was actually now under the control of Bren.
And at the current moment, the two knights couldn't possibly know how lucky they were to be there, instead of assisting in the raid on Avarius mansion.
And, someone, despite riding warnicorns, they were able to keep up just fine with the police, despite said police going at over twice the speed limit. It was like a race to see who could get to the mansion first, and by the way things looked, that race would likely end in a tight draw.
But none of them were thinking of this as a race. They all knew what they had to do; what the target was right now. And as much as they didn't want to believe it, Lord Brudo Avarius, giver of free money, was now an enemy of Earthni. And he had to be stopped. By them. Their orders were to capture him, but also to use lethal force against the followers of Mina if absolutely necessary. Because they were the kind of people who would never listen to what the other side had to say. There was simply no negotiating with them.
Although the first order they had was "attempt a negotiation. Loudly."
There. A minute or so later, the mansion came into their sights. Tall and imposing, the gigantic stones that made it up seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, almost like it had glitter sticking to it. They all came to a halt directly in front of the gate, with the police jumping out of their cars and the knights dismounting their warnicorns in unison.
The leading officer, a sergeant, got a loudspeaker and spoke through it, their voice audible halfway across town.
"THIS IS THE POLICE!" He shouted. "WE KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP AND WE CAN HANDLE THIS PEACEFULLY!"
No response. They waited for approximately sixty seconds, but no one came out, leading to an rather awkward silence.
"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" He repeated. "WE WILL NOT ASK AGAIN! THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE!"
When another minute passed by with still no response from the people (person) inside, the sergeant decided that enough was enough. The mayor had ordered them to take care of this as fast as possible, so that's exactly what they were going to do. He tossed the microphone aside and turned around, motioning to the three swat teams and multiple knights behind him, who he had been given tactical command of.
"Here's the plan." He announced, pointing to two of the swat team. "You two go around each side of the mansion and cover any escape routes. If someone tries to get out, restrain them first, ask questions later." He then focused his attention on the remaining team and the knights. "All of you are with me. We're going straight in through the front. Based on the info the mayor gave us, we can assume that everyone inside will be immediately hostile toward us, so as soon as we step in those doors, shoot or slash to disable, not kill. Got it?"
There was murmur of "yes sirs" and "understood."
"Good. Now get ready. I know none of you want to do this. We all know the good Brudo did for the town by giving us all that money. But we have no choice. This is it. We take them out here. Now move out!"
After this order, the entire group rushed forward, with the knights flanking the police on both sides like a shield. Although hardly any shield like this was necessary. Every single human and Mewman that made up the group was covered from head to toe in thin but insanely strong body armor that even a blast from a shotgun couldn't break through. A beautiful combination of Earth and Mewni armor.
Not that the "beautiful combination" would help them that much.
They reached the door and took positions. Every other officer in the area got ready in case the convicts inside attempted to flee, which they all assumed they would.
"One…" The sergeant said, beginning a countdown once he had made a quick confirmation on his walkie talkie that the other two teams were in positions.
"Two…"
They all tensed up and got ready to rush in.
"Three!"
He kicked in the door, and they all moved forward as one coherent unit.
"Police!" He yelled. "Get down on the-OH MY GOD!"
This rather appropriate reaction came from the sergeant going in first and seeing what Bren had made of the foyer. The same horrible sight that Brudo and Zudo had seen. A blood soaked, gory mess that used to be living, breathing people. Although most of it was dry by now, it was plainly obvious what was coating literally every surface in the room. Just the smell made it crystal clear.
All of them, even the knights, froze in place at the sight of the viscera covered room. One officer even tore off his helmet and ran outside to vomit in an insane breach of protocol.
But then they saw who was sitting in the middle of it all. Their target. Lord Brudo. Wearing an expression that looked like he had been waiting for them to arrive for a good long while.
Everyone (except the officer who ran outside) stood there, shocked to silence by what they saw. The realization that this red mess had been people once was a terrible thing to think about, and they fought back the urge to vomit, lest they suffer the same fate as the officer who had just fled.
But.
There was no time to dwell on who all these remains belonged to. That was for forensics. They had their own job to do. And they had been trained to react calmly and rationally in these sorts of situations. (Even if it was really hard to do in a literal slaughterhouse.) they had their target. The enemy was right in front of them. Waiting. Without any sort of weapon, and making no attempts at escape.
It was time. They had to do their duty as best they saw it.
"H-hands up Avarius!" The sergeant said, pointing his machine gun at Brudo's forehead, who didn't response beyond sinking further into his chair and giving them a look that said "get it over with already."
"Hands up!" He repeated. But Brudo stayed still.
'Alright.' The sergeant thought. 'Playtime's over.' He took a step forward. No more cowering like children from the bloodbath in front of them. The target was not cooperating, so the only option left was to take him in by force.
"Move forward and restrain him." The sergeant said to the others. "That's an order."
All the swat team members and the knights gulped reflexively and in unison, but didn't disobey. They speed-walked over to the Avarius Lord, ignoring the crunching of the scabbed floor beneath their feet. They all silently reminded themselves to take a shirt with a few hundred gallons of disinfectant after all this was over. It was either that, or setting themselves on fire. None of them think of any better way to make sure that they didn't catch a million different diseases by walking around in this.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity they were within a few feet of Brudo. The sergeant pulled out a pair of handcuffs and prepared to grab the Lord and finally arrest him. But as he took one final step forward, he suddenly felt something tugging at his ankle. Something thin and made of metal.
He paused, looked down, and with a expression of complete petrification, he saw the wire that Bren had Tom place earlier, stretching and straining as he pushed his leg against it. The others behind him didn't even realize why he had stopped at first until they heard the wire snap and their gaze went towards a barrel in the corner of the foyer, half hidden by the shadows. Just like their superior, their eyes widened even more as a small light appeared above the barrel, the spark that was to ignite the fluid inside.
The sergeant blinked.
Brudo sighed.
And then, like it was signaling a new day, a miniature sun erupted over the horizon.
It all happened so fast.
The second the barrel full of Bren's flammable and explosive formula has been set on fire, it detonated with all the force and power of a hellfire missile, only it was much more powerful and deadly.
In an instant, the sergeant, the swat team, the knights, and Brudo himself, almost smiling perhaps, were vaporized. The explosion then decimated the entire mansion a moment later, the fireball that it had unleashed quickly consuming the other two teams and the dozens of police officers waiting outside. The only mercy granted to them by this was that it was a quick death, at the cost of it being one that wouldn't leave anything behind to bury. Nobody had died a good death that day, and the cycle was bound to continue.
Unfortunately however, this was only the first of many horrors yet to come. Milliseconds after the police had been erased from existence, the wall of flames shot outward and expanded into the main town, overtaking the streets and killing the dozens of civilians standing nearby, who had gathered together after wondering why a dozen police cars had parked outside Avarius mansion. The few that had driving by or watching from their own cars were briefly cooked alive before perishing brutally as the heat melted the metal shell that surrounded them, akin to being in a giant oven.
Every building suffered as well, not just people or the various vehicles nearby. Entire structures collapsed as the sheer weight of the blast slammed into them, crushing anyone inside and causing further destruction. This continued for an entire block away from the epicenter, just like Bren promised it would. Hundreds were killed in only a few seconds as the makeshift bomb finally reached its full potential.
But it was far from over. The shockwave from the blast carried itself over the town and shattered windows a mile away, creating a whirlwind of sharpened glass that resulted in thousands of cuts and other injuries. Tree were topped and trucks were tipped over as it hit every square inch of Earthni, ensuring that Bren's final plan to destroy Brudo was exclusive to no one. The roar of the explosion nearly deafened half the town, clocking in at over 150 decibels.
After the shockwave had subsided, there was still one more thing left in store for the remaining victims of this calamity. The gigantic stones that had made up Avarius mansion were sent flying in all directions by the bomb, and came back down with ill results. At the Diazes house, Eclipsa and Rafael had just finished recovering from the the initial panic attack they had after the detonation when one of these giant rocks smashed into Eclipsa's car parked outside, obliterating it beyond repair and causing them both to scream in terror.
But others weren't so lucky as to only lose a car. Houses collapsed in on themselves as the destructive rock rain fell like a meteor shower on top of them, creating massive explosions of splitters and bricks that tore through everything in sight. At least a hundred more died in the final consequence of the blast, nothing more but collateral damage.
And then, once the last stone had dropped, all went quiet. The dust settled, and everyone got up from where they had fallen. All that was left of Avarius mansion and everything around it was a smoldering crater, and the townsfolk remained silent as they saw what had come to pass.
But soon they found their voices.
And then the screams of horror and pain, of grief and anguish, and of shock and disbelief began. Ringing through the air, the collective screech being almost as loud as the explosion itself. Nobody knew why this had happened, but one thing was abundantly clear.
As long as their enemy continued to survive, things would never be good, and they would never be safe from his wrath.
Not if they fought him for a million years more.
End chapter 19
A/N: Yup. They're all dead. Just like that. All the knights except for Higgs and Stabby, Brudo, the entire police force, and of course, hundreds of unnamed people. This is what the demon attack would have been if everyone wasn't at the mansion. Just pure death all around, with innocents getting killed left and right. I hope the explosion scene was well written, along with everything else. This was one hell of a chapter to write.
I don't think they'll get this long again though, at the very least, from now on there will be a shorter wait. Sorry for taking a month, but everything going on in my life combined with the anxiety from wanting (needing?) to finish these chapters is making things harder so I hope you all understand.
So...until next time.
