Aflame
Chapter 20
Meeting madness, part 3
…
Typed recording #21359
Date: 6/8/19
Emergency Mewnian high council meeting #4. Total meeting number overall: 59.
Reason for emergency meeting: Dealing with the aftermath of the large explosion that consumed a portion of the town and caused the deaths of an estimated 794 humans, Mewmans, and monsters. (Total death count still in effect, due to change.)
Secondary reason: None.
Members present based on location and/or position:
…
Everyone.
(Except for the Lucitor family, who's fate is now known and will be explained during the meeting, as explained by Queen Eclipsa to me (Shawn) beforehand.)
(Also Moon and River Butterfly, who are currently visiting their daughter Star Butterfly in the hospital, a fact unbeknownst to the other royals.)
The meeting has now begun.
There was a grim silence in the air as the Mewnian Royals that made up the High Council shuffled into their meeting room, a large piece of cardboard placed over the nearby broken window, and heavily armed guards lining the entire room as well as the inside and outside of the building, make security more tight than it ever had been.
A necessary precaution. Not a single one of them wanted a repeat of the last meeting. There were still bloodstains on the pavement below from where Tom had pushed that unfortunate guard out the window. A dismal affair, if anything. And now they were back. In the same old hellish room. As per usual, they all loathed being here, but didn't complain. Like the last meeting, this was an emergency one, only much more important. Outside, fires were still being put out on the very outskirts of the town, the results of flaming ash coming down like snow and setting numerous things ablaze.
Just another reminder of why they needed to be here. They sat down in their chairs, the furniture squeaking and sliding against the newly waxed floors. Nobody paid it any mind. Nobody could possibly find it within themselves to care about something so meager and unimportant as chairs. Not even if they had spikes lining them would they notice. Their minds were filled to the brink with thoughts, all of them worrisome and negative. They had no idea what was going on. All they knew was that Avarius mansion had been blown up, Bren was almost certainly the cause (like most bad things nowadays), and that the entire town was going to shit.
But other than that, they were in the dark. About Brudo, about the fate of the knights and the now extinct police department, and most certainly about the fire god and what it did to Star and Marco. (And they didn't even know the fire-god existed at this time.) But they already knew that whatever was coming next, it was going to be one hell of a conversation.
So they sat, and they waited. It was so quiet that a person could hear a pin drop.
One second passed by.
Then two.
Then three.
And then four.
And after a full minute had passed with nobody saying a word, Eclipsa began to wonder if she should speak first.
Naturally, it was tradition for her to start these things off, as she was the one that brought them together. But after yesterday's events, she felt it would be better to let someone else have the first word. Obviously, she was mistaken. Every eye was on her, begging for answers. Every kingdom had lost people that day. The Jaggy's, the Johansen's, the Waterfolk, even the damn Pigeon kingdom had roughly fourteen of their civilians turned into fried chicken by the blast. They had been sitting in a nearby power wire, and the only reason anyone was aware of these deaths at all was that there were originally fifteen of them, and one someone to weakly fly back to Rich's castle and give him the news, before collapsing.
As if it needed reporting…
But said Pigeon was placed into critical care at the Echo creek hospital, as anything their fellow birds could provide them with was completely inferior to Earth medicine. He was one of the lucky ones. He had been taken to the hospital first, an advantage of the ones transporting him there having wings. A thousands other innocents later, and the beds were full and everyone else had to be driven to the next town over. Ten more people died during that time, and more were likely to follow. Some of the injuries that had been inflicted on the townspeople were just too much.
Eclipsa herself had gone outside the first chance she got, moving faster than she had ever gone in years. She had tried to get to the epicenter of the blast to see what it was, what had caused it. She didn't get close. Giants fires still raged and incinerated anyone that tried to get near the crater, so that wasn't an option. But she saw enough. Dust covering the air like a thick mist, invading her lungs and making her feel like someone was pouring liquid concrete down her throat. She had to get out of it. Get away from it. That was what her brain had been screaming at her at that moment. To get away. Away from it all.
So she did. In a moment of selfishness for her people, she ran back to the Monster Temple, which was high up enough that the worst of the dust cloud and the fires didn't reach it. She simply took a seat on one of the many steps leading up to it, a shell-shocked expression on her face. Even if she had spent no more than five minutes down there, it had been enough. The horrors she had seen...the wounded and dying people, crowding the streets like a mob of zombies, nothing but shadows slowly moving by in the distance.. The cries of mercy, both for help and for someone to put them out of their misery, sounding akin to dying animals. And the dead? Oh the dead. Dozens of bodies littering the streets. So badly burned or managed that it was impossible to identify them. And she had seen it. She had seen them all.
Later that night, she didn't dare try to sleep, as she knew that the nightmares would keep her up anyways. Not that she was the only one. Nobody in town slept a wink that night. How could they? Just like Bren had predicted, everyone was terrified that another attack could strike at any time. Several people had already left town out of fear for their safety, bringing its total population to an even lower number. Where they had gone was anyone's guess, but it had to be far, far away from here. And who could blame them? After what had happened, Eclipsa herself was tempted to simply get up and get as far away as possible.
That is, of course, if her car hadn't been flattened by a giant flying rock. The Diazes driveway would unfortunately be unusable for the moment, as one crushed car and a broken driveway was not high on the list of necessary damage control.
Although...that list was ambiguous. After the safety of
the people was secured, nobody knew where to even start. The fire department had put out most of the fires, and cleared away rubble that was in their way, but that was as far as it went at the moment. The survivors whose homes were decimated in the blast were all moved to the town community center as a temporary place to live. None of them complained. Frankly, most of them were simply happy to be alive, unlike so many of their peers.
But what had they done? What had been accomplished in the 19 hours since a tenth of the town was destroyed? They had stopped the fires. Saved some lives. And cleared the bodies. Nothing else. An ever present cloud of dust and smoke still hung in the air, blocking out the sun and making it seem like late evening rather than the middle of the day. Nothing but another grim reminder of the calamity that had befell them, which there were so many of. The work to get all the corpses off the streets, something that the Mayor had made paramount, carried on deep into the night, and by morning every single person who had died was collected.
Well, those who were still in one or two pieces anyways. Which wasn't that high of a number. That little cleanup might take weeks to finish, if not months. Obviously, they were a bit short on volunteers at the moment.
And after over twelve hours of giving orders, running around, receiving calls, and reviewing all the damage, Eclipsa and the Mayor were burned out. But they didn't stop. The Mayor had pinched himself so many times that there was a small scab on his arm, while Eclipsa took to drinking coffee that was fresh out of the pot, using the pain and intense burning sensation to jolt herself awake. Globgor had called her in a panic, pleading with her to sit down and relax for a few minutes. She ignored this. She had to keep going. And it was more than just "it's my duty as Queen." It was because Eclipsa knew that this could ruin everything.
The town was already nearing the breaking point after the demon attack. Even after the speech that Star had made, there was still much complaining and grumbling. Now those effects would be worsened tenfold. Once the initial shock of what had happened wore off, the townspeople would be out for blood. They'd want someone's head on a stake by the end of the day, and Eclipsa also knew that it wouldn't be Bren's unless he allowed himself to be captured.
And Bren wouldn't take the full blame here unless they convinced them otherwise. That was going to fall upon Eclipsa and/or the mayor, for letting this happen and failing to protect Earthni. Riots would ensue. The streets would once again run red with blood as the pressure that had been building up inside the citizens exploded in a truly catastrophic and epic way.
This could be the end of Earthni. A vision of her and her family being dragged out of the monster temple and executed in front of it flashed through Eclipsa's mind. By an out of control and vengeful townsfolk, destroying anything they got their hands on. This world...their world...that they had fought for so long to protect…...nothing but a lost cause. The military would be sent in, with lethal force authorized, and every last one of them…
Gone.
Wiped out. Completely and utterly destroyed. By then, anything who saw that this wasn't right would already be dead. Torn apart by the ones who had gone blind with such rage that they were nothing but animals. Less than animals. A force of nature, fueled by pure vengeance. And at that point, the person they used to be would cease to exist, replaced by a mindless monster that only wished to see everything around them as twisted and broken as they were.
But perhaps this was a bit of an exaggeration. It was just a vision in Eclipsa's head after all, simply brought on by all the horrible stuff she had just witnessed. But to her, it seemed like a likely possibility. The worst-case scenario. And Bren would laugh and watch it all from afar, happy to see that his little plan had come to fruition in the most brutal of ways.
Only he hadn't.
Because that wasn't his plan. His plan was not to stand by and let the people tear themselves apart. No, he was going to do it himself. What that plan was, Eclipsa wasn't sure. No one was. Except for perhaps Zudo. The Queen shifted her gaze over to the other side of the room, where the Avarius child was sitting at the end of the table, a traumatized look on his face while he held in his hands some kind of stuffed toy. No doubt some kind of way to comfort himself, although it didn't seem to be working that well.
But he was there. He had spilled the beans. After the explosion, he had come running into the Monster Temple and was found by Globgor, who was holding down the fort there. Apparently, he was in possession of some information about Bren, Tom, and Brudo that was "extremely important" and that "everyone needed to know." That was about as far as he got though, as Globgor had ushered him into another room as he started letting wounded and dying people in the temple, each one of them seeking some form of refuge from the burning hellscape outside. All of them had been let in, even if most of them were far beyond help.
So that meant that whatever secrets Zudo held, they were to be revealed today, in this meeting. The boy had been reluctant to divulge exactly how he obtained this information, as when asked before being led away, he started mumbling about a "red room" and as well as somebody with "white hair", a detail that was hardly vague anymore to Eclipsa and the rest of the Councill. He had even mentioned something about the Lucitors, a fact that was especially surprising. But the idea that Bren had somehow tortured the boy before blowing up the mansion for whatever reason was an unpleasant one to bear, but all things considered, it looked like that was exactly what had happened.
But it was just another thing to add to the list of problems to take care of. Number who-fucking-knows-we're-writing-this-on-a-roll-of-toilet-paper-now, take Zudo to a professional therapist. Preferably one out of town, as they needed a therapist that didn't need therapy themselves. Eclipsa made a quick note of this in her brain, only to say the first word of the meeting and whisper it over to Shawn, as she knew that she would never remember it at a time like this. Shawn gave her a silent nod and typed it down, before giving her a look that told her to start the meeting so he could go home and clean up whatever was left of it.
Eclipsa sighed, cleared her throat that was dry as chalk, and spoke.
"Thank you all for coming." She said, trying to keep her voice as emotionless as possible. It was all she could do to not break down crying on the spot. "As you know...we are currently under attack."
"Currently?!" King Johansen screamed, currently pissed off beyond belief because a good portion of his castle and servants had been crushed by one of the flying boulders. "We're currently under attack?! What about that demon's rampage? Does that not count as being "under attack"?!"
Eclipsa flinched away from the king's outburst and cursed internally. She really should have worded that better. But truth be told, no matter how many times she went over it in her head, no speech she could give right now would ever be able to properly explain the severity of the situation.
"I-I apologize. I shouldn't have put it like that." She said. "But please sit down. We can't turn on each other at a time like this. You know that. All of you know that. We have to be strong even in the darkest of times. And fighting amongst ourselves will do nothing but make us appear weak."
She put her hands on the table and spent a long time studying each and every face looking at her. "I understand." She lamented. "I can see it in your faces. I know just how much you want to yell and scream at me about how I let this happen and that I should have done something to prevent it. But no matter how angry you get, what happened happened. The finger pointing can come later. For now, the top priority is to discuss our next action."
"..."
The Johansen King, begrudgingly seeing that Eclipsa was making some sense, took his seat and crossed his arms. His demeanor was now the same as the rest of the room's. Angry, but finally understanding that this was not the time.
"Thank Mewni…" Eclipsa muttered under her breath, expecting that to go much worse. "Now. Now…...damage control. What do we have? How bad is it at the moment?"
"It's simply...horrific." The Waterfolk Queen said, taking a stack of soggy papers out from underneath her chair. "Everything within a block of the explosion is gone. Including the 586 people that were in said block. This, of course, includes Lord Brudo himself, the entirety of the Echo Creek police department, and all of the Mewnian royals knights, except for Higgs and Sir Stabby, who were thankfully at monster village at the time."
Despite already being mostly aware of these figures, it still hurt Eclipsa to hear it. When Bren arrived a while ago and murdered Mina, she knew that the former Solarian wouldn't be the only death in this war. He had proved that he had no qualms against killing. The Queen had made sure to fabricate several plans later on, all of them designed to deal with any public backlash in the event that Bren attempted to try something bigger and with more casualties.
But those plans only ever went up to situations with fifty deaths in mind. Almost nothing compared to what was happening now. She couldn't have imagined that it would get this bad. That Bren would do something this deadly, and he likely didn't even bat an eyelid at the idea.
She had underestimated him. What he was capable of. What he could do when he got mad and decided to take things up a step. Because she had been informed that he was definitely angry when this happened. This was all out of rage. But not at them, oh no, this was because of Brudo. And how did she know this? Why Zudo, of course. After everyone with functioning legs had made it inside the Temple, Globgor made sure to check on the boy yet again, only to find him mumbling about something besides red rooms and barrels filled with liquid death. Something about how his father "brought this on himself" and that Bren "wasn't happy with him."
At this point, an imbecile could figure out why this happened. Brudo had apparently been working with Bren, but he did something that pissed him off. (Helping Mina's followers perhaps?) Therefore, public enemy number one had blown up the mansion as an act of revenge.
It sounded like petty revenge to her. Hopefully more about that mess would be filled in when Zudo explained the whole thing. If he could explain the whole thing. That little hope was...ambiguous, at best.
"I see." Eclipsa whispered. "So there are really no surviving members of the police? None at all?"
"I believe that there are five officers that were stationed elsewhere at the time, so no." The Waterfolk Queen said. "But everyone else is either call receivers or investigators, so those five officers are all we have to control what remains of the town at the moment. At least on the Earth side."
"And on the Mewnian side?" Eclipsa asked, although it came out as more of a sigh, something they had all been doing too much of these days.
"Several hundred knights altogether if we combine the forces of every kingdom." The Folk Queen answered. "However, Sir Stabby is currently the only Knight with any real battle experience. Everyone else that fought in the monster wars a few decades ago are retired or dead, and thus they will be unable to help us. And what's more, we have determined that the hundreds of knights we have are not fit to effectively police or defend the town like their predecessors. They would only be useful in a full-fledged battle with hundreds of opponents, and that's as far as it goes."
'Shit.' Eclipsa thought. 'Hundreds of opponents. I doubt Bren has anymore than a few dozen on his payroll. If he even goes that route from this point on. If he continues to blow things up like this, then there's really nothing we can do to stop it. He'd have Tom teleport in, plant a bomb, then leave. It'd explode, killing hundreds of people, and he just repeats that process until we're all dead. The end. He wins, we lose, and so ends the short-lived ballad of Earthni. And we wouldn't even know the true reason about why he did all this in the first place…'
Eclipsa then shook her head slightly, knowing that she couldn't let her thoughts get off-topic. Not here. Not now. Still, she couldn't help herself as another question came to mind, this one with more frustration behind it than worry.
'Where the hell were those hundreds of knights during the demon attack by the way?' She thought. 'Sitting comfortably while the town loses thousands of dollars by the minute, or…". A spark of realization came across her face, making her recall an event that she had tried to forget about for twelve hours or so. 'Scratch that actually. They were probably at Avarius mansion with everyone else, inside those cursed soundproof walls. They have taxes to pay as well after all. Maybe I could ask the state to give us permission to not need to pay any of those off for the time being. While we clean everything up and mourn our losses. Which reminds me…'
"What is the outside reaction?" She asked, hoping that they might receive some foreign aid for this whole disaster. 'What does the state and the U.S. government have to say about this? Almost a thousand people just died. They had to have taken notice."
"As of right now, I know it's being reported across the entire country, possibly the world." Janna said, who had been invited as a stand-in to Star and Marco not being there. "I got a phone call this morning from one of my relatives who lives in New York asking if I was okay and what exactly was going down over here. So if somebody's going to come to our rescue and help out, then it should be soon. As for the government…" She looked away and shook her head. "I don't know anything about that. I think they're analyzing the situation at the moment. Seeing the best way to respond and if they should get involved or not. Just like us…"
"Involved or not?!" Queen Jaggy echoed, shocked by this revelation. "Are you saying there's a chance that they'll ignore this entirely and leave us to fend for ourselves?"
"I didn't say that, geez." Janna said. "All I said was that they hadn't responded yet and what I personally think they're doing. Although...yeah. It may be a possibility that they want nothing to do with us."
"Why? Do you think they're scared of Bren?" Queen Jaggy asked.
"No." Janna said, leaning back in her chair. "Well, maybe. I don't know. For one thing, I'm not sure how much they even know to begin with. We literally made the news about who he was public only yesterday morning. And he's only shown himself a few times and been around for maybe a week, ever since Mina's death. I would be surprised if they know more about him than we do."
"And assuming they somehow know everything about him that we do?" The Waterfolk King asked.
Janna shrugged. "Then yeah. I think they'd be scared. If this is the case, if they're aware he exists, they know about Tom as well. They know he can go anywhere on Earth with his demon powers. If Bren wanted, he could literally have him teleport into the Oval Office, kill the President or something, and then get out. All in the span of a few seconds or so. Seriously. There's so much he's able to do with that. But...there is another theory I have about this whole thing…"
"What is it?" Eclipsa asked.
"I think he already contacted the government and told him not to interfere with whatever he had planned." Janna said. "Maybe did some show of force with Tom that we don't know about. It's obvious he's thought of almost every way we can stop him and likely planned some way to counter it later on. That's why he told Star and Marco to do their best to stop him. Because he thinks they can't. That he's invincible and thought of all the variables way ahead of time. And honestly, I think he might have."
"So...you believe the government is basically kneeling down to him?"
"I'm saying it's a possibility." Janna said. "If this is what was actually happening, I wouldn't be surprised. And if one of us gets an email explaining how they "can't help us at the moment" then we'll know for sure that that's exactly what's happening."
"So...if that's the case…what do we do?" Globgor asked.
"Nothing. What can we do?" Janna asked rhetorically. "If he's got the entire government under his boot heel with Tom, then it's not like we can do much to stop it. If we try to do something, we'd be going against an entire country. The same one that, may I remind you, Earthni currently resides in. So yeah. Not a good idea."
"Damn it all…" Eclipsa mumbled. While what Janna just said was still a theory with no real evidence as of yet, it made too much sense to simply ignore. It was all starting to make too much sense. Earthni was something entirely new that had been brought to the world. Something that must be studied and protected and preserved. And the government had the honor of it being put in their country. But they hadn't as much as lifted a finger when help was needed. Nobody had helped them after the demon attack. They had received no money or aid for that little disaster. Odd, yes, but since no deaths were reported, Eclipsa passed it off as the usual since "nobody died, nobody cared" rule she had come to see in Earth media.
However, this didn't make much sense either. As mentioned earlier, Earthni was still something new that hundreds of scientists and journalists had flocked to after it appeared. They should still be here. There were enough non-Earth parts of Earthni to satisfy those people's cravings for a few lifetimes. And yet, the only outsiders that came anymore were tourists. For some reason, she had failed to recognize the fact that everyone not from Echo creek or Mewni had seemingly up and left one day, leaving no trace of their existence.
No way this was just a coincidence. No way the government didn't have eyes on this place at all times and didn't see that half the town had been smashed to pieces by literal hellspawn. They...they had ignored this. Brushed it under the carpet. And Eclipsa has a feeling that they would ignore this explosion as well. That everyone would. Be-because Bren got to them all and threatened to do to them what he was doing to Earthni just like Janna theorized!
"THAT'S IT!" She yelled, suddenly slamming her hands down on the table and giving everyone a mini-heart attack. The room was briefly filled with a stunned silence, before Ponyhead spoke up, tilting her head (which was to say, her entire body) at the Queen.
"Uh, what's it?" She asked. "What's going on now? Is more crazy Bren shit happening, or this some weird Queen thing that I'm going to have to face one da-"
"It all makes sense now!" Eclipsa said, ignoring and interrupting the flying head. "That's why tourists are the only outsiders who have come into the town for months! That's why I'm not getting anymore reports of news hacks trying to interview random people on the street! That's why even though the government said they would help us with anything we needed after our two worlds merged, they haven't done anything for us! Bren's gotten to them all! He and Tom have the entire damn country doing what he wants them to!"
Once again, the room was filled with silence. But this was no normal silence. This was realization silence. The worst kind in fact. When one finally sees that they have been lied to, deceived, tricked, bamboozled, whatever, and they are completely and entirely alone in whatever perilous situation they happen to be in. This is what the Royals were experiencing. Although Eclipsa's rant had been fast-paced and rather loud, it was coherent enough for them to understand.
They were on their own.
Everything and everyone outside Earthni was under the control of their worst enemy.
Probably, at least. They still didn't have any proof after all. Just Janna's theory and Eclipsa's sudden yelling. But that was all that was needed. Just like Eclipsa had done a minute ago, they started to think about how that theory made more and more sense. Almost every mind in the room was filled with the same thoughts as the one sitting next to it, all with identical expressions. It would actually be quite comical, if this had taken place in any other context.
A collective "shiiiiieeeeetttt…" came over the room, and all of them looked in different directions. Some at the floor. Some at the ceiling. But none of them could meet each other' eyes. They didn't want to see the despair of their fellow Royals. Without any outside aid, this whole thing could take a turn for the worst at any time. Even more so than right now. If the citizens found out, for instance...
They had to prevent this from getting out.
"New plan." Eclipsa announced. "I'm declaring that everything said in this meeting is now top secret, even more so than usual. Not a single word of what was said leaks to the outside under any circumstances. Anybody that talks will be imprisoned, under the crime of sharing secrets with the enemy."
"Isn't that a bit extreme?" Janna asked. "I agree, none of what we found out should be known publicly, but sharing secrets with the "enemy" isn't exactly accurate..."
"Is it? Is it not?" Eclipsa asked. "Janna-no, everyone listen up. That explosion happened because we were ignorant of the fact that Brudo was working for Bren. If we knew sooner, then this could have been prevented." She pointed at one of the windows, and everyone glanced at it reflexively. "Anyone out there might be working for him. Not a single person can be ruled out. I only trust all of you because I've met with you all in person, before the two worlds even merged, and I think I know you all well enough that you aren't working for him. It sounds odd, yes, but I can easily tell. It's something I've learned to do through all my years of dealing with traitors and backstabbers."
Over in the corner of the table, a single bead of sweat rolled down Buff Frog's forehead, unnoticed by all.
"Therefore, none of you are suspects. But...know this. I am issuing a new policy." She said, her tone now turning deadly serious. "I will be making an announcement. And that is anybody in town who has aligned themselves or is otherwise conspiring with Bren may come clean, and no punishment will be given to them. But if they are working with him, and if they're found out without ever telling us…"
She took a deep breath.
"They will be executed for treason, whether they're human, Mewman, or monster. No exceptions. There will also be no trial for them. They will be captured, and they will die the next morning. We will take care of this problem as quickly and as effectively as possible."
The room remained silent. No one even muttered something under their breath after this announcement, as if they were scared Eclipsa would execute them if they tried to say anything about it.
Except, of course, Janna, who spoke up once again and freely shared her opinion.
"That's...that's a terrible idea." She said, shaking her head in disappointment and making everyone look at her. She sighed and crossed her hands on the table, the fear that was being pumped through the others evidently not present in her. "Eclipsa, that's not going to work. History has proved that this kind of thing always ends badly."
"How so?" The Queen asked, her tone making her sound like she wasn't in her right mind. "It's fast, it's effective, it will cause anyone who works with him to show themselves out of fear-"
"Exactly." Janna said. "Fear. We can't use that against the town. That's cruel and...basically the kind of thing a dictator would do."
"I suppose you have a bit of a point." Eclipsa said sadly. "And I admit, this whole plan is rather dictator-esque. But I see it as necessary at a time like this. And...if you don't mind me asking, what did you mean by "history has proved this kind of thing always ends badly?"
Janna clenched her hands together like she was a CEO in a board meeting. "Ever heard of the French Revolution?" She asked. "Probably not. It was an event that took place on Earth a couple hundred years ago. Basically, what happened is that one day, in a country called France over in Europe, the lower class decided that they had enough with the low food supply, the absurdly high food prices, and the endless amount of taxes they received for stuff. So they threw a revolution, and killed the king of France by chopping off his head, along with the heads of most of the upper class."
"That's...exceedingly brutal." Eclipsa said. "And rather savage, for the people of a country to do that to a king."
"Times were different."
"I certainly hope so. But what are you trying to say by this? That we're going to lose our heads as well-"
"Actually, the story isn't over yet." Janna said. "After they killed him, the lower class tried to form their own government, and eventually they started murdering everyone that they suspected was even slightly against the revolution. Thousands of people died in the whole thing, until the leader of this government, a guy named Robespierre, got his head cut off and it all finally died down."
"..."
"What I'm trying to say is that we'll all be acting like Robespierre if we do this." Janna concluded. "And just like him, if you start executing people left and right, you'll lose sight of what you're trying to do. After a while, you'll see enemies everywhere and assume that everyone is out to get you except the ones you trust most. That's when you go full dictator mode and start killing random and innocent people that have nothing to do with Bren. And when the citizens get tired of our bullshit, all our heads will be on the chopping block, and it'll be your fault Eclipsa."
Eclipsa didn't speak, now thoroughly embarrassed for having suggested such a plan. Janna was right after all. What would the citizens do if she really enacted this thing? Turn against her, and then the Council, and before long they'd all suffer the same fate as this Robespierre. Killed by the townsfolk that they were supposed to protect.
What an ironic fate.
"Then what do you suggest?" Eclipsa asked.
"Simple." Janna said. "We do the first few parts of your plan. Tell the town that anyone working with Bren can turn themselves in and there'll be no punishment. I personally don't think that's going to work because Bren's just going to murder them if they do that, so yeah. But still, we should try it anyway, and maybe we'll get lucky. All or nothing there. Now for the other part. Yes, anyone who we think is in league with him has to be taken in and investigated. But if they actually are working for him, we don't kill them. We put them in a holding cell that's too small for him to teleport into until we get them to tell everything we want to know about Bren. His plans. His lackeys. Everything."
"How do you suppose we get that information out of them?" Princess Penelope asked.
Janna shrugged. "I don't know." She said. "Get creative."
"Wait, so you're against the idea of killing these traitors but you're for torturing them?" Queen Johansen asked. "What kind of logic is that?"
"I never said torture." Janna claimed. "I said get creative. Do what you have to. If it comes to torture, fine. But what we're not going to do is instantly murder anyone we suspect of being against the Revolut-I mean, who we suspect of working with Bren."
"..."
"All in favor?" Janna asked. "Who here agrees with my plan?"
Slowly but surely, every person in the room put their hand up, even Eclipsa (who actually put her hand up first) and soon it was obvious what the plan was.
"Neat. Looks like I have the majority vote." Janna said. "I should come to these things more often."
"Trust me, you really don't want to do that." Globgor warned. "But at least we've all in agreement on this. It's a start."
"If that's what you want to call it." The Johansen King commented. "But now that we've gotten out of the way, what's the next topic? How are the town's food supplies? Are we going to be running out of meat?"
Despite the frivolous personal meaning behind the King's question, he brought up a good one. The town's main grocery store had been one of the buildings caught up in the explosion. Thankfully it was closed at the time, but still. Everything inside was lost. Including, obviously, all the food.
"He actually brings up a good point." Globgor said. "How is the food situation? With that human food store-"
"Grocery store." Janna corrected.
"...Grocery store…" Globgor echoed. "Out of, uh, commission, how are we going to feed everybody?"
"We shouldn't have to worry about that for a while." Eclipsa said. "Or at all really. We still have dozens of acres of corn and other crops that were untouched by the blast apart from some damage by the rocks. There are fields that are still waiting to be harvested. Along with the personal food supplies everyone should already have at home, and with the recent development from yesterday, it should be easier to count...to...erm…" She couldn't bring herself to say it, so the one person who was acting completely unperturbed by all of this did.
"What Eclipsa's trying to say is that because so many people just died, there's more food for the rest." Janna said. "Brutal, yes. Harsh, yes. But honest. If anything, the only good that came out of this whole mess is that there's a lot less mouths to feed."
Rich Pigeon looked disgusted by this statement. "What a-"
"Horrible thing to say?" Janna said, glancing at him with zero emotion. "Yup. But these are trying times, you know? We don't have the capacity to say nice things anymore."
"But you just stopped Eclipsa from enacting that law that'd basically be condemning a bunch of innocent people." Penelope pointed out.
"Sure. But this isn't the same thing as killing people. It's taking advantage of the fact that they're already dead." Janna claimed. "Face it. It's all or nothing now. If we're going to win this little war, then we have to do whatever we can to win." She paused. "As long as it doesn't involve murdering anybody of course. Except Bren. And maybe Tom when I get my hands on him for letting this happen to himself."
"That reminds me…" King Waterfolk said. "About the Lucitors. I was informed before the meeting that we have new information on what happened to them."
"I suppose you could put it that way." Eclipsa said.
"But...that's exactly what you told us." King Ponyhead said. "You literally said that "we have new information about what happened to the Lucitors". Was that all a lie?"
"It was not." Eclipsa claimed. "However, the way we have this info is...tricky. And based completely on something my husband overheard from Zudo."
"Oh, is that why he's here?" King Jaggy asked, shifting his gaze over to him. "I was wondering about that, but didn't want to speak up…"
"Yes, well, Zudo is here because he was at the mansion before the explosion happened and witnessed some of the events that led up to it, and he is also in possession of information that might help out with why this occurred and perhaps what we could do to prevent a similar event in the future. And since we should really hurry this up...Zudo?" She asked. "Do you think you can tell us what happened?"
As per usual whenever someone's name was mentioned, all eyes fell on Zudo, making him shrink further into his chair as the attention of every person in the room fell on him. It was plain to see that everyone staring at him at once was making the boy very uncomfortable, judging by the way he was clutching his stuffed toy so hard to his chest that one of the seams started to tear, spilling it's fluffy insides all over the floor.
"I…" He started, sweating nervously and wondering why he had ever agreed to this meeting. "I'm not sure if…"
"It's okay." Eclipsa said, reassuring him. "Nobody's going to hurt you for speaking up, and you can take all the time that you need. You-"
"But it's not okay!" He yelled, tears starting to form in his eyes. Eclipsa reared back a little at this shout, considering that Zudo had been more quiet then monsterly possible for most of the meeting. "You said they no one's going to hurt me, but the reason I'm so worried is because that's the opposite of what's going to happen!"
"What do you mean?" Princess Jaggy asked.
Zudo sniffed and hugged his knees to his chest. "It was after the explosion." He sobbed. "I was practically blind with terror, so I ran to the first place that I knew would be safe. The Monster Temple. I burst in, saw Globgor, and started telling him about a bunch of stuff that Bren in some attempt to explain why this was going on. I don't know why. Maybe I just wasn't thinking right at the moment, or maybe it was from the shock. Maybe I just wanted to help out."
A few of the royals glanced at Globgor, who sighed and spoke up in response. "Yeah, he told me a few things. Stuff about a red room, stuff about Bren, stuff about the Lucitors." The monster then paused. "And then he mumbled something about Avarius mansion, and that's when things started to fit together. I realized that Bren did this, the explosion started from the mansion, all that." He looked at Zudo. "But why are you considering that to be a bad thing?"
"Because, like I said, I wasn't thinking right." Zudo repeated/wailed. "I forgot what Bren told me right before he let me go, after he used me as a bargaining chip."
"Wait, bargaining chip?" King Ponyhead asked. "What exactly went down at that-"
"Shh, let him finish." Eclipsa said. "Zudo, please continue."
"O-okay." He said. "So, Bren told me that if I said anything about what I overheard at the mansion, he'd...he'd…"
"He'd what?" King Spiderbite asked, getting fed up with the constant pauses and not caring about what Zudo had been through. "Hurry it up boy, we don't have all day-"
"He said he'd kill me!" Zudo blurted out, now clutching his toy so hard he had almost ripped one of the arms off. "If I told you-no, anybody about anything, then Bren would send Tom to do exactly what he did to my dad. That's why I've been so worried. Because I did. I told Globgor some stuff that I was supposed to keep quiet about. Sure, he might not have understood all of it, but I don't think that split-eyed monster will discriminate."
The royals inhaled sharply as they finally understood. If this was true, and Bren was watching him as he shared his secrets with Globgor, then Zudo was as good as dead. With Tom he could teleport almost anywhere he wanted, and by then it would only take a second for him to reach out, snap the boy's neck, and then go back to wherever he came from.
And Zudo of course knew this better than any of them. It certainly explained all the crying and why he was holding his stuffed toy like that. He may as well have a target painted on his head.
"Oh Zudo…" Eclipsa started solemnly, hardly able to understand what he must be feeling. "Very well. I will send somebody to take you home from this meeting, and I will also make sure that you are guarded at all times by some of our most elite kni-"
"No." Zudo said. "No point. I'm already dead. It doesn't matter how many people you have protecting me, they won't be able to be by my side forever. And if that's truly the case, then I'm going to tell you everything I know, because I want to help all of you with this."
"Zudo, that's not not necessary." Eclipsa said, pleading with him. "If he's really after you now, then-"
"There's nothing we can do." Zudo interrupted, finishing her sentence. "Do you really think a couple of guards will stop him from murdering me?"
Eclipsa's mind put the word "no" into her head, because that's exactly what she was thinking, but that'd only make the mood worse and she knew it. She didn't need to say it anyways, because they were all thinking this. If Bren had managed to blow up the mansion and a good portion of the two before anyone had a chance to stop it, then killing Zudo would be a piece of cake.
"...Yeah, I thought so." He said, reading it on their faces, while his own held an expression that was eerily similar to his father's right before he died. The expression of a dead man walking. (Or sitting in Brudo's case.) "So ask me what you want to know and let's get this over with. Don't guarantee I'll give you a straight answer though. All of this is stuff I overheard anyway, and I was almost blind with fear at that time."
The room was silent for a moment. The tone in Zudo's voice was a unique one. It almost made them shiver in their shows, and if not for the seriousness involved with the situation, they might have laughed. The royals of Mewni, being intimidated by a mere monster child.
A monster child that had seen and heard the worst that the world had to offer at that mansion.
Ponyhead spoke up first, currently live-streaming the whole meeting with a hidden camera attached to her horn.
"How did this happen?" She asked. "What did brain-dead Bren do that caused half the town to go kaboom?"
"He had a...barrel." Zudo said.
"A barrel?" Ponyhead asked. "How the hell did a barrel cause that much-"
"I don't know, but I have to assume that whatever was in that barrel is what caused half the town to go "kaboom." He said, making a few hand motions. "He also had some wire and a few other things I didn't recognize that he grabbed from out of a crate."
"Tripwire." Janna blurted out. "That must be what set off the explosion. And I'm guessing that whatever was inside that barrel was akin to gasoline, so when that swat team set off the wire, something must have ignited it and…" She paused and made the same hand motion Zudo just did. "Poof."
Eclipsa looked like she was going to be ill. "Shit." She muttered/cursed. Again. "Alright. Everyone make sure to watch the ground wherever you go from now on. Just in case Bren put any more of these tripwires in your homes in an attempt to take more lives."
"Why would he do that?" Ponyhead asked. "I thought it was Star he's angry at. And that this whole little mansion thing was a way to get back at her...for some reason. Speaking of which, where is she? And Earthturd? They're always here. They're always stuck to each other like lint or my creepy-ass sisters."
"Both are currently unable to be here." Eclipsa said. "Star is in the hospital, and Earthtu-I mean, Marco, has been exempted from this meeting as I thought that would aid in his...recovery."
"Recovery from what?" Ponyhead asked, sighing. "What happened to him now? And also, double what? Star is in the hospital? Is my bestie okay? What did that little white-haired creep do to her?"
"Technically nothing." Eclipsa's said, before mumbling. "That part was all Marco…"
Unfortunately, Ponyhead had excellent hearing, a skill she developed after years of spying on her sisters. "WHAT!" She exclaimed. "What the hell do you mean by "that part was all Marco?" Was Earthturd the one who put Star in the hospital?! Oh, when I see him, I am going to cut his heart out and give it to Star as a "get well soon" gift! I will-"
"It's more complicated than that!" Eclipsa yelled, unhappy that this was the way this little bit of information had to come out. "It's much more complicated than whatever you're thinking. And please don't attack Marco. I'd prefer he didn't die twice in the same week."
"Is that so?" Ponyhead asked. "Well guess what, anyone who hurts my bestie is gonna get a horn straight through their chest. I don't care what their relationship is with her or n-wait, what did you say about him dying twice?"
"Like I said." Eclipsa groaned. "It's more complicated than it looks. Yes, Star was put in the hospital by Marco. But at the same time, it wasn't Marco. He was not in control of his actions at the time, was under the influence of another being, and thus it was not his fault." She exhaled. "Now, back to-"
"Oh no!" Ponyhead yelled. "You can't just leave us hanging there! This little story sounds a hundred times more interesting than this meeting, important as it is. I want to hear this."
"It's really not necessary at the moment." Eclipsa said. "And this meeting is more out of importance than of interest. You can be bored out of your mind for all I care, but this is happening. We don't have time to discuss frivolous topics."
"Actually, I want to hear about this also." King Jaggy said. "If something is going around possessing people like that Marco boy, then we have to know what happened so we can prepare a proper counter defense."
"We won't have to worry about that." Eclipsa claimed. "The thing that possessed Marco won't do it again. At least, according to him…"
"What was that last part?" King Ponyhead asked.
"Nothing important." Eclipsa declared. "Just like how the conversation about Marco and his possession isn't important. We can talk about it in a future meeting, but as for right now, can we please get back to the topic at hand before the townsfolk storm in here and demand answers for how we're going to fix this?"
After she said this, a rather awkward silence followed, and the look on everyone's faces alerted Eclipsa to the fact that they weren't going to let her pass this off as "this happened and it sounds important, but forget I ever said that and let's get back to the task," a tactic she was quite fond of using during these meetings. And one that usually worked.
Usually. So it came as no surprise when Ponyhead started complaining about it again, right on schedule.
"Sorry." She said. "But I am not listening to anything you have to say until you tell me how this happened to B-fly and Earthturd. And I'm sure that the whole room agrees with me. If something is out there taking over people's bodies, and even if you say it's not a problem anymore, which it totally is by the way, then we have to know all the details."
Eclipsa would have argued further, likely to make a comment on her visions of a bloodthirsty townsfolk tearing them apart, but intuition told her better. If she just explained the whole story to them and got it over with, then this would be finished quickly. Although she did make a mental note to ask the Mayor later on if it was possible to exempt a few specific Royals from the next meeting, emergency or not.
"Fine." She consented, facepalming and rubbing her nose with her fingers. "I'll tell you what happened. But after that, there will be no more interruptions like it, understand?"
"Totally!" Ponyhead said unconvincingly. "Don't worry. We understand every single word that comes out of your mouth to the letter!"
"Obviously not." Eclipsa mumbled, remembering her earlier protests and making Ponyhead pout at her. She cleared her throat and took a seat in her chair for the first time since the start.
"So. It was after the speech this morning." She said. "When-"
"Wait, are you talking about the whole "help your neighbor" thing I saw in the news this morning?" Ponyhead asked, not even letting the story go on for five seconds before interjecting. "When Star saves you and the mayor from being trampled by an angry mob because nobody liked what you were saying."
"Yes, that is what I'm talking about." Eclipsa said through slightly gritted teeth, out of patience for the floating uncontrollable head and getting the feeling that the rest of the explanation would go like this if she didn't find a way to keep Ponyhead quiet. "And may I please ask you to remain silent until I finish talking so we can get this over with as soon as possible."
"No promises." Ponyhead said. "Depending on how crazy this story is. And based on what I've heard already, it's pretty crazy."
"I'd used the word "tragic", considering how it ends." Eclipsa commented. "But after the speech, Star said goodbye to me and said she and Marco were going to go to the beach together. They left, and apparently while they were there, things took a turn for the worst."
"Let me guess. He got possessed." Ponyhead sighed, not trying at all to keep herself quiet. "This is why I don't trust beaches. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong. It never fails. I remember that my dad talked me into going to a beach once, and you know what happened? My creepy sisters ganged up on me and buried me in the sand. Hell if I know why, but all I know is that it had to be planned beforehand. And after I finally dug myself out, I spent hours combing all that sand out of my hair. Do you know how hard it is to do that with no arms? I had to use my tongue! It's all gritty and dry and weird! Needless to say, I am never going to another beach again. Shame I wasn't there to tell B-fly why beaches are bad ideas, but I was busy texting all my followers about that speech she made."
"..."
"..."
"Are you finished?" Eclipsa asked.
"Yeah, I'm done." Ponyhead said. "Go on with the story. Sounds like it's getting interesting."
"I suppose you could describe it that way…" Eclipsa lamented. "According to Star, Marco fell asleep and had a few nightmares where he was tortured by this being that then overtook his body. Or at least partially. Star said he likely hadn't been entirely taken over at that time, but he was still...different. His mood changed, he hardly smiled, and he seemed to be another person altogether."
"Why is this part important?" Rich pigeon asked.
"I-!" Eclipsa started. "It was all of you who wanted to know the details. I'm giving them to you. Star actually gave me a much more detailed version, but if we go through that, it'll take up too much time. And most of it is unimportant anyways and has nothing to do with his possession!"
"...Okay, calm down." Rich said, putting his wings up in defense. "It was just something I pointed out."
"Try not to do it again." Eclipsa warned. A small (large) part of her wanted to just skip to the end of all this, but she knew that if she did that then they'd only complain more. And yes. She was technically above them as one half of the Duumvirate. But at a time like this, nobody cared about who was above who. They only cared about who could help who.
"So." She continued. "Marco's mother picked them up later on, and when they got home he and Star had an argument. Marco wanted to go to the magic sanctuary to kill Bren, but Star disagreed."
"Why would he want to go to that old place?" Ponyhead asked. "I thought that Sanctuary was nothing but a pile of rubble now. I don't see any reason as to why Bren would be there."
Eclipsa was about to practically yell at Ponyhead, before the Queen realized that she, along with all of the Royals, had no idea about what had become of the magic Sanctuary. What Bren had turned it into. Which admittedly, actually looked much nicer than how it did before. Cleaner. Better artwork. And overall a nice atmosphere.
That was totally irrelevant however, as it was time for yet another sidetrack as she had to explain what the magic Sanctuary had been turned into.
"I forgot that none of you are aware of what happened to it since the Merge." She said. "Basically, in the six-month timespan between now and then, Bren repaired the Sanctuary and rebuilt it in his own image. Based on what I saw and heard, I believe he converted it into a place for a god he worships." Eclipsa struggled to resist the urge to say that this god was also the same being that had possessed Marco, as doing so might help the royals connect the dots and assist them in conveying just how interlinked everything was. And anything that'd make the situation easier for them to understand in the long run was of course greatly appreciated.
However, saying that Bren literally had the power of the divine would really lower their hopes of ever winning this fight. So as necessary as it may seem, it'd be pointless if they heard this, surrendered, packed everything up, and fled the town the next morning.
Because that's exactly what they'd do.
And yes, it was true, Janna was originally invited to this meeting to explain all of the god stuff, but luckily Eclipsa thought of the consequences before her and let her attend a simple stand-in, something that the Royals didn't understand but also didn't care enough to protest against.
And double yes, it was true that the Mayor was aware of this as well, when Eclipsa had mentioned it to him during their earlier phone call. But she had told him not to mention it and he begrudgingly agreed.
But it probably would have been best if she hadn't mentioned that god in the first place, because they picked up on that real fast and acted accordingly.
"Worship?" Princess Jaggy half-asked, her face becoming one of fear as she took this in. "Are you saying that he has a god on his side?"
"No, of course not." Eclipsa reassured her, sadly taking note that the princess's reaction was pretty much what she expected from all of them. "Any god-beings like that are all dead. It'd be impossible for any of them to have survived the destruction of the magic realm." Quick, her brain said. Come up with another convincing lie. Fast. "I…" Eclipsa stuttered for a moment before thinking of something that she knew the Royals were gullible enough to fall for. "I...know this for a fact because Glossaryck himself told me this just before I and the others erased the dimension from existence." She lied, thanking her lucky stars that neither Moon nor Star (the person this time) was here. And also for the fact that Janna, the only one present besides the Mayor that was aware of this being a fib, was certainly smart enough to catch on to what the Queen was doing. And like clockwork, the Royals accepted it, satisfied with an answer that they liked.
"Oh thank non-existent god." Queen Johansen said. "For a second there I thought we had no chance of ever taking Bren down. Because if he actually had something like that helping him, the power of a being that could erase entire planets with a snap of their fingers, then we'd be completely and utterly helpless."
After she said this, Janna actually laughed at how quickly they had accepted this answer, even if it still hurt slightly to do so. Most everyone gave her an odd look while Eclipsa gave her one that said "don't tell them anything, you literally just heard why doing so is a terrible idea." Janna however didn't even see this glare, but understood nevertheless. She'd keep quiet. At least until it reached a point where keeping it a secret did more harm than good.
"Sorry." She said. "I was thinking of something Ponyhead said earlier."
"Really?!" Ponyhead exclaimed happily, overjoyed at any kind of appreciation. "What was it? Was it me calling Marco Earthturd all those times? All those comments I made after interrupting Eclipsa? Or even earlier than that, when I told everybody that I used the tourist money to fund the Ponyhead show?"
"Uhh...the second one." Janna said, now regarding being unable to contain her laughter. "But speaking of comments, I have one to make of my own. It's something that I've been wondering about for a while, and I'm sure you all have been wondering about for maybe...the past few minutes or so? Yeah, that sounds about right."
"Actually, I have something to say first." King Ponyhead said, resulting in Janna looking at him the same way a serial killer might look at a detective trying to catch them. "Why are we only learning about this now, how long have you known about it, and how in Mewni did Bren manage to rebuild the entire thing by himself in only six months?"
Eclipsa sighed. "That was a bit more than a comment. And really, you should be asking Star those things." She claimed. "I only heard about this yesterday and this hadn't gotten the chance to tell any of you, as I was busy dealing with...other matters. As for your third question, I have no idea. Again, ask Star. I'm in the dark just as much as the rest of you about the Sanctuary after what I said." She put her hands together and nervously turned her gaze to the broken window. "The information I gave you was everything Star gave me. Once she's out of the hospital, which shouldn't be too long from now, I'll have her tell us her reasons."
"How she'd get put in the hospital again?" Penelope asked. "I don't believe you've told us yet."
Eclipsa facepalmed and tugged on a few strands of her hair so hard that she almost ripped it right out of her head. "I was getting to that part of the story, but Ponyhead insisted on knowing what had happened to the Sanctuary, so here we are."
"Don't get angry." Ponyhead told her, rolling her eyes. "It was a good question. And necessary to the plot. At least we know where Bren's base of operations is now. Like, let's gather up the remaining knights and have them tear that place apart out of revenge for what he did to our town!"
This dramatic suggestion was met with several murmurs of agreement by most everybody in the room, excluding Buff Frog, Janna, Globgor, Shawn, and of course, Eclipsa herself. She pressed her fingers against her forehead and wondered why she even bothered at all.
"No! No! No!" She yelled, planning to stop this before it could escalate any further. "That is not happening. What do you all think that'd even accomplish?"
"Like I said. We'd take down his base of operations." Ponyhead said. "Make things harder for him. Make him angry like we are! A bit of payback! A chance to finally get a hit in!"
"And what do you plan to do when he gets mad and blows up all your castles like he did with Avarius mansion?" Eclipsa asked. "He burned Mina alive simply for existing and almost destroyed Brudo's entire legacy for whatever reason, so if you destroy his Sanctuary, his church, one of the only things I'm positive he genuinely cares about, what do you think he'll do to you?"
"...Well, I mean…" Ponyhead said, now seeing the flaw in her plan. "If we're careful, he won't know it was us. He'd just assume it was the knights."
"Yes, but the only people with the authority to order their knights around are...all of us." Eclipsa said, gesturing towards the entire table. "If you demolish the Sanctuary, I have no doubt that he'll have you die in the most painful way possible. Just like those police officers, the Royals knights, and all the civilians who got caught in the blast, we're nothing to him but obstacles. Star is who he's really after, as you all know, so it doesn't matter to him if we live or die, as long as we stay out of his way."
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Ponyhead asked. "Ignore this and play it all off as a bad dream? I'm sorry, but that's not happening." She cleared her throat and floated a foot higher. "Think about it. We have the advantage here, as much as it may seem like we don't. We know where his precious little church is. Let's use that against him! Threaten to destroy it if he doesn't do what we say and surrender! It's as easy as that!"
"That's...actually a half-decent idea." Janna said. "But it won't work. Because here's what would happen. Bren doesn't want that place to be damaged, but I bet he doesn't want to lose this fight just as much, if not more. So if we try to tell him what to do, he'll ignore it." She pointed at Ponyhead. "And then when you send soldiers to destroy the Sanctuary as a punishment, he'll get Tom and have him kill us all."
"Oh." Ponyhead said, sinking back down to her chair. "Um...maybe we could-"
"We're not doing anything to the Sanctuary that's final." Eclipsa ordered. "And if I hear that any of you do, then I won't send anybody to your aid when Bren sends Thomas to kill you. Because that will make me a target as well."
"Wow, that's harsh." Ponyhead complained.
"But fair." Janna said. "We shouldn't all have to risk our lives because one of us, and pardon my language, acts like a jackass. Working together is the only way any of us will get ahead now, even if that personally isn't my strong suit."
"Agreed." Eclipsa said, even if Janna had put in in a rather brash way. "So, now that all that has been discussed to my liking, are there any more questions about the Sanctuary?"
Queen Johansen straightened herself up. "Well, I-"
"No? Good." Eclipsa interjected, making sure to ignore this entirely. If they couldn't tell that that had been a rhetorical question, then that was their problem. "Back to the story. So…" She seethed. "Marco wanted to go to the Sanctuary to kill Bren, and Star disagreed. It escalated from there to the point where it became physical and they fought. Marco won, and he ran off to attempt to murder Bren."
"Question." Ponyhead said, making Eclipsa bite her lips so hard it drew blood. "How did Earthturd beat Star in a fight like that? She's a princess of Mewni. Trained in all sorts of crazy hand-to-hand combat and sword nonsense. Even without magic, I know my bestie still packs one hell of a punch."
"When Marco was possessed, he gained a significant boost in strength, durability, and a few other things." Janna said, sensing that Eclipsa, the only other person than her and the Waterfolk Queen to actually contribute something to this meeting, didn't really have it in her to answer another question. "Star claimed that he literally lifted her entire bed frame above his head and almost crushed her with it. I'll admit, it sounds pretty crazy, even for me."
"Just to be clear…" King Jaggy said. "The Marco boy is no longer bewitched by this being, right?"
"No. He's not. And I don't think he's going to be again, based on what my…...personal intuition is telling me." Janna said, managing to catch herself before she mentioned the book and what happened afterwards. "So you don't have to worry about that happening again. And before we move forward, I'd like to point out that just like Eclipsa said, Marco is totally innocent. He had no control of his actions while he was beating up Star. So don't go flinging about warrants for his arrest anytime soon."
"I don't even know what that is." Ponyhead said. (She really doesn't.) "But fine. I trust you enough Janna. Earthturd is in the clear for now. But I'm still going to hold this against him for the rest of his days, even if Star tells me not too."
"You hold everything against him." Janna pointed out.
"True." Ponyhead admitted. "But if I didn't do that, then nobody else would be around to remember them."
"Considering the surveillance I'm going to put on Marco after yesterday, I don't think that's needed anymore." Eclipsa said, before attempting to continue the tale. "Now, he nearly put Star into a coma, Marco went to the Sanctuary and apparently tried to kill Bren. He failed, and in turn Bren challenged him to a fight, which he lost. Very, very badly."
"I noticed that you're not really putting that much detail or care into this anymore." Ponyhead complained.
"You can blame yourself and your constant interruptions for that." Eclipsa huffed. "And to be fair, even Star didn't know much about this part of the story, as well as the fact that so much has happened in the past twenty four hours that I'm beginning to forget a few details. So there." She shook her head. "Anyways, while all that was taking place, Angie-"
"Who?" Penelope asked, and something in Eclipsa shattered. A small part of her sanity no doubt. She took a deep breath and was about to leap out of the nearest window she saw to escape this meeting, but Janna saw this coming and spoke up before Eclipsa had the chance to.
"Marco's mom." She said, before looking over at monster Queen, ready to explode with rage at any moment. "Hey, how about you let me handle the rest of the story, okay?"
"Please do." Eclipsa pleaded, her voice shaking. "Because after this I think I'm going to go to one of those rage rooms the humans have and turn it inside out."
"Alright." Janna said nonchalantly, even though she, and everyone else really, had never seen Eclipsa this angry before. And her getting mad to begin with was quite the spectacle, considering the hours and hours of training they all knew she must have gone through as a girl to control her emotions in periods of high stress, such as this one. But unfortunately, none of the Royals were perceptive enough to see that Avarius mansion blowing up wasn't really the thing that was setting her off, but rather, it was them.
So they casually passed Eclipsa's current mental breakdown off. Like most bad happenings that they didn't want to waste their time with. Instead they turned their heads to focus their attention on Janna, and while normally they wouldn't even bother listening to people that weren't part of the council, Janna had already proven herself to be quite the intelligent person (compared to them) during this meeting, so they knew it'd be best to give her a chance. Plus, it beat having to constantly listen to Ponyhead.
Seeing that all eyes were now on her, Janna frantically clears her throat, pressed her hands together, and started the story up again. "Like Eclipsa was saying, Angie, who is Marco's mom, found Star while he was flaunting about the Sanctuary and Star had her call Eclipsa and me to help them with the whole situation."
"Why was Eclipsa with you?" Ponyhead asked. "You two having a girl talk without me? If so, then next time remember to send me an invite. I don't want to miss out on all the gossip that the Queen and the town's most suspicious person must be discussing together. It'd make great material for the Ponyhead show."
"Probably." Janna agreed, noting that everything her demon book had to say would most definitely bring in hundreds of thousands of viewers to that show. The confirmation of an actual god existing? Heck, maybe she should do that. Bren might be grateful for all the thousands of people that'd convert overnight after she showed proof of its existence.
Only she had no proof. All they really had was a few loose theories, some medical records of Marco's stay at the hospital, (which was probably illegal for them to nab anyways, although that had never stopped her before), some eyewitness accounts, which was the least reliable source of evidence for anything, and the book itself. Something that was no better than a copy of the Bible, Quran, or any number of religious texts. Some people might believe it, but most people would ignore it, especially if it was broadcasted on Ponyhead's show, which Janna was sure didn't have the best track record for anything.
And it was a stupid plan anyways. Bren didn't want more people in his religion. He just wanted them all to die. Simple as that.
"But we weren't having a "girl talk". Janna said, air quoting. "We were actually talking about some pretty important stuff."
"Oh? What?" Ponyhead asked. "Actually, nevermind. Calling it now. You two were talking about how you can use my show to promote Earthni to bring in more of that sparkly Earth money to help fix the town. And before you say "wow Ponyhead, that's right, you're so smart and the greatest friend ever to Star, who is way too good for Earthturd," let me say, I know. No need to bow down. So all of you can stop clapping. I get enough of that on the street."
"..."
"What?"
"...Nothing." Janna said, who was briefly appalled/impressed by the flying head's insane levels of arrogance and self-admiration. Even she had been briefly shocked to silence by that one. The fact that Ponyhead believed everything she told herself was an ability that Janna knew no living person should have, but also one that she personally coveted quite a bit. For starters, it'd make lying a whole lot easier.
"It's just...nobody was clapping." She continued, taking off her beanie and shaking away the spittle Ponyhead got on it like it was diseased. "And that's not what I was about to say."
"Pft. Your loss." Ponyhead scoffed. "If you're going to treat me like this, then I'll just leave."
"Really?" Half the room exclaimed excitedly, their faces trembling with excitement.
The living embodiment of annoyance in Earthni then took a quick look around the room, eyeing each and every person. Only to then burst out laughing, banging her forehead against the table and making giant holes in the process.
"You should have seen the look on your faces!" She said. "I can't wait to show that to my followers. Also, don't think you can get rid of me that easily. I'm staying until the very end of this thing. And I know that we still have a ton of stuff to discuss, so don't get your hopes up anytime soon."
Everyone glared at her.
"Oh, don't give me all that." She said, reading their expressions like a piece of paper. "You should really expect it from me by this point."
They really should have. But that didn't get rid of any of the contempt. Someone was about to start yelling at her, until Janna's voice cut through the silence and prevented a full blow argument about why Ponyhead deserved just as much a punishment as Bren for her crimes against Mewmanity. And humanity. And whatever the hell the word for monster-kind was.
"I'm going to keep telling the story before this escalates into a brawl." She said a matter-of-factly. "So, Angie called Eclipsa and told us to come over and help them because Marco had gone crazy, and they needed my help to hypnotize him."
Ponyhead arched an eyebrow. "You can-"
"Yes, I can do that." Janna said. "And before you ask, no, I probably can't do anything more than making Marco faint. It won't be any use against Bren, considering the mental problems that that guy must have."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Ponyhead asked. "And by the way, I wasn't going to ask if you could take down Bren. I was wondering if you could take my sisters down and get me a day off from having to deal with them."
"Are they mentally ill?" Janna asked, happy for a
chance to see if her hypnosis skills worked on someone else.
"Hmm...probably have every disease in the book." Ponyhead said, before frowning. "Dang. I guess that means it won't work on them, right?"
"No." Janna said, even though she was sure that her sisters were fine mentally and Ponyhead just hated them. "And going back to your earlier question about Bren, it won't work on someone who can make themselves immune to that kind of stuff, and after what Star told me about him, with his apparent mental breakdowns and the way he can phase out of them, I think it's safe to say that I won't be able to do anything."
"Mental breakdown?" Ponyhead said, before remembering what Janna was referencing. "Ohhh, you mean that thing he did when he crashed our last meeting. When Star asked him if he knew what he was doing this for or something, and he started acting all crazy."
"Pretty much." Janna admitted. "But it was mostly the way he calmed himself down. He looked like he was about to collapse to the floor back then, but unfortunately, he snapped himself out of it like that." She snapped her fingers for emphasis. "So if Bren's able to break out of whatever that was, which looked pretty severe, I think it's safe to say that my hypnosis wouldn't do anything."
"Hmm, that's disappointing." Ponyhead said. "I was hoping that you guys could come up with a non-conventional way of beating him, something that'd make all of this a lot more interesting." She sighed. "Guess you just wanna stick to the classics, huh?"
"Not out of choice." Janna said, briefly tapping her fingers against the table before speaking again. "Okay. So Angie called us and me and Eclipsa piled in her smart car to get to the Sanctuary, probably breaking about fifty traffic laws in the way here."
"Oh, that was your doing?" The Mayor interjected. "Because most of the calls to the police yesterday before the explosion were about some person driving like a lunatic and putting everyone in danger."
"Sounds about right." Janna chuckled. "But is that really important right now?"
"Not particularly, but because you almost ran over at least twenty people, I think it's at least somewhat worthy of note…" The Mayor commented. He glanced over at Eclipsa, who was currently eating a Snookers bar as a form of food therapy. Even if she herself wasn't being interrupted, the others constantly barging in on Janna's explanation gave her a mild flashback that imbued in her such a great rage that she had to stuff her face with something tasty, lest she lose control and go full tyrant. "Please don't do that again." He pleaded. "The last thing we want is for us to start endangering the lives of the citizens."
"I mean, it's a bit late for that." Ponyhead noted. "But yeah, be careful Eclipsa. Imagine if you actually hit someone with your car. Then we'd probably have to kick you off the Council or something…"
Eclipsa glared at the two of them before she took another bite out of her candy bar, her only response to their berating being a loud CRUNCH.
"If we're all done complaining about something that really doesn't matter in the current situation, considering how many people just died, I think it's best if I get back to the summary." Janna muttered, slightly peeved that Eclipsa was being ganged-up on like this. Did they have to drive that fast because they knew someone's life was at stake yesterday? And then drive that life to the hospital only to discover that they were too late, all while knowing that there were still giant blood stains inside their car that would have to be cleaned later?
That is, if their car wasn't destroyed by a giant flying rock a few hours later. Did they go through that as well?
No. They didn't do any of it. They didn't get to complain. Eclipsa's anger towards them was completely justified. And that didn't even being to cover the stuff Janna hadn't been there for, like Marco freaking out in her driveway (which she heard but passed off because she was a hairbreadth away from getting the front desk receptionist at the hospital fired with some "suspicious complaints"), Rafael returning home and causing Angie to faint, being forced to tell Rafael that his son had been killed causing him to faint, and then waiting, calling the mayor, having to explain more things that she really shouldn't have had to, and finally, after all that, staying up all night and working damage control along with the mayor while the town descended into darkness and fell apart at the seams.
Much like Marco, she had had a pretty bad day. Marco's was still worse by a wide margin, but her's was definitely up there. Star's as well. But Janna supposed that after the whole Marco incident, it became a bad day for everyone. She wondered if a single damn person in all of Earthni had been truly happy since the blast.
And the answer, in all it's horrible, bothersome, painful truthful glory, was no. So many lives had been taken that there wasn't a single person left in town who hadn't lost a friend, a family member, or a lover by the time it was over. Except, of course, the one who had caused it. Bren. That disgusting, loathsome, detestable, worthless little piece of shi-
'Stop.' Janna thought. 'Pull yourself together. This isn't like you. Don't let any of it get to you. You have to be strong here. Look around. These guys have no idea what's going on. They didn't see what we saw. They stayed in their castles all day yesterday, even after the Mansion blew up, so they're clueless of the suffering the people down below went through. And Bren…'
Janna's face briefly twisted into one of slight contempt, an extremely rare sight for someone like her. 'Are you really going to let him get to you? All because he has Tom? Stop worrying. Tom will be fine. In fact, that whole part of this will be sorted out soon. Eclipsa told me that Zudo might know what happened to the Lucitors. Once we figure that out, we can rescue them and break Bren's hold on him. Then he'll tear him apart, piece by piece, layer by layer, until he gets to his rotten core and burns it to a crisp. Bren may be strong enough to take on Marco, but Tom's a match for anyone when he goes full demon. Well, at least, now that nobody has magic spells anymore. Just rituals and stuff like I use.'
She bit her lip and took a deep breath. 'Just...calm down...and be yourself.'
"Well?" A sudden voice said, ruining Janna's attempt to calm herself in less than a second. She didn't even have to ask who it belonged to. "Are you going to tell us the rest of the story or not? You've been sitting there for like five minutes just staring at your fingers. Kinda creepy, if I'm being honest."
"Sorry." Janna said. "I was just thinking about something. It's not important."
"That's the second time that's happened, and I'm pretty sure it's been about the same thing both times." Ponyhead deduced. "Is it about your little demon boyfriend?"
"I'm sorry, my what?" Janna asked, painfully standing up and pushing her chair back, hoping for everyone's sake that she had heard the flying unicorn head incorrectly.
"I'm talking about Tom!" Ponyhead exclaimed. "Because he's serving Bren as his own little bodyguard, it's probably really hard for you considering your relationship together."
"Relationship?!" Janna practically yelled, yet another rare thing for her to do. After this, she would swear to never go to another meeting again, as she saw that these things really pushed her, and everyone else, to their limits. She finally understood what Globgor was talking about when he said she really shouldn't go to anymore of them. "We don't have any kind of relationship together Ponyhead. We've hung out a couple times. That's all. It's not like he's my…" She shuddered. "...boyfriend or anything."
"Oh, I beg to differ." Ponyhead rebuffed, while the other Royals wondered how long this was going to go on for. "See, I saw him give you that big book as a birthday present or something. And before you ask how, it's because I was following him to see what he could possibly be doing with such a gift, and what a surprise, he went to your house! I didn't stick around after that, but I think it's pretty obvious what that big ole' tome was for."
"Hold on, you spied on him? Without me knowing about it?" Janna asked, her angry look now replaced with a more addled one. "That's actually kind of impressive, considering that spying on other people is my thing and…...hold on, does this have anything to do with why camera #315 suddenly cut out one day?"
"Maybe." Ponyhead acknowledged. "I did see this little black flashing thing on one of his horns, so I swooped down, took it in my mouth, then flew off so fast that he didn't even know it was me."
"Why'd you do it like that?" Zudo asked, who frankly was starting to enjoy the show.
"I saw some Earth videos of hawks and other weird birds doing that to prey." Ponyhead explained. "So I was practicing my moves for the inevitable day when I dive-bomb Earthturd with my horn after he breaks Star's heart."
"Don't count on that happening any time soon." Eclipsa chimed in, who was now in a slightly better mood after her Snookers feast, and for the fact that she no longer had to participate if she didn't want to. "When we left the hospital, their relationship hadn't changed at all." She paused. "And if you spear Marco on your horn, I can tell you with certainty that Star will rip it off and stab you with it, regardless of any friendship you had with her before."
"I said only when he breaks her heart, which I'm sure is going to happen eventually!" Ponyhead said. "And I know my bestie is not one to forgive and forget!"
"Uh, she totally is." Janna insisted. "Buff Frog, Ludo, Meteora, all of monsterkind. She considered all of them enemies at one point and now none of them are. If Marco breaks up with her, they'll still be good friends."
"Wanna bet?" Ponyhead said. "How about this. By the end of this whole thing, we'll see which one of us knows Star better. If those two are broken up, and it's Marco's fault, then I win. But if they're not, then you win."
"I see." Janna said, smiling as she was never one to back down from a bet like this. "And what do I win if I...win?"
"In that unlikely and unfortunate event, you get to announce on the Ponyhead show, live, that I was wrong, and you were right." Ponyhead declared. She then floated over to Janna, wearing the most cheeky expression that anyone had the discomfort of witnessing, along with an equally disturbing shit-eating grin that should not have been possible for a unicorn. (Or any other creature really.)
"But if I win…" She said. "Then you have to appear on the show, and tell the whoooooooolllleee world that Tom is your boyfriend, and that you plan to get married to him one day."
Janna thought about it for a split second before nodding her head. "I agree to your terms." She said, sticking her hand out, grabbing Ponyhead's horn, and shaking it up and down. "But just so you know, like we were saying earlier, Marco literally put Star in the hospital, and she still loves him, so I think it's clear who had the advantage here."
"Only because he was possessed." Ponyhead recalled, floating backwards to her seat. "But fine. Believe your little lies. When this is all over, you'll have to confess, and I for one can't wait to watch."
"So...do you hate me now then?" Janna asked, puzzled as to why Ponyhead was so adamant about this. "Because it's starting to feel like that."
"No, I just want to see the drama." Ponyhead revealed. "That and Tom's reaction. Once I get a new phone..." The last word was spoken with a tone of obvious disdain. "I can record the whole thing and watch it every night. That or I can charge people to watch it. Make more money for the Ponyhead show."
"Actually…" Eclipsa blurted out. "I'm calling the tv station after this meeting and having your show canceled." She said, speaking in the most deadpan tone anyone had heard her use. "So there won't be any of that."
"...Hehe...what?" Ponyhead asked, unsure if she had heard the Queen correctly. "What did you just say?"
"By the end of the day, your show will be off the air and no one will ever watch it again." Eclipsa emphasized. "Don't bother trying to talk me out of it, because my decision is final."
"Wha-! You-!" Ponyhead stuttered, unable to find the right thing to say. "But WHY?! What do you care about my show? It never did anything to you! You were on it once, remember?"
"And I had horrible ratings, and I think that counts as "doing something."" Eclipsa reminded her. "But it's not that. You have wasted enough time in this meeting by opening your mouth, and several times it's been because of that show. I'm not going to let this continue when all of Earthni is in disarray."
Ponyhead just stared at Eclipsa, mouth wide open, while all the Royals had their mouths open as well, although they were wearing "is this really happening" grins along with it.
"But the real reason is because you wasted our money on it." Eclipsa said. "Don't think we forgot about how you had your sisters steal all the cash we made off of tourism to fund that show. I think it's time I return the favor for stealing all that money by stealing your show away from you."
"..."
"..."
"NO!" Ponyhead shrieked, now crying rainbow tears that streamed down her face like a river and splattered onto the floor. "NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! THIS SHOW IS ALL I HAVE IN THIS SHITTY TOWN BESIDES STAR! AND NOW SHE'S IN THE HOSPITAL BECAUSE OF EARTHTURD! I'M NOTHING WITHOUT IT! DON'T YOU DARE-"
"My decision is final." Eclipsa repeated, almost grinning. "My authority is much higher than yours, so don't waste your time in trying to stop this."
"LIKE HELL! I'M NOT LETTING THIS SHOW DIE! PREPARE TO FACE THE FULL WRATH OF PONYHEAD!"
And with that, Ponyhead flew out of the room at a speed best comparable to Mach 3, bawling and screaming all the way. Her yells could still be heard even when she was out of the building and on the sidewalk, until they finally faded into the distance.
Everyone sat silently and waited for Eclipsa to speak again, most of them wishing they had brought a camera.
"Well then." She said. "Now that she's gone, Janna, would you like to continue the story?"
"Yup." Janna said, holding back her laughter along with the rest of the Royals and Zudo. Even Buff Frog, who had been unusually quiet and stoic, was noticeably amused by this display. "Okay, where was I again? I lost my train of thought after all...that."
"You were talking about how you broke every traffic law in the book on your way to the Sanctuary." The Mayor said, the one person who was displeased with how slow this was all going. (Everyone else was too busy trying to laugh after the Ponyhead incident, even Eclipsa.)
"Oh yeah. Fun times." Janna reminisced. "But whatever. We made it there, found it empty, and we used the tracking device I had placed on Marco at an earlier date to find him."
"Uh, sorry to be a Ponyhead here…" Zudo interjected. "But if you had a tracking device on him the whole time, why didn't you use that in the first place?"
"It slipped my mind." Janna confessed. "There was a lot going on at that time, so I forgot that it existed. Plus, I have so many tracking devices and cameras on so many different people that it created a sort of brain vortex in which none of them existed in my memories until the right moment."
"Doesn't make any sense, but okay…" Zudo mumbled. "And...uh, how many people in town do you have tracking devices and cameras on?"
"Hmmm…" Janna hummed, bringing her hand to her chin before shrugging. "Not sure."
"Can't remember?"
"Having trouble counting that high."
"..."
"..."
"Oh, that's comforting…" King Jaggy muttered sarcastically, a statement which all of the other Royals agreed upon.
"Hold on a second!" Eclipsa said, jumping to her feet. "Janna, do you have one on To-"
"Ponyhead destroyed it, remember? Camera 315. And that was one of the better ones. Took me forever to save enough money to get them all at Questbuy. If there's any drawback to magic being destroyed, it's that I can't get there anymore…"
"Ah. Right. Her." Eclipsa groaned, sitting back down and ignoring Janna's comment about Questbuy.
"Wonder what she'll do to screw us over next."
"Whatever it is, she's probably already done it." Janna sighed. "But there is something else that I discovered with all the cameras that seemed odd. See, I put one on his carriage too, that big thing that's pulled by that flaming unicorn skeleton, and approximately five months ago, it stopped broadcasting. One month after the merge and 3 days before I saw Tom again. And that was when he started acting...weird."
Eclipsa raised an eyebrow at this new information. "Weird how?" She asked.
"He seemed worried about something. Like, all the time." Janna said. "And I could tell because of how he was constantly sweating. And demons usually don't sweat unless they're nervous or lying about something. Because no demon is going to sweat over any amount of heat, they live in hell."
"Five months ago…" Eclipsa mumbled. "That must have been when Bren got to him. We didn't even…" She put her hand to her chin and held it there. "Although it's odd, I thought he only disappeared after he took that vacation a well or so ago. He left, and when he came, he was Bren's servant."
"I'm betting that's what Bren wanted us to think." Janna said. "Because if he's had Tom this whole time and made him act like everything's fine, then who knows what he had him do. Maybe that's how he got some of his information. Tom could have just hung out with us and reported back with whatever he learned. And when it was time for Bren to finally enact his plan, Tom just became us personal bodyguard and teleporter."
"Dammit…" Eclipsa swore, the implications of this meaning that Bren knew even more than initially thought, something that'd no doubt cause them to underestimate him later. She took a few deep breaths to soothe herself, to some effect. "But what were you saying earlier about the cameras?" She asked. "That another one of them stopped broadcasting?"
Janna nodded. "Mmhm. Only this one wasn't like 315, which suddenly went dark and then stopped broadcasting a few minutes later. I assume that was Ponyhead grabbing it off Tom and then covering up with something. But the one I put the carriage cut out instantly like someone destroyed it entirely."
"Do you think it simply fell off and then someone stepped on it?" King Waterfolk asked, deeply wanting for the whole "Tom has been Bren's servant for months and had heard everything single thing said during these meetings" theory to not be true. "We should consider all the possibilities. I know it may seem like a silly thing to say right now, but sometimes things aren't always as bad as we imagine them to be."
"I wish I could say the same." Janna disagreed. "But those cameras were bought as Questbuy, like I said, and they were top of the line. They wouldn't have simply fallen off, and stepping on the damn things might leave a scratch or two, but that's it. It takes a lot to damage them. Someone had to have found it and destroyed it deliberately. And I was pondering over this for a long time, because I hid it in a pretty damn good place…"
"Why are we only learning about this now?" Penelope asked.
"Because I knew what it meant, and I didn't want to believe it." Janna said. "Back then, it meant that something was happening in the Underworld. But I didn't know what. A demon war? Rebellion maybe?
Some stupid kid finding it by accident and taking it apart with a ritual?" She shrugged again. "Who knows. Any of those things could have been the answer. But the one with the kid...something told me that it couldn't have been that easy an explanation."
"Do you think Bren found it then?" Princess Waterfolk asked, ceasing playing with her seaweed hair for the first time since the meeting began. "And then trashed it?"
"...No." Janna said, shaking her head. "Someone definitely found it and crushed it, but it wasn't Bren."
"How can you be so-"
"Because if he had been the one to find it, then he would have known I put it there." Janna then leaned forward and placed her partially casted arms on the table, giving all of them an expression of great awareness. "Let's assume a few things here. First, that Bren has been in control of Tom, the Lucitors, and the Underworld for much longer than we thought. Two, he's had Tom pretend everything is fine and report back to what he heard during these meetings. Three, when he crashed the last meeting and said he hid wiretaps or whatever in places we couldn't reach, that that was a lie. He never needed wiretaps. He already had his personal slave to tell him what happened."
"Hold on, then what about the meeting before that meeting?" King Ponyhead asked. "Lucitor wasn't there, and assuming that he never had wiretaps, wouldn't he have been cut off from that one?"
"Yeah, but did you really talk about anything important during that meeting? I don't think it lasted that long." Janna pointed out.
"We...we didn't." King Ponyhead admitted. "We all wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, as was the process."
"Made up process…" Eclipsa mumbled.
"Exactly." Janna crowed. "And besides, I'm betting he already had everything he needed at that point. That's why he had Tom take that vacation. He needed an excuse to make us think that he nabbed him during that and not months ago." She exhaled dramatically and angled her face towards the table. "What kind of shit did you talk about?"
"Excuse me?" Queen Jaggy asked.
"What did you talk about during these stupid things?" Janna repeated. "Now, I didn't expect you to go through them all or even give me an abridged version, but was there anything particularly important that would've given Bren an advantage over you? And I mean an even greater one than what he has now."
Queen Jaggy's brow furrowed and she put her hands together. "Well...several times we brought out maps of the town and showed where we were going to build new structures, both public, and private."
Janna waved this off. "Something else." She ordered. "I don't think he'd care about new buildings that much." However, she then paused and seemed to regret this statement. "Unless...of course…...how many have been built?"
"Four dozen." Buff Frog chimed in. "One practically on every corner now."
"Tch..." Janna groaned, sounding annoyed by this information. "Okay, now did any have secret passageways? Closets? Hard to find spaces? That kind of stuff?"
"Most of them have panic rooms or sealed off rooms that'd be used in case of an emergency situation." Globgor blurted out. "They're pretty big, but I doubt anyone has actually been in them since the construction was finished. They're pretty well hidden…"
"Open them up. All of them." Janna ordered, putting on a serious tone and sounding scarier than any of the other people in the room. "Look inside and make sure there's nothing in there. None of those barrels or any other explosives. If he's broken in, packed them full of C4 or TNT or whatever, and sets them off all at once, that'll be it." She took a deep breath. "One on every street corner, right? Yeah, the town's not going to come back from damage that bad. The Mansion Avarius explosion was only one blast, and look how bad it's already getting out there. If he sets off four dozen of those things at once…...bye bye Earthni."
"It's...odd, to see you talking like this." Eclipsa said. "I didn't expect you to get this involved with the meeting."
"Didn't really plan on it, but this is my town too." Janna conveyed. "I'd rather not see it, my parents, and all my friends turned to ash. It was bad enough when Marco was killed. That's when I realized I should really get involved with this, even if I didn't show it at the time."
"Weren't you the centerpiece of the plan that vanquished the giant demon?" Rich pigeon asked. "Does that not count as getting involved?"
"There was nobody else who could have saved the day, and I wasn't about to ignore an opportunity to get out of that hospital bed. Even if Bren was the one who did it." Janna explained . "But here, I could just go home and pretend it's all a bad dream, but I'm not. I don't want to watch any more people die because of this. Even though…" Her eyes darted to the ceiling. "I feel like a lot more are going to before we beat him."
None of them said it, but all of the Royals agreed with this. After yesterday, it was clear that whatever came next was not going to be easy, and Bren obviously wasn't the kind of person who strayed away from killing random civilians. His kill count on that side of the spectrum was rising at an unexpected rate.
"I don't get it." Rich said, throwing his wings in the air. "Why doesn't he just kill us all and get it over with? Seems easier than dragging this on and making it harder for himself."
"Because dragging it out is what he wants to do." Janna said. "He's a stereotypical bad guy in a lot of ways. And one of those ways is that he likes to savor victory. So that's what he's doing. He's enjoying watching us all suffer and squabble over this. And I actually respect the fact that he's managed to take to it this far, as well as his level of patience."
"I don't consider waiting six months to murder an entire town is patient." Eclipsa said. "Give it a year or two. But you have a point." She turned towards the Royals. "This is what he wants. For us to fight against him and fail. For us to fight amongst each other and accomplish nothing. And for us to fight the townsfolk when they turn on us."
"When?" Queen Spiderbite asked fearfully. "Not "if" they turn against us?"
"It's going to be a "when" if we don't sort things out." Eclipsa insisted. "We...are running out of time. Janna, finish your explanation, and nobody interrupt again for any reason, or we're telling the townsfolk that it's your fault this all happened."
The Royals all collectively flinched at this announcement, none of them liking the ideas that had been put into their heads because of it. It was quite a dirty tactic for Eclipsa to say something like after. Literally. The mess that'd be left afterwards of whatever unfortunate Royal who got blamed for the whole thing might take a while to clean up. But it was like she had said. Time was short. The fact that the building wasn't being stormed as of right now was morning short of a miracle, was probably only because the townsfolk were too injured and busy with other things to do it.
"Got it." Janna answered. "Alright…" She sighed. "We all hopped back in Eclipsa's car and sped over to where my tracking device said Marco was. The first thing we saw was Marco on the ground and Bren looming over him with bloodied fists, so naturally Star had Eclipsa ram into him and it sent him flying into a nearby tree. We jumped out, grabbed Marco, and left before Bren could catch us. Well...at least, catch all of us. He still managed to rip the back bumper off."
Janna briefly paused her story to take a look around the room, and she saw the insane levels of restraint in the Royal's faces as they fought the urge to not open their mouths to ask more questions. Probably something about where the fight took place or how Bren tanked being hit with a car and then thrown into a tree (something that Janna has already explained when she mentioned it earlier that Marco had gained super-strength and several other abilities while he was possessed, therefore making it abundantly clear that nobody here had retained that knowledge and or connected the dots). Janna didn't mind. She'd just ask Eclipsa or whoever to send it all in an email later, considering that the whole debacle with them being scammed last meeting confirmed that they had computers and a stable internet connection.
"After that, we drove to the hospital, and Star practically threw Marco into the nearest doctors arms." Janna continued, before checking her watch and deciding that there was no way she was going to explain this next part in detail. "Long story short, they can't bring him back, Star goes berserk, Marco is resurrected through some weird means that me and Eclipsa have been...theorizing on, and that's basically the end of that story."
"..."
"Are you serious?" Rich asked. "Surely there's more to it than that."
"There's a bit more, but nothing important." Janna informed him. "Most of what happened next is us driving home and me attempting to get the front desk attendant at the hospital fired because they were totally incompetent at their job. They acted like me at that desk. And I wouldn't want me working for me."
"Quite." Eclipsa agreed. "Now, shall we get back to what we were discussing before that story? Zudo? I believe you were talking about how you were going to tell us everything you knew?"
Everyone looked over to Zudo's seat, fully expecting the boy to speak up again and start spouting every secret he knew like there was no tomorrow. (And in their eyes, there was no tomorrow for him.) After all, he believed this himself. It was one of the reasons he was telling them everything. Because there was really no point in Zudo keeping it to himself if he was going to die for it no matter what…
...
...Only to see an empty seat, the chair neatly pushed in with no sign of Zudo anywhere. His stuffed toy lay vacant on the floor, with a burst seam coming out of its side. The room instinctively froze up as they all realized his sudden vacancy, like he had vanished out of thin air or been teleported. Even the gaggle of guards lining the walls looked surprised, surprised that they hadn't seen him leave either.
"Where...is...he…?" King Ponyhead asked slowly, saying one word a second.
"I-I don't know." Eclipsa said. "He was...he should...did anyone see him leave?"
A collective murmur of "no's" and "I didn't" rang throughout the room, and Eclipsa now knew that they were all as ignorant as her. This...this wasn't right. He couldn't have just left like that. She turned towards the guards.
"Search for him!" She ordered. "Check everywhere! We can't let him leave no matter what!"
The guards all nodded and filed out of the room in a straight line, with about six of them staying behind for necessary protection. Then they started hunting for the boy, checking under the table, on the ceiling, in King Ponyhead's hair, anywhere that could be used as a potential hiding place. They didn't find him, as Eclipsa expected. Wherever Zudo had disappeared too, it had to be far, far, away from her. Even Janna was perplexed by his vanishing, something that made Eclipsa even more uneasy. Because if Janna hadn't seen it, then what chance did any of them have?
"Wasn't anyone keeping an eye on him?!" She asked them, although it was also directed at herself. "There...there is no way he should have been able to-"
"Calm down." Janna said, knowing that things were going to go bad if she didn't do something. "Don't...freak out. Okay Eclipsa?"
"I'm having a hard time not doing that." The Queen said. "First off, Zudo, who had information that we desperately needed to know, had vanished into thin air, just as I asked him if he could tell us said information! I don't if you see that as a coincidence, but I don't. Second, this meeting is still far from over, so even if we don't find him, there is still an astronomical amount of things left to discuss, and I don't know if my heart can take it. And third, once again we have run into another problem that will waste time and make everything worse. So I'm sorry Janna, but I don't think I have it in me to remain that calm."
Janna blinked at Eclipsa, thoroughly disturbed by how out of character she was acting.
"When was the last time you were asleep?" She asked.
"What?"
"Sleep." Janna repeated. "How long has it been since your last nap? Because your eyes look pretty bloodshot if I'm being honest, and along with the bags under them, I think it's pretty obvious that you haven't rested up in a while. So how long has it been?"
"...Approximately 48 hours." Eclipsa admitted. I didn't get any sleep last night, as well as the night before that, because Meteora was crying about something throughout all of it. It...it's been a while."
"Yeah. Okay." Janna said, before turning to Globgor. "Take her home man. And make sure she gets all the rest she needs."
"What!" Eclipsa exclaimed. "I don't need any rest. I'm perfectly fine!"
"Not really." Janna countered. "You've been acting kind of erratic. First there was that suggestion that we ruthlessly kill anybody that might be working with Bren, then when you started getting all pissy at Ponyhead, which you were terrible at hiding I might add, and now this. Eclipsa. For your sake, and everyone's else, go home and get some sleep. You frankly deserve it after the last day and a half."
"But...I can't." Eclipsa protested. "The town...I have to take care of the people. We have figure out where Zudo is and what to-"
"The Mayor and everyone else here can take care of that." Janna reminded her. "We got this."
"Wait." The Mayor said. "Are you saying that I have to-"
"Shut up." Janna snapped at him, before bringing her focus back to the sleep-deprived Queen. "Alright?"
"...Alright." Eclipsa said, finally consenting to Janna's suggestion. She got up and stumbled out of the room, and Globgor was right behind her, making sure his wife didn't flop to the floor and slip into unconsciousness right then and there. The rest of the Royals watched her go with envy, but for once understood that Eclipsa really needed this as they all reflected on how much she must have gone through in those two days.
(Enjoy it while it lasts)
Without saying a word, Janna then got up from her seat and plopped herself down in Eclipsa's before addressing the entire table.
"Okay." She said. "Let's figure this out so you can all get the hell out of here and do your damn jobs."
"Who put you in charge?" Rich asked.
"Would you rather it be you making decisions like this?"
Rich shrunk back at this question like she was holding a knife dangerously close to his head. "...No."
"That's what I thought." Janna shrugged. "And I assume that it's the same for the rest of you, so I'll be taking control until the end of the meeting, considering that I have no doubt been the person here who's done the most work."
"Ahem." A sudden voice coughed, and Janna looked to the far side of the room to see Shawn glaring at her, holding up his blistered and twisted fingers, a byproduct of the countless pages of words he had just typed.
"Sorry. I meant the person who's done the most work except for Shawn." Janna apologized. "But are there any more complaints?"
"..."
"Good." Janna beamed, smirking and placing both of her cast-covered hands on the table. She ignored the confusion-filled look that the Mayor, clearly annoyed that she had appointed herself de-facto leader in Eclipsa's absence. But he didn't care either. Like the others, he was simply glad that someone else offered to take charge, someone that had already proven themselves to be more capable than most throughout the meeting.
"Let's forget about Zudo for now." Janna said harshly. "If he ran away, the guards will catch him. He won't get far. If Bren somehow got to him, then it's not our problem anymore. Nothing we can do about that. But that doesn't matter right now. Because I already figured out what Bren has, the thing that's keeping Tom obedient."
"And that is?" Queen Jaggy asked.
"His parents, duh." Janna said in a monotone voice. "What the hell else would it be? Honestly, I'm shocked it took us this long to figure it out. If Bren's not using Tom's parents for anything against us, then he had to be using them against Tom as leverage. Nothing else to it really."
"So...should we organize a force to rescue them or something?" Penelope asked. "Where are they being kept?"
"The Underworld." Janna said confidently. "I presume Bren has the whole Kingdom under his control. BUT...we can discuss all that later. For now, let's talk about how we keep the townsfolk from ripping us into pieces."
"We don't have the money, the manpower, or anything else like that." The King of the Waterfolk informed her.
"Not without aid from outside resources, which we won't get considering Bren had gotten to them as well."
"That's only a working theory." Janna reminded him. "We have no real evidence besides our own assumptions. We didn't think to ask for outside help after the demon attack, and besides, it's only been a few days since that anyways. So we may get help, or we might not. If we don't, Bren's infiltrated the government. If we do, everyone gets to breathe a sigh of relief. The cavalry has arrived! We'll finally get help and maybe have a chance. But whichever one it is, we should prepare for the option that they're no longer on our side."
"Then what do we do?" The Waterfolk King asked.
"Simple." Janna said. "We do what we did with the demon attack. Scrounge up whatever money we have and rebuild, bury the dead, and move on. There's really nothing else we can do. And before you say that all the money went towards repairs for the demon attack, don't worry. I'll get us a lot more."
"How are you going to do that?"
"I know every dark corner of the internet and of this town." Janna announced. "Trust me, I can make us more money in an day than most people in Earthni have seen in a lifetime. I haven't yet simply because I didn't want to be rich. Keeping a low profile, you know?"
"Sure…" King Ponyhead said. "Then you do that. But even so, how we keep the-"
"We make a promise." Janna said. "We tell them Bren's did this. We tell them that he is behind everything, and that he has been planning this for months without our knowledge thus it was beyond our control. But the promise...we say that we will find, catch him, and have him publicly executed in the town square. They want blood? We'll give them blood. They can soak that stuff up with their handkerchiefs and hang it on their walls once it's all over. But they'll be happy as long as he dies and they get to witness it firsthand."
"Do Earth laws even allow that? Or even allow you to make money on the internet that way?"
"Who cares about the law?" Janna asked no one in particular. "It's basically kill or be killed now. And if the government truly is on his side, then why bother following any laws at all? I never cared in the first place, and neither should any of you."
"Alright...assuming this all works…" Queen Johansen started. "Assuming you get the money we need, convince the townsfolk not to tear our heads off, and make a plan to rescue the Lucitors...how do we catch Bren himself?"
"Once we get the Lucitors, Tom will be free. After that, it's no contest. Without his teleporter, Bren's nothing. We'll just chase him around, put a couple of bullets in his legs, and that's the end of that."
"So that's it then?" Rich asked. "We have a plan now? This is what we do?"
Janna smiled and nodded, but once again struggled to not mention the fire god. Odds were that that thing wasn't going to let it be this easy. She had to find some way to outwit the god without telling the others. Unless, of course, this was all part of its plan. Even with all her occult knowledge and wealth, Janna didn't understand the motivations of the truly divine any better than the next person. Who knew what it was thinking right now.
She shook these thoughts off. That was something to think about later. Even though something else itches at her mind as well. A secondary motive behind all this…...the truth of the Bren's home dimension...the "last of the parallels." A concept that Janna didn't comprehend. But she'd find out. Saving the Lucitors would require so much more than just going to the Underworld and staging a raid on it. She wanted to hit Bren personally and where it hurt. And while it wasn't like her to hold a grudge, she could make an exception this time. And where better to start than with the very thing that made him do this in the first place?
"That's the plan." Janna said. "Are there any problems with it?"
Nobody spoke, as nobody could come up with a better one.
"Perfect." Janna said. "Now…
let's figure out a way to properly invade the Underworld."
End chapter 20
A/N: Well. I'm going to admit, I had fun writing this chapter, especially the Ponyhead parts. Poor Eclipsa. She's going to be taking a break for a while as all this settles down. The next chapter will focus on a few things. Moon and River's visit with Star in the hospital, a look at the whole situation from some of the minor characters, and Ponyhead's frantic attempts to get her show un-canceled. (Spoilers: It won't work.)
But Janna is now in control of the council and finally stepping up to stop Bren's bullshit. Kinda started realizing that after the giant demon, but it only kicked in once Marco died. Showed that this wasn't going to stop unless she actually helped out. As for a few others questions asked during this chapter, some of those will be answered in following ones, like if Bren really has the government under his boot heel (even if he doesn't wear boots), what the hell the Lucitors are up to as prisoners, and where Zudo disappeared off to. He's still alive, don't worry. Even if it seems like I literally and figuratively threw him out of the story.
Until next time.
