By Mikaa
Chapter 5 - All Good Things Must Welcome the Insane One
A/N - Ew, me thinks I pissed off a few readers last chapter. And why would I not have? After all, who likes to see characters die off, after they play through a whole story and grow attached to them? Who here was mad when Aeris died in FF7 or the infamous death in Phantasy Star II (whose heroine I cannot remember)?
That being said, I must point out that if you do not like character death, do NOT read this chapter; though it contains the ending, it WILL have more deaths, and don't expect me to tell you now who lives and dies.
And yes, this is the grand finale; the last chapter. Sure, I could drag this out a wee bit into a few more chapters, but doing so would loose the quality that I seek to present. And now that I sound like George Lucas talking about his Star Wars remakes (and keeping in the vomit for even comparing my statement to THAT), I now go to the grand finale of the Insanity.
And maybe we will yet see Mia in leather whipping Isaac. Who know?
OK, you KNOW I had to bring that back. Ha ha heh... Eeh, I must go before the little mites of doom feast on me for that bad joke...
And now, the finale.
Because I won't shut up.
Ya know, before we go on...
OKOKOKOKOK! DON'T HURT ME!
Geeze, you think that people could take a pun... Not very punny, eh?
Oh well. Enjoy.
Alex laughed, laughed at the pathetic attempts of these cretins to flee from his wrath. Thus far, no one dared oppose him, instead running for their pathetic lives. With his right hand, he imploded a building, altering the physical makeup of several objects to create a massive explosion. With his left hand, he spoke shards of ice, slicing through the bodies of those that fled, just as one mows through fields of grass. With both hands, he buried women and children alive.
With all his might, he laughed. So pathetic, not even the great heroes dared to challengee him?
From the corner of his eye, he saw a man approach. Instinct told him to kill the person, but reflex at that face told him to wait. Felix approached, murder in his eyes. Apparently, he had decided that a suicidal attack was worth the effort to protect these peons.
How wrong he was. How wrong, he was...
Isaac sighed, his breath coming out strained and pained. He could sense his imminent doom, could feel the life fleeting from his body. Maybe it was the loss of Mia. Maybe it was the lack of food. Maybe it was illness, from being tied to the slab of rock. Or maybe it was that nice little wound on his shoulder. Whatever it was, it would not be long before darkness claimed him.
How did this happen? Why did this happen? Why did the Elements seek to torment him so, to torment Mia, to torment even Alex? What had caused him to become so demented, so twisted? Was there a way to help him? Assuming, of course, that one could contain him long enough to try.
But then, there was one person who Alex would listen to. Or might have listened to. Truth be told, Isaac doubted that Mia could be helpful any more, given that Felix had managed to twist her into something more frail, naive, and innocent than she ever was.
"Is something wrong?"
Isaac jerked his head up, staring at her. How she had slipped past his notice, he did not know, nor did he really care. Darkly, he chuckled, shaking his head. "No, nothing's wrong. I'm only dying here."
"Why are you dying?"
Isaac stared at her, wondering if it was a joke; apparently not. "Alex left me here for dead."
"No," she spoke, what seemed like fear entering her eyes. "Alex would not kill anyone. He would not hurt a fly."
Was she serious?
Ivan swore as he watched Garet and Jenna launch a blazing assault against Alex, wondering where Isaac, Mia, and Felix had vanished to, nevermind where Picard had run to. All of them might as well have been dead, given the lovely scene before him. Everywhere were shattered buildings, shredded bodies, melted blades, burning plants, death lingering.
Ivan was about to charge at Alex himself when he heard something behind him. Just as he faced Felix, he felt the blade enter his chest, piercing his heart, crushing his spine. With his last ounce of life, Ivan stared at Felix's blank face, wondering what had drained the life out of him to give him an aura of one without a soul of his own...
"Who do you think hung me here? Who was it that bit me hard enough for me to bleed to death?"
"It could not have been Alex." Mia protested. "He would not do such a thing, even if you asked for it!"
"How do you know!" Isaac could not believe this, he was arguing with his last hours with the woman that was once his wife, who once bore him a son, who once lived at his side. Was there anything left of the woman that he...
Ignoring her latest dodge of his question, Isaac realized what option he had. Sure, it was sick, and just might make her run off, but what choice did he have?
Garet just happened to be looking at Ivan when Felix practically skewered him on his sword. Distracted for only a second, he almost lost his neck to a sharp disk Alex flung at him. Were it not for Sheba shoving him out of the way, seeing Ivan's death would have been the last thing he ever saw.
Noting that he would have to thank Sheba later after they won (IF they did), Garet flung himself to the ground, reaching out to send a wave of hot, acidic air right at Alex. The attack seemed to distract him, and Garet was ready to strike a hot wave of magma at the bastard right when he heard Jenna scream. Turning, he saw Felix charge her, saw the murderous intent in his eyes.
Garet fired, barely missing Jenna with his attack, the beam coming so close that he accidentally singed her clothes and hair. The blast caught Felix square in the chest, incinerating him on contact.
Garet barely had time to breath after the attack; darkness claimed him as something hard smashed him in the head...
"Mia, have you ever had childen?"
She tilted her head inquisitively, as if pondering the content of the question. Isaac held what little breath he had in him, hoping that she would realize the significance of what he said.
"If I had kids, would I not remember it?"
Isaac swallowed. Here it went: "Mia, is there a scar on your abdomen?"
Isaac was not aware that he was holding his breath, watching with all his might as Mia used her hand to inspect her body with her psynergy. She looked at him, puzzlement in her eyes. Before he could speak, words came to his mind. Only they were not his words, they were her words; he was dying. Isaac knew this, yet the words she spoke carried volumes.
"I must go speak with Alex."
Alex felt a twinge of guilt as he saw Felix melted before his eyes. What a waste, all the effort needed to rebuild his mind to obey his superior. What a waste.
On the upside, at least Garet was out of commission, which, assuming he did not suffer from the collateral damage, would offer a wonderful muscle for enforcing his will. And Jenna was too busy crying over her brother.
Which left a man and a woman - Kyle was one of them, he remembered, Sheba, who was of little threat, five kids, two other random persons, and a dog. Sheba was the only one trying to attack him, charging up an attack that they both knew was quite futile. That only left Mia as one to oppo-
MIA!
"Alex, I need to ask you a quest-"
"MIA NO!"
Too late. Mia had warped in right between him and Sheba, and the blonde Jupitarian caught her in a blazing grasp of electricity. Alex could only stare as Sheba unknowingly (or otherwise, it was hard to tell if she knew what she was doing) fried Mia, watching her clothes blaze from the electricity.
"NOOOO!"
Alex fired a ray of pure light, ending Mia's suffering and piercing Sheba's shoulder. Dismissing Sheba as completely out of comission, Alex ran to Mia, holding her, trying to heal her. "Mia, Mia, speak to me!"
"Isaac? Is that you? I...I can...can't hold on..."
"No...NO!"
Alex rose, dropping Mia. Despite his molding, despite his efforts, despite all of this power, he could not bring her to love him. HIM! Him who taught her the value of life! The one that taught her how to heal, the one who saved her from Saturos and Menardi, the one who saved her from death from falling at the Jupiter Lighthouse, the one who saved the world by himself...
She did not love him.
"No...NO!"
Jenna only noticed Alex when she barely had her tears under control. Why was her brother attacking her? What had gotten into him? What-
She saw Alex, saw him gathering massive ammounts of energy into his hand, and for all purposes, Jenna gave up. There was no way that they would win, not with virtually everyone of power needed dead or missing. Tears in her eyes, Jenna stared, wondering when the blast would consume her.
Only it did not: Alex turned the blast on himself, obliterating himself with his own attack. Jenna stared, confused beyond words. What just happened?
It took years to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle. They found the hidden cave where Isaac had been left to die, they had pieced together that Alex must have killed himself when Sheba killed Mia by accident. They deduced that Alex was manipulating Felix all along, despite Sheba's statement that Felix was Felix until that battle.
Years later, Jenna shook her head. So many died at the hands of Alex, so many pointless deaths. Watching her children running in the fields of Vault, Jenna sat next to her husband on the porch of their house, leaning her head on Garet's shoulder.
One thing never did make sense: what had driven Alex insane?
End of Story
Yeow. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOO dead now. Mmh hmm. Yep. So dead. Lemme see, I killed Felix, Ivan, Isaac, Mia, Alex, Picard; injured Sheba and Garet, killed (or implied killed, take it as you will) scores more, and destroyed all of Vale as we knew it. Oh, and had Felix in the nice position of not only having a former (sexual?) relationship with Alex AND tried to kill Jenna? AND showed a future with Garet and Jenna married?
That last one aside, I would be suprised if anyone reviews this (neverminds reads and/or reviewed my fics) in the near future.
Anyway, I hope you did enjoy this to some degree, as it was quite a challenge to write, in more ways than one.
And with that, I now join the leagues of author's who have pissed off their fan base. Yee haw. Now I am officially on the same level as George Lucas. Damn.
Mikaa, Lord of the Flypaper, Resident of Ch'Kal'A in Animal Crossing: Wide World
- To be fair, I am not completely against George Lucas. The man does have some qualities, namely keeping the Special Effects section of "Horrywood" up to date. But when your company officially licenses a series of novels (namely the Star Wars books by Timothy Zahn), I get pissed when he throws away one of the best written works of our time with his piss-poor plot and acting with the prequels. That's my 50 Cents, and no, I don't mean that pathetic game. Ok, enough ranting, time to go kill more things. Er, I mean, Zombies. Gotta play Castlevania Double Pack. Really.
Bye, yall!