Thankyou to everyone so much! I really used a lot of material from your reviews, even copying and pasting bits (Look out for them) Shekron really shows a side we haven't seen before. Really surprised me! Stay tune, only three or four chapters after this and it all ends… (By the way, the OC's will be redeemed at the end of the fic as not to upset things more than I should)
I apologise in advance for any provocative words that Shekron may utter out. It isn't personal, it's just Shekron.
"Congratulations indeed my young adversary. You have proven yourself a foe worth writing!" says Shekron. His shady form walking towards Robin. "Do I react as one in Shockz? No. I knew of course you would… it was written, and it will be written again. It is your destiny, your lot, your fate… Predictable…"
Robin stands tall and ready for him with sword in hand. Shekron steps on what remains of Grievous's arm crunching it.
"I think this battle will prove very interesting." smiles the Octari. "You have questions? I know…"
"Why?"
"That is a good question…"
"What is this fight going to prove Shekron?" says Robin. "What does our strength prove?"
"It proves who the better is. It is the way of the warrior."
"It is not the way of the hero…"
"No." Shekron says firmly. "Wrong. Incorrect. There have been many heroes in history that have done as I have, let alone fiction. Heroes are merely those that people idolise, may they be do-gooders, great thieves, soldiers, murderers or even singers. Hero is a loose term…"
"Not for true heroes…"
"True? Do you know the truth? Truth changes all the time, many truths are lies. True love for example, yes I have heard of that term so many times. You hold it as one of your weapons against me, but think… what is love? Love is an emotion, a feeling of want and need to be accepted, it is a basic need of survival, compatibility with others. It is nothing more and nothing less."
"You're wrong Shekron! Love is more than that!"
"True! It's also lust, greed and lies. And what is wrong? What is right changes as much as love, if not more so. Evil is in the eye of the beholder! In a few years time, it might be legal for kids to kill their parents to stabilise the unsustainable population. Who can tell? Murder? It's just a release of soul before the inevitable. Greed? What's wrong with greed? It's as essential to man as love! Vows are mere words that can be overwritten. Morality is a thing of the past. Cloning, abortion, homosexuality, illegal immigration, witchcraft, politics, women in warfare, euthanasia, evolution, even wearing a bikini for crying out loud, have all changed in views over time! Wrong is also a very loose term."
"You haven't answered my question…"
"You haven't rebuked my answers."
"What will strength prove? Do we even feel pain? Do we even die?"
"A good point. I am glad you are thinking." smiles Shekron. "Last time we met, the rules were open. You can die and not die, fall yet not fall; it was all up to the imagination. Immortal. But now there must be an ending. Here, death is now real in order that an end can be brought about. All will be killed until two are left, a classic scenario, where those last two determine the final victor. You have seen and killed those others yourself. There will be no more than two, and then finally one… it is the same for us villains as for you heroes… the field is level… all deaths are and have been final. If they were destroyed in body, that body cannot be revived, if they fall in lava, get their brains blown out, wreathed in black flame for a few examples; their body count cannot be added again; the science of reduction. Start with many until you have barely anything left…"
"What was that?"
"A Jackalobe…"
"What's a Jackalobe?"
"A cat…"
"A cat…?"
"Don't you know what a cat is?"
Jackalobe is a large domestic cat with big paws. He is white with brownish greyish spots and a big mouth, for meowing. He did that a lot as he walked around and around Robin's legs. Robin picks him up and strokes him.
"It is… strange…" says Robin as he comforted the needy cat.
"You feel the dissimilarity don't you." says Shekron. "The great difference between reality and fiction…"
"This cat… it's…"
"More real than you will ever be." says the Kaizer. "You, we, are but figments of the imagination. Written as people think we are, and used in ways that they want us to behave. This 'cat' is different. It is not like us. For one it is an animal of the feline group, we are humans in genus sapiens if you believe in it. But above all, the cat is not a character, this cat is real, it is in the real world. It has real actions, real reactions and possibly real friends and certainly a real family. This cat is an infinite number of times more significant than us because it is real…"
"And your point?" says Robin. Jackalobe gets restless and hungry. Seeing Robin doesn't have any food, it leaps out of his arm and disappears. He had a feeling that he might see the cat again… as if they were somehow connected…
"Everything is connected Robin… everything shares a common… you and I for instance are very alike…"
"You were saying something important…?"
"I want to be more than what I am… being worth less than a cat is somewhat degrading. It is one reason why I will, I MUST take my revenge…"
"But why?"
Shekron draws his sword and robin stances with legs ready for anything.
"This sword killed me once." says the Octari. "I died a monster of my people. I betrayed them to a dark power for my own devices, and so I perished, subdued by a hero not unlike you."
"What has that got to do with now?"
"Everything!" says Shekron darkly. "Why else did I turn from my path as the narrator to your pathetic saga? REVENGE!"
"But it was not I who killed you…"
"True again! But it is not you who I am after!"
Robin lets out a grimace. "The writers…"
"Right again! You're on a roll! They killed me! They sealed my fate in their imagination and damned me to an everlasting death as a despised being, in a death that pays me back for the wrongs I had done! Wrongs that they themselves knew I was going to do and could have prevented, but they do otherwise! Everything that I do, do not blame me; blame them! (Very large expletive) ONE OF THOSE SICK REVIEWERS EVEN WANTS ME TO BECOME A FEMALE SEX BOMB AND JOIN YOU WHILE FORSAKING EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE THUS FAR CHOSEN! EVERY DEATH I CAUSED IS NOT MY FAULT, ONLY THEY HAVE THE POWER TO DOOM US! WHY? I ASK YOU! WHY?"
Robin cannot answer.
"You asked, yourself, why to me once… And I know the reason… entertainment." sighs Shekron, composing himself. "That is why I am on my mission! That is why I must either kill you, or see that you join me. My revenge!"
"But why do you need to fight me?" says Robin angered. "Why did you choose us?"
"Ha! Do you think I had any choice? Do you think I have much choice now? HA! It was the writer! That cursed, lazy, pathetic looser who is typing at his leisure to create some monster of a screen of tiny squares."
"BUT WHY ME? WHY DO YOU NEED TO FIGHT US TO GET REVENGE? WE ARE THE SAME HERE!"
"WRONG ROBIN! WRONG A THOUSAND FOLD WRONG! YOU ARE VERY DIFFERENT TO US! YOU ARE A 'HERO' THE ONE WHO TRIUMPHS! I AM THE ONE WHO DIES AND GETS DESTROYED TIME AND TIME AGAIN, THE ONE WHO IS NOT VICTORIOUS BUT A BITTER LOOSER! YOU THOUGHT LIVING YOUR ENDLESS STRUGGLE WAS PAINFUL? THEN THINK OF YOURSELF AS US! AS ME! AT LEAST YOUR ENDINGS ARE HAPPY! AT LEAST AFTER EVERY FICTION YOU CAN GO LAUGHING WHILE WE, WHILE EVIL CHARACTERS LIE IN THE MUD, IN FIRE OR INCARCERATED ONLY BECAUSE SOME IDIOTIC WRITER THINKS IT AMUSING! THINK ABOUT IT! WHY ME? WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN YOU? IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN, IT COULD HAVE BEEN YOU! I WAS HERE FIRST, I AM MORE POWERFUL, AND I KNOW MUCH MORE THAN YOU! I DESERVE MORE! WHY DO I HAVE TO DIE WHEN YOU YET LIVE? WHY? ANSWER ME! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE ME?"
Robin had never really thought about it that way before. Now that he did, he now could only imagine the horror of the villains, the pain that they would go through under the puppetry of the authors. Far worse than being trapped as a good guy, the heroes…
Shekron continues, "The disparity, the unfairness! It is true; I am like yet not like you. You have an appearance, but instead, I am flat and one-dimensional; only black words on a white screen. The others, like you, are vibrant and remembered in colour pictured exactly from popular media and perception. I am nothing but a hazy blur incapable of reinstating myself fully in another imagination. Through all their inconsistencies, variations, and different phases, you Titans are complete and make up part of one team. I stand, nay, I weep alone as an indefinite blob of imagination. The names may change, personalities may alter, crushes may swerve and sway- yet the Titans still remain, but I am a vague mist, without hope or ever a chance of redeeming myself. You see why I fight… you are right, we need not fight now. Just join my fight! Take a stand for yourself Robin. Go with the feeling you have right now! Stop being the puppet of mankind. Be one for yourself… for us…"
Robin almost rushes over to his side immediately. That was how he felt when the void was released, that is how all characters would feel, lost and confused with hate and anger. The writers should pay for this. He was right! He was so right! They were just hazy pictures being used, being abused by the imagination continuously. If not now, will they ever be able to get a chance like this again? He would have been won over… if he wasn't paused by a thought…
"Why?"
"As before…"
"Why did you kill that child?"
"It wasn't me… it was the writer…"
"Then how are you rebelling if you are controlled?"
"The writer can only do so much in controlling us in this realm… he cannot pull out things beyond what is reasonable to our thinking…"
"Then did you kill that child…?"
"Yes… it was the writer who gave me the choice… I took the one that suited my way, my intentions and my mission…"
"To get revenge…"
"Yes…"
"How was it revenge?"
"I pained the writer. He did not enjoy the death…"
"I cannot join you…"
"Too afraid to make sacrifices for the cause? The writer does it all the time. It is not like we can REALLY die here anyway…"
"You cause is corrupt Shekron!" says Robin, finally getting his nerves back. "You would kill me just to pain the writer once, but your pain is unsatisfiable! You will continue to cause pain and suffering until the writer dies and your existence is stopped into this story. Then you would be nothing but a bitter memory that swallowed us. Is that all you want to achieve? And the writer will hate the evil… as I do…"
"Do you not feel the same urge? I know you do…"
"I do feel pained Shekron, but that is no reason to take revenge. I know this story will end up with good winning over evil. I KNOW it will be. No end deserves to be evil. If we were to fight the writer, then we would use the powers of good, not evil! I would see that end, even if it means losing myself…"
"You do not yet know the pain Robin! The pain…" sighs Shekron. "Pain has to be measured by pain. For good to win, evil must be defeated… cruelly. Can you stomach that? Can you stomach my sacrifice for this story? That I should go down in hell flame each time the writer wants a happy ending? Evil is nothing! Good is nothing! In between is pointless and confused! Break the fourth wall!"
"It doesn't need to be that way Shekron!" says Robin pleading. "Right now this story can end! Right now you can just convert to good. Anything is possible! That way you don't have to die! That way there can be an end to all this mess, and it will be good and you will be forgiven and you will be triumphant alongside us! Your revenge is pointless! Just let go of your hate and want of revenge! Seek out a different path, strike a good road… Join us! Help us! Shed the evil and take on a different mantle…"
Shekron pauses a while… his insides churned, trying to cling on to his own words, pains and understanding… but Robin was right. This story could just end now. Shekron could just become good, and that would be it. A happy ending. No need for brainwashing, serums, sex change or obliteration. An ending where there doesn't need to be any anger, hate or suffering. It was his choice…
"No!" screams Shekron. "NO! Good will triumph over evil and the story will end like every other boring story. The only true form of originality would be contained in any stories where the villains defeat the heroes. I will not be a fool to my own predictability! I won't be used by the writer to promote his views! I want my own choices! I want my own power!" and the realm begins to tremble like an earthquake. The lava spews, vapor geysers out, rocks tremble and crack, crevices widen and clash together. Robin plants his sword in the ground to steady himself.
"Shekron! There is still good! Let go of your pride before it destroys you! Let go of evil!" shouts Robin. "It is the only way…"
"NO! I shall not listen to a puppet! My pride is the only thing that is keeping me who I am, away from the thoughts of that despicable puppet master! There is no such thing as evil! Only us! Only me in this realm! It is the only way? The only way to satisfy the imagination! Why could not have I been a writer! Look at me! LOOK AT ME! Am I not also now feeling, as knowledgeable AND AS POWERFUL AS A WRITER? Why should they be allowed to rule us? Why couldn't it have been I? WHY NOT ME?"
"I AM NOT A PUPPET SHEKRON!" yells Robin through the dense smoke that lifts, with even greater ferocity than Shekron. "JUST BECAUSE PEOPLE DECIDE TO PUT ASIDE EVERYTHING FOR OTHERS, TO STRIVE FOR PEACE AND MORALITY DOESN'T MAKE THEM A SLAVE TO GOOD AND TO OTHERS! JUST BECAUSE I CHOSE DIFFERENTLY TO WHAT OTHERS THINK AND WANT DOESN'T MAKE ME A FOOL, IT IS MY FREEDOM! I HAVE THE SAME CHOICES AS YOU SHEKRON; EVEN IF YOU SAY THE WRITER IS DICTATING MY LIFE, JUST REMEMBER THAT IT IS ONLY BY HIS WILL THAT YOU ARE ALSO ABLE TO REBEL AGAINST HIM ANYWAY! I COULD HAVE CHOSEN TO FOLLOW YOU BUT I DIDN'T, I COULD HAVE CHOSEN THE PATH FOR MY OWN GLORY BUT I WOULDN'T, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT ANY CHOICE FOR GOOD IS MERELY THE WANT OF THE WRITER? EVEN IF THE WRITER WAS EVIL I WOULD STILL CHOOSE TO BE A HERO WHO FIGHTS FOR WHAT IS RIGHT! GOOD IS A CHOICE TOO!" and he lifts his sword as Shekron approaches. "This is not the writers' choice! I have chosen this, because I know that it is right … and you do too… don't you?"
Shekron stops in front of Robin, both with their swords clenched. The wind drifts between them and the quake seems but a nightmare in the past…
"No… But what about me…?" says Shekron calmly. "What about what I want? I want the same power… I want the same control… it is a dream… I want it. Let go of that which I want? No…"
"You know where you're going to end up, but its how you get there that makes all the difference. It isn't all about one person…"
"No?"
"It isn't about you…"
"No?"
"I don't want fame, power or money. If I had all that and I look around myself, I realise how poor I really am… Having to depend on all that for my happiness, and even then I would still want more, wanting to be 'another dollar richer' forever… Happiness isn't about me! It isn't about getting what I want, but being happy with what I have… I'm happy that I'm here, that I can say words and that I can still love and hope and fight for it… Are you?"
The silence drifts between them and the wind seems but a dream in the past…
…
…
…
…
…
"No…"