Chapter 25 - Death Becomes Her

So she's finally figured it out... she took longer than I expected her to, he thought as he sat there, waiting for her arrival. He looked around the dull room, sunlight pouring in through the high windows, every molecule of dust highlighted for him to see. Each one in a macrocosm of its own, living its life as an individual, occasionally bumping into others like it as they swirled around in mystical patterns through the air. If only I could be one of them, I wouldn't have to worry about any of this nonsense or have to keep up this charade. Life would be so much simpler... but then, that's half the fun, never knowing what's going to happen next... it's the difficulties that make it worth living. He perked his ears up as he heard the hum of the hovercar engine in the distance. Rising from his seat, he stood in the doorway, keeping his face just outside of the sun's reach. Might as well look mysterious, after all, I am supposed to be dead... he mused, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

He waited as the hovercar pulled up, outside the building. He watched as Destiny got out and made her way over to him. He smiled as he saw her reluctance to speak, to break the moment.

"You took your sweet time getting here Miss Morad. You took longer than I had expected at first. Come inside, we have a lot to discuss."

Still muted, Destiny trudged inside, followed by Gaspar as Spekkio stayed by the hovercar, a large smirk on his face. "Always has to be dramatic... whatever happened to underplaying the moment? And the hamminess of it all..." Shaking his head, he slowly ambled after the two into the building.

"So, let me guess... you want to know why I faked my own death?"

"It would be a good place to start at least Gaspar. I'll just add it to the list of things I've needed to ask you whilst you've been gallivanting around time and space." Destiny folded her arms, a scowl across her face as she tried to effect a schoolmistress's expression.

Suppressing a smile at the ever-so serious girl stood before him, Gaspar tried to explain himself. "Well, first and foremost, I had to go and do certain things without the Black Wind knowing about them. If I simply disappeared, they would get suspicious so I had to make sure that they wouldn't try and track me down so I faked my own death. Of course, it may all be for naught now..."

"Why? What happened?"

A voice came from behind her, "I escaped." Destiny span round to see Spekkio slump forward, landing face-first on the floor, smoke rolling off of his corpse. Behind it stood a woman, silhouetted in the doorway, the light shining through her green hair.

"Alyssa," came the hiss from behind her as Gaspar stepped forward to confront his one-time ruler. "I didn't think you'd be coming back... at least, not this soon."

"Just who the hell is Alyssa?" said Destiny, confused as to just what was going on.

"I believe that would be Queen Zeal to you my dear, or even mother," came the woman's cold voice.

"WHAT! You're not my mother! I remember my mother! She loved me, cherished me, held me close to her when I had nightmares! You're not even capable of those things! Not any more!"

"Ahh... how little you know darling and how little you understand... but that is not my concern at the moment. And as for you Guru Gaspar, things aren't going to go at all well for you." Lifting her hand, she stretched it out, palm-first in Gaspar's direction. A shock of lightning bolted from her hand and leapt straight at him.

Standing there, he knew he'd been hit, but for the life of him, he couldn't feel any pain. Slowly his eyes lowered themselves to look at the gaping hole that now lay within his chest, instantly cauterised by the heat of the blast. Looking back up at Alyssa, he uttered only two rather uncharacteristic words before toppling over backwards, dead before he hit the ground.

"Oh shit."

Destiny was shocked for this time, Gaspar was definitely dead. Summoning a fireball, she threw it at Queen Zeal who idly batted it away. "You think you can actually hit me? HAH! You amuse m--"

She was interrupted by Destiny's fist smashing into her face, knocking her to the floor. Quickly straddling her, Destiny grabbed the one-time monarch by the hair and slammed her head down into the ground.

"You fucking bitch! I should kill you now! Hell, why don't I just kill you?"

"Because, now that Gaspar is dead, only I can bring Crono back from the dead after Lavos kills him!" Getting me out of here might be a good idea...

"Like you'd do any such thing! I'm surprised you haven't killed him yourself yet! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill you now."

"Because you're a good person at heart, I made sure of that daughter." Anytime now might be really great...

"Quit with the daughter crap! You never gave birth to me! You never tucked me in at night! You never stroked my hair and sung to me when I couldn't sleep!" she screamed, tears streaming from her eyes.

"You'd like to believe that wouldn't you?" Alyssa coldly replied, her mind screaming something else. Get me the fuck out of here now!

"YOU'RE." She slammed Alyssa's head to the ground, knocking her unconscious

"NOT." She slapped Alyssa in the face, sending a spray of blood out of her mouth.

"MY." She grabbed Alyssa by the throat, blocking off her airway.

"MOTHER!" She smashed Alyssa's head to the ground... or at least tried to. Instead, Alyssa's head passed through it, into the vortex that was opening up beneath her. Quickly, Destiny dove to the side to avoid falling in herself. As she rolled, she reached out, grabbing hold of Alyssa's leg as she fell into the gate.

"Dammit! I'm not gonna let you get away!" she screamed, trying to drag her back out to face her, but the vortex had already started to close. In a rush, it slammed shut and Destiny fell backwards, left only holding the bottom of Queen Zeal's leg, neatly sliced off diagonally through the shin, the vortex having claimed the rest of her body...