Chapter 66: Like Dominoes

Perspective: Destiny/Shadow/Kay


She rolled one of the multi-coloured crystals in her palm, feeling its strange pull eb and flow as she did so. She clasped the key between the fingers on her other hand. Destiny couldn't help but feel this left her vulnerable, but she needed to do something with her hands.

"Feeling nervous?" sneered Freak, who strolled along on her left.

His toothy grin remained unaffected by the lighting, remaining the same shade of sickly, glowing yellow no matter where they went in the hall. She tried to distract herself by focusing on her mental map of the place. The prison was only a few steps away.

"Yeah," Destiny muttered. "I am. I just drugged half my friends. I'm working with the Tower's top torturer. And I'm on my way to open Pandora's box, except instead of all the horrors of the world inside, it's an attempted child murderer."

Freak wheezed, bending almost horizontal and digging his taloned fingers into his knees. Destiny stopped and looked back. Just as she was beginning to feel worried, the head shot up and the disgusting smile shot back into plain view.

"You really think I'm the Tower's top torturer? That means so much to me!"

Destiny groaned and marched off. She had half a mind to take a wrong turn and lead Freak right into the Command Room, let Tyron settle affairs. It certainly felt better than the current plan of letting Kay loose and hoping he caused enough of a distraction to cover their escape. But the right thing to do never feels right, does it? Anyway, she couldn't complain, this was her idea.

Despite her attempt to abandon him, Freak phased through a wall in front of her.

"Oh, come on, Destiny!" he laughed. "Isn't that the sort of connection you've been looking for all evening? A last meaningful conversation with a friend?"

Destiny quickened her steps.

"Well, how did that go? They explicitly told you they weren't your friend, and you spent the rest of the night playing waitress."

Her footsteps became more powerful, more violent. Much harder and she'd have worried about breaking the clay tiles on the floor.

"Don't get me wrong, it looks like they had a good night, and you played a key part in enabling it. But is that really enough to make them your friends? To make them willing to forgive you for what you're about to do?"

Destiny realised she had started running. Her ponytail trailed behind her, and Freak kept perfect pace with it.

"I hate to say it, Destiny, I'm the best friend you've got left."

"Shut up, Freak!"

She stopped, slid on the tiles and whirled around. Her teeth were bared like fangs, matching his horrid grin. She had some choice words for this phantom piece of-

An overwhelming force slammed her into the wall. Her spine straightened against the hard stone, bending all the air out of her, and she felt the key slip from her hand. In its place she rapidly summoned an icicle to throw at her assailant. Before her, a shower of purple particles rose from the floor, and Shadow appeared. Destiny realised the icicle might not be as effective as she'd hoped, and her hopes had not been high to begin with.

"Oh, hey, Shadow, how's it hanging?" Destiny asked without even a hint of emotion.

"Where do you think you're going, Destiny?"

Destiny fought the urge to shoot a look at Freak, who she hoped wouldn't be noticed.

"Just having my evening jog. Are you going to put me down anytime soon so I can continue it?"

Shadow mock-quizzically tilted her head. "Interesting evening routine. Drugging everyone, then some cardio. Luckily for you, you used a sedative stolen from my brother's supply so nobody's going to end up dying from an overdose. And unluckily for you, my brother didn't know about dwarves and their resilience when he made it. Poor Urist looked like he was having war flashbacks."

Destiny felt her stomach twist. Both from realising someone had gotten away - she'd thought she'd seen Urist shift a little on the carpet but had dismissed it as paranoia and from sympathy for her victims. But there was a task to be accomplished. She cast her eyes up and down the hall, only allowing them to rest on Freak for a split-second to avert suspicion. She then began to wrestle against the invisible bonds pinning her to the wall.

"Sorry, there wasn't enough to go around. I'll fetch extra next time."

She threw the crystal past Shadow's head, missing on purpose.

"I guess I'm just a bit of a screw up," Destiny smiled wryly, making sure to grunt with effort. "I never could finish the job."

She hoped Freak would catch her drift. Take the crystal and do what he could. Bring this to an end. Save them all. He was an unlikely hero, but- wait, what was he doing?!

"Shadow."

Freak had become fully visible, grinning unimpeded. Destiny felt her brain stop. Was Freak sticking his neck out for her?

"I'm behind all this. How about you let her go and we talk this out like adults. I assure you, it's a mutually beneficial arrangement."

Shadow did not respond at first. She just turned her head slowly, stared Freak down, then slowly turned it back to Destiny.

Suddenly, Destiny felt a sudden pressure on her mind, as though her thoughts were drifting towards a single point. She tried to resist it, repressing the details of her and Freak's plan as best she could, but some things she couldn't stop thinking about: the plan to kill the Entity; why she needed the crystals; the grey, seething nothing at the end of everything.

She saw Shadow's skin become a shade darker than dark. Wodahs began to warp and change behind her. Destiny felt that fight-or-flight instinct rise to the surface again - a reaction triggered by the gut feeling that something was irredeemably wrong about Shadow's nature. She readied for the unknowable mage to destroy her in a sudden blast of heat, or to do whatever she did to the Book, but then her form normalised.

A deep sigh came from Shadow. "Fine then. I've seen enough. Go do what you set out to do, as long as it can kill the Entity, it is the only option." She turned to Freak. "I do not like you being involved in this at all, but evidently you know the outcome of what the Entity intends."

Destiny felt herself being slowly lowered to the ground. Shadow spoke again, more to herself this time: "This either dooms or saves us all, one way or another. I know my part."

Destiny dropped suddenly and landed on her knees. She eyed the key and looked at Freak. The phantom laughed.

"You know your part, do you? Oh, that's reassuring. What are we now, Entropy?"

Shadow turned away from Destiny and looked at Freak with an unreadable expression.

Freak said: "You do realise you're not the first, right? You're the first to cause it a problem in a while, but other Embodiments have come before. If my plan succeeds, they'll come after."

Destiny's mind flailed. Did Shadow know about the plan to release Kay? Was this an approval? Or had she managed to keep that part submerged? She pulled herself up, grabbed the key and ran.

She ran continuously until she reached the prison. The guard saw her running like a thing possessed and yelled 'Halt!' She didn't. He drew his sword. Destiny froze him solid.

Down the stairs she ran, the razor-sharp icicle held before her like a lantern. She nearly tripped and broke her neck at least three times. And, after a moment's breath, she sprinted down between the empty cells, past the glass and iron, and the signs of names that would never have been caught dead here - that she never would have let get here alive - until finally she skidded to a halt in front of the cell she needed.

The Shelter's former Commander sat in the corner of his rough-hewn cell, his fringe like a curtain over his face, and his knees hugged to his chest.

"Kay," she muttered. "Rise and shine. You're needed."

His head slowly lifted, then jerked suddenly into life as he heard the click of the lock. He leapt to his feet but remained pressed against the wall. His green eyes were bloodshot.

"Destiny… what are you doing?"

"I'm letting you go."

She pulled the door open and gestured for him to come out. He nodded and stepped tremulously forward, limping slightly.

"Might I ask why?"

"I need you to kick up a fuss. Start a riot. Win a war. Try and kill another kid. I don't care. Just make sure no one notices me leaving."

Kay's lips pressed tightly together. He became less shaky - being pissed off seemed to steady him. Destiny wished she could have said that was deliberate.

"I'm still waiting on a why, Destiny."

Destiny sighed.

"I'm going to kill the Entity."

Kay's face flattened for a second, all emotions disappearing from it, and then suddenly a desperation crept back in.

"Then, I'm coming with you."

Destiny started to walk away.

"You're not. Freak and I will barely be able to sneak past security as is. I'm only useful because I'm a magic-user."

He grabbed her shoulder and forced her to lock eyes with him.

"I need to make things right, Destiny. Please."

Destiny brushed his hand off and gave him a glare that could melt steel.

"Okay, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you Kay, I put a good amount of faith in you as a leader and look what you went and did with that. Beyond how screwed up that stuff with Helix was - which it was - it shows you are just the stupidest, least useful asshole on the planet - any planet. You want to restore my faith in your abilities? Be a good diversion, get off my back."

He began to tear up. She rolled her eyes. He sucked in a lot of air and recomposed himself. In his poshest accent:

"Very well, I'll be the best damn diversion you've ever seen. I know just what will get their attention."

He grabbed Destiny by the wrist and dragged her back to the glass cell opposite his own.

"I just need you to open this cell for me."

She looked inside and saw a set of grey scales.

"Nope," she shook her head. "Not doing that."

"Trust me, I need him."

He gave her a look that burned with desperation yes, but also an ambition that almost recaptured the confidence he'd displayed back when she voted for him all those weeks ago.

"Fine."

She blasted the window with fire until the magical seal broke, and the glass cracked. She stopped, then began to march away. The enderman sat on his bed, looking confused.

"Rest is up to you."

Kay laughed to himself, nodding furiously.

"It's all I need. Good luck."

She heard glass shatter as Kay kicked in the window.

Then, she heard him backing away, crunching across the glass. And the pad of the enderman walking across the carpet of his cell. Then, another sound of crunching. She cast a glance back. The enderman towered over him, and she wondered if this was all a waste of effort. Then, he shot one of his mad, desperate grins.

"Truce?" he asked.

"Depends. What are your terms?" asked Silver.


Destiny was out of sight, Freak was still very much in front of Shadow.

He repeated his question: "So, what are we now, Entropy?"

Shadow thought for a moment, then replied: "Yes, but that's not the point. I'm not just some sentient cosmic force. As opposed to the Entity, I was a person before I became what I am. I am a sister who values her brother above all else because of the lengths he went to make sure I could live my life free."

"That's a narrow definition of personhood," Freak grinned. "It has feelings, you know? It's good at hiding them, but they exist. It's afraid. Afraid of you, specifically. That was a shock. But above all, before all this, it was lonely. It was a puddle of Order, unable to affect anything, just waiting for creation to come within its reach. And when it finally got near enough, it grabbed hold of everything, and vowed never to let it go."

He began to circle Shadow.

"I've watched you, I've listened to the way they talk about you. You're alone, too. Are you and the Entity really that different?"

"I'm not about to lay down the entire inner workings of my mind to a known manipulator."

Shadow thought back on her first confrontation with the Entity, back at the blood-soaked battlefield, then to her second. She had seen the Entity's fear in the way it stepped back after realizing it couldn't absorb her. Felt it resonate through spacetime wherever their areas of influence intersected.

She added: "However, I will answer your question. The difference lies in the fact that while the Entity is motivated by its desire to grow and possess more, I am motivated by my desire to not lose someone specific. One of those motivations does not involve the destruction of existence if left undisturbed."

Freak cackled. He stepped into a wall and out of sight.

"Well, that's your stance. Of course, I'm not going to question your motives…"

Shadow looked around. Still no sign of him. He seemed to have almost completely dropped from reality, slipped into the dreamscape.

"But I would like to see them."

Freak lurched out of the wall, teeth like fangs and eyes like yellow, jaundiced pits. And stretched before was its talon, aimed right between her eyes. Then it stopped, just above the skin.

Shadow felt the phantom probe at her mind, very clumsily since her mental workings were radically different from what Freak was used to.

"No reaction?" asked the Phantom.

He backed away.

"Well, aren't you tough? Or you maybe knew that would never work. That I'd die if I did it. Again, same as the Entity. It'd suck me in. You'd unravel me."

He clasped his hands together behind his back and started to strut around.

"You think you're so smart, don't you? So enlightened and wise. All-seeing, whether you like it or not."

Shadow shook her head. She had to give it to Freak, he was good at what he was doing. Just wrong on one account.

"No, not really. You might have been right a year ago, before all this happened but you happened to catch me at the lowest point of my confidence. Congratulations, I guess. The issue with being so damn powerful is that there is so much more room to screw up, and I've done plenty of that. Tell me Freak, are you done? Or will you keep going until you find something that scares me, it's just what you do, right?"

"You see, Shadow, that's what I'm talking about. You see everything. Heck, you even saw Destiny's mind. Kicked your way right through the wall. Saw my whole plan. Tell me, what did you learn about it? What does it tell you about me?"

Destiny's mind… she had been remarkably resilient, but then Shadow hadn't put on any pressure once she realized she was going after the Entity. Steal a crystal, cause a distraction, go to the Tower with Freak, jam the crystal into the spatial anomaly in the Entity's throne room, charge it with magic and hope for the best. A desperate plan, but no less desperate than what Fire had done. She told Freak as much.

"Yep, but I always have a distraction, too. Confuse the enemy response, and if you do it well enough, all that confusion turns into a nice healthy dose of fear to glut upon. A fixture of every plan I've ever had. But this time I didn't choose the distraction - I wish I had, it was a great idea. Did you see what Destiny cooked up?"

While Freak talked, Shadow expanded her vision beyond what she was forced to see. When she realized what had happened there was a moment of clarity. Freak would get the fear he wanted, she wished he was capable of choking on it. Then the next moment the expected fear hit Shadow hard. Kay was free and currently in the portal room. She knew what he was about to do.

"Oh, that's good. That's delectable!" howled Freak.

Freak threw his arms wide and fell back into the floor.

Without even responding, Shadow teleported to the portal room, gathering energy for her disintegration ray at the same time. Just as she materialized, Kay was already through the portal, which promptly collapsed in on itself.

Shadow stopped, her arm fell to her side and the energy she had gathered dissipated back into the environment. She felt empty, emptier than should be possible. It was only a matter of time now.


I swear I told Silver to leave as many alive as possible. Unfortunately, he didn't like me very much. I managed to grab one researcher and throw him in the direction of the door, and he got out. Six others died. The grey enderman teleported around, tearing away with his talons, spraying blood across controls and floors. To his credit, several of them were armed guards. I can't quite remember how many. None of my red-scarfed guardians - some confused part of me felt it would have been better if a few of them died instead of the rank-and-file.

But I also didn't object, not just because Silver wouldn't have listened, but because Destiny needed her distraction. I sauntered purposefully up to the controls next to the portal and began to tamper with them. I closed my eyes and thought back to the documents we recovered from the portal facility.

We had stopped by the arms lock-up after working out the terms. I had grabbed my sword and the nearest set of diamond armour, Silver took a battered obsidian chestplate, teleported here and then this scuffle began.

I input the location code as the fighting continued. The portal fired up. The blue orb appeared at the center, and then spread out to fill the whole frame. I looked upon what I had enabled and was proud of this at least.

I heard the last sword clatter. A dying man choking. The sound of warping. Ender particles floating through the air from behind me. I felt the talons about my throat.

"Give me a reason not to go through with this," growled Silver.

I tried to crack my neck, but he tightened his grip. I felt a stab of pain as the skin ripped and a drop of blood ran down my Adam's apple. I listened for my pounding heart, but it was slow, lethargic. I briefly wondered if I should antagonise him. But no, too many people had died for that to be the noble path forward.

"Check the console," I said.

My voice was a dry croak.

Silver threw me against a nearly railing. Before checking the console, he whirled around with talons ready, as though he expected me to make a move. Something like disappointment flowed over the Endling's face. He returned to the machine and froze up.

"Is this…" he trailed off.

"Yes, your home."

"Why?"

I wondered about that myself. I closed my eyes, lowered my head, and searched for the truth.

"I took eleven years of your life. A few days ago, I would not have cared. But I crossed a line with that Book business. It's about time I started setting some of my mistakes right."

Silver nodded, though I could have sworn I saw him roll his eyes.

"Don't follow me through," he concluded. "They'll shred you."

Silver straightened his breastplate and began to walk towards the portal.

"Wait," I said very suddenly, not quite certain of my goal.

The Endling glanced back. He said nothing.

"Do I die in the end? Am I dead where you and Astro come from?"

I wish I could tell you why I asked that. I've pondered that myself. The best explanation I can offer is that, in times of great strife, few things are on a man's mind more than the length of his life, and what he leaves behind. But there was something in the way Astro had looked at me. Something about the way he spoke about me. Something very final. As though what I did now was the final verdict on who I was. I rather think asking was a mistake, though.

"Yes," Silver nodded. "I was there."

"Do I die well?"

"You seemed to think so."

I opened my mouth to speak, but then decided against it. I closed my jaws. Bit down on my fate. I waved my hand, and Silver left. The blue portal slammed closed. I allowed myself a few seconds, then heard footsteps. I went to the console. My duty was not yet fulfilled.

I closed my eyes, remembered a set of coordinates I had seen and known I would one day need. Even before I became leader, before all this Claw business, before we even knew what the Entity's plan was, I saw that coordinate and locked it in. My fingers ran gracefully over the keys, then over to a portable scanner. The portal reopened. It would close the second I used it, then scramble the coordinates to cover my tracks. I stepped up to the plate.

I heard a warping noise. Shadow stood at the doorway, a spell in hand, ready to kill. I stepped through, and all became white tunnels and snapshots of creations that were, that could have been, that should have come to pass, and then all that vanished.

I stood in a field on a hill. Behind me, sheep grazed, crops were planted, and the land sloped up slowly until it bled into a mountain. Before me, fields flowed down until they broke against a road populated by restless streaks of colour. And the road led to a city - a city large enough to rival Mojang.

I checked the scanner. A warning flashed on screen: "Unknown spatial topology." Several versions of the same signal flickered. Several blinked away in the city. One, however, was closer. I looked in that direction, saw trees and foothills. It called to me, and only slightly because the streaks of colour screaming down the roads make me feel dizzy.

This was Fire's world. Claw's only weak point. I went there to kill him. Because I had to.

I told myself that, even if Destiny succeeded in killing the Entity, that there was no guarantee Claw would go away. He had broken out before, he would break out again. And without the Book I stood less than no chance against him. Bar Rose, no one did. He was too strong, too crafty. He wouldn't be beaten the same way twice. That beast had to die. So, I would hit him where he was mortal. In his human body. His 'real world'.

If I could do that, I could come back from this. I could still be the hero people had once told me I was. The great warrior I always wanted to be.

Every part of me tensed as a cold wind tried to topple me. My eyes begin to water. My hand fumbled around in my pocket, producing Helix's- producing my goggles. I ran a thumb over the cracked glass, then put them on. I pulled my hood up, glanced at the scanner once, and set out for foothills and trees.


There were no clouds. The stars seemed farther away than normal. Or maybe just dimmer. Either way, it left the ground darker than she'd ever seen it. Every step felt like a step in the wrong direction, and Destiny couldn't stop stumbling. She had made this path so many times, why tonight? Was this self-sabotage? Probably.

Eventually, she got sick of stumbling around, and lit a fire in her palm. She caught a glimpse of the Sovereign flag and extinguished it. As she walked between the tents and propaganda and corpses, she remembered that she'd once vowed to destroy all these things - to break from her past for good. That seemed like an empty gesture, now.

The second she crested the hill, Anya approached her with a look of sympathy and pain. Destiny could make out all her features - she was a ghost after all - but this discrepancy had always hurt her head. She shot out some fireballs to light the torches and see her past self normally. Unfortunately, it revealed a giggling Freak sitting in the portal frame.

"You should have seen the look on Shadow's face when she realised your little distraction technique." His giggles became howls. "It was so fearful."

"Move," she grunted.

The phantom only just lurched out of the way before her fireball hit the frame. The portal flashed into life. Anya stood beside her. They wasted no time waiting for Freak to get up and returned to their homeworld.

They trekked for a long time, following Anya. She could go where she liked in Minera, so she'd scouted out the route to the other portal. The faster they got there, the more time the others had to stop the machine. Also made sure there was more of a gap to close if the others tried to catch up to her.

She wondered what Fristad would have thought. Would he have understood how important working with Freak was? Probably not, but somehow, she was sure he would have helped out in his own way. Gathered provisions. Caused a distraction. Made it so she didn't have to release Kay. That would have been nice. Or maybe he would have just told the others.

She kept thinking about what Steve had said, about how none of them knew each other, not really. And to be fair, she hadn't known that much about Fristad. She knew he was from Veridale, that he had been under the Book's control, that he had friends called Airlass and Jonas… And that was about where it ended. But they'd shared emotions, they'd both felt lost at the end of a chapter in their lives, and that had been enough to care about him.

Steve could go suck an egg, she cared about all of them. Steve included.

They came across the portal, finally. It remained as she remembered it. Something dark, red and solid as the base, and a black, angry gel oozing around in the centre. Freak muttered something about checking the coast was clear, and hopped in. And Destiny stood there, wondering how much time she had.

She briefly wondered why this portal was different from the other one, but it really wasn't that important. Probably just an older model.

So, she turned her attention to something much better. She turned away from the portal and strode down the coastline. Anya followed. She passed the crafting table beneath the tree, running her fingers across the scratches, and continued until she came to the boat that had taken her to this place originally. She reached down and examined the name etched into the side.

"He called it the 'Bright Destiny'," she mumbled with a smile. "I thought it was the worst damn name he could have come up with, but he was in such a good mood. David always was cheesy."

"Carter wasn't much different," said Anya. "Guess some things don't change no matter how many times you die."

Then, they were quiet for a while. She didn't know if it was the night air or if she'd just lost her nerve, but Destiny started to shake.

"You don't have to go through with this," said Anya.

Destiny laughed nervously.

"Don't tell me you're going soft, now?"

"I'm not saying don't do it, I'm saying it's your choice."

Destiny nodded, and she thought very hard about what she wanted. But it was all his face. His laugh. His smile. The time they had. The time they wasted not acknowledging what they were. It was all she could think about.

The greater good would only ever be a runner-up to what she had lost and wanted so desperately to regain. But, given the circumstances, that was the best she could do. Besides, being a good person was rewarding in its own way… or something.

"Come on!" called Freak with irritation. "We're clear but not for long."

Destiny nodded and rolled her eyes. A strange sort of serenity washed over her like a soothing balm. She was a hero, this was just what she did. She gave Anya her best approximation of a hug and approached the portal.

"Do you think this will work?" she asked Freak.

"I'll level with you, it's a crapshoot."

She shrugged and stepped forward to fulfil her role. No matter the cost.