Chapter 8: Paradigm Shift
Elizabeth spent a considerable amount of time getting Edgar up to date on all that had happened during his long 'vacation' in the soul jar. It made her sick to her stomach to watch that perpetually amused smirk of his somehow manage to become all the more smug as he came to understand that the amalgamation still had been made even in his absence and was running amok without his 'guidance'. Everything he had ever wanted was still coming together nicely, even if Elizabeth had delayed it by a couple of decades. She did her best not to show any sort of reaction, even as he hurled various jabs at her 'poor' leadership. She was used to this, of course. At least Edgar was much too thrilled with what he now knew to be anywhere near as bad with his cruel remarks as he had been when he was still alive.
"I suppose this means I do not have to concern myself with being trapped in the body of this sorry excuse for a creature." Edgar chuckled, looking down at his paws. "I will be able to vacate this indignant form soon enough." He considered something and turned his attention onto a disorganized mess of computers in the back of the tent meant to act as a hastily put together communication hub for the SCC. He concentrated for a few moments, his once joyfully smug expression stiffening.
"Interesting." He finally said. "It seems that I do not have control over this Construct's abilities. I figured that this might happen. Thirty-Two never showed any signs that its ghost could take control of its powers. Ah, well. I will get this Construct doing what I want soon enough. It has quite the obnoxious personality, I've noticed. I will have to stomp all of the fight out of it."
Elizabeth was surprised to hear this. "It's still conscious?"
"Of course. Why wouldn't it be? I'm only keeping it suppressed. It's not happy about me taking my rightful place and it has been fighting to take back control. I can hear it quite easily. In fact, it... it really does not shut up." He frowned briefly before changing gears and smirking up at Elizabeth again. "This would not have been a problem if you had not meddled. This Construct has had far too much time to develop a will and personality of its own and now it will take a considerable amount of effort on my part to get it under control. If I had been able to deal with it when it was new, it never would have developed much of a conscious mind at all."
Elizabeth did not reply and kept her face blank. She could not help but wonder if 'it' was about to happen...
Her concern was seemingly misplaced though, at least for now. Edgar was much too preoccupied to deal with her for the time being. He turned back toward the communication hub, looking thoughtful.
"I want to see how far the amalgamation has managed to spread itself since it began its expansion." He looked over his shoulder at Elizabeth. "You have been sending out scouts to map its progress, haven't you?"
Elizabeth had to fight the urge to clench her fists. She refused to show any emotion. "Of course I have. Although, I have had to be careful about bringing my troops too close to it or else they fall under its control."
"You don't need to get close to mark its progress." Edgar chided her. "Have you ever heard of binoculars?"
Elizabeth let out the breath she was holding in. Desperately trying to keep herself in control, she stiffly walked past Edgar and sat down at one of the computers. She brought up a map of the amalgamation's progress.
Edgar spent several minutes analyzing the information on screen. "Interesting. I will need to find a connection point if I am to upload myself into the amalgamation. Although, getting near even its outer layer is highly dangerous at this point. I don't have to worry about falling under its control, but this body is particularly vulnerable to any manner of attack, and it will take time to find an access point. I must figure out a way to nullify the danger it poses."
Elizabeth interjected with one of her own concerns. "We know from when your Construct was assimilated that its unique programming held and it was not fully melded into the amalgamation. This principle should still hold, even for you. However, the Construct was not able to retain its individuality and was absorbed into the amalgamation's chaotic mind regardless. How do you intend to avoid having that happen to you?"
"Another problem that would not have cropped up if you had not meddled." Edgar sniffed. "It is no matter. I am not weak like this Construct and its false personality. I will grind down every last mind within that amalgamation until they obey me without question. They've had too much time to develop into what they are now, but they will learn soon enough that they are still nothing more than the bricks that make up a new form meant to house me."
Edgar tapped away at a keyboard and on one of the screens several locations popped up near the outer layer of the amalgamation's ever growing wall of destruction.
"Good, this one in particular hasn't been consumed just yet. If I am quick, I can get there just before it is."
"A power plant?" Elizabeth asked. "You're going to create a power surge, aren't you?"
Edgar put on a nasty grin. "I guess you're not as stupid of a girl as I thought. Yes, I'm going to generate a power surge. It's near enough to the amalgamation that they will have consumed much of the machines connected to and drawing power from it. A Construct is resistant to but not immune to electrical damage, and that principle should hold even for the amalgamation. Overloading much of the technology that it is connected to should slow it down for a few days and make it safe to go near the outer layer. It is imperative that I find a connection port or else I cannot gain control of it."
"And what happens once you have the amalgamation under your control?"
Edgar grinned up at her. "That is for a future you won't be apart of to find out."
He stood up and made his way toward the tent flap, completely confident in himself and his safety. Elizabeth looked on, conscious of the fact that this was the very last moment she had to possibly change this situation she had willingly created. Edgar would soon be unstoppable and so if she had any doubts or second guesses, now was the time to act. But, no. This needed to happen. Edgar was dangerous, but not as dangerous as the chaotic, vengeful amalgamation.
…...
Courage rushed through the camp as fast as his illness would allow, calling out Atticus's name whenever he could get enough air into his lungs. Panic had long since set in. Why, oh why, had they not left as soon as possible? Why had they waited? They both had known that the SCC was likely to do something and now...and now...
He met up with the puppies back at their tent, nearly doubling over as he tried to catch his breath.
"N-nothing?" He gasped.
The puppies all shook their heads, each face looking grim, fearful, or worried.
Gulping down a breath of air, Courage tried to steady himself and force back the panic that was causing his arms and legs to tremble. He was already thinking of what to do next. There was one last place they had not checked, if only because of the SCC presence around it.
Elizabeth's tent of operations.
Courage clenched his paws together, already angry at the thought of her and the SCC having done something to Atticus.
"I'm going to go have a talk with Elizabeth." Courage told the pups, his tone of voice making it clear that he was seething. "This could be dangerous, so you guys should stay back here, and...and if I don't come back, well-"
"No way!" Lily cried out, somehow still having the energy to jump up and down even after everything she had done today. "We wanna help Atticus too!"
"Yeah!" The rest of the group agreed.
"But...but Atticus would kill me if I let anything happen to you guys." Courage argued, and he wasn't even exaggerating...probably.
"He's our friend too!" One of the pups yelled back.
"He gave us pizza!" Another cried out.
"He protected us!" Said another.
"...He tried to save Spot." Lily added softly, ears drooping.
"Okay, okay!" Courage relented, chuckling nervously. "You guys can come with me!" Getting back to the matter at hand, his expression grew serious once more. "If the SCC did take him, not much time has passed yet. There's a good chance they haven't done anything to him yet, so if we can get to him soon..."
The thought of Elizabeth taking Atticus and extracting him from his dog body to mess with him and his programming, like something He would do, made Courage go weak in the knees. He was not going to let that happen. No way, no how. He would happily bite Elizabeth on the shin and worse if she dared to hurt Atticus in the same way He had.
They all headed for Elizabeth's tent as one big group. If the SCC was on high alert for them, it really did not show. Even now there weren't many soldiers around. As they got closer, Courage could see an SCC van parked close to the entrance flap. Something about that did not bode well to him. Were they about to cart Atticus off somewhere?
He picked up his pace and the puppies followed his lead. He was nearly upon the tent when, much to his surprise, he saw Atticus exit the tent, and not as a prisoner. He looked entirely free to do whatever he pleased.
Relief washed over Courage. Maybe Atticus was willingly working with Elizabeth on something to stop the amalgamation, although it would have been nice of him to have given them all a heads up before he left.
Right now he was talking with an SCC solider, one who was nodding his head to everything Atticus was saying while continuously looking up and down at a map.
"Atticus!" Courage called out, waving a paw in the air.
Atticus showed no signs that he had heard him. He went on talking to the solider. Now Courage could see that Elizabeth was there as well, although she was lurking behind the half opened tent flap.
Knowing the kind of lungs he had in his chest, Courage called out even louder, but still his companion did not acknowledge him. He then decided to get a little more daring. "Hey, Compute!"
Atticus did not so much as flinch at being called his old nickname. It was the one thing that made it clear to Courage that something was very wrong. Atticus never failed to give him hell whenever he slipped up and called him that out of habit.
As he neared the van, he could finally hear Atticus talking and...something was off. He sounded like himself, and yet also...not.
"-You're going to stop at this point I've marked on the map. I will walk the rest of the way to the power plant. It will lessen the risk of drawing the attention of the amalgamation."
Courage wasted no time butting in. "Atticus, what's-"
His companion looked upon him with eyes that did not recognize him. "Why has this mutt been allowed to get close enough to speak with me?" He demanded. When the rest of the puppies caught up, he became outraged. "There's more of them? Why were these creatures allowed into the camp? The SCC should only concern itself with the safety and well being of humanity! Don't tell me we have been wasting resources on these creatures!" His eyes passed from one pup to the next. "They should be disposed of. When I get back, I will see to it that every non-human in this camp is eradicated."
Courage was utterly speechless. What was this? It couldn't be real, could it?
Elizabeth had left her tent shortly after Courage arrived and had been slowly making her way closer and closer with much hesitation.
Courage looked toward her with fury in his eyes. "What. Did. You. Do." He demanded, his punctuated words finally ending in a growl.
Elizabeth looked on with a weary expression. "I did what was necessary."
Courage looked back at the dog who was somehow unfamiliar to him. "What did you do to Atticus?" He angrily demanded of him, even though he already knew the answer. Somehow, Elizabeth had brought Edgar back.
The dog crossed his arms. "Can someone take this creature away? I have no desire to converse wi-"
He cut himself off and swayed there for a moment before his demeanor changed. He suddenly staggered forward and placed both his paws onto Courage's shoulders after nearly falling into him. "Courage! Don't worry! I'm okay! He's just-" Atticus spoke quickly and tried to put on a reassuring smile, but he was clearly struggling. It was obvious that every word and every movement had to be fought for. "He's just really good at-"
Edgar returned, sneering. "Stay down." He hissed, and proceeded to remove himself from Courage's presence. He exchanged a few more words with the SCC solider and got into the back of the van.
Courage did not have even the slightest idea what to do. He would have to get rid of Edgar, somehow, and it was the 'how' that eluded him.
The SCC solider had gone over to Elizabeth to ask her something before departing, and Courage knew there was at least one thing thing he wanted to do in all of this madness while those two were distracted.
Thinking fast, he turned around to speak with the puppies. "I'm going to follow Edgar and there's no way I can sneak all of you guys into the van, so you all are going to have to wait here for now." He tried to smile and reassure them. "Don't worry, I'm going to get Atticus back!"
Lily grinned. "We'll do stuff to annoy that old lady to make her pay for changing him into that mean guy!"
"J-just be careful!" Courage yelped.
There wasn't enough time to caution those mischievous pups further so he had to have faith that they could evade any serious punishment for bothering Elizabeth in the same way they could steal food and SCC equipment without being caught.
He rushed over to the passenger door of the van and opened it just wide enough to squeeze through. Edgar could not see into the front of the van and there was nobody in the passenger seat so Courage had time to figure out where he was going to hide. The van had a glove compartment, and so, well...
It had been a very long time since he last had to contort himself to hide in places he shouldn't fit, not since he left Nowhere, and this current crisis certainly felt like one of 'those' days back in Nowhere.
Unable to help himself, he uttered out, "The things I do for love." and got to work.
He opened the compartment, and where he had expected a few papers to fall out, instead a bunch of SCC style weapons fell out along with some survival gear. Papers would have been easy to hide in the van itself, the SCC gear, not so much.
He cranked the window open and tossed the gear away as far as he was able. All he could do was hope that nobody would notice, or at least that seemed to be the case until a few of the puppies popped up from places they were hiding behind and grabbed the stuff before anyone could see. Courage waved a 'thanks' at them and turned his attention back onto the glove compartment.
Sucking in a breath, he got ready for what was going to be an unpleasant ride. He squeezed his way into the compartment until he was more box shaped than jellybean shaped, and grabbed the compartment door to close it from the inside. He suddenly could not see anything and he already felt like he could not get enough air.
Yep, this felt exactly like the sort of thing he usually went through to save Muriel, and just like her, for Atticus's sake, he could take it.
He heard the SCC solider enter the van and start the engine. The man remained entirely unaware of the squished dog stowing away in the compartment beside him. As they jolted and rumbled their way toward this apparent power plant, Courage had plenty of time to wonder how he was going to save Atticus from Edgar.
…...
If Atticus was certain of one thing, it was that if Edgar did not get to her first, he was going to kill Elizabeth himself. Who was she to make the 'choice' to sacrifice for him? She might be willing to lay down and let Edgar kill her, but he certainly wasn't ready to let this bastard take complete control of him.
He could still see out of his own eyes, although there wasn't much to look at as the van rumbled along toward this power plant Edgar wanted to overload. Atticus had tried to warn him that he did not exactly have a good track record with power plants or electrical surges, but that smug bastard was doing his best to ignore him now. Well, if he wanted to run the risk of electrocuting both of them, oh well. Atticus would enjoy it if it happened, even if he was inevitably going to get shocked right along with him.
This situation wasn't much different from how he had shared the same body with Courage, only in this case Edgar was extremely hostile and doing everything in his power to keep Atticus suppressed in a weird sort of role reversal. The one silver lining in all of this was that Edgar had mostly taken him by surprise when Elizabeth opened the soul jar and now Atticus was slowly but surely starting to get more of a handle on things, and maybe with a little more fighting, he could gain back more control of himself. He had one simple thing to hold on to that kept him from losing hope. Thirty-Two had never been fully taken over by her ghost, despite the phantom's malicious nature. It had done everything it could to hurt her, but it had never possessed her. It was for that reason that Atticus was certain that he could exorcise Edgar and leave him as the disembodied spirit that he was supposed to be. Then, all Edgar would be able to do is haunt him like the ghost that he was. With any luck, he'd give up at some point after that and move on.
There was absolutely no way that he was going to let Edgar take control of the amalgamation either. Elizabeth could believe all she wanted that this was the solution, but Atticus wasn't willing to let a far more cunning monster take control of his siblings. That bastard was already talking about wiping out Courage, the puppies, and all the other animals that had evacuated to the camp. In the end, Edgar could not get rid of him now, and they shared the same programming, so he would have just as much control over the amalgamation as Edgar. All he'd have to do is find the strength to push him back, but could he do that while fighting off the chaotic influence of the amalgamation's collective mind as well? Especially when he knew just how easily he had been drawn in last time? He was not so sure. As confident as Edgar was, Atticus was not sure if even his counterpart could resist its pull. Too much time had passed for the once chaotic but ineffectual collective mind of the amalgamation to solidify into something far more stable and destructive. It would not surprise Atticus at all if it turned out that Edgar would seemingly gain control of the chaotic collective only for them to subtly influence him until he was just as willing to destroy everything as they were. Elizabeth had already made it clear that Edgar was perfectly willing to start human civilization over from the beginning, so what was stopping him from just deciding to destroy everything under the influence of the amalgamation?
Somehow Atticus was going to have to fight off Edgar and the influence of his siblings all at the same time if he was going to have any hope of stopping them from killing everyone he cared about.
...The odds were not looking great.
Maybe the best he could do was briefly take control while they were still in this body, just long enough to send them over a cliff or to get them both electrocuted. If it meant saving Courage, he-
No, he was not willing to die to stop this bastard. He wanted to see Courage again, and he wanted to find a much more lasting and painful way to make Edgar pay for doing this to him.
Angry, he used a momentary lull in Edgar's concentration to take control of himself again and spat, "You should have stayed in that jar, Edgar. I'm not going to make this pleasant for you."
He noted that it was indeed getting easier to take control of himself again. He was not sure if Edgar was just tiring out a little with how much mental strength he had to put in toward keeping him down, or if Atticus himself was getting better at this now that he had a better grasp of the situation after the initial shock of being completely shut out of control of everything. He was the Construct, after all, not Edgar, and it was his nature to do to Edgar what he was trying and failing to do to him.
"Oh, be quiet." Edgar huffed, pushing him back again. "You are nothing more than a tool to be used at my discretion. You are going to learn soon enough that I will not tolerate this obnoxious, false personality that you've adopted for yourself."
He sounded so much like Him in that moment that Atticus's anger exploded into something far more resembling an inferno and that allowed him to push back to an even greater extent. He felt a brief but satisfying twinge of concern from Edgar when he realized that he was struggling to stay in control.
It did not last, of course. Atticus inevitably flamed out, growing tired in much the way Edgar was in this ongoing fight. He could not stop the bastard from asserting full control again. This ebb and flow would continue, and Atticus was already forming a plan. He would wait and gather his strength for the perfect time to strike. There was no doubt in his mind that his innate nature as a Construct would win out over Edgar's possession. Being something of an expert on the many supernatural threats Courage had faced back in Nowhere, he knew the ins and outs of possession and that it was not something easy for a ghost to maintain. There was a reason why it didn't happen more often when it came to hauntings. Maybe if Edgar had been a demon or some other far more concerning supernatural entity, Atticus would have a little more to worry about, but a mere ghost like this was not going to best him in this battle of wills. He just needed time. Time that he did not necessarily have. The one thing he feared was his siblings getting involved, because he knew perfectly well how much he struggled to avoid getting caught up in their collective will. He would have to deal with Edgar before then...somehow.
He felt the van slow to a stop. Edgar made him get down out of their seat and open the back doors. Night had fallen during their ride to this empty field. He could hear the eerie, continuous, mechanical noises of the amalgamation nearby. It was the sound of scraping metal, heavy booming, and the hiss of steam. It was all the noises you might hear near a construction site amplified a hundred times over.
Edgar checked the map one last time, and as he made Atticus move down a dirt path toward the power plant sitting atop a hill in the distance, the stark reality of how little time Atticus had left to stop him hit at full force.
End Of Chapter