The Gorillaz Simulation, Clint Eastwood, was proving to have a rather high word count in each chapter. It has been given its own file, under the previously mentioned title.

The Sacrifice

Just before I stepped through the portal that I had spent my entire life researching and creating, I thought about the truth of my actions. What was I doing?

I was going to give my life, for nothing more than the idea that I could change for the better the lives of five teens in a fictional world. I had spent my life, all of it after a revelation, on a project to change a story.

I felt more accomplished than any person in existence.

I stepped through the portal.

"Good evening," I said, stepping into the sitting room of the Gen Thirteen team. I was immediately met with five teenagers getting ready to attack, if I made the slightest move, "Please, Fairchild, Burnout, Grunge, Freefall, Rainmaker, I am not here to fight. Only to speak. I promise. May I please sit? My bones are not what they used to be." I stood, leaning heavily on my cane, hoping they would acquiesce.

"Who the hell are you, old man?" Rainmaker, Sarah, demanded of me.

"I am Jona, and I've come bearing great news," the IO personnel were scrambling ratkillers as I spoke, but it was already too late. I was here and they couldn't stop me. They never even knew to expect me.

"What? What news?" Eddie asked.

"When you met the Authority, they told you that you were a danger to the multiverse, and when you met the Authoriteens- oh, do stop that crackling, Rainmaker, I said I'm not here to fight and I meant it," I waved away the obvious threat of her lightning at the mention of the group of teens from another world, "When you met those youngsters, they told you the very same and that you should simply kill yourselves to end the suffering, yours and everyone else's."

"Yeah," Fairchild said, "They told us to do that, look how it turned out for them."

"Yes, most depressing," I smiled, showing my dentures, "Don't worry, Eddie. No one here blames you. You did the right thing, though it may be hard to see at the moment," I addressed them all again, "They were right. Your very existence creates suffering. To the universe, the multiverse, you are cancer. You will kill everything you touch, turn to cinder all you love. Even one another," I was making them mad enough that they didn't hear the armed soldiers stomping up the stairs until the last second, when they busted through the door, then froze, "Just as well, we need to be elsewhere for this next bit anyway," I said, stamping my cane on the ground, teleporting myself and the victims of Gen Thirteen into one of my favorite worlds, Bioshock Infinite. I waved to one of the many Elisabeths and Bookers as they passed, though it seemed to confuse the girl for only a moment. She looked to her guardian, her father. I nodded. She smiled and tackled the man in a hug.

"Who was that?" Bobby asked, staring at the dark haired girl.

"Someone so far out of your league, boy, that you would do best to forget her," I said, perhaps cruelly.

"What, but I wasn't-"

"Let us continue. You are all cancer. Your future was grim. Sarah, you would become the rainmaker for a village after the apocalypse, until your faux lover drained you of all power, killing you. You went this route because Caitlyn can not return your love, during a time when you need it most. Eddie, Roxy, you left soon after, traveling deep into space, looking for a new home with the Paladins. Your ship suffered severe mechanical failure. You died of oxygen deprivation while in stasis. Bobby, Caitlyn, after the loss of your old friends, and more new ones, you eventually began to fall for one another, but a radioactive fire killed Bobby's body and replaced it with living radiation, for which even you could not survive Caitlyn. He would try, not for years, or decades, but for centuries, to control it. Even with your long life, you were never able to touch him again. Stricken with remorse, Bobby, you allowed yourself to fade into nothing. You moved into space and simply… dispersed. That is your future," I told them," no more."

"How…" Fairchild began, "How do you know all of this? How can you?"

"Because," I turned to her, my body slowly regressing in age until I was only seventy three, "Where I come from, you are all only fiction. I watched you suffer and die for the entertainment of others and have now spent," I looked at my watch, "eighty seven years building a device that would allow me to undo what was done to you.

"In the city, New York, when you return, a new life will await you. One without the International Operations, one without the uncompromising hate. One without an apocalypse. You will not be a cancer, a blight, you will be its cure. Rather than kill all that you touch, you will revitalize it. Rather than burn all that you love, you will instead make it last. Where you were once weak, you will be strong," I smiled, feeling my strength return as I regressed further. Fifty now.

"How?" the redheaded amazon asked again, "How can you do that? What will it cost?"

"It will cost nothing, not for you. I am going to die, children. I am going to sacrifice myself to the true universe, so that you may live," I smiled and held up my hand, to forestall their complaints, "I'm not doing it for just you. The man and girl you saw, they are saved as well. Along with millions, trillions, quintillions of others. The man's name was Booker Dewitt. In his grief over the death of his beloved wife in childbirth, he sold his child. Anna became Elisabeth, Dewitt became Comstock. Dewitt fought against Comstock, he fights now, in all the lights you see in the sky," I pointed up at the night sky filled with stars, "And yet, every time they fight, Comstock creates another of himself. He changes Dewitt, and is killed by him. When I sacrifice myself for you, I will be doing it for him as well."

"Why do you have to die?" Grunge asked. The emotions on the teens' faces were plain to see. Sadness, regret, confusion, sympathy. "Why do you have to sacrifice yourself?"

"I don't," I laughed, at peace as I finally sat down, a chair appearing beneath my bottom, "I don't have to do anything. But as a great man once said, a man chooses, a slave obeys. Right now, you are slaves. Tied to a destiny that was meant to wear down the hearts of others. I am choosing to change that. A man chooses. I have chosen. You are slaves no more. Now, I have a final gift for each of you. Rainmaker, you are first."

"Why?" the indian girl almost sobbed to me, "We are just fiction to you. We don't matter, you shouldn't have to do this!"

I pulled the girl into a hug and wiped away her tears, "Because I love you, Sarah. That is all a person needs. Love. I have felt it, and still feel it. For you and Bobby and Eddie, Roxy and Caitlyn. I feel it for Booker and Elisabeth. For so many and for a single woman. I love you, Sarah," I repeated, crushing her with another hug, "With all my heart I love you," I wiped away her tears and smiled at her, "My gift to you is the woman you met. You already know that you love her. What you don't know is that she is another Gen Active, a spy for IO. From the moment of my death, she will be exactly the woman she portrayed herself as, with no connections, no liaisons. Just her life's work, and her love for you," I kissed her forehead, and she moved aside.

"Eddie Chang," I motioned him forward. I did not hug him, not yet. "Your gift is the removal of a burden. Kid Apollo, he will not be dead as soon as I am. That thing you hated to do, you will not have done. And you will never need to do it again. I also leave you with this," I held out a card made of metal, "May you never go hungry again." I hugged him and kissed his forehead.

"Roxanne Spaulding," I opened my arms, "The one thing you want more than anything else, I cannot give you, but I can tell you a secret," she all but dove into my arms, surprisingly the most emotional of the bunch, "Eddie likes you," I whispered, "But you cannot play hard to get with him. He doesn't understand it. He will think you hate him. That it's just another crush he'll never get to have. Love him, Roxy. Love all of him," I squeezed her tight and kissed her forehead.

"Bobby Lane."

"You don't have to do this," he said to me, hesitantly stepping forward, "You don't need to do this."

"I don't, but I will anyway. Just as I told Sarah, I love you Bobby, you and so many more that your life will touch. And that is my gift. Your college tuition is paid. Your educators are even aware of your abilities and that, sometimes, one must fight for their beliefs. I know you will not abuse this gift. And I will not hug you, if you do not want it," I offered my hand to him, but he hugged me instead. I kissed his forehead and he moved to the side.

"Caitlyn Fairchild, my lovely girl. To few have told you that you are honestly beautiful. It is not this form that genetics have gifted you with, but all of you, every metaphorical inch. To you I grant one thing that may not seem like much now, but will be everything as the world turns. You are, at this time, capable of only a fraction of your true power. When my heart stops, you will have it all back. Mountains will shift with your ire, and no bullet shall ever again pierce your flesh. Like Bobby, I know you will not abuse this," I hugged her and kissed her forehead. I stood then, taking a deep contented breath.

"I love you," and then, I died. I fell into the waves below us, sinking as my heart stopped beating. And a ripple was sent across the everywhere.

For the teens, the lighthouse and ocean faded and they were back in their hotel room in New York. Midnighter was standing in the room, collapsed and unconscious ratkillers all around him.

"Something changed," he said, looking at the teens, "What happened? Where were you?"

"You were right," Fairchild said, taking a deep breath and wiping her eyes, "There was something wrong with us. We were making the universe decay around us, like cancer."

"This old dude popped up out of nowhere," Grunge continued, "He said he was here to help. He… he did. He changed it, us, everything."

"How?" the man in black demanded.

"He fed himself to the core of the multiverse as a sacrifice. He told us that he loved us and that he was doing it for us and quintillions of others. He made it so we're not cancer anymore," Fairchild said, finally.

Midnighter stared at them for a few more moments, then shrugged, "Whatever happened, you aren't a threat… well, not in a way that could reshape the universe as we know it. You, for lack of a better term, belong here, now."