A1 Act 4 Part 1

Chapter 51

When Porrim woke up from Damara's attack, the first thing she noticed was that all of the other trolls who were against Lord English were all staring at her—except for Meenah. "What? What happened?" she asked the group. She rose to her feet so that they'd stop standing over like she was a hospital patient; aside from a bit of dizziness she was fine. "Did I do something shameful in my sleep?"

"Uh…no, not at all," Kankri explained with a nervous blush. Porrim hoped it wasn't a sign he was lying. "It's just that I attempted something which I thought would wake up your dream-self and ensure your survival, but instead it seems that the blood poisoning had a very unusual effect on your skin tone." Porrim stifled a giggle; so it was Kankri who had done something shameful while she was asleep. Then she nearly grimaced; what he had done to her?

She glanced into a mirror hung on a wall and got her answer.

"I'm so pale!" she gasped in shock. "What did Damara do? What did you do to me?!" she cried upon seeing her face. Her normally gray skin was now milky white, and her eyes seemed to glow a bit.

"You seem to have acquired chromatic hemophilia," Kankri informed her. "It is an uncommon condition among trolls which gives them a taste for blood, regardless of color. You have become, in effect, a rainbow-drinker."

"And you're all just…ok with that?" Porrim asked. "I'm a—a bloodsucker now, and you guys adon't want to suck out your blood…even though the thought of it is admittedly very appealing just now." The trolls all backed away a bit, smiling nervously.

"I promise I won't drink your blood!" Porrim insisted, even though she wasn't sure how long she could keep that up. "But now that we've established that I now have to go out and feed on troll blood…even though the only trolls to do this on are our four enemies…and there's a real possibility I might starve unless I can eat some other food…what are we going to do about our four enemies?"

"We've been thinking about that," Aranea declared as she kept her eyes on Porrim to make sure that she wasn't going to bite them all of a sudden. "We haven't really decided on anything, though. We're having some…internal deliberations."

"It is imperative that we continue the work required to reproduce our universe!" Kankri insisted.

"'Reproduce the universe'? Rufioh asked. "How does that even work?"

"It's complex and too technical to discuss right now," Porrim offered, "But I agree with Kankri. Anyone who wants to help is welcome to join me on my world. The Genesis Frog is immature and needs to be fed so that it can grow into a new universe. It's all game-completing stuff. And again, I promise I won't drink your blood—maybe just some of the frog's blood. We could really use all the help we can get."

"Do you need people to help you, though?" Latula asked. "I don't know if I could just leave Mituna alone all of a sudden. It's kind of a full-time job, caring for him."

"And Horuss and I haven't seen each other in…" Rufioh began. "How long has it been again?" Horuss shrugged. "So, uh, yeah," Rufioh muttered. "We kind of have some…personal obligations to each other."

Aranea was not happy about her teammates' unwillingness to cooperate, obviously, but she hid her anger with a classic Southern smile of displeasure. But there is no Deep South on Beforus, so she didn't know that was what she was doing. "Well," she pointed out, "It's also imperative that we go after Lord English's designated minions. They really gave us a beating, after all. We can rest for now, but sooner or later we'll have to resume the fight so they can't tear us apart or hijack our session. What do you think?" Everyone half-heartedly nodded in agreement, but this didn't satisfy her.

"So…?" Aranea asked the group once more. "You guys all really think that all of your dumb romances and frog rearing is more important than defeated the deadliest evil in Paradox Space?!"

"Frog-breeding isn't 'useless'," Porrim said. "It's the main goal of this whole game. Lord English is just…I don't know what he is, some kind of villain the game constructed. Maybe the others just sided with some other faction. Whatever they have to do doesn't matter. All that matters to us is that we have to get this frog to make a universe and we have to defeat the Black King."

"This isn't some game! This is an existential threat we're dealing with here! An existential threat that's brainwashed our friends!"

"Eh…I never really knew much about Kurloz," Latula admitted. "And Meulin seems kind of happy with him, I guess. I don't really know either of them well, come to think of it."

"I believe the less cooperative, outlying members of our group aren't necessary to our success," Kankri chimed in. "If you intend to recruit them back to our side, Aranea, then I understand your course of action. But consider that this is perhaps the game's way of naturally aligning players against each other. Lord English can't do anything to us directly, or right away. We don't even have any means of fighting him personally right now."

Aranea sighed; it was hopeless to get them to understand. "Well, if you guys won't help, I'll just have to go it alone for now," she declared. "For the moment I'll be engaging in reconnaissance, most likely, and eventually I'll see if I can't catch one of them alone and—"

But by that point everyone else had decided that the meeting/party was over and began to leave.

"FANK YOU," Mituna told Aranea as he was escorted away by Latula. "ZAT WAS FUN."

"Aww, you're so sweet!" Aranea replied. At least someone was being nice.

"Look, Aranea," Porrim added. "It's not that we don't want to help. It's just that, well, we can't. We've got a million things to do, and our…friends, if we can really call them that, aren't going anywhere."

"…You guys just don't care about her, do you?" Aranea asked.

"About who?"

"About MEENAH!"

"…Oh, yeah! She's not here, isn't she? So none of you saw her while I was out cold? Huh, I guess she left. Don't worry, we'll find her. She can handle herself just fine without us. See you later, Aranea. The food was great, by the way. It's a shame that this was the last time I'd ever get to eat it."

"Yeah, whatever," Aranea muttered as they all went their separate ways.

It wasn't like any of them cared.

. . . . .

Meanwhile, the "bad" trolls eventually made their way back to Damara's world.

"What do we do now?" Cronus asked, letting Kurloz tend to his wounds. Kurloz actually had quite an extensive supply of bandages and medicine, and not just the stuff he used to brainwash Meulin with.

"WE WILL WAIT FOR OUR MIRTHFUL MESSIAH TO APPEAR", Kurloz explained. "HE HAS PROMISED TO GRACE US WITH HIS PRESENCE."

"(I think I may already know what he will say. And I'm certainly excited for the announcement!)" Damara added.

"What announcement?" Cronus pressed. "What exactly does he want us to do, aside from killing all of the others? Which I'm totally for, by the way."

No one answered him right away, but once the group was healed and went outside of Damara's hive, as per her instructions, a brilliant flash of green shone through the air, coalescing into a green, monstrous figure, and suddenly what could only be described as a green-skulled monstrosity in a coat of many (possibly seizure-inducing) flashing colors appeared in the air, landing on the clock-faced ground and making the platform they were all on rumble a bit.

"LORD ENGLISH!" Kurloz cried, bowing before the time-demon. Damara and Meulin quickly joined him, while Cronus looked awkwardly at them and Lord English, eventually getting on his knees and touching his nose to the floor in an improper bow.

"MY SERVANTS," Lord English bellowed. Their knees trembled as he spoke, and his deep voice sounded like it belonged to someone else, as if the frightening form they were looking at right now was just a projection, a tame version of the real thing. Damara was especially awestruck; in her eons of serving Lord English, this was the first time that he actually chose to reveal himself. Even if he hadn't said a word she would have known that it was her master.

"IT GIVES ME GREAT JOY TO BE ABLE TO MEET YOU AT LAST," Lord English told them. "Joy" seemed like the kind of thing a being like him would never feel, Cronus thought, but he said nothing. Hopefully, this guy wasn't a mind-reader. "IT IS PLEASING FOR ME TO KNOW THAT A FEW SAMPLES OF THE UNIVERSE I SHALL FEED ON WILL BE ABLE TO PERSIST ON, DESPITE THEIR WEAKNESSES."

Now Cronus felt enough courage to speak up. "W-weakness? Feeding on universes? What is all this really about?" he asked. Lord English turned to face him, and when their eyes met Cronus could feel sweat dripping down his face. He stared right into English's rapidly changing eyes; it the way they moved made it looked like they were alive, burning with rage even when Lord English himself was completely calm. But why did they have numbers on them? What did the numbers mean? The Lord of Time's message to him was straightforward:

"YOU WILL LEARN IN TIME, CONVERT. YOU SEEM TO NOT QUITE BE PERPLEXED BY MY DAZZLING SPLENDOR, SO YOU MUST DICTATE THESE MESSAGES TO THE OTHERS."

"What do you mean?" Cronus asked, looking around him. Damara, Meulin and Kurloz were all frozen in awe by the sight of their Lord—literally frozen in place! "What did you do to them?"

"IT IS NOT MY WILL, BUT THEIRS THAT KEEPS THEM STILL. LISTEN TO ME, YE OF LITTLE FAITH. YOU MUST DICTATE THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE TO THEM WHEN I DEPART."

"Uh, sure, Ok, go," Cronus said nervously, knowing that he was supposed to be in awe but not quite sure how to get himself to feel that way.

"TELL THE WITCH THAT SHE IS TO TRAVERSE THROUGH TIME, UNDOING THE PLANS OF THE REBELS AMONG YOUR KIND BY WIPING MY EXISTENCE FROM THEIR MEMORIES. THE PRINCE MUST BE A DISTRACTION FOR THE SYLPH. SHE MUST BELIEVE THAT HE IS MY MASTER. SHE MUST NOT KNOW THAT I AM A REALITY. I MUST BE TO HER A CONSTRUCT, CREATED BY HIS MIND. THE MAGE MUST BEGUILE THE OTHERS INTO THINKING THAT SHE IS ON THEIR SIDE AND INTENDS TO BETRAY OUR GROUP. SHE WILL DO NO SUCH THING, BUT THE OTHERS MUST BELIEVE THAT. OURS IS A CAMPAIGN OF DECPTION."

"Ok, so, the witch is Damara, right?" Cronus stammered, hoping to review the message he had to give to the others. Images of what Lord English might do to him for getting his orders wrong flashed through his head as he spoke. "And-and-and she goes through time so that everyone forgets you. And K-kurloz, well…he makes Aranea think that he's in charge, right? And Meulin's our double-agent."

"CORRECT, BARD. YOU ARE AN OBEDIENT SERVANT."

"Sure, no problem!" Cronus replied, breathing a sigh of relief. "But what about me?" At this, Lord English seemed to pause, and his features softened as much as a monster's could. Had this simple question put a dent into his omniscience? But it was brief. Lord English's expression hardened again; he had just come up with an idea."

"WITH MY ASSISTANCE, YOU WILL ENTER THE MIND OF THE HEIR," he told Cronus. "AND DESTROY THE PART OF HIM THAT PERSISTS—THE OLD SELF, THE CONSCIOUSNESS THAT DARES TO EXPOSE ME. IT IS A PESTILENCE."

Cronus' heart beat rapidly. He was going to see Mituna again! And the real Mituna at that, not some fake Mituna! But he had to kill him?

Sure, I'll do that. In a thousand sweeps.

"Ok. Take me to his brain!" Cronus demanded. Lord English chuckled.

"HOW EAGER. PATIENCE, BARD. THERE IS HOPE FOR YOU YET."

"Hope?" Cronus asked, but as he was saying this Lord English vanished in the same flurry of green light that he had arrived in.

"YOU LOOKED UPON THE UNIVERSE-EATER AND DID NOT LOSE SIGHT?!" Kurloz cried in surprise. Damara, too, had a shocked expression on her face when she realized that Cronus had just spoken directly with Lord English, face-to-face.

"(^_^) Did he leave a message, Cronus?" Meulin asked.

"Well, yes, actually. Here's what he wants us to do…" Cronus began.

It's nice to get to plan stuff out, just once.

I'm coming, Mituna. I don't know what I'll do when I find you, but you have a lot of explaining to do.

AN: My life, as you all have noticed, has gotten the better of me. There comes a time in every fanfic writer's life when he must, sadly, stop writing fanfiction. This hobby isn't something that pays the bills.

But I can't leave a story unfinished. So finish this I shall!

Also, this chapter is actually a revision from an earlier version. I would like to think I learned a FEW things in my creative writing classes in college. :P Finally, the story will be much faster if I abandon the typing quirks. :( Meenah will still have her fish-puns, however.

Happy…summer?

-Grandvizer527