A/N: If you're reading this chapter before the first... well, why? Go back! This directly continues off of the first one so... yeah. This chapter in particular is what gives this story its rating and warnings so... if you don't like that... turn baaack... Ahem.
'Famous scientist Dr Jeffrey Andonuts proposes to local celebrity and teacher Paula Polestar Jones.'
That was the phrase which echoed through Ness's head.
Huh. Huh.
Huh. Yeah... yeah... you know, that's cool. Yeah, yeah, it's nice... it's nice that Jeff could take care of her. It's great, that Jeff has fame, and, and the money, and, and loads of friends, and love, and now the person that Ness loved with all his heart... it's okay, it's fiiine —
It was not.
In fact, Ness frequently found himself with thoughts such as:
"FUCK ME!"
"NO! NO! NO! THIS IS... THIS IS ALL JUST ONE GIANT NIGHTMARE... SO WHY CAN'T I WAKE UP?!"
And, of course, "I THOUGHT HE WAS GAY!"
Sadly for Ness, some future research would inform him that Jeff was not actually gay, but rather bisexual. Bi...sexual. BISEXUAL!
Ness spent a month teleporting all over the world, searching for something, anything, that proved this was a hallucination, or a dream or just... not true.
And then... he saw the party. All his friends and family gathered round to celebrate the happy couple. Ness stayed there - in disguise, of course, hoping for some indication that maybe there wasn't really any love between the two.
But when he saw the two passionately kissing more so then Paula had ever done with him, any hope of that being true was quickly shattered.
Along with his heart.
But that wasn't even what really got Ness. No one... missed him. His name... didn't come into conversation. At all. Ness followed everyone he knew - his mother, his sister, Picky, Poo, Jeff, Paula - heck, even Frank, Apple Kid and Tony, hoping desperately that someone would make some comment about him.
Not a word.
Ness... didn't know what to think. After all the things he went through - all the things he did for these people and all the things which they did to him... his fate was... to be forgotten?
Was he really that insignificant? Was his presence really that... irrelevant...
This... proved it then. No one... ever cared about him. Ever.
He was sad... and angry! He did all of this, all of this, and his fate was to be forgotten?! To have his love be... stolen, taken from him?! He suffered for these people! He suffered because of these people!
And now he was just... dust in the wind...
... finally accepting the reality, the psychic returned to Lumine Hall.
He wasn't exactly happy thou—
"DAMN YOU, JEFF ANDONUTS!"
The walls of Lumine Hall crackled before the words appeared in sync with the enraged psychic's voice.
"You knew all this time, ALL THIS TIME, you were just waiting for the opportunity! All this time, I can't believe I never even saw it! I truly am an almighty IDIOT!"
"I made you famous from this adventure! I gave you confidence from everything we faced! I helped you rebuild your relationship with your father, without a second thought – cause that's what being friends is about, right? Right? RIGHT?!"
"DAMN YOU, AND YOUR IDIOTIC FATHER WHO TRIED TO KILL US ALL! HE WAS JUST WAITING DESPERATELY FOR US ALL TO GET VAPORISED BY THAT PHASE DISTORTER!"
"Why... it hurts... it hurts... so... much. I thought... we were... friends. Friends... friends... no... you were more than that... it hurts..."
"But not for you. Oh no, not for you. Because... given all that you did... we were..."
"We were never really friends in the first place, were we?"
"Ah... ah, it makes... so much... pain, no, sense, no... fuck you... fuck you..."
"FUCK YOU! I WILL FIND YOU, JEFF! I WILL FIND YOU IN YOUR SLEEP AND I WILL DESTROY YOU! YOU WILL NEVER KNOW ANOTHER MOMENT OF PEACE FOR THE REST OF YOUR SHORT, MISERABLE LIFE! WHEN I FIND YOU... I'LL BREAK YOUR ARMS, SHATTER YOUR LEGS, GOUGE YOUR EYES, SEVER YOUR HANDS AND THEN..."
"I'll just take a knife, no, the knife, you know, that knife, and stab you over and over and over and over and over and over again. And I won't get bored, oh no — I won't get bored, not until your voice gives in and your ears rupture from your own screams."
"But I won't stop. Not until you're meat for the butcher. And then what? You don't think, I'll just leave you? No... what friend just goes away, and leaves their friend lying there in agony? Not me. No. Not me. NEVER!"
"I WILL SHOCK YOU WITH LIGHTNING FOR SO LONG THAT THOSE GLASSES OF YOURS WILL FUSE TO YOUR FACE! THEN, I'LL BURN THE SKIN OF YOUR FLESH, UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING LEFT BUT YOUR HOLLOW BONES, AND YOU'LL BE AS UNRECOGNISABLE AS YOU WOULD IF WENT INTO THE PHASE DISTORTER!"
"And then I'll freeze each and every bone, one by one, and shatter them with my bat, then eviscerate what little remains after."
"Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate. Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate. Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate. Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate. Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate. Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate. Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate. Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate. Freeze. Shatter. Eviscerate."
"Each and every bone."
"Until I'm all the way to what once constituted as your brain. And even without a body to feel pain, you'll know what I did, you're smart, right? You'll feel the pain. And I'll know your pain. You want it to stop. You start to... slip away... slowly... it hurts, doesn't it... it feels as if it's all going to end... it's going to stop... then..."
"PSI Lifeup Omega!"
"And then we do it all over again."
...with that, the writing on the walls stopped... though it did nothing to stop the psychic brimming with purple energy.
It was... it was... betrayal. It hurt... badly... and... it made Ness wonder...
They all forgot about him... but then again, he wasn't there... perhaps it was for the best. After all, he couldn't expect them to wait for him in the hope that he'd come ba—
No, Ness! It was her fault! She left you, remember? She abandoned you! Everything that happened... your love for her... that's what led to the pain! The suffering... the pain... She was responsible for it all!
And then he capitalised on it... to spite you... to add to your pain... but it wasn't just those two. What about everyone else? Did anyone else attempt to stop it? Did they? No! Did anyone think about you at all? No! You were right to leave them! They never cared about you at all!
They never did... it was true. Love... really... doesn't last, does it?
Exactly. You've seen it time and time again. Our parents? They divorced. Pokey? He abandoned his brother? Dr Andonuts? He never saw his son for 10 years. And then, you and Paula... it didn't last either.
LOVE. NEVER. LASTS!
But the pain and suffering still does...
And Ness wanted nothing more than to impart something to everyone. And what would that something be? Himself. His sadness, his anger, his envy, his hatred, his doubt, his guilt and most of all, his pain.
Ness returned to the Sanctuaries - but things weren't the same. They would never be. While Ness once lived for the sake of living, now he lived for something else... a desire burning inside him. His desire to impart all that he felt upon his loved ones.
Every day, Ness would push himself. He was never the fastest person, but he fuelled himself with all the years of insults in school that he had endured about his chubby physique. He took his hatred and kept going into sheer exhaustion.
He increased his strength by fighting against all the toughest things he'd come across, imagining that they were one of his loved ones. When he smashed a Chomposuar with his bat, it was not the dinosaur he saw, but rather Poo, and the screeches of pain the dinosaur gave were Poo's cries for help, before succumbing to death.
Whenever Ness saw an Uncontrollable Sphere, he'd smile, imagining its body was Jeff's head. He'd take a deep breath and blast it with PSI Rockin, before the sphere exploded, the fragments of it being pieces of Jeff's flesh.
Oh, but it was a real treat to see a Cute Li'l UFO! And Ness savoured it every time. He'd approach it, and rip off its metallic ribbon, before beating the UFO with it, imagining he was grabbing Paula's ribbon and tearing off her head in the process, bashing her headless body until it was just a headless corpse.
It was so much FUN!
For every foe, Ness had a loved one to envision.
Of course, Ness didn't neglect his mind. He meditated in the Sanctuaries for hours on end, using the Brain Stone to concentrate. At first, it seemed pointless, and Ness did consider stopping.
But he felt some sort of connection... a connection between him and the Sanctuaries. The longer he spent, the more it grew. He felt his own power growing...
Ness wondered if he was just imagining that growing connection, because he hoped it was actually happening. He was used to depressing results though, so he didn't exactly expect any change though.
Well, until he destroyed a mountain with PSI Rockin.
Oh. Ohhhhh. When Ness first did that, it felt... exhilarating. The sheer... power at his fingertips. At first, he was... confused. He was never able to do this before...
But Ness soon realised why - the Sanctuaries. That connection really did mean something - the Sanctuaries strengthened him. Before, Ness had only used the Sanctuaries for their healing powers, but now... now he truly realised their power. They were more than just healing zones. They were the Earth's power.
Ness had only used that power to reach Magicant... to clear his mind. But what Magicant had done was allow his Nightmare to work in harmony with him, giving potential for his mind to grow - and with the power of the Sanctuaries, he could make use of all that potential.
And there was a lot of potential.
Ness spent his time in the Sanctuaries, practicing using his PSI. But not just his PSI - all PSI. Ness first spent his time learning every single piece of PSI he didn't already know. But he didn't just stop there. He was determined to master every single piece of PSI.
He spent a month meditating in Fire Spring among his practice so he could burn forests down with PK Fire.
He caught many colds at Rainy Circle, but it was worth it to create freezing winds using PK Freeze.
He even spent time during a thunderstorm at Deep Darkness so he could create his own storms with PK Thunder.
Oh, it was hard. So hard. But the thought of being able to make good on everything he said he'd do to Jeff, and not just him, no, to be able to do that to all of them... that desire... it kept him going.
The hardest, and the last thing Ness attempted was to learn PK Starstorm. Ness wasn't sure how exactly to go about learning it. Poo had the Star Master to help him, but Ness did not... and he refused to rely on others.
After all, he abandoned all of that when everyone abandoned him.
But through sheer force of will, a dose of sadness and hatred to fuel the attack in addition to nearly a year's worth of many, many attempts and Ness did it. He realised and mastered the power of every single piece of PSI.
He'd done it. That night, Ness celebrated by making statues of all his friends and family before obliterating them with a mixture of all the PSI he had spent that time learning.
His body also grew stronger from all the power he gained from the Sanctuaries in addition to all his training. Soon, creatures that Ness had struggled with, became Piggy Jelly in his hands. Every creature he saw would run when they saw him.
But it was a futile effort.
Ness would just chase them down and smash them as hard as he could. Or use the knife that Jeff gave him - it was rather effective, and Ness had grown to enjoy the sensation of digging the knife into something, before pulling it out, and seeing how much blood he could draw. One day, he'd do the same to all of those people.
One day.
But through it all, there were times where Ness grew doubtful. He became scared of his power and the things he could do with it. Oh, before, he was just an incredibly strong human. But now? Ness's connection with the Sanctuaries was only growing stronger. His power grew exponentially.
His mind reached the point where Ness felt he could do anything. He looked at a mountain and could obliterate it. He saw a creature and he could burn it to ashes, freeze it in its tracks and electrocute it to death, all at the same time.
Sometimes, when Ness focused on them, he noticed that lesser creatures could even be influenced by him. He could even outright take control of their minds if he wanted to.
So it was only a matter of time before he had gained enough power from the Sanctuaries to work his way up to creatures with minds strong enough to use PSI... like humans.
And that what scared him.
But whenever he felt his drive wavering, he'd pray to the Sanctuaries and he'd feel the drive surge back into him! He'd feel their energy uniting to serve him, the melodies intertwining together before he finished whatever walked in front of him with PSI Rockin.
Eventually, Ness was able to deal with everything with such ease that he grew bored. Fighting these things no longer had any meaning for him. He needed something stronger, something that could withstand all the abuse he was capable of dealing, something that had grown and developed with him.
So Ness chose the one thing that was durable enough - himself.
He'd stab himself with his knife, aiming to cut as hard and deep as possible. Other times, he'd use all of his PSI, trying to turn his body into dust. He'd aim to see how long he could take the abuse before he could take no more. And...
He loved it!
There would be times where he'd spend hours just slicing away at himself and blasting himself with PSI, eagerly testing his body, waiting to see when it would finally give in and break. And every time, just before he was absorbed by the darkness...
'PSI Lifeup Omega!'
He'd feel life rushing back into him, yanking him away from the grip of death. That feeling... it was...
It was wonderful!
Still, there were times in which Ness took some breaks - they were few and far between though. See, now that Ness was becoming one with the Sanctuaries, they could sustain him for far longer. Ness went an entire year without anything to have — and he probably could have gone longer, he merely wanted to experience the pleasure that food gave.
When Ness did return to society that one time, he got some more information on their wedding — including when it would happen. Ness spent many days debating it...
...but in the end, he decided not to go. Why should he? He wasn't invited, and what was he supposed to do - just watch his love be taken away and be reminded of his own failures even more? NEVER!
It was just... pointless suffering. Ness found out all he needed to know from newspapers — the most interesting thing being that Paula chose not to take Jeff's name.
Ness was... quite happy, to say the least.
He also found out that Poo had gotten married as well in the time he was away — to a princess from Scaraba. It mattered little to Ness.
Either way, he just kept going. He grew tired of it all, but at the same time, he didn't want to stop. Oh, he loved the rush of battle - seeing your enemy, then taking their form and moulding it so it assumed one of the people who he loved, before imagining their deaths. Then, he made it reality. Oh, Ness never grew tired of that.
It was everything else that surrounded it.
There were times in which Ness couldn't handle his own power. It would spill like an overflowing container with... dangerous results. But still, Ness kept going. Because he wanted to. Because he had to.
He spent months on end planning exactly how he intended to make his loved ones suffer. He'd make them all slowly... slowly suffer, before finally letting them die. And once he killed all of them, he would finally join them.
It's a wonderful idea!
Sometimes, Ness thought about maybe... perhaps... just stopping. But those thoughts in his head was overshadowed by the other thoughts that said to keep going, to destroy them. The psychic only got more powerful. The longer he went on, the more driven he was, the more the power of the Sanctuaries untied through him.
And so, Ness continued for four years before things changed again. But unlike four years ago, where things changed because of what Ness found out, this time, things would change because Ness intended for them to.
Ness would return to society once more.
Ness picked the date he returned very purposefully - it was a week after his 25th birthday. That wasn't what made it special though, no, rather it was something else. By Ness's count, it meant he had been gone for seven years.
Which meant... he was legally dead.
And hey, for once, Ness did get some sort of recognition, as there was an article in a newspaper he found, about Ness Mason, leader of the Chosen Four, now being officially dead.
Admittedly, it was just a side note, rather than the headlines, but Ness will take what he can get — this newspaper acknowledged him more than his own family and friends did.
In a way, Ness thought it was rather poetic — the dead person came back from the grave to haunt their loved ones.
And yet... he was already dead to them four years before, wasn't he? But soon, they'll be dead to him.
Ness didn't know who he'd go after first... he had reasons for any person being the first... after much deliberation though... Jeff was the clear choice.
And he was gonna enjoy this so much.
And so, that night, Ness looked over his initial plans for Jeff - re-enacting the Lumine Hall rant. But when Ness really considered it... this was insufficient. It hardly began to convey everything he wanted to do to Jeff.
Physical pain was a perfectly viable way to make someone suffer — but wounds heal. Physical pain was devastating in the moment but in the grand scheme of things... it didn't last.
Ness knows that fact particularly well, from years of bombarding himself with knife wounds, fire, freezing winds, electricity, fragments of stars and psychedelic explosions. And none of that left anything lasting.
He needed something that left a mark.
And Ness knows equally well what kind of pain would leave such a thing — mental pain. He would break Jeff's mind and his will to live... and when he wanted nothing more than to die... Ness would be there, like the good friend he was, to grant that wish.
So, the question was: how does he make Jeff suffer mentally?
It's simple, Ness. Jeff's incredibly smart... and he figured out an equally effective way to make you suffer... so why not use that same way?
By taking all his loved ones.
Yes... yes, that worked well. So then... who does Ness take?
Well, there was the Snow House Boarding School. It wouldn't be too out of Ness's way to make a detour there and blast it to smithereens with Starstorm.
Who else, who else... Ah! Dr Andonuts... the older one. He had apparently retired at Saturn Valley — which would only make it all the easier for Ness to find him.
He'd chuck him the Phase Distorter and see what happened. Worse case scenario, he'd come out as a skeleton — not quite alive, but not quite dead either. Best case scenario —maybe he'd just disappear all together!
Which would leave Jeff wracked with the constant uncertainty of his father's fate — or for something more appropriate for Jeff, the game of Schrödinger's Cat that Ness would force him to play.
Alright, Ness was really getting somewhere! Who else, who else...
Enough. You're wasting time. You already know the answer.
Paula.
Ah. Ah. Well...
Paula... it certainly did make... sense. Losing one's wife would certainly give the crippling pain Ness was aiming for...
But it was Paula. And...
And what? And what, Ness? Think about it... what better way to make Jeff suffer? To take back what was rightfully ours — no... yours. And we can still grant her mercy. We can give her a quick death. She wouldn't even feel a thing. And once you do... won't you be free? Your pain caused by your love... it would be gone. The pain... it would stop.
Yes... if Ness did it... he would finally have moved on from her. He spent the last seven years in preparation for this, and now... he could move on.
And Jeff, would suffer. It was perfect.
Go to her. If you can do this, if you can break free from this chain... you can break all the chains keeping you... Ness, you know you have the power! All that's left... is the will.
Yes... he would do it. He would. He knows he can. It's simple. It's effortless. And nothing would stop him. He'd break free from this chain, and then... he'd break free from them all.
With that... Ness teleported to Twoson.
Twoson had expanded over the years. The department store had gotten bigger and Burglin Park was busier than ever - there was even a monument to Everdred. The Polestar Preschool had also changed - it was now an actual school, which Paula had become the headmistress of.
Which all led to... now. Ness... had been thinking about everything that had led him to what he was about to do. And now...
Ness slowly approached her house - she still lived in Twoson, rather than in Winters with Jeff - being able to teleport perhaps made the long distance thing a non issue though.
Ness remembered... that he was the one who taught Paula how to teleport... it was in a field in between Onett and Twoson... they even had a picnic there and made it a date... it was... nice. Yeah, it really wa—
Ness, no! No distractions! Isn't that what caused this pain in the first place?
Right, yes. Focus. Ness looked in through the windows... and then he saw her. Paula.
Paula had... certainly changed over the course of seven years. Ness did see her four years ago, but he was too stricken with... other emotions to actually look at her.
She had changed from the pretty girl Ness knew into a rather beautiful woman - even after her years as a teen. She was rather tall, and yet her face was still rather similar to what it looked like when she was young. She must have looked nice... walking down the aisle...
Ness!
Focus. Either way, despite all of those changes, none of that would accurately describe the biggest change to her.
No... that honour would go to the rather prominent bulge on her stomach.
She was... pregnant.
Perfect... the pain Jeff would feel would be infinitely more... the loss of not just his wife...
But his child as well. And all you have to do Ness, is just knock on the door, wait for her to come, and then use Jeff's knife. Ten seconds. That's all it'll take. And then... it is finished. Good luck.
Ness... never really liked children, when he thought about it. He'd grown to hate the children at the tree house... and at the preschool.
But then again, your own child is always... different, isn't it? It's... your own flesh and blood. It's a symbol of love, isn't it?
It is, isn't it? And just like love, it doesn't last. It can be destroyed. And very easily as well.
Ness wondered... what would... what would it be like to have a child. Would he be like his father... and never be there for them? And leave... his wife?
When he looked at her... she really did look happy... as if, she was the happiest girl in the world.
Ness? You're at the door. Are you ready?
It was time... Seven years of preparation and now... he was really going to do it, wasn't he?
He was going to kill Paula Jones.
A/N: Soooo... remember when I said that this would be the conclusion... yeah, this got far too long as well. My baaaad. I promise though that the next chapter will be the conclusion to the story — three's a nice number, plus it allows me to do that 'make a phrase out of the titles' thing.
Highlight of the story for me? The Lumine Hall rant — although the fact that I actually managed to use Schrödinger's Cat in a fanfic and have it be contextually appropriate is up there.
I will say this though since it's relevant for both this chapter and the next one — if it wasn't clear, the voice speaking to Ness when he's alone is supposed to be Ness's Nightmare, who, in this fic, became a part of Ness after Magicant.
It's not necessarily a completely separate entity from Ness, it is Ness (hence why it refers to Ness's parents as 'our parents') — but it has a more cynical point of view that Ness himself chooses to accept more and more over time.