I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Lord of Over and the King of Under

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It's late evening, not that anyone would be able to tell here in Underworld City. The five of us, meaning Chaor, Lilth, Sarah, Isis and myself, have spent the entire time figuring out what we're going to do about Phelphor.

"It's probably a defense mechanism," I say suddenly.

Lilth looks up from tapping her thumbs together and asks, "Care to enlighten us?"

I lean forward and elaborate, "If Phelphor was consciously controlling me, then a smarter choice for him would have been to take control of Chaor instead."

Sarah glances at Chaor, then back at me. "You have a point, but what are you getting at?"

"Firing squad?" I mutter. "Overwhelm his reflexive retaliation? Someone should get a shot on him."

Chaor gives me an annoyed glare. "More likely Phelphor will control one of them and use his puppet to kill the others."

That hadn't occurred to me. "You're right, bad idea."

Isis bites her bottom lip. "Is there anything we can do to keep the M'arrillians from escaping the Deepmines even if Phelphor gets out?"

Lilth shakes her head. "The first thing I did after becoming Queen was have the Doors thoroughly examined. The most we'd be able to do is buy a few minutes."

"Actually," Sarah quips, "The first thing you did when you became Queen was become Chaor's sex toy."

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose. Sarah had lost her patience with the discussion an hour ago, and she's been saying things like this every few minutes since then.

Fortunately, Lilth doesn't take the bait. "Those few minutes won't matter anyway if Phelphor gets out. If he's anywhere near as powerful here as in the show, which I'm sure he is, then anyone who could be a threat to him will be unable to think for themselves once he sets his eyes on them."

"Phelphor's not a chieftain," I interrupt. "There are limits to what he can do."

"We don't know what those limits are, Osiris," Lilth grimaces. "How many things have you come across that didn't show up in the game or the show?"

I glance at Isis. "Quite a few things, actually."

"So we obviously can't assume Phelphor, and the other M'arrillians for that matter, are only capable of doing what we saw them do in the show," Lilth concludes.

She's right. I'm reminded of the recording I heard earlier. I'm making the same mistake now as I did then.

A knock at the door shakes me out of my thoughts. "King Chaor," says a rough voice behind the door, "There's another group of creatures at the gate."

Chaor narrows his eyes. "Who is it?"

The voice hesitates, then mumbles something. It's too low for me to hear.

Chaor stands up, storms to the door, and yanks it open. Behind the door is a soldier clad in spiky red armor. Chaor growls, "I want you to speak up. Who's at the gate?"

The soldier's legs seem to shake, and he mumbles again.

Chaor leans into the soldier's face and roars, "You decided that whoever is outside that gate is important enough for me to know about, so tell me now before I have your head for wasting my time!"

I can't help but notice a puddle forming around the soldier's feet. The poor guy's wet himself. "I-it's Maxxor, Your Majesty! Maxxor and what looks like a small army!"

Chaor bellows wordlessly, then shoves the soldier aside and storms out of the room. The shaken soldier stumbles a bit, then follows Chaor with awkward steps.

There's silence in the room for a while. Isis is staring at the door with alarm on her face. Sarah is gritting her teeth and looking around nervously. Lilth, however, looks bored. She lifts her arm up and points a finger into the air. "Someone clean up that mess outside."

A short purple creature rushes out of the shadows, crosses the room too quickly for me to get a good look at it, and closes the door as it leaves. Soon there's the sound of scrubbing outside. "Good," Lilth sighs. "Now the place won't smell like urine."

After a while, the Queen of the Underworld stands and walks to a window. "You know, you can see the gate clearly from here. Who wants to watch Chaor shout at Maxxor?"

I shake my head. So do Isis and Sarah.

Lilth shrugs and turns to the window. "Suit yourselves." Then she leans forward. "Say, is that Austin?"

"Who's Austin?" I ask without thinking. I don't even care right now. Then it occurs to me that Austin sounds like a Human name.

"Leader of the Human-Overworlder tribe," Lilth explains.

Now I'm curious. I stand and join Lilth at the window.

I can't hear anything over this distance, but it's clear that Chaor is having a shouting match with Maxxor. Even at a head shorter than the Underworld King, Maxxor is standing his ground, apparently matching Chaor in volume. Both show signs that they're barely keeping themselves from lunging at the other.

There are a bunch of soldiers wearing what looks like blue cloth armor behind Maxxor. With the soldiers is a shorter figure. It's difficult to get a good look from this distance and angle, but it looks Human. Whoever it is has white hair and is wearing black clothes.

Eventually the figure I'm assuming to be Austin steps forward. It looks like he's speaking with Chaor. Chaor still looks furious, but he doesn't look nearly as aggressive now as when he was shouting at Maxxor.

Ah, Chaor would have met this guy beforehand. This Austin is probably the reason why the Humans at Kiru City weren't rounded up and brought here ten solans ago. Wait, wouldn't Chaor be a bit more angry with him then?

Eventually, Chaor turns around and heads for the gate. Austin follows him. Alone. Maxxor and the Overworld soldiers are... turning around and leaving.

"Your mouth is hanging open," Lilth says.

I close my mouth, head back to my seat, and sit down beside Isis.

Minutes later, Chaor enters the room again. His fists are shaking, and through clenched teeth he says, "Austin, everyone else. Everyone else, Austin." Then he storms over to his chairs and sits down in it hard.

An old man walks into the room. He has white hair and a beard that reaches the middle of his chest. He's wearing a solid black suit, almost like a tuxedo, and he's supporting his weight on a silver-colored cane. Or... no, he's not. He is holding a cane, but they way he's standing, it doesn't look like he actually needs it. His suit is decorated with what look like small medals. His face is somewhat wrinkled, and his blue eyes look like they're boring holes into everyone in turn.

The old man bow slightly. "Sirs, madams. I am Austin, Maxxor's Right Hand." His voice sounds raspy, yet strong.

Lilth inclines her head. "I apologize for my husband's poor manners." Chaor snorts, but doesn't argue.

"A pleasure to meet you again, Lilth," Austin says with another bow. "You're looking well." He turns to me. "Prince Osiris, I assume?"

I decide that he might as well know me as Osiris rather than Michael. "That is correct," I say.

"Which would make you Princess Isis," Austin says as he glances at my wife. Then he turns to the last person in the room. "And you would be... was that Queen, Princess, or something else?"

Sarah grins and pulls the front of her top down a little. "Sarah will be perfectly fine, handsome."

Holy crap, woman, do you flirt with every man you see?

Austin bows again. He seems to bow a lot. "A pleasure to meet you then, Sarah."

Chaor pounds the armrest of his chair with his fist. "Good, everyone, meet everyone, done, let's get back to figuring out what to do with the M'arrillian."

"I've been meaning to ask," Austin says as he finds an empty chair and sits down, "what exactly is a M'arrillian?"

There's dead silence for a while as everyone stares at Austin, who eventually says, "I'm not one of the Humans who knew about Perim before my arrival here, in case it's not incredibly obvious."

Lilth sighs. "Let's fill you in, then."

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Austin's heard everything now. He's sitting with his arms folded, and he's staring at the floor, blinking infrequently. Finally, he says, "We need a robot of some sort, then."

...It's so incredibly obvious that I feel like kicking myself for not thinking of it. Lilth and Sarah seem to be of the same mind.

Chaor looks confused. "How's that going to help?"

"A robot doesn't have a mind to control," Austin says. "Hence, one can safely kill this Phelphor while he's frozen without any danger to itself."

Chaor slowly grins. "I know exactly who to talk to about that." He stands up and walks out the door.

Lilth turns to Austin. "You know he'll take credit for your idea."

Austin shrugs. "I don't care one bit, as long as the danger is gone."

I blink. "...Is that it?" I look over at Isis. "Did... did our problem just vanish?"

"I... guess?" Isis says, looking as confused as I am.

"Then... that means we can head back to Al Mipedim," I say.

Isis smiles. "We'll head out as soon as we can tomorrow."

Sarah leans towards Austin and says, "I will be heading back to Mount Pillar in the morning, too. What will you be doing?"

"I told Maxxor that I'd return as soon as the problem is solved," Austin says, "Though it is rather late."

"We could share my guest room," Sarah suggests with a sly grin.

Austin raises his eyebrows. "I'm a little old to be entering a committed relationship, ma'am."

Sarah grins wider. "I wasn't thinking of anything quite that long-term..."

"Ah," Austin says with a twinkle in his eyes. "Well, that changes things."

This is getting ridiculous. I clear my throat. "Well, if we're, um, done, then Isis and I, along with the rest of our company would like to know where we'll be spending the night."

{WeLL, ThiS CoMPLiCaTeS ThiNGS.}

"...Did anyone else hear that?" I ask, my heart in my throat. Everyone else is looking around.

{ouR FiRST PlaN HaS FaiLeD, iT SeeMS. TiMe FoR THe SeCoND.}

Wait, no! That's Phel-

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uP NeXT: THe MySTeRiouS ViCTiM iN THe iCe

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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