Music Corner: Red in the Face - Assassin's Creed OST

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Ib tried to ignore the feeling of her head wanting to split as she ran through the halls haphazardly, not really paying attention to where she was going. She only knew she needed to get away. A sharp chemical smell permeated the air, a strange mix of wet paint and the coppery smell of blood. Between that and the loud noises that accompanied the battle, she could barely hear her own thoughts other than "RUN!" repeating through her head. Her lungs ached, her legs burned, but still she ran, barely avoiding attacks thrown at her out of sheer luck and hysteria.

Garry... Garry wasn't her Garry. Not anymore. How long? Why? Was he going to tell her? What happened to the real Garry? An image flashed in her mind of Garry, limp and weak as he sat against the wall and told her to go on without him. Her legs faltered and she nearly fell face-first into the floor, managing to right herself and keep her legs pumping forward through the twisting halls.

He wasn't... he couldn't be... dead? Another image. Mary's gleeful smile as she plucked the last petal off Garry's rose. Her giggle as she dropped his barren rose and stomped on it for good measure.

He's not dead...

She shook her head as tears welled up in her eyes. Her vision was almost non-existent by this point.

He can't be... not Garry...

She barely registered at first when a strong, stone-like hand wrapped around her upper arm and pulled her into one of the rooms where the fighting had died down. Mannequins in red dresses and blue dolls laid strewn about the room, unmoving. The loyalists had obviously won this particular area of the battle. Her eyes finally moved, flickering around to see several mannequins in yellow dresses, gathered around her. If they had faces, she'd swear they'd be leering at her. At the little girl they wanted to tear apart.

Through a heady mix of panic and adrenaline, she managed to push her feet to the chest of the mannequin in front of her and push hard, knocking it back and at the same time pitching her body backward hard enough to throw the mannequin behind her, who was still holding on to her, off balance. She slipped out of its grip, only to have the side of an arm slam into the back of her head as she tried to make her escape. Her vision exploded white, then dimmed nearly black as she lost her balance and fell to her hands and knees on the floor. She could swear she saw stars as they closed in on her.

No... please no...

She cried out as she felt slender but unyielding fingers thread into her hair and grab a handful, jerking her head up to look up at her captors.

Garry...!

She saw one of them flatten their hand out and ready their arm back, almost like a spear. Like she was going to be stabbed.

NOOOOOO!

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Garry couldn't move initially as she ran. He picked the handkerchief up off the ground and looked at it, rubbing it between his fingers lightly before it sunk in that there was still a battle around them. Regardless of the chance he blew, she was in very real danger of being killed. The denizens of the fabricated world that saw her as their queen would surely never forgive him for this.

He growled and took off after her, but found it to be a challenge to keep up with her. She was small and seemed to be noticed a lot less than him, whom the loyalists saw fit to attack at every opportunity. He made an attempt to avoid most of the attacks, but a few times they were too persistent to be able to ignore.

It wasn't that he was worried about her personally. However, he'd been waiting for a long time now for his chance to rule their world. He'd been so close before, but then that little wench Mary had taken it from his grasp. Now he was so close again to having this world be his.

He could just kill her. Killing Ib would ensure no one else would have the power, active or dormant, to challenge his authority. Then again, unlike Mary, the beings of their world actually gave a damn about Ib for the most part. There was a large likelihood that they would fight to the death rather than serve the one that took a good queen away from them, or at least make it extremely difficult and frustrating for him to gain control.

There was the option of letting her go back to her world. He wouldn't have to kill her, nor would he have any competition. Still, there was no guarantee that the denizens of their world would listen to him still.

No... More than that, he didn't want her to leave. She was his. As easy as letting her go might make the situation for the throne, he couldn't help the selfish urge to keep her for himself. The girl who conquered the queen who had conquered him. It was an indirect victory, but one nonetheless. It gave him a great amount of satisfaction to have her wrapped around his finger.

Well, she had been, until he'd blown his cover. He should have continued on with her. He should have taken it more slow. Gotten her out of harm's way and tried to more patiently coax her into what he wanted. Instead he had pushed too hard and this is where it got him. He was used to getting what he wanted, so this whole thing with showing her patience and understanding was wearing on him.

Despite his manipulations and lies, he'd never once hurt her. Despite his incessant need for control, he couldn't bring himself to raise a hand to her for reasons he couldn't seem to understand. If it were anyone else, there would be no hesitation.

He heard her scream and pushed his legs even harder in a mad sprint for where the sound had come from. The sound of stone grinding on stone and muffled screams bounced along the hallway, making his anger grow as he followed the noise to its destination. Ib's screams were the most pronounced noise from the room, nearly being a single, sustained scream from how much she was doing it.

He barreled into the room, only to go still in shock. Mannequin bodies, friend and foe, lay about the room with the dead dolls. The room was taken up by what was best described as a web of vines, stretching from various parts of the room to other, random points on the opposite walls and ceiling. Several mannequins were strung up in the thorned vines, unmoving for the most part other than one or two that were still giving strange, muffled moans of pain.

Ib herself stood in the center, a good deal of the vines wrapping around her halfway to their destination across the room, almost cocooning her. Her screams didn't seem to be from the enemies around her attacking her. In fact, they didn't seem to have been able to even touch her, judging from the lack of her blood on them.

No, her blood was spilling. Dripping on the floor. But it was by her own doing. He realized this outburst of power was much like the one that had broken his barrier: completely involuntary. In fact, her power seemed to be unable to distinguish her from the foes she was unconsciously trying to drive away, the thorns sinking deep into her skin as her vines squeezed her tightly.

He rushed forward past the enemies there, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her gently as he tried to be heard over her constant screaming, "Ib! Ib, you need to snap out of it!"

Her body shook and tried to pull from him violently without even looking up at him, reacting more to being grabbed than actual awareness of who was there. He could see in her face that, underneath it all, she was frightened out of her mind. Her fear made her incapable of controlling her power. It was also likely to kill her if she didn't get it under control.

He tried pulling the vines loose to no avail. His own vines couldn't pierce or move them and the fire from Garry's lighter had no effect on them. He tried to shake her out of it again, but got no response. Getting desperate, he grabbed her face between his hands and forced her face to tip up to face him, trying to catch her eyes with his. Her eyes darted around beyond her control until she somehow managed to focus them on his face. He watched them look at him in horror, but her thrashing merely got worse.

Shit. Right. He was a bad guy, too.

He growled in frustration and considered knocking her unconscious. There was no telling if that would still her out-of-control power, though. He was at a complete loss and started to feel rising anxiety at the possibility that he couldn't stop this.

Ib!

He tensed as he almost felt the cry run through his body rather than in his head, his body almost moving on its own accord as he lunged forward and took Ib in his arms.

This time the screaming actually stopped and it took all of his willpower not to look down in shock, both at his own behavior and the fact that she finally started to calm down. He awkwardly stroked her hair and held her head to his chest gently, muttered soft words of comfort even as the thorns dug into various parts of his arms and torso in his attempt to calm the frightened girl.

She eventually stopped hyperventilating and sobbing, her crying reduced to light hiccups. It still hurt like hell, but she wasn't panicked anymore.

Garry murmured by her ear, "Ib, these are yours. They are only hurting you because you didn't tell them not to. Why not try it, Ib? Tell them to let you go. With your mind, with your words, whatever you're comfortable with."

She tried to speak, but it came out as a jumbled mess. Eventually she seemed to think something, because the vines loosened around her body. Garry slowly let her go, watching as the vines fell to the floor much like a length of hose.

Realizing that she might object to his presence, he took a few more steps back to give her space. She looked up at him finally, looking hurt and afraid. He somehow had the sense to look a bit ashamed and was thankful when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye, a few of the dolls having found their way to the room.

He looked at Ib one last time before turning to the two dolls in front, his voice soft in volume but certainly not in tone, "Report."

One of the dolls looked to Ib with concern as she spoke up, "The resistance has been nullified for the time being. A small portion got away, but the bulk lie dead."

Garry nodded in approval at this before nodding toward Ib, "She needs... she needs help." He waved a hand toward Ib before slipping out the door and down the hallway, his head spinning with conflicting thoughts.

The doll watched him go with no small amount of confusion, but Ib's safety needed to come first. She could only guess what happened based on the look of the room, sympathy crossing her face as she came closer to Ib, another doll at her heels.

Ib felt herself unconsciously shrink back. Being attacked by monsters in the gallery again made it hard to distinguish who did and didn't have hostile intentions toward her.

The dolls stopped their approach and regarded her with worry, the male speaking up now, "Ib, it's okay, we don't want to hurt you."

His voice sent a jolt through her and she watched him with wide and confused eyes, "S.. Seo...?"

He looked down and merely nodded, clasping his hands behind his back and looking sheepish, "Um... yeah. We're sorry we deceived you."

His sister nodded in agreement, her vivid red eyes looking to Ib pleadingly. Eyes that were just as vivid as Cassie's, just red instead of green. That same hair as well.

Ib mouthed her name but couldn't seem to get her voice to come out this time, unsure of what to do now. She was back in this world. No... she'd never left it to begin with. She'd been here for so long. Her parents would be worried. Were they still even looking for her after so many years?

Cassie took another cautious step forward, "We didn't mean to hurt you, Ib. We just thought you could use some friends here. Friends you didn't have to be afraid of."

Ib didn't seem to be sure if she could trust Cassie or not. Cassie and Seo had been her best friends for years now, but to find out it was a lie? That they weren't human at all? What else had they been lying about? Maybe they didn't actually like her. Perhaps they were just close because... Garry... told them to.

Then again, it was hard to fake the amount of sadness the brother and sister were giving off. They weren't coming any closer than she felt comfortable with and were concerned about her wounds.

She finally felt the last of her adrenaline leave her, the only thing left being pain and extreme fatigue. She sank to the floor, the room blurring and spinning. Cassie and Seo ran forward and helped balance her the best they could.

She wanted answers. She wanted to know many things about why she was still there and what it meant for her now. About where Garry was and who this fake was. But, she was exhausted now. She'd get her answers, but first she needed rest. That was the last thought that passed through her head before her eyes fell closed and she slumped over unconscious.

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Promise (Reprise) from Silent Hill 2 (Akira Yamaoka)

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Ib gave a light sigh as the last bit of exhaustion left her and she slowly opened her eyes, finding herself on something rather soft. She realized she was lying in her bed. Well, her bed in Garry's apartment.

Wait, Garry's apartment?

The previous events flooded her brain and she sat up hastily, the world spinning a moment. She felt a plush hand on her lower back trying to steady her, but only had eyes for the door as she tumbled out of bed and ran for it. Was she in the illusion again? Was 'Garry' going to really try to trick her with this again?

She flung the door open, only to blink in stunned confusion. Rather than the brightly lit hallway with white walls she was used to, the walls were a dark blue and the lighting made her think more of the Fabricated World.

"This room is real," a small voice piped up from behind her. She turned to see one of the dolls, Cassie, sitting on her bed. Seo was behind his sister, peeking out shyly, as if afraid Ib might be mad at them.

And she was. She was intensely angry with the both of them for deceiving her. At the same time, though, she wasn't sure why and her mother had taught her at least to hear someone out before you let anger set in at them. She bit her lip softly, nervous now. They didn't seem to mean her harm. If they did, they would have done something by now, right? She slowly moved back over to her bed and sat down, earning a sigh of relief from the twins.

Ib sighed and tried to think of what to ask first, the twins being incredibly patient and letting her speak first. Eventually she spoke, "It's hard to decide what to ask. I guess I kind of know the important ones. Where are we? The world inside the paintings. Why am I still here? I never left. It's just details I'm confused on, I guess."

Cassie gave a nod and sat by Ib, "Well, when you defeated Mary, you became the new Queen of this world."

Ib jolted a bit at that revelation and looked at the doll by her side that vaguely resembled her best friend, "Queen? Me? But I never asked for this."

Cassie shook her head and looked a bit bothered, "It's not something you choose, it chooses you. Regardless of milord's reasons for keeping you under an illusion and having us help you adjust, the fact is that you.. you can't..." Seeing his sister struggle with the words, Seo piped up in a soft voice, "You can't leave, not anymore. You are as much a part of this world as any other work of art. In order to leave, you'd have to do what the previous Queen did and bring someone in from the outside world to take your place."

Ib felt like her world was spinning again. Stuck? She was stuck here? She could certainly bring someone in to replace her, but that would be just cruel. As much as she resented being stuck in this place, it certainly wasn't a fate she could push off onto someone else. She closed her eyes and tried to breath deeply, murmuring quietly after a moment, "I want to know everything you can tell me. About the fights, about the truth behind the illusions, about my powers... everything."

The twins looked at each other a moment, then nodded and started in. They told her everything they could. About the pockets of loyalists still in resistance to her rightful rule. About Garry's illusion being there to try to ease her into her life there without panicking her, something that was mostly a lie, but that they were forbidden to tell the truth about. They told her about how her life had been compressed into three days due to a spell and her fourteen-year-old form was a product of that so she could hone her powers. They finally explained that her powers were a direct result of her position as Queen in the world.

"The Queen gains power by those who believe in her," Cassie explained, "There is obviously also other requirements. Being Queen means you are strongest in the realm in some way. Our previous Queen was the strongest and thus gained her title. You toppled our old Queen and so you were then passed the title. Your power came at that time, but grows stronger as more and more of our people believe in you as our Queen. The more followers, the stronger your power."

Seo nodded in agreement, "We can only be thankful that the previous Queen is dead now. Were she alive, the amount of remaining loyalists would be enough to give her considerable power still."

Ib wasn't so sure that the girl she'd believed to be her friend being dead was something to be 'thankful' for, but only nodded in understanding. She saw the twins staring at her expectantly and gave a light sigh, "I... I just... This is a lot to take in, you know?"

Cassie frowned and put a small, plush hand on Ib's arm, "I know, sweetie, but it's the truth of the matter. I'm sorry you're stuck here, I really am."

Ib sighed and gave the doll a hug, Cassie freezing in shock, "Ib?"

The girl put Cassie down and gave a half smile, "Thanks. To both of you. It's good I at least had a few friends here. Even if you were made to lie to me, I can see you didn't lie to hurt me."

Seo made a squeak of protest in his throat, looking somewhere between flustered and offended, "We'd never! We really do like you, Ib. Everyone here does. It's why you're so strong. Everyone was hoping for a nice Queen like you before you even won against the other."

Ib laid back against her bed and stared at the ceiling. It was hard to believe that the fake Garry had gone through so much trouble to actually construct this room for her. Not an illusion, but a real room. There were a lot of negative things to this whole ordeal, but so far, no one had really gone out of their way to hurt her, save the loyalists.

She closed her eyes, "I..." She hesitated, then began again, "I can't promise anything. I'm only fourteen, technically, and this is a lot of responsibility." She crossed her arms behind her head, "Though... like I said, it's a lot of responsibility. It would be horrible of me to just throw that all aside and let everyone else be hurt because of it. I'm stuck here anyway, so I'll try to be a good Queen, I guess-"

She was cut off by two little bodies tackling her into a hug. She let out a squeak, her eyes shooting open and an embarrassed blush crossing her face, "H-hey you guys, come on!" She gave a smile and hugged her two friends back, giving the closest to a real smile she'd had for a bit now, "Like I said, no promises. You guys will help me though, right?"

Cassie sat up on Ib's stomach and grinned from ear-to-ear, "Yup! We'll help you be the best Queen ever!" Seo gave a cheer in agreement.

Outside the room, Garry leaned against the wall by her door, listening to the conversation with a grim expression. He wasn't sure whether to be happy or frustrated that she was going to take an active role in her rule. It definitely messed with his plans. Oh well... he'd just have to improvise.

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Sorry this took so long guys! Lots of stuff kept me occupied. I know this wasn't super long, but I'll work on getting the next one out sooner than in a few months this time. A fan started an MMD comic of my story if you want to check it out. There's a link to it on my blog and there's a link to that on my profile page.