Hey everyone sorry it's been so long since I've updated, but here's chapter 4. A little one on one conversation with Wendy, a brief description of Cloud 9's history, and we look at the simpler things in a soldier's life. So yeah here you go.
Enjoy my Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The truck ride from the fallen base was quiet. Neither Wendy nor Matthew were in a talkative mood at the time, their thoughts still lingering on the event that had just taken place.
Matthew was replaying the events in his head a movie scene stuck on repeat. The Nazis storming into the war room. Smoke enveloping the room, the sounds of screams and agonizing cries swirling around him like a tornado of death and destruction, slowly suffocating him and draining his life force. Seeing the Nazi soldiers, then shooting them without a moment's hesitation, like it has his duty to take lives without remorse or guilt.
Seeing Wendy getting ambushed by a Reich officer and attacking Matthew. Then Matthew charging at the officer and beheading him with one powerful stomp on the knife on his neck, feeling the bone crunch and seeing blood squirting out the decapitated body.
Matthew couldn't believe he was capable of murdering someone. Especially in such a animalistic-like manner. Who had he become? A monster? Or were his actions justifiable?
"Hey dude." Said Wendy, breaking the piercing silence. "You okay?"
"I'm not so sure. And I don't know if I ever will be sure." Matthew replied.
"Well, now you know that war isn't like the video games." She said.
"How can you live like this?" Matthew questioned. "In Gravity Falls, you're so chill and relaxed. What made you so okay to take a life?"
Wendy took a deep breath, then exhaled. Matthew knew what she was about to say was really important.
"First you need to know what this War is about." She began. "Cloud 9 had recently had a new supreme leader, Queen Mary. She's Justice to you. I know because I've met her and worked with her before today. When she became Queen, she began to change things some people disagreed with. For one, she began taxing the super wealthy people of Algor, a large country the size of China of your universe. The lesser king of Algor, Hugo Cortéz, was ticked. He was greedy, as were all the Algorists. They wouldn't pay the taxes."
"Next, a lot of people, including the Algorists, didn't like something about Queen Mary. She was the first person of authority to ever be Involved with the arts of Magic."
"My sister knows magic?" Matthew asked in wonder.
"Yes, many different forms and types of magic. She is one of the most powerful learners ever of a type of magic called Gesturism. It's a magic form based on special hand gestures and chanting an ancient language at the same time. Cloud 9 outlawed anyone involved in magic to be king or queen, or any kind of government position centuries ago. So she upset a lot of people from a bunch of other countries in Cloud 9. Batistan, Roloaski, Dunivin and Norroway. Eventually there was a bunch of political and social unrest. And then there were a bunch of little things happening everywhere, and viola. Now you've got a huge world war that now involves many different countries and territories that were sucked into the conflict."
"In the TV show I'm on in your universe, Gravity Falls is in Oregon. Here, there are many different countries and states that are far different from your universe's makeup. Gravity Falls is in a state called Entourage. Entourage is a state in a large country called Skyrim, the Cloud 9 equivalent of America. But much bigger."
"Hugo Cortéz is King of Algor, and since he started the war, he formed a group called the New Reich, a nod to the German 3rd Reich. The countries I named off earlier joined the New Reich and began to fight together."
"I am a soldier for the Motherland, the newly official name of Skyrim and the countries who sided with us before and during the war. I was one of the only volunteers from Gravity Falls to joined the armed forces. A few from Gravity Falls joined the scientific Motherland projects to help the war effort."
"The worst part about this War is that just about everyone in the Motherland has to fight or have their homes conquered. If The New Reich wins the war, a harsh occupation awaits all the Motherland countries. At this point in the war, it's fight or be conquered. That's just how the world is now."
"Wow. That's a lot to take in." Matthew said once she finished.
"There's one more thing you should know. The most important about Cloud 9."
"Oh boy, here we go." Matthew groaned. "Lay it on me."
"I have something called C9 Awareness. C9 means Cloud 9. C9 Awareness is something only a certain number of people in Cloud 9 have. It's the ability to know that Cloud 9 is just a story."
"What does that mean?" Asked Matthew, super confused.
Wendy bit her lip. " Mostly everyone in Cloud 9 think they're real. They don't know that most of themselves are just characters from books and movies and video games. They believe they're actual people. People with C9 Awareness know they are just figments of imagination from people living in your universe, The Real World. I know I'm from a TV show. It's hard to live with the gift of C9 Awareness, but people like me accept the burden of this knowledge. Our mission is to make sure those without C9 Awareness never find out the truth. It could mean the end of our world as we know it. I have it, the Queen has it, and a lot of other people have it."
"Well." Matthew said. "Before you and your squad found me, Ellie and Justice has me tied to that chair. They left when the attack began, but someone came in and freed me afterwards. He said we came to me to prove Cloud 9 was were I was. I recognized him and that's when I knew I was in Cloud 9."
"Who was it? I might know them." Said Wendy.
"Steven Quartz Universe." He answered.
"Holy shit, Steven Universe!? He's badass for so many reasons. If you meet him when he's not in combat, you two should totally hang."
"Sounds fun. And thank you for telling me all this. There's something I want to say, though. You never answered my question. Why is it okay for you to just kill someone in battle?"
"No sane person will ever tell you killing someone is easy. No matter how much you try to forget, every person to kill haunts you for the rest of your life. They haunt you when you're alone, when you're in the dark, even in your dreams. They never leave. But the feeling of killing someone eases over time. The guilt torments me, but I don't let it consume me. I am still able to live a normal life. I don't get post traumatic stress usually, and I still hang out with all my friends. So yeah, that's my experience with it."
Matthew didn't ask any further questions that were so personal. He silently cursed at himself for even asking a question like that, making her relive her nightmares like that was just cruel.
"But in the few months of fighting I've seen, never have I witnessed something close to the caliber of what you did to that officer back there. That was brutal."
Matthew didn't want to talk about that, so he remained silent.
"Thank you for saving my life, King Eskalion."
"You're welcome." Was all he said.
The truck returned to its previous state of uneasy silence. Then a faint explosion could be shared from behind them. Matthew looked back and saw that the base had exploded. Guess they went with Protocol 21 after all.
"Don't worry, Matthew. We're going to a safe place for you to stay." Wendy informed.
"I want to fight." Matthew said.
Wendy sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't say that. But if that's the case, you need to come stay with me. Today was my last day stationed at that base,so I get to go home for a while."
"How far is Entourage from here?" Matthew wondered.
"Right now we're in San Guatama. Entourage is a day's journey by plane. I just need to go to a nearby embassy, drop off my combat gear and leave. I'll have you come with me there too. Just to show that the king is alive and well."
"Okay then. Is it cool if I fall asleep for a bit?"
"Go ahead dude. You deserve it. When we get to the embassy, I'll wake you up so we can get situated, then afterwards we can get some grub before heading to Entourage. Good night dude. Sleep well."
Matthew layed his head down on the truck door and went to sleep, even though it was only around 2 'o'clock. As he eased into a deep sleep, his last thought was how his family was doing, unaware that he has dead center in a war zone.
"Matthew, wake up." Said Wendy, shaking his shoulder.
Matthew opened his eyes and sat up quickly, thinking that something bad had happened.
"What!? What's happening!?" He rambled.
"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down dude." Wendy reassured. "Nothing's wrong. We're just at the embassy."
"Oh." He said, calming down. "Sorry. Thought you were in danger."
"Don't sweat it dude. It is nice to know that you were concerned for me though."
The two of them opened the truck doors and got out, closing the doors behind them. Matthew looked up at the sky. It was still light out when he fell asleep. Now it was nighttime. He wondered how long he had slept.
The embassy was the size of a school, made of bricks and had three stories. The embassy kind of reminded Matthew of an office building of sorts, but what made it look odd were a few guard towers on every corner of the building. Armed soldiers stood in every tower and they looked like they were on high alert. They must have heard about that base's destruction.
"What exactly do you have to do here?" Asked Matthew.
"I need to drop off my uniform and rifle. I also keep my belongings here since I come here so often. Then I'll put on my civilian clothes and we can go. But while we're here you need to come in so we can show the head officer here that you're alive. They'll send a message back to Motherland HQ and then we're free to do whatever."
Matthew followed Wendy inside and he discovered his idea of the embassy looking like an office building wasn't off. There was a front desk at the end of the room and everywhere else there were people sitting at desks and typing away on computers or pouring over papers scattered across various desks. At every doorway were two armed Motherland soldiers, the only evidence of the place being a government building.
Wendy approached the front desk and spoke to the lady there. "Hey Karen."
"Hi Wendy! I heard that Fort Dane was destroyed. Thought you were dead. I was so glad. But I see you're alive and well. Good for you."
"Not dealing with your BS right now, Karen. I'm just trying to get home." Wendy said frustratingly.
"Oh fine. Just turn in your equipment and you can leave. I'll record that you're taking your leave. A month without your douchebagery and sarcasm. Wonder how I'll survive." Karen said snootily.
"Go to Help Karen." Wendy shot. "And Fyi I did almost die, but I was saved by this kid right here." She gestured towards Matthew.
"Now why would I care?" Karen said, clearly disinterested.
"Because he's your king. Karen, meet Matthew Williams, aka King Eskalion of Cloud 9."
Karen froze and a face of shock appeared.
The whole business heard Wendy as well. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and the room fell silent, all eyes on Matthew.
Then each and every person there, including Wendy and the soldiers, one else and bowed to their king.
After a few seconds of having the people kneel, Matthew said "You may rise."
The crowd followed their order and went back to their duties on the computers or papers.
"I deeply apologize for my behavior, Wendy. I had no idea you were with the king." Karen apologized.
"Well, it is quite a turn of events to have you actually not be an asshole towards me." Wendy remarked with a smile. "So how about you treat me with respect from now on, or do you want me to have you imprisoned?"
Karen turned pale and clicked a few keys on her computer. "Just go drop off your uniform and rifle, then you can leave."
"Good. Come, follow me Matthew." Said Wendy.
Matthew started to follow Wendy, but hang back and spoke to Karen.
"Hey Karen." He said.
"Yes, m'lord?" She asked nervously.
"If I ever see you disrespect Wendy again, or anyone for that matter, I will personally lock you in a glass box filled with water, salt, and razor blades, and have you die in horrible agony. Do I make myself clear?"
"O-o-of course m'lord." She stuttered.
Feeling Matthew had made his empty promise seem like truth, he left the front desk and caught up with Wendy, following her into a mini armory with stacks and racks of weapons everywhere in the bathroom-sized room. She set her assault rifle on one of the racks and set the ammo and explosives in a different area.
"Ok, now I just need to drop off my uniform." She said. "Come with me to the locker room so you can get acquainted with everything for when you join the Motherland Armed Services."
Down a small hallway was a door that was labeled locker room. They went inside to find the place empty of people but lined with hundreds of lockers, big and small. Wendy looked for her own locker and opened it when she found it.
"When you get assigned a locker," Wendy began." You put your civilian clothes inside and take out your military uniform. Then when you're on leave, or when you get to take a break from device, you switch out your clothes and go home."
"Ok, I got it." Matthew spoke.
Wendy opened her locker and took out her regular clothes.
"As you can tell," She said, holding up a green plaid long sleeved shirt. "I like to wear plaid a lot "
"Yeah, you wore that same plaid shirt in just about every episode of Gravity Falls." Matthew responded.
Wendy set her shirt down. Then she unbuttoned her uniform shirt and took it off, revealing her young teenage breasts covered by a white bra.
"Whoa, a little warning would be nice next time." Matthew said, turning around as to not watch Wendy change.
"Oh yeah, sorry." She apologized. "I'm just so used to changing around people when I'm in a locker room. For some reason I thought I was talking to one of my girlfriends, since there are never boys in here. This is the girl's locker room."
"Nah, I get it." Matthew reassured, still turned around. "I'm always talking to people in the locker room in my phys ed class at school. You know, back in my universe."
"Plus I have a feeling you won't want to be around another girl stripping down after the incident with Ellie." Wendy remarked, Matthew clearly hearing the smile in her voice.
"You knew about that?" Matthew asked embarrassingly, suddenly feeling flustered.
"Yeah, in fact I was there when we were discussing the best way to extract you from The Real World."
"Well, that was my first time seeing and touching a girl's boobs. How could I resist?" He asked, cheeks burning.
"And how was it? Did you think you were about to lose your virginity right then?"
"Can we please not talk about this? Please Wendy?" Matthew pleaded.
Wendy laughed in response, but stopped per his demands.
The two remained silent while Wendy continued to get dressed. While Wendy did so, Matthew couldn't help the tightening in his loins from returning. His mind wandered to images of Wendy's nude body.
Why can't I control my lust for every girl I see? He silently asked himself.
"You can turn around now dude, I'm mostly clothed already." Wendy said from behind him.
Matthew turned and faced her, quietly praying to himself that she wouldn't notice the bulge in his jeans by his raging erection.
She had light blue jeans on, Brown work boots, and a lumberjack hat on. She was still only covered by her bra from the waist up, but she was zipping up her pants. Then she put on a white undershirt and then put on her plaid shirt, slowly buttoning it up.
"Ready to go?" She asked when she finished.
The duo left the embassy, and to their surprise, found Justice outside waiting by the door.
"Sergeant-major Corduroy." She said. "Who gave you authority to drag the king on your errands around San Guatama?"
"U-uh, no one did, your highness." Wendy answered, lowering her head in shame. "Forgive me, m'lady."
"No, don't get on her Justice." Matthew jumped in to Wendy's defense. "I chose to go with her. If you have a problem, deal with me."
"I already have my own problems, Matthew." Justice sneered. "And you're one of them. You're the king of Cloud 9. You need to go live in the palace, to help lead the Motherland forces into battle against the Reich, and tend to you responsibilities as ruler, and-"
"No, you listen to me, sister." Matthew shot back, anger rising in his body after all the trouble she's put him through him since he was taken to this world.
"You kidnapped me from my world. That was your first mess up. Then, you just randomly made me king of a world I knew nothing about until Wendy explained everything to me. Strike number 2. Then, you just left me at a base that was being attacked without even coming back for me and just leaving me tied to a chair. What kind of monster does all that to her brother, and then treats me the way you are now. Who do you think you are?"
"Matthew, I'm sorry for all that, really I am. But there are forces beyond your control at play right now, and have been in play far longer than you wrote your stories. Please Matthew, just come with me to the palace. I'll explain all you need to know for now, and then you get to live in a huge palace and have anything you'd ever wish for. Just please, come with me." Justice begged, eyes misting up.
Matthew thought about her words for a minute. He looked at Justice, then at Wendy, having a silent debate in his mind.
Justice did bring me to the place of my dreams.
But she kidnapped her, and imprisoned me, and left be for dead.
Wendy is pretty nice. She helped me understand a good amount of Cloud 9 and didn't treat me wrong in any way. And I want to see how a soldier lives in their spare time.
I am a king. I need to step up and take responsibility for my new kingdom.
Wendy is the only one I can trust right now. I want to be with her.
What about Ellie?
Matthew was so conflicted over what he should do. He had no idea how to run a kingdom and he knew close to nothing about politics. He was lost.
"I'll come with you." Wendy offered.
Matthew tilted his head in confusion. "But you're on leave. You need to be with your friends and family back in Gravity Falls."
"Dude, I have a month of leave. I'm sure Gravity Falls can live without me for another day or so."
He thought it over for a second, then he turned to Justice.
"Okay. I'll go with you. But only if Wendy can come."
"Fine." Justice groaned, crossing her arms. "Let's go. I called a limousine to pick us up before I got here."
"How'd you know I'd comply?" He asked.
"Like I said, forces beyond your control are at play." She answered.
After a few minutes of waiting outside the embassy, a jet black limousine pulled up to the curb.
"Hello, Queen Mary." Said the chauffeur, wearing a black tuxedo. "I'm here to take you three to the palace."
"Thank you, Bill." Justice said to him.
Matthew, Wendy, and Justice entered the limo by the very back and sat down in the luxurious vehicle. The driver started up the limo and they drove off to the palace.
"How on Earth were you able to afford a limousine?" Matthew asked.
"I'm the Queen." Justice replied. "You're filthy rich if you're royalty. But you already knew that, being the bookworm you are."
"Does that mean I'm rich?"
"Yes. Very rich indeed. So rich, in fact, that you make Bruce Wayne and his company look like a low budget Oliver Stone movie."
"So I can have anything I want basically?" He asked.
"Sure. What do you want?" Asked Justice.
"A place to live that's as far away from you as possible." He answered coldly.
The limo remained quiet for a while, the air lingering with the heavy distrust Matthew had for his older sister. Wendy didn't say anything as she started out of the window, clearly something on her mind. Matthew kinda of wanted to ask her what she was thinking about, but decided against it, having Justice sitting right next to them. In order to calm his nerves and cool down a bit be took out his phone and ear buds once again and after putting them on he searched his music playlist for a song. He put one on called "When Doves cry" by Prince. He didn't listen to Prince until he died, but when he did die Matthew started listening to some of Prince's music. "When Doves cry" was one of Matthew's favorite songs from Prince.
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied
Why do we scream at each other
This is what it sounds like, when doves cry
Matthew just listened to his music the whole ride to the Palace, which took a solid few hours. By the time they had gotten there, the sun was just rising up and peeking over the horizon. As the limousine rode closer to the entrance, Matthew couldn't help but let out a "whoa" to himself as he gazed upon the majestic palace.
The palace's size was massive, it was the size of 8 football stadiums and was about the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It resembled a castle out of a Disney movie, with those really pretty colored Windows, tiles covering the walls and making a checkered pattern. There were even taller towers surrounding the palace that appeared to serve as the palace's security, lines with all sorts of lethal-looking cannons and machine guns. The rest of the palace looked like whatever else a palace has, but with a modern feeling towards it that Matthew couldn't quite put his finger on. One the roof were 2 really long steples, and between them was a white flag with the Motherland symbol on it. The symbol was a large circle divided into four halves like a pizza, but instead of straight cut lines they were squiggly lines.
The upper left hand corner had a smaller black circle within it, and the circle had been crossed out by a black "X" and below the circle said MONSTERS. Matthew recognized the symbol immediately and unwillingly let out a shiver, the image representing something that he knew well and that scared him a good bit.
The upper right hand corner simply had an image of a black Human handprint, with the word MEN written below the handprint.
The lower left hand corner had what looked like the picture of a simply drawn gem of sorts, colored pink, with the word GEMS written below.
The lower right hand corner showed the image of 5 long black scratches from what looked like a wolf's claws. Below this image was the word CREATURES.
In the dead center of the squiggly line cross was a huge "&" symbol that had a piece of itself in every corner. Then above the entire circle of symbols was simply the word OF.
Matthew finally realized the banner's message.
"Of MONSTERS and MEN, GEMS and CREATURES." He said aloud, taking and putting away his ear buds.
"Yep. The Motherland insignia. Stamped on every government document, stitched onto every soldier's uniform, and written by our founding fathers, who were the first official Cloud 9 citizens." Justice said, clearly enjoying teaching her brother.
"And this is your new home, Matthew." She added.
"Wait, really!?" Matthew said pure disbelief. "This is my home?"
"No." Justice answered, taking his hand. "It's our home. Welcome home, brother. We've been waiting for years for you to claim your throne."
"I don't believe this!" Matthew shouted. "Wendy, please tell me she's yanking my leg."
"Nope. Everything she's saying is true." Wendy said with a smile.
Matthew turned his attention back to his jaw-dropping new home. Something inside him stirred. Something that he hadn't felt in all of forever. It was a flicker of hope. Hope that things would finally start going in Matthew's direction for once in his life. Here he was, in a magical place he created, the king of his own country, and he gets to life in the perfect castle fit for the king he was.
Matthew took it all in, and silently said to himself...
I'm home. I'm finally home.
And I'm never leaving again.
I know, it's kind of boring, but I just had to explain some things. Matthew seems happy, but for how much longer? DUNDUNDUN.
Oh and also, I need some ideas. The Motherland's government will be a republican-monarchy-oligarchy mix. There's going to be a Senate of oligarchy rulers that oversee all of the Motherland, and both Matthew and Mary are going to be members. I want the other members to have conflicts with one another, so give me a few political parties i should make them. Even if you make it up, I'll find a way to make it fit into the storyline.
And if you guys have any other ideas you'd like to share with me, either use the contact info on my profile, or PM me.
See you guys later! Peace!