Carlos stepped back in shock. "W-what?! This can't be true!"
"Oh, so when we have a crisis regarding the terrible truth you crack jokes," The manifestation shouted, "but when it's about you, it 'can't be true', huh?"
"N-No! What I meant is, it literally cannot be true! You said the people of Night Vale were all non-sentient, but I know I have self awareness, and if I need to convince Cecil then I would like to point out that I would act in a way that makes no sense if I was controlled by you… or Cecil's subconscious…or whatever. If I was Cecil's creation I wouldn't have tried to look for the truth behind Night Vale in the first place, and I would've started malfunctioning with the rest of the town, and I wouldn't be arguing with you…" Carlos took a deep breath. "I have more, but I think you get the point."
"Yeah, well… we're not sure what happened there either…" the manifestation twiddled its fingers, "but it seems that we put so much attention and emotion into you that you became self-aware somehow. We're still trying to figure that one out."
"But…" said Carlos, trying to think of a counter-argument.
"But I thought…" Cecil started to say at the same time.
"Oh, you thought WHAT?" The manifestation yelled and grabbed Cecil. "That someone real could actually love us? Let alone someone who is wonderful and smart and beautiful and normal? That ANYONE could have any sort of feelings for us that we didn't create ourselves? We are a freak, and nothing can ever change this fact! We are unloved and we deserve it." The manifestation started floating. "We need to stay here, this is the only place we can be happy. They'll hate us outside. They'll lock us in a lab as the 'greatest new scientific discovery'. And even if they don't, we still can't live with normal people." It flung Cecil to the ground. "Don't we see? We need Night Vale, it's the only place we can be happy. Why shouldn't we live a lie? We do it all the time anyway, don't we, Cecil? We like blindly following orders, so why don't we follow the one that is actually the best for us? Living in this delusion is the only way we can be happy and-"
A bunch of pens and a notepad were thrown at the manifestation's head. They were the first things Carlos found in his pockets. "Leave him alone!"
"Oh, why do you care about us, science boy?" the manifestation sneered. "We already told you that any sort of love you feel toward us is fake!"
"Y…you told me that a lot of things about my life are fake." Carlos replied, while helping Cecil up. "My family, my childhood, my friends…" Carols sighed sadly. "But we also established that I have free will. If I chose to try to uncover the truth behind Night Vale in spite of what Cecil wanted, why would my feelings be fake?" He turned to Cecil. "Are you okay?"
"Well, physically, yes," Cecil replied, which was rather surprising considering from what height and with what force he had been thrown.
"Oh, eh, of course," the manifestation commented, floating back to the ground.
"Also, since you said I was 'Normal', I'm going to assume that my memories of how the outside world, the normal world, works are factually correct?" Carlos grinned. "I wouldn't be normal if I was working by Different-from-Night-Vale-but-still-made-up-by-Cecil-logic?"
"Um… yes?" the manifestation answered. Carlos wondered whether it could actually be confused, or whether it was just pretending for some reason, or whether the subconscious that controlled it was confused.
"And that includes my scientific knowledge, right?" Cecil asked.
"Um, sure?" the Manifestation replied.
"Yes!" Carlos did a clumsy little fist pump.
"Oh, so all you care about is whatever you're a 'Real Scientist' or not?" The manifestation crossed its arms.
"You know, you're really starting to repeat yourself, aren't you?" Cecil said. "Carlos, this kid really hates you."
"No… I don't think it's about me," Carlos said. "Can we have some privacy?"
"You are aware that since this manifestation is controlled by our subconscious, you can't really talk to us behind its back?" The manifestation pointed out. "Perhaps we were too quick to say that you're still a scientist."
"I guess I know that, I just don't want you watching us. It's creepy," Carlos said. "And I really don't want you to interrupt our conversation."
"Oh, very well!" The manifestation raised its hand, and four gray concrete walls rose around Cecil and Carlos.
"Cecil… what that thing does…it…"
Carlos tried to focus. He knew what he wanted to say, but all those new revelations made things confusing. The best idea was probably to think about all the philosophical implications after this whole mess was sorted out.
"He's not angry at me. This whole 'you don't really love us' thing is not about making me feel bad, it's…he wants you to feel unloved and alone."
"But… he IS me! Well, a part of me," Cecil said. "How does that even work?"
"Well, maybe 'want' is the wrong word," Carlos shrugged, "but that's what he thinks is true. That's the real reason why he wants you to stay in Night Vale. He's saying that you need to stay alone and away from everyone because something is wrong with you, and that nobody can love you, and that you 'deserve' to live like that, and it's better for you to wallow in self-hatred forever and…"
Cecil noticed Carlos' tone. "Carlos is there something you want to tell me?"
"Well, I guess…" It wasn't that Carlos was trying to hide it from Cecil or anything. It was just kind of awkward to talk about and it had never come up before. "I guess you could say that I've been in a very similar situation…"
Cecil stared at him in disbelief.
"No! Not like that! " said Carlos. "What I meant was…."
Most of Carlos' memories were apparently false, but he was pretty sure he could still rely on his memories of what happened after he entered Night Vale, since he had always meant to discover what was going on with the town.
"…feeling that you hate yourself so much that you'd rather just close yourself off from everyone else and be lonely forever." Carlos took Cecil's hand. "That's what I meant… my brain kept telling me that, for a very long time. Well, I…guess since I was created."
"Oh, I'm sorry about that."
"It's okay, you… you weren't aware of what you were doing." How much could Carlos blame Cecil for something he did subconsciously?
"But, you really thought you all of that stuff about yourself?" Cecil gently stroked Carlos' face. "I mean, look at you!"
"Y…yeah… really," Carlos blushed. "Sometimes, the feeling does come back, but it's easier to deal with now, because…because…" he smiled, "well, partly because I have you. And I want you to know that you have me, too, no matter what he says. And you're not a freak and not unloved and you deserve better. Staying in Night Vale is not good for you; it's just going to feed into those repressed feelings like…like…" Carlos was not very good with metaphors. "Do you remember those giant bugs from a few months ago that attached to people's hearts and then fed on random emotions? Like that, but the bugs are your own mind and they convince you to keep feeling that emotion no matter how much it hurts you…I guess. The point is, prove him wrong and make him shut up!"
"Wow, it's really that bad, Carlos? I'm not saying that you're not right about all of this. It's just… hard for me, and it's not just about what the boy outside said. It's about identity." Cecil said, gloomily. "You are a Scientist. That was enough to make you feel a bit like yourself even after you discovered your entire life was a lie. You can cling to that, and you can be a scientist anywhere. I'm… I'm the Night Vale Community Radio Host, Night Vale IS part of who I am, and I love being part of its community and I need it."
"I never said that was going to be easy, but I promised I'd help you, didn't I?" Carlos thought about suggesting they find a new, real town to replace Night Vale, but he knew that wasn't going to work. "You know I love y-"
At that point Carlos had to stop talking because the air in his lungs was turning to sand. Spinning around, Cecil saw the manifestation in the room with them, clenching its hands into fists.
"YOU STUPID, WORTHLESS OUTSIDER! S-STOP TRYING TO TRICK US WITH YOUR SUPPOSED 'LOVE'! DON'T YOU DARE RUIN OUR PARADISE!"
The Manifestation found itself slammed against a wall by some great, invisible force. Carlos stopped coughing up sand and started breathing heavily. Cecil stood there, his eyes glowing purple.
"Our paradise?" Cecil replied, in a horribly calm voice. "Our paradise?!"
"IDIOT!" The manifestation shouted. "What the hell are you-"
The manifestation's skin suddenly became sand-like again. "Oh, well then, it seems that we have made up our minds." It then dissolved into sand.
"Carlos, are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Carlos's mouth still tasted like sand. "Hey, you can control your powers now!"
"Well, I guess I can now." Cecil snapped his fingers and the room around them disintegrated into sand. He raised his hand slightly and a tree grew out of the ground. "Carlos, this is great!"
"Yeah, it is very interesting." Carlos leaned over to inspect the tree.
"I mean, it's-OH! OUCH! AHHH!" Cecil screamed in pain as his headache returned.
The ground shook. If this was a video game, that would've been the cue for the manifestation to rise from the ground in its giant final form and fight Carlos. But it wasn't a video game and the manifestation had no final form.
"I THINK MY POWERS ARE OVERLOADING! This whole thing… this whole day was a real strain on them, and now that they're not subconscious anymore, they're – Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"
"Cecil, if it hurts so much that you can't talk, you shouldn't try to…" Carlos was nervous, since he knew nothing about psychic pains or how to relieve them.
A blast of purple energy exploded from Cecil's head, which Carlos barley managed to avoid.
"Cecil! Are you okay? What was that?"
Cecil grabbed Carlos. He didn't appear to be in pain anymore, but instead he seemed horrified. "Carlos…I'm so sorry, the overload is causing my powers to fade away, so…" Cecil's hands became limp "Well, you're…you…this is going to…" He was on the verge of tears. This was worse than the Underground City business. This was going to happen right in front of his eyes.
"No! Not yet!" Carlos shouted. "Isn't there something we can do?"
Cecil gathered up what was left of his power and raised his arm, creating Night Vale out of the sand again. The sun shone above the dark roofs, the half dead trees moved in the breeze and everything looked completely real.
"That's a great idea, Cecil! That street is pretty close to my lab." Carlos felt an enormous amount of relief. "I could try and find a way to… to… stabilize your powers or at least find some way I could exist without them!"
"No, I don't think you'll have the time." Cecil ground his teeth, sweating from the effort of trying to keep everything together. He lowered his hand slowly. "Goodbye, Night Vale, goodbye," he said in his radio voice, before turning around and hugging Carlos, crying. "I'm sorry…"
"It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong" Carlos tried to sound comforting, but the gloom in his voice was clear. This was it, first most of his life was revealed to never have happened in the first place and now he was going to die. This was it. "Cecil, can you promise me one thing?" Under Carlos' shoes, he could feel the sidewalk becoming more and more sand-like.
Cecil nodded.
"I want to know that in the short time I existed I did something good, that I changed the world for the better. Just try to live the best life that you can outside of Night Vale. Also maybe try to get StrexCorp overthrown. That seems to be pretty important."
They stared at each other for a moment, then embraced. Their eyes were closed, but they could feel the town around them disintegrating into sand.
Not far away, in a gore covered studio in Desert Bluffs, Kevin sat and read the news.
"Oh, what a great day, Desert Bluffs, a new pony-petting station! Straight from the generous hands of StrexCorp." Kevin announced, and then, without warning, disappeared, leaving behind his clothes and a small pile of sand.
Carlos wasn't sure how long his eyes had been closed, but an explosion jerked them open.
The place that was once Night Vale was now just a featureless desert. Cecil was naked, eyes closed, still clinging to Carlos.
"I'm… I'm alive!" Carlos cried happily. "Cecil, I'm alive! I can't believe it! That boy was lying about me being your creation!" His brain started connecting the dots."Oh… that explains why he acted that way… gah! I'm so stupid, why didn't I realize that? But, but I'm alive! And my memories are real! And…Cecil?"
Cecil was now sitting on the ground, idly playing with the sand.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Cecil…I'm just…I thought I was going to die."
"Carlos, I'm really happy you're alive. I really, really am. But it's still hard for me."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Carlos sat down next to Cecil and gave him his lab coat.
"Well…maybe a little kiss would help." Cecil replied, wrapping himself in the coat.
Carlos kissed Cecil, then they looked at each other and chuckled.
"So I think you said something about overthrowing StrexCorp?" Cecil asked as they stood up.
"That's the plan. First we need to stop by what's left of my lab, and get my stuff." Carlos tried to look for where the lab had been. "Maybe we could save some of my research, I had a lot of sensitive stuff and science there, some of it might've broken when the table disintegrated… that probably had something to do with the explosion."
"So… is the outside world really as cold and scary as the younger me made it out to be?"
"From someone who has lived in it most of his life? Yes, sometimes" Carlos shrugged, then took Cecil's hand. "But we'll be alright, we have each other."