You are now Duncan. You are speaking with the shit your brother refers to as Nate.
"So what are we doing?" You ask a little annoyed that he called you out here to his weird planet of instruments.
"One of the tribe leaders says we need your help for something." He replies as if you know what that means.
"Tribe leaders?" You ask.
"My planet is divided into several warring tribes. There are thirty-seven tribes in total who have each taken up one of two sides. Seventeen have taken up the flag of the group known as the 'Songblades'. The other twenty have taken up the cause of the 'Tunehearts'."
"Sound like shitty band names."
"I know, it apparently has to do with the fact that it's the Land of Conflict and Melody, and bullshit names that have to do with music."
"Oh, no I know about stupid names based off of the planet's name. On my brother's planet they have their elite soldiers called the 'Starfang', because the name 'Flashy Bullshit' must have been already taken."
"Ha. Good one."
"Seriously though why are they fighting and who are we helping?"
"They're fighting over land naturally. The tribes fight for new land which they then separate amongst one another."
"They have a whole fucking planet. How can they need more land?"
"It's not so much that they need the land as they want to show their power, the one with the most land has the most power."
"Okay, so who are we helping?"
"The Songblades."
"Cool, gotta love an underdog!"
"Yeah, pretty much."
"So why are we helping them? If you ask me we should just kill all the assholes who won't agree to shut up and quit fighting."
"While that may seem like a good idea it wouldn't solve the world's problems."
"I dunno, I think you guys solved Earth's problems by destroying it."
"That's not exactly a good solution."
"But it gets results."
"That's not all that matters. If Hitler won World War II, would that make the Holocaust okay?"
"To the world, yeah. If Hitler won there wouldn't be any arguement, the world would have just gone, 'Oh, Hitler won. Time to march outside and Seig Heil!'."
"That still wouldn't make it okay."
"It's all how you look at it. America won the war so we all point fingers at Hitler as the big bad guy. I guarantee that in a world where America lost the scientists who made the atomic bomb would have been looked at as the bad guy."
"They were bad, they built an atomic bomb!"
"See, you know that, but association with them is better than of that with Hitler, because they won. Sure Hitler sent the Jews to live under horrible conditions and killed many more people, but the atomic bomb destroyed an entire city in the blink of an eye. The fact of numbers only matters to the loser. If the Allies lost, the number six million would mean nothing to the world."
"I still don't get your point, I know that 'history is written by the victor', but how does that justify the holocaust?"
"It doesn't, to us. As you said, history is written by the victors. People learn from history, they grow based off of cause and effect. Your planet is no different."
"So you're saying that we don't justify the holocaust simply because Hitler lost, so we understand that it was a terrible thing?"
"Yes. In another world if he won then people would revere him as a hero, see his actions as just."
"So what does this have to do with my planet?"
"Think about it. If one side completely wipes out the other then the winning side will be revered as heroes. You need to think wisely about how you approach this. If you weigh too heavily to favor one side they will see the others as failures in the eyes of their god. However if you don't pay attention to the conflict at all then they will decide that their world is no longer under the rule of a god, they will destroy each other immediately."
"So my planet is screwed!"
"Well, those are only two options."
"Well what are my other options?"
"Well, I just gave you one. The other is to deny what you fear. To deny that your people must suffer, and in doing so, make it so they don't have to."
"So I need to fight to protect them?"
"If that's what you think will solve the issue."
"Then I guess I need to find some way for them to agree on a treaty."
"You don't need to make them agree on anything. You're a god to them, make them listen, and if they don't, punish them."
Before he can respond you are interrupted by the annoying little Skype jingle for when you're getting a call.
"It's Alex."
He answers with his glasses he mixed with his computer to result in an even shittier version of Google Glass.
"Hey...no...why?...oh, cool you got the sword to work...I will die when I'm ready to die...no, you shouldn't murder your friends to get them cool powers, that's not a nice thing to do...wait, you and Brandon did what!?"
"What trouble are they getting into?"
"It seems that Alex and Brandon have murdered Mark and Jeremy in order to make them god-tier!"
"What does that mean?"
"It means they killed them and they got cool powers when they died, then came back to life as immortal gods."
"I don't see the problem here."
"The problem is that they are murdering their teammates!"
"Dude, remember the whole conversation we just had about history and shit. The ends justify the means."
"I didn't get that out of that conversation."
"Then you weren't following very well."
"They're still murdering their teammates!"
"Dude, they get results! I think that's useful. If you're gonna keep bitching about it then I guess I'm not needed to help the red panda soldiers."
"Fine, let's go!"
You walk for another few minutes and reach a city built in the bell of a giant tuba.
"Ah! The Prince arrives with the Knight in tow!" Says a furry, city guardsman, "I will lead you to the king!" You follow the happy little creature to a castle in the back of the instrument.
You are led inside to a throne room with a royal looking animal atop a brass throne.
"Perfect!" Cheers the panda king, "Now you have a chance!"
"A chance at what?" Nathan asks.
"Well, to kill Minerva of course!"
"You want us to fight my denizen?"
"Yes! Truly if we can obtain access to the Library of Minerva then we are sure to win the war!"
"Oh," you observe, "If I'm just being used as weapon against some other little shit's enemy then you can count me out. Maybe I can go help my brother murder people."
"No! Wait! The Prince cannot do it alone!"
"Then get his other little shit friends to help, not me! He has to fight his own battles!"
And with that you walk out of that giant tuba and head home. As you walk through the emmense fields of this planet you get a phone call.
"Hey." You answer.
"It's me." Brandon says from the other end of the line.
"Yeah, I have caller ID."
"I need you to gather Nate and Jon."
"Why? You gonna kill them too?"
"No, I'm going to fight Thantos."
"Who?"
"He's my denizen. A denizen is like an evil god that you have to fight to become stronger."
"So what's so bad about Thantos that you can't fight him alone?"
"He is the Greek angel of death according to my research into the subject. He's not gonna be a pushover like you were."
"Oh ha ha! You beat me once and suddenly you get bragging rights!"
"That's not how it works?"
"Whatever. I'll get the assholes and bring them to the house."
"Perfect!"
"Oh, and I'm not helping you in the fight."
"That's fine."
END OF CHAPTER 28