Note: Well, here we are, at the very end of the former half of Season 2. It has been quite a ride, has it not? I will honestly say that though Season 1 was vastly more colorful when compared to Season 2, nothing in that season can quite match the scope and vastness of this season! I will say now that I truly enjoyed weaving this newest masterpiece, and that I really hope that the latter half of Season 2 will be able to rival the love and care that went into the first half. Anyway, on to answering some reviews. To Salvadorian Moose: Thank you! I really am quite glad you enjoyed it. To madmanwithafork: Who doesn't use the hornet ring? I generally have it with my Moonlight Greatsword+5. To Echo Off: I was wondering if I was being too direct about the "perfection" issue. I initially tried to make it more vague, but then I realized that if I did that, I would need several more chapters to reinforce the atmosphere, and I was not ready to commit even more time to the ending of this part of the season. Glad you enjoyed it, though! To RedTheChangeling: Wonderful. I will keep an eye out for those "lack of reviews" then. Nice to know so far I have managed to avoid drowning in copious amounts of lore and subplots. To FocusedStream: Thanks. Yeah, I was going for that "two-way dependency" effect, glad you noticed. Now, onto the last chapter of Part 6 of Season 2!
Dimension: Provistorian
Planet: Averthon Magnum
Specific Location: The Power Garden
Time: About two weeks after Lyric found Summer
"My wristblade," mused Blue, "Where did I place it…?"
As Blue stood at the edge of the platform made of roots and dirt to ponder, Gene, Radiance, and Jefferson stood to one side.
"What do you think?" whispered Gene to Jefferson.
"What do I think of what?" the mercenary replied.
"Blue! August has proven himself fully capable of fighting against the Inquisitor, so do you think he might have a chance for a comeback?" elaborated Gene.
Jefferson shrugged. "I have no idea. There is a fine line that we must tread for August and Blue. If the threat to his friends is great, August might force himself to resurface to save those he cares for, but it also might just end up aggravating Blue and causing him to cement his position in August's mind. And that all is just assuming that Blue is not completely in control now. For all we know, August's soul could have been ejected from his body altogether by now!"
"No," said Radiance, almost sharply, "August is a strong young one. He will endure. If Blue leaves, I will go as well. Not because I trust him, but because I trust the one trapped within. Even though I did not start this, I feel compelled to end this."
Gene nodded vehemently in agreement.
Blue slowly turned to Gene and the rest and said, "Interesting… I recall placing the wristblade in the Dark Souls dimension. So… odd…"
Gene blinked. "Odd?"
Blue actually shrugged. "It is indeed odd. I sense something unusual about that dimension currently."
"The Dark Souls dimension is by far the most unstable and deadly of dimensions, only eclipsed by the Little Nemo dimension," said Jefferson, "Everything there is unusual and odd."
Blue turned around and raised a fist. He gestured with it slightly, and a portal to the Dark Souls dimension opened up. Blue turned to the hole in space and time, but before he entered the interdimensional rift, he glanced behind to his "acquaintances" and murmured, "You are free to follow me or not. But remember: you were August's friends, not mine. I have no will to protect you, and I do not owe allegiance to your so-called team."
Jefferson rolled his eyes. "You hear that guys? He refered to August in past-tense. Someone is getting cocky in his new body."
Blue ignored Jefferson completely. He looked quietly at Gene for a moment and then strolled through the portal. Gene and Radiance hesitated, and then dashed forward. Jefferson, however, just stood there. Even after Blue's portal had closed, Jefferson stood there, his mind wracked with different conflicting thoughts. Slowly he reached into his voluminous overcoat and pulled out a small drawing. On it was a life-sketch of a woman and a small girl, clearly his wife and daughter.
"Will I regret this or not?" he muttered, "I suppose I might as well see this to the end."
Jefferson whipped off his top hat and spun it in the air. As it landed with the top facing the earth, it began to spin and an incredible speed. Suddenly a vortex of dark clouds and lightning exploded from the hat as the hole where the head was supposed to fit began to expand, becoming larger and larger until it was easily the size of a small car. Jefferson hopped into the interdimensional vortex and vanished. In an instant the hurricane of power folded into itself as if the hat was pulling itself through the hole it had created. With a flash the hat was gone, and the Power Garden within the Provistorian dimension was quiet once more.
Jefferson fell feet first from pure nothingness onto a rotting and pitted rooftop. As he hit the ground his hat materialized out of thin air to land perfect atop of his head. In a flash he had whipped out his dirk, ready to deal with any of myriad of murderous creatures that resided within the fractured mini-multiverse that was the dimension of Dark Souls.
However, as he looked about, he only saw his teammates, standing upon another massive rooftop nearby that led to a ruinous bell tower. Gene turned and spotted Jefferson and then waved. Just as Jefferson started to return the wave, a massive blood-thirsty screech filled the air. Two massive "stone" gargoyles that had stood vigil by the bell tower sprung to life. With hideous howls the monsters readied large halberds and swooped down upon Blue, Radiance, and Gene. Blue held out a hand, and suddenly the wondrous Inquisitor Blade of Blue assembled itself from thin air.
Then, without a single sound, Blue leapt in the air to meet one of the gargoyles head-on. The gargoyle immediately attempted to spin through the air and use its halberd to swat Blue from the sky, but the Inquisitor simply deflected the edge of the weapon with his blade. Blue then grabbed the pole of the halberd, flipped around it and catapulted himself onto the back of his enemy. The gargoyle screeched, but its next offensive was rudely interrupted by an Inquisitor Blade through the throat.
The other gargoyle ignored its fallen brethren and rushed Gene and Radiance. Gene formed a sword from nothingness and tossed it to Radiance just as he hurled a fireball straight at the gargoyle's face. It exploded against it, but all it did was cause the monster to recoil with a shriek. However, its face seemed undamaged. Radiance took advantage of the staggering of the gargoyle to press an attack. She dashed forward with shocking speed just as the target recovered. The gargoyle saw the new assailant and swung down its halberd. Radiance dove out of the way, just as she did that the monster swung forward its long tail that had a large battle-axe attached. Radiance was just coming out of a roll when she saw the new attack coming. All she could do was flip her legs out and drop to the ground on her back. As she did that, the gargoyle pulled its halberd from the tiles in the rooftop. It raised its weapon to strike at Radiance's exposed front, but just as it swung earthward with it a beam of superheated and powerfully-charged plasma struck the halberd, reducing it to its component atoms. Almost simultaneously a beam of impact energy smashed into its face, sending the gargoyle into a backward stumble. Radiance saw another opening and flipped herself upright. With her sword extended slightly behind her she dashed forward and leapt at one of the gargoyle's wings. She seized it along the supporting ridge, flipped over it and landed upon the monster's head. The gargoyle twisted its head to take a look at the enemy riding its back, and it screeched as it saw Radiance… it was the last thing it ever did, for the blade Radiance wielded pierced its face.
As this all happened, Jefferson stood on the other rooftop, but as he winced as Blue tore off the head of the gargoyle he attacked, Jefferson's ears detected a soft sound: the unsheathing of a blade.
Jefferson whirled in time to see a sword descending upon him. In a flash Jefferson raised his dirk and blocked the attack. As blades locked, Jefferson got a good look at his enemy. The thing attacking him looked like a skeleton with dark and baggy skin hanging loosely from its rotting frame. The hollow creature was armed in scanty armor, but nonetheless its dead eyes were glowing with fierce maliciousness. However, that was not the frightening part, that element came in the form of the fact that there were about a dozen of his compatriots, and three of them had crossbows.
Jefferson flicked out a throwing dagger with his free hand, piercing the hollow undead's forehead with the tip. Just then the undead archers fired a volley of relatively slow-moving arrows. Jefferson whirled his first defeated victim about and used it as a meatshield. The arrows thudded into the body, but did not pierce it. Jefferson shoved the meatshield forward, causing it to crash into a couple other undead warriors, sending all three bodies (including the meathshield) tumbling from the rooftops to the filthy streets far below. The archers prepared another volley just as two more undead warriors began to assault Jefferson. The archers let loose their arrows just as the two blades of the enemies fell in unison. Jefferson blocked the first and dodged the other. He then grabbed one of the arrows that had passed harmlessly by out of the air and shoved it into an eye socket of the second Hollow. Just as he did that he slipped the dirk that was blocking the blade of the first Hollow up the length of the sword to sever its hand. He then grabbed the disabled Hollow's head and slammed its face into his knee. Staggered, the creature stumbled backwards. Jefferson proceeded to perform a roundhouse kick, sending it reeling into the next wave of Hollows, sending all four into the streets below. Jefferson then backflipped over the next wave of arrows. When he landed he followed up by releasing a massive wave of throwing daggers. The daggers whistled forward and destroyed the surviving undead warriors and archers. Jefferson pocketed his dirk just as Radiance murdered the last gargoyle. Gene turned to check up on Jefferson and waved when he saw that he was all right. Jefferson nodded back and dashed toward the edge of his rooftop. When he reached the end he leapt high into the air. The leap was sufficient enough to carry him to the rooftop where Blue, Radiance, and Gene were.
"You guys good?" asked Jefferson as he walked up to his teammates.
Gene nodded. "We are."
Blue leapt from the back of the decapitated gargoyle he had slain and turned to look at the bell tower only a dozen or so meters away.
"This is called the First Bell of Awakening," said Blue quietly, "My wristblade is hidden within the clapper."
Blue strode towards the crumbling tower with purpose, with Gene, Radiance, and Jefferson trailing behind. In less than a minute they had scaled the crumbling tower and made it to the mottled iron bell. Blue extended his blade (which reassembled itself from nothingness once more) and swept it at the bell. With a resounding ring the blade sliced through bell, bisecting the bell at the waist and severing the head of the clapper. Just as the bottom half of the bell fell through the opening of the hollow bell tower, Blue caught the head of the clapper with the tip of his sword. Effortlessly Blue hefted the large mass of metal into the air where he caught it with his free hand.
"My instincts tell me that the blade is indeed within," murmured Blue. He tossed it through the air once more and swung his blade at the airborne mass of iron. The clapper head shattered… but nothing fell out but sparks and metal shards.
There was a pause…
"Apparently your instincts were… wrong," said Jefferson, "Sooooo… What do we do now?"
Blue caught a couple of the shards in his free hand. He inspected the pieces of twisted metal with curiosity. He had never been wrong in his life… this was certainly a first. As the fine dust settled and the small shards that had scattered every which way from the attack stopped skipping, Blue leaned in close to the shards he held within his hand. Within the Inquisitor helmet Blue frowned slightly as the HUD that resided within his visor leapt to life scanning the shards. Just as the helmet finished running diagnostics, a small purple spark sizzled from the twisted metal. A ghostly cloud of corrupted Imagination rose from the core of the iron shards and shimmered in the air before Blue and his teammates' eyes. With a flash the ghostly cloud began to form into a ghastly face. The hideous face grinned.
"Hello, Blue, I have been waiting to meet again for such a long time," it said, "I am sorry that your long quest to rather your armor is not yet complete because of this detour, and I will say that I am partly to blame for that… well… I am completely to blame for it. I moved it to a more… 'Secure' place: The Deep Coal Cellar."
The ghostly corrupted Imagination began to boil, and then dispersed into the ever-flowing river of Imagination.
"What… the hell… was that?" breathed Jefferson.
"That was Harold," said Blue quietly, "A 'friend' of mine."
"First off, Blue: you have no friends. Second: Harold did not sound like he was a friend to you at all," said Gene flatly.
Blue ignored Gene and opened up a large portal.
"Wait… where are you going?" asked Radiance sharply.
"To the Deep Coal Cellar," replied Blue simply, "I will retrieve my wristblade at all costs."
"You are clearly walking straight into a trap!" snapped Radiance, "You know what? Forget it. I have changed my mind again. I am glad you will be dying. You deserve it for what you did to me."
Gene gently tapped Radiance's shoulder and shook his head. He then turned to Blue and said, "It is a trap Blue, you need to see that."
"I do indeed know it is a trap, more so than I others, I would say," said Blue, "But it matters not. I will be able to handle whatever is cast at me. Harold does not fight like the rest of the multiverse would. He has no need for worldly weapons. But as I said: it matters not. However, I suggest you all leave me. Our work together is over."
Gene shook his head vehemently. "If Harold fights like nothing we have ever seen before as you claim, then that is all the more reason for us to stay together… At least until your last bit of equipment is retrieved."
"And remember," said Radiance, her eyes narrowed, "We are doing this for the being that you are trying to cast out: August. We are not doing this for you."
Blue did not respond. Instead he strolled through the gaping portal. Gene and Jefferson exchanged a somewhat distressed glance, and then rushed into the portal after him. He was then followed by Gene, Jefferson, and Radiance.
As they stepped through, they suddenly found themselves in the very center of the Deep Coal Cellar Prison, the keep of the Dimensional Lords.
Jefferson blinked, and looked about in confusion. They were in a large, blank hall, which was adorned with nothing but two doors, on behind, and one far ahead. However, it was not the nature of the room that confused him, it was the fact that he had found himself inside the prison in the first place that gave him pause. He then leaned close to Gene and whispered, "Last time I checked, the prison could not be teleported or portal-jumped into in any way. Sooooo… How did we get in here?"
Blue, who could have heard the whispering from kilometers away, shook his head at Jefferson. "Harold seems to be in control of this abandoned plant. He must have shut off the phantom projectors that would have initially prevented me from arriving at this point. But look: it seems we have company."
A group of anti-Dimensional-Lord mechas were slowly filing into the room from the door facing the team. As the score of killer robots stood to attention, the head mecha spoke with the voice of Harold.
"Don't you guys worry your head about these robots, they are simply here to escort you to my illustrious – albeit temporary – courtroom where I have the wristblade of Blue awaiting its master. Again, do not worry. But then again… I suppose none of you are, for I am sure you all are aware at how ridiculously fast Blue could obliterate these things."
"Damned right!" exclaimed Jefferson, who pulled out twin long daggers nonetheless.
The head robot turned its face (which resembled a metallic face of a bear roaring in fury) to root Jefferson to the spot with its dead, red-glowing eyes. "Jefferson," said the voice of Harold, "I am so pleased that they brought you. I have someone with the wristblade that really wants to meet you as well."
Jefferson frowned. What was Harold saying? Blue, nonetheless, was not fazed by any of Harold's enigmatic talk. With superhuman speed Blue hurled his sword and whipped out his Inquisitor Blaster. Just as the blade pierced the face of the head robot, Blue had fired off nineteen other shots, causing the head robot's entourage to almost simultaneously detonate just as it exploded itself. There was a pause, and then Harold's voice echoed from the shadows again, making it clear that the robots had actually never been the carrier of the voice in the first place.
"Very well then, make your own way to my temporary abode. I shall leave the doors open, so you can let your own ungrateful self in."
Blue glanced at his three "acquaintances" and then strolled forward, pulling his sword out of the decimated face of the head mecha as he passed. Radiance readied her sword and followed Blue, with Gene and Jefferson right behind. They had only passed through a couple bleak hallways before they found themselves in "Harold's Courtroom." It was a massive hall. To the team's right there was a large set of windows, no doubt for overseers to look out of when prisoners were paraded by. However, there was a large hole where the middle set of these windows should have been, and rubble from that decimated wall were scattered about the otherwise bleak hall. Several large anti-Dimensional-Lord guns were posted at each corner of the room, but all were disabled, though a few were still sparking and fizzling. The door at the end of the hall had been blocked off by a large pile of rubble (though Blue would not have had any trouble clearing it all away).
Blue walked to the very center of the room, weapon drawn. As he came to a slow stop in the middle, he was joined by Jefferson, Gene, and Radiance.
"You all are here… Finally. Took your time, I think… Now, please stay here while I get my things…" came Harold's voice. The door the team had just entered slid shut, and energized-protodermis-bathed Codrex Steel locked over the door. The moment it did that it became cloaked in pure energy. Basically indestructible… for most beings.
Blue looked around the room and said, "Those security measures cannot stop me. Behold…"
Blue swung back his weapon and nonchalantly hacked away at the security door that had just closed on them. The pure energy exploded around his blade like a massive water balloon that had just popped. In an instant Blue had cut his way past the energy and had reached the door. The Codrex Steel, though nigh-impenetrable, stood no match. Blue, with a grunt, slammed the tip of his blade into the steel. Slowly he cut through the tough metal, sparks of energy fizzling through the air. In a minute he had cut a large rectangular in the door. Rearing back his fist, Blue slammed his hand into the metal, digging his fingers into it like it was Memory Foam. With another grunt he ripped the cutout from the rest of the door and hurled it effortlessly across the hall. However, the moment he did that he leapt back hurriedly: the hallway they had just exited a moment ago was now full to the brim with corrupted Imagination Energy. That was something Blue – or any Dimensional Lord for that matter – could never be able to fight his way through.
"I could have sworn you weren't deaf in your previous life," came the voice of Harold, as brisk and unworried as ever, "Was this something I never knew about you, or is this a result from standing too close to Jefferson while he is jabbering for too long?"
Blue sheathed his sword. "Harold… The only thing different from me this time is that I have more fortitude, unfortunately for you. Now… What do you want? You know you cannot kill me the way you would like… yet."
Harold sighed dramatically, his disembodied voice echoing from every corner of the room as if each component molecule had been given a voice and was now speaking in his name. "True. True. True. Too true. That is to come eventually… But right now I want to give you a choice."
Suddenly mist-like corrupted Imagination Energy seeped from that one large hole in the wall. It eerily reached the floor and then solidified into a mass of writhing, volatile energy. In a shimmering blast of power that made everyone's very souls scream out in pain, it vanished, revealing a rather horrific dilemma.
A woman in a nightgown, bound and gagged in iron was hovering over a mass of corrupted Imagination Energy to the right of the giant hole. To the left of the giant hole was Blue's wristblade, hovering over a large portal to God-knows-where. The thin blade of Pure Imagination Energy that constituted the unholy power of the wristblade winked and shimmered, distorting time, matter, and space around it. The eyes of the woman were wide and terrified.
"You have a choice," said Harold's voice, sounding amused but also somewhat bored, "You can have the wristblade… or Jefferson's wife."
Jefferson's eyes widened in terror and despair as he recognized the woman. "Lorina…?"
Blue immediately hefted his sword like a spear and hurled it at the wristblade with incredible speed. However, almost as if the time-diluting speed that the sword was hurled at was nothing, Harold called up a wall of Imagination Energy to deflect the sword. The sword struck the solid-gas-liquid wall with an explosion that sent ripple-effects through the very fabric of reality and spun away harmlessly to land at Blue's feet. Blue slowly bent down and picked up his weapon, commanding it to disassemble back into pure nothingness again.
"No cheating Blue," reprimanded Harold, "Jeez Louise. That is your problem, you take the drama out of everything. When you could be having a glorious standoff with an archenemy complete with tears and vows of victory, you are too busy having Sunflower snipe the guy in the back of the head, or shooting him in the face while he tries to dramatically reveal his unbeatably evil plan."
"It is not too late to make this horrendously undramatic," replied Blue coldly and quietly, "I can just make a clear decision immediately before anyone has a chance to object."
"No! No! No!" cried Jefferson desperately, "We need to think about this! That is my wife! Lorina! Blue! God, I beg of you! Don't let her die!"
It was heart-rending to see the proud, amusing, and confident Jefferson reduced to tears. However, oddly enough, this made Harold quiet down.
"I actually suggest you think about it," said Harold, almost softly, "I mean, seriously dude, this is a big decision."
There was a pause, but then Harold's voice strengthened again as he broke the silence. "Remember Blue, whatever happens, I am blaming all of this on you, and I hope everyone else does as well."
Blue turned to Jefferson and said, "I am sorry about your wife… But she will have to die. The wristblade is of greater importance."
"It's a wristblade!" cried Jefferson, his eyes suddenly wild, "It is an inanimate object. Granted it possesses great power… But… But we are dealing with human life here!" My goddamn wife!
"Don't fool yourself, Jefferson," replied Blue, still emotionlessly, "You are greatly exaggerating the value of human life. We are like cockroaches, one should not mourn if another is snuffed out."
"Stop it Blue!" yelled Gene, losing his temper for the first time in forever, "You are the most heartless, selfish, cold-blooded being I have ever met!"
The argument was interrupted by Harold's loud, omnipresent voice. "I agree with you. He is. Anyone going to make a decision yet? I am really bad with these tense 'heart-felt' arguments that always happen just before big decisions. Well, I will admit now that this is quite amusing. I could see this happening if there were two women up where, each a wife to a respective teammate… But this is about a human life and a little pointy weapon."
"You know the power of the wristblade, Harold," said Blue, "You have seen its might. In fact, its might has been demonstrated countless times over the two trillion years of this Tri-Multiverse's existence. This woman will have a lifespan of eighty years before rotting and crumbling to dust."
Jefferson gave something between a gurgle and a scream before unleashing a hail of sharp knives. Blue simply waved his right gauntlet through the air, and the knives melted and then evaporated in gaseous forms of the constituting elements.
Gene closed his eyes in sorrow. It was distressing to see how easily Jefferson fell apart when the ones he loved were in danger.
"Blue, you monster!" shouted Radiance, "A human life is at stake! How can you care so very little about this?!"
"I committed suicide in my past life, and I have murdered children," replied Blue softly, "I have made it very clear that I disregard life of any form. This will be one more crime to add to the lightyear-long list."
Gene hurled forward a bolt of lightning, attempting desperately to disable Blue, but the Inquisitor did not even bother to dodge, for the attack exploded harmlessly off his armor. He turned and struck Gene across the face, sending him flying through the air to come to a painful halt at the other side of the hall. Radiance took this moment to attempt to stab Blue in the back. Like water, Blue dodged smoothly, disarmed her, and then broke the offending blade in two with his hands in less than a second. In one more second Radiance was on the ground, stunned and dazed.
Jefferson was all that was left. His eyes were wide as he begged, "Blue… After all that we have been through… We were trying to do good here! Don't give into evil!"
"You have been evil your entire life, mercenary," replied Blue in hushed tones, "This was the first time you ever tried to do something worthy, and look what it has done. Take the loss and return to a life of stealing and murder before I end your life with the life of your wife."
Jefferson suddenly threw his dirk, his favorite weapon, straight at Blue's face with inhuman speed. Once again, Blue did not even dodge. The blade struck Blue's visor… and shattered into a million pieces without leaving a scratch. Blue extended a gauntlet and snapped a finger. A beam of energy shot from his wrist, bathing Jefferson in light.
Mouth agape, Jefferson gagged as his limbs locked up and he fell to the ground, with every voluntary component of his body disabled except for his eyes.
Blue turned to the small hurricane of corrupted Imagination Energy that represented the throne of Harold. "I choose the wristblade," he said.
Harold sighed. "Oh, very well. Look at you Blue, I am almost disappointed. I may be blinded by the shadows I have wrought in anger, but I can clearly see I am not the only villain in this room."
Lorina, her eyes wide, screamed as she felt the invisible hand holding her above the corrupted Imagination Energy loosen… and then she dropped. In an instant the wife of Jefferson was murdered… ever atom in her body being completely annihilated in a blatant violation of the Law of Conservation of Mass.
There was a pause, only thing that could be heard was the sigh of despair from Gene, and a broken sob from Radiance.
"Hmmmmm…" murmured Harold, who actually sounded greatly bothered and somewhat dissatisfied, "You, Blue, are a monster. But I think we need to go a little bit farther to ensure that you will be cemented in the body of August when we finally meet in final combat."
Suddenly the frozen body of Jefferson was levitated in the air. Gene leapt to his feet and attempted to use his Dimensional Traveler powers to bring Jefferson to earth again, but clearly whatever powers Harold was using greatly overrode whatever powers Gene had. Jefferson slowly floated through the air until he came to a stop… right over the writhing ball of corrupted Imagination Energy that had just killed Lorina.
"Oookkkkaaaayyyyy," said Harold, a little less energetic this time, "I am going to give Blue yet another choice... This is the last one, I promise. Unlike Blue, I do not revel in death and tire easily of meaningless murder. Blue… You can either choose Jefferson… or you can have the wristblade. What will it be?"
"The mercenary attempted to attack me," said Blue emotionlessly, "I harbor no love toward him like August did. I choose…"
Blue suddenly froze… Mattimeo and Doxia's Dreamscape Plan activated.
Dimension: Dreamscape
Planet: Dreamscape
Specific Location: Dreamscape
Time: About two weeks after Lyric found Summer
August Dellor sat on the cosmos-filled expanse of his mind, his soul trapped within a small confined space due to the stronger will of Blue forcing him out. Several times August had managed to escape the mental prison to take Blue by surprise like Blue had done to him so many times, but each time he was soon forced back… and forced into a smaller, tighter containment unit. Soon he would be ejected from the body altogether, and be forced to wander the Earth Multiverse or eventually ascend to the Heaven Multiverse. At this point, August felt like that was better than what he currently was forced to endure. He was well aware of every action Blue made using August's body… And he was powerless to stop anything. Just a moment ago August saw Blue allow Jefferson's wife to die for the wristblade… and now it looked like Blue was about to let Jefferson die as well. August cried quietly, non-corporeal body clouding in despair.
Suddenly the expanse that August sat upon rippled and distorted as if a silent earthquake was tearing at the fabric of the jail. Slowly a specter rose from the ground and turned from intangible to tangible with a shower of light. It was Doxia.
"Mattimeo really makes those transitions feel wonderful," muttered Doxia to himself, rubbing the back of his neck. He then noticed August.
"Hey, buddy, how are you holding up?" the Dimensional Lord said softly.
August shook his head. "Blue is about to kill Jefferson… using my own hands!"
"Well, technically it is using your voice… but then again Inquisition DNA altered your larynx to emanate Blue's voice sooooo…" Doxia quieted down as his eons-old mind registered the full gravity of the situation.
Doxia got down on one knee and patted August's head. "Kid, I need you ready. Eyes on me."
August looked up from his knees to lock eyes with Doxia's eternity-reflecting visor. "We are giving you a chance. But this is your only chance."
Doxia vanished as if he had never been there. A second later the small starlit room that served as August's internal prison shifted and burst open. Like a time-lapse video, the cosmos-reflecting ground stretched out in all directions, filling all horizons. August blinked… He had been freed.
"August."
August practically leapt a meter in the air. Heart racing, August slowly turned around. Standing before him was Blue. With the outside reality frozen in time, August and Blue faced off each other for the first time since the beginning of the hell-cursed quest.
"Blue," gasped August. His eyes were wide with horror… but then they hardened. He knew what he had to do.
"Blue," August said again, stronger this time, "I will not let you kill Jefferson. He is a friend, and I will not let you do this."
Blue shook his head. "And what makes you think you are in a position to stop me?" murmured Blue, "The Tri-Multiverse needs me, far more than it needs you or that mercenary. I am worth a thousand Augusts, Jeffersons, and Lorinas. Perhaps even more."
"No!" shouted August, desperation to protect his friends fueling his strength that had long since depleted in his time of resignation and surrender, "As Gene said, you are a monster! You think yourself above others, and you kill because you can… But everything you do is wrong. You are not the most powerful of us all, you are the weakest. You are incapable of love, happiness, compassion, and joy. All you can feel is your need to complete a mission, and why? I know why, for I have seen your memories and lived your past… You do it simply because you need death. You are insecure, Blue, you have no grasp on reality and you have not the slightest sense of purpose. And thus… you kill. You kill because seeing a person's own life's purpose die takes your mind off of the endless nothingness you see ahead in your own life! But let me tell you: killing is not the answer. What you are doing… it is destroying you, not fortifying you."
"I am well aware that it is destroying me," replied Blue, "And I will say that perhaps you are right. I performed impossible missions and threw all cautions and regulations to the wind because I thought it would bring me something I had always missed in my life. But that is not true now. I am moving forward simply because I wish to face Harold. He has been with me and against me since before I was first an Inquisitor… and now this all must end…"
"And so that is your goal now?" asked August quietly, "Your goal is simply to kill Harold?"
"Yes, no matter the cost," said Blue. Suddenly Blue turned his back to August and stared into the void of the dreamscape. "No… matter… the… cost…"
August stared at Blue, and then he said, softly, "You don't want to kill Harold, do you?"
Blue actually sighed, a tinge of emotion wiggling its way into the undertone of his voice. "Perhaps not. The war with Harold is something that has been fought countless times, with no success. With my mindset… I cannot face him, for he understands me too well, just as I understand him too well. He is like the light, and I am the dark. We cannot exist without each other, and so when one ceases to exist, the other ceases to have meaning. I have spent countless eons and countless innocent lives searching for my own meaning, but it will be all for naught if he dies. My mission is to face Harold and defeat him for Rerenhaw, but I know this last mission cannot be completed."
"Blue, you have never let me truly speak to you before," said August, hope entering his voice, "But now that I may… Blue, let me take on the mantle of Inquisitor."
Blue turned about again to look at August. "You are a fool, August. You have no ability to do what I can."
August shook his head. "Your memories are mine. Your skills can be mine. Blue, I have no control over this choice, but I know that you cannot face Harold. But I can. The truth is, I think I understand your plight more than you even do. Harold… Harold has a purpose. Something has given him a will to do what he does. You, on the other hand, have nothing. And so, when you realized that Harold was acting like the sustaining opposite of your existence, you became attached to him. He gave you meaning, he gave you a purpose. But instead of that purpose being a drive to stop him, it became a hindrance. Your purpose truly was to allow him to define you, to give you a meaning that you yourself could never find, and that made him unstoppable. But me… For me… I can defeat him, for I have a purpose: to protect my friends or die trying… I want to be a hero."
"A hero is a fool, unwilling to forward the greater good by performing the necessary evils to gain the victory over the unrelenting cancer of reality," said Blue sharply. But his voice was fading.
August just kept going. "You committed suicide in the end because your missions and your purpose in life conflicted. You saw no end in life, so you made one. If you continue on this path, history will repeat itself. But I can break the loop. I can defeat the hearts of darkness, for I am willing to make the ultimate sacrifice with meaning and purpose, for I know: my friends, my loved ones, and those whom I protect will forever be far more important than my own life. And that is my purpose: to protect others. I will fight and die to protect people from Harold."
Blue stared at August for a long, long, long time, thinking about what August had said. Suddenly it struck him: what was he doing? All of the things he had done up to this point had no meaning, for it was ultimately leading up to a battle he knew he would be unable to win. Harold needed to be defeated, and Blue knew it. If Harold was gone then Blue could return to nonexistence, knowing that his purpose was gone, and that the purpose binding him to reality was dead. It was a sad end indeed that was in store for him, but he knew he deserved every moment of it for the crimes he had committed. But perhaps… this child August could learn from it, and be what Blue never could be: a hero. If Blue wanted peace, he needed to give up this endless and futile crusade and let light fight the dark, not shadows.
"Very well, August," said Blue, "You can take control once more… But I will never be gone. I will always be in the shadows of your mind… But I will never again interfere."
August pretty much broke down. "Thank you," he gasped, "Thank you…"
Blue slowly backed away, the void beyond consuming his dreamscape form. "But remember, as I am a shadow in your mind, I will also be a faint influence upon your actions that, if you do not control yourself, can grow into impulses."
August shook his head. "I know what I must do. I will let only goodness and light guide me."
Blue actually chuckled. "Many younger Inquisitors said that, only to become like me."
August shook his head once more, a little bit more vehemently this time. "I won't become like you. I know the stakes. I will never make the same mistakes."
Blue vanished into the shadows and dissolved into nothing, leaving naught but his voice echoing over the dreamscape. "Odd that you should say that, August. I was not the only one who pulled the trigger on the gun that killed Pictor… I was not the only one to choose the wristblade over Jefferson's wife. One other finger and one other voice performed with me in unison…"
August's stomach turned to ice as Blue's voice finally vanished into the void as well. However, August only had a moment to consider Blue's last words for the entire Dreamscape warped and folded in on itself, ejecting August violently back into reality. August gasped really loudly, and staggered as his mind grasped all the changes the Inquisitor armor had made to his body. Everything felt different.
"Waaaiiittttt…" said Harold from the shadows, "You just… You just gasped. Blue never did that. Something is not right…"
August straightened up, hesitated, and then said, in Blue's voice, "I choose… I choose Jefferson."
There was a pause, then Harold said slowly, "August Dellor! You're back! Everyone, it's August Dellor! Well… This is… odd… But I actually will not argue with it, yet. In fact… I-I-I think I need a moment to rethink everything. O-oh! That's right! Here, have Jefferson."
Jefferson flew forward to be caught by August. At the same time the wristblade began to fall through the portal, where it would never be found again…
Suddenly, Dark's hatchet flew through the wall behind Harold's throne of corrupted Imagination Energy and struck the wristblade, carrying itself and the wristblade to safety on the other side of the hall. In an instant Dark and Sunflower jumped through the hole in the wall that Dark's hatchet had created and joined Blue.
Harold laughed. "Well! Look at this! I will say that this added one last satisfactory taste to this terrible afternoon. The John 3 Inquisitor chapter is back together again to face the dastardly Harold! Though I must say Blue would have been a better villain, but he's gone now… and so am I... For a little bit."
With a rumbling shriek the hurricane of death that represented Harold imploded on itself, leaving nothing behind except for a small piece of paper that floated to the ground and landed softly.
"Blue's gone?" said Dark sharply, "What did he mean by that? You're right here!"
"I'm not Blue," said August, resigning himself to the fact that he would forevermore sound like Blue, "I'm August. Blue has retreated into my mind, letting me control this body and take the final fight to Harold myself."
Dark simply shook his head. "Then we have already lost. I have no confidence in you. You are not my leader, August."
Dark spat out the name as if it was something vile. He snatched up his hatchet and turned around, storming away to vanish into the shadows. Sunflower sighed. He knelt down, picked up the wristblade, and handed it to August.
"I'm sorry," Sunflower said, "Dark will come around. He will just need time. We all will need time."
August slowly took the wristblade and snapped it to his right arm. He felt a shock of power course through his body as he became armed with the most powerful weapon in all of reality. At this point Gene got to his feet and carefully picked his way across the hall to confront August. August braced himself for a rebuke or cry of anger, but all he got was a small pat on his shoulder.
"I believed you the entire time, August," Gene said. He sounded exhausted, but satisfied. He then slowly got to his knees to help the wounded Radiance to her feet.
August walked over to Jefferson, who was lying at the foot of the pile of rubble that led to that one hole in the wall, and activated a special device on his left gauntlet. This device bathed Jefferson in energies that freed him of his paralysis.
"Jefferson, I am so sorry," breathed August, "I couldn't save your wife… But… But at least I saved you…"
Jefferson looked at August, his eyes impossible to read. He then closed his eyes and went limp. As he did this he murmured, "You saved me but failed to save the one I loved. Put yourself in my place. Do you think you saved anyone? You did not. You killed us both. You are not a hero."
August sighed, stood up, and turned around to look at Gene for help. The moment he did that there was a massive explosion of light and sound behind August. August whirled around and found that Jefferson… was gone. He had vanished, and all that was left of him was the grip of the dirk that Jefferson had broken against Blue… while trying to protect his wife.
August Dellor slowly picked the grip of the dirk up and held it tightly in his hand.
"August," said Sunflower slowly, "We need to-"
"Go."
August did not even look up. "All of you… Go. Leave me."
Gene stared at the back of August, his eyes wide but understanding. Slowly he hoisted Radiance onto his back and opened a portal to the My Little Pony dimension. They would find peace there. Sunflower gave August one last look… and then followed his two friend through. The portal closed with a "pop." Silence fell upon the decimated hall.
August slowly looked around. His HUD pointed out the dropped piece of paper that had appeared from nowhere the moment Harold had left.
Slowly August climbed up the rubble to the large hole in the wall where the note rested. He sat down amidst the rubble and read it. It said:
"Fairy tales always say that the world is full of heroes and villains, and it has always been implied that the heroes always win. But that is not the case in the real world. There are no heroes, there are only villains masquerading as heroes or fools declaring that they are ones only to die. True heroes do not exist. As Blue once said, 'We all travel towards the light at the end of the tunnel, but when we reach that light, it will do naught but illuminate life as it is razed by fire and brimstone. This is reality.' There is no place for heroes in this second hell. In the end all of you will be corrupted and killed. Blue was a hero once... and I looked up to him. But eventually this reality turned him into what he is now. It is only a matter of time before reality corrupts you as well. The question is: how long?
~Regards, Harold Dellor. (H.D.)"
Note: One adventure ends, and another begins. How will life progress now, with a new (albeit unstable) John 3 Inquisition Chapter arisen? And where will Summer and Lyric end up now, now that they can no longer stay in Haven of Star Circle? I must say that it was all quite a journey. Either way, please review! I put a lot of work into this chapter, so I am greatly interested in what you all thought of this finale! If you review, I shall give you a copy of Blue's Wristblade. It is the most powerful weapon in the Tri-Multiverse... However, take note that it is only a copy... and that it was made in Taiwan. Just ignore that last phrase. Anyway, see you all in the next part of the season!