Another Living Edge chapter, where Lisa and the first wielder talk a little bit.

Hey, remember when Lincoln was the main character? Yeah, me neither. XD

Anyhow, let's go!


Shrinivas poured some tea on some teacups as she and Lisa sat down, the latter sporting a serious, stern expression.

"You know, I had a feeling you'd want to talk to me eventually," the 1st Cliche user remarked dryly. "Of course, I expected you to do it a little bit later down the line."

"Really now? How much later?" Lisa growled. "As in, until after the Index System had been torn apart and Royal Woods plunged into chaos!?"

The woman paused, then casually sipped her tea.

"Don't hide behind your tea!" Lisa snapped. "I already heard the potential consequences of what you're doing! One of my brother's future children came from the future to warn us about something called the Walpurgisnacht or Ragnarok or something like that!"

"And you believed them just like that?" Shrinivas asked with a raised eyebrow. "A potential future, one of many what ifs, and you think what happened there is bound to happen here?"

"Do I have a reason not to believe it?"

"I'm not saying you need a reason to come to such conclusions," Shrinivas stated. "All I'm saying is that, with the world being as unpredictable as it is, to focus on one possible future over many others can prove detrimental."

Lisa narrowed her eyes. "You would know that, wouldn't you?"

Shrinivas paused, then smiled. "Would you like to join me for a game of chess later today?"

Lisa raised an eyebrow, and quickly narrowed her eyes. "I didn't come here to play games."

"An interesting statement, considering how you've been fooling around for a while," Shrinivas replied. "So you can mess with your brother's designation, but you won't consider playing a chess match with an old friend?"

Lisa's eyes widened in disbelief, but the woman remained unfazed.

"You're nowhere near as subtle as you think you are, Lisa Loud. At least, not to me, who has seen all sorts of things in this messed up world of ours," Shrinivas scoffed. "The rest of the council, however? I bet you could wave a flag and proclaim your betrayal to the skies, and they'd still be so high up their own rear ends that they wouldn't notice."

Shrinivas chuckled and shook her head. "To think Royal Woods, the place we both call home, is governed by such ignorant people… it's hilarious, in a tragic kinda way."

Lisa shook her head and regained her composure.

"Why did you insist on bringing back the Trainerbots? And why did you tell me to have my sisters come and have their Cliches copied? What's the reason for all that?"

Shrinivas calmly sipped her tea, taking a moment to savor the taste before stating:

"Nothing."

Lisa paused. "Nothing?"

"Lisa, you're a smart kid. And while I don't see myself as being that smart, I do believe I might be somewhat average in the intelligence department," Shrinivas calmly answered as she put the teacup down. "I already know that even if I bothered to lie to you, you'd see right through it. So, I'm being as frank and honest as I can be."

"B-But there's no way there's no reason!" Lisa responded. "There has to be some kind of explanation for this! Some… some sort of argument to be made or… I dunno, something!"

"Oh, Lisa. You poor little kid. Not everything needs a reason to happen," Shrinivas stated matter-of-factly. "Not life. Not love. And most certainly not the Index System, or the pain it brings."

Lisa raised an eyebrow just as Shrinivas finished her tea and stood up.

"Lisa, please, let's not kid ourselves. The world we live in is a hellhole: become a Protagonist, and the entire world will put pressure on you. Become an Antagonist, and everyone will mistreat you. Become a Neutral, and you'll be forced to sit at the sidelines, watching things go by. And I'd You become an Outsider, you're forced to become utterly detached from everything. And if you get the funny idea of going against what this rotting hive of debauchery slaps on you? Then you become a Maverick, and at that point, everybody wants you dead."

Shrinivas looked out the window. "Everybody's power might not be controlled, but everything else is. Their designation, what's expected from them, what they're told to do… it's all done under the whims of the Index System. And why? Because some random idiot got the brilliant idea to create a system where a select few would be on top, and the rest are, in essence, slaves to their will."

Shrinivas lowered her eyelids. "Even we are slaves, Lisa. You and I. We might be part of the Heads that keep the Index System going, but we're just as expendable to the council as everybody else. As soon as we do something they don't like, bam: we're fired, and replaced by new, more obedient servants. And it'll be like we were never there."

"That's not true!" Lisa snapped, getting Shrinivas' attention. "I-I make things better by-"

"You see, Lisa, this is why your Cliche is Mad Scientist instead of, oh I don't know, Genius."

Lisa felt a nerve being struck as Shrinivas turned to look at her, arms folded behind her back.

"It's because to you, the madness of our current world is par for the course. Even if I spent the next half hour or so telling you everything wrong with it, you'd still support it, because to you, the corrupt and insane system we live in is better than any alternative. Especially the only alternative you have."

Shrinivas leaned closer to Lisa. "After all, when has a Mad Scientist been anything other than an Antagonist?"

Lisa looked elsewhere, narrowing her eyes as Shrinivas sighed and backed away.

"Instead, allow me to explain what, exactly, am I doing."

Lisa turned back to Shrinivas immediately, catching a glimpse of the woman's little smile before she turned away and explained:

"You see, everything has a foundation. Whether it's an idea that goes on to create a business, or a set of ingredients used to bake a cake, or even the seed that will eventually create roots and blossom into a tree when provided with care. Nothing comes out of nowhere: everything has a beginning. And most of the time, getting rid of the beginning is easy."

Shrinivas took a deep breath. "However, a question soon arises: what happens when you take out a foundation after it has blossomed? Everything falls apart, and chaos emerges. And when there's chaos, the world will be worse off than when the system was available."

Shrinivas faced Lisa sympathetically. "Ergo, Lisa, if the Index System, with the way it currently is, were to be removed, Royal Woods would fall into mayhem. And our home would be damaged far more severely than anything the Index System could do."

"So why try at all?" Lisa asked bluntly. "Why not just… grin and bear it like everybody else?"

"Because, Lisa," Shrinivas smiled. "Just because removing the foundation is dangerous now, doesn't mean it can't be rendered harmless."

Lisa tilted her head.

"To ensure removing the foundation won't cause a chain reaction of chaos, the entities adjacent to it must be removed. So that when it's taken out in the end, there will be no consequences," Shrinivas raised her index finger. "Therefore, before the Index System can be taken out, it must first be weakened. Demonized. Sabotaged from within. So that it becomes so irrelevant and helpless that removing it will be for the better. And to do that, it must be done piece by piece."

Lisa looked at the woman as she paced back and forth, reaching for her pocket as Shrinivas said:

"First, we take out the parts of the system that are arbitrary, and just exist to make it more complicated than it needs to be. Then, we take out the lesser important parts that compliment the most important pieces, but aren't that relevant themselves. Finally, we take out the pieces that make the system run. And once that's done, we'll gather the citizens of Royal Woods to convince them to remove the system altogether."

Shrinivas clasped her hands and smiled. "And I believe that after being mistreated by the system for so long, it'll be a landslide in our favor."

"You're using plural pronouns," Lisa pointed out. "Do you have a partner in crime or something?"

"Funny you mention that, because I actually do," Shrinivas walked back to Lisa. "That someone, Lisa Loud… is you."

Lisa's eyes widened. "What!?"

"When you agreed to build the cancelling weapons, you implicitly proved You were willing to help me," Shrinivas pointed out. "Now that I've told you what my plan is about, it's only fair to make you my assistant. Wouldn't you agree?"

Lisa grabbed the table and flipped it, shattering the teacups and the tea set.

"I don't want anything to do with your plans!"

Lisa stomped to the door… only to find the Head of Termination standing outside, her stomps forcing the tiny scientist to walk back in.

"And I don't want this corrupt garbage of a system to poison the place I call home any further."

Lisa faced Shrinivas, the woman sporting a stern glare as she added:

"But if we want things to change for the better, certain things must be done. We have to work together, Lisa Loud, and we will. You should know better than anybody else that within the system, there are no suggestions. Only orders."

Lisa took a deep breath and shot an intense glare.

"I'll do everything in my power to stop you."

"And I welcome you to try, but until then, there's work left to do,"

Shrinivas lowered her eyelids and approached Lisa, the younger girl standing her ground as the woman stated:

"We have work left to do."