Total Drama Endless, Episode Twenty-Two.
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There was a hideous feeling of falling uncontrollably. Of tumbling head over heels until one lost all sense of which way was right side up. Everything was strobing black and white as the contestants fell through Aku's portal. It racked the brain; it tormented the senses.
Then everything was still.
Terribly, mercifully, still.
The three remaining humans came to within moments of each other, lulled out of there brief oasis of peace by horrible caterwauling.
Indy sits up first, the girls following his lead.
They're laying on a grassy hill surrounded by familiar looking trees. Pines, firs, and the occasional oak, birch or maple. Shrubs of goldenrod, viburnum, sumac and spicebush populate the underbrush. Around their flowers pollinators buzz. Above them birds chirp. The air is warm and calm like a late summer evening.
If would normally be a pleasant scene they can't say. Whatever tranquil effect the meadow has is ruined by Amethyst. The gem balling unconsolably as Lenny holds her aloft by the scruff of her collar.
Beatrice sighs deeply.
"Here we go again."
"I wasn't looking forward to this part." Peach says unhappily
Indy scowls. Even against the blue sky he makes for a grim figure. The black tunic and grey armour he's been wearing since his jacket was destroyed not helping matters. He takes a long drawn in breath, summoning as much energy as his's body's willing to give him. He's been sore all over since Tatooine and it doesn't look like anything will change that anytime soon.
"Alright… let's get this over with."
The three approach the gems slowly. Lenny's attention is focused on Amethyst.
"Now look Amethyst, it's only part of the game. Won't you calm down for us?"
"NO! NO! I'M NOT GONNA! I DON'T WANNA! AAAGGGGH!"
She flails about furiously.
"She's like a toddler sometimes." Indy mutters to the girls. Beatrice nods, Peach seems too nice to agree openly but her expression betrays her feelings on the matter.
Amethyst starts shrieking and wailing. Indy's head starts throbbing, he's exhausted after dealing with Aku.
"Amethyst shut up will you!? There's no point carrying on like that. Bentley choose to be left behind."
Amethyst stops cold and stares at him, eyes bulging.
"It was his way of paying for the last two elimination. It was done fairly; we had a vote ahead of time and everything."
She stops dead and stares at them.
"A vote?" She croaks.
"Bentley thought you… should…well…" Lenny stumbles. He scratches his chin thoughtfully. "I supposed the only way to say it Bentley didn't want you to know about this because he knew you would object. Which I understand is something of a… recuring complaint you've had about us." He grins apologetically. "Our bad."
Amethyst laughs weakly.
"All good." She whispers.
Indy folds his arms and gives her an appraising look.
"You going to behave for us Shortie?"
"Yeah… Yeah… I'm good." She repeats distantly.
Lenny sets her down cautiously. She nods politely to him then sets off down the hill.
She makes it about ten metres, then turns around and lunges at the others.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH."
Lenny tackles the little gem mid air, landing on top of her. She trashes wildly against his weight, clawing and gnashing ferally at the other three.
"This is why people don't trust you." Indy says.
"TRAITORS! YOU TRICKED HIM! YOU TRICKED HIM!" She screeches.
Beatrice sighs and shakes her head. "How did Bentley think she was going to act?"
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" Amethyst thunders.
"Amethyst you have every right to be mad but please listen to us." Peach urges.
"Your friends gave up their game to support you, and you're doing a real miserable job repaying them acting like this." Indy says sternly
"DON'T YOU SPEAK FOR THEM YOU-"
"We have guests!" Lenny says abruptly.
The other four look over.
On the crest of the hill three ancient looking women are standing in a line watching them. The one on the left wears a man's top hat over a myriad of colourful shawls, a bulky overcoat, long shirt and a pair of wellington boots. The woman in the centre's gawking at them behind a pair of great silver spectacles and is wrapped in billowing white robes. Finally, the one on the right was the strangest of the bunch, she wears a black robe and hat the like of which a witch might wear, but they couldn't make her out properly. She shimmered sightedly in the warm summer breeze, ebbing and flowing in a out focus like a ghost with one foot in reality and the other beyond it.
Now that the argument had stopped, they could tell the three strangers were chatting amongst themselves.
"Oh dear look at the poor things. We should have brought them somewhere better first. Given them a break" The shawled woman protests with a voice like a creaky gate. The witch hisses at her. Speaking like a gust of air leaking from a tire.
"Nnonnsennsee tthheirr ttrravvells wwill haavee prreepaareedd theemm."
"You forget they are not like us. They will be tired. They need rest."
"Iff ttheeyy reesstt nnoww hhoww ccaan wwe ttrruusstt they wwill ggett upp aaggainn"
"El Hombre Que Se Levanta Es Aún Más Grande Que El Que No Ha Caído. Spanish. Arenal. The man who stands up is greater than the one who hasn't fallen."
"I should hope that they've proven their strength to you by now. After all their host has shown us."
"Can we help you ladies?" Indy interrupts. Eyeing the strangers distrustfully.
"Actually my lambs, we're the one's that are suppose to help you." The woman in the shawls says.
She smiles at each of them with a maternal look of affection.
"I apologise for our bluntness. You are all so brave for making it this far. I wish I could offer you rest."
"Just nice to be expected for once." Indy says tiredly. It had been all the way back in Willy Wonka's factory that they had last had a host waiting for them on their arrival.
The three women chuckle.
"Yoouuu aarree brraavee inn tthee faacce ooff thee uunuusuuaal." The witch observes.
"We've been through a lot." Beatrice admits.
"Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich starker. German. Nietzsche. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger." Quotes the woman behind the spectacles. Her voice inquisitive, like a owl's.
"….And you are?" Indy prompts. The women straighten up importantly.
"Mrs Whatsit." Croaks the woman in the shawl.
"Mrs Who." Inquires the bespectacled one.
"Mmrss Whhicch." Hisses the witch.
"Charmed…" Indy says. "I'd introduce my group but I've got a funny feeling you already know who we are."
"Aann aaccuuttee oobseervaattionn." Mrs Which notes.
"Mr O'Gleeson has told us all about you." Mrs Whatsit informs them. "You'll be relieved to hear he spoke fairly fondly of you my pets."
"Hhee inniisstedd yoouu'dd bee prreepaarred."
"For what?" Beatrice asks.
"The planet Camazotz." Mrs Whatsit says. Indy grimaces.
"Cruel name."
"A cruel name for a cruel place." Whatsit says frowning. "Come and see."
She points over a past the crest of a hill. Indy squints. What looks to be a very plain looking city looms below them, ringed by a halo of what look to be ordinary suburbs.
"What must we do to continue in our adventure?" Peach asks.
"You will journey to the centre of the capital below you and seek IT. The ruler of this world."
"That's the challenge?" Snarls Amethyst. "Just go talk to some crummy jerk?"
"It will be the hardest thing you've ever done." Whatsit says with a very alarming certainty.
Amethyst scoffs bitterly. "Losing my friends to these traitors was the hardest thing I've done! This'll be a nothing."
"Yyouu mmustt nnott tthhinkk inn suuchh aa matttterr!" Mrs Which scolds ominously.
"IT is powerful." Mrs Whatsit warns. "IT will challenge you, but you must resist. Only in each other do you have a chance of overcoming IT."
"I'M NOT WORKING WITH THESE DIRT BAGS!" Amethyst shouts.
"What makes you think us Dirt Bags want to work with you?" Beatrice snaps.
"Children please…" Mrs Whatsits urges. Amethyst whirls around.
"I'm not a child gramma! I'm over five thousand years old! Beat that junior!"
Mrs Who giggles. Mrs Which gives her look.
"Nnnoww iss nnoott thhee ttimme."
"But she is right." Who smiles. "Whatsit is still so terribly young."
"Almost 2.4 billion years young." Mrs Whatsit says pleasantly. The smug look drops off Amethyst's face. The others go quiet. Indy opens his mouth as if to say something, then closes it wordlessly.
"…To answer your question." Mrs Whatsit says, as if reading his mind. "We are helpers in a hostile place. Though very soon we will have to leave you and I must, I must stress all you will have is each other. Search for the goodness in each other, in yourselves, in strangers."
"What if we fail?" Peach asks. "What if it's impossible?"
Mrs Who chortles again, then with in an old hand cups the princess's heart shaped face.
"My dear, İmkânın sınırını görmek için imkânsızı denemek lazım. Fatih. Turkish. It's necessary to try the impossible, to see the limitations of the possibility."
Peach returns her smile faintly. Then the old woman steps back to join her companions. She extends her hands and each of them take one.
"Here on Camazotz, the strength of many lays in the strength of one." Mrs Whatsit says. "Trust one another, Love each other, and I promise my lambs you'll live to see the light again."
And with that, the three women fad into nothingness, leaving the contestants on the hilltop, all by their loathsome.
There's an uncertain moment of silence that lingers where the ladies were for a moment, before Indy turns back to the city, the two women and Lenny by his side.
"Lenny I don't supposed you could help us-"
"Not a clue Jones. I'm afraid we'll have to go into this one blind."
Indy scolds bitterly. It's the face one makes when one has to come to terms with something dreadfully unpleasant. An expression he's worn quite often lately.
"At least this one will be quick. Come on."
They set off down the hill. They've only gone a few steps before Peach notices something wrong.
"Doctor Jones?"
She taps him on the shoulder and he turns to look. Amethyst is sitting on the spot they just left, refusing to move.
"What should we do?" The princess asks.
Indy shrugs.
"If she doesn't come, we count this as her forfeiting."
Peach seems unsure but doesn't dispute that, but she keeps looking over her shoulder to check on the gem all the way down the hill.
Their nearly to the base before she speaks up again.
"She's coming."
"Good for her." Lenny says pleasantly.
Amethyst trails a distance behind them as they walk into the outskirts of town.
They walk down the centre of a quiet street leading into town. The day is still pleasant, the air warm, the sky blue, but away from nature there's a stillness to Camazotz. An air of uneasiness that they can't put into words. What's definitely not helping at least is the silence. Without the buzzing of the bees and the chirping of the birds, the only noise is the sound of their footsteps on the asphalt. A rhythmic thumping that echoes down the rows of houses like a drum beat. Each step, each sound like a shout to the heavens. 'We don't belong here.'
Beatrice shutters.
"These houses are all the same."
"Welcome to Suburbia." Lenny laughs.
"I read about this in Hogwarts. It's a kind of cheap housing that popped up in the 50s. All these developments are similar." Indy explains.
"I didn't say similar I said the same." Beatrice insists. "Look."
They others take a better look at there surroundings.
Beatrice is right, every house they pass is same.
The colour of paint, the number of windows, the flowers in the window sills, the number of petals on each flower. Every house is perfectly, absolutely, identical.
"Bilmey they don't even have different addresses." Lenny observes. "It's any wonder how anyone gets around this place?"
"Or anything." Indy corrects. "It's an alien planet. They could get by with other senses."
"It might be magic." Peach guesses.
There's another rhythmic noise now, drawing close. They cross onto another long block and find its source.
Children stand in the driveways of each house playing, Half of them girls jumping rope, half of them boys bouncing rubber balls. Each of them the same age, each of them staring straight ahead. Every jump the girls take, every bounce the boys make all perfectly in time with one another.
Peach swallows uncomfortably.
"…or maybe they're under a curse."
The others don't look happy either.
"Could things are just heavily regulated here." Indy proposes. "Or it's a curse."
"I'm not super excited about the sound of either of those." Beatrice says unhappily
Indy frowns. "Neither am I."
They keep walking. The children's eyes following them down the road as they do.
Every front door in view opens, and out of them step rows upon rows of house wives. Each dressed perfectly alike.
"Don't stay out too late dear." Every woman up and down the block urges in unison.
"I won't mother!" Their children reply in perfect harmony.
The contestants shudder. Peach stubbles back into a young boy. He gasps and drops his ball.
"Oh! I'm sorry." She says. "Allow me to-"
The boy begins shrieking at the top of his lungs. Crying and blubbering like he's being mauled by a large animal. The Princess recoils from him terror.
His mother shoots out of the house, looking nearly as horrified. She darts across the drive and scoops up her son.
"Here." Lenny says, grabbing the boy's ball and offering it to her.
"Keep it!" She squeaks. She glances around the street frantically. "As Everyone can see you were responsible for the aberration! Not my son! No one in our household would ever defy protocol!
"It was just an accident-" Peach begins.
"STAY AWAY!" Shrieks the housewife. "You better hope you have your papers in order for this. This will be you're mess to sort out! You hear me? You're to blame! Not us!" And with another panic stricken look she carries her now flailing son inside.
The contestants stand there frozen. The other children continue playing in rhythm as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
"I think I'm gonna sit this challenge out." Beatrice says, abruptly turning to walk back to the hills.
"Come back Beatrice." Indy says tiredly.
"What? You want to keep going after that?" She demands. "Nuh un. Nope. No way. I know what I trap looks like, and I'm not walking into one. Not until we figure out what's going on."
"Beatrice…"
"Cheese and Crackers Jones! I'm tired! Okay! I'm trying really hard to stay out of trouble, but you can't keep making us march into to unwinnable fights like this! I can't keep doing this!"
Indy makes to retort but Peach silences him with a look. She crouches down slightly and looks Beatrice in the eyes.
"You don't have too. We'll do it together. We're all in this together."
Beatrice eyes shift to Indy and Lenny. Both men give her a curt nod.
"Sooner we get through this, sooner it's over." Indy says.
Beatrice sighs. "Let's keep moving then."
"Good idea." Indy says, with another unease look at the children.
The walk on down the street, Lenny bouncing the boy's ball as they go.
"I'm sorry about that." Beatrice says, puffing out her checks and speaking to some point on the ground several metres away. "You guys are good for putting up with me for so long."
Indy looks over his shoulder and gives her a faint, but reassuring smile. "Kid, you didn't make it this far by mistake."
Behind them they hear Amethyst's snort in indignation. Indy ignores her.
"You're not the only one that's made mistakes. We all have."
Peach laughs quietly.
"I remember when you waited to stay at Hogwarts Doctor Jones."
Indy shakes his head.
"Yeah… that was my bad. I didn't want to go home and fight the war."
"Was that why you wanted to stay?" Lenny asks. He chortles to himself. "I never thought of you as the draft dodging type Jones."
Indy chuckles weakly "I never thought I'd be one of the three last members of this team but here we are."
"I didn't any of us would make it this far." Beatrice admits. "I thought Rick and his buddies were gonna keep stomping all over us… Although I guess admittedly you were part of that Lenny."
"I was indeed." Lenny says proudly. "Though I've long outlasted the others. I cite the secret to my success in never making enemies, staying helpful and positive, and watching from the side as the most destructive people destroyed each other." He declares. "Essentially, I did just the same thing I did when Team Amazing was falling apart."
Indy pats both of his former teammates on the back.
"We've done good you two." He nods to the Princess. "Same to you your majesty. Your team would be proud."
Peach beams at him.
"Thank you." She says modestly.
They carry on through the suburbs, eventually as they get closer to the city the single-story houses end, replaced with Apartment buildings, all the same height, all the same colour. Adults shuffle out of them here or there, dressed identically in about the most boring business dress one could hope to imagine. Most of them marching along the same direction as the contestants.
"It's like a parade." Peach says quietly.
"Or like cows being led to slaughter." Lenny says chipperly.
The others shutter again.
"Sooner I never have to see these creepy people again the better." Beatrice says.
"Do you think we'll be able to rest once we leave?" Peach asks. Indy shrugs indifferently.
"Could be. Or we could end up somewhere worse."
Beatrice rolls her eyes. "I'm waiting for Conner to cave and finally send us to Hell."
"I could see it." Indy says unfazed "Maybe he'll get fancy, stick us in Inferno."
"That'd be fun." Beatrice says dryly. "Peach can be our Dante, you'll be Virgil, I'll be Beatrice."
"Beatrice Portinari doesn't show up until the end of Purgatorio." Indy notes.
"We're short on characters, and I'm named after her anyway."
"Are you?" Indy asks. Beatrice smiles.
"My folks liked the classics... I think. For whatever reason it's hard to remember things sometimes."
Peach and Indy exchange a look.
"Who would I be in our fantasy cast?" Lenny asks.
"You get turned into one of the demons." Indy says. "One of the friendlier ones."
"Like the farting one from Canto 21." Beatrice says.
"Brilliant!" Lenny cries. "Though of course, that implies I get left down there."
"Lenny I could see you doing well for yourself In Hell."
"Cheers Jones."
The archeologist smirks. "God only knows what Conner would have in store for us after that? Maybe another underworld. Hades, Naraka, Annwn, Patala…"
"Maybe he'll complete the set and send us to Purgatory and Heaven." Beatrice suggests.
Indy raises an eyebrow.
"You think Conner'd be that nice?"
"I mean ever since he got a hold of it my life's been one big Divine Comedy."
Both Indy and Lenny crack up. Laughing harder than they have in a long time.
Soon after the apartment end, and rows and rows of offices take their place. Big blocks of steel and glass, all of course, completely indistinguishable.
Some of there crowd breaks off from them disappearing into the buildings like bees returning to the hive.
Eventually the crowd wanes until it's slowly dispersed. The shared flow and energy of the mob is scattered as its members break away, until finally it's just the five contestants.
Then quite suddenly, they're there.
The road that's taken them all this way stops, and they're standing at the bass of the largest building in the city, half a kilometre tall and just as wide.
Directly in front of them across a small square, the building's entrance looms over them, two stores tall and made of a bronze like material.
"CENTRAL Central Intelligence" reads a sign above in it plain black Helvetica.
"Why do you supposed it's spelt twice?" Peach asks.
"It seems like an acronym." Indy says.
"Seems like an important place." Beatrice says.
"Should we just walk in?" Peach asks. "It doesn't much seem like the place for that."
"That's never stopped us before." Indy says.
He walks up to the door, it splits into three parts and slides into the walls.
They walk through the now open doorway. The cavernous entrance hall that greets them on the other side is, (As expected at this point) a very plain affair. Its walls and benches are made of a green tinted marble, but otherwise it's just as spartan as everything else they've seen so far on Camazotz. The fourth wall in particular is a completely blank face of stone. A few locals are seated on the benches. They look up at the contestants then look away disinterestedly.
The contestants glance around, there doesn't seem to be any other doors in sight other than the ones they just came through.
"Now what?" Beatrice asks.
Peach walks over to one of the locals. An utterly nondescript business man staring blankly at the wall opposite of him.
"Hello?" She says nervously.
The man stirs from his daze, he looks briefly at her then looks back at the wall.
"Hello." He says curtly.
"I don't mean to interrupt but could we trouble you to help us?"
"With what? You're not collecting, are you? I've already given my Decency Donations." He takes a better look at her, then spots her fellow contestants. His gaze grows skeptically.
"What unregulated uniforms you have. Are those properly sanctioned? Have then been committee approved? Do you have the papers in order for them? By the looks of them I'd scarcely believe so but for your own sake I hope I'm wrong."
"Oh… um….yes. I mean, no. See, we're travelers from far away here to see IT."
"Do you have an appointment?"
"No…"
"No one sees IT without an appointment." The man says sternly. "Not that you'd ever want too anyway. IT only concerns ITself with matters of utmost severity. So I've been told, I've never had to see them. Thank goodness."
"Could we perhaps then talk to your King or Princess then?" Peach asks.
The man's expression darkens further.
"Our what?"
"Whoever's in charge of this place, we want to talk to them." Indy says, butting in.
"You present your papers to the A machine." The man says scowling and pointing to the blank wall. "You should know that."
"We're not from here." Indy repeats.
"I don't care what distant corner of the planet you're from, you should be familiar with the standardized A machine data input processes."
"And what are those again?" Peach asks.
"You put your S papers in the B slot." The man explains with growing frustration. "What are the point of such ridiculous questions? Are you going to ask me next what colour the sky is? This is all woefully inefficient."
"Look pal…" Indy says tersely. "I just want to deal with IT so we can be out of this commie hellhole of community you've got here. So kindly give us directions and we'll be out of your hair."
"No one see's IT without an appointment." The man insists.
A thunderous noise draws their attention.
Amethyst's just sent a fist through the blank wall causing a good chunk of it to crumple down before her. The man's jaw pops open.
"There's your stupid door!" Amethyst snaps. "Now let's go!"
The others exchange an awkward glance, then follow after her.
Beyond the wall's another massive room, this one lined with what looks like old analog computing machines. Switch boards, and little blinking lights cover their grey surfaces. Several tenders come running. In their white robes, they're reminiscent of monks in their habit. Worshiping the cold logic of the machines instead of an all-loving god.
"What has happened here?" One squeaks at the contestants. His eyes bulging at the pile of debris behind them. "Did you five cause this aberration!?"
"Who cares? You've got a bigger problem over there." Amethyst says, slugging Lenny in the arm. He get's the message, and suddenly with a wave of his hand a computer a few rows down erupt into cacophony of stricken blurbs and screeching alarms. The tenders abandon them instantly, flying after the machine in a panic. The contestants continue forward, marching briskly along to the rhythm of whirling circuitry, and the clack of their heels on the linoleum floor.
As Amethyst storms along a way in front of them Peach gives her a sympathetic look.
"We should really try and work things out with her."
"Not it." Beatrice says quickly.
"Princess, you're normally good with this sort of things." Indy comments. "Talk to her if it's important to you."
Peach looks away. "I don't think I'm as good as you think I am."
"Peach, she's not Bob. She's a contestant. It'll be different."
"She is technically one of us." Beatrice admits reluctantly. "And I mean… She used to be okay to be around. I don't like how she used to treat Tomoko but apart from that she was fine. Or at least not this bad."
Peach takes a deep breath.
"You're both right. I'll step aside and have a word with her here before we meet-"
They hear another sharp crash ahead of them, then the distinct sound of an impatient gem.
"Can't you people keep up!? I thought you wanted to get through this!?"
"Seems she has other plans." Lenny notes unhelpfully.
The other three sigh.
The walk into a third room, and pauses briefly in surprise. The room's another high-ceilinged space like the marble foyer, but the similarities end there. Indeed, the place they've entered is quite unlike anything they've seen on Camazotz so far. They've entered a long hall warm and cosily decorated hall. Everything from it's lighting to the décor suggests coziness, intimacy, love. All the things the cold clinical façades they've seen so far have shut out.
At the end of hall, there's a raised platform with a handsomely carved chair. There, perched on it is perhaps the most jovial looking man they've ever seen. In truth, there's not much difference in his dress or appearance from most of the poor creatures they've encounter on this world. His forehead high, his suit black, his hair long and greying. Instead his uniqueness is in the way he carries himself. The confidences, the sincerity, the warmth in his eyes. Here before them is a person, unshackled by whatever chains are weighing on his countrymen.
"Ah…" He says softly. His voice as warm and kind as his expression. "So here are the guests my whole capital is besides itself over. How considerate of you all to join me."
"You're the one we have to speak to to get to IT?" Indy demands.
The man almost seems offended for a moment. "IT? My word aren't we impatient?"
"So would you if you'd seen half the things we have. Now take us to your master and we can be on our way."
"YEAH! Tell us where IT is our we'll beat it out of you!"
"Shut up Amethyst!"
The man laughs. "I can tell you've journeyed far to get to our harmonious little domain."
"Harmonious is that what you call it?" Indy asks.
"I know it seems strange to outside eyes but there is a rhythm to Camazotz I assure you. Here, everything is as it should be."
Indy frowns "Yeah I've seen your rhythm. I never gotten a row fill of kids to bounce a ball in time with each other, but I've been a teacher long enough to know there's no way of doing something like that without dark forces at place."
"You misread our intentions."
"I'm pretty sure I'm not. This place has some bad Thuggee vibes, and it seems like everyone's the Maharajah."
"No one get's your dumb history references Jones!" Amethyst heckles.
"I thought I told you to shut up Amethyst!"
"I got the reference." Lenny says, raising his hand politely.
"You must all be exhausted from your travels." The man says. "Let's get you some food and rest before we discus IT further shall we?"
"That's fine, we don't need your food." Beatrice says. The man waves his hand dismissively.
"I assure you, as your host I insists."
More white robed servants materialize out of doors surrounding them, bring with them a feast the likes of which none of them have seen in months. Roast birds and vegetables, mashed potato's, soups and sauces. After weeks of rations none of them can resist. All five of them stare at the offering hungrily.
"Dig it." The man says happily.
Indy gives him a skeptically look then turns to his companions.
"I don't like it." He says quietly.
"It could be poisoned." Beatrice's muses.
"It could, couldn't it?" Peach agrees.
Lenny turns to Amethyst. "Amethyst can gems die of poison?"
"Why don't you try it and find out." She snarls. Lenny shrugs.
"Fair enough. Well everyone, wish me luck. And If I die, continue my webcomic for me."
He sits down and begins eating. The others hovering over him.
"Well…?" Beatrice asks.
Lenny wipes his mouth with a napkin. "It's quite honestly the best food I've eaten all trip!" He exclaims. "And not a drop wrong with it."
Amethyst immediately grabs some of the feast, then walks over to another table and starts devouring it. Beatrice sits down next to Lenny and joins him.
Peach and Indy exchange a look.
"I've still got a bad feeling about this." The archeology mutters.
Peach seems conflicted.
"Perhaps…" She says slowly. "It's possible that this man is our friend after all?"
"We're in the middle of hostile territory and I'm supposed to believe we've just happened across some friendly old man wiling to share food and advice?"
"It's happened to me before."
"You're not at home Princess, thing's work differently."
"I mean in Rodney's House."
Indy sighs defeated and sits down with the other two Fact Hunters.
"Since we have a minute you might as well try talking some sense into Amethyst."
"Okay."
She walks off, finds some food then goes to sit near Amethyst. The gem sits up at moves to another table then moment she approaches. Peach follows her to the next table and Amethyst moves again. Indy watches their game of musical chairs for a while before turning back to the banquet.
"How is it?" He asks
"Can't talk, too busy eating." Beatrice says.
Indy rolls his eyes wearily then grabs a set of cutlery and cuts a serving for himself.
He's already on a second helping by the time Peach sits down next to them.
"Amethyst isn't cooperating." She mopes.
"Too bad." Lenny says distractedly.
"Don't worry about fixing her, if she's gonna get over this she'll do it herself." Beatrice insists through mouthfuls of food.
"But Mrs Whatsit-"
"You've done all you can alright? Now try some of this already. It's amazing."
"She's right princess, eat something." Indy urges her. "When's the last time you've had at meal?"
"A few days ago in Kyoto." She admits. As if on queue her stomach growls.
"It does look wonderful."
She leans over and sniff the feast appreciatively.
"And it smells lovely."
"Don't restrain yourself my guest, enjoy yourself." Their host insists. "You can worry about IT later, have some food for goodness sake, your poor people are skin and bones."
Peach finally relents. "Thank you, that's very kind."
The takes a plate and begins piling food onto it. She gives herself a set of utensils and pauses briefly at their beauty. Everything about the feast is clean and pretty compaired to her and her friends. All of them scarred, dirty and dressed in dark clothing.
A memory bubbles up from long ago. Of a much less experienced version of her fretting to Janna over a tear in her royal gown. Had that really been a few short months ago? It felt like a different life. She had had so much less to worry about back then. And when did her white magic leave her? Clearly it had but it had been so gradual she hadn't noticed it disappear. She hadn't worn her crown either lately. Not since Markus died and she had lost one of her lovely blue earrings in the fight against Bob. These days there was nothing about her that spoke of her life before the game beside some of her mannerisms. Without all the trappings from home she had become a creature like Indy or Markus. Just another person that could bleed and love and cry, just as much as they did.
reaches for a metal drinking cup. No sooner has she picked it up does she drop it again, with a loud gasp.
The girl in her reflection is staring up at her.
"Oh no, not again!"
"What's up?" Beatrice asks.
"Nothing!" Peach snaps. "I dropped my glass is all."
"Oh."
Beatrice turns back to her meal.
"I think I've missed good food." Indy admits, cutting free several sheets of roast beef and piling them on his plate.
"We've had good food." Lenny says. "It's one of the few real luxuries we've been fortunate enough to retain."
The girl's trying to get Peach's attention. She tries to block her out.
"We'd had outdated rations, candy and all that frozen processed crap from Springfield. That's not real food." Indy says. "Last time we had a real meal was in Cair Paravel in Narnia."
"Or Hogwarts." Beatrice says. She looks around. "You know this room kind of reminds me-"
"-Of the Great Hall?" Indy guess. "Yeah I see that too."
"Last time we had real beds was in Hogwarts too."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. I've done the math."
The girl staring at her urgently, miming something. Peach tries to focus on the chicken she's carving slices out of.
Beatrice sighs wistfully.
"The people there were real jerks, but I kinda of miss the old castle."
"I believe you were one of the jerks yourself." Lenny points out.
"True." She admits. "I really hope I'm not anymore. I mean you know… sorry again about earlier."
"Don't beat yourself up over it kid, that was a perfectly normal response to what happened." Indy insists. "If anything I should be thanking you for not freaking out us more often."
"I have practice." Beatrice says modestly. "The Unknown can be a freaky place."
"So was Tatooine or Aku's realm." Indy says. "I'm impressed how well you managed to put up with that."
Against her better judgement Peach looks.
Beatrice shrugs awkwardly as she slices herself some more turkey.
"I've definitely been repressing some stuff. It's probably gonna come bubbling out of me again at some point. Maybe once I'm back home I'll be waking up every night screaming and crying, but I think I can keep that stuff down until the game ends."
"So long as I actually get you home after this is over, I can live with that."
"Ah, you never know. There's still a slim chance we'll survive this. Us Fact Hunters are a tough bunch."
Indy grins.
"Your damn right."
The girl holds up a dinner plate, a pile of grey sand siting on it. Peach watches as she picks up a fork and knife.
"And us three are the toughest." Lenny adds.
Indy raises a glass.
"To the Fact Hunters." He says. "Most dysfunctional, and most successful team in the history of this game."
"I doubt that's true, but that doesn't mean I won't drink to it." Lenny says.
The girl cuts into it with them then raises a forkful of sand to her mouth. The princess watches her confused. Then it clicks so suddenly that she drops her cutlery like they were scalding her.
Lenny and Beatrice raise their cups.
"To the Fact Hunters!"
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Peach screams.
The three drop their cups.
"What's wrong?" Indy asks concerned. The princess is staring at them in horror.
"The food! It's not real!"
Beatrice and Lenny look shocked. Indy probes the roast with an index finger.
It deforms unnaturally with his touch. He grabs at the meat with his full hand, breaking off a chuck of it. He turns over his fist and opens it.
Grey sand falls from his palm.
Indy lets out a cry of alarm and sweeps the food to the floor. The others leap back horrified.
They can hear the old man click his tongue in this disproval.
"Such a shame. So much good food going to waste."
Their host has change has well, the whole room has. Nothing's physical different but all the warmth and coziness has been sucked out. The atmosphere of safety around them's been suddenly and jarringly shattered. As for the man himself, he still seems full of confidence. But it's not reassuring now.
"You son of bitch! You were trying to poison us!" Indy shouts.
"You couldn't be further from the truth if you tried."
There two other things they had neglected to notice about their host while they had been under his spell. The first was that his Iris were a bright glowing red, which was more than alarming. Though not nearly as much as the other thing they had missed, that their host never opened his mouth to speak. Rather it was clear now they were hearing him in their minds.
"In truth your meals were laced with chemicals yes. Namely essential vitamins, minerals, and other vital nutrients ideal for peak human health. What you were eating is synthetic standard quality high nutritious meal substitute. It is of the same make and composition that we feed our children. Indeed is the same thing everyone eats on Camazotz. Feel free to try it again, it won't have any taste now of course that you've become agitated. But I assure you if you sit back down calmly and believe it to be roast turkey then it will be."
"How dare you try and put us under a spell!" Peach accuses angrily.
"Let us not use such childish terms here shall we? I was able to altar your perception through mild conditioning, it wasn't difficult. The more emotional conflict, the more cracks in the façade I am able to whisper my pleasantries. Of course, it works much better if you look me in the eyes."
The four of them instantly look away from him.
"Take us to IT!" Indy demands.
The man laughs. It's a cold, cruel, joyless sound.
"Perhaps if you look at me and ask politely, I may consider it."
"Take. Us. To. IT." Indy repeats slowly.
"You have nothing to gain by refusing Doctor." The man insists. "I can take all your pain away. Shape you into your ideal forms, render you perfect."
"No thanks, I've seen some of your 'perfect' people. Doesn't look like something I'd want to be part of." Indy says. "Take us to IT."
"Our citizens are the finest anywhere, their lives are flawless works of efficiency. They could ask for no better."
"Then why are they so scared?" Peach asks.
"They are conditioned into viewing deviation from the daily routine as something to be avoided. Naturally."
"A kid going into a death shriek just because they dropped their ball isn't natural." Beatrice insists.
"That is correct, yes. But it's worth remembering that this is a yet fully developed individual we speak of. Given time their behavior will be corrected, and his programming will be fine tuned until they are incapable of being unproductive. Unless of course subsequent issues persist, such has illness or mental and emotional shortcomings in which case the faulty component will be liquidated and their guardians will be granted the paperwork approving of their commissioning of a replacement."
Indy laughs scornfully.
"So you kill kids that can't reform. Is that right?"
The two women look horrified. Their host frowns.
"I believe I've already discouraged such emotional and primitive language."
"You're a eugenicist!"
"You're blinded by chemically induced animal instinct and a consciousness corrupted by the illogical preaching's of an individualist world view. Guided by the will of IT Camazotz has reached its most prime state of being. Inexorably what IT has accomplished here is the logical conclusion to all collections of higher intelligences. Camazotz no longer has history for of what purpose is history but the pursuit of utopia, henceforth used to refer to a state of minimum entropy, and such a state is one we achieved generations ago.
What you've entered here is the shining capital of our planetary society, identical to all other settlements in all other regions and continents of this world, baring the necessary housing for IT in this case, and some basic deterrents against hostile weather patterns in others. Growth is regulated and communal. Each city has the same number of factories, of offices, of labourers and bureaucrats. Even our artisans are assigned and regulated. Each settlement has five poets, one musician, three traditional artists, and six sculptors. Just as many as are required to function. No resources are wasting on needless exploits. All of Camazotz operates thusly. From the regional to the single component."
"I'm surprised you'd allow art in such a place." Lenny says smiling, unaffected as usual but the terrible goings on around them.
"Some art was deemed necessary by IT for civilization to flourish. Sculptors and poetry when properly crafted prompt the release of positive chemicals through the human nervous system, leading to better productivity. For that is all a human and it's emotions are. Emotions. And easily manipulated one's at that.
Do not confuse our need for artwork as what you would refer to as culture. Our artisans create priorly designed and preapproved instruments of control. Control is key. Creation pursued through an individual viewpoint like all pursuits in such an ideology lead to deviation, which leads to fragmentation, which leads tribalism and disunity, so on and henceforth until what was once a single civilization has devolved into countless primitive factions, counterproductively wasting resources in conflict until reunification or extinction has resulted. Competition within a society leads to the unalignment of goals. Each citizen must be focused solely on their place in society. There is no envy or discrimination because everyone is equal, there is no curiosity because like culture and competition IT deemed it unnecessary. Slight comforts were however proven to be required for the higher mind to function, ergo the function mental conditioning you yourselves were affected by until moments ago and to a lesser extent the work of the artisans. All citizens are subject to such conditioning to improve morale, and the results speak for themselves. Through these means and constant teaching our citizens achieve the maximum level of satisfaction. No being can be as content in life as they are, and nothing brings them happiness like severing the state. And if they are judged to be a source of aberration then they will present themselves to IT for destruction, just as happily."
As the Man with the Red Eyes finished his speech none of the contestants speak. Beatrice is staring wide eyed at somewhere in the middle distance. Indy's slowly balling and unbaling his fist.
In ends up being Peach that finally breaks the silence.
"That is not how a leader is supposed to treat their subjects." She says firmly.
"It is the way IT is done."
"Then IT is wrong."
The man sighs impatiently.
"Denial is the most predictable of humanity's shortcomings, ergo why it was one of the first things outlawed by IT… Concordantly if your neural interfaces are so simplistic than the are still subject to such blunt aberrations than perhaps there is no choice but for you to meet with IT face to face."
"What gave you that idea?" Indy says shortly. The man's gaze harshens
"Rest assured this is concession you are going to regret. IT only concerns ITself with the most severe of rebellions direct as such deals with them with equal severity."
"It'll be five on one; we can handle ourselves." Beatrice boasts. Their host's lips curl slightly.
"I wouldn't be so sure."
They chance a half peek at their host, he seems to be gesturing to something. They look were he's point and find Amethyst, still ravenous devouring her way through the feast.
…
The strangely unsettling yellow lights of the elevator cast their light down on five placid contestants as it ascends. The man had told them where to go to meet his master and they had been on their way, that is after Amethyst had finally agreed to stop eating. She had refused to tell them whether she could still taste anything.
Now she stands, leaning against one of the walls, her arms folded. The others gathered on the opposite side of the small elevator, all eyes directed at her.
She scowls up at them.
"Quit staring."
"Amethyst please." Peach begs. "We have to do this has a group, Mrs Whatsit said-"
"Yeah, fine. I get it. Would you get off my case? I'm gonna help fight this IT thing… Just don't except us to be friends after. Because we're not."
"You think you're ready for this?" Indy says disapprovingly.
"I don't know. Are you?" She challenges him.
Indy shrugs plainly.
"We'll see."
Amethyst's nostril's flare.
"Guess so…"
The elevator opens reaches the surface. They step out finding themselves back outdoors behind CENTRAL Central.
Across a narrow road stands a vast dark windowless dome.
As they approach, they see its lit from below. As they get closer it becomes apparent that the dome itself is pulsating with a strange, organic purple light, and there an ominous droning that gets stronger with every step.
"Lenny is any of that electrical?" Indy asks. Lenny sticks his hand out and feels the air. He frowns.
"I don't know." He says confused.
"And when we go into it, that thing… IT will try to destroy us from the inside?" Peach asks. Indy shrugs.
"Seems to be the jest of it."
They stand there staring at the dome for a moment.
"What ever happens in there, I love you guys." Beatrice blurts out suddenly.
Lenny, Peach and Indy turn to her and she blushes scarlet.
"I mean… you know… as friends… That was really dumb. I shouldn't-"
Peach wordlessly walks over and embraces the girl. Lenny wraps his arms around the both of them. He beckons to Jones who joins them as well, if slightly stiffly.
They pull apart and nod to each other affirmatively.
"Together." Peach says.
They turn back to the dome.
"We should hold hands." Indy says.
Lenny laughs.
"I think we've finally made you turn soft Jones."
"The three Mrs held hands when they told us to work together." Indy explains.
"You think that's a clue?" Beatrice asks.
"I think I'd feel better if we tried it."
"I think I would too."
He takes her hand, and extends the other to Lenny. Beatrice gives her hand to Peach and the princess takes it. Lenny offers his to Amethyst and after a moments hesitation the gem grabs it.
They stand their in an unbroken line. Indy takes a deep breathe.
"Well… in we go."
They march up to the dome, a part of the base peels away from the ground like paper curling away from a flame and the walk in.
The wall closes behind them and their enveloped in darkness. All any of them can see is darkness. All any of them can feel is each other's hand, and the droning.
In here it's less of a sound and more a tangible force. It flows over them, pulsing like a heartbeat, creeping its way into their heads and through their bodies. Before they realise it, their hearts are pumping in rhythm with the pulse. Every breath they take in time with IT.
"Such weak minds…"
The voice comes from inside their heads. It's a blood curling, not harsh, but wrong, inhuman. Beatrice winces. Indy glares into the darkness and tries to reassert control over his breathing.
"SHOW YOURSELF!" He roars.
The drone pitches up and all at once and indistinct red light emerges from somewhere near the centre of the dome. It's impossible to say how far they are from it, as clinical smelling fog seems to have enveloped them while they were in the dark.
Everything around and within them gives a painful throb.
"I am IT…" The voice whispers. "And soon so to shall you."
Indy laughs a loud terribly forced laugh.
"Go ahead and try it! Our group has come from and seen the far distance corners of reality! We are soldiers, intellects, and sovereigns alike. We've bested fascists, tyrants, beasts, and demons in combat. We've outran the LSPD, journeyed the lengths of the Lands Beyond, conquered the infinite halls of the Rodney House, destroyed the factories of Robotnik, spoke down to the Falcon of Light, emerged campions in the Colosseum of Fools, tracked an Arthropleura across three dimensions in a single night, braved the trials of the Joker, sailed the uncharted seas east of Narnia, broken marauding armies of thieves at the gates of Atlantis, overthrew the great Jabba Desilijic Tiure in his throne room on Tatooine, slayed the worst criminal ever housed in the Springfield penitentiary in single combat, survived battle with the demon Aku, and managed to deal whatever the Hell was going on with NickEarth. As well as every over bout of exhaustion and trauma that damn bastard chaos god Conner O'Gleeson could think to throw at us! So go ahead and give us your worst pal! You don't know who you're dealing with!"
The others cheers, before their cut off by a screeching in their minds.
The hideous noise grows louder and louder, until all at once, it's gone.
"I know all you are."
The fog clears before them.
Some distant away a white robed figure floats in midair. It's features androgenous, it's hair and robes flowing like it's underwater.
"I know your deepest secrets…. I know your greatest desires… I know your darkest fears…. "
IT's face changes, IT becomes a blur of familiar faces, each of them sees it swim between the forms of those they know, until IT's too many things at once and becomes impossible to look at.
"I am armed by that which you bring to me… Submit and I will free you… Submit to me and I will grant your hearts desire… Submit to me and you'll live without pain… Resist and the suffering will destroy the very core of what you are…"
"DO YOUR WORST!" Indy shouts.
The droning returns and the figure blows away into dust. Wind begins howling inside the dome and everything churns around them.
Beatrice especially seems petrified.
"This will be Gotham but worse." She croaks.
"Don't make it's job easier Beatrice!" Indy shouts over the wind.
"Is that how you talk to all girls my age Doctor Jones?" Asks a feminine voice.
Beatrice and Lenny feel Indy's hands suddenly go clammy. A figure emerges from the fog. A teenaged girl with raven black hair. She smiles seductively at Indy as the archeologist looks like he wants to crawl out of his own skin.
"I was about her age in the beginning wasn't I Indy? What's the story again? I came on to you?" The figure laughs and looks at Beatrice. "I'd wouldn't be so trusting if I were you?"
"THAT'S HITTING BELOW THE BELT DON'T YOU THINK!?" Indy bellows into the dark.
"Who is she?" Peach asks.
"No one! It's just IT playing games!"
"Oh, but you used to play games with me didn't you Jones?" The girl smirks "I was ten years younger your mentor's daughter… but that never mattered!"
"I MADE UP WITH MARION RAVENWOOD!" Indy shouts at the creature. "I WAS YOUNG AND STUPID AND RECKLESS BUT WE GOT TOGETHER LATER AND HAD A HEALTHER RELATIONSHIP!"
"Until you left me at the altar…"
"Because I wasn't right for you-I MEAN HER!"
The girl sighs disappointedly.
"Face it Jones, you're just not very reliable…"
She dissolves into dust. A new figure emerges near Indy, a balding man with large spectacles, a white goatee and a tweed waistcoat.
"Your father was never there for you to depend on, now no one can depend on you…"
"I patched thing's up with dad too IT. You can't use him against me." Indy says irritably.
The old man paces around him, fazing through the other contestants so he can circle Jones like a shark.
"It's healthier to accept it Junior. I never taught you to work with others, and now the very concept's beyond your grasp. You never share credit, never want to compromise, never so much as want to help another human being until your wrestled into it. Not even when the fate of the worlds at stake."
"Dad wouldn't say that!"
"That doesn't mean the theory's discredited son…"
"Stop using him!"
"You know what you must do to make the pain stop…" IT whispers is its own voice.
"I'm not gonna serve you!"
The figure morphs again, now an American army commander in antiqued dress uniform is glaring Indy down. "You didn't seem keen to serve your country either did you?"
Indy stammers for a moment.
"That was a mistake…"
"Mistake!" Shrieks the corporal. "It was insubordination! You are part of the generation destine to save the very idea of a free and just world and what exactly did you do with that information!?"
"I ran…"
"YOU RAN AND HID IN THE FUTURE WITH YOUR TAIL BETWEEN YOUR LEGS!"
IT shifts again and too the other contestants great surprised it's Athena that appears next. Her pale eyes filled with fury
"COWARD!"
"I changed my mind, didn't I?" Indy counters. "Thinking I could stay in '96 was stupid but which is why got talked out of it! And yeah so sue me I've made a couple other mistakes! And I'm not the friendliest guy! And I don't always have the best ideas! So what!? I'm human it comes with the territory."
"I will make you better."
"Thanks but no thanks pal! I'd rather get there on my own! If I have keep fighting Nazis and Red ands god knows who else for the rest of the 20th century to keep the world safe then I'll be my damn honor! But right now, I chose to stay with this group! And I plan on keeping them safe as long as I can. Call me selfish all you want you big narcissist. I'm not abandoning these people!"
Athena shrieks and melts back into the fog which churns and writhes. Indy laughs.
"Guess he didn't like that."
"Nicely done Doc." Beatrice says watching the cloud nervously.
"Pfft. That was nothing." Amethyst mutters.
"Amethyst don't-" Peach begins
The gem rolls her eyes. "I'm just saying if that's all IT takes then IT's a pushover."
The churning mass above them shifts focus centering on Amethyst now. Several feminine faces appear in it's clouds.
"You're a runt!"
"Defective!"
"Weak!"
Amethyst laughs spitefully.
"Yeah nice try nidwIT, but we talk things out at home all the time, and worked out all that junk you're trying to hit me with! So Ima make this short so you can work the others. I'm okay with who I am, and that's not changing soon. And no, just because I'm super miffed at these losers doesn't mean I'm gonna abandon them to the likes of YOU!"
The cloud lashes violently. The shrieking's back. Now a long sharp noise of pain before it dissipates once more.
"Boom! It's that easy nerds!" Amethyst boasts.
"Just stay focused and we'll get through this." Indy says.
"There's the spirit everyone." Lenny says.
A form descends from the cloud like ink sinking into water, it begins amassing directly ahead of Lenny.
"Oh look at that. It appears I'm next." He says amused.
"You got this Lenny!" Beatrice urges. "Be our rock!"
The form slowly rises, becoming solid. The figure of a man emerges from it. He's middled aged, bald and bespectacled, with a greying goatee, black baseball cap, black blazer, red tie and blue jeans. He steps towards the gem, leering sinisterly.
"Hello Lenny." He says in a high nasally voice.
Lenny erupts into a full blown belly laugh.
"Oh for pities' sake. As I had to explain to the Joker, unlike most people I'm not traumatize by my time with Team Amazing I don't regret staying, Am I'm not certainly not scared of the Armchair Critic… again unlike most people."
The critic figure grins, a sideways expression of narrow eggnog-coloured teeth.
"Ah come on Lenny I just want to tell you how great IT is."
"I'll afraid I'll have to pass."
"Listen Lenny. This is a golden opportunity you're passing up."
"I mean… Is it though?"
"This is eternal happiness we're talking about. Eternal satisfaction. You think you've got things good? Bullshit! You don't know what you're missing." He gives Lenny a awestruck look. "Anything you want, your wildest dreams! Everything you thought possible, and everything you thought impossible. Just give in and they'll be yours."
"Bloody Hell Dave what more could you give me? I'm already immortal aren't I? I never need to sleep, I never need to eat, I'm friends with Princess Peach and Indiana Jones, I've been to Hogwarts, Gotham, Narnia, Mos Eisley and just about everywhere in between. And you expect me give that all up and to live in a dystopia filled with screaming children and sand to eat?"
The critic blinks innocently.
"You chose me over your friends the first time."
"You're not the Critic IT." Lenny tells the figure politely. "I'm sincerely sorry, but I'm afraid there's nothing you have that interests me. Much as I seem detached at times, I don't think I'm ready to abandon these friends of mine."
The figure spasms and convulsed. Black oily clouds billow out of its mouth and eyes as it's body dissolves like melting film reels, and ascends back into the cloud above them.
"Amethyst is right, IT is a push over." Lenny chuckles over a renewed bout of screeching from the room.
"Easy for you to say." Beatrice says weakly. The girl looking more fearful by the minute. Peach gives her hand a squeeze.
"We'll be alright."
"Best of luck ladies!"
"Thank you, Lenny." Peach calls.
The screeching stops. IT's returns to it's first form. It stares at Peach with its blank eyes. It's face nearly human, but not quite. Everything's too perfect to be true.
She meets IT's gaze defiantly.
"Go on, I'm ready. Change form into Bowser or someone. Say call me some pitiable little princess. Or that I'm weak, or stupid, that the whole world thinks I'm worthless." She laughs far more convincingly that Indy did. "Maybe the Peach of several months ago would be terribly affected, but I've heard it all by now. I know the world outside my kingdom's crueler than I hoped, but I don't care. I won't be bullied or slandered or fooled any longer. I'm happy with who I am, as are my friends and subject, which is enough for me. So good ahead and start whispering horrible things at me. There's nothing you could say that'd affect me now."
IT twitches and spasms. IT opens its mouth in a silently scream. The droning returns, intense and vivid. Rattling her brain.
They all at once, the room's plunged into darkness.
When the lights returned, IT and her friends have vanished.
Peach blinks in surprise and looks around wildly.
"What?"
"Keep your voice down. IT'll hear you."
The girl from the mirror walks into view. Peach gasps.
"How…?"
The girl taps her head. "We're in your head."
Peach makes a startled remark the girl cuts her off.
"We don't have a ton of time. I can't be subtle for once, We have to talk face to face."
"I still don't even know who you are…" Peach stammers… "I don't know you're name, I don't know why do you live in my reflection? Or why you helped me earlier. Or-"
"Anything?" The girl guesses. Peach nods. The girl shifts her weight guiltily. A rueful look in her brown eyes.
"It's complicated…" She insists. "I really… I mean I owed it to you to tell you sooner but I didn't and- look, it doesn't matter. I can tell you everything now."
Peach's eyes widen with interest. "Truly?"
"Everything." The girl insists. "Not just about me, I can tell you everything Conner's been hiding from you. You're culture, your history."
"My family?" Peach asks quietly. The girl smiles.
"I can give it all back to you, all you have to do it's trust me."
She extends her hand. Peach smiles tearfully. Then her face twitches. She closes her eyes and sighs
"Peach?" The girl asks.
"Don't…" She mumbles.
"What?"
Peach's eyes spring open, brown instead of their usual blue. The very same tone of brown as the other girl's.
"DON'T USE ME AGAINST HER!" She roars in a voice unlike her own. The girl looks mortified for a moment, before giving Peach a hateful look.
Peach blinks and her eyes shift back to blue. She seemly notices the girl's expression and looks taken aback.
"What's the matter?"
"Don't act dumb with me!" The girl snaps. "I offer you the chance to have everything explained and you throw it back at me!?"
Peach looks alarmed. "I didn't-"
The girl laughs scornfully. "What? You're telling me you're actually that stupid? God what a pathetic little bimbo you are, no wonder the internet think's you're a slut."
"I don't under stand I-" Her eyes go wide and she stares at the girl, who keeps on talking obviously.
"Look you're nothing without what Conner took from you, got that? Just do what I say and maybe someone we'll finally take you seriously-"
"That's far enough!" Peach says firmly. "You horrible thing. That was a very clever trick but I'm afraid it won't be enough!"
The girl contorts into a nightmarish figure.
"YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A STUPID WORTHLESS GIRL, FROM A STUPID LITTLE KINGDOM!"
"I may not know everything about myself, but I know a great deal more about myself and my beloved Mushroom Kingdom than a fowl tyrant like you! I've seen how your treat your subjects. You're a disgrace to the very idea of leadership, and you should be banished to some far away pit so that no one may ever be harmed by you again. I won't abandon my toads to become your slave, and I certainly wouldn't dream of abandoning my friends in their time of need. Now go!"
The other contestants watch Peach as she struggles. Her eyes black, void. Suddenly a cloud of black smoke emerges from her mouth and retreats into the sky, the princess is left shaking, drenched in sweat.
"Peach!" The others cry.
"Are you okay? Did you give it?" Beatrice asks frantically.
"No…" Peach says unsteadily. "What happened?"
"IT flew into you and your eyes went black."
Peach exhales deeply. "IT was clever. IT almost had me."
"But you fought it off?"
"Yes, and you will too! I believe in Beatrice!"
The clouds churn again, growing darker by the moment. Beatrice knees begin trembling.
"You're tough kid! You'll get through this!" Indy encourages, shouting over the gathering wind.
"Whatever happens we're right here!" Peach calls.
"Such kind words… Such cruel lies…." Thunders IT from above.
"Don't listen do it! Remember that Beatrice! Don't believe anything!" Peach cries.
"They hide behind smiling faces but we know how they truly feel…"
"What's that?" Beatrice croaks, trying and failing to sound cocky.
"…You don't belong here…" Whispers the voice.
"Not true!" Indy and Peach call over the wind. Though she's still holding their hands they sound quite distant.
A new figure emerges from the fog. It's another Peach, this one still perfect, her dress and hair immaculate. Her beauty casting a faint glow through the fog. She sashays towards Beatrice, smiling viciously.
"I may be too polite to say it, but think we both know deep down how I really feel don't we?" She purrs, flipping her golden locks with effortless grace.
"…All that business at Hogwarts? You trying to eclipse me? Did you think ever really forgive you? Did you think it was ever truly going to work?"
Real Peach is screaming something at her but Beatrice can't hear at all now. She just comes across as an indistinct echo. Beatrice stares at her doppelganger weakly.
"I don't believe you…"
The fake Peach laughs haughtily and sneers a Beatrice.
"Ever minute I have to look at you it makes me sick."
Another figure forms. Indy's back in his adventures jacket, looking impossible heroic.
"We're some of the best there is kid. Everything from Princesses to modern Parsevals. You think you have a right to be here?"
"The real you said I did."
Amethyst appears, both beautiful and savage.
"You haven't earnt this Beatrice! You know that because I've said it straight to your face."
Athena appears again.
"What makes you think you deserve to outlast me!?" She thunders.
Tomoko rises from the fog. Face full of fury.
"I had more to prove!"
Bentley appears to right.
"You should have made the sacrifice."
Markus materialises to her left, stomach wound dripping blood into the fog.
"You're the one that should have died!"
"No…" Beatrice whispers.
All the former contestants have appeared around her, screaming hatred at her. She cries and tries to jam her hands over her ear but the real Indy and Peach won't let them go. If they're offering her any comfort now then it's cold. IT's blocked everyone else out.
The crowd grows larger and larger, it's ranks flushed by more and more familiar faces. She recognizes her old Slytherin gang, people from the Unknown, even her own family hurling insults at here.
"Miserable little brat!"
"Go home!"
"Give up!"
"Go back to where you came from!"
"Leave these nice people alone!"
"Shut up! They don't think that!" Beatrice shouts.
"That's a lie and you know it you little bitch."
Rick Sanchez looms otherworldly large over the crowd. He has the billowing rooms and halo of an angel, and the expression of a demon. He cackles sadistically.
She falls to her knees. Indy and Peach still holding her hands, still screaming something inaudibly She can barely even see them now, they've half faded into the darkness.
"You really think death could save you from me?" He snarls. "I take a dirt nap and suddenly you think your hot shit. But I always knew the truth didn't I Beatrice? You're a fucking pathetic piece of shit, and the whole god damn world would have been better if you were never born!"
"THAT'S A LIE!" She cries.
She looks up. Rick's growing antlers from his forehead. His eyes glowing white.
"You think you've earnt the right to be here bitch! You've hurt every one you've ever known!"
"Not everyone." She protests. The crowd rages at here again, she screams and shuts her eyes.
"STOP!"
"You know how to make it stop child."
She opens her eyes. Rick's transformed into a black silhouetted bestial form, with tree branches growing from it's head.
"You've committed a great number of sins, but there's an easy way to atone."
Beatrice struggles to control her breathing, Tree stems are weaving around her legs.
"Don't bother these fine folks any longer. Stay here in this purgatory with me, and we'll learn to repent together."
"No…I…"
"Join us Beatrice. Make everyone happy. This is the fate you deserve."
"Beatrice?"
Distantly another voice cuts through the darkness, however far away.
"Beatrice… please… don't go."
She stands up and looks around. Someone squeezes her hand.
"Focus on us kid, we're getting through this together remember?" Comes another voice.
"Ignore them." The beast commands.
Beatrice takes a deep breath.
"No."
"Time is of the essence."
"I have a question." Beatrice says more confidently. "How would abandoning everyone make things better? If I'm as bad as you say I am, couldn't I try and fix things."
"You can't fix your mistakes."
"Then why would I join you?"
"It's the only way. Your sins are too great."
"Lies!" Cries one of the distance voices. Beatrice smiles.
"Your wrong." She tells the Beast. "I've got people who believe in me."
False Peach steps forward glaring at her.
"Lies…" She hisses.
"Enough!" Comes one of the voices. As Beatrice focus on it becomes clearer, more tangible.
"You vile creature! Leave her alone!"
She looks over at the real Peach, then to Indy, and behind him Lenny and Amethyst. Beatrice smiles and turns to back to the Beast glaring at it.
"Listen…" She tells the creature. "I think I'm with Indy on this. I'm not perfect, but I'm working on being better. And I don't think giving into to a creepy space monsters going to help that."
"I speak the truth." The beast insists. The winds are gathering, it looks weak.
"You're biased." She accuses. "I'll believe these guys over you anyway. I may not have deserved being forgiven, but they did anyway! And you better believe I'm not gonna abandon them for-"
"I mean I don't forgive you." Amethyst buts in suddenly.
"AMETHYST!" Indy and Peach shout.
"Oh right, I forgot. My feelings don't matter."
"NOT THE TIME KID!" Indy bellows.
"I'M NOT A KID!" Amethyst screams.
She's breathing hard all of a sudden. Tempered frustration is boiling over again.
The beast dissolves into the gathering wind. The wind gathering now around Amethyst.
"Amethyst you promised…" Peach whimpers fearfully.
"I said I'd work with you, I didn't say I'd be friends did I you two faced rat!"
"Leave her alone!" Indy growls. He turns to the two ladies. "We shouldn't have brought her inside."
"Oh! Now you don't want me here!?" Amethyst accuses. "Guess all that lovely dovely teamwork stuff doesn't include me!"
"The are disharmonious. They are treasonous." Whispers IT through the wind.
"Right?" Amethyst agrees.
"Amethyst… just keep it together for a little longer." Indy says through gritted teeth.
"Hey I'm sorry but either you want us to all be perfect friends against this thing, or be honest about ourselves. 'cause like… if we're being honest right now, I hate all your guts!"
"Even me?" Lenny asks.
"Yeah, you too traitor!"
Her breath hastens. Lenny still got her by the hand but she's turned to face the others.
"This wasn't supposed to go this way! I was supposed to lead the team! We were supposed to get to the Finale together."
"They used you. They fooled you. They trampled you to succeed."
"Amethyst let's just get through this!" Beatrice begs.
"WHY!? SO YOU CAN ELIMINATE ME!?" Amethyst counters. "So you can finnaly be rid of us Shorties for good!?"
"It's not like that." Indy shouts.
"Lies…"
"Don't 'It's not like that' me!" Amethyst seethes. "You Fact Hunters have always been out to get us!"
"Since when!?" Beatrice demands.
"Since, like forever!" Amethyst insists. "We lost half our team to Rick and stupid cheating gun of his! Would have lost 'em all If I hadn't formed my alliance! And you!"
She jabs an accusatory finger at Peach.
"There was three Fact Hunters and Two Flower Girls when Athena left, All we had to do was team up and they'd be out of here, but noooo. Little goody two shoes had to go and curl up to the enemy."
"That was months ago!" Peach exclaims. "Things are different now! We-"
"Yeah, blah, blah blah! We all have to work together to listen to each other now! That's my point! YOU DON'T LISTEN TO ME!"
"They are beneath you…"
Indy looks up at the wind nervously.
"Amethyst…"
"I'm not finished."
"Amethyst you need to hear this."
"NO! You're gonna hear what I have to say for once Jones! For all you talk of being a team, you've always treated be different! Everyone comforted Peach when we lost Markus, but when we lost Yao you all told me to suck it up!"
"I told Peach to suck it up after Markus died!" Indy says.
"…And you didn't tell me anything when Bentley wanted to quit! Just didn't think my opinion was important did you!?"
"We've made mistakes Amethyst." Peach admits. "But we've tried to help. I tried to talk to you!"
"Too little too late!" Amethyst snaps.
The clouds above flash hungrily.
"Cast out the deceivers…" Urges IT. "Exposed those that have fooled you…"
"Tell me you're not hearing that!?" Indy shouts furiously.
"Yeah, I'm hearing IT alright." Amethyst says with a tone of dark amusement. "What's wrong with that?"
"IT's using you!" Indy and the girls cry desperately.
"Amethyst please!" Peach begs. "Listen to what it's saying."
"I have." Amethyst says. "IT's been making some good points. And you four have been brushing them off."
"Amethyst we have to beat this thing." Lenny reminds her gingerly.
"Why do you can eliminate me?"
She smirks grimly. She looks up to the cloud.
"You said you could give us anything right?"
"Your greatest desires…" Assures IT.
"She's gonna get us killed." Beatrice says weakly.
"DON'T TRY IT AMETHYST!" Indy bellows.
"Tell me I make to the finale!" Amethyst demands. "Promise me I'll get the prize money me and my team have earned!"
"No!"
Amethyst grins.
"HEY IT! I'VE CHANGED MY MIND!"
"In my arms I shall make you perfect…"
"Might I suggest not doing that?" Lenny says. The other three look to be on the verge of panic attacks.
"Amethyst please…" Peach repeats. "Don't do this."
"You did this to yourself Peachy." Amethyst says quietly.
She sneers up at the clouds.
"YOU WANT TO KNOW MY WISH!? I WANT THESE FOUR TO STOP ACTING BETTER THAN ME!
"Amethyst!"
"I WANT TO BE OUT OF YOUR CRUMMY COLONY!"
"AMETHYST NO!"
"AND I WANT EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING TO LEAVE ME ALONE!"
She rips her hand away from Lenny's.
There's a terrible noise, and terrible light….
Then everything's still.
Terribly, horribly, still.