Chapter 10: Cracks in the Mask
All Emilia could see was darkness. Which made sense, she was asleep.
But she was not alone in that darkness.
There was someone else there, someone… singing?
"It's so beautiful today… Running down the avenue… sunshine… pity…"
As she opened her eyes, she saw that Subaru and Patches were in her room.
Again.
At least the song was somewhat pleasant to hear them sing.
"Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why, you had to hide away for so long, so long… Where did we go wrong?" Subaru sang, his voice becoming clear in Emilia's ears.
"Hey, you with the pretty face! Welcome to the human race! A celebration, Mr. Blue Sky's up there waitin', and today is the day we've waited for!" Patches continued the lyrics… though he did skip a few.
Getting her head up, Emilia asked, "Is that a song?"
Turning around, Subaru smiled. "Oh, good morning, Emilia!"
"Good morning, Subaru."
"It seems that the song successfully woke her up," Patches smiled.
Emilia just gave Patches a deadpanned look. "... Seriously?"
"Would you have preferred I sang Break Stuff like I did last time?" Subaru asked.
"Can you please stop singing to wake me up?" she asked, slightly groaning.
"Alright, next time, we'll mimic the sounds of an alarm clock!" Patches said.
Subaru gave a sharp inhale at that. "Nah, that's too brutal for her."
Patches bummed a bit. "Hmm… how about the daily news?"
"Or maybe you could let me wake myself up?" Emilia attempted to suggest…
"I dunno, I kinda liked it…" Erik said, walking into the room, yawning.
Aela walked up next to Erik. "Alright, everyone get ready. We'll be leaving in thirty minutes."
"Ah, jolly good!" Siegmeyer said, putting on his onion helmet.
Thirty minutes later, the group is ready to go and head out to the required destination.
"So, how far from there are we?" Solaire asked, as they began the hike.
"We should be there within a few minutes." Aela told the group.
So, a few minutes to either walk in silence or to do something fun.
"Hey, Aela… wanna play I Spy?" Subaru asked, with a grin.
Aela continued to look forward. "Games are a distraction. While hunting, a distraction can make the difference between life and death, whether you're the hunter or the prey."
"Buzzkill," Patches muttered under his breath.
Aela still did not turn around. "Call it whatever you want, I call it "Continuing the hunt"."
"Your dedication is admirable," the bucket-helmeted knight said.
"It must be. I've dedicated my life to hunting, preparing myself for Hircine."
Upon hearing that name, Erik's ears perked up. "Hircine? That name sounds familiar…"
"The Daedric Prince of the Hunt." Aela explained. "He is the one that granted a select few individuals the ability to obtain a beastial form, like myself."
"So, he's your patron god?" Siegmeyer asked.
Aela shrugged. "You could say that."
"Cool, cool…" Erik mumbled, totally not jealous.
Aela finally turned around to look at the youngest of the group. "So, Erik. You wished to join our guild?"
Erik's eyes lit up as Aela spoke to him. "Uh, yeah! I always wanted to, but… I never had the chance."
"If you are to be a Companion, you need to be unwavering in your focus, and true to your strengths."
Erik stared at the woman, confused. "My strengths?"
"Everyone has something they specialize in, and no one is suited for all tasks," the ginger-haired woman explained. "You must find what you specialize in, and put training and practice into it. Never stop improving, and always strive to do better than yesterday."
"So, you gotta be a master of one instead of a jack of all trades," Subaru realized.
"If you desire to master everything you can, that is your choice. Personally, it never appealed to me. All that mattered to me was increasing my capabilities as a warrior, to be the ultimate hunter." Aela said, while looking at her hand.
Patches gave the werewolf a funny look. "Okaaay… why?"
Aela looked to the side a bit. "I've pondered that question quite a few times. A simple answer would be an unquenchable thirst for improvement, but I guess I also want to be like the Dragon Butcher."
That confused many of the non-Gustekan people. Emilia ended up asking, "I'm sorry, the who?"
"Ah, right. I forget that he isn't called that in other countries." Aela gave a little chuckle. "I'm referring to Reid Astrea, the first Sword Saint. He actually came to Gusteko during the Dragon War over three hundred years ago, after the time of the Great Calamity, and had the highest kill count of dragons ever to be recorded."
"That somewhat reminds me of Lord Gwyn, in that regard," Solaire said.
"Oh, so that's where Reid went for his "Summer Vacation"," Subaru said, now finally realizing what his old friend meant.
Everyone, sans Patches, stared at Subaru.
Aela stared at Subaru in shock. "You... knew Reid?"
Subaru nodded. "Oh, yeah. Kind of a dick, but he was a friend nonetheless."
Emilia was surprised at what he said. "Really?"
"Really. I honestly preferred Theresia when it came to the line of Sword Saints."
"She was the last Sword Saint before the current one, right?" Patches clarified.
"Yeah, I fought against her during the Demi-Human War. A worthy opponent."
"I see... I will have to ask about your encounters with the line of Sword Saints later. It would seem we have arrived." Aela said, gaining the attention of the others.
Looking up front, the party could see the mouth of the cave. It wasn't oppressively dark, but still big enough to hide plenty of danger. Enough for everyone to have their guards up.
"This is the place?" Siegmeyer asked.
Aela smelled the surrounding area, and nodded. "Yeah, this is it."
"We'll follow your lead," Erik said, as the group proceeded inside.
The group snuck into the cave with Aela in the lead, where they eventually came upon the individuals Aela mentioned, three of them in total.
The trio appeared to be guarding the rest of the area, while the adventurers hid behind one of the cave walls, keeping their voices low, as they figured out a plan.
Or, well, one of them did.
"Patches, wanna do your thing?" Subaru whispered to his bald friend.
Patches' eyes immediately lit up. "You mean... that thing?"
Subaru gave him a wild smile. "Go wild, buddy."
Patches, his face completely giddy, disappeared from view, before reappearing in front of the men, who immediately took notice of his presence.
"What the hell?!"
"Who the hell are you?!"
Instead of answering, Patches just started performing a weird dance where he swung his arms from side to side and clapped his hands.
The legendary, Subaru-patented, Distraction Dance™.
Aela stared at the sight in utter confusion. "What. The. Hell."
"What am I… looking at?" Emilia asked, utterly perplexed.
"I don't know... and I don't know if I love it or hate it." Erik felt his eye twitching as he continued to watch.
Subaru, Solaire, and Seigmeyer, meanwhile, thought it was the funniest shit they had ever seen, right next to that guy who once turned himself into a pickle, and were doing their best not to either get caught laughing by the guards, or dying from laughter themselves.
Eventually, as if hypnotized, the men were beginning to dance as well, against their will.
"What is happening?!"
"I can't stop!"
"It's actually kind of fun."
Eventually, Patches kept dancing, luring the men to follow him, only to eventually lead them off one of the various steep cliffs within the cave, and to their deaths.
"AAAAAAA–"
SPLAT!
Meanwhile, while Emilia, Erik, and Aela were trying to process what they saw, Subaru and the others had enough and burst out loud, quite literally almost dying of laughter.
"""AHAHAHAHAHAH!"""
"Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week!" Patches bowed.
"Okay! What was that!?" Emilia nearly screamed in confusion.
Subaru managed to stop laughing enough as he explained. "It's called "the Distraction Dance."
"If you can successfully pull it off, it forces others around you to start dancing as well. I had spent the last four hundred years perfecting that dance after Subaru showed me how to do it." Patches further explained what it does.
"Is there magic being used with it?" Erik asked.
Patches shook his head. "Nope, just a hypnotic suggestion."
"Hypnotic suggestion?" Emilia repeated the unfamiliar words.
"When you see someone doing the dance, it affects the area of the brain that allows you to move, and it subconsciously forces others to start dancing as well. I've perfected it to the point where I can choose who it affects and who it doesn't," the bald Undead said.
"Let me see if I understand this correctly… it's not magic, and not a Divine Protection… just… the way you do it somehow convinces others to do it?" Solaire asked, still trying to comprehend how that was possible.
"Pretty much," Patches said, giving a thumbs-up. "Although it only works on humans and Undead. Demi-humans and other sentient creatures' brains are kinda different."
"What? Why?" Siegmeyer asked.
Patches just shrugged in response. "Hey, I don't make the rules."
Aela finally recovered from what she just witnessed. "Can we just… pretend this didn't happen, and move on with our mission?"
Patches gave another thumbs up. "Sure thing!"
After… Whatever that was, the party kept moving forward, deeper into the cave.
Aela held out her hand as she sniffed the air. "We're getting close. I'm picking up six different scents."
"What kind of scents?" Subaru asked, his voice low.
"Five normal humans, one Undead," the werewolf answered.
"How close to one another are they?" Siegmeyer asked. "Perhaps we can rush them."
"I can't determine their exact positions, but they don't seem to be that far apart."
"Guess we gotta zerg rush them," the Japanese man sighed.
Aela turned to the Japanese undead. "Subaru, you specialize in Yin Magic, correct?"
"Uh, yeah," the nasty-eyed Undead answered. "Why?"
"Am I correct in assuming that the Shamak spell only affects sight?" Aela asked again.
"Uh, no. It also affects sound, and in some cases, even your sense of touch."
"Good enough. If you can, fill the room with a Shamak, and I'll rush in and tear them apart."
Subaru nodded, and left the group, walking past them and into the room full of villains, before shouting out "UL SHAMAK!"
The invocation resulted in the room being filled with black smoke, causing everyone inside to panic.
Transforming into her werewolf form, Aela rushed forward, using her sense of smell to guide her and slash open the normal humans apart, leaving the Undead left.
With that, the smoke cleared, revealing several dismembered bodies.
"Brrr!" Subaru shivered at the cold. "Still not used to it."
Once the Ul Shamak spell cleared up, Aela was seen holding down the Undead, who didn't seem to be a warrior.
"Get your hands off me, you filthy mutt!" the nameless Undead shouted.
"Hey, don't call her that!" Erik shouted back, clearly offended.
"And what are you going to do? Kill me?" The Undead gave a sarcastic response.
"No, but we can still hurt you," Patches said, giving him a creepy smile.
"Look, I don't know what you want, but it doesn't concern you! I just want what's mine back, and I'll be on my way!"
Siegmeyer's onion helmet tilted, indicating confusion. "What's yours?"
"My wife! She left home for some reason, and I learned she was here. I hired some guys to help me get her back, and we can go home!"
Subaru turned towards the ginger woman. "Yo, Aela. Is he talking about…?"
Aela turned back to human as she answered. "Your "wife" came to us for help, saying that you intended to take her back against her will, and that she left to get away from you. She told me that you abused her everyday, that no matter what she did you would always blame her for every little bad thing that happened."
Everyone was silent at what they heard, horrified.
All but Subaru, who let out a small "What?"
Aela explained further. "She said he treated her like a trophy rather than a person, something for him to flaunt and "use" however he wished. Worst of all, she didn't have a choice in marrying this piece of human trash. It was an arranged marriage."
The Undead tried to explain himself. "No, wait! I —"
"AAAHHH!"
WHAM!
The man tried to deny it, but before he could even finish his sentence, Subaru jumped him, and proceeded to beat him senseless, with madness in his eyes.
"YOU! FUCKING! PATHETIC! PIECE! OF HUMAN! SHIT! SHE'S A FUCKING PERSON! NOT YOUR GLORIFIED DOLL FOR YOU TO FUCK WITH UNTIL YOU GET BORED OF HER!"
WHAM! SMACK! CRACK!
"SUBARU!" Emilia screamed, horrified.
"WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!" Siegmeyer shouted.
"STOP!" Solaire shouted, trying to pull Subaru off.
But Subaru kept beating the man.
"YOU HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL! YOU HAD SOMETHING PEOPLE SPEND THEIR WHOLE LIVE LOOKING FOR! AND YOU THREW IT ALL AWAY FOR SOMETHING AS FUCKING STUPID AS YOUR FUCKING EGO!" Subaru yelled, beating the man.
SLAM! BAM! SMASH!
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Erik said, trying to pry Subaru off the man.
"This again, Flugel?" Patches asked, with no one hearing.
SMASH! BASH! CRA–
GRAB!
Before Subaru could continue his beatdown, Aela caught his wrist, letting him know to stop.
"I understand your anger, Subaru. I assure you he will be punished, but if you kill him it would be a hollow victory, as he would resurrect, escape, and try again." Aela said, an understanding look clear in her eyes.
"Mmm… fine," Subaru said, but not before grabbing the man's collar, and pulling him up to meet his evil-looking eyes. "But let me make this very clear, scum: This is entirely your fault. You brought this upon yourself, and you have no one to blame but yourself."
WHACK!
Before the undead could respond, Aela punched him in the head, knocking him out.
"Emilia, freeze his hands and feet so he can't escape." Aela commanded.
"R-r-right," Emilia said, still shaken by what she just witnessed.
The group begin to head back, with Aela dragging the undead back herself. Subaru had not said a single word since leaving the cave.
Erik decided to break the ice. "So… are we just gonna ignore that…?"
Subaru did not look back. "What's there to ignore? He got what he deserved."
Siegmeyer shook his head. "He wasn't referring to the criminal scum, Subaru."
"Subaru, we're all angry about what that man did to his wife, but…" Emilia tried to finish her sentence.
Solaire did not hesitate to continue it. "We're also concerned about you."
Subaru still did not look back. "It's nothing to concern yourself with."
"I don't know, I am somewhat concerned that you… acted the way you did… even if it was totally justified…" Erik wanted to continue, but he was cut off.
"So? I'm not allowed to beat the shit out of someone who abused his own wife? Who drove her away from something she wanted nothing to be a part of?"
"We're not saying that!" Emilia said, waving her hands around. "We're just saying that it might have been a tad bit excessive, and we're worried about you…"
"And I'm sure she would hate seeing you like this," Patches added.
Solaire took notice of that. "She?"
"It's not important!" Subaru snapped at them.
"Alright, we'll drop it!" Erik said, his arms in the surrender position.
Subaru grunted, as he kept walking, far away from everyone else.
The rest of the trip back to Whiterun was silent. While the group went back to the Companions' base, Aela took the undead to the Whiterun guard, while Subaru stayed outside for "fresh air".
"Hey… wanna talk?" Patches asked, as he approached from behind.
Subaru said nothing, but Patches sat down anyway.
"You don't have to say anything, if you don't want to. I'll still be here."
Subaru let out a deep sigh, and then said, "I don't know what I'm doing."
"It seems to me that you're sulking," the bald Undead said.
"Not that... I mean, I don't know how to save her. There's no known way to remove the Witch Factor without... you know... and even if I were even remotely willing to resort to that, that's impossible so long as she has it."
Patches merely gave Subaru a certain look. "So after four hundred years of dicking around the world, you finally confront the problem, just like that?"
The black-haired Undead sighed, scratching at his head. "I thought... I thought if I could gain the other Authorities, I could manifest one, just one, that would allow me to remove Envy from her... but I've had so little luck tracking Pandora's goons down."
Patches nodded. "And we know that Gwyn and his pantheon could care less about your plight. Hence why you came here, to Gusteko."
"... You know Gwyn and his posse would have killed her if they could."
"And yet, you came here in search of other gods, in hopes that they'll listen. And you dragged me along, no less," the spear-wielding thief huffed. "Some friend you are, huh?"
Subaru shrugged. "Who knows... they said Akatosh was the God of Time... maybe he could reverse her back to before I forced Envy on her?"
"And then what? She'd just be suffering from Pandora's curse all over again," Patches said, his expression, for once, serious. "That might be a fate even worse than death."
"... Damn causality."
"Hm, yes. You know, for all your otherworldly knowledge and magic, not to mention your title, you actually aren't all that smart, Subaru," Patches said, trying to lighten the mood.
"... So, what do I do? No one will help me anymore, and everyone who would is either dead, trapped in a damn contract, or has "other duties"." Subaru said.
Patches patted Subaru's back. "Hey… I'm still here."
Subaru huffed in response. "No offense, but how could you help me with this big a fuck up?"
"Maybe you're thinking about this all wrong," the bald Undead said. "Instead of relying on all of your old skills, allies and assets, maybe you should look for some new ones."
Subaru's eyes perked up at that. "You mean...? No, they wouldn't dare help me if they knew. Hell, just look at Emilia. You think she would help me if she knew what I was trying to do?"
Patches shrugged. "Maybe they don't have to know the end goal. And sure, they may feel betrayed, but at the end of the day, you would have accomplished your mission, right?"
"And what if they figure it out beforehand?" the Japanese man asked. "If they come to the conclusion that I might be a Witch Cultist, they would put me in the most fortified Undead Asylum in the world and throw away the key."
"Hmm… maybe, maybe," the hyena of a man said, thinking over their options. "But that just means that you'll need a better security plan. And I have one idea."
Subaru decided to humor Patches. "What...?"
"Emilia isn't the only one keeping an eye on current events," the unbreakable man told the otherworlder. "You know how the Lugnican Royal Family died out recently?"
Subaru nodded at the mention. "I heard about that."
"Yeah, well the old iguana declared that the new ruler shall be chosen from one of five maidens," Patches explained. "Called it a "Royal Selection," or something like that."
"And what does any of this have to do with my situation? While we're in Gusteko, nonetheless."
"I'm getting there. Anyway, the five Candidates have these things called "Camps," which are basically their inner circles. Knights, nobles, subordinates, you name it," Patches continued. "Now, imagine what would happen if we backed one of these Camps…"
"Please. Enlighten me…" Subaru said, seemingly out of hope.
"Think about it, a whole new network of allies and lackeys. And if the girl wins, we might even have the new King's Court on our side!" the bald man said, getting giddy at his own idea. "We could have an entire nation to throw against Pandora!"
"... Even if we did decide to do that, how would we know who to back up, and how would we make sure they win?" Subaru asked.
Patches shrugged. "I dunno. So far, only three of the girls have been discovered, anyway."
Subaru looked forward as he thought over the idea. "Okay, just... let me do some thinking. I need to clear my head."
"Sure thing, take all the time you need," he said, standing up. "I'll be here to support you."
Patches left Subaru alone for now, who just stayed there, thinking over everything he knew.
Subaru shed a tear in his solitude. I wanna go back to the simpler times, Satella...
And with that, the man once known as the Great Sage, began to cry all by himself.
Authors' Note: And just like that, we've kicked you all below the belt.
Your crotch may recover, but the pain Subaru feels during this chapter will linger on forever. Maybe some comments will cheer you up?
SentinalSlice: Glad you enjoyed the last chapter. But, yeah, given that we're gonna be having characters from three different franchises sharing the same universe, it's natural things are gonna get crowded. We're planning on having the party split up during future missions. But most of the current and future additions… are gonna be permanent ones. (Yeah, I can understand that. There will be a lot, yes, but there won't be too many.)
NecroBrine2022: Replaying Skyrim 78 times? I wanna now do the math to figure out how long it would take to actually do that. Also, unrelated question, isn't Bethesda responsible for both the Elder Souls and Fallout? And if so, why is it called Fallout 76? (No idea.)
5queso: Thank you for your understanding. Yes, Aela is here to stay. Also, I think that the kaiju reference was aimed towards the Godzilla franchise, not Pacific Rim. (It was.)
Kifhjoofff: Teniendo en cuenta cuánto odio esa pequeña amenaza acuática amarilla, posiblemente estaría dispuesto a hacerlo aparecer como el último villano de la historia. (Buen intento. No sucederá bajo mi supervisión. No vamos a convertir esto en Crack.)
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- Ernalore and Infinite the Celestian