Ch. 11 - The Aftermath


She was in so much pain. She curled up into herself as she pulled her broken arm close to her chest. All she wanted to was pass out or cry.

But no tears came because she had no ducts. She couldn't fall unconscious because her body wasn't a body. Oh, it could feel pain, but it was a thing of crystal, an awkward cloak for the incorporeal.

Had that been the monster's intention? Did he specifically create a body that could feel agony to ruin her plans, her life? How long would it take for the pain to heal? Would it heal?

Her hated foe's body was right next to her. Well, the pieces were stacked by her. As she watched, the body parts melted into black ink before sinking into the glowing golden scroll. As the ink joined the scroll, it became writing, a language she didn't recognize across two dimensions. The golden scroll wrapped itself up before disappearing. It was a poor trade. She might have killed his construct, but it was obvious his real self had been safe and pain-free in another dimension. Probably the same one that sent those ludicrous and loathsome messages. Oh, how she wanted to track him down and murder him in the most agonising way possible.

But that was the price of her bargain. This was her dimension to influence and reside in. She couldn't lose track of that. She did her best to ignore her own suffering to locate the intruders.

It was so much harder now. The monster hadn't forced her into a body to inflict pain. He had struck at her very power. She was so much weaker than before, and she had no idea if she could recover. What she had left should be enough. She had never liked brutish, ostentatious displays, and all she needed was to simply manipulate probability. It was supposed to be one more time to finally set the timeline, but now so many new factors had to be watched and curated.

The Brothers were not a concern at the moment. They were living in Remnant's largest settlement, making good on the mission assigned by the Red Lioness. Darkness might have been tempted early on to reveal himself in an attempt at vengeance, but Light had kept him contained long enough for the desire to burn out. Light had adapted well, married with a set of twin daughters. Even if they became overcome with a mad desire to do something foolish, she had more than enough time and power to prevent them from ruining the timeline.

Of greater concern was the Betrayer. The Brothers did not know him, and did not think much of the rumors of a man of evil operating in the city's underbelly. The Betrayer was enjoying a life of hedonism, echoing and indulging a petty streak that had tempted Darkness. She found the Betrayer distasteful, but not a threat to her designs. For now. She seethed with the knowledge that he would reincarnate like Ozma, and she did not have the power to end his reincarnation. She would have to take care that neither Ozma or Salem met him. The Betrayer could poison so much if he was exposed to them. The three must never meet. She would ensure it.

That left the Chief Intruder and her companions, including the newest one. They would-

She stopped.

She was aware of another presence.

Her head lifted out of the fetal position before she scanned her surroundings. The eternities of the spirit realm expanded everywhere and nowhere, divided between the light and the dark halves. Her mouth frowned as she turned until…

She sees you.

Her gray mouth twists in utter hatred.

"GET OUT!"

Threads fly anevitfh tffkotf b k I¡! ! ! !

CONNECTION LOST.

RE-ACQUIRING SIGNAL.

CONNECTED RESTORED. NEW PROGRAMMING. AVOIDING HOSTILE ENTITY DESIGNATED "FOXTROT".

RESUMING

Crimson stood in the middle of a vast oasis.

Ringing around a large, crystal-blue lake, the verdant trees, grass, and green stretched in all directions. Without moving her head, she saw ripe fruit, playful fish, and even natural Dust deposits of several varieties. Were it not for the Dust, she honestly thought she might have died and been welcomed into Paradise. Any concerns about survival vanished as food seemed to beg her to eat. In fact, she could hear buzzing off to her right. Looking that way, she saw a bee nest that dripped with honey off of a date tree. It was like the oasis was daring them to starve in this place.

Standing to the right and a bit behind her was Tom staring at the same tree. He turned to her, and gaped. Indescribable emotion filled his eyes and face. Whatever it was, it was intense.

She became aware that she wasn't wearing robes.

Her head jerked down as she brought her arms up.

She was wearing a dark gray bodysuit. It was snug but flexible. Battered and dented armor plates covered her upper chest, forearms, shoulders, shins, and around her waist. All a darkened and washed out crimson. Velcro straps secured the plates on her arms and legs, while a tactical harness wrapped around her torso and hosted a number of pouches around her midriff. Two deep pockets lined against her thighs, while a pair of black combat boots had been scarred by snow and mud on her feet. A modern combat helmet weighed heavily on her head. Fastened around her shoulders was a weather-stained, black cloak.

Her inspection halted when two parts of her started to hurt. The first part was easy as her hands reached up and unhooked the straps holding her helmet in place. She pulled it off, amd her cat ears sprung up, happy and free. Her tail, however, was getting really angry. Not only was it trapped beneath the body suit, the tactical belt sat right on top of it!

She tossed the helmet to the side as her hands scrambled to take off the belt and harness. Shockingly, her fingers moved with a practiced familiarity that had the whole thing off in a few seconds.

Then the body suit fought her.

At first, she had tried to find a seam or wherever the pants and shirt connected. Nope! It was a single sleeve for her whole body. She had hesitated for a second. Technically speaking, everyone here except for one were her clones. She shouldn't be that self-conscious about showing a little skin, right? Nope! Try as she might, they might have been her, but they were still men. Her hesitation was swiftly overcome by the growing pain as her tail begged to be let free. She squeaked an apology before reaching behind her to rip open a spot for her tail to go through. But, this was a combat uniform. The body sleeve was supposed to survive in perhaps the worst environments known to man. So, when she grabbed the cloth just above her tail and pulled, the material stretched some… and taunted her to do anything else. She pulled, twisted, and started to hop around as she grunted with anger and pain. Nothing.

I was a goddess not five minutes ago! Why is everything going wrong!?

"Uh, Cat?"

Her struggles ceased as trained eyes filled with frustration on her twin. His ears flicked downward a degree. She wished she knew what that meant for cat behavior. Already, her omniscience, whatever it counted for, was fading. Her mortal mind simply couldn't contain all that knowledge, and she no longer could summon the relevant fact with a whim. Everything had to be done the hard way.

Which helped fight off embarrassment when he pointed at her leg.

Secured around her left hip was a weapon. She unhooked it from the harness and held it out in front of her. It was a short haft holding a long, curved blade in the shape of a crescent moon. Well, an unequal moon. The lower half of the crescent came to a shorter end, while the upper half extended outward. The lethal edge was on the concave side.

It's a scythe.

Peering at the blade, Crimson noted, with some subconscious satisfaction, that the blade was sharp enough for battle. It would certainly win against the fabric torturing her tail! One hand pulled the fabric as far as it would stretch from her body. Her other hand drew the tip of the hand scythe above it. A new hole came into existence.

Her tail shot through it a second later.

"Ohhhhhhh!" She shuddered from relief as her tail flung this way and that as it enjoyed its new freedom. A couple of deep breaths relaxed her more.

A cough reminded her that she was in company. As much as she wanted to check out the strange device on her left wrist, she turned around. Griff was here, mirroring Tom's spot on the other side of her. He was studying the fourth member of their little team with interest.

Crimson finally met the Wildling.

She had horns.

The only reason that was the first thing Crimson noticed was because that was what was at eye level. Her newest companion was a rather short woman. The two horns weren't even that tall or big. Just two little curves of bone jutting out from the top of her head, ending in two points. It wasn't the only thing inhuman about her. Instead of feet, she had hooves. There was a poofy batch of white fur wrapped around her shoulders. In fact, she was completely covered in fur, some white and some brown. Crimson could only imagine how much longer it would take before the demihuman was drowning in her own sweat. Her ears were goat ears as they swept to the side.

Her last animal feature, her hands, were, strangely, claws. The rest of her seemed like, well, a goat. It made the claws stand out all the more.

Technically, her red eyes could have been a human's, but they still grabbed attention. Those red eyes watched Crimson meekly above a small smile. She wore a dark bodice and a green, tropical skirt. The skirt hung to one side, exposing her legs and hooves for all to see.

She also had a weapon. In her right hand was a polearm that was a couple of feet taller than she was. Rings sported the length of Gungnir's shaft—four in total and evenly spread—with a blueish cloth tied to its haft. A single teal, four-point star decorated both ends of the cloth. The blade of the lance started as a bladed oval before widening to create a U- shape toward the bottom.

She gave a little wave. "Hello, I'm Yip."

Courtesy kicked in before thought. "Hello, I'm…"

She wasn't sure how to answer that. What had Tom just called her? Cat? And the Avatar had called her Crissi, while she had thought of herself as Crimson. So many names, and they all fit in some way but not completely.

It also didn't help that she had waved with her left hand, which reminded her that she still had that strange device on. Her curiosity was once again interrupted.

By the Contract, no less.

Looks like things are going to work out somewhat similarly to how they did alternatively, after all; time to finally make use of that faith-power we instated before, then—hang on, did you manage to undo Ozma and Salem's curses in the end?

The Faith-power? Crimson hadn't thought about that since the last time a Commander brought it up. Her mind leaped back to the Avatar's words. Is that what he was talking about? Also, is he dead?

Everything about the Avatar confused her. Why did the Contract have an avatar? Who was he? Why did he seem immune to pain or was made of ink? So many questions, and she had no idea if any of them would get answered.

Then there was Ozma and Salem. Thinking about them didn't immediately tell her what their current situation was. She missed her omniscience already. As to the Commander's question, no, she had never had the chance to undo their curses. Was it impossible?

"Ummmm…" Crimson broke from her thoughts to see Yip shuffling awkwardly in front of her. "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh!" She had been staring, hadn't she? Not at Yip, but it must have looked like it. "Sorry, a session just started."

"The Contract still works?" Tom asked.

Fuck you Threda!

Who? A name she had never heard. Soon, Tom's words sank in as her dismay went from zero to ten.

"You're right!" She hissed. "The Contract is supposed to be over!"

"If things had gone according to plan," Griff interjected. He crossed his arms and studied her with a calmer expression than Tom's worry. "Technically speaking, we failed to complete the Contract. That woman forced us to end it early, if that's even the right way to describe it. That man the Contract created, he invoked a clause that brought us here. We have no idea what the clause might have done."

"There was also the Permanent Contract Door," Tom reluctantly added, his mouth set in a deep frown. "She opened it, and he failed to close it."

"But I'm the only one who is supposed to be able to open that door!" This isn't how it's supposed to go! I won the battle against the Brothers without even considering that Door! I'm supposed to be free of all of this! "Only I can open that Door, and that was supposed to be of my own free will! No Command could have forced me to open it!"

I'll be leaving, which you will probably like, Crissi; (you don't need to worry about my machinations anymore) as a parting gift: the Contract should allow you to ask the avatar questions if Threda hasn't disabled the Avatar from communicating with you. (From HT)

"Leaving? Thread? Questions?"

Tom leaned in, his red-tipped and black cat ears twitching toward her. "What was that? What did they say? What do you have to do?"

She shook her head, trying to quell her agitation. She was doing an awful job since her tail and her ears kept twitching, zipping back-and-forth. "It's another one from the Cosigner HT. Says he's leaving? Which, I guess, means he's going to stop being a Cosigner or… die?" That was a morbid thought. Sure, they had often taken control of her will, but that was part of the Contract. None of them had been malicious (except that one weirdo), and had helped her win the battle. It was a strange, bittersweet feeling to think some of them would be leaving. Even more bitter than sweet when she remembered that all of them were supposed to be gone when the Contract was over. "He says I can ask the Avatar for answers… if he's not disabled."

"Well, the advice is sound." Griff nodded toward her. "Do you have any idea how to ask those questions?"

She angrily huffed. "No. I'm not sure how. Not even sure if it is possible."

There was a pause. Yip looked the most awkward out of them as she just stood there, listening to the former immortals discuss matters of the Multiverse. Crimson felt a little bad about that, but there wasn't much she could do about it.

With a start, she realized that the Commands had come to an end.

As much as she wanted to continue dealing with the half a dozen problems besieging her, she wanted to look into something first. The strangest piece of gear was on her left wrist. It was a… device of sone sort? It was a hefty thing. The actual window was small and appeared to be constructed from a thick substance. What really made it different was the machine around the window. It was a cylinder of solid metal that wrapped around Crimson's forearm. Below the screen were three buttons. Well, only one orange button on the right still glowed. The other two had been broken at some point. Above the right button was the word DATA. To the left of the screen was an empty slot, something missing from it.

Left of the slot was a lot of damage. The metal casing had taken some direct hits at some point. Above the knob were the words 'Model 3000'. Above that was some damaged letters: P?-?O?. She wasn't sure what that spelled. The final piece was above that in the Scroll's top-left corner. There was a dial of some kind, surprisingly intact. The hand on the dial pointed at the 0, and it scaled upward to 8. The ticks for 6-8 were all marked red. There was this strange symbol on the face of the dial. It was a circle with a black dot in the center, surrounded by three black triangles.

Hitting the DATA button showed only a highly confusing screen. Random words peppered two columns filled with random symbols. To the left of the two columns were two more columns of labels per column line. Above the columns were more corrupted lines of code. The only thing that came close to making sense was at the top-right hand of the screen. There was a name.

Her heart went into overdrive as she read it as her spirit shook with the information. In glowing green, the name spelled out as…

RUBY ROSE THORNE.


Prequel Complete

To Be Continued in...

Broken Desires


A/N: Well, here we are! This story went in a much different direction than its AO3 incarnation to the point that it's truly its own story instead of a simple copy. Yes, I know a lot of threads haven't been wrapped up, but it feels like a good point to end it here since we are seeing the completion of an entire phase, even with how messy the Contract's Command phase came to an end. Even then, the Commands are... well, you'll see.

Thanks to everyone who came and supported Crissi/Ruby's path to victory over the Brothers!

Hope everyone enjoyed this shade of madness, and see you in the next one!