Chapter 83
Somehow, over the all-penetrating white noise of constant conversation, phone calls, text messages, and TSA announcements, the snoring of an unconscious man could be heard. Snoozing on a bench, with his head hanging over the back, a dark-haired, pale-skinned man was alone on a bench. The young man had nothing to his name but the clothes on his back, and this may have attracted more than one curious eye, if there were people around him to look in the first place. He was completely alone, the bench and the airport terminal around him devoid of all life, with only him - dead asleep, his two dense, lean arms hanging over the back of the bench.
The young man was awoken suddenly by a kick to his left foot, his head snapped up and his unkempt hair shifted about as he tried to shake the sleep from behind his squinting eyes.
"Ugh..." He groaned, pressing his left hand to his face, trying to pull himself from the darkness of sleep, and trying to make sense of a dull ache in his chest. "What time is it?" He asked, as he felt someone dropping into the bench next to him.
"Quarter past 'the sun doesn't set here'." Said a voice far deeper than his own, and louder to boot.
The young man removed his hand from his face and looked to his left, where an older man, a few decades his senior, had settled himself. Much like the young man, the older man had only the clothes on his back, and nothing else to his name. He had a sympathetic grin on his face, as he rested his hands on his lap and waited for the younger man to speak.
The young man, face set in a neutral, tired frown, looked around, taking in the silent surroundings and the gray sky just visible from the windows that led outside, before he turned back to the older man. "This my 'come to Jesus' moment?" He asked.
The older man shrugged, "it could be, if you want it to." He said, "lord knows you've done enough... And unlike last time, you went out at a much better time. Everything could keep going without you. Reach a good enough end."
The young man sighed, looking to the ground at his feet, and running his right hand over the flesh of his left arm.
"You make this place?"
The older man nodded, and ran his hand through his dark, but graying hair. "Could certainly say that."
The younger man scoffed, " 'you' as in the thing next to me saying 'you' so it could refer to 'me,' and leave the implication over my head that I'm hallucinating." He patted his chest, "pretty sure that old fuck shredded my lungs, if he didn't rip out my spine." He said, feeling the pain in his chest only grow, even though when he took his hand away, it was perfectly clean.
"You can call it that if you want, Aldric!" Said the older man, his voice sounding strange at the end - as though he was briefly screaming at him from a million miles away. "But we both know you want this to be something else."
The younger man didn't deny it. "I miss you, Fat Man." He said, "I'm sorry." He grunted, not making eye contact with him.
The older man shrugged, "could've gone better, but what can we do?" He asked, planting his hand on the younger man's shoulder and giving it an affectionate squeeze.
The young man let out a long sigh, stretching his jaw until he heard it pop. "If I decided to take the plane. Do you know what would happen?"
To which the older man shrugged, "I can only make my best guess, ALDRIC! Same as you." And again, when his name came, the man suddenly spoke as though he were far away.
The younger man put the pieces together, "she's trying to bring me back?" He asked, head lifting and downtrodden eyes flitting over to a bright red 'Exit' sign, feet away from the tunnel that would lead him to the airplane, its red glow appearing unnaturally bright.
The older man nodded, "seems that way." He said, before adding, "you know no one would fault you if you decided to take the plane. You tried, but you're not Superman, ALDRIC! You're bound to stumble and fall somewhere."
The young man sighed, clenching his left hand as tightly as he could into a fist. "I want too, pop." He said, poking his right thumb into his left forearm, feeling muscle underneath. "God I want to... But..." He grunted, pushing himself to his feet - the older man's hand falling away. "I can't leave this job half done." He walked towards the bright red 'Exit' sign.
"ALDRIIIIIIIIIIIIC!" He heard faintly. "WAKE UP!" He heard, just over the sound of thunder, and the feeling of hot dirt lurching and shaking underneath him.
Aldric pried his eyes open with the strength that was returning to him - and groaned in pain as all of the light above him poured directly into his brain, sending lances of sharp agony into his skull. He would have rolled over, but the woman screaming at him pulled him up by the chest and shook.
"ALDRIC!" She creamed, as the ground shook again. "ALDRIC!" And this one preceded a slap to the face that send Aldric's head snapping from side to side.
In his incredibly brief bouts of lucidity, Aldric saw an unfortunately familiar scene around him - fires, twisted metal, broken parts, turbines, smoke, and -
Oh.
Oh fuck.
"Oh... Fffffffuuuuuuck!" Aldric pressed his metal hand to his head and let Cinder pull him to his feet. "Where are they!" He asked, opening the eye not covered by his hand and locking it onto Cinder before scanning over her. "Do you still have it?" He asked, patting her down until his hand reached her hip, and brushed over the Lamp.
Cinder pushed the hand away and held Aldric's shoulders, "I have it!" She yelled, patting her side - where Aldric could see the lamp, strangely appearing far smaller than it had been moments ago. "But I need you to focus! The Relic, it can stop time, I used the time that bought me to heal you, but I need you here with me! Now! They're here!" She pointed above Aldric's back, and Aldric laboriously turned himself around.
Floating down from the cloud of smoke high up in the sky were the two old men - the one whose hand was covered in Aldric's gore looked particularly livid, while the other one was holding a twitching pile of meat and bone in one of his hands. Considering the long tail, also appearing inside out, Aldric was pretty sure that answered where Tyrian was.
Well I guess that takes care of that problem... "Fuck me..." Aldric groaned, pressing his hand to his chest. "Well I'm glad you got the message." He snorted.
Cinder let out an exasperated chuckle, "like I could've missed it, Aldric." She said, as the two old men came down. "What happened?"
"Saw 'em break Arthur and Hazel's necks. Just twisted them around like they were a couple of owls. One of 'em shoved his hand in my chest like it wasn't even there, was going to rip out my spine like the Predator, so I..." He shrugged, "did the first thing that came to mind." He raised his voice, "alright you old assholes! I'll get off your lawn! Now would you kindly un-key my car?!"
"Quaint." Said Ben, his arms crossed.
"Give us the lamp." Helmut cut to the chase. "You can either die quickly, or die tired and in pain - but you will die." He insisted.
"And what kind of incentive is that?" Aldric asked, "last time I heard about Germans saying stuff like that, it didn't end well for them."
"I'm Austrian you little shit." Helmut glared.
"You know what I can do with that!" Aldric laughed, pointing at him as Ben spared the man a glance and a raised eyebrow, before turning back to the Master and the multi-Maiden.
Cinder cut in, "why?!" She demanded, hand slowly sliding to her back, where her lightsaber was set. "What could you possibly gain from doing this?!"
"We could ask you two the same thing!" Ben responded, "killing scores of people, stealing literal magical artifacts from the pages of this world's religions! For what? For who? A twisted old woman who doesn't believe in basic human fucking decency?!" He demanded, throwing away the pile of meat that used to be Tyrian. "All that tripe she spews about cycles and necessities! That madwoman wants to kill gods because she thinks without an enemy -"
"We know why she's doing this!" Cinder cut in, "and we don't care for that!" She pulled the hilt of her blade from her back, and reached towards one of the front pockets on his belt.
"Actually I have no fuckin' clue, what she wants." Aldric pointed out, raising his hand like a person admitting something awkward. "But she's right in that I still don't care." No, what he cared about was the fact that he'd been too slow on the uptake to get what could have been two of the greatest allies imaginable in the final moments of this little game of chess. "She got what she wanted." Aldric nodded to Cinder, "not but a handful of people are her equals, and we're about to kill two of them. Meanwhile I'm going to get what I want, I just want peace and quiet! A life where I don't need or want for anything - the kind of thing I never could have back home! I help her, I get that. Whatever Salem wants out of this - why she wants it - I couldn't care less." The only thing he could take solace in right now was that, for once - for once - when the Universe tried throwing a rock at him, he'd actually been prepared for it ahead of time. He'd been making plans and preparing options for if and when he'd have to fight a Master for as long as he'd been introduced to the concept.
Ben shook his head, throwing his hands up in exasperation, while Helmut frowned deeply. "And you ask us why, when you two are so self centered and so unapologetically selfish that you'd settle in with a madwoman willing to risk destroying quite literally everything... Because it would just make things easier for you." He snorted in disgust. "I'm done talking. We'll kill you and take that lamp - we will not allow Salem to do as she wishes, not while we live."
"So we just have to wait... Like... A month before you have a heart attack, keel over, and die?" Aldric asked, leaning into Cinder. "You take Captain Rogers..." He said, nodding to Ben. "I'll take Red Skull." He nodded to Helmut, who flicked Aldric's gore off of his hand.
"How American." Said Helmut, "his last words a poor joke."
"Dude, that could be the name of my life story." Aldric shot back.
Cinder's blade ignited as her eyes became enveloped in fiery wings of ever-changing colors, the Masters' eyes melted to pools of onyx, and Aldric popped open the pocket. Without any further words, the four engaged - Cinder launched herself screaming at Ben, and Aldric leapt backwards to build some space between him and Helmut as he dug into his pocket.
The moment his foot left the ground, the harder he pushed himself backwards with his semblance, the closer he grew to the old Austrian, whose fist was clenched and slowly being dragged towards his chest. Aldric saw the ground bunching up at the old man's feet, like a blanket being pushed against a wall. Stranger, however, was what was happening around Aldric himself. The ground was twisting underneath his feet, and looking down at it, Aldric had trouble comprehending what he was seeing - it looked as though the ground had wrapped around itself, coiling up into tendrils that were wriggling and pulling upwards - like hands blindly pawing at the air, trying to pull him down and restrain him. Looking up, he saw Helmut, still drawing his hand closer to him, as though Aldric were a puppet and the man were dragging him off the stage, a frown on his gnarled, wrinkled face.
Before Aldric could question things, the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand up - and Aldric sensed something that defied his radar lurching behind him. Turning, it looked as though the world had become a painting - a single flat pain upon which a picture was painted. This painting was twisting around, taking form and moving towards him; Aldric saw it with his eyes, but with his Radar, he couldn't see anything - it was a literal blank spot in his vision, only visible due to the fact that he could see everything moving around it, but not itself.
Okay, that one's new! Aldric thought, but not out of fear - simply surprise. No, Aldric wasn't scared about the outcome of this fight - he wasn't even worried, because for once, he was in a situation he'd one-hundred-percent planned for, and he was ready.
Though that didn't mean he was happy about it. Much the opposite, Aldric's vocabulary had long since failed to come up with the proper English words for how enraged and disappointed he was at how things were turning out. Regardless of his lot in life, Aldric soldiered on - teeth clenched, eyes narrowed, and face set in a deep frown, Aldric pulled a small glass vial from his belt and crushed it - out from which a large, wooden staff grew in his hand, a brilliant orb held in an ancient claw on its top end. Aldric noticed Helmut's eyes lock onto it, and then shift towards the lightsaber hanging, ignored, from Aldric's hip, before they went to Aldric's own metal orbs as the young Master thrust the staff forward, willing it to react.
His contingency for if he ever had to fight a Master - the Staff of Magnus, of Elder Scrolls fame. It was one of a few things he'd stolen from that particular setting, and he hedged all of his bets on it being his most effective weapon against a Master for one major reason: It was anti-magic. It sapped magical energies, drained them, making it unrivaled in its ability to turn a Master from an all-powerful god to, depending on one's opponent: A feeble old man, a reincarnating soul in a child's body, or an asshole teenager with too many toys from too many worlds. Aldric had no idea if he could ever recharge this thing, so he had to be careful, and pray he didn't use it all on the Austrian.
He just had to make himself an opening - so he stopped struggling against Helmut and instead started pushing himself towards the old man. Helmut, not expecting this, dropped his hand and released his hold on Aldric - but Aldric kept hurtling forward, gritting his teeth. When he reached Helmut, he shoved the staff forward and let out a loud roar as teal-blue lightning shot out from the staff and slammed into Helmut.
Helmut screamed in voice-cracking agony when the lightning hit him and began draining his power. Aldric rammed his feet into the old man's chest, and kicking down - sending the old Master careening into the ground, as the young Master landed right on top of him and fell to a knee, pinning him. Aldric briefly cast his gaze to the side and saw Cinder attacking Ben, slicing and chopping at him in a blur of motions - but every time, exactly when her blade reached him, his hand shot over to it and grasped it, causing her blade to stiffen up and freeze as though it weren't made of superheated plasma. But when Cinder wrenched the blade out of his hand, the ice cracked and fell to the ground in energetic red chunks, and the plasma started flowing again.
Frowning, Aldric turned back forward, an idea forming in his head as he put a word to what he was seeing. This kind of magic was different from what he did, from what Cinder did, and from what Ozpin did - these two were warping reality just by being in it, Lovecraft style.
An idea formed in Aldric's head, as he realized he might be able to use this.
Aldric leaned down to the old man, whose hand was clawing feebly at Aldric's knee, angry eyes locked onto Aldric's own, only just able to grasp the trick Aldric had pulled on him. Aldric found himself still at a loss for words - he wanted to communicate to this impatient geriatric idiot what he'd done by acting so fast and so brash, but he just couldn't think of anything that could properly convey the sheer gravity of how badly they'd messed up. How much they'd nearly ruined things.
So, after a moment, he stopped trying - instead sighing as he tapped the staff to Helmut's head - and more lightning shot out of it, causing Helmut to scream and wail again as more of his power drained. Aldric could physically feel the man's power vanish, because the longer he held the staff there, the more fragile the man became - Aldric's knee sank deeper and deeper into his chest, the energies that had provided his vigor, his durability, fading away in the light of Aldric's preparedness.
Aldric cut off the lightning, and placed the staff on the ground, feeling, after a while, that he was just hurting this old man needlessly. For all his mistakes and shortcomings, Helmut and Ben were better than Aldric in that at least they took their stand - they had the line they wouldn't cross, and when they got close to it, they didn't compromise like he did, they stood their ground.
Aldric respected that, even as he dug into his belt and pulled out another vial - in which two black gemstones rest, small enough that they weren't even shrunken down for storage. Both Aldric and Helmut looked at the stones, before turning to glare at each other.
"You won't find peace!" The old man, sapped of his power before he could even put up a fight, croaked. "You never will!"
Aldric let out a slow, deep sigh. "I honestly don't know what to say to you." He said, "I wish you hadn't done this." He settled on, "I had just realized what Ben was trying to do in Mistral when you struck." He said, "he was giving me one last chance to convince him I wasn't a sociopath... And I failed that test... And I'm sorry." He said, meeting Helmut's no-longer onyx eyes.
Helmut blinked, his struggles weakening.
"I wish I'd seen the writing on the wall sooner, Helmut. The three of us together could have killed her." Helmut's struggles ceased entirely, his eyes widening. "But now... Because I wasn't fast enough - I have to do it alone. I can't risk my position - I can't, Helmut." He insisted, a tear forming in one of his eyes. "After all I've sacrificed, I have to make it worth something." He clenched his fist, one of his shields unfolding, and pulled one of the black gemstones out of the vial with his semblance, before settling it into his hand. "I just want you to understand that. I don't make plays without a purpose, and I don't kill unnecessarily..." He took in a deep breath, and then let it out. "Even you two will be worth something in the end." And he plunged his fist down, digging the pointed edge of the shield into Helmut's chest - putting more than enough strength into it to penetrate the powerless old man's skin. "As a fucking proof of concept!"
Helmut groaned, the air whistling out from between his teeth. He and Aldric kept eye contact as the latter let the former's blood begin to leak out for a moment, before he collapsed his shield, took one last look at the black gemstone, and then pressed it into Helmut's wound.
"If this works, old man... I swear to you everything will be worth it." Aldric said, this time unable to look at him - and having to look further away when the old man desperately grabbed at one of Aldric's arms.
Aldric stayed there, pinning the Master to the ground with his knee, keeping the black rock in his wound, the only sounds being that of Cinder fighting Ben, until the old Master's hand fell away limply. Then Aldric turned his face back to the lifeless old man, whose eyes stared up at the sky, reflecting the image above them dully. Aldric felt a stab in his chest, looking away again and screwing up his face in an attempt to push this all away. He let out a shaky breath, blinking away another tear, and slowly getting to his feet, when he felt something new.
Something big.
When he stood up, levitating over his right hand, held aloft by his semblance, was the same stone he'd exposed to Helmut's lifeblood. But instead of a dull, deep black, it now shone with a deep red glow, radiating bright energy and feeling like nothing Aldric had ever sensed before. An angry Ozpin flexing his powers, a calm Salem intimidating him, a triumphant Cinder flexing her proverbial muscles, a raging Yang overflowing with emotion - the power held in this red stone, harvested from the soul of the old man below him, dwarfed all of that.
Aldric smiled, staring deeply at the stone levitating over his hand, because for the first time in longer than he could remember, he felt hope.
He reveled in it for a moment, before letting out a small huff, and, after stowing the staff back in his belt, he turned to Cinder and Ben. He saw Cinder struggling against the Master - who was, like Helmut, warping reality around them as a means of bridging their respective powers. Cinder would swing for him and he would appear behind her, as though the universe itself glitched and just moved him instantaneously from one spot to the other, before he would throw his hands up in a boxer's stance and slam his fist into her back - displaying an inordinate amount of strength when, as a result of said blow, Aldric would see Cinder's aura visibly flaring up from it to protect her.
Cinder turned around and swung again, but just like the first time, Ben just wasn't there anymore, causing Cinder to rage - for as powerful as she was, she couldn't kill what she couldn't hit, and for all intents and purposes it appeared that Ben had simply added a new rule to the universe: Cinder wasn't allowed to touch him, and the universe bent over backwards to ensure that happened.
Well... Aldric thought, stalking forward, a deep frown on his face. Two can play at that game. "HEY!" He yelled, attracting both of their attention.
Cinder looked over her shoulder and instantly Aldric saw a great weight slide off of her when she saw Aldric, stone hovering over his metal hand, Helmut's corpse behind him. Ben, however, in contrast to his playful grin of just a moment ago, looked equal parts enraged and scared when he saw Aldric emerge the victor over the Lovecraftian mage behind him.
"What'd you say before?!" Aldric asked, "either you die quick, or you die tired!" He parroted back. "Now what'll it be?!"
When Aldric blinked, Ben wasn't there anymore - but unlike Helmut, Ben's powers didn't interfere with Aldric's radar. When Ben decided to not be where he was anymore, to instead be behind Aldric, and when the universe gleefully obeyed him, Aldric sensed it - and before Ben could try to do anything, Aldric dropped the glowing red stone.
Right into his waiting hand.
Aldric clenched his fist around the stone and instantly his body seized up in immense pain, as glowing red veins of raw power and energy traveled up his arm and inched towards the bulging veins in his neck, appearing to carve grooves in his armor as they did so. Aldric's teeth gritted and he groaned in immense pain, as it felt like he was being burned from the inside out - the feeling not unlike when he'd been hit by the Summer Maiden's guardian, but it felt more raw, like a hammer to the guardian knight's knife, like napalm to the guardian knight's fire. Aldric sensed Ben blinking and falling back a step - and even Cinder whirled around, back straightening in shock and eyes widening in awe as they both felt the power flowing through, and indeed trying its best to overpower and kill, the young Master.
But Aldric wouldn't let it - instead he forced his will onto the stone and demanded it obey him. He overpowered it and slowed its tempestuous advance through his body, and for a brief second, though the pain didn't abate, it did stop - the stone responding to him, acquiescing to his demands, as though to say, 'fine, you win this round. Now what is your wish?'
With a deep roar, Aldric spun around and swung his fist in a backhand motion. He missed Ben by a mile, but he hadn't intended to hit him at all - instead, out from his fist shot a gigantic wave of red energy, and when Aldric made a full revolution, it expanded circularly, surging out in all directions, red lightning shooting out randomly, arcing between blades of grass, pieces of debris and detritus from the airship, passing over Aldric, Ben, and Cinder, and shooting out into the air, as the young Master pushed this out for as far as he possibly could, all the while forcing out all the air in his lungs in one deep, animalistic shout, before, finally, it all faded away.
Leaving nothing behind.
Aldric was left unharmed, Ben and Cinder too. The fires from the crash still burned, Tyrian's corpse was still inside out, Helmut was still dead on the ground, it appeared as though nothing changed.
Yet despite this, Aldric grinned - because he noticed his radar, ever present, was no longer. He could only see through the twin mechanical orbs wired into his skull, and as limiting as that was after so long with such expanded vision, what it meant to the young Master was everything.
Ben, too, felt a change, as he looked down at his hands, then up at Aldric, a wide, manic, terrified look in his eyes as he looked at the smoldering Master. "What did you do?!" The old man shouted, his voice sounding feebler than it had moments ago - all of the youth his powers had granted him having been stolen away.
Aldric didn't respond, instead prying open his mechanical fist and seeing the stone having gone from red to black once again.
One shot... Aldric gulped through his dry throat. One wish.
"What did you do?!" Ben shouted again, trying to rush Aldric - but stumbling and falling to his knees with a shriek of pain.
Aldric, gasping for air, stuffed the blood-crusted stone back in his belt. "What's wrong, old man?" He asked, pulling his lightsaber off of his belt. "Arthritis acting up?" He flicked it, and the red blade ignited with a loud Zhoom! "Break your hip?" He advanced on Ben, who looked up at Aldric, eyes wide and body trembling in fear. "For what it's worth..." Aldric lowered his voice, as he reached Ben and raised his sword. "I'm sorry." And he brought down the blade, cutting into Ben's shoulder so deeply that the left side of his chest was nearly bisected entirely; the old Man fell limply to the ground, his wounds glowing and smoldering.
Aldric let out a long gasp, "oh... Fuck, that hurt." He said, deactivating his blade and grabbing his left shoulder, rolling it around and groaning. "Ow."
He turned to see Cinder approaching him, her own blade stored back in its usual place, as she looked down at her hands. "Aldric, what was that?" She asked, "how did -" She looked at Ben, and then to Helmut. "How?"
"Well... Ever since we fought Daddy dearest... I'd worried the other two may go a little crazy... And also that I might fight Ozpin one day... So -" He clipped the hilt of his blade to his belt, his body feeling stiff now that the adrenaline was having time to settle and wash out of his system. "- I pulled a weapon that could drain magic." He explained, "used that on the German." He nodded back to Helmut, as he looked around at the burning wreck of the Aviator. "Man... All my stuff's gone now." He murmured, shoulders slumping.
"Fine - but what about him?" She pointed to Ben, "why can't I feel my power anymore?" She demanded, looking ready to throttle Aldric.
"Oh... When we start moving it should come back." He said, "I uh... Read a story once, a while ago. Don't remember the whole thing, but this guy was playing a tabletop game. The dude in charge of the game was a dick, as were the players, and to make a long story short the guy proceeded to de-power and kill the main villain of the campaign by using a couple loopholes, did it two more times, and got kicked out." Aldric stretched his stiff shoulder, hissing as his body made clear its objections to the motions.
"And?!"
"I did here the same thing that guy did: I had a means of altering reality to my whim. Could only use it once, but it did what I needed it to. Think of it like changing how the universe works - getting to change the rules, add new properties. I just added in a new property to the area around us. On fire, mostly grass, oxygen, nitrogen, smoke, hot, dry... Non-magical."
Cinder settled down once Aldric finished, looking at him differently. "You can do that?"
"Ha!" Aldric barked out a hoarse laugh, as he felt the scorched flesh on his neck with his good hand. "No!" He said, "or at least, I can't do it again." He clarified, "but by harvesting Helmut's soul, dropping it in a soul gem, and using a couple loopholes with regards to what I think magic is... And I can get the same outcome..." He took his hand away, it covered in ash and soot, and some dried, burned flecks of blood. "Ouch."
In other words: He'd many times described himself as a reality warper, and Ben and Helmut had shown themselves capable of the same things - though they doubled down on the strange, mind-bending, Doctor Strange aspects of it, where Aldric used it as a ticket to skip the process, pull out weapons and toys, or achieve desired results. He'd relied upon that and gambled on being able to effect the one Infinity Stone he thought would give him the ticket to killing the other Master, but with the critical detail of not creating it himself, out of nothing - lest he do here what he'd done when fighting his father, drain himself dry of his energy, and die.
"I totally got the idea from you, by the way." Aldric elaborated, causing Cinder to double-take.
"What?" She blinked.
"When we fought my father, I tried pulling on something that was stronger than me. I got it, I got what I wanted at the level of power I wanted it, but I didn't just use my aura to fuel it - I burned out my goddamn soul. Minor miracle I came back in the first place, but seeing you running around as of late, it gave me an idea. You harvest souls for power... So why can't I? Have a spare tank of gas, so to speak. If the stuff in my belt are nuclear options, then this would be..." He shrugged. "Thermo-nuclear. A one-shot display of me telling the universe how it will work until I run out of fuel." And seeing the stone immediately go back to being a plain-ol' black soul gem reinforced that fact: One soul, one charge, one 'feat,' so to speak, so he had to make it count, and just count himself lucky the stone hadn't broken on him once it ran out of juice.
Cinder looked like she didn't know what to say, face stuck between an exasperated grin and a genuinely appreciative smile. "I... Oh." She hummed. "So... What was the range on it?" She asked, bringing them back on track.
Aldric shrugged, "anywhere between fifteen feet and the entire planet." He said, with a decidedly unhelpful grin. Cinder glared at him, deadpan, and Aldric rolled his eyes. "If I had to guess, a couple miles, maybe more?" He said, shrugging. "Considering we're still alive, that means we still have our powers right now, they're just being negated because of my fuckery. We start walking, and we'll either get out of its range, or it'll wear off." Aldric wondered if it ever would wear off, but he didn't have to tell her that.
Cinder sighed, and, hands on her hips, turned to the burning wreck that had been the aviator. "Could you store our personal items in your belt?" She asked, frowning at the flames and glowing metal.
Aldric nodded, "yeah, you head in and grab your stuff, I'll be right after."
She gave him a look of concern, and he waved her on, promising her he'd be fine. She acquiesced, and approached the burning wreck without hesitation - the flames dying as she grew near them, and the wreck cooling and steaming at her touch when she entered it. Aldric let her disappear inside, before he turned to Ben.
Who he had intentionally left alive.
Aldric had taken great care not to cut the old man's head off, because with that first stunt having worked beyond his wildest dreams, he knew he'd need to use Ben as well, and he'd lied to Cinder. He hadn't only made the area around them 'non-magical,' he'd added one more property. Like a line of computer code, a simple if/then command:
If-SoulGem=Present, Then Magic=Functional within area [2] meters.
And he'd done so specifically to harvest Ben in addition to Helmut - as much as they'd screwed up here, he'd make damn sure that it would be worth something in the end. Even if it was very possible that when he stole Ben's soul that the gem may lose its charge when it was time for Salem, that it worked less like a tank of gas and more like a battery, but he had to try - because the rewards was well worth the risk.
So he approached the old man and fell to a knee, before doing to him what he'd done to Helmut - cutting open a long, deep gash, through which blood flowed freely. Ben squirmed weakly, not waking up, but some deep part of his ancient mind still trying to get his body to react to the mortal danger it was in. Aldric let out a quiet sigh, before he took the black gem and shoved it into Ben's wound.
To his immense satisfaction, and his deepest regret, it had the same reaction as before. Aldric could practically see Ben's soul flow into the dark stone, and when the energy stopped flowing, Aldric withdrew the bloody rock and stowed it in his belt.
"I'll make it worth it..." He vowed, wondering just what he'd spend this particular tank on.
With that done, he agonizingly got to his feet and joined Cinder in looting the Aviator. Unlike her, he didn't have much he wanted to save from the burning wreck - most of it had broken on impact, regardless, and the most important things he'd long since stowed in his belt. When he was done, he ran into Cinder, leaving her room with her old trophies, and a few articles of clothing, which Aldric shrank down into his belt.
After taking a look at his sorry, injured, even scorched state, Cinder sighed. "Here." She said, slinging his burnt arm over her shoulders, wrapping her free arm around his waist, and assisting him as they walked out of the wreckage, and away from the area where he'd rewritten reality. "So you expected them to turn?"
"Planned for it." Aldric responded, "two different things. I knew it was possible, so I prepared for it." And for once in his goddamn life since coming to Remnant, it had actually gone according to plan. Go figure - perhaps one of the worst possible outcomes had resulted in the one and only time a plan had worked, and it had resulted in him killing the only two people who may have otherwise been his only remaining, and most powerful by far, allies. "So... Vacuo?"
"Vacuo." Cinder nodded.
For The Record
Jesus.
Fucking.
Christ.
I - I just - Jesus Christ!
That went to hell in a handbasket faster than I could fucking blink!
So, remember I said something about Vernal acting weird under Haven? Saying stuff?
Well, I put the pieces together. Managed to see that 'picture' I mentioned.
And while I don't have solid evidence, I think that the person who underwent a 'change' (As George said) was Cinder herself. I put together a broad-strokes sequence of events from the birth of Aldric Black to the moment Venom went back in time.
My idea runs along the facts that despite Future-Cinder (Uh... Hm... I think I'll call her Solidus Cinder whenever I'm not referring to her acting as Me in this timeline [which I'll get to]... The idea being that, like Solidus Snake, she's a perfect 1:1 copy of the real deal.) possessing all the Maiden souls, Salem never got her hands on all the relics, and had to have a big Battle of Five Armies at what I'll call the Lonely Mountain just to avoid not having a name for it anymore, and to keep with the Hobbit reference.
That shouldn't have been possible if Solidus Cinder and Aldric Black were on a roll and getting all the relics - they should've whacked Atlas and Vacuo and gone back to Salem.
So what happened?
Well: I know Ruby died, alongside most of the League and damn-near everyone in Haven George said as much. That implied to me an ambush - and an ambush has to be set by someone who knows someone else is coming. In hindsight, it's not hard to think that they could have just fucking waited, but the timing matched up too well for me - I concluded that they must have had an informant, and someone who could have stopped Aldric Black cold.
The Masters - the two old men. They were strong enough to fight something like that, and when I put that together, I had an epiphany - after all, even discounting my Father and I, can we really expect two people, on the same airplane, and old bastards at that, to be closet supervillains?
No.
So when they saw Aldric Black, they decided that was the line they wouldn't cross, and stood their ground against him.
But George didn't once mention what happened to Cinder after Haven - which is significant because he did say that the Masters died.
Conclusion:
Aldric Black threw Solidus Cinder into Haven's vault so he could fight the people who'd rallied to resist him. Solidus, now having seen three of the four Masters Salem had taken from the plane betraying her, then looked at Marty's actions as a whole, under the same light I mentioned a moment ago - the raw odds of so many people on a single plane being willing to just go from zero to Satan at the drop of a hat.
And since I do have verifiable proof that my Cinder has developed a romantic attraction to me, I can extrapolate that to Solidus - and then conclude that, after reexamining everything post-Master Betrayal, would similarly reexamine herself, and conclude that she was on the wrong side.
And you probably know where I'm going with this - you know, since I kind of already said it before:
Venom Aldric is Solidus Cinder.
When you factor in Venom arguing with George over wanting to roll the dice on someone changing, and George's insistence that it wouldn't be possible anymore, it makes sense - Solidus' change relied on my death and Aldric Black's birth causing her to reevaluate herself. Without either of those things, we get the same Lady In Red we've always had.
Add in Venom's deal with Raven and the things Vernal said under the vault, and it only further proves it: Venom wanted to evaluate Cinder because Venom desperately wanted to believe that maybe - MAYBE - George was wrong and they could bring Cinder into the light.
Well, when I realized all this, I came to two conclusions:
One: George was absolutely right, and without his context I don't trust Venom Aldric as much as he does. I'd go so far as to say I simply don't trust him, because I genuinely suspect that Venom's little deal with Raven wasn't planned or sanctioned by George - that she went off the reservation to do it.
Two: I never mentioned it, but one of the Masters, Ben, cornered me before we sacked Haven. He was talking to me about my father, about how I felt - and I didn't realize at the time that he was evaluating me, trying to judge if I was as bad as I seemed to be. Well, I failed that test pretty hard, and I knew that I had to go, define terms, and level with those two fast, before they did something drastic.
But I was late.
I was one.
Fucking.
Minute.
Late.
If those two old fucks had just decided to wait a couple hours until we landed - or just five goddamn minutes for Tyrian to wake up so we'd all be in one place! - we'd be living in a very different world.
But no.
The two Masters murdered the rest of the League, and nearly killed me. I blew up the Aviator (not my brightest move), and then Cinder and I fought them. I used one of my nuclear options to sap the energy of the German one, and then I stuck his soul in a Soul Gem in a science experiment - I myself can't pull out the big guns, like a Kamehameha to kill Thor, for instance... But if I had an alternate fuel source? Like a different Master's soul? What then?
Well: I made the Reality Stone is what happened, and then I pulled a That Guy Destroys Psionics to make a cardinal property of the universe within a few miles of myself that magic didn't exist. Step inside that area, no magic. Step out, you get it back.
I literally have no idea if it's permanent.
Ben went out like a light after that. No superpowers meant he was just a regular old man again, fighting two not-even-twenty-somethings with laser swords.
Good news, though, is that I stole away Ben's soul too - so now I've got a spare tank of gas I can use on something big. Like, if the things in my belt are nuclear options, we'll call these 'Cosmic' options. Stuff like making a Spirit Bomb, or a Super Saiyan Blue-level Kamehameha, or making a fucking Infinity Stone, things like that.
Cinder and I are crashing in the woods for the night - took us a good hour of limping before we got our powers back. I don't know if that means it wore off, or we left its sphere of influence, but I digress.
Salem's probably not going to be happy everyone's dead... But at the same time, they were all a means to an end for her. Long as we get her the relics, we'll be fine.
But... Ugh, fuck.
They were good.
All of them - my father, Ben, Helmut, they all had one strength I lack: To draw a line in the sand and not compromise when the time came to test their mettle.
Once upon a time, I thought my willingness to do the opposite - to do what I felt necessary, regardless of the cost - was a strength. That it would allow me to go the distance... And it did, and it is, but now I'm beginning to reconsider.
After all: I am where I want to be. In practically no time at all we'll have the relics and I'll be standing, perfectly positioned, to stab Salem in the back.
But it cost me my father, it cost me the other Masters, it cost me my (metaphorical) soul, it cost me the 'friends' I'd made in this world, it cost me more lives than I can count - even mine, at one point!
And at the end, the cost of all of that is me no longer being sure that I can make it worth something.
God, I'm tired.
My next entry will either be the last, or the second to last. We agreed that when we wake up, no delays - we just go, all ahead full, for the final two Relics.
And since the world has effectively thrown everything it has at me, at one point or another, and I've come out on top... I have no reservations that I'll make it through. The world doesn't have anything left - I've cleaned house. The mooks are just to fill up the screen, now. The once titanic bosses are now just cannon fodder to slow me down, and that's when I'm alone.
With Cinder by my side, with all four Maidens' souls in her, the best Atlas and Vacuo can do is weather the storm.
And then:
Endgame.
First was Vacuo.
It took two days to get there, and when they arrived, they practically dive-bombed Shade Academy. Any defenders not out dealing with Grimm or patrolling the desert for the Terrans had no chance - Aldric and Cinder, for better or worse, were too good together. Cinder brought the raw power that sowed chaos and confusion, and Aldric the precision to deal with the major threats before they could do any lasting damage to the Master and the Maiden.
They were inside in minutes, surrounded by a maelstrom of fire - and with Aldric's radar, they were on the Relic's trail seconds after that. Only the academy's headmaster was savvy, and informed, enough to realize what was happening, but when they tried to head it off at the pass, they found themselves right in the way of Aldric and Cinder, who were effectively a wrecking ball hurtling towards a plywood door. The Headmaster put up as good a fight as they were able, but against Aldric and Cinder, that amounted to little - and because the Relic was such a well guarded secret, their path was practically open and free after that intense, but brief, encounter.
They reached the sword less than ten minutes after they hit Haven, Cinder used her powers to crack open its vault and retrieve it, and allowed Aldric to hold it. Aldric tried to refuse - he'd seen Lord of the Rings enough to know what happened to people who handled ancient magical artifacts - but Cinder insisted. This was their moment of glory, they made it this far where no one else did, and they should share it.
So, with the Relic of Destruction fastened to his hip, and the Lantern of Knowledge secured to Cinder's, they left Haven as quickly as they arrived.
By the end of the week, they reached Atlas - passing by a naval and even a ground engagement between them and the Terrans as they did so. Their strategy here was similar to Vacuo's, but was aided by the destruction that had been wrought when Atlas and Earth had tangled, months before. Aldric didn't feel proud of the fact that his dropping of the MOAB was paying off again in the form of an Atlas academy that had barely been raised back up to scaffolding and foundations, since. Cinder set the place on fire to distract the Atlesians from them surveying the Academy with Aldric's radar. It took them more than an hour of searching before Aldric was able to lock onto Atlas' own vault, which, cleverly wasn't at the deepest part of the academy's bunker, it was, however, conveniently already open - the Relic itself appearing to be the subject of an involved science experiment, considering all of the uniformed men, women, and computers surrounding it.
The two suspected a trap, and a trap was what they got - when they approached the threshold of the Atlesian vault, there were dozens of soldiers, Huntsmen, and mechs coming out of the woodwork to meet them, while deeper inside the vault Aldric sensed the scientists hurriedly trying to secure and evacuate the relic. So their choice here was to back off - there was, after all, only one way in, and one way out, and just like Aldric had warned Ironwood ages ago, it was only too easy to smoke them out.
Cinder sent huge gouts of flame into the vault, filling the air with thick, acrid smoke and burning air, and she kept pouring on the literal heat.
The Atlesian soldiers, for their part, figured out they were literally being smoked out, and the braver ones tried to charge them - but that was when Aldric stepped in, engaging them with his gamebreaking stick of plasma and tearing them apart. After enough time had passed, everyone was either dead or unconscious - and the Relic was wide open, ripe for the Master and the Maiden to take while Atlas set up a counter attack, one last desperate shot at keeping Aldric and Cinder from taking their most precious.
But they'd already sang this song. They'd already done this dance. With their job done, nothing was keeping Aldric and Cinder from just leaving - from ignoring anyone not directly in their way and just rushing for the exit. Atlas had been prepared for a fight, but they hadn't been prepared for a retreat - and that was what Aldric and Cinder did. They charged through the assembled Atlesian soldiers - the meager force they had been able to bring together in as little time as possible once they'd realized they were under attack - and just kept going, using their speed and defensive abilities to just ignore anything not immediately in their way.
When they got top-side was when Atlas got creative - when Aldric and Cinder took off, the Atlesian Navy pursued them.
But, for all their power and numbers, Atlesian airships were huge, and Aldric and Cinder were comparatively tiny. All they had to do was escape into the tundra, wildlands and forests. When Aldric and Cinder dropped to the ground and flew in between the trees, they'd effectively rendered Atlas blind.
And just like that, in a little over a week, Aldric had killed the only remaining people he may have been able to call 'ally,' stolen enough magical ancient artifacts to make Nathan Drake blush, and had ushered in the apocalypse.
With the Lantern on Cinder's hip, the Sword on Aldric's, and the staff tied to Cinder's back, they turned in the direction of Salem's domain.
Aldric wasn't sure what to expect when they returned to Salem's Domain. Some kind of feeling of anticipation, maybe? A cold chill running over his skin? A pit in the back of his stomach? A burning in his chest? Something more than what he got:
Nothing.
When the sky started to darken into its polluted red shade, when the grass below started to transition to dead grey weeds, nothing happened. Aldric didn't feel anything besides the ache of flying for so long, he didn't see or hear anything besides Cinder flying in front of him and the wind in his ears. It was just nothing.
Nothing until they came in for a landing - just as the first time, when they came in, Salem was waiting for them, but unlike the first time, now she was clearly jubilant. She had a wide smile on her face - one that actually shone with wrinkles on her skin, so much so and so many that Aldric found himself feeling stranger than even when she falsely smiled. Now instead of looking inhuman, the Grimm Woman looked too human, as her black and red eyes swept over Aldric and Cinder, locking onto the ancient, powerful artifacts they carried with them.
Salem held her hands out to her sides in welcome, "you live." She said, a warmth in her voice that Aldric had never heard before. "I cannot... Can... Not... Express to you how proud I am. No words would do it justice."
Cinder, fighting to keep the fatigue out of her voice, nodded as she bowed to Salem. "Yes, my lady." She said, coming back up and swiping her hand through her hair. "There were setbacks... But we won." In contrast to Salem's warm smile, Cinder's was one of cold pride - she was reveling in Salem's acknowledgement, and was taking it for all it was worth.
Salem's face slowly fell back to its original, stone countenance, as she nodded, and put on a false frown. "I... Had noticed you two were alone." A beat, "and without your airship." She turned to Aldric, head tilted.
"The other Masters." Aldric supplied, unfastening the ornate longsword from his hip.
Salem's lack of disappointment wasn't lost on Aldric, but she held up her hand when Aldric tried to hand her the sword. "I would prefer you two, to place them." She said, before switching gears. "I am sorry to hear that... But I am elated, regardless, that you two thrived in such circumstances." A false smile replaced the frown.
Cinder spoke up, "my lady..." She shook her head. "You should have seen him."
Salem tilted her head, now turning to Cinder. "Oh?"
"Aldric took control of the situation in moments. Fighting those two was no more difficult than my bout against Ozpin." Cinder ran her hand down Aldric's organic arm, and Aldric was loathe to admit he had no problem repressing a shudder.
Salem let out a satisfied breath, nodding to Aldric as she said, "well done."
Aldric returned the nod, "thanks." Satan had just told him she was proud of him, and Aldric had thanked her.
Salem turned and with a wave of her hand, the two followed her inside the dark castle looming overhead. "And the kingdoms?" She asked, "with your collective power... And with the swiftness which you have returned, I can conclude they posed no challenge?"
Aldric shook his head, "textbook blitzkrieg. We hit them too fast, and got out even faster. The biggest problem was Ozpin's people - they had us at Haven, but we managed to pull through."
Salem let out a musical chuckle that had no soul, no life behind it, before saying, "I seem to recall you once telling me you didn't think yourself capable of fighting them all at once."
As they reached the stairwell, Aldric shrugged. "Guess I over-estimated them." He gulped, "so... How long until what you want done is done?"
"Always business, Aldric." Salem intoned, "you should learn to enjoy the moment... It would do you well." She hummed, "it will be some time yet. The facts have bled to tales, have bled to myths, have bled to legends... And this is the first time I've held all of them in my hands." She explained, as they ascended to the top of the castle's tallest tower. "I would think a day or two, before I learn what I need to do." She let out a satisfied sigh. "More than enough time for you to celebrate."
Aldric snorted, "and here I thought we were being discreet." He said, before Cinder punched him on the arm.
They reached the top of the tower, and Salem led them to the landing. At its center was the ancient, ornate table - upon which sat the Crown of Choice, ready and eager to accept its sibling artifacts. Cinder and Aldric marched to the table in unison, while Salem loomed behind them, a living shadow in a realm where none but they existed. Aldric deposited his artifact first - watching with rapt fascination as it changed size right before his eyes, going from the size of a longsword to that of a dagger when he placed it on its spot on the table. He turned to Cinder and watched similar things happen to the lamp and the lantern when she placed them - all of the Relics took on an unnatural, uniform size, and when the last one touched the table, a brief flash of putrid green light lit up the symbols carved onto its face.
Aldric sensed Salem approach, and gritted his teeth as her ice cold hand slid over his shoulder. "Well done." She cooed, patting his shoulder. "Well... Done." The demoness repeated. "The both of you... With this you have ended a war that has lasted far too long." She explained. "With these Relics, I will gain the power I need to effect change. To do what I have dreamed of for almost as long as I've existed." She let go of Aldric, and brought her hands over the table, holding them there as though it were a fire and she were trying to warm herself.
"Aldric." She said, "I shall grant you the peace you crave. For as long as you live, you will want for nothing. You will know only the tranquil existence of a job well done. This, I promised you." Aldric nodded in thanks. "Cinder... I granted you the ability to obtain the power you craved. For as long as you live, none but a scant few will be your equal, and fewer still, your better. This, I promised you." And Cinder bowed as well, before circling the table and stopping next to Aldric. "The both of you..." Aldric and Cinder straightened up and gave her their attention; Salem appeared reflective, staring off into space, her expressionless face as cold as ever, the only movement coming from her lips as she pushed air through them. "You have served me with unending and unquestioning loyalty, and peerless efficiency. I owe you a debt I will never truly be able to repay... When this is over, if ever there is something you need, merely say the word." She said, slowly turning her head to them. "And I shall grant it to you... This, I promise now."
There was silence for a few moments, as the gravity of her oath settled upon Aldric and Cinder.
Then, "I want a twelve inch -" Cinder dug her fist into Aldric's side, pushing all of the air out of his lungs before he could finish. "Never mind... I'll make my own sub." He chuckled.
Salem gave them a false smile, "go." She nodded to the staircase. "Eat. Bathe. Celebrate. This is our victory."
Cinder bowed, Aldric nodded, and the two left the tower. The door had barely even shut before Cinder had Aldric pinned to the wall, her lips crashing against his. She enjoyed herself, and Aldric reciprocated, for several seconds, before she pulled herself away and brushed her hair out of her eyes, a wide smile on her face, a light in her eyes.
"We did it, Aldric!" She whispered, giving him another kiss. "We did it!"
Her glee was infectious, and it took no small amount of self control for Aldric to lightly push her off of him and direct her down the dark spiral staircase. "Down, girl. I haven't showered in weeks, I haven't eaten in a day, and I've been holding in one hell of a bowel movement. Nothing happens until I solve those problems." He said, his own grin trying to stretch its way across his face.
Cinder let out a breathy chuckle, a spring in her step as she led Aldric down back to the main levels of the castle. "The world will be in our hand, Aldric. Both of them." She mused, "anything we want - anywhere we want. People cannot deny us, Huntsmen cannot fight us, Grimm will not accost us. There is nothing we cannot do, or have, now." Aldric sensed her smile growing from ear to ear as she was imagining the possibilities. "Gods - I can't believe it, Aldric. We did it!" She repeated, spinning around to face him when they reached the bottom of the staircase, "we won!" She breathed.
Aldric rolled his head dramatically, before pointing at her. "You keep going on like that, Hot Stuff, I'll run out of energy and all I'll be able to do is sleep."
Cinder raised her arms to her sides, quietly shaking her head, "What is there to stop you anymore?" She asked. "Even Ozpin cannot defeat us!"
Aldric grabbed the sides of Cinder's head and pulled her in for a kiss to shut her the hell up. She reciprocated gladly, and when they were done, Aldric said, "now holy fuck, Hot Stuff. You keep me any longer I'm shitting on the floor." He poked her on the head, she rolled her eyes, and the two split apart to return to their respective rooms, knowing well and good they'd be attached at the hip again soon enough.
When Aldric entered his dark quarters, he shut the door and flipped the bolt with a loud clack. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, holding it for a moment, before letting it out in a quiet huff. He waved his hand, drawing the blinds and flipping off the lights with his semblance, as he took in another breath, clearing his mind. To do this, to ensure Salem wouldn't listen in, he couldn't think anything. He needed absolute silence - physically and mentally - so he could sneak this under her radar. No hopes, no prayers that someone - anyone - would listen, nothing.
As he reached towards his belt, he let out his next breath, and pulled out his satellite phone.
He typed two words, hit send, and stowed it away again as he took in another breath.
And just like how he'd felt when he made his return to Salem's domain, hitting send carried with it none of the finality he'd hoped for. Sounding his battle cry to the Watchmen he knew would refuse the call didn't feel like a major accomplishment. It didn't feel like the hammer on the anvil, or like the last curtain call before the very end. It just felt like pressure on his thumb, quickly increased, just as quickly released, and then it was over.
Win or lose, it would all be over soon.
Give it some time. He thought. I have to give them a chance. He held no hope that it would make a difference - it was primarily so he could push off what was about to come for as long as possible. Aldric was going to die inside twenty four hours, and there would be no do-overs this time.
Thinking that, Aldric finally felt something, something that made him smile as he entered his dark bathroom and flipped on the shower. Something that prompted him to turn on the light.
Aldric felt peace.
The peace of a man who knew death was here, and who had accepted that there would be no struggling, no avoiding it. It would happen, and all he could do was greet it with open arms.
As the bathroom steamed up, Aldric shed his clothes. A completely mundane advantage of his radar was not having to stick his fingers under the spray of water to feel its temperature - he just knew it intrinsically. So after a few adjustments to make it hotter, Aldric stepped inside and let the soothing waters wash over his aching, tired, exhausted body. He let them pass over the new scars on his face, leaned his head back, closed his eyes, let out a long, slow breath.
Aldric enjoyed his shower long enough that the heat of the water turned his skin red, before he finally left it, dried off, and went through the motions of filling up the bathtup with hot water, grabbing soap and a washcloth, and cleaning his armor. The Mithril shirt was the easiest - being the nearly pearlescent white it was, any leftovers from his previous fights were instantly noticeable, and since it was metal, it didn't stain too easily. Some time to soak, a little soap, and a lot of hot water, and it was clean. Aldric cheated with his semblance and practically cooked the shirt, vaporizing the water on the shirt and drying it off in seconds, before he set it aside. The vibranium suit was a bit more difficult, both owing to how dark it was, and the fact that it had been damaged previously. Aldric examined the hole Cinder had dug into the chest area, right over his heart, as well as the missing left arm, and had to scrub the whole suit, inside and out, twice, before the water stopped running with any new stains.
With that done, Aldric slipped it all back on, and then a new pair of pants and socks over it, before he left his room. He sensed Cinder wasn't in hers, but rather was down in the dining hall, consuming her bodyweight in the food that always seemed to be fresh, ready, and in plentiful supply. Aldric joined her, and with the aftermath of the shower, his hair soaked and slicked back, and his armor and clothes cleaned and swapped out, Aldric almost felt like a new man, until he thought what he'd done was equivalent to cleaning and preparing a corpse for a viewing. That threw his mood back to where it usually was, these days.
Entering the dining hall, Aldric summoned a plate with his semblance and started walking the walls, deciding his last meal would either be his favorites, or would be the closest equivalent if Salem's literal magical stocks weren't up to task. He ended up loading his plate down with pastas, salads, and breads, before settling down next to Cinder - who silently pushed a goblet of water his way.
Aldric accepted it graciously, and cracked his neck before he picked up his utensils and started eating. The two ate together, sharing a silent moment as they dug through their food and simply enjoyed the silence. Cinder, in clear celebration - she reveled in the euphoria of attaining her victory - while Aldric, in peace - as he let the last moments of peace, and indeed the last moments of his life, seep in, like a warrior seeking to rest their weary muscles and bones before they went to battle.
When they had eaten their fill, the sun was beginning to set, Cinder dragged Aldric to her quarters - but not to her bed, but rather to the terrace outside, where they each sat back in the open air, their bellies full, and contented sighs leaking out from their mouths.
"I thought you would die when we fought the Fall Maiden." Cinder admitted. "I'd planned for it, even."
Aldric tilted his head over to her, "you had that little faith in me?" He chuckled, looking out to the dead, tainted lands that Salem called her home.
She shrugged, reaching over and resting her hand on his. "Not necessarily... I was just being realistic. As fast as you were learning, we were going up against someone who vastly outweighed the people you had fought until then. Even with our help, I thought you would get wounded and fall." She ran her thumb over his knuckles, "but you kept going... And under Beacon, you nearly even defeated me." She sighed, "I remember every moment of that fight... I remember the awe I felt when you matched me, blow for blow... And sometimes I wonder what would have happened had we not an act to play. Had you been able to fight without its end pre-determined."
Aldric shrugged, "doubt it would've changed much." He said. "Strong as I was... Strong as I am now, we see magic differently. You'll always be more powerful than me."
Cinder nodded, "perhaps... But still." She said, "look at you now. Second to a select few... The world is in your hands. In one day - less than that - Salem will have her victory, and from there... Anything we can imagine."
"I always imagined living in the Shire." Aldric responded, completely deadpan serious. "You think you can make that happen?"
She rolled her eyes, "shut up, Aldric." She said, eyes glazed over as she looked out at the dead lands. "I must admit... I will miss the fighting. Miss the adventure. Getting by, by the skin of our teeth. Always finding those stronger than us... I really will."
Aldric barked out a chuckle, "I fuckin' won't!" He said, "remember I came from the planet where we don't train teenagers to hunt demons. Fun as it may be looking back on it, in the moment it's goddamn terrifying! Luck will run out, eventually!"
"You always say that..." Cinder turned to look at him, a warm smile on her face. "And yet here you are?"
Aldric kept up the eye contact a moment, before he turned back forward. "Here I am." His bid to get allies: Failed. His bid to find a way to kill Salem: Failed. His bid to make himself strong enough to fight her: Failed. His bid to deny her overall victory: Likely to fail. He sighed, "here I am." He nodded, wistfully.
Cinder allowed the silence to settle for a few minutes, before she pushed herself to her feet, her dress rustling with the movements. "We've washed, we've rested, we've eaten." She said, pulling on Aldric's arm. "Let's celebrate, Aldric."
Aldric feigned disinterest, "if I must." He got to his own feet, and followed her inside.
Hours later, when Aldric awoke, and the sun rose, he pulled himself from Cinder's bed.
Since the castle was still standing, he knew that no one had come, but he still held out the barest whisper of the quietest chance of hope, so after he put back on his clothes and armor, he quietly snuck out to Cinder's terrace, leaving the woman herself sleeping soundly on her bed, barely even aware of his absence.
But, when he made it outside, he saw nothing but the dead and decaying lands that surrounded Salem's castle. No bomber airplanes, no tanks, no airships or fighter jets, no legions of soldiers and huntsmen, nothing.
Nothing but silence, and dead, decaying lands literally crawling with this world's abominable demon hordes.
Aldric was doomed to face Salem alone. He was sentenced to reap what he'd sown. This was his bed, and now he had to lay in it. He'd given hope as best a chance as he could, but when he pushed his radar out, he saw Salem still standing over the table - but the both of them were cloaked in an otherworldly, infectious, putrid green energy.
He was out of time.
It was now or never.
So Aldric took in one last, calming breath, before he spun on his heel, pulled the hilt of his lightsaber from his belt, and stepped back into Cinder's room. She was a part of his plan, a part of his Big One - his test with Ben and Helmut had only confirmed exactly how important she would be.
'course... Thought the Master, as he loomed over her in bed, the hilt of his blade clenched tightly in his hand. This won't make much of a difference anyways, all things considered. Aldric sighed, and Cinder shifted in bed, the faintest hint of a smile on her face.
Aldric raised the hilt, and his thumb hovered over the activator button. One slice on her legs, that would break her aura, the pain and shock would stun her. Two slices, one to each arm, and it would cripple her. Make her bleed, shove the rock in, get a second extra tank of gas. Two souls, one of a Master, one fused of all four Maidens, two sources of boundless magic. Any one of them could work a minor miracle, but together? Together, once Aldric denied Salem her relic, they could ensure he could leave her with a wound she may never heal from. A black eye she'd never forget.
Thirty seconds, that would be it - and his greatest enemy would be gone, her immortal soul put to a far better use than she ever was by herself. All he'd have left to focus on would be Salem, and all he'd have to do there would be to just get rid of one of the relics, and then fight until he died.
He just had to do it.
Aldric's grip on his blade tightened, his arms shook, but his thumb wouldn't press down.
Lips pursed, face etched in a deep frown, a thin line of sweat beading up at his hairline, Aldric tried, but just couldn't do it - because of one, single, simple, intrusive thought:
The variable.
The variable that turned Solidus Cinder to the light was twofold: Aldric dying, and her realizing that he was a traitor just like everyone else. Solidus was convinced that Cinder may still have it in her to change, and George, Marty, and Aldric were all convinced it was impossible. But if that were true, Solidus wouldn't exist, Aldric wouldn't be here, and Cinder wouldn't be sharing her bed with him. Cinder could change. The possibility was there.
So should Aldric really just throw it away? Just like that? Considering all the allies and alliances he'd build and burned, could he really afford to not take this leap of faith? Especially when there was arguably no downside: If he convinced her, he'd have an extra set of hands to fight Salem. He'd have Cinder on his side, and with her he could at least deny Salem the Relic of Knowledge, maybe even another. And if he failed? If she stayed loyal to Salem? Well - Salem would win regardless. Having Cinder would only speed it up, make the process go a bit faster and be a bit less painful for all involved, least of all Aldric himself.
Really, the question he was faced with boiled down to just one:
What if he was wrong?
What if he was wrong, and Venom Aldric wasn't an alternate-timeline Cinder?
If he was wrong, he'd just be setting himself up for failure. He may be making it harder, bordering on impossible, to deny Salem her full victory. Without Cinder's extra tank of gas, Aldric would wouldn't be able to do nearly as much damage as he would, otherwise, and he'd be leaving Cinder around to cause more damage while Salem hunted for the Relic's hiding place.
Was the chance - the extremely small chance - of one ally, and maybe an extra ten to fifteen minutes of struggle against Salem, worth the risk of almost guaranteed failure?
No. He frowned, face darkening.
No it wasn't.
This was a variable - one he couldn't account for, accurately. One he couldn't control.
So he had to simplify the equation.
Aldric raised his blade, clicked the button, and in a split second the room lit up with a bright red glow, exploded with a loud Zhoom! and he brought the sword down.
Something he hadn't considered was the fact that Cinder trusted him, and was dead asleep.
So her aura wasn't even active to begin with.
Aldric cleaved through her legs without so much as a hint of resistance. She woke up instantly, her whole world red with pain and she screamed - the kind of agonized, pained shriek of someone in unimaginable, unbearable amounts of pain, and equal amounts of shock and surprise. Her head snapped over to face Aldric, her amber eyes wide with shock, confusion, and betrayal, just as Aldric brought down his blade on her right arm, lopping it off at the shoulder.
"ALDRIC WHY -" She devolved into unintelligible screaming when Aldric finished the job and removed her final limb.
The sound and volume of her voice made Aldric's ears ring, and the sight of her trying to wriggle away from him, fruitlessly, made his heart sink. Aldric scoffed - almost full-on laughed - when he realized that Cinder, too, was among the people he couldn't bring himself to watch die, especially by his own hand. Unfortunately for her and him, he had no choice - so he roughly grabbed her by the hair with one hand, and extended the shield on the other. He yanked the woman, crying in excrutiating pain and uncomprehending betrayal, over to him, and then viciously rammed the pointed edge of his shield into her back. His strength alone would have been enough to draw blood, but with the pointed edge of his kite shield on top of it? He practically cut all the way through her spine. Her voice teetered out into an unintelligible gurgle as blood began filling her throat and leaking out of her back.
With a single sigh to still and steel himself, Aldric pulled out the gem without the soul and dug it into her back. This time, he knew it would work, this time he knew he would get what he needed.
And as the light faded from Cinder's eyes, it moved to the stone - which Aldric submerged fully into her back, causing her to writhe for just a moment longer before she went completely limp.
Without looking at the stone, at his new tank of gas, at his second spare battery, Aldric stuffed it back in his belt, and then ripped the shield out of Cinder's back with a disgusting squelch.
Aldric stood over the corpse of Cinder Fall for several seconds, her blood pooling around her, and dripping from his shield, dripping on the ground. He stared down at it, face firm.
For the first time, Aldric felt no remorse, no regret in taking a life.
"I..." He grunted. "I could say that's for a lot of different people. For a lot of different reasons." He said to the cooling body. "But..." He sighed. "I'd be lying. This one - this one. It's for me. I wanted to." He admitted, to the pile of meat. "If nothing else, I killed you. Goodbye, Cinder."
That's one down... Thought Aldric, as he turned from the dead multi-Maiden, whose fused souls remained temporarily trapped in the black soul gem in his belt. Now for the less easy one. Leaving Cinder Fall's corpse, and his lease on life, behind, he left her room for the greater-scope villain who had haunted him since the moment he'd crashed landed on this damned planet.
When he reached the staircase that would take him to Salem, Aldric paused for just a moment.
Welp... Here we go. He thought, as he pulled out his journal for the last time.
For The Record
In the words of the bravest man to ever live.
The man who, alongside his allies, saw plan after plan fail, but always persevered regardless.
Who saw death and failure staring him in the faith
Who knew that all was lost, as he saw the greatest challenge of his life readying itself to face him.
A man I look up to for his bravery and heroism.
A man whose words I look to for solace and confidence in what I know to be my final hours.
A man who knew victory was impossible in the face of the endless hordes, but who bucked up, sounded his battle cry, and tried anyways:
Alright, time's up: Let's do this.
Leeroy Jenkins.
With his epitaph written, Aldric took in one last breath through his nose, and then let it flow out of his mouth. He placed his foot on the spiral stone staircase and began climbing up to the roof of Salem's castle. With each step he took, just a little more weight slid off of his shoulders, as it was finally time for the game to be up. There would be no more intrigue, no deception, no lies - there was just him and Salem, and a desperate ploy to keep her from winning. All the cards were on the table. He'd played his hand, he'd lost most of them, so now? Now all that was left was the fucking fight, and the end of his life.
Swiping his hand through his hair as he reached the apex of the staircase, Aldric pushed open the wrought iron door with a soft squeak of metal grinding against metal, and as he did so, he pushed out his radar. First to grace his senses was the podium Salem had assembled the Relics upon - it was growing with its putrid green energy, wreathed in ice cold flame, but Salem wasn't standing above it. Instead, she stood at the edge of the landing, looking out at the land surrounding her castle, her face set in its usual stony expression.
"And you, Aldric?" Salem called from over her shoulder, as Aldric stepped through the door and let it shut behind him.
"Yeah." Aldric grunted.
Without any further words, without any hesitation, Aldric thrust his hand forward - and with all of his strength he pushed. A telekinetic blast-wave short forward, surging past the Relic Table, disturbing the green flames but not putting them out, and ripping and tearing fissures into the ground as it rushed towards Salem. It collided with an invisible barrier that surrounded her, and reflected wildly - creating a windstorm that flayed out in all directions, and carving a deep, circular groove into the tiles around her and the ceiling above her, perfectly encapsulating the barrier she'd surrounded herself with.
Aldric kept this up for several seconds, it soon sounding like a tornado was trying to tear apart the castle around her, but when his attempt at literally removing her from the fight had shown it would clearly bear no fruit, he stopped, teeth clenched, face set in an angry frown.
Salem let out a deep sigh, and hung her head, as Aldric noticed the same black, oily tar that she had once pulled a Grimm from was collecting in the circular fissure her barrier had left around her. It fell like a waterfall from the ceiling, and Aldric grunted, pulling his lightsaber from his belt, unfolding one of his shields, and preparing himself for the worst.
"Aldric." Said the disappointed lady of the Grimm. "I thought you smarter than this... More perceptive." She said, as Aldric lit his blade and could just barely see a shape forming from inside the tar, but whatever it was remained unseen, covered by the falling tar - he couldn't see anything inside of it, his Radar blind to the thick, oily liquid. Was this normal? Or was this Salem? What was she doing? What Grimm was she summoning?
He sensed Salem turn around and look at him right through the tar, as though she could see through it.
"I had hoped you would catch onto my warning, when I gave it." She continued, as the tar continued to fall, to splash onto the ground. "I told you, Aldric - I told you." It began to thin out, to slow down, revealing first, a humanoid hand covered in ashen gray skin.
"Any Grimm." She said, with the first frown Aldric had ever seen on her face.
The tar-fall continued to thin out, revealing a thin arm with muscles that seemed to just worm and wriggle underneath its dead skin, coiling around its bones and bulging against the thin sack of flesh covering it.
"Any Grimm that has walked this earth."
Aldric blinked, as the tar-fall thinned out even more, and it revealed its chest, bare save for only a thin raiment made of Grimmflesh that hung loosely from its shoulders.
"I can recreate them all."
As the tar-fall continued thinning out, it revealed more and more of the Grimm she'd called upon. Showing him that it wasn't just humanoid, but rather Human.
Or, to be more specific: Terran.
When the tar-fall vanished entirely, it revealed the demonic spitting-image of Aldric himself. Its eyes were thin, glowing with a blood red hue, and locked onto him. It didn't wear Aldric's armor, but rather thin, simple clothes that covered its legs and chest made of a material that looked far too fleshy and matte to be of any cloth. Its expression was dark, and as still and unmoving as Salem's. It was just as tall as him, just as thin and muscular as him, its dark, dry hair was just as long as his, it even mirrored his motions - listing to the left and right as Aldric did the same when he got to his feet.
Oh it's not just a Grimm. Aldric snorted, as he got his first look at the demon that had destroyed a timeline. Oh no this is much worse.
"Fuck."
"Kill him."