PLDN Chapter 38

"Chapter 38: Broken Dreams: The Aftermath/Broken Dreams: The Recovery"

Sub-Entry 371: "Broken Dreams.  Adonis' Gambit Has Tainted Us All":
It began with my core team at the fountain.

"Commander..."

"Bunnie...we lost a large chunk of ourselves.  It may have just been stuff and cars but...in those moments...it was like Adonis perverted everything we fought before annihilating our safe place.  It was like our man cave."

"And shame on you from hiding that away from us, boss--"

* WHAP*

"Not the time Violet." Mitzi scolded.

"Sorrrryyyyy." Vi sneered, a little incensed.

"Do you have any idea where Dr. Adonis will strike next or what his next move is?"

"Without knowing what his elite followers are volunteering to him?  No.  He doesn't plan.  He doesn't strategize.  He just...does things.  He takes inspiration from one of the traitors that joined him and rolls with it while putting his own twists on things on a whim if he thinks they'll be more amusing in the long run.  He's been following Heath Ledger's "Joker Diary" to the letter when he's not delivering sadistic one-liners from Jarod Leto and more recently I've been seeing him start ripping off Josquin Phoenix."

"He's a bad man.  Why won't he leave us alone?" Gadget sniffled, wiping her tears.

"He can't.  It's a sickness.  It's the mark of a pathological hypocrite, liar, egomaniacal lunatic.  He wants it, he needs it, he thrives of it, he's just completely consumed by it." Violet explained.

"And the worst part of it is...we made him this way.  S.T.C. loaded the gun and put me in a situation that I had no choice but to pull the trigger.  And now we're all suffering."

My guilt was weighing heavier than the core of a neutron star reaching critical mass.

"The cherry on top is that everyone is paying the price for my mistake."

"Volt, stop burying yourself in guilt and shame." Asriel tried to comforted.

"Azzy, I know you mean well but you can't possibly understand what it's like to be him...I sure don't."

"Then help me understand!  What makes him tick!  We have to diffuse him before he does something really desperate!"

"How can I do that when I don't understand...?" I was losing hope.

"..."

Wait a minute...wasn't...something supposed to be happening now? Something...felt like it was right...but it wasn't right.......or it wasn't right...but it was right? Why did that make no sense...but it made sense? What's...going on here?

It felt like our conversations were...desynched somehow.

There was this incredible feeling of deja-vu. Didn't...we just live this moment?

* AEON ALERT. TEMPORAL ANOMALY DETECTED. GENERAL CHRONOMORPHIC REDUNDANCY FAULT IN VGM-098. UNABLE TO VERIFY CORRUPTION. RESUMING TACHYON CIRCUIT *

More than that...why was this log mis-numbered? Why did it say 371...instead of 366? Where did five entries come from and why...was I having trouble reading them let alone making them out? It was almost like they were fading in and out of existence...no, blurring...no scrambling like satellite TV during bad weather...no...it was like matrix code. No, that's not right...it's like glitched 8-bit graphics overlapped on top of each other. Now it's like wing-dings.

It's just so chaotic--

I suppressed the urge to gasp.

No.

It couldn't be.

It's a little late to say do not adjust your computer...but you are seeing the same events transpire. The same events just before Chaopolis...!

"What's...going on...?" Mitzi looked worried.

"This is all wrong...all of this...this is all wrong." Gadget was starting to have a panic attack.

"Volt...?" Asriel looked at me.

And I looked back.

"Who is...Fri--"  He started.

My eyes started to widen as I knew the name he was about to speak. But he didn't get the chance.

* GASP*  Lady Daimyou sat up suddenly as her eyes snapped open.

A grunt nearby...and KOMMAND pulled herself up out of the crevasse....just before it began sealing up. "Wow...watch that first step.

"GAHHHH!" Suddenly from above Master Mozzarella dropped to the ground, suddenly reassembling in a cascade of light particles.

"WHOAH." Master Acorn suddenly reintegrated like a firework explosion going in reverse.

A storm of feathers coiled up out of nowhere from the ground before converging to reform Pit.

"We're alive!" Pit gasped.

"Then the plan worked?" Master Mozzarella asked.

"It did.  That lone trump card of yours..." Daimyou looked to KOMMAND. "It saved the timeline without erasing it.  Without resetting."

"So that was the big gambit.  For Violet to cut and paste LYOKO's secret Return To The Past special ability into a program which she sent to Bunnie's Sushi-Chenjaa...which she used the last of her mojikara to execute the program itself...which patched itself to Asriel's pseudo-code.  You gave Volt and Asriel the key to your one and only volatile save-point in VGM-098's space-time-continuum."

"In so many words." KOMMAND shrugged.

"Then it's over?  The threat is past?  We've won!" Pit asked.

"No...no it's not.  And no...we didn't win.   We lost.  We lost bigger than any of us could have imagined."

"The Crossover War?  For real?" Future Mitzi gasped.

"Then everything we fought for was for nothing..." Future Rotor managed to drag himself back in, his strength starting to come back.

"No...the battle is lost...but the story goes on." Daimyou narrowed her eyes.

"But...the planet is safe.  Adonis' bad ending was snatched out of his hands.  We get one more chance.  On top of that, Chaopolis was booted out of--"

"For now.  But no.  We lost far more than you can imagine.  For this reload...is tainted."

"...tainted?"

"All will become clear very soon..."

"Big brother...?  I don't...I don't feel so well..."

"Gadget!?" I felt the horrors of that line uttered in Infinity War.

But Gadget didn't turn to dust...she instead got nauseous and ran to a trash can. I'll omit what happened next.

"I see it all now..." Bunnie's horror was realized.

And like that...we all had total recall of what transpired. We all remembered where our world's timeline came to an end...and then restarted from LYOKO's quebit marker.

Adonis did it. He really did it. It's...horrifying to realize...but in that moment, we all relieved our torture...our deaths...and everything in between. And in that moment we were hit with an infinite amount of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, shock, and madness all at once.

It led us to an undeniable conclusion: we didn't escape a bad ending unscathed.

Quite the contrary.

With his unholy move that got derailed at the last second...he still accomplished what he set out to do.

Make no mistake about it. Adonis won. A tainted victory that tainted us all.

There was no wand being waved to make the bad ending go away. There was no movie cliché of everything working out in the end.

This really happened. And now the aftershock...the aftermath was coming. And it would be bad. It would be horrific.

"Volt.......I...remember everything."

I was quiet. Too quiet. Catatonic in my state of horror.

"Adonis....he made me...!" Asriel's eyes began to well with tears. "The promise...he made me break the promise...and now I know...now I know what you've been hiding."

"Asriel...I'm...so...sorry."

"No...nooo...not like this...I would have wanted to know the truth...but not....n-not like this...!"

Lady Destiny...Madam Fate...I had one unbreakable condition for all of this.......and...you...you...!

"Sensei...you knew."

Bunnie nodded once and kept her head down.

"Aunt Vi...?"

"I...really am I stinker, huh..." Vi had never been at a loss for a funny thing to say.

"Even...Mom and Dad knew that someday--"

"You know that it's--"

"I KNOW that...but...It...just can't...shake what I feel."

"Azzy, I didn't mean to hurt--"

"No.  You didn't.  He did.  He intended to hurt us with the worst thing he could hurt us with."

I was watching Goat Son be emotionally, mentally, and spiritually destroyed. It was too much. It wouldn’t stop.

"Azzy--"

"I think I should go.  I...have a lot to think about...and regret..." Asriel just walked away.

That was how I knew. That was how I knew that Adonis had broken him. Completely broken him.

"I...have a mess to clean up.  Excuse me." Mitzi went back inside Rock-Afire Pizzeria.

"Big brother...I'm going home to bed..." Gadget left next.

Violet finally threw her phone down, shattering it. "Screw this crap..."

I looked Bunnie in the eyes.

"..."

And with that she stood up...stepped back...and threw down a Deku Nut and disappeared in a flash.

"No...no this isn't happening..." I clutched my head with cringed fingers like I had a bad case of dandruff.

"How...how did we win against him...and STILL LOSE!?"

I wasn't asking the question because I didn't know the answer...I was asking the question because I DID know the answer.

"You...you..." I slowly rose to my feet as the square had managed to empty out with a lot of people having the same idea as us...feeling a lot less up to being out and about.

"ADONIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I raged to the sky.

And that was the end of that.

Sub-Entry 372: "Aftermath of War.  We're All Broken With Regrets"
After that day...I didn't see Asriel again. According to Scott and Callie, he hadn't left his room. He just sat in the corner, hugging his knees to his chest...and crying softly.

The same state I found him in going on 9 years ago.

All that progress. All that trust. All that I had ever worked for...and...that....that MANIAC took it from me. He ruined everything. And he thought it was just a joke!

Asriel took the worst of it. But he wasn't the only one who Adonis had royally screwed.

Bunnie was now up to the 163rd attempt to meditate under the waterfall. But all she could see when she closed her eyes was...that horror.

"Ancestors...be with me...be with me..."

There was no doubt she was channeling Rey at her darkest moment against the Emperor...reaching out to the 1,000 Jedi that had come before.

Only it looked like making contact was something she wouldn't be able to do. Her balance was all wrong. Everything was all wrong.

"What is pure is now impure...what is impure is now pure." Bunnie recited the words that she had been passed down from the Priestess, Kikio.

Unlike Kikio, she still drew breath.

But I suppose this only created the first link in the chain. Besides Bunnie's very equilibrium...it also had damaged friendships.

Violet hadn't gone to see her...and she hadn't gone to see Violet in a while now. It was beyond personal and was no affecting them professionally.

"Al Dente...if I thought I could actually get Queen Brooke to listen to me, I'd have her deport you right now.  Take that as a warning that I am in NO mood for your crap and I am NOT about to pay one iota of attention to your pleas to come back home."

And where Violet wasn't in a mood for much around Bunnie and me...it meant she wasn't up for hanging with Team Acorn, either.

Sally tore up the tabloid that read in big bold letters "TEAM ACORN WASHES OUT!  Six months before the season, the trio implodes!"

Her calls to Willie and Honey went straight to voice mail.

Lupe wouldn't leave the nature preserve. The animals were all starting to worry for her...the ones that weren't in hibernation.

Rotor was beginning to pack for South Plumbington. Scapelli and his lawyers were primed to eat him alive. And the news got worse from there. The rumors of his father dying in prison were starting to seem greatly exaggerated and rumors that he was about to be released...only made things worse.

I couldn't get a word edgewise out of my staff. They looked at me accusingly...like they knew this was my fault.

Wait...was it my fault? Adonis was the sum of my decisions but...he had a mind of his own...he was--

It was bad when I was second-guessing when I should and shouldn't accept the blame.

Did I do enough to protect my home planet from that psychopath?

Did I fail?

Was this...really on me?

Why did I feel so alienated at that moment?

No...no, I've already gone through this crap before! I didn't deserve this! I DIDN'T! I've accepted too much blame as it is. I've been buried under my sin for long enough. I made mistakes. I tried to correct them. This is...just a chance for me to correct this one...right?

Right....?

I pondered my next move...I decided...maybe if it was too hot to handle in town...maybe it was best I get out of town...and check in on the Underground.

"..."

So why did I feel so guilty doing it? Maybe it was because...now Asriel knew about it.

And he didn't have to ask me questions about it...his mind now shared memories with me. And I shared memories with him. Things about his past that answered a lot...and made me sorry I was now privy to them. And things about my past that he'd be sorry he did learn.

With Asriel still a no-show after that day...I figured...what does it matter. Who'd stop me?"

I'd fortunately kept the Delorean and the Time Train here in Miranda City instead of in the X-Vault. And with the role-back of our timeline, they were completely intact as if nothing had ever happened.

So...I took the Delorean to Ebott again.

And I immediately went to see Dr. Alphys.

"Dr. Arcade!  Th-thank goodness!  I was worried a-after Lady Toriel w-w-went missing and I--"

Alphys stopped in mid-sentence.

"Doctor?"

I hadn't raised my head since entering the doorway...and I hadn't completely entered the lab, yet.

"Is...something wrong...?"

I raised my head, eyes full of tears.

"......everything...."

On long, detailed explanation later.

"Oh m-m-my g-g-g-g-g-god...!" Alphys looked at in horror.

"Alphys...I don't know what to do."

What's worse...I could feel Alphys' confidence slipping away. I knew she was too polite to say what she really wanted to say...that all the Monsters' Hopes and Dreams were riding on my plan...but now with all this happening...was the plan in danger?

Technically...no. I wound Frisk up with Determination and turned her loose. The Underground was in her  hands.

My end of the deal was Prince Asriel.

And I let that deal be broken.

In a way I think she felt that everyone's happy ending was threatened. Yet, to say it outright...that would be selfish. How could the Monsters think of themselves when...

...when...

....they couldn't even know. They couldn't even know what we'd gone through. I only had one real shoulder to lean on that I could fully trust.

"Alphys, please don't soften the blows.  I know I screwed up."

"But w-what could you d-do?  This enemy of yours has been t-t-terrorizing us, too.  We've been at his mercy.  We w-wouldn't even have made it this far if you hadn't been around to undo the damage he caused.  We wouldn't have been able to diffuse the First Fallen's horrible plan!"

"Yeah...but look what happened when I tried to bring you all together.  Mettaton flaked out, Toriel and Undyne were at each other's throats, Papyrus was...well...being Papyrus.  And Sans...?  If I had known the game would have become unbalanced, anyway because of Adonis killing the First-Fallen--"

"N-no.  I understand why you did what you did.  And on s-some level, S-S-Sans does as well."

Alphys was doing her best to comfort me but...she was feeling like she needed comforting, too.. Her worries were building up inside and she wasn't about to panic and take it out on me why things were going horribly wrong.

"Alphys...how do I help him?"

Eight years. Eight years of this undone. A decade of work torn apart.

"C'mon...y-you d-don't think you're n-n-not giving him enough c-credit?  I mean...I h-haven't met him b-b-b-but I feel like he's m-made of stronger s-stuff than that."

"You're probably right, Alphys.  If you saw him, though...you'd understand--"

"That he's feeling what a lot of us are feeling in the underground.  Disappearing hope...broken dreams...no reason to go on...and no real person to blame.  It's too easy to blame the humans...I've heard Undyne go on about it for hours.  Asgore is s-s-so conflicted that it's tearing him apart...and Sans...?  Does he believe in a-anything anymore?"

Alphys was more in the know about everyone that I'd thought.

"At least that's one thing I got going for me." My ears drooped. "The relationships I've formed here in Undertale."

"Still...not used to hearing this world being referred to as a weird video game."

"This world isn't even the weirdest, most meta place I've been to.  And right now all I've got motivating me is the dwindling belief that I'll be able to take you off of this rock and...see the Universe."

Alphys offered me a ramen noodle cup. I accepted to be polite. Really...these things were ungodly unhealthy. The salt and M.S.G. alone...

"Just so many days ago, I was beside myself feeling like I was chasing a dream to get us to the surface...

Now...I've learned there's a whole solar system...a whole galaxy...a whole universe.......countless universes out there...and I don't know if we'll ever get to see them."

"Impossible is only a word we've created to rationalize when we don't have the motivation to attempt something.  It sets a limit...ironically one of the things my organization is charged with doing.  I've had...a history of setting boundaries and limits...and going along with it because the law had said this is how it has to be..

Ironically enough, I’ve created an immortal enemy who seeks to tear those limits down but not for any noble reason. Just for the purpose of establishing complete and total multi-versal anarchy."

"Even when beaten down...you give good cowboy speeches." Alphys managed to lose the stutter for a bit.

"For all the good they've done my crew." I looked down at my cup of noodles.

"Alphys, I came here for advice but I feel like I've only brought bad news and complications."

"Volt...don't sell yourself short.  We're all a little broken with regrets." Alphys looked over at her computer screen with a wire-frame diagram of Flowey.

"You still feel like...when you meet the Prince, he's going to have nothing but a grudge to hold against you.  Especially now that the truth has come out."

"Even though I know he's not the same Prince Asriel...I still feel so much guilt...I did this to his counterpart...to Flowey...and I know Flowey will never forgive me."

"But he...might."

One thing I was withholding was Asriel's fate...their Asriel's fate. I implied that he could come back...but not once did I indicate that he'd be able to stay. Nor did I indicate what would become of him when he became the flower again.

"I think...it's best that I not know any more than I absolutely need to.  Papyrus is going to bring everyone together at the Barrier...I understand that much.  But I understand...things have to happen before they get better.  Not quite sure what it is that has to happen but...I feel like it involves a big sacrifice."

"You're right, Alphys.  You shouldn't know too much about your own future.  Or anyone else's.  Just that they have a future--"

I stopped short. That was the one thing I'd missed. And one thing I could hold onto.

While my crew was shattered and my world was going to Hell because of Adonis...the fact was we all still HAD a future. One we could shape once we got our heads on straight.

This was all uplifting.

I sighed. "..."

But the fact remained...even after this talk...I didn't have my head on straight any more than the rest of town did.

"Thanks for your time, Alphys."

"I'm...sorry I didn't help m-much."

"Give everyone my best...and my apologies but...we're...all going to be indisposed for a bit.  Just let them know...we have complications to work through before we can even think of visiting anyone again.  It's nothing that anyone can help with."

"I'll...I'll d-d-do what I c-c-c-can."

This time...Alphys hugged me.

"If there's anything worthwhile that came out of its...it's meeting all of you.  You are...my last lifeline of sanity in this black Hell."

"Try to hang on...and...s-s-s-stay d-determined."

Heh.

If only it were that simple.

Sub-Entry 373: "Nothing Matters.  Nothing Makes Sense.  Nothing Can Heal This":
I'd visit every one of them--my crew that is--in the days that followed. But none were receptive to me. Lukewarm responses. Some barely said hello.

Surely...they didn't blame me for this?

Oh gods...it was just like the Pico-Drive Virus in the Interceptors all over again. Only this time it wasn't an act. This time was real. And this time Adonis really broke apart our bonds.

Rabbotou Dojo. No classes in session.

The doors were closed. Megami shook her head when I was about to ask if Bunnie wanted to talk.

I left without saying a word.

Computer Valhalla.

Doorbell was offline. The doors didn't open, either.

The neon signs and display were ominously dark.

"Goddammit.  You too, Vi?"

Walrus Brothers Plumbing Service and Supply? I could see Rotor, inside but he wasn't giving any sign the building was open for business.

Skeeter wasn't around, either. I'd later learn that he had been grounded for mouthing off. I didn't press Rotor to ask about what and why.

Rock-Afire Pizzeria was still in shambles. Mitzi wouldn't come downstairs from her residence despite how many times I called up the stairwell. Her co-workers weren't on duty, either.

I spied the "Under New Management" sign on the cracked glass as well as the poster that said "Coming Soon: Chuck E. Cheese's."

I angrily tore both off and ripped them up and let the pieces scatter. Then I got out of there before I could get ticketed for littering.

Gadget went back home to Neo Arcadia to spent time with Odie for a few days. I didn't stand in her way. Hopefully he could comfort her but...Odie wasn't exactly known for an emotional touch. I might as well as Mr. Spock.

All over town I was seeing anger, arguing, yelling, screaming, and people at each other’s throats. Mostly divided between those who could remember what happened before the Return To The Past...and those who couldn't.

"JEEZE, WILL YOU WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!?"

I sighed as I watched the person in crutches almost get run down.

Then I saw Hyperion arguing with a guy over a parking ticket who was about to punch his lights out.

I then realized...this was like a reenactment of the moments leading up to Dana Berret's baby carriage taking off on its own and nearly putting baby Oscar in the path of a speeding bus. It was freakin' New York City in the opening scene of Ghostbusters II and now there were over 3 million completely miserable a-holes in the kingdom alone.

"Why the HELL is this happening!?" I growled.

I knew why. It was because that there were consequences. There was no sudden happily ever after once the world had been saved thanks to Violet, Bunnie's, and my desperate gambit; that ace in the hole that we probably could never use again.

After all the crap that Sans and I both had for the evils of the RESET...what did we go and do? We loaded our timeline from an earlier point. The difference was we had kicked Adonis and Chaopolis out of it. But only temporarily. Which means that his attempt to destroy our world had gotten overwritten.

What was stopping him from just...coming back and doing it all over again? Him. He was stopping it. He wouldn't do so because it wouldn't be unexpected. It wouldn't be arbitrary. It wouldn't be pure chaos. It would just be a repeat performance. It would just be Dr. Wily trying to take over the world for the 12th time.

Unlike me...when he screwed up a plan? He didn't try again. He'd punish the one who gave him the plan then steal a new plan from the next in line who was foolish enough to volunteer one.

I slugged a brick wall in an alley when no one was looking.

"Never again." I hissed.

There was no easy fix. There was no shortcut. There was no wands to be waved, no wish to a genie, no miracle to be had.

This was real. These were permanent consequences. This was what it was--the bad guys won. They won even without destroying the world, without those casualties being set in stone, without any visible evidence that they'd even BEEN to our world.

The mark they left on us couldn't be seen...only felt. And it felt like Hell. Our own personal Hell.

I had gone to Alphys. Why didn't this make me feel better? Why didn't this help? Somebody had to stay strong in all this? Why was it me? Why was it always me?! Why did everyone turn to me when things were......stop it, Volt. Get a grip. You're the leader. That's why.

I was going back and forth in my own head between motivating myself...and dissuading myself...pumping myself up to take action...and admonishing myself for failing to take action.

I was in a programming loop, honestly. I was kicking my own arse...and letting everyone else kick it too. How did I think I was going to recover if I was willing to take it from both ends?

I tried coming up with a plan of what to do next.

But it all came back to retaliation. And now it couldn't be retaliation with inclusion because nobody wanted any part of this. Not while they looked at me like I was the bad guy.

This was the Pico-Drive Virus all over again.

I was being crapped on! I was being crapped on, damn it! And you know what the worst thing is...

Hey! Where are you going! I know you're not closing this journal entry in disgust! Okay, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to lash out at whoever's reading this. We're cool, right? Right?

"You've got to stop this, Volt.  You're getting meta again.  You're not Deadpool so stop with the fourth wall crap."

Also it didn't help that I was re-enacting that scene from Wayne's World. Sorry about that.

Ahem...where was I? Gods, I was really messed up if this is what I'm writing in these logs.

So...yeah...every plan was falling apart before I could put it together.

I'm out of ideas. I'm out of options. I'm running out of friends to turn to. I'm just...running out of everything...even sanity.

Nothing makes sense any more. Nothing at all.

Maybe...what I shouldn't be doing is trying to apply logic to this...maybe it was time I acted on instinct...on how I felt.

What was it I wanted more than anything at this moment?

Accountability.

I guess that's a pretty good sized spring board into revenge. Bunnie always had nothing but scorn for revenge.

But wouldn't she also agree this was a great injustice? Somebody was getting away with this. Somebody would do this again. Somebody had to be stopped.

In my anguished stupor, I had almost given up out of frustration...when it came to me.

There was someone who could be held responsible. Feasibly? No. Possible? Yes.

It was something that had been boiling over for as long as I had this damn contract tied to me. This White Knight burden was a raw deal. And now this deal burned my family, my friends, my everything.

The charred remains that still stood demanded justice.

It made no sense.

Nothing made sense.

But I was still going to do it...I was going to do...that...

it was desperate. It was self-defeating. It carried far more risk than reward...if any reward. There was no turning back if I did. And the consequences would only make things go from worse to unspeakably unforgivable. I'd never win back the people who trusted me up to this point.

But I think it was time I paid a visit to the one place I'd never been to.

Back. To. The. Source.

Sub-Entry 374: "In Light of My Rage, I Seek to Punish a Goddess":
"...THE LAST LINE HAS BEEN BREACHED!  SECURITY FORCES HAVE FALLEN ALL OVER THE QUASAR PYRAMID!  SUBJECT IS HEADING STRAIGHT TO THE CHAMBERS!"

"STOP HIM!  STOP HIM AT ALL COSTS!"

"THERE'S JUST NO REASONING WITH THIS GUY!  HE'S CRAZY!!!"

"SOMEONE CONTACT THE COUNCIL!"

It would do no good even though this made their day.

"...he finally did it."

"He's finished.  There's no going back from this."

"Daimyou!  I implore you!  Let us personally--"

Daimyou shoved the Councilman back.

"Denied."

"How long are you going to turn a blind eye to this!"

"This is a personal matter.  Do not interfere."

"Interfering is the one thing we SHOULD be doing!  This is TREASON!  He's going to endanger us all!  Our--"

"Do not speak of your contracts so casually.  You only wish to continue on as you are.  From the overwhelming failings that the Council allowed to happen that led to this?  Perhaps losing our immortality is merely justice for all that we have ignored."

"How can you say that?!"

"Mind your tone and learn your place." Daimyou pressed the flat edge of the sword to the Councilman's neck.

"If I use the sharp edge of the blade, you may not expire from it, but you'll wish you had.  Do not defy me."

"Y..yes, Lady Daimyou."

Daimyou looked toward the hallway of mass destruction and the beaten and unconscious guards.

"Do what you must...but do not make a habit of it.  You are not a thug.  But you are right.  Even a Goddess should be accountable for their own matters."

The last elite guard crumpled to the ground. And I was completely undeterred from my path.

Nothing made sense anymore. Nothing was worth it. Nothing could make things right. There was just one thing left. Only one that made even the tiniest bit of sense to me. it was the only thing giving me semblance of clarity of thought...and by gods...just saying it out loud was as insane as actually carrying out the act of it.

The towering gates at the end of the longest of halls stood before me once I reached the top step. It was as bright as the Barrier. It was gold but lit up so bright it might as well be the pure white. Bright as a supernova and too pure for mortals to tread upon.

But I wasn't about to tread upon it...no...I was about to...!

My knuckles on each hand cracked as I forged a path of tightly packed electromagnetic rings from my position to the doors.

I amassed the sum of a cosmic storm, a pulsar, and a supernova in equivalent electromagnetic energy, straining my contract as far as I dared go. Honestly I didn't know if I could completely breach it. And I didn't care.

I wound myself up...primed my slingshot and let the electromagnetic rail effect do the dirty work as I tore through space in the form of the greatest of lightning bolts, fist outstretched.

As I did, I let out the loudest, lung-straining-est, voice-killing-est bellow of solid rage I'd ever mustered in my entire life as completely tore the doors off their hinges, burst into the room and continued my path toward my target...my target that saw me coming but only maintained that smug evil smirk and stood her ground.

In the raw microseconds that transpired next, my fist made contact with her face. There was a ripple through time and space and a spherical blast wave for the briefest of moments...before her head whiplashed...and she went sailing into the far wall all the way in back of the room.

She impacted for a moment, at first mere cracks webbing around her  as she spread her arms out in a crucifixion pose just to mock me......moments before the whole wall buckled into a 100-foot impact crater...one that was very SKULL SHAPED, with its victim soundly plastered into the nasal cavity.

To the side, her sister covered her mouth in horror and shock...and tears. Tears of guilt and shame not of shock and horror of her sister being struck.

Madam Fate remained there, motionless, with that sickening, smug, wide-eyed grin...before the cackle began and erupted into laughter.

"Feel that?" I stood there, huffing, my pulped fist starting to reconstitute. "That's called PAIN.  And there's a lot more of it that you're owed.  It's not even a fraction of what you caused.  But for the love of all that is holy, you'll never comprehend it.  This is me taking a stand.  This is me telling you, you didn't just cross the line...you danced on it before continuing to run past it while never looking back."

"My my...such spirited words...you are an interesting white knight.  Truly you have made this a script to behold."

"Is that all you have to say?!"

"Volt...!" Lady Destiny started to protest. I was in too much of a rage to describe either of the ethereal goddesses. Not that I'd want to. Not that I'd have the capacity to. How do you describe something this high up in evolution but...somehow still able to be punched into oblivion.

"SAVE IT!" I snapped.

"You had one thing NOT to do.  And you did it anyway.  Why?  For the LULZ.  For the fun of it.  For your stupid game to go on.  Just because you couldn't stand to lose another one."

The most obvious counter to that she'd have to that was that she never actually lost one  She'd always start up another new game on some new world to complicate the already "Ultimate" game of good and evil.

"And where would you be if you hadn't been pushed over the edge?  Stagnation is truly an ugly thing.  We must have change.  We must evolve."

"This...isn't...evolution.  This is GENOCIDE!"

"Your world hasn't died...well...it hasn't STAYED dead, rather."

"But you did try to kill it."

"Do you not blame the wrong person?  The Black Knight does as he desires.  I had no say in what he does."

"BULLSH--"

"No need to be vulgar.  A knight NEEDS to be challenged.  Adonis was right about many things but one thing we do have consensus on is that chaos is DYNAMIC.  It can't be allow to be in this...state of rest.  This state of rest you call peace.  It has to provoke and upset the status quo."

"Is that how you see it?!"

"Come now, Doctor.  It is...only a game."

"ONLY A GAME?!?!" I roared. "PEOPLES LIVES END AND YOU TOSS THEM AWAY AS CHESS PIECES ONLY TO RESET NEW ONES IN THEIR PLACE AND THEN KNOCK THEM DOWN AGAIN!?!"

I knew what she was doing. I knew she saw herself above good and evil. I knew what she was trying to get me to do.

"You're not going to get me to rage quit this.  I will not surrender this so you can have an easy victory."

"I have asked you for no such thing.  After all, you are not my knight.  I cannot attack you directly but...you seem to have attacked me rather unprovoked."

"UN...PRO...VOKED?!?" My blood was beyond boiling. A normal person should have had a stroke or passed out.

"DO NO THREATEN ME WITH ATTACKING A GODDESS!  YOU TWO ARE THE GAME MASTERS OF THIS...SICK TWISTED GAME OF YOURS AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS IN IT!"

I don't know if that was true anymore. I honestly felt like I didn't know anything. At this point there was nothing I could think of that I could do that could EVER even the score with Madam Fate. There was only one thing that could get to her and at this point...it was a long shot.

"Mark my words...you'll be the one who rage-quits this game."

"That's it...that's the Determination I'm looking for..."

"You WILL leave my family and friends and my world and my allies alone.   If you EVER try to make another Universal City happen again...you're not going to like where this game goes next.  I promise you...I will make this game as not fun for you as it is for me."

The grin widened even bigger and her eyes widened even more unhealthy and the cackling continued.

"Do not test me, Fate.  I dared to slug you.  And that's the very least of what you deserve."

I walked past Lady Destiny...and visibly turned my back on her.

"If I were a lesser man, I'd quit you and your contract right now.  But I will NEVER let you forget that you let me down....for the SECOND TIME."

And then she buried her face in her hands and cried.

I walked out.

"What have you done, sister...?" Lady Destiny had dropped to her knees and hung her head in shame, weeping.

"I have made this game so very interesting.  This is my masterpiece!"

"He's right...you don't see this as anything but a game."

"Why should I?  Games were meant to be played.  Game pieces were meant to be played with."

"We have to be accountable, sister."

"Don't get self-righteous on me.  You're as stained with their blood as I am.  The only problem you have is that you let it get to you.   Goddesses are above the consequences.  The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can actually have fun with this game."

"After all that holier-than-thou talk to spouted at Volt Arcade...now you're talking to me as a mortal?"

"Get over yourself."

"You just can't stop changing the rules.  Not only the ones of the game but the ones dictating who you are.  I don't know you anymore, sister.   I can't do anything to even phase you."

"And that is what freedom is.  Freedom is chaos.  And chaos is fair.  Just as Adonis said.  You know there are two other thing that are fair.  Birth.  And death.  The moment mortals are all equal."

"What are you trying to prove?!"

"I've already proven it.  Now.  Are you going to get up off of the floor and get back to playing the game?  After all...the game is everything.  And it decides the fate of the universe...of EVERY universe."

"You're overstepping your bounds again.   What would the Makers of the other universes outside of the UltraVerse say if they knew you were trying to press into their territory.  Did we not already stir up a hornets nest with Universal City."

That convinced Fate to pull herself free and land with a thundering shockwave.

"Won't let that go.  Will you?  It's getting annoying for you to keep bringing up."

"You crossed the line!  You went out of bounds!  Those universes are not our game boards.  You had no right to let Adonis do what he did, much less give him the idea to do it in the first place!   You trespassed in Universal City and you nearly trespassed in--"

"Blah blah blaaaaaah.  Don't tell me you're going to bring up HIS universe, next?  The Triumvirate of Dimensions is in the past.  It's gone and their fellowship broken.  It's the reason why your White Knight has never gone back to visit the other surviving of the triad."

"Make no mistake.  His universe is off limits.  You make a move on it, and the Ancients will not let it slide again.  The Chosen WILL come to our universe and personally hold you accountable.  And he'll have his own Makers behind him.  Just as Arcade has me behind him."

"Yes...off limits...just as hers was.  Yes...you will stand with him against me...because you've seen how well standing against your own sister has worked out in the past."

"Tch...!"

"Sit down.  And get back to the game.  And watch the script unfold.  And I guarantee you won't be bored." Fate tented her hands. "My Black Knight is going to make his grand return sooner than you think."

By now I was descending the staircase back through the gates at the bottom. The entirety of the STC barracks were crowded around and aiming their weapons at me. But once again, Daimyou made her appearance and ordered them to stand down, reminding her who she was.

"So.  You did what you had to do."

"In the name of peace and sanity." I quoted the War Doctor again.

"You never could use your own words."

"I have no regrets from what I've done and said."

"As you should not."

"Daimyou...I punched one of the two primordial forces of our universe into a wall and threatened her.  I don't think I can sink any lower."

"Then rise.  Rise from where you stand.  Rise up and take back what was ours.  Take back what was his.  Take back what was yours."

"Was?  It never left our possession, try as he might.  It was never his to take.  I'm going to end him and his game.  By any means necessary."

"Be mindful of how you put it.  Do not become the beast to fight the beast."

"I'm already at that level.  I don't think I can do much worse."

"Then my prayers are with you.  Please...for his sake."

"This is all for him.  I'm not losing my best friend.  Not again."

Daimyou nodded and allowed me safe passage back to whence I came. The Council fumed as they watched from their room.

There was an ominous dead silence among every personnel member in the entire organization. Those were for me...those who were against me...those who were indifferent.

I'd made a statement. And what a statement.

How...do you honestly rationalize literally punching a deity into a wall?

Sub-Entry 375: "We Begin to Recover, We Begin to Rebuild, We Begin to Forgive":
From the moment I had punched out Madam Fate, a paradigm shift began in the UltraVerse. It was...almost like a sign that the climax had come and gone and the balance between good and evil was shifting again.

It was like the universe remembered how to forgive even if it couldn't forget.

And I began to notice once I made it back to town.

"Commander."

Bunnie was standing right in front of me as I left the portal.

"Major."

An awkward silence.

"I...was thinking about checking in on Violet.  You...in?"

Normally, the thought of setting foot in Computer Valhalla would set me off...but...for some reason...it felt like I NEEDED it.

"...yeah.  I think she could use some friends right about now."

And thus began what I would call...the chain reaction effect. One by one, each of us would inspire the next.

While Bunnie and I made the first move with Violet, arguably it began with Lupe.

"I see you have...made a friend." Lupe sat down and watched Antoine pet the coyote.

"Doing zee...'anging out with my own kind eez what a loser deserves."

"Are you not being too hard on yourself?"

"It is only fair.  I am a terr-ee-bley burden on all of you."

"Your heart is in the right place even if your head isn't.

"All too true.  I am...just not the best of luck charms...am I not?"

"I'm...still glad you're our bad luck charm.  You can't help but be who you are."

"If you are...needing a shoulder to lean on...?"

"Antoine...thank you for being a friend.  At the very least...trying to be a friend."

And like that...Lupe began her own healing process as Antoine began his.

For Sally...it went to Antoine. And frankly...it was long overdue.

Sally walked over and had a seat next to him.

"Oh...I am being zee sorry.  I will go."

"No.  Stay."

"Very well.  I will be doing zee staying."

"Antoine....we've never been on good terms.  That's putting it lightly.  You know... a lot of girls would go for your romanticism and goofy accent but....all I could feel like was I was having a wet sponge draped over me."

"Zis eez...zee apology, no?"

"Not a very good one....sorry about that."

"I am being zee used to it."

"Antoine...all of us...especially me have spent our lives being unfair to you.   I want to make it right."

"My princess?"

"I'll give you that one.  But for future reference, I'm not a princess any more.  I'm just me.  Sally Acorn."

"I will...do better."

"Just do you, Ant.  Just do you."

"Oui.  I will be as myself and I."

"So...heard you tried to stand up to Adonis.  You didn't have a chance but you still faced him like a man."

"I was having nothing to lose but my own life.  I must be eliminating zis dreadful stereotype about my people surrendering and retreating at zee' first sight of danger, no?"

"Heh.  Work on speaking with a forked tongue and you'll be almost tolerable."

Deer-in-headlights.

"That was a joke.  A bad one at that."

"Oh.  You are being zee forgiven."

"Antoine, you have impossibly high standards that you keep trying to live up to.  That you keep falling so very short of.  it takes a special kind to make that much effort to be great."

"Should I...try less...?"

"No!  Keep doing what you're doing.  I mean you can only fail so many times before you have a victory, right?"

"Zat eez...true...eet 'as to be."

"Well...this has been the most lopsided of apologizes so...I guess if words aren't going to cut it...maybe action will."

Sally leaned over and kissed Antoine on the cheek.

That made his eyes bug out and his jaw drop; his mouth a gaping hole in surprise. After a few moments he put his hand to his cheek...before swooning.

"If you say you'll never wash your face again, I'm going to hit you.  It's charming but it's really gross and not a practice of good hygiene.  You of all people should know."

"Yes, my princess...Sally."

"You're doing better."

Sally would be there for Team Acorn. But then she'd bring the healing to Chameleon's doorstep while Lupe dropped in on Cid Padesh and Tina. Our allies might as well know we were thinking of them.

Antoine then brought the healing to Rotor.

"I am...'ow you zay...not zee best friend in zee world, no?"

"Understatement." Rotor was grumping pretty hard.

"I am be deserving zat.  And..je suis désolé.  Um...how you zay--"

"Yeah.  You're sorry.  I kind figured that out from the context even though I still don't speak your language."

"Zee princess...Sally, I mean...she 'as er...covered up zee axe with zee' dirt?"

"You mean buried the hatchet with you.  I guess..it was bound to happen sooner or later.  Sally's...not one to hold onto a grudge...a real one.  Not even with you."

"Eet was...'ard geev-eeng up zee duty I 'ave spent zo much of my life to be upholding.  I know no other life but 'zat of a royal guard to being."

"Trust me.  I get where you're coming from.  There's no harsher cruelty than being told to or forced to give up on your dreams."

"But Ro-tair...you are being zee far more successful than I.  You 'ave a bro-zair and zee family business.  I am 'aving no family of my own...mon père et ma mère...puissent-ils reposer en paix.

"Antoine...you're getting me misty-eyed reminding me about your folks.  I can't imagine what it's like being an only child.  I mean...who do you have in your life but Asriel?  He's...kind of a disciple to you...at the very least he's looking out for you.

"You have zee great disciple, no?

"Gadget?  Yeah...I guess she's a great student.  And...you're right.  I have Skeeter and...well, Scapelli hasn't taken our business, yet."

"I do not wish to be 'zee moocher...your terr-ee-bley burden."

"Ant, come on.  Don't get me all worked up over this.  Isn't it our job to be hard on you?  I mean what's the world coming to when you're hard on you?  You've always had that unshakeable confidence."

"Merely...zee bluster.  I, Antoine D'Cooliette, must admit...eet is all zee show...to cover up 'zat I am the empty inside...that I have to put on zee airs or I will...I will be zee crumbling like zee baguette trampled underfoot."

"I...can't say I had no idea but...I feel like it's something I just ignored.  All of us have.  I never realized it but...you really are the bravest warrior, Antoine."

"Merci...merci boucoup, mon amie."

Try as I might to get through to Gadget...it was Rotor who finally got her to smile again.

"I was proud to be the understudy of the Minister of Science.  It let me stay close friends with our mutual acquaintance."

Gadget looked up where she was hugging her knees to her chest like Asriel used to do.

"I know I downplay it a lot but...it's only because of how much I've been humbled over the years. Son...er.....that guy and I were tight.  We were best friends until Miles was born.  I mean I didn't take offense or feel shoved out or anything.  The little guy just needed more attention than I did.  I was always a good sport about it."

"It must've been nice."

"Yeah, I watched from the sidelines until Skeeter was born then...then I really understood what the hub-bub was about."

"Having...a brother was the best feeling in the world for me.  I don’t' remember much as a lab mouse, but...I can never forget that feeling."

"It stays with you.  And it can't be broken.  Especially by a punk like Luwhiney."

Gadget's expression faded a little at the name being brought up.

"Hey.  We'll all stand with you.  Promise."

Rotor handed over a new inlet valve mechanism from a toilet repair kit. He figured Gadget could retrofit it into some other purpose.

Gadget nodded, sadly.

"Hey.  I have some extra peanut-butter cups.  Want to share?"

"Yeah...I'd like that."

Rotor patted Gadget's head.

"You're a good kid, Gadget.  Even though you're not a kid anymore."

"I...I try to be.  I...just never wanted to be a brat to anyone."

"Oh, you've never been a brat.  You're almost too good to be true.  Your brother's so lucky."

"Rotor...?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to have to face her again...aren't I?"

"I can't see the future, Gadget.  But just know...second chances at anything are worth attempting.  If you can't get through her...at least make sure she can't hurt anyone else."

"I'll do that."

Once Gadget was herself again, she went to Mitzi.

"Miss Mitzi?"

"Hmm?  Oh.  Hey, Gadget." Mitzi's business was at an all-time low.

"Umm...can I get a couple slices of cheese pizza?"

A lengthy pause.

"Sure." Mitzi got to work.

"You know what I miss?  The Michael Jackson songs you used to have playing on the juke box."

Mitzi sighed and looked at the wall where her framed picture of Michael Jackson's autograph hung. The glass was badly cracked from where Pasqually and Jasper had trashed her shop. She hadn't gotten the heart to replace the glass...but at least the paper underneath had survived.

"It's a free country.  No one said you couldn't play music." Mitzi kept working.

Gadget hopped off the bar stool and used her own service key to open up the machine and put in some credits. Mitzi didn't mind. Gadget was always someone she'd let play songs for free.

Gadget queued up about ten songs and let the juke box work its magic.

"So...did you really kick him in the naughty parts?"

Mitzi let a small laugh slip out. "Gadget!  That's a little low brow to be talking about."

"I'm not a kid anymore, Mitzi.  Just because big brother shields me from the NSFW stuff, doesn't mean I'm not aware of it."

"What made you bring up such a thing?"

"You...seemed like you could use some happy memories."

"Well...it wasn't exactly happy...but...confidentially?  It was satisfying."

And from there the girl-talk had an easy jump-start and went for a pretty long time. I think little sister was going to be okay. She was going to work past this.

And now Mitzi was on her way to recovery.

From there, Mitzi went to Hestia to give advice to her idol while Gadget popped in on Kid the Cat. I understand that Adonis' mages had found his weakness and used it to essentially dissolve him from the magic plane.

of course he remembered it happening so...he was all to glad to have Gadget help him through the experience...which didn't take all but two to five minutes before he was pondering the path of the water  that went down the drain when a toilet was flushed. Never change, Kid. You're awesome the way you are and my little sister likes that most about you.

Mitzi's talk with Hestia ended up splitting from there as Hestia oddly enough talked to Cid Padesh. Cid ended up spreading the comfort to Alistair. Alistair talked to Marcel. Marcel chatted with Chameleon. Chameleon buried the hatchet with Violet. Violet patched things up with Bunnie. Bunnie visited Queen Brooke who would go on to restore semblance of civility to Jaimas as well as rekindle the alliance between Miranda and Raxis.

Violet would talk to Bunnie who called for all of the Ecotropians to have a pow-wow and round of apologies and pledges to reforge broken bonds.

From there, it spider-webbed, crisscrossing acquaintances, colleagues, family, even total strangers.

And finally Bunnie dropped in on Brooke. And she needed the sake more than ever. Suffice to say...Brooke's contained anger was a force that went well beyond cosmic level. She would have her vengeance on Chaopolis...and it would not be pretty. But until then...the sake took the edge off. Furthermore she was starting to tolerate certain individuals that irked her nerves. Even the Dragon Council felt a little less..under her thumb. Though they'd NEVER put it that way.

Within the month our town was on the mend. The world was on the mend.

Maybe it was Fate getting bored with tormenting us while she orchestrated the next big "mischief" in her own words...

...but I can't help but feel like I finally let her know I mean business and I'd fight an uphill or even a losing battle to never let happen when she let happen to us.

Either way. We were on the up-swing. Things were starting to look up, but I wasn't about to count my chickens before they hatched. I was determined that not only were we going to be ready for Chaopolis, as soon as we WERE ready, we were going to stick it to them. Or as Violet put it...stick it directly up their candy...um...rear ends.

"And that's the bottom line because I said so." Vi crossed her arms...for once not in a kidding tone. She was playing her Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson impression perfectly straight and serious. To the point I'd even say she had...smoldering intensity.

Pulling double duty, Violet would talk to Jon at the same time Felicia decided to pay him a visit. It was by far her greatest feat of badgering him and badgering him until he agreed not to return to his cave on the other side of the world. The one he had hidden himself away for so long fearing that humanity needed to be protected from him.

"C'mon, you big lug.  You're getting a burger that would be banned from those Mega Meal videos on the internet.  The ones that pack 10,000 calories into a sausage made from ground up quarter-pounders, pizza, hot dogs and who knows what else they crammed into there."

That got a tail wag. The quickest way to Jon's heart was his stomach.

Bunnie, at the same time found Pit curled up into a ball, wings wrapped around himself, perched atop the steeple of the Church of Eatos after Sir Alistair's many attempts to coax him down had failed.

'"So.  I suppose his hair really was quite pimpy.  Wouldn't you agree?"

Pit looked up in disbelief, completely shocked that Bunnie would say something so callous and out of character.

And the door opened from there.

"I think I understand, now.  "

"I heard you went through an ordeal.  Want to talk about it?"

"I've lived this nightmare before, Major.  I...I had my wings torn off by Dr. Masters and Eggplant Wizard while undercover with the others in Fell's Point Asylum.  Even if it was...possibly just an illusion or a hallucination...it was real enough to me.

And then...during the Third Uprising...my wings burned up trying to save Dark Pit. An angel's wings are their livelihood. Even if mine are...underdeveloped...small and unusable without Lady Palutena's Power of Flight...they're still my lifeline. An angel who loses his wings is as good as dead.

And then...and then my nightmare came to pass...Adonis...the Eggplant Wizard...they ripped them from my back...and left me to die...I..."

"Trials by fire remind us we're still alive.  You draw breath now.  Your wings are intact.  Do not let the past cloud your vision.  We press forward."

Pit shuddered a little.

"Pit, your loyalty has never diminished."

"Just...doing my duty, Major."

"It's more than that.  This is what you live to do.  This is your reason for being.  You are truly dedicated to your cause.  Your kindness and selflessness is a beacon for all to be drawn to and an example to live by.  Come back to us, our loyal scout."

The alliances kept reforging.

So once Pit was back on board he was all too willing to stand with Gadget, side by side and double-team the next person who needed it most.

And we were finally on our way to healing. We were all going to be okay. We were all going to recover...

Sub-Entry 376: "But there Was One Who Didn't Bounce Back":
...and yet...one didn't recover. We'd all been hurt bad...but out of all of us...someone had been hurt irreparably.

This was...attempt number...12 at least...to try to get through to Asriel. But...nothing but silence from his door.

I didn't have to trust my ears and nose...I could tell he was in there and very much alive, despite Vi's dark sense of humor joking otherwise...to which we ALL thwapped her, one after the other.

"That.  Is.  Not.  Funny." I growled at her.

Violet actually reciprocated. And no. I'm not going to repeat what she said.

An awkward silence...then I patted her on the shoulder. "Good attempt though."

"Asriel-kun...this isn't healthy.  You have to let us back into your life."

No response. I could hear him breath...but not much of anything else.

"He's been like this for so long." Callista looked worried out of her skull. "I actually had to break the psychic rule to see if there was anything I could do at a mental level...which, goes against my moral code but...as a mother I was desperate--"

"Callie.  You don't have to explain.  We're all worried sick."

"Furthermore...you have total recollection as well.  You know what kind of trauma the people of this world are reliving."

"The lucky ones won't remember.  Which only complicates matters.  To them, it seems like the whole world's going insane for no reason."

I was being surprisingly low-key about my anger, resentment, and rage toward Chaopolis. In a way I'd gotten it out of my system when I slugged Madam Fate. I was no less pissed, but...I was finding it inappropriate to draw upon my rage at this moment. Asriel was lost and alone in his own head.

It was the cruelest thing Adonis could have done. He'd reset Asriel all the way back to how I'd found him 18 years ago. That same vacant look...that dead-eyed expression. A look of someone so completely broken they only wished they'd turn to dust.

Damn you, Adonis. Damn you to Hell.

"That promise between us was everything." I started to tear up. "When I was going to tell him the truth it was going to be on our terms.  It was meant to be a special moment.  This...this is the worst possible way he could have revealed it to him."

"Commander..."

"Bunnie, this was the risk I had taken.  Even though I knew it could turn out this way, I still took it.  What made my choice worth undertaking?  What?  Not this.  Definitely not this."

"Do not start doubting your resolve now.  There is no way back.  There is no undoing the damage.  There is only going forward and fixing it.  If it took years to bring him back from the brink, then we'll take twice that long...three times that long if necessary to get our goat prince back."

"You  make it sound so easy.  In all likelihood he can hear us."

"Then let him.  He's a grown adult.  He needs to hear that we're not giving up on him."

"But the problem is that he's given up on himself."

Bunnie shook her head. "Only he can take the first step.  We can show him the way.  That is all.  Nothing more.  Nothing less."

"Asriel..."

I peered through the keyhole. There he was. Not moving. Just sitting before his full-sized mirror, hugging his knees to his chest. Wearing just pants and a jumper that vaguely resembled his old striped shirt.

He wasn't even rocking back and forth. He was just sitting there in silence...he wasn't...even crying.

"Oh gods...it's worse than before..." I realized that crying was at least something he did as proof that he was alive in Gaster's Void within the space between dimensions...outside of time and space within the heart of the CORE.

He was overloaded with secrets I held back. Things I'd seen...things I'd done...

But now he was aware of all that Flowey knew and more. He had a complete understanding of what his world was. The fallen children and their souls. The split between Asgore and Toriel...his entire world wasn't just in shambles...its memories had been weaponized by Adonis and their shards stabbed into his heart.

He was suffering. He was in pain. He was so overwhelmed by everything all at once that he...couldn't...feel...anything.......

That was the realization that made me blanch. It made my ears droop...it was what made me ultimately turn away without a word and walk past Bunnie and Callista....and Scott.

"Commander?  Commander!?"

"Where are you--"

After a moment Bunnie put her hand on Callie's shoulder and shook her head.

"Let him find his own path.  Just as Asriel must find his.  And have faith.  Have faith their paths will intersect."

"It's...all I can do now..."

So what was going on inside Asriel's head?

Asriel gazed into the mirror; half frustrated glare, half panicked anxiety. His eyes were bloodshot.

He stared at his reflection...and Hyperdeath stared back; only in his head, but that was enough.

The bitter conversation back and forth called to mind the lyrics of "The Haystack Principle" by the Megas.

"How can I...retract these claws?"

He looked at his monster claws. He'd always had them. It was honestly like he never noticed them. He'd never used them and I don't think he ever had any accidents injuring himself or others with them. But...

"Those are your hands.  You can't take back the damage you caused." Hyperdeath retorted.

"How can I...take off this...mask?" He uttered, seeing the black markings on his cheeks that weren't really there.

"That is your face.  You can't remove the fear you cast." Hyperdeath wrinkled his snoot, looking down on the goodie-two-shoes before him.

"How can I...turn off this hatred...that fills my eyes?"

"You can't shut down where your path lies."

By now Asriel was speaking as if he was ten again.

"How can I...stop being bad?"

"That is who you are!"

"If that is who I am...th-then I’ll--"

"Stop." Hyperdeath uncrossed his arms and glowered. "This Gary Stu thing has gone on long enough.  You've lied to yourself long enough.  You've been Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes from the moment he found you.  Why?  Because you think that acting out even in the slightest degree will put you on the path to--"

"No!  Don't talk to me about Flowey..."

"Yeah.  You know all the secrets he was hiding from you."

"He...didn't do it to hurt me."

"And yet you ARE hurting.  Look at what you see in the mirror.  Does this look like someone who's happy?  Does this look like someone who isn't in pain?"

"I..."

"When are you going to wise up, Asriel?  I'm your future.  It is inevitable."

"No.  That's Adonis talking."

"And yet...Adonis has told you more truths in every conversation than Volt has told you in your whole life."

"NOOOO!  STOP IT!  STOP IT!  GO AWAAAAY!  GO AWAAAAAAY!"

"Look at yourself, Asriel.  This is just what a loser deserves.  You haven't matured.  You haven't grown up.  You haven't even stopped being a crybaby.  Everything is all about your perfect little world.  What are you going say when he finally does take you to the other Undertale Timeline.  What are you going to say when you meet...them?

You know why they're separated. You know that he can't be in your life at the same time she can."

"Wh...what does that matter--"

"You cheated death...and now would come back for THIS?  For a world where you don't get to have a whole biological family?  A life that can't be like it was!?"

"It's...it's not about what I want!  They...they made their choices, I--"

"You're  privileged teenager, Asriel.  Your emotions are on overdrive and everything is self-centered.  That's what normal is.  And once you're back in their lives your normal goes out the door.  You'll cry.  You'll bellyache.  You'll ask why mommy doesn't love daddy anymore.  And when all's said and done...you'll tell one of them how much you hate them for ruining your life...when the reality is you ruined theirs..."

Asriel cocked his fist.

"Go ahead. DO IT!" Hyperdeath opened his eyes as wide as he could.

"No..." Asriel lowered his arm and relaxed his hand. "I'm not that Asriel.  I'm not...whichever AU he's from.  I'm not a brat.  I'm not going to be selfish."

"You say that...and yet who's the one who won't let his parents in...his friends in...even his best one."

Asriel's eyes welled with tears.

"Who are you really afraid to hurt?"

Hyperdeath crossed his arms.

"Promises were meant to be broken.  You're a naive fool the think ANYONE in this day and age can keep on.  That's life.  That's the cruelty.  That's the reality.  Suck it up, junior.  You're not special."

"I...never said...I was..." Asriel sobbed, dropping his head and shifting from hugging his knees to his chest to kneeling down and begging his reflection for forgiveness...like Dr. Wily begging for mercy.

"Shut them out if you  must.  Because keeping it all to yourself worked out so well when Chara made you promise not to say anything about the plan to your own parents."

How much longer could Asriel's mind keep delivering low blows?

Humility was the word.

"The day is coming, Asriel.  The day when he no longer needs you.  He's going to call it giving you your freedom.  How do you really feel about that?  How do forgive the man who kidnapped you."

"He didn't...he saved me.  I was going to die with--"

"Were you?  How do you know that you wouldn't be safe with W. D. Gaster?  How do you know that the timeline wouldn't touch what's outside of time and space?"

That was a good question. How did I not consider that? How did I not see this could be a major plot hole in my plan. But...I didn't know he WOULD be safe in the Void, either. And was I really okay with letting Gaster ignore him for the rest of eternity!?

"You couldn't think of anything to say to that.  And now you're going to wallow in self-pity.  Well.  Stay there until you starve to death.  Dying and paying for your sins is what you wanted, anyway.  You said it yourself.  Bad kids don't deserve mercy.  They deserve to turn to dust.  And that's something you can't even do anymore.  Because you're not one of the Monsters anymore.  You're one of them.  When you die...you'll rot.  You'll decay.  It'll be centuries before your remains turn to dust...bones and all."

From that moment...Asriel clammed up. He was tired of arguing with himself. Tired of being wrong. Tired of betraying and being betrayed. Just...so...tired.

So was I okay with what Hyperdeath had laid down?

Hell, no! I was NOT okay with it. I was NOT letting him be just a footnote in history. The trigger that kicked off Asgore's war against the fallen children Toriel's abandonment. I was not okay with his world just dying and the memory of him just fading away only for the next Timeline to repeat what EVERY damn timeline had done before it. Death after death after death, with each time him coming back as that...that flower! The cycle had to end.

He. Deserved. Happiness.

He. Deserved. A future.

He. Deserved. Mercy.

He. Deserved. Chara's. Forgiveness.

End of discussion. My mind was made up. I was getting my best friend back.

Sub-Entry 377: "Trying to Make it Just Like Old Times":
My family and crew were quick to make amends with each other and with me. Against my Scorpio mentality and remembering Miranda was the City of Second Chances, I accepted their apologies and offered my own. I wasn't going to hold a grudge against them. No. My beef was with one and only one goddess. Fate was forever on my sh**-list. And her Black Knight was going to learn one way or another...the line started about ten miles behind him. I don't care if it was true that he couldn't be bought or bullied or reasoned with. There was no way he was completely unflappable. There was something out there that had to get to him.

What am I saying? This isn't me! This isn't going to change matters. As much as I begrudgingly had to admit it...settling the score with Adonis wouldn't undo the damage. It wouldn't bring back the lives he stole. It wouldn't take our pain away. It would only make me feel as empty as him inside.

Madam Fate really did a number on us all. Giving into our temptations for this long and living in a cacophony of our own muddled feelings, angst, despair, and confusion. Really. The trauma of remembering how each of us died (or in *SOME* cases...got our soul ripped out and force-merged with our best friend) was harder to shake off than gum in in the hair.

The course of action was clear. Move on.

Unfortunately I was going to try the worst method for doing so...by trying to make things like they were before with Asriel.

Once innocence is lost...you can't bring it back. There was no going back. Adonis' cast-iron victory.

Again, my team was quick to forgive. But there were a number of those who...weren't going to readily let me off the hook.

Chameleon was a given.

"Not playing around, Sparky.  Listen and listen well, Arcade.  That freak nemesis of yours crossed lines that no one...and I mean NOOOO ONE....even thought about DARING to cross with me.  That puts him in a special category of sh--*EXPLITIVE DELETED* creek.  You hear every word I'm saying, yes?"

I nodded.

"We're not square.  Not until that piece of trash gets a punishment that satisfies me.  One that would satisfy the Dragon Council."

Lucky me.

"He's already shattered the ice.  By extension the ice you're on is thinner than thin."

He put his hands on my shoulders and squeezed...the kind of squeeze that let me know he was dead serious...and the kind that let me know that inside he was begging for my help but would never stoop to pleading and lowering himself to that level.

His uneasy breathing reminded me of Jack Napier version Joker as he reminded Bobby the Goon that he was..."his number two".

Then he let me go.

"I want you to take a good long time...to look up the word "wrath" in the dictionary.  And don't come back to me until you REALLY understand what the word means. What it means to you...and what you THINK it means to me at this moment.  We're done here."

Brooke...was an inevitability. Not that she enraged at me, per se. She just wanted to make it VERY clear what lines were crossed. How dire the circumstances had become.

"Volt Arcade.  I will stop any pretense you may have about apology and groveling before me.  I would take it very much as an insult at this point.  But I think you know where we stand."

"I do." I kept my head hung low.

"Your enemy was callous enough...to offer me up to my own father...to Omnitaru like a piece of meat.  I was given a holy consecration before being banished to Gehenna.  It is only by the grace of your...well-kept secret...that my fate was not eternal.  That all of our fates were not so.  For that, you have been granted your reprieve; your leeway.  We all find ourselves in your debt again.

But. Make no mistake. This does not make things right."

"I know."

"There are a LOT of priorities that should supersede what has ignited my fury.  But I'm going to choose the one that I've kept bound to you all this time.  Asriel's well-being.  It was not negotiable.  it was not up for discussion.  It was not to be trifled with.  He...DARED...to perverse all of what that young man has strived to protect.  And now his dreams lay in shambles.

I cannot and will not accept this.

There will be compensation for this. He will not have suffered for nothing. I am making myself clear?"

"Very clear." I could feel her words weight me down heavier and heavier. My burden was being compounded with the whole towns. I thought that by holding Fate accountable, things would start to return to normal. But aftermath...is such an ugly word. And there are no magic wands to make it all go away and go back to normal.

This is what heroes suffer through when they lose. This is the reality. This is where there was no fairy tale.

We were stained. We were hurting. And even though I had excised a nasty, cancerous tumor from our world...it would be back and cross the same lines again. This was dark. This was angering. And I had no easy solution.

"Your vow to him those years ago?"

"I still intend to uphold it.  Truth or no truth.  He is my responsibility.  He is my best friend.  He is the prince of this world's future and I will be DAMNED if I let Adonis burn it to the ground.  He's lit a fire under all of us.  There will be blood.  There will be war.  Not because of our choice but his.  He's going to bring this to us again and again until we stop him.  This madness has to end.  Too many lives are at stake.   Too much has been lost.  I can't have another Universal City happen.  I can't...I just can't do it.  I have to make all this right."

"You understand your burden.  But don't feel you have to go at it alone.  When the time comes, understand that Miranda's fury will rise up with you and we will gave Chaopolis a nightmare they won't soon wake from."

"Yes m'lady."

All over town, people were giving me the third degree. There gets to be a point where you're perfectly balanced between having your doubts that everything brought upon our town wasn't your fault and believing unconditionally that it most certainly was not your fault...and I was balanced on the razor's edge between them. That said it felt like a lot of people were trying to tip me toward accepting the blame despite Queen Brooke telling me to do so would be insulting to her.

What I could really use was some encouragement to reassure me I was in the right and Adonis was the source of our woes. But I had created Adonis. Adonis was my failure. So my failure became--

No. Snap out of it. You've done enough of this. Don't listen to them.

I felt like the only thing I could do was move on. And I moved on the only way I knew how. By trying to convince myself what had happened...didn't happen. Life had to go on.

I had better success with some of my crew than others.

Tea at Rabbotou Dojo actually...felt some semblance of normal. Some semblance like I was ready to be forgiven.

"Do not be distracted by the discord.  Things get worse before they get better."

"Overly-said advice, Major.  But...still rings true."

"You have nothing to feel ashamed for.  Our scars, even if they can't be seen, are proof that we endured."

"I wish that were clear to everyone, Bunnie.  But...to some of us the scar is just the surface...what lies below is a far deeper cut than--"

I wasn't interrupted. I just...couldn't finish the sentence.

"It takes a village, Volt-san.  We did it once.  We'll do it again.  He's lost in the darkness.  We'll lead him to the light.  It has to start with you."

"I'm no stranger to burden."

Violet seemed...off but otherwise receptive...albeit lacking her usual humor and trolling. She was hurt bad, too. I think that's why she was being cooperative.

Mitzi and Gadget were my greatest sources of embracing the illusion of everything being fine.

"I've got more gears for my collection." Gadget was still avoiding her nemesis in conversation. Really acknowledging her in any way was off the table.

"Good."

I turned to Mitzi.

"I see you replaced the glass.  And...the fire damage seems to be taken care of."

"Insurance claims work fast in this town." Mitzi re-hung the autograph of Michael Jackson.

"They only cover up what's still underneath though.  That part is up to us." I sighed.

"In our own time, Volt.  In our own time.  Right now, I'm on the clock and I have no time to lament.  I've got hungry customers."

Her response seemed cold on the surface but...really it was her way of telling me she had been knocked down and was getting right back up. Her ex-boyfriend and his gang could go to someplace ruled by a big red horned guy with a pitchfork...so to speak.

"Good to hear."

"Commander?"

"Yes?"

"We're all still behind you.  And we'll fight to the last breath."

Sally and the others weren't seen as much. The experience had convinced them to triple their efforts and training and refine their gear. I'd heard Sally took the gateway to Corinth to seek out Dr. K.  Last I heard she and Ziggy were still around. I figured if anyone could overhaul Team Acorn's gear, it would be her.

Lupe was getting T.L.C. from her animal friends. They knew. They remembered. They understood. They offered their strength and she offered hers.

Antoine had gone back to the padded room. It really wasn't his fault this time. I don't want to meet the guy who looks good after being shown the horror of his own death and having it imprinted in his memories so thoroughly that there wasn't anything else when he closed his eyes. Violet promised she'd bring him back from the brink.

I tried sax therapy. It worked for me...not so much Asriel.

I tried spending time with him. He...gave up after several attempts. Not to slight me but...mostly to keep me shielded from what he thought he had become.

I tried taking him off world for missions.

That backfired.

"...I appreciate it.  But it's...just not the same..." His voice...it was that kind of timid and tender...and broken. AGAIN. The same scared little child I remembered. Only now his horns had grown out a little more and his voice had deepened and he had grown up enough to look me in the eyes without standing on tip-toe. At this rate he might even be taller than me someday.

He wasn't hungry for hot dogs. I'd even gotten Sally to have a couple now that it was no longer about...his memory. She knew he was alive and out there and was willing to wait to meet him again...on her terms. But that wasn't consolation for Asriel. He couldn't feel good for her.

He stayed away from flowers. All flowers now. Was he scared of them all over again?

It wasn't as though he had to keep his grades up. He was a graduate with a high school diploma. The only thing he was waiting on was get into college.

"If you don't mind...I'd prefer it if you looked after my car for a bit...I...I need a bit before I can take up the responsibility again."

Oh dear lord...he surrendered his car to me.

I was deathly afraid the next thing he'd return to me was the bracer. No...I couldn't go through that again.

Dammit, Volt, stop it. It's not about you. It's about him. He's suffering far more than you.

Still...I didn't want to lose my friend and...the last time he relinquished it to me, I'd thought I already had.

Compromise, Volt. Balance a little of column A with a little of Column B. We need each other. But both of us have to be on the same page.

I finally paid a visit to Chara.

Suffice to say...she was in a mood. Mostly at herself. Adonis had managed to exorcise her back to the Soul Society and lock her out of the world of the living...until the R.T.T.P. undid that.

Once the news came to her...she was more mad at herself than me. And honestly...she knew she couldn't face him any more than he could face her. Things got...complicated. If anything the only other person Asriel would listen to...already knew that he wouldn't listen to her now. Not as he was.

And that made her boil over.

"I won't forgive them...I won't forgive them...I won't forgive them..." Chara's hands trembled gripping her sheathed Zanpakutou in a vice-grip, her tears falling on the scabbard.

"...he was an innocent young man...pure as white snow......what Adonis did to him...unforgivable."

"We've both been beating ourselves up, day and night.  We want to make things as they were...but we can't.   We don't know how."

"This game hasn't been fun for a long time.  But this...this was just a giant punch to the gut.  It was mean-spirited.  It was cruel...it was sadistic.  How could Fate do this to us!?"

"Because it was mean-spirited, cruel and sadistic.  We don't mean anything to her......just sprites on a screen in spirit while she moves chess pieces on a board.  We're just the in-flight movie she's got playing in her head to provide exposition to her long and winding dance with her sister. Well.  I guess there's no other way to put it.  I decked her with a punch while accelerating myself as a living rail gun shell.  Left her embedded in a 100-foot skull-shaped crater in the wall.  It didn't even make her flinch.  That's how far gone she is.  That's how above the consequences she thinks she is.  All Destiny could do was watch.  Didn't intervene...didn't lift a finger to help me.  She just stood there all anguished."

"And Destiny let this happen!  She let it." Chara bowed her head, her weeping eyes hidden under her bangs.

"I let my goddess know, last time I was there, that I was giving her a vote of no-confidence until further notice.  She knows she messed up...but all she could do was cry about it.  How well she parallels Asriel's past self, huh?"

"Don't speak so casually about my brother......but....you're right.  You of all people know and understand as well as I do.  So...I guess I really shouldn't be scolding you about it."

"It's casual.  We're both in a dark place, trying to climb out.  While he's in a dark, darker, yet darker place with no idea where the ladder even is...if there IS even a ladder in the first place."

Chara sat down, crossing her legs, flexing her bare toes as she lay back on the sofa.

"I want you to make a pact with me, Arcade.  A blood oath that...once the opportunity arrives...you'll expose Adonis for the fraud he is.  I'm sure Queen Brooke has...probably said something to the effect of this in private so...I'll tell you similar.

Alloucious Adonis has crafted his chaotic self as a person beyond reason...beyond compassion...beyond any sense of accountability and any semblance of conscience. He is a man...seemingly without one...who the end justify the means. Whom doing something that you're forbidden to do has consequences that he doesn't even acknowledge exist let alone apply to him.

It's like you said. He can't be bought...he can't be threatened...he can't be reasoned with...he can't be bullied...he can't be forced to comply. He doesn't seek anything logical or even remotely ethical. He is a damaged being...damaged beyond salvage...damaged beyond hope...damaged beyond whatever dreams he may have once had.

He doesn't seek anything logical...he just wants our universe to burn so that he can revel in the anarchy. For he believes once that law and order are things that have ceased to exist...to have ever existed because he's convinced he can obliterate their legacy...only then can he feel like he's free of everything...and he'll do what he only knows what and how to do. Preside over it as its king. The king of isolation. Opposite to what you do as the king of crossovers.

Am I wrong, Arcade?"

"You hit every nail on the head, Chara.  This is what we're up against.  This is the mountain that's a far worse prison than Ebott."

"I don't care if he's a thousand Ebotts with a thousand barriers.  We're bringing him crumbling down.  This game stops.  And we start living live--human, monster, and everything in between."

"Well.  Good speech, kid.  Good speech.  And just the cowboy speech I needed."

"Take care of Asriel for me.  I promise I'll come back for him...when he needs me the most."

"Careful about those promises...promises, like dreams, were meant to be broken..."

"Don't start with that, Arcade.  Get the crazy glue and put those pieces back together.  Who cares if the image is a little cracked.  In time...we won't even notice those cracks anymore.  Because we'll have all made our dreams come true.  That's the wish."

"That's the wish."

I left Chara and decided to try as many chances as I needed to get through to Asriel. One had to work. One just had to.

Sub-Entry 378:  "Ip-kiss Sadness Goodbye.  A Mishap With the Mask Snaps Asriel Out of It":
As I had expected...trying to make things like they were before this all happened failed. Failed miserably. I got good advice out of it and encouragement where I needed it. But what I didn't get was results. What I didn't get was my friend back.

I think in the end I only made Goat Son feel worse.

I keep punching myself with the reminder that there are no quick fixes. What was done to Asriel was horrible. Terrible. Unforgivable.

Despite how much he had matured, what Adonis had done to us both broke him down to his core. By this time I'd given up being livid about it; but I was no less desperate for a solution. I'd gone from furious to just...anguished and forcing myself to put on a happy face. Over and over and over again. Asriel saw right through it. Who did I think I was fooling?

It had come to my attention that he wasn't the only one in the UltraVerse with...problems to work out. It would get back to me from Beach City and Gem Home world that one Steven Universe was dealing with an overload of changes around his home after two years’ time; a number of problems compounding with the destructive legacy of Pink Diamond; which he had inherited which, according to his peers left him saying quote: "[He] ...just needs...space."

How much he and Asriel paralleled each other on so many levels. It wasn't the first time I'd drawn comparisons between Undertale and Steven Universe. Honestly...it felt very meme-able from the start. I just know other AU's had capitalized on those parallels long ago. So why was it feeling relevant again?

Before I get off topic...I reiterate...I tried to make things like they were before. I failed.

And it wasn't just my plan to cheer him up that failed.

Everyone had a suggestion to try.

Everyone's suggestion bombed out badly.

On principle, I avoided Violet, fearing that she'd suggest something not only inappropriate but also likely to do even MORE damage. I wasn't having that.

When am I going to learn that I can't dodge her forever.

"Goddammit, Vi..."

To make a long story short? I'll fast-forward through her setup and state for the record that the payoff for her landed Asriel and myself off world in a place called Edge City.

I wish I had studied the Ultra Crew Institute Action Team case files from the 90's. Back during its reformation, restructuring, and re-christening following the disbanding of the N-Division and the beginning of Bunnie's era with us. Then I'd know how much I should have considered myself warned. It only figured she'd pick a world like this...with a mischief-maker like...him.

Actually the identity of the person in question had changed hands...or rather faces (At the risk of getting both ahead and behind myself at the same time.  Figure that one out, if you dare.) over countless years if not centuries. And in this case, Norse Mythology was to blame. One god in particular. No, not the one that led to the first Avengers movie. But same mythos. Different iteration.

Let's just skip the foreshadowing and vague exposition for now.

What exactly did Violet have us do? Well...she must be taking lessons from Harlene Quinzel...or rather her alter ego, Harley Quinn...because she suggested we go nutzo on the town. And of course she arranged; full expenses paid in full, for us to hob-nob at the Coco Bongo night club. Good gods. She was REALLY intent on Asriel taking advantage of the fact that he was legal age...at least on that world, in that city.

On a scale of 1 to 10...how much do you think I disapproved? Guesses in? Now on a scale of 1 to 10, guess how much control I had over the situation. If you answered a single or double digit number for the first one, you're woefully too low. If you didn't answer with a negative number on the second one, you're not paying attention. I think the whole situation was making me salty and passive aggressive in these logs. To which I apologize for if anyone is actually reading them.

To the point.

"...just so you know, I voted to just give you your space."

Asriel just kept shuffling along, sort of keeping pace with me. And definitely not answering. His head was bowed and he just...remained so lifeless.

"C'mon...please work with me, Azzy.  I don't like this any more than you do.  But we might as well make the most of it.  Seriously...you have to at least make an effort to start healing.  I know you need to go at your own pace and you're in so much pain inside...but everyone else has started recovering.  Everyone's relationships are mending.  We're bouncing back."

"......."

"Asriel..."

I know I shouldn't be pushing him or trying to force things to fall into place...but the more I thought about it, the more I knew Adonis would be coming back to go in for the kill. One of the reasons we recovered was out of necessity; each of us knew we'd have a bullseye on our weak spots if we didn't get right back up after falling off our bikes, metaphorically.

I had no doubt Azzy knew this.

What can you do when your Determination is this badly shattered? I don't even think he's even tried to see if he still has his powers; which Violet confirmed he did. What Adonis had done to him during their battle had been rolled back thanks to the Return To The Past. And even if it hadn't, she said to trust my gut. That we both believed his abilities would return and recover.

"Azzy...you know you're vulnerable like this  if anything were to happen to you--"

Goddamn you, Madam Fate. You set me up again! For in that moment I'd realized too late that Asriel had been grabbed, dragged into an alley. By the time I whirled and saw the glimpse of it happening and chased after him, he'd already been mugged.

"ASRIEL!!!"

In my anger I morphed and flung lightning bolts at the fleeing criminal but in the end I completely missed. He was gone before I could stop him.

No, it didn't matter! Asriel was all that mattered!

I checked on him. Roughed up. As it turned out...the only thing he was missing was all his money.

"Azzy..."

He shook his head when I started to stand up to take him to the police station to report it. I think what he was indicating was that it was...just money. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered to him.

I'd even realized that he wasn't carrying his NX Gear. It wasn't like him to be this slip shot. But now I was seeing the whole picture. And really...his luck being this bad...it was no accident.

Madam Fate was testing me even further. Testing us both. And it was getting OLD.

I treated his wounds with the Bio-Cort rations I was carrying--mostly for my other crew who DIDN'T have immortal regeneration or R-Series accelerated regeneration. It would prevent infections and minimize the bruises and scabs.

"Azzy, we're still going to the bank and getting a cash withdrawal.  You have payments coming up and expenses to take care of."

I'd learned before that he refused to let me lend him money when he was in a pinch. It just never felt right to him...I think it was a mentality he inherited from one of us that he wanted to prove he could stand on his own two feet. I'd tried to tell him there was nothing wrong with accepting money from a friend but...I think for him it was a question of integrity.

"No arguments.  If we're going to the Coco Bongo--at Vi's insistence--you're paying for your own round of sodas and munchies, okay?" I was being lighthearted but...I wasn't getting a reaction. Still...he seemed to accept it.

"Violet arranged for us to access our accounts here in Edge City.  There's a bank where we can make the withdraw.  She said to ask for a bank clerk named Ipkiss.  Stanley Ipkiss."

Little did I know, that by crossing paths with him, we'd be entering  a world we would NOT be prepared for.

By the time we'd reached the bank, Azzy's injuries had quickly stopped bleeding and his battle scars were already showing signs of recovery. Not nearly at the speed my own injuries did but...that's the miracle of Bio-Cort.

As it turned out, the bank teller in question turned out to be...and I say this in the nicest way possible...an insecure human doormat on the verge of a nervous breakdown and a human punching bag for more abuse that rivaled Al Dente...minus actually deserving it.

"...oh boy." I facepalmed after the angry customer had grabbed him by his tie and dumped hot coffee over his head, crushed the partly empty cup and stuffed it in his jacket pocket before storming out.

"...a pleasure doing business with you..." He said as deflated and insincerely sarcastic as I'd ever heard a person muster.

"Rough day?"

"Can you really tell?"

Okay...voice sounds kind of familiar to me. Cant' decide if he sounds more like Hollywood actor, Jim Carrey or cartoon voice actor, Rob Paulsen. Come to think of it he looked a little like the former...

"Dr. Arcade and Asriel Dreemurr.  We have accounts...elsewhere and a friend of ours arranged for you to connect us." I presented the paperwork.

"I'll get this started right away...um...can I offer you a coffee?" He said pulling the crushed cup out of his jacket pocket.

"Err...no thanks." I tried to avoid the matter at hand.

As soon as Ipkiss laid eyes on Asriel. "And I thought I was having a lovely day..."

"Allllllrighty then..." I looked off to the side.

Stanley looked at me kind of funny like he recognized the catch phrase...but he didn't say anything.

After some formalities and Violet calling up to make sure things were in order...

I'd then realized that Violet intended us to attend said night club at...well...night. Typical Vi. Which meant we were without a place to stay and like a doofus she didn't make hotel arrangements. As it turned out no hotel in the city had a vacancy.

As I sat outside the bank with Asriel, finances now restored but his pride just as shot up...

Stanley exited the bank, once his shift was over and offered us to come over to his apartment and at least offer us some leftover pizza or something until we could set about our business...which I in no way indicated meant going to a night club because we lost a bet to Violet...after she dragged us into said bet...yet again.

It was there we'd encounter another source of abuse. Namely his landlord. An old, cranky woman in hair curlers, bathrobe, slippers, and a mud pack on who made his very life HELL.

And she was no more kind to him having guests.

"Okay...okay!  We'll be on our way!" I held my hands up as I stared down the barrel of her double-barrel shotgun.

Jeeze, what a hardcase.

"Stan, my man...you have my deepest sympathies for putting up with that."

"At least someone's given them freely." Ipkiss unlocked the door and that was when we were introduced to his little dog, Milo.

Friendly guy and seemed to have  more confidence than his master. He took a shine to both of us.

"He likes you!"

"Yeah...I have a natural animal magnetism.  Particularly for canines." I was coy about it.

"Your friend not like dogs much?"

"It's not that...he's...had some bad things happen recently.  It's...personal."

"I'd tell you not to let it get you down but...I don't think my advice would help much."

Who was the one who needed encouragement again?

While we got situated and he brought out some leftover pizza and sodas, he invited us to sit in on his cartoon collection.

Well there you. You're never too old to still be watching cartoons. Am I right? And if you disagree, we have nothing more to discuss (kidding).

"Not that it's any of my business but--"

"You've earned that much having given hospitality to a couple of strangers from out of town.  Well...I'm a scientist and...he's my best friend and partner for the think tank we're part of."

Limited truth. Just like I'd rehearsed all our lives.

As the cartoon marathon rolled on Stanley and I eventually couldn't contain our laughter. It was obvious this was one of the few things that brought him joy in his life. Obviously a bachelor. From what I'd pick up on, his own "best friend"...kind of took advantage of him and talked too big a game for his own good. Chances are we'd run into Charlie Schumacher someday in the future. Maybe during this outing.

"Sheesh, nothing." Stanley looked almost dejected that Asriel wasn't even reacting. He could see his eyes moving and that he was taking it in but...not even a chuckle. Not a smile. Gods. He had no idea how painful it was for me to watch him be like this...and have no answers how to fix him; being caught between a rock and a hard case, because in all likelihood, time was not on our side. What's fair about needing him to recover when you can't force recovery. You can't force a heart, mind, and soul to heal themselves when there was no desire to. I can't put Asriel's shattered dreams back together for him.

Despite laughing on the outside? This.......just......SUCKS.

Our thoughts were interrupted by Mrs. Peaman banging on her ceiling (Ipkiss' floor by extension) and screaming for us to knock off the racket or be evicted.

Eventually we thanked Stanley and headed out to the place of party. We could just skip out and lie to Violet...but after all the ordeals with the virtue of integrity, I wasn't about to start Asriel down a path of little white lies. We were men of our word. Besides, I'm sure they'd have a jazz band or some kind of music worth listening to. I just hope the entertainment wasn't too adult.

"I should probably look up what A.E.O.N. knows about this Coco Bongo place...buuuut..." I was feeling lazy.

Had I done so I would have known about the shady past this place had...and its even shadier mob controlling during the time the seemingly TOO-normal Stanley Ipkiss would acquire his deepest secret...and what would lead to a night we wouldn't forget any time soon...

Once at the place.

"I feel bad we ditched Stanley on this...but a guy like him?  I can't imagine he's much of a party animal."

Asriel just sighed.

"Look, I'm not looking forward to this any more than you are so let's just make the most of it."

I really don't think now was a good time for use to be acclimating Asriel to more adult settings much  less this one. The live jazz band and such was nice, but I sure didn't want to be explaining to Lisa about the...err...*ahem*...live entertainment.

Also...I was getting a vibe that this place was...probably managed by extras off the set of the Godfather movies. I did not want to start worrying about the two of us ending up in the river with cement overshoes on.

"When we get back home, I'm going to start charging Violet extra for every kilowatt Computer Valhalla uses up."

Silence. The jokes weren't landing. I wasn't losing him...I'd lost him long ago. Someone...something...please, for the love of the goddesses...happen! I needed a miracle to fix this...or at least break up the uncomfort--

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSMOKINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!"

"What the...!?" I suddenly whirled at the spinning green cyclone of energy blaze into the Coco Bongo with a dynamic flair I'd never laid eyes or ears on.

Asriel looked over his shoulder.

"Huh...?" It was the most I'd gotten out of him.

He blinked a few times. And he was taking the sudden appearance a lot better than I was.

"Who in the...?"

As soon as the tornado died down I could see him in all of his loud, banana-yellow suit and fedora wearing glory...but the face...! That face!

Green...rubbery...like a cartoon but real. And wearing the most devilishly happy-go-lucky excited grin I'd ever seen.

And he zipped past the bouncers and seated himself at a table...impossibly fast at that. Sally would have trouble keeping up...and that thought alone just absolutely dumbfounded me.

Needless to say our strange...green-headed guy was drawing a lot of attention. And making quite a scene.

The more I observed him...the more he defied the laws of physics.

I watched the cartoony heart practically leaped out of his chest in beating throbs as he ogled the female singer and dancer at the microphone.

At one point I watched his entire head morph into a cartoony wolf before letting out a howl and letting his tongue unroll out of his panting mouth....okay, even for me it was getting a bit offensive to my species.

I shook my head in disbelieve...until I noticed that Asriel was transfixed on this guy, too...

In fact...it was reminding me of how I got his attention back in Gaster's Void with mention of Chara's name; he was looking but...I don't know if he was perceiving, per se. All I could tell was that he wasn't hanging his head in utter misery.

Before long this strange morpher had managed to make himself part of the show...and what a show. Aside from drawing even more attention to himself it looked like he was getting everyone around him under a trance.

I don't know at what point it happened but somehow it all culminated into a conga line to the sounds of Desi "Ricky Ricardo" Arnaz' take on "Cuban Pete". In no time at all the whole place was hopping and this guy was the life of the party...and somehow I got roped into it, leaving Asriel behind.

"Wait a minute!  Whoa!  Time out!  I'm not--!  Azzy!  Azzzy!" I called back, somehow swept up in the trance.

Asriel barely responded. He just kind of looked away and sighed. Oh gods...not was not a good time for me to ditch my best friend. Somebody stop the world! I want to get off of this mad ride!

Someone must've heard my call for a return to sanity because that was right about the time the police busted in lead by one by-the-book, gruff, cynical, humorless, stubborn ball-buster named Lt. Mitch Kellaway and his dimwitted, lazy, comic relief partner, Detective Doyle.

"Freeze, Mask!  You're under arrest!"

"Time to go from cut-rug-to cut-and-run!" The err...Mask exclaimed with dynamic flair before speeding off and running circles around the lieutenant...literally. And then I saw immediately why.

"WEDGIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!!" He screamed just before tearing out of there. The next thing I knew Lieutenant Kellaway's polka-dotted briefs had been yanked out of his pants and up and over his face in a permanent "wedgie".

"Uuughl...!" I cringed.

"Is this an exit?  Oooooooooh, somebody stop meeeeeeee!  AHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!" And then the Mask blazed out of there with a blur of yellow and green.........his arm streeeeeetching all the way back to snag his spinning feathered fedora that just hovered in place for an impossible amount of time in defiance of gravity itself.

"Okay.  This is thing." I managed to pick myself up and run toward the door.

"C'mon, Azzy!  This is just what we need!  Adventure!  Just....like...old times........gah...blast..."

Just give it up, Volt. It's not working.

Asriel reluctantly followed after I doubled back and dragged him out of his seat. This is...the worst idea ever. Forcing him to chase after this tomfoolery when he clearly didn't want to even be here.

How can I be a good friend when I don't even know what a good friend needs to do in this situation!?

It was going to be hard to keep pace with the Mask as he led the police on a wild chase over town...wait, we are going after a criminal, right? So...why didn't this wacky, chaotic morpher strike me as a bad guy? Maybe he was like Lupin?

Come to think of it...what crime was he even guilty of? I had echoes of J. Jonah Jameson demanding pictures of "that public menace, Spider-Man" going through my head.

"This is getting us nowhere." I finally stopped to pant. "Screw it.  I'm breaking the rules."

And so I morphed.

Asriel reluctantly switched off the Unitrix and then followed on foot...lagging behind as I took to the Power Lines.

Why WERE we chasing this guy again? It was weird role reversal. Normally Asriel would be the one to chase toward danger and I'd be trying to catch up to him, worried that it would be too dangerous. What had Adonis done to our group dynamic?

After finally ditching the police, the Mask had managed to land in a spot with no one around.

"Well that was a romp.  But I guess I'd better let ole' Squares Ville Stan back out again so he can pay the rent on time..."

With that the Mask reached up and...peeled off his face......wait, what?

I watched as the green tore away before taking the shape of a wooden, Scandinavian mask with a metal brace down the bridge of the nose...but it was what was underneath that shocked the heck out of me.

As the "Mask" dissolved away, so did the yellow zoot suit and stuff to reveal one Stanley Ipkiss...in the most embarrassing pajamas I'd ever laid eyes on.

My jaw dropped...as did his...point of us pointing at one another.

Oooooooooh boy...

One long explanation later in an even less conspicuous, more private location...

"...that is some story."

"Right back at you."

"Well uh...I guess...my place again?"

"Yeah...Azzy and I pretty much made good on the bet we lost to Violet so...I guess we should at least hole up for a bit until the heat's off before setting out for home and all.  Well.  C'mon, Azzy--"

Azzy wouldn't respond.

"C'mon, don't leave me hanging--"

And suddenly he pushed me away.

"Hey!  What gives!  Not cool, man--"

"I'm sorry.  I...I can't do this..."

"Asriel...?" I questioned.

"I....I just...I JUST NEED SPACE!" He cried before burying his eyes in his sleeve and running off.

Did...he just...Steven Universe me? As a time-traveller, this is not the Future I would have ever seen coming.

"ASRIEL!!!" I cried before tripping over a spilled garbage bag in the alley.

By the time Stanley helped me up and we turned the corner...there was no sign of him.

"Asriel..." I dropped to my knees, ears drooping.

This...really sucks.

Back at Stan's place...

"...I got to say, it's a bit upsetting that I've met a pair of aliens.  But far from the strangest and weirdest thing I've run into since becoming the Mask."

"You're taking the situation a lot better than I am.  Asriel's lost and alone out there.  Normally I'd say he could take care of himself but not in the state of mind he's in.  Not since what happened to him and all of us back home."

"If you don't want to get into the details--"

"That's for the best."

"He's even switched his bracer off, somehow.  He's definitely not thinking clearly if he's not even willing to keep his human disguise on.  I can't track him without it!  And picking up on his scent in a city this size might as well be finding a single grain of sugar in the Sahara Desert."

I paced.

"I hope he has at least the common sense to lay low.   There's a ten billion percent chance he'll be seen if he doesn't stick to the shadows and follow his sensei's ninja training.  I don't suppose you have a way to track down a lost goat in a city?"

"You're asking me how to find a lost goat?" Stanley threw his hands into the air in disbelief.

But then he paused for a moment.

"Although...there was this one time that I needed help finding Milo after an incident...I kind of turned to a Pet Detective."

"A...WHAT...?" My eyebrow twitched at the implication of EVER equating Asriel to being a mere pet.

Stanley kind of shrunk back a bit, seeing my anger.

"Theeeeeeen again, maybe it's probably not a good idea to go to that guy again...." He looked off to the side.

Little did we know, on the other side of the country at a seedy apartment hotel...

"ACHOOO!" The goofy-haired, guy in the open Hawaiian shirt with white undershirt underneath sneezed as a small spider monkey chittered and climbed up on his shoulder to hand him a handkerchief.

"Spank you, Spike." Ace Ventura accepted the gift and blew his nose.

"Either Shikadance is trying out a new cologne...orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...someone's...talking behind my back. Allllllllllrightytheeeeeeeeeen!"

Back to Edge City...

I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. If I thought like a goat...specifically a mountain goat (heh)...it would have made sense to check high places. Like a tall building.

"There you are.  Well.  We certainly gave you plenty of space for a bit...and...really you picked a spacious rooftop to brood on, man."

A moan.

"Asriel.  It's time to end this.  I don't want to call out on this, but you've felt sorry for yourself long enough.  It's time to wake up and move on." I was making myself sick to my stomach having to get firm with him. Maybe I had coddled him too much; being afraid to wreck a friendship already on the rocks...but maybe it was time to crack the whip and enforce discipline. He's had long enough bottling it all up.

It's time to let it out, man.

Silence.

"Asriel.  I'm not playing around here." I was starting to get angry.

"Please don't." He said simply.

"I must." I countered. "Even if this is what Adonis wants us to do...be at each other’s throats...I'm willing to smack some sense into you to get my friend back."

"You shouldn't.  I'm not worth it."

"ASRIEL!" I folded my ears back. I was at wits end having tried everything else. If pushing him to an ultimatum was a mistake, it was mine to make. And Alloucious could laugh all the way to the bank with what he had sewn.

I stormed up to him.

"If you've given up on yourself, you're insulting me.  You're insulting ALL of us.  What were we fighting for?  What did we pour all our love and caring and lessons and experiences into if you're going to let them amount to nothing!?"

Asriel squeezed his eyes shut.

"I get it!  I took the risk with our promise and it backfired so drastically.  What I hoped would one day be a beautiful thing...a touching reunion turned out to be a flaming dumpster fire!  He destroyed everything we worked for together!

At least have the courtesy to tell me how much you resent me for kidnapping you and lying to you all these years! At least make my utter failure complete; don't leave it half-finished!"

Stanley kind of started backing away. He really didn't want to get involved in this.

Azzy moaned again.

"I know...you feel like I've built up this friendship all these years and all for what?  To just abandon you in another timeline that isn't your own?   You think I'm doing what that jerk from Earth C-137 did and just putting you in a different timeline to replace who's been dead for a hundred years?"

You're enjoying this, aren't you, Sanchez? I lowered myself to your level.

"What do you want from me!?  I can't take it all back!   Everything I've ever known and done since that day has been wrong!  Is that what you want me to say?!  I'm the worst friend ever.  I should be the one turning to dust, not you!  But I can't!  Because that useless Goddess tricked me into signing that damn contract!  I can't die.  That's the horrible truth.  That's my punishment for all my good intentions...watching everyone around me grow old and expire."

"Volt...stop it...it's...it's not like that!"

"Asriel...I can't...lose another...best friend......you're not the only one...who feels crippling loneliness.  I have so many people in my life...but how many of them truly understand me?  That's the worry that's always haunting me even though I know better!  I know I'm not alone but it doesn't do anything to make the feeling go away at times like this."

"...I...I didn't mean to---"  Asriel started before we were interrupted.

"A rather touching emotional moment.  But completely irrelevant."

"Who said that?"

"Oh no...it's Pretorius!" Stanley gasped as I noticed a man in a heavy black trench coat and weird red mechanical eyes hover up atop some kind of hover platform...chariot...thing.

"Pretorius?" I questioned.

"Total mad scientist--"

"That.  Is a misconception, Mr. Ipkiss.  My profession is chaos physicist."

"I've seen your chaos before, doctor!  You made the Mask your remote controlled puppet!  I'm still mad at you for making me kick my dog!"

"And what have we here?  And I was led to believe lycanthropy was mere fiction.  And judging by your energy output you have quite an electro-kinesis.  Such an opportunity to study an impressive specimen must not be wasted."

I crossed my arms. "And this is the part where you recommend dissection, right?  Not an of it.  Bring one scalpel close to even a whisker and I promise you'll regret it." I held my palm out...then turned confused for a moment.

"What the heck...?"

Metal? I might yeah, pins and rods in your body after surgeries was nothing surprising to me...but not THIS much. How far did his cyberization go--"

"You seem rather perplexed."

"Just testing a theory of my OWN!" I suddenly clenched my fist and yanked...and sure enough Pretorius' head separated from his shoulders...with a distinct LACK of blood and entrails.

I'd taken my attention off of Asriel to focus entirely on the supervillain in my midst.

"Magneto-kinesis in addition?  How intriguing." Pretorius maintained his monotone. The more I heard him talk the more I began to realize...there were a LOT of strange characters in the UltraVerse that sounded remarkably like actor, Tim Curry. Isn't that odd? Wait a minute--

My moment of confidence turned to shock as the bottom of his disembodied head sprouted mechanical spider legs. Sharp, pointed ones at that.

"Borrowing from a later iteration of Dr. Viktor Fries?" I was referring to Mr. Freeze toward the end run of Batman & Robin where he had undergone quite a bit of procedure to make himself more machine than man...down to having a head that could separate from the body.

"I know of no such doctor.  Perhaps I shall have to...look him up, as the vernacular were."

In my haste, I realized that Asriel had somehow ran away again while we were tangling with Pretorius. Dammit. I caught up to him and I let him slip through my fingers. On top of that...I really laid into him. Volt, you jerk. You big, stupid JERK.

"I'm going to recommend against that." I gave him a bit of a magnetic push before finally sticking him to the largest source of metal I could find. The magnetism would wear off eventually but it gave me enough time to grab Ipkiss and get the heck away. Stanley assured me Milo would find his own way back home.

"Great.  I supposed we'll end up being chased by a bald, handlebar mustached eggman in a flying hovercraft next?"

Stanley looked at me funny again.

"Never mind.  You probably wouldn't get the reference." I said as we flew past a billboard advertising Batman Forever.

"Huh.  Wonder who they got to play the Riddler?" I thought I heard Stanley mutter to himself.

"Probably some unknown." I shrugged it off.

"How on Earth did he get control of someone like the Mask who's too chaotic to be control."

"Duped me with a fake "Sister Mask" and a phony old legend that wearing the Brother Mask without the Sister Mask would lead to brain-eating.  I wanted to get the Mask's naughty behavior under control so much it never occurred to me that it could be a trap.  Darn that Pretorius.  He's such a liar lar, pants on fire.

Liar liar? Eh. Probably nothing to think about.

"Well when you catch up to your friend I hope we can wrap this up quickly.  The Cable Guy is supposed to arrive later to get me hooked up to a new TV service plan.  I just hope he's not as unhinged as the last guy."

Why do I feel like this merits a knee-jerk reaction?

"My hat's off to you for having to hole up in a place with Peaman as the landlord."

"No kidding.  She doesn't even like Christmas much.  What a Grinch!"

Riiiiiiiight. I feel like there's a pattern here I SHOULD be seeing but now's not a good time to draw attention to it.

Finally! There he was.

"I have to give you credit.  No one would think to looking for out-of-town aliens on a rooftop up here.  As high a place as you chose, you must be part mountain goat." We'd already gone through this.

No answer.

"C'mon...that was a good one.  Answer me, kiddo.  You've got to snap out of this."

"..."

I would be satisfied if he said something like "What's the point?" or blew me off with "leave me alone". But no...he was too much like he was back then. So withdrawn and so out of it. Why? why did this have to happen to him?

"Look, uh...Asriel, was it?  Volt is just worried about you."

"Yeah.  Let's get down from this high-up place before I lose my lunch."

I never should have pushed him into going to the Coco Bongo with me. I should have just let him go home...but I didn't want Violet harassing him for welching on a bit.

"Asriel...I...owe you an apology.  I...I shouldn't have come down on you."

"...forget it." Asriel kept his gaze to the ground.

"No.  I can't.  I have to make this right.  We have to make this right.  Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't want to stay like this."

"I...don't want to be this way...but I don't know what to do...  Volt.  You can't fix me.  I'm so far gone."

"That's not true.  C'mon.  I brought you back from this once.  I  can and will do it again.  I won't take no for an answer."

"You...you're really...determined aren't you?"

"You're the only one who has any idea.  If you trust me...just reach out and grab my hand.  We won't go anywhere until you decide for yourself." I started to reach out to him, hand extended, hoping he'd take my hand again...just like once before

The blasts rang out, forcing us all apart.

"Okay!  Don't panic!" Stanley fumbled around his jacket's inside pocket, attempting to get a grip on the Mask of Loki...wait, he brought it along with him!?

"And opportunity presents itself!"

Pretorius went after him.

"Gaaah!" Stanley fumbled with it, trying to get it on then giving up and just running for it.

"I got you covered!" I raised my fists to focus my magnetism. That's when I heard the crash behind me and felt the brick and drywall and dust hit me from behind before something HUUGE and hulking grabbed me and put me into a monster bear hug that started cracking my ribs.

"I believe Mr. Ipkiss recognizes his old acquaintance, Walter?"

"Walter?" I managed to wheeze out.

I could only describe him as if Solomon Grundy of the Legion of Doom got gene-spliced with the Gray Hulk, "Mr. Fixit" and then added the Undertaker of WWE for good measure and then beat the whole monstrosity with an ugly stick followed by a pissed-off stick.

"Your magnetism will not be serving you this time, Dr. Arcade."

I would soon find out electric shocks only mad him madder and resulted in a liver being pressed into both sides of my rib cage so hard the only way it wouldn't splatter would be if my bones mysteriously absorbed it through osmosis.

"Gaaaaah!"

I was hoping that would at least alert Asriel's danger sense. Was he so far gone the world around him just disappeared?

"Kid, I don't mean to be a whiner and complainer but we could really use help here!" Stanley helplessly weaved through the air conditioning units moments before they became scrap behind him as Pretorius' weaponized assault was bearing down on him.

"C'mon!  C'mon!" His butter-fingers approach to getting a grip on the mask only led to him struggling not to drop it.

"Just...give me...one second to--!" He suddenly tripped over the power cables running between the air conditioner units and the mask went flying out of his hands.

"Oh no!"

"ASRIEL!!!!" I cried out as I felt my ribs start to puncture my lungs.

"Huh...?"

Asriel sure picked a time to stand up and notice me. For at the exact moment his head turned around the Mask of Loki somehow, by some Twist of Fate.......oh who am I kidding, she's TOTALLY TO BLAME FOR THIS!

In that moment the mask managed to land smack dab on his face and overtake him.

"MMMMPHH!!!" He panicked, flailing his arms.

"Oh no..." I murmured.

"That's not good...!" Stanley understated the obvious as the green tornado erupted around Asriel and spun him all around the roof like a pinball on the rampage, actually lighting up the remaining air conditioner units in neon splendor landing at the center of the roof, the gale force winds and lighting actually pushing Pretorius back.

Nonchalantly, Walter suddenly lost interest in me and dropped me to the ground and my healing started to take over.

"Asriel...?" I reached to him from the crawl I managed to push myself up into.

He stood there, back to me...and then I saw him shake with a low chuckle.

"Finally...I was tired...of being trapped in my own mind......"

"Azzy...?"

".....now my own mind...gets to TRAP ALL OF YOU BAD GUYS!!!!!" Asriel suddenly spun around...rubbery like and I could see his face...his green, exaggerated, bug-eyed, cartoon goat face!

And it was twisted into a horrendously huuuuuuuuge, unhealthy grin.

"Oh gods...Azzy...you've got go calm down...you're not well--"

"On the contrary old friend...I've never felt better!  Or is that baaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-ter!!!" The goat bleat was...suddenly too much.

"An unfortunate turn of events.

"I'd like to think...I make my own fortunes!" Asriel had suddenly tornado-spin-morphed into a gypsy fortune teller like a coin-operated Zoltar game you saw at carnivals and at amusement park wharfs on the boardwalk.

"Uhh...?" Stanley suddenly pointed up. When I looked I could see the mother of all giant crystal balls dropping onto the roof.

There was a massive shockwave from the impact...and then the ground buckled...and then a massive blast and explosion as the top of the building collapsed on itself, dropping us several floors until the last one we landed in managed to brace our fall. It was a miracle we hadn't gotten crushed by it.

"Azzy!  What the Heck, man!?  You could have killed us all--!"

That was when I noticed the ball had landed on Walter. I could see him through the clear glass as the clouds inside stopped swirling.

Could he be--

Suddenly Walter's eyes snapped open and the crystal ball cracked and shattered as his fist suddenly went up, without him getting off the ground.

"Oh boy..." Stanley whimpered.

"Oh no!  The Mask has taken over!" He's gone out of control!"

"DIiiiiiiiiiiid someone say...CONTROLLLLLLL...?!?  Asriel was suddenly in Stanley's face...and I could see his neck stretch allllll the way up from where he was still standing on the roof...now wearing a purple, white, and black color swap of the Mask's Zoot Suit, tie, and fedora.  And then his neck whiplashed back, dropping his head on his shoulders before another tornado morph had him clad in Kevin "Captain N" Keene's Northridge High letterman jacket, yellow turtleneck, and jeans.  And the HOLY TEXAS sized version of his super power pad on his belt buckle.  A click on the up button and he was rocking into the clouds, leaving  a jetstream smoke trail behind.

"WHEEEE-HEEE-HEEE-HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" His scream echoed throughout the town.

"Asriel, this isn't you!  You're just having an emotional overload!"

"What happened to this kid?!" Stanley begged to know.

"Bad things, man.  Bad things.  Why do you ask?"

"The Mask taps into your inner subconscious.  it's like it brings your inner most desires to life.   It's effect is dependent on a person keeping how they really feel and how they really are inside."

"Right...like a human doormat bank teller--no offense."

"None really taken...really." Stanley looked away.

"Then when worn by a goat son broken by a psychopath who tortured him and cross so many lines before destroying the one thing most precious to him....?"

"Edge City is in for one twisted, vengeful ball of mayhem who doesn't even really know what he wants to do.  And he's going to do just what he knows how to do."

"Like how the Mask brings your cartoons to life...oh man...Asriel has COUNTLESS experiences on COUNTLESS worlds of varying genres and natures!  Everything from as cutesy to the Care Bears to...oh gods...we're in trouble if he starts channeling movie night!  Violet's put in a number of B horror movie stinkers, Maybe more dangerous than that is his vast experience with video games."

"What makes you think he'll access that...?"

That was when I saw the fully upgraded form of the Gradius ship from the Gradius space shooter games suddenly rise up out of nowhere.

"Call it a hunch..."

"Where's he going?!"

I swallowed deeply. "Probably...to fight crime and injustice.  This is just what Adonis wanted...to bring out the chaos and madness of the Absolute God of Hyperdeath in him."

"Hyper-who?"

"Never mind.  We got to go after him before he shoots up all of Edge City trying to Frank Castle your entire Rogue's Gallery!"

"Frank who...?

"Not a comic book guy, huh?  You're probably not going to like the explanation..."

"After all this, I am NOT going to like explaining this to Dr. Neuman."

Hmm?"

"My therapist." Stanley looked uncomfortable.

"I'll save myself the trouble and do what I should have done to begin with." I slipped my visor back on and accessed A.E.O.N. in conjunction with Cryptosmasher.

"Dr. Arthur Neuman.  Psychologist and author of "The Masks We Wear"..." I muttered as I skimmed through his bio. "Huh.  Anyone ever tell you your therapist looks a lot like actor Ben Stein?"

"Who?"

"Never mind." I shook my head, suddenly compelled to imagine Stanley's sessions commented on in that familiar distinct monotone. I speed-read through everything the visor turned up before turning to Stanley.

"Umm...Ipkissium Maskosis?" I questioned.

"Don't want to talk about...wait a minute!  Aren't you violating doctor-client privilege or something?"

"Well, I AM a doctor but...wait, we're getting off topic!  How do we track down an 18...well...118-year old goat anthro with the Mask of Loki overdriving his subconscious inner self as well as granting him super-powers of a Nordic god?"

That was when I heard Milo yipping at my heel before grabbing my pant leg and tugging on it.

"I think Milo has his scent!  Let's follow him and catch up to him...boy, oh boy I can't believe I'm running TOWARD the danger!"

Yeah...I was getting the impression that Stanley was kind of like Antoine on the surface...but when he wore that mask...WOWIE-ZOWIE, to quote Bray Wyatt.

And the chase was on with Milo sniffing him out.

Sometime later we picked up on the trail...it wasn't hard to find.

"He must've gone this way!  Sounds like he came across a pack of bullies--"

I turned the corner.

"What the...?!"

"It's...possible some latent parts of myself are still imprinted on the Mask." Stanley cringed.

"I'm guessing your iteration of the Mask is a fan of giving permanent wedgies?" I looked upon all of the punks who had their underpants pulled completely over their heads; all hunched backward on the ground from the way the elastic was pulling their heads back.

"Well.  At least he's scaling the punishment to the crime.  Zordon's rule is at least still resonating with him."

Still didn't make it any less disturbing.

Finding him was no problem...but keeping up with him? Even with my powers, it was starting to seem impossible. But more than that, dragging Stanley Ipkiss along was slowing me down.

"Asriel, stop!  Please stop!"

"A superhero can't stop!  He must dispense justice!  NYEHEHEHEHEH!"

Wait...is he doing Papyrus' laugh? No...it's Skeletor's....why is he laughing like Skeletor!? This is your doing, Madam Fate! You couldn't leave well enough alone! Even now you're using his own home world and its people against him! You sick bi--

"The Mask!  It's twisting him just like it did to Dr. Neuman--"

"Wait....you're saying Neuman of all people put on the Mask!?  I don't even want to THINK about what kind of being he turned into."

"Ever get a wedgie-straight-jacket before?"

"....yup.  really didn't need that image."

"Ohhhh maaaaan...this really suuuuuuucks!  Even he has better powers than me!"

"Uh...is that a...talking sea bass with Garth Algar glasses and facial hair?" And he wasn't far from a huge splotch on the ground with a face...that had been frozen solid with Asriel's sudden use of ice beam eyes...? "And a giant talking splatter of spackle?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Boooooguuuuus!"

"The Terrible Two-some?"

"I take it they're not high-tier villains in Edge City?"

"I don't even know if I can even call them villains."

"EVER WONDER WHAT YOU CALL A FISH WHEN YOU TAKE AN EYE?!   A FSSSSSSSSSSH!"

is he...alluding to Undyne? Wait a--

"THE SAME SOUND IT MAKES WHEN YOU DEEP FRY IT!!!" Asriel's eyes started to glow red with Superman's heat vision...oh no...he WOULDN'T!!!

Asriel started laughing maniacally.

"Asriel, don't!  He's a living creature!  You cross this line and you'll be breaking the super-hero code!" I begged.

"Asriel...please..." I reached into my lab coat pocket for anything......anything...

I pulled out...a lone sunflower.

"...come on, buddy......don't you remember what you said?  Don't kill...and don't be killed.

I watched as Asriel's maniacal laughter as the Mask slowly began to break down into sobbing...and then full-blown crying. It was honestly...like echoes of Tim Drake, the second (third if you counted Jason Todd) Robin after the...death of the Joker.

As he did, his cartoony-ness started to collapse in upon itself.

He dropped to his knees and began to wail.

I could see cracks...literal cracks in the Mask. Without hesitation I grabbed underneath and ripped it off Asriel's face, the green lightning and thunderclap hammering it home.

As the cyclone enveloped both of us, Asriel's super powers left him, leaving him back to normal. But underneath the now-wooden mask of Loki was the pained and distraught face of my friend...Asriel Tobias Dreemurr-Arcade.

By this point the living spackle version of Clayface unmelted and grabbed his fishy partner. "We're outta here, dude!  This guy's tooooo intense!  But mark my words!  We'll like...be back when you least expect it...beware of the TERRRRRIBLE TWO-SOOOOOOME!" the guy tried to sound threatening...just moments before using his fish friend to air-guitar.

"What." I deadpanned. By the time I snapped out of it they were gone.

Crap! Asriel!

"I...I...I'm...I'm...so.......sorry...." He managed to choke up before he buried his arm in his sleep and wailed.

"Shhhh...it's okay...it's okay...it's over.  All is forgiven.  it's okay to cry.  You needed this.  You needed to be the crybaby again.  It's time to start healing, Azzy.  Come back to me."

He wrapped his arms around me and clung for dear life as I dropped the mask to the ground.

I hugged him for the longest time.

'He hurt you bad. He broke you. He broke your hopes. He broke your dreams. But dreams...are forever. You just need to put the pieces back together again."

"I...I know...I....know..."

"Asriel.  Why do we feel pain?  No...why do we need pain?"

"B-b-because...pain is...proof that we're alive."

"Yes.  Pain is our most bittersweet proof that we're alive and we've endured.  That we couldn't be broken.  And when we overcome it, we heal.  We get stronger.  We remember the pain and what we learned from it.  Right?"

"Y-yeah."

"And there's one other purpose pain serves.  Do you know what it is?"

"It's...how we connect with each other.  How we relate to each other.  How we understand each other."

I nodded.

"You can't...truly know a person until...you know their pain."

"And you know mine.  And I know yours.  We don't just have each other’s memories.  We have each other’s pain.  Each other’s experiences.  I can honestly say, just as you can...you're the only person who really understands me."

"I've...heard that before...even though it wasn't...me per se--"

"We'll...sort your memories of Undertale out another time."

"You know I really think we're forgetting something--" Stanley approached us.

Asriel started to say something but that was when the blasts sent us all flying.

"And now I will acquire the power of chaos embodied.  The ultimate experiment is at hand!" The cybernetic being separated his head from his body; the head sprouting mechanical spider legs.

"Oh no--!" Asriel gasped as the Mask went flying out of my hand and slipped through his own fingers. But that was a lesser priority as the blasts had sent us all over the side of the building.

What a time for Asriel to leave his NX Board at home...!

"Oh no!  Not again!  Mustn't let Pretorius get the Mask again!  Must use Mask for good!  Must stop talking like a super-hero stuck in glue!" Stanley drew his arms in close and overshot us as we fell to our doom.

"Are you crazy!?" I cried out before I noticed what he was doing...and Asriel noticed, too.

Somehow, he torpedoed himself, face first into the Mask of Loki and the green tornado of magic and mayhem did the rest.

"I'm baaaaaaaack!!!" The green-faced goofball in the yellow zoot suit posed in midair like he had forgotten about gravity...which he did. Because the next thing he did was scream as his eyes bugged way out, almost touching the ground.

Now both the Mask and I could survive this fall...he'd splat into a cartoon puddle while my landing would be much more...gruesome...but I'd still regenerate.

Asriel? Not so much either case. And I had next to no time to reach him before he would impact.

"Volt?  I know now's kind an obvious time to bring this up...but I don't want to die!"

The chill of Flowey's words running down my spine from another timeline was more than I wanted to bear. And worse than that I'm sure he shared the same thought, having absorbed my memories while my soul was merged with his; before the Return to the Past undid everything but the memories carved into the both of us.

All I could do was whimper in response. I couldn't think of anything--

"Pilot to bombardier!  Pilot to bombardier!"

Huh?

Did Stanley/the Mask just morph into a cartoon take on the Red Baron with a ridiculously large scarf and a really compact airplane?

"Don't you know that flying tourist class means you can't ignore the fasten seatbelts sign?" He said as his arms streeeeeetched and grabbed us both during the fly-by.

A boisterous laughing fit followed by "Your in-flight movie is probably something involving airplanes being taken over by terrorist or some other disaster movie.  Hope it doesn't put you off the in-flight meal!"

"Eheheheh...probably not the best thing for...uh...Goat Son right now." Liar. You were talking about yourself.

"I'll manage." Asriel breathed a sigh of relief. "I...I was really afraid I was--"

"Shhh.  It's okay.  Everything is calm.  Everything is just.  For now...leave this in Stanley's hands.  I think we're not in any position to play hero this time around."

What a throwback, Volt...those same words echoed from way back when Asriel and Pit first met and Asriel was scared that Pit was going to take him to the afterlife.

As it would turn out...we'd step out of one major crisis...into a whole other level of a new one...

Sub-Entry 379: "Adonis Tries to Pick The Bones.  Violet's Been Brainwashed!"
I wish I hadn't brought up Violet's smoldering intensity a couple entries back. Pride comes before the fall. That's how the expression went.

I'd made the boast that we'd stick it to Chaopolis.

Adonis wastes no time in trying to make a liar out of me. It's the sneak attacks out of nowhere that blindside you that really hit home and hit hard.

And the shock of having one of our own......

Before I get ahead of myself, let me state this much. This would not stand. The low he'd sink to would again pierce both Asriel and myself to the core. Once again...he'd try to break what was still mending.

And how it came without warning...it could have had Chameleon  strongly wrestling with...well...the quickest but most horrifying solution to fix what ensued. But fortunately…Chameleon had his own demons to contend with to bother with it. I think even he wouldn’t be so quick to take the Old Yeller route…at least not without a moment of hesitation before the merc in him gave it to the practical solution over sentimentality. That said…

"Volt...I want to apologize for--"

"Don't.  You have nothing to be sorry for.  I'm...I'm just really glad to have you back." I hugged hm as we headed to UCIAT Headquarters.

"Where do we go from here?"

"One day at a time, Asriel.  One day at a time.  I'm not so foolishly optimistic that I can write off that all it takes is a hug and an apology right again.  It's a long road ahead and...we both know there's no easy fix for what's still broken."

"Part of that is finally admitting that I want to get better again.  I can only imagine what you're going through, Volt."

"This is one of those times where I think I've never stopped going through it...that I always have since..."

"it's okay.  You don't have to talk about Universal City."

But one day we were going to have to talk about it. Just not now...not with us this vulnerable.

"For now...let's talk about mending friendships.  I think...a lot of people need to know I'm going to be okay...and need an apology or two for...stuff."

"The Major always had a saying about friendships, Azzy.  That they're best mended through tragedy and apology."

"I think we can move past tragedy--"  Asriel started before Bunnie suddenly bamfed into existence.

"Sensei?" Asriel quested.

"Major, isn't it a little much to use the dramatic entrance--"

"GET BACK!" She suddenly grabbed us and executed a powerful Shinobi Dash; turning us all nearly invisible with the sudden acceleration spike.

"What the H--"  I didn't finish before there was a MASSIVE crash and explosion behind us as something came BLASTED through the front entrance of headquarters and mowed down everything in its path. Screams and panic ensued.

"Jeeze laweeze! What's happening--"  Asriel cried out as we landed, the room filling with dust, fire and the sprinkler systems going off while the air filled with panic, screams, and emergency alarms. I could sense a lot of electrical work all around me broken and sparking while water pipes were also damaged and leaking.

I turned around as soon as I saw it.

"What the actual HELL?!?" I screamed upon seeing the form of the Royal Roadster. Violet's car from back during the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand crossover a while back. Barely scratched but obviously turned into a missile on wheels.

"Violet, are you out of your freakin' mind--"  Was all I got out as soon as the door tore open and she suddenly stormed out and raised her "Omaya Kaboom" cannon that she had "acquired" from Barney Ross' Expendables armory.

"What...the...!" I heard the weapon cock and aim in our direction.

"This isn't happening--"  Was all I got out before Violet screamed bloody murder...those infamous words I never thought I'd hear her say.

"CHAOPOLIS RISES!  DEATH TO ORDER!  DEATH TO THE LIGHTBRINGERS!  DEATH TO YOU, OLD FRIEND!!!"

That crazed look in her eyes was not the look of someone playing a twisted joke...this was someone who honestly wanted our hides.

The cliché at hand should go something to the effect of..."Why?!  I trusted you!  You were my third in command!  How could you do this!"

But why say it out loud. The trope ran its course before I could even demand an explanation.

"Aunt Vi!  Stop!"

"Traitors to the cause will suffer!" The shots rang out...and deflected off of Bunnie's sudden use of her most powerful kidou arts barrier, Splitting Void.

"Major, aren't you going to say anything!?  Your best friend has--"

"That's not my best friend.  That is not Violet.  It may be her body but that's not her mind." Bunnie narrowed her eyes.

"Wait, are you saying--"

"Help me incapacitate her and I'll explain my suspicions."

"Gonna be a lot harder to do since I was stupid enough to abandon my NX Gear because I was in a Moody Blues." Asriel was hoping the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure reference would at least get a reaction out of Violet. But nothing.

"Yeah, she's not herself.  I would have at least expected her to counter with a pun rooted around the Golden Experience...which you'd have to thwap her for, Sensei."

"I think you and I both know, my student, that in this situation...talking is not the answer."

Asriel shuddered a bit now that he knew that reference...a reference from his own home. And now that he knew why I cringed every time certain phrases from the timelines of his home came up.

"Taking her down is not going to be easy.  Her hybrid ability doesn't just extend to her hacker skills.  She has a mathematics doctorate and can apply pretty much every formula and equation that physics, chemistry, and any other science has to make an on-the-spot foil to any of us.  I've seen how she plays billiards.  She's an absolute trigonometry machine with instantly knowing all the right angles."

"Which she can apply to anything from ricocheting bullets to--"

Asriel suddenly pushed Bunnie and me out of the way and tumbled hastily as one of the light fixtures dropped on us. I then noticed the convoluted series of chain reactions among objects and items all throughout the remains of the lobby that Violet had somehow triggered in a perfect symphony of destruction.

"...to setting up chain reaction events."

"Violet knows better than anyone how to convert chaos into order...and back; controlling them at a mathematical level." Bunnie narrowed her eyes. "Well played, Asriel."

"How do we counter that if she can probabilistically predict our moves and likely account for any sudden new players in the game?" Asriel questioned.

"She sure knows how to make use of her Napoleon complex on the fly." I growled. She'd already taken flight with her jet pack and now had the high ground.

"I've been trying to attack her mind to bring her down...but there's something in it...something that doesn't belong...something locking me out." Bunnie explained. "Violet normally has the psychic defenses of a piece of wood.  But this?  This is a psychic protection on a whole other level......or...what I'm sensing I cannot MAKE SENSE of..."

"Maybe that's a clue to what was done to her." I tried retaliating with lighting to try to mess with her jet packs controls.

"Dammit!  She got her hands on the anti-VIPER electro disruptor pulse tech."

Essentially they were counters to the VIPER prototype vehicle's electrical disruptor cannon; designed to diffuse EMF energy to prevent the ignition system from being shut down. She was probably protecting her own gear with it.

That was when the plasma screen TV behind us suddenly lit up with Glitter's image.

"Administrator requests your immediate termination.  Commencing."

"Oh gods...she put Glitter in service mode!" I gasped moments before it was my turn to push everyone out of the way moments before the TV EXPLODED, scattering shrapnel like a frag grenade.

That was when I realized the other danger.

"We have to keep her out of the building's--"

"I believe I am one step ahead of you." Nikita's voice suddenly spoke up...moments before her head distorted, forming a hole in it moments before one of Violet's explosive shells would have pierced her skull. The bullet passed through and then Nikita remorphed back to normal.

"That...never gets any less disturbing to watch, Doctor." I cringed.

"I've already set the whole building to blacklist mode.  Violet won't be able to hack her way in for hours."

"I don't think we have hours to slow her down.  She's going to take us out in seconds.

"Then let's work together to take her down in less time than that." Bunnie raised her katana out of its hilt with a push of her thumb under the guard.

"You're...really going to...?" Asriel looked a little horrified.

"I know what I'm doing.  Dr. Lynx.  Commander.  If you will follow my lead?"

"As you wish."

"Don't let us down, Major...for her sake more than ours.  I'm not about to lose another friend thanks to Chaopolis."

"You never lost me, Volt." Asriel put his hand on my shoulder. "I was just...misplaced."

"Touching.  But let's focus on defeating her." Nikita's form twisted into a vortex of mercury-like nanite collective before splashing down and moving like a miniature tidal wave with a mind of its own.

"Grrrr!!!!" Violet tossed away Omaya Kaboom and got out the Broiler. A microwave emission cannon might actually do damage to Nikita's bio-nano-coding. I'd never seen her risk her life this much before.

Now I'm...not entirely sure what happened next because it all became a tremendous blur...

Though in part, I think it may have had something to do with Sally suddenly showing up and invoking her hybrid abilities.

I think Bunnie had invoked one of her jutsus in combination with a kidou sealing art. She had so many different ones I couldn't keep track. Even as a substitute soul reaper, she mastered more than I knew of.

Nikita had definitely taken a xenomorphic construct form that I can only guess was an amalgamation of Violet's genetic library...which I'm sure was meant to spite her integrity as a genetic librarian when seeing a conglomeration of past gene splices done all over the world. Yeah, she still considered tampering with nature's blueprint a sin.

I remember Asriel had a Taiyoudama in both hands...and he said something to the effect of..."It's nothing that a first aid kid and an apology won't fix afterward..."

And I was primed to release a home-grown EMP; one that Nikita assured me that she had shielded herself and Bunnie from.

With all that convoluted set up...

...the next thing I knew that the whole lobby was nearly cratered...and Violet was out cold. What had we done?

"Get her downstairs to my auxiliary lab immediately.

And soon enough...

Violet struggled to break her bonds...to the point of foaming at the mouth and actually injuring herself where the metal restraints had her clamped down to the operating table.

"Sorry about this, my friend...but it is for your own good."

And with that Bunnie administered a rapid-fire series of strikes to various points on Violet's body, which I could only assume were pressure points.

Vi's eyes glazed over and her mouth fell open and she went limp.

"An apology and a first aid kid, Asriel." She bowed her head, noticeably broken up by what we had done.

"She's...going to be okay...right, Mom?"

Callista deep probed.

"...I don't know.  I've looked into her head...and all I can see is haze...and static.  Like television white nose but...nothing white about it.  It's very...purple."

"If you mean like a purple haze, I appreciate the music reference--"  Asriel started.

"No.  Like an actual purple haze.  Or a blacklight fluorescent."

"I have an idea which of Adonis' a-holes is behind this.  But I should know better than to jump to conclusions without evidence." I growled, baring fangs.

"How did they get to her!?" Asriel turned serious.

"The same way they got to me on Phaedos.  And both of us at STC HQ in the space between spaces, time between times, and dimension between dimensions." I folded my arms. I was really saying I didn't know but chances are Alloucious had a foolproof way past every contingency that KOMMAND and I had from the start. Or he stole it from Evil-Chara. Either way...he was a guided missile we just couldn't dodge. Every time he'd find us.

"Is there a way to fix this?" Jonathan looked so freaked out. I'd never seen him this panicked in a long time and I'd seen his worst panic attacks.

Violet was probably the closest friend he had besides Felicia.

"I don't even know where to begin with his." Callista stepped back.

Silence throughout the lab.

"But maybe we do." Came a voice I didn't recognize. Male. Sounded human. Sounded about 15 to 17.

"This is a restricted area." Nikita immediately reached for the security panel.

"We'll...apologize for the breaking and entering after slipping past a police investigation later."

Blond-haired. Blue-eyed. Human. Black shirt and jeans. And he wasn't alone.

"You're...!" Asriel started.

"I think you're Dad worked with my dad back in the day.  We haven't been introduced yet.  I'm Johnny Quest."

Wait. THE Johnny Quest? The son of the famous scientist under Intelligence-One's protection?

Yup. Globe-trotting, intuitive-thinking, confident problem solver described as a Tom Swift character. There was implication that his future-self followed the same path as Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture...I really hoped that the "Action Johnny" rumors were not true. One more future I'd have to withhold.

"I know you.  Violet's research made repeated references to Benton Quest's research into vectorizing intelligent life into a virtue space which he created under the working name, Quest World." Nikita stepped away from the security panel.

"And these are my friends, Jessie Banon and Hadji Singh."

Banon? As in Roger "Race" Banon? UCIAT knew him as an I-1 special agent legend during the days of counterterrorism. He was famous among the famous. I'd heard he was even a colleague of Brock Sampson in the same line of work.

Red-haired, green-eyed...wait a minute...the resemblance is uncanny...could it be? Yes...Garfield's old records mentioned a...strange relationship between Race Banon and a crafty thief named Jade Kenyon. Oh no. Race. You sly dog, you! Yeah...I'd read between the lines another time. The vibe I was getting from this girl was she was the thinker and level-headed one.

And finally Hadji. I immediately recognized his ethnicity as Hindu Indian; I estimated somewhere around Kolkata. The turban head-wrap was a dead-giveaway to his Middle Eastern heritage. What his dossier did say that he was orphaned. But I'd soon learn he'd have a surprising backstory which gave him more in common with Asriel than I would have guessed...royally so. The most spiritual and the most level-headed of the group. He felt cut from the same cloth as Bunnie. Stoic but not without a sense of humor and occasional dry wit. Probably the least likely to go chasing trouble but most likely for trouble to find him.

"I hate to be rude but now's not a good time Mr. Quest, Ms. Banon, and Mr. Singh."

"Not to say we're going to turn away total strangers even in a time of crisis.  What can we do for you three?"

"It's not what you can do for us.  It's what we can do for you." Johnny almost seemed like he was trying to sell us on something."

"And to be perfectly frank, we are in fact here on her behalf.  Violet Tokugawa left quite the contingency should her mind ever be hacked."

"And that's where you come in?" Jon asked.

"Also, you're taking it rather well to be among a lot of non-human anthropomorphs--"

"No offense, but you're hardly the strangest things we've encountered in the field of phenomenology." Johnny interjected.

"Honestly I don't know what you can do for her." Jonathan's ears drooped.

"Give us an hour and we'll definitely change your mind.  And hopefully hers."

Too soon, Johnny. Too soon.

Sure enough, one hour later after raiding the metal briefcase with the Q-logo on it...

"...your enemies have outdone themselves.  It is not subliminal messages per se.  It appears that they have implanted the equivalent of a root kit into Violet's mind." Hadji finally looked up from the readouts.

"A what?" My son-in-law looked completely lost.

"It grants unrestricted administrator privileges to a host, making it the one and only control system for everything." Nikita explained. "Basically...this Dr. Adonis has stolen Violet's mind and her Hybrid Ability with it."

"This is clearly Dr. Benedict's work.  Never trust a doctor who embraces the pseudonym, "Judas".  That obvious allusion to being a traitor should have been the S.T.C. Council's red flag from the start." I was seething mad.

"Oh no...poor Aunt Violet." Asriel's kindness was flaring up; proof that his virtues and virtue abilities were still intact. All of our strengths (not to mention our deaths, obviously) had been rolled back by the Return To The Past.

"I'm rather impressed by this Quest World setup your father created, Mr. Quest."

"Johnny.  I'm not ready to be addressed as a "Mister", yet."

"There's a rare moment of humility." Jessie prodded.

"Gotta make a good impression for our benefactors and allies, don't I?"

"Banter aside, the situation is most dire." Hadji got us back on track. "Just looking at this imagery feels as if it invokes bad karma."

"He's using Violet's true potential with Ultra Organic Number Calculating to create a deep coma level hallucination on another level."

"Agreed, Master Rabbotou.  It's like rendering a virtual world on a GALACTIC scale with zero redundancy down to the atomic level and completely imprisoned Violet's awareness in full paralysis save for sensory stimulus.  I had no idea Violet's hybrid ability was this powerful."

"You're saying she can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel anything Adonis wants her to?"

"On a level so convincing I highly doubt she can discern reality from fantasy."

Bunnie's knuckles cracked. "Believe it or not...being able to separate reality from fantasy might have been one of Violet's greatest strengths.  Despite how very little she seems to be rooted in the real world and is constantly trolling us with her levity...she never loses focus of what's real and what's a facade.  That ability to know fakeness at its base level is what makes her intelligence truly horrifying...and admirable."

"So what do we do about this? How do we fix it?!" Jon panicked.

"I hate to say it...but there's no other way.  We have go into Quest World and into Violet's mind and rip that root-kit out by the roots." I growled, baring my fangs.

"This is all too familiar." Jessie lamented, looking off to the side.

"You sound like you speak from experience."

"It is no coincidence.  I believe this Dr. Benedict may have made contact with one of our rogue's gallery." Hadji narrowed his eyes.

"Dr. Jeremiah Surd." Johnny scowled.

"Tell me about this Surd." I asked.

"All I really feel comfortable with saying is that we made a deal with the devil to save our Dads."

"My dad, Roger "Race" Bannon had history with him in his early O.S.I. days.  Surd was a bio-terrorist who threatened to release a toxic nerve gas into the world.  Dad tried to take him into custody but an accident resulted in Surd being completely paralyzed save for his eyes.  He spent his time in a penal detention asylum confined to an automated chair with a vocoder."

"And you offered him Quest World in exchange for the means to save your fathers.  But he double-crossed you?" Asriel crossed his arms.

Johnny and Jessie looked at each other. "Surprisingly on the nose." Jessie raised an eyebrow.

"He does that.  He's kind of a prodigy." I shrugged.

"He contacted his old crew and had them infiltrate the Quest Compound after shutting its security down.  And then they made off with one of our Quest World laptop rigs and gear.  From then on he's been able to use it to orchestrate a new wave of cyber-terrorism."

"As Violet would say...now we know who Benedict is in bed with."

I gave Jon a grimace.

"Speaking metaphorically!" He held up his hands in defense. Admittedly, Violet would have chuckled at that.

"And this Surd...did something unspeakable to you, Mr. Quest?"

Jessie turned away.

"Not a story you should pry into."

"And yet it's a story script that's repeating almost line for twisted line." Jessie glared at the security monitor where the wrecked Royal Roadster remained crashed in UCIAT HQ's lobby while crews were trying to have it removed at the same time the local authorities were trying to get statements and examine evidence. The area had been cordoned off as a crime scene we'd have to clear up once we returned upstairs. Kitty was doing her best to legally stall the investigation while were in this critical phase.

"I think I know where this is going." I picked up one of the Quest World visor pieces and slid it on. Asriel already had his own. There were only enough for two, though. Which means Johnny, Jessie, and Hadji couldn't go with us.

"So...we're really downloading ourselves into her head?"

"I've often advised other psychics to stay out of Violet's head.  Not because her defenses are too high...it's because they're not existent and the worlds and realities and mind-blows she can craft in there are far more dangerous than anything a trained psionic could do inside a person's head." Bunnie narrowed her eyes.

"Which is your way of saying that as soon as we go in, the danger will be very real..  Matrix rules.  Our minds will make it real if we go too deep." Asriel sighed.

"Correct."

"We can support you from out here but...all we really have to give is advice based on experience.  Jessie warned.

"No biggie.  They've survived this long being as awesome as their dossiers claim.   They got this." Yeah I was seeing a bit of that guy...Sonic in Johnny and a bit of old school Sally in Jessie.

"Quest World online." Hadji advised. "Good luck to you."

"Quest World log on.  Subjects: Volt Arcade and Asriel Dreemurr.  Going hot!" Johnny said as we clicked on our visors and let the program run. And then it was down the rabbit hole. Suffice to say...it was an experience far more intense than LYOKO, if that could be believed.

Sub-Entry 380: "Freeing Violet Via Quest. World Volt and Asriel Confront Their Nightmares."
Man, oh man...what have the two of us gotten ourselves into?

"Can you see what we're seeing, Major?"

"I do see it.  And quite frankly this is nothing like how Violet's mind should look.  I should know.  Despite how eccentric and spontaneous she is, Violet keeps her mind meticulously organized like folders in a computer database.  This...this is--"

"Utter chaos.  Adonis' dirty, filthy, stinking, rotten fingerprints are all over this!" I was trying not to shout at the Major...just shout in general.

"Mind your temper, Volt."

The both of us took a moment to adjust. Admittedly I let my emotions get out of hand. So much so I didn't notice our appearance. It felt...just like it was back in Mainframe. Metallic, hyper-realism driven virtual 3D vectorization. More real than real but at the same time more artificial than anything.

So. Things went from bad to worse. Adonis split us up and sent us down opposite paths; paths that led us further and further away from one another. Little did either of us know...they were going to lead us further and further away from each other in a different way.

if at first you don't succeed...divide, divide again.

On one recess of Violet's mind...

"Volt?  Vollllt?  Where are you?  Volt, I'm scared.  Please answer me..."

Asriel had been wandering the corridors of broken, sinister-looking code and disturbing imagery. Even Bunnie was having a hard time sensing what was...really out of Violet's imagination...and what was Adonis' corruption. Maybe that was the idea.

Granted...Azzy took the first steps toward healing. But Chaopolis was never one to show mercy when they could see weakness. And Adonis was about to low-blow him in ways that made my skin crawl underneath my fur.

And that's when he saw it...or rather...he saw me. Only it wasn't--

"I'm very disappointed in you Asriel Dreemurr."

"V...Volt...?" Asriel took a step back as "I" approached.

"Look what you've brought upon us..." The me that wasn't me started to lay into him. Mercilessly.

The images surrounding Asriel were...not great. Not our best moments. ...some of them...were probably fake. Either way...they didn't paint his choices in a flattering light. It looked like one long string passing through bad choice after bad choice after bad choice.

"It...it wasn't like this....!"

"How much I've sacrificed for your sake...how much I've invested...no...WASTED upon the likes of you..."

"Volt...that's...that's really hurtful...you can't mean that...!"

"Can't I?  Look at the facts, you scared little failure.  The tears I shed for you...the pain and suffering you put me through.  Look me in the eyes and tell me you know what your existence has been costing all of us.  We'd all be dead if the Return to the Past hadn't undid your tremendous screw-up."

"B-b-but...I didn't!  Adonis was--"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR EXCUSES!  The only thing that counts is results.  You’ve endangered lives with your unwillingness to get your claws dirty!  With always choosing the less scary, less violent path!  The world is a violent place and your line of thinking doesn't belong."

This was disgusting. And getting worse. And pretty soon...this faker was going below the belt.

"I stuck my neck out for you!  A prince who did nothing but cry when things got tough, who bellyached about how lonely he was..."

"No...stop it...why are you doing this...!"

"Oh, I'm just getting started you little sack of trash.  You killed her.  You killed your sister.  You gave her the buttercups and poisoned her to death...and then you were too scared to go through with the promise you made her......you even ran from the path that would have gotten you killed."

Asriel turned deathly pale and his lip started to quiver. He began to stagger backwards, reaching up and clutching his head.

"Why...why...why are you betraying me?"

"Oh I'M the traitor?  I'm the one who's stabbing you in the back?  You threw your entire people's hopes and dreams away and huddled up in the corner of Gaster's space.  Why?  Because you thought you could escape punishment?  Because you thought you were above the consequences?"

Asriel began to hyperventilate.

"You were supposed to be my former partner's successor?  For whatever reservations I have about him, you're not even close to a worthy substitute.  I never should have taken pity on you.  Do you know how AGGREVATING it is to cover for every problem you've caused me?  Do you know how long I've been under the council's heels and your emergence just added that last straw to the camel's back!"

"I'm sorry...I...I didn't--"

"Of course you didn't.  Because you can't see past any decision that you think is the kindest path.  But you've never been more wrong."

Asriel had fallen backward and was crawling away from "me", reaching out with one hand, trying to protect against my advances as I bore down.

"All the times I've been torn.  All the times you've left me behind.  All the days I've given us over."

This image of me was really going to throw that back in his face!? Had Adonis no shame?!

But he wasn't the only one to be tortured. My own guilt...my own fears...my own quasi-loneliness that came from being immortal and knowing I'd outlive every one of my friends unless I got them to agree to open the Genie's Lamp and Pandora's Box.......it was a prison that there was no breaking out of unless that White Knight Contract ended...and me with it.

And Adonis knew just where my vulnerabilities were and had the metaphorical sledgehammer to hit them with.

"Asriel?  Asriel?  C'mon, buddy, where are you?"

Asriel had already experienced this once...now it was my turn to be gripped by a mutual horror.

"No...!" My eyes widened as I felt my legs weaken and my knees buckle...jaw dropping and an utter look of horror and defeat twist my muzzle.

"No...no, not this...!"

Carved on the headstone was Asriel's face...his own likeness.

"You're calling for me, Volt?  Well...here I am.  The end result of all your choices....all your lies...all your sins that crawled up your back...reached over...and strangled us all." Asriel's voice gradually turned from cheerful...to accusing.

"Why...how..."

"You know how and why, "best friend".  This is what an irresponsible guardian gets...it's what he deserves."

I noticed the other gravestones to the left and to the right of him....my wife...my children...the Major...Jon...everyone I had ever met........no. It wasn't a row of graves...it was an entire cemetery...that covered an entire planet. One for every life...I...destroyed......all my good intentions....

"I...don't understand!  I did everything I could!  I tried so hard--"

"And you FAILED, Volt.  You failed us.  You failed all of us!" Asriel's carving in the headstone was now outright furious. "You didn't steal from me, old "friend".  You stole ME from my world...from my family!  From everything I had!"

"But...you would have died, there too!"

"But at least I would have died where I BELONGED!"

I clutched my heart as my eyes started to well up with tears...and stream them. I was weakening...I couldn't protest...I couldn't argue with him because...because...he was...right...!

"Everyone you know is dead.  Everyone you will EVER know is right here.  That's your biggest curse, Volt Arcade.  You bring death to everyone.  Your choices are a long and slow murder.  You're worse than me...you're a far worse serial murderer than Hyperdeath."

"No!  No it can't be true...!  I never...!  I never...!"

"You.  Never.  Cared." Asriel's voice now had a dark reverb to it that was piercing me.

I had dropped to my hands and knees...hanging my head.

"The most merciful think you could do is just give up.  Give up and let us rest in peace.  Let us rest knowing we'll never see you again."

And the faces of my friends and family and everyone I'd ever met...everyone's likeness carved into those gravestones...all turned toward me, piercing their gaze with the same accusing, disgusted, hateful look as Asriel.

I...I had no choice to...to believe it......it was true. What I had done to them was all true...I'm no White Knight...I'm just Destiny's Herald...leading everyone to their intended path. I am a Reaper. I'm...just so...forever alone......I deserve to be.

What was left for me to do...but surrender...

And yet...outside the truth couldn't be more opposite.

"I can't watch this!" Jonathan pounded his fist onto an unused console, actually caving it in.

"That's coming out of your pay, Mr. Talbain." Nikita narrowed her eyes.

"Not the time, Dr. Lynx." Jessie protested.

"I feel for all of you.  This is like a bad movie that Dad and I lived once already.  Line for line it's the same trashy script.  Surd pretty much handed your enemy the film and said--"

"Let me guess.  You can copy my homework, just change so that it's not completely the same?" Jonathan cut in.

"Uh...yeah, how'd you know I was going to say that?"

"Call it a lucky guess Vi would have approved of." Jon mused as Johnny and Jessie looked at each other. Hadji rolled his eyes briefly before turning serious again.

"Whatever we do we must do it fast.  Their grip on reality is slipping away as we speak."

"This is hard to watch..." Mitzi and Sally had joined us by this point.

"Man this makes me so MAD!" Sally punched her fist into her palm. "This is low even for that scumbag!"

"Then let us take action." Bunnie looked to Hadji in a strange exchange of glances. I don't think anyone caught the unsaid context...but to surmise...it seemed as though those gifted with psionics recognized psionics.

"I never thought I would have to use the same thing used to snap me out of it when Jeremiah Surd literally stole my mind through Quest World."

Hadji walked over to Asriel as Bunnie walked over to me.

"Asriel...Asriel...your friends need you Asriel."

"Commander...come back to us.  What you are seeing is not real.  What you are experiencing is an attack on your mind...."

Bunnie touched her index fingers to my temples at the same time Hadji did the same to Asriel's.

"Wake up from within!"

As I cried my eyes out before Asriel's grave, Bunnie's ethereal form was suddenly standing behind me.

"Open your mind's eye.  And know what is real...and what is illusion.  Trust your heart, Commander.  Trust Asriel."

I looked up at the grave.

"This...this is a lie....this is just...!" I gnashed my fangs. "...this is...THE BEST YOU GOT!?!" I punched the ground and forced myself up, the shockwave actually buckling the ground under the whole cemetery.

"ADONIS YOU COWARD!!!" I shouted, my voice echoing and taking a mechanical reverberation with each bounce off the space in Violet's psyche.

"He needs you now." Bunnie's spirt form spoke to...or through me...I couldn't tell which.

"Asriel." I suddenly worried about the situation he might be in. If I was tortured this badly...what was Adonis doing to him?

I looked down at my chest and focused...feeling my soul awaken and light up with the red aura of Determination.

"We are connected.  And that's all I need to get to him, no matter how far apart we are..."

I had recalled Ray Stantz's advice about nightmares. Just keep telling yourself it's only a dream...and then you can take control of it.

At that time...

"...if it wasn't for Bunnie and myself CONSTANTLY having to save your sorry hide at every turn...every time you get yourself in danger..."

That was a blatant lie. Asriel didn't NEED our help to stand on his own two feet.

"Our promise...what a joke.....the joke where a naive little goat monster just can't help but be what he always was...failed garbage.  A serial murderer...and someone who just couldn't be a good little flower prince and follow his path to his intended fate--a soulless flower that was compelled to act like his dead sibling.  You think Toriel would EVER forgive you for what you've done in so many timelines...so many resets.  Look what she did to Asgore.  Look what Asgore did to those innocent children.  Like son like parents.  Nothing but a disappointment--"

Asriel was curled up into a ball and tried to shut everything out...but by this point...he was starting to accept the lies...he was starting to believe them...he was starting to--

"DISAPPOINTMENT!?!" My voice suddenly interrupted...well...myself. "Hah!  I've never heard such hogwash in my life!  Nothing could be further from the truth."

Asriel looked up in time to see...the both of us. And my fake self was caught by surprise.

"Nobody talks that way to my best friend...you hear me?  NOBODY!   NOBODY!!!!!!!!!!!! "

I drew back and slugged myself. HARD. So hard that I shattered my doppelganger’s jaw and muzzle.

I drew back and punched again, drawing buckets of blood that dissolved into red binary and computer code.

I drew back one last time...and caved my double's skull in, knocking his corpse to the ground where it twisted and contorted and Adonis' unholy scream resonated from it before it dissolved into computer code.

I turned to Asriel, knelt down and offered a hand.

"You didn't really believe any of that trash, did you?" I asked with a sympathetic smile and eyes full of tears and stained furry cheeks.

"N-n...no...of c-course not...it just.......it just really...really went to dark places...it really hurt...so much..." He accepted my hand and pulled him into a big man-hug. We clutched each other tightly.

"I know, Asriel...I know." I feel your pain...and my heart is breaking knowing what he must've said...what he must have done to you."

"I'll be fine...I'm more worried...about what he put you through.  You've got to be hurting."

"Yeah.  But that's how, Asriel.  That's how we know we're both still alive.  That we can still feel anything...and everything."

I was alluding to his other timeline's deaths...his dusting. I think he recognized it immediately.

"So...morbid to think about...my fate..."

"A fate you've defied.  I gave you the key to your destiny.  You were the one who decided to use it.  And here we are.  We might be in our own personal Hell within Vi's mind...but we at least have each other...right?"

"Right."

"And there's something else I'm feeling right now...do you feel the same?

Asriel stepped back from me, his eyes hidden by the shadow of his bangs...but then I saw what was underneath. I saw...fire. The same fire that was in my own.

"I do.  And I think we both know what comes next..."

We were barely containing our own rage. I'd never seen Asriel TRUELY pissed off before...I'd seen hints of it...I've seen his meltdowns...I'd seen him in panic attacks...I'd seen everything out of him but one thing. It was the same thing I was keeping BARELY contained.

Rage.

And low and behold nothing stood in our way as we tore through Vi's corrupted psyche. We weren't concerned with hurting her. We weren't concerned with breaking her mind worse. We weren't concerned that were mad as bulls before a red matador's cape. The two of us had that much confidence Vi could take whatever we dished out. It was Adonis that we weren't going to show any mercy.

"ADONIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!!!!!!" I about tore my vocal chords apart.

"GET OUT HERE NOW, YOU SICK PSYCHO!" It was the first time Asriel had stooped to insults and ultimatums. We were both sick of being victims. We were both sick of being tortured. For the love of the Goddess, were just sick of HIM.

Speak of the devil and the devil shall appear. I think that was the one-liner Adonis' cyber form delivered.

"What's the matter?  You two seem worked out.  There a problem you want to address?  Could it be...that simple?  C'mon...can't you take a joke?" He grinned deviously.

"You've stalked our allies...you've murdered an entire universe authored by someone else and made our universe's maker watch and bear the guilt himself...a guilt passed down to me." I tightened my fists as I bowed my head and grit my teeth from the fury I was suppressing. Fury that was about to explode.

"You terrorized my family.  You drove apart my friends.  You slaughtered my home and signed a death sentence for the whole planet.  You've acted without restriction and without accountability or even the most basic DECENCY.  You've tried to annihilate my friendship with Asriel...more than twice now!"

I counted eight years ago, plus the fallout of his Bad Ending plan that broke him, and finally the attempt to tear us apart inside Violet's own mind just moments prior.

"Eh.  It seemed pretty phoned in to me.  I should have went with a better director--"

"ENOUGH!" Asriel interrupted. "You made a plaything out of Chara and turned her loose on me.  Then when that wasn't enough you took another timeline's Chara, wound him up, and turned him loose on me and my friends and family!  You've done nothing but disrespect my friendship with Volt and looked down on my like I'm not even a minor threat to you!  You even brought my own birth Mother, Toriel to this world just to sabotage Volt's work for the last 8 years.  And you've spit on the most sacred of the sacred...Volt's and my promise.  Our pact keeping all this secret until the day I was ready.  Your sacrilege defiled everything we held dear...all for your sick, twisted amusement!"

"You've been a cancer choking this InfinityVerse from day one."

"You aren't capable of remorse or regret.  You are a straight-up sociopath and a far worse serial murderer than ANY of my timeline incarnations could ever be!"

"You've shamed us."

"Humiliated us."

"Tainted us!"

"Broken us!"

"What you've done is UNFORGIVABLE!"

"This.  Ends.  NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!" We both said in unison as our rage finally exploded and vastly amplified our determination and the expression of our psyches. Our virtual selves were boosted exponentially and our minds were making any and everything we could conceive our own compact incepted reality within Vi's own mental reality that she had crafted around us.

"Bravo...your anger has made you collectively more than a match for me.  But as Surd has advised me...there's always an art to playing dirty.  Not in those words, mind you but.  I suppose I should thank him for the contingency plan..."

And with that Adonis activated a program in real-time from where he was connected somewhere out there in the vast beyond.. And his Quest World avatar mutated and grew even further...becoming an abomination almost impossibly worse than his already twisted muscle-bound hell beast form. Worse than that...it was fusing itself to the virtual representation of Violet's spongy grey matter. He was becoming her consciousness...and now had full control over--

"HURK!!!" The slimy tentacles of his chimera form had seized Asriel and myself around the throats.

"Violet Usako Tokugawa is mine.  If even in this cyberspace, I finally acquired a god of my own.  One attached to the strings of my puppet controller.  In this world, through her hybrid-ability, I am God here.  Capital G-O-D and now you can never forget it.  Because I'm moments away from cracking your psyches and infecting you both the same way I infected your rabbit princess.  Once your bodies are released from Quest World; a feat I can pull off from the inside by executing Quest World's master kill switch...when you get logged out...my control over you stays linked through Vi's hybrid ability!  And from there you'll spread it like a pandemic until I control the entire planet."

"Do you...ever...run out of stupid...cliché...villain plans to steal from!?" Asriel gasped.

"Cuuuuuute.  But wasted breath.  Now...be a good boy and--"

That was when the whole area...undulated...undulated with a shockwave that tore through all of us.

"What the...!" I gasped as Adonis' grip loosened.

"Hey!" Adonis' smug look started to fade. "Get back under my control...!"

Little did we know...outside of it all...

"Violet...wake up.  Only you have the power to save them!" Callista, Bunnie, and Hadji had melded their powers and were reaching out to her through a deep dive. Really...it was like trying to get a candle through the world's worst fog bank. Did they really have any hope of that spark reaching the center of Violet's being?

That was when the fleshy brain-matter walls started eroding away and leaving a digital wire frame that contorted and reshaped, morphing into a giant hand that grabbed Adonis' twisted form and tore it from the cellular tissue; rather violently at that.

"Aw come on...don't be that guy...gal...thing?  Adonis wheezed as the hand continued to grow and expand into an arm and then a body...and then we all recognized the impossibly planet-sized form of Princess Violet.

"Ohhhhh I really wish Surd had mentioned this little danger before we parted ways..." Adonis grimaced, his levity starting to drain away as he shifted from laughing Joker to abusive Joker.

Violet's face was the last think to finish forming...and she was UBER-PISSED. Far more rage-fueled and full of rage than Asriel and myself combined.

"Aww come on!  You can't be serious!  How are you doing this?  You shouldn't even have the ability to change a pixel in here--"

"You're the mad mastermind, scumbag.  YOU figure it out!"

"Okay...so ya got me...You really think you can do anything to me in here?  The time it takes you to act, Leviathan will have me logged out of Quest World and--"  Adonis's window suddenly showed a red X over the readouts with an error warning.

"Oh I am so not done with you.  This is MY house, you slime.  MY house!" The reality around us began to change drastically, morphing into something...of an amalgamation of everything that was Violet Usako Tokugawa...the REAL one. Was I surprised to see a lot of bare feet floating around without rhyme or reason? Eheh...I probably could have omitted that from my logs...eheheheh...

But seriously.

* CRUNCH*  Violet's grip tightened, crushing Adonis with the audible sound of breaking bones and squishing flesh, and other unholy noises.

"You can't kill me, Vi.  You of all people should know something THAT obvious even before anyone would ever bring it up."

"You're right.  I can't.  But.  There are far worse things than death that one can experience." Vi's towering form grew even bigger. So big Azzy and I barely measured up to a toe.

"Come now, Vi...you know I'm a special breed.  I can't be bought...or bullied...threatened...or reasoned with.  I'm one of those people that wants to watch the world burn, remember?  I'm way past crazy.  Too insane to EVER be viably punishable.

"You want to bet....?" Violet glowered down as the wire frame of all of the surrounding graphs and charts had combined and had become a vortex, pulling Adonis and only Adonis in.

"What are you doing!?" Adonis started to sound a little concerned.

"Giving you the one nightmare that scares even you.  And trapping you in it."

"What do you--"  Adonis suddenly started losing control over his ability to speak...in fact his whole body was going numb.

"It's about time I showed you how powerful my mind REALLY is.  And why psychics learn to stay OUT of my head, despite having zero mental defenses to outside psychers.  My mind is  like a bad neighborhood.  You don't ever go out at night.  You don't ever go it alone.  And you don't EVER.  EVER.   EVER  disrespect my turf and everyone and everything in it."

Various images from Vi's memories, plus various depictions of us...some more flattering than others...but mostly of the whole UCIAT assembled and looking very gangsta if not ready to give a beatdown on Allouicious.

"These are just memories.  Constructs.  Hallucinations."

"You ready to put that to the test?"

"This is a far better fate than you deserve...but you'll still be praying for sweet release from what you're about to go through.  But I guess you're going to find out what ultimately is my...first order."

Adonis' grin faded before he realized Violet's threat.

"Picture if you will...a cyberspace so immaculate, so planned out to the last decimal place...so perfectly rooted in mathematical structure and order.  A cyberspace more sterile and orderly and predictable as you can imagine...more-so than an Apple store;  nothing but perfection for more than 700 terabytes of non-redundant environment."

Adonis' eyes widened...before he lost his sh--*EXPLITIVE DELETED*...for the second time.

He struggled to claw his way out of the wire-frame vortex. Violet then shrunk down...but to a size still larger than Adonis. She kicked her sandals off and loomed over him.

"Don't go away mad, Donny...just...go...AWAY!  This is MY head.  And YOU'RE.  NOT.  WELCOME!" She stomped her bare foot down on Adonis' face...before shove-kicking him into the cyber-void where his scream echoed endlessly....until it didn't.

And with that...the visual representation of Violet's mind began to repair itself and reassemble into presumably what Bunnie recognized. Very...orderly. Like a database of folders and sets of files.

"Hey.  You guys...want to give me my headspace for a bit.  I got...a lot of work to do in here."

"Yeah...yeah, I think we were just leaving, anyway, Vi."

"Aunt Vi...how did...how did you get control of your consciousness again?"

"...we all have to have our secrets." Vi shrugged it off, surprisingly not willing to talk about herself. "Now get a move on.  Scoot.  I'm really not feeling it right now."

"I can...imagine."

"Quest World logout.  Terminate."

And with that the world went white...until our vision cleared and we were back in Nikita's sub-lab.

"She's going to be okay." Bunnie assured.

"What happened to Adonis?" Jon asked.

That was when Violet sat up.

"Just like I said.  I gave him his own nightmare to deal with.  But..."

"But?"

"But I didn't tell him the whole story.  I think Jessie knows where I'm going with this."

"It's only fair that if Adonis was going to steal his script from Jeremiah Surd...I might as well let Violet steal a script from me." Jessie explained.

"Oh no...tell me you did not..." Hadji looked a little aghast.

"Alright, Jess!  He totally had it coming."

"Had what coming?" Jon asked.

"I basically put him into a deep cyber-coma.  He'll probably find his way out of there but at least now if he's going to dream his twisted dreams...he'll leave us out of it.  But worse for him than that...I confined his cerebral chrysalis into a form Surd might be all too familiar with.  I took away his access and deleted his rootkit from his own system after purging it from my head.  And I locked him into a completely paralyzed form in a quarantined RAM bank filled with exactly what I said:  A sterile, systematic, organized environment.  The complete opposite of chaos.  Perfectly still.  Perfectly predictable.  And all completely locked down with the Medusa Viral Bug that Hexadecimal tricked Megabyte into using on Mainframe."

"Ouch." Rotor cringed when he took it all in.

"A befitting punishment, I'd say." I narrowed my eyes. "And yet I have my doubts that it will hold him for long."

"Long enough.  No one...and I mean NO one messes with my friends and family and gets away with it.  I've been too lonely for too much of my life to lose all that.  And I won't ever forgive anyone who tries to control me to destroy all that with my own hand.  I have spoken." Violet got off the operating table and walked out of the room to her personal lab.

We decided to...well...give her her space.

For now...we'd beaten them back and temporarily evened the score.

Oh if only I knew how Adonis would take measures to not just get even with us...but brute-force ahead with something that would make me face every bit of my past...something I don't think I had the strength to endure.

Fate's script was in its final phase. Asriel had gone through his darkest hours...I was about to go through my darkest years in my darkest places. Places I'd let space, time, and dimension bury. And places even I didn't know about.

Give me strength, Lady Destiny...I was about to face a gauntlet of things that even I didn't have any idea existed. Why?

Because I was about to find out that I had believed for far too long that an Agent of STC had no AU versions of themselves. Asriel being the exception because he had not signed either of the contracts. He was still mortal and existed in countless AU iterations.

Once we became what we were in all our immortal glory, all other versions of us combined into only one; the truest iteration of ourselves so that our enforcement of space, time, and dimension was absolute. That we couldn't cause problems like that fluke that happened with Worlds Apart where I found myself split into two different instances--one which had been assigned to Mobius...and the other which had been assigned to Mega Man's world. And existing simultaneously. A rare and unique kind of paradox that I still didn't know if it resolved itself when ACM-002 ceased to exist completely by the will of powers higher than even the Goddesses of our universe.

I'd thought this was the one and only truth the sisters swore up and down was immutable.

Where and when do the lies stop?

Furthermore...I was in for some reunions that I only thought were products of my own imagination.

As it turned out...other universes had their own interpretation of me...of Volt Arcade. And somehow....Adonis exploited the loophole to bring Asriel and myself straight to them...

CRYPTOSMASHER LOGOFF

END TRANSMISSION...

Chapter 39

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