by Dante Doom
“We make a good team,” Timon said as he high-fived her. “Now, let’s get moving.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Savannah followed Timon as they hurried up the stairs checking each corridor, searching frantically for Ten-Thirty, but the android was nowhere to be found. Savannah feared the worst, too. What if one of Leopold’s men had gotten the drop on the Machina and destroyed it? That would be a terrible affair. Savannah had grown quite attached to the being—it had grown more and more self-aware, and was even funny at times, making it seem more like a real person. Especially when it was sarcastic.
“Nothing!” Timon growled once they finished checking the Maintenance Section. “We’ve been all over this place, shooting Leopold’s men and dodging Viral hybrids. Ten’s nowhere to be found.”
“I hope it didn’t die…” Savannah whispered.
“Yeah, that would be a tragedy,” Timon agreed. “Although… do you fear that we would be killing it when rebooting the Grind? It seemed worried about that.”
“I’m sure Ten will survive it,” Savannah said, not willing to think of the alternative. “Maybe we can figure out how to back her mind up to a pod, so that when we reboot, we can put her back into the game.”
“You’re calling Ten a her now?” Timon asked as they made their way back to the stairs.
“That was a slip-up… I mean, it looks like a girl, sorta,” Savannah replied. As they reached the base of the stairs, a familiar grinning man popped up in front of them.
“Hands up!” Fingers cried out as he leapt up from the stairs and pointed his revolvers at them.
“Fingers?” Savannah gasped.
“Savannah? Timon?” Fingers cried out as he put his guns down. A wide smile came across his face. “Man, I’m so glad to see you both! And here, of all places!”
“Fingers, what are you doing here?” Timon asked. “This place isn’t… it’s not a normal kind of area.”
“Oh, I know well and good what this place is,” Fingers replied as he holstered his weapons. “Me and Elanor have had our hearts set on raiding this area. It’s where all the power is.”
“Where is Elanor?” Savannah asked. “We need to talk to her desperately.”
“She’s on the third floor, looking for something. She said something about needing to know some kind of… I don’t know. She was looking for glasses or something.”
“Perfect!” Savannah cheered. “Elanor will know how they work!”
“Well, let’s go meet her, and quickly,” Timon said. “I don’t want to waste any more time in this place. There’s no way that Leopold doesn’t know we’re here at this point.”
“Boy, I missed you two,” Fingers said. “Elanor is good company, and sure, she laughs at my jokes, but you folks were fun. Where’s the robot?”
“Can’t seem to find it,” Timon replied as they made their way down the stairs, to the third level. “We were just looking for Ten-Thirty when we found you.”
“Well, hopefully that bucket of rust is somewhere nearby,” Fingers said. “I’ve missed its blank expressions. Truthfully, it was weird being away from a big group. I mean, one on one is fine, but after a while, it seems kind of lonely. I missed all the team action.”
“I enjoy one on one,” Savannah said as she glanced at Timon, who quickly blushed and looked away from her. Was she seriously flirting right now? She could hardly believe herself. It was nice to see that Timon had clearly taken the hint, though. Maybe, when all of this was over, they could be together in the real world.
“So, what happened? I thought Elanor had found the mystical land where points flowed like milk and honey,” Timon commented as they continued walking down the stairs.
“She did. Then she tried to lure Leopold into a trap, but that backfired. That man is one mean bastard, I’ll tell you that much. We fought him, but had to bail. Fortunately, Elanor was planning on things going south and had lured Leo into a trap of her own creation. He’s stuck for a bit, but eventually he’ll figure out how to escape.”
“So, why come here?” Savannah asked.
Fingers shrugged. “Because Elanor said we had to. I mean, I would follow that woman off a cliff, provided the gravity was light enough.”
“Yeah, we noticed,” Timon replied wryly. They reached the base of the third floor and made their way into the halls. Several doors were open, including a Mental Illness, Consciousness and Memory room. Elanor strolled out of the memory room shaking her head.
“I found some friends!” Fingers said as he waved to her.
“Oh!” Elanor gasped as she looked up at the three. “Timon? Savannah, what are you doing here?”
Savannah waved at Elanor. “We’ve got a lot to catch you up on.”
Elanor glanced at Timon. “Did you find the King’s linked player?”
“No, ma’am. We happened to stumble across… something that really changes a lot of things,” Timon replied.
“Do tell,” Elanor said as she crossed her arms.
“I don’t know if this is the time,” Savannah replied. “Leopold could be here at any minute.”
“I am counting on him being here,” Elanor said. “Because I intend to kill him for good. But I want to know what you found; it could be useful to me.”
“Okay, okay!” Savannah said, holding her hands ups. “Look, we ran into An aspect in the mountains, and he told us a terrible secret about the Grind. He told us that the whole world was designed to teach us how to rebuild society because of a plague, and we found out that the titles aren’t real. Leopold filled us in on the rest, telling us that the Kings have been exploiting the Grind for centuries. All of Verre’s society is built on a lie.”
“Oh,” Elanor said with disappointment in her voice. “That’s nothing new to me.”
“Say what now?” Fingers gasped. “Is all of that true?” he demanded, turning to Elanor.
Elanor smiled. “Oh yes, it is very true, my friend. This place was designed for something far more, but it got out of hand. We’re going to be shutting it down for good.”
“Wait a second,” Fingers said. “You never said anything about shutting the Grind down! You only said that you wanted to become the Queen.”
“Only the Queen can turn it all off,” Elanor replied.
“But… the Grind is my home!” Fingers protested. “You can’t turn off my home. There are hundreds of Wild Cards who live in this place and we… we don’t want to live in the real world.”
“Oh, grow up,” Elanor said as she shook her head at the man. “You are living in a fantasy world. There is a bright world in Verre, and it’s going to need men like you to help repair it once the Grind is destroyed.”
“Men like me?” Fingers asked as he took a step back. “I’m no one special.”
“Come on, Fingers, you’re a good man and a loyal friend. You’ve served me very well. Once I become the Queen, you will have a very happy life. We all will.”
“If it’s all a lie, why haven’t you told anyone?” Savannah broke in.
Elanor turned to look at the younger woman. “Here’s the deal—we are going to destroy the Grind so that we can declare a new way of living. I will use my newfound position as Queen to put the nobility in their place and command the peasantry to do as I demand. Over time, we will slowly dismantle the system and bring in lasting change. It will be slow, and orderly.”
“That doesn’t… that sounds like you’re propping yourself up to be the only person in charge,” Savannah said. “That wasn’t what you were talking about before.”
“We have to do it in steps, Savannah,” Elanor explained. “If you were to bring everything down and tell everyone the truth in a single step, in one moment, it would be sheer chaos. Many people would die. This method, my gaining absolute power, will allow me to prepare Verre for the transition safely.”
“I see how that idea has merit,” Timon said. “But we have a different idea. Once you have access to the Maintenance Section, you should be able to reboot the Gr
ind entirely. This will restore it to its previous state and, most importantly, it will reveal to everyone the truth.”
“The moment that the peasants discover the truth, it will be chaos,” Elanor replied. “They will mass together and riot. Nobles will be dragged from their beds and throats will be slit. It will fall into chaos and the people won’t have clear leadership. There will be no order. We must preserve the truth as best we can.”
“They have a right to know!” Savannah said through clenched teeth. “What gives you the right to determine what they can or can’t know?”
“Let us revisit this conversation later,” Elanor said, avoiding any real response. “It won’t be too long before Leopold is here. We must prepare.”
“Wait a darned second,” Fingers said as he held up his hand. “I’m still not crazy about this whole plan to destroy the only place I’ve ever lived and loved!”
“Fingers, you have an opportunity to change the world, to save Verre and marry a Queen—are you really going to trade it all away for a stupid game?” Elanor asked. She placed her hands on her hips and looked squarely at him.
“M-marry?” Fingers repeated, suddenly fidgeting as Timon and Savannah exchanged glances.
“Oh, what, did you think I wanted you around for your combat prowess?” Elanor asked as she brushed past him. “Now, hurry it up, we’ve got a King to kill.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Fingers said with a far greater level of excitement than before as he followed her.
“We need to find the Glasses of Kireen, as they will help us immensely,” Elanor said. “I tried the Psychology floor, since she’s an Aspect, but we’ll have to split up to find them at this point.”
“Actually, I have them,” Savannah said as she pulled out the glasses. “And they were in the Poetry room.”
“Odd place for them,” Elanor commented as she leaned forward to inspect Savannah’s glasses. “They are indeed the artifact.”
“What do they do?” Timon asked.
“They allow you to control Virals temporarily,” Elanor said. “One must simply gaze at the Viral and activate the glasses. The wearer then becomes the Viral for a short time. King Leopold, if you don’t know already, seems to have figured out some limited way to control the Virals. This would be the perfect counter to that.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I’ll hold onto them,” Savannah said. She didn’t fully trust Elanor yet. The comments about installing herself as the Queen didn’t sit right with her. What if Elanor was as selfish as the King?
“Good idea,” Elanor agreed. “Now, come, we must enter the King’s inner chamber here. Then we will wait for him to return.”
“And fight him?” Timon asked. “Do we have any kind of strategy for a fight like that?”
“Indeed,” Elanor said as she began to walk up the stairs. Everyone listened expectantly, but she said nothing more.
“Do you, uh, do you care to share with the rest of us?” Savannah asked.
“The King erroneously believes that he defeated me in combat due to his skill and expertise. I took a dive, because I wanted him to believe that I was weak. In truth, I held everything back. Now, this time around, I won’t be so restrained. On the other hand, he will be overconfident. He won’t fight nearly as fiercely as he did earlier.”
“Fiercely…” Savannah whispered in response as Kireen’s words came flooding back to her. “Wait, before we go, Elanor, you need to know something.”
Elanor paused mid-step and turned to face Savannah. “Yes?”
“We believe that Leopold knows how to kill a player in real life. So… if we go in to fight him, there’s a big chance that some of us might not survive, in the real world,” Savannah said.
“We’ve seen it before,” Timon added. “Leopold will be able to kill us.”
Elanor took a deep breath, and paused before she spoke, but she didn’t look deterred. “If I must die, then I will die serving this city. It would be a finer way to go out, as opposed to the typical death of the Noble.”
“Morbidly curious, ma’am,” Fingers said, “but what’s the typical death of a Noble?”
“Strangulation in the bathtub,” Timon said. “With poisoning being a close second.”
Savannah looked at him, her eyes wide.
“Well, that’s deeply unsettling,” Fingers replied. “Come on, let’s get going.”
“You don’t mind risking it all, either?” Savannah asked Fingers. “You could die, too.”
“I’ve lived for thousands of years within this world,” Fingers replied. “I’d rather die alongside my friends than live a thousand more alone.”
“Funny and poetic,” Elanor muttered with a deep sigh. Apparently, her interest in Fingers wasn’t a show.
Savannah shrugged. “Okay, then. Let’s go find the King. Once we take him out, all of his points will be ours. How far are you from ranking up to Queen?” she asked Elanor.
“A few hundred-thousand points away,” Elanor replied. “And I intend for those points to come from Leopold, the coward himself.”
The secret passage leading to the inner sanctum of the King was difficult to locate at first, but thanks to Elanor’s knowledge of the College of Colossus, she was able to lead the team to the familiar cloudscape that Savannah had been in before.
“Whoa,” Fingers breathed out as he walked across the clouds. “This place is glorious.”
“Referred to as the Gate of the Heavens, this place has traditionally been where the King starts the game whenever he logs in,” Elanor said as she pointed to the golden throne at the top of the long stretch of steps Savannah had seen previously.
Savannah shifted a little. “Are we sure we’re ready?”
“I’m very ready,” Elanor replied. “I’ve been waiting far too long for this plan to work. Leopold won’t stand a chance.”
“I wish I were that confident,” Timon said quietly. He glanced at Savannah, who merely shrugged at him. They were in too deep at this point to do anything other than trust the woman leading the way.
Then the ground began to turn colors, slowly. The white clouds shifted and warped, turning dark black.
“What the hell?” Fingers shouted . “That cloud ain’t right!”
“It’s showtime,” Elanor said as she pulled out her Energy Shotgun. “Be ready for the worst!” Her voice was a little shaky, and Savannah felt her own heart rate begin to spike.
“Savannah, Savannah, Savannah,” said a familiar voice. It echoed throughout the throne room. Before her, the ground began to shift until Leopold emerged in front of her as though he were on a rising platform. “You certainly have been a handful.”
Everyone aimed their weapons at the King and prepared to attack, but Leopold merely held his hand up. “Come now, do we have to fight? I would much rather we reach a peaceful solution here. After all, we all have the same goals, don’t we?”
“We have very different goals, you sick son of a bitch!” Elanor shouted as she fired her shotgun at the King. The energy blast bounced harmlessly off of thin air before a blue shield appeared around him, and the word Deflected hovered above his head.
“Calm down, like I said. I’m here to talk. I can’t shoot through this thing, and you can’t shoot into it,” Leopold said as he waved his hand. “Now, let us be reasonable. I have a very attractive offer for you all.”
“What is it?” Savannah asked.
“It’s quite simple. Stand down now and there will be no consequences. You may all leave without worry of retribution in the real world. I am on the verge of a major breakthrough, and would prefer to focus on that in peace. As to you, Savannah, you may stay with me.”
“Don’t try to pull anything over my eyes,” Savannah spat. “You tried to kill me!”
“Yes, I did. But to be fair, you did make me angry. It was a mistake, I swear,” Leopold replied, apparently attempting to look contrite… but not quite succeeding. “I will make it up to you, ten times over.”
“If you want to ma
ke it up to me, then stand down. Stop oppressing the people and set everyone free!”
“Hmm,” Leopold replied, bringing his hand up to tap at his chin as though he was considering the offer. “Let me think about that.” Turning, he looked at each of them in turn before he began to laugh. “How naïve you are, my Grinder. So willing to give up everything, and for what? I’m offering you the chance to live like a god.”
“I would rather be free than a slave to such… such greed!” Savannah shouted in his face as she raised her Arc Rifle and activated the Armorbreaker ability. “Eat this!” She fired the rifle, sending a bolt of electricity crashing into the energy shield.
The shimmering blue shield shattered as the word Armorbreaker hovered above Leopold’s head.
“I see you upgraded the Arc Rifle. You know, in retrospect, that was a terrible decision I made, allowing you to hold onto it,” Leopold said as he raised both his hands. Elanor, Fingers, and Timon began to fire upon the King, but he stood resolute, soaking up the damage. He took nearly 700 points of damage without blinking as the three pummeled him. His health bar dropped from 2,000 to 1,300.
“Last chance, my Grinder,” Leopold said to Savannah, ignoring the rest of the group. He held his hands up high and stretched them out. “You can join me and have anything your little heart desires, and then ten times as much as that.”
“Never!” Savannah shouted as she fired another shot from the Arc Rifle at Leopold. The words Headshot: Critical Damage: 900 floated above his head. Another concentrated blast from the rest of the team killed the King instantly.
“Yes, we did it!” Fingers cheered as he fired his revolvers into the air.
“No…” Elanor said as she shook her head. “That didn’t seem right. First off, no points are flowing towards us, and second, he wouldn’t have stood there the whole time, not even truly fighting back.”
“Ahhhhhh, I certainly can’t fool you,” Leopold’s voice echoed throughout the chamber again. The voice seemed to come from all over. “I am disappointed and aggrieved by you, Savannah. You could have had it all, and now you will have nothing. You must realize that, when I first saw you, I knew there was a spark of something great. You had unlimited potential, because you were so… unbridled, hungry and strong. You knew what you wanted. Now, you turn your back on everything you’ve fought so hard for, and for what? For nothing. None of you will leave this place alive. Perhaps if you throw yourself on my mercy right now, Savannah, you will be allowed to be my concubine.”