Chapter 63: Inter-Mission II - Without Him

Elsewhere

Above it, the heavens in all their glory stretched out to infinity.

Around it, a circle of enormous, prismatic waterfalls tumbled down in silence. The water came from nowhere and seemingly went nowhere, yet the falls never ran dry.

Before it, there was an outcropping of rock which emerged from behind the falls, where a simple stone doorway with an arch stood halfway along its length. A tall, armored figure waited just in front of its closed doors, motionless.

And over the edge of the outcropping, waiting below... was everything.

It could only be described as a massive whirlpool, as much light as it was liquid. Neither description was accurate enough to capture its state of being, though, for its every molecule shone with brilliant golden radiance, and nothing else in existence shone quite like it... both fierce and gentle, a glow to make the brightest newborn stars look dark and dull.

At the whirlpool's perfectly circular rim, the waters hit some kind of border incomprehensible to mortal minds. Nothing they knew of was there to stop the waters from flowing outward forever. Yet at the rim of the circle, the overflow cascaded down into the endless cosmic void, visible as a glitter of stardust before it vanished altogether.

This hallowed ground, this place of unearthly beauty and soul-freezing terror, was the birthplace of all stars. The heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, or perhaps the universe, or perhaps all realities: the Galaxy Cauldron.

The armored figure seemed indifferent to the sight. She waited before the doors at attention, her hands clasped over the pommel of a gigantic slab of metal, a Zweihänder over three quarters her own impressive height from end to end and half a meter wide. Its point was planted in the rock at her feet. Nothing at all could be seen of the figure's flesh, for every last centimeter of her body was hidden beneath spiked midnight blue plates over a densely-woven inner mesh. The closest thing to a face Dead End ever saw of her was the wicked V-shaped visor of her helmet, slit with harsh, angular breaths that offered no clue as to who or what was inside. For all anyone knew, she was only humanoid as far as having a head, four limbs, and ten fingers went, and there were more than enough demons, monsters, and aliens in the palace whose anatomies fit that description close enough. No one ever saw inside the armor, and no one was brave enough to ask her to remove it.

At sight, the Zweihänder she grasped was easily as deadly a blunt instrument as it was a sword. A curious blend of both traditional craft and magitech, its blade was little but a bulky hunk of alloy with a finely sharpened cleaving edge. By contrast, the hilt, the crossguard, and the ominous ten-centimeter bore barrel which ran three quarters the length of its fuller were all at sight beyond any technology yet developed on Earth.

Movement. From the waters of the Cauldron, a tiny piece of void and darkness rose until it hovered over the edge of the rock. Black clouds of vapor gathered and solidified around it in a slow and laborious process, giving form to what once was shapeless. In time there was a head, a body, two limbs, then four... After about twenty minutes, Joker was whole again. He heaved and shuddered as he lay bedraggled on the rock.

The armored figure chuckled, a low and somewhat tinny sound, and there was an impression of a cheeky smile beneath the helmet's blank and featureless mouthplate. "Damn, you look like shit. They kicked your ass but good, huh?"

"Azurite." Joker hissed through his teeth in between heaves. "Weren't you... supervising... in Vertex Five?"

The motion Azurite's armored shoulders made was hard to identify. Probably a shrug. "I was. It was boring. Then your signal disappeared... and when the Last Laugh protocol activated, I figured it would be less boring to come see what the trouble was. Had to be a hell of a thing to make you play that hand."

"Yes, well," Joker groused and scrabbled at the rock beneath him. "I suppose I should be grateful. At least there's one competent high-ranking soldier in Dead End who hasn't betrayed me tonight."

"Oof, is it that bad?" said Azurite. Her helmet tilted to one side. "I heard about Eas. Pretty sure the professor went rogue with the twins, and something happened to the Time Reaper, but who else—"

"Miki." He delivered the traitor's name with a venom that should have eaten through Azurite's armor. "The little chatte was a mole, all this time!"

"Damn." The helmet tilted again. "Though it does kinda make sense. She's the last one you'd expect to fuck us over, and it's always the person you least expect, isn't it?"

"A principle that I shall burn into my brain going forward." Damn her to the pit, the damage she had done! And there was still far more damage she could do. It took Joker a few moments to run through the countermeasures in his mind, the most critical ones first. "Needless to say, all of Miki's privileges and access codes are to be revoked immediately, if not sooner. Any trace of her left behind, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, is to be reported and delivered to me. I want to know everything she was doing, everyone she talked to, every system she used. No matter how careful she was, there is something she overlooked, something that will salvage this fiasco."

"Who knows, maybe she kept a diary." Azurite snickered and pitched her voice up an octave. There was a grin beneath the mouthplate, Joker was sure of it. "'Dear diary, you won't believe how hard Joker bought my suck-up act today! What an asshole! Fuck him. As soon as I leave, I'm going to the Lighthouse, which is in Vertex...' Blah, blah, blah. You get the picture."

Joker pressed his fingertips to his newly-restored temples. His scar itched. If anyone else in Dead End spoke to him so flippantly, execution would be the least of their worries. Azurite alone could get away with it, because when it counted, when no one else was up to the task, when Joker needed an unwavering iron fist who would enforce his will with no regard for herself and no matter the cost, she would be there.

Joker trusted no one. Not his foot soldiers, not his generals, not his Bad End Precure, not even Chaos in the heart of his black heart. When necessary, he was willing to rely on a select few other beings, but that was all. Until recently, he considered Sayaka Miki to be one of those beings. Azurite was another. While the events of the last few hours had shaken what little faith he had, he still had confidence in Azurite, because Azurite didn't need to be coerced, controlled, or convinced to be part of Dead End. She was made to be in it; her hatred for existence was perhaps the closest rival to Joker's own. Her eccentricities and the few headaches she caused were a small price to pay for someone who believed with all her heart that reality deserved to die, and that belief gave her unmatched strength. Doubtless she wasn't happy about being held in reserve for so long, but when the situation was as dire as it was shaping up to be... that was when someone like Azurite was most needed on the frontlines.

Nevertheless, in this instance, he would have smote her within a single eyeblink, had he been able. The fact that he couldn't allow himself to indulge such an option was infuriating, but his fury needed the distraction. Retribution against Miki would come, it was only a matter of finding a method horrible enough.

A series of metallic clanking noises indicated that Azurite had withdrawn the Zweihänder from the ancient rock where it was planted. As a specialized magnetic field held the weapon to its mount on her right fauld, the mount appeared to expand and envelop the sword's blade... dozens of interlocking panels snapped together over its length until it was fully sheathed. Azurite was more than capable of summoning the weapon from the ether and dismissing it when needed; there was no need to lug it around with her or keep it sheathed at all, but she did it anyway. With that finished, she stooped to offer a hand. "C'mon, sulky. Let's get you back on your feet and out of... wherever this place is."

Another thing that made Azurite worth keeping around: she knew when not to ask questions. "Wipe it from your memory," said Joker, grasping the hand for leverage. "You won't see it again. It's time for us to leave the palace."

"Leave?" said Azurite. She paused with one hand on the stone doors. "Already? I thought we weren't going to do that until the big finale!"

"The circumstances have changed," Joker hissed and pushed the doors as hard as he could, which opened into La Fin de Toute proper. Little by little, his strength was returning to him, but the effort of reincarnating and rebuilding his body from next to nothing meant that he wouldn't be back on the battlefield any time soon. "Miki will bring her friends—" He all but vomited the word in disgust. "—here to darken our doorstep within a few days, if not sooner. This place is compromised, and I doubt any amount of security will be sufficient to protect our secrets. My secrets." Rage boiled off of him in sizzling waves as he spoke the command he never imagined giving at this stage: "As of this moment, Sequence Four-Five-Nine-Seven-One has been initiated."

"The Kookaburra..." Was that awe in Azurite's voice? "Fucking hell. Last I heard, it was nowhere near ready yet."

At least there were a few secrets that still remained secret. Damn Miki. "A bluff. It's been on standby for the last month. We shall have to make the final adjustments to it as we go."

"If you say so. But you're sure you don't wanna counterattack the Lights while they're off their guard? I know you. You haven't lost the battle yet."

"I have," said Joker as he shot the deadliest of glares at the helmet's visor, one which communicated exactly how unwise it would be to tell anyone else of this admission. "By any objective standard, tonight was as much a decisive victory for Mademoiselle Kinomoto and her comrades as it was a disaster for me."

There was that low chuckle again. He dearly wished she would stop that, it made his scar itch worse. "Kinda expected a 'This cannot be! It's impossible!' from you right about now, not gonna lie. Most of the others here would have jumped at the chance."

"Denial would be a waste of my time," said Joker. His teeth ground together hard enough to make sparks fly. "Their strategy was brilliant, it worked, they won, and they forced me to use the Last Laugh protocol to cover my ignominious retreat. I'll give them that much. And while I'd love it if Walpurgisnacht wiped all their miserable little hides off the map, I'm not foolish enough to assume it will succeed. So let them enjoy whatever victory celebration they can scrape together." Tiny, burning stars lit in the blackness of his eyes. "Because from this point forward, I am finished playing games."

An armored fist thudded into his side, which made him wince. "That's my guy! Finally getting serious, yeah?"

"Quite. If I've let them grow too comfortable fighting their old foes, I'll correct that mistake with extreme prejudice. For now, make sure that every—"

"Master Joker!" As soon as he stepped out of the doorframe, a wailing yellow-and-black shape accosted him. If Kanna Kise, Bad End Peace II, were a bit bigger, she could have tackled him hard enough to injure him. As it was, she threw her arms around his waist on contact and pressed her cheek against his chest. "M-Master Joker! I'm so sorry, it was awful!" The girl shook like a leaf in a gale, her face was chalk white. Rivers of tears spilled down her cheeks. "I stopped being anywhere for... for two years...! I hate not being anywhere! I felt it when you died, Master, and I tried coming to save you so many times, but I couldn't! I couldn't blink or talk or do anything until just now, I swear! I don't wanna go back, don't make me—"

Without a glance in her direction, Joker hurled her to the floor. "Make sure that everything that could possibly be of any use to the Morning Lights is purged and thoroughly destroyed. Not a single bit of data gets overlooked, Azurite. Brûlez tout en cendres, do you hear me?"

"Roger that, boss," said Azurite.

He stepped over the miserable, weeping shape in their path, paying her as much attention as he would an ant beneath his heel. Azurite did likewise; as always, she was savvy enough to pick up and follow along. "Oh, and Azurite?" Joker said.

"Yeah?"

"M-Master Joker, I know I failed you, but if you'll just talk to me, tell me how to fix it...!"

"How are things proceeding in Vertex Five?"

"Master Joker, say something, anything! I'm begging you!"

"Pretty well, I think. The new system has been proven stable on a small scale, but we'll have to give it—"

"I know you can hear me, Master Joker! I'm right here! Look at me, just look at me! I love you, please...!"

"A thorough testing, yes. Tedious, but necessary. We can't leave them any loopholes. I intended to have Miki take the reins, but for obvious reasons that won't be possible."

Small hands clutched at one of Azurite's rear tassets and held on tight. Anyone else would likely lose their arms for that. "Miki!" Kanna half-screamed up at her as she was dragged along on her belly. Her teary eyes were wild and frenzied. "What happened to Miki?! Azurite, tell me where she is! She went down there after the Devil! Where is she, when's she coming back?!"

Only then did Azurite's helmet turn in Kanna's direction. "Sorry, squirt," she said in a jovial tone. "Miki's never coming back. She was a mole, just pretending to be one of us all along. Sucks, huh? But hey, at least one of you was focused on doing her job."

Kanna slackened her grip and let go, her eyes went wide as saucers. "No," she said, soft and fragile, staring at nothing. "No. She... she wouldn't do that. She promised she'd help me. She promised. She wouldn't just... leave..."

Joker and Azurite walked on down the corridor, deep in discussion. Neither bothered to look back again.

*****

Aside from Master Joker, nobody knew. Nobody knew that thoughts and words and ideas and images always rushed ceaselessly into and through her brain in babbling streams. Most of them weren't hers, but most of the time that was okay. Sometimes she could attach meaning to them and sometimes she couldn't, but most of the time that didn't bother her either, so long as they were just background noise. They told her what to say and do and think and feel, but until she lost to Cure Peace she didn't mind, as long as Master Joker was happy.

That was all that mattered. Devotion to Master Joker was all that mattered... her beloved, the one who made her who and what she was now, the one for whom she would do anything, the one who called her his masterpiece. The one who wouldn't speak to her or look her way, who pretended she wasn't there at all ever since she failed him in Uminari.

Master Joker knew about the streams, but he didn't care. He always told her the streams weren't important, to ignore them and follow his orders. The one person who even made an effort to understand them was Sayaka Miki. And Miki was a traitor. Worse than a traitor, because at least traitors used to be loyal at some point. Miki listened to her and promised her she would help, but she lied. She lied. She lied. And now she was gone, and Master Joker wasn't happy, and—

Kanna erupted then. Rage, rage drowned out everything else, even the streams. Rage at not only Miki, but herself for believing her. Believing anyone would ever... She howled in an unintelligible frenzy at everything: at the arched ceiling. At the empty corridor. At the absent Miki. At the "friends" who abandoned her. At Master Joker, who hadn't acknowledged her existence for years... months... both and neither. At the phantoms of her mind. Rage exploded out of her, not in the form of words, but in a wounded animal's primal bellows. Spittle flew from her lips, wet trails ran down her cheeks and from her nostrils. Her electricity rampaged out of control, it burst from her fingertips, from her mouth, from her eyes, and it scored the stone doors, the pseudo-marble pillars, and the polished floors with lines of black char. Wails of hurt, of betrayal, of frustration and madness echoed off the ancient arches high above, the cacophony of her fists against the floor was like cannon blasts. It wasn't enough; she took fistfuls of her hair and pulled with all her might, but her golden locks wouldn't tear. With her nails, she clawed at her black bodysuit, and found the form-fitting cloth sustained by her own magic, as impenetrable as Azurite's armor. Shrieking, she hurled herself at the nearest pillar, hammered her face into it again and again and again. The pseudo-marble buckled, gave way, and crumbled to powder long before the first tiny trickle of blood oozed down her forehead.

Small and alone, Kanna sobbed and slid down the broken pillar to the floor once all her energy was expended. And in her moment of defeat, they flooded into her: thoughts and feelings and ideas and memories not her own. There was no stopping them now...

"I don't want this," said Kanna, clutching her fingers in her hair at the temples. "I don't want this. Make it stop. It was fine when I didn't care, I just wanna go back to not caring. Just make me like I used to be before! The Parthenon, ennui, Tuesday, spine bingo... Stop it!" she screamed at no one. "Nobody's going to understand that! I don't understand it! What does that mean?! Stop it! Just leave me alone!"

No answer, save for the babbling into her mind, endless and indifferent.

Kanna drew her knees up to her chin and huddled into a shivering ball. "Stop. Please, stop... Just make me simple, like I was before. I can't take this anymore. I don't wanna see. I don't wanna know that I'm not real. I don't wanna know they're all watching me. I don't wanna not be anywhere when they're not watching. I can't—"

In the blackest depths, something sparked: an idea. A new idea. Maybe this one was even one of her own. She clung to it, a life raft on a turbulent sea. "Wait. Ha ha. Wait. Can I...?"

The streams abated, just a little. A tiny measure of relief.

"If... if I just finish my story," said Kanna, alight with new clarity, "th-then it'll be over and there'll be no reason for them to watch me anymore, right? Yeah. Yeah, that's gotta be it." Her excitement built as her thoughts came together: "I gotta do what I was made to do, it's my story, ha ha ha... but if I can just make it end my way..."

Incipient emptiness gathered from both ends of the corridor, it crept toward her on all sides, a tide of soundless fog. She had crossed some sort of line, she knew.

"B-but... the only way to do that," she said, forcing herself not to look away from it, "is to do it when I'm not anywhere... isn't it? When no one's watching." The prospect chilled her to the core. To be alone and aware in the space that wasn't anywhere... it was a hell she would never wish on anybody. But in that space, maybe there were fewer rules, maybe there were fewer demands from the streams. Maybe there was freedom there, if she could only endure its awful silence... Was it worth it?

Hairs rose on the back of her neck, a sign of the emptiness drawing closer. A sign that there wasn't much time. The decision was clear: let it draw her in and submit to terror, or dive into it and the unknown, armed only with the possibility of change. Sudden doubt twisted her insides: was it really her decision to make? Or was it only the streams feeding her the illusion of choice?

"No," she answered. Quiet, but firm. "Fuck you. It's my decision. Nobody else's. Mine." And it felt... it felt good. More than that, it felt real. She knew what had to be done, and not because Joker or or the streams told her. Her mind was made up, and maybe for the first time... Kanna was herself.

Emptiness loomed, now so close that she could feel its nothing prickle her skin. The stone door, the corridor, the arched ceiling, the scarred pillars, the floors, everything around her was insidiously unmade. Yet Kanna stood up and squared her shoulders. Her lips spread into a shaky smile filled with an incomprehensible mixture of joy and dread. "Heh. Ha ha. I guess you're all just gonna have to wait to see what I do next. I don't know when it'll be... but when it's time, you'll know. Bye-bye, everybody out there. Bye-bye for now."

END OF CHAPTER 63

NEXT

INTER-MISSION III - FATHER AND MOTHER

[Author's Note: A much shorter read than usual, I know, but let me explain. These two scenes and the one following were supposed to be part of a much longer chapter, but they clashed with the tone of what came after too much. Therefore I decided to split them off from each other, and give you guys two bite-sized "Inter-Mission" chapters within a week or two of each other while I work on finishing the longer one. Enjoy.

Remember: comments and detailed feedback are an author's food pellets, so leave plenty! - BHS]