Radical-9

CHAPTER 25: The Truth Comes Out

February 24^th, 2022

1:30 pm

“Wh-What?” He calls out, his form shifting from the teenage boy I'd seen him as before, he grows a little taller, his hair gets a little longer, and his skin darkens a little. “How...what are you doing? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” He stands before me as an older Indian man, his whole figure is spasming.

“You are no longer in control of me,” I say.

“That was...what was that?” Klein asks.

“Y-Y-Y-You...what did you do to me?” He asks again, his voice is shaky. He looks straight at me with a crazed look in his eye. Orochi swings one of its heads around like a mace, aimed right for us.

I reach out for Flintlocke, but before I can Ben grabs for a lance of what looks like pure energy. He sends it flying over my head and it digs into Orochi's neck. The lance buries itself further and further until it works its way completely through. The creature begins to dissolve before our eyes, each of the heads shattering into pixels from the chain reaction, its Keystone falls to the sand below.

I turn back to Ben, Flintlocke now aimed on him. Klein and Athena walk up beside me, Jen keeps behind us, Sam behind her.

“It looks like you're outnumbered,” I say.

“Are you serious? After seeing that you think you have-” he's cut off as he begins spasming again. His body jerks and seizes and he shrinks back down to his avatar. His body keeps changing and then it begins shifting once again to a sort of amalgamation of both his real self and his avatar. His arm breaks off at the elbow and his face shrinks in, his head looks like it has been smashed in. He takes a step forward in his Frankenstein's monster-like body, a wretched scream erupts from him.

“WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!”

It must have been when I viewed that memory, when he tried taking over I must've touched him during the takeover. The game couldn't handle it so it ripped every instance of him here, and they can't both be here, not at once.

I take Flintlocke and rush him, pressing the button to have both the gun and blade out at once and I run the blade right through his abdomen.

“WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!” He repeats.

I pull the trigger and the shot spreads across his chest, his eyes go wide.

“Do you know what is most beautiful about a memory, Ben?” I ask.

He doesn't speak.

“That you can watch it over and over. I don't so much as believe in an afterlife, but I'd love to believe in something that exists to put you in so you can see this moment right here over and over on repeat for as long as I live. Just like how I see what you did to Athena, you chicken-shit fake son of a bitch,” I say.

“Andy?” Jen asks.

I pull the trigger again, his body jerks a little, and then I pull it again. I pull it again and again until hit body shatters out of existence. I watch his pixels float upwards and dissipate. A Keystone drops from his body into the sand, we're two Keystones closer...but I don't care. It's not what I'm thinking of. I fall to my knees, the fire still burns. I cannot explain it. I can only feed it.

It hungers.

Athena runs over to me and grasps me in her arms, “Please, I'm still here. Okay? Andy, I want you to look at me.”

I look into her eyes.

“I'm here, what he did has been dealt with. I saw that look in your eyes as you killed him, you can't let that take over, do you hear me?”

I don't answer.

“I said do you hear me?” She says, stern.

“Yes.”

“Okay,” she kisses me.

“Okay, it's great that we have this problem solved and all, but I still have some questions. Like what the hell was that, Andy?” Jen asks. “You started screaming and then everything got all bright,” she says.

“That, is something I cannot fully explain.” I say.

“Well, explain what you can, and we'll try to fill in the pieces, sound like a plan?” Klein asks.

I nod.

“Okay, so it goes back to when we were fighting Gregor, before you came into the game, Jen,” I say. “When I had headbutted him I experienced this sort of weird vision, I thought it was just me knocking myself out because of the attack, but now I'm not so sure.”

“Vision?” Athena asks.

“You see?” Sam asks.

“Yeah buddy, I saw,” I say, calling him over. He runs over and grabs out for my hand, pulling trying to help me up. I chuckle and stand up, with his help, obviously. “I was watching what I believe were Gregor's first moment's in Elysium, I was viewing one of his memories,” I said.

“Is that really possible?” Klein asks.

“That's what I had been asking myself ever since, but just there I could feel him clawing his way out, trying to take over. I guess he managed to do a little bit, but then I made contact. It forced him out of my body and here, but that isn't the strangest part, I saw one of his memories, too.”

“What?” Athena asks.

“He was at Technodome, I think maybe the president. Benjamin Gupta. I also saw Jack, saw what the bastard looks like. He's taller than I am, short blonde hair, rough face. He was proposing the idea of Elysium to Ben. I don't know how long ago it was, but it seemed pretty recent.”

“Did anything else happen?” Jen asks.

“Yeah...when Jack left he sort of teleported,” I say.

“Okay, and?” Klein asks.

“This was before Elysium was made,” I say.

“So...how could he have...?” Jen asks.

“That's the question of the hour. He straight up vanished, leaving tracks of fire in his wake.”

“I guess...there's something I should say something also,” Jen says.

“Hm?”

“Back when we were in the inn at Novus Callus, when I first came here...”

“Yeah, feels longer than only half a day, right?” Klein asks.

“Yeah...” Jen says.

“You're speaking of your episode, right?” I ask.

“Well, yeah. I had a dream, and I think you might want to hear about it, Andy.”

“What's with the both of you and seeing things? Run in the family?”

“Andy, I dreamed about Dad,” Jen says.

“Oh...awkward,” Klein says.

“She dreamed about Daddy?” Sam asks.

“Uh, no buddy, not your daddy. I'm going to, uh, go collect the Keystones while you two have this important talk,” Klein says, gesturing to Athena.

“Right...lemme help,” she says, following him.

I watch them as they pick up the two keystones and awkwardly shift away from the conversation, but not far enough to be out of earshot.

“And what did you see...exactly?” I ask, pacing my words.

She takes a deep breath, “I saw when he dies. I know the whole “Oh it is just a dream, you're seeing things”, but I can't be with something like this. It was like you said, like I saw through a memory, but it was of my own when I was really young,” she says.

“What happened?”

“We were driving, and he got into a bad car accident. I remember smelling the smoke and the burnt rubber, feeling the heat of the fire. And then I remembered seeing his body, burnt and bruised, and then I heard an explosion.”

“If you were inside when there was an explosion you would have died,” I say.

“I remember it clearly, it was a very loud bang. It ended right after that, and I know that sounds like typical nightmare-fare, but I have this feeling that it was Dad, our dad.”

I take in a breath.

This is when the truth comes out.

“Jen, you didn't dream of our dad,” I say.

“No, I'm sure of it, I'm sure I-”

“No. You didn't dream of our dad, because there is no our dad. Jen, you're adopted.”

Klein gasps. I want to hit him.

“Wh-what? Andy, this isn't funny,” Jen says.

“There is your dad, who probably died in that fire, and there is my dad. He shot himself. Two different people, Mom adopted you after my dad killed himself,” I say.

This is the truth. I sense it is only fair that I finally tell you since you've generously lent me your time to tell you my tale.

“This...no, that can't be right,” she says. “Why didn't anyone tell me? Mom? You?”

I walk up to her, “Okay, listen. I didn't want to tell you ever, because you're just as any sister should. I see you as my sister,” I say.

“I think I deserve to know who my birth parents are!” She yells.

“And I think I deserve to not have a dad who offs himself! But you know what? Fuck him! He's a selfish prick that left his wife and son alone to deal with his problems, and we're better off without him. And we have you, who I would pick over him any day,” I say, letting it get to me.

She looks directly at me, into me, and then nods.

“Look, you'll always be my baby sis, there's nothing that's going to change that, kiddo. We're Cresses, maybe not both by blood, but we're family.”

She and I hug, “I love you, Andy.”

“Alright, is it okay if we stop eavesdropping now?” Klein yells.

I sigh, “Yes Klein, you can stop eavesdropping.”

“Yeah! Brother and Sister power combo!” Klein says, pumping his fist into the air.

“I swear Klein, you're reaching new levels of nerd,” I say.

“I told you man, I'm a geek!”

“Yeah! He's a geek! He's a geek!” Sam begins chanting.

“Haha, uh, Sam, that's not really something you want to be spreading around!” Klein says nervously.

“So, what were the two Keystones that those two dropped?” I ask, walking over to them.

“Lessee,” Klein begins.

“It's the Heart of Hades from Orochi, it says it can create portals,” she says.

“Sounds very useful, actually.”

“And the Heart of Nephele, it, well, you can guess what it does.”

“I...uh...can't, really, I don't know who Nephele is,” I say.

“Really?” Athena asks.

“Sorry! I didn't study Greek mythology,” I say.

“Well, that's obvious,” she says.

“I don't really care,” Klein says, laughing.

“Nephele was created as a copy of Hera,” Athena says.

“Yeah? And?” I ask.

“A copy of Hera.”

“Oh, so it is what gave him the Doppelgänger skill, okay, you could've just said that,” I say.

“There's nothing wrong with learning something new,” Athena asks.

“I mean, are you surprised really that Athena's the one with the Greek mythology smarts? Her username is Athena,” Jen says.

“Well, why don't we try out the Heart of Hades? We can see if we can reach the temple that way, maybe?” Klein asks.

“It's worth a shot.”

Athena takes out the Heart of Hades, she holds out the stone as it begins to glow. Fire shoots out of the end of it into a circle in front of us, burning perpendicular to the ground. In the center of the circle comes a map of the desert, it is a large and barren wasteland with the only thing of notice being the landmark on the eastern side of the desert, of which I assume is the temple.

“There's probably so little to pad out the floor, that way they don't have to put in as much money into designing it,” Klein says.

“Makes sense, considering Jack had given them only a week to work on the damn game,” I say.

“What?”

“Yeah, in the memory, Jack threatened Ben's life if he didn't have significant progress within a week,” I say.

“Well, then I guess we know why the game is so horribly imbalanced,” Klein says.

“Let's see if we can't make it to that temple,” Jen says.

Athena nods and walks up to the ring, pressing her finger into it and tapping the landmark. The view inside of it ripples as if it were made of liquid. Now it shows the large stone temple, large columns support the top slab up top. Out front lies a giant staircase which travels up the face of the temple to an open doorway at the top. It seems to be in the middle of a sandstorm. I can see the wind picking up, obscuring my vision through the portal.

“I think we can cross through it now, but I'd prepare for the storm,” Klein says.

He is the first one to jump through the portal, it ripples as he slides through. I close my eyes and head through behind him. I can feel the sand coarse across my face as I tumble onto the ground outside. The sounds of the winds block out most other. Behind me Jen lands on her feet, covering her eyes with her arm, Sam and Athena come in just behind her.

“Hurry, into the temple!” Klein yells out.

“Right!” I call back, standing to my feet. I begin in a mad dash for the steps. I begin stepping up, we're all going higher and higher. We’re at least fifty feet above ground level just from the stone staircase alone. I make it into the large doorway and practically throw myself inside from the momentum. I am heaving as I come to a stop, resting my hands on my knees bent over.

“Once we beat this game we are so getting you exercising.” Athena says, laughing.

“Not...funny...” I say, letting my breath catch up with me. I'm looking up above me, the frame of the door arches above me, I can feel the wind slightly at my back, but it is nowhere near as bad as it was outside. The hallway in front of us is extremely narrow, only allowing for one of us to go at a time. I only have enough room to spread my arms to just past my own waist. Looking up, the ceiling of the hallway is also low-hung, only about half a foot above our heads.

Of course, it is all made of the same gray-green stone that the exterior of the temple is made out of. I take the lead, Klein is right behind me. I can't see past him because the only light is coming from the entrance which slowly fades from view as we go deeper and deeper. I finally begin to see the light at the end of the corridor, the shadows begin to retreat from the walls like etchings on a prison wall. We round a corner into a slightly larger room, a single golden door lies at the end of the room.

Between it and me is a green gelatinous form with a small meaty core at the center of it. An enemy bio appears next to it, Plasmic Wraith.

“Huh, piece of Jell-O, I see? Well I see your sugary snack and raise you one ass-whoopin',” Klein says, unsheathing Mitsurugi. He walks in front of me and swings his arm in a wide arc, coming down onto the Plasmic Wraith. As soon as the sword enters the gelatinous form of the creature it bends and shoots upward out of its body. “Huh?” Klein asks, pulling out his sword, it comes out straight again.

“It's obvious your sword is too light,” Athena says, stepping forward, taking out Hauteclere. She raises it up high and then her sword skill begins to charge.

“I see, you're going to increase the weight of your blade, right?” I ask.

“Exactly.”

The large blade glows white as she slams it down into the creature, but just as with Klein's sword, hers too is refracted inside of it. Her blade's point just sticks outside the top of the creature. It begins shaking as a sort of growl erupts from the core inside of the beast. A section of the goo separates from the main body and throws itself across the exit, stretching wide making it impossible to pass through. The rest of the revenant stands up on itself, several tendrils exert from its body.

Looks like we've got some fun ahead of us.