My arms are held tight behind me. Too tight. I can’t see how I’m going to get out of this one. All around me I see people jeering and splashing some type of water and calling for blood. Tears are streaming down my cheeks as I look around and feel all of the radiating malice directed at me. I’m pulled further back, closer toward the giant doomsday device, and search more frantically for the one face I have yet to see, the one face I need to be absent. I know what happens after this. But rather than being strapped into the device, my dream shifts, and suddenly I’m in someone else’s body again. “Ride, please, I know I heard you earlier today. Where are you?” Klef whispers into darkness.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCq1inn9WM8
“Klef?” I ask tentatively.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmgLWBgACzl
Klef whips around and stands up. “Ride! Where are you?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc85BGBbVMU
“I’m in your head, apparently,” I say wrily. “My dreams let me do more than just sit back and watch someone else’s body. Are you okay?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCgiRxSP2Fr
“Am I okay?!” Klef asks incredulously. “I thought you had died. I’m the best I’ve been all day! Granted, I might just be hearing things, but you’re here!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxMx7hXcX2q
I laugh despite myself. Leave it to Klef to find a bright side to things. “Hey, Klef. We might not be seeing each other again, so I have one thing that I want to say to you.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjkvvbk7wHx
“Don’t talk like that Ride, of course I’ll find you. We actually have a pretty good idea of where you’re headed, and we have an army that’s arming itself to come and stop the end of the world. You’ll be--”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0WMtlqTpmy
“Kleftis. Stop,” I order.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNbCisfOt1W
Klef goes quiet. “What do you want to say?” he whispers.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMAxBM8s5j
“I love you, no matter what happens,” I say. “They’re taking me to the Islands of the Mermaids. I don’t know if you can get there in time, or if you’ll succeed, and I don’t know how this one ends. But please. Know that I love you. Okay?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu4l8yZFyWl
Klef is quiet for the longest time. “I love you too, Iridescence. No matter what anyone might say about us. And when this is over, I have a question to ask you. It’s an important one, too. So don’t die on me.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXM8yKQGIxs
I laugh. “I’ll try not to. Love you.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhslpLmS4dJ
“You too,” Klef whispers.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqdZTBQv0Rr
I wake up blinking in the early morning light. That might be the first dream I’ve had in ages that actually calms me down rather than riles me up. I take in a breath, sitting up and stretching, before releasing it. “Morning, Oracle,” the naphtilan from yesterday greets.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyzUOfXL6fF
“Morning,” I say. “Where are we?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDKRsd5HH6u
“Oh a boat of some sort,” the naphtilan says worriedly. “We’re maybe an hour or so from the first island. We’re in big trouble if we get there.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhcAYRaNQKl
“We’re in trouble if we don’t, too, because we’d be stranded in the middle of the ocean,” I point out. “Let’s just work on this one step at a time, and figure out what we’re going to do when they open those doors.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCA06YWjII7
“I say we fight,” the high voice from before says.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIg8njwvzeS
“Well, yeah, but how will we fight? Our eyes will have to adjust to the light before we can see where we’re supposed to hit,” the yeti points out.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf40OhX14aE
A rattling of bones comes to everyone’s attention. “Guys… I’m sorry I didn’t say anything before, but I was hoping we would have other options.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJLGCNTAGnh
“What are you talking about?” I ask.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6oNa7Kvlpn
“There’s a way to overload the Doomsday machine,” they say.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLHfHwmmVtf
“How would you know this?” I interrogate. “No one in the Crusaders knew about the device until I said what I saw in my dreams.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQJBof3GCYg
“I designed it,” the voice admitted sheepishly. “It runs on magic, but it needs a lot of it. So much that it needs either several amplifiers or an amplifier with extremely sharp Sight, like yourself, Oracle. But it runs on a delicate balance as well. If it has too much magic wired into it, it will short-circuit and become a useless heap of parts that can’t do anything dangerous. The amplifier also has to be a regulator, and we don’t have machines that are fine-tuned enough to do so, but Deuxlives can do so naturally, because they are infused with magic already. So what they are most likely going to do, is wire you straight into the machine. But if you can find out how, you can overload the machine by amplifying the magic beyond the machine’s capacity. It might take some time, but it could work.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6nexwk1paY
“How could I over- amplify it? Would I just think about it, and force more of it into the machine at a time, or what?” I ask.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2MweO3PLHG
“That sounds about right,” the voice says. “But it would be a painful process.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGW1kj9UjMs
“I know. I’ve amplified magic before. It hurts,” I say. “A lot. And that was for a simpler transportation spell.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiIG8tY6pDg
The whole carriage goes silent. “...So what will that mean for you when they try to use you to amplify lots of magic?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYI0JgiNxlV
“I’m trying not to think about it,” I admit.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwn090pf5HM
Everyone shifts around in our prison. “Well. This should be an interesting day,” the high voice says with false cheer. “Either the world is going to be saved or we’re all going to die!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTpR8djf6j0
Then there’s a lot of talking at once, mostly scolding the high voice for saying such a thing. I almost laugh, it’s so ridiculous. We’re talking about fighting for our lives in a little metal box being carried across the ocean with the intention of using me to amplify magic to the degree of committing genocide. I mean, never in my wildest dreams could I have made something like this up.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfMgt06IRt
The rest of the ride there is some quuet conversation, but nothing meaningful comes up. We’re just 10 strangers, collectively heading toward our doom. I lean against the wall and doze for a while, until there’s a lurch and a rumbling which I hadn’t even noticed before stops. “We’ve landed,” someone whispers.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOq9DBwZj9v
I close my eyes as I hear a deabolt on the outside of the carriage get unlocked. The door flies open and I open my eyes into the light, hands balled into fists and ready to fight. I’m not the only one. A fairy, yeti, naphtilan and skeleton are also on their feet. The other 5 passengers don’t do anything but look on in admiration. A mermaid looks at us and nods to the 2 cyclopses in front of them. “Kill them if you have to, but spare the Oracle and bring her to the boss.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG4K7eBcfbu
The cyclopses come into the container and out breaks a melee. The yeti is tearing into the Cyclopses, the naphtilan is preventing them from fleeing, and the skeleton is throwing pieces of itself at the cyclopses to keep them distracted. The fairy is flying around and yelling, using some form of magic or another to help in the fight. I stay in the back as another elf slips in and reaches out to me. I smack his hand away as he reaches for me, and he laughs. “Rythe wasn’t lying. You are a fiesty one.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUxGNJzetBB
He reaches again and this time I sock him in the stomach. “Don’t touch me,” I growl.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5T89B4ad5h
Not amused, the elf lunges for me and I kick and hit at him until he backs off. He yells to the cyclopses, “Get her, you fools!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3gJZsmffHF
One of them grabs me and I scream, until it nearly crushes my ribs and steals all the air from my lungs. I gasp in pain as I’m carried out of the box and into the light. All I can see around me is seawater and sand. My ribs are screaming at me and my head doesn’t feel all that great either. I go limp in the cyclops’ grip as I’m carried to the center of the island, where a lagoon stands, with a rocky pier jutting into it, and at the center is a giant cylinder with magic practically overflowing from it. It has grooves running all over it, and even from here I can hear it humming. I’m carried to the edge of the pier and slammed into the ground. I’m too weak to even stand up at this point. I just groan and roll onto my stomach. “Well, well, well. Not so tough now, are we?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlb7aFuYUVe
I look up into the lagoon to find a mermaid with an eyepatch glaring at me. She looks vaguely familiar, but I can’t tell from where.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZlQEZIdOHG
“Can’t remember me? That’s such a shame, considering you shot me in the eye 5 years ago!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9p9FHRVEIq
Suddenly, I’m brought back to a nasty storm in the middle of the ocean, mermaids attacking us on all sides, and my shoddy archery skills taking out the leader’s eye, causing the others to retreat. I open my mouth to speak, but I can’t get the air in my body to do so.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyRFLid6tGh
“And to think, I was going to help everyone on that sorry ship! I was going to bring you here, have you all join my cause! But no! You had to be too attached to your precious humans and their lives which they claim are oh- so -much better, just because they haven’t died yet!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGahp0xWvJn
I manage a croak this time, but nothing more. This is painful. Almost as painful as assisting Ama with her magic. How am I going to be able to stand the machine they’re going to put me in?725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnq178ErovM
“Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?” the mermaid huffs.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaBoo4Qm2MA
“I think… I bruised… my ribs,” I gasp, every breath painful.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrt6Xtiap8Y
The mermaid tuts and holds out an amulet, chanting over my ribcage, until the pain subsides enough for me to breathe. “I told that mangey fleabag to handle you with care,” she snarls. “Clearly, the prisoner treatment was not the right path to take.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfgrsIFG61y
“You think?” I snark.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLZzzLOpoBC
The mermaid smirks and splashes some water on me. The salt gets in my eyes and stings and I wince. “I like you, dear,” she says. “Despite trying to kill me all those years ago. It’s such a shame we weren’t on the same side. Together, we could have ruled the world.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcg1gdlONyS
“Pathetic world to rule,” I retort. “If no one is there for you to rule it. Don’t you know that Deuxlives are incapable of reproducing? We’d die out in a matter of centuries because the humans would be gone.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNT5Jny7KwO
The mermaid laughs. “Well, considering we aren’t on the same side, I suppose I can’t show you my remedy to that solution. Whatever, it’s not like you would appreciate that anyway. Probably would call it… oh, what’s that term… ‘cruel and unusual.’”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa1mNJe1NeE
Her smile is disconcerting. It never wavers, and her eyes are always focused on mine. I force myself into a sitting position, causing my head to swim. I wince. The mermaid’s smile drops. “My, you are a fighter, if they had to sedate you. Interesting. I was expecting some puny human to be their champion, but no, they chose you, and you have a bite to you.” The smile returns. “Obviously not enough of one, but that’s not important. I’ll call everyone here, and then we can begin. Sound good?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLEirZ9Ehlc
I don’t say anything until she’s almost out of earshot. “You’ll never get away with this. You’re relying too much on unpredictable magic.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQDRnypEyeE
She turns, frowning. “What did you say?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe0fL4ZRqnW
I stay silent, and she shakes her head, swimming away. I blink in the sunlight and wish my head would stop pounding. A cyclops walks over and sits next to me, taking glances at me every so often. I draw meaningless designs in the sand. “What are you doing?” they ask.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3xU4WrpSUh
“I don’t know,” I shrug. “Just… doing.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlGyZ3ZFJiK
The cyclops frowns. “Why would you do without a purpose?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6CgoIaSJ7l
“Nothing I can do that would help me reach my goal,” I say, sighing. “So what’s the point?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYvUcVe1T5z
The cyclops doesn’t say anything, just watches my finger trace in the sand. Then, eventually, “I was told you were a fighter.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV3Cao15NJL
“That was before,” I say. “Before I got this headache, before my whole family died, before all my friends were dead or dying. Before.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbVfOLTemVQ
“Powerful word,” the cyclops says, musing out loud. “May I tell you a secret?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGqrQm4hR1O
I nod.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs7HN6jOqho
“I don’t want to end the world,” they admit. “They killed me once, and would have again if I didn’t join them. I joined so they would not go after my family, but now, they plan to destroy the one thing that gave me hope. What does it feel like?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZl1oEM8FDt
“All my family still have their Deuxlives left to live… but… the pain. The fear that you won’t come back. The utter helplessness you feel when you realize you lost your battle with death. It’s something you know that they just went through, too. Something that you had hoped they would never go through. And it destroys you, just a little bit, very slowly. I can’t imagine what it would be like to kill someone in their Deuxlife, or in such a way that they don’t get one. To know that they aren’t coming back, that you’ll never talk to them again?” I shake my head. “I don’t understand what they are trying to accomplish here. Humans are bad about treating us right, sure. And we’re allowed to be angry about that, of course we are. But killing them for treating us the wrong way… that’s escalation, and does nothing but get the point across that you should be hated.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrtg1rkgrqY
The cyclops starts tracing patterns, themselves. “I don’t think that’s how it works, unless you’re saying… it’s about their reasoning?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN6cM8wmOjS
“It’s about their reasoning, yeah.” I nod, looking beyond the lagoon and out to the sea. “Shame we won’t be able to reason with anyone here otherwise.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu4H5Hl0JFn
The cyclops nods, muttering something in their own language. In the distance, a large chatter is heard approaching. I swallow. It’s the audience for my death sentence. “It was nice to meet you,” I say with a forced smile. “I hope that somehow, somewhere, you’ll get to see your family again.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMqLuBrsojn
“The same to you,” the cyclops says.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡElvnBexKq6
We shake hands, and the cyclops heads toward the chatter. I stand up shakily, just in time for a mermaid to come popping to the surface of the lagoon and grabbing my ankles, dragging me backwards. Sand hits my face moments before I’m dragged underwater. I gasp, and heave as water meets my lungs, rather than oxygen. It only causes me to gasp further, and spots dance across my vision before I’m flung up onto the pier, to puke all the salt water from my lungs. I look into the water, glaring, to find a mermaid who looks younger than I do laughing at me. “You’re pathetic!” he laughs. “What, you never learn how to hold your breath and swim?”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgnRSTnuqul
“Well, you’ll never know,” I snap, “Because I’m not going in there again!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlK1mpnwzfp
A golem approaches me and forces me to stand up on the pier, and all the mermaids in the lagoon surface, beginning to chant, “Plug her in! Plug her in! Plug her in!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY8lj38arK8
As all the other species approach, they join in on the chant, but some of them are off on the rythym, and it all turns into one giant roar of hatred. I look around, hoping that I don’t see anyone I recognize in the crowd. If they’re not here, then maybe they can live. The golem grabs my wrists and pins them back behind me. Too tight. I can’t see how I’m going to get out of this one. All around me I see people jeering and splashing water and calling for blood. Tears are streaming down my cheeks as I look around and feel all of the radiating malice directed at me. I’m pulled further back, closer toward the doomsday device, and search more frantically for the one face I have yet to see, the one face I need to be absent. Klef can’t be here. I’m strapped into the device and electricity courses through my body, before everything goes black. I can still hear the roar of the crowd, and feel the straps binding me, and taste the blood in my mouth as the sea spray assaults my nose. But I can’t see anything. I try to sense any magic and can’t get anything there either. I’m completely blind. They took my sight and my Sight through this device. I make a choking noise and someone slaps me across my face. “Make one more sound and you die.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7AAey4qnBL
My mouth shuts with an audible click. More electricity pours into my body and it’s all I can do not to scream. Will this be my second end?725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7iDJUmog2
“Finally!” the lead mermaid cheers. “Finally, we shall be superior! The humans can hold us back no longer! We will! Rule! The world!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzQtu3dToxb
The roar of the crowd almost drowns out the sound of wings flapping over head. I frown. That’s the sound of a dragon flying… but why would a dragon fly over the doomsday device? Unless… “Aw, yeah!” Hibiscus cheers. “This is awesome! Watch me breath fire! Watch!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡngocO4HFkD
A wave of heat hits me from somewhere in front of me, and I turn my head, desperate to see if even my peripheral vision can catch anything. But I’m completely blind.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI7skoafi3y
I hear a familiar chanting, as well. “You got this, Ama! SHow them how true magic works!” Bobbi yells. “This one’s for Flo, you criminals!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQTA9jFWwZW
Electricity courses through the air, and I jump. Everyone is scattering or grouping up to fight, and I could sob from happiness, if only I knew that no one was next to me. I hear Klef call out. “Ride!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr22tVyCukm
I twist my head and try to find where Klef is. “Ride! Ride, over here!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDPiTduz9Qh
A knife is held to my neck. “Don’t answer him.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡztbPN98w8f
“She can’t see you!” the leader laughs. “She’s a little busy ensuring our plans succeed!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq80yQjf6f0
I hear maniacal laughter and the roar of a crowd jeering. “Why are you doing this?” Klef’s voice penetrates through the blackness that is blanketing my vision.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUM5h5J7qys
“Because we have been pushed down for far too long. We will be superior!” A roar of agreements overwhelm me, and I bite my lip to stop from screaming out, knowing if I do, I’ll die.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9ETgxriFKN
“Ride! Get that guy away from you, I know you can do it!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGWIQtva78z
I swallow, and tentatively, reach out, feeling for the man’s face. When I find his jawbone, I punch it with as much ferocity as I can, and the knife gets away from my neck. Well. That’s one problem solved.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIu1aqUjx3z
A whirring fills the air, and based on the increase of pain in my body, I can say that the machine is starting to warm up. I wrack my brain desperately for what to do. I can’t see, I’m strapped into this infernal machine with no way out…725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoeij52kHlF
No way out. No escape for me. I smile. Wait a minute. I’m channeling the magic, just like the skeleton in our ride over here said. I know what I need to do, and I can do it! Outstretching my arms by my sides, I tilt my head back and whisper, “Magic, gimme all you got.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOEDu7cweyp
Pain immediately courses through my body, along with an intense heat. I distantly hear myself screaming, but I’m too busy on the task at hand to register it. I take the magic, and force it into the machine, as hard and fast as I can. The whirring increases in pitch until it’s a whine. “What’s happening?!” the leader asks. “What are you doing, you brat?!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1sQ3KF2a65
“I’m over loading the system, and there’s nothing you can do about it!” I scream back. “This one is for all my family and friends out there: we will not! Die! Today!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhbSzgT3Kb
The pain increases as the machine starts to overheat, and I know that I’m going to make it destroy itself, and possibly me in the process, but I keep going, until all that I know is that there is pain in every cell of my body, tearing me to shreds, and there is smoke and sparks flying behind me. “No! Stop! You’re going to kill us all!” the mermaid shrieks.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJAw1GVhx9T
I hang my head, screw my eyes tightly shut, not that it would make a distance, and whisper a single phrase. “Self destruct.”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡodusRfgrkG
The machine erupts in a cascade of sparks, which I feel showering down on me. The straps holding me release, and I fall face first to the ground, suddenly greeted with a world of blurry color. I turn over and look up to see a column of orange and yellow behind me, and I blink rapidly, trying to bring it into focus.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSQYejLwMlI
“Noooo!” the mermaid shrieks. “You have doomed us! You have doomed us all!”725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnlEGBiSjCL
I stand up shakily, and stumble over to the leader, who to me is just a smudge of different color. “I have saved your sorry lives from being trapped in misery for centuries, until you slowly but surely kill everyone on this planet. If you know what’s good for you, you will stop this plan and never show your face again. Any of you!” I finish with, my eyes glossing over the crowd.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwi8fotKTcc
The machine behind me beeps, and a wall of heat and fire hits me in the back, before all there is is darkness.725Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlo4ZK38q2P
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