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This chapter is mostly written by Sarah Frost, and is again a take on events within the Haunted House at the present time. The ending two parts are mine.
“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear”
–H.P. Lovecraft
Ladies of Illusion.
Too bad the Sixth Dimension was apparently eating itself from the inside.
That was what Chuck said was happening anywhere. He said that by now half of the places they had walked and flown through to get to the Haunted House in the first place had pretty much been swallowed up by... something. Whatever is was out there beyond the shield.
Not that she appreciated being this closed in but it was... kind of nice. Fear spent time with her, and the boys didn’t go on about Not-S—Lady Illusion as much as they used to.
Course, there was still Lady Illusion, and that was bad.
But at least Fear was paying attention to her again. That was good, and he was keeping the Haunted House together and letting the others stay, but…
It wasn’t the same, anyway. She still liked him an’ all (they were even, he’d lied and she’d done stuff with Rick, so they'd made up when she'd come back with the others and it was okay now), but she couldn’t quite ignore…some things.
Like Random in the courtyard with a chain on his wheel going into the wall. Fear said he didn’t really have a choice and didn’t want him going crazy and destroying everyone, and she could kind of see the logic there and Random had said grimly that he understood, and she was helping keep the minions from annoying him by threats and the occasional beating, but it…okay, it wasn’t the best thing for him.
Or Kellamy, stuck somewhere in the dungeons. Fear didn’t want her to see him, and it was sort of nice that he was still jealous of other guys. But let’s face it; the elf-dude seemed scared of her if anything (maybe she shouldn’t have made him try to spar with her? He’d kidnapped her first, so they were totally even no matter what anyone thought about it, and he was useless anyway without a right hand so she was glad they didn’t have to hang out any more).
At least the boys were pretty much free to traipse around the House. Chuck actually getting along with what he called the “evil overlord dude” was... sorta scary, and Mark just kind of looked permanently terrified. Well, if he wasn't going to try and be brave...
And at least she had clothes that weren’t zombie hand-me-downs or that stupid white thing Kellamy had lent her while she’d been imprisoned. It didn’t quite fit, though. A red thing that laced up too tightly, like it had been made with someone a little smaller in mind, but tight did…interesting things to her boobs, and Fear seemed to like it.
Yeah. She was thinking a bit more about what he’d like lately, and it was weird, ‘cause she’d told him from the start she wasn’t going to promise anything. But he was keeping them safe and stuff, and man she wasn’t even missing Rick so much anymore. Maybe she should go catch up with him, work off a bit of energy if he was in the mood. Get rid of the ache in her stomach and the tension between her thighs. Yeah. Hey, it was more than just something to do.
There was a routine going on. Fear would go out early in the mornings to renew the safeguards and keep the rest of the dissolving Sixth Dimension from infecting them, and Sparx tried not to think about how she missed the rest of the world or how they were going to get back to the mortal world, as she got up as late as she could and did some training down in the courtyard with the minions, and then they’d get the afternoons to themselves unless Fear had to sort out something between the minions and she’d try to convince him to stay up as late as possible, and he needed less sleep than her so that was all good, and that was all…fine.
Sparx hadn’t really looking forward to the conversation with the boys afterwards, but that was okay ‘cause it’d lead to her having a really good time with Fear. (She wasn’t sure how it was supposed to work. He’d done her a favour, and then it’d still been fun for her. That was a bonus, she supposed. It was neat they were compatible ‘n all, and he laughed at her and said she was indefatigable, and possibly irresistible on top of that.)
So talking to them would be okay, really. She was in a good mood.
Chuck looked horrified. "Information overload! Remember what we discussed, Sparx. You were already hanging off him before and, well…"
"Whatever," she said. "So, you guys wanna go up to the attics again?" There was some interesting stuff in there, weird musical instruments and random, twisted stoneplants, and even a ghost or few that she’d used as target practice.
They exchanged glances. "About Lady Illusion," Mark said. "I—um, it’s great and all that you wanted her to live, but I’m not sure Ace would want to hear about her being your maid…"
She rolled her eyes. Still talking about Ace like he’s my stupid father or something. "Oh, c’mon. Like Fear would just let her go! She didn’t just lie to him, she was going to let Ace destroy him and she’d have been happy about it. Of course she’s gotta do something to make up for it."
Mark grimaced. "I still don’t know…"
They were her and Ace’s friends, not Lady Illusion’s. "Yeah, well, there’s nothing I can do about it. Let’s get a move on here, I’m bored."
Mortals just didn’t get these things.
"Hello, Sparx. Mind if I ask the reason for the change of opinion?"
Sparx glared at her. "What change? And have you done what you were supposed to do?"
"Yes." Lady Illusion went to the closet, pulling out two dresses. Purple and grey, stupid long skirts. Whatever. "You blasted me here in the first place, and then we fought, there was an incident with the amulet, the mortal got stupid and the fight ended," she said, summarising those incidents rather poorly in Sparx' estimation. "I’m rather surprised that you saved me."
"You could thank me," Sparx said.
Lady Illusion shrugged. "Would it mean that much?" She threw the clothing across. "Tell me if they don’t fit, by the way. I’m not particularly fond of sewing."
"How’d you work on them in the first place? Shouldn’t you have, like, measured me and stuff?" Right, the purple material felt okay, and it looked closer to her size.
But still, this was annoying… Talking to her was annoying. Not knowing what was going on in her freaky spider-legged head was annoying...
"I morphed you." A crystal ball appeared in Lady Illusion’s hand. "I can still use my powers within these confines, in case you were wondering. I just can’t get out."
"So you wanna pick a fight?" Sounded better than just hanging around doing nothing all day.
"No," she said. "It might be unwise."
"All right." Sparx scowled. If not for the kind of fight that’d probably get the guard sounding the alarm, she’d have more to say, though Fear’d probably approve of her beating Lady Illusion up. "Anything else, Lady? What's it feel like working for me for a change?"
She actually smiled at that. "What’s it like to parade in hand-me-downs?"
Sparx flushed. "Shut up," she said. "I’ll be back in a couple of days. Do what you’re supposed to."
Of course, she was going to fight back.
You couldn’t hit someone intangible. But they couldn’t hit you either, and with the right kind of timing…
Lady Illusion flung herself to the side as the first blast lanced through the air. She could smell burning feathers. And there was more smoke; Lord Fear had disappeared again.
A crystal ball materialised in her hand as fast as thought; she threw it in his rough direction, smoke spilling out so that it'd hide her too. The wall was at her back. She jumped away from it; she'd always been fast. Faster than him, and...
And still trapped here, no matter what she did.
Sparx saw her start at the sudden entry, stilling as she recognized her.
"What the oblivion have you been doing? I don’t think Fear’d have left a loophole that you could just beat down the walls," Sparx said. She chucked the red dress at her. "I want it a bit looser, but not that much." Fear had seemed to like it as was, better not to make too many changes.
"Fine. I’ll do it."
Sparx studied her. Yeah, she looked kinda…off. "So what’d you do?" she asked. "The place didn’t get like this on its own…"
"Call me a coward," Lady Illusion said, and laughed. "Temporary fit of insanity, of course. Like old times, back in the mortal world."
Yeah, she had had those moments, either insane or lying to everyone like she always did. About Sparx’s boyfriend.
"What’s the matter this time?" Sparx asked. "Worried that I’ve got what you used to have, more, because he actually chose me, and—" She looked around at the room. "This place was small even without all the mess, you must’ve been just a minion with this, my room’s bigger—"
"I didn’t want him!"
The slap was too loud. Sudden. Sparx rubbed her cheek.
"I wish you all happiness. I don’t care about either of you. I want to leave this place, get away from…"
"You really sound insane," Sparx said.
She took in a deep breath. "Yes," she said. "I…wish I could kill you now."
Sparx clenched her fists. She didn’t punch her back. "Whatever," she said.
She…remembered. The upgrades.
"I don’t like you," she said. "And I’ll make sure you get what you deserve."
She walked out.
He occasionally said his practice was suffering thanks to her, but that didn’t matter. She threw herself on his lap, flinging his hands from the keys as Staffhead made a rather pointed noise.
"What’s the matter, angel?" he asked her with a sigh.
"I’d like you to leave her alone," she said. "You like me, right?"
"What in the world are you—"
"Don’t play dumb," she said, wriggling impatiently. She could imagine what might’ve happened, something passing through the walls, the fight that hadn’t ended just ‘cause one of them was a prisoner, overlord stuff and all that. "You’ve got the smoke upgrade, you pass through walls, I saw what her room looked like—"
"I see." He put an arm around her waist. "You have to understand, my dear. She betrayed me."
"And you’re supposed to want me now!" The stool overturned, sending them both to the ground.
She needed him not to care about that woman enough to want to even taunt her a little, needed him to want her and for them to skip straight past the upcoming argument and get to the making-up part, which was always more fun—
"I want you. I didn’t destroy her for that reason." He reached up to her face, tracing her cheek. "Don’t you understand that I loathe the treacherous Lady, and would much rather you?"
"So you hate her." Sparx shuddered as his other hand reached under her dress, barely hearing Staffhead’s disgusted sound.
"Yes. Did you imagine differently? This has nothing to do with the more nauseatingly positive emotions, only the remnants of betrayal. It doesn’t have to be the same thing…"
It almost hurt, him thrusting inside her, but at the same time his thumb was touching her in ways she liked and his fingernails light on her neck almost drove her mad.
"Leave her alone!" she said again. She gripped his shoulders. "Promise me you’ll do nothing, it’s got to be you and me don’t stop that please—" She hated Lady Illusion too, and it was that as much as anything else that drove them, the want and the hate and the action.
Tangled in his arms, she fell over him, her mouth meeting his almost frantically, salt-blue blood in her mouth as his skull scraped her, and the pain was as exhilarating as a battle and the spike of pleasure passed through her like a storm, and almost screamed with it all. "It’s me, I want you to leave her, let’s—"
"Yes,’ he breathed. "You’ve more than made your point. Of course I’ll destroy her later, but in the meantime—yes. I should hardly waste the effort." He cackled. "You have my word, angel."
"But, my lord—"
"Silence, staff. Leave us alone."
It was working out. Sparx flung herself on him as though she was trying to bind them with her flesh, losing thought to action. She liked that.
Another boring one, sappy romance.
Sparx picked up and flicked through the first one again, in case there were any exciting stories. In 238 in the year of the Lord Zoar, the philosopher Lenard Fountain published his work Gloriosa Profundis…
In 909 AZ, in the city New Third, the ancient spirit called Tristane arose, and took the hearts and minds of the city, but was defeated by words alone…
The crystal stones of the Fourth Dimension were first located in 302 AZ, and through the translator Lord Philipe were able to give linguists knowledge of the language of the Atmos of the First Dimension…
Reeeally complex, considering that this was just a computer game. She looked at the romance novel.
“Karilyn flicked her golden waves of hair from her face as she stared up into Brennan’s limpid pools…The bold pirate raised his sword to her bodice and ripped it through…Their kiss of reunion had all the flavours of true love, flutteringly beguilingly pure love at long last…and they lived happily after…”
Boring. But flicking through it had shown something like a complete story. pretty much all of the books in this library (that she’d bothered to look at) did.
It didn’t matter. She’d ask Rick about it later. Maybe he skyloaded some extra things on it, to add a little extra realism.
Nothing that she could do with them, anyway. Books weren’t her thing. Too slow.
She hurried down from the library, and thrust the things into Lady Illusion’s hands. Good. She’d cleaned up the room a bit.
"They’re damn boring," she said. "You’d probably like them. If you’re not busy mending my clothes."
Lady Illusion raised an eyebrow. "Appreciated," she said coolly.
Or more like “picking on him” as in “picking at him”. Which was a little unusual, because up until now, asides from their bugging Random a little bit, the zombies had been the most well behaved of all the creatures that were currently taking refuge in the Haunted House. In fact they were normally pretty random things in general, not much good for anything except hanging around in graveyards and singing bad songs.
Except that they seemed to have gone a little bit... nuts.
And Chuck had the wrist cannon, but he didn’t seem to be using it properly. Sure he wqas firing it, but there was no lightning coming out of it, and the Zombie that was nearest looked like some kind of mangy dog (like that thing Lady Illusion turned into once, now that was weird) snatching at him and going for his throat.
And Chuck really was useless at pretty much everything that didn’t involve a computer, so...
Sparx hesitated for a second.
After all, she’d promised Fear (sort of, in not so many words, so maybe it wasn’t really a promise at all, maybe it was more of a vague sort of agreement, and she wasn’t so worried about breaking those) that she wouldn’t damage any of the Minions. They needed them, he said (though Sparx wasn’t exactly sure how or why because most of them were just stupid zombies and cockroaches and Harpix that didn’t have feathers anymore), so she had promised not to really destroy any of them, not even when she was sparring.
Except that it wasn’t about her just needing something to fight with this time. It wasn’t about zombies running around and lashing at her just because she wanted them to. This was about them going after Chuck, for no good reason, and Sparx...
...She wasn’t okay with that. So she jumped at them, sword raised and lightning crackling.
‘Back off, deadbeats!’
And they did back off – really, really quickly. Still, Sparx managed to slash through a couple of them with her sword first just to make a point that she wasn’t meant business. They’re really easy to destroy – easier than they should be, in fact, and they go down with little more than a sweep and a stab.
Not much of a challenge for her, but it got the job done. Things vanished too easily in this place these days.
‘You okay, Chuck?’
Chuck sounded kind of like he was... what was the word? That long, weird one that Mark used? Hyperventilating; that was it. But at least he was breathing and seemed to be pretty much okay. Luckily, zombies didn’t really have special powers or attacks to speak of.
‘Y-yeah, but... Man...’ he paused still trying to breathe right. ‘Not... that I deny them sanctuary, or anything but... I really, really don’t like those Zombies.’
‘Yeah, you and me both, Chuckdude,’ she thumped him on the back, because she’d heard that was what you were supposed to do when people started not breathing right, except that it didn’t seem to help.
‘So what the Oblivion did they want?’
‘Don’t... ask me, dude, one minute I’m running some inspects on the shield thing and the next,’ he clicked his fingers. ‘Just like that! Zombies coming outta the ground everywhere. Not cool, Sparx. Seriously. Not. Cool.’
He looked weird, Sparx realised. Like someone who had been scared for too long. And it kind of made her wonder how she must look. Never mind the ugly dress and the shoes that didn’t fit right.
‘You crazy? Why didn’t you just hightail it to Random, or something? Seriously, Chuck, like you were doing any good with that thing.’ She pointed at the wrist cannon and Chuck glanced at it like someone who hadn’t even realised it was there.
‘Oh, yeah I have no idea what happened with that. I don’t get it. I mean I’ve used this thing before. Only a little, sure, but... damn thing just wouldn’t fire right.’
‘Here, gimme that,’ Sparx said, impatiently, reaching out and pulling the cannon from his wrist. It wasn’t a great fit on her own arm –she hated projectiles anyway, preferring the firepower and grip of her sword– but she could still aim it well enough. Except that when she fired, she didn’t get the fire show she had expected.
A few shivers of lightning. Then a bigger one. Then it coughed and spluttered and just... stopped. Sparking, the way it had that time when Random mentally smashed it into pieces.
‘Huh. That’s weird.’ She frowned, pulling it off her wrist and tossing it back. Chuck jumbled with it a bit before succeeding in catching it. He really was kinda useless, Sparx thought. Or maybe useless wasn’t the right word. Maybe a better choice of words would be “out of his depth by about a thousand Kryllimetres.”
‘Mark used it earlier,’ Chuck shrugged. ‘Seemed okay then.’
‘Better get Random to fix it, if he can, then,’ Sparx shrugged. Not that Random would really be able to. This wasn’t the junkyard, and he didn’t have any tools or anything. Maybe she could find some in the attic, or something. Maybe Chuck could even fix it with that Laptop of his, if it was still working okay too. She hadn’t seen him with it so often lately. Not since the last time they visited the attic, in fact.
And then Sparx looked at his arm again. ‘Chuckdude, what happened to your hand?’
‘What? What is it? What about my hand?’ Chuck... freaked a little bit, the way he always did. Then looked at his left hand- the one which wore the wrist cannon and stopped flinching, choosing instead to just stare at the blue substance that had just appeared there. ‘Oh... damn.’
The blood was blue, Sparx realised. Like theirs – drifting lighter than air across his palm.
Chuck shuddered. ‘Well, that’s certainly creepy as hell,’ he muttered, seeming more... annoyed than anything else.
‘Uh... So, should it be that way?’
‘Yeah, I figure it should,’ Chuck muttered clenching and unclenching his fist a bit until the bleeding trailed off. ‘It’s not usually, but then, we’re not here usually. It’s kind of odd actually seeing it, that’s all.’
Sparx didn’t know why that thought –that sight– freaked her out, but it kind of did.
‘You’re not...’ she paused, struck by something... odd. ‘You’re not scared, are you?’
‘What right now?’
‘Sorta... but all the time, too. You’re not scared.’ That was really strange, Spax thought. She had never thought of him not being scared, but she couldn’t think of any other way to explain why he wasn’t doing his usual freak out right now. And when she thought about it a little more, she realised he hadn’t looked that scared of the Zombies either.
‘...I dunno,’ Chuck seemed confused by that. ‘I mean I’m pretty sure I am, but...’
Sparx said nothing after he went quiet... she just waited. ‘Maybe... I guess when you’re scared all the time, you kinda stop noticing. It just turns into another part of you, right? Just something else. If you don’t look at it that way then youll probably lose it and start doing stupid things that just make everything worse. Chuck shrugged for a second. That wasn’t a real smile, but Sparx returned it anyway, on impulse. ‘I think it’s normal. You look over your shoulder and you check your step before you walk, for the same reasons that you breathe and eat and stuff... are you hungry?’
She wasn’t. Lightning Knights... Sparx didn’t need to eat. Or at least not as much as humans did. ‘Why?’ she blurted it out before she could shut her mouth and keep it in.
‘Why am I hungry? It’s kinda human thing.’
‘Not that, Chuckdude I mean why does it have to be like that, anyway? Why do you have to be so scared all the time that I can’t tell if you’re scared?’ Okay, that question made a lot less sense when she said it out loud than it had when she asked it in her head. Still, Chuck seemed to get it.
‘It doesn’t have to, I guess,’ Chuck said. ‘But it works as well as anything else. I mean, they know I’m scared, even if I don’t show it, so...’
‘So that’s why Mark walks around looking like the minions are about to tackle him?’
‘Uh, no, he does that because they usually are about to tackle him.’
‘You know what I mean!’ She was... frustrated, annoyed, maybe even a little upset, and she didn’t like him not making sense. He always made sense usually, if in a weird, Chuck-dude type way. ‘I don’t get it. We’re alive, right? And I’ve said like a million times, I’m not gonna let them hurt either of you. And Fear’s being okay about all this even though you’re meant to be enemies and he’d rather not have anyone here, and he’s not even that bad to you anymore.’
‘Uh, dude, sword?’
‘Oh, sorry,’ Sparx flicked her fingers up, making the sword vanish so that she didn’t randomly slash in around while pacing back and forth and risk putting a hole in him. ‘But... I’m serious. You just got set on by zombies and you didn’t freak. And Mark’s been walking around looking like the Ghost of Pigface Past is after him, and Random? When was the last time he went psycho evil on us? Not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s still out of it.. .and I know things aren’t normal here.’
Sparx swallowed a bit on that last sentence, without quite knowing why, and Chuck didn’t say or do anything, just stood there opening and closing his hand.
‘You know you’re not really making sense here, right, Sparx?’
‘Fuck sense! I know that, but people act like I’m stupid about this whole damn thing, and like I don’t know anything. I know that Ace is out there in that real world and can’t get us back...’ Or isn’t trying to hard enough. ‘And I know things are falling apart, and we’re probably gonna go with it if something doesn’t happen, but we can’t make things happen, Chuck. Do Right and Fear Not doesn’t work anymore!
‘So what the oblivion am I supposed to do, Chuck? Why the heck can’t...’ Things just be normal? Or as close to normal as we can make them in a place like this. Why can’t you be okay with this and with me and why can’t we get out of here and where is home in the first place?
Chuck just looked at her for one long moment. ‘I know that.’
‘I didn’t even finish the question!’
‘No, not that, dude, I mean I know Do Right and Fear Not doesn’t work. You can’t Fear Not, right? It... You just can’t. We can’t. And this isn’t really about doing Right either so the Code doesn’t apply.’ He shook his head. ‘I guess I’m just tired of all that, dude. I think we all are. Tired of faking out way through everything like it’s just like it used to be. And we want to go home.’
Sparx felt something twisting inside of her in a totally different way to the twist she got when she was arguing (or making up) with Fear, or “talking” to Lady Illusion or fighting with a zombie.
This idea would be just great if “home” had a better definition. But maybe it didn’t anymore. A part of her wants to say “me too”, but what was the point in that?
Home was a memory of something that didn’t exist and of people that never were and things that never happened. Home was a Tower she stormed out of and a carnival she was supposed to be at war in and a guy who’d been dead for three hundred years and couldn’t be anything but an evil overlord, because it was all he was ever meant to be and didn’t really want to be anything else, not even for her...
Home was a place she didn’t want to be, beneath a shield she didn’t want to have to keep her alive, with zombies who tried to kill people and mortals who were losing it.
The boys had a real home, though. Maybe that was because they were normal, really. They’d had lives before all this started. They had parents, who were probably kind of worried by now. And Ace was just an addition to that life that made things a bit more complicated.
Sparx decided to stop thinking these things. They were stupid things, and they didn’t get her anywhere anyway. So she looked at Chuck instead, and said: ‘Look we’ll get out of here, okay? I mean we always do. And it’s not like we’ve been forgotten or anything, and it’s not like there’s...’ No way out, no way in, no answers in plain sight, no one to help us, nothing left. ‘...We’ll get out, Chuckdude.’
‘Thanks, man,’ Chuck... actually sounded dike he believed her there. He shrugged turning the wrist cannon over in his hands. ‘Sure we will. Soon as we work out how. Better take this back anyway, fat lot of good it did...’
‘Where is the kid anyway?’ Sparx asked, mostly as a way to distract herself from the conversation they just had. ‘Hiding from Cockroaches again?’
‘Nah, he’s with Random.’
Sparx had a feeling that should’ve surprised her more than it did. ‘Man, he does have a death wish, huh?’
‘You talking about Mark, or Random?’ Chuck half smiled and Sparx didn’t know what to say to that, so she just let him go, and watched him walk back across the courtyard towards the rear of the Haunted House.
Mortals were weird.
Lady Illusion looked up from her book. Sparx noticed that it was the same dull History thing that she had picked up in the library earlier –figured that Lady Illusion would like the boring stuff, but anyway, that wasn’t important right now.
Lady Illusion’s eyebrow rose in... Sparx figured that it was supposed to be her “this could get interesting even if you’re not worth my time” expression. Whatever. Sparx could ignore that.
‘By all means,’ Lady Illusion said. ‘Pull up a chair. I repaired the one that was broken before.’
Sparx could’ve responded to that, too. She could’ve said “don’t give me orders” or “don’t think you can charm your way around me like you do everyone else, because like fuck is it going to work,’ but she didn’t. She didn’t pull up as chair either, just folded her arms, walked into the room and leant her back against the wall.
For a moment there was quiet. It was similar to the kind of quiet she sometimes heard between the boys when they were arguing and couldn’t think of anything else to say, or the silences she got from Ace when he was brooding about (Lady Illusion) something stupid. The silence of waiting and impatience.
‘I hate you,’ Sparx said.
You words stung, but they felt right too. They felt like something that should be there – something that always had been. She meant them all. ‘Because of what you did to Ace.’ Those words... however. Sparx wasn’t entirely sure about those words. Those words didn’t feel right at all, but they were still true, she realised, and Lady Illusion made no obvious reaction to them, so Sparx continued. ‘And I hate what you made him into with those stupid human emotions, and I hate you for stuff you did, for betraying Fear. And I hate you for trying to hurt me, even if you never really did it.’
Lady Illusion could have chosen to open her mouth at this point too, Sparx conceded. To make a comment about the number of times that she had beaten Sparx in a fight, but once again, her mouth stayed tightly closed around that possible jibe.
‘But that’s not the bit I hate the most,’ Sparx said.
The Lady closed her book, folding over the corner of a page to mark her place, and laid it on the pink bedcover. She then folded her arms back over her knees and waited.
‘I hate you, but not so much because you’re evil. You’re not completely evil, you’re just a bitch. And I’m not just talking about when you’re in that stupid dog morph.’
‘There’s a saying amongst mortals, Sparx,’ Lady Illusion said. ‘It says something about a pot and a kettle, calling each other black.’
‘Yeah. That’s sort of the problem too,’ Sparx said, coldly. ‘Because I’m not all good. And you’re probably not all evil. And that’s annoying, see, because I grew up...’ she snorted out a laugh at the words “grew up”. ‘...Believing that there was good and bad and that’s it. But there’s not. You think you’re better than me. Sometimes you even beat me, and that’s not right, because evil doesn’t win against good guys.’
‘Clearly there was something wrong with that formula, according to the mortal world,’ Lady Illusion said. But she said it with less sarcasm than Sparx had expected her too. Like she actually believed it.
‘Doesn’t matter why it’s true,’ Sparx said. ‘Point is that it is.’
‘And you believe that I somehow prove this little fact about your existence, and that this is a reason for you to force your anger upon me?’ Lady Illusion said, sounding as if she thought that was the most ridiculous thing in the world.
‘Yeah, that. And also because you’re a bitch. But I’m going to talk to you anyway, Lady, because I know something about you. I know you love Ace.’
‘Another thing for you to hate?’ Lady Illusion asked.
‘Hey, you’re the one who acted like I was some kind of dumbo rival, Lady,’ Sparx snapped. Then forced herself back to the topic in hand. ‘That’s what I’m going to talk to you about. You love Ace,’ she gritted her teeth. ‘And Ace loves Mark.’
Sparx stood upright, walked across the room and sat down on the bed. Less than three feet away from her, Sparx thought, and wasn’t sure whether or not to feel repulsed by that thought. They’d made contact before, in battle. When they fought and showed how much they hated each other.
‘Aren’t we getting rather psychological here? I never thought that was your particular tack, Sparx.’
‘Shut up.’ Sparx said, quickly. ‘One more word and I’ll hurt you.’
Lady Illusion responded to that comment with a small smile. Then she nodded, as if in a suggestion that Sparx should continue. Sparx’s temper flared but she kept talking anyway.
‘He loves Chuck too, you know. And he loves me –I don’t care what you have to say about that, I know he does. I didn’t figure it at first because I didn’t figure loving was ever the important part. The important part was we were sidekicks, right? So we helped him out. That was the right thing to do. But it doesn’t just apply to us. Ace loves Random, too. Hell he’s even kinda fond of that Kitty girl and we’ve only met her like, twice. In fact I think Ace loves a lot of people who you’re not supposed to like. It’s a crazy emotion and it’s human, but it’s important to him.’
‘Is this spurt of melodramatics supposed to be leading somewhere?’
There was a flicker of pink, and Sparx pressed the sword close to Lady Illusion’s throat. The bedpost burned and smoked, the book fell to the floor. ‘Be. Quiet.’
Lady Illusion closed her mouth and stopped smiling. Good for her. Sparx pulled back a little, just enough so that she wasn’t half on top of the lady, crushing her against the bedpost, but she kept her sword where it was. ‘Thing is, I realised something else recently. It’s not exactly a big secret that Ace pretty much gives a damn about everyone. He loves people. Maybe because of those stupid human emotions or maybe he could already do that to begin with anyway, I don’t know and I don’t care. But I know you’ll do anything if it’ll make him keep loving you. I know that’s why you haven’t killed the boys yet. I know that’s why you stay away from me.
‘And this place?’ Sparx kept going, deciding not to pause, for fear of letting the Lady get a word in edgeways and throwing her entire point off. ‘This entire world? It’s all about laws and bindings and rules. And vows have power, especially in places like the Haunted House and the Carnival. Like how the zombies made a vow to Fear that they’d be loyal to him, and that’s why they don’t run away when I kill them. And it’s probably why you stuck around him so long when Ace was who you really wanted to be with.
‘...Of course, those rules and laws are pretty much breaking down now along with the game, aren’t they? Aren’t they?’
‘I suppose that would be one way of putting it,’ Lady Illusion spoke with a slight waver in her voice. Good.
‘Exactly. But the rules still kind of apply anyway. See I realised something –I realised why it was that you broke your word to Fear: it was because eventually you decided you loved Ace more, and maybe that’s the only thing which can break a Vow made in the carnival between evils. Yeah. I admit that,’ Sparx pulled her sword back a little, giving the Lady a long and almost... thoughtful stare. ‘I can admit that.’
Lady Illusion seemed vaguely surprised. ‘Could this be a confession ?’
‘No, it’s not. I still don’t trust you. But I will, eventually. Because I’m going to make it so that you can’t hurt anyone else I care about, no matter what, Lady. And to prove to you just how much I trust you, we’re going to make a vow.’
Lady Illusion... blinked. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘A vow. You know, one signed with blood and all that? Like the one you evils give to fear – the one you broke. But I don’t think you’ll be able to break this one.’
‘...You can’t do that,’ Lady Illusion said, but she didn’t sound all that sure of herself.
‘Why not? I’m the Lady of the House now, right? And you’re my servant, so you’re bound to whatever I tell you you’re bound to. I know the rules, Illusion.’
Sparx stood up, pulling away while still holding her sword, before turning to look back at the Lady, still sitting on the bad, observing Sparx calmly. ‘And what if I refuse to take this vow?’
‘You won’t.’ Sparx said, surely. ‘I give the orders around here.’
‘In the old days you would have backed up your threats.’
‘The old days aren’t now,’ Sparx spat, feeling more certain of that fact than she ever had been before. Lady Illusion appeared not to react, but Sparx was getting to know her now, and the lady was insane, after all. There was no way she could hide everything.
‘...Then by all means, Mistress. State your orders.’
Being called that would probably have made Sparx feel better if it hadn’t been said with that much sarcasm. ‘Here. Gimme your hand.’
Lady Illusion did. The pale green palm, paler than the rest of her skin, was slender and the fingers were a touch too long and bonelike as they lay within Sparx’s own. ‘I don’t have a knife,’ Sparx said, gesturing with the sharp end of her sword. ‘You mind? Not that it matters.’
Lady Illusion said nothing. Her eyes remained fixed on Sparx, in a combination of intrigued and anxious.
Normally, Sparx considered, as she drew up the sword in her free hand and allowed a few pink glimmers to trail across its surface, sharpening the blade, she would have been aiming somewhere more delicate. The heart (sometimes) or the face (usually). Somewhere that would stop her in her tracks, kill her on the spot. Seemed almost a shame that this wasn’t an option that time, but Sparx didn’t want to kill anyone. Not even Lady Illusion.
She pushed the end of the blade that was closest the hilt against the Lady’s palm, balancing the rest of the sword on the bed. Lady Illusion didn’t wince as green liquid welled in the new, open cut and rose in a slender curve around the blade. The blade glistened a strange purple instead of its usual pink.
Sparx cast her a look and smiled. ‘Well whaddya know. It words. So here’s my terms and conditions, lady. Ready to hear them.’
‘Just say it.’ Lady Illusion said, calmly.
‘Alright then,’ Sparx pushed the blade a little deeper. ‘Rule number one... you’ve gotta look after the boys. Keep an eye on them. No shooting at them or tricking them with different kinds of morphs. No letting that dumb Googler touch them, or Kilobyte.’
Lady Illusion stared quietly at the blade and the welling green of her palm for a moment, a trickle of green fell from the blade and burned a small hole into the floor. The room felt... dark, Sparx thought. Dark and colder than it really should have been with Chuck monitoring the locations weather controls. ‘Continue.’
The blade cut deeper. ‘Rule number two: you have to stay away from Lord Fear. Always. You’re not to go near or make contact with him. You’re not to attack him.’
‘...This is supposed to be an order? Were I not locked here it wouldn’t be an especially difficult one for me to follow.’
‘Things change,’ Sparx said, lightly, pushing the blade a touch more. ‘And rule number three: You want to be with Ace, lady? Then fine, I’m binding you to him. Like, forever. Even if you want to leave him, you can’t. Even if you want to hurt him – you can’t. You’ll do whatever you have to do to stick with what he thinks is right. I don’t care if you like it or not. You can’t do anything that would ever hurt him. And I’m binding you to me, too. So even if I’m not in the Haunted House, you do what I say.’
‘I was under the impression that you were Binding me to a Vow, Sparxie,’ Lady Illusion hissed, dryly. ‘Not simply testing my resolve.’
‘Maybe it’s both. Now do you agree, or do I have to burn you?’
‘I agree.’ She said it without pause or hesitation, without so much as a glimpse to either side. She even looked Sparx right in the eyes as she spoke. ‘In the name of My Lady and the House of Illusion. Whatever remains of it. I am bound.’
‘Swear it, Lady.’
‘I swear.’
The colour around the Sword of Jacob swelled from purple to black, and Sparx wasn’t even going to try and work out why that was. The blood that had fell to the floor was turning black too, she noticed, but as soon as Sparx pulled the blade away, lady Illusion morphed away the slash between her palm and fingers, and the room grew warm again. ‘Are we finished?’
‘What?’ Sparx frowned, brought back to reality (whatever reality it was) by the sound of The Lady’s voice. ‘Oh... yeah. We’re finished. You’re going to remember that.’
‘I have no doubt you won’t allow me to forget it,’ Lady Illusion said, coolly, before picking up her book and resuming her reading from the folded page.
Do right and fear nothing.