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Reversal, Chapter 22

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Literature Text

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REVERSAL
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"Each dying breath flung from his breast swift, bubbling jets of gore, and the dark sprinklings of the rain of blood fell upon me…not sweeter is the rain of heaven to cornland, when the green sheathe teems with grain…" Aeschylus, "Agamemnon"

22
QUIET CRUELTY


It's a simple procedure. For us…painless.

And they?

They don't feel much of anything. They're already…

I realized the truth quickly. See…I've never been back to Jumba. The vomiting, that…that was meant to be fixed with new flesh. But no. No. I kept this body. It suited me fine. I could deal with the occasional sickness.

I'm not so cruel that I'd want more sacrificed just to keep me alive.

…I'd like to think…

…that counts for something.


Kualili had always had an affection for those constantly wandering. He had seen too much of himself in the self-described "Moses" of the Romany, and as such, when he'd told Josef about their new, hopefully permanent home not too far from his own palace, he'd been overjoyed when they'd said yes.

Despite the cheery optimism of the prospects before them, that all they needed to do was answer a minor questionnaire, per Manifest's request…the weather seemed to disagree with Josef and his people. The day had become overcast, a miasma of solemn intent filling the skies as Junior strode over to Josef, having intermingled with the Romany along with his "Romany Rye" guide all day. It was tedious work, in a sense, constantly getting up and sitting down, filling out forms, questioning the people, testing them, all to find the best and brightest. The thing that comforted Junior was that the test they were administering had nothing "Standardized" about it, they were seeking members of the Romany with great creative and critical thinking skills, not those that had the ability to just regurgitate answers by rote. Manifest had made it clear that the future generation that survived the Infection HAD to be the kind to think outside the box, HAD to be the kind that kept the "true spirit of Life" alive.

"It's comforting to know that Math won't count first as the "true spirit of Life"." Junior told Josef as he sat down with him, the gypsy currently sipping a beer, looking oddly...tired. And Junior felt he knew why. "You know, Teddy Roosevelt was an old lion of a politician, but he said something I really agree with, and I think it applies to you, Josef. "Some people are born great, others have it thrust upon them". When I became a page, an assistant at the Galactic Federal Alliance, I never asked for people to remotely look up to me, I just wanted a position in politics where I could do some good. But I had greatness thrust on me, I became Grand Councilman because I was the best one suited for the job at a time when a gaping void had sprung...and I took it, because to me, politics is about doing well for the people."

"So?"

"So...I kinda see the same circumstances arising." Junior admitted. "No Romany has ever been Infected yet, for some strange reason, but now people are nervous, afraid...and have you noticed how everyone keeps asking you for advice and help? You're connected, you've got a good head on your shoulders...I can't believe I'm spelling this out but...you're getting greatness thrust upon you as the de-facto leader of a formerly leaderless race." He leaned back on the bench. "...you don't look quite as happy as I'd thought you'd be. Is something bothering you?"

Josef set his alcohol down, sat up and walked down the street toward the city's river bridge. He buttoned his heavy brown coat and tightened his scarf and Junior followed after him.

"You seem to think that I was oblivious to this...but I have known for a long time now and the longer that time has passed, the more depressed I have become." He spoke solemnly, sinking his hands into his coat pockets. "You presumed of my automatic happiness, but I apologize for as I have just said, I hold none."

"Depressed?" Junior inquired, rubbing the blue ring on his finger as a cup of red wine formed in one paw. He raised it to his mouth, but then hesitated, that familiar, horrible face of the Cracked thing surging into his mind, the way the wine had poured out of its mouth like a cascading fountain of blood...

He decided on white wine instead, taking another rub of the ring as he sipped from the golden cup. "I can tell that without being an empath, but I AM confused. Why so? The war's not touched the Romany, and Kualili's promised it never will. He seems to really, really care for you. Are you afraid that the war will reach your people, or worse, the Infection?"

"Heh."

A snorting chuckle as Junior whipped his head in Princess's direction as she walked off, shaking her head back and forth, mumbling how STUPID he could be, the half Muridean, half Experimental American blinking in confusion. The people here in this world...all so full of riddles!

"No, you don't understand." Josef said a bit more firmly, going over to the bridge and putting his hands on the railings. "I'm sure they will be alright, but it's not about my people. Listen, I understand you were thrown into your position, but you still willingly went into the field in which you ended up there. I did not."

"What are you getting at?"

"Junior, I did not choose to be in this position I am coming into, nor do I wish to be. You see?"

"...forgive me for ASKING, Josef but...why not?"

"My reasons are my own, Junior. For you, I tell you that I simply do not wish to be a leader, that is the beginning and the end of it." Josef answered, turning his back to him to look over the bridge. "I agree with you that there are those who are thrown into powerful positions, but I disagree that they have no say in it. I am sorry, but I must decline."

"Josef, forgive me for saying this but...the whole world is the enemy of people like us right now. You're living in a world filled with fear, uncertainty...and those monsters that our parents talked about NOT living under our bed...are REAL." Junior said firmly, trying not to use his empathic powers to "convince" Josef, as tempting as it was becoming. "This is not the time to say "Pass" when somebody hands you the Holy Grail and tells you to head to King Arthur, post haste."

"I'm sorry, but no." Josef replied in the same solemn, simple tone, albeit a faint undercurrent of frustration rising in him. "I am not a leader, nor have I ever wanted to. The many Gypsy Kings who have lead my people in the past are the true leaders, and I will be more than happy to support them however I can." He looked up at the night scare, now coming across as more fearful. "I'm also beginning to worry about something."

Junior raised one ear and lowered the other, arms folded across his chest. Be open, be receptive, bottle up that anger, bottle up that irritation, hear him out... He thought to himself. He wasn't angry, just very irritated. The Romany needed a strong leader. Josef might have thought himself a clever kid, but he was dumb as a rock. Couldn't he see what was obvious to everyone else? The world NEEDED someone like him, the ROMANY needed a leader like him. That wasn't something you could shove under a rock!

"What are you worried over?" Junior asked gently.

"I fear for the future of the Romany. The general mood right now is that when the war is won and Yurp is destroyed, everything will be fine. But I do not see it as such. I fear that the Yurpeans will one day seek revenge for their Empire's destruction on their enemies, and by now, they are fully aware of the Romany's part."

Junior nodded slightly. "Yes, and?"

"We are already the Yurpeans sworn enemy. In a few decades, there is no doubt they'll see to it my people are wiped off the earth in revenge. That is what I fear."

"But Manifest just made an alliance with the Bolsheviks two days ago. They'll be running post-Imperial Yurp after the war. They seem like very nice people." Junior reasoned. "Very honest in their convictions."

"Even if they are, even if that DOES happen, then the fate of my people against the Yurpeans wrath will merely be postponed, but even in that case, the Communists will quickly just become the replacement enemy for Lewistania and Carolina. The future is grim, I fear. A cold war appears on the horizon."

"N...N-no, It WILL work."

"Maybe you're right, Junior, but maybe you're wrong. But that's not the current matter at hand. I DO wish to help in any way I can and I will be happy to join the fighting when I am recalled for my time in the trenches. Let me lead a platoon across the battlefield, but…but so many?" He asked, jabbing a thumb back in the direction they'd come. "…no, no I… I cannot be my people's leader." He murmured.

"There won't be a cold war, Josef. We'd never let that happen. Manifest wouldn't let that happen, neither would the other leaders. You all came far too close to destroying the world, this is the one time people need to put aside petty concerns..."

A subtle "hint-hint-hint" underlying his tone, he folded his arms. "To rise up, to listen to our better angels. You're far too cynical, Josef. Have some faith in your fellow man...and in yourself. I think you'd make a fine leader if you only gave yourself a chance. Anybody can fight on the front lines, my poor son Judah and his sister are a living testament to that."

"Heh." Josef chuckled slightly.

"But being able to really make a stand for something...that only comes along once or twice in a lifetime." Junior finished poignantly.

Josef looked away in a downwards direction with his head deep within his coat collar. He finally shook his head and walked over the bridge arch, sighing defeated, "No. I'm sorry. I have to return now to my batallion's camp. Have a safe night, Junior."

Junior strode forward, putting a paw on Josef's shoulder. "Josef, wait, don't be like that." He said gently, his eyes turning a momentary shade of deep bluish green, as a desire to be honest came forth from Josef. "Please, talk to me. I'm not forcing you into anything, I just want to know why you're loathe to jump at the call. I doubt it would even be for very long, maybe a year, maybe less. Please don't shut me out like this, I only want to help you and your people."

"I'd like to know why you're so concerned for a world that's not your own." Josef found himself saying.

"Because it's what MY people do. Take care of places that aren't our own. And we do it very well, and we've done it often, and once we have...they become our own, because they become our ohana, our family...quirks and all."

"I'm not YOU, Junior." Josef replied, now sounding exasperated. "I'm not a hero, I'm not a leader. I'm one, ordinary man! I know you want you want to help my people, and I welcome that, and I'll even try and help you find a leader for my people." He walked to the very edge of the bridged, right in front of the railing, raising his hands in the air. If he was not careful, he ran the risk of falling off. "But I'm NOT leading them. No means no, Junior, I'm sure you'll come to respect my decision."
"I can UNDERSTAND it...but I can't respect a selfish decision." Junior said, a tone of annoyance entering his voice. "There is no such THING as "ordinary"! Everybody's special in some way, and I can SEE a specialness in you, but instead, you choose to remain...you are taking the easy way out, plain and simple! You could BE a hero if you had some courage! What about your life is so terrible and hard that it's keeping you from taking a chance to better the lives of thousands?"

"I'm NOT being selfish!" Josef snapped back, but not looking at him, and instead looking out over the bridge. "Do you want to know my true reasons? Because I'll fuck it up! I've fucked EVERYTHING in my life up. I've been married more than once, I have proved to be an idiot whenever the leaders have delegated tasks to me. And yet, YOU want ME to become the Uncle Sam of my people! I'm doing them a favour by keeping myself out of their leadership. That's not selfish, that is sensibility!"

For what seemed to be many minutes the two did nothing but stand there, looking at each other. And then…

And then Junior did something unexpected.

He laughed a little.

"Th-that's IT? Josef, really, you're...you're scared you'll screw UP? Heh..." He covered his face, chuckling a bit. "Josef, really, that's not such a big thing to worry over, even if you're a "repeat offender". There is no "Three Strikes Rule" in Life!"

"What would you know about it anyhow? I'll bet you don't know anything about what I've got to worry about." Josef muttered quickly, folding his arms furiously and "harrumphing". "You've never had to worry about people trying to kill you just because of where you come from.  You'll never have the pressure of looking after THOUSANDS, I'll bet-"

"Let...me...paint you a picture...of my normal day at work." Junior said, chuckling slightly, his chuckling turning dark as he slowly advanced, his tone becoming more and more dangerous and dark, all-too-much like Regent's as he advanced towards Josef.

"O-okay..."

"At 4:00 I wake up to meet with the Bivalvan delegates who all but beg the Galactic Federal Alliance's armada to intervene in the civil war THEY started and kept going. THEN at 6:00 I will have to eat my breakfast at the same time as the Illithid Council tries to justify their latest attack on a colony, following which I will tell them, in no uncertain terms, that I have frozen all their bank accounts. Desperately hoping security will escort them away before these mind-flayers suck out my gray matter by chewing through my skull, I then have to rush over to my office and sign an embargo form which will then be relayed to the armada. Then, an hour later, I'll be spending the rest of my morning in a meeting in the Federation Hall debating taxation. After which, I'll spend 8 hours working on paperwork for planets who need emergency relief funds for natural disasters they've endured, all the while being whispered at behind my back because my father tried to take over the galaxy and my mother is an illegitimate child, and every other week I have to avoid an assassination attempt by these same sort of people. And every OTHER week I'm trying to avoid people trying to kill me off for my policies! But you know what? I don't CARE about where I came from or what I have to put up with and I don't CARE about how afraid I might be to keep going because I KNOW..."

He shoved Josef in the chest, towards the edge of the bridge.

THWUMP!

"That people!"

TWHUMP!

"Need! MY! HELP!"

THWUMP!

Josef was not teetering aaaall too close to going off the edge as Junior leaned in, his eyes slit, growling furiously. "So if you really wanna talk about how your life is SOOOOO hard, let me spell it out simply. YOU-DON'T-KNOW-DIFFICULT!!" He roared, giving Josef a final shove.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" SPLOOSH!

Junior blinked in surprise, looking down at his paws as he stupidly exclaimed "Did…did I just do that?"

"Great. SECOND time somebody I trusted pushed me into a river!" Josef mumbled as he spat out a fish, emerging from the water as Junior's eyes suddenly went wide. Suddenly it came to him, a moment of crystallization…

"Vladimir." He said firmly. "…why didn't you tell us who you really were?"

Vladimir, the long-lost brother, the "Red Prince" of Yurp, sighed as he brushed his black hair back a bit, looking up from the riverbank. "…I didn't really wanna remember."

Well. It wasn't long before he and Junior were sitting in the palace, a blanket draped over "Josef", aka Vladimir, as Junior handed him some hot cocoa he'd made himself. "Over the years I had this…this idea." He told Junior softly, taking quiet sips of cocoa as they sat by the fireplace. "This idea of a sister. An idea of a family life. I had no real friends for years until I got to be handsome five years ago, then people started noticing me, taking what I said seriously. And…and my idea, my fantasy…that helped me so much."

He took another sip. "I could have gone back. Merrily knew I was alive. She wanted to tell Melanie, but I insisted she not do it, cuz…" Vladimir hesitated. "…whenever I was really, really unhappy, I'd…I'd picture this sister of mine. This supportive, courageous, clever little girl I was proud to call my sis, and…and if I met up with who she really was, then…I don't think I would have been able to handle that. I can barely stand hearing the rumors and whispered words about what she's done." He told Junior. "And I blamed my mother for what happened to me for so long, because…because she didn't come looking for me. She just assumed I'd died, and…and to go back to HER after all this time and…and tell her the truth…what would I even say? What COULD I say, it's…it's…"

"Like some bad soap-opera, right?" Junior said sympathetically, patting his back. "Look, I'm…I'm sorry. Sorry for losing my temper. You don't HAVE to be a leader of anything, really. Maybe you should put your own house in order and…just go and…say "hi" to her. Talk it out for a while over hot cocoa or something. What you  need to say will come to you."

"…I don't think it works that way." Vladimir mumbled.

"Sometimes that's why it DOES work." Junior chuckled, walking up and giving Vladimir a friendly smile as he made his way to the bathroom, whistling as he washed his hands…

The curtain suddenly being drawn from the shower.

"Hello, chum." Regent said calmly.

"…you've been waiting for me." Junior murmured, fear gripping his heart, holding in tight with claws as red hot as a poker.

"Oh, yeah. I got lonely. But hey, I had this nice taser gun to keep me company." The Cracked Thing laughed softly before he stuck it into Junior's side, Junior letting out a pained gasp as the electricity wracked through his body…

A moment later, he awoke in a padded room, a few scattered pieces of furniture tossed around as Regent's leering face looked at him from a window in the door…a door that had no handle on Junior's side. "Don't you like it, my fine, furry counterpart? I do. It's a part of Kualili's palace. He's lent it out to me. I can design it however I want it, all with the power of my mind, just like the others did with their little homes. It's my own personal hell…and I made it all for you."

"What do you WANT?" Junior asked.

"I want what you have." Regent said, his sneering face becoming calm. "I want it ALL. And I get what I want, Junior. I want your family, I want your friends, your job, your world. It's so much better over there…you have everything. I don't even have half of what you do. How's that fair?"

"It's not my fault. What you've been through isn't my fault…"

"Oh, but it IS!" Regent snarled. "I AM you, Junior! I'm everything you could never be! Your very BEING created me! Well…" He laughed sadly, turning away from the door. "Now I'm going to be everything you were."

"You CAN'T!" Junior screamed, banging on the padded door with his fists. "YOU CAN'T!"

"It's no good, Junior…you really should have known better than to go anywhere alone, especially in a strange house. And now?...now you're never getting out. At least…not alive."

With a haunting laugh, Regent left Junior alone in the room, as the half-Muridean, half Experimental American heard the sound of chanting filling his ears. He let out a strangled sob, getting on his knees, curling up slightly as he buried his face in his arms, the lone chair in the room slowly rocking back and forth, a taunting message in blood dribbling down the nearby walls…

"You're never…getting…out…"







...He was intelligent, Jumba Jookiba was. Brilliant man, brilliant mind. But the more he learned, the more amoral he became. The tragedy with science is that it comes with no ethical strings attached. Magic is not much better.

Oh, sure. Some things are tied to chaos and order or the elements, yes, but…but they're tools. Just tools. All he was learning was how to use more tools and use them better. Nobody was telling him not to use them on people.

Alchemy was his way of melding his great loves. And he was good at what he did…taking bits and pieces of other things and making something new and creative from them.

Yes…he was very good at it.

…too good.


Well, dear readers…a different kind of unpleasantness than the one Junior was being forced to endure had arisen in the village of Streamside.

"CLOSE, DAMN YOU!" The Mad Hatter yelled at the window in his room up the stairs as Patty assisted with cooking breakfast, sniffing the eggs. Yep. Same smell as before. Nitroglycerin. Something funky was going on here.

Izzy and Green, under the bald-faced lie that they were "going for a nice morning stroll" as mother and daughter, had been checking around the village…with some nice, fresh, hundred dollar bills in their pockets. They'd been quite eager for one thing and one thing alone: to find out who in the village had a chicken yard by a place that could possibly be producing nitroglycerin…

Lucky them, in exchange for a "donation to a starving artist", R-Dan had been happy to tell them that there was one such place like that in town, and they'd be heading there first thing tonight at midnight, when everyone else was asleep. But first thing's first. Breakfast.

"I like mine with jellybeans, personally. That's why I enjoy omelets." Green sheepishly confessed as she dug into her breakfast with great gusto, getting egg bits everywhere as a sobbing Hatter was finally escorted down from the top floor by a sympathetic R-Heatwave, who was still in her "heathen" costume, and now wearing a kind of very bad perfume.

King, who had made everyone his special green tea mix, was sure this was an attempt to portray Middle-Eastern women as being voluptuous, but all it did was make her look and smell…

Well…

She looked and smelled like a female used car salesman. She SERIOUSLY had to lose some weight. Angel was putting on the pounds a bit too, he noticed as Kualili, stopping in for a cheery visit with Junior, happily talked about "wanting to take photos" for his collection.

…odd. Kualili's face. It looked…pained. Like he was suppressing something.

"Did you accidentally break something? You look like you stepped on your foot the wrong way and twisted it." King asked him as he began pouring everyone green tea in little white cups.

"Oh? No, no." Junior laughed. "He's just got irritable bowel syndrome. Usually he's good at hiding it, but hey, it flares up now and again."

"Yes, er…could I use your bathroom?" Kualili said nervously.

"Up the stairs, to the far right." R-Angel remarked as the white-furred monarch raced out of the room, the sound of a toilet bowl flushing again and again as she sighed sadly. "Land's sakes."

"Truth be told, we used to have that." R-Stitch admitted sheepishly. "So we went to our father, got it cleared right up. Of course, now we'll have to go back to him again, we've been getting kinda fat lately." He added, poking his paunch.

"…I'm not feeling so hungry anymore." Green decided as R-Angel let out a belch.

"You go to Jumba to fix every physical problem you have?" King asked them, looking intrigued.

"Well, he's the best." R-Stitch insisted as the others followed Green outside the house.

"…I'd like to meet him." King decided, putting one arm around Patty before she could make it out the doorway. "Wouldn't you like to meet him, Patty?"

SOME TIME LATER…

Jumba lived luxuriously. Every single room in his nice country estate had been furnished to good taste, and yet the more one looked around, the more one felt that this place was more suited to an old hard-candy-toting grandma than to an "alchemist of amazing ability " as Jumba referred to himself. The polished Sheraton table with carefully arranged papers and periodicals (all about breakthroughs in science), Hepplewhite sideboard holding two gold-plated candlesticks, there was even an <I<epergne</I>, a very fancy silver centerpiece. The mantelpiece in his hall had an enormous grandfather clock, a set of vases the side of Arnold Schwarzenegger's thighs, and all the windows were shrouded by dark blue velvet, the light shimmering through them, casting the illusion that the place was forever tinted in a realm of blue…

Sitting at a desk, looking at a clock of some kind through glasses that made his eyes bug out, a mechanical construct around him moving pieces together as he flexed thick digits on a thicker hand, The Reversed Jumba Jookiba looked rather much like a giant insect, wrapping up a fly. King nervously smiled as the doctor bid them come over to look at his new pet project.

"See? This is my most common work." He remarked in a perfectly toned Eastern European accent, pointing at the clock in one hand. "Other clocks, thrown away, such a tragedy, but JUMBA!" He remarked proudly, pointing into the sky. "Yes, Jumba makes use of them! Taking bits and pieces, putting together and VOILA! A masterpiece most magnifique!" He crowed, holding the clock up as it ticked away.

"So you take things that are "broken" and combine them to make your "art", eh?" King mused as he looked over the other inventions in the room, the grandfather clock and vases included. Even the books on the bookshelf: they had all been pieced together, bits of books torn out or rescued from fires or other damage, then carefully melded together to form the book they were meant to be. Something was off, though. Something was off all about Jumba, King could just tell…

Wait. A book. A book filled with newspaper articles, hidden inside of an interior decorating tome. King read through them, a pattern emerging…morgues and cemetaries and crematoriums all broken into…busted into via explosive materials and…

…and missing persons reports.

King quickly shut the book and stuffed it back where it was as Jumba went back to his work.
"Tonight, my finest work, though. My COOKING, ha-ha!" Jumba laughed. "Is Halloween party. Will be big feast! You ARE staying for that, right?" He asked them, turning around as King stood by Patty, trying to keep a pleasant smile on his face.

"Wouldn't miss it for anything, sir." Patty insisted.

Elsewhere, one Experimental American with a large penchant for photography had just taken a lovely series of pictures of Junior and Green, Junior proudly nuzzling his wife as she looked deep into his eyes, Kualili paying the photographer handsomely as Izzy fake-gagged at the overly sentimental display. "You're really happy today." She told him.

"…I just…felt like taking care of you." He told her sweetly.

"Well it's really nice." She said, kissing him on the lips as the two strolled out of the photographer's house, heading by a farmhouse…

Specifically, a farmhouse with a large chicken yard…and a very, VERY large barn.

"Well, at last we'll learn the answer." The Hatter remarked, pulling out a magnifying glass from his hat, putting on a deerskin cap like Sherlock Holmes as he wrapped a jacket to match around his body. "Israel von Hamsterviel, if you could lead the way?"

"Why am I Watson? Watson's nothing without Sherlock Holmes." Izzy mumbled.

"Watson was a genius in his own right." Junior said firmly, leading Green off to an apple courtyard some distance away as the Hatter snuck inside the chicken yard, Izzy deciding to distract the owner by enthusiastically knocking on the door, presenting a slip of psychic paper and introducing herself to the stupefied Reversed World counterpart of Chopsuey as a "health inspector", seeking to follow up on a complaint about bad eggs.

Kualili looked at one particularly nice framed poster in a sepia color scheme, smiling as he carried it over his shoulder. It'd look nice on-

Oh no. He could feel it rising up again. He let out a liquidy burp and put the painting down against a bench, rushing for a nearby tree and vomiting behind it, moaning terribly as he rested his body against it. He was getting sicker and sicker lately, but…

But he refused to see Jumba. He did what he needed to do in the name of those he loved. He wouldn't let someone die just to keep himself alive…

"You alright?" Junior asked, walking over with Green, a sympathetic look on his face.

"Y-Yes, I'm…I'll be alright." Kualili mumbled out as he wiped some…stuff…away from his mouth. "You'll…you'll be at the Halloween party tonight, won't you? I might…be a bit late, might need to…take some medicine." He said, suppressing a desire to gasp out in pain as his stomach began to act up anew.

"Oh yes, the Halloween party. We wouldn't miss it for anything, believe me." Junior said with a broad grin.

"OW!" Green yelled out, clutching one side of her head as she bit her lip. "I-I've got the WORST headache…I…I need to lie down." She mumbled, a concerned look flickering over Junior's face as he gently helped her back in the direction of their temporary living quarters, Kualili looking over in the direction of R-Chops's farm…seeing a form being knocked over the head…and dragged, along with another, towards what he knew to be the basement…

Well this wouldn't do at all. No, no, he had more respect for them than to just let them die down there. A quick stride over to the door, a series of knocks…

"…oh. Sir…I…we weren't-"

"I want them. I'll deal with the "meddling kids" myself."

"Of course, sir, of course. We'll take them out through the back way."







… "Where…where are we?" Izzy mumbled out as she finally sat up, looking around a dark, dark room. There was a single bed there, and a couch, with two sets of doors to their right and left that she could make out with her eyes. The Mad Hatter blinked, his pink pupils gazing over at the "Bishop" of Kualili's army…noticing Kualili himself was standing some distance behind her, back turned to them, arms folded against a window that had all the blinds drawn…and he was standing by the only light source, a lamp that was turned off.

"I didn't want you finding out this way, but…"

He turned the light on, but kept them facing his back. There was a photograph, a large sepia one of Junior and Green. He momentarily glanced to the side at it, Izzy and the Mad Hatter noticing something on the side of his face.

"You were investigating something I…couldn't let you investigate." Kualili explained quietly. "The same thing happens again and again…the cops investigate, some private dick investigates, it all comes public and my people have to run. No. No,  not this time. This time they deserve some peace."

"Where are we?" The Hatter asked him. "Your palace?"

"A room not too far from where your father is, Israel." Kualili told her. "Regent has put him away, taken his place. I'm…afraid neither of you will be able to tell anyone about this though…because I have no intention of letting you leave. You see, I…"

He hesitated. "…I never wanted to go to Jumba for my own sake…but killing you…and, I'm afraid, your friends…you're the only ones who suspect anything from my race. With your deaths, I can keep my race safe for a little longer, and…and help myself…with THIS."

He turned around. They saw his face. And in that instant, Izzy's normally calm and collected composure broke, and she let out a shriek as the Hatter held his hands over his mouth to suppress a vomit at the sight before him.

"I used to have a very good face, Izzy." Kualili said softly, advancing towards them. "Like my family, I was born with rather nice features…Jumba did quite the nice job on me." He whispered, his voice like a soft breeze in spring as he walked closer and closer. "Merrily liked my face quite a lot, in fact…and now you've seen it too…"

"Y-you're…you're Infected…" Izzy whispered.

"Oh no, no. Our race can't GET infected, see…" Kualili laughed slightly. "This is how we really look…underneath the shell that he saddled us with…hence why I need to get rid of you." He told Izzy as the Hatter flung himself in front of her. "I'll need something for my face, you see. A dash here, a dash there…you won't mind, really. You won't be able to object once I'm finished."

His fist shot out, striking the Hatter into the bed as Izzy tried to reach for one of her many self-defense weapons in her belt, her mace, her retractable stick, her small pistol…

All had been stripped from her as she slept. Still, she ducked as he dived at her, leaping away as more and more of his "face" began to slough off his skull. "Keep away from me!" She screamed.

"I'm going to give you a new face…a face even uglier than mine…"

His claws scraped down the wall, black eye leering up as the rest of his face fell away…

"

The Face of DEATH!

"
In the last chapter, I merely hinted that there was something dark hiding in the village. Now the true secret seems almost totally revealed. As the saying goes "They cannot ALL be in it"? Not true. They ARE all in it. The reason the Reversed Experimental Americans keep getting shut out of other countries, the strange happenings that Jumba seems so fond of remembering, Kualili's behavior...it's not all chance, but DESIGN.

Design. Heh. How fitting a term for what's been done...and what will be done if Izzy and the Hatter can't last against Kualili...and can Green figure out the truth before its far too late?
© 2011 - 2024 SaintHeartwing
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I suppose this is why Kualili's been so unstable during the whole story? Makes sense, all things considered.

On another note, I like how pushy Junior got in his conversation with Josef -- it's nice to see him be assertive for once. Hope he can use some of that willpower to escape (instead of being a "damsel in distress", so to speak), and that he can do it before Regent does anything to Green (if you know what I mean).

Oh, and nice twist with "Josef". Didn't see that coming.

--
Zim'sMostLoyalServant signing off.