trespassers [IC] ALTEREDNU

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Proditor

 

Without a care towards what happened behind him, Proditor floated out of the alleyway... Just as the rest of the group he had arrived with came into view of the Resort, along with three goats monsters, one adult and two children. It seemed that things were finally reaching their end, now that they were all back together and at reasonable strength, "A pleasure to see you all again, you arrived faster than I expected" Proditor commented, coming to a halt a bit away from the alleyway's entrance.

[kj1225]

Arminius nods, folding his arms as he takes in this news. So Frisk and Asriel had been at this for a while first without the latter anticipating how determined the other would be, then with the latter setting a trap that ended up fine and then.... Arminius frowns suddenly, his gaze shooting straight ahead as he counts on his fingers, his arms still folded. He looks back to Asriel, his eyes slightly narrowed as he considers something. Finally he looks to Rachel, and then to Toriel, before he takes a slight step to stand just in front and to the side of the sister of battle. He glares at Asriel, giving him a moment to catch himself if he so wanted, before finally speaking. "And, what about the third time? Why would Frisk reset things again if everyone was happy?"

[Hal Henderics]

He tries, he really does, but Arminius's words trigger something in the prince that has them wrapping their arms tightly around themselves, pulling inwards.

 

Asriel sobs uncontrollably, mouth moving, but unable to form coherent words.

 

Chara fills in the blanks, even as they try to comfort the other monster.  "Not the third time.  The first."

 

Their eyes meet Arminius's.  "There is a reason we were dead when you met us.  We had a plan."

 

"I told him to..." Chara begins.

 

"I told him to poison me, so he could take my SOUL.  We were going to cross through The Barrier and get enough SOULs to free everyone."

 

Toriel shakes her head, backing away from her children and falling onto the ground.

 

Chara looks distraught, turning to Asriel, who is an absolutely ugly crier judging by the snot and tears they're practically soaking Chara's sweater with.

 

"We accidentally put buttercups instead of cups of butter in a pie meant for the king.  I made Asriel feed those same flowers to me secretly until I died, so he could do the deed."

 

"When he took my body to the surface, the people from my village attacked when they saw it.  I told him to to protect himself, to kill them before they could kill us."

 

"He refused, and they killed us for it."

 

Chara shrugs, patting Asriel on the back.

 

"After that, I don't know what happened.  We should have been dead.  Our plan had failed.  Our SOULs shattered in the garden we fell down in."

 

Chara looks at the group one at a time, shamelessly.  "You have to understand, I'm not really the greatest person.  I hated humanity, and I loved monsterkind.  I was willing to die if it meant their freedom."

 

They hush Asriel as he tries to blubber out what an idiot he was over and over.  "It was a bad plan.  I wish I didn't do any of this to you."

 

Asriel slowly gets control over themselves, sniffling as they reign in their outburst.  They decide to answer Arminius's other question.

 

"When I gave up the SOULs, I didn't have enough power to stay myself.  I was going to turn back into a flower.  I was going to forget what love felt like again," Asriel explains.

 

"I told Frisk to just forget me, to move on with their life, but they wouldn't accept that."

 

Asriel begins tearing up again.  "They just kept going back, trying to find a way to save me too.  Hundreds, maybe thousands of times, they undid everything, to the point where even I forgot.  So they could try again.  They tried to convince me to live with them, even as a flower.  They tried to teach me how to feel.  Once, they even tried to fragment their own SOUL just to share it."

 

"They had the power to undo everyone else's happy ending, and did it, just to try and help me," Asriel chokes out.

 

"I wish they didn't.  What I did, it hurts so much, and it won't go away.  I should be dead," they ramble.

 

Toriel looks like she can't decide whether to bolt or embrace them.  Horror and shock, that her children alone are responsible for setting all of this in motion, that Chara's death hadn't been some cruel turn of fortune, but conspiracy.

 

It's around this time that Frisk themselves walk out of the resort, quickly walking over to the two goat children and trying to figure out what is wrong.

 

Rachel belatedly notices her hands on her Inferno pistols, the weapons held in a white-knuckled grip.

[DragonRage]

"I refuse!" Rachel rips her gun belt off and throws it aside.  Something isn't right here.  Something is manipulating her, and she will.  Not.  Have it.  Because while Asriel and Chara's true story is horrifying...  It isn't in the way that should prompt a swift and merciful execution.  No, if anything...

 

They performed a foolish act of heresy, yes.  But they paid for it.  Emperor, did they pay for it.  To live through disaster upon disaster, thousands of times over, repeatedly living through the same tragedies, all to save a pair who were damned because they couldn't bring themselves to end a human life unjustly, when logic would give them all the reason in the world to?  "No!  I will not do it!"  Finding her hands migrated to the hilt of her Force Sword, she throws that aside too, "I will not let you use me to kill these children!"  She shuts off the pilot light of her Incinerator Flamer and tosses it onto the pile, and then does the same with her combat knife and medicae rig.  Falling to one knee, she makes the sign of the Aquila over her armor, and clasps her Rosarius in trembling hands.  It is possible, no likely, that she has been... possessed, or else controlled by some psyker.  And if her faith cannot protect her... there's only one solution.  

 

"The Light of the Emperor surrounds me," Rachel prays with desperate faith.  If anyone can save her now, it is He who sits on Holy Terra, the Master of Mankind.  "The Love of the Emperor enfolds me.  The Power of the Emperor protects me.  The Presence of the Emperor watches over me.  The Mind of the Emperor guides me.  The Life of the Emperor flows through me.  The Laws of the Emperor direct me.  The Power of the Emperor abides within me.  The Joy of the Emperor uplifts me.  The Strength of the Emperor renews me.  The Beauty of His Imperium inspires me.  Wherever I am, the Emperor is.  Let HIS WILL BE DONE!"

[Hal Henderics]

Spoiler

 

 

Rachel feels a presence surrounding her.

 

A presence with depth and power beyond what she has felt before.

 

She hears a voice, and then, five words.

 

"Must I forgive this too?"

 

The question carries no malice, nor is it sarcastic.  She hears the purity of the words, however faint and struggling they may be.

 

She feels a hand gripping her shoulder, heavy and cold, and armored.

 

"I have forgiven you, my servant.  So very many times."

 

"When entities of the warp stood before you, catalysts of daemons, in their fledgling state, I had no choice but to forgive your mercy."

 

Rachel remembers her promise, to not harm a single monster, save for Asgore himself, even if they attacked her.  The written law of mankind would call this heresy.

 

"When the unsanctioned psycher toyed with the soul, I had no choice but to forgive your mercy."

 

Rachel remembers all the times she shrugged off Arminius's willingness, not only to manipulate the cast off essence of the soul, but even to draw strength from the souls of humans, of her.  She not only condoned it, but encouraged it.  The written law of mankind would call this heresy.

 

"When the Soulless thing demonstrated its worth as a vessel for chaos, I had no choice but to forgive your mercy."

 

Rachel remembers how, when faced with a new incarnation of Flowey, at Arminius's hand no less, she decided to allow him to fill them with more soul essence, based only on the word of a child and an unsactioned psycher.  The written law of mankind would call this heresy.

 

"When you discovered that a human drew the full power of the warp through themselves to bend time without my grace to protect them, I had no choice but to forgive your mercy."

 

Rachel remembers how, upon learning that a child had the power to seemingly pass into the warp itself, at will, and take control of time itself through warp sorcery, she was merely grateful that she herself hadn't been taken along for the ride.  The written law of mankind would call this heresy.

 

And Heresy has but one recourse.

 

"Here and now, you stand faced with a choice."

 

She looks towards the three huddled together children, who look confused, but honestly a bit desensitized after all her behavior early on.  They aren't aware of the danger yet.

 

"If you condone this heresy, here and now, I have no doubt that Asgore will live.  He will live because he will not fight, and your mercy will be complete."

 

Is this another trick?  Another lie from Chaos, meant to tempt her?  To throw her misdeeds in her face like this?

 

Suddenly, she sees a vision of the king she has decided to kill.

 

Spoiler

 

"You see it, do you not?"

 

"The armor, resplendent in gold.  The faith, in his kind.  The wayward children he has lost.  The oppression from forces beyond mortal ken? "

 

"You once said that this world stood as a testament to the fate that would befall mankind if they had defeated Chaos.  If I protect humanity from the forces beyond it, then who, here, stands in my place?  Who protects the ones who have lost from the ones who had won?"

 

"You believe King Asgore to be a Heretic, A Daemon, or perhaps even a Daemon Prince.  But no."

 

"This being stands poised at the precipice, this being stands poised to become the God-Emperor of Daemonkind."

 

She hears the struggle in her emperor's words, as if what he is saying is being forced through the mire of chaos simply to reach her.  As if every intonation has reached her battered from all sides by chaos.

 

"Do you understand, Rachel?  If you grant 'MERCY' to these heretics, if you do not 'FIGHT', then the humanity of this world stands in the balance.  If you have faith in me, in my ability to one day bring humanity itself over chaos, and to extinguish it, then you must understand what might happen here, if monsterkind and humanity were arrayed against one another here."

 

"Should you tolerate this heresy, then you take responsibility for its consequences."

 

"Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?  I can only hope that you do."

 

His voice is fading, even now, the eddies and whirls of the warp carrying his words away from her, distorting their meaning until it begins to lose meaning itself.

 

"Must I forgive you even this?"

 

Even now, she cannot tell if the words she heard were merely the lies of chaos, or the rarest of all the emperor's blessings, that he himself would speak to her.  Perhaps it was both, some blend of the emperor's struggle and the machinations of chaos.

 

[DragonRage]

Rachel staggers over to her pile of weapons and withdraws one of her Inferno Pistols, feeling the comforting weight in her hand, the presence of the ancient machine spirit who has seen her through hundreds of battles.  She looks down at the simple weapon, adorned only with a pair of golden wings to disrupt its blocky, utilitarian, rugged design.  "Heresies...  Heresies cannot be tolerated," She whispers to herself.  She rises, turns about on her heel, and slowly walks towards the three huddled children.  She raises the pistol, holding it in both hands.  Her hands are shaking.  "The destruction of a human life...  The waste of a human life...  To keep their SOUL from reaching the Emperor's Throne for their well-deserved rest...  These things are heresies.  They cannot be tolerated.  Heretics must be purged."

 

Sister Rachel's hands steady.

 

"And yet.  I do not serve the master of humanity.  I serve the Master of Mankind.  He is the Emperor of all Terrans.  These are not human.  Yet they are Terran."  

 

Sister Rachel turns her Inferno Pistol to point at her own helmetless head.

 

"I can no longer tell if I am committing heresy or not by allowing these people to live.  Those who cannot recognize heresy... are already lost to it.  Sic.  Sempur,  Hereticus."

SIZZZZZZT

[Hal Henderics]

The beam indeed passes through Rachel's head, through her brain even, the thin microwave laser piercing her helmet and leaving it a sizzling wreck.

 

And yet...

 

She does not die.

 

Her thoughts are cloudy only for a moment, but other than that?

 

For some reason, she feels just fine.

 

There is no flash of light to herald the Emperor's blessing, nor are there claws of Chaos to drag her soul into the warp.

 

She simply... Survived the beam blasting through her skull, by some miraculous quirk of it missing all the crucial parts, and cauterizing the rest.

 

FLAW REMOVED:

Quote

One Eye Open (flaw):  While Sister Rachel knows intellectually that xenos, heretics, mutants, and psykers from other worlds are not a serious threat to the Imperium of Man or even necessarily doing anything wrong, old habits die hard.  She must preferentially target allies that qualify for the fewest of these with healing and buffs, only moving on to less desirable targets when the ones she’s more comfortable with have adequate treatment even if they don’t need it as much.

 

It seems the Emperor, above all else... Forgives.

[DragonRage]

Rachel's pistol falls from her hands, and then she collapses to hands and knees, staring down at the ground.  Her breaths come in ragged pants as she tries, and fails, to understand what is happening.

 

The small, charred hole in her skull slowly closes up, until not even a scar is left...

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine just stood for a few moments, attempting to process everything that just happened. There were two goat children who looked like the towering goat woman with her erstwhile companions, and all three looked a bit like Asgore. Nader had said something about time, about something or someone being shattered. It was the last thing she'd really heard him say, and it had something to do with them. 

 

Then Rachel shot herself with a gun she'd just thrown away. Lucine squealed in fright, hands reflexively darting to the hole in her shirt. She tried to retreat simultaneously, and the motion actually sent her tumbling backwards, landing awkwardly on her rear. She forced herself to open eyes she hadn't realized she'd squeezed shut, to see Rachel. . . still alive. Faced with this intense mixture of stress, confusion, terror, intermingled with relief, she froze, stammering. "I-I. . . W-what. . .?" She was visibly on the edge of bursting into tears.

[kj1225]

Arminius had wanted to leap in front of the children, or maybe tell them it wasn't their fault, that they were kids... But Rachel throwing away her weapons and dropping into prayer.... There were no words, he was confused, kind of scared, and he regretted giving up his knife before this. He backed away in silence, standing between the paladin and the children, as a precaution rather than out of any real worry. When Rachel went for her gun again he was glad that he dropped to block them, but not for the reason he expected.  

 

His jaw dropped as a hole fried it's way through his comrades head. His arms dropped, and slowly he crawled forward, the smell of seared skin, bone, armor, and hair familiar, while that of burned brain engraved itself into his head. He could only stare in shock as at the woman who should by all accounts be dead... Wasn't. 

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Proditor

 

Everything that transpired did so in the span of brief moments, adding onto each other to further the alien's delay as it processed just what was going on. Rachel pointing her guns at the children, before dropping into a prayer, before something, presumably the God-Emperor Rachel spoke about during her time around him, spoke as if through a device; yet also through the same form that Proditor spoke in, followed by Rachel attempting to 'atone' by shooting herself in the head. Which failed.

 

With only a small tilt of his helmet, Proditor let out a physical sigh, his ragged breath seeping out of his helmet. This world was truly an odd experience, what with its gods and magic. He preferred consistency over the chaos that had been unfolding in front of him.

[StormLord]

Ignia's face sunk to a deep frown as the sad tail slowly unfolded, listening to Arminius' questions and the darker reply sent her into almost a trance, lost in her own thoughts and memories.

She didn't have many memories of her life before being a Keyblade wielder, supposedly she had been found on a bastion world after the destruction of her own.  "A great light must burn within her to survive such an ordeal" the Masters had said.  She slowly worked through old thoughts, remembering some simple things like playing in a forest or backtalking her mother, hiding in caves and chasing other kids around.  She also remembered a few flickers of less happy things, seeing great black storms bringing creatures she now knew as Heartless, nights of fear and terror as people vanished in the dark.  

Before she could stop herself she suddenly felt rain against her shoulders, she looked up from her tears to see a man in a dark coat, they were standing in front of a small house.  He told her to "Channel the Darkness" to "Control the Creatures" or that they would destroy her home and everything and everyone in it.  She shouted at the man to stop, at the creatures slowly pealing her house apart, begging and pleading until she was hoarse, until her vision slowly faded away as her house collapsed in on itself.

Ignia found herself suddenly thrust back into reality with a gasp, a hearty does of adrenaline already pumping through her veins when she saw Rachel pickup her pistol from the pile of equipment she had apparently discarded.  As soon as she saw the weapon leveled against the children her blade was forming, she didn't know what was happening but she wasn't about to let someone else die through her own weakness or inaction.
She took a single step forward and opened her mouth to tell Rachel to drop the weapon, but before any words could leave her mouth Rachel had already turned the weapon on herself.  Ignia stood for a moment in shock, halfway into her second step and blade locked out in near perfect textbook form.  After a few awe struck seconds her weapon recognized it was no longer needed and with a flash dissipated.  The sound and feeling of it was enough to knock her out of her shock and into realizing that Rachel...wasn't dead?
She stood eyes wide for another moment before taking any action, in which she simply outstretched one hand and spoke a single word.

"Cure."

Motes of green and gold float around Ignia's finger tips and a pair of bells and leaves bloom over Rachel's head, showering her in a dose of the healing magic...just in case.

[Yours Truly]

Jun simply blinked at the chaotic mess unfolding in front of her, the hand that she had slowly raised to choke Rachel out falling back down to her side, slumping a little as she took several calm and measured steps towards the very disturbed woman in need of help. The pile of weapons started to shudder a little as she approached, before she she gingerly pulled them one by one out of Rachel's reach. 

 

She moved her hands up to her helmet, slowly sliding it off with a slight pop, revealing short brown hair, and a...tired, but hopefully caring expression on her almost middle aged face. Another measured response perhaps, meant to make her seem all the more human when she squats down, puts her helmet to the side, and very calmly asked, "Hey, do you want to go somewhere else for now? It's lunchtime anyway, and you seem like you could use a break from...all of this."

[Hal Henderics]

"Oh god! What the hell?!"  Chara shouts, standing up and sending their adopted brother backwards.

 

Every single goat in the room crowds Rachel, while Frisk fingers the "LOAD" button with a rush of adrenaline, prepared to undo this mess if they die.

 

Toriel shoves Jun bodily out of the way and casts a variety of healing spells, gritting her teeth for several moments as she ignores the fact that Ignia had already tried that.

 

When Rachel still isn't dead or dying, she takes a few shaky breaths.

 

She looks at Chara, then at Rachel.

 

"Your race is foolish.  So very very foolish," she says breathlessly.

 

Asriel has begun sobbing again.

 

"Please don't die.  Nobody else needs to die today," he blubbers out.

 

Rachel hears a voice, and knows with surety that it is her god.

 

"I forgive you."

 

"Do not forget, before and above your duty to erase that which is evil rests our most sacred duty."

 

"To save that which is good."

 

 

[Yours Truly]

Jun had a blank expression on her face as Toriel deadass shoved her out of the way, and sent her flopping onto the ground beside them like some sort of dead fish, letting out a bit of a sigh as she just lays there for a moment while everything that's happening...happens.

[DragonRage]

"I understand," Rachel whispers, before continuing to speak, louder, but still quietly.  "My actions have been compromised.  My hatreds, my prejudices...  Make it easier for whatever force this is to direct my actions, but even should these be set aside, it will still be there.  Though it brings me discomfort to do so in such strange lands, I cannot be trusted with my armaments until this interloper is identified and neutralized.  It wishes to use me to destroy the children, and I will die before I allow this.  The Emperor has spoken to me; His teachings have been misinterpreted over the millennia since He was confined to the Golden Throne.  To destroy the evil is desirable, but above even that... to preserve the good.  Humanity...  In my world...  Has destroyed a lot of evil.  How much good have we destroyed too, in our misplaced zeal...?"  Rachel plants her right foot on the ground.  "At this time, it matters not.  There shall be a reckoning, but not now.  The present calls; the future can wait.  Arminius.  Proditor.  Should this force attempt to seize control of me again, I will be relying upon your abilities to identify and trap it, that its threat might be ended.  The sanctity of my mind rests in your... capable hands," Rachel stands, and takes up her medicae once more, but makes no move to recover her weapons, "I believe that you will not fail me.  I will need someone to carry my arms until such a time as I can be trusted with them once again.  It would not do for such faithful machine-spirits to lay abandoned in the dirt."

[Hal Henderics]

Frisk breathes a sigh of relief.  It's a massive red flag that they simply shake their head at all of this.  Even attempted suicide isn't high up enough to really shock them by now.

 

"God, we are going to need so much therapy after all of this."

 

Asriel's continued and loud emotional incontinence simply reinforces this notion.

[StormLord]

Ignia remained mostly silent, but carefully walked over and picked up each of Rachel's weapons.  She dusted each one off and made them disappear in motes of light.

"Your weapons are safe.  Now, we should keep moving."
She turned to see Proditor and Lucine had wandered up during their fiasco.  She nodded, but something seemed odd, she started counting heads.

"We're missing someone...."

[Chevaleresse]

Lucine looked at the ground upon hearing Ignia's comment. "It's Nader." She took a breath, trying to steady herself. It didn't really work, and thus she continued through occasional choked-back sobs. "He accidentally. . . I got between him and Asgore. I just wanted to stop people from getting hurt until we figured everything else." The girl wrapped her arms around herself. "He shot me, and then gave his soul to Asgore. I don't know what happened next. I just wanted to help. . ."

[kj1225]

Arminius was still staring in shock at Rachel, not quite able to fully comprehend what happened. So, he didn't. Standing up with a sigh and a shake of his head he goes over to the weapon pile, grabbing some smaller guns and storing them on himself before speaking. "It's not your fault Lucine, you were just trying your best. We need to get moving though, while this has been... shocking to say the least, Asgore could already be fully ascended by now and I don't think anyone knows what he'll do at this point, right?" Arminius turns towards Frisk and Chara, as they're the ones most likely to know the answer.

[Hal Henderics]

Toriel is agape at this.

 

"That cannot be true, if it were, the very mountain would be shaking, surely.  The barrier would already be broken!"

 

Frisk does something mysterious, and everyone feels a sense of deja vu.

 

"He hasn't absorbed seven SOULs.  If he did, I wouldn't be able to LOAD or SAVE anymore.  Only the strongest individual in the underground can control time."

 

Asriel wipes his face, forcing a determined expression on it.  "We still have time, then.  But not much."

 

"Even if he has Nader's SOUL, he hasn't absorbed the others.  If he did, we would know.  Everyone would know."

 

 

[kj1225]

Arminius nods. "Then all the more reason to get on the move, now. Everyone grab what they can take and... Rachel, do you need assistance moving? Head injuries are no joke and you uh... yeah." He gestures vaguely, not really wanting to make anyone's trauma more serious.

[DragonRage]

Rachel takes a few experimental steps.  "I think I will be able to walk unassisted.  Somehow.  And yes.  We must go."  

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Proditor

 

Proditor could... Somewhat agree with Toriel's statement on humanity being foolish. Promising and capable as they were, most ran off of their emotions... Though he could hardly say he was any different. He could've ended the entirety of this situation at its source if he had been more focused, and without hesitation. But that was simply in the past, nothing he could do now would change that, aside from ensuring that things did not devolve any further than they already have. With the new knowledge of the situation, as explained by one of the goat children, Proditor nodded without a single complaint, understanding the severity of the situation. Then he simply floated back, turning around and swiftly heading through the resort doors and towards the next path.

 

After all, there was no time to waste, and even with Proditor's limited understanding of the intricacies of this world, it was still clear that there would be massive consequences towards Asgore's 'ascension'.

[Hal Henderics]

 

Spoiler

 

 

The party quickly reach Asgore's house once again.  The Dog Squadron wait outside, as the party enters the home.

 

Toriel, who is seeing the place for the first time in a long time, is struck horribly by the sight of everything, kept just as it was before.

 

There is a small chain strung across the stairs, with a note on it.

 

"Howdy!  I'm in the garden right now if you need to talk!  The keys are in the hallway and kitchen."

 

Toriel quickly goes to the kitchen, and, searching around, finds the key in question.  The crumpled up pile of failed recipes for Butterscotch Pie in the trash give her pause, and she has to leave before her composure breaks.

 

Chara and Asriel take the hall, searching through Asgore's room, as well as their own.

 

They find the key, as well as two present boxes.  "He kept them, all this time," Chara says quietly, opening the boxes and pulling out the locket inside.

 

They open the locket.  Inside, there is an engraving.  'Best Friends Forever!'

 

Asriel sniffles as Chara puts it around their neck.  "Right where it belongs," they comment, before snatching the key and running back.

 

After a moment's consideration, they leave the gardening knife where it is, sitting in the other box.

 

The chain is quickly unlocked to allow the party to continue down the stairs, through the basement, and into the throne room.

 

Frisk halts everyone long enough to SAVE, but no deja vu is forthcoming. 

 

"Once we go past this point, there's no turning back."

 

The group can hear the faint whistling of wind through the barrier, even from here.

 

"Are you all ready?"