[Player Log Start!]

[Log Holder: Lucky Paine]

[Level: 2]

Lucky stared at Jared, not comprehending, “I’m not going to do that.” She told him, once it hit them that he was serious, “It’s against everything I stand for.”

“What do your morals matter?” Jared replied, “She’s going to kill someone if we don’t tide her over. And this has kept her stabilized for years, so just man up and do it.”

“You’ve been doing what?” Verity asked from behind him, looking outraged, “How long has this been going on? No, wait, you said it already: Years. What the fuck?”

“How did you even do that before the Game started?” Asadullah asked with a frown, “I thought all the Items and stuff didn’t come into effect until after that.”

Everyone paused to consider this, all of them frowning, but Lucky shook her head, “No, no, the Compulsion Card was already activated by the Console Burks was holding. You are getting the timelines mixed up.”

“We need to start taking notes on this, don’t we?” Tench sighed.

“See, even if it’s possible, that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable.” Ben told Jared sternly, “How long have you been controlling us without people knowing?”

Jared glared, “Forever. And what’s wrong with that? It’s keeping people safe, isn’t it? I’m sure Michael didn’t care when I told him not to worry about things, or Terry when I got him to trust us and got him out of that deathtrap of a grocery store. It is ridiculous how much I got done by simply existing and none of you ever thought to thank me for it.”

Of all the things they had been bracing themself for, Lucky was not expecting this. There was an animalistic scream, and the chain holding Verity’s hands together was wrenched apart with a screech. She lunged out, consumed with rage as she tackled him to the ground.

“Oh, you motherfucker-” She rammed his head onto the ground, where it cracked painfully, “And all this time, I thought I was a threat to the group, but you’ve been a thousand times shadier than me, how dare you think you can just take me over like this?”

Each shake of the shoulders made Jared’s head snap back onto the floor with an audible thud, and every smack was wetter than the last, as blood started to pool out from the back of his head. Lucky had half a mind to let Verity continue screaming out her problems. She was young, and impulsive, and if Lucky hadn’t needed Burks for other reasons, they would have been inclined to do the same with him, too.

But there was something wrong. A savagery to the way her fingers were digging into skin. A redness to her eyes that seemed to glow even through her hair. An unnatural bloodlust that was oozing into the world. Verity wasn’t in control right now. Not really. And she would hate herself once she was.

They weren’t the only one to notice that. Ben was frowning, gears turning in her head.

It was her who finally stepped forward, even as everyone else watched in mystified horror as she turned on her closest friend.

“Vera, stop.” She announced, grabbing Jared out from her grasp and forcibly separating the two, “Take a breath and come to- AGHHH!” She screeched as Verity turned around and sank her teeth into Ben’s wrist, “What is wrong with you?!” Ben shook her loose, and blood oozed out from her wrist. The girl scrambled back, hissing like a raccoon.

Tench cradled Jared, trying to keep his head off from the floor, “It’s going to be okay.” He murmured desperately, rocking him slightly, “I don’t forgive you, but holy cow.”

“And snap out of it, you.” Lucky added to Verity, reaching for her Cards. She didn’t want to, but if there was no other option – or, well, easier option – then she was going to have to go for it.

[Applying Compulsion…]

Verity froze up for a moment, before relaxing, the red sheen of her eyes dying as quickly as it came. Slowly, she sank down to her knees, shaken.

“This is what I was talking about.” She whispered, reaching up to bury her hands into her hair, “It’s happening. The redsight is taking over. You have to stop it before it takes over completely.”

“No worries. We fixed it for now, didn’t we?” Michael assured her.

“I wouldn’t call that being fixed.” Asadullah told him bluntly. Verity grimaced, and he flinched away from her, “Don’t hit me. I was just saying what came to mind.”

“I don’t think she was going to do anything.” Terry told him. Asadullah silently pointed at Jared, who was being stiffly bandaged by a fuming Tench, which made him backtrack, “But… I see your point. No offense, Vera. I’m sure you only hit him as hard as he deserved. Because he utterly destroyed any sense of trust you had over the last eight years. Which was absolutely uncalled for.”

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“But we are going to find a better solution that the brainwashing.” Lucky confirmed, looking around, “Right? Because I refuse to do this for longer than I have to. Or ever again.”

“Do not say that.” Ben snapped, as Verity let out a whimper, “We need you as a backup plan at least. And it’s not going to be any better if she thinks you hate it.”

“I’m right here, you know?” Verity complained, before taking a quick, short breath, “Sorry, sorry, keeping calm now. Trying really hard here.”

“We’ll figure out something more permanent.” Ben assured her, awkwardly patting her shoulder.

“Question: are we angrier at the precursor of the end times who has been secretly staying in our midst and has been leading us in this expedition to supposedly save the multiverse, or the boy who has been controlling our thoughts, feelings and actions throughout said expedition?” Asadullah asked, “Or are we not upset at either of them because they’re in distress right now? Because I’m in distress, too.”

Everyone fell silent, trying to think of an answer that didn’t come off looking extremely hypocritical on their part. Asadullah of all of them was entitled to being upset. He’d had the least choice in joining the Party out of all of them. And he had genuinely believed in the mission.

“We’ll… figure that out later.” Tench promised him, “After we deal with this crisis.”

“No letting us be sidetracked by a different crisis this time.” Asadullah insisted.

Terry jolted at that, his hands coming up automatically to sign something before he put them down again, not subtle in hiding his guilt. Lucky frowned, suspicion stirring in her gut once again. For once, it seemed that she would have to put her trust in them to not be hiding anything too dire, and instead turn to Michael with new directives.

“Check the Console for how it selects the Game.” She told him, “See if there is any real legitimacy to the idea that once this is over, all the Realms will be safe from the Developers. I know you have not looked into it yet, but I wish for you to try.”

“Of course.” Michael agreed, his eyes lighting up with the ethereal power of Computer Affinity. While he did that, Ben found herself looking at her own Console. She had – without any understanding of computers – been able to fix it into no longer being Harbinger tech. She thought. Now would be a good time to see exactly what she had done. And would have happened if she had left the Console as it was, other than it working only for Burks.

She couldn’t allow herself to be sidetracked by this, though. First they needed to make sure that they weren’t needed by the rest of the team. A united front had to be put up if they were to deal with the sudden wave of betrayal that had blazed through their ranks.

“Is there anything you need me to do?” She asked Tench, who had begun dabbing anesthetic onto Jared.

“You got a torchlight so that I can check him for concussion?” He asked in reply.

As a matter of fact… she lifted up a metallic limb, flicking it down so that it could display the bulb underneath the finger-like claws, which flickered to life, powered by the chlorophyll tanks she had brought in from their world.

Tench clicked his tongue, looking reasonably impressed, and was reaching forward to grab at it before he remembered the situation and coughed, “You mind if I grab this?”

“That is why you asked for it.” Lucky laughed, making him flush further and tentatively pull the arm from its place on her side and guide it towards Jared, who was looking blearily at the floor in front of him.

“Alright… buddy.” Tench gagged as he said the word, obviously uncomfortable with the circumstances, “You gotta follow the light, okay?”

“And go into it?” Jared joked, the words only a little bit incomprehensible.

“Nope. Just look at it and follow it with your eyes.” Tench replied, slipping into his previous good humor. Or perhaps that was his regular bedside manner persona. Lucky would have recommended he take up acting if theater had survived the great bomb that had allegedly destroyed all humanity.

Tench moved the lightbulb-tipped arm slowly, methodically, allowing Jared plenty of time to follow it, and yet the precocious child was floundering even in such a simple test. His face was set, however, in a façade of concentration that made it look like he was giving it his all.

And yet he still was several seconds behind in noticing where the bulb had gone.

“Did I… Did I do well?” He asked, eyes slipping to halfmast the second the bulb clicked off, “How many points would that give me?”

Tench squirmed for less than a second before he was nodding, “It was fine. I wouldn’t know about points, but I’d say you got a hundred. Now, I need you to lay your head on the side, and think quiet thoughts. But try not to fall asleep, okay? I need to be there when you do.”

He backed away cautiously, watching Jared as he did just that. Then he grabbed onto the back of Lucky’s chair and quietly rolled her away, a feat made more difficult by the sharp metal that was incessantly screeching against the rock. They really needed to make those rubber tracks.

“He has a concussion.” He whispered to Lucky once they were an acceptable range away.

“You think?” They replied, perhaps a little too snarkily. Concussions were no joke, and it seemed that they were equally serious even after the medical field had made unimaginable advancements. Still, grasping for straws, they beamed hopefully at Tench, “But you have a solution, right?”

“Plenty of rest. Quiet. No bright lights.” Tench replied, counting it out on his fingers as if trying to remember it from a textbook, “We need to keep him comfortable and not thinking about a lot. Move him to the bed as well.”

It seemed that once again, their only bed had been relegated to an invalid. There wasn’t enough room for eight beds, but Lucky was beginning to consider at least making one more.

“The lights are doable.” She added to Tench’s statement, “But the cove is loud. Echoes everything. He will not get a moment of rest with the clamor of us all in here.”

He hummed in agreement, “We’ll have to figure something out…” He wondered.

Soft hands, peppered with barely developed callouses wrapped onto her right flesh arm, and Lucky resisted the urge to spear the intruder in two with the metal arm tucked into her chair. Terry’s wide eyes stared into her soul, as silent as ever.

Or, well, not in a silent mood right now, as he whispered, “Ms. Paine? Tench? There’s something you need to know about what we found out there. Even if Asadullah thinks its going to distract everyone.”

[Player Log End!]