The ride back to the Forever Kingdom Hotel was eerily silent, each girl lost in her own thoughts. The atmosphere in the vehicle was heavy, as if weighed down by the gravity of the evening's revelations. Uni sat next to Trixie, her gaze fixed on the box placed on her lap, her thoughts in a tangle.
The silence was broken only by the occasional sound of the vehicle's tires rolling over the uneven roads. Finally, Trixie spoke up, her voice soft and trembling. "I...I don't know what to think anymore.”
Uni tore her gaze from the box, her eyes filled with confusion and fear. "Me neither. They... they make it seem so...logical, you know? Like they're the good guys, and we should be cheering them on.”
"I know what you mean," Trixie replied, her tone filled with a mixture of sadness and desperation. "But can we really condone their methods? The killing, the 'purging', it...it's too much.”
Uni sighed, her hands clenching into tight fists. "I know, I know. It's wrong, morally and ethically. But a part of me...a part of me can't help but understand why they're doing this. It's because of assholes like the guys in the warehouse.”
Trixie nodded, her own thoughts echoing Uni's. "Yeah, I know. I've dealt with those kinds of people my whole life. It sucks, but killing them? Erasing them from existence? Is that really the answer?”
Uni shook her head, as if trying to clear away the conflicting emotions within her. "Of course not. Revenge isn't the answer. It only breeds more pain and suffering. But then again, the Disciples make it sound like we're giving them the cure to their suffering. No more discrimination or violence. No more injustice. An...idyllic world, free of the rot that infects humanity.”
Trixie nodded, the allure of a utopian world where discrimination was a distant memory too tempting to deny. But then, a question bubbled up within her, the box resting on her lap suddenly weighing heavily. "But at what cost, Uni? At what cost would such a world come?”
Uni's gaze returned to the box, its contents holding the power to summon the Gaia Disciples. "That's what scares me," she whispered. "What kind of world are we enabling? One where the Gaia Disciples are judge, jury, and executioner, deciding who should live and who should die based on their skewed moral compass.”
Trixie leaned back in her seat, her mind swirling with conflicting thoughts. "I-I mean, look—I get what they're saying; like, with far-right extremism and violence on the rise in many countries, especially the Aberzanthian continent in general...I can see why the Disciples see violence as the only way out…”
Uni nodded, her mind recalling the rising tensions in Aberzanthan. "Yeah, I get that too. Far-right groups, fascists, nationalists, supremacists. They're popping up like mushrooms everywhere. And they're causing real damage, real suffering.”
"The Aberzanthian continent is just a powder keg ready to explode," Trixie said, her tone growing darker. "But the Disciples, they seem to think that using violence to eradicate violence is the answer. It's...it's a cycle, isn't it? Violence breeds violence.”
"Exactly," Uni agreed. "It's a never-ending cycle. They think they're eradicating the problem, but they're just feeding it, making it stronger. It's like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.”
As the girls continued their discussion, the vehicle reached their destination, bringing their conversation to a temporary halt. The night had deepened around them, the once familiar city now feeling foreign and slightly sinister with the knowledge of the Gaia Disciples' presence lurking in the background.
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They all got out of the SUV and headed towards the hotel, the box in Trixie's hands feeling like a ticking time bomb. Once inside the hotel room, Trixie and Uni sat down on their bed, the heavy silence of the room weighing down on them. Trixie fidgeted with the box, staring at its innocuous exterior, the button on the side staring back at her.
"...And they have chapters and headquarters all around the world...?" she recalled out loud.
Uni nodded, her expression a mix of worry and disgust. "Yeah. It's...it's scary to think about. The scope of what they're planning, I mean. They have believers everywhere.”
Trixie set the box on the bedside table, her hands shaking slightly. "They're a full-blown cult, then?"
Uni shrugged, leaning back against the headboard. "Well... They're not as insane as other cults, but...they're definitely extreme. They don't just recruit young, vulnerable people. They also recruit adults who feel disillusioned and lost in the world.”
They sat in silence for a moment, the weight of their conversation hanging over them like a dark cloud. Finally, Trixie broke the silence, her voice barely above a whisper.
"And do you think they're only targeting humans? What about the elves, the fairies, the angels and demons and so on…?
Uni let out a deep sigh. "Honestly, I wouldn't put it past them. They talk about Gaia as this ultimate being that oversees all life, right? So they probably see themselves as her chosen, her...her saviors. Humans may be their primary target, but who knows how far they're willing to go?”
Trixie shivered at the thought, the implications of the Gaia Disciples' beliefs terrifying. "Sounds like they see themselves as some kind of...eco-terrorist army. Willing to destroy humanity just because they think it'll save the world…”
Uni frowned, her gaze fixed on a distant point. "It's twisted, I know. But it's so...convincing. They have a way of making their ideology seem almost...rational, you know? As if we're the ones who are blind to the truth, and they're the only ones who can see the reality of the world.”
Trixie nodded, the weight of the evening's revelations bearing down on her. "I feel the same way. I...I've seen for myself the pain they talk about, the anger and the rage when people treat you differently just because you're not the right color or the right ethnicity..."
She looked down at the box on the bedside table, the button taunting her.
Uni followed her gaze, the sight of the box filling her with unease. "...But that doesn't make it right," she said firmly. "No matter how much we understand their pain, their anger, their desperation, it doesn't justify what they're doing. Violence begets violence, they say.”
"It's a vicious cycle," Trixie agreed, her voice tinged with sadness. "They hurt us, we hurt them, they hurt us back in retaliation, and the cycle just goes on and on."
Uni closed her eyes, her thoughts heavy with the gravity of the situation. "But we...we can't let that cycle continue. We can't let them win, the Disciples. We have to find a way to stop them, to show them that violence isn't the answer.”
"But how?" Trixie asked, her voice dripping with desperation. "They...they have power, they have money, they have...they have followers, all over the world, no less. They have everything on their side.”
Uni opened her eyes, a determined fire burning in them. "Maybe so, but we have one thing they don't have. We have something they can't buy, can't force, can't indoctrinate. We have our humanity. We know the difference between right and wrong. We're not the same as those radical far-right crazies that the Disciples hate so much, and we know all humans aren't like that or follow that ideology."
"And you're right," Trixie said, her voice growing stronger. "We're different. We know that life has a lot more shades and colors than just black and white. This whole idea of 'one race is superior and all other races are inferior' is...it's nothing but a bunch of bullshit. But the Disciples just up and say "ALL humans think this way, and therefore we must exterminate them!"... It disregards people
Uni nodded, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. "That's exactly right. We can't let their generalizations and misconceptions define us. We're not them, dammit. Not all humans are the same.” like us.”
"We are different," Trixie said firmly. "Just because the Disciples have their own twisted version of black or white, all or nothing, doesn't mean it's the same for the whole world. Yes, there are evil people, but there are also those who value life, who value diversity and love. We know that. We experience it every day.”
Uni smiled weakly, feeling more hopeful. "And that's their weakness. They've become so consumed by their cause, so blinded by their beliefs, that they can't see the good in the world. We can use that to our advantage. We can show them that there's more to humanity than just the ugly parts they focus on.”
"Damn right," Trixie agreed. "They want to purge us? Fine, but we're not going down without a fight. We'll show them that humans are more than just a disease to be eradicated. We're diverse, complex, and capable of learning and changing. We're not just a black stain on this planet. We're a beautiful mosaic, with every color and shape imaginable."
Trixie pulled the blanket over herself, relaxing her body as she laid on her side, facing Uni. "Let's dream, Uni. Dream that we're the change that we wish to see.”
Uni nodded, a sense of determination settling in her heart. She scooted closer to Trixie, pulling the blanket over her body as well. "Yeah...I'd like that."
They both closed their eyes, their minds still swirling with the events of the evening, but a faint sense of hope now present, growing stronger with each word spoken.