| 17: Knocking on Tota's Door It was a relatively quiet time-Vanana had gotten no word of anything particularly worrisome from her staff, so she once more ventured out to the desert, having a plan to get through. She knew where they must be keeping him. At this stage of the game, he was an incredibly valuable prisoner-and one that could only be broken by intense psychological torture. There was only place that they would keep him for that-Solitary in Earthbound. She had an artifact that she had crafted herself, one that could pierce intense anti-magic fields. It could be used once. After drawing a projection circle in the sand with salt, and a nine-pointed star with two red candles within, she threw down the artifact-a glass egg-and being shattered, its magics were released into the circle. She was standing by one of the candles, and the other candle started burning profusely. The smoke shaped itself into the figure of Chronos, slowly rocking back and forth against what must be one of the walls. "Hello, Chronos." "It's her! It's 'Nana!" shouted Chronos. Then, in falsetto, "Wait-she's an Imperial spy!" "No, she can't be an Imperial spy! She leads the Underground!" "But what if she is? They gave you the letter, after all. They're all liars! A Lady Protector-speaking of amour at a time like this? Ridiculous!" "But you forget! We must tell ourselves that the first letter is true, and the other one is false! She loves us and hates the Empire! Else we'd go positively bonkers! Toys in the attic! Stark raving!" Vanana just stared at the rather one-sided convo, and reached out her hand to caress the face of the cloud of smoke. "What have they done to you, Chronos?" "Shut up, moron, we have COMPANY!" the normal-voiced Chronos whispered at himself. "But you're the one that spoke last, hey-it's 'Nana! Hush now and talk to her!" bade the falsetto voice. Vanana would be amused at this sight, perhaps even pleased of the humble straits her former foe had been brought to-were it not Chronos. "Oh Chronos..." Vanana sighed. "It's okay, 'Nana-I did this to myself," Chronos noted, speaking with his normal voice. "I made myself crazy-the only way to bring Columnia to sanity once more. I don't sleep-I even made a split personality so I wouldn't be lonely. His name is Prince, he's kinda mean, but I told him to be quiet." "They're trying to get something from you, aren't they?" she asked. "They are-the names of everyone in Section 51 and where they're deployed. They faked an Underground rescue attempt, and told me that Section 51 was all dead and you needed the names. I can't believe anything that I see, so by going crazy I've effectively managed to create a buffer zone between my mind and the real world. In fact, you're essentially talking to a sub-splinter personality I made to represent myself to the outside world. He acts like I act and knows everything I do-except for the classified bits they're looking for. I named him Am. It's short for answering machine, get it? I crack MYSELF up." Chronos bowled over in laughter at his hilarious jokes. Nobody else was laughing-well, at least not the smoky avatar of Vanana in solitary with him. "Chronos... please. I don't know if you'll actually KNOW this, deep down, but I wrote you one letter. It's apparently the first one that got through-the one where I said that I missed you and that I-" "Don't worry, 'Nana, Chronos will get this. He checks Am every day for new messages. Oh! Hey! Chronos just came back! Stay right there-he's coming to talk right now!" Vanana blinked in amazement, never having been put on hold by a split personality before. "While you're waiting, we can sing a song for you. Um, there's this one by Bob Dylan that our affiliate on Earth listens to, but we don't know the words. Bob Dylan songs are all bollocksed up, anyway, so it doesn't matter-you can make up-" "-I really don't want to listen to-" Vanana started to say. "-the words as you go along," continued Chronos, mindless of her. "Good ol' Bob does that all the time." "Who the Four is Bob Dylan?" Then, in an off-key warble reserved to either the really, really drunk or the really, really unhinged, Chronos began incoherently singing. "'Nana take this cross off of my neck I can't use it anymore It's dark, way too dark for me to see I feel I'm knocking on Tota's door 'Nana shoot that skyship down I can't shoot it anymore That dark empire's coming 'round I feel we're all knocking on Tota's door Columnia remember me I can't be with you anymore Freedom's cost is never free People gotta knock on Tota's door 'Nana wipe the blood off of my face I can't see through it anymore I need a love and a hiding place Before I go a-knocking on Tota's door" It was a horrendous, garish, disgusting creation-that cacophony of Chronos' voice as he not only sang four different keys in random order, but also tried to make a distorted guitar sound with his mouth in between verses (and failed miserably). Vanana couldn't help but cry then, as pathetic an offering it was from the man that was once hunted down by her government as the very Corruptor. It was sincere, though-this poor crazy sod of a man was pouring his insane little heart into it, and cry as she did, she couldn't-and wouldn't-laugh. And then, she looked down at the candle burning his smoke, and she saw that it was almost gone. It was then that a sort of glazedness departed from Chronos' smoky eyes, and even through the avatar she could see that she was getting the real person at last. "Is that you?" she asked hurriedly. "It's me. I got the message, and if this is the real Vanana I'm talking to, and not some trick-Kyrios, let it be her-then listen. I love you too." Cloudy beads rolled down the smoke of the avatar's cheeks, as Vanana's tears flowed more fully now. "I love you, Chronos," she whispered through choked sobs, trying to hug the avatar and having her arms pass through the smoke. Oddly enough, Chronos seemed to be doing the same on his end. And she kissed the smoke, opening her eyes and stared at the dissipating image as the candle burned out and the spell ended. *** In solitary, Chronos watched the image of Vanana vanish from before his eyes. The smell of smoke lingered, however, and he leaned back and softly sung a little more, this time in a much clearer voice. "Vanana stay right here with me 'Cuz I can't see you anymore This ain't the way it's supposed to be Might as well be knocking on Tota's door" He closed his eyes then, his dissonant personalities becoming whole for a moment as he pictured Vanana somewhere in the Praerequez Wastes, her priestess' shawls flapping in the wind. Just then, somewhere far away, he heard an explosion and shouts and the sounds of a storm. "'Nana I can hear that thunder roar Rainin' down on Terra's distant shore I can hear them calling for my soul I feel I'm knocking on Tota's door" |