An Unwelcome Parting of the Ways (part 1)

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 89627

Reika

A brief but painful silence is greeted by that particular outburst, only to be followed up by of ALL people the Master bursting out in protest.

Frankly, that little statement managed to cheese off some people here more than it had any right to I must say! Myself and my sisters? We found it rather amusing in our own fashion.

Heh, angels not being real! Poor Doctor here has a LOT to learn today…. Lord knows how Auntie Inquirer regaled us of the look of befuddlement her husband had when he learned about the supposedly "fantastic" wasn’t so imaginary as he’d been lead to believe.

Hey, I could have REALLY creeped him out by going on a somewhat insane rant about badmouthing atheistic gods who insist on striking down their faithful demigod (atheistic) children. Frankly, I wonder why I happened to go with that Star Wars reference based insult, calling the God Emperor by calling him "Darth Insipidous". I mean Emperor Palpatine of Star War was a Sith who was named Darth Sidious and all that but . . .

Sigh, guess when one presses certain hot buttons with me (the abuse of sons by fathers like what Gendo did with Shinji, who I love like a son) we should expect things like that when I fly off the handle.

Whatever!

….

As for the task at hand, what with fantasy being reality (and lets not say just because we have spaceships and time travel this isn’t a FANTASY like world) . . .Well, in at least as far as reality where magic exists and the like; one follows the other you know!

"Now I dare say that was not only a bit rude but uncalled for Doctor!" the dark Timelord protested, sounding offended most horrendously. "I can understand how things must have been for you under that monster woman Akagi but really! Snap OUT of it, Doctor!"

You know, I hear Rei drawl mentally to her siblings and husband as she rolls her eyes. It is only with much difficulty that I am not magicking up a gigantic rubber band to "help" the poor Doctor to "snap out of it"

"Well, it’s a good thing that there are no angels around to take offense or else w would really be screwed!" Xander snarks from the back, deciding to add his two cents into the deal. "Why, I can tell you right now I sure as Hell don’t want Buffy to turn into some kind of stone statue, only fit to put in a graveyard and collect pigeon shit and all that crap!"

Oh good God, we better get Xander and the Master away from each other here soon or they’re GOING to come to blows here soon enough. Mark me!

"Mr. Harris!" the Master growled as he turned and glared at the impertinent teenager. "If you have nothing intelligent to add to this conversation then may I suggest that . . . .!"

"Uh, he was talking about how in The Mind Robbers they stopped a charging unicorn by saying they didn’t believe in it and so it turned into a statue," Betty cuts in, trying to head off a heated ‘discussion’. "I think that the Doctor feels he’s still in the Land of Fiction, so . . .heh . . ."

She chuckles nervously as all eyes were upon her, suddenly.

Then Rei turned back to the Doctor.

Rei

"Look, I know that you’ve had a bloody day today so far and I really feel for you Timelord," I say in the most sincere voice I can muster, for I really DO understand his distress. It’s a Hell of a thing to die. Hell of a thing to be tortured and driven nearly to the verge of breakdown.

. . .

Frankly, as bad as life had been for me and my sister before coming into our own and gaining both our freedom and family, we probably can only hold a candle to what the Doctor just went through there.

Yes, we’ve died (and come back again, albeit through clone bodies and Salvage operations). Yes, some of the things we’d gone through in life sacrifice to make sure those bloody Evangelion units work as they had were dire. However, I shall wager what Akagi put the Doctor through was MUCH worse.

However….

"However, this is NOT the Land of Fiction but the people and things you saw¬—whatever exactly they were and all that—were very real. They and we are from different universes than you; we and they came from different realities where your fiction is our fact."

"And may I add Doctor," a rumbling/purring voice says from the TARDIS as a figure forces it’s doors open and a female gryphon steps out. "I would rather like it that this time around you actually listen to the explanations given you instead of trying to deny reality."

"Yes, you really DID have a chat with the Great Lion, Aslan and YES I really am a real gryphon from Narnia who needed to come with you to help with the mess I left behind after that wave hit me and deposited me back on Earth," the gryphon female states calmly, looking pointedly at the Timelord in question.

Wave that "hit her"? As in the heat shimmer/wave that had hit . . .

"Melissa?" I venture, putting my hand just a TOUCH closer to a little chemical canister that I had thought never to have to use quiet like this perhaps as the female gryphon turns to look at me, only to growl softly when her avian eyes fall upon the Master, who . . .

Fred

"Don’t even bloody THINK IT!" my wife shouts, grabbing the Master and pushing him back (and away) from the bristling female gryphon while I impose myself (weapons drawn) between the two. "You shoot it with pistol bullets will only piss her off and your TCE’ll drive her into a killing frenzy we as HELL don’t need!!"

The Doctor, meanwhile, has the damn good sense to at least get out of the way between me and the female gryphon for a fight might be in the offing and we just DON’T need him getting his unarmed and armoured self in the way, right?

Of COURSE not!

"Listen! There’s no need for violence here!" the Doctor says, throwing his hands up and trying to talk this situation out of it becoming violent. "We can work this out without bloodshed!"

The gryphon female--who might be Melissa for some Weird and unknown Game 3 reason . . .like we haven’t had enough UNEXPECTED TFs already tonight with just Willow alone here--looks like she’d like to beg to differ.

Myself, I’m all for peace and non-violence BUT I sure as Hell am NOT going to let the Master get gutted here just so Melissa (or whatever) can slake her thirst for vengeance. And honestly, if it hadn’t been for the stakes at hand I actually won’t have been so froggy to protect the evil asshole, but I just can’t stand back now.

Not with six billion lives in the balance, damnit!

Now, as an aside with what did my wife mean by that remark earlier to the Master about his Earth made slug thrower and his favorite weapon: the Tissue Compression Eliminator?

Well . . .Yeesh, we do NOT need a repeat of what happened to the analog of the Master who’d first ended up on Terra Prime for the first time (re: 8158). While a TCE and that weapon the other Master used are not at all related, they’re still of an exotic family of beam weaponry that has . . .undesirable effects on creatures of magic and leave at that.

We don’t need that shit right now, thank you.

"And just how do you propose to keep that away from me if it should overcome you husband?" the Master asks Rei, real concern in his voice.

. . .

What? I mean gryphons are tough creatures and all that but I’ve taken on and killed rogue dragons more than a few times in my lifetime and THAT is much more of a task than one female gryphon, thank you. Hell, I did the dragon slaying in ordinary armour (supplanted with a bit of magic), but still . . .

What kind of weaksauce did they use in his reality when they made power armor? I mean really!

As for Rei?

"This is a high pressure canister similar to pepper spray that CAN be used in an emergency for situations like this," she says softly but firmly, holding up a white canister. "It’s much hotter than regular pepper spray in that it contains undiluted bhut jolokia pepper, and that will take care of the matter and HOW."

That’s my Rei, always ready to use spell components (like that peper) for more than just spell ingrediants! Very wise not to just rely upon magical might alone, you know! God knows how many times MY AD&D spellcaster got his ass handed to him when the fighter got killed and stopped being a meatshield…

Seeing both the Doctor and the Master wince tells me that THEY at least know what kind of punch that kind of earher pepper has! See, while properly diluted one can use that as a seasoning in food. Can even GET such seasoning from food suppliers (even if with a bit of effort) for it is perfectly legal. However, the Indian military uses that stuff for those times when . . . Well, let us just say that with this kind of pepper being what it is: don’t call it pepper spray. Calling that stuff pepper spray is like calling a Davey Crockett a cigarette lighter. It’s a monster. The bhut jolokia pepper is rated at one million Scovill units, roughly 400 times hotter than a bottle of Tabasco sauce. It WILL cause chemical burns to exposed skin on human beings and can drive off charging bull elephants, sending them screaming to the hills in severe PAIN.

And that would be what Melissa woiuld be doing as she’d be driven deeper into the TARDIS (if not THROUGH the library walls and through our magical wards, if that unleashed that upon her.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, though. Even IF it wouldn’t be shedding blood, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, okay

"Why arrre you rrruning with that bastard?" the female gryphon (who MIGHT be Melissa) growls, hackles raised. "Aslan himself told me you all were Champions of the Light and you’re protecting him?!"

"He’s mystically connected through his actions to the Earth he’s threatened!" Lilith interrupts me before I can answer. "He unintentionally tied the VLA into several mid strength ley lines, lines of mystical force that should have burned him to a cinder and WILL if not stopped . . .but by the principal of . . ."

I’ll spare you the techno-babble/mystical explanation Lilith gives the gryphon (and the room) both verbally and psychically (to save time). I will tell you this, though: we’ve had OVER two hundred plus years to study and extrapoloate ways to handle a "VLA event". Some VERY good minds went into hashing out possible solutions for us Champions to handle this and other situations we of Eternity Incorporated have faced on various parallel worlds.

. . .

Do not ask how many scenarios there are for a Sir Fred being tasked to slay a dragon of the Southern Caverns. The number is VERY high (and very varied).

As for the VLA? It’s one of the top ten hard scenarios in our book to face; And being who and what we are, we Champions have and probably will again and again run into this scenario (one of a whole slew of the more dark and dangerous outcomes the Master could have unleashed). At least THIS particular is fixable and flexible enough to accommodate Setsuna’s plans at putting to paid this Quest and being DONE with it already!

Rei and her siblings, being who they are, rather like not having to just out and out "wing it" on a mission/Quest. Did that too many times under the tactical officer’s command, thank you. Oh, I like Misato Katsuragi as a person and all that, but some of the battle plans she pulled out of her ass there during the Angel Wars still makes me wake up in a cold chill at times!

It was a miracle indeed we’d gotten as far even WITH the bravery Rei and her fellow EVA pilots put forth…

But . . .of course even with this, Fate (or the Agents) just have to throw us a curveball or two.

Well, we are just DELIGHTED to see that our previously hostile female gryphon is no longer (quiet) as hostile. Oh, we know and can see she’d like to rip the Master limb from limb but she won’t, now. And we’re able to make sure the Master (warn him) not to rub it in Melissa’s face. Oh yeah, the female gryphon IS Melissa, transformed BACK into her birth form after having been transformed (quiet unwillingly) into a human woman back in Game 3 for whatever reason. HECK, I don’t even know just how the gryphon female had been kidnapped from Narnia to Game 3 because we don’t get the chance to ask before "the other shoe falls".

That said, I ask myself why the wide variance from "our" Melissa back on Terra Prime? Couldn’t tell you beyond it’s a Game 3 thing. Oh well, might as well ask myself why a place/non-place like Game 3 would exist in the first place!

Fine and well, Rei using her . . .magery knowledge tells us that having Melissa here can act as some kind of counterbalance to the Master’s TARDIS back in the VLA back on the other side of the Hellmouth and will increase (somewhat slightly) our chances of success. Every bit helps and it’s not like . . .we really wanted to bring her along anyway after THAT little spat earlier. Our spare shield-belts and whatnot (like what Rei and we wore back in Warhammer 40k land) are built for human sized beings and as such Melissa the gryphon is not up for that.

And being that Buffy had strongly suggested we be READY for some heavy action (corroborated by the Doctor who says it’s shear bedlam back their right now with "time waves distortions" somewhat akin to what sounds like to ME like something from a video game named. . .ah nevermind, take too long to describe). Let’s just say that a lot of different places (like Narnia) are being temporarily . . .connected to the area of Betty’s Earth around the VLA. Massive dimensional distortions of one kind and another are happening so we’ll be having a grand ol’ time!

. . .

Just got to wonder when those distortions are going to disgorge something Neon Genesis on us when we get there. I mean you just DO NOT take out the lynchpin piece of a prophecy as the likes of the Dead Sea Scroll (something of Biblical proportion if you must ask) without SOME kind of blowback. With Yukiko gone, something is going to happen because she (like her sisters before us here) were integral parts of that prophecy that those madmen like Gendo Ikari and SEELE were tying to use to gain godhood.

I . . .won’t say that aloud. Won’t even think that too loud if I can but I know . . .I feel it coming.

But the shoes that drop finally? Well, the first shoe had been right in the making of dropping when Stacy, dear Stacy, finally got off the dime and decided that she WOULD like to regain her memories. Says something about her being Romna and wishing that she’d never made that wish (whatever "that wish" was) and promptly did a face plant into the floor, fainting.

Hm, could it be our long lost Time Lady Romana that the clan talks about from time to time? The one who we haven’t seen since she parted ways with Rei’s uncle ("my" Doctor) and Auntie Inquirer centuries ago (re: 17150).

Sure as heck aren't going to be taking the poor woman along with us as she is right now, anyway! We'd be dragging her unconsious body along without any input from her (and being unconsoius means she can't really be of much help anyway).

We'll . . .see in a moment about what my wife and the rest are going to do here with this latest development...

  1. Not much later we’ll find out that our unconscious “Stacy” is indeed the wayward (and now somehow transmogrified) Time Lady, but that’s after a few more shocks to our system…

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8/10/2010 7:12:01 PM

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