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tushanshu_logs2014-11-19 04:12 pm
ironwood) wrote in tushanshu_logs2014-11-19 04:12 pm
Entry tags:
ENDPLOT | ROLL THE BONES, PART 2
Characters: ALL!
Date: Mid-Late November
Location: In the Dreaming
Situation: It's either Malicant or the Foreigners... and their worlds.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.
Locating the Vilii Stone has been dealt with and now it's time to take on Malicant directly. It's a relatively simple interpretation that proves the answer to the conundrum of how to share the object between all involved: shatter it, and make sure everyone has a shard. It clears any remaining taint of Malicant's essence from those who still more it and makes said evil furious. They're all feeling it now-- the throbthrobthrob of his telepathic presence has swamped the caverns where the stone once lay, and the only safe harbour is the Hotel. There's only so long even the Hotel will be able to withstand that force.
Inside the Dreaming, that force can't be felt. Inside the Dreaming, the caverns are reflected on long smooth lines, riveted by sinew and muscle, a true combination of the realms in this space that becomes a living maze to work against them. There are many offshoots, and when the Foreigners arrive in the Dreaming they will find themselves separated, both willingly and unwillingly, three or four apiece to each individual set of caverns that seal behind them. They're going to have to move fast and defend one another. Their collective power is all that remains between Malicant and everything else, and every part of him must be defeated.
He's waiting, but he's not without a plan.
The Foreigners will find that they are facing the embodiments of their greatest fears and weaknesses. An enemy they were never able to defeat, a friend who betrayed them, a fateful event that they couldn't outrun, even a physical feat they could never overcome. Malicant has had a long time to study them, to befriend them as Asti, to gain their trust and exploit their secrets. Where there are individuals, these embodiments will be targeted and where there are groups, they'll be something that encompasses multiple forms.
But the Foreigners are not without recourse: they are in the Dreaming Realm, a plane shaped by willpower, by desire... and even to a degree, by the very fears they are facing. The Gha'nal venom will allow them to manipulate what they perceive as the "reality" around them, and the shard of Vilii Stone they've been given will become a weapon or tool fitting to the situation, to help them.
LINKS
Part 1 - Beneath The Shell/Midnight Hotel | Part 1 - Malicant’s Tools/The Vilii Stone | OOC - Plotting Post
OOC
So here's the final log! There's a lot of freedom for players to write what they feel will be their biggest obstacle to overcome, and how Malicant will appear to be challenging them. The common traits to what all players are going to face are listed in the description above. This log will be open until the end of the month, at which point an interim log and OOC post will be going up.
Date: Mid-Late November
Location: In the Dreaming
Situation: It's either Malicant or the Foreigners... and their worlds.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.
Locating the Vilii Stone has been dealt with and now it's time to take on Malicant directly. It's a relatively simple interpretation that proves the answer to the conundrum of how to share the object between all involved: shatter it, and make sure everyone has a shard. It clears any remaining taint of Malicant's essence from those who still more it and makes said evil furious. They're all feeling it now-- the throbthrobthrob of his telepathic presence has swamped the caverns where the stone once lay, and the only safe harbour is the Hotel. There's only so long even the Hotel will be able to withstand that force.
Inside the Dreaming, that force can't be felt. Inside the Dreaming, the caverns are reflected on long smooth lines, riveted by sinew and muscle, a true combination of the realms in this space that becomes a living maze to work against them. There are many offshoots, and when the Foreigners arrive in the Dreaming they will find themselves separated, both willingly and unwillingly, three or four apiece to each individual set of caverns that seal behind them. They're going to have to move fast and defend one another. Their collective power is all that remains between Malicant and everything else, and every part of him must be defeated.
He's waiting, but he's not without a plan.
The Foreigners will find that they are facing the embodiments of their greatest fears and weaknesses. An enemy they were never able to defeat, a friend who betrayed them, a fateful event that they couldn't outrun, even a physical feat they could never overcome. Malicant has had a long time to study them, to befriend them as Asti, to gain their trust and exploit their secrets. Where there are individuals, these embodiments will be targeted and where there are groups, they'll be something that encompasses multiple forms.
But the Foreigners are not without recourse: they are in the Dreaming Realm, a plane shaped by willpower, by desire... and even to a degree, by the very fears they are facing. The Gha'nal venom will allow them to manipulate what they perceive as the "reality" around them, and the shard of Vilii Stone they've been given will become a weapon or tool fitting to the situation, to help them.
LINKS
Part 1 - Beneath The Shell/Midnight Hotel | Part 1 - Malicant’s Tools/The Vilii Stone | OOC - Plotting Post
OOC
So here's the final log! There's a lot of freedom for players to write what they feel will be their biggest obstacle to overcome, and how Malicant will appear to be challenging them. The common traits to what all players are going to face are listed in the description above. This log will be open until the end of the month, at which point an interim log and OOC post will be going up.
no subject
Tony doesn't waste time telling Sol that there's not much point in shooting slow-moving projectiles at a nanotech-enhanced pseudo-cyborg in power armor: he hopes that's self-evident now. Instead, while Other Tony's spending a couple seconds snarking, he pops open the shielded compartment in his armor and pulls out his fragment of the Vilii stone.
But Other Tony hasn't forgotten him, and as soon as the crystal is in his hand, the illusion raises his hand, and sends a crackling pulse of energy at Tony. He puts up a shield, but the pulse tears right through it, hits him, and sends his armor crashing to the ground. Fuck! A fucking EMP bomb! FUCK!!
While Tony's lying helplessly on the ground, rebooting his armor, Other Tony walks over to him. "Thought that's where you'd stash that." He kicks the crystal out of Tony's limp hand, sending it skittering away down the tunnel. "I mean, of course I knew where you'd put it. After all, I'm you. Just less stupid, and slightly better-looking."
With Tony briefly out of commission, Other Tony turns his attention back to Solomon. "I was kidding about the gun, by the way. I just thought you waving around that little pea shooter was kind of funny." There's a low whump, and some kind of transparent wave ripples out from the gauntlets. A high-pressure concussive blast, Tony deduces - a modification of the sonic canons. Non-lethal, but it'll hit like a ton of bricks. He can't even yell a warning to Solomon, with the suit's external speakers out.
no subject
It didn't take a genius to recognise the thread of the raised gauntlets, and Solomon didn't need the identification--sonic sorcerers had been made all but extinct during the war, but Solomon recognised the threat. With a thought the Vilii Stone shaped itself again, and the sonic blast struck the shield like a gong, striking the wall all around Solomon but without hitting him.
He grunted with the force of it nonetheless, and debris rained down on him. Then he flicked his wrist and the Vilii Stone changed. Stark was still too close to Malicant to use anything like a rocket--but now there was clear space between Solomon and Malicant, space Solomon could use, and a whip formed in his hands. Solomon's cane wasn't precisely the same--but it relied on many of the same motions, and the whip's tip flicked up and at Malicant with far more control and precision than any weapon Solomon had used previously--fast and accurate and its tip cutting.
no subject
The situation abruptly goes from bad to worse, and Gene takes it all in, his mind racing.
Step one, get Tony back his shard of the stone. Step one half...distract the living hell out of this impostor so the stone would slip from its awareness just long enough for Tony to get it back and do what needed to be done. Between him and Wreath, that should be a piece of cake.
Quietly, to Akito, while the impostor is talking, Gene says, "Get the stone. We'll distract him." Sending Akito to do it is a pretty good idea; the younger teen's been so quiet and inoffensive that he wouldn't be surprised if Malicant's shard had opted to ignore him entirely.
There's always the definite probability that this other Tony has a dampener built into his armor too, so Gene can't count on using the armor to distract him for long. Maybe just for long enough.
The sonic blast has barely impacted Wreath's shield when Gene makes his move. He uses the white ring to create a laser-focused tornado, hopefully enough to lift this impostor and buffet him around, to have him focusing his attention on Gene and Solomon rather than Tony and Akito.
And Gene really hopes Tony's reboot sequence won't take too long.
no subject
no subject
Yes! Tony thinks, but his elation is short-lived. A beam of light shoots out the miniature vortex towards Gene - not a repulsor, but Makluan dampening energy. Then Other Tony grabs onto Solomon's whip and pulls himself to his feet. The whip is still cutting into him where he's gripping it, preventing the armor from sealing, but he doesn't seem to mind that, or the blood dripping to the floor.
Tony's reboot sequence is almost done - boy, these couple seconds are eternal in the middle of combat, he's going to have to do something about that - but it doesn't finish fast enough for him to prevent Other Tony, still grasping the whip, from sending another sonic pulse at Solomon.
And then, finally, finally, the armor comes back online. Tony leaps up and blasts off with his boot jets, tackling his mirror image with a furious yell.
no subject
That changed almost mid-thought, and Solomon managed to get half a shield up, but one too weak--the sonic blast and the shield both slammed back into him, and him into the wall, and his head spun dizzily with the pain in his chest. He gasped for breath and didn't find it, sinking to the floor and grimly clutching onto consciousness only because of the weight of the Vilii Stone in his hands.
no subject
It's a good thing we're not really enemies anymore, he thinks dimly, trying to crane his neck to see the battle. Because now he really has an unfair advantage. Like the guy with near-limitless power can complain. He hears the sonic blast, and the sound of boot jets, and a furious yell, and he hopes - he hopes like hell - that his Tony's going to come out on top.
no subject
First thing's first though - making sure everyone else is safe so that Tony doesn't get distracted. Solomon is in less danger than Tony or Gene for now, but is just far enough away from him and Gene to make it impossible to cover him. If only there was better cover --
"Oh."
This is the Dreaming. They can manipulate their surroundings if they have enough focus, right? And right now all Akito wants to do is help Tony and keep everyone safe...
Solomon can have a small, curved wall to protect him from ricochet and targeted attacks. It's totally impenetrable, because it's a Dream and if Akito says it's impenetrable then it definitely is. And... that leaves Akito free to cover Gene himself, using his Vilii stone that he imagines to be a super strong shield like Captain America's to keep his sort-of-maybe-friend safe.
And because Akito has a good boost of confidence at the moment, he'll also try to give Tony a bit of help by attempting to visualize the stupid Tony's armor as cardboard. Mostly just the weaponized aspects, but Ikki was always one to dream big so that's what he's going to try to do.
i apologize to everyone for this 1.6k monstrosity
“Wow,” Other Tony says admiringly, “that was almost teamwork. And we don’t even like Solomon. I’m so proud of myself.”
Solomon is down, Gene is down, Akito’s still (sensibly) behind cover, and Tony doesn’t have his crystal… Things aren’t looking so hot. But Tony’s been in worse binds: he’s not scared yet. He growls and pushes himself up off the ground. “You’re not. Me!” He fires his repulsors, which Other Tony’s shields brush off with ease.
“Well, technically, no. But that shouldn’t matter. I mean, you don’t get a whole bunch of doctorates and Nobel prizes in crazy theoretical physics and math by getting hung up on what’s ‘technically’” (he says it with sarcastic air quote fingers) “true, right?”
“You technically suck,” Tony replies belligerently.
Okay, maybe his jokes are that bad.He tries randomizing the frequency of the repulsor beams like he did with Arthur, to see if that will have any impact on Other Tony’s shields. His sensors don’t detect any significant fluctuations in the forcefield integrity.But, out of the corner of his eye, Tony sees Akito snatch up his Vilii shard and start to scamper back towards Gene. He silently cheers him on. For the moment, Other Tony’s attention seems to be focused exclusively on Tony, and if Tony can just keep the illusion occupied until he can get a hold of his crystal again, he can end this.
He follows the repulsor volley with a full-power unibeam blast with a rapidly-fluctuating randomized frequency, hoping that if it doesn’t hurt Other Tony, it might at least startle him.
The blast actually knocks Other Tony back for a second, but Tony can’t keep up those kinds of power levels for long, and as soon as the beam stops, Tony finds himself getting re-acquainted with the wall, courtesy of Other Tony’s own unibeam. Tony groans, and silences all the biometric and armor alerts that are suddenly going off.
“I know as much about you as you do," Other Tony goes on, sauntering over to him. Yeah, good. Keep talking, Beardo. “Maybe more, because I’m not up to my eyeballs in hypocrisy and self-delusion. Big Ugly’s seen more than enough of the inside of your head to figure out exactly what you are, and what you’re going to be. And that’s me. Not a lie: just some basic scientific extrapolation. Hate to break it to you, Little Me, but – you’re kind of predictable.”
Tony’s stomach lurches. Been inside his head? Does he mean when Extremis had been compromised? Tony had thought that Malicant couldn’t access his memories through Extremis, but then Aya had proven that it was possible… What had it seen, before it burned out the nanobots?
Tony gets up to his hands and knees. “You don’t know anything about me.” He bolsters his faltering confidence with anger. “I’d never sell weapons.”
Behind Other Tony, Akito is taking advantage of the illusion’s fixation on Tony to imagine up some defenses for their allies. Way to go, Akito! Tony takes heart from the other teen’s resourcefulness (and, though he doesn’t realize it, some support from Akito’s own dream-manipulating), and when he stands and fires his repulsors again, his sensors read a significant drain on Other Tony’s shields. Yes! It’s all about willpower, he reminds himself. The dreaming is shaped by the conscious and subconscious thoughts of its inhabitants. If he believes he can defeat this shade of his older self, he will. He pours more power into his repulsors.
If the dent in his shield integrity bothers Other Tony, he doesn’t show it. He laughs. “Yeah, sure. ‘Weapons only make things worse,’ ‘technology should be used to help people’ – says the guy flying around in the weaponized suit of power armor.”
“That’s different, I—”
“Yeah, it is. Because the rules don’t apply to us, do they? You already know that.” Other Tony returns fire. This time, Tony’s shields hold. “That’s why you got the advanced experimental medical implant when any other kid would have died. That’s why you got rub to shoulders with famous scientists and score time on the best equipment in the world for your pet projects before you were old enough to drive. That’s why SHIELD let you off the hook for stuff that should have landed you in jail for decades.”
The two of them keep exchanging fire. Tony tries to ignore Other Tony’s monologuing and focus his willpower on the fight, but Other Tony just keeps talking. Tony’s changed his mind – now he thinks he’d rather the illusion shut up and just concentrated on shooting him. Tony’ll take ‘painful’ over ‘infuriating’ any day.
“Come on, Tony – you’re screwing the Mandarin.” Other Tony sticks his thumb out and points it at Gene. “Talk about making an exception!” He snorts.
“That doesn’t— that’s not true!”
Well, it is true that he’s screwing the Mandarin, but:Malicant’s illusion is twisting things around, making everything sound like some sort of… scheme, when everything was just chance and luck. Being rich and smart isn’t a crime, and with SHIELD and Gene, there had been… well, the circumstances had been complicated, it wasn’t like he’d…“Yeah, it is. You know why? Because you’re smarter, and richer, and more powerful than most people can even imagine. When you were fifteen, your idea of ‘fun’ was inventing technology decades ahead of anything else on the planet. In high school, you were saving the world more often than you were going on dates. They don’t make rules for people like that, Tony. And you know it – that’s why you’ve been using all that privilege and brainpower to try to make the world a better place. That’s the trade-off, right? When you’re better, you give back more. You’ve got the right idea. You’re just thinking too small.”
“Saving the Earth is ‘thinking too small?’ Man, I don’t know whose brain your boss got into, but it sure wasn’t mine, if you think that’s going to convince me.” But Other Tony’s words are cutting a lot deeper than Tony wants to admit. He hates it, but the stuff this illusion is saying is really getting to him. It shouldn’t: It’s all wrong, it’s all bullshit. But it’s getting under his skin anyway.
Other Tony sighs, sounding disappointed and a little annoyed. “With Extremis, you may be the smartest human being who’s ever lived. And you’re going to waste that getting into fistfights with gang thugs and blowing up corporate data banks? Don’t get me wrong – the armor will still see plenty of action. But at some point you’ve got to grow up and stop playing cops and robbers, kid. Give the weapons to people who actually know how to use them. They’ll call you when they need you for backup.”
“If SHIELD wants weapons, they can get them from Hammer. The only way they’re getting the suit is if I’m in it. SI doesn’t make weapons anymore, and that’s not going to change. Our technology is supposed to help people, not hurt them.” To Tony’s immense frustration, his repulsors are starting to have less of an effect. If this were just a straight fight, he’d have no problem. He could take this bearded asshole, fancy armor or not. But Other Tony’s using their stalemate to get inside his head and chip away at his resolve, and Tony’s trying to ignore him but god, he just won’t stop talking.
“What, StarkPods and solar panels? Give me a break,” Other Tony scoffs, shaking his head. “You have the potential to change the world, not just save it. Launch humanity into a new age. Get us out into space, finally. Give them enough toys, and SHIELD, the military, the government – you’ll have them wrapped around your finger. Think of what you could do with the money and influence from military contracts. Anything you can imagine. And that’s what matters, Tony. The tech that will change the world, for real, for good. For everyone. Not a couple crates of laser blasters and some stripped-down assembly-line power armor.”
“It’s not worth it,” Tony snarls. “Not if it means hurting people.”
Other Tony laughs again. “You think that makes you the good guy? You seriously need to stop binge-watching Saturday morning cartoons. Being a hero isn’t about punching supervillains and saving kittens from trees. It’s about stepping up, doing what other people are afraid to do. What other people can’t do. It’s about the big picture, Tony. Using your abilities to do the most good. Being scared to make some tough choices doesn’t make you a hero. It just makes you a coward.”
This isn’t working. Tony’s losing ground again. Desperate to change things up and maybe surprise Other Tony enough to get an opening, Tony fires his boot jets and tries to tackle his opponent again. He catches Other Tony head-on, but Other Tony rolls with it, and when their tumble stops, it’s Other Tony who’s on top, with one armored hand tightening around Tony’s less-armored throat and his other hand pressed to Tony’s glowing power core, the gauntlet morphing into a configuration Tony’s never seen before but which apparently serves to nullify the unibeam.
“And, newsflash: you’ve already hurt people,” Other Tony says, leaning over him. Tony can feel his neck plating creaking under the pressure of the other armor’s grip. “When something important is on the line, you don’t really care who gets in your way, do you? You’re just in seriously deep denial about it. It’s kind of embarrassing, honestly.”
no subject
Given what little he knew about Stark's background and Stark himself, Solomon couldn't say that Malicant was lying. Actually, he was very likely telling the truth; the truth always cut more than lies did. But he was only using the truth to lower Stark's guard, and that was rankling on the simple basis of the fact that Solomon, under other circumstances, might have done the same. Only to get the idiot to think, but still.
Slowly Solomon managed to get control of his breathing. The more Malicant was focussed on Stark, the more his control of Solomon's magic lessened. He'd done damage, though--Solomon took a deeper, experimental breath and choked on a cough, and taste blood not just in the back of his throat.
Solomon snarled. To hell with that. He pushed himself upright and tested his shaky hands--too shaky to be of any help anymore. But there were other options, and instead he focussed his mind and will on an animation, the sort of animation a necromancer might pull together using a corpse, or an engineer might have created with the golem. This time Solomon had nothing more or less than the Vilii Shard, but it grew and grew into a four-footed shape that lunged, roaring, at Malicant.
Lions could be weapons too, after all. It was a risk if Solomon couldn't get the Shard back--but if nothing else it would hopefully get Stark up off the ground.
no subject
And for the first time in a long while, Gene feels utterly powerless.
He tries to move, but the armor's just too heavy for him, and there's no way he can do an 'emergency eject' of any kind by taking off the rings...because he can't move.
For right now, at least, Sol's distraction will have to serve. And he hopes that Akito will succeed and that his Tony will prevail.
you guys can tl;dr i'll just sit here writing teeny tags /lame
/wordvomits excruciatingly detailed character meta for twenty pages/
Tony feels the armor around his neck start to buckle, and he struggles valiantly in Other Tony's grasp. But the nanoparticle armor, though lighter, is much stronger, and Tony can't budge it. Tony is furious that he's about to get taken out like this, by his own armor, worn by his annoying imaginary future self. And he's scared, too. When the neck plating crumples it will crush his windpipe and tear his throat to shreds, and he knows from too-close experience that it'll be a horrible way to die - and not a quick one, either. Choking, suffocating, gasping for air, drowning in blood, feeling your oxygen-starved brain shutting down system by system, the process of dying drawn out over seconds or even minutes...
He's not panicking. Tony Stark doesn't panic, not even when his life is in critical danger. Especially not then. But Other Tony's attack on his psyche has done its work, and in his uncertainty and denial, he doesn't have the force of will necessary to overcome Malicant on his own.
Fortunately, he isn't on his own.
Solomon's lion lunges, tearing the illusion off him, and Tony immediately rolls over and springs to his feet. Other Tony had gotten too caught up in spouting off and neglected to keep tabs on the other players. The vindictive satisfaction Tony feels about that is just delicious.
And behind the lion is Akito, Vilii stone in hand, and Tony snatches the shard up with a triumphant laugh. As he turns to face his foe, the crystal is melting, flowing over his gauntlet to cover the metal in a thin layer of shimmering purple.
Other Tony has managed to escape the lion with the assistance of his boot jets, but not unscathed: the armor is sealing up over a dozen brutal gouges from teeth and claws.
As Tony raises his newly-upgraded gauntlet, Other Tony snarls, and fires at the ceiling - bringing a large portion of the cavern crashing down on top of Tony and Akito and the lion. Tony throws up a shield around himself and Akito. When the rubble stops falling, he turns back to Akito for a moment, grinning wildly behind the faceplate.
"Thanks, man. I owe you one." Then he shoots a beam from his shiny new Vilii repulsor at Other Tony, using his sensors to pinpoint him through the clouds of dust. Other Tony curses and staggers.
That little taste of victory is just what Tony needs. Confidence surging, he fires off three more shots in close succession. Despite his wounds, though, Other Tony is fast, and he dodges the shots and then... vanishes from Tony's sensors. Where there had been a clear outline only a second ago, there's now garbled nonsense scrambled by heavy-duty interference. And thanks to the dust, Tony can't get a visual, either. Well, that's okay. Other Tony has to show himself sometime. This fight isn't going to end until one of them goes down.
Other Tony's repulsors pierce the debris cloud, but Tony catches them on his shield - which is holding again. Tony responds with a few more blind shots, though he doesn't really expect any of them to hit. There are several seconds of tense silence.
"We're not the reason Dad gave up arms dealing, you know," Other Tony says.
Tony tries to track his voice, but the acoustics of the rubble-filled cavern aren't any good. "Give it up, asshole. You're toast." Now that Tony has his shard, it doesn't matter what Malicant's illusion says. The stones don't rely on willpower: they're all-natural grade-A canned whoop-ass. All he has to do is aim and fire.
"He stopped because he was already rich. He made enough money selling weapons for the company to coast for the rest of his life, and he was tired of being pestered by the hippies and eco-wackos. We were just a convenient excuse."
Tony frowns. "Yeah, sure. If that's what helps you sleep at night, buddy." Other Tony chuckles. Tony wonders if he can hear the uncertainty in his voice. He thinks he sees a figure through the haze, and he fires, but Other Tony just chuckles again.
"You can't beat me. I am you." Another repulsor blast: Tony barely gets his shield up in time, and he staggers back. "I'm inevitable. You'll see it, eventually. I'm not some evil mirror-universe version of you, Tony. I'm just you a little more grown-up. I'm older, and more experienced, and I understand the world a little better, that's all. Some day soon, you'll realize that. And you'll realize that I'm right."
"You know what I'm starting to realize?" The dust is still to thick for good visibility, but Tony thinks... yes. Right there.
"What?" Other Tony asks, sounding amused and curious.
Tony takes aim. "I talk too much." And fires.
Inside the cloud, there's a scream of pain. Tony turns on his boot jets and flies towards it, and the wind of his passage finally clears away some of the dust. Now he can see Other Tony kneeling on the ground, hunched over, a huge gory hole in his torso that not even the nanoarmor can cover. He looks up as Tony approaches. His faceplate melts away, and though there's blood trickling out of his mouth, he grins.
"Nice shot."
Tony raises his shard-altered gauntlet again. Other Tony laughs breathlessly and raises two fingers to his forehead in a mocking salute. "See you in ten years, kid."
Tony fires again.
The illusion disintegrates, melting into slithery, shivering shadows that then themselves dissolve.
Tony takes a few steps back, his ears ringing in the sudden silence of the cavern. Not caring about the dust, he pops open his faceplate to take a few deep breaths of unfiltered air, while reflexively rubbing the dented armor at his neck.
A few seconds later, he realizes he's been staring blankly off into space, and he shakes his head vigorously and turns back to his allies. "Is everybody okay?" Akito and Solomon had been in fighting form just a minute ago, so he's not too worried about them, and Gene— Gene hasn't been in the fight since he got knocked down by the dampener. Shouldn't his armor have reactivated by now?
Sudden terror seizes Tony's heart. What if Other Tony's dampener hadn't just been a dampener? What if he'd upgraded it to damage, not just stun, and Gene's been lying there injured or dead this whole time and Tony hadn't even thought about him?!
"Gene!!" Tony launches himself towards where he'd last seen Gene's armor, stubbornly bottling up the turmoil in his mind and putting aside it until the more pressing matter of Gene's welfare has been resolved. (And possibly until forever, if he has any say in the matter.)
no subject
It worked well enough that when Malicant finally dissolved and his grip on Solomon's magic eased, Solomon was able to straighten up and move out from behind the nook, leaning on the wall. He kicked aside rocks and found the Vilii Stone, chipped and a little cracked, but still--mostly--in one piece. It would do.
"Please do tell me he isn't going to appear to harass anyone else," he muttered, and then Stark shouted, proving he hadn't heard a word. Solomon sighed and lowered himself down to pick up the Stone, leaning back against one of the larger rocks. He was trapped in a cavern with three teenagers, and still felt as though someone had been tearing out the inside of his chest. Even if Malicant had been defeated, Solomon wasn't looking forward to the aftermath.
Maybe he wouldn't have to get up again. That would be nice.
2.3k!!! orz. TW: child/domestic/emotional abuse/manipulation, incitement to suicide, consent, murder
And - speak of the devil - here comes Tony now. He waves weakly at Tony as he approaches, and gets to his feet. His hand slips into his pocket, removing his shard of the Vilii stone. "I'm okay," he says, coughing, "but watch yourself. It'll come for me, next."
Truth be told, a lot of Gene's bravado in the previous fights he's been present for has been born of nerves. All of the big talk, all of the sarcasm, is his way of preparing himself for what he knows he's about to face. Gene's been bracing himself for this for a while; he's prepared for the shape that Malicant is about to take. It's a shape their enemy has taken before, when he'd taken a journey to the Death realm, and he's ready this time. He won't be cowering like a child again.
So when the form of Zhang appears before him, he bares his teeth. "You can't hurt me anymore," he says, snarling and raising the jian that his shard of the Vilii stone has formed itself into, a perfect replica of the sword Eshai had given him, and it's not clear if he's addressing Zhang or Malicant.
The replica of Zhang smirks at him. "Pitiful mongrel child," he says. "A mongrel and of unnatural tastes...I shouldn't have let you live. You were never of any use to me."
"Good, I wasn't trying to be," Gene retorts. "Let's just get this over with, you pathetic creature. Murderer of children...I'm going to enjoy this, you monster."
That startles a low chuckle out of Zhang. "The only monster I see here is you. Even without your heritage. I have to admit, I'm proud of what you've become. You've done some utterly twisted things, you know. And you pulled it off. You really pulled it off." He smiles nastily. "Even I never tried to manipulate you into caring for me. I knew it was a lost cause. But you," he says, pointing at Gene with one long fingernail, "you did more than just manipulate the Stark child until you had him wrapped around your finger. No, when he broke free of your lies, you cried crocodile tears in order to have him take pity on you so you could lure him into your bed. Twisted. Magnificently so. I'm proud of you."
"That's not true," Gene says, gritting his teeth. He knows it's not true, he knows Malicant is just lying again, because all it does is lie. "It wasn't true when you spoke with my voice earlier, and it isn't true now."
"Oh, you know it is," Zhang/Malicant says, and grins. "You have him so twisted around that he couldn't even kill you when you begged him to. He would have saved you all if he'd killed you back then, you know. I think he even knows that. And if you're so worried about me taking you over again, why haven't you just killed yourself, rather than asking someone you supposedly care about to do it? Do it, child. Turn that sword in your hand on yourself and do everyone a kindness."
Gene's face is stony, impassive, and the fact that Malicant is echoing his earlier words to Tony - it would be a kindness, in the end - is a painful proof that it's been probing around in Gene's head for anything it can possibly use against him. He refuses to rise to the bait, his sword hand steady. Zhang keeps talking. "No? Perhaps you're just as much of a coward as I always thought you were. I have to say, I've never seen that before, getting someone so turned around that they value your life over their own. Even over the good of an entire civilization! You can't possibly be that good in bed to make him fawn over you like that. Have you been using that glorious little crimson ring on him, to get him to obey your every whim?"
"Never," Gene says harshly, feeling sick to his stomach at even the implication of using Tony like that. "I'd never do that. I swore I wouldn't." He glances back towards Tony, as if to say He's lying, he's lying, please believe me, I wouldn't do that to you, I wouldn't control you like that again, I'd die first.
"You already have. You've already done it today; who knows how many other times you've used that ring to get what you want? You're so bad at keeping your promises, little monster. You promised to kill me, and I'm still here." Malicant gives up any pretense of being Zhang for a moment, and continues needling Gene. "It was so easy to get into your head and take control...it was almost like you wanted me to do it. Like you wanted to have the excuse to let the darkness in your soul run rampant. And believe me, it's there - I've seen it, and you know it exists. Tell me, did you resist, when you first noticed me slipping in? Or did you just go with it, knowing that nobody would blame you for what you did under my influence, that you could murder again, and face no justice, but pity for being my tool?"
A horde of Tong ninjas sprouts up behind him, out of the shadows, ready to hinder Gene's companions at the slightest gesture from their master, ready to prove to Gene he's hopelessly outnumbered and outclassed. "Poor Gene," Zhang croons mockingly, "poor, pitiful Gene. The tortured soul who believes that just saying he's sorry will wipe his slate clean and the red from his ledger. You like it, don't you? You like feeling a life slip away beneath your fingers." It's not clear whether Malicant is back in-character as Zhang, or simply trying to unnerve Gene. "Just like me. Just like me. I raised you better than I ever thought, and better than you ever realized. Actually, you're not just like me. You're more devious and twisted than I could ever hope to be. You've really done your old man proud." And he laughs, and the sound is ugly and discordant, and the ninjas laugh too, and the sound echoes around the cave like thunder, rolling and disorienting, hurting Gene's ears. It's laughter he's heard before, humiliation he's been subjected to at the hands of the real Zhang, and all the memory serves to do is make him angry. This isn't Zhang. And Malicant is wrong.
"We are not blood," Gene says, forcing his voice to remain calm, his grip on the sword so strong his hand is beginning to hurt. "Your research is wrong. The form you're wearing is that of my stepfather. I am not his kin. I am nothing like you, or him."
"That's right," the shade says, a look of mock thoughtfulness crossing his face. "I forgot. You never knew your father. Your whore mother must have fucked one of those lizards, zázhǒng." Zhang practically spits the word, and Gene flinches ever so slightly at the old slur he'd grown unused to being called, the slur that had been as good as a nickname for ten years. "I never knew my pet name for you would be so accurate. Half-breed. You know, it's a pity I killed her before your relatives came to visit. I could ask her which one of them is your father. Eh, bastard? Blood tells, boy - you're a whore just like her, using your body to trick power out of greater men. You unnatural mongrel child."
Gene's regulating his breathing, trying not to let the barbs from either 'Zhang' or Malicant breaking character get under his skin. "Shut up," he says, "shut up. Shut up. You're wasting time. Let's just get this over with so I never have to see either of you again."
"It was so sweet, killing her," Zhang says, not even listening to him, and the register of his voice shifts as Malicant drops the facade again. "But then again, I don't have to tell you how good it feels to kill, do I, little monster? How thrilling it is to destroy? How intoxicating? You belong to me, you always have, from the minute you accepted my little gift and let me into your worthless head. Your soul is mine."
"And you're stalling. Shut up and fight me. Or don't you think you have the guts? Are you too scared?" Gene smirks recklessly at the shade, goading it to fight, trying desperately to ignore all of the vile lies it has spouted so far, hoping that the others aren't taking its words at face value. "You're stalling because you don't think you can beat me. You're stalling, because you're afraid of this." The jian gleams in his hand in the dimness of the caverns.
"I fear nothing, and certainly not a child like you. But very well, zázhǒng," Zhang smirks. "If you're so opposed to living a little longer, let's begin."
The shade begins to change shape, and Gene tightens his grip on the sword, expecting the armor of the Mandarin to form up in front of him. His heart's pounding in his chest - now, now he's finally going to free himself from the tyranny of Zhang, the specter of abuse that hangs over his every waking moment. Even after years away from him, the patterns of thought had been so deeply carved into his brain that there was a broken record of all the ways Zhang had tried to break his spirit playing over and over. It's time to change that record.
Around him swirls a cascade of bad memories, pulled from his brain by Malicant, his weakness exposed for all to see. He grits his teeth and tries to ignore it, tries to ignore the fact that now Solomon and Akito can see what Tony's already seen, highlights of what Zhang had done to him, the beatings, the imprisonment, the abject cruelty. Here, there's a vision of Zhang, fully armored save for helmet, picking him up by his neck and throwing him across the room; there, a projection of another armored beating, a much younger Gene crouched bruised and bleeding on the floor, trying to shield his head from the worst of the blows. It shifts as Malicant rifles through his memories, specters flickering into being of gruesome dreams he's had of Tony killing him, of him killing Tony, of Makluans killing them both, of his friends - his friends, both from home and from Keeliai, those still on the turtle and those long gone, Joly, Bianca, Temeraire, Raine, Amelia, Loki, Akito, Kalliel - dead all around him, dead by his hand. You'd love to do this, I'm sure, Malicant's voice rings out over the grim images. You'd love to kill them all. The ninjas advance menacingly on Tony, Sol, and Akito, three for each of them.
His jaw is hurting with how hard he's gritting his teeth and attempting to block out the bad memories and bad dreams given form around him. He's proud, so having his weakness and anxieties exposed like this is as jarring a blow as any physical attack Malicant could unleash upon him, and his stomach twists in rage. But he forces it down and remains calm. Skul's taught him how to resist this, how to keep himself calm even when his fear and anger are raging inside him. He's dealt with this. He's ready for this. Let it come.
But instead of what Gene expects - Malicant's been in his head, after all, it knows what Gene is prepared for and what he isn't - there's no bulking up, no demonic black armor. The shape this shard of Malicant is wearing slims, and shortens, and becomes the form of a woman.
Anyone who's been in Gene's room would recognize her as the woman in the photograph he keeps by his bed. And anyone who's been in his memories would recognize her as his mother.
Gene takes a step back, then another, his sword arm lowering just a little. It's a trick, he knows it's a trick, but that doesn't mean it doesn't stab him right in the heart. He's looking at his mother, standing before him for the first time in thirteen years, the mother he'd known for a certainty that he'd never see again. Zhang's treachery had taken her from him, and Malicant's scheming has brought her back. It's a masterstroke. Malicant's masterstroke. "Stop," he says, breathing harshly, his hands shaking, trying to maintain the calm that he'd managed to settle into. "Stop. You're not her. You're not her!"
"You have failed me, Temujin," she says regally, taking a step forward. Though they are both now speaking Mongolian (his mother tongue, his mother's tongue), a trick of the Dreaming translates it into the languages the others would most readily understand, making the Altaic words into the background of all their dialogue. "You refused to kill this interloper -" her eyes flick to Tony - "and claim your destiny. He has made you weak. Lust has made you weak. It is a sin for lesser men, Temujin, not for you. I am giving you one more chance to prove yourself worthy as my son. Free yourself from this weakness. Kill him. Kill him, and take back what is rightfully yours."
"No. Stop. You're not her," he says, his voice upscaling to almost a shout in his disbelief, the sword trembling in his hand. "Stop it. Stop it!"
okay attempt no2 hope this works????
When the other two attack him together Akito leaps up and maims them both with a bladed helicopter kick. Not enough to 'kill' them, but enough that it's easy for him to use his Vilii shard shield to decapitate them. Whether or not that finishes them off... Well, to Akito it doesn't matter because he believes one-hundred percent that they're killed.
Which leaves him time enough to storm over to Gene's side, a low growl emanating from his throat, and address the piece of shit that's hurting his friend.
"Don't you dare belittle love and friendship, Malicant. You sound like an idiot speaking about things you don't know or understand. The only thing you understand is hatred and destruction," he hisses. "Which is perfect, because it means you'll understand perfectly when you are destroyed."
He was raised to be a weapon, a tool, an animal. Most days he represses those thoughts and memories the best that he can, but today he'll embrace it; use it to help the people who helped him. And if it gets him killed, so what? At least he tried. He won't die before proving to himself that what Kaito said to him - both the real one and the shade - wasn't true.
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Before he gets there, though, Malicant makes another appearance - this time in the form of Zhang. Immediately, Tony's face darkens with anger. He's not surprised that this is the form Malicant is taking for Gene, but he really could have done without seeing that asshole's ugly mug again. If Tony hadn't already hated Zhang for blowing up his lab, and kidnapping him and his friends and trying to feed them to a giant stone dragon, he sure would have hated him after learning about the abuse Gene had suffered at his hands.
Tony comes to a halt, raising his gauntlet to blast the image of Zhang into oblivion... and hesitates. This is Gene's fight. These are Gene's demons, and Gene's nightmares, and he's not sure that Gene will thank him if he takes away his chance to finally face them down.
But the temptation to just cut to the chase and shoot Zhang/Malicant in the face is so, so strong. Especially when it starts saying ugly things about him and Gene. It's humiliating, listening to Malicant mock their relationship in front of Solomon and Akito, and it hits way too close to home. Especially the comment about the crimson ring. Tony knows it isn't true; he knows what the crimson ring feels like and he knows Gene would never have used it like that, even at his worst. But still, he feels a lurch of dread at the suggestion.
"Shut up," he snarls, stepping forward. "You have no idea what you're talking about, you creep. You're full of it."
Unsurprisingly, that does not deter Zhang/Malicant at all, and it continues its taunts. "Don't listen to him, Gene," Tony says urgently. "That's not true. None of it's true. It's just messing with your head."
Shadows swirl and coalesce behind Zhang/Malicant, forming into the shapes of Tong ninjas. They're not moving, for now, but Tony takes another step forward. There's no way he's letting Gene fight Zhang and nine ninjas on his own.
Zhang/Malicant keeps talking, and Tony's horrified by the things he's saying to Gene and the names he's calling him, though Gene still looks and sounds calm. Tony is impressed by his resolve, but he doesn't understand why Gene isn't attacking. Come on, don't let it stall, Tony thinks, frustrated. He doesn't want to treat Gene like he can't fight his own battles, but he'll take the first shot if he has to.
That doesn't end up being necessary. Finally, Gene goads Zhang/Malicant to attack, and it begins to shimmer and morph into a new shape. Tony closes his faceplate and raises his hand. He's more than ready for this fight to begin.
But as Malicant prepares to change its form, memories and visions flicker around it, temporarily obscuring both Gene and his foe. Some of them, Tony is already familiar with: memories of Gene's miserable childhood and Zhang's cruelty. The images of murder and destruction, of Gene killing his friends, and Tony and Gene killing each other, though - those are new. Then the ninjas start to move in. Honestly, Tony is glad to have something besides the awful visions to focus on.
He starts firing, expecting to make short work of the three Tong. Their ability to disappear and reappear at will stymies him for a few seconds, and while he's trying to get a bead on the ninjas, Malicant completes its transformation. Not Zhang in the armor, but... Gene's mother? Uh oh. Tony's upgraded repulsor takes out one ninja, and he sees Gene retreat a few steps, sword wavering.
"Gene!" he shouts warningly. Don't listen to it, Gene, don't let it get to you! Two lucky shots in quick succession disintegrate the rest of Tony's ninjas, and he rushes up with Akito to stand beside Gene, repulsor primed.
"It's just making shit up because it knows it can't beat you," Tony growls. "Come on, Gene. We can take it. Let's get this over with."
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They had to end this, and quickly, before they had further problems on their hands. With the grim determination of will Solomon pushed himself to his feet and let the Vilii Stone turn into a whip in his hand--the most effective weapon he had, leaving aside the lion.
At first Solomon thought the dizziness and darkness was just a matter of his body reaching its limit. Then he realised that the walls of the tunnel were warping and pulling him away from the others, and Malicant's words to Khan seemed at first thunderingly loud and then fading to unnatural dimness. It all faded to an unnatural dimness, and Solomon wasn't sure if it was a result of his need to be distant from Malicant's influence, of needing the space to breathe, or Malicant himself trying to remove the most level-headed combatant.
Regardless, the scene of battle faded as if he'd been shoved out of the arena and into the grogginess of the Dreaming proper, and with something like resignation he gave up the struggle to remain conscious. As long as he was too far for Malicant to get hold of him again--or Malicant was too busy to do so.
lmk if this isn't okay :V
The sword has almost fallen from Gene's hand; his face is ashen, his expression warring between anguish and loathing. Anguish for the mother he'd lost so young to treachery; loathing for the vile being wearing her form as it has worn so many others. Anguish for what he knows he has to do, and loathing for knowing that he's going to carry it out, if he can find the strength of his arm to do so.
He's frozen in place, and his throat's stuck. Malicant's done it, the son of a bitch has done it, it's found the one thing that Gene can't fight. Gene would fight Tony - he's done it before, and often, and the fact that the genuine article was in the cavern would make things a little easier for him to deal with, easier to convince himself that this fight isn't real. But Malicant's too clever for that, and has decided to attack Gene's resolve in multiple stages. The form of Zhang would serve to get his blood up, the myriad visions and bad dreams would serve to fill him with doubt, but his mother? Ah, Gene could never harm his mother, the mother who'd become the reason for his lifelong quest, Queen-Regent and martyred Madonna and cunning general all in one.
He'd never hurt her. He'd die before he'd hurt her. And Malicant knows this.
But he can't do what she's told him to do; this is an order he cannot possibly obey. He's a soldier, she'd molded him into a soldier who would follow her whim and her whim alone, and he's only managing to defeat this programming by sheer force of will and remembering that it's not her, it's never been her, it's only Malicant.
"Assume your mantle," Malicant says with her voice, command and persuasion infusing it. "Accept your destiny, Temujin. Cast aside your weakness, your folly. Cease your womanly behavior that shames you and shames us all. Become the Mandarin, the true Mandarin, and destroy all who would oppose you."
"I won't," he manages to croak out. "I can't." He raises the sword again in a defensive position, but it's easy to see his grip on it is not as assured as it once was, and his hands are shaking with the effort. "Not again."
Her voice goes soft, dangerous. "You would toss aside all that we worked for? What I made you? You would betray me again?"
His stance falters. "I never betrayed--"
"You failed to warn me of your dream," she says, and the dark shadows of bruises flicker into being on her neck, bruises consistent with strangulation by the hands of a larger, stronger man. Zhang's hands. In the background, around them, the nightmare of murder plays itself out for all to see, the nightmare Gene had never witnessed himself but known enough about her death to have his imagination fill in the gaps, the nightmare that had woken him screaming for years in his childhood. "You knew he would do this."
"I knew we were in danger. I didn't know details. I couldn't know details. That's not how it works." That's not how his true dreams have ever worked. They're arcane and symbolic and never clear, and it only makes sense that they're a topic of contention here, in the Dreaming. Behind them for all to see, larger than life, a black snake and a red mongoose fight, and the mongoose appears to be victorious before the snake coils around it and strikes again and again and again until its foe is crushed and poisoned and defeated. And then the snake moves on to the mongoose's pup, and the dream - the prophecy, the nightmare - vanishes.
"You could have stopped him."
"I was a child!" he shouts, raising his guard again, and it's not clear if he's aiming to silence this apparition of Jin Ying or the guilty, sibilant whispers of his own mind that had repeated the accusation day in and day out for the past thirteen years. "I could do nothing but cower and hide from him in that armor, and bide my time until I was old enough and strong enough to take your ring back from him!"
"And yet he lives." She arches an eyebrow. "I did not raise a merciful son. Why is Zhang still alive?"
Her accusation rings in the silence; Gene has no answer that would satisfy this shade, no answer that would satisfy himself. I was scared, mother. Five rings and I was still afraid of him.
"You have become weak, surrounded by the weak. You have blended in too well, my son, and now it is time to come home." She extends a hand to the tense, trembling boy before her. "Join me. We will make you strong again. We will make you feared. No one will ever dare to raise a hand to you again, I swear it."
For a moment - for one moment, and he loathes himself intensely for it - he thinks about taking it.
But it's not her. As much as he would want his mother to come and take him away, she never would. She's dead, she's been dead for most of his life. This isn't her. This is Malicant. It's a trick. It's just a trick, and nothing more. He takes a breath, then another. "No."
Her hand drops away, a flash of cold anger showing in her eyes. "So be it. Then you are not my son." And she raises her hand again, now bearing a sword, a liuyedao, a saber meant for cutting, and brings it down on Gene's own blade.
The vibration of the swords ringing together makes his arm hurt, but he keeps in position, sweeping his blade up and around while stepping back, moving the heavier sword off of his guard.
He doesn't want to fight her, and Malicant knows that. He will be fighting an enemy that will not tire, that will stop at nothing to have him either turned willingly to Malicant's side or dead. And the enemy is wearing the face of the one person whose loss has hurt Gene the most.
The smart money's on Malicant.
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He's alarmed when she says that "the necromancer is gone," and he hazards a quick glance around the cavern. Indeed, Solomon is nowhere in sight. Even though Tony doesn't really like the guy, he's worried (he's still an ally, after all). Is he alive? Had he been more injured than Tony had thought? Does someone just disappear when they die in the dreaming? Well, there's nothing he can do right now - better to focus on defeating Malicant. Then they'll have time to figure out what happened to Solomon.
And the "defeating Malicant" part better happen soon. Gene is faltering. The taunts from the image of his mother are cutting even deeper than Zhang's, and Tony's starting to get really worried. To hell with Gene's ego: if Tony can get a clear shot at Momicant, he'll take it. He can apologize to Gene later.
The problem's going to be getting a clear shot. The ninjas are absolutely swarming him. At least Akito seems to be holding his own, and doesn't look like he needs any help. (He's actually holding his own a little too well for Tony's comfort. He's, uh, going a little feral. Not that a scrawny little pipsqueak of a guy tearing throats out with his teeth isn't impressive... It's also just. You know. Kind of horrifying.)
Tony finally clears a little breathing room for himself, and he turns to Gene. Between repulsor shots, he yells, "Gene, you don't have to be that person any more! You don't want to be that, I know you don't. This world is your second chance, remember? Don't let Malicant take it from you!"
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The battle is brutal and prolonged, less of a fight than an assault; the only offensive moves Gene makes are still meant as defense, to drive his mother back and give himself some room to maneuver. Even though they are in the Dreaming, Gene can't hold off forever. Maybe it's because he doesn't want to. Maybe it's because he's just tired, too tired, too ill from being confronted with Malicant wearing the skin of his mother to properly fight back. Tony at least has seen him fight - and defeat - bigger enemies with nothing more than an unfamiliar sword, and he should be able to tell that this is not Gene's usual style at all, that he's trying to make himself smaller and harder to hit rather than aggressively and acrobatically striking out at his foe. Though Malicant's splinter no longer bears the face of Zhang, there's something of Gene's interactions with Zhang in his movements, the tension, the defensiveness. He hears Tony's shout, but doesn't have time to think about it right now. Examining what he said will come later. For now, there's only this, only battle.
The discordant ringing of steel on steel echoes through the caverns, Malicant still pressing onwards, trying to back Gene into a wall, and Gene doggedly dodging and blocking each strike. The fight looks fluid, almost choreographed, two experts dancing around each other.
It's only a matter of time before one of them slips.
And Gene's arm is the one that tires first.
"You were never my son," she hisses at him, striking again and again, battering his thinner blade down as he tries to keep up his guard. "You are a pretender. You are a failure. You are not fit to be the Mandarin."
He raises the jian again, but the furious slashes knock it down even faster. She takes a step forward; he takes a step back, and stumbles on a piece of rubble knocked down from the earlier fight, tired, dizzy, demoralized.
As he stands upright, trying to raise his sword to block again, her own sword comes down and bites into his flesh, cutting him crosswise from shoulder to hip.
He crumples bleeding to the ground without even a cry, the jian still clutched in his hand, his own heartbeat betraying him and pumping out his life's blood onto the cavern floor. The wound has cut deep, almost to his heart. In the Dreaming, mortal wounds aren't necessarily mortal, but despite the Gha'nal venom coursing through his waking veins, the power of this splinter of Malicant is too strong for him. His spirit is nearly broken, and with it, his will to rise.
He's dying. He's dying, and he doesn't have much time.
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Hurry up, he thinks, not understanding why Gene is struggling so badly.
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He gets a break and manages to take out several ninjas and Malkuans at once, which clears his line of sight to Gene just in time for Tony to see Malicant cut him down.
"No!!" Tony screams, his voice raw with anguish and denial. No no no this isn't happening this isn't happening you aren't allowed to die you stupid bastard, not now, after everything you've put me through, don't you dare!!
It's a vital moment of distraction, and when he tries to launch himself out of the fight and towards Gene, a Makluan warrior knocks him out of the air before he's made it two meters. The shadowy alien grabs a hold of his leg and starts slamming him repeatedly against the wall. It's brutal, but Tony doesn't care about the pain, he only cares that he loses precious seconds to disorientation. A lucky shot finally disintegrates his attacker, and he falls to the ground and immediately springs up again. With a furious howl, he flings himself at the horde, firing his repulsors indiscriminately, without regard to his power levels or his own safety.
He's blind to anything except Gene, lying on the floor of the cavern, bleeding out.
"watch him KILL HIS OWN MOTHER with a BROKEN LAWN CHAIR!"
Malicant, wearing Jin Ying's form, cannot resist gloating over her defeated foe. She seizes him by the neck, drawing him in close, and he can't even struggle. "What's that, you pathetic child? Speak up," she says, her form flickering from Gene's mother to Zhang to the Mandarin and back again.
He twitches in Malicant's grasp, struggling to breathe, his chest heaving and his mouth working soundlessly as the impossibly strong hand tightens around his throat.
"Speak. Up." The form Malicant's wearing flickers through others that Gene knows, like the specters of his dreams had earlier, and it spends a lot of time wearing the shape of the Iron Man armor, and the shape of Tony, grinning cruelly and recklessly, an expression Gene has never seen on the real one's face. Once - for a long moment - it looks like Howard. "Have to take turns, you know," it says with Howard's voice. "A lot of people want to kill you, and I'm going to let every. Single. One of them have a chance at you before I let you die." Still wearing Howard's form, it looks at Tony, and grins. "Come on, Tony, give your dad a hand. I know you want a shot at him, too, for everything he did to you."
Gene coughs weakly, and blood spurts from the cut across his torso, matting his clothes against his body. "It...nt..."
The shade's form changes again, flickering rapid-fire through the three main presences that had shadowed his entire life in different ways: his mother, Zhang, and the Mandarin. "Worthless trash," it sneers, its voice changing as its form does. "You can't even speak." It settles back on the shape of his mother, cruelly choking out what little life remains in him.
"It's not real," Gene whispers again, and, with one last desperate surge of strength, jabs forward with both hands on the sword, driving it straight through her torso.
It's almost anticlimactic; the shadowy Makluans and ninjas disappear into smoke, and there's a look of shock on the shade's face, the shock that had doubtless been on Jin Ying's face when Zhang had killed her, and she totters backwards, the sword sticking out of her, her nerveless grasp falling from Gene's neck. He collapses on top of her, both hands still clutching the hilt of the sword in what is almost an attitude of prayer, his wounds vanishing as the piece of Malicant dies and he regains control over the state of his Dreaming body. His clothes are still torn and matted with blood - both his and Malicant's, now - but he's no longer bleeding out.
And he continues to repeat those three words in a litany, voice wavering, his head bowed and his eyes wide and staring at the wound he'd made, at the damage he'd done. She'd done her job too well, training her son to seek power, to fight, to kill, and now she was dead twice over, slain once by treachery and once by love. "It's not real. It's not real. It's not real. It's not real."
His hands are steady, but the rest of him is shaking, even as the illusion of the corpse refuses to disappear. His chest is heaving as he tries to breathe, but try as he might, he can't seem to get enough air. "It's not real. It's not real. It's not real."
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akito is done here now /o/ just zzzzzzz
naptime for all these superqueeroes, someone pass out the juiceboxes