Author Notes:

I had the hardest trouble deciding what point of view to write from. But I use this story to get myself back into my comfort-zone of writing. This story lets all my ideas come loose in chaos. Just. Who to write? Grr.

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Breaking Reality

Chapter 13: Less QQ, More Pew Pew

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Brian

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The controller vibrates in my hand when we’re hit. I hate how it does that. I mean, the ship shakes enough. Why does the controller have to as well? I mean, seriously. I didn’t even get a chance to turn off vibrations for this game. Then again. This isn’t a game. It’s real. I’m really controlling a spaceship with an X-box controller. Yeah.

That makes even less sense!

“Can’t you do better at avoiding incoming attacks?” Riku shouts at me, glaring over his shoulder.

I grimace. Batsun shrugs beside me. Why do I like Batsun more than Riku? Riku was supposed to be more likable than this. I blame Stephanie for writing them this way. Riku has all the power, and he’s not exactly nice to people new at this kind of thing. At least he’s nicer than Jake.

Still. Riku is supposed to be based off of me. I’m not like that at all! Am I? I don’t think I am. Does Stephanie see me that way? I hope not.

“I’m better at first-person shooters, sorry,” I mutter.

The Elvian leader turns in his chair and stares at me. “I don’t know what that means, but I recognize an excuse when I hear it. This is life and death out here. We’re only lucky that your mistakes haven’t killed us, yet. Don’t let it happen again,” he says before turning back to his touch-screen, bringing up different information and view points with fast flying fingers.

I sigh and turn back to the screen they placed me in front of. To explain it simply: it’s a close-up view of a radar. It’s like that little radar at the bottom of certain games. That’s all I have to go by.

Which, of course, doesn’t make sense. Nothing in this space battle is making much sense.

Using this X-box controller, I have to maneuver a dragon-shaped ship through other ships, both big and small. I have to guess at where the shots are coming from. Granted, I get told what ship has most likely just fired at us, but there’s no lines to avoid. I have to imagine it.

Yeah. Not easy. Not easy at all. Not like anything I’ve ever played, either.

To top it all off, the enemy fighters are new to Batsun and Riku. They don’t know what the hell we’re fighting. Or who. How am I supposed to be any real help? Nothing makes sense!

“This isn’t working,” I mutter after the ship gets hit again.

Before Riku can yell at me again, Batsun speaks up from a different station—looking down at his own screens. “I’m going to have to agree, Sir. They’re too different from anything we’ve faced before. We should leave the battle and search for Venz-xarl—”

Riku doesn’t answer, but Batsun seems to be focused on something in front of him. I put the controller down and turn my swivel chair—resisting the urge to spin around in continuous circles—and face the nicer Elvian. “What’s coming in?”

He swerves to me, eyes wide for a moment before he shrugs. “A frequency. Seems to be a message from one of the other ships.”

“Patch it through,” Riku commands, his voice deadpan, serious, scary.

I almost feel like I’m in some kind of movie as I watch Batsun nod, and follow Riku’s gaze to the frontal view. If this were a movie, what kind of music would be playing right now? Some kind of fast action medley? Or the ominous theme of one of the main enemies of the show?

My mind instantly surfs to the latter when a face appears on another screen. He’s dark. Not just black. Dark. As in, the opposite of light. His clothes and eyes and skin and hair…it’s all the same, and it seems to be pulling in the light around him as if he were a moving, living, breathing black hole. I shiver before he even begins to speak.

“Sir Takahashi, correct?”

Riku glances to Batsun, who shrugs. I blink. It’s not a message – it’s a direct signal, like, a direct phone call…with a television screen! Now I’m definitely in some typical sci-fi movie. Which is, kind of cool, minus the fact that this guy is creepy as hell.

Riku sits back in his chair and crosses his arms, but his foot is tapping. Trying to mask his nervousness. Some evil they don’t know – hell, some evil I don’t know – has just called him out by name. “Correct, and I am afraid you have me at a disadvantage.”

The creepy evil dude smirks. “Of course. I am not from your world, or rather, your universe. On my plane of existence, they often call me the Dark Destroyer, the representation of true evil in a form. My true name, now, it would be healthy for you to not know that one.”

Riku’s foot taps and I feel my anger grow. “Right. Well, seeing as chaos has exploded, you must be pretty happy by now.”

“Oh, I am never happy. Happiness would not do for one such as I.”

Now that actually makes sense. If he’s evil, and if he supposedly represents true evil…Happiness is a virtue of good and really would be out of place for someone who loves fear and disaster. Yeah. Okay, maybe it doesn’t make sense. Or does it? Arg! Nothing’s working the way it should!

“Well, you must have some reason for stopping the attack and contacting me. Are you intending to surrender?”

I have to hide back a laugh. Yeah, right. We were getting our asses handed to us. There is no way the dark, creepy, evil dude would want to surrender.

As expected, Mr. Dark Destroyer simply smirks. “Actually, I was more or less hoping for your surrender, Takahashi.”

Riku shrugs. “Then I am afraid the answer is a negative. The Elvian fleet will not give in that easily.”

“Your history begs to disagree.”

I see both Riku and Batsun tense at that one. As for me, I just grimace. Not only does Mr. Dark Destroyer know his name, he seems to know the history as well. Strange, for someone new to “this plane of existence” as he put it.

In Stephanie’s story – well, she calls it “Reda’s story”- the Elvians caved in quickly to Zoranian control, even though their starship fleets were greater by far. A coward of a race, something Riku always despised, though he worked in the background to do his best to restore peace and eventually joined Reda’s cause – or was it Jake’s cause by then?

I know this, of course. I was the one who created Riku and helped occasionally with his part in the bigger story. But for this newcomer to know it? And what would Riku think? First, I walk into the scene, controlling his spaceship – with a video game controller no less – and then this creepy evil dude steps in demanding surrender and showing to know more than he should.

Why. Does nothing. Make. SENSE!

After a while, Riku closes his eyes and slouches in his chair. “What are your terms?” The words come out quiet, strained.

I feel like throwing my controller. Well, for a moment. Then my mind hops to Red verses Blue and I can’t help but jump in with : “What if we admit that one of us sucks?”

So I skipped a few lines or so. Whatever. My friends would get it, as would any avid Red verses Blue fan. Of course, that excludes the three storybook characters before me, who all stare in silence.

Damnable silence.

“Never mind. Inside joke.”

Riku’s glaring. Somehow it doesn’t surprise me. Batsun simply looks confused. Which, doesn’t surprise me either.

Mr. Dark Destroyer, though? “I knew there was one on board.” He’s definitely full of surprises. “Give me the Author Aid and I shall leave you alone.”

Batsun: “The who?”

Riku: “The what?”

Me: “Okay, the ‘shall’ is completely out of place in your sentence. If you’re going to use Old English, you really should go all out.”

Even before I finish my sentence, the two Elvian characters have shifted their stares from the phone-screen (what else am I supposed to call it?) to strange little me. Silence enters the room. Well, not really. There is a static from the screens and a hum from the engines and a steady rhythmic beeping from Riku’s console. But, still, when people stare and stare quietly, you know they’ve figured something out that you haven’t. Or maybe you’re just the weird one. I mean, maybe I’m just the weird one. Whatever.

The point is, the typical reaction in this situation is, well, typical. “What?”

Neither Riku nor Batsun answer me. Their blue Elvian eyes just continue to stare. But unhappy Mr. Dark Destroyer speaks from his little connection, almost in lecture-monotone voice.

“‘When the Author breaks the line, all will be confusion. The Balance will reappear to set right the raging storm. Evil and Good will appear as well, but in different forms and in different times. Chaos shall reign until the balance calms the sea. And the Author will be the hand to write once again past, present, and future. May the Balance survive. May the Author work her magic. May the Characters learn to play along. Only then shall reality return.’”

Silence pokes again until I make a pop sound with my lips. “Oops, just blew up Alderon again,” I mutter, not even caring for the fact that no one would get the inside joke. Clearing my throat, I decide to respond to…whatever it was Mr. creepy-evil-dude just said. “Uhm. Right. I get the feeling you just recited a line of memorized prophecy or some such, which given the situation wouldn’t surprise me, but…all I want to know now is why.”

Suddenly, the voice is given a form in front of me. Not on a screen any longer, but he’s standing right in front of me. Mr. Dark Destroyer who sucks in the light. The creepy evil dude who makes it freezing as hell. Err. Well, hell isn’t cold, but I’m sure you understand what I mean.

Riku reacts faster than I do. Bo-staff is out and coming close to creepy evil dude’s head, but it freezes in place before it has a chance to break anything. No. Scratch that. It’s not frozen. It’s…slowing down, like in a weird slow motion. What the hell?

“Time bending. A useful technique for one who does not exist within such a realm.”

“You did that?” I ask, speaking not to get an answer but to hear my voice. To know I’m alive. To know I’m still moving. To know this is real.

My heartbeat seems to be moving rather fast right about now.

“Yes, now you asked a very important question. Evil and Good have appeared. Chaos is running rampant. The Balance has acted and made a decision, a move, to help the Author. The Balance should survive. The Author should learn to work her magic. Now all that remains is getting the Characters to play along. Yes, I am one of the Evils, but my part in this tale is not to destroy. I prefer not to destroy that which created me, though some of her creations may misunderstand and want otherwise.”

“Right. Pretending I understand all of this, what does it have to do with me? Why are you here? What are you? What the hell is going on?”

Mr. Dark Destroyer steps to the side. Turns around. Points to the slow-moving Riku. “You know this man, this Elvian, this Takahashi.”

“Well, yeah, he’s my character. I helped create him.”

“Exactly.”

This time, I do throw the controller. “Look. Start making sense! This is seriously pissing me off!”

“You know the Author, personally. As a friend.”

I cross my arms. “Who? Stephanie? Stephanie is the Author?” Mr. Dark Destroyer nods. I laugh. “So you’re telling me her stories are coming to life?” He nods again. “Wow. And you’re part of one of her stories? The Evil guy in some big epic or something?”

He shrugs. “In a dream.”

This makes me blink. “So her dreams are coming to life?”

“You are not surprised?”

“Shit, that’s pretty fucking cool. So this is all real. Riku and Batsun and Jake and…who else?”

Dark Destroyer shrugs. “No time to figure it out. You have direct connection to these two. The Author has too many characters to control all at once, to convince alone…”

“So…you want me to get these guys to ‘play along?’” He nods. I lower my eyebrows. “What exactly does that mean?”

“You know the story better than I do. Now that you understand, I shall leave. I have much to prepare. Much to fight against.”

“But wait!”

He turns around, dark cloak moving faster than the air around him, creating a fuzziness behind my eyes. I rub a hand across my face, shake my head, and face him again. My mind is no longer freaking out, as it was before. It’s actually starting to think of what I can do, of the fun adventure ahead. Not only do I control a spaceship with an X-box controller, I get to spend time with my favorite character. But Mr. Dark Destroyer…

“Fight against what? Why go to the trouble to help me, or warn me, or whatever, and then fight against…?”

He laughs, an action that feels odd, much like the idea of a true evil form being happy. “The Author dreams me as Evil, and she gives me intelligence. She has yet to discover why I fight. But fight I do. Until she understands and controls her dreams, I will always fight within myself, as if a teenager forever caught in uncertainty. Right and Wrong are so gray to my realistic mind….” He shrugs. “You may find me at the end of the road, but whether I fight with or against – that is up to her. For a Character cannot control himself, no matter how much he may wish to; no matter how much one argues for our realism – we are all but fictional beings in a dream.”

A step. A breath. A thought.

And he’s gone. Normalcy returns to the spaceship. Riku looks around, sees me, and growls, his bo staff disappearing as fast as it had appeared. The screen is empty. The evil character is gone.

Batsun gasps. I follow his gaze. The X-box controller lies on the floor, broken, cords poking out from the plastic. I shrug. It’s not the first one I’ve ever broken.

“I guess the ship is back under your control, Riku.”

He glares, then shakes his head. “If only it were that easy.”

“Hmm?”

And then gravity hits me. And I understand. With the loss of the controller in the midst of battle, with the suddenness of it, we were hit. Given the fact that Mr. Evil Character came and provided nice distraction, well, no one was ready to dodge incoming laser beams – or whatever you want to call them. Worse, the engines were hit. Worse, even…

Brace for impact.

I wince at the ship’s warning, followed by the late alarm bells. “Oh fuck me.”