There was something in the kid's hand; Chantelle couldn't make it out. But she struck, hard and accurately. The thing convulsed for a moment, then slumped.
Conflict is a Worm fanfiction by ack1308, where Fortuna succeeds in killing the Thinker entity before it has a chance to place any limits on her power. As a result, the Path to defeating Scion begins immediately, instead of flailing around in the dark for decades.
Three chapters were published in July 2016, on FanFiction.Net (here
), SpaceBattles.com (here), Sufficient Velocity.com (here), and Questionable Questing (here).
This story contains examples of the following:
- Adaptational Heroism: Thanks to the unfiltered Path, Chantelle knows from the start about her ability to create and control Endbringers, and intentionally orders all twenty to start construction, as weapons against Scion.
- Mercy Kill: When hunting the mutated mindless people who were affected by unstable powers released in the Entity's crash-landing, Chantelle considers trying to find a way to remove the powers and restore the people. But she decides that after they've been killing and eating each other, it's not worth it and they just need to be put down.Either they enjoyed it, in which case they deserve death, or they would have to live with it for the rest of their lives, in which case they would beg for death. What I am doing is a mercy.
- Point of Divergence: As a result of Fortuna reaching the Thinker slightly faster, her Paths have no blind spots, and she immediately obtains the shard that would have gone to Eidolon, giving it instead to Chantelle (Doctor Mother in canon).
- Tastes Better Than It Looks: Subverted; Chantelle expresses a faint hope that the power formula Fortuna has brewed up will taste better than its absolutely rank smell, but Fortuna assures her that it tastes worse, and she proves to be right.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: It's bad enough that Chantelle has to hold a warm, wet, pulsating lump of flesh the size of a baseball. Then Fortuna tells her that she needs to eat it.
