A Game of Gods: Infinities

Rey watched the screen in silence, blinking a few times at it, obviously confused.

"Is that...is that me?"

Fluttershy merely glared harshly at Rey, fully understanding his intent. However, it did not mean she would allow him to go through it if it came to that. Before she could answer, the others where ganging up on him verbally, with Snake Eyes almost LITERALLY. She backed up a bit......

But then suddenly Rey did a complete personality change, complete with memory loss. This scared the pegasus pony a bit. She barely remember what happened in Eddie's world after being submerged in the Sea of Black Tears, but she definitely remembered Rey was very much meaner than he was before hand. Twilight would probably help out a lot in this situation.......

"Yes, this is you from a few moments ago," said Mehir. "It seems like Red possession to me, or perhaps something else... My offer of a healing spell still stands, as is my suggestion to have a healer check you up."

"And when you helped repair my mind, your mental self displayed at least another two lesser selves that occasionally spoke, although they weren't as clearly disjointed." Garland spoke up.

Rey looked back at Garland, then shook his head slightly, holding his hands up. "No, no, no. Okay, look, this joke isn't funny, and I would just really like to go and lay down for a while or something, I'm tired as all get out, I don't know I feel like I've barely slept in days, but...I just need to go rest. I don't need a healer or anything like that."

"You're the judge of that," said Mehir, "but if this happens again, please go and have yourself checked. If this isn't just a one-time thing, you're a danger to your comrades here and to yourself, and we cannot afford that... Not to mention that it might lead to a situation we all want to avoid."

Subaru nodded,

“I never said we were Joking Rey. This is serious.” She looked at Garland then and back at Rey.

“If this guy's right, then you have three other personalities inside your head. I just don't know how to deal with it.” And she was worried that if Rey went to sleep he'd wake up with a new personality in place.

"No, no...LOOK." He sighed a bit, putting a hand to his face, then shaking his head. "I...I know what the problem really is. I'll...I'll deal with it. Just...I'll be all right, I'll go take care of this..."

He winced, reaching into the pack at his side and pulling something out, keeping it in his hands, and starting to head towards the castle again.

Scorpion followed after Rey.

"Rey," said Scorpion, "you are not Ermac. You do not have multiple souls all directing you and working in unison. You have one soul and three other personalities fighting for control of it. You also, from what I know of you, have no home to go to now that you have powers. This is serious. I may not be a healer of any sort, but if there is anything I can do to aid you, I will."

"No...look...just, leave me alone. I'll take care of it." Rey moved to try and hurry away, looking a little more upset.

"I've lost track of how many times you've said that, Rey," said Scorpion. "Every time something comes up, it's 'Leave me alone, I'm fine, I'll figure this out by myself.' But that approach hasn't worked for you yet. You have the potential to be the bravest of all of us here, and I've seen that bravery in battle, so why do you keep running from the problems that don't involve physical combat?"

Myst, I'll leave it up to you whether or not this leads to Let's You and Him Fight.

"Because I can handle things myself! I don't need your help!" Rey shoved whatever he was carrying back into his pack, whirling to glare at Scorpion. "Why can't you just accept that?!"

"I've been in the position you are, Rey," said Scorpion. "All alone, never able to return to my family, with a chip on my shoulder and problems I thought I could resolve solo. I've spent the entire 1990's in that position, seeking revenge and never satisfying it. I thought I could handle it, but then I found out I had been manipulated by the man I should have punished a long time ago for years. If I hadn't, I would have been tricked into killing Sub-Zero. You can't always be the lone warrior. Not even gods can fix all of their problems all by themselves. Sometimes, someone else has to catalyze the resolution. For you, now is one of those times."

"Fuck you, man. I don't need anyone else to do anything for me. I'm a big boy and I can handle my own problems, and all you're doing is giving me a headache. Just leave me alone. I don't need you and I don't need anyone else. All needing other people has ever done is gotten me into worse positions and I'm not going to keep rolling with that."

"Oh, so you want to fight now?" said Scorpion, clenching a fist. "Are you gonna turn heel like Hogan did in '96? Are we back in the Attitude Era?" The fury of a hellspawn came into his voice. "   Insult me again. I dare you, I double dare you! Insult me one more goddamn time!   "

"Why do you say that?" Fluttershy asked Rey.

If the wrestler were to turn to her, he would be staring smack dab at the biggest, most soulful pair of eyes in the history of anything. "Why do you say needing others gets you into trouble? What happened to you? We all just want to help you." The pegasus was almost pleading at this point.

Rey looked between Fluttershy and Scorpion, starting to back away, holding his hands up, voice getting a touch desperate. "Just...just leave me alone, man, just leave me alone! I don't want this to happen again, not after last time, I just want to be left alone!"

Having failed to find Moja in the crystal city and thus finding no answers to the many questions that plagued his mind, Jack made his way back to the others at an unhurried pace, not knowing of the confrontation that was brewing. When he did arrive, it seemed matters had gotten worse, which was, sadly, how things usually went. Rey...what are you doing to yourself this time? He stepped forth to answer Rey's pleas for loneliness.

"What you want, what any of us wants, has never been something that matters," he stated. "What matters is what is needed. And I believe, as does everyone here, that you need us. You need friends. What need is not to be alone. I am sorry, but I cannot permit such a thing. It would be evil to leave a friend to his demons when it is not too late. Please let us help you."

edited 27th Apr '12 8:36:11 PM by RedCedar

"Don't interfere," said Scorpion as an aside to Fluttershy so Rey couldn't hear. "He needs catharsis, and I'm going to give it to him."

"I'm sorry," said the ninja, speaking to Rey again, "but I can't. You've got all that rage pent up, waiting to burst out. I know it too well, and I hope you don't have to see just how far mine has gone. You can't run from it, Rey. You can't expect being alone to resolve it. So come on! Face me like a warrior should!"

"I am not a fucking warrior!" Rey shouted, clenching his fists. "I'm not! I'm just some guy who's family pushed him into that line of work, who was just some pampered posh celebrity before getting brought into this horrible place! When I first came here, I didn't know shit about shit, I didn't have powers, I didn't know any more than show swordsmanship, I didn't have...fucking...personalities in my head! My entire life has been being pushed from one fight to the next with no chance to breathe unless I was literally too hurt to continue, and not even for any noble reason like you or Jack or any of the rest of you real warriors! For a fucking sport!"

He turned his gaze to Jack. "And friends. Don't fucking talk to me about friends, man! Don't talk to me about needing to let people in! I've tried my. Whole. Life. To let people in, I've put myself out there over and over and over, and do you know what I have to show for it??" He held out his hand in a fist. "Exactly fucking nothing but broken hearts and broken bones! I've never had one friend in my life that didn't abandon me when I needed them most! Those guys I met the first go-round at this were the only people I ever really let myself trust, and where are they all now, huh?? Where's Gordon? Where's Eddie? Where's Blink, or Naoto or that damn cat or the Doctor or Saren or Luxanna or Raz or even fuckin' Mason or Ravage or Isaac or Sub-Zero or any of them??"

Rey was practically screaming at this point. "They're not here, Jack! That's where they are! They're dead, or they left and went home, I don't know half the time! I'm not saying I didn't want them to go back to their lives, I wanted them to be happy, or at least to not be stuck here, but where does that leave me, Jack?? That leaves me here, with all of you, and with it about to happen again! Do you know what my best case scenario is here?! If we escape, if we kill another Nomad and get out, I don't get to go home, I get to stand in limbo, and watch all of you go home and never see any of you again, that's what I get!"

Rey's voice cracked a bit at this point, and he reached up, grabbing the visor of his helmet to pull it over his face, hiding it from them, even though his small, quavering voice gave away what he was trying to hide. "So just...don't even try to get fucking close to me because I don't want the goddamn heartbreak anymore...I can't stand it, I can't...I'm never going to have anyone to stay with me...so I just don't want to even try anymore...I just want to get you all home and go on my way...okay? So just...leave me alone."

After the singing stopped, Stranger went back to his old grumpy self, albiet more confused. He was still trying to make heads or tails of his situation, when he became aware of more sounds coming from the same direction, sounds of conflict. "I warned her. Fuzzles aint, something ta mess with."

With a nod to the Makuta, Stranger set off on all fours to solve the problem. Making his way towards the castle, he entered without slowing down and instead ran up the walls to get around corners. Accidentally trampling someone sleeping in the hallway, he came across a situation definitely not fuzzle related.

"Sub-Zero offered you a home!" said Scorpion, who was still pissed off from the Precision F-Strike. "I know for a fact he offered you membership in the Lin Kuei! He could have made you into the finest warrior Earthrealm had ever seen!    But no!       You       chose to stay between realms! You, who, need I remind you, killed a GOD! You had a free pass to home, and you didn't take it! It's your own damn fault you're still here!   "

Those listening would detect a different kind of wrath in Scorpion. This was not the wrath of someone out for blood. Scorpion had some other motive in bringing this up, but what it was wouldn't be clear to Rey.

Jack took a step forward, his face set in grim resolve.

"I am sorry for what you have endured, Rey. It is not something anyone should have to go through and I do not blame you for feeling betrayed. I too have been lied to. I have been betrayed by those I trusted. I have given in to despair. But I learned from all those things. And the most important lesson I learned was that if you allow your suffering to make you as you are now, Rey, evil wins. It is because you continue to perservere in doing good, in being' good, even after what has happened, that makes life worth fighting for. It is because'' I continue to trust and to fight that I prove there are virtues worth the cost they bring."

He took another step forward.

"Yes, most of our friends are gone. But I am still here, so I must speak for them. If they could, they would be here to rescue you and the rest of us. You know that, I think, somewhere inside. And you have new friends who will do all that they can to save you from yourself and anyone else. I am among them as well. I am living proof that there is good in the world and it is here with you."

A final step and he reached out a hand.

"I and all your friends here will not leave you, even if we are victorious. I cannot promise we will all be here. But those of us who are there on that day will not leave you behind. That is a promise. And we will help you now. That is also a promise. So tell me...will you allow evil to win?" His open hand remained extended, and a faint smile crossed his face as he silently urged Rey to fight the demons that tormented him.

Subaru sighed and put one firm hand on Rey's shoulder.

“You're right in some ways Rey. You're not a warrior. You didn't have any training to deal with this.”

Then she gripped a little harder,

“Yet you've gone through everything. Hell and back literally. But you didn't just lay down and die. And that counts for something.” She let go of Rey at that point,

“A lot of people I've seen would have curled up in a ball and refused to do anything about it. You didn't do that. You refused to just die.” She smiled finally,

“You do yourself a disservice. You came here with just your wits, while we had abilities, magic and all that. But you're still kicking. You just don't give up.”

Rey sighed softly, turning his head a bit to look to the side, not moving to take Jack's hand or look at any of them, but not still trying to back away either. "I want to give up. I've wanted to for so, so damn long. I just can't...I can't do it..." He shook his head a little. "I just...I just want to...I don't know what I want..."