melodiesoflife | Event || Revelations

And Deadpool's standing in front of the portal, reaching out to grab the Moogle by the head, Deadmoog looming over them.

"Y'know, I've been very patient this entire time with you and your tatertot master. How about you shut up with the Humans are the Real Bastards shtick and let us do our job? Hm? Or I'll gladly show you your world being destroyed."

And he has a blade aimed at the Moogle.

Ales felt a twang of guilt - not because Palitutu had a soul like any other living being or out of the goodness of his own heart - but because he saw a lot of himself in her. They both were frustrated with the problems in their worlds and took matters into their own hands. They both understood that sacrifices needed to be made. Ales would never allow himself to get soft and stupid by sparing lives to sacrifice even more.

What a shame. He and Palitutu could have gotten along well.

"She did ask us to kill her to prove our worth, didn't she?" His puppet raised its arm, aiming it at Artemicion. He could always hit him with a Leg Shot to prevent him from escaping. "We're going to do whatever it takes to stop this nonsense once and for all."

Edited 2016-09-01 14:32 (UTC)

Jade glanced to Lust, then turned back to the dying tarutaru. It was true he could still save her life. Between Life and Curaga, it probably wasn't too late. If he were more like his old mentor, he might have even agreed to it.

Shame he wasn't like her.

"...Precisely." He shrugged off Lusts's grip. "If we spare her now, she will never trust us to do our part. She'll certainly do us no personal favors."

He pocketed the golden crystal and stood up. It wasn't as though Jade hated her. Palitutu was an enemy, but that didn't make it personal. If anything, he understood her logic all too well.

Perhaps that was why it didn't take him long to make a decision.

"If there's any mercy to be shown, it's in letting her die with the knowledge we will not shirk away from what needs to be done. So no -- I will not heal her."

If the others wanted him to change his mind, they'd have to give a convincing reason.

The moment Jade stopped speaking, Ace could already feel a wave of disagreement forming over the controversial idea... that he found himself agreeing with, ultimately.

"This is no longer the issue of whether or not she deserves to be saved. Palitutu had made her choice long before she came here, and we ought to respect such commitment."

His expression remained solemn, even as he turned towards tearful Artemicion. Although Deadpool's comments directed at the Moogle had seemed highly out of place, he had to face the consequences of his involvement, eventually.

"Of course you would wish to bring her back - she's your mentor. However, knowing what it would entail, do you honestly think this is what she would have wanted?"

In spite of what some of the Heroes of Light said or did, Artemicion didn’t back down from trying to drag the body inch by inch if need be. In particular he replied to Jade and Ace.

“Since when have you ever cared about what she wanted or respecting her ideas or ideals, Kupo? You’ve never cared to hear another viewpoint but yours. That’s just an excuse to let her die, Kupo!” he then looked at Sheena. "That's why she never trusted you. You're not ready to accept the notion of sacrifices, Kupo!"

He didn’t stop either as he was threatened, but he looked furiously at Kaji and Deadpool.

“Now there’s no one left to oppose you, you’re just showing who you are! Just a bunch of felons. You’ll have to kill me too, Kupo!”

He proceeded to go back to what he was doing and made whatsoever no efforts to defend himself or try to stop Deadpool or Kaji. He had, after all, more important things in mind from his point of view.

"Ye-ah, you don't get off that easy."

With Archer and Gunner equipped, there's a quick way to take him down. Kaji casts a Status Shot: Sleep and fires and arrow at point-blank range. If it works, he prepares to scoop up the sleeping moogle and walk away with him.

"You don't get a say in what happens to you anymore."

"We're not ready?" A smile softened on Ales's face when he saw the Moogle go down. He had his puppet lower its arm and walk over towards the fallen Tarutaru, the Teensie himself walking up the Kaji.

"Thank you."

His voice was gentle without the previous hint of bitterness. For once, he felt that things were going right.

Twilight sighed and shook her head. "Artemicion is nothing more than a coward. Only looking out for himself. He's blinded himself with Palitutu's words and ambitions just to save himself." Twilight walked back over to the lake to see the view beyond. "What Artemicion forgot is that there may have been multiple me or others, there's always been people like Palitutu. Of course, the legends tend to gloss over that fact."

Turning back to the others, she started trotting towards the portal. "How about we start getting back to Crystallis? We got a multiverse to save."

Sparks listened to all the Heroes go on from the top of is Magitek Armor. For once, he didn't have much to say; just a mumbled comment to himself.

"Reckon we got different ideas of sacrifices."

Without a word to anyone, the marshal pulled his hat low, and marched the armor through the portal.

Lust was livid. Her eyes narrowed and her teeth grit, cold contempt written all over her face as she pushed Jade back. "Don't patronize me," she hissed. "Make up whatever excuses you want, this is about revenge, not your convoluted sense of ethics. The furball is right about you. ALL of you." Her normal tactics would have been to threaten to kill him or someone he cared about to get her way, but that wouldn't work here. She wasn't immortal, and she was profoundly outnumbered. Whatever chances remained to her without Palitutu would be erased if they struck her down now.

She whirled around, rage and desperation making her movements sharp and savage, more like an animal's than a person's, and her eyes fell on Jack. "You. You promised you'd help me. Show me that you weren't lying." She thrust her hand toward Palitutu. "Prove that humanity really does embody mercy and compassion, not just some pretty words that can't be backed up by action."

Sheena could only stare at the Moogle in a mix of shock and anger after he stopped speaking. Not understand sacrifices? Her? She understood more than she should.

And why she didn't want to sacrifice anyone else.

Turning, she took a few steps away from the portal--only to stop and look at Lust.

"If humans are so horrible, why do you want to be one so badly?" she asked before resuming her walk.

She'd go back eventually, but for right now, she just wanted to be alone.

Jack has needed a few minutes to recover, to let his Custom Job do its work and heal up the damage that the Curse had left on him. He hadn't been intending to get involved, trusting the Heroes to make a decision they could all live with. But when Lust looks at him like that. He knows the desperation that can come when something that you want this badly about to slip through your fingers.

But all she wants is to be human. Who is Jack to deny her that?

"The right thing to do really is to save her life, to give her back the choice as to what to do with her life."

But then Jack looks squarely back at Lust. "If she even has the knowledge that you're seeking, is getting it from her worth risking more lives? If we bring her back and we can't control her, she might make the choice to kill again. She's going to keep taking up our time, to keep pushing us further until we do what she wants."

"So I need to know: is it worth it? Is humanity worth that?"

There is a trick and a trap in that question. Jack wants to know if Lust even understands this thing that she's searching for.

And among those who have been silent is one Ruby Rose, who walks past the group and towards the portal.

"I'm bored now. Can we go home and deal with everything else instead of whatever she's talking about?" She griped, hands behind her head. "Maybe get something to eat, too?"

Her eyes narrowed at Sheena. Pitiful wretch. As if she could even begin to understand the emptiness of being incomplete, of not being whole...!

Lust's rage quieted slightly as Jack addressed her. He was listening, and that gave her some sense of hope that her desperate desire wasn't about to be destroyed. She faced him directly, relaxing her hands at her sides.

"You saw what she did." She gestured to the broken necklace, and the small gold crystal now being held by...she wasn't paying attention to who picked it up, honestly. "She wants us to stop the Calamity. She gave us the gift of time to do it." Lust raised her chin slightly. "We've already proved that we can be ruthless and brutal. She got exactly what she wanted, didn't she?"

Her head shifted slightly to the right so she could regard him with a sidelong glance. "And what if she or Artemicion is an Avatar of the Calamity?" she pointed at Palitutu. "If we want Narayana to show mercy and compassion in sparing your worlds, then you had best be willing to show it to her first."

Edited 2016-09-01 18:12 (UTC)

Jack was ready to accuse Lust of not answering his question, but when she makes her final point, he visibly grins. Because she did answer. And she gets it. "You're right. It doesn't even matter if she is an Avatar or not. The Calamity has grown curious about our actions. What will we do to a defeated enemy? Whether we have something to gain out of it or not?" Jack nods towards Lust.

Jack is in full-on Doctor mode, raising his voice so all the rest of the heroes can hear. "The Avatars are going to hear about what we did here today! The ones that are friendly towards us and the ones that are against us. Whether they know it or not, they are telling it to the very being that we are going to ask for mercy! What story are they going to tell?"

...

......

"You mean we have to SAVE HER NOW?!"

Cloud glanced over at Mary. He had no doubt that the Assassin would volunteer to be the one to put Palitutu down if it came to it. But even the weight of a life of someone who tormented them so was daunting to everyone.

"She wanted us to kill her. She kept telling us to prove to her that we could. This went beyond us 'proving we had another way'. We've always been willing to spare her but she keeps demanding that we finish her." He frowned and looked around at the remaining.

"We don't know how long the portal will be open, right? Let's take her back, put her somewhere safe. But no medical or life support unless she requests it. And...I'll stand by if she wants to be finished." Cloud felt a lump in his throat. He understood what he was taking on.

It was clear from Jade's face that he was neither happy nor convinced. Showing mercy was well and good, but that was assuming the Calamity would view it the same way humans did. From what Kalki had told them, it just wasn't that simple.

Cloud's idea was slightly better, but had a rather huge hole.

"And how do you propose we do that?" he demanded. "Don't forget that Palitutu is capable of not only teleporting, but also opening gates to the Rift. Where would we put her to prevent her from escaping?

"Palitutu believed in her methods absolutely, even at death's door. She only gave us the crystal because she believed this was her end and she had nothing left to lose. If she deems our mercy as a weakness -- and I believe she will -- she'll have no qualms about trying to stop us again. Do you honestly think she'd give us another chance?"

Lust eyed Jade. She doubted 'You're a researcher, figure it out if you're so smart' would go over well with him. He was harder to convince than Jack was. "Can you honestly say she wouldn't give us another chance? Neither of us are mind readers, nor can we predict the future. There are others who can do this, however. Let them see for themselves. I see no problem with keeping her sedated, as the boy offered," she nodded at Cloud.

"Palitutu, I believe, is essential to improving and perfecting the Soul Divider. She has knowledge far beyond anything any of us have. And her ability to send us to our own worlds is invaluable, as we have access to technology, magic, and knowledge we do not have on our own. I think she may also know how we may stabilize the Calamity fragments inside of us, that will allow us to better confront and influence Narayana when the times comes that we must stand before her. Logically speaking, she is an asset, one that should not be carelessly discarded because we are too afraid we will not be able to defeat her again. We've already proven we can, and easily." She folded her arms.

"If I'm wrong, I'll kill her myself. And you may kill me if you wish." She probably sounded a little too calm in offering to stake her life on her convictions, but that was simply the truth of it. The sin of lust wasn't merely physical satiation; it was desire, and being willing to sacrifice anything to see that desire realized.

She smiled slowly. "But I'm not wrong."

“Why do you want to save her? Out of genuine benevolence and concern for her life? Or because you’re hoping to gain something out of it?”

After having remained quiet during the whole thing, Parasraya stepped forward and laughed dryly. She eyed Lust in particular upon mentioning that they were hoping to gain something out of it.

“The Calamity has been compared to the likes of God before. Do you truly believe a God would not see past your intentions? What does our earthly kindness means in the eyes of such a power? Stop deluding yourselves.”

She stepped forward and looked down at the dying Tarutaru with disdain; and yet there was something akin to satisfaction in her eyes.

“She has said her knowledge can be found in files she left. And so long as she lives, she will never be anything more than a hindrance.” She stared for a while longer with a perfectly neutral expression, before looking away. “Let her die.”

Lust arched a slender brow. She'd never seen this woman before in her life, and yet here she was casting judgment? The homunculus was far from impressed.

"Who's that?" she asked the others. Certainly not someone Lust had ever seen around before. Perhaps it was just some peasant who'd wandered over out of curiosity once the fireworks started going off~

Sonic pointed to Parasraya. "She's right. Believe me - I've fought my share of evil, world-destroying beings, even those who claim themselves gods, and they don't get appeased by showing mercy unless there's a reason."

And he's certain the Calamity isn't Perfect Chaos

"We're heading back into the idea that's going to get us to... Fight... Each other." Sonic face palmed at that. "Greaaaaat..."

"Recently, I've been thinking... ever since Palitutu gave us that ultimatum, during the fight with the Ultima Weapon, and even up through the fight that just ended, I thought she reminded me of someone I knew in my own world," Chiaki offers, stepping forward into the debate.

"Her name was Junko Enoshima. A few of you know this already. Junko was obsessed with despair, and wanted nothing more than to spread it to every corner of the world. She didn't even care about throwing her own life away, because it meant she'd finally succumb to that same despair. I thought Palitutu had become like that from all the knowledge she'd gained up until now. It seemed like she'd given up on beating the Calamity, and had given into the idea of it destroying everything."

She pauses for a moment, shaking her head.

"But now I realize that was wrong. Palitutu had never given into despair, not even for a moment. She said it herself - she didn't give up on hope. The problem is, her hope had become twisted. She wasn't like Junko at all... she was more like another person I knew at home: Nagito Komaeda."

Another pause, as she chews her lip a moment. There are some bad memories associated with this guy.

"Nagito believed in hope as much as I do, but it was a black and twisted kind of hope. He felt that the only way hope could shine as brightly as possible was through the darkness of the deepest depths of despair. He wanted to see that bright shining light, so he did everything he could to drive the people around him to the absolute brink of despair. In the end, he believed so strongly in that ideal that he sacrificed himself for it. He believed so strongly in the ability of the people around him to embody and become hope, that he was willing to give his own life to give them that chance."

Frowning, she glances at Palitutu's body as the life begins to ebb from it.

"I think that's what Palitutu must have felt. She believed in her own ideals... but I think, in her own twisted way, she believed in us, too. And getting us to kill her was the only way to prove to herself that all her work hadn't been for nothing. Bringing her back now would be spitting in the face of her hope, of the dream she worked so hard to bring about. We might think of it as mercy, but I'm willing to bet she wouldn't see it that way at all. That's why I think we need to respect her wishes, believe in our own hope, and use what she left behind to save this world."

She knows not everyone will understand or agree, but Chiaki couldn't stay silent through all of this without saying her piece. There's a brief glance to Jack in particular as she finishes.

For a while, Ira watched in silence as the others made their arguments for and against sparing Palitutu's life. Really? This was a thing that needed to be debated before deciding to land the killing blow. They had a month to discuss this and find her. Now they had minutes.

"Whether the way she views the bigger picture is unforgivable or not, her heart was decided just like our own. We can't change that. Nor will it change one simple truth:" He narrowed his eyes, though for those that knew him, this was calm for him. "The longer we argue about this, the less time she has."

His tone is flat, though now more than ever, he wished so badly to deal more with the Admins over this crap.

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