melodiesoflife | He gave up.

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He gave up.

WHO: Ales Mansay and anyone
WHAT: Ales is upset after the Heroes' decision to spare Palitutu, but as she's in a coma and not everyone wanted to let her live, he's not as upset as he could have been. However, his only other friend, Ellie, is in crystal stasis. Time to get serious and work on his killer robot.
WHEN: September 1st, then anytime in September
WHERE: The Hospital and just outside the Aqures Ixen walls.

A. September 1st, Aqures Ixen Hospital

They had been doing so well.

A sense of camaraderie with the other Heroes had returned to Ales as they fought against Ultima WEAPON and Palitutu herself. He trusted them not to be pansies and to kill her, to rid of this world of an agent of chaos. They were better than the heroes of the Glade of Dreams. Yet a few members of the team betrayed that shaky trust. They were willing to let a killer live. Sure, Ales had killed people, but they deserved it and were in the way of his vision for a safe Glade. He didn't murder innocent civilians for his quest to destroy the world. He wasn't stupid.

Despite the overwhelming majority to kill her, those voices were enough for a failure to reconnect. They couldn't deal with Narasimha, and they had to compromise and leave her barely alive.

He was wrong. He was wrong to trust them in the first place. He couldn't depend on the others. From now on, he could only trust himself...and Ellie. Who had turned into a crystal statue.

An unfamiliar pang hit his heart at the news. She was more than a comrade; he trusted her like he trusted no other Hero. She promised to take him to her world once they were free, a place where he wouldn't be hated. They were going to let whatever fate befell onto Crystallis and leave. And without her connection to her world, Ales was trapped between staying here or waiting until the technology to find a new world was rediscovered. Crystallis was dying. He had no choice but to save it.

The Teensie quietly walked down the hallways of the hospital with his hands in his pockets and the brim of his hat covering his eyes. To anyone about the height of a human, he could have been invisible. That's was he preferred; after his faith in the world and the intelligence of humanity was broken, he had little to depend on. Just stupidity.

He stopped in front of the gated room where the statues were kept, staring at one of a cloaked woman. She looked so peaceful, yet her eyes were focused to a point above her. Ellie always had lofty goals. That's what he admired about her. All that was left was her legacy and a secret fortress that only he knew of. He had to protect it.

B. Rest of September, Outside Aqures Ixen

Unsurprisingly, machines were a surefire way to distract Ales from his worried. Giant killer mechas? Even more so.

Anyone leaving Aqures Ixen had difficulty ignoring the giant robot with a hammer for a fist standing just outside the walls. Still as a statue, with only a small blue and black dot crawling over its frame to hint to its true nature.

He was going to do it alone. He was going to fly over the Downopolic, shoot Narasimha, and kill anything that threatened the safely of the universe. He was going to do what so many had failed. He was going to fix everything.

He was going to slip and fall. The Teensie lost his grip and plummeted to the ground.

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It sure was hard to miss. How fortunate that Akane was drawn to investigate at just that moment, for she was preparing this month to take on the Magitek Knight job the next month. The robot was fantastic! It was so sleek, and so cool. She was pretty sure the little guy nimbly moving from piece to piece was one of the Heroes of Light at that last battle, too.

She was about to call out to him about how much she admired his work, for this was truly a fine creation, when she saw him slip. Her eyes widened, and her heart leaped into her throat.

Almost on sheer reflex, she threw out her hands and activated her Levitation ability to stop his fall. Then she allowed him to gently drift to the ground before rushing forward, breathless. "Are you all right? You didn't get whiplash or anything, did you?"

The little blue creature screamed when he slipped, then screamed again when his fall stopped before he hit the ground. He must have landed on an outstretched portion of the robot, that was the only explanation.

As he drifted downward, he spotted Akane standing below him with her arms outstretched. Relief flashed across his eyes only to be replaced by disappointment.

"I did have my minicopter on me," he insisted. Sure, he was too busy panicking to deploy it quickly, but he didn't need anyone's help. He never needed help.

"Oh, you did?" Akane slumped a little. She thought she was being helpful, and it wasn't often that her job abilities came in handy. Perhaps once she started learning that Magitek Knight job and figured out how to use the gunsword or whatever it was called, she'd be of more help in the battles to come. "Sorry about that, then. I'd love to see it!" That was definitely an invention she'd like to examine, since she hadn't seen anything like that outside of Leonardo daVinci's drawings.

"I came over to admire your robot. It's fantastic!" she said, tucking her hands behind her back as she lifted her chin to turn her gaze toward the wondrous machine. "It definitely doesn't look the same as the Imperial models."

With a silent mutter, Ales shoved his hand into the space between his back and his black jacket, fumbled around for a bit, then pulled out the metal block he was searching for. The main part was a flat box, with two bars sticking out at opposite ends. One hand gripped each end of the bars, and he held them above his head. His thumb flicked across the handle's button, which causes a propeller to emerge and unfold from the box. The blades spin for a few seconds before he end the demonstration.

"It runs on crystals, but I try not to make use of it too much." He let it drop and folded up the propellers as it rested on the grass. "I appreciate your admiration. I like to think I put effort into my creations."

Twilight let out a sigh as she made her way to the hospital herself. Prior to everything going to hell and back, her brother was crystallized. Being back in Equestria was a bit rejuvenating, but everything that happened afterwards, well... that took the wind out of her sails.

So, she made her way to the hospital to visit her statued brother... and discovered Ales there.

"Oh...! I didn't know someone else was here!" Twilight said, stopping.

Ales's shoulder rose and fell, too tired to glare at the unwanted company. In place of that, he turned away from Twilight, no longer looking at Ellie but at another group of crystallized Heroes.

Look at them. Ales had been in Crystallis for almost the entire time people were being transported to Crystallis, he had seen many come and go. Some who barely made their mark. Some who did so much work and were rewarded with a state between life and death. These that he was looking at had gone away nearly two years ago. If they were to come back, surely they would be disappointed in how things had gone the past several months as well.

"It's a lot of them, isn't it? It's quite funny to see how many have come and gone after so long, though, it's not fair to let them be like this." Twilight said.

She let out a sigh. She has an idea on what's going on with Ales. At least, she thinks so - he was one of the ones who advocated for Palitutu's death. She had, too, but the idea of using the Phoenix Down was more or less to let both sides have their way. She was dead and she was now alive.

"I understand what you're going through. To be quite honest, I'm not sure letting her live was the best thing, either. Especially using the idea of a vision to let her live. Things in the future change all the time - believe me, before I came here, I had to deal with something like that."

She continued on as she followed elsewhere.

"I only suggested the Phoenix Down because, honestly, she only asked to kill her to prove we could. We did it. We could kill her. Nothing said we had to make it permanent. And even if we made a mistake, we had those like Deadpool who were willing to kill her at the drop of a hat."

"Crystals? Wow...that's definitely a work of engineering to be proud of." It wasn't a false or overexaggerated compliment. She was studying the machine thoughtfully, eyes flicking rapidly back and forth as her mind worked to understand how it had been put together. Akane was no stranger to engineering herself, after all, and had spent many long and lonely hours in her private workshop preparing for the next Nonary Game.

"Do you have a back-up power source in case the crystals run out? Or a parachute of some kind?" She wondered if the design could be improved upon, or possibly operated by hand. With the proper gears, a pedal-operated machine might work for someone his size and weight.

"I had collected from Lums from my homeworld, but adding features to use those as well would make it too bulky." He balanced the minicopter on one hand, moving it up and down to show off how easy it was to carry. "Those are an emergency supply if we ever need any. For the Lunar Gate, if need be."

He needed to go over to the Mysidian Tower and uncrystallize it first. There were so many things to do this month...

"Though a parachute...would be a good idea." Huh. The thought never crossed his mind; cloth would get messy and take time to fold, and this was meant to be a convenient emergency getaway.

Saori was actually on break when she decided to practice some free running. The sight of the giant robot certainly caught her attention but seeing something drop from it made her even more curiouser.

She dropped down to the earth and rushed over. "Ales, h-hey are you alright?" Though the hood obscured her face a bit, surely her voice was recognizable.

Talk, talk, talk. From someone he detested, Ales barey registered anything besides the words that came out of her mouth. That's all Twilight did, and she'd never understand. Ales thought that she could reform when she agreed to let Palitutu die, but changed her mind at the last second as if it were nothing. She'd never change. The Gladed didn't change when Ales returned to his world because Polokus didn't change even after Ales's attack, and it remained vulnerable to outside forces. God-like royalty never changed.

"We backed away from our promise. It's the same as not killing her in the first place." Those statues were annoying to look at, but he barely managed to side eye Twilight. "What good is a leader if they can't commit?"

The screaming cut short, but judging from the lack of a horrifying thud and squish, Ales probably was still alive. He had grabbed onto the knee, slipped a few feet, and fell the rest of the way onto the grass. It hurt, but he was alive. He survived worse falls.

...That is if being transported to Crystallis wasn't what saved his life when he fell from the sky.

"I'm fine," he croaked, his mouth full of dirt. He rolled onto his side and pushed himself up.

"There's a difference between not being able to commit and finding a third option." Twilight said. "Y'know what? I wanted Palitutu punished for her actions. She's hurt a lot of people and she needs to see justice, but are we wanting to kill her for that justice or are we doing it for revenge? And what if we had killed her? Discounting Tear's vision, would killing her even be worth it?!"

Twilight sighed as she trotted over to the statue of her brother, Shining Armor. "We were brought here to save this world and sometimes saving the world means making hard decisions. But, do you know what the hardest decision is? It's letting someone live. In a way, Artemicion is right - we are the Calamity. We are so single minded in our drive to save the world that we really don't sit there and realize the consequences of our actions."

"Yes." There was no question. "In this case, killing her was a difficult decision. Not for me, but seeing your track record..."

He folded his arms, daring Twilight to deny that coming from her perspective, talking out a solution was a typical way to solve problems.

"It's as Palitutu said. We need to make sacrifices. If we don't fight the Calamity and Garland, we'll let the world die. If we were afraid to die or get our hands dirty, countless bystanders will die, and it will be all out fault. It's our own indecision that's setting us back. What we need is conviction, not sitting back and hoping things will work out."

"You're right. I do talk things out. And I do hope things work out for the best, but there has to be a balance between having conviction and falling into either side." Twilight said. "Now, I want to ask you a question - what if we did kill Palitutu and it turns out Tear's vision is right in that we did need her. Where would your conviction be then? Will you hope that things will go well then?"

"The Lunar Gate..." She repeated the term, obviously interested in the way she spoke each syllable deliberately and slowly. It seemed like the moon always wound up playing a crucial role in saving the world, didn't it? Needless to say, she was eager to learn more. "What's that place about? I'm still pretty new here, I don't think I've heard it mentioned before."

As for the parachute, she chuckled and nodded. "They fold up pretty small and don't weigh much. Extra safety precautions usually aren't a bad idea. You never know when you'll need it!"

"I don't know, the last trip there was organized by that pony," his eyes slid to the side as he refused to say her name, "and all they figured out was that it was powered by computers and items from our homeworlds."

What a waste. Now they had to waste a crystal to re-use it.

"I'll have to look into disposable ones. If this does shut down, I don't want to lose precious minutes refolding it back in."

"That's all? I'm disappointed," she sighed. "There have to have been files stored there, or something crucially important that might help us find out more about what's going on." Akane tapped her cheek thoughtfully. "Then again, it might be nothing more than a means of operating some sort of visual apparatus that shows the entirety of the world from the moon's perspective, so it might wind up being nothing important at all. I wish I could have gone to see it myself." Because she knew a lot about moon bases, oddly enough.

How could she be smiling like that at all times, talking like she knew best? Believe this, believe that, like she was the expert on everything. All it did was get on Ales' nerves, the irritation causing his hands to twitch.

Those were stuffed into his jacket pocket.

"No, because I'm not a lazy idiot. I go off and try something else. Why, are you saying you would give up and resort to only hoping that someone else solves the problem? Is that what you do? Wait for some designated 'hero' to fix things while you sit back and not take responsibility?"

Just. Like. Polokus.

"Nope. If I had been there, I would have worked on the computers and whatever else those Ancients kept in there." He would have been competent. He would have fixed it. He would have been what the world needed.

"But we are going in there. After we check out Downopolis, kill Narasimha, open the Temple of Heroes, reach the First Crystal..." He sighed. "We have a lot of work to do."

"No, of course not! I've been doing the heroing thing for awhile now. The one time I was told to hang back and not get involved, I was insulted by it. And I came to help my friends afterwards. But, it feels like your problem is that we, as heroes, should make sure everything is final. That we have no second thoughts."

She pointed an accusatory hoof at Ales.

"There's a difference between taking action and making sure you're doing the right thing. And sometimes, stopping and thinking about what you're doing is the right thing."

"We certainly do," she sighed. What, no reaction to killing Narasimha? No objections, or finding another way?

N o p e.

Because of that man, her brother was horribly murdered. And while she's glad he came back, she just can't forgive the person who did something so awful. What's worse, the innocent civilians didn't come back. He had to pay for what he'd done, one way or another.

"Perhaps I should come too," she suggested. "I'm no stranger to computers and electronics, and had ample opportunity to study them before I came here. What about the Temple of Heroes, how do we open that?"

Edited 2016-09-20 19:31 (UTC)

"You're ignoring my point."

The two will never see eye-to-eye again. Their philosophies, backgrounds to dissimilar. One who came form a position of privilege, but tried to use her powers to the best of her abilities. The other came from a disgraced birth and only saw weakness and irresponsibility in the "god" that supposedly protected the Glade. The moment Ales read Twilight's letter to Biggs denying that she was in the wrong, all respect for her went out the door. She did research, that was useful, but above all else, he learned that very few Heroes had what it took to protect a world.

"Next time, you should stop and think what effect your words and actions have on others," he spoke in a strained, quiet voice as he tried not to explode at her. Polokus didn't listen to common sense, neither should Twilight. "If you want to write another condescending letter, go right ahead. Not my fault if you upset more people or kill their family."

With that, he turned away from the hospital ward. Looking at Ellie for a few minutes wasn't worth standing next to the Hero that put the final straw on his back. His mind blocked out any sound, only focused on his inner thoughts: plans on how to do something himself instead of relying on others. He may be a hypocrite when it came to declaring who was in the moral right, but if he told Twilight that they had to take more action, he wasn't going to go back on his word and sit back.

Ales was going to save this world. The Glade was still ruled by the lazy Polokus and remained poorly guarded, but the Teensie would not fail here. He learned his lesson.

Akane didn't have qualms about murdering a murderer. That made her a decent person in Ales' book. Not that he had anything personal against Narasimha, but killing the people meant to save Crystallis was an awful move.

"I believe we need four Onion Knights to open it," Ales was certain of that detail in Levy's retelling of her exploration, but wording it that way gave him an air of intelligence. After falling off a giant robot, his dignity needed a bit of repair. "I'm almost there, but we should have enough Heroes by now."

"That's a relief," Akane smiled, heaving a little sigh. "I'm afraid I haven't been here long enough to have any hope of masterting the Onion Knight job. But I wouldn't mind helping in other areas."

She turned half a step, tipping her head back to admire the enormous machine he'd been working on. "You seem to be pretty clever with machinery. Did you build all of this yourself?"

If so, she was going to be very impressed!

"The frame is Heran, but everything else is mine." Ales retracted his fists into his jacket sleeves to protect them from the cool wind. What pride he had in his own craft didn't show through his tone; Ales was too tired to care.

"That's impressive!" she gasped, laying her fingertips against her chin. "I'm hoping to gain one of my own sometime soon, as I plan to study the Magitek Knight job. May I call on you for some tips?"

It might be a fun way to get to know a new friend, she thought. Besides, he already seemed to know everything a person would need to craft the appropriate giant robot in order for a Hero to become a Mecha Pilot.

A smile sneaked under the brim of Ales's hat. Akane was of the sort to be easily impressed, or else she genuinely didn't know much about machinery. Either way, Ales was happy to oblige in her request.

"Of course. Mind you, I will need something in return for my work on tinkering with metal, but if I, Ales Mansay, can be of service to you--"

He turned and bowed, holding an arm across his torso. A grin that definitely wasn't there earlier spread across his face, completely altering the mood.

"--there is nothing more that could make me happier!"

He would discover the answer to that soon enough!

Hint: It's the more naive option of the two.

"I'd be happy to pay for lessons," she beamed. "This is every bit as important as learning to defend myself from combat scenarios, after all. And a suit like this is great protection in a fight."

At his bow, Akane bowed cheerfully in return. "Thanks so much! I'm Akane Kurashiki. It's nice to meet you, Ales."

"Oh, certainly," he replied without a hint of sarcasm. There was no better defense than a giant piece of controllable metal armor with firepower. Well, except for a fleet of airships under his orders. Not that Akane needed that kind of equipment.

"Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Kurashiki. When are you planning to take up the Majitek Knight job?"

"Oh, I have it already. They gave it to me shortly before we left to meet with Palitutu," she smiled. "I was able to hire a teacher, who had that job and Warrior equipped. Magitek Knight seemed more versatile to me, so that's the one I chose for training."

Her shoulders rose and fell with a light sigh. "But I wanted to finish gathering the experience I needed for my first two jobs before I got started on another. I don't like to leave things incomplete if I can help it."

Like murder puzzles!

"This month should do it, I think. I just need to purchase the appropriate equipment so I can be prepared."

Understandable. Mastering one Job at a time was a sound strategy. Unless Akane mastered Onion Knight, there would be no good reason to leave a Job half-finished.

"I'll be in Mysidia at the end of this month, so the earlier the better," he shrugged. More specifically Downopolis, but he didn't dare let it slip to someone he just met. "What are you pairing that job with?"

"Engineer," she answered with a solemn nod. "That's why I was so interested in your robot designs. Plus Engineer pairs well with Programmer, another job I hope to take in the future." Akane folded her arms with a sigh. "I don't know if I'll have enough time to master all of them, but I intend to try at the very least."

She was working hard in the lab, as it seemed like there was still a great deal of information to sort and sift through. But she hadn't been there for more than a few months, while others of them had been there for years. It was anyone's guess if she'd manage to make use of her skills and intelligence or not.

"Anyway, what about Mysidia? Are you doing any research there?"

"Same here!" He perked up. "It tend to switch between those two - Programmer and Majitek Knight, that is. There's little need for me to revert to anything else, apart from using the Alchemist's skill to harvest crystals." He pointed at the minicopter. The one powered by crystals.

As for Akane's question, Ales took the opportunity to check up on said minicopter. There was nothing wrong with it, of course, but he needed an excuse to angle his head so that the brim of his hat hid his shifty eyes lest she realize he was deceiving her.

"Yes, research. While everyone's busying themselves with getting answers from the Sage, I'll be off doing my own things. I've never had much fondness for people of the magical sort."

"...Why is that?" It was an opinion she'd never heard anyone openly state before, so naturally she was a little curious. She knew so little about the majority of her fellow Heroes that she eagerly latched onto any opportunity to learn more. She would have friends this time! ...Maybe!

"I don't think anyone from my world ever had access to magic. Not like it's defined here. It's a curious skill, but it seems useful."

So why did he dislike magicians so much?

A pause followed as he considered his reply. He never mentioned the reason to anyone other than Ellie, though Lydia and Twilight Sparkles were closer enough to the truth. Akane was a stranger, but if she were reasonable enough not to argue against killing criminals, perhaps she would be more understanding.

"Politics." Not the whole answer, but close enough.

"What kind of politics do you mean?" she asked, lacing her fingers together. Akane hesitated, then straightened sharply. "Wait. I'm prying, aren't I?" The hands she'd just put together suddenly jumped up in realization of her potential rudeness. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to! I just...you know...wanted to get to know you better."

A non-committal hum followed. Yes, it was prying, but keeping his opinions to himself cost so much progress. If Ales hadn't been so concerned with acting nice for most of his stay, things would have turned out differently. Better.

If Akane judged him, then he knew where her loyalties lied.

"I'm from a world that got lazy through over-reliance on magic. The leader of the Glade hasn't done anything to protect his people, yet I'm the only native that's bothered to do anything about it." Still not the entire truth, but he would slowly build up to it, make himself look good.

Akane wasn't in much of a position to judge anyone, outside of child kidnappers and murderers. As far as she could tell, Ales was neither of those things. And he was so cute! How bad could he really be?

"Protect them from what? Did something attack your people?" she asked, her brow inclined with worry. What kind of terrible creature would attack such an adorable race?

Akane ate everything up. As long as Ales didn't mention the parts where he held the Nymphs captive, including his friend of many years, or where he stole and kidnapped the living embodiment of magical energy, though it was debatable how sentient Lums were.

"Everything. Pirates, overlords, dark Lums, whatever danger exists. They have someone as a full-time hero to deal with all these problems. And, well, considering how few preventative measures Polokus takes, this hero of ours does all the work."

"I see," Akane said quietly, her gaze dropping. "And those with power choose not to use it, even if it's to save themselves."

In her world, she'd faced the opposite problem -- people without power seeking to claim it through any means necessary. Hongou's reasons were truly pitiable, but even so, it didn't excuse him for the terrible things he'd done to other people.

"Then...you're afraid that if you had magic, you would fail to use it to help others as well?"

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He gave up.

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