Inexorable Altercation [Round V - Saint Arthelais' Hospital]

"And Nothing did," Atelia said.

Barabbas was surprised; it was the first she had spoken since her last cryptic answer. He hadn't pressed further because her attention had moved to the orb.

But now the orb seemed to be shifting arbitrarily. For the most part, it showed the sight of the contestants and Chester wandering through the hallways, avoiding guards more deftly now that they were better protected from Daddy Ham's eyes; but it also changed periodically, showing groups of seemingly random prisoners standing about silently, as though they were waiting for something. Then it shifted back to the contestants.

Neither image was all that compelling, and it appeared the pattern would continue for some time. It seemed a good time to ask for clarification.

"I do not understand, Atelia. You say we still have the Leader and the book, you say you saw nothing, now this. What do you mean by it all?"

"I'll explain it when Azgard returns," she said, smirking. "He'll want to hear this as well."

"Hear what?"

Azgard stepped into the room, alone.

"About my dreams. About Nothing."

Azgard glanced at the orb, saw the same images of contestants wandering the halls and prisoners standing still.

"Very well, then. Tell me of your dream, Atelia."

"I saw nothing. I heard nothing. Then, I heard a voice." She pointed at Chester as the orb shifted to show him. "It was his voice. He said, 'My overrides don't override his override,' then I thought, unbidden, the words 'said Chester', and then he spoke again."

She smiled.

"'So we'll be fighting them every step of the way.' The words 'He smiled' came to me, then he went on. 'But no one knows the girl like I do.' Barabbas, you were watching. Does this sound familiar?"

"Very much so. I heard those very words."

"Finally, he said 'We're going to win this. Nothing's going to get in our way.' And the next words in my mind were, 'And Nothing did.' It was as though someone was telling me a story."

Azgard stared at her.

"The book," he said. "You mean to say you dreamed words from the book?"

"Yes. Not the whole thing, of course, just two small parts. That was one."

"And the other?"

Atelia giggled.

"I'll tell you when we get there. Right now, I think it would be best if we kept watching." She pointed at the orb.

It was focused on the contestants again, but they had stopped wandering. They were standing still, and Chester was removing a nearly-invisible panel on a wall.

"I believe Nothing is about to get in their way."

---

Loran was growing impatient.

"What's the hold-up?" he asked. "I thought you said we were close."

"We are." Chester glanced at the circuitry behind the panel. "And that means it's the best guarded section of the ship. We won't be able to just take a different path. But if I physically connect to a system, with Hez's help I can cause some trouble and make it just look like a routine malfunction. One that can't be remotely resolved."

He touched a circuit, and the lights went out. He pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket.

"That's step one," he said, carefully replacing the panel. "Now somebody's going to be sent along to take a look at it. By then, I'll have a communications node spewing static." He stepped out, followed closely by the group. "I have a few more distractions like that planned, but our end goal is the environmental controls for this cellblock."

"I thought our end goal was Daddy Ham," Loran grumbled.

"Same thing. I can seal the doors from there, then I can heat the place up, make it freezing cold, pump in neurotoxin, suck out all the air... Plenty of options. I'll have to fight to keep him out or he'll change it back, of course; even if I managed to block his orders somehow, there's another control unit in his cell. But he shouldn't last long."

"That sounds a little too easy, honestly," Will said, just as they heard loud footsteps down another hallway. "In fact, it seems strange to me that the environmental controls would even be accessible to just any prisoner, even if they are hidden."

"The controls aren't exactly obvious," Chester said. "We're not talking buttons and levers here, it's far more intricate than that. And even if they figure out how to use it, Hez has ways to make sure it doesn't kill anyone. It really only works towards her goals... hang on, no one move."

Chester suddenly switched off his light. Everyone stood still until another set of footsteps passed, and Chester switched the light back on before continuing.

"That said, Daddy Ham can see where the panel is and what it can do. And I can see that he's keeping even more guards around there than outside his cell door."

"So why don't we just go to his cell instead?" Loran grumbled. "I'd prefer dealing with him in the flesh, honestly. This just seems so impersonal."

"We don't really know anything about him," Will pointed out. "He seems to be involved in the battle, since he knows our names--"

"--and wants to kill us," Annaliese interjected.

"--but that's really all we know. You've had trouble with nonhuman biology before, who's to say Daddy Ham will be straightforward?"

"Exactly. I can't get much information from Hez either, sadly. But there's likely to be something in the environmental controls that will work. Even with the extra guards to account for, this is a safer approach." Chester stopped in front of a cell door. "Here's the comm node. I don't want to disable it or Daddy Ham can't give orders, I just want to make it inconvenient."

He stepped in the door, and the others followed. There was nothing in the cell, except a wall panel that had already been removed.

"Is someone else trying to mess with the systems?" Chester murmured. "They don't seem to have done anything except open it up..."

"Look out!"

Chester turned to look, just as Loran stabbed thin air behind him.

"What are you doing? Have you gone mad?"

"He's hallucinating," Will groaned. "Loran, you could at least--"

Before Will could finish, an unfamiliar man's body fell to the floor.

Will was wrong. Loran was not hallucinating.

He was simply seeing what wasn't there.

"What are you all standing around for?" he hissed, gesturing in front of him. "There's three more of them... no, wait, four... six? There's a lot of them, okay? I can't deal with them all!"

"I think we'd better find another node to sabotage," Will said, raising his blaster. He fired roughly where Loran was pointing, and moments later a thin reptilian creature collapsed on top of the unknown human. "Assuming the noise doesn't draw the guards, of course."

"There aren't any near enough," Chester said, heading for the door. "But you're right. This calls for improvising--"

Chester's voice trailed off as he stepped through the door. Annaliese looked through it after him, and shrieked.

"There's nothing there!"

Will fired again and turned to look. It was true; the void beyond the doorway was even darker than the unlit hallway they had come through before.

There was no sign of Chester. There was no sign of a floor or walls. There was only Nothing.

Then it started moving away.

"They're going away," Loran said, puzzled.

"Out the door! Now!" Will shouted, following his own advice. "And then run!"

Everyone rushed out after him, moments before the door slammed shut.

"What's the hurry?" Loran said.

"The hurry is that we need to get to Daddy Ham, now, and hope we can kill him. Because the one person keeping his eyes off us just vanished into who-knows-what, and that means..."

Will's voice trailed off as at least a dozen mechanical guards appeared down the hall in front of them. An equal number were running down the hall behind them.

"Yeah, I think we can all figure out what it means," Loran muttered. "So what are we going to do about it?"


---

Daddy Ham was pleased.

He was not entirely sure how his opponents had eluded his grasp before, but it was no longer relevant. He had them now.

In fact, it was better this way. His first attempt had been before he had gained a better understanding of the ship's surveillance systems. He was able to see where they were, and broadcast his message, but he had not yet worked out how to watch them or listen to them.

Now, he had. He would be able to hear their cries of agony, see their anguished faces as they begged for mercy. Whatever had caused the delay, it had given him a chance for an even more satisfying conclusion.

He had to be careful, though. It was best to ensure they all died at once, and the witch and gnome were especially fragile. Fortunately, due to Hezekiah's quirks, the guardbots had been designed for painful, yet nonlethal restraint.

"I'm more used to things with vital organs," the assassin grumbled. He flung a knife, and it bounced uselessly off a hardened chassis.

"These probably have something similar. It's just better protected." The time traveler was slightly more successful, managing to shoot two bots in the eyes before a third shocked his hand and made him drop the blaster.

At that point, it was inevitable. Another shock had Haven on the ground, screaming, and Twight followed moments later. That only left the weakest of the pair. The guards moved in closer. The next blows to all four would be fatal. Daddy Ham only had to give the order. Lasers began charging on the guards, two pointed at the collapsed men, the rest at Nibbs and the gnome.

The gnome merely whistled a nervous tune and hid behind the witch. She was little better, cowering under her hat in the futile hope that perhaps her impending doom would be more manageable if she couldn't actually see it.

"We're going to die," she moaned. "We're going to die to Daddy Ham, and we don't even have any idea who he is."

The moment she said it, dozens of thoughts flew through the swirl of memories that made up Daddy Ham. He had done this many times before, or rather the tyrants whose memories composed him had.

He would bring them here, let them cower in his glorious presence. They would see his face, and know his power. And then they would die by his hand.

The glow of the lasers suddenly stopped. Daddy Ham's voice echoed through the hall.

"You raise an excellent point, girl," he said. "Consider yourselves fortunate. Before you all breathe your last, you will know the greatness that is Daddy Ham."

Annaliese had just enough time to be relieved and then terrified again before the robots shocked her.

---

For what could have been minutes or could have been hours, Chester was nowhere. And then, just as suddenly, he was back in the cell with the loosened panel.

Nothing was in the cell with him, and Chester was unpleasantly aware of this fact.

"What do you want?" he asked it.

Nothing answered him by pointing to the wiring behind the panel.

"You want my help? But why?"

And then he heard Hezekiah's scream. Nothing was hurting her, he realized, and not in a good way. Nothing would destroy her.

Unless, of course, Hezekiah herself helped them run through the process more smoothly.

If only there was someone who could talk to her on behalf of Nothing.

If only.

Chester sighed.

"I'll do it. For her."

---

Daddy Ham smiled as the bots dragged in his new captives. It was an unpleasant sight; his body looked like it was never meant to have a mouth.

"To think you hoped to escape my grasp," he said. "Or perhaps you were foolish enough to think you could stop me. Either way, you failed miserably."

Will groaned. He wished he could just fall unconscious and at least miss the predictable self-gratifying speech, but with his vitals being monitored and well-timed electric shocks keeping him awake, that was unfortunately beyond him.

It was particularly grating on him because, ultimately, he had been the one most convinced they had a chance. But in the end, his plans had been thwarted by chance - by something none of them could have predicted.

That was what stung. Daddy Ham was currently babbling something about how they never had a chance, and it was infuriating because he was right. Not for the reasons he was saying, not because he was some inherently superior being - but because some threat that only Loran could detect at all had been lurking on the ship, and they'd had no idea until it was too late.

And now because of that, something Will had no idea how he could have even thought to prepare for, he was going to die. And so were the rest of them.

He felt as though he should come up with a plan, but what could he do? He couldn't move, couldn't say anything more comprehensible than a scream of pain. By the sounds of it, the others weren't having any better luck.

All he could do was hope for one of two things: a miracle, or a quicker death.

Finally, Daddy Ham laughed. He seemed satisfied.

"Enough," he said. "Drop the prisoners."

The guards were only propping up the contestants at this point, and simply dropped them to the ground. Slowly, the four of them tried to stand up, but they were barely on their knees when Daddy Ham gave the robots his final orders.

"Now kill them all."

---

"It's done," Chester said to Nothing. "All the comm nodes are directly linked to each other, and tied into the dimensional nagivation systems. It's all one big network now. I don't know what you're going to do..."

And then he did. Or rather, he saw.

Nothing appeared in the ship's network. Nothing consumed the entire communication infrastructure, sucking in every signal transmitting through the ship.

In an instant, all communications - incoming, internal, or outgoing - ceased completely. The signals informing Chester of where everything was on the ship stopped coming. Hezekiah's voice vanished from his mind.

And the guardbots all across the ship could no longer hear any orders.

---

"What are you doing? Kill them!"

Loran wasn't particularly inclined to sit around and think about why the killer robots weren't doing any killing - or, for that matter, any moving at all. He wasn't much more inclined to listen to Felix's theorizing on the matter, either.

Right at that moment, all that mattered was that Loran was an assassin, and he had a target. The other contestants, the immobile guards, the persistent hallucinations he'd been stuck with since the last round, and the intense pain all became secondary.

He reached into the folds of his robes for another knife, and flung it at Daddy Ham's right eye. The memory golem howled in pain, pulled the dagger out, and slowly reformed his eye.

In that time, Loran had already picked himself up and was running towards Daddy Ham with another dagger. The memory golem panicked, and flung the dagger in his hand at Loran; but lacking the assassin's aim, his throw missed by several inches and struck an idle guard instead.

Nonetheless, Loran's charge was barely effective; he managed to strike the newly-regrown eye, but Daddy Ham's reflexes were good enough to grab him and take away the knife before he could make another slash.

"Enough of this," the golem said, reaching for Loran's head with his other hand. "We'll see how dangerous you are when you can no longer remember how to stand up."

But before he could steal any memories, Daddy Ham howled in pain. Will had retrieved his blaster from a guardbot, and shot the raised arm. The delay was enough for Loran to pull out yet another knife, which he used to slice off the hand holding him.

The first thing Loran noticed was that there was no blood from the wound. The second thing he noticed was that he was starting to recall watching a hated enemy he didn't recognize die slowly and painfully.

As pleasant as the image was, Loran remained aware enough to realize it wasn't happening now and he needed to focus on his target. He grabbed the hand, which was now missing a finger, and slapped Daddy Ham in the other eye with it before slicing the creature's face.

The memories in the hand rushed to the front of Daddy Ham's mind. There was a mix of them; failed uprisings, torturing dissidents, fighting an opponent with his scythe to win the battle...

His scythe. Where was his scythe?

As the thoughts coalesced, Daddy Ham's body started to shrink. This would have made him less intimidating if not for the fact that the memories leaving his body were taking the form of Xilphos' scythe.

Loran backed away, realizing the scythe's reach put him at a disadvantage in close quarters. He flung daggers when he found an opening, and Will fired shots often; but neither attack seemed particularly effective at anything besides slowing Daddy Ham down.

It might have made a decent distraction for someone else to deal a crippling blow, but the only others in the room were Annaliese and Parset, and neither was much of a fighter. They were both hiding behind the sturdiest-looking robot they could find. Annaliese was hoping it wouldn't suddenly wake up again, and Parset was studying it for a keyhole.

And so the battle continued for a time, until Loran flung a dagger that pushed one of Xilphos' memories to the front of Daddy Ham's mind.

And then the memory beast smiled. He broke off his attack, and rushed for a wall.

Loran was baffled by the shift in tactics. Will, however, realized the problem after just a moment's thought.

"He's going for the environmental controls! Stop him!"

Loran was already moving; Felix had the same idea as Will. The assassin tackled the beast, who let go of his scythe and sent it flying into the wall.

Will breathed a sigh of relief. Then he saw the golem melt apart under Loran, and turned his eyes to the scythe.

It was shifting forms to a much smaller creature, which pried a large wall panel loose. As the panel fell to the floor, the creature touched the metal plate behind it, and the room began pumping in enough neurotoxin to mildly disorient a being the size of a whale.

Not counting the guardbots, there were five beings in the room, all much smaller than a whale. One of them had no respiratory system.

---

The entire fight between Will, Loran, and Daddy Ham went unnoticed by the cultists. The orb had gone completely black just after the robots dropped the contestants to the floor.

They did not understand enough to know that this was because Nothing had overridden the ship's communications system - that in doing so, it had blocked all transmissions off the ship, even those to Nowhere.

Azgard and Barabbas were puzzled, but Atelia was simply amused.

"Now I can tell the second part of my dream," she said. "It's about you, Azgard. 'Azgard arrived on Hezekiah, and found Nothing. It was exactly what he had been looking for.'"

Azgard glanced at Barabbas, who could only offer a halfhearted shrug in response.

"And this relates to our current situation?" Azgard asked.

"'He wanted to ask why Nothing had blocked their view of the battle. He wanted to ask if Nothing could help him read the book he held in his hands. But he knew it would be useless to speak, and instead stepped into Nothing, hoping it would answer him regardless.'"

"I dislike this," Barabbas said. "All we have to go on are a few passages Atelia believes to be from the book. And if we pursue this, we would put the book at risk."

"You raise a valid concern. And yet, we have no other leads." Azgard stepped towards the study. "I will be going. If this is not in the book, surely something will guide me away from it. If it is, then it is what I must do. Barabbas, prepare to send me."

He then left, and returned with the book in hand. The moment he did, the image in the orb cleared up, and showed an empty cell.

"You see?" Atelia said, smirking. "This is what the Leader wants us to do. Now that we're doing it, he's letting us see the battle again."

"I can only hope it is as you say," Barabbas sighed. "But I see no other options. I will open a path for you, Azgard."

Barabbas stood in front of the orb, and touched it. A passage opened in front of it, leading to the cell.

"I will return soon," Azgard said, as he stepped through.

Barabbas closed the gate behind him. Then he watched the orb closely.

---

For the first time in recent memory, Chester was alone. He no longer even had Nothing for company.

It was terrifying. He hadn't been alone since before he came here - even in the first few days, before he became taken with her, Hezekiah provided a strange sort of companionship.

Perhaps if he hadn't been alone for so long, he never would have...

He didn't want to think about that. But with no one else to speak to, he could hardly think about anything else.

And then, all of a sudden, he heard Hezekiah again.

"Chester," she said in his mind. "I've missed you so much these last few minutes."

"I've missed you," he sighed. He watched as she broadcast a map of the ship into his mind, and then his eyes widened.

"Daddy Ham's out?"

"Changed the access codes while he couldn't order me to stop," Hezekiah said. "I'm sure it won't take you long to figure them out if you want me to do anything, of course."

Chester glanced through the system. Even without full access, he could still see everything. He could see that the transmissions to the guardbots were still scrambled, that Will and the others were in Daddy Ham's cell, and that the cell was filling up with neurotoxin.

"I'd better take care of that neurotoxin," he sighed.

"Do you really need to, Chester darling? He's used you, just like everyone you've ever known. Meddet used you. Haven used you. Nothing used you."

Chester had the faint impression of a smile burn itself in his mind.

"I've used you." Hezekiah giggled, with a sound that would have frightened most of her prisoners. "But once you work out the new codes, you'll be in complete control. You can make me do whatever you want. No one will be able to use you again."

"No one will be able use me," Chester muttered, lost in thought. She was right, of course - he'd been used by everyone. The last thing he'd done of his own volition was trying to strangle Haven a few hours ago, and even then, he was just seeking favor from Daddy Ham.

But what did he want? When was the last time he'd wanted something for himself, not because someone else wanted it?

He couldn't remember.

---

Azgard arrived on Hezekiah, and found Nothing. It was exactly what he had been looking for.

He wanted to ask why Nothing had blocked their view of the battle. He wanted to ask if Nothing could help him read the book he held in his hands. But he knew it would be useless to speak, and instead stepped into Nothing, hoping it would answer him regardless.

He saw Nothing. He heard Nothing. Nothing was all around him.

And he felt Nothing pulling at him in all directions. He realized he could not stay long - Nothing would make him part of it. His only hope was that the book would tell him how to leave.

He looked down at it. Before his eyes, its title changed from meaningless characters to "Inexorable Altercation". Nothing had taken away whatever hid the words from him.

Azgard flipped it open.

"At least Azgard had survived."

Ominous, but it was all he needed to know about his own situation. He kept reading, as fast as he could. It only took him a moment's glance to memorize an entire page, and he did not know how much time he had.

He read about the next round, and of all that needed to happen for the Leader to return. He didn't have time to process it all, only to remember the words. He would have to think about what it meant later.

"And at last, the Leader returned."

Those were the last words he read before the book returned to incomprehensibility. The forces pulling at him became unbearable. If he had not just read of his own survival, he would have been terrified; as it was, he was merely concerned.

And then Nothing returned him to the world.

---

Daddy Ham leapt down to the bulk of what had once been his body. The memories he had passed on to his smaller form were focused only on what he needed to do, and nothing else; but as he touched the vague mass of memories, his body reformed and gradually, he remembered everything.

The humans were his enemies. So was the gnome. But they had to all die at once. That would be simple enough; the humans were barely conscious, and the gnome was only doing any better because of how close he was to the ground. Not that it mattered; he was no threat at all.

Daddy Ham briefly entertained the idea of consuming their memories, but decided against it. Perhaps if they had been worth his time, but this group was pathetic. It was only due to sheer chance that they were not already dead. What could their memories hold that would be of value to him?

No, there was nothing to do but gather their weak, pathetic bodies in one spot and kill them all. The neurotoxin would work eventually, but there was no sense in unnecessary waiting.

He walked to Twight's body, and reached down to pick up the assassin.

It was at that moment that Nothing appeared and flung Azgard directly at him.

Daddy Ham was knocked to the ground, giving Azgard time to regain his bearings. The cultist found, much to his relief, that he still had the book, and put it back in his robes before anything else happened.

He found his thoughts were sluggish, and a quick analysis of the air told him why - the neurotoxin. Though his humanoid body was more resilient than most organics, it was still humanoid, and the gas was affecting his systems. Gradually, mildly, but the effect was there.

He needed to turn it off. Unfortunately, before he could even pinpoint the source, Daddy Ham had stood up and grabbed him by the neck.

"You. You are with Gias and Xilphos," Daddy Ham said, turning Azgard's face to meet his own. "Their memories have been quite valuable to me. Most likely yours will be as well."

Azgard's thoughts were slowed enough that Daddy Ham's other hand had reached his head before he could react. An electric charge began forming in his hand, but as his memories started to feed the golem, he was not sure if he could break free before he forgot how to raise his arm.

---

"Nine nine seven three oh two six four," Chester said absentmindedly. His thoughts weren't on Hezekiah, or the new codes he was working out; they were on who he was, and what he wanted.

For most of the time since his creation, Chester had been alone, and afraid. That was the way they wanted him, really. It made him easier to use. All he needed was a little company and he could be persuaded to do anything.

"Oh oh one oh seven seven one eight," he continued. Hezekiah squealed with delight in his mind, but he found it more a distraction than a pleasure at the moment.

It had always been the same, really. Tell Chester he was important, and ask him to do what you wanted him to do. He'd believe you, think you were his best friend. Even his imprisonment hadn't changed that - if he hadn't fallen in with Meddet, he would have fallen in with someone else just like him.

Perhaps that was the appeal of Hezekiah to him. She wanted to use him, but she wanted to use him in a different way from everyone else.

But what had Haven done for him? Ruined his setup with Meddet, nearly gotten him killed more than once, gotten him dragged into this whole takeover...

...and if not for that, would he have the link he shared with Hezekiah? What more had he wanted? He might as well return the favor. Whatever else happened, it wasn't as if Haven would be in a position to order him around any more.

"Eight eight oh eight nine five three," Chester concluded. "Hez, vent the neurotoxin in Daddy Ham's cell. Then give me video and audio. I think I want to see what happens next."

"As you wish," Hezekiah said. There was just a hint of disappointment in her voice, but it didn't matter.

Chester had what he wanted. He wasn't alone, and he wasn't going to be used.

---

Not having to worry about the neurotoxin, Daddy Ham barely noticed as the ventilation systems sucked it up and replaced with fresh air.

He might have noticed in a few moments if not for the electric shock Azgard threw in his face.

Before the memory golem could react, Azgard picked him up and slammed him against the floor. A stray blob of memories flew into Loran, who was just picking himself up.

Azgard was enraged. This creature had stolen Gias' memories, and Xilphos', and now had some of his own. Pure rage fueled him as his hand simply tore away at the beast and flung pieces of it all over, some of them striking the other contestants and entering their minds. None of that mattered to Azgard - only vengeance.

And Daddy Ham was in no position to fight back. He tried at first, but Azgard was simply too fast, too strong, and his electrified arms were too painful. And with every blow, the memory golem forgot more about why it was even fighting. As a result, the battle was highly one-sided.

In a matter of minutes, Daddy Ham had been reduced to a small lump. Azgard might have torn that apart as well if it hadn't suddenly flung itself into his head.

Azgard stood still, dazed, as the surviving contestants stood up.

And then he disappeared.

So did the contestants.

So did the remaining bits of solidified memory strewn about the room.

And so did Chester, who had been watching it all.

---

Barabbas was sweating. It had been a bending of the rules to take the memory beast's remains, but ultimately it was acceptable; bringing the datapath, however, was not justifiable just by the rules of the battle.

"Why did you bring him?" Atelia asked. "Is he another new contestant now?"

"Azgard is not well," Barabbas replied. "We need to... to sort through these memories. Find which ones are his. The contestants have some as well, but I can do little about that."

"And Chester's the only one you could find who might be able to fix him up. I see."

Barabbas nodded, weakly.

"We must move the round along fast," he said. "I cannot restrain them for long."

"But where to?"

"Peth," said Azgard.

"Peth?"

"Peth, next round." He groaned. "Remember... remember..."

"Bring Peth here," Barabbas said. "It seems we'll be needing him."

Atelia nodded, and headed out through the door. Barabbas breathed a sigh of relief - the costs had been great, but they could continue the battle.

At least Azgard had survived.