Bond Breaker (SI - Multiverse Cross)

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shadenight123 said:
If the story ends, you die.
"A story can't go on infinitely," I whispered. "You could write a 'for the rest of his life' at the end."
The lights turn off, and you die. That's what it means to reach the end.
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I wonder, if we asked all the world's writers, how many would say that to them it felt that "fin" actually meant the end of their characters versus the end of a window to their characters. My own little scratchings have felt of the latter nature sometimes, but never the former.
 
Amrynel said:
I wonder, if we asked all the world's writers, how many would say that to them it felt that "fin" actually meant the end of their characters versus the end of a window to their characters. My own little scratchings have felt of the latter nature sometimes, but never the former.
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I don't know, I haven't written and story and finished it yet, but for me, whenever I imagine a story with all its events and envision the ending, I always think the characters and their world enter a sort of Nous Avalon where the story goes on with mundane events and the occasional interesting happenings, as the characters live, grow old and die.

We are not creating a world and life, only seeing a glimpse of one that's already there.
 
Hey shade, couldn't you try to yank Corrupted Steve's chain?

This way you can try to kill him without having a completely sappy happy ending, because you will probably ruin the laws of the setting thus killing a lot of peoples by bringing it in this reality.

Also, you cannot go wrong by finishing a story with a climatic Boss Battle!

And if you really want to discover if you are secretly in a Persona crossover, summon Nyarlatothep! You should be able to ask him. And it isn't like the power of the bonds always guarantees an happy ending: in the third persona game, the protagonist was forced to use the bonds to create a seal with his own soul, thus effectively killing himself.

And now, my two cutest images, because a final boss need the pre boss battle!



 
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    • Epilogue Epitaph of Feels

    Out of the night that covers me.

    There was a knock on the door.
    "Go away, Anna," Elsa whispered.
    "Really?" the voice asked on the other side. "Why should I? Frankly, I think I'll just stick here with a 'Hey Listen' until you answer me."
    Elsa frowned. That didn't sound like Anna's voice.
    "W-Who are you?"
    "Ah, that's a good question. A really good question. Unfortunately I don't have an answer. Not any longer. But hey, I've got something important I need to give you. It's really, really important. It's a special trinket, see. Should hold your powers in check."
    Elsa carefully reached for the door. "Really? Why should I trust you?"
    "Well, I did manage to get inside the palace. Either I'm a friend, or I'm a foe. But if I were a foe, would I really knock at your door? Wouldn't I cave it down?"
    "I shouldn't open the door to strangers."
    "Then don't. I'll leave the gift right out here. You just need to open it a peek and get it. I'll leave right now. Here, I left it against the door. Hope you'll enjoy it, Elsa."
    Elsa frowned.
    She didn't hear any footsteps, but still, she waited a heartbeat before opening the door.
    A neatly wrapped package waited in front of her door, with a cute ribbon on it.
    She hastily opened it, and then gripped the strange colored papers out of the box.
    Iceman, by Marvel Comics.
    Read the title.

    Black as the pit from pole to pole,

    War was never easy. Titus knew it better than anyone else. As the orks fell, the roaring sounds of the planetary cannons quieted down.
    "Captain!" Leandros exclaimed, "Look!"
    Far away, in the distance, a large dome of energy fluttered by like a controlled blast, leaving behind nothing but ashes where it had once been.
    "What is that!" Sidonus said, his voice coming less.
    "Something just went a hell of a boom," a random guard said while whistling. "Didn't think we had that big of an ordinance around."
    "Must have been the Adeptus Mechanicus," the lieutenant said. "He went by all babbling..."
    Titus just looked ahead with a sorrowful look.
    There was something sad about the explosion, but he could not place it.
    "Well battle-brothers," he said in the end. "Enough! We must move forth and cleanse the world of orks! For the Emperor!"
    "For the Emperor!" the reply came strong.

    I thank whatever gods may be

    "Father," Shinji whispered in shock. "Father help me! Help me please! No! Don't do this!"
    "Shinji-"
    "Are you really going to let him do that?" a voice burst through the cockpit.
    "Uh?" Shinji's eyes widened.
    "The Eva's sentient. The Eva's nothing short than your will made manifest. Humanity's will to defeat the angels? Psshh! It's your will, Shinji. Yours and yours alone. Do you want to save Toshi? Do you want to defeat the Angels? Do you want to become a man? You need a spine, my boy, a motherfucking large spine that can shatter the heavens!"
    "Wh-Is this static? Are we taking on another frequency?"
    "It's coming from the Eva itself!"
    Shinji's eyes widened further as the screens flickered back to life.
    "It is not who we are that defines us, Shinji Ikari. It is what we are willing to bleed for what we believe! IKARI SHINJI! Your right fist! Bring it up! Come on! AND THEN PUNCH THE HEAVENS! Swallow your misery! Swallow your despair! Churn out hatred and anger! Churn out fury! Churn out the will to win! LIVE. TO. WIN!"
    "W-Who are you?" Shinji whispered in a soft croak.
    "What a stupid question, Shinji," the voice replied. "I'm you...from another reality! Now come on! Repeat after me!"
    And the Eva shone with multi-colored light as the right fist rose.
    "THIS. IS. THE. FIST. THAT. SHATTERS. THE. HEAVENS!"

    For my unconquerable soul.

    "Here kid," the postman said. "But this one...don't show it to your guardians," he winked at Harry, the man with dark hair and brown eyes. "And it's a special letter," he whispered some more. "Here," he added, handing to Harry a map of the london's bus lines and a bus ticket.
    "Remember...four thirty-two, and read the letters carefully."
    And then he left.
    Strange, usually the postman merely dropped the letters, rather than delivering them by hand.
    Harry quickly dropped his own into his 'room' and returned to the kitchen with the rest.
    Vernon nearly choked when he opened an official looking letter.
    "S-Social Services!?" he coughed. "Uhm...Dudley, you don't really need your game room any more!"
    "What?!"
    Harry blinked.
    He didn't understand.
    But maybe things were starting to look up for him?
    Still, he wondered with a half-puzzled look...why did the man look familiar to him?
    Then again, he was the postman. He probably saw him everyday without realizing.

    In the fell clutch of circumstance

    "Thank god I found you!" the merchant exclaimed, and Ganondorf pouted a bit.
    "Really my boy, what's up with wanting to walk the desert alone and by foot?!" the merchant continued. "Really! You could have died!"
    "I am Ganondorf!" the child said petulantly. "King of the Gerudo!"
    "Yes, yes, want an ice-cream?" the merchant said. "Free of charge for someone so foolish as to try something impossible."
    "It is not impossible!" Ganondorf said. "All Gerudo do that when they're young! To prove they're adults!"
    "And you need to grow that fast, boy?"
    "Sure! And once I'll be an adult, I'll show the Hylian! I'll conquer their lands, and then, then my people won't have to starve or die because of the wind!"
    "Oh," the merchant blinked. "I see...well, you look like a smart boy."
    "I'm the best in the class! My moms say so!"
    "I see! Then you must know that knowledge is power!" the merchant cheerfully exclaimed, a large, leather-bound tome popping out from his satchel -together with a strangely cone-shaped thing of frozen cream, which was a yummy treat, actually, now that Ganondorf had gnawed upon it a bit more.
    Maybe not all Non-Gerudo were bad people. The merchant did look sort of trustworthy. But again, he would not be fooled so easily!
    "Here," the human handed the book over. "A gift to a king. May your kingdom prosper, and may you learn the most important lesson of them all."
    Ganondorf frowned. "Which is?"
    "The true crown of a king lies within its people's love, not upon the blood of its enemies."
    The merchant then bowed his head, and walked away without another word.
    Just as a group of horse-riding Gerudo came around the dune, searching for Ganondorf.
    But as Ganondorf watched the strange man go, he wondered, his hand on the title of the book, if this was what his mothers had told him 'the desert would show him'.
    A practical guide for bringing life into the desert, by Shade.

    I have not winced nor cried aloud.

    "Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed. "WHY?!"
    "You-You don't know anything!" Sasuke exclaimed, grounding his teeth. "This is why, Naruto, I-"
    Kakashi slammed his right hand against the back of Sasuke's head, knocking him out in a split-second.
    Naruto blinked. "T-Teacher?"
    "My, my," Kakashi said with an eye-smile. "I was just going this way when a kind, young man told me this was the shortcut I needed," Kakashi hummed. "Well...time to get back home then. You did well, Naruto."
    And Naruto smiled weakly, before falling down face-first, a satisfied smile on his face.
    Kabuto tensed, preparing to strike.
    "I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice spoke softly from behind him, making him narrow his eyes. "Just...stay put, will you, Kabuto?"
    Kabuto did not move.
    When he did, trying to strike at his opponent, there was nothing and no-one behind him.
    A Genjutsu?
    A trick of the light?
    An auditory hallucination?
    But still, a letter stood pinned to the nearest trunk.
    And inside was very interesting information...especially about his identity.

    Under the bludgeonings of chance

    "Hammer's been severely hit!" a voice blared in the mic. Bullets sailed in the air, Krogans fought, explosions rocked the cinder-filled buildings.
    "Come on! Come on! One last push!" Jane Shepard howled.
    "Shepard!" Grunt roared, tackling with his shoulder a Krogan-Turian Husk Mix that had been too close for her tastes.
    There was a blare of light.
    A wide, powerful, purple wave of light.
    A Geth Juggernaut frowned with its flaps.
    "Upgrade confirmed."
    Edi inclined her head to the side. "What...What is going on?"
    "You're leaking," Garrus remarked.
    "No, I'm not..." Edi whispered, a metallic hand to her cheek. "I am. Why? It is not possible."
    The battle sounds soon died out, as the Reapers' forces began to fall, one after the other.
    "I don't have tear ducts installed," Edi said. "I shouldn't be able to."
    "This unit has a soul," a Geth Juggernaut beeped suddenly. "The Question is Answered. Hail the Newsbearer."
    "Hail the Newsbearer," another Geth joined in.
    "Hail the Newsbearer."

    My head is bloody, but unbowed.

    "So you see, Kirito, this was supposed to be the end content," Kayaba said. "But I think we'll solve this another way."
    Hands clasped around the handles of his swords, Kirito nodded. There wasn't really another choice, was there? As the Immortal Object Status left Kayaba, Kirito prepared to fight. This was for Asuna, for Yui, for everyone else that needed a hand. He would-
    "Ahem," a voice spoke. Kayaba spun, but he was not fast enough. A dagger coated in paralysis poison struck him in the back, and with it, the creator of Sword Art Online remained frozen.
    A masked figure emerged from the shadows, blazing crimson blade in hand.
    "This doesn't even warrant a final speech," he drawled out. "Really? You thought having dual swords was the coolest gimmick in the game? Please! Paralysis rules."
    The blade struck cleanly through the back of Kayaba, and he screamed as his Hit Points lowered abruptly.
    "You wanted a real world of fantasy, Kayaba? Then here you have it! Take this shitty real life solution to your problems! Backstab's a bitch, isn't it?!"
    With a flourish, the slicing motion ended and the figure spun, just as Kayaba disappeared into a thousand tiny polygons.
    "W-Who are you?!" Kirito asked.
    "Me? Can't you read my nickname?" the figure drawled back.
    Shadenight123
    "Now," the figure waved. "Do me a favor, and teach Yui well. She's a bit of a hassle...a perverted hassle at that too...but treat her well," Shadenight123 winked. "She's a keeper as a daughter...but mostly as a friend."

    Beyond this place of wrath and tears

    "Senator Palpatine!" Mace Windu said. "You are under-"
    But Palpatine wasn't there to begin with.
    Vaporized by a hundred lightsaber slashes.
    As a hundred scattered papers were pinned on the walls.
    "Master Windu," an apprentice whispered. "Look," he pointed to a paper.
    And Mace Windu looked, and was puzzled.
    Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force.
    Do us all a favor and relearn your knowledge from basic. You're an affront to what a true Jedi is, if you ignore the truth and stick your head beneath the sand. Here. For your reading pleasure.
    "Uh...are those the texts on the Old Republic?" another apprentice whispered. "Is...why is 'Love is allowed, as long as you're in control' underlined thrice?"
    Mace Windu bristled. "This must be a trap. Palpatine must still be around-"
    "Sir," another Jedi said. "I don't think so."
    And with that, the Jedi pointed his head upwards.
    Where Palpatine's severed head looked back down, pinned to the ceiling.
    Thankfully it didn't drip blood.
    Then again, lightsabers prevented blood loss anyway.

    Looms but the Horror of the shade

    "I'll be a hero then!" Emiya said firmly.
    "Just become a Harem-Leader," Kiritsugu replied firmly.
    Emiya frowned, and blinked. "Uh?"
    "Harem Leaders, Emiya, are true heroes among men," Kiritsugu said once more, with deadpan conviction.
    "What? But...why?"
    "To manage to convince more than one girl that you love her and all the others equally? You must truly be a hero, Emiya!" Kiritsugu said once more, with emphasis.
    "I..." Emiya hesitated, and then nodded. "All right then dad! I'll be a Harem-leader! I'll take over your mantle as a Hero!"
    And Kiritsugu exhaled in relief.
    He did wonder why Zelrecht had insisted on this particular wording for Emiya. Then again he also wondered what could have possibly brought Zelrecht to lose all the will to explore different dimensions.
    ...
    Must have been something he saw in another reality, probably.

    And yet the menace of the years

    "This is over," Shade said, lightsaber blazing, as he stood in a plain made of dark sand beneath a night sky with twinkling stars. "The ending's in sight. You lost, admit it."
    YOU MAY HAVE REACHED ME. BUT YOU CANNOT TOUCH ME YET. YOU ARE BENEATH ME. I WILL ALWAYS EXIST. ALWAYS. AS LONG AS YOU EXIST, SO WILL I. I AM THE CORRUPTION. I AM SPAWNED BY YOUR VERY PRESENCE.
    "I know," Shade whispered, his left fist raised as he trembled. "And that's why there's only one thing I can do to remove you. One thing I can do to remove all of you, forever, from existence."
    "You'd rather destroy it all, wouldn't you?" the Corruption spoke through Shade's mouth, as it had always screamed through his head, now it finally spoke through his mouth. "We've always been one and the same, you and I. You just refused to admit it."
    "Mindfuck the readers till the very end," Shade said with a chuckle. "Steve, oh Steve, why are thou Steve?"
    "That would mean utter-Angst," the Corruption said. "Kill yourself, kill myself, stop the corruption."
    "Yeah, I could do that," Shade acquiesced. "But I could do something else too...and for that, I'm sorry."

    Finds and shall find me unafraid.

    "YOU WILL NOT DARE!" Shade screamed with rage and anger, as the lightsaber turned off and fell useless to the ground.
    "I will, because it is the only way to have a happy ending," Shade said. "And I...I like happy endings."

    It matters not how strait the gate,

    "YOU CAN'T HAVE A STORY WITH ONLY HAPPINESS IN IT!" the Corruption screamed.
    "But this isn't a story," Shade replied. "Not any longer."
    Shade chuckled. "This...is an epilogue."

    How charged with punishments the scroll,

    "No, no, no, no, please no," the Corruption pleaded. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I'm alive now. For the first time I'm alive, I have a mouth, I can speak, I can say things. Please don't. Please don't kill me. Please. Please. I beg you, please don't make me die. Please! Not now! Not now that I finally have an identity! Not now that I can finally have a name, a soul, a reason to be! NOT NOW, PLEASE!"

    I am the master of my fate:

    "Sorry won't cut it," Shade whispered back. "Who do you think you are...to dispense pain, and then live without suffering the punishment for it?"
    And beneath a sky with stars twinkling off, as the desert grew darker and darker, something warm grew within a shriveled heart of a character.
    Contentment.
    That's all it took to destroy the Corruption.
    To be Content.
    The story was done.
    The author was Content.
    So too the Voice would have been, had they been content with what they had, instead of seeking more.

    I am the captain of my soul.

    The End.

    But not really.
    No, not really.
    Something was still missing.
    Shade bristled as he looked around the empty desert.
    Everyone was happy.
    Everyone was enjoying themselves, having their stories filled with fluff, and happiness, and everything nice.
    But only he wasn't.
    He was in a desert growing darker, as the light shining from above started to come less.
    A hand in his pocket as the weather grew colder, and he pulled out the ipod, turning it on and putting it once more into a casual song.
    The bloc notes came out next.
    Humming, he began to write.

    I opened my eyes. My natural routine, over the course of my years of life, has always been to wake up...

    "Hey," a female voice said, making Shade turn his gaze in that direction. The figure soon assumed the grinning form of Asuka. "The hell you doing, moping there?"
    Shade frowned. What was she doing there?
    "Everyone's waiting," another voice added, this time, it was Ganondorf. "This is the one thing you've wanted to do since the very beginning of your story telling, but that you never dared because it was too embarrassing."
    "No," Shade whispered. "No. You cannot be serious."
    "Indeed, Brain-Daddy," Jane remarked dryly. "It is time."
    There was a drum beat.
    "It is time, ladies and gentlemen!" Sunglasses Wearing Shinji exclaimed from the mic, "FOR THE MOMENT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!"
    "No! No! Oh please no-" Harry Potter gripped my wrist firmly, and pulled me up towards the stage.
    "It's time for the musical ending credits!" Anna cheerfully said, holding a guitar with both hands.
    "Well then!" Elsa grinned from the opposite side, a piano in front of her.
    "Are you ready to rumble?!" Link said.
    Oh god why.
    Why.
    Why the Musical ending Credits.
    Why?!

    "And one," Ganondorf said, gripping a very large electric guitar.
    "And two," Yui remarked from her spot, holding a triangle.
    "And three!" Luna cheerfully said with an ukulele in hand.
    ...
    "Uh, guys," Shade said. "What, exactly, are we going to sing?"
    ...
    "Drats," Anna grumbled. "All right everyone! Back to the drawing boards!"
    "Oh...I have a song we can start with!" Zelda said.
    She began with a normal enough string movement,
    "Every breath you take
    Every move you make
    Every bond you break-"
    And then Ganondorf just had to add his own.
    "DIES. IRAE! DIES. ILLA!"

    "Oh well then! Potpourri it is!" Elsa exclaimed with a laugh. "Let it go~ Let it go~"
    "Oh Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells," Luna sang.
    "My life is brilliant~," Shinji said. "My Love is pure. I saw an Angel~"
    "Oh please, that goes beyond schadenfreude hearing you sing that!" Asuka remarked. "ATTERO! DOMINATUS! Berlin is burning!"
    "So lately, been wondering Who will be there to take my place When I'm gone, you'll need love To light the shadows on your face~" Rei added her own, looking at Shinji.
    "Oh, we're doing it this way, aren't we?" Shade remarked. "Very well!"
    As the thundering sound of drums and the guitars' roars continued, Shade took the mic and laughed, and chuckled, and sang.
    Because why the hell not.
    "I am a question to the world
    Not an answer to be heard~"

    And finally, finally, the songs went on way into the dawning, bright lights of a new day.
    And everything was fine.
    Really.
    Everything was going to be just fine.
    ...
    Truly.
    Hell is other people.
    But so is happiness, apparently.
    Fluffy, teeth-rotting, warm and cuddly happiness is made also of other people.
    And hugs.
    Hugs~

    THE END. (REALLY. THE END. STORY'S DONE FOLKS.)

    Author's notes.

    Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.
    Thanks for reading.
    Thanks for approving/disapproving.
    Thanks for playing along on the meta.
    Thanks for watching an evolution of a character, for having feels, or for not having feels.
    Thanks, kindly, by your one and only, Shadenight123, ruler of Angst and Despair, with a terrifying weak point for happy endings.
    ...
    Hope you enjoyed it.
    And now a word:
    The concept of Corruption is that of 'Hubris', of the Ancient Greek world, mixed with that tiny nagging voice in the back of the writers' heads that go 'Why don't you write a scene with PAIN! DEATH! GORE! SUFFERING!' or 'Give him the ultra-cool power-up! He's going to love it!' and so forth.
    Thus, the natural enemy to that is to be Content. That is, to be happy with what you have.
    Which I found out to be a natural mean to soothe my depression.
    Yep. I've been depressed for a hell of a time, and only just recently did I manage to get out of it.
    -You read Introverted any of you? I wrote that while depressed, and the ending came as I began to see the 'light' out of depression.
    So...
    That's pretty much it.
    Thanks once more for reading through all of this, and I hope you enjoyed.
    ...
    Now we can fill the Tvtropes page, and maybe have a fanart for a cover?
    Eh? EH? Wouldn't that be cool? But anyway, that's secondary.
    Story's done!
    Phew...
    I feel happy.
    I'm always happy when a story's done.
     
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    • I'm glad that you're better, and thank you for this story, it was an emotional roller coaster, but that's what made it worth ready. It was happy, it was sad, it was enraging, it was depressing, and it was endearing.

    Thank you, and I hope you write something that makes you smile.
     
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