Ch 21: A Second Truth, Altera Veritas

Watching Amelia fall before his eyes, Alastor is faced with the Executive Member of the Council of Fate, Ziva Ulvia Ba'alzebul. Here A Second Truth ends, and The Second Truth begins...

            Eyeing her with loathing as she came to stand before him, Alastor coldly said, “As I said before, I don’t want to hear another word…” Shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head, Lady Ziva sighed and said, “That makes things rather difficult for me. Won’t you reconsider?” Quickly and with finality, Alastor replied, “No.” Speaking within his mind through telepathy, Lady Ziva said, “What if we speak this way?” Lunging at her with eyes wide in rage, Alastor’s blade met with Lady Ziva’s staff as she blocked him, and holding him there with only one hand on her staff, she met his livid gaze and chuckled. Gathering another mass of EDE as he formed his other sword, Alastor shouted, “You think this is funny?!” Just as his sword formed and he moved to strike with it, a telekinetic shockwave burst from her staff as Lady Ziva channeled her power through it, blowing him back and laying him out on the ground. Speaking into his mind as he lay there, Lady Ziva replied, “It’s somewhat amusing, yes. Watching you, a man who I can tell no longer even has a heart to reject, run about in a furious tirade over the death of a woman he barely knows. Rare sights like this are one of the few things that relieve the tedium of ruling over this existence, so why shouldn’t I enjoy it as much as I can?”

            Struggling up into a sitting position to glare at her, Alastor said, “Get out of my mind you witch… Just what do you mean I don’t have a heart to reject anymore?” Staring back at him a moment, Lady Ziva looked over at Barinus, who looked somewhat worried by Alastor’s question, and smiled innocently at him as she said, “Why don’t you explain Barinus? It was your work after all, although since I don’t feel its presence, I assume you botched the job at the last moment.” Sweating bullets, Barinus weakly replied, “W-well Lady Ziva, I… I…” Closing her eyes with a sad smile, Lady Ziva said, “Dear me, are you so badly beaten that you can’t even speak? Perhaps I should put you out of your misery?” His eyes going wide in terror, Barinus sputtered, “N-no, p-please Lady Ziva, I-I’ll speak, just give me another chance! I used my Sorrow Spike and amplified his inner pain and suffering just as you said, but when his heart came out and I reached out to take it, it… it shone with a bright light and vanished!”

            Turning to Alastor with a warm smile, Lady Ziva said, “There, was that a sufficient explanation of what I said earlier Alastor? If he didn’t do a good enough job explaining, feel free to punish him however you like.” A confused look showing clearly on Alastor’s face, Lady Ziva briefly glanced at Barinus, who looked absolutely horrified by Lady Ziva’s last statement, as he exclaimed, “What?! M-my Lady, please reconsider!” Seeming to look as though she were thinking about it, after a moment Lady Ziva shrugged her shoulders and said, “I’m sorry Barinus, but you have to learn to do your tasks correctly. After all, if what you said is true, I have a feeling there’s a fifty-fifty chance we’re going to have to do this all over again. I suppose if you want, we could flip a coin to decide whether I should kill you or not. Does that sound more appropriate?” As Barinus was fearfully weighing his options, Alastor suddenly interjected, saying, “What is this about? Are you saying the reason I’ve been feeling so strange after escaping the seal is because you people have stolen my heart away?!” Showing a sad smile, Lady Ziva glanced at Barinus again and said, “Oh dear Barinus, it seems you didn’t explain it well enough after all…” Sitting there quaking in his boots, Barinus did not respond, and as Alastor got to his feet he demanded, “Stop toying with him and answer!”

            Turning back to him with a sigh, Lady Ziva replied, “If I must. Really though Alastor, isn’t about time you remembered everything that happened back then? As far as I can tell, you’re merely filling in the end of your story with bits and fragments of memory pieced together with the words of others.” Unable to deny it, Alastor merely waited impatiently, not dropping his guard around any of them but listening attentively as she finally started explaining, “A thousand years ago, Amanus tried to save you with a piece of Origin’s being, but this only allowed the Nameless One to defeat and capture the great Lord of the Seventh Spirits. Yet in his final moment of triumph, who would have guessed it would be little old you who would stand in his way? You broke free of his hold, and with Amanus’ aid in weakening him further, you stole back the All Heart and hid it away within your own heart. You even used the knowledge you’d gained from him to force a contract with the Seventh Spirit that was a part of him, separating their consciousnesses once again and sending him scrambling to regain his lost power. Indeed, if not for one thing, you would have been saved that day, and regaled as a hero for all time.” Turning his gaze downward as he could not suppress the shame, Alastor whispered, “Amanus died…” Nodding solemnly, Lady Ziva wore an insincere sad smile as she said, “Yes, he died while the spell that had weakened the Nameless One was still active, and after facing the Nameless One your will was exhausted. You slipped into a deep sleep while under the protection of your new ally, Vanitas, and unaware of all these events, Alexander and the rest of Amanus’ allies convinced themselves you had been temporarily sealed to give them a chance to finish the job.”

            His question still unanswered, Alastor said, “And I suppose you people came chasing after this ‘All Heart’?” Shrugging her shoulders, Lady Ziva said, “We probably could have tried at the time, but with the state our lines of communication were in due to everything that had happened, you were sealed away before I could mobilize a task force. During your time sealed away though, I figured everything out, and I knew you’d be forced to make a choice. The Nameless One would overpower Vanitas, meaning you would be at risk of being consumed along with the All Heart. In order to protect yourself, you’d surely use Vanitas’ power to reject your own heart, filling it with emptiness to stifle your own feelings and thus giving him nothing to take hold of you with.” With a sly smile, she added, “I surmised you’d likely lose your memory as well. If you were to escape the seal in such a state, I thought getting ahold of you and manipulating you as you were would be a simple matter, but then the prophecy changed and everything fell apart. I decided we needed to take the All Heart into custody, and we pursued you all this time until finally today we succeeded in removing your heart along with it, only to have Barinus here go and lose it.”

            At this point Barinus simply sat there solemnly, seeming to have accepted his fate. Looking back and forth between the two of them in disbelief a moment, holding some faint hope that this was all a lie, some horrible dream he would wake up from, as he remembered the confusing way he’d suddenly found himself standing over Barinus, Alastor fearfully said, “I truly no longer have a heart…?” With a strange smile, Lady Ziva chuckled as she replied, “That’s hardly all you’ve lost. Since you’ve held on so strongly to that anger and fear of yours, the Nameless One was able to eat away your entire body as well.” An unknown sense of foreboding running through him despite the fact he was sure she must be insane, perfectly able to see he still had his body, Alastor exclaimed, “How could I even be standing here if that were the case?!” Holding up her staff, Lady Ziva said, “Why, with the power of Malum Vanitas of course…” A layer of her white psychic energy forming over one of his arms, Alastor turned to look at it in surprise, and as it turned from white to transparent like glass, he stared in terror at the black and twisted arm within.

            Moving the twisted arm a bit to see that it was actually his, though he remembered Barinus mentioned something about a body of EDE, Alastor refused to accept it as he said, “No… This can’t… What have you done to me?!” Lowering her staff, as the layer of energy disappeared, Alastor’s arm seemed to return to normal, and looking quite satisfied with his reaction, Lady Ziva merely answered, “All I did was open a window to the truth. What you saw was your arm’s true form, and I can guarantee the rest of you is quite the same. Such a strong will you must possess, being able to mold his power into an exact copy of your body through nothing but your sheer instinct to survive, it’s impressive that the lack of sync between your essence and physical components only resulted in temporary amnesia. You’ll only speed up your decay if you give him emotions to take hold of, although unless you separate him from his essence completely with a vessel, it won’t really change anything in the end.” Watching him hold his arm up before him and continue looking at it in shock, there was a sinister look in Lady Ziva’s eyes as she added, “If you truly want to blame anyone, blame your dear brother and his family.” Shaken from his stupor, Alastor looked to her in rage as he shouted, “Don’t be ridiculous! They have nothing to do with this!” Clearly amused, Lady Ziva replied, “Really? Who was it who drove you on all those years? Who was it who ignored your warnings and led you both to the seal? Who was it who, after deeming a stranger’s failed effort to save you undeniable proof that you were lost, sealed you away for one thousand years and went on with his life as a hero? Alexander himself abandoned you, and his fate to meet Amelia and start a family all but guaranteed that he would never come back for you. You only remind him of the friend he lost and the mistakes he made. You’re nothing but a memory he seeks to forget as soon as possible.”

            Sinking to his knees and clutching his head as Lady Ziva stood there and voiced all the doubts and fears he himself had tried to ignore, Alastor struggled to remain strong as he shouted, “Shut your mouth! Alex would never abandon me, I’m his brother!” Raising her staff with a triumphant grin, Lady Ziva merely said, “Oh really? Why don’t we see what Alexander himself will have to say on the matter? Allow me to show you a scene from the future that will take place when you yourself request that he stand by your side once more!” A flat circular field of her white psychic energy forming in the air before him, as Alastor stared at it fearfully, an image of Alexander and himself appeared upon it. Wearing a gray suit, Alastor stood before his brother as he kneeled there looking injured, and removing a hand from his pocket, he offered it as he said, “Don’t you remember the work we started so long ago Alex? We can still realize our ideals… Join me. Let us realize The Second Truth, and create a paradise for all beings.” After a moment of silence though, Alexander simply began laughing, somewhat weakly as though due to his injury. Then he finally stopped laughing and said, “Al, any paradise created by you would be as false and empty as the puppet you’ve become. Alastor Bastille, my beloved brother… is dead.”

            The window into the future quickly faded, leaving Alastor sitting there on his knees staring after it in disbelief and despair. Whatever things he himself had spoken of, whatever had happened between them, Alastor could not believe that his brother could say such a thing to him. Turning his gaze downward to stare at the ground, as a shadow fell over his face, Alastor quietly said, “You think just because you rule over this world, you can control our lives and turn people against each other with your devious words?” Resting her eyes with a smile, Lady Ziva replied, “If you don’t like it, why don’t you do something about it?” A dark aura erupting around him, as Alastor rose to his feet, he looked up at her with a red glow in his eyes as he formed Acerbitas Desiderium and muttered, “Haste.” The words had hardly left his mouth before Lady Ziva said, “Scathe, release restriction.” As Alastor burst across the distance at Lady Ziva and reached her to swing his scythe, Scathe suddenly stepped in front of her and plunged a blade of radioactive energy through his chest, his arm cannon having reconfigured into the advanced device. Hanging there impaled upon his energy blade, Alastor choked blood and lost hold of his weapon, but he continued to glare at Lady Ziva with loathing, as Lady Ziva herself merely returned his gaze with a sinister smile.

            Shooting through the air, an arrow of wind suddenly struck Scathe in the chest. Staggering back, Scathe looked at the arrow in his chest briefly before looking over at Amelia struggling towards them all with her bow drawn. Looking quite the worse for wear, she still wore a determined expression as she shouted, “Leave him alone, you monsters!” Tossing Alastor from his blade, Scathe moved to charge at her and finish her off, but letting fly more arrows of wind, Amelia struck him three more times in the chest and the gut, and Scathe finally collapsed to the ground. Watching her minion fall with a displeased expression, Lady Ziva muttered, “My, my…” Staggering towards where Alastor laid while taking aim at her for another shot, Amelia watched Lady Ziva closely as she called out, “Don’t move, or you’re next!” Yet suddenly she stumbled due to her injuries, losing hold of her bow and collapsing on the ground.

            Raising her staff at Amelia as she strained to pick herself up and reached out for her weapon, Lady Ziva merely smirked as she said, “Don’t think to threaten me, little girl…” Channeling psychic power into her staff, Lady Ziva watched calmly as Amelia cried out in agony, something suddenly writhing and moving about violently in her wounds, causing them to quickly tear open and bleed horribly. Alastor struggled up on his hands and knees and clutched his chest as he looked back at her in shock, and he was just in time to hear her weakly gasp, “Alastor… trust… Alexander…” She quickly fell motionless as she passed out from blood loss, and lowering her staff and letting her ability fade, Lady Ziva said, “Bothersome girl. She might have lived if she’d stayed down, but no amount of healing will arrive in time to restore that much blood. It’s not easy to form an object of solid psychic energy inside another person’s body without physical contact, much less manipulate it. My mixed psychic and spirit based affinity makes it easier than it would be, but it’s still so tiresome…”

            Struggling to crawl towards Acerbitas Desiderium, Alastor gasped, “Tyrranical witch… I refuse to keep living in a world run by a monster like you…” Watching him calmly, Lady Ziva replied, “Again, if you don’t like me or the world I’ve given you, why don’t you stop wallowing in misery and do something about it? You possess the Nameless One’s power and knowledge, and now that you’re aware of the Throne of the Inanimate Dream and its ability to rewrite existence as the user sees fit, surely you can think of one way you could overturn everything…” Taking hold of Acerbitas Desiderium, Alastor slowly rose to his feet, facing her as he said, “You think I’ll follow your plan and rewrite existence for you if you make me miserable enough?!” Chuckling as she merely shook her head, Lady Ziva said, “Hardly. I merely thought you might go off by yourself and try to recreate the world with a plan of your own. Ruling over existence is usually so boring after all, and since there’s no chance you’ll actually succeed, watching your futile struggles would make for marvelous entertainment.”

            Burning with anger as she stood there mocking him, Alastor resolved himself then and there, a red glow in his eyes as he smiled faintly and said, “Very well… I’ll do just that. This world you’ve created, filled with hatred and despair, where lives are trampled upon by the ambitions of the few, where futures are stolen away by greed and lies, I’ll erase it forever. No matter how hard or how long the journey, I’ll reach the Throne of the Inanimate Dream by any means necessary, and create a perfect world free of fear and persecution. A Second Truth… my Altera Veritas…” Grinning sinisterly in the face of his declaration, Lady Ziva said, “Good. Struggle magnificently for me, Alastor Bastille. I’ll even lend you a hand!” Gesturing to Scathe lying there before her, she added, “Once I’ve sent someone out to repair him, this versatile combat cyborg, Scathe, will be yours to command. You can even make him a Revenant, ensuring his loyalty.”

            Glancing at Scathe momentarily, Alastor simply said, “Fine. He’d better be able to handle more than this though, I’m far from impressed that he was felled by a few wind arrows.” Shrugging her shoulders, Lady Ziva turned to go as she replied, “I’ll see what I can do. I look forward to your efforts Alastor, but for now I’ll be on my way.” Calling out to her as he struggled to get to his feet, Barinus said, “Lady Ziva, wait! Don’t leave me behind!” Pausing as she glanced at him, Lady Ziva said, “Barinus, you remain here and receive your punishment from Alastor. I’m not someone who goes back on her word after all.” As Barinus was about to beg for his life, Alastor said, “Forget it, just take that piece of filth with you. You can both watch me tear your world down around you. If he or you ever show your faces in front of me again though, I really will kill you…” Smirking as she glanced back at him once more, Lady Ziva started off as she said, “Very well. Come along Barinus, we’re leaving.” Barinus quickly limped after her obediently, and taking one last look at Amelia there on the ground, Alastor turned and hobbled away as well.

            As the vision of Alastor’s memories faded, Amy and Grey found themselves back in Alastor’s personal chambers aboard the Noctivagus, and for a moment they both sat there in silence. Then bringing them back to their senses, Alastor said, “Are you satisfied now, Mr. Greyson?” Staring at him solemnly, Grey said, “What happened to you Alastor? Can’t you see you’ve become just as twisted as everything you hated? It’s almost like you’re trying to be a monster, you even went along with the Hand of Fate’s schemes back when you faced Alexander at our manor the night you kidnapped me, acting like it had actually been you who attacked our home. I still just don’t get it…” Resting his eyes with a slight sigh, Alastor replied, “I don’t expect you to understand. I came to realize many things in the years after that, went through with things that I would have once been morally incapable of, and even as I look back on it all, I still feel certain that this path I’ve taken, however severe it may be, will lead to something that will finally free this world from all its pain and suffering.”

            There was no sadness or despair in Alastor’s voice, but as he continued Grey felt a sense of disappointment as Alastor added, “I knew both from my knowledge of Alexander as his brother as well as from Lady Ziva’s window to the future that Alexander would never agree with the path I chose, and so I merely let him believe that I was responsible for everything. I thought at that time I had given up on ever being with him, but that weak resolve of mine soon was not enough, and I still reached out to him at the graveyard, only to be hurt just as I knew I would.” Gritting his teeth angrily a moment, Grey rose to his feet and slammed his hands on the table as he shouted, “Of course that’s how it turned out you idiot! Despite everything between you two, despite what Mom pleaded with you to do right before she died, you never once trusted Dad with the truth! Instead of running off on your own, and letting yourself believe you’d always be alone, you should’ve gone to him and showed him that the real you was still there! This plan of yours for the Second Truth isn’t even something you came up with, it’s exactly what Lady Ziva wanted! She manipulated you!” Opening his eyes to simply stare blankly back at Grey, Alastor said, “Enough Mr. Greyson. If all of your terms have been met satisfactorily, it’s time for your part of the deal. Let’s hurry and break the Master Seal, and in three days time you and I will bring an end to all this.”

Author's Note

Lady Ziva's last name is a reference to the demon Ba'al Zebub, better known as Beezlebub. In later Christian and Biblical sources, he is referred to as another name for the devil. In Christian demonology, he is one of the seven princes of Hell.

The name Ba'al Zebub is variously understood to mean "lord of the flies" or "lord of the (heavenly) dwelling".

In the Testament of Solomon, Beelzebul (not Beelzebub) appears as prince of the demons and says (6.2) that he was formerly a leading heavenly angel who was (6.7) associated with the star Hesperus (which is the normal Greek name for the planet Venus (Αφροδíτη) as evening star). Seemingly, Beelzebul here is simply Lucifer. Beelzebul claims to cause destruction through tyrants, to cause demons to be worshipped among men, to excite priests to lust, to cause jealousies in cities and murders, and to bring on war.