Chapter 16 - Mindpotent.
Sam P.O.V.
I did what Mind told me and went back to the house, leaving the cleaning up to him. I sit on the futon for a while, just breathing, trying to calm the storm in my head.
(Last time I went to sleep, everything went to hell. I don't even know what the doors look like inside my own mind after all this destruction.)
I shiver at the thought. The invasion was brutal.
(This is my mind. I'm lucky I even put the wall, doors, and a stable center in place beforehand. Otherwise, an army of unimaginable stuff from the Void would have appeared in my living room. Now my mind is corrupted by these things, scarred by the intrusion.)
After thinking a bit, my optimism takes over. It has to. Despair won't fix anything.
(This could be a blessing in disguise. They were training rooms, designed by me after all. Now I have to clear them, one by one, even the speculated ones. They are out of my control until I do it. Besides, the nucleus, this house, and my spiritual body are fine, which is the DNA of it all...)
Narrator P.O.V.
Warning: Theoretical Physics and Philosophy ahead. Skip if you prefer punching over pondering.
Just like in the periodic table, there are elements that are assumed to exist, but do not occur naturally. The table we know exists in layers, extending far beyond what we can stabilize in a lab. In Sam's mind, the Duality of Life and the Absence of it, is expressed infinitely, too.
In philosophical terms, let's think of Time as the First Dimension. Without time, nothing starts, nor ends. Time is relative, but foundational.
The Second Dimension (X) would be Existence. A single dot, gaining consciousness, or simply "being."
The Third Dimension (Y) would be Duality. What is, and what is not. One becomes white, the other black. Extreme presence and extreme absence. Something is still obviously missing, as absence is not actually something, so...
The Fourth and Fifth Dimensions (X' and Y') are twins, born out of the second and third. They create a square, which brings the flat plane and the start of the Fibonacci sequence in relation to time.
The Sixth Dimension (Z) should be called Space. It is the unwanted child of the four previous dimensions. Born out of the incompatibility of their existence, they have to exist in different places and planes. Space encompasses all the previous five dimensions. Time and space are linked through matter and antimatter. One can bend the other, but never escape from it.
Until now, this followed the Golden Ratio: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8...
1 is Time.
2 is Singular Existence.
3 is Duality (Matter/Antimatter).
5 is the result of the Mirror Reality.
8 is Space, born from the clash.
The universe expands and complexifies in its laws, following this pattern. Just like we can't find the end of Pi (3.1416...), the universe is infinite.
We have bigger chances of dying from a random cosmic event than seeing the universe end.
Sam, in his "training," inadvertently tapped into this universal DNA. He tried to simulate laws he didn't fully understand, creating a beacon that attracted something from the deep, dark corners of the cosmic equation.
Something hungry.
3rd Person P.O.V.
After calming his mind, Sam enters a meditative state, close to sleep. Right now, he feels like his body is not right. It feels heavy, disconnected.
On the outside, in the physical world, there is nobody to witness the stone egg resume its task. It starts slowly eating all the ambient energy again. There is no ice to be created this time; instead, the water vapor and air molecules disintegrate. The temperature drops rapidly, and the egg starts to look distorted, as if seen through a water vortex coming from the sky and earth. It shrinks very slowly, condensing.
On the inside, in the Mindscape, Mind (Sam's logical ego) keeps an eye on the mess that the strange beast left behind. He is very fast, processing thoughts at lightning speed, so he can execute a few tasks at the same time. He is trying to find the other ego that he speculated about—the Soul or Subconscious—while analyzing every grain of sand in this place. It is a never-ending quest. Sam was very idealistic at the wrong moment.
When Sam entered into his sleep state, the black flesh that remained trapped behind the barrier began to writhe in pain.
Mind lets go of the other tasks and focuses on what's happening here, in the containment.
For the ten-thousandth time, he checks the barrier. Now inside it, there is nothing more than a black fluid that wiggles, vaporizes, and condenses into living clumps. It tries to break the barrier by splashing at it, acidic hissings echoing in the void, but nothing works yet.
This has been going on for a while as nothing changes. The beast manages to absorb a bit of power, even with Mind's high-tech precautions. The big influx of power from the outside (the egg absorbing nature) is making him miss that fact, filling his perception with a large amount of white noise, hiding the small drain.
Now Sam is in danger again. But before it goes on any longer, another person appears.
He is dressed in loose, red silk pants and a short, silvery-white yukata with a hood. Red flames lick up the bottom of the fabric. His face is hidden in shadow.
After hesitating for a while, he sighs. A sound of immense frustration.
Red Man: "Haaa... Damn it! It's not like the sacrifice is not worth it."
He leaves and comes back a moment later dragging a comatose Sam (Body).
Mind: "What do you want to sacrifice?"
Mind steps in front to stop him, creating a barrier of logic. But then he freezes when he sees the Red Man's smile. It is jagged and terrifying.
Wrath: "Don't talk to me, Mind. The last person that I want to see is you, and I don't want you telling me to do stuff. Besides, you don't want me to do stuff anyway. Hehehe."
Mind lets him pass, sensing the raw power radiating from him.
Mind: "Should we call you Wrath?"
Wrath just shrugs.
Mind: "Ok then, please remember it, just in case we need you..."
Mind replaces his fake glasses and coughs awkwardly.
Wrath conjures a knife. It looks jagged, like obsidian. He cuts his own palm, then Sam's, and finally Mind's.
The blood floats up from the three cuts, gathers in the air, and forms a small vortex.
Wrath: "That's enough."
On his command, the three wounds heal immediately. The vortex shrinks and starts gathering power, glowing with a deep crimson light.
Wrath: "Mind, I want you to give it the same processing power as me and Body."
He takes a pause and looks at Mind with intense eyes.
Wrath: "I'm not like you guys. If one of you threatens my survival, I won't hesitate to rip you to shreds, and nothing can stop me in here. Do you think I didn't notice where our cunning, junkie behavior went? You're not fooling me. Your job is to be a computer for us, stick to it. You should act like the Great Sage skill instead of playing with Body's head."
Wrath steps closer.
Wrath: "I saw you trick him on your first encounter. You pulled a Black Zetsu on him and seized the chance to show off. On top of that, he gave you more power than you should have, while it did help him develop a skill... Remember, I'm watching and we are connected. A threat to you, or him, is a threat to me. Intuition is mine, along with lust and most importantly, our truest inner self. Sam involuntarily hid the pieces that he didn't like of himself. That's why I know how to deal with corruption. Because I am his corruption, hehehe. You are his rational side, cold and seeking drugs to numb me, but this was a long time ago."
Mind: "Indeed, it was... It's not like we need this crap anymore...."
Mind turns to the liter of blood that is now compressed to the size of a needle tip, shining bright red.
Wrath: "Make a double-layered entry point and get ready to fight that thing's will. Body can't help us for this. We should let him recover."
Mind: "We don't need him, you got me."
Wrath looks at him with a frown. The air pressure spikes, trying to push Mind down. Mind realizes Wrath contains almost all the Yang, or vital energy, in his control sphere. He does hold the life in his hands.
(So, the lust, emotions, intuition, and repressed self, gave him almost every bit of vital energy and matter's "mass." He's like a bomb on the edge of explosion. I should not play games with him...)
Wrath: "YOU RAT! Sigh.... Breathe... I told you not to talk. Every word from you makes me want to rip your head off. We are talking about a Will here, something you severely lack. NOT brain power. To begin with, this may be a small piece, but is still a piece of something akin to a god. How long did it live for? How old is it? YOU think you can use your brain inside a drop of blood? You think you can fight a god? Do you think you killed it before with that blast? Hahaha!!!"
Mind steadies himself after the truth hits him. Ashamed, the conjured glasses disappear. He approaches, gritting his teeth.
Mind: "Don't underestimate me. If I put my mind on something..."
Both: "...or do something I like, I will go beyond finishing it."
They finish the sentence together. It is one of Sam's core traits: Obsession.
Wrath: "Like it or not."
He releases the pressure, making Mind relax.
They cooperate seamlessly and inject the ball of compressed blood and power into the barrier.
The black goo is already stuck to the wall like a puppy waiting for a meal, even if said wall is vaporizing it every second it touches it.
Once the ball of blood gets there, the goo retreats a few feet in its periphery, as if both eager and afraid. This only lasts five seconds, then the goo ignores the danger and bites the hook.
SPLASH.
Once the two "liquids" touch, the two on the outside who kept a connection with the blood feel an immense pressure.
Mind rolls into a ball on the floor, screaming silently. Wrath is still standing, but with a massive sweat drop on his forehead. He's clutching his heart.
Mind bashes his head on the floor, trying to end the sensation.
Wrath: "Still think it's easy?"
Mind is living the pain a thousand times more vividly than the others, in a lucid way, unable to ignore it. When Sam prevented his alter ego from dissipating, like the intruder he passed himself for, he gave him command over most of his subconscious processing.
Mind, who was weaker than Sam, happily took it over, thinking more power would help him usurp the real body. Yes, he is Sam's most cunning mind. Like a fox, neither good nor bad. Most would view him as evil, but the fox just survives in the end. He doesn't care if it is your chicken, or your lost daughter; he will eat it.
Body, the original Sam, except for a connection with the others, ended up with the heart (love), communication, and part of his consciousness. Enough control, that he doesn't know the difference, as he uses max 20% of his brain cells (which is already 10% more than a regular human), giving access to inner power and empathy, thanks to the familiar bonds.
But now, Mind suffers so much, he regrets his decision. Imagine being aware of every minute piece of information, in your suffering body, at a pace where time seems to slow down to a crawl, while someone is driving screws into both your heart and brain.
Not only that, but the real body outside, is being rebuilt from scratch.
If this continues, he will literally lose his "mind."
After numbing the pain a bit by smashing his head on the ground a few times, he raises his head with a desperate look—tears, snot, and drool falling from his face.
Mind: "MOTHERFUCKER!"
He puts both hands on his head, and the pressure on Wrath augments.
Wrath wants to say something but...
Sam (Body): "Cough... cough... Ouch... what is happening?"
Sam wakes up, groggy.
Wrath: (Shit, he can't see me yet.)
He makes sure his hood covers his face, conjures a bandana to be sure, and retreats to the other side of Mind, who attracts Sam's attention with his screaming.
Inside the barrier, the floating goo is like an inverted sea urchin around it, trying to fuse with the blood, but Wrath is exerting pressure so it does not happen, not yet, at least.
Sam: "MIND! What is happening?"
He puts two and two together, after looking around at the barrier and the screaming doppelganger.
Wrath says in a deep mode voice:
Wrath: "We're fighting this thing's remains. The only way to win is making its will submit and make it ours. We can't just erase it."
Sam advances to pat Mind's shoulder, to comfort him, but is stopped by a sharp hand from Wrath. Mind is just there kneeling, with a horrified face.
Wrath: "Don't touch him. You could make us fail. His mind is going too fast right now. You would break his train of thoughts and the pain would make him go crazy. Are you fine though?"
Sam (Body): "Can't say I feel good, but I'm ok. It feels like I caught my girlfriend fucking the person I hate the most, after being hit by a car. But that is not something I'm totally unfamiliar with, so..."
Wrath: "Good, cause the goo you see in there, is the one causing all this. Use your will to subdue it."
Sam nods, but in his heart, he doesn't really know what to do. He tries to fight mentally, but it helps only a pitiful amount. They barely contain the problem, and the power in the blood is being used up slowly.
Sam: "What now...?"
Their thoughts get interrupted by Mind's shouts at the top of his lungs.
Mind: "AAAAAAAAHHH!"
Once there is no more air to shout, his face contorts in ultimate pain, and then a ball of white light slowly comes out of his third eye.
Once it's out, Mind's "body" falls face-first on the ground. Dead silent. The ball of light just floats there, pulsing.
Sam's mouth opens wide. His mind is struggling to understand and control himself. His power and will fluctuate wildly. Wrath also feels his blood boiling, a bit out of his control. He looks at Sam with a raised eyebrow under his hood.
Wrath: (He still has complete control, after all...)
Mind's body suddenly twitches.
Mind (Robot): "Analyzing."
He gets up from the ground, looks at his hands, flex them and blinks. The eyes are devoid of the spark they had before.
Mind (Robot): "Synchronization complete. Initiating packages left by the previous host. Connection to new host required."
Mind's body walks to Sam and takes his hand. Power flows from one to the other, cold and efficient.
Mind (Robot): "Connection established. Initiating message."
Mind's demeanor shifts for a split second, returning to the original personality. He puts on glasses and looks at Sam with a sad smile.
Mind (Hologram): "First, don't bother talking, this is a message that I left behind."
Sam looks at the orb floating there with a frown.
Mind (Hologram): "Second, to make sure I... We don't go crazy, I had to leave the gift you gave me behind. So this body and power now belong to you again. I left a small piece of consciousness with no 'seed' in it. You can give it another name. It's only a machine now. Otherwise, we would be in the same situation... this body in agony, the goo winning over... Now, I can fight from the inside and win."
Mind (Hologram): "Third, well..."
He looks at Wrath for a second, but shakes his head with a smirk.
Wrath: (Damn fox. You have to piss me off to the end.)
Mind (Hologram): "Third, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I tricked you, and I had fun with you, bro. You're not like him, remember that. Goodbye."
Mind waves his hand goodbye, and his neutral, robotic look comes back. It turns around and moves toward the Mind Seed, the ball of light, that contains his true essence.
Mind (Robot): "Initiating Fighting sequence."
Mind's seed flies into the barrier and enters the ball of blood, before the goo intercept.
FLASH.
The barrier dissipates, but the goo ignores everything else. We have to make it ours, thus no barrier now. This frees our processing speed a lot.
Sam registers what's just been said. The "Mind," his own logical self, just sacrificed his ego to subdue that thing. He looks at the robot standing there.
Wrath's power flares without his will. He looks like he's in Kaioken mode or popped his Eight Gates...
Sam: "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
Sam screams, looking at Wrath. Tears streaming down his cheeks.
Sam: "If YOU, did things differently, he would not have to sacrifice himself! Of all people, WE understand what being subdued feels like. You should have tried to win him over, instead of this! I knew what he was... That thing too, what we are fighting now!"
Sam: "Arrrrrg!!!!"
He curls up in pain. No matter how much he tries to wipe them, the tears never stop.
Sam: "Nobody would have needed to die."
He is connected to his emotions a lot more tightly, since he "made Mind." In the end, the original Sam, knew what he was doing. When he gave part of himself to Mind, he was giving it to himself, so he could become more pragmatic. Even if Mind took over, it is all the same, except ignoring his emotions freely... until he need them again...
He finally calms down, the sobs turning to shudders. Sam is the type to forgive easily but remembers not to make the same mistakes.
Right now, he is living the worst heartbreak of his life, even if all of this is in his mind. losing part of oneself, is the greatest tragedy one can endure.
Sam was aware of the inner feelings of Mind, since it was him... As much as he is aware of Wrath's feelings and thoughts too.
Being the conscious part, his thoughts are the result of the sum of the rest of Mind and Body. Losing Mind in this manner, is very painful, emotionally, physically and mentally.
The red aura on Wrath dissipates, and Sam gains a golden-colored aura, just like his, but a lot bigger... and sadder...
The sum of all the power in his body, mind and soul.