TMA Encore #11a
The group walks timorously through the tunnels with Not-Martin. Sasha has the map this time. Jon and Tim bring up the rear with Tim holding the flashlight. Martin, in the middle, cautiously occupies the space between them and Not-Martin. He has the second flashlight.
Not-Martin recounts the day he and Not-Jon first realized they had a second chance and a duty to prevent the apocalypse. They reasoned that if they couldn’t stop what had happened to their world from in the thick of it, they would have a better shot coming at it from the outside. They had tried to be subtle at first, so as not to disrupt the lives of those involved. Despite their best efforts, it ended just as badly as before. So, they tried again and have been trying ever since. They became more and more adamant until they were inserting themselves right in the middle of things–with little more success. It took them a long time to figure out how the rules they knew applied to their situation. They hadn’t realized there was a new consequence for overtaking avatars.
NM: I couldn’t feel it until his hold over it started to slip. By then, it was too late.
Silence fills the corridor as the team studies Not-Martin. They let his story settle into the air, waiting to see what he’ll say if he thinks it wasn’t enough to convince them. He says nothing and keeps walking, not even looking at them.
Jon: But the Fears aren’t controlling him. That’s not how it works. He’s doing this himself.
NM: It’s the pain. Without an entire world of people to feed on, the Fears are starving to death. They pass the feeling on to us to motivate us. I don’t think they’re picky about which of us gets to be their avatar at this point, but Jon’s been keeping their attention on him this whole time.
Sasha: Why?
NM: To spare me and hold himself accountable for what happened at the end.
Sasha: No, I mean… I can understand pain making a person a little irrational. But this is so premeditated and extreme.
NM: That’s the problem. He thinks that he’s mastered it. So he takes warning signs as encouragement. To feel assured that he’s still himself.
Martin recalls the time he spent with his mother through her chronic illness. She had often worded it exactly that way when he couldn’t get her to rest. Not-Martin slips a knowing glance at him.
Tim: And manipulating and tormenting people is just part of retaining his fundamental character, apparently.
The words are already out by the time Tim remembers Jon is walking right beside him in the dark.
Tim: I just–I meant that he didn’t have to do it this way.
Not-Martin doesn’t reply.
Martin’s double further exposits that Not-Jon can’t be allowed to pursue his goal any further than he already has. Even if he does manage to prevent the apocalypse, the vacuum created by the consumed avatars would inevitably be too much. He would fully succumb to the need to satisfy his hunger.
Tim: And he’ll, what, become as big a fear monster as Jonah?
NM: Oh, he’s already a lot bigger than Jonah. I’m terrified to think what that much power would look like manifested. That is, if he doesn’t die first and leave it all with me.
Tim: Joy.
Sasha: So, what’s your solution?
NM: Convince him to share the burden with me and entomb the both of us in the nearest, deepest hole in the ground before anything else can happen.
Tim: So, your original plan. Which you’ve tried before?
NM: Many times.
Tim: And why will it work now?
NM: Because it’s the only option. It’s just a matter of trial and error.
Tim: Uh-huh. Then again, if you’re a Fear ghost like him, then we shouldn’t be listening to what either of you say, should we?
NM: *shrugs* I’d agree if I didn’t know that my Jon has it a hundred times worse than I do. Your odds with me are much better.
Tim: Which could be a lie.
NM: If it were, you’d have no reason to believe any of what I’ve said so far.
He answers the interrogation readily and casually, though not as if he’d rehearsed it.
Jon shakes off his precaution to ask a burning question.
Jon: Am I really what makes things fall apart every time?
NM: I’m sure that my Jon would like you to think so. It’s much more complicated than that. He’s just punishing you for things you haven’t done yet.
A little irritation creeps into his voice. It’s also the first plainly obfuscated thing he’s said so far, Jon notices.
Jon: It never made a difference to remove me from the equation?
NM: Again, it’s complicated. We ended up agreeing not to.
The group continues to ask questions about the details and history of the situation, especially things that Not-Jon prescribed to them as truth and things that he refused to tell them. Not-Martin answers all of it politely and patiently enough, giving no sign of duress or deception. There are no earth-shattering revelations. It only cements the places where Not-Jon and Not-Martin’s perspectives overlap. Whether or not he’s telling the truth, it’s comforting to get clear answers without the immediate pressure to cooperate for once. In fact, it gets Sasha’s attention.
Sasha: Are we… expected to help in your plan?
NM: No. It doesn’t really matter what any of you do from this point forward.
They ask him to elaborate. He says that their part in Not-Jon’s plan is over. In scenarios where they stay in the tunnels or the archives, they’re penned so that they can’t interfere. When they leave, they’re unable to change the outcome at all and are left to deal with Jonah’s machinations once he escapes. There’s nothing they can do.
Tim: Wait, yes we can. Don’t we still have the lighter?
Everyone turns to Jon. As he wraps his fingers loosely around the device still in his pocket, he feels the tiny piece of plastic he took from Jonah’s office. He nods.
Tim: If the fuse is long enough, we could light the dynamite on our way out and do away with the lot of them while they’re chasing each other around down there.
Not-Martin scratches his chin thoughtfully.
NM: I can’t say it’s been done before. But I won’t object as long as I’m down there with them.
Sasha: Have we tried it before?
NM: Yes.
The group’s optimism deflates.
NM: Sorry. I’m not sure what gets in the way. I don’t usually stop to talk to you guys.
Martin: Have you come close before?
NM: Very.
Martin: How? It sounds like he’d be untouchable at this point.
NM: Because he can’t scare me. None of this does anymore.
Martin studies his counterpart. It’s not just talk. He’s steady. Dispassionate, but not overly calm. The determination with which he described his task betrayed a steep understanding of the consequences for failure. Yet, he approaches the ordeal ahead as if going to do laundry. It’s kind of terrifying. Martin feels like he’s watching an alien creature walk around with his face painted on it. His memories inside it. Although, wouldn’t it make sense to need an alien to combat an alien threat? He wonders if this is how Jon felt meeting his other self.
He checks on Jon, who has his eyes turned toward the tunnels as they pass. Martin just then notices how deep and rhythmic the murmuring noise has become. Almost like chugging movement.
~
The group arrives at the dynamite area. There are still boxes strewn about with leftover materials in them–including plenty of fuse that could be tied on. The tunnel leading out is situated opposite some others that lead down to the Panopticon. The four of them nonverbally determine that it’s time to decide whether to stay or go. Meanwhile, Not-Martin examines the prison remains, looking for anomalies.
The vote is not as quick as before.
Martin, unexpectedly, is the one to pipe up first. He wants to stay and try to stop Not-Jon. He feels that the stakes are too steep not to try. Tim and Sasha argue against it, and he defends his choice. Not-Jon could easily stop the dynamite from working just as he stopped them from escaping. Whether Jonah escapes or doesn’t, they’re likely doomed if they just leave. They’re stuck no matter what. He doesn’t want to feel like he didn’t try to push back when he could have, especially after everything Not-Jon has put them through already. At the very least, it would give him another thing to have to manage.
Martin’s voice shakes even as he says it out loud, but he manages to hold himself in place.
Tim is quick to remind him that they don’t have a hearty reason to trust Not-Martin. Martin proclaims that he might then be trying to get rid of them. The one thing they can say for certain is that Jonah and Not-Jon are too dangerous to be left to their own devices.
His anxiety prompts him to keep talking, but he makes himself leave it there.
Jon quickly says that he’s staying too.
The others fall into silence. Sasha visibly wavers in two minds before letting out her breath.
Tim: Sasha, no.
Sasha: Yeah, I’m sorry. I think I’m with Martin. But just barely.
She says she’s getting tired of trying to take the safe route on purpose, only for them to wind up getting separated and nearly killed anyway. If there is no good sane way out, as Martin had said, their only way is through.
To be fair, Tim does look at them as if they’ve all gone insane.
Tim: I’m not saying we do nothing. Even he knows it--*gestures at Not-Martin* --we’re not gonna be able to do anything about this if we’re in the middle of it. If the dynamite doesn’t work, we’ll find another way.
NM: No, you won’t.
Tim: You be quiet.
Try as he might, Tim can’t convince them to change their minds. He stands there, unable to follow but unwilling to leave them behind to die.
The vague rumbling ramps up and draws close. The walls around them begin to shift, but not like in an earthquake. Stone and cement slide frictionlessly over one another with heavy clicking sounds. The floor is perfectly stable aside from some vibrations. The walls of the exit tunnel and the one they came from advance inward, herding the occupants further into the junction of passages. Not-Martin glares at someone who’s not in the room.
NM: Oh, goddamn it, Jon.
Jon leaps through a nearby passage before it closes.
Goddamn it, Jon, Martin thinks.
The others move to catch him, but there isn’t enough clearance by the time he gets there. The clamorous stone is so loud, they can’t hear each other. But they can make out Jon mouthing “I’m sorry” in the feeble light of the spider web lighter just before the gap closes.
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(I forgot what I was doing and gave Sasha the second flashlight in the third page. Pretend Martin has it.)
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