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The world was dark and empty around her. Marcy could hardly see a foot in front of her face. All she remembered was that feeling. That awful burning feeling like her blood was acid and her brain was cooking in her skull. Am I dead? Is this hell? She called out for King Andrias, Lady Olivia, anyone who could hear her. No one responded. She shakily made it to her feet and aimlessly wandered around, looking for anything to understand her surroundings. Endless nothing awaited her. Marcy's breath began to quicken. She reasoned she must be dead and now she was going to be punished for eternity for what she did. Punished eternally with loneliness.
"Do not be afraid, child. We have no intentions of hurting you, " a voice called out from the darkness. This voice was made up of several voices that echoed across the landscape of her mind. Marcy jumped in surprise. "Are you 'the Core' King Andrias was talking about? What do you want with me?"
"You are a master strategist and a child genius. It is no wonder why we wanted you in our ranks."
Marcy started to remember. All of those games of Flipwart had cost her her soul. An image of a memory appeared in front of her, from King Andrias' point of view. She stared intensely at the playing board with a crafty smile on her face. Her eyes darted around and glowed bright green. Her head popped up. "Wart flipped!" she cheered. Marcy looked at her past self, at how innocent and naïve she was. Being declared the Flipwart grandmaster was one of her proudest moments. More memories appeared and circled her. Every one was her defeating the king. The standing score was 38 to nothing.
Marcy looked in the direction of where she last heard the voice. "Please let me go!" she pleaded. "I don't want any part of this! Coming here was a mistake! A horrible mistake! I just want to go home!"
"Your home is here. You belong with us. We are your friends and family. We are the ones who will be by your side, even when everyone else abandons you."
"No, you're wrong! My friends wouldn't abandon me," she said hesitantly. "It was a stressful situation and everything happened too fast." The darkness was no longer intimidating to her. It was almost comforting. She didn't want to see what horrible creature the Core was. Out of sight, out of mind. "They could have saved you if they wanted to. Or they would have died trying." Marcy took a moment to process their words. "You saved someone that was important to Anne because you care about her. She would have never done the same for you." She remembered the wind on her face as she dove out of the window that day. Falling and falling. She had hurt a lot of people and she wanted to do everything in her power to make it up to them. She also remembered how Anne just stood and stared at her after King Andrias stabbed her. Anne's eyes were full of shock and horror but she didn't move an inch. Why didn't Anne save me? Why didn't Sasha protect me?
"No...you're wrong," she said meekly. She shut her eyes and conjured a memory, the happiest memory she had of her friends. A familiar tune filled her ears. A large image of the Battle of the Bands was projected into the air. Marcy saw Anne's beautiful dragonfly costume. She is so talented. Marcy saw Sasha singing in harmony with the rest of them. She was glad that she wanted to perform with them. Sasha always balanced us out. "See?! Look! My friends care about me. I was happy. We were happy!"
The Core didn't reply for a long time. Marcy felt like she finally proved them wrong, but she missed the company. The feelings of loneliness started to creep over her shoulders. "It's cruel how they torture you. One moment, they pretend to be your friends, the next moment they cannot wait to leave you." Her surroundings lightened from the dark void to a lilac haze. A small funnel of purple clouds formed and turned into Anne and Sasha. Marcy started to cry and begged for their forgiveness, but they weren't looking at her. This was another memory, from King Andrias' point of view once again. Sasha stood distant and cautious and Anne was on the verge of crying. "No! Please! Sprig is my best friend. In this world or any world." Those last words stung Marcy's heart once more, just as they had when she originally heard them.
"You were friends for a decade, and how long did it take for them to replace you? Three months?"
Tears fell from Marcy's eyes. "Stop it! Stop lying to me!" "You would know if we were lying." The haze began to clear, and Marcy could almost make out shapes in it. One voice grew more dominant over the others. It introduced itself as King Aldrich, the former king of Amphibia and Andrias' father. "You remind me of my son. He, too, was sentimental and trusted those he should not have, against my warnings. Naturally, he was betrayed and this robbed our kingdom of its glory. A part of him holds on to these relationships and they have made him weak. We know that you are smarter than that and we want better for you."
Marcy's cries dulled and she looked dejected. "My friends... are coming back for me. They have to." The projections of Anne and Sasha stopped looking into the distance and stared at her. Their faces had nothing but disgust and hatred on them. Marcy weakly reached out to them. The projection of Anne's glare bored directly into Marcy's eyes. "In this world or any world," and they both vanished in a plume of purple smoke. Marcy's arm fell and she sighed defeated.
The voices of the Core started to separate in Marcy's ears. It was no longer one being with many voices, but many beings speaking in unison. "We do not show you these things to hurt you. We only want to show you the truth." Marcy hugged herself and weakly said, "Maybe they're better off without me." The haze faded more and the shapes within it were almost visible. "You've got it backwards. You are better without them. Look at everything you were able to accomplish without them." A swarm of images covered the hypothetical sky. All of the industrial improvements she made to Newtopia, an excited Marcy holding her diploma from Newtopia University, all of the political summits she attended as King Andrias' right hand, among many, many more. She accomplished so much in just five measly months. "And with us at your side, you can achieve so much more."
Her mood lifted. They were right. She had accomplished a lot, and she was proud of herself. A holographic globe appeared in front of her. The cacophony of voices swelled around her. "Aren't you sick of being powerless? Of having no control in your life? We can give you all the power and control you could ever want." The globe began to slowly spin and enhance in detail and Marcy could see the details of mountain ranges, forests and even small villages and kingdoms. She noticed that this was a globe of a medieval Earth. Analyzing and inspecting details always cheered her up. "Is this what you guys think Earth looks like? This is ridiculously outdated. We have cell phones and nuclear power. Heck, we've left our atmosphere like a bajillion times and are exploring other planets with robots. I wouldn't be surprised if we're working on interdimensional travel now." The voices murmured amongst themselves, creating a loud humming sound. "This... is very useful information. Thank you, Marcy. We will extrapolate the data from your mind." The globe started to shift before her eyes, landscapes remolding themselves as a shiny blue glitter before settling on the modern Earth that Marcy knew best. It reflected in her eyes. "You could make this little blue ball in your image. Any flaw, any problem, we can make it go away. Forever. Wouldn't you like that?"
Her surroundings became even clearer. Her subconscious was a giant library full of all the information she could ever want to know. Kings, queens, scientists, philosophers, architects and generals lay about reading books or analyzing a large war table. Marcy looked at King Aldrich, a large and regal jade salamander. "What do I have to do?" Perhaps, she could be happy here. It is absolutely preferable to the dark void of nothing. A banquet hall table materialized in front of them and everyone sat in two rows on the opposite sides of her, looking at Marcy in anticipation. Marcy was at the head of the table, overlooking everyone else. "We need you, Marcy, to guide and teach us. There is much we can learn from you." A blood red liquid filled their glass goblets. Her chair was very large so she had to stand and ungracefully climb onto the table to reach her glass. King Aldrich raised his goblet and gave an encouraging cheer.
"A toast to Marcy Wu! A toast to unity! A toast to victory!" Everyone raised their glasses with him. Marcy coyly raised hers as well, with a surprisingly content expression on her face.
Out of her mind and back in the castle, Darcy glanced over robot schematics, with King Andrias at her side. A large sinister smile grew on her face, one that stretched the face muscles to their limit. King Andrias looked at her, concerned. "What's that expression on your face for?" Her head sharply turns to him, the bones in her neck cracking.
"I am finally complete."