“Faye Worley,” Entoni says, looking at her with conviction, “it doesn’t matter if you’re forty girls or one, if you are against my Savior and the King of this mind, then we are going two directions that shall never meet. You said to run after God and you’ll catch up. This is me running, and I pray that somehow, through some miracle, you are able to keep your end of the bargain.”
Looking at him silently for a moment, Whirly chuckles. She goes to say something, but can’t think of what. This is rare. “So, if I give a little, will you? I mean, it doesn’t have to be a hopeless chasm, right? I want to be with you, no matter what it takes.”
Edge wants to be hopeful, but he knows better. To this shallow request, he responds with his blade held out, “All it will take is one hack from this and all of our problems will be solved.” As Ent suspected, this condition sends Whirly into a screaming rant as she howls and curses everything the blade stands for. Ent says, “I think you just gave the farewell to the future I wanted for you, Faye. No matter how demonic you really are, I will, like you said, love and cherish the memory of the girl that never was. As for you, however, I have a mission, and nothing you say will save you from that. Prepare for the Defector Delete.” While some of what Elfie said bothered the machine, nothing stings as much as the terror of those last two words. She gives another horrible cry and fades away before Ent can figure out how to properly use that ancient command.
From the moment that Whirly claimed him for herself, Elf has found himself trapped within a dark realm with him not sure if he’s still in the school or even the same dimension as the school. He decides to use this moment to find a way out or at least contact somebody. However, this never happens as he hears the childish rant of Whirly coming somewhere from safe within her darkness, “I’ll make you my king, Entoni Franklin, no matter what it takes, you stubborn loser!” This signals her fellow tots to make their efforts in droves to tame the mighty Double-Edge. That is when Ent’s apprehensions are lost. That is when he starts demolishing tots. This could take a while.
Back outside, we find Mercy and her husband fighting tots as he starts a very uncomfortable discussion with her. “Mercy Merc, I thought you were going to give up being a System Guard. Is this really how you want to spend your days off?”
Annoyed, she reminds, “We are talking about the end of the universe, as you may recall, love.”
“No,” he clarifies, “it’s only the end of the sticklers, that’s all.”
“Uh, it’s the end of all that’s good and decent, following the biblical principles of God,” Mercy responds.
“But those principles are so uncertain, depending on who’s making the rules up for themselves,” he argues. “I’ve had my doubts about the Rugs for a while, but with our son standing inches away from what could someday happen to him, my perspective of their leadership has only grown more skeptical.”
“Aren’t you fighting with System tech, sir?” She asks.
“Only for your sake,” he admits. “If I knew you were comfortable with it, I’d start using another power source.
“And kill all of your son’s friends, right?” She’s really not liking this chat.
“No, you’re not listening. Ally doesn’t want to kill anyone. All she wants to do is let us all live however we want. The only problem is that we have to fight for our independence before we can truly be free.”
“Ally?” Mercy stops and backs away, though careful not to leave herself too open. “You mean that thing up in the sky in Ally J.? How do you already know this, Marc? Please don’t tell me….”
“What if I did?” Putting his hand out, he signals for his opposing J Tot to stop.
“It has to be said eventually, Markie, Baby,” the tot says.
Inner Man Theatre 