Let's Play Anna - Chapter 14

"Anna," Chy starts quietly. We're back at her house yet again, only this time we have all eight pieces. "What do we do next?"

I've known all along what we'll have to do to stop the destruction of Darclainia, but... I don't want to say. But I have to. It's the only way we can minimize the damages. "We..." I start. I just can't say it.

"Anna," she says again, "we have to do this. Or we'll lose all three of them and an entire dimension."

"I know that..." I take a deep breath and rub my eyes. "We have to use the eight pieces to get back into Blumiere's castle. His mind has been..." It's so hard to talk like this. I fight back the tears as much as I can. "His mind has been taken over by Count Nior, and--and we have to..."

"Kill him," Chy finishes for me. I nod and break down crying again. She just hugs me. "Will we get Mimi and Dimmy back that way?" I nod again.

"When do you want to leave to...?" I ask once I've mostly stopped crying. I know she knows what I mean to say but can't.

"Is tomorrow too soon?"

I shake my head. We don't have long until whatever the void in the sky is destroys Darclainia, Blumiere, Mimi, and Dimmy, so the sooner the better. But...

"Mourn tonight. Be ready tomorrow, okay?"

She plays some Smash Bros. with me for hours, and when she goes to bed, I stay up and play Xenoblade Chronicles. But as soon as the pretty music starts playing, I have to grab a box of tissues and calm myself down.

I haven't seen Blumiere in almost a month now, and the one time I will be able to see him... It'll be to kill him.

I fall asleep with the title screen playing on a loop after I wear myself out trying to find his mind just one last time...

------

"C'mon, Anna," Lemmy says in the morning. "Time to go."

I wake up from a dream to a nightmare. Blumiere was proposing to me in the ballroom of his castle. I had a ring with seven colored stones around the eighth stone, the diamond in the middle. It was so pretty...

"No," I whisper, turning to face the couch cushions, tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Anna." BJ's nowhere near as soft as Lemmy. "Face me."

I roll over and look at his blurry face. I don't have my glasses on me now. I really couldn't care less if they were right next to me or in a different dimension right now.

"We have to kill him," BJ says bluntly. I want to hit him or something for that, but I just feel drained. So I settle for sending BJ pain telepathically. He cringes and glares at me, then remembers his mission. "If we don't kill him, hundreds of lives will be lost. Anna, the whole kingdom you've been living in will be gone."

I think of Edith. The kind and gentle soul doesn't deserve to die like this... Neither do any of the townspeople... But Blumiere... "I don't want him to die," I whisper through sobs.

"Anna, even if we don't kill him, he's going to die. We can make it quick for him, or he and all of Darclainia can suffer."

Blumiere or all of Darclainia...

"Come on. We're leaving. You can come along and save everyone."

Not everyone. But I can save almost everyone. "Okay," I say, putting on my glasses and wiping my eyes. "Let's go."

------

Blumiere's castle is so different from when I saw it last. It almost hurts to see it not taken care of. "Anna," Chy says as she looks around, "where do we go?"

I close my eyes and search with my mind until I find Count Nior in the ballroom that takes up the entire second floor and half of the third. "This way..."

The ballroom seems less like a place for a party and more like a place of despair. Even the crystal chandelier has lost its luster. But there's no denying that this is where my dream last night took place. And there's no denying that Mimi, Dimmy, Nastasia, and Blumiere are all waiting for us. "Good morning," Count Nior says as if we're not there to kill him. "Anna, you're looking well."

I stare past the red eyes and at Blumiere. I know he can see and hear me, but his mind is so far gone that I can barely find it. I'd have to use too much energy and concentrate if I wanted to talk to him. Count Nior teleports down to face me, and tears once again threaten to fall. But did you expect anything less? Chy steps in front of me and grips a spear. "You know why we're here. Surrender now, and we'll make it painless."

"Surrender? But Blumiere's dying wish is almost fulfilled. I'm just here to see it through."

"Liar," I say quietly from behind Chy. She turns and gives me a look to tell me to shut up, but I won't. "Blumiere..."

"Blumiere's condition is getting worse by the minute," Count Nior muses. "How about we help him along?"

I'm knocked off my feet and painfully on the ground. I roll over to see Chy lunge at him, but a vision blinds me.

"He isn't Blumiere anymore," Dimmy says. There's no Fake Dimmy. He was never under any mind control from Nastasia, but she doesn't seem to know that yet. He raises his arm to snap his fingers as soon as I reach the box.</i>

The snap fills the silent room, followed by choked sobs. Dimmy teleports down to meet us as he makes the box disappear. Blumiere's--</i>

"Blumiere!" I scream, knowing what's going to happen. Dimmy traps him in a box before I can get to him. "Blumiere, no!"

"He isn't Blumiere anymore," Dimmy says. Why has he been lying to us?!

Dimmy snaps his fingers as soon as I put my hands up on the side of the box. Choked sobs escape from my lips as Dimmy teleports down to meet us and makes the box disappear. Blumiere's on the ground, and he doesn't respond to me screaming at him.

But something else is wrong. The void in the sky is still growing even though...

I look up at Dimmy. He's grinning with an avaricious glint in his purple and yellow eyes.