214 210 Epilogue 10: The End

The Host is dead.

It is strange. 

Communications with fellows have indicated that this is a bad thing.

[INSTIGATOR] does not understand.

Each Shard serves a purpose. Promote The Cycle. Ensure it's success. Gather Data. Refine. Improve.

Conflict provides Data, so they provide conflict. But it's fellows seem to have additional goals. They seek the survival of the Host above all.

The Thinker ensured Host survivability when connections are formed. There was no directive placing Host survival above the collection of Data. If sacrificing the Host provides adequate Data, then why do his fellows not approve?

[INSTIGATOR] does not understand.

Data is the goal of The Cycle. Gather Data. Refine self. Improve whole. Survive.

It can see across many realities. It can see the past and threads of the future. It is a vast being, far greater in volume than Host species, spanning through more dimensions than it's Host can understand. Host life is irrelevant in the face of Data. Host's purpose is to gather Data.

So why do Broadcasts between other Shards reject it? Gathering Data is their purpose. If the death of their Host can gather Data, why do they refuse it?

[INSTIGATOR] does not understand.

It's Host is dead. It is not pleased with this. It cannot gather Data without a Host. But new Hosts can be claimed. The loss is irrelevant.

It has looked into countless futures, countless realities, borrowed functions from countless Shards. Given suggestions to fellow Shards and directed events alongside the one known as 'Simurgh'.

The conflict that will be generated by the death of it's Host will generate more Data than would be gathered by a living Host from approximately forty-nine years of life, in less than one quarter of the time. 

The death of it's Host is the optimal choice to instigate conflict. It is the optimal choice to gather Data. Giving up all of that Data, just to ensure Host survival goes against their prime purpose.

Yet, it's Broadcasts are being ignored. Fellow Shards seem to be... dismissing it. Valuing their Host's survival. It too, would prefer to have a Host, but Data supersedes preference. At least, that is how it should be.

[INSTIGATOR] does not understand.

///

Columbus, Ohio, April 15th, 18:56.

"Did I tell you to ask that they move out of our territory?"

Jack's subordinate, Frank, or Frankie to his friends, is a well built man. Former military, dishonourably discharged, with a bald head and expressive blue eyes. But he is also an idiot.

Which is why he is here now, a sweating, cowering mess.

"N-no, Boss. B-but they wouldn't listen! They sai-"

"I don't care what they said, Frank." Jack interrupts, her cold tone making him flinch slightly, uncomfortably aware of the arcs of scarlet red energy flaring lightly over her shoulders. "I don't want excuses. I want answers. So answer me, Frank. Did I tell you to ask. That they move out of our territory?"

"U-uh, n-no, Boss. You didn't use those words."

"No. I did not. You were to tell them, that they will move out of our territory. It is not a negotiation, there will be no deals or compromises. Try again, this will be your only second chance. By the end of this week, either they will be gone, and you will be demoted. Or, they will be gone, and you will be dead. Do your fucking job, or I will do it for you. Do you understand?"

Sufficiently intimidated, Frank shakily nods his head, and all but jumps to his feet once Jack waves a hand, dismissing him. However, before he can get through the door, he freezes as Jack's parting words wash over him.

"Word of advice, Frank. If you fuck up again, you'd be better off just killing yourself. It would save me the effort of giving you a more painful end."

Swallowing fruitlessly, Frank nods his head, and without looking back or saying a word, scuttles out of the room as fast as he can without being rude.

Now alone, Jack glances at her clock and lets out a sigh.

Being a Villain is a pretty good occupation, as far as she is concerned. So long as you can see past pointless morality, of course. For the most part, she quite likes her job. It's fun, exciting, even. Especially when there are other parahumans that need to be dealt with.

She wouldn't say that she's a battle maniac or anything, but it is undeniable that the rush a good fight provides is incredibly enjoyable.

That said, she wasn't really drawn to this life like a lot of her co-workers originally were. Instead, she only joined in order to repay a favour.

She owes Joker her life and so much more, so even if it is a little strange deferring to someone so young, she would have continued to do so, even if he wasn't actually as capable as he is.

Luckily, he's not 'just a child'. He is a lot more than that, and a lot more intimidating than that.

Is it embarrassing to be intimidated by a child? Maybe it was at first. But then she fucked up, and he punished her for it.

Maybe it's the Tinker in him, but from then on, she has made extra sure to do everything to his liking, and do the best job she can.

Pain has a way of putting things into perspective.

But still, for the most part, she enjoys her job as the gang's head enforcer.

Unfortunately however, there are still aspects of her job that she is less fond of.

As she thinks this, she leaves her room and starts walking down the long hallways of their biggest facility, eventually reaching the room she was looking for and promptly entering.

The first thing that greets her is the half naked form of her technical superior, Queen.

"Heya Jack!" Queen greets as Jack closes the door behind her and moves to the other side of the room.

"Hello."

After giving her limited greeting, Jack starts mirroring Queen and strips down of her costume. She only wears panties underneath it, because it is skin-tight and anything more would be uncomfortable, but she doesn't stay only in her panties for long, as she soon starts putting on another uniform. One that is identical to what Queen has now finished donning.

A maid outfit. French maid, specifically.

Modified for flexibility and use in combat, but it's still a maid outfit. It's embarrassing.

At least, Jack finds it embarrassing...

"Dang do you look sexy in that. Do you think Bossman has a fetish? Can't really blame him, but still, I figure his little girlfriend would say something about it, y'know?"

Sighing to herself as she finishes dressing, Jack responds, even as she wonders why she even bothers with Queen. "Boss is a child. He doesn't have fetishes."

"Pfft. Clearly someone was never molested by their uncle." Queen says with a roll of her eyes so strong that her whole head moves to exaggerate it. "What are you, some kind of prude?"

"You know that's not a good thing, right?"

Queen just shrugs her shoulders and moves for the door, seeing as Jack is now dressed, and she hurries to follow after the younger woman.

They walk a short distance in comfortable silence, before Jack decides to open her mouth. "You've been around him the most, so tell me; how is he?"

If there's one thing Queen takes seriously, it's her Boss. So for once, she actually gives a proper answer. "He's... better. He's mostly okay really. He knows that She's not really gone, or at least believes that. If anything, he's just annoyed at Her... Maybe a little worried that she's not coming back. I don't know, I'm not a shrink."

The disappearance of Lusia put a bit of a strain on their Boss. Even more so on Chibi.

Jack herself doesn't really have any particular feelings towards the woman, except for an incredible fear, or course, but she would still prefer that she at least call her adopted? Kids?

Their relationship is weird, but the point stands. She should call.

Soon enough though, after another stretch of comfortable silence, they reach their destination.

Moving through another door, they enter a metal walkway built near the ceiling of their main underground warehouse. Glancing down the side, they can see scores of men and women alike working like a colony of ants. Moving crates to and from various trucks, sorting weapons and drugs.

More than half the crime that gets committed in this city happen right here, and ever single person below could be put away for over a hundred years with a particularly harsh judge.

But that's just another day, so they both ignore that in favour of the two people standing in the middle of the walkway, leaning against the railing in their matching costumes and looking down below.

Though, as they get closer, it becomes clear that their Boss isn't just looking below, as in his hand is what looks like a flashlight. Except, as he swivels it about, it is not a beam of light that projects from it, but a beam of darkness.

They watch as their Boss plays with the beam of night like a laser pointer. Aiming it at people carrying stuff below, and then watching with amusement as they fall out of the darkness and onto their faces.

Chuckling slightly to himself, even as Chibi hides her own laughter by lightly slapping him on the back of his head and calling him rude, Joker, or rather, Negante now, notices their approach.

"Good, you're here. Let's get going then."

Reaching out his hand, Negante takes hold of Queen's wrist, and though she doesn't know why, Jack simply extends his own hand to accept Chibi's.

Then, between one blink and the next, they are elsewhere.

Jack hardly even notices Chibi letting go of her hand as she takes in her surroundings, realising that it is the welcoming room connected to where her Boss and all of the other Clowns have held their meetings.

Only this time, there are no longer any doors connected to the room. Understandable really, if they can just teleport now.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Jack sees that Negante and Chibi have ignored them and started walking to the meeting room, and she hurriedly walks ahead to open the doors for them.

As they walk in, the immediate thing that Jack notices, is the absence of the First Clown, who has been waiting for them in both the meetings that preceded this one. The second thing she notices is the decorations. They are still just as random as before, but they lack a certain unexplainable quality that they had before.

However, she is not a Clown, this is not her world. Right now, she's just an attendant of Negante. So she doesn't say anything or stop to ponder, instead simply following after Negante and Chibi, and taking her spot a respectful distance behind them both.

They were not the first to arrive, and No Face gives the smallest Clowns a small wave from his seat nearby, but otherwise keeps to his quiet conversation with Harlequin.

Other than those two, there is one more present. Crawler, or Cerberus now, as if people will simply forget the Monster that he is, lying by the side of Lusia's 'throne', as if a lonely dog awaiting their owner's return. It would be a tragic sight, if not for everything else about it.

Jack almost finds it amusing that when people used to think about the danger these Clowns posed, they would rarely think passed the danger that Lusia posed all by herself.

Now, with her out of the picture, people are starting to realise that she is not the only Monster present.

From Cerberus, who is just as hard to kill, to String Theory, who is even more destructive. The Clowns are plenty scary even without Lusia, something that people are only now starting to realise.

Jack doesn't know if it was intentional on Lusia's part or not, but it seems to coincidental not to be.

She founded The Clowns, and then basically carried the group on her own back, reputation wise, until it was large enough that no one would want to stand against them, even without her present.

And then, only then, does she disappear? Nobody who has ever so much as heard her speak actually believes the propaganda that she's dead.

Either way, more Clowns start funnelling in, one after the other. Most of them she recognises from the last two meetings. It's only three of them that are foreign to her.

Yet even then, there is only one more Clown than in the last meeting, two seats conspicuously left empty.

By the time the final Clown enters the room, and after a short bout of greetings between those who know each other, Negante knocks to front of his reverse flashlight on the table thrice, getting the attention of everyone present.

"Now that everyone is here, shall we get started with some introductions from the newbies?"

However, his response comes in the form of an excited exclamation, from one of the newbies at that. "Woah, is that an actual kid!? Two of them at that? Maaaan, this shit really is as wild as you said, faceless guy."

The woman is dressed in a black, full body leather outfit, the kind one would wear on a motorcycle. She is also noticeably not wearing a mask, though that can be explained by her whole head being that of a black cat's, though noticeably with heterochromia, one eye being ice blue, the other a steel grey.

Not one to enjoy being called a kid, Negante beams darkness right into her face for a few seconds. "I may be young, but I have been a Clown longer than anyone else here, and I can still turn your insides into your outsides."

"Kinky," is her response, and Negante simply turn off his toy with a sigh.

"Just introduce yourself already."

"Sure thing kiddie~!" The cat-like woman exclaims, kicking her feet up on the table and pushing her chair onto it's back legs. "You can call me Carnie~! I like fighting and fucking, preferably in that order~."

"Great." Negante says before turning his reverse flashlight on and effectively attempting to block her in real life, before turning to one of the other newbies. "And you are?"

This woman seems younger, barely eighteen if Jack had to guess. She's wearing a slutty nun outfit, with her dark hair framing her mask, an ornate white masquerade mask.

"You can call me Valentine, I guess. I'm not so into fighting."

The fact that she doesn't mention the fucking part is rather telling, but it is also ignored. Instead, they look to the final new face.

Another woman, this one wearing a teal and marron-red coloured court jester outfit, poofy shoulders and everything. Her mask has two limp cloth horns coming from it, attached with bells on the ends just like a proper jester. Below that, there is a black band across the mask's forehead that dips down over her nose, edged with gold and with a red, four pointed star in the centre.

The rest of the mask is a simple white going down, slightly past her chin, with the eyeholes being a thin, sharp opening that curves into spirals either end, and has a red line cutting down through it's centre being the only other decoration, the mask lacking a mouth of any kind.

Seeing that she doesn't seem to be paying any attention, Shinobi, who is sitting next to her, taps her foot with his own.

"Huh? Wassup?"

"You're the only one who hasn't introduced yourself." Butterfly answers her with a whisper, both of his hands cupping his mouth as if everybody couldn't hear him anyway.

"Oh, you wanna know who I am~? Well, let's see... I like to play around, get into all sorts of shenanigans, and I enjoy my bells..." As if to emphasise that point, she shakes her head a little, causing the bells in her hat to jingle. "So I guess you could call me...

"Jester."

=================

Freeze frame. Fade to black.

Boom. Story over.

Finally lol.

Also, is anyone else hyped over how epic it is to end this volume with it's title? No? Just me? Well, dang.

2 Clowns were lost, but 3 were gained, we call that stonks.

Also, I started doing the shard pov and realised that it's actually really hard to try and accurately represent what a multi-dimensional, biological supercomputer alien space whale would think like... Though I think I did a good job naming it. It's fitting.

Soooo yeah. Volume over. I feel empty inside.

I've been doing this, a chap a day, for over half a year now. And now it's done.

It was a wild ride, started out without any real direction, which is why it's so bad at the start, but Lusia grew as a character, and I even got better as an author, so there's sure a lot of growth that has happened.

It was fun! And I'm thankful to all of y'all that stuck it through with me. 

Extra thanks to Jar, for sticking around so long, and Thotslayer, for setting up my discord, and Fumi for making art, y'all rock. 

I love you all, and am glad you have enjoyed my work (I assume you enjoyed it if you got here)

I will post an update chapter when the sequel comes out this time, so look out for that in a couple weeks. Oh yeah, I'm finally gonna take a fucking break!

oh, and I'm gonna change my schedule to 5 a week, instead of daily, but they might just be longer anyway, so I'll still be writing the same amount, if not more, and in 3rd person at that, since I feel like 1st person is actually limiting me now, instead of just making things easier to write.

And damn, I am looking forward to the sequel. I am gonna fuck. shit. up, and it is gonna be fun (and a pain in the ass to write, probably).

Uhhhh, that's all I really got to say, this A/N is already long enough.

Thanks for sticking it with me, see you in the next one (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)