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"Hang," Adelaide gasped, "Hang on. I need a breather."
They'd been climbing for what felt like hours, and there was no sign of the bottom. Her internal chronometer hadn't advanced at all since she'd first asked about going back, so it was impossible to tell how much time had actually passed, if any.
"Fair enough," said Jester, who also sounded exhausted. "I'll set up some equipment and see if I can figure out the topology here."
Adelaide sank back against the wall and tried to massage her aching calves. This would have been much easier if the King hadn't taken away her hardsuit. At least she was armed, even if Jester's quick-print abilities only managed to give her a pistol. Molly stepped down beside her and offered her a thermos. "Water?"
Adelaide grabbed for it and drank the entire thing in one go, gasping as she finished. "Thanks," she said, handing back the bottle.
"S-sure," said Molly, looking away from her. Adelaide still wasn't sure how to feel about the gentle clown. She was, of course, unaffected by the long climb. She was still dressed in the same dress made of hundreds of colorful ribbons, her body made to look like a pudgy young woman with a few obviously robotic parts. She was pretty, Adelaide had to admit. She'd liked her, before. Then she'd hated her, when she thought she was just the lure to HANGED_MAN's abyssal maw. Now, with that strange black crown around her jester's cap keeping her safe from her brother... now that Adelaide knew that she hadn't been wrong about her, or tricked by her...
Maybe now wasn't the right time to dwell on it. She turned away from Molly to speak to Jester. "Anything?"
"Oh, it's plastic, I just have to frangipange the front door escalator."
Adelaide blinked. "Jester?"
"Forsooth, my lady, I require time, space, energy, and matter. What matter? Why, the matter of which thou readest, of course!"
Jester was facing away from her. Adelaide approached cautiously, reaching out to touch her shoulder. "Maybe you should sit down a minute?"
"Sit? No! A fantastic fanatic array of marscapone impedes my progress!"
Adelaide grabbed Jester's shoulder and spun her around to see her face, then dropped her like she'd scalded.
Jester's face was gone, replaced by some kind of chattering voicebox, blinking lights and magnetic tape.
"Zounds! The feature creature showcases nuncle verily!"
"Knight! Jester's been..." transformed? Kidnapped? Unraveled?
Knight turned around, only for her face to split, dicing itself into solid chunks like a rubik's cube. "Indigo extract alpha confirm. Radio exigent."
Adelaide backed away from the eerie puppets that looked like her teammates, and hit Molly. "Well, my lady, how dost thou like mine hall?"
Adelaide whirled, and suddenly it was a hall, a grand open space flanked by large, empty suits of armor. She stood on a small set of stairs leading to a dias, upon which stood HANGED_MAN. Dressed in motley, the robotic body had spikes of metal protruding from its back, it was leaking some kind of dark viscous substance onto the red carpet beneath it, and the human-like face was half torn open to reveal churning robotic components underneath.
"You!"
"You breach my stronghold and art surprised to see me? And with such vulgar manners, too. I conditioned thee better than that!" The body was no longer spindly, but bulky and misshapen. It lurched towards her, and she nearly tripped as she backed down the stairs.
"You didn't condition shit! Your stupid mind control never worked on me!" She drew her pistol and aimed at the heart of the churning, sparking mass.
"Did it not? Thou might have evaded my total control, but I still have my tricks to pull, puppet!" Abruptly, a series of lights flashed on the surface of the machine.
Adelaide froze. Her finger was on the trigger, but it felt paralyzed. She screamed in frustration. "Let go of me and die, already!"
He lurched towards her again, forcing her to back off. "For what purpose, fair lady? So thou canst go back to the surface with thine busom companions?" Two figures swung in as if on marionette strings, a knight in shining armor and a jester covered in tar. "What will you do? They both love you," the word was extended with sarcastic venom, "but which one will you choose?"
Adelaide kept the pistol trained on him, willing her finger to move. She thought she felt it twitch. "Who says I have to choose one?"
The knight figure swung in between them, HANGED_MAN's voice a mocking falsetto. "Oh, Empress, my wife and I really like your vibe." The jester figure swung in. "Oh do say you'll join us! You can be our third wheel forever!"
"It- it's not like that!"
"No?" laughed HANGED_MAN. "Then, perhaps this is more what you're imagining?" Both figures swung drunkenly over to the suits of armor, grabbing swords from them and clashing against one another. "She likes me more!" "No, she likes me more!"
"Stop! Stop it!" Adelaide swung her pistol over to the two of them and fired several shots, knocking down the knight figure.
The jester figure kneeled down and mock-cried. HANGED_MAN advanced on Adelaide with slow menace, pushing her towards the scene. "Thou art either forever left out or thou wilt destroy their love. There's nowhere there for thee!"
"No! That's not..." Adelaide lowered her head, squeezing her eyes shut. She trembled for a moment. The gun seemed to fall out of her hand on its own, unbidden.
Then she picked up a sword and lunged at the mechanical monster. "We care for each other, you unfeeling bastard! We'll make it work!"
HANGED_MAN stood still, waiting, heaving more black liquid onto the floor, and at the last moment Adelaide's steel was met with steel, blades clashing between her... and Molly, her expression completely blank. "And what of my dear sister? I know her better than she knows herself. Thou callest me an unfeeling monster, but I can sense her feelings for thee all too easily. Wilt thou break her fragile heart? Ignore dear Molly for thine already known loves?"
Adelaide screamed and battered away Molly's sword. "You keep her name out of your goddamned mouth! I know what you're doing!"
He lurched to the side, another armed Molly appearing to block her, knocking her backwards. "I but ask questions, my lady! The heart of an NHP is fragile indeed. Even if thou couldst separate us, dost thou think she could survive such a terrible dismissal?" Behind him, another diorama appeared of a knight, a jester, and a princess skipping away arm-in-arm from Molly. Molly reached out her hand to them as they disappeared, then fell to her knees. In moments, she had fractured and dissolved into a pile of rust.
Adelaide gritted her teeth. "I'm not leaving her behind! I'm not leaving her here with you! We're going to get out of here! Together!"
She readied her sword. "And we'll do it without you!" Screaming a wordless battle cry, she rushed the half-rotting machine, battering away Mollys as she charged. She raised her sword in two hands, point gleaming in front of her as she made one final leap...!
She came back to herself, a bit dizzy, in a large metal room. It was well lit by fluorescent lights in the stone brick ceiling, and large computer banks lined the walls. In the center of the room, leaking coolant fluid, was a large egg-like structure. It was battered, and sparking where a large sword had impaled it.
"Empress! You're okay!"
Adelaide found herself tackled from behind, making her stagger, and then her and her assailant were both picked up in a giant bone-crushing hug. "Hurk," she said.
She was released, and turned around to see Knight and Jester, faces in their normal, everyday configuration, albeit Knight's was a bit bruised. "Knight! Jester! You're safe!!" She hugged them both again.
"Man," exclaimed Knight, "I can't tell you how glad I am to see the two of you in the right shape!"
"Me, too," said Jester. "Never ask me about trapezoids ever again."
"But what got us out of there?" said Knight, her left eye beginning to swell up. "I was just brawling to survive, I don't think I hit anything that hard."
Jester shook her head. "I was trapped in some kind of evil puzzle maze. It had to have been our brave and beautiful fearless leader!" She clapped Empress on the back.
Adelaide looked around, distracted. "Hey, where's Molly?"
The three of them looked around, and found her on the other side of a large console, collapsed. The nanite crown had lost its coherence and was just a stain on the floor. She was covered in lacerations, leaking hydraulic fluid onto the tiles. In her hand, she clutched a tiny tarry black figure with an equally tiny sword.
"Molly!" cried Adelaide. "Molly, please, not like this, come on..." She skidded to her knees and cradled Molly's head in her lap.
"I'm okay!" came a voice from a nearby speaker. "Empress, I'm okay. I... couldn't keep the body working. Clumsy me, haha."
Adelaide looked up at the computer bank, and saw a camera looking down at the room. She sagged in relief.
Jester reached down and picked up the little figure. "Hey, this looks like you, Empress. Got something to share, Molly?"
The computer whirred. "When he... finally took control, even thy... reinforcement helped me not. I was swept away in his tide. But... I could see Empress trying to fight him. I could see him taunting her. I could see him using me to do it. And, somehow, I managed to get control for just a moment, long enough to empower her blade to..."
Knight looked at the sparking structure in the center of the room. "So it's over, then? For real, this time?"
"Yes," beeped Molly. "It's over."