Love, War, and Androids

part eighteen: when life gives you lemons, pellet them at ants

I walked into a dark room. Then the dark room became a light room as a clapping noise turned on the lights.

"Hello again, Jared," An all too familiar voice whispered to me from within the shadows that danced as the light burnt out.

"No," I whispered, or at least tried to, but my voice was carried away with into the wind tunnel that was forming in the center of the room.

It was him again.

"Hello again," he said.

Moonshade.

"You," I said.

"Yes, me,"

I grabbed my Q-Pitch staff and prepared for battle.

"Stop. If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead. I just want to talk," Moonshade said.

"Fine then, talk,"

"Remember when I told you to fight your enemy? I was your enemy,"

I could have figured that out on my own, thank you very much.

"Before you fought me, you fought your friend, Tin Man,"

This also did not require rocket science.

"But what you don't know is that in this next room, you shall face yourself," he said.

Myself. What?

"This is a fair warning, Jared Stephens. You would be wise to take it," Moonshade said.

He began to evaporate.

"Another thing that you would be wise to follow, don't rely too heavily on your ring. The Grid Ring maybe a luxury, but it will not always be there,"

And with that, he was gone.

Then he reappeared.

"One more thing! When life gives you lemons, pellet them at ants!" He said.

Then he disappeared.

I saw myself facing large steel double-doors and each one had a human skull for a knocker. Not just a copy or a mold of a human skull, a real human skull. As I stared into the eye sockets of the skulls, I felt fear, a sensation that was growing more and more familiar to me.

Then the doors opened, and I stepped in to face my destiny.