Chapter 4: Truth Emerges

Joanna breathed in, "Melee Island" she said to herself. She was at the docks, the crew she thought must have been incredibly stupid to have not noticed her for this long even when she was on their ship.

A figure caught her eye, a small but somehow clumsy looking figure. Joanna couldn’t see too well so quickly but as quietly as possible moved towards it, she recognised it when she reached a few feet away from it. It was Aliciae, she looked clumsy and weaker than what Joanna had remembered which may have only been a week or two ago.

Aliciae turned her head slowly seeing something moving towards her, her eyes widened when she realised Joanna her hunter was only a small distance away. She knew she didn’t have the power to fight her, the power to read her mind or even the slightest power to scare her away. She didn’t need to read her mind though she knew what Joanna would do after what must have been the struggle to try and find her, Joanna wouldn’t throw away this opportunity.

Joanna took a step forward her hand slipping to her pocket where a short blade was kept. She decided to speak to Aliciae even though she may fight back.

"Aliciae" she said coldly "It hasn’t been that long has it? But I have had a bit of a time finding you"

Aliciae stared at Joanna her breathing growing heavier "I know what you want to do to me, I need no power to see this you have your reasons for wanting to do this. You do not understand me though, do you? I would be happy to say without a doubt that you do not see what is happening to me at this moment, maybe if I were you it would be the same".

Joanna frowned; she didn’t know what was happening to Aliciae but tried to cover that up "I know enough" she replied "You are something that shouldn’t have happened a creature that no one has ever seen and I hope will never see. You hurt others and showed no emotion even then could you explain to me why you think you deserve to be alive?"

Aliciae tried to lean forward but the pain flared up again and so she stayed still "I never said I deserved to be alive but this is what you think and many more maybe of your kind. Did any of the others think such things? No, of course they didn’t we were born the way we were born if you were born with such power how would you use it?"

Joanna thought for a minute "I would not use it for the same things that you or the ‘others’ did but I…"

"Easy enough for you to say" Aliciae cut in "But that does not apply to the rest of your kind, I am not the only one to hurt others there are lots of people in this world that would for various reasons. They do not have such power as me and they were not born into a strange place with people that are somewhat weaker".

Joanna shook her head "You are explaining these things to me but if you think it is ok to use your power to hurt others why not to me?" Joanna thought it was a risk saying this but carried on anyway "Why are you not using such powers to drive off me? I am sure you would for other threats".

Aliciae lifted herself and took a step forward trying to ignore the boundaries the pain was making "I thought you knew enough?" she replied.

"You seem not too I thought you could always find out, your power is apparently failing" Joanna replied still unsure of why Aliciae was not using any power.

Aliciae stood still for a moment "You are not trying to hurt me, why? Why have you come this far only to hesitate?"

"I’m just leaving you time to dangle and put fear in your kind heart, which I am sure you have" Joanna replied and then thought that didn’t sound like her, maybe it was just an attempt to sound like she had more confidence.

Aliciae half-smiled "Kind heart? Please kindness to you and me are a very different story".

Joanna shook her head, pulling herself out of her confidence attempt "There is no story, kindness is emotion something you were born without and something that will make others pity you"

Aliciae breathed out quickly and loudly "I don’t need pity just because I have no feeling doesn’t make me hate myself as you seem to want to believe. My power is all I need, if you could do what I can then of course you would no longer want any emotion yourself your power would drive you but of course your kind shows far more greed than any other could".

"Greed? Your kind? Are you not one of us? Well to answer my own question, no I cannot see how you are like us at all".

"ALICIAE!" a voice called so loudly when Aliciae turned she almost lost her footing. Aliciae lifted her head realising it was Elaine, she wanted to talk to her and tell her the discovery that had kept the bond together.

Elaine emerged from the path leading from the dock breathing heavily and almost sweating, Guybrush followed not looking so stressed as his wife but far more confused.

"Elaine" Aliciae looked straight at Elaine coldly "What I discovered you should have already known, do you?"

Elaine cleared her throat and stood up straight "No I do not Aliciae you have been playing with my mind and that’s all I can conclude from all that has happened nothing else"

Joanna herself was just standing patiently she wanted to know where this conversation was going.

"Well" Aliciae continued "I speak of a person, a girl like myself and you should know her before her untimely end"

Elaine’s eyes narrowed, she was half concluding what Aliciae would say.

"Lucy, one of my half siblings I believe her birth involved you strongly in fact I believe it was you who birthed her" Aliciae relaxed slightly, all most happy to have got to say this.

Guybrush gasped and turned to Elaine, who just stood with no expression like a statue.

"So you were in love with this man before you met me?" Guybrush stuttered

"Well, no I…" Elaine trailed off

"Well then why was Lucy born?" Guybrush’s voice raised slightly

"Guybrush!" Elaine said angrily "Don’t straight away make accusations what I mean is…"

"No!" both of them had forgotten Aliciae until her sharp voice cut in "There was no love involved, there need not be all that was needed was some slight dark power that Lucy’s father possessed, he didn’t even need to be near Elaine. He could have been over 50 miles away and Lucy still would have been born"

"But why Elaine?" Guybrush’s voice softened.

"Strength" Aliciae nodded "That’s what I believe, Elaine is strong both physically and mentally he knew this would be an advantage for Lucy but it wasn’t so"

"What happened to her?" Guybrush asked turning to Elaine.

"She was born sick, died after a few days" Elaine shook her head slowly.

Aliciae narrowed her eyes at Elaine and then turned to Guybrush "Guybrush Threepwood, go back to the governor’s mansion".

"No, why should I?" Guybrush tried to sound brave "Anyway according to the voodoo lady your power is weakening you can’t do much now"

From a few feet behind Aliciae Joanna smiled but didn’t make a sound still wanting to hear the whole story before she jumped in.

Aliciae looked at Elaine coldly "Tell your husband to go back to the mansion".

Elaine looked down "Guybrush go back"

Guybrush looked confused "Wait, why?"

"Just go back, please" Elaine pleaded

"Alright fine" Guybrush turned away and quickly vanished from their view he was clearly upset.

Aliciae just stared at the space where Guybrush once stood and then looked at Elaine.

"Elaine? Why do you not tell me the truth?" she said shaking her head.

"I don’t know what you are talking about" Elaine said uncertainly.

"Lucy did not die of illness her death was far too sudden, someone killed her didn’t they?" Aliciae stepped forward and looked at Elaine with her dull emotionless expression.

"Yes, it was not me but yes" Elaine put a hand on her head, a slight pounding in her skull.

"Stress? Stress can cause headaches right? I do not know who the person who thought they could take my siblings life was and I would like to know" Aliciae’s voice raised and a slight note of anger rose with it.

"You wouldn’t understand"

Aliciae lifted her chin "Try me"

"Well, no what I mean is you may not believe me its not a very believable story" Elaine looked around for no reason.

"About as unbelievable about a girl born with strange powers and who has a mind link to anyone who is related to her in someway?"

Elaine frowned "Well no, I well I guess it is a believable story when I think about it"

"Then I would like to hear it" Aliciae was starting to get impatient "You are very much trying to delay this story".

"Listen" Elaine paused "I know Lucy was your sister and even though you express very little emotion you must somehow be upset. Why are you so desperate to find out who it is? I mean its not as if…"

"Silence" Aliciae muttered just loud enough for Elaine to hear "Don’t stall, I do not know who it was and I want to know now! Was it Guybrush? Is that why you are stalling?"

"No it wasn’t Guybrush"

"Then I insist you give me a straight answer!"

Elaine lifted her head high "Lechuck" she said bluntly.

Joanna rolled her eyes she had heard far too much about this ‘Lechuck’ character he couldn’t possibly be real she thought. But Aliciae nodded slightly; she seemed to know whom Elaine was talking about.

"Strong hatred he has for others" Aliciae said "But why my Lucy, Elaine?"

"Well" Elaine started "I guess it was when he first fell in love with me, he of course wanted me to himself and when he saw Lucy he thought straight away that I had a husband. I kept saying he was a fool and to leave me alone but he would never listen…" she trailed off for a moment.

"Please continue" Aliciae said sounding more understanding then before.

"I remember actually, I hired a man called Sheriff Fester Shinetopp since the law wasn’t much being obeyed on this island. He was quite unusual but I thought having to protect people from pirates might have knocked him about a lot. He was interested a lot with Lucy and spent a lot of time with her, as you said she wasn’t a few days old she was nearly a year old. She seemed a bit uneasy around him but she was unusual like yourself so I just thought it was her, one-day he asked if her could take her down into town. He wanted to show her how a lawman does business and I said ok, anyway about ten minutes later he runs in saying that some mad man had taken Lucy away from him. I was in a total rage I yelled a lot at that Fester for not chasing the man and then looked for her myself, after I yelled at him I remember he grabbed my arm before I could leave. He said it was probably too late, it was she had drowned when I found her. That wasn’t all though it wasn’t until a very short time after I met Guybrush I found out who Fester was it was Lechuck in disguise. He had drowned her thinking it would scare off the ‘secret lover’ he thought I had." Elaine breathed heavily after finishing.

Aliciae looked down for a moment "I see that you are not the one to blame but there is little I could do against this Lechuck. His immortal power isn’t strong than my own but it prevents me from using anything against him."

Elaine nodded "So what are you going to do now? Now you have found what you were looking for?"

"Well" Aliciae turned to face Joanna "There is still another problem to deal with".

Elaine looked at Joanna "You don’t seem to happy to see Aliciae".

"No!" Joanna stamped her foot "Her evil must be destroyed" she held a blade in her head and took a step forward to Aliciae. Aliciae didn’t move and only stared at her, Aliciae had a look in her eyes that Elaine hadn’t seen before. It was like she knew what was going to happen.

Joanna in one quick motion shot her arm forward and Elaine closed her eyes hearing the sound of first tearing material and then the blade going much deeper. She opened her eyes hearing Aliciae’s scream like a bird’s yell and collapsing backwards.

She wasn’t dead though, the wound all though had gone deep probably wasn’t enough to kill her but blood was flowing heavily from her that’s what might get to her. Elaine ran in before Joanna could do anything else and looked at Aliciae’s blood, it was blue.