Chapter 5: The real Aliciae

Aliciae sat breathing heavily, clutching her now blood stained hand over the deep wound. Joanna stood nearby she was completely still her facial expression was showing a part of her was maybe regretting what just happened, the other part smiling happy of finally striking down Aliciae.

Aliciae’s skin was starting changing to a light blue colour like that of someone who was suffocating; she rolled slightly and groaned trying to get up. She managed to sit up and glared at Joanna a burning hatred in her eyes, "You think you’re actions are clever don’t you?" she growled "Whatever you do to me it doesn’t matter! Me and the others weren’t the only ones, there can easily be more of my kind and what will you do when you are up against ten or twenty or even thirty of us!" Joanna stared her mouth open she hadn’t been thinking Aliciae would say such a thing to her.

Elaine was leaning over Aliciae there was nothing she could do about the wound and she thought it was probably better Aliciae died it would be happier for other normal people.

"Elaine!" Aliciae shifted over slightly closer to Elaine "I do not expect help from the mother of Lucy but your thoughts I do not like! I feel my own power coming back, it is a natural thing for me which you should know when I feel my life is threatened clearly as I do now my power will come back stronger than any time before!" She slowly lifted herself to her feet the sound of small bones clicking in her legs.

Elaine put a hand on Aliciae’s shoulder and tried to talk to her calmly "There is no point in using your power to hurt others why don’t you…"

Before she could finish what she was saying Aliciae cut in "It is not you I want to harm although you lead me into this situation you have done no physical harm towards me. I only harm those who truly threaten my life or the life of the others" she turned to Joanna "As you have!"

Joanna edged backwards she rubbed the blade in her hand slightly, blue blood staining her fingers her mind whirring trying to think of what to do now she was too scared to try and make another attack. She quickly glanced behind her, only the ocean running that way wouldn’t be a clever idea.

Aliciae narrowed her eyes but suddenly squeezed them shut one hand clutching at the wound the blood had clotted now. She opened her eyes and to Elaine’s shock they had changed to a light reddish colour but it wasn’t because she was using any of her power it was her natural eye colour. She growled lowly and looked at Elaine who had taken a step back confused "Well, Elaine" Aliciae stuttered "I guess the end is approaching but only for the Aliciae you have seen not for the real Aliciae" she shook her head and stood up straight. "I suppose at first you thought that I was just a rather different rather ‘unique’ little girl". She turned back to Joanna a slight smile growing on her face "Maybe even to those who had known me since my birth seen me grow up seem me through this but Elaine you learnt the truth and you had known Lucy. I am very different, I am far more different than you would think". Aliciae suddenly fell forward a slight gasp of pain escaping her as she reached out to stop herself from completely hitting the ground; Elaine leaned closer since Aliciae didn’t seem to be moving just leaning her face to the ground. Aliciae made a louder growling noise and turned her head to look up at Elaine, her nose was so flat it was like someone had pressed it into her face, her skin a darker blue and her eyes wide but red. Her face looked like a blue skull, she jumped up and flung her arm behind her nearly catching Elaine’s face. Aliciae’s own emotionless face now one of anger as she turned back to Joanna taking a few steps forward still limping because of the wound although it was clearly healing "Joanna! You thought you knew me well didn’t you? What do you think of my more natural look?"

Joanna clutched the blade in her hand tighter but instead of using it in one quick movement made a dash past Aliciae knocking her to the one side. Aliciae spun around and made a sudden attempt to grab the back of Joanna but Joanna was far too fast and got away quick as a wink. Aliciae just shrugged to Elaine’s surprise "I’ll get her later" she muttered to herself. Then she glared at Elaine "I don’t need anything else from you and even though I probably won’t find this Lechuck I after I’ve dealt with Joanna I will hunt him! And I will find your husband" she said with a fake smile and ran the way Joanna had gone.

Elaine stood for a moment thinking ‘What was all that?’ she thought to herself ‘That’s what Aliciae really looks like?’ then she realised what else Aliciae had said, Guybrush!

She turned and ran back towards the mansion, she didn’t understand why Aliciae would go after Guybrush he hadn’t done anything against her.

The truth be told was Aliciae had only said she would find Guybrush so Elaine would go to the mansion instead of trying to catch up with Joanna who Aliciae had really gone after.

Guybrush wasn’t in the mansion; he was standing outside waiting for Elaine to show up. He had a strong look of concern on his face even more so when Elaine ran up to him so fast, "Guybrush!" she panted "Aliciae? Have you seen her?" Guybrush shook his head "No, but I heard of something else" he said looking over at the ocean a few times. "What is it?" Elaine asked, concerned. Guybrush looked back at her "You know of a Robyn-Louise?" he asked, Elaine thought for a moment "No who is Robyn-Louise?" "You see that’s the thing" Guybrush said "As I came back up here I asked if anyone around here knew a strange girl named Aliciae" he paused "One man said he knew someone who did and his name was Pete apparently a pirate new to the island of Melee. The man said Pete knew a girl she was pretty strange too. I described Aliciae well I didn’t mention the power but I said emotionless. He said that’s what this Robyn-Louise which is her name is like, she isn’t quite emotionless and she is only four so it is hard to tell at that age but she is strange".

"Did you find out anything about her?" Elaine asked quickly "Have you seen her?"

Guybrush shook his head sadly "No I haven’t met her but I did find out something about her past her real name must not be Robyn-Louise. A woman named Tanya or Tammy I believe took her to Plunder Island but this woman said she wasn’t the mother and she said the child was Robyn-Louise. The same man Pete though said he knew that girl and that her name wasn’t Robyn-Louise it was Silvia, someone tracked down the woman but when they said they knew the girl wasn’t Robyn-Louise she vanished and no one on Plunder Island has seen her since."

"That’s awful," Elaine said

"It gets worse" Guybrush replied sadly "They couldn’t find a home for this Robyn-Louise and wanted to track down the real family. In fact I recognised the mother’s name I can’t remember it now but she had passed on and the father they couldn’t find, they asked this Pete since he seemed to know a lot about the girl but Pete wouldn’t tell them anything. She has no home or family now and it made me feel kind of bad."

"Well we do have things to worry about at the moment but as soon as the Aliciae problem is dealt with I am going to look for this Robyn-Louise and maybe bring her here" she said in a half sarcastic half serious way and walked away from the mansion.

"Yeah" Guybrush nodded and then started to shake his head "Wait! Maybe we should think that through first! Children are a HUGE responsibility, are you listening? Wait!"

Joanna was in the town but she didn’t know where to go from there, she was unfamiliar with this place although it didn’t seem a place easy to get lost in. She could see a weird looking voodoo shop with flaming torches on the rook, the town hall no one was in there, some strange house-like buildings and a bar that had LUA with a big red line through it and SCUMM written over it. She didn’t fancy hiding in there she could hear the yells and cheers of drunken pirates they wouldn’t be very polite or dignified after all they were pirates if she wandered in. Had Aliciae even followed her? She could still be at the docks with that Elaine person but there was only a very, very small chance of Aliciae not following her.

"JOANNA!" the voice echoed but it was in her head, it was full of fury "How dare you run away from me! I’ll make you pay with your blood!" Joanna didn’t want to stick around to see Aliciae’s fury so she ran into the nearest building to her, the Voodoo place.

The Voodoo place was just a small room with cases of jars, bottles and several other weird and disgusting looking things. There was no one there though that she could see, there wasn’t anywhere in here to hide either she noticed. Like it would help Aliciae had her power back she would know if Joanna tried to hide.

Suddenly one of the walls made a strange noise like beads clicking together and it turned around a woman was sitting on a throne-like chair wearing strange garments a mystical look on her face.

"Joanna I believe?" she said

"Yes, how did you know that?" Joanna asked nervously

"I heard the young Aliciae calling your name, well through her mind" the woman smiled

"You could hear that?" Joanna asked amazed

"Yes if anything of a supernatural kind happens here I know and hear of it and now I have learned to pick up Aliciae’s mind waves".

"Then can you tell me how to stop her? If you can pick up her mind waves you must be able to hear her weakness or something" Joanna asked walking up to the woman.

The woman shook her head "Sorry no, I have not picked up on these things my mind is receiving mixed signals. Strangely many things are happening that are of a supernatural kind".

"Anything like Aliciae?" Joanna looked nervously at the door "Any other people wandering about like her?"

The woman closed her eyes for a second "No I don’t think so. They are things that are not of importance to you so I shouldn’t really bring them up".

"Alright" Joanna sighed "What am I supposed to do about Aliciae then? I can’t just wait here until she shows up to kill me now can I?"

"It may take her a while she has been side tracked one pirate has already suffered her power"

"Are they alright?" Joanna asked concerned

"They are no more" the woman looked at a bowl with strange markings by her chair "Aliciae though in fairness does only attack those people that endanger her, don’t you agree?" the woman asked.

"Well no" Joanna frowned "Ok I stabbed her but I actually don’t know what came over me I was going to attack but not so suddenly I…"

The woman suddenly cut in "Someone else did someone else made you act so quickly think of the things Aliciae had said and you may realise, were you listening to the whole conversation?"

"Yes I was but I don’t see how that helps me now only things about that other people in the world cause pain, about her sister Lucy, that poor Elaine being Lucy’s mother and something about a Sheriff who was really something else and…"

"Think of the Lucy part!" the woman said quickly "What did she say about Lucy’s father?"

"Nothing really only that there didn’t have to be contact for Elaine to become pregnant with Lucy there didn’t need to be emotion he could have used his power to create Lucy for miles away." Joanna thought for a moment "I still don’t understand".

"You just said it!" the woman was growing impatient "Those of her kind could use their powers for miles away".

"There is another of her kind then!"

"I am not sure it is not of importance any more their power has seemingly died I would inform you if it grew again"

"I don’t understand that"

"Neither do I"

"Then what am I to do about Aliciae? Please help!" Joanna pleaded

"You can kill her she is not an immortal creature she has revealed her true self but that won’t make any difference"

"I thought her power was much stronger now"

"Her power is there but Aliciae exaggerated on ‘much’ it is maybe a slight bit stronger than in the near death few minutes but she can still be killed and you can kill her or Elaine will you should tell her this"

"Is Elaine a big part of this?" Joanna asked

"Not so much now Elaine will have enough to deal with in the near future and she has dealt with a lot in the past especially in supernatural power or voodoo power in the case of Lechuck"

Joanna rolled her eyes "That is who she said the sheriff was I am sorry but I can’t believe something like that"

"Whether you believe it or not he does exist this is hardly the time to debate this"

"Fine" Joanna, said "I am going to find Aliciae stare her right in the face and end her little reign" she said bravely but inside she was scared and felt extremely weak.

Aliciae looked up from the body on the ground and her red eyes darted from side to side, there was no one else around. She wasn’t any type of human anymore her mind clouded with anger towards Joanna for her actions against her but she couldn’t find her. She knew Elaine was trying to track her down as well followed by her husband, she couldn’t tell where they were but they approached fast. She stalked forward her blue face glowing like a pale lamp she was easy to notice but no one would dare approach her looking in the horrendous state she did. She turned the corner of the Scumm bar and to her luck she believed Joanna stood at first turned away from her but then she turned around to face the creature Aliciae a slight look of confusion on her face she clearly wasn’t sure how to act.

"Someone has made a mistake," Aliciae said mockingly "That mistake against me" she hissed.

"The only mistake" Joanna tried to speak calmly but stuttered "Was that you survived"

Aliciae took a step forward "You are nervous and are doing a bad job at hiding it and for your stupid words you will die!" her eyes suddenly changing to an even brighter red.

Joanna leaned over clutching her head "STOP! STOP! PLEASE STOP!" her bravery fading fast.

Aliciae smiled but since she was focusing all her energy against Joanna she couldn’t focus on the slight warning burning in the back of her head, she started lowering her energy slightly so she could hear it clearer.

The voice was crying out and Aliciae suddenly turned around only to be met with a cold blade that Elaine was holding. Aliciae had also took a step forward as she turned so the blade had pierced the skin on her neck letting some blue drops fall to the ground.

Aliciae growled "No, no! You can’t you won’t!"

"I will" Elaine smiled and pushed the blade further, Aliciae’s eyes changing again to bright red to try and focus against Elaine trying to push off her foe.