27

Volition 3.5

I led Amelia to the cave where I was keeping Coil prisoner. I had thought long and hard about what to do, and in the end I decided that there was no way to keep this a secret for long, if I wanted to take over Coil's organization without making the girls suspicious of me.

I had already told them about Calvert being Coil, and about his power, after all. As long as I kept Coil prisoner, Thomas Calvert would be missing, and the PRT would have records of it. Even if I orchestrated a plan to capture a "Coil", using his body double, the lack of a Corona Pollentia would easily give him away.

The biggest problem was that the mere act of successfully taking over Coil's organization would be suspicious, if the girls believed that the real Coil was still missing or at large.

My mysterious past was already suspicious enough, and without further evidence that Calvert was in fact Coil, the girls might start wondering if I had been Coil the whole time.

Taylor might even use her bugs to track my movements if she thought something was up. That would make things very difficult for me. If I let Amelia make relay bugs for her, I would never be able to do anything without her notice.

I brought Amelia in front of the crate that was Coil's cage, and opened it, revealing the unconscious body of Calvert.

"What the…? A body?" Amelia took a step back in alarm.

"Calm down, he's alive, just unconscious. This man is Coil, also known as Thomas Calvert. Yesterday when I was spying on him, I deduced that he was at his base in both of his timelines, and I had just developed my portal ability, allowing me to strike directly at him when he was vulnerable. The chance was too good to pass up, so I took it," I said.

"Are you sure this is Coil? Sorry, I'm not doubting you. It's just…this is too sudden. Where is his costume?" Amelia asked.

I grabbed a box from nearby and opened it to reveal Coil's costume, which I had neatly folded.

"After I captured him last night, I used his costume to pretend to be Coil, allowing me to start subverting some of his subordinates, who never knew who the man behind the mask was. As for checking whether he's really Coil…why don't we wake him up and ask? You can detect whether he's lying or not."

And so I moved Coil out of the crate and removed his gag, but keeping his blindfold and restraints on.

I equipped an electronic voice changer before beginning the interrogation.

Amelia touched his skin, and he woke up with a jolt.

"Hello, human," I said in a warped voice.

"Hello, who am I speaking—"

I ignored him and continued. "I will toss coin. You tell heads or tails. Answer wrong, die, understand?"

Then I tossed a coin as I said, and it landed on heads.

"Wait—surely it isn't necessary to test my luck? I am willing to cooperate with you."

"Answer correctly, you cooperate. Wrong, then not right human, worthless. Heads or tails? Answer, three seconds or die," I said, touching a pistol to his forehead. "Three—"

"Heads!" He answered, with a hint of panic now.

"Correct. Now I toss again."

I tossed it, and again the coin landed on heads.

"Correct. Again."

"Tails."

"Correct, again."

"Heads."

"Correct, again!"

"Tails."

"Good. Pass, you have," I declared, and gave a meaningful glance to Amelia, who nodded. The point of this test was twofold. His power would allow him to guess both heads and tails at the same time, so it would prove that he was Coil, with the timeline splitting power. Additionally, it would force him to close off any other timelines he had going, and get stuck in this one.

Based on my original plan when capturing him, I should have captured him in both of his timelines, and he might not have shut either of them off, since neither was a safe timeline. From his perspective, if I suddenly woke him up in this timeline, but didn't wake him up in the other one, it would make sense to keep both timelines open as long as possible, to get information about me during the interrogation in this timeline that he could then close and use to deal with me in the other timeline.

"If you are satisfied, may I know who I am speaking with?" Coil asked coolly.

I removed the gun from his head.

"I am Erkshminialhhathrr, the Light-Eclipsing-Nova-Vividly-Echoes, in your tongue. Questions, I have many," I said. "Answer, and live."

"If you would remove my restraints, I would be happy to speak with you and answer your questions in a civilized discussion."

"Volshmhaar!" I yelled and punched him. "You eat civilization me? We eat stars' feces for ten thousand years! You cannot eat monkeys!"

Amelia stifled a choke, and looked at me as if I had gone crazy.

I winked back at her and put a finger to my mouth.

"I'm…sorry? There must be a misunderstanding, I mean no insult," Coil said, after recovering from being punched.

"Abggddarshha? Mnuoklklafshm gu mnuotenaiarongg. You, wait," I said, then walked away for a bit, and came back after half a minute.

"Damn translator. It is fixed now. I have questions for you, human," I said.

"Ah, as I was saying, if you would remove my restraints, I would be happy to answer your questions in a civilized manner," Coil repeated himself.

"No. You will answer my questions or die. We have noticed that you have sent agents to monitor the human child known as Dinah Alcott. What is your intention towards her?"

"Dinah? I believe she has the power to see the future. I am interested in her power," he answered honestly. I expected him to try lying first…but I suppose he must be using his power right now and lied in the other timeline.

"You answer truthfully, but not completely. What do you intend to do with her?"

"Ah, I do have some plans for her, but they are not certain yet—" Coil started, then I punched him again.

"Do not stall! I know you are using the parasitic crystalloid's ability to try different answers. It will not work."

"My apologies. I had been planning to persuade Dinah to join my cause," he said.

"And how would you have persuaded her?" I pressed.

He was silent for a moment. "Do you have some special interest in her? I can agree to stay away from her."

I put the gun back to his head. "Answer the question! How would you have persuaded her?"

"I would have given her drugs," he finally revealed.

I glanced at Amelia, whose face had darkened ominously upon hearing Coil's answer.

"Pathetic human!" I boomed. "So you would have imprisoned and forced her to become addicted to drugs, using her addiction to make her do your bidding! You wanted to enslave her? Foolish! Volshhar! She is the future vessel of Heaven-Touching-Shadow-Winged-Divine! The crystalloid parasites do not have the power to see the future, only the Chosen of the Star Spirits! She shall be a part of the Great Journey, not your human quibbles! Repent in darkness while the High Priests decide what to do with you!" I ranted like a fanatic, then gave Amelia a signal.

Coil fall back unconscious, and we stuffed him back into the crate.

"There you have it. Despicable, isn't he? There's no line too low for him to sink to," I said.

Amelia continued staring at the crate we were keeping Coil in. "Yeah…"

"You know, his power is pretty damn useful. Think we should give him a taste of his own medicine, make him work for us? With your powers, it shouldn't be too hard to brainwash him," I said nonchalantly.

"W-what the fuck! I'm not going to brainwash anyone!"

"Well, we can't release him or send him to the PRT, either. He's too dangerous for that. Seems like a bit of a waste to just kill him," I said with a grin.

"That's not funny, Kaleidus! I'm seriously not going to brainwash anyone. It's just wrong," she protested.

"Even if he would have been willing to brainwash people?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "Is it so bad to turn a force of evil into a force of good? We don't necessarily even need to alter his brain directly, if you're still uptight about that rule. He can be conditioned and re-educated slowly, or we can make a kill-switch of sorts."

"Ugh, stop, you're creeping me out now! No brainwashing!" She blocked off her ears and stormed off.

I laughed loudly as she ran off.

I knew she wouldn't be willing to do it, but it was worth a shot. There were still other methods I could try to make Coil my slave.