Reluctant Villainy Part 18 (Patreon)

Myst's sort of disconnected duplicate scowled as he looked down at the collection of 'ant-sized' people running around the Whitecloak courtyard, trying to figure out how their vault had vanished along with every bit of gold in the complex. 'For an organization that is supposed to be dedicated to destroying darkfriends, you're horrible at recognizing actual darkfriends.'

He didn't have an exact count of the number of darkfriends in the Whitecloaks, mostly because he hadn't been keeping track but so far it had averaged about one in twenty being a cultist and three out of every five being sociopathic to one degree or another. 'As my grandmother used to say, if they're dead, they can't suffer anymore,' he mused as he used his Precog to find a world he could drop the Whitecloaks on where they could be useful before they died heroically.

"That one has promise," he muttered as he teleported five thousand Whitecloaks to the Borderlands in another world so they could prevent a group of soldiers from getting overrun, making sure to place the more corrupt soldiers closer to the trollocs to give everyone else a better chance to survive.

He reached out with his Telepathy and started teleporting the rest of the Children of the Light to various worlds where they could do some good, leaving the cultists in the plaza square. "You want to worship a god of destruction? Have fun somewhere you can't bother the rest of us," he said as he teleported the entire complex to an empty world then flew across the city to the King's palace. 'One problem down, countless more to deal with before I sleep.'

Myst's duplicate used his temporary cosmic Telepathy to reach out to everyone in the city and started setting up situations where everyone found out someone in their family or someone they loved could channel and were asked to hide the information or at least help them flee the country. He was more than a little disappointed by the sheer number of people that turned loved ones in so they could steal their stuff or because they genuinely believed that they were evil despite knowing them for their entire lives.

"Fuck it, there are less decent people than assholes," he muttered as he teleported the decent and halfway decent people to Mardecin along with their stuff and extra gold from the worst of the assholes. He teleported the city to a deserted world along with the surrounding farms so they wouldn't starve. "Best of luck, even if you don't deserve it."

He briefly considered using a power to just swap the entire region for something less screwed up before realizing it was the perfect chance to have some fun. 'I have most of the pieces,' he mused as he used his Precog to check on the last two Nyms he knew of. He ignored Someshta and focused on the Nym head that was trapped in a cave with a nasty looking giant insect monster.

"Fun," he muttered as he opened a small portal above the adult jumara's head. He stuck his hand through, touched the creature and brought up his Power Copying window. He quickly copied the jumara's ability to absorb magic and grow stronger then teleported it into the Dark One's mountain, instantly killing the monster and making sure it's corpse couldn't poison anything. He expanded the portal then stepped through into the cavern and looked at the Nym head stuck to the wall.

"If you've come for the Sakarnen, you'll have to kill me," the Nym said.

"I don't care about the cup," Myst replied as he walked over, gently poked the Nym on her forehead and copied her powers with his Power Copying. He used his Kingmaker ability to temporarily give her the Copycat ability then unlocked his regeneration so she could copy it. He smiled as she went from a head stuck on a wall to a large green plant person half again as large as an ogier in less than three seconds.

The nym stared down at her hands and body in shock. "How did you heal me?"

"Everyone has talents," Myst's duplicate replied as he scanned her on the off chance that he needed to create more nym. He opened a portal to Stedding Shangtai, figuring the Ogier could help her get used to having people to talk to again. "Take the cup through, there's no reason to stay."

"I need to guard it and constructs can't use gates," the Nym replied.

"It's not a gate." He dark orbed her through the portal and scanned the gold cup on the ground, picking up a sa'angreal pattern, an incomplete sa'angreal pattern and a pattern for a sa'angreal that drained vitality in exchange for more power.

"Piece of shit," he muttered as he dark orbed the cup to the nym then closed the portal after taking away the Copycat power as he didn't need to confuse her with strange abilities. 'I doubt anyone will bother looking for the cup in a stedding and you'll be less bored.'

He opened a portal to a future where Loial was sleeping, carefully touched his toenail with the top of his finger so he wouldn't wake him up and copied his Tree Singing ability. He pulled his hand back and closed the portal then opened a portal to the road near the missing capital and stepped through. He swapped his Teleportation ability for Superhuman skill in city construction then opened his HUD's drafting program and got to work designing a replacement capital.

0o0o0

"Eldrene," Mat sputtered as they walked into the throne room and saw the woman sitting on the throne. "How are you still alive?"

"I'm not," Eldrene replied as she studied Mat. "Or at least the original Eldrene died destroying an army of shadowspawn. I'm still getting used to the fact that my kingdom is gone and all that remains are fragments."

"There are worse things to die for," Mat offered, having more sympathy for her situation than he would have before his extra memories.

"True," Eldrene admitted. "What brings you to my city?"

Myst pulled his attention away from the seven ladies in waiting that could channel and focused on the queen. "I got a note."

Eldrene smiled at Myst. "Myst mentioned that he'd be sending friends, I don't suppose you can teleport the Amyrlin here so I can have a discussion about reparations for the Tower's actions against my country?"

"Reparations?" Moiraine asked warily, fairly sure Siuan wouldn't appreciate being held accountable for something that happened two thousand years ago.

"I'd be happy to open a portal," Myst replied with a grin as he opened a portal to the Amyrlin's office, interrupting Siuan and Leane's discussion about Logain.

"What the blazes?" Siuan snapped as she sprang to her feet, staring at the strangers she could see through the 'door' into what looked like a throne room.

Myst gestured towards Eldrene. "The Queen of Manetheren would like to speak to you about reparations for the Tower's egregious actions during the war."

"Manetheren is dead," Suian sputtered then stared in disbelief when she saw Moiraine. "What is going on?"

"Queen Eldrene wished to speak to you so Myst opened a portal," Moiraine said, doing her best not to laugh at her friend's expression of disbelief.

"Queen Eldrene?" Siuan asked warily.

"I've seen Manetheren or at least a city that matches the surviving descriptions," Moiraine offered.

"How did you open a gate without us being able to sense it?" Leane asked, more interested in the lost weave than the lost city, at least for the moment.

"It's sort of like inverting weaves," Myst replied with a grin, not seeing a point in explaining that he wasn't using magic.

Eldrene frowned as she glanced between Siuan and Leane. "Why do you look like criminals?"

"Criminals?" Siuan sputtered.

Eldrene glanced at Moiraine then focused on Suian and Leane, annoyed that she'd missed the look on Moiraine's face. "You've sworn oaths on a binder, the only reason to do that would be because you're criminals."

Siuan shook her head. "Every Aes Sedai swears on the Oath Rod when they get the shawl."

"Blood and ashes, why would you do something that stupid?" Eldrene demanded after a couple of seconds when she realized they were serious.

"Yeah, somewhere towards the end of the Trolloc Wars the Tower had the stupid idea to swear oaths against making weapons, lying and using the power as a weapon," Myst cut in before Siuan said something stupid about honor, pride or unity or whatever the current party line for the idiotically stupid oaths was.

"There are reasons," Siuan snapped.

"That doesn't mean they're not stupid reasons. Even without breaking your oaths you can tie someone up with the power and hand them over to a mob or a magistrate as you're not using the power as a weapon or just tie them up then stab them with a knife depending on your mindset. Lying? Give me a break, no one in their right mind trusts Aes Sedai to tell the truth, there's always an angle, always the hook on the end of the line," Myst argued.

Siuan scowled at the strange wilder. "Except Aes Sedai can't lie."

"Swearing an oath against lying doesn't make you trustworthy, it makes you practice lying by omission or twisting words. The oath against making weapons? You'd be better off with some reasonable rules because it would be easy to convince yourself that your oath meant exactly what it said, thus if you're making a weapon for a girl, that's completely fine or if it's never supposed to be used, that wouldn't technically break the oath as long as the person making it believed in that interpretation of the oath," Myst pointed out.

"It doesn't work that way," Siuan argued then glared at Myst, too annoyed to get an accurate reading of his strength. "Do you know how much trouble you're in for trespassing?"

Myst laughed. "I could argue that I haven't set one foot in the Tower and that there isn't a law on the books about opening gateways in Tar Valon but I think I'll just go with cry me a river of tears."

"What!" Siuan demanded, not used to anyone treating her with such disrespect.

"I've never signed your novice book and I don't live in Tar Valon which means you don't have any authority over me," Myst replied with a shrug. "I'm also not particularly worried about channelers…" he trailed off as she used a thread of air to try to slap him. "I'm going to consider that assault."

Siuan stared at where her thread of air had fallen apart. "How did you do that?"

"Magic," Myst replied as he conjured a card then levitated it over to Leane. "So much for having a nice polite argument."

Leane grabbed the card out of the air and read it, "Payment notice for reparations for assault? Ten silver?"

Myst gestured at Siuan. "She's an elected official and she assaulted me, pay up or I'll make sure the Tower regrets it."

"That's insane!" Siuan snapped.

"I believe we're getting sidetracked," Eldrene cut in. "Does this mean you won't be paying reparations for your conduct during the war?"

"That was almost two thousand years ago, everyone involved has been dead for at least fifteen hundred years and the Hall would never agree to the expense," Siuan argued.

"Would you be satisfied with a public apology?" Moine asked.

Leane spoke up, "The Hall would never allow it."

Eldrene nodded, not really expecting anything else. "In that case, none of my people will sign your novice book and any red sister in my lands will be executed barring special permission from myself."

Siuan stared at Eldrene in shock. "You'd kill your sisters?"

"My 'sisters' as you called them, stabbed my nation in the back over petty jealousy and Myst mentioned more recent trouble with the Reds getting people killed and slaps on the wrist instead of actual punishment when the Tower learned about it."

"You're making a mistake," Siuan argued. "Without the Tower, you'll have to worry about male channelers and you won't have our support."

Eldrene shook her head. "I'm not remotely worried about rogue channelers and I have no interest in letting the Tower play their stupid games at the expense of my people."

"If you're really Eldrene Sedai, you're an Aes Sedai which means I can recall you to the Tower," Siuan argued, wishing the other woman would see sense.

"You owe me ten silver, are you going to pay or not?" Myst asked with annoyance and a mischievous look in his blue eyes, hoping she'd say no.

"Of course not," Siuan snapped then stared when the Oath Rod appeared in the girl's hands. "How did you get that!"

"Magic," Myst replied sarcastically as he snapped the conjured rod in half, enjoying the look of shock, rage and horror on the woman's face a bit more than he probably should have.

"Ashes!" Siuan screamed as she lashed out, trying to shield the other woman.

Myst let the shield cut his access to the source, rather amused when he got an immunity to being shielded thanks to his Adaptation power. "You refused to pay damages for assaulting me so I broke something that I valued at less than ten silver."

"Ter'angreal are priceless!" Siuan snapped. "We can't make them anymore!"

"That's hardly my fault," Myst replied as he held his hand out and used his Creation ability to make another copy of Moiraine's angreal. "You're the ones with a tradition of not having children."

"Don't break it!" Siuan snapped.

"I'm not going to break it," Myst replied as he tossed the angreal to Leane. "Here, free of charge, mostly because it will annoy Siuan."

Leane felt a flash of fear as she frantically caught the figurine, forgetting for a second that objects made with the power were generally nearly impossible to damage without channeling. "You're returning it?"

"How can I 'return' something that was never yours to start with?" Myst asked as he created another copy of the angreal.

"They were made by Aes Sedai during the Age of Legends," Siuan snapped.

"I still have the angreal I was issued," Moiraine said, speaking up. "Unless you're claiming she found five identical angreal, she obviously has the ability to copy them."

"Feel free to test them and just for the record, I'm giving the angreal to Leane, not the Tower." Myst tossed Leane the second angreal with a smirk.

Leane reflexively caught the other figurine. "This doesn't make up for breaking the Oath Rod."

"I wouldn't try," Myst replied with a shrug. "Angreal are actually worth something."

"How are you doing anything while shielded!" Siuan demanded, glaring at Myst.

"None of your business," Myst replied as he used Projection to break the shield, knowing it would cause Siuan stress.

Moiraine sighed. "Can you please stop antagonizing the Amyrlin?"

"Fine," Myst muttered as he glanced at Moiraine. "As a gesture of good will and because she hates paperwork, let me at least partially make up for my warped sense of humor by helping you remove your rat problem."

"Rat problem?" Leane asked before Siuan could say something she shouldn't to the obviously dangerous channeler.

"The Black Ajah," Myst replied as he dark orbed Verin and her book to the Amyrlin's office.

Verin's gaze jumped to Lan then focused on Moiraine for a second before she examined the rest of the strangers, her gaze lingering on Mat for a couple of seconds as he seemed the odd person out then focused on the smirking young woman with more potential than should be possible. "New recruits?"

"Unfortunately no," Moiraine replied as she gestured towards Eldrene. "I'd like to introduce you to Eldrene ay Ellan ay Carlan, Queen of Manetheren and the girl that opened a gate, Myst."

"Pleased to meet you Verin," Myst offered as he used his Kingmaker ability and gave Verin the Power Hub ability then unlocked his Adaptation, Magic Immunity and Regeneration powers so she could copy them.

Moiraine blinked as Verin's ageless look faded before her eyes. "What did you do?"

"I broke her oaths, so she could tell us about the Black Ajah," Myst explained, happy that he didn't have to mess with the Oath Rod to break the oaths.

"How?" Siuan demanded.

"Magic," Myst replied with a shrug and a smirk. "Verin got a bit too curious and was forced to swear an oath not to talk about certain things."

"I've always been overly curious," Verin admitted. "Your dress is white and the Mistress of Novices is Black Ajah," she said, hiding her surprise that she could admit the last part or say the first part as it revealed that she could lie.

"You shouldn't…" Siuan trailed off as she realized that no one was wearing a white dress. "You lied!"

"Only about the dress," Verin replied as she opened her notebook. "I have almost two hundred names on my list, we're going to need help collecting everyone."

Siuan scowled at Verin. "You're saying there are two hundred members of the Black Ajah!"

"At least," Verin agreed, then frowned when she noticed the broken Oath Rod in the stranger's hands. "Did you break the Oath Rod?"

Myst banished the fragments. "No, Siuan was being annoying so I broke a fake I conjured, you should have seen the look on her face."

"Do you have any objection to the Amyrlin and Keeper exploring your city," Moiraine asked before Siuan could say something to get herself in trouble. "It might give them some perspective."

"I don't mind," Eldrene said, fairly sure seeing close to five thousand channelers of above average strength would convince the current Amyrlin that harassing her people would end badly.

"You expect us to trust you?" Leane asked, giving Siuan a bit longer to cool down before she could say something she couldn't take back.

"Not particularly but last I checked Moiraine was trustworthy and if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead," Myst replied with a shrug.

"Do you have a problem with me seeing the city?" Verin asked, interested in seeing a city straight out of legend.

Eldrene glanced at Verin's brown shawl, "None at all."

"Thank you," Verin said as she walked through the portal into the throne room. "How many of your people can channel?"

"All of the women," Eldrene replied with a grin.

"All of them?" Leane asked in surprise. "How many people are in the city?"

One of her servants spoke up, "As of last count? Four thousand nine hundred and eighty seven women of various professions, three thousand and seventeen children, fifty seven merchants and two thousand and fifty one soldiers."

Siuan stared at the girl in disbelief. "You have almost five thousand channelers?"

"Yes," the young woman replied smugly.

'Knowing my duplicate, the rest can probably channel,' Myst thought, pushing up his plans to cleanse the male half of the source.

"You're welcome to count but try to stay out of people's way," Eldrene suggested. "We're still trying to figure out where to put everyone and get things sorted."

"Lead the way," Siuan ordered, figuring she might as well check.

0o0o0

"That should be good enough," Myst's questionable duplicate mused as he finished creating the merchant district of the city he'd built to replace Amador. "At least until I figure out what type of people I'm recruiting." He swapped his city design power for Clairvoyance then floated over towards the fountain he'd built in the middle of the plaza and sat down on the stone bench.

He glanced over at the chora tree he'd created in the middle of a grassy area where people could relax and enjoy some lunch. "It's lovely and as empty as a ghost town," he said to himself as he used his Clairvoyance to look for interesting people and pets in the various worlds he could reach. 'Simpsons? Nah, I'd probably end up killing Bart and that would probably cause all sorts of trouble or get stuck in time loops. Ducktales? Nah, I'd be tempted to steal Scrooge's lucky dime and he always finds a way to get it back.'

"What about Star Wars? I could steal a version of Anakin before he goes insane," he mused as he opened a portal into a version of Senator Palpatine's head, killing the Sith Lord before he could order the invasion of Naboo. "Nah, I don't need a pilot and I'd have to listen to his whining."

"On second thought, screwing up his destiny sounds fun," he mused as he went looking through possible timelines for the person he'd need to 'fix' things. He opened a portal and pulled a mostly dead Revan through then closed the portal before the strike force could finish her off. He carefully lowered her to the bench and started healing her wounds with Healing when she collapsed from her injuries.

"Sithspit," Revan cursed as she woke up on a planet rather than on the foundry.

"How are you feeling?" Myst's duplicate asked as he finished healing her.

Revan twitched as she realized there was someone next to her that she couldn't sense then froze when she realized she couldn't feel anything. "Did someone cut me off from the Force?"

"Nah, you're just outside of the galaxy," he replied as he used his Kingmaker ability to give her the Power Hub ability and unlocked his Regeneration, Adaptation and mental sanity ability so she could copy them. 'So much for giving everyone Force abilities.'

"How long was I out?" Revan asked warily.

"Eh, less than a minute, I grabbed you with a portal and healed you," Myst's duplicate replied as he opened a portal to the other side of the market square to 'prove' his ability.

Revan sat up. "Thanks for the assist but why did you grab me?"

"I need someone to train an extremely powerful Force-using child because the Jedi of the current era are next to useless," he replied as he scanned her lightsaber.

"Current era?" Revan asked as she glanced around the marketplace, noticing a distinct lack of technology. "Where are we? Or when?"

"We're in a different dimension and time is more than a bit flexible. Are you interested in a job if I can pull the Sith Emperor through a portal so you can kill him?" he asked, figuring she'd take the deal as she really wanted him dead.

"What makes you think you can kill him?" Revan asked as she pulled her mask off, revealing a striking woman with short red hair that looked in her mid thirties.

Myst's duplicate grinned as he used his Clairvoyance to find the Sith Emperor from Revan's timeline and to check the future to make sure he couldn't use his force abilities once the portal was closed. "He shouldn't have his abilities and I'm immune to mental influence."

Revan sighed as she realized the stranger held all of the cards as her abilities weren't working. "Sure, in the unlikely event that you can kill the Emperor, I'll train the child."

"Cool, you might want to put your mask back on," Myst's duplicate offered as he shared the Heartless power with her so she'd get power from the Emperor's death. 'Let's see if we can improve the ten percent.' He swapped his Creation power for a Power Overload power that would let him boost his Heartless ability then shared it.

Revan put her mask back on. "Now what?"

"Now you use a boost and kill the Emperor with your lightsaber," he replied as he used his Skill Management power to give her knowledge of using the boosting power.

Revan blinked a couple of times as she realized she knew how to use an ability she'd never heard of. "How did you do that?"

"The Force isn't the only type of magic around," he replied as he pointed towards where he was going to open a portal. "You should use the boost."

Revan used the new power, not sure exactly what it was supposed to do but too impatient to care as she saw the chance to finish the Emperor. "Done," she offered as she got to her feet and ignited her purple lightsaber.

"Incoming." He opened a portal twenty feet above the plaza and under the Emperor while he was sleeping, grabbed the alien with his Telekinesis and yanked him through before he could wake up and save himself. He closed the portal and slammed the Emperor into the paving stones that made up the plaza, wanting to make sure he was distracted on the off chance that he had any tricks that actually worked. "You should probably kill him before he kills us."

Revan charged the bastard that had kept her prisoner for three hundred years and cut his head off, more than a little surprised when he didn't twist and hit her with Force Lightning or roll out of the way or do anything to avoid her lightsaber. "Is he coming back?"

"He shouldn't be able to," Myst's duplicate replied as he used his Clairvoyance to make sure he wasn't coming back as a spirit. "Yeah, we're good, he's not coming back."

"How can you be sure?" Revan asked warily as she stared at the Emperor's face, comparing every detail to her memory of the monster that had tortured her off and on for three centuries.

"Clairvoyance," he replied as he walked back over and sat down. "How do you feel about killing more Sith Lords?"

"I wouldn't mind making the galaxy a bit safer while you tell me about my future student," Revan replied thoughtfully.

"That I can do," Myst's duplicate replied as he opened a portal to a rather unlikely timeline under a certain gungan Sith Lord and let him drop fifty feet, curious how much he could boost Revan's force abilities before he dropped her on Tatooine.