My heart jumps into erratic motion, and the cosmic ceiling above me tells me I'm awake. What is Bianca doing? There's no way she underestimated me again..!
I sit up and see Bianca searching on the ground, her head leaking blood. She grabs a nearby handgun that has a streak of blood along its back and aims for me. But her face turns sheet white when she sees me awake and aware.
I don't know who struck her while I was down, but she'll never get another chance like that.
My sword, still gripped in my lethargic hands slices the gun barrel in two. The sudden disarming sends her a few steps back and I shake off the grogginess in my legs.
Looking into space, the stars do look prettier from this high up. The light breeze breaking through the funnel, the muffled sounds of the city, the fresh air swirling around me. Bianca's made a lot of awful choices with how she uses her money, but maybe this one isn't so bad.
It's a tower fit for someone like me, for someone who knows what they're doing. Fit for a king.
"Now I know why people are getting hooked on that Pixie Dust stuff. You can experience whatever you want with it. It's so close to reality too."
An easing sigh corrects my mind's course away from persistent memories of the fictional to the here and now. My eyes crash back onto Bianca's sweating face.
"How did you-" She stumbles over her retreating back foot, falling onto the floor.
"Because I'm not brainless. I know what's real and I know what's not, and I'm not going to stay in a fabricated world when I have everything I could want in the real one. Your Antique's as worthless as you are." I inch closer to her as she slides on the ground in a hopeless effort to run away.
"You won't get away with this... The guards! My guards will kill you if you even brush against my dress!"
"We killed all of the ones you sent after us. Unless there's more on their way?" Her lips clutch together, giving me the answer I expected. "I'm offended you thought that was even half of what you'd need to hurt me."
"Wait a second! Whatever you're thinking of doing, could I convince you to refrain from doing it? I could double or triple however much Melanie is paying you!"
"I bet you could, given that Mel doesn't pay as is."
"Then..." Her eyes dart around, looking for something. "Then why are you doing this to me!? Why are you working for her!?"
"I don't work for anyone but myself. Me and Mel are partners. I give her access to my strength and resources, and in return, she can work towards a future that will be equally beneficial. And I'm here because you're directly hurting my business and wasting my time. I run bars and clubs around the country, but I have most of my stake in New York. For them to be successful, I need people to come, be happy, and spend money. Does that make sense?"
Her only response is a silent nod and another slide farther away from me.
"So, if I need to get people to spend money at places I own, that gets exponentially harder for me to do if people are blowing everything they have on drugs that can give them artificial happiness. I can't compete. Not to mention you're running a massive club on the lower floors of the Observatory, something that directly competes with me."
"If that's what you're mad about, you can have a percentage of the profits!" Trying to fix every problem by throwing money at it. A Bianca classic.
"I don't do percentages, Bianca. If I own a piece of something I own the whole of it. And that's not the only problem. Your special drug is getting to minors. Kids who shouldn't be thinking of drugs or gangs. Just seeing them makes the hairs on my arm stand up."
"That's not my fault! I can't control every seller I employ!"
"I'm fully aware that you're too inept to run your own business properly. You got too ahead of yourself the minute you were put in charge of anything. And that's why I'm going to take what's left of The Stars and direct it under me."
She looks at me in disbelief, offended at the thought of me taking the helm of her barely floating ship. "What about me!? I worked hard to rise to the peak of society and stay at the height of wealth!"
"Then consider this a gift. I'm relieving you of your position before you mess it up."
"You can't do this to me! You'd have an easier time overthrowing Melanie, why not go after her!?"
"Because I hold some level of respect for her. Every big criminal organization has one thing in common: they're beholden to their Antique. But Mel and I are different."
"Different!? Melanie doesn't nearly have the infamy or the resources to compete with us! The only reason she's relevant is because of her Antiques! And you're just as dependent on Antiques as I am! You're a hypo-" The King's Edge inches away from her temple shut her up instantly.
"You think a sword makes my bars and clubs popular? You think a sword gets me respect in every corner of the city? You think a sword prints the money I use to pay the people who work for me across the country?" Her face looks like it's searching for an answer that doesn't exist.
"Yeah, now you look stupid. If we traded Antiques, I'd have built 10 towers just like The Observatory across the U.S., while you would be wondering which end to my sword to hold. And while Melanie relies on her Antiques, she's not a slave to them. She uses everything at her disposal to its fullest, for better or for worse. And just like her, my judgment, skill, and planning got me this sword and got me where I am today. Without your Antique you'd be another no-name no-life criminal scraping just to make ends meet. Without my sword, I'd still be Arthur, King of the Night!"
My hand swirls and spirals King's Edge into the air and after watching Bianca fester in fear for a second longer, the black streak crosses her body. Her flamboyant hat flies off the platform on the winds of her last breath once her head retires to the ground.
Goodbye and thanks for the tower, Bianca. I'll put it to better use than you ever could.