Sorry about a recent lack of updates for most stories. There was an issue recently that caused me to be exhausted for about two days. Expect the third part of this chapter within the next day or two.

Chapter 35.2: Filthy Liar

It had been a while since Blackthorne had seen the statue in the clearing. It was the space between worlds where he normally had to pay a token in order to keep visiting the dream world. It was not quite time to pay again, so he was uncertain why he was here.

A soft hum and giggle reached his ears that caused Blackthorne to turn around and look for the source. Though, given where he was he had a pretty good idea of who it was supposed to be. "Being mysterious again?"

The dark goddess laughed sweetly for a moment then Blackthorne felt warm arms wrap around his waist. "I caught a Blackthorne."

"What do you plan to do with him?" he asked softly. It had been a while since they had spoken. If he recalled correctly it had been when he had died, though it might have been just after. It was hard to remember due to how busy life had been recently.

She whispered warmly in his ear. "Teach him many things about life."

Blackthorne closed his eyes then tried to fight back the smile growing on his lips. "What would you teach me?"

She giggled warmly then nuzzled her invisible head against the back of his neck. However, when she spoke again it was in a much more somber tone. "For a moment, can we just do this? Just, Just for a moment?"

"Sure... Is something wrong?" he asked her curiously. She had sounded strange just now, but he did not really know her well enough to judge her moods.

She took a deep, shuddering, breath. "Yes. I have some things to tell you. You probably won't like them, or me, much afterward. I'm truly sorry about that."

"OK..." For a supposed goddess she certainly seemed worried about telling him whatever it was she had to say. It was weird, but interesting.

"Well, I suppose I should get to it then... Please remember that I'm very sorry." She released him. A moment later the space in front of Blackthorne shimmered and a woman appeared before him. She was almost heart-stoppingly beautiful, and had a radiant glow about her that made it hard to even gaze upon her form. However, there was also something else that he noticed immediately. She looked suspiciously familiar.

"Shara...?" asked Blackthorne, confusion evident in his voice.

The radiant goddess of darkness nodded her head slowly. "Tis I, beloved." she said sadly.

Blackthorne blinked twice while he tried to wrap his head around what was happening. "I... What?"

Shara sighed languidly. "I did not actually mean for all of this to happen. Please understand that."

"What to happen? Can you stop apologizing and tell me what's going on?"

The goddess nodded then bit her lower lip. "It's a lengthy story. But I'll give you the highlights and you can ask questions? Is that acceptable."

"Yes." Blackthorne eyed her curiously. Was he actually dreaming for once? Was any of this happening?

"You've heard some of the story. The god of your world who crafted it and farmed the souls here, sold it off. A group of people who thought they were better at world design than they were took over and screwed things up royally." said Shara.

He remembered that much from when he had died, though it still made little sense. He nodded and she continued.

"Well, my part came into play because of a court mandated community service ruling. I had accidentally exploded a man's heart when I let him touch my breasts." said Shara in a serious tone of voice.

Blackthorne blinked slowly. What part of that was supposed to have made sense? "Explain that?"

Shara's eyebrows pressed together and she sighed. "OK, this is going to take some time. I'll explain it all and then it'll all be out there."

"Uh, yeah." said Blackthorne. That was supposed to be the point of this. She was obviously upset and dragging things out, but so far she had not really told him anything startling other than the fact that his childhood friend was actually supposed to be some sort of goddess. Sure, that was incredible but he had honestly seen and heard stranger in recent weeks. If anything it explained why she was so damned weird.

She closed her eyes and took a breath. When she opened them again she said, "You're not the first Scott I've ever met."

He tilted his head to the side. That was supposed to be news? There were millions of Scotts in the world. Hell, there was an island full of them.

"The first Scott that I met was a soldier in the US army. He helped my older sister out when she had taken on human form and visited a different Earth. She became enamored with him, stopped spending time with me, and a few other things."

Blackthorne listened as the supposed goddess before him explained that she had become obsessed with that Scott after her sister had become obsessed with him. Shara's obsession led to her developing a strong, potentially incurable, desire to have a Scott in her life. It was the most bizarre and stalkerish thing that he had ever heard in his life.

She explained that she had tried to get together with a different Scott, a dimensional analog who apparently had a heart condition. When he touched her breasts his heart exploded and she was forced into a community service assignment as punishment for the mess that had to be cleaned up.

"So, you chose to incarnate in this world as my childhood friend because you're obsessed with your sister's boyfriend, and I look like him?" asked Blackthorne, obviously still confused.

"No. You are him. You're the Scott that was born into this world. You're the exact same existence but seen through a different temporal lens."

Blackthorne frowned at her. "Look, I don't know anything about that, but even if we come from the same source or whatever you called it, we lived different lives. We aren't the same guy."

"I knew it would be impossible to explain." Shara sighed sadly.

"No, I get it. You wanted that other version of me, but decided to settle." said Blackthorne.

Shara started to cry a little. "No! You don't get it at all! You're not different than him! You're not!"

Blackthorne stared at her. "Why is it so important to believe that?"

"It's not a belief. It's the truth. Besides, I've actually spent time with you and not just from afar!"

He was dumbstruck for a moment. She honestly believed that he was the same as her sister's boyfriend? This girl had it bad, whatever it was. "The whole time you were with me, though, were you with me or daydreaming about having been with him?"

"I incarnated where and when I did because I realized that a Scott incarnation existed in this world. I wanted to get to know this unique expression. I didn't know if we could be more than friends, but... but I..." She placed her hand over her mouth and closed her eyes tight as the tears began to fall again. She was not good with dealing with her emotions.

Blackthorne almost thought that he understood for a moment. The beautiful goddess who stood before him crying was broken. There could be no other explanation. He understood broken people, but he didn't know if he could ever understand someone who was this messed up even with his own issues as a guide.

"You've pretty much lied to me from the start, huh?" he asked after a moment had passed.

She looked up at him, the tears streaming down, and she slowly nodded her head. "Yeah."

He glanced down at the ring on his finger. "This thing... You gave it to me because of him, didn't you?"

"What? No. I gave it to you because I didn't want you to die. You had to choose to accept It." she said softly.

That was the problem though. Now that Blackthorne knew her original motivations it was hard to see everything in the same light. Had she done everything she had for his sake or because of that other guy? Even entering his life in the first place had been because of that other guy.

After a moment another though, a more disturbing one entered his mind. His eyes narrowed and began to glow softly. "You're a goddess right. What about my sister?"

Shara shook her head. "When I left the area it was because I had to allow the backstory to sync-up. I was still under community service. I knew nothing about what was happening with your family during that time. When I was finally able to log out and check the back files I was mortified and angry."

Blackthorne glared at her. "So you're claiming there was nothing that you could have done?"

"I tried! I tried several times to change the time line!" She threw her hands up in the air and shouted. "I was put on restriction. I can't even rearrange what happened last week anymore, and even if I did they would shift it back! Do you have any idea what it's like to know you have the power to do something but nothing you try will be allowed to work!"

"So you say!" snapped Blackthorne. How could he believe anything this creature said to him?

"I loved her too, dammit!" snapped Shara. "She was the only human girl I had ever been friends with! Do you think I haven't looked for her spirit signature to try and get her reincarnated?! Do you?!"

Blackthorne took an involuntary step back as the glow surrounded the enraged goddess grew greatly in intensity. "That..."

"I can't find her in the system at all, and those bastards sealed the records pertaining to your family because of my attempted interventions." She took a step toward him. "You can hate me. You can choose not to believe that I care about you. But don't you dare claim the same about your sister. She was literally the only other girl I had been able to make friends with in the entirety of my life outside of my family!"

Blackthorne stared at the radiant figure before him. Her chest heaved and tears streamed down her face. Her incredibly beautiful face had been twisted into something angry and hurt. He started to speak, but she cut him off again.

"You want to know something?! Do you?" She stared at him and he slowly nodded. It was obvious that he wanted to know, or perhaps he was too frightened by the sudden change in his childhood friend to say no.

"I love Scott. That doesn't mean just you, or the fat guy whose heart exploded, or the sweet guy my sister is in love with. It means Scott. All of Scott." She closed her eyes. "It's... I don't know what it is, but the more I watched my sister's fiancé, and then other versions of you, the more I felt that Scott was someone who... who..."

She slowly dropped to her knees and placed her hands over her eyes. "I have no friends. I just... No matter what version of Scott I saw... You just... I could feel that same loneliness." She looked up at him. "Scott, no matter which Scott... He... He might want to be my friend."

"Guess I'm just stupid..." Shara shook her head. "I just really want to become close with Scott... I don't know if I can explain it."

She blinked her tears away a little then sniffled. She drew her knees up to her chin and bit her lower lip. "I just think it would be nice if we could be lonely together."

She laughed in a sad little way. "Guess that's why I like harem endings. The idea of so many friends living together just makes me happy."

Blackthorne watched the goddess cry quietly for a moment then he looked away. He could understand the loneliness part at least. Even when surrounded by an entire planet full of people, he had often felt like he was alone in the world. Still, he did not know what to do or say just now. Yes, she was sad and more than a little broke. He could definitely relate to that. But she had basically lied to him the entire time that they had known each other. He would need to take some time to absorb everything that he had just learned.