I find myself awake bright and early, ready to greet the dawn. Where last night I was restless, unsure of myself, my heart racing and keeping me awake, this morning I feel calm and at peace. I hope that this isn’t just my brain psychologically making peace with death. Just because I know it’s the likeliest outcome for today doesn’t mean I’m not going to do everything in my power to defy this fate just like all the others. I’ve just got too many people relying on me. Some of them I don’t give two shits about, but I actually like some of them, and it’d be a real dick move to not give everything I have to win this day and see a new tomorrow.
“Nervous?” Chloe asks as the two finish suiting up and making our final mental preparations.
“Strangely, no. Maybe it should freak me out a little more at how not nervous I actually am.”
Chloe takes my hand. “It’s the same for me. We’ve done everything we could do. We’ve prepared as best we can, stocked up on equipment, trained, rested to clear our body and mind, and now, all we can do is fight with everything we have.”
“Are you going to be okay? I’m–”
“I don’t like it, no. But I’ll be damned if I let the people responsible for putting my mother through that hell rest without doing everything in my power to bring them to justice.”
“We will, Chloe. We will.”
The morning sun glistens over the dirty brown water of the Chesapeake Bay. Truly, it’s even uglier and more fetid than I’d imagined it would be. But as I fly up and gaze upon the mighty Atlantic further beyond, I’m hit with a sense of majesty at just how vast Planet Earth really is. And how peaceful those calm, flowing waters are on this cloudless day, the final one of summer.
These past few weeks, I’ve seen more of the country than I’d seen in the eighteen years between my birth and when the System arrived. And yet, all of this has been confined to just the United States, and there’s still so much of this planet to explore before setting sail across the vast ocean of stars which lies beyond. I look forward to it, and the fact that I do gives me comfort. It’s a reassurance that no, I don’t plan to just roll over and die today.
Though I can’t stop thinking about one thing in particular. Why weren't we attacked in the middle of the night? If I were them, I certainly wouldn’t give us a full night to rest and recuperate before D-Day. Except if I had some secret weapon and I planned to crush all of us in a single coup de grâce, something I’m increasingly certain is absolutely going to happen.
“Are you girls ready,” Lindsey asks?
“As ready as I’m going to be,” I say as calmly as I can muster.
“I am,” Chloe says, though with a tepid tone.
“Bring those sons of bitches on!” Kristil says with an electrified grin.
I’d half-expected we’d fly the last stretch from Norfolk to Washington, but no, the majority of us are traveling in a ground-bound armored convoy, this one including several Ethertech shielding units to hopefully protect us without having to rely on my [Repulsion] spells. I’m traveling in one of the centermost vehicles, together with Chloe, Nicholas— still hard to think of him as ‘Major Richardson’— and Kristil, who was deemed too volatile to let wander off. In other words, we three troublemakers get the Major’s personal attention.
The one person who won’t be accompanying us is Chloe’s father. Partially because this daytime operation will hinder his shadow-based powers and leave him more susceptible to light toxicity, but he’d also mentioned before we left that there was something that he had to do. Something that he had to do alone, and that he couldn’t talk to us about. Chloe had tried to convince him, pleading for him to come with us. But her protests fell upon deaf ears, right up to the point where we had to depart.
The rumble of the armored vehicle upon the highways in disrepairs sends an aching rumble through my spine. I’d hover off the seat, except we’re packed tightly and I have no room with which to manifest and spread my wings. The fact that I can’t do so just might be the most unpleasant part of the ride. But I bear it in silence, with only wordless feelings of relief and comfort mixed with tension permeating my bond with Chloe.
Nine o’clock arrives and we’re just on the outskirts of DC. In the before times, this was a community of six hundred thousand, plus the hundreds of thousands of additional parasites who commute each morning to leech off the taxpayer… I mean, ostensibly, govern the country. But now, the streets are nearly deserted. Listening for sounds other than the rumble of tires on a dilapidated road, I hear only the chirps of birds and the rustle of leaves on the wind.
“Miss Mortensen, Miss Jacobs,” Nicholas says. “We’re getting an incoming transmission from Legion forces.”
“What do they want?” Chloe asks.
“Renault said he wishes to parley. But he was quite clear that he wanted to speak to only the two of you.”
“Expected,” I say. “He requested we speak with him back when we first met while rescuing Mrs. Jacobs. But the question is, are you going to allow this?”
“Yes. I don’t expect the fighting to start right away, and it will give us a little more time to evacuate any civilians. But I would request that you leave my [Mental Link] intact so that I can listen in.”
Now it all makes sense. All the coordination that’s been going on behind the scenes. I don’t like that, once again, I’ve been used. In this case, however, I was used in a way that had some spillover benefit to me personally, so I’m not upset.
“There’s something that’s been bugging me for a while now.”
“And what’s that?”
“It was too easy to get here. If I were trying to consolidate power, the last thing I’d do is roll out the red carpet and allow an opposing army right on the doorsteps of my place of power. And yet, we faced only a token resistance in the form of those fighters. Those couldn’t have been the only five they had.”
“Oh? And what did you figure out?”
“Like I said, Renault wanted to ask us to join him back when we first met. Agent Bennett heard that conversation, and she would have shared that information with you. You would have then determined that the best course of action to get a large number of troops to the outskirts of Washington was to use Chloe and me as meat shields, in a sense.”
“Very astute. I will confirm that yes, all of that did happen. Although I suspect that the other part was that this has all been a ruse to bring the entire body of American loyalists to DC to be crushed all at once.”
“I figured something like that was a possibility. Anyway, Chloe and I are going to go now. Did he say where the parley would happen?”
“At the site of the Washington Monument. But be careful, Miss Mortensen, Miss Jacobs. Although I do not think they have proposed this truce with perfidious intent, I also cannot rule it out.”
“Thank you,” Chloe says.
Chloe and I step out of the car and gaze upon the United States’s former and possibly future capital. Hovering into the air, I see the many buildings where the wealthy and powerful decided under what laws and whose justice we’d live under. Plenty of them are in various states of disrepair, broken windows on some, while others are reduced to rubble and foundation
But there are still other buildings, including those with more ceremonial roles, which remain intact. I feel a certain admiration for the classical-styled architecture of the White House, now housing a megalomaniac dictator claiming dominion over the country. Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln sits majestically over the National Mall, unknowing of those developments. Looking at the Capitol, I’m feeling a strong urge to go there and make out with Chloe on those grounds like we already did back at the State Capitol.
But that’s not why we’re here, I have to remind myself. And when I gaze upon the Washington Monument, I see my doppelgänger floating on ebon wings just above.
The two of us make our way there at a deliberate but unrushed pace, flying across mostly empty streets with traffic signals that continue to function despite the eerie atmosphere of the half-destroyed city. Once we arrive, the other Seraphina descends down the monument in a blur so quick I can barely track her movements. I have no idea how I’m supposed to fight her even to a stalemate.
But where is–
“Greetings, Seraphina, Chloe,” a deep voice echoes. “It’s been a few weeks, hasn’t it?” Renault opens the door leading into the monument, emerging dressed in his attire as the dreaded Black Knight. Clad from neck to toe in a full suit of heavy armor and wielding a sword with a blade larger than Chloe’s body, he stands before us both with an imposing aura.
“It has,” I say.
“I must say that I’m a little disappointed. I would have thought that you would have considered my offer and joined me.”
“How could we even think of such a thing?” Chloe says. “After your friend kidnapped my mother and–”
“Chloe, I already told you that Daryl acted on his own initiative; I had nothing to do with it. Damned fool got what he deserved and is now burning in hell.”
“So, what do you want?” I ask. “I heard your speech on the news. About trying to unify the country and centralize the government. For our safety and security, is that right?”
“Our systems and institutions have failed us one too many times, Seraphina. From what I understand–”
“That’s not the real reason, is it?”
“What do you mean?” Renault asks.
I force down the connection with Nicholas without fully severing it. I can hear his frustration seeping in through the link, but ultimately, my power to resist [Mind-Altering] effects means that there’s nothing he can do to stop me.
“Another thing that hasn’t made a lot of sense. You and Chloe’s father studied glyphwork together over the previous two decades. I’m sure you understand better than anyone else that ⸢The Anomaly⸥ is a manifestation of freedom and possibility in all its forms.”
“And your point?”
“My point has to do with the other Seraphina.” I turn to her. “Is there something else that I can call you? Just so we don’t have to keep referring to ourselves as ‘Seraphina’ and ‘Other Seraphina’?”
“Um…” The other Seraphina tilts her neck and thinks for a couple of seconds. “Um, nope! Besides, why should I have to stop being Seraphina for your convenience? If it bothers you so much, maybe you should call yourself something else instead?”
Again, she makes a good point. “Fine. I don’t think that Seraphina here cares about politics or governing or ruling. I don’t know what experiences she’s gone through, but I intuitively understand ⸢The Anomaly⸥ well enough to know that Seraphina would never agree to use that power to rule over others.”
“And your point?”
I allow the [Mental Link] to permeate my mind once more. “Your true goal isn’t to secure the country or to get back at the politicians or for some sort of revenge, now is it? It’s a scheme all built around getting the two of you stronger, under the idea that you two are going to be the ones to defeat the System and bring the universe to rights? Or at least, that’s what you’ve told Seraphina. Or will you deny it?”
“You know as well as I do that as long as the System remains unchecked, everything we’ve ever known and will ever know has a short lifespan ahead of it.”
“Is this true?” Nicholas asks.
“I can’t speak for Renault’s motives, but the part about the System? Yes, it’s all true to the best of my knowledge.”
“I see.” Nicholas says after a brief pause.
Chloe interjects. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Renault? I get it. Saving the universe from the System is a laudable goal. Gold star, have a round of god-damned applause. But your methods? Absolutely reprehensible! What’s the point of saving the world if you’re going to destroy it first?”
“You know there’s no other–”
“Quit with your bullshit, Renault,” Chloe says. “Noble intentions or not, you went about things in the worst possible way, forcing your own brand of justice on an unwilling public through violence and tyranny. You are no better than the very System you claim to despise!” She draws [Lumen] and points it at Renault’s throat. “I shall cut you down and bring your reign of terror to an end!”
Chapter 370: [366] 4.87 The Second American Civil War V
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