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Ring-Maker [Worm/Lord of the Rings Alt-Power] [Complete]
- Thread starter Lithos Maitreya
- Start date
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I regret that on this thread alone, I cannot give you hugs. I is a sad kitty.
Interlude 13b: Emma
Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
Many thanks to @BeaconHill and @GlassGirlCeci for betareading.
Trigger Warning: This chapter contains suicidal imagery and ideation.
Four Days Earlier
"You're so adorable. You think it's real? You think she cares about you?"
"She does care!" Sophia sounded desperate, but Oracle could see the self-doubt, the fear, hovering spectral behind her.
There was something unspeakably right about this. Oracle stood in the pale light of the streetlamps, her taser in her hand. Sophia lay curled at her feet, blood trickling from her split lip and from her left nostril, her whole body shuddering faintly. It felt like closure.
In this moment, it didn't matter what Anne or anyone else thought. Sophia had hurt her. She deserved this.
She kicked Sophia again, because it felt good. Something gave in Sophia's chest, and the Ward gasped under her. Oracle felt her lips twisting, though whether she was grinning or grimacing, she wasn't sure. "Bullshit," she said. "You can't lie to me, Stalker."
She watched Sophia's resolve crumble, and reveled in it. "I don't know about T—Annatar," Sophia finally admitted. "I don't know what she feels. But I know she cares. Maybe not how I do, but that's not the point. It's not about that."
It was almost endearing, the way Sophia thought she was telling the truth, even as the ghosts of affection, desire, and loyalty all swirled about her. It would have been endearing, if it hadn't been so hypocritical. I can see you lying, you know. Sophia's own voice echoed, taunting her. Even when you're lying to yourself.
That wasn't the only voice intruding on her thoughts, but Anne's was easy to shake off, when having Sophia on the ground in front of her felt so good.
"Like hell it's not about that. Like imagining her having her way with you doesn't leave you gasping every night." Oracle bit the words out, resisting the urge to kick Sophia again. That had felt like a broken rib—another blow might hit something critical, and it wouldn't do to kill Sophia yet. "Like you wouldn't bend over in a heartbeat if she asked…"
Something rose up in Sophia's mind. A flashbulb memory, so bright and distinct that Oracle found herself delving into it automatically. She couldn't see entire memories, only the ideas and emotions that came with them. The emotions were a convoluted cocktail, almost impossible to unravel.
But sometimes, if the memory was intense enough, if it was central enough in their mind at that moment, she could hear voices. She heard Annatar's.
But you… you're so much more than that to me. The warmth of two hands touching, holding one another. I need you, Sophia. I need you beside me—now, more than ever.
She felt Sophia's hope, her desire, her need. She felt the despair, the betrayal, the hurt. The self-loathing was thick enough almost to send her reeling.
"You…" Emma found her lips moving almost unbidden. She hesitated, but she could not see anything else in this memory but what it was. "You turned her down?"
Sophia's voice. That's all I am to you now—a tool you can lead around by her emotions. Love, pain, awe, and despair all mingled as she felt, rather than saw, Sophia turning her back on Annatar. Then Sophia, the one in the alley, not the one in the haze of memory, spoke. "It wasn't about that," she muttered, and it was true. "It was… the right thing to do."
Beside Emma, Rune made a noise of derision. It sounded like it was coming from a long way off. Her vision was tunneling, darkness creeping in along the edges as she stared at Sophia. Her mask felt stifling, but it was also the only thing keeping the roiling of her thoughts from spilling out all over the street.
The right thing to do.
Sophia had turned away from Annatar when Annatar had offered everything she wanted. She could have had the girl she was in love with, the friendship and loyalty of her team, the sense of belonging that she had so craved since before Emma had even known her. And she had turned away anyway. She had fought against Annatar, not because she had been rejected, not because she was jealous, not because she was afraid of change, and she had returned not because she was weak or lovelorn but because… because…
It was the right thing to do.
Emma's world tilted on its axis.
The universe was, in an instant, transformed utterly. The triumph in her belly became a sick horror. The rage became shame. The hate became awe. The conclusions fell one upon the other like dominoes, leading her to an overwhelming truth. And, at long last, the wall of pride came crashing down.
Sophia loved Taylor, but she was not bound by her. She had rebelled, not out of jealousy or as a last gasp of freedom, but to help the girl she loved.
If Sophia's motives had been so pure, it meant that Taylor had not enslaved Sophia with her Ring of Power, though she could have from the beginning. When she had given the Green Ring to Sophia, when she had promised to help Sophia tread the higher road, it had been sincere.
If Sophia had not been so bound, it meant that when Sophia had turned her back on Emma, had threatened to hurt her if she exposed Taylor, it wasn't the loyal snarling of an obedient guard-dog, but the desperate hackles of a frightened girl with little practice trying to protect someone.
And if Sophia's error had been just that, a mistake, it meant that when Emma had done all in her power to tear the two of them down, she hadn't been atoning for her sins or striking back at a shadowy overlord of immense power. She had been lashing out at two people fumbling in the dark alongside her, just because they were navigating it better than she was.
Anne had been right. The eye and the ashen waste Emma saw behind Taylor's every action weren't what she was striving for at all. They were what she was running from.
Emma hadn't spent the past few months trying to stop the monster that had taken over the body of a girl who, in a childish mistake, Emma had accidentally killed. No; Emma had spent the past months trying to kill her former best friend, after failing to do so in a premeditated, vicious, and above all adult act of violence.
But in spite of all Emma had done, somewhere in the city, Taylor remained alive and well. Every day she was growing stronger, better, wiser. And yet, no matter how Taylor had tried to pull herself out of the hole she'd found herself in, Emma had kept digging it deeper. Until she had almost succeeded in making Taylor the very monster she feared.
Emma wasn't the martyred penitent who was trying to right the mistakes of her youth by any means necessary. Emma was the girl who had, even with a power that let her see into the truth behind the lies of men, continued to delude herself. Emma was the girl who had tried to bury the horror of what she had done and what she had become by using her own victim as a scapegoat.
And here was Sophia, lying bruised on the ground before her, and she didn't deserve this.
Her heart felt like it would burst. She didn't want to have to face this. She didn't want to have to live in this new, transfigured world, where she was—where she had always been—in the wrong. She would rather die. She wanted to run across the street and throw herself into the ocean. Wouldn't that be better for everyone? Everything she touched was corrupted. Everyone she affected was the worse for it. And it would hurt less.
She would never be able to pull herself out of this pit as Taylor and Sophia had. They were so strong, and she was so very, very weak. But she was inside the Empire. She was trusted by Kaiser. She would never again be the girl who had smiled and laughed in the car with Taylor and her mother, but she could at least do this. One last, small act, to try to make Taylor's path a little easier after all the barricades she had put in her way.
Then, and only then, would she allow herself to die.
All this happened in the space of a moment that felt like a lifetime. In the space between one heartbeat and another, right became wrong, wrong became right, Annatar became Taylor, and Oracle became Emma. She blinked, swallowed, and mustered every last fiber of her treacherous little soul to keep the lies flowing until the end.
"Tch." The derisive little grunt sounded astonishingly convincing. "Didn't stop you running back to her now." She gingerly kicked Sophia one last time, trying to be as gentle as possible while still convincing Rune that nothing had changed. It was harder than she expected—even in the face of all that she had realized, the anger and hurt still clung stubbornly to her like the last cloying symptoms of a disease.
Emma took a shuddering breath and tore her eyes from Sophia. She turned away, walking back to Rune—and clearing the path between Sophia and freedom.
"What should we do with her?" Emma asked Rune, stalling for time, one eye on the far side of the street.
"Take her in, maybe?" Rune suggested. "Or we could leave her here. Think she called for help?"
"Don't know," Emma said, though she desperately hoped Sophia had. She still hadn't teleported. Surely she'd noticed the opening? "Don't really want to find out. If we're taking her, we'd better…"
Oracle trailed off as Sophia stumbled out of the shadows across the street. She staggered, falling back to the sidewalk with a wince. Her green eyes were fixed on Emma's mask.
Emma felt her heart accelerate. For a moment, involuntary fear threaded through her veins. She wanted to run, or to pull out a weapon to defend herself, because Shadow Stalker was there, and now she was free.
She knew Sophia couldn't see her face, couldn't see the fear warring with relief. So when she mouthed, "Run!" she wasn't sure whether it was for Sophia's benefit or her own.
"Where'd she go!?" Rune's shout rang in Emma's ears. Emma stared silently as Sophia put her hand on the low wall. Even as her hands shook, Emma forced herself to commit. Come on, Sophia. Get up!
She did. Emma saw the faint trailing of shadows around her. She was ready to get away. Knowing that, Emma pointed. "There!"
Rune turned, but Sophia was already fading away. Emma bit her tongue to hold back her sigh of relief.
Now she had to figure out what to do next.
Two Hours Ago
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Kaiser?" Alabaster sounded nervous. He stood lingering in the doorway of the penthouse study. The late afternoon sunlight filtering from the windows overlooking the city made his white skin seem almost transparent. Emma glanced at him and tasted his fear. "Maybe we should just cut our losses and split."
"Annatar chased down Nilbog in Ellisburg," Kaiser answered without looking up from the memo he was reading. Emma saw in every minute movement his own carefully concealed fright. "She will chase after us if we run now, Alabaster. Our best chance is to fight." He looked up then and met the other cape's eyes. "Don't let the men hear it in those terms," he said. "Hope is our best weapon, at this point."
Alabaster nodded rapidly. "Of course. Uh, and you're sure about splitting up?"
Kaiser nodded again. "They went after Auxiliary in his base," he said. "They went after Hookwolf at his dogfight. They know where we operate. The chain of command must be preserved—if and when they assault Medhall, someone needs to be outside to maintain the organization if things go poorly. And, hopefully, to mount a rescue. Krieg is the best candidate—of all of us remaining, his civilian life is the most private."
Alabaster sighed. "We're not getting out of this today, are we?"
Kaiser looked back down at his memo. There wasn't much guilt or shame there, but Emma could see the faintest tendrils seeping into his heart. "Annatar is only one cape," he said. "We have a chance, if we work together. We survived Leviathan, after all."
Alabaster took a deep breath. "All right. You said they're attacking at dusk?"
"So say my informants," Kaiser said, gesturing at the paper in his hand. "But Annatar and Dragon keep their battle plans close to the chest. All my agents know is that the PRT intends to set up a perimeter, and that the troopers will be told where to place that perimeter when the time comes." He turned suddenly to face Emma. "Have you seen anything?" he asked. "Anything which might give us more information?"
She shook her head. "I've been scanning all the footage from every security cam we have access to," she said. "No one I saw seemed to know anything." It was even true.
Kaiser sighed. "Then we'll do what we can. Alabaster, you and Fenja will form the perimeter. Annatar has lately made a habit of splitting her teams, so I want the two of you able to respond to multiple points of attack. We'll place people throughout the several blocks surrounding the building, and Rune and I will stay here. As soon as Annatar appears, we will move to support wherever she attacks." As he spoke those last few words, his eyes fixed on Emma. She didn't need her power to know that he was asking her to keep the lie quiet.
She did. It wouldn't matter soon.
Alabaster nodded. "All right. Cricket's with Krieg. That leaves Othala, Victor, and Purity."
"They will not be joining us tonight." The rage and hate flared like a wildfire, barely contained even by the iron shell of Kaiser's will. "Purity has taken my children and surrendered to the Protectorate—I heard from my agents in the PRT earlier this afternoon. Victor and Othala have gone AWOL—I suspect they intend to flee, and I don't have anyone to spare to go after them at the moment."
"Fuck." Alabaster stared at Kaiser, his eyes wide. "Your kids? She didn't—"
"She did. I'll thank you to drop it for the moment. We have more pressing concerns." Kaiser neatly folded the memo and placed it on the desk in front of him. "Find Fenja, relay my orders," he said. "I want the two of you patrolling in fifteen minutes."
Alabaster bit his tongue, nodded, and then raised his hand in a Sieg Heil. There was pride there, under the fear and despair. "It's been an honor, sir."
Kaiser returned the salute. There was nothing but contempt and impotent rage behind his. "Good luck, Alabaster. God willing, we'll drink a toast to this tonight."
Alabaster grinned wryly. "God willing." Then he turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.
As soon as it was fully shut, Kaiser turned to face Emma. "You know my plans?" he asked.
Emma nodded. "Sorry. You know I can't turn it off."
"Don't be—I appreciate you holding your tongue." Kaiser sighed. "Auxiliary's last project should be hidden even from Dragon. It's on the roof now. When word arrives of Annatar's location, I will send Rune after her. Meanwhile, I will board the helicopter and escape."
A normal person would ask, 'why are you telling me this?' Emma didn't need to. Nor did she need to ask the followup, 'why me?' Instead she just said, "Rune's my friend. I don't feel good abandoning her."
"A necessary sacrifice," Kaiser said evenly. "Fenja may be able to slow Annatar a little, but Alabaster certainly can't. Either way, she'll arrive too quickly if they face her without support. Rune will buy us the time we need."
He believed it, every word. Emma couldn't even hate him for it—after all, hadn't she been the same not four days ago? Emma nodded. "Okay. You want me to go tell her the plan? Her part of the plan, I mean?"
Kaiser met her eyes. "In a moment," he said. "Oracle, you may not have formally completed your initiation, and you are certainly young, but this bears saying—you have proven indispensable to this organization. Your insights have given us the edge we needed to stay afloat in this environment." His gratitude, mingled with the sour tendrils of utilitarianism, almost made Emma sick. "That is why I want you with me, wherever we end up touching down. We will need to rebrand, fully recreate our identities—but Annatar has better things to do than chase down two stray capes, and your power will let us stay ahead of any searches she does send out. We will endure this."
He didn't have as much hope as he was projecting, but there was a glimmer of it in his breast, shining like a spark of flame in the cold. The plan might fail, yes—but it might work, and although he would lose his fortune, his gang, and his children, he would survive. There would be time to rage about the losses later—for now, Kaiser was content with that.
That optimism, that ability to see the silver lining, was almost admirable. It wasn't enough to make Emma feel guilty. She had much worse sins to regret. "I know," she lied. "Thank you for looking after me, Kaiser. I appreciate it."
He smiled thinly. "You're quite welcome," he said. "Now, go fill Rune in on her version of the plan. Bring her to my office below the penthouse, with the large windows. It will give her a quick way to the fight."
Emma nodded. "Okay. I'll see you there." She turned and walked to the elevator. In the polished steel of the door, she saw Kaiser's reflection turn back to his paperwork. She positioned herself so that she was between him and the buttons, and then pressed the 'up' button.
The elevator dinged as it arrived. She stepped in and tapped the only button for a floor above the penthouse. The door closed, the elevator rose one floor, and Emma arrived on the roof.
She crossed to the faintly shimmering helicopter on the large helipad. She had watched Auxiliary work often enough to know how his power worked—she saw the reasons behind each modification he made.
To the untrained eye, Auxiliary seemed to add individual modifications to existing technology. In fact, all of his tinkertech was centralized—he often took extra care to conceal that fact, since it meant that one well-placed attack would shut down every modification he had made to a piece of equipment. He might create a car that could shoot lasers, fly, teleport, and turn lead into gold, but every one of these mods was operated from a central core somewhere on the vehicle. Find that core, and the entire vehicle could be disabled.
Emma examined the latticework of cables running along every surface inside and outside the helicopter. It was well hidden, but she knew what she was looking for, and soon she found the place where the cables converged. She popped open the hidden compartment carefully.
The heart of Auxiliary's tinkertech looked like a car battery more than anything else, albeit one with elements that glowed and crackled with power. Emma covered her hand with her sleeve and carefully reached in.
She couldn't be certain—every piece of Tinkertech was subtly different—but Auxiliary's cores always tended to follow the same principles. They hinged on the correct alignment of a crystalline diode… here. It was carefully fastened into place to prevent it from loosening during operation, which might cause a destructive power surge through the machine.
Emma deftly unfastened it and then closed the panel. For a moment, she leaned against the side of the helicopter, breathing heavily.
It's done, she thought. I've betrayed the Empire.
That thought wasn't as sweet as she'd hoped it would be, but she'd had a feeling that would be the case. She didn't think any betrayal, even one that was as unambiguously good as turning on Neo-Nazis, would ever make her feel anything but sick ever again.
That was alright. It didn't need to. She would, if all went well, not be feeling much of anything after tonight.
She ran a shaking hand through her red hair. Ginger fibers came away with her fingers. Her hair had thinned in the past few weeks, and that had only gotten worse in the past four days. 'Stress,' said her therapist—the one she only went to because her father and Anne insisted. Emma supposed that, if fear, horror, and shame all fell under the umbrella of 'stress,' she wasn't even wrong.
For a moment, Emma entertained a wild thought of calling Anne and telling her what she was going. Her sister—her Protectorate sister—would be proud of her. It was the first time Emma had done anything she felt was deserving of pride in a long time. It would be nice if she could hear someone expressing that pride. And it would be nice to leave Anne with something good to remember her by.
Emma let out a shuddering breath and turned away. She took the elevator down several floors to the ninth floor, where Rune's 'office'—or, more correctly, the little apartment Kaiser had set aside for her after her uncle was killed—was located. It seemed only seconds before she was at the door, raising her fist to knock.
Rune pulled the door open almost at once. Emma could see the nerves and anticipation practically leaking from every pore. "What's up, Emma?" she asked. "Kaiser need me for something?"
Emma swallowed. "Yeah," she said. "He wants us to meet him in his office. Mairë—Annatar's probably going to attack in an hour or so. I'll explain while we walk."
Rune nodded, slipped her hood over her head and followed Emma out of the room. "We still splitting up?" she asked. "I heard Krieg was going to set up somewhere else, try to lay low."
Emma nodded. "Kaiser wants to preserve some structure to the Empire if everything goes belly up," she said. "Krieg and Cricket are setting up for that. Alabaster and Fenja are on patrol at our perimeter. The three of us—you, me and Kaiser, are their backup for when Annatar shows up."
Rune grinned, baring white teeth. "Can't fucking wait."
The elevator began to rise. Emma felt as if she was leaving her stomach behind on the ninth floor. "Yeah," she said quietly.
"Hey, chin up. We can do this! There's only one of her. Sure, she has other Wards, but we can deal with them." Rune put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It'll work out." Emma looked over at her and saw what she wasn't saying in the shadows of her eyes: It has to. I can't go back to juvie.
"Janice," Emma said quietly. "Can you… do me a favor?"
Rune raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
Emma wanted to say, Come with me! We're in the wrong! Help me make things right, for once! Don't get hurt for a lost cause as awful as this one! But all that came out was, "Hang back a little in the fight with Annatar. Leave yourself a way out. Just… just be careful, that's all." And as the words left her lips, Emma hated herself a little more.
Rune grinned at her, almost sadly. "I'll be okay, Ems," she said. "You don't need to worry about me."
"I do, though." Emma sighed. "Just try?"
"I'll try to be careful. Promise."
The elevator doors opened. Emma stepped out and Rune followed. As they approached Kaiser's office, Emma couldn't shake the dark knowledge that she had just shared her last conversation with her last friend.
Now
"Now, Oracle! They'll be up here in a moment!"
"I just need to get these files!" Emma called over her shoulder, shouting over the thundering propeller.
The files in question were essential intelligence on the Empire's relationship with Gesellschaft in Europe. She scooped them up into her arms. A loyal cape would be trying to keep these out of the Protectorate's hands. Emma just hoped they would find them quickly when they searched her corpse.
Kaiser growled furiously. "Fine, stay here! Best of luck in prison!"
Emma turned to see the Helicopter began to lift off. She wasn't on it. That was all right, in the end—it wasn't as though she had any particular plans that missing this particular ride would interfere with.
At that moment, however, Taylor and Sophia burst onto the roof. Taylor's armor shone like the sun--where Kaiser's was bright, hers was radiance itself. Emma's heart stuttered as she saw them. The rush of feeling, hot shame and frigid terror, threatened to drown her.
Then she noticed the shadowy wisps around Sophia as she stared up at Kaiser, and her fluttering heart stopped. "Wait!" she screamed. I was trying to help, not get you killed! Please, Sophia, don't go into the helicopter! You're here too early!
Sophia didn't even look at her, but Taylor did. Their eyes met, though Emma's were hidden under the mask of Oracle. The dark eyes, without even a flicker of fire, sent liquid ice down Emma's spine, but she held her gaze unbending, her whole body shuddering like a sapling in a hurricane.
Please, Emma thought desperately. Please, no.
Taylor reached out and grabbed Sophia's arm. Moments later, Auxiliary's power core failed. Electricity surged through the helicopter with a snap and a flash, and it fell to the roof with a crash. Kaiser was slumped over the controls, dead or unconscious.
For a moment, the roof was still. Sophia and Taylor stared at Emma, at Kaiser, at each other.
Emma considered just jumping off the roof. It would be easier than facing her two former friends now. But now that they were here, perhaps she owed them, at the very least, some closure, if there was any she could provide.
There was always tomorrow to die, after all.
Her hands were shaking as she raised them to her masked. It fell to the ground noisily as she raised her hands to rest on the top of her head. "I surrender," she said, her voice shaking. "I'll come quietly, Taylor."
Trigger Warning: This chapter contains suicidal imagery and ideation.
-x-x-x-
Four Days Earlier
"You're so adorable. You think it's real? You think she cares about you?"
"She does care!" Sophia sounded desperate, but Oracle could see the self-doubt, the fear, hovering spectral behind her.
There was something unspeakably right about this. Oracle stood in the pale light of the streetlamps, her taser in her hand. Sophia lay curled at her feet, blood trickling from her split lip and from her left nostril, her whole body shuddering faintly. It felt like closure.
In this moment, it didn't matter what Anne or anyone else thought. Sophia had hurt her. She deserved this.
She kicked Sophia again, because it felt good. Something gave in Sophia's chest, and the Ward gasped under her. Oracle felt her lips twisting, though whether she was grinning or grimacing, she wasn't sure. "Bullshit," she said. "You can't lie to me, Stalker."
She watched Sophia's resolve crumble, and reveled in it. "I don't know about T—Annatar," Sophia finally admitted. "I don't know what she feels. But I know she cares. Maybe not how I do, but that's not the point. It's not about that."
It was almost endearing, the way Sophia thought she was telling the truth, even as the ghosts of affection, desire, and loyalty all swirled about her. It would have been endearing, if it hadn't been so hypocritical. I can see you lying, you know. Sophia's own voice echoed, taunting her. Even when you're lying to yourself.
That wasn't the only voice intruding on her thoughts, but Anne's was easy to shake off, when having Sophia on the ground in front of her felt so good.
"Like hell it's not about that. Like imagining her having her way with you doesn't leave you gasping every night." Oracle bit the words out, resisting the urge to kick Sophia again. That had felt like a broken rib—another blow might hit something critical, and it wouldn't do to kill Sophia yet. "Like you wouldn't bend over in a heartbeat if she asked…"
Something rose up in Sophia's mind. A flashbulb memory, so bright and distinct that Oracle found herself delving into it automatically. She couldn't see entire memories, only the ideas and emotions that came with them. The emotions were a convoluted cocktail, almost impossible to unravel.
But sometimes, if the memory was intense enough, if it was central enough in their mind at that moment, she could hear voices. She heard Annatar's.
But you… you're so much more than that to me. The warmth of two hands touching, holding one another. I need you, Sophia. I need you beside me—now, more than ever.
She felt Sophia's hope, her desire, her need. She felt the despair, the betrayal, the hurt. The self-loathing was thick enough almost to send her reeling.
"You…" Emma found her lips moving almost unbidden. She hesitated, but she could not see anything else in this memory but what it was. "You turned her down?"
Sophia's voice. That's all I am to you now—a tool you can lead around by her emotions. Love, pain, awe, and despair all mingled as she felt, rather than saw, Sophia turning her back on Annatar. Then Sophia, the one in the alley, not the one in the haze of memory, spoke. "It wasn't about that," she muttered, and it was true. "It was… the right thing to do."
Beside Emma, Rune made a noise of derision. It sounded like it was coming from a long way off. Her vision was tunneling, darkness creeping in along the edges as she stared at Sophia. Her mask felt stifling, but it was also the only thing keeping the roiling of her thoughts from spilling out all over the street.
The right thing to do.
Sophia had turned away from Annatar when Annatar had offered everything she wanted. She could have had the girl she was in love with, the friendship and loyalty of her team, the sense of belonging that she had so craved since before Emma had even known her. And she had turned away anyway. She had fought against Annatar, not because she had been rejected, not because she was jealous, not because she was afraid of change, and she had returned not because she was weak or lovelorn but because… because…
It was the right thing to do.
Emma's world tilted on its axis.
The universe was, in an instant, transformed utterly. The triumph in her belly became a sick horror. The rage became shame. The hate became awe. The conclusions fell one upon the other like dominoes, leading her to an overwhelming truth. And, at long last, the wall of pride came crashing down.
Sophia loved Taylor, but she was not bound by her. She had rebelled, not out of jealousy or as a last gasp of freedom, but to help the girl she loved.
If Sophia's motives had been so pure, it meant that Taylor had not enslaved Sophia with her Ring of Power, though she could have from the beginning. When she had given the Green Ring to Sophia, when she had promised to help Sophia tread the higher road, it had been sincere.
If Sophia had not been so bound, it meant that when Sophia had turned her back on Emma, had threatened to hurt her if she exposed Taylor, it wasn't the loyal snarling of an obedient guard-dog, but the desperate hackles of a frightened girl with little practice trying to protect someone.
And if Sophia's error had been just that, a mistake, it meant that when Emma had done all in her power to tear the two of them down, she hadn't been atoning for her sins or striking back at a shadowy overlord of immense power. She had been lashing out at two people fumbling in the dark alongside her, just because they were navigating it better than she was.
Anne had been right. The eye and the ashen waste Emma saw behind Taylor's every action weren't what she was striving for at all. They were what she was running from.
Emma hadn't spent the past few months trying to stop the monster that had taken over the body of a girl who, in a childish mistake, Emma had accidentally killed. No; Emma had spent the past months trying to kill her former best friend, after failing to do so in a premeditated, vicious, and above all adult act of violence.
But in spite of all Emma had done, somewhere in the city, Taylor remained alive and well. Every day she was growing stronger, better, wiser. And yet, no matter how Taylor had tried to pull herself out of the hole she'd found herself in, Emma had kept digging it deeper. Until she had almost succeeded in making Taylor the very monster she feared.
Emma wasn't the martyred penitent who was trying to right the mistakes of her youth by any means necessary. Emma was the girl who had, even with a power that let her see into the truth behind the lies of men, continued to delude herself. Emma was the girl who had tried to bury the horror of what she had done and what she had become by using her own victim as a scapegoat.
And here was Sophia, lying bruised on the ground before her, and she didn't deserve this.
Her heart felt like it would burst. She didn't want to have to face this. She didn't want to have to live in this new, transfigured world, where she was—where she had always been—in the wrong. She would rather die. She wanted to run across the street and throw herself into the ocean. Wouldn't that be better for everyone? Everything she touched was corrupted. Everyone she affected was the worse for it. And it would hurt less.
She would never be able to pull herself out of this pit as Taylor and Sophia had. They were so strong, and she was so very, very weak. But she was inside the Empire. She was trusted by Kaiser. She would never again be the girl who had smiled and laughed in the car with Taylor and her mother, but she could at least do this. One last, small act, to try to make Taylor's path a little easier after all the barricades she had put in her way.
Then, and only then, would she allow herself to die.
All this happened in the space of a moment that felt like a lifetime. In the space between one heartbeat and another, right became wrong, wrong became right, Annatar became Taylor, and Oracle became Emma. She blinked, swallowed, and mustered every last fiber of her treacherous little soul to keep the lies flowing until the end.
"Tch." The derisive little grunt sounded astonishingly convincing. "Didn't stop you running back to her now." She gingerly kicked Sophia one last time, trying to be as gentle as possible while still convincing Rune that nothing had changed. It was harder than she expected—even in the face of all that she had realized, the anger and hurt still clung stubbornly to her like the last cloying symptoms of a disease.
Emma took a shuddering breath and tore her eyes from Sophia. She turned away, walking back to Rune—and clearing the path between Sophia and freedom.
"What should we do with her?" Emma asked Rune, stalling for time, one eye on the far side of the street.
"Take her in, maybe?" Rune suggested. "Or we could leave her here. Think she called for help?"
"Don't know," Emma said, though she desperately hoped Sophia had. She still hadn't teleported. Surely she'd noticed the opening? "Don't really want to find out. If we're taking her, we'd better…"
Oracle trailed off as Sophia stumbled out of the shadows across the street. She staggered, falling back to the sidewalk with a wince. Her green eyes were fixed on Emma's mask.
Emma felt her heart accelerate. For a moment, involuntary fear threaded through her veins. She wanted to run, or to pull out a weapon to defend herself, because Shadow Stalker was there, and now she was free.
She knew Sophia couldn't see her face, couldn't see the fear warring with relief. So when she mouthed, "Run!" she wasn't sure whether it was for Sophia's benefit or her own.
"Where'd she go!?" Rune's shout rang in Emma's ears. Emma stared silently as Sophia put her hand on the low wall. Even as her hands shook, Emma forced herself to commit. Come on, Sophia. Get up!
She did. Emma saw the faint trailing of shadows around her. She was ready to get away. Knowing that, Emma pointed. "There!"
Rune turned, but Sophia was already fading away. Emma bit her tongue to hold back her sigh of relief.
Now she had to figure out what to do next.
-x-x-x-
Two Hours Ago
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Kaiser?" Alabaster sounded nervous. He stood lingering in the doorway of the penthouse study. The late afternoon sunlight filtering from the windows overlooking the city made his white skin seem almost transparent. Emma glanced at him and tasted his fear. "Maybe we should just cut our losses and split."
"Annatar chased down Nilbog in Ellisburg," Kaiser answered without looking up from the memo he was reading. Emma saw in every minute movement his own carefully concealed fright. "She will chase after us if we run now, Alabaster. Our best chance is to fight." He looked up then and met the other cape's eyes. "Don't let the men hear it in those terms," he said. "Hope is our best weapon, at this point."
Alabaster nodded rapidly. "Of course. Uh, and you're sure about splitting up?"
Kaiser nodded again. "They went after Auxiliary in his base," he said. "They went after Hookwolf at his dogfight. They know where we operate. The chain of command must be preserved—if and when they assault Medhall, someone needs to be outside to maintain the organization if things go poorly. And, hopefully, to mount a rescue. Krieg is the best candidate—of all of us remaining, his civilian life is the most private."
Alabaster sighed. "We're not getting out of this today, are we?"
Kaiser looked back down at his memo. There wasn't much guilt or shame there, but Emma could see the faintest tendrils seeping into his heart. "Annatar is only one cape," he said. "We have a chance, if we work together. We survived Leviathan, after all."
Alabaster took a deep breath. "All right. You said they're attacking at dusk?"
"So say my informants," Kaiser said, gesturing at the paper in his hand. "But Annatar and Dragon keep their battle plans close to the chest. All my agents know is that the PRT intends to set up a perimeter, and that the troopers will be told where to place that perimeter when the time comes." He turned suddenly to face Emma. "Have you seen anything?" he asked. "Anything which might give us more information?"
She shook her head. "I've been scanning all the footage from every security cam we have access to," she said. "No one I saw seemed to know anything." It was even true.
Kaiser sighed. "Then we'll do what we can. Alabaster, you and Fenja will form the perimeter. Annatar has lately made a habit of splitting her teams, so I want the two of you able to respond to multiple points of attack. We'll place people throughout the several blocks surrounding the building, and Rune and I will stay here. As soon as Annatar appears, we will move to support wherever she attacks." As he spoke those last few words, his eyes fixed on Emma. She didn't need her power to know that he was asking her to keep the lie quiet.
She did. It wouldn't matter soon.
Alabaster nodded. "All right. Cricket's with Krieg. That leaves Othala, Victor, and Purity."
"They will not be joining us tonight." The rage and hate flared like a wildfire, barely contained even by the iron shell of Kaiser's will. "Purity has taken my children and surrendered to the Protectorate—I heard from my agents in the PRT earlier this afternoon. Victor and Othala have gone AWOL—I suspect they intend to flee, and I don't have anyone to spare to go after them at the moment."
"Fuck." Alabaster stared at Kaiser, his eyes wide. "Your kids? She didn't—"
"She did. I'll thank you to drop it for the moment. We have more pressing concerns." Kaiser neatly folded the memo and placed it on the desk in front of him. "Find Fenja, relay my orders," he said. "I want the two of you patrolling in fifteen minutes."
Alabaster bit his tongue, nodded, and then raised his hand in a Sieg Heil. There was pride there, under the fear and despair. "It's been an honor, sir."
Kaiser returned the salute. There was nothing but contempt and impotent rage behind his. "Good luck, Alabaster. God willing, we'll drink a toast to this tonight."
Alabaster grinned wryly. "God willing." Then he turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.
As soon as it was fully shut, Kaiser turned to face Emma. "You know my plans?" he asked.
Emma nodded. "Sorry. You know I can't turn it off."
"Don't be—I appreciate you holding your tongue." Kaiser sighed. "Auxiliary's last project should be hidden even from Dragon. It's on the roof now. When word arrives of Annatar's location, I will send Rune after her. Meanwhile, I will board the helicopter and escape."
A normal person would ask, 'why are you telling me this?' Emma didn't need to. Nor did she need to ask the followup, 'why me?' Instead she just said, "Rune's my friend. I don't feel good abandoning her."
"A necessary sacrifice," Kaiser said evenly. "Fenja may be able to slow Annatar a little, but Alabaster certainly can't. Either way, she'll arrive too quickly if they face her without support. Rune will buy us the time we need."
He believed it, every word. Emma couldn't even hate him for it—after all, hadn't she been the same not four days ago? Emma nodded. "Okay. You want me to go tell her the plan? Her part of the plan, I mean?"
Kaiser met her eyes. "In a moment," he said. "Oracle, you may not have formally completed your initiation, and you are certainly young, but this bears saying—you have proven indispensable to this organization. Your insights have given us the edge we needed to stay afloat in this environment." His gratitude, mingled with the sour tendrils of utilitarianism, almost made Emma sick. "That is why I want you with me, wherever we end up touching down. We will need to rebrand, fully recreate our identities—but Annatar has better things to do than chase down two stray capes, and your power will let us stay ahead of any searches she does send out. We will endure this."
He didn't have as much hope as he was projecting, but there was a glimmer of it in his breast, shining like a spark of flame in the cold. The plan might fail, yes—but it might work, and although he would lose his fortune, his gang, and his children, he would survive. There would be time to rage about the losses later—for now, Kaiser was content with that.
That optimism, that ability to see the silver lining, was almost admirable. It wasn't enough to make Emma feel guilty. She had much worse sins to regret. "I know," she lied. "Thank you for looking after me, Kaiser. I appreciate it."
He smiled thinly. "You're quite welcome," he said. "Now, go fill Rune in on her version of the plan. Bring her to my office below the penthouse, with the large windows. It will give her a quick way to the fight."
Emma nodded. "Okay. I'll see you there." She turned and walked to the elevator. In the polished steel of the door, she saw Kaiser's reflection turn back to his paperwork. She positioned herself so that she was between him and the buttons, and then pressed the 'up' button.
The elevator dinged as it arrived. She stepped in and tapped the only button for a floor above the penthouse. The door closed, the elevator rose one floor, and Emma arrived on the roof.
She crossed to the faintly shimmering helicopter on the large helipad. She had watched Auxiliary work often enough to know how his power worked—she saw the reasons behind each modification he made.
To the untrained eye, Auxiliary seemed to add individual modifications to existing technology. In fact, all of his tinkertech was centralized—he often took extra care to conceal that fact, since it meant that one well-placed attack would shut down every modification he had made to a piece of equipment. He might create a car that could shoot lasers, fly, teleport, and turn lead into gold, but every one of these mods was operated from a central core somewhere on the vehicle. Find that core, and the entire vehicle could be disabled.
Emma examined the latticework of cables running along every surface inside and outside the helicopter. It was well hidden, but she knew what she was looking for, and soon she found the place where the cables converged. She popped open the hidden compartment carefully.
The heart of Auxiliary's tinkertech looked like a car battery more than anything else, albeit one with elements that glowed and crackled with power. Emma covered her hand with her sleeve and carefully reached in.
She couldn't be certain—every piece of Tinkertech was subtly different—but Auxiliary's cores always tended to follow the same principles. They hinged on the correct alignment of a crystalline diode… here. It was carefully fastened into place to prevent it from loosening during operation, which might cause a destructive power surge through the machine.
Emma deftly unfastened it and then closed the panel. For a moment, she leaned against the side of the helicopter, breathing heavily.
It's done, she thought. I've betrayed the Empire.
That thought wasn't as sweet as she'd hoped it would be, but she'd had a feeling that would be the case. She didn't think any betrayal, even one that was as unambiguously good as turning on Neo-Nazis, would ever make her feel anything but sick ever again.
That was alright. It didn't need to. She would, if all went well, not be feeling much of anything after tonight.
She ran a shaking hand through her red hair. Ginger fibers came away with her fingers. Her hair had thinned in the past few weeks, and that had only gotten worse in the past four days. 'Stress,' said her therapist—the one she only went to because her father and Anne insisted. Emma supposed that, if fear, horror, and shame all fell under the umbrella of 'stress,' she wasn't even wrong.
For a moment, Emma entertained a wild thought of calling Anne and telling her what she was going. Her sister—her Protectorate sister—would be proud of her. It was the first time Emma had done anything she felt was deserving of pride in a long time. It would be nice if she could hear someone expressing that pride. And it would be nice to leave Anne with something good to remember her by.
Emma let out a shuddering breath and turned away. She took the elevator down several floors to the ninth floor, where Rune's 'office'—or, more correctly, the little apartment Kaiser had set aside for her after her uncle was killed—was located. It seemed only seconds before she was at the door, raising her fist to knock.
Rune pulled the door open almost at once. Emma could see the nerves and anticipation practically leaking from every pore. "What's up, Emma?" she asked. "Kaiser need me for something?"
Emma swallowed. "Yeah," she said. "He wants us to meet him in his office. Mairë—Annatar's probably going to attack in an hour or so. I'll explain while we walk."
Rune nodded, slipped her hood over her head and followed Emma out of the room. "We still splitting up?" she asked. "I heard Krieg was going to set up somewhere else, try to lay low."
Emma nodded. "Kaiser wants to preserve some structure to the Empire if everything goes belly up," she said. "Krieg and Cricket are setting up for that. Alabaster and Fenja are on patrol at our perimeter. The three of us—you, me and Kaiser, are their backup for when Annatar shows up."
Rune grinned, baring white teeth. "Can't fucking wait."
The elevator began to rise. Emma felt as if she was leaving her stomach behind on the ninth floor. "Yeah," she said quietly.
"Hey, chin up. We can do this! There's only one of her. Sure, she has other Wards, but we can deal with them." Rune put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It'll work out." Emma looked over at her and saw what she wasn't saying in the shadows of her eyes: It has to. I can't go back to juvie.
"Janice," Emma said quietly. "Can you… do me a favor?"
Rune raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
Emma wanted to say, Come with me! We're in the wrong! Help me make things right, for once! Don't get hurt for a lost cause as awful as this one! But all that came out was, "Hang back a little in the fight with Annatar. Leave yourself a way out. Just… just be careful, that's all." And as the words left her lips, Emma hated herself a little more.
Rune grinned at her, almost sadly. "I'll be okay, Ems," she said. "You don't need to worry about me."
"I do, though." Emma sighed. "Just try?"
"I'll try to be careful. Promise."
The elevator doors opened. Emma stepped out and Rune followed. As they approached Kaiser's office, Emma couldn't shake the dark knowledge that she had just shared her last conversation with her last friend.
-x-x-x-
Now
"Now, Oracle! They'll be up here in a moment!"
"I just need to get these files!" Emma called over her shoulder, shouting over the thundering propeller.
The files in question were essential intelligence on the Empire's relationship with Gesellschaft in Europe. She scooped them up into her arms. A loyal cape would be trying to keep these out of the Protectorate's hands. Emma just hoped they would find them quickly when they searched her corpse.
Kaiser growled furiously. "Fine, stay here! Best of luck in prison!"
Emma turned to see the Helicopter began to lift off. She wasn't on it. That was all right, in the end—it wasn't as though she had any particular plans that missing this particular ride would interfere with.
At that moment, however, Taylor and Sophia burst onto the roof. Taylor's armor shone like the sun--where Kaiser's was bright, hers was radiance itself. Emma's heart stuttered as she saw them. The rush of feeling, hot shame and frigid terror, threatened to drown her.
Then she noticed the shadowy wisps around Sophia as she stared up at Kaiser, and her fluttering heart stopped. "Wait!" she screamed. I was trying to help, not get you killed! Please, Sophia, don't go into the helicopter! You're here too early!
Sophia didn't even look at her, but Taylor did. Their eyes met, though Emma's were hidden under the mask of Oracle. The dark eyes, without even a flicker of fire, sent liquid ice down Emma's spine, but she held her gaze unbending, her whole body shuddering like a sapling in a hurricane.
Please, Emma thought desperately. Please, no.
Taylor reached out and grabbed Sophia's arm. Moments later, Auxiliary's power core failed. Electricity surged through the helicopter with a snap and a flash, and it fell to the roof with a crash. Kaiser was slumped over the controls, dead or unconscious.
For a moment, the roof was still. Sophia and Taylor stared at Emma, at Kaiser, at each other.
Emma considered just jumping off the roof. It would be easier than facing her two former friends now. But now that they were here, perhaps she owed them, at the very least, some closure, if there was any she could provide.
There was always tomorrow to die, after all.
Her hands were shaking as she raised them to her masked. It fell to the ground noisily as she raised her hands to rest on the top of her head. "I surrender," she said, her voice shaking. "I'll come quietly, Taylor."
-x-x-x-
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Please also consider supporting Wildbow's Patreon, and purchasing the original works of J. R. R. Tolkien.
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RadiantPhoenix
Trudging up the Hill
- Location
- USA, Earth
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This is not something I anticipated.
- Location
- New Zealand
Going with a possible Emma redemption now? It's one of the main themes of this fic, but not something I expected, even with the end of the last chapter.
- Location
- Somewhere, Maybe
This whole fic is a redemption arc for a reincarnated Sauron. We've had redemption arcs for Sophia already, adding Emma to the mix would be a nice touch. Redemption for everyone!
I admit, I don't understand how she changed her mind that fast. All that thought says is that Sophia is trying to do the right thing, it doesn't say anything about Taylor. Granted, I am a bit tired and it has been a while since I read some of Emma's stuff, but could anyone explain?
- Location
- New Zealand
Except for Purity, who wanted redemption without actually having to put the effort in.
- Location
- Russia
Basically, she realized that Taylor isn't mind controlling Sophia, and that Sophia managed to break away from Taylor without demonizing her on pure ethical reasons, and Taylor let her go.
Evil M. Lurker
What Lurks at Midnight
- Location
- The City, USA
Hugs are back!
...but funny is gone?
...but funny is gone?
- Location
- not here any more
Whut. Guess it's time to go poke the Staff again.
- Location
- Somewhere, Maybe
This is excessively weird. o,o
- Location
- not here any more
BTW, @Lithos Maitreya, the cover art linked in the OP is borked, and it seems the place it was hosted in is down.
Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
I am aware of this, and when I have the time I'll fix it.
- Location
- Norway
Binged the fic over 2 daysish. It's great. Feel like the tone changed a lot over the "evil Taylor" arc, like we haven't seen her go back to school or interacting with "normal" situations. It is like people heard she is this weird inhuman creature and forgot that in the eyes of the law she is still a 15 (16?) years old girl. The story is fantastical, like it imo should be, but I would like it to ground itself a bit too.
Equipping the rest of the wards with mithril also hasn't happened even though that seems like a relatively simple project, though I suspect that is coming up what with the "no spoilers" comment about what she is working on.
Equipping the rest of the wards with mithril also hasn't happened even though that seems like a relatively simple project, though I suspect that is coming up what with the "no spoilers" comment about what she is working on.
Interlude 13b Changelog
Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
Interlude 13b has been updated to account for reader critique. The updated version has replaced the original in the threadmarked post. This post is a changelog. Each individual change is within its own spoiler tag for easy navigation.
NOTE: NO CHANGES IN THE WIDER PLOT HAVE OCCURRED AS A RESULT OF THIS REWORK. It is purely cosmetic, intended to improve the conveyance of ideas already present to the reader. If you'd rather just get on with your life without reading the same chapter again, you will not miss any plot developments.
-x-x-x-
-x-x-x-
-x-x-x-
NOTE: NO CHANGES IN THE WIDER PLOT HAVE OCCURRED AS A RESULT OF THIS REWORK. It is purely cosmetic, intended to improve the conveyance of ideas already present to the reader. If you'd rather just get on with your life without reading the same chapter again, you will not miss any plot developments.
-x-x-x-
This line in the original chapter
Has been expanded into
Has been expanded into
-x-x-x-
Between the following two lines of the original chapter:
The following passage has been added:
and
The following passage has been added:
-x-x-x-
The following passage from the original chapter
has been edited and reorganized into the following:
Radiant 13.7
Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
Many thanks to @BeaconHill and @GlassGirlCeci for betareading.
"Ta—Mairë!" Aegis floated down towards me as Sophia and I exited the building. His mask was stretched by his wide smile. "All of the Empire out here have surr…" He trailed off, staring into my face. I wasn't even sure what my expression was. "What's up?" He looked between me and Sophia. "What…" Then he looked behind us, and fell silent.
Emma stepped out of the Medhall Building. Her head was bowed, and her matted red hair fell in a curtain hiding her face from view. Sophia had bound her hands wordlessly, and wordlessly we had led her down the elevator. The only communication had been a few glances between Sophia and me.
I took a deep breath and forced myself back into the present. "Aegis," I said. "Kaiser is in a tinkertech helicopter on the roof. Get him out and bring him down here; he may need medical attention.
"Is he unconscious?" Aegis asked, wrenching his gaze from Emma and looking back at me.
"Or dead," I said evenly. "I'll explain later." Once I understand. I looked around for other heroes and found Miss Militia talking with one of the PRT troopers. "Miss Militia!" I called, heading over. Sophia and Emma followed.
She turned to me, started to smile, and then froze when she saw Emma. "…Yes, Mairë?"
I pointed at Emma behind her. "Can you get someone to take her to base?"
Miss Militia blinked once. "Yes, I can handle that. What are you going to do?"
I looked at Sophia. She looked at me. "We need a few minutes to talk," I said, turning back to Miss Militia. "We'll make our way back to base after that. We can talk to her then."
Emma shifted behind me, but I didn't look at her. I couldn't. Not yet. In front of me, Miss Militia just nodded. "Very well. Should the PRT leave you a van?"
I looked at Sophia. She shook her head. "It's only, what, a mile to the PRT building?" she asked. "Let the troops get some sleep. We'll walk back."
Miss Militia nodded again. "All right. Feel free to call if you need a ride, or any other assistance."
"Of course," I said, turning away. Sophia followed me as I strode off into the night, past the troopers loading defeated-looking gangbangers into vans, past the questioning gazes of the other heroes we passed, past the awed stares and fearful mutterings.
Once we had passed by most of the activity, I sighed and spoke. "Dragon?"
"Yes?" Dragon's voice was soft and gentler than I could remember hearing it in a long time as it came in through my earpiece.
"We're going to need some privacy."
"Of course, Taylor. I'll only look in if I hear my name, and I'll alert you if anyone comes your way."
"Thank you." My aimless walking had led us to the edge of one of the few parks which dotted downtown Brockton Bay. It was only a block in size, but on that block was a grassy hillock dotted with trees. A few picnic tables clustered in the center, near the top of the hill, and a few benches were spaced around the outside perimeter of the green. Meandering sidewalks and earthen paths wandered here and there among the grass and shrubbery.
I walked over to the nearest bench and fell into it, pulling my helmet off before resting my hands on my knees and staring out to the East. I could see the faint twinkling of the boardwalk's lights reflected on the water of the bay in a gap between the buildings.
Sophia sat down beside me, her mask falling to the ground and her hood dropping to her shoulders. Her hands clutched one another as she gazed down into her lap. On an impulse, I reached out and slipped my hand between hers, gripping gently. She squeezed back.
For a few minutes we just sat there, staring out over the city and the water as the sounds of the PRT cleanup slowly began to die down.
"We did it." Sophia broke the silence at last. "The Empire is gone. The last gang in Brockton Bay, and they're just… gone."
"It hasn't really sunk in yet, for me," I admitted. "There's so much else… swirling around in my head right now."
Sophia laughed hoarsely. "Yeah, me too." She leaned back against the bench, her head lolling back so that her green eyes reflected the stars above. "God. What a fucking day."
My lips twisted. "What an hour. Damn the day."
She chuckled again, looking at me sidelong. Her hands squeezed mine again. The stars glittered in her eyes. "So… we agree on what happened up there, right?"
I nodded. "Emma…" I could barely find the words. "She just betrayed the Empire. Tried to kill Kaiser. Prevented his escape. Tried to stop you from getting caught in her trap."
"To be fair, we'd have caught him without her help," she said. Then she grimaced. "Shit. I mean, things were never simple, with her. I made her trigger. I'm not blameless here. But…"
"…But she joined the Nazis," I finished for her. "You have every right to cut her away. After everything she's done? She joined the Empire, she almost killed you four nights ago—"
"She let me go." Sophia looked back up at the sky. "I can't believe I didn't see it then. Maybe I didn't want to. But she deliberately opened that path for me to teleport out. I'm certain of it, looking back."
"She also broke your ribs," I pointed out.
"Yeah." Sophia let go of my hands to rub her face exhaustedly. "What the fuck? Like, what the actual fuck? What the hell was going through her head? I thought I was supposed to be good at insight, but somehow I've just… blocked out Emma. I guess I've let myself be blind to her. God, and just when I was starting to, I don't know, feel good about myself."
I put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She shifted in my grip to find a more comfortable position, and ended up resting her head on my pauldron. "You should feel good about yourself," I assured her firmly. "I don't know what's up with Emma either, but she's not innocent in this. Whatever this is."
"I'm not saying she is," Sophia said quietly. "I'm saying that I'm supposed to be a hero, and just because she's done some things wrong doesn't make me right in abandoning her."
I bit my lip. On some level, I had done the same thing, hadn't I? No. I'm quite finished orienting my life around Emma. That was my step forward. Wasn't that what I'd said to Sophia, all those weeks ago? I had just been Annatar, then, the cape with strange powers and a sense of purpose but no idea from whence that sense had come. It had been a self-righteous, proud statement, made without any serious thought by a self-righteous, proud person.
But then again… "It's not that simple, I don't think," I said, petting her shoulder with my thumb. "Look at Purity. If we separate ourselves from this, look at it impartially—how is Emma's situation different from her? She threw herself wholeheartedly into evil. Certainly, there were extenuating circumstances. There always are—nothing in this world is born evil. Before whatever happened, before Emma turned away from the Empire, she wouldn't have been any more suitable to walk this road with us than Purity was. We are, in some part, responsible for what she has become—but that doesn't mean we should take on all of the responsibility, and nor does it mean she should be absolved freely, any more than Purity should be just because she was manipulated by Kaiser."
Sophia bit her lip. "I… it takes some mental gymnastics, doesn't it? Separating the guilt I feel from some sort of, I don't know, abstract justice. Is it even right to make that distinction?"
I opened my mouth to respond, and then realized I didn't know.
Sophia didn't press for an answer. "What do we do?" she asked quietly. "Where do we go from here?"
I shrugged helplessly. "We offered Purity help if she would only turn against the Empire and help us bring them down. Emma just did exactly that without ever being offered. Don't we owe her what we promised Purity?"
"Can we even give it to her?" Sophia asked, and her voice caught. "I don't know how you did it, Taylor. You looked at me, at the person who had made your life hell, at the person who made you trigger, and you somehow found it in you to befriend me, to forgive me. Emma hasn't done half that much to me—she beat me up once, she joined a gang which has done more—but I made her trigger, not the other way around. And in spite of all that, I don't know if I can do for her what you did for me. I don't know if I can put it aside."
"Do you really think I was so much of a saint?" I asked wryly. "Sophia, the only reason I was so ready to work with you was because, underneath the charisma and buried beneath the amnesia, I was still Sauron. I was manipulative, calculating, and ready to use anyone and anything to achieve my ends. I would have used you and cast you aside. You are so, so much better now than I was then." I sighed. "I don't know how much we'll be able to do with Emma. Personally, I mean. So much has changed—in me, in you, in her. We're not the same people we were when we all attended Winslow together."
"It's so strange that it was only a few months ago." Sophia sighed, her body relaxing into mine.
"It really is," I agreed, smiling down at her. "But even if we can't find it in ourselves, in our weakness, to extend our hands to Emma—at the very least, we can make sure the PRT as an organization does so. At the very least, she deserves our impersonal help getting through the storm on her horizon. Even if we can do no more, we can do that much."
"Yeah," Sophia said, almost a sigh. "Yeah, I can do that. And… and I guess we should talk to her at least once, right? Try to… to understand. To figure it all out."
I nodded. "We can do it in the morning…" I began.
"No." Sophia pulled away from me and stood up. "I put Emma on the backburner for months. Look where that got us. No. She deserves our focus, our attention, our respect. For at least one night."
I smiled up at her. The moonlight glistened in her hair as she stood over me, and for a moment she seemed to brighten the street more than my armor ever had. "Okay," I said, standing up as well. "Let's go, then. But…" I added, poking her gently on the shoulder, "…you look dead on your feet. Care for some coffee first? My treat."
She laughed, a sudden, bright sound, and as she looked back at me her eyes were sparkling. "Sure," she said, reaching down to pick up her mask. "Coffee first. Then Emma."
Emma had been set up in a proper conference room. Despite our silence when we brought her out of the building, Dragon or Piggot must have figured out some of what had happened. There was a large, polished table in the center of the oval room, surrounded by comfortable armchairs. Emma sat in none of these. She stood facing the large windows overlooking the East, staring out over the dark waters of the Bay and the glimmering lights of the boardwalk.
She looked at our reflections in the glass as we entered. Her eyes were hooded with dark circles, evidence of many sleepless nights and stressful days. All three of us were out of costume, and the scene felt oddly nostalgic, as though we were just three Winslow students with a bad history meeting to reminisce.
None of us spoke as I closed to door and sat down in a chair by the table. Sophia sat beside me. Emma seemed frozen to the spot.
"…Emma?" I said, and the name, so unfamiliar in my throat, now, caught on my tongue. "Do you want to sit down?"
That seemed to jolt her into action. She turned jerkily and sat in a chair opposite us. Her teeth worried her lower lip. After a pause, she spoke.
"You have questions," she said quietly. "I'll… I'll do my best to answer them. That's the only reason I'm still here."
Beside me, Sophia tensed. I glanced over at her. She was staring down Emma with an intense light in her eyes. "I've been blind to you for a long time," she said quietly. "But not now. First question—what's that supposed to mean?"
Emma twitched. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"No. Fuck no." Sophia was practically shaking. I put my hand on hers, startled, but before I could say anything, she burst out. "You're not. Not after tonight. No, no, fuck no!"
Emma shrank back into her seat. "Sophia!" I exclaimed. "What is—"
"She's planning to kill herself!" Sophia growled, leaning forward as though trying to resist the urge to leap across the table. "She's planning to tell us what we want to know and then jump through those fucking windows. What the fuck—" She cut herself off, breathing heavily.
I turned to Emma. I didn't know what my expression looked like. "…Is it true?"
"Yes." Emma didn't even hesitate. "I'm… sorry if that makes you uncomfortable."
"Un-fucking-comfortable?" Sophia barked. "It… I…" she struggled for words.
I took over with the only question that seemed apt. "…Why?"
Emma blinked at me uncomprehendingly for a moment. "I'm not you two," she said at last. "I'm not strong, or brave, or motivated. I survive by preying on the weak, flattering the strong, and hiding from the truth. I can't do those things anymore, and I'm not strong enough to change."
"Oh, fuck you!" Sophia had found her voice. I started, staring at her aghast. "You think that putting us on a pedestal gives you an excuse to take the easy way out, and leave us to pick up all the pieces?"
Emma flinched, stuttering. "I… I don't—"
Sophia grimaced, putting her face in her hands. "Sorry," she said, her voice hoarse. She stood up. "Taylor, I'm going to step outside. I'm not helping."
"Please don't go," I said. Her eyes met mine. "I won't stop you," I told her, gazing into the green. "But—please."
She bit her lip and slowly sat back down. "Okay," she said, exhaling. Then she turned back to Emma. "Sorry. I shouldn't have… freaked out, I guess."
Emma didn't answer. None of us spoke for a moment. "Emma," I said at last. "Can… can you listen to one thing I have to say, and use your power, and try to believe me?"
She looked me in the eye, waiting.
"I don't want you to die," I said, enunciating clearly. "I don't think you deserve to die."
She swallowed thickly. "It's not about that," she said hoarsely. "It's that I—the world is a hostile place to me now. I can't look at anything anymore without feeling as though my very existence has somehow made it worse. Even when I tried to do something right for once, help you take down the Empire, I couldn't even get it right. I almost got Sophia killed. I am a net negative to this world, Taylor. And I want to make it a better world, if I can."
Sophia was taking soft, shuddering breaths beside me. I reached to her under the table and squeezed her knee comfortingly. I thought I saw Emma's eyes flicker, but I didn't pull away. "What really happened, four nights ago, when you and Rune fought Sophia?" I asked quietly.
"Sophia found the right words," Emma said. A tiny, strained smile twisted her lips. "I thought that was your power. But she found the right words to make me face the truth."
Sophia put a hand over her eyes. "And apparently, even when I find the right words, I make people want to die," she said, wry humor in her voice. "Nice. Great hero work, there."
"No—Sophia, this was my fault," Emma said sharply, her eyes flicking to Sophia. "You… you made mistakes, sure. But my choices were mine." She rubbed a hand over her eyes. "I was a fucking Nazi," she said, and the disgust thickened her voice like syrup. "And it wasn't—I really started to live the part. I stopped going into shops with black cashiers. I wouldn't sit next to black people in the cafeteria. I watched four of—of my people—put a guy's teeth on a curb and stomp on his head because someone claimed he'd taken their daughter to a synagogue. And I didn't stop them. I didn't say a word. That's fucked up. I'm fucked up.
"I walked this road of my own accord, and this is where it ends. No one forced me here. No one dragged me unwilling. I did these things. I betrayed Taylor. I started bullying her. I came up with the locker. I wouldn't let go when you tried to stop me. I joined the Empire. I beat you half to death in that alley. I almost killed you tonight. All those horrible things—" something caught in her throat, and she glanced at me. "Those things of darkness, I acknowledge mine."
My family had read The Tempest, once, while Emma was over. I could still remember my mother's voice intoning Prospero's monologues. But before I could speak, Sophia's hand fell and her eyes darted up to Emma. "That's not a tragedy, Emma."
I blinked.
"No one dies at the end of The Tempest," Sophia said evenly. "Prospero forgave his brother. Ariel is freed. Caliban is given back his island."
"…I didn't know you read Shakespeare," Emma said quietly.
"I didn't, before," Sophia said. "But how many fucking times do you think I've gone through The Tempest by now? Me?" She took a deep breath, and in a soft, melancholy voice intoned: "'The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent, the sole drift of my purpose doth extend not a frown further.'"
Emma and I stared at her. She flushed minutely under the attention. "Emma," she murmured. "I was the one who watched you get attacked in that alley. I was the one who planted that stupid fucking survivors/victims mindset in your head. I was the one who thought Taylor looked weak. I was the one who actually shoved her into that locker. I was the one who made you trigger." She looked at me, then back at Emma. "I believe that our mistakes don't define us. I have to, after everything I've done."
"We all do," I said, smiling gently at her before looking at Emma. "We've all done things we regret," I said. "Some of which are so overwhelming that, if we allow them to, they will drown us. But that isn't… it's wrong, Emma. It's not improving anything. There is so much more you can do, if you're truly penitent."
Penitent. The word rang like fire in my head. It certainly wasn't the first time I'd spoken it, but looking at Emma, an idea suddenly popped into my brain, fully formed.
But Emma was shaking her head. "Penitence involves trying to right your wrongs," she said quietly. "I'm not that strong. I don't think I can face what I've done long enough to try to right it."
"You think I didn't think the same, when I first started to realize what I was?" Sophia asked.
"You've always been stronger than me. More driven." Emma smiled sadly at her. "I am sorry, Sophia."
"What if you had help?"
They both turned to look at me. I was staring at Emma.
"What if you had help?" I asked again. "What if you weren't alone on the road to redemption?"
Emma shrank back. "Like—like you two?" Her lips twisted. "I'm sorry, but you two are so wrapped up in all of it. I don't think—"
"Us, but not just us. Fume used to be a villain. One of his teammates may be joining us soon. Genesis and Sundancer used to be villains. There will be more." There would. That was how the Song worked, after all. The theme always came to a close, in the end.
"What, like a support group?" Sophia snorted "Reformed Assholes Anonymous?"
But Emma was studying me, and there was something in her eyes. I felt the tendrils of her power reaching out for me, and I reached out to meet them. I bared myself before Oracle's eyes. "The Penitent," I said quietly. "Supporting one another on the long, painful climb out of the dark and into the light."
I saw them flash before my eyes, Nine glittering Rings of Power, and I knew Emma saw them too by the way her eyes widened.
"Therapy first," I said. "I made that mistake once already. They're a balm, not a cure, and a wound so treated can fester. But the people, the group—that could help. Couldn't it?"
Emma was trembling. "It… I…" She took a deep breath. "It… might. I could… I could try."
"Are you sure about this, Taylor?" Sophia asked, staring at me.
I turned to her, the smile already spreading across my lips. I opened my mouth to speak but Emma cut me off.
"You have to join us," she said.
I stopped. Slowly, my head turned to her. My smile slipped from my face. "Emma—"
"You're on this road, too," she said. "You're leading the troupe on this road. You can't do that if you're standing apart."
"The One Ring was meant to rule," I murmured. "It's not… it's not the penitent type."
"It's a part of you," Emma said, and there was a tenderness in her voice. "You decide what it is. I can see that inside you, now, clear as day. If you're to be the guide to the Penitent, then you need a light to lead by."
I stared at her. I swallowed.
"For what it's worth, Taylor," Sophia interjected, "I think you can do this. I trust you."
I looked at her. I looked at Emma. I looked back at Sophia. And, at long, long last, I recited the completed verse.
-x-x-x-
"Ta—Mairë!" Aegis floated down towards me as Sophia and I exited the building. His mask was stretched by his wide smile. "All of the Empire out here have surr…" He trailed off, staring into my face. I wasn't even sure what my expression was. "What's up?" He looked between me and Sophia. "What…" Then he looked behind us, and fell silent.
Emma stepped out of the Medhall Building. Her head was bowed, and her matted red hair fell in a curtain hiding her face from view. Sophia had bound her hands wordlessly, and wordlessly we had led her down the elevator. The only communication had been a few glances between Sophia and me.
I took a deep breath and forced myself back into the present. "Aegis," I said. "Kaiser is in a tinkertech helicopter on the roof. Get him out and bring him down here; he may need medical attention.
"Is he unconscious?" Aegis asked, wrenching his gaze from Emma and looking back at me.
"Or dead," I said evenly. "I'll explain later." Once I understand. I looked around for other heroes and found Miss Militia talking with one of the PRT troopers. "Miss Militia!" I called, heading over. Sophia and Emma followed.
She turned to me, started to smile, and then froze when she saw Emma. "…Yes, Mairë?"
I pointed at Emma behind her. "Can you get someone to take her to base?"
Miss Militia blinked once. "Yes, I can handle that. What are you going to do?"
I looked at Sophia. She looked at me. "We need a few minutes to talk," I said, turning back to Miss Militia. "We'll make our way back to base after that. We can talk to her then."
Emma shifted behind me, but I didn't look at her. I couldn't. Not yet. In front of me, Miss Militia just nodded. "Very well. Should the PRT leave you a van?"
I looked at Sophia. She shook her head. "It's only, what, a mile to the PRT building?" she asked. "Let the troops get some sleep. We'll walk back."
Miss Militia nodded again. "All right. Feel free to call if you need a ride, or any other assistance."
"Of course," I said, turning away. Sophia followed me as I strode off into the night, past the troopers loading defeated-looking gangbangers into vans, past the questioning gazes of the other heroes we passed, past the awed stares and fearful mutterings.
Once we had passed by most of the activity, I sighed and spoke. "Dragon?"
"Yes?" Dragon's voice was soft and gentler than I could remember hearing it in a long time as it came in through my earpiece.
"We're going to need some privacy."
"Of course, Taylor. I'll only look in if I hear my name, and I'll alert you if anyone comes your way."
"Thank you." My aimless walking had led us to the edge of one of the few parks which dotted downtown Brockton Bay. It was only a block in size, but on that block was a grassy hillock dotted with trees. A few picnic tables clustered in the center, near the top of the hill, and a few benches were spaced around the outside perimeter of the green. Meandering sidewalks and earthen paths wandered here and there among the grass and shrubbery.
I walked over to the nearest bench and fell into it, pulling my helmet off before resting my hands on my knees and staring out to the East. I could see the faint twinkling of the boardwalk's lights reflected on the water of the bay in a gap between the buildings.
Sophia sat down beside me, her mask falling to the ground and her hood dropping to her shoulders. Her hands clutched one another as she gazed down into her lap. On an impulse, I reached out and slipped my hand between hers, gripping gently. She squeezed back.
For a few minutes we just sat there, staring out over the city and the water as the sounds of the PRT cleanup slowly began to die down.
"We did it." Sophia broke the silence at last. "The Empire is gone. The last gang in Brockton Bay, and they're just… gone."
"It hasn't really sunk in yet, for me," I admitted. "There's so much else… swirling around in my head right now."
Sophia laughed hoarsely. "Yeah, me too." She leaned back against the bench, her head lolling back so that her green eyes reflected the stars above. "God. What a fucking day."
My lips twisted. "What an hour. Damn the day."
She chuckled again, looking at me sidelong. Her hands squeezed mine again. The stars glittered in her eyes. "So… we agree on what happened up there, right?"
I nodded. "Emma…" I could barely find the words. "She just betrayed the Empire. Tried to kill Kaiser. Prevented his escape. Tried to stop you from getting caught in her trap."
"To be fair, we'd have caught him without her help," she said. Then she grimaced. "Shit. I mean, things were never simple, with her. I made her trigger. I'm not blameless here. But…"
"…But she joined the Nazis," I finished for her. "You have every right to cut her away. After everything she's done? She joined the Empire, she almost killed you four nights ago—"
"She let me go." Sophia looked back up at the sky. "I can't believe I didn't see it then. Maybe I didn't want to. But she deliberately opened that path for me to teleport out. I'm certain of it, looking back."
"She also broke your ribs," I pointed out.
"Yeah." Sophia let go of my hands to rub her face exhaustedly. "What the fuck? Like, what the actual fuck? What the hell was going through her head? I thought I was supposed to be good at insight, but somehow I've just… blocked out Emma. I guess I've let myself be blind to her. God, and just when I was starting to, I don't know, feel good about myself."
I put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. She shifted in my grip to find a more comfortable position, and ended up resting her head on my pauldron. "You should feel good about yourself," I assured her firmly. "I don't know what's up with Emma either, but she's not innocent in this. Whatever this is."
"I'm not saying she is," Sophia said quietly. "I'm saying that I'm supposed to be a hero, and just because she's done some things wrong doesn't make me right in abandoning her."
I bit my lip. On some level, I had done the same thing, hadn't I? No. I'm quite finished orienting my life around Emma. That was my step forward. Wasn't that what I'd said to Sophia, all those weeks ago? I had just been Annatar, then, the cape with strange powers and a sense of purpose but no idea from whence that sense had come. It had been a self-righteous, proud statement, made without any serious thought by a self-righteous, proud person.
But then again… "It's not that simple, I don't think," I said, petting her shoulder with my thumb. "Look at Purity. If we separate ourselves from this, look at it impartially—how is Emma's situation different from her? She threw herself wholeheartedly into evil. Certainly, there were extenuating circumstances. There always are—nothing in this world is born evil. Before whatever happened, before Emma turned away from the Empire, she wouldn't have been any more suitable to walk this road with us than Purity was. We are, in some part, responsible for what she has become—but that doesn't mean we should take on all of the responsibility, and nor does it mean she should be absolved freely, any more than Purity should be just because she was manipulated by Kaiser."
Sophia bit her lip. "I… it takes some mental gymnastics, doesn't it? Separating the guilt I feel from some sort of, I don't know, abstract justice. Is it even right to make that distinction?"
I opened my mouth to respond, and then realized I didn't know.
Sophia didn't press for an answer. "What do we do?" she asked quietly. "Where do we go from here?"
I shrugged helplessly. "We offered Purity help if she would only turn against the Empire and help us bring them down. Emma just did exactly that without ever being offered. Don't we owe her what we promised Purity?"
"Can we even give it to her?" Sophia asked, and her voice caught. "I don't know how you did it, Taylor. You looked at me, at the person who had made your life hell, at the person who made you trigger, and you somehow found it in you to befriend me, to forgive me. Emma hasn't done half that much to me—she beat me up once, she joined a gang which has done more—but I made her trigger, not the other way around. And in spite of all that, I don't know if I can do for her what you did for me. I don't know if I can put it aside."
"Do you really think I was so much of a saint?" I asked wryly. "Sophia, the only reason I was so ready to work with you was because, underneath the charisma and buried beneath the amnesia, I was still Sauron. I was manipulative, calculating, and ready to use anyone and anything to achieve my ends. I would have used you and cast you aside. You are so, so much better now than I was then." I sighed. "I don't know how much we'll be able to do with Emma. Personally, I mean. So much has changed—in me, in you, in her. We're not the same people we were when we all attended Winslow together."
"It's so strange that it was only a few months ago." Sophia sighed, her body relaxing into mine.
"It really is," I agreed, smiling down at her. "But even if we can't find it in ourselves, in our weakness, to extend our hands to Emma—at the very least, we can make sure the PRT as an organization does so. At the very least, she deserves our impersonal help getting through the storm on her horizon. Even if we can do no more, we can do that much."
"Yeah," Sophia said, almost a sigh. "Yeah, I can do that. And… and I guess we should talk to her at least once, right? Try to… to understand. To figure it all out."
I nodded. "We can do it in the morning…" I began.
"No." Sophia pulled away from me and stood up. "I put Emma on the backburner for months. Look where that got us. No. She deserves our focus, our attention, our respect. For at least one night."
I smiled up at her. The moonlight glistened in her hair as she stood over me, and for a moment she seemed to brighten the street more than my armor ever had. "Okay," I said, standing up as well. "Let's go, then. But…" I added, poking her gently on the shoulder, "…you look dead on your feet. Care for some coffee first? My treat."
She laughed, a sudden, bright sound, and as she looked back at me her eyes were sparkling. "Sure," she said, reaching down to pick up her mask. "Coffee first. Then Emma."
-x-x-x-
Emma had been set up in a proper conference room. Despite our silence when we brought her out of the building, Dragon or Piggot must have figured out some of what had happened. There was a large, polished table in the center of the oval room, surrounded by comfortable armchairs. Emma sat in none of these. She stood facing the large windows overlooking the East, staring out over the dark waters of the Bay and the glimmering lights of the boardwalk.
She looked at our reflections in the glass as we entered. Her eyes were hooded with dark circles, evidence of many sleepless nights and stressful days. All three of us were out of costume, and the scene felt oddly nostalgic, as though we were just three Winslow students with a bad history meeting to reminisce.
None of us spoke as I closed to door and sat down in a chair by the table. Sophia sat beside me. Emma seemed frozen to the spot.
"…Emma?" I said, and the name, so unfamiliar in my throat, now, caught on my tongue. "Do you want to sit down?"
That seemed to jolt her into action. She turned jerkily and sat in a chair opposite us. Her teeth worried her lower lip. After a pause, she spoke.
"You have questions," she said quietly. "I'll… I'll do my best to answer them. That's the only reason I'm still here."
Beside me, Sophia tensed. I glanced over at her. She was staring down Emma with an intense light in her eyes. "I've been blind to you for a long time," she said quietly. "But not now. First question—what's that supposed to mean?"
Emma twitched. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"No. Fuck no." Sophia was practically shaking. I put my hand on hers, startled, but before I could say anything, she burst out. "You're not. Not after tonight. No, no, fuck no!"
Emma shrank back into her seat. "Sophia!" I exclaimed. "What is—"
"She's planning to kill herself!" Sophia growled, leaning forward as though trying to resist the urge to leap across the table. "She's planning to tell us what we want to know and then jump through those fucking windows. What the fuck—" She cut herself off, breathing heavily.
I turned to Emma. I didn't know what my expression looked like. "…Is it true?"
"Yes." Emma didn't even hesitate. "I'm… sorry if that makes you uncomfortable."
"Un-fucking-comfortable?" Sophia barked. "It… I…" she struggled for words.
I took over with the only question that seemed apt. "…Why?"
Emma blinked at me uncomprehendingly for a moment. "I'm not you two," she said at last. "I'm not strong, or brave, or motivated. I survive by preying on the weak, flattering the strong, and hiding from the truth. I can't do those things anymore, and I'm not strong enough to change."
"Oh, fuck you!" Sophia had found her voice. I started, staring at her aghast. "You think that putting us on a pedestal gives you an excuse to take the easy way out, and leave us to pick up all the pieces?"
Emma flinched, stuttering. "I… I don't—"
Sophia grimaced, putting her face in her hands. "Sorry," she said, her voice hoarse. She stood up. "Taylor, I'm going to step outside. I'm not helping."
"Please don't go," I said. Her eyes met mine. "I won't stop you," I told her, gazing into the green. "But—please."
She bit her lip and slowly sat back down. "Okay," she said, exhaling. Then she turned back to Emma. "Sorry. I shouldn't have… freaked out, I guess."
Emma didn't answer. None of us spoke for a moment. "Emma," I said at last. "Can… can you listen to one thing I have to say, and use your power, and try to believe me?"
She looked me in the eye, waiting.
"I don't want you to die," I said, enunciating clearly. "I don't think you deserve to die."
She swallowed thickly. "It's not about that," she said hoarsely. "It's that I—the world is a hostile place to me now. I can't look at anything anymore without feeling as though my very existence has somehow made it worse. Even when I tried to do something right for once, help you take down the Empire, I couldn't even get it right. I almost got Sophia killed. I am a net negative to this world, Taylor. And I want to make it a better world, if I can."
Sophia was taking soft, shuddering breaths beside me. I reached to her under the table and squeezed her knee comfortingly. I thought I saw Emma's eyes flicker, but I didn't pull away. "What really happened, four nights ago, when you and Rune fought Sophia?" I asked quietly.
"Sophia found the right words," Emma said. A tiny, strained smile twisted her lips. "I thought that was your power. But she found the right words to make me face the truth."
Sophia put a hand over her eyes. "And apparently, even when I find the right words, I make people want to die," she said, wry humor in her voice. "Nice. Great hero work, there."
"No—Sophia, this was my fault," Emma said sharply, her eyes flicking to Sophia. "You… you made mistakes, sure. But my choices were mine." She rubbed a hand over her eyes. "I was a fucking Nazi," she said, and the disgust thickened her voice like syrup. "And it wasn't—I really started to live the part. I stopped going into shops with black cashiers. I wouldn't sit next to black people in the cafeteria. I watched four of—of my people—put a guy's teeth on a curb and stomp on his head because someone claimed he'd taken their daughter to a synagogue. And I didn't stop them. I didn't say a word. That's fucked up. I'm fucked up.
"I walked this road of my own accord, and this is where it ends. No one forced me here. No one dragged me unwilling. I did these things. I betrayed Taylor. I started bullying her. I came up with the locker. I wouldn't let go when you tried to stop me. I joined the Empire. I beat you half to death in that alley. I almost killed you tonight. All those horrible things—" something caught in her throat, and she glanced at me. "Those things of darkness, I acknowledge mine."
My family had read The Tempest, once, while Emma was over. I could still remember my mother's voice intoning Prospero's monologues. But before I could speak, Sophia's hand fell and her eyes darted up to Emma. "That's not a tragedy, Emma."
I blinked.
"No one dies at the end of The Tempest," Sophia said evenly. "Prospero forgave his brother. Ariel is freed. Caliban is given back his island."
"…I didn't know you read Shakespeare," Emma said quietly.
"I didn't, before," Sophia said. "But how many fucking times do you think I've gone through The Tempest by now? Me?" She took a deep breath, and in a soft, melancholy voice intoned: "'The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent, the sole drift of my purpose doth extend not a frown further.'"
Emma and I stared at her. She flushed minutely under the attention. "Emma," she murmured. "I was the one who watched you get attacked in that alley. I was the one who planted that stupid fucking survivors/victims mindset in your head. I was the one who thought Taylor looked weak. I was the one who actually shoved her into that locker. I was the one who made you trigger." She looked at me, then back at Emma. "I believe that our mistakes don't define us. I have to, after everything I've done."
"We all do," I said, smiling gently at her before looking at Emma. "We've all done things we regret," I said. "Some of which are so overwhelming that, if we allow them to, they will drown us. But that isn't… it's wrong, Emma. It's not improving anything. There is so much more you can do, if you're truly penitent."
Penitent. The word rang like fire in my head. It certainly wasn't the first time I'd spoken it, but looking at Emma, an idea suddenly popped into my brain, fully formed.
But Emma was shaking her head. "Penitence involves trying to right your wrongs," she said quietly. "I'm not that strong. I don't think I can face what I've done long enough to try to right it."
"You think I didn't think the same, when I first started to realize what I was?" Sophia asked.
"You've always been stronger than me. More driven." Emma smiled sadly at her. "I am sorry, Sophia."
"What if you had help?"
They both turned to look at me. I was staring at Emma.
"What if you had help?" I asked again. "What if you weren't alone on the road to redemption?"
Emma shrank back. "Like—like you two?" Her lips twisted. "I'm sorry, but you two are so wrapped up in all of it. I don't think—"
"Us, but not just us. Fume used to be a villain. One of his teammates may be joining us soon. Genesis and Sundancer used to be villains. There will be more." There would. That was how the Song worked, after all. The theme always came to a close, in the end.
"What, like a support group?" Sophia snorted "Reformed Assholes Anonymous?"
But Emma was studying me, and there was something in her eyes. I felt the tendrils of her power reaching out for me, and I reached out to meet them. I bared myself before Oracle's eyes. "The Penitent," I said quietly. "Supporting one another on the long, painful climb out of the dark and into the light."
I saw them flash before my eyes, Nine glittering Rings of Power, and I knew Emma saw them too by the way her eyes widened.
"Therapy first," I said. "I made that mistake once already. They're a balm, not a cure, and a wound so treated can fester. But the people, the group—that could help. Couldn't it?"
Emma was trembling. "It… I…" She took a deep breath. "It… might. I could… I could try."
"Are you sure about this, Taylor?" Sophia asked, staring at me.
I turned to her, the smile already spreading across my lips. I opened my mouth to speak but Emma cut me off.
"You have to join us," she said.
I stopped. Slowly, my head turned to her. My smile slipped from my face. "Emma—"
"You're on this road, too," she said. "You're leading the troupe on this road. You can't do that if you're standing apart."
"The One Ring was meant to rule," I murmured. "It's not… it's not the penitent type."
"It's a part of you," Emma said, and there was a tenderness in her voice. "You decide what it is. I can see that inside you, now, clear as day. If you're to be the guide to the Penitent, then you need a light to lead by."
I stared at her. I swallowed.
"For what it's worth, Taylor," Sophia interjected, "I think you can do this. I trust you."
I looked at her. I looked at Emma. I looked back at Sophia. And, at long, long last, I recited the completed verse.
"Three Rings for the Sentinels, honest and true.
Seven for the Wards, in their city of sin.
Nine for the Penitent, forged anew.
One for the Ring-Maker, to find light within,
On the shores where the rising Sun shines through.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to guide them;
One Ring to bring them all from out the Dark which hides them
On the shores where the rising Sun shines through."
End Arc 13: Radiant
Seven for the Wards, in their city of sin.
Nine for the Penitent, forged anew.
One for the Ring-Maker, to find light within,
On the shores where the rising Sun shines through.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to guide them;
One Ring to bring them all from out the Dark which hides them
On the shores where the rising Sun shines through."
End Arc 13: Radiant
Ragnarok101
Occasionally decent writer
- Location
- North Carolina
God damn.
Lithos Maitreya
Character Witness
- Location
- United States
Not all of the Nine have been recruited yet. That's what the next two arcs are for.
- Location
- not here any more
Hurray, this lives!
KnightDisciple
Brotherhood. Unity. Peace.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
AkuArkaine
Guy Not in the Know
- Location
- Columbus, Ohio
Love this fic. So glad to see it continue with the promise of more.
Shwaggy
Weapon of Math Instruction
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
That was astonishingly beautiful and impactful, and the verse just fits, both in itself and as the perfect end of the arc. Sincerely, @Lithos Maitreya , that was masterfully done.
- Location
- New Zealand
That was a very elegant way to finish off the arc. Well done.