New world order, p.45
New World Order, page 45
part #6 of Crimson Shadow Series
It was a perfectly feasible plan, one that even justified the risk that Xander was taking to his mental wellbeing.
Figures that Aleks would find a way to fuck it up, though, Xander groused to himself.
He and Estella had remained seated at the table after the meeting had been wrapped up. Assignments had been passed around, though these were, for the most part, orders to continue what everyone had already been doing.
With that, Zeek and Karen returned to the medical center, which had seen a sizable upgrade since the storage facility was no longer serving as both that and the living quarters. The lone office in that building now served as the pair’s private quarters, overlooking what had since become a small hospital in its own right. They still struggled to keep the area supplied, but, with fewer and fewer patients to tend to, that problem wasn’t nearly as tolling as it had been. The bulk of unused space, much to Zeek’s annoyance, had more recently become a sort of garage, where Zane had decided to begin teaching little Gregori, at high volume, how to “tinker” with cars.
Satoru and Sasha left with Zeek and Karen, though Xander knew that they’d be heading towards the auditorium that neighbored the office buildings that had since been renovated into living quarters for the growing community. Though it forced the spectators to be seated during lessons, this auditorium had become the site for the various training sessions that took place. This was where Allen Carrey “lectured” the recruits on how to utilize the magic that he’d learned during his time with the Cebourists, and also where the former Trepis Clan’s warriors put on combat demonstrations. Though it did very little for the trainees in the long run, giving them no space or freedom to practice what they were being shown until after they’d left the auditorium and the confining seats therein, it was, as Zeek had begrudgingly put it, “better than nothing.”
Though he hadn’t said or done anything to give the others any reason to stay, Xander still found himself in the company of Zoey and Isaac and the Vaileans. The first two he wasn’t surprised to see waiting behind—the large tote that had been waiting on the table in front of them had yet to be brought up, after all—but when neither Zane nor Serena made a move to leave he decided that they must have been in on whatever it entailed, as well.
“For starters,” Zane said, nodding towards Zoey and Isaac’s tote once the others had gone.
Taking this as a cue, Isaac reached into the bin and pulled out a dark red bundle that had been folded into a perfect square. He passed this along to Zoey, who, in turn, set it in front of Xander, a wide smile beginning to spread across her face.
“What’s this?” Xander asked.
“Consider it what you will,” Zoey said with a dismissive shrug, though her tone gave away that she wanted him to like it. “A tool, a prop, a… I don’t know, a gift?” she said the last word with such a flippant inflection that it was obvious that was exactly what she intended it to be.
Xander had already decided that was exactly what he’d consider it to be.
“Either way,” Zoey went on, starting to turn red with embarrassment, “it’s something I’ve been working on for a while.”
“Something you inspired her to work on,” Serena cooed with a laugh.
Zoey’s aura flashed from her body like a wild blaze. Then, a moment later, she regained enough control to reel it back inside herself before shooting Serena an angry glare.
“Oh come off it, sister!” Serena said, sticking out her tongue at the blue-haired auric. “I’ve been ranting on-and-on about my crush on Stryker in front of him and his wife since we crashed into their lives, would it kill you to confess you’ve got a crush, too?”
Zoey’s eyes darted about between Xander and Isaac, her mouth working to protest the claim but only succeeding in stammering out nonsensical noises.
Smiling, Xander set a hand on her shoulder and nodded. It’s okay, he said to her in private. Isaac and I both know where your heart is. And I appreciate the gesture all the same.
Zoey’s stammering calmed, her blush subsiding.
Serena frowned and she shot a glare at Xander. “What did you say to her?” she demanded.
Xander shrugged as he began to unwrap the bundle. “I told her you only said all of that because you have lesbian fantasies about her,” he quipped.
Serena glanced between the two of them, trying to gauge whether or not this was the truth. Finally, she shrugged and scoffed. “Well that’s hardly a secret!” she said with a laugh.
Xander was about to roll his eye at the crazy blonde when his efforts with the bundle finally allowed it to fall open and he found himself staring at an ankle-length jacket. Gaping at the garment, he studied the lightweight-yet-thick material, which looked to be some sort of leather but felt more like silk. Testing this, he flicked his wrists to get a ripple moving through the jacket and watched it take for only a few inches before falling still once again.
Zoey beamed with pride. “It’s a synthetic fiber that I enchanted,” she explained. “More durable than leather, but light enough to let you move with absolute freedom. This is the crowning achievement, however:” she said as she reached out and gave one of the sleeves a gentle tap, earning only a single sway. Then, as though it had never happened, the sleeve fell flat once more, seeming to defy the laws of physics. “I’m still not sure how you manage to fly,” she said in a voice that sounded almost defeated, “but I figured it couldn’t be easy to do so with a jacket that would be whipping about and catching any and all stray air currents that pass its way. I wanted to make sure that, durable and light as it was, you could fly, run, and even swim without once feeling a single tug of resistance from your armor.”
“Armor?” Xander asked, glancing up.
Serena laughed and nodded. “Oh yeah, Stryker. Zoe doesn’t just make sexy and fashionable costumes. Her shit’s built to take a beating so that you don’t have to!”
Zoey smiled at that and nodded. “Mm-hmm. It won’t do much against direct shots or straight-on blade attacks—so, you know, it’d be best to still try not to get shot or stabbed—but it’ll guard against blunt impacts that might otherwise break bones as well as extreme heat and cold. Provided you keep your face covered you could probably walk out of an explosion without much injury to show for it.”
“It’s magnificent!” Xander beamed, standing up long enough to slip it on and marvel at the perfect fit. Beside him, Estella’s eyes lit up and she reached out to run her hand along the length, cooing at the feel of it. Though it wasn’t a priority to him, even Xander had to admit that it felt wonderful. “Thank you,” he finally said when he could admire himself in it no longer.
“You’re very welcome,” Zoey said, obviously elated at the response.
“Yes, yes! Very nice!” Serena purred, “Be sure to vogue it up later. In the meantime, though, there’s other business to attend to!”
Xander sighed and rolled his eye. “If you’re going to ask me about lottery numbers again then you can—” he began.
“I’m going to guess that you’ve already keyed in on the fact that we’ve got friends coming,” Serena interrupted him, catching him off guard with an unnaturally professional tone.
Raising an eyebrow at the shift, Xander leaned forward again and folded his hands in front of him on the table. “Yeah,” he admitted. “I thought I heard something about that when I was coming in.”
“‘Heard,’ huh?” Serena’s lip curled up in a coy smirk. “Surprised you didn’t ‘watch’ it in a crystal ball, maybe even go so far as to get their blood types.”
Xander pursed his lips, unable to tell without being invasive whether or not she was being serious. “It doesn’t exactly work that—”
“Stow it, Cyclops,” she said, rolling her eyes. “It was a joke.”
“Not a good one,” Xander rebutted.
Zane nodded. “Her material gets a great deal dryer when her audience is smaller. I’d say it was a curse, but…” he lifted a shoulder and held it in a frozen shrug that put his taroe tattoos in view.
Serena swatted his raised shoulder, earning a yelp. “Anyhoo…” she drawled, brushing a blonde bang behind her ear before resting her elbows on the table so she could frame her chin within her palms. “Our friends—names are Nikki and Raith if it makes any difference—agreed to come out here, but it’s worth noting that they’re not exactly thrilled about it.”
“Because they’re not fans of mine?” Xander guessed.
Serena gave him a “tut-tut”-look and shook her head. “All that ‘dog chasing the ball’-talk and you can’t get a single guess right, Stryker.”
Xander crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eye at the leering blonde. “Maybe because I’m trying to be polite and not know everything you’re about to say. You’d be surprised how quickly this conversation would be ended if I decided to be creepy with it.”
Serena considered this and then cast a questioning look towards Estella, who gave a nod that, yes, Xander could do what he claimed.
“Fair enough, Long-John Stryker,” she resigned.
Zane gave her a look and repeated, “‘Long-John Stryker’?” before yelping from another smack.
“Because of the eyepatch,” Isaac said in a flat tone.
“So I’d gathered,” Xander sighed. Then, turning back to Serena, he asked, “So why are your friends not thrilled about coming out here if it’s not because of my reputation.”
“Because they’re aware of the situation,” Serena explained, “and they’re pretty sure that coming out here and joining you is going to get them killed.”
Zane sighed and nodded. “Look, Xander, Raith is…” he trailed off and sighed, glancing back at Serena for a moment.
Serena didn’t seem to notice; she kept her eyes fixed on Xander.
Xander stared back at the two of them. Realizing that neither of them was certain how to explain the situation, he decided to prove that he wasn’t as blind as Serena thought.
“Raith was with you when you went into that taroe village,” he said. “And Raith was in a secret relationship with one of them—with Nikki—and was asked by her to steal the relic that got the two of you cursed with the Maledictus. That curse is what got that particular taroe tribe demolished by The Council, who needed to make an example out of them for using that sort of magic, magic that risked exposing not only the existence of magic but the existence of mythos to the world. Meanwhile, you and Raith were forced to occupy one body—your body—so that his therion shifter abilities could be channeled into forcing you to transform whenever the curse took hold. For all the years that you had that curse, Nikki was on her own—everyone she’d ever known and loved slaughtered in the name of preserving a secrecy that I’ve gone and thrown away—and Raith was little more than a twinkle in the back of your eye, forced to suffer as a sentient non-being whose only real purpose was to make his best friend suffer. And now, after all’s been said and done and Nikki’s rediscovered her lost lover and Raith’s been granted the gift of his very own body, the idea of just hopping into certain death is sort of a sucky notion. That about sum it up?”
Both Zane and Serena stared back at him.
“I’m guessing you didn’t read that from a file,” Zane grumbled.
Xander shrugged. “I caught a few of the earlier bits and pieces when I was reading up on you two, but—no—the bulk of that was me being uncomfortably invasive.”
“And whose mind did you read it from, exactly?” Serena asked, looking nervous.
“All of yours,” Xander confessed. “Yours, Zane’s, and even Nikki and Raith’s.”
Zane blinked at that, shaking his head. “They… they’re not here yet, are they? No, they couldn’t be. We only just talked to them a few—”
“They’re still a few days’ out,” Xander explained. “They’re thinking two or three, but it’ll be closer to four with all the road blocks and interference they’ll come across.”
The staring continued.
“Want me to check their blood type now?” Xander asked with a smirk.
Zane laughed and nudged Serena. “See, babe?” he said around chuckles, “That’s a joke!”
Serena smacked him again, but did nothing to hide her own chuckle. “That really is creepy-as-fuck,” she said.
“Yeah. You’re telling me,” Xander offered, glad that the tension was bleeding away from the conversation.
“So they’re still days away,” Serena speculated, “and you could still pinpoint them and read their thoughts? Just like that?”
“And that impresses you?” Xander asked, raising the eyebrow that wasn’t hidden under the patch. “I did just explain that I’ve been projecting false memories of myself into the minds of people much, much farther away.”
Shrugging, Serena said, “I guess you’ve got a point there. There’s just a big difference between hearing you say ‘I put memories in far-off folks,’ and having you clearly recite the thoughts of people we know are several time zones away. I mean—shit, Stryker!—you even sounded like Nikki a few times. Didn’t he, Zane? Didn’t he sound like—”
“Unfortunately,” Zane said with a sigh.
Xander cleared his throat and traded one-eyed glances between the Vaileans. “So what was this all about? I feel like there’s a question waiting to be asked regarding your friends’ agreeing to come out this way.”
Serena and Zane shared an uncertain glance. The glance became a long, silent stare. Xander finally realized that they were holding back, hoping that the other would give in and be the one to say what had to be said.
“Well?” Xander pushed.
Serena growled and slapped Zane again. “God-fucking-damn, Zane! See if I let you fuck my shit-chute again after putting me on the spot like this!”
Estella sneered and shivered, mouthing “shit-chute” to herself.
Xander had to resist the urge to laugh.
“I… well, we—the Dickless Wonder and I—” Serena started, giving Zane another smack to punctuate the insult, “were wondering what sort of risk Nikki and Raith are facing. We were thinking it might be easier to get them to help if we could promise them they wouldn’t…”
Xander frowned and gave Estella a pained glance. “You’re asking me”—he sighed and looked down at the table’s surface—“if I can tell you whether or not they live or die?”
Neither of the Vaileans said a word.
Xander scratched at his chin and groaned, letting his head fall back so he was staring up at the ceiling. “This, of course, is part of a larger question,” he said, not taking his gaze off the ceiling. “That question being whether or not I can tell you whether or not you live or die, whether or not any of us lives or dies. You can deny it. Hell, you can even mean it when you deny it. What you think you’re thinking and what you’re truly thinking are two very different things.” He sniffled and let his head drop forward so that he could look at the Vaileans once again. “I can’t answer that question. Not because I don’t want to—god! Do I ever want to be able to just know!—but because I’ve seen so many possible paths that I can’t even say with any real certainty that I’ll—” He stopped as he felt Estella’s aura spike with concern and looked away. “I’m sorry, guys,” he said sincerely. “But I’ve watched all of us die and I’ve watched all of us live so many times—over and over and fucking over again!—that I just can’t give any one answer for anybody that doesn’t have about a million ‘if’s attached it. Every outcome is relying on a set of circumstances that I can’t even begin to explain. The… shit! The fucking direction the wind’s blowing that day alone can impact over a thousand outcomes! That, what day it happens, what time of day, the temperature, whether or not Isaac decides to lead with his left foot or his right as we head into battle…” Xander sensed Isaac’s aura twitch at that and he considered telling the therion that it was another joke, but then he realized that, no, it wasn’t really. “I can’t make any promises for you or your friends. Can I say that we could really use their help? Yes, absolutely. Do I want to be an asshole and lie so that you’ll tell them what they want to hear so we can be certain to get that help? So fucking badly! And how easy would it be for me to just wipe all your minds of everything I’ve just said and paint a happy fucking illusion of certainty so that any risks I’ve put into motion with this lunatic rant would vanish in an instant? As easy as one… two—”
Xander stopped in mid-sentence. His heart racing, his breath coming out jagged, his fists clenched…
And his skin burning.
He’d felt this way before.
Something was wrong…
“Xander? Honey?” Estella was reaching out to him, but her hand looked wrong.
Black, bony fingers with putrid ribbons of rotting flesh clinging to the ligaments, the stretching fibers threatening to snap at any moment. The hand wavered, seeming to clench blindly for any possible victim, and Xander spotted an old, familiar ring clinging lazily to the exposed knuckle of the third finger.
He jumped back, crying out.
“WHOA!” he heard Zane call out, heard the legs of his chair slide back as he moved to stand.
“N-no!” Xander trembled and tried to look past the horrible, decaying vision; fought to see Estella—his Estella—beyond the grotesque sight. But the skeleton…
The skeleton, sitting where Estella had been moments before, was wearing a red and purple dress.
Xander clenched his eye shut against the horror of what he was seeing.
“No…”
A scream issued, sounding too far away to be coming from inside the room and yet somehow emanating from where Serena was sitting. Except it wasn’t just where Serena was sitting, he realized with a rising shudder of sickness; somebody else had been occupying that seat when he’d been at that table in his mind.
Somewhere not far from that he heard a deep, rolling laugh that he didn’t want to recognize.
