Victor nodded. “I’m awake. What’s your name?”
“Ian. I already know yours.”
Victor shook his head. “That’s a name forced upon me in my old existence. My true name is Victor.”
Ian snorted. “Now there’s an ironic name.” Victor winced as Ian assessed him with a piercing gaze. “Is there something you need from me… Victor?”
He’d not realized until now that he didn’t know the question to ask. He started with the obvious. “Why didn’t you kill me before?”
Ian opened his mouth to reply, and from the twitch in his face Victor sensed it would be none too kind. But Ian hesitated a moment before answering. “I suppose the answer is that it’s not really in my nature to kill anyone. I’ll kill another to defend myself, sure, or to defend my way of life against those who’d see that way of life eliminated. I’ll take the life of another to protect a friend or a loved one. At that moment in time, Victor? You were no longer a threat to me, no longer in any of those categories. You proved that by putting your sword down when I asked, even though I’d not done so first.” He paused. “No, you weren’t a direct threat to me, and therefore I had no reason to kill you. But your decisions? Those were a danger to all of us. And that’s why I made certain you’d make no more until the fighting ended.”
Victor’s jaw dropped. “I… what… what do you mean?” But he already knew, had known for ages, and no medical reversal of loyalties would hide the truth.
Ian’s face turned stony and unreadable once more. “It was never our goal to come to this Island to conquer and slaughter, Victor. Our goal here was liberation, removing the mental programming inflicted upon every member of the Aliomenti from the time they joined this organization. We wanted to come here, lift the burden of mental slavery, and let each of them decide for themselves how to live. We practice what we preach, Victor. When the plans for this effort were announced, many of our people decided they didn’t want to participate. And that’s fine. It’s what happens when people are free to make up their own minds. We’d do the same here. James, here?” He nodded at his counterpart. “He thinks our approach is madness. I ought to kill him, right? I should have added my own mental programming as the old disappeared, make him loyal to me or Will Stark, right? But I didn’t. He might even decide to pick up his sword and attack me. So be it.”
Ian paused as Victor let the words sink in. He watched James, who’d observed the conversation warily. James still didn’t trust the Alliance man. But his face suggested he’d never raise a sword against Ian and the others again.
Ian watched Victor’s reaction and pointed at James. “He’s deciding—for himself—how he wants to relate to me. He’s deciding if he wants to fight anymore, or if there’s no longer a sufficient reward or risk to continue the effort. But understand something, Victor. That programming meant that not a single Energy user on this Island could choose to do anything but fight to the death. We had to defend ourselves, but we also had to get the medicine into everyone’s system. It was a risk, but we found sufficient numbers who accepted that risk. We realized that we could work better and faster when we used the nanos to hold our opponents still and use the swords to inject. It worked. It inflamed the Aliomenti, of course, who saw only that we drew blood from their friends. But we were slowly winning, and the rate of injury fell. Very slowly, our opponents were choosing to end their fight.”
His face darkened. “And then you messed it all up, Victor. You made that foolish decision. You disabled those devices, perhaps out of a sense of loyalty, a desire to make the fight a bit more even. If you’d done nothing, Victor, the Alliance would have won the battle by freeing the minds of the Aliomenti with the smallest number of casualties possible given the entrenched mental position of the Aliomenti. Your actions prolonged the battle and turned it into one in which death was the only option for a far greater number of people, and for far longer than necessary. That’s why I knocked you out. I couldn’t risk you prolonging the battle yet again.”
Victor’s face fell. “But—”
“There are no buts, Victor.” Ian folded his arms, and Victor saw the scars, the gashes, the bruises, the blood. “Your decision led to the deaths of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of men and women here because it prolonged and intensified the fighting. And that doesn’t account for those injured or killed directly in the aftermath of the gravity shenanigans.”
Victor stared at the ground.
He didn’t want to hear Ian’s words, didn’t want to hear it because the words rang true. It was a truth built upon the pain of guilt, something he’d not experienced in centuries. It was the curse of a free mind, the ability to recognize one’s own faults and limitations, to understand how those faults led to the pain of others, often innocent, often as they tried to do good.
Many had died today because of his actions. How many more had died in the past before Adam had inflicted upon his mental freedom?
He found himself longing for a return to his life as Athos. There was no mental anguish in that life. No guilt. No conscience.
He didn’t know if he’d get that life back. For now, he said the only words that came to mind. “I’m sorry.”
Ian shook his head. “Sorry doesn’t bring back the dead. Go away, Victor. We have a lot of healing to do here.” He turned back to James and resumed their conversation… but not before James looked at the former Hunter with a glare of deepest disgust.
He felt chilled. Even those who’d once held him in great esteem hated him now. Or perhaps they’d always hated him, and only now felt the freedom needed to show those feelings.
Victor, no longer a Hunter, no longer feared and still not respected, turned and walked away. He felt a rising anger inside. His life had been controlled by one man for centuries. Victor wondered if he’d still be such a pariah to those around him had he been his own man. He couldn’t repair the mistakes of the past, even those made earlier today. He needed to do something, though. Something to make everything, if not right again, at least better.
He needed answers. He needed to know why Arthur had done it. He needed to know why the man had never trusted his lead Hunter to be his own man. He altered his path, heading for the elevator that would take him to the penthouse level.
It was time to visit the Leader.
XXXV
EERIE SILENCE PERMEATED THE PENTHOUSE level, interrupted only by Angel’s heaving cries as she held Charlie’s body. His lifeless eyes remained open and unblinking. The others sent in their respective healing nanos, flooding Charlie’s with the greatest concentration of the devices since their creation. Intense waves of pulsating, healing Energy surrounded him, urging him back.
It took only a minute to realize they were too late.
The thick blade had pierced his heart and continued through his spine, the damage so severe that he’d likely died before his body hit the ground.
With their acceptance of his death, Angel’s family instead moved their Energy to her, empathic Energy tinged with sensations of love and support. They knew she’d need time to mourn the loss of the man she’d loved for so many decades, and did not insult his memory by trying to erase her grief. They knew she’d fight such efforts.
They put hands of comfort upon her shoulders, reminding her that they were there, able to support her in whatever manner they could. Adam, so recently confronted with the violent death of his mother, gave Angel’s shoulder an extra squeeze before moving to Eva, grasping the limp hand, as if hoping to garner the comfort only a mother’s touch can bring even as she lay lifeless on the ground beside him.
Hope knelt beside Angel and draped her arm across her daughter’s shoulder, and each of them knew that it was at this moment that Angel, so long denied a relationship with her mother, would be most grateful of her presence. Angel, tears still flowing freely, leaned into her mother’s comforting embrace, taking what little solace she could.
Minutes passed before she could speak again, and when she did, Angel’s voice was muffled, ba
rely audible even in the silence of the room. “I don’t know what I’ll do without him.”
Hope leaned back so as to look her daughter in the eye, and Angel met her tearful gaze. Hope wiped the tears from Angel’s cheek. “This is not the first time our extended family has faced a situation where a mother-to-be has to face living life without her husband.” Her words were quiet. Angel’s tears halted for just a moment, and Hope’s reassuring smile spread. “I believe the child in question turned out just fine.”
Angel forced a smile upon her face, one with little joy or mirth, but she nodded. She’d not face this battle alone.
Anna moved to Angel’s side, the granite-like expression from the time spent fighting Assassins replaced with a look of softness and compassion. “I’m here to help too, Aunt Angel.” She gave her aunt a friendly wink as she put a comforting hand on Angel’s shoulder. “I happen to know a thing or two about being a third-generation Energy user, after all. We’ll be best friends.”
Angel reached up and squeezed her niece’s hand.
Adam opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again. Will was the only one who’d noticed, and Adam glanced his way. Gena’s been through a similar loss.
Will nodded. They couldn’t undo the trauma of the moment. But his daughter wouldn’t lack for a support system of people who understood exactly what she faced and would experience.
Angel looked around, her moist, red eyes taking in the looks of love and concern. Even Porthos the Hunter looked strangely shaken, his intense eyes downcast. “Thank you for your support. It’s obvious that everyone knows about my… condition. Even though I didn’t tell any of you. I know I complained about it, but I do appreciate your efforts to keep me and my hus-…husband… in a place of safe—”
She broke off as a new round of tears erupted, and sank her head into the waiting embrace of Hope.
The elevator chime sounded, startling all of them. They stood ready for an attack. Charlie’s death meant that at least some fighting continued in the lower levels. Might a band of Aliomenti warriors be moving through Headquarters, finding and eliminating Alliance pockets of resistance? Will cursed himself silently. They’d been so absorbed with the situation here that he’d not thought to check in with Ian on the status of the battle raging below. He suspected Arthur had sent a broadcast message demanding Aliomenti return to the Island as reinforcements for the battle once Fil appeared. Had the message brought a new wave of Aliomenti supporters to the Island despite Ashley’s sacrificial efforts?
The doors opened and they all held a collective breath.
The Hunter Athos stepped out of the elevator car and looked around as the doors closed behind him.
They all relaxed visibly. Adam gave the Hunter a curious look. “Victor? What… what are you doing here? I thought you’d gone to the lower levels to stop the fighting.”
There were several confused looks at Adam’s statement. “Victor’s his original name,” Will muttered. “He became Athos later.”
The former Hunter scrunched his face into a frown, and his eyes told of a man struggling with something deep and pervasive. “I did what I could. I activated one of the defense mechanisms in the building, and…”
Adam’s curious face turned stony. “You? You’re the one who flipped the gravity around?”
Victor nodded, his face already falling. “It was a mistake. I know that now.”
“A mistake?” Adam said. Though his volume decreased, his words carried such power and intensity that Victor took a step back. “A mistake? That mistake killed my mother.”
Victor looked at Eva. “Your mother was our spy?”
Adam winced, as did the others, none of whom could accept the idea that Eva had provided the Aliomenti with key information. “She did what she needed to do.”
Will glanced at Adam, confused at his words. How long had Adam known of Eva’s communications with Arthur? And why hadn’t he mentioned her efforts to anyone else?
Victor shook his head, and his face took on such a look of despair that even Adam’s face softened. “Look, I know I’ve made a mess of things today, and that’s not even accounting for everything I’ve done before today. I’ve come to learn over the past several hours that many of my greatest mistakes, and many of my poorest judgments, were made when my mind was altered. I came here because I wanted to know, from the man who performed that alteration…” He hesitated. “I wanted to know why he thought I needed fixing. I need to know why I wasn’t good enough to work with him and for him without being a mental slave.”
Will experienced a surge of pity for the man. The Hunter’s intensity, his desire to find, capture, and punish, no longer drove his every waking action and thought. Before him was a man lost, confused, and broken, one who had no idea what path he might take in the future because he knew no path other than the one he’d followed until today.
The former Hunter would get no answers or comfort here. “I’m afraid that Arthur Lowell, the man you knew as the Leader, is dead.”
Victor’s face fell, his eyes registering complete defeat. “Then… then I’ve killed him as well. Just like all the others.”
The survivors exchanged glances, and some eyes flicked in Porthos’ direction. But none of them knew how to correct Victor’s understanding of how each death occurred, or that Arthur’s death occurred before the gravity manipulations. His statement met with only awkward silence.
Victor looked at each of them. They saw in his face a man torn apart by the pain of understanding. It wasn’t lost on any of them that his face was torn apart by internal turmoil, and no longer by the scar Will provided two centuries earlier. “I… all I can say to each of you, then, is that I’m sorry. I can’t undo what I’ve done.” He took a deep breath, and his eyes misted. “I can only take the necessary steps to ensure that it won’t happen again. Not by my hand, at least.”
He walked toward the exterior wall, his movements making clear his intent.
Adam dropped Eva’s hand and sprang to his feet, racing after his new friend. “Victor! Don’t do this. It’s not the only way.”
Victor froze, turned, and looked his new friend in the eye, finding some comfort in the fact that at least one person spoke up. “It is for me.”
The former Hunter summoned his Energy, turned, and hurled it at the exterior wall, blasting a hole through to the outside. A stronger breeze whistled inside the building, rustling up papers stacked upon Arthur’s desk.
Victor walked straight to the hole in the wall, never stopping as he passed through and dropped from sight.
Adam moved cautiously toward the hole, braced his hands on the sides, and leaned out, looking down at the Plaza below them.
When he turned back, the distraught look on his face told them everything.
“I… I must face my fate as well.”
Porthos’ face registered shock at the actions of his long-time colleague. He looked pale, and they realized it had little to do with the blood lost after the disappearance of his right hand. But his eyes told the story of a man who knew that his time to face his final end had come.
Will shook his head. “I’m not sure that’s the best course of action, Sebastian.”
The man shuddered at the pronouncement of his birth name. “Perhaps. Perhaps not. And yet it’s the only way to ensure… I don’t want to risk… it needs to happen. Just like Ath—like Victor said.” His face took on a pleading look. “Please. It’s my choice.”
The shared glances before Will finally nodded with deep regret.
Sebastian bowed his head. “My only request… I’d like to do this entirely of my own free will. I… I want to take my own steps, under my own power, as I meet my fate.”
They respected that decision. The worst punishment wasn’t the one your enemies inflicted. It was the punishment you inflicted upon yourself.
Adam, Will, and Sarah spent several minutes pulling the netting from Porthos, while Anna, Hope, and Fil continued to comfort Angel. Adam dropped severa
l comments, letting Porthos know that tricks wouldn’t be tolerated, that his distrust and skepticism remained. Porthos kept his eyes closed and nodded each time, accepting Adam’s concerns, assuring him that he would do nothing but what Athos had done.
Will wondered how Adam had gotten Eva free of the netting so quickly, but hadn’t done the same for anyone else. But it didn’t seem the time to ask.
The netting finally fell free. They pulled Porthos to his feet on his unsteady legs, and it took a moment until he could stand upright. He looked at Will. “You’ve been a worthy adversary, Will Stark.” He held out his left hand.
Will shook it.
They watched Porthos walk across the room toward the hole in the exterior wall. He slowed as he reached the opening and leaned out. “I should probably mention that I’m afraid of heights,” he muttered.
And then he jumped.
Will moved toward the opening slowly. He didn’t want to see what he suspected he’d see. But it seemed appropriate that he be the one to announce the deaths of the last Hunters. He peered through the hole in the wall, using his Energy to ensure he didn’t fall out as well. He saw the two bodies, side by side, contorted faces looking at each other. Victor’s limbs were bent wildly askew, and Will saw deep indentations in the Plaza concrete generated by the force of the dual impacts.
He pulled back. The Hunters had died as they’d lived, side by side, inseparable to the end.
He felt the eyes on his back and didn’t turn around. “It’s all over.”
XXXVI
THEIR EYES MOVED TO THE hole in the exterior wall and they understood all it symbolized.
The Hunters were dead. One had succumbed to injuries sustained weeks earlier. The others had committed suicide upon recognizing the extensive tragedy they’d generated in the lives of so many.
The Assassins were dead. One had died after refusing to commit yet another murder against a defenseless innocent. The other had died while attempting to commit a similar murder, confronted by a greater, more deadly fighter, who’d fought to defend a loved one.
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