Fear the Empire

by Jaron Lee Knuth

“I've been in every council meeting.”

  Mermaid stopped, running through the sentence again to make sense of it before she said, “You mean you-”

  “I was there, Mermaid. Every time. Did you think your espionage specialist was going to just sit back and wait to find out what the council decided. Do you honestly think there's a single secret in this place that I don't know about?”

  “You were spying? On us.”

  “Of course I was. For the good of the domain. To keep you honest. I was policing the police, as it were.”

  “And who policed you?”

  “The law. Which is why I never waver. The second I bend, the entire system crashes.”

  Mermaid was trying to stop herself from rolling her eyes at his arrogance. “The weight of the world is upon your shoulders, is that it?”

  “If need be.”

  “And after all this time, after all this watching and spying, you've decided I'm not capable of doing my job anymore?”

  “I didn't say that. I'm just here to tell you that you've deviated from the path. You're headed in a dangerous direction.”

  “Because I'm trying to protect Replica from a life of indentured servitude after her little comments online about the evils of war? Give me a break. She's done her time. Whether she's alive or dead, she's free now.”

  “But it doesn't stop there, does it? You may have only opened that one door, but the flood waters still came rushing in.”

  “Flood waters? What are you talking about?”

  His walking cane spun in his invisible hand, then tapped on the floor. “Retina.”

  The name struck Mermaid hard. She wanted to forget it, but no amount of tequila was going to erase her from the records. She should have known Spook would never let it go.

  “Is that why you're really here? Still want revenge against the little girl that bested you?”

  “Bested me?” Spook let out a chuckle. “In my line of work, as long as I'm still breathing, I can still fight. She should have killed me when she had the chance, but perhaps that's my fault. I thought I had taught her better than that.”

  “I can agree with you on that,” Mermaid mumbled under her breath.

  Spook was silent for a moment and Mermaid hated the fact that she couldn't see his face or the look in his eyes. How was she supposed to read him?

  “Regardless,” he continued, “she is still a stain on our record. Not just mine, but the Alliance itself. If this were to go public, and the people of the American Homelands were to learn that we are so inept that we can't even locate one pregnant teenager...”

  “You aren't concerned about what would happen if they found out we were hunting a pregnant teenager?”

  “We already went through that many years ago. The people spoke, Mermaid. They're willing to ignore a few questionable morals if it means they can walk down the street safely.”

  Mermaid glared at the empty chair where Spook sat. “And by people, you mean anyone without powers.”

  “Are you really going to play the victim of bigotry right now? I think we've both benefited from our powers. We made the right choice. Retina did not.”

  Mermaid rolled her eyes, annoyed with the circular debate they were having. She knew he would never back down from his ironclad beliefs. Her only option was to placate him.

  “Fine, Spook. What do you want me to do? Would you like me to nominate you as the head of the search party? Do you want to lead the investigation?”

  Spook let out a snort of derision. “I'm not here to ask for anything, especially not your permission to search for my own pupil.”

  Mermaid slammed her fist on the table. “Then what are you doing here?”

  Spook's cane pushed into the ground to help him stand and she heard him shuffle over to the wall of televisions. He pushed a few buttons on the controls next to a screen and summoned a security video from the archives.

  When the video began, Mermaid recognized the location. From the way the people moved, to the architecture of the buildings, it was obviously a city in the Hive. When the explosion rocked the camera, it startled her. Random acts of violence weren't normal in the south. Nothing was random in the Hive. When a supervillain began throwing cars down the street, she was even more surprised, mostly, because she didn't recognize him.

  She squinted her eyes and leaned in. “He's new. What's he calling himself?”

  “Don't know. Don't care. We were able to do a facial recognition. I know his real name.”

  Mermaid leaned back in her chair. “And?”

  “Andre Evans.”

  “You say that like it should mean something to me.”

  “You're right. It should. He died in the Pit six months ago.”

  Mermaid leaned in again to watch the video continue, though she wasn't sure what she was looking for.

  “How is that possible?”

  Spook's cane paced back and forth. “No idea. But we're not even to the good part.”

  “The good part?”

  “Keep watching.”

  Mermaid watched as the supervillain continued to throw vehicles around like they weighed nothing. His strength was off the charts. He could stand toe-to-toe with some of the heavyweights, she had no doubt about that, but then he suddenly stopped. She squinted again, and saw him talking to a man and woman crouched down next to the wall.

  “Here,” Spook said, “let me zoom in for you.”

  He pushed a couple more buttons and the image enlarged. The couple's faces filled the screen, and behind different haircuts, she could clearly make out Retina and Rainfall. Lucy Grae and Connor Ford. Wanted criminals and scared teenagers.

  “So they made it to the Hive. We already suspected that they-” Mermaid stopped as she saw the supervillain rush the two teenagers into a car, lift the vehicle off the ground, and leap into the sky, disappearing from the camera's view. “Did he just kidnap them?”

  “I considered that, but their body language seemed a bit too cordial.” The cane smacked the ground again and she heard the chair squeak as Spook sat back down. “So I did some digging. It seems Retina grew up in the exact same neighborhood as Andre Evans. And while they were quite a few years apart in school, they shared many of the same acquaintances.”

  Mermaid stared at the screen, now frozen on the image of Lucy and Connor's zoomed in faces. “You're telling me... somehow these three are in cahoots?”

  “I prefer to call it aiding and abetting.”

  Mermaid slumped down in her chair and rubbed her temples. “I was afraid of this.”

  “Afraid of what? Afraid I would find her? Afraid I'd finish the job you weren't able to?”

  “I was afraid that all of our laws and rules and punishments would make a pure-hearted superhero think she's a supervillain, just because she had no other choice.”

  “Forgive me if I don't go down the rabbit hole of victimization with you again. Our drones tracked that vehicle they were being carried in. We know where they're hiding. I'm here as a courtesy to you. I'm letting you know my team is in place. We're going in, and one way or another, we're ending this.”

  Mermaid stared down at the desk in front of her. The wood had a shine to it, the kind that only came from a very recent cleaning. Dusted and wiped down, she could almost make out her reflection in the gleam, but it looked more like a blurry ghost, without detail. She breathed in through her nose, filling her lungs with air, but the tear that formed in her eye was beyond her control. She turned her chair away from Spook and wiped the tear as it rolled down her cheek, but she was sure he had seen it. It was a moment of weakness he would forever judge her for, but she didn't care. If her humanity was a weakness, than she preferred to be frail.

  “You truly believe that killing this girl is for the greater good, don't you?”

  The chair creaked again as he stood and said, “Yes. I do. For the Alliance, and the American Homelands.”

  Mermaid did not turn around, keeping her back to the forever patriot as she said, “I was wron
g about you, Spook. I thought your super power was invisibility, but your delusion is far more powerful.”

  There was a long pause before she heard his cane tap against the floor as he walked out the door, only stopping to say, “You can thank me when this is all over.”

  His cane continued to tap against the floor, far down the hallway when she replied, “It's not over yet.”

  29

  ZANA

  Tila ran her clawed finger over Zana's skin, drawing a line from her shoulder to her knee, tracing the curves like the hills of a horizon. It sent a rush of comfort through Zana's body. The respect she held for the woman as a warrior surpassed any romantic feelings she may have entertained. Zana's heart was still cold, deadened by the oppression she faced, no matter where she turned. Still, Tila was a good friend and kept her bed warm. That would always be appreciated.

  “You still looked troubled,” Tila said as she gazed up at Zana, her tongue flicking into the air.

  Zana smiled down at the lizard-woman. “You're good at what you do, Tila. Really good. But I'm still expected to march an army of Therians into the Fatherlands and usurp my own family. Rolling around in my sheets with you isn't going to make me forget that.”

  Tila's fingers traced Zana's hips and her hand came to rest on her belly. “Would it be so bad?”

  Zana flinched, rolling toward Tila so that she could look her in the eyes. “Would what be so bad?”

  “Commanding a legion of warriors to take over the world? It sounds... glorious.”

  Zana sat up in bed, pulling the coarse blanket up to cover herself. “I'm all for crushing my enemies in the heat of battle, but we're talking about my family.”

  Tila sat up as well, as if she were just then realizing the seriousness of the conversation. “But your family put you here. They sold you off for war favors. You've never held any love for them.”

  “Just because I don't express it, doesn't mean I don't feel it. My uncle Maksim will be next in line to wear the crown. He has been nothing but good to me, my whole life. Absent, perhaps, but good. In fact, he was the one person in the family I felt like I could actually relate to. A true warrior forced into politics. He has no desire to rule.”

  “Then perhaps there will be no war. Perhaps he will hand you the crown of his own freewill.”

  Zana chuckled at the naivete of the girl. “Maksim is a warrior. A proud one. He might, under the right negotiations, let another member of the family take the crown, but it is Dominus Mastodon who wants it. Not me. Maksim would never hand over the Empire to a Dominus.”

  “What about your brother?”

  “Yuri?”

  “You said he was the one you actually feared.”

  “He has just as little interest in ruling as the rest of us. We've all seen the weight of the crown suck the life from proud men. We've all seen brave warriors wither away while they sit on the throne, signing documents and stamping laws.”

  “Yet you still fear him.”

  Zana took a breath before responding, trying to find the right words for her explanation. “Yuri is different. I might be the only person he would listen to, but something is broken inside of him. Something I'm not sure can be fixed. And I've never been one for words.”

  “Do you think it would come to that? Do you think you would have to fight him?”

  Zana closed her eyes and let her head hang low. “I raised that boy. I protected him from everything I could. But he doesn't need me anymore. He's powerful. More powerful than anyone thought. If he decides to attack me... there won't be a fight. I'm as good as dead.”

  Tila reached up and touched Zana's cheek. “Don't say that. You have an army that's willing to die for you.”

  Zana smiled back with a wicked grin. “Correction... I have half an army. The women support me, but-”

  “Not all the men are bad.”

  Zana raised a skeptical eyebrow at Tila.

  Tila chuckled. “I'm serious. Some of them don't even take advantage of the women. And among the ones who do, there are many that would turn. They are only following orders out of fear.”

  Zana rubbed her eyes. “I heard that same excuse about the soldiers that followed King Krieg in the second World War. The brutality those monsters showed was inhuman, yet they claimed they were just following orders.”

  “That was a different time.”

  “Different year. Same monsters.” Zana pushed the blanket away and got out of bed, already tired of the conversation. “Some sins are unforgivable. Some people are lost causes. Mercy can be a weakness.”

  “It can also be a strength! A good leader needs both.”

  “Fear and love the Empire,” Zana mumbled to herself.

  “You have both,” Tila said softly. “I know you do. Mercy and strength. Love and justice. The balanced power of righteousness.”

  Zana tried to place where she had heard that before. “What is that from?”

  “Imperator Konstantin said that during his coronation speech. It's what he promised the people of the Empire.”

  “My great-grandfather.” Zana looked at the floor and smiled. “He was... a good man.”

  “Did you know him well before he...?”

  Zana nodded. “His invulnerability kept him sharp, even in his old age. He used to take time every week to spend with each grandchild and great-grandchild individually. Even when he was busy with political duty, he'd turn his work into a game for us. Teaching us lessons the whole time, without us even realizing it. When I was really young, small enough for him to bounce on his knee as he was scribbling down equations to figure out ration portions for the Fatherlands, I remember thinking that no one would ever be as perfect as he was. No one, super powers or not, could ever live up to his stature.”

  “I think the world felt that way. In fact, I think they still do.”

  She nodded again. “We all wanted the next generation to live up to his ideals. Maybe even surpass them. And maybe it was just that he died before...”

  Tila waited for the response before asking, “What is it?”

  “Maybe he just died before he could fail. Maybe he seems so perfect in my mind because I was too young to see past the facade. Any man or woman that wants to rule the world... there has to be something wrong with them. The ego you must have to think you're the person for that job.”

  Tila shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe he didn't think he was the best person for the job. Maybe he just thought he was better than who was ruling the world. If you believed that, wouldn't it be irresponsible not to do something about it?”

  Zana pulled a fur blanket over her shoulders and leaned against one of the wooden shelves. “Why am I getting the feeling we're talking about two different things?”

  Tila looked away bashfully, but her intensity returned immediately. “No. Actually, they're not different at all.”

  She stood up from the bed, her scale-covered body completely, unabashedly exposed, revealing every rippling muscle in her warrior frame. “You are in a moment, a crossroads. You have an opportunity to right wrongs, to course correct at least a corner of the world. You have it all in the palm of your hand. All you have to do is ball that hand into a fist. All you need to do is remember who you are, what you're capable of.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Tila stepped up to Zana, standing right in front of her as she said, “I may sound crazy, but I'm not. I'm determined. I'm excited by the prospect of what you could mean for the future.”

  Zana rubbed her face. “Please don't tell me that you want me to take over the Empire. I'll toss you out that window if you even-”

  “I'm not talking about the Empire. If I'm being honest, I don't think there's any saving it. I think it's going to collapse under its own weight no matter who runs it.”

  “So what are you talking about?”

  The look in Tila's eyes was an intoxicating blend of intensity, passion, yearning, and desperation. “I'm talking about Therian.”

  “You want me
to take over Therian?”

  Tila smiled bashfully again. “You wouldn't need to, Zana. You already rule over it, you just don't know it yet.”

  “You sound like one of the shamans.”

  Tila shrugged and said, “Those are wise women.”

  “I think you may want to reevaluate your use of the word wise. Talking in circles until everyone else is confused doesn't make you smart.”

  “Then let me get straight to the point.” Tila poked her finger into Zana's chest. “You are, by far, the most powerful person in Therian, and I'm not just talking about your physical abilities. You have more natural charisma than you're aware of. You can command a room with your presence alone. You take no bullshit from anyone, including the Dominus and his family. You inspire the citizens of this domain by being you. You are a born leader, Zana. You've just never believed it.”

  Zana was unsure of how she felt about where the conversation was leading her. “I've commanded armies. That's enough for me.”

  “But Therian is no different! Everyone of us is a warrior. We have to be. Hunters, gatherers, soldiers, even the servants. We have animal instincts that drive us, that tell us to take our food, not wait for it to be served. They tell us to chase that which cannot be caught, for that is the best prize.”

  Zana nodded her head and walked to the window. “I love this domain, I won't deny it.”

  Tila was next to her before she realized, gazing out over the fields that surrounded the castle. “Take what you want, Zana. Reach out and grab it, no matter if you think you can catch it or not.”

  Zana glanced at Tila, who looked stoic standing in the fading sunlight that gleamed against her scales. The woman closed her eyes as the wind blew through the open window, casting her hair behind her. Zana pitied the people of the world that could not find beauty in the animal-hybrids of Therian. There was so much to admire about them.

  Zana returned her gaze out across the fields, watching the sky turn to streaks of purple and pink hues as the sun fell behind the horizon. “You're talking about a coup.”

  “As you said, at least half the Therian military will support you. And we are women, after all. I'm sure we can sway the minds of more than a few men.”