Justice/Loneliness (Aspects Book 2)

by L. C. Mawson

  Justice glared at her brother. “Because she doesn’t have a choice in this! Do you think things will be better if we just wait until Bennett shows up? All that will happen is Bennett will be furious with her and force her to go through with it anyway. Not to mention... If she thinks that Loneliness has become compromised in any way... Isolating her from those she’s close to will be the first thing they do. Replacing her would be the second.”

  Vengeance stared at his sister. “You don’t really think they would do that, do you?”

  “Do you really want to find out?”

  Vengeance looked away, shaking his head. “Regardless, you freaked out, and Loneliness never does well with people freaking out. She’s hormonal and scared, and she needs her girlfriend. She doesn’t need another person telling her that she has no choice in this.”

  “Vengeance is right,” Love said as she stepped into the room, alerting them to her presence. “Loneliness is pretty distraught right now. She needs you to support her more than she needs you to tell her what she already knows.”

  “But if she doesn’t do it...”

  “She shouldn’t have to, and you should know that more than anyone, Justice. Or are you really going to stand there and tell me that forcing someone to go through a medical procedure they object to is truly the just thing.”

  Justice looked away. “It’s not about that... It’s about protecting her...”

  “So protect her against Bennett. The rest of us will help. This is a ridiculous rule, especially now that the monsters aren’t coming into the cities.”

  Justice sighed. “I doubt we will be able to stand up to them, but you’re right in saying that I’ve not been the girlfriend I should be. Come on, I think Loneliness would be happier if we weren’t alone while I apologise. Just in case things get heated again...”

  Love nodded, following the twins out of the training room and back towards the infirmary.

  Hate appeared out of the lift as they walked down the corridor.

  “Everything sorted?” Hate asked as she and Love walked behind the others.

  Love decided to switch to sign language, wanting to explain everything in full detail, without accidentally saying something that might offend Justice.

  Love had known how to sign for as long as she could remember, and Empathy had since told her that it was something the whole family had learnt, as it had taken Love much longer than usual to master speaking.

  Love still occasionally went nonverbal, so she'd taught Hate to sign as well over the past year.

  Love finished explaining everything just as they arrived at the infirmary, and Hate wore a dark frown in response.

  Loneliness was sitting on the same examination bed she'd been before, though she now sat with her knees up to her chest, her arms holding them tight.

  “You here to yell at me again?” she asked Justice, her voice tired.

  Justice winced a little at that. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled before. I was just... I’m scared, Lo.”

  “How do you think I feel?” she asked softly. “How I’ve felt ever since I figured out that this was a possibility...”

  “Lo, if you don’t do this, Bennett will force the issue. And if you continue to defy her... If they think that you’re not doing your job as the Aspect of Loneliness...”

  Loneliness looked away. “They have never actually forced the issue with another Aspect before. I mean, I know that they always bring up the fact that we can’t be replaced until we die as a reason for us to follow their rules, but they have never actually been forced into... Well, replacing someone before their natural time.”

  Justice sighed. “Do you really want to push this? To see if they would actually do it?”

  “No, but I’m also not just going to let them dictate the rest of my life like this. I mean, can you actually argue that the full strength of the Aspects is needed anymore?” She looked to everyone in the room, making it clear that the question wasn’t just for Justice. “The Aspects never used to be this tightly controlled. How could they have been? The original Aspects represented the only Rena who set foot on Earth. They all had children, and even those who succeeded them had children of their own. They all had families as well, families that they passed their knowledge to. Their language and at least part of their culture, even if a lot of it has either been lost or muddied or they never really wanted to talk about some things, which I guess would make sense if it was also their species who sent the monsters...

  “But my point is that the tightening of the restrictions around the Aspects happened gradually. I’m sure each one was seen as a smart decision at the time, a small and necessary step to make sure that we all operated our best, but it’s gone too far.”

  “She’s right,” Love said, stepping forward. “With Geral gone, the monsters aren’t coming into the city anymore. I mean, most of what we do is just clean up, and I do most of that on my own.” She turned to the twins. “You two only come with me on missions to train up Jealousy, despite the fact that they haven’t had to see battle since they became an Aspect. I need Hate with me anyway to bolster my power, and with me there, she would be more than capable of taking on the monsters if anything happened. This entire Tower could be manned by just two people at the minute. I don’t see how it would be so bad for the rest of you to have lives beyond this if you wanted to.”

  Justice shook her head. “Bennett won’t see it that way. Just because Geral has gone doesn’t mean that others won’t come. He came here to get rid of anyone who might have been ahead of him in the line of succession for the Rena throne, which means that as far as the Rena are concerned, he was the only heir they had. Well, apart from the ones that he was afraid would come here looking for you and Jia’s other descendants. At some point, someone else will probably come, either looking for Geral or you.”

  “So we deal with that when the time comes, but we can’t just put our lives on hold until then.”

  “You’re also forgetting that the rules were in place before Geral arrived. The monsters had stopped venturing into the cities before he showed up and they still didn’t relax the rules around Aspects then, so why would they do it now?”

  Love frowned, folding her arms. “Well, why didn’t they relax them before?”

  “Because of public backlash. What was the first thing you asked Hate about being an Aspect?”

  Love shrugged. “If I remember correctly, I think it was something to do with how the government paid her...”

  Hate shook her head. “No, I just told you that. You asked about the same thing everyone else would ask about. Why we haven’t tried to reclaim the wastes from the monsters.”

  Love’s determination fell a little as she realised what they were saying. “If they are seen to relax the rules around us because we’re not needed as much, people will ask why we don’t put that extra energy into trying to reclaim the Wastes.”

  Justice nodded. “It’s not common knowledge that it would be an impossible task. We could maybe push the cities out, inch by inch, but we can’t just reclaim chunks of land. While the monsters no longer venture into the cities, they still protect their nests, which are now everywhere. And even if we could clear them out of an area, would you really want to see whether or not the rest of the monsters were agitated by that? Whether they come to see us as a bigger threat to them? The most common theory for why they leave us alone now is because we stay out of their territory as long as they stay out of ours. Do you really want to see whether or not that’s true by provoking them?”

  “We wouldn’t have to provoke them to clear out an area,” Love pointed out, folding her arms. “I mean, I’ve been moving nests away from the city for months now. Why couldn’t I just do that for one of the old cities while we put walls around it? Then it would just be a question of rebuilding.”

  Justice blinked for a few moments, seemingly caught off guard by Love’s plan.

  Hate stepped forward, shaking her head. “Love, this wouldn’t be the
same. You’ve been moving those nests one at a time, weeks apart. You would need to do this quickly, to make sure that all of them stayed out of the city and no new nests formed. I know that you have incredible control over the monsters, but even you have your limits.”

  Love gave her a reassuring smile. “I know, but it has to be worth a try.”

  Loneliness turned to Love. “If this is dangerous for you, I’m not going to ask you to do it for me.”

  Love shook her head. “It’s not just for you. It’s for all of us. I don’t exactly like the idea of my future being dictated like this either.”

  Justice turned to Loneliness. “I will stand with you when Bennett comes. We can present this plan to her, and if she doesn’t listen, then I will stand with you regardless. No one is going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

  “Thank you,” Loneliness said, her voice small and thick with emotion.

  “Then I suppose we just wait for Bennett to show,” Hate said, looking away and folding her arms. “The rest of us should leave you two be.”

  Love nodded in agreement, following Hate out of the room. Vengeance came out a moment later, but he headed in the other direction.

  “I’m still not sure about this plan,” Hate said as soon as Vengeance was out of earshot. “We should talk with Empathy before we get too carried away. She should be able to figure out if you can actually clear an entire city.”

  Love gave her a reassuring smile as she took her hand. “I’m sure that I’ll be more than able to manage it with you by my side.”

  Hate raised a disbelieving eyebrow but didn’t protest.

  “Come on,” Love said, nudging their shoulders together gently. “Let’s just be optimistic for once. I mean, can you imagine if it does work? This wouldn’t just count for Loneliness, it would count for all of us. I can imagine our future together – a real future with a place of our own and kids – and I can feel my powers surging like never before. I can’t imagine that this won’t be enough for me to clear just one city.”

  Hate stiffened, her gaze remaining firmly on the floor. “Regardless,” she eventually said, “I will be happier after we talk with the others...”

  Love nodded, deciding to leave it be. After all, there was no way that Empathy wouldn’t agree with her own assessment.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Hours passed, and the only word from Bennett was a message saying that she would be there in the morning.

  After that, everyone had agreed to get some sleep and to regroup once they were rested.

  They met in the common room once they were up, most of them carrying mugs of coffee or tea as they rubbed the sleep from their eyes.

  Love imagined that most of them hadn’t slept particularly well the night before.

  She knew she hadn’t.

  At least Justice and Loneliness seemed better than the day before, she thought to herself as she waited for her black coffee to cool.

  The two girlfriends were sitting close together on the sofa, and it was clear from Justice’s protective arm around Loneliness that she wasn’t going to just stand by and let things happen, no matter what Bennett said.

  Love couldn’t help but smile at that, turning to Hate to see if she'd seen it as well.

  Hate was looking at neither the couple nor Love, however. Her gaze was stuck firmly on the abomination of sugar that she tried to call coffee. She seemed almost to be radiating negativity, which Love wasn’t entirely sure was outside the realm of possibility, given Hate’s powers.

  “So, do we have a more solid plan?” Justice asked as Empathy entered the room.

  As Empathy entered, she was unrecognisable to Love, with olive skin, bright red hair, and a towering physique. Love assumed that she was looking at a mirror image of an expert in a topic related to the plan that Empathy had watched on her terminal.

  As she joined them, however, Empathy shifted to look like Love, though her hair turned sandy blonde as Pain walked in beside her.

  “Yes, we do,” Empathy told them. “Love is right, at the minute, her powers are more than up to the task, and we can start building walls as she works to prevent other monsters from moving in. Though, to be honest, given their migration patterns and the rate of new nests being produced, I don’t think that will be an issue in the time required for Love to move out the monsters currently there.”

  “How long exactly would that be?” Hate asked.

  “It would depend on the city we tried to reclaim. If the point is to show Bennett, and everyone else, that the Aspects are no longer so heavily needed, it would need to be a big city. And one that we have enough transport infrastructure to reclaim. The underground bullet trains that connect us to the other cities will be the hardest part of this.”

  “So do you have a city in mind?”

  Empathy nodded. “There is an island off the North Coast that was entirely claimed by the monsters. But before they arrived, we had a tunnel under the sea, connecting us with them. It should be simple enough to connect to the tunnel on our side, and then on theirs, we can build walls around it, as well as around what used to be their capital city. The old maps call it London.”

  Before she could say anything else, the door opened once more, and Bennett entered.

  Her sharp suit seemed impeccable as always, and her black hair was pinned back without a single strand loose.

  As she entered, her eyebrow quirked slightly as she looked around the room, seeing that everyone had gathered there.

  She pushed her glasses up her nose before saying, “Loneliness, you and I should talk. Alone.”

  “Anything you have to say to her can be said to me as well,” Justice said firmly.

  “And me,” Vengeance chipped in. “I’m practically her brother.”

  “You can say it in front of everyone,” Loneliness said quietly, her gaze stuck to the floor.

  Bennett sighed, folding her arms. “Very well. Yesterday morning, you were scanned by the medical facilities here and the information was sent directly to me. You are aware of the fact that it is against regulations for an Aspect to become pregnant, yes?”

  “What’s done is done,” Loneliness said, still looking at the floor.

  “But not irreversibly. No other Aspect of Loneliness can take your place until your death. This means that, until your death, you cannot leave and you cannot endanger the lives of other Aspects by becoming compromised. Given the nature of your power, compromise would come in the form of close relations. A child would most certainly compromise you.”

  Loneliness gave a humourless smirk. “You really don’t know me that well if you think the constant void of distance I feel to other people would be solved so simply.”

  Justice stood up, standing in front of Loneliness. “Even if it did compromise her power, we are no longer in constant war. We no longer have to fear the extinction of our species. Letting one Aspect go wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.”

  “You must know that it isn’t that simple, Justice. The situation may not be getting worse, but it is still an eternal stalemate. You cannot expect people to be happy with Aspects stepping down while we are still forced to live in these walls.”

  Empathy stepped forward at that. “That’s why we have a plan to reclaim another city.”

  “Reclaiming another city is impossible. We don’t have the resources.”

  “Maybe we didn’t before, but Love has figured out how to relocate monster nests. I think that we can safely get to the city and put up walls over the next six months as Love moves the monsters out. Once we’ve done that, it would just be a case of rebuilding the city and connecting it to the underground rail, the former of which should be more than safe once the walls are up, and the latter of which should be more than possible with just the Aspects from this Tower standing guard. Here, I worked out some preliminary logistics.” She handed Bennett a tablet.

  Bennett hummed in thought as she looked it over, frowning slightly, though as she kept reading, her frown
lessened.

  She then looked up at all of them with a slightly raised eyebrow. “You are all aware of the dangers here, correct? I know that some of you are newer and perhaps haven’t fully grasped how dangerous this job can be.”

  Jealousy stepped forward. “If you are referring to me, I’m well aware of the danger and am more than happy to accept the risk. I don’t want my future bound up in rules like this.”

  Serenity stepped forward next. “While the past year has been a nice break, I’m afraid I might die of boredom if we don’t have something more useful to do soon. Love doesn’t need me to help move monster nests away from the current cities. If it gives me something useful to do, I will be more than happy to reclaim another.”

  Vengeance smiled, placing a hand on Loneliness’ shoulder. “Lo and my sister are the only family I have left. If this will make you leave them alone, I am more than willing.”

  Empathy folded her arms. “Well, it’s my plan, so I am more than happy to see it through.”

  “And I stand by Empathy,” Pain said quietly from her side.

  Bennett turned to Love and Hate. “And you two? It will be you taking the majority of the risk, Love.”

  “I have already given up my name and my future as a dancer to be here,” Love told her. “I would rather not also give up a future with a family.”

  “And if she’s going to be there, I suppose I should be as well, to make sure nothing goes wrong,” Hate said.

  Bennett nodded. “All right. If nothing else, if this mission goes south, you will likely die, and hopefully, your replacements will be less troublesome.”

  She turned to Empathy. “Send me a more detailed plan as soon as you have one. You will leave as quickly as possible.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Love was at a bit of a loss for what to pack.

  She’d never been on a mission that lasted more than a day, never mind six months...