Meta Retcon
AMysteriousAuthor
Meta, adjective; referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential
Part One
The War
The alarms blared and the emergency lights flashed red and orange. As the defense detail regrouped through the corridors, doors sealed electronically behind them. The man leading them was chiseled from marble, with a perfect complexion that was marred only by the scorn etched into the features. While the soldiers behind him wore armor and held ballistic shields, he was dressed in only a black sweater and cargo pants that were bloused into tightly fastened boots. The troops breached the lobby of the building where a large hole was now located beyond the foyer instead of a door, wafting concrete dust about the room.
In the center of the hole stood a tall figure clad in a skin-tight black suit that warped and shifted out of focus. The seams emitted a white glow that accentuated the small armor pieces that were more effective than anything the security detail possessed. A bright light shone from the shoulder, highlighting the '1' etched there. The face was a constantly warping and shifting orb that, though featureless, gave the impression of disappointment.
"Hello Kyle." One said, slightly raising his hands.
"Open fire." The un-armored man ordered, initiating a hell storm of gunfire from the ranks behind him.
The security detail fired in two separate ranks, allowing constant fire to be on the target even through reloads. One didn't try to evade the fire, he just stood still and allowed the bullets to bounce harmlessly away from his body. When the gunfire ended, One lowered his hands and shrugged slightly.
"Was that it, Kyle? I'm disappointed."
"My name is Adam, and that suit is the only reason you're still alive." Adam Kingsley said, gesturing to his detail to back off.
"Your name is Kyle, my name is Adam. I don't know what Grace has done to you but she can't take that away from you." One said, approaching Adam swiftly.
"She saved me. Brought me back to life after you, and everyone else I thought I loved, let me die. I didn't forget Kyle Trager, I rejected him. My name is Adam Kingsley now, and that suit won't save you from me." Adam said with narrowed eyes.
He lunged forward with a powerful strike that One nimbly avoided and they began their deadly dance. One's suit was a body enhancing chamber, it manipulated gravity to an extent where his physical body wasn't depleted of energy when he moved. Despite this, the raw power of Kingsley was evident in his movements and discipline which signaled the two to be evenly matched. Were Adam to connect one of his ferocious punches, One's suit would be damaged irreparably and he would be a normal man against… something else entirely.
With these facts in his head, combined with affection for the boy Kingsley used to be, One only dodged. He only avoided, swirling around the room with swiftness, always just out of Adams ferocious reach. The security detail knew better than to interfere, an errant strike from their captain would decimate any of them.
"You can't want this for your life, Kyle! You're acting like a henchman! You are capable of so much more!" One insisted, completely aware of his surroundings.
"There will be plenty of time left for personal development after this conflict with The Deserters has ended." Adam said passively, not letting up in his torrent of strikes.
"And that means killing me? Killing Jessi? We're your family." One said furiously.
"You've chosen your own fate by interrupting Latnok activities for the past decade. We have never sought you out." Adams fist narrowly missed One's head. Could it be that the man inside was tiring?
"Not you personally, Kyle. But I swear to you that if Grace could have found us, she would have ordered a hit squad immediately."
"I don't doubt that. There is nothing you can say that will change me, Adam Baylin. I have chosen who I am, so either fight me or flee but enough of this futile dance." Adam said, ceasing his assault.
One stopped moving as well, but still out of Kingsley's reach just in case.
"What is so important to Latnok in this facility, Kyle? All security assets have been moved here and its out in the middle of the desert." One asked, inclining his head.
"I had guessed the explosive entry was a distraction, but you really have no idea at all, do you?" Adam asked with genuine curiosity.
"Apparently he has no idea." A female voice called from behind the group as the blaring alarms switched off.
Grace Kingsley walked past the soldiers and stood next to her son, raising an eyebrow to One.
"Adam, I presume?" she asked.
"You would be correct. Why do I have no idea?"
"Well I've just come from the rift housing, we had guessed that Jessi would be waiting to attack it while you distracted us here in the lobby but apparently you're on your own." Grace said with a shrug.
"Or maybe she's just really, really stealthy." One suggested but Grace only laughed.
"Jessi is the most formidable obstacle for Latnok on the face of this planet, I am confident she wouldn't resort to stealth." Grace said confidently.
"Good point. What is the rift housing?" One asked with a gesture.
"Why don't you join us, Adam? You can see the rift housing yourself. You can help us. This planet is dying, the human race is becoming ever more volatile and destructive. You see this, everyday, and you know it to be true." Grace said, impassioned.
"There can't be good without the bad, Grace. If your solution for the bad in humanity is to be even worse and strike fear into the rest of us, you're only escalating the problem further. There is no 'cure' for the nature of human beings except choosing for yourself to be better." One said imploringly, Adam Kingsley smirked.
"You're wrong, Baylin. We can make people choose that without the need for some sort of conscience awakening on a person-to-person basis." Adam said.
"But that's not truly goodness. It's just another form of control that the human nature will eventually rebel against and things will be worse than ever." One beseeched them both.
Grace just shrugged, "If it works, even temporarily, then it's worth whatever comes after it."
"I can't let you tamper with things like this, Grace. It is beyond science, it's beyond progress… you're suggesting an enslavement of our entire species to passiveness." One clenched both fists.
"You are my inspiration for it, Adam! You've gone to incredible lengths to avoid conflict, even going so far as to die for peaceful resolutions. Our son proves that this world would be much better if more people were like you and him." Grace said, gesturing to Adam.
"Kyle was good because of the love and care provided for him by the Trager family, not because he was chemically altered to be that way. Look at him now, this death machine you've converted him into! This is what your influence does to people, Grace. You take what is natural and self-governing and turn it into whatever you need it to be at the time." One took a step forward angrily.
"You're determined that we need to be villains, and that's fine. Just know that it isn't true, and it would all be much better if you help us rather than constantly hinder us." Grace said sadly.
"I could never help you, Grace. We both know that our ideas and our methods differ too radically." One said, hanging his head.
"You could be the moral compass, then. We can all agree that Latnok goes too far sometimes, if anything your assistance could point us towards the right direction. Join us. Lead us. Mentor me, as you were always meant to… Father." Adam Kingsley said, holding out his hand.
Grace held hers out as well and One glanced between the two of them. He reached out to them both slowly, cautiously. His hand closed around theirs and they both smiled to him. Suddenly, Adam Kingsley turned rapidly and pulled One's arm clean off. He kicked upwards behind him and caught One under the chin, separating his head from his body. It all happened so fast that the grip pressure of the hand Grace held didn't even change.
She let go and stepped back as the body slumped to the ground and the head bounced off the floor ten feet behind it. Adam inspected the socket which was clear of blood or flesh.
"A drone suit." He confirmed, dropping the arm as it and the torso combusted.
"And that is why we will never stop fighting you, Prophet." Adam Baylin's voice echoed from the disembodied head as it, too, combusted.
"Fix that hole and get back to work. I've had enough distractions for one day." Grace sighed, walking past the men and back down the hall.
Adam stepped out of the ruined building and into the warm Nevada sun. He looked across the surrounding rocky hills and strewn rubble that was the Mojave Desert and frowned. This wasn't the first probe The Deserters had sent but it was the most refined. They had only risked a suit one time previously and it, too, had combusted. Adam closed his eyes and focused, bringing in all the life surrounding them for up to fifty miles.
Jessi.
His voice radiated out in a wave across the sand. He had tried this before without success but there was a small part of him that hoped it would work. He remembered very little about being Kyle XY, but Jessi XX was in that small part. Her aggression, her ferocity… her beauty. He remembered slashing open her face in Seattle when she told him Amanda was dead, he remembered the fury that rose within him so brutally that it took a division of Latnok troops to contain him but not before he tore through eight lives. He remembered her crying face over his corpse. He remembered the first time he had ever seen her, across the flames on that beach…
There was no answer, which didn't surprise him. What did surprise him was that his feet began to move in a seemingly random direction and before he knew it he was out of sight of the small Latnok compound and wandering aimlessly into the desert. Something was pulling him this way, and it didn't make any sense at all. The part of him that was Adam Kingsley was dominant, comprising 99.99% of his actions, decisions and ultimately his personality. The part of him that was Kyle Trager was still in there, in his memories, and it was this part which told him to venture this way.
He shook it off and turned away, heading back to Latnok. He was alive because he was Adam Kingsley. Kyle Trager was dead, killed for his stupidity and recklessness. He would never make a choice based on raw emotion ever again. He would only ever make choices that were necessary to his continued survival. He would continue to be Adam Kingsley and he would stay alive to one day become Latnok, or The Prophet, and lead the world into a peace that would last long after his death.
The Deserters, the Fugitives, the Szokeveny… Jessi. They were the embodiment of all that was wrong with humanity. They would either convert to Adams way of thinking, or they would die. Adam stepped back through the ruined lobby as a construction crew was already measuring the stone. He proceeded through to the elevator and rode it down to the machine that would change the world forever.
The Rift.
Baylin had collapsed when they removed the remote control from his head. Four had said, time and time again, that it should be her and not him. Baylin had countered that the suit would better respond to his control and it was essential to have full control for the mission. It was the last suit excepting the one that was fastened to the body of Jessi Hollander. Now all their assets, all their hope, was stashed away in the cave with them only ten miles away from the Latnok facility. Patrols often came within sight of the cave entrance but the projectors Four had designed kept them well hidden.
Dennis wiped the dying mans forehead with a damp cloth. Declan fidgeted in the corner while cleaning a rifle and Four was kneeling next to Baylin as he explained all he had learned from the remote scans.
"So it's a rift, whatever that means. And that's the only other floor in the facility. They couldn't have given us a better target if we wanted them to." Four said
"Latnok doesn't do anything without protocols on top of protocols that protect them. There's no way it's that simple." Foss offered, looking at the rudimentary 3D scan.
"It's an incomplete facility that was placed here specifically to hide from us. That, and the fact that they have Adam there, is all Latnok needs to feel secure." Dennis said solemnly.
"It doesn't matter. Maybe it's a trap, maybe it's a lucky break for us. Either way, this is the best chance we're ever going to have to finish this. Grace is there. Adam is there. Even if we can't dismantle their ultimate project, we can kill the Kingsley's. Cassidy might have more clout with the board and be in charge of a broad range of projects elsewhere but if we can get the Kingsley's, that's good enough for me to call this war a victory." Four said angrily.
"No… Latnok is… enemy… not… not Kyle." Baylin managed.
"I appreciate the feedback, Baylin, but you're dying. Do us a favor and do it quietly." Four said harshly, standing up.
"Jessi!" Dennis exclaimed but Four silenced him with a glare.
"You'll forgive me if I can't find any tears to shed. I've seen him die before and this is a war, there's bound to be casualties. It's been almost ten years since I watched Kyle die and all of our lives went to hell, now we can finally end it. I'm tired of scraping by every day, being fueled by hatred of those who created me. I'm going to that facility, I'm going to kill everyone in it including Adam and Grace and then I'm going to destroy whatever machines they have in there. If you want to join me, let's go. If you want to mourn Adam, stay here. If you want to call it quits now, you know where we stored the truck so grab it and go." Four walked out of the cave, her veil helmet closing around her head and face.
Declan snapped his rifle closed and jogged after her, Foss stood and followed them both. Dennis gripped Adams hand sadly.
"What… have… what did I… do, Dennis?" Adam asked him, tears streaking down his face.
"You changed the damn world, Adam. You changed the god-damned world." Dennis said sadly, patting the other mans hand, and left him to die alone.
He jumped into the bed of the truck with Declan in the passengers seat and Foss driving as they sped to catch up to Four who was gliding along the desert floor almost faster than the truck could go. The four people convened outside the Latnok facility which had already buttoned down the hatches and had Adam Kingsley standing in front of the vulnerable hole.
"What's the attack plan?" Dennis asked Four, who did not look at him.
"Shoot who you can, Kingsley is mine." Four said and flew away, towards the enemy.
There were no attempts at dodging or avoiding this time and Adam smiled as the true identity of the person in the armor was confirmed. Four crashed into him with amazing force and he slammed his fist under her chin. The resulting clash sent a shockwave across the ground that broke off even more of the facility. Adam grabbed Four by the shoulders and drew her in to a grapple as they both spun into the lobby.
"Was it Baylins death that made you finally snap?" Adam asked as if genuinely curious.
"I haven't snapped, you just showed your hand too early." Four retorted, spinning around and locking Adam into a choke hold.
"If it were just confidence you would have planned better, after all now I can just do this!" Adam grunted and Dennis, Foss and Declan all collapsed.
A mental spike, Kyle's specialty, strong enough to kill a normal person. They never had a chance, and that was why they had to largely avoid confrontations with Adam before. Four only tightened her grip on his neck, genuinely trying to crush it.
"It's worth it, if you die." Four snarled and wrenched her arms, collapsing Adams windpipe and breaking his neck.
He fell forward with Four giving his body a small shove. She placed her boot on his skull as the security detail rushed out of the elevator with Grace at their front.
"Stay gone this time." Four murmured and stomped.
"NOOOO! Fire Fire Fire!" Grace screamed and they did, sending bullets raining down on Four who moved through them like a snake, thrusting her knives through the weak points of all their armor.
Grace fell backwards against the wall but Four grabbed her by the blouse and dragged her to the elevator. She hit the down arrow and the doors closed on the two of them.
"What have you done...?" Grace moaned, grabbing her head.
Four turned towards her in fury, bumping her nose against the solid veil.
"I've finally ended this, Kingsley." She snarled and pulled back as the doors opened.
"You're a monster…" Grace gasped as Four pushed her into the room.
"That's the pot calling the kettle black, now how do I dismantle this monstrosity?" Four scoffed.
The machine in front of her was, seemingly, not a machine at all. It was a platform with an oval resting on top of it.
"Just smash it, isn't that the way you do everything?" Grace hissed.
Four darted forward in agreement, ready to destroy the 'wormhole' when she quite suddenly was standing in the middle of the Mojave desert. She turned around and saw nothing but desert that spanned as far as even she could see.
"Oh what now?" Four sighed.