A lesser being would feel guilt.
He is above such things, of course.
The staggering intellect of Professor Pericles does not countenance weakness of any kind. His shriveled black heart does not have the capacity to feel regret, self recrimination, self loathing … The dark void where his soul should be does not know what it is to feel shame …
And yet … and yet …
The first time he sees Ricky (his Dear Ricky) after their long years of estrangement … the first time he beholds his old friend (his only friend?) … the first time he beholds what Ricky Owens has become … the morbidly obese, prematurely aged, solitary man with the haunted eyes … he feels something twist in him … an unfamiliar emotion that he cannot name … does not want to name …
Ricky … my Dear Ricky … what have I done to you?
He had chosen Ricky all those years ago because he was trusting, innocent, so kindhearted- so lonely- that he would not ask questions … so desperate for a friend that even someone like Pericles could fool him …
And he had.
Because Ricky trusted him- because Ricky loved him- the others had tolerated him. Perhaps even came to care for him.
And he had needed them.
His destiny was to find the Planispheric Disk. His fate was to take the treasure and power it led to. As formidable as he was, though, he could not do it alone.
He needed … pawns.
Without him- without a trusted friend, a loyal pet- Ricky never would have had the courage to make human friends. He would never have known Brad Chiles or Judy Reeves. He never would have gotten close to Cassidy Williams …
There would never have been a Mystery Incorporated.
And there had to be a Mystery Incorporated for the mystery of the Planispheric Disk to be solved.
So Pericles played the role that fate required of him. He befriended Ricky. He pretended to be less than he was so that he could become more.
And because there could not be a Mystery Incorporated without mysteries, he made sure there mysteries were to be found.
At first, at least.
In time, he learned that Crystal Cove spawned mysteries the way a garden spawned flowers.
On a certain level, this displeased him. He was the master of his own fate. He did not want any power- any force not of his own making- to determine what was to come.
But he was nothing if not a realist, so he dealt with it.
In truth, pragmatism had always been his guiding light …
That was why he had betrayed his Mystery Incorporated, betrayed his kinder, after all.
He could not allow sentiment to derail his quest for power. He could not permit weakness to prevent his ascension. The kinder had played their roles; he had just grown beyond them …
No, it was was not because Ricky was spending more and more time with Cassidy. It wasn't because he felt … rejected by the one person who had ever loved him …
No.
It was not personal. It was not petty. It was just for the sake of his quest for power. Sentiment had nothing to do with it.
And yet … and yet if he felt nothing for Ricky, nothing for any of them … why were memories of his kinder, his friends, the only thing that had kept him sane during the long years of his imprisonment? Why were so many of his dreams not of the power that would be his when he found the Disk but rather of assisting Cassidy in tutoring Ricky? Why did his talons always ache for a shoulder instead of a perch?
Yes, he had dreamed of his Mystery Incorporated, dreamed of his kinder, his friends …
And now … now he discovers what his quest for power has done to them … done to all of them.
It cost him his eye. It cost Brad and Judy their child. It cost Cassidy the love of her life … And Ricky?
Oh his Dear Ricky …
Ricky Owens has money and power, and is the sole owner of a corporation that is virtually a power unto itself. He has the means to satiate any appetite he chooses to indulge, and judging by the look of him he has done so. He should be happy …
But he isn't.
It's been years, but Pericles still knows his Ricky well enough to see the misery in his eyes. Yes, Ricky has the power to do virtually anything, but it cost him … everything.
He had been kind. He had been an idealist. He had been compassionate and generous. He had been loved …
Now he is none of those things.
He has made his fortune on the blood and suffering of others. He has devastated and plundered the environment. He has done things that the boy Pericles had known would have been horrified to imagine, let alone do.
And he is alone … so terribly alone.
For a moment, Pericles is horrified by what he sees. Part of him- the best part, the part that he had never even dreamed existed until he found Ricky- is consumed with something. (Not guilt. Never guilt. Guilt is for lesser beings …) He opens his beak, and he almost whispers an apology for the wreckage he has made of Ricky's life, of all their lives … he almost begs for forgiveness …
Almost.
But he has spent decades dreaming of the power that will be his when the Planispheric Disk and all its secrets are his. He has stroked the flames of his ambition with the embers of his conscience for too long to let anything like regret change his course of action …
No.
Ricky has power now. Money. And while he is no longer innocent, he is still lonely. He knows the buttons to push. He knows how to persuade Ricky that the power of the Disk is worth the price that he paid …
Oh yes. He knows his Ricky too well to fail now.
So when he sees the faint tinge of … love? Acceptance? … in Ricky's eyes he flies back to Ricky's shoulder as he had done countless times in their youth. Beneath the man's jacket, his shoulder is scarred from all the times that Pericles dug his claws in a little too tightly in fear … both real and imagined … because he could. Because Ricky had been his. He perches on Ricky's shoulders and digs his talons in, and says the first truthful words he has spoken to the man in years. "Dear Ricky. How I have missed you …."
And he feels Ricky's hand reach forth and lightly touch his head. In a voice heavy with defeat … tinged with anguish and affection, the self styled Mister E also speaks one of his now-rare truths. "I missed you too, Professor ..."
For a moment … for a moment … they are at peace.
And then they begin to plan …