Despite my best efforts, this chapter remains stubbornly under the 2,000 word minimum.

Many thanks to BeaconHill and GlassGirlCeci for betareading.

Interlude 13a: Janice

Rune glanced up as Oracle slipped into the seat beside her. "Well?" she asked nervously. "How did it go?"

Oracle sighed, brushing her red hair out of her face. She looked drained—and no wonder, after a meeting with Kaiser. "He's pissed," she said. "Mostly because she got away, not because we attacked. She was a black girl in our territory, after all. But we needed to bring her in."

"We tried," Rune protested. "She's slippery as fuck. He knows that."

Oracle looked away with a grimace. "Yeah," she muttered.

There was something there. Not for the first time, Rune half wished she had Oracle's powers. The girl wouldn't meet her eyes. She was hiding something. For a moment she considered pressing for answers, but thought better of it. Instead she cleared her throat. "Did he say anything specific?"

Oracle finally glanced back up at her. "Yeah. He said that the only reason we weren't being cut loose immediately was that the Empire needed stability right now. As it is, we're on probation. No more screwups."

Rune nodded immediately. "Got it. Toe the line."

Oracle swallowed. "And—and he wants me to finish my initiation," she said quietly. "Gotta prove my loyalty, he said."

Rune blinked, then winced. "Oh, right. I'd forgotten you'd never…"

"Yeah." Oracle's eyes were fixed on the coffee table in front of her, her hands clasped between her knees. "I don't know if I can do this, Rune."

"Hey." Rune put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "It's not like you have to find some random black guy or a Jew who's never done anything wrong. Find one who deserves it. Shouldn't be too hard."

Oracle didn't answer. Her shoulder was tense under Rune's hand.

Rune squeezed it. "It's all for the cause, right?" she said. "Ends and means."

"Ends and means," echoed Oracle, her voice hollow. Then she cleared her throat. "Come on. We'd better get ready for the rally."

"Shit, I forgot about that." Kaiser had planned a rally for the Empire to announce their strategy in the new post-Annatar, post-Dragon city. Every cape in the gang needed to be there to show support. "Got your costume?"

"In my room," Oracle said. "Yours?"

"Same. See you down there?"

Oracle nodded. "Later, Rune."

"Later."

But as Rune strode away, she couldn't stop thinking about the way Oracle had looked away when she'd said that Shadow Stalker was slippery, or the way her face had fallen when she'd said 'Ends and means.' As she slipped her robes on, she couldn't get the way Oracle's hands had twined together nervously out of her head.

She'd seen that kind of behaviour, that uncertainty, too often not to recognize it. It was the look on the face of every new recruit, not yet sure they were doing the right thing. Kaiser was right—Oracle needed to go through the initiation. She needed to get over that pity, or she'd be useless when the time came.

But why had being reminded of Shadow Stalker's escape gotten the same reaction?

Emma, she wondered as she left her dressing room. What are you hiding?

"Good evening. Thank you everyone for coming." Kaiser's voice boomed from the speakers. Rune stood behind him in a line with the Empire's other capes. Beside her, Oracle was shifting slightly as she scanned the crowd.

Kaiser's armor glimmered in the spotlights as he surveyed the room. Not everyone in the Empire had been able to come, of course—the PRT was too powerful, these days, for that scale of meeting, and they hadn't even managed to reestablish contact with everyone after Echidna's attack. But the small auditorium was packed full even so.

"Things have been difficult for the past few weeks," Kaiser said. "Many of our fellows have been captured. Others have severed ties with us out of fear. Believe me, I understand. It is a frightening time. A dictator has seized control of this city—a dictator supported by the corrupt government, and with the PRT in her pocket. Annatar has made any sort of dissent, no matter how civilized or right-thinking, more dangerous than ever. So, now more than ever, I—we—appreciate the risks each of you has taken to be here. Rest assured, they will not go unrewarded.

"There is a great deal of work to be done. My advisors and I have been hard at work developing a system for the Empire to continue to function in spite of the increased scrutiny, and we have developed a plan. We won't go into detail now—those details will be forwarded to cell leaders shortly. However, there are a few things we must all keep in mind.

"First—Annatar's grasp on this city is, like that of all dictators who seize power without the approval of the people, tenuous. Discontent is rampant. And, with the ABB, the Undersiders, and Coil's organization all out of play for the foreseeable future, the situation is as much an opportunity as a risk for us. In a situation like this, where the ordinary, working whites of the city are under even more stress than usual, they will find our promise of safety and assistance more appealing than ever.

"Second—no matter how she may masquerade as a white knight, Annatar's position, and how she got it, are more of a reminder than ever of the justice of our cause. Who are her key supporters? Blacks, Jews, race-traitors, and—in the case of Dragon—someone who isn't even human. Rumor has it that Annatar herself is a lesbian. If ever America needed a restoration of purity, the time is now.

"Third—Annatar's grasp is reaching outward, not inward. If we are to take anything from the destruction of Ellisburg, it is that Annatar no longer regards Brockton Bay as the extent of her domain. For the moment, that is to our advantage. We can entrench ourselves here. But we must not allow ourselves to become complacent, even if she continues to ignore us. If she tightens her grasp on the whole country, we will feel it here. We must expand. We must make sure she cannot push us out. We must—"

"—must spread. Like a cancer. Or a fungus."

The voice came from the balcony at the back of the auditorium. A gasp went up, and a hundred or more heads turned. Everyone knew that voice. But they couldn't see Annatar – she was hidden somewhere beyond their sight.

"I'm sure I need no introduction. So you already know how this is going to go, don't you? That you will all die in a wide variety of entertaining ways." She stepped forward, her armor eclipsing Kaiser's as silver eclipsed dull iron. The Empire members behind her seemed transfixed, staring blankly at her, unable or unwilling to do anything as she stared down at the stage. Annatar leaned against the railing of the balcony, revealing her empty hands. "Well, not this time. I'm just here to talk."

"How—" Kaiser began, his voice sharp, but Annatar interrupted him by vaulting over the balcony, sailing down the twenty feet drop, and landing softly on the red carpet in the central aisle of the gallery.

"It really was an impressive speech," she said, almost conversational. She wore no microphone, but her voice boomed through the auditorium all the same, more sonorous than Kaiser's had been. "I could see a desperate person being suckered in. It's so easy to believe the promise of food when you're hungry, or the promise of revenge when you're angry."

Kaiser made a growling sound, blades extending from his hands, but Annatar held up her hands. "Now now," she said. "Are you sure you want to start something?"

She made a strange motion, and suddenly there was a staff in her hand; she leaned against it as if against a walking stick. Rune knew better than to trust that—it was probably some new weapon from her bizarre arsenal of tinkertech.

"Last night," Annatar said, her gaze drifting from Kaiser until it landed on Oracle and Rune, "two of yours hurt someone I care deeply about. I can't allow that to stand."

"If you kept your nigger on a shorter leash—" Kaiser began.

"Quiet." Annatar's voice was cold, hard, and loud enough to drown out Kaiser's despite the loudspeakers. "Consider yourselves lucky that she taught me mercy, and so I offer you the opportunity to atone before God for what you have done."

"You think you can just—"

"Of course I can." Annatar threw down her staff. Where it landed on the stone floor, there was a sparking, like flint on steel. The polished wood seemed to bend and twist. No—it was bending, curling, becoming waxen scales and twining muscle. The asp reared its head, white fangs glistening as it glared up at the stage.

"Many of you," Annatar said, her voice underscored by the hissing of the snake, "call yourselves religious men. Well, that feeling in your bellies? That slow, sinking sensation? That's what we call the fear of God, and I am but his angriest servant." The smile that showed through her helmet was cold and furious. "Your Empire has already fallen. You will never harm another innocent again. That's a promise, not an order: we will know your plans even before you do, and we will stop you."

The room was deathly silent. Even Kaiser and the other capes seemed as though they were carved from stone.

"You have three days to surrender. All of you – every human being in this room."

Oracle twitched at those words, and at Annatar's gaze falling upon her. Rune imagined that she saw Annatar's smile twist slightly, becoming something more secretive—but no warmer. There was no imagination, however, in the way the breath hissed through Oracle's lips, or in the slight straightening of her back.

"Turn yourselves in and you will earn my mercy: the opportunity to repent and be forgiven. Those who remain, no matter what you do or where you hide, will face my wrath." Annatar turned her back on Kaiser. "You all know where to find me. Whether you surrender or not, I will see you all in three days."

Then she started to walk away, her armor glimmering even in the dimmed light of the auditorium.

"Annatar—" Kaiser growled, his armor clinking as he stepped forward threateningly.

"No. Not Annatar." Her voice was suddenly sharp as she turned back. "So often, our names represent not we are, but what we aspire to be. Like Kaiser, or Gallant. Once I did aspire to be Annatar… but no longer." Her dark eyes shone in the dim light. "So call me Mairë." Then she turned, pushed the door open with a single motion, and strode out. Behind her, the asp continued to hiss and slither across the floor.

Rune glanced over and met Oracle's eyes, wide under her mask. "Fuck," she mumbled hoarsely. Rune was inclined to agree.