Yup, I'm back working on this thing after so many months. Thanks for being patient. I'd like to give some shout-outs to the people who have been so supportive while I started work on the comic version of this story (which you can find on my homepage! /plug #1): Kasumi, who is just a total sweetums and an amazing artist (check out her own fics "Inner Turmoil" and "Heightened Tensions"! /plug #2); Zoe Rose, whose commentary is always a hoot and she makes the best cameo girl ever ;-) ; Sly Cherry Chunks who is not only a lovely bloke but a great inspiration for all things fan-comicy; and any other wonderful folks I may have missed, I Act III shall be updated as I write it, I am FAR from finished. Say about once a week at least.
Johnny felt completely relaxed.
A few traces of memory began to seep into his waking mind, whirring past like a disjointed picture show. Vague visions of the past few days: Bunking in the cold, dim HQ… Sedusa… Being told of his future as Alecto… losing his way in a distopic Townsville. Even if he had the energy to recall anything else, he would have come up with nothing.
He felt warm. Soft heavy cloth enfolded him. It was obvious that from the peace and darkness of the room, whoever had taken him in had the intent of nurturing him. The crude surroundings of Team Eumenide had taken their toll on his sheltered person, this comfort was a relief.
Just as he closed his eyes again, he heard a tiny voice say:
"Good morning, sir."
Sitting up (more abruptly than his muscles would have liked), his gaze rested on a little girl standing beside his bed. She had a quiet, haunted face that was hard to bear looking at, and eyes that were a bizarre shade of pink. She wore a pressed heavy tunic, and her ginger tresses of hair were tied back in a precious bow. She resembled a spooky, delicate china doll kept safely out of reach in a drab old manor, never ever to be played with. And though he had never seen her before, Johnny could swear she looked familiar.
"Father has requested you rise for the day. He is most anxious to meet you."
He continued to stare stupidly at her, until the thick wooden door to the room swept open.
"I see you've had the pleasure of meeting little Blossom already…"
The boy froze.
The towering figure emerged from the dark hall, sailing across the shiny granite floor, and looked down at him. With Johnny's own ice-blue eyes.
It was the oddest feeling, staring up at his future self. Alecto was no doubt a close image of him, but there were things he saw that shouldn't have been there. More muscle. A light relief of wrinkles starting to colour the skin with age. Streaks of grey at his temples. And most noticeably, a harder expression. This was a face that commanded armies and terrified millions, not plain old Johnny Utonium's.
"I do apologise for the rough way you were manhandled. But I'm afraid that force is the only language my infantry seem to understand." Alecto grinned wryly.
His own voice, distorted by the events of twenty-five years. In addition to the nausea rising in his stomach, Johnny felt a horrible dry heat in his throat. Alecto must have noticed this discomfort, as he poured a glass of water from a lead crystal jug sitting on the nightstand and handed it to him.
"Why," bumbled Johnny through a large mouthful, "have you kidnapped me?"
Alecto's sharp, heavy eyebrows rose in disbelief. "Kidnapped you?" He repeated gallingly. "My dear boy, I rescued you! I couldn't stand to see my own self in the clutches of Eumenide one moment longer."
"But…" Johnny moved to protest, but fell silent. Alecto's eyes had softened, they watched him intently.
"Ah…" he raptured, "to think I was once so young and beautiful…"
Johnny broke away from his gaze. Determinedly: "But Sara and Ace said that you were a monster! You're just… this is a part of some plan to break me down, I just know it!"
The older man frowned. "…And so gullible." He finished bitterly.
A small tug on Alecto's sleeve alerted him to Blossom, her eerie eyes fixed on him. "Father?"
With tenderness he swept her up into his arms.
"She used to be just like you, you know. A young genius. Outspoken. There wasn't a thing in the world that could stop her."
Alecto sat on the bed, placing Blossom on his lap. Johnny shifted in his spot, trying to turn away from them. This was becoming too unsettling.
"Could you ever imagine a government so cruel as to use innocent children as its military?" Alecto asked him.
"I heard about what happened," answered Johnny, "but I don't see what this has to do with me."
Alecto half-smiled, turning his head to gaze out at the dim morning behind the half-drawn curtains. "Everything."
A casual silence.
"Remember old Mr. Waldren? The teacher we feared that we would end up like?"
We. Johnny looked up.
"What if I were to tell you the opposite were to happen? That instead of rotting away in a mundane lifestyle, your talents would be recognised?"
Alecto seemed to expect an answer. "Uhm, that would be good," Johnny said waveringly.
The older man sighed like a dragon blowing smoke. "But as a consequence, they see nothing but your talents. Your humanity is all but void. You are nothing but a resource to be exploited." Johnny winced at the choice of words. "Everything you create," continued Alecto, drawing Blossom closer to him, "is a mere commodity."
There was an ache creeping into Alecto's voice. One that throbbed in Johnny's ears like a deep-voiced stereo-speaker.
"But…" Johnny tried to gather his thoughts. "I mean, there are loved ones…"
"…And think, Johnny. What did they tell you? Red, Sandy, everyone?"
"…Are you stupid or something? They're asking you to use that brain of yours and find a way to kill Alecto…"
Shock exploded in Johnny's gut, paralysing him. Suddenly he recalled his blinded escape from Team Eumenide into the sewers.
"They… they want us dead," he realised, hot tears starting to prick at his eyes. "But where are Dad and Kaasan?" The boy exclaimed desperately. "They'd never-"
Johnny was cut off upon seeing Alecto return to his usual glacial, lofty composure.
"I have no more feeling for them. They both stood by idly as it all unfolded. Neither of them did anything to help me."
All the various shocks and traumas Johnny had gone through in the past few days returned to him threefold. His own parents…
So it really was true. He was alone.
"I don't blame you for being upset." Alecto murmured, his soft voice almost paternal.
He rose from the bed, opened the door and turned to two soldiers standing at attention in the hall. "Escort our guest to my bathroom, will you. He needs to freshen up."
"For what?" Johnny muttered glumly as he wiped his wet eyes.
"I'd like to take you for a walk."
The walk Alecto offered turned out to be a day-long tour through the massive complex of the base. While the dull sting of his loneliness didn't entirely vanish, it was certainly muted by the sheer awe inspired by Alecto's grandeur.
The subterranean levels were given over to extensive laboratories manned by hundreds of scientists, all abducted and later hypnotised by Him to love and revere Alecto and his handiwork. As they marched through the busy white-light chambers, endless rows of equipment glinting at them, all the personnel turned and bowed their heads when Alecto approached. Johnny felt as if he were a patron to the Emperor of some bizarre, glorious empire.
The first few floors were the building's immense barracks. Of course, this was only central command-Alecto had many more military bases throughout the greater Townsville area. Phalanxes of troops were lined up for inspection, all observed by Alecto with a quiet, reserved satisfaction. The well-barred information HQ took up a large, tantalisingly windowless part of the base. Johnny itched to see it but was sternly refused by a firm fatherly Alecto.
But it was the upper stories that were truly breathtaking-the seemingly endless cement halls gave way to grand and beautiful rooms of both inner circle business and personal recreation. Amongst them were Alecto's vaulted 'office' (Johnny thought it looked more like an ultra-modern throne room), Blossom's cosy pink playroom, and Alecto's private laboratories (which was also restricted).
As tempting as the Intelligence section had looked, it had nothing on how tempting these laboratories were. Not only did Johnny yearn to see the brilliant personal projects of his own future self, but a little voice in the back of his mind told him that there was something immense behind those dense metal doors: something so exciting, it almost seemed alive…
"How did you have this built so quickly?" Johnny gaped, as the two observed a military battalion's drill from a high, comfortable balcony.
"I gave my plans and blueprints to Him, my elite Captain," answered Alecto, "and he placed it all atop the rubble of the old Townsville."
Chilling as the answer was, Johnny couldn't help but be morbidly impressed.
"It's so massive… it seems too massive to be real."
Alecto grinned at this. "Oh, it's very real Johnny. And it was all done at our own hands."
He leant forward in his seat. "Think of everything you saw today. Every last astounding detail. That is what your genius can, and has, accomplished."
Johnny looked charmingly bashful. "I just never thought that I could ever…"
"Break free of your struggles?" Alecto finished empathically. "Johnny," he asserted "You, we, have great fortitude. We both suffered. And this," he swept out a large, graceful gloved hand "is the phoenix that rose from it. The proper retribution rendered on our oppressors."
The oppressors. Johnny looked out on the deposed squalor that was the city of Townsville.
"They are killers." Alecto reminded him. "They offer nothing."
The boy deferentially turned back to him.
"Think about the logic of time and fate for a moment," Alecto offered. "If this was not your own real future, it would have dissolved the moment you heard of me. Everything here would have changed with your changed intentions."
Johnny could see where he was leading.
"But it has remained solid. Very real, as I said. Your underlying will has not changed upon seeing it. It is the definitive fate. Face the future, Johnny. Your future."
Slowly, the boy nodded.
"I can't help but face it," he affirmed, his tone cold and clear.
T. B. C.