Trailblazer END.1
I left Veda to start things off.
"What do you mean you can't reach him?" Vindicate looked at the woman in the suit with an annoyed expression. "We scheduled this meeting a week ago specifically so he wouldn't blow it off. Keep calling until he picks up."
The woman, nervous and red-faced, held a phone in her hand. "No, I mean"—she stuttered and simply turned the phone toward the cloak-shrouded cape—"I mean the call isn't going through at all. It's saying there's no service in the area for the next fourteen minutes."
Around the room a dozen capes looked around in confusion. The head of the meeting table was filled by a vacant seat, one Cinereal was staring at quite hard.
The only tinker in the room raised her hand. "Wait, as in you dial Corvex's number and you get an answer that says 'no service for fourteen minutes?' That's literally the answer?"
The woman nodded.
Heads turned, looking back and forth.
"Send out an alert." Vindicate rose from his seat. "This is Newtype. She's making her move."
"Um."
Everyone looked back to the woman, and she grimaced. "We actually can't call anyone?" She pointed at her phone. "Every number gives the same message."
I looked away, watching another feed as dozens of Tierens broke through the front gate in an armored wall. Gunfire erupted, peppering the unprepared and unsuspecting capes and their aides in airburst stun rounds. They hit the ground screaming one after the other, save the one brute who was struck by a rocket. He stumbled, readying himself to charge as the foam rapidly enveloped and encased his body. Outside the gates, a crowd of protestors cheered, throwing cans, bottles and rocks into the compound as it was overrun and shot apart by the advancing company of mobile suits.
On some higher floor, Corvex was moving with a small team while trying to call Vindicate.
"Apologies," Veda said through the speaker. "I'm afraid your call cannot be completed at this time."
The windows shattered a moment later, two of Corvex's team members crashing into the opposite wall as Throne Zwei swung its sword into the building and sent its Fangs into the hall. The flurry of beam fire disabled all but two of the capes, including Corvex himself. The Fangs turned abruptly, hooking clothing and costumes and hoisting the unconscious and injured into the air.
The two capes still standing lost their footing as the floor quaked under their feet. The shaker with the powerful space manipulation ability tried to use it, as did the barrier maker. It did them no good when the roof came down on top of them. A dozen E-Carbon stakes slammed into the structure's support pillars, bringing the top half down onto the bottom. The support beams snapped like twigs, and the entire structure came down on top of them.
"Dig them out," I said, consulting with Future as we went. "Gale will be fine, but Immortas won't if she isn't saved now." Ironic name, and spelled incorrectly to boot.
"Already done," Veda assured me.
Her avatar was watching from a mile away, standing with a guard of FLAGs who had disabled the local police forces loyal to the Titans rather than their own government.
"Thank you," a woman nearby said in Romanian. "The R—"
"We are not doing it for you," Veda said quickly, and sharply. "The people of this country have a right to self-determination, even if they make foolish choices with that right." She didn't turn her avatar to face the woman. "Sooner or later, they will see you for what you are and they will tire of your false promises and self-enrichment. And I will be sure they know about it, as well as your plans to imprison political opponents and subvert elections in Iasi and Brasov with staged referendums designed to weaken the constitutional protections of this country."
At the Titans' base, the Tierens overran and surrounded the civilian office as Veda began issuing instructions on exiting the half of the building that hadn't caved in.
"Alternately," Veda mused, "you could do none of that, and anyone making such claims will simply appear foolish."
The woman, a forty-year-old crime boss turned President, didn't balk or redden. She stared at Veda's back, weighing her options. Although, that might be giving her too much credit. Thinkers tended to inflate their own ability, especially when they just kept piling on successes. There's something to be said for the obsession of small-minded egomaniacs and their pursuit of the immediate versus the actual fame and prestige of going down in history as a good leader.
I wasn't going to overthrow her, and neither was Veda. Not on our own initiative. That was a step too far. What was the saying? Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others? I felt that saying fit Vultur's power-mongering and the ways it would go very badly for everyone. She wasn't much different from Azrael in the end. She told people what they wanted to hear, and she enriched herself with it.
That was a battle to be fought another day, for another hero. The people of Romania had been given a choice, and they'd made it. For better or worse it was theirs to live with.
Choices and responsibility aren't all about good things.
Across the world, similar scenes were playing out.
In Chicago, a team of Titans capes were flanked from two sides en route to a crime. Tierens blew the cars apart, in an otherwise empty intersection, leaving the capes moaning and groaning. The crime itself was stopped by Kyrios, ended in a matter of seconds as the villains involved in the bank robbery were disabled moments after the wall behind them shattered.
In Prague, the European head office for the Titans—a building established only four months ago—was evacuated and subsequently destroyed by Tierens firing Gungnirs into its base. The few capes in the building surrendered to Dynames rather than fight it.
The Titans had a range of offices and buildings, many built in the visage of the PRT and Protectorate that David aspired to have his organization replace.
"Get David back here!" Vindicate demanded.
"Can't reach him," Cinereal commented. "Can't reach anyone. Veda's shutting down all our phones."
"He'll be here as soon as he notices," Damocles remarked. "Even in Belarus, he's going to notice."
"We're under assault and he's cleaning up an earthquake," Vindicate growled. To be fair, that did show a lack of listening to a word I said. "We need to—"
"It's too late."
The other capes in the hall all turned to Cinereal.
She looked back at them uncaringly, firm in her declaration.
"You made this a race between us and Londo Bell," she recalled. "David and the rest of you, for no reason. Now the girl who killed the Endbringers is here and you really think you stand more of a chance?" She looked away and scoffed. "Tyranny of fools."
"Where is Taylor?"
My attention shifted, looking to the scene of an already ended battle in Toronto. Stargazer and a dozen Tierens stood guard over a group of Titans who'd surrendered, and the villains they'd been fighting. Narwhal was there trying to figure out what was going on but stopped talking when Colin asked the question.
He looked up at Stargazer, in truth already knowing the answer to his real question.
"She's not available right now," Veda answered. "This engagement is not expected to last longer than thirty minutes."
"You're going to defeat a team of hundreds of capes in thirty minutes?" a nearby Guild member asked.
"That will only take twenty minutes," Veda answered.
I closed my eyes and nodded, aware of Dragon standing just behind Colin with a worried expression. She'd yet to announce her return just yet, quietly enjoying what it was like to be completely anonymous and free to just exist by her own will. It was one of those simple things for her.
But she wasn't simple and she had something Colin didn't.
Taylor?
Have a good life, Theresa.
I chuckled.
See you again.
I turned away, not really interested in putting any of what I was feeling on her.
The moment was finally here. Everything was done but the finale… and that was… I didn't have time for any distractions.
In Seattle, one team of Titans was trying to rescue another, only for all three Thrones to appear and ambush the ambushers.
One by one, they were assaulted and destroyed by waves of mobile suits.
Teams in the field were ambushed, captured, or compelled to surrender. Only a handful of capes could really stand against a mobile suit—those who had powerful shaker or striker abilities. Fliers were chased down by FLAGs. Brutes were easily hemmed in and contained. Masters and Strangers found their powers useless or insubstantial against automated drones.
Whenever a cape capable of standing up to the tide made themselves known, a Gundam appeared and made short work of them. The Thrones worked in the fringes as soon as resistance began breaking. They were rounding up the Titans' more secretive bases, destroying them either by bombardment from the high atmosphere or by barreling through until the entire place was ruined. No need to let anyone mistake Lafter or Lily as being involved.
And as the news picked up on the sudden and brazen assault, my clip from days before was played.
The words were repeated over and over again.
"The Titans will disband, or they will be disbanded."
The video of and reports on the incident with Heartbreaker were all replayed, as well as my suggestion for a unilateral asylum. All according to plan. People argued about both of course. Not entirely unfair. This probably was a step too far over one incident with Heartbreaker, but happening on the heels of the last two Endbringers being killed was paying off.
All the while, only the Titans had no idea. At first.
Vindicate's realization that I was attacking them was the first.
"Leet's made up his mind," I commented.
"It seems so," Veda concurred. "Zero defeated my attempts to break into the Titans systems six out of ten times according to Forecast." That was actually impressive. "I have found nearly no resistance bar a few of the tinkers and thinkers who monitor the network."
"He's content to sit back and let us fight." I pressed on the throttle, propelling Eirene downward and out of the clouds. "That's fine."
"I will meet you in approximately five minutes," Veda promised.
"Take your time," I replied.
"I will be there," she declared firmly.
I closed my eyes and smiled. "Okay."
When my eyes opened, the base was dead ahead as the clouds peeled back and reflected the light of the GN Drives behind me.
Down below, heads noticed the light show.
Vindicate stopped on his way down the hall, grimacing as he looked out the window.
"She's here," he said.
"She'll come with machines," Damocles noted. "Lots of them. It's the only way she could simultaneously attack all of us at once."
"We can't become so distracted by her that we—"
"No."
They both turned to Cinereal, who was looking over the surroundings.
The Titans' main headquarters building in the outskirts of Detroit had a good view of its surroundings. It was a large but tight compound with good security. A series of warehouses and offices made up most of the interior space with a large parking area for vehicles and supplies.
I eyed one in particular—a truck—making sure to note its position.
Much of the outlying area was abandoned as cheap real-estate no one really wanted. Among it, there was no dust indicating movement. No light. No flashes or anything. The surrounding streets and structures were dead and quiet. The sky was clear too, save the green comet heading right toward them.
"It's just her," Cinereal realized.
"She can't be that insane," Damocles denied.
"She beat thirty of you without a scratch," the former Protectorate team leader noted bluntly. Cinereal turned away and started toward the nearest exit. "Stop underestimating the cape who kills Endbringers just because she's a child."
Damocles was about to respond but Vindicate cut her off. "We don't have time. Get the word out and find—"
I blinked and my mind reached out to my swords. At the same time, I accessed the COM and spoke.
"Too late." The Titans intercom carried my voice, shocking everyone scrambling about the base. "Surrender. No seconds."
TRANS-AM
Golden light surged.
What?
Did you say something?
I'm not saying anything.
Who's talking?
This again…
It's Newtype! Newtype's—
As the feed from Administrator accelerated, the first attacks came.
A powerful shaker-blaster focused her power, drawing energy straight out of the earth and projecting it into the air as dozens of bursting scars of energy that flowered out and shot toward me. I sent my suit into a spin, dodging the non-projectiles as I dove. They turned in my wake, twisting around to try and chase me.
Flipping, I skipped over the ground and shot forward in a streak of light. My swords shot out, flying in zagging lines and firing into my path. The beams tore the ground apart, scattering people and detonating the cars they hit.
The cape firing the not-projectiles tried to move but her power rooted her partially in place. It's why she was on guard duty instead of being out and about. The girl was far too slow to dodge my sword, but far too young for me to do my worst.
I struck her in the temple, causing her to crumple in a heap. Her control over her power vanished and the energetic tears in reality came crashing down. Swinging one blade up over my head, I projected a wave of particles that met the raining distortions and erased them. At the same moment I burst forward, slamming into an SUV and sending it spinning.
The nearby news crew swiveled their camera around, whatever interview they were doing completely forgotten as I shielded myself from a blast of ice and retaliated with golden light. The changer's icicle body was shattered, and she shifted into a mist before crashing onto the ground in her skimpy costume. The brute who charged over her was tripped when I put a sword in his path and I moved aside to let him tumble into a stranger who thought he could sneak up on me.
"This is The Verge with channel six!" the reporter frantically reported. "Newtype has suddenly appeared and is attacking the Titans!"
I pulled Eirene apart.
Matter. Energy. It's all the same thing. Even Einstein figured that out.
The suit—and myself—exploded into a stream, shocking those who'd never seen me do it before. I streaked past them, sliding over the ground and reassembling the quantized particles in one of the tinker workshops behind the main office.
A young woman—fourteen or fifteen—snapped her head up and yelped as my suit glared down at her.
I grabbed her, pulling her close as my swords shot out and began tearing through the lab. The blade cut and pierced, flying from one machine to the next until they hit a reactor in the back of the lab.
Quantizing again, I ferried the girl away seconds before the entire building blew.
The explosion rocked the ground, shattering every window within a half dozen blocks, and threw those watching the sky for my reappearance off their feet. A column of smoke and fire ignited the sky, tearing the warehouse open and shearing the roofs off adjacent structures.
"I—I surrender?" the tinker pleaded, her mind scrambling to understand the surge of impressions flooding into it.
"Then lay down on the ground and don't move," I instructed. "This won't take long."
She obeyed and I floated forward.
The lights around the perimeter flickered out and the entire compound went dark, save for one raging fire where a reactor once stood, and one shining golden spark at the center of a vehicle lot. I am very good at grabbing attention, what can I say?
The capes were distracted though. They were looking around, following the voices and sensations pressing down on them in confusion. A few were looking at others with stark shock or horror upon realizing who they really were. Others were looking at themselves and wondering if that's what everyone really thought.
What's exploding?
Newtype!
Are we under attack?
Yes!?
I didn't sign up for this.
She has to be stopped.
We need M/S protocols now.
Where are all these voices coming from?
Us.
No. Not our voices. Those ones. The other ones.
It made for a good distraction.
My swords shot toward me, turning sharply as a unit while I grabbed two out of the air.
In a flash, Eirene burst into light and reappeared.
The capes turned too slowly, distracted and still confused by what was happening.
I kicked the striker in the back of the knee, shattering it. The flier I hooked with a blade and threw into the ground. The brute punched first and asked questions later. A series of swords flew between us, crossing into a guard that absorbed the blow and reflected the force, barreling the woman over and sending her skipping across the asphalt.
Shouts started to rise and fingers were pointed.
I whipped about, all of my swords coming together in an array before me moments before they fired. Those gathering and trying to figure out what was going on were barraged in beam fire, knocking them down and out in waves. A few turned and fired their own powers at me. I'd already vanished, scattering my blades as I reappeared in another warehouse.
"Nice work," I complimented.
The team of tinkers stumbled, gathered around a mobile suit that looked like a bizarre cross of one of Leet's designs and an inflatable flailing arm man. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The craftsmanship wasn't bad either. I could see the work that went into it, including all the little details the Shards had added to the materials that tinkers weren't capable of noticing normally.
The tinkers stumbled back, confused and disoriented.
"Run," I suggested.
At the same time, my swords materialized around me and pointed at their creation.
It wasn't personal but total destruction was kind of the point so…
The tinkers scattered, one grabbing another and pulling her away. Once they were clear I fired, shredding the prototype mobile suit like Swiss cheese. Turning my weapons on the workshop, I continued firing as I cocked my head to one side and listened. I targeted the equipment next, destroying all of the tech in the lab before flying up and through the roof.
A group of fliers immediately moved in on me. I swung a sword into one's shoulder, snapping his collar. I kicked the second away, throwing him back onto the ground as all my other blades flew up from the explosion below. Limbs and ribs cracked and screams followed. I caught the fliers one by one and when I next teleported I deposited all of them on the ground.
Accord scrambled back from his desk as the injured dropped, groaning, his head snapping up and looking at me.
"You may want to run too," I suggested.
He tried to put up a strong front. "Or what? You'll break my bones and make more of a mess?"
"I may have led everyone to believe you were a double agent," I admitted. "Sorry, not sorry but let's be honest. You were always going to try and play both sides against the center."
The man stuttered, doing a remarkably good job of ignoring everything else pressing down on him.
"Funny though," I spoke as I started to walk my suit past him. "At this point, once word spreads you sold your last partner out to me, Celestial Being might legitimately be the only place left that you could work with to execute any of your plans. What a predicament I've maneuvered you into."
He froze as it dawned on him and I walked past.
"Door please."
The portal opened behind me, and I kept going. Accord didn't even hesitate. Some people recognize when they've lost and they value living a lot more than winning. In his case, it might be more accurate to say the man was willing to lose in the moment to try and win another day.
Veda would keep an eye on him.
Accord was an asshole, but he could be a useful one going forward so long as someone kept him from going on homicidal rampages over every mess. And kept him from solving the energy crisis by blowing up oil pipelines and manipulating public opinion with manufactured disasters. Going green was good, but that was just dumb.
A series of explosions rocked the building, shaking it and bringing the roof crashing down.
Outside, capes fired weapons and blasts in my general direction.
She's just one cape.
She killed the Endbringers!
Everyone shut up!
We can't!
Are you okay? Stacy?
She killed two Endbringers.
Oh yeah because that's a distinction worth dying for.
No.
I'm out.
Smart call, I offered them. And someone should get Stacy to an EMT. She's about to have a heart attack.
I burst through the barrage, swords projecting a shield before me as I charged.
My suit slammed into the firing line at full speed, smashing into a set of brutes standing ahead of them and sending all three flying. Slamming a foot into the ground, I spun my suit around. My swords flowered outward and fired, blasting the blasters and strikers one after the other.
It's really just her.
She's all by herself…
How can she fight all of us?
You're welcome to leave, I suggested. I'm here to destroy the Titans and nothing more.
No one argued with that. They knew it was the truth. The GN Field had fully enveloped the base, and as the minds present acclimated the panic faded and questions followed. Questions about where they were and what they were doing.
She's trying to—
I teleported to the voice.
I brought my swords together, cracking both of Damocles' arms between the blades. She wheeled about as she stumbled and screamed and I rammed an elbow into her jaw. The woman collapsed to the ground. She wasn't grabbing a knife with her mouth and trying to stab me this time.
"You can't—"
"Watch me," I retorted as I wheeled about.
The flat of a blade caught Vindicate in his side and threw him through a window and out of the building. He hit the ground in a heap, rolling until his back struck a parked car and knocking several others over like bowling pins as he went. In the same instant, swords swirled around me and fired beams of light that struck a dozen others. The barrage went in every direction, then chased down halls and through doorways as I targeted every mind I could sense. They blinked out one after the other, or fled as they realized the attack was already on their doorstep.
"What are you doing?"
I teleported again, avoiding the wall of ash that crashed through the hallway. Reappearing outside, I fired a barrage of beams at a fuel tank and detonated it, sending a new plume of fire and smoke into the air.
Behind me, the truck I'd identified was still there.
Ahead, Cinereal flew out of the broken window, watching me and listening.
She was the only one who'd noticed.
Cinereal stared as I teleported away, smashing through a container as I went and throwing the shaker in the air before he could use his power. The master I struck in the temple to knock out, and I turned to catch the shaker before he hit the ground. David's little contingency of 'master everyone' wasn't going to fly if I had anything to say about it.
Wait what?
When was that—
He wouldn't.
He's Teacher, I reminded them. At what point did you decide you could trust a lying liar not to lie some more?
Of course, that plan had been foolishly conceived on the mistaken notion that I could master people. I couldn't really do that though. No more than anyone else trying to persuade anyone to do one thing and not the other. The one true power of the shared consciousness space created by the GN Drives wasn't that anyone could control anyone else.
It was that everyone could see true meaning, without masks. Without lies. Without uncertainty.
Everything was laid bare, and all that remained was the opportunity to understand who someone really was and how they saw the world.
And as the lines began to divide, my light flared and Eirene charged forward.
I blew through another container, using the debris to batter a brute before grabbing him by the collar. I swung the man around, releasing him as a projectile into a group of blasters who were trying to flank me. Jumping up, I met a pair of fliers. I sailed past the first, leaving her to stop midair and raise her hands. The second tried to escape but I slammed his side with a sword and cracked his ribs.
He screamed and fell and my swords rose to defend me from a wave of energy beams. Half of them formed crosses before me, projecting particles in a shield. The other half pointed and returned fire, blasting the attackers back and forcing them to flee or fall to the ground.
"You hate this," Cinereal said aloud.
She hovered in the air, staring at me and listening.
"I'm giving you what you want," I told her. "One calamitous display of power. So much power that it'll remind the entire world what it fears and why. The only difference is"—my eyes narrowed—"you're not on the giving end. Sorry."
She continued to hover, listening. Her eyes swept back and forth, looking at the fires, rubble, and the injured left in my wake.
"You're also wrong," I corrected. "I didn't come alone."
A fence exploded behind me, smoke blasting out in a massive wave that rolled over the capes who'd tried to reorganize away from where I was.
"I came ahead."
Tierens burst through the fence. Dozens of them, opening fire with rifles and rockets that tore through the lot and shredded everything in their path. The only thing missing from the wicked display was blood. The assaulting mobile suits broke into columns, running down the center and encircling the capes, firing airburst and stun rounds until everyone was on the ground or raising their hands to give up.
Over a hundred capes were at the main Titans headquarters. Most were backline or support capes. A few were guards. A good chunk were part of teams waiting for movers to deploy them elsewhere.
I ran through them in less than three minutes.
And the sad part is, I thought, I'm barely trying.
I didn't have to. The most aggressive and capable capes in the Titans were all out in the world right now, isolated and easily cut or picked off. They had no lines of support or reinforcement. Once pinned, no one would come to their rescue. David wasn't a unifier. If anything, the best word to describe him was 'enabler.' He didn't even care to ask if his people were doing useful things. They ran around and did whatever they wanted.
This was easier than bringing down the Empire, and look how many more of you there are than there were of them.
If I'd simply accepted that people would die and discarded the concern, I could have destroyed the entire base in seconds with a weapon fired from orbit. What was anyone going to do to stop me?
People should fear power. I turned my attention back to Cinereal, but as things were, everyone conscious heard me. Blue Cosmos' mistake wasn't in fearing power, it was in turning to anger as a solution and entrusting itself to sycophants and opportunists.
Veda followed behind the Tierens, walking with a small army of Helpers that surged forward and started tending to the wounded.
Fear is a choking thing, isn't it? Cold, like fingers around your throat.
The Thrones flew in overhead and with their arrival, the Titans' will to fight collapsed.
Everyone is afraid, but are you trusting your fear to someone who won't abuse you for it?
Vindicate scoffed, pulling himself off the ground. "You say that while you run over other heroes like opposing you is a sin?"
And everyone saw the bullshit for what it was, because Vindicate wasn't the one actually talking.
Funny thing. David could swap memories with people under the effect of his favorite master power, but what does it look like when you rip memories out of someone's head and patch in new ones? Like an organ, torn free of all tethers and then substituted with another that didn't remotely fit. That stood out like a sore thumb because it didn't belong. The thoughts it represented weren't Vindicate's, and even after David dropped the power the remnants of those many gruesome surgeries remained.
Plain as day.
It's why he lost before we began.
Because this was always coming.
I kept my eyes on Cinereal, hoping. "Is this really what you want, and how you'll get it?"
Vindicate stammered in confusion for a moment, caught between two minds as his thoughts and David's scrambled his head trying to figure out what to think and what to feel. It was like watching someone get their brain hacked into while they watched and then having their memory of the entire experience overwritten in an instant to make them okay with it. I suspected David didn't fully realize that part. Shards had a way of glossing over the horror of what they could do to keep the rats running through the maze.
The show was so horrific someone actually keeled over and tossed their dinner. Others stepped back in mute shock or balled their fists in anger.
Cinereal looked away and said, "Restore communications somehow. It's over."
She said the words to no one in particular but she understood she didn't have to. Everyone heard her and their will to fight—whatever was left of it—evaporated.
There were people who didn't like me. They didn't agree with me or how I went about doing things. They didn't think my goals were realistic or honest. That's just how it is.
The one thing no one wants is to be a tool, and people only accepted being one so long as they could fool or be fooled into not realizing it.
The air boomed behind me, and I turned Eirene's head to face him.
David stared down from above, confusion overwhelming him as all the other minds present pressed in.
And his Shard wailed its death scream, too twisted up to think, too torn apart to restore. To his credit I think the noise overshadowed some of his own thoughts. He'd probably be grateful for that in the long run. I doubt anyone would want anything to do with him if they saw what was under all the pained cries of the dead alien consciousness constantly cycling through an unending configuration process.
The other capes present began backing, looking, and turning away.
Sorry, I offered. I know what it's like to be alone.
David hid his recoil well. His fists balled and he set his gaze on me even as Administrator flew in behind him.
"I've been alone before," he claimed.
"No," I told him. "You haven't." Not like you're going to be.
Unfortunately, sparing everyone's lives was the limit of my ability.
David looked back, cautiously observing Administrator.
She stared back at him, her bitterness buried but present. Leaving him to me wasn't her first choice, but it was the agreement we'd come to. She floated backward and away, making clear her intent to watch even as attention shifted toward her and people began to fully realize she really wasn't human.
"It's not too late to do the right thing, David," I told him. "You can still change the world. It's just not going to be the way you wanted."
He continued staring, but it was already clear he wouldn't do that.
He didn't question for a moment that he would fight, though he did wonder how an entire team the size of the Titans could collapse in less than a quarter-hour.
"You should consider the unknowns," I proposed. "For example, what would happen if I convinced the entire Shard network, barring a few holdouts, that their only hope to survive was to let the past go and follow Administrator and me?"
I bowed my head slightly, grinning.
"What would they do? How far would they go? What is the worth of their lives"—I raised my sword and pointed it at David—"in their own eyes."
Realization dawned on him and I resisted the urge to laugh, though I think I'd earned it. I just didn't want to rub it in that badly.
"I have no need for any parahuman spies, David." I watched him through hundreds of watching eyes. "The Shards did all the spying I needed because they're all on my side now."
With that, those present looked and followed the voices without bodies. The ones behind them in their shadows. The Shards emerged then, making their presence known. The emotion they felt wasn't surprise. Shock, yes, but deep down I think every parahuman—even those who never acknowledged it—knew the source of their powers.
It had never been particularly hard to convince any cape of the truth.
We all knew.
And as the Network cast its eyes, I looked through them, seeing the world from a hundred perspectives and understanding each.
This was the last chance I had to convince him.
"We can still let go," I implored. "The long war is done, David… It's over." I tipped my sword downward as a gesture. "You can stop fighting now."
David watched me, his mind whirling and cycling. It went nowhere productive fast.
I shook my head and raised my sword once more. "So be it."
"Opponents exist to challenge," he replied. "No one ever got anything without overcoming."
What?
Was he always like that?
You're all so pathetic.
Nonsense.
Cinereal is right. It's over.
David ignored the concord as it formed. As people saw who he really was under all the talk and rhetoric.
A man who wasn't evil. Not as his core.
He just wanted to save the world. So desperately, so adamantly, that it consumed him. He put all the weight on his own shoulders, constantly pressuring and pushing himself to go farther. To do more. To be better. To be stronger no matter how weak he felt.
He wasn't a monster.
He was just wrong and he couldn't accept it.
To accept it would invalidate his entire life. Everything he'd done. All the blood on his hands. The hands of others. The living and the dead. It bore meaning to him and he couldn't let it go. And I didn't hold that against him anymore, because I understood. I knew that weight all too well with all the dead at my back. The people Ali killed. Mrs. Knott. Noelle. The Simurgh. The price to come this far and be this close to peace had been high, and it was hard to think of it and know it just had to be let go. That we'd come far enough for now and it was time to lay the burdens down.
I knew how he felt perfectly.
It just didn't change what had to happen.
"It's a sad story," I lamented. "But it's all we have."
"What?"
"There's not much point. If you haven't noticed by now, you never will."
David scowled and braced himself.
Noticed what? he asked himself, along with a dozen others.
So I told them.
We're all weak.