I'm back!
Disclaimer: I do not own Virals or WTNV. I do, however, now own two Night Vale shirts and some Girl Scout patches. And of course there is the tentacardi. ALL HAIL THE TENTACARDI!
What was that?, Han asked herself as she slowly stood up, running a hand across her forehead. No migraine could be that painful; there must have been physical damage - but there wasn't. No cuts. No blood. No bone. No brain matter. Nothing to indicate anything had ever happened to her.
Her first thought was to report the Incident to the Sheriff's Secret Police, as was the protocol with such things. That, however, was off-limits now, thanks to StrexCorp.
Her second thought was to ask Carlos. As a scientist, it was likely he'd be able to figure it out. That was also no longer an option, for obvious reasons (and even if it had been, she had her reservations - if this...whatever-it-was...had never happened to anyone else before there was a strong probability she'd go from being 'that girl who works for his boyfriend' to 'interesting lab specimen', and quite frankly neither was how she wanted to be remembered. Both simultaneously would be a nightmare.)
Plan C was to tell the Virals, but if she did there was a good chance she'd be forcibly sidelined. No way. This was her battle and she was going to fight it whether they - or even she herself - liked it or not. In a perfect world she'd be content to report rather than participate, but this was not a perfect world. It was imperfect in the worst possible way, and she wouldn't be able to take not being involved.
That left one final course of action - tell no-one and hope it cleared itself up. It wasn't a particularly good course of action, dear listeners, but she couldn't think of a better one.
She began to walk back.
"I've just realised," Hi began back at the motel, "this doesn't make sense."
"What doesn't?" Ella replied, throwing down the notepad she'd been scribbling in. She'd started out by trying to get a script together for Han in case she'd been uncomfortable winging it, but realised that, without any knowledge of Night Vale beyond what she'd been told, she couldn't do it. She'd wound up absently doodling. Herself. Her friends. Landmarks she had seen. Landmarks she couldn't remember seeing because she had yet to pass them. People she had yet to meet. Mysterious symbols connected with long-forgotten rituals for purposes best left unremembered. Void. Stars. She tried not to think about it too hard.
"Han. I'm as happy to see her again as the next guy, but I've been thinking, and it doesn't add up."
"How so?" Tory asked, petting Coop in a state of absolute boredom.
"Well, the eleven-year-old Haneet thought TV had made the radio redundant. Sixteen-year-old Haneet works - or worked - at NVCR."
"So?" Shelton retorted. "Maybe she just changed her mind. She has a gift, anyway."
"Also, she said she got the job a couple years back. That makes her 14, and, under state law, not legally old enough to work, so how did she do it?"
Ben shrugged.
"That is fishy," Tory admitted, "but we promised we'd help her. If you're having second thoughts, Hiram-"l
"I just think we should be careful, is all."
"Haneet!"
Keep walking, Han. He doesn't know it's you. He's guessing, or mixed you up with a different Haneet.
"Hanny!" Nope. It's me. And that means it can only be one person calling me.
"I told you to quit calling me that, Ravi!" She turned to smile at her older brother. She wasn't sure where he'd come from, exactly, but there he was, stood a short distance away from her.
"I know." He shrugged, grinning back.
"So why-" she broke off as she took in his expression. "No. Nonononono."
"What's up?"
"You...you're...one of them?"
"One of who?"
"Them. StrexCorp. How could you?"
"It's fine, Han, really!"
"Stop smiling like that!" She began to back away as he strode towards her.
"Just calm down. Let me explain."
Han scowled, but decided she may as well listen to what her traitor of a brother had to say. At the very least it would make a good story for a future broadcast.
"I'd just graduated college, and this guy approached me. He offered me a job, just like that. He'd never even met me, didn't know anything about me, just asked if I needed work. I'd be paid, I'd have accommodation, I'd be close to home. I asked how he knew where I lived, and the guy just smiled and handed me a card with an address written on the back."
"And that didn't seem sinister?"
"A little, but I was curious. I changed my route so I'd end up at the new destination rather than the Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area - although I still thought it was called Night Vale at the time. I realised it was StrexCorp when I arrived, but all I knew about them was the paranoid ramblings you and our parents picked up from the radio. Logically, there was a chance you were all mistaken - I mean, a man who claims to have visited a country called 'Luftnarp' is hardly a reliable source of information-"
"You can't speak ill of the Voice!" Han broke in, scandalised. "It's an offence punishable by reeducation...or...at least it was."
Ravi Dhillon ignored her. "-so I figured it couldn't hurt. They told me they'd had their eye on me for a while, that I could be an asset to their organisation. They showed me things, Haneet. Things that had been. Things that were being. Things that were yet to be. And it was wonderful!"
"Do Mom and Dad know about this?"
"No. Do they know about your new career as a serial killer?"
"No. And besides, I am not a serial killer," she explained for what felt like the millionth time, "I am a teenage girl who has taken it upon herself to drive the parasitic corporatists out of her city by any means necessary."
"Including murder."
"It's not murder. In war, when someone gets shot or blown up, do they call it murder?"
"This isn't a war," her brother replied calmly, "and I know you don't want it to be one."
"How do you know what I want?" Her voice was acid.
"I listened to your little broadcast."
"What?" She'd meant it more as a reaction to the word 'little'. That fact, however, got lost in translation.
"Of course I listened to it. You're my baby sister." That simple misinterpretation, somewhat unfortunately, made the situation so much worse.
"'Baby sister.' That's all I am, isn't it? Ravi Dhillon's baby sister. Whenever we see our relatives, it's always Ravi the smart one, Sanjay the cute one, and Haneet the middle child. You know, I have lived my whole life trying to be more like you. You wanted to study math, so I learned the cosine rule by heart. You were the logical one, so I tried to rewire my brain. You loved modernity, so I turned my back on everything that wasn't totally cutting-edge. I wanted people to notice me, and all that ever happened was that I cast myself further into your shadow. And the worst part is,I couldn't even get that right! I've always secretly kind of hated math! I've always loved speculating on the impossible! And I loved my job at NCR, even though I never really applied for it and have yet to be paid after two years. No-one has ever believed in me! Our parents overlook me. You haven't had time for me since I was eight years old. Sanjay thinks I'm an idiot. Cecil only ever saw me as the unpaid coffee girl and never as anyone with any potential. Tamika wouldn't let me join her militia cos I don't read. StrexCorp doesn't take me seriously." Her eyes shifted from scarlet to indigo. "I-"
"You're wrong, Haneet. I believe in you. So does StrexCorp. You do have potential."
"Don't lie to me."
"I'm not."
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm saying, we care. And you, Hanny, have a talent."
"For shooting?"
"For radio work. We at StrexCorp will nurture this ability, make you as good as - no, better than - Palmer ever was. We know you walked out of DBRI, and we understand you were upset, but we're prepared to forgive you for anything you might have done since, and we are prepared to give you a job. A real job, with payment and security and tasks that don't just involve coffee or fanfiction." Ravi smiled even wider - if that were possible - and laid a hand on his sister's shoulder. "And, even better, you have a chance - no, better than that, a certainty - of promotion. You, Haneet, will someday take over from our Kevin."
"You mean-"
"You, dear sister, will become the Voice of the Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area."
The only ambition she'd ever had of her own...at the cost of everything she'd ever truly believed in.
"You know what I think is weird?" Ben added suddenly. "Prophecies usually entail the Chosen One being in that role for the rest of their lives, but Han's Voice prophecy seems more like a kind of conveyor belt. It's too structured."
Hi nodded. Now that the initial excitement from recruitment had almost dissipated, he was starting to wonder how the hell this had ever seemed like a good idea.
"Maybe it's not a real prophecy, just a really inefficient method of choosing a job applicant." Tory suggested. "It's not a reason to back out of an agreement."
"Maybe, but why would she think it was a prophecy?" Hi asked. "I'm sorry, but I think Han's gone loco."
"You're telling me nothing she's told us is real?" Ella was sure it wasn't true. She didn't know Haneet as well as the others, but she'd felt like her new-found ally had been telling the truth. And anyway, she herself was part-wolf - she saw no reason to suspect the extreme weirdness Han sometimes came out with couldn't be real.
"Pretty much. She needs help."
"I don't believe it."
"I'm with Ella. How do you explain the light we saw on the first day?" Tory challenged.
"Solar flare?" Hi volunteered lamely, knowing it didn't sound right.
"And you guys didn't see the night sky over Night Vale." Shelton moved to sit with the girls. "The sun doesn't seem to set any more there, and according to Han it's because of StrexCorp. Explain that."
"Maybe there's just a lot of streetlights there."
"Ben, the sky was blue."
"I guess we'll just have to ask her when she gets back." Tory said decisively, putting an end to the discussion.
For a moment, Han stood still and silent. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet. "I will not become the mouthpiece of a Smiling God."
"What?"
"I said," she repeated, louder, "I will not become the mouthpiece of a Smiling God! I would rip my own vocal chords out before I let that happen!"
"We could reconstruct them." It didn't feel so much like an offer any more. It felt like a threat.
"Don't bother."
"The Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area needs you to stop fighting. It's sending out all the wrong messages and disrupting productivity."
"I'm sorry, but I think you mispronounced 'Night Vale'. There's a lot of that going round right now."
"You can't stay living in the past forever."
"Who says?"
"Everyone that matters. It's over. You're alone in this. Your friends don't understand you anymore. They don't understand this. Palmer and Flynn are both dead."
"You're lying." Han's voice was controlled, almost entirely steady, but her eyes gave her away. She wasn't calm. Not by a long shot.
"I'm not."
"You are," she insisted, "because killing them would be illogical. Tamika was the embodiment of civic pride. Cecil was, essentially, the embodiment of our city. Killing them...you'd risk creating martyrs. Not everyone's given in, and your precious StrexCorp wouldn't want to give them a reason to mobilize."
Ravi stared at his sister for a short whole, then clapped slowly. "You're smart," he said, and then: "too smart."
"I don't know who you think you are," Han retrieved her gun from its holster, "but you are not my brother. Not anymore." The flames in her eyes began to die away, leaving coal-black emptiness where they had once been.
"You wouldn't."
"You have five seconds to leave, or I will." She aimed her weapon with shaking hands.
"You're making a mistake."
"Four."
"We gave you a chance."
"Three."
"StrexCorp is looking for you."
"Two."
"They will find you."
"One."
"Why wouldn't you listen, baby sister?" Ravi walked off into the desert, and Han was left with a feeling she hadn't felt before. She wasn't angry anymore, but the feeling she had now couldn't be called calm. It was too empty, too echoing, for that. Instead she just felt...void.
Gradually, however, the sensation of blankness passed, to be replaced by another she knew very well but had, for the most part, been able to suppress since her voluntary exile.
Fear.
StrexCorp would be searching for her, she was certain, and she wasn't scared of them. But she wasn't alone, whatever they tried to tell her. Not anymore. She had allies now, allies who didn't fully understand her world. Allies who were in danger now, because of her.
Yes, she was afraid, but not for herself. She was afraid for them.
"Han," Hi began as she slammed into the room, "we need to talk-"
"No time!" Han cut him off, cramming whatever she could into her backpack. "My brother's with Strex now. They'll find me, and that means they'll find you guys. We have to get out of here."
"Han, listen. We...we think it's all in your head."
"No, we don't." Ella retorted. "When do we leave?"
"As soon as humanly possible." Han grimaced, realizing the insensitivity of the statement. "I mean, Viral-ly possible," she corrected.
"Nothing you've said makes any sense!" Ben said insistently.
"Welcome to Night Vale, Ben. Nothing makes sense!"
"We're not leaving." Hiram folded his arms and tried to look intimidating. (Note I said tried, listeners, not succeeded.)
"Do you want to die?" Han glared, eyes flashing crimson again.
"No, but we can't spend the rest of our lives running around the country based on your paranoid delusions!"
"I'm not delusional! You're the delusional one! You probably believe in mountains!"
"See, guys?"
"Maybe we should stay put," Tory suggested after a moment's deliberation. "At least for now. We fly back to Charleston the day after tomorrow, right? We'll find some way to get Han back with us, and we'll get help."
"You believe me?" Han and Hi chorused.
"Han, yes; Hi, no."
A note about the discrepancies: All will be revealed later. If it is not, it has probably been censored by the City Council, the Sheriff's Secret Police, any number of vague yet menacing government agencies, the Illuminati...you get the idea. All that can be explained will be explained. All that cannot be explained must be forgotten immediately. Please report to the Sheriff's Secret Police for re-education.