Conspiracy Awaits

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In my vision of the first group of Branded locked away in confinement, there had been sunlight filtering in through a vertical slit window. It was such a small detail that I’d forgotten it—forgotten that this land used to be a safe haven for all Branded in the Forge. They’d lived and thrived here, long before it fell victim to Malice’s Miseries. What had once been a cold land was now warmed by a rising sun the planet hadn’t seen in ages. Trees and flowers and food grew from previously infertile soil. I let the sunlight wash over an outstretched hand, still in disbelief. 

I hesitated to let myself hope, as if I didn’t just watch the greatest evil I’d ever faced wither and die. Despite the joyful improvements, the scent of blood and decay still lingered in the air. Those we’d lost still lay off in the distance, the battleground now serving as their grave.

But.

The Lightningbranded boy, the one who’d helped recharge me with such enthusiasm, ran through the field of destruction and clung to the legs of a badly scarred woman, practically unrecognizable. All over, the remaining survivors found their loved ones. 

We had won. Right?

Static exploded through the comms, and Lestrade’s voice broke though. “All of the Risen just…collapsed. What happened? Did you win?”

“I think so,” I said. When I wasn’t met with the other shoe dropping from speaking of our victory out loud, I let out a sigh of relief. It would take Lestrade and Irēn a few days to rescue us—the balefires didn’t go away, the journey here still troublesome, but I was confident that they would be able to handle it. Besides, Avam didn’t look like such a bad place anymore.

The Irregulars—I’d unofficially added the Avam crew to its ranks—cast aside our pain and tended to the others. Some thought dead were still clinging to life, including Tick, who remained unconscious. I hoped his torment was over. Watt and Ira tended to those on the brink. Twenty of us remained, less than half of what we’d started with. I boxed up the guilt and set it aside in my mind’s attic. I would deal with that eventually.

Those we’d lost would not be forgotten. I would make sure of it.

With the survivors accounted for, we all huddled around a rather large oak tree that Ira had sprung up during the fight. It shielded us from the unexpected sunlight that now consumed Avam. I didn’t realize it could get so warm here. Two oddities I never thought I’d see on the planet I used to consider a prison. 

Random thought: How long were the days here?

“Is it really over?” John sat crisscrossed on the ground, no longer bleeding from his many cuts, and his environment suit all but shredded, just like the rest of us.

“Probably not,” I said, the pessimism seeping out. Malice’s last words echoed in my mind, spoken like it was a Vow. I let a bit of lightning dance over my fingers, unsure of how seeing it made me feel. I still felt just as powerful as ever, even with Malice’s defeat. “Malice is still where our abilities come from, so…potentially there’s always a way to return. I think.”

Everyone looked at me expectantly. What did they want me to say? Malice had been dormant since Old Earth before now. We still had no idea how or when Malice’s original—or was it simply previous?—rise occurred. How many times had Malice conquered the stars? There was no way we’d be alive if the Miseries began to come true again. Our victory today would be obscured in history, leaving ample room for it all happen again.

But that truth didn’t inspire. It fed the sombre feelings we still held. No, I needed to give hope. It was what I did best. And maybe, just maybe, that would be enough.

“It’s not going to be easy, by any means. But I promise you—no, I Swear it—” I raised my ringed hand. Many returned the gesture before I could finish Swearing.“—I will do everything in my power to make sure that everyone knows what went on today, so hopefully this will never happen again. If we teach this lesson properly, even when I die, Malice can be stopped.”

Lots of words, with all my Heart. They seemed reassured but I had no idea what I was going to do. The Forge was huge, and the depths of space even more so. How did I expect to keep that promise? The story of what happened here would turn into a fable or a spooky bedtime story. Would I be able to make sure that the future was well-equipped should Malice attempt to rise again?

Ira rested his head on my shoulder as everyone nodded and my worries floated away. I may not have been sure how I was ever going to fulfill that Vow—or even how to start—but I knew I would always keep trying. I tilted my head to rest on his and took in the scenery. Avam was such a beautiful place now.

Tick shot upward, gasping, choking, and screaming all at once. “DID WE WIN!? Oh no, no. Is this the afterlife?!”

Hush grabbed his shoulders and breathed in and out slowly; Tick eventually began to mimic her and calmed down. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing he was alive and well. I gestured around to the startled Branded and the partially terraformed planet, with a sun. “We’re still on Avam, and we won, Tick.”

The realization of our victory manifested as a smile on his face, only for it to drop seconds later. Tick pushed himself to his feet with Hush’s help, still barely able to breath. I got up and helped him.

“But…what about the ones who, who died?” he whispered. Hush gave me a look implying she wanted to know as well.

Whether by excitement or fear, my heart began to race. Tick was better now. We could go back to before any of them died—hell, before Jane finalized the last Misery. We could retcon it all!

But…what if Tick glitched? What if by going back, Tick died instead? What if Malice knew every time Tick looped, and used his knowledge to change things? What we lost instead?

I swallowed hard, regretting the words before I could speak them. 

“We won, Tick. Don’t…don’t go back.”

“But—”

“We won. I can’t risk undoing this victory. I can’t risk undoing…this.”

Tick searched my face as if looking for an opening, a crack in my facade that would give him permission to do it anyway. There was one, somewhere. I was telling him to let people die, for the “greater good.” I was telling him that their sacrifice was necessary to win. I wished there was another way, one where we could win and everyone lived. 

I pushed down the bile and guilt and leaned into my Shadow. 

Trusting that I was making the right decision for us all, he nodded and pulled out his pocket watch. I wanted to tell him to stop. Never create a save point again. What if I changed my mind? What if tomorrow, next week, ten years from now, I wanted to go back and try to save them all? What if this was the worse outcome? What if—

“Bound in iron, this memory I burn, to retcon one day, I shall return.” He snapped the pocket watch shut and sighed. “I guess this is why I never, never came back, then,” he said. “We won.”

I smiled Slyly and patted him on the back. “We won.”

We all dispersed into side conversations as the day continued on. The Infernobranded ignited a roaring fire to keep everyone warm, and we feasted on fruits and vegetables that Ira produced with his Branding.

“So, wait, you can just…make food?” Leon, the Lightningbranded boy, asked as he devoured his third apple.

“I wish,” Ira said with a smile. “A long time ago, when I used to live here, Locke and I went through a lot of trouble of getting as many seeds as we could. We put them all over the ground so, if we ever needed them, I could grow something.”

“Where did you get all the seeds from?”

Ira and I held back laughter and exchanged an embarrassed look before he began telling them about what we’d gone through during our time here, and the unconventional way we’d acquired so many seeds.

Fun fact: it involved poop.

I excused myself midway through the retelling after spotting Jane. She’d been sitting off by herself ever since things had calmed down, staring off into the distance that hadn’t been touched by Ira’s Branding yet. She didn’t acknowledge me as I sat down next to her and handed her some fruit. When she didn’t take it, I sat it on the ground next to her and silently stared off in the distance as well, the conversations of the others as a backdrop along with a mild Johnathan-touched wind. 

“I’m sorry,” she said suddenly. She kept her sights forward. “For…everything.”

“It’s okay, Jane.” I meant it. I mean, I hated that she had thought she was only a weapon, that she couldn’t be a hero. I hated how it manifested, and that she killed someone and triggered the last Misery.

But I didn’t hate her. We’d all been manipulated. Hell, I was even feeling sympathetic towards the Moriartys. Their manipulation started many, many generations ago. They were born brainwashed.

“I was just so angry.” She swallowed hard. I could practically feel the rage coming off of her. “I had this nagging feeling for so long in the back of my mind. It kept telling me that I wasn’t good enough, that my family was going to die, that killing them was the only way. It came up every time I was feeling low, taunting me. But…that was Malice. I let Malice get to me and we all almost died. I…”

She clinched a fist. Instinctively, I placed my hand on hers. She tilted her head forward at my touch and the floodgates opened, her emotional wall crumbling. We sat there as she cried, releasing everything she had pent up for stars knows how long. 

When she was satisfied, she wiped her tears away with her arm and looked at me with a smile. “Thank you,” she said softly. Then her smile warped, first to confusion, then understanding. “Someone else needs to hear you say it’s okay, too.”

I cocked a brow as she stood and patted me on my shoulder, then walked past Jillian, who was standing in what remained of her all-black bodysuit. She hadn’t been directly affected by the slicing winds that some of us faced—lucky her. John was almost naked.

Jillian cleared her throat, hands held tightly in front of her. “What’s going to happen to my father and I when your friends come?” she said, doing her best to project confidence.

Actually, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I could forgive them, eventually, but would the rest of the Branded? Would anyone else? Would she and her family be able to unlearn all they’d been convinced was true, and truly change? Ironically, Malice had infected them the most.

“I’d be lying if I said I fully forgive you all yet, but I know that, logically, it wasn’t your fault. You and your family have just done…so much.” Jillian was wringing her hands now. “I think, as long as you all try to change and be better, one day I’ll forgive you, and so will everyone else.”

“They’ll never forgive us.”

“Be earnest. Right your wrongs. It’ll take time, but I’m sure you’ll be forgiven.”

It took a moment to sink in but she eventually nodded. “Thank you, Detec—…Locke.” She turned to walk away, but stopped and turned back to face me. “I will start by making sure we remove that bounty on your head. And a public apology, to you and the Branded.” She nodded again and returned to her father, who was sitting even farther away from the others than Jane had been. She sat beside him and laid her head on his shoulders as they talked.

I looked toward to the horizon as the sun began to set—Avam had slightly shorter days than Saffron and New Bohemia, it seemed.

I called out to Michael a few times, but I knew it was useless. I hadn’t felt him since Malice banished him. There was a hole where he used to be. I hadn’t noticed it until then, but Michael had always felt present, even when he wasn’t there. Ever since the day he disappeared, maybe even before, I had always felt him. I swallowed hard. I didn’t feel like crying right now.

“I love you, Michael. And thank you.” I was talking to no one but…maybe he was listening anyway.

Eventually, Ira sat down next to me and put his head on my shoulder again. I wrapped my arm around him, and we watched in silence as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Laughter filled the air and a sense of ease settled in. The balefires scattered and danced across the sky. Even the smell I had grown accustomed to here was becoming a distant memory. This was an entirely different Avam now. Ira’s denial to Malice, stating his truth that landing here was one of the best things to happen to him, replayed in my mind. I couldn’t help but agree with him. We had made such a terrible dark time into something beautiful. We had made this place our home.

An idea formed. It sounded stupid. There was no way Ira would go for it, or anyone else. But…why not? It’s not like winning here would immediately change the Forge. It would take a lot of effort from the Moriartys to change public perception of us. We were still the villains in everyone’s story. We could deny that all we wanted, but they would still believe it.

I opened my mouth to speak then felt a pang of guilt, realizing I had forgotten something. It’d been in my face the whole time. This planet had been stripped of its name and its power, and so much more. And now, we could return everything that had been taken from it.

“We should move here…to Reichenbach.”

The End