Throughout the broad majority of the press conference, Sonya was on autopilot. She’d practiced the speech a number of times, ready to make adjustments on the fly if necessary as the mood in the room shifted. It was important to keep the audience engaged regardless of how ‘official’ the proceedings were and to make it abundantly clear that ASTA was at the helm of what was going on. She’d had her reasons, she wanted to watch the audience. She had no idea whether or not Otis had spies starting to move against her but she was convinced he was likely on her tail by now, he had to be. She was taking the narrative away from him and from what she understood about the guy, he hated that.
Her priorities shifted a little just before the press conference, though. The presence of Duong and Hyunh hadn’t been wholly unexpected but it was nice that they were there. It gave her the opportunity to practice a little with using her powers while doing other things at the same time. Specifically, blasting Duong with Imperious at irregular intervals just to see if she could get a reaction. Unsurprisingly he barely flinched, his agency and persona held down firmly by Hyunh. Even so, she knew it was working given that Hyunh seemed more and more strained as the press conference wore on.
The ‘lecture’ part of the press conference also gave her time to think and work through her observations. Her cybernetic brain allowed her to act in parallel with her external actions. She considered Duong, An Set, carefully. The first thing she had noticed about him was that while his presence definitely gave him a bad vibe just as it had in the previous timeline it wasn’t nearly as severe as before. It made sense since he hadn’t had nearly long enough to develop his abilities, understand them, and allow them to flourish. He wasn’t the almighty being she remembered him as and she needed to internalize that a bit more. Her instinctive fear of him wasn’t unfounded, of course, but he wasn’t a nation-ending threat. Not yet anyway.
In short, he was far more killable now than he would be in the future and her plan to try to eliminate him while in Las Vegas was her best option currently.
Then there was Hyunh, the ‘real’ Herald of Otis. She clearly was just beginning to develop as well and had only begun to lean into this method of using her fiance as a weapon against her enemies. Sonya got the feeling that she hadn’t met Otis yet. Otis built his team from the top national heroes around the world and while officially Duong, An Set, was the top hero of Vietnam, he hadn’t had the chance to demonstrate just how powerful he was yet. There was no strong evidence to give Otis a reason to seek him out. In short, Sonya wasn’t going to let this chance slip through her fingers.
They both needed to die, but with Feng, it was personal. Memories of that day playing over and over again at night in vivid re-enactments of Sonya’s helplessness and anguish. Certainly she wanted Hyunh to receive the same message, the same call.
SHELTER 55 HAS BEEN LOST: NO SURVIVORS
HOSTILE PARTY IDENTIFIED AS THE AMETHYST ORDER
The words sprang into her mind yet again, the visceral hatred boiling in her blood and setting her mind on fire. She imagined the families of those heroes who fought so desperately against forces that were just beyond them. It was the same rage she felt when she killed Ocche. She controlled herself, though.
She stood there, giving her presentation and forced herself to remember why she was doing what she was doing, what her goal was. She had promised revenge for herself, yes. She would have it. Yet she had to get her revenge in a way that mattered, that wasn’t meaningless. She wasn’t Otis or Feng Hyunh. She was eliminating not a potential threat, but a real one to the world and to herself. She could have given them the same offer as the gangs of New York, join up or die. The syndicate and her clan, without knowing, had chosen a side. They had to go.
I’ve been playing Empire builder long enough, held back and played nice. I want her to know how it feels to lose everything. I’ll crush her spirit into paste and push her link to him to a breaking point. Even if she’s somehow normally able to maintain the connection through a portal, I’ll make sure her grip is so tenuous that it’ll fail. She thought as she went through the motions, absently making eye contact with the woman. One day, Hyunh would have an army of mindless super powered thralls at her beck and call ready to annihilate the loved ones of anyone she or Otis deemed to be an enemy. Not yet, though, and not ever.
I’ll stack the deck against her. Crush her completely. On my orders though, as my decision. Ishtar can be the mouthpiece but it’s me doing these things. It has to be. Sonya would settle for nothing less than total victory.
She smiled at the cameras, “I’m opening the floor to questions,” She said and the room erupted into noise and camera flashes.
–
Sonya let out a sigh as she sat down in her office at the ASTA labs. Marta, back to her usual prim self standing at the door for a moment and bowing before turning to make her leave, off to make something for Sonya to drink. Something healthy of course. Sonya pursed her lips and slid open one of the drawers at her desk and glanced inside hesitantly. She’d been craving snacks for days and hadn’t had a moment really to sit down and just relax with a little bit of junk food. She was about to pull out the bag of candy she had squirreled away behind a few items in the drawer when the door opened again.
She glanced up as Marta approached with a cup of tea, setting it down in front of Sonya.
“How are you feeling?” Marta asked.
“Better,” Sonya said, though sounding a little huffy that she couldn’t sneak a snack. She took up the tea and sipped it. At least its delicious. “I had to let off some steam.”
“You went to a dungeon?” Marta asked.
Sonya frowned up at her, “Did Amos tell you?”
“No, you smelled like blood and dirt when you got home despite your best efforts to hide it,” Marta said without a hint of disapproval in her voice, which was honestly a little scarier.
Sonya sighed and sipped her tea, “Marta-”
Marta held up her hand, “I’m upset, but not for the reason I believe you think, ma’am,” She sighed, “I am your bodyguard and caretaker, it’s my responsibility to look after you. I’m your friend first, though. You don’t need to hide from me that you need some alone time, even if your way of ‘letting off steam’ is a little more dangerous than I like,” She said with a frown. “Even without your ‘uptime’ using your merged abilities, you’re still powerful, Sonya. I have no doubts you can handle a few monsters.”
Sonya looked up and searched her face for a moment before letting out a breath she didn’t know she had and felt a bit more of that tension leave her body. She raised an eyebrow, though, “Then why were you grumbling the entire way to the venue?” She asked with a small laugh.
Marta flushed, “Because I had been practicing the speech all night! The memories helped but it still felt like someone else's memories, Sonya! It felt off. And do you realize how long it takes to get enough glitter powder ready to emulate your unique skin?” She rambled, putting her hands on her hips, “Man of Many Faces can replicate a lot of things but it can’t do that!”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Sonya blinked and leaned back a bit, “Well, that’s good information at the very least. I didn’t know that was a downside of Share the Path,” She rubbed her neck, “Sorry Marta.”’
Marta smiled, “It’s fine. I’m here till the end, I can put up with a few inconveniences.”
There was a long pause as Sonya sipped her tea and looked down at her desk, she set it down and let out a sigh, “Do you mind another inconvenience?” Sonya asked.
“Anything,” Marta said.
“Stay with me for a moment while I make a call,” She said and rubbed her thumb over her palm. “I’m about to do something irredeemable.”
Marta didn’t miss a beat, “Understood,” She said with a nod and stepped to Sonya’s side, her hands crossed in front of her waist. Sonya smiled up at her, wondering again how she’d gotten so lucky to have such a devoted attendant. A right hand that she simply couldn’t be without. She leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, activating the call function with cyber-punk and dialing Blackrazor’s number.
“Blackrazor,” She said aloud as he answered the phone.
“I’m here,” He growled back.
“Is it done?” She asked.
“Yes,” He said with finality, “The Night Society is yours.”
She nodded slowly, “Good, I have your first job.”
“We’re ready,” He said.
She shifted in her seat and cast her gaze to the ceiling, opening her eyes as the glow intensified. The ticking in her head grew louder as her brain, she had to do this, she needed to do this. Her first act of true villainy had been Hero Day. As for her second: “Annihilate the Da Mau Syndicate and the Feng Clan, leave only Feng Hyunh,” Sonya said, her voice dripping with cold wrath.
There was a pause, “Timetable?”
His response was so clinical. She’d sentenced people to death with a single statement, not all of them were grown adults. Some might even be children, she didn’t know. She chewed on her lip. She could back out now, she could revise her statement and show mercy unlike Hyunh. Would that accomplish any good in the long run? Would that interfere with the greater plan? Was it enough to satisfy her grief? She bit her lip harder. This had to be about the plan, about the goal, not just about herself.
This was an absolute measure, proof more to herself than anything just how far she was willing to go for this. Yet there was a small part of her that couldn’t bear it, couldn’t endure it. It cracked a little beneath the pressure. She clenched her eyes shut, wishing she could cry like everyone else. A hand reached out and squeezed her wrist, she glanced down at it and then up at Marta, the very reason for her rage. She was here. She was alive.
She grabbed hold of her hatred and grief and redirected it. This was about Feng Hyunh and about eliminating her and An Set. This was about dragging humanity kicking and screaming into the future.
“Blackrazor,” She said after a pause.
“Yes, Mistress?”
“No unnecessary suffering,” She said heavily, “We’re villains, not monsters.”
“There are options, I will handle it,” He said confidently.
She closed her eyes and squared herself up, drawing the ice back into her voice. “You have a week. After that, report to Las Vegas to meet me and assist with a follow up operation,” She said.
She expected him to protest the timetable a little, it was a ridiculous order if one took the old world into consideration. Instead, he just chuckled a little. “A worthy order for the reborn Night Society, mistress. May I ask for some resources?”
“What do you need?” She asked.
“One of my spies in the states told me that you’ve been making special contracts and distributing them to prisons. I’d like a few written up.” He said, “I have a few top people here who would be more useful with a bit of a boost.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes ma’am, it’ll be done, no issues,” He said with absolute confidence. “The Night Society is your dagger, I will send all of our agents to Vietnam if I must.”
She smiled, “Glad to hear it, I like the sound of your confidence. It’s grounded.”
“All thanks to you, mistress,” He replied easily.
She chuckled and tilted her head, “Oh, one more thing, how do you pay your people? I’m a bit curious,” She asked with a wicked smile.
TICK TICK TICK TICK TICK
–
Blackrazor hung up the phone, staring at it for a long time from his seat in the large office. He smiled lightly to himself and glanced around. For all the sinister vibes that surrounded the Society, his new office was remarkably pleasant. Lots of warm colors, browns, greens, and reds filled the space. Every wall was either a bookshelf or a one of a kind painting that had been lost to history and any museum curator would literally kill to get their hands on. The mahogany desk in front of him was kept neat, only a few papers on its surface including a contract his spies had unknowingly intercepted. He’d have to apologize to Mistress Ishtar later about that.
He ran his fingers over it, Fascinating. Her powers continue to grow. He thought, glad that he had chosen the right side. Sure, he’d sold his soul for the powers he had, but he thought it was worth it given the results. His mind was clear and his heart satisfied after what he’d accomplished. He got to his feet and walked to the window looking over the campus, young men and women were sitting in the peaceful courtyard, laughing and talking as they went about their daily lives. Some of them knew, some of them didn’t.
He turned from the window and walked past his desk, pushing open the heavy doors to his office and stepping into the main administrative hall. The lights were kept dim at all times, only the statues and paintings on the walls given any form of direct illumination. Shadows danced across his skin and he felt strength well up inside him in this dark place. Here, he was at his most powerful. In the dark, he was a master of his surroundings. Not even an insect moved without his attention and awareness. The poisonous metal blood pumped in his veins, stronger than ever, improved even. He had taken some time to experiment with it and the combination had become more than the sum of its parts.
Even then, it wasn’t enough, it would never be enough. Strength and personal power was nothing more than illusion in the face of a being that could give and take at a whim. He could only make himself as valuable and irreplaceable as possible. So he would continue to experiment, continue to develop, continue to rise.
His heels clicked to a stop in front of another set of doors and he pushed them open. Before him, eleven people in dark hooded robes had taken to their knees on the marble floor beneath them. Their eyes fixed on the ground.
“We greet the Headmaster,” They said as one.
He raised his hand to his heart, “I greet the Deans of the Night Society,” He said and gestured to the huge table behind them in the grand conference room. “Please have a seat.” The windows at the far end of the room had been covered with thick velvety blinds that fluttered a little as the air pressure in the room shifted. The door shut behind him and he made his way over to the seat at the head of the table. The eleven hooded figures settled into their seats. He looked at each of them in turn before glancing at the five empty chairs in the room. He’d have to promote new Deans from the Tenured members of the society soon to shore up from the ones he’d had to kill in order to ensure his position.
“We have our first orders from our Patron,” He said, drawing all of their attention.
The hooded man immediately to his right inclined his head, “We’re ready.”
Blackrazor held up his hand, “Before that, she is sending gifts for a few of you. Not all of you have awakened your abilities yet and that will need to be rectified first.”
This announcement was met in a shift in atmosphere but not a word spoken by those present. He smiled at their diligent attitudes even as he could feel their heartbeats tick up through the shadows that cast across their bodies. “Let me make something clear, as some of you know, these abilities are not to be taken lightly. They can be intoxicating and can interfere with your judgment especially if you already possess skills of your own. Make no mistake, they are tools to be developed and should be considered as such. I experienced such folly myself.”
A few of the hooded people exchanged looks but he continued, “When you are awakened, consider how you will integrate your abilities into your existing strategies. Do not hamper yourselves with overreliance. Understood?”
“We understand, Headmaster,” They said in unison again.
He nodded, “Good, now let's review the job before us. We will need all of our skills to make it happen in the given timeframe.”
This would be his life now, his new reality, his new truth. It was a little funny how, despite the power of the society, it had all fallen into place so simply and in just a few weeks. Such was the reality of this new world.