Rachel knocks on Alex’s door. He’s still awake, reading. She had just left the deviant children they rescued sleeping in her room.
“I have to give it to you, sis. Pissing off everyone is such an accomplishment.” He cracks a smile and focuses again on the book.
“You know me, Alex.” She sighs, “If I’m gonna do something, might as well excel at it!” Rachel forces a smile and looks at him.
“You cracking a joke? Memory erasing really did a number on you.” He closes his book and looks at her, “Ánh will forgive you, Rachel. Give her some time.”
“How did you return my memories? When I erased them, I thought they were gone forever.”
“Hate to break it to you, sis… you just aren’t as talented as me.”
“Obviously! The silver hair holds all the power!” She laughs and looks away.
He fakes a smile, holds his silver necklace and passes the other hand on a loose lock in front of his face. Pulls it back. “You left a trail, and I found it. Same thing could’ve happened with Diego and me. Actually… no,” a genuine laugh echoes, “who am I kidding? They’d have to have someone more talented.”
“You took a risk. One that paid off. But they could have someone more talented. I was overpowered for a moment there. The amplifier...”
“They tried…” Alex’s eyes glow, “with this machine… what an excruciating pain. It was malfunctioning, fortunately. I took a risk, Rachel. I knew that eventually, with all the torture, they’d wear my mind down. But I had to take that risk…”
“Why?”
“I couldn’t do that to Diego. How much would I have to erase for us to be safe, Rachel? Would I have to erase Diego’s sister? His parents?” Alex exhales slowly.
“You didn’t want to erase Amy, too.” Rachel’s brown eyes meet the grayness of his.
“Don’t.” His tone sharpens.
“Alex…”
“Don’t you dare mention her, Rachel.” He takes a few long breaths in and out and levels his voice, “I am grateful that you went back for me. I am.”
“But?”
“But this changes nothing in our relationship. You’re here now because everyone else has shut you out and Megan is lying dead somewhere.”
Rachel forms an ice spike on her right hand and her eyes open wide.
“I’m getting déjà vu now, Rachel.” Alex claps his hands and laughs loudly.
Rachel dissolves the ice spike and shakes her head, “You hate me ever since I killed them. They didn’t love you, Alex. That wasn’t love!”
“My dearest,” he gets up and takes a few steps forward until they are face to face, “I don’t hate you because you killed our glorious leader,” he laughs again, “and his precious,” he pauses, “puppet,” pauses again and raises his voice, “the ultra-powerful-superwoman!” He raises his right arm in the air and laughs.
“Always hiding behind your sarcasm…” Rachel shakes her head, “my dearest.”
“I hate you because you killed Amy, Rachel.” His tone drops.
“How dare you?” Rachel raises her right hand to slap him but stops before hitting him.
He grabs her wrist, takes it out of his sight, “Amy died because of you. They wanted you and Matthew. She died because they wanted to kill you.”
“Matthew made the decision to tell everyone that I was the Angel of Death and then he blamed you for her death.” Her voice breaks, “Alex, you are the only family I have left.”
“Save the tears, dear.” He lets her wrist go, “we aren’t family, Rachel! We’re two messed-up kids that only exist because the Five wanted more power!” He scoffs and faces her, “So ironic that you say that Matthew blamed me for her death…” he laughs, “What about you? You blamed me for Andrew’s death! Remember?”
“Alex…” She looks away.
“I was 15 too, Rachel! You told me that I should’ve faced Matthew. Like I could? That I should’ve protected Andrew. Stopped you from killing him…” his voice cracks, “Matthew and Amanda blamed me for Amy’s death.” He laughs now and his voice grows, “but so do you. Constantly. Where is your responsibility, Rachel?”
“I know... Every time we get into an argument, I say that to you. It’s unfair. It’s not true. She loved us both. It would kill her to see us like this.”
Alex grabs his necklace and shakes his head, “She’s already dead, Rachel. Killing her in the afterlife won't make much difference.” He teleports away.
***
It’s seven in the morning when the first reporters break in the news. The video of the Angel of Death using a third ability. The white light surrounding her. The video doesn’t show where Megan is. Only her destroying one of the drones with the light. The reactions appear right away. People respond to it on social media. The commentators argue about it on the television.
“It’s obvious that deviants have been lying to us for years now! This is the final proof we need. First, we thought deviants could only have one ability. Then we found out about the fatal flaw-” one says.
“Daniel, I have to interrupt you here. The fatal flaw exists since the beginning of time. Since humanity and deviants exist. It’s not something new! The fatal flaw didn’t start with Matthew Moore!” another corrects him.
“Of course not! It’s the invention of the devil itself! What I’m trying to say is that we’ve been lied to by deviants. There are more abilities than we know of, and deviants know it!” he shouts.
“Institutes worldwide study deviants. Are you honestly telling us, telling people back home, with no support whatsoever, that all the institutes coordinated a lie?”
“Of course! Deviants want to rule us!” he faces the camera, “and if we don’t stop it, they’ll come for us all!”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Protests break in all the major cities in the United States of America. In the capital, it’s in front of the Institute and its dormitory. At first they are peaceful, but quickly turn violent and the security corps have to step in and mediate. No one is arrested. The first protests in the United States of America lead to an international response. Several countries in South America, Africa, and Eurasia, have their citizens marching against deviants in the major capitals.
“The right to protest is guaranteed by our constitution. You can protest! You can express your discontent!” the president of the Eurasian Council says in French. The message is transmitted live worldwide and dubbed immediately to the language of the country of emission.
Ánh watches it on her phone in the Vietnamese news. Rachel watches it in the living room with Abigail and Emily in the United States broadcaster. Diego watches it in Spanish on his phone.
“But you will not… I repeat….” He faces the camera with his index finger raised, “Will not! Express such discontent through violent actions…” he shakes his head and a round of applauses echoes in the Eurasian Council.
How will our president react? Rachel’s heartbeats raise.
“No violence. At all!” The president’s voice raises. “Not against property… and especially not against people!” Another round of applause echoes. Some cheers.
Emily shows Abigail the reactions live on social media to the speech. How different they are on the two phones they have, one connected to the Eurasian network and another to the United States.
“Jessica’s team must be busy.” Abigail scoffs.
“Still, there are protests happening on Eurasia.” Rachel faces Abigail and Emily.
“There are anti-deviant movements there, too. They are the ones organizing these protests. Most likely.” Abigail says.
“The people who support deviants are online. Those against are in the streets. Neither represent Eurasia. Most people probably don’t care.” Rachel tells her and they focus again on the speech.
“Deviants are equal in our eyes! That video doesn’t change that. Remember the path we’ve taken so far. Open a history book, search on your computer how our lives were when we were at war!” The president faces the camera, ignoring the representatives against deviants that boo him while he speaks. “We ended that war and we won’t return to it because of the action of one deviant!” The rest of the representatives applause again. Overlapping the noises from the anti-deviant representatives.
Ánh enters the room and purposefully sits far from Rachel.
“An action that we have yet to confirm! I have spoken with every president of the institutes of our countries. They all assured me the same thing…” he pauses and faces the camera, “They were as speechless as we humans were!” He faces the side of the parliament where the anti-deviant sit, they shout lies while he laughs at their face.
“Ánh…” Abigail looks at her, “do you think this speech will change anything?”
“Eurasia is the most progressive when it comes to deviants’ rights. If Eurasia goes back…” Emily says.
“Eurasia has been going back for some time now. That group of representatives. Twenty years ago, everyone laughed at their party. Now, they are there… History… repeats itself.” Ánh shakes her head.
“The presidents of the institutes gave me a clear message. They're uncertain about the existence of a third ability. If it exists, why the Angel of Death possesses it? But they said they never saw it before. And we believe their word!” Another round of applause.
Abigail shows the reactions on the social media connected to the network of the United States of America. The trends of the day are deviants lied, die angel of death. The ones on Eurasia are we stand united, we believe deviants, die angel of death.
“Our deviant brothers and sisters helped to carve our present. The one we cherish and wish to keep! We will not turn our backs on them now. The government of the United States of America may want another war, but here, we choose peace!” The entire parliament gets up except for the anti-deviant representatives that leave instead.
Rachel gets up immediately. Her breathing turned shallow while listening to the speech and her heartbeat is going through the roof. She leaves the room, Ánh turns around, wondering if she should follow her, but decides to remain instead.
“Why do you think she has it? Three abilities… why is she special?” Emily turns off the tv screen.
“Why do you say she’s special, Emily?” Ánh faces her.
“Ánh, she’s the world’s most powerful deviant, after all. She is the only deviant with three abilities. That makes her special.”
“Megan killed an entire community when she was 15. She lived in the streets until she was 20. And now, to save Diego and Alex, she had to use the same power again, the one she used on that day, and become a target for the entire world. I’m sure she doesn’t think of herself as special.”
“That’s what I don’t get,” Emily shakes her head. “Why she’d want to stay hidden instead of showing everyone how powerful she is… She was trained, I guess, by the people that tried now to trap her. Even they didn’t understand her abilities. That’s how powerful she is.”
“Of course, you don’t get it,” Ánh gets up and laughs, “Megan has lived with the responsibility of being too powerful and you have lived with the perks of it.”
Emily smacks her lips and laughs. She gets up, faces Ánh, but the girl doesn’t cave in. She faces her back, eyes to eyes. Emily shakes her head and leaves the room.
She lies on her bed looking through the window.
The Angel of Death is the most powerful… sure. But when she died, I became the most powerful. After her, I am the most powerful. No one lied to me. She was dead already when they gave me the title. And now… now she’s dead. For good. I’m back to being number one. Once this is all over, once I can return, the title will be mine again. Even if that hurts Jade. It’s not hers to have. Thinking that I would’ve given it up for her if she asked me to, why would I give up something that is my right?
***
Rachel returns to find Ánh and Abigail still watching television in the living room.
“Ánh…” Rachel takes a few steps toward the couch.
Abigail starts to get up and Ánh stops her.
“Yes?”
“You’ve noticed Diego’s face… He had been using his power to change his appearance. The side effects must have been awful. Have you spoken to him?”
“Stop pretending you care about Diego, Rachel.”
“Ánh…” Abigail starts.
“Stay out of this, Abigail!” Ánh shakes her head and faces Rachel, “It’s true. If you cared about Diego’s wellbeing, you would’ve told him the truth about Megan’s power.”
“I know you’re upset, Ánh. I will make it better, I promise.”
"Do you still believe I came here for a boy?"
“I never-” Rachel stammers.
“That I faked my own death… That I made everyone that I care about believe that I was dead, because of some boy?”
Abigail looks away, trying to hold back her tears.
“No.” Rachel dryly says.
“I came here because I believed that in a world full of lies you were the real deal. I believed in the movement. I believed in you. Say what you want, but you are the movement. And now… I found out that you have no problem lying if it fits you.”
“I had a problem with keeping this from you. Being the world's most powerful for over ten years, I've carried a heavy burden. And I wanted to tell Alex, Diego, you. I wanted to tell you. But I promised Megan I wouldn’t when we met. I promised it would be our secret. It never ‘fit’ me, Ánh.”
Abigail turns the volume louder on the television.
“Breaking news, En Nagoyean, a former student of the Institute, Eurasian citizen, presumed dead in 2025, is part of the terrorist movement led by Rachel Moore and the Angel of Death.” The news anchor says while showing the photography of Ánh. “Eurasia has yet to comment on this news, we’ll now head live to our reporter on the scene with Madeleine Clark, president of the Institute.”
Ánh’s eyes fixate on the screen. She’s not hearing a word coming out of Madeleine’s mouth. Instead, her mind fills with memories of her childhood. Her parents. Then her adolescence at the Institute. Her moments with Abigail and Aminu.
“My sincere hope is that no one decides to blame our international students for the action of one! Ever since 2016, we’ve had thousands of students from abroad. One joined the movement. I met personally them all. Én was a sweet child, probably naive enough to fall for their lies and deceive. Én,” Madeleine looks at the camera, “if you are watching this, sweetheart. Come home. Everything will be alright!”
“Miss Clark, have you spoken to Nagoyan’s parents?” The reporter asks.
“I have. They are absolutely heartbroken.”
Ánh falls to her knees. Abigail rushes to her and embraces her.
“I wish no one ever experiences the pain they are in.” Madeleine wipes a tear with her hand. “No more questions, please.” She leaves, crying.
Rachel turns off the screen. Ánh gets up, kindly pushes Abigail away and heads to the door.
“Ánh!” Rachel goes after her.
“Leave me alone!” Ánh slams shut the door behind her.
Abigail runs after her, not before mouthing I’m sorry to Rachel.