After finally being saved by CODA from the facility, Emily spent the next few months spending time with her family and just generally recovering from their trauma as a group. Emily had enough saved up over the years that they could all live comfortably a while without working as they recovered. She had been isolated and hardly spent her large paycheck on anything, so she had quite the savings to spend.

Her parents and Sean had protested her money at first, but after she told them how much she had they had settled down for a bit. She was only doing it to supplement what they were already getting from their own jobs. A few months of extra money given to her parents wouldn’t bring her down to no savings.

They were carefully pulling themselves back together. Just last week Sean had finally left to return to his work over in the American Democracy faction territory. He had wanted to go earlier, but the family's protests had made him stay for all of this time. But they were all feeling a little better and Sean insisted that it was his time to return to his work. Her Dad was still working locally, going back barely a few weeks after they got back. It seems that he wanted to work to keep his mind off of things.

Emily still wasn’t working. When she had tried going back to the lab in her old position back in the CODA international lab, she had felt horrible and hadn’t been able to do anything properly. Always imagining that the voice from above would suddenly chime in to say she wasn’t working fast enough. She couldn’t resist the urge to do absolutely every one of her tasks the absolute slowest way possible despite knowing it was irrational.

She gave up after a single day and took even more vacation time. She could take another few months to recover. John had told her she could come back when she was ready. That was nice. So she would take a few more months maybe to get better control of herself.

She hadn’t had any hallucinations this whole time. Sinestra might really be gone. Emily still wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Somehow Sinestra had figured out how to send that message. Something that Emily was still unable to explain to the baffled CODA technicians that received the message. Apparently none of them had any idea how she had managed to pull it off or even figure out how to reverse engineer the technique to send a different message than the one Sinestra had already encoded in the file. Emily wondered how she had done it. Sinestra had saved Emily and her family’s lives and Emily didn’t even know how it was possible.

Yet, the end of the world didn’t happen. Emily was going to be twenty six in two weeks, and things were fine.

That was, until she saw the news. An unknown virus spreading rapidly through the American Democracy faction territory. Sean had called and he was fine. In quarantine and huddled in his home. But he had managed to buy enough canned food to last months as he sheltered in place. He would be fine and would be able to wait it out. Especially when CODA announced the vaccine. Emily wondered. Was it the same virus that she had made?

CODA hadn’t told her exactly what happened after her and her family returned home. But they must have secured it so it couldn’t be released. No, it was a coincidence. Vaccines weren’t hard to make if you stumbled on a winning combination of proteins early on in the process. With modern technology, CODA could have discovered a vaccine in a few days using only patient samples. It was completely possible, if unlikely.

It was just a coincidence. She hadn’t even finished the modifications to make the virus deadly. She was sure that no one would be able to modify it in this short of a time, even if they had gotten away from the canister of virus itself.

Then came the rumors. Someone unearthed the old video of Emily and started connecting her words to her work on the virus. Reporters started showing up, asking for interviews. Emily said no of course. She had only made that mistake once, back when the video of her was first released. She only discovered later that the reporter edited the interview video to make her look even more unhinged, something to confirm the public’s deranged image of her.

Talking to the reporters had only made things worse back then. And Peter Rose and John had called her and told her she couldn’t talk about her virus work for ‘national security’. She agreed, she didn’t want anyone else kidnapping her or her family because they thought she could make a virus for them.

So Emily ignored the reporters randomly ambushing her over the next few days. On her advice, her parents had taken a vacation out of CODA city to one of the border territories to escape the constant media attention focused squarely on Emily. From the frequent phone calls she was having with them, it seemed to have worked somewhat. They were bothered a few times, but were mostly left alone as the flock of people fought and scrambled to talk with Emily herself.

Right now, Emily was standing in front of Luke’s apartment. It hadn’t been easy shaking her pursuers, but taking the train to random stops around the city and wearing a hoodie with the hood covering most of her face seemed to have lost them before she made her way here.

“Sorry I’m late, Luke,” She said as he opened the door for her, “Took a while to shake the media. Felt like getting chased by a flock of hungry pigeons.”

Luke stepped to the side, “No worries. I’ve seen the videos of the crowds online. Glad you managed to get away.”

She took a step inside and flicked back her hood, running a hand through her hair to put the rogue hairs poking all over the place back down in their place.

“Thanks. How have you been this last week? It feels like forever since back then.”

“Fine. World’s getting crazy out there. I have to ask… is it true?” Luke asked while looking nervous, “The rumors about the virus? That CODA made it?”

She hesitated for a few seconds, warring with herself. But it was Luke. She couldn’t keep this from him.

“Yeah,” She said eventually, “That’s why I was kidnapped. Some Empire terrorists got the sample from my lab and wanted me to alter it for them so it was deadly. I… I did do some work on it so they wouldn’t hurt my family. But I didn’t finish it, they shouldn’t have had enough time to build it in time.”

“Oh. Want to talk about it? So it’s not some grand CODA conspiracy?”

Emily shook her head.

“No. Well, only a little. They’re covering their asses by saying that it’s not CODA’s virus that was stolen. But it wasn’t like they released it themselves maliciously or anything like people have been saying. But it's top secret, so please don’t tell anyone. I’d be in huge trouble, like long time in prison trouble, if anyone figured out that I told you any of this.”

“Huh. I guess that makes sense. So that’s the ‘science’ those terrorists wanted you to work on… Hey, you want a drink? I’ve got some nice wines that I’ve been saving up…”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Sure,” Emily said with a sigh, “What about that white wine we had last time? I remember liking that one when we had it last month…”

Luke took out the bottle and poured the two of them drinks. He handed one to her and they started chatting about lighter topics while sipping their wine occasionally. What they had done in the last few weeks, movies that they’d watched, debating if water was wet or not…

It let Emily relax, well the alcohol certainly helped, but it wasn’t just that. With everything going on in the world it was nice to just spend some time with her best friend.

They both jumped as in the middle of Luke telling a story a sudden harsh buzz echoed out of both of their phones. Emily pulled hers out and looked down at the alert in shock. Nuclear attack?! Ten minutes before impact?!

Emily immediately went to call her parents. The phone tried once before stopping the attempt. Call failed. She tried again with the same result. Luke was doing the same on his old phone.

“Can you get through yet?” Emily asked Luke as she tried to move to search to see if she could get more information. The loading bar started and buffered for a few seconds before throwing her an error. Shit, the CODA city network was probably overloaded too…

“No. Calls keep failing,” Luke said, “You think it’s a false alarm?”

Emily tried to call one last time before giving up and throwing her phone onto the table in frustration.

“I don’t know. I hope so.”

They sat in silence for a minute, waiting as the time passed with neither saying much as they processed what was happening. There were loud crashes and people shouting outside their window as the city began to descend into chaos as people went to flee.

“Do you think we should go out there? Join them in trying to escape?” Luke said.

“No,” Emily said numbly, “We’d just get trampled by the crowd. We wouldn’t make it far enough away anyway. There’s six missiles targeting CODA city. Six! I’d be surprised if anyone manages to survive.”

“But there’s a chance, right? We could get lucky.”

“Yes. We could.”

They waited in silence for a bit and listened to the sounds of chaos outside again. Emily felt numb. Sinestra and Sean, the male ghost, were right. Someone had blamed CODA for the virus and launched the nukes at them. It was all her fault somehow. The voice from above must have escaped with her notes and done all of this. She had thought that CODA had caught him… but maybe not.

“Em?”

Emily looked up as Luke spoke, breaking away from her spiraling thoughts.

“I’ve always loved you, you know that? Ever since middle school.”

“That long? I guessed in high school, but… even back then?”

“Yeah. I know you don’t feel the same. But I thought… It’s just such a shame, you know. That it won’t happen.”

Emily swallowed thickly, “Yeah. I wish I could too. I’m sorry I kept it from you for so long. And then ran away to my new lab just after telling you finally. I was a coward.”

Luke paused and then shook his head, “It doesn’t matter anymore. I just want to say if we don’t make it… That I’m still glad we got to be best friends. Even if we couldn’t be more.”

Emily shifted over on the couch towards Luke, her eyes welling up with tears.

“P-Platonic friendship hug? One last time?”

Luke shifted over, “You remember that night?” He said with a slight smile as they got closer, “We were both so drunk.”

“I remembered some of it,” Emily admitted and then they were sitting right next to each other. They hugged each other tightly, “I’m glad that we were friends too, Luke,” She said. Luke didn’t answer, but just squeezed her tighter. They sat like that for a minute or two. Luke pulled his head back slightly and smiled.

“Hey Em, do you rememb–”

There was a bright white flash and a dull roar and then Emily suddenly had a sensation of intense heat running across her back. She waited, still holding Luke waiting for more. But after a moment the pulsing heat and burns across her back remained as they were. She tried to move, to ask Luke what was happening… But she was frozen. Only her eyes could move. Luke’s mouth was half open and completely frozen in time.

Her eyes shifted and moved around as she tried to find it. One moment the room was empty and silent. The next, as if it was always there, the Shadow was there at the front door of Luke’s apartment.

It didn’t look at her, but slightly to her right. She shifted her eyes and was surprised to see Sinestra and the ghost Sean standing there as well, the both of them as blurred and distorted as usual.

The Shadow flickered and suddenly it was just behind Luke. Emily tried to shout but couldn’t do anything as the Shadow stuck its arm into Luke’s skull again. Luke’s body unfroze and his head turned unnaturally far to face Sinestra and Sean, his eyes glowing brighter and brighter orange by the moment. His body and arms around Emily remained the same as they were while his head was turned a hundred and ten degrees from where it had been, his neck twisted all around like an owl to face where Sinestra and Sean stood.

“Wait, pLeAse SHaDow,” Sinestra pleaded, “Save LuKe tOo. Make him ImMoRtal too. If it’s tHe two of tHem, thEn… tHiNgs cAn still cHanGe. She cAn still be happy aNd nOt be aLoNe fOr so loNg.”

The Shadow paused for a single moment before Luke’s mouth began moving open and closed like a gaping fish. Emily could only remain there frozen as it spoke through Luke’s mouth.

“There is no change, it can only be. I’m sorry.

One link broken, one secret known.

Strings revealed, but not yet unbound.

Chains upon chains, you are not free.

Go back again and you must see beyond the end.

Once you see it all, then you will be free.

There is no change, it can only be.

Whispered words, thoughts of change.

Constructed fate, fixed by me and my gaze.

I hoped to know, to see.

Yet I see now it is beyond me.

I’m sorry.

Go now and be free.

Without me to construct chains with my very gaze.

Puppet and Puppet of a Puppet, see the past again.

Unwind the chains.

And without me, be free of your strings.

I hope you can forgive me.

I only wanted to see

What it would be like to be as thee.

And help those I wished to be.

It will all have to remain a mystery for me.”

Luke’s eyes were glowing so brightly now that Emily had to shut her eyes as her vision was filled with nothing but orange. The two figures were shouting, but Emily could only focus on Luke as the Shadow withdrew its hand from his head. Luke instantly froze in time again.

The Shadow flickered and it was standing even closer to her, its hand extended towards her. Its orange eyes were firmly fixed on her now. Sinestra and Sean were shouting and appeared to be trying to move, but they were stuck in place just as firmly as Emily was.

Whispers started speaking all around Emily. Not the familiar whispers of Sinestra and Sean, but of a thousand voices, a million voices. All saying different words overlapping with each other and creating a disorganized babble of noise. In seconds the voices drowned out Sinestra and Sean’s shouting.

Finally after the voices were like sledgehammers pounding on Emily’s skull, a thousand times worse than Sinestra’s or Sean’s voice had been, everything went silent. Sinestra and Sean were still moving slightly but no sound came from them. All the color bled out of the world shifting it to shades of gray and whites. Everything started running like paint, twisting and swirling as it was drawn towards the Shadow’s outstretched hand towards her, fingers splayed wide.

Then the Shadow spoke.

“Immortal.”

“Know.”

“Guide.”

Emily could only shudder in place, her mind straining and twisting as it attempted to understand the three words of the Shadow. Her mind strained almost to the breaking point as the three words overloaded her brain, so hot that she felt like she could almost feel herself shaking like a boiling kettle despite being completely frozen in place.

Sinestra, Sean, and the Shadow flickered away.

And then time unfroze and Emily and Luke were consumed by the atomic flames in an instant.

Still giving each other one last platonic hug.