When the Watcher gazes down upon its end…

After two days of following Kristy around and finding nothing, Lucia had to admit she was on the verge of transitioning from investigating to ‘gentle stalking’. Fortunately they had a number of classes in common–it was how they’d built up animosity in the first place–and it was relatively easy to keep the tall blonde girl in sight.

Less fortunate was that her target had yet to do anything suspicious. She went to class, she ate, she worked out, and she practiced hand to hand combat. She was like a machine, never breaking her routine. Elena also appeared to be spending less time with Kristy, only speaking with her in the class they shared in the morning.

It was late afternoon, and Lucia and Kristy were taking history, sitting on opposite sides of the room, as usual. The anxiety of the NGG Psychics’ day of arrival creeping slowly closer was starting to make it hard for Lucia to act normally, and she’d long since stopped paying attention to any of her instructors.

She was bordering on obsession now, but Lucia had still tried to take Emi’s words to heart–she was keeping her eyes, and her mind, open. She’d done another two listening sessions at the cafeteria–as uncomfortable as it was–but she’d learned nothing. The odds of someone thinking about their own guilt unprompted was low, however, so she wasn’t surprised by her failure.

She’d even gone a step further, and started inserting herself into conversations and shifting the topic to Gamma as artfully as she could. The best she’d managed to pick up was that she was annoying people. Now Lucia was back to stalking, but she’d already made the frustrating decision to turn to the rest of the crew tonight if she didn’t make any progress.

She glanced down at her KD for the time, as the lecture seemed to be entering its tenth hour. It had been fifteen minutes. She sighed audibly, but that was commonplace in this class. History was basically just another propaganda session where the NGG’s glory was espoused from multiple different angles.

Without much to do, Lucia decided to pursue her other new hobby–listening to Veridicus’ insane conspiracy broadcasts to try to better understand her brother. She quickly found the latest stream, and it was already in progress.

“--dozens of them, Truthseekers! There can be no doubt anymore that the world is changing, and the next generation of Psychic outcasts aren’t willing to live under the NGG’s bootheel!” Lucia leaned in; she’d been waiting to hear more about…about people like her since she started reading up on Veridicus’ latest claims.

No NGG channels had mentioned anything about renegade Psychics, but of course they wouldn’t. Lucia hated how easy it was to fall into the rabbit hole that these conspiracy theories presented. The harder it was to prove something, the more alluring the information, the more secret and exclusive it felt, and she wasn’t immune to the temptation.

“There have been five separate reports of Psychic actions since their now-legendary displays at the protests barely a week ago. But this one is on an entirely different level, Truthseekers,” he paused theatrically. “This was a prison break.” Lucia’s eyes widened as the feed shifted to captured video.

“As you can see, the Psychic penitentiary in Hong Kong has been breached! While we don’t have footage of the escape itself, you can see here that the front gates, the AA guns, and guard towers were all devastated and left in rubble. But it gets better!”

Lucia watched as more than a dozen people wearing the symbol of the Cult of the mind approached the shattered concrete walls. Guards charged at them from every direction, but simply collapsed when they got close, or even turned and started fighting their comrades. In under a minute, nearly a hundred super powered men and women were rendered completely useless by the small group of Psychics.

It was terrifying, but Lucia had to admit to herself…it was also incredible.

“The Cult of the Mind is back, Truthseekers! And they are really showing what they can do! The footage ends here, but reports say that Chinese super squads were on the scene within minutes, but they were just as embarrassed as the Basics you just witnessed!”

The screen flickered back to Veridicus, the red X on his mask shaking with his laughter. “It looks like there might have been downsides to removing every Psychic from active service!” The man stopped laughing, and his tone grew serious. “But I have one last fascinating truth for all of you, even the NGG listening!”

The camera panned in. “Even with everything you just saw, including what you didn’t–which was over a hundred freed Psychics–there were zero casualties. What do you think of that, Truthseekers? What do you think of that, NGG liars? The Psychics had them all in their power, and the worst injury was some bruises.”

He spread his arms dramatically, “It’s a message, people! The Psychics are trying to tell us all what the NGG doesn’t want you to believe! They’re telling us that they-are-not-the-enemy! They weren’t a decade ago, and they aren’t now!”

Veridicus reached below his desk and pulled out a picture of the most infamous super ever to have lived. “The Prophet only wanted one thing: to save us all! Never forget that, Truthseekers. And don’t believe the new lies that are coming your way.”

He leaned back, shaking his head, as if disapproving of what the NGG had yet to say. Finally he looked back up. “That’s all for today, I’m afraid. I can feel them closing in. Farewell, Truthseekers! Until the truth brings us together once more!”

Lucia closed down her KD, and leaned back in her chair. She hadn’t managed to sort out the complicated feelings that came with knowing the Cult was back, and this made things even more confusing. She may remember more than Vincent did about those days, but she’d still been a child, and no one had told her what was really going on in the streets.

Had the Psychics truly been non-violent? Or was this something new? Was everything the NGG said a lie? No. Sadly she knew that wasn’t the case. Whatever else she didn’t know, she remembered her mother, and knew exactly what lengths she’d been willing to go to in order to bring the Prophet’s words to life.

Still…Lucia didn’t like to think about what came next if this insane escape plan really worked. But she would be a Psychic, out there in the real world. Her only hope of protecting herself, or making any kind of difference was to use the powers she had, the powers she hated.

To do that, Lucia would need training. She would need other Psychics. Was it possible that she could actually trust the Cult of the Mind? The people she blamed for every misfortune in her life? It was an unpleasant, and challenging question.

Lucia went back to staring blankly at the instructor until class finally came to an end, and gratefully followed the flow of students outside. Stepping out into the cooling air, she turned to head to the cafeteria, but froze when she realized Kristy wasn’t with the group.

Caught off guard, she whipped her head around, and spotted the girl walking in the other direction toward the Northern section of campus. Lucia was momentarily uncertain what to do. Her ‘stalking’ had thus far been a lot of staring at someone who basically had the same schedule as her, not a lot of stealth involved.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

But she knew she couldn’t miss this chance, and so she gave Kristy as much of a head start as she could risk, then followed. It was a fairly challenging task in the end, as Lucia tried to stay one turn behind her target, but close enough not to lose her.

They passed slowly through campus as Kristy appeared unhurried, and the girl rarely even looked around as she walked. Clearly she wasn’t concerned with being followed, which seemed like a bad sign. As they passed the dorms, the infirmary, and numerous classrooms, however, Lucia’s curiosity grew.

There weren’t a lot of buildings left this far into campus, mostly just storage and some of the less-used student facilities. The Farm was meant to hold four or five times as many students as they currently had, so a lot of buildings slowly became unused. They were approaching one now.

Lucia ducked behind a nearby tree as Kristy walked to a boarded up building that seemed to be barely standing. The front door was entirely covered in metal sheeting, and it was clearly meant to withstand curious students with beyond human strength. Kristy ignored it.

Instead, she casually leaned against the building, and made a show of fiddling with her KD for several minutes, even though Lucia was sure the girl was searching every corner. Finally, Kristy tucked the device away, then turned and started climbing the building.

Once she reached the second floor, she pulled back the metal sheeting on a window that was obviously already loosened, and squeezed through. Got you! Lucia thought with relief. She waited as long as her patience would allow, then scurried over to the building, only pausing to quickly check for watchers before she started examining the wall.

It was hard to see in the dark, but small grooves had been scratched into the concrete. Combined with the lower windows and some vents, it was a path upward, and Lucia took it. She lacked Kristy’s practice, but with some scrambling and a few close calls, she was soon at the window.

Ever so slowly she lifted the metal sheeting and peeked through. Unfortunately there was nothing but darkness beyond, so she had to take a chance and simply go inside. Lucia didn’t hear anything suspicious, so she pulled herself through the small gap, and immediately crawled to one side to avoid an ambush.

None came. After a moment her eyes began to adjust to near-total darkness, and she realized she could hear distant, rhythmic sounds. Gathering her courage, Lucia moved into the dark room, navigating around blurry shapes, but not willing to risk using the light of her KD.

She came to an open door, and listened for another moment before opening it a crack. It squeaked, and her heart skipped a beat, but once open the sounds from below were much louder, and she wasn’t as worried. The door opened to a kind of balcony that overlooked the training area below.

Lucia opened the door as little as she could, then squeezed through, and kept herself low as she crept toward the rail of the balcony. It was lighter inside, mostly from a skylight, but there were a few working lights below. Carefully she raised herself higher, and the rest of the building’s interior came into view.

It was mostly what she expected. The gymnasium below was falling apart, but serviceable. There were discarded weights, mats, and only training gear that likely wasn’t safe to use anymore…but someone was. Kristy was in front of a large, heavy, punching bag. It had to be three times her size, and designed for Manifested supers.

She was beating it like it owed her money.

Lucia’s eyebrows rose as the rhythmic sound was made clear. Fist and foot collided with the enormous bag, sending it wobbling and swinging, only to be crashed into again. Kristy was training in secret…with equipment meant for supers.

It made sense, if she’d stolen the Gamma and fast-tracked her own Manifestation. Lucia begrudgingly admitted to herself that Kristy might just be another secretly Manifested student, and that didn’t help her. She needed to watch and wait, and hope for something more.

The workout continued unabated for nearly an hour, and Lucia grew bored. Didn’t this girl ever take a break? She hadn’t even stopped for water. The closest thing to a pause was when the bag nearly broke, and Kristy moved on to lifting impossibly heavy weights. Finally though, the waiting paid off.

Kristy went over to a large slab of metal that must have been part of some equipment years ago, but now was just heavy garbage, and she strained against it. Slowly it slid over, revealing a broken floor beneath. The hole beneath it was glowing softly with the familiar green of Gamma.

Yes! Lucia thought with tremendous relief, and took out her KD, switching to recording mode. When she went to film the scene, however, she found that Kristy had moved in front of the incriminating hole, and was blocking it entirely. Lucia stopped herself from swearing, then shuffled along, trying to get a better shot.

Finally she had the angle right, but she needed to lean over the side of the railing to get it. She angled her KD and saw exactly what she needed: Kristy and the Gamma, now sliding a canister under her shirt, and into the port in her harness. Lucia grinned as she watched her evidence recording, but the grin faded as she felt a sudden push from behind.

She flipped head over heels, then landed a moment later with a crash onto some mats below. It was better than weights, but it was easily a fifteen foot fall, and she laid there trying to catch her breath, unable to gather her thoughts.

At last she gasped, and air rushed back into the lungs. Her mind caught up a moment later, and she rolled onto all fours, looking around. Kristy was standing over her, staring down without expression. She was holding a six foot lifting bar like it was weightless, and the message was clear.

“Kristy…please…” she managed to get out through the panting and the pain. The girl didn’t respond. She just kept staring. Not understanding, Lucia slowly got to her feet, and backed away. She collided with old tables and equipment almost immediately, and turned around, looking for an exit.

There were two doors, but they were both completely covered by piles of weights and other heavy garbage. Kristy must just hop down from above, she realized. The other girl still hadn’t moved, she just stood there, ominously staring.

“Kristy, I won’t tell anyone, okay? I know we’re not friends, but you don’t want to do this. You…Kristy?” Lucia looked at the girl carefully, but she still hadn’t moved. Curious, Lucia slowly moved around the room, but her rival wasn’t motionless, even if she was silent.

Wherever Lucia went, the girl just turned to watch her, saying nothing. Fear was rising as the moments passed in disturbing silence, and Lucia was beginning to wonder if this was just Kristy enjoying her moment before finally making her move, until she came to stop directly opposite where she’d fallen from above.

She’d been pushed. In her fear and pain, it had slipped her mind, but now as she gazed up at Elena, leaning on the railing with an unreadable expression, the situation became a little clearer. “Elena, what the hell is this? Why did you push me down here?”

The other girl slowly stood up straight, then let out a long, tired sigh.

I didn’t want this, came a voice directly into Lucia’s mind, and she whirled around in confusion. Seeing nothing, she looked back up at Elena with a dawning understanding. We really were friends, Lucia, and I’m not evil. I didn’t want to have to do this…but they know about you.

“You’re a Psychic!” Lucia said in shock, and Elena let out a small laugh.

For nearly a year now, returned the voice in her head. But I was lucky. I manifested quietly, when I was alone. They don’t know about me. But they’ll figure you out, and then the Psychics will come.

“What are you thinking?” Lucia screamed back, her voice echoing in the open gym. “They’re already coming, because you stole the Gamma!” Elena looked embarrassed at the accusation, and shook her head while gesturing at Kristy, still standing frozen across the room.

Her doing, but my fault, I suppose, Elena thought at her. I told you, I didn’t want this, but you have to go, or they’ll find us both. I told Kristy to take care of you, but Mind Control is a new ability for me…evidently you need to be specific, or the target will make some choices of their own.

She gestured at the glowing pile of Gamma under the floor. Apparently Kristy saw you as unbeatable, even before you Manifested. She thought she needed powers of her own to complete her task, and went to acquire them. Now the pet Psychics are coming, and I need to clean up this mess.

“This isn’t like you, Elena. We’ve been friends for years; we can find a better way!” Lucia insisted. But she already knew the truth. She didn’t really know this girl, maybe she never had.

Too late for that. Tomorrow they’ll find you, overdosed on the Gamma you stole. It’s the only way. I’m sorry, Lucia, but I decided long ago that I’d do anything to avoid ending up with a collar around my neck, one more pet of the nGG, less than human.

I’m just trying to survive, the voice echoed in Lucia’s mind, and there was genuine sadness in it. Then Kristy began to move forward, the metal bar catching the moonlight, and the promise of death coming with her.