"Black Zero" found guilty, sentenced to life!

Saint Century-Wes Gibson, dubbed the "Black Zero" on social media, was convicted this morning of over 200 counts of murder, attempted genocide, acts of terrorism, and malicious destruction of property. The conviction follows a blockbuster six-month trial in front of the ICG Board of Directors. While his defense tried to argue that he was under the thrall of an alien contagion, the prosecution was able to convince the panel that—under the precedent set by convictions of OH criminals in the 30th century—Gibson was ultimately responsible for all acts committed while possessing the paranormal abilities he demonstrated 6 months ago. The trial itself eventually boiled down to a battle of the experts, as both sides brought some of the top experts in their respective fields, such as OH anthropology. Gibson will be transferred this afternoon to Madrono City prison, despite the fact he technically is not an OH nor does he demonstrate any retention of paranormal abilities. Considering the crimes he was convicted of, this site finds his future home highly appropriate.

-Saint Century Hourly new blast.

Roxanne had a great big yawn as she walked down the steps of her house. It was 0900 LM, she got up at the same time every day; she loved it. Sometimes it felt as if she were on vacation but only in the shallowest sense. Most would probably cast her as a jobless bum and they'd be half-right.

In her peripheral vision she watched a news clip, Wes was getting transferred within the hour and she wanted to see him one last time. There was little to no time for that during the trial, they had met once at the start but—on the advice of counsel—that was stopped immediately. They barely had the chance to say word one, it frustrated Roxanne greatly. She understood the why but found it maddening regardless.

After she had landed back on Izanami six months ago, she had rushed back to his side and was relieved to see that he was okay; alive anyway. ‘Okay’ was still to be determined. To her shock, Wes was immediately placed under arrest by the combat drones that had entered ground zero. She remembered arguing with Central One, but it was protocol, said the AI. Roxanne let it go; there was no arguing with planetary AI. Corina as much said so.

That's not to say Corina didn't agree with the arrest, because she did, but at least Roxanne understood that particular emotion from her. The wounds were still very fresh. Roxanne understood the law; she still thought it was crap. He was under the direct control of an ancient cosmic force, she saw him fight the influence and she ended up saying as much on TV during the trial. Her stance didn’t seem to help, either for Wes or her popularity—the latter of which she couldn't care any less about.

Grandmother greeted her once she entered the kitchen. Roxanne hugged her from behind and took a big whiff of what was being made and instantly fell to full-on hunger. Eggs, bacon, pancakes; breakfast from the gods. She tried to reach for a piece of that bacon but got her hand slapped away.

"Be patient," grandmother scolded and Roxanne made a face. Things seemed to be going well between the two, although Roxanne still bristled occasionally at being treated as a child; grandmother had trouble breaking that habit. Legally Roxanne was 21 but did that stop her? Even if she were physically 21, grandmother would still have problems seeing her as anything but her little grandchild.

"What's the plan for today?" Grandmother asked.

Roxanne twirled a lone strand of hair around her index finger. "Uh, well—I'm going to visit Wes today." Grandmother dropped the spatula suddenly and turned around. She gave Roxanne a concerned look. "What?" Roxanne asked.

Grandmother regained herself and picked up the cooking utensil before she resumed her cooking. The remaining bacon sizzled as she shook her head. "I just wish you left that alone."

"He's my friend, grandma," Roxanne said frustrated. She was getting tired of having to defend herself.

Grandmother sighed and turned to face her. "Listen, I loved Wes—you know I did—but you can't associate with him after what he did,"

"He didn't Greshing do it!"

"Fine, fine," Grandmother put her hands up; she found it easier to ignore Roxanne’s profanity these days. "My point still stands."

Roxanne huffed and said, "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Grandmother raised an eyebrow and then returned to cooking. She started placing the now cooked bacon onto a separate plate. After a moment of this she said, "Well, I know what we can talk about…"

She turned around and brought the plate to Roxanne who had taken a seat. Roxanne snatched one up and stuffed her face, she was famished. In between bites she raised both her eyebrows as if to ask, "What?"

"We need to start figuring out what you're going to do."

Roxanne winced at this and swallowed. "Let's go back to the previous topic." She said when the food had gone down.

"Honey, I'm serious." Grandmother began while bringing over a plate of scrambled eggs, along with plates to put the food on. "It's been six months since you've been back. I love you, dearly, but we either need to find a way to get you back into a school of some kind or you need to find a job."

"Grandma, I have a job," Roxanne said while scooping a hearty helping of egg onto a plate.

"One that pays," grandmother answered back curtly.

Roxanne sighed, this was something she had been willfully ignoring. To go back to school she'd have to get the courts to declare her legally 16 and she wasn't sure she wanted to do that. There were perks to being considered an adult, why give that up? Then again, without a degree or cert, being legally an adult was worth practically nothing.

"I wouldn't mind a 'real' job," she eventually said after eating a bit while she used air quotes with her fingers. "But I need something flexible so I can keep doing, well, this."

Roxanne held up a fist, the golden ring flickered under the kitchen lights. Eventually, Grandmother brought over the pancakes and served herself. Once done she said, "Why not be like your friend, Lady Steel? She's always said you could grab endorsements and whatnot."

Roxanne shook her head. "That life isn't for me," she uttered, which was true. Once the crisis was over and she was back home she was bombarded by all sorts of requests and offers. She eventually only did one, a sit-down interview with Corina by her side. Watching it back, it was clear how uncomfortable she was and she didn't like it. Not to mention all the comments on social media; she had mistakenly read more than a few of them. No, being a celebrity wasn't for her.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"And besides," Roxanne began. "After everything she's going through, I'm not so sure she wants to do it anymore either."

Living with all the carnage she had caused wasn’t easy for Corina, she confided that much in her. In the time since everything went down, the pair had become really good friends. Corina saw Roxanne as something of a little sister; they talked all the time. While the entirety of the massacre she had committed had been blamed on Wes, most commenters always saw fit to remind her that they rejected that notion.

To those who already despised her, or felt she was a bourgeois sell-out, this most recent incident was just more fuel for that fire. The truth was that Corina wasn't sure if she disagreed with them at all; she was a sell-out; perhaps she was to blame. Roxanne never knew what to say to that, so she just offered a supportive ear.

Roxanne, we must leave soon if we are to make it.

The current time flashed in her HUD and she dropped her fork on the plate. "Oh crap, I've gotta run," she said and rushed over to the other side of the island to kiss grandmother on the cheek. Roxanne had requested this face-to-face meeting with Wes via Central One. At first, they weren't very keen to allow it but she had earned a little clout by saving the world and they allowed her to see him before he was shipped out.

Grandmother wanted to say something before she had walked out but opted not to, Roxanne was just too headstrong to be convinced of anything if she had already set her mind to a different option. Instead, she hugged her softly and told her to be careful.

Roxanne exited the brownstone and quickly crystallized her uniform over her; she was in the air headed toward a military spaceport within seconds. The facility was in low orbit, tidally locked to Izanami. Most interstellar vessels had to check in here, and prisoners were often held here before being sent down to either a facility on the surface or off-world.

The station was spinning in place to simulate the pull of gravity for the personnel stationed aboard. It resembled four crushed aluminum cans of soda shoved onto a pike only every edge was smooth and colored a bright white to stand out among the blackness. The edges of each disk were color-coded to denote different parking permissions: red for interstellar passenger ships, green for prisoners/transfers, and yellow for interstellar freight.

This was the farthest off-world she'd come since she decided to take a dip in Brachium; she hung there just kilometers away from the station and took it all in. A whole universe out there and she could go see it all if she wanted. She sighed—it was going to have to wait—and had Azonne contact the docking station to request permission to fly in. She took off and flew relatively side-by-side with the structure. As she got closer to it the white paint was revealed to be mostly translucent plasteel; she could see tiny little figures inside milling about.

Boarding approved, you may head to green.

Roxanne sighed outward heavily, as the closer she got the more anxious she felt. What will she say to him? She hadn't actually thought that far ahead. She figured it'd work itself out like it always had between them; easy peasy. A waypoint was highlighted in her vision, it was an airlock used for spacewalk repairs; she flew in slowly. As she approached, the door lurched open horizontally. Roxanne floated in nice and easy. She lowered herself to the floor and the door behind her closed with a silent thud.

After a beat, air could be heard rushing in. This went on for five minutes before the door in front of her finally irised open. Roxanne lowered her aura and took a nice deep breath and smiled, stuff like this just kept her in awe. Roxanne heard the click-clack of heels on the floor and looked up.

"Corina?!" she gasped and ran up to her friend to hug her. After the hug, Corina smiled warmly and beckoned her to follow.

"I don't understand, what are you doing here?" Roxanne asked her. She took in her surroundings, the hallway was cavernous. It was gunmetal gray with overhead yellow lights illuminating the way. A bright red line adorned the middle of the floor, a further guide should the lights not be enough; idiot-proof navigation.

"Eh, I figured you could use some moral support," Corina shrugged and smirked.

"You're even wearing your uniform, I must be special."

Corina looked down at herself before saying, "...I feel stronger with it on."

"Hey," Roxanne jogged a little bit ahead of Corina and turned to stand in front of her; Roxanne smiled. "Thanks for this. I know how you feel about—I know this isn't comfortable for you." Her smile turned apologetic.

Corina stopped to consider what Roxanne said; she searched for the right words. "I believe in you," she eventually said. "If you want to believe in him, then I trust you...you're a good friend, Roxanne. Gods know you've helped make the last few months bearable." She let out a combination of a sigh and a laugh as she said that.

Roxanne smiled and continued the walk. They eventually came to a door, the seams that made up its shape were barely visible against the wall but it was marked with the number "1" in a boring military font. Corina was ahead of her again by this point and turned to look at Roxanne.

"I'll let you go in there alone but I'll be right outside," she told her. "He'll probably enter after you do; he'll be behind glass."

"Why? He has no powers."

"It's better to be safe than sorry, trust me."

Roxanne got it but she hated it; she sighed heavily and went inside. This room was also gunmetal gray but augmented with red accents. There was no furniture on her side of the large glass pane that cut the room in half; the other side had a simple metal chair and table combo. The other door slid open vertically and the sound of metal chains clanking against each other announced Wes before he even stepped in.

He stopped at the entrance and looked at her before the door slid closed behind him. Roxanne’s anxiety was at a fever pitch; she didn't know what to say. The easiness she expected eluded her. Eventually, she settled on, "Hey."

She felt a strange sense of nakedness standing in this room, wearing this uniform. It was the first time he'd seen her in it in the flesh. You know, when he wasn't being possessed. Wes didn't respond to her. Instead, he walked around the room as if inspecting it.

He looked haggard, which was understandable. His black hair was longer now, about neck length, and he wore an unkempt beard like he was hiding behind it. He wore a jumpsuit that was colored prison orange which weirdly made the two of them match. He continued to pace the room slowly, saying nothing and making sure not to look at her; she could see that. She decided to fill the empty air with more words:

"I'm sorry this happened to you."

"Are you?" He finally said, stopping. He turned to look at her, his eyes were stern. It made her uncomfortable.

"Of course I am, Wes." She responded. "You're my best friend…"

"Right," he walked closer to the glass and shut his eyes. He took in a deep breath through his nose slowly, as if it were a technique he'd learned to deal with people who bothered him. Roxanne felt very self-conscious and a little bit panicked. After another few seconds of silence, he finally spoke again:

"I only accepted this meeting so I could tell you something."

"Oh?" She asked him.

"If there's any good to come out of this, it's that I'll never have to see you again," he began. "I've lost my home, my family, my fiance, my life...and all those roads just seem to lead back to you. Maybe that isn't fair, but I don't care. None of this is fair. I wish you had never come back. You've ruined my life, Roxanne; the sooner you're out of it, the better."

Wes didn't even wait for the heft of those words to hit her, he was already back at the door and pounded at it. "I'm done!" he shouted to whoever was on the other side. The door slid open once more, and he was gone. Roxanne stood there alone and at a loss. There was a part of her that wanted nothing more than to cry; just break down on the floor here and let it all out. Instead, she swallowed those feelings down.

He was right about one thing, none of this was fair.

She walked out of the room, to the hallway where Corina had been waiting for her. Corina, who could sense something was wrong, asked her friend, "Everything okay?"

Roxanne looked up at her, her eyes had welled up slightly but she kept the tears at bay. She simply nodded in the affirmative and walked over to a porthole that hung on the wall. Outside she stared out into the void and the distant stars that glowed so magnificently. Corina walked behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, a silent reminder that she was there for her which Roxanne appreciated.

After a moment Corina asked her, "So what now?"

Roxanne continued looking out into space, her eyes tracked an incoming freighter that had just entered from the Bleed. She sighed and simply said, "I think I'm gonna try and go to Old Earth."