“—waking up soon.”

It was a familiar voice. I opened my eyes, and found myself in an all-too familiar cell. Nova City. I’d been interrogated here before.

How long had I been out? What happened?

“What is your name?” It was Petra’s voice, asking through the barred prison door.

Fuck.

Memories—far too many memories—cascaded through my brain. I fully remembered being Jarek, but I also remembered being Samantha, thinking Samantha’s thoughts.

I remembered hating Samantha’s condescension and callousness.

I remembered hating Jarek’s whining gutlessness.

I shifted my body, rustling the chains that held me in place.

The chains were new. Probably there to show me that they were taking this interrogation far more seriously than the previous ones.

“Just take a look for yourself,” I said, calmly. “It’s fine. Consider me an open book.”

There was really only one way out of this mess. I could try to lie, but Petra could read my brain. I could harm myself when Petra tried to read my secrets, but they had chained me down for a reason, and Petra would probably be ok with killing me if she thought Samantha was in control.

I could feel Petra’s intrusion in my brain, sifting through my thoughts. I didn’t hide anything, but I did act as an invisible tour guide, highlighting specific moments.

I didn’t hide that I was a blend of Samantha and Jarek.

I wasn’t ashamed of my principles, and I thought Petra would probably agree with them.

Family, then friends, then Earth. Then break the Schema.

Petra, of course, delved into the idea of fighting the Schema. How can you fight something so colossal? But there was nothing there. No grand plan.

I helpfully supplied the thought that it was probably one final precaution on the part of my father. Keep Excelsian safe by wiping key parts of the plan from my brain, if my soul gets damaged or merged.

Petra wasn’t satisfied, and dug deeper. She was ruthless, this time, causing an ever-growing headache, but I stayed silent.

She tore through not just Samantha’s recent memories, but the memories of those who came before Samantha.

I cut off the pain, ignoring the flashback to Samantha and Jarek’s constant arguments about disabling pain.

Maybe I should tell Petra that I will pass out in a minute if she continues at this rate.

Yes, it was passive aggressive of me to think that so loudly while Petra was still in my brain.

But it was true, and if Petra had any experience mind reading, then she would know it too.

I mentally shrugged, and studied the room with Mana Sensing.

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Petra, Justin, and a relatively weak Abelino clone were all here.

I felt no frustration or relief at their recent ploy to recover Jarek. They had outmaneuvered Samantha, and saved Jarek.

It was clearly Jarek’s apathy that let me find peace so easily in captivity. They could kill me if they thought it was the right play, and that was alright—maybe it was even the right thing to do.

They would lose out on my immediate support, but they would dodge any hidden threats from Excelsian. Excelsian itself could be a threat, but also just the knowledge of its existence was cause for execution by the Schema’s enforcers.

Petra wouldn’t dare kill me, though. She just saw my memories. There was only one way for Earth to survive, and that was to clear the Zone Lords and the World Lord before the sentient species invaded.

I didn’t know what time it was. We probably had about twelve hours before the portals would open, which meant, they needed me out there.

Jarek had imagined staying behind the battle lines making Aviatons. Maybe if we had a week, it would have been worth it. But not with under twelve hours.

Presumably, Dawnbreaker was already fighting the Zone Lords. It made me itch, thinking how they had cheated me out of my share of Zone Lord bonus stat points.

I could feel Petra following my train of thought, and I let her.

Again, I had nothing to hide.

Petra’s skill with mind reading was uncannily good. It was clear through the speed she traveled through my mind, the way she picked up my stray thoughts, and the way she dug in the most inconvenient places. It wasn’t that she was a natural—I remembered what it felt like when she first read my mind.

Petra had been practicing.

It was a vaguely amusing thought. Who had she been practicing on? Were they even aware of it?

Her poor victims.

“Well, I think that’s enough of that,” Petra said, finally coming out of my head. “Jarek and Samantha are blended surprisingly well, and any truly compromising data has been destroyed in the process. Turns out Samantha was something of an artificial soul, patched together memories. They—” Petra paused. “What should I call you?”

“Jarek,” I said. “He/him.”

Samantha didn’t have the same sense of identity that Jarek had. She was already a combination of multiple species, genders, and Schema classes, so it was a surprisingly small sacrifice for her to give up her name and gender. Hopefully, by calling me Jarek, they would see me more as the same person—the same ally—that Jarek had been.

Because I would be their ally. The Jarek in me wouldn’t allow anything else. I just wasn’t the Jarek they knew.

I saw Petra smile. She had been in my head for those thoughts, too. She must have re-entered at some point—incredibly stealthily.

I gave her a slight nod.

“But if they are blended, how much of him is actually Jarek?” Justin asked.

I didn’t say anything, waiting for Petra to answer. Justin wanted his brother back, clearly, but the old Jarek was gone forever.

“Think of this as Jarek 2.0,” Petra said. “All of Jarek is here, and his core beliefs haven’t changed too much.”

Petra opened the door to my cell, and unlocked the chains holding me in place. “I’m looking forward to our partnership.”

***

Supposedly, Ferdinand Magellan chose the name “Pacific” because the ocean was calm. Peaceful. I guess he never encountered a Leviathan in these waters.

We were some hundred miles off the coast of Hawaii. While I was unconscious, Dawnbreaker and Abelino had also killed the South Pacific Zone Lord, and the New World Government had killed the Indian Ocean Zone Lord, leaving the North Pacific Zone Lord, the Arctic Ocean Zone Lord, and the Antarctica Zone Lord.

By now, one of them was likely a C-rank World Lord, above level 100. Fortunately for us, the Schema would only allow one of the Zone Lords to advance to level 100—for now.

Dawnbreaker and I were flying again, while Abelino was in the cockpit of the Aviaton.

“Leviathans are brutes,” I said, loud enough that they could hear. “The advantage of this is that we don’t need to worry about it running away. It takes its role as the king of the sea seriously. We’re fortunate we caught it before it reached level 100.”

Dawnbreaker and Abelino listened, giving no indication that just a few hours ago, they had almost killed me.

Petra had briefed Dawnbreaker, and Abelino had folded in his clone, so both were up to date with my strange status.

Well, I had encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters in Atropos, and it was time to use it.

“A leviathan is a juggernaut,” I continued, studying the massive creature below me. It was vaguely similar to a whale, but it was far larger than the largest whale from Old Earth. It’s bony ridges and spiked spine made it seem like a dinosaur. It had two sets of fins, capable of moving and maneuvering at incredibly high speeds.

“Fortunately, you all have me. I know just how to kill it. And this time, the final kill goes to me.”