The End Again, page 21
Morgan shook her head.
“No. We can’t do it that way. If you hurt him, then the police will almost certainly go after you for it. I don’t think they can touch magic though, can they? That isn’t illegal. It isn’t an Infected ability, even. We just need to trick him into putting it on, somehow.”
Everyone started to think about complex and clever plans for it. Tricks with strangers and magical light shows. Except Fiona. She just shrugged, and spoke. Her idea was a bit simple.
It was also brilliant, of course.
“Send it to him, with a note saying he should put it on?”
Everyone went still then, but Fox spoke first.
“Which... Does he have to put it on, or just touch it, with it turned on?”
He looked over at Lara, who wasn’t eating anything, any longer. Bridget was, but no one else had been bothering with it, even if they had food.
The blonde girl shrugged.
“Really, he just has to touch it. Then it activates instantly. The tile itself, but...”
Bridget, stuffing half a sandwich into her small, lean face, stood up then.
“Come on Lara. We’ll handle that now. Do you have the amulet here?”
That got a nod.
“In my locker?”
“Perfect!”
They both left, leaving their food on the table. That meant, when the bell rang, Sara packed the lunchbox away, food inside, and dumped the tray of food that Bridget had. Then, realizing that it was late, she tensed. It was only about eleven, but she’d told Mitchel to be ready at one, which was his time, over on the East coast. So she was already an hour late. That meant moving directly from where she was, in the lunchroom, in her school clothes, which were magical, thank goodness, to find him, sitting in his living room, already dressed for the day.
He grinned at her, as she made a face.
“Sorry, I’m massively late. Come on?”
She moved them directly from the gold-colored room, to Harmony, on the Moon, where Tess was waiting with the three councilors, then bowing and holding it, she moved them without speaking, back to the White House. Where, even if she didn't deserve the kindness, no one pulled a gun on her at all. She appeared in the oval office, which was a lot smaller than she always imagined it, even having been there before.
The President, behind his desk, looked at them all, stood and gave a very small bow.
“Welcome! I’m Charles Williams, the President of the United States. I’m so glad you could all make it.” Sara noticed that there were other people there, off to the side, who each stood. There were secret service, but they stayed back, even if they were all half panicked about the teleportation into the room.
Sara bowed and went low.
“Sorry, everyone, for being abrupt. That’s all me. I got side tracked and that messed up the schedule. Anyway, President Williams, these people are Maeve Book, Nick Feddy and Lenora Burgess, of the Harmony Council. There are nine of them who run the Moon in all, and these three are the most important of their number. This wonderful, lovely and talented lady is the hero of the day. Tessalyn Baker. Mage, Ancient and television personality. That last one is here, as well as in several other worlds, so it’s a big thing.”
She paused, then waved at Mitchel.
“This is your grandson, who’s their guide for the day. If anything starts to go wrong, he’ll throw himself in front of you all and take the heat. Even if it makes him look bad. That shouldn’t be needed, but we have a plan, just in case.” She bowed a bit, toward him, not even thinking about it, which had the others there, from Noram, doing the same thing.
Tess smiled about it.
“Thank you, then, I get a bit nervous about public speaking?”
Sara nodded at the words.
“I hear that one. Over here we have Senator Roberts and... Secretary of State Penelope Forester.” Sara had to cheat, reading the woman’s name from her own mind, but it came out nearly smoothly.
Instead of making a big speech, the President, still standing behind his desk, took a very big breath. Then several more.
“I hit the tile to activate it?”
Sara nodded.
“Think that you want it to turn on, as well. We should get pictures of this? It’s really just a light show, not what will make anything happen, but I did all that work on it. Just to be clear, when you press down on the button, which will look like a floating dark smudge over a black ball that’s pretty cool seeming, the device will signal me, and I’ll send a message to the Infection, which will set things in motion. I don’t actually know how long it will take. I made the box, hence wanting my work to be seen.” She’d figured that part would be done in public.
The President called for the videographer, the man coming in with the needed gear, no more than five minutes later. Then they arranged themselves around the desk, with Tess actually activating the device, not thinking about it, and the President nodding at her.
“This... Is an amazing piece of art, Sara! We can put it in the viewing hall, or the Smithsonian, if it doesn’t vanish after this?”
She nodded.
“It won’t. Not that it will last forever. Ten to twenty years?” Possibly a bit longer, being on stone, but she didn’t mention that part of things. You didn’t, really. It was kind of like showing off your skill to claim your magic lasted much longer than that.
She moved out of the way, but the Moon people were all standing in the video, along with Senator Roberts. The older man had been there for the Infected for decades, helping them and preventing them from being sent to concentration camps or simply culled, after all. If anyone there deserved to be in the scene, he did.
Sara moved back, behind the video, and focused a bit, accessing the part of her that was in another reality. The set up for the work they were doing gave the lie to her not being the Infection, of course. It was a spread sheet, but a new one, that isolated the emotional states of people, and found the highest, most constant signal. Those were all turned down, to a level that, she hoped, would be normal for the people involved. A bit lower than that, actually, since most of them had learned to expect certain feelings to be overwhelming to them.
The President spoke, calmly, and softly.
“On three?” His hand was over that of Tess Baker, the tan woman smiling hugely. She nodded, waiting.
“One, two, three!”
The smudge that seemed to float in the air in blue and a black that wasn’t really there, moved downward, like a plunger on a cartoon box that would ignite an explosion. A ball of black and blue moved outward then, in an instant, as if to cover the entire world.
At the same time, Sara nodded, thinking a single word.
Now.
Then, in a single instant, faster than anyone could have tracked, the spreadsheet she was looking at, one with thirty- million and change names on it, shifted and danced in place, the red portions turning green. The raised and heightened mental errors corrected, in a single moment. The failure of the Infection changing, from a catastrophe, to, she hoped, something better for everyone.
The room was silent, and she smiled.
“That... Worked. Let me check on it?” That was done using telepathy, Christian Pours’ full power, in fact. What she heard, from around the world, was, of course, a combination of panic, since something massive had changed for a lot of people, very suddenly, and relief.
A sense, for many of those affected was one of pain. Like a stretch done too deeply, held far too long, aching when you tried to let up on the force of it. Still, over the next few minutes, people adjusted. Only about ten percent of them were still freaking out.
So, she spoke to them. Not knowing if it would help.
Rather, the Infection did. In the minds of everyone who was now free of the curse it had laid upon them for so long.
Everyone in the room heard it, since the voice actually spoke, coming from the box. Even if it didn’t need to.
“This, what you call the Infection, was needed to save this world. We have won. For now. Protect these people, with the powers you have. No more will the mistake, the affliction, I set upon you, trouble your minds or hearts. Forgive me, for what I did, in my ignorance. Know that it was truly needed, for without what was done, the life of this planet would have ceased.” The voice was deep, booming and caught on the video.
Sara spoke then, calmly.
“Not everyone in the world heard that, but all of the Infected did. It worked. There are no more first modes left. Which doesn’t mean everyone that had one is all right now. Some of them... Well, you should explain this, and we need to get help to some people. I’ll get the mages ready?”
It was more work, but the President nodded to her.
“Thank you, Sara. That would be wonderful.”
So, at that, she left, to see to everything else that was needed.
Smiling, with tears running down her face, as she did it.
After all, even if they needed to clean up some messes, the Infected were, as a group, finally free to be themselves again.
Chapter fourteen
The next days weren’t nearly as hectic or pain filled as Sara had feared they might be. Twice, she’d gone across the world, to help people who were having real problems adjust to what had taken place, but that was all it took. Two, out of all those millions of people. Even they were able to calm down, just because they had someone to sit with them for a while.
Everyone else was, fine. Better than just that.
Instead of carnage in the streets, of suicides and lashing out in fear or anger... the world was simply normal. Not instantly better, but slowly, over time, the police were reporting that there just weren’t as many problems with Infected people. Some, because they were still people and the police were often still horrible to them, which created problems in the first place, of course.
On Wednesday, after the day was done, Bridget brought her van, the love machine, around after school, to pick Sara and Peter up. The others as well. Even Fiona, since they weren’t traveling to another reality that day. Soon, since they had a party to set up for, but the plans for that afternoon were different. They, a group of kids, with Lara and Morgan riding with them, went to the town’s middle school.
Where they snuck in, just in time for a certain Janitor to be found, standing in the hallway. Sobbing gently, holding a focus stone tile in his right hand. Lara moved on him, but instead of beating the hipster looking man down, she carefully plucked the tile and the letter it had come with from the man’s fingers.
It was pitiful, seeing him standing there, sobbing.
Sara even felt sorry for him, for a moment. Until Lara Zimmerman spoke, her voice firm, but not mean.
“This will keep happening, until you can forgive yourself for it. You need to go and turn yourself in and confess to what you did. You nearly killed my sister. Suffer for that.”
It was a bit brutal sounding, but the man just walked away, tears pouring down his face as he relived what the kids he’d blackmailed had felt. Not even all to once. One after the other, as he went over what had happened to them.
In many ways it was a kinder fate than Sara would have figured on, from the description. She checked the work, but the man wasn’t being driven insane or anything. Just being forced to know what he’d done to others.
After they did that, removing the evidence of having ever been there, they drove away, her band of friends riding with her as they left.
Real friends. The kinds of people who were willing to hide the bodies with her, if it was needed. In this case it wasn’t, because they were good people, of course. She sighed, but didn’t suggest a course of action, in particular.
“I think we won? In a lot of ways, even.” Her voice was soft, but happy, she thought.
Bridget nodded.
“I can get you all home?”
Sara thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Could you do that for Morgan, Fiona and Lara? We need to plot some other things out, soon, Lara. In Gwen’s world? Morgan, you need to get out to the base for training in the few next days. That’s going to be real, so get ready for that. Bridget? I’ll fill you in later? We want to talk smack about you right now, so, you get me, we can’t do that to your face, can we? That would just be rude.”
The tiny girl nodded, her eyes never leaving the road. She was still rather quick moving but her impulsiveness was gone, totally. What she’d done to master that for herself, meditation and a decade of hard work, wasn’t gone at all. It made her seem different. Calm even as she moved fast and hard through her life.
Nice though. Not a jittery mess at all.
“I get you. You all want to hook up with me, but don’t know how to ask?”
Fox nodded.
“You joke, but if you didn’t have a boyfriend, I’d totally have asked you out already.”
The girl behind the wheel nodded.
“I know, right? Still, Vince is pretty cool. Oh, Sara, speaking of that, he was asked to remind you about Terra?”
Sara went wide eyed, and nodded. That was the girl she needed to help activate her powers. They’d done a little work that way, but not enough yet. They didn’t even have to make the powers happen, she already had them and simply didn't know about it. What she really needed was a lesson stone to help her train precognition. Something like the meditation stone first, then a similar device that would reward her for noting what was about to randomly happen.
It would take a bit of work, but she was supposed to learn how to make that kind of thing anyway, soon.
“Right! I forgot all about her! Meaning I’m a massive jerk.”
For a moment she felt bad, but no one else chimed in to claim that was just the truth. Then, most days she kind of managed to be better than that. A bit, at least.
“Just dump us out here? I’ll get these two back to where they need to be. If they don’t do it themselves. We need to get off to Noram at four, so everyone be ready for that. Actually, can you all go for that? I mean, it’s Thanksgiving...”
Sighing and clearly feeling defeated, Fiona pulled her phone and dialed anyway.
“Hey, Dad? Can I go over to Noram today? I’ll be back tomorrow, but there’s a big Thanksgiving party and my friends need some help.” She went silent then. “Just setting tables and carrying food out, probably? Then you know, do all the sex and drugs I can’t do here, and learn devil magic behind your back?” The words were bitter sounding.
Surprisingly, she gasped.
“I can go? Yes, of course no drugs or sex... Wait...” She didn’t speak for a long time, but when she did the sporty girl had tears in her eyes. “Seriously? I can? You’ll let me learn magic?”
The conversation went on a for a while, and when she hung up, tears were running down her cheeks. She smiled though.
“My parents both decided that I was probably going to just go and do it anyway, eventually, so they’re letting me do it. I can learn magic now! I still have to go to school and everything, but...”
Sara clapped.
“That’s perfect, Fiona!” She half tackled the girl, jumping into the back to do it, holding her, while the rest of them did their own patting and gave her similar hugs, or tried to.
Bridget snorted.
“That’s one. You three climb out at the corner. Everyone will be at the base at four?”
Sara nodded.
“Got it. See you all then.”
The van stopped, smoothly, and they climbed out, with her paying attention to the others in a way that she hadn’t been as the love machine drove off with the rest of her friends inside.
“That’s so exciting, about Fiona.”
Fox grinned.
“Yeah. I was a bit worried there. It looks like you were right though. Her parents came around and we didn’t even have to do anything at all. Other than wait a bit.”
She nodded, not smiling though
It was a nice place, in a cloudy day kind of way. There were trees, and if they didn’t have their leaves for the most part, it being November, they were still framing the street, nicely.
Sara simply spoke, not explaining what the two with her already knew. They’d heard the talk before, even if the framing was about to be a little different.
“There are rules. Don’t let anyone know that you’re as powerful as you are. You aren’t class tens, yet, but never let that get out. Don’t strip free will from people. You can do it, but don’t. The last one is that you can’t mess with time. Clearly you can, but again, don’t.” She smiled, looking between both of them.
After a moment, Fox nodded.
“Right, but neither of us is in your league.”
She shrugged.
“Not yet. Other people who are at that level mentioned I needed to talk to you two about that kind of thing, and some of them travel in time, so will know things that we don’t. Not that I was told it was like that. Just that you needed to know the rules first. They didn’t tell me until after everyone learned I was a class ten. It’s not good for the world, any of them we go to, to know that there are people that powerful. Plus, it isn’t really needed. I mean, you’re both immortal, and can do magic now. That and the other powers are probably enough to do anything you want. Pushing to infinity isn’t really needed, given that.”
The smooth skinned, pale girl, Parker, nodded then, after a moment.
“That’s probably true. There’s a lot I want to do, but most of it doesn’t take power, as much as it does some new technologies. Things to capture carbon and some free energy devices? Not that I know how to do either of those things, yet.” She seemed sweet enough as she spoke.
Fox just nodded, but seemed pleasant, as well.
“So, we’re being given the talk today? That we could be gods, but that it probably isn’t worth it?”
Sara looked back at him, knowing that he kind of wanted that, for himself.
“Not exactly? You can be whatever you want. What you pick or chose. Even these rules are just there to make things better for everyone else. If you step too far out of bounds, then the others will come for you. Maybe even I will, depending on what you do. The same is true the other way around, of course. It won’t really come up. You’re both awesome, after all.” She hesitated, looking away.
