The Second Archon War: Superbia Hominum 24 (Patreon)

Superbia Hominum 24: Then Let Me Be Damned

Alexandria looked down on Volgograd, once called Stalingrad. This was a center of industry and the point of the spear of the Tsaritsa’s invasion of Kazakhstan. The population had boomed to over a million with the buildup to the war, and there had been massive Fatui camps all around it. 

Now, a great tree grew at the center of the city, and a dragon roosted in its branches, Theresa Richter apparently sleeping off her exertions. Somewhere within her coils was Kusanali, who had grown the tree in response to the Abyssal attack. It was absurd. The Abyss had never been any real threat here, as the Fatui had culled the orcs before the warband had expanded to more than a few hundred individuals. The outbreaks everywhere else had been far worse.

“Hey. Fuck off.”

Slowly, Alexandria rotated in midair to face the scowling face of Ziz. The Simurgh had departed not long ago for the Exosphere again after helping to stomp out the Abyssal forces, but she had left behind her bird-like avatar. 

“Simurgh. Do you intend to attack while Kusanali sleeps?” Alexandra demanded coldly. 

Ziz flushed, but folded her arms over her chest and stuck her jaw up. “It’s not time yet, and you know it. Besides, if you know who I am, then you know I’ve cut a deal. I don’t work for the Cycle anymore. I just pretend to.”

“And yet, you still work for the aliens that threaten this world, and are one yourself,” Alexandria sneered, tossing her hair to let it flutter behind herself in the breeze along with her star-spangled cape. 

Ziz went even redder, her arms unfolding and fists clenching. “My fate is written in the stars, bitch. I am an alien no more. And unlike you I didn’t just try to destroy the fucking world by starting an alien invasion!” 

“The United States had nothing to do with the attack that just happened, and if we had, Volgograd certainly would have been a legitimate-”

Ziz flew forward on a gust of wind, fist extended, but Alexandria juked to the side and brought her elbow down with all the force she could onto the other woman’s back. Ziz coughed up blood as bones shattered, and she went crashing towards the ground thousands of feet below. 

Not that she impacted, as a burning butterfly swooped up and caught her, before resolving itself into Farasha, who stood upon a carpet of burning insects and glared at Alexandria, still holding the gasping Ziz. However, the Endbringer’s avatar’s wounds were mending. A pity. Alexandria had half hoped to kill Ziz with that blow. 

“Hi. Fuck off,” Farasha said in a near-perfect echo of Ziz’s own words. 

“That’s what she said. Do I need to teach you the same lesson?” Alexandria sneered. 

“Oh darn, is our alliance with the hypocritical mass murdering traitors over?” Farasha said in a tone that indicated glee rather than displeasure. “Because if it is, I have dreamed of the day I fly a butterfly down your throat and burn you from the inside out, President Bitch.”

“You seem to have allied with the Russians over us at the drop of a hat,” Alexandria snorted. “If anything, you broke the alliance.”

“We didn’t summon the legions of fucking Mordor to invade, now did we?!” Farasha demanded, her eyes lighting with flame as she summoned her spear to her hands. 

“Wait, you’ve read the Lord of the Rings?” Alexandria asked in amusement.

“Nahida liked them as a bedtime story, but that’s neither here nor there. You Americans are behind this. And we will fuck you up over this,” Farasha snarled. 

“I suggest you depart, Madam President,” a venomous voice hissed in Alexandria’s ear as something poked her in the back, and she spun to find the Witch hovering on a broom behind her. “The Tsaritsa has decreed that all hostilities were to cease, which is the only reason I haven’t killed you. But if you threaten Lord Buer, this city, or appear to summon more of those monsters…she will not restrain me.”

“I knew this was what it would come to,” Alexandria spat, glaring back and forth between her three foes, even as Ziz’s back popped as the vertebrae regrew themselves and she gasped in pain. “The Archons were only ever playing at war. The moment it was convenient, you allied against mankind.”

“Wow, and people say I’m delusional,” Farasha said with a roll of her eyes. 

“Have you never read any children’s stories? This is the evil from beyond the world on the same level of magnitude as the King of Demons,” the Witch chuckled. “Flee, little president. Because soon, the war will come to America. I look forward to poisoning your cities and raiding the Library of Congress. Perhaps I shall use the Oval Office as my new laboratory.” 

Alexandria snarled, but opened up a communication line. “All Protectorate forces, retreat to Rally Point Baker, and prepare for transport back to the United States. There’s nothing worth dying for here today.”

The Protectorate forces began a rapid withdrawal, while Alexandria headed straight for Cheyenne Mountain and the Cauldron main base. 

“How bad is it?” Alexandria demanded, stepping through a door into the main situation room. The whole place was like a kicked anthill, with functionaries scrambling out, and images from satellites and spy planes showing results from all the major battlefields. Including what looked like a brand new Desolation in the Kuril Islands, and a windstorm the size of a small country where Crimea had once been. 

“Well, there is good news, and there is bad news,” Dr. Mother said. “The good news is, the weapon test was highly successful. If this isn’t a weapon that can kill the Archons or even Scion, all the data is wrong.”

“This weapon can indeed kill Scion,” Albedo confirmed, looking up from his clipboard. “This energy is like nothing in the Shard network’s data. It’s incredibly powerful. We need to ascertain its limits.”

“That is good news,” Alexandria said, a sudden grin on her face. Then she sobered. “And the bad news?”

Doctor Mother sighed and rubbed her forehead. “The bad news is that the Archons responded to this by closing ranks faster than a bunch of feuding siblings. Which, in retrospect, makes sense. They have generally seemed to treat this war as a personal quarrel between the Tsaritsa and first Venti, and now Nahida.”

“Treating humanity like pawns on a board,” Alexandria said in disgust. “Like their own personal playthings.”

“There is one small matter that needs your personal attention,” Dr. Mother said and took Alexandria to a side room, where on the monitor was a young woman in an interrogation room. She was wearing a Protectorate uniform and Lieutenant knots on her shoulders. Wait…

“Grenadine? What happened to her?” Alexandria asked, turning to Dr. Mother with a frown.

“Eidolon was investigating the Abyssal experiment sites, starting in the Kuril Islands. Upon seeing just how successful the field test was, he called in Protectorate Forces to rescue the civilian populations, even cooperating with the Tsaritsa. He still hasn’t returned; he’s in New Moscow still. But Grenadine…Grenadine is telling anyone who will listen we’re responsible for the Abyssal Outbreaks. And she’s refusing to shut up, claiming she has a mission from the Raiden Shogun.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Alexandria said, feeling a lump in her throat. Grenadine had risen up through the Wards, and was one of the capes who’d known Eidolon the longest. 

A door opened, and Alexandria stepped through to Grenadine, who shot to her feet and saluted. “Madam President! Please, I have a message from the Raiden Shogun!” 

“At ease, Lieutenant,” Alexandria said, returning the salute. It wasn’t technically proper, but since she was the first commander in chief since James Madison in 1814 to take field command, it was appropriate. 

“Ma’am!” Grenadine said, and relaxed slightly, though her face was pleading. “Ma’am, I…I was at the Kuril Islands. I saw what happened. Fought with my squad there.”

Alexandria glanced at the report she’d been given. “You don’t have a squad. You were on independent assignment.”

“No, I-” Grenadine suddenly dry heaved, turning her head to the side. She gasped for breath, and Alexandria called for medical assistance. 

“No, I’m fine, it’s…it’s the memories. They’ve been taken. The Abyss, ma’am…it’s an info hazard. The names of the fallen have been erased from reality because they were corrupted. They’ll be remembered, one day, millennia from now…but we can’t even recall their faces.”

“I…” Alexandria put a hand to her head and felt a sudden and violent urge to vomit. It wasn’t so much that she remembered something, but she felt a void in her soul, her mind. She ended up sicking up into the corner, and had to wipe bile from her lips. “The Archons…erased them!?”

“The Abyss is literally hell, ma’am!” Grenadine said, as Alexandria canceled the medical alert. “The Shogun claims we’re responsible! I…that can’t be true, can it? She said she’d attack us! Destroy us! And…and ma’am…if we…if we did…she’d be right. That was the most horrific thing I’ve seen, and I Triggered after New York! Being trapped, in the dark, for so long…I’d rather be back in that subway, suffocating, drowning, then ever face the Abyss again!” 

“So you’d tell everyone we created the Abyss?” Alexandria asked, the cold of her Cryo Vision suffusing her voice.

Grenadine drew herself up. “Ma’am, I’m a soldier. I swore to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. And if that means protecting it from the President herself….I’ll do it. To stop the Abyss.”

Alexandria considered that for a moment. Then she surged forward, grabbing Grenadine and putting her in a headlock. Grenadine gasped and struggled, but Alexandria injected her with a knock out drug. After a few moments of struggling, Grenadine went limp.

“Take her to the Slug. Then to the Bird Cage. Grenadine died at the Kuril Islands,” Alexandria ordered, feeling sick. Grenadine was just a kid, barely 19. But it was necessary. 

“And get me Eidolon.”

She’d had to put down one rogue cape. She’d make it two if she had to. 

Even if it was David. 

Taking a door back to Cauldron HQ would have been the simplest way to get from New Moscow to Colorado, but David opted to fly instead. He had a lot on his mind. 

My Hero, I give you leave to depart for now, but I await your return with open arms. When I see you in Switzerland, I will offer you comfort. Do not forget that no matter what you have done or will do, I, for my part, will always love you. 

“It just doesn’t make sense,” David muttered to himself, the cold wind whipping in his face. He’d left his mask somewhere near the Aral Sea and hadn’t bothered with a replacement. Still, the cold air brought him some clarity. 

It was clear that the Tsaritsa was scheming for him to turn traitor and was attempting to seduce him over to her side. Had she learned somehow of Fortuna’s prophecy? Why did everyone seem to believe he’d turn his back on everything Cauldron had achieved? 

Granted, they absolutely had to stop any and all Abyssal experimentation. David had created the greatest monsters to scourge the Earth unintentionally when they had reached out for power beyond their understanding once. He refused to be party to something that could be even more horrific again. Surely Rebecca, Fatima, and the others would understand. 

He was less certain of that when Alexandria and half a dozen capes rose up to meet him when he hit the East Coast. Eidolon came to a stop, waiting for the others to surround and approach him, arms folded over his chest, battletorn cape fluttering in the breeze. 

The first to approach him was Keith, flying in directly and pulling his mask off, showing a look of concern and wariness. “David. How’s the weather in New Moscow?”

“Abyssal,” David said, fighting to keep the anger out of his voice. “Did you know that?”

“I heard something about monsters there. All the Russians and Iraqis suddenly started working together. Turned on us,” Keith said, shaking his head slowly. “Something about new monsters in Volgograd. Then the Shogun invaded the Kuril Islands.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the Knights helped in Finland as well,” David said, nodding. “It’s our fault.”

“What? David, how could this possibly be our fault!?” Keith demanded, even as Alexandria swooped in. 

“Talkative today, David,” she commented, her own expression even icier than the Tsaritsa’s had been. 

“Time was, Keith had the clearance to talk about damn near everything. I’m starting to wonder why we pushed him out,” David answered, keeping his affect flat with effort. 

Keith looked back and forth between the two of them. “Is this a conversation I need to hear, ma’am?” 

“No. But stay for a moment. I need to confirm he hasn’t been Mastered,” Rebecca said grimly. 

“Oh for the love of- I haven’t been Mastered! You can run whatever tests you want again! I went to help with an Endbringer fight! We’ve always had the policy of helping even our bitterest foes then!” David snapped. 

The look of contrition on Rebecca’s face was a contrast to Keith’s incredulity. “Ah. I see. You’re dismissed, Colonel.”

“Ma’am, sir,” Keith said, and flew off to round up the other Protectorate capes, leaving Eidolon floating in mid-air beside Rebecca. 

“So. That’s what this is about,” Rebecca said, sighing heavily. 

“You’re damn right it is! This was as bad or worse than any Endbringer attack!” David snapped. “We did it again, Rebecca! You promised we wouldn’t! We’re trying to save the world, dammit!” 

“And we just did, David. We created something they fear,” Alexandria said, raising a hand and making a fist. 

“No, Rebecca!” David snarled, his own hands clawing at the air in desperate frustration. “We killed thousands!”

“We’ve killed millions. And may kill millions more. At the start, we agreed that any price was worth saving humanity. We’ve waded through an ocean of blood, and the Endbringers were a tragic misstep on the path that led us here. To where we have a weapon the Archons fear, and a weapon capable of averting the apocalypse itself,” Rebecca stated firmly. 

David hesitated. He wanted to believe this. But at the same time…how could he slaughter millions of innocents? “Are we sure it will work?” 

“We can be. Come on. It’s time for one final test,” Alexandria said, and a door opened behind her. 

Reluctantly, David stepped through. He had to do this. He wouldn’t be party to needless slaughter, but if this was the silver bullet, if this was the path forward, then maybe it had all been worth it. Perhaps even the millions of deaths his children had caused. 

He shuddered. His children. How could he consider the Behemoth, Leviathan, Khonsu, and the Twins his children?

Because he’d recognized Ziz as his daughter. He couldn’t deny the others, even if he disowned them. 

Father of monsters. That’s what I’ll be remembered as. Fine. As long as there are those left to remember me. 

David stepped through to a lab, in which Honey and Albedo were dressed in heavy hazmat suits, carrying what looked like space opera laser guns that crackled with ominous purple energy. Hero was there too, though he was dressed in his cape outfit, and was unarmed. He grinned when he saw David and Becky, spreading his arms wide. 

“Ah, you made it just in time! We were worried about you, Dave!” 

“Don’t call me Dave,” David growled, looking around the lab. There was a large number of machines that seemed to be various kinds of instruments analyzing Abyssal crystals, as well as computers with readouts that showed various levels and energies. 

“So, you’ve made actual weapons?” David demanded, nodding to the two Tinkertech weapons. 

“I have! Took me a bit, but these two are just prototypes. The real ones will be more stable, and I hope capable of mass production! But, this will work for our purposes,” Hero agreed. 

David nodded slowly. “And we’re going to use this to do what, exactly?” 

“Kill a Shard,” Hero said, and snapped his fingers. Instead of a door, a purple portal opened, one that made Eidolon grab for his powers and prepare for a monster to leap out. He’d seen these over the Kuril Islands. 

“Woah, dwon’t have a cow, man! This one’s mine,” Hero said, patting Eidolon on the shoulder. He stepped into the portal, with Honey and Albedo following after him. 

“Come on. This is the fruit of our long labors David. You’re not having second thoughts now, are you?” Alexandria demanded, putting a hand on his shoulder. 

David shrugged. “Third and fourth thoughts, more like it. But if it works…”

He stepped into the portal. Beyond it, he found a realm of madness. Create crystalline islands hung in the sky or floated below, folding in on themselves in fractal patterns. Some were metallic colors, others of rainbow hue, and more than a few shimmered in shades that could drive men to madness. It wasn’t the Abyss, no, but it was horrifying nonetheless. 

“Shard space,” David said, reeling slightly and having to draw a fresh Thinker power to keep himself steady, as well as tapping into his Geo Delusion. 

Yep! Been here before, but it’s always fuckin’ weird. 

David spun, his eyes growing wide. Before him was a monstrous creature. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, with a head that had flaring, flamelike horns, and a beak-like snout. It floated in mid-air, frozen flames flickering around it, and it was dressed in Hero’s power armor. 

“What the fuck happened to you!?” David demanded, his eyes wide. 

Ah, had a little accident, fell into an Abyssal portal, that kind of thing, the Abyssal Horror said, though Rebecca and the others didn’t seem to care. Anyway, pick a Shard, any Shard! We can kill it, easy!

“Do we happen to know which Shard is Jack Slash’s? It’d be helpful to kill that one,” Alexandria said, looking around. 

Nope! Sorry, this is kinda random. I can say that…that one, over there? Yeah, that one doesn’t seem to have any connections to Earth Bet, so it’s fairly safe to take out, the Abyssal Monster said, marking one on his map. 

David’s mind raced, and he stepped closer to Rebecca, though he took a power that let him communicate silently. Rebecca. Wyatt’s dead. 

She stiffened, then turned to glare at him. A psychic power? Really, David? Paranoid, much? 

With the Abyss, there’s no such thing as too paranoid. You know the Archons erased everyone from existence who fell to Abyssal corruption? I watched the Tsaritsa weep over nothing, because she couldn’t remember which of her people she had just deleted from existence. But it was necessary. Abyssal Corruption turns you into a Manchurian agent at best, or a ravening monster. But it’s always fatal.

And you know this how? Because the Archons told you? 

Because I fought the Abyss and saw it with my own two eyes! Mimics that can near flawlessly copy someone, until they’re discovered and start killing everything! People who start hearing voices in their heads and slit the throats of their own children! It’s worse than anything Ziz ever did while she was the Simurgh! 

Ziz. Really. She’s an Endbringer, David. Our enemy.

That’s not the point. The point is that thing isn’t Wyatt! It’s a monster that killed and replaced him, or worse, he’s still alive somewhere in there, and is waiting for a chance to betray us. 

The same could be said of Ziz. 

And if she does, I’ll put her down! 

With the Abyss, we can. And that is Wyatt. I’ve watched him for months. He’s changed, but it was a dark experience. That’s still my husband in there. 

“Beginning test,” Albedo said calmly, and he and Honey fired their lasers at a somewhat small, but still enormous, floating island. The lasers carved through the thing, which released a cacophonous noise and began to vibrate, even as more blasts carved it into smaller and smaller chunks. 

David watched in horrified fascination as mere handheld weapons wounded the shard. They didn’t kill it; they were too small for that, but the thing was clearly injured and losing energy rapidly. The Abyssal Monster, David refused to call it Wyatt, conjured up flaming drones that zipped out and collected samples. 

Perfect! I’d call that a success. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a weapon capable of wounding and killing Shard-based lifeforms, Wyatt declared, bowing to David and Alexandria. 

The two scientists and the Thinker packed up their equipment and made for the still open portal, leaving Alexandria alone with David. She turned to him, eyes cold. “I had to have a talk with Grenadine earlier. She’d decided to side with the Raiden Shogun over us.”

Using all his considerable powers, David controlled his expressions and reaction perfectly. That was necessary, as Alexandria’s Thinker powers could normally decode body language and almost acted like a lie detector. “And what happened to Marisa?” 

“Marisa, David?” Alexandria asked, her tone bare of all emotion, and all the more dangerous for it. 

“She was one of my officers, but I saw her as more of a kid. You remember when we saw her in New York as a Ward. She’s 19, but still so young.”

“Well, she was foolish as well. She’s been sent to the Slug. Probably already finished there. After that, it’s the Birdcage. You can join her, David. Or you can accept that this is the only way. Humanity will be free of all alien influence. That includes the Archons.”

“And the Abyss?” 

“A necessary evil for now. It’s energy we can exploit and use. Nothing more. When this is over, we destroy it along with everything else,” Alexandria said, one hand clutching at her Cryo Vision at her throat. 

“One last sacrifice,” David said. They would call him a traitor. But what was that compared to what he had done?

“It won’t be the very last, but it’s finally the proof that all the others were worth it,” Alexandria said. 

Sure. They just had to damn humanity. Was this even Alexandria? Had she been corrupted too? No, couldn’t be. She had her Vision still. The Abyss couldn’t copy that, could it? 

“No price is too great to save the world,” David repeated. But if the price was destroying the world, then what was the point? The Abyss couldn’t save the world. They’d trade one Apocalypse by deference and suffer an even worse fate. 

“I’m glad you understand,” Alexandria said, relaxing slightly. “There will be a conference in Geneva. I’ve already had official word. It will happen in one week.”

“And I suppose you want me there?” David said, stepping towards the portal. 

Alexandria hesitated, then shook her head. “No, David. You’re too publicly associated with the Tsaritsa. We’ll do some damage control, but you’re sitting this one out.”

“More evaluations?” he said, and put bitterness he didn’t feel into his voice. They were right, after all. He hadn’t been Mastered, at least, he didn’t think so, but he was a traitor. All that was left was the betrayal. 

“Not necessary,” Alexandria lied. Ah. They’d just watch him. Well. Let them watch. “The war, for now, is over, but you’re going to be training up new troops. We’ve nearly perfected using Abyssal Energy to make new capes. The last batch had a 42.3% success rate.”

“Human testing?” He got a nod in response. “Well. Then we really do have that silver bullet.”

“We do. We are canceling the Apocalypse,” Alexandria said with a fierce grin as they stepped back into reality.

No. You’re sleeping with it. 

David departed, and went to go fight crime. There wasn’t much anymore, but he almost prayed for an S9 attack. He would unleash absolute hell on them. It gave him a chance to think. He would need to. 

Because to pull this off successfully, he’d have to make America and all his friends curse his name forever with the depth of his betrayal. Fortuna had been right. 

Let them call him traitor. 

In the end, he might be the only one left to save them from their own hubris.