Geez, poor Rachel. I've never felt compelled to apologize to one of my characters before. Things turn out okay, though. Not great, but okay.
But yeah, that's DE. It was, at the time, the most carefully plotted series I'd written (I'm working on plotting out Reaper now, and it's even more so), and I loved it. As I said earlier, I hope it speaks for itself mostly, so I'm just going to leave it here. I hope you liked it.
Chapter Twenty
Peace
Emperor fell to his knees, clutching the wound on his chest. I looked him over, and even through his desperately clutching fingers I could see that the wound wasn’t very deep. I was aware of my surroundings. The duel was over, but the Shadows remained, waiting for me to pass judgment of my wicked foe. Usually I don’t like the idea of banishing people to the darkness, but this time, I found I didn’t mind.
“Emperor,” I began, and then I paused, reconsidering. “No,” I said, “you won’t get off that easily. You’re going to face your punishment answering to the name you used when you betrayed everyone. Timothy. You’ve committed crimes so horrible that I can’t even think about them without getting sick. You betrayed the Elite, a noble institution that you helped form, you caused the deaths of allies and team mates in the Elite and the Order, and you murdered your own brother! You even betrayed Rachel. You were the only person she ever trusted, and you betrayed her!”
I paused, catching my breath. I realized that I’d been yelling, so I took a second to calm down, and then continued.
“Death is too good for you,” I said, “so I’m going to send you to the Shadows to be tortured for all of eternity. If I ever fall in a Shadow Duel, if you’re strong enough, you might come back, but I think it’s worth the risk knowing that, as long as I live, for the rest of my life, you’ll never see the light again, and as long as I’m never claimed by the Shadows myself, your punishment will continue from now until the end of time.”
I hated him. I hated him so much.
I walked over and stand over him, and he whimpered fearfully. I aimed my palm at his head, my Soul glowing faintly with anticipation.
“Penalty Game-.”
“Wait! No!” Rachel cried. She was crying again. “Rocky, please let him go. Find another punishment for him and let him go, please!”
I turned around and looked through the shadows at Rachel, and I knew that despite everything that Timothy had done, she still loved him. If I killed him here, she would never be able to move past it. Somewhere deep down she would blame me, and she would never mourn him. It would kill her. So I made the only choice I could. Without turning back to face him, I told Timothy, “You’ve lost, but I can’t destroy you. So instead I declare the Penalty Game Powerless Struggle. Never again, for as long as you live, will you be able to gain any significant power through magic, righteous means, or through force. You’ll have to exist at the bottom rung of society, struggling to survive, living everyday with the knowledge of the terrible things you did in pursuit of something you’ll never have, and of all of the pain that you’ve caused.”
The Shadow’s faded, and I said, “Now go. I never want to see you again.” I had already begun to walk back over and rejoin my friends when I heard sound of metal scraping against metal. I felt a disturbance in the air, and I knew with absolute certainty that Timothy had drawn his blade, that he was charging me, and that I was going to die. I turned, wide-eyed, moving far too slowly. I was prepared to meet my assailant head-on when I saw Rachel run past me, a jagged rock in hand. She came in low under Tim’s blade and, acting on instinct, she jammed the pointed edge of the rock into Tim’s chest.
Tim looked into Rachel’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and Timothy fell lifelessly into her arms. She lowered him to the ground where she knelt by his side. She was crying again, but this time things were different. Rachel had found her closure.
She was mourning.
Four months passed. With Emperor gone, the Elite was back to picking up the pieces as the disorganized Order crumbled. In fact, by then, the last of the sizeable Order cells were expected to be mere days away from defeat. Most were reportedly disbanding. We had the Order pinned down, thanks to the almost prophetic calculations of the Order’s new leader. There was no one else but Prof who could take over for Greg and regulate the activities of the entire Elite as a whole. Meanwhile Charlie, who had returned from the Shadows at the moment of Tim’s defeat, had been made leader of Team One, which consisted of me, Marco, and two fresh members from the reserves, twins Tate and Katie. They were only thirteen, but they were tech-smart and used a tag team strategy that was stronger than any I’d seen. We were still fighting, but not a single legitimate threat had arisen. Things were almost calm. Almost peaceful.
I have only one complaint about that time. Since Rachel was made leader of Team Two, consisting of only herself, Marcus and Raphael, we almost never saw each other. Our only chance to catch up was in the evening, after missions, when we’d meet in our favorite spot, on a ledge along the outside of the mountain, overlooking the entire range. My last evening in the Elite was spent there.
Prof had recently announced that he was disbanding the Elite, including all current, active teams. He’d decided that, even if there was still some limited Order activity, there wasn’t enough to warrant the efforts of the entire organization. Prof would be staying, and anyone who wanted to would be allowed to remain, but all members were encouraged to move on with their lives. Charlie, Marcus and Raph, and Marco had all decided to stay, as had several others. I wasn’t planning to stay. Rachel was undecided, but regardless, it was clear that the time of the Elite had passed.
“So,” I said, sitting with my legs dangling over the ledge, “it’s finally over.”
“Yeah,” Rachel replied, standing back from me, leaning back against the stone wall behind us. Her voice was filled with something between nostalgia and mild sorrow. “With Emperor gone, it was only a matter of time.”
I looked back at her, into her eyes, as she stared out over the mountain range, and I saw a single tear form there. It rolled down her cheek leaving a sad, solitary trail behind it.
“I really did love him,” Rachel said, coming over to sit on the ledge by my side. “Maybe if I hadn’t I would have been able to see through his act and keep him from doing all of the horrible things he did.”
I frowned. This was a moment I’d not been looking forward to. This was the first time that Rachel had talked about Tim since that day. She’d talked plenty about Emperor, but never once about the man behind the mask. Even though I hadn’t been looking forward to this moment, I had no intension of turning her away.
“You can’t help your feelings,” I said. “No one can. Besides, Tim’s own brother couldn’t see him for who he really was.”
Rachel halfway smiled and replied, “I guess you’re right,” but I wasn’t sure that she believed her own words.
We sat in silence for several minutes until Rachel broke that silence, “You’re a great friend, Rocky, but I gotta say goodbye.”
She looked up at the clouds and continued, “The Order’s done. Prof’s only making the effort he is so that the really dedicated members will have some supervision. The Elite will be disbanding completely any time now. I have to move on. This is the only place I’ve ever felt like I belonged since my parents died. I have to find a new place before it’s too late for me to do so.”
She looked over at me and our eyes met, “Do you know where you belong yet, Rocky?”
I thought about that, and when I didn’t answer, Rachel smiled. “I’ve been thinking that the place where you belong doesn’t have to be a place. It can be a person, or a group of people. I’ve been thinking that maybe I could take some time to help people in a more, you know, conventional, less magical way.”
I smiled. Rachel, in her own cryptic way, was helping me find my answer. I thought some more. I’d been a member of the Duel Force, but I’d always felt a bit like I’d been on the outside looking in. I’d felt like I belonged with the Elite, but now that was over. I looked at Rachel. Did I maybe belong with her?
No, I realized, Rachel’s a good friend, but she’ll never be more than that.
I was about to answer that I didn’t know when I remembered back to a time just over four months ago, when my journey as a member of the Elite began, to my final night with a friend.
“I think I might belong with someone,” I told Rachel, “and I think that it took all of this for me to realize it. But now I know where I need to go.”
So I left the Elite behind, telling my new friends goodbye. In only three days, I found myself standing outside of a large building in Japan, down the street from the front entrance. I was wearing a worn out coat and I was two days unshaven, and I was carrying everything I owned in the bag slung over my shoulder. I wasn’t sure where I was going to stay now that I was in town, especially since I hardly understood anyone, but I’d figure that out. I had to say hello to someone first.
The building was a school, and a nice one. There was a group of girls in school uniforms sitting outside at a bench, eating lunch. They were all my age or a little younger. One of them caught my eye instantly. She’d let her hair grow out. It was halfway down her back now. She saw me, but at first she didn’t recognize me. Then her eyes lit up with surprise, and she stood up, facing me, with a mischievous smile on her face and her hands on her hips. I walked over and stopped only a few feet away from her.
“Hey Robby,” she said, “you done playing superhero I guess?”
She was the only person who called me Robby.
Standing there, in that moment, I knew that I was right, this was where I belonged.
Continue to Special #3 >>
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