Aftermath
Iv
"What's the meaning of this?!"
Now usually, I'd show the old man some respect. As complicated as our relationship was, he was still technically my boss, the Visionary of the Overseers. But screw that. Not after what had just happened yesterday.
The old man and I were currently alone in the Council Chambers. The meeting hadn’t started yet, so the lights were all off, not that they did a good job of illuminating the place anyway. The dim blue lights only gave the room an ominous atmosphere to be honest, as if we were some shady supervillains who secretly ruled the world. Man, whoever designed this place seriously wanted to make us look like bad guys. Oh wait, come to think about it, that was Yan now, wasn’t it? Though she’s better known these days as the Engineer. Curses, that's one person I can't fire.
Well, at least they’re blue and not red or something.
Putting that aside, I refocused on our little conversation, if you could call the act of me yelling at him for the past few minutes a conversation, that is. Since I had reverted my body to that of a child's, it must have looked somewhat comedical to see me yelling at the old man. I wasn't even using the speaker function, and I heard my own childish voice ringing through the dark, desolate chamber as I spoke. No one else besides us two were here anyways. In the center of the Council Chambers was a floating holographic screen, similar to the one Yan had displayed the previous Council session. This time though, the one displaying the screen was myself, and rather than the reports from the Maya Calendarial that Yan displayed last time, this screen showed something very different.
Civilian articles and blogs, high-clearance reports from Central, and even classified government documents were shown through the holograph. They were all from different sources, but they all painted the same picture of the incident that had transpired the day before. Just looking at them again made me want to despair all over again.
The simultaneous opening of massive, blood-red Cracks all across the sky in the region surrounding Vancouver. The worst disaster and fuck-up in Cordiale history. Hundreds of strange flying monsters poured out, and approximately half-a-dozen or so blood-red cracks opened on the surface level, spewing out even more monsters, which began indiscriminately attacking surrounding humans. Vancouver, as well as several other cities in Canada and even across in the United States had been attacked and devastated. Several forest fires went out of control, entire urban centers had been depopulated and left in ruins, and casualty counts are still unknown and climbing. Though most of the monsters had been dealt with, quite a number were still in rural regions, hiding, and they’ve continuously been attacking rural communities and military installations from both countries. From the reports I’ve been getting, the operatives sent out from Central had been in Vancouver when shit went down, and as the city itself went down in flames. They had no choice but to act and defend themselves as monsters poured in. In public, no less. Several of the news articles showed headline photos of some of the operatives fighting some of those monsters. Still, not a big problem. Suppressing news articles and media was a long… tradition, of ours, so whatever news reporters that had somehow survived or reported the scene had found themselves mysteriously silenced by their bosses and the like. Even online stuff such as blogging or Myspace, which had become pretty popular these past few years were silenced pretty quickly, thanks in part to Yan and her subordinates working on cyberspace control and the like. Any blog or post regarding this incident would fade away into obscurity soon enough.
All in all, short term? We had the public under control. But the problem was honestly in the long term ramifications, as well as the responses by the Canadian and American governments. Now, short term we can suppress information easily, but long term? Yeah, no, anyone with relatives in that area, or any tourists going would be able to pick up pretty quickly. We couldn’t just make the disaster go away, however proficient the Financier or their Division Raphael was in reconstruction. Not to mention the deaths. Even now, Central is mobilising more and more operatives into hunting parties to hunt down any remaining monsters hiding away, and last I’ve heard, the Ambassador and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were having a hard time forcing the two governments into compliance, however extensive their networks may have been. We’ve already gotten reports of skirmishes between US military and some of our operatives, though we’ve managed to prevent escalation. Honestly, the Cordiale was used to dealing with minor problems and acting completely in the shadows, so being forced into the open like this has been a massive shake-up for us all.
Sigh, even the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been under pressure, and I’ve been getting calls non-stop from subordinates and the like. So far? It's been a pretty hectic day. And it's all because of that son of a- old man, the one in the seat above and away from my own in the Council Chambers, completely unresponsive. I continued, feeling my irritation rise with each word: “Surely you’re not telling me your oh-so grand Vision didn’t account for this now, are you? I found it rather strange when the Vice-captain of Michael avoided most of my questions after returning back to the surface site of the first Crack, you know? It was deliberate. Deliberate orders by you! You knew.”
Those last words came out almost a snarl. And I found myself having to pause to collect myself before continuing: “You knew those blood-red Cracks were going to appear all over the place, and for some reason, wanted to ensure nobody too powerful got involved with it. That’s why you re-routed Michael, and that’s why you made sure their Vice-captain came back with me. If Michael or I had been there, we would have been able to exterminate those monsters coming out before they had the opportunity to mass and congregate as a horde. We could have prevented a lot of damage. A lot of deaths.”. I still couldn’t believe it. Even now, I found a part of myself doubting, still unsure or thinking it may have all been my misconception. But no, it couldn't have been, and I certainly didn't stay as the Administrator for the past half a century without learning to read situations, and neither did I believe the old man’s continued silence to be just another whim of his. He knew. He knew all along.
As the anger subsided, I found myself speaking out in a weak voice: “But… why?”. I’m not a child, not anymore. I’m an Overseer. One of the most powerful and influential Origins in existence. Nobody dares to call me a child now. Nobody. But then why didn't I understand anything? Why? It's all the same as before, just like those times. I- ugh… no, relax. Please. Re-orienting myself, I looked up towards the man. The man who I hadn’t been able to understand for a very long while. Not even now half a century later, and maybe never.
“What are you planning? You’ve always stayed so… quiet, ever since that day. You maintained the secrecy of the Origins, and yet, now, because of you, it’s all over. You and I both know it's only a matter of time now before the whole world sees us.” I found my voice getting smaller and smaller as I spoke. Was I trying to deny it myself? I… I just didn’t want to acknowledge it. It's been so long since I’ve followed him down this path, and so much has happened. I’ve seen so much. I’ve… committed so many atrocities, killed so many people. I didn't want to acknowledge the fact that all those decades had been for nothing. That my loyalty had been for nothing.
“No, no it’s not.”
The sudden interjection caught me off-guard, and I found myself looking back up, having realised a random third-party had joined the fray. No, wait, they weren’t exactly a third party. She was somebody like me. She was-
“This is far from being over, dear Iv. In fact, this is only the beginning. These past decades have merely been us setting the board, and our father’s Vision has only begun.”
Unlike before, her voice wasn’t augmented or coming from the overhead speakers. For the first time in years, I heard her true voice with my own ears. It was-
“Yan?”
A small nod came from the shadowy figure of Yan, now known to the world as the Engineer. Her figure was covered by the Identity Veil, and she was seated slightly above me on the right end of the chamber from my own seat, above me and below the Visionary. The other who had been picked up by the old man, sort of like me, and my foster sister of sorts. She was with him even before me, and tried to act as sort of an elder sister to me after I joined them. Well, until we both became Overseers, that was. We both became rather busy soon afterwards, and we found ourselves talking and meeting less and less. Still, it looks like that whole “older sibling” attitude has stayed the same as ever. From her words, she seemed to know something about the old man's Vision, although it could have just been a mere deduction on her own part. If so, why hadn't she consulted me? I get that she was with him the longest, but was there some reason she didn't say? I'll have to inquire about this in private later on.
Whilst I was having such thoughts, she tossed a completely unexpected line towards me: “More importantly Iv, I’ve heard from Division Michael that you’ve picked up something rather strange back there, haven’t you?”
It took me a short moment to realise she was talking about the brown-haired girl I picked up back then. After returning back to the site of the first Crack, I had handed her over to Azul, who had returned from the Maya Calendarial to the site, and had him return with her to my main residence. I’ve made sure she’s received various things, medical attention being one of them. But I hadn’t heard anything from Azul about her waking up yet before arriving at the Council Chambers, so she must have still been asleep. Picking myself up, I replied, trying to make myself sound dismissive: “Just a little girl. I’ve already had her vetted as a biological human, and not some monster in disguise. The Inquisitors have also affirmed it's unlikely for there to be a spy in the Maya Calendarial at this stage, and as we all know, any external enemy capable of detecting a Crack before the Maya Calendarial is basically non-existent. So all in all, I'm pretty confident she's in the clear. Just an unfortunate civilian.”
Trying to gauge both her and the Visionary’s responses from their body language, I continued after realising it was in vain as always. Would it kill people to react a bit more these days?
“I’ll… take her with me for a few days before having her sent off back to her parents, once we identify them. I- ”. But as I was about to continue on, a sudden realisation hit me like a bolt of lightning. Wait, how did I not realise beforehand? Shit, I’ve been way too preoccupied with the red Cracks, how have I not thought about-
“It seems, Iv, that you haven't considered the obvious possibility that she and her family reside in that region. If so, then there is a strong possibility that they are dead.”
Yan coldly interrupted me as I was having those same thoughts. Shit, I guess that was pretty bad for the girl. But then, what would I do with her? I- I suppose I could send her to a foster home or something, that would be most reasonable, yes.
“I… I’ll think of something. It's not confirmed they're gone yet. Besides, I don't see how one little girl is that big of an issue compared to the crisis we are facing now. We should probably move on.”. After all, the other Overseers would soon arrive, since the emergency meeting the old man had called was about to begin soon.
Aftermath
Iv
"What's the meaning of this?!"
Now usually, I'd show the old man some respect. As complicated as our relationship was, he was still technically my boss, the Visionary of the Overseers. But screw that. Not after what had just happened yesterday.
The old man and I were currently alone in the Council Chambers. The meeting hadn’t started yet, so the lights were all off, not that they did a good job of illuminating the place anyway. The dim blue lights only gave the room an ominous atmosphere to be honest, as if we were some shady supervillains who secretly ruled the world. Man, whoever designed this place seriously wanted to make us look like bad guys. Oh wait, come to think about it, that was Yan now, wasn’t it? Though she’s better known these days as the Engineer. Curses, that's one person I can't fire.
Well, at least they’re blue and not red or something.
Putting that aside, I refocused on our little conversation, if you could call the act of me yelling at him for the past few minutes a conversation, that is. Since I had reverted my body to that of a child's, it must have looked somewhat comedical to see me yelling at the old man. I wasn't even using the speaker function, and I heard my own childish voice ringing through the dark, desolate chamber as I spoke. No one else besides us two were here anyways. In the center of the Council Chambers was a floating holographic screen, similar to the one Yan had displayed the previous Council session. This time though, the one displaying the screen was myself, and rather than the reports from the Maya Calendarial that Yan displayed last time, this screen showed something very different.
Civilian articles and blogs, high-clearance reports from Central, and even classified government documents were shown through the holograph. They were all from different sources, but they all painted the same picture of the incident that had transpired the day before. Just looking at them again made me want to despair all over again.
The simultaneous opening of massive, blood-red Cracks all across the sky in the region surrounding Vancouver. The worst disaster and fuck-up in Cordiale history. Hundreds of strange flying monsters poured out, and approximately half-a-dozen or so blood-red cracks opened on the surface level, spewing out even more monsters, which began indiscriminately attacking surrounding humans. Vancouver, as well as several other cities in Canada and even across in the United States had been attacked and devastated. Several forest fires went out of control, entire urban centers had been depopulated and left in ruins, and casualty counts are still unknown and climbing. Though most of the monsters had been dealt with, quite a number were still in rural regions, hiding, and they’ve continuously been attacking rural communities and military installations from both countries. From the reports I’ve been getting, the operatives sent out from Central had been in Vancouver when shit went down, and as the city itself went down in flames. They had no choice but to act and defend themselves as monsters poured in. In public, no less. Several of the news articles showed headline photos of some of the operatives fighting some of those monsters. Still, not a big problem. Suppressing news articles and media was a long… tradition, of ours, so whatever news reporters that had somehow survived or reported the scene had found themselves mysteriously silenced by their bosses and the like. Even online stuff such as blogging or Myspace, which had become pretty popular these past few years were silenced pretty quickly, thanks in part to Yan and her subordinates working on cyberspace control and the like. Any blog or post regarding this incident would fade away into obscurity soon enough.
All in all, short term? We had the public under control. But the problem was honestly in the long term ramifications, as well as the responses by the Canadian and American governments. Now, short term we can suppress information easily, but long term? Yeah, no, anyone with relatives in that area, or any tourists going would be able to pick up pretty quickly. We couldn’t just make the disaster go away, however proficient the Financier or their Division Raphael was in reconstruction. Not to mention the deaths. Even now, Central is mobilising more and more operatives into hunting parties to hunt down any remaining monsters hiding away, and last I’ve heard, the Ambassador and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were having a hard time forcing the two governments into compliance, however extensive their networks may have been. We’ve already gotten reports of skirmishes between US military and some of our operatives, though we’ve managed to prevent escalation. Honestly, the Cordiale was used to dealing with minor problems and acting completely in the shadows, so being forced into the open like this has been a massive shake-up for us all.
Sigh, even the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been under pressure, and I’ve been getting calls non-stop from subordinates and the like. So far? It's been a pretty hectic day. And it's all because of that son of a- old man, the one in the seat above and away from my own in the Council Chambers, completely unresponsive. I continued, feeling my irritation rise with each word: “Surely you’re not telling me your oh-so grand Vision didn’t account for this now, are you? I found it rather strange when the Vice-captain of Michael avoided most of my questions after returning back to the surface site of the first Crack, you know? It was deliberate. Deliberate orders by you! You knew.”
Those last words came out almost a snarl. And I found myself having to pause to collect myself before continuing: “You knew those blood-red Cracks were going to appear all over the place, and for some reason, wanted to ensure nobody too powerful got involved with it. That’s why you re-routed Michael, and that’s why you made sure their Vice-captain came back with me. If Michael or I had been there, we would have been able to exterminate those monsters coming out before they had the opportunity to mass and congregate as a horde. We could have prevented a lot of damage. A lot of deaths.”. I still couldn’t believe it. Even now, I found a part of myself doubting, still unsure or thinking it may have all been my misconception. But no, it couldn't have been, and I certainly didn't stay as the Administrator for the past half a century without learning to read situations, and neither did I believe the old man’s continued silence to be just another whim of his. He knew. He knew all along.
As the anger subsided, I found myself speaking out in a weak voice: “But… why?”. I’m not a child, not anymore. I’m an Overseer. One of the most powerful and influential Origins in existence. Nobody dares to call me a child now. Nobody. But then why didn't I understand anything? Why? It's all the same as before, just like those times. I- ugh… no, relax. Please. Re-orienting myself, I looked up towards the man. The man who I hadn’t been able to understand for a very long while. Not even now half a century later, and maybe never.
“What are you planning? You’ve always stayed so… quiet, ever since that day. You maintained the secrecy of the Origins, and yet, now, because of you, it’s all over. You and I both know it's only a matter of time now before the whole world sees us.” I found my voice getting smaller and smaller as I spoke. Was I trying to deny it myself? I… I just didn’t want to acknowledge it. It's been so long since I’ve followed him down this path, and so much has happened. I’ve seen so much. I’ve… committed so many atrocities, killed so many people. I didn't want to acknowledge the fact that all those decades had been for nothing. That my loyalty had been for nothing.
“No, no it’s not.”
The sudden interjection caught me off-guard, and I found myself looking back up, having realised a random third-party had joined the fray. No, wait, they weren’t exactly a third party. She was somebody like me. She was-
“This is far from being over, dear Iv. In fact, this is only the beginning. These past decades have merely been us setting the board, and our father’s Vision has only begun.”
Unlike before, her voice wasn’t augmented or coming from the overhead speakers. For the first time in years, I heard her true voice with my own ears. It was-
“Yan?”
A small nod came from the shadowy figure of Yan, now known to the world as the Engineer. Her figure was covered by the Identity Veil, and she was seated slightly above me on the right end of the chamber from my own seat, above me and below the Visionary. The other who had been picked up by the old man, sort of like me, and my foster sister of sorts. She was with him even before me, and tried to act as sort of an elder sister to me after I joined them. Well, until we both became Overseers, that was. We both became rather busy soon afterwards, and we found ourselves talking and meeting less and less. Still, it looks like that whole “older sibling” attitude has stayed the same as ever. From her words, she seemed to know something about the old man's Vision, although it could have just been a mere deduction on her own part. If so, why hadn't she consulted me? I get that she was with him the longest, but was there some reason she didn't say? I'll have to inquire about this in private later on.
Whilst I was having such thoughts, she tossed a completely unexpected line towards me: “More importantly Iv, I’ve heard from Division Michael that you’ve picked up something rather strange back there, haven’t you?”
It took me a short moment to realise she was talking about the brown-haired girl I picked up back then. After returning back to the site of the first Crack, I had handed her over to Azul, who had returned from the Maya Calendarial to the site, and had him return with her to my main residence. I’ve made sure she’s received various things, medical attention being one of them. But I hadn’t heard anything from Azul about her waking up yet before arriving at the Council Chambers, so she must have still been asleep. Picking myself up, I replied, trying to make myself sound dismissive: “Just a little girl. I’ve already had her vetted as a biological human, and not some monster in disguise. The Inquisitors have also affirmed it's unlikely for there to be a spy in the Maya Calendarial at this stage, and as we all know, any external enemy capable of detecting a Crack before the Maya Calendarial is basically non-existent. So all in all, I'm pretty confident she's in the clear. Just an unfortunate civilian.”
Trying to gauge both her and the Visionary’s responses from their body language, I continued after realising it was in vain as always. Would it kill people to react a bit more these days?
“I’ll… take her with me for a few days before having her sent off back to her parents, once we identify them. I- ”. But as I was about to continue on, a sudden realisation hit me like a bolt of lightning. Wait, how did I not realise beforehand? Shit, I’ve been way too preoccupied with the red Cracks, how have I not thought about-
“It seems, Iv, that you haven't considered the obvious possibility that she and her family reside in that region. If so, then there is a strong possibility that they are dead.”
Yan coldly interrupted me as I was having those same thoughts. Shit, I guess that was pretty bad for the girl. But then, what would I do with her? I- I suppose I could send her to a foster home or something, that would be most reasonable, yes.
“I… I’ll think of something. It's not confirmed they're gone yet. Besides, I don't see how one little girl is that big of an issue compared to the crisis we are facing now. We should probably move on.”. After all, the other Overseers would soon arrive, since the emergency meeting the old man had called was about to begin soon.
