Heretical Edge

I'd had a lot of thoughts about what it was going to be like to come back to the Fusion School after everything that had happened. Hell, even before I had left with Ehn, I had imagined various scenarios in how that would go down. Some of them pretty out there, to be honest. The sort of imaginings that got way out of hand and seemed absurd.

Except maybe not absurd enough, as it turned out. Because never, in any of those thoughts, did I actually imagine that I would return flying in a sapient spaceship that used to be the Crossroads lighthouse, carrying the actual Heretical Edge.

But could anyone blame me for not even considering that as an option? I mean, that was a lot.

There was an escort waiting for us after we left the atmosphere and began heading for the sun. That in itself was a bit of a trip. It wasn't like the sun was right next to the Earth, no matter how much it felt like that sometimes on hot summer days. And it turned out Skuttlebutt had used all the energy it had for quick jumps getting away from the Crossroads pocket universe. It needed time to recharge, so we were doing this the long way. Well, longer than a jump would've made it. The trip from Earth to the sun would be a couple hours. Which wasn't bad for a place that was over ninety million miles away.

Our escort amounted to several combat ready gun boats that Athena had sent to make sure nothing went wrong. Sure, the Crossroads people weren't exactly known for having a lot of spaceships, but there could be other problems. The Seosten who weren't on our side might try to jump in and do something, since they already had at least a few ships close enough for that, and were probably already calling in more to try to handle this. Or there could be some other spacefaring group that might take their shot if they found out what the stakes were.

I expected a whole bunch of people to come over here to the ship itself. People like my mother, Athena, Sariel (that one made me nervous), and so on. But as it turned out, they had other things to deal with. Namely, the fact that we were right, the loyalists were launching attacks all over the place. We really had assaulted the hornets nest, and now they were losing it. They were following every possible lead to raid every safe place we had set up all across the world. And something told me, they were getting at least a little help from Seosten in the process, just to make it worse for us.

So, with those attacks happening everywhere, it was all hands on deck. Everyone who could fight was being sent out to help with evacuations. My dramatic reunion with friends and family would have to wait. Call it another way that Ruthers had managed to keep my family apart.

But my annoyance about that completely paled against the rage I felt when images started coming in on the screen from the various attacks happening. Crossroads and Eden's Garden really were working together to do as much damage as possible. They were burning down homes, leaving smoldering craters where families had lived, chasing innocent civilians into the streets just to slaughter them. Not because those civilians had done anything wrong, but because they weren't human. And because they wanted to lure out some rebels to fight, either to try to get information about the Edge, or just because they were pissed off about it being stolen.

Watching them like that, I tightened my fists so much it hurt. "We need to get out there. We need to stop them. This is only going to get worse. This is their immediate response. They're not even organized yet. They're not going to calm down. This is really bad."

The rage in my voice must have been pretty apparent, because Miranda stepped over to put her hand on my back, trying to calm me a little. "We'll get this to the station and check in, then get out there to help. But Flick, it's not your fault. I mean, they're doing it because of what we did, but we didn't make them do this. We didn't make them react this way. They hurt and kill innocent people all the time. Taking the Edge away from them only stops them from making even more of themselves. It stops them from turning more kids like we were into genocidal monsters."

Swallowing hard, I gave a slight nod, but didn't say anything. I didn't trust my voice right then. This whole situation was so fucked up. The more I watched all that violence happening, the more my stomach twisted itself into knots. It was all well and good to tell myself that she was right, the loyalists were killing people all the time anyway, and this was a sudden acceleration. She was even right that this was better in the long run, because they couldn't use the Edge to make more people like them. Yeah, it was fine and easy to say that to myself, or just to accept that Miranda was right. But that didn't make me feel any better about the people who were suffering and dying right now thanks to all that. I didn't care who it was, not really. What I cared about was that all those people were suffering and dying because of what I had done. Both of me, the one right here, and the one who had lived through all those years. Which only made me wonder what she was doing right now. She had set this up, and now it was paying off, so where was she? What was she doing? Was there more to whatever this plan was? I couldn't even imagine what the next step of a plan that involved stealing the Heretical Edge and flying it off in a spaceship might be. But then, she'd had an awful lot of time to come up with this.

Percy tried to reassure me as well. So did Tabbris. Hell, even Cerberus and Eurso did their best without totally understanding what was happening. I accepted their words, and was grateful for them. In the end though, the one I really wanted to talk to was my other self. I wanted to ask how she came up with this plan, what else there was to it, and if she had known just how badly the Crossroads people were going to react.

No, what was happening on those screens wasn't our fault. Those people made their choices. They were responsible for what they chose to do, for the violence they chose to perpetuate. But, being responsible for something being done, and being responsible for fixing it were two different things. I couldn't change how the loyalists acted. Not really. What I could do was decide how I would react. And I was going to react by stopping them as much as I could. As soon as we got this ship to the station, I was going to get back out there and let those people see what it was like to fight someone who could actually defend themselves. Staring at that screen, seeing everything they were doing, all I could think was how badly I wanted to make them stop. They wanted to be angry at somebody for stealing the Edge? Then they could be angry at me, and they could try to do something about it with me, dammit.

Those thoughts kept me company throughout the couple hours it took to get to the station. And the view on the screen didn't get any better through all that. It was obvious by then that my first instinct had been right. The Seosten really were feeding information to the Crossroads and Eden's Garden people just so they would have more targets. I wasn't sure exactly what their game with that was, aside from just tying up our resources and trying to flush this ship out, but it sure pissed me off even more than I already was. And that was saying something.

One more useful thing that happened during the trip was that we learned from Skuttlebutt that it would probably take a few days for Bob to sort himself out enough to communicate. Apparently he always had to take time between exertions of power and actual contact with the physical world. That sort of thing was demanding when it took so much of his energy not to give in and become a Hangman. And considering that would turn everyone else connected to the Edge into one, I was more than happy to let him take all the extra time he needed.

And of course, our trip couldn't be completely peaceful for us either. It wasn't enough that we had to watch all that shit happening on the screen. No, when we were just over half the way there, a group of Seosten starfighters showed up and demanded we follow them, under order of Metatron. And that sure as hell wasn't about to happen. So, one of our escort ships peeled off and engaged them. Which was yet another situation I couldn't help with. Not until we got this ship where it needed to go. We just had to let those guys fight.

Finally, we reached the borderline, where we couldn't go any closer to the sun without doing real damage. That was close enough for the station itself to transport us in. Our escort, the ones who remained, took a moment to make sure we would be okay. I assured them we were fine, thanked them, then told them to go ahead and go back to help their friends. They took off that way at full speed. Which made me even more nervous about how that fight had been going if they were in such a hurry.

Either way, now wasn't the time for us to think about it. We reassured Skuttlebutt that everything would be fine, it wouldn't be trapped on the station, and that no one was going to try to take it apart. I told it that if anyone tried to do anything it didn't like, they would have to go through me. The others made sure it knew they'd be right there too.

And with that, the ship was transported into the station, right to one of the larger docking bays. I took a moment to make sure Skuttles could contact me on my cell phone just in case, and promised it we would be back soon. It told me to do whatever I needed to and that it was accustomed to waiting for a long time. As long as it had its partner, it was fine.

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Miranda and I exchanged looks, before heading to the exit, with a couple of her duplicates taking the time to pick up the still-unconscious Liam and bring him with. Percy lagged behind a little, and I knew what she really wanted was to stay there and find a way to talk to her creator. She must've had so many questions. I couldn't even imagine how it felt for her right now, to be so close to answers after all these millennia, and then have to wait even longer because the only person who could provide those answers couldn't actually interact with her for a few more days.

I reached out and took her hand, promising that we would come back and talk to Bob, or whatever he wanted to call himself, as soon as he was capable of it. She, in turn, told me that the past few months she had spent in the past with me were some of the best she'd ever had, and that she knew it was stressful and dangerous for me, but she still wouldn't have traded it for anything. She was glad she had a chance to be there with me.

What the hell was I supposed to say to that? I couldn't really say anything, honestly. What I could do was embrace her tightly for a moment just as we were going down the ramp and promise the Revenant girl that I would still spend time with her. I wasn't just going to start ignoring her now that we were back, not after everything we had been through.

With that all said and promised, we continued down the ramp into the docking bay. I had known that almost everyone who could fight was out there doing that right now, so I wasn't sure who would actually be left to meet us. As it turned out, the answer was Abigail and my dad, along with a few people who looked like they were there to take Liam into custody before he woke up and started causing trouble. Plus another couple engineer types to make sure the ship was safe. It was a mix of Rebel Boschers and Seosten.

I wanted to run to my dad and older sister immediately, but first, I made sure those other guys knew just how dangerous Liam could be. They had to put him somewhere he couldn't teleport out of, or just use any other power to escape. They promised they knew what they were doing. Athena had rooms set up to hold powerful Boschers, where they couldn't hurt anyone, or themselves. Just hearing that last part, that they wanted to make sure Liam couldn't do anything rash to himself, sent a sharp pain through my stomach. That whole idea was so incredibly fucked up. But could I actually say they were wrong for worrying about it? Fuck, no, I couldn't.

All of which meant Sands and Sarah were two more I wanted to talk to. And Larissa, obviously. But they were all out trying to help the various Alter people who were currently being attacked by Liam's incredibly fucking vindictive friends. I wasn't even sure they knew we had Liam with us right now.

As my dad stepped up and grabbed both Tabbris and me to pull us into a tight embrace, he murmured, "Sorry, this probably isn't the sort of hero's welcome you were expecting after all that. Things, uhh, escalated quickly. It feels like Crossroads just threw open the gates and sent everyone out at once." He said that bit with a grimace, even as his hand gently brushed through my hair. There was an expression on his face that made me blush self-consciously.

"It's okay," I insisted, shifting a little to embrace Abigail then. "Believe me, I get it. I'm going right back out there as soon as we drop these guys off."

"Uh, actually," Abigail started, giving my dad a brief glance before wincing. "Athena wants you to stay here for now. She thinks you going out there will only escalate the situation. Worse, it'll draw the Committee members, and the Victors. They're gonna be targeting you directly, and--"

"And what?" I shot back reflexively. "And I should just sit here on my hands and let them kill a bunch of innocent people out there instead? And I should wait until they hurt my friends first before I do something about it? As long as I'm safe, it's fine?" The frustration I had been feeling throughout those hours I was forced to watch everything happening on the view screen just boiled over right then.

Dad gently put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it to bring my attention back to him. "No one's saying that," he informed me. "But if you go out there and draw their attention, how much do you think that's actually going to help anyone? Kid, they're seriously pissed at you right now, and if you get a whole group of those guys in one area, it'll end up hurting the people you're trying to help."

He was right, but that just led me to the obvious counterpoint. "Yeah, and if I go somewhere that's far away from any innocent people and draw all that attention, it'll keep those people safe. I can just get them to come after me instead."

Abigail shook her head firmly. "And then what? You die or get taken and we lose you right after you just got back? Felicity, I know you're very good at what you do. Her hand waved at the ship sitting nearby. "Case in point. But you're not good enough to deal with the kind of hell those people will rain down on you. Athena showed me what they were doing, what they're saying. They… they've completely lost it. They will really hurt you. They'll kill you. You're the face of everything they've been pissed about all year. It was bad enough when you helped bring everyone's memory back. Even worse that you're our mother's daughter. But add that onto the fact that you just stole the thing they used to turn children into soldiers? They're ready to burn everything down. All of it, whatever it takes to make you pay, and get that thing back."

"You don't understand," I started to insist, "I have to deal with this before someone else gets hurt. I'm the one who… who…" My words trailed off, as I stared off into the distance. I was looking at the nearby wall, technically, but that wasn't what I was seeing. No, what I was actually seeing right then was an artificial pyramid far in the past. A pyramid with alien technology and an assortment of advanced spells all hooked up to a stasis tube right in the middle. I saw the pyramid, the tube, the figure within, the cavern below it with that rift. I saw everything that happened there play out in what was somehow slow motion that passed instantly, right in my head. Then I saw everything that happened in Salem, and other periods when I had seen the Seosten as one of the many versions of myself spread through time. I saw everything that came after that very first meeting in Egypt. And I felt all of those emotions all over again, in just a few seconds.

The others felt it too. Not just Hot Type, the entire Flique. We all felt those emotions, and had those memories play out for us. It was nearly a physical blow, one that some might have thought was an actual psychic attack. But no, this wasn't some outsider finding our weak point and forcing us to feel all of that again. This was us. The memory had come to mind while we were talking, while we were right on the cusp of insisting that we had to go back out there right then. We felt that overwhelming guilt about the mistake we'd made. A mistake that came from insisting that we alone had to immediately fix a problem without talking to anyone else. Not even the person most affected by it. We-- I had thought that I knew what was best, that I had some sort of duty to fix the problem, and that I couldn't even waste time talking to Sariel about it.

Why? Because I thought I knew better. I thought I knew what was going on, and how she was going to react. I thought I knew what she would do and that I couldn't waste time letting her do it. I didn't listen to her. I refused to listen, because I thought I had to fix it myself. And I made the situation worse.

I had thought it was all on me, and that I couldn't even let people like Sariel try to make the right decision. I had thought that just because I was from the future, I had the right to take it all on myself and not even discuss it with the people who had to live out those moments.

"Flick?" My attention was drawn by Abigail's voice. She had one hand on my arm, while my dad had stepped around with his own hand on my opposite shoulder. Tabbris was right in front of me, and the others were close too. All of them were staring worriedly at me.

"I'm-- I'm okay," I assured them as I blinked away those memories. They had been so vivid in that moment. Probably because the entire Flique had been thinking about them at once. It made the memories so much stronger.

Taking a deep breath before letting it out, I thought about that mistake I'd made, the mistake in thinking I always had to be the one to deal with a problem. The mistake in believing I couldn't even take the time to listen to other people, that I was the one who knew best in that moment. I had hurt Sariel so badly right then. I had done so much damage to a woman who meant so much to me, the woman who was my little sister's mother. I didn't mean to, but I did. I hurt her. I might've permanently damaged our relationship, because I had thought I couldn't risk talking to her. I was trying to make things better, and I'd made them worse by thinking I was the only one who could handle it.

"Okay," I finally managed, after absorbing all that. "I won't go out there right now. I'll wait until we come up with a plan together." My eyes closed briefly, and I let out a long, heavy sigh, feeling some of the crushing pressure ease. Not because it was gone, but because I accepted that I wasn't the only person here who could hold it. I wasn't going through those rifts anymore. I was back home, with my family and friends. "What are we going to do?"

My dad and Abigail exchanged looks, and he gestured for her to go ahead. She, in turn, took a breath before starting with, "Those people are all busy attacking everything in sight trying to lure you out, trying to provoke a reaction. So… I thought we'd do something to take advantage of that.

"I think it's time to save Gaia Sinclaire."