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Chapter Text

Gaius had known pain before, but he had never known pain like the pain he felt now.

Searing, red hot and surging through every vein, it felt like his own lightning had found its way inside him, to burn up every nerve and muscle in its wake. His brain, too, shared his body’s anguish – every synapse might as well have been pulled out and set on fire. Something was terribly wrong, and despite the pain that argued against it, Gaius moved to push himself up off of the ground.

The crisp, white snow beneath him was stained a deep red, and as soon as he moved, he coughed up more blood to add to it.

Having just woken up, and working through the thick haze of pain, Gaius couldn’t find an explanation for his condition or location. All he knew was that he couldn’t allow himself to fall unconscious, again; only death would be waiting for him there. Despite the protest of every fiber, he made himself sit up.

The snow around him didn’t hold any footprints, but there was a streak of exposed ground behind him. He hadn’t walked to where he was – he’d landed. Harshly.

He’d obviously been fighting whatever it was that had put him in such a state. His top and jacket were both loose around his waist, the way they always fell when he called upon all of his divine powers.

As he turned to fasten the straps of his top, he flinched, and lifted a hand to his abdomen. The skin stomach and side was far from the right color – bruised a deep and unsettling purple. He pressed on it lightly, and immediately had to fight the reflex to vomit.

He needed medical attention and soon. And sooner still, he needed to get out of the Raine tundra. He recognized it’s mountains, and he’d seen many rocky snowfields exactly like the one he found himself in now. It was impossible to pinpoint his location, however. Raine’s wall was nowhere in sight. The only thing around him were pine trees and snow drifts.

Gaius let out a sigh of relief as he felt his communicator in his jacket pocket. He slipped it out and tried to turn it on, but the only thing that flashed back up at him was an empty battery symbol. His habit of walking around with a dead phone wasn’t really a bad habit, at least not when he could charge it whenever he needed to. Just like he had, hundreds, if not thousands of times now, he called his divine power to his hands.

He flinched as his power sparked haphazardly at his fingertips. The phone’s screen spasmed between on and off, and he had to stop. Something was wrong with his powers – there was a new and unusual interference, possibly divine, possibly from a Miracle, he didn’t know. He puzzled over it for a second, before scowling and shoving his phone back into his pocket. No matter – he used to be military, and he still had his wits about him.

Though the sky was laid heavy with clouds and growing darker, Gaius was still able to pick out the falling sun on the horizon, and reason the best direction to walk in to eventually reach civilization. All he had to do was stand and start walking.

Easier said than done.

Thankfully, all his limbs seemed to be in working order. Breaking the branch of a pine tree to use as a walking stick was no small task, wounded as he was, but the effort was worth it as he began his track in what he hoped was the direction of the golden city – Utgard.

Heavy footfall, after heavy footfall, the snow crunched beneath his boots. His breath, tinged with the copper that still coated the inside of his mouth, turned to steam as soon as it left his lips. At least his movement would help prevent his muscles from freezing in place.

Beneath all the pain, Gaius could feel the fatigue of battle. He knew his body – he’d been fighting. But he could not remember who he’d been fighting, or who he’d been fighting with, if anyone. The snowfield he trekked was barren of friend or foe, no Union member or Miramon to be seen. He couldn’t even recall what mission had sent him into the tundra.

What was the last thing he remembered?

Estero Harbor – Li Guang… The Cube Miracle. She had helped calm the Cube Miracle and save Estero Harbor with Farrah, and that local girl – what had Li Guang said her name was? Lorah? Norah?

Gaius wracked his brain.

He’d been so prepared to scold Li Guang for her recklessness. The Miracle in Estero Harbor had claimed Hannah, all those years ago, and he’d been so worried that it was going to claim Li Guang the same way. But when he’d finally met up with Li Guang again, after the chaos, he hadn’t been able to dish out any of the scolding he’d wanted to – he was just relieved to see her in one piece.

And he tried to convince her to join the Union, again. And again, she’d politely declined.

“I’m a free spirit.”

He’d expected that answer, and just nodded – watched her wave another temporary goodbye.

Li Guang had said she was going to head to Utgard, next. That’s where he was – basically, anyway. Perhaps she’d called him here? But how long ago had that been? It felt like just yesterday – just an hour ago…

The world started to spin and Gaius slumped against the nearest tree, breathing hard.

Something had happened after his goodbye to Li Guang. What was it? He put a hand to his head and thought with every bit of mental energy he had left.

He’d said goodbye. He’d collected the damage report from Farrah at the temporary Esper Union Office. Then Farrah’s condition had taken a turn – Li Guang hadn’t left like she’d planned, but he had. He had to get back to Gyrate. He remembered getting back to Gyrate, to headquarters. Yes, that’s right – he’d contacted Tevor, then, of the Larkspur Detective Agency, to investigate Farrah’s condition while he continued his regular work at Union HQ.

It had been work as usual, hadn’t it?

Growing frustrated by his inability to pinpoint his last exact memory, Gaius shoved off in pursuit of civilization again. Though, unfortunately, his dizziness didn’t shove off from him.

He could ignore the cold. He could ignore the uncomfortable crunch inside him when he walked. But he couldn’t ignore the dizziness. Everything was a snowy mess around him. He couldn’t tell if it was snowing, or if his vision was starting to fade. Gaius had powered his way through hordes of Miramon, armies of Shadow Decree scum, and through more than his fair share of survival situations.

His divine powers were trying to fix whatever was broken within him, but no amount of power pumping through his veins could fix him in the amount of time he still had left. He was fading, and he felt it.

Gaius grit his teeth and pushed on. He couldn’t die like this. He was Gaius – Union Hub Director – member of the Esper Seven. He still had fights to fight. Miracles still needed destroyed, Miramon still needed killed, the Shadow Decree still needed beaten, and civilians still needed saved. He still had work to do.

Snowflakes streaked past his eyes, but through them, Gaius saw the faint outline of a building. Like a zombie, he staggered directly towards it. Just as the illuminated symbol of the Esper Union came into focus, his legs gave out. With one last surge of power, he was able to raise his hand and shoot a crackling beam of lightning into the air above him. Even as feeble as it was, it light up the sky, split the air and let out a shattering clap. He hoped it would be enough.

It had to be enough.

The next thing he knew there was snow in his face, and a growing cold in his limbs. And Gaius shut his eyes.

Chapter Text

When Gaius awoke this time, he found a pillow under his head and not the frigid snow of the tundra. The white walls of a clinic greeted him, as did the blinding fluorescence that came with them. The world and the pain he expected to feel were both fuzzy – as a powerful pain killer was probably obscuring both from perception.

He took a deep breath and willed himself to mentally find his way through the daze. He focused on the small details he could place, grounding himself. He was on a bed. There was an IV in his arm. There were patches on his chest, running wires up to somewhere behind him. There were methodical and mechanical beeps sounding off around him.

And he could just make out the form of someone beside his bed, sitting in the chair next to his bed. Between the person’s shoulders sat a blurry head of bright yellow and red.

“Li Guang?” Gaius mumbled, still dazed.

“Oh! You’re awake!”

It didn’t sound like her voice. This voice was softer, deeper. Gaius strained his eyes, and as he blinked the light from his eyes, the world came into focus along with the stranger by his bed.

While clearly an Esper, the young woman by his bed was definitely not Li Guang. This Esper’s transformation had left her resembling a St. Bernard, with brightly colored fur and big brown eyes. He didn’t recognize her, though her bright red and reflective winter coat clearly displayed the Union’s insignia.

“Where am I?” Gaius found his voice hoarse, from the cold, no doubt. He only hoped that frostbite hadn’t claimed his fingers and toes as badly as it had his throat.

“You’re at the Union’s Scavenger Outpost, Mr. Gaius. You’re all safe now.”

He eyed her for a moment, before frowning.

“Apologies, but who are you?”

“Oh!” She laughed bashfully and stood up from her chair, “I’m – I’m Ha-Rin! Ops Chief and head of search and rescue, here, in the Raine Tundra. We uh, we met once, back in Gyrate at the Academy – but that was at least three months ago, and I’m uh, fairly new to the Union, so I um… I don’t expect you to remember me. A-anyway, you’ve been asleep for a few hours, now.”

Her eyes moved to glance up and behind Gaius.

He raised his own eyes, to look up at the wall behind him. From between the folds of his hospital gown, several wires connected his arms and chest to a series of machines, sitting high above him. There was a screen for his heart monitor, blood pressure, pulse, and divinity.

He recognized the graph of divine resonance, even from his awkward angle beneath it – and he didn’t like what he saw. His Divinity was all over the place, fluctuating wildly above and below the normal threshold. The other graphs looked relatively fine, but his Divinity… Well, at the very least it explained why he hadn’t been able to charge his phone, before.

“So, how are you feeling, Mr. Gaius?” Ha-Rin asked.

He took stock of himself, for a minute. All his fingers were still accounted for, and he no longer felt like death was calling him in for his final act.

“I no longer feel like I am dying, so I’d call that an improvement,” He answered.

She laughed, high and soft. She was probably nervous to be tending to him, Gaius thought. Many new Ops chiefs were nervous in his presence.

“Well, that’s good,” Ha-Rin said, “I was able to stabilize you long enough for your own divine powers to help heal you up. You should, uh, still move as little as possible. Even with my divine powers, you’re still pretty far from, um… Fine.”

Ha-Rin fell silent, for a few moments, as she moved around his bed to pick up a stack of papers from atop the desk in the corner of the room.

“Was it a Miramon that attacked you?” She asked.

Gaius folded his hands across himself, and slowly worked his wedding ring around his finger.

“I don’t know,” He answered frankly, “I can’t remember anything pertaining to the situation I find myself in.”

“You can’t?”

He shook his head solemnly.

She hummed, a frown tugging on her face, “I didn’t notice any trauma to your head… Our scans didn’t indicate any, either.”

That put an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. If physical trauma hadn’t taken his memories, what had?

“What were the extent of my injuries?” Gaius asked.

“You had extensive internal bleeding and a major laceration to your lower abdomen. I stitched it up and stabilized your internal organs with my powers. Your own divine powers should be working away at anything internal, at the moment, although…”

Her worried, puppy-dog eyes moved up again, to look at the Divinity monitor, and state what Gaius already knew to be the case.

“There was definitely something strange going on with your powers, Gaius,” Ha-Rin glanced over the readout in her hands again, “Your divine waves were highly irregular.”

She handed the papers over to Gaius, who looked them over with a furrowed brow. Just like a heartbeat, the rhythm was displayed as a single line across the page, and to call it ‘anomalous’ would have been an understatement. No wonder he hadn’t been able to control his lightning properly.

“I’ve never seen a readout like this,” Gaius said distantly.

“Are you sure you weren’t at the Sonic Miracle?”

“I’m not sure of anything, currently.”

Ha-Rin frowned, similarly defeated, “I have been told that Miracles can influence our divine powers. A medical team can probably provide you with a more accurate assessment…”

“You’ve done more than enough for me, Ha-Rin.”

“Well, the snow dogs did the heavy lifting –“

Just then, a cheery ringtone filled the air. Ha-Rin instantly reached for the communicator in her pocket.

“Oh, it’s HQ,” Ha-Rin said as she turned away to leisurely pace about as he took the call. She raised the phone up under one fluffy ear, “Ha-Rin, here.”

Gaius turned his attention back to the readout in his hands, and sighed.

Ha-Rin hummed. Then she suddenly stopped walking, her back to Gaius. She was silent, but Gaius could still hear the indistinguishable words of a voice on the other end of the line, even from his recovery bed. Then Ha-Rin slowly turned her head. Gaius felt eyes upon him and looked up from the paper detailing his troubles.

Ha-Rin looked like she’d just seen a ghost.

Gaius raised a curious brow, “Is something the matter?”

“No,” Ha-Rin croaked.

Gaius’s brow drew together, “…Are you sure?”

“Yes” Ha-Rin lowered the phone from her ear, and as if remembering she had a body, jolted, then quickly stepped towards the door, “I – I have to take this. Sorry.”

And she was gone, door shut sharply behind her tail.

Gaius stared at the door for a moment or two, concerned with the oddity of Ha-Rin’s response, then shrugged it off. He gave one last glance at the divine wave readout and reached for his jacket on the chair next to his bed. Hopefully his divine powers had stabilized, at least enough for him to get some answers from his dead phone.

He held his phone gingerly, shut his eyes, and set his jaw. He felt his powers answer his will and felt the familiar static of his powers surge in his fingertips. It was a comforting thing to feel, in this strange and worrying situation he found himself in. He channeled the static from his fingertips into his phone and let out a sigh of relief when he opened his eyes and found the screen powered on. His powers might not have stabilized completely, but he was improving.

He entered his passcode – the date he became both a husband and a widower – and swiped into the interface.

And his eyes fell upon the time and date.

The date couldn’t be right.

It wasn’t December. It couldn’t be December. It was still June.

It was still June, right?

But the date on his calendar app remained the same, no matter how many times he blinked at it. Then he saw how many missed texts he had waiting to be opened. He immediately went into is messages, and his confusion only grew sharper. There were dozens of conversations he didn’t remember having. Hundreds of replies he didn’t remember sending – to Raven, Drew, Lewis, Bardon, Pritzker, Lin Xiao, Luo Yan – there were month’s worth of text conversations he had absolutely no memory of.

The very last message he’d sent out was just a few hours ago, to a name and number he didn’t recognize.

‘Even the Tundra Cruiser, will become’

‘the prey in the sea of monsters’

What the hell was a Tundra Cruiser? And who in the hell was ‘The Lock’ he’d sent that message to?

Gaius went to log into the Union’s App. If he’d been sent to the Raine Tundra on a mission, then the app would still have the details of said mission.

–  Password Invalid –

He tried it again.

–  Password Invalid –

Somewhere within his confusion, panic started to spark like the electricity he was so used to wielding. One more failed log-in attempt locked his account.

Gaius jumped at the sound of a shout outside his door. He fumbled his phone as he sat up and winced at the pain his movement caused. There were multiple voices just outside the infirmary door, now – at least three of them. The heart monitor behind him detailed every spike in his heart rate, every drop of adrenaline building up inside him. He grabbed his phone back up from the bed and the incessant beeping of the monitors grew faster, still.

A red alert had just hit his phone, as it would every Union issued phone in Grandis. The popup was plastered across his screen, and just under the Union’s purple banner, was an issue for an immediate arrest – his arrest. His face, his name, his arrest, right under his lightning bolt symbol for the Union.

Gaius’s face went slack. This had to be joke, a cruel joke or a nightmare. This couldn’t be real.

The voices outside his door were growing turbulent, and dread was growing up inside him like a creeping ivy, tangling up every other thought and feeling. If this was real, the Union wanted to arrest him, and he was injured, inside a Union outpost, with at least four Union members right outside the door – he was as cornered as one could be.

What the hell had happened in the six months he was missing?

What had he done?

His hands were trembling as he held his phone and stared at the door. What was the plan, here?

Thankfully the clothes he’d worn into the outpost had been neatly deposited on a rack just beneath his bed. As silently and quickly as he could, he moved to the edge of the bed and pulled on his pants, socks and shoes. His fingers got in the way of the knot in his laces, and cursing himself silently, he redid it, and listened intently to the voices outside the door grow louder.

Along with Ha-Rin, he recognized the voices of Everette, Ophelia. Both were Union scavengers, assigned to the Raine Tundra. Each were highly capable, skilled, and experienced with the icy wasteland they’d each spent years stationed in.

Gaius stood up and tied his jacket around his waist, then pressed his fingers around the IV in his arm.

There were two options.

If he let himself get arrested by the Union, he would no doubt get answers as to the nature of his missing past. And there would be an investigation, surely, where they would discover that he’d been framed, or worse – mind control.

Gaius felt his blood run cold despite adrenaline burning him up. To think, on even just the possibility that his actions, body, mind hadn’t been his own, made him sick.

But that had to be the case, right? Nothing else could explain his missing memories and, apparently, his crimes. Raven would vouch for him – she knew him. She’d see to it that his situation was investigated thoroughly before the cogs of the justice system chewed him up. So would Pritzker. Luo Yang.

They knew him.

Gaius let go of his IV and told himself to take deep breaths, even as the commotion outside the door peaked. Just as the frantic peep of his heart monitor started to slow, the door burst open.

Ha-Rin had been pushed aside, as Everett strode into the room. His silver sword was already unsheathed, clasp tightly in his one hand. Odette was on his heels, stomping into the room in her snow boots. They really could have been siblings, with their pale skin, white hair, and glowering expressions. Ha-Rin shuffled in behind them, a stark contrast to her scavenger coworkers; her weapon wasn’t evident, but her worry was.

Gaius already had his hands in the air when they entered.

Even still, Odette smacked the end of her ski pole against the ground, and in a flash, ice erupted from the floor around it. In one jagged line, ice shot forward across the tiled floor of the infirmary, straight at Gaius’s feet. In a crushing, cold flash, he was frozen to the ground. Gaius flinched, clenched his teeth, and watched Everett raise his sword and start forward.

Gaius’s blue eyes widened – Everett’s eyes were ice cold, and he was raising his blade.

He was going to attack – and Ha-Rin sensed it, too.

“H-hey -!” Ha-Rin rushed forward and grabbed Everett’s elbow, “What are you doing?! We’re just supposed to arrest him!”

Everett easily ripped his arm away from her, and she stumbled back.

“He doesn’t deserve an arrest,” Everett said, “Traitors deserve death.”

His voice was calm how the eye of a hurricane is calm – how a beach is calm when the waves recede before a tsunami. In that moment, Gaius had no doubt that Everett meant what he said.

Everett was known for his lack of mercy, for being as cold as the tundra he stalked. He hadn’t always been like that, but something within him had changed after Ophelia, his closest friend, had betrayed the Union.

Gaius swallowed the stone in his throat – apparently he had betrayed the Union, too.

“I’m surrendering myself, here,” Gaius stated, hands still raised, “I don’t know what I’ve done to betray the Union. I can’t remember anything from the last seven months.”

Ophelia stepped around Ha-Rin and leveled her spear at Gaius across the room. Her stare was just as cold as the ice still sealing Gaius’s feet to the floor.

“That’s a weak lie and you know it,” She said in a low voice.

“It isn’t a lie,” Gaius replied firmly, “The last thing I remember clearly occurred in June. I woke up today with no memories of the anything since then. Something is clearly wrong with me.”

Gaius’s demeanor was just as steady as it ever was, but the heart monitor behind him betrayed how tense he was.

“That’s an understatement,” Odette muttered.

Everett narrowed his eyes, adjusted his grip on his sword, and stepped closer.

Gaius willed his powers to his aide and felt static rush to his fingertips. He directed a hand down at the ice encasing his boots, but when he tried to release the energy, the static snapped and fizzled out in his hand. The heart monitor leaped in pace – the Divinity monitor spasmed, jumping between peaks and trenches.

“Everett, please, we have anti-Esper cuffs in the office, please just arrest him!” Ha-Rin again moved up by Everett’s side in an attempt to dissuade him and his sword, “He’s injured!”

“I know,” Everett marched forward and Gaius held out his hands.

“Everett,” Gaius said, “I don’t know what I’ve done, but the Union doesn’t just –“

“Don’t you dare speak of the Union!” Everett snapped.

The ice in Everett’s stare had finally melted, revealing the raging fire beneath. His eyes had began to glow a bright purple, as had the space just behind him, as the ghostly manifestation of his divine power began to materialize as an armor clad knight. Gaius tried his own divine powers again, trying and failing again to conjure anything more than static to his fingers.

On the screen behind him, the line depicting his Divinity flitted near the bottom of the graph, while his heart rate peaked it’s own chart.

Everette seethed as he pressed closer, the knight behind him growing more apparent, her sword looking more and more solid, “You want to know what you’ve done, then, since you can’t seem to remember? Let me tell you. Just a few hours ago, you murdered one of our own – an Ops Chief by the name of Sachiko. And that was just today.”

Gaius’s eyes widened and the dread crushing him grew heavier. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t kill an Ops Chief.

Everett stopped, just a sword reach away. He leveled his sword at Gaius. Rage hadn’t yet moved his arm to strike a blow, but it had claimed his muscles, causing his blade to shake in the air. His purple eyes bore directly into Gaius’s.

“It’s absolutely sick for you to stand there and claim you don’t remember your vile behavior,” Everette spoke through his teeth, “You did your best to kill Raven.”

Gaius’s blood ran cold. He numbly shook his head, “No – I couldn’t –“

“You cornered her, alone in HQ. You, who she trusted, you, her dearest friend, you… You put her into a coma. We thought a bomb had went off. We thought she’d been burned in the fire, but it was you.”

Gaius kept shaking his head, “No,” his voice faded before it could leave him, just like the static in his fingers, “No.”

“This entire time – you’ve been working with the Shadow Decree!” Everett boomed.

Gaius raised his hands again, static sparking between his fingers, “No, no…”

“This entire time you’ve been playing us all for fools, pitting us against them, against the Miramon, against the Miracles, and this entire time you’ve been one of those backstabbing bastards!” Everett bellowed and Ha-Rin flinched backwards in fear.

Again, the Divinity monitor flashed wildly as the reading shot jagged lines up and down the screen.

Everett lifted his blade, the ghostly knight behind him lifted her own to join him, and he screamed, “So you will see no mercy from me!”

Everett’s sword flashed as it arched down. Gaius squeeze his eyes shut and turned his head.

Static sparked.

Lightning surged.

Divinity peaked.

And thunder exploded.

Chapter Text

And there he was, hovering above the wreckage that was once the clinic of the Union’s Scavenger outpost. Gaius looked down at his hands. His fingers, veins, and eyes were all glowing with the divine energy now coursing through his body. He’d entered what he’d always secretly called his ‘God King Mode’ a title that now felt as terrible as it felt powerful.

He’d obliterated the clinic, wrecked half of the outpost, and laid Everett, Odette, and Ha-Rin out like it was nothing, without even meaning to.

For a minute he remained there, suspended in the frigid air of the tundra, staring down at the destruction. From the rubble, there was movement. Ha-Rin was the first to appear from the dust and smoke, her bright fur standing out against the charred wood. She shook her head, and her sad, scared eyes connected with Gaius, just for a second. A large piece of wood gave way near her, as Odette pressed up out of the wreckage. The ghostly knight appeared before Everett did, barely managing to sit up from the wasted floor below.

Espers were made stronger with their divinity – far stronger than the walls of the outpost. And Gaius was relieved at that, for a moment, that more blood hadn’t come to stain his hands.

It didn’t feel real.

In a numb haze, Gaius reached for his phone. He held it up and the electricity flowing through his skin immediately gave it life. The arrest notice was still, plain as day on the screen – the text unchanged.

But this was real.

The phone slipped from his hand. Its screen died back to black before it hit the littered snow beneath him.

And then he was gone. Gaius was gone in a bolt of lightning, streaking across the sky, and followed by a crack of thunder that echoed against the mountains of the Raine tundra.

Violated – he felt wrong in his own skin. He felt like a stranger in his own head. He felt sick. He’d killed before, as a soldier on the front lines before peace had relieved him of duty, but he would never act against his fellow team, against his colleagues, against Raven –

The energy inside him, fueling his flight stuttered. The divine electricity turned to static in his skin, and in a crackling flash, he fell out of godlike form and to the snow-covered ground below.

The pain killers were wearing off. Despite the pain in his limbs at his sudden landing, Gaius relished the stark chill of the snow against his face. The burn of the cold helped ground him, at least a little.

He would never even dream of working with the Shadow Decree. The Shadow Decree stood in fierce opposition to every value he held dear. They were willing to cull the population – sacrifice as many civilian lives as it took for their means to reach their end. They heralded Divinity as a blessing.

But Gaius knew it as a curse. Divinity was a heavy burden, but it was one that every Esper should bear; and bear it they should, to the best of their abilities, to stand before those that can’t protect themselves.

To protect the innocent – to help the weak – that was his charge. It’d always been his charge. The day he received his divine powers from Zues was the day he’d stood up and decided to become a hero – the day he’d failed to protect Hannah was the day he realized what that decision truly meant.

To be a hero was to be willing to shoulder the world or die crushed beneath it.

He lived by this code. He’d laid down his life to protect other countless times. Every time he took to the battlefield – every time he put himself between a Miramon and civilian or friend – he was willing to die for it.

And he nearly had. When the Shackled Miracle was threatening to unleash devastation on Gyrate, Raven and Li Guang had stepped in, ready to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the city. But when their powers had fallen short, he’d stepped in, without hesitation, to save them from making that sacrifice. It hadn’t killed him, surprisingly, just slammed him into a month-long coma.

That memory was all the more painful, now.

Raven was the one in a coma. And Gaius hadn’t saved her, he’d put her there.

He felt tears threaten his eyes, but he grit his teeth and rubbed his face into the snow. He wasn’t going to break. He wasn’t going to break. He had to figure out what was going on.

He was Gaius. Member of the Esper Seven, one of the founders of the Union, hero to Grandis.

If someone had used him, or framed him, he was going to find them, and make them pay. Dearly.

Gaius sat up and coughed. He tasted blood on his lips, but wiped it away, confident that his divinity wasn’t actively letting him slip away towards death. He took a sweeping look at his around his sparse surroundings as he pulled on his jacket. He’d traveled far enough that he could no longer see the outpost in the distance – though he did see something else, tall, and imposing on the horizon.

The great, towering defense of Utgard – Raine’s wall.

His sigh of relief turned to fog as it left him. Gaius stood, but before he took a step, he noticed there was still a weight in the jacket pocket where his phone usually rested. He knew he’d left it behind at the outpost – the Union had trackers in every Union issued phone, he’d had no choice but to give it up.

He found the pocket empty when he reached into it, yet the weight still remained. He could feel it against his fingers – resting inside the jacket itself. Confused by this, he unzipped his jacket, shivered, and reached inside it. There was a pocket he’d either never noticed, or possibly had installed, sewn into the lining of the jacket. Once unzipped, he reached in, and pulled out another phone.

It was a newer model. Sleek. Unassuming.

Also dead.

And he didn’t think he wanted to risk using his powers, again; they’d either spit and sputter or turn the mystery phone into charred dust. With a heavy sigh, Gaius shoved the phone into his pocket, and started walking towards the imposing walls of Utgard.

It’d taken a long time to stalk around the perimeter of Raine’s Wall. He knew very well that the wall was fortified with cameras and Miramon sensers, so he gave it a wide breadth. He hadn’t lost his way, thankfully, the glow from the city behind the wall was more than enough to guide him onwards. Eventually, just when his body was starting to rack from being out in the cold for so long, he made it to one of Utgard’s official checkpoints. The gates were wide, golden, and open to the public highway that stretched on for miles into the country.

There wasn’t much traffic – never was, anymore. Most people found refuge in a city and bunkered down, unwilling to risk travel to another.

Gaius stood there, by the side of highway, watching the few, sparse cars that there were stop and talk to the guards at the booth. Again, he felt dread start to build up within him. How was he going to get into the city? The Union had an issue out for his arrest, so it would be forwarded to Utgard’s police force. They’d be looking for him.

He watched a lone car’s headlights travel up the road, far off in the distance.

His fingers were burning from the cold, even through the static of his divinity. Under his jacket he was still wearing a hospital gown – which was terribly, and regretfully thin. It was well into the night, now. It was dark. His body ached. He was hungry.

He hated how pathetic he felt.

He watched the headlights of the lonely car bob up and down over the far off hills beneath the highway.

Back in the military he’d taken shelter in worse places. He would just tough it out a night in the forest. But then what? He couldn’t keep it up for days, not with his powers scattered anywhere between a static shock and the pure unbridled force of Zeus. Or on an empty stomach. In Miramon territory. And he couldn’t exactly solve the mystery of his situation if he was constantly running like a deer in the woods.

But at the moment, he had no friends and no options. All he had was himself, and he hoped, for his sake, that it would be enough to get himself somewhere safe, for the night.

The headlights of the of the sole car on the road grew closer, and closer, until they fell upon Gaius, as he was walking along the side of the road with his thumb out. It was dark, he was a large, imposing figure, and that car was the only car on the road. But, the car slowed, and the headlights fell on him.

And the light illuminated his bright pink buzz cut, and the ten gleaming medals hanging from his belt.

The car came to a slow stop in the road. The driver’s side window rolled down. A stranger poked his head out of the car. And Gaius felt relief ebb away at his dread.

“Hey, are you Gaius?”

-

The car’s heater was cranked up to the max, and Gaius held his trembling fingers up to the vent to thaw them out.

“You know,” The driver said, one hand on the wheel and one elbow propped up against the console, “You’re not supposed to wear any metal up here in the tundra.”

The driver – Jonathon, call him Jon-Jon – was a young man, with a scruffy beard, a worn-out toboggan, and a car that was very much in need of a deep clean. But he was laid back enough to stop for a hitchhiker in the dead of night, and to Gaius’s relief, a big fan of Espers. Gaius had really lucked out with him. As the car had rolled onwards towards Utgard, Gaius had heard all about the man’s fanboy thoughts on the Union, it’s more famous members, and himself.

Normally Gaius appreciated receiving admiration and respect from fans – people needed heroes to look up to, as motivation, inspiration, and hope. He was usually more than happy to be that hero.

Given everything he’d just been through, and was still going through, however… The praise just made him feel numb.

He still managed a thin smile, and glanced at the driver, “I haven’t taken this ring off since I put it on.”

The driver glanced back over, “What about the earrings, though? The bracelets?”

Gaius turned back to the vent before him and flexed his fingers, “…I didn’t plan on being in the tundra for very long.”

“…Oh?”

Jonathon’s interest was already peaked.

“I owe you an explanation, Jonathon,” Gaius said gravely, “The mission I was a part of was ambushed by members of the Shadow Decree, and the Miramon under their control.”

“A mission?”

Gaius nodded, “In the Sonic Miracle. I was nearly back to Raine’s Wall when I was suddenly found myself surrounded.”

“But I bet you blasted your way straight out of that one,” Jonathon said excitedly.

“Indeed. Did you happen to hear thunder, earlier?”

“I thought I did! Yeah!”

“Well, the Shadow Decree certainly did, too. Unfortunately, my means of transportation was less lucky than I. I became stranded. And that’s how you came to pick me up on the side of the road.”

“Oh, man…” Jonathon’s hands jittered against the steering wheel excitedly, “I’m helping save Gaius. The Gaius.”

Gaius smiled again, though he couldn’t help but think about how gutted the guy would feel when the Union leaked news of his supposed betrayal. The gates of Utgard grew closer, and realization, cold and heavy, grew sharper.

The Union was probably running damage control, right now. Taking him off the websites, and the advertisements, the posters – scratching his name off of his office door – removing any mention of him from official documents. Would they tell the public and risk the image of their integrity? Or silently cut him out and move on, as if he’d never existed? Would they fabricate a story? Or blatantly state his affiliation with the Shadow Decree to alert the public?

Something like this had never happened to a core member of the Union. Sure, here and there members had defected, but Gaius was one of the faces of the Union. Hell, it was his signature lightning bolt in the logo.

He was the Union.

Or at least, he had been.

“Hey, can you reach into the glove box there and hand me my ID?”

Jonathon’s request snapped Gaius out of it, and the Esper fumbled for the compartment in front of him. A wave of crumpled papers immediately fell out onto his lap and feet.

“Ah, sorry ‘bout that… It should be in there, in a little baggy.”

Gaius reluctantly pulled a ziplock bag out of the mess and held it up. There was a license in there, along with some indiscernible moisture.

“Thanks man,” Jonathon took it with a thankful grin.

Gaius eyed the upcoming checkpoint. There was a small booth, with its pole extended to block the road. There was an armed guard standing outside it.

“Is this sort of security new?” Gaius asked.

“Yeah, kinda. Said it was because smuggling had gotten really bad.”

“Are they going to search the car?”

“Nah, they only search cargo trucks. All they do is make sure you have ID, basically,” Jonathon shrugged, “Kinda pointless.”

Gaius turned his eyes to Jonathon, “Hey, you have any spare hats in the nest in your backseat, there?”

Jonathon glanced at him, but didn’t seem off-put by the request, “Yeah, man, probably. Grab whatever’s back there. This old jalopy collects all sorts of stuff.”

It took some awkward rummaging from the front seat, but by the time they’d rolled up to the gate, Gaius had on a beanie for one of Utgard’s college basketball teams and an oversized jacket that desperately needed refreshing. At the last moment, Gaius silently unclipped the medals from his belt and shoved the medallions into the pocket of the jacket.

When the gate guard took a look at Jonathon’s ID, and glanced into the cab, he didn’t see esteemed member of the Esper seven, Gaius; he saw two guys in a dirty car, probably on their way to get wasted at one of Utgard’s many clubs.

Safe within its walls, the bright, shining lights of Utgard bathed the car as it crept onto the smooth, paved streets. Beneath the shine of animated neon signs and ever shifting LED advertisements, Jonathon pulled over, and let his hitchhiker get out.

Gaius stood on the sidewalk, with his hand on the door, and took in the view of the bustling nightlife. People passed him by but didn’t pay him mind. Then he looked back into the car, at the man who’d helped him.

Gaius reached into the pocket of his own jacket and retrieved his wallet.

“Nah, man, I’m not taking any money off you,” Jonathon waved his hand, “I didn’t say it earlier, but… I used to live outside of Utgard, here, in a little town that doesn’t exist anymore. The Miracle wiped it out like it was nothing. I didn’t have a home, anymore. And you know who helped us out the most?”

Gaius blinked at him.

“The Union. Utgard didn’t do shit to help out. But the Union – you guys swooped in to help,” Jonathon rested his hands on the wheel, “Consider the ride, and the hat, a little thank you. Least I can do.”

Once again, Gaius had to wonder about how the man would come to think of this night, if the Union let news break, like a tidal wave against the rocks.

“Please,” Gaius said, after a few moments, “I insist.”

“Well…” Jonathon looked thoughtful for a moment, before grinning, “You know I think I’d actually like an autograph.”

Chapter Text

Cheap food and cheap hotels were not hard to come by in the city of Utgard, if you knew where to look.

The ‘Platinum Court’ hosted the upper echelons of the city, where fine people basked about in their finery. The ‘Golden City’ was home to the big business of the city – the big names, too. Fine dining and top of the line, high-end goods – there was plenty of that in either. The ‘Silver Sector’ held most of the nicer establishments, the bigger houses. The ‘Bronze Quarter’ took up far more than a quarter of the city – its where the average, run of the mill people lived and partied, until they’d worked up the funds to move onto bigger and better places. And then there was the ‘Copper Circle,’ the outer ring of the city that housed the less fortunate citizens, the refugees, and the affordable things that kept them going.

Gaius went straight for the Golden City.

He stood at the ATM, tapping his personal card against his palm in beat with the flickering streetlight above him.

He needed money, but he couldn’t rely on his cards. His Union account would be frozen. And if he’d committed any actual crimes – which it certainly sounded like he had – then the Union would have the police track the use of his personal card.

His stomach growled and he sighed.

The Union would already suspect he was in Utgard, what with it being the only city near to his last known location. He would just have to use his card – at least once, and never again.

Thankfully, the ATM’s in the Golden City were well stocked, ready for people to blow all they were worth in the casinos. With almost every E-Coin he had saved transferred into physical money – an almost archaic thing, now a days – he took off, back towards the Copper Circle. He needed somewhere to rest, and to deal with the only other thing that could possibly be tracking his location.

~

Gaius sat at the small, beat-up desk in the corner, hands clasp between his knees, fingers working his wedding ring around and around in circles. The mysterious black phone from his hidden jacket pocket sat alone and unassuming on the desk before him. His eyes were fixed on the phone like it would lash out and strike him like a snake, if he were to take his eyes off of it for a second.

He didn’t recognize the phone and he didn’t like it. It wasn’t the slightly outdated version the Union leased out to its members, and he didn’t remember having a personal phone.

He was tempted to go to sleep in the creaky bed behind him and hope to wake up six months earlier in his nice apartment back in gyrate, but it was a temptation he couldn’t indulge.

Cars passed in the streets below. Distant voices and music boomed from another room, down the hall. The air smelled of old cigarettes. There were two sandwich wrappers in the trashcan nearby and he could still taste the mustard.

This was real. He could only move forward.

Before he risked frying the phone with a surging bolt of lightning, or worse, blowing a wall off the hotel, Gaius thought he’d better test the stability of his powers first. He raised his hand and let his signature pink and blue static dance between his fingertips. When that held steady for a minute, he then moved to pick up the phone.

And the phone came to life.

Default lock-screen. Pin number.

He only ever used one pin number, against all the advice of the Union’s IT safety training courses. If this phone truly was his, then his anniversary date would unlock it.

He typed in his pin number, and the phone unlocked.

He was greeted by the default wallpaper, and a wall of default apps. He swiped through the screens and didn’t see any of the Union’s required applications amidst those that came straight from the factory, confirming that this phone was not issued by the Union.

The only thing on the phone were notifications for missed calls and waiting texts – and he had a lot of notifications.

Gaius tapped into his contacts, to the texts, and he felt his blood run cold, despite the stale, warm air the hotel’s old heater was spitting out.

His thumb frantically scrolled through the list of contacts and his eyes flitted across the screen as the names zipped by: Hyde, Embla, Sander, Anesidora, Freddy, Leon, Jiang Jiuli, Ophelia – all of them known members of the Shadow Decree – and there were more.

There was absolutely no denying it now – he had been working with the Shadow Decree. The extent and purpose of which, he didn’t know, but he desperately needed to.

For the next few hours, he combed through his messages, skimming each line, absorbing only most of it through the cold numbness that blanketed him like a thick layer of snow. His messages with Hyde indicated that he was conducting research on a Miracle – something about promotion – and his texts with Freddy and Leon, the groundwork grunts, made it sound like he was actively hunting down someone from the Union. All of those were recent texts, but the most recent messages were from Anesidora.

Anesidora, the bald scientist with the Miramon in a suitcase. She was as clever as she could be cruel, and their conversation history was extensive. Their conversation history spanned all six months he couldn’t account for, starting with:

June 21^st 4:15PM – Anesidora: And here I thought that we’d never work together again. Welcome to the team :)

The conversation made it seem like they were researching the Miracles together. True, both of them fascinated, if not consumed, by their desire to know more about the Miracles, but Gaius never would have worked with her again – not after what she pulled back when she worked with he Union. She was borderline insane and to her, things like morality and ethics were nothing more than passing fancies – not even guidelines – just things to laugh at.

Gaius brushed through hundreds of messages, racing back to her most recent texts. Her last message was sent just a few hours ago, before he’d been rescued by Ha-Rin.

              6:47PM - Anesidora: Well, it was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?

              5:30PM – Anesidora: Gaius answer me

              5:27PM – Anesidora: Are you still alive

              5:26PM – Anesidora: Gaius what’s happening?

              5:15PM – Anesidora: Gaius what’s your status? Are you at the Nexus?

Gaius dropped the phone from his face and dropped his head into a hand. He rubbed his temple and shut his eyes for a moment.

He had started working with the shadow decree in June, there were no texts dated before that. Something had to have happened to him in June, while he was in Gyrate. While working with the Shadow Decree, he had taken a position in the research of Miracles, with Anesidora, while also instructing the movements of lower ranked forces throughout Grandis, in pursuit of at least one Union member. Though, it was unlikely Sachiko was traveling alone. She was more of a support, than anything, not equipped to handle Miracles, let alone Miramon, on her own.

She was.

Gaius put the phone down completely and covered his face with his hands.

Regardless of who was really in control, there was blood on his hands.

The hotel’s bed was not comfortable but he doubted he would be comfortable anywhere, that night, and he doubted that rest would come easy for many, many nights to come. He could still feel his divine powers trying to heal whatever internal wounds still lingered inside him, though he could still distantly feel the divine waves fluctuating, somewhere deep inside his soul.

Before forcing himself to close his eyes and attempting to strong-arm sleep into his troubled head, Gaius brought the Shadow Decree’s phone to his face one last time. The light of a blank message reflected off his watery eyes and solemn face.

He didn’t know who to turn to, if anyone.

Raven, his most trusted friend, was in a comma, and anyone else from the Union, even Pritzker, couldn’t be trusted – not entirely. He couldn’t be sure that someone else from the Union hadn’t done something to him – drugged him, betrayed him, turned him over to the Shadow Decree as an experiment, or a puppet, or something –

For the second time in his life, Gaius felt helpless.

He started typing several times, but nothing sounded right, or even believable. His attempts grew shorter and further apart, until eventually, he’d managed something.

              3:02AM: This is Gaius. I don’t know what’s going on. Please, contact me.

He typed in Li Guang’s phone number from memory. His Union phone shared all the hundreds of ‘be careful’s’ and ‘best of luck’s’ they’d exchanged over the couple of years they’d known each other. This was the first message this phone had shared with her.

He didn’t receive an immediate reply, nor did he expect one. He sat the phone down next to his pillow, and let exhaustion take him somewhere towards rest.

~

The next day, Gaius’s mission was clear; he needed to become someone else.

Gaius was not a man that had ever blended in, before. He was 6’2”, built, and sported hot pink hair, eyelashes, and lighting bolt shaped eyebrows to match them. His hair had grown in pink immediately after he’d received his powers. Admittedly, he’d been unsure and a bit embarrassed by the color, but Hannah had liked it. Thanks to her, he’d actually started to take pride in his look, and be very particular about maintaining it – very particular.

Which is why he stood at a different cheap hotel’s sink, staring down at the items he’d purchased at the first store he’d found that morning.

He’d always been a quick shopper, but his list had been incredibly short, this time: hair dye, tweezers, mascara, and a brand-new outfit – the trendiest in Utgard fashion. All awaited him to get over his hesitation.

Reluctantly, he removed his earrings, and his lower lip piercing, and laid his other jewelry down on the counter. Then he got to work.

It took several hours to figure out the dye and tweeze his brows back down to what most people considered normal, but eventually Gaius came to stand before the full length mirror on the back of the hotel door. The same cold, numb feeling that had overtook him when he’d laid waste to the Union scavenger outpost and when he’d been given praise as a hitchhiker, found him again, now.

Again, he didn’t feel like himself.

Which at least meant he had succeeded in his first mission of the day.

The rest of the day involved trying to get a better handle on his powers.

~

Gaius was one of the first seven Espers to receive his divine powers from whatever power laid beyond this reality, and ever day since that fateful day over two years ago, he’d trained to grow his power. The Miracles and their countless hoards of Miramon sought to destroy humanity, and Gaius swore to become strong enough to save it. That’s why he’d taken up the leadership of the Union Training Division – to help others hone their powers – to help teach other Espers the techniques and skills they would need to become stronger.

“If only I’d been stronger,” was a regret he never wanted to have again.

That’s why he felt like such shit now, sitting on the edge of the hotel’s bed, unable to get his electricity to sustain even a single lightbulb.

As the lightbulb flickered, dimmed, and spasmed with light between his fingers, he couldn’t help but think about the abnormal pattern of his divine waves. While it was true that the Miracles could influence divine waves, he’d ventured into the Miracles many times before, and he’d never suffered an issue with his own divinity. The Miracles were responsible for the divine resonance that given many their powers, but never had he heard of a Miracle negatively affecting someone’s power, before. If anything, the core of a Miracle made Esper powers stronger. A simple trip into a Miracle couldn’t explain his issue -

The lightbulb suddenly exploded with a loud pop, ripping him from his thoughts, and vaporizing the glass shards before they could make contact with him or the room. His powers had spiked uncontrollably again, but this time he was thankful he hadn’t blown the hotel apart. And he was thankful for the phone charger he’d finally broken down and bought, earlier.

Defeated, Gaius fell back onto the bed, now in the dark, and tried to tell himself that time would fix the problem.

~

Eventually the city outside the hotel window came to be as dark as the interior of the room, and under the cover of darkness and the glow of neon lights, Gaius made his way back into the streets of Utgard. The shopping bag that had once carried the outfit he now donned held his old clothes – the army green jacket and pants that’d become part of his usual look.

The only thing that remained on him from his old getup was his engagement ring, which he’d sooner die than remove.

The Greywater river was the longest flowing river in Grandis, snaking it’s way through Debia in the desert, the Graywater district itself, and into the cold embrace of Utgard. Ice had formed on the edges, but the river ran far too deep to freeze completely, even with the cold air of winter laying heavy atop it. Beneath an overpass, down by a lonely section of river in the Copper Circle, Gaius found a few fires burning.

Contained in the worn, metal barrels where they’d been lit, the fires burned, warming the scant few people that huddled around them. Just one was left unattended, by the far side of the overpass. Gaius made his way over, garnering a few disinterested looks from people that had other more important things to concern themselves with than a large, stone-faced stranger, minding his own business.

The fire burned low but its heat still raised to warm Gaius’s solemn face. He stood over it, for a minute or two, watching the flames crackle and churn. Then he reached into the bag he held and pulled out his old jacket. He held it up and brushed his thumbs over the text on the back that read ‘ZEUS’.

Then he dropped it into the fire.

His favorite, worn out army shirt followed it into the flames, soon followed by his old cargo pants. His boots had already been tossed into a random dumpster, so soon, the only thing he was left holding were the ten shining medals he wore every day, like the badges of honor they were. He thumbed the oldest, and proudest one. The metal was cold between his fingers, yet the firelight danced off the polished surface like it was the surface of the sun.

“That sure is a pretty collection you have there.”

Gaius looked up. He hadn’t heard the old man approach, as lost in thought as he was. The stranger was short, hunched over by age, face weathered by hardship. He was bundled up well, with his white beard poking out from his scarf. Gaius simply looked back at him, though the old man’s eyes were focused down on the fire, now.

“Had myself one just like it,” The old man continued.

“It’s for bravery,” Gaius said, though his voice was small, in that moment.

“Means you got hurt saving someone else,” The old man nodded, and pulled his hands out to warm over the fire, “They didn’t hand those out to just anybody, you know.”

“I know…” Gaius said quietly.

The man cast a look back up at him, “Had me one like the one next to it, too.”

“Exemplary conduct, in the face of imminent danger,” Gaius supplied.

“Yeah. Yeah, it was. Guess the army hasn’t changed their designs in the past few years, hm?” The old man chuckled to himself, flexed his fingers.

“Guess not.”

“Not sure about those other one’s you got, there.”

Gaius turned them over in his hands and frowned, “They meant that I was someone honorable. Dependable. Good.”

The old man hummed, thoughtfully, “The medal doesn’t make the man, though, does it.”

Perhaps the man was insinuating an insult, or perhaps, more likely, he was picking up on exactly what Gaius was thinking.

“No. It doesn’t,” Gaius agreed quietly.

After a long few moments, the old man took a deep breath, and retracted his hands to rub them together, “That’s good, though. Lost mine in the mad dash away from Sarona.”

The change in conversation drew Gaius’s attention away from the fire, “Sarona?”

“Used to be up by the lake, not far from here.”

“It was overrun by Miramon not too long ago. I remember it.”

“Been abandoned, now. Even the parts that weren’t broken in by those creatures,” the old man sighed, “I left a lot behind, the day they drove us out. Lost a lot, but not my life. Just my home, and all the things that don’t fit in a pocket.”

Gaius stared down at the man, brow crinkling, “Didn’t the Union help you?”

“Awh, psh,” The man grinned, wide and humorless, and sighed, “The Union tried to help a lot of people but they can’t help everyone. An entire city? Even if they had the resources to rehouse a dozen people, it would’ve been a drop in the bucket.” He shrugged, “Can’t begrudge them for the blankets and rations they did have.”

They settled into a silence, discomforting and still, both staring down at the fire they shared. The old man hadn’t shared surprising news – not really – yet it still settled uneasily over Gaius.

Eventually Gaius wrapped the medals up in the plastic shopping bag he’d brought and sat them down at the base of the fire. In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to cast them into it. Maybe the old man would keep them as replacements, ignore them, or pawn them – it was fine, no matter the decision.

Back up, atop the city streets, Gaius passed beneath the neon sings and LED screens of the Silver Sector, on the hunt for some food a little nicer than a sub sandwich, but just as lowkey. Lost deep in his thoughts, a sudden noise from above drew his attention, as it did the attention of the other people on the street, enjoying the nightlife.

A sharp, droning beep.

Then every LED screen in the square simultaneously blazed an angry red. He looked up.

His own face looked back, from every digital display, accompanied with the words:

              “WANTED – DANGEROUS ESPER – GAIUS – DO NOT APPROACH – ALERT LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OF ANY INFORMATION REGARDING THIS PERSON – EXERCISE EXTREMEME CAUTION”

Gaius’s blood ran cold – he didn’t think the Union or Utgard would make a move so bold or make the situation so obvious.

Before panic could sink its teeth into him, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

Chapter Text

8:46PM – Anesidora: So, you ARE alive, after all :)

That was not the message he had hoped to see. Gaius lowered the sleek black phone that still felt unfamiliar in his hands and scanned the streets around him. Even on the cold, dark nights of winter, people still busied the neon-clad streets, visiting the clubs and bars like bees in field of flowers. No one was stopping to pay him any mind – at least not yet. His face still occupied a few screens on a few billboards, but no one stopped to pay them much mind.

And he didn’t see Anesidora’s grim-grinning face staring at him from the groups of bar-crawlers or from any darkened street corridors.

Gaius had to get somewhere more secluded, somewhere less public. If Utgard’s’ police hadn’t been combing the streets for him yet, they surely would be, now. Would he even be able to find another hotel without being recognized?

His phone buzzed again.

8:48PM – Anesidora: If you can read this Gaius, I have a proposition that you’re def going to want to consider.

8:49PM – Anesidora: Before you say no, just know that I’m not reaching out on behalf of the shadow decree

8:49PM – Anesidora: I’m reaching out as me

8:49PM – Anesidora: As a fellow researcher who’s absolutely DYING to know what happened at the Miracle of Promotion :) ;)

Stress carried him faster and faster, as if he could physically escape the thought of the Shadow Decree and Anesidora, and the strange new reality he found himself in. He was vaguely aware of the direction he was heading. His legs wanted to carry him back to the privacy of his hotel, but that was still a good walk away, and his attention was thoroughly snagged on the screen between his hands.

8:51PM – Anesidora: Chances are you have a few questions of your own

8:51PM – Anesidora: Knowledge is the most valuable thing in the world to me, and I think we could stand to learn a few things from each other, don’t you? ;)

The last thing he wanted to do was work with the Shadow Decree any more than he apparently already had. They were probably the ones who’d put him in this situation in the first place, and he wasn’t about to hand himself over again.

But where else could he turn? His memories weren’t coming back, his powers weren’t stabilizing, and it was only a matter of time before someone, somewhere, put his face to his name and turned him into the authorities.

He did need answers.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated in his hands. The screen between his fingers displayed the calling number.

Li Guang’s number.

The phone vibrated again and Gaius’s mind whirred.

Li Guang didn’t work with the Union unless he asked her to, during very specific situations – it was doubtful she was with them now. And she would never work for the Shadow Decree.

Gaius jogged into an alley, free from the neon lights and sounds of the street. The phone kept buzzing in his hands. She was requesting a video call – but he only accepted the audio option, and slowly raised the phone to his ear.

“Gaius?” Came her unsure voice. It was hers; it was definitely hers.

He hesitated.

“Gaius? Are you there?” She asked again, “Please say something! I’m only going to keep calling if you don’t answer!”

“I’m here,” He replied quietly.

“Gaius!! What’s going on?!”

He jerked the phone away from his ear and winced at the ringing her voice had left in it. It was nice to hear a familiar voice, though, despite how confused and angry it was with him. He cast a glance up and down the alley before raising the phone back to his ear.

“I wish I had a better explanation myself,” Gaius sighed as he leaned against the alley wall, “But I don’t, yet. Listen –“

“Tell me you didn’t do what they’re saying you did!”

“I… No, no, I…” Gaius tailed off, grasping at his scattered memories and theories, and tried to pull one into focus, “I don’t know, Li Guang, listen –“

Then he heard it – between his words, on the other end of the line, his ears picked up the voice of another person besides Li Guang. Their tone was distant and hushed, but as an Esper his ears were far more sensitive than a regular person’s, and he heard them plainly:

“ – more seconds and I’ll have his location.“

The betrayal he felt was sharp.

“Are you tracing this call?!”

Li Guang immediately starting sputtering and stammering on her end of the line, obviously caught and unable to free herself, like a fish on the end of a hook. Gaius sat his jaw, unwilling to utter another word, and he pulled the phone away from his face to end the call. Before he could hit the button, however, her voice came booming up from the speaker.

“GAIUS PLEASE DON’T HANG UP!! GAIUS PLEASE!!”

He hesitated.

“It’s not what it seems! I’m just trying to find you because I’m worried about you!” She was loud and frantic, pleading with him, “I’m not with the police, I’m with Tevor! I’m with the Larkspur Detective agency! Gaius! Gaius!”

The Larkspur Detective Agency. Gaius bit his lip, thinking quick. The agency was owned and operated by an esper named Tevor. His agency was well known in Utgard, and it wasn’t uncommon to hear mentions of it in the other major cities of Grandis. The small, feline esper had built quite a name for himself over the years, and it was a well trusted one, at that. Gaius had worked with him through the Union on several occasions now – Tevor was honest, dependable, and most importantly, discerning.

He would work on behalf of those that had already been written off by other agencies. If anyone operated by the code of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ it was Tevor and his agency.

Tevor and his crew were also remarkable for their ability to turn up answers no one else could seem to find.

Before Gaius could argue himself out of it, he raised the phone back to his ear. Li Guang hadn’t stopped pleading with him.

“Gaius! Please don’t go, Gaius!”

“You can stop yelling, Li Guang,” Gaius said in a hushed voice, “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Gaius…”

He could hear the relief in her voice, and he couldn’t lie to himself – it was exceptionally comforting to hear a familiar, friendly voice. He threw a quick look up and down the alley he’d darted into, and though he still found it empty, he still felt too exposed.

“Gaius, what’s going on?” She asked, voice now devoid of panic and left small, crushed by worry, “The Union is calling for your arrest!”

“So, I have noticed,” He replied, drearily, “I don’t suppose anyone from the Union has contacted you about it, have they?”

“They have.”

“Oh.”

“They know that we’re friends, so they’ve started questioning me about you. I told Luo Yan that you would never do the things they’re accusing you of. You would never go against the Union, and you would never, ever, ever, hurt innocent people. Please tell me you didn’t do the things they’re saying you did. Please, Gaius.”

She did not receive an immediate answer.

“…Gaius?” Came her unsure voice.

“I don’t know.”

His voice sounded hollow, even to his own ears.

“I can’t remember anything that’s happened to me since June, shortly after we parted was in Estero. They say that I’ve…”

He tried to swallow the snare in his throat but failed, and when he spoke again, the words got caught.

“They say that I killed an Ops chief – and put Raven in a coma. I would never harm anyone in the Union, let alone Raven, of all people, she… She… But I can’t remember where I’ve been, or what I’ve done. I don’t have an alibi. I can’t defend my name.”

Because for all he knew, he might have actually done all the treacherous, terrible things the Union was saying he had.

“I knew there had to be something weird going on!” Li Guang exclaimed. Her excitement caught Gaius off guard, “I knew you wouldn’t just turn like that! There has to be an explanation for your memory loss, and for what’s really happened!”

Gaius was a tough man.

He had to be, all throughout his life. In the army, in the Union, on the front line of defense between humanity and the Miracles. He had to be strong in front of civilians who needed protection. He had to be strong for the young Ops Chiefs of the Union. He was strong, unwavering – no matter the challenge. It was his brave face that inspired hope, and he wore it proudly, even if, at times, it felt more like a mask.

Gaius was tough – but his eyes stung at the reassurance that someone, Li Guang, his friend, still had faith in him.

“There’s something fishy going on here, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it! Right guys?” Li Guang must’ve turned to Tevor, or whoever else was in the room with her. Her voice was directed to the phone again, “Listen, Gaius – are you safe right now?”

“I – y-yes,” Gaius quickly got ahold of himself, “I’m safe.”

“That’s what you think.”

Gaius felt his blood run cold and he looked up. Standing atop the roof, looming over him, were two silhouettes – but his eyes focused on the scythe that loomed taller than the horned figure wielding it, and the large, round figure standing beside it.

One of the figures jumped, its scythe sweeping down towards him. Instinctively, his powers came to his aide, and Gaius zipped away in a flash of lightning, avoiding the attack. The blade of the scythe sunk into the ground where his feet had been just a moment ago, as if the stone were made of butter.

The young woman ‘tsked’ as she plucked the weapon’s blade from the cobblestone, like it weighed nothing. Her skin was an unnatural, bright red, well suited for the devil horns that poked through her white braids. The other figure threw itself off the building, and landed with such force a that it sounded a bomb had gone off in the alleyway. This second figure was rotund and imposing, and while he shared the other’s bright red skin, he sported a pair of eerie glowing eyes, in lieu of horns.

The Red Devils – two espers associated with the Shadow Decree. They were both Shadow Guards, stationed somewhere in or around Utgard, last seen near the same outpost Gaius had accidentally destroyed, just a couple of days prior.

Gaius slipped his phone back into his pocket, careful to not end the outgoing call, and leveled his gaze at them.

Bonnie, the devil with the scythe, slung it over her slender shoulders and cocked her head to the side. Li Ao, the devourer, simply stared ahead, idly fiddling with the glove that was known to conjure up demonic nets, that would quite literally eat their targets alive, trapping them indefinitely.

They seemed to be waiting for Gaius to make some sort of move.

“What do you two want?” He opted to ask it directly.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Bonnie asked, conversationally, “We’re either your welcoming party, or your captors. Either one, up to you, depending.”

“On if you come willingly!” Li Ao helpfully provided.

“But based on that little convo you just wrapped up…” Bonnie sauntered forward, narrowing her black eyes, “I’m gonna’ assume you won’t be coming with us willingly.”

Static sparked in Gaius’s skin and he flexed his fingers, testing the sparks. His powers had answered his call in the split second before Bonnie’s first attack, but he knew he couldn’t guarantee that his powers would activate properly, again.

But still.

“I’d rather die than go back to doing whatever I was doing in the Shadow Decree,” Gaius spat.

Bonnie shrugged her scythe off of her shoulders and into her hands, “Oh, don’t worry, you won’t be doing any dying, tonight – but you will be coming with us,” She flicked her head towards Li Ao, “Get him.”

And they both broke into sprints towards him.

If his assailants had been normal humans, he could’ve physically fought them off – he had been in the army, and still kept up with his training, all these years later.

But these were Shadow Decree grunts – espers. And the only thing that could harm someone cursed by the Miracles, was another that shared the same curse, another esper.

He snapped out his hand and tried to call his lightning down, but instead of the clap of thunder and the snap of lightning, he got nothing. He recovered in time, though, and he jumped backward to avoid the broad swing of Bonnie’s scythe. It cut through the air with a hiss and was followed by three more equally brutal swings, slicing through thankfully open air.

Gaius tried again to summon a bolt of lightning down, but he got little more than a spark from his palm. There was no time to focus on that, however, because Li Ao came tumbling forward, charging at him. The brute was slow, easily sidestepped – but his esper power was not. Li Ao went stumbling past Gaius but twisted around and fired off a net from his gloved hand.

The net was as close to a living creature as something borne of divine power could be. It had a mouth – gaping and full of teeth. The interior was pitch black, and Gaius didn’t want to think about what being in such a place would feel – it couldn’t be pleasant, to say the least.

The mouth of the net snapped towards Gaius and he sucked in a breath – a bolt of lightening shot out from his hand, blasting the net into little more than charred flecks.

He didn’t have time to be thankful for this sudden breakthrough of power. Something twinged in his gut, right beneath the worst part of the bruise that covered the larger part of his torso – right beneath the mystery wound he’d suffered doing gods knows what, gods knows where.

He’d only hesitated from the pain for a moment, but that moment was enough for Bonnie to get the jump on him. She lunged forward, scythe stretched out and ready for him.

One swing – zipped through the air as Gaius stumbled backward.

Second swing – caught the front of his new jacket.

Third swing – tore into the flesh of his arm when he tried to block it.

Fourth swing – cut into him from the other side.

Normal Gaius wouldn’t have been so slow. Normal Gaius would’ve become the ‘God King’ and blasted his way out of the altercation.

This Gaius was not so lucky. If the blood pumping through his veins had been any less divine, he would’ve been bisected. Bonnie probably hadn’t planned for her attack to do as much damage as it had – after all, she wouldn’t have known his powers were on the fritz.

Gaius staggered away from her, hunched forward, hand clasp to his weeping side, and raised a shaky hand. Static sparked between his outstretched fingers, but no lightning zipped out towards Bonnie. She simply watched him struggle to live up to his reputation. Though her mouth was covered by a bandana, her tone was just as amused as the decorative smile that covered the cloth.

“Are we sure we have the right dude, big guy?” She called to Li Ao, who slowly crept up behind Gaius.

“I think so?” Li Ao didn’t sound sure, “He does look different – but I swear it’s him!”

“I guess he did sparkle, there, a little,” She leaned in towards Gaius and narrowed her eyes, “Maybe it’s not Gaius, but Sparkplug his cousin, or something.”

Li Ao found that even more amusing than Bonnie, though they both had a good, hearty laugh at Gaius’s expense.

“Shut up,” Gaius muttered, and tried to straighten himself back up to his full height. But pain shot through him, and he had to stop and force himself not to vomit.

His powers were fucked – his body was fucked because his powers were fucked – did he even count as an esper, anymore? He was humiliated, injured, helpless –

He felt pathetic.

He hated it. He hated it. He hated it, so, so much.

“What does the Shadow Decree want with me?” Gaius demanded as sternly as he could.

Bonnie wiped her eyes and sat the end of her scythe down on the cobbles, “Maybe you don’t remember, Sparky –“

Li Ao giggled helplessly.

“But you’re one of us!” She picked up the scythe again, and leveled it towards him, “At least, I assume Hyde will want you back, despite your apparent lack of power. What happened to you, anyway? Weren’t you like, supposed to be the strongest person in the Union?”

This seemed to trouble Li Ao, “Um… Should we still catch him, then?”

“Yes, you dumby, obviously,” Bonnie looked down at Gaius, “Whatever’s wrong, I’m sure they can fix him. And then put him back to his good senses, and back to work.”

The weight of that sentence bore down on Gaius until something snapped beneath it.

He couldn’t fully register what happened, then, in that moment. In a flash he was ten feet off the ground – hovering in a spiraling swarm of lightning. There was no thought in his head besides those of malice, and they echoed, freely, unfettered, unbothered by anything else.

These two would have him bound – these two would rob him of his mind – these two.

He snapped his fingers and the sky above the alley split open. The ground below him exploded as lightning struck, and out through the cloud of dust and debris flew the bodies of Bonnie and Li Ao, tossed out like trash. They weren’t dead, of course, it took a lot to kill an esper – they skidded to a halt against the cobblestone. Bonnie struggled for her feet, and Li Ao went to push himself upright, but both were interrupted by another bolt of lightning that sent the both of them back down to the ground.

Static sparked between them, still now, where they laid, still.

Something might’ve been wrong with Gaius, but in that moment he couldn’t tell what it was, and the part of him that was in control didn’t care.

Again, lightening lit the sky and struck them. And again. And again.

It was only at the sound of sirens that a different thought interrupted the storm inside his head, and subsequently, the storm surrounding him. Gaius blinked back into himself and fell straight to the ground. His thoughts and all the pain of the battle before came rushing back to him, and he had to fight every urge within him not to curl into a ball and pass out to avoid all of it.

Quickly, he tore down his jacket and pulled it as tightly as he could around his waist where the scythe had split him. He had to leave – he had to get as far away from that alley as he could. The sirens were closer now, louder, bouncing down the sides of the alley from the street, and so he started to crawl in the other direction. He didn’t know where it led, he didn’t even know if it was a dead end; but he had no choice.

He crawled. He left a trail of blood behind him, but still he crawled until he managed to get his legs beneath him. He leaned into the side of the alley, grazing the bricks with his arm, barely able to stand. And still, he trudged on.

His mind was hazy but he tried to come up with a plan in that fog. Hotel room? Where was it? Other side of town – that’s right. Could he make it there? What about a doctor? No, he was a wanted man. Police. Shadow Decree. The Union. Everyone wanted him locked up. Blood on his hands – blood… He was losing so much blood. So much blood on his hands.

Voices found their way through the fog – unfamiliar and frantic. Gaius raised his head with tremendous effort and stared ahead, suddenly struck with fear. Someone had found him.

Police? Shadow Decree? The Union?

No.

“…Li Guang?”

“Gaius!”

There she was – shocked and pale. Tevor ran up beside her, and the same horrified expression claimed the feline features of his face. There was someone else with them – horns? Hair?

Gaius’s vision was starting to blur. Maybe it was relief, washing away his adrenaline, or maybe it was the blood loss finally catching up with him. Either way he staggered on his feet, barely registering Li Guang as she ran towards him.

Chapter Text

“…Are really necessary? He’s…”

“…Think he’s actually with…”

“….Know better!”

Gaius slowly came to, absorbing bits and pieces of information as it was spoken around him, above him. He blinked, finding himself in yet another unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed – well, gurney. He reached for his side, to feel the injury that’d come frightfully close to putting him down, but found his hand stayed. He tried again, and the sound of a metallic chink caught his ears.

He breathed in and dared to look down at himself. His new clothes had been stripped away, replaced by more bandages and gauze than he dared to dwell on. And his hands had been bound to the gurney, not just by handcuffs, but by Esper suppression cuffs – specialized restraints reserved for criminally dangerous Espers. If his powers hadn’t already been operating at an all-time low, the fact that he’d been suppressed would have bothered him more.

Given the circumstances, and the faces staring down at him around the bed, he sure hoped his divine powerlessness wouldn’t matter.

He might’ve been on a gurney, but he wasn’t in the hospital. He’d been wheeled into the Larkspur Detective Agency.

Li Guang, Tevor, and two other women he didn’t recognize were staring down at him like he was a frog they’d just been dissecting in science class. He felt like one, too – exposed and powerless, and just about as cut-up.

The pain was dull, at the moment, but lurking just beneath a layer of painkillers.

“Gaius?” Li Guang was the first to speak, small and unsure, so unlike her usual boisterous self.

Gaius tried his voice and found it weak, “…Am I being arrested?”

“Well, that depends,” Tevor answered, instead.

Tevor must’ve been standing on a nearby table or something, otherwise there was no way he’d have been able to see onto the gurney. His big, yellow cat eyes were narrowed, his face the very picture of suspicion. Fitting for a detective, at least; though given his situation, Gaius found that skepticism just a little harder to appreciate.

But he couldn’t blame the detective for being suspicious – Gaius would have been highly suspicious of someone else in his position. Plenty of people had defected from the Union before. Unfortunately, in this day and age of Miracles and monsters, treachery was not an uncommon tragedy.

“Tevor, please, can’t we take those cuffs off of him?” Li Guang pleaded, “He can’t heal if we’re suppressing his power! You saw just how badly he was hurt!”

“And did you see how badly he hurt those two Shadow Decree grunts?” Tevor asked her, eyeing Gaius.

“Well, that just proves that he’s not working for them! Which means that the Union is wrong about him!”

Tevor did not look convinced.

“Gaius,” Li Guang leaned in, “You’re not working for the Shadow Decree, right?”

Gaius managed to shake his head.

“And you promise not to attack us, if we take the cuffs off of you?”

“I’m not going to attack you, Li Guang,” Gaius said.

Li Guang turned her head back towards Tevor, “See? He promises!”

Tevor rolled his eyes, “I don’t think promises are especially foolproof,” but he still produced the key from his pocket, and moved to unlock the restraints, “Look, I don’t want to believe that you’ve broken bad, either, Gaius, but the Union is saying a lot of very unsavory things about you, and while their story is rather unbelievable, we have no reason to doubt it.”

“Except for the fact that we know Gaius!” Li Guang interrupted, tearing the unlocked cuffs from Gaius’s wrists.

The members of the Larkspur detective agency were quiet – they really didn’t know Gaius.

Gaius knew Tevor the best of the bunch, of course, since he was the owner and operator of the Larkspur Detective Agency. Gaius didn’t even recognize the other two women.

One of them had two curling horns, decorated with golden chains. She had thick, wavy hair and large, gentle eyes that looked at Gaius with pity. The other woman stood by the door, scrutinizing Gaius from a distance. She wore a large purple coat, with shoulder pads that obscured her petite figure. She twirled a finger around the one of the dangling decorations in her short, white hair, seemingly deep in thought.

They were all taking a chance by bringing Gaius here, back to their agency, and not straight to the police – Gaius knew that, very keenly.

As soon as the cuffs were removed from his wrists, Gaius felt his powers surge back into his extremities, like a cool wave of water wash over sun-scorched sand. The relief was immediate.

“Thank you,” Gaius said, after a few deep breaths.

“Don’t thank us just yet, Gaius,” Tevor said wearily, “We’re still waiting for an explanation, and the cuffs will go back on, if need be.”

Li Guang didn’t like that, “Tevor! Come on, he’s injured! He needs to rest!”

“No,” Gaius struggled to sit up, and despite the disapproving worry on Li Guang’s face and the protest of pain, he managed to, “I owe you all an explanation… I only wish I had more to tell.”

And he explained everything he could, barring no detail – about how he’d awoken in the tundra, injured, with his memories missing and scattered – about his encounter with the Union Scavengers, up at their post outside of Utgard – about his trek into the city, and the troubles still plaguing his divine powers.

Though the last few days felt like they had lasted him lifetime, the sordid story took nearly no time at all to tell. In the silence following his conclusion, Gaius couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever be able to return to the old life he knew.

He twisted the wedding ring around his finger; he was beginning to doubt that the world would let him go back to his home, to his position – to his honor.

Gaius looked up, eyes moving between the four people that held his fate in their hands, waiting for the verdict.

Finally, Tevor sighed deeply, arms crossed, paw to his chin, “If your story is true, then something major is afoot.”

“Of course it’s true,” Li Guang said defensively, “And I’d bet a million bucks that the Shadow Decree is behind it. There’s no other explanation. They had to have done something to him! Brainwashed him, or something.”

“Is such a thing even possible?” The woman with horns asked, and even though her inflection was troubled, her voice was soft and melodic, like a lullaby.

“Something like it is possible, yes…” Tevor hummed, “I partnered with Tang Xuan of the Union, once, to investigate an organization called the Crows. Their new leader, Yamato, was able to control the actions of his sister using a small music box. The mind control was only effective through those musical cues, and even then, he could only control her for short periods of time, directly following her exposure to the music. Plus, she was specifically conditioned to this music.”

“Yamato is leading a group calling themselves ‘The Twilight Order,’ now,” The woman near the doorway called, “You think they could’ve improved his mind control tech?”

“Honestly, who knows,” Tevor shook his head, “But making the jump from his music box tricks with Yuuhime to full-blown, month-long mind control in this amount of time would be highly unlikely. Though, I guess nothing is impossible… The Twilight Order has kept to the shadows – even more so than the Shadow Decree. We don’t know what they’re planning, so it’s not impossible to think that they might be willing to undermine the Union and directly help the Shadow Decree.”

“So, in other words, this Yamato and his gang of cronies is a suspect,” Li Guang hummed, “Gaius, does the Union know of any Shadow Decree members that are capable of mind control?”

Gaius thought on it. The Union did keep files detailing the powers and expertise of every Shadow Decree member it’d come into the unfortunate contact of, and it had access to all of the legal files the police kept with similar information on criminal espers. Their database was extensive, but…

“None that I can think of,” Gaius murmured, “If someone in the Shadow Decree had an ability as strong as mind control, I can’t imagine that they would’ve managed to keep it a secret for so long. Surely, we would have taken note of something like that.”

“Maybe they only use it sparingly?” Li Guang said, “If I had a power like that, I probably wouldn’t go around flaunting it in the face of my enemy.”

A power like that had robbed Gaius of months’ worth of memories and had him operating like he was another person, entirely. A power like that had made him turn against everything he stood for, against everyone he held dear. He couldn’t and didn’t want to imagine a power like that.

Tevor frowned and his ears twitched, “So, we have no leads, and more questions than what we started with…” His yellow eyes focused on Gaius, “The messages on your phone – are they written in your usual tone and language? Does it sound like you, in those messages?”

That gave Gaius pause. Eventually, he had to nod, “Yes. In those messages, I’m saying things I don’t believe, now, but… It reads like I was the one writing them.”

“That doesn’t exactly bode well, for you,” The woman in the back chimed in, “But I can always see if your phone was tampered with. And I can see what other juicy details I can pry out of it.”

“By all means,” Gaius said.

“Um…” The woman with the horns spoke up, “If I may, I would also offer my own services. I do have an idea.”

Tevor nodded up to her, “Go ahead, Parmi.”

Parmi tentatively stepped forward, and pressed her hands together in front of her, “Mr. Gaius, my divine power allows me to step into one’s dreams. From there, I can see glimpses of memories, and explore someone’s subconscious thoughts. If I may, I might be able to investigate the memories you don’t have regular access to. If someone has blocked your memories, or if you’re simply having trouble recalling them, I might be able to coax them forward.”

“Truly? That’s something you can do?” Gaius asked, honestly surprised.

“It is!” She smiled reassuringly, “If anyone has been in your head besides you, I might be able to see their influence.”

Li Guang perked right up at the idea, looking between Gaius and Parmi excitedly.

“If you’ll allow me,” Parmi nodded to Gaius.

Gaius answered immediately, “Absolutely. If you can glean any answers from my head, you have my explicit permission to do so.”

“Tevor?” She asked her boss.

Tevor gave her a begrudging nod, and she clapped her hands together.

“Alright then! Let’s get set up, shall we?”

~

Throughout the recent years, Larkspur Detective Agency had gone through more than one relocation, growing bigger and more influential with each move. From the Copper Circle to the Silver Sector, the business had grown to incorporate more office space and, currently, three different living quarters – one for Tevor, one for the ex/current criminally wanted hacker, Inistar, the white haired woman from before, and one for any unlucky citizen that found themselves in need of Parmi’s dream interventions.

Gaius had been ushered into the room reserved for Parmi’s work. While it was, technically, a clinic of sorts, the room had been decorated to be as calming and sleep-inducing as it could be. Walking into it was nearly like a dream, in and of itself. A soft, golden light bathed the room, the work of the elaborate lanterns that hung from the ceiling. The walls were a deep, soothing purple, and the plush bed, furniture, and abundant pillows shared a similar, soothing shade. A light fragrance hung in the air, a pleasant blend of incense specifically chosen to help relax the mind and body.

“There are controls for ambient music and white noise on the bedside stand,” Parmi said, helping Gaius into the room.

His divine power had already helped heal the worst part of his fresh wounds, but who knew how long it’d take to heal completely, given his fluctuating power levels. With a grimace, Gaiuse sat down on the bed, and Parmi stepped back, assessing the pain on his face.

“I’m sorry we don’t have access to stronger pain medication,” She worried her hands together, “I can see if Tevor has anything else?”

“I’m fine,” Gaius said, “I’ve had worse. Really. You, Tevor, and Inistar have already done so much for me. I do greatly appreciate this,” He then took a deep breath and looked up at her, “If you happen to find anything in my memory that convicts me of any wrongdoing, you and the agency have every right to arrest me, and I will face the charges.”

Parmi blinked down at him, then offered him a gentle smile, “And if I find evidence that someone’s interfered with your mind, the agency will work with you to bring the perpetrator to justice.”

Gaius was left alone, after that, to wind down and get to sleep.

Easier said than done.

The bed was exceptionally soft – almost too soft – he was used to a firmer mattress. There were mountains of pillows and blankets – too many – which made him feel claustrophobic, even when he’d pushed most of it to the end the bed. The incense was nice, at first, but now it smelled too strong. The ambient music he turned on was nice at first, but now it was annoying. He turned it off and glared up at the ceiling.

It shouldn’t be this hard to go to sleep. If he could just shut his brain off, for a few minutes, for a second…

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t stop his whirring, tumbling thoughts.

How was Raven? Right now, was she still in her coma? What were Everett’s exact words? ‘A bomb had gone off,’ ‘burned in a fire’ – How badly was she hurt? And what horror had she experienced, attacked by a trusted colleague – betrayed by a friend? What had she said to the face of a traitor? What could he have possibly said in return?

And what of Sachiko? He only somewhat remembered her – regardless – how horrible a fate for her to meet. How had it happened? How could he have murdered an innocent Union Ops Chief? And for what?

What of the others in the Union? What were they thinking about him now? Pritzker, Feng Nuxi, his colleagues - Lewis, Baron, all the new Ops Chiefs he personally trained? What about new inductees? He had built the Union, and his betrayal would shake the Union to its core.

But was someone in the Union to blame for his state of mind? Had he been betrayed first?

Or had it been the Shadow Decree, playing smart and stealing him away? To what end?

What had his research on the Miracles pertained to? What had he and Anesidora been up to?

And Hyde – the brother-in-law he no longer claimed – Bonnie had mentioned him. What would Hyde and the Shadow Decree want with him? What had he uncovered in the Miracle Anesidora had mentioned?

Would Parmi uncover the answers to all his questions? Would she be able to clear his name and find the culprit behind his betrayal?

If not – what would come of him?

Gaius pressed one of the many pillows over his face and let out a frustrated sound halfway between a groan and a scream.

His bandages itched. His powers were no closer to being stable. Both his body and his mind were broken and there wasn’t anything he could do about it except wait and rely on other people to help him.

“I guess you’re not asleep, yet,” Li Guang’s familiar voice called from the doorway.

Gaius reluctantly pulled the pillow from his face and sighed, “No.”

He didn’t hear her move, but he saw the soft, orange/yellow glow that always accompanied her around. Her Esper power had graced her with a set of delicate, red wings, that blazed with phoenix fire when used. When not in use, they simply trailed behind her like streamers, faintly glowing with the light of the fire they were capable of producing. While her glow usually wasn’t visible in normal lighting, she lit up the dim room like a night-light.

Li Guang appeared beside the bed, looking down at him with the same wide-eyed worry she’d worn before.

“Can’t sleep?” She asked.

Gaius frowned, shaking his head, “I’ve never had much luck with sleep.”

“And here I figured you’d be out like a light!” She laughed, “After going through everything you have these last couple of days, I’d sleep for a week straight!”

“…I guess I just have a lot on my mind.”

Her smile slowly faded, back into a worried line.

“Have you tried counting sheep?” She asked, after a moment.

“I haven’t.”

“…Glass of warm milk?”

Gaius scrunched up his face, “Yeah, I think I’ll pass.”

“When was the last time you had something to eat, though?”

He’d been on his way to get something to eat when every screen in Utgard had lit up with a picture of his face; that had sort of put his dinner plans on hold, for the evening.

“I had lunch around noon,” He answered.

“Noon?!”

“I’m fine –“

“You wait right there!” She demanded, as if he had a choice in the matter, “Give me five minutes, tops! I’ll be back!”

Before he could protest, she was sprinting out the door.

It was maybe five minutes before she reappeared, holding four plates of steaming food, and some wrapped silverware in her teeth. She’d kicked the bedroom door open.

Despite the sting of pain from his side, Gaius pushed himself upright to sit up, “You couldn’t have possibly run to a restaurant and back, that fast,” He said in disbelief.

“-Rye idn’t-“ She tried to speak around the silverware as she hurried towards the bed.

Gaius moved out of the way as she deposited the plates on the side of the bed, along with the utensils.

“Whew!” She straightened herself, cracked her back, and hopped up, landing cross-legged on the foot of the bed. Gaius had to steady the two plates closest to the edge as she did so, “No one can sleep on an empty stomach! At least not well, anyway.”

“Where did you get all this?”

“I made it!” She announced proudly, taking a plate for herself, “I have plenty of meals prepped, ready to prepare at any time. When I want something nice to eat, out in the wilderness, it’s nice to have something ready to go!”

She held out a pack of utensils for Gaius, which he accepted. She didn’t hesitate to use hers to dig in.

For ready made food that was prepared to keep for long periods of time in a backpack, it was actually pretty tasty. It was toasty hot, and Gaius wouldn’t have been surprised if some divine fire had been used to heat it up. She’d obviously added fresh spices, too, and Gaius had to wonder exactly how many different seasonings she let take up space in her backpack.

“So?” Li Guang asked after a few minutes, “How’s it taste?”

Gaius hadn’t realized just how hungry he’d been. He’d already made it through one plate, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t taken a moment or two to appreciate what he had been eating.

“It’s really good, Li Guang. Far better than any MRE I can remember forcing myself to eat,” Gaius hummed, “You should look into making a business with these.”

She laughed, immediately shaking her head, no. Like him, she’d torn through her own meal, and went for seconds.

“So, the new look,” She said, purposefully looking up at his hair.

Gaius directed a look up at her, “Don’t be too harsh.”

“I’m not going to be!” She cried, “But it is a little boring, isn’t it?”

“It’s supposed to be,” He couldn’t help a small smile, despite himself, “The idea was to blend in.”

She frowned, yellow orange eyes directed at his dyed hair.

“I said not to be too harsh,” Gaius said.

“I miss the pink.”

“As do I,” He agreed, dropping his gaze back down to his plate. He nudged a piece of chicken around his plate, “The pink has been my style for years now, ever since I received my powers. I hardly look like Gaius, now.”

He hardly felt like Gaius, now.

“Ooh! I know, maybe you should try a new color!” Li Guang beamed, “Electric blue!”

He gave her a tired smile and gave his head a shake.

“Neon green?” She ventured, “Lavender?”

“Maybe the blue wouldn’t be so bad,” he chuckled.

From biggest fan to fast friend, Li Guang had grown on him quickly, which, in hindsight, was a bit surprising. She was loud and boisterous – free spirited and spontaneous – the exact opposite of Gaius, so bound as he was, by rules, regulations, and expectations.

But she was also incredibly open-minded and down to earth. Perhaps she had a bit of stubborn streak, sure, but she always seemed to manage herself well, whatever the situation. Above all that, though, Gaius had to appreciate her optimism the most.

Li Guang’s optimism was relentless, but nothing but welcoming in the trying times that surrounded them. The world was facing turmoil beyond the scope of what any one person, organization, or city could have ever thought possible. Through Miracles, Miramon, and monsters, she had never stopped wearing her smile.

No wonder she had become an early fan of his. After becoming an Esper and founding the Union, each and every one of Gaius’s speeches had been about moving forward, even in the face of difficulty. His optimism had worn a sterner face, but it’d been held just as firmly.

Li Guang was still young, and while she was maybe a little naïve, Gaius hoped that she would keep her cheer forever.

“We’re going to figure this out, you know,” Li Guang said.

Her voice roused him from his thoughts, and he looked up from his plate, “Yeah. I hope so.”

“We trust Parmi, right? I mean, she’s with Tevor, and I know she helped Farrah, it’s just…”

Gaius sighed deeply, recounting some of the same thoughts that had kept him from sleep. He’d considered the risk he was taking with the Larkspur Detective Agency, and with letting someone work their divine powers on his mind, willingly. What if he went to sleep and woke up six months later, again? What if he awoke to another string of atrocities with his name tied to them?

“If I was sold out to the Shadow Decree, or the Twilight Order, chances are, it wasn’t by anyone with the Agency. I remember arriving back in Gyrate after leaving Estero Harbor, so if I was betrayed, the traitor is probably with the Union. Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had a traitor in our ranks, and it won’t be the last time, either.”

Li Guang didn’t look any more at ease, fiddling with her empty fork, so he tried to sound more reassuring.

“You have my back, Li Guang.”

Her eyes immediately lit up.

“If anything suspicious happens,” He continued, “It’ll be up to you to call it out and handle it. Can I trust you to that?”

She threw up a salute with her grin, “Yes, sir!”

~

Sleep was an inevitability. His body was exhausted, wounded, his mind was haggard, and for the first time in days, he was warm, safe, and full. Eventually Gaius slipped away, into his dreams, and he didn’t hear the soft ring of a divine bell from somewhere overhead.