෴Raz෴

෴Hex෴

෴෴෴෴෴෴

Q&A

෴෴෴෴෴෴

“Why are you so nervous if it's just your boss?” Raz whispered to Sia.

“He’s a good man, but scary sometimes! I-” she gulped audibly, “I’m not sure how this meeting will go. You’ll see, but please, please, you need to stay calm no matter what!” she whispered in a tone infused with concern.

A male voice came from the front room. “I need to talk about the search. I remembered some alternate locations we’ll want to check. I heard that you—” the male voice cut off.

Raz could just make out the urgent whispering voice of Nona saying something to the visitor.

Too many fucking secrets around here.

Raz lurched to his feet, letting his legs shove the chair back against the wall with a hollow thump of wood on drywall. “Thanks for breakfast, I guess I’ll head on out. I have a lot to take care of today. Looks like my whole life will need some kind of reboot,” he said, loud enough to carry through the apartment.

Sia put her hand on his forearm, an entreaty in her eyes. She wanted or perhaps needed, something from him, but in that moment, he couldn’t tell what.

Raz walked out to the front room. An older man was on the couch holding his hand up as though he had a book or device in his hand, sitting next to Nona. She stared at the empty space as though she could see something there.

You getting anything from that guy?

[Very little. Current energy usage is almost undetectable.]

Raz looked him over. He appeared to be average height, with short hair that was salt and pepper going to gray. He wore an immaculate charcoal gray suit over a black dress shirt with no tie. The clothing was obviously tailored to him; its cut and fit shouted custom made, while the fabric glinted and caught the light in interesting ways. His watch matched the outfit and smelled of class and money. A rugged, lined face held a casually intense expression, as though this man’s normal day-to-day expression was one of focussed will and purpose. There was something familiar about him.

The old man was speaking to Nona in a clipped, terse tone that Raz took an immediate disliking to.

“You’ll probably have to quit working with them. Darby didn’t make it, and Wilson’s not taking it well. I doubt he’ll work for me again. Whole operation has been an unmitigated disaster. This is going to change things going forward quite a bit, and not for the better. I don’t even have plans for some of these events.”

The man on the couch didn’t look up from the spot in the air when Raz walked in. “Didn’t know you had company. Send him and any of his friends home. Norns will be calling soon for morning check-in and I want to be done here by then,” he glanced at his watch.

Great, she works for an asshole.

Raz opened his mouth to speak. The man’s expression changed and he snapped his gaze up and a floating blue window where he’d been looking was visible for a split second.

Raz flinched and stepped back from the raw intensity of the man’s eye contact.

“You!, what are you—” the man looked at Nona, “What is he doing here?” he bolted to his feet. “I want some answers!”

Nona stayed seated. “He’s here, and he’s safe and sound. Isn’t that what you wanted?” her voice quivered ever so slightly.

“Yes, yes, that's good. Safe is good. But why is he here?” The man flicked his gaze at Raz and then back at Nona.

“Well, after last night’s mess he—”.

“‘He’ is standing right here.” Raz cut into the conversation. “And ‘he’ doesn’t enjoy being talked about as though he’s not present!”

The man pursed his lips and furrowed his brow. In that instant, Raz realized why he looked so familiar. The man looked and sounded a lot like his late grandfather, a cantankerous old curmudgeon of a man he’d never gotten along with.

He looked at Raz and then Nona as though looking for evidence. “No. no! You didn’t!” His eyes wide, he paced to the front door and then back to the couch, each movement a sharp hard motion. He stopped himself with a visible effort and stood by the couch shaking with anger.

Sia entered the room behind Raz and took his hand. The man spotted this and clenched his fists briefly, looking upwards as though for divine help.

He clenched his jaw, nearly growling. “Your job was so simple. All you had to do was keep him safe!” his presence expanded, filling the room with a thick aura of anger Raz could feel.

Sia gripped his hand tightly and positioned herself slightly behind him. Nona shrunk into the couch, clutching a cushion in front of her like a shield.

[Opponent power output increased.]

[Active Fear effect detected.]

[Fear effect resisted.]

Designate him as an opponent.

[Already designated as an opponent.]

“Knock it off.” Raz said with more confidence than he felt. He shifted his feet into a ready stance and gently slipped his hand from Sia’s grip.

[Fear effect resisted.]

The man paused and looked at him with a single raised eyebrow, his nostrils still flaring in anger, “Knock what off?”

“Last warning. Stop it now.” Raz tightened the fist behind his back.

Target for kill shots or instant disabling hits.

Several highlighted points appeared across the older man’s body.

The man’s angry expression shifted to confusion. “I don’t know what you’r—”

Raz struck. A lightning-fast lunge combined with a perfectly executed punch to the solar plexus should have knocked him down or sent the man to his knees with the wind knocked out of him.

The impact made a hollow clank sound.

Instead of knocking the man down, Raz stumbled back with his hand aching. He flexed it and was relieved that it didn’t seem broken.

[HP -4]

[Striking hand incurred contusion damage.]

Raz coiled his body, preparing to sweep the man's legs and follow up with a kick to his unprotected head.

The old man threw up his hand, and a powerful force enveloped and tightened around Raz, locking him in place. He struggled but couldn’t move at all.

[Fear effect resisted.]

The old man flicked his finger, and the knife and baton became much heavier. Raz felt his sweatpants get yanked to the floor by the weapons with a pair of dunk thunks as though barbells had been dropped to the floor.

The older man suddenly laughed with a bitter sound. “Well, this is a bit awkward. Boxer briefs, eh? Good call there, comfy.”

The man relaxed his hand and Raz felt the force holding him in place begin to diminish. “Let's all stay calm. I’m glad to see you’re more feisty now. You’ll need that before the end. Too bad about that ability though. I guess we were just too late.”

The old man’s dress shirt was like a glossy black plate where he’d been hit. The texture subtly shifted until it looked like fabric again.

The old man took several deep breaths and made a clear effort to calm down. “Sorry ladies, sometimes I forget myself.” He glanced at Raz, “And you can relax, that was an accident, I’m not here to fight you.” The last of the surrounding force dissipated.

[Active Fear effect no longer detected.]

Raz pulled his pants back up. Sia glimpsed the baton and looked to be suppressing a smile.

The old man sat back down on the couch, this time giving Nona plenty of space. “Let’s back up. So you’re dating. That was never part of the job! In fact, dating the subject of a protective detail is way outside the implied scope of that duty.”

Sia shrugged. “You don’t get to change the past. Keep an eye on him, and keep you informed if anything unusual happened. That was the job. As for dating, you didn’t say anything about that either way.”

She rested her right fist on her hip. “You also never called it a protection detail. I never planned to fall for him. But things happened, and I don’t regret it.”

The man in the dark suit looked upset at this. “I didn’t think I needed to specify that you don’t fuck the guy you’re watching over!”

Tris walked in. “If you’re waiting for an apology or some other bullshit, don’t hold your breath. It’s not like I didn’t try to keep things professional! You can’t expect me to play ninja guardian angel to someone for years without getting to know them.”

“You’re the only variable!” The man shouted. “He wasn’t supposed to be exposed until it was time. You have no idea what you’ve done! It’s all for nothing now! I’ll have to wait and start over, again. All because you were thinking with your ovaries.”

He glanced at his watch and turned toward Raz. “And you, enjoy your reflexes or speed or whatever ability you got. You’re just as broken as the rest now. Useless.”

Raz sat down on the loveseat across from the couch. “So, let me just break this down and make sure I really understand.”

“You decided to get involved in my life in the first place.” He held up his open hand, palm facing the old man, then curled in his pinky finger.

“You picked her as the person best suited to watch, or protect me.” He curled his ring finger down with his pinky.

“You asked her to watch over me at some point, and we’ll come back to how weird that is in a minute.” He tucked his thumb in behind his hand.

“You obviously have some kind of plan or agenda that involves me.” Raz turned his hand around so the palm faced him, and tucked his index finger in, leaving the last finger extended.

“Except that I’ve never met you.” Raz started with his other hand.

“You’re upset about us dating. You say she’s the only variable, whatever the hell that means. I don’t know about variables, but while we’re using math analogies, the common denominator I see here is you.” Raz flipped the man a two handed bird and then leaned forward in his seat and pointed at the man with both middle fingers.

The man seemed irritated for a moment, but then sagged back into the couch and seemed to deflate a little, suddenly looking even older and very tired. “Shit. You might be right. Maybe I’m the problem here.”

Sia sat down next to Raz and snuggled into him. “Just so you know, Adele knows about us, and she approves.”

Raz and the old man both looked at her with identical expressions of stunned disbelief.

“She knows?” both men asked.

Sia, Nona, and Tris all nodded together. Sia turned to Raz, “I mean, I’ve met her, so of course she knows about me, but she also knows who I am and how I met you. I think at first she was just glad to see you moving on from that bitch you were seeing before. But nowadays, well, she sees it, we’re good together.”

Is anyone in my life not keeping secrets from me?

Tris came in and snuggled in next to Raz on the loveseat. “Truth is, you can't point me at a great guy that is pretty much just my type, and ask me to learn his life inside out and keep him safe for years, and expect nothing to happen. I’m not sure I ever really had a chance once you gave me this assignment. That much was obvious to me within the first few months. Until now, I sort of thought it might even be intentional on your part.”

The weary anger returned to the man’s face. “Well that’s just great. Sure I had hoped he might be able to help me close the portals that are going to end up killing everything on this planet. But no, go live happily ever after. You’ve got at most, two years ‘til the world ends when the Megiror invade and start sending champions through. Don’t worry that you’ve destroyed all my work and planning. He’s ruined now, so it doesn’t really matter, anyway. Just go have fun while you can I guess,” his tone had become bitter and cutting by the end.

“Are you always this much of an asshole?” Raz blurted out.

“Only when every plan I’ve had in place for years come crashing down without warning.” He drew a rectangle in the air and started making small motions with his hands as though typing.

Raz was irritated by the casual dismissal. “Well don’t blame her. I’m sure I was ‘ruined’ long before she came along. You do realize she’s not the first girl I ever dated right?”

Tris giggled softly and picked his arm up. She pulled it over her shoulders and around her arm to snuggle in tighter.

Sia leaned in and whispered in his ear. “That’s funny, he thinks I ruined you—with my secret out—I say we see just how ruined all of me can make you.”

He couldn’t suppress a lecherous grin at the mental image.

Raz started the now more involved process of trying to disentangle himself from the two of them. “As fun as that image is, I suppose I have things I need to get done. Mind if I use your old laptop? I need to get started picking up the pieces of my life, and I still need to call the cops and tip them off about that location and the lab that sold me out.”

He got to his feet. “After that I gotta call credit card companies and my bank. Gotta order a new phone while I’m at it, then see if I still have a job. This is going to be a pain in the ass.”

“Go for it,” she said.

“Pointless, bad idea, worse idea, and back to pointless.” The old man announced loudly while looking at his watch.

“If you’re going to keep with your asshole theme and rudely butt in, at least have the decency to explain yourself instead of just dropping cryptic one liners.” Raz retorted.

The old man looked up at him and calmly met his gaze. Raz instantly experienced a powerful sense of weight and age. His expression and the sheer force of will behind his eyes seemed to radiate something undefined, but also ancient and terrible.

“Lab: pointless, because from what I could discover, that lab was just a normal business that had no idea who was pulling strings on them. The place was torched and then blown up. As far as I could find out, everyone who was working there that night was killed.”

Raz started to say something but stopped when the man put his hand up, gesturing to let him finish.

“Cops, a bad idea, because even if you could get them to take you seriously, local police aren’t equipped to deal with the kind of problems you’re dealing with now. It’s possible you could get a little help from the GBI if they get the State Defense Force involved.” He sighed. “But if they engage SDF, then feds will be informed, and as soon as that happens, Feds’ll screw you over without a second thought.”

He paused and ran his hand through his short thinning hair. “Phone: worse idea because the last thing you need right now is a device that’s purpose built to track you when anyone who was monitoring those government-mandated data feeds from that lab you visited will be looking for you. Don’t for a second think that the people who abducted you are the only ones who would see you as a valuable research sample.”

“Banking, credit cards, job, that’s back to pointless. You seem to think you can just go back to your life. You can’t. That life is over. The sooner you accept that and start making realistic plans, the better off you’ll be.”

He turned his attention back to jotting notes into the invisible device without waiting for a reply.

Raz squeezed the girls in tight to him. “Now that I know what I know, I’m not sure which of you I should be directing my comments to.”

Tris smiled, “In some ways, that is a far more involved question than you might expect. But let’s keep it simple right now. For now, think of it this way. It’s all me, so it doesn’t really matter which of us you interact with.”

“Do you think he’s right? Last week I would have thought it was all conspiracy theory crazy talk, but I’ve had to accept a lot of new things since then.”

The man butted in again. “The most basic form of honesty is the ability to honestly assess, and accept your situation.”

Raz looked at him sidelong. “My dad used to say that.”

“I know.”

Raz sat up. “You knew my dad? How did you know him?”

“Yes, I knew your father. He was very important to me. Taught me a lot. His death was a tragedy. It seems like a very long time ago now, but the loss still hurts.”

Everything else the man had said receded into the background. “You have to tell me! What was he working on? Do you know why Doktor Midnight killed him?”

The man put his fingertips to his temples and rubbed them for a moment before releasing a heavy sigh. “Well shit. That question alone tells me this is going to be a long day. I think we have a lot to talk about. I’ll make you a deal. You answer my questions, to the best of your ability, and I’ll answer yours. Deal?”

Raz mulled it over before shaking his head. “No deal. If I say yes to that, as soon as I answer all your questions, something is going to come up, you’ll get a phone call or a text, or I don’t know, aliens will invade, but you’ll have your answers and I’ll be screwed over. So no deal. But if you like, you can answer my questions, and once I’m satisfied with the answers, I’ll answer yours.”

He glanced at his wrist. “Perhaps a trade-off then? We take turns answering questions?”

Raz shook his head. “Nope, I don’t know how many questions you have. Best offer, I’ll ask some questions, and when I feel like it, I’ll answer one of yours. But, I’ll commit to answering all yours, at least within reason. I can't speak for you, but I don’t really have anywhere else to be right now.”

The old man shook his head as though Raz was simply being difficult. “Fine.”

Dial me up as far as possible for lie detection.

The room zoomed in and then stabilized, every detail and sound becoming sharper and more vivid. The warm familiar scent of Sia and Tris was nearly overwhelming before he dialed that back down.

Raz forced his focus onto the old man that looked a little like his grandfather. “Let’s start with the obvious. Who are you?”

The man brushed an imaginary speck of dust off his suit coat cuff, “I’m—” his hesitation was almost imperceptible but not smooth enough to slip past Raz unnoticed. “—your girlfriend’s employer. At least, her main employer.”

Raz frowned. “Half-truths are going to get us nowhere good. Would you care to try again or are we done?”

[External scan detected! Block or allow?]

Block it!

The man sat forward and looked at Raz with a new expression. His face sped through several small quirks and movements, leaving Raz with the impression that the man was taking the conversation more seriously.

[Scan power increased, block efficacy unknown.]

I have Scan unlocked, right?

[Scan 0 is unlocked.]

“Well, I guess the answer you’re probably looking for, is that I’m Doktor Midnight.”

Raz’s heart rate sped up, he could feel the adrenaline being dumped into his bloodstream. Muscles across his body tensed up as his breathing sped up, ready for combat.

Raz noted all of this in an abstract sort of way, distant from the nearly overwhelming urge to attack. The feeling of Tris and Sia clinging onto him a bit tighter was a minor, far away data point in his awareness compared to the white-hot intensity of the focus on his target. He struggled to keep calm, remembering all too well the last time he’d attacked.

“Can you prove that?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“If I do, are we going to have to fight again? And by fight, I mean you hit me and hurt yourself, then I hold you back till you calm down. You’ll have to actually use your ability, if you want to have a chance.”

“Please don’t fight him.” Sia and Tris whispered into his ears in stereo.

Raz swallowed hard and tried to calm down. “Can you prove it or not?”

The man calling himself Doktor Midnight nodded. “I can. I’m not sure what you’re looking for as proof, but you could start by asking your girlfriend here. She’s known who I am since the day we met.”

Raz turned to look at Tris, then Sia. Before he could say anything, the tiny nods told him the answer. Raz yanked his arms free of both girls and stood up. He couldn’t stand to look at them.

Sia spoke up as he got to his feet. Her voice sounded like she was choking back tears. “Raz, baby, please let me ex—”

He cut her off with a violent slashing motion of his hand. “Stop,” he said, shaking his head, “Just stop. I need a second. Can’t deal with this right now.”

Raz stood in front of the TV on the wall, nearest the front door and as far from the girls, and the man claiming to be his worst enemy, as possible.

“Can you prove it by yourself? I’m not ready to take anything she says as the truth right now.”

He ran a hand through his graying hair. “If you weren’t broken, proving it would be simple and easy. But, as things stand? I don’t know. I didn’t come to fight, so I’m not packing around as much metal as usual with me, just what I’m wearing. Do you have some way I could prove it to you in mind?”

[Another scan attempt has been blocked.]

Raz thought about it for a few seconds. “What happened in the fight against that scientist looking guy Broulim two nights ago?”

The man threw back his head and laughed. “Nice try! I like you, you’re pretty quick on your feet. I won’t presume to guess how you know about that, but sure, I’ll tell you about the fight against Braithwaite last night. You need the blow by blow or will broad strokes suffice?”

Raz scowled at the man. “As long as you include enough detail to prove you were there, it’s your story, you tell it your way.”

He glanced at his wrist and then looked at his tablet. “Ok, I guess I’ve got time for this. You have to understand that unlike most of the people I end up fighting, Leon Braithwaite was no pushover.”

≻ ≻ ≻ ≺ ≺ ≺

When I got there, I was already tired, and running dangerously low on energy. I separate being tired, and low energy in this context, because in this case when I say energy I am talking about the energy that fuels my abilities.

It’s important to keep in mind that Braithwaite was no lightweight. From what I learned after the fact, he had around twenty ranks in a very combat applicable ability set. He didn’t have the ultimate ability in his set, but he had a tier-three ability.

I honestly don’t even know how he managed it. He was just as broken as you, but somehow he beat the odds and racked up quite a set of abilities. I have a suspicion about how he did it. In any case he must have found at least a work around for that limitation. I could almost respect what he learned if not for his abhorrent methods, and the pointlessness of it all.

I do have a lot more abilities than he did, but in all seriousness, even I can’t treat someone like him as anything less than a serious threat. I don’t know what the ultimate ability in his tree was, but if he had somehow managed to get that power, it would have been a very different fight.

But I digress. He was fresh, I was running on empty. I have ways to have defeated his abilities head on, but those abilities are all heavy energy users. I didn’t have much choice but to let him wear himself out on me until he was low enough energy for me to put a temporary block on that ability set. I was lucky that his big guns were all in the Kinetic set. He probably didn’t even notice that his other abilities weren’t affected.

Once I had him locked down, I did something to him that gave me a read on his overall capabilities. That's how I know about how many abilities he had. I also took what energy he had left, but that wasn’t much.

Anyway, the other reason I had to let him wear himself out on me is that one of his abilities is kinetic absorption. The Kinetic set is no joke. Pure kinetic strikes pass right through my armor, and kinetic absorption is a powerful counter against purely physical attacks. At that point, physical attacks were about all I had the energy for. Usually that's more than enough.

Shortly after I disabled his kinetic abilities, I got a life or death urgent call, and responded to it. I expected I’d be right back to deal with him, but that's not how things worked out. I think I said something to him before I left. Whatever I said was probably stupid, I felt like I had to say something after all his trash talk.

That was the end of my fight with him. From what I heard, he was an idiot that kept a chimera and died the same way most people who keep them do.

≻ ≻ ≻ ≺ ≺ ≺

Midnight shrugged and threw his hands up. “That's the short version. Does that qualify as proof?”

Raz was torn between wanting to doubt and wanting to believe him. “Yes. I suppose it does. Here’s my next question. Did you murder Burke Owens?”

“What?!” Midnight thundered. “Of course not! I was… very close to Burke. I would never intentionally hurt him! I—I just couldn’t save him.” Midnight hid his face in his hands for a second before continuing. “I tried to help him. You have no idea, no idea the effort I put into saving him. I don’t know why I couldn’t, maybe there really is such a thing as fate, but I just couldn’t.”

“Can you prove that?” Raz asked with a cold tone.

“Actually, I could. If you weren’t broken it would be simple to prove it to you.”

“So can you prove it or not?” Raz didn’t keep his scorn out of his voice.

Midnight sighed heavily. “I could. Just not to you.”

“That’s very convenient for you!” Raz snapped.

“No, it’s really not. If you were equipped to see the proof, that would be very convenient in so many ways. This is anything but.”

“If any of that is true, then why did you destroy the building he was in?” Raz clenched his fists impotently at the recollection.

“I was angry. I’d just done so much, given up more than you can imagine, and I still couldn’t save him.”

“That doesn’t explain why you destroyed a building.”

Midnight scowled, “The same reason you punched three holes in the wall of your room the night you found your mom trying to kill herself in the tub,” he snapped.

“How do you know about that?”

“I guess I should have been more clear. I know your mother pretty well. I also knew your father quite well. I don’t want to blow my own horn here, but I’m the reason she got her life back together. My team and I helped her find a new sense of purpose.”

Raz tried to deny it, but he felt the moorings of his hate and belief start to come loose. He looked at Tris and Sia on the loveseat. “You said mom knows about who you really are, and approves of us dating. If that’s true, then you’re the most trusted person in the room by proxy. Is he telling the truth?”

They both nodded emphatically, “Yes, in general. I don’t know everything about what he was saying, but he and your mom do work together, and she trusts him.”

Raz felt the room tilt and sway. He breathed and stood still until it stopped. Things he’d held close for so long were crumbling beneath him. He took several deep breaths to steady himself. Finally, he looked over at Doktor Midnight. “Ok, another question and then I’ll answer one of yours. Why do you have such a stupid name? Was Doctor Evildoer McVillainpants already taken?”

The old man laughed again, throwing his head back and letting deep gut laughs flow through him. The laughter had gone on long enough that Raz was about to interrupt when he stopped and spoke. “You’re funny. I really do like you. It's too damn bad about that ability.”

Midnight leaned back and put his arm along the back of the couch. “But to answer your question, honestly, I just fucked up. I had a script prepared for my first major interview. All I had to do was stick to the script, and I blew it. I foolishly took some of those questions as sincere, went off script and told them I could heal people with catalyst syndrome. When they asked me why I was doing what I do, I tried to tell them how important my work is, and made a reference to the idea of the doomsday clock ticking down for us as a species.”

He fiddled with the cufflink on his sleeve for a moment before continuing. “Long story short, by the time they were done chopping that interview up and editing it into submission, they made it look like I was some kind of mustache-twirling villain, and dubbed me ‘Doktor Midnight’. I didn’t pick it and I never liked the name, but the power of the press is real.”

Midnight shrugged and clasped his hands together. “I knew it was inevitable that I would end up an enemy of the state because I am an enemy of the status quo. But I never expected to be dubbed a bad guy right from the start.”

Raz thought back and couldn’t think of anything to refute the answer. “Ok, well I guess I owe you an answer now.”

Midnight picked up his tablet. “I’ve got a lot of questions for you, but some of these early ones are just simple fact questions,”

“So, how old were you when you decided you wanted superpowers?”

Raz didn’t hesitate, “five.”

Midnight shook his head. “Sorry, of course, that's true, you and every other kid. I mean, once the catalyst treatments became known, and it became a real possibility, with real risks, what age did you seriously decide you wanted superhuman abilities?”

“What are you getting at? I’m pretty sure I wanted them as soon as I knew about them. I’ll admit they were a lot less appealing when I started seeing videos of people accidentally ripping their own faces off or exploding, but even then I think I told myself it wouldn’t happen to me.”

Midnight jotted some notes down into the imaginary tablet. “What kinds of abilities interested you the most?”

Raz shrugged, “I guess I was like most kids. Flight, invisibility, super strength, invulnerability, mind reading. I suspect those are pretty much the usual suspects. I don’t recall having any especially creative power fantasies back then.”

Midnight scribbled down his answer. “Of course, so what did—”

“No.” Raz interrupted him.

“No?”

“I said one, you’ve asked three. Now it’s my turn.”

Midnight huffed, “Fine.”

“What’s an ultimate ability?”

Midnight shook his head. “I really shouldn’t have mentioned that. You need to understand that it’s worthless info for you, but sure, I’ll tell you. Let me know if any of this doesn’t make sense to you.”

Midnight pointed his index finger at Raz. The tip began to glow. Just as Raz was about to dodge whatever was coming, Midnight began to draw with light in the air. The lines and images hung there in space as he sketched out a series of connected boxes.

“The common abilities you know of, have a series of interdependencies that are meant to be met before you should be able to have or use them.” He finished the drawing, it looked like a simple flow chart, with lines connecting boxes and ovals.

“When most people get abilities, they want something too high up in a tree, sometimes way too high. Unfortunately, they are in control of the catalyst, and it will hurt them if they ask it to. So best case, they get a gimpy version of that ability without the supporting abilities, because the prerequisites weren’t met. Sometimes that means they are easily hurt or killed by using their ability. Worst case they die almost immediately, or develop what most people call catalyst syndrome.” He circled a box in the middle of the structure, and it lit up, but without any of the boxes above or below it lit up.

“So this person gets this ability, but without any of the other abilities that are designed to make using that ability effective, powerful, and safe.” He pointed to the dark boxes below the single lit one.

“This is how most people are, and it’s very broken.”

Raz spoke up. “I thought you said you could heal people with broken abilities.”

Midnight nodded. “I can. But all I’m doing is respecing their applied catalyst around so that they aren’t so profoundly unbalanced anymore. If they have enough capacity sometimes, I can give them more catalyst and fill in a gap if that's what they need. However, I can’t undo the essential damage done by getting the wrong abilities first.”

Raz waited and then realized he was done. “That was very interesting, but my question was about ultimate abilities.”

“Oh right. Well to keep it short, each of these trees has a hidden ability that doesn’t even show up until every other ability in the tree is completely filled in. I don’t know much more about them, except that the ones I know about are very powerful.”

Raz furrowed his brow and thought about how many more ranks might be needed to find out the ultimate ability for HUD. “Well, I guess that makes sense. If you’re going to call it an ‘ultimate ability’, it should be a good one.”

“So which one did you get?”

Raz looked at him confused. “What do you mean?”

“You mentioned flight, invisibility, super strength, durability, and telepathy. Some of those you’d never get anything working by accident. But, you clearly have something.” Midnight sat poised to enter his answer into the invisible screen.

“Why would I tell you? Maybe I don’t have anything. Why do you want to know?” Raz didn’t like the direction of these questions.

Midnight put his hands up with his palms toward Raz, “I thought you were going to answer my questions, but that's fine, you don’t have to. But I’ll treat the rest of your question seriously. Most of my questions are to help me figure out where things went wrong. Obviously you were exposed to catalyst in a very poor situation. That by itself is enough to have led you to get a broken ability.”

He looked at Raz with far more sympathy in his eyes than Raz would have expected. “In your shoes, I probably would have wanted to go for teleportation and just get the hell out of there.”

Midnight rested his head on the back of the couch and looked at the ceiling. His gaze seemed to be seeing something very far away. “But, I guess at the end of the day, in a sort of new agey way, I feel that I owe it to you to give you the answers and assistance I can, and fix your ability if you’ve got one that’s going to hurt you.”

“I think I’ll be fine.” Raz retorted.

“Ok, I’m not here to twist your arm about it. You might not be much use to me now but that doesn’t mean I wish any ill on you. Quite the opposite in fact. If you’re interested, I might be able to set you up with a job and a new life. It’s kind of the least I can do. For one thing, if I didn’t at least offer to help you, your mother wouldn’t let me hear the end of it.”

Midnight seemed to think of something and abruptly sat up straight. “Oh yeah, that reminds me. If it’s not too much of a secret, can you tell me if they exposed you to catalyst more than once?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Midnight’s tone turned from serious to grave. “How many of the dreams have you had?”

“What do you mean?” Raz couldn’t meet his eyes.

Midnight shook his head. “This is not something to fuck around with. Have you ever wondered why, and how, people turn into Reds?”

Raz shrugged. “Too many treatments more than slot count allows for.”

“Oh man. Everything about what you just said is wrong. I don’t even know if I have the time to set you straight, but so much of what people think they know about catalyst is wrong. The most important thing is that if the dreams have started, we need to get you fixed right away.”

Bee, is there something wrong with me? Do I need to be fixed?

[Unknown.]

Is he lying?

[No deception detected. Certainly level unknown.]

Is this related to the ‘memory events’ you warned me about before?

[Unknown.]

“What makes you so sure I would need to be ‘fixed’?”

Midnight cradled his face in his hands and spoke through his interlaced fingers, his voice muffled but full of regret. “I know a lot about the problem. Probably more than anyone. After all, the entire existence of Reds is all my fault.”

Raz blinked. “Come again?”

Midnight looked up at him, and in that moment Raz felt himself being drowned by an ocean of time, seas of regret and crashing waves of sorrow. Then the older man blinked, and it was gone.

“You see, when the catalyst was customized for humanity, a lot of changes had to happen. Despite the cosmetic similarities, we’re very different from the Megiror. While we customized it for humanity, I had a chance to suggest some minor tuning to make it fit us better.”

Midnight looked at the Sia and Tris and took a deep breath.

“One of my later ideas was about PTSD. The biology issues had turned out to be relatively straightforward to work through. Mer-My friend told me it was like the catalyst was made to be easily customized for new species.”

He cradled his head, massaging his temples. “I’d spent a lot of time thinking about the mental costs of combat and the toll it takes on the fighter. PTSD, Combat stress reaction, Shell shock, Battle Fatigue. It’s had many names over the course of human history, but the truth has always been there.”

He swallowed and looked away. “We humans love to fight, maybe too much. As a species, we’re a little too good at killing, some of us like the fighting, and the killing. But good people, the people you want in the fight, they accumulate wounds to the mind, and soul, from too much war, too much loss.”

He glanced at the empty space where his blue screen had been and cleared his throat. “I wanted to help us deal with the pain. There is a war coming, unlike anything the world has ever seen. War with the Megiror will be brutal. I thought I could improve us, give people an edge, more combat mental endurance. I was such an idiot.”

He looked over at Nona. “Could I trouble you for some water?”

Nona nodded and vanished. Reappearing a few seconds later, she handed him a water bottle and then vanished again.

Midnight downed half the bottle. “The idea was to create a subsystem that could do two things to help people in stressful situations.”

“First, it was supposed to help you passively by making it a little easier to exercise good executive function and self-control in stressful situations. That one isn’t perfect either, but it mostly works.”

“The second one is where I allowed myself to be blinded by ambition, greed, and stupidity, or at least hubris. The goal, was to greatly speed the process of working through suffered trauma and thereby reduce the impact of traumatic events, as a way to help a warrior remain combat capable indefinitely.”

He stared at his hands for a long moment. “I was so stupid. In the beginning, it seemed to work perfectly. It was only later that I realized how hopelessly optimistic and just plain naïve the extremely controlled conditions of my tests were.”

“At the core, the problem is a programming bug that comes up in a condition I never expected to happen. If someone is exposed to too much intravenous catalyst, in too short a time frame, especially if they are in a stressful situation, the system enters a positive feedback loop and vastly overcorrects. The end result of that overcorrection is someone you would call a Red.”

He gave an appraising look at Raz. “Stop me if I’m getting it wrong. I’m going to guess that in your first dream, you were totally helpless, and whatever happened, was pretty horrible. Pure nightmare stuff.” He looked up for confirmation, but Raz kept his expression neutral.

“The second dream was probably also quite bad, and had a large element of helplessness to it. But less than the first one. Whatever happened, you were able to fight back. Maybe you even won the fight or escaped or succeeded in some way, but even if you failed you were able to try to fight.”

Midnight pinched the bridge of his nose and stole a glance at his watch. “Depending on how you respond in the dreams, and how bad your actual triggering situation, the next dream can be more of that fighting against hopeless odds, or it might start to be battles you can win. Once you’re winning most of the fights, the process is meant to stop.”

He drew a ragged breath and blinked hard. “Meant to stop. At that point, the original trauma that those dreams are meant to deal with, however abstractly, should be all but gone. Better yet, whatever events that initially were too much for you to deal with, your psyche is then temporarily hardened, fortified, if you will, against that kind of trauma in the future.”

He looked at the wall over Raz’s shoulder for what felt like a long time before continuing. “At a deeper level, it helps the person see the positive side of what they had to go through by promoting positive contemplation instead of negative ruminations. Sounds good right? Or at least, decent?”

“Sure,” Raz mumbled with a noncommittal shrug. He couldn’t tell if Midnight really wanted an answer.

Do you know of anything like what he’s talking about?

[Unknown, System is active during sleep, but the primary interface, that which you call Bee, is not.]

Midnight rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Sorry if any of that's hitting close to home. So here’s the crux of the problem. We live in a stressful world. More than that, humans need and at some level, seek out stressors of various types constantly.”

Midnight shook his head. “I still don’t know how I could have been so stupid. It works fine for people who use catalyst properly.”

He studied his hands as though looking for what to say next. “The problem is because the assembly instructions were leaked to the world before they were ready. We didn’t even notice it happening. By the time I realized that the instructions had been leaked, it was way too late to get that genie back in the bottle.”

Midnight shrugged and shook his head. “I put the correct usage instructions out there, but by then there were so many claiming to know what to do that I was just one more anonymous voice in the mix. It doesn't help that enough people like Braithwaite have managed to stack a power set even doing it wrong. Who questions what looks like success? End result, almost no one uses catalyst properly.”

Midnight looked at Tris, “Sorry to impose. Could I trouble you for more water?”

Tris nodded and took the empty water bottle he offered.

“Once that system starts to overcompensate, if it’s not dealt with, fairly quickly, every human emotion that doesn’t directly feed into combat is treated as a trauma that needs to be ‘dealt with’ by the system. The popular belief is that this turns them into sociopaths. That’s not actually true, but the threshold stimulus-response for connections, basic empathy, and sympathy, is raised so high that they might as well be.”

Tris tossed him the refilled water bottle. He snatched it from the air and took a long drink. “Thank you dear.”

She nodded and sat back down.

Midnight set the bottle on the floor and sagged back into the couch as if this explanation had drained him of some essential energy.

Bee, search for anything that might be running while I sleep.

The familiar buzz appeared in the back of his mind.

“So why do their eyes turn red?” Sia blurted out.

Midnight smiled wanly, he looked tired. “I hate to admit it, but it’s been so long, I don’t recall why it happens. I’m sure that I used to know why, but it’s been so long. I just don’t remember what actually caused the change, just that it was a sign of an overcompensating mental trauma recovery system.”

Raz sat back down between Tris and Sia. “So you’re calling me broken, ruined. Why?”

Midnight looked at his hand and ran his thumb back and forth across his fingertips. “It isn’t easy or fast, but I can respec a person’s abilities. That lets me fix what they call catalyst syndrome and a few other ways abilities can go wrong.”

He kept moving his fingers and thumb, and now a tiny bright spark of energy danced along his hand as he did it. “What I can’t do, is fundamentally change the abilities someone has. I also cannot grant them capacity they don’t have. Capacity is a measure of how muc—”

“Yeah, I know what capacity is.” Raz interrupted.

The buzzing paused.

[Incoming scan detected, blocking.]

[Search resources unavailable while scan blocking.]

Resume the search later when he’s not trying to do whatever this is to me.

“Really? You know about capacity? How interesting. Well then, in any case, one of the limitations to respec is that I cannot give someone an ability outside of the tree they currently have unlocked. That means I am unable to resolve the most fundamental problem that most people have with catalyst abilities.”

“So, what's the problem?”

Midnight laid his head back on the couch and closed his eyes. “A lack of foundation.”

Sia spoke up. “Is there really no way to add a foundation after the fact?”

Midnight shook his head with a sad frown. “If there is, it isn’t something I’ve had any success with.”

“My turn. Why did you go get tested? That's a new behavior and I need to know what made you go against your parents’ wishes.”

Raz glanced at Sia and then at Midnight.

“An upper-level position at work came open that required an ability. That position would have boosted my career path in a big way. Like jumping over a decade of middle management. That job would have set me up for a better income, more stable work hours, and just generally put me in a great situation for…”

He glared at Sia. “Looks like you’re the variable after all. This poor young naïve fool was looking to marry you, and he barely knows you. Look at him, you know I’m right.” He pointed at Raz.

Raz clenched his jaw. “So, I was thinking about the future. That’s not unusual.”

Midnight muttered to himself jotted notes into the air. Raz turned up his hearing but couldn’t make out what it meant.

“—decision point delta, add weighted logic tree here. Remove stimulus, alternate assignments. Duty rotation?”

He spoke up without looking away from the tablet. “So ‘Hex’, I have to wonder. Did you want to get married? Would you have started a life with him, maybe even had kids, without telling him that you already have kids?”

Sia and Tris gasped. Raz looked at them, feelings of betrayal welling up again.

“It’s not what you think! I can explain!” She whispered in his ear.

Raz forced those feelings aside and squeezed a shoulder with each hand. “Just stop. I can’t handle any more big news for a minute. He’s pissed at you, and maybe me too, and wants to drive a wedge between us. So far it sounds like everything about you is a special case, so I’ll let you make your case.”

He sighed heavily, “But I do hope you really can explain. That is kind of a big thing to be just hearing about now.” he paused and glanced at Midnight and back to Sia. “So, Hex?”

She shrugged, “It’s what they call me at work.”

“Oh right, so that's why the hexagon on the mask.”

He looked back at Midnight. “Got any other bombs to drop?”

The old man shook his head, “Sorry about that. I’m not at my best. No excuse for dumping something like that on you both. It’s been a tough week. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

Sia pursed her lips. “We’ll see. That’s a shitty thing you just did. If Raz can hear me out and understand the situation, then I’ll consider forgiving you.”

Midnight nodded, looking at his watch. “Why are they so late?” he muttered to himself.

Raz could sense a change coming over the conversation. “I still have a lot of questions. More than I started with. Why do you keep calling me b—”

Midnight cut him off. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to make a call.”

He reached into a jacket pocket Raz was sure hadn’t been there a moment before and pulled out what looked like a piece of a mobile phone. Midnight stared at the fragment with an annoyed expression before digging the rest of the chunks of phone out.

“Dammit. Fucking Braithwaite. I should have realized the phone was the vulnerable link when he was turning me into a punching bag.”

He looked up at Sia. “I realize this is awkward timing after I’ve just been such a poorly behaved guest. May I have your secondary burner phone?”

Sia and Tris both looked at him suspiciously. “What makes you think I have a burner phone, let alone a spare?”

Midnight smiled thinly. “My contracts with WD40 are the ones that require each employee to have two off-grid unactivated phones,” his smile faded, “despite what you might think, I only want good relations with WD40, and had fully expected to continue working with them as long as possible.”

She stared at him, then nodded.

“So, that's how I know you have at least one here, and I’d like to use it.”

Ivy walked in with a small sealed plastic and cardboard box in hand. She handed it over without a word and returned to the other end of the apartment.

Midnight got the phone ready and then looked at them. “Can I have the room for a bit?”

“See what I mean? If I’d been answering his questions, he’d be done and now his phone call would be taking priority.” Raz remarked.

The three of them headed down to Sia’s room. Raz threw himself down on the middle of her king-size bed and put his arms straight out the side.

“Well, that’s a little presumptuous isn't it? Just lay down and take over the bed, why don't you?” Tris remarked to Sia. Sia nodded before they both broke out in giggles.

Raz closed his eyes. “I still have so many questions about how it all works, how you work. I can’t tell if you’re really just one mind in there playing with me and putting on a show, or if you’re actually multiple people who can telepathically communicate.”

They both took a side and snuggled up next to him. “It’s neither one, and a little of both. I’m not even sure how well I can describe it to someone else,” one of them whispered in his ear.

He yawned. “I just got up and had breakfast. How can I already be so tired?”

“You’ve just had a lot dumped on you. That's bound to take it out of you,” one of them whispered in his other ear.

He shifted a bit and wrapped his arm around each of them. “This is nice. I’m going to relax here for a minute.” he let himself relax and just listened to the sound of them breathing.

෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Raz woke up a while later in a cold sweat, his heart racing as he struggled to catch his breath as though he’d been sprinting. Images of endless hallways and pursuing chimeras fading as he woke. The girls were sitting on the sides of the bed looking at him with a concerned expression.

“I—I’m fine,” he gasped. “Just a bad dream.”

Sia and Tris exchanged a significant glance that Raz didn’t miss.

“How long was I asleep?”

“Maybe five minutes? Long enough for me to check my email. Are you sure you’re ok?” she searched his face for an answer.

“I know what he said, but it's just a bad dream,” he sat up and scooted down to the foot of the bed to sit. “I’ve been through a lot recently. It’s normal to have bad dreams about traumatic events.”

He looked around the room as though finally seeing it. “Where is everyo- the rest of you? You’re a grammar nightmare, do you know that?”

They laughed softly. “They went to their own places. It’s not like we all live here,” Sia gave Tris a little nudge. “Except this one spends so much time in a tent out in the field that she tends to hang around one of our places when things are happening.”

Raz looked at Tris, “I can’t decide if I need to get to know you and the others, or if I already know you, and thus know them.”

Tris leaned in and pressed her forehead to his, “There are details about our lives that are different, but overall It’s more the second one. You already know us. Now that—”

She stopped when she saw Raz stiffen and snap his gaze toward the front room. Raz deliberated for a second and then got up. “Did you hear that?”

They both shook their heads no.

“I heard something out there. I’m gonna go see what’s happening.”

Sia caught his arm, “Raz, I need you to know some things. First, I love you. I know it’s corny, but I really love you with all of my hearts. I probably don’t say that enough. Second, I really think he’s telling the truth. I know you’ve always thought… Well, you know. But I’ve known him for a long time, and never seen any indication that he would hurt an innocent.”

She gently squeezed his upper arm, looking into his eyes. “He tries hard to avoid killing anyone, even people I would shoot without a second thought. Every time I’ve ever heard him talk about your father, it's been clear that losing him was the worst day of his life,” she stood on her tiptoes and pulled him down for a kiss.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this before.”

She wrapped her other arm around his back. “I always thought the perfect time to bring it up would come along one day.”

Tris whispered in his ear while Sia kissed him. “I wanted to tell you everything for so long, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it without killing our relationship.”

Raz heard the sound of a groan followed by a closing door. He gently disengaged from Sia. “For sure we’re going to have a lot to talk about. Right now I need to see what’s happening out there.”

Raz led the way out to the living room, not knowing what to expect. He heard a distant crack of thunder followed immediately by a second thunderclap. The TV was on, muted, set to a news station.

Midnight was nowhere to be seen. His empty water bottle lay on the floor. The front door was unlocked. A note written in purple light floated in the air next to the door. “Back shortly” was scrawled in the air.

Raz was studying the floating light writing when Sia drew his attention to the screen. The LNN-World channel showed a scene from a war zone. A banner scrolled past the bottom of the screen. ‘Terrorist attack near Barcelona levels industrial building.’ The camera switched to a news chopper and showed a wider view. One building was utterly destroyed, with the nearby structures left untouched.

They switched to another camera just in time to see a single body bag being zipped shut over long hair turned grey from concrete dust. That camera panned away from the body bag past a large dark red pool of mud with a human-shaped hole in the center on the dirty concrete before settling on the hole that had been a building.