CHAPTER 18

The National Assembly was an old building, but it was much more recent than the palace. The floors were made out of brown tiles, each patterned and stylized to be somewhat unique. Jasmine looked up at the ceiling in awe. It was arched, and religious art was painted onto it. Art of the Allfather and his two disciples, surrounded by emissaries reaching out to the humans lower on the painting. The building was emptier than she thought it would be, but she guessed the attack had prompted even staffers and aides to resign. It was eerie and far too silent.

“Left here.” Gessner said. “The chamber is right up ahead.”

Jasmine followed him. Whereas he had been coddled and surrounded by agents outside, he now walked briskly in the front, leading them. They passed two people who shot them a look but said nothing. She breathed a sigh of relief. Eventually, Jasmine started to hear voices, and those turned into shouting as they reached the chamber’s entrance. Marshal Gessner shot them a look, and they all silently nodded. He pushed the doors open.

“... need to keep the little amount of democracy we have alive. There will be no concessions, not now, not ever. With this, colleagues, I rest my case.”

The chamber was huge, and that might have been an understatement. Three hundred and ten seats arranged in a semi-circle overlooking a podium, where the man who finished his speech spoke. Large as the room was, it was also empty. Three months ago, it would have been filled to the brim, but now? It was almost underwhelming. Pathetic, in a way. Jasmine analyzed the room and counted twenty-three Senators, confirming what the National Intelligence Council had said. She looked down the stairs going down to the podium and noticed a slight blur— she rubbed her eyes.

“Senators! I come to interrupt your caucus today because I know the decision is already made. Allow me to make my case before it comes to a vote.” Gessner yelled, his voice booming. The Senators each had a microphone at their chair to be heard, as well as one on the podium, but his voice carried itself.

“Marshal Gessner, what is the meaning of this? The constitution does not grant you authority to stop our meeting.” One of the Senators said. She was a woman on the far right of the room.

“Senator Beutel. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I’m sure you’ve already read the report I’ve submitted to each of you, but you all refuse to see reason. Therefore, I will make my case.” Gessner said, injecting hostility into his tone.

“And why do you bring your TIA crooks with you if that’s all you want, Marshal? Care to tell us?” A man said. Jasmine recognized him— it was Leeuwin, the Senator on television.

Gessner signaled them with his hand, and they all pulled out their concealed handguns. Nicholas and Sepp positioned themselves in front of the door, blocking the exit as planned, and the rest of them followed him as he made his way down the stairs. Every step resonated through the room. The politicians were frozen in place, too astonished to speak.

“Like I said, desperate measures. Your colleagues have all resigned in fear, and you are all that remains. I certainly applaud you for your bravery, but you refuse to give me the authority I need to save the country.” He said, halfway down the stairs. “We shall stay here, you and I, until an acceptable agreement has been reached.”

“You’ve gone insane. This is a coup.” The Senator on the podium murmured. The microphone allowed them to hear him.

“Call it a coup if you must. Return to your seat, Senator Wolf, I need the podium.” He demanded. The Senator listened to him, probably because he had a gun pointed toward his chest.

Jasmine heard buzzing in her ears. This was the first time she held a gun aimed with live ammunition at someone. Her hand wasn’t on the trigger. She didn’t trust herself enough to not accidentally murder somebody.

“The League of Nations won’t stand for this. Escann will be making its case for another invasion first thing in the morning if you go through with this.” Leeuwin hissed.

“You are wrong, Leeuwin. The League will stand by and watch.” He replied.

“And what makes you so sure of that? No one wants an authoritarian regime right on its doorstep, especially not if that regime is us. You’re playing with fire, Hermann. Stop this madness.” Leeuwin replied.

“There is some truth to what you’re saying, but hear me out. All of you, hear me out.” He paused, letting the statement sink in. “Escann, and to some lower extent, the League would rather see our country crash and burn instead of involving themselves in another costly war. Why intervene now if we won’t be a problem in a few months from now? The saying does go, never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake, and you’ve been making this mistake for months now. Give me emergency powers, and I can— no, I will fix this.”

Jasmine noticed a few Senators waver from that statement. Perhaps it would be possible to do this non-violently, figuratively speaking. She saw the same blur and shook her head with her eyes closed.

“And what happens when the threat is dealt with? I doubt you simply give those powers back without a fuss. Do not listen to him. He is poisoning your mind. Must I remind you that even our old King, senile and insane as he was, did not request these powers even as the coalition forces landed on our shores? Even as he only had this city left during the civil war? He never conspired to destroy democracy.” Leeuwin said.

That made Jasmine’s blood boil. Reminding her that they were complicit in the genocide calmed her and kept her focused. She knew for sure what side she was on now. There was no more doubt in her mind.

“And yet, Carl had three hundred and ten senators to govern with. And lest I remind you that he is the reason we are in this precarious position. He is the one that decided to break international law by implementing the use of metahumans into his army. He is the one that started the Great Patriotic War.” Marshal Gessner said, his tone ice cold. “And I urge you to reconsider your words, because we have metahumans in the chamber.”

Leeuwin paled and his head darted toward us. “You bring metahumans into this conflict too, Hermann? You’re even crazier than I thought.”

“Desperate measures. And I’m ready to sic them onto you if you don’t cooperate. Trust me, there is nothing more they’d like to do than get some well-deserved revenge. Now, you’ve seen the report. If we don’t take decisive concrete action now, the country will fall. Look at what’s happening up north.”

A few murmurs and nods spread throughout the room. He continued.

“I have weighed the pros and cons, and this is what we need. This is what our country needs. The media is having a field day with this, bashing on us and adding fuel to the fire. If you do this for the nation, do it for your political careers. Do you really think you stand any chance at getting elected if you let this go on if the country doesn’t fall?”

“You’re taking in more blame than we are. You are the leader— the face of the country.” One Senator said.

“You may be correct, but my point still stands. The people demand action, and you are what’s blocking that from coming to pass. Article nineteen was put in our constitution for a reason. You’re not looking at the long term here.”

No one answered. They were probably silent because of the guns.

“Will you sign it, or do I need to make you sign it, Senators? Leeuwin?” Gessner asked. This was the coup de grace.

Leeuwin groaned. “Allow us to have a vote, please. You’d need—”

“Seventy percent ‘yes’ votes, so… seventeen. Or ‘yea’, in this case, I suppose.” He interrupted, speaking over him. “All in favor? Well? Get to it.”

A slew of hands were raised— Jasmine counted fifteen in total. Marshal Gessner shook his head and scoffed.

“All opposed?” He asked as a formality. The rest of the hands went up, including Leeuwin’s. He was two votes short. “I truly didn’t want it to come to this, but I’m afraid my hand has been forced.”

Jasmine tensed— her friends and the other agents included. Was this it?

She stood here, squeezing her gun as the seconds passed. The Senators were on edge, ready to run at the first sign of aggression.

A loud crack almost made her press the trigger. The same blur she’d seen minutes ago expanded, slowly at first, and then rapidly. It was human-sized by the time the first Senator stood to run. He was stopped by a colleague sitting next to him. Jasmine pointed her gun at the blur— the… distortion seated on the chamber’s stairs. It had stopped expanding now, and it was getting louder. The sound was indescribable, all she could think of was wrongness. It was loud, obnoxious, and painful to her ears. A tiny rift appeared, and soon it encapsulated the entirety of the distortion. It was a tear in reality itself, and everywhere she looked, it was as if the thing— the incision was facing her. She could see people through it, and hear them too, although their voice was quiet and wry. Unnatural.

“Did you plan this, Hermann?! What in the Allfather’s name is this?!” One Senator screamed out.

“I am as confused as you are.” He yelled out. “Agents, I suggest we leave right now.” He added, this time a whisper.

“I was just about to suggest the same.” Agnes said, starting to move.

“I don’t think we can walk around that thing, Marshal Gessner. It’s taking up the entire stairwell. Agnes paused.

“Why don’t we just jump up on the chairs when we reach it then?” Agnes hissed.

“There are people on the other side.” Jasmine added. “They’re speaking, but I can’t hear what they’re…”

“Let’s just move!” Franz screamed.

The group dashed up the stairs, getting as close as possible to the rift before veering off toward the chairs. As they got closer, Jasmine started making out some of the words being said. She looked at Agnes in horror, and the girl looked back.

It was Saverian. The MSA—

A man burst through the rift, flying. They ducked and barely avoided his charge, Jasmine recognized him as the same man who had led the initial attack on this very building. She could make out his face now that he stood close. The man had dark brown hair and he had a permanent scowl on his face. He wore body armor and dark clothing.

“It’s the MSA! Protect the Marshal!” Angela yelled out. Senators broke into a panic and started running as five men made their way through the portal. Each time one stepped through, it faltered until it collapsed entirely on the fifth pass. They all wore the same body armor, and each one of them wore the Metahuman Salvation Army’s insignia. A red band around their forearm with a woman simply drawn in white onto it. She was their deity.

Immediately shooting broke out. Jasmine retreated behind one of the chairs and crawled slowly toward the left wing, hoping not to be seen. Sepp and Nicholas took cover behind the pillars next to the entrance. The rest of their group had gone toward the right. Jasmine looked behind her to see if they were safe—

Veronica still stood in the middle of the stairs, taking bullets like they were nothing. She jumped up toward the five men, completely ignoring the hundreds of rounds they were putting into her. She felt the force of the bullets, struggling slightly to advance, but other than that she was intact. The girl grabbed one soldier’s head and smashed it repeatedly on the corner of a chair. He screamed for the first few seconds— it was a guttural cry. Jasmine shuddered when she made out the word ‘help’. Eventually, he stopped, his face unrecognizable, and caved in. Jasmine peeked her head out and looked at Veronica’s face.

She was smiling.