TheBroker

  It was only a few days after Vegas. Firestorm’s private funeral had been the day before, the public ceremony sending him and the other heroes who fought in Vegas off had been that m. hua remembered only bits of it, her mind was still elsewhere, still on those little moments during the fight. She’d tried to focus, she really had, grief was such a plicated thing. All she wanted was to figure out where it had all gone wrong, how she could make it up to them, to him. She’d only distantly heard of him before the him at the pace, shook his hand and spoke a few words.

  Sonya had said a few words. She’d listeo the heartache, to the passion, to the drive to see the world bee a better pce. She couldn’t figure it out. She couldn’t rationalize it. Her mind told her that she was wrong, but her heart told her that she o front her. She o know, she o hear those words from her lips. That was why she was standing there at ASTA headquarters, right in front of the metal doors that lead into the CEOs offices. She ched her fists and swallowed before tapping the button to open them.

  Handmaiden looked up from her desk and made eye tact.

  “Is she in?” hua asked.

  “She is, you go inside,” Handmaiden said with a slight nod.

  “Thanks,” hua said and walked past her. She gnced down at the woman as she passed, there were signs that Handmaiden had been g retly. Her hands were trembling. The woman looked up a her gaze but said nothing. hua o her as the doors to Sonya’s office opened. She stepped inside and heard them hiss shut behind her. Ahead of her, Sonya was sitting at her desk, staring at a s with a small frown on her lips. She looked tired, withdrawn, weary. “We’re alone,” She said aloud.

  “We are,” Sonya said, not looking up at her.

  “You’ve soundproofed this room,” hua said.

  “I have,” Sonya replied, her meical eyes flig up to look at hua.

  There it was again, that hint of softness, of vulnerability, How could this person possibly be Ishtar? hua bit her lip, “I have a question.”

  “I figured,” Sonya said with a small smile and leaned ba her seat. “Let’s hear it.”

  hua stepped forward, “Are you Ishtar?”

  “I am,” Sonya said without missing a beat, she didn’t blink, she didn’t flinch, she didn’t even shrug. She simply stared back at hua with all the frankness of someone who had named off their favorite color.

  hua felt her chest tighten even as something else boiled up inside of her. fusion. Anger. Fury. She bore her teeth, “Are you fug with me?” She demanded.

  “No,” Sonya said, “I am Ishtar. The creator of vilins. I orchestrated Hero Day. I maniputed Feng Hyunh into suppressing A’s personality until he broke. I am at fault fas, and for Firestorm’s death, ultimately,” Sonya fessed. She left her hands in her p, her eyes unblinking as she looked straight into hua’s.

  hua stepped back, reeling as if she’d been punched. She felt sick. Horrified. This was the person that everyone called the Voice of the Hero Movement? She ran her fihrough her hair, her chest heaving as she paced left and right. “Wh- why? Why are you just answering like that?” hua demanded, “What could possibly possess you to-”

  “No one will believe you,” Sonya said ftly, a sad smile on her face. “No one. After everything I’ve done in the public eye, it would be easier t down a mountain with a spoon.”

  hua didn’t miss that smile, she stormed forward and smmed her fist into Sonya’s desk, “Why? Why do all of this? I don’t uand!” ha demanded, “How could you? Firestorm trusted you until the end!” She gripped at her ow, “I believed everything you said!”

  “As you should, don’t you remember? I’m incapable of lying,” Sonya said with a sigh, “My ability makes me choke when I lie. I physically ’t. It’s just one of the prices I’m paying to get what I want. I also have a mild pulsion to respond immediately to direct questions, iing,” She said, trying to look thoughtful, but it was there again. That tremble in her lips, Sonya’s fingers were shaking, her shoulders were too.

  “What do you want?” hua practically shouted, “What could you possibly want out of all of this- this- this evil!”

  Sonya tilted her head and looked up into her face, “To save the world. T humanity into the future, even if it’s kig and screaming.”

  “From what?!” hua demanded, “The monsters? I hahem! Let me hahem!” She would do it, she would fet all about all of this if Sonya just let her do it. She’d done so much for the world already, hua could bury this and fet about it if she just stuck to being Sonya and not that monster.

  “That’s the pn,” Sonya said. “I’ll do the dirty work, you kill the monsters. Isn’t that ve?”

  hua scowled, she wasn’t answeri all, she was just saying things to derail the versation, to move away from the point, “Stop messing around! Answer me clearly!” She shouted, grabbing the woman by the tie.

  “No,” Sonya said, her voice going a bit steely.

  hua pulled back a bit, “What do you mean, ‘No’? I could be rec this, you know, you’ve already damned yourself.”

  “You aren’t, I have teopathy, you didn’t even bring a phone in here,” Sonya said sadly, “You’re sweet.”

  hua pulled her hand away in disgust, “Why won’t you tell me?”

  “I ’t ahat either,” Sonya said.

  “Damn it Sonya! Make it make sense!” She roared, pulling the woman to her feet. She was a bit heavier than hua had expected from her small frame, but still not an issue to lift. She pushed her up against the wall, “I could bring you in. I’ll figure it out.”

  “I own Europe, half of gress, every gang in the try,” Sonya said, trying to look smug even as her body shook beh ha’s hands.

  “Then why are you shaking?” hua pressed, getting in the woman’s face. “Why are you doing this? What’s the real reason?”

  Sonya looked away, “Don’t push me anymore,” Sonya said, her voice small, “Please. Just go.”

  “I ’t do that,” hua said, “You are the worst criminal in the world, do you uand that? Yered an ihat killed thousands of people. Firestorm. Other heroes. You nearly caused a dungeon break. They are going to pass ws about mythics fighting because of-” She froze, her eyes going wide. She felt a chill rush up her spine and she looked at Sonya’s face. Her eyes still turned away, her lips curled down in a shaky frown. “You wahat? What the hell do you know?”

  “...hua please, just stop, you got what you wanted, just leave me alone, I didn’t want this versation to py out like this,” Sonya pleaded, shrinking even more beh hua’s grip, “I ’t say anything else. You ’t know. It’ll ruin you and who you’re supposed to be.”

  Ruin me? hua grabbed onto the words, “Who am I supposed to be?” She shook Sonya, “Sonya I have to uand! I have to know! I o know why you’re doing this!”

  “Get off!” Sonya cried out and with a push shoved hua across the room. hua hit the wall and nded on the ground, dazed for a moment. She shook her head as Sonya brushed herself off, straightening her coat, she looked down at her hands before looking up at hua with pain in her face. Something red leaked down from the ptes around her eyes, “That’s enough, don’t ask me again, I’m begging you,” She croaked. “Just go away.”

  hua pushed herself to her feet, g her fists, “I will not! You o tell me what the hell is going on! you see the future or something? Are all of your powers lies? What do I have to do with it?” She couldn’t let it go, not after so many died because of this woman’s schemes. She stormed forward, “Make me uand!” She repeated.

  Sonya’s lips trembled as agony washed across her face, “Stop,” She begged.

  “I won’t stop until I know! I’m a hero! I swore to protect the people of the world from people like you!” She roared, “And I’m going to do that by getting the truth out of yht here, right now!”

  Sonya’s expressiohrough a series of emotions, fear, sadness, grief, ahen rage. More red streaks dripped down from her eyes and she pushed forward, looking hua in the eyes. A flicker of fear and surprise leaped into hua’s chest as she ushed backwards. “You want to know that bad?” Sonya croaked, “You want to know so badly that you risk ruining everything? You want to know so badly that you’re willing to give anything up, is that it? Is that what you want, Lian hua?” She demanded, bearieeth, “Say it.”

  hua searched her face, she’d never seen such palpable grief and rage even on a victim of a disaster. She didn’t falter though, “Yes.”

  Sonya barked out a ugh, “Damn it,” She spat, “Give me your fug hand.”

  Without thinking, hua held it out and Sonya snatched it up, “You will know, but you will never be able to tell anyone!” She snarled, “You will know, and until the day I say otherwise, you will never, ever, step into a room aloh me again! Do you hear me?” She snarled, her voice shaking. “AGREE!”

  hua’s mouth moved before her mind could catch up, her heart catg in her chest. “Yes,” It was barely a whisper, but then a charge raced up her arm.

  “The deal is made,” Sonya snapped and grabbed hua by her shirt, she looked her in the eyes, “You asked for this, don’t fet!” She bit out and pulled hua down to her level. Their lips met, and hua’s world became a sea of visions.

  hua saw the fsh, she saw chaos, she saw the world right after that terrible day. It was different though. There was no ASTA Corporation, there was no Sonya, it was wless for a while. She walked through a life she didn’t reize, saw a dark haired young woman in a mirror with familiar meical eyes. She watched from afar as New York City exploded, fire and violence spreading as a dungeoed sending monsters far and wide. She watched through the young woman’s eyes as she picked up a ko defend herself and a middle aged woman who had cared for her.

  What?

  hua watched as the young woman struggled, marched through the debris with only her eyes as her tools. She watched her bleed and break, find others with powers, heal, rest, and go back tling. She watched the first heroes appear and evacuate those who had survived the dungeon break. She saw the young womaer as a scout, wanting nothihan to help and support the heroes who saved her. She watched the woman monitor the ruins of New York. She saw… Me? But… Everything was wrong. Everything was different. It was a different life. She felt the young woman’s feelings, the immediate attra, the pyful bahose words, “I have a name, use it.”

  I said it first?

  She saw as the young woman was informed that she was assigo hua’s unit. The frustration over having her life trolled like that. Yet there was something else. She watched as she herself courted the young woman, visiting often, apologizing, teasing, talking, ughing. She watched the day she went into… Is that the Vegas Dungeon? She thought, I went in. She felt the young woman’s heartache, the realization of just how deeply she’d fallen in love. How much she just wao see hua’s face again, safe and sound.

  She saw her own face again, smiling, if a bit bruised and bloody. The young womaed over her while hua just ughed. They kissed. They made love. They held one another. Everythi like a dream after that. She watched herself rise higher and higher as a hero while the young woman stood at her side, raying far, always there to support with everything she could give. They sparred, strategized, the young woman became a knife fighter, a talented scout, and…

  “Sonya, will you marry me?” hua watched herself get down on a knee.

  “Yes!”

  Make it stop.

  The whirlwind romance grew even deeper. hua fought harder. She went into epigeons. Heroigeons. The young woman would go in first, braver than any hero, she would map every inch out if only to make sure hua got out safe and sound. She watched from afar as she went into danger again and again. The young woman always had faith, always believed, always held to the hero’s code. She stood when the dungeon pylons fshed. She taught the geion of scouts. She grieved when her rades died. She held hua when hers did as well.

  Please make it stop.

  They were summoo a meeting of Mythics. She saw a man with blonde hair and blue eyes. He spoke pretty words that made hua’s heart and guts twist. Evil words. No, the heroes will turn on eachother. If that many mythics fight then- War. War broke out. She watched as cities fell. She saw the moment when the young icked up her phone and saw that a safehouse filled with the loved ones of heroes was annihited. She heard the young woman curse A and grieve in hua’s arms. Marta’s dead?

  The war got worse. Dungeons burst. Then she looked down at her own face. Pale with death.

  I died.

  “OTIS!” The name screamed into the sky with all the grief in the world, all the rage and hatred and agony of someone who had lost everything, their entire world, their heart, their mind, shattered. She watched the final moments of earth as the young woman wahrough the ruins, she saw her watch the man who had started it all die beh her. She heard her own voice, smelled her ow, then the box appeared.

  “Let hope out, and try again.”

  The day of the fsh, a blind woman waking in a panic. Realizatioermination, a new power at her fiips. A goal. Stop it from ever happening. Prevent the heroes from turning on one anive everything for earth, throw it all away if it means stopping the apocalypse. Bee hated, reviled, grieve alone. She watched as that young woman marched through the ing months. Building a new life, fag new challenges, raising new allies, scheming, plotting, itting acts that made her crack a little more each time. Yet she didn’t turn away, she didn’t stop. She experienced every thought, every sideration, every moment until she saw her own face again oelevision and broke a little more inside.

  No more.

  She saw herself at the Pace. The flirtation that sent agony through every fiber of her being. The pyful words. She watched Feng Hyunh fall to her death and savored it. She watched that yong woman step out of the dungeon and put on that helmet. She fought herself, she knew every move, of course she did. She’d lived a life with her. Loved her. She knew hua’s every tell, every trick, every move before she made it. She felt her heart break a little more each time. Yet she held onto the hope that hua would bee the hero she was meant to be. That she would be the one. I want you to do it, in the end, if it’s you, it’ll be okay.

  A sp across her face brought her back to reality. She stumbled bad hit the ground, tears streaming out of her eyes as the office swam bato view. She felt sick. She looked up at Sonya, leaning against the table, only seds had passed and that same rage-filled grief was still in her eyes. Her heart creaked at it, shame screaming in her mind. What could she possibly say?

  “Sonya, I-”

  “Get out.”

  “Sonya, please.”

  “GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!” Sonya roared, the table crag and shatterih her grip, pieces cttering to the ground with a bang. “Just. Leave me. I don’t want to look at you,” She said and turned away.

  hua felt hollow as she got to her feet. For all the times she’d called herself a hero, it felt like a joke. She gnced back at the real hero o time before she went to the door, it slid open with that same hiss that she barely heard. She stepped numbly into the merry atrium, the ASTA jingle pying above her and looked at Handmaiden, “Did you know?”

  Handmaiden searched her haunted face before nodding. “She showed me after Vegas,” Handmaiden said, “I suggest you leave.”

  hua nodded, “Yeah,” She said softly, “I-” She started but her words fell before she could say anything. All she could think to do was walk away.