Choices That Haunt - a tie in complication to Chiaki and Liu Xi’s ongoing stories
“What are you doing here?” demanded Liu Xi Xian as she realised she was no longer alone.
“Good evening,” the Hooded Hood bade her. “I have come to discuss your future.”
Suddenly there was a sharp samurai sword at the Hood’s throat. “You will not harm Liu Xi Xian,” Chiaki Bushido, the Psychic Samurai warned. “Yes, I was able to anticipate your visit.”
If the cowled crime czar was disconcerted by Chiaki’s actions he didn’t show it. “How clever of you,” he responded. “However, I do not believe your descent into lawlessness and murder has yet progressed sufficiently for you to take a life with your ancestral blade.”
“If you go after Liu Xi Xian it might do,” the Psychic Samurai warned.
“I don’t need protecting,” Liu Xi responded. “Not anymore. I’ve had my fill of frightening men trying to terrorise me. My almost-husband. The Parody Master. The Void Scholar. No more. I’m over that now.”
“Indeed?” The Hooded Hood slowly held out a packet for the young elementalist. “Your future is contained herein,” he told her.
Liu Xi cast a glance at Chiaki. The Samurai gave her the barest of nods; the package contained nothing immediately dangerous.
“Photographs?” Liu Xi frowned as she picked open the envelope. Two glossy 8x10s slid out. Both showed children, a boy aged perhaps seven and a girl with blue-hued skin who was no more than four. “What is this?”
“The female is called Rya Ki’Syathri, from the City of Radiant Spires, of the Planet Amaxanthis at the edge of the Horsehead Nebula,” the archvillain responded. “One year from now she will be dead.”
“What game are you playing, Hooded Hood?” demanded Chiaki. “What is it you want?”
“Rya Ki’Syathri is an orphan. She is undefended. She is living rough on the streets of her city, prey for those who find pleasure in harming innocents such as her. Presently, unless she is rescued, she will be found by those who specialise in profiting from the exploitation of small children. Her life will become brutal, painful, and mercifully short. A few weeks after she is taken she will be dead.”
Liu Xi felt a shiver run through her. “Why tell me this? Why show me a child on a planet I’ve never heard of? There are many children here on Earth who face similar fates.”
“I believe you reviled the Doomherald once for murdering those who would oppress such children, when he was trying to court you,” the Hood recalled. “I drew Rya to your attention since I am willing to assist you in saving the child. You would have to undertake a series of actions on my behalf to make that possible, of course.”
“Why should Liu Xi be responsible for that one child?” demanded Chiaki.
The Hooded Hood looked into the elementalist’s eyes. “Because Liu Xi orphaned her,” he replied.
“I what?” Liu Xi stammered’ but suddenly she remembered one of the worst days of her life.
The Hood knew too much. “You were in Limbo, weak, dying. You needed to save the Doomherald, the God of Murder, to save yourself. You found a city, stolen from its own world and stored in that nowhere space. You found people, held in stasis. You chose one randomly…”
“I killed one of them,” Liu Xi confessed. “A woman. I was scared, desperate…”
“And Rya Ki’Sythari was her daughter,” the Hood noted. “When the City of Spires was returned home, devastated, she was alone. Is alone. It would have been kinder of you to kill her too.”
Liu Xi looked down at the picture, stricken. The sword the Hood used was sharper than Chiaki’s.
“What about the other?” demanded the Psychic Samurai. “The boy?”
“David Tolland,” the Hood supplied. “Son of the late Michael Tolland, a prison guard at the Safe.”
Chiaki nearly cut the Hood’s throat right then. “This is about me going to the Safe?”
“If you had not made the choices you did, David Tolland would not weep himself to sleep every night. He would not cry his father’s name in his nightmares.”
“I assume there’s some kind of bargain coming?” the Psychic Samurai guessed, trying to read the cowled crime czar. It was hard to push past his absolute confidence and arrogance. There was no outcome to this encounter that would not further his plans. He’d set it up that way.
“I could offer a minor retcon,” the Hood admitted. “If Warder Tolland had taken one step forward instead of backward at the right moment he’d be recovering in hospital right now. He’s have a broken arm and a fractured pelvis, he’d be pensioned out on disability; but he would go home to his wife and son.”
“You could do that whether I bargain with you or not,” objected Chiaki.
“But I would not,” replied the Hooded Hood. “However, if you agree to assist Liu Xi in her mission for me when the time comes then I will offer solace to David Tolland by ensuring his father’s survival as I have described.”
“I haven’t said I’d do it yet,” Liu Xi argued. “Whatever it is.”
“There’s a catch,” sensed Chiaki. “If we agree… if you agree… He’s been setting this up for a long time, waiting until the right moment, for you to be ready. Or vulnerable.”
The archvillain assented. “Am I not… the Hooded Hood?”
“I could kill you now,” the Psychic Samurai suggested. “Save the world a lot of grief.”
“You could not,” the Hood replied. “And while I will wait for Liu Xi’s decision, for the time has not yet come when that irrevocable choice must be made, I must have your choice now, Chiaki Bushido. If Liu Xi assents to serve me to save Rya Ki’Sythari will you accompany and assist her on her mission?”
“You could retcon more than that,” the Samurai declared. “You could make it so I never went to the Safe at all.”
“I could not,” replied the Hood. “Nor would I if I could. Nor would you ask it, for you believe in bearing the consequences of your deeds. But I will give you Michael Tolland and his son’s peace.”
Chiaki glanced at Liu Xi. “If she agrees - if - then there’s no way I’d let her walk into one of your plans unaccompanied.”
“Chiaki!” objected Liu Xi.
“Your explicit agreement to my proposal then?” the Hood demanded of the Samurai. “Your word of honour.”
“My word.”
The Hood’s eyes flashed green. “Done,” he said. “Liu Xi Xian, we shall speak again. You have much to think about, and much to discuss with your friend and ally here on responsibility and power.”
“You think you’ll always have it your own way,” Chiaki told the Hood. “You’re wrong.”
“Then an interesting day will come,” replied the archvillain. And he was gone.
Chiaki lowered her blade and looked at Liu Xi. The elementalist gripped the photograph of Rya Ki’Sythari and stared at it.
Time passed.
Original concepts, characters, and situations copyright © 2008 reserved by Ian Watson. Other Parodyverse characters copyright © 2008 to their creators. The use of characters and situations reminiscent of other popular works do not constitute a challenge to the copyrights or trademarks of those works. The right of Ian Watson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. |
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