The Second Archon War: Superbia Hominum 15

Superbia Hominum 15: Knowledge of Good and Evil

A silver pair of scales stood before her, formed of water. On them was emblazoned a watery thumbprint, the symbol of Hydro. Before the scales stood a woman with eyes of deep azure, her pupils a lighter shade of blue.

A sword fell from heaven and struck the woman, impaling her upon the center of the scales like a divine nail. Judgment, for a Sin she did not commit. 

With a cry, the woman was separated in two, her eyes changing so that one divine eye was in each of the new hosts. Each was cast upon the scales of justice, the sword hovering over them. One was a mortal girl, dressed plainly the other a goddess in fine robes. Whichever was found wanting would be destroyed. Both reached out for the other as the sword suddenly descended, not towards the mortal, but towards the god. The mortal rose up towards the heavens, weeping as the scales trembled. 

With a cry, Fortuna sat bolt upright in bed, her breaths coming ragged and gasping as sweat beaded on her brow. She touched her forehead, which was clammy but cool. 

A dream. I had another dream. 

Her path tried to speak to her, tried to direct her, but Fortuna shoved it aside, going so far as to toss Eighty off of her desk and into a drawer as she pulled out a notebook and began to furiously write all she could recall from her dream before it faded away. She especially focused on the woman she’d seen. What had stood out was her unnatural eyes, with iris’ like tear drops. One a deep blue white with a light blue center, the other inverted. But that had been after she’d split into two. 

Slender, with a kind face, and silver hair with blue highlights, Fortuna wrote in English, so that it would be easier to share her notes. She was incredibly beautiful. A goddess. The Hydro Archon. 

She set the pen down, then glanced at the clock. It was early yet, too early to go barging into people’s rooms unless it was a life and death announcement. So instead, requested a door to her favorite donut shop: Bosa Donuts in Chandler, Arizona. It was a little mom-and-pop place with dreams of franchising, but their freshly baked goods were to die for. 

Fortuna got her favorite: A cherry fritter and a hot chocolate with fresh creme, along with two dozen more various donuts. Then she took a door to the control room, now located under Cheyenne Mountain. She set the box of donuts on the back table, then waved cheerily. “Hey, Albedo! What’s up?”

She knew the answer, of course, Eighty was whispering it to her even in the drawer, but she ignored him. 

“The ceiling,” Albedo said, tilting his head to one side. “And approximately 150,000 tons of rock, mostly granite.” The artificial humanoid continued to look like Adonus, with long silky hair, and chiseled features. Though those features were about as expressive as the marble before it was carved. 

Fortuna sighed. She got it. English idioms were hard. “No, no, that means, how’s it going, what’s happening. It doesn’t mean what’s literally above us.”

“Ah, I see,” the impassive homunculus said, and turned back to the monitors. “Currently, it is quiet. There is no Endbringer activity. Scion has not been sighted in 26.5 hours. No Slaughterhouse Nine Activity. Only minor events.”

“Any new Visions?” Fortuna prompted, offering Albedo a donut. This was a regular yeast donut, with maple frosting. 

Albedo glanced at the donut, then accepted it without taking a bite. “Yes. We have recorded 27 Visions being distributed in the last 24 hours. They are; six electro, seven anemo, six dendro, and eight cryo. This is within standard parameters.” 

“Hmm,” Fortuna shook her head, then went to examine a monitor, passing the woman sitting there a jelly donut, which she gratefully accepted. “Any new Vision types though? Specifically, Hydro. I’m looking for Hydro Visions.”

“We have not recorded any, ma’am,” the woman, her name was Kelly Ann Morris, said with a shake of her head. 

I got that from her name tag, not you! Fortuna shot at Eighty, who was still whispering in her ear. It was how Fortuna knew that strawberry jelly was Kelly Ann’s favorite. He was useful for little things like that, but not much else. 

Monitoring Vision and Trigger events was one of Cauldron’s primary purposes now. In the bad old days, they’d mostly just let fresh Triggers and new Vision Holders figure things out. These days, it was very different. If a cape triggered anywhere in North America, Cauldron would know about it in minutes thanks to a combination of Fortuna and Armory, while Vision events were a little harder to pinpoint. Still, as soon as they were known, they were logged and the new cape contacted. They were then given a choice: Join the Protectorate or pay a visit to the Slug. 

It was brutal, but effective. Especially with the ever looming threat of the War with the Tsaritsa. 

Calculations indicate that the Fatui will invade Finland through the Karelian within 8 weeks. Probability: 78.34%. Variance due to unknown effects of Princess’ leadership and Harbinger Power struggles. 

Oh shut up. You’re just guessing. I already know. Don’t you remember the Dream? 

Fortuna had seen three moons above a frozen plane. They had turned blood red, then crashed into the ice, where dark trees had sprouted with corpses hanging from their branches. Not the most subtle of dreams, but the meaning had been clear: Three months would pass, and then the war would resume to the North. Probably Finland, as that was the most logical place for Russia to invade next with the Storm Range blocking everything from the Baltic to the Black Sea. 

But that wasn’t the dream she was concerned about. The one she’d had about the watery scales told her that there was most assuredly going to be another Archon, and soon. So she sat in one of those spinny chairs and had another donut, this one a bearclaw. 

After the bearclaw, Fortuna gave up and decided to wander the complex. She could have gone out on a mission, but that would have required consulting Eighty again, and she was more and more loath to talk to the Little God of the Path. It lied, and Fortuna was increasingly certain it was doing so deliberately. That was only logical, gods of course, lied all the time in tricky ways, which was why you had to be so careful about how you phrased your questions to them. 

 To her surprise, Albedo fell in with her, following after as she left the control room. “Aren’t you supposed to be on duty?” 

“Negative. I am simply gathering data. Besides, you will visit Doctor Meliton’s lab, will you not? I have been directed to check in with her.” 

“I guess I will,” Fortuna admitted, and nodded to the homunculus. “You’re pretty good at seeing the future too, aren’t you?” 

“I do not see the future, nor does the Path. We calculate probabilistic outcomes and model likely actions with a high degree of accuracy,” Albedo stated. 

That was just a fancy way of saying they used math as a way to read the future, Fortuna had learned. Math to her was still a pseudo-mystical art she didn’t really understand. She’d learned how to count, of course, but to her she’d never learned beyond simple sums, and the concept of zero was still vaguely alien and magical. How could you represent nothing aside from the arcane? 

With nothing else to do, or at least, nothing else to do that didn’t involve letting Eighty possess her, Fortuna wandered down to the laboratory level. She had a feeling something was going to happen, but she was still certain it should be new Hydro Visions. 

Down in one of the new sub-basements, Fortuna knew she would find Dr. Meliton and Wyatt, working on exploring new ways to grant powers to potential capes. They still had several thousand vials in storage, most of them carefully catalogued and labeled based on what powers they would confirm, and Fortuna was supposed to be going through and cataloguing the rest. She just…wanted to be herself for a little while longer before she started on it again. 

However, even a seven thousand three hundred and three vials would run out before very long. Actually, they’d run out in eight years, six months, and fourteen days, SHUT UP EIGHTY. Which sounded like a long time, but wouldn’t even take them close to the newly projected End of the World. Fortuna might be new at reading the Stars and Fate, but even she could foresee the great blackness that approached. It was about two hundred years off in the most optimistic cases, but Fortuna believed it would come much sooner than that. By the end of this century, the world would either triumph or be destroyed. 

And to save the world, they needed weapons. 

They entered into the lab, which had plenty of those magic machines that were used to perform alchemy and other wonders. Eighty tried to supply the exact mechanisms and functions of each machine, but Fortuna very firmly told the Little God to shut up. It was magic. She didn’t care what anyone said, it was just magic. Let it be strange and wonderful to her. Let there be mystery again. Let there be chance. 

Free will is an illusion. The world is deterministic, not probabilistic. 

The nice thing about being an idiot peasant from the bronze age is I don’t know what those words mean! 

Well, she did, Eighty had force fed her that information long ago, but she was choosing to ignore it. 

While the machines didn’t really matter to her, the people inside did. Dr. Meliton and Wyatt were both talking animatedly in front of one of the machines, each holding one of those magic pads that was like a computer. 

“-but that’s the point, these readings contain an exotic energy we haven’t measured before!” Wyatt said, flicking his screen with his fingers and grinning. 

“It’s just another form of elemental energy,” Meliton said, shaking her head so that her green feathers rustled. “It’s useful, but not the breakthrough we’ve been looking for.”

A surge of excitement filled Fortuna’s heart, and she hurried forward. “Is it Hydro!? Has the Hydro Archon arrived!?”

Both Science Wizards looked up from their debate, Wyatt grinning, Meliton flinching in shock slightly. 

“Nah, we’ve got plenty of readings on that from Albedo,” Wyatt said, nodding to the homunculus, who had gone to stand quietly in the corner. “Sup, man?”

“Contessa informed me this is a colloquial expression asking as to my state of being, not the construction of the ceiling. I am well,” Albedo said in his dull monotone. 

“It’s not one of the seven elements, and Albedo isn’t the only source of Hydro,” Honey said, shaking her head again as if to clear it. “You know that, Tyche. We’ve had a source of Hydro to study since Keiga started changing after her wedding.”

“Oh,” Fortuna deflated slightly. Maybe her dreams were useless. “Then what is…”

A sense of overwhelming dread suddenly filled Fortuna, like a ghostly hand had just reached into her chest and squeezed her heart. Slowly, she turned, her heart beginning to race faster. As she did, darkness flickered at the corners of her vision, and she half heard a distant, soundless, discordant note. Somehow, she found the source, and slowly walked towards it. Eighty had gone dead silent. She held her breath, until she was standing over one machine, where various vials sat in a tray. They were all clear, but a darkness seemed to pour off of several of them. 

Slowly, she pointed, and her voice trembled as she spoke. “What is…what is that…” She found herself answering her own question. “Death. Chaos. Destruction. Hunger.”

Rapid steps behind her, and Meliton and Wyatt were at her shoulders. “Fortuna? What is it you see?”

Feeling dizzy, Fortuna reached up to take off her hat, and began to kneed it with her hands as cold sweat broke out all over her body. “It is the endless maw, the devouring chaos, the destruction of all, it is death, it is death, it is DEATH!”

She was weeping now, and would have collapsed if Wyatt hadn’t grabbed her and held her up.

“Albedo! Call for a medical team, STAT! We need level five containment, NOW!” 

“Hold on, Wyatt,” Meliton said, crouching down slightly to peer into Fortuna’s eyes. “Tyche? What do you see? What does your path see?”

“This isn’t elemental energy,” Contessa mumbled as Fortuna fled, allowing the God of the Path to possess her. “It is the answer. The weapon we seek. It’s power. Endless power. But it’s dangerous. So dangerous. It’s death. His death, and ours, if we’re not careful.”

“This is it!” Meliton said excitedly, standing and spreading her wings. “Director, we’ve found what we’re looking for we-”

Alarms began to blare, and Meliton spun, glaring furiously at Albedo. “What did you do that for? This isn’t the time to panic, it’s a time to research!” 

“Honey, when the Tinker 12 has a fit and a fainting spell at the new esoteric energy you’ve been analyzing, the correct response is to take every damn precaution in the book,” Wyatt said as he pulled Contessa away. 

“But this is exactly what we’re looking for!” Meliton snarled, talons scraping on the tile floor and leaving large gouges as she bared her fangs in anger. “You’re just another one of those cowards who won’t let me fully explore every possibility with my research!” 

“Oh, I’m going to let you research the ever loving hell out of this,” Wyatt said as he pulled Contesa from the lab, and Roach model guards appeared with containment gear. “But not here, and not with this level of security. If this is our Silver Bullet, we need to proceed with the utmost caution.”

“What…what are the samples,” Contessa said, then again answered her own question as her path spoke. “The Twins. It’s samples from the Twins. Specifically Tohu. She is drenched in Sin. Weep, Mankind! Weep and Know despair! For Sin has entered into this world! You will have Knowledge of Good and Evil, but when you drink of the Forbidden Cup, know you have begun your own fall! Weep, for Sin has entered the world!” 

That wasn’t the Path. Eighty was confused and trying to analyze where those words had come from. 

But Fortuna knew, even if Contessa did not. They were the last dregs of the Hydro and Dendro she’d ingested last night to make herself Dream. It was True Prophecy. And she could only weep.

“You will be Drenched in Sin,” she told Wyatt as he knelt beside her, the lab being locked down. Gently, she reached out, and touched his cheek, already seeing it eaten away, his flesh corrupted, his soul blackened and stained. “Turn back, turn back and flee, for if you take Sin into yourself, you will surely die.”

“Will it save the world?” Wyatt demanded. “Can it kill an Entity?”

“Yes,” Contessa whispered, and she saw it now. Scion, consumed utterly by unending darkness, destroyed so utterly that even his might was as nothing before the void. “But beware. For this is a sword with no hilt. The hand that wields it will be the first cut.”

“Then we do it anyway. My death, your death, all of our deaths…as long as we stop him and save the world, it’s worth it,” Wyatt said firmly. 

Fortuna could only huddle into a ball and cry. She knew that had to be the answer, and yet…all she saw was desolation. 

Keeping his hands folded behind his back, David dug his nail into his palm as Hannah entered the room. She ignored him, and he did his best to do the same. They’d been doing a lot of that since they broke up, not long after they’d left Riga. He couldn’t even look at her without feeling a sense of overwhelming despair and loss. What was even the point anymore? 

Even if Joseph is dead, there are billions, trillions, who deserve life. You have to keep fighting.

 But how? How was he to keep fighting? He had only enough vials left to fuel his powers for a few more years. That wasn’t even close to the finish line. If he stopped using his powers entirely, shepherded what was left for the final battle…No. He would be a hero for as long as he could. He would save every life he could. He would find a way. 

He had to. Else, what had all this been for? 

Contessa arrived next, clutching that stupid Eight Ball of hers. She looked as worn out as David felt, with dark circles under her eyes. She hadn’t been out in the field much lately, and that made David wonder. Was she losing control of her powers? She’d always been erratic and unstable, and things had only gotten worse. Did she blame herself that she hadn’t foreseen the Tsarita’s attack? That was understandable, but as he understood it, Archons were blind spots in Contessa’s abilities. 

God. Were they all failing? Each and every one of them, slowly losing their tenuous grasps at the edge of the pit? Was this how humanity fell? With the last force of resistance slowly dragged down by their own impotence? 

There was the clack of talons, and David pulled himself out of his fugue in time to see Dr. Meliton stride in with Albedo. That golem gave David the willies. A human in form, yes, but an artificial lifeform that wielded all seven elements. He had yet to be field tested, so all that work so far had just given Meliton a bed warmer. Oh yes, David was fully aware she was sleeping with her own creation, disgusting as it was. 

“Sorry to keep you all waiting,” Wyatt said with his annoying smile flashed at the room, and his wife in general. “But good news, everyone!” 

“Great. What’s gone wrong now?” David growled. He hated that stupid Futurama quote. 

“They’ve shut down my lab and confiscated my research,” Dr. Meliton said, glaring at Wyatt. 

“No, dear,” Doctor Mother sighed from behind her desk. “We’re relocating your equipment to a Black Site, away from the main complex. You’re going to get to continue to research this to your heart's content.”

What? 

“Sorry, Dave, wasn’t forcing a meme this time,” Wyatt apologized. David HATED it when people called him Dave. “This actually is great news.”

“We have discovered Original Sin, and all the world will pay for it,” Contessa whispered. David wouldn’t have heard her if he didn’t have enhanced senses and she wasn’t rocking back and forth in her chair, her eye’s vacant and glassy. 

“Wait, hold on. What exactly has happened?” President Becky said, and David could only nod in frustrated agreement.

“I was analyzing the samples from the Tohu and Bohu fight. We’re lucky we still had samples. Anyway, Asset Tyche wandered in with Albedo, and she reacted to the samples, which thus far had been entirely inconclusive,” Dr. Meliton said, sniffing in disdain. “This is all completely unnecessary. She’s rattling on with religious metaphors that have no place in the scientific process.”

“In this case, I think Sin is an apt metaphor, as it is a transgression against divine law. The creation of Tohu and Bohu by the Warrior required the use of Divine Power, which is not his to use.”

All eyes turned to Albedo, who after speaking, had gone back to simply standing silently. 

“How do you know that?” President Becky asked slowly. 

“The Endbringers are tied to the Thinker’s defunct network. The Warrior reactivated Tohu and Bohu with the use of the Gnosis. This is my analysis of the situation,” Albedo stated.

David’s eyes flicked to Contessa, but she was slowly nodding. “Yes, that…makes sense. These two Endbringers are…different. As is the Alpha Behemoth. He’s begun to incorporate Elemental Energy after seizing the Gnosis from the Tsaritsa. Those would be the objects of power she brought with her to this world, but Scion seized from her.”

“I agree with this analysis. The Gnosis seems to be an object of great power and significance to the Archons. They appear to have the same energy source as elemental energy, but also another exotic energy that has been categorized as ‘Divine Energy.’ It is the opposite of the exotic energy Dr. Meliton and the Director have discovered,” Albedo stated. 

A thrill filled David, and he found himself straightening up. “So, wait, if it’s the opposite of the Archons' energy…could it be used against them?” 

“Yes,” Contessa said quietly, drawing in on herself again. She rubbed her arms and shivered, her eyes unfocusing. “It could destroy them. It could destroy Scion and all the Shards. It could destroy…everything. It is death, it is death, it is death.”

“Further analysis required,” Albedo stated. 

“This is it,” David said, looking around, sudden resolve filling him. “You’ve done it. You’ve found our silver bullet. The only question is, how do we harness this energy?”

“Correction,” Wyatt said, and David nearly snarled at him. “The question is, how do we harness this energy WITHOUT killing ourselves and everyone else. If whatever this stuff is made of is dangerous enough to harm Archons and Entities…then it’s most assuredly bad news to us as well if we’re not real damn careful.”

“It is a sword with no hilt. It cuts the wielder before it cuts the foe,” Contessa whimpered. “All who take it up will become Sinners. Doomed and damned.”

“Dammit, Contessa, we need an analysis, not doomsaying!” Hannah snapped, and David flinched to hear it. He’d been about to say the same thing.

“That is my analysis,” Contessa mumbled, hiding her head in her arms and curling up into a ball in her chair. 

“This does have a great deal of potential,” Doctor Mother said with a nod. “But I agree with Wyatt. We need to proceed with caution. If we’re careless, Scion could discover this energy himself. Or we could end up destroying the world ourselves. But a weapon this potentially potent is one we must use. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” David said instantly, and was echoed by all the others, save one.

Contessa just moaned and shook her head. 

“Fortuna?” Doctor Mother said gently, getting up from behind her desk and coming around to kneel by the Thinker, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We do need your analysis.”

Slowly, the woman relaxed, a dreamy state coming over her. David recognized it as a Thinker Fugue coming over the girl. About time. All this nonsense with her doing drugs and injecting Elemental Energy was clearly not working. 

“This energy has the potential to be the solution, but I can’t Path it. Too many unknowns. There’s nothing in the Shard network about it, and the samples were too vague. Everything else I’ve said is based on Dreams and Visions. If only I could use real Hydromancy…”

“We proceed,” Doctor Mother said, standing up. “We’ll move it to Black Site Delta.”

“The Tucson Facility,” Becky said with a nod. “That works. But I want back up sites. We can use Able, Locus, and Mike facilities. Four teams. Put everything we have in it.”

“South Africa, Maui, and Brazil. That avoids putting all our eggs in one basket. I’ll take the Maui facility, I’ve always loved Hawaii!” Wyatt laughed. 

“I’ll head the Tucson Facility with Mr. Albedo,” Meliton said with a nod. David was sure she’d be giving that monster plenty of head. 

“This is a start, nothing more. Keep me updated when you know more than ‘it’s an exotic energy,’” President Becky said, standing. “Until then, we keep pressing on other fronts as well.”

David nodded, then moved to leave. Before he’d gone three steps out of the door though, a voice called, “David, wait up!” 

He stiffened as Hannah caught up to him. He tried to force himself not to frown. “Yes?”

“I just…I know the break up was rough. For both of us. I…I said things I regret,” Hannah said, looking away from David. 

He hesitated, then nodded. “I said things I shouldn’t have as well. I’m sorry. I don’t…I don’t think you’re a monster, Hannah.” Even if you did murder our child. “I just…it wasn’t going to work out.”

“No. I…I guess I should have said something. My body, my choice…but, shit. I should have at least told you,” Hannah said with a heavy sigh. She looked back at him. “Yeah, wouldn’t have worked out. But…still friends?”

“We’re both heroes. I’ll always have your back,” David said, and extended his hand.

Hannah took it, then nodded and left. David let out a heavy sigh. Had she been right? If the world was doomed…why not give a child an easy death, instead of the dragged out torture the rest would get?

No. No, he couldn’t think that way. He thought for a moment, then went back inside the room. The others had departed, save for Contessa, who was just sitting there, looking down at a cup of coffee with a donut in her hand. 

“I can’t tell you if this could fuel your powers or make you stronger, David. You’re thinking of yourself as David right now, right? Interesting. I could tell you why, but it doesn’t matter,” Contessa said dully. 

“That was what I was going to ask, I suppose,” David said, sitting down beside her. “But also-”

“No, I’m not OK,” Contessa said, looking up at him. “Neither are you, huh?”

“I…suppose I’m not,” David said slowly. “I just…could you read my future?”

“I could Path you, but that’s pointless. You’ve never been Pathable, not really. And you don’t like it when I do drugs,” Contessa said. 

David hesitated, then said, “I’ve compromised a lot. If it takes you getting a little high to win…well, so be it. You’re not just doing it for fun, right?”

“My Visions and Dreams are anything but fun,” Contessa said with a snort. She pulled a small clay dish out of her pocket. “Get me some water. Not tap water. Something pure, from a natural source.”

David took the bowl, then stood. “Door me. Horton Springs.” 

A door appeared to a spring David fondly remembered hearing his scout troop talk about. He’d never gone, of course. It wasn’t wheelchair accessible. He stepped out, dipped the bowl into the pool below the rocks where a natural spring gushed out, and then stepped back through the door to Contessa, who took the water. 

“Good. This water has a personal connection to you. That will make it easier,” she told him. 

She took out a stoppered vial that glowed a faint blue, the glass in a fanciful shape, like an old-timey potion. Unstoppering it, Contessa poured the elemental energy into the water and mixed it, before setting it on the ground between her legs and peering into it. 

David waited, feeling nervous. What would she see?

“There is a great darkness ahead for you, David Ward. One I cannot see through. But at the end of it all…a light. You will face trials and tribulations, and be faced with terrible, terrible choices. But at the end of it all…at the end of it all, I think you can be the hero you wish to be.” Contessa looked up and met David’s eyes. “This isn’t like Pathing something. It’s not a simple question or probabilities. It’s images, shapes, ripples and reflections. This viewing was obscured. If only I had a real Hydro Vision…but those don’t exist yet. And I have no idea how you’d even get one. I guess I could ask Nahida. Anyway. Don’t give up hope yet.”

“Never. I’ll fight to the end,” David said, standing. “And I’ll do whatever it takes to save humanity.”

“That’s what scares me, sometimes. What wouldn’t we do, David?” Contessa whispered, her eyes drifting back to her glowing dish. 

“Nothing. The price of failure is everything. All of humanity dead. And success…success is worth any price.”

“I’m sorry you said that. Because you will be asked to pay everything,” Contessa whispered. 

David felt his heart lurch. Well. Messiahs usually didn’t survive saving their people. He nodded, and left, but though he had just had his death foretold, his heart was lighter. 

It had all been worth it. He was still a hero. 

But David Ward should have realized that his life was not the price that would be required of him, for it was not what he valued most. 

PHILO: Wow. This is basically being the audience in a B-List horror sci-fi movie and you’re screaming at the scientists who are somehow missing all the signs of imminent doom.