by Isamu Fukui
“Hello,” Takan said breathlessly. “Mind if we join in?”
Cross noticed that the two former Truants looked a little strange as they stepped forward. Noni’s eyelids were red and puffy, and Takan had an unusually sober look on his face. They also seemed to be avoiding looking at each other.
None of that really mattered to Cross, however—he was just glad that they had arrived when they did.
“Tack, alias Takan, and Noni,” Iris greeted. “Of course, you’re welcome. I should have expected that individuals of your stature would make it. It’s good to see you all in one place. I can now wipe out the entire leadership of the rebellion at once.”
Noni narrowed her eyes. “Don’t be stupid. There are four of us now.”
“You believe that will be enough?” Iris smiled. “Naïve girl. You should have stayed in the camp. In time we might have brought you back to reason.”
“This is your last chance, General,” Takan warned. “Surrender and withdraw your forces completely. If you don’t, you will die here.”
“Still you understand nothing of the peril you face!” Iris laughed. “No, there is far too much at stake for me to die now—especially to the likes of you.”
Without warning, the albino struck from behind, her chain hissing through the air. Iris swung her staff behind her, deflecting the ring. Cross seized the opportunity to scramble away, climbing back to his feet. Takan and Noni leapt up onto the long banquet table, running side by side towards Iris.
With the wall to her left and the table to her right, Iris drove her staff into Cross’ chest while blocking another chain swing from behind. As Takan and Noni drew close, Iris hooked a chair with her staff, and then swung it up at them. The furniture slammed into Takan, who was knocked backwards with a grunt.
Noni managed to get within striking distance, but Iris simply ducked her swipe, and then struck the girl’s midsection with her staff, pressing her button as she did. Noni let out a cry of pain and fell backwards, off of the table. Without pausing a second, Iris blocked Cross’ knife arm, spun around to deflect the chain, and then leapt up onto the dining table herself.
By now Takan was back on his feet, and he ran down the table towards Iris. The General blocked his sword thrust, and then almost lazily struck his head and leg with either end of the staff in a swift motion. His leg swept from under him, Takan fell painfully off the table. As though without effort, Iris again deflected the albino’s chain, and then aimed a staff blow down at Cross, forcing him to keep his distance.
Noni jumped onto the table behind Iris, and Iris swerved around, jabbing her staff into Noni’s belly, adding a shock to the blow. From the floor, Takan swung his sword up at Iris’s legs. Iris jumped over the attack. Cross rushed forward, attempting to get in a stab, and Iris responded by kicking him hard in the face.
Cross fell to the floor, his head spinning in disbelief. Warm blood trickled from his nostrils. The four of them together were actually losing to Iris. The General was unlike anything any of them had ever seen—her movements were fast and efficient, her awareness and reflexes unmatched.
At this rate, they were going to be defeated.
The albino shot her chain straight out at Iris, and this time Iris snatched the metal ring out of the air and then yanked hard on the chain. Cross could see shock on his teacher’s face as she was pulled closer to the table. Iris shortened her staff then slammed the weighted stick hard onto the albino’s head.
“Teacher!”
The albino crumpled to the ground, stunned or worse. Cross gasped, the fight forgotten as he crawled over to her. For a few terrible seconds his body was wracked by dread, by the thought that he might have lost her too. Then the albino moaned and stirred, and Cross breathed a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile Iris entered a deadly rhythm. Takan and Noni rushed at her from either ends of the banquet table. Iris extended her staff, hooked another chair, and swung it into an oncoming Noni. Noni swore as she was knocked off the table, the chair shattering into splinters.
Continuing the motion, Iris swept the staff at Takan’s legs. Takan jumped, only for Iris to bring the other end of the staff crashing down onto his shoulder. Takan yelped as Iris pressed the button. The Truant stumbled backwards from the shock. Iris ruthlessly followed up with a kick, knocking him farther back.
By now all of the rebels were worn out. Crouched down near his teacher, Cross realized that it was only a matter of time before Iris killed them all, one by one. Anger and frustration clouded his vision, and he slammed his fist against the floor, cursing his powerlessness. He couldn’t protect Floe, and now he couldn’t even fight against her killer.
Then Cross saw it. Lying on the carpet nearby, where it had been discarded, was his rifle. If only he could use it! The damn thing had jammed up at the worst possible time, and Cross couldn’t get the casing free, no matter how hard he shook.
Then Cross remembered something, and Floe’s words seemed to filter out of the past and through the haze in his head.
“That’s not how you do it! Lock the bolt back and remove the magazine! Doesn’t the Militia teach that?”
Trembling on his hands and knees, Cross crawled forward towards the rifle.
Meanwhile, the albino had struggled to her feet.
“Noni!” she shouted, tossing the end of her chain to the other girl.
Understanding immediately, Noni sprang up and caught the ring. The two of them began running on either side of the banquet table, aiming to trip up Iris with the chain. At the same time Takan began charging at Iris from the front. Iris jumped once over the chain, but the girls brought it looping back at her.
As Takan drew close, Iris jumped onto the chain and pinned it to the table with her feet. She blocked Takan’s sword with one end of the staff, almost lazily striking him with the other. Then she touched her staff to the chain and pressed a button, smiling as both girls cried out in pain from the shock—
A gunshot went off.
For a split second no one understood what had happened. Then Iris fell backwards, the bullet catching her in her armor, the force of the blow knocking her off her feet. Takan and Noni seized their chance. Their weapons flashed, and Iris let out a small gasp.
Takan’s sword had cut her waist, while Noni had driven her knife straight under Iris’ armpit, unprotected by the armor. Iris’ stormy gray eyes shut, her chest heaving as she understood what had just happened.
“Now…” Iris coughed. “My worst fears … come true…”
Cross rose from his position on the floor, his rifle barrel smoking faintly. The magazine lay discarded nearby. He had cleared the jam and slammed a single bullet into the breech to fire. That single shot had been enough.
As Iris bled out onto the table, the rebels all gathered around her, each of their expressions different. Noni looked satisfied. Takan looked grim. Cross looked triumphant. Then the albino got up and approached Iris, the only sympathetic face of the bunch.
Iris looked up at her. “I didn’t want it to end like this.”
“There’s nothing we can do for those wounds,” the albino said quietly, crouching over her. “You fought hard. You should be very proud.”
“Proud? No, my life will end now in shame.” Iris laughed bitterly. “I’ve failed everyone. I’ve failed you.”
The albino looked sad. “I know that you were trying to do what you could for the people of this City.”
“My brother must have told you that.” Iris shook her head. “You’re the one he was talking about, then.”
“Yes.”
“But he couldn’t have told you why I decided to stay and fight, even when I knew it would be my death,” Iris said. “I never discussed that with him. He never knew about the orders.”
Takan blinked. “You were ordered to die here?”
“The opposite.” Iris’ face seemed to contort with pain. “I was ordered to save myself and withdraw with my troops. By staying behind I openly defied my father.”
“W
hy?” Noni demanded.
“Because.” Iris coughed up blood. “Now that my failure is complete, this entire City will be destroyed.”
34
ILLUSIONS OF GOOD AND EVIL
The four rebels stood in stunned silence, unsure of what to make of Iris’ words. They exchanged confused glances. Then, finally, Cross spoke up.
“What do you mean by destroying the whole City?” he demanded.
Iris opened her eyes.
“My operation here was the Government’s last attempt to salvage this City,” she said. “They intended all along that if I failed, they would simply wipe the City off the map.”
Takan shook his head. “How is that even possible?”
“You do not understand the power possessed by your enemy,” Iris said. “The Government could end all life on the planet if it desired. They will use a single explosive powerful enough to destroy the whole City, poisoning the land for years to come.”
Iris’ voice was hard as steel, though wracked by pain. Moments passed, and the rebels realized that she was serious. Then the implications began to sink in, and the expressions on their faces uniformly turned to horror.
“My father always believed that destroying the City was the prudent choice.” Iris sighed. “He did not want to risk the unrest spreading. He argued that it would save more lives in the end.”
“Save lives?” Cross repeated. “How would destroying the whole City save lives?”
“The first time he faced discontent, the fighting spread far and wide,” Iris explained. “The result was a conflict that ended with hundreds of thousands of deaths and untold destruction. Order was restored at a high cost. The Government remembers this—they would do anything to avoid a repeat. The threat of the Education City had to be contained.”
“Even if that were true,” the albino said, “what about the civilians? The innocents?”
Iris shook her head. “The Government will claim that they are a necessary sacrifice. In truth I don’t believe they care about them at all. They’re tired of struggling with this City. They want a quick solution to the problem.”
“A quick solution?” Noni repeated. “At what cost?”
“They do not see it as a cost!” Iris laughed. “In the world outside this City the Government has rivals and enemies. A demonstration of their power would remind everyone that they are to be feared. It would be a benefit.”
“That is a savage doctrine,” the albino said quietly.
“It is one perspective among many.” Iris shut her eyes again. “I personally did not agree with my father and his Ministers on this. I argued endlessly until they gave me one chance to pacify the City and restore the system upon which it was based.”
Horror and understanding finally dawned on the albino’s face.
“So that’s why you—”
“Stayed behind, yes,” Iris said. “I meant to protect this City with my own life. With me still inside, I do not believe that my father would dare to destroy it.”
Then the others understood, and the magnitude of their error left them dizzy and breathless. Throughout their struggle they had seen Iris as an outside threat to the City they all called home. In truth, it was Iris who had fought the hardest to save that City, a shield between them and destruction.
And when they thwarted her, Iris had stayed behind to protect the City with her very life. Now she lay before them, bleeding that life away, and the City’s true protector had fallen at their hands.
The albino looked at her comrades with watery eyes. “In the end, Iris was a hero.”
Cross nodded, swallowing. “Were—were we the bad guys then? Was it our fault, all of this?”
“Maybe it was us, the original Truancy,” Takan said wearily. “We started the war in the first place, after all.”
“Zyid only rebelled because of the Educators who oppressed him,” Noni protested, then hesitated. “But after all, maybe they were just doing their jobs.”
Cross frowned in confusion. “So was it the Government, for starting this experiment in the first place?”
“Who was right or wrong? Who was good or evil?” The albino shook her head. “All of them and none of them. It’s all so meaningless. All it takes is a year of fighting, and people lose sight of how it started … and yet it never stops.”
“We wanted to save the people of this City.” Cross hung his head. “We’ve doomed them instead. All of them.”
“It does not have to be so.”
All four of the citizens turned their heads to stare at Iris, who had just spoken. Her words instantly kindled a new hope in their hearts.
“What do you mean?” Takan said quickly. “Can the City be saved somehow?”
Iris shook her head. “There is no way to save the City itself, not anymore. Sooner or later my father will discover what has happened here, and then his vengeance will be swift.”
The albino blinked a tear away. “Then—”
“I am not finished,” Iris said, grimacing with pain. “There might still be a chance to save the people of the City.”
“How?” Cross said, leaning over the table. “What do we have to do?”
Iris looked at him, her gray eyes clear and focused.
“The drawbridges and tunnels leading out of the City have all been raised or blocked off. This is the way the City has been contained for generations,” she explained. “Their controls can be accessed from the observation spire at the top of—”
“Penance Tower,” Takan finished. “I remember that.”
Iris nodded. “Penance Tower is located here in District 1. The building is on emergency power. The elevators probably won’t work, so it will be difficult to get up there.”
“I will do it,” the albino said immediately, resolve clear on her face. “We have no time to waste. I’ll leave now.”
The albino turned to leave.
“I’m coming with you, teacher!” Cross called.
The albino did not seem to hear him, for she had already walked out of the dining hall. Cross made to follow her, then paused, turning to look hesitantly at Iris. The General looked peaceful now, completely still as she lay bleeding on top of the table. It was almost as though they were attending her wake.
“General,” Cross said quietly.
“What is it?” Iris asked. “I cannot move much right now; it will agitate the bleeding, and there are still things for me to do in the minutes I have left.”
Cross took a deep breath.
“Iris, I’m sorry for—for shooting you,” he said. “I was angry and it wasn’t fair, I know that. It wasn’t fair.”
Iris smiled faintly. “There’s no such thing as fairness, Cross. The ends make the means irrelevant.”
Somehow the tears snuck up on Cross, and before he knew it he was crying as he supported himself against the table.
“I hated you,” Cross sobbed. “You killed someone I loved. When we were fleeing the District 13 camp.”
Iris creased her brow for a moment, searching her memories. Then she sighed.
“The girl with the grenade?” Iris glanced at Cross, who nodded. “We buried her properly, if that is any comfort. I once believed that you cared for nothing but violence. I’m sorry. It appears I misjudged you.”
“Don’t apologize,” Cross said, wiping his eyes. “I’m the one doing that.”
Then, without another word, Cross turned and ran out of the room after the albino, leaving Takan and Noni alone with the dying General.
* * *
The skies of the City had turned a dull gray. As the albino slipped out of the front doors of the Mayoral Mansion, she could feel the change in the weather. Rain was coming; an end to the recent drought the City had suffered.
That knowledge was of no comfort to the nameless girl. What she had done and learned inside the Mansion devastated her. The fatal blows had not been hers in any way, and yet she still felt like a murderer. Whether she knew it at the time or not, whether she meant it or not, the albin
o was partly responsible for killing a great woman.
And in the process she had doomed the whole City.
The albino let out a quiet moan of anguish. Not since she was a child on the streets, scrabbling through trash cans for the first time had she felt so lost, so confused. It’s like her whole world had shattered, as though everything she had ever done, ever tried to be, had been exposed as a lie.
She was guilty now of a crime she could never atone for. There was no redemption for what they had done.
“What would you do if you’d put a lot of people in danger?”
“I would try to save them.”
The albino tightened her grip on her chain. She would do whatever it took to be true to those words, which had come so naturally and so easily before, but now seemed so difficult. Looking up at the skyline, the albino saw Penance Tower looming ominously in the distance. It was like a great shadow against the clouds.
The albino knew that even if she could get to the top, she might not be able to get out in time. That was okay with her. It was her sacrifice to make. Quickly she walked towards the Humvee that they had ditched before.
“Teacher, wait for me!”
The albino ignored the voice. It came again, louder. Then its owner placed a hand on her shoulder, and she rounded on him, an unfamiliar intensity on her face.
“This is my burden, Cross,” she said forcefully. “This is my way of repaying a debt to the City. I need to do this alone.”
“Your burden?” Cross blinked. “You can’t claim that kind of responsibility for yourself! What about me? I was the one who shot Iris! I was the one who planned this attack, led this rebellion!”
“I don’t want to share the risk. We have no idea what might be waiting for us there. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, Cross.”
Cross folded his arms. “All the more reason two of us should go.”
The two of them stared each other down, the same determination mirrored on their faces. Finally, the albino looked away and sighed.
“You know that if we go, there’s a good chance we won’t make it out in time,” she said quietly. “You have to assume you won’t survive.”
Cross blinked. “Teacher, what could we possibly do with our lives that is more important than this?”