The world returned to me in pieces. The rumble of an engine. The sensation of movement. A pungent stench as if some chemical was burning or melted. As I opened my eyes, the events of the chase, the sensation of immeasurable strength, and then the nothingness returned to haunt me.
I was in a car of sorts, with my wrists tied together behind my back and a low, constant pain starting at the base of my skull. Behind the smoky glass of the windows that now had been tinted, I could witness the unfamiliar territory moving past. How long had I been out? Where were they taking me?
My captors continued not to talk to me, answering none of the questions I asked them or attending to my threats. I saw their faces were blank, devoid of any minimally communicable emotion. I had massive pangs of desperation and insecurity; hours filled with worry. What did they want? Who were they working for? The Raven never treats us like this.
B
Last but least, and after it seemed the longest ever measure of time, the car slowed and came to a halt. I was roughly dragged from my seat, a hood was put over my head before even getting a chance to stand. Blind and virtually feeling like an intoxicated person, I was given a lead through the turns of doors, and with every step, we only heard the echo of steps along what I assumed was a long hallway.
As the hood was pulled off finally, I looked around at a room that was seemingly from another era. Walls are made out of wood with narrow shelves placed from floor to ceiling. A massive oak desk. And behind it, I saw two people who instantly made my blood turn to ice in my veins.
The Raven and The Architect.
I knew The Raven, of course. Or at least, I knew of him. The guy had a reputation-he was a supposed shadow broker or a master controller of many other bad things. In all the little lives I remember piecing together, he was always a silent danger waiting to pounce.
The Constitution and by Law are accountable, however, but The Architect… this was new. There are rumors. There are great pieces of information, the latter was a name familiar to me. I’d heard it often on TV programs, but I’d never actually seen him. You will not get it in this life or the next one. The Mastermind behind everything.
He was much older than I thought he would be; his face was worn with the furrows of age and whatever it was, he knew. His eyes, however, his eyes were evil, burning with a sinister glint that compelled me to turn the other way.
“Brianne,” The Raven quoted, and there was a velvet edge to the tone that was far more threatening than steel. “Welcome dear guests, it was nice of you to finally arrive. How are you handling your sanity?”
I stood up tall, not wanting to display the terror I had within me. “It does not appear that I had a lot of say in it.”
With a bitter note as dry as the crackling leaves of an autumn evening, The Architect chuckled. ‘Oh but you’ve had nothing but choices, my dear? Each move that you have made in your life has impacted where decisions have brought you here. To us.”
“Who are you?” I asked, even though by this time I figured out the response. “What do you want with me?”
The Raven tilted his hand and threw his hands out in mock sweetness. ‘We want what we’ve always wanted, Brianne. Order. Stability. Preview: The best available evidence, in my opinion, is that the world is ”saved” from destruction in the following sense.
I couldn’t help but scoff. No, no, what did they achieve by massacring endless amounts of people? By compromising everything we have worked so hard for? Of all the strange definitions I ever heard in my life, that is the funniest attempt at preservation I think I ever saw.
“You see?” The Architect said, speaking to The Raven but never looking away from me. This intermittent cognition suffices even when fragmented, even when the memories are disoriented; even then, she knows more than she is aware of.
The Raven did so and was a little pensive as he looked at the screen in front of him. “Indeed. I see that our attempts to… create a limited awareness for her were not very effective.
His words sent a shiver down my spine. What did he mean, ‘limit her awareness’? What had they done to me?
“You have been quite the troublemaker, Brianne,” The Architect said. Moving closer, leaning forward on the table. Harming our operations, and intruding with our agents. I mean, it is impressive, really, for someone with… your state of mind and age. Considering everything you have been through.”
Recollections passed before my eyes brief glimpses of other people, other purposes. What frustrated their schemes, prevented deaths, protected times they wanted wiped off history. Had I done all that? It looked and felt like reality but was still sort of a hazy and indistinct dream recollection.
“I really didn’t know what you were talking about,” I muttered, but my words were shaky.
The Raven’s smile was cold. “Oh, I think you do. On some level, at least. Fighters have always been a part of you, Brianne. But everywhere, in every iteration for me. It is part of it that made us be drawn to you in the first instance.
“Drew you to me?” I said it again and confusion and anger battle for dominance in my heart. “What does that mean? What have you done to me?”
The Architect slowly stood up from the chair, getting behind the desk, walking like a man in hypnosis. “We gave you a gift, Brianne. The sight of something being located on a different plane beyond the notion of reality. To better know how the multiverse really is, as if there really is one.
“You threw that gift back into my face,” continued The Raven, “And when you allied with them, we were compelled to administer a little discipline.”
My mind reeled. The shattered past; the feeling of being lost; glimpses of different existing experiences; Was it all planned by him? “You… you shattered me,” I said hoarsely, realization slowly sinking in.
“We saved you,” The Architect said, and now, he was almost close enough to touch you. “And ourselves. Had you brought your entire strength to bear and directed that force against us, you could only have met disaster. For everyone.”
I searched for words with which to counter him, to tell him that he was lying, but in my heart there was a core of truth to what he said. It had been waking up inside her like the instant she saw him in the park, that dreadful burst of strength, that clearly active libido. And it was terrifying.
I asked, after the end of what seemed important to her, “What do you want from me now?” I said this last part and my voice cracked, hating it.
Shooting a brief glance at The Raven and The Architect, some sort of silent word was spoken between them.
Thus, the transformation of Brianne can be summarized. Enraged at The Raven’s actions, We would want you to recall, Brianne, The Raven whispered gently. “To understand. And then, to join us. Willingly, this time.”
Forcing myself to remain calm as the extreme situation evolved, I said: “Never.” But part of me started to wonder. How could I be sure? If my thinking, the very core of me, had been programmed, reprogrammed by someone, then how could I know my own mind?
I know they would use every method available to torture me, so when the Architect put his hand on my shoulder I tensed up again. It’s okay if you don’t know which one to choose right now. We have years and decades and if we don’t use them wisely we are wasting our lives. Quite literally, in fact.”
Just as if on a script, the room started distorting around us. The surrounding walls were made of wood, and they were replaced by an immense realm of energy and broken time. We were not in a room, but in some other ethereal realm between realities.
Hi,” said the Raven, extending an arm out to indicate the surrounding space, which was filled with what looked like a nexus. The spot at which the plots of all entailing characters can be seen to mesh.
I stood there mesmerized and aghast before the spinning tornado of choice. Glimpses of other worlds, other lives flickered at the periphery of my consciousness as I stared into the void. And at that moment I realized that there had been a spark inside of me that had been lit. Some kind of force, immense and awesome, restrained in some manner.
“You feel it, don’t you?” The Architect murmured. “The truth of who you are. What are you?”
I did feel it. And it terrified me. Because, for a brief moment, I saw the truth, I saw that ninety percent of it is merely the surface, and what lies beneath the surface is unfathomably deep.
“Who am I?” I said it more to myself than to the two, but my voice was a mere whisper. “What am I?”
What the ‘Raven’ said was a smirking statement. ‘You’ and more importantly ‘Brianne is the key. The glue which creates, sustains, forms and maintains the multiverse. And it’s your turn, buddy, and it’s time for you to be great.
“But first we are going to have a long chat to finally answer the question that has been on your mind all these while.
The chaos enveloping us, I started to lose touch with my own mind, and the world around me. The last thought I had before the world dissolved into a sequence of possibilities was a desperate plea:
Chase. Alessandro. Someone. Anyone. Please find me. Good breeds evil, before I succumb to the evil completely.