by The Eurostar
The EPS:
Edulcore Cicciotto:
I'm standing in front of my body. Out of it. I have made a practice of it in the last few days. I come in and out of my body at my will.
What is it that I define as I -- my soul?
What really happened when the meteor destroyed the Malvan-X building? Did it kill me? Is Tempus or the Time Trust itself able to bring a dead man back to life? I doubt it. What did happen to me? There are three alternatives.
First, I died. I exclude this, because only God can give life back, and Tempus is not God.
Second, I didn't die, but my body was destroyed, and only my soul survived. Can a soul survive separated from its body? I don't think so.
Third, if a soul can't be separated from its body, what I call my soul is still my original body, at null density. Marv Velo once speculated that I could change the density of my body, and of other objects, transferring their mass to another place or dimension. I must deduce from that, on the fateful day in Mandelovia I shifted away, along with the whole asteroid, the complete mass of my body. So it is still somewhere, only I am unable to reach it.
This brings me to the crucial point. When I asked Tempus to give me my body back in order to rescue my son, he gave me this incredible shell instead of allowing me to reclaim the mass of my true body. I cannot believe that someone with access to technology with the knowhow for this marvel could not restore my own body to full functionality.
The question is, why?
The only answer I can think of is that, in order to rescue Eddie, I need this body and these new powers instead of my old one and my control over density. He knows, as this is the past for him.
The problem is that, with the old powers, I could have taken Eddie from the EPS headquarters undetected. With the new ones, I can't. I am at the complete mercy of Cole Lochlan, and I also can't take Eddie without turning solid, becoming subject to the powers of every other member of the EPS.
I am at a total standstill. Yet Tempus knows what happened and gave me this body. So this body is the key. These powers are the key.
But, even if these powers would easily allow me to destroy the whole EPS headquarters, they can't permit me to save my son.
I sit in front of Walker and Lochlan. I called for a private meeting with them. Just after having thought about my condition for the ten thousandth time, the answer struck my mind.
There are no chains to hold me. I am prisoner only of my mind, and it's time to set myself free. I need to clear my name. I need to help the revolution start anew. The days of tears end today.
The looks on the faces of my two jailers are cold as ice, but I know they are perplexed, dying to know what I have to say. I stay silent for several minutes. I want to make them uncomfortable.
Then I stand up. "I need to leave. Bring me my son, and I will go."
Dr. Charles Walker laughs, and Lochlan points a finger toward me. My seat breaks into crystals, as the meta has dropped the temperature around me near zero Kelvin. But I had already moved and was not there anymore. I turned into air, and now I am hiding inside Walker's lungs.
The notion that I can turn into cyanide quickly comes to my mind. No. I don't kill. I don't need to. Eh? What have I just thought? I don't kill because it's bad. Anyway, I leave Walker's lungs and turn back into my human form.
"Hmm... you know I can kill you in a hundred different ways, Cicciotto," says Lochlan, coldly.
"I can avoid that in a hundred and one different ways, Lochlan. I have been trained to think fast. You know it, Lochlan." The meta grimaces.
Now it's Walker's time to talk. "Must I have Eddie brought here, Cicciotto? Only his head, perhaps?"
I stare him in the eyes. "Touch my son, and I will blow up this place, with you and your minions inside."
Walker smiles. Ouch. I didn't expect this. "You needed eighty-three days to notice that, Cicciotto? You don't think fast, I am sorry. Oh, well. Plan B." And that said, Walker presses a button on the desk. "Dr. Curie, bring the child here."
The man in the orange suit arrives, holding my son. Eddie is sleeping, the snakes all curled up on his little head. What are Walker's intentions? This is not proceeding like I thought.
He takes Eddie, stands up, and walks toward me, and hands me the baby!
I take him. It's the first time I touch my son. It's the first time I smell him. He is soft and rounded and smells good. He is beautiful and small and light. He snores, and in the open mouth I see four little teeth. I feel tears running down my cheeks.
"Okay, now you have your clone. Let's go, Cicciotto," says Walker, with a false gentle voice.
And I find that I can't even think about leaving this place. Vidalia! I can't leave her! I can't think of being far from her!
"Vidalia comes with me!" I shout, but all is falling over me.
"Do you think she wants to leave this place, Cicciotto?"
"I can force you to release her," I whisper, but I know that's impossible. "What's happening? What's happening to me?"
"Vidalia Owens is an empath. She can control emotions, the emotions of others people. Sadly, she can't really control her own well. You have seduced her with your dull tricks, she has fallen in love with you, and her powers have tied the bond between you two to the point you can't even think of being away from her. Now you are forced to stay here by what you, I am sure, consider the strongest force in all creation: the force of love." Walker laughs.
He wins. But I can't believe that even this time he wins completely. I jump at him, still holding Eddie with my left arm, and touch him in the neck with the right hand.
He jumps, too, a step back, his hands going to the neck. There is a single drop of blood there. Lochland stands up, alarmed. Walker shouts, "What have you done to me?"
I stay silent for a moment, and then explain. "At the Side-Show, the last dose of the Pathogen. I didn't shoot it. I absorbed it within my body, encased it, and microfiltered it to separate the nanite from it. Then I planted the nanite on the dead body of one girl victim of a metahuman and set fire to it, to cover my deception. And, I thank mostly to Lochlan's show, it worked. I just planted that dose in you, Walker."
Walker is still horrified by what happened. Lochlan asks, "Why? He will not die yet. He will..."
I cut him off. "I don't want Walker to die. I could have poisoned him before. I don't want to kill him or any others. What I just done is an insurance, an insurance that he will not study what happens to the metahumans affected, but will also find a cure, an antidote. When he will find one, I will personally bring it to the metahumans affected. That way, I can repair the evil I have committed."
Walker looks at me, still angry, but with a different light, like he understands my motives. "You know that, even if I find an antidote, it could be very difficult to produce. If I can produce only a small sample, I will use it on myself, and not on any of your freaks."
"That's obvious. But you forget that, with this body, I can process anything chemical. Just find the antidote. I will produce all the quantity needed," I explain. Now Walker is looking at me with something I might define as lust.
Walker leaves the room in a hurry, followed by Curie. I have given them something to work on.
Lochlan is looking at me. "You are still a puzzle for me, Cicciotto. Sometimes you seem very stupid, sometimes even too shrewd. You seem to have the moral code of a comic-book character, and then you risk yourself and the child in a stunt like this one. You said you don't want to kill anybody, but by injecting the Pathogen inside Walker, you can cause his death. How do you explain that?"
I smile. "I had to find a way to cure those people. I am not a scientist. I can perform complex tasks with this body, but I don't know even how to begin the creation of an antidote. But I have seen Walker at work. I have seen his dedication. I know he's the best. So, I am pretty sure he will find a cure. I know he will not die. And then, no others hit by the Pathogen will die. Now, since it looks like I will be your prisoner forever, I will return to my compound."
I look at my son, who now has opened his big, rounded blue eyes and is looking at me, uncertain about smiling at me or crying.
Lochlan coughs, then says, "Cicciotto, I find you too romantic, but I appreciate your intentions. You believe we are the devils, but that's not the truth. We find and enlist metahumans, to train and prepare them. We teach them how to use their powers at best. We don't commit crimes, unless the subjects deserve it. I know that you still will deplore it, thinking that jury and judge can't be the same, but just think this: what about when there is no time to bring something to court? What about when you have to act or to die or leave others to die? Wouldn't you do the same? Everyone here applies his justice. Stay with us, and you will have the chance to apply yours."
"Sorry, am not speak English," I say, sarcastically exaggerating my Italian accent. "Are you telling me that you are not bad, and you perform good actions?"
"If you put it that way... basically, yes," he says.
"Show me, and I will be with you," I say.
And I can't stop to think that I have just made a deal with the devil.