realityshifted | (no subject)

And this Syndicate wanted to kill the Contractors why?

Why did Hitler want to kill the Jews?

So the Syndicate - and now your government - treated Contractors like subhumans.

Yes. The most terrifying part for me was when I realized that much of my government was the Syndicate. Which brings us, I suppose, to my personal involvement in this case.

[She considers for a while.] I thought I was just a police officer, doing my job, protecting my city from dangerous elements. Some agencies employed Contractors--I got to know an English agent named November 11 rather well--we did not. We worked with Contractors from other agencies, however. Particularly during the case I worked on that culminated in the Hell's Gate incident. [A pause.] I was tracking down a Contractor called the Black Reaper, Messier designation BK201.

[leans forwards, eyes on her, listening to the story with an expression showing a combination of human interest and copper's analytical thought, habitual after this many years]

A lot was happening. Contractors were more active in general; French agents tried to steal Gate research, a Contractor infamous for the slaughter she caused in Heaven's Fall was rediscovered in northern Europe and brought to Japan to be researched at the UN facility.

In the first case, BK201 tried to intercept the information. In the second, he kidnapped the Contractor and brought her to the Gate. I don't know why; she was a Regressor. Her powers had gone dormant. When she went near the Gate, they... were stimulated. But she maintained control--something she'd never been able to do before. We were supposed to take her into custody, but November killed her.

[She traces the lines on one palm with a finger.]

There was also a young girl during that period whose powers appeared with a vengeance. She was a Moratoria--a person with Contractor powers who goes into a trance like state when fear or anger triggers them. They truly are emotionless, if only while under the influence of their Contract. BK201 was in close proximity to her throughout the event. And then... she... well, she became a Regressor, in a way. Her powers came under her control. And she disappeared. Her father had been killed; there were traces of activity from her corresponding star, but we were never able to pinpoint her location.

You had a very active man to hunt, it seems.

[So very icon.]

Yes. He was involved in almost every case I pursued after that point, in one way or another. He seemed to be connected to every issue that arose. And they arose with much greater frequency when the sunspot cycle began. That's when the EPR showed up in Tokyo--the Evening Primrose terrorist group, Contractors who were fighting for equal recognition under law. They were led by Amber who, I found out, was one of the Contractors involved in triggering the Heaven's Gate disaster.

Amber was spotted by April, one of the agents in November's group, and subsequently April was involved in a car bombing. She survived, but November went rogue to hunt Amber down. Apparently, she had been fighting alongside him at Heaven's Fall when she went rogue herself.

[She trails off, her thoughts clearly elsewhere.]

...Misaki?

Hmm? Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking about him--November, that is.

What was he like?

[She props her chin in one hand, her smile ironic.]

Enigmatic. Sarcastic. He would make threats out of jokes and vice-versa, until you couldn't tell when he was saying he'd kill you and when he was just amusing himself. But once you got used to him... He was nice. In his own way. If you knew how to handle him properly, you could even surprise him with a sadistic joke of your own every once in a while.

[She shakes her head, smiling to herself. Then the smile fades.] He was the one that first tipped me off, that first let me know about the Syndicate's presence in the government and my office. He did it in a very roundabout way, of course. He was trying to keep me out of danger and keep me on my guard at the same time.

[Very quietly.] He was murdered.

[softly] I'm sorry, as inadequate as that is.

Thank you. [She pauses, sighs deeply and shakes her head again, this time to clear it.] Where were we?

November hunting Amber down.

Right. [A pause to gather her thoughts again.]

Shortly after the EPR bombed a CIA office building in Tokyo, they went after the American Embassy. It was a distraction; a feint. While we were busy trying to protect the ambassadors, a Contractor with teleportation abilities slipped in and kidnapped a scientist who was working there at the time. He was one of the foremost authorities on Contractors and the Gate.

We tracked him down, eventually. He'd been taken to Amber's base, along with November and several others. We got him back, but November and the rest--including BK201, who was there attempting to assassinate Amber--escaped or were taken. That's when I found out about what happened at Heaven's Gate. They were attempting to use a particle accelerator to destroy the Gate; the Gates are apparently connected. One closes, they both close, and along with them go the Contractors.

[Her lip curls.] The way they put it was, I believe, that they would melt like sugar in hot coffee.

BK201 was responsible for stopping them back then--though, apparently, the star belonged to a different Contractor. Which made no sense. It still doesn't make sense--when a Contractor dies, their star falls. I've never heard of a Contract being transfered.

But in any case, BK201's power was apparently such that, given the right stimulation, he could alter things at a molecular level. They said he was able to generate a similar phenomenon to that which grants Contractors their abilities, though of course they didn't go into detail.

After that the BK201 case was removed from my department. It was suspicious. It was all too suspicious. And then November came to me and told me to trust nothing but my instincts. That was the last time I saw him alive.

Was it his own government?

[She closes her eyes.] Yes. He killed his handler and got killed himself for doing it. No one would tell me why, but I knew it had to do with Amber and the Gate. It was so obvious. I was determined to get there, to get into the PANDORA facility before anything more could go wrong. The sunspot cycle was peaking, the same way it had just before South America.

And then the EPR launched an all-out attack on the Gate facility. There were tanks in the streets, people dying everywhere, and the stars just kept on falling. [She looks a lot older than twenty-seven for a moment.]

With Saito and Kouno's help, I made it to the Gate. One of my direct superiors was already there. He told me what they were going to do--how they were going to kill the Contractors, how Amber was trying to recreate the Heaven's Gate incident, which would have wiped out the entire Japanese archipelago.

[Silence.]

And then he told me about the Syndicate. Told me that it was an alliance of various covert ops groups and governmental agencies--told me that I was part of it, without knowing. And then he asked me if I wanted to join their cause higher up. [Mirthless smile.] Help shape the world in the way it was supposed to go.

You turned him down.

[Rubs her eyes.] I did. By that time they were already preparing the particle accelerator to annihilate the Gate. I told them to stop. Telemetry showed BK201 wasn't even near the center of the Gate--he couldn't have triggered the explosion, if he would have in the first place.

[Long pause, and she smiles a bit.] He destroyed the accelerator instead. He saved them both--the Contractors and the humans of Japan. I'd recorded my conversation about the Syndicate, though of course it only led to a chipping away of some members. I'm sure they're still out there, trying to reorganize themselves. And I'm back to being a cop, though I hope I have a better idea of who I'm serving now. Contractors are becoming public knowledge, slowly, so the idea of annihilating them wouldn't go over too well. But I'm watching for the next sunspot cycle, because... [She shrugs.]

[She sags back into her chair.] Anything else?

No, not at the moment. It's a bit... it's a lot.

Thank you, Misaki. Really. Thank you.

[a pause; he shuts his eyes for a while, processing information, and then opens them]

If I have any other questions, I will ask. If there's anything you want to know.... [holds his arms out. 'Ask away']

[She looks up at the sky, smiling a little.] It is a lot. And you're welcome. It's... [She sighs.]

I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. The risk of someone from the Syndicate showing up here, or a Contractor--have you noticed? When someone from a certain reality appears here, it seems to attract other of their acquaintance. And then the potential for mergers...

[She shrugs.] It was a lot to risk.

And thank you. [Chuckle.] I'm a bit worn out, but if I think of anything later...

I'll be very careful with how I share this information, I promise.

Of course. An IOU from each of us to the other, then.