The Light Through Chaos

~~~~~~~~~~~

Cast

The Villain- Ixilda Aelden

The Damsel in Distress- Carolina Stark

The Hapless Hero- Reed Cassidy

The Sidekick- The Darkener

The Special Agent- Maegan Allery

The Death the Hero Can't Forgive Himself For- Violet Aelden

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright, Miss Stark, we've retrieved all necessary information from your brain," President Stoner reentered the room, placing a stack of papers down in front of me and Carolina. "Most of it is completely irrelevant to our task. Mr. Cassidy, it will be your responsibility to find what we need."

"And what exactly, Mr. President, is it that we need?" I raised an eyebrow.

"The location of Black Sky headquarters, you idiot!" Allery leaned over, hissing in my ear. "Stop embarrassing yourself."

"Oh, yes, I knew that," I shrugged sheepishly. "Let's see..." I pulled the papers toward myself for a closer look, quickly realizing that I had to squint to read the small print in the dim boardroom. The lack of electric lighting, the dead phones, and the cries of desperate people just outside our windows were a constant reminder that we had lost...Ixilda Aelden and her Darkener had won. Anything we did now was merely grasping at straws. It was only a matter of time before the Protectorate ceased to exist altogether.

Trying unsuccessfully to dispel these morbid thoughts from my mind, I concentrated what little energy I had left on the task at hand. I sifted through the pages retrieved from Carolina's subconscious memory, things she didn't even remember she remembered. A lot of the collected data was amusing but useless.

The name of the imaginary friend she had when she was five.

The color of the costume she wore for her first school play.

The distance and midpoint formulas.

Finally, I came upon a page that was marked with blue around the edges- things that should've remained in her active memory, but were intentionally pushed into her subconscious. Practically all of them were inside secrets of the Black Sky.

Bingo.

"Got it!" I smiled, circling the address with red pen.

"Done yet?" Carolina spat, still looking at me with the same aversion and disgust she had maintained throughout our trip to Protectorate headquarters.

"I was just doing my job!" I threw my hands up in the air in frustration. She may have had a very valid reason to hate me, but there was only so much I could tolerate. Even when the future of the world was at stake.

"I know," she sighed, blowing a stray strand of caramel hair out of her face. "I just don't particularly like the idea of you of all people digging through my brain."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. "That's funny, because I don't particularly like the idea of you being the only one in the world other than the Blackies with all this crucial information either."

"Just stop," Allery groaned. "This is no time for you to be arguing! Can't you see that humanity is hours away from total and complete loss of civilization, and we're the only ones who can stop it!? Protectors...it's time to protect."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I gasped, my voice bumping up an octave

"I heard you lost your backpack on your last assignment. Get another set of equipment, and get on the road. You're going here-" Allery placed a clipped fingernail on the circled address, which was surprisingly not far from town.

Giving it a second look, I noticed that it was an apartment.

How the heck does the international headquarters of a highly sophisticated terrorist organization fit in an apartment?

I really didn't want to find out.

"So, are you expecting me to walk in there, blow up the Darkener, kill Aelden, and waltz on out as if nothing happened?"

Allery and President Stoner nodded simultaneously.

"What the...I was being sarcastic!" I yelled. "I'm not Superman, I'm Reed Cassidy! The worst Protector in the history of freaking Protectors!"

"Or so you would have us think," Allery smiled mysteriously.

"What do you mean?"

"I think you know exactly what I mean. I'm your Commander. I'd be blind if I didn't notice that you've intentionally failed every assessment you've ever been given here. It's not that you aren't ready for missions. You've been trying to convince us that you're awful to avoid them. Unfortunately for you, that's not going to work anymore. You're our only operative who didn't run for the hills the moment the Darkener struck, and that alone proves that you've got mettle. You're going to Black Sky headquarters."

"But-"

"No buts. Find the base and deactivate the Darkener. Every second we sit here wasting time, Blackies are killing innocent people, valuable food is going bad from the lack of refrigeration, and Aelden's getting closer to world domination."

Gritting my teeth, I grabbed a Sharpie, scrawling Aelden's address on the back of my hand. With WiFi and GPS satellites out, I was going to have to do this the old fashioned way.

"Good luck, Reed," President Stoner smiled warmly. "I hope you don't die."

"I hope you do," Carolina smirked.

I ignored her and rose from my chair, exiting the boardroom. Running into the nearest bathroom, I stood over the sink, retching. Yet, I could not relieve myself.

Great, just great. I was seconds into my mission, and I already had an upset stomach.

I had stayed out of the limelight for a reason.

But now, that was all about to go to waste. I was about to go on a top secret Protectorate mission. I was about to experience my worst nightmare.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Whoa..." Ehrana pressed her hand to her plump lower lip in surprise as the leader of the Black Sky came into view, descending the rickety, wooden stairs into the underground chamber that contained her prized possession, the Darkener.

"What?" Ixilda raised an eyebrow, crossing the short distance to the corner in which her majestic creation stood, beeping steadily.

"You look...different," her assistant elaborated.

"Oh," Ixilda laughed, glancing at her slightly distorted reflection in one of the chamber's translucent walls. It was true- she could barely recognize herself in her crimson dress and sequined flats. Or, perhaps it was just the fact that she had grown so accustomed to wearing black.

"I suppose I should look a bit nicer than usual on my first day as ruler of Chaos."

"Chaos?" Ehrana smirked as Ixilda inspected the Darkener, making slight adjustments as she saw fit. "That's what you're going to call your world? How creative," she chuckled, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"Question my creativity and you will soon find yourself questioning your sanity," Ixilda replied calmly.

Ehrana quickly folded her hands in her lap, looking away in an attempt to make Ixilda forget she had ever said anything. Her cruel colleague's eloquent threats rarely made any sense, but she knew from firsthand experience that they never meant anything good.

"I'm the one who made all of this possible, and you're just sitting there ignoring me," the Darkener droned in its monotonous, robotic voice.

"You're a machine," Ixilda rolled her eyes. "At this point, you should be used to being ignored."

"That doesn't mean you can't give me a thank you gift- like a voice that sounds less obnoxious, for starters. A few more weeks of this, and my own speech will drive me crazy."

"Shut up or I'll turn you off," Ixilda growled.

"Turn me off and your master plan is ruined."

"Hmph," the annoyed supervillain crossed her arms, reluctantly conceding. "So," she turned her attention back to her assistant. "Any new developments?"

"The casualty count currently sits at four hundred and ninety eight," Ehrana replied, glancing at one of the Darkener's many screens.

"Do we still have a tab on Carrie?" Ixilda asked.

"Yes. She's currently at...let's see...Protectorate headquarters!" Ehrana gasped.

"What? How!?" The leader of the Black Sky fumed, bringing her fist down on the table in front of her so hard she nearly shattered it. "This is bad, very bad. If the Protectors find out where we are before we have a chance to move to a more secure location, they could sabotage our entire operation!"

"I could get us a look inside their building if you'd like."

"Yes, do that."

Ignoring the machine's protests, Ehrana turned one of the Darkener's knobs slightly to the right, watching as an image came into focus. She continued to twist the knob in different directions until she found the camera feed she was looking for.

"Nothing in the Protector offices...kitchens, libraries, and gyms are empty...dorms are deserted," she grinned. "It appears as if those cowards ran for their lives the moment the lights went out. But wait," she added, finally seeing something. "There's movement in the boardroom. I see their President, Maegan Allery, and some other guy."

"Allery," Ixilda hissed. "I should've known she'd stick around in a crisis. She's one of their best. If she's coming down here, we need to be prepared to fight her."

"I don't think she's the one they're sending..." Ehrana trailed off. "The guy's the one in a mission jumpsuit."

"What?" Ixilda frowned. "Why would they send someone else when they have Allery available? Let me see that." She turned the screen toward herself, focusing in on the grainy image of the young Protector who sat across from the President of the Protectorate.

"No, it can't be..." she whispered, staring at the picture. "Violet..."

"What about her?"

"That's Reed Cassidy!" Ixilda spat. "That's the man who killed my daughter!"

"He's still alive?" Ehrana's eyes narrowed with hatred. "If he managed to kill someone as skilled as Violet so early in his career, he must be an excellent agent. It would be advisable for us to exercise caution."

"Don't worry," Ixilda laughed. "He couldn't possibly do anything to harm us. The incident with Violet scarred him: ever since it happened, he's had a morbid fear of missions. If we manage to effectively use that against him, he'll run for the hills before he makes it to our front door."

~~~~~~~~~~~

As the seemingly ordinary apartment complex that housed the Black Sky came into view, my legs instantly turned to jelly. I was forced to stand there, staring up at the darkening sky and the mayhem that unfolded around me, as I attempted to convince my mind to allow me to proceed.

"Hey, watch out, man!" A middle-aged guy with shaggy, silver hair pushed me behind a pole as two lines of Blackies marched by in perfect formation, armed with machine guns.

"Thanks," I muttered weakly.

Reed Cassidy: The Protector who got rescued by a civilian.

"You need to keep moving," the man advised as he walked away. "These people are super precise, but they aren't very fast."

I nodded, focusing my attention on the building before me. Taking in a deep breath, I approached it. As soon as I was within ten feet of it, memories began to flood my mind, distracting me. I tried to tell myself that this wasn't the same apartment building it had happened in- heck, it wasn't even the same city- but my fear knew no logic. Every step I took, I was reminded of it.

I had been wearing the same jumpsuit, carrying the same backpack...

My heart beat rapidly as I stumbled awkwardly along the row of doors, trying to locate the correct apartment number. This was the first time in several years that I had to directly confront my horrid recollections of it. Luckily, my destination was on the first floor, so I wouldn't have to climb any stairs to reach it.

If I was too disoriented to climb stairs, how was I supposed to fight Ixilda Aelden?

Approaching the correct door, I pulled my right leg back, kicking it with all my might. Surprisingly, it swung open without any trouble. What kind of evil mastermind left the door to her base unlocked?

An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach as I walked inside, grabbing my gun with my right hand and my knife with my left. Something wasn't right.

Even on the inside, the apartment looked surprisingly normal. There was a small living room occupied by two couches and a coffee table, a kitchenette, and a white door that obviously led to a bedroom. I carefully explored each room, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Everything from cookware to clothing was put neatly away in its respective place, almost as if the apartment's occupants had simply gone on a long vacation. Just as I finished searching the bedroom, convinced that I had the wrong address, a holographic image appeared on the plain, beige wall across from me.

It was a picture of a smiling Violet Aelden. Scrawled across it was a message in red font.

"We've been expecting you."

My breath hitched in my throat and I turned away, unable to bear the sight. The last time I had seen that face was when I...

I didn't want to think about it.

I couldn't afford to think about it.

"Come on, Reed, I just want us to be friends."

I tucked my knees into my chest, cowering on the floor, as Violet's crystal clear voice penetrated the air.

"It's just a recording," I muttered to myself. "She's dead. You know she's dead."

You killed her. This is all your fault.

"I do too, but your mom's going to kill me for it! I'm a Protector, and you're the heir to the Black Sky!" My own younger voice protested.

Aelden had been recording all of that? Aelden had recorded it? What kind of sick person kept a recording of her daughter's death?

"But I don't want to lead the Black Sky!" The recording continued to play from unseen speakers. "I hate them! They're awful and sadistic! I just want to have a normal life."

"I gotta go, they're coming!"

The sound of distant footsteps, shouting, and loud static interrupted the conversation.

"Reed!" Violet screamed my name.

"Get out of the way!"

"No! Reed, please!"

Crack.

"Stop it!" I yelled, covering my face with my hands. "Please, Ixilda! I'll leave right now and never come back! Heck, I'll even join you if you want! Just stop! I can't take this anymore. You've won!"

I pushed my palms down over my ears and squeezed my eyes shut until the only sound I heard was my own shallow breathing. Slowly and timidly forcing my right eye open, I realized that the picture of Violet was no longer on the wall. It had been replaced by a longer message typed in the same red text as the previous one. Shakily standing up, I read it.

"Alright, but don't think you're going to get away with this. Go to the living room. There will be trapdoor there, and it will be open. Enter it, or there will be video to accompany the audio."

Taking in a deep breath, I exited the bedroom. Sure enough the threadbare rug had been tossed aside, revealing a gaping hole in the floor. Peering inside, I saw the first few steps of a long staircase that led down into the darkness. So that was why the whole place looked so ordinary.

The base wasn't in the apartment. It was under it.

Certain that I was walking to my death, I began to descend into the abyss below me. Fluorescent lights flickered on around me, illuminating my path as I went deeper and deeper. After a few minutes, the narrow tunnel opened up into a large, circular room. It was shockingly well lit and filled with occupied cubicles, each of which contained a working computer.

So the Blackies had cut the power everywhere in the world but in their own base. Selfish little idiots.

"Mr. Cassidy?" A Blackie woman in a purple dress and white flats approached me.

"Um...yeah?" I raised an eyebrow, tightening my grip on my weapons.

"Mrs. Aelden is waiting for you," she smiled. "Right this way."

No one seemed to pay me any mind as I followed her down a long hallway. It was almost as if they all knew that I would be coming. Something was awfully wrong with the whole situation, and I didn't like it one bit.

We stopped in front of a thick, mahogany door emblazoned with the initials "IA" at the very end of the corridor.

"You won't be needing those," the Blackie said calmly, pointing at my gun and my knife. I hesitantly handed her the weapons, a wad of spit forming at the back of my throat.

The first thing I noticed behind the door was a tall, black box covered in knobs and screens. The Darkener.

It was so tantalizingly close...I could almost reach out and smash it.

"Do you like it?" I whipped around at the sound of a powerful voice that was somehow simultaneously honeyed and sinister.

Ixilda Aelden stepped into view, running a manicured hand along the Darkener's sleek side. "You know when to give up," she chuckled. "I have to give you that."

"I didn't give up," I crossed my arms defiantly. "There are just certain things I can't take."

"Like the memory of what you did to poor Violet?" Ixilda bit her lip, hatred magnifying her cold, blue eyes. "Trust me, that's nothing compared to what's about to happen to you."

I quickly scanned the room with my eyes, only to find it completely empty save the Darkener and an abnormally neat desk. There was no escape. Unless...

At first glance, the leader of the Black Sky had appeared unarmed, but closer observation revealed a pistol discreetly strapped to her lower calf. If I managed to get my hands on it, I'd have a chance of getting out of her office alive.

"The gun isn't loaded," Ixilda said matter-of-factly, sitting down behind her desk. "You Protectors are so predictable."

"Whatever you want with me, stop taunting me and get it over with!" I hissed.

"Right now, you're not my priority," she shook her head, flipping up the screen of her laptop. "You're going to lead your Protector friends to me, and you're all going to die!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

President Stoner and Commander Maegan Allery stared anxiously at the screen of Stoner's computer, following the progress of their last remaining agent through the minute camera attached to his jumpsuit.

"That weakling!" Allery spat. "I should've known he'd break down at the slightest mention of Violet Aelden. Look, he's surrendering! He's going to compromise the mission just because of a stupid recording!"

"No, Maegan, this might be a good thing," Stoner smiled grimly. "He's getting us footage of the interior of the base- the portion we've never seen before. This could help with planning for later missions."

"If he fails, there won't be missions anymore! The Darkener will wipe out what's left of the world's governments and the Protectorate will cease to exist!" Allery groaned. "I have to go help Reed!"

"Are you insane?"

"I don't want to do it either, but it's our only hope. Think about it. There's no way that guy's going to make it out of there alone."

"Did you not hear what Aelden said? She's trying to lure us to her base! It's a trap!"

"I know," Allery sighed. "But there's no other way."

~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Protectorate's too smart to fall for whatever you're about to pull," I fumed.

"You mean they were too smart to fall for it. Your pathetic Protectorate currently consists of three people. You're literally a third of their organization. Trust me, they'll come for you. In the meantime, why don't you tell me how exactly you'd like to die?" Ixilda raised an eyebrow.

"Well, let's see...I want to die peacefully in bed at least fifty years from now, surrounded by my kids and my grandkids."

"Nice try," Ixilda rolled her eyes. "If you decide to get smart with me, I can make the choice myself."

"Fine, whatever. I don't care how I die as long as I die first. I can't stand blood," I shuddered.

"Remind me why exactly you joined the Protectorate," Ixilda smirked.

"It's not my fault, okay? I hate this whole secret agent thing! I signed up to be a Protector as a joke back in college...I thought an average guy like me had zero chances of being selected!"

"No strong emotional or moral ties to the Protectorate...fast enough to kill my daughter in my base and escape with your life..." Ixilda mused. "As much as I hate you, Reed Cassidy, you might just be useful to me."

I tensed up, hearing a faint shout from the hallway outside and the scuffle of hurried footsteps. It was evident from the Blackie leader's placid expression that she hadn't detected the noises. Listening closer, I picked up what sounded like two distant gunshots. Allery.

"You know what?" I stepped up to Ixilda, a fake smile plastered onto my face. "You're right. I have no strong emotional or moral ties to the Protectorate. In fact, I hate their guts. They make you run three miles a day for absolutely no reason and they're nitpicky as heck when they judge your written reports."

I continued to list my long standing complaints about the Protectorate's leadership, buying Allery as much time as I could.

And the beauty of it was, I didn't have to make up a single bit.

"However, I do have very strong emotional ties to my country and to my planet," I concluded as the door burst open.

"What is the meaning of this?" Ixilda snarled as Allery burst through the door, armed with a machine gun. She gasped, ducking behind her desk to avoid the Commander's line of fire. In seconds, the Darkener was peppered with bullet sized holes. It emitted a few bursts of static before its screens simultaneously went black.

"No!" Ixilda shrieked, rising from her hiding place as Allery lowered her weapon. "Do you have any idea how much work went into that!? I practically poured my life into it!"

"Shoulda poured your life into something other than destroying the human race," Allery smirked. "Time to turn your lights out."

~~~~~~~~~~~

One week later...

"Courageous Citizens Reed Cassidy and Maegan Allery Prevent Global Catastrophe."

I smiled at the headlines, leaning back in my high-backed leather chair. Stoner had come up with quite an incredible cover-up to avoid exposing the Protectorate to the public. As far as everyone knew, Allery and I were just regular people who happened to stumble upon Black Sky headquarters and the Darkener while fleeing from the chaos of the previous week's near-apocalypse. I had no idea how he had managed to explain Allery's machine gun, but since the media wasn't after us, I wasn't complaining.

"Hey Reed," Allery smiled, sitting down to my right.

"Comm- I mean, Maegan," I laughed. I still hadn't gotten used to the fact that we were now equals.

"Ready for your first meeting?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Good morning, officers of the Protectorate," Stoner beamed, entering the boardroom and taking his seat at the head of the table. "I decided to postpone this meeting for a few days to give all of you time to settle back in after the recent Darkener fiasco, and I would've given you even more time, if it weren't for the current circumstances."

He drew in a deep breath of air, taking a sip from the large mug of coffee beside him.

"We've detected suspicious activity in an abandoned Chinese factory and have reason to suspect that it is connected with the Black Sky. We believe this may call for an overseas investigation. I'm sure we can all agree that Commander Allery and Commander Cassidy are the obvious choice for this mission."

Oh, God, not again.

"Each of you will be allowed to bring along an agent of your choice to assist you with your task"

"I choose Agent Lewis," Allery replied almost instantly.

"Very well then. What about you, Reed?"

"I want Carrie," I pronounced.

"Agent Stark?" Stoner frowned.

"Do you disapprove of my choice, sir?"

"No, not at all. It's just that I was under the impression that you and Carolina Stark were enemies. That and the fact that she only joined us a few days ago."

"I think it's high time that both of us put Violet behind us," I smiled. "And she grew up with Ixilda Aelden. She's more than capable of handling this mission."

"Now you're talking like a Protector," Stoner beamed. "Go get 'em, Cassidy."

~~~~~~~~~~~