Part VIII: Scorpion

When Brother Jack received his summons, he came almost immediately. In this case, “came almost immediately” means that there were significant events that prevented him from departing right away. First and foremost of them was Jack’s encounter with a mysterious girl, wrapped in a scarlet cloak. All he could see were enchanting, fierce eyes, which he immediately recognized, but he didn’t know from where.

The other chief reason was that he was in the middle of a revolution of his own. This woman seemed come to aid him in a struggle of insurgents who claimed they were being oppressed. Calling themselves the Merry Brites, they had been threatening for some time to bring their own form of chaos to Jack’s country. Jack had been assigned guardian duty, as it were. When word reached his ear, he was to alert the population of whatever town he happened to have found himself in. For months, Jack had been a step or three, at best, ahead of the Merry Brites, always surrounded by pilgrims keeping watch with him in his holy mission. This woman was the latest of these, and he decided to call her, since she wouldn’t give him her own name, Sister Rose. It was she who awoke him, so he could once more sound the alarm, and prepare another community.

The Merry Brites were harmless, really, other than their opinion that they were representing a greater cause, that they were only making the world aware of an injustice done to them, and in turn, others like them. They were a minority, and didn’t feel like they should be ignored, or mistreated because of it. They could each of them be known for the distinctive gloves they wore, each missing index fingers, which they had been forbidden by the government, their children in school told to leave them at home. It was something they would not put up with, and yet it fell to Brother Jack to fall in against them, whatever their cause. He was not to allow anarchy to befall the country, and so he would have to be there each time the Merry Brites came to town to spread their message further. He had never engaged in a single scuffle with them in the three years he’d been at this, and yet, it continued. Each year, the public seemed less interested. The Merry Brites happened to have connections to other activities around the globe. In Traverse, Alabama, their sects were waging a war, championed by Viper, until his death, on whose authority they’d come to after Rancor’s own death. Brother Jack had vested interests, too, but chose to remain in his own country, with his own concerns, until he received his summons, because he was eager to leave this fight to others. He saw what was happening there, and he didn’t want a part in it.

It was Dust who came to Jack, offering an impassioned plea. At this time, Jack had not yet heard of Dust’s own misfortune in the war, but he was impressed enough at this old warrior to be on his way. Others would carry on his mission in his own country; Sister Rose would come with him, too.

So Brother Jack set out to join the conflict, take sides with old allies, and see what he could do. Dust was no mere ally, but a blood relation, a descendent from brothers gone exploring centuries ago. This was a motivation, too. In a way, Brother Jack went to another home. He brought his peculiar powers with him. Like Dust’s son, Brother Jack has the ability to produce nightmares in his victims, only it isn’t something he has to concentrate on, but produce automatically. He lulls them to sleep for a moment, but the dreams that come stay long after they wake again, and they are nightmares because they are the victim’s worst acts repeated for them over and over again. Were they able to break the loop, as some have done, they are never the same again. They will repent immediately, and lead the life they would have had those moments never happened in the first place. Most, however, go mad. With such a power, Jack seeks to use it sparingly. It’s the reason why he agreed to take on the Merry Brites mission in the first place, the reason he finds Sister Rose to intoxicating. She represents a chance for Jack himself to start over. He can’t even explain why, but he can see it in those eyes, the eyes that bewitch him even when he doesn’t see them. He can’t escape this woman, even though she has promised to leave him soon. She has been with him, in her own way, for over a year now. She is not always at his side, and he doesn’t know what she does when she isn’t. She’s said she has another allegiance, another fate to follow, but that doesn’t matter to Jack. She has even followed him here to this new phase in his life, this war. Did she have to? It was only when they arrived that he found out she would be leaving him, and he became desperate, almost, to retain her. He believes that he needs her. He also knows that he probably will never see her again, before long. He doesn’t know what to do with all the time in between.

“Rose,” he says, when they happen to cross paths again. In this new place, they hardly see each other any more. He has been taking on new missions, and they are always taking away from his time with her. “You must have heard about Texas.”

“I can’t believe what’s going on there,” Rose says. “Can you believe they got back together, after everything that happened?”

“I didn’t think they could,” Jack says. He wants to say so much more, but he can’t bring himself to, and he knows what this costs him. “Texas almost makes this place look dull, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Rose says. He wishes he knew her real name. “So anyway, I was thinking, wouldn’t it be great to have a problem like that, to have all that happen and still be able to reconnect like that? I just think it’s so romantic.”

There are a million things he wants to say right now. He settles for, “Definitely. Then there’s what’s-his-name, the one who had to save that girl in the elevator. It was his first time and everything.”

“I don’t remember him,” Rose says.

“Really?” Jack wishes he could remember the guy’s name. Rose knows this stuff so much better than him, but she can’t remember this one person. Maybe she doesn’t know him from the same circumstances he does? Maybe she missed that? Anyway, he has to go. There are other matters at hand, too, always different directions to pull them in. He gives a nod, but she happens to have turned away. She doesn’t see it, but he’s already gone when she turns to him again.

There are always other things to concentrate on, that’s not a problem, but Jack is always returning to the thought of her. Is any of it real, or is it all a figment of his imagination? Does he press the issue, is it worth it? Has he simply misunderstood everything? But there are always other matters. The Staged Man, who entered this fray at about the same time, has just informed him that there’s a major new menace, who’s putting a lot of fire under the cause of the opposition. There’s a war going on. Isn’t that enough for Jack to worry about? Dividing his attention is not exactly going to help his cause, now is it? So apparently Boy Benjamin, the charming name for the head heavy in this city, has a new champion, who could very well turn the tide in these dicey waters. Keep your head in the game, Jack tells himself. Forget about her for a moment. You don’t even know her. She doesn’t know you. After all this time? If there were anything, there’d already be more between you than stories from some far off land, which might as well not even be real for all the impact it has on your own lives.

What Staged Man can tell Jack about this new warrior isn’t much. She’s just arrived and she fights like an Amazon, and her greatest weapon is surprise. Her victims never see her coming. Her name is, apparently, Gonzalez Inarittu.

Brother Jack actually volunteers to take her on, even though he knows other may be more capable of taking her down, such as Godsend, but he’s been occupied in other matters. Word is he hasn’t even been fighting since the incident with the Eidolon, since Jack and Staged Man, in fact, arrived. He takes on this challenge both because he wants to, and because he seemingly doesn’t have another choice. His first glimpse of her is from the back, but even in this, he knows instantly. His Rose is Inarittu. He wants to ask her why, but can’t bring himself to that, either. He can see it in her eyes, anyway. This moment was the reason she sought him out in the first place. It was never about the Merry Brites, never about the pilgrimage. “I came to kill you,” she finally says. “And isn’t it obvious? Hasn’t it always been? That was all I was meant to do, Jack. I am a killer, I am a scorpion. Can you feel my sting?”

“Rose…” he says, even as he prepares his powers. He puts her to sleep, and brings on the nightmare, which he doesn’t know. He never knows, and he’s never wanted to know before, never wanted to know worse. How could this happen? What did he do to deserve this? He can feel her sting even now. They’ve gotten each other, they’ve finally communicated, in this final moment. Will either ever be the same again? He can tell it isn’t fatal, and he can tell his powers won’t work on her as they have worked on others in the past, but he knows everything will change now. Everything will have been lost, gone, gone, gone. Now all they can do is wait for the world to change. Has it ever been this horrible? He can’t imagine it, no, not in this moment, he doesn’t want to. All his life, and now this. He supposes that this is some kind of victory, perhaps the greatest one he’s ever achieved, and maybe it’ll help his side, maybe it helps hers, too, maybe it doesn’t actually help either side. That doesn’t matter, either. The only thing that matters is this moment, because he can’t believe it. How did it all come to this?

Days will pass, and this moment will longer. It will probably linger for years, long after the war has ended. Maybe this moment will have made a difference, maybe it won’t, but things are going to change, and there’s no preventing that, not anymore. Something was lost here, and maybe something gained, too, but for now, all Jack can think of is what was lost, because that’s the only thing he can imagine, the only thing he can bring himself to think of. His Rose, his Inarittu. He at least knows her name now, right? Is that enough, is it vindication, even at its cost? He can imagine finding comfort in that, in time, but not right now. For right now, there is only pain, because it’s the only thing he knows will help, in the end. He can’t stand that thought, but he knows it’s true. There is some worth in it, there is a benefit. He doesn’t like it, he wishes it weren’t necessary, but there it is, right here, right now, and he has to deal with it. So that’s what he’s going to do.