5.1) At Last, We See Each Other Plain

Mary Everhart stretched on the rooftop, taking in the morning gray. When she had awoken, Julian remained fast asleep while Atlas was nowhere to be seen. It made sense–Atlas had very little reason to stay asleep when he didn’t need to. Instead, he would often use the computer to watch movies on her streaming account, read books that Julian purchased and never read, or sometimes just stay on the rooftop and lie still until she woke up.

And Mary had been getting her life back together–she had begun setting her alarm clock again, eating well, and doing calisthenic exercises daily. She decided that she wanted to stay healthy until the world came crashing down on them.

She took a plastic chair that they had left behind from their grilling session from the other day and sat down, patiently waiting for Atlas’s return. And soon enough, she could see Atlas returning from the direction of the university campus, leaping quickly across the buildings.

She waved as he landed on their rooftop.

“Good morning, Atlas.”

“Good morning, Mary.”

Then, she noticed a basket in his hand. “What’s this?” Mary asked as Atlas lifted the basket closer to her.

“I asked a lady what kind of gift I should give to someone precious to me. She told me that I should make you a breakfast basket. So I bought a couple of things that I thought you’d like and put it all in here.”

She stared at Atlas with a dumbfounded look, then looked inside the basket. It contained a sandwich and a carton of strawberry milk, with the rest of the space in the basket filled with other smaller snacks.

“You got this for me? With the money I gave you to spend on yourself?”

“Yes.”

“You’re hopeless,” she sighed. “But thank you. I guess I’ll eat it downstairs after I make you your own breakfast."

Atlas nodded, then walked away to the edge of the rooftop as Mary momentarily placed the basket on the plastic chair and stood up.

As Mary cracked her neck, Atlas spoke once more.

“... Hey, Mary.”

“Yeah?” she said, continuing to stretch.

“I think a car followed me here,” he said, looking down from the rooftop.

“Huh? Seriously? Someone saw you?” she sighed. “Atlas… I wish you would have been more careful.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think anyone would be around so early.”

She began walking over to see what he was looking at. “Some people still have to go to work at the end of the world, you know? Of course there’s going to be people who see you if you jump around when the sky is decently bright.”

Then, she looked down below.

A man dressed in a black suit was staring up at them with his arms crossed, glaring straight at Atlas. But more conspicuously, there was a blonde woman leaning on the door of the car with her hands in her pockets, dressed in a brown trench coat with a white scarf around her neck.

A chill went down her spine. That’s… a Leviathan, she thought. That’s Abigail Kovacs. But why is she here?

She took steps back, trying to think–her mind was racing. What does this mean? Are we in trouble?

“Mary,” Atlas said, noticing her nervousness. “Are they bad news?”

“I–I don’t know. The woman down there is a Leviathan. She’s known for being one of the nicer ones, but I don’t know about that other guy. And I don’t know what they’re thinking. They might be bad news.”

“Then I’ll go down alone,” he said, putting one foot on the ledge of the roof, ready to leap off.

“No. Take me with you. I need to make sure you don’t get tricked into doing something you don’t want to,” she said firmly. “And that guy down there looks really... off.”

Atlas took a moment to think, then sighed. “Alright. Just stay close to me.”

She nodded, and Atlas gently lifted her up and leapt off the roof, descending slowly in front of the entrance of the apartment.

***

Abigail’s original plan was to have herself do all the talking while Victor simply watched from a distance. But as they chased the mysterious man to the apartment, Victor made a sudden change to her plan: he would do all the talking, while Abigail would be the one who observed. And she reluctantly agreed, assuming that Victor just wanted to be a part of the bigger picture. Assuming that he just wanted to mean more to the world.

If Victor succeeded in this, he would feel better about himself for the rest of his life. And if doing this made him happier, Abigail had no problem allowing him to play the hero.

Well, here they are, Abigail thought as the mysterious man gently put down the girl he carried in his arms.

She looked over to Victor. Let’s see what you’ve got. Show me that you haven’t been regressing as a human being in the past fourteen years–and more importantly, prove it to yourself.

Victor cleared his throat, then spoke with a welcoming smile. “Well, well, we meet at last. My name is Victor Truman. It is truly an honor to finally meet you.”

As he spoke, the college girl to his left seemed to mutter something to herself in thought, while the large man tilted his head in curiosity.

“What do you mean?” the large man asked. “You were looking for me?”

“That’s right. I was looking for the hero of humanity himself. The man who saved humanity thirty-two years ago and continued protecting it for the following thirty-two years. The man all of us standing here owe our existence to.”

Victor grinned. “You should be proud. To us, you are like Prometheus. I exist because of you. My friend here exists because of you. Almost half the population of the Earth exists because of you. Four billion lives. That is my estimate. And this, of course, is only considering human lives–who knows how many other lifeforms continue to prosper thanks to you? The magnitude of your heroic efforts are simply incalculable.”

Abigail crossed her arms, impressed by Victor’s smooth talk.

“I didn’t know that,” the large man responded. “Thank you for telling me.”

Victor nodded, then sighed. “But evidently, you’ve given up. You grew tired of your efforts and decided to retreat to Earth. It’s quite unfortunate.”

Abigail raised an eyebrow.

The large man crossed his arms and sighed, looking away in shame. “I suppose. Yes. I am tired. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

Victor shook his head in quick disagreement. “No, no, please do not misunderstand. We are not here to tell you to retake your role as a savior and continue to suffer–we are here to alleviate you from your burdens.”

The large man tilted his head. “Alleviate me from my burdens?”

Victor nodded. “That’s right. We understand that you are tired and want to live out the rest of your life in peace–so we are here to allow you to continue living as a normal human being, while we prevent The Second Skyfall.”

“... What?” said both the large man and the college girl in unison.

Victor smiled. “Yes. I mean it. We would like you to offer you a deal.” Then, he stepped back and slowly took out the dagger from his jacket.

The large man tensed. “A knife?”

Victor nodded. “This dagger–something I call the Tenth Anomaly–has the specific function of transferring the power of infinity from one person to another. This was found in the same temple that you traveled to and absorbed the power of the Tome of Infinity.”

He held the dagger up to the height of his cheekbones. “This dagger can separate you from your tragically heroic fate, my Prometheus. You no longer have to suffer from the dilemma of holding the world together or letting it die. You can choose peace. This dagger will give you that third option you never even dreamed of.”

The large man looked towards the college girl, perhaps looking for approval or advice, but the girl still seemed to be in deep thought. So the large man spoke once more.

“You’re sure about this? Is there really someone else out there who would gladly take on the weight of the world?” he asked.

Victor nodded. “Without a doubt, there are many people in this world who would gladly take your place. I guarantee it. All you need is to allow me to absorb that power into this dagger. Then we will reallocate that power to someone else’s body.”

Then, Victor whispered with a mischievous grin. “Let your curse be turned into a gift.”

The large man seemed to think, staring into the floor. After a long silence, he raised his head, seemingly having come to a decision.

“... I accept that deal,” he said.

Victor’s smile widened. “Perfect. Now, all we need to do is–”

“Wait just a minute,” the college girl interrupted.

“... Yes, miss?” Victor said halfheartedly, seemingly bothered by her sudden outburst.

“You said your name is Victor Truman, right?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

“I see. So that’s why your name seemed familiar,” the college girl muttered to herself, then pointed at Victor. “You’re the guy who got fired from CERN for tampering with the LHC, aren’t you?”

Victor blinked. “What?”

Abigail sighed to herself, knowing what was about to follow.

“It was all over the internet. You’re the guy who claimed that you could modify the LHC and use it to create a portal that would allow people to escape from this reality, aren’t you? And when they rejected your proposal, you tried it anyway, failed, and almost broke the entire thing! You would have gone to prison if it actually broke, you know?! That’d be ten billion dollars lost in your name!”

“Uh, well…”

The college girl continued her accusations. “Why are you really here? Are you trying to use his power to try and escape from this universe or something? You seem to be pretty obsessed with that, no?”

“I… uh..”

The large man whispered, looking at his hands. “That’s right. This power that I have could be used for selfish reasons, couldn’t it? I had almost forgotten… No, I’ve never even considered it.”

The large man took a step back, clearly wary of Victor’s intentions.

Victor sighed, then pointed off to his right. “Listen. Just look at that over there.”

The large man turned his gaze to where Victor pointed, and Victor stepped forward with the dagger in hand in an attempt to stab him. But the college girl saw what he was doing and intervened from the left, resulting in a struggle for the dagger.

“A-Atlas!” the college girl shouted.

The large man–or Atlas, as the girl called him–snapped out of his trance and pushed Victor back, sending him flying and crashing onto the SUV.