How do I get out of this and keep everyone alive?

  I turned towards my doppelgänger and looked him in the eye. “So, what do you want, Tynan?”

  “For a start, answers. Why were you trying to get that?” Tynan asked, pointing to the prototype mass conversion device.

  Tynan understood hierarchy and dominance. That had to be my way out of this situation. If any of us were to have a chance of getting out of here, I’d need to take control.

  Well, here goes nothing …

  “We wanted that so we could try to stop the Horror – you know, the thing that’s set to destroy all of humankind if we don’t stop it? You would’ve wanted to do the same if you had any shred of humanity within you.”

  Tynan narrowed his eyes. “I have humanity.”

  “Oh really? Tell me, where was your humanity when you betrayed your allies, attacking them from behind while they tried to fight the Horror?”

  “That wasn’t a matter of humanity, or lack thereof. That was strategy, Raith,” Tynan scoffed. “It’s just good business, something you should try sometime.”

  “It was cowardice. Because that’s what you – wait, strategy?”

  Tynan smiled slyly.

  Fuck! I’ve just conceded ground to him.

  He enjoyed this, knowing that he was in command of the conversation – hell, he was in command of the entire fucking situation – and he loved it. I needed to wrangle back control of the conversation, and to do that, I had to figure out what Tynan had meant by strategy.

  What game was he playing?

  “Second of all,” Tynan said, “I am not a coward, and firstly, I do care about humanity, okay? The difference is, I care about a humanity that’s united under me and my ideals.”

  I raised an eyebrow at Tynan’s reversal of order, and he seemed to realise his mistake moments later. As realisation spread across his face, his right hand began to tremor and shake, and he quickly tucked it beneath his robes.

  Curious.

  “How can you say that with a straight face? Do you know how many people you killed in that Republic fleet? The fleet which, by the way, you were supposed to be part of – a fleet that was our only realistic defence against the Horror. But you don’t care, do you? You don’t feel anything for all the souls you silenced – by backstabbing no less.”

  Tynan’s face twitched, just like Ichirō’s face would when he was getting mad. I had to make a conscious effort to not smile. I was getting under Tynan’s skin, syphoning away his control.

  “Not only that, but you claim it was in the name of strategy. You’re right, it was strategy. The strategy of a fucking coward.”

  Tynan clenched his fists and opened his mouth, ready to say something.

  “What!” I yelled, stepping forward and cutting him off. “What are you going to threaten me with, you fucking cowardly cunt!”

  I strode forward as soldiers rushed towards me in an effort to intercept. If they caught me, I’d lose the upper hand … could I make Tynan stop them?

  “And if you weren’t such a coward, you wouldn’t hide behind your soldiers!” I continued, pointing at Tynan.

  In response, he stood up and held up a hand as he shouted, “Stop!”

  The approaching soldiers stopped but didn’t retreat – they were ready to complete their charge if Tynan changed his mind.

  “There, see – not a coward,” Tynan said defiantly.

  “Still a fucking coward.”

  “I am not a –” Tynan started to yell, but he caught himself, wagging his finger as he grimaced. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing, Raith. It was … it is, strategy, okay? When the Horror has finished eliminating the current dregs of humanity, my fleet of multirole vessels will disperse across the stars, terraforming, colonizing, and safeguarding the worlds – the Empire’s worlds. Humanity will flourish under my rule, and I will have more power than any other human before me. This new Empire will be unassailable, its rule unquestioned, and my power undiminishable!”

  “You would rather set humanity alight, step back and watch it burn, just so you could rebuild it in your image … over saving billions of lives? And you’re not even brave enough to do it yourself – you’re letting that mechanical monstrosity do the dirty work for you!”

  Tynan opened his mouth to counter my statement, but I cut him off before he could speak.

  “No, no – let me guess. It’s just good business, right? Fuck me … you’re crazy and a coward.”

  This pre-emptive retort seemed to suck the air out of Tynan’s sails, and he took a moment to gather his thoughts. “Still not a coward, and definitely not crazy, Raith – just misunderstood. That is the fate of all geniuses, is it not?”

  “You think this strategy of yours is a stroke of genius? Cause it’s really not. It’s cruel. It’s cowardly. It’s –”

  “I am not a coward!” Tynan snapped. “You are just too stupid to understand! All of you! You’re all idiots – incapable of seeing my grand vision for humanity! But don’t worry – I will drag most of you into the new age, even if it’s kicking and screaming all the way!”

  “And that … is where you are wrong,” murmured a faint voice.

  Tynan looked past me, and I turned around to see Zavis standing, albeit unstably.

  “Most of us see a truth you cannot, Tynan. Autocratic empires, such as your own, will never be successful, regardless of when they exist. It doesn’t matter if it’s the old Empire, the new Empire, an empire from the past, or an empire from the future – if it is an autocracy, it will always fail. That is the fate of all autocracies.”

  I looked back at Tynan, who looked rather bemused.

  “I don’t understand your logic, Zavis. Explain to me why an autocratic empire will fail?”

  “An autocracy, by definition, is a state or society governed by one person with absolute power,” Zavis explained.

  “So?” Tynan shrugged.

  “So, people think that power corrupts the wielder, but it isn’t power that corrupts, rather it’s the fear,” I concluded.

  “Fear of what? If one holds absolute power, what is there to fear?”

  “The loss of power. That is why dictators rule with an iron fist – they attempt to snuff out any deviant thinkers and silence any rebellious voices. However, the tighter they squeeze their subjects, the more people slip through their fingers,” Zavis said.

  “That’s why they fail,” I added. “That is why you will fail.”

  Tynan’s eyes shifted between me and Zavis, his previous bemusement gone. He looked down at Zavis. “Anything else you want to get off your chest?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes,” Zavis replied, straightening up as he puffed out his chest and held his head high.

  “It’s time I finally say what I should have said a long time ago,” he said slowly and firmly. “It’s not fucking about you!”

  Tynan’s face contorted in shock and his brow furrowed as he heard Zavis’s comment.

  “You and your self-serving, self-centred, narcissistic world view is flawed as fuck, Tynan! You want power, you want control, but they are unearned!” Zavis spoke with a commanding presence, his voice resonating with the wisdom of a man who’d grappled with power and control and knew what it took to have them. “You demand to have them, but you’ve no reason to. And even then, even when you have power, it’s not some carefree force that you can just control. It’s a burden, because it comes with responsibility – a duty of care to use that power to look after all of those less powerful than you!”

  Tynan’s face twitched, seemingly uncontrollably.

  “The two of you think you’re cute, don’t you?” he sneered. “Acting all high and mighty, but guess what? I’m the one up here! Not either of you!”

  “We’re not high and mighty, Tynan – we don’t need to be. We’re just two men who can both see the reality you can’t,” Zavis retorted.

  “Yeah? Well, take a look at this reality. Shoot him!” Tynan said, pointing at Zavis.

  Three shots echoed throughout the room as Zavis’s body jolted; he looked down in shock at the red stains blossoming around the bullet holes in his robes.

  “Zavis!” I shouted, running towards my friend as he collapsed.

  I dropped to the floor beside him and pressed my hand against what appeared to be the worst of his wounds. As I felt the warmth of his blood seeping through my fingers, my heart sank.

  He’s losing too much blood!

  “Medic! Get a medic! Now!” I yelled out as the rest of the room remained motionless.

  “It’s … too late for that … my boy,” Zavis wheezed.

  I looked down at my old friend. “No, no – stay with me! Hold on, okay? You can make it!”

  Zavis shook his head.

  “No, Raith … I can’t. And we both … know it.”

  I looked around the room frantically, but everyone I locked eyes with simply looked away.

  “Really? Nobody?” I shouted. “Not a single one of you will get a medic? Fuck you all!”

  Zavis’s wet hand grabbed my face and pulled it downward.

  “Listen to me … please, Raith. I don’t have … much time.”

  I let go of Zavis’s wound and instead pulled his head up and onto my lap, cradling it so that he could look up at me.

  “I’m here, I’m listening,” I said as tears rolled down my cheeks.

  “I’ll admit … this was not … how I planned to … leave this mortal coil,” Zavis said with a coy smile.

  I chuckled. “I know, right? A few years of retirement somewhere quiet would’ve been nice, aye?”

  Zavis nodded weakly. “Yes … yes, that was … that was the dream.”

  His hand, which was resting on the side of my neck, clenched tighter as his eyes welled with tears.

  “There are two things … I need to tell you.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “The Horror – don’t fear it,” Zavis said as he weakly shook his head. “Fear what … the weapon … was built to kill.”

  Fear what the weapon was built to kill?

  That was a statement with a lot to think about.

  “And I am so … proud … of you,” Zavis said as tears ran down his face through his wrinkles. “So proud … of who you’ve … become. And this –” Zavis glanced at Tynan, “– this imposter … is but a … pale … imitation.”

  I could feel Zavis’s breath growing increasingly shallow, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before he was gone. He gripped my neck tighter and pulled my head closer to his face.

  “Show him … what a … real … monster … looks … lik –”

  Zavis’s hand slipped from my neck and flopped to the ground, his eyes now devoid of life.

  “Goodbye … my friend.”

  I gently lowered his head off my lap and closed his eyes.

  Show him what a real monster looks like …

  In the maroon liquid that we both sat in, I could see my pale skin in stark contrast to the angry, red scar that wrapped around my head and the smudged, crimson handprint on my cheek and neck. Within me, there was darkness, there was pain and anger and a past I’d tried so hard to suppress. I was afraid of that part of me … but so was Tynan. He was afraid of being subpar, of being an inferior copy. What if I played on that fear? What if I let the darkness out to play?

  Show him what a real monster looks like!

  I’d have to dive headfirst into my darkness and embrace it fully. To let it out would be a complete contradiction of the values I’d tried so hard to live by. But if I was going to compromise myself, at least it would be my choice to do so.

  “My choices affect others, so choose how those choices affect them,” I whispered to my reflection.

  It was time to put my faith in Zavis one last time. It was time to show Tynan what an actual monster was. I knew what a monster looked like – I’d started off every morning at home looking at one. I liked to tell myself that it was easy to see Raith in the mirror – Raith the farmer, the father, the husband – but in truth, I had to tell myself that that’s what I was seeing. What I actually saw every day was what everyone else saw: Tynan Khidar, the merciless, self-centred emperor.

  “I’ve got you, Zavis. I’ve got your monster right here,” I whispered as a last tear rolled down my face. “I prepared it earlier, in fact. Spent years cooking this one up … and now, I think it’s ready.”

  All I had to do was summon the darkness I’d spent so much time suppressing.

  [)
  “Well, well, well. Isn’t this … interesting,” I said slowly and clearly, my voice projecting out into the silence of the room.

  I turned my head to the right, audibly clicking my neck, then turned it to the left and clicked it again. I looked down at the stump of my left arm and wiggled it around.

  “That’s new … certainly not how I left things.”

  “Raith?” asked a familiar voice from behind.

  I stood slowly, the blood on my saturated trousers now running down my legs, and calmly turned around. There I was, or rather, there was another me.

  “Who’s Raith?” I asked. “More importantly … who are you?”

  The doppelgänger upon his elevated throne looked confused and his eyes darted about, seemingly to search for an explanation.

  He uttered his name cautiously, “Ah … I-I’m Tynan.”

  “You can’t be,” I drawled, “because I’m Tynan.”

  The menacing tone of my voice made Tynan visibly shudder. The unease only lasted a moment before Tynan regained his composure.

  “Ah, I see the confusion now. We had to initiate Project Phoenix and the Reclamation Protocols, so … yeah,” he said with an almost apologetic shrug at the end.

  “The Reclamation Protocols … so you lost the Empire?”

  The last comment rattled Tynan’s composure once more. “What? No, I’m the product of Project Phoenix – I literally rose from the Empire’s ashes. It burned down long before I got here.”

  “So, who failed the Empire?”

  Tynan chuckled. “Well, yo –” he cut his sentence short when his gaze met my own.

  “Surely … you aren’t suggesting that I –” I pointed at my chest, slowly beginning to move towards Tynan, “– am responsible for the fall of my own Empire?”

  The blood drained from Tynan’s face. “I … uh … no, no! Of course not! I-I was merely saying … that … I … I was just saying –” he spluttered, his panicked eyes darting around the room. “It was them!”

  I turned to look where Tynan was pointing and saw Phobus and Lorcan.

  “Ah – two more of my trusted advisors. Slightly worse for wear these days as well, I see.”

  “Yes, Your Grace, we are,” the advisors said in unison.

  Tynan made an indignant grunt. “You don’t address anyone else as ‘Your Grace’ – only me!”

  I whipped my head around to look at Tynan. “Silence, fool!” I commanded, and he promptly sat down and lowered his gaze.

  I turned my head back towards the advisors. “Pray you can give a more succinct answer than this idiot. Who failed the Empire?”

  “Zavis did, Your Grace,” said Lorcan.

  “He created and spent years running an insurgency to overthrow you and your Empire, Your Grace,” Phobus continued.

  “And it was us and a handful of loyalists that initiated the Reclamation Protocols, and set about your return,” Lorcan added.

  I turned to look at Tynan. “And this fool was the best you could do?”

  I watched Tynan’s face twitch, but before either Advisor could answer, Tynan had leapt to his feet and descended from his elevated platform.

  “How dare you!” he snarled as he strode across the room towards me. “I am everything you are, only better! I am younger, stronger, and I have both my arms!”

  As Tynan came into reach, I drew back my arm and slapped Tynan in the face, knocking him to the ground. Everyone in the room audibly gasped.

  “Even with one arm, I am twice the man you are.”

  Tynan looked up at me, clutching his reddening cheek, his eyes wide with shock.

  “You … you … you’ll pay for this! Nobody lays a hand on me and gets away with it!”

  “Wrong,” I intoned. “I can lay my hand on you as much as I like.”

  “Oh yeah? What gives you the right to do that, huh?” Tynan demanded.

  “Because in the Empire, you command what you own. You should know that.”

  As Tynan processed my statement, his expression changed from puzzlement to comprehension and then, as the truth dawned on him, dread.

  “Okay!” Tynan said, shuffling backwards. “You’ve made your point, Raith! I get it, okay? You can stop now!”

  As Tynan moved backwards, I walked forwards, and he quickly rolled over, climbed to his feet and stumbled away from me until there were a few metres between us.

  “I’m serious, Raith! Fucking cut it out!” Tynan snapped.

  “You keep using that name. Who the fuck is Raith?”

  “You are!” Tynan screamed.

  “No,” I replied in a deep, guttural growl. “My name is Tynan Khidar, the one true emperor, as my father, Emperor Nicolas, was before me, and as my grandfather, Emperor Frith, was before him. Any empire, old or new, is my birthright! What can you lay claim to?”

  Tynan’s face was ashen, the bright red handprint on the side was the only colour. His breathing was quick and laboured as his panic intensified.

  “But … I … I’m … Tynan Khidar,” he whispered with fear filled eyes. “I’m … I’m the … you aren’t … the one true emperor.”

  “You’re pathetic. Look at yourself!” I roared. “Standing there, snivelling like a child! Babbling away. Blubbering through barely coherent sentences. You’re weak. You aren’t fit to bear my name!”

  “That’s not true! I you am! You me are!” Tynan garbled, his right arm shaking violently. “We same two side of a different coin!”

  His expression shifted uneasily between confusion and frustration as he gripped his shaking arm.

  “You’re falling apart. You’ve got bad wiring or bad programming, or hell, maybe both!”

  “Don’t say it,” Tynan beseeched.

  “You’re nothing but a pale imitation. Just an inferior copy.”