Games of Chance

Forty- I

Juliana's lungs burned as she sprinted up her sixth flight of stairs in a row, her eyes darting back and forth in search of any signs of Jackers. Yet, the higher up she got, the less likely it seemed that she would encounter anyone at all. While the bottom floors of the historic palace were commonly open for royal receptions and meet-and-greets, the VanderSchees no longer had much use for the higher ones. Soon, Juliana found herself running through desolate hallways still decorated with old-fashioned wallpaper and portraits of long-dead kings. 

Tap. Juliana froze, her hair standing on end. This was the first sound other than her own footsteps that she'd heard for a while. Slowly, she turned around to face the ornate, heavy-looking door in front of her. Although she had no conscious memory of what lay beyond it, it seemed oddly familiar, like she'd been here exploring as a child. 

Tap. Tap. The sound continued, settling into a steady rhythm. It grew louder as Juliana approached the door. Placing one hand on the doorknob and the other on her pearl bracelet, she slowly pushed the door open. 

The circular room inside was small but homely, with an artificial fireplace and plenty of seating. A man sat in a compact armchair with his back turned to Juliana, casually tapping the tip of a polished dress shoe on the hardwood floor. A decorative glass chess set sat on the table in front of him, and Juliana watched warily as he reached out to move a white bishop. Pausing for a moment of deliberation, he then moved a black pawn to block its path to the king. 

"Have you ever played chess with yourself, Jules?" he turned around, revealing a face obscured by a gray eagle mask. Although the mask took some clarity off the voice, Juliana recognized it instantly. It was a voice she had been hearing all her life. Yet, for the sake of her own sanity, she hoped she was mistaken, hoped it was just the adrenaline clouding her thoughts...

"It's quite fun, you know. This way, you always win." Reaching up to his face with a gloved hand, the Eagle removed his mask, never once breaking eye contact. Juliana froze in her tracks, her hand falling away from her bracelet. Here she was, face-to-face with the enemy, but she couldn't possibly attack. She couldn't even move to get away. She noticed that her comms were shutting down, leaving her isolated from her team, but she didn't care. All of that was insignificant. All that mattered now was the face staring back at her, the face of her teammate and her best friend, the man who would one day rule by her side. The man who had just caused her world to shatter for the second time that day. 

"...Roy?" she whispered weakly. 

"Chase is smart, you know," Roy chuckled, tracing the inside of his Eagle mask with his fingertips. "He was exactly right about what's being done. Totally wrong about who was doing it, though. The King was a rotten egg alright, but he wasn't the one trying to use a terrorist figurehead to take over the world."

"You killed him?" 

"Oh, I didn't," Roy's eyes rose to the doorway. Juliana whipped around to see Ravenna stride through it, closing the door behind her. She walked past Roy, planting a kiss on his cheek before placing a Maskey on the table beside his chess set. A picture of 'Lavinia' standing beside Roy, wearing the same dress Ravenna was wearing now, flashed through Juliana's mind. As much as she hated it, all the pieces were beginning to come together. 

"Baby, you're late," Roy frowned in disapproval. 

"Oh, boohoo," Ravenna stuck out her tongue, crossing her arms as she sat down in a chair across from Roy. 

"Anyway, Juliana, please sit down," Roy gestured to the one remaining chair in the room. "As you can undoubtedly tell, we have a lot to discuss." 

Warily making sure to keep her back to the wall, Juliana slowly made her way to the chair, sitting on the very edge of it so that she was ready to spring up at a moment's notice. 

"You... haven't tried to kill me yet," she observed when she noticed that neither Roy nor Ravenna was reaching for a weapon. Ravenna shifted uncomfortably in her seat, darting her gaze over at Roy as if prompting him to speak. She looked like a child whose dad was forcing her to apologize to someone. 

"Well, no, of course, why would we- " Roy looked down at the mask in his hands, flustered. "You're my princess, and my friend! I would never think of doing such a thing." 

"Then why?" Juliana's knowledge of Roy- the Royal Academy football star, the fist of Project PROB, the veritable Order hero was conflicting violently with what she knew of the scheming, greedy Eagle. Even with indisputable proof before her, she found herself unable to come to terms with the fact that they were the same person. "Why this? Why team up with her? Why threaten your own country and hurt your own people?" 

Roy looked decidedly offended at her comment about Ravenna. "Because she was alone and scared and needed help. Being a decent human being, I offered to help her! And through the process I learned how stupidly privileged we are- how we will someday be expected to rule a country filled with problems we could never understand. I stayed on Jacker Island, I learned to Jack- to control people's bodies so I could be in two places at once. So I could be two people at once. Because people like Ravenna deserve better than being left to die- Juliana, you must agree! As for hurting people... if you've noticed, the only people Ravenna and I have conscientiously set out to kill were filthy, manipulative tycoons who are better off dead."

"Wait... left to die?" 

"Don't tell me you believed the King's 'medical error' nonsense for a moment," Roy fumed. "Before he died, he confessed to the deed. Your leader, the man you follow unquestioningly, left an innocent child to die for no crime other than being born different. And yet I am the villain? Just think about it. I'm just trying to make a difference in the world- I'm just trying to do good. I promise." 

Juliana's head swam with an incomprehensible mess of thoughts and emotions. On more Order missions than she could count, she had trusted Roy with her life. He cared about her, as genuinely as a person could.

She remembered being ten years old, dressed in nothing but her Royal Academy uniform and a thin sweater, rubbing her hands together as she wandered aimlessly through the dirty, pothole-filled streets of outer Arcana City. Groups of people lurking at street corners eyed her unfamiliar face suspiciously and she kept one hand on her pearl bracelet, quivering with a combination of cold and fear. 

Her grandfather had told her it was a test. She'd be dropped off at a random location in the city and was expected to find her way back home to the palace unaided. It had seemed simple enough- she'd been studying maps of the city for days now, but in practice, the roads were much longer and the wind much chillier than she could've ever predicted. 

"Here, take this." Juliana felt a comforting sensation of warmth enveloping her. Roy had stepped up beside her, wrapping his coat around her shoulders. At age eleven, he was only a little taller than she was, and just as skinny. Yet, his high-pitched voice sounded as confident as ever. "We'll find our way home," he squeezed her tiny hand. "I promise." 

"Just hear us out. You don't have to like what we say. You don't even have to listen," Ravenna offered, seeming to momentarily emerge from her cynical, sulking mood. 

"I think we are on the verge of something incredible here," Roy said. "If we- just for a moment- can forget about the Order and the Jackers and the Box and just think through this as people, I think we can resolve our issues with very little bloodshed." 

Giving Juliana a moment to take his words in, he added, "I think this might be what your mother's final diary entry meant: in her last days, she realized that she had spent her entire life maintaining a flawed status quo. Yes, she kept the peace, she preserved life, but was it even a life worth living? People were suffering every day and the Order, with all its wealth and the Alpha Box's godlike power, did nothing to fix the real issues... but you're different. Different in the same way I am. You're not like the rest of the Order. You're not content with just following orders- you genuinely want to do good. And with that innate drive combined with my plans... you just might be able to do your mother proud." 

.....................

What did you guys think of that plot twist?