Conquest of Paradise: An Earth Final Conflict reboot.

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

Capítulo tres:



Pedro De Mendoza: Serpiente y fundadora.


December the 28th, 2040: Washington DC.



Companion Embassy.


“A job interview hunny, that’s the term for it” Rose murmur, her hands tightened on her husbands arm as she gazed into the ancient, yet oddly youthful eyes of the Companion. -He’s putting us both on the spot, but doing it in a way that allows us to refuse as a couple without risking our careers?- And it would have been suicide to refuse a job offer from the Companions in this political climate. Especially for her, she realized, working as a lawyer for Doors international tethered to the Taelons if her husband refused, without a very “public” show of deference from Da’an even she wouldn’t be safe from the fallout. The Companion was giving them that, by putting them in a position where they could explain their reasoning and do so as a family. Of course, that didn’t give them a complete shield from retribution. She’d heard the stories; it was akin to the bad old days before the war where if you went against the old social justice narratives you ran the risk of having your bank accounts shut down after you were unceremoniously fired. Things were different now, she told herself, it was illegal to close a person’s bank account or deny them a mortgage or seize their assets based off politics. But the Companions transcended politics, as did Johnathan Doors and it was hard to tell which among them was the greater power. -Would he protect me if my Billy refuses? - She thought. Sandoval’s eyes were harsh, they seemed to sense her nervousness and Rosanna Boone steadied herself. -She doesn’t like me, but its not hate, it’s like she’s sad. - There was something wrong with that woman. William Boone stepped forward, his mind was swimming with questions, his eyes flickering with the gravity of this. Like his wife, William Boone was also considering the consequences of refusal, how badly the department would react, how badly everyone would. But he was also thinking of the consequences of acceptance. For years, William Boone heard stories about those who accepted employment with the Companions, whereas people like Captain Marquette tended to remain public, remain with their families it was the protectors who seemed to become almost total recluses. As if, serving the Companions had consume their entire lives, he’d read up on the silly conspiracy boards too and mostly dismissed it except one thing now rang out in his mind. -Companion Protectors enter the service and lose their souls-, Sandoval’s body language, her reactions, her facial ticks all felt off. Admittedly, the Detective had no idea if he was merely being paranoid or not. A couple days with someone a decade ago was not enough to form a total psychological profile, but Boone’s instincts were seldom wrong. Sandoval’s bloody form firing that, thing kept repeating over in his head and it formed a pit in his stomach.





The world was silent, his wife squeezed his shoulder again and he could see it in her eyes, she realized what Da’an had done and it made him really annoyed at the being, but also continued to add to his respect of the creature before him. -It could just as easily have strong armed us, or asked me alone, it cornered me, but it’s being deferential. – It was hard not to respect it, even when the old snake was being a total bastard. Taking a breath, Boone paced himself before he began to pull his wife from his arm only to hold her hand by his waist and step forward. “Da’an, we stood beside each other in battle. However brief, in that moment I learned a lot about you, enough to know you’re one of the most dangerous beings I’ve ever met, but also the wisest”





Something tugged at the corner of the Companion’s mouth, it wasn’t quite a smile, it wasn’t quite a sneer, it wasn’t quite hostile, quite cold, it wasn’t quite warm or friendly either. It was all of the above and when Sandoval moved as if she was going to speak, Da’an raised its hand. “Is that not presumption? To claim you can view the totality of one’s being based upon a brief interaction”



“It would be the height of presumption had I indeed said such a thing” Boone responded with a look that said -Don’t play cheap word games with me buddy, I’m married to a lawyer-. To his surprise Da’an’s mouth curled into a broad genuine smile and an odd pattern of lights seemed to flow under its skin again, this time more bright and vivid. It was very clearly enjoying this game the flicker in its eyes seemed to suggest it was apologizing for such a lame rhetorical trap. -I hate that I like this one so much- Boone thought, he barely made friends with his fellow humans this easily it made Da’an so dangerous but at the same time. Only an idiot would deny the chivalry that walked hand in hand with its cunning. “But that is not an answer” It continued, it’s left hand snaking through the air only to turn slightly as if to grab something illusive.



“No, it’s not” Boone took a breath again, centering himself. “What Agent Sandoval did was unnecessarily brutal, I also don’t like how she put herself in harm’s way to”



“The safety of the companion’s take priority over our own lives Boone! It’s no different than when you served” Sandoval’s voice was so vehement it startled Rose and made Boone uneasy and then her saw the look in her eyes and his blood chilled. -That’s not Sandoval- it was a thing that wore Sandoval’s skin and knew how to pull off a fair imitation of Sandoval, but that wasn’t Sandoval. “We both know what isn’t what you were doing though” Boone answered, slowly, digesting how thoroughly unsettling it all was. “Are you implying I was”



“Agent Sandoval”



Da’an’s tone was so light, on the surface it was so gentle. But there was so much presence in it that Boone was suddenly feeling guilty, as if he was back in school provoking a kid to act out of turn only to flinch when a teacher threw the book at him. Sandoval stepped back, something flickered in her eyes, traces of the girl he knew during the war, for a second her countenance came close to shifting and he thought he could see the real Sandoval below which made his heart pound -What happened to her?!- “You are very perceptive Detective Boone” Da’an’s voice was even, as much it clearly enjoyed the verbal sparring the moment Boone called that out the consummate professional took over and Da’an became decidedly serious. “However, you are mistaken in your implication?”



Oh, Boone thought, it caught me. Well, I knew he was clever. “Am I?”



“Agent Sandoval acted on an interpretation of her mandate, one I, admit I did not fully agree with” There was that honesty again, defusing him attempts to remain on edge. “I can’t work with people like that S..sir?”



The being’s features seemed to flush again, energy dancing under its skin. “You may call me Da’an, nor would you”



Boone raised an eyebrow “But you want me to be a protector do you not?”



“You misunderstand, William Boone. I do not wish you to be a protector I wish you to be the protector” The inflection in it’s tone caused Sandoval’s hand to twitch, something in her eyes flickered again, indignation? “What do you mean?”



“You are correct in your assertion that our reaction was, disproportionate” Da’an continued, it’s right hand now moving through the air, around him the building seemed to reciprocate whatever emotions it was feeling for its coloring suddenly grew a softer, darker hue. “in the coming weeks, months perhaps years. As we remain on your world, as we, seek to master our evolutionary course and facilitate your journey, it may become necessary to have one guiding force over our protectors. One who is, outside our circle yet bonded to it”



Now that was weird, everything about that sentence was weird. What was Da’an trying to tell him? Master our evolutionary course? Seek to facility ours? What? The fact that this info dump which may have been a library’s worth of intel(if Boone could just make sense of it) was used as segue into offering him a position comparable to a police chief was an incredible gesture of trust. One that was almost, gross in its immensity. -It’s trying to bait me, clever bastard-. This changed things though, Boone was always a soldier, always a beat cop even when he earned his shield. “I’m not political” Boone immediately regretted saying that because he had a feeling Da’an was about to get really cheeky with him.



“Nor was I, in the beginning” It smiled, its left hand weaved a harpsichord notes in the air, playing that invisible instrument that revealed so much without making a sound.



-yup, called it- “I have trouble believing that” Boone found himself smiling again and surprisingly Da’an’s façade of professionalism fell away for the briefest of seconds. “You are no fool, William Boone all soldiers are political”



-Damn, it’s good-



He shouldn’t continue to be surprised. “If you want to say no, Bill” Rose put in, her eyes were beaming with pride that he’d held his own so well, but also a myriad of other emotions concern among them. “Any business, that retaliates against you, for your integrity shall lose all Taelon patronage” Da’an cut in causing both husband and wife to gawk for a second. Whatever Da’an was, whatever it might have been, it’s committal to the Boone’s autonomy in this decision was admirable and also, curious. “Thank you” the couple murmured in unison. “One more question”





“You may ask detective Boone”



Boone hesitated, Da’an made a gesture and Sandoval remained for a second before turning and departing having lingered just long enough to voice her displeasure in a way that wasn’t insubordinate. “Will I have to do terrible things and order others to do terrible things for the Companions?” Boone asked, his eyes were focused, narrowed, his wife squeezed onto his hand like a vice, but she as well sensed the other foot about to drop and remained stoic outside of the gesture.





Da’an turned its head and Rose gasped, those faint lights that shimmered below its skin seemed to replace its skin, a brilliant figure of pure light, of blues and pinks and light purples flickered into being before them as if the question caused an intense emotional reaction, one so deep its entire being couldn’t contain it. At last, it returned to “normal” and with a sweeping motion of one hand it answered the question. “No”





“Will I have to do that for you”



Da’an smiled, it was proud of William Boone. What happened next, historians would say sealed the fate of entire galaxies. Da’an was nearly fifty thousand years old, it was a being by all accounts of immense cunning and experience, more than that it possessed wisdom. In it’s youth it had been a cleric, in its adolescence a scientist, shifting casts as it’s sire Ma’el had then its maturation it became a master of War even the mighty T’than would acknowledge as a superior and kindred spirit. In its seniority it became one of the greatest diplomas and politicians in the known universe. Knowing all this, it could have lied to Boone, or spun him a yarn about how he would do all he could to avoid that eventuality, or feign insult at the mere thought that It’s agenda might be different than that of it’s race on some level. Or that it’s loyalty to its race and its future might have compelled it to act contrary to the main plan. Or perhaps, because of its versatility in experience, it knew the only correct answer was one devoid any platitudes.





“Yes”





Boone nodded his head slowly. He looked at his wife, who looked at him, she had tears in her eyes that were unshed. Both understood the weight of this and understood it was going to bigger than either of them, both were scared but neither was willing to back down. No one had ever been so entrusted by a Companion. Whatever Da’an was, whatever its plans were, it wanted William Boone badly and that meant that Boone had to walk headfirst into the serpent's jaws.







Slowly, Boone raised his hands mimicking the gesture of greeting.





“Then I accept”



William Boone was a very good cop.



Da’an knew enough not to allow itself a triumphant smile, but to incline its head as though he was honoring a peer.



Or a worthy foe.



Boone couldn’t tell which and much as he found himself liking Da’an.



That scared the hell out of him.

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

Humble apologies to any who read this, for my tardiness on an update.


More to come!

 

[Spartan303]

I love how it's like peeling away the layers of an Onion, only to find an enigma to be solved, then as your reward you find another layer. Da'an is just perfect here.

Leni Parker really played that Role to the hilt!

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

Martin Alonzo Pinzon: La Navegadora Confiada.


December the 28th 2040: Washington D.C



The rest of the afternoon passed in a haze to the Boone family as Da’an took them on a tour of the facility, relating various anecdotes of his life and career. Recalling the first tumultuous days after Da’an “ended the third world war”, when the world was both enraptured and more than a little scared. Companion Reaction syndrome had been a very real thing (Though there had been other mass derangements that caused needless bloodshed in the past. The Red Scare, the inauguration day suicides of 2021), Da’an shared a story of Ne’erd a Taelon anthropologist who’d arrived in the ruins of Rio De Jainero in November of twenty thirty one, the residents of that once great city had taken to worshipping the companions as gods and were sacrificing the elderly and infirm to graven images of Qu’on and of Da’an, the beings many believed were the leaders of their respective race. Boone could not remember when the government of Brazil collapsed, if it had been one of the many “Deniers revolts” as they were called at the time. The insurrections that followed an attempted eighteen-month lockdown in response to a viral outbreak that paled in comparison to the airborne Ebola the Japanese defense force unleashed against what had been North Korea four years later. Or if it had been when the president of the era was ousted in an armed coup d’état. It didn’t matter to Boone, nor his wife, the story of just how badly civilization had eroded on the global stage was an old one but it reassured Boone that Da’an seemed genuinely disgusted by such “supplications”.



The conversation moved to friendly topics as an hour-long visit became a two-hour long visit. Da’an held court as if it was some ancient sorcerer king. The sheer breadth of its life experience was woven into the manner in which it told a story or related an event. Its wisdom, unconventional and yet deeply rooted in a tradition and a heritage that Da’an said spanned some thirty million years made it a being whose words held more weight than any other around it. Boone hound himself hanging on every word despite his instincts telling him to watch his ass. It was easy to believe the Taelons were that ancient, he was at the battle of Shanghai, he knew what he saw. Rosana was enamored with Da’an and it was easy to see why, while it’d been brutally honest with Boone and much of the interview was about probing his capability, the Companion had no such need with Rosana and it was free to play up the charm for which it had won over so many survivors. What surprised Boone the most was how oddly “paternal” Da’an’s tone was in regards to his wife, it wasn’t unpleasant or out of place, it was so natural Boone knew it wasn’t an act. -It’s a parent, but its offspring have grown up and moved on long ago- Boone thought, there was also something bittersweet in the Companion’s voice, below that, something sad.



Had it lost children? Rose never knew her father and her mother had passed around the time they met. She responded to the entreaties with the same loneliness he detected in Da’an and made a mental note to watch them both. Much as Boone liked Da’an, much as he was starting to trust the Companion, his instincts told him the ease at which the three were bonding could be ruinous. -I don’t want to like it so much, but Da’an makes that impossible-. It would have been easier if Da’an had the temperament of some of the other Taelon who worked in the embassy, who seemed remote and both cautious and daunted by humans. All throughout the tour, Boone’s mind wandered back to the words used “To master our evolutionary course and to facilitate your own journey”. What had that meant? There was such gravity in the Companions tone that Sandoval looked up with concern and something else, he couldn’t quite figure. That was such an odd phrase, such a deeply sacred one it appeared nowhere else in any Taelon manifesto. or press release. -he entrapped me with that one line- Boone realized sullenly, had the Boone’s refused, somewhere down the line their children would have become orphans.



He wanted to be hostile towards Da’an with that, but he knew the Companion wouldn’t be the one to sign the kill order. Some other Companion would, or chillingly, Sandoval, Da’an would clamor against it and condemn it, but. -It played me, and I still can’t hate it- furious yes, hurt yes -Damn its good-. Why the hell was he hurt? The ride home would be contemplative, but at least he could sit in silence and brood like a proper cop as Lily distracted his wife. She was a very good friend, which made her trouble.



It was as they were preparing to leave that the myriad within this building seemed to snap suddenly to attention. It was incredibly eerie! First the lesser Taelons lifted their heads and let out of a soft noise that seemed akin to a litany of some sort and the humans, the members of the protection agency and the embassy staff all seemed to cease any and all action they were taking to look up towards one of the raised balconies that seemed to float through the air, acting both like elevators and bridges about the vast lobby. Above them stood a figure that was slightly taller than the other companions (even Da’an). Its skin was a deeply pale white, almost chalk like color and its eyes were a vibrant green that seemed to contrast with its corpse like pallor. The skinsuit it wore was dark black and striped with gold akin to a silk like sash. The same lights danced woven into its fabric as Da’an but they were a hue of deeper blues and greens. Behind him stood two other Taelon, one he recognized as the Japanese Companion Zo’or. Zo’or looked young, which was odd because all Taelons looked, youthful. But there was something in its body language, its oddly petulant smirk (which was in and of itself odd, Da’an aside, none of the Companions he’d seen on television emoted very much. At least not in the traditional sense). There was something else, its eyes were a deeper shade of the same silver blue Da’an’s eyes were. And they were filled with barely restrained aggression, which was definitely uncharacteristic. The Companion in black carried itself with a serene aura of power, much the same way Da’an did. But its eyes were oily, where Da’an had a pair of deep, inscrutable pools of charisma that spoke to a varied life. The great Orator and leader of the Taelon people, Qu’on reminded him more of the hellfire and brimstone preachers his father’s congregation often clashed with. Intense, zealous but inherently false. Nevertheless, it carried itself as he expected an Emperor would, as the “balcony” seemed to float downward, as he approached Da’an, the companion looked up, something burned in its eyes, was it defiance? It seemed like defiance. Qu’on took mastery of the room with its presence alone. Boone couldn’t help but notice that eyes slowly began to shift from Qu’on to Da’an, the subtle reaction coupled with the fact that Da’an waited a fraction of a second before extending the traditional welcome Companions gave, spoke volumes. -They respect each other, but they aren’t allies-. By contrast, Zo’or looked more like a hungry wolf, leering from behind its alpha, in an attempt to portray itself as part of this subtle, yet intense little display of dominance. When in reality it was nothing more than a spectator, or perhaps not, some eyes had moved to Zo’or, the other Taelon was ignored entirely and looked as if it wanted to be anywhere but there.





“Qu’on, forgive me, my reunion with Detective Boone must have carried on longer than I expected it too” The companions voice was apologetic, but its eyes flashed something more defiant and Boone allowed himself a small smile, must to his eternal frustration he found his anger and sense of betrayal lessening with that gesture alone. “You mean the prospective chief of our protectors?” Qu’on turned toward the pair, instead of the traditional Taelon greeting it extended its hand to Boone who was surprised at the strength in the grip when he took it. “We are honored that Companion Da’an made the offer” Boone put in, the use of the term Companion before its name was admittedly a risky endeavor but if Boone was right, Da’an would be both appreciative of his perceptiveness and more aware of how much he really saw. A test, a risky one, one his wife gripped his arm in a vice like hug over. -I’m going to hear a mouthful about that later-.



Qu’on inclined its head “Da’an is more than a mere companion, De” it paused, scrutinizing Boone’s face before added with a slow smile “Protector Boone”. Behind Da’an Sandoval seemed to shift, she did not like the use of the term protector being applied to Boone. There was a mix of outrage, indignation, and horror in her eyes? As if the thing wearing Sandoval’s skin couldn’t quite hold back the woman who was trying desperately to warn him. “It is better that my cherished colleague be referred to simply as Da’an, to recite his titles would take all day”



“His?” Boone asked, with a raised eyebrow. Qu’on inclined its head to the right, a gesture that was quickly becoming the Taelon equivalent of a shrug to Boone’s limited understanding. “It, is more applicable, in truth. But some humans find that to be, disrespectful.” Qu’on spoke as if the reasoning eluded it, when there was no way in hell the slick fucker wouldn’t know why, especially given the case it argued before the Supreme Court. As the leader of the Synod withdrew its hand it turned to Rosana Boone and offered another, curiously suave smile. “Ah, Misses Rosana Ryder-Boone. I was hoping to meet you with more time to invest on a personal exchange”



“Oh?” She asked, her eyes were filled with a mix of childlike wonder and amusement at just how odd Qu’on was. She caught it too, likely before he did, that odd mix of sleazy charm with genuinely charismatic bravado that made Qu’on a frustrating contradiction and likely a wily opponent. “Indeed, your arguments in Doors vs the United Nations were evocative of Cicero to my ears and of Ra’jel, the founder of our legal system” And the Synod, Boone reasoned given the look of barely veiled disgust that appeared on Zo’or’s face. It had been as if Qu’on debased their species with such a comparison and as far as compliments went, it was too much of one not to be both one hundred percent genuine, but also somewhat absurd enough to come off as if it were a lie. The United Nations had ceased operations largely the year before that suit went to court, many saw it as the moment Johnathan Doors put another scalp on his belt of state-like entities he was going to destroy before he died. Others had seen it as the moment the Companions and Doors Internationally fully replaced the old, failed Global Order. The persuasive arguments of one young lawyer almost fresh out of law school and their contribution to the matter were often ignored in favor of heaping attention on the two giants in the playground. Boone was happy his Rose was finally getting the recognition she deserved, even if it was slightly back handed.



Rose, to her credit saw through the attempt to conceal genuine respect in condescension and inclined her head. “You honor me, Ra’zher’Qu’on” she murmured, using his title, something that seemed to surprise all four Taelons, Boone allowed himself to beam with pride (amusingly so did Da’an). “I serve Doors, but I am your sublime servant as well” Boone almost failed to stop himself from laughing. She played the game well, hitting him back with the same over the top gesture and Qu’on seemed to look from her to Da’an then Zo’or and it smiled “I shall hold you too that, Attorney Boone” a gentle wave from one of the Synod leader’s hands seemed to indicate the conversation was both over and the Boone’s departed with Captain Marquette, who walked ahead allowing the pair to hold each other as they cleared the doors. So much had happened today that she felt a pang of regret over the fact that she had to add to it.







As Badger streaked through a sky of orange, purple and indigo, heading towards the setting sun. The woman’s silence alerted Boone. Marquette was seldom quiet, especially when she sensed that her friends were down, the fact that the ordinarily energized woman wasn’t tapping her foot on the floor, moving slightly in her chair or doing something to vent the pent up energy she seemed to always possess cued him in further.



“Lily”



“Yes?”



“We’re not heading home, are we?”



“Not yet Preacher! There’s someone else you need to meet first”



“Another Companion?”



“No, just a one-man country”



“oh”



This day was going to be long.

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

Alright, after a long hiatus, brought on by real life, clusterfucks, creative writing burn out and my own issues with the ethicacy of certain things...

I am back..if for a time.

No idea if anyone really reads this, but without further adieu

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

That there is a Devil, is a thing doubted by none, but such as are under the influences of the Devil. – Cotton Mather





Tomas De Torquemada







Ruins of Chongqing December 29th 2040









“You really should do something about those fires boss” A female voice remarked, she was a woman in her early twenties, long auburn hair and skin that matched it. Her voice held a huskiness to it that he always liked. She sounded scratchy, throaty, she reminded him of another Dominican American he knew back in the nineteen nineties. He’d been nine years old and she was his math teacher. Dania something or other. She molested him when he turned twelve, one day when he went to pick his little brother up from her class. It was funny how that worked, he didn’t mind it at the time, but his brother Christopher was disgusted, he would have told their parents if either of their parents cared. At the time he really didn’t mind, but in two thousand and five he burned her alive for her crimes. Though less against him and more against a pair of retarded twins she was tutoring at the time. That was a high-profile court case, not her murder, no that remained unsolved, but her Pederasty trial. Christopher killed himself that year, he believed it had been due to the fact that their father brought his client, the woman in question to dinner once or twice.



Funny how trauma worked, or at least how histrionic personality disorders worked. That his brother would be the one to commit suicide over their father’s hypocrisy when the deed had been done to James not Chris. And it was funny that he could look back towards a woman young enough to be his daughter, think of a long dead pedophile and feel warmth. Was he always like that? Or had that been another one of the wondrous side effects of the Taelon virus? -You did tell me Umrathama that things would be different, that I would experience an awakening of conscious- But the great liar did not quite comprehend what consciousness meant, not at least for a member of the genus Homosapien. While the procedure did silence certain impulses. It kindled in his psyche others, while it gave him clarity of focus and the discipline to ignore his urges and to choose when to indulge them, it also expanded his awareness of what that word really meant.



The most insidious part, the part he would never forgive them for was how the damn bug made him enjoy subservience. It was such an odd sensation, he knew, as the needle entered his brain that he was being, rewritten. That things that made him, himself were being copied, modified slightly and then the facsimile was being transposed over his own psychological center. Layer, after layer, until the line began to blur and James Pike lost the ability to tell the difference and he suspected, he’d have been erased utterly had he not been so, peculiar. But it seemed as though Umrathama hadn’t taken into account that the human brain was only uniformed on the surface, that below it, in the dark…. Lay…Complexities.



Or perhaps it was the soul, either way, his meandering came to an end when the woman snapped her fingers in front of his face. What did she want again? Oh, right, the fires. “It’s not like I’m mayor of this ruin”



She gave a shrug “how long have they been burning for? Ten years? Longer?”



“Since the nuclear strikes on the dam”



That had been one of the darker moments of the Third World War, or rather. It’s Sino-Indian front, though “The SI war” hardly did the conflagration justice. Japan had used genetically modified viruses on the Chinese coast, North Korea fired off advanced missiles at Seoul no one knew they had. Russia got involved, Mongolia got enveloped as well. “Really? And you let them burn because?”



“It serves as a reminder to me, about the cost”



“The cost of what?” she asked, though seeing the older man wouldn’t reply, she decided to speak on business. A feminine hand reached up to push stray strands of hair from her eyes, which narrowed as a geyser of fire erupted a block from the building they had taken as their HQ, ripping through the remains of what had once been a luxury hotel for tourists, a large segment falling down, sloughing away as though they were slag. “You were right, Doors set Sykes up to be martyred” she spoke, her voice tight as her jaw seemed to clench towards the end of the sentence, fury written in the intensity of her gaze. “That was pretty cold, even for John”



“No” The man said, one of his hands moved over the desk, towards a Chinese tea pot, its ornate art implying it was a Ming era antique, one of the few curiosities of the destruction of this shithole. She remembered that much, that the building it had been was flattened totally, yet the tea set had been unblemished, sitting on a quaint little table the shadows of the couple who’d sat down for tea blazed into the ground below. Something underneath his sleeve shifted, she could make out a faint glow and the woman suppressed a shudder. A reminder, of what the prince of lies had stolen from him. He sipped the tea patiently, in another life he’d been one the most brilliant psychological profilers of that era and when he resigned from the FBI, he became one of the best defense attorney’s, until he started ritualistically burning or disemboweling clients and killing dirty cops at least. It was easy to see it, even now, after what the deceiver had done to his soul, his mind was still keen. “Johnathan Doors wouldn’t martyr someone else; he is a man who fancies himself a modern-day Ramses the Great. A god king, he views his struggle with Umrathama as part of a divine conflict between himself and a rival of the same status, no, he martyred himself and used his ascension to mask his recruitment”



“William Boone” she hissed, causing the man to nod. “He will soon become the dog of two masters, their war will consume the history books”





“And in doing so, pave the way for our triumph”



“Everything is going the way you called it; you must feel pretty good about that Boss”





The man shrugged, in front of him another hand picked up a teacup, a hand grizzled by nuclear fallout. But with fresh, healthy flesh woven between the scar tissue, as though he were healing. “I thought sociopaths were supposed to be egotists?” The man asked, his tone teasing, his voice hoarse as though he was speaking with new vocal cords.



“Hah! You watch too many movies my friend”



“Well, not much else to do, for now”



“For now,”

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

December the 28th – Texas/Louisiana border



“People compare me not to other men of business, but to Alexander the Great. I’ve never liked that comparison, if I was anything like Alexander the great, after I bankrupted California, I’d have drunk myself to death. No, I’m more like Augustus; it ain’t the conquest that’s the adventure, it’s the consolidation and growth where the real test begins” – Johnathan Doors at the Havana Conference. November 2029



Johnathan Doors: Un César moderno





“Is preacher still crushing your hand back there?” Captain Marquette’s playful voice matched a glint in her dark black eyes that William Boone knew meant that she was in a magnanimous mood, stopping short fully joining his dear Rose in hazing the high heavens out of him. “Hah! I think he’s letting up, I can sort of feel my fingers” Rose called back, laughing lightly as they danced through the depths of the ocean at velocities that should have caused all manner of tsunamis and environmental issues and yet, seemed to barely disturb the dark water. Which was lit by the brilliant purples and blues that made up Badger’s hide. That would take Boone some getting used too, calling it Badger. Recognizing that it was alive and about as intelligent as an elephant. Realizing in that moment. While working for the Companions, no, working for Da’an that he likely would end up needing to get to know the names of the different shuttles and figure out what their temperaments were and how to get along with them.



“Funny” he muttered nervously, noticing the color change in the water, they must have been ascending now. Though how they didn’t cause tsunamis with how fast they’d been moving was still a mystery to the detective. He was grateful when Badger breached, and ocean was replaced by clear Texan skies and irate sea birds.





They’d come up along the Texas coastline, hugging near a sort of lagoon that marked one of the twelve barriers of Olympus. The million-acre ranch that belonged to Johnathan Doors, which was in reality a combination of a hundred or more large ranches that were owned by Silicon Valley millionaires that Doors left financially destitute. His “war prize” and “Mount Olympus that I plan to build from the bones of the Titans I destroyed”. Boone was a young man in his early twenties when Doors declared that, and he remembered finding it “based”. Everyone hated what Silicon Valley became, everyone cheered its collapse. The economic and political ramifications from that, things a twenty something Billy Boone didn’t give a god damn about it were probably one of the largest contributors to the third world war.



Doors hadn’t just wiped out the companies of the valley, but he’d bought up their assets and had most of them destroyed, he deliberately torpedoed their stock value (And the flack he caught for refusing to take his company public was matched only by the market panic when everyone realized he was going to destroy any corporation he took over rather than allow what he sneeringly called “the soccer mom” demographic to tell him what to do). Foreign nations, including a certain emerging power that was suffering a massive international loss of face over a pandemic that were dependent on tech theft from said companies soon found their watered down generic products and factories they seized shut down, collapsing or worse.



No one could ever prove Doors International did it, in fact half of what Doors was accused of doing wasn’t believed to have been possible with the tech at the time. But the sheer market volatility and his wanton abuse of admittedly bad laws that allowed the crony capitalism that his enemies used to exploit, Doors gleefully turned against them. They’d slowed down, so Boone could get a good look at the ocean of land, the marshes, the cows, the herds of sheep and were those elephants?! Boone blinked “So he really does have his own herd of elephants?”



One thing that Johnathan Doors had been an advocate of was Pleistocene rewilding, a some what pseudo-scientific idea, that reintroducing certain kinds of megafauna to the US would go a long way to rehabilitating the soil and forests and ensure the long term prosperity of the country’s agro sector and natural wonders. It gained traction when it looked like the social collapse of many African nations and huge tracts of Asia would spell the end of the giants. The deep south and Mid Atlantic was home to African Forest Elephants, Asian and pygmy Asiatic elephants were seen often times as far north as Delaware in the summer months (Though they migrated South as the cold came). The American South West belonged to the African Bush elephant now and the Bison and wolf and bear. Genetically engineered “NeoMastodons” a genmodded breed of furry elephant wandered Alaska and parts of Washington state and Northern California, introduced shortly before the end of the war.





Boone couldn’t tell what sort of pressure Doors and his primalist buddies exerted on the Federal Government to allow any of that or if they listened to his spiel about it helping deal with some of the fall out of such a terrible war but when you were a defacto world power unto yourself. His eyes narrowed as he observed the herd “They’re huge”



“Straight tusked elephants” Captain Marquette said with an amused glint in her eyes “And no not genmodded regular elephants, Doors Labs has gotten into the “De extinction” game.” A group of immense Elk , waded through grass but lacked any of the tags the elephants had and Boone wondered if they were merely passing through, or an off the books attempt for Doors to breed Irish Elk for his grandsons and their friends to hunt. The meanest wolf, the cleverest, the most ostentatious, that was Johnathan Doors and yet, he was uncommonly loyal to those in his inner circle. Boone’s wife was likely the safest she’d ever be outside of his arms when she was with Johnathan Doors.





They came towards a series of concrete lading pads over a network of hills, overlooking a private airfield that belonged to the Doors estate. Firebird I the personal plane slash spaceship of Johnathan Doors loomed like a purple Dragon, the odd baby green and purple infinity symbol painted on the tips of its wings. “My sons would fight you to get a glimpse of the inside of the Firebird Captain Marquette”



Rose grinned “I think they’d like Badger more” she said.



Boone snorted, that was because Badger changed all kinds of colors when Rose approached and did nothing for Boone and it even seemed like her seat belt was easier to put on than his own. Ahead of them loomed what looked like a new mountain, rising out of Texan earth, its shadow covering much of the valley.



Mount Olympus was built both as a fortress and a luxury estate, it was said to be almost twice the size of the palace of Pharaoh Amenhotep and containing eighteen hundred rooms and a hanging garden that was said to be a wonder of the modern world. Built using Doors International’s (then)bleeding edge lightweight and hyper durable materials it was said to have been built in under six months. It served as both a monument to the power of Johnathan Doors and as a grand showcase for his revolutionary technology. Technology, Boone started to wonder if it was less the masterwork of a polymath and luminary, a modern-day Prometheus or more a reverse engineered “gift”. The implications of which, made his blood freeze in his veins and his heart tense in his chest.









The drive to Mount Olympus itself was a five-minute affair, but it felt much longer as if the time the Boone’s had spent in badger made them acutely aware of how slow other methods of conveyance were. The feel of Rose’s hands around his arm as the pair watched the immense personal palace of Johnathan Doors rise before them, a mix of ivory, ebony and deep blues that looked as though the smooth, marble like rock was grown instead of rent from the death truly did look awe inspiring. Towers rose into the skies high enough for clouds to be cut by their size. He could make out hundreds of rooms, some populated others not. He knew Doors had three, no four (Even if Joshua Doors insisted on not being counted), living sons and nine adopted daughters whom he loved as fiercely as his biological children (Boone knew this from the one exchange they had together, all Doors could talk about beyond the coat was family, for all pretenses, that much was at least true), that he had close to twenty something grand children and was probably a great grandfather.



All of them, minus one lived in Mount Olympus, as did several of his nephews and nieces and their children. His only living brother was a Cardinal but even he spent time in Mount Olympus. It was almost as if Doors peopled his godly kingdom with his own kind…To many it made him an icon, the embodiment of human potential and his rags to riches success story gave many hope during the darkest times of the darkest decade of this near half done century. Rosanna looked up with youth tinted eyes, she still saw the majesty, the carefully crafted and intentionally contradictory image of the man of the people who dwelt in a city in the clouds above the people. But to William Boone, Mount Olympus only made Johnathan Doors seem as alien as the Taelons, as distant and as devious.



Enormous imperial purple steps flanked by dark green marble plinths that held massive synthetic-bronze statues of two bears one looking fiercely ahead and one raising a paw in defense, statues that Boone was sure were eighty or so feet long and fifty feet tall. The Doors international infinity symbol woven onto the front of each plinth must have been wider than a man was tall. He could make out, six tiny figures seated on the steps, the first was Colonel Allan Doors, Johnathan Doors eldest surviving son, another was his teenaged daughter who was sitting with four enormous black dogs who were all lazing in the sun and enjoying the affection the pair were giving.



It struck Boone, it was so, mundane, so normal an action for a father and daughter that it threw him for a loop when compared to the absurdly massive building behind them…It was utterly surreal and given the playful look of deviousness on his wife’s face, Boone was sure it was was a recurring thing. That contradiction was part of the allure of Johnathan Doors, a man whose wealth was unrivaled in human history, whose innovations and ingenuity held back the darkness and when the Companions came, helped deliver humanity..Yet none of it went to his head, while totally going to his head. Johnathan Doors thought himself the Pope the Homosapien Species, the vicar of mankind..It was blatantly obvious and yet…you had moments like this or others, where it was clear he hadn’t lost touch with his humble roots, nor the people he held himself the champion of.



That maddening dichotomy made Johnathan Doors intimidating as hell and in William Boone’s humble opinion, the greatest bullshit artist in the known universe (With the exception perhaps, of Qu’on).







They were escorted inside by a happy pack comprised of one hyperactive sixteen year old and four ginormous dogs that seemed to fall in line behind him as though instinctively recognizing Boone as an alpha. Something that made Rose laugh “And you wonder why Da’an wanted you and not Sandoval” she whispered.



“You caught that too huh?” Boone asked and his wife beamed “Of course” she said, before her smile turned into a frown “Two things reacted…you saw it right? The flicker in her eyes before…” she went silent, when they entered the immense corridor that was the hallway to the main reception room. Not wanting to give voice to her thoughts, not here, not yet.



Before a grand staircase, a tall, gaunt man with thick gray hair wearing a long, blue and green robe that was tightened over silk pajamas and slippers greeted them, looking at once like a grandfather who just got caught taking a day off by surprised guests and like some lord out of a period movie. Boone noted, he was leaning on a black cane with an ivory handle, as opposed to a wheelchair as Doctor Bellman had reported he would be confined too for the next few weeks. Catching the look in Boone’s eyes a gravelly, smoky laughter escaped the mouth of Johnathan Doors “The benefit of owning the companies that can regrow spines, I can be my own guinea pig for new medicine” Something flickered below his breast pocket as the man extended, a faint blue and purple glow that made Boone quirk his head, it reminded him of the same flickers he saw in Da’an.



But he knew not to ask, something Doors caught and reciprocated with a wolfish grin. “So you’ve met with one side of the coin” Doors remarked, extending his hand in greeting and giving Boone one of the firmest handshakes he’d received in his life and that keen look in the eyes, old school. So many people in his youth lacked the ability to look anyone in the eye, finding it uncomfortable. Boone preferred it, doing anything less felt like an unconscious gesture of submission. Neither soldiers nor detectives could afford to be submissive to anyone they were facing across a table or a block, or a field and Boone reasoned, now being Chief Protector would mean the same.



Doors embraced Rose, he was always smooth with younger women, in a way that mirrored Da’an’s own graciousness with his wife, albeit more physically personable and yet, seemingly less warm. Damn, he thought, that Taelon was good!





So was Doors.



“Come with me” he spoke, ordering them.



Captain Marquette followed behind, but he noticed Lily embraced the girl and waved bye to the dogs as if to give herself enough time to fall behind so she could walk directly behind them. Why did this suddenly feel like an ambush?



Then again, he had been ambushed by Da’an and didn’t even notice it until the son of a bitch let him. Doors by contrast, was deliberately far less subtle, but what worried him was why Lily felt the need to trail him as if, blocking him? And how they flew here earlier, she’d deactivated Badger’s internal log and Boone once again cursed his instincts…Something was wrong. He held his wife’s hand as they walked, Doors was talking about something, probably in relation to Mount Olympus, evidently each plant his hanging gardens absorbed something like eighty times the amount of carbon dioxide normal plants did and between that and the heat absorbing tech, the palace itself had lowered the temperature in the area by two degrees. Given Doors international and the Companions had done wonders for the environment since their arrival a decade ago, it didn’t surprise Boone.



Doors was giving him a filler speech and he knew it.







The real conversation didn’t start until they made their way towards a small sort of lounge at the edge of the indoor Lake. A series of rooms oddly humble, looking more like the interior of a cabin by the woods, worn from years of use. -Did he transport his family cabin log by log?- Boone wondered, something flickered it was a dull green and then finally, Johnathan Doors seemed to relax. Gone was the façade of the grandfatherly tycoon, gone was the pained walk, leaning on the cane for support and gone was the dazed glint in eyes that suddenly became hard, sharp and deliberate.



And Cold…Boone thought.



Here it comes, the old wolf.





“What do you think about the Taelons detective Boone?” Doors leaned into the cane, partly for dramatic effect and partly out of a desire to remain standing, while reclining. The question was so, unsubtle that it threw William Boone for a loop. “More specifically, what was your impression of Da’an?”



Boone’s eyes narrowed as the tall, gaunt American Pharaoh turned and looked towards a series of family photos on the wall in front of him. There was something deeply troubling about this meeting, something that…Oh Damn Boone thought…damn..-You’re right in the middle of it, they put you and your family right in the middle of it-.



No, Boone realized as a chill crept up his spine.



Rose did that….She knew.



She had to know.



“You’re like Da’an, always purposefully asking the wrong question” That got an oddly cold chuckle from Doors. “Then what is the right question”



“What do you think of Elena Sandoval” Boone’s wife answered, and William Boone closed his eyes.



The Serpent and the wolf….Damn them both.





Alright, in headfirst then, like dad used to say, it was the best way to learn how to swim.



“That thing, wasn’t Sandoval” Boone began slowly “It wore her skin, it was a fair approximation of her, too fair, too perfectly fair.”



“Oh? And what makes you say that, Detective Boone?” Doors asked, turning back to the couple, those machine-like eyes narrowing. “I fought with Liam Kincaid and his orphans during the fall of Shanghai, Granted it wasn’t for very long, two days but I did get a chance to observe his….child soldier’s” Boone spat the last words out, he hated what the war had done to society “Sandoval was a cold, introspective girl. Her peers were afraid of her, they thought she was a sociopath, but I saw enough of her to know that wasn’t true. She was a soulful young woman, if austere. She survived some pretty bad trauma, I know that”



“Her mothers were mermaids, when the eldest of the two tried to put her on puberty blockers Elena burned the family home down to escape their abuse. Her twin brother was caught in the fire and died as well” Johnathan Doors learned on his cane again adding as almost as if an afterthought “The Assassin…was the lawyer who represented her during her murder trail”



Rose’s jaw clenched, she evidently hadn’t known that. Nor had Boone, but that made Sandoval’s reaction after the fact all the more bizarre, the laughter the “relax preacher”. She showed nothing… “What..what did the Taelon’s do to her?”



“Nine years ago, a week before the companion protection agency was formed I was contacted by a researcher in one of my labs, he said he had some concerns about the “organic networking protocols” that were being designed to help the agents manage the Skrills, the weapon you saw on the wrist of Agent Sandoval. He said they seemed to contain incredibly complex programming, that it contained a motivational imperative and behavioral modification and simulation subroutines. Psychological mapping matrices and personality templates”



Boone swallowed “My god…you’re saying” he trailed off, they had rewritten Sandoval? No, not rewritten, what Doors was describing was akin to demonic possession, the CVI’s which were said to enhance intelligence and as Sandoval described it, helped her communicate with her Skrill and helped her body manage the Skrills restorative abilities, were also copying the personality and superimposing themselves over the original?! It suddenly made the occasional bouts of intensity in her eyes all the more jarring. “The companions wouldn’t…Why would they do that?”





“Why do you think?”



Boone’s mind wandered back to the conversation with Da’an. -Will I have to do, horrible things for you?’ -yes-.



Da’an’s words made him wonder if in a screwed up way, the old serpent wasn’t trying to protect him. “That they want fanatical soldiers…but”



“Not for anything as conventional as military conquest, no if the Taelon’s wanted too they could crack this planet in half” Doors waved his hand dismissively.



Boone was present at the fall of Shanghai, he didn’t need to be told what the Taelon’s could do. Their mothership, a beautiful semi translucent vessel probably larger than the moon had appeared over Asia, the inter Dimension woosh alone had leveled buildings and the vessel was said to have gently touched the tip of Mount Everest with one end hovered over half of Japan at the other end, the whole world saw it. A second moon, one made of singing light appeared and then Da’an’s face broadcast across the world. The United States, Russia, India and France had let loose their nuclear arsenal and it had simply, vanished from the heavens. As the face of Da’an appeared before every standing city, every town, every village, every fleet in combat and every survivor in their hovels the war ceased. In one, moment of utter awe…mankind stood united.



United in wonder.



United in surrender.





Boone didn’t need a reminder of what the Companions could do. But it did raise an interesting question, the companions said they were custodians, wards of most of the local Galactic cluster and they’d supposedly overcome a terrible race of conquerors called the Jaridians tens of thousands of years ago and were merely “looking after” a universe that was still healing from the ravages of a terrible war. They were allegedly unopposed and yet, came here to this little backwater? But why?





-to facilitate your evolution and in doing so, learn about the tidal forces governing our own-



Those words suddenly sounded far more nefarious. And then the horror of the fact that his tenure as the Protection would mean he would be made to receive one of these, monstrosities. His eyes widened, panic struck him as he realized he couldn’t simply refuse now after he agreed, only for his mind to yank him out of his terror by reminding him that Johnathan Doors asked him a question so dangerous, so loaded and so risky that it could only mean one thing.



This is a resistance movement, funded and orchestrated behind the back of the Companions by their biggest ally… “You’re going to taint my CVI aren’t you?” he asked.



Doors laughed coldly. “If ensuring your CV is programmed to protect your free will, well, then I suppose”.



Rose’s hand gripped his forearm, it was vice like and something deep down inside told him that she knew, she knew this was coming, she knew what Da’an wanted, she knew about the resistance, she knew it all.





“I want a man on the inside William Boone, because I think the children of Ramaz have been screwing with us since well before they arrived and put a stop to the war. In fact, I think they caused it” Door’s voice was iron and before William Boone could contemplate how his wife had lied to him and what the hell a Ramaz was the weight of Johnathan’s accusation hit him as though it were an eighteen wheeler barreling down on his chest.



Seeing the look on Boone’s face the older man scoffed “Think about it Boone, things were crazy in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen. But seventeen? Eighteen? The Supreme Court Rulings in nineteen that made no sense?! The viruses, the riots. The predation of children, it was as if society unraveled at breakneck speed!”



Boone blinked, he remembered those days as well, he remembered plenty of human error and yet, things did accelerate wildly. By September twenty, twenty Argentina and Uruguay were both in states of civil war, Brazil’s government had more or less collapsed. The whole voting to abolish the MacArthur constitution, the ignoring of the treaty, Japan’s rearmament after almost a century of peace. The riots that turned into nation spanning civil brawls across Western Europe…it was like one domino toppling after another and the more Boone thought about.



“We were responsible for a lot of that” He said almost as if to banish the thought and when Doors nodded Boone almost felt relaxed. “I’m not denying that, truth be told, all the things that happened twenty years ago, were going to happen anyway, but likely not for another generation or so. They happened yesterday instead of today and they happened one after the other in a sequence of events that was”



“Too perfect” Boone agreed.



“But why? With all their power? Their resources, their knowledge, why engineer a global calamity, especially one that killed so many…why..” Boone was almost desperate, not for any loyalty to the Taelon’s but for everything, so many people died during the collapses and the third world war, almost thirty percent of humanity was just…Why? To what purpose?





“I don’t know” answered Doors, his voice heavy, the old wolf suddenly looked truly old. “I know almost everything, I see almost everything, it’s the curse of knowledge and the gifted horse of wisdom. But I can’t see their end game, I can’t see their true agenda…I can’t see Da’an, can’t really see ‘em”



-Two giants in a playground-



A phrase from a science show now, almost fifty years gone crossed through his mind.





“And that’s why I want you in there Boone, that’s why I want you as the right arm of that son of a bitch…There in the heart of celestial darkness”





Boone found himself once more agreeing to something distasteful. Weirdly enough, he felt far more bitter about spying for the human liberation movement than he did agreeing to be the right hand of an alien mastermind.



Funny…



Boone found himself laugh “I should have stayed in bed…Alright Doors…you have me…But no lies understand?”



Doors smiled, it was a wolfish grin and he nodded his head “No, you won’t put conditions on me, but in deference to your wife and everything she’s done for the cause I’ll be as open as I can be…Fair enough?”



-I swear, I want to rip your head off your shoulders- Boone thought, only to nod his head in agreement “fair enough”



“Welcome to the resistance William Boone”

 

[Spartan303]

Oh My....oh my indeed. This was fantastic!

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

Oh My....oh my indeed. This was fantastic!

The characterization defined the best parts of the series. Trying to do that justice has been a glorious challenge and I hope I don't fuck it up too bad

 

[Spartan303]

The characterization defined the best parts of the series. Trying to do that justice has been a glorious challenge and I hope I don't fuck it up too bad

You didn't fuck it up, you hit the nail on the head, beautifully. If anything, I think the show really made Doors underwhelming. He had this vast fortune worth tens of billions to hundreds of Billions of dollars, yet we see so very little of it. I mean, I get it from a production standpoint. The show just didn't have the budget for it. But there are other ways to show it and they just didn't. He went from a man who was visionary, yet skeptic of the Taelons to just a regular Xenophobe. And his son, Joshua...a kid with daddy issues. *sigh*. I hope you do as much justice to Joshua Doors as you did with Jonathon.

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

You didn't fuck it up, you hit the nail on the head, beautifully. If anything, I think the show really made Doors underwhelming. He had this vast fortune worth tens of billions to hundreds of Billions of dollars, yet we see so very little of it. I mean, I get it from a production standpoint. The show just didn't have the budget for it. But there are other ways to show it and they just didn't. He went from a man who was visionary, yet skeptic of the Taelons to just a regular Xenophobe.

Y'know what always bugged me about that? If they led with Doors being a humano-supremacist, who, due to his brilliance was able to see the Taelons for what they were..it would have been interesting. In a show that was incredibly ballsy in its first two seasons they sure missed an opportunity.

I'm trying to balance that..Johnathan Doors was a great man in the show, but he was a great man the same way Augustus was. With all that implies.

His battle of wills with Da'an and Zo'or got shafted so hard in favor of Kincaid.

And his son, Joshua...a kid with daddy issues. *sigh*. I hope you do as much justice to Joshua Doors as you did with Jonathon.

The man struck off on his own, but still clearly let his dad in as he still kept his childhood bodyguard around. I got the impression he didn't hate his dad, or feel abandoned by him so much as miss him. But it never stopped him from following his heart or his own convictions, something Doors was never disappointed in.

Boy did they screw that up in later seasons.

 

[arn]

@The Immortal Watch Dog, I'm loving the story so far, please tell me your planning on continuing the series.

 

[The Immortal Watch Dog]

@The Immortal Watch Dog, I'm loving the story so far, please tell me your planning on continuing the series.

I have 3 monsters to finish first but yeah, this won't go away!

I plan on finishing the SG reboot fic and it's Atlantis spinoff first but yep!