Project LOKI: Forward ⏩

From One M to Another

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Please DO NOT READ this special chapter if you haven't finished Project LOKI Volume 3. The following content contains heavy SPOILERS! Read at your own risk.

LUTHOR

"You are now the new Moriarty and the real authority behind the student council. All of the power is yours."

I WOULD prefer to spend the rest of my afternoon drinking a hot cup of chamomile tea. The mood was perfect for relaxation. I had the student council office for myself. Emeraude and the others attended a meeting with some classroom officers. My presence was not required, so I opted out of the conversation.

I had initially thought that I would be alone in this room. But I was not. An unwelcomed presence joined me for my afternoon tea. He did not even ask permission to take a seat.

"So what are you gonna do with everything that you have?" Stein Alberts asked. He was seated across me, his right leg on top of the other. Between us was the table where a chessboard was conveniently set. Black pieces were on my side. White were on his.

I blew the steam off my tea and gently sipped from the cup. I chose not to respond.

"Oh, come on, Luthor!" Stein was annoyed. "Are you really planning to throw everything away? Hindi ka ba nasasayangan?"

Months have passed since I ascended to the throne of "Moriarty." The whole point of me risking my life and my honor was to dismantle the clandestine organization created and maintained by my predecessors. My younger brother tried to unravel it, but it did not come easy. It may be likened to a Gordian knot. Instead of untangling its complexities the way Loki intended, I went for the most expedient solution: take over the organization and destroy it from the inside.

I had no reservation on executing what needed to be done.

"You do know that you'd make an excellent Moriarty, right?" Stein asked. He leaned toward the chessboard and picked the black king on my side. "I thought so, too. That's why I chose you to be my successor just in case something untoward happened to me. But you already knew about that, didn't you?"

I placed my teacup on the table and watched him as he played the black king in his fingers. He wore a malicious grin that dispelled any shred of innocence that he tried to project to the public.

"You were supposed to be my contingency plan in the Dreamhill incident." Stein averted his gaze and clicked his tongue repeatedly. He looked at me again, this time, with a hint of disappointment. "You were supposed to be my Plan B against your own brother. But alas, you showed your true color and stabbed me in the back! You and Rosetta."

I could not take all the credit. The Dreamhill plan was a success partly because of Stein's overconfidence. He thought that everything was proceeding exactly as he had anticipated. What he did not know was the fact that a wild card was at play. The game was not only between him and Loki. The game was between him, Loki, and me. My younger brother was fortunate that I was on their side. Otherwise, Stein would have easily claimed victory.

"Dapat nga magalit ako sa 'yo, pero ewan." He shrugged his shoulders. "Even in the face of defeat, I was amazed at how you managed to outwit me. Days before the Dreamhill incident, you removed all of my trustworthy pawns. I was left with no choice but to trust someone with dubious loyalty. Little did I know that he was already under your control, and that you instructed him to pretend to kill my targets. Kahit na tinraydor mo ako, doon ko napagtanto na tama nga ang desisyon ko na gawin kang successor."

Again, I could not take all the credit. Rosetta played a crucial role in determining who among the available pawns were loyal to Stein, and who was the most likely to be blackmailed into submission. Despite being out of the game, Augustus had to be credited too, as his external hard drive contained the materials that we needed to eliminate the useless pawns and convert one to our side.

"If he were still here, Jaime would have approved of my choice," Stein said, throwing the black king in the air and catching it. "Pareho kayong nasa student council. Pareho kayong may cunning na kailangan para patakbuhin ang organisasyon. Maybe he would have chosen you too! Who knows?"

That may sound like a compliment, but I did not appreciate it. That was not a privilege I would wholeheartedly accept.

Stein caught the black king and clenched it in his right fist. "That is why... it's not yet too late to make a U-turn, Luthor. It's not yet too late to cancel the self-destruct sequence. You have Augustus' box with you. You have the organization under your thumb. You can make everyone dance if you want. It's all up to you."

Indeed, the decision is mine to make. And I have already reached a verdict.

"You can use it as you will. You can shape it the way you want. You can expand it too," Stein added. "You're already preparing for college, right? Baka gusto mong magkaroon ng branch ang org sa university. Pwede naman... kung gugustuhin mo."

My left hand held the teacup delicately as I blew the steam off it again, my right holding the saucer.

"Maybe you will succeed where Jaime and I have failed," Stein said, looking at me directly in the eye. "Don't you want our legacy to become yours? Don't you believe in the same principle that Jaime believed in?"

As noble as Jaime Santiago's ideals seemed, I strongly disapproved of his methods. If I were in his shoes, I would have done it differently.

Stein reached for my side of the board, and placed the chesspiece back on its square. "You are the black king now. Do what you want with the black pawns—Actually, you may do as you please on both sides of the chessboard. You control the black and the white pieces after all."

My eyes stared down at the black king. If I had no scruples, I would have been easily tempted by the resources that I inherited from my predecessors, and by my power as a student council officer. I could act like the original Moriarty who played both sides.

But I was not like him, nor was I like Stein in any way.

"Kung hindi ko talaga mababago ang isip mo, meron akong hihingin na pabor." Stein reclined in his seat as he regarded me with such concern. "Make sure that Jamie's safe from any danger. You do know she's not in her best condition right now."

I heard that she was suffering from retrograde and anterograde amnesia. She could not remember the past and she could hardly remember the present, as if her mind was on a constant state of reset every now and then.

"Consider this a request from me. Her late brother also requested the same from me days before he died, as if he knew what was coming," Stein finished with a smile. "From one Moriarty to another, I guess?"

I put my teacup and saucer back on the table. Perhaps it's best for Jamie to remain this way. However, should she regain her memories, she might present herself as a problem that I may need to solve.

"Hey, Luthor?"

My head turned to the left as the door to the student council office swung inward. The meeting must be over. Emeraude walked in, carrying a stack of paper. She looked at me, then at the idle chessboard on the table.

"Are you playing chess with someone? Meron ka bang kasama rito?"

I glanced sideways at the empty seat across mine.

"No, I've been alone here."

QED

Do you think Luthor will change his mind? Or nah?

Let me know what else you wanna read AFTER the events of Volume 3! Tama na muna sa "LoreKi layag." Lalo ko pang palubugin 'yan, eh. :P

Share your thoughts or theories too by tweeting with the hashtag #ProjectLOKI4ward!