The Timeservers

Chapter 80

New York City, New York

The Spire

Penance Facility, Sub-Floor Twelve

December 23, 227 P.F.E

Time Unknown

"You didn't do this. You were brought along because you were on a mission. If they push you, you were coerced. I'm your trainer, I'll take the blame. They need you here anyway," Leo told Via. They'd just watched the train pull away, the travelers staring at them from on top of it, most of them.
"They'll wipe you!"
"It'll just be six months. I think I wouldn't mind forgetting them either." Leo sat down, propping his arms on his bent knees and staring into the space in front of him.
"You don't really mean that, right?" Via asked, sitting beside him.
"I think so. I don't know. Too much has happened. She's not who I thought she was."
"Who did you think she was?"
"My friend, someone I loved, someone I could trust."
"And what's changed?"
Leo sighed. "I don't know."
They sat for a minute, letting the silence sink in.
"Charlotte."
"Who?"
"You, Charlotte." Leo looked up, meeting Via's gaze. "Do you remember? Is there a headache, anything?"
"No, no. What's going on?"
"Charlotte, I know you're in there! Do you remember the picnic, your dad disapproving of me, having a matching one of these?" Leo pulled out something like a watch from beneath his collar. "The watch! Think about the watch!"
Via turned away. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do!" Leo grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her a little. "You have to remember! Get through this! The memories are in there!"
"I know what my life was like. I have all my memories."
"Do you? Think about it. The conveniently missing parents who show up years later as Historians? What you know about the Historians? How you knew what to do to free Tatiana? What better place to keep someone that you don't want to interact with Historians than at the Ivory Tower?"
"I'm not Charlotte. I'm not a Historian!"
"But I remember you unless I was New or something. It had to be you. She looks almost exactly like you."
"Who?" Via asked.
"The girl I remember from my old life. The girl I loved."
Via mulls that over as she lies on the cot. The Guardians had left her in the little cell for hours after they recovered them from the Liu's now abandoned home. It's to get her disoriented so she tries to think of other things. She keeps drifting back to that little scene though.
She always stops at the point when he'd told her about loving Charlotte. She'd been digging through her mind ever since to find any trace of this girl. No headaches come up, and no memories resurface. She's just Via. No hidden person from her past came forward and declared their love, everyone from the present retracting it without having to say as much.
Via curls herself into a tighter ball, feeling the disturbing sense of déjà vu. She was in this spot when she was first recruited. She was in a cell, alone, with her heart ripped out of her chest and crushed right in front of her. Even with the yelling of guards and the crying of people, she's alone.
They chose.
If Kelly had waited then he would have found out what his sister was planning. But it wouldn't have changed the fact that he was willing to leave. He would always choose her. The feelings weren't there. Everyone would always choose her.
"What's wrong with you?" Via asks herself. She's pretty, smart, and innocent. What's wrong with her that every boy chooses Sophia over her? She'd been daring and dangerous. What's the tragic flaw? The only time she was chosen first was when she was Charlotte if she ever was. "I wish I was Charlotte."
She pulls out the little charm, rubbing her thumb over it. "I wish you had stayed." It wouldn't work down here.
Kelly's last words to her were about the charm. He'd told her she had a choice. She could lose the charm and they wouldn't be able to get to her. He begged her to throw it out. She told him he had a choice too. He shook his head and jumped.
There's a tapping noise, different from the other sounds in the stinky prison. Via turns towards it and peers into the darkened cell across from her. It's smaller than the others, for higher strikers. Crew's in it.
"Hey, Stupid." He grins and keeps tapping the bars with his fingernail. It was only a matter of time before he ended up in a penance facility again. High strikers rarely stay out for long.
"I'm not stupid."
"Who are you then? Spectre Evanesce? Charlotte? Alone? Unloved?"
"I'm Via Moss."
"Who's she?"
"Not an idiot and not in need of someone who tells me stuff like this."
"The honest and brutal truth? I think everyone needs someone like that."
"Kelly loves me."  
"Kelly's not a person. He can't feel anything, let alone love."
"Then he reflects people. He reflected love to me, so someone out there felt it for me. That's going to have to be enough."
"Someone out there? Interesting. See you around." Crew shuffles around, contorting himself so he can roll over and his face will be hidden.
"What makes you so sure of that?"
"Please, Via. I've been off limits to you for two years now and you're still coming to me. This isn't over." Crew flashes a smile at her and leaves Via alone once more.
After a few minutes, the door to Via's cell opens. A standard waits there, stone-faced. "You've been summoned to meet with the Board of Commissioners and the high governor."
Via blinks. "The high governor?"
"When war is involved as are they."