Dorothy snapped her head up when she heard gunshots. She got up, ready to head downstairs, but Beck stopped her, grabbing her wrist.
"Toots, Crow Boy would kill me if I let you go."
"Good. He's not here to do that, so let me go."
"What is it with you women tonight? NO! I won't let you."
"Jason Beck, get out of my way!"
"Toots, you're gonna have to kick my…OOF!"
Dorothy had kicked him in the groin as hard as she could, and Beck sank to the floor.
"That was for my father!" She kicked him once more, Beck groaning. "And that's for being a gaudy buffoon!"
As she stormed off to the lift, she heard Dastun screaming Angel's name into the night and stopped.
That's impossible. No… that hasn't happened. I refuse to believe that…
She felt herself grow weak in the legs and she steadied herself, by grabbing the table, breathing hard.
"No, I refuse. Everyone's alright. Everyone's okay," she said to herself.
"Damnnit…Toots…"
Beck struggled to get to his feet. He was in immense pain, but he grabbed the living room table, and slowly and gingerly, pulled himself up.
"You don't… seem to… get it…" he panted, "Have faith… in your… CROW BIRD!"
Dorothy stopped and looked at him, shocked.
"Wha… what did you say?"
"Have. Faith. In. Your. Crow Bird. Rushing out there won't help anyone." Beck collapsed on the couch, breathing hard.
Dorothy heard the lift coming up, and the lift opened. She stood in place, hearing Dastun yelling in anguish as he came into the living room, seizing a vase nearby and throwing it across the room. It smashed into pieces. Dastun shook his head and collapsed on armchair, holding his hand over his eyes. Roger and Norman followed, their looks of anguish on their face. Roger met Dorothy's eyes, her eyes trembling.
"Where's Angel?" she asked, holding her breath.
Roger closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"They… took her. She's alive… but… they have her."
Dorothy gripped the table hard, the weakness in her legs now making her physically wobble. Roger ran to her and held her tight before she felt her legs give out.
"Come on, let's get you to the couch."
He walked Dorothy to the couch, noticed Beck was panting hard, and raised an eyebrow.
"She kicked me in the gonads because I tried to stop her from running out! We heard the gunshots!" Beck yelled.
"Ah, I see. Thank you for, well…" Roger began to say, but was cut off by Beck.
"Don't thank me!"
Roger nodded and sat with Dorothy. Norman went to pour some tea and handed a cup to Dorothy, who accepted absentmindedly. Norman then went over to the bar and poured four whiskeys, setting the glasses on a tray and walked back over, handing one to Roger, Beck, and setting one for Dastun on the table, as he was lost in his own world. Norman then took his glass and sat down next to Dorothy, sipping his quietly. Roger felt numb and guilty, staring at his glass. No one said anything for a while. Then Beck spoke.
"So, they have her?"
Roger nodded grimly, sipping his drink.
"But… how did they know she was here? I thought you had secured lines."
"I do."
Dastun finally spoke.
"It was that day. Every time… she has tried to contact… Big Venus… she's always been in that bunker. In the presidential suite. It probably blocked any signal of her power. They must… have something they can trace it with, or they've been watching us, waiting for the right moment."
Roger eyes suddenly lit up. "Norman, the comm!"
Norman set his glass down quickly, going over to the kitchenette to access one of the control units. Roger went to get up, but turned to Dorothy.
"Can you walk now?"
"I think so. My legs… they feel weird."
"Stay here then, get your strength back. When you feel like you can, then come see us. Dastun. Dastun. DASTUN!"
Dastun raised his head, still in his own world.
"Come on," said Roger, and he pulled him up. Beck gingerly got up and followed them into the kitchenette.
Norman had Angel's signal on the screen, following it.
"Sir, it appears they are heading north by northeast. It looks like they're heading to…"
"JFK Mark." Roger sighed.
"Well, let's go follow them!" said Beck, angrily.
"And get shot at, again? We have no idea what we're walking into," said Roger, irritably, "They used her as a shield against us. And if they're taking her to JFK mark, we'll be walking right into a trap! And now that they have her, they have Big Venus as well. If they call her, it's over for all of us! Plus, they have that Big Gamma, whatever the hell it is. We're outnumbered and outmatched!"
Roger curled his hands into a fist. There had to be something they could do instead of standing here. But Roger could think of nothing. Dastun hung his head, having no counter argument. He wanted to go and rescue her, but how could they if they were no match? Roger punched the wall, angrily. To come this far, to spend months getting ready… it was all in vain.
"All of you are forgetting something."
The men turned their head to look at Dorothy, who had pulled the chair from the dining room table, and sat down.
"Dorothy… I don't think… never mind. What are you thinking?" asked Roger, leaning against the wall.
"Big Venus and Angel are two halves that make a whole. While one is a megadeus, and the other its pilot, one has to be alive in order for the other to exist, right? Otherwise, how could Big Venus observe humanity through Angel? Did she not tell Angel a while ago that she was trying to determine if the decision she made was the right one, or tell Angel that she had to show her that humanity was making the right decisions? A part of her power is inside Angel and a part of Angel's power is inside Big Venus."
"Right, but what does this have to do with the situation?" asked Dastun.
"Dan, if she summons Big Venus or if Big Venus summons her, she'll die. There's a possibility that the enemy knows that. But there's also a possibility that they don't know that either. And if they don't, Angel has a bargaining chip for her life. They need her alive at the right time if they're to complete the reset. But something tells me that their Big, Big Gamma, plays a part in all of this. I also play a part too, according to the latest threat they told Roger in the underground. They need all of us for the reset."
Roger remembered something from Gordon Rosewater. "The power of God, wielded by Man…" he muttered.
Roger went back into the hallway, descending down the stairs to the guest parlor where they had met back in September, when everything had started. He went to the cabinet at the end of the room, unlocked it and pulled out Metropolis, the book he had avoided reading and purposely remained forgetful of its presence in the mansion. He walked back up the stairs, through the hall, back into the dining room and sat down next to Dorothy, flipping through the book.
"Roger?" she asked uncertainly.
"Damn book has been nothing but a nightmare to me, so that's why I haven't touched it once. But I'm the biggest fool right now because we probably had the answer this entire time…"
Norman, Dastun, and Beck sat down around the dining table, as Roger frantically poured through the book, finding the page Angel had read to them all those months ago.
"'The power of the happening, will now walk among the living. Their deeds, hard work, and perseverance will be created by hardships by their fellow Man. They will be the bearer of the scroll, their power sealed by wings that have yet to fly. The power of creation, wielded by man, corrupted by his influence will have no bearer or controller. The power of time, the key to the release of creation, the only determiner if creation shall be wielded by God or Man…' Kinda sounds like man has to create this Big's power, right? Kinda like electricity or radiation, right?"
Dorothy raised an eyebrow. "I'm not following."
"Man has to create electricity or radiation in order to use it, right? They were probably using electricity to resurrect Big Gamma's core memory. Radioactive material is probably what powers it, but maybe they mixed it something else and wanted to amplify its effect. When you were still an android, you were able to hook up to Big O to help him create energy for the Final Stage cannon and amplify it. That's it. Its power is rooted in something related to creation, the creation of energy."
"That's why Angel said she sensed them being happy at discovering what you could do, when they saw what you did for Big O. That's why she changed you into a human, it was to prevent that. And, I think… after the event… when your father was creating you as an android, he needed access to the technical know-how to recreate you exactly in the image of his dead daughter, so he made a deal with the devil, so to speak, by putting that ability in you, Dorothy. He just needed their research to finish completing you. But apparently, there might have been only one person who knew about it. I bet Gordon was the only one, and something must've happened to him that made him lost his memories and didn't tell anyone about it, or just plain refused because he had a change of heart. Otherwise, why would they be so happy to discover something they didn't know unless they had known it all along?"
"So, then father… just joined them to get what he needed from them… to create me?"
Roger nodded.
"Time out, Crow Boy. The power of creation? Creation of what exactly?" asked Beck, who was irritated and confused.
"Electricity and radiation are a form of energy. I dunno… it has to be something related to creation. Do you know of any other energy that can be created by man, or not even man, I dunno…"
"Prior to forty years ago, man made a lot of things. It's always been rumored, but never confirmed that whatever they created lead to our downfall. But Paradigm has never admitted that. I mean, look at the Bigs, Crow Boy. No one has ever discovered what powers them."
"Gordon and Alex suggested memory, and while I find it plausible, I figure there's more to it than just memory. It might have something to do with their purpose, like we discussed a while ago."
Roger got up and began pacing. Beck took the book and began flipping through it, annoyed at Roger trying to guess. Beck scanned it, page for page, stopping when he saw something.
"Crow Boy, what the hell is this?"
Roger stopped and peered over Beck, looking at what he was pointing. It looked like a formula, but it had the symbol from Dr. Wayneright's notes that Norman had been unable to translate.
"Uh… been a while since I had math class, but that looks like a formula… whatever that symbol means is approximately equal to 0.690 unless there's an integer that's supposed to be inserted just above that symbol."
Dorothy got up immediately, going over to the bedroom to remove her father's notes from the safe, the number reminded her of something she read not too long ago. She returned, quickly going over the pages along with Norman's translations, finding the number on the last page of the file.
"It's related to the Final Stage Cannon, somehow, but this section is incomplete. According to this, Big O can absorb and fire… dark energy?"
She set the file and translation pages on the table, everyone looking at them.
"What the hell is dark energy?" asked Beck.
Roger sighed. "I don't know. It's doesn't sound good."
He turned to Dastun.
"There's a good chance they have more people watching the mansion. I know you want to go after her, but getting caught won't help her or us. We have some time, though not much. I'm gonna say your apartment is probably compromised as well. Did you grab everything you need for the time being?"
"Yeah, I only got the more important things out from home. Other than that, it's any old bachelor pad with the trash needing to be taken out."
Roger nodded and looked at Norman.
"You still got contacts on the outside?"
"Indeed, sir."
"Establish contact. Get any information and… some regular clothes from them. If we go out, we go out in groups of two-three people, no less, and in disguise. NO ONE goes out by themselves. I don't even care if it's to check the mail. I'm sorry Norman, but the garden is also a no go. Beck, you're free to do your own thing…"
"Unlike you Crow Boy, I'm self-righteous bastard who would shoot someone trying to steal my wallet. Don't worry about me."
"Fair enough. At some point, I need to get to Big Ear and ask about this dark energy or whatever else man has created in the past forty years or prior. If we can narrow down the power source for Big Gamma, we can prepare for it, and counter it. And if we can do that, there's a chance we save Angel."
Later that night, Dorothy was in bed, sleeping, but Roger was wide awake. He couldn't sleep at all. The enemy had been watching the mansion, he had a feeling, but now to make their presence known, and take Angel right from underneath them, the situation shook him to his core. He got out of bed, opening the shades ever so slightly. A thunderstorm had rolled in and was shaking the night skies of Paradigm City. The golden dome, which often illuminated the bedroom appeared diminished in its light. However, there was another thing keeping Roger Smith up in the early hours of the morning: the safety of Dorothy remaining at the mansion.
Roger was struggling with the dilemma. On the one hand, Dorothy was probably safest near him, but the moment he had to go fight in Big O, she would be vulnerable, and he knew the enemy knew that. Even if she had Norman here and the mansion's defense system, they had already succeeded in getting past that once. There was also the issue that Dorothy was now pregnant, going on 17 weeks. Any high stress situation would not only put herself in danger, but the twins as well.
Roger turned around, Dorothy still sleeping quietly. He felt his emotions starting to leach into his mind and quietly snuck out of the bedroom, not even pausing to put on his robe. Dastun was snoring in the living room. Beck had gone back to his factory to work on some last-minute components for Big O. Norman was sleeping in his quarters on the kitchen level. Roger quietly walked past the living room and went to the lift, descending into the hangar.
The lift made a sound and opened. Roger stepped out, looking at Big O, stopping at the railing to lean on it. He sighed, staring down at the hangar floor, looking at the corner where Dorothy and himself had practiced working out and self-defense training so many times. Then he looked down the corridor leading out of the garage. How many times had they walked that corridor after a run or walk, with Norman there to greet them afterwards? Roger felt his world coming apart and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Roger looked back at Big O.
"Big O… I… I think I messed up big time. I'm worried for Dorothy's safety and the twins. I can't even protect my client. But… I don't know what to do. There's no place safe for her, if they succeed with this reset. I feel like were trapped, with no way out. And I know her. She won't idly stand by if I'm out there. If I lose her, I lose them… we have to do everything to protect them. At this point, I could care less about Paradigm or the world, but if I can save them in the process of protecting them, then okay, I will… but my main concern is them."
He shook his head. No, this was unlike him. Why was he acting this way? The present is what mattered, not the past. These memories from the past year, they were contributing to this ridiculous emotion he was feeling. He could use logic to suppress his fear, he had done it before. But, this was a different kind of fear. A fear of losing something he could never replace. And unlike the fear that gripped him in the underground a long time ago, this fear was not one that paralyzed him. Instead, it was one that weighed heavily upon his heart and mind.
Roger heard a movement and turned around. At some point, Dorothy had called the lift back and went down to the hangar. She stepped out, looking at him.
"Can't sleep?"
Roger looked away, staring down at the hangar floor. She walked over next to him, putting her hand on his back, rubbing it.
"It's about Angel and everything going on…"
Roger nodded. "Yeah, it is," he said, quietly.
"You know, a while ago, you had no idea who you were. But it seems you found out who you were in the underground. That day, when you beat Beck, I was, and still am, proud of you."
Roger turned to look at Dorothy, listening intently.
"Norman, he's always told me to have faith in you, when things get bad. And things are bad now. But… I finally understand what he means. I want you to know, that I have faith you and Big O. I know you two will win and you two will come back. And when you do, we can finally… live our lives together with Timothy and Rose."
Roger finally smiled, pulling Dorothy close to him.
"So, those are the names we're choosing then?"
Dorothy nodded. Roger sighed, holding Dorothy close to him, and they both looked at Big O, who stared back at them in silence. And, Roger Smith made up his mind that night on the dilemma, that had been robbing him of sleep.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT – ACT 33: PRESERVATION OF THE PRESENT