Authors Note:
Welcome, everyone, to the third and final book of the NewU saga. Don't worry yet, there is still plenty more to get through, but yes, the end is in sight. I made a promise many moons ago that I would not keep the story running for the sake of it, and it would eventually come to an end. Although I am not ruling out spin-offs at a later date, the world of Pete will - over the next however many chapters - reach its long-awaited conclusion, and new stories will rise to take its place.
I cannot possibly go any further without expressing my heartfelt gratitude to you, the reader, for the support my work has received. The community on Discord has grown beyond my wildest expectations and has become a constant and consistent source of joy for me since its creation. More than that, I must offer my deepest thanks and express my profound admiration to my editors, all of whom have taken time from their lives to correct my staggering level of typos and grammar mistakes and have made this story what it is today.
With that out of the way. Let's get on with the story.
Stay Awesome
Nova
********
"Alright, recap time," I said with a sigh and pulled myself up off the bench. The rain pouring from the sky seemed to ease up almost instantly, and within a few minutes, it had stopped completely. There were so many red flags going up just at that. I knew the last few months had taken a massive toll on me, enough of one to convince one of my closest friends that I was something to be feared, and what I had just done was to essentially bottle it all up, swallow it all down, and get on with things as if nothing had happened. Faye, Uri, and Jeeves all shimmered into being around me, looking first at me, then sadly at the rainwater still wetting the ground, before back to me again. They knew in an instant what it meant. Faye made to speak, but I cut her off. "Save it," I said, perhaps a little more sharply than I intended. "It is what it is. I can't make someone trust me, believe me, or love me. And even if I could, I wouldn't want to. Talking about it changes nothing, at least not right now. If all my efforts are worthy of her trusting me, she will let me know; if not..."
The words were right there, ones I had said hundreds of times in my life... "
If not, then fuck her."
... But they wouldn't come out. I knew I didn't mean them, but it was a coping mechanism I had been forced to use more times than I could count. It is how I survived my childhood: the ability to drop an attachment to a person like a hot rock, to cut them out of my life with surgical precision and indifference. It was how I had kept myself safe and people at arms-length in a world where the vast majority of people were only out for themselves. And yet, the words wouldn't come.
I would have given Charlotte every part of me, but she didn't want it. So be it; it could be dealt with later.
"First things first, how do we find Marco?" I asked, looking from one of my live-in companions to the next. "I imagine he's gone to ground by now."
There was a long pause, but it was Uri who spoke first. "I'm not sure that should be our first port of call," he said slowly. I arched an eyebrow at him to continue. "The conclave is home to more traitors than just Marco, and it would be in the best interest of all of them to try and hide Marco from us or at least help him keep a low profile. It may be time to clean house, the same with the Sect."
"Okay, I can get behind that idea," I nodded after giving it a little thought. "But how do we do that?"
"Honestly, it isn't going to be pretty," Faye answered this time, seeming to be of one mind with Uri. "Yeh may have to root out the traitors by force."
"How the fuck am I going to do that?" I asked, even the notion of that sending chills down my spine. "Thirteen Evos was hard enough; there would be... what?... hundreds of them in the Conclave? At least?"
Uri shook his head. "No, the Conclave and the Sect would be different; the people in there would already have their minds connected. You wouldn't have to break into them individually. It's... hard to explain, but you will know what to do when you get there."
I arched an eyebrow at him. Knowing what to do when the moment arose was not only poor preparatory advice, but it seemed to be the exact tactic that had gotten me into so much trouble already. "Fuck it, whatever," I huffed. "So we find anyone in the Conclave associated with the Praetorians and wring them dry of any information they have about Marco. What happens if none of them have any?"
"That seems unlikely," Uri pondered after taking a moment to consider the question. "Although, I concede that there is a chance that the people who
do
know may not all be there when you bring judgment."
"Hmm, bring judgment," I repeated back to him, letting the words roll around my mouth a little, "I kinda like that. But back to the point. We need to get as many people into the Conclave cathedral as possible and attack them. Are there, I dunno, any Evo holidays or anything?"
"There will be a service in my memory," Uri offered.
I held his eye for a moment. "That seems... a little in bad taste."
"Why? They're the ones who killed me. They hardly have the right to complain about their cover being blown at my funeral."
"What about the people who are innocent?"
"If I know Marco, he would have corrupted as many people as possible in the Conclave, and seeing as how he was responsible for awakening people in this part of the world, I'd imagine he has infected a huge number of them. As soon as those innocent people see what is happening, I think you'll be given quite a lot of leeway."
"And the people who aren't so innocent, well, they're the ones we're lookin' for anyway," Faye added with a nod.
"Alright, so we make arrangements for a service to be held in your honor," I looked at Uri, "And then hit it when it's at its fullest, banish the corruption from anyone who has it, finding out whose guilty and whose innocent in the process. Then we... interrogate the bad guys. Sound about right?"
"Yup," Faye folded her arms with a firm nod. Uri nodded, too, and so did the still-quiet Jeeves.
"Fair enough. What about this Judge character?"
"I'd imagine we will get some information about him during the process," Uri answered. "If you remember the party, Marco and I were talking about a Rogue and how unlikely it would be for someone to realize they were an Evo, awaken and train themselves, and become powerful enough to challenge a standard Evo."
"I remember."
"At the time, we were talking about the attacks on other Evos, but the sentiment still holds. Those Evos were attacked by Sterling, a normal Evo who had mastered the art of disguise to a staggeringly advanced level. If there was one good thing to come out of your encounter with Sterling, it has shown us that Evos are able to hide a lot more from each other than we had previously thought. The same, I believe, applies to the Judge. Realistically, we know nothing about him, only that he was at your parent's house when they were killed, that he was at Evie's apartment the night she was taken, and that he is an Evo. We don't even know his real name. But the chances of him having become as powerful as he has without any input from the Conclave or the Sect are nil."
"If you are going to say that
someone
will know who he is," I interrupted, "then I will remind you that nobody had a clue about Sterling."
"But Sterling was workin' alone," Faye mused as if she was thinking out loud. "The Judge would have had to work with the people in the Conclave or the Sect--the ones who are loyal to the Praetorians."
"So you think that we may get some information on him when we interrogate the bad guys?" I asked. Faye and Uri both nodded. "Actually, now that I think about it, how are we going to get everyone together in the Sect? They wouldn't come to your funeral."
"I was going to suggest asking Charlotte for help on that one, but..." Jeeves answered with a pained look.
"I think we're gonna have to do things on our own from now on," I sighed. "But I am sick of going off half-cocked; I want to know everything we possibly can before we go..." I froze and frowned as something suddenly occurred to me.
"What is it?" Faye asked with a tilt of her head.
