Across the Water

Chapter 1

240 Hours

 Nine

The moment our plans went all to hell was the second Twelve decided to save Lisa from the ferris wheel. I don't really know if I can blame him for wanting to save her, though. It's impossible for me to say no to him, especially about her.

Well, that's not entirely true. I say no, but I haven't yet managed to follow through. I've always known the one thing he wants in this life is connection with others. At this point, we were going to detonate the atom bomb that day. We were either going to be jailed or killed. He can go save Lisa if he wants.

I knew Twelve was walking into an obvious trap that Five would use to leverage the bomb out of our hands, so I immediately left for the school to retrieve it. Unsurprisingly, the cops were on my trail, but losing them wasn't an issue. I assembled it and scheduled its automatic launch before filming the last Sphinx video. As I filmed, I tried convincing myself I wasn't disappointed that Twelve wasn't there with me. From the very first video he was always there. And now he's probably off dicking around with Lisa somewhere in Tokyo while I'm turning myself into the police to save us. At this point, I have no idea how I'm going to get myself out of trouble. I always do, of course, but I usually have Twelve's help. But he's not here.

I request a press conference with Shibazaki, and this catches everyone's attention. They arrange a prisoner transport and a decoy to take me to the news station. Now I know that I've gotten lucky because there's no way that Twelve would let this opportunity slide. There's no way the news of my capture would have escaped him, and there's no way he wouldn't be able to find me. At the same time, Five has the exact same capabilities and I run the risk at becoming her target as well.

It turns out I was right on both accounts. Five shows up, weaving through traffic, tires squealing, and hanging out the window as she shoots. Twelve catches up on a motorcycle. He and Five are shooting at each other, but Twelve tosses a fucking grenade into the car I'm being transported in. The little bastard's lucky I survived that. I escape the rubble and waddle-run down the highway in handcuffs like a moron, like that's going to help me escape Five's unwarranted wrath. In the distance, I see Twelve have a truly spectacular wreck on the bike—and defy death by staggering out from underneath the steaming heap of scrap metal. I lose sight of him as I trip and fall flat on my face, unable to get back up. I know it's over when I hear heels clicking on the asphalt behind me. It's Five.

She picks me up by my handcuffs and drops me again in disgust, my body slamming painfully onto the road as she monologues. At this point I'm surprised there isn't already a bullet in my brain. I'm resigned to it. Everyone's seen the last video. The bomb's scheduled to go off. Everybody will know who we were. Who the others were. It's all done. I'm dying anyways. She could shoot me. I don't care. But instead, she kisses me. Damn. Before I can process what's going on, she sets herself on fucking fire.

I get to the airport control tower to watch the explosion and the aurora that I know will come after. The whole thing is a spectacle of beauty. They'll be the last beautiful things I see, and I created them both, like a god.

Finding Twelve wasn't difficult. The poor guy is in terrible shape. He managed to drag his sorry ass far enough to find Lisa at some park to watch the detonation. By the time I get there, she's in a full-blown panic attack. She's fanning herself with her hands and hyperventilating, tears streaming down her cheeks. I don't blame her. Twelve looks like he's been through a woodchipper. His clothes are in shreds and it seems like more of his skin is torn off than is left on. He's currently unconscious, but he should be okay. If he got himself off the highway, then I'm not concerned with his ability to survive. It looks like the bleeding has stopped for the most part, and none of his abrasions are life-threatening. The biggest risk will probably be infection, especially considering where we'll be heading soon. I kneel down on the grass next to him and gently shake his shoulder.