The People with Useless Power

Ending of First Part

[eheheh guys get it *finger guns*

Also this song just... I cried when I first heard it. It's Emmara all the way.]

"How do you even elect a president?"

Emily looked around Ophelia's hotel room, with walls covered in newspaper clippings and every surface cluttered with half-empty bottles and makeup. She couldn't wait to get out the room and talk at the press conference. The smell of alcohol was burning her eyes.

Ophelia chuckled, washing the shampoo out of Emily's hair. "Have you ever lived in this nation?" She took a deep breath and sighed. "Usually candidates for the title have to go through a sort of... extensive physical examination. I went through it when I was 15."

"How old are you? Isn't your mom, like, in her 20s?" Emily winced as Ophelia yanked her hair just as she finished washing it.

"More like 50s. Do you really think an entity of light can age, Emily? I'm surprised she can even get herself murdered by that savage. Now, as I was saying." She moved to her face, quickly disguising each part with makeup skills that couldn't even measure up to Grayson's. But her acrylic nails pierced into Emily's skin, her fingertips shaking. "Next is the psychological examination. I could never pass that, and I really don't know why. You've seen my potential, right?"

Emily nodded as blood dripped down her chin. "So the plan is..."

"I present you to them as the last surviving Underdeveloped, the strongest one who went through all of the experiments, all of the camps, and all of the battles on her own. And, since you're so beautiful, you'll easily win the vote after you've been examined."

"But... press conferences-"

"I already signed you up and filled out the paperwork. This is just to get your name out there."

Emily gulped. It seemed like Ophelia had been planning to throw her into politics, probably thinking she was dumb enough to be her puppet.

And she was, yes, very much dumb enough to be her puppet.

...

"The last Underdeveloped, huh?"

Mara's voice was dead, empty... solemn. Emily kept her back to her, placing a gift wrapped in silver on Grayson's bedside table.

"I was there," her voice snapped again, more anger in her tone. "Vincent and Grayson aren't dead, you know." And then out came a slur of curses, and Emily had to ignore her.

"It's just how I'm marketed. Mara, I want power." She finally turned around and saw that Mara looked... not Mara-like. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and instead of a suit, she was wearing a black tank top and jeans.

Like a normal person.

"If you want power, why'd we win this war?" Mara squinted her eyes, but she knew what Emily meant.

She always knows.

"Mara, I don't need, like, magic! I want authority and money, and I want to know everything, like you do. God, why am I even talking to you?"

Mara's eyes widened, and she backed into the doorway. "What?"

"You're a murderer, Mara. Did that slip your mind?" Emily suddenly felt sick to her stomach from the nerves. "You killed Elvira, didn't you? She was trying to help you, wasn't she?"