Code Lyoko: Revolutions and Evolutions

Chapter 58

AN: This chapter came after extensive consideration between what I wanted to do from innovation with the plot and the original drafting of the plot outline. It took me a bit of time to reconcile what I wanted to do, but and I have reached my decision to follow the original outline.

I thank all of you who have read, reviewed, and continue to read my work. I am incredibly grateful to all of you for helping me through your reading and your encouragement to press on with my story. I am equally thankful to God for as much as I followed my original plotline, I felt I'd lost my way in some regards. Through God's help and patience, I have been able to restore myself to my original intent.

I thank you all for your support, and I will see you next chapter.—Pagliacci-11.

Anthea headed towards the elevator from the executive offices down to the lobby. She'd been given her orders to stop North-Gate by any and all means possible. She laughed to herself as she pressed the call button for the elevator. Although the license of action allowed her to tap into all resources, to narrow down just where North-Gate was another matter. However, to make her job more comfortable, she had asked Samuel to give her access to Dr. Gupta. Samuel agreed, and Gupta would arrive in the morning.

The elevator bell rang richly, and the doors opened. Anthea entered, and she gave a sighed as she let the back of her head rest against the wall. Many organization overseers had already started talking to Samuel about how to best recover the losses and contain the media mob that was building in Bangkok. Samuel was going to be fielding them the rest of the night and likely until noon the next day. If anything, Anthea did not envy him in this situation. She knew that this was just part of the trappings of the job, not the perks, hell no, the trappings.

As Anthea descended, she knew that there were elements she now had to genuinely account for. North-Gate's liquidation was top of the list for the bosses right now. Anthea's mission expenses would be very much accounted for, but in the first few moves, she knew she had a good bit of operational freedom. So, to make the most of those moves, Anthea knew that she had to equally defend her interests and be on the offense. This was easier than most anticipated, for it was by these methods and embracing risk that Anthea had made it this far in her life and career.

Through a vast series of slow, premediated, and calculated moves, Anthea had risen through the ranks. Through subversion, assassination, blackmail, marital ruses, and countless other elements, she secured her own power and reputation amongst the most treacherous wolves. Why? For two reasons, to advance her career far enough to be so connected that she and her 'treasured ones' would be truly untouchable and simultaneously invisible. Second, she had been shaped by her understanding of "the game." The game that blatantly says as its most sacred rule, life is not fair.

Using this mantra, Anthea rationalized early on, the world does not play by any rules. Why should she? People could profess to her that there were no hierarchies; there weren't gatekeepers. Oh, but there were. She only found this out through personal pain and observation of others' suffering. The gatekeepers, however, were not the people but the money behind those people. She'd learned early on that money is the real power, the true god of the world. The people who have it are merely the vessels holding the funds that other vessels want for themselves. Thus, friendships are made, contracts are drawn up, and from that, businesses are made.

Very few entrepreneurs out there genuinely had to work hard for their money. Most of them had a resource to tap into and had the liberty of making trial and error calls on business. But Anthea saw; also, there were tons of monopiles, but for some reason, significant establishments of renown were never called that. So, once learning the laws of reality, Anthea matured mentally. She saw the world as she perceived it to be, a world that only makes laws pervert them. Do as I say, not as I do.