Cloud Cent Chronicles: Part 3 Chapter 6

Revelations

    Shadow clenched his fists, still locked behind his back.

    “I...Where...Where have you been this whole time!?” Shadow shouted at Cent. Cent and Yun looked at the ground at the same time. The Leader answered for Cent.

    “I know that this must come as a shock, Shadow, but it’s as I told you when we first met: you were nothing but an admittedly misguided attempt at a coverup. And I said then, there is no mod block killer.”

    “I recall that you told me that the people want justice, not the truth. And that’s when we were discussing my public execution. So yeah, forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

    “Shadow, it’s true.” Yun said. “The government’s done a lot of things I still don’t condone, but they didn’t murder these people.”

    “But I read Cent’s articles.” Shadow argued. He turned to look at Cloud. “I read the transcript of your interview! This isn’t right! I know this isn’t right!”

    “I’m sorry Shadow. I feel responsible for everything that’s happened to you. You were convinced into joining a radical rebellion because of the articles I wrote. Articles that I now realize weren’t the truth. I’m...I’m so sorry.”

    “None of this makes any sense! Yun, you hate The Leader! Why does this change anything!”

    “It doesn’t. It’s not like I’m rejoining the Sergeants. But...The Leader’s agreed to go easy on me because of my past as a Sergeant. And, well…” Yun trailed off. The Leader picked up her sentence.

    “I’m prepared to do the same for you, Shadow.”

    “What?”

    “You’ve caused quite a bit of trouble for me. I’m hoping, now that you know the truth, you’ll, well, knock that off.” The Leader spoke with a smile on his face. “If you agree, I’ll swallow my pride and tell the citizens of the city that this was all a big misunderstanding. Obviously I’ll phrase it a bit better, but you get the picture. I’ll reassert the truth that there is no mod block killer. Cloud here will, of course, appear on this presentation. And if you’re so willing, you will appear as well and accept my public apology.”

    “But all the redactions in Cent’s articles…”

    “Those redactions actually saved my ass.” Cloud responded. “Those statements were basically slander.” Cloud glanced up for a second. “Well technically they were libel, since it was printed. Well, written. There aren’t really printed newspapers...except…” The Leader glared at Cloud. “I digress. If those articles were printed as they were written, I would have been sued. On a reporter’s salary? I would never have survived that.” Cloud forced out a laugh. Shadow didn’t reciprocate it. “Listen, I’m not saying that everything I wrote was a lie. Certainly, they weren’t intentional. I really thought I was doing good investigating, but I was wrong. I still saw things that I don’t approve of. I’m with Yun. I don’t condone some things the government does, but Shadow...they didn’t kill those people.”

    Everything I’ve done. Everything I’ve been through. All of it was pointless. Why? Why? Why why why why why why why?

    “Well Shadow,” The Leader said, “what do you say?”

    What do I say? I-I don’t know. How could I possibly know? It feels like I just got hit by a truck. Okay Shadow, breath. What should I do? I mean, my goal in coming to the inner area was to save Yun. If I take this out, Yun and I will be okay. But is all of this true? This was all just some big misunderstanding? I need to know more.

“Just to be sure,” Shadow said,  “If I agree to all of this, Yun and I will be fine?”

“As long as you two behave, then yes, you two will be fine.” The Leader responded.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘behave’?”

“Just follow the laws of this city. Of course, that means that you won’t be able to go back to the rebellion, but I assume that won’t be a problem now that you know the truth.”

“That’s it?”

“Pretty much. Although I do expect you to cooperate with the ‘cleaning up’ of this situation.”

“What do you mean by that?”

    “As I said before, I’m hoping that you’ll appear with me to accept my public apology, but that one I won’t force you into. I understand if you want to be out of the public eye after all of this. The only thing I truly need from you is to hand over the unredacted articles.”

    “...Why?”

    “Hm? Is there a problem?”

    “Why do you need the articles? If they’re false, why do you need them?”

    “If those false reports get out, there’ll be panic. The articles are false, but the people don’t know that. Personally, I’d like to avoid the possibility of them getting out.”

    “One last question.”

    “Go right ahead.”

    “What will happen to the rebellion? What will you do with them?”

    “Unfortunately, they will remain incarcerated. They broke the law, but unlike you, they did it of their own volition. I’m sorry, but they will have to stay in prison. However, I can see if I can move them out of Albeda and into a better prison.”

    And with that, I know all I need to know.