Khal’s control of Congress worked better than they could have imagined. The next day, he had the Senate as well, then the Supreme Court, and finally the president. And he didn’t show any signs of slowing down just yet, unless you counted the fact that he was suddenly jonesing for large delicious meals. Rene actually had fun eating dinner with Khal as they discussed their next moves. 

Rene FaceTimed Emory and Ari every single night while they were gone. Emory asked what they were doing, but Rene kept his responses vague. He wasn’t ready to tell them yet, and certainly not over the phone. He casually mentioned that they were helping some folks out and trying to do some good, and that they would be home as soon as they could. Ari was in awe at what was happening on a national level. She kept pointing out how rapidly things were changing. How people who would never in a million years have voted for policies to benefit the masses were reaching across the table to provide for everyone. 

She seemed scared. Rene tried to shrug off the feeling that they were doing something wrong, because deep down, he needed to believe that this was what the future required. That the world needed to become a better place for Emory and her generation. Still, he couldn’t shake the unease that came with seeing the unsettled look in Ari’s eyes. He told them both how much he loved them every night before he went to bed, lying next to Khal, who would talk excitedly about their next move until Rene was too tired to keep his eyes open. 

In no time at all, there was a meeting of world leaders, and Khal made an appearance there as well. Certain leaders were harder to obtain eye contact with, being sat far away from everyone else for safety reasons, but Khal eventually looked them in the eye too.

In an instant, wars were ended. Lives were spared. Children, who had had their families ripped away from them in the name of “stopping terrorism” were given homes and therapy so that they could begin to process the horrors they had lived through. Propaganda was called out for what it was on the national television of every country. Families were compensated for the horrors of what had befallen them at the hands of genocidal leaders, and those leaders were forced to hand themselves over to their victims to be punished as they saw fit. 

Megacorporations were broken up, their monopolies no longer running the world. Oil, plastic, any company that relied on slave labor to create or mine their product, were greatly overhauled in favor of ethical practices. These companies were no longer about the bottom line for the share-holders, but about creating a sustainable existence for all human beings and animals alike. No more stock buybacks. No more dumping deadly chemicals into lakes and rivers. Laws were rapidly passed globally to keep pollution in check, including forcing every company to use their resources to help clean up the mess of toxic materials already choking the life out of the planet. 

Of course, Khal couldn’t make eye contact with the entire world, and some people saw the rapid change of everything and attempted to fight it, for if there was one thing humans struggled to understand, it was change. Men with guns went on shooting sprees, panicking at how everything was moving so quickly in a direction they weren’t happy with. Hundreds of lives were lost, before laws were passed to remove firearms from the homes of every man, woman, and child with even a hint of dangerous intent noted about their behavior. Police reform was enacted worldwide. No more hiding behind the union when it came to unscrupulous behavior and harming civilians. Protect and serve the public became the law, and the public meant every race, creed, religion, and color. 

Laws were also enacted worldwide to give women and minorities equal rights. No matter the religion practiced, no one was allowed to be subjugated, cowed, or beaten into submission against their will under any circumstances. Severe punishment was put in place for the abuse and murder of girls and women. In fact, classes were to be taught to all sexes of every age to help people understand the similarities and differences of men, women, non-binary, and anyone else on the spectrum of humanity. The statute of limitations was also removed indefinitely for victims to come forth against their attackers and receive a proper trial. Victims would finally see justice, perpetrators would finally be inside a prison cell where they belonged. Rapists and murderers now took over the spaces formally occupied by nonviolent drug offenders, who were given a new lease on life as they were released across the board with a chance to start afresh.

All of this took three weeks. 

Three crazy weeks of time where Rene kept an eye on Khal every single day to make sure he was okay. To make sure he was sticking to the plan, and that he wasn’t enacting his own form of revenge on anyone. A strict rule that Rene had insisted upon. 

Once he was certain he had control of enough people, Khal finally told Rene that he was ready to go home. 

Rene missed Emory like crazy, though he actually felt better keeping Khal away from her. He realized how messed up it was to be changing everything on a global scale with someone he couldn’t even trust near his own daughter. 

They made it home, having warned Ari and Emory what time they would be coming in. Ari picked them up from the airport, and drove them back to their house, where little Aset wasted no time jumping into Rene’s arms and bumping her furry little face into his as she purred away. 

“She missed you.” Emory pointed out, petting Aset as she looked up at Rene with a smile. “We all missed you.”

“Not as much as I missed you.” Rene said, sitting on the floor and setting Aset down so that he could pull Emory into a tight hug. “I love you so much, Em.”

He glanced up at Khal, who was staring thoughtfully into the distance, looking utterly distracted. Ari was glaring at her phone, scrolling like crazy. 

“Everything is so different now.” Emory said, smiling at Rene. “She said it would happen quickly, and that she is proud of you both for working together.”

Rene frowned in confusion, “Who said that?”

Emory glanced back at Khal, who had walked over to the sink to get a glass of water, gulping down the whole thing, then going for another. 

“Aset.” Emory muttered, and Rene had the distinct impression she was trying not to let Khal hear her. 

“You were talking to the kitty while we were gone?” Rene asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.

“Nooo!” Emory shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Not the cat. Our goddess, Aset. She says you two are doing what she needs you to. And that it’s only a matter of time before she can return.”

Rene found his heart suddenly beating in his throat. He glanced up at Khal and Ari, neither of whom seemed to be paying attention to their conversation. Then he stood up and indicated for Emory to follow him to her room, where he closed the door and sat down on her bed to look her in the eye. 

“What else has Aset been saying to you?” Rene asked. 

Khal had hinted that there was a connection between their goddess and Emory, but Rene was struck now by how little he’d really thought about it. An all powerful goddess was speaking to his daughter, telling her secrets that he wasn’t even willing to tell her. Why wouldn’t Aset speak to him instead?

“She doesn’t want you to worry, daddy. She said she’ll take good care of me when the time comes, and that I don’t have to be afraid.” Emory said. There was a look in her eye, as though she was begging him to agree that everything would be fine. 

“What did she mean by that?” Rene asked, trying not to sound upset. 

“She said we all have a density…destity-destiny, and that I should be proud of mine. She said that you and Khal are saving lives, but she’ll be here soon to make sure everything is ready for a new world. A better world. She is going to take away all of our fear and all of our sadness, just like Khal is doing.” 

Rene was finding it somewhat difficult to breathe. 

“She said that Khal understands, but that it might take you a bit. She said it’s hard for a parent to let go, even when it’s the right thing to do.”

“Wh-what?” Rene stammered. 

Emory could clearly see the panic in her eyes, and despite her former stoicism, she began to cry. 

“Daddy, I’m scared. I’m not ready. I don’t want to help her save the world. I just want to go to school, and play with my friends.” Rene hugged her close as tears fell from his eyes too.

“Baby, I want you to have those things too.”

“She said that Khal did something terrible, but that we must forgive him. I don’t know what he did, but he scares me. When he looks at people, they change. He looked at mom, and her eyes changed. He looked at dad, and his eyes changed. It’s spooky. I think…I think he did something to dad. I don’t think he liked dad.”

The itching thought had returned, scratching at the back of Rene’s mind. Memories of Ashlin and Colin and Frank came forth, and he knew. 

He understood what he had been afraid to acknowledge before. What he had been willing to cast aside in the hopes of making a better world with Khal. A beautiful world for Emory to grow up in that wasn’t trashed and broken. 

At what cost?

“Daddy?”

Rene looked at her, startled out of his train of thought, “Yes, sweetheart?”

“What did you and Khal do?” Emory asked. 

“We…we tried to make the world a better place.” Said Rene. 

“How did you do that?” Emory asked. 

“Khal changed a lot of minds, and I helped him.” Rene said, feeling sick even as he said it. What had they done? 

What had he done? 

“You controlled people? You controlled their minds, didn’t you?” Emory asked. 

Rene swallowed and nodded. 

“You didn’t ask for permission, you just did it. You took away their choices. You decided what they could and couldn’t do.”

Rene broke down with a shuddering breath and nodded. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now looking his little girl in the eye and telling the honest truth, he felt like a monster. 

“Daddy, what were you thinking?” Emory asked, glaring at him with a disappointment he had never seen in her eyes before. It made him want to vomit. 

“I’m-I’m-I’m so sorry, Emory. I’m so so sorry.”

She picked at her lip absently, seemingly deep in thought. She looked so mature for her age, as though she had gone from six to sixty in just a few seconds. His precious baby girl was currently weighing the worries of the world on her tiny little shoulders, something he had never wanted for her in the first place. 

“We have to fix it, daddy. We have to stop Khal. I know Aset will be upset, but I think she will understand. We can’t let Khal hurt people anymore.”

Rene wanted to make a lame excuse about all the good they had done, all of the lives they had saved, but deep down he knew that she was right. Whatever they were doing was not right. 

Whatever Khal had done up to this point, was not right. 

Misha. 

It was clear as day now that Khal had murdered Misha, and Rene had buried that painful thought as he tried to reconcile all the good they could do in the world as he had remembered what their goddess had done for them. 

There was a knock on the door, and Rene jumped. Ari peeked her head in, a frown on her face as she looked at them. 

“You should come watch…are you two okay?” She asked, clearly caught offguard by how distressed Rene and Emory looked. 

Rene quickly nodded, not wanting Khal to notice a sudden change in his behavior if he was standing nearby. He stood up, walking towards Ari.

“What’s going on?” He asked. 

“The news.” Ari muttered. “You should come watch the news.”

Rene could hear the TV on in the living room. Khal was sitting there, staring at it blankly, as though his mind was a million miles away. There was footage of explosions, shootings, voice-overs from news reporters talking about disgraced former officers who were fighting back and attacking civilians en masse. 

From there, reports popped up of similar events in other countries. Uprisings that they hadn’t quite managed to predict. Millions were dying across the world. Rene looked at Khal, who glanced back at him in a sort of trance. Rene wanted to tell him to do something, to stop all of this madness, but Khal’s gift has gotten them into this mess in the first place. 

A sudden breaking news flash popped up on screen, and Rene watched in horror to see nuclear bombs had been dropped across the world. Reports trickled in, spoken from the lips of a shocked news anchor who was doing her best to appear calm.

Israel, Russia, The UK, France, Pakistan, India, North Korea, China, and The United States had all been bombed.

Rene sank onto the couch, his hands over his mouth. He would have given anything for a time machine in that moment. They had messed up so horribly.  He turned to Khal, who had chanced a side glance at him, a sheepish look on his face. 

“What did you do?” Rene muttered, his heart pounding.

He could tell that Ari and Emory were looking at him, but he didn’t care anymore. This was too far. 

“I have ended our mutually assured destruction.” Said Khal. “It was the most effective way. All of the nuclear facilities have been wiped out.”

“What is he talking about?” Ari asked, her shocked voice barely above a whisper. 

“How many people just died for this?” Rene demanded to know. 

“Does it matter?” Khal asked. “The nukes are neutralized. It’ll take years to get them back to this level of production, and I won’t let that happen. In the meantime, we can move on to cleaning up the planet.”

“You may have just started a new World War.” Said Rene. 

Khal shrugged, “So what? Let them fight. There’s too many people choking the life out of this planet as it is.”

“Rene…” Ari said his name, clearly looking for an answer. Rene saw Emory take Ari’s hand in hers and walk her away to the kitchen. 

“You can’t do this.” Said Rene, panic breaking in his voice. “This isn’t what we planned for. We prepared for so long.”

Khal leaned forward and took Rene’s face in his hands. Rene had to struggle not to flinch away. 

“My love, do you have any idea what it is like to be swarmed by the minds of thousands? All the hatred and bile their darkest thoughts spew. If you were viewing the cascade of rotten thoughts that I am right now, you too would have little love left for humanity. I’ve seen the worst of them, the sludge on the bottom of the landfill, and I want them to go away forever. They don’t get to take us down with them. Aset wouldn’t care about them, about the psychopaths attempting to milk this world for all her precious resources and leave her devastated. When Aset reigned, the world had roughly 100- million people. Now, our precious planet is stretched thin as she struggles to provide for 8 billion ungrateful children.”

Rene shook his head, pushing Khal’s hands away. 

“You promised me we would do this together.” Rene said. 

Khal gave him a sad smile, “I’m sorry, my love. But I did what I had to do. One day, I hope you will see that.”

It took Rene a moment to process what happened next. There was a shadow beside him, an angry scream, and Khal fell back on the couch with a shocked expression. Rene jumped up to pull Ari off of Khal, which is when he saw the knife embedded deep in Khal’s throat. He watched in stunned silence as the light slowly left Khal’s eyes and he slumped on the couch, a lifeless heap. 

Rene looked at Ari, mouth agape. She turned to him, trembling violently, her eyes wide in terror. 

“I killed him.” She breathed. “Emory showed me what he did…it was- it was like a movie in my mind. I looked into her eyes and I saw…I saw everything. He had to die. He’s too dangerous to live!”

Rene pulled her into a hug as she shuddered in waves of adrenaline. 

“He’s not going to stay dead.” Said Rene. “We have to go. We have to get out of here right now.”

He glanced between Ari and Emory, both of whom now appeared speechless. 

“Emory, pack some clothes and your stuffy, Bob. I’ll get the cat. We have to leave now.”

It took Emory a moment to snap out of it, but she then flew down the hallway to do as she was told. Ari stared at Rene, clearly waiting for an explanation. 

“I will tell you everything, once we’re on the road.” Said Rene, chancing a glance at Khal and the bloody pool dribbling onto the couch from his throat. “Keep on eye on him. Yell if he wakes up, and don’t look him in the eye, whatever you do.”

Ari nodded rapidly, and Rene hurried off to pack and grab the cat.

They had to get far far away, and fast. 

Chapter 46 – Take the Money and Run