8: The Midnight Sun - Part 2

Mei was sitting quietly, waiting for what was about to happen. “Thank you for allowing them safe passage.”

A voice emanated back from the shadows. “Please. What do you take us for? We know this has nothing to do with them.”

A figure with a commanding presence began slowly walking out from the darkness on the far side of the room. Mei knew who it was, though she had never met him personally. It was Feng Weihong, the proprietor of the midnight sun and administrator of quite a bit of clandestine and dangerous occult projects. Ones that had been unfortunately escalating over time. He was slightly older, though he looked like he had undergone quite a bit of biohacking in order to ensure that he would stay in peak condition.

Four male guards followed him out, spacing themselves evenly across the opening, wearing only straps for holding equipment. She suspected from the appearance of their nude physiques, that the guards had probably taken an enhancement injection just before coming here, for the sake of intimidation. But she wasn't very impressed by this.

Well, maybe she was impressed a little.

“We were waiting for the day when the techno-gnostics would come to us. But we did not know there was one already in our midst. Your kind can be quite the elusive bunch.”

Mei shook her head and spoke, mostly to herself. “Some of us don't like attracting attention.”

The man sat down, though the guards behind him remained standing, brandishing guns. “I won't bother to introduce myself, for I presume you know who I am already. And by all means, do dispense with formalism, for I find it rather uncouth.

“But I too know who you are, Lan Xiumei. And I know also why you are here. For it was I who brought you here after all. I won't bother lying to you by denying that we have the artifact you are looking for. But I am afraid that you cannot be allowed to take it back with you. For we are nearing the completion of our project.

“But fear not. For it is being put to good use. And though they might not see my perspective now, I believe that you and your compatriots will come around to it in time.”

She looked at the guards, and responded without changing her expression. “So... why did you bring us here, then? You must have had a reason.”

He held up his arms. “We regret to operate under so harsh of circumstances, I assure you. But there is more from you that we need. We have offered before, but we understand already that you won't be willing to work with us. So we were limited to these harsher means. Please do not hold it against us. For one does what one must. And the costs at stake are rather high, as even you yourselves know well.”

Mei leaned back and frowned. With his facade of diplomacy, Weihong was, of course, glossing over that his people had come to shootouts with the techno-gnostics before, and that there was a long history behind this. Mei, too, had been caught up in some of these altercations since getting involved, although she was not there to see where it all began.

“Make no mistake. We understand that there is value in your approach. But you cannot be so single-minded. The structures of the past can be stifling. But you must look to the future. Progression is no progress at all if you do it without a sense of development. And an unfortunate fact of the world is that there is no development without risk, no matter how much we try to avert it.

“It is... not always an easy thing. For risk comes with danger. And danger comes with suffering. But it is unavoidable. It would be a weakness to shy away from the future on account of these risks. We know this. And we are prepared to pay this price. The future waits for no one. And we must take the chance to act while it still remains.”

She thought about it. “There is some truth to this. But not all sacrifices are good. And if you lean too far into legitimizing unnecessary suffering, you can end up back where you started.”

He shook his head and continued on. “It is never an easy thing when comrades are lost. But it is at times unavoidable. You must be prepared to do what it takes if you want to carve out a path towards the shining future. It is on those who refuse to fight against the chains of tradition that they stay bound. The future is for those who will rise up and take it. Complacency means death. For those who bind you will not have mercy. For they had... none for me. None for any of us.

“Please don't believe that I like this any more than you do. But this is reality. The way of the Tao. No one can change it, not even Tian.”

She quietly finished her drink and set the cup face down. “I feel your pain. But the truth is that what you are doing is far too dangerous. And you risk hurting a lot more people than just those who have been lost already.

"You should be careful. Don't let your pain guide you.”

He hesitated before speaking. “...No. It would be disrespectful to those who have given their lives for our dream if we were to give up now. There is no going back for us.”

He stood up slowly. “Make no mistake. I did not expect convincing you to be possible at this stage. But I thought that I should still try one last time. Do not blame us for this. It was your... own doing.”

He raised his hand, and made a motion forward. “We are going to have to take you in. For now, that is.”

She looked around at the armed guards.

“Hmm.”

She shook her head. “Sorry, but unfortunately for you...

She looked up. “We also knew you were coming.”

As she said this, several explosions went off in the distance, causing Weihong to look up, shocked. Before they could react, she grabbed her coat and kicked up the table, blocking several sudden shots from the guards. Weihong began to shout at them in indignation. “Don't shoot, you fools! We need her alive.”

He lowered his tone. “At least... if it can be managed. But if you cannot, then do what you must.”

The guards, still surprised over the sudden table flip, slowly began to move around the side, guns raised. But when they got there, they were shocked to see that she was gone, and that there was a hole cut through the wall with a vibro-saber that had been partially pushed back closed.

They quickly scurried to pry it open, but as they were only armed with guns and not a saber themselves, they were stumbling over themselves, taking some time at it. Weihong gritted his teeth, and turned around quickly to see what the rest of the explosions were, motioning to two of the guards to come with him.

Outside the building, a rope descended from the sky, and a bag slid down it. Mei held up her hand as a sign of gratitude to Isaac who made the weapons dropoff. She ran and grabbed the bag while quickly ducking behind a tree as a sniper's bullet sped past her. From the bag, she took new guns, and throwing on her open coat so that she wouldn't be fully naked for an altercation, she placed some of them inside of it. Though her saber had already been inside the building with her, hidden inside her easel.

Peering around the tree, she looked up at the central tower. From her intel, she believed that the pinnacle of the tower was the place she was trying to reach. The midnight sun could only have so many guards on any given day. But she still expected the climb to be rather difficult. In truth, the firefight out front that was being staged was all to distract most of the guards so as to give her an opening. Although they chose a time that was less active, she prayed that no outsiders would get caught in the crossfire.

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Mei climbed the last staircase, looking to the right at the large ornamental clock on the wall. Behind her was a long path of blood. She looked at her saber. Then down the hallway. There was only one remaining guard. She started walking in his direction. And he held up a gun, but was shaking as he did.

He looked frightened. Hesitated for a few moments, unsure what to do, and dropped his weapon. “I'm the only one left. Please. Don't kill me.”

She lunged up and held him against the wall with the side of her forearm, feeling his body shaking in fear, and sensing for his intentions. But he was being genuine. He didn't want to die here today. And he knew that if he pushed his luck, he wasn't going to come out on top.

She pulled her hand back. “Go.”

He hesitated, but ultimately backed away, scooted to the side, and then slowly picked up at going off running. Mei thought to herself for a moment. She still had a habit of going easy on enemies when incapacitating them if it was possible. But she wondered if this wasn't sometimes a weakness. In a situation that is life and death, you can't afford to go easy. Even if you can defeat six people, it does not mean you can defeat sixty. And what is one life against the whole world? Does the times hesitation works out justify them? Or was that only an excuse?

She watched his quickly retreating backside to make sure he was gone, and then looked back at the door at the end of the hallway and walked towards it. She hesitated, considering whether this would result in her having to pay for it, but then slashed the door and kicked the door in, sending it flying into the room.

On the inside, the room looked more like a lab than a penthouse, sticking out from other rooms in the resort by having a more utilitarian cybernetic appearance and walls lined with servers. On the ground, there was a glowing mandala, depicted with lines from it to the center of the room. Weihong was standing quietly, facing the central pillar, on which was a small black artifact.

He looked back at her, then sighed and looked back down. “Eh? How did you get past fifteen guards?”

He looked a little guilty. “I hope they are not hurt more than necessary.”

She aimed the gun at him. “I did what I could.”

He turned around to face her, with a somber tone, and hesitating before speaking. "Then, I suppose, I must thank you as well.

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“I see now that I perhaps underestimated what you are capable of. I thought they sent someone for mere reconnaissance, but... you aren't just an ordinary techno-gnostic, are you? It is... perhaps on me for such a misjudgment.

“...”

But switching gears, he held up his arm to gesture behind him. “Do you see this? This is the core of the entire facility. This is... the midnight sun.

“I created this facility as a breeding ground for what you call jing. The entire resort was created to facilitate production. And all of it is filtered here to be used as an energy source. With this, we will be able to surpass our human limits. It will be a masterpiece of inner alchemy, unleashing strength that can rival even Sakras himself!

“My goal and that of the techno-gnostics is one and the same. It is a pity that they could not understand my vision. It is their weakness and hesitation that will be their undoing.”

She held up the gun. “What you are doing is dangerous. You're going to destroy half the city.”

He clenched his teeth, looking like he was thinking. “No. I've come too far to give up now. It is you can't see the true potential involved in this. It is true that I would have liked more time to prepare. But I will have to activate it early.”

He pulled out the black core and raised it up. Mei clutched her gun tighter. “I feel like you are going to regret doing whatever it is you are about to do.”

“No. I will make you see the true power... of the midnight sun.”

She tried shooting at him before he pressed the button, but she realized that it was too late and that a protective barrier had been up since before she even entered the room. He activated the core, and before him, a shape began to coalesce, cascading spots around the floor which gathered together, eventually taking the form of a sphere.

“Tch.”

The sun slowly formed into a solid shape, and as it did, he stood behind it, mesmerized and holding up his hands. His eyes shone in awe, seeing it unleashed for the first time as its dark light cascaded around the room.

“The power of the dark sun... it is finally within our grasp.”

He stayed mesmerized in awe like this for a moment, reveling in its glow. Mei looked around, uncertain what to do if her weapons turned out not to be effective. She walked around towards him, though at this point his gaze was not on her at all, being totally engrossed in the sun itself, as if he had totally forgotten her presence.

However, all at once, his serene expression began to turn negative.

“W-what?”

As the orb in front of him grew to the shape and appearance of a small black star, he began to feel that its aura was overbearing, and it was beginning to burn him with cold burns. He picked the artifact back up to see what was going wrong but could not decipher what the issue was with it and was beginning to look nervous, like he did not have a lot of time to decipher it.

“No. Not now! I have come so far. It's right in front of me! My future is so close.”

He struggled with the artifact to try to control it, but he began to have a look of panic on his face and movements as he realized he could not. And as he lost control, the artifact itself was pulled into the sun, his arm trailing behind it as he now realized that it was lost.

As he suddenly woke up to the realization that he no longer had a way to control it, he turned and started clawing to get away from it, but before he could react or move sufficiently, it quickly began to burn through him. He was now clawing at himself as he burned away.

Before burning away entirely, he paused and then slowly looked up at Mei with shame-filled eyes. For a moment that seemed to last eternally their eyes met. And then he looked down in shame as his body collapsed.

Mei kept looking at the growing black star, which had begun to burn other objects in the room. Initially, she was thinking of how to stop it. But upon accidentally looking too deeply into it herself, this overpoweringly gave way to a thoughtless jhana of contemplation. With her vocalizing her trance out loud. “The midnight sun. I never thought I would see it... with my own eyes.”

She stared into it, mesmerized, passing out of space and time. For while on the surface it was just a ball of plasma, you could see beyond it and into the depths of the complex plane. It felt like it went on forever. And you could feel that you could see that which was infinitely distant but infinitely clear.

She was becoming lost in it, forgetting about the situation surrounding her or the growing danger. But realizing that she was becoming lost, she mentally forced herself to snap out of it and drag herself back to the present. She held up her gun to shoot at it again, but the shots dissolved before reaching it and had little effect. She grimaced, unsure of what she could do if the thing controlling it was inside of the sun itself. The blade would likely have no effect either.

She looked up. The building had a sprinkler system, but the ball of plasma was likely too large, and it wouldn't be enough to put it out. She had to find a way to get more water to the room, and as the sun was growing larger, she did not have unlimited time. There was no telling how large it could grow, and if left unchecked, it might even take out several city blocks.

Since this was a head office room, she went to the speaker and announced over it that the building was in danger and should be evacuated. She had no ability to call for an evacuation of the surrounding blocks, however, and needed to find a solution to this before it became a danger to them.

She rubbed the sides of her head to think. There would be a lot of water coming up through the pipes, but it is not all in this room. She needed to find a way to redirect it. She ignited her saber and held it up to the sensor to start the sprinklers. She cut the head off the sprinkler so that extra water could come out, and then ran back through the other rooms on the floor, heating the saber up to weld them closed, in the hopes it would push the extra water to the room.

She came back to the room and saw that there was a larger water flow than before. But it wasn't enough to put out the sun. While it was pouring out onto it and burning into steam, the sun was restoring itself quickly and still growing in size. But she saw an opening. Where the water was pouring, there was a gap in the plasma. So she jumped to the side, picked up the gun, and shot into the hole to hit the inside core.

The core flew out from the sun and into the opposite wall. As it did though, cracks through space appeared within the room, shaking it from an angle that transcended three-dimensional space as the sun began to collapse in on itself.

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Mei woke up in an empty desert. She looked around her. The ground was composed of black sand, with occasional green energy lines pulsing through it. And in the dim sky, like an embodiment of Yin, was the dark sun, radiating across the landscape something that was neither light nor darkness. She realized that she must have been pulled into this cyber-esoteric space by the sun itself. Looking around, she could see nothing in any direction, but one figure ahead of her on a dune, hard to see.

The dark sun radiated off a cool heat. One that did not feel like a normal temperature at all, but like something that existed on a separate axis entirely. The environment was very still. With nothing to be heard but the faint sound of a quiet wind. She looked down, and she could see that she was still naked. And she had nothing else around her. So she began walking towards the figure.

At first, she felt like moving towards the figure made no sense of progress, but she pressed on despite this. It didn't seem to move toward her in a linear fashion. But though it did not advance towards her, gradually she found herself in front of it for an indescribable amount of time.

She could see now that it was a figure sitting on a singular lotus, in contemplation – the only plant surrounding them in all the desert. As she approached, the figure looked up and faced her. She showed no surprise, as it was revealed to have the face of Weihong. But now emblazoned on the body of a tantric deity, majestic to behold, and bearing many arms.

Weihong looked at her quietly, but then looked down in shame. On his face, she could see a sense of deep regret. And she could sense that these were deep-seated doubts that he had been holding on to for a long time. He finally found the strength to speak, looking back up. “I suppose that... my karma has finally caught up to me.

“I have led to the deaths of many people. And I was on a path to making a mistake that could have killed countless more.

“I believed that time would vindicate me. That when all was said and done, it would have been worth it, despite everything. The ones who followed me... I made promises to them that I could not keep. And the ones who died did so only for my own delusions. All because I was clouded by revenge.

“You know, I kept a list. With the names of everyone who worked for me who had died. And I looked at it from time to time. But as more names were put onto the list, it only made me feel more desperate. Like I needed to prove to them that it was not in vain.

“I suppose... I must have hurt those who are close to you as well.

He was silent for a moment before speaking again. “My strength is... almost spent. Soon, I will vanish from this world.

“...

“Is it... Is it too late to say I'm sorry?”

She looked down at him. “It never is.”

He sat quietly again for awhile. And then he burst into tears, covering his face with his hands. “Then I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But I suppose that it must mean little from me now. I guess I'm only saying it to make myself feel better. After all that I have done.”

“That may be so. But it is a thing you should say all the same.”

He sighed. “For long have we suffered under tradition and seen how it bound those around us in chains. I sought to throw them off. I believed that those who could should strive to throw them off with their own hands.

“I don't know if they told you this about me. But when I was growing up, it was... not in the best of situations. Much expectation was placed on me, but I was given little room to breathe. And I did not start with much, but much was expected of me. As an extent, I feared the rise and fall of one's fortunes. And I sought to do what I could to rise above. And once I had the opportunity, I tried to break free to find out what life meant for myself, free from those expectations. All of this... it was part of my goal to find out what it meant to live freely.

“I tried... Believe me, I tried...

“But I'm afraid I never really knew. And in all my life, I have never felt at ease. I wanted to help people to have the strength to break from tradition. I knew that my path would bring forth strife, and I saw that there were those too who would be hurt by it. But I began to feel resentful of those who were too weak to walk this path. And I tried to convince myself that it was their own fault. For it was their weakness that would bring about their ruin. That if my path brought danger, it was on those who fell victim to it that they could not rise above.

“I believed that this strife was a mere unavoidable fact of life. After all, in freedom, there is danger. I gave everything to be free. What are those who would not struggle to escape their cage? What is life if you can't rise to meet it?

“...

“I...

“I don't know.

"I don't really know what life is. Perhaps I never did.

“Perhaps it was me who was too weak to face the emptiness inside. For it was my own weakness that brought me here. And at the end of the long road, I have nothing to show for my sins.

She looked down at him. Then moved over to stand next to him, looking up at the sun and speaking down at him. “It's not a crime to be weak. The world contains all kinds. And for those who can, they should use their strength to protect those who are in need of it. It is not just your strength, but how you use it that defines you. It is through weakness that you learn vulnerability. And it is through vulnerability that you learn trust. This is what it means to be human.

She shook her head. “The weak are necessary. For it is they who teach us what it means to protect.”

He sat quietly for a time, contemplating. “I suppose that in the end, I never found what it meant to have a fulfilling life. I wish, perhaps... that I could have met another one such as you earlier on. I believe that there is much I could have learned from you.

“...Heh. Had I never cut ties with the techno-gnostics, I suppose I would have. So that is yet one more thing that is on me.

“...

“You know, you remind me of someone. But he has been gone for a long time now, as well.”

He paused for a moment in reflection, and then looked over at her. “I will entrust the future now then to you. You can have the sun. Take it and... do what you need to do.

After speaking, he slowly stood up, changing his stance. “But I believe I am going to have to be selfish once again. There is one more thing I need to request from you.

He pulled out multiple shining swords, aiming them at her and donning a fierce demeanor, but with tears now streaming from his eyes.

“Show me. Show me that you have what it takes to defeat the Jade archon.

“And show me what it means to be alive. For this moment is the only time that I will have ever known.

The tears from his eyes had been pooling at the base of the esoteric space. From the pools, dark green foliage had begun growing, spreading, and flowering in the midnight sun. Mei reached down and picked a flower from the ground, putting it in her hair.

She looked back at him over her shoulder, kicking up her saber from the flower that it was embedded in, grabbing it, and taking a fighting stance of her own. She closed her eyes for a moment and then looked back at him with determination.

“I am the messenger of death. Carry this message with you into the next life.”

They stood for a long moment, staring at each other. And then rushed towards each other to slash.

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Mei woke up back in the room, lying on the floor. She leaned up to look around at what was destroyed and whether the sun had fully dissipated. But seeing that it was gone and tired after everything that had happened, she collapsed back onto the ground, laying on her back. She looked up at the ceiling and at the esoteric design that was emblazoned on it, thinking about the thought process that had gone into it.

She thought that she should probably not stay here too long. Law enforcement might show up here, and possibly even temple guards. She also needed time to grab her clothes on the way out. She couldn't very well just go back to the streets in only a coat if she intended to stay inconspicuous. She looked down at her body to see if she had any major injuries that she had not noticed due to adrenaline. But there didn't seem to be any.

She heard coughing from elsewhere in the room and tensed up since she had forgotten momentarily about Weihong. She stood up, and seeing his burned but still alive body, she walked over to him. Though from the state of his body, she could tell that he was too far gone to save. He mouthed like he had something to say, but he was too weak to speak out loud at this point. She kneeled down next to him to listen.

“And if it's any consolation...” He smiled weakly. “I really liked your paintings.”

After saying this, he let out the rest of his breath. She looked back down at him and was going to respond, but realized now that he was already dead. She reached up and closed his eyes. She had heard a lot about him over the course of the past. He had been connected to the techno-gnostics as well. She wondered what it was in his own life that had caused him to give this up and to try to hijack their esoteric works for his own ends. But she supposed it no longer mattered now.

She picked up the damaged core of the midnight sun and started walking back down towards the building's entrance. She didn't know what would happen to the resort now, but she hoped for the sake of Cade that it wouldn't be shut down. And of course, despite everything, she would like to be able to come back to it one day as well. Perhaps now also in memoriam to those who had lost their lives to the dream that it had offered.

Although... perhaps it was better to stay away for the time being.