FGI 8: From Chaos and Madness

It’s been fifteen years today.

Today is a very important day.

I carefully peek out of my office window, my heart pounding as I listen. I swear, one of these days I’m going to get caught and banished for treason. They’re going to take me, beat me, shoot me, then feed me to the dark monsters past the sixth gate into a hell I could not even imagine.

I have heard of the harsh punishments and the morbid reckonings from employees who broke protocol. For years, I have been walking on eggshells, terrified of being found out.

Another shaky breath escapes my lips as I watch the armed bots march past my office with their weapons in their metal grips. I can hear the familiar clicks of their boots on the white, shiny floors in perfect rhythm like some space command center of war. I close my eyes in silent relief, so thankful no one suspects me and raids my little office.

I’m on borrowed time, waiting for the right moment. The shock on their faces if they were to raid my office.

I make a sound in my throat as I watch. All the evidence I have acquired over the long years, being so careful. I’m everyone’s last hope, if that’s even still a thing. It’s been so long that I feel like my efforts are just shrugged off now. Even Zoya’s gaze is distant and glazed over when I tell her all the damning evidence I have. Lately, no one is really interested in my conspiracies and my theories, like they’re tired of hearing them.

No matter. I still believe Pierce is out there somewhere.

Someplace.

He has to be.

I take a deep breath, not wanting to get weak by bad thoughts of him not surviving fifteen years on a desolate planet. I mean, I realize it’s never been done. The survival rate is usually the time the person dies of dehydration or is a beast’s next meal. It’s crazy for me to think that after fifteen years he is still breathing. I just have this feeling that Pierce would not let himself go down that way.

I mentally forbade him to give up since the day they led him away in handcuffs. Where there is a will, there is a way, right?

But, of course, they were threatened. If they so much as stepped out of line, bad things would happen to their kids, the perfect target for compliance. The typical bullying Vincent is known for to gain obedience. The man has become such a tyrant since Pierce’s banishment. I could go on for hours about how he thinks he controls the Universe with his lies and coverups.

Plot twist.

He has overlooked me, not realizing I’m his biggest threat.

I made a vow to myself when I witnessed the court hearing and saw the man that I idolized since I was a little girl get sentenced to death. They deceived Zora into betraying Pierce and used her against him. But that’s another story for another day, not having the energy to dig up that pain. The look on Pierce’s face when Zora was the key person in the trial to banish him—Vincent and her fae sisters played her like a flute.

I take a deep breath, pushing the memories aside quickly.

Back to the plot twist.

Little shy, ugly April. She’s up to nothing.

Nothing at all.

“Look away, you bastards,” I whisper, turning to walk towards my desk. They moved me to the accounting department, the fools. That meant I had access to the computers and system files, having years to find discrepancies in their paperwork.

And boy, did I find so many.

Information that would get me killed in a heartbeat—such damning information that I’m surprised the evidence was not immediately burned. But why should they take such precautions when everyone was fired except nerdy April, who wouldn’t hurt a fly? They needed someone to train the new employees, and someone who knew the software had to stay. So, they picked the last person who would cause them trouble.

Me.

Bad move.

They got careless with their fillings and accounts. Even now—they seem to cook the books on Alpha missions. One hundred percent success rate for Legacy Inc., breaking records and receiving extraordinary honors from the high Celestial Court.

I snort. Such a damn lie. Only Pierce could produce numbers like that.

They’re lucky to be getting a forty percent success rate, and that is unacceptable—if anyone knew this, Vincent would be shipped out so fast that the solar system would shift and implode on itself.

This is unprecedented.

Everyone who used to be employed at FGI knows that deliberately killing off the bad guys can and will have major butterfly effects. This will get bigger than what Vincent can handle and cover up one day. Worlds will be affected by this like a chain reaction. There is a reason why this kind of thing is forbidden. The energy that surrounds this universe will be damaged so greatly that it may be permanently damaged.

It’s appalling.

Has everyone gone mad?

Labeling Pierce as a fraud and Vincent as the real mastermind designer being praised and honored. Vincent’s designs are horrible, and it’s nothing like what Pierce used to do. They’re sleek, plain, and boring—not molding to the woman’s body like Pierce’s designs used to. Pierce is magnificently outrageous and daring, whereas Vincent is so…basic.

I want him alive and suffering. But something like this would result in Vincent’s death. If this were brought to the attention of the High Celestial Court—the highest ruling court in the Universe—there would be a violent outrage.

So, yeah. I don’t want them to raid my room.

I’m literally the most dangerous person to Vincent, and he has no idea that shit is about to go down. I sit at my desk and expel a long breath.

I have been working closely with Jensen, who has made a vow to take down Vincent, and today is a special day for us. I have been waiting for this day for fifteen years. I unlock my desk and pull out a hidden compartment, taking out an old FGI Darling necklace. I mind link to it, mentally calling Jensen on the magical phone line that still works. Dion made sure the lines were active all this time. Nothing can top FGI’s tech, even though Vincent claims it was faulty.

He’s faulty.

I wait.

I smile, not being able to contain my excitement. “Jensen,” I whisper. “They issued his death certificate today—I saw it personally.”

“Yes!” Then I lower my voice. “Is that Delilah?”

I grin. “Hi,” I whisper back. “Tell Jack the info too and to start getting everything in motion on locating Pierce and some shifters. We can’t do this without them. I hope Babsi can get a better vision with the full moon tonight.”

I take a shaky breath, feeling a rush of nerves. “Yes.”

“I will. Don’t worry. They do not suspect anything from me.”

I roll my eyes.

Those two have made this long wait bearable, but Vincent also screwed them over. I know his team took the last medallion piece and hid it somewhere because it’s not where it should have been—fifteen long years of searching and turning up with nothing, which makes no sense.

Vincent hates Jensen, and I will bet my life on the fact that he has it.

Despite that setback, they have lived well with the medallion pieces they have, thankfully. The only downfall is that Jensen is unable to sire children until it’s found, which makes this very personal for them. They desperately want children, but Jensen and Delilah have so much love for each other that they have overcome that. One minute they’re at each other’s throats—then the next, at each other. It works for them—it’s their love language.

My face heats, not knowing what it would be like to have that connection with someone. I’m just the nerdy virgin who has only made it to second base four times before freaking out and running away. I have been overprotected my whole life, so it’s no wonder why I’m super awkward. I think about the man. Jared was his name, my ex-boyfriend, who I’d only let hold my hand. Once he touched my breast and removed my glasses, I ran away like the awkward thing that I am.

But I hold a secret. One that would put this whole mission to find Pierce in jeopardy.

I hear my door open, making me tense, my heart stopping but then relaxing when I see Zoya leaning in the doorway in her black pantsuit. “Sheesh,” I breathe, “you scared me.”

She looks not a day older than the moment I met her years ago, with her same high bun. The aging process is little to none in most of the Universe except for a handful of planets and, of course, our base planet, Earth.

I stare at her, my pulse drumming.

“Pierce’s—”

“His death certificate,” I interrupt with a weak smile. “His sentence is fulfilled. If he’s alive, they cannot touch him. His time is done.”

She nods and looks down, not saying much, but so much is circulating in the air. I can feel the tension like it’s manifesting by the second. I know she is tired of hearing my Pierce prattle, but this is different. “We can act now—finally.”

She smiles, looking up with watery eyes, putting me on edge. I know she has been through a lot in the years following his death sentence. She did not take it well, like us all. “You really think he’s alive after fifteen years, April?” Her expression is harsh, like I’m a little child with dreams of unicorns.

I’d like to add that they do exist, so my delusions of Pierce are not that far-fetched.

I swallow. “Yes,” I whisper, wishing I sounded more confident.

He must be alive.

“I know, but I will find him.”

“You must prepare yourself because you’re very vulnerable for heartbreak—”

“I know—”

“Jensen too,” she adds. “All of them need to be realistic. You all think you will bring him back to this place? How?”

I have so much to say, yet I open my mouth, and nothing comes out.

“You can’t just bring him back here—they labeled him as a fraud. All of his design credit went to Vincent, and he will be escorted out—kicked out! Laughed at!” She shakes her head like she actually wants to shake me instead. “So much damage has been done—so many lives…”

I know she talks about the TP shifters and how they were banished from the lives they had grown to love. This place feels so wrong without them and with the AI robots walking around. This place is an abomination. Vincent erased everything to do with Pierce—scrubbing him from this place.

She continues, walking towards me. “If by some chance Pierce is alive, it’s been fifteen years on a barren planet, April. What do you think you will find? Bits and pieces of him?”

I stand with my chin held high. “I will bring him back.”

“I hope you do. I really do,” she says with a quiver in her voice, “but this is a very dangerous game you’re about to play. Even knowledge of you looking for him will land you in prison by some made-up charge. Vincent knows Pierce’s sentence is up. Does he think Pierce is still alive? Fuck no. But even still, he can’t know you’re looking. Even a one percent possibility will send Vincent into a frenzy.”

“I need to speak with Zora.” She must know the key to Pierce.

Zoya laughs. “Why? She is a wilting flower—a babbling lunatic nowadays. It’s heartbreaking.”

“I need to talk to her.”

The Fairy Godmother has never let herself live with what she did. After Pierce was sentenced and taken away, she realized her grave mistake and betrayal that day. She was manipulated on the highest level, and I don’t think Pierce blamed her. A part of me thinks she had an enchantment spell thrown at her that day because she seemed indifferent and oddly robotic.

I will never believe she did that willingly. They convinced her that Pierce was trying to overtake FGI and throw her out—which, ironically, was the very thing Vincent was doing.

Utter bullshit.

There was no expression of anger on his face when Zora cast her vote against him, just a blank mask of stone. Zero shock or outrage. It’s like he knew she was manipulated and had already forgiven her, almost as if he knew what would happen all along and had prepared himself.

Pierce’s insight is such a mystery.

Zora refuses to touch her wand, which gives her youth and power—wanting a slow and painful death like Pierce. Slowly committing suicide to punish herself, which I don’t blame her for. If I sent Pierce Charming to his death, I’d feel the same. But I know it was not her, and I need to tell her that.

“I don’t know what good that will do…” She trails off, biting her lip in thought.

“I want to ask her some questions.”

“About?”

“Pierce.”

She laughs. “Oh, of course about Pierce. Who else would you be inquiring about?” She shakes her head and studies me for a few minutes. “Why didn’t you ever try and gain his attention?” She eyes me up and down. “Why your horrid clothing? I have given you so much shit about your clothes, and never have you changed. If you were so obsessed with Pierce, why have you never tried to be noticed?”

I blanch. “Get Pierce’s attention? Are you insane?!” The very thought has my cheeks heating. I could barely contain myself when he looked at me. Just the thought of him holding me in his arms so many years ago on Jensen’s mission still makes my body tingle.

Where to even begin?

Where to even start?

She smirks at me like she can see the obsession on my face. “He was not that scary, April. I know you have a killer figure under all that frump. You should have worked it.”

I snort.

She eyes me and raises a thin brow. “I get that he was very intimidating. But you didn’t make it easy either with your god-awful suits,” she points out with a scrunched face.

“April, he’s a Charming. You can’t blame him. It’s in his blood. Pierce is a beauty vampire. Ever heard the term?”

Beauty vampire.

I raise a brow. “Can’t say I have…” I trail off with a frown.

Zoya smirks. “You, who’s obsessed with Pierce, don’t know where he came from?! I thought you knew.” She laughs.

I want answers if I’m to find him. Or have any hope of finding him.

“The Charmings? Well, aside from that being his last name, I don’t know anything about them,” I say, eating up the new information like it’s a drug. I have lived in a box, sheltered since I was little. So it’s no wonder I’m clueless. “I get that it’s his last name. What else?!” I ask. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?”

“Lord.” She shakes her head. “I’ll let Zora inform you—I have zero patience for long stories.” She looks pained. “I’m not a good storyteller—just ask my kids. I hate it, and I have to leave soon.”

I laugh. “I’ve heard,” I say in my best Zoya accent, “there was a princess. She was a good girl to her mother. She ate all her vegetables. She met a prince but decided to pursue her career first. She lived happily ever after. Go to sleep.”

She looks impressed. “Very good. I’ll tell that one tonight to Layla.”

Dion pounded her with his fist when they turned their backs. I caught it, and it made me laugh.

Looking up, I find Zoya studying me. “What?”

“I have to tell you something.”

My eyebrows raise. “You do? About Pierce?” My pulse jumps.

“No.”

“Who?”

“You.”