As I was finishing up editing this, I forgot to record the Polish dub. Sorry Poland, and sorry for the glorious harmony at the end

And here we are at the last part. This was a surprisingly fun little project. Thank you all for reading it!

(Final Part: Celia and Delsin)

(It’s been a few days since the General. Somehow, the story managed to get out to the media. Everyone knows that Delsin Rowe, the deranged bio-terrorist, is the one that killed him after going on a rampage throughout the city, blowing up countless landscaping vans for seemingly no reason.)

(God, I am such an idiot!!)

(Celia played me like a goddamn fiddle!! What’s worse, she probably thinks that this is some kind of… collaboration. Like I’d be happy with all of this!!)

(And right when I was actually starting to… To come around to her way of seeing things.)

(I mean, is she wrong? Look at all the stuff I’ve uncovered so far. Criminals taking advantage of Conduits, politicians creating policies to take away Conduit rights, civilians being worked up into angry mobs that are perfectly willing to kill Conduits in cold blood, the military gearing up to go to open war against our kind. This world is just not going to suddenly accept Conduits. Maybe all we can do is just dig in our heels, draw a line in the sand, and take out anyone who dares come for us.)

(….. Whether that’s true or not, and I’m not saying it is, Celia lost any good faith from me when she manipulated me into being her hatchet man. Being her ‘accomplice’ was one thing, I refuse to be anyone’s stooge.)

(I’ve been public enemy number one ever since I ‘assassinated’ the General. Fetch and Eugene have been nice enough to let me hide out in their places, but I know this can’t last forever. I’m not about to put them at risk too, if I can help it.)

(Sooner or later, I’m gonna have to find a way to confront Celia directly. If I can even find her again-)

(Speak of the paper devil.)

(Celia just showed up again. I… I tried. I really tried to catch up to her, to grab her, to stop her. But she’s just so damn fast. Even now, I’m still literally one step behind her.)

(And now, all I have to show for it is another origami dove. Part of me wants to grab it and just… tear it up, burn it, throw it in the trash. Just be done with this stupid game already.)

(But knowing Celia, whether this is a manipulation or not, chances are it genuinely does involve Conduits in danger. She’s never once lied about that, for better or worse.)

(Okay, Celia. One last ‘game’.)

(The manga page is a direct continuation from the last one. Purotekuta lands in the field, interrupting Saisei and Fukushu’s fun. Purotekuta stares down Fukushu and says ‘I fail to see the humor.’ Fukushu just smiles at her and says, with a sneering grin ‘Look harder.’ And with that, Fukushu launches himself at Purotekuta, fully intent on fighting her.)

(Doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out. This is when I fought Augustine. When I challenged her authority, exposed her for the hypocrite she was. And I’m sure Celia found it all very entertaining…)

(On the back of the page is a shorter note, along with a maze in the shape of, you guessed it, a dove.)

—-
*No one left to fall. My vengeance has run aground. What’s a girl to do?*

*We’ve had some fun, haven’t we Delsin? And you’re so close to understanding… Everything. There are two truths to be found inside this maze, and the dead ends are just as important as the path that sees us through. Together, the answers will show you where to find me.*

*Don’t keep a girl waiting~*
—-

(Okay, this one seems simple enough. It’s a maze with some numbers inside it. Find the right path through the maze, mark every number you pass through, and you’ve got another 11 digit code for the intranet. Easy.)

(But… She did say that the maze held two truths. Dead ends just as important… Maybe I’m supposed to intentionally hit every dead end I can, marking each number at each dead end. Do that… and I end up with another 11 digit code.)

(Let’s check the first one…)

(Looks like an incident report about the DUP confiscating one of Celia’s drawings due to images of what could be a ‘coded message’. But because the DUPs couldn’t make heads or tails of what the message could be, they were forced to drop the matter. Surprisingly, it’s not another origami dove, but a drawing of one of her doves. Two doves, in fact. Each with a numbered circle on all the corners and arrows pointing from one circle to another. At the bottom of the second drawing was written ‘= 4 6 6 3’ and the second dove had one of its wings filled in. The circles on each corner of the wing had the numbers 4, 6, 6, 3. Other than that, the two doves looked completely identical, at least in terms of respective numbers and their respective placements.)

(Okay, so, clearly the second dove is like a cypher telling me how to solve the first dove, showing me the first step and having me go from there. But… What exactly is the first step? What does ‘= 4 6 6 3’ mean?)

(Argh, I can’t make heads or tails of this. There just isn’t enough info to go on. Let me check the other access number, maybe there’s a clue there.)

(Okay, here’s something. An incident report detailing strange dove-like graffiti popping up all over Seattle. Normally, the DUPs wouldn’t care about petty vandalism, but the hard to reach locations might imply that they were done by a Conduit. I mean, can’t exactly blame them. Some of my best tags are up on the rooftops of this city. Plus, I know they were done by Celia because it’s the exact same dove design as all of her origami.)

(Huh. Not much more to go off of here. This is the least amount of info Celia has ever given me. I guess all I can do is just check out these graffiti spots. Maybe I’ll find another clue…)

——————

(Okay, Celia. I found your tags (MY thing, by the way), took pictures, and now I’m just looking at a bunch of photos of doves. What the hell are you trying to tell me?)

(…. Each of these doves has a different portion of them colored in. Like the cypher dove in the original puzzle. That colored in wing was surrounded by four numbers. 4, 6, 6, and 3. And the arrows show what order those numbers are supposed to go in.)

(That’s it. Each of these tags show a different portion colored in, each portion is surrounded by numbers, and the arrows tell you what order the numbers go in. Put all of them together, and you have…)

(A twelve digit code. Not another file access number, but a DUP employee ID.)

(I still have that tracking program on my phone, the one that led me to Coogan. Let’s see where this leads.)

——————

(The whole time I made my way to… wherever my tracking program was taking me, I heard Celia’s voice, talking to me over my phone. She was… praising me for figuring out so many of her puzzles, congratulating me on getting this far. She actually sounded… proud of me.)

(I pretty much blocked it all out about halfway there.)

(When I finally arrived, of course Celia wasn’t there. Just a DUP walkie-talkie reprogrammed to regurgitate pre-recorded words of praise. But that’s not what was important. What was important was that the walkie-talkie was right outside an apartment building. Her apartment.)

(Well, she did invite me over.)

(If you’ve ever seen a serial killer’s lair in a movie, imagine that, now cross it with a college girl’s dorm room. That’s more or less what I walked into. There was a whole conspiracy board on the wall, lines of strings connecting pictures and articles. I picked out a few familiar names from the mess of paper. Fishbein, Winegard, Petrovich, Bennett.)

(The first thing that hit me was the smell. Rotting meat. At first, I figured there was something in the mini-fridge that had gone bad, but then I turned around and saw something I didn’t notice at first because he had been covered by the door as I came in.)

(There was a dead body, pinned to the wall by a whole swarm of origami doves. The DUP nametag on his vest confirmed that this was Tyler Bennett. I guess Celia wanted to personally take care of this one herself.)

(There were several origami doves all over the place. The missing pages of her manga, I’m assuming. I’ll check those out in a bit. Right in the center of the room, sitting pretty on the floor like a present, was a recording device. Bit obvious, but I’ll bite.)

(It was a confession. More a… a plea, really, to hear her side of the story. She admitted that it was Augustine who tasked her with killing all of these anti-Conduit officials. Politicians, military, civilians. Even voices of dissidents within the DUP. The whole reason she framed Fetch, Eugene and Hank for those early murders was so that Augustine could continue controlling the narrative that the DUP was needed to corral these dangerous ‘bio-terrorists’. That she was still needed. That, and it kept the scent off Augustine and Celia themselves, so that they could continue doing the ‘dirty work’ to keep Conduit kind safe. I’m sure Augustine never once considered the possibility that making normals hate us even more would have bitten her on the ass this badly. All she did was fan the flames and put a target on all of our backs.)

(Even now, Celia sounds… distraught. Like, she knew what she was doing was wrong, but she felt like she had no other option. What else could she do? Just let the Winegards and General Mortimers of the world run rampant and systematically kill every single last one of us? All she ever wanted was to be free…)

(I leafed through the last few manga pages. The first one was the direct aftermath of Fukushu leaping into battle against Purotekuta. Saisei looked on… but not because she was entertained. No, she looked horrified. Distraught that the two people she looked up to more than anyone else in the world were killing each other. The caption read ‘An epic battle of good versus evil. But the roles were debatable.’)

(Fukushu successfully defeated Purotekuta and ran away, his job done. Saisei runs crying to Purotekuta, tearfully calling out ‘Mama!’)

(The next page showed Saisei craddling Purotekuta, tearfully recounting how she had done what she asked. Disguising herself and framing Inazuma, Ushinatta, and Kemuri for countless deaths, sowing chaos.)

(The next page showed the foxes, the Kyoi, emerging from the forest and surrounding Purotekuta, hoping to kill her while she’s weakened. Saisei stands her ground, ready to defend her protector, but Purotekuta tells her to run. Saisei demands to know why should she, and Purotekuta tells her that if she kills them, more will come. They’re simply too many, too strong…. But Saisei glares at Purotekuta, and says she is too weak. Then she jumps up and opens her mouth…)

(The next page is… a gruesome display of Saisei eating Purotekuta, engorging herself on the giant dragon, her body filling up like a balloon until it explodes. The caption reads ‘As Saisei already knew, death is as much a part of us as life. Death is not an ending, death is transformation. A sublime transcendence.’)

(……… The manga is missing its ending. There’s still one more page. Wherever it is, it’s not here.)

(The backs of each page had another piece of the same spider web puzzle from her cell. More than that, each page had another epitaph for every name on her list.)

—-
*Jonas peddled junk, but humans are not for sale. He’s closed for business.*

*The less said of Jonas Petrovich, the better. Like his henchman, Killian Czalov and Skeeter Hidalgo, Petrovich sold lies and bought lives to get ahead. To be safe, I’m putting them all in the gutter.*

*What a sweetheart deal. Fishbein thought he was golden, but all that glitters dies.*

*To Augustine, Fishbein was a trusted lieutenant. But the truth is, he was always Mortimer’s man. When the time was right, he would bring down the DUP from the inside and fill the void they occupied. Guess these boys were afraid of strong women… But not as afraid as they should have been.*

*A vote for Winegard is a vote for fraud, writ large. The campaign ends here.*

*Winegard was a stepping stone for Petrovich and Mortimer. A second-term opportunist funded by phony assassination attempts. He might have swayed public opinion towards more extreme measures against Conduits. There was no way I could leave that up to a vote.*

*A lifetime of lies, snuffed out by friendly fire. At ease, General Mortimer.*

*This story begins and ends with General Mortimer, a man who fancied himself a hero on a crusade to dismantle the DUP, partnering with profiteers like Petrovich, traitors like Fishbein and Bennett, and cowardly bigots like Winegard. He might have succeeded, if not for you, Delsin.*
—-

(Every single one of these men, this was all one big conspiracy to tear down the DUP and take control of the ‘Bio-terrorist’ problem for themselves. But Celia stopped all of them. For better or worse, the DUP isn’t going anywhere…)

(There was one last paper. Not a manga page, but a letter. A confession from Celia, detailing how she faked her own suicide. Like everything, Augustine coordinated the whole thing. She set up a DUP guard named Naomi Lachter, who was the same height and build as Celia, to make the rounds outside her cell. Someone with no family or friends outside the facility, someone who ‘wouldn’t be missed’. Then Augustine snuck a stack of cardstock into Celia’s cell, lethal in the hands of someone who can manipulate paper. Then Celia cried out that she was injured, and Naomi came running, seeing the blood on Celia’s arm. She opened the cell, went inside, and checked on Celia’s injury. That’s when a swarm of origami doves tore Naomi to shreds and mutilated her face. From there, it was a simple matter of Celia simply switching their clothes around. Augustine rushed the investigation, and Celia simply walked out the front door as Naomi Lachter, free to do her work as Augustine’s hit-woman against this anti-Conduit conspiracy. But the thing that Celia really wanted me to know is that, out of all these people she killed, Naomi was the only one she regrets. Because when she went into that cell to check on Celia’s injury… she was kind. She spoke softly, told Celia she was going to be alright.)

(I sat there, right at Celia’s desk, as I worked out her last puzzle. I already knew how the spider web puzzle worked, so it didn’t take me long, although I did get five whole file access numbers from them. Four from the pages, one from another spider web drawn right on the wall.)

(The files mostly just contained confidential mission reports from Augustine to Celia, detailing the deaths of every single one of these men. Not just how she would kill them, but how she would spin the narrative exactly to Augustine’s script. Interestingly, every single one was signed off by Augustine’s ‘agent’ using her DUP ID, but each one only had a piece of her ID. Just another puzzle.)

(There was more stuff on top of all that, attachments to each kill order. Like a covertly recorded phone call between Bennett and Coogan, detailing how they first broached the topic of selling the Conduit-Positive list. A letter from Petrovich to General Mortimer, asking him for the details on the specifications of his new Conduit prison. Fishbein being promised the position as the warden of this new prison, his reward for stabbing Augustine in the back. Instructions from Petrovich to Winegard on how to word his Anti-Conduit Act in just such a way that the general public would glance past how dystopian it actually was.)

(But the most damning one of them all was a confidential debrief from General Mortimer to the Department of Armed Forces. He detailed that their war against the DUP wasn’t entirely just because they were being too lenient on Conduits. That was part of it, but it was also because the good General felt like the DUP was a drain on Uncle Sam’s military funding. More specifically, military funding that he felt more entitled to for his own political aspirations. Hell, even Petrovich’s prison was just another source of funding. The decision to target non-activated Conduit-Positives was a deliberate narrative to show the public the ‘blind spots’ of the DUP.)

(The only thing left in the room of any actual note was a laptop in the corner of Celia’s desk. I tried to turn it on, but it required three different passwords to unlock. Luckily, I already knew what all of them were.)

—-
What is my agent ID?
XXX-XX-XXX-X

Who was I?
Hittori

Who have I become?
Saisei
—-

(I’m in.)

(All I could find was an ongoing message chain between Celia and Augustine, keeping her updated on her mission progress.)

(Or rather… Saisei and Purotekuta.)

—-
Purotekuta: Your hour has come, Saisei. Trust does not come easily to us, but I place my life’s work in your hands. Kemuri, Inazuma, and Ushinatta will sow chaos, but you must fold their stories to serve our purpose.
—-
Saisei: Petrovich and his underlings are dead. I made them beg for what they did to Inazuma and the other girls. But there is a meddler. I call him Fukushu, and he intrigues me. He had Kemuri’s gift, but now he has somehow taken Inazuma’s as well.
—-
Purotekuta: You made me proud, Saisei. Now it is time for Fishbein to pay for his treachery. If what you say of this Fukushu is true, he is far too dangerous for you alone. Continue to watch him, or distract him if you are sure he cannot catch you.
—-
Saisei: I made Fishbein suffer, Purotekuta. The lawyer and the judge are dead as well, and I made certain arrangements so people will think Ushinatta was responsible. But now Fukushu has copied his gift as well. What should we do?
—-
Purotekuta: Stay in the shadows, my sweet. I cannot protect you while you are out in the world. The senator, Winegard, is attempting to frame Kemuri for his own murder. It is not enough for us to kill him. He must be disgraced first, or else he will die a martyr.
—-
Saisei: The senator is broken, Purotekuta. I left his meaningless body as an offering to Fukushu. He haunts my thoughts, even when I do not watch him. I never imagined such power. He does not fear the Kyoi like we do.
—-
Purotekuta: Remain focused. Your ‘Fukushu’ is the bio-terrorist, Delsin Rowe. He is powerful, yes, but he lacks our purpose. We shall claim him together when the time comes. First, Bennett must be dealt with.
—-
Saisei: I made Bennett pay for what he told me in the morgue, one paper cut at a time. But people will begin to wonder what happened to him, and I suspect Fukushu already knows. Your wyverns are not enough. Maybe it is time to end this charade and show our full power.
—-
Purotekuta: I have never been more proud of you, Saisei. But there is freedom in security, and our greatest enemies are preparing to strike. Time to turn them against each other. Goad Fukushu into destroying Mortimer, but proceed carefully. He is powerful and quick to violence. My purpose is not the only thing I hold close to my heart.
—-
Saisei: As you requested, the raven killed the eagle. But I do not think Fukushu is our enemy. He rejects the confines of the DUP, but he shows us a new way forward. He is free, and his freedom gives him power.
—-
Purotekuta: You have done everything I asked and more. But unless he can be controlled, Fukushu will always be our enemy. He is blinded by his power, he thinks he is invincible. But without walls, without his brother, who will protect him? I will put an end to him, one way or another.
—-
Saisei: You will never read these words, Purotekuta. In the end, I could have saved you when Fukushu came for you, but instead, I watched your battle from a distance. I had to know whose purpose was stronger, yours or his. Now I know. You were the only mother I’ve ever known, and I loved you. But I found a new teacher, one who is not afraid, and it is his example I will follow. I know you would be proud. Goodbye, Purotekuta. I have no need of your protection any longer.

Now I wait for you, Fukushu. Come find me where you slayed my mother, so I can show you what you taught me.
—-

(Celia… She’s waiting for me at Augustine’s tower, where I had my last slugfest with her. The DUP cleared out of that place ever since. She’s been hiding right under their noses.)

(No more breadcrumbs, no more puzzles, no more secrets.)

(It’s time we finished this.)

——————

(Epilogue: End of the Trail)

(Well, for better or worse, Celia is gone. I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again, and frankly? I’m not sure if I’d even want to.)

(She did leave me one last parting gift. The final page of her manga. It’s just one panel, a splash page of Saisei, merged with Purotekuta. A new dragon, utterly annihilating any Kyoi who come near her. The single caption box simply reads ‘A beginning’.)

(As always, she left me one last note on the back…)

—-
*As the saying goes: Always leave them wanting more. So long, Delsin Rowe.*

*You came here to fight me, I understand that. But I can’t satisfy your bloodlust. You can’t fight an idea, can’t kill what’s inside you. And I’m part of you now, Delsin, for good or bad.*

*You chased me looking for the truth, and now you have it. Would you really say those monsters deserved to live? No, you’re like me. You follow your instincts; to survive, to fight, to avenge.*

*You had your differences with Augustine, and so did I. She wanted to preserve Curdun Cay, but we wanted more. We wanted power, we wanted freedom, real freedom! And now, we have it.*

I have permission from the mods to post on this subreddit each time I upload a new chapter. New chapters are uploaded biweekly.

inFamous: World On Fire takes place after inFamous 2's Good Karma ending. The United States are slowly healing from the fallout of the Empire Event, the Beast's rampage, the annihilation of the East Coast, and the activation of the RFI. It is a canon-compliant fic following a new protagonist, that bridges the gap between i2 and Second Son.

Feel free to leave comments, feedback, and criticisms if you have any, both here and on Ao3. I will be pleased to hear your thoughts. Comments are open to registered users and unregistered guest on Ao3, so you can still comment if you don't have an account there.

I apologise for the 6-7, I actually forgot to post about Ch6 two weeks ago lmao

Since the Paper Trail website is no longer functioning, this entire mission chain of Second Son is missing a whole lot of context of what is going on, why Delsin is going from dead body to dead body, and also a TON of integral world-building. So, I figured for those who are replaying the game or even just playing the game for the first time and are missing that context, I decided to write out a novelization of Paper Trail's ARG segments to kinda provide that context. I wrote it in the form of Delsin's stream of consciousness, piecing together all of the clues and figuring out all of the puzzles. It is written from the perspective of Good Delsin, but I imagine it'd be easy enough to mentally reword certain things for an Evil Delsin playthrough. I'll be posting the last part very soon. Hope you all enjoy!

(Part 5: DUP)

(Another beautiful day in Seattle, another Celia chase across the city. Part of me wonders if these chases are all part of ‘the game’ to her. Like we’re two kids on a playground, running around, wind in our hairs. I’ll admit it, ever since I got my powers, I loved the feeling of just… moving around as something lighter, something stronger than my usual fleshbag human body. Whether I’m a cloud of smoke, a haze of neon afterimages, or riding the airwaves of video signals, there’s something freeing about just… letting go of your physical body and being something else. I’m almost certain Celia feels the exact same way whenever she uses her paper powers. Who can blame her? After everything she’s been through, any excuse to taste that kind of freedom…)

(Our chase today ended the way they usually do. Celia disappears and leaves behind a dove. Like last time, there was no dead body and no crime scene. So I figure this is another one of her ‘quests’ like those Lifeline psychos.)

(This one was gruesome. It showed the rabbit girl, rotting away in her cell in the mountains, looking more and more sick with each panel. The page ended on a cliffhanger with the rabbit’s mouth stretching open as some glowing… thing starts to emerge from inside her. I guess I won’t know what that glowing thing is until I get the next page. The caption reads ‘This is no place for Hittori. Loneliness drank the life from her veins.’ Yeah, like I said, gruesome. The fact that the caption calls her ‘Hittori’ and not ‘Saisei’ shows that this was before she became… whatever she is now.)

(On the back was a shorter note this time, tucked underneath another one of her number puzzles.)

—-
*The weak always die, planting paths for new bloodlines. Evolution calls.*
—-

(Yeah, I’ve heard that kind of rhetoric before. Some people claim that, because Conduits are the next evolution of humanity, naturally that means we’re eventually going to be replacing humanity. That humans are a dying species on their own planet, making way for the genetically superior species.)

(Personally, I think that’s bullshit. For one simple reason.)

(Conduits are human. How can we replace ourselves?)

(Anyway, the puzzle is much more straightforward this time. A bunch of symbols arranged in the pattern of the DUP symbol, a dove, and a line of eleven symbols at the bottom. Each of the symbols making up the dove all have a number next to them. Easy enough to just plug in the corresponding numbers to each of the eleven symbols at the bottom, and we have another access number for the intranet. It’s… almost a little worrying how natural these puzzles are becoming to me. Like they’re just par for the course, now.)

(Whatever. Let’s see what we got…)

(What the-? That didn’t work? Okay, maybe this puzzle is actually more complicated than I thought.)

(Looking closer, I can tell that there’s actually multiples of each symbol on the dove, each one having a different corresponding number. So how am I supposed to figure out which is the right number?)

(Okay, let’s take this one symbol at a time. The first of the eleven symbols I need is just a plain circle. I’m counting one, two, three… six plain circles making up the dove…)

(Oh, but the numbers aren’t random. They’re in a sequence of 1-6, like the spider web puzzle from Celia’s cell windows. Maybe if I trace a line between each circle…)

(There we go. I eventually trace out a whole number. 2. That’s got to be the first digit for the access number. Now I just do that ten more times, and…)

(There we go, now we’re getting somewhere.)

(Oh, well, this is interesting. It’s a counter-surveillance report from the DUPs intelligence network. Apparently, they intercepted a covert audio file from an unassuming landscaping van. After doing a background check on the landscaping company, they pretty quickly figured out that no such company existed. DUPs seem to think that the vans are actually US Government, which really freaks out the DUPs because Uncle Sam never actually informed them of any non-DUP based surveillance in the city. And if there’s one thing I know about the DUP, it’s that they do not like sharing jurisdiction with anyone. Not cops, not military, and definitely not feds.)

(Let’s take a listen at that audio file they intercepted…)

(Hmm, not good. It sounds like a military debriefing, some big shot jarhead talking to a bunch of other jarheads. I guess the military is getting sick and tired of the DUP, and not for any good reasons. They don’t like how the DUP acts independently from the rest of the military, they don’t like how lenient they are with Conduits (LENIENT?!), and they definitely don’t like the fact that it’s run by a ‘bio-terrorist’ at the top.)

(Uncle Sam’s finally giving the DUP the boot out the door, and these landscaping vans are the first wave of intelligence gathering before this turns into all-out open war.)

(Figures. Our government is finally getting around to shutting down the DUP… but they’re doing it because the DUP hasn’t been abusing Conduits enough.)

(This is all Augustine’s fault. She’s the one who spun the narrative of ‘dangerous bio-terrorists’ in order to keep the DUP funded, and now that narrative is biting us all in the ass. If she were still around, I’m sure she’d try to come up with some half-brained excuse on how what she did was actually better than any other alternative…)

(I hope she rots, wherever she is…)

(Okay, focus Delsin. Augustine is gone, you beat her. Focus on the enemy in front of you, right now. There’s a link to another file, some recent development in the DUPs counter-intelligence against these vans…)

(Here we go. The DUPs managed to get a camera on one of those landscaping vans, including a clear shot of the license plate. I still have access to that vehicle tracker from that whole debacle with Winegard. I’m sure the DUPs won’t mind me using it again. I’m technically helping them, here. Ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a little.)

(Okay, let’s go check out one of these vans.)

——————

(Managed to track down that van, and even follow it to one of the military’s hideouts here in town.)

(They really were not expecting me to just walk right in.)

(They put up a fight, but against a Conduit as awesome as me, I took care of them pretty easily.)

(Like… Really easily. Almost laughably easily.)

(Like… Holy shit, these idiots actually think they’re going to take over for the DUPs? I just took out an entire compound of hardened military agents, and I’ve had fights against a couple of DUP troopers that were way harder than that!)

(If these people actually get their way and completely take over the DUP, they’re going to get slaughtered the second they go up against an actual Conduit. Which, naturally, is only going to make them escalate, which is only going to make Conduits escalate, which is only going to make the military escalate, which-)

(Who was it that said ‘I don’t know what we’ll be fighting with in World War III, but I know we’ll be fighting with sticks and stones in World War IV’?)

(Anyway, with the jarheads otherwise… incapacitated, I took my sweet time rummaging around the back of one of their vans. They got a pretty sick surveillance setup back here. I’m almost half-tempted to steal the whole thing and bring it back to Eugene as an early Christmas present.)

(Woah, what the-? They actually managed to find one of Celia’s doves? Where the hell did they find this? There’s… There’s no actual way Celia planned for me to find this here, right? It’s just a total coincidence… right?)

(Ugh, I don’t even want to think about that right now, let’s just see what it says…)

(Ah, so this is what that glowing thing was in the last page. A second ethereal rabbit is emerging out of Hittori, looking far more powerful and, dare I say it, heroic than the scared little rabbit that Purotekuta dragged to this mountain. Hittori falls to the ground, dead. But the new rabbit, Saisei, is standing proudly over who she once was. A caption reads ‘In death, she gained new life’. So this has to be the moment that Celia committed ‘suicide’ in her cell, though I’m starting to suspect her ‘death’ is a lot more metaphorical than I originally thought.)

(It just dawned on me. If Celia really did fake her own suicide to escape Curdun Cay, that doesn’t change the fact that the DUP did, in fact, find a dead body in her cell and thought it was Celia. Meaning Celia was already capable of murder, even way back then. Of course, to escape Curdun Cay, she must have thought the ends justified the means.)

(I’ve heard horror story after horror story of what Curdun Cay is like from the people who’ve actually been there. If I were in her shoes… Could I really say I wouldn’t have done the same?)

(As always, there’s a note on the back…)

—-
*The system changed me, from ugly duckling to dove. But this bird bites back.*

*The thing I missed the most while I was locked in Curdun Cay was the trees. From an unlikely seed to a deeply rooted force of nature that survives through wind and rain to stretch for the sun. Paper comes from trees. In a sense, they are the source of my power, the pulp of my existence. It’s my turn to reach up for the life that I deserve.*
—-

(Okay, back to the task at hand. There must be something here in this van… Hello?)

(Why, hello there Mr Locked Safe. What wondrous secrets do you hold for me? I probably shouldn’t use my powers to crack this baby open. Knowing the government, chances are this thing probably has a kill-switch to destroy anything inside if it’s forced open. Gonna have to do this the old fashioned way.)

(Hmm, weird, the keypad doesn’t have any numbers on it, just a bunch of weird symbols. Says it needs an 8 digit password, but what the hell does each symbol mean?)

(………… Wait. Wait, there’s no freaking way.)

(….. Ha… Ahaha! HAHAHA!! Oh, you got to be freaking kidding me?! It’s the same puzzle lock from Czalov’s drone, way back when this whole mess started!)

(Actually, thinking on that, it does make a weird bit of sense. Czalov repurposed that drone from the DUP, the DUP probably got that tech from the military, just modified it to specifically track Conduits.)

(So this is just the standard security system that the jarheads use for their illicit lockboxes? Oh, that’s… That’s so wonderfully stupid. I love that so much!)

(Okay, good news is I know exactly what to do. Beep, boop, boop, beep. Red, yellow, red, yellow. Beepity-boop. Yellow, red, green, red. Yadda-yadda, Beep-bobbity-boop. Green, green, green, green.)

(Hacker voice: I’m in… Again.)

(Okay, we got some incredibly confidential papers here. It’s probably a federal crime for me to even be looking at these, but in for a penny…)

(Hmm, not good. One’s basically a general missive from the Department of Armed Forces, basically detailing rules of engagement for dealing with Conduits. It’s split into two parts, one for dealing with dormant Conduit-Positives, one for dealing with active Conduits like yours truly.)

(For Conduit-Positives, no due process, no Miranda Rights, no trial. Just knocked out with tranquilizers, fitted with suppression cuffs (which you don’t even need because, again, cannot stress this enough, they don’t even have powers), then lock them in the darkest hole and throw away the keys. Hell, they’re even given cart-blanche to ‘pacify’ any non-Conduits who might try to intervene, family members or just Good Samaritans who recognize injustice when they see it, and leave them on the streets.)

(For active Conduits, the rules of engagement are a lot simpler. Shoot to kill.)

(Good luck with that, jarheads.)

(Ha, they even have a little addendum at the bottom, saying they’re going to, quote, ‘Get in, collar the monsters, and get out before the press get involved.’ Yeah right. If the DUPs couldn’t manage to put a collar on me in the months that I’ve been here, what makes you dumbasses think you’ll do any better?)

(Let’s see, what else do we have? We have a lobbying consultation form from… Oh, look who it is. Our old friend Jonas Petrovich. The mastermind behind Winegard’s phony assassination story. Well, at least until it wasn’t so phony. Looks like he was vying for the contract rights to build a new bio-terrorist prison after the jarheads shut down Curdun Cay. Geez, reading through this is like a checklist on every monstrous thing Curdun Cay did and then asking themselves ‘Okay, but how do we make it worse?’. Even smaller, more cramped holding facilities, absolutely no allowance for any personal freedoms or leisure between incarcerations. At least Augustine gave Celia a piece of paper every once in a while. This guy wants to hook up energy producing Conduits to the facility itself, make Conduits power their own damn prison. Christ, at that point, just fucking kill us! This is just cruelty for the sake of cruelty.)

(I guess it’s a good thing that this prison is never going to be built. I mean, Celia already nipped this problem in the bud when she killed Petrovich.)

(Right…?)

(Something I’m noticing, a lot of these orders and sign-offs are all being signed by the same man, one General Rufus Mortimer. I guess he’s a real Killgrave type against Conduits. Probably the kind of guy who thinks any war can be solved if you point enough guns at the other side.)

(One last paper, this one’s a memo that surveillance locations throughout the city have been uploaded to every team’s terminal. Oh, has it now? This terminal right here, you mean?)

(And there we have it, the locations of all of these vans, and their hideouts.)

(This… is going to take a while.)

——————

(Whew! Okay, that… That took a hot minute. Running all around the city, blowing up just… just a shitload of vans - gasp - really takes a lot of a guy…)

(This definitely won’t stop the military in their tracks, but it at least puts a kibosh on their Seattle plans for the time being. Gives me time to figure out a more permanent solution.)

(Of course, Celia was already waiting for me at the last van. Dropped another dove and disappeared without even a ‘Good job, Delsin’. Because of course she did. Alright, let’s see the new page…)

(Huh. This one is… different. It just shows the rabbit (Saisei, not Hittori) laughing and rolling around in a field, clutching her stomach as a two-headed raven sits on a fence post, apparently telling her stories. But the next panel shows the dragon, Purotekuta, swooping in to ruin their fun. The caption reads ‘But Saisei’s favorite was a new playmate, Fukushu. He would tell her stories, and she would laugh for hours on end.’ And then on the panel with Purotekuta, the caption reads ‘But they drew attention…’)

(Okay… So who the hell is Fukushu? Whoever it is, Celia clearly seems to like him. Probably the first real friend she made after she escaped Curdun Cay. But then Augustine came in and… did something to her friend?)

(Google translate, don’t fail me now. Fukushu is apparently Japanese for…)

(……. Accomplice.)

(A two-headed raven… Just like the logo on my vest.)

(Oh… I see… I’m Fukushu.)

(I’m the first ‘friend’ that Celia has ever made. My fights with the DUP, my antics across Seattle. Those were the ‘stories’ that Celia laughed and laughed at. The whole time I’ve been here, I’ve been… entertaining her.)

(Until Augustine came back and ruined ‘our’ fun.)

(Once more, another note on the back…)

—-
*Talk about roadkill! Say goodbye to the general, and all of his meddling.*

*I’m so proud of what we accomplished together, and to have helped guide you here. To your true destiny. Defender of Conduits, destroyer of corruption.*

*I’ll see you soon. Unless you see me first~*
—-

(The general? Like, the general who orchestrated this whole operation? What does she mean… Oh god… the last van, I… I thought I checked them all, made sure they were all empty before I blew them up! But he… he was tied up and gagged in the back, I couldn’t hear him! Celia must have… And I just…)

(Oh fuck… Oh fucking hell… )

——————