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Chapter Twenty-Five

Janet tossed and turned all night long. She had been given a small, largely white room at this Phoenix Grace underground facility, being left to think about her encounters of the previous week after having many sumptuous dinners with her sister, even managing to make her laugh, which for one time, showed the trace of her sister that remained inside Cassandra.

She had even asked her why she had changed her name to "Equinox" after she had left home. Cassandra revealing how she had always felt that her life had felt like an Equinox, changing like the seasons of Terra itself, from winter to a glorious summer.

Janet had never known the depth of her sister's pain. The mental abuse of her mother and the physical abuse of her father. She had never seen it and it had been a difficult thing to accept. Her mother and father had always treated Janet like she was a princess and she spent her childhood so consumed within herself that she had never once thought about Cassandra's viewpoint.

She had always seen her as a petulant child. But maybe she had legitimate reasons for leaving home?

Still, reconnecting with her sister. Even in this environment, had been satisfying on a level that Janet had really encountered. It dulled her pain over the loss of Janus so much that she found herself forgetting about it for that moment.

Cassandra had even hinted at a possible future, where Cassandra could leave the Police Force and join Phoenix Grace Private Security, allowing her to maintain a continuous connection with her estranged sister. She could not believe that she found herself actually entertaining this notion.

Blood indeed was thicker than water.

Over the course of the week, she had been allowed to investigate the facility, except for the "maximum security" areas which were limited to Phoenix Grace employees only. This was for her safety as they dealt with many dangerous pathogens down there as they needed to keep various samples of viruses to research and manufacture vaccines.

However despite that, Phoenix Grace had been extremely welcoming with her in the hopes that she would travel back to Crystal Lake and inform the authorities first hand how the company was not involved with any immoral acts.

They had allowed her access to their computer system in order to research much of the work that they had been doing there and treated her as if she was a visiting government official. Cassandra said that she had hoped to show the world that Phoenix Grace was a company bound by ethical and moral standards.

She had learned that "Yiff" or "Valatosis", as it was originally called, actually had massive applications as both a painkiller and a potentially revolutionary "stem-cell enabler", allowing the body to produce a large amount of unique "stem-cells" which could then take over any damaged cells within a host body. However just like any drug, using it consistent could produce uncontrolled cellular division as well as addiction and dependence.

This is what Cassandra had assured Janet of what Doctor Aaron Naga, former Chief Science Officer of Phoenix Grace had done. He had attempted to sell Valatosis as a narcotic, to pay off his large gambling debts, ignoring the potentially harmful effects and the drug had found its way into the criminal underworld of Crystal Lake that way.

All of this was completely verified by the huge amount of evidence that there had been.

It seemed illogical that a company, that was so dependent on consumer trust, would be conducting illicit research for profit. Such a scandal would destroy the company if the truth ever came to light.

Maybe this had all been created in Janus's paranoid mind and had been passed onto her?

If so... maybe she had got it wrong, all this time.

Still... it did not explain the distribution orders which had been discovered on Obsidian's computer at the Phoenix Grace office?

She pondered these thoughts as she walked down the brightly lit hallway to Cassandra's office. She was alone, Cassandra had called off the security escort in this part of the base once she had been convinced that Janet was not going to do anything stupid.

"Cass..?" she said as she opened the door to the office, walking inside. The office was unlike the other rooms in the complex, there was no blinding white which looked like it was out of a science-fiction movie but instead, it was more homely, with mahogany panelling covering the walls, with a more classical feel, even though they were still deep underground.

She had often met her sister here for breakfast over the last week but something was different this time. Her sister was hunched over her computer, looking somewhat concerned. She gazed up looking straight at her sister with an accusatory glance.

"Did you tell them?"

Janet was slightly taken aback, she had only seen her sister like this since they first met and she had no idea what she was talking about now.

"Tell wh- What are you talking about?"

Cassandra's expression went from accusatory to perplexed but there was something more that Janet could see behind her eyes...

Panic.

"What's wrong?" she said, somewhat louder as she could sense her sister's worry from the expression on her muzzle.

"We've just got word... Fesalis forces are on their way here!"

"Wait... you mean the army?"

"Of course! I mean the army!" replied her sister, sarcastically. Janet was instantly confused by this response.

Cassandra suddenly launched herself at her in a panic, reaching over to her and grabbing her, but not to hurt or injure her. Padding down her clothes to see what she could find, a worried frustration confusing and scaring Janet in the process. "W-Wh-Cass! What are you looking for!?"

"A tracker... a transmitter! Anything that would tell us how they found you!?"

"Cassandra!" replied Janet curtly to get her attention. She had never seen her sister like this. The cold, hard exterior had gone and she had reverted almost back to her bully self, as she was when they were just cubs.

This time though, Janet was not defenseless and using a quick pull, she'd remembered from Police Close-Quarters-Combat training, she managed to hold Cassandra's flailing paws in place for a moment. "Now explain what the hell is going on!"

A scientist suddenly rushed into the office, a rather short female Miravikta whose hair was unkempt and unruly during the panic. "We found it!" the exclaimed, scurrying into the room and causing Cassandra to let go of her sister for the moment.

The scientist, in a white lab coat, removed a black object from the case they had brought in. Janet recognised it immediately, it was her own mobile phone.

"It was kept in the item storage on the surface..." replied the Miravikta, their nose twitching in panic as they spoke quickly. "We made sure it was off when she arrived but its been programmed to switch itself on and make a call while it was locked in storage. We found the invasive program in one of the files downloaded from our office complex in Crystal Lake."

"Make a call to who!?" shouted Cassandra, looking disapprovingly at her bewildered sister.

Before the Miravikta could answer, the door opened and a number of Fesalis troops entered the room, quickly surrounding the three people already there. Janet looked around in confusion while Cassandra attempted to reach her small handgun on the desk and was stopped quickly by own of the snarling felines that had entered the room.

"Y'know... I really hate dramatic flair. It's so corny. Don't you think?" said a voice. Janet's eyes widened as she instantly recognised exactly who it was from the tone, normally so soft and demure, was suddenly more proud and confident.

Cassandra attempted to struggle one of the troops as Obsidian walked into the room, behind the Fesalis troops.

"Janet..." he said softly. "Thank you for helping to track down the illegal facility of Phoenix Grace inside Fesalis territory. I regret that you had to become involved in this."

Cassandra broke free of one of the guards and attempted to reach her weapon but was smacked in the face by the butt of a rifle, knocking her clean unconscious. "Don't hurt her!" screamed Janet at Obsidian.

"I'm not responsible for these men" replied Obsidian, his voice returning to a more confident and darker tone. "Your sister has been engaged in some pretty shady activities and its really not up to me what happens to her. I just informed the Fesalis government that this was here. Thank you for letting me place the program on your phone the other night by the way?"

Cassandra, still unconscious was draped over the shoulder of one of the soldiers as she was carried out of the room, the soldiers leaving Janet alone with just Obsidian there to talk to her.

"Those distribution orders..." said Janet, after a few seconds of silence. Waiting for the footsteps of the guards to disappear until she started to speak. A few things going round and round in her mind, inconsistencies that needed to be cleared up were suddenly so clear in her mind. "They weren't Phoenix Grace, you planted them!"

Obsidian shook his head, his long hair draping down over his head as he spoke. "No, those were mine."

"Yours!?" replied Janet. "You've been selling Valatosis on the street?"

"With the help of others..." nodded Obsidian. "But that wasn't really the point. Cassata Everson, Remmy Teron, Barrus Sturgeon... I don't think they understood the point."

Janet suddenly felt a slow, burning, vindictive rage like she had never felt before. All this time, Obsidian had neglected to mention of this. She had suffered through so much because of him, so that he could make a little extra money. He even had the former Chief of Police helping him to distribute drugs on the black market and fueling the despotism that already existed in her city.

"All that... just to make a little extra money!?" she shouted, wondering how many lives he had destroyed, either through design or through accident.

Obsidian shook his head again, keeping perfectly calm. "It was never about the money, although that was an unexpected bonus."

"So what was it about?"

"Justice..."

Justice? Obsidian had a weird sense of justice if he believed that. He had been responsible for providing narcotics, which she had witnessed first hand how they had destroyed people's lives and created so much pain and suffering.

"You call turning people in the Lower City into addicts... Justice!?" she exclaimed.

"For my people! Yes!" he suddenly bellowed. "I imagine you, in your privileged life have never known what it was like to have your people murdered before your very eyes and then have a corrupt government and a soulless corporation cover it up!"

Janet knew what he was referring to, the "Equus Massacre" had been a tragedy, but nothing in her eyes justified what Obsidian had done. "Nothing justifies murder!"

She could see how her responses had silently enraged Obsidian who felt that he had done all this for some greater moral compass. She glanced behind her, to the handgun on the table and calculated the distance in her mind that would be needed to retrieve the weapon and wound Obsidian.

But what would she do after that? The complex was probably overrun with Feralis military personnel by now. She would never make it out in one piece.

"You... you used me!"

"Oh and you didn't use me?" asked Obsidian, his logic as sharp as ever. "You didn't use me to access a Phoenix Grace office and try to find evidence linking them to Janus's death?"

Janet was taken aback as she looked around the room. One part of her brain focusing on trying to find a way out the office, of which there was only one exit and the other part focusing on the conversation with Obsidian. She could not deny that he did have a point, she had used her influence as a Police Officer to force Obsidian to do her bidding.

Did that make her just as guilty? Was she also so blinded in the pursuit of "Justice"?

"If it's any consolation, Janus was just as bad as you. He also tried to force me into doing his bidding" smirked Obsidian, his eyes blazing with a passion that she had never seen in him before. "Of course... he served my purpose well. Did you wonder where Phoenix Grace gotValatosis from? They discovered a crashed ship in the Everonth Mountains and discovered it there, of course, all this was covered up."

"Ship... you mean... spaceship. Don't be ridiculous"

"Oh... I thought that as well... until I saw it with my own eyes. So did Janus. His determined quest to search for the real killer of his wife led him to his own death!"

"So who killed him!?" Janet braced herself, waiting for an answer that she already suspected but did not want to hear.

"I did... His wife was going to expose my plan to turn Phoenix Grace against the Vulnira government." his voice changed, becoming more fragile. He had wrestled with this over the time since. "I tried to convince him to give up on it during my time with him but he refused. He also would have alerted Phoenix Grace to the fact that I was helping him so I was forced to inject him with a significant amount of Valatosis, knowing that was the only way that Phoenix Grace would cover it up, they didn't want their sweet discovery from getting out to the Vulnira Government, let alone the people..."

Janet just let all this information sink in, unable to feel or process anything at the moment. She was completely numb and immune to the numerous sounds of gunshots outside, echoing through the complex as the Fesalis military stormed it.

"I had tried once before..." continued Obsidian. "But I'm not much of a shot and I got the wrong target. I wanted it to be quick... painless."

Janet sunk to her knees, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. The crushing weight of the truth came crashing down around her. She had envisioned Janus dying heroically, toppling the conspiracy of a corrupt corporation... but there was no corperation... just one person, one person who had taken her best friend away from her. She had always... deep down... felt love for Janus and now he had died in such a pointless way.

It was more than she could take inside...

"I'm... sorry" replied Obsidian, with a lump in his throat. "Nobody else has to die..." he said, looking down at her heap on the floor. "Now Phoenix Grace is finished, the Vulnira Government will be exposed and Janus can rest in peace."

Janet felt a surge of rage, unlike she had ever felt before. How dare he try and justify it. How dare he rationalise it as "necessary"! After so many had died! After her friend had died! The fox she loved!

"No... nobody else need die..." she said, rising from the floor. "Except you!" she screamed, reaching over to the gun on the counter. He superior skills as a Police Officer serving her well as she grabbed the gun, turned it before Obsidian had a chance to react, feeling the incredible power that came with such a weapon.

The shot echoed through the office as she shot Obsidian in the gut, nothing left to protect him from the impact of the bullet. He immediately recoiled in pain, the one bullet passing straight through his abdomen, leaving blood spatter on the floor as he collapsed.

Janet did not care about how she was going to survive this but she would bring justice to Janus. Obsidian was clever but he had left important files including his emails to Cassata, Janus's wife and his own distribution records for the drug on her phone, on the table in the office. He would die for Janus's murder but also be condemned for the rest of living memory.

Obsidian had clearly not anticipated her actions. He had not anticipated the connection that she had with Janus. He had paid dearly for that mistake, blinded by his thirst for revenge, which he branded as Justice for the death of his people and the subsequent cover up. Janet had made sure that he would die a slow, long, agonising death as he slowly bled out for his crimes.

"W-Why..." he asked as he slumped on the floor, trying to make sense of what she had done to him.

"Because sometimes... being sorry is not enough" she replied, chucking the gun to the floor and awaiting the entry of the guards, unsure what her fate would be.