Sarah pushed open a sewer cover, and we climbed into the dilapidated basement of an anonymous, basically unimportant building in the middle of normal land. The floor was made of cold bricks, shelves full of unused stuff were everywhere, and there was a loud, rusty boiler making grinding noises in the corner. Funny how it works out. The fate of the world will be decided down here.

"Are we going to rest here?", the Anarch (heh, we're still calling him that as he doesn't have any other name) asked, as Howard pulled Fido out of the open hole.

"Definitely.", Sarah replied.

"I have a nightmare to complete, from which I may not wake up.", the Anarch said, matter-of-factly as usual. "My survival is not critical to your survival. If required, I advise that you leave me here.", he concluded, laying down on the cold brick as if it were made of feathers.

"Yes, but you're still damn useful anyway.", Howard observed, as the Anarch put on the Walkman he'd taken, turned up the music, and went to sleep. Hey, if he thinks it'll help. His survival is, indeed, not critical to our survival, and he probably won't.

"We shouldn't leave at all.", Sarah said. "Right now the people trying to kill you have the initiative, the element of surprise. If my secrecy squads" She said that phrase without doubt or hesitation. "can get here and overpower the ones trying to kill us, we can get out. The problem will be determining who's who, and who's still loyal. We should definitely stay here a while, though, unless someone starts blowing shit up. If they had a big missile or a nuke they would have definitely used it by now."

"I'm inclined to agree with that.", Howard replied. "But.. your secrecy squads?"

"Aren't they, Howard?", she asked, smiling at him. "I don't know who's in charge of them now, but I severely doubt he's as qualified as I am. He's probably loyal- otherwise this is going to get ugly in a hurry- but you know I'm meant for it. And with this shit going on, if he's not already, this is a job for a first level."

"Is that all you want, Sarah?", Howard asked.

"It's what I was promised.", she replied.

For Howard, there was no choice to be made, nothing to consider. Sarah's request was logical, easy to grant, and ultimately beneficial to the Dominator. "We'll do the formalities when we can. And I think you'll look wonderful in white." They both smiled widely, and I realized it was my turn.

This was it. This could be the beginning or end of everything, right here. "Howard, you said I'd get anything I want if I was unimplanted, right?", I asked.

"Name it.", he replied, completely unafraid of me asking for something he wasn't willing to grant.

"I want you to take that metaphorical Dominator Throne of yours.. and I want you to make it wider.. and I want you to move over.", I said, the smile increasing on my face. Because I, too, was made to be the ruler of the world.

As with his decision for Sarah, there was no consideration, no hesitation. He almost certainly knew I was going to ask for this. "Dominator William.", he said, smiling at me, and Fido gave a loud, appreciative bark, as if he knew the full meaning of it. The words resonated strangely on my ears, but were like liquid gold, shining in the darkness lit only by Sarah's glowing sphere. Dominator William, heir to the whole world. Having Howard at my side didn't feel like a division of power at all. It felt like an augmentation.

Dominator William. "Wow. That does sound weird.", I said.

"Oh, you'll get used to the title."

"No, I don't mean that. I mean being called 'William'." He chuckled. Nobody has called me anything but 'Billy' for more than two years. "I've been called Dominator pretending to be you. And.. Howard.. I forgive you for everything. Using me like a toy or a pet whenever you wanted, making me your shadow following you around.. all of it. Because you're my brother, Howard. You're my twin. And in the end.. you decided to let us go."

"And if I hadn't.. we'd be dead. Billy.. if you never said that I was your friend.. if I thought I couldn't unimplant you because you wanted to kill me or I couldn't trust you.. I would have died to it. That thing, that implant monster, would have eaten me alive. The only reason we're still here is because I could unimplant you.. and because there are two of us."

"And there were never supposed to be two of us.", we simultaneously said. And that was the truth of it. None of this was supposed to be possible. Someone had the idea to implant the Dominator, planned out well in advance, probably long before we were born. If the cell hadn't divided, or the Operator had decided to kill one of the divisions right there instead of what he did do, Howard would either be still implanted or dead. But here we are instead, dealing with a group of people capable of infiltrating the most powerful organization in the world, who have unknown (certainly enormous) amounts of force, and who now desperately want to kill us before we kill them, because the impossible has happened.

Good. There's enough ass kicking to go around. Let's rock.

"Tomorrow's our birthday...", we said again, simultaneously, and smiled at it. We're going to be simultaneous a lot now.

"I wish we could bring the engineered kids here for it.", I said. "I think this would be a great place for a party. Nobody getting in our ear or asking for anything, because we'd all be too busy killing traitor assholes."

"That would be nice, wouldn't it?", he rhetorically asked, smiling. "Some of those kids aren't good enough at fighting, though."

That reminded me.. there was one more thing I wanted to take care of. "Paul..", I started.

"I'll do anything for you.", Paul said, with absolute, steadfast conviction.

"I'm not going to let you get killed.", I told him. "And when we get back, in the interests of showing fairness, I'm going to have to give you the test like everyone else. Of course, since you were there when we redesigned it, I don't think that'll be a problem.", I said, smiling at him, and the expression on his face was as if he'd won a thousand lotteries. (In a way, he had.) Welcome to your new place in the Illuminati, Paul.

The Anarch started gibbering and shivering, the external signs of implant withdrawal. Spittle flew from his lips (we actually had to dodge it) and his head repeatedly cracked against the floor. He sputtered a long burst of random, nonsensical Enforcer-latin, his skin stark red, his body twisting back and forth. Then the symptoms stopped abruptly, and he sat upright, fixing each of his eyes on our faces, and said in a calm, deliberate voice, "We're coming for you. Each and every last one of you. And we're going to kill. You. All." He fell backwards, and his last breath sighed out of his throat. Well, fuck. He was an Enforcer, anyway. Not someone to be worried about.

"That could have been us..", Paul said, afraid.

Sarah nodded and thought. "Yes. It could have. All right, guys. Here's what I think will end up happening..", she started, but that was the end of my saga as life as a servant. It didn't matter what the force was that we'd fight later, the insane odds or the weapon imbalance, the secrecy we'd have to keep, the people we'd learn would betray us.

Because we were together.

And when we're together, nothing can stand in our way.

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