Flashes Of Light

Past - Jonath

The Anti entered a mystical crisis.

It seemed pretty mystical to me at the time, but it was possible it was just pathetic. Maybe after decades of looking young and being powerful, something made him go soft.

Logar said he'd always been soft, but I didn't believe it, because he had wrecked all of our lives and you couldn't be soft to do that. Logar said that this is why he'd done it --- because he envied our strength and he wanted to use it.

Either way, he went on to explain to us for hours at a time why he thought the whole US-UK Alliance wasn't a real thing.

"If it's fake, the reality must be there under the surface," he told us. "To put it simply, things aren't the way we all thought them to be. There's something more to our simple political system. There could be something more to everything."

"Maybe there's something more to you too," Logar offered. "How come does your house come fresh without having a conditioner?"

"Really, Iris?" Percie scoffed. "There's no time for your nonsense. What happened, Mister Toutatis?"

"Please, call me father!" The Anti said, but he was crying so we didn't take him seriously. "I just got back from a political meeting. The President was killed one week ago. I am the Anti President, which means my role exists only because of my opposition being there. The whole Alliance is based on this duality. We're the yin and the yang and the reason why the two English-speaking countries are even allied at all. We're the bricks this society is based upon.

But they let me know that they have no intention of replacing the President. This is why no one was saying anything about a successor. They never will."

"But this must be what you wanted," Logar growled. "You don't fool us! You have us kill the President, your opposition, as you call it, and now that no one is replacing him, you're the most powerful man in the Western world! Why, this must have been your plan right from the start."

"But it wasn't, not exactly! I wanted to change society from within. I wanted to do the unspeakable. But, apparently, society was not what I thought it was. The President's men, and women, were tight-lipped and no one told me why they weren't replacing their candidate. I can't get to the heart of the matter, but there must be something rotten there."

"Maybe they wait for his son to grow up," Logar pointed out. "Fuhrer President King."

We all gave him a terrible look.

"What? Am I the only one who watched Fullmetal Alchemist?"

"As a matter of fact," Percie replied. "Yes."

"But then," The Anti said. "The unthinkable happened."

"What? The story wasn't over?" Logar asked.

"Of course it wasn't! As you pointed out yourself, I would have been better off with no opposition. Think about it --- I never said the story ended there. I just said there was something rotten.

To be truthful with you, I wasn't expecting them to change the President at all. But I was waiting for them to say something, to acknowledge the loss, to say that this country couldn't proceed as it was. No one said anything, not even condolescences. You don't go out, but I will tell you the truth --- there was no public announcement and the funeral wasn't on the TV. None of us will be charged for murder."

"Oh, well, hooray, how long were you waiting to tell us?" Logar asked.

"But it's terrible! Because this means we're all just cogs in a well-oiled machine. Turn on the TV!"

We did. There was a new President talking to the WWF.

"You see? They chose a new one," Logar said.

"I keep telling you that this is not the problem!" The Anti yelled. "The problem is that no one is acknowledging the old one is dead."