J-Star:

I looked down at my projector. Its battery was charged again, time for another volley of illusions. I rolled against the rock and- stopped dead.

Another explosion ripped into the battlefield, tossing the leprechauns and their creations like toys. Just before the explosion ripped out, a figure appeared near what was probably the center of impact, and just stood there, its clothes blowing in the wind but remaining undamaged as it didn't move.

All around those in the camp slowly got to their feet. The figure was a bearded man with a cane. He stood tall and stated flatly. "I claim this ship. You may all leave with your lives."

One of the leprechauns stood up. "Pharaoh trickery! You really think we're scared of you?" He and two others pointed their energy weapons straight at the man. Pulses shot out of the weapons as the man put up a hand. The energy dissipated before reaching him."

"I have no desire to fight. But if I must..." He held up his right hand higher, the speaking leprechaun floating in the air. The man waved his hand the lizard man suddenly flying off into the air as he screamed in terror flying like a rock. He was thrown so hard his body left my sight. My jaw dropped and my stomach sank.

Tarth... whatever he was, good, bad, hero, monster, he was certainly one thing. Powerful. The other two Leprechauns threw down their weapons and ran, tears of fear in their eyes as they tore away.

The mimics ambled towards him. Tarth held out a hand to me. I felt a force surround my stomach and I floated into the air and flew straight to him. He held his hand in a "stop" motion and I stopped in mid-air. "Girl, give me a piece of lint and every mimic and hunter in this forest in a mile radius will deactivate."

Not like I would have refused anyway, I fished the item from my pocket.

Several devices fell from the sky, falling on the mimics all around us, electric fields shooting out from them. The mimics fell to the ground like they had just died... of course, I had to question if they were ever alive.

The force around my torso dissipated and I dropped like a stone. I had been at eye level with Tarth- who was six feet tall and I was about five foot two. It didn't hurt but being dropped from a height like that after everything else- it just added to the intimidation.

I heard scraping and falling rocks and I looked to the right, seeing Kyle scrambling down a cliffside overlooking the valley. He ran over to Tarth. He stopped when the man turned to look at him.

"Well... this was our deal right?" he asked.

Tarth nodded his head once. He didn't turn but held up a finger to Kyle. "Give my people one hour. Her injuries are extensive and even our technology has its limits."

Kyle held both his hands in fists, putting them by his sides, his whole body shaking with tension. "I... I guess I can have patience. If that's all you ask after all this... fine." Tarth started walking towards the ship. "Wait... it's been... too long. I'm so scared for her. How soon can I see her? Even an hour..."

Xao and Bart were coming up to our small group in short order.

Tarth only turned his head to look back. He gave a small chuckle. "You don't really care how I harvest anything here, do you? You could care less. The only thing that concerns you is your friend, isn't it?" Kyle nodded eagerly. "I put you in the same room where they're operating, no telling how you might mess things up. All the same, I can put you and the others in a sort of waiting room outside her room. I'm feeling generous, that enough for you?"

"I guess," Kyle said.

"Girl... you didn't actually make a deal did you?"

I stood up. "It's J-Star um..." he just raised an eyebrow to that. "Right- why would you care? No, I didn't."

"Your deal then, he gives you a small rock, all of you will be in the trickster facility with his friend, right in the waiting room outside."

"I don't think he'll take-" Kyle placed a stone in my hand.

"Like it matters, I just want to be there," Kyle said.

Tarth snapped his fingers.

I looked around. I was now with the three boys in a small metal hall. Four chairs lined the wall across from a wooden door.

Kyle looked wide-eyed at the door. He quickly jumped, his hand in motion likely before he even thought, going straight for the knob as Xao grabbed his wrist. "Let go Xao, I have to... to..."

"To what?" Xao said. "They're operating on her in there. What do you know about medicine?"

Kyle licked his lips. He breathed in and out through his nose. It was like I could see him trying to force the tension out of his body. Bart put a hand on Kyle's shoulder.

"C'mon, let's just have a seat," Xao said. "Jay, you still got that book?"

"Why is everyone calling me that?" I asked. I pulled out my book.

Xao took it, ignoring my question. "We got an hour. How far you think we can get into this?" He smiled as the rest of us sat down.

(***)

It was a long hour. Still, I liked hearing Xao's voice as he read. It was like he tried to have a cadence to it. He even seemed to improvise hand and body gestures. We didn't get far, but personally, it was the best version of a Tale of Two cities I had ever witnessed... god help me, why was I falling in love?

Kyle... best I could tell was barely even paying attention, just watching the door. He didn't look like he was relieved at all. It was like he was still scared.

Jessica had looked pretty bad, but these were tricksters here, we could do anything.

Tarth appeared in the room.

Bartholomew jumped, Xao dropping his book and me just shoving myself back in my seat. Kyle seemed to barely notice.

Tarth gave the boy a card. "Give it back to me. Name your deal."

Kyle looked at him curiously. "What?"

"We have repaired everything, even rebuilt so much of her body... even if she were to wake up, even with all our work, her recovery would be months in the making."

"Excuse me... if? "Xao said.

"Even that could have been called a success, I suppose, but it seems... something is happening in her mind. She had brain injuries. We don't know how, when, or even if she will recover consciousness."

Kyle got up and charged the door, throwing it open, tears in his eyes.

Timmon was standing over the body of Jessica, her resting peacefully on the operating table. Kyle rushed over to the girl. He grabbed her hand and squeezed as he fell, his body held up by the side of the bed. Tears were now streaming out of his eyes.

I watched, looking into the room, my body unable to move. Had I heard that right?

I heard Xao get up. "After all we went through, risking our lives, killing, betraying our own beliefs-"

"Your beliefs against me? And how many are you sure you killed?" Tarth said.

"Yes, against you... and I don't know, that's not the point. You won't keep your deal?"

"Can't. We saved her life, but the spirit of the deal was to bring her back to you... we cannot do that. The honor of the tricksters is then in peril." I looked back and saw Xao glare. "I could care less about your impotent fury, or any temper tantrum you could have. But still, I am bound to do something. I swore by the name of a god, my own name, that I would bring her back. I failed."

Xao breathed in and slowly exhaled. He moved to stand between him and Kyle. "And tell me, why exactly did you fail?" Xao asked.

"Her mind and body were so damaged, for so long, it was too much for even us..."

" "So long"?" Xao asked. "Look me in the eye and say there was no way you could have saved her."

Tarth rolled his eyes. "I suppose, it is very possible, had we started earlier, we could have done it, but those were not the terms of the deal."

Xao clutched his fists and I could see what I almost swore was steam rising from his head. He was shaking with rage. He spoke, almost growling. "To think... th-th- there," he was so angry he could barely speak. "There was a... time... a time I would have understood that logic. A time I thought we had to honor our rules... I stopped caring about human life and lied to myself that I still did... you don't even lie to yourself anymore do you?" Tarth just looked at him calmly. "It's just a... transaction to you. Unless you get what you want, you won't even try. It's like you gave us a form and until we could fill it out who cares -life, death- who cares?" Xao reached for his sword.

"I don't recommend it," Tarth said, giving his voice a slightly raised base.

Xao kept shaking with rage. In my own head, it felt like something was twisting... like I felt pain... but I didn't feel pain at the same time. I looked at the girl on the table. She was right there. She was breathing, her body was fine. Yet... this couldn't be the end.

"Don't you care!" I finally shouted. Tears were coming out of my own eyes now. I wiped one away and stared at it. It was like, for a moment, I didn't know why it was there. He was right of course. He couldn't operate before the deal had been fulfilled. But that meant he had a staff of pharaohs monitoring her, keeping her alive, pharaohs that could have saved her. He had them just do the minimum... which was like doing nothing.

Could she feel when she was like that? He just left her like that. At any time he could have done something, but he just kept to the system. Her life didn't matter, not a single bit, not to him. How she felt, all she had ahead of her...

In that moment, I wanted to break his jaw. I clenched my fist.

Were I in his position, the system would have bound me too, I knew that. I spoke, sobbing as I did. "What are we?" I asked Tarth.

"Pharaohs," he said. "We are seeking to expand our horizons. We made this system to facilitate that. To distribute power in a fair and impartial way."

"How is this not evil?" I pushed out through clenched teeth.

He shrugged. "When you think about it, deals can be made with the rich and poor alike. It is the ultimate and most fair system in the world. It can be used for good or evil, it's completely neutral."

I blinked. I opened my hand and looked at my crushed tear. "Is it? What's evil? There's no room for actually caring about people in our system at all. The whole thing... it tells us not to care. We can help people though... and we do all the time... right?" He just shrugged. My voice started to squeak I was so full of- all kinds of emotions.

"We have the power to."

"I- I have never just watched someone die- just let it happen- and I never would," I said.

"So you wouldn't have taken this deal, is that of consequence to me?" He turned his back to me. "You are of no concern to me, you did not make the deal."

He walked over to Kyle and put a hand on his shoulder. He put a piece of paper next to him.

Xao stood across from me, hands in his hair as tears were starting to fall out of his own eyes.

My voice cracked again as I spoke. "I want a deal."

Tarth slumped his shoulders.

"I already made one... I'm feeling, generous still thought. I am the god of the tricksters, so I suppose I can bend the rules," he said. "Don't try my patience too much more though."

"You didn't bend the rules for-" Tarth waved at Xao, Xao's lower jaw slamming up.

"I have to know. My deals. When I made them, what did they do, how did I affect people?" I asked.

"We keep records," Tarth said. "We are trying to grow our inventions and our understanding. That is the whole point of this." He touched a finger to his head. "I will have those monitoring data storage give me the information. Why not?" He looked over at Kyle, then back tome. "Go ahead, tell him why he can't have her back. In your own words."

Kyle looked back at me. "But... the reason is..." the words caught in my throat.

"Tell him," Tarth said, pointing at Kyle.

I swallowed. "Because," Kyle was sobbing as he looked at me. "Because to the trickster system, nothing matters, just the deal. You either meet the requirements, you either meet your deal or nothing matters. We didn't finish in time, so that's just how it is."

"We couldn't control that..." Kyle said, breaking through his sobs and falling on his hands and knees. "Even if we had taken your deal, you couldn't have gotten that ship any faster."

I breathed in. "No. I couldn't. So I guess... it just didn't matter. She... she just didn't matter... the tricksters had the power, but... we didn't care." I looked over at Xao, who was just standing there like he was frozen. Opposite him, on my left, was Bartholomew, who was crying as well. I looked back to Kyle. "These deals are made for us, not those we deal with... that's the truth in the end, isn't it?" I looked up at Tarth. Tarth nodded slowly. "So, that was my deal. Tell me."

"Give me the descriptions and approximate dates of... seven of your deals. I will do my best to give you the relevant data," Tarth said, simply looking up with disinterest.

Xao growled at me this time. "You... you have no idea how much even saying that hurt us. You don't even care do you?"

I breathed deep. "I have to know," I said. "I didn't have a choice. I have to know, what does my power do to people?"

"I could tell you for free," Xao said, keeping his glare.

"Ask your questions," Tarth said.

"Nineteen seventy-six, December I think. I found a man on the road, he was coughing blood and sleeping on a sidewalk. His family had left him. I said if he gave me the bottle of alcohol in his hand, I would heal his sickness. He did, and I threw away the bottle and broke it."

Tarth nodded, keeping his finger on his right temple. "His cancer was cured. We suspect you taking and breaking his bottle- he took it as a sign to turn his life around. He gave up his drinking and was able to get back with his family. Apparently, alcoholism had driven them away."

I gave Xao a small smile. Xao closed his eyes. "Go ahead, ask another," Xao said in a voice so full of contempt I could almost taste it.

"September 1975, a girl with a lost dog. I asked for- just a piece of the dog's food."

Tarth chuckled. "Oh dear... perhaps you should ask for a different one." I looked over at Xao, who wouldn't return my gaze anymore. I put on a brave face and just looked back. "Very well. The dog was never missing. The girl's parents had taken it away and given it to a neighbor. Perhaps they had planned on giving her an explanation the next day. The family didn't have the money to support the additional member and she had been neglecting the animal. When the girl got the dog back, she hid the animal from her parents in a fort she built in the forest, probably realizing what had happened. She couldn't afford to feed the animal, and was too foolish to understand... you sure you want to hear this?"

"Just tell me."

"What did you expect to happen? You knew nothing about the situation, the girl, her parents, anything. You just walked up to a child and asked her why she was crying. She said her dog was missing, and you returned the animal, no questions asked. The animal starved in the woods. Her parents told her the truth when she told them. The girl hates you with all of her heart." Tarth gave a shrug.

My mouth was going dry.

"I found a white man in Korea, he was crying saying he couldn't get back to his family. I asked for a dime. Date... nineteen seventy-five."

Tarth nodded. "You returned him home. The US military eventually found him. He was jailed for abandoning his post. Honestly had you not made such a quick deal he might have just served out his term. He was crying because his mother had died and the unit couldn't send him back at the time. He's serving a life sentence."

I covered my mouth. "I... how bad can it... nineteen seventy-five, August, a boy's bike was missing... I don't even remember what the deal was- what was he hit by a car?"

Tarth shook his head. "Honestly he's still alive and leading a life that seems fine. It was just a bike. I mean, if this power is used for something simple, not much can go wrong."

"Right... another missing dog, the girl gave me a button from an old shirt. Nineteen seventy-six... can't remember the month."

"She's fine. She got another six months with her dying animal friend. She believes you were an angel sent by God."

I smiled, my tears still streaming down. I looked over at Xao. "See... it's not all bad."

"Why should I care? How we felt didn't matter to you," Xao said back.

I closed my eyes and turned back to Tarth. Kyle was behind him, returning to holding Jessica's hand.

I braced myself. I wasn't even sure myself why I had to know all this so badly. I just had to. "Nineteen seventy-five, October. I saw smoke and ran to a burning building. I ran inside and found a woman trying to rescue her baby. The door to the nursery wouldn't open... she gave me a sliver she pulled out of her finger- a sliver she got trying to break through that door. She gave it to me and the baby was to appear in a room in her parents' home..."

"It was a church," Tarth replied. "The woman dealt with you in desperation I suppose. You ran out of the building to save yourself after the deal correct?"

"Of course I... oh no."

"She didn't have pharaoh powers. The hall she was in collapsed and she burned. The other children in the nursery-"

"WHAT?!"

"It's almost comedic," Tarth said with a smile creeping over his face. "You don't know these people girl. You never tried to know them. You never tried to understand what was happening. And even if you had, these weren't things you had trained to understand, nor had you put in any work to understand them at all on any level. You got your answers instantly, did you think they were going to be amazing? How can you expect amazing results without amazing effort? You're like a politician deluding himself into believing he can just give people money and fix problems he knows absolutely nothing about." His head went back and he gave a small laugh. "The baby is two now, living with her grandparents and her father." His head returned down. "To think, it defines irony. Had you used your normal pharaoh powers and risked your life to save the child like anyone else, breaking the door, all of the children could have been saved and the woman as well. You used more power than you could dream, to accomplish less than you could have with your own devices."

My knees were growing weak. "Nineteen seventy-six, June, I found a missing poster. A boy had been missing for six months. I found his mother. One dollar, the boy was in her house when she turned around. I watched her hug him. It brought a tear to my eye how happy she was. I left feeling so-"

"The truth couldn't care less how you feel," Tarth interrupted. "That boy's father had been fighting to remove him from his mother and have her committed. The court had been partial, not believing his horror stories of her abuse of both of them. He had taken matters into his own hands. It was working until you came along. The boy was dead in a week. I can give you details of the crime scene if you like."

"I..." I looked over at Xao. "I don't get it. You don't know Bartholomew... you, Kyle, and Jessica, you save people you don't know, does this stuff happen to you guys?"

Xao returned to glaring at me. "What do you think? Of course not. We spend days, weeks, or even months investigating and following trials. I mean sometimes we fail because the kid is already dead but we don't make things worse or fail that laughably. We learn the situation, we learn about the people involved and we certainly don't just walk in thinking power and good intentions can do everything like morons."

"That... hurt..." I said. It did a lot.

"Yeah well, how do you think it feels to be told your best friend's life is worthless?" I stepped back.

"One more, maybe I did something that made up for that, something really good... the results-"

"That was seven," Tarth said. "You could have found a way to keep up with these deals if you really wanted. But be honest with me, how much could you have really cared when you put in no work before or after the fact? It cost you nothing. What did you expect?"

I backed up to the wall and let myself slide down it till I was sitting. Xao walked over to me. "Wanting to rub it in?" I asked. "Maybe you can answer one more question. What am I?"

"A trickster. That's what power without work is. A trick," Xao said. He sighed. He paused, looking into my eyes. "I... I don't hate you." He sat down beside me. "It's like the title is a riddle. You're a god of tricks, but who's being tricked? You walked into complex situations and took easy solutions. Did you think it was the same as using an electric bulb instead of a candle? One is just a mechanical solution and the person who invented the bulb knew what he was doing and did the work. There is always work, it's how we know what we're doing. It gives us context and gives us time and reason to ask questions. Work has value." I squeezed my eyes shut. "So who were you tricking? Either you were tricking people you didn't know into believing you could help them with problems you didn't understand, or you tricked yourself."

"Or both?" I sobbed.

He looked down at his own hands. "Yeah... or both."

"Did any of your deals fail like that?"

"Probably... You. Are. Me. We both tricked ourselves into being part of this." He held up a hand and put it on my shoulder. He still... cared.

"Why do you care?"

"I put work into you," he replied.

"Are we... monsters?"

"We're too impersonal to be called that. We're neutral. We don't care. The essence of caring for something is working for it."

"I can't change what I've done," I said.

Xao nodded. "This is why Kyle said I either gave up my power or left... what do you care more about? The hero this power could make you, if you do it all right, somehow, or the thing it could turn you into?"

"Now? I'm more afraid than hopeful."

He wrapped his arm around me. "Sometimes we need to be afraid."

I looked up, seeing Tarth go back to Kyle. "What do you want?" he asked the crying boy.

"She... if she's going to die, I can't bear for it to be here." Kyle said. "My father on earth... my real father, is Allen Reign. I want to be in the bedroom of his son, Jaden Reign, so I can apologize for.... everything. I want all of my friends out of this horrible place."

"Give me a lock of her hair."

"You don't deserve it," Kyle said. He reached over, pulled out some of Jessica's hair, and gave it to him. "But if it gets us away from you- Jay is our friend too by the way. We're getting her away from you too." He gave Tarth the hair.

Tarth took the hair and snapped his fingers.