Resist

Atlas and Vera hadn’t gotten much time with their parents. Their parents weren’t dead, but the couple that had raised the siblings for most of their childhoods had been little more than shells of the people they used to be.

And it was all because of the Commission. If it weren’t for the Commission, he would have had a childhood with parents that hadn’t been reconditioned into perfect little citizens after being discovered as resistance members. If it weren’t for the Commission, he would still be with Vera. He wouldn’t be alone, drowning in the reality of what he was about to do without his sister by his side.

Grabbing his ID, he headed out the door of his run-down apartment. He had a job to do, one he would never be able to accomplish if he was stuck in what-could-have-beens.

After all, today was his first day of infiltrating the very Commission that had ruined his life.

***

Initiation. He couldn’t believe he had made it. Atlas had to force himself to not burst into giddy laughter as he was handed papers acknowledging him as Commission agent #2031. Not only that, but he had received a special commemoration for graduating the Commission initiate program at 16, two years earlier than the average initiate.

Doing so was rare but not unheard of, and it put Atlas in the perfect position, outstanding enough to help him move up in rank faster, but not unique enough to draw suspicion to himself.

Once all the graduating initiates had been given their certification, the Commission president stepped up to the podium for his speech.

“We have gathered here today to celebrate the accomplishments of these fine young men and women…” Atlas felt himself tuning out the president’s droning voice, fantasizing about how he could finally quit his part-time job as a waiter now that he would be receiving government wages. Maybe he could finally move into a better apartment…

His daydreaming was interrupted by the president saying, “...in a time when society is faced with the rebellious uprisings of heretics like Vera Sterling, codename Phantom, we need more dedicated agents than ever before…”

Vera. Atlas struggled to keep his face blank. His sister, the current public enemy #1 in a society where most criminals didn’t accomplish much before being reconditioned, had quickly gained infamy for destroying government buildings and every reconditioning device she could get her hands on. Atlas’s sister hated the government just as much as he did, if not more; they had simply approached their common goal- the fall of the Commission- from two different directions.

7 MONTHS AGO

“Atlas, no, it’s too dangerous!” Vera looked ready to hit something, but instead got up from her seat at the table and began to pace the length of the room.

“I’ll be fine!” Atlas argued. “And it doesn’t matter how well-connected you are to underground rebels if you don’t have anyone on the inside.”

Vera shook her head. “No, there had to be another way. We can send in someone else.”

“No we can’t. Most of the rebels we know are the ones connected to Mom and Dad, and they’re too old to join the Commission now. And, besides, do you really trust anyone other than me to do this?” Vera’s steps faltered, and Atlas pressed his advantage. “Come on, you know it has to be me. I can do this. I want to finish what Mom and Dad started just as much as you do!”

“Fine,” Vera ground out. “But if you’re doing this, we need a plan. You are not going in there unprepared; you hear me?”

Atlas smiled triumphantly as Vera sat back down. “Well, first things first, I’m going to need a new name- and my own apartment.”

So here he was. Atlas hadn’t talked to his sister since before he moved out of their shared apartment into his own and joined the Commission’s initiate program, where he had been training under the enemy while Vera had been risking her life for their cause.

Atlas lost his train of thought as the crowd erupted with applause. The president’s speech must have ended. Joining in the clapping, he pushed away memories of his sister. This was just the first step. He had gotten his foot in the door, but there was still so much more to do.

***

The next few months went by in a blur. Every day was the same: wake up at the crack of dawn, head to Commission headquarters, get briefed on whoever most recently had the misfortune to find themself on the Commission list as a “threat to public safety,” track them down and recondition them at Commission headquarters, head home, crash, and repeat. The exhaustion was almost enough to make him forget to be guilty.

Almost. On the slower days, Atlas would head back to his apartment and instead of immediately falling asleep like usual, he would stare at the ceiling of his bedroom and the names of each person he had doomed would run through his head over and over. He would lie awake the whole night, painfully aware that some of the people he had caught and reconditioned had families. He was doing to other kids exactly what had been done to him.

Reconditioning technology had been made efficient enough that all Commission agents needed to complete the task was a gun that shot darts filled with nanites that would complete the reconditioning process in under a half hour. It hadn’t, however, been perfected, and while a reconditioned individual would never go against the government again, they were never quite as high-functioning as before either. Atlas was sentencing kids to lives being raised by parents who simply no longer had the mental capacity to care for them, living in broken down homes that were all that would be afforded by adults who could perform nothing but the most basic labor.

Those nights, he wondered whether he was doing the right thing.

***

Nine months after his initiation, Atlas stood in the common area of Commission headquarters, sipping his coffee blearily.

“Hey, kid!”

Atlas turned, a scowl on his face. He didn’t even know the name of the guy who had called him. “What do you want?”

“Commander’s asking for you.”

The chatter in the room abruptly stopped. Some glared at him with outright disdain while others watched him with poorly disguised envy. Turns out that while being recruited at 16 was common enough, being the youngest in his class of initiates didn’t exactly help him make any friends.

He unconsciously straightened under the sudden scrutiny. He had managed to stay off of Commander Juno’s radar for the past few months, performing better than the average agent, but not enough to draw too much attention to himself. He swallowed nervously. Commander Juno was known for being ruthless with traitors? Had he been discovered? He had been so careful. He hadn’t talked to his sister in over a year for his mission. If he was caught now, he and Vera would never have another conversation- at least, not a real one with his mind fully functional.

Atlas grit his teeth, grunting in response and turning toward the Commander's office.

The walk felt like an instant and an eternity all at once, and then the door was right in front of him. Atlas pushed it open and stepped in, immediately noting how sparsely decorated the room was. The only piece of furniture was a big oak desk, behind which sat Commander Juno. Seeing no chair for him, Atlas stood in front of her desk, drumming his fingers against his leg.

Atlas resolutely kept his eyes forward as the commander rose from her chair and drew closer. She circled him with slow, measured steps and he clenched his hands at his sides to stop their movement.

“You’re the brother of Vera Sterling, aren’t you, Atlas Sterling?”

No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. He scrambled for a response. “I-”

The commander smirked. “You didn’t think changing your name fooled anyone, did you?”

Atlas knew he couldn’t run. He was surrounded by agents, not to mention the commander herself. He had to talk his way out of this or it would be the end of the line for him.

He opened his mouth to defend himself, but Commander Juno spoke before he got the chance to say anything. “I knew the minute you applied as an initiate, boy.”

Fighting to keep his voice steady, Atlas looked Commander Juno in the eye. “I am fully devoted to the Commission, Commander. I apologize for my subterfuge. I simply wanted to be judged for my merit rather than being dismissed due to my unavoidable blood relations. My so-called-sister’s actions are in no way a reflection of my own beliefs. If I knew her location, I would immediately tell another agent. Nothing would make me happier than seeing her brought in for her crimes.” Did he lay on the obedience too thick? Authority figures loved feeling powerful, but he had to be careful not to make it too obvious.

“Good to hear.” Commander Jun said it with a smile, but Atlas couldn’t help but feel she was seeing right through his lies. “Now,” she continued, “you must be wondering why I called you here.”

Atlas furrowed his eyebrows. “You mean you didn't call me here to punish me for trying to hide my connection to Vera?”

“You convinced me of your innocence.” The condescension in his voice was palpable and he fought back a wave of anger. “You were scared of how people would react, understandable. I was giving you some time to settle in here, but now I have a job for you. You are going to be the face of the special team I’m putting together to hunt down Vera Sterling.”

Atlas bowed his head to hide how tightly his jaw had clenched. “I would be honored.”

“I know you would be. I already have some press conferences set up, and of course, you’ll have to be introduced to your team.”

“Press conferences?”

“Of course, kid. The Commission has shirked in its duty to bring Phantom in for far too long. And with her brother leading the effort to find her, well, let’s just say you are going to be very helpful to the Commission by doing this.”

Atlas suppressed a scowl. Commander Juno was obviously using him in an attempt to make Vera lose her ever-increasing public support, a direct result of her prevention of reconditionings. Using Atlas as the figurehead of her arrest would strike fear into people to start behaving once again with the unspoken threat that the Commission could turn the closest friends and family against anyone who defied them.

But he didn’t have a choice. He had to do this, so he nodded his head in acknowledgement.

Commander Juno started walking toward the door. “Now for the official debrief. You will receive all the information we have on Phantom and her allies and meet your team.” The threat in her voice was clear. If Atlas messed up, he would face the Commission’s wrath.

The conversation ended and the only noise left was the sound of Atlas’s heart thudding in his chest.

***

Atlas regretted ever complaining about the stress of being a regular agent. This was much worse.

His team was constantly hunting down and interrogating suspected resistance members. For the first time, Atlas was glad that Vera had always insisted that he was too young to be part of the resistance so he didn’t have to condemn people he actually knew.

His already meager hours of sleep dwindled to nearly nothing as the memories of faces full of defiance morphed into slack, carefree expressions lacking any spark in their eyes haunted him.

Not to mention the press conferences. He was forced to attend at least one a week, spouting senseless propaganda about the Commission all while his name and more specifically his relation to Phantom was broadcasted to everyone watching.

On top of that, now that he actually had access to valuable information, he had to find ways to smuggle that information to the rebels- anonymously. Vera had declared that the only people that would know about him going undercover would be herself and Atlas in order to minimize the risk of his secret being revealed to the Commission. So, every week, Atlas had to sneak into a different resistance base, each disguised as some nondescript building like a bakery, and leave behind a flash drive with just enough information that no one in the Commission suspected a leak.

Despite everything, once he had been leading the hunt for Vera for a few months, he mostly just felt relieved his sister hadn’t been found yet. She had become the face of the resistance. If she was caught, everything would fall apart, and Atlas would be life with no one in the world- stuck in the Commission with nobody on the outside to know it was all an act.

The only thing he could do to help her now was use the power he had to the fullest. If he made the call to recondition some resistance members before they had revealed all their information, well, it wasn’t often enough for anybody to accuse him of being a traitor.

Only now, with his team and Commander Juno in the room, he was helpless- forced to watch as the most recently captured rebel broke immediately when offered a chance to stay out of jail without being reprogrammed, promising to tell the agents anything they wanted to know.

“What do you know about Phantom?” Commander Juno demanded. Atlas stared in horror as the prisoner rattled off a name without a moment of hesitation.

The rebel shifted his eyes away from Commander Juno nervously. “She and some other rebels are hiding out there for the next week. They were planning on moving on after that. Does this mean I can be free now?”

Commander Juno looked down at the bound main derisively. “Recondition him,” she sneered.

The prisoner began struggling. “You promised!” he cried. “You said I wouldn’t be reconditioned!”

Two agents held down the man as Atlas approached with the device. He would have no guilt from this. The man deserved his fate for selling out his sister.

For the first time since joining the Commission, the only thing he felt watching the man’s face go slack was vindication.

***

The next few hours were a flurry of activity as the commander called in agents and arranged for them to travel to the location they had received. Atlas was told that the agents going on the raid would be accompanied by a news crew so the capture of the infamous Phantom could be broadcasted to the world. Commander Juno emphasized her desire for him to be the one leading the Commission forces and the one to ultimately capture Vera. He agreed to everything with a nod despite his overwhelming anxiety about the situation. There was no way for him to get word to Vera about the raid without exposing himself, and even if he abandoned his cover, he would be caught and reconditioned before he could help his sister. His only option was to go along with the Commander’s plan until he was by Vera’s side. Together, they would be able to get out of this. They had to.

They arrived at the location just to see the building they were told Vera and the other rebels were occupying go up in flames. Running away from the fire was a small group of resistance members, Vera leading the way.

The commission helicopters quickly overtook them and landed in a formation that trapped the rebels.

Atlas rushed to get out of his transport, heart pounding. He had to something to fix this-

Commander Juno stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Remember, kid, the world is watching you today. There was a twisted look of pride and glee in her gaze as she looked from him to where Vera was surrounded by agents and the other rebels were being handcuffed.

The reporter followed Atlas and Commander Juno as they headed toward the group surrounding Vera. The agents part for him and the Commander, but Commander Juno doesn’t walk through. She nudges him past the agents and assumes the vacancy that was created by the agents moving.

Atlas finally locked gazes with Vera. She glares at the agents around her and says, “I have bombs on me right now. You try to take me and I will blow all of us sky high.”

The commander waves over the agents that had been tasked with capturing the other resistance members and smiles. “You do that and you take your friends out with you.”

Vera's resolved expression wavered as she looked at the terrified faces of her fellow rebels.

In that moment, Atlas wanted nothing more than to be able to get her out of there and take them both somewhere they could just be family without the constant threat of the Commission. Instead, he wiped his face of emotion and walked closer to his sister, reconditioning gun raised.

“Give us the bombs, Phantom,” he demanded.

She slowly reached into her pockets and pulled out three, setting them on the floor and rolling them toward Atlas. He handed them to the nearest agent and moved closer to Vera, hyperaware of the camera and agents’ focus on him. There had to be a way out of this that didn’t end with him and his sister reconditioned; Vera would know what to do.

“Hands behind your head,” he ordered, continuing forward until he was barely an arm’s length away from her.

Keeping his weapon trained at her, he lowered his voice so the other agents couldn’t hear him. “What’s the plan?” he whispered. “How do we get out of here?” He made sure to keep his expression disdainful for the sake of everyone watching them.

But Vera only shook her head. “There’s no way out of this- not for both of us.”

Atlas’s heart dropped. No, this wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Vera was supposed to have a plan, to fix things- wait. “What do you mean for the both of us?”

“Listen to me very carefully. We don’t have much time before the rest of these agents get suspicious. You need to kill me.”

“What?” Atlas was so shocked he almost forgot to keep his voice down. “Are you crazy? I’m not going to do that to you!”

“You have to,” pleaded Vera. “If you don’t do it, they are going to wipe away everything that makes me me. You can’t let them do that to me- you can’t let them turn me into a mindless slave for the very people I hate the most.”

Atlas stared at her in wide-eyed horror. She couldn’t possibly be asking him to do this.

Vera looked toward the second gun holstered at his side. “I know you have lethal ones for emergencies. Use it, and I can die happy knowing they never got the chance to take my choices away from me- not like they did to Mom and Dad.” She stared him in the eye, her desperation replaced by unwavering resolve. “Survive, brother. Don’t let them find out what you’re doing. Play their game until you get the chance to leave this country. Then you go and never look back. Do you understand?”

Atlas blinked back tears. “How can you ask me to do this?”

“This is how you save me, brother.” She reached for the knives sheathed at her waist, and Atlas moved without thinking.

The sound of the gun rang through the air and Atlas could do nothing but stare as Vera's body crumpled to the ground, dead before she could utter a word. His hands shook and the gun clattered to the ground.

His surroundings suddenly burst with a clamor of sound as agents rushed the body of the late Phantom. Atlas stumbled back, only to run into Commander Juno. She turned him around to face her, and Atlas felt like throwing up at the proud look on her face.

“The first kill is always hard, especially because it was your sister,” she reassured him. “But you did the right thing. You rid the world of a dangerous criminal and helped maintain the peace.”

Atlas didn’t trust himself to speak, so he just nodded tightly and attempted to slow his run to a walk in his hurry to get away from her. They would have to wrap up here without him.

He managed to get himself to a helicopter and signaled to the pilot to leave, glaring and reminding him of Atlas’s rank when the pilot hesitated in confusion. The spy facade would have to wait until he could see a Commission agent without the blinding rage and despair driving his every move.

He didn’t let himself cry until he was safely locked in his apartment. He had never missed the one he had shared with his sister more.

***

Six months after killing his sister, Atlas stood in the headquarters, watching the resistance forces ransack Commission buildings across the country in a coordinated attack unlike anything seen before through screens in the Commission headquarters.

The other agents were running around, panicking but Atlas didn’t bother to move from his position in front of the monitors as he watched rebels force their way into HQ.

He could try and escape. He could even try and convince the rebels that he was really a spy put in place by the legendary Phantom, a spy trapped in the Commission now that the one person who had known the truth was dead. He could do all of that and more, but in the end, well- every cause needed a martyr, and Atlas had given the scattered resistance groups a reason to unite when he had murdered their champion on live television.

As the rebels stormed into the room, he could only be grateful that he had been able to see a glimpse of the world he and his sister had been fighting for. He didn’t struggle, even as he was forced to his knees. Why would he? He had been waiting for the moment when he had fulfilled his sister’s dream to let go. The din of the room faded into the background, and Atlas smiled. I’ll see you soon, sister.