Life After Legend Read online

  CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THE LEGEND SERIES? READ ON FOR A SPECIAL GLIMPSE AT THE TRILOGY'S FINALE

  WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

  Copyright © 2017 by Xiwei Lu

  ROSS CITY

  ANTARCTICA

  TEN YEARS LATER

  SOMETIMES I SEE THINGS.

  Glimpses. Flashes.

  I’ve been to the doctor a dozen times for it but always leave with the same diagnosis. You’ve suffered a great deal of trauma, Daniel, they tell me. Go home. Rest. Which, as far as I’m concerned, does no one any goddy good. I go home, I lie in bed. I try to rest.

  It doesn’t stop me from seeing things.

  It’s not that I don’t like life in Ross City. My little brother, Eden, decided to come here to attend one of their prestigious tech academies, and if it makes him happy, it makes me happy. After the Republic of America, the society of Antarctica feels so free that sometimes I can’t stand it. People here don’t worry about plagues. They don’t think about whether or not soldiers will break down your door and gun down your family. They don’t wonder where their next meal will come from, or whether they’ll have to flee an enemy nation’s invasion. Ross City is basically a walk in the park. I’ve definitely known worse.

  Still, I see things.

  During our first year here, I saw glimpses in my sleep of a woman with icy eyes and a smirk on her lips. When she’d speak to me, I’d hear nothing except my own screaming. During our second year, I saw snippets of life with Tess on the streets of Lake. Our third year, I saw flickers of chandeliers and formal gloves, cameras and champagne flutes—moments of a life that didn’t seem to match the one I knew in Lake.

  Our fourth year, and every year since then, I see flashes of a girl with long dark hair. I can never quite make out her face, but I find myself following her in my dreams, always waking before I can reach her.

  I never mention her aloud, not even to Eden. Something about her makes me want to keep her a secret.

  * * *

  • • • • •

  “You’re quiet tonight.”

  Leanna’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts. I shift in my chair and see her frowning at me. The evening has just faded to night, and from up here, at a café along one of the bustling walkways connecting two adjacent buildings, I can see the time hovering in a display over a distant skyscraper. My attention returns to my girlfriend, who is watching me as she wraps curls of her red hair around her fingers.

  When I don’t respond right away, she leans in close and kisses me. “What’s on your mind?” she asks.

  “Sorry,” I reply with a sigh. “Eden has his exams tomorrow. He’s been holed up in his room all week, studying.” Which is the truth, but not the reason why I’m quiet tonight.

  I’m quiet because I’m thinking about the girl with dark hair, who appeared in my dreams again last night. I’m quiet because I know I’m about to break up with Leanna, and I’m not looking forward to it.

  Leanna doesn’t look convinced. “It’s been six months, Daniel. By now I can tell when something’s really bothering you.”

  Six months. This is the longest I’ve been in a relationship since we arrived in Ross City—but as I look up at Leanna, I can’t help but feel my heart sink. We’ve lasted this long, but I know it’s coming to an end. I straighten in my chair so that our hands are no longer touching. Her eyes search mine, and the expression on her face flickers slightly, as if she’s trying to guess what I’m thinking.

  “We can head back to my place,” she gently suggests. “If you want to give your brother his privacy.”

  I give her a sad smile. “It’s not that,” I reply. Then I get up from my seat, pull on my peacoat, and offer her my hand. I start walking us back toward my apartment. “We need to talk.”

  Back at the apartment, I pull her close and talk to her in a low voice.

  As she listens, she studies my gaze, trying to figure out what she’s done wrong to end our relationship. I tell her I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

  She’s indignant at first, and I listen in silence. She had told me she loved me weeks ago, and I’d been unable to say it back. She says she wishes I’d said something then. She says she wishes she’d never met me. Then she turns quiet too. She’s not angry at me, but I wish she would be. When she starts to cry, I hug her and bury my face in her hair. Neither of us says anything. All I can do is stay like that, feeling alone, wondering why the hell I can’t let a good thing last for once.

  Wondering why I can’t get the girl with dark hair out of my mind.

  We sit like this for hours, until finally, Leanna gets up. She gathers the things that she’s left at my place over the past few months—hairbrush, nightshirts, toothbrush. She tells me she’ll be all right. We talk softly by the door. Then I hug her for the last time. She walks out of the apartment and down the hall, leaving me standing in the doorway.

  I look on for a moment, lost in thought. My hand fidgets absently with an old ring on my finger. It’s my favorite—light and sturdy, made of paper clips, and even though I don’t remember where I got it, I like that it reminds me of old Lake customs. Besides, someone once told me it was made of alloys that don’t rust. Might be useful someday.

  When I step back inside and lock the door, Eden’s emerged from his bedroom and is leaning against the kitchen counter, eating an apple. He glances at me through his glasses. His eyes, once a pale purple after his ordeal in the Republic, have gradually faded over the years to a bright blue that matches my own. His head of blond curls is a tangled mess right now, and he still looks half asleep.

  “Thought you were studying,” I mutter at my brother, even as I join him in the kitchen.

  Eden shrugs. “I’ve gotten half a dozen internship offers already. And I’m gonna ace this exam tomorrow, anyway. Figured a nap was a better use of my time.”

  I can’t help smiling a little. Can’t imagine where he gets his attitude from.

  He takes another bite out of the apple. “So, did you do it?”

  “Yeah.”

  Eden makes a disappointed sound in his throat. I know he really likes Leanna, although, to my relief, he doesn’t use that against me. “What’d you tell her?”

  “That I just wasn’t in the same place as her.” I run a hand through my hair. I keep it cut short these days, another reminder of how different my life is now from when we lived in the Republic. When I was Day.

  Eden rolls his eyes. “Better than what you told Rose,” he replies. “‘Top secret project for the Antarctican Intelligence Service’—right.”

  I cast him a withering look. “There are plenty of projects I do for the AIS that I don’t tell you about.”

  “Well, did you have one that made you break up with Rose?”

  “No.”

  Eden shakes his head. “Exactly.”

  “Should I have kept leading Leanna on, then?”

  “No. Like I said, it’s better than what you told Rose. At least you told Leanna the truth.” Eden tosses the apple core in the trash. “I knew your relationship was doomed months ago.”

  “Thanks for the heads-up.”

  “Wouldn’t have made a difference. You had to figure it out on your own.” Eden sits at the counter and raises an eyebrow at me. “So, why didn’t you like her?”

  I look away and reach for an apple too. Eden asks me this every time I break up with a new girlfriend, and every time, I have to make up some sort of excuse—but tonight, I’m too tired to think of something. So instead, I just tell Eden exactly what comes to mind. “She just . . . wasn’t the right one.” I take a bite out of the apple. On the streets of Lake, this apple wou
ld’ve been impossible to come by. “I gave it a few months to see if anything would change, but it didn’t.”

  Eden watches me silently. “What are you looking for?” he asks after a while.

  In my mind, the girl with long dark hair reappears, and I find myself yearning to run after her, to get a good look at her face. “Nothing,” I say, sidestepping Eden’s question. “I’ll be fine.”

  Eden looks unconvinced. He doesn’t pursue it any further, though, and lets a comfortable silence fall between the two of us.

  “Do you ever think about going back to the Republic?” he asks me abruptly.

  I look at him in surprise. “I dunno. Why?”

  Eden’s expression has changed, like he knows something I don’t, and in that moment I realize that I can no longer predict what’s going through my little brother’s head. He’s graduating from a university. My little brother’s not so little anymore.

  I smile and decide to venture a guess. “Is this about Tess?”

  At that, Eden turns pink and makes a face. “No.”

  “Oh, come on. You just talked with her, didn’t you?”

  “No.”

  I laugh, eager to change the subject to something other than my breakup. “You’re the worst goddy liar I’ve ever met. What’d Tess say?” Eden scowls, so I go on. “Did you tell her that you spend an hour fixing your hair before every video convo with her?”

  “It’s not even like that!” Eden protests, which just makes me laugh again. Tess. How can the little girl I once knew from the streets now be a doctor? Every year, I get a glimpse of her during our winter chat and can’t believe I’m looking at the same person. But she’s still as warm as ever. Especially when Eden’s on.

  At Eden’s lingering blush, I finally decide to show him some mercy. “Look, kid—if you want to go back and see her in person, I’ll go with you.”

  He stares at me. “Actually . . . ,” he says, somewhat hesitant now. “I was talking to Tess about the Republic.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. Because one of my internship offers is from the Republic.” At my sudden silence, he adds, “An engineering position in Batalla sector, actually. In Los Angeles.”

  Batalla sector, Los Angeles. An engineering position.

  I don’t even know how to respond. It wasn’t so long ago that I was breaking into Batalla to steal equipment and food from Republic soldiers. Now my brother may end up working there.

  “What would you be doing?” I finally ask.

  “Restructuring the old stadium and barracks where they used to train us for the Trial.” He hesitates. “My proposal was to change it into a hospital, a new university, and a museum.”

  The old Trial stadium. The memory comes rushing back, unrelenting, and I wince even though that childhood wound—along with many of my past wounds—has long since healed. A hospital; a new university; a museum. That was the proposal that Eden submitted to them. That’s probably what he was doing when he should’ve been studying for his exams. I feel a rush of pride so strong that my breath catches in my throat. I think back to his vow to help the Republic find a cure for the plague, even when he was still a child.

  In spite of everything, the Republic never broke Eden. In spite of everything, he continues to do good. To be the best of us.

  “You okay?” he asks, breaking the silence.

  I smile at him. “Yeah. I’m just proud of you.”

  He sits up straighter and grins. His eyes may resemble mine and our mother’s, but when he smiles, all I see is John.

  “Are you gonna say yes to it?” I ask. He gives me a bashful look, and instantly, I know. “You’ve already accepted it, haven’t you?”

  He nods. “Yeah. A few hours ago.”

  He must’ve been afraid to tell me. The Republic. I feel a storm of emotions building at the thought of my brother returning there, but I don’t voice any of it. He’s going. He’s agreed. It must be a better offer than any of the others he’s gotten—and besides, Tess is there.

  I take a deep breath. My fingers have started toying with my paper clip ring again. “Like I said. If you want to go back, I’m going too. Somebody’s gotta watch your back.”

  Eden smiles again, and the relief on his face makes me relax. “Good, because Tess is already arranging a dinner for us when we arrive.” He looks at me with a curious expression, as if he knows more than he’s letting on. “I thought maybe . . . well, that maybe you’re also ready to be reacquainted with our home country.”

  As usual, Eden’s instincts about me are right. The Republic of America, gray and dark and full of our worst memories. Nevertheless, it still pulls at me. I feel the tug even now, as Eden’s words echo in my mind.

  It’s not perfect. But it’s still home.

  * * *

  • • • • •

  When Eden returns to his room, I go to mine and try to sleep. But it’s no use. My thoughts are too jumbled. After an hour, I rise, pull on a jacket, my gloves, and my boots, and head up to the roof.

  As usual, it’s quiet tonight. I’ve gone to the roof of our hundred-story complex almost every night since we moved in, but I’ve never seen another person up here. The building is lit up with color, most of its floors linked to those of adjacent buildings via connection bridges, upon which people now bustle back and forth. I stand in the shadows for a while, breathing in the cold night air, and then step closer to the edge. Is it strange that, after all this time, I still feel the most comfortable balancing on a ledge? I’d spent most of my first year in Ross City crouching in this very spot, watching the sky change with the seasons. Antarctican summers last six months and are supposed to mean long days with no nightfall at all, while the winters are meant to bring eternal night for the other six months. But the government uses some kind of dome-like shield to simulate a more normal day and night cycle and to generate a warmer climate. From here, I can see almost the entire glittering city, along with a double view of what the shield generates and the natural sky that exists beyond it. Sometimes, sheets of color will cascade across the real night sky while the shield produces a sunny day right beneath it. Other times, the real sky will look bright and blue while what we see below is a shimmering sheet of stars.

  Tonight there are blue and green ribbons gliding across the sky in gentle waves. I watch them for a heartbeat. Then I walk all the way to the edge and hop up onto the ledge in one swift motion. My metallic leg makes a faint scraping sound as it brushes against the stone. I crouch there, watching the people walking down below. I think back to the first thing Eden said to me when we landed in Ross City. How can the Republic of America be so goddy gray, while a place like this oozes color and life?

  Maybe the Republic used to be colorful like this too, I’d replied.

  Eden’s heading back to the Republic to work in their military—the same military that inflicted so much suffering on our family. The same military that nevertheless pushed back the enemy. My jaw tightens. We’re returning to the country we once called home. And in spite of everything, it’s the country I still call home. I’d grown up there, played street hockey with John and Eden there, wandered the alleys of Lake there, met Tess there. I’d been arrested there, and then honored. My entire past traces back to the Republic. Fragments of memories stir in my mind at the thought.

  It’s been ten years since I last set foot on Republic soil. What will it be like when we return?

  Will I remember more?

  Something catches my eye, and suddenly I straighten. Walking along one of the bridges below is a girl. She’s tall and slender, with a long tail of dark hair that sways behind her as she moves.

  It’s her. The girl from my dreams.

  I don’t think. I just react. Before I know it, I’ve started hurrying along the ledge, my eyes trained on her figure cutting through the crowds. When I reach the edge of the building, I swing ov
er the side, dangling a hundred stories up by just my gloved hands. My boots push against the building as I find a nook to grab, then another, and then rapidly make my way down the side. I hit the first connection bridge and hop onto its top railing to crouch again. My footing, as always, is sure.

  I look for her. She’s still there, walking along a lower bridge. My heart pounds furiously. It’s her, it must be, she’s here. And I don’t know why I care so much, but I feel an indescribable urge to follow her.

  A couple of people on the bridge directly below me now look up at the sound of my boots on the beams. One of them points up at me. “Hey!” he exclaims to the person next to him. “That’s that Republic boy—that’s Daniel Altan Wing.”

  There’s a murmur of recognition, but I’ve left them behind before they can remark further. I reach the other building, then whirl over its side and down into the bridge’s walkway. A few gasps of surprise go up. I ignore them, then glance below to see if the girl is still there. She’s entering the building now on a lower floor. I gauge which floor it is, then rush inside and push through the crowds until I find the elevators. I hurry onto the first one heading down.

  I get off on her floor. There are fewer people around, but I still find myself turning in place, trying to pinpoint where she is.

  There. I see her hair in the crowd, then hurry in her direction. People give me startled looks as I rush by. From the corner of my vision, I realize that they are all wearing Republic uniforms. Why is everyone dressed like a Republic soldier?

  I reach her and put a hand out to tap her shoulder. She turns around.

  She’s unrecognizable.

  I jerk awake in bed, trembling. My heart beats faster, while my head pounds with a familiar ache, the feeling I get when I’m struggling to remember something but can’t quite grasp it. My eyes go to the window, where the lights of Ross City are glittering in the night. Everything is quiet.

  She’s back in the Republic. I know it with absolute certainty.