BLACK MIRROR, PART II: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
Name of Run: Through the Looking-Glass (original fiction)
Dates: 4 April - 22 April 2052
Author: me
After months of no contact, Baron called Trace to ask for a favor: accompany her to the reading of a will. Hoping to get back in his fixer’s good graces, and land some real work, he agreed. When he arrived at the law firm, he wished he’d asked for more information up front: the dead man was Franz Kircher, better known as the Watchmaker. Also attending were Pandora (with a trio of her cats) and Ms. Tessa Halliwell (with Mr. Todd).
The Watchmaker left various possessions to all three women, but the only one they seemed interested in was a “black mirror,” which went to Baron. Halliwell reminded Baron that the mirror was useless without Frederik Bolger’s journal. Tempers flared on all sides, but Trace’s quick thinking and carefully-chosen words kept the scene civil.
Trace also shadowed Baron at Kircher’s funeral, where he took a moment to feed some sound bites to Megan Tzu. Trace considered what he knew about Baron as he drove her back to Skull & Bones: she rarely appeared anywhere other than the club. She never touched the drink in front of her. She never aged. Though interested in magic, she never displayed any talent of her own. And there was that time that she refused to share the same space as Julia Tokasu…
Baron told Trace that, once she’d taken steps to secure the black mirror, she would hire him to steal Bolger’s journal back from Ms. Halliwell. Trace thought that the estate was an impenetrable fortress, but Baron reminded Trace that he had an edge: he’d been inside it before. She offered him an exorbitant fee – enough to retire on, and quite comfortably. When he balked at the risk, Baron told him not to wait too long before making up his mind.
Julia Tokasu was waiting for Trace at his apt. Claiming to be done with the Disciples of the Schism, and still on the run from her father's Fuchi thugs, she had nowhere else to go. Trace almost turned her away, but remembered that she’d been inside Halliwell’s estate, too. He let her stay, making it clear that there would be no trust, no reconciliation, and no sex.
Trace received a message from Halliwell the next day, offering him a million nuyen in exchange for the black mirror. She also claimed to have a message for him from the elven girl whom he’d tried to save on the Night of Rage – the girl he’d spent thirteen years looking for, the reason he’d become a private investigator in the first place. He considered this offer as he and Julia drove out to the Barrens that night. Once Trace recruited Nightshade, the three of them concocted a plan.
While Trace met with Halliwell and Mr. Todd for lunch at a country club to discuss the situation, Nightshade hacked into the estate’s security system, allowing Julia to slip inside and recover the journal. Once he knew that the heist had succeeded, Trace politely refused Halliwell’s offer, suggesting that she find someone else to do her dirty work. “Oh, but I already have,” Ms. Tessa replied. Trace feared for his life, but the very public venue allowed him to walk away from the meeting, ready to rendezvous with Julia and Nightshade at the Skull & Bones.
But Skull & Bones was burned to the ground by combat mages in Pandora’s employ, and Mr. Todd led an assault on Nightshade’s cathedral that left nothing but the foundation. Unwilling to put the Sacred Heart Mission in danger by hiding out there, Trace contacted someone who owed him her life: Eve Donovan. The Ares fixer agreed to share her safehouse, where they waited to hear from Baron (whose remains were not found at the Skull & Bones).
During this down time, Julia revealed that she’d also stolen the elf girl’s message from Halliwell’s estate. Her name was Sylvia Knorr; her family had moved to Portland after the Night of Rage, where she was a happily married teacher of magic. She thanked him for saving her life, and for showing her that humanity still had the capacity to be humane. Julia asked for nothing in exchange for this, or for her part in the run… she just wanted to help Trace. In spite of her betrayal, Trace’s feelings for Julia stirred again – and, unlike Sister Annette Francesca, she was available. Still, even if she had turned over a new leaf, he felt certain that she was hiding something…
Trace also asked Eve exactly what Silver Angel was. “No idea,” she replied. “Something my bosses wanted. Something they put me in charge of getting.” She seemed to have no idea that Trace and Nightshade had been behind stealing it back from Ares, and Trace was fairly sure that the file no longer existed on any system.
Baron finally contacted Trace to set a meeting at the Sacred Heart Mission; he agreed, planning to spend no more time there than was absolutely necessary. Moments after Trace and Julia left for Bangerland, Mr. Todd arrived at the safehouse, killing Eve and Nightshade.
Pandora was waiting at the Mission. With Sister Annette and Father Kahler held by vast shadows in the shapes of cats, she demanded the journal, promising that she’d pry the black mirror from Baron’s dead hands when the fixer arrived. Deborah arrived first, though, eager to take fiery vengeance for Pandora’s witch hunt. Trace and Julia blasted their way to safety as Deborah burned the Mission to the ground before being destroyed by Pandora. Father Kahler perished in the blaze, and Pandora’s shadowcat spirited Sister Annette away, too fast for Trace to pursue.
Baron found Trace and Julia a few blocks from the blaze. Still leery of the former cultist, Baron gratefully claimed the journal. Trace wanted to go after Sister Annette, but Baron had one more job for him, “and if you do it, they’ll bring her to you.” Short on options, Trace agreed, driving to a crowded monorail station while Baron pored over the journal.
Once inside, Baron opened a locker to reveal a small mirror in a frame of wrought iron. “There are other worlds than these,” she told Trace, but with her eyes on Julia. “I’ve been trying to get back to mine since time out of mind… and now I finally can. You could come with me, Sean.”
Trace had his share of enemies, and no end of troubles, but he chose to stay, to find Sister Annette. Everything that had happened to her was his fault, after all. Nonplussed, Baron told him to hold onto the mirror, since Halliwell and Pandora would stop at nothing to claim it. She had no way to know how much Halliwell (who’d held the journal for months) or Pandora (who’d once been the Watchmaker’s apprentice) knew of the mirror’s secrets, but if Baron took the journal through the mirror, it might be worthless to them. She also mentioned that the Disciples of the Schism would have used the mirror to contact the Horrors they worshiped in the Netherworlds; fortunately, the cult no longer existed, and Baron no longer sensed their influence on Julia.
Trace decided to keep the mirror just long enough to deal with his enemies, then destroy it. Baron paid the promised price for his services, made a few phone calls on his behalf, then pressed her palm to the mirror’s pane and chanted some alien words, fading from sight forever. Trace grabbed the mirror, already sure where he wanted to make his final stand. He made a call to Pandora: “The girl for the mirror. KSI, one hour.”
Trace and Julia rode in silence. “You love her,” Julia suddenly said. “Don’t you?” When he said yes, she replied, “Tell her. Before it’s too late.” Julia had lost her claim to Trace, and made her peace with that fact. Trace felt fresh regret for the way things had turned out between them. Perhaps, in some other world on the other side of the mirror, they were together and happy…
Pandora and her team showed up at the well-defended offices of Kage Security International with Sister Annette. Trace, Julia, Fister, Sandman, and Whisper took them by surprise; Trace put a bullet through Pandora’s brainpan just before the witch could burn Annette down. As Trace had predicted, Tessa Halliwell and her crew arrived next. The defenders couldn’t withstand Mr. Todd’s Vindicator, and Trace was shot to pieces. Julia sacrificed herself to save Trace, giving him the chance he needed to cut Mt. Todd’s head clean off with his spurs. He then charged Tessa Halliwell, stabbing her through the heart as she tried to fry him with lightning. Trace was left holding the key to death’s door, but his foes were the ones who’d been shown through it.
Trace dragged himself and the black mirror out of sight and cracked the glass with the butt of his Ruger Super Warhawk. There was no haunted sigh, no gouts of green flame, but he knew its magic was gone. Closer to death than he’d ever been, he saw Sister Annette hovering over him, as he had before. “I love you, darlin,” he managed to say as darkness rushed up to meet him. “Shoulda said so before…”
He regained consciousness at a streetdoc’s clinic, Annette Francesca by his side in street clothes, firmly clasping his hand. She’d brought him here to keep the cops and everyone else off his back until he was well. When he asked about her outfit, she said that she’d never taken her solemn vows. “I wasn’t exactly an angel before I took up the habit, you know. Hell, it was a man that drove me into the convent in the first place. I think you’re as good a reason to leave as any.”
As a lapsed Catholic, Trace didn’t wish to ruin Annette’s spiritual growth, but she insisted that she still believed. “I want to be with you, Sean,” she said.
“Wherever I go?” Trace replied. “There’s nothin’ for me in Seattle but bad blood now, darlin.”
She leaned over him to place a gentle kiss on his lips. “Wherever we go.”
They caught the next monorail out of Seattle. No one knows where they went, or whatever became of them…
PC Guest Stars: Fister (Deirdre), Sandman (Rob), Whisper (Sarah)
NPCs (Active): Annette Francesca, Ryan Kilbride, Megan Tzu, Kircher estate lawyer, streetdoc
NPCs (Deceased): Eve Donovan, Tessa Halliwell, Franz Kircher, Nightshade, Pandora, Mr. Todd, Julia Tokasu
NPCs (Whereabouts Unknown): Baron
***
APPENDIX: THIS IS WHAT WAS STRICKEN FROM THE RECORD
In the original version of Hall of Mirrors, Malachi killed Julia with a bullet to the head. When Trace delivered the fake journal to Baron, he learned that Ryan Kilbride had been murdered, possibly as a result of BTL dealing. Neither of those things is true in the Black Mirror continuity. Dr. Nuke and Whisper were also “un-killed,” but I don't have any further use for them, so that play stands on the field.
Spider’s Web:Ares came after Silver Angel, killing Nightshade and forcing Eve to run.
The mission burned, and Kahler died.
Trace and Eve moved BTL for the Spiders while they held Francesca.
The buy was a sting. They went to jail.
Oyabun Hanzo Shotuzumi bailed them out and delivered them to RYUMYO.
Trace wept. Ryumyo ordered them killed. Baron helped. Where’s she been?
Trace agreed to get the real journal in exchange for some paradise BTL for the Spiders.
Spider cuts the group loose. Baron goes off in search of her destiny.
Malachi wants to talk. The incomplete ritual has affected them both. Spider must be stopped.
Bangers and runners wipe out the Spiders, find Spider at the DotS chantry.
The Spider enters our world through Spider’s body. Malachi sacrifices himself. It’s not enough.
Trace sacrifices an arm, flees with Eve.
Needs arm and leg, goes broke with DocWagon
Sacred Heart = Trace’s only friends
Still Ares & Silver Angel to deal with, plus Ryumyo and cops
Note: Cherry originally took place after Spider’s Web, so the circumstances surrounding the run were slightly different. Trace was living with Eve, and destitute, so he really wanted that store credit. He was also arrested after the firefight, as he was wanted as an accessory to the murder of his brother (among other reasons). The positive effect on his reputation as the hero of the “1 Stop Standoff” remains the same. This was reclassified as a Trace solo run in the revised continuity, but it seems like a shame to cut Salome out of the story entirely.
***
The Ticking Man / The Resurrection Game:
The Disciple ritual completes, and Trace’s soul ends up in another man’s body.
Salome almost gets raped, but she’s saved by Sister Annette Francesca.
Annette tells Salome that she loves Trace; now he’s missing, and she never got to tell him. She would have broken her vows for him.
Salome has sex with Sister Annette Francesca.
Tessa Halliwell acquires the black mirror. Did we get it for her?
Whenever Trace dies, his soul jumps to the body of someone else who’s just died.
Trace’s soul ends up in a little boy’s body.
Trace ends up in a woman’s body.
Note: After we started over with Trace in his own body, he began another adventure in which he was trapped in a skyscraper with Amerindian terrorists, but that was never completed, so it’s not part of Black Mirror either.
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