Episode 132 Previous Episode	Next Episode
“Our brothers and sisters are there with us from the dawn of our personal stories to the inevitable dusk.” Susan Scarf Merrell Rebecca sat on her chair like a scolded child, still angry at her punishment. She glared up through her dark hair at the company of knights. In the middle of the kitchen, standing between Rebecca and his team, Everett crossed his arms, unbothered by the violence that simmered behind Rebecca’s glare. After a moment, Roland came in, carrying a clunky black radio and a set of headphones. “Nothing to worry about,” he announced. “According to the police scanner, the police are going on about some attack downtown. The cops they sent to check out this place have been sent over there instead.” Everett nodded, returning his attention to Rebecca. He stepped towards her, sliding another of the kitchen dinette set’s wooden chairs to him. Straddling it as he sat in it backwards, he stared at Rebecca. With her arms tied behind her back, her legs equally restrained, she could do nothing but sit and glare. “Why don’t you start at the beginning,” he offered. She smirked hatefully. “I first learned my mother and father were in the Brotherhood of the Sun when I was eight,” she said, speaking in a tone of condescension as if they could have no idea of what she spoke. “My brother, Phillip, and I discovered them coming home from a meeting. They had robes and all sorts of stuff. We had stayed up late and caught them as they came in. I was afraid they’d be mad that we had stayed up, but Phillip,” she recalled with a smile, “Phillip was fearless. Even though he was only eleven, he had no problem staring down my parents.” “My mother was a nurse, and my dad a contract builder. He made shelves and cabinets for rich people’s houses.” She swished her hair to one side of her face with a whip of her head. “They had met in the Brotherhood, in college.” “They weren’t mad. In fact, they decided that if we had shown this much initiative, then it was time we knew. Or at least that Phillip knew,” she said, looking down. “They thought I was too young. But since Phillip had gotten me up when they came in and I was right there, they didn’t have much choice.” “Your entire family was part of the Brotherhood of the Sun?” Armand said, astonished. “Wow. What a, what a weird family.” “Some families squander their time in churches, praying to a god that doesn’t exist to magically make the evil in the world go away,” Rebecca yelled. “My family woke up every morning, knowing that we belonged to an organization that was working hard towards that goal; that we were fighting tooth and nail against the real enemy.” “The Illuminati,” Erik said rhetorically. Rebecca glared at him, but said nothing. “My brother and I both joined the Brotherhood on the same day, when I was ten. Phillip was thirteen. He was admitted into the Hand of the Brotherhood at that time, though he’d eventually move to the Miracle Worker’s Clan.” “The Hand were the guys who used the gene therapy, the steroids,” Sydney said, trying to keep everything straight. “They were the enforcers of the Brotherhood. The Miracle Workers were the ones who handled all the semantics like building stuff.” “Yeah,” Rebecca said coldly. She looked back at Everett, resuming her tale. “When we joined, Phillip and I, I remember how happy our parents were. They were both so proud of us. Being in the Brotherhood was the most important thing in the world to them and that we had chosen to join as well…they, they just couldn’t have been happier.” Rebecca looked down, swallowing. “Phillip first met Jericho Kingston when my father was in physical therapy for undergoing chemo-therapy for pancreatic cancer. Jericho was working at the hospital at that time. He worked with my father and, in time, he and Phillip got to know one another.” “Jericho? As a physical therapist?” Marilyn remarked. “I can’t believe it.” “There was a time when he was a really good guy,” Sydney told her. “Yeah, all super villains have a personal history that includes kindness,” Roland told her, half paying attention to the police scanner. “We had moved so my father could be at the best hospital, so we were all there all the time,” she recounted, her voice drifting off as the memories set down on her like a cloud. “Phillip and Jericho, once they discovered they were both in the Hand, became friends. Only, not friends. They weren’t friends, not exactly. They were…partners. They were competitive, but only in the same direction. It’s, it’s hard to explain.” She looked down again, reminded of who she was talking to. “They came up with so many ideas, so many plans. They talked like the two young cops in the movies, who are going to shake up everything at the corrupt police station.” She smiled. “They had so many plans.” “Like taking down the Illuminati,” Edgar spoke up. “Or killing me?” Marilyn said. “Phillip and Jericho decided that something needed to change,” she said. “They decided that the Brotherhood had become stagnant under the control of the Triumvirate.” “The Triumvirate?” Everett asked, still at the head of his team. “The Brotherhood of the Sun is controlled by a council of three, located in Europe,” Marilyn said, gathering stares from everyone. “What?!” she exclaimed. “They tried to kill me. I thought I could at least do some research about them online. That’s what I read.” “Research? Online?” Edgar spoke up. “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” “Let me guess; you also discovered that Steely Dan invented the indoor swimming pool,” Roland chastised. “Phillip and Jericho concocted a scheme to take over the entire Brotherhood in North America,” Rebecca went on. “It was an elaborate plan, one that involved so many different steps. They had to move the Brotherhood’s operation into a single city, they had to restructure the whole thing…so much had to be done. And it seemed impossible, especially with Aaron, the head of the Investigator’s Clan, working against them. But they managed. They were able to accomplish the impossible. And in no time, they were poised for their big event, to rule over the Brotherhood of the Sun in North America.” “So what happened?” Marilyn asked, coming behind Everett. “We know that things unraveled,” she said, her hand slipping onto his shoulder. “We know Jericho and Phillip had some kind of a schism that ended up with Phillip in power.” “Phillip never trusted Jericho, not completely,” she said. “So throughout each stage of their plan, he made sure he had backups and alternatives and escape routes. Absolutely everything that could go wrong, he tried to plan for. But the more he prepared, the more he realized he couldn’t truly be ready for a true confrontation with Jericho.” She glared at the group as a whole. “He was dealing with a knight, after all.” “Who betrayed whom?” Everett asked. “Jericho betrayed Philip by not staying loyal to their plan,” Rebecca spat. “Jericho undermined everything as he researched his damn secret projects. He made the Hand nearly unstoppable and that couldn’t be forgiven. So Phillip told me one night that Jericho would be set up as the one who had instigated their plans. And Phillip, he found a way to make certain that he would be named the interim head of the Hand of the Brotherhood.” “Why did they need to kill me?” Marilyn asked. “Hang on,” Everett said. “But Jericho didn’t get into too much trouble. He returned.” “He was going to be put to death,” she smiled. “But as you know, and as the Triumvirate quickly learned, but not quickly enough, knights are very, very, hard to kill. And knights like Jericho take things like that awfully personal.” “And that’s when he killed Phillip,” Everett deduced. “After he killed the Triumvirate,” she said. “Jericho is responsible for the downfall of the entire Brotherhood of the Sun. Without the Triumvirate, the whole organization fell into chaos. Regional departments tried to survive, but ultimately, they all were destroyed by the vindictive Illuminati. Jericho was targeted, but by that time, he had fallen back to his fortress out west.” “I think I’m starting to see where this story is going,” Ledger whispered to Everett. “And that fortress, capable of repelling an armored assault by all the armies of all the nations on the world, was breeched and destroyed from within by nothing more than a handful of knights.” “It was more than a handful,” Edgar pointed out. “And that thing blowing up was all me,” Roland announced proudly to the group. “All me, right here. All me.” “Jericho died that night,” Rebecca said. “And you’re remorseful for that?” Everett asked. “He was mine to kill,” she growled. “And you,” she spat, glaring at them all. “You robbed me of my revenge.”
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