Chapter 18: Plan of Action

The next morning, after her class and after she finished her homework, Alexa wandered around drinking a cherry slush beverage. Carl saw her and approached her.

"Lexie! I haven't heard from you in several days. They're only letting Recto house students out and about for a few hours a day."

"I know, I helped implement those rules," Alexa replied.

"Why?" Carl asked.

"I don't know, I just felt like it," Alexa replied. "I didn't realize I would be dissing my boyfriend!" Alexa closed in and kissed Carl on the cheek. "If Recto house hadn't been treating Verso house like second class citizens, we never would've needed to do something this extreme."

"Is this it?" Carl asked. "Is it over? Morgan is going to win?"

"It looks that way," Alexa replied. "Nobody has heard from Victoria Valerius since before Morgan took over the academy."

"I'd better get to my dorm," said Carl,  "I have a lot of studying to do."

When Alexa was done talking to Carl, she went to the office of the headmistress to speak with Morgan. She entered the office and knocked on the door leading to the main office. Morgan ushered her in.

"What can I do for you?" Morgan asked.

"I want my own bathroom, the one by my dorm."

"I can arrange that," Morgan replied, and got on her communicator and typed in a message that went to the communicators of all the students. "Done! The bathroom is yours, all of the students got the message."

"Thanks, Morgan!" said Alexa, and she got up to leave with her beverage.

Once she returned to the Verso house dormitory, she went straight to the bathroom. She still had her backpack with her. As she looked into the mirror that she had used to travel to an alternate reality to visit with Morgan, her image disappeared and the image of headmistress Victoria Valerius filled the mirror.

"Victoria?" Alexa asked.

"Alexa, I need your help to defeat Morgan Lefevre. I only have a minute to speak to you before Morgan intercepts this transmission. What are the coordinates of her alternate timeline generator? Don't try to contact me by communicator because Morgan would be able to triangulate my location."

"Can I get back to you on that?" Alexa asked.

"Billions of people will be enslaved if you don't help me, Alexa!" Victoria pleaded.

In a split second, Alexa made up her mind and pulled out her electronic tablet. She pulled up the coordinates Morgan had given her, and turned the tablet so it faced the mirror. Once Victoria had written down the information, she said, "Thank you, Alexa! I'm using technology that will prevent Morgan from perceiving your conversations as long as you're wearing that transponder necklace I gave you." 

Victoria's image disappeared from the mirror, and Alexa could once again see her reflection. Alexa put her electronic tablet back inside of her backpack, and exited the bathroom.

She went to her dorm, where she got her terrarium and pulled her captive out, and set him on her desk.

"Victoria Valerius contacted me just now," said Alexa. "I gave her the coordinates of the location of the timeline generator Morgan constructed in South America. I hope I did the right thing!"

"It won't make a difference to me, because I'll remain as your prisoner either way," said Terry, the shrunken captive. "But if you help her defeat Morgan Lefevre, you will have done a great thing. You'd be better off going down in history as a liberator, rather than a tyrant."

"I don't know what got into me," said Alexa. "I had less than a minute to decide, and for the past week I've been going back and forth on whether I should be loyal to Morgan or to the academy, but in the end, the academy won out."

"Why are you worried about all of this?" Terry asked.

"If Morgan wins, she might lash out against me!" said Alexa. "There are no guarantees that Victoria and the academy will be successful! Morgan has an entire army at her disposal!"

Alexa, deciding that the conversation was over, picked up her captive and placed him back inside of the terrarium, and set it back on the shelf. She went back to Victoria's office to see Morgan. Once inside, she had another request.

"Can boys be in the girl's dorms?" Alexa asked. "If you approve that and they know I asked you to do it, I might become even more popular."

"I can swing that," Morgan replied, and got out her communicator and typed in the message. "Done!"

"Thanks, Morgan!" said Alexa as she left the office. She headed straight for the Recto boy's dormitory and asked for Carl.

"Lexie?" Carl asked. "What are you doing in here?"

"I convinced Morgan to let girls go into the boy's dorms, and vice versa. Didn't you see the message on your communicator? Come with me to my dorm!"

Once they were both in Alexa's dorm, she got the terrarium down and pulled Terry, her shrunken captive, out and set him on the desk.

"See my little man?" Alexa asked. "He's so cute!"

"Alexa is working with Victoria to try to stop Morgan Lefevre!" said Terry.

"She is?" Carl asked.

"Terry!" Alexa shouted, "I did not want you to tell him about that!"

"Well, it's too late now!" said Terry. "What could go wrong?"

"He is a member of Recto house, if they all find out about that, Morgan might find out!"

"You're arguing with a man who stands an inch tall!" said Carl. “It's kind of ridiculous!"

Alexa slammed her right fist down on the desk. "From now on, you shall remain silent unless you are spoken to! Is that understood?"

"Yes, mistress!" said Terry.

"Now I know why Umbra is so aggressive with her captive! They need to be kept in line."

"If you're worried about me telling the recto guys about you contacting Victoria, I'll keep my mouth shut."

Alexa grabbed Terry and put him back inside the terrarium, then set the terrarium back on the shelf.

"I might as well tell you what happened, now that you already know part of it," said Alexa. "I have a way of getting on touch with Morgan, back before she invaded the school. It is some kind of a dimensional portal built into a mirror. Today, Victoria appeared and asked me for the coordinates of the timeline generator in the Andes mountains along the equator. I gave them to her, so now she might be able to defeat Morgan!"

Carl put his arms around Alexa's waist. "Lexie, that's fantastic! You're a hero!"

"But what if Morgan wins?" Alexa asked. "And what of she finds out I helped Victoria?"

"Nothing in life worth having ever came easy," said Carlos. "When the colonists wanted freedom from the British, the British didn't say 'sure, no problem,' the colonists had to fight for their freedom! You chose a side, and now you have to live with it. You had less than a minute to make your decision, and in my opinion you made the right choice, so don't regret it now!"

"You're right, Carl,” said Alexa as she gave him a hug. "Thanks for schooling me! But whatever you do, don't tell anyone I helped Victoria!"

The two of them got up to leave Alexa's dorm, Carl headed to the library, while Alexa headed to the Verso common room. When she got there, it was an even mix of boys and girls. A lot of the older girls were kissing their boyfriends. Alexa had her backpack with her electronic tablet, so she decided to head to the library.

When she got there, she was greeted warmly by the Recto students, something that was unusual. Typically, they didn't get along with her now that everyone knew she was second in command to the Dark Mistress.

"Great job, Lexie!" said a Recto boy.

"You've given us hope!" said a Recto girl.

Alexa was suspicious. She saw Carl from behind, talking to a group of Recto students of various ages.

"Carl,” Alexa asked, "you didn't say anything to anyone, did you?"

"Lexie!" said Carl. "I had to tell them! Everyone was worried that it was the end of the world as we know it, I had to tell them to cheer them up!"

"I told you to keep it a secret!" Alexa shouted. This caught the attention of the other students, but they were just happy that a rumor was floating around that Morgan was possibly being defeated. "I can't believe I trusted you! What if Morgan finds out?"

"I can verify that none of the Recto students will tell on you to Morgan!" said Alexa.

"The same way you promised not to open your big mouth about this?" Alexa asked, as she turned to walk away from the library.

Carl caught up with her out in front of the library. "You just went from the most hated student to everyone's favorite, at least as far as Recto students are concerned!"

"I don't care about any of that, I just wanted to do what was right!" said Alexa. "Ruling the world sounds cool and all, but not at the expense of everyone else's freedom. I can't stand to think of what would happen to my friends back home if Morgan succeeds."

"You can look at it another way," said Carl. “It wouldn't be you ruling the world, you would always be second in command to Morgan Lefevre. You would just be her puppet, a paper champion."

"I guess you're right," said Alexa, "but that still doesn't make it right what you did."

"I'm sorry, Lexie!" said Carl. “But instead of being mad at me, you should be focused on doing whatever it takes to help Victoria defeat Morgan."

"Do you think she can?" Alexa asked. "I've been to her base on the equator, she has dozens of android soldiers guarding the base. I don't see how Victoria working alone could stop her."

Just then, Alexa's communicator beeped. She checked it, and there was a message from Morgan. "Morgan wants me in the headmistress's office, I've got to go."

Alexa headed over to the office, and Morgan ushered her in.

"I've been monitoring different areas on campus, and it seems that wherever you are, I have trouble picking up a signal. Can you take off that transponder necklace? I want to examine it."

Alexa did as she was told, and tried to maintain her composure; she didn't want to give off the signal that she was experiencing the least bit of anxiety, despite the fact that she was. Alexa handed the necklace over to Morgan, who ran an electronic device over it.

"Interesting," said Morgan, "this thing has some type of cloaking technology built into it. Victoria must've designed it that way for some reason."

Morgan ran the device around in her hands for a few moments, then handed the device back to Alexa.

"Victoria Valerius is up to something," said Morgan. "I know she has a plan to try to stop me, but I need your help to stop her. If you know anything or come into contact with her, can you keep me notified?"

"Sure!" said Alexa, hoping that Morgan couldn't see through her lie. "I don't see how she could be a threat, though."

"She has counter technology the Futurians have developed on their own, some of it exceeds my own. Let me explain it to you with a metaphor. Let's say you went back in time a thousand years, and you and your enemy decided to arm two rival factions of an island. You might give them gunpowder, but your enemy might teach their opponents how to make Greek fire."

"What's Greek fire?" Alexa asked.

"It was a type of fire developed by the ancient Byzantines that couldn't be put out with water. In fact, water made the fire stronger. The people you helped might be able to defend themselves against rifles, because you taught them about gunpowder. But they might have difficulty defending themselves against Greek fire, if they had never encountered it before. Do you understand?"

"So you're saying you and the academy have two different and competing types of technology, and they could just as easily defeat you as you could defeat them?"

"Exactly!" said Morgan. "If it comes down to us versus them, can I count on you to help me if I need you?"

"If I help you and the academy wins, what will happen to me?" Alexa asked.

"Nothing," said Morgan. "At worst, they would place you on probation. They would never incarcerate you, because it would interfere with your education."

"That's good to know!" said Alexa. "You can count on me, Morgan!