Magnus Chane and the Conquest Protocol

Meanwhile, at the private kickboxing gym…

For what had been a long time, Alex and Jordan lay flat on their backs inside the ring, both staring up at the ceiling, breathing heavily, sweat cooling on their skin while neither of them had the energy to get up.

“You know,” Alex finally said, “I’m actually kinda glad you found out about his System the way you did.”

Jordan turned her head just enough to look at her. “You trying to get punched some more, Locke? Give me a few minutes and that can be arranged.”

Alex snorted. “Please. A few minutes? You’re overestimating yourself.”

She took a few breaths before saying. “And no. That’s not what I meant, Vanessa.”

The name came out differently than it usually did between them: it wasn’t the barbed jab Jordan had grown used to hearing over the years whenever Alex used the identity she’d buried, usually completed with the sort of smile that made it very clear she’d known exactly what she was doing. Instead, it’d felt softer, almost nostalgic to Jordan — the way she used to say it when they were kids, running around the yard at Locke Manor while their fathers sat nearby arguing about something stupid over a game of chess — back before either of them had learned all the little ways they could hurt each other with words.

“I just mean…” Alex continued. “Now I actually have someone I can talk to about it.”

Jordan looked back up to the ceiling without interrupting.

“The others, even Sofia, they all know he died and came back, sure. But they only know what happened intellectually. They never went through the experience of actually watching the life leave his body. They never had to sit there for those few minutes, completely helpless and terrified, thinking he was gone for good before the doll brought him back.”

Her voice softened to barely louder than a whisper. “And they never will. Even if they see it happen in the future, they’ll know he has a doll. They’ll know he’s coming back. Or worse—” She swallowed. “—if there ever comes a time when we don’t have a doll and he really…”

She didn’t — couldn’t — finish that thought. Jordan glanced over again.

“So…” Alex cleared her throat and said instead. “In a twisted way, I’m glad there’s someone else who shared that fucked-up experience with me. Those few minutes of unfiltered fear that I was going to lose him forever… and then the shock when he gasped back to life.”

Her fingers curled slightly against the mat. “That feeling I get when I look at him and I still can’t quite believe he’s really there. That I have to reach out and touch him just to make sure.”

Jordan’s gaze stayed on her.

“There was no one who shared that with me before you,” Alex said. “And the fact that it’s you… makes it even better.”

Jordan closed her eyes, and her own memories flashed behind her eyelids.

“Yeah,” she finally said, opening her eyes again. “Fucked-up is right.”

It was Alex’s turn to look at her.

“I nearly had a fucking heart attack when he bolted back up again. Thought I was in a zombie movie or something.”

Alex actually genuinely laughed.

“Wait.” Jordan locked eyes with her before squinting. “Is that why you can’t keep your hands off him all the time?”

“God, Reyes.” She groaned. “I thought that was just you being disgusting. I didn’t know it was—”

“I mean…” Alex shrugged. “Some of the times right after he comes back, yeah. But nah. Most of the time, I just do it because I can.”

Jordan stared at her for a long moment, then reached over and smacked her shoulder. “Oh, screw you, Locke! So you were just being disgusting!”

Alex snorted.

“It’s not disgusting! It’s just what couples do.” She grinned. “You should get yourself a boyfriend and try it sometimes.”

“Oh, screw you! A boyfriend is the last thing I need right now.” She turned her attention back to the ceiling. “God, I hate you.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Right now, I really do.”

“But deep down you still love me.”

“I will punch you again if you don’t shut up.”

“Deep deep deep down?”

“Shut up, Alex!”

“See? You just called me Alex. You love me.”

“Shut up, Reyes.”

***

By dinner time, Magnus was still suffering from the soreness of that morning’s sparring session and the lingering aftertaste of the capsaicin and the enema.

He barely sat down next to Alex in their usual place before two familiar figures put their trays down on the spots opposite them.

Magnus blinked at the two women. “Are you two planning to always hang around us now?”

Jordan narrowed her eyes at him. “You have a problem with that, Chane?”

He immediately raised both hands in surrender. “No, no problem at all.”

“Good.” Jordan pointed at him before walking away again. Apparently, she wasn’t done getting food.

“I’m getting more food,” Sofia announced, and followed her toward the cafeteria counter.

Magnus watched them go, then turned to his girlfriend. “Okay, what’s with the SpongeBob gif earlier?”

Alex took a sip of her drink. “Oh, that?” She shrugged, entirely reasonable about it. “I figured she was gonna punch me anyway, might as well invite her into the group and let her know that about twenty people knew the truth about you before she did. As expected, she was pissed we kept it from her but told nearly two soccer teams.”

He stared at her. “I mean, she knows the secret now, so we’re gonna have to add her to those groups sooner or later. So that part I get. But…” He pressed his lips together. “Why would you knowingly and purposefully rile her up right before she was about to punch you?”

Alex leaned back. “Better she got it all out of her system in one go.”

At the confused look he gave her, she continued: “If I had done that after we’d already fought, she’d probably want to schedule another sparring session tomorrow or something. Speaking of—” She smiled innocently. “—she’ll probably want to punch you again tomorrow, by the way.”

Magnus stared at her with the specific expression of a man who had just watched his own girlfriend throw him under a bus, put the vehicle in reverse, and run over him again for good measure.

“I thought you were supposed to be my girlfriend!”

“I am.”

“Okay. Lemme rephrase that. I thought you were supposed to be on my side!”

“Normally, I am. But when it comes to Jordan? It’s every man for themselves, babe.”

Then Alex smiled sweetly and put her hand over his. “Good luck tomorrow.”

He glared at her and took a page out of Chloe’s playbook. “No sex for you tonight!”

“That’s fine.” Alex giggled. “My period started today. Apparently, last week’s stress caused it to happen early again.”

Magnus glared at her harder.

***

Sometimes, Magnus hated how well Alex understood Jordan. Because she had been right. Jordan did indeed want another sparring session the following morning. And somehow, Magnus was even sorer afterward than he had been the day before.

He wasn’t sure whether Jordan was trying to work something out through fighting or simply enjoying having a legitimate reason to beat him up now. Maybe both? Probably both, he suspected. But he was too busy being sore in places he definitely hadn’t been sore yesterday to figure out.

He dragged himself to breakfast, then met up with Alex, who somehow managed to look great despite having just finished an early morning class while dealing with her period, so they could go meet Emily and Dash together.

“You know, sometimes I question whether you’re even human.” He pointed a finger at her accusingly.

She simply flipped her hair and flashed her brightest smile.

“Come on, we’ve got a meeting to get to.” She looped her arm around his and dragged him along.

The meeting started out fine. But it didn’t stay fine.

Emily and Dash were prepared — too prepared — in a way that set off warning bells in the back of Alex’s mind almost immediately. They were polite, attentive, and perfectly willing to discuss the Student Council. They listened when Alex brought up the current state of campus leadership, answered questions about what they were looking for, and made it clear that they genuinely wanted both Magnus and Alex involved.

But they never lost control of the conversation.

Every time Alex tried to move the discussion somewhere more personal, Emily redirected it toward official Council logistics. Every time she tried probing for what they actually wanted from the two of them beyond simply joining the Council, Dash gave her a reasonable, polished answer that revealed just enough to sound sincere without giving her anything useful to latch onto.

After the first few times that’d happened, Magnus had used Affective Discernment on them. The reading had come back strange.

Controlled interest. Amusement. Mild arousal that wasn’t directed at anyone in particular.

Whatever the reason behind their deflections and counters, it didn’t come from disinterest. He frowned and shifted slightly on his chair. There was also an eerie feeling the power was picking up on that Magnus couldn’t quite name yet.

Alex’s gaze flicked to him for a brief second, then she changed tactics again. Only to be countered again.

That went on for the entire meeting.

At one point, Alex leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, trying a more direct approach. “So, just to make sure I understand this correctly… you two are really interested in having us join the Student Council.”

“Absolutely,” Emily said smoothly.

“And you want me to run for President next term.”

“Yes.”

“And you think Magnus would be a good addition, too.”

Emily glanced at Magnus with a warm, encouraging smile. “We do.”

Magnus frowned slightly, shifting in his seat. “Why?”

There was a brief, composed pause. Emily’s smile didn’t waver. “I think you’d bring something valuable to the Council, Magnus.”

That was it. No elaboration. No specifics. Magnus stared at her, thoroughly baffled.

He exchanged another look with Alex before using Affective Discernment again. The reading came back even stranger.

Judging. Assessing. Increasing interest.

It made sense, given why they were here. But it didn’t feel like it was just about Student Council positions. There was a layer beneath the conversation that neither of them was voicing. And Magnus had a strange feeling that whatever they were hiding might be the crucial clue which he and Alex were missing.

The eerie feeling from earlier came back. And Magnus focused another charge of Affective Discernment, hoping to get something more useful this time.

What came back was by far the strangest thing he’d ever felt. It was just a sudden, distinct sensation, so vague that he wasn’t sure if it was real or if his nerves were inventing it. But if he had to describe it, it felt like what a spider probably would feel when its web caught a small insect.

Magnus blinked and rubbed his forehead. Great, he thought to himself in mild existential dread. I’ve spent so much time around Tony that now I’m starting to think in terms of predators and prey.

While he was doing that, Alex tilted her head, her smile remaining perfectly warm, though her eyes sharpened just a fraction. “You make it sound like you’ve already mapped out our roles for us, Emily.”

Emily’s expression didn’t flicker. “Only the possibilities, Alex. The choice, as always, remains entirely yours.”

It was infuriating. Because Emily and Dash didn’t give off the energy of a couple entirely uninterested, either. That was the frustrating part. They were coy. Polite. Perfectly composed. But there were also little things — a look held a fraction too long, a comment that could be read two different ways, a warmth underneath the professionalism — that Alex couldn’t quite convince herself to write the whole thing off and walk away.

They had given them just enough to keep the possibility alive while revealing absolutely nothing in return.

The meeting eventually came to an end without any real resolution — polite, professional, entirely inconclusive, with vague promises to “continue the conversation soon.”

Magnus and Alex walked away from the Student Council office thoroughly confused and, if Magnus was honest with himself, a little defeated.

Neither spoke until they were far enough down the hallway that they didn’t have to worry about being overheard.

Alex finally exhaled a long, frustrated breath. “Okay. I don’t like them.”

Magnus raised an eyebrow at her. “You think they’re up to no good?”

“No.” She shook her head. “That’s not what I meant. What I meant was, they’re good—too good.”

He thought back about it: she was right, the last time he saw Alex outmaneuvered like that had been with Harper. But Harper was twelve years older than them and she had known Alex inside and out. Emily and Dash were peers, only a year older than them. They shouldn’t have been able to just completely outplay Alex like that. And yet… somehow, they had.

Alex rubbed a hand down her face. “It feels like… they know something we don’t—or like they’re hiding something from us.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “They’re definitely hiding something.”

“Affective Discernment?” she asked.

He nodded. “Though it doesn’t tell me what they’re hiding. That’s the frustrating part.”

***

Meanwhile, inside the Student Council office they had just left, Emily leaned back against the mahogany desk, crossing her arms while Dash quietly closed the door.

Emily let out a soft, amused laugh. “Well. That was certainly entertaining.”

“She tried five different social engineering angles in forty minutes,” Dash noted, a dry smirk touching his lips as he walked over to his chair. “Direct probing, casual feints, deflections, innocent pivots, and even setting up openings for us to volunteer information.”

“She’s good,” Emily admitted, tilting her head. “Really good. If we hadn’t already heard what they were planning yesterday, we definitely would have let something slip.”

“And your thoughts on Magnus Chane?” she added after a moment.

“He didn’t say much. But you noticed it, too, I presume,” Dash said. “That Alex Reyes wasn’t just watching us. She was paying attention to her boyfriend.”

“She pivoted based on his reading on us as much as her own—when his posture changed, or when they exchanged looks. And whenever he jumped in to say something, she sat back and waited for him to create an opening.”

“And the most dangerous part about Magnus Chane,” Dash said, nodding, “was that he said everything he said with complete sincerity. Normally people who read other people that well lack that kind of sincerity.”

“So,” he added after a moment, “either he was using his powers—”

“—or he was just a natural at this,” she finished for him.

Dash nodded. “Either way, he’ll make a great VP if Alex Reyes does become the next President.”

“Which means, we’re really gonna do this, huh? Sleep with them, I mean.”

“You’re way too excited about this, Em.” He shook his head. “Should I be worried?”

“Oh please,” she purred. “Like you’re not?”

She stood up and stretched. “We’re still gonna wait until near the end of the week to actually make our proposal, though, right?”

“He said his deadline is Sunday, so we have time,” he confirmed. “Let them squirm for a bit longer. Maybe we’ll get more useful info out of them… or maybe we’ll even get a better deal out of all this.”