Sun of Zartha/6

"Sit down, Jay," Zed told him as he stepped into the massive office. Zed then took a thick dossier from his large steel file cabinet and dropped it on Jay's lap. It was as thick as a small telephone book.

Jay set the sun medallion necklace down on the small table and quickly looked inside the dossier and flipped. "So this is my REAL file," he said.

"That would be correct," Zed answered.

There were pictures of his mother near the front. There was his birth certificate, showing that he was born at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, January 3, 1972.

There was another document stapled to this birth certificate, official looking and made of a greenish parchment, printed in what was clearly an extraterrestrial language - but the signature on the bottom was his mother's and it was in English.

Jay held this document up. "WHAT is this?" he asked Zed.

"That's your birth certificate," Zed told him in his usual brusque manner. "The other one."

Jay sat frozen with an incredulous stare, for about two seconds. Then he looked back inside the file.

Jay saw some of his baby pictures and a certificate of his lifetime membership in something called the "Sunshine People Social Aid and Pleasure Club." The insignia on the certificate was the same design as his medallion. Some of the writing in the watermark was in the same alien language of the greenish document.

Jay still sat stunned as he browsed through his history for the first time. Zed looked at Jay's facial expressions as he sat at the large silvery desk across from where Jay and Kay were seated.

Kay looked at Jay and began to speak.

"Remember on Thursday when you came and got me from that post office, slick? And I didn't believe you at first? You said I had a feelin' deep down inside me, like there's something more, somethin' up in the sky, and I can't stop thinkin' about it, something about who I really am."

Kay was smiling at this point. beaming like a proud father watching his son's college graduation. "Well, now it's time to return the favor, son."

Jay looked at Kay, annoyed. "Just...what in the hell are you talkin' about, Kay?"

"The Light of Zartha wasn't the only thing I was protecting, son," Kay replied.

Jay's face shriveled up into another puzzled frown. But he was silent.

After a second or two, Zed spoke. "Jay, remember how when you first came to us, you didn't believe in aliens at first?"

"Yeah," Jay said, cautiously, looking up slowly at Zed.

"Well, kid," Zed said, "I have some good news and bad news for you. The good news is, YOU'RE an alien."

Jay's eyes widened slightly. A chill slammed into his body. He then stared again at Zed for a second, silently. Then he looked at Kay. Then he looked once again at Zed.

Jay said, "And the bad news?"

"You're an alien," Zed replied sternly.

"When we ran our initial tests on you when you were recruited, Jay, we were able to trace your DNA back to one of the ancient divine kings of the planet of Zartha. This king was a massively powerful alien, at least Class 3C, maybe higher. Apparently this alien came to earth towards the end of the 12th century...that would be about 800 years ago. He went to a small village in West Africa, and, according to the legend, the local people worshipped him as a sun god - and gave him wives as tribute." Zed's look was stern but patient.

Jay couldn't believe what he was hearing. This was all confirming his dreams with his mom and with Laura. Momma was exactly, shockingly right about the whole damn thing.

What a sobering realization. I really AM an ALIEN.

Jay thought to himself: These dudes sure played a dirty trick on me all this time. The dirtiest trick of all. I thought these guys were my friends. Kay's like a father to me - the father I never knew. Why would he keep that from me? Is there something he's scared of?

"Well, it's right nice of y'all to tell me after 30 YEARS," Jay said with sarcasm.

"Actually, it's closer to 25, Jay," Zed replied.

Kay spoke up. "It's all just as we suspected, slick. Even back when you were growing up in New Orleans bending spoons...we could tell even then..." Kay began shaking his head sadly.

The look on Jay's face was now incredulous. His eyes were glowing bright red, like a stoplight on Fifth Avenue at 9pm on a cold winter's night. "What do you mean tell...and how da hell did YOU know about my spoon bending?"

Kay answered him. "Well, Jay, I guess I haven't been tellin' you the whole truth this whole time, You see - "

"No, Kay, you of all people certainly have NOT been telling me the truth," Jay shot back. His face began to get red, and so did his eyes, again. Zed and Kay tried not to notice those eyes, red with almost hellish anger.

Zed quickly stepped in; he assumed the normal "morning rundown" tone of voice. "We've been tracking your family since the MIB program was incepted, Jay. You personally have been in our files from birth. Your family is almost full-blood Zarthan. They assimilated into the general population centuries ago. The descendants of that sun god, that king I was talking about, the offspring of the alien's human wives, manifested signs of some pretty drastic genetic mutations - a lot of this is in the local village folklore to this day in that part of West Africa. Several hundred of those descendants were eventually brought here to this country as slaves. Those people are your DIRECT ancestors, Jay.

"A LOT of weird phenomena happened in your family during slavery, and much of that is documented. Many of your relatives are in New Orleans, where you were born and raised. Not long after the Civil War, your ancestors formed a secret society in the 7th Ward, where all the extraterrestrial customs and rituals were passed down. That society blended into the regular Afro-Creole community there and even built floats for Mardi Gras - they still do to this day.

"Now, the society operates a mutual social aid group - those were common among Black people in New Orleans from the very early days. The one your family runs is more like a front organization, an official arm of the Zarthan government. Your boyhood home is the headquarters of that society and serves as the primary Zarthan embassy on Earth.

"Now as you may have figured out by now, your mother is not deceased. She is alive and well, Jay. Your mother is the reigning Queen of the Planet of Zartha. She is in power right now, running the affairs of the entire Zarthan Empire from a single cell at St. Gabriel Women's Penitentiary outside Baton Rouge. We put her there in exile when you were six years old. She's been there ever since. We outfitted her cell with millions of dollars worth of equipment...We are in contact with her on a regular basis and have been for 25 years...

"Oh, and by the way, you are next in line to be King."

Jay looked up at Zed with a cold stare. He gave a sarcastic laugh. "...King?" he asked.

"That would be correct...Your Highness," Zed answered.

Jay stared again at Zed, incredulously. Then he looked down in the folder at an old photo of a Mardi Gras float dated 1976.

Seeing this picture began triggering more of Jay's long-neuralyzed memories.

"Holy shit, I think I remember this...Who took this picture?"

"That would be me, slick," Kay replied. Jay then looked at Kay with a disbelieving scowl.

There was a big sculpture of the sun medallion at the front of the float. It was draped with red, white and blue bunting to celebrate the Bicentennial. About 6 or 7 men and women, wearing T-shirts with the Bicentennial logo on it, were throwing oranges to the crowd. They were all wearing necklaces like Jay had.

The young Jay could be seen in the background, sitting on the back of the float, grinning from ear to ear.

"Damn, I used to love riding on the floats..." Another tear rolled down Jay's cheek.

Zed continued. "Jay, we have files on each and every one of your relatives going back 40, 50 years. It was a BIG challenge to keep them separate from the main database so you wouldn't find out...but we did – until you almost hacked your ass in last night."

"I would have, Zed, but the power went out. You have something to do with a blackout late on Friday night, early Saturday morning?"

"No, YOU did. That's the point, Jay. But I'll get to that in a minute. Let me continue. You are of royal Zarthan lineage. You are not a commoner. And part of the reason why your Zarthan bloodline is so pure is because of the Knowing.

"The Knowing...whoo, sounds kinda spooky...what the hell is that supposed to be?" His voice was dripping with burning sarcasm.

Zed replied, "When two Zarthans of the opposite gender and of the right age meet, there is a tremendous bio-chemical and electromagnetic bonding that immediately takes place. This bonding grows and grows. If left unchecked, it could trigger a cataclysmic reaction that would result in the total and complete annihilation of any and all physical reality nearby. A supernova-caliber cataclysm."

"Damn.." The sarcasm gave way to genuine wonder for a second or two.

"A less potent form of the Knowing happens between parent and child. We know how close you were to your mother as a kid, Jay".

Jay stared at Zed with an even colder look now. He turned to Kay. "Kay, PLEASE answer me this, man...why didn't you tell me all this when I joined up? You did the testing on me, just like the rules say to do. You guys KNEW. Y'all KNEW, from the get-go, that I was an alien. I almost didn't join up in the first place!

"You lied to me."

"Well, son, the bottom line is...you weren't ready. And if you hadn't have joined us, we would have still kept a CLOSE eye on you. You KNOW that, son."

"That does NOT matter, Kay. You guys LIED to me. Both of you. You straight up LIED to me." Jay's voice was getting louder and louder as he spoke. "You made me live my whole entire life – like it was all one big lie." Tears began to stream down Jay's face.

There was a strained silence for a couple more seconds.

Zed then noted, slowly, "The code says that when we discover a recruit is more than 10 percent genetically non-human, and they don't already know, we don't disclose. You know that, Jay.

Jay hung his head down. "MIB Procedural Code 71L/41B", he sighed. He did know all the MIB protocols, like the back of his hand. What hurt was realizing that they applied to HIM just as much as any other life form he was sworn to control. He looked up again at Zed.

"Look, Zed, you were the first one I saw in this building. That was when I first came here, back in, what was it, '97, when Kay handed me that business card. What I can't believe is that you knew. You knew all about me. All the damn time."

"Correct, Jay," Zed replied. "The truth is we ALWAYS planned on making you an agent. When you were in that Interview Room that afternoon, five years ago, you WERE going to be the ONLY one selected that day. Despite my reservations.

"You see, Jay, I knew that since you were a Zarthan royal, you'd have a real problem with authority - and that as a result, you might just find out about your true identity. That would have been a real bad situation. Your mom's got big authority issues, too. Your mom was ALWAYS a hard one to control..."

With this, Zed glared quickly at Kay, who looked down and cleared his throat, as if he was somehow embarrased by this revelation. Jay just shook his head. Zed continued. "Anyway, those military guys who interviewed along with you that day - just window dressing, to make you believe you were actually competing for the job, when the job was YOURS all along. That was the plan.

"Jay, we recruited you into MIB to avoid, a) something like this from happening, or b) your finding out prematurely about your true heritage and the extent of your potential powers and using those powers to quite literally take over the entire universe."

"You mean I could take over the universe if I wanted to?" He was half-sarcastic, half-sincere with this question.

"We spent 25 years trying to figure out exactly how to keep you from doing so," Zed shot back.

"Son," Kay turned to him with that old fatherly look, "I never was able to tell you this, but the god-honest truth is, I've been assigned to track your family since I was a rookie. And I've been personally following YOU since you were three-and-a-half years old."

Jay's face got red. "You lying ass son of a bitch...you knew me since I was a KID? Tracking me...like I'm some damn CEPHALOID or something! You got some damn NERVE! I should have left your ass in that damn post office neuralyzed!"

Kay ignored the anger and continued. "We knew that there was a big, big possibility that you're the Sun of Zartha. Now, our worst fears are confirmed." At this point Kay rose from the chair and walked to the back of the office. He picked up a pile of newspapers and walked back over.

"Son, look at what happened when Laura left," Kay said, plopping down a stack of 2 days' worth of the Post, the Daily News and Newsday on the small table in front of Zed's desk.

MANHATTAN ALL SOGGED UP

THE BIG APPLESAUCE

WELCOME TO SEATTLE, NY

RAIN, RAIN GO THE HELL AWAY

Subways Shut Down under a Foot of Rainfall

Donald Trump Complains Massive Rainfall is Ruining his Hair

Monsoon Season Comes Six Months Early

East River Reaches Flood Stage for First Time since 1854

Yankees to Play Next Homestand at Madison Square Garden

Jay's stunned demeanor deepened. "OK...look, I know I was sad about the girl, the saddest I've ever, ever been over a female...I wasn't even half this sad over Elle and I almost damn near proposed to Elle...I kept having these dreams about her and stuff, about Laura, that is..., but...you mean to tell me I did all THIS?"

"You were cryin' a river, son. The East River. Literally." Zed had his usual "look at what you did NOW" look on his face. "We had to cheer you up, Jay, to avert a major natural disaster here in the Tri-State area," he continued sternly. "Now that this Knowing is going on full force inside you, you are adversely affecting the local weather patterns for all of Greater New York City through your emotions – you're changing the ionization of the atmosphere by cryin' your butt off and makin' all these damn thunderstorms and flash floods!

"And what's more, kid, you've got as much potential for major cataclysmic electromagnetic energy release as Laura does. And that's a critical situation we can't risk."

Jay picked up the sun medallion, which was glowing red again and beginning to smoke. It had scorched the tabletop slightly. The tabletop was solid titanium.

"Just like Laura's bracelet. Your energy's activating that thing and that thing is activating you, slick." Kay gestured towards the medallion. "Does that hurt when you hold it?"

"No...no, I thought it would, it's pretty damn hot...but it doesn't hurt one bit," Jay said, softly. The medallion fit in Jay's hand, and his skin glowed where it made contact with the alien material.

"Good, 'cause it ain't supposed to," Kay said. "You are genetically capable of withstanding temperatures well above 17,000 degrees Farenheit. That came out in the centrifuge test."

"You mean the one I took when I joined up? How the hell did you test THAT in the centrifuge?" Jay asked, puzzled again.

"That ain't no ordinary centrifuge, son, we have a gamma reactor in there that heats the capsule up," Kay replied.

Jay stared straight ahead and sighed. "So I'm a sun-god. Damn. Holy mother of god."

Kay continued. "We tried our best to keep you contained, Jay. You know that 'Mysteries in History' program we saw - that didn't go into the whole story, slick. The original plan was to take both the Sun AND the Light of Zartha off planet."

Jay looked at Kay and lowered his head down. "And why wasn't - why wasn't the Sun of Zartha taken off planet?" Jay asked, almost embarrassed to refer to himself by this mythical name.

Kay looked Jay straight in the eye and continued. "Well, with all the civil unrest going on back on Zartha, and Serleena on the loose, I couldn't in good conscience send you kids to Zartha with all that shit goin' on. I couldn't do that to you kids. I couldn't do that to Angie."

Then Kay pulled out his lighter and his Marlboros, which really surprised Jay, since he persuaded Kay to quit smoking soon after he was recruited.

Kay lit a cigarette, took a drag, took a deep breath and went on. "Angie sent Lauranna to Iowa. They knew Serleena was hot on the trail so we arranged to basically set up our meeting with her as a decoy to throw Serleena off. Well, it worked, but we lost Lauranna. Meanwhile, Laura was safe and sound the whole time, in YOUR house in New Orleans. It's all in the reports there, slick, look at 'em and follow along."

In his file, Jay flipped through pages of notarized MIB reports from 1977 and 1978 that seemed to corroborate Kay's story point for point. Kay went on.

"Your mom was pretty damn pissed that Lauranna was a casualty, slick. She blamed me for it and said she was going to send troops from Zartha to arrest me, throw me in the royal pokey and have me stand trial for negligence. And she got even more pissed when we proposed putting HER in protective exile until the danger passed. Those were some tough moments, slick, your momma's one tough ass bitch when she wants to be."

"Now you know where you get your cocky-ass attitude from," Zed interjected to Jay. "Your mother almost blew this planet to smithereens over YOUR ass!" Zed pointed at Jay excitedly.

"I'll be sure to send you a bottle of Zarthan champagne for your birthday," Jay said, with an awkward, incredulous frown.

"I could actually use some scotch - right about now," Zed replied.

Kay continued. "Angie was under a lot of stress, her planet was on the verge of what could have been a devastating civil war and she was countin' on us to help her out, slick, so she was gonna be pissed about what happened. It took some long, hard negotiations, but she came around, though, and decided to work with us.

"So we took Laura, neuralyzed her to wipe her memories up to that point, and placed her in a group home we run up in the South Bronx. Ben, the pizza guy, was actually one of your mom's top councillors, she insisted he come on down and be a guardian for Laura, teach her about all the Light stuff and all that, so that was a part of the deal we had to go along with. We helped him open the restaurant, and we might buy it back now, and run it as a covert op.

"We took your mom into protective custody and placed her in indefinite Level One quarantine –"

"Level ONE?" Jay asked with another shocked and puzzled look. "Wasn't that a little MUCH, Kay? You guys say she got put in a PRISON? She didn't commit a crime!"

"Level One with some slight modifications," Kay replied. "She is the recognized head of state of a sovereign planet, so we had to respect that. We put her in the maximum security women's correctional facility in St. Gabriel, Louisiana. We beefed up security so Serleena or her folks couldn't get to her.

"And as for you," Kay continued, looking Jay straight in the eye here, "we evacuated you after you came home from school that day. We neuralyzed you to wipe all of your childhood memories, changed your name, moved you here to New York in a CH-47D, put you into one of our group homes in Brooklyn, got you into Junior ROTC, guided you into the United States Air Force as a space weaponry specialist and after that we guided you into a career in law enforcement."

"Holy shit," Jay said. "Y'all just planned out my WHOLE entire life for me, huh? Like some Hollywood script! Choreographed like some...some...some DANCE sequence, every step in perfect rhythm...Y'all have some damn nerve. I always wondered why I never got sent to flight school even though I got perfect scores on the exam," Jay mused dejectedly.

He flipped through the rest of the pages of reports. The tears continued to roll down and Jay stared straight ahead, absorbing the realization that his dreams, the visions of him and his mother, of him and his beloved Laura, were indeed the truth. He was actually talking in real time with both of them the past two days – telepathically through those dreams.

Kay went on. "One of the things we didn't count on was your growing so quickly into a leadership role in the organization. It was a matter of time before we would have had to disclose anyway, son, but the one thing happened that was our worst case-scenario: your falling in love with the Light of Zartha. Look at the Folk Beliefs page in the folder."

Jay slowly opened the folder yet again and found the page. It was dated July 1960.

"...The Book of S'aa prophesies in twenty-seven separate passages of the Great Knowing, the union between the Sun of Zartha and the Light of Zartha, a union of extreme metaphysical and geophysical implications. The union suggests either glorious resurrection for the Zarthan people (referred to as the Golden Age of Light), or massive cataclysmic destruction of the entire universe, depending upon the unfolded sequence of events...

Jay looked up at his two superiors. "My mom and Laura have been talking to me in my dreams the past couple of nights - I've actually visited them...spent time with them, in the dream state. And I've been hearing their voices in my head."

Zed and Kay looked at each other quickly on hearing that. Zed jotted down a note on his ubiquitous legal note pad. "Telltale signs, Jay," Zed said matter-of-factly.

Jay went on. "They've been telling me to prepare to go to Zartha. I don't – I, it's real hard to assimilate all this information. This is the shock of my LIFE, guys."

Kay looked at him intently now. "Jay, listen to me, listen good. We're in a crisis situation here, just like with Laura. If you don't leave here and go to Zartha on that egg thing out in the shop by the end of the workday, this planet will suffer a massive planetwide Level One EMP in 96 hours. YOU will be the only thing left standing, son."

Jay just stared at Kay for a second more. And more tears rolled down his cheeks. Jay was not accustomed to showing so much emotion. This Knowing business was hard stuff.

Then he glanced once again at the cover of the dossier. The cover said "LEVEL 1 SECURITY CONFIDENTIAL", which meant that only Zed and maybe Kay had access to it...until now.

He pondered a while ... and then he said, "and Laura knew?"

Zed said, "There's an ambassador we work with, your mother's chief of staff. She's one of your cousins. She's in the file. Right here..." Zed walked over to Jay's seat. He pulled out a picture of Shakita from the middle of the folder. She was standing next to a red Chrysler 300. Agent N from Forensics was standing right next to her with his arms around her. This made another chill of shock and surprise slam into Jay, for he had scolded him some days earlier for leaving a huge dead squid-like being in the middle of the central hall.

"Don't tell me..." Jay said. "Enn is Zarthan?"

"He's the son of one of your mom's top-level councillors," Zed said. "You've been treating him like shit ever since he got here, but he knows you're the crown prince and his future king, so he worships the ground you walk on. Literally."

Jay cast his head down in embarrassment. "I hope Momma didn't hear about that," he said.

"Better get another bottle of champagne ready," Zed continued. "Anyway, his fianceé, this ambassador, a young lady by the name of Shakita, basically briefed Laura from the moment she arrived on Zartha. In addition, they found your DNA in her bloodstream and made the match."

"My DNA?...I...I only kissed her once - well, she kissed me. That's all we ever did together."

"One kiss is enough with you people, Jay. Zarthans have a nasty habit of leaving their DNA around, easier than sick humans leave viruses."

Kay added, "Jay, listen, kid, let me tell you somethin'. Five years ago, I was specifically assigned to train you as my replacement, son. And all that time I did know about you. Yeah, you're damn right I knew. I knew even when you were a kid back in Bayou St. John that you had the right stuff. The right stuff, son.

"The things I know about you...well..."

Kay started to say something else, but Zed again cast a quick glance at him.

Then Kay smiled a warm smile at his protege, a smile that hid 35 years of memories of his dealings with the Tolan family. "What I'm tryin' to say is...You're a chip off the old block, Jay. You did damn good, kid. Damn good. You've made this organization proud. And you've made your momma proud, too."

Kay wanted to cry right now, but he held back. He went on.

"Your mother is a wonderful woman, Jay. The most extraordinary woman I have ever, and I mean EVER, had the honor of knowing, slick. She is so damn proud of you. We've given her top-level briefings on every move, every step you've made in this organization.

"But now she's callin' in her chips. A head of state can do that, Jay. A MOM can do that. Your mom says it's time for you to go to the next level. Marrying Laura's a major part of that next level...

"I knew I couldn't keep you guys apart forever. I tried like hell, but it didn't work...Damn it, son...and you know I wasn't plannin' on comin' back here."

Jay said, "OK...well, what if Zed never told me to deneuralyze you...what if I never figured out the clues?"

Zed replied, "Ambassador Shakita was scheduled to come to MIB later THIS week, summon you and Laura. She'd get Agent Enn, he'd reveal his true identity to you, the two of them would break the news and evacuate the two of you to the family compound in Louisiana for a debriefing before taking you kids to the royal palace to start planning the wedding and the transfer of power. Enn even turned in his two-week notice in preparation for all this. He won't be neuralyzed, we're keeping him active when he goes back to Zartha.

"Now your mom planned for what would happen if YOU didn't figure the clues out, if we didn't bring Kay back, AND she was planning for Serleena's snooping around as a worst-case scenario. Your mother said she arranged for Laura to get a special medicine - Ben slipped it into her soda at work last week, we found the empty can in the back dumpster yesterday and ran an analysis...this neutralized her radioactivity and it would have held off the explosion for another week or so. The bracelet responds to her physical energy."

Jay smirked at Zed. "So...she...she wouldn't have blown planet Earth up that night at all? Damn...You...you wanted Kay to come back, didn't you? He didn't have to come back for this, but you wanted him..."

"Oh, hell, Jay, he had to come back and see you guys off! After 25 years I wasn't gonna let you weasel your way outta this one, Kay!" Zed cast another scowling glance at Kay.

Kay just grinned and took another drag from his Marlboro. "I'm glad I came back for this one, fellas. And you're right, Zed...I guess it was my destiny, too, to witness this...it's like my kids are leaving the nest."

Kay then turned to Jay. "You know, Jay, your momma sure is one sneaky woman. Just like her to pull something like this, an operation this detailed. She was always doing weird things...special stuff...she doesn't leave many things out, slick."

Then Kay's eyes began to water, and he stared at Jay for a couple of seconds in silence.

Jay looked down, and then looked up at Kay again. "What, Kay?" Jay asked, a little annoyed at the stare.

"I dunno, it's like...almost the same feeling I get when I look at the stars...but this is even worse. Everytime I look at you, yeah, YOU...every single time I see you, hear you make those wisecracks...when I came back from the post office...it all came back, Jay. When I see you, son, I see Angelique. The most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life, son...damnit, slick, why do all the good ones have to be aliens?" Kay's wistful smile here was pained, almost as if he was nothing more than a lonely man in love with a woman hopelessly out of reach, commiserating with another lonely man in love.

But Jay's face froze in startled surprise, hearing the very thought he had about Laura just a few nights ago, and then his face wrinkled up in another puzzled frown.

Kay just smiled again at him, knowingly. "Son, destiny has a way of sneakin' up on us like an armadillo at a campfire." Now the tears were beginning to roll down his face as well as Jay's.

Zed said, "Jay, take a look at the viewscreen. Then take a look at Laura's page in your dossier." Zed fired up the viewscreen. There was Laura, in a recorded message. She was dressed in the same sleeveless black blouse she wore at Ben's Pizza.

"Jason, it's me, baby. I miss you very much. I love you and I want to know that I had a lot of fun with you back in New York.

"Jason, hopefully, by now you have a more clear idea of your true identity."

Laura's voice and body language took on a slightly more authoritarian tone now. Jay instinctively paid attention.

"Your mother and I have been speaking with you in spirit for the past few days. Your mother has also been talking with me every night, transferring her memories into my mind so I would know more about you. This ain't a joke, baby. This shit is most definitely FOR REAL; I am what I am, and you are what you are. You were born into a secret society in Louisiana 30 years ago. Your MOTHER is the reigning queen of this planet. She rules Zartha from her place in exile back in Louisiana, inside St. Gabriel Women's Penitentiary.

"Jason, listen to me, baby. This is YOUR destiny I'm talking about, just as much as it is mine. You are the heir to the throne of Zartha. You are the Sun of Zartha. That means you are descended from a long line of humanoid sun gods with a lot of powerful radioactive sun energy. You're supposed to have a very high concentration of that sun energy.

"When we met in Ben's Pizza last Wednesday, that sun energy got activated inside of you. We came in close contact with one another and it started an ancient electromagnetic, biochemical mating process that I'm told only happens to us Zarthans. They call it the Knowing. It - it, well, it feels a lot like falling in love - but it's way, way more involved than that. The Knowing inside of you kicked in that night, Jay. And we started falling in love with each other. That's why you didn't neuralyze me after you took me out to that diner that night. It was subconscious. It was instinctual. You couldn't help it and you weren't supposed to.

"And because of that, just like with me, baby, you have to leave Earth. Earth can't handle your power, baby. Because of your age, your powers were starting to get very, very strong anyway, but they REALLY got activated when you came to Ben's and the Knowing kicked in, inside of you. You will eventually create a massive electromagnetic pulse that will blow up the Earth. It was just like with me, Jay.

"Now...they say a week ago they gave some powder to Ben to slip into my Mountain Dew, I always drink Mountain Dew at work and I always sit the can on the counter by the phone in the kitchen...so...they wanted to neutralize the Light energy inside me temporarily, so just in case you guys didn't figure all those clues out, the earth would have still been safe for a little while, and your mom would have sent someone to bring you and me to Zartha in a few days anyway, we would both have to quit our jobs, pack our stuff and move up here to the royal palace. Serleena kinda spoiled those plans," and here Laura, still mourning Ben, had to catch herself so she didn't start crying, "so now...we have to deal with it. But Jay, the bottom line is...your energy is getting way too unstable to remain on Earth. There is no choice. There is no time. You have to leave. And you have to leave now.

"I sent the transport, the same one you guys found for me that night on top of the building. It should be in the motor pool garage right now, waiting for you. You should have all your things in your crib packed and boxed up by now, the way we told you in the dreams we made you have. We will arrange to get all your stuff in a few days. In three weeks we will have a royal wedding and coronation here in the royal palace. Your mom will preside over it and transfer the official power and authority of the Zarthan empire over to us. The two of US, baby."

Laura's eyes began to tear up and that greenish-white glow shone in her eyes. Jay could see that from the window behind Laura, some rain sprinkles were beginning to fall.

"Jay, I found out that I'm a very special young lady. See, your mom and my mom made a promise to each other, 25 years ago. My mom used her cosmic princess power, or whatever it was, to spontaneously create me inside her body, Jay. Like an immaculate conception. I don't have a father, Jay."

Jay's eyes shot open with suprise.

"My mom pulled the energy of cosmic light inside of her and made it form into an embryo. That embryo would be me, baby. She did it to give YOU a wife once you grew up, Jason.

"All this stuff - meeting me in Ben's Pizza that night, the investigation, and the whole frantic search, the race against time that night - all that was the plan, the prophecy of the Light of Zartha - it was coming true, Jason. See, baby, I was created out of pure cosmic light to be YOUR wife, your QUEEN. Just for you, Jay. Only for you.

"So now you can't be sad about losing me anymore, 'cause you haven't lost me at all! That's the best part! You've GOT to come up here for me and be the King of Zartha, baby. You have no choice. The people of Zartha are YOUR people. They need you - they need you and me together - to lead them, baby. You were born to this destiny and now it's time to really follow through with it.

"If the Men In Black do not let you leave, you mom has authorized me to send a strike team down to Earth to evacuate you. They can and will use force to bring you back alive, Jason.

"So I guess I will be expecting you, baby. Please don't take too long. I love you, Jay. I love you." The screen went dark.

Jay looked at the file on Laura in the dossier. It alone was 30 pages thick. "ORIGIN: spontaneous embyronic implantation due to massive internal and external convergence of cataclysmic levels of gamma radiation inside Lauranna Vasquez...

"...result of an agreement between Lauranna Kwan and Angelique Tolan to produce the King and Queen of Zartha, in an attempt to produce a super-child as prophesied in the Book of S'aa..."

More tears rolled down Jay's cheeks. He looked up, trying to control his weeping. "Momma planned all this...the whole thing...all along."

"That's right, Jay," Zed said. "We only postponed it as long as we could, you and Laura Vasquez falling in love and becoming a couple, but we can't stop it any longer. Sometimes the forces of destiny are far beyond what mortal man can engineer, son. As much as I hate for this to be the case, Laura - and your mother, Queen Angelique - are both absolutely, 100 right about this, Jay. You are the Sun of Zartha. You are destined to become an immortal sun god, Jay, and ruler of an entire federation of planets in deep space.

Then Zed leaned forward, raised an eyebrow, and said, "You know, Jay, I could have sent somebody else to be the lead detective on Ben's murder...but your mom would have gotten all upset and sent her storm troopers after you, so I guess I did the right thing," and here Zed gave a little wink.

"So now, we must de-commission you as an active agent of the Men in Black, Jay.” Zed now stood up, and Jay and Kay stood at attention in response:

"Therefore, from this day forward, Your Royal Highness, Jason LeRoi Tolan Edwards:

You will no longer conform to the identity we gave you; you must again assume the identity to which you were actually born.

We told you that anonymity was your name, silence was your native tongue; now your name shall be King and you must now learn your true native tongue - the tongue of the Zarthan people you will be sworn to protect, defend and rule.

Your entire image was crafted to leave no lasting memory; now you must regain all the memories we had to suppress - and forge new ones with Laura at your side.

You are no longer deja vu, you are reality.

You are no longer above the system, you will soon preside over one.

You are no longer a rumor, Jason Edwards, you are now the embodiment of cosmic truth and divine wisdom.

You have to leave us and go to Zartha. And you have to go NOW."

Zed lowered his head down solemnly.

"Your neuralyzer, Your Highness." Zed reached out his hand. "Take the batteries out first."

Jay took the device out of his lapel pocket. He then took out two AA alkaline batteries, the standard kind available in any store, and handed the empty, deactivated neuralyzer to Zed. Zed immediately placed it in his lapel pocket.

"Your Highness, you are dismissed."

The three men walked out of the office and took the elevator down into the hallway. Jay led the way. All the other agents knew something was up. They saw the food from Cafe Du Monde get delivered. They saw the transport arrive from Zartha. They even saw the video from Laura on their computers, as someone leaked it onto the office intranet. They knew their guy, Jay, the agent who brought Zed's agency into the 21st century, was more than who they thought he was.

From every cubicle, now, clerks and agents and admin assistants and techs and cafeteria workers and the sales guys in the Sprint Store in the concourse were, to a man, staring at this man - this prince from another galaxy, this colossal figure, this SUN GOD, this creature from the pages of extraterrestrial legend and myth - working among them, eating with them, filing reports for them, going to the restroom with them, yelling at them, all this time.

Eyes all over the MIB complex were wide with wonder and smile after smile erupted with pride. Yeah, one of OUR guys is the next King of Zartha! And just last Saturday he was out drinkin' and playin' darts with the fellas! Those Kylothians better watch out! Jay's not gonna put up with any bull when HE's king, no sir! He's gonna run that planet RIGHT. Those people are SO LUCKY to get Jay as their king. They don't know how good they're gonna have it. He ought to come back and run for President after a few years. Or at least for Mayor of New York! He's so lucky to be marrying Laura. That's one wedding Zed had better show on the viewscreen. That's gonna be bigger than Prince Charles and Lady Di, bigger than Jessica Simpson and what's his name.

The three saw Agent Enn approach. He knelt down right in front of Jay, got up and made a strange gesture, tapping his fist rapidly to his chest while his head was bowed. "O wo'o sha la ock, T'Va'an."

Jay stood there stunned and utterly shamed, for he had little positive to say to this rookie agent, almost every day for about a year, ever since he joined MIB after four years in the Navy. "You...umm...you're from...Zartha."

"Yes, my lord. Born and raised. Son of Councillor T'Ka'ar of the tribe of C'ola'a, the people of the molten rock. My real name is T'N'aal S'Wu'ul K'aan. I'm going back to Zartha to be with my people, and my intended, Princess S'aak'ta'a, my Knowing-mate. She will be your chief of staff in the royal palace. and she's already preparing Her Highness for your arrival today. I stand ready to serve you for many years to come, my lord."

Jay was not used to being addressed as royalty and his discomfort showed. He tried to apologize; if this guy was gonna be in the royal palace, with him, he'd better make amends pretty damn quick. "Well...umm, listen...T'Na'al...umm, listen, man, I know was kind of hard on you this year...all that Air Force versus Navy shit, I was just kidding about that -"

"No need to apologize, my lord. I know you didn't know your identity. I was never allowed to tell you mine. Everything's cool. You way outrank me anyway, my lord. You are a son of the T'ola'a, and my tribe obeys every directive of the royal household with honor and the highest level of dedication. My loyalty to you and the royal family is sealed by 1,000 years of blood and tribal ties, and soon by marriage ties as well. For all time. O wo'o sha la ock." Enn bowed his head again.

"Well...I guess I'll see you up there," Jay said, and he walked along with Kay and Zed.

As Jay strode down the hallways, he was in a daze. He was stunned. He was pissed. He was ecstatic. He was wondering a million things at this moment. What was his life going to be like NOW? Am I ready to be with this woman forever? Do I really love her or am I just reacting because of this "Knowing"? I mean, I met her at a damn PIZZA PARLOR! Can I really make it rain? Could Momma really make it rain? Could Nana really make it rain? Is every Black person in Louisiana a damn alien? And is my momma not only NOT DEAD but really still alive, kicking and RULING an entire alien planet from a jail cell?

Am I really a sun god?

Am I really supposed to be a king?

- end of chapter -

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