Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Amelia, Ch 318


"We should start setting up for healing," I spoke after we'd been given a minute to chew over Lisa's speech. I had to wonder what that was about. But, it was Lisa, the only secrets she kept were her own. "There's not a lot of us that can work with dismemberments."


"I'll have my men set up for triage," Calvert offered. "With permission to assume Pantheon's healers will be involved in the process?"


"Yeah," I agreed. "We'll be doing our part." Vicky and I would be essential for this, of course. Not a lot of people who can heal on the level the injured here would need. I should probably tell him about exact capabilities and names so he-


He gestured at two of his field commanders, and they approached. "Plan for three parahumans capable of restoring any injuries including lost limbs and one that can mend major injuries, but not limb restoration. Plus two more capable of surgical treatment of minor injuries. See to it that the medical camp is arranged so all patients are within fifty feet of the parahuman known as Boost. He has an aura that stabilizes injuries and promotes healing. Place him in the middle of the camp."


"Which one's that, sir?" A hard, overly masculine looking woman asked. She reminded me an awful lot of the head nurse at this one hospital, only younger and even less happy at the world. She'll probably be promoted to a PRT Director in less than five years.


"Tall male," he responded. "The one not wearing a shirt."


"Understood, sir," she responded and walked off, the other commander went with.


"The rest of you, have your men continue the sweeps, but prepare to coordinate our withdrawal," he spoke to the other three commanders he had with him. "Pending verification that there is no further risk of infection, there is little left we can do here. Refugee relief work appears to be unfortunately irrelevant, in this case."


"There won't be any risk of infection," Lisa informed. "The Endbringer vanished, the parasites will be inert, now. I'll consult Dinah Alcott as well, ensure there's no danger the outbreak will continue. But the nature of the Endmakers lead me to believe this one isn't leaving that kind of nasty surprise. They did that already, with the Simurgh. They haven't repeated tactics yet, and I don't believe they will now."


"Very well," Calvert responded. I still felt bad about puppeteering the man. Granted, he deserved it by all accounts that Lisa and Taylor gave, but I still felt wrong, using our powers that way. Turning someone into a toy. It was all too similar to what I'd done to Victoria. His people saluted and turned to handle their jobs.


"I'll take my healing last," Alexandria spoke. "It's been shown that my injuries can wait however long is necessary. It causes me no discomfort or inconvenience, since I anticipate it will take some time to finish debriefing with Chevalier, Minerva, Dragon and Narwhal." Probably also wins you points with the crowd that see you putting yourself in the back of the line like that. "And may I just say I'm very impressed with how familiar your are with the various capes here."


"Thank you," he responded. "I make it my business to stay well informed."


....


Healing lost limbs is exhaustive and exhausting. Fortunately, there was a functionally infinite amount of raw material for me to work with, but there was only three of us with this capability, and each of us required an hour or longer per patient. We had to operate one person at a time because none of us had a blanket effect or fire and forget power. This is why I'm no longer a healer.


Next to me, Vicky struggled to stand. <Okay, you're done,> she informed one of the more powerful locals that had survived the battle. Huh, Vicky's not using the translator. When did she learn French? <Talk to Tir, he'll get you shunted over.> She gestured to where Trevor was waiting, talking with Emma, Rey, and Defiant. The four of them had locked onto that 'shunt bug' idea, and were trying to find out a way to make it possible. Dragon was too busy coordinating her suits in recovery efforts.


<Thank you,> he responded. He didn't sound grateful, however, walking over to where our command center still sat. Not that I blamed him. What did he have to be grateful for? Half a million people, plus or minus not enough to make much difference compared to half a million people, were dead.


Most of the groups had been sent home already. A sick fringe benefit to what happened in Paris, very little left to save. There were no refugees to speak of, most of the city was still legitimately inhabitable, just empty. Or at least a good chunk of it was empty. Not every square mile of Paris was inside the barriers they'd erected. Really, not even half of the city in total. It was wounded, but still alive, still recoverable.


"Would you like me to give you a recharge?" Sanction offered. She seemed strangely familiar, and I couldn't quite figure it out. Maybe someone I worked with as Panacea? "I can give you a quick boost while waiting for Aceso to check up on my work."


Sanction didn't have the benefit of a Thinker power. Since Riley, or specifically Clarice, was somewhere between myself and Vicky for overall understanding of the human body, she was making sure everything worked out properly.


"Won't help," Vicky replied. "I already have regeneration, and Boost's power is doing what it can. Adding a third might even make things worse. I just need time to recover my power naturally, that's all."


"There's only six more," I replied. "Consider it a challenge."


My power never made me tired, really. Not the way it wore out Vicky, or Lisa or Theo or Missy. I was like Taylor, and could run at maximum output for as long as I could stay awake. But she was right, the time and focus took its toll. I extended my senses to the pod where Taylor was sleeping. I probably should wake her, or at least send her home. I couldn't bring myself to do the latter, I needed her nearby. And the former... I barely managed to think clearly enough to cut off Taylia when Beelzebub pulled his dirty trick. I'd wake her up in private, later.


Chevalier put a hand, the only one he currently had, on Vicky's shoulder. "She's right, we can keep going. Just a little further."


He was one of the ones that had to wait, since Sanction and I couldn't actually restore him while he and Vicky were doing their interactions. Or, specifically, he'd be unable to keep the interaction going while being healed. With Boost keeping everyone stable, there was no risk that the injuries would get worse, so he'd have to be last in priority. That, and I suspected he felt he'd lose face if he went while Alexandria was still waiting. Probably more of chivalry thing than any honest social standing, I was sure.


"Yeah, two more, I can do that," she leaned into him a little as she rubbed her eyes with her hands. In a way it was eerily reminiscent of her and Dean. What surprised me was how I wasn't jealous. I was glad for her without reservation, instead of forcing myself to ignore my feelings and trying very hard not to hate someone for having my sister's affections.


I've moved on. And so has Vicky, apparently. The age gap was a little weird, but who was I to judge? He seemed like a good guy. At least he's not an empath with all the legitimate empathy of a brick wall. And now I know it wasn't only jealousy that made me think Dean was an idiot.


"One," I corrected. "I won't be able to heal Chevalier while he's maintaining your link, and only the pair of you can heal Alexandria. So you'll need to focus on her, now."


"Well, better interrupt Lisa's date, then," Vicky smiled. I glanced over to where the pair of them were still talking. Although whether or not what they were doing counted as talking or not, I wasn't sure. After their meeting with the others, the two of them mostly just stood there looking at each other while waiting for the rest of us to finish. She'd volunteered to be one of the last to get healed, after all. Because it gave her more time with Lisa. How did I not think that sooner?


I didn't dignify it with a response. That and I swore to myself that I'd never be like those nurses that gossiped in front of their patients. I wasn't entirely sure any of our remaining patients spoke English, but no sense in finding out by getting 'Alexandria's affair with underage former supervillain exposed' on the headlines of every tabloid in the northern hemisphere. Although I couldn't help but smile at that thought.


Actually, now that I think about it, they would make a really attractive couple. Lisa's fairly short and curvy features, contrasted against Alexandria's statuesque, even Amazonian, body type? Yeah, I could totally see that... oh god damn it no do not let that mental image get into your head. Mainly because it will take all of thirty seconds for both of them to figure out what I was thinking.


I felt through the Yggdrasil to where Taylor was still in her temporary coma. Easy way to kill any errant embarrassing thought. I missed her, and the support she offered me. I feel so alone when she's not with me.


"I'll alert them," I told Vicky. A quick, easy pulse of thought caused the ground to shift under Alexandria and Lisa. They have the superbrains power, they can figure out the message. A couple seconds that I swear were reluctant later, she turned and floated over.


I couldn't help but be envious of how dignified she was, imposing even while missing an arm.


"You wished to speak with me?" she asked.


"Time for your tune up," Vicky responded, smiling broadly. "Y'know, if we keep meeting like this, I'm going to have to start charging. Don't worry, I'll give you the family discount. You've earned it."


=================

A/N- Coil cheats.

Victoria still gets the best lines. Sometimes even subtly.

And I had to rewrite half this chapter because it didn't look good.

 

Amelia, Ch 319- Rebecca


The Endmakers are running out of tricks? No. I'd learned a lot about Minerva, Lisa, over the last few months. She wasn't certain of any of what she just said, and she knew some of it was complete garbage. She stood just a little taller than normal. Her boots were already platformed, at least a little. She was convincing, but she couldn't make her body language lie enough to fool me. Although, to my amusement, she clearly beat Defiant's lie detector technology. Armsmaster's technology. Did they know the connection? Probably, they were willing to work with Bonesaw after all. Still, couldn't hurt to ask.


I gave a glance toward Defiant during the partial second that Lisa allowed herself to make eye contact with me specifically, then I looked toward Amelia and gave my head a tenth of a degree of tilt.


Lisa relaxed slightly, deliberately forcing her heartbeat to slow a little. No danger there. She wasn't curious, or surprised, so she knew who Defiant really was and didn't consider it a problem or a specific secret, past the parts that obviously needed to remain secret from the public.


"I suppose we should discuss how to handle the circumstances of the devastation of Paris," I spoke slowly. Around the group, the others nodded in agreement. This was really my scenario to lead. Patheon and Dragon knew my identity, had known ever since New Delhi, and likely before. I deliberately chose to look everyone in the eyes except Chevalier for this one. "We have to keep Moord Nag's involvement a secret. As Minerva said, this wasn't truly her fault. Will she be okay?"


Of course, that was a lie, it was very much her decision. She got a taste of Endbringer grade power, decided she liked it, and forgot that Pantheon had an Endslayer. She was suffering the consequences.


"In a lot of discomfort, but she'll live," Lisa responded. Meanwhile, a subtle shift of her hip, bringing her knees closer together. A signal of denial. Chevalier did not yet know I was the Chief Director, that was a relief.


"Lily's power bypasses all defenses, and annihilates everything it contacts if she wants it to," Minerva explained. "But it doesn't extend beyond that. Wounds inflicted by her weapons won't have any more trouble being healed than injury inflicted by anything else. Aceso's more than qualified to resuscitate her. From there, Gaea can handle the rest, she'll be good as new in a day or three."


Gaea tensed a little. She knew something, and wasn't happy about it. The girl had gone quiet, mousy even. Without the Khepri girl to back her up, she'd fallen back into the behavior I'd come to know from Panacea those few times I'd met her. Would Khepri default to her Skitter persona, were the situation reversed?


Lisa's reaction was slight, but involuntary. It was as good as flinching in pain to our senses. The answer to my question was yes, something that they knew for a fact, and brought shame and guilt at the memory. I wished I was better at showing emotional support, the girl clearly needed it. There were deeper undercurrents as well. More than could be conveyed through our secret language. Something between the core group, important secrets. I'd have to actually ask. "Can your men keep the secret, Director?" Lisa didn't want me to ask those questions.


"They are well trained professionals," Calvert responded, unaware of our ongoing conversations. Theoretically, he outranked me here. Realistically, our theoretical ranks were meaningless, especially here on foreign soil. "They understand the need for discretion. What would you have us claim happened here instead?"


I watched Lisa with my peripherals, she shifted her right hand, evoking thoughts of a handshake or high five, a signal of thanks for my praising the man, earlier. I already knew who he was and what Pantheon had done to him, he was far more their puppet than Cauldron's, now. But Pantheon was using him for the same basic goal we had in mind anyway, so we were content with that situation.


Lisa blinked, with a momentary delay in opening her left eye. She was signaling there's a relationship between the Moord Nag and Calvert thought points. They're planning to do to Moord Nag what they did to Coil. I didn't disagree with that plan in the slightest.


"We can imply it's the Endbringer's farewell attack," Lisa answered. "We should have the shunt bugs by the next Beelzebub attack, which means we'll have an excuse why it wasn't used in future fights."


"That should work," I agreed, to both trains of conversation. "Chevalier?"


"It's not a perfect solution," the man responded. "Moord Nag was, is, a monster. She's killed thousands even before this. If not for the Endbringer truce, we should be using this opportunity to put her in the Birdcage and wash our hands of it." And that's why we can't tell him she was responsible for her actions here.


Victoria stood next to him, and it was easy for me to figure out their not-quite relationship. Just as she at least imagined she understood mine and Lisa's. It also was quite obvious that she knew the lies we were telling, about Moord Nag. About what was going to happen with her. I wonder, would she go against her team and her sister by letting Chevalier know the truth?


"Endbringers and Scion take priority," Vicky finally spoke. "Moord Nag is one of the few parahumans that stands a real chance to hurt them. We have to keep her."


"Dragon, you're certain the shunt bugs will work?" I asked.


"The hard part isn't building them, it's building enough of them to matter," the AI responded. We'd yet to manipulate her code in any way. We'd yet to have a need to. But Saint and Contessa were enough to give us nearly unlimited access to her databanks, the general basics of her abilities. I let Lisa know that while Dragon was talking. "We'll need to adapt a purely organic variant, which we can then use Avalon's resources to mass produce."


"Our tinkers have proven capable enough to adapt purely organic antigravity technology," Lisa informed. She stood a little taller, spoke a bit more forcefully. "I trust them to handle this. Defiant, would you please assist in this project? Your specialty is exactly the kind of thing we need for this project." She still wants me to give them Richter's emergency control system

.
"Certainly," he agreed. "Perhaps we could apply the same graviton field principles on an atomic scale, creating a chain to carry the wave that doesn't require such a large amount of supporting mass interaction."


I paid only polite attention as he slowly delved into tech speak. He was a Tinker, as smart as I was I didn't have the ability to follow where their minds went. There was nothing I could say that Lisa would want to hear on the issue. She was at least assured that we weren't abusing our access to Dragon, even if she wasn't happy that we had it at all.


She hadn't told anyone about her knowledge, either. In a way, we were both going behind our organizations' backs on this. I raised an eyebrow, ever so slightly. It would be be invisible behind my helmet, the more streamlined one constructed of my own biological material, shielded by my own power, and built by Pantheon.


"Your people work quickly," I said to Director Calvert instead, as his second in command jogged back.


"Director," the woman saluted, and Calvert responded in kind. "Preparations are complete."


"Thank you, Commander James," he responded. Deliberately using her name, not so much to make it personal, but to reward her with name recognition in front of a number of powerful and influential people. It clearly made her happy. One of the ambitious types, apparently.


"Well, that's our cue," Victoria responded. She smiled cheerfully at me. "Come on, Sis, we have jobs to do. Try not to stay up past curfew, Minerva." Having got in her attempt at subtlety, she went off toward the improvised medical camp.


"Curfew?" Director Calvert asked. I had to admit I was curious, myself.


"We implemented a fairly strict lights out policy for our underage members," Lisa answered. "That was her idea of teasing me, since technically I fall under its umbrella. Clearly, however, I am an exception."


"Clearly," he agreed. I watched with a rather morbid fascination as the contempt he showed for Lisa was censored and replaced by a simple acceptance. There was a time when that would have horrified me. Now I wondered if Cauldron could harness such techniques for themselves. "If you will pardon me, I must attend to my men. Authorize the special draft recruits to return home."


"Let Janus and Tir know what you need them to do. Let them know I said to do anything reasonable to help." Lisa brushed the hair away from her cheek. Strong negation of that idea. She was right, too likely for it to be detected with people like Dragon, harnessing Rapture's technology. Still, it could have been convenient. And Amelia would be horrified at the concept of others using technology she helped Bonesaw to build. It would devastate our political alliance.


"Of course," I agreed. "We all have our responsibilities, especially after Endbringer conflicts. I expect we'll work together in the future, now that the M7 concept has been proven valid in the field."


"Indeed," he agreed marching off to his core group.


Meanwhile, Defiant hadn't managed to stop talking. He'd attracted Tir and Hecate into the conversation, and they were clearly in full Tinker fugue.


Dragon noticed me noticing them. "My apologies, Alexandria," she spoke. "I'm sure you understand."


"Yes, well, it's only to be expected," I responded. "Besides, this is a technology with the potential to save millions of lives. Don't let me waste your time on relatively inconsequential conversation when you could be improving it. I am aware none of you are in my command chain, but consider that an order."


"Thank you, ma'am," she responded. It was merely her being polite, of course. But she agreed with the request, I was sure. Richter's program made it pretty much impossible for her not to.


I watched them leave, then glanced at Lisa. She was almost wistful. I tilted my head, asking her what was wrong.


Her eyes went to the pod where Khepri was resting. She was worried about her friend. Or, more specifically, she wasn't worried. She knew things were going well, that while Taylor was hurt for now, she'd be fine in the long run, she had support to help her recover. What bothered Lisa is that it wasn't her that would make that recovery happen.


I opened my hand. Letting go.


She smiled sadly, and then broke our pattern by using words. "I tried to help her," she admitted. "But I'm not what she needed. Amelia is. And now that they have each other, I find myself wondering. We're still friends, but she doesn't need me, not really."


"You don't need her either," I responded. "You still trust and care about each other."


"Yeah," she sighed. She's lonely.


"It happens," I responded. "People change, grow. It's impossible not to. Some grow apart, others grow together, and other simply grow nearby. And those roles change often. Victoria considers you and Khepri to be effectively siblings." Much to her amusement and my annoyance. "That's not a small thing. You could have a similar relationship as she and Gaea... nevermind."



"It's fine," she replied. "I get what you mean."


She got what I meant about Victoria as well. Victoria was a Thinker, but not the kind of Thinker that Lisa and I were. Like Rapture was. Like Accord and Contessa might be if they thought to use their powers to their fullest. Victoria saw things from a normal person's mental lens. Maybe that would change in time. Unlikely, and certainly not any time soon, but maybe.


"I doubt they'll abandon you," I continued. "You'll always be a part of her life. Just, not the centerpoint. That's how life goes, with family."


She shrugged. Given what little I could divine of her family, how they were responsible for her brother's suicide, at least in her eyes. How they were responsible for her Trigger Event. She likely didn't believe in family. Then again, I didn't either. My family loved me, but they failed me nonetheless. I hadn't spoken to them in years.


"You'll find someone else to grow together with," I consoled.


She looked at me with a smug grin she rarely actually pointed at me. Costa-Brown on a regular basis, but not me. "Is that so?" The question was loaded with meanings, and entirely rhetorical. She knew the statement was an implied offer.


"Statistically, it can't not happen eventually," I replied. A logical, safe answer. Meanwhile I relaxed my body language, an invitation. Before it could have been interpreted as accidental, a slip of the tongue even for people who think like we think. Now it was quite clear it wasn't.


"You're right," she agreed. She didn't put hope into it, she put certainty. It already has.


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A/N- This is MY personal favorite part about the Endbringers. They cause dominoes to tumble into new configurations that wouldn't otherwise happen.