A Darker Path [Worm Fanfic]

A Darker Path

Part Seventy-Three: Tempting the Fates

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


Friday Afternoon, March 4

Theo Anders

"Okay, we're here." Mr Crandall pulled the car over and stopped the engine. "Can you handle your stuff?"

"Yeah." Theo climbed out of the car, then opened the back door and reached in for the single suitcase he'd packed.

In his wardrobe had been a vast array of snappy clothing and carefully fitted three-piece suits (cut to conceal his less than slimline body shape) that his father had foisted on him. He preferred to wear less attention-attracting garb, usually jeans with a loose T-shirt. These shared the suitcase with a toiletry kit grabbed at random from the bathroom, a few battered science fiction novels that he'd managed to hide from his father, and the one item from his old life that he actually prized: a spelling award from the fifth grade. He'd won it fair and square, with zero interference from his family.

As he was hauling the case out of the car, a woman approached them. "Mr Crandall?" she asked. "I'm Marjorie Brown."

"Hello, Marjorie." Mr Crandall shook her hand. "Call me Lester. This is Theo Anders."

"H'lo," mumbled Theo, suddenly self-conscious. He'd been fine doing gopher work in the Betterment Committee offices, where nobody seemed to care who his father had been, but nobody there had used his last name. Rubbing his hand over the seat of his pants, he gave her a tentative handshake.

"Hi, Theo." Ms Brown gave him a sympathetic look, which didn't garner her much credit from him. All he'd gotten from people who actually knew who he was were sympathetic looks (when he could see them) and sometimes glares (when they thought he couldn't). He totally understood the latter, but was comfortable with neither. "Ready to meet the Laborns?"

"I guess." He picked up his suitcase. At least he'd be out of that house.

Ms Brown led the way into a fairly nondescript-looking building, and they rode up a couple of floors in an elevator. Theo was glad of that, at least; while the suitcase wasn't impossibly heavy, carrying it upstairs would be a pain. Exiting the elevator, they went down the corridor a little way until Ms Brown stopped at a particular door.

"Well, here we are," she said brightly, giving Theo a hopeful smile. He tried not to grimace too obviously in return. Reaching out, she knocked on the door.

Theo wasn't short for his age; in that, he took after his father. But the young man who opened the door—the young black man—was at least six and a half feet tall, maybe taller. To Theo, he seemed to tower overhead.

Is this a test to see if I'm like Max was? To see if I'm a racist?

"Hi, Ms Brown. Theo." A large hand was held out toward him. "I'm Brian. Pleased to meet you."

Theo suddenly realised that Brian was actually smiling, and offering his hand to shake. He took it, painfully aware that he was doing something he'd never done before in his life. Brian's grip was firm enough to make it clear that he could crush Theo's hand to pulp without much effort, but he didn't pull the bullshit knuckle-cruncher that Hookwolf loved—had loved—to do.

"Uh, hi," Theo managed, as Brian let go his hand. "Same here, I guess."

"Lester Crandall, CPS. How are you doing, Brian?" Mr Crandall shook hands with Brian next, and Theo was pretty sure there was a little bit of how-tough-are-you going on there, but the smile never shifted off Brian's face.

"I'm doing fine, Mr Crandall. Come in, please, all of you. Aisha and Riley will be out in just a moment." Brian stepped back, gesturing for them all to enter.

The apartment was nice. There were pictures on the wall, including a photo of Brian with two younger girls, apparently clowning around down at the Boardwalk. Everything was neat and tidy; Theo noted the coasters that had been placed on most surfaces, something he personally approved of.

"Heyyy!" A tornado in teenager form bolted out of a back room; she looked about thirteen with a purple streak in her hair, and was wearing a T-shirt with a screen-print of Alexandria on it, and jeans. Another, younger, girl followed along behind, somewhat more demurely. "It's great to meet you, Theo! I'm Aisha, and this here's cousin Riley, and you would've met my boring big bro Brian." Lowering her voice to a stage whisper, she added, "Ignore him. I run the show around here, and don't let him tell you otherwise."

While Theo was still blinking at that and wondering how he should react, Riley came straight up to him and gave him a hug, her head resting on his chest. "Hi."

"Um … hi?" The last time Theo had gotten a hug was so long ago that he couldn't even remember the occasion. Putting his suitcase down, he slowly put his arms around her and returned the hug. The human contact nearly broke through his reserve then and there, tears threatening to spill from his eyes.

"Hello, Aisha." Ms Brown was smiling as she said it. "You're looking well. How's your schoolwork going?"

"Kickin' butt and takin' names, Ms B." Aisha grinned widely. "Got an A-minus on English comprehension the other day."

"That's really good to hear." The tone of approval in her voice was evident.

"Just checking, Theo, do you have any allergies, or dietary or religious requirements?" If Brian found it amiss that his cousin was hugging Theo, his voice didn't show it. "If we know about it, we can work around it."

"Uh, no." Theo found himself being released from the hug, so he turned to face Brian. "None that I know of. Is there anything I need to know about, for any of you guys?" Peanut allergies (as an example) came to mind, but Mr Crandall hadn't spoken on the subject.

"Nah." Aisha answered for the both of them. "Anything I find on my dinner plate's fair game."

"What pizza toppings do you prefer?" asked Riley. "I like seafood, and Brian prefers meat lovers, and like Aisha said, she just attacks anything."

"Nah, nah." Aisha shook her head. "I'll have you know that I'm a gourmet with a wide range of eclectic tastes."

Brian snorted. "Someone's been browsing the dictionary, alright."

Mr Crandall cleared his throat. "Ah … if I can just see where Theo will be sleeping, I'll be able to get out of your hair."

"We put a second bed in my bedroom," Brian offered. "Through here." He led the way down the short corridor. Mr Crandall followed, as did Theo.

The room wasn't huge, but there was just about enough space for two beds, and room to move between them. As Brian had noted, there was a second bed there, but with a bare mattress. An equally bare pillow and linens were folded at the foot of it.

Mr Crandall looked around. "Closet space?" he asked.

"Built-in." Brian moved a sliding door to display hanging space as well as some shelves. "I'll be shifting my stuff to make room." He grinned at Theo. "I know it's going to be a lot more cramped than what you're used to, but we'll make do."

"I'll, uh," Theo cleared his throat. "I'll be fine." He had barely used any of the ample closet space in his old room. What he was used to was having his father's opinions pressing down on his every thought process in an attempt to shape him into a good little Anders clone. Brian's vaguely big-brother air, Aisha's snark, and Riley's spontaneous hug were things he simply had no metric for. "I like Hawaiian, but meat lovers is good for me too." He'd ordered pizzas occasionally from Kayden's place, and those two had been his go-to.

"Nice." Brian held up his hand. It took Theo a moment to realise he was supposed to give Brian a high-five. Feeling more and more surreal by the second, he did it.

I think I'm going to like it here.

<><>​

Friday Evening

Taylor

"Well, what do you think?" Despite her earlier bravado, Cherie looked at Dad and me anxiously after our initial bites of the second lasagne that she'd prepped on her own.

I briefly considered pretending to choke, but that would be mean. "It's nice," I said, and meant it. "Not quite the same as the way we usually have it, but definitely very nice. What did you do differently?"

She flushed slightly. "Went online and looked up recipes and suggestions. Tried a few things. You really like it?" It showed just how invested she was in knowing the truth that she was asking, even as her power was telling her what she wanted to know anyway.

Dad nodded, taking another bite. "It's good," he said once he'd swallowed. "I can taste the difference in the seasonings. Very edible indeed."

"Yeah," I added. "We're definitely going to have to have this again."

She beamed at us, then I saw her eyes glisten. I knew what was coming next, so I got up at the same time as she did.

"You guys …" Her voice was choked up as I wrapped her in a hug. "You guys are the best. You know that?"

It wasn't just the food, or the praise, I knew that much. It was the acceptance we'd given her, and the freedom to make her own way in the household.

One day at a time, she was building her own life, her own identity. And we'd be there to support her every step of the way.

<><>​

PHO Reacts

Saturday Morning, March 5

Emma

The Boardwalk was nice at this time of morning, Emma decided. There was a brisk onshore breeze, and the weekend crowd had yet to make it feel cluttered. She glanced sideways at Anne, who was walking alongside her.

"So, sister of mine." she ventured.

"So," Anne replied. "You asked if we could meet, and here we are. We're on your dime now. What's on your mind?"

"I merely wished to ask some questions." She paused, thinking about her next words. "Clear something up for me."

"Go ahead and ask, but be warned." Anne sounded serious. "If you ask anything along the lines of 'what's it like' or 'how long have you been into girls', I am seriously just going to walk away."

"That's not what I was going to ask." If pressed, Emma would've admitted to some natural curiosity on both counts, but she took the warning in her stride. "I had thought that Our Lady in Darkness had forbidden Faultline from entering the city again, on pain of death. Was it truly her?"

"Officially, I have no idea what you're talking about. Realistically?" Anne glanced around, then nodded. "That's what she said, and I've got no reason to disbelieve her. She did say Atropos invited her back, remember. She's going to be working for the Betterment Committee."

"Ah. So it was Our Lady in Darkness who was responsible for her being at the College, then." Emma nodded wisely. "I had wondered."

"Wait." Anne stopped and stared at her. "Are you saying Atropos set us up together? That she meant that to happen?"

"Obscure are her ways, and long is her reach." Emma turned her hands palm upward, as a way of showing that she was hiding nothing. "If she did, it was for the good of all. Thus is her purpose."

"No, no." Anne shook her head. "I need to know. Did she do that deliberately? Because if she did, it changes everything."

"I will consult with her, and put your mind at ease." Emma took out her phone and accessed PHO. If Atropos was indeed behind it, she would say so. She never lied or deceived.

Flowery language would waste time, so she opened a private message and typed in, Why did you get my sister laid?

Less than ten second later, the phone pinged with a reply. Opening it, she read: What are you talking about?

"Well, this is interesting," she murmured. "Our Lady in Darkness wishes me to clarify. Give me a moment." Atropos preferred directness, so she'd be direct, no matter how much she wanted otherwise. Faultline and Laserdream, she typed. She got drunk and in bed with them. You can't tell me you didn't have something to do with that.

Again, the answer came back quickly. Huh, that's a surprise. I did invite Faultline back into the city to work for the committee, but I didn't think she'd do anything else.

Anne looked at the messages, raising her eyebrows in surprise. "So, she wasn't behind it? It just happened naturally?"

"Our Lady in Darkness does not stoop to lying about such matters," Emma chided her gently. "If she says she had no part in it, then she had no part in it."

"Okay, gotcha." Anne shook her head. "From the way you've been talking her up, she knows all and sees all. Seems like your goddess has feet of clay, after all."

"She is no goddess." Emma was indeed taken aback, but she had her Lady in Darkness' words to fall back on. "She has said that many times. But I see this as a test of faith."

"You do you, sis." Anne smiled. "I got stuff to think about, too."

Leaving her to stroll along the Boardwalk, Emma went to the nearest bus stop and boarded the next bus that was heading in her direction. She settled down in her seat, her mind still churning over the implications of Atropos' words. Finally, going back to the phone, she typed another message. You seriously didn't plan this?

The answer popped up almost immediately. Nope.

"Huh," she murmured. She was still faithful, but that one admission was forcing her to re-evaluate everything she'd thought she knew about her Lady in Darkness. After a moment of thought, she typed that word in and sent it.

The conversation progressed as the bus ride went on. Sometimes Atropos answered immediately, while other answers took minutes to come through. She learned that Faultline was in the city as part of a 'path' to get her, Emma, to stop worshipping Atropos. This suggested to Emma that Atropos didn't know every step of whatever 'path' she was following to get something done.

She paused after coming in the front door to type out a longer post, trying to put her thoughts and realisations into coherent form. The conversation had given her a new perspective on her own state of mind, and she wanted to convey this before she lost it again. I'm swinging back toward normal, she ended the post. But I don't know if I'll stop there.

Atropos seemed to take it in her stride, as she did everything else. But then, after Emma had gotten a snack and headed upstairs to her room, a bombshell dropped into the conversation. Anyway, you're going to be kidnapped in, like, five minutes. Thought I should warn you.

Just for a moment, she thought of trying to hide, or get help, but then she realised she already had the best help available. If Atropos knew of the kidnap ahead of time, she would also have plans to thwart it. A few quick comments back and forth confirmed this, then they ended the conversation.

Whatever was going on with the 'royal brat' (as Atropos put it) who was trying to get at her Lady in Darkness, she was sure Atropos had it well in hand. All that was left for Emma was to be kidnapped in style.

<><>​

Atropos

I was down in the basement, reshaping a bullet prior to replacing it in the cartridge case, when Emma sent me a private message about Anne. I had no idea what she was talking about, and told her so. Her response was enlightening, but I still had to explain to her that whatever had happened (as entertaining as the aftermath might be) I'd had nothing to do with it.

The conversation went on, with occasional pauses as I worked on one cartridge or another, but Emma seemed willing to wait and see what I had to say. In fact, as I tapped the last bullet back into place, I realised that this was the longest (and most civil) conversation I'd had with her in literally years. I grinned as I sent back the message, Well, welcome back to sanity. Hope you enjoy your stay, however long you stick around.

A moment after that, some interesting information popped into my head, informing me that there were abductions lined up for Aisha and Emma. It had something to do with the text I'd sent Aisha the previous night, suggesting that she and Brian buy Theo a welcoming gift of some kind, though I wasn't quite sure what the connection was yet.

I already knew there was something going on with me, but I didn't have all the details about that either. My power seemed to be chuckling to itself in the background. It could be a real troll on occasion, but that was fine; so could I.

I passed the relevant information on to Emma, and she acknowledged it with a damn sight more aplomb than she would've before I'd gotten my powers. Whether this was because she was more scared of me than of the kidnappers, because I'd told her she was going to be okay, or just because she was still nuts, I didn't know and didn't care. We signed off the conversation, and I set to work refilling the last of the magazines with the altered bullets. One went into the pistol, while the others ended up in my pockets.

A timer was ticking down in my mind as I slipped Riley's canister into a pocket inside the crown of my hat. Emma and Aisha were supposed to be kidnapped in three minutes, which gave me just enough time to do what I needed to do. A ballpoint pen went into the pocket of my shirt under the vest; I wasn't at all sure what I'd need that for, but I was sure I would find out.

Taking the teleporter off charge, I slipped my left forearm into it, then clicked it into place. I set the teleport coordinates to Emma's house, and hit the go button.

An immense hand closed around me and yanked me sideways, right out of the world.

<><>​

The Supreme World, A Few Moments Before

Goddess

"Is the diverter ready?" Bianca scanned each of the technicians for the slightest hint of betrayal. She would reward such with the most excruciatingly painful death, but all appeared to be loyal.

"It appears so, Highness." Tori gestured at the banks of gauges and dials. "We have a full lock on the teleporter she uses. It does not accept wireless input from outside, but when she teleports, we can use brute force to redirect her to where we need her to go."

"Highness?" One of the techs put his hand up hesitantly. "A word, if you will?"

"Yes?" Her eyes narrowed. His tone suggested that there was bad news following. She did not like bad news. Bad news was something she did to those who refused her right and proper guidance.

"The, uh, the diverter will work, but the power we'll be needing to pull someone across the dimensional barrier, to repurpose the portal, will overload it quite badly. There will be extensive stress on critical systems. We'll only be able to do this once." He wilted under her glare. "Apologies, Highness. I-I thought you needed to know."

"Hmm." Bianca wanted to crush his body into paste as an example to those who thought they might be able to fail her with impunity, but she chose to stay her hand. After all, she only needed to do this once. And it wasn't like she intended to allow Atropos to go back to Earth Bet. "Understood. Carry on."

A buzzer sounded, and a yellow light flashed. One of the techs raised their hand. "The teleporter has gone off standby! It's in operating mode!"

"This is it, people!" The tech who had approached Bianca moved to a control panel and started flicking switches. "Generators online! Bring to full power!"

"Generators running at one hundred ten percent rated power!" another tech called out. "Cutting in power … now!" What had been a background hum rose to an almost unbearable shriek. The smell of ozone permeated the air inside the vast building.

"Activating diverter!" Grabbing a large blade switch, the tech pulled it over. The shriek became a thunder, actively painful to the ears. One at a time, the techs fumbled earplugs into place. Bianca merely powered up her force field, keeping Tori inside. The sound was reduced to an acceptable level, and she kept watching.

A red light began to strobe on top of the main part of the device. "She's teleporting," Tori said, her voice raised to a half-shout.

Lights flashed crazily across the machines. Gauges exploded, dials popping out of their mountings. An electrical arc crackled between two of the consoles, frying a tech. One of the consoles exploded, pieces of shrapnel bouncing off the force field. Sparks flew as fuses blew, one after the other.

The noise gradually abated, winding back from thunder to shriek to hum. Flames crackled on several of the consoles, until fire-control sprays hissed and put them out. Lying on his back, clawing at the sky, the dead tech had smoke drifting upward from his clothing.

Barely any of the blinking lights or dials had survived; it was clear that the tech had not overstated the amount of damage that the diverter would suffer. But Bianca didn't care about any of that. "Did it work?" she shouted, dropping the force field now that the danger was past. "Has Atropos been captured?"

The main tech staggered to his feet. He had a cut on his forehead and a piece of jagged metal sticking out of his arm, but he looked over what remained of his prized machines. "Y-yes, Highness," he managed. "All readouts indicate success."

"Good." Bianca turned to Tori. "Send the signal. Take the hostages."

Tori inclined her head respectfully. "Yes, Highness."

<><>​

Relevant Side Story

<><>​

Theo

"Hey."

Theo looked up from the cartoon channel—for some reason, Riley found Li'l Protectorate Pals to be hilarious, and it was starting to grow on him too—to see Brian and Aisha standing near the door.

"What's up?" he asked, already feeling easier about just asking the question than he would've been twelve hours before. Brian, he'd found, was very straightforward and direct, and preferred the same from others. There were no trick questions, no 'gotcha' comments. What you saw was what you got.

"I'm taking Aisha to do the shopping. Anything either of you need?"

Theo shrugged; there wasn't anything he desperately wanted. He wasn't even hungry; the bacon and eggs he'd had earlier had filled him up nicely. "Not really, but thanks anyway."

"I got a list," Riley piped up. "I'll text it to Aisha."

"Sounds good." Brian put his hand on the door and opened it. "We'll be back in half an hour. You've both got my number in case of emergencies."

"Don't worry," Riley interjected in a passable imitation of Aisha's snark. "I'll make sure nothing happens to him."

Brian nodded. "Works for me." He nodded to them both and left, Aisha following behind. The door closed behind them with a definitive click.

As Riley started to fiddle with her phone, Theo frowned. "Aisha didn't argue with him about going shopping. I thought she liked cartoons as much as you do."

"She does." Riley gave him a sideways duh look. "They're buying you a welcome-to-the-apartment present, silly. He's taking her along to make sure they get something you can use."

"What? They are? He is?" Theo was startled. So far, he'd found the company pleasant and the entire lack of oppressive judgement thoroughly enjoyable, but for all he knew, they were just tolerating him because they had to.

"Well, yeah." Riley kept tapping on her phone while she talked. "Me and Aisha talked it over last night after we went to bed, and Aisha talked to Brian this morning. You're a nice guy who's been dealt a really shit hand, which kind of describes everyone in the apartment. But you haven't let it make you into an asshole, which is kind of impressive, so we like you. Aisha had the idea of getting you a present, and Brian agreed."

Theo frowned. "What sort of present?" He'd never been gifted with anything that didn't involve an ulterior motive before.

"No idea." Riley finished her texting and put the phone down, then gave him a severe look. "Just make sure you pretend to be surprised when we give it to you. I don't want to get in trouble for blabbing."

If there was one thing Theo knew all about, it was keeping his mouth shut. Max Anders had expounded to him at length on the subject of strength of character, then ruthlessly crushed any signs of it that Theo might have shown. Keeping his head down and being as invisible as possible had been his go-to for literally years.

Besides, he liked Riley too. There was compassion inside her, linked to a pain that Theo didn't want to delve too deeply into. Her earlier remark suggested that she too was someone who had been 'dealt a shit hand', though he was not going to ask.

The hug she'd greeted him with hadn't been a once-off. She was cheerful and demonstrative and capable of both humour and seriousness, sometimes both in the same sentence. He respected Brian and thought Aisha's antics and occasionally crass humour were quite funny, but Riley was someone he hoped that Aster would grow up to be like, someday.

That random thought led to a place he didn't want to go, reminding him of the Empire Eighty-Eight and the way they'd fled Brockton Bay following the death of Max Anders. The last he'd heard, the gang had broken up and gone their separate ways, some being captured by heroes and some still at large.

He wondered if anyone left on the loose even remembered him. It wasn't something he was anxious to explore. The idea of some section or other of the Empire Eighty-Eight grabbing him to hold up as the heir of the white-supremacy movement was positively nauseating, not least because he fervently disagreed with everything that they stood for.

He was still musing over that when, with a shattering crash, the front door was kicked in. Two burly men burst into the apartment, pointing what he easily recognised as suppressed firearms. Theo didn't know who they were, but he certainly understood what they were. Thugs were thugs, the world over.

Well, fuck. They found me anyway.

Wearily, he stood up from the sofa. "Okay, you got me. Don't hurt the girl, and I'll come quietly."

He was wholly unprepared for the punch to the gut that left him gasping on the floor while one man stood over him, gun aimed downward. "Aisha Laborn?" asked the other one.

"Yeah, I'm Aisha," Riley said immediately. "Please don't hurt him. He didn't do anything."

"Witness," the one who'd hit him grunted. "Seen our faces, and he can call the cops." He aimed the pistol at Theo's face; the muzzle aperture looked enormous.

"You don't want to do that in this city," Riley warned. "Atropos is the only one allowed to kill anyone. She's got a murder sense, and she can teleport." She said it with such surety that even Theo was almost convinced, though he was fairly sure he hadn't heard about any such 'murder sense' before now.

"Atropos?" The thug's voice had real fear in it. "Fuck. Okay. We'll take him with."

As Theo was manhandled to his feet and forced to walk out the door, his jumbled thoughts spun in all directions.

Who are these guys?

Why did Riley say she was Aisha?

God, I hope she knows what she's doing.

Because there was no way in hell he was going to be able to get them out of this.

<><>​

Tori Heflin

Following Goddess into the main control centre and standing out of the way of the emergency workers who were dealing with the injured techs, Tori looked over the playback equipment. It seemed to be in good condition; nothing had fallen on it from the ceiling, and the power lights still glowed.

"Show me," Goddess ordered.

"At once, Highness." Tori hit the replay on the main recorder, and the large screen lit up. "The recording automatically began when we turned on the diverter."

The image on the screen was a cell, ten feet by ten, with a heavy metal door on one side and lights glaring down from each corner to rid every inch of the cell of darkness. A cockroach would have been visible, no matter how it slunk about. There were no furnishings, no amenities; it was an empty concrete box. The only thing that broke the monotony of the walls were regularly spaced grilles, four inches square.

"The walls are six feet thick, the door one foot, barred from the other side." Goddess hadn't asked, but Tori felt the need to explain anyway. "Knockout gas is being pumped in via the grilles."

The lights flickered briefly, then Atropos appeared in the middle of the cell. She turned faster than Tori would've given her credit, produced a shotgun from apparently out of nowhere, and fired six shots into the cell door; three down the left side and three down the right. Then she hammered her heel into the middle of the door hard enough to raise an echo in the camera audio.

It didn't give, of course, but any normal door would've certainly been hard put to take that sort of treatment. Tori noted distantly that Atropos had placed the shots precisely where the hinges and lock of a normal door would've been.

Reholstering the shotgun, Atropos pulled back her sleeve to reveal a sleek black mechanism wrapped around her left forearm. Flicking open a small panel, she tapped in a series of numbers, her fingers blurring over the tiny keypad. She flickered slightly, then reformed. Again she tried it, and again. Each time, she flickered but did not go anywhere.

"What is she doing?" demanded Goddess. "Surely she cannot be trying to leave the building. She does not know where there is a safe space!"

"She must be trying to teleport to the other side of the door, Highness." It was Tori's only guess. "When she shot the door and kicked it, it would've given her an idea of how thick it was."

After the eighth attempt at teleporting out, Atropos slumped to the floor, but not before Tori spotted her left hand moving stealthily. When she moved the recording back slightly, it was possible to see that Atropos had stashed her shears in her waistband, behind her back. Then she fell unconscious, or apparently so.

"What's the longest anyone has withstood that gas?" Goddess asked.

"Five minutes," Tori replied. She'd looked that statistic up herself. As it was, she knew that the damage in the other room had been due to the multiple escape attempts. Once more, and Atropos may have overwhelmed the diverter altogether, and been free to teleport wherever she wished.

"Wait for ten minutes, then go in wearing armour." Goddess glared at the girl on the screen. "I've poured far too many resources into getting her under my power. Take no chances with her."

"I won't, Highness." Tori looked at the screen again, where the black-clad girl was still slumped on the floor. She tried to feel satisfaction at a job well done, but instead all she felt was a creeping disquiet.

I truly hope this will not blow up in our faces.



End of Part Seventy-Three

[A/N: Evil cliffhanger is evil. Mwahahaha.]

 

A Darker Path

Part Seventy-Four: Sleight of Hand

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


Goddess

"Highness, she awakens."

"Good." Bianca smiled and settled herself into the throne that she'd had placed in front of the chair holding Atropos, with the low table between them. The chair was made of solid steel, with metal clamps holding Atropos firmly in place. Even if the black-clad assassin could fly (there had been no report of that) the chair was bolted to the floor; she would go nowhere and do nothing without Bianca's permission.

The throne, of course, was higher than the chair. It was necessary that Atropos knew who was in charge right from the beginning. Adjacent to this was the fact that they'd removed her hat and mask; those two accessories lay alongside the weapons on the table. Atropos would have nothing to hide behind, when speaking to her Goddess.

The girl stirred, then she raised her head, shaking it slightly to get her long black curls out of her face. She flicked a glance from side to side, then seemed to focus on Bianca. "Ah," she said. "The idiot of the week. Who are you, where am I, and do you honestly think you're going to get out of this alive?"

Her voice was strong and confident, but Bianca felt not even a twinge of danger from her. "You may call me Goddess," she replied suavely. "You have been brought to my presence because I have need of your talents. Your authorities called this world Earth Shin, to make it subordinate to their Earth Bet, but make no mistake; this is the Supreme Earth, and it will rule over all. I will rule over all."

"Big words," Atropos retorted. "Bastard Son had big ideas, too. You might want to think about what I did to him, and reconsider your life goals in the process. Release me now, and I might think about letting you go with a warning."

Bianca wasn't sure who Bastard Son was, or had been, but she knew enough not to show weakness by acknowledging ignorance of a reference. Instead, she laughed out loud, letting it peal through the room. Off to either side, she heard her Court take up the laughter, mocking the arrogant assassin in their midst.

"You are clearly delusional," she said, holding up a hand to cut off the laughter. "I brought you here to serve my will, and that's what you will do."

"Nobody has yet forced me to do a damn thing I didn't want to do." Atropos' gaze bored into Bianca's. "I promise you, you will regret dragging me here. My good friend Mr Pump Action Shotgun has a way of redefining Kneecaps as a Privilege. I'm pretty sure he can extend that to Shins as well."

The continued defiance was irritating. To see Goddess, to hear her voice, was to be enthralled by her. However, Bianca had planned ahead for this very thing, given the rumours that Atropos was able to kill Master effects. "If you will not pay heed to me, see what else is at stake." She gestured, causing the three screens to lower from the ceiling and power up.

Atropos raised her eyes. Bianca could not see the screens from her angle, but she knew what was there. It had taken her literally millions in bribes, as well as a judicious application of her influence, to have the three hostages spirited through the White Rock portal at the appropriate time. From all accounts, two of the three were people Atropos was most likely to have a connection with.

The men who had taken them had come through as well, expecting to be well-paid for their efforts. However, she had not forgotten the insult of their demanding higher pay in the first place, so they were now in chains, awaiting her (dis)pleasure. She would get to them in time. Atropos was a higher priority.

"Why?" Atropos' tone could have shaved steel. "They're kids. Why bring them into this?"

Bianca smiled beatifically. That was exactly the reaction she'd been angling for. "Emma Barnes is the leader of your cult, while Aisha Laborn is the head of your fan club. Theo Anders is apparently also under your care, so he is here as well. Each of them is at a hidden location around the world, far separated from each other. They are guarded every hour of the day. If I give the order, the guards will kill them before you can get to them. The guards also wear harnesses with heart rate monitors and bombs, so if they are killed, the killer also dies." She steepled her fingers and looked over Atropos at them. "Now, either dispense with this pointless defiance or I will order one of them killed. And you will have to choose which one."

"I see." Atropos flicked her eyes over each of the monitors. "You've made your point. Who do you need me to kill?"

Bianca gestured, and the monitors retracted toward the ceiling once more. "That's more like it. I have been striving to unite this world under one government, one rule, for some time now. There are those who are ungrateful and short-sighted enough to resist the right and proper rule of the powered over the unpowered. Find these resistance cells and kill the leaders for me, and not only will your minions be unharmed, but I will also reward you appropriately for your service to my name."

"And I get my weapons and teleporter for this?" Atropos pointed with one finger at the items on the low table. When they'd searched her, they'd found the shears (of course) as well as the pistol and several magazines of ammunition for it, the pump-action shotgun and a box of ammo for it, the teleporter (a most fascinating device), and a ballpoint pen in her shirt pocket.

They'd let her keep the pen.

"Of course you do." Bianca made a throwaway gesture. "Nothing you have there will allow you to kill me, and if you try, one of your hostages will die. If you harm a member of my Court, one of your hostages loses a hand. You will also be wearing a body-camera, which will be broadcasting back here in real time. Interrupt the broadcast in any way, and … well, you know what will happen."

Atropos waved the same finger, this being about the only thing she could do with it. "Point of note. When I teleport, it's likely to take a few seconds to reconnect to the cell phone network or satellite network, or however it broadcasts. No punishing the hostages for the weaknesses of your system."

"Ah." Bianca glanced sideways at Tori, who nodded fractionally. Atropos wasn't lying then. "I knew that. We will of course take that into account. Was there anything else?"

"Just one thing. Harm the hostages for shits and giggles, and the deal's off. But leave them alone, and I'll shoot those Resistance guys in the head all day long."

Bianca nodded. "Your terms are acceptable. You may commence your task to solidify my position as supreme ruler of this world." Using her telekinesis, she opened the metal clamps securing Atropos to the chair.

"Trust me, by the time I'm done here, the name of the Goddess will be the most celebrated one across the face of this world. They'll probably declare a public holiday." Atropos stood and shook out her wrists, then proceeded to re-arm herself with her private arsenal. Last of all, she slid the teleporter onto her arm and secured it in place before looking up at Bianca. "You mentioned something about a body-camera?"

"Yes." Bianca gestured for the camera to be produced. Such things were not her job. Her job was to order them to happen.

The camera was duly brought forth by one of the many faceless minions whose sole function was to carry out her wishes. Atropos accepted it and attached it to the front of her long-coat with an expertise that suggested she'd done this before. "Well, then," she said, picking up her mask and hat, "there's one thing I need, and one thing I have to do, before I go ensure your rightful place in history."

"And what might those be?" Atropos might have been cooperative since the hostages were revealed, and there may have been no danger signals from her, but Bianca's patience only stretched so far.

"Well, first I need a notepad so I can leave my calling card. Second, I'm hungry." Atropos patted her stomach. "Point me at the kitchens, I'll fix myself a snack, and then I'll be on my way."

Bianca was tempted to deny her the request, but her tone was polite and reasonable. She hadn't even argued about the body-camera. "Very well. Show her to the kitchens and bring her a notepad." Giving Atropos a hard stare to show her who was boss, she added, "Fifteen minutes. No more."

"Not a problem." Atropos' tone was entirely agreeable. "That's all the time I'll need."

<><>​

Miss Medic

Riley put on her best puppy-dog eyes. Aisha had been schooling her in the art, and sometimes she could even wheedle things out of Brian using them. Theo, of course, had been a pushover from the start, but that was just the way he was.

She liked Theo, because he was a nice guy and he was super cuddly. Unfortunately, 'nice' wasn't likely to win him many points as a kidnap victim (and 'cuddly' none at all), so she hoped he could stay out of trouble until she could come save him. Or Atropos did, whichever happened first.

"Y-you're not going to hurt me, are you?" she quavered, giving her lower lip a good tremble.

The guard glowered down at her. "Will if I have to, so sit down and shut up," he growled in oddly accented English. He didn't seem amenable to the idea that people shouldn't hurt children, so she shifted him in her mind from 'just following orders' to 'not a nice man'. This gave her a few more options.

As she obediently sat down on the thin mattress that had been supplied for her, she mentally categorised the weapons she'd seen on him: a heavy calibre pistol (not useful for her because she'd never had the training and it would knock her on her ass) and a large knife (definitely useful). The heavy harness he wore was something else altogether; she was fairly certain that it held a heart monitor linked to (this was a guess) a bomb big enough to destroy the room they were in.

She also had one other thing that her kidnappers apparently didn't know about. Her memories of being Bonesaw were faded at best, and she was extremely reluctant to delve into them, but Bonesaw had known how to deal with violent people.

She just had to hope that there was a way back for her after all this was over and done.

<><>​

Theo

The room wasn't large, and there was just one chair. Miserable, Theo sat curled up on the thin mattress, trying not to attract the attention of the guard. His stomach ached from being punched; he was pretty sure there was a bruise there now.

He still had no idea what was going on, but the guard's attitude was terrifying. Theo knew killers, and this man was both a killer and a fanatic (he knew those, too). If he were ordered to kill Theo with the heavy pistol or the brutal-looking knife, he would do it.

I hope Riley's okay. She was so small and vulnerable, and his heart ached with worry about her.

The door opened and someone walked in. Or rather, something walked in. It looked like a seven-foot-tall man, if said man was constructed of thick slabs of steel with molten metal oozing out from between the gaps. Drops splattered on the floor, but vanished without a trace. Over his right shoulder hovered a tiny ball that appeared to be composed of pure light.

"Hey, kid," said the newcomer. "You look like you're in a bit of a bind there."

Theo stared at the guard, who seemed to be frozen in place. "What's going on? I don't understand anything that's happening!"

"Okay, you want the big picture or the small picture?" The apparition came to the centre of the room and looked down at him, ignoring the guard. More drops of molten metal utterly failed to make any kind of mark on the wooden floorboards.

"Um, everything? And is Riley okay?" Theo looked at the guard again; he still hadn't moved.

The metal man tilted his head slightly to the side, as though listening to something. "Chirurgeon's just fine. Let's concentrate on you. You can call me Foundry. Big picture, you've been kidnapped to be used as a hostage by a jumped-up six-parter from another world, who wants to make Ending do what he's told. Really bad move, if you ask me. Ending doesn't take orders, he gives them. Small picture, Ending's voluntold me to give you a nice easy entry into getting powers, like he did with Queen Administrator. So, here we are."

Theo blinked. About ninety percent of what Foundry had just said had gone over his head. He understood 'hostage', and that was about it. "What?"

Foundry sighed. "I've been told to keep you safe. Now, do you have any ideas how powers work?"

Up until that moment, Theo had thought he did. Faced with a direct question, he wasn't so sure. "Probably not."

"Good answer. So, you know how your grandfather, your aunt and your father all had similar-type powers, creating metal out of nothing?"

Theo wasn't stupid. Sometimes he just needed to get a good run-up to grasp a concept. The earlier mention of 'easy entry into powers' gave him the hint. "You're the power," he guessed. "The personification or whatever."

"Bingo." Foundry appeared to smile. "I've been hanging around to see if you'd hit a trigger point. Normally you wouldn't quite be there yet, but rules are made to be ignored. Also normally, this thing we're doing wouldn't even be happening. I'd just slam-dunk you with powers that nearly fixed all your problems, then sit back with popcorn, watching you get yourself in and out of trouble."

"But that's not what's happening now, is it?" Theo was starting to figure it out. "This 'Ending' is making you be nice to me, and … what? Ask me what actual powers I want?"

"Got it in one. I have to say, I'm not totally sure about this, but QA seems to be having a ball with it, so let's try something new. Hit me. What do you want? It's got to have something to do with metal or other hard stuff. Creating it, destroying it, or whatever."

Theo frowned. "Before I commit myself … what's that?" He pointed at the ball of light over Foundry's shoulder.

"Oh, that's Plasma. She provided a ping, a fragment of her shard. You spent a lot of time around her, so that rubbed off on me."

Right, he thought. Kayden. Wow, okay. What can I do with this?

"Okay," he said out loud, thinking as fast as he could. "What are the limits of what I can create? Can I make something that's the same every time, but has moving parts?"

Foundry looked thoughtful. "So long as it's made out of metal … sure, I guess. What did you have in mind?"

Theo put up a finger. "Hadn't finished. How about electronics?"

"A little trickier, but so long as it isn't all electronics, I can't see a problem. We'll borrow a tiny spark from Plasma to make it work. What are you thinking about, kid?"

"A couple of more things. When I create it, can I add accessories, so long as I detail them right now? And anything I create, I can then un-create, right?"

"I can't see a problem with any of that." Foundry was starting to look extremely dubious. "Look, before we go any further, just tell me what you've got in mind, and I'll tell you if it's possible."

So Theo told him.

<><>​

Emma

"You should be asking for forgiveness right at this moment," Emma told her captor sternly. "Our Lady in Darkness does not suffer fools gladly. I was one such fool, once upon a time. Now I am Twice-Warned, and I have learned better."

"Will you just shut up?" groaned the guard. "I get it, you love Atropos, but you don't have to keep harping on about it all the time. She's your world's problem, not ours."

"If I am here, then She is here as well." Emma was quietly confident of that fact. "And She has forbidden violence against us. Those violating Her edicts learn very quickly why they should not."

Over a year ago, finding herself wanting, she'd become the sort of person Sophia would approve of. That had been a mistake. Following Sophia's death, she'd found herself adrift without wind or rudder. It was only with the destruction of the Simurgh that her need to follow someone had crystallised again, and she'd plunged her entire identity into what she believed Atropos would approve of.

Even the rules that Atropos had laid down had failed to puncture her faith. While other cults she'd heard of gleefully encouraged their followers to commit all sorts of atrocities, Atropos had told hers to … be good people. To not kill even those who deserved it.

Some had left, grumbling that this was not as they'd expected things to be. Despite her own tiny doubts mounting up, Emma and the other faithful of their Lady in Darkness had remained, keeping faith and doing their good deeds; as She had put it, solving more problems than they caused. Through all this, ignoring the questions that whispered themselves to her late at night, Emma's faith had remained unwavering.

Never did she doubt, never would she doubt Atropos' right to judge and End the bad people of the world. Atropos was, and rightfully so, a terrifying presence in the city, in Emma's life.

Emma's misgivings were more subtle than that: did Atropos need the cult at all, and (more importantly) did Emma truly need to subsume her personality into the cult in order to gain Taylor's approval?

With the latest conversation they'd had, the answers seemed more and more to be … 'no'. Atropos' attitude toward the cult had always been exasperated tolerance, and she seemed to want people to be good rather than to worship her.

Atropos' admission that she didn't always know what was going to happen was what had brought on the tipping point; not because of any perceived 'feet of clay', as Anne had put it, but because she had freely admitted it. Atropos didn't care if those around her didn't see her as all-knowing. To put it crudely, she didn't give a fuck. Sophia had absolutely given a fuck about never being seen to lose.

Could I do that? Emma had asked herself. Could I live my life as a good person and not care what people thought of me? It was certainly something to ponder on.

While she was working on that, she had her role as the leader of the Followers of Our Lady in Darkness to fulfil. She didn't see it as playing a part, because she truly believed that Atropos was the saviour that Brockton Bay needed (if not the one it wanted). More to the point, as she'd told Taylor, the cult (she was self-aware enough to admit that yes, it was indeed a cult) had reached the point that if she walked away now, it would keep going of its own volition, and probably veer off track into something ugly. She owed it to the Followers to maintain its original intent, and so she would stay on as leader.

In the meantime, it was easy to slip back into the mindset, and if she could keep the guard irritated and focused on her, it would make things easier for Atropos to take him down when the time came.

She wasn't much use as a hostage, but as a cult member, she was really good at annoying people.

<><>​

Bianca

Fourteen minutes later, Atropos was ready to leave.

The cooks reported (through Tori) that she had wandered all over the kitchen, peering into every cupboard and refrigerator, before assembling a simple meal and eating it right there at the counter. Now, with her mask and hat in place and looking much more like the semi-mythical slayer of the Simurgh than she had when she woke up, she stepped up in front of Bianca. "I can shoot them or I can capture them alive," she said. "Which would you prefer?"

Bianca frowned. "You don't need to interrogate them to find out about their comrades, do you?"

"Nope. I can go straight to them." Atropos slid back her sleeve. "I don't need to ask a single question."

"Then kill them." Bianca smiled cruelly. "If they don't want to live under my rule, they don't get to live."

"Killshots it is." Flipping up the small panel, Atropos typed in a series of numbers then hit a button. She closed the panel and slid her sleeve down, then drew her pistol so smoothly that Bianca didn't even register it until it was out and ready to use. "And … go." A portal appeared before her and she stepped through it.

"Screen!" called out Bianca. At her command, a large flatscreen lowered itself from the ceiling, passing by the three that had been set up for Atropos' chair. It reached its lowest point at a comfortable viewing angle for her, and the picture came on.

As Atropos had pointed out, the camera was only just now sending its signal out, and the fight was already well underway. She saw Atropos shoot one man in the chest, then kick a gun out of a woman's hand so hard that she spun around before shooting her in the back of the head. Bianca was no stranger to combat, but that was with powers. Atropos was fast and deadly, an exponent of lethal ballet.

The last opponent fell. Atropos dropped to one knee beside him, the impact shaking the camera then the picture steadying on his head. Blood ran from the bullet-hole just behind his left ear as Atropos checked for a pulse. "Dead enough for you?" she asked out loud.

As she turned, the camera panned over the rest of Atropos' victims. They hadn't stood a chance; she'd evidently appeared in the middle of them and started shooting immediately. Bianca bared her teeth in triumph as she gloated over the carnage.

So fall all my enemies.

There was a small table off to one side, and Atropos went to it, pulling out the notepad. Murmuring to herself, she scribbled a note on the pad. Bianca couldn't see the writing from the angle, but she could hear what Atropos was saying. "If you find these people, they were idiots for opposing Goddess. Signed, Atropos."

Bianca smiled and nodded in agreement. That was a fine sentiment. It seemed that Atropos had decided to throw in her lot with the superior force after all.

For the next minute or two, Atropos prowled around the makeshift base, apparently just exploring. Finally, she pulled back her sleeve, flicked up the panel, and typed in another set of coordinates. The portal appeared before her, and she stepped through it.

The picture dropped out, of course, but Bianca was unfazed. Leaning back in her throne, she looked around at her Court. "Go, eat, if you wish. I'll be staying here. I enjoy seeing my enemies fall before their executioner."

As the screen came back up, Atropos was once more cutting a swathe through Bianca's sworn enemies. Not a shot from her gun missed, and not a bullet from the rebels even came close to hitting her. Again, she checked a couple of pulses, the drop to the floor jarring the image, but every rebel she checked was dead.

This, Bianca decided as Atropos began writing out her next calling card, was how wars should be fought.

<><>​

Miss Medic

It was time, Riley decided, that something needed to be done. As Riley Laborn pretending to be Aisha Laborn, she was acting as though she believed all was well, but the deep-seated instincts she'd retained from her Bonesaw persona were telling her that all was assuredly not well. She hated having to listen to those instincts, but they were the thing most likely to keep her alive right now, at least until Atropos showed up.

Whoever had kidnapped her and Theo was clearly willing to have her killed if they decided Atropos wasn't fulfilling whatever terms had been decided on. And if they went so far as to put a guard who was absolutely willing to kill a ten-year-old girl in the room with her, and equipped him with both a pistol and a knife and a bomb that would go off if his heart stopped, then they were more invested in 'fuck you' than peaceful cooperation. Which meant that Riley's best bet for survival was to use one of the several plans she'd already made to get past this guy, and go find Atropos herself.

After all, why should Atropos have all the fun?

Accordingly, she got up off the mattress. Breathing deeply, she began flexing her stomach muscles in a way designed to elicit a specific response. If she'd had more time, even the contents of a random kitchen cabinet, she could've been more elegant about this, but sometimes the simplest ways worked.

"Siddown," growled the guard as she approached him.

"I'm not feeling so good," she said, holding her stomach.

"Don't care." He went to shove her back.

She gave her stomach muscles one more spasmodic clench, and projectile-vomited all over his feet and legs. The bacon, eggs and OJ she'd had that morning, plus the snacks she'd been eating while they watched cartoons, all came up, splattering the unwary guard with the horrible stinking mess. Bonesaw, she vaguely recalled, had once rejiggered her digestive system so she could project flesh-eating acids over a distance of yards, but that might've been overkill here.

Even as he reacted with disgust, she brought up her fist into his groin then let go one last spray of puke into his face as he bent over in pain. Blinded, caught totally off guard, he never saw the knuckle strike that smashed into his larynx. He fell to his knees, choking; while she lacked the strength to actually destroy his ability to breathe, she'd certainly disrupted it. But he was still a big man and would recover shortly, so she grabbed his knife from its sheath and went to work.

Involuntary surgery had been Bonesaw's thing, not hers. She always asked for permission first. But in this instance, she preferred to think in terms of 'pre-emptive self-defence'.

And besides, she could always fix him again afterward.

<><>​

Theo

After Foundry left, Theo watched as the guard resumed moving. It was evident that his captor had no awareness of the visitation Theo had just experienced. He was also giving Theo the stink-eye and resting his hand on his gun butt more often.

This guy wanted to hurt someone. He wanted to kill someone.

But still, something within Theo wanted to give him one last chance. "So, hey," he offered. "You know Atropos is going to be looking for me, right?" He'd made the connection that if a powerset calling itself Foundry was all about metal, then one calling itself Ending would be all about killing, and Atropos fit that description better than anyone he knew.

Why Riley would be connected with a name like Chirurgeon, he was still trying to figure out, but that wasn't something he was concerned with right now.

The guard sneered at him. "She comes here, I'll blow her head off then I'll blow your head off. Or maybe I'll just gut you like a fish, fat boy."

Oh. Right. This guy wasn't from Bet. He'd heard of Atropos, but that was about it. It would be impossible to scare the guy if he didn't know enough to be scared. "Okay, then. If you're going to be like that, I'm just going to leave." He stood up from the mattress. "And if you're smart, you won't stand in my way."

The 'fat boy' comment shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did. He'd heard worse, from worse people, ever since he was old enough to understand what it meant. But in the twelve hours he'd been in the Laborn household, nobody had mentioned his weight, or even made a disparaging comment toward him.

Pulling out the pistol, the guard pointed it at him. "Sit your fat ass back down."

Theo took a deep breath, and activated his power. Almost faster than the eye could see, the gleaming powered armour—silver with green highlights, to get as far away from the red-and-black of the Empire Eighty-Eight as he could—formed around him. It was solid but not chunky, and he could feel the various mechanisms whirring as it spun up to full power. The visor dropped into place, allowing him to see in infrared as well as normal light. Outlines formed around the guard and the pistol he held, informing Theo of the calibre, and the minimal chance it had of penetrating his armour. It also outlined the module on the guard's harness, notifying Theo that it was a bomb attached to a heart monitor.

A moment later, the pistol went off. Theo felt the slight jar as the bullet ricocheted off his shoulder and buried itself in the ceiling. Even his hearing was protected; the noise was loud but not deafeningly so.

Grabbing the pistol in two hands, the guard shakingly aimed at his visor. The chance of the bullet penetrating that wasn't much better, but it was a possibility, so Theo brought up his left arm in a defensive pose. A kite shield was generated from the forearm, extending upward and downward with a very cool chnk-chnk-chnk-chnk sound. Theo hadn't specified that, but apparently Foundry had figured out his likes and dislikes, and included it just for fun.

The second shot bounced off the shield, just as it had his armour. Theo was done being a punching bag; he dismissed the shield and lunged forward, grabbing for the pistol. His steel-gauntleted hand closed around it, servos whined briefly, and there was a crunch of metal giving up the ghost. Opening his hand again, he dropped the mangled remains of the firearm to clatter on the floor.

"I said," Theo reiterated, hearing his amplified voice echoing within the confines of the room, "I'm leaving."


[A/N: The armour Theo is generating isn't quite as sleek as Iron Man's armour, but not as chunky as Ironmonger's. It also has options that have not been shown yet.]


End of Part Seventy-Four

 

A Darker Path

Part Seventy-Five: Pulling Back the Curtain

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


Bianca

The picture on the screen cut out as Atropos stepped through yet another portal. Bianca looked around at the sound of a footstep, to find the black-clad killer standing alongside her throne. "That's every major resistance group calling-carded," Atropos observed. "You done? Because I am."

"Not quite yet." Bianca stretched while remaining seated. The feeling of power was intoxicating. Having such a potent force as Atropos begging for her time was exactly as it should be, and exactly as it would be, until she had no further use for the killer. "My Court has yet to finish their evening meal. Once they return, we will send people to each of the bases that you hit, to find the names of every last surviving member of the resistance, to bring them to my presence. And then, you will stand alongside me as I address the world. They must learn that my rule is paramount, once and for all."

"I didn't agree to that." Atropos' voice was mild.

Bianca chuckled indulgently. "I don't give a shit if you did or not. It's what I'm saying is going to happen, so it's going to happen."

"You're making a mistake, but you do you." Atropos took off the camera and put it on the small table, then perched in the chair opposite Bianca, one booted foot up on the seat with her hands clasped around the shin. "So, I've got to ask. How do you see this playing out? Where's the win condition in all this for you? If you keep pushing people down and treating them like disposable tools, you have to know that sooner or later you're going to run into someone who can push back harder and sharper. What do you do then?"

"It'll never happen." Bianca shook her head to indicate just how wrong Atropos was in her assumptions. "I'm the most powerful person in the world. The strong rule; the weak submit. That's how it goes, in nature and society. There's nobody stronger than me, so I'm the one who gets to tell everyone else what to do."

"I've run into that mindset before." Atropos' tone was dismissive. "Can't say I'm a fan. But let's go with that. Let's say your plan A is 'be stronger than everyone else'. What's your plan B? And plan C?"

"I don't need another plan!" Bianca wanted to grab Atropos and shake her, to force her to understand. "If my Mastery does not work, I use my telekinesis. If that doesn't work, I use my force field and boost one of my other powers. What part of 'I am the strongest' do you not yet understand?"

"And when you run into someone like me, you take hostages, is that it?" Atropos' voice was deceptively mild. "Because that's so brave."

Bianca flushed when she realised that members of the Court were filing back into the room and had heard the last retort. "I needed you for a task that you were specifically good at, so I went and got you." She sniffed. "Had I wanted to merely kill you, rather than bend you to my will, you would already be dead."

"Hmm. Might not have been as easy as you think." Atropos let go of her leg and sat up in the chair. "Did you ever stop to think I might have allowed you to take me? So we'd end up here, in your throne room, with cameras trained on us all, broadcasting this to the world?"

"Really." Bianca let her scorn fill her words. "My people are loyal to me. They would not activate the cameras, nor begin a broadcast, unless I gave the word. And I have not given the word."

"You sure about that?" Atropos' shears were suddenly in her hand. She started twirling them back and forth in a near-hypnotic pattern.

Bianca stared at her, then up at the cameras arrayed around the room. They should have been dead and dark, but tiny red lights glared from each and every one. "What's happening?" she shouted. "Who turned on the cameras?"

"Not the question you should be asking." Atropos hadn't moved, save to keep twirling the shears back and forth, back and forth.

Bianca pointed directly at the nearest camera, so the person controlling it would have no choice but to know who she was addressing. "Turn the cameras off! At once!"

"And that wasn't even a question. You're really missing the point, here." Twirl, twirl. Back and forth, back and forth. The polished metal glittered in the bright lights of the room.

With a surge of anger, Bianca decided to make her will known in no uncertain terms. The red lights hadn't winked off, so it was time for stronger measures. Glaring at the camera, she brought all her telekinesis to bear on it, so it would rip free of its mounting. That would show Atropos who was in charge.

Absolutely nothing happened.

Bianca blinked. That wasn't right. She poured all the enhanced power into it that she could, and tried again.

The camera continued to exist unharmed, undeterred by her attempts to destroy it.

"And your next question should be, 'what happened to my telekinesis', right?" Atropos gestured encouragingly with her free hand. "Come on. You can do this. Figure it out."

Bianca came to her feet as the mocking tone ignited an epiphany in her mind. "You!" she shouted, pointing accusingly at Atropos. "You did this!" She wasn't quite sure what Atropos had done, or how she'd done it, but it had to be her.

Slowly, derisively, Atropos clapped as she stood up as well; the shears went away after one last twirl. "I knew you could get there. Yeah, I did it. Those people running the cameras? Resistance. I teleported them in there while we were sitting and talking. They're, uh, not quite as dead as I led you to believe."

"But you shot them!" Bianca was having trouble adjusting to what Atropos was telling her. Was this all some gigantic trick? Was Atropos trying to con her into surrendering? "I saw it!"

Suddenly, Atropos was holding a pistol in one hand and a ballpoint pen in the other. The pen began twirling between her fingers like a living thing. "Yeah, I did, but I'd already modified my ammunition so it barely punctured flesh, and I always shot to hit bone. Also, if you strike just right with the blunt end of a pen, you can semi-paralyse the diaphragm, leaving the victim unable to move. That's what I was doing to everyone nearby before the picture came back on after each jump. It wears off after a few minutes, but in the meantime, especially if I've shot them, they look really dead. The ones I had to shoot afterward, I did the same to them while pretending to check their pulses. Then I left calling cards with instructions to wait for a portal to open." She gestured, making the pen and pistol vanish again. "Meanwhile, you saw exactly what you wanted to see."

<><>​

Atropos

"But what did you do to my telekinesis?" demanded Goddess. "My force field? What have you done to me? Did you hypnotise me, to make me think I was weak? Tell me!"

"Hah, no." I grinned under the mask. "You never looked up Bastard Son, did you? If you'd asked the idiots you've got in the dungeon, they'd tell you that I killed his powers then let his previous followers chase him down. And you let me loose in the kitchens. I found what you'd be eating for your evening meal, and … added a little extra prep. Your Court," I gestured to the ex-capes staring at me like chickens at a cobra, "have permanently lost all access to their powers. Which means the only remaining member of your cluster … is you."

"I still have my power!" There was an air of desperation in her voice, as though she was trying to convince herself that this was enough. Her head came up then, and her lip curled in triumph. "And I have your hostages! Reverse it all now and kill those broadcasting, or they die!"

I knew Riley and Theo were okay, but even before Bianca gave the order, I knew Emma was in danger. Her guard was jumping the gun. Flipping open the panel, I typed in the coordinates and hit the button.

<><>​

Emma

"Repent," Emma urged. "Prostrate yourself before Our Lady in Darkness, and she will spare you."

"Shut up, will you?" The guard turned to look at the TV screen mounted on the wall. Dark and blank until now, it showed an image of a woman clad in blue and white facing off against Atropos. The woman looked arrogant and confident, while Atropos was impassive as ever. "I want to watch this."

"So, I've got to ask." Atropos sounded almost bored. "How do you see this playing out? Where's the win condition in all this for you?"

Emma felt a grin stealing across her face. Atropos never asked questions she didn't know the answer to. When the woman in blue stated boldly that she got to tell everyone what to do because she was stronger, Emma shook her head. It was evident that she'd never heard of Sophia's fate. As the conversation progressed, Emma became more and more certain that the woman in blue had no idea what was happening, and Atropos knew more than she was letting on.

And then things started going wrong, for a very specific definition of the word. By now, Emma was well acquainted with Atropos' specific brand of chaos, so she recognised the glorious cascade of mishaps for what it was. The guard, on the other hand, seemed to lack the pattern recognition to understand what was going on, and kept muttering that his 'goddess' would defeat the unbeliever.

It was only when Atropos patiently explained how she'd subverted Goddess' entire plan, as well as her regime, that the penny finally dropped for the guard. Turning to Emma, he pointed at the screen. "Tell me that she lies! Tell me that she cannot have done what she says!"

"Haven't you heard a word I've been saying?" Emma rolled her eyes. "Atropos saw your 'goddess' coming a mile away. She's done, and you're done. Give up now, and I'll—whoa!" As the guard pulled his knife and advanced menacingly on her, Emma backed away. "Trust me, you do not want to do this!"

"I serve the will of my Goddess." The gleam of light on the steadily weaving blade made the guard's resolute tone even creepier than it would normally have been. "If her decree means that I die, then I die. But you will die first."

Emma tried ducking one way, then another, but the bastard had arms like a gorilla on steroids, and he inexorably backed her into the corner. Okay, Taylor, any second now.

Nothing happened, save that the blade drew back, preparatory for a slash or a stab; Emma didn't know which, but she knew it would be bad, and she didn't want either one to happen. Adrenaline flushed through her body, making the movements seem to be in slow motion. Atropos! Come on! Quit screwing around!

The blade came in, lethally gleaming. Terror flooded through her. Our Lady in Darkness, I beseech you! Help me!

Suddenly, she fell backward as a hand hauled on her shoulder, the knife-point barely pricking the skin of her stomach before it lost contact again. Sprawling on her back in the middle of a large room, she looked up as her Lady in Darkness levelled a shotgun at the portal she'd just fallen through. The shotgun boomed, sending echoes throughout the room, then the portal vanished.

<><>​

Atropos

Stepping to Emma's side, I reached down to help her up. "You okay?" I asked.

"I live or die at Your whim, my Lady," she replied dreamily as she came to her feet, and I snapped my head around to stare at her. For a moment I wondered if she'd hit her head and gotten a concussion, then I recognised the look in her eyes.

Great. One more thing I can lay at the feet of this idiot. I just about had Emma snapped out of it, and now we're right back where we started.

"Well, let's work on living for the time being, okay?" I levelled the shotgun at Goddess, who was smirking openly at me. "As for you, do you honestly think you've won? The word's going out. Resistance will be flooding into the city. Your Master effect is not going to hold them at bay."

"I forced you to choose," she exulted with a cruel little smile. "You may overcome me, but you will forever remember and rue the day that you condemned two of your own to death to save a third. Is she truly worth it?"

"Emma?" I didn't look away from Goddess. "You can ask her yourself. She'll probably tell you that she's not. But you're working under a misapprehension here. You think the other two hostages are dead?"

"How could they not be?" Bianca laughed harshly; her eyes gleaming with malice. "The child and the boy, murdered by your action, if not by your hand. Do you think they hated you for not saving them while they begged for their lives?"

"Nope. Because I know something you don't." I put the shotgun away. "You see, your low-rent thugs screwed up big-time. The kid they grabbed? That wasn't Aisha. They grabbed her cousin Riley. Better known as Miss Medic." I glanced across at Emma. "You didn't hear that."

"I hear and see nothing that my Lady in Darkness wishes me not to," Emma promised.

"And so?" asked Goddess. "What is a healer to do against a gun and a knife?"

"You'd be surprised." I snapped my fingers, and the portal formed near me. A moment later, the thug who'd been guarding Riley stepped through, with Riley riding on his shoulders. His head was mostly shaven, and she had her fingertips inserted into glove-like ports in his skull. The portal closed behind them as she stared around. "Hi, Riley," I said. "You doing okay?"

"Uh, yeah." She looked guiltily down at the guy she was puppeteering. "I can fix him, honest. I swear, I'll put him right back the way he was."

"Don't sweat it," I said. "Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do. We're still waiting on Theo, anyway." I tilted my head as a distant thunder echoed from outside. "And here he comes now."

I was pretty sure Theo just wanted to blast his way in through the roof once he figured out where we were, but he restrained himself enough to find an entrance. The doors were shut, but I heard a whooom that marked their demise. Then he came onward, alternately walking and flying until he reached the room we were in. He drifted across the floor about ten feet up with jets flaring from the backs of his legs, then came in for a reasonably smooth landing, metal boots clanking onto the floor. The flight-jets retracted into the legs once he was at rest, in a way that would've made Armsmaster reach for a drawing board. In his hands was a massive rifle-like weapon that looked like it could bring down low-flying aircraft.

"Riley, you're okay," he said with evident relief, his suit amplifying his voice to a solid baritone. "I was really worried." He paused, staring at her. "Wait, are you a cape?"

"Long story." She grinned at him. "I'm really glad you're okay too."

"Nice suit," I said admiringly. "The plasma cannon looks pretty cool as well." It was at least four feet long, with glowing lines along the barrel. I could see the influence of several science-fiction artists in it.

"Thanks," he said automatically. "Did you know what was going to happen?"

"Not all of it, not beforehand, but enough to make preparations." I nodded toward Goddess. "Meet the idiot who thought she could put one over on us. You might call her the local version of Hitler, complete with 'master race' ideology."

"You!" snapped Goddess, and I was pretty sure she was exerting her Master ability as hard as she could. "Kill Atropos! Now! You will be greatly rewarded!"

The plasma cannon, which had been pointing at the roof, snapped down into line. As the two-inch-wide muzzle aimed directly at Goddess' head, the lines on either side of the barrel glowed a brighter and brighter orange until they were almost white. At the same time, a concomitant hum rose from the weapon.

"Go ahead," Theo said, his voice loaded with quiet menace. "Give me another order. Please."

"At ease, Theo." I strolled forward, pushing the immense gun aside with one finger. "I think she's got the message. Now for mine. Release your Mastery on everyone. Now."

"Or what?" she sneered. For someone who could die at any moment, she had a great line in bravado, though I suspected a large chunk of it was because she simply didn't believe we'd kill her.

Which made her an idiot of the highest degree, but I already knew that part.

I drew my shotgun. "You may recall I mentioned how Shins are now a privilege? This morning you had three. Now you have two. Do what I say, or that number is going to go all the way to zero."

"And I won't fix you up," Riley added, from her perch atop her current ride. "This guy said a lot of very mean things to me, and I'm pretty sure they came from you."

"You wouldn't—" Goddess began. I didn't let her finish. The word 'dare' went unsaid as I fired the shotgun, blowing her left tibia clear in half and fracturing the fibula. Her leg was blown out from under her and she spun around, face-planting on the marble floor tiles. I'd made sure not to hit any major blood vessels, but there was still a mess on the floor as she screamed and writhed and puked in agony. From the smell of it, she'd soiled herself, too.

It wasn't a pretty sight, and the cameras were catching everything.

"Riley?" I asked. "Make her lucid, at least?"

"I can do that, sure." Riley made her man-puppet kneel down, then she hopped off and trotted over to where Goddess was making an inelegant spectacle of herself. "Theo, help me hold her still?"

"Sure." Theo made the plasma rifle vanish—in itself a neat trick—and leaned down. One metallic hand held Goddess' upper body still, and the other kept her leg immobile while Riley worked her magic. In a remarkably short time, she had the bleeding under control and Goddess was blinking up at me, at least able to focus.

"So," I said, racking the shotgun with supreme menace. "Do you honestly think I won't deprive you of your last Shin?"

It took her all of half a second to make that call. "N-no," she quavered, cringing away from me.

"Good." I aimed the gun at her one remaining pristine leg. "So, as I was saying, release every last one of your slaves, and you get to keep it."

"But … the mob … they'll tear me to pieces." She looked around wildly for a way out. Unfortunately, she had nowhere to go. She barely had a leg to stand on, as the saying went.

"You should really have thought of that before you started all this. I mean, I did warn you."

"No, you didn't!" she blurted. "You gave me no chances at all!"

I sighed. "I asked you how you thought you were going to survive this. I told you that you'd regret it. I even explained that I'd bring you down the same way I did with Bastard Son. I gave you every warning possible. Now release them. I'm not going to ask again."

The memory of the recent pain shone darkly in her eyes as she relaxed her power. I felt the subtle pressure stop, and all around me the Court shifted slightly. My threatscape also altered; every last enthralled member of the population watching this on their TVs ceased to think of me in the unkindest of terms, and shifted their ire to the one who had Mastered them.

"Alright then." I holstered the shotgun and drew my shears; at the same time, I palmed the container of power-nullification gel that I'd used to dose the food in the kitchens, and touched up the blades of the shears with it.

Goddess stared up at me as I loomed over her. "What are you going to do with—ow!" She cowered back, clutching at the cut I'd inflicted on her hand. "I did what you told me to! Why did you do that?"

"I killed Bastard Son's powers." Twirling the shears to flick the blood off them, I re-sheathed them. "Weren't you listening? Did you honestly think I wasn't going to do the same to you?"

"You didn't have to blow my leg off!" she screeched.

"Yeah, I did." I grinned, though she couldn't see it. "You needed taking down a peg or two." Turning, I addressed the cameras. "Citizens of Earth Shin! As you can see, your self-styled Goddess has been brought low. In case you were unaware of who I am and where I'm from; I'm Atropos, from Earth Bet. She brought me here to eradicate the last of the resistance cells fighting for your freedom, but I had other ideas."

"So, what are you going to do now?" called out one of the ex-servants, who were currently eyeing the ex-Court in a very unfriendly fashion. "Will you be taking the throne in her place? Ruling us as she did?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I will be leaving very shortly, and taking my friends with me, just as soon as their belongings are returned to them. What you do from here on in is up to you, but I strongly encourage you to rebuild your governments with the aim of promoting equality and equity for all. Nobody, cape or otherwise, should be a second-class citizen."

"They forced rule over us!" shouted another onlooker, boosted by shouts of agreement around him. "Why should we not do the same to them?"

I let a harsh note creep into my tone. "Because that will just guarantee that the friction between you will continue forever. They will push back, just as you are pushing back now."

"And we will keep them down forever!" It was the same man. "We have the numbers, and they no longer have her!"

"No, you won't!" I pointed at him. "Capes come from you! Capes come from humanity! What would you do if laws were written making capes into second-class citizens, and then the very next day, you got powers? Would you meekly submit to the rules you helped write, or would you pretend to be normal? Pretend not to have powers? Because powers will come out! When your friends and neighbours turn against you because you're one of the enemy now, do you give yourself up? Do you run away? Do you join the other new capes who are also unjustly accused, and fight back? Do you start this whole conflict all over again?"

Silence greeted my words. I paused for a beat, then gestured at the defeated Goddess. "She thought she could build a dictatorship and rule the world, oppressing all below her. Normally I wouldn't care what you do with yourselves, but you have access to Earth Bet. So if anyone tries to start a war that might spill over into my world, or even worse, just straight-up tries to invade us … I will be back. Equality and trade gets you a damn sight further than oppression and war."

I stopped talking, and waited. Nobody seemed willing to challenge me on what I'd said, and in just a few moments, one of the ex-servants dashed up to me with three small cloth bags. In them were two phones (I guessed Theo's and Riley's), some incidentals, and a bunch of Goth-style jewellery. There were no prizes for guessing who that bag belonged to.

While we'd been waiting for this, Riley had been reversing the surgery she'd done on the mook who'd ended up as her personal transport. He wasn't pretty by the time she finished, but that was fine: he hadn't been pretty to start with.

"Okay," she said, wiping her hands off. "I'm done. We can go now."

"Excellent." I nodded at Theo. "Might want to de-armour, so you don't draw any attention when we go back through."

"Okay." One piece at a time, his armour went away to wherever he kept it, leaving him standing barefoot on the marble palace tiles. Riley immediately hugged him, and he returned the embrace.

"Wait!" Goddess—Bianca, now that she was entirely without her powers—struggled up onto one elbow. "You lied to me! You said the name of Goddess would be celebrated across the world! You said there would be a public holiday! You said!" For someone facing imminent death from the mob that she'd enslaved—an entirely appropriate death, in my opinion—she sounded quite unhappy at the perceived slight.

"No, I didn't." I turned to face her. "I'm pretty sure there'll be a public holiday to mark the occasion of getting rid of you. And maybe you've forgotten, but Atropos is also the name of a goddess."

"Take me with you!" Her eyes were wide with desperation, and she strained to pull herself up by the arm of her raised throne. "I'm begging you!"

"Sorry, you don't have a valid passport. But hey, how's that 'being stronger than everyone else' thing working out for you right now?" I touched the brim of my hat. "Toodles."

The portal formed in front of us; Riley, used to this, led the way, with Theo right behind her. Emma needed no urging to follow on, and I brought up the rear. The last I saw of Goddess was the look of abject terror on her face as more and more enraged commoners flooded into the throne room.

Not my monkeys, not my circus.

<><>​

Theo

Following Riley, Theo stepped out onto the footpath outside what he belatedly recognised as the apartment block he was now sharing with Riley, Brian and Aisha. Overhead, the sun seemed to be showing mid-afternoon. "Wow, we're home," Riley said. "That's it? I mean … that's it?" She stared at Atropos apprehensively. "What I did back there …"

"You did what you had to." Atropos put her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder. "I will never condemn anyone for defending themselves. If you'd gone all cackling and power-mad, I would've had words to say, but you pulled yourself back."

"Oh." Riley blinked. "Thanks. I … I hadn't considered it that way."

Atropos nodded. "Just remember: now you know you can keep yourself in check, it's up to you to do that for yourself."

"I will." Riley's eyes were shining. "I promise. Thank you."

"I have faith in you." Atropos gestured at the building. "You two should get inside. Brian and Aisha will be worried, and Director Renick won't be much better off. Losing a Ward on his second day as Director? Not a great start."

Theo raised his hand. "Should I, uh, join …?"

"That's up to you," Atropos advised him. "Though you could do a lot worse. Some of the Wards are transferring out of town, so there'll be more chances for one-on-one training from the heroes that are staying behind."

"I'll help!" Riley declared. "C'mon, Theo. Let's go!"

He let her grab his arm and drag him inside. Once they were in the elevator, she turned to him. "Okay, spill. How did you Tinker up that armour so fast? Where did it go? How did you even do that?"

"Whoa, whoa, wait," he protested, putting his hands up. "I don't want to have to explain all this twice over, so how about you go first? How long have you been a cape?"

Oddly, she clasped one arm with the other and looked off to the side. "Since … um, since before I started living with Brian and Aisha."

There was something going on there, but he didn't care much about the details. "So you're …" There was only one candidate for the skills he'd seen Riley use. "Miss Medic, right?" Then another piece of the puzzle fell into place, and he facepalmed. "Argh, and Brian's Tenebrae. Why didn't I see that? I grew up in a cape household!"

"Yeah, but shush. Nobody's supposed to know that."

There was one more thing he needed to know. "So, is Aisha …?"

"Nope." Riley grinned suddenly as the elevator doors opened. "Boy, is she gonna be mad at you. You just got here." And you've already got powers, she didn't have to say.

"I didn't mean to!" he protested, but he didn't resist as she dragged him out of the elevator and along the corridor. "It just happened!"

"Yeah, good luck explaining that to her." They stopped in front of the door, which seemed to be newly repaired. "Okay, is my key in here?" Riley started digging into the bag Atropos had given her.

"Look, I'll just knock." Theo took a deep breath, and rapped on the door. "Are they even—"

The word 'home' was never uttered as the door was yanked open. Brian stood there, anxiety written all over his features. "Has there been any—" The look of shock transforming to delight on his face was something Theo would always remember. "Aisha!" he yelled, even as he scooped up Riley and held her tight. "They're home! They're back! They're here!"

"They're what?" Aisha was suddenly in Theo's face, then she grabbed him and held him tight. "C'mere, you big lug! Where've you been? We've been worried sick!"

Where Riley's first hug hadn't been quite enough to make him cry, Aisha's unabashed expression of affection did the trick. Tears cascaded down his cheeks as she dragged him inside, holding him all the while. She only let go to grab Riley and give her an even more intense hug, while Brian took the opportunity to subject Theo to a back-cracking squeeze that left him decidedly short of breath.

"Okay, what the hell happened?" asked Aisha, a few minutes later. Brian was on the phone to Ms Brown, passing on the news with as much excitement as he ever showed. "We came back to find the door kicked in and you two gone. The PRT, Armsmaster, cops with sniffer dogs, everyone's been through here. Where did you go, what happened, and how did you get back?"

Theo and Riley shared a glance with each other, and Riley began to giggle. "You are honestly not going to believe it," Theo warned.

"Try me," Aisha challenged. Theo saw that Brian was also listening in.

"So, a power-mad despot from an alternate Earth managed to concoct what was possibly the stupidest plot that's ever been devised," Theo began. "And trust me, I know power-mad villains and their plots."

"Oh, come on. How stupid could they be?" Aisha gestured toward the closest window. "We live in Brockton Bay. We've had some really fuckin' stupid villains here."

"They kidnapped Atropos," Theo and Riley said in unison.

Theo watched as Aisha shared a look of horrified fascination with Brian. "Okay, yeah," she conceded. "That's a stupid plan, alright. So, how badly did she fuck them up?"

<><>​

Taylor

Emma and I stepped out of the portal outside the Barnes residence. "Well, here we are," I said. "Safe and sound."

"You have delivered me once more from evil, my Lady," she responded. Apparently not noticing my grimace under the mask, she looked up at the house. "Do You think they'll have noticed I was even gone?"

"Possibly not," I conceded. "Especially since you left your phone behind. They probably think you're with the other Followers."

"You do not know, my Lady?" She looked at me quizzically.

"I don't automatically know everything, Emma," I explained patiently. "My power doesn't fill me in on every detail of everything that's around me. I don't even get all the details of a path I'm following, just what I need to do to make it happen. I knew you were in trouble from the moment the guy drew his knife on you, but I also had other stuff going on."

"And yet, despite all the trouble I have given You, You chose to rescue me." She frowned. "What happened to the man who was attacking me?"

"Shot him in the bomb," I replied briefly. "He became a crater about half a second after the portal closed."

"Ah. A fitting end." She tilted her head slightly. "And how long before all this happened did You know it was actually going to happen?"

I led the way up the driveway. "Check my last PHO post. Look for the sentence starting with 'Be informed'. Look at the first letter in each word of that sentence."

She nodded earnestly. "I will do that, my Lady."

"Okay, enough." I patted at the air. "I get it. I rescued you, your faith got a sudden boost again. Just … can we lay off with the 'my Lady' stuff? I don't look for worship, and I don't want it."

She began to say something, then she must have noticed something about my attitude, and corrected herself. "I will try … Atropos."

It sounded fake as fuck, but it was a start. "Thank you." Raising my hand, I knocked firmly on the front door.

It didn't take long for it to open; Zoe Barnes stood there, staring at us both. "Oh, thank goodness," she said. "I was wondering where you were. Hello, uh, Atropos. I hope Emma hasn't been too much trouble?"

"No more than usual," I told her, carefully pitching my voice so she wouldn't recognise me as Taylor Hebert. "There's been a little bit of an adventure, but she can tell you all about that herself. Toodles." The portal formed behind me, leading back home, and I stepped backward into it.

<><>​

Danny

Cherie raised her head from where she'd been reading quietly on the sofa. "Taylor's home."

"Thanks, hon." In the kitchen, Danny put aside the paperwork he'd been dealing with—even with his power doing the heavy lifting to ensure that nothing went badly wrong, there was always paperwork to do—and looked over at the basement door as it opened. "Hi, Taylor. Good day?"

Taylor pulled off her hat and mask, and shook her hair out. "Well, it's definitely been an interesting one."



End of Part Seventy-Five

 

A Darker Path

Part Seventy-Six: Ripples

[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


Late Saturday Afternoon, PRT Building ENE

Director Paul Renick

"I will freely admit that when the abduction was first reported, I didn't consider that it might be connected to Atropos." Paul placed his hands flat on the desk, looking at the split-screen image in front of him. Kamil Armstrong looked sympathetic, Emily Piggot appeared thoughtful, and the Chief Director's expression was downright impassive. "We hadn't had any notification of the Barnes abduction for the simple reason that nobody had reported her missing, and the two other people taken were a Ward and the son of Kaiser. The natural assumption was that Empire remnants had taken him to act as a figurehead, and that she'd been snatched up as well. Which of course raised dire concerns about her welfare."

"Even if it wasn't connected to Atropos to begin with, it would've quickly gotten that way." Emily's tone was one of absolute assurance. "She doesn't allow crap like that to fly in her city."

"But where do we draw the line?" asked Armstrong. "Do we stand back and assume she'll take care of everything? That way lies learned helplessness, and from what I've seen of her work, I don't think she's in favour of that."

"No, she isn't." Paul paused for thought. "She expects us to do our job. In fact, she's spent the last two months making sure we can and will do our job. She's also extremely adept at working around us, if it looks like we might accidentally get in her way, but she never takes offense. So, I put everyone on it anyway. I figured, even if Atropos brings them home, it's still good training. And for all we knew, she might've been leaving it for us to get the kids back while she went after the ringleader."

The Chief Director weighed in for the first time. "Do I have this correct? She was abducted as well? In fact, the whole thing was about her, not them?"

"That's how the statements all line up," Paul confirmed. "This 'Goddess' cape wanted Atropos to wipe out all resistance to her Master power, and her best choices for hostages to keep Atropos in line were the leader of the Atropos Fan Club and the head of the Followers of Our Lady in Darkness, as they call themselves. Aisha Laborn and Emma Barnes. We know how we ended up on the back foot there, information-wise. The only thing I'm not one hundred percent sure about is whether Atropos actively invited the abduction as a way of neutralising Goddess, knew it was going to happen and planned ahead, or simply turned it around on her once she was there."

"Congratulations." Emily's voice was slightly drier than Death Valley at high noon in the middle of summer. "You've discovered the Atropos paradox. The end result is always the same, so I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it."

Armstrong rubbed his chin with finger and thumb. "What's the potential fallout of Atropos going to an alternate Earth and instituting a drastic regime change? Specifically, with a Ward along?"

"Two Wards," Paul corrected. "Technically, one Ward went, but young Anders has shown a willingness to join, and he did trigger with powers before Atropos did whatever the hell it was that she did."

"Oh, good." Emily sounded sincere. "I've only seen the preliminary report about his powers. How's Armsmaster taking it?"

"Before we get into that," Chief Director Costa-Brown interjected, "I'm going to make the call here and now, regarding Earth Shin. Goddess' abduction of a Ward constituted an official act of war against Earth Bet. The fact that she was also so monumentally stupid as to mount any kind of assault on Atropos doesn't excuse her from the consequences; it merely turns everything that resulted into her personal fault."

"And we don't have to follow up on that?" ventured Armstrong.

"Follow up on what?" Emily sounded grimly satisfied. "They might have started the war, but Atropos prosecuted it with extreme prejudice, overthrew the terrorist regime, and brought our people back home without any casualties and with an extra Ward recruit into the bargain. Win-win."

"Director Piggot is essentially correct," Costa-Brown agreed. "Also, if I'm reading these statements correctly, there's a chance that they'll open negotiations for a trade agreement. The more friendly contacts we can have with the various alternate Earths, the better."

"Good, good." Armstrong nodded. "So, Director Renick. I also find myself curious about what Armsmaster thinks about young Anders and his powers."

<><>​

Miss Militia

Hannah peered at the gauntlet Theo had removed and handed over to her. "How is this supposed to come apart?" she asked. "I can't see any screws, or even rivets." Privately, she doubted that her presence would help very much; unlike Armsmaster, she wasn't a Tinker, and anyway she didn't do power armour.

"Not sure it's supposed to." Theo shrugged. "I just want it to be there, and it is."

"So how did you remove it?" Armsmaster had been looking more and more irritated as the inspection of Theo's armour went on. "I don't see any attachment points."

"I wanted to take it off, so it came off." Theo took the gauntlet back off Hannah and fitted it on his hand, then flexed the fingers as the seam sealed itself. "See, it's attached again."

"Hmm …" Hannah mused. "Try this: take the gauntlet off, then take the outer armour off the gauntlet." It wasn't a move she would try with one of her guns, but they'd already established that Theo's powers were unlike hers.

"Sure, okay." Theo reversed the procedure, then lifted the plate off the back of the hand with zero fuss or bother. Within was an intricate array of tiny servos, pivots and other components that Hannah thought she should recognise. When she manipulated one of the fingers, she saw the corresponding movement in the exposed mechanisms.

"That can't be right." Armsmaster looked closer. "Miss Militia, do you see any Tinkertech in there?"

"No, I don't." Hannah shook her head. "Not that I'm an expert, but that all looks entirely normal to me. Theo, can we see inside the arm?"

"Sure." The gauntlet Hannah was holding folded itself into smaller and smaller sections, then vanished while the full-sized version reformed on Theo's hand. Theo pulled the armour plate off his forearm and held it out for them to examine.

Feeling the excitement of validation, Hannah pointed at the multitude of componentry. "See? It's the same. No Tinkertech. Just really high-end steel, and tech like I've seen in photos of experimental mundane powered armour."

"It can't all be normal technology." Armsmaster shook his head. "Not the plasma cannon or the flight jets. How do those jets work? Nothing that small could lift armour of that weight, not without a fuel tank the size of the armour."

Theo cleared his throat. "Uh … were you there when I talked about Foundry? I can't remember."

Hannah turned her head to look directly at him. "Foundry?" She hadn't been in the room for the earlier discussions, and this was the first she'd heard of that name.

"Yeah, um, when I was under guard, the door just opened and this guy came in. He was made of steel plates joined together like, you know, geology stuff. Like the continents." Theo waved his hands vaguely, like he was trying to capture the word he was looking for.

"Tectonic plates?" suggested Armsmaster.

"That's the one, yeah. So there was molten steel coming from between the plates and dripping on the floor but vanishing when it hit, so I figured it was an illusion or something. Also, the guard didn't move, or look at him, or even blink. Anyway, he said his name was Foundry, and that he was the personification of the power that Allfather and Iron Rain and Kaiser had, and he was bored with waiting for me to reach a trigger point—"

"Wait." Hannah knew she probably shouldn't have interrupted, but this was something she'd never heard of. "Your power talked to you? And it was shaped like a person?"

"Um, yeah." Theo made his helmet go away, then sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "Isn't that what happens with everyone?"

"Not usually, no." Armsmaster's command of understatement was impressive. "What happened next?"

"Um, he said another power personification called Ending had told him to give me a nice easy power setup instead of slam-dunking me with powers that would nearly solve my problems and mainly get me into trouble. I'm, uh, not sure, but I think Ending might belong to Atropos. He seemed pretty scared of it, anyway."

"Hm." Armsmaster's mouth twisted in wry amusement. "That certainly tracks. So … Foundry gave you your powers?"

"Ah, we talked about it, and I told him what I'd like, and he had a kind of glowing golden ball that he said was from Plasma, that I'm pretty sure is Purity's power, and that's where the cannon and the flight jets and the power for the electronics comes from." Theo took a deep breath.

Hannah was pretty sure she was tracking what was happening, but she wanted to be certain. "So … you told Foundry that you wanted power armour that you could summon or send away, as well as a plasma rifle, and boot jets … and it just gave you that power, as an expression of 'create metal from nowhere'?"

"Yeah." Theo looked pleased that she understood. "Kaiser could build armour, but he had to make it piece by piece. Mine shows up pre-formed with all the bits and pieces, so I can move around without falling over."

"So, what happens when it gets damaged?" asked Armsmaster. "How long does it take you to repair it?"

"Oh, um, it's not really an issue." Theo took his left gauntlet off and dropped it on the workbench. "Hit it."

After only a moment of hesitation, Armsmaster unracked his halberd, activated the plasma cutter, then scored a deep slice in the back of the gauntlet. The steel was evidently of very high quality, because the cutter had trouble getting a proper purchase on it. "Done," he said, stepping back.

Theo nodded, then concentrated. The gauntlet folded itself into nothingness then reformed on his hand, entirely unmarred. "See? All I have to do is make it go away, then bring it back."

"Nice." Hannah was starting to see the parallels between his power and hers. "Do you have any other tricks like that?"

"Um, well, I can also do a shield, like this." He held up his left arm, forearm horizontal, palm inward. With a series of mechanical chnk noises, a metal ridge extended outward from it, then a steel kite shield built itself upward and downward from the ridge. "And a sword." He held up his right hand in a closed-fist pose. A steel bar extruded from it, then unfolded again and again in an almost fractal manner until he was holding a four-foot-long gleaming blade with a prominent pommel and cross-guard. "Or a war-hammer." The sword broke itself down in the same fractal manner to the steel bar, then built itself up again, extending outward then bulking up at the end until he held a steel-hafted hammer with a very solid-looking head. "I wanted options, you see."

"Yes, I do," answered Hannah, as Armsmaster seemed to have temporarily lost the power of speech. "Just a question: did the power come with the skills to use those weapons effectively?"

"Um, no." Theo made the hammer break itself down again until it was just a handle, which then vanished inside his gauntlet; his shield retracted at the same time. "I can swing and hit stuff, but against someone who knows how to use them, I'd probably suck big time. The plasma rifle's got a basic aiming dot in my visor, though."

"Always useful," Hannah allowed. "I can help tutor you in each one, if you want. Are those the only weapons you asked for?"

Still wearing the armour, Theo shrugged massively. "Yeah, I couldn't think of anything really tricky. But it would be great to learn how to use them properly. I don't want to hurt anyone by accident, y'know?"

"Yes, it would." Armsmaster cleared his throat. "Skill is very important. Your power is very … useful. You're getting protection, movement, offensive ability, and scanning technology, all at once." He spoke slowly and deliberately, in a way Hannah had only seen in people who were truly pissed off. She had an idea why, but she didn't want to draw attention to it.

However, Theo seemed to notice something was off. "Um … did I say or do something wrong? I didn't mean to."

"No, no, it's alright." Hannah ushered him to the other side of Armsmaster's lab, to give the Tinker a chance to cool down. "It's nothing you did, specifically. He's just … a little intense, about the amount of time he has to put into maintaining his equipment."

"Oh. Oh, crap." Theo looked mortified. "And I've just walked in, wearing armour that I don't have to maintain or repair, and weapons I don't have to reload or even carry around. He must think I'm the worst person in the world."

"No, that would've been Lung, before Atropos killed him," Hannah joked.

"Ha," Theo said politely. "Seriously though, how do I do this without stepping on his toes?"

She nodded in approval at his question. "He's a big boy. There will always be a little toe-stepping, and not just from you. But if I were you, I'd ask his opinion on matters and follow any advice he gives you."

"Thanks." He looked relieved. "I really do want to be a hero."

She smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "I never thought otherwise for a moment."

<><>​

Laborn Residence

Brian

"I still think it's total bullshit," grumped Aisha. "I'm the one who was supposed to go off to a whole alternate earth and get awesome-as-fuck powers. I mean, I'm the head of Atropos' fan club. Who had the stones to meet with her for selfies? Me, that's who."

Brian frowned, but Riley spoke up first. "It wasn't fun at all," she chided. "There was a mean guy with a knife and a gun. You're good, but he was not a nice person at all. And if you and Brian had been home, someone might have gotten hurt. I was able to talk them into not hurting Theo, but they were really into not leaving witnesses behind."

"Jealousy isn't a good look for you, Aisha," added Brian. "Anyway, it wasn't Riley's or Theo's idea to go instead of you. And they could really have died."

He could tell Aisha didn't want to let it go, but eventually she shrugged in what looked like a resigned fashion. "Yeah, I guess. And the Barnes chick didn't get powers, so I probably wouldn't have gotten them either."

It had gotten a little hectic after Brian's call to Ms Brown. PRT plainclothes personnel had descended on the apartment in force and gotten statements from Riley and Theo. Once they'd found out about Theo's new powers (Brian had been seriously impressed when he saw the armour for the first time) he'd been conveyed off for power testing at the Protectorate HQ.

Personally, Brian had been mildly worried about Vista's reaction to Theo's colour scheme—his silver and green was a little close to her white and green—so Aisha's outburst about how unfair it was had come as a little bit of a surprise. He kind of understood the basic reasoning, but still thought she was being unfair to Theo. Also, he remembered how traumatic getting his own powers had been, and suspected she wouldn't be nearly as eager to get them if she truly understood that.

"That's probably true," agreed Riley. "Like I said earlier, Atropos would've had to deal with rescuing us each from our guards if we hadn't already escaped. I was fine and Theo got away as well, but if two of us hadn't had powers, someone would likely have died."

"I guess you're right." Aisha looked at her with a concerned expression. "If you think I'm being too hard on him, let me know, okay? I know it's not really his fault. He tried to protect you and all."

"Totally," agreed Riley. "And just so you know, even in situations like that, the chance of actually getting powers in time to save your life is kinda low. Otherwise, violent crime wouldn't really be a thing anymore. He really lucked out, just saying."

She spoke with a surety that Brian suspected came from an expertise earned in the darker parts of her history. He preferred not to think about it, focusing on how she was in the here and now. As he was about to say something to change the subject, it was changed for him.

"Hey," Aisha said, turning her head. "Pretty sure I just heard the elevator. I think he's back."

They all looked over at the door; a moment later, a key turned in the lock. The door opened, revealing Theo, with Ms Brown behind him.

Aisha was the first one off the mark; heading over to the door, she wrapped Theo up in a heartfelt hug. "Hey," she said, holding him tightly. "Sorry I said that stuff earlier. They treated you okay?"

"Yeah." He hugged her in return. "Armsmaster wasn't totally thrilled that I can just make power armour that never needs repair and stuff, but they said they're willing to show me how to fight using the weapons I can make."

"That's good. That's really good." She let him go and ruffled his hair playfully. "Even if we don't have any villains anymore in Brockton Bay, I figure they can make you into the best hero you can be, just in case."

"Thanks for bringing him home, Ms Brown," Brian said. "Is there anything we need to know about, going forward?"

"Nothing that Theo can't fill you in on himself." She gave him a warm smile. "I'm pleased they both came out of that in one piece."

"And now we don't have to tiptoe around about Brian and Riley being capes." Aisha had apparently forgotten her disgruntlement over not getting powers herself. "I definitely call that a win, right there."

Riley waggled her hand in the air. "Theo's pretty sharp. He would've figured it out in a week or so. He grew up in a cape household, remember?"

"Mmm." Theo didn't sound so sure. "Maybe two weeks. I had no idea."

Ms Brown chuckled at the banter, and nodded to Brian. "See you next checkup."

"See you then," he said, and watched the door close behind her.

There was a sudden growling sound, and Theo flushed. "Sorry about that. They barely fed me while I was there. Everyone seemed to think everyone else had gotten me food."

"We got your back," Aisha declared. "Saved you some pizza. It's in the fridge."

"You are a wonderful human being." Theo made a beeline for the kitchenette.

Aisha grinned. "Yeah, I know."

<><>​

Anne Barnes

"So, I hear you had a fun day out." Anne sat on Emma's computer chair, one heel up on the seat with her arms folded around her lower leg, while Emma sat cross-legged on the bed. "Was it really as dramatic as you said to Mom, about being kidnapped by a tyrant cape from another Earth?"

"I actually left out a lot." Emma met her gaze squarely. "I didn't want her getting worried, you see. Our Lady in Darkness was watching over me the entire time."

Anne frowned. "Yeah, that's another thing she said. Apparently she did the whole thing to get at Atropos? Doesn't that make being a Follower kind of, uh, dangerous?"

"I serve Her purpose," Emma said serenely. "With me there, the false Goddess felt confident in allowing Her to do whatever She wished, believing that my presence would keep Her from acting against the pretender's wishes. Any perceived danger was down to my lack of faith in Her capabilities." She smiled beatifically. "And now, She has freed a whole world from the yoke of tyranny."

"You're still leaving out a lot, sis. Do I want to know what happened to this 'false Goddess'?"

So then Emma told the story of what had happened once she arrived in the throne room, eliding only over the real names of the other two capes who'd been there. She seemed downright amused by Atropos' 'three Shins' pun, and was apparently unconcerned that their departure had left the depowered villainous cape to almost certainly be murdered by the mob. By contrast, the end of the story was positively anti-climactic. "And then, She brought us home."

Anne shook her head. "That would've terrified me. I'm sorry if this upsets you, but I think Atropos is scary."

"Well, She is scary," agreed Emma. "I wouldn't have come to the true realisation of my trespasses against Her if She wasn't. Fear is a great motivator to not act against Her. I suspect it's saved many lives."

"I wasn't actually meaning that in a good way, but …" Anne sighed, thinking about the general exodus of villains from Brockton Bay, and of the careful good behaviour of the ex-villains who had either been allowed to return to the city, or arrived for the first time. "Yeah, I guess I get your point."

"So, enough about me and Our Lady in Darkness." Emma grinned at Anne. "How was your day? Did you meet up with Crystal and, uh, Faultline, like you said you would?"

"How did I know it was going to get back around to that?" Anne fixed her sister with an unimpressed gaze. "I think I preferred it when you were fixated on Atropos twenty-four-seven."

"I've learned to appreciate that Her actions are not the only important things in life, and that I am not Her sole concern." Emma shrugged. "If She calls, then I will answer, but I will not intrude unless I am needed." She gave Anne a meaningful look. "But I think you're deflecting now."

This time, Anne's sigh was more aggravated. Busted. "Okay, fine, we got together down at the Boardwalk around about lunchtime, once Melanie got back from Boston. It was a bit awkward at first …"

<><>​

Boardwalk (Six Hours Earlier)

Anne Barnes

The churros were nice and crunchy, but she could only stall for so long. "So …" Anne hinted, leaning on her elbows.

"So …" echoed Crystal, nibbling at her powdered donut. They both looked at Melanie, who was rocking aviator shades.

"So," the ex-villain agreed. "We're all sober right now, yes?"

"It's been at least eleven or twelve hours," Crystal noted. "We should be good."

"I concur." Melanie nodded. "So, what do we actually have in common?"

Anne shared a glance with Crystal. "Atropos?" she ventured.

"While that's weirdly true," Crystal said dryly, "I'm pretty sure it's not a great foundation for any kind of relationship."

"Wait." Melanie lowered her glasses and looked at Crystal over them. "Did she set this whole thing up? Between us, I mean?"

"Uh, no. Absolutely not." Anne shook her head. "I talked to Emma this morning. She asked Atropos straight-up, and Atropos said she didn't know about it until it happened."

"She said as much on PHO," Crystal added. "And you'll be pleased to know that nobody's connected the dots on who either of you are yet. You're just 'the brunette' and 'the redheaded chick'."

Melanie nodded, looking satisfied. "Thought so."

"Maybe not 'nobody'," Anne cautioned. "I saw that thread too, and there were a couple of people who seemed to be reading stuff into it that nobody else was. A 'Mr Newtonian' and someone called 'Silent Whispers'. The Newtonian guy was just laughing his head off."

"Yes. I know." Melanie growled, deep in her throat. "That's Newter. He saw the video of me telling your folks to go easy on you, and worked the whole thing out. I'm not at all sure if I'm ever going to live this down in their eyes. I'm just glad Gregor doesn't really share his sense of humour, and Labyrinth doesn't understand what's going on."

"Oh." Crystal smirked. "And Silent Whispers? Who's that?"

"Probably Tattletale, if I'm any judge. She hates that I can out-think her even without a Thinker power like she's got." Melanie took off her sunglasses and rubbed her hand over her face. "But we didn't come here to talk about them. What else do we have in common?"

"I'd say 'alcohol' but that's kind of self-evident," Anne said. "Okay, come on. Movies? I like rom-coms."

"Action rom-coms," Crystal offered.

"Action," Melanie grinned. "Rom and/or com optional. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? I say no."

"Eww, haha, nope." Crystal made amazingly realistic gagging noises.

"Not my go-to, but I don't care either way." Anne cast about for another topic. "The trolley problem. Throw the lever and kill one, don't throw the lever and kill five?"

"I'd laser the fuck out of the trolley," Crystal said immediately.

"Oh, come on, that's cheating," protested Anne.

Melanie shrugged. "I was gonna say, demolition charges. Or cut the ropes with my power and let them free." With a subtle flick of her fingers, she sliced one of Anne's churros in half. "How about you?"

Anne hunched her shoulders, uncomfortable about being put on the spot. "I, uh … I've always thought it would depend on who it was and if they were important to me. Does that make me a shitty person?"

"No, it makes you human." Crystal put a hand on her arm. "The shitty person's the one who came up with that dilemma. Okay, uh … suppose you got to pick the perfect cake for your next birthday. What would it be?"

"Chocolate cake," Anne declared promptly. "With pink and white icing, and sprinkles. And the candles arranged in a nice symmetrical pattern."

"Hmm." Melanie rubbed her chin with thumb and forefinger. "Cheesecake. No icing, no candles. Minimal decoration. Just all the cheesecake." She looked at Crystal. "And you?"

"Double layered sponge." Crystal smiled in what Anne suspected was fond remembrance. "Slathered in banana-flavoured icing, with sparklers for candles."

"I do like the sparklers idea," Anne said. "Okay, what now?"

"Answer me a question." Melanie had taken her sunglasses off now, and her hands were folded in front of her. "Why did you start kissing us?" She held up one finger briefly. "I'm not judging. What happened after that, we all participated. But none of us were really expecting it. Hell, I'd always thought I was more het than bi, and seeing how surprised you were after the fact, I'm pretty sure you were too. What I'm asking is, does alcohol just flip your switch, or was it something else?"

"Ugh." Anne covered her face with her hands; she could already feel her cheeks heating up. "I knew you were going to ask about that."

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to," Crystal reassured her. "This isn't an interrogation, we're just sharing stuff about ourselves."

"No, no, it's a totally valid question." Anne knew her cheeks were flaming red by now, but this was something she had to do. "I've had this sort of kinky little fantasy for the longest time, you know? To get into a threesome with two guys, and get one guy to roleplay being a hero and the other to play being a villain, so I can pretend I'm sleeping with a superhero and a supervillain at the same time. I've read every capefic out there about that sort of thing. Never expected it to happen, never even had the nerve to try and arrange it, but … yeah. Drunk, sitting between you two … switch flipped, I guess."

For the longest time, neither one reacted, then Crystal snorted softly. "Sorry," she said immediately, covering her smile with her hand. "Not laughing at you. Just …"

"It is kind of funny," agreed Melanie, though her face was poker-still. "Though we did walk into that one, didn't we? I was just going to make sure you both got to your dorm rooms okay, then go back and sleep it off in my car, but then you both kissed me and …" A little colour touched her cheeks as well. "Switch flipped."

"Yeah." Crystal bore a tiny smile, which suggested she was harbouring secret thoughts of her own. "That definitely happened. So, are you up to going for a walk? The Rogues' Guild should be setting up just a little bit farther down the Boardwalk, and I wanted to swing by."

"I'd heard about them." Melanie steepled her fingers in front of her. "We were looking to recruit Spitfire, but then Atropos came along and we had to abort our plans. Are they any good?"

Crystal's smile grew to a grin. "Amy seems to think so. Then again, she's dating Parian, so she might be just a teensy bit biased. That aside, Parian can make you a totally lifelike doll in just a few minutes. I saw the one she did of Amy, and it'd knock your socks off."

Anne hadn't heard about that bit, but she was pretty sure that the Followers of Atropos were buying toys from Salvage to hand out to disadvantaged kids. She just hoped Emma wouldn't show up with her cult while Anne was there; she could only handle so much judgement at a time. Still, the doll thing sounded cool, and she figured she could always hide behind Melanie and Crystal if necessary. "Let's go take a look."

"Absolutely." Melanie got to her feet, and offered Anne an entirely unnecessary hand up. Anne accepted it, feeling the strength in Melanie's grip as she stood up. "Let's go do that thing."

<><>​

Emma (Evening)

"Meanwhile, I wasn't even on the same planet." Emma shook her head with a grin. "So, how'd it go with the Rogues' Guild?"

"Mel was pretty damn impressed, actually." Anne leaned back in the chair. "She had a good chat with Parian about the logistics of running a group. I'm reasonably certain I saw Parian taking notes."

"So did you get a doll made?" Emma was pretty sure she knew the answer.

"Not today, but that's only because she had a backlog." Anne rolled her eyes. "Turns out when Panacea puts up pictures on PHO, people pay attention. And it didn't help when Glory Girl showed up with Panacea, and Parian took a break so they could catch up. I'd thought Crystal might've been exaggerating a little when she said they were dating. She wasn't."

Emma chuckled; she couldn't help herself. "Yet another Atropos unintended consequence."

Anne frowned. "What's that?"

"Before She showed up, everyone in the city was wound tighter than Accord's pocket watch." Emma wasn't sure if he had one, but if he did, its mainspring would always be under strain. "But with the crime gone, everyone's had time to relax and notice each other. I'd be totally astonished if you guys were the only new relationship in Brockton Bay."

"We're not sure if we're even that yet," Anne protested. "It's only been two days."

Emma smiled. The lady doth protest overmuch. "I know."



End of Part Seventy-Six