Phenomenal Cosmic Power
Checkmate 3.2

"So," Taylor said. She stood, arms crossed, in my apartment, leaning against my front door. It was about an hour after we met at Brian's door, and Dinah had made herself scarce. The little traitor. "What are the odds of you living across the hall from Brian?" she asked guardedly.

"Why don't you ask him?" I groused. "I've been living here for weeks; he just moved in."

"Oh," she said, her shoulders slumping, then tensing up again as suspicion crossed her face. She glanced over her shoulder, back at the door. "Do you think...?"

I shook my head. "Doubt it. He was really surprised to see Dinah here. I don't think he even knows who your boss is, with or without the mask."

"I see," she said neutrally. She glanced at the bedroom door. "That was quite a performance Dinah put on," she added.

"Surprised me too," I admitted with a shrug. "Precogs, what can I say?"

We lapsed into silence for a moment.

"By the way," I said, breaking the silence, "I thought you should know. The Wards kinda picked out a name for you after the bank job." I'd been meaning to bring this up since the fight with Bakuda, but it kept slipping my mind. "They're calling you Skitter. If you've got something else in mind, you should probably act quickly on that."

She winced. "Yeah," she said unenthusiastically. "I heard. Not a big fan of it, but it works, and it's better than anything I can think of." She shook her head. "Now, what was that about you getting attacked?"

My turn to wince. "Uh, yeah. About that. I've got good news and bad news."

"Start with the bad news," she prompted.

"Well, I would," I admitted, "but it'll actually make more sense if I start with the good news first."

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine."

"Sophia Hess should no longer be a problem for you," I said hurriedly. "And there's a good chance the others will get taken to task as well. Along with the Winslow administration."

Taylor stared at me. I resisted the urge to cringe. "What. Did. You. Do?"

"Nothing!" was my instant reply. I don't think she believed me. "I swear!" I added. A moment later, I sighed. "Okay, look, remember when we first met?" She flinched. Oh, right. The bank. "Outside the school, I mean," I clarified.

"Yeah?" she confirmed warily.

"Well, the trio were about to meddle, but I couldn't afford that, so I kind of sent Sophia a telepathic warning to back off," I admitted. "I guess she took offense at the idea of a cape actually caring about you and didn't realize who I was, so she tried to murder me, planning on setting me up as a villainous Master." I tilted my head. "It, uh, didn't quite work out according to plan."

"So... those guys were PRT?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Let's just say, the PRT doesn't take kindly to a probationary Ward attempting to frame and murder a new and powerful independent hero with good PR and connections, and the mayor made his displeasure with the idea of a Ward trying that against a hero who kept his niece unkidnapped very clear."

Taylor blinked. "So... she's..."

"Under arrest for home invasion and attempted murder while they process her through Master/Stranger protocols on the off-chance she's been Mastered or replaced by a pod person or something," I finished for her. "And she was recorded basically admitting to the locker. And trying to murder Grue a while back. And killing at least one other person. Plus there's whatever evidence is on her phone or among her personal effects. From what I understand, they're pulling out all the stops on the investigation, even looking into her probation officer, and once they clear her through M/S protocols, if they determine she's really her, they're pretty much going to throw the book at her. So yeah."

She stared at me. I couldn't read her body language, but I wasn't hearing the buzzpocalypse, so that was a good sign, right? "And the bad news?" she asked.

"Wellll..." I hedged, "if the PRT goes looking into why I was hanging out with you to begin with, they might piece together your identity."

She nodded slowly. "That's right. That was why you didn't report her yourself."

I nodded. "I told them my Thinker power told me you needed a friend - it's technically true - but I don't know how well that'll hold up in the long run."

She shook her head. "I guess I'll just have to be careful," she said with a sigh. "You know, Callie, that's what I like about you. You don't lie to me, even to make me feel better. Or, I guess, even when you screw up."

I shrugged. "I've found that honesty is usually the best policy," I said with a shrug. "Even - especially - when it means suffering setbacks, consistent honesty offers its own reward in reputation. A reputation for dishonesty costs you a lot."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, think about it, Taylor. With everything she's done to you, would you trust Emma to return a favor or keep a promise?"

Taylor snorted. "You're joking, right?"

"And a reputation for dishonesty is when everyone thinks that of someone."

She tilted her head thoughtfully. "I get it."

"Now, a reputation for honesty? That opens doors, wins allies, and attracts opportunities. And, on the very, very rare occasions lying is absolutely necessary, it makes you a lot more convincing. I try to avoid that, though."

She frowned at that, eyes narrowing suspiciously. I said nothing. "You lied to Brian, though."

I pursed my lips. "Caught that, did you?" I acknowledged. How to explain? That part had been all me, really. I - Callie - had absolutely hated the very idea of deceiving or manipulating people; secret identities and combat feints were one thing, and even the occasional infiltration mission had been borderline for her, but the kind of calculated deception I'd pulled on Brian was on a whole other level entirely. "That's actually an excellent example of what I was saying about how honesty helps in deception," I said. "It's hard to pick out a lie when there isn't one, and everything I told him was true, as far as I know. But yes, I misled him, deceived him."

"Why?" she asked, wrapping her arms around herself and pulling back defensively.

"What were my options, Taylor?" I asked plainly. "Lie to him outright? Blackmail him?" I shook my head. "I don't want him as an enemy. He's made some dumb choices, and some day, he's probably going to answer for them, but his heart was in the right place, and I'm not going to be the one to do that to him if I can help it."

"You could have told him the truth," she said. "We could have brought him into this."

"What? Tell him that Dinah's a precog so powerful Coil - his boss - would do anything to get his hands on her?" I asked. I shook my head.

"Why not?"

Why not, indeed? From what I remembered, when Coil had revealed his kidnapping and drugging of Dinah to the Undersiders in canon, only Taylor had been bothered for more than a couple of minutes over it. I couldn't trust them. Lisa, at least, had her own reasons for wanting Coil dead, and while I could get Brian to be less enthusiastic about working for Coil with my insinuations, the fact remained that the situation he had put himself in with regard to Aisha...

"Brian may not realize it yet," I answered quietly, "but Coil has leverage on him, and he's the sort of person who wouldn't hesitate to use it."

"What kind of leverage?" she asked with a frown.

"You know Brian's got a sister he's trying to get custody of, right?" I asked. She nodded. "What do you think his odds of getting custody would be if the authorities ever find out he's a supervillain?"

Her eyes widened. "Oh."

"Yeah." I nodded. "'Oh.' For her sake, he's already decided he's perfectly okay with stealing from innocent people and beating the crap out of anyone who gets in his way. With that in mind, if he's given the choice between helping kidnap Dinah or being outed by Coil and losing any chance of ever getting custody of his sister, which way do you think he would go?"

She didn't answer, and I let the question linger.

After a long moment, she broke the silence. "I... I guess I can see that," she allowed. "I suppose the ends justify the means."

"Sometimes, they can," I corrected her. "A little deception - not even technically a lie - against an innocent little girl's freedom? That's an easy, easy call. Take your little undercover operation as another example. Not letting the PRT know everything we know about Coil in order to make sure he goes down and that you and Lisa and maybe the other Undersiders get out of it with a good deal? That's something I, at least, feel is justified. Some would argue that it isn't. On the other hand, others would argue that even murder can be justified, under the right circumstances."

"Like... a kill order?" she hazarded.

"Ehh..." I held my hand up and waggled it back and forth a bit. "Killing someone with a kill order isn't technically murder, since murder is homicide that is not officially sanctioned by the ruling government. That's why active duty combat soldiers, for example, aren't automatically considered murderers. Well, outside demagoguery, anyway." I paused, noting an odd look on her face. "What?"

She shook her head. "Sorry," she said wistfully. "You sound like my mom." I... had nothing to say to that.

So I didn't.

Instead, I shifted back to what I was saying before it got weird. "Anyway, all that aside, it's important to remember that you only ever need to justify the means if the means themselves are wrong, and even if you can justify them, that doesn't make them any less wrong. So if you ever find yourself justifying everything you do? It's probably time to reexamine your situation."

"You've... really thought this through," she mused. "So how do you know when something is justified?"

"Some people look at it as a pure numbers game," I answered, then shook my head. Cauldron was a perfect example of that kind of thinking; I'd have to keep an eye on them. "Personally, I don't subscribe to that. Seeing people as numbers dehumanizes them, and that's the first step to pretty much every act of genocide in human history. As far as I'm concerned, there's no hard and fast rule. If you go far enough, someone will try to stop you, maybe even me, but ultimately, it's up to you to figure out where you're going to draw the line and how far you're willing to push it. No one else can do that for you, because at the end of the day, the only person who actually has to live with you is... you."

I let her digest that.

"Would you lie to me?" she asked quietly. I suspected what she really wanted to ask was if I would mislead her like I had Brian.

"Like I said, I try to avoid getting stuck in that kind of situation," I reminded her, "but if I had to? To save a life or in a situation like with Brian?" I leaned back and sighed. "Yeah," I admitted regretfully. "Yeah, I would."

She looked conflicted over that. Fair enough. But I wasn't going to lie to her - not even about lying to her - unless I really had to. After a moment, her face settled on a determined expression.

"Have you lied to me?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. I met her eyes with mine and elaborated, "There are things I haven't told you: things that don't involve you, things you wouldn't believe, things you can't do anything about, secrets that aren't mine to share. But I haven't lied to you."

She held my gaze for a long moment, then gave a curt nod. "All right."

A/N: Callie is being honest here. If she has lied to Taylor, I, the author, have forgotten it when Callie wouldn't have, so please let me know so I can make corrections.

This is the chapter that just kept growing. And I seem to have lost the humor somewhere, damn it. Next time!