So Tak's back, for the first time in several chapters, and in fine form, too. I really enjoyed this chapter, because I find her the most fun to write when she's like this - dominating the dialogue in an argument or an address, swinging between cool-calm-and-collected mode and fire-breathing dragon mode (which was pretty much her modus operandi in-series anyway). Of course, the stakes here aren't exactly life or death...but when you're fifteen, there's nothing scarier than a pissed-off parent.

53. The Shitstorm Raging

"I know you aren't serious."

Mum sat in front of me on the bridge of the Massive, enshrined in her lounger. She hadn't risen to receive me, and she didn't rise now. She just sat, somehow seeming to look down on me even though she sat and I stood, a serpentine half-smile crooking one corner of her mouth. Unlike a real smile – though I barely knew how a real smile would look on her face – it didn't reach her eyes, and they looked as cold and hard as the eyes of her statue in the square.

"Would you care to hear how I know?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I know because no issue of mine would ever make such a foolish, audacious request. My daughter does not fraternize with slave races, and she does not ally herself with them above her own people; she would never neglect duties with which I had entrusted her to pursue a human factory drone.

"She does not waste opportunities or disrespect her superiors. The thought of defecting from her post would never enter her head." Her fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on the arm of her lounger, her smile thinning as it widened. "You're very amusing, Vix. But the time for telling jokes is over now."

Standing behind her, Mom didn't have to mouth I told you so; her eyes said it clear as a well-tuned transmission. My mouth felt dry, my tongue numb. "I love Tren, Mum."

Her smile faded, but didn't disappear. "Perhaps you're having an identity crisis, hm?" she said, her voice silky with condescension. "Your human side is clouding your judgment. Perhaps this is my fault, for sending you into that hotbed of human corruption.

"You've been living among humans for the first time, tempted by their vices and desires, and you've become confused; you believe yourself more human than you really are. I understand. I should never have put you in a position to question your allegiance—should have protected you from the weakness of your nature."

"It's not about identity, Mum. I would feel the same way about Tren if she were Irken or anything else. I don't understand why it's a problem for us to be together—why you can't deal with it."

At last, her smile vanished completely. "I am the Almighty Tallest," she snapped. "I do not deal with anything. I make the decisions, and it is your responsibility to deal with them."

I could feel my composure slipping, giving way to indignation. I knew getting emotional wasn't going to get me anywhere, but Mum wasn't even trying to hear what I had to say. There was only so much anger I could swallow. "So what?" I demanded. "You're saying no just to lord your power over me? Give me one good reason – one real reason – why I shouldn't be allowed to be with the person I love."

"You don't love her, Vix. You are infatuated with her, and it will pass. You're only nine years into a very long life, and already you've decided you want to spend the rest of it with this girl. Who do you suppose is going to have to deal with the consequences when you figure out that it wasn't a good idea?"

She rose from her lounger and began to pace the bridge, circling me slowly with her hands clasped behind her back. "No doubt, the human in you will lead you to entangle yourself in a number of these relationships throughout the years, with humans as well as—other races. I will not attempt to interfere with them, but I will tell you this: I will afford no one special treatment just because you've taken to mooning over her.

"I will not set a precedent for freeing every slave who catches your fancy, and saddle the Empire with a small army of your cast-offs floating around the universe in Irken cruisers. I wonder, did you think at all about the implications of this request before you made it? Or do you simply—selfishly—expect me to clean up your messes even now? No matter the fallout, mm, so long as you have what you want when you want it?"

"It's not like that!" She glided behind me, like a snake along a branch, and I whirled around to face her. "You have no right to tell me how I feel! I love Tren, more than I've ever loved anything or anyone, and it's not going to pass!"

She regarded me disdainfully. "You believe that now."

"I know it now, and I will forever! Why are you being like this, Mum? Why are you treating me like a little kid?"

"Because you have behaved like one! I trusted you with an incredibly important job, Vix – a job millions of other people, vastly more qualified than you, have been working toward for decades – and you threw it away to chase after a slab of human flesh. Do you even know what's going on on Earth right now? When was the last time you met with your supervisors, or conducted performance reviews? Have you done anything to deserve your title over the past four months, or was this job just a vacation to you?"

Okay, so I'd been a little distracted by Tren over the past couple of months, but I couldn't believe she thought so little of me. "Of course I—"

"Be silent while I am speaking!" she practically shouted, and I braced for fear she would shove me off the platform. Instead, she came forward and grabbed my face in her hand, jerking my head up so that I was blinking into her eyes.

"When I was an ordinary soldier," she hissed an inch from my face, "clawing my way through the ranks at the Academy, sweating for every small victory, I would have killed just to be considered for a directorship. If I'd found out that a spoiled little prat like you had been handed that job and spat on it, it'd have destroyed my faith in the Empire."

She let me go and strode back across the bridge, the tails of her gown swirling like stormclouds. For a venomous second, I wondered how anyone could love her, cruel and arrogant as she was—how Mom could even stand to be around her, much less hold her, kiss her, touch her like I'd touched Tren. It would be like making love to a shockrod. My lip curled at the thought.

"Tren says you're a monster, you know," I said, finally giving in to pettiness – figuring that if I couldn't convince her to see my side, at least I could give her a reason to lie awake tonight.

"She says you're a tyrant and your subjects are nothing but sheep. You do horrible things for no reason, like a little kid knocking over block towers—you murdered billions of humans and cast the rest into a living hell, just because you're bitter and you can't let go of the past. People try to kill themselves to escape what you've done, and you don't even care."

"You understand nothing," Mum said sharply. "I have done only what is my right and my duty as the leader of my people. You would do well to remember they're your people as well."

I lifted my chin. "I don't know who my people are anymore."

I saw her tense for a moment, her hands curl into fists. Then – all of a sudden – all of her anger seemed to withdraw from her, in a single, startling blow. She began to stroll lazily along the edge of the bridge platform, a smug smile stretching out on her face like a lion in the sun. Beside the empty lounger, Mom watched her warily; I refused to let her intimidate me.

"You would be wise," she said coolly, addressing the crew in the ring, "to observe what has happened here, and to learn from what I now realize was a mistake. Would that I were infallible, instead of merely almighty.

"There exists one compelling argument against the commingling of races, and it stands before you on this bridge. Relationships like the one for which Director Vix requests a sanction should be prohibited, if for no other reason, then on the grounds that they could lead to the abomination of crossbreeding – producing more vile, ungrateful beings like this monstrosity I was foolish to create."

Mom sighed, shook her head, and rubbed the bridge of her nose, muttering something under her breath. Even if she'd spoken it aloud, I don't think I'd have heard it, over the sound of my blood boiling in my ears. Not once—not once—had anyone said anything so horrid to me, not in nine years of sidelong glances and insincere smiles.

I knew Mum could be vindictive, but I'd never imagined I would suddenly agree so vehemently with Tren. That I could hate her as much as I hated her now, standing there looking in my eyes and calling me a mistake. I'd never expected to be angry enough to do exactly what Mom had all but begged me not to – to want to say the worst thing I could say to her, and wipe that smirk off of her face.

"It doesn't matter what you think of me," I said quietly. "I don't need you. You don't have to love me, because Tren loves me more than anyone, outside and in. My mind…" I flashed a millisecond of a grin, so that she couldn't miss my meaning if she tried. "And my body."

All of the color drained from Mum's face, taking her satisfied smile with it. Mom's eyes widened and she clapped her palm to her forehead, hissing what sounded like shit, Vix! For a second, Mum looked as if I could have blown her over with a breath—until all of her strength returned in a gust, and she stormed over and struck me across the face.

"YOU FILTHY LITTLE BEAST!" she roared, hardly giving me time to reel before she smacked my other cheek. "How dare you? How DARE you?! Polluting yourself with that piece of breathing garbage—desecrating this body I made! If you're going to defile this flesh, you don't deserve it! I should skin you alive!"

She'd grabbed me by a hunk of hair and was slapping me turquoise when Mom came over to pull her off of me, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and steering her away. "Simmer down, Sticky," I heard her say as I stumbled back, breathless, my eyes stinging more than my face. "You don't have to beat the poor kid senseless."

"You can consider yourself fired!" Mum was still screaming. "You'll never see that Earth rat again! I'll lock you away forever, if that's what it takes—you won't see the outside of this ship until your ashes are ejected into space!"

I ran from the bridge with my eyes hot with tears, shaking with impotent rage, vowing I would be with Tren if it sent the whole of the Empire up in flames. Mum can beat me half to death if she wants, I told myself, gulping for breath as I tore through the corridors, and I'll drag myself back. Let her lock me up; I'll break out. No matter what. No matter what.