It was early the next morning by the time they got back to the desert labs. Twice on the way back, Dib had to pull over to the shoulder of the road to sleep for a few hours. In spite of the rest stops, Dib's temples throbbed and his eyelids felt like sandpaper every time he opened them one more bleary time. He was pretty sure Mystery was skimming way more than just "extra energy" off him on the trip back, but Dib didn't have any particular need to put a stop to it. The story he'd gotten, combined with pieces Arthur had given him, made for obsessive internal analysis that seemed to count toward the concept of worship.

It was just that obsessiveness that Mystery was feeding off, right?

He shook himself, correcting the car's drift. It didn't really matter if Mystery was taking more than that. It was in Dib's best interest to get Mystery back on-board, so he was willing to take a more substantial hit.

There were probably limits on the hit he could take, though. He parked and stumbled out of the car, weaving through the tacky little food mart into the restroom lift that would take them down to his labs. Mystery followed close on his heels. Dib shut his eyes, resting his forehead against the cool metallic wall as the lift slid them down. Some food would help, he thought. Nice, hot food. Piping fresh. Sleep. Long time. Maybe days. Maybe—

"Dib, wake up!"

His eyes shot open. Shy of death itself, there was no power on earth that could prevent him from opening his eyes for that voice.

He lay on his back, halfway out of the lift. Warm hands cupped the sides of his head. A concerned face, upside down to his. Teles. He blinked, his thoughts hazy and sluggish. "Muh?" He winced, pulling off his goggles to rub an eye. "Guh… what…" He pushed himself up to his elbows with Teles' help. The room tilted a little.

"You collapsed out of the elevator," Teles said, propping him up.

Dib glanced over to the lift and caught sight of Mystery, brushing off his maroon sleeves with a smirk. A couple of Dib's drifting thoughts made loose connections with each other. "Y'know, even vampires know when to…" he shook his head, trying to clear his head, "... when to quit bleeding victims if they want 'em alive, or wanna avoid suspicion. That's enough outta me."

The smirk widened. Mystery raised one shoulder and dropped it, as if it didn't much matter to him. Deciding it was better to bite his tongue and bide his time, Dib carefully rotated himself up to a full sitting position. Teles still had a hold on his shoulder and was tilting his face with her free hand, inspecting him. "S'okay, Mom. I'm oka—" he choked, then coughed hard. "I mean I'm just fine! Mrs. Pepper! All fine! A-Okay!"

Damn the dog. Dib's face flushed hot. He was definitely not on top of his game. Teles had a very small smile on her face, but it vanished when she glanced up at Mystery. "Dib, this is… a suggestion. But, you look like you need rest. And distance from current field work."

Dib sighed, hearing her unspoken concerns, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Collecting his scattered wits, he mumbled, "Thanks for not telling me what to do. You're right, but I need to talk with Vivi first and get an update on how our resident deity is doing. Then I promise I'll… well, first I want to eat. I'm starving. Don't suppose I could snag an early portion of what's cooking?"

"Rice and curry. I'll ask Timothy to set aside a big bowl for you. And then?"

"Then I'll get some real sleep. Promise." He offered a crooked smile. "Don't let me get too used to this treatment, or I'll keep you guys down here for good."

Teles raised her eyebrows. "Well… when you get some rest, please feel free to speak with Timothy and me. There are some things we've been discussing, and we'd like to bring you into those talks."

Dib's curiosity surged, but he set it aside. There would be plenty of time to talk with them later. He pushed himself up, his joints cracking as he stretched. "Okay. Talk with you two is added to my schedule. I'll be by the kitchen soon, I hope. You," he pointed into the lift without looking back. "Heel. Good boy."


Heel. Good boy. Mystery growled through his teeth as he followed Dib. It was intolerable. Dib wasn't even the one holding his Hoshi No Tama, but the one who was holding it ordered obedience to Dib, and so obedience he was bound to give.

"Subject seems to have opposite effect on humans. Opposite to sirens, I mean." Dib muttered into his wrist recorder. "Siren can overload your brain with so much pleasure, nothing else matters, including breathing or pumping blood. Kitsune can drain out the will to do anything, including breathe and pump blood I'd wager. Let's call that the current theory. Mark it for testing when I can actually trust subjects and have some way of counteracting the effect."

Mother was the only one who truly deserved his obedience. She was the one lost in her own skin, and these people dared restrain him from feeding her again. The injunction to keep what he'd consumed to himself was like a muzzle. He resented Dib, with the sort of despairing bitterness of seeing the little metal ball land on black when you'd placed the last of your good money on red. He would not have minded turning Dib into a walking shell. Not one bit.

Dib continued. "Further note. At some point, energy drain definitely reaches more than just whatever is deemed 'worship'. Is subject lying about feeding on worship, or is worship merely the entry point to further access of all human energies?"

The man was worthless, just one of many obstacles between himself and the full restoration of Mother. And he seemed to have insinuated himself deeply into the lives of key members of the group in Mystery's absence.

Of course, many of those key members themselves were now obstacles.

He frowned, his steps slowing. That thought didn't seem as… correct… righteous… as it had the other day. Vivi's face filled his mind. There was a muddy sense of a sharp, biting hurt from all memories of her, a hurt that centered wholly on himself, a bitter scent that had tinged his hazy experience in the days leading up to Dib's interference.

She was an obstacle as well, though! Both her and her confounded soulmate. He ran his tongue along his teeth. Breaking Lewis down for emotional components might well fully restore Mother, if he could just separate Lewis out for a few seconds.

Bad gamble were the words that seared him, along with the guilt of one who'd gone and bet away the family nest egg. Uneasy, Mystery glanced up as they passed into the vault and approached the mansion. The second he'd found Mother, everything had been so very clear. Where had that all that surety gone?

They mounted the steps of Lewis' mansion, and Dib knocked on the door. A few moments later, Dulcie opened the door, beaming up. "Dib!" She greeted him with wide open arms, and he crouched to receive the hug.

Mystery took a step back. There was an aura about the child, a hard and cutting light. Did Dib not—of course he didn't sense it. What a stupid question. Mortals didn't see anything as it really was until it bit their arm off.

Now where had that thought come from?

"Hey, Dulcie. Good to see you. Listen, I think the heat's going to be turned up a bit in the mansion, soon. It would do my nerves a world of good if you keep clear of it for… maybe a day? Think you can do that?"

Worry bloomed all around her, but she nodded. "Lemme get Chloe. You got a room for us?"

"Yeah. Not as comfortable, but it's better than concrete. I think Chloe would be fine, though, if she wants to stay."

Dulcie shook her head. "Nope. We have important work to do. Tell you all about it later. We'll take the back door out, so don't look for us!" She winked, and Dib grinned as Dulcie darted back into the mansion. Mystery released the breath he'd been holding. She was too… bright.

Strings whispered in the soft-lit foyer as they entered. Candles burned low at even intervals in sconces. On the right side of the room, Vivi cradled a violin between her chin and left shoulder, supporting it with her left hand. Her right hand drew a bow back and forth, occasionally pausing to pluck a string with her fingers. Strains of some lullaby. It sounded vaguely familiar.

Her hair floated around her head, the ends shimmering with wisps of pink, and large curved rib-bones hugged her torso. An incongruous black podiatrist boot outlined her right leg all the way up to the knee. She floated a full three feet off the ground, drifting slowly from side to side in rhythm with the melody.

Dib sucked in a breath, hard and sharp, and pulled out a datapad, lifting it high to capture a reading of this manifestation. Rolling his eyes, Mystery turned toward the side of the room that actually mattered.

They'd given Mother a sort of nest, a heaping mound of pillows with a divot in the middle that she puddled in. There were fewer distortions around her. Here a beetle scuttled off to take wing as a flying fish and vanish, there a set of fingers scuttled away and dove into the ground, but for the most part her surroundings were calm. She herself still boiled with innumerable shapes, faces, and parts, yet even this, he noted with some relief, seemed to shift at a slower pace.

Mother did not sleep, but Mother seemed less restless. Still, she mumbled to herself, and Mystery edged closer. They had not forbidden him from being near her, only from feeding her.

"Gentle stream. Gentle streamwater, blossoms on the wind, ah. Cherry, cherry blooms through the ear." She murmured nonsense to herself. His lips pulled back from his teeth. Who were these mortals to hold his soul? To keep him from doing his duty to Mother? She who shaped his existence lay there babbling like an asylum inmate, forcing him to gorge while Mother went wanting.

The music stopped. Dib spoke, but Mystery tuned out the fool's words. He approached the nest, keeping his voice soft. "Hello, Mother."

A dog-faced snake peered out from a fold of crumpled flesh. "Child? Mine. Mine child, is with the different face."

Mystery knelt, aching in every cell to reach out and touch her. "Yes, Mother. I visited a place of worship today. I fed well." Surely she would take his meaning. He could not be disobedient if she took nourishment from him.

She pulled back, whimpering, "Wherefrom? Whofrom? No, no more anger of the Nametakers, givebackall!"

"Shhhh, Mother. I did not steal from them. I'm no fool or traitor." A growl slipped out with the words. "It was unconventional reverence, true, but it can be found just laying around if you think a little differently. Not directed to any deity, I swear."

Hesitantly, a tendril reached out from the mass, twisting into a feather, a mass of little tentacles, then touched his forehead as a cat's paw. For a moment he floated in a sense of profound relief. He was doing what he was meant to. Everything would be well.

She recoiled with a cry. "Garbage! Garbage! My child hurts, starves, devours garbage!"

He drew back, flushing with shame and mortification. Bad gamble. "Mother, please, there is none to be had like the old days. I went everywhere, the shrines are neglected or torn down. If there was a drop left, I would bring it!"

"Only garbage for the childmine," she moans. "Terrible horrible childbringer. Never should have. Should have known, oldways die so children die, or children steal and eat garbage, then hate me forever and destroy!" She surged out of the nest, sucker-lined wheels spinning in place and spitting off dandelion seeds. "Should not be life-bringer, should be deathmaker. Give to me Arthur!"

"I've tried, Mother, but they have—"

"Hello Shiro Mori." Dib pulled up next to Mystery, his trench-coat swishing dramatically. "We haven't been introduced. My name is Dr. Dib Membrane. I understand you have spent most of your life as a Japanese deity."

His voice thrummed with unfeigned excitement. Mystery stared over at him. Dib's goggles were snapped firmly in place. It had to be the only reason the man could look at Mother without getting sick, but where had all that energy come from?

"I know you have met Vivi already."

"Veevee. Important one. Protect," Mother agreed.

"Yes, well, she's very well protected by Lewis on the paranormal front, and on the legal front I do what I can for her. I'm her employer, and currently you're all in my facility. Vivi has told me a bit about what they've been doing to help you, and I was wondering if I might speak with you? This is my favorite thing to study, you see, and I might be able to figure out a way to help you faster."

Obsession. The man was running on fumes, but nothing could quench the obsession, a formidable force which he intentionally offered to Mother.

"Unconventional worship," Mystery sighed. "This is no garbage, Mother."

Dib gave a half-bow, extending a hand to the huddled mass at his feet. Mystery saw him sway slightly. "I'll ask for some food to be sent in, so we can talk and I can eat at the same time. What do you say?"

The mass extended a claw for a moment, before retracting it. "Nogood. Take too much then become clean-hands killer. Only kill bloody hands, bloody paws. Nothing left in you, cannot wring stones."

"Oh." Dib sighed, looking both relieved and disappointed.

Mother wavered. "But come back. Talk later. Lots of ask. Answers you get that I have, if I have."

Dib brightened. "So you'll still be here when I get back?"

Clever human.

Mother burbled sadly. "Nogood going to unmake the Arthur like this. Stay. Talk. Recover. Come back another time, stoneman."

Dib coughed. "Yes, well. Then, I will leave you to it. If you can handle present company, Vivi? Lewis?"

"Oh, yes." Vivi's voice was frighteningly saccharine. She rolled toward them in a compact wheelchair, an icy smile on her face. "We can play host to one more."

Mystery was not at all fond of the smirk on Dib's face, weary as it was. He saluted Vivi and left the mansion.

"Shiro, do you mind if I borrow Mystery for a little while?" Vivi asked, sweetly. "He and I need to have a chat. It's a bit overdue."


Note: Chapter title excerpted from Wolf In Sheep's Clothing by Set It Off.