Vivi's wheelchair slid itself smoothly down the hallway. Her hands remained in her lap, fingers clenched around the hem of her sweater. The bony ribs were gone, but wisps of pink still drifted off the ends of her hair like smoke. Mystery observed her from behind, keeping pace as she led him deeper into the mansion.
If there was ever a time to present a neutral face, it was now. Nevermind that she smelled like finely simmered anger, ignore the fragrant conflict stewing between the two souls in one body. No, don't ignore it. Stoke it, perhaps, and there might be an opportunity. An unguarded, outraged moment where Lewis was separate enough to snatch. That was the opening he would look for. With Lewis gone, they would lose hold over his Hoshi No Tama as well. Then he could return to perfect service of Mother.
And he had plenty of aces up his sleeve. He knew Vivi backwards and forwards. If anyone could send her flying out of control, he could.
A dim warning flickered in his mind, but he pushed past it. Sometimes you had to go all in to win big.
Abruptly, a door on the left swung open. Vivi entered and Mystery followed, finding himself in a perfect replica of Vivi's apartment bedroom. There was her queen-sized bed with rumpled comforter and lumpy blue afghan, her single venture into the world of handmade crafts. She'd started and completed it in three sleepless days on a manic impulse. On the floor lay piles of clothing, lumped in semi-reasoned-out categories only Vivi could discern. Well, Vivi and himself. That one was the day-old-and-still-can-wear pile. That was the unbearably-smelly-needs-washing-ASAP pile. What was in the laundry basket had been freshly washed and was awaiting a proper sorting, should Vivi ever have the focus and desire to actually put her clothes in the correct drawers. Most of her drawers held clothes she hadn't touched in months. Empty orange tubes littered the room.
None of this actually existed here. It was merely a visual recreation. Why didn't Lewis recreate it neater? He'd picked up after Vivi enough times to make it clear he was a more organized sort.
Vivi transitioned carefully from the wheelchair to the edge of the bed, using her good leg to get over. She snapped her fingers and the wheelchair dematerialized in a burst of pink flames. Her smile was still frozen in place and her eyes too-bright. These were not signs of instability, no. She was genuinely livid with him.
"Where do I even start with you?" Her voice trembled. "The list is too long and all mashed together in my head."
Mystery arched one brow with a touch of derision. He pulled up a laundry hamper and sat across from someone who couldn't bluff if her life depended on it, who played every card no matter how bad a hand she had. This would be simple. "I don't know, Vivi. Why don't you begin at the beginning? Seems like a common starting point." He kept his tone light. Neutral. Start with a little needling and move up.
"The beginning?" she laughed, and it was a harsh sound. "What is the beginning anymore? There's always more and more that I didn't know. Stuff that happened before the beginning becomes the new beginning, and whoops, looks like that wasn't the start of the story after all."
She'd left an opening. Mystery shrugged, fiddling with his cuffs. "If you can't pick a topic of conversation, I suppose I can just sit here while you cry and bemoan how miserable everything is and how it's both your fault and not your fault at the same time. I suppose I could lick your face and act like a good doggie while I take just enough of the edge off your swing that you don't try and empty all the medicine bottles at once. Just like old times."
She sucked in a sharp breath. "Just like old times, huh? Do you really remember old times?"
"I remember everything with the perfect clarity that comes with not caring about any of it." Mystery affected mild amusement. "Those times mean nothing to me. You mean nothing to me beyond survival, Vivi. You never really did."
She held very still. Bitter hurt leaked off her. Fresh blood in the water, but she had been bleeding like this for a long, long time. For a moment, this realization disturbed him. She hadn't yet discarded her prior understanding of him, in fact she still clung to some faulty perception of what he used to be.
He lifted his lips away from his teeth, baring a menacing grin, and allowed himself a ration of resentment. "You think you should mean something to me? I was only ever created as a vessel and a mirror and while I was apart from Mother, I was happy to serve some function under you instead of her. There is nothing in me that did not come from someone else. I was never meant to hold onto these sources of energy that weren't mine to begin with. What is truly mine, however," and here he leaned forward, encroaching on Vivi's space. "You have stolen from me. And you have the temerity to ask if you mean anything to me, when you hold my very existence in your grasp."
She didn't flinch, and she didn't break eye contact. The plastered grin was like a crumbling dam, barely holding back the hurricane-driven waters inside her. "I see," she said softly. "You think I'm an idiot."
He blinked.
"You think you can push my buttons and get me to throw your soul gem at you in a fit, like I'm an idiot who hopes that you'll remember your inherent goodness and hopes we'll be all hunky dory and huggy and hopes you won't be trying to eat what's left of my husband because hey," she stood to her good leg all of a sudden. "We're all on the same team, right? Is that what you want to happen? So I can watch you turn on me and tear everything to pieces?"
The small warning in the back of his mind rang a little louder as he stood to match her. He was taller and she had to tilt her head to look up at him, but she still advanced on him, and he found himself taking a step back as her hair drifted upward, igniting. She opened her mouth, and Mystery could sense the dam about to break, about to flood out everything she'd stored up to shout at him. He tensed, readying himself to strike. Any moment now, he might see his chance. The temperature rose and the air thickened, but then Vivi's mouth snapped shut.
Her jaw jerked once. Twice. She exhaled a furious cry through her nose. Her face went from pale to crimson by degrees and the cords in her neck stood out. The hair on the back of Mystery's neck rose. What was this response? What was she thinking?
Her lips pulled back and she shrieked between her teeth, her fists clenched, her body shaking. But she offered nothing to him, no. Her unspoken hurt and fury saturated the room, taunting and teasing his senses. He was still forbidden from feeding off her. Yet it was only Vivi's emotion slowly crisping the walls black. He could not scent Lewis' emotional signature at all. Mystery had forgotten how much she could exude, even under normal circumstances.
Mystery hadn't pushed them hard enough. He needed Vivi to lash out, to make some mistake with her words and release him.
"You think you're being intimidating?" He gestured to the bedspread, now smoldering. "What exactly are you trying to accomplish? If it's—"
"Shut. Up." Lewis said, but there was no anger in his tone. Only strain.
Mystery bared his teeth again. He finally got a response from Lewis, and it was a restraining order. Perhaps he needed to wait until later to separate them. Find another way. There had to be some loophole he could exploit.
Vivi stood like that for quite a while, shaking around a ramrod spine and shrieking incoherently at him. There was no clock in the room, but Mystery sensed a fair chunk of time passing while Vivi threw her little tantrum.
What a waste of resources.
Little by little, the flames died down. She stumbled back to bed, flopping down and panting. The charred, blackened parts of the room repaired themselves. It returned to its original, infernally messy state. Why all the effort to present this accursed room just like it used to be before Lewis started picking up after her?
"You're an absolute blowhole right now, you know that?" she rasped, staring up at the ceiling. "I gotta ask Dib what he's been feeding you." Abruptly she sniggered, then broke out laughing.
Affronted, Mystery growled softly.
"He can be a blowhole too, sometimes, can't he?" She wiped her eyes and grinned weakly. "Oh, Mystery." She took a slow breath in through her nose and released it the same way. "You're the idiot here if you think you can convince me you were nothing but a mirror."
Mystery opened his mouth to contradict her, but nothing came out. Lewis' command held.
"Yeah, no, buddy. If you were just a mirror, you'd have swung as hard as me. Both of us would tank half the time and run on pure impulse the other half. You wouldn't be able to put the brakes on anything I did. And you most certainly did." She pushed herself up and stood. A cane materialized in her right hand, and she leaned heavily on it as she limped toward Mystery. "You did so much for me, those days. If I wanted to lie on the ground and die, you made sure I at least got into bed. If I wanted to lie in bed and die, you made sure I at least ate a few bites. Wouldn't leave me alone until I did. You were patient with me. Gentle."
Mystery's mouth closed, his shoulders rising up to his ears as she came to a stop in front of him.
"If I wanted to go buy the whole store, you growled and barked and made a scene until I had to leave. Well, you didn't stop me from getting the van, but I'm not sure anyone could have at that point. Or were you distracted? I can't remember right now."
Warmth, not heat, was coming off of her now. Affection? Nostalgia? He took a step back, whining at the back of his throat. This wasn't the plan. What was she doing?
"So maybe you're a bit of an empty tank. Maybe you can't make your own gas like us mere mortals can, but guess what?" She looked up at him. There was something in her face that was so familiar. It was almost like the times she looked at Lewis, but subtly different. The name… what was the name of what he was looking at? Adoration? Fondness? Obsession? None of them fit!
"When you've got enough gas, I bet you make choices about how to use it. And I bet you got all kinds of different options off me. Mirror? Mirror my flapping fig newtons. The only thing you and I have in common is needing a little extra TLC from time to time."
Abandoning the cane, she reached out and wrapped her arms around Mystery. "So I want to give you something, old friend. Don't say anything. Just take these things, and nothing else for now. Take the dozens of nights I spent wondering if you were out in a ditch dying somewhere."
Mystery's eyes bulged, a cry stuck in his throat.
"Take hours of skimming paranormal forums to see if there was any mention of a weird foxdog I could follow up on for the last few months. Take the times Lewis talked me down—at least once a week, mind you—from launching a full-scale investigation and following you out to gods-know-where even though I had no leads."
He drank it straight from her mind, from her soul, from her heart, and neither of them put a stop to it! He didn't understand. Why was she doing this?
"If you think I never mattered to you, then take how much you have mattered to me. Take the long walks and the warm baths with extra suds and soft towels. Take hours of ear-scratches and belly rubs. Take what it was like to find you, beaten and bloody, twice. Take the determination to get you better, even if I hadn't a clue what I was doing." Her arms tightened around him. "Take all the care I have for you, my dear caretaker. I can make more in time."
And Mystery had no choice but to do as she said.
Vivi hobbled slowly down the hall. Probably should have gotten the wheelchair back, but she'd been sitting for a long time. Best to stretch the legs a bit. Besides, she wasn't fully herself. She needed to feel her body doing something. Moving, even if it was at a snail's pace. So the hallway that could be as long or as short as she desired stretched on, allowing her a lengthy, deserted path to walk.
"You okay, Lew?" she asked.
"Worried about you. He didn't take anything from me."
"I'll be fine. Just tired. Kinda numb. Still me, though." She paused. "I am, right?"
"Well, you're no Deadbeat. But it is kind of like when I took your memories. This time you gave a set, and everything attached to them, away."
"Oh. Well, I figured on that." She resumed her slow, steady pace. "Since I'd already done that once, I know how to navigate it. You got a copy, right?"
"Yes. It's faint, but, here."
In her mind she could barely recall what it was like to hold Mystery in her arms. The battered pup looked up at her, crying from his wounds. She felt nothing, but she remembered the outlines of the moment and the feeling that was supposed to fit in the empty slot.
"Yep. Just like when you possessed me and left the first time. Copy of a memory. Good enough to start with." She gave a weary smile. "Thanks for the help with that. Glad I could keep my mouth shut. Think I would have really messed up with him if I let loose."
"That was… a lot to listen to."
"Oh, you heard all that, huh?"
"Unsaid words get very loud in your head. Impossible for me to miss." Her hand came up and stroked her face. "You did well, Vee. If you and I could rebuild, you two can rebuild too."
Vivi sighed. "I hope so." She dropped her hand back to her side. Mystery was still curled up in a fetal position on the floor. He'd looked like he needed some time to process her little gift, so she'd draped the lumpy blue afghan over him and left. "How's Lance doing?"
"Still in suspended animation in his room, like he asked."
"I wish he'd stuck with us."
Lewis shrugged their shoulders. "All he would do is worry, and he knew it. He's… not as technologically adept as Arthur, so there's not much for him to do around Dib's labs. He's got a good team that can run his shop, so he just wanted to check out until we can tell him anything about Arthur. Makes sense to me. If I had nothing to do and I'd just be in the way, I might want the same so I didn't have to stew in my worries for days."
"Yeah, but you can't, ya puffer-frog. You're the one keeping this," she gestured with one hand, "whole structure going."
They lapsed into silence for a bit. Huffing, Vivi finally traded her cane for the wheelchair and sat down.
"You really think we've made a difference for Shiro Mori?" Lewis asked.
Vivi rolled her eyes. "No, Lewis. I suggested intensive emotional care and comfort because I thought it would exacerbate her situation."
"C'mon, Vee, that's not fair. She's a goddess. We barely know how this works for her."
"Sure, she's totally inhuman. She's also swinging wild on a massive dump of human emotions, so she's probably rapid cycling like me to boot. If she's gotten a years-large dose of my emotional state, it stands to reason she'll respond at least in part the way I do. Some of the things I took comfort in should work for her. Once you got the hang of things, you were quite excellent at comforting me." She patted her own shoulder with a wink.
Her cheeks flushed, and she groaned. "Not like that, you overstitched football. You know. What we've been doing. Giving her a safe place. A calming environment. Soft music. Attention. Limited conversation when she looks to be more aware. Keeping her from hauling off and doing something dumb on a whim."
Lewis was quiet for a moment. "Vee?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm scared for Arthur. I feel bad for Shiro Mori, but she's got it all wrong. And I don't want her wrongness to cost us Arthur."
"Don't worry. It won't."
"How can you know?"
"Oh I can't know. It just won't go that way." She shrugged, grinning.
"You're impossible."
"Yeah, and I was the leader for a reason. Even if I made some dumb moves." She straightened up in the chair. "Okay. Ready?"
In answer, the foyer archway loomed directly ahead. Vivi returned to the room. Shiro Mori was bunched up against the front window, half-flattened against the glass. They'd mastered the trick of looking just past her, or letting their eyes unfocus in her general direction, so they could locate her without the accompanying disorientation and nausea.
"Hello Shiro," Vivi called. "Sorry for leaving you alone for a bit. I needed to level with Mystery about a few things."
The mass shifted slightly in her direction, but said nothing.
"How are you doing?"
No response. The mass shifted slowly back to the pillow nest.
"Okay. Would you like some more music?" The violin appeared in her hands. "Lewis knows all kinds of melodies."
"Please make stop," Shiro sizzled softly, her words popping at the end. "Just quiet thought. Am in the sadthinking."
Vivi frowned. "You don't wanna spend too much time there. Trust me."
"No," Shiro insisted. "Trusting VeeVee about this sometimes but not allthetimes. Trusting me sometimes, me myself needs some sadthinking in quiet."
Vivi hesitated, then dismissed the violin. "Okay. If that's the case, I'm going to go get some food. I'll be back soon, okay?"
The mass burrowed deeper in the nest, burbling at her. Vivi suppressed a shudder, and the wheelchair took her out of the mansion.
The moment she left the porch, her phone rang. Blinking, she shifted to one side and pulled it out of her pocket.
"Lovesick Songbird" was calling.
Vivi jammed the green button so hard she thought the screen would crack. "Kay? Kay, is that you? Say something!" Lewis and Vivi spoke as one, their voices in frantic synch.
There was a moment of silence on the other end, then a sharp exhalation. "Thank the gods," came a voice that was definitely not Kay. "Thank… Lewis. You're okay. I'm not… I'm really sorry. I'm really really—"
"Arthur." Lewis' voice took the forefront as Vivi's shoulders loosened with relief. "You're okay. Is Kay there? Are you both safe?"
"Yeah. We're safe. Both. All. Dulcie? Uncle Lance?"
"We got them."
Another sigh. "Lewis, I'm so sorry. You have to know I'd never have—"
"Knock it off already. I'm fine. Completely intact. Was just a little shaken. You did good." Lewis' voice softened. "You really had my back. Thank you."
There was a moment of just breathing. Then, "Where are you guys? Who all is with you?"
"We're back at Dib's labs. We've got Lance, Dulcie, Chloe, my parents. And Mystery. And… Shiro Mori."
All sound on the other end of the line stopped abruptly.
"Squire?" Vivi prodded him. "Squire, please don't hang up on me."
"S-sorry. I…" He took a shaky breath. "I have something to tell you, but I need you to put me on speaker. So. That she can hear me."
Vivi maneuvered to the area just under one of the mansion windows. The glass disappeared, leaving a gaping hole in the wall. "Hey, Shiro Mori. I know you want a little quiet, but I got a call from Arthur. He wants to say something to us."
A mass of grassy horse hocks wriggled through the hole and onto the porch before Vivi could avert her eyes. She swallowed back the sick surge at the back of her throat and hit the speaker button. "Okay, she's here and you're on speaker."
Silence.
Vivi cleared her throat. "Um, Squire? You wanted to be on speaker, right?"
"Y-yeah. I d-do. Just… hard." Small gasps on the other end. Lewis hurt for the fear saturating every syllable. "I just… want… everyone. To know. I'll… I'll b-b-be coming back." He paused, gulping. "Myself. I do-don't need anyone dragging me, th-though we might need a pick-up."
"Not a problem. Just tell me where you are, or even where you think you might be, and you know Dib can have cars or a chopper there in a few hours."
"No. Thank you. Not yet." Arthur's voice shook a little. "Soon, but… Lew, Vee. Do you remem-ember when we, um. When we figured out that bringing Dulcie and Teles together was going to trigger big stuff happening?"
Vivi blinked. "Yeah?"
"And remember that we… you, really… talked about how we needed to slow down and recover, and just enjoy some time before we triggered the big thing? So we had some strength to get through it? So we just… kind of chilled and kept Dulcie separate for a while?"
Vivi bit her lip. "Yeah, Squire. I remember."
"Vee. Lew. Every… everyone…" Arthur's voice quivered, "I need a little more time. Before. I come back. It's really important. I wouldn't… ask. But I need this."
Vivi cleared her throat. "Of course, you big dunce. I told you before we left the underworld that Lew and I would handle things on this end while you recover, didn't I? Relapses happen. Not like I know what a relapse is like or anything, ha ha. We've got things covered on this end. Though our slightly disjointed guest might appreciate any reassurance you might have about that return."
Dead silence on the line. The hairs all along the left side of Vivi's body stood up as Shiro squelched closer.
"Arthur," Lewis said, quietly. "You can have the time you need, but we all need this much from you."
There was a whole lot of not-breathing on the line. After several agonizingly silent seconds, Arthur managed, "M-m-m…" he exhaled sharply with what sounded suspiciously like a panicked sob, "You're not my Mother. You're not, because I'm not who you think I am. But whoever you think I am, I promise I'm coming back to tell you who I really am to your face."
And the call ended. Out of the corner of her eye, Vivi saw a large mass rear up as Shiro took a vertical stance for the first time since they'd found her.
"Veevee-and-Lewisssss. I am the wanting to go outside to tend the greenthings and think and listen to you talk. Outside and with you so we can talk about the Arthur and why you think he is not who I think he is. If he is not who I think he is then who is the Arthur and what is the doings of Arthur? You will tell me while we see to the greenness of things."
Artie hung up before Arcturus could totally fall apart. His knees felt like soup and Kay's arm around his waist was about the only thing keeping him on his feet.
"You did it," she said, smoothing back his hair. "Now you can stop thinking about it. You took care of Lewis and Vivi, now you have time."
He clung to her, jittery in every nerve. He was going to need all the courage he could gather in the next… however many days he had.
"We're tired of being afraid," you mumble over the rattle of your prosthetic. "But we're not ready to face that… person... yet. Not ready for the nice dream to end."
"It's not ending yet. It's not ending at all. It's just going to be interrupted for a little bit." She threaded her fingers through his hair, tracing his scalp with the tips of her talons. The stroking soothed him, and his next breath was steadier. "Like waking in the middle of the night with a start and rolling over to go back to sleep."
If only you could be certain of that. But nobody knows exactly what will happen when you see Shiro Mori. The only guarantee is that you'll survive the encounter, and that is still a difficult promise to hold onto when there's any number of ways to suffer without dying. Just because Persephone's tomatoes saved you didn't make the process hurt any less.
Artie forced himself to focus on the feeling of Kay's fingers through his hair. The smell of dried goods, aluminum, and plastic packaging nearby. Inside the General Store they stood by, Ginny and Gareth were each picking out a set of clothes. They were in a tiny little mountain town, a four hour hike from the hunting shack. The unremarkable but accurately named General Store served a variety of functions with a very narrow selection. But it had some food, some clothes, extra blankets, and a few other luxuries like toilet paper, shampoo, first aid kits, and razors that could be purchased cheaply with the cash they had from the Pepper Paradiso register. They'd even, with a bit of side-eye from the owner, been allowed to charge Kay's phone to full battery behind the counter.
No sense cycling around on what it would be like to face Shiro Mori. Arthur had discharged the call he owed. He didn't even set a time limit on getting back and they hadn't asked him for one. They understood, and they were handling it, and Dib was involved now. He was probably doing damage control. It was going to be alright. Arthur could let go.
Other things to focus on? Getting a better axe and a good couple of knives would be pricey, but the rusty edges they had weren't going to cut it for a longer stint at the cabin. They needed to see if the shop owner would be willing to place an order for something like plastic sheeting, or something else to plug the shack's structural holes. Shoes, too. There was a sign that the owner would do special orders, though they'd have to start relying on their debit card for the pricier items, and Arthur was positive they were going to get more weird looks.
There. Refocused. New line of thought. Something not nearly so difficult to worry about, especially since it didn't require much worry. Most of the ongoing needs could be met by what lived and grew wild around the shack, this trip was just to make them a bit more comfortable.
"Do you think those two made amends?" you ask, pushing back a little, trying to stand on your own.
Kay kept a firm grip on his arm, watching him. "I don't know. They haven't said a word that I've heard."
"Nothing last night, after they came in to go to bed. Nothing this morning on the walk. Nothing in town." You stretch your hearing a little. The sound of feet shuffling around. The click-schink-click of metal hangers scraping along a pole to collide with the next hanger in line. The shop owner grumbling to himself. Nothing from the two of them.
"They could be signing to each other for all we know."
Kay hummed in agreement. She glanced back up the road. "Do you think you and Gareth could make it up the mountain with the supplies?"
"What did you have in mind?"
A smile touched the corners of Kay's lips. "Well, you know. Once we're about an hour away, nobody can see us clearly, and it occurs to me I haven't yet flown with my daughter."
You match her smile. "You should get that taken care of. Meantime, I might have a talk with Gareth." You tilt your head toward the store door. "Let's see what they picked out and hit the road. And the skies."
Note: Chapter title excerpted from All About Us by He Is We and Owl City.
