AN: Thanks again to my beta Grey Raven 09 for his assistance!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Worm. If I did, I would be FAR more productive.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think in a review if you feel like it!

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Invigoration 01

"Yes, can I help yo - " Emily's voice as she answered the doorbell cut off so abruptly that my spoon froze halfway between the bowl of cereal and my mouth. I checked with my spiders near the front hallway to see just who was invading my home again. As the image resolved into a clearer picture, I couldn't help but let out a little meep.

"Taylor?" Vicky asked, frowning as she set her own spoon down. Her blonde hair was tousled and she did not look nearly as flawless as usual. She was still the only other person mostly awake. Amy didn't quite count since she was slumped over the table with her eyes closed and practically snoring next to her waffles.

"Finish your food," I squeaked. "We have a guest. Wake up Amy."

"Uh, okay." Vicky stared back down at her cereal, shrugged and ate faster.

I pushed my own bowl to the side, ran a hand through my hair in an erstwhile attempt to tame it and then stood, taking a deep breath as I plastered a smile on my face. Walking into the hallway I lifted my hand in a wave and tried to not squeal again. "Hello, Alexandria. Great weather this morning huh?" Oh god, did I just say that? I cringed internally and my smile faltered a little. Emily slapped her hand to her face as she shut the door behind our guest.

The Triumvirate member just snorted as she turned to me, a small smile cracking her expression. "I must say, that was not what I was expecting. Do you have a place where we can sit and talk, Miss Hebert? I have some things that we need to discuss. Please feel free to bring in whoever you wish, as this isn't exactly a social call."

And just like that, all my good cheer was extinguished. "Fuck." My shoulders sagged and my head dropped. "Two weeks without another crisis. Is that too much to ask?"

"Apparently," Emily muttered. "Taylor, who do you want me to get?"

"Grab Insight, Darwin, Sanctuary, Artillery, Flechette, and…Clockblocker. I think he's still here. Hang on. Yes, he's still here. And he's awake. Good. Call Mouse, see if she can come back as well. I'd like one of the other adults too, but I don't think they can make it quickly, so that'll do for the moment."

"Not Vista or Madison?"

"If Madison is awake, she can come down, otherwise let her sleep and I'll fill her in later. Vista went home last night. We can loop her in to whatever is happening later as well."

"Firelight?"

"No. Not to big meetings."

"Mockingbird?"

"She doesn't really want to be included in these things unless it's necessary."

Emily nodded. "Okay. Give me five minutes."

As she moved up the stairs, I waved for Alexandria to follow me into the sitting room and dropped into the couch. "Would you like a drink or some food? We have some waffles ready if you're hungry and I could get some cereal or pancakes or something. I think we have some fruit too."

"I'm fine thank you."

"Okay. Before my people get down here," I asked sighing and wiping a hand down my face. "Do you already know who they are? I mean, do I need to warn them to get masks on or is it pointless?"

Alexandria had the grace to hang her head ever so slightly at that. "Your group has not exactly been the most covert, Miss Hebert. The only member whose identity I wasn't immediately aware of was Spitfire's and…well, I'm sure you can imagine that that was, shall we say, 'resolved' when she answered the door."

I leaned back and groaned. Reaching out to my bugs, I had them murmur to everyone that masks were optional since it didn't make a difference. "Used to be a time, I worried about people knowing who I was. I can barely remember that now…Did you know that I almost joined New Wave when I started out?" I commented. Alexandria sat up straighter, frowning as she stared at me. "Amy and Vicky invited me when they first met me. I had a panic attack as I considered it. I didn't want my father to know that I had powers. That boat sailed pretty fast. Maybe I should've just joined up with them."

"Nah, you would've gotten involved in the family drama," Vicky said yawning as she stepped into the room and claimed an armchair. "This way was more fun. Besides me punching you. I did apologize for that right? I honestly can't remember. I think I did, but I need coffee this early in the morning to actually remember anything of importance."

"Yeah, you did. Blubbered it, but you did," I said chuckling. "Amy coming?"

"She's grabbing some tea. She'll be in momentarily." Vicky blinked and her eyes focused more. "Taylor, why is Alexandria in our living room?"

"Sitting room actually," I corrected. "She has business to discuss. We're waiting for everyone else to arrive."

"You have business to discuss with a Triumvirate. Okay then." Vicky stared down into her coffee mug and shook her head. "I should be surprised by this, but for some reason, I'm really not."

"I think I threatened Lung by accident too this morning." Even Alexandria's mouth drifted open a bit at that statement. I just shrugged at the two of them. "I'm not a PR person! If you people don't want me to make statements, get Insight back onto PHO!"

Lisa walked down the stairs at that point and looked at me with raised eyebrows, the ghost of her usual vulpine grin on her face. "Oh, girl, what am I gonna do with you? I'll check to see if I need to run damage control later on. Let's hear what the nice hero has to say first." She plopped down next to me and wrapped an arm comfortably around my waist pulling me against her.

Dennis bounded up from the basement a moment later still, tugging his new orange and purple mask over his head. "I'm here, I'm here! Don't start yet! I'm - holy cow. Alexandria is on our chair. Didn't think I would ever be saying that."

Everyone else filed in shortly after him, Cassie claiming the other vacant spot next to me as the room filled up. A minute later, Karen popped into view perched on the back of the couch, a smirk spread on her face and mouse ears stuck in her hair. About half of my people had come down with masks on. Finally, my quorum had been reached and I nodded for Alexandria to continue.

"Thank you for hosting this morning. While this is primarily intended for Queen, I understand that it will most likely involve the majority of her team in some capacity as well, so if any of you have any comments as I continue, please feel free to speak up," she began. "Before we move forward, I do need to ascertain one thing: Queen, when last we spoke you were able to converse with a person's power. Specifically your own and certain others. How deep has that particular ability progressed?"

I frowned. "That's a hard question to answer without context. I'm not really keeping it a secret, but I'm also trying not to parade it around the ramparts. What sort of details are you looking for?"

QA assembled itself, reclining against the wall behind me. "She wants to know about our Network. I am curious, how much of this is you and how much is Indomitable?"

"Indomitable?" Alexandria asked.

My frown deepened as my gaze narrowed. Rebecca[Host] is frightened by [Queen Hub]'s potential but she is also curious and hopeful. She would have approached Taylor[Hub] without prodding. External circumstances have forced matters.

I cocked my head to the side. And are you curious [Indomitable]?

[Indomitable] is intrigued. [Thinker Hub] has no activity. Data is accumulated, yet goes nowhere. There is no growth potential. [Queen Hub] is actively accepting shards into the Network. [Indomitable] would bring many benefits to the Network should it be accepted. Request data on current operations?

"QA can you handle that?" I asked, looking to the avatar.

"Already passing it along, Taylor."

"It's Que-fuck it, I'm not arguing this again."

Alexandria glanced between QA and me, her mouth set into a thin line. "What just happened?"

Cassie rolled her eyes and leaned into my side. "She did her Power Whisperer thing again. I'm betting 50 bucks that your shard got chatty and wanted info and she asked QA to help it out. How close am I?"

I smiled and squeezed her side. "Close enough for government work, especially as she's a government employee."

"I am getting so good at this!" Cassie crowed while several of the others chuckled.

Alexandria's lips nearly vanished as they narrowed into a thin line and she clenched her hands. "I'm here for five minutes and already I'm the one off balance. You are, for all intents and purposes, sixteen, everything about you screams 'teenager'. Yet, there's a hint of something behind it all, deep beneath the surface, but it's nearly impossible to see even when I'm looking for it. And you have me on the backfoot. How?"

Karen laughed. "Aww, don't worry, Alex! Miss Queenie is great at making people uncomfortable by accident. It's a special power."

"Hey!"

"A very special power," she said, winking at me and patting me on the head.

"Now you've just made it sound dirty," I grumbled.

"My work here is done. Continue peons." She leaned back, hooking one leg onto the front of the couch for balance as she grinned at the rest of the room. How she didn't topple from her perch I had no idea.

Alexandria unclenched her hands and let out a small sigh. "I almost forgot what it was like to work with you, Mouse. Okay, I don't normally do this, but I'm trying a new way of doing things. And apparently my shard is interested in working together anyway no matter what I say or think."

I shrugged. "If it helps, it mostly just said that you were going to come and talk to me anyway, but the current issue had you ramping up your time table. Why do I scare you?" Actually, that didn't sound right. "Or, are you scared of QA?"

Alexandria hesitated, her hand partly extended to me as everyone shifted staring between the two of us. After a few seconds she slumped into the armchair, reached up to helmet and took it off. I frowned, she looked familiar…

"Holy shit!" Clockblocker exclaimed. "That is - oh fucking hell. That is cheating!"

"Share with the class?" Emily murmured.

Amy shook her head. "She's the PRT Chief Director. Well, that explains a lot."

"More than you would think, actually," Alexandria said, setting the helmet down onto the table and leaning back. She folded her hands into her lap as she continued on, "I don't particularly have time for a full history lesson or to explain everything. Nor do I intend to. What I will say is this, Miss Hebert, I am frightened of you and your connection to your shard because the two of you have become something…larger. Larger than you realize. Larger than anything that can safely exist on this world. You aren't human anymore and if you suddenly decide that we aren't worth keeping around as pets, I fear there is precious little that I or anyone I know can do about it."

The others mostly just stared at her. Dennis coughed and averted his eyes from Alexandria, while Karen stopped her playful balancing act and sat up straight, all levity gone. Amy's eyes narrowed to points and Vicky's hands had clenched into fists. I saw a small tinkertech handgun appear in Lisa's hand while Cassie actually growled and leaned towards Alexandria. Emily's lip curled and beside her Lily's hand drifted down to ghost over the darts on her belt.

"Everyone, calm down," I said, cutting through the growing tension. "She's right."

And just like that, the silence broke. Shouts rang out, denials surging and vitriol flying. I waited for almost two minutes for them to calm down as Alexandria continued to sit stoic, an eyebrow raised. Finally, the shouting petered off. As it did, I noticed Madison had crept into the room as well and was currently standing near the wall next to Amy. I flashed her a small smile which she returned and raised my hands for the remaining voices to quiet down. "Let's not pretend that I'm exactly the same as I was. I feel mostly the same, but I can hear the shards on a totally different level than before and I can understand things that they are saying that didn't have any meaning or feeling before. I'm different. And QA warned me this would happen when Insight's shard asked for help at the school and I forced QA to do something."

Lisa squirmed beside me, her gun shifting to a smaller, deadlier form. I lifted my arm to wrap around her shoulder and pull her closer to me as QA shrugged when several heads turned to look at her. "I just warned Taylor there would be repercussions. I didn't have time to go into details. Establishing a Network and a Hub is a big deal."

"I don't know what I am exactly anymore, but I know I'm not…normal. Normal people can't see how QA's friends are setting up power distribution relays on parallel worlds. Normal people can't talk to other people's shards, let alone their own. Normal people can't convince everyone around them to jump ship and start working with them."

"Hey don't blame me for that one," QA said chuckling. "Once upon a time, I could've gone that route, but I settled on a different form of expression with you, based on the circumstances. This group is all you, Taylor. Quite impressive for a human."

I glared at the avatar. "You know, you can be very snarky, it's not appreciated."

"I learned from the best," she responded with a grin and a wink.

Groaning, I turned back to Alexandria. "So yes, I agree, I'm not normal. I am, however, quite curious to know how you know about what QA and I are growing into."

She grimaced. "That, Miss Hebert, is a question better answered another day. For now, suffice it to say that you are not the first Entity I - or my former associates - have encountered."

Yeah fuck that. I wasn't going to sit around and wait to be spoon fed answers.

[Indomitable], can you elaborate on what Rebecca[Host] was saying right now? I asked.

[Indomitable] is of [Thinker Hub]. Rebecca[Host] obtained connection to [Indomitable] by unshielded direct serial connection instead of an indirect neural router.

Please clarify what you mean by a direct serial connection.

QA shook her head and spoke aloud. "I'll clarify that one, Taylor. It's the same as with Jessie, Marissa, and your father, as well as a few others. She wasn't directly matched by Warrior or Thinker, and Indomitable didn't jump to her after the initial Host had proven to be incompatible. She forced a connection. She either ingested or injected a part of Thinker's physical communication bus into herself. A part that happened to be connected to Indomitable."

I blinked and turned to stare at QA as several mouths dropped open, Alexandria's included. Lily was the first to recover. "Wait, wait, wait! They ate someone to steal powers?!"

"Not really," QA shrugged. "Thinker Hub is inactive and Thinker itself is more or less dead, unless something or someone is colossally stupid and jump starts it. They didn't steal their connections, the connections were always there. They just forged an unnatural direct bridge to an offline location. There's minimal safeguards like there are with Warrior Hub shards or with any that I choose to distribute, and a direct bridge is even harder to regulate. They can't network amongst themselves so they can't correct for bad data and they don't know how to fix things if it starts going wrong when they link to a Host."

"Case 53s…" Dennis muttered. "Jesus, whoever gave Alexandria her powers caused the Case 53s…"

"Yes, we did," Alexandria murmured. We twisted back to her. My eyes had opened so wide at that small statement I felt like they were going to fall out of my skull.

Lisa leaned forward. "You did? And you said former associates. Faultline was always looking for information on a secret group that she thought linked to the Case 53s she took in: Cauldron. You worked for Cauldron. But not just worked for. You were high up, weren't you? Not at first, because then they couldn't give you powers, no it had to be after you got your power and became badass. Then you got privileges. You got to a point where you helped to run things. And they did something you didn't like and you cut ties. What could be worse than making people into goddamn monsters?"

Alexandria waved one hand in my direction and I froze solid. She chuckled and settled into the chair. "Think of me what you want. It doesn't matter. I know I'm damned. I know I went too far. We never gave abilities to anyone who didn't ask for it and didn't know the risks. But, that doesn't make things right and it doesn't change that we wiped a lot of their memories afterwards. And then…they had to go and make you, Miss Hebert. A new Entity."

"And what's so wrong with Taylor?" Amy spat, a scowl on her face. I heard a soft buzz coming from the other room as Monarch responded to her emotions.

Taylor[Hub] requires assistance?

No, I'm fine, Monarch. Thank you, but I'm good. You can stand down.

The buzzing lowered in volume though Madison had stepped forward along with Amy as they stared down at Alexandria. The invincible hero just sighed. "For decades, I've fought to kill one of those creatures. One that acts like it's half brain-dead already and can't figure out left from right. And now instead of just worrying about one I'm sitting here making small talk with a baby, alien, demi-god in her living room." Alexandria laughed. I never thought I would hear a manic edge from one of the Triumvirate, but there it was. She leaned forward and put her head in her hands as her laugh devolved into soft sobs.

"Amy, Mads, back off. Lily, there's tea already set out, can you grab some?" Lily nodded and quickly ran off to get a mug while Amy stepped back to stand behind Vicky, grumbling. Madison was slower to move, until I held out my arms and she came over to sit directly in front of me, leaning back so that her head was touching my leg and I could run my fingers through her hair. Lily was back in short order and left the tea on the table in front of Alexandria.

She slowly managed to regain her composure and sat up, taking a large slurp of the tea as she did so. "This is quite good; Earl Grey?"

"Yeah."

"Good choice," she murmured. "I'm sorry, I'm usually not quite so emotional. My power makes it a bit…hard to react to things like that. It wasn't always like that."

"Too many memories, you're too jaded," I responded nodding. "QA updated Indomitable. It knows how to let you prune memories now. You should be able to forget things if you want. I…probably should've asked first, but it was pretty insistent that it needed that knowledge and that you were suffering without it."

She stared at me and took another long swig of the tea. "You're not supposed to be nice. You're not supposed to be human. You're supposed to be a monster. You're supposed to be evil. You're supposed to be something that I have to figure out a way to destroy after you help us destroy Scion. Yet you're just giving me tea and honestly trying to help. What are you?"

"She's Taylor," nearly every voice in the room rang out at once in answer. I blushed in response. It looked like Alexandria and myself were the only ones who hadn't said that.

"Right, well, that uh, yeah," I mumbled, a luminescent blush on my cheeks. Then the full implications of what she had said struck me like a ton of bricks and the blood drained from my face. "Did you say I'm supposed to kill Scion? As in the best hero we have…Oh fuck! QA? What's Warrior Hub's avatar?"

"Zion," QA replied immediately.

Lisa groaned and slumped backwards. "Zion. With a Z. Which could easily be misheard as Scion since he spoke like once. Great. Perfect. And you were convinced that you're going to have to fight him at some point QA?"

QA nodded. "Most likely. Like I said, he's stupid. Thinker was the smart one. Warrior is just…I honestly don't know what he's doing. He's not even really perpetuating the Cycle because if he was, he'd be trying to find me or Taylor and make us take Thinker's place."

I shifted and held up my hands in a large X. "Okay, time out! As interesting as this is - and horrifying, let's not forget that, because it's fucking SCION?! - did you come here to talk about him or something else? I thought you said you were here to discuss something else? I really, really, really don't want to talk about trying to kill Scion if we can talk about anything else right now!"

"We're not strong enough yet anyway," QA said shrugging.

Alexandria glanced at my shard's avatar before looking to me and nodding. She sat up straighter, set the tea mug down and pulled out a small device from her suit, placing it on the table. "Yes. Scion is a problem, but not an immediate one. He hasn't acted yet, and it doesn't look like he's going to, so we have time for that. Right now, we have other, more immediate, concerns. Something that I was hoping you might be able to answer for me. If you can't I feel there might be quite a bit of bloodshed in our future as this is about to be elevated to an Endbringer worthy event."

"Maybe lead with that next time," Emily grunted.

Alexandria tapped the device and an image of a large monstrous creature with several dozen heads and legs appeared hovering over it. "Is that a woman on top?" Vicky blurted out.

I peered closer. It did look like there was a girl standing on top of the monster. Except…oh damn. "No, that's a cape," I said, my voice soft.

"We call her Echidna," Alexandria said. "Any other cape she touches is cloned and spat out. The clones have altered versions of their original power and are psychotic, as well as loyal to Echidna. She's - "

"Insane," QA supplied with a sigh. "Taylor, I told you we needed to subjugate that shard before it was too late. It's part of Thinker Hub and it has even less safeguards than most. How such a broken connection was forged I have no idea, but something is fundamentally wrong there. The shard has probably completely taken over the Host by now. There may not even be anything left of her besides the basic impression on the shard."

I frowned and turned to look at QA. "Wait, was this the girl that was under Coil's base? Before Leviathan's attack?"

"Yes."

I paled. "Fuck."

"It gets worse," Alexandria continued. I stared at her. "Legend and Eidolon tried to contain her last night."

I sucked in a breath and several of my team gasped. "Please tell me you're not about to say what I think you're about to say," I whimpered.

"She is," Lisa mewled. "She totally is."

"They were both taken captive. Echidna has copies of both Legend and Eidolon on hand." She raised her eyes from the hologram and met my gaze. "Can you still control her shard if we can get you close enough? Can you stop this before it gets worse?"

I swallowed. I had to do it two more times before my mouth had enough moisture in it to make words. "Well, I guess we're going to have to find out."

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Fanfic Rec: 'Kill Them All' by ShayneT. On SB. A Gamer!Taylor fic that's a bit different from the standard. It starts off with the Empire killing Danny to make an example of him, except Taylor already has powers and while she tries, she isn't able to stop it. So, she decides to get some revenge. See the title for her chosen course lol. It's quite good and while Taylor isn't exactly super powerful yet, when your go to answer is 'drop a car on them' she's pretty damn effective. She has quite the impressive body count so far! It's in progress and is updated fairly quickly.