AN: This chapter came after prayer and, frankly, me just getting out of my own way. I hope you all enjoy the chapter, and I'll see you next time.

Pagliacci-11.

Chapter 91

"We can't do it, Gregson. As much as the mandate allows such a thing, she's too vital to our operations both here and abroad." Spoke a silver-haired elder from her seat on the right of the table.

Gregson looked at her, "Trelawney, we can't ignore what she's done to our medical corps, no less if we make an exception for her; it's the thread that will unravel the tapestry. Those jailed supporters of Aelita will assuredly cry out for the same appraisal of their leader. Sadly, we can't overlook—"

"Peace, Gregson, peace." Spoke the calm voice of a man to the right, dressed in a greatcoat and breeches with a black shirt, "None are suggesting we overlook Sylvia. We realize we cannot allow her actions to be overlooked, nor can we afford to execute one of our finest generals, never mind our people's figurehead. Even if her elements are a tad excessive, the woman is noble, as we now have proof. However, we found her performance review was equally tampered with soon after we'd executed Takeo Ishiyama. So, her scores were not faithfully recorded.

It's no surprise that some hold our esteemed daughter in derision. She has impacted many people for both good and evil. She's made friends and enemies, and both are unavoidable in this realm of work. However, to salvage what we can, attempted subterfuge aside, we must place her in administrative leave out into the countryside."

Trelawney nodded, "I agree with Livsey. Gregson, you may wish to do what is according to the law, and that's all well and good. But, have you considered the fallout of such an abidance? It took ages to secure Sylvia in place after the occurrence of her sister's death. It took months of discussion and vetting with the then young girl afterward to genuinely acquaint her with the government functions. Frankly, Anthea's teaching Sylvia in the realm of politics, ethics, how to be a woman of quality, all of that, and more went a very long way.

My point being, to find someone who has made the strides she has for the good of the people, acknowledging the people as people not free of vice and turning those vices into markets; hell, her progress with the teenagers on the horizon. Considering she hates teenagers with a passion, it's incredible the progress both on her level and in the realm of state how far she's come."

Livsey then spoke, "We've made immense progress, and we cannot sacrifice that progress for the sake of a few ethical fumbles. It's throwing the baby out with the bathwater; we can't have it. So, Sylvia will be removed from the public stage; call it an illness or something. We'll use the Heringsdötir girl to gauge genuine public sentiment in the market exchanges of the day-to-day. We'll see general love versus disdain, chart it, and proceed forward.

We cannot and shall not proceed with a purging campaign on the other side; from what Nicolette has given us in the dossier, we cannot ignore. But, equally, what Klinger brings to our attention was deliberate. She intended to be a form of National Razor. That won't work here; it throws too much into chaos. I understand her point, however, and I will review Sylvia's conduct and have an interview with her until we can genuinely ascertain what has transpired.

Until then, Gregson, you have your order. You will bring Sylvia to us, and we will interview her. You will find a candidate to act as a lip-man or woman between the people and Sylvia. We will take in the most glaring issues and address them as she would, with her input. But she will be out of public light, likely in the Cloister of the Sisters of St. Agatha. That is all."

Gregson then spoke finally, "What of North-Gate's eye in the sky? How do you intend to—"

"As Sylvia, herself knew," Livsey replied, "and knows, to trust North-Gate with any genuine autonomy is insane unless dealing with raw figures and data crunching. These things that even the general staff fear from North-Gate are only implemented by the High-Command manual override. They cannot be activated otherwise. We have learned from the mistakes of those who came before us, and we will not make their mistakes again. You have nothing to fear. Everything that our nation runs on is manual to the nth degree, with even automation requiring a majority pass. Nothing of North-Gate is autonomous without genuine parliamentary majority-ruled confirmation.

Now, please, bring us our daughter."

Gregson stood and nodded and departed. He tapped into his implant and was transferred to signals. Once there, he said, "Nicolette, Gregson here. Bring the commander over immediately. The High Council wishes to interview her and start the search under Emissary Protocol."

Nicolette received the communique and, looking at the silver letter on her desk; she knew that all she'd done with Yolanda was about to come to light. But, this needed to be done. Nicolette only hoped Sylvia would do as Gregson said and indeed obey.

Soon, Nicolette had knocked on Sylvia's office door. Sylvia bade her entry, and Nicolette stood before Sylvia at her desk as she was reviewing numbers from one of her operations in Kosovo.

She looked at Nicolette, "Yes?" she spoke softly.

"You've been recalled by the Council, High-Commander. Under direct order, you are to be brought to the Council by General Gregson."

Sylvia looked at Nicolette, frozen for a moment as she was processing this, and the only expression that emerged from her face was, as Nicolette could tell was, "What the hell?"

Sylvia asked, her response drawn out through genuine fear as Nicolette could tell, "Wh-y?"

"They wish to overview your operational procedures and mandates, Ma'am," Nicolette replied, lying somewhat, feeling Sylvia could go either way due to this revelation.

Sylvia sat back in her chair, puzzled, "You've been keeping a record, haven't you?"

"Of course, but this is by their direction, Ma'am. Has nothing to do with me."

Sylvia got up out of her chair and began pacing, visibly nervous. "Who issued this, Niki?"

Nicolette was surprised; never had she seen her this rattled. She replied, "Dr. Livsey, High-Commander."

Sylvia looked at Nicolette like she'd been shot, and then she exclaimed, "Oh, fucking hell!"

"Is—there a problem?"

"Uh—y-yes. Very potentially a devasting problem. To be called by Livsey, Niki means one of two things: A: I'm going to go to the countryside to disappear; not good. B: I receive a full-on operational audit; very bad. Livsey is the damn intellectual tax-man of North-Gate; seldom is he a bearer of good news!"

Sylvia began to pace more furiously, and Nicolette was afraid that she might have done the wrong thing this time. But it wasn't her that did this action; it was Yolanda who'd done this and potentially kicked off the powder-keg.

"W-when do I report in?" Sylvia asked in a panic.

"E-effective immediately. I'm to bring you to Gregson."

Sylvia groaned, "So everything's being suspended at best, terminated at worst. All my fucking work here! All of it to get this fucking far, everything's ready to launch and this—This! Fucking fine!"

She slammed her fists on her desk, "Come on, let's get this shit-show over with! I have the campaign to run!"

Nicolette was shaking, her knees gently shook, and Sylvia, disgusted with this, said, "Snap out of it! Go fire up the transporter! We must get home! Go!"

Nicolette quickly left, and she ran to signals; she sent the message back, "H.C. is coming, Gregson. Beware: She's pissed as hell."

The response came as Nicolette went to fire up the transport station, "Better she be pissed right now than launch the campaign without Ministry approval. Regrettable, but we'll handle it. —G."

Meanwhile, the Lyoko warriors were hard at work in the training simulator. They'd just barely gotten the hang of the revitalized Kranks and Tarantulas down, but it was still a marked improvement over where they'd started in the early afternoon. Odd's kill count was substantial, and Ulrich's was slowly catching up. Yumi was still getting the hang of her personal weapons kit of a grenade launcher with a stun-baton. Aelita was perfecting her aim, and her kill count was second highest to Odd's as she focused on precision over speed. In all reality, the team realized that this element that Sylvia had in place was the epitome of a balancing act.

Every warrior had their unique strengths against select units. Still, much akin to real-life, even after a few of their team huddles in the intermission periods, their best-laid plans didn't always work, but they were improving. The warriors were learning more and more to trust their gut instincts. It was one of the greater reliefs of this new form of battle; that gut instinct paid off more than typical strategies. That said, the monsters in their innovations played out far differently than they anticipated.

The Monsters were capable of a self-preservation method, lining up back to back or employing evasive distracting measures while the other went on the attack. Two Tarantulas were already challenging, but three proved to be the most strenuous. The Kranks could fire poison spit, but worse than that, if they missed, the poison was still as viable a danger as it lingered until the monsters were defeated, and so the Kranks would deliberately miss to simultaneously single and zone out the warriors to reduce their effectiveness as a group.

As Odd fought the monsters, he thought, "She spent way too much time on this shit. Damn, these are good. If she did this only to hinder us, I'd hate to see the beefier creature feature portion."

Aelita thought, "Swift, adaptive to what they see. We can't rely on predictable tactics. We have to switch it up. Wave for wave, they are improving." She called out, "Jeremy, stop the training sim."

Jeremy stopped the monsters, and they disintegrated, "What is it, Aelita?"

"It's adaptive, Jeremy. It's designed to compile our combat and use it against us. Notice our times to fight the monsters is getting longer and our shots less sure? I think we need to stop and come back and rethink this."

"Unfortunately, we can't withdraw just yet." Jeremy said, "I'm tracing the data, and it's passively going into the network. It's the one thing I couldn't cauterize no matter how much time I spent on it. It's part of North-Gate's core program. I suggest that you all focus on the individual weaknesses of key monsters and do your best to kill them as quickly as possible. Because the weaknesses don't change; the only thing that changes is what the computer recognizes as your tactics and responses to them."

Aelita nodded, "Jeremy, send in Sylvia's version of the Manta."

Odd looked at her, "Are you crazy?! That's one of the strongest monsters we knew."

"If we're going to fight Sylvia, we have to face her biggest beasts eventually. But before you call them in, Jeremy, I need to check something. Of the monsters we've been able to scan and root from our probes, are they all cybernetic organisms?"

Jeremy did some rolling through the index, and he replied, "If not cybernetic organisms, the monsters are entirely cybernetic. Cybernetics is how she controls a lot of XANA's former beastlike monsters. It appears that's where their coding is different. They are codes that help with precision as well as evasion, and pending what you face, those fluctuate drastically. However, if you destroy one unit and it's boosting other units, much like the poison from Kranks, it will stop immediately."

Ulrich, who had been quiet for this exchange, said, "There's one thing that I think you're overlooking, all of you. Sylvia's very design of these units is to exhaust us. It won't matter how hard we train, even if we mix up stuff in a tactical medley. Her goal is to exhaust us physically; look at how tired we all are right now, and we've only been here an hour and a half!"

Aelita thought about this. In many ways, Ulrich was right; this was a battle of overwhelming odds against their energy reserves. Aelita looked at Ulrich, "You're right. So, what do you advise we do?"

Ulrich gave an exasperated sigh, "We go back home right now. Because frankly, as I've been able to experience, and I wasn't here for the first time, you all went to Lyoko; but Sylvia has technically stacked the deck entirely in her favor if not at least halfway." He looked up, "Before you object, Einstein, hear me out!" he returned to his usual tone,

"Look, guys, this is what she's done. She amplified our physical sensations while in the supercomputer. We know this because she needs that data to augment her simulations on the populace, right? So, we're dealing with entities that aren't even human in the first place, raw computer program segments. We're fighting them as avatars of humans with now fully-realized, more or less, raw stamina and exertion limits. We can't win; it's not that we shouldn't try to win, but we can't win. Not like this, at least."

Jeremy replied, "You're right, Ulrich. She has stacked this deck. It's how she's done this from the—"

There was static in the line, and Aelita asked, "Jeremy, are you alright.

"Th—inti—o—fo—in." The static was so terrible that the team couldn't understand any of the messages. Suddenly the traditional blue and white of the training room turned red and peach with a slight tone resounding throughout.

Aelita looked around, and she took out her weapon, "Everyone, arm up! Something's going on."

The group whipped out their weapons and drew in a circle back to back with each other. Suddenly, a small door of light appeared in front of Ulrich and Odd. The ring broke, and all the warriors aimed down their sights at the light. Out stepped a figure, and as the group watched, all except Odd was stunned by. The figure was that of Aelita, but her clothing pattern was black and scarlet instead of white and pink.

She looked at the group and chuckled, "What? You gonna' shoot me?" she snapped her fingers and the weapons deactivated, falling into digitized dust. The group was unnerved, including Odd as the Aelita before they stepped forward.

"You needn't be afraid of me, kids. I'm not here to hurt you. On the contrary, I'm here to help you."

Odd stepped forward, "Are you a remnant or the actual one?"

"I'm the one, that my sister sought to destroy. But like as not, you need me more than you do her, it seems." She checked her fingernails and then looked at the group, "Relax, kids. You don't need to be afraid. I want my sister off this rock as much as you do, so it argues to the logic we should try and work together, shouldn't we?"

Aelita stepped forward, "You're me?"

"No, I'm the stronger version of you. You're what my sister wants; I'm not." Her tone grew more aggressive, "You're kind, I don't give a shit. You either work with me, or I kill you and use your friends as a means to my end. Is that clear?"

Ulrich took out his sword and was about to rush forward when Odd stopped him, "Ulrich, don't! She's no fucking joke; she'll kill you!"

Ulrich threw him aside and rushed the Aelita before him, who side-stepped, swept his feet with her left leg, with her right leg, kicked his sword out of his hand, and using her left hand, squeezed Ulrich's throat tightly, lifting him from the ground. Ulrich was amazed at the avatar's strength before him, and suddenly she threw him back five feet towards the group as he struggled for air.

The Aelita before them looked at Ulrich and said, "Listen to your fickle friend and listen to me. If you ever try that again, I will end you. I don't have time to be paralyzed by a lack of loyalty or hesitation. I know how to stop Sylvia, and I know how to turn this hellhole in on itself. You either can join and get in line or die screaming with the rest of this world if I fail. Either way, it's your decision."

Aelita looked at her mirror opposite and asked, "Sylvia said you are a monster; she hates you. Why should we trust you to help stop her? What do you gain?"

"What I gain is my rightful place as head of my people; I get my life back. What you gain is your paltry world back to what it was before my sister surfaced all those years ago. You get what you want, girl, your father, and all his glory back. Kadic receives its grandmaster of science and mathematics, Carthage is laid waste and destroyed forever, Odd gets the love he truly aspires for. You two," she looked at Ulrich and Yumi, "You don't live happily ever after, but maybe you learn to appreciate where love for you both genuinely lies. I said I would defeat my sister. Did you think I wouldn't reward you for your efforts to aid me?"

Aelita clenched her fist, "You lie." She said to the reflection across from her.

"Lie? How so?"

"My father can't come back! His soul's energy is destroyed, and no mockup or energy salvage can ever bring him back as he was! I won't believe your lie because what you promise, as far as I am concerned, can't happen and will not happen! It's a mathematical certainty it cannot."

Aelita smiled grimly, "Who says I need you? My sister needs you, nay wants you for her world. I don't need you at all. Your friend's aide would be appreciated, but I don't exactly need them either. I offer you all a deal, you either take it or you don't; it doesn't affect me one way or the other."

Yumi stepped forward, her fist raised, "Then why approach us at all?!"

Aelita crossed her arms, "I merely offer you a better rendition of the deal my sister posited before you a couple of months ago. I'd much rather you aide me than destroy such—passionate beings as yourselves. That's it. I'd sooner have you as aides between our people as opposed to having you join your pitiful world screaming in flames if my sister is successful in what she intends to do."

"And what is that?" Aelita asked.

"She has grown sick of your corruption, not of you but the masters of your world. Across the spectrum, she's gathered her intelligence and the raw data-oriented empirical evidence. There are others now, as we speak, trying to dissuade her. But Sylvia wishes to kill your corruption; if that means cleansing you all in flame and turning you into compost, so be it. The corrupt should be purged forever than allowed to oppress generations of children; that's her view."

"Why should we trust you, the butcher of thousands?" Aelita retorted.

"Hundreds of thousands." The doppelganger clarified, "If you are going to accuse me, be accurate, please. But to answer you, I did as I had to do, just as you have. I offer you a chance for prosperity over the blood-soaked desired ends of a lunatic. I offer you a chance to be a bridge between our worlds in a trade agreement. Do you doubt me? Then, by all means, take a chance with my deluded sister. Your teacher, Hertz, was it? Sylvia unloaded all memories of all your returns to the past and undid your memory inhibitors, driving Hertz genuinely mad out of her vindictiveness. The old crow was set as an example of her vision for the world, just as a taste of what's to cine.

Now, imagine that madness but far more theatrical, worthy of the stage? I'd be more afraid of those trying to kiss you with gentleness than the one who stands before you, a harbinger of what is to come should you throw in your lot with the true madwoman."

Aelita was stunned, "So, she's destroyed my friend for nothing?!"

"Beck?" the doppelganger looked bemused, "What the hell is the life of some ruthless guttersnipe to the likes of Sylvia-Anna Penrose? Her life has as much significance as the taint of a young woman has to Casanova over there."

The group was silent a moment, then Odd asked, "Question: Is it in your family nature to be great pontificators, or do lectures comingled with Shakespearian gravitas come naturally to you two?"

The doppelganger rolled her eyes, " Miracles never cease; you've actually become semi-articulate." She looked at the group, "You have my offer; consider it. I'll be back for your answer in two days." She turned and headed back into a window of light, and suddenly, the warriors found themselves devirtualizing and, in time, were back in the hermitage living room.

"Guys!" Jeremy said as he went over to them, "Where were you?! I lost all trace of the training room and you all! What happened?!"

Aelita looked at him, "We met—Sylvia's sister. Her true sister, Jeremy."

Jeremy was surprised, "Alright, sit down and tell me everything."

After Jeremy had heard the offer given to them by the doppelganger, he said, "We're between the Devil and the deep blue sea. We can't trust either one, but with the person who came before you, we may have a chance. Equally, she's said herself she doesn't need us to achieve what she needs to do."

Yumi shook her head, "Methinks thou doth protest too loudly. She needs something from us. Otherwise, she wouldn't have approached us."

Odd then spoke, "No, guys, she's right. She doesn't need us. It's the same thing with Sylvia; they don't need us. But I think both sides are covering their bases. Her sister, Natasha, is what she's called, is different."

Aelita remembered her dream from a while back, "Natasha?"

Odd looked at her, "You know of her?"

Aelita thought a moment and replied, "Odd, you were with Sylvia and North-Gate for a time. What do you know of Sylvia and Natasha?"

"Natasha came first, she was the ruler by birthright, but when Sylvia launched a coup, Natasha was ousted and killed by Sylvia. But if that were the case, she wouldn't be here before us. So, sadly, Sylvia wasn't as thorough as she thought."

"Why was Natasha killed?" Ulrich asked.

"In accordance to those who I was permitted to talk to and the record keeper, Dio, Natasha was a bible-black bloodthirsty tyrant who hid behind a mask of righteousness. She governed the people through the mantra to control the people fairly, that men and women must be disciplined to be managed. She made all kinds of technological advances that when I saw her world, the remnants of Natasha's regime had been repurposed but still existed.

But now, the fact she approaches us all—as much as she promises, I don't think we can trust her. Not truly at all, and if we could, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Yumi spoke, "She said she'd be back in two days for our response."

Jeremy sat down and thought for a long time. After a while, he said, "Why is she so eager to phase out her sister?"

Ulrich replied, "She wants her life back. Whoever Sylvia truly is, as we've seen, she's got a lot of power and the fact that Sylvia killed her shows that she didn't get her power legitimately."

Odd shrugged, "I don't know about that. It's like saying the war on Hitler wasn't a legitimate power move. When faced with a lunatic and monster as even the history books tell her to be, that I'm not sure Sylvia didn't have legitimate reasons. The fact is we have to answer her in two days. Additionally, Sylvia wants to burn our home to the ground, so there goes trusting her that far anyway,"

The group was silent for a while, all contemplating the task of the decision before them. Aelita then said, "It'll do no good to beat ourselves up over it now. We'll just sleep on it tonight. Odd, stay here. Jeremy and I want to talk to you about something."

Yumi and Ulrich headed out, and Odd remained behind as requested. He looked at the two, and Aelita gestured for him to sit.

An hour later, Aelita said, "So, that's what she is, what they all are."

Odd nodded, "Yes, they are separate from us, entirely. They only observe us now. Some have grown to hate us, others have not because they don't have autonomy. Your mirror is vicious, and she cares for nothing and no one. Sylvia was autonomous pretty much from birth but her mother's mirror raised her to overtake your counterpart and destroy her.

She didn't succeed. But now, we're faced with your mirror in our reality. If her legends of reign and terror true, she more than knows what she's doing over here."

Jeremy asked, "How did Sylvia kill her before?"

Odd winced, "She strangled her in her bed on her birthday."

Aelita grimaced, "She—strangled her?"

"The hate was genuine," Odd replied matter of factly.

"So, what do you think we should do? I mean, you went to this mirrorverse; what do you think we should do?" Jeremy asked.

Odd stood, "I need to see Sylvia one last time. There's a great risk inherent in what I'm going to ask her, but it could help us get rid of her sister. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon."

Soon, Odd was in front of the factory and he knocked heavily on the door. "Sylvia, it's me! We need to talk!" The door opened and Odd came in and turned on the lights. To his amazement, everything in the factory was gone. He entered the lift and went down into the computer lab, but it too was vacant. Everything was stripped bare.

"What—" Odd said aloud.

"It is all gone." A voice came from behind him. He turned and saw Yolanda standing in the doorway towards the boiler room. He looked at her, "Hello, Odd."

He was stunned, "Her inside man, it was you?!"

"Well, not just me. There were a few others before the operation was terminated, but for simplicity's sake, yes."

Odd looked at the nurse, who took out a packet of tic-tacs and offered Odd some. He refused, and she poured out six and began to suck on them, "So, what do you want to talk to the despot about?"

Odd said, "You're a mirror person."

"Doppelganger, yes. Heidi Klinger is my name."

He was stunned, "You're the reflection of—"

"Don't even start." She said, "Not that Klinger, the stupid bimbo, but another from the Belt of Orion thirty years from now."

"You're from the future?"

"In a sense, yes and no. What do you want, Odd?" She asked with a hint of exasperation.

"I need to know how to stop Natasha. She's back, Heidi. I know we aren't ready for the likes of her."

"But you're ready for your world to be purged by Sylvia?"

"No! But—we can't allow her to live. There's so much wrong that she did even in your world that—"

"She did no wrong where I came from. She was a titan of industry, an owner of a true mega-corporation specializing in food, minerals, and food growth distribution. She is the one who should be praised, but no. Sylvia killed her. She killed in me everything I had ever had: My wife, friends, and self-respect. The one who seeks her throne back, all well and good. It's with her in place along with the supercomputer at its key access point that I'll get what I want, my wife back. So, frankly, I see no benefit in helping you."

"So, you would doom us?! For your own selfish gain?"

"Tch," Yolanda was heard to chuckle, "Who the fuck are you to talk? You almost sold your soul and friends for her vision. You call me selfish? Please."

Odd could see there was no hope in this situation, and he asked, "Where's everything that was here?"

"As I said, all gone. We turned Sylvia over to her authorities, and we gutted the hell out of everything. What you came for is no longer here. Even though the old fuckers back home want to spare her, we have people in place to kill her in her holding home tonight. She will die just as her revolution did, noble in the heart but weak in resilience."

Yolanda rolled up her sleeve and checked her watch, "Aelita wants nothing to do with any of you. She simply wishes her world back to the way it was. Your Aelita called her out on her father, but it doesn't mean because she loses out on her father, you all don't get what you truly desire, a return to normalcy."

Odd said, "When our world is restored, what next?"

Yolanda sighed, "Who knows. It's up to you. We are going to leave this place, I am going to get to go home to where I came from; everyone more or less gets what they want. Aelita will be restored to her true age, and Lyoko will never have existed once we access the grand design function. Our world will fade to nothingness in your memory, and all that transpired upwards of thirteen years ago will be undone."

"You would undo our whole lives?!" Odd burst out in anger.

"What life if you don't remember people and events and won't remember them? You'll be restored as you were all thirteen years ago. However, if you wish, I can ask Aelita to stop this. I can ask her to undo everything Sylvia has put you through. You can salvage and keep your precious memories; all this with North-Gate, will never have happened."

Odd was silent, "What are your conditions for this? You wouldn't do this for free."

"Why wouldn't I? I'm getting what I want. I can give you what you want. You need only ask, and unlike Sylvia, I keep my promises."

Odd was afraid, "There's nothing I can do, is there?"

"Oh, on the contrary, there is. You can have everything as it was, before all this nightmare, and only you warriors would have the memories. You have the choice, Odd. You're the one who came here. It's your choice and yours alone."

Odd was silent and sat in the computer chair, "Why did you all wait so long?"

"We had to let the bitch hang herself. The old guard loved her too much, and they wouldn't kill her, even if she violated me, let alone our accords of conduct."

"She violated you?"

"She opened me up to that fucking psychotic computer! That's right, Odd! I never forgot anything that you all did. I've lived with every reset every time, every disaster, and I'm sick of it, Odd, sick of it!"

Odd was stunned, "She drove you insane."

"No, she gave me the ammunition to give the killing shot to her, to her friends, all of them. They all have left. I'm the only one who remains to pick up the last pieces. Equally, due to your returns, I am substantially rich. It's a benefit that you lot failed to genuinely embrace because you're young. But your choice is before you: Do you wish all this to go away, or do you wish to be restored to before Sylvia came? That is all I need to know. For the first time, the executive decision—is yours."

Odd was amazed at all that was told to him, and he sat in silence. He then looked at Yolanda and said, "Let me ask a question, then I will give you my answer. Who were you before Sylvia came for you?"

Yolanda popped open her tic-tac container and poured out four more, and said, "I was just like you. Young, stupid, filled with hopes and dreams that she heard, and she loved. She showed me what Brynja showed you. I believed it as you started to, but more so. And it all went to hell from there. That's the problem with hidden knowledge. None believe you, even though details are too precise to be fabricated. Anyway, your choice, please."

Odd understood. Yolanda was once a child like him, as she said herself, but she saw more and believed in it longer than he. He looked at the woman before him, and she looked haggard to the say the least, tired and worn out. Odd knew that look; she wanted to go home.

He spoke, "Before Sylvia came, can you ensure that it will be before she came?"

Yolanda stood to her full height, having been slumped against the door to the boiler room, "Absolutely. Alright, we have what we need. Goodnight, Odd."

"Heidi, wait,"

Yolanda stopped and looked back at him, "Did you—did you ever care for us? I mean, you spent so much time with us. Did you care for us at all?"

She looked back toward the boiler room, "I did my duty, nothing more." She replied before Odd retorted, "What, you felt nothing?! You didn't care for any one of us?! Not Sissi, not Jeremy when he was hurt—"

She turned back to face him, "My care for you was looking after my commander's investment for this final masterstroke to end any residual reprisals. She doesn't need you, but your involvement will make this final nail in the coffin easier to nail. It's nothing personal in it for me at all regarding you whelps. How much clearer can I make it for you? You like crime drama? I'm the informant who simply maintained her cover until the right time. I'm the Donnie Brasco, I'm the Deborah Ciccerone to your Adriana La Cerva. Get the picture?"

Odd nodded, "The professional detachment. How convenient."

"Coming from a puerile Casanova with all the social graces of an open sewer, that observation means nothing." She checked her watch, "I must be going. Have the team ready by tomorrow night to move on the Mountain region."

Outside the factory, Yolanda got into her car and patched into her implant, "Brasco to Central, come in."

"Central here, proceed."

"I've found our candidate for the public façade until our commander is rehabilitated."

"Very good. Name of the Candidate."

"Amelia Beck."

"Very good. What ward is she located in?"

"Tenth Arrondissement."

"We'll bring her in, thank you, Brasco."

Yolanda disconnected, and she drove up the main street three blocks, saw her marked telephone pole and taking her jack, plugged into the pole, and dialed a number.

"Yes, Captain?" Aelita's voice replied.

"Dr. Jekyll is green; repeat, Dr. Jekyll is green. T.A. is under the sweep, commencement in five minutes. Arrow has agreed to the second amendment."

"Well done, Captain. Livilla is en route to our beloved. Once done, your end of our contract is complete. As promised, your invention is to be given to you completely in blueprints and demonstration for your dear wife. I'll see you at Transporter Six."

The line disconnected, and Yolanda removed her jack, and as she entered her car, driving to her apartment, she thought, "Soon, soon, my love, we'll be in each other's arms again."