Interlude The Ninth
When the Darkness cleared, Lisa realized, they were in Brockton Bay... But not the Brockton Bay they'd left behind.
For one, they were outside. For two... Everything was wrong. There were strange crystalline structures everywhere, broken buildings, the dockyard and the boardwalk seemed destroyed, like when Leviathan hit but much, much worse... There was a goddamned lake for some reason.
And everything was too small. The layout of the streets was wrong, the skyline compressed as if every major area of the city was shrunken down and pushed together so that they could be seen from where they stood now.
The members of the Slaughterhouse Nine and the members of Lisa's own group seemed equally confused by this course of events, but the killers recovered first. Bonesaw, a scalpel in each hand, began running for Lisa...
But at that moment, a series of hexagonal portals began to open all around them.
From one such portal, a swarm of the same otherworldly black insects from early burst forth and engulfed Bonesaw, who shrieked loudly and shrilly. "They're in my eyes!" The child screamed again and began running randomly, the swarming following so that she was never free of it until she suddenly went silent. The swarm dispersed, leaving the killer still on the ground covered in bug bites.
Simultaneously to this, a childlike waif dropped in a dark robe, accompanied by several glowing green wraiths—one of which, Lisa realized with terror, was the spitting image of Eidolon—came forth from another portal, laid hands upon Crawler, and Crawler then dropped dead.
A man in green, dragon-themed powered armor had a leg that, for lack of a better term, ignited into... Something blurry. A high kick dragged the leg through Mannequin's chest cavity, and the cyborg's limbs fell to the ground as the red mist that was once his brain and organs dispersed into the air.
In just a few moments, Jack Slash, who had already shown genuine fear when Berserker appeared, had lost all composure.
He turned to run... Only to find a young boy, who appeared to have stepped right out of an old movie for his lack of color, standing behind him.
Jack stepped backward for a few moments and turned again only for a pair of hands to emergy from the asphalt and grab him by the legs.
A young woman in black armor decorated with asymmetrically placed belts slowly walked up to him and, with a swing of her rapier, took his head clean from his body.
And then, only a few minutes after it appeared, the twisted image of Brockton Bay faded and everyone was returned to the warehouse... This time full of supervillain corpses instead of serial killers.
Dallon said what Lisa was thinking. "What the fuck was that?"
Berserker, Khepri, didn't answer. Instead, another pair of portals like those from the Twisted City appeared. From one emerged a man who could have been Legend's twin, who fired two beams of energy through the roof of the warehouse off to god-knows-where.
From the other, near where Taylor was imprisoned, came a man dressed in gold, with a goat mask, and a hideous man with manny monstrous features, not unlike a much younger Crawler.
Goatmask pulled the wires from Taylor's body and then laid hands on her. Before Lisa's eyes, Taylor's wounds healed. Her hair even began to grow back, though not as long as it had been.
Goatmask then laid a hand on the hideous man, and injuries like Taylor's appeared on him before instantly healing, leaving studier flesh behind.
The portals and the men who had stepped through them vanished just after Taylor was set gently on the floor.
And Khepri sat on the floor, somehow looking utterly inhuman despite lacking any sign of physical change.
That power, the world within her soul full of thousands of Parahumans under her control, is debilitating for her to use outside of small bursts.
As Lisa's power filled in that tidbit, Lisa had to wonder... What had happened to give this version of Taylor such a power? And why she was so willing to use it to kill the Nine.
Most of the Nine. Bonesaw is still breathing.
Lisa did not even have time to wonder why Bonesaw was spared before her power filled in that the child was rigged to explode and spread a deadly bioweapon upon death.
...And then Lisa realized that her power had specifically made her think of Khepri's power as a world within her soul and the implications of that... Were something she'd worry about later.
In the time it took Lisa to get her bearings, Mister Saito had returned to the toolbox and broken the chain. Opal bowled the man over as she burst forth from her prison to tend to Taylor.
"Princess! Princess, are you alright?"
Taylor came back to consciousness and looked around. Her eyes settled on Bonesaw, alive but paralyzed. Taylor grabbed Opal and immediately transformed, then grabbed around on the ground for one of her cards.
Lisa didn't know which card it was that turned Opal into a handgun that looked like it could take out a tank, but that's the one Taylor went with. She stood on shaky legs and tried to train her gun on the child's head.
Only for Khepri, with inhuman speed, to appear beside her and grab her wrist. "D-don't," the... Spirit? said with a voice that wavered as if she was forcing herself to remember how to speak human language. "Y-y-you will... Regret it... Get... Out of here. I-i-i'll, hand-handle it."
Taylor looked at the twisted image of herself that she had summoned. "Who are you?"
Khepri released Taylor from her grip and pulled off her cowl. Taylor gasped and fell to the floor.
—
After a few moments, it was established that Khepri's healer couldn't fix the strain that Bonesaw's experiment put on Taylor's magic circuits. While all of her other injuries were mended, she'd still be shakey until she got some proper rest.
The group left and then broke off, with Dallon being the one elected to escort Taylor to safety...
And Lisa told Brian she'd catch up with him.
She fully expected that he wouldn't believe any excuse she gave her, so she just circled back to the warehouse without giving one.
There she found Bonesaw performing surgery on Bonesaw.
The second Bonesaw had exchanged the Alice in Murder Land look for grey sweat clothes and a ponytail, but was otherwise recognizable by voice, appearance, and body language.
"You know, it's funny," she said. "Part of me always wanted to vivisect myself, but I only get the chance when I don't want to anymore. Now, where are the pliers? Gotta yank out those acid teeth."
It's a puppet. Khepri is making it imitate the real Bonesaw's mannerisms.
That, Lisa, filed away under answers she didn't want to questions she didn't ask.
Khepri, still maskless, stood statue-still over the macabre preceding.
"I know that you're there, Lisa," she said without turning, having apparently recovered from using... Whatever that city was.
"I wasn't trying to hide," Lisa defended. "I just... I need to know... What happened? What made..."
"Whatever the point of deviation was, it happened before I got here," Khepri said monotonously. "Which is good. Maybe this Taylor will be lucky enough to not end up like me."
"...Yeah, I noticed that you didn't explain the real reason why she'd regret killing Bonesaw," Lisa said shrewdly. "You just implied it led to this? But... Seriously. What happened? It could still happen here and..."
"World ended, Scion died, Cauldron failed. The rest is kind of a blur... Stuff comes and goes. Everything before now is clear, but afterward..."
Lisa blinked. "Cauldron?"
"The cavalcade of fuckups that are about to walk in," Khepri said dismissively.
Lisa moved out of the way and turned in time to see... The Triumvirate walking in behind her.
"Though... They didn't get involved last time," Khepri mumbled. "Why are you here?" She asked them.
Alexandria began "We—"
"Uh, no," Khepri interrupted. "Not the psychobitch and not the raging inferiority complex. I will deal with Legend. He tried to screw me over once, but at least he's respectable."
Alexandria bristled. "Now see here—"
In a flash, Khepri had Alexandria by the throat. "This hurts, doesn't it?" Khepri said. "Know why? Because a Servant's powers are derived from their feats in life, and I already killed you once you crooked, power-tripping, murderous piece of shit. We were in conflict. I was just trying to help but my friends and I were making the PRT look bad and you just couldn't let that stand, Becky. I gave myself up, a show of good faith, tried to negotiate... And you tortured me and threatened to kill my friends one by one even after I agreed to go to the fucking Birdcage if it got me what I wanted."
Alexandria broke from Khepri's grip and moved to attack her—Lisa desperately wished she was somewhere else—only to place in a full nelson by her exact body double as it emerged from a portal.
Legend and Eidolon both moved to intercept, but Khepri continued speaking, this time addressing them. "Don't act like I'm in the wrong, you know what she's about. The whole fucking Protectorate knows what she's about. And, as I think I've demonstrated, you're not a threat so don't waste your time..."
She's lying. She has a finite amount of energy and will die if she runs out. Unless she finds a way to recharge... But the Trimvarate fell for her bluff.
Eidolon and Legend backed down.
"So anyway, I refuse to back down, so this bitch leaves and comes back with my boyfriend in a body bag." Khepri went deathly quiet. "So... Naturally, I filled her lungs with spiders. Bad form to draw attention to your one weakness while antagonizing one of like, five people on the planet who can kill you, Becky."
Khepri licked her lips. "And now, because I'm infamous as the girl who killed Alexandria, I can hurt you, kill you, as easy as crushing an ant." Another lie, Khepri's ability to harm Alexandria is from some other source. "I didn't even get charged. My lawyer got the security tape of the negotiation and turns out what you did was all the legal justification I needed to kill you. Extreme circumstances, defense of a third person, yada yada yada. I got everything I went in to get... And you got thrown under the bus, posthumously blamed for a bunch of crimes against humanity the PRT was implicated in and your corpse given to Pretender."
"The only thing you're good for," Khepri finished, "is being a living reminder of the kind of monster I'd become if I ever forget what a despicable piece of shit I am."
The duplicate of Alexandria, no, Pretender in Alexandria's body, vanished, letting Alexandria land on her feet.
"Now," Khepri started as if that entire exchange had never happened, "I fulfilled the purpose for which I was summoned, and yet I'm still here. So, right now I only care about two things: Making sure this Taylor doesn't end up like me and making sure you people don't fuck up and let the world end again. We have two options for this: I do it my way, which none of you will like... Or I work with you in exchange for a few concessions that we can work out later."
"You're not giving us much of a choice," Alexandria grumbled.
Khepri looked into Alexandria's visor, where her eyes would be. "I learned from the best."
Khepri blinked. "Okay, you know what, I don't care why you're here anymore—"
Khepri was interrupted by the sound of a motorcycle pulling up.
Rushed but heavy footsteps signaled the arrival of Armsmaster, who took in the sight and cursed under his breath.
Khepri pointed to him. "And then there's this asshole."
Lisa pinched her nose. "Oh my God, what did he do?"
"Set me up to die so he could get a chance to fight Leviathan one on one. Thought his new weapon could kill it. Didn't work, lot of people who otherwise might have lived died, including several heroes."
Armsmaster was silent for a moment. "I want to say that I would never do something like that, but I've been questioning a lot of things about myself and the world since I met Princess."
"And that makes you a better person than my Defiant," Khepri nodded suddenly. "It took being targeted by... That jackass," Khepri gestured to Mannequin's remains, "for that to happen to him." There was a moment, like the beat panel of a comic book. "Why are you here?"
"Well, I was across town, dealing with an encounter with the Siberian, when there was a massive pillar of light from this part of town," Armsmaster began, "And then a few moments later two laser beams similar to Legend's came from the same area. One spiraled around, blew up a van about two blocks up the street from the fight, and then the Siberian vanished. Naturally, I assumed it had something to do with Princess, and since I've been doing quite diligent research on Mysterious Phenomena since acquiring the Caster Card on the Rig, I figured I should probably get involved. Though, it seems I'm late to the party."
"Yeah, I killed the Nine good. Except for Bonesaw..." In all the excitement, Lisa had actually forgotten about Khepri's Bonesaw performing surgery on the real one. "I'm having her disarmed of all the traps and weapons in her body as we speak, and... Look she's an asset we can't afford to waste. Cancel the kill order, dump her in the Asylum... something happened that fixed her up sometime in the next two years... I'm rambling."
The Bonesaw puppet finished sewing up the real Bonesaw. "Done." Khepri made it say.
"Say goodbye, Riley," Khepri said to her puppet.
"Goodbye, Riley!" the puppet echoed to the actual Bonesaw before vanishing.
Armsmaster was hesitant of Khepri's request "I'm not sure that what you're asking is—"
"They can do it," Khepri said with a gesture to the Triumvirate. "They have the connections with their Secret Kettle Club and their Nice Hat. And they will do it. Because, excepting maybe Alexandria, they're not stupid."
Lisa resisted the urge to point out the doublespeak or demand answers... What the hell was Cauldron?
Khepri was now standing next to Lisa. "Now, it's been a while since I lived in the Bay, I'm not sure I know my way around anymore, but I really need to check on my Master," Khepri said while placing her hands on Lisa's shoulders. "So I'm just gonna borrow Tattletale for a little bit so she can give me directions to a few landmarks."
Khepri then practically dragged Lisa out of the warehouse. On the way out, she heard Eidolon commiserate with Legend about not really being part of the conversation.
After being frogmarched away in silence for about a block, Lisa opened her mouth to speak.
"Did Alexandria really kill..."
"I don't even know," Khepri said with a sigh. "Everything I said... I remember it clearly, that was all true... And my Brian was dead by the time I became this. She might have killed him, she might not have."
It was at this point that Lisa finally got a good look at Khepri's face.
Khepri looked like Taylor, but... Older. Skin tanned a few shades darker like she spent more time in the sun. A few small scars. And circles around her eyes. Khepri was a Taylor who'd managed to grow absolutely ancient in only a few years. Mostly, she looked broken. And very tired.
"Taylor, what happened to you?"
"Don't call me that," Khepri said wearily. "Taylor got better. She learned to be okay. I can't. The self-loathing, the anger, the need for control, the need to escalate until I'm in control, the regret... Taylor got better, but for Berserker it's baked in, a fundamental part of me... I'm not Taylor, I can't be Taylor, I'm the monster that was born when Taylor finally broke under the weight of everyone else's bullshit. I am Khepri."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't cry for me. I'm already dead," Khepri replied dryly. "Figuratively and literally. Thanks for walking with me, I'm going to go check on Taylor."
Khepri faded from view and Lisa didn't need her powers to realize that she'd lied about needing directions.