A Good Doctor
"And this is the consultation area." The captain said, as they entered the room. "Course, nowadays its basically the barracks. This is where the guards stay while off-duty."
"Good to know, thanks." Replied captain—lieutenant Belladonna of the Grand Guard, looking around. "They could afford lights in here, so that's nice."
The captain chuckled, so she assumed she'd gotten away with the comment. "Better than a lot of places to patrol. You're lucky to be here for admin." He said, before lowering his voice. "And the officers like to meet up in the salon, the balcony above. There's not supposed to be any alcohol while working, and if you see any on the rank-and-file you confiscate it. But up there…"
"Oh, nice! Corruption!" Bella said, smiling.
The captain squinted at her, and she cringed internally. Damn it, Bella! For once in your life, learn to keep your damn mouth shut!
"Lockers are in the back there." He said, the camaraderie from before gone. "Get settled in. Your shift starts in an hour."
"Right…" Bella smiled weakly, adjusted her red officer's jacket, and walked into the room.
Well, that's one bridge burned, well done. It's fine, there will be more. To not burn, I mean. We can start now! Quick, check if there are any cute girls!
There hadn't been any other women among the officers, disappointingly. Most of the regular guardsmen that were relaxing in the room barely gave Bella a glance; checking she wasn't going to book them for anything then going about their day. Most looked somewhere between bored, tired, and anxious. The last seeming appropriate, given what she'd heard about this place…
Her eyes landed on one particular guard, and her eyebrows shot up. Yes! Cutie!
Short young woman, about 5'2, red hair pulled into a neat bob, rocking the standard white-grey uniform. The girl turned to face Bella, giving her a chance to appreciate the green eyes and the…
Wait a minute.
Bella blinked. "Bridget?"
Bridget—no fucking way, its actually Bridget—met her eyes and blinked too. "Bella? Wait, you're here?"
Bella's brain crashed, put itself back together, and then she ran forwards the next few paces and hugged her old childhood friend. "Strictures, Bridget, how are you? What are you doing here? Didn't you have a cushy position in the Cyria district?"
"Ugh. Long story." Bridget rolled her eyes, smiling with a hint of guilt. "I…may have lost a bet. What about you? Weren't you in the First Attachment to the Duke? I thought you were going to Dunwall!"
"I did go to Dunwall." Bella winced. "And that went…if I say how that went I'll get in trouble. But I may have done that thing I do sometimes."
"You spoke up when you couldn't help it and now you're in trouble?" Bridget guessed, with a giggle.
"Yep. The Empress asked me a question, what was I supposed to do?"
Bridget's face went all concerned. "You talked to Delilah?"
"No, the previous Empress. Long story." Bella sighed. "Got demoted to lieutenant and sent here. Everyone knows Addermire is the equivalent of toilet duty for new assignments…"
"But have they told you why it's toilet duty?" The concern on Bridget's face hadn't left. Bella looked down at her, worry creasing up her own.
"Not really. Why, is it bad?"
"It's not safe, is what it is." Bridget huffed, grabbing her by the hand (oh by the Void she's holding my hand—) and started pulling her towards the door. "Come on, we're talking to them. I'm not having you stationed here with that crazy chick on the loose…"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down." Bella dug her heels in, pulling Bridget to a stop. "Quick check, what rank are you again?"
"Private, why?" Bridget answered casually.
"Then what are you expecting to do?" Bella snorted. "You can't exactly pull rank and get me transferred."
"Oh, yeah, right. Authority." Bridget coughed. "But I don't like you being here. I'll sort it, don't worry."
"Don't you dare with that 'I have a plan' look, I don't want to be roped into any more arson." Bella was smiling despite herself. She felt more comfortable already. "Look, let's just relax for a bit, okay? I'm off-duty for an hour, so we can actually swap those long stories we were talking about."
Bridget thought about it, then shrugged, dropping Bella's hand (ah, damnit). "Sounds good. I mean, I'm technically on-duty, but yeah, let's catch up!"
"You are?" Bella tilted her head. "Where should you be?"
"Patrolling out front. But come on, it's not like anyone's going to show up here at this hour."
The wind was high, the sky was cloudy and grey, and the mood was generally bleak when the car arrived at Addermire Station.
Emily and Thomas stepped out, looking up at the imposing stone building. There were no guards to greet them, at least not out here, but voices could be heard from inside.
Emily gestured up to the top, and signed 'Climb?'
Thomas looked at her, looked up at it, looked back at her. Snorted. "Are you mad? What am I saying, we already know that. Uh, maybe, but it would be risky, and take a while. I'd have to look around." He raised an eyebrow. "Have you considered (and hear me out here), going in at ground level?"
Emily gave him a mortified look.
"I know, I know, but it might be the best play."
Emily huffed, thought about it. The issue with going in through the front door is that, well, that's where all the guards are. And I can't dismiss them as non-threats anymore. Outsider, you ass…But at the same time, I doubt that Sokolov and Hypatia are going to be on the roof.
She nodded, reluctantly, putting a finger to her lips.
"Really? You're telling me to—"
She glared.
"—Got it, stealth mode."
She rolled her eyes, and got moving.
Now, it's important to note that while they were used to performing heists with the aid of supernatural abilities (and in fact, had gotten in frustratingly little practise heisting over the last decade), the empress and her captain still had years of training under Corvo Motherfucking Attano, not to mention a two-week crash course on the Dreadful Wale. Powers or no powers, the two of them were very much an efficient team.
The guard that walked nonchalantly out the main entrance was grabbed and choked unconscious by Thomas. Emily snuck deeper in, crouching behind a desk and listening. She counted the sounds of two people in the reception check-in, and flashed that number to Thomas as he followed after her, having dragged the first guard round a corner.
He nodded, picked up a loose rock from the floor, and tossed it over his shoulder. It landed with a 'clack' against the wall of the check-in, causing both guards to make confused noises and move to check it out. Emily and Thomas vaulted the desk as one, getting up behind the guards and choking them unconscious simultaneously.
Next obstacle: The reception proper. A spacious room, plenty of cover, with two guards at the far end talking to a civilian woman. She was begging to be allowed entrance, and being stubbornly rebuffed. Behind all three was another damn wall of light, and the wires from it led to the adjacent balcony. Good old fashioned whale oil for this one then.
There were also good old fashioned vines all over the balcony and its pillars; this place was in desperate need of refurbishing. Emily gestured, and Thomas nodded. In a moment where the woman's complaints grew particularly loud, he stepped up on a railing and leapt, grabbing a fistful of vines and pulling himself up to the ledge. On the ground, Emily crept closer to the guards.
"Please!" The woman begged. "If you could just let me see Dr Hypatia—"
"Oh, enough already—" The guard in grey groaned, curling up a fist and slugging it towards her.
Emily gently brushed the woman aside and caught it in her hand, raising an eyebrow.
"What the—" The guard exclaimed, in time for Thomas to drop down from above and land on top of the other man, slamming his head into the floor.
While Emily's guard was distracted, she kneed him in the balls, twisted his arm around his back, grabbed the scruff of his collar, and ran him into the nearby booth. His head went through the glass with a satisfying crash.
"Stealth." Thomas said, standing. "This is your 'stealth'?"
Emily spread her arms, looking at the unconscious bodies.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Nobody can notice if there's nobody to notice." Thomas' gaze shifted to the wide-eyed woman, and he gulped. "Uh, except you, madame. Evening. Any idea where Dr Hypatia is? We're not here to hurt her, trust me."
"I…I don't know. Nobody knows, anymore." The woman said, slowly backing away with her hands raised. "Dr Hypatia hasn't seen patients in months, now. Uh, her office is on the top floor? Back before all this, she would accept visitors there!"
Thomas looked at Emily, who shrugged. "Alright. Go on, get out of here. But, uh, maybe send the car back once you're gone?"
The woman didn't respond. She just bolted.
Thomas hadn't had time to pull out the whale oil tank when he'd first gone up, so he boosted Emily and she did it before jumping back down. Moving past it finally gave them access to a map, which Thomas promptly cut out with his knife and rolled up in his pocket. "Top floor, Hypatia's office." He confirmed. "You want to chance the stairs?"
Emily shook her head, and pointed to just behind the map. Thomas looked. And blanched.
"You're joking." He said.
She wasn't.
The doors to the lift dinged closed upon them, and it started ascending.
Emily and Thomas stood together in the lift. She nudged him.
"What?" He asked, suspiciously.
She made the gesture they'd come up with to mean 'help me'.
He frowned. "With what? What do you—" And then he realised.
"No." He refused. "We are not doing 'help me'."
She nodded.
"No. It's embarrassing."
'You love it.' She signed, smirking behind her mask.
"I hate it."
'Fun.'
"It's not fun, it's humiliating."
'Guards.' She pointed out, pointing up at the (gradually approaching) top floor.
"Yeah, but we can stop them. We're not doing 'help me'."
She raised her foot, and looked at him pointedly.
He groaned, and cupped his hands together.
"Help me!"
The two guards on duty outside Hypatia's office looked up in shock as the door to the lift pinged open. Inside was a young man slumped against one wall, coughing. He looked to have a sword buried in his chest.
"Outsider's eyes!" One gasped, rushing towards him. "Are you alright, man?"
"Help me! I'm…" He gasped—Then lashed out and grabbed the man by the scruff of the neck.
Outside, the other man staggered away in surprise—Only for another woman to drop down on him from the hatch above the lift.
Emily bore the man to the ground, slamming his back into the tiled floor with a grunt. That didn't put him out, so she grabbed his head, raised it up, and cracked it into the floor for—
Blood on the floor—
Blood on her hands—
Cracks ringing out in the hallway—
Emily crashed back into the side of the lift, heart pounding, breathing in shallow pants.
"Emily? Ah, shit—" Thomas was holding her in moments, providing a useful centre-point for her attention. "You good? Emily, nod if you can hear me."
She nodded, taking a series of heavy breaths.
'OK' She signed.
"You don't look okay." He briefly looked away, probably checking that the two guards were out. "What happened? Outsider?"
Funnily enough, she didn't have a sign for 'brief PTSD induced panic attack'. She raised shaky hands, managing to spell out the letters R—A—M—S—
"Ramsey." Thomas finished, sighing and stepping back. "Shit. I'm sorry, Emily—"
'Language.' She flashed, trying for a weak smile, before reiterating 'OK.'
"If you want, you can go back…" He pointed vaguely towards the cart.
'I'm OK.' She reiterated. But I'm going to need to practise the vertical takedowns once I get back to the ship. Void, that was visceral…
She stepped forwards before Thomas could protest further, scanning over the page pinned to the door of Hypatia's office so she had something else to think about.
At work…recuperation area…key here…great. Well, we know where she is. And no mention of Sokolov…
She pulled it off (pocketing the key attached to it) and handed it to Thomas, moving into Hypatia's office. The place seemed fairly nice, in truth. Lived in. Lots of knick-knacks around, souvenirs from the city. There was even what looked like a child's drawing pinned to one wall, which was adorable. But none of the notes she checked over gave any indication of her being involved in Sokolov's kidnappings. Has to be a patient, then. Some psychopath Delilah has doing her dirty work.
Her gaze alighted on one of the odd blue vials that were dotted around the place, and she picked it up, squinting.
"Addermire solution." Thomas supplied. "Hypatia made it to help the miners. The new 'spiritual' remedy. Supposedly better than Pierro's old one."
Might it work the same way as Pierro's for…well, doesn't really matter. But frankly, I think my spirit could use some remedying. Heh. I should get a checkup from Hypatia when we find her.
Emily scooped it up, attaching it to her belt. Then pointed a finger down.
"Recuperation area?" Thomas checked. When she nodded, "Alright. Let's go meet the good doctor."
"Or, and hear me out here, we could not meet the good doctor."
Thomas weathered Emily's Emily look with a wince, continuing "I mean, look at that! She can't be in there. What sensible doctor goes through that on her commute?"
Through the door they had unlocked was a huge red hive of bloodflies. And another one. And another one. And more, further down the hall. The flies hovered around it, buzzing ever so quietly as they floated aimlessly through the air.
Emily shook her head. Pointed in.
"Or, you could go, and I could guard the door?" He offered.
Emily squinted at him, confused…then mouthed an 'ah' in understanding. She raised her hands to paw at her face, and clacked her teeth together.
The rat impression was enough to let Thomas know she'd caught on. He sighed. "It's not just rats I'm scared of, Emily."
The Look was back—
"I don't like swarms, okay! Period! I'll fight a dog, I'll fight a bloody dragon, just don't make me go up against a million little things that I can't hit that go all over me and—"
At his raising voice, the bloodflies around the nearest nest stirred, their buzzing growing louder and more agitated. He shut up.
There was genuine concern on Emily's face when he looked back at her. She made both her palms flat and pushed them towards the ground, then put a finger to her lips.
"Stay low, stay quiet." He repeated. "Right. Where'd you learn to sneak around bloodflies?"
'Corvo.' Emily answered. His nickname was a hand raised like a mask over her face.
"Of course. You must have had the strangest bedtime stories…"
Emily put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Smiled. And made her way down the corridor.
Oh, for the love of…
Thomas clenched his fists and followed.
They made painstakingly slow progress. Trying to stay as far away from the nests as possible, clinging to the walls, and resisting the urge to swat at the flies that hovered dangerously close (or, in one ruddy awful moment, landed on his head). It was difficult to resist the urge to draw his pistols and just start blasting at the nests. But he kept his gaze on Emily's back, and followed her footsteps.
After what felt like Too Damn Long, they made it to the end unstung. Emily opened the door and Thomas rushed through it past her, leaving her to close it behind them.
"Okay, please tell me there is some special way out of here that means I don't have to do that again…" He grunted, swinging his arms to stretch them and moving briskly towards the stairs. Rapid breathy sounds from behind told him that Emily was laughing at him, and he huffed, making his way down.
There was definitely someone in this wing of the facility. A woman, muttering to herself. Thomas peeked around the corner, and confirmed the face he recognised from newspaper clippings: Alexandria Hypatia.
"I'll talk to her, you look around." He whispered. Emily slunk off into the shadows, while he put on his most charming smile and approached the woman working at her desk.
"Hi there!" He called. "Sorry to interrupt, Doctor. My name's Thomas, I was wondering if I could—"
"Hm? Is someone there?" Hypatia turned to look at him, not stopping her dissection of the small creature in front of her. Thomas inwardly cringed; her gaze was vacant, her eyes milky and unfocused. "Oh, hello. Are you one of my patients? No, that can't be right…"
"Doctor Hypatia." Thomas pressed. "I'm here about a friend of mine. Anton Sokolov? Do you know if he was here?"
"Sokolov…" Hypatia turned back to her work. "Yes…I know that name. He was…here. I don't know why. I don't think he was sick. I didn't get to treat him. They just…took him away."
"Do you know where?" Thomas pressed.
"No, I…I'm sorry, are you a patient of mine? Or did I already ask that? Sorry, my mind's been all…foggy, lately…"
There was a crash from further into the wing.
Thomas and Hypatia both stiffened.
"What was that?" She asked, her tone suddenly very clear and very calm.
"Uh, that's a friend of mine." He smiled, guiltily. "Sorry, we both came here to see you, she's just shy—"
Thump, thump, thump, came a bashing sound from Emily's direction.
He stopped, his eyes widening. Three hits was the signal for an emergency.
"Uh, excuse me—" He started moving towards the sound.
"Why's your friend in the recuperation area, Thomas…" Hypatia said, warningly. "She's not supposed to be back there. You think I didn't hear her come in?"
As he tried to move, Hypatia grabbed his arm, fingers like a vice. He turned back to her, shocked, only for her to lean down and sniff all up his arm.
"Whale Oil. Smoke. Northern spices. Rain and muck." Her head snapped up to look at him, eyes suddenly very alive. She grinned. "Dunwall."
Emily burst through a door in the back, carrying a body in her arms. The man was bandaged all over, including his face, bleeding from countless wounds yet still gasping for breath. The look on Emily's face was horrified, and she pointed a shaking hand at Hypatia.
"Emily." Hypatia's attention snapped to the empress, her fingers writhing, her posture turning hunched and aggressive. "Finally. I have been waiting for so long to meet you~"
That was all the information Thomas needed. He grabbed a glass volumetric flask from the table beside him and smashed it over Hypatia's head.
Emily was in combat mode. That meant her heart was pounding, her adrenaline was spiking, and her brain was going at a thousand miles a minute but corralling that into productive thought was particularly difficult.
She needed to help Dr Vasco, the poor man currently half-dead in her arms. But she couldn't help Vasco, because Dr Hypatia was the Crown Killer, and she was right there.
So Emily dropped Vasco in a nearby chair and rushed in, clutching the note that the man had desperately scrawled sometime before she'd found him.
"Emily Kaldwin! Emily Kaldwin!" Hypatia sounded positively giddy. She swayed to her feet, not seeming to care at all about the blood dripping from the side of her head. "Oh, I've been waiting so long to meet you. I'm Alex. Grimm Alex. Can we try to kill each other now?"
Emily ignored her, slapping the note into Thomas' chest and pointing to the door on the upper level.
"Right, going!" He took off, and she followed hot on his heels.
"What? No, come back!" Alex's voice was raspy and enraged. "I'm not done PLAYING with you yet!"
"So, I think we found our killer!" Thomas called, scanning down the page on his way up the steps. "When did she—What the fuck—"
An alternate personality. Her corrupted serum transforming her from a genial doctor into a psychotic killer. That's exactly ridiculous enough to be happening to me. Emily almost laughed. It really is like the old days!
The panicked elation died when a clawed hand grabbed her leg and yanked, making her drop to the floor.
She hissed and kicked with her other leg, catching Alex in the face, but it did little. So instead she launched herself at Alex, trapping the maniac against the railing of the stairs.
"Emily!" Thomas turned back to her—
'GO!' She signed. It's me she wants! I can hold her off, but we can't stop her until we give her the counter-serum Vasco prepared! Get to disease treatment, find it, and get back here!
Of course, she couldn't say any of that. She could only point once more at the corridor and beg as hard as she could with her eyes.
Until Alex grabbed her, and flung both of them over the edge of the railing.
Thomas jolted towards Emily as she vanished over the side of the stairs—But hesitated.
He needed to protect Emily. That was his job. That was why he was here. But at the same time, she had just given him an instruction.
Oh, he'd disobey her in a heartbeat to save her, that wasn't even the question. But Emily wasn't suicidal, and she surely wasn't doing this to protect him; they'd gone through worse together. She really thought him sodding off on a side-quest was the best idea.
So…did he trust her?
Thomas turned, looked down the corridor at the swarms of bloodflies. Winced, as what sounded like a screech and an explosion happened behind him.
She's got this. You've got this. Come on, moron, do it for her—
He drew both his pistols, and charged into the infested hallway.
The smoke from the ignited chemicals began to clear, but Emily had already clambered up to a higher level and hidden herself behind a support beam.
"Emily? Emily, where did you go?" Alex cried out from underneath her. "Won't you tell me where you are? We're friends, aren't we? Friends tell each other things! Tell me where you are so I can rrrriiiiiip your intestines out, oh pretty please!"
Nope. I am not fighting that, thank you very much.
Emily crept slowly along the balcony, hearing Alex scrabble around the lab underneath her.
"I've been waiting so long to meet you~" The Crown Killer sung. "Hypatia worries about you sometimes, do you know that? Wonders if the witch-child is alright in the head. So I've been trying to help you, oh yes I have! That's why I killed all those people for you! Hehehehe, did you see what I did to Ichabod? Painted such a lovely picture there, all for you!"
Her voice was getting closer. Emily scooped up a bit of broken glass from the floor, and threw it across the room. It landed on the other side of the lab with a quiet 'tink', a sound almost immediately accompanied by a series of loud crashes as Alex propelled herself back across the room, scattering lab supplies and falling upon the point of collision.
"THERE you—Oh. You're not here. Oh, hohoho, you're so clever!"
"…D—Doctor…Hypatia…"
That voice wasn't Alex's and it certainly wasn't Emily's. It took her a second to realise that it was Vasco who had spoken, still slumped in the chair where she'd left him.
"Hm? Vasco? What is it dear?" Alex's voice sidled over to her colleague. "You're not dying there, are you? No, no, I was careful. I want to keep you…"
"Hypatia…Alexandria, please…come to your senses!" Vasco gasped. "This isn't you! Please, we can help you, if you'll just—AGH!"
Emily heard him scream.
"Hypatia. Isn't. Here." Alex emphasised, and with each word she did something to renew the man's cries. Then her voice relaxed. "But you are her favourite. Don't worry. You're my favourite too. Oh, and I've just had a wonderful idea! You want to help me, don't you?"
"Y—Yes!" He begged. "Please, let me help—"
"Then sit right there!" Alex's calls grew louder. "Oh, Emily! Come out! Or I'll kill him!"
Emily's eyes widened.
"I'll pull his arms out of his sockets, and then I'll cut a hole in his stomach, and hang him from the ceiling on chains. I don't think he'll last more than a minute after that…But it won't come to that, will it? Because you don't kill people, do you? Are you going to let me kill him?"
Emily's knuckles whitened. Oh, that is just not sporting. How long before Thomas gets back?
"Five, four, three…"
Sod it.
Emily stood, drew her pistol, and fired.
Thomas' pistols fired, and he crashed through the wreckage of the last bloodfly nest. The parasites were all over him, stinging relentlessly at his arms and face, but few were willing to follow him through the door and into the open institute.
That was good, because there was a guard rushing up the stairs to see what the fuss was about.
Thomas plowed into him, shoving him back down the stairs, then jumping over him.
One level below. Disease treatment. Safe. 6-0-1.
He barged through the door. A female guard looked up at him in shock, raising her sword, so he put a bullet in her shin. She howled, and he shoved past her, dropping the pistol and tossing a bottle from a nearby table at the next guard. It smashed over his face, releasing some translucent gas all over him and making him gag.
Thomas didn't wait to see what it did, holding his breath and darting around the guard as he ran deeper into the room. The lab at the back was labelled 'Vasco', that was the name written on the note gripped in his left hand. He booted the door open, spotted the safe, and rushed over to it.
"Six-oh-one, six-oh-one, come on…" He muttered, twisting the numbers on the safe (back in the day, I could just yank the bloody thing open—) until it reached the desired value and clicked unlocked. He pulled the door aside, finding a vial ("Yes!") and another note.
He considered running off with it immediately, but decided to read through the note…and groaned, as it detailed a complicated alchemical procedure that wasn't finished yet.
"I'm a guardsman, not a fucking potions master!" He howled, snatching the list and pushing further into the lab.
"There you are!" Alex crowed, right as the pistol fired, and jerked her body unnaturally to one side. Emily had been aiming for her leg, so the bullet cracked harmlessly into the floor as the Crown Killer sprinted to a table and leapt (almost impossibly) from there up towards the balcony.
Emily met her halfway, leaping off with a flying knee that connected right under Alex's chin.
That should have put her unconscious, or at the very least out of the fight. But as Emily rolled to soften her landing, she saw Alex sprawl on the floor, howl in pain, and then just get up again.
"Yes, yes! Playtime!"
Emily grimaced and drew her sword as the crown killer approached. She swung it twice, Alex swerving out the way of both strikes, before darting in and batting the weapon away. There was an oomph to the woman's movements that belied her small frame. Emily barely kept a hold of her sword; and when Alex grabbed her throat with one arm and struck again at her wrist with the other, she lost it entirely.
Emily tried to replicate Thomas' trick, scrabbling on a nearby table for something to grip before clobbering Alex in the face with a test tube rack.
Alex's head rolled with the impact, and she snarled. Then picked Emily up fully off the floor, and slammed her down on the table.
Emily gasped as the breath went totally out of her, and was helpless to stop a giggling Alex dragging her across the entire length of the table, scattering everything atop it before hurling her to the floor.
Emily hit the tiles and groaned. Tried to get up, but a clawed hand (why in the Void does she have claws—) grabbed her shoulder and yanked her onto her back.
She kicked Alex between the legs. Alex didn't even react. Reached for her gun again, only for Alex to snatch it out of her hands, before pinning her to the floor and leaning within inches of her face.
"Got you~" The Crown Killer grinned.
Emily surged upwards and headbutted her, feeling the crunch of the woman's nose, but Alex just snarled, grabbed Emily's head, and slammed it back into the ground.
She saw stars, almost passing out—
And screamed, as Alex tore open the bottom of her undershirt.
"Look at your skin! So pretty! So smooth! Let's Change That."
Emily tried to raise her arms to defend herself, and
White Hot Pain Lanced Across Her Abdomen.
Emily screamed. She didn't know if she was making any noise, but she was screaming, convulsing on the ground and desperately lashing out at Alex's face, but it didn't do anything, as the woman's nails dug inch deep gashes into her skin, rose up, and then dug in again.
"Alexandria! Please, stop!" Vasco called, but he went ignored.
THOMAS! Emily begged, her mouth forming the words even if no sound came out. THOMAS! CORVO! ANYONE! PLEASE! OUTSIDER!
Nobody answered. Her vision was turning black at the edges, about to pass out from the pain alone, Alex's fingers were now dripping in Emily's blood but she would not stop.
Outsider, please! Emily begged, if only inside her own head. I'll do anything! I'll help you! I'll save you! I'll do it before Delilah, I'll do it now, just please, please, I DON'T WANT TO DIE!
She heard nothing in response. Alex rose up onto her haunches above her, her clothes all stained red, her face positively ecstatic.
For a moment, the woman's eyes looked completely, utterly black.
Then Emily's body surged with energy.
She gasped, vision clearing, as the power flooding through her all concentrated in her left hand, making it burn in a way she'd only ever felt twice before.
Her eyes narrowed.
"What—" Alex hissed—
And a blue tendril lashed out from Emily's left hand, attaching to a small desk and yanking it towards them. Alex was slammed in the back by the metal implement, hurled right off Emily and sent sprawling halfway across the room.
Shakily, Emily stood. She was still bleeding, and still in absolute agony, yes. But as she looked down at her hand, she couldn't help but grin.
The Outsider's mark blazed with light on the back of her palm.
You wanted playtime? Alright. Let's play.
Another grapple launched from Emily's hand, snatching up her sword, and she caught it in her other fist.
Alex stood, moving to attack again, but Emily snapped her fingers. The Crown Killer's own shadow leapt up from the floor, grabbing her by the throat from behind and pulling her downwards, choking her.
Alex gargled, flailing. One arm found a Bunsen burner, and she flicked it on, bringing the flame up and lighting the back of her own hair on fire. The light source prevented her shadow from forming properly, allowing her to stagger free—
Only to get hit in the face by another desk Emily had grappled.
She remained standing this time, catching the thing, and hurling it back, but Emily just grappled up to one of the beams above the lab. She paused, flexed her fingers, and jumped right down again at Alex. Her sword dug into the floor, and Alex jumped away, but she was quickly forced to move away again as another Emily Kaldwin attacked her. As did another.
Emily and her two shadow doppelgangers all attacked at once. Alex was barely able to deal with the swords, deflecting two and narrowly stopping the third beheading her (well, there goes her burning hair) but then Emily Prime kicked out her leg at the knee, dropping her to the floor. One punch knocked that Emily away, but the other two picked up the slack, one kneeing Alex in the face before the other got up behind her, grabbed the back of her head, and slammed it into the wall.
Alex still didn't go down, thrashing and howling like a wild animal, and it didn't look like the two clones would be enough to restrain her.
That was, until a small glowing light appeared above her head that only Emily could see, with a small golden string taking it across the room.
Alex screamed, pain and fear finally overtaking the rage in her voice. She went limp, and the clones were able to wrestle her to the ground.
"What is this?" She gasped. "This pain…is this…did I do this?"
Domino. Emily stared at her, and the trail of light linking her to Vasco, with a vicious sense of satisfaction. You're feeling everything he feels now. What's wrong? Can deal it but you can't take it?
"EMILY!"
The shout came from the room's entrance. Emily spun to see Thomas appear at the top of the stairs, shout "Catch!", and hurl a thick syringe down at her.
A tendril lashed out from her hand, snatching the syringe and bringing it straight to her, as she turned and ran for Alex with it.
"NO!" Begged the Crown Killer, looking up in horror. "Don't! I don't want to go back to sleep! I don't—"
Emily ended the domino, jabbed the needle into her neck, and depressed the syringe.
Alex spasmed, body convulsing, and she groaned agonisingly. The two doppelgangers released her, then vanished, allowing her to curl up into a shaking ball on the floor.
Eventually, the groaning ceased, and she went limp.
Emily sagged backwards, exhausted, stumbling against a fallen desk as her body reminded her 'yes, thank you, we are in Extraordinary Pain.'
Thomas was quick to make it down the stairs and steady her, asking "Are you alright? What am I even—No, you're definitely not, sit down."
He guided her to a chair, staring in horror at her abdomen, before his gaze was caught by the hand she raised weakly in front of her. Or, more specifically, the symbol now emblazoned on the back of it.
"Does…that mean what I think it does?" He asked.
Emily looked up at him, blearily, and smiled. She raised her other hand, and used them both to sign:
'I'm back.'
Then she blacked out.
I mean come on, you didn't think I was going to keep her powerless forever, did you?
Emily's mark is back (though not soon enough to keep her entirely out of trouble), with all the consequences that entails. The difference with what happened to Corvo in canon, is that she's getting all her old powers back immediately. Most of which she used here, and you'll recognise plenty from Dishonored 2, though some (such the Shadow Choke) are originals from Void-Singer. Don't worry, the difficulty will scale proportionally to her increased power; I just can't be bothered to deal with bone charms.
Not sure if I should have put in content warnings for the graphic violence, but let's be honest, if you made it through the prologue, nothing that follows will bother you.
And yes, for the observant, Bella is the Serkonan guard who spoke up during the anniversary. See y'all next week!