2.5
"Alarm! Body integrity breached! 100% of body mass affected by unknown influence! Loss of control imminent!" Tolot's voice reverberated through their shared mindscape.
Taylor could actually perceive what he was talking about, a sharp and persistent "tingling", for want of a better word, was suddenly overlaying all her perceptions. It was a strange sensation, not emanating from their normal senses, but from some sort of hypersensitive coenaesthesis she hadn't even known they had before.
It felt like every cell in their body was affected by something, worse, it was as if someone was looking into their head with a search light, while holding a scalpel, ready to cut and prod everywhere at once.
It reminded her of the reshuffling and modifications Tolot had effected in her brain after the accident, and for once, she understood very well where the Halutian's alarm came from.
She fixed her look at Panacea, whose grip on their body's enormous arm had only intensified, and an inspiration struck her.
"This may be unatten..." she began to tell the Halutian, but her intuition that Panacea couldn't hold her power back if she was forced to touch someone, came too late.
"Countermeasures initiated."
From one second to the next, their body transformed itself.
Every muscle, the mighty bones forming their skeleton, and even the contents of their stomach, became harder than the best steel ever forged on Earth Bet, until a few microseconds later, the neurons of their two brains underwent the same process.
Taylor lost her awareness, and the planning brain was equally effected, cut off from what "consciousness" a biological computer of it's sophistication could lay claim to.
For an indeterminable span of eternity, both of their minds remained shut down, effectively wiped from existence - it was a "temporary death" with profound philosophical implications, but Taylor wouldn't realize that for some time to come.
When her brain started to work again, in the abrupt fashion she was learning to hate, their body was already moving backwards, away from Panacea, who had slid to the ground when their frame had withdrawn its supporting arm, and was now sprawled on the floor with an utterly shocked expression, eyes wide as saucers and chalk white beneath her scarf-cum-half-mask.
In a swift, fluid move that once again showed their perfect body control, they laid the still unconscious Flechette down on an empty stretcher in order to get her out of the danger of follow-up assaults on them.
Their steps left crushed linoleum under their form's feet - on "reawakening", the planning brain had shifted the Halutian body into the optimized battlefield mode they'd used against Leviathan, hardened enough on the outside to withstand every conceivable conventional threat, but still mobile and able to go on the offensive when needed.
"Attack averted - no abnormal changes to Halutian physique discovered. Motive for Panacea's actions: unclear. Processing gathered data."
"You don't even know that this was on purpose!" Taylor exclaimed, outraged that the Halutian would entertain the thought that the healer had nefarious intentions.
Sure, it had been an unsettling feeling to be vulnerable into every last recess of their mighty body, but by the course of events, it was more than clear to her that Panacea hadn't intended any harm.
There might've been a productive discussion on that topic between the two inhabitant's of their mindscape, but another actor chose that moment, only seconds after they had started to move, to interfere.
The Halutian's eyes snapped from Panacea to the onrushing figure, and Taylor was once again assaulted by a wave of awe, this time underscored by a terrible feeling of dread and helplessness.
"Attention: mind altering influence detected. Status of ordinary brain: already decoupled from body control." Tolot informed an unheeding Taylor in exactly the same tone and words used once before, following procedure like any well programmed machine, even biological ones, should.
There was no answer from Taylor, who was much too terrified to do any mental communication besides whimpering to herself.
A split-second later, Glory Girl smashed into the Halutian frame with the power of a steam hammer, her clenched fist leading the way and hitting what would've been called the right temple on a human's head.
To her detriment, the young New Wave superheroine had calculated her attack on the confident assumption that anyone she tackled with her might would simply give way.
Thirty tons of Halutian begged to differ though, and all the kinetic energy she had accumulated only served to throw the blonde girl's whole body against Tolot's rigid form with tremendous force.
She ricocheted back and fell to the floor, where she lay still, winded and clearly shocked by the ineffectiveness of her charge.
"Icho Tolot is not pleased, Glory Girl," their body announced, taking a menacing step towards her that made splinters of linoleum fly in every direction, while the astonished heroine stared up at them, her normally pretty features contorted into a mixture of anger and fear .
Panacea ran to her sister's side and put her own small and vulnerable body between the two brutes, her own shock and exhaustion forgotten in the face of the insane escalation happening inside her infirmary full of wounded and helpless capes.
"Stop it! Stop it, both of you!" she screamed loudly, pushing down on Glory Girl, who was already trying to lift up once again.
"If Glory Girl abandons her unprovoked attack, Icho Tolot shall refrain from disabling her."
"You damned asshole threw my sister to the ground like she was garbage! She could've hit her head, or worse!" Glory Girl accused them fierily, while wriggling out of Panacea's grip and righting herself, until she was hovering before them, protecting the healer with her own invulnerable form.
"Icho Tolot submits that Panacea used her power against this body without permission."
"I'm really sorry, Mr. Icho Tolot, sir - this is all a terrible misunderstanding!" Panacea pleaded, one of her hands held up with the flat of her palm towards them in a placating gesture, while the other swept up Glory Girl's back, only to come to a rest on the naked skin of her neck.
Some of the fight seemed to seep out of the blonde girl, and the planning brain noticed with keen interest how the visible change of attitude corresponded with Panacea's touch.
"Icho Tolot is prepared to accept your apology and forget this breach of the Endbringer truce ever happened-" the healer's face brightened at their words, and Glory Girl actually slumped forward, as if sudden fatigue had overtaken her, Panacea's hand still on her neck, but they both stiffened again when they heard the second part of the sentence, "- on the condition that you come with this form and have a short discussion of your powers. Alone."
"That's not happening!" Glory Girl blustered, but Panacea pulled her away, and a furious whispered debate ensured, which ended half a minute later with the healer coming back towards them, trepidation visible on her face and in her movements, while her sister stayed back reluctantly, keeping a vigilant watch on them.
"There is no reason to be afraid, Icho Tolot just wants a quick word," the Halutian's deep bass grumbled while the starkly contrasting pair of giant brute and mousy teenaged healer walked towards the room's corner that was furthest away from prying ears.
Panacea didn't reply to Tolot's words, but when they reached their destination and faced away from Glory Girl, Taylor reappeared from the nook of their mindscape she had been hidden in.
"What do you want from her?" she asked Tolot snappishly, piqued that she was so easily frightened by the aura of a heroine, and concerned about the intentions of the ruthless alien presence in her head towards the healer.
The Halutian simply ignored Taylor once again, and she was left to tease the answer out of what she could tell from their mental connection - after taking in the furious brain activity going on beyond their hub, she was sure that Tolot was preparing something complicated, at least for him.
Their form bowed towards Panacea until their heads were only a few inches apart, a movement that made the New Wave cape manifestly uncomfortable.
Taylor felt how their lips were formed into a tightly closed line with only a small hole for the passage of air, then Tolot started to actually whisper, speaking to Panacea in such a low volume that no one else in the room who wasn't in possession of super-hearing would catch a word he said.
"After you touched this form's skin, Icho Tolot's power showed him that your claim to be unable to heal brains is a lie."
"What?" Taylor exclaimed inside their mindscape, aghast at the implications of Tolot's words.
"Analysis of the effects of Panacea's power indicate this with a likelihood of 76%. High enough to risk a bluff in order to get Flechette fully healed for battle." the Halutian answered her question silently.
Panacea, for her part, snapped back from them as if they'd thrown acid into her face instead of words, and two of their eyes watched as intense emotions were displayed on her features, ranging from fear to rage, while their third eye observed Glory Girl taking off towards them, only to abort her flight when she saw that her sister was unhurt, and signaling for her to stay away.
After a tense silence, Panacea rallied visibly, and pushed back with a surprise of her own.
"I'm not conforming your accusations - they are false, of course! - but if you were to make them public, I might find it necessary to give up on my medical confidentiality and inform the PRT about the very strange presence of two brains in your head."
She paused, as if waiting for a reaction, but when Tolot didn't even blink an eye, she resumed her verbal attack, somewhat less confident in her manner.
"One of the brains is dominating the other through a dense knot of very newly grown synaptic tissue. To me, from the admittedly short glimpse I caught before whatever you did with your power to block me happened, it looks suspiciously like some biological master power at work in your body. I'm sure the PRT would demand an explanation and examination to prove your innocence of any crimes if I told them..."
The planning brain hadn't interrupted the young healer in her not very subtle attempt at blackmail, but as soon as she stopped her speech, it resumed its battle of wits with a new salvo.
It was a battle, Taylor realized with a sinking feeling, for dominance over the young woman and the use of her power.
"Reacting to Icho Tolot's non-judgmental statement of fact with a clumsy effort to extort this body's silence shows only that you feel guilty. Analysis of facial expression and gesture confirms this conclusion. Probability that your power heals brains stands at 93.67 percent."
The healer shook her head in denial, but her hands were trembling and her eyes looked misty, as if she might start crying at a moment's notice.
Taylor felt Tolot sifting through all her memories of Panacea and New Wave at a dizzyingly high speed, and with such intensity that the search became nearly painful, and much more blunt than his normal activities.
It seemed to her that managing complex social interactions was far more taxing for the Halutian than going up against an Endbringer, but that impression might've been biased by the fact that she couldn't remember the most furious seconds of the engagement.
"Icho Tolot wonders what all the families of people who you falsely claimed you couldn't save would have to say to this information? Or how Glory Girl would react if she were to learn that you manipulated her emotional state just minutes ago, in order to defuse her aggressive mood?"
Tolot's questions were hitting Panacea harder than any blows to the body could. She bent forward and clasped herself tightly with her harms, while tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes.
Taylor felt torn between anger at Tolot for hurting the fragile girl in front of them with his charges, and righteous resentment that the healer would simply let people die for some unknown reason.
She didn't doubt the Halutian's claims , as she might've done in any other situation, because she had felt the tingling effect of Panacea's power herself - it had been everywhere in their body, especially fierce in their brains.
What if her mom had survived her car crash long enough to get to the hospital, Taylor asked herself.
If she had brain damage, and Panacea had been there - would the healer have denied her mother any help?
"Icho Tolot doesn't know why you don't heal brains, despite the fact that you could do it as easily as closing a papercut. You may have reasons you deem important enough to fail in your duty to render assistance to injured people, you may even be correct." the Halutian whispered sympathetically, and Taylor was once again surprised by the amount of caring and human emotion the mysterious being could simulate when needed, as it had done before with the wounded Flechette.
"But this is an Endbringer fight, Panacea." Tolot went on, his tone becoming more frosty and demanding.
"The whole population of Boston is at stake, and their lives outweigh any rationale you might have - unless your healing of brains somehow kills the recipients later, of course?"
Panacea kept crying silently, and only her repeated hand-signals towards her sister kept Glory Girl in her place, where she flew up and down agitatedly, not understanding why her obviously distressed sister wouldn't want her at her side.
It took nearly a minute before the healer had collected herself enough to give any coherent reply to Tolot's last question, and when it came, it was defiant and uncaring of giving away the truth.
"You don't understand at all!" she shouted, louder than advisable, even with their distance to the other people in the room.
Realizing the danger, she went on much softer, but her explanation was still furious, spat out in rapid fire, like water being pressed through a finally opened dam after weeks of torrential rains.
"It's not as if I like it to see people with brain damage die and suffer! But once I start healing brains, there is no barrier between my power and the substrate from which personalities arise. Do you get it now? It's hard enough to regrow limbs or inner organs as close to the way they were as possible, but once fragile brain cells and synapses are damaged or destroyed, my power has to fill the gaps they left with new ones, grown by me and filled with some sort of information created by my power. The more damage there is, the more I would change the character of the people! They would stop being themselves and become my own creation!"
She stopped, out of breath and with a slight blush on her still pale cheeks.
It was obvious that she had spent a lot of time thinking on the topic and rationalizing her own behavior.
"This is an interesting philosophical and practical problem to be discussed at length later. Immediately though, Icho Tolot needs you to heal Flechette's brain injury, which isn't severe. If your work should result in changes to her personality, they would be minuscule."
"Maybe, yes," Panacea agreed haltingly, while wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her costume.
"But once I start doing brains, how can I stop again? Who will make sure that I don't start manipulating people to be more to my liking? What will people say if all this comes out?"
"Slippery slope arguments are often fallacious - should your psychological constitution actually prove to be an exception, and warrant the expectation that you will behave as feared, technological safeguards could be implemented."
Panacea stared at them as if they were crazy, with her mouth open, and Taylor felt sure that this was the first time anyone had ever proposed a solution to her dilemma.
"Probably because Icho Tolot is the first person to confront her about her lie concerning the healing of brains," the Halutian stated, the contrast between his unfeeling inner voice and his earlier masquerade for Panacea still jarring to Taylor.
"And you claim to be able to do so?" Panacea asked, disbelief, anger and a very slight sliver of hope battling for prevalence on the visible parts of her face.
"Yes. Icho Tolot is in possession of the required knowledge, a device for your use could be ready in less than six weeks, given that the required supplies are available."
Tolot made a heavy pause, as if to give Panacea time to take in the opportunity they offered her.
When about 30 seconds had passed in silence, the Halutian continued, his voice as loud and hard as possible while still whispering:
"Before Icho Tolot does anything for you though, you need to heal Flechette. Now."
As if to underscore his words, the armband supplied by Dragon spoke up once again:
"Triumvirate has lost contact to Leviathan, CD 4."
2.6
Panacea glared at them, her still wet eyes expressing anger and despair in equal measures, and Taylor felt how her own condemnation of the healer's "no brains" policy began to shrink unto itself, melted away by her sympathy with the girl's plight.
Would she have healed someone in the sure knowledge that the process itself would leave them a changed person?
Taylor shuddered at the thought of being in Panaceas's shoes, of healing her mother after the crash, only to find out that she didn't love her anymore because of what Taylor's power did to her.
It was a horrifying prospect, one she wished on nobody.
"I'll heal Flechette's concussion, but only under the condition that you really provide me with the technology you promised." Panacea finally agreed with their demands, her jaw clenched as if she had to force down a barrage of much more unfriendly words.
"If you can't deliver that device in two months," she continued, visibly bracing herself "I will come out to my family and the PRT, tell them what I can really do, and I will describe you as what you are - a blackmailer who broke an Endbringer truce!"
She hissed the last words, and Taylor felt sure that Panacea's threat wasn't idle, that she had meant what she said.
"Acceptable. But if this is a business deal to you, not a deed you perform because it is the only morally correct way of action, Icho Tolot has another request to balance the scales."
The Halutian's words had a harsh effect on the healer, she looked stricken for a split second, but she recovered quickly, and her features became even more fierce.
Taylor suspected that the girl was channeling her mom at that moment, who was not only known as Brandish, the New Wave superheorine, but also as Carol Dalon, a very successful and rather ruthless lawyer and negotiator.
"Let's hear it then." Panacea demanded, her tone colder than she'd managed in the entire previous conversation.
"Icho Tolot has calculated a high chance that your power is able to perform much more than acts of healing. You admitted as much when you described how it works on human brains. If Flechette is to join this form in close quarters battle against Leviathan, she needs to be eminently more durable - a change you should deliver simultaneously with the healing of her brain."
Panaceas's cool facade dropped, and her eyes literally bulged out, staring at their body like they had sprouted a second head.
"You really mean this?! I would never do such a thing without Flechette's express permission! And she's a Ward, she would be duty bound to report it after the fight. No! I'm not going to fiddle with her body as if she were a lab rat!"
The healer stopped her tirade for a moment, conscious of the fact that her agitation had driven her to an unsafe loudness once again.
She resumed with a much lower volume:
"Flechette's body hasn't enough energy reserves left, and her disposable body mass is too low to do anything with it, anyway. It would kill her!"
Panacea sounded genuinely concerned now, obviously very protective of her patient.
"Suboptimal. Icho Tolot will have to acquire means of protection for Flechette on the battlefield..."
The Halutian discontinued his sentence, a first in their acquaintance up to now, and Taylor could feel the amount of calculations running on the other side of the hub ramp up sharply in response to this new problem.
"Proceed with the healing." Tolot told Panacea a few seconds later, and began to move their body back into the room, closely followed by the healer.
They reached the stretcher where they had deposited Flechette, and Taylor looked down at the peacefully sleeping Ward with growing anxiety.
She herself felt fear permeate her whole mind if she imagined going up against the Endbringer again, despite the fact that Tolot's claim about their insane toughness had been proven correct.
But taking this vulnerable small girl, who couldn't be much older than Taylor herself, back into such a fight - it was crazy.
Panacea kneeled down besides Flechette, and touched her right palm to the Ward's temple.
She closed her own eyes and took a deep breath, as if to fortify herself against what she had been blackmailed into doing.
While she watched on, Taylor's thoughts raced, driven by her dread, and she tried desperately to find a solution for the problem before them.
Despite every misgiving she had about Tolot, it felt somewhat inspiring to feel the Halutian brain do the same thing just a thought away inside their mindscape.
"We could try to find a fitting suit of armor out there, but that would mean taking it from a wounded or dead cape, not something I'm comfortable with." she reasoned.
"Or maybe we could discover something else that could protect her..."
Taylor thought of and discarded half a dozen unlikely ideas, like finding a one-man submarine or a knight's armor from a museum, but then she realized that she was thinking of this the wrong way.
"We'll never locate something in time that would allow Flechette to move under her own power in the fight, but we might have more luck with durable stuff we could carry her in..."
A picture of their frame hauling a massive strongbox through the apocalyptic scenery of a flooded Boston formed before her mind's eye.
"That's much better, but it would still leave Flechette vulnerable if the safe took a direct hit, or it fell into the flood... and how could she use her power from inside that? Will she be even able to, without her crossbow?"
Her frantic thinking was interrupted when Panacea opened her eyes again and gave their form a nod, signaling the concussion had been healed, but mindful of Glory Girl and the medics around them.
"She will wake up in less than a minute, then you should be on your way." Panacea dismissed them, and quickly strode over to her anxious sister to give her a reassuring hug.
Transforming Flechette into an "Oxtornian", whoever or whatever they were, would've really been the easiest solution, Taylor thought with regret, but if the girl lacked the mass and energy reserves required, nothing could be done...
A sudden insight struck Taylor - where Flechette was thin and exhausted from her wounds and the healing, their own form was anything but!
The strongbox idea shot back into Taylor's focus, but it was literally transformed.
Instead of stuffing Flechette into a safe made for money, not humans, they could - with Panaceas's help of course - construct a living carrying pouch for the Ward out of their own body!
Taylor felt giddy contemplating the new and indeed very strange concept - it would solve all their problems in one go, protecting Flechette from Leviathan, and making her as mobile as their form.
She didn't try to translate the idea into words and sentences, but formed a very descriptive picture, focusing on their huge body, with Flechette peering out of a marsupium - it paid to be attentive in biology class if you wanted to impress with loanwords! - on their back, and Panacea holding on to their left running arm.
Taylor pushed the mental image into the hub, and instantly, the activity beyond it spiked like never before.
"Icho Tolot is impressed by your reasoning. This plan could actually work, if both Flechette and Panacea are agreeable," the Halutian replied a fraction of a second later, the tone of his inner "voice" much more affable than it had been at any moment in the last hour of their enforced togetherness.
If she could've blushed in her current state, Taylor would've turned red as a tomato at the praise.
She was inordinately pleased to get recognition from Tolot, the cold intellect that had until now mostly manipulated her feelings, brushed off her questions, and had taken her advice only once before, on Armsmaster and his halberd.
The thought of how that had turned out cooled Taylor's emotional high though, and she concentrated on her idea again, trying to improve it.
They would need to know how Flechette's power functioned, if it could be even used with something else than her weapon, and they had to figure out a way to let her breath if the Halutian body had to dive...
The Ward chose that moment to wake up, interrupting Taylor's thoughts.
Her eyes behind the visor fluttered open, and she let them wander over their huge frame, towering over her.
It took her only moments to collect herself, then she sat up, took a quick look around the hospital, and started to touch down her own body, checking it routinely, as if she was used to being hurt.
She had an air of professionalism that astonished Taylor, who hadn't expected it in someone who was around her own age.
"Are all Wards this hardened and experienced?" she asked herself, feeling humbled by the thought how shell shocked and cowed she would've reacted in Flechette's position.
"Well, at least I'm still alive and in one piece after loosing my weapon in battle," were the first words the Ward uttered, more to herself than them.
Taylor was touched by the self-depreciative tone of Flechette's voice, and for once, Tolot seemed to share her sentiment.
Their body bowed forward, and they addressed Flechette in the same almost "soft" and "comforting" inflection they had used before.
"Icho Tolot thinks that you are selling yourself short, little one." they rumbled.
"If I'd done my job and killed that bastard, you wouldn't have had to rescue me, right?" Flechette asked sharply, but it was clear that she was mostly angry with herself, and neither Taylor nor Tolot took offense, if the latter could even do so.
"Icho Tolot observed your contribution to the fight, and it was not an exaggeration that Leviathan was targeting you specifically. The Endbringer reacted this way because your attacks hurt him more than any other. Probability: 89.652 percent."
Flechette stood up from her litter, and started to stretch her arms and legs, seemingly unimpressed by Tolot's titanic body standing so close to her.
"Yeah, I might've hurt that monster some, but that's done and over with now. Without my arbalest, I'm useless against him."
"That depends on the exact function of your power." Tolot corrected her, still speaking in the low and "soft" voice they'd adopted.
"Nah, it doesn't. Without my crossbow, the bolts -" she patted the quiver that was still fastened to her right shoulder "are useless. I can hardly take one of them and engage Leviathan in a duel."
Flechette chuckled darkly while she patted the thin fabric of costume over her chest, as if she knew something they didn't, but Tolot didn't ask what that might be, but followed the original path of the conversation.
"Deduction: Losing your arbalest doesn't invalidate your power. The bolts could still be used, either by throwing or as enhanced daggers."
The Ward didn't answer, but laughed out loud at their statement, while she continued stretching and started jumping on the spot.
It was humorless laughter, sarcastic and bitter.
"Are you able to change only part of a weapon into the multidimensional state Icho Tolot observed you using in the battle?"
Their question broke through Flechette's crossness, and she pondered their words for a moment before answering.
"You know, it's considered suspicious to ask for information on anyones powers, especially while an Endbringer truce is in effect."
She halted her explanation and took a closer look at them, clearly asking herself what she should tell them.
"I guess you're pretty new to the game though," she concluded "and are actually trying to be helpful here. You were also very brave, going in and wrestling with the Endbringer like you did."
Tolot made their body bow in an affirmative gesture, that expressed thanks for the compliments at the same time, but kept silent, putting very light pressure on Flechette to fill the silence with her own words.
"Very well," she gave in finally "I'll tell you. Yes, I can change parts of weapons with my power while the rest keeps its normal, not physics-breaking structure. The larger the mass I change, the shorter the time my power stays in effect. Even with the maximum charge, it doesn't stay changed for more than half a minute."
"Thank you for trusting Icho Tolot. Your power might still be of great use against Leviathan if it is constructively combined with others. Please come with this form."
Without looking back and checking if Flechette was actually following, they marched over to Panacea, who was back at Miss Militia's side, and had just finished regrowing the heroines arm.
"Panacea, the option we discussed earlier, regarding Flechette, might still be feasible in a different application. You need to accompany Icho Tolot for a few more minutes."
The healer looked up at them, anger showing on what was visible of her petite face, but she stood up with a resigned groan, and went with them, waving off Glory Girl, who had started to pursue them.
The Halutian body left the cantina-cum-sick bay with quick strides, the two young heroines following in his wake.
Seconds later, they broke through the next door down the corridor, not even noticing its locked up state.
They had entered the kitchen that supplied the cantina with food, but all three ignored the rows of stainless steel implements and gas stoves in favor of their reason to be there in the first place.
"Icho Tolot has developed a method to combine the three powers available to us against Leviathan. Here is what needs to be done..."
The planning brain explained Taylor's idea to Panacea and Flechette in short and precise words and a purely factual tone, but with every sentence, their expressions shifted further into the land of disbelieve and horror.
"You can't be serious!" Flechette cut Tolot off while their form was expounding on the advantages their scheme would offer.
"I mean, bringing the fight to Leviathan with my power would be great, but what you propose is disgusting, I'd be like Jonah living in the whale!"
"The analogy you use is an enormous exaggeration. Jonah lived for three days inside the fish, you would be required to stay inside the proposed pouch for mere minutes, and at a maximum a few hours."
Taylor wasn't sure that Tolot's method of countering Flechette's concerns by criticizing her metaphors was wise, but she didn't try to dissuade him.
"The options are simple," the Halutian went on, his tone becoming harsher and colder with every syllable he growled out "either you acquiesce to this plan, or Leviathan will kill even more innocents in this city, only to finally flee and repeat the same atrocities elsewhere. We have a chance to end this once and for all. Do you really want to waste it because you think it gross to be inside a body pouch?"
Flechette didn't reply to this, but looked at her feet, obviously fighting an inner battle.
The other cape in the room used the silence to present her own objections, though.
"You didn't even ask if I was able and willing to do what you claim is needed! What about me and our deal?" Panacea asked snidely, while she sent a look heavy with meaning towards Flechette, indicating to the Halutian that she wasn't at all pleased about the way he had just revealed one of her publicly unknown abilities to the Ward.
"Icho Tolot is sure that you will be able to alter this body. The probability stands at 78.6 percent. Regarding the "deal" you refer to, Icho Tolot reminds you that there is much more to it than what has been discussed here..."
Panacea winced at the only slightly hidden threat to reveal the secret of her faked inability to treat brain injuries to Flechette, and once again, Taylor felt deep sympathy with the healer, who had fallen silent.
Tolot's methods were ruthless, and she felt that they could only be justified in a situation like this, where thousands of lives were under the threat of being snuffed out like candles in the storm.
The silence in the large room stretched for what felt like an eternity to Taylor, but finally, Flechette looked up again, the visible parts of her face fixed into an emotionless expression of determination.
"You've made your point, Icho Tolot, and I know my responsibilities."
She turned to Panacea, who was standing besides her in a posture speaking of exhaustion and utter defeat.
"Let's do this!"