Help, Part 4
Her body stiff with shock and dismay, Kyoko stared at Lily, her mouth agape. Her hands shook, and she had to grip the armrests of her chair before the trembling became violent.
Lily sat behind her desk, looking tired and unhappy. Her multicolored eyes sadly watched Kyoko's reaction. "I'm sorry, Kyoko," she said, her voice heavy with sympathy.
Kyoko shook her head. She opened her mouth to speak, but her throat closed up. Clamping her jaw shut, she turned her head away, face twisting into a grimace as she fought tears. Death itself hadn't managed to draw tears from her, and as much of a blow as this might be, this wasn't going to succeed either.
Fortunately, the others were there to fill the silence. "Lily, are you sure?" Mami said. Like Kyoko, she was also distraught by what Lily had just gotten done explaining to them. "I mean, surely there has to be some other way."
Lily shook her head. "I'm a soldier, Mrs. Tomoe. I'm trained to be blunt. And this is the truth of the situation: your mission is doomed to fail. It's a nice fantasy, yes, but that's all it is. A fantasy. And the unfortunate thing about nice fantasies is that they often turn into harsh realities."
"But you don't know that for sure!" Sayaka blurted out. The blue-haired mermaid anxiously wrung her hands together. "I mean, stranger things have happened!"
"Yes, but those instances are considered strange for a reason, and are often the result of extraordinary coincidence." Sighing, Lily sat back, one hand held to her forehead. "More often than not, counting on a trick of fate will just get you killed."
"Already dead," Kyoko managed to get out.
"Figure of speech. And here, the alternatives are worse."
"So, what, that's it?" Charlotte broke in. "You're telling we should just give up? Throw in the towel?"
"In short? Yes."
Charlotte gaped at her. "We gave up our entire lives! Our business! Our home!"
"And you probably shouldn't have," Lily told her. "But face the facts: you are planning to infiltrate one of the most heavily guarded countries in the world, one that's guarded by fanatics. Not only that, but they have put a price on your head, so you'll be ID'ed the moment you set foot inside. And it's all for the purpose of kidnapping someone who reportedly ranks very high on their hierarchy."
"Problems," Kyoko growled. "Not dead ends."
Lily sighed. "All right. And how exactly are you planning on overcoming those problems? What's your game plan? How are you planning on getting in without being seen? How are you planning on reaching her? Do you even know where she is, what she has defending her? How do you know she'll be willing to go with you? How will you get her out even if she is?"
Kyoko said nothing. Neither did her friends.
"Further to the point, what will you do afterward? Where will you go? Because they will come for you. Where will you hide, and for how long? Who will take you in? The Alliance? They wouldn't risk war just for this. Sytocast? They'll turn you over in a heartbeat. Baleria? Venus?" Lilly shook her head. "There is no place you can go where they won't find you. I'm sorry, but it's hopeless."
"So, what? That's it?" Kyoko said. "Just give up on ever seeing my sister again? She died because of me!" She tried to sound angry, but truth be told, she was more scared than anything. Because in the pit of her stomach, she knew that Lily was right. She hated that Lily was right, hated it with every fiber of her being. She wanted to scream her defiance in the soldier's face, as if sheer will would change things.
But it couldn't. Lily was still right. And judging by the looks on the faces of Kyoko's friends, they knew it too.
Lily hesitated for a bit before going on to the next part. "Not…necessarily," she said. "There is a way. You're not going to like it though."
She was right. Kyoko didn't like it one bit. However, after a long discussion, she eventually agreed. What choice did she have?
…
Annabelle Lee sat at one of the long tables in the otherwise empty cafeteria with a tool and a cleaning kit. Her arm blades lay on the table before her. As promised, they had been returned to her, and like Nie she had immediately broken them down to clean away any muck that might have seeped in and repair any decay. However, unlike Nie, there had been little to find. The Brothel's reputation for quality products was well earned.
It was well past midnight, and the lights were all off. Ticky Nikki was curled up like a cat under the table, but other than her sleeping sister, Annabelle Lee was alone. That was perfectly fine with her; solitude was the reason she had come here anyway. The Tick-Tock sisters had taken to sleeping in the cafeteria, as otherwise they would have to share a room with some of the wayhouse's residents. Annabelle Lee was not too keen on that idea. It left them vulnerable to…most anything, really. It was much easier protect one's self when you reduced the number of people that needed to be defended from. Besides, she didn't want to talk to any more dolls.
Since sleep wasn't coming easily, she had hoped to keep herself occupied the maintenance on her weapons, but as that had been proven to be unnecessary, she was left doing what she had hoped to avoid: sitting and thinking. Thanks to Arzt, the Etherdale Wayhouse had stockpiled a fair amount of the silencer serum (as it had been nicknamed), though doing so had taxed Arzt to the point where she was now fully bedridden with fever. Nie refused to leave her side, which meant that the whole arrangement was a win-win as far as Annabelle Lee was concerned. Now they had a means of protecting themselves from this Lily person, and it kept The Twins out of her hair. There was no downside.
However, even that wasn't enough to distract her from the fact that they were trapped. Preventive measures against the Persephone Protectorate's Siren leader or no, they were still heavily outgunned, and as soon as the Protectorate realized that they couldn't simply talk the wayhouse down, they would begin shooting.
And then Annabelle Lee and Ticky Nikki would be taken, to be drained dry on a leecher slab or brainwashed into doing the draining. Or even worse: sent back to Reibey in disgrace. They were screwed; there just was no getting around it. Staying would doom them. Leaving would be suicide. There was no option that ended well for them.
But in Annabelle Lee's opinion, the worst part wasn't just how screwed they were. It was that they had been so close to winning. Kyoko Sakura and Oktavia von Seckendorff had been theirs! They had them literally bagged up and in route to the Withering Lands! A little bit longer, a few hours at the most, and they would have been gone! Literally!
Except things had gone horribly, horribly, horribly wrong. Annabelle Lee wasn't even made at The Twins for botching things up anymore. Their luck had failed so miserably that she just didn't have the heart to point fingers. Those two Alliance girls, who had gotten wrapped up in all this by mere chance, had not only thwarted every attempt to take them out of the game, they come flying through the air on a fucking swifter of all things and blown the bejeezus out of Annabelle Lee's ship. Four against two, and those two idiots had won using a swifter!
And now, Kyoko Sakura was gone. She had won, leaving Annabelle Lee stuck in a backwater swamp full of covens waiting to get steamrolled over by mind-controlling leechers.
Annabelle's Lee's bony fingers curled into claws, and she had to squeeze them into fists to keep from scratching up the table. She hated that girl so much. When they were on even ground, she won. When the deck was stacked against her, she still won. No matter what she did, Annabelle Lee couldn't beat her. Even when she did manage to win, some other asshole came riding in to save Kyoko and beat Annabelle Lee down. It just wasn't right.
And it wasn't as if Kyoko Sakura were some poor, innocent victim in all this. Annabelle Lee knew a prick when she stabbed one. Sure, maybe, Annabelle Lee was technically the bad guy in all this. Fine. That didn't change the fact that Kyoko Sakura was a smug prick. Everything from her smirk to her clothes to her way of speaking made her out to be someone whose attitude could only be improved by being stabbed as often as possible. If ever they had met without the order to bring her down, Annabelle Lee would probably have ended up stabbing her anyway just on principle.
If there was any justice in the world, then the little bitch and her friends would have ended up stranded in this godforsaken forest as well. And as they most certainly weren't at the wayhouse, that left two options in regards to their fate. Annabelle Lee was fine with either one, though she personally favored the one involving covens. The Protectorate option had a certain elegance to it, poetically speaking, but Annabelle Lee had never been much interested in poetry. She much preferred the more visceral solution, and…
Except if she was going to be honest, the possibility that those girls had been caught by the covens or the Protectorate made her feel queasy. Oh, she loathed them and wanted them to hurt, but those two fates were just too much. Which meant that she couldn't properly wish cruel calamity upon them without feeling wretched. All the more reason to despise them. And no, she didn't care how little sense it made.
Then someone sat down across from her, startling her out of her bitter musings. "Evening," Patricia said, passing her a chipped ceramic mug of warm tea. "Lost in thought?"
Annabelle Lee blinked in surprise. Then with a resigned sigh, she took the offered beverage and said, "You could say that."
Patricia smirked. "Something down the lines of, 'What did I do to deserve this?'"
Sighing again, Annabelle Lee sipped at her tea. "You can say that," she muttered, more ruefully this time. "I, uh, gotta admit. When I took this job, this wasn't how I expected things to turn out. Watch your feet."
"What?"
"Your feet," Annabelle Lee said, gesturing to the table. "Or lower hands. Whatever."
Frowning, Patricia leaned over to look under the table. Seeing Ticky Nikki, her eyes widened with realization. "Oh, I see. Tenacious, isn't she?"
Annabelle Le nodded. "Yes. She is."
She wondered what the other girl wanted. Patricia certainly seemed unusually upbeat for someone in her position. Even with the leechers and covens and diminishing supplies aside, Demmi was reportedly angry with her for bungling her job as the ex-Void Walkers' babysitter. Even before all this had gone down, Annabelle Lee had been on the wrong side of her superiors' foul moods on more than one occasion. Each time, she had found little reason to smile for a long time after. Not that she smiled much even at the best of times, but the point remained.
"I wish I could do that," Patricia said, looking down at Nikki. She shifted over a bit to avoid stepping on her by accident. "Just fall asleep anywhere." She smiled as she lifted her own mug to her lips. "As you can tell from me walking around past midnight with a caffeinated beverage, sleep and I don't have an easy relationship."
"Well, it takes a certain kind of mind, or lack thereof," Annabelle Lee said. "Something I can help you with?"
Seeing that Annabelle Lee wasn't buying it, Patricia winced. "Guess it was obvious." Sighing, she set her mug down and nervously folded her hands on the table. " Look, I just wanted to apologize for how you were treated when you first woke up. I, uh, really fouled things up there, and wanted to tell you that I'm sorry."
Annabelle Lee blinked. This was unexpected. Genuine, unprompted apologies were not something she was accustomed to receiving. "What, you mean the whole keeping us in the dark thing?"
"Well, no," Patricia admitted. "That was Demmi's fault. But, as she made a point to explain to me at length, keeping a secret like that is kind of a problem when I go and let you wander around with the wayhouse's general population."
"Especially since most of them are insane," Annabelle Lee pointed out.
"Well, yeah-"
"And some of the others probably had a problem with keeping their mouths shut."
Patricia nodded. "Yeah, uh, Demmi and Mundy didn't really see eye to eye on that…"
Annabelle Lee's brow furrowed into a scowl. "And the part where you stuck me in the same room as that doll."
"Yeah, mostly that," Patricia said with a grimace. "See, as weird as the Mary Anne thing is, we're pretty used to it. And since we never have visitors, I didn't really think much of it until it was too late."
Annabelle Lee nodded. "I hear Demmi wasn't happy about that," she said, stirring the surface of her tea with the tip of her finger.
"Nope," Patricia sighed. "Not at all."
Annabelle Lee shrugged. "Well, whatever. Damage done. Forget about it."
She expected the other girl to make her exit then, but Patricia didn't move. Annabelle Lee frowned. This was starting to make her uncomfortable. Why was she still there? Patricia had done what she had come to do. They weren't friends, and Annabelle Lee had already gotten her in trouble.
Finally Annabelle Lee sighed and said, "Was there something else?"
Patricia hesitated, and then nodded. "I, uh, also wanted to thank you. You know, for helping us."
Annabelle Lee blinked in confusion. Then she understood. "Oh, you mean the serum thing?"
Patricia nodded. She glanced around and then lowered her voice. "Okay, you didn't hear this from me, but there was a lot of us just ready to throw in the towel and give up. That serum was pretty much the last shred of hope we had. And when we couldn't make more well…Look, you don't know how much being able to make as much as we need means to us. You guys have been a godsend." She let out a small laugh. "Kind of literally, what with you falling out of the sky."
Annabelle Lee grimaced. This was starting to get sad. "Well, those two nitwits had to be good for something. God knows it wasn't their actual jobs."
"What?"
"Nie and Arzt," Annabelle Lee told her. "You know, the whiner being used as an incubator and her equally annoying walking mirror?"
"Oh, right." Patricia looked a little uncomfortable with the mention of The Twins. "Um, actually, is it all right if I ask you a question about them?"
"Sure. Can't promise that you'll like the answer though."
"Uh, okay." Patricia fidgeted in her seat. "It's just…well, we've all being wondering and…"
Annabelle Lee sighed with impatience. "Spit it out."
Patricia nodded. "They're…sisters, aren't they?"
"Probably, yeah," Annabelle Lee shrugged.
"Then…" Patricia grimaced with evident discomfort as she struggled to get the words out. "Just why?"
To both of their surprise, the question made Annabelle Lee burst out laughing. It felt good. She didn't have reason to laugh. "Congratulations. You've stumbled upon the number one question asked by everyone they meet. You come up with an answer, you be sure to let me know."
…
Arzt gaze with half-lidded, baleful eyes at rows and rows of expended SolBlanc bottles, their contents now filled with that horrid grey slush that her very soul had been endlessly converted into creating.
Thanks to her, the Etherdale Wayhouse was now overflowing with the stuff. They could render everyone inside completely immune to the affects of this "Lily" person's voice for over an hour, and still have some left over. They had taken their enemy's most powerful weapon away, and it was all thanks to her.
Arzt was trying to think of a recent decision that she regretted more, and despite the large amount of competition, she had yet to come up with a winner.
She felt horrible. Her body felt like it had been squeezed out like a sponge, leaving her limbs drained and brittle. Her skin burned with fever, and nausea twisted her stomach. She couldn't even talk without her throat seizing up in pain, and simply breathing made her want to throw up.
"No…no more," she rasped out.
Behind her, Nie stirred. "Pardon?" she murmured, gently combing Arzt's sweat-soaked hair.
"No more," Arzt said again, louder this time. Which still wasn't much. "No more draining. I'm done."
There was a pause, and then Nie said, "Baby, it's been over. Don't you remember?"
Arzt blinked, clearing her eyes as much as she could. To her surprise, she wasn't in the lab. Rather, she was lying in a bed in a small, wooden room. Nie was curled up against her back, holding her in her comforting arms. Both situations were definite improvements over that horrid laboratory, but that didn't change the fact that she still felt absolutely terrible.
"How long?" she whispered.
"Have you been out?" Nie asked.
Arzt managed a small nod.
"Most of the day. You gave so much, and never complained." Nie nuzzled the back of Arzt's neck "My hero. Always thinking of others first. They don't deserve you, they really don't."
Arzt was feeling too sick to respond, though something about the way Nie said those words sent a wave of déjà vu through her. Or maybe it was just nausea. Still, there was something achingly familiar about this.
She looked down at the empty syringes she had in place of fingers. She had long ceased to give her unusual type of digits any sort of contemplation. They were tools, nothing more. Useful tools, yes, but she wasn't especially interested in the "why" of it. It wasn't a question that was ever going to be answered, rendering it unimportant.
But now, there was something about them that tugged her attention. Something about the way Nie had pointed out her selflessness had triggered…something. For some weird reason, Arzt felt that the number of syringes she had was entirely too much. And it really ought to be…larger.
"Hey…Nie?" she murmured.
"Hmmm?"
Arzt struggled to form the queer thoughts and feelings she was having into words. But the harder she tried, the more it fled her reach. And her damned head just wouldn't stop pounding, making it harder to think…
The next thing Arzt knew, she was waking up again. It was dark out, so she must have slept for several hours. Nie was no longer nestled against her, though she could hear her having a hushed conversation with someone nearby. It sounded like an argument, though Arzt couldn't make out the specifics.
"…anything we needed, we would have told…."
"…look like she's in any condition…answer questions…"
"…tell you as soon as we do. But for now…"
"…leave us alone…"
The other person left. Arzt heard the click of the door, and Nie returned to the bed with a sigh. "Ignorant hick," she muttered as she slid back in behind Arzt.
"Mubbity," Arzt said.
"Arzt?" Nie said, her voice brightening. "Are you awake?"
There was a pause, and then Arzt slowly sat up. The room swam around her, but somehow she found herself sitting on her knees, facing Nie.
Nie's face softened with concern. "Oh, darling," she said, lightly touching Nie's temple and letting her fingers brush down to her cheek. "You look so worn out. You shouldn't have let them do this to you."
Arzt stared at her. "Blummpo."
"I'm sorry honey," Nie said as she leaned in close to nuzzle her lover's nose. "What was that?"
Arzt opened her mouth to respond, but just ended up vomiting all over her.
…
"Oh." Patricia ran her fingers through her hair in agitation. "It's just…well, I guess there wouldn't be any reason why they couldn't…But they're doing it all the time!"
"Yeah. Annoying, isn't it?" Annabelle Lee smirked. "Try threatening to cut their eyes out. That usually works. For about fifteen minutes."
Patricia stared at her, no doubt trying to discern if she was joking. Then, apparently deciding that some things were better left alone, she made a face and shrugged. "Well, I guess I can't criticize them too much, after everything Arzt has done. I mean, she is the reason we've got a fighting chance."
Annabelle Lee sighed. She didn't need this. "Don't get your hopes up."
"What?" Patricia said in surprise.
"I said don't get your hopes up. You took away their TKO. That doesn't mean you've got a fighting chance."
Patricia frowned. "What do you mean?"
Annabelle Lee shrugged. "So the Fairy can't just hook up to a stereo system and talk you guys out. That's great. Except all that's going to do is delay the inevitable. Because once they figure that out, they're going to get nasty. They're going to use those fancy guns of theirs to raze the wayhouse to the ground. Her long-range artillery is going to bombard your wall into oblivion, letting her shock troops storm in and mow down anyone that so much as moves. Anyone that tries to flee is going to get picked off by snipers, and if she has anything resembling air support, you might as well just show up on her front porch tomorrow with your hands in the air and a basket of fruit at your feet. Anyone you're trying to treat will either get thrown into a cage or released back into the wilds while your entire staff will just be tied up and sedated until the serum runs its course. Then she'll make her recruitment speech, and you all will start getting ready for the annual Persephone Protectorate company picnic and pep rally."
Patricia stared at her, her face white. "You don't know that," she said, her voice rising to a squeak.
Annabelle Lee shrugged again. She almost felt sorry for her. That was the problem with the truly desperate. Dangle the smallest shred of hope in front of their noses, and they'll immediately snatch it up and cling to it tightly as if it were their salvation. And after it proves to be fool's gold, the disappointment quite often leaves them in a worse state than before, assuming that the fallout left enough of them to be disappointed. It was something Annabelle Lee could empathize with.
Seeing that her argument was severely lacking, Patricia swallowed and said, "We've got a plan. You know that. We've got a plan."
Which was true. Sort of. The "plan," if it could be referred to as such, was to let Lily try to talk them out. General consensus was that Annabelle Lee was right, that she would first broadcast her voice in order to enact mass domination of their wills and "convince" them to give themselves up.
"If she does, why not play along?" Demmi had declared. "Go out meekly and quietly. Pretend she's got us. Lure them into a false sense of security. Get them to come close enough. And when they do, we take Lily out. See if her control holds when she no longer has a head."
Annabelle Lee, who had been sitting in on that particular strategy session, had pointed out that A, they didn't know that killing Lily would free her soldiers from her control, and B, this was operating under the assumption that she was even going to come close enough to get the job done instead of playing it safe and standing back while her peons slapped restraints on them. You know, like someone smart would do.
This pronouncement hadn't made her especially popular, which only furthered her opinion that working with thin-skinned amateurs sucked and they were all doomed.
Annabelle Lee gave the four-handed witch a withering look. Swallowing, Patricia slowly said, "I…know you think we're a bunch of naïve, backwater hillbillies. But w-we've already done things that people told us were impossible." Her voice was starting to thicken. Annabelle Lee had to keep from cringing. The last thing she needed was for the girl to start crying. "We planted this wayhouse in the middle of a swamp stuck between two spawning sites. And not only did we avoid getting run out in our first month like everyone said we would, we were thriving before the Protectorate came along. Yes, things were bad before, but we survived then. We can do it again."
And there it was: the defy the odds speech. Inspirational, yes. Heartfelt, sure. But ultimately pointless. Just about every underdog to get mowed down had probably said something similar. "I'd say that I wish I had your optimism," Annabelle Lee grunted. "But then I'd just be setting myself up for a lot of disappointment."
Frowning, Patricia tilted her head to one side, her dark eyes studying Annabelle Lee's face in a way she didn't' much care for. "Life really hasn't done you any favors, has it?"
Annabelle Lee growled. Great, now someone else wanted to psycho-analyze her. Was she really that interesting? "I don't have a fucking clue what my life was like. But death certainly seems like it has it in for me."
"How so?"
"I thought you were an administrator, not a counselor," Annabelle Lee responded, the tip of her finger drumming irritably against the table.
"One doesn't have to have a counselor's license to be able to listen if someone feels like talking," Patricia said.
Annabelle Lee folded her arms. "That's nice. But I don't feel like talking."
Patricia looked disappointed, but she shrugged. "Fair enough. I won't press. But may I ask you something?"
Annabelle Lee rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever."
"Assuming you're wrong, and we do pull through this…what will you do?"
"Huh?" Annabelle Lee blinked. "What'd'ya mean? I'll leave. We'll leave. No reason to stick around anymore, is there?"
"And then you'll go after that bounty? The one you lost?"
Oh, so that was where she was going. Groaning out loud, Annabelle Lee said, "Look, if you're going to give me the spiel on the evils of bounty hunting-"
"I'm not," Patricia said hastily. "I know it was an official government contract and…I'm just…Look, it's been days. Do you really think you'll be able to find them again?"
Annabelle Lee didn't answer. Anything she might have said would have come off as sounding too fake, even to her ears.
Seeing that the other girl was listening, Patricia pressed on. "Look, why don't you guys stay here?"
Annabelle almost choked. "You're being serious."
"Well, yeah," Patricia said. "We could use someone like you. I mean, one hour in and you were already pointing out the things we were doing wrong." She shrugged and smiled. "And it's hard work, yes, but it's rewarding. You know, do some good in this world."
Annabelle Lee sighed. "What makes you think I want to do good?"
"Because you do."
Wonderful. This again. "Oh, you're reading my mind now?"
"No. But I'm good at reading people. You have to be, to work here. And I don't buy this gives-no-damns tough girl persona you're trying to give off."
Annabelle Lee quirked an eyebrow. "Y'know, the lady that equipped us for this job said something similar. She tried to make a similar offer too."
"And?"
In answer, Annabelle Lee slipped the metal-and-steel gauntlet of her right wrist-blade back onto her arm. She flexed her fingers, and the two gleaming steel blades popped out. Patricia's eyes widened. "There's no money in this job, Patty-cakes," Annabelle Lee snarled. "I don't care about money. These people have something we need, and this is our only way to get it. It's do or die for us." Letting the blades slide back into their sheathes, she set her arm down on the table. "So the answer's no."
"Oh," Patricia said. She looked a little shaken, though unfortunately not completely discouraged. "What about your sister?"
"What about her?"
Patricia spoke slowly, choosing her words with care. "There's…something wrong with her, isn't there?"
"Maybe," Annabelle Lee shrugged. "So what?"
"We could help her, you know. That's our field. Whatever happened to her, we can give her whatever treatment she needs."
Annabelle Lee sighed. "You know, you're making a lot of promises for a dead woman. Don't let your mouth write checks that your ass can't cash. Answer's still no."
Patricia stared at her, disappointment written all over her face. Annabelle Lee got the impression that the other girl was somewhat hurt by her refusal, but she didn't care. Patricia was talking hypothetical situations, ones that weren't going to happen. Annabelle Lee felt no real need to accept an offer for something that was going to become a non-issue anyway.
Thankfully, Patricia seemed to have finally gotten the hint. With a sigh, she stood from the table, taking her mug with her. Annabelle Lee looked away, intending to ignore her as she left.
And right about then was when small shadow leapt from the roof straight toward Annabelle Lee's head. "HUNGRY!"
Acting on instinct, Annabelle Lee shoved back from the table and swept her arm out to cut her attacker down. Thankfully, she was still mostly accustomed to her older blades and forgot to pop out the ones she was wearing, so instead she just ended up stiff-arming the little ravenous bundle and sent her tumbling across the table.
Hungry recovered quickly. Scampering around, she hunched down, scarlet eyes glowing in the darkness. Distraught, Patricia leapt between her and Annabelle Lee and spread her arms wide. "Hungry, what are you doing? Leave her alone!"
Snarling, Hungry crouched down low to spring.
But right about then was when Ticky Nikki woke up.
The little lunatic just seemed to appear out of nowhere. One moment she had been slumbering away under the table, the next she was practically nose to nose with Hungry, golden eyes shining with fury.
"NO!" Nikki shouted. "TICKY!"
Blinking in surprise, Hungry immediately retreated. "Hungry!" she protested.
Nikki shook her head. "Ticky! Ticky-ticky!"
Tilting her head to one side, Hungry let out an inquisitive, "Hungry?"
"Uh-uh! Ticky!"
"Oh." Hungry's shoulders relaxed. She seemed satisfied by Nikki's answer, if not a little disappointed. "Hungry…"
With that she calmly leapt off the table and waddled away, arms held out to either side. As everyone watched, she pushed the cafeteria door open and exited the room.
Nikki warily remained where she was until the door swung shut again. Then with a satisfied snort, she said, "Ticky," and slipped back under the table. Soon the familiar sound of her snickering snores resumed.
Patricia slowly turned to Annabelle Lee, her eyebrow quirked, silently begging for some kind of explanation. The other witch just sighed.
"Don't ask me," she said. "I don't have a clue."
"Neither do I," Patricia admitted. "And I'm used to talking to a doll." She pondered what had just happened and, unable to come up with an educated guess, simply shrugged and settled on, "I guess…you just have to speak the language."
…
Kyoko stood in the meager shade of one of the Protectorate's squat, trapezoidal buildings, her hands in her pockets and her breath misting as she slowly inhaled and exhaled the noxious air. She hardly noticed the smell now.
All around her, the base was in motion. Drills were being done, equipment was being checked, vehicles were being fine-tuned, and officers and inspectors were going to and fro, making sure everything was moving according to schedule. Kyoko longed to join them. Training with the Protectorate had been tough, but truly satisfying on a level she found hard to describe. It was like finally being able to stretch bunched-up muscles she had never even knew she had. It left her sore, yes, but felt great.
That was all done though. She wasn't getting to take part in the raid after all. She wondered if she was angry about it. Maybe a little, but what she felt most was disappointment. She was disappointed about being left out, disappointed that it had all been for nothing, and most of all, she was disappointed in herself for giving up, even if there was no helping it.
Sayaka sat next to her, in her wheelchair as always. She had her harmonica out and was playing slow and somber tune, almost a dirge, no doubt in reflection of her mood. Kyoko had to admit, she was really freaking good with that thing. Since she couldn't take part in just about everything, Sayaka had spent most of her free time playing around with melodies and composing songs, to the point where her harmonica playing was starting to become something of the base's soundtrack. More than one of the soldiers had expressed disappointment that she was leaving, as they had really liked hearing her play.
But leaving she was, and that was the rub.
The transport was going to arrive soon, and Kyoko was surprised how mixed her feelings were about it. On the one hand, she was going to see Momo again. She was going to be with her sister. Kyoko did not consider herself to be especially sentimental, but the memory of clinging to Momo's limp body while sobbing out apologies had risen to prominence in her mind as of late. Now she would be able to apologize for real, to embrace Momo and be embraced in turn.
That alone made up for, well, just about everything.
On the other hand, there still was just about everything. Kyoko felt like she was selling her soul. It was worth it, but the price was still steep.
Wait, what am I doing?
Well, at least Sayaka was coming with her. She already knew that Momo was going to love having the mermaid around, and Sayaka would no doubt appreciate having a little sister she could look after. Kyoko got the feeling that that was at least partially responsible for her annoying knight in shining armor attitude back when they had been alive, especially in regards to Madoka. She had wanted to be a big sister, but as an only child, those feelings of caring and protectiveness had been transferred over to her best friend. And being stuck as the youngest member of their party had to be frustrating. Well, she wasn't going to be the kid anymore.
Or maybe she would. Come to think of it, considering how wibbly-wobbly the flow of time was around here, Momo had to be…damn, in her twenties at least, while still looking the same. That was a disconcerting thought. Would she have mentally matured, or had she stuck to being a kid? Given that nobody's bodies ever aged and brains never matured (heck, they didn't even have brains), it stood to reason that there would be those who intentionally stunted their mental and emotional maturity. Had Momo done something like that? Her high position in the Void Walker's hierarchy would indicate that she hadn't, though Reibey had described her as being childish, though that was no doubt just to wind her up. She supposed she would soon find out.
As she walked, Kyoko idly wondered how Madoka was doing. Or Homura, for that matter. She wondered if a full day had even passed since everything had gone down. That was one of the annoying things about the afterlife: the time difference meant that you could spend weeks and weeks worrying about how your loved ones will take the news of your disappearance, and odds are that they hadn't even noticed yet.
Well, those two should be okay. Homura had a good head on her shoulders, and there was no way Madoka would make a contract now, so she was safe from that at least.
Then again, there still was Walpurgisnacht to worry about…
Shaking her head, Kyoko forced herself to stop thinking about things she couldn't change. She had enough problems of her own without worrying about those in an entirely different dimension.
Why am I going along with this? Hello?
Though even with Sayaka around, Kyoko was going to miss Mami. She had just gotten her back as well, and having all of them together had been her dream. Heck, she was even starting to warm up to Charlotte (though admittedly, she never really had an issue with her friend's wife to begin with, as practically all the hostility had been coming from Charlotte to begin with). But on the upside, she would be able to sleep soundly with the knowledge that Mami was, by this world's standards, alive and well, and seeing her again wasn't out of the question. Besides, eternity was a long time. Situations change, and there wasn't any reason why they couldn't convince Momo to abandon the Void Walkers of her free will sometime in the future. Maybe then Kyoko's dream would be realized.
Wait, am I seriously rationalizing giving myself up to the fucking Void Walkers? What the hell?
Then they heard the hum of engines, and Sayaka stopped playing. An elysian was approaching. This one was prettied up like the one they had ridden to Cloudbreak in, though it was considerably smaller. It looked like a great big silver hornet with sapphire eyes and a ruby-studded back.
"Well, I guess that's our ride," Kyoko muttered.
"Looks like," Sayaka said heavily as she put her harmonica back into its bag.
Kyoko wheeled the mermaid over to the landing pad, where Janelle, Mami, and Charlotte were waiting. As going back to the Alliance was pretty much out of the question now, Mami and Charlotte had opted to stay with the Persephone Protectorate for the time being, maybe even permanently. While Kyoko still felt bad about indirectly costing them the Nautilus Platform, at least they were being left in good hands.
Hey, didn't she say that there was a blockade going on? That no transports could get in or out? What's up with this one?
Mami was talking to Janelle, but as soon as she saw the two teens approaching, she wasted no time in rushing over. Kyoko flinched, but didn't fight back as the blonde seized her in a crushing embrace that cracked her back.
"I'll miss you," Mami murmured.
"Gah," Kyoko responded.
Chuckling, Mami eased up, allowing Kyoko to breathe. "Take care of yourself," she said, drawing back. She smiled. "And say hello to Momo for me."
"Will do," Kyoko said, rubbing her now very sore back.
"Ack!" Sayaka cried. Mami and Kyoko looked over to see that Charlotte had swept the mermaid up into a tight bearhug of her own, one that was even tighter than Mami's had been, if the way Sayaka's tail was agitatedly flopping was any indication.
"Gonna miss you, Tavi," Charlotte said morosely. "Don't let Kyoko push you around, okay?"
"'Kay, 'kay!" Sayaka gasped. The way her fins were smacking the ground was starting to get frantic. "Lemme go!"
"Right. Sorry." Charlotte released the pressure, and Sayaka immediately began gulping down huge lungfuls of air.
"I think you broke her," Kyoko observed. "Seriously, what do you guys eat?"
Charlotte looked a little sheepish. "Er, here," she said, handing the twitching mermaid over to Mami. "Trade you."
As Mami (carefully) exchanged goodbyes with Sayaka, Kyoko found herself looking across at Charlotte. "Well," Charlotte said as she folded her arms. "I guess this is it."
Kyoko made a bit of a face. "Yeah. Looks like."
Charlotte gave her a cool look, but then she softened. "Oh, what the hell," she said as she held out her hand. "Take care of yourself, Kyoko."
Kyoko accepted the offered handshake. "Yeah. You too." She hesitated, and then said, "Hey, look. Sorry about all the crap I put you through."
Charlotte's mouth twitched. She showed her teeth in a bit of a grimace as her eyes rolled up, first to the left and then to the right. "Well, don't worry about it," she mumbled. "I was kind of a punk my first month in, and I didn't have to deal with half of the weird shit that you did. Things happen."
"Yeah." Kyoko released her hand. "Good luck, Charly."
"You too." Charlotte smirked. "And hey, just a head's-up. You let anything happen to Oktavia, and I break you. I don't care how many Void Walkers are in the way, I will find you and I will make you hurt. Capiche?"
Kyoko grinned and salute. "Aye, aye. No one lays hands on the fish."
"Hey, stop talking about me like I'm no here," Sayaka complained. "I can wheel anyone in the face now, you know."
"Yeah, and thanks for that by the way," Kyoko retorted. "Fucking hurts."
"My point exactly."
Charlotte? Hey, Charlotte? Why are you letting me do this? Stop me!
Then they turned their attention to the waiting elysian, where Janelle was speaking to the three women that had disembarked. Two of them, both human, were obviously guards. One had long, black hair while the other had about half a head on the other in height and wore her short-cropped blonde hair in stiff spikes. Both wore skintight black armor that reminded Kyoko of surgical strike teams.
The third, the one doing all the talking, was an alien of a type that Kyoko had never seen before. She looked sort of like a pterodactyl, though her "beak" was covered with flesh and she had no wings. Instead, she had four arms with a thin membrane passing between her upper and lower arms, and from her lower arms down to her legs, much like a six-armed flying squirrel. On her back were several thick quills, each one tipped with a small black ball. She a uniform of a similar design to the two guards' armor, though it was more administrative in its cut.
"That's a vekoo," Charlotte whispered to her. "See those little balls on her back? She can inflate those with air and use them to fly."
"Nifty," Kyoko said. She sighed. "And once again, the aliens can do all the cool stuff while we're stuck with walking."
"Hey, you'd be surprised how many species envy us just for that. You know the jotts? The best they can manage is this funny little waddle."
Are you serious? You're really trusting those guys? Look at them! They've got bad news written all over them, you idiot!
Kyoko pushed Sayaka's wheelchair toward the elysian. As they approached, a silver platform extended from the entrance and descended, obviously so Sayaka would be able to board.
"Great. One of these," Sayaka groaned. "Why do we keep getting stuck in these things."
Kyoko snickered. "What's wrong? Still scared of flying?"
"Yeah, and the last time we were in one of those, it didn't really help," Sayaka said without shame. "Face it. Those things are bad news."
"Well, hey. Look on the bright side." With the guards' help, Kyoko got Sayaka's wheelchair onto the platform, and it slowly rose up to the elysian's entrance. "These things are known for their amenities, so they've got to have barf bags."
Sayaka shot her a dirty look.
"Hey, just be sure to ask if they've got any Tums, or whatever they've got around here. I don't want you barfing all over me once you've used up all the bags."
Sayaka took a deep breath. "Keep that up, and I'm stuffing myself with the greasiest food they have. And then I'm going to wait until you least expect it, stick my fingers down my throat, and vomit it all over you."
Why are you being so goddamned casual about this? I mean, listen to you!
Soon they were buckled into their seats. The restraints were a bit heavier than she had expected, but eh, that just meant that they wouldn't be jostled about if they encountered turbulence.
What, are you daft? They've completely chained you up, you idiot!
Kyoko looked out the window. Outside, Janelle was finishing up with that vekoo lady.
…
"So that's, what, some kind of mythological human beast?" Kisa asked as she and Janelle watched Kyoko Sakuya and Oktavia von Seckendorff be taken into the elysian. "That half-human, half-fish thing?"
"Yeah, it's called a mermaid," Janelle told the vekoo. She folded her arms. "I think the stories come from lonely sailors being out to sea too long. No women around, so all those fish down there start looking mighty soft."
Kisa's ridged forehead bunched up, an expression that was her species' equivalent of shaking her head. "I can sympathize. Do you know what it's like, being the only vekoo in a human city? Pretty soon everyone starts looking sort of interesting, and you start wishing you worked for an actual brothel."
Janelle raised an eyebrow. She almost pointed out how that was a bit of information that she would have been quite happy not knowing, bur she was mindful enough of whom she was speaking with to err on the side of tact.
Sometimes, the special qualities of her boss's voice were as much a curse as they were a blessing. Those who knew what Lily was capable of often outright refused to speak to her in person at all. As such, Janelle usually had to act in her stead. And given how paranoid the Brothel was, they had made it clear that Lily was to come nowhere near the landing pad so long as their people were present. It was an understandable precaution, but still annoying.
Personally, Janelle couldn't wait until these guys were gone. The Brothel had a reputation for being unfailingly reasonable for a mercenary organization. That didn't change the fact that they could reduce the Persephone Protectorate's to an expanse of melted glass and twisted metal. And with the Void Walkers involved, they had to tread extra light. It was like Lily said: if they played this right, they could come out of it all the richer, both in currency and in good will. But one wrong step, and their competitors would suddenly find the market a lot more open.
Seeing that Janelle wasn't going to say anything about her comment, Kisa looked somewhat disappointed, but she let it pass. "At any rate, I think this concludes things," she said, consulting a datapad. She tapped at it with her long, sharp nails. "One hundred fifty talents in exchange for the remains of our hardware as well as Kyoko Sakura and Oktavia von Seckendorff, along with your…discretion." She gave Janelle a pointed look, and for a moment, Janelle felt like a tiny rodent that had just noticed the shadow covering it from above. "I trust their associates will likewise pose no potential loose ends?"
Janelle glanced over to Mami and Charlotte, who were waving goodbye. She shook her head. "Nah. They're with us now. That's one thing you can count on from us: once you're in, you're in for good."
"Hmmm," Kisa said, in a I've-heard-that-before sort of tone. "And you are certain the acquisitions will give us no trouble?"
"They've spent a week with Lily," Janelle told her. "That whammy she gave them should hold until…eh, I'd say tomorrow morning. By then, you should have them all locked up anyway."
"Good, good. And as I understand it, the Void Walkers' people, the ones responsible for this mess, still have yet to come to light?"
"No sign of 'em. But then, our coverage of the forest is pretty limited. In all likelihood one of the covens got 'em."
"I see," Kisa murmured. "I also understand that there is a competing party within the forest, one that you are planning on dealing with very soon?"
Janelle cocked her head to one side and frowned. The vekoo knew very well about the wayhouse's existence, and probably also knew their plans as well as they did. "Yeah?"
"Would it be possible that they might have wound up with those folks instead?"
"Sure," Janelle said, shrugging. "I guess. I mean, our coverage is really scanty over there, so I don't know. But it's possible."
"I see." Kisa thoughtfully ran her talons over the length of her long snout. "Because as it so happens, thanks to certain…complications with Highland, we have yet to contact the Withering Lands concerning our acquirement of these two individuals."
Janelle was puzzled. Highland was a settlement that bordered the Withering Lands. As far as she knew, the there was some sort of trade agreement between them, one that was currently seeing some difficulty. She also knew that the Brothel had a strong presence there, and would no doubt be involved. However, that sort of thing happened all the time, and she didn't see what that had to do with the Protectorate. "Okay," she said. "And?"
Kisa turned her datapad off and put it away. That was odd. "As you know, the Brothel makes a personal committee to rise above and beyond a client's needs whenever possible. As such, whenever a commission becomes unexpectedly complicated, we do our best to ensure that the client still walks away satisfied, regardless of who was at fault." She gave Janelle a sly look. "Furthermore, we are hoping that this gift will help smooth things over and bring this unfortunate misunderstanding between Highland and the Withering Lands to a friendly conclusion. And it would not hurt to…sweeten the pot, as you humans like to say."
Ah, Janelle now understood. "Okay. So, if we find these guys, you want us to give them to you as well, so you can stick them into the gift basket."
A vekoo smile was an odd thing to witness. Practically their entire mouth remained motionless except for the bit at the base that flowed into the cheeks, which peeled back in a way that exposed their dagger-like teeth. Humans that were uneducated in nonhuman expressions often mistook it for an angry snarl. Even Janelle, who had regularly dealt with species other than her own, still found it unnerving. "If it's not too much trouble," Kisa said.
Janelle shrugged. "Well, I gotta pass it by the cap'n first, but knowing her, she probably won't have a problem with it. We'll let you know."
"Excellent." Kisa's smile widened, edging its way down her snout. "And I trust I need not explain that, should they be found, it would be immeasurably preferred if they were not questioned?"
"Nope," Janelle said without hesitation. "We're not brokers. We don't care who they are and what they know. They'll be grabbed, bagged, and gagged. No fuss, no muss."
"Excellent," Kisa said again. She extended her hand and Janelle shook it. The gesture was a bit stiff, but rather smoothly done for someone who wasn't a native user. "And may I take this moment to say just how refreshing it is to work with professionals?"
Janelle favored the vekoo with a grin of her own. She wondered if the avian being found human smiles to be unsettling as well. "No fuss, no muss," she said. "No fuss, no muss."
…
By the time the morning wake-up call sounded through the base, Mami was awake and staring.
She was already used to rising at early hours. Her old job (God, it was so strange thinking of the Nautilus Platform in the past tense) often had them on the water while the sun was still rising. And despite the all the exercise they had done as part of their training, she had slept very sparingly. Part of it was just simple nerves. She was going to take part in an all-out assault on some very horrible people who would have no reservations to subjecting her to an endless circle of Hell should they lose. And given their lack of backup, victory was not a guarantee. It was enough to make anyone have trouble sleeping.
The loss of Kyoko and Oktavia had made things worse. While Mami knew that turning themselves over to the Void Walkers had been their decision and she shouldn't beat herself up, doing so was something of a bad habit for her.
It was her worst nightmare. Everything and everyone had been taken from her again. And the horribly ironic part was that reuniting with both Kyoko and Sayaka (well, most of her), something that should have been a source of joy, had been responsible. And now they were gone again, this time forever. And so was everything else. Their home, their belongings, their business, their friends, probably even their reputation, once word started to get around. At least she still had Charlotte. If she lost her, Mami didn't know what she would do.
But the most troubling part wasn't all that she had lost, it was how little it was bothering her. It seemed…okay to her, which she found disturbing. She was far more bothered by the fact that she wasn't bothered by something that should be bothering her, which in turn bothered her further, and thus she ended up too confused to sleep properly.
When the call finally came, Mami sighed and slipped off her bunk with everyone else. "Mornin'," Charlotte yawned as she rolled out of her own bunk. That was another thing she had lost. While Charlotte was still around, they now had separate beds. Clearly there was a great deal about their new life that they would just have to give used to.
They dressed, cleaned up, and joined everyone in bland, yet filling breakfast. The excitement was palpable throughout the base, though the Tomoes didn't exactly feel all that festive. So while the mess hall was more animated than it usually was, the two of them were unusually quiet.
After breakfast, they geared up and filed into ranks. As they made their way across the base, Mami noted that the normally empty landing pad now had four small yet deadly looking gunships being prepped for takeoff. Each one was about the size of a helicopter and looking like oversized welder's masks with guns and engines. Well, those would certainly come in-
Mami paused for a second.
"What's up?" Charlotte asked her.
Mami shook her head. Something had seemed off to her for a moment, but now it was gone from her mind. "Never mind," she said, moving back into step. "Let's go."
They joined the rest of their squad. Mami was starting to be able to tell them apart while they were in armor, but she still had a way to go. At least they seemed accepting of the new blood, which was a relief. Military organizations were notorious for hazing newcomers, or so she had heard.
Once everyone was in line, Lily came strolling out, sword sheathed at her side, helmet held under her arm. She walked back and forth in front of the neat rows, giving them a quick look over. Then, nodding in satisfaction, she faced them and said, "Now, I was going to give a speech before we headed out, one full of famous quotes and inspirational sayings. It was to be full of fervor and passion." Then she shrugged and put her helmet on. "But then I got bored. So fuck it. Let's go get the bitches."
A cheer rose up, and they started filing out. Lily headed to one of the gunships, while Janelle took charge of the column. "Well, I feel inspired," Charlotte chuckled.
From there, they marched.
They marched through the parts of the forest that had been cleansed of madness, their metal and plastic boots tramping flowers and crushing fallen twigs.
They marched through the parts of the forest still haunted by corruption, where everything moved with the strange jerkiness commonly found in witches' barriers and staring eyes peered at them from the shadows. Twice they were attacked by covens. Both times their attackers were dispatched without incident, and the troop moved on.
Soon the ground became soft, and they were wading through rancid-smelling puddles. The armor was airtight and no water got in. Still, even with the filters the stench of wet and rotting foliage mixed with wet and rotting meat was quite noticeable.
"Ugh," muttered the soldier directly behind Mami. "I hate coming here.
Mami had to agree. It wasn't just the stink and the muck that bothered her. This place was still sick. The water was the color of spilled motor oil on asphalt, and the trees here had naked limbs that ended with long-fingered hands that reached out toward the soldiers. A couple of the lower ones tried to grab at them as they passed by but got blown to splinters for their trouble.
"Stay alert," Janelle told them over the intercom. "There's some real big nasties around here."
Mami grimaced. Occasionally her knees would brush up against something that would slither slimily away. None of them cared enough to make an issue of their presence, but all it would take was one.
Then someone shouted, "Head's up!" and there was an explosion of noise and water.
The surface of the swamp erupted as a low, guttural roar tore through the trees. A massive, scaly head covered with cancerous growths emerged from the water, and Mami found herself staring up at a gaping maw the size of a couch, lined with hundreds of knife-like teeth. Four yellow eyes oozing pus glowered down at her.
"Move!" someone snapped, and Mami shook out of her stupor. She leapt back as the giant crocodile plunged down to where she was standing and was nearly bowled over by the small wave it created. By reflex, she almost summoned a musket to her hands, but she remembered that she was already holding the weapon issued to her by the Persephone Protectorate.
She took aim and fired. Around her, several others were doing the same, and the crocodile's bellowing heightened as it found itself under fire from nearly every direction. It was too big of a target to miss, and soon its growths were exploding with pus while greenish-grey blood seeped from the wounds being torn into its skin. It reared up to a height of nearly four meters, let out a roar of pain and rage, and tried to throw itself down at the shiny monkeys that were hurting it.
That was the intent anyway. Instead, it just ended up belly-flopping back into the swamp, sending up another wave of foul water to dirty their breastplates. It let out one last gurgle and its eyes went dark.
Walking over, Janelle tapped it with the tip of her rifle. When it failed to move, she nodded with satisfaction. Then she said, "Sound off. Everyone all right?"
Everyone reported in, some more shakily than others. "Well, good thing Oktavia didn't come along after all," Charlotte muttered to her. The oozing carcass was already starting to stink. "Even if this thing didn't gulp her up, I don't think anyone would want to swim through this."
Mami readily agreed.
Fortuantely, they encountered no more monsters. Perhaps the one they had slain had been the local tough guy, and killing him had discouraged his friends from following suit. At any rate, they soon were out of the muck and regrouping in a small clearing. Apparently a cleanser beacon had been set up, as this part of the swamp looked relatively normal, though as Mami had never visited a swamp before, she wasn't really in any position to judge.
The gunships had already arrived, and the several soldiers were busy unloading the heavy weapons, mostly consisting of large mortar cannons and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. Mami and Charlotte weren't to be operating anything larger than their rifles, which wasn't much of a relief. That meant they were going to be on the front lines, or fairly close to them anyway. Cannon fodder.
As the equipment was taken into position and the officers directed everyone to where they were supposed to go, Mami heard one of the soldiers mumble, "Can't wait for this to be over. Attack's going to be a piece of cake, but that swamp is hell to get through."
Mami looked at her curiously. She was under the impression that their victory was far from a sure thing. "So you think we'll win?"
The soldier laughed. "Are you kidding? With the firepower we're packing, this isn't even going to be a fight. We're not assaulting the enemy, we're napalming an anthill."
…
The alarms tore through Annabelle Lee's head like a sledgehammer, shocking her from an uneasy sleep. "Wah!" she cried as she sat up and looked around wildly with wide eyes.
All around her, people were running. People were shouting. People were panicking. The whole wayhouse was in chaos, as staff and patient alike rushed this way and that, and if any of them had a specific destination in mind, Annabelle Lee couldn't tell.
Even though she had just been jolted awake, it didn't take Annabelle Lee long to figure out what was happening. They were here.
But no. No, it was far too soon. They couldn't be attacking now, right after she had gotten here. It wasn't just an improbable coincidence, it was just plain unfair.
Which, she realized, made it all the more likely to happen. At least it would be consistent with the way things were going.
"Ticky!" Nikki shouted, sitting straight up. By reflex, she hurled a knife directly out. Before Annabelle Lee could move, it slammed right into her arm and sunk all the way to the handle.
"Ah!" she snarled. She had almost forgotten how much that hurt. "Damn it, Nikki!"
Ticky, it should be noted, didn't even notice. She leapt onto her sister and immediately began scrambling all over her, shrieking, "Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop!"
Handling a frantic Ticky Nikki while trying to remove a serrated knife buried in her arm while alarms assaulted her ears was far from easy, but Annabelle Lee had dealt with all three at one point or another, and managed to get the knife out and Nikki off her head. "Nikki, stop it!" she commanded as she tried to restrain the thrashing lunatics arms. "Goddamn it, calm down!"
Predictably, Nikki was having none of that. "Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop!" she continued to wail.
"Quit it! We need to-"
At that moment Patricia burst into the cafeteria. Her face was ashen white. "Thank God, you're still here!" she panted.
Not for long. "They're coming, aren't they?" Annabelle Lee said as she wrestled Nikki down. "The Protectorate?"
"Yes!" Patricia held out two small plastic bottles, each about twice the size of a vial. "And you two need to drink these, right now!"
Of course they did. "Here," Annabelle Lee said, holding out her hand. Patricia ran over and handed them to her. Biting the rubber stopper off of one, she gulped down the grey sludge. The taste made her shudder. Arzt had not been exaggerating.
As Nikki was screeching her head off, Annabelle Lee simply waited until the time was right and forced the contents of the other bottle into her mouth before holding her jaw shut. Nikki's eyes bulged in surprise and she swallowed by reflex.
"Don't you dare throw that up," Annabelle Lee told her. "I mean it."
"Right, come on!" Patricia said, motioning impatiently. "They're practically here!"
Annabelle Lee sighed. "Right," she said, dragging the gagging Ticky Nikki along. "Let's get this over with."
…
They lined up in neat ranks along the edge of the leecher's land, surrounding it. The four aircraft were arranged so that each one sat at a corner and faced inward, just behind the soldiers. Snipers had taken position in the trees and rocks, and several rather nasty looking cannons were being set up.
The leechers' hideout was a surprisingly well-put-together stockade. The surrounding swampland had been cleared away, and a tall wall of wooden posts with sharpened tops encircled an area of about three square kilometers. It was a bit on the quaint side, not to mention entirely ineffective to the sort of firepower the Protectorate had brought along, though Mami supposed that it had been built with the covens in mind. And she had to admit that it seemed to be well maintained and organized. When Mami had first had the place described to her, what she had pictured was dingy, foul, and rotting, as would be expected from a bunch of criminals hiding in a swamp. Even after seeing pictures and a map of the place, she still had to admit it was much cleaner than she had expected. But tidy monsters were still monsters.
She could see them peeking over the tops of the wall. The sight ignited a slow fire of anger within her. These were hunters of children. Mami wasn't especially vindictive, but she was going to enjoy bringing them down.
Lily stood in from of their ranks, presumably just out of range of the leechers but still apart from the troops, easily distinguishable by her shimmering wings. She tapped a finger to the side of her helmet, and the speakers on the two airships crackled.
Mami still wasn't entirely clear on why Lily was going to try to talk the leechers out first. She was all for diplomacy and giving people chances, but some people just didn't deserve any. Besides, why would the leechers even consider giving up? The end result would be the same, just with less mess. From their point of view, it would be better just to fight it out and hope the opportunity for escape would present itself.
Something's not right.
At her side, Charlotte shifted uncomfortably. It was funny: even with all that armor, Mami still could tell that it was her, simply by the way she moved. And she could tell that something was definitely bothering her. Even if they hadn't been ordered to remain silent, Mami didn't need to ask her what was wrong. She felt it too.
But there was no time to think on it now, because Lily had started to speak.
…
"Where are they?" Annabelle Lee shouted as she followed Patricia through the halls. Or, to be more specific, proceeded in near-panicked fashion in the same direction as Patricia and only keeping pace with her so as to have her questions answered.
"Right there!" Patricia said with a wince. The feet she had in place of hands weren't suited for running, and she had already developed a bit of a limp. Passing a window, she pointed to the outside. "Look!"
Annabelle Lee looked. And she stared.
…
"People of the Etherdale Wayhouse," Lily said, her voice amplified not only throughout the clearing, but over most of the swamp as well. "You know who I am. You know who we are. You know why we're here.
"We come with one thousand, two-hundred seventy-five strong, each one armed and armored with top of the line hardware. We have four gunships, eighty mortar cannons, two hundred snipers already in position, and more rockets than you have bullets. We have more than enough firepower to reduce your walls to kindling within two minutes, followed immediately after by the rest of your facility. Those who try to escape will have to do so over open land with no cover, and assuming you somehow cover the entire distance without being dropped by a shot to the head or the chest, you will meet a human wall covered with metal and burdened by an excess of ammunition. By our estimates, you will be completely overrun in less time than it took to write this speech.
"Once you are all taken, those you have been sheltering will be released back into the wild at random intervals to reintegrate with the covens. Soon after, you each will be sent out as well, one by one. You will be given nothing: no food, no water, no communications, no shelter, no weapons beyond your natural magical abilities, nothing. You will have to rely on your magic and your wits to survive, as does everyone who enters the afterlife through Etherdale. Perhaps you will manage to eek out some sort of existence, but the odds are good that the next time you encounter any of my people, you will be indistinguishable from those you came to this forest to save."
Lily paused for a moment to let that sink in. Then she said, "In ten minutes I will give the order to attack. Between then and now, should anyone wish to avoid the fate I have just described, you need only to come out and give yourselves up. Those who do so will be welcomed into our ranks and enjoy the full benefits and privileges that comes with being a member of Persephone's Protectorate. Basically, not going crazy and being used as raw materials. Those who chose to flee or fight will not be shown mercy. Start debating among yourselves now."
…
Annabelle Lee heard every word.
It was hard not to, considering that, as predicted, the Persephone Protectorate had brought along a state of the art sound system. The content was pretty much what she had expected. Not exactly subtle, but it certainly got the point across.
Though at the moment, the point she was mostly concerned with was the one apparently being driven through her eye.
"Ah!" she said, clapping a hand to her face. It was like someone was hammering a railroad spike through her eye. "What the hell?"
Those around her were reacting in much the same way. "Gu…guess it's working," Patricia grimaced. The four-handed witch had fallen to the ground, her body shuddering with every word Lily spoke.
Working? How did this count as working? So what if their minds weren't being dominated? Lily's voice was paralyzing them all the same!
"The plan," Patricia gasped as she tried to haul herself up, only to be driven back down. "They'll…they'll stick. To the plan. It'll work."
Optimistic, but stupid. The plan was a hopeless one to begin with. And now it was outright impossible. How could they be expected to feign being under Lily's control if they kept shuddering with pain every time she so much as opened her mouth?
Enough of this. Willing the agony to the back of her mind, Annabelle Lee forced herself to get up. "C'mon," she growled, grabbing Nikki by the arm.
"But it hurts!" Nikki whined.
"I know. That's-ah!-That's why we're going."
With that, she hauled Nikki away from the window. If Patricia or any of the others noticed them leave, they were in no condition to do anything about it. It didn't matter anyway. Annabelle Lee wasn't sure how, she just knew that they were leaving.
…
"No doubt many of you are experiencing attacks of conscience," Lily continued. "Perhaps considering standing up to fight and lose anyway so as to make some sort of moral statement. Commendable, but it ignores the reality of the situation. Which is-"
"Captain, we've got something," said the voice of Corporal Saria, who was flying in one of the gunships.
Irritated at being interrupted, Lily switched channels. "Yes?" she said, her voice noticeably sharp. She hated being diverted when she was on a roll.
"The wayhouse. They're…doing something strange."
Lily frowned. "Well, spit it out."
"There's a lot of activity, but not a lot of talking. They're all falling over and holding their heads. It…it looks like they're in pain."
"Pain?"
"Yes. Though…ah, hang on a second." A second passed, and Saria said, "Yeah, they're recovering. Might have been your voice."
"My voice?" Pursing her lips, Lily considered this new development. "So, when I talk, they don't listen, but they hurt? Are we looking at a faulty countermeasure here?"
"Seems to be. There's a lot of syringes and empty bottles about, so looks like they were all taking some sort of drug."
"Huh." Lily shrugged. "Well, might as well test it."
Switching back to the speakers, she started singing,
"I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I've known kings of England, and I quote the fights historical,
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I've very well acquainted too with-"
"Yeah, they don't like that at all," Saria told her. "Definitely got some sort of countermeasure going on."
Ignoring her, Lily plowed on.
"-matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse."
Saria cleared her throat. "Uh, captain? You have a lovely singing voice and all, but you're not going to do the whole song, are you?"
"I like that song," Lily muttered. Then, louder, she announced, "Okay girls. That's very clever. Kudos all around. But the next time you inject something in your bodies, check the Surgeon-General's warning." Then, switching back to the universal channel of the Protecorate, she shouted, "Time's up! Open fire!"
They lit Etherdale Wayhouse up like a bonfire.
…
Since she had died, Kyoko had been shuffled around through a quick succession. The one she had woken up in had been terrifying. The one at the Nautilus Platform had been really damned nice. The one at the hotel had been ridiculously luxurious, yet depressingly familiar, considering she had practically lived out of hotels the final year of her life. And the Persephone Protectorate's bunkhouse had been stark, but rather comfortable in a rugged sort of way.
But the room provided by Lily's go-betweens was hands' down the dullest one yet.
It could barely be called a bedroom. It was a room, certainly. And there were…well, it had a couple of plastic cots sticking out of the wall, one on top of each other like a bunk bed. It had a table, a chair, a toilet, and a sink. And that was it. There wasn't even a separate room for the toilet.
Everything, from the walls to the furniture, was made from grey plastic. There was no window, no mirror, just lots of grey plastic. Sure, it was clean, but Kyoko would take filthy and interesting over this any day. Well, maybe some days. It depended on the level of filth. She may be rough around the edges, but she wasn't a barbarian.
Even the food was boring: just some grey, tasteless mush that desperately needed to be introduced to a salt shaker. Sure, she still ate it, but she didn't enjoy it. Which irritated her.
At the moment, it was the morning after she and Sayaka had been taken from the Persephone Protectorate. They were still waiting for someone to show up from the Withering Lands to take them the rest of the way. Until then, Kyoko reckoned she was going to get really, really bored. Small price to pay to see Momo again, but the anticipation made it worse.
She lay in the top bunk, arms folded behind her head, legs stretched out and crossed, left foot twitching in tune to the song Sayaka was playing on her harmonica. It was one that Kyoko had taught her, partially as a way to keep her from playing that song, and partially because it was perversely wrong for Sayaka not to know it.
"Under the sea, under the sea," Kyoko sang under her breath. "Darlin' it's better, down where it's-"
The playing stopped. Kyoko glanced down. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," Sayaka said. She looked a bit on the depressed side. "Just bored, I guess."
Kyoko sighed. "Yeah. Ditto."
"How long did they say it would take?"
"Dunno," Kyoko said, shrugging. Swinging her legs around, she sat up on the edge of the cot. "Hope it's not much longer. I'm going stir-crazy in here."
"Yeah." Sayaka leaned back in her wheelchair and stared up at the spotlessly dull ceiling. "I really hope the Withering Lands isn't as boring as this place. Though given the name, I'm not holding my breath."
"Actually, it's not," Kyoko told her. "While we were in Cloudbreak, I made a point of looking it up. It's not bad, really."
"For real?"
"Yeah. I mean, the buildings all look ugly as shit, but there wasn't a whole lot of actual withering going on. Scenery was kind of nice, actually. I guess the name's hyperbolic."
"I hope so," Sayaka sighed. "Because it better be worth doing this."
"Hear, hear."
This was a pause, and then Sayaka said, "I wonder what Mami and Charlotte are doing right now."
Kyoko shrugged. "Dunno. Probably shooting leechers. Sort of wish I was with them."
"Yeah?" Sayaka snorted. "Welcome to my world. Always getting left out of everything, and-"
Kyoko frowned. A very odd look had just came over Sayaka's face. "What's up?"
"Huh. Just had a thought." Sayaka's nose wrinkled. "Hey, Kyoko? Ask a question?"
"Shoot."
"Did we…did we really just agree to give ourselves up to the Void Walkers?"
Rolling her eyes, Kyoko opened her mouth to tell her that yes dummy, they did agree to do that, and where had she been this whole time? But before the words left her mouth, a tiny little bell ran in her head. And a thought that had been struggling to surface for the last week finally managed to claw its way above the waves and take its first gasp of air.
"Um," she said, frowning as well. "Now that I think of it…"
She looked around. Now that she thought about it, this room looked an awful lot like a cell. And how exactly had they gotten here, anyway? Hadn't Lily told them that no transports could get in or out? What happened to that blockade?
The more she thought about it, the more foolish Kyoko felt. And the more scared.
She locked eyes with Sayaka, who likewise had the same slow horror growing on her face.
Finally figured it out, didn't yah? You idiot.
"Hey, uh," Kyoko said. She tried to sound casual, but her voice was starting to shake. "You, uh, think we might've done something incredibly stupid?"
…
Why, yes. Yes you did.
Until next time, everyone!