Hate meets its match

Ai moved into the room past the two Chimera psis who looked at her, then at the other two psis who did not take their gaze off their target. Valere slept quietly in a bunk, her thin frame all but swallowed by the military style bed. Ai nodded to Shelter and Verge and both returned her nod. Chimera's bunkroom was set up like most such, but this one had several bunks set up for different species. There was only one in the building, but Chimera squad were all professionals and there had been no problems with different genders in the same barracks style setting. No one expected such to last. Every sentient being had foibles, but Chimera had been carefully selected as the first crisis response team of cross species to minimize problems. The room wasn't bare, but had only a few chairs, of which Syndrome sat in one, his masked face turned to where Valere lay, surrounded by purple energy.

"Ai?" Arisha asked from where she coiled up on the floor next to Syndrome's chair, watching Valere sleep. "Is it time?" Her tone was resigned, proud and scared all in one.

"Yes. I am ready." Ai turned the red cobra on the front of the case she held to show the Viper who hissed softly and then they both looked at Valere, a sad expression crossing Arisha's snout.

"We need to go, then." Syndrome said quietly to the others who all looked at the floor. "This is Ai's show. We have done what we can. Valere has emerged, and the block seems to be gone. None of us expected this." He sounded reigned but worry and fear for both Ai and Valere were warring in his tone as he rose from his chair.

"Jane Kelly asked that I talk to Torque." Arisha started for the door, followed by the X-Com psi. "She blames herself."

"We all do." Shelter waited at the door, his lanky frame limned with power as he banished what he had been holding to help the others ward Valere from the evil inside her. "None of us had any idea."

"You had no way of knowing. Hell, I didn't know. Good tactics are neither sporting nor fair." Ai said as she sat by the bed. "The Cult had quite a while to refine their evil. There was no way anyone could have seen it until the monster showed itself to gloat at me. The tactic worked on us the first time too, but we learned." She slumped. "Oh yes, we learned."

"Is there nothing we can do?" Syndrome asked as he made his way to the door. "What little I have sensed of Valere's mind has impressed me. The other is having a very hard time holding her."

"What they do is not psionic, and people with powers like yours are the one true counter we found for this evil." Ai replied. "As for what can be done? Valere will need help whatever happens here. The Lady can train Valere, but the girl will need others of like mind to show her that the world is not just filled with pain and horror. She is special and I don't think she will be unique forever."

"Careful." Syndrome warned when Verge and Shelter both looked interested. "Some questions should not be asked." Arisha nodded fervently as she slid up to Ai and looked at the Nightstalker. Ai didn't need to be psychic to know what the kind Viper wanted. Ai smiled at the Viper and nodded. Arisha swept around the warrior, giving her a gentle hug before retreating to stand by her mentor.

"Have you talked to Gertrude?" Ai asked and everyone chuckled as Syndrome groaned. Ai shook her head. "Don't dawdle or you might make Alley and Jane get motherly." Syndrome recoiled comically and everyone shared another chuckle.

"The horror." Syndrome heaved a fake sigh and then nodded. "That is my next stop." Then he sighed. "How do you apologize for ten or so years worth of being blind?"

"Don't." Ai said flatly and Syndrome stared at her. "The past is past, James Morgan, you cannot undo it no matter what some may wish. Look to the future. Talk to her and more importantly, listen to her. Curb your powers around her. Respect her and she will respect you. Don't and things will get loud. Let her talk at her own pace and you will find your own way."

"Ai." Arisha was very soft as she made Ai's name a question. Ai shook her head and Arisha bowed hers. 'I… I am sorry. I hope to talk to you again, but I know we probably shouldn't."

"I have already made a mess here." Ai shrugged as she moved to the chair beside Valere's bed and sat, settling the case on her lap. "I hope this is the only Cultist present, but I have never been that lucky." All four psis stopped short at that and all stared at AI who bowed her head. "If I survive this, I will work with Chimera to ferret out the scum. If not? Please be safe, Arisha." She begged the Viper who looked stricken. "You chafe at the boundaries of love that surround you, but you are loved. Please do not forget that."

"Damn it, Ai!" Arisha was crying softly as Syndrome laid a hand on her thin shoulder. "I… I know." She heaved in grief, her annoyance defeated by Ai's soft worry. "This is all wrong!"

"I know." Ai smiled at the Viper and then turned her gaze to the case in her lap. "Please. Go." She asked as Valere moaned in her sleep. She was waking.

The door hissed, but Ai was busy. The case sprang open at her touch. The DNA readers built into it allowing her to access something that no one else could. Trained motions were fast and sure. One hand slapped the tiny patch onto her arm, the other wrapped the vital signs monitor onto her other wrist. Then the injection. She did not hesitate even as Valere gasped herself awake, the hiss of the Matron's gift in its dormant state sliding into her thigh as she hit the large vein with the injector as she had been taught. In moments, the contents of the needle would be all over her body. Then, the used needle went into the sharps container built into the case and Ai pulled the rest of the gear out, getting it ready. She did all that in the moments between Valere's gasp and the girl's eyes opening.

"Ai?" Valere stammered as her gaze focused on the seated Nightstalker. "Oh no. No!" Purple power started to flare, but then it faded. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" She screamed at someone who was not visible.

"Valere. Be calm." Ai worked to keep her own tone calm, even as her heart raced. This was not an enemy she could face with steel or firepower. She did know what to do, however. "This is my job, not yours." Valere gasped as Ai held up the remainder of the case's contents and nodded to it.

"NO!" Valere screamed. "I won't let you! I won't let you take her!" She wasn't talking to Ai. "He… He wants you to…" She sobbed as Ai took hold of her hand.

"I know." Ai reassured the girl even as she laid the IV tube onto the back of Valere's hand. The drug patch attached to it mean the girl would not even feel the slight sting of the needle going in. Ai's version of Cobra had always tried to make things as gentle as they could. Pain got in the way far too often to be efficient. "It is not your fault, Valere. If it is anyone's? It is mine. I told you who I was, what I was and he immediately went into stealth mode like the cowardly bullies all the Cult are. Please let me do my job." She did not connect the rest of it, she waited for Valere.

"He wants… Valere stammered, a sick look crossing her face. "He wants… You?" She stared at Ai and then her eyes went huge. "Oh my god! He wants you to… No! He wants to breed with you!"

"And you." Ai did not move as Valere buried her face in her hands. She did make sure the tube didn't get fouled. "To the Cult, humanoid females are nothing more than incubators." She fought hard to keep the hate form her tone, but she knew Valere sensed her mind as the girl recoiled. "It is what they do. One reason we fight them."

"You fight because you are fools." Valere's voice changed as her power faded a bit. "We offered you the world and you idiotic clones refused it."

"You and your masters offered humanity a world populated by the dead and the dying." Ai replied, still not moving. "A world free of free will. Of choice. Valere, you can sense my mind. He cannot. You know why I am waiting."

"You are giving me a choice." Valere said weakly, her own voice pushing the other's evil back. "And sacrificing your own. I…" She paused and then she gasped. "I had no idea."

"Valere…" Ai warned. "You need to make your choice now. I will abide by it, whatever you choose."

"You…." Valere stammered. "You didn't want to be a soldier anymore!" Ai tried to shield her mind, but she had no chance this close and this open. "You… You saw the kids in the orphanage and… Some of them looked like me! That is not possible, is it? No!" She begged but her voice shifted again.

"So powerful and so clueless." The malevolent force in Valere's mind gloated. "You will make a fine host mother for our kind. Your power will serve the Cult as it should have in our time."

"Shut up!" Ai snapped "I am not talking to you, Cultist!" She moderated her tone and nodded to Valere. "Valere, I can help you, but it has to be your choice. It is not mine. It is not my body that has been violated."

"But you will let him do it to you to save me." Valere said weakly. "I can feel your determination. Your hate for them. Your anger at what they did and why. I had no idea. I thought you were from our time."

"It is better for all concerned if we keep any changes to a minimum." Ai kept her eyes on Valere. If this followed the pattern, the Cultist would try and take control, try and force Ai to attach the rest of the apparatus and that would hurt Valere. Ai was much stronger physically than the girl. Hence why the Cultist would see Ai as a massive improvement to Valere's body. Ai was trained, honed and set to be a sneaky, stealthy weapon. If Ai did lose control to the Cultist, Valere had no chance against her physically. Few did, hence why the Matron's Gift- Ai fought that thought back to where it had come from even as Valere gasped. AI hissed to the girl quickly. "Say nothing! He cannot read your mind, only control your body! Do not give him any more information than he has!"

"You… I…" Valere was sobbing now. "I cannot believe you would…" She stammered and then broke off. "I see. You are still fighting your war."

"Yes. It is a war that I was bred, born and trained for and one that I am offering to fight for you." Ai said softly as Valere sobbed. "Please let me. You do not deserve this, girl. What he will do to you is awful beyond belief and I will not let him do it to you without a fight."

"I can feel your resolve, your plan. If I refuse, you will stay with me for the rest of my life, to keep him from hurting people I love." Valere stared at Ai, her streaming eyes set above a face that was sad, so sad.

"Hurting people is what they do, Valere." Ai said flatly. "We stand against them. Now and always."

"And how are you different from us? We serve, you serve. You obey the commands of a goddess who left you to rot. We serve gods who left us to rot. We are the same!" The nasty voice was back even as Valere glowed with power. "You cannot keep me out, brat! Know your place!"

"I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER!" Valere screamed as she fought the controls. It wasn't perfect, that control. She was a psi and they had incredible resilience of the mind or they did not survive. But then, Valere's power faded and her tears stopped. She stared at Ai, her face slowly creasing in a smile. "You do not know, do you?" Ai stared at her, discomfited, but then she sighed as the girl's body jerked. The malevolence inside the Sectoid headed form trying to take control again.

"Valere, he will keep trying!" Ai snapped. "Your choice! Not mine or his! Yours! Please! Make it!"

"They love you." Valere said softly even as her body jerked. "They trust you. I trust you. What can I say in the face of such love as yours? Please come back to us, Ai." Valere sank back down onto the bed, her eyes slowly closing as she led out the hand with the tube attached to Ai. "My choice. I let you fight for me, Nightstalker. Warrior. Friend."

Ai did not hesitate. The other end of the tube went onto her own hand and the needle went in even as it clenched Valere's. A seeping, coldness swept into Ai's body from her hand that warmed after the cold.

FOOL! The voice was gloating and loud in Ai's ears. Not really in her ears, simply the sensation of sound being sensed by her brain. It wasn't psionics, instead a horrible form of mad science. You are mine! You will serve!

On dim level, AI was aware that her body went rigid, that every muscle locked up, including her heart. She ignored that. Ignored everything to focus on the one thing that mattered.

There is a difference between you and me, Cultist. Ai said in her mind where she knew Valere could hear. The Matron loved me. I knew she did from the moment I was decanted and I know it now. I saw it every day in every way. She did not want to leave, but people like you forced her to take her battles into places that you and I can never imagine. You want to serve your 'gods' and have them shower you with gifts. You do not want to earn anything, you just want it handed to you. Well, screw you! You are going to have to earn this!

Power slammed into Ai's mind, but this was very different fight form the one he had faced with Valere. Ai was no novice psi. No little girl forced by circumstances to be so much more than she had ever envisioned. Ai was a soldier. More than that, she was a Nightstalker, a special operations soldier trained to work in the worst places doing the worst jobs. So many saw soldiers as dumb grunts, but nothing could be further from the truth in Ai's case. Throughout history, armies had been the dregs of society. Low social status, low intelligence, no chance for survival anywhere else, the reasons for becoming soldiers were as varied as the people who were either conscripted or volunteered to become such. But in more modern eras, especially in the Western world after World War II, it became less about masses of barely trained bodies being thrown into meat grinders and more about skill, equipment and morale. A book that Ai had read once had put it quite well, 'No organized force was ever outnumbered by a disorganized one'. It had been a fantasy story, but a very good one. Discipline, skill and when all else failed sheer guts had won the day for the Matron's Cobra far too many times to count. She knew her enemy and knew herself.

Ai wrested control of her body back from the force that had invaded and pulled the tube off her hand. Then, as she had been taught, she set herself and charged before her opponent could take the initiative back. In so many ways, this was unlike anything Ai had ever done, but in many others? This was a battle. Who cared if it was fought in muscles, nerves and fatty tissues? Shea had an enemy in front of her and a goal to accomplish. She had never counted the number of battles she had been involved in. It hadn't mattered to her. She had a finite time on the planet and she had striven, as always to be the best she could be at what she did.

A part of Ai's mind saw Valere swept away from her by purple power tinged with yellow and she was glad. Collateral damage was always a worry for any soldier with a conscience. During the battle was one thing, but after was whole different story indeed, it had been after a battle, seeing what was left after a fight between Cobra and the cult that Ai had decided to try a different path. Then, the scum had gone after a daycare and started her on this path.

You cannot win! The other in Ai's mind declared.

Maybe not. Ai retorted and she could swear she had startled the scum. But it doesn't matter. You will not win either and that is good enough for me. A stalemate is a good as a win in this case for my side. Either way? You lose, asshole.

You have no idea how many of us are here! The cultist sneered. We will take this city and this world! Destroy your precious matron before she becomes a threat.

Maybe you can, but if you do? You will likely destroy yourself in the process, creating a paradox or alternate timeline. Ai retorted without a care. She was ready. Now to see if it worked or if she died. And here is the kicker! Even if, by some miracle, you win here, take me and destroy everything I know and love? Your masters will still be dead and gone. You will be as always, pathetic slaves left alone to rot! I am no slave, jackass and here is why!

She stopped fighting and even as her enemy recoiled, wondering what she was doing, she opened herself up to something else. Something that few had even an inkling existed. Valere did, hence why she had reacted as she had. The Lady did. The Matron did. All of Ai's kindred understood on a deep level that the Matron loved them. Not from her telling them or putting it into their minds. No. They knew. The Cult simply did not understand such. They existed to serve their gods, period. Love was outside their senses and thus? Very dangerous to them.

The raw power of the love that Ai felt for her Matron scoured the evil from her mind without even a scream to herald its passing. She knew in an instant that she was free even as her body relaxed.

But then, something else touched Ai's mind. A hesitant, careful touch. No one she knew. It sensed her recognition and fled, but before it did, Ai felt a familiar voice in her mind.

We love you too, Ai. The Matron's voice caressed Ai as always and then, she was gone but words came from nowhere. Tell Valere the truth. She can handle it.

Yes, Matron. Ai opened her eyes to see Valere sitting across the bunkroom from her, a transparent yellow form hovering beside the scared girl. Ai bowed her head to the pair. "It is done. He is gone. The gift was not needed at this time. I will submit to any scans you deem needed, Lady." Ai stilled as Valere surged to her feet, ran to Ai and threw her arms around the immobile Nightstalker, sobbing. "Hey. It is okay, Valere. It is okay." She caressed the girl's scalp gently. She knew all the right places to touch to soothe. She had done it so many times for so many scared kids.

"I had no idea." Valere sobbed. "You… You helped run an orphanage! You were going to get married! Have kids!"

"Yes." Ai did not bother with lies or half truths now. "I was. Not now."

"They would have looked like me!" Valere sobbed. Ai looked at the Lady who radiated sadness as well. Ai had found a match in a member of the Mutant Alliance, but both knew their duty. When the Cult had attacked, Ai had sprung right back into action. She could only hope her fiance managed to go on without her, to spread his faith of peace in peace.

"Yeah."